The sacrament of extreme unction is the final of the primary sacraments of the Gnostic Church. In that sense, it is the culmination of the previous sacraments. It is built upon all of the previous sacraments, sacred rituals, sacred acts. To understand extreme unction in its true application, in the esoteric sense, in the depth, we have to recall the very purpose of Gnosis, or in Hebrew, Daath: knowledge. Daath is a hidden sephiroth, a sphere in the central column of the tree of life.

The knowledge, Gnosis, that is being given to humanity in these moments is being given with a specific purpose, which differs from the knowledge, Gnosis, given in the previous centuries. This is because humanity is dying.

When we observe humanity with the eye of a physician, when we step back from our attachments, personality, and our grievances, and we observe humanity scientifically as if we were extraterrestrials or a doctor observing a patient, we would see humanity as a single organism, one body, that is critically ill.

The symptoms of this illness are visible all over this imaginary body. We see a proliferation of suffering of such diversity and pervasiveness that it boggles the mind.

We see a body laid out on our examination table that suffers a severe cancer. If you know something about medical science, you know that cancer is considered to be a class of disease in which the cells display a very unusual characteristic, which is to have uncontrolled growth and the disposition to invade other parts of the body. When we understand the nature of cancer in a physical body and we observe its characteristics, we can see that that same set of characteristics has infected the psyche of humanity. The psyche of humanity is suffering from a psychological cancer. This psychological cancer is evident throughout every country, city, and community on this planet. This cancer is marked predominantly by this same characteristics as a physical cancer: uncontrolled growth and the predisposition to invade, to conquer; violence.

In other words, the organism of humanity is killing itself. We see this everywhere: wars without end, wars without clear reason, wars where there is no threat, wars over words, wars over money. People kill just for the fun of killing.

We see this psychological predisposition being stuffed down the throats of our children through television, games, books, the internet, movies. Our children now are most primarily entertained by violence, even if it is strictly verbal or mental violence.

All of us, adults and children, are most primarily entertained by watching how to kill, by being entertained through killing, through violence. Not just violence physically, but also violence emotionally and mentally, through sarcasm, through cruelty in humor, through cruelty in speech.

The illness that humanity is suffering from has symptoms visible in every aspect of our existence. Every system that is necessary to maintain our health and life is breaking down. Observe any aspect of our lives now, and see how unstable and unpredictable everything has become.

Our social systems, which are based in marriage and the unity of a family, are fracturing at ever greater rates, as the divorce rates rise and as family stability completely dissolves. Families no longer live near one another as they once did, but are scattered all over the planet. Families are no longer able to maintain the sense of unity which is so critical in the development of a child.

We see our political, economic, and environmental systems all at the point of destruction.

We, the human organism, the body of humanity, are committing a form of suicide. And yet, we refuse to recognize that we are sick. Like most people in these times, we suffer ailments and refuse to acknowledge them. When we do acknowledge an ailment, we try to blame someone else.

Humanity as a whole is suffering a grave illness, a fatal illness, but persists in the idealism that “things are going to get better,” that “the future is bright.” Even though objectively, scientifically, there is no evidence for that… in a single area of our lives.

The main evidence that we rely upon as proof of the improvement of life is technology. We believe that because now we have iPods and cell phones, that our technology is making our lives better. What we fail to realize is that the vast majority of our planet’s resources are invested into military technology: the science of killing. The vast majority of our wealth, of our energy, of our time, as a humanity, as an entire race, is invested into how to kill. We may have some new toys, but they are a drop in an ocean of killing machines.

Our food supplies are dwindling and becoming poisoned. They are becoming unreliable. Our crops, due to the experiments with seeds and grafting, have become very vulnerable and weak. Worldwide famine is no longer a distant theory, it is a growing threat, that even scientists now fear.

Our water supply is at its worst state in our entire history. Fewer people now have access to clean water than ever before. Water tests in major cities routinely find rocket fuel, gasoline, atomic residue and other chemicals. Worse, the water is cycled repeatedly from human organism to machine to human organism, becoming increasingly dangerous.

Our air is poisoned, the earth is poisoned.

We have built technologies that we do not understand. The great inventions of today are the threats of tomorrow. What is hailed as great progress spreads worldwide before the fatal consequences are discovered.

We have built nuclear weapons that rot in hidden pathways and hidden chambers all over the planet, that leach dangerous chemicals into our soil and water, and we ignore this.

And worst of all, the terror of being killed is spreading all over the world. In previous decades, the idea that you could walk out of your house and be killed was only limited to a few specific places on the globe. But now you cannot live anywhere in the world and be free of the fear of being murdered. Now, our children are killing the adults. There is no safety anywhere. People that once thought that they were safe in the suburbs or in the country, now are terrified to send their children to school. Now live with the very real threat that some person may commit some heinous act of terrorism and random murders near them. Every week, there is a new killing in a small town or innocent place.

All of these things, and many more that we do not have time to discuss, are indicative of an illness that is consuming humanity. If we as a doctor were to look at this body lying on the table and consider the amount of cancer in the body, we would see the incredible number of people in the world who are actively committing crimes, killing, seeking to steal from others, manipulating, lying, trying to get something for nothing, to take advantage of other people economically or politically or sexually. People write those spam messages. People design those government programs. People organize the rape and abuse of others. People commit crimes against one another.

All of those ways of thinking are cancerous. They are destructive. They care nothing for the whole organism of body of humanity; they only care for their own desire, their own hunger.

If we look at all of those forms of desire and analyze them like a cancer, and we look at all those cancerous elements in the body of humanity, we would see that the body of humanity is nearly entirely consumed with this psychological cancer.

All of us have these elements within. None of us is an exception. All of us have anger, which is a cancer. All of us have pride, which is a cancer. We have lust. We have envy. These are psychological illnesses that cause us to harm ourselves and harm other people.

We are the cause of the fatal illness that humanity is dying from.

There is no one else to blame. It is our actions, moment to moment, day to day, that have produced the conditions within which we find this planet. The pollution, the destruction of our food, the reduction of personal wealth, the disparities of economic wealth, the lack of social and economic security in the world, terrorism, violence, rape, all of these elements exist because of who we as individuals have become. Not other people. Every person that exists, that lives today, bears a portion of the responsibility, because we are all part of the same body. We are all connected. No mind is separate from any other mind. We are interdependent. We affect each other. And because of that, we infect each other.

The cities on this planet, which are becoming great boils of pestilence on the body of the world, are producing so much despair, pollution, and depravity, that the planet is quaking under their influence. This is not normal. The state of humanity is not normal. It is a state of illness, sickness, at the brink of death.

I realize that some people in listening to my description will be offended, and feel that this is very negative or very dark. That thought, that idea, is the very problem. It is an willful refusal to look at the facts. The facts are what we need to cure an illness. You may believe that you will get better, but you will not get better unless you produce the causes for the cure. The law is the law. Nature functions according to laws, not beliefs, not good intentions, not idealism, not optimism.

Even though my description of humanity sounds dark, it does not lack optimism. If it lacked optimism, why would I bother to even give this lecture?

