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After receiving all of the previous sacraments, related to baptism and penance etc., the initiate who is aspiring towards the path of the Bodhisattva passes through the sacrament of confirmation, which we discussed in the previous lecture.  The sacrament of confirmation relates to the period in life of adolescence, the time of puberty, when the body is passing through the process of its development, towards its completion-which is between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, depending on whether the organism is male or female.  All the previous sacraments are preparations; they are a period of learning, stages through which the soul must learn, to be educated, in order to be prepared for the sacrament of matrimony.

Like all of the sacraments, the sacrament of matrimony is sacred (these two words - sacrament, sacred - come from a common source). This is why in all of the ancient religions and mystical traditions of humanity, matrimony or marriage has always been considered a religious act, a sacred act.  That is why marriage has always been in the domain of the priesthood, not the government, until recent times, when marriage has become more of an economic factor.

yab-yum When we talk about the sacraments, what we are really discussing are sacred initiations or levels of instruction that the soul passes through.  These sacraments have been instituted by the Gnostic Church, which has its primary domain in the realm of דעת Daath (Hebrew for knowledge, which is that realm where the Father/Mother unite in order to create; this is the level of the Yab/Yum, the Father/Mother, the Elohim. From their sacred union, all creation is realized.   The sacrament or sacred act of matrimony is a reflection of the union between the Divine Father and the Divine Mother, Shiva/Shakti, Abba and Aima. That union in the sphere of Daath is an act of sacrifice; it is an act of love.  The sphere of דעת Daath is synonymous with love.  It is here where God and Goddess unite because of their profound love; the very substance of that union is love, and its result is love.  The child, the son, Osiris, or Christ, is the very embodiment of the love of Father/Mother, Yab/Yum; so that son, that love, is Christ the Savior, the sacred force of pure, cognizant Bodhichitta, love.

This is a form of love that is beyond the seven spheres below דעת Daath.  It is beyond the spirit (Chesed), the consciousness (Geburah), the will (Tiphereth), the mind (Netzach), the emotion (Hod), beyond energy (Yesod), beyond anything physical (Malkuth).  This is a form of love that is incomprehensible to our mind, but is knowable through our heart.  This is why the sacrament of matrimony is so sacred.

The word sacrament is also related with sacrifice. The word sacrifice is derived from the Latin word sacrificus, "to perform priestly acts," from sacra "sacred rites" and facere "to do, perform." Any priestly act (sacrifice) must be performed in accordance with the order of Melchizadech, which is the priesthood of the Gnostic Church in Daath.

Therefore, matrimony is an act of sacrifice, done because of love, and this is the purpose and reason for us to have matrimony.  It is to experience, to realize, to develop the capacity for pure, sacrificing, sacred, holy love-- love that is so strong that we can sacrifice our very life for the one we love-to sacrifice our blood, to sacrifice anything for the one we love.  In the Zohar, which is an ancient document related to Kabbalah, we read this quote:

Truly the subject of marriage must be of the greatest anxiety to the Holy One.  Blessed is the lot of Israel who enjoys the secret doctrine that teaches them His Holy Way, as also the secrets and mysteries attending them.  It is written, the Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul.  Blessed is he who studies in it (marriage) and rules his life thereby, for then he acquires length of days and learns the secret of life.

All of this is embodied in the sacrament of matrimony.

If it be asked when does the Holy Spirit or Divine Life manifest itself in a man?  It is when the union we have just mentioned is effected; it is the true, the divine marriage when they twain become one flesh. - Zohar

So marriage in Kabbalah, like every religion, like every tradition, is that sacrifice or sacrament wherein the two twain [male and female] join to become one flesh, and thereby realize the nature of Divine Love.

tristan and isolde

Marriage is sacred.  All of the great prophets and masters and buddhas and avatars practiced the sacrament of matrimony.  The sacrament of matrimony is unavoidable for the one who wants to reach the heights of realization, because it is through matrimony - the union of male and female - that the soul learns how to be like God, to create in the image of God, which is Daath, the Elohim, the Father/Mother. Through that replication of the activities of God, the couple learns how to work with the pure love of Christ, through that union.

