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[from http://www.infocomm.net/~jeff/magan/rel_mag.html ] Subject: Religion and Spirituality: The Outline of a Gnostic Temple As students of Qabalah, we see life as a balance of polarities. We also take the stance that neither polarity is either "good" or "evil", but that extremes in polarity can create unbalanced conditions in which forces are brought about to restore balance. At times, we intentionally unbalance the forces to create a dynamic environment in order to grow, but the overall state throughout a continuum is balance. We see the balancing of religion and spirituality and that of prayer and magyq as two key balancing acts. For purposes of discussion, we define religion as the act of group worship of some Divine agency. Since this is a group endeavor, it normally involves a set of doctrine to guide the group. Initially, this doctrine may be very loose, but over time, most doctrine turns into dogma. As dogma sets into the religion, it becomes increasingly controlling. Ultimately, it runs the danger of developing an entrenched priesthood that seeks to control the individuals' access to the Divine. In extreme cases, it seeks to completely sever the contact, or at lease bury it so deeply that it is no longer actively felt, in order to control its adherents. This, we feel, is the case with much of Western religion today. Spirituality is the individual expression of contact with the Divine agency. Since it is an individual expression, there is virtually no dogma, unless each individual establishes their own. Taken to an extreme, the spiritual expression can result in a disintegration of society as each person becomes enamored of their own contact with the Divine. In this enraptured state, they lose concern for the daily activities and the social interaction of Man. This is the case with some monastic orders, as they became enamored with their discipline and lost contact with the external society. We see Man as inherently a spiritual and a social creature. Thus, pure religion tends to cut us off from our spiritual nature and pure spirituality tends to cut us off from our social nature. To satisfy both aspects of our nature, we need to balance spiritual and the religion. This points to some form of Gnostic Temple. Note, we say "some form of Gnostic Temple". We are not endorsing any single organization that calls itself a Gnostic Temple. Why a "Gnostic" Temple? The answer lies in the meaning of Gnostic and Temple. Gnosis is knowledge, specifically knowledge gained from an individual quest for Divine contact. Looking at the traditional Qabalah and the Tree, we equate knowledge with Da'ath and Da'ath with the Abyss. This means the individual must be willing and prepared to enter into the Abyss to seek that knowledge. If successful, he then illuminates the knowledge and brings it forth burning brilliantly as a Beacon of Light and a Ray of Hope. The illumination of the knowledge involves Kether, which in some aspects is a twin of Da'ath. A Temple is something that holds a Divine presence. Thus, it can be an individual person, a group or a building. A Gnostic Temple can likewise be all three. Each Gnostic initiate creates his own temple as he awakens to the Divine. The group forms a temple as it works to manifest the Divine presence among themselves. If they use a building in which they habitually work, it too will eventually house a Divine presence. The word temple is distinct from the word church. In the dictionary, we find a very clear linkage between church and Christianity. This linkage is also present in the psyche as the word church is used almost exclusively with Christianity. As we feel the Gnostic element tends to be more ecumenical, we have steered away from the word church. This was a hard choice, as the word church is derived from the Greek word kurikos, "meaning of the Lord". Words have a power of their own, which increases with long usage (their egregore). We feel the power of the word church is too closely associated with a specific religion and brings that egregore to bear on any operation. A Gnostic Temple then is a "body" that has little doctrine and no dogma. It values the individual contact with the Divine and seeks to foster this quest rather than to squelch it. Its role lies in preparing the quester to enter into the Abyss and then to help him bring forth the knowledge obtained. While the temple then shares this knowledge, it also cautions its members that knowledge obtained on the quest may be relevant only to the quester and not to everyone. It seeks to share the knowledge, though, as it may provide a key for another's quest. Thus, the temple has three basic roles: unicursal Prepare the individual for the Quest. unicursal Assist the quester in understanding the knowledge obtained in the Quest unicursal Disseminating the knowledge Preparation of the individual for the Quest The temple acts as a training ground for the individual to help him awaken the inititiatic current. This initiatic current is grace, which we will explain below. The temple in no way initiates the individual. Only the individual can do that for himself. The temple provides two things in the training process: unicursal The tools to help the individual to start the flow of grace. unicursal The environment conducive to initiation The tools to help the individual to start the flow of grace These tools involve both individual and group study. In a sense, they are "lessons" learned from the quests of others. Generally speaking, they will consist of ways to focus the mind and make contact with the individual's superconsciousness or Holy Guardian Angel. [INLINE] We see the mind as divided into three parts: the subconsciousness, the consciousness and the superconsciousness. In most people, there is a symbolic link between the consciousness and subconsciousness. There is a tenuous link between the superconsciousness and the subconsciousness. There is little or no link between the conscious mind and the superconscious mind. This link must be developed through the initiatic process. The first step in the process is to help the conscious mind communicate better with the subconscious mind. The conscious mind and the subconscious mind communicate via a symbolic language. Thus, early training needs to focus on this symbolic link and help the individual to develop a cohesive symbolic language whereby the conscious and subconscious minds can communicate effectively. This is the reason that symbols are so important. If this is a language that communicates within the mind, then why the emphasis on a common base of symbols we often see? If the only communication we were concerned with was between the conscious and the subconscious mind, then a common symbolic language may not be