There is a cure. There is a solution to help humanity, to help ourselves, and we find it in the sacrament of extreme unction.

The solution is to look into our own mind. This is the purpose of any real Gnosis, or spiritual knowledge: to produce change.

We are not here to idealize or play with words. We must not be afraid of speaking the truth, to state the facts, or to look at the facts. Gnosis teaches us to look at the facts as they are, not how we want them to be, not how they should be, but as they are. As a doctor, as a physician, this is the only way to treat an illness. You have to see the illness for what it is.

The problem with us is that we are so much in love with ourselves, we do not want to see the facts of our own filthiness, of our own responsibility, of our own mistakes. This is why we are in the problem that we are in. As a doctor observing humanity in this way, we have to recognize that the pervasive cancer that is destroying the body of humanity is fatal. This body will die. Humanity will die. Everything that exists dies. Every particle that is born will die. Every universe that is born will die. There is no law in nature that states that humanity will continue on forever, the physical humanity that is, the psychological humanity.

Yet, even in death, there is an element that persists, there is a level of existence that continues. But, it is not in these lower densities of nature where we live. That which is eternal is in the very rarified levels, very supreme, very subtle levels of so-called Heaven, Nirvana, or Para-Nirvana. These are levels of nature that are eternal, and within all of us we have an element that belongs there. We call it consciousness, the Buddha nature. If we can learn to develop that part, to create what we call a soul, we can then be free of the laws that control the lower densities of nature. We can become immortal, eternal… fully, beyond suffering, beyond pain. But to do that, we have to cure our own illness, cure our own sickness.

In the past, humanity has passed through this before. Humanity has become very sick and died. There have been many races on this planet, not just ours. Ours happens to be the Aryan race, which is the race under the jurisdiction of Ares, the planet Mars, who is related with Samael, the great angel of judgment, of justice, the sephirah Geburah.

In the previous race (which this humanity faintly remembers as Atlantis), humanity also became very sick, very ill with a psychological cancer. Because of that, the Gnostic Church, in all their efforts to assist that race, realized that the time came when that body was too sick and it was time for that body to die. But because the Gnostic Church is the embodiment of compassion, love, Bodhichitta, they gave an opportunity to any members of that humanity who were ready to leave, to abandon desire, to abandon violence, to come to know the truth of their own inner divinity, to escape the death of that body and to be a part of the generation of a new race. Then the karma of that Atlantean epoch descended upon them and that body of humanity died. This is remembered in the Greek Mysteries, the Babylonian myths, and in the Bible as “the great flood.” The story of Noah or the Vaivasvata Manu is the great deluge remembered in all the world’s traditions. This great flood is when humanity died and some pure elements were able to move on and form the seed for a new development, for a new race. In the bible its written in this way:

And יהוה Jehovah saw that the wickedness of אדם 'adam (man) [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only רע ra continually.

Usually the Hebrew word “Ra” is  translated as evil, but the actual meaning is pollution. Ra, pollution, is not referring to air pollution or water pollution, it is referring to the polluting of the self through sex.

It is written, 'And God saw that the wickedness of men upon the earth was great and all the imaginations and thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually.' (Gen. vi., 5.)

Said Rabbi Jehuda: "'Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee' (Ps. v., 5). Observe that he who gives way to the temper and suffers himself to be led and guided by it, defiles not only himself but also those with whom he comes into personal contact. As already stated, though the wickedness of the antediluvians was great and their evil deeds were many, yet was the Holy One unwilling to destroy them, but long-suffering towards them, notwithstanding, and their shameful propensities and heinous practices, of which it is written 'that they were only evil continually.' Their evil actions are denoted by the word (Ra) (pollution). Of Er, the eldest son of Judah, who was guilty of this sin; it is written that 'he was wicked in the sight of the Lord and the Lord slew him.'" (Gen. xxxviii., 7.)

Said Rabbi Jose: "Is not this sin synonymous with what is termed rashang (wickedness or wrongdoing)?"

"No," replied Rabbi Jehuda, "for rashang is applied to intentional evil ere it becomes an actuality, but Ra refers to him who defiles himself by the dissipation of his vital powers and thus gives himself up to the unclean spirit called Ra. He who thus renders himself impure will never attain unto the Divine Life nor behold the face of the Shekina, whose disappearance from the world previous to the deluge was owing to the vice termed Ra. Woe unto him who indulges in it, for he will never experience the joy of living in the presence of the Holy One, but will drag on through life as a degraded captive and miserable slave of Ra, the unclean spirit; so true are the words, 'The fear of the Lord leadeth to life, it bringeth peaceful nights free from visits of the impure spirit Ra' (Prov. xix., 23). And therefore it is written, 'Evil (Ra) shall not dwell with thee' (Ps. v., 4). Only the pure in life and thought and deed can say, 'Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not be afraid of Ra, for thou art with me and causest me to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.'" (Ps. xxiii., 4-6.) - The Zohar

This word “Ra” refers to the orgasm, to the spilling of semen, which - like every esoteric tradition - in The Zohar, in The Talmud, in the root of the entire Judeo-Christian tradition, is said to be the gravest sin of all. This is because when the orgasm is experienced, energy that is expelled and wasted which should be used to produce life, to bring new souls. When that energy is destroyed through the orgasm, all those souls are in effect killed, denied, locked out. This is what the rabbis say, according to The Talmud.

In the Bible it says that God saw that humanity was only thinking in Ra, animal fornication, and so God was going to send a great flood to cleanse the Earth of all of Ra, pollution… lust. God said this to Noah, because:

נח Noach (Noah) was a righteous man [and] perfect in his generations, [and] Noah walked with אלהים 'elohiym. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. - Genesis 6

Generation comes from to engender, to generate, genesis, to create. This is sexual. Noah was perfect in his sexual generation. To be perfect is to be clean, free of fornication.

And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. - Genesis 6

These three sons are the three Solar Bodies: Astral, Mental and Causal. This is the soul.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. - Genesis 6

So a great flood came for 40 days and 40 nights, which is related with the Hebrew letter מ “Mem,” that is also the number forty. Mem represents the waters. But these are the bitter waters (מרה), the waters of the poison of God (סםאל). These waters destroy the ego and eliminate all impurity.

When the Buddha was achieving his enlightenment, there was a great flood. The only way the Buddha Shakyamuni survived the great flood was that he was protected by a serpent king named Mucalinda. That serpent king is a Naga, or in other words, is the kundalini. That serpent had seven heads which relate to the seven bodies of soul, the lower seven spheres on the tree of life.

Noah escaped the flood because he was told to build the Ark. The word Ark relates to Arcanum, which means “a secret, a mystery.” That Arcanum is Tantra. Through the Arcanum, the secret knowledge of Daath, of Gnosis, Noah was able to build the Ark and float it upon the waters in the same way that the Buddha did. Thus the soul, the Buddha nature, the consciousness, is saved from destruction.

The Arcanum is the sacrament of matrimony, how to create the soul: spiritual birth. We have discussed this throughout the course.