However, the sacrament of matrimony is just a stage on the journey.  It is a stage that one must be prepared to enter, and having entered, one performs it until one perfects it, and then the soul has the option to no longer be married. This is why we find some great masters and avatars and teachers who are not married.  Either they have not entered the sacrament or they have completed it.  The greatest ones obviously completed the sacrament. We need to understand this clearly because there are many religions who, nowadays, have the mistaken belief that you can reach the heights of realization without the union of husband and wife, and this is a mistaken idea.  God created sex; God creates through sex, and for the soul to learn to create according to Divine Law, the soul must learn how to create through sex.  As Jesus stated in the Gospel: to be born again.  Not to be born of flesh, but of spirit.  And as you know, anything in life that is born, is born through sex.  The soul is no exception.

We know, of course, in the Christian tradition, that Paul, for example, recommends the path of Brahmacharya, or to be single.  But what people do not grasp is that the state that Paul had reached was anterior or after matrimony; he had already passed through that sacrament.  Peter, on the other hand, who was the first Pope, the rock of the church, was married and had a wife.  We need to understand this.

We also know that - in spite of the protests of the modern church - Jesus was married: to Mary Magdalene.

Jesus and his Wife

The word matrimony reveals to us the secret of the sacrament related to marriage.  And this is why we call it the ‘perfect matrimony'-- because in the word matrimony are tremendous, powerful clues for us to understand.

The Meaning of Matrimony

The first part of the word matrimony is, of course, matr-, which comes from mater in Latin, which means "mother" and is the root of the word "matter"; everyone knows the word "ma," because it is used all over the world, in every language, and is where we get Aima; mother, Ma, Amma, Minerva, Maria, Mary, Mira, Maya, Mara-all of these names of the Divine Mother, from around the world, are derived from the same root. The M is represented in that dashed or triangulated line related to Aquarius, which represents the water.  Ma, or the letter מ m, Mem from Hebrew, represents the water.  So there is always a close relationship between the Divine Mother and the womb or prakriti of nature.

The second part of matrimony is monium, from Latin, which means "action, state, or condition."  When we put those two things together, we can understand that matrimony means "the action, the state, the condition, of the Divine Mother," or more directly: the state or condition from which the Divine Mother can act."  This is a very profound thing. The marriage of husband and wife is the state or condition through which the Divine Mother can act. We know this is true in all the occult traditions, because it is through Tantra, the union of male/female, that the Kundalini is realized, is awakened; and the Kundalini is the Divine Mother herself.  It is through the union of male and female that the forces of the Divine Mother can descend and act in the world.

We also see this reflected in the Zohar:

And Isaac brought her (his wife), into his mother, Sarah's tent. Our Masters have interpreted it to mean that the Divine Presence came into Isaac's house along with Rebekah, his wife.  According to the Secret Doctrine, the supernal Mother is together with the male only when the house is in readiness and at the time the male and female are co-joined.  At such time, blessings are showered forth by the Supernal Mother.  - Zohar, Genesis 101b

So even the Zohar states the blessings of the mother are only delivered when the couple is in sexual union.  This is a very profound statement.  And he says directly that this is the Secret Doctrine; this is Daath. The wisdom and knowledge of Daath is revealed through the sexual union of male and female.  This is when the blessings of the Divine Mother Kundalini can be showered upon the couple.

We find the same symbol hidden in the Christian Gospels.

The First Miracle of Jesus

The Gospel of John, chapter 2:

And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:

And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.

And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine.

And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.

His mother saith unto the servants, Whatever he saith unto you, do it.

Wedding at Cana

And there were set there six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.

Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water.  And they filled them up to the brim.

And he saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.  And they bare it.

When the ruler of the feast tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was:  (but the servants which drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,

And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.

This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him.

This story explains the first miracle that Jesus performed.  The first miracle of Jesus was to transform water into wine at a marriage.  This has tremendous significance.  As the very first miracle, it is the indication or implication of the very beginning and the purpose and point of the Christian doctrine.  It is the very first act of Christ, and thus we need to understand it. If we are to follow his example, as he himself states in the Gospels, then we need to perform this first miracle: matrimony. This is why this sacrament, this action, is so important in the Gnostic Church.