important. However, since the goal is to develop a link between the conscious and the superconscious mind, we must take the superconscious mind into consideration when developing the language. As the diagram shows, the superconscious mind is in contact with a spiritual laminæ. This laminæ is the realm in which all superconscious minds operate and communicate with each other. This joint communication of superconscious minds provides for the common language, which is the collective symbolic base found throughout Mankind, regardless of race or geographic region. This is the symbolic language we use to strengthen the link between conscious and subconscious mind as well as to facilitate follow on communication with the superconscious mind. As the diagram shows, there is a tenuous link between the superconscious and the subconscious minds. This link is the source of the intuition or gut feeling we often receive. The superconscious mind, which through the spiritual laminæ is in contact with other superconscious minds, passes messages to the subconscious. These messages then bubble up to the conscious mind. This process explains both how magyq operates and why we sometimes have an instant like or dislike of people we meet for the first time. While further discussion of the process and magyq are beyond the scope of this article, we must say the process involves identifying and understanding the individual's Will. The Will is the individual's task or purpose of creation. The superconscious mind knows this Will. Contact with the superconscious then enables the conscious mind to identify and understand the Will. To the extent that a magyqal operation is congruent to the Will, the operation will be successful. The element of Will leads into the issue of prayer versus magyq. We see prayer as a supplication of the Divine agency to do something. Its major preposition is the individual is incapable of performing the action requested. Since prayer asks the Divine Agency for action, it also implies the individual has no responsibility for the outcome. Magyq operates from the premise that Man is essentially a Divine creature and can take of himself. The magyqal operation involves understanding the forces operating on the 4 laminæ shown in the diagram and having the wisdom to know how, when and why to use them. Since the magyqal operator directs the action, he has full responsibility for the outcome of the operation. This distinction must be part of the individual's training. The specific tools used to awaken the initiatic current vary. We use the Qabalah as our basic tool set. The goal is to get the individual from Malkuth to Chesed to prepare for the Quest. From our perspective, the Qabalah provides an excellent frame of reference in which to correlate information. Grace In Hebrew, the word for grace is [INLINE] . This word closely parallels the word [INLINE] . Chennok ( [INLINE] ), or Enoch as it is rendered in English, contains the root Chen ( [INLINE] ). It means to initiate. Gershom Scholem, in his book Kabballah, links chen to a Notariqon Chockmah Nistarah, which means "Secret Wisdom". Wescott links Chokmah Nistarah directly to the Qabalah and mentions the chen notariqon as well. Thus, we see the Qabalah as a tool to initiate into grace. We use the image of Enoch transformed into Metatron as our basic model for the initiatory current of grace. Each person becomes Enoch and is then transformed into Metatron. As such, we also work with the story of Enoch and the Nephilim. Both Enoch and the Nephilim are treated in a very cursory manner in Genesis. We think the reason is because the organized religion sought to control the initiatic current. Our research hints that the answers the puzzles offered in the Tanak lie in Mesopotamia. Our spiritual roots were first sown in the Fertile Crescent. Virtually every Western religion or spiritual path shares these roots. Over time, however, these roots have been lost--either accidentally or deliberately obscured. We firmly feel that in order to understand where we are, we need to understand where we started and how we got here. To do this, we've developed a model Theological Alchemy that examines the path from Sumer to today and our thoughts on where we are headed. We think the end state, at least as far as we can currently see, is that we become like unto the Angelic Nephilim as we awaken up to the Divine. Setting the Environment Skilled members of the temple set an environment in which [INLINE] is awakened in the individual. These initiatic settings are carefully set and conducted to create imprints within the individual's mind to help awaken [INLINE] . As with all tools, the techniques used in [INLINE] will vary with the temple. This re-imprinting allows the mind to make new connections and free itself of cultural conditioning. Because the imprinting process is so strong, it must be conducted by trained and caring individuals. The trip from imprinting to brainwashing is very short indeed. The candidate for initiation places a great deal of trust in those conducting the ceremony. Trust is the bond that holds the temple together. Assist the quester in Understanding the knowledge obtained in the Quest If the tools and training took the individual to Chesed, this process of understanding takes the individual into Binah. The quester returns from the Quest and then must work to understand what he learned in the Abyss. While the individual must ultimately achieve this understanding, the temple members may provide insights. The key is to ensure others provide insights and not solutions. The understanding must come from a further flow of [INLINE] in Binah. Additional work by qualified temple members in an initiatory setting may help, but once the individual enters the Abyss, he needs to be fully in control of further imprinting. These follow on initiatic settings then are simply ways to help the individual to reach the altered state required for him to complete his own imprinting. Disseminate the Knowledge This process takes the individual into Chokmah. The individual must gain the wisdom to know how, where and when to apply the knowledge gained in the Abyss. Again temple members may assist in this process, but they cannot do it for the individual. The dissemination is critical we think. In the past, esoteric knowledge or Gnosis was closely guarded. Most often, this was out of fear for the safety of the Gnosis and the individuals. This was a wise and well-justified action. The time was not ripe for the Gnosis. We now firmly think and feel the time is right to bring the knowledge out from the Abyss. Mankind stands upon a cusp right now. There are forces that can push Man back into a Dark Age. But Man can also move forward into an Age of Illumination.
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