Birth or creation is always a combination or a manipulation of energy. When we fornicate or produce the orgasm in the same way that the animals do, the energies of Yesod, the sexual force, is expelled, and in the physical world a creation ensues. That creation is a manipulation of matter and energy. In the esoteric science, in every tradition, that is always boiled down to four elements: fire, air, water, and earth. This is deeply symbolic.

People nowadays read these ancient scriptures and treatises literally, and therefore reject the knowledge about the four elements. The uninitiated have never understod that the four elements  refer to subtle levels of nature, specifically the four bodies.

The four elements, four spheres, four bodies are required in order to become a priest or priestess.

In the Zohar, one of the core books of the Hebrew tradition, we find this description:

“And the Lord God took the man through creation (through Genesis) and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it”

And the question may be asked, whence did he take him? The answer is from the four elements: fire, air, earth, and water, which form the basis of man’s physical body and are symbolized by the words:

“And a river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became four heads.”

These four elements are the Hebrew letters

• א Aleph (the air)
• ש Shin (the fire)
• מ Mem (the water)
• נ Nun condenses all those elements into the Earth

The first three are the mother letters, and the נ Nun is the sun. Nun symbolizes the fish. It is within the sexual seed, here in the earth, in the physical body.

These four elements and letters also symbolize the lowest four spheres on the tree of life.

Malkuth is the Earth, the third dimension. Macrocosmically, it is the planet Earth, while microcosmically it is the physical body; this is נ Nun.

Yesod is the fourth dimension, Eden. In relation to us and our soul it is the vital body, the energetic body, related with water, מ Mem, the sexual water.

Hod is related to the astral body, fire, and ש Shin.

Netzach is the mental body related to the air, א Aleph.

These four elements and bodies, when fallen into animal generation, are called the four bodies of sin. It is through the physical body that we commit acts, that we use our energies of Yesod in the wrong way. We think and feel through Hod and Netzach. Hod is the astral body related with emotion, and through the physical body we abuse that. Netzach is the mental body where we think, and we experience that through the physical body. In each of these cases, we experience these inner bodies through our three brains.

We are talking about levels of subtlety in matter and energy, this is important to understand now.

Our intellectual brain, the physical brain, is the vehicle of the intellectual brain which in turn is the vehicle of the mental body.

The astral body, or the body of desires, the Kama Rupa, processes itself through our heart and we feel it in the emotional center.

The vital body, related to Yesod, we experience through our motor-sexual-instinctual brain as energy, specifically sexual energy.

We sin through these four psychological vehicles, in other words, we commit mistakes. We have our anger, our pride, our lust, our envy and they process through these regions, through these psychological aspects. We have become the fallen Adam, the sinning Adam, and have been cast out of Eden… we suffer. Eden means “bliss, ecstasy.” We do not have that, we do not live in ecstasy, in bliss. We live in suffering. We do not live in Eden. Eden is bliss, ecstasy. We only approach Eden through sex, but then we abuse sex, and are cast out again.

We live in suffering. We live in hell. We try to make the best of it, but in reality life is getting worse every day. It is getting harder. People who are little older know this for a fact because they see in their lifetime how much things have changed and gotten worse, and continue to get worse, and it is terrifying, especially if you have children, you wonder what is going to happen to them.

The Zohar continues about these four elements:

“...the Holy One formed man from these four elements and placed him in the garden of Eden (in the beginning before sin), into which a man enters again whenever he repents of his wrongdoing and conforms his life to the good law (the Dharma), until at length, divested of mortality, he is placed again in the heavenly garden; that is, he enters into and becomes a conscious participant of the divine life and clothed with immortality. "To dress it and to keep it," meaning to keep and observe all the precepts of the good law, obedience to which imparts to and endows him with power to control these elements and drink of the river of the water of life--as disobedience causes him to drink of the bitter waters flowing from and by the tree of evil (Ra), symbolizing the tempter, so that instead of ruling and controlling the elements he becomes their slave. Then occurs what is written concerning the children of Israel when they came to the waters of Marah: "They could not drink of the waters for they were bitter" (Ex. xv. 23). Disobedience to the good law of rightdoing always, sooner or later, results in bitterness of life, thought and feeling, and only by rightdoing can the words of scripture be accomplished.

Perhaps you see why all the sacraments are necessary in order to understand this one. There is great depth in that short passage. In synthesis, when we learn to be psychologically in harmony with the law, the Dharma, which descends from the Gnostic Church through Daath, naturally our soul, our psyche, enters Eden, becomes blissful, because we are not breaking any of the laws of nature. We then drink of the waters of life, pure water which is sustaining, nourishing, to the soul.

When we break the law, the Dharmic law, then those waters become bitter, which in Hebrew is called מרה Marah (Exodus 15). This is interesting because in Buddhism the one who tempts the Buddha is Mara. This is no accident. In order for us to stop drinking the bitter waters, we need to abide by the law.

There is another example very similar to this in the Bible related to when Moses (משה Moshe) led the Egyptians out of Egypt. Moses represents the human soul, the Bodhisattva. Moshe means “born of water and fire,” or born again, in other words. Moshe is related specifically with Tiphereth, the human soul. The sephirah Tiphereth is above the four bodies of sin. Tiphereth, our consciousness, our human soul, can guide us out of bondage, slavery.

Remember that its stated in the Zohar that when we drink the bitter waters we become enslaved by the four elements. The four elements are related to the four bodies of sin. We become enslaved because of desire. The main desires are for sex and money. These are the main ones that have enslaved humanity, sex and money. Most people think all day about one of the two, either sex or money, or sometimes both. It is this enslavement that produces suffering.

In the book of Exodus, Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, but the Egyptians pursued them. The Egyptians symbolize the ego, all of those elements that are identified with desire. So by virtue of his priesthood, the magic of the priesthood, Moses, as a vehicle of God, as ו “Vav,” led the Egyptians to cross the water as if it were dry land, just as when Jesus walked across the waters. After they got to the other side, the waters of that sea killed the Egyptians, just like with Noah and the flood. This is important to grasp: remember the waters have this essential duality. They can be bitter or sweet. It depends upon our own psychological relationship with the water.

The water in us is in Yesod. This is מים Mayim, the water we need to bring ש Shin into, to make it שמים Schamayin: heaven. ש Shin is Christ, fire. When we are able to do that, we drink of that water and are nourished by it. The soul is nourished but the ego is poisoned. This is a very important point.

Anyone who has being practicing Gnosis knows the fact of this. When you take these teachings seriously and put them into practice, you begin to actualize them, you experience moments when your consciousness feels bliss, happiness, joy, and peace that are indescribable, totally new, beautiful, inspiring. But you also experience the bitterness of the ego as your own transmutation begins to make that ego suffer. We face ordeals, problems, and challenges, and then we find ourselves sometimes experiencing both states simultaneously, bliss consciously, and pain in the ego, at the same time. This can be scary, confusing.

But the answer is here in the book of Exodus.