And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there.

The mother of Jesus is the virgin Mary.  Mary or Miriam was a virgin when she gave birth to her son, Jesus.  Mary or Miriam, Aima, symbolizes the Divine Mother of Binah, who, in union with her spouse, the Holy Spirit, creates through Daath.  Miriam, or Mary, symbolizes the Divine Mother of every religion who is always a virgin and who always has a son, because she has the conception and pregnancy and childbirth in Daath, which is the knowledge of the Secret Doctrine.  Thus, she is a virgin, but still manages to give birth.  This is the sacred nature of Tantra: she is a virgin of sin. She is knowledgable and experienced sexually, because she unites with her husband, but she is a virgin because she commits no sexual sin.

The Priest and the Spinal Column

tipherethJesus is called to the marriage; Jesus represents Yeshua, the Savior, the son of the Divine Mother.  Jesus represents Tiphereth on the Tree of Life, which is the sixth sphere.  Tiphereth represents our consciousness, our human soul, but also the priest.  Jesus, in this story, is the priest of the marriage; he is the one who is overseeing the marriage.  When the priest is before the altar of God, the priest is always acting as a mediator between Christ and the congregation, between Father/Mother in Daath and the congregation.  The priest is Tiphereth (the sixth sphere), and the sixth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is ו Vav.  The letter ו Vav is shaped like a staff or a rod; it is a tall pole with a י Iod at the top.  This is the letter of Tiphereth; this is why every priest carries a staff.  When a priest is at the altar and he is officiating over a ritual, he always has a staff in his hand; that staff is ו Vav, Tiphereth, and that staff represents the spinal column and it represents the priest.

The spinal column, like Tiphereth, is the center of the tree, the center column, the very point of balance upon which the tree is hinged; and it is through the spine that the Kundalini raises itself, which is the force of the Divine Mother. It is through the spine that we receive, transform, and transmit all of the energies of the three Amens that descend into our three brains, into our three nervous systems, and are transmitted out.  So that great center of all of our energies is the spinal column; it is the central structure of our body and it is the central structure of our soul.  This is why the staff in the hand of the priest is so important.

The priest (Tiphereth) receives the forces of Christ through the spine (ו vav), through the Kundalini (ש fire of Pentacost), and is able to transmit that force for the benefit of the congregation.

The mantra or sacred phrase of Tiphereth is:

אלהודעת יהוה

Eloah Va Daath Iod Hei Vav Hei

This is from Hebrew.

  1. אלה Eloah is Hebrew for goddess, for the Divine Mother; it is another word for Aima.  Eloah is the Divine Mother in Daath, Mary or Miriam, Amma.
  2. ו Vav means "and"
  3. דעת Daath is knowledge
  4. יהוה Iod Hei Vav Hei is Jehovah in Daath, or the Holy Spirit.

So the mantra, the sacred phrase of Tiphereth, says:

Goddess and Knowledge, Father in Daath.

This is how important the relationship is between our human soul, our inner priest, and our own inner Divine Mother and Father. That relationship hinges upon the spine, the staff that the priest holds in his hand.

When we look a little deeper into that mantra, the second part is יהוה Iod Hei Vav Hei; this is the four letter name of God. These four letters we have talked about pretty extensively.  The Iod represents the man; the He represents the woman; the Vav represents the spine but also the phallus, and the He again represents the womb, the uterus.  So we see hidden in the name of God, in the very name of Yehovah or Jahovah:  man, woman, sexual union.

When Tiphereth is fully developed and has incarnated the nature of that mantra, אלהודעת יהו Eloah Va Daath Iod Hei Vav Hei, this is what we call a Bodhisattva--because that mantra embodies all the forces of Daath, which is the creative power of God, through the Elohim:  El plus Eloah, the Father/Mother.  That creative power results in that pure love of sacrifice, Bodhichitta.  So when the human soul, our soul, has fully embodied that, and incarnated that, and developed that, the soul is a fully developed Bodhisattva, or a vehicle of wisdom, a vessel of Christ, an embodiment of pure love.  And that love always expresses itself through great acts of sacrifice; this is the nature of Bodhichitta, to sacrifice for others, to do the best for others.