Moses led Israel away from the Red Sea, and they went out into the desert of Shur; they walked for three days in the desert but did not find water. They came to Marah, but they could not drink water from Marah because it was bitter; therefore, it was named Marah. The people complained against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? So he cried out to the Lord, and the Lord instructed him concerning עץ a tree, which he cast into the water, and the water became sweet. - Exodus 15

That tree is the tree of knowledge, Daath, Gnosis. When we transmute the sexual force we work directly with the tree of knowledge, Daath, the Gnostic Church. We’re provided with a healing balm, which heals the consciousness, which nourishes and sustains us, even all the other waters are bitter. And that why after this the Lord says to them:

If you hearken to the voice of the Lord, your God, and you do what is proper in His eyes, and you listen closely to His commandments and observe all His statutes, all the sicknesses that I have visited upon Egypt I will not visit upon you, for I, the Lord, heal you.

The healing comes from Christ, from above. Moses acts as the intermediary, the vessel or vehicle that delivers the healing balm. Moses in ourselves is the human soul that we have to develop. That development comes through matrimony, through marriage.

Moses in this story represents a human soul who has become a Bodhisattva, someone who has taken the direct path, the Bodhisattva path. This is distinct from the Nirvanic path, from the Shravakayana or the Mahayana. The Bodhisattva path specifically in this case is Tantrayana, Mantrayana. This is the highest Yoga Tantra. Its important to understand the distinction.

As such, Moses, whose name is Moshe (משה), represents how we are born again through Tantra. That spiritual birth is the creation of the soul, where we create the solar bodies, we raise the serpent of the kundalini throughout these lower spheres and awaken consciousness. We create new vessels, new vehicles, from the four elements. These new vehicles have nothing to do with the ones we have now. They are different, they are pure, because they are not made from fornication. In the Bible they are called “the four holy creatures,” the four Chayoth. In the book of Ezekiel you can also find them. This creation occurs as written in the Zohar:

Blessed is he who studies in the secret doctrine, for when the holy one takes his soul under himself (Tiphereth) it leaves the body formed out of the four elements behind, and rising on high as placed at the head of the four Hayoth, or living creatures, to whom the words refer, “In their hands shall they bear thee up.”

The four holy creatures are the solar bodies that we need, rooted in the causal body. They also represent the four lower bodies, which are the bull, the man, the lion and the eagle – which are the physical, the vital, the astral and the mental bodies. The important thing for us to grasp here is that this creation only occurs from the sweet water, through transmutation. So about the passage that I read from Moses throwing the tree into the water, the Zohar says this:

And the Lord showed him a tree, which, when he cast into the waters, the waters, though bitter, were made sweet." The tree here spoken of is the "Tree of Life," the Divine or Higher Life. "And if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God and wilt do that which is right in his sight and will give ear to his commandments, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee" (Ex. xv. 26). What does all this mean, What is the secret doctrine or teaching inculcated in these words? It is that when this our human life becomes dark and embittered with sorrow and sadness through weakness and failing to live in accordance with the good law; there is only one agent or power that can clarify it and cause it to become again pure and sweet and clear; it is the Divine within us, "healing all our diseases, redeeming from all evil, and satisfying with good things, so that our youth is renewed like the eagles" (Ps. ciii. 4, 5). It was through the instrumentality of Moses that the waters at Marah were made sweet, and he therefore represents the Messiah.

In Hebrew, the words Moses and messiah are nearly identical. Moses represents the messiah because he represents the Bodhisattva, the human soul, who enters the direct path and receives Christ within himself. The power to heal comes from Christ.

Unction

The word unction means “a balm, medicine, an ointment.” But this sacrament is not concerned with any common unction, it is concerned with the extreme unction. This comes from “unction in extremis,” which means “a balm or ointment given in an extreme case.”

We are in an extreme case. As much as our media, politicians, and so-called spiritual leaders want us to believe that everything is going to be just great, we all know very well the terror, the fear, the uncertainty that we feel. We sense it. This is why there is so much interest in prophecies, like Nostradamus or the Book of Revelation. Everyone can sense the impending pressure.

The End of Days will happen. The Apocalypse is coming. This humanity will die. This planet will die. So, we have a choice to make: will we receive the unction in extremis from the Christ, through the consciousness? Or will we receive it through our ego?

In the gospels, the apostles receive a power of healing. And so it says in the book of Mark:

And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.

These are related. These are not separate acts. These three are extreme unction.

1. casting out devils refers to our ego: our desires, lust, envy, etc.
2. the anointing with oil refers to transmutation.
3. the healing comes from God.

The book of James says about extreme unction:

Is any man is sick among you, let him bring in the priest of the church...

Not the doctor, but the πρεσβύτερος, which means “elder” - in other words, the priest.

And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

The role of the priest, even in modern or contemporary churches, is to be a healer, a doctor, a physician, to heal and cast out devils. The role of the priest is not to make everyone feel better temporarily, it is to make everyone feel better permanently. Sometimes, in the beginning medicine is painful. Medicine is bitter. Real medicine, not the syrupy, sugary medicine that everybody wants now, but real medicine is bitter. Gnosis tastes bitter because it is bitter to our ego, but it tastes sweet to the soul.

This emphasizes part of the beauty of the name סםאל Samael. Samael comes from סם sam, which can mean potion, bitter beverage, poison, or even perfume. It ends with אל el, which means “God.” So the name Samael is not a bitter beverage by itself. Samael is not just poison, which is what people usually say. Its Sama-El. El means “of God, from God.” Samael is not a devil or demon. Samael is the bitter beverage that God gives to heal. Samael is a medicine. Gnosis, the teachings of Samael, is medicine for the soul, and a poison for the ego.

In the Catholic tradition, extreme unction is also called “Last Rites.” You have probably heard that this is a form of blessing given at death. It is given with the idea of forgiving or remitting sins.

The Gnostic priest also performs extreme unction in many ways. The first and most important way is by teaching. The main medicine that humanity needs now is knowledge. Unfortunately, we love ignorance. We all say, “ignorance is bliss.” We prefer not to know the truth. We prefer to just continue on our little quite life and try to stay out of trouble, and fill our desires and go shopping and buy things and hopefully get by. We do not want to see the big picture. We do not want to see our role in it. We do not want to see how all the things that we buy have a direct impact on the well being of people on the other side of the planet. We do not want to see that, but it does. We do not want to see that all the clothes we wear, all the food we eat, all the things we buy, came through this vast system of economy that has a lot of abuse, corruption, imbalance, and other problems. We do not want to see the truth of what is in our food, what is in our water, what is in our air. And we do not want to see how we contribute to it everyday.

Even more important, we do not want to see how the state of our mind in this moment is the very basis of all suffering. We do not want to see how each thought, each emotion, affects everyone.

The Gnostic priest seeks to heal the illness of humanity not by treating the symptoms, the way most medicine does in these times. If we get a cough, we take a suppressant. If we get a pain, we take a painkiller. We do not want to know what the cause is. We just think, “I’ll just get better.” We prefer to avoid the truth. Let me tell you: the graveyards are filled with those who thought they were going to get better.

To take Gnosis seriously means you have to see your own willingness to be ignorant, and you have to change that. That takes a lot of courage. We fool ourselves more than anyone fools us.

There are a lot of people who come to these studies from these groups that are talking about conspiracies, illuminati, Zionism, aliens, lizard people, the World Bank, and all these other theories, and they say, “THEY did this to us. THEY did this to me.” This is an easy way to avoid the truth: we produce the worst ignorance in ourselves. We produce the conspiracy in ourselves. We, ourselves, are to blame for our suffering.

The Gnostic doctor seeks to solve the problem by looking at the four bodies of sin.

What we see physically are just the symptoms of what exists internally. Our spiritual poverty has produced our economic poverty. Our mental fascination with violence has produced the physical violence.

All the so-called experts say, “there is no relationship between violent movies, TV, and video games, and violence committed in the physical world.” They have no proof of that, and all of us know in our heart that they are wrong. We all know it, but the expert says, “There is no relationship. Kids watch violent movies and play violent video games but it does not make them kill other people.” We all know better. Everyone of us knows this is a deception. Examine any society where such entertainment does not exist, and you will find a society where crime is very different, or altogether absent.

We have to look psychologically for the causes of the disease that is killing humanity. Those psychological causes are inside of us.

We need to know about these four bodies. We need to know about ourselves. We do that through practicing this teaching, through awakening the consciousness, through performing all the sacraments in ourselves, including the sacrament of priesthood.

This does not mean that we necessarily become a priest in the physical world. Remember, the priest is the human soul. You have a human soul. That human soul needs to become a priest inside of you, not necessarily in the physical world. The one who performs magic, who performs the healing, is inside of you, not the priest at your temple or at your church. We all need to enter the sacrament of priesthood, and then come to this sacrament of extreme unction, and first we perform it for ourselves.

We first perform extreme unction for our own death, psychological death, our own psychological, mystical death. The way that we do that is that we learn very deeply about our own mind, by walking on the path of initiation. This path is these first seven spheres on the tree of life. It begins here and now in the physical body, awakening consciousness, transforming our energy, working hard. This is not easy, does not happen automatically, it is not given for free. We have to earn it.

The complete work of psychological death and spiritual birth is only possible through marriage. As a single person, you can prepare for it. As we stated in the other lectures, as a single person you can do a lot of preparation, and this is a very valuable and important time. Yet, to enter into initiation, to create the solar bodies, requires a matrimony, and this truth is hidden in the Hebrew word for marriage.

There are two words used in Hebrew for marriage: Kiddushin and  נישואיםNishuaim.

Kiddushin is the one most people talk about, but really this mean “betrothal.” It is the period before married life begins. Nonetheless, Kiddushin means sanctified, from sacrament, from sanctity, from purity.

A couple becomes married at the moment they perform the sexual act; this is a fact of nature that is reflected in the The Talmud. Sex is a seal of marriage. In nature, marriage does not require any document, it does not require even a priest of a rabbi to bless the marriage. According to the Talmud, upon which the Jewish and Christian religions are based, once you have had sex, you are married. Yet, this is not merely a religious matter. It is a natural law. The sexual bond is a bond of matter and energy that is extremely deep.

The other Hebrew word for marriage is נישואים Nishuaim, and this word comes from a root that means “to elevate, to rise.” We have spoken about the four holy creatures who will raise us to heaven; these are the solar bodies. Nishuaim or marriage means elevation: the way to rise to God is through matrimony.

When you look more deeply into the word, you see that its written Nun-Iod-Shin-Vav-Aleph-Iod-Mem.

The first letter נ Nun symbolizes the seed, the sexual energy, the fish, the earth.

In the center of the word is the letter ו Vav, the human soul, willpower, Tiphereth, the solar causal body.

On either side are two pairs of three letters. At the beginning of the word is ניש Nun-Iod-Shin, and at the end are אים Aleph-Iod-Mem. Between these pairs is the ו Vav.

ניש ו אים

Observe these letters:

1. נ Nun is related to earth and the physical body.
2. ש Shin is related to fire and the astral body.
3. א Aleph is related to air and the mental body.
4. ם Mem is related to water and the vital body.

There are the four holy creatures, the bodies of the soul.

Between those letters on either side are two י Iods. The Iod represents a person. Who else are they but man and woman, husband and wife?

Marriage is the union of two souls. Through that union, empowered by the ו Vav, the spine, willpower, the four holy creatures, the soul, can be made. This is how Moses becomes the messiah; our own human soul becomes a priest.

The solar vessels give us powers, capacities, that are different from what we experience now. A single person can work very hard to eliminate their ego, transform their sexual force, and awaken their consciousness. They can develop capacities in the consciousness that are useful and beautiful, but the married couple who creates the soul works in an entirely different octave. The couple advances through a series of octaves creating internal bodies that exist in these other levels of existence.

The solar astral body belongs in the astral world, it is a vessel of gold. When that vessel is created, we then have power in the astral plane, in the astral world. We have the ability to work directly with the emotional body, to heal ourselves and others.

When we have created the mental body, this is a body of gold that has power in the mental world, and can be used to heal the mind of ourselves or others.

This is why these bodies are so important. It is not just to play games, to just go into other dimensions, and travel around because it is “cool.” Our inner priest needs us to heal ourselves and then help our brothers and sisters who are dying. That is why we have a triangle of priesthood.

In the sacrament of priesthood we learned about the sephiroth Yesod and Hod. Yesod, the ninth sphere, is the priesthood of sex, sexual magic, Tantra. This is the מים Mayim, the waters, where we learn to elaborate ש Shin, Christ, because of נ Nun, the fish.

We also heard about the priesthood of Hod related to the astral plane. In some traditions this is called natural magic, ceremonial magic, or ritual magic. This is concerned with emotion and is specifically related with second chamber.

There is a third form of priesthood called Hermetic magic, related to the mind, in Netzach. This is another level of magic.

These three spheres, Netzach, Hod and Yesod, are called the triangle of priesthood, or the triangle of magic. Magic comes from Magi, priest. I repeat: the purpose of the magic of priesthood is not to gain power, to show off, to play games, to dominate other people, or to fill ones desires; these are Goetia, black magic. White magic (pure priesthood) is always performed in accordance with the law, in accordance with the will of our inner God, and always for the benefit of others first.

Most of the time when we come into these studies, the first thing we want is to dominate the minds of others. Sometimes students say “This is so cool, you gotta check out Gnosis,” and they want to tell everybody about it, and if others do not like it the student gets upset. They have a desire for others to follow. This is a desire dominate others to do what you want them to do. That will or desire to dominate others to serve your interests is not good. This is just one example. Anytime we want others to do what we want, this is a door to black magic. When we act upon it, we perform black magic, even if it is just in the mind or heart through thoughts or feelings.

Through the magic of priesthood, the priest (Moses, our human soul) raises the fire of the holy spirit through these bodies. Specifically, these bodies related to the magic of priesthood, the triangle of priesthood. The kundalini, the power of the holy spirit, illuminates the inner bodies and gives the priest the power to perform what we would call “miracles.” This is a power over the four elements. This is the power of the priest, our human soul, over the four elements, the four bodies, the four worlds or the four spheres below… the priesthood, below Tiphereth. This is why in all the ancient traditions we always see miracles related with the elements: water, fire, air, earth. It is symbolic.

Through the process of creating the solar bodies, the pinnacle of the inner temple is related to Netzach, the mind. This is symbolized in the temptations that Jesus faced when he went to the wilderness. The tempter took him up to the pinnacle of the temple, the church, and said:

Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. - Matthew 4

Jesus did not succumb to this temptation, but Simon the Magician did.

Remember the story of Simon that is written in the book of Acts. In order to show himself to others, to display what a great master he was, to convince others of his mastery, and his doctrine, he commanded the elements of the air to bring him up into the air so he could fly. In other words, he failed that temptation. Then the apostles prayed to Christ and those forces of the air let go of Simon and he fell to his death. This is in the Bible and is symbolic of the temptations and ordeals that we face when we work in the triangle of priesthood.

We will be tempted to show ourselves to others, to look impressive, to have people admire us, or respect us, or follow us, things like that. To fly in the air is symbolic of the mind, to show how clever we are, how smart we are, how well we give a lecture, how well we talk about Gnosis, things like this. These are temptations that we face.

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the kosmos, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. - Matthew 4

There are many who tread this path and succeed in creating the internal bodies. They receive the blessings and powers in the internal worlds. Due to having created the bodies of the soul, they can remember their past lives, they can give beautiful teachings through their lectures and speeches, and they can interpret dreams. They have many powers and abilities, but most fail when tempted in the world of the mind. These are the most dangerous people that you will encounter. They explain the doctrine beautifully, but there will be subtle poison, bitter water, Mara the tempter, in their doctrine. These people are called Simoniacs, and we talked about them in the previous lecture.

For those of us who are asleep and do not have inner powers, it is very, very difficult to identify who is who. How can we tell who is overcoming temptation and who is falling into it? How does a student find a good teacher? How does a student know who to rely on? The answer is that you have to awaken your own consciousness. It is the only way to know. You need to create your own inner priest. Along the way you will learn who is who. If you follow your Innermost. If you follow physical people or what everyone says, then you will remain in ignorance.

The Gnostic priest (within us) who overcomes this temptation, who has created the solar causal body, receives Christ. To discuss further about that we have an entire course and many books, because it is a very big work. It is the direct path to absolute liberation. That priest, whether male or female, performs all of their works in these levels: mental, emotional, energetic, and physical. Everything they do is for the benefit of others. They ask nothing for themselves. No praise, no recognition, no followers, no money. They do what they do simply out of love.

On the other hand, those who have fallen into temptation have many of the same powers, but seek for themselves. This can be very subtle. The difference between them is difficult for us to see. But if you understand that these levels Hod and Netzach, specifically, are related with the fifth dimension, then you understand that the fifth dimension has superior and inferior aspects. The superior aspect is related with the heavens above, which are pure, but the inferior aspect is related with the Klipoth, with hell, the inferno. The white magicians who work with Christ, work in the superior aspect of the fifth dimension, the mental and emotional plane. The black magicians work in the inverted aspect of the fifth dimension, the mental and emotional plane, in hell. The powers look the same from our perspective in the physical world. We hear the stories and they sound the same, we may see manifestations or so called miracles and they look the same, but their source is different. This is illustrated in the story of Simon Magus. Both he and the apostles had powers, but of a different foundation.

The powers that the black magicians have are very easy to acquire. You can go to any bookstore right now and find hundreds of books that will teach you how to acquire those powers. They teach practices of meditation, clairvoyance, tantra, pranayama, etc. Both the black and the white use the same words, they explain the same things, but the black has a subtle poison in it.

Listen to your heart. Your human soul, your own inner Moses, your own inner messiah, can guide you, but not if you listen to your reasoning. You have to listen to your heart. That is difficult because the heart, the emotion, can also confuse us because our own desires are in the lunar astral emotional body, the Kama Rupa. The black magicians have power in the emotional level and the mental level, but based in hell.

Hell is the digestive system of nature. Hell is where nature digests and cleanses out what is impure. Humanity is dying. Humanity is entering in surges, in waves, into the Klipoth. We had a couple of really big waves with World War One and Two, where millions of souls surged into hell. The dead flow into Limbo first and then gradually through the digestive tract of the planet where all those impurities are cleansed, and those elements that are purified.

The black magicians have power in that level. Unfortunately, due to the psychology of humanity, the physical world is sinking into hell. This is why life is becoming so complicated. This is why in most major cities you walk down the street and it is disgusting and filthy. The things you see on the street are horrible. That is because it is sinking into the Klipoth.

We need to define ourselves between these two… inside. We have an ego in us and we a consciousness in us, and each moment we are utilizing energy. Even if we do not have the solar bodies yet, we are utilizing energies through these four bodies in relation to the four elements. Even without the solar bodies, we produce magic, works of priesthood, because we have a human soul. But that priesthood is be black or white depending upon how we use our energy. It is up to us.

We need to be very, very careful. Our speech can perform an act of priesthood because there is power in our words. Even our facial expression can totally, dramatically affect someone. We have all experienced this. This is why in the Book of James it says:

Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge (Gnosis) among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. - James 3

This is how a priest should perform his acts: with humility, goodness, mercy, without partiality or hypocrisy, never speaking bitterness. That speech is not just through the words, but through our actions, and also in our mind.

Through upright action in our body, heart, and mind, by learning all the sacraments, and then entering into the magic through extreme unction to heal ourselves through our action in these levels, we can understand this passage from Exodus:

Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name (-El) is in him (סםאל). But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. [...]

And you shall worship יהוה אלהים Jehovah Elohim, and He will bless your לחם bread (of the Eucharist) and your מים waters, and I will remove illness from your midst. - Exodus 23

Extreme unction comes through right action, by following the angel that comes from the Gnostic Church. In this way we learn how to perform extreme unction.

To close the lecture I will read to you a passage that pulls together the entire course. I invite you to listen with your intuition to hear the deep meanings that are hidden inside this passage. This is from the Book of Revelation 22:

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done.

Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.

And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.

Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.

Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Questions and Answer

Audience: That angel that says …???.... if you don’t follow these rules then I will turn into you an adversary, Satan…..???

Instructor: That is right. The scripture says very clearly that the angel that is sent by God to provide the doctrine and to give the help through the sacraments and through the extreme unction, if we reject that help and do not follow the guidance of that angel, that angel becomes our punisher. This is what’s written in the Book of Revelation. The angels of God descend to exercise the judgment of God.

This is why we know and explain that Klipoth (hell) was instituted by God. The suffering that the soul ensues or goes through is because of what they themselves created. Out of compassion, God provides hell as a way to cleanse the soul so they get another chance later.

When we feel the pain of life, the first place we should look for blame for that pain must be within. Do not blame the one who delivers the karma to us, because the one who gives us the karma is an angel. The one who gives us the pain is divine. We do not grasp that because of the nature of our animal mind. We blame others for our suffering, when the truth is that we receive what we deserve.

Audience: In Spanish the priests are called “Cura” which means healer.

Instructor: Throughout time, in all traditions, the priests were always the healers. This is still true in Tibetan medicine and most traditional forms of medicine. To be a doctor you must be a priest, and to be a priest you must be a doctor. Paracelsus said as much.

Audience: You said earlier that Gnosis was medicine to the soul and poison to the ego. Now when one puts Gnosis into practice, will it become easier for that person’s life but at the same time more difficult. More difficult because of the ego and more easier because of the consciousness being awakened and being expanded?

Instructor: Yes, life becomes easier and more difficult. It is easy to understand if you imagine trying to unzip yourself in half. It won’t feel good, it is painful, but that is what we have to do. We have to extract the consciousness from its prison. But this is not a prison like a simple cage with a door, it is a prison of flesh that feels. That prison of flesh is not physical, it is matter in the fifth dimension, specifically related with the mind and the heart. We believe we are the ego, we feel ourselves in the ego. What we feel is mostly because of that, because our consciousness is asleep.

When we learn this teaching we hear we have to die psychologically. This sounds like an interesting theory, yet the practice of it is unpleasant. This is why so many students go searching around everywhere for a pleasant way to die psychologically. They invent techniques or believe in whatever comforts them. And, the Simoniacs take advantage of this in order to acquire followers.

Medicine is bitter; it hurts, it is painful. But through that pain, through the real application of Gnosis, the consumption of that extreme unction, the medicine, even though we feel pain, difficulties, frustration, and ordeals, we start to taste the freedom of the soul. This is something inexpressible.

It reminds me of a conversation related to this. A person asked what is the real difference between the black magician who has ambition for power and the white magician who has ambition to enter the Absolute? To us it seems the same. They seem to both want to ascend somewhere, have desire to acquire something. But there is a very potent and important difference between these two. The one who craves power, whether its physical, sexual, economic, or power in the fifth dimension, to dominate others, to walk through walls, to show their powers, or to make diamonds, or whatever it is… these are desires rooted in self, rooted in ego.

On the other hand, the person who works to free the consciousness from the ego, begins to taste the freedom that we call Eden, bliss. When you feel what it is like to be outside of the cage, you want to stay outside of the cage. You want to be free of pain, free of suffering. This is not a desire, this is a longing. This is our right. The initiate who is ascending the many levels back towards the Absolute is not seeking to become something more, he is seeking to become something less: to become no “I,” to become free of “I.” There is individuality there, what we call a solar personality, and that is the personality of the real Being, which is pure intelligence (Binah) and pure wisdom (Chokmah). This is the intelligence or the individuality within Prajna, which is emptiness. This is inconceivable to us.

The person who has tasted that, the nature of the void, has tasted the nature of Christ, which has no individuality in the way we understand it. The white magician longs to be lost in that light, to merge into that ocean. Our ego hates that idea because we want to be an individual, we want to stand apart, we want to be different, we want to be recognized, noticed. This is not how it is in the heavenly realms. If  a seeking to be noticed, to be different, to stand out, this is ego. This is what they want in Klipoth.

Audience: In the Book of Acts when Peter and John are performing the extreme unction, Simon the Magician is asking for the same power. So is that extreme unction performed by the Holy Spirit from below, Mayin, or from above, Schamayin?

Instructor: In the Book of Acts, the apostles are performing the extreme unction to heal. Simon the Magician wants that power, and he tries to buy it. The point is, who is it that is performing the miracle, is it the apostle, is it a power that can be bought or sold? No.

The only one who can be given that power is given it by God, because they have earned it, because they are pure enough, clean enough, righteous enough, virtuous enough to receive it. This is why in “Logos, Mantra, Theurgy” Samael Aun Weor explained the story about a healing that was performed and when the Gnostic priest received a financial payment, the Holy Spirit came to that priest and said “You are doing very badly” so the priest knew then he had to return the money, because he did not do anything. The one who did the healing was the Holy Spirit, God.

That is why we offer these teachings freely. That is why all real knowledge is free… at least from the filth of money. We do pay for it, but not terrestrially, because everything costs something. So when we encounter spiritual teachers who charge enormous amounts of money for their teachings or healings, they are doing something wrong. The one who heals is God. The real one who teaches is God. That is why in the Book of Revelation it says, “Do not bow before me, I am your brother. Worship God.”

Unfortunately, we find many so-called “apostles, prophets, masters” who want to be worshipped, who want everybody to recognize them and say, “Yes we see that you are master so and so.” This has nothing to do with Christ.

Christ gives freely of himself and asks nothing in return. Jesus beautifully represented that in the most profound act of extreme unction ever seen, when he died on the cross. He gave everything for others. Even when they were persecuting him, punishing him, whipping him, spitting on him, he said, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” He did not say, “Hey, I’m Jesus, you shouldn’t do this to me.”

Audience: What would you say to someone that says some of this sounds like scare tactics in terms of the catastrophe that we always talk about, like the external catastrophes. What differentiates us from any other group that traps souls by catastrophes?

Instructor: If you go to the doctor and the doctor tells you that you have cancer and you have two weeks to live, would you accuse him of scare tactics or would you be glad that he told you the truth? A lot of people would get mad at the doctor and leave, “I’m going to go get another opinion.” The same happens here. We do not want the truth. We want to be comforted.

The doctor may not know exactly how long you have to live, but the doctor is skilled and educated to know that you have cancer and that it is killing you. Yet, most people do not want to hear it.

We teach that humanity is facing the end of a cycle. This race will die and that everything that exists on this planet will cease to be. This is a fact and anyone who awakens consciousness can confirm it. There are other groups that teach similar things. You always hear prophecies like “the world is going to end in 2012,” in relation to the Mayan calendar and all these different theories that you hear about. But the difference is that through the Gnostic Church you can learn how to come out the other side, to not just be a victim, but to conquer. That is the difference: we teach how to survive the end.

Part of what we teach in Gnosis is that in the midst of the greatest adversity is the greatest potential for change. This is a key in Buddhism as well. This is why the higher teachings, those that really grasp the depths of the knowledge, teach you that the peaceful moments in life are poison for the consciousness. To escape from reality, to go hide in the woods, is actually bad for you. How are you going to see your ego if you are isolated from that which stimulates it? If you do not see your ego, you cannot free yourself from it.

Right now, there is a proliferation of knowledge, such that has never been seen. There is more knowledge available publicly and for free than there ever has been… ever. We now have access to the root texts of every tradition. The secret doctrine in every tradition is reveled. This is because the Gnostic Church is performing extreme unction for this humanity. The spiritual knowledge is the balm that we need in order to save the soul before the body dies.

Audience: Can we state that Buddhism, since its related with Netzach, the mind, is a doctrine for extreme unction in these moments of the end?

Instructor: Absolutely, I would agree with that. Buddhism definitely is a very direct medicine for the mind. It is a form of extreme unction specifically focused on the mind, on Netzach. And I believe that this is why Samael Aun Weor made such an emphasis of the union between Buddhism and Christianity, and stated directly that after his resurrection he would go to Asia in order to unify Buddhism and Christianity. But Asia is Assiah, the physical world, and Samael through his doctrine is unifying Buddhism and Christianity through the masters and servants of the Gnostic Church.

This is why we are seeing now such great availability of texts and teachings from Buddhism that for the last few thousand years have been hidden. We need this balm for the mind. We need the doctrines of Christ and Buddha to work together in us. So it is extremely important for students and instructors of the Gnostic tradition to deeply study Buddhism in conjunction with Christianity, side by side.

The esoteric Christianity that we study in The Pistis Sophia and other important texts relates directly with the path of the Bodhisattva, especially in the higher levels. But to reach that we need to create the solar mind and we need to cleanse our mind, our lunar mind, and esoteric Buddhism, especially Tantra, is very important in this effort. So we need that extreme unction.

Audience: Can we then state that the best medicine of extreme unction in this very moment is in Buddhism?

Instructor: We have discussed the various forms of the knowledge that we receive, represented as  three chambers. In the first chamber, our primary interest is intellectual study. When we enter the other chambers we enter into aspects of the teaching that relate to the other brains, the emotional brain (second chamber) and the motor-instinctive-sexual brain (third chamber), to go very deep in those aspects of our psyche.

Nonetheless, even at the very beginning of entering this teaching, we need to learn to meditate. Meditation, specifically, is related with the priesthood of Netzach, Hermetic magic. We know meditation techniques that relate to the other spheres; we know meditation techniques that relate to Malkuth, specifically the physical body.

Many of these techniques are taught and are proliferated by the Shravakayana schools (foundational level schools), also called insight schools, Zen, forms of Sutrayana or Buddhist teachings. These are introductory levels of meditation and preliminary concentration, often with relaxation or insight as the goal.

There are meditation techniques related to Yesod, related to the vital body. There are a whole variety of techniques contained in these schools related to the vital body.

There are meditation techniques related with the Astral body, with the emotion.

We teach all of these techniques in Gnosis, and is important for students to practice them all and understand how they relate and when and why they are important.

However, the critical meditation practice, the pinnacle, the most important, is related with Netzach, the mind. This practice to learn, to manage the mind, is the most direct way for us to comprehend extreme unction.

We receive the doctrine intellectually in Malkuth. We begin to transmute our sexual energies and work with the priesthood of Yesod, through sexual magic. We begin to learn ceremonial or ritualistic magic in Hod and through the development of devotion, Bhakti. But the real work, the heart and soul of it of the cure, is in Netzach, the mind, through meditation. If we avoid that our consciousness will die, because the medicine cannot be applied. The medicine we need comes through meditation. That medicine is comprehension, real insight, Vipashyana, which means “special insight” in Sanskrit. This is an insight beyond the comprehension we can receive through the lower forms of meditation, which include self-observation.

Through the physical senses you can only see what is physical, and you can only see some of the symptoms of what is more subtle than that in the fifth dimension, specifically. To get at the root of the illness you must see the illness where it comes from. That illness is deep in the 49 levels of the mind, and the way you get there is through meditation. There is no other way. Meditation is the very basis, the very foundation, the very heart of the cure we need. We can transmute all the energy we want, but if we do not meditate and comprehend our illness, we cannot be cured.

Audience: What would your recommendation be for a new student in terms of meditation?

Instructor: For a new student to learn about meditation, the first thing that I would recommend is to study the teachings through the intellect, in a balanced way. You have to study the teachings and then contemplate what you study. Not just stuff the mind with concepts, but read a little bit and then sit back and relax and think about it. Contemplate it. Look how it applies to your life and what you have experienced. Then, go further than that; close your eyes and relax and keep contemplating, relaxing and looking into what you have studied. This is a basic form of meditation and can lead you to a lot of understanding.

The lectures that we give here come from our own comprehension of what we have studied. Not merely in the books of Samael Aun Weor or the scriptures, but through our own life. Gnosis is born out of practical knowledge. It means practical knowledge. But that comes through our own individual effort. If we are just reading and believing, we are not gaining much. A belief cannot change our situation, only real deep understanding can. So a beginner can start this way, analyzing and reflecting, and complement that with transmutation, with chanting mantras, learning how to relax, learning how to self-observe and self-remember. All these are important.

Little by little, that student needs to cultivate the discipline and the understanding of what meditation is. Not by force and not in a militaristic way… gradually, by experience. And I say it that way specifically for an important reason. When we hear this teaching and the emphasis we place on meditation, some people react to that by saying, “I am going to meditate for an hour or two hours every day.” That is a great intention, but nobody manages to do it. They may do it for a few days, but then they get burned out and they quit, and it is even harder to start again.

It is better is to start small, and be realistic. Spend a few minutes each day relaxing and practicing a technique. Gradually, as you gain experience, you understand the importance of it, and you start to see how important and necessary it is and how much it nourishes you, you will gradually and naturally increase the amount you meditate… naturally. Eventually you will reach the level that we should reach: meditating four to six hours a day, just as Samael Aun Weor did.

But, along the way, do not make it a big chore that you feel is a burden, because you will poison your development. Start slow and be where you are. Listen to the guidance that you get from inside. Your Being knows what you need and will guide you in your practices, if you listen.

There are hundreds of techniques in this tradition. Any one of them can be useful for you at the right time. This is why we do not have a rigid set of steps that every student has to follow, because every student is in a different place. It would be like a doctor who says every patient who comes in has to take the same pills in the same order. That makes no sense, and will kill or sicken most patients. A doctor has to look at each patient and say, “You have this illness, you have this problem, so this is the medication that you need.” Each patient has their own needs. Each of us is a patient. But each of us has an inner Being, who is our own doctor. We have to listen to our own doctor.

The real physician in us is our Being who is inside of us, not outside. If we listen to the guidance we get through dreams, meditation, intuition, we may say, “I am feeling attracted towards this particular meditation, towards this particular book, or towards this mantra.” Listen to that. That subtle attraction, that subtle interest, is the guidance that you are looking for. Do not start reasoning, “Oh no, I am not ready,” or “That sounds too hard” or “So and so said not to do that.” Listen inside, not outside.

Audience: So individual meditation is different than a group meditation?

Instructor: Yes, individual meditation is different from group meditation. Both have value, both are important, both are recommended. If you have access to a Gnostic school, go as much as you can and meditate. It will help you because the group energy is very, very strong. It can help you a lot. Other students there who have some experience can help you, not only by their presence but by their knowledge. This is very important.

Audience: You said something about meditation in connection with Hermetic, can you explain that for me?

Instructor: Hermetic magic comes from the tradition of Hermes Trismegistus who is a great master from past ages that we know in relation with Egypt and Greece. Hermes in its root connotation is related with Mercury. Hermes is another name for Mercury, and Mercury is related with the mind, with air. So when we talk about Hermetic magic, the real meaning is magic in relation with the mind with the forces of the air. The highest form of Hermetic magic is meditation.