This is also why we know that the Bodhisattvas always act as the mediator or intermediary between the divine forces and those who suffer, the congregation.  This is the priest, the Bodhisattva, who performs the sacraments or rituals, in order to bring the forces of Christ, Chenresig, down, in order to aid those who are still in suffering.

The Priest and the Divine Mother

And when they wanted wine...

Who are they?  Who wants wine? "They" are the candidates who want to enter the sacrament of marriage, the couple who is seeking to become married; they want wine.  They want that wine that results from the transmutation, the transformation of the sexual waters into purified wine that gives the ecstasies of the soul.

tristan and isolde

The couple who is seeking to marry is a couple who is in love, intoxicated by their love, and want that wine of love that intoxicates the soul. Truly, only those who have tasted the wine of love that arises miraculously between man and woman know the intoxication it gives to the consciousness. But they also know that this same wine gives death to the ego.

And when they (the candidates for matrimony), wanted wine, the mother (Aima), of Jesus saith unto him (the priest), they (the new couple) have no wine.

This means that the couple has not entered yet into the sacrament of matrimony, thus they have not awakened the Kundalini; they have not yet transformed their own water into wine, but they need to and want to.  Now why is she telling him that?  Why is the Divine Mother telling the priest?  It is because there is that relationship between Tiphereth and the Divine Mother.  It is the job of Tiphereth, the priest (the human soul), to aid the couple, to instruct them in the sacrament of matrimony, and that is why the priest always oversees the sacrament of matrimony, and gives his guidance to the couple.  And this is why, in the next line, his mother says to the couple to obey the priest, but we will get to that in a moment.

When she says this, "they have no wine," Jesus, who represents the priest, says:

"Woman, what have I to do with thee?  Mine hour is not yet come."

This is because the couple is not yet married.  The priest cannot fully instruct them in the sacrament until the marriage is completed, until they are married, then, the time has come for them to receive the instruction of how to consummate the marriage and create the first miracle of Christianity.

So, she tells Jesus that they need the wine, and then she speaks to them.  In the Bible it says, "His mother saith unto the servants." The servants are the couple. The servants want to serve Christ, to serve the Mother, to serve God, to serve others, through their endeavor to realize the nature of true love, or Bodhichitta.

His mother saith unto the servants (the couple), "whatsoever he (the priest) saith unto you, do it."

In other words, when we are entering a marriage, inspired by love, and seeking to serve, we have to listen to the guidance of Tiphereth.  Tiphereth is inside of us.  Tiphereth is our own human soul, our conscience, our own sense of what is right and wrong, our own intuition, which speaks to the heart.  When fully developed, that force of Tiphereth in us is how we become a Bodhisattva: because of our own inner Tiphereth.

The Arcanum of the Lovers

And there were set six waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews [which is the baptism, the Mikveh, the sacred bath] containing two or three firkins apiece [a measurement of quantity].  Jesus saith unto them, "Fill the waterpots with water."  And they filled them up to the brim.

Arcanum Six of Tarot The six waterpots relate to the sixth sphere on the Tree of Life, which is Tiphereth.  But they also relate to the Sixth Arcanum, which is the arcanum of the Lovers. In that arcanum you see the human soul caught between the virgin and the whore, the Divine Mother and the fallen mother [Lilith / Nahemah].  And remember, the Hebrew letter of the sixth arcanum is ו Vav [the spine].  There is a great deal of importance in this.

We see in the card the human soul who is sunk into his own waters, which are murky. He is between the virgin and the whore, having to decide-who will he serve?  So these six waterpots that the couple has to fill with water are related with the sixth arcanum of Indecision, or the Lovers.  The water we need to put in the pots is the water of Yesod:  the מים Mayim, the sexual waters that we have to transform into wine, through the mediation of Tiphereth.

What we can see here is a great combination of deep symbols.  We see the human soul in the midst, between the virgin and the whore, related to the arcanum six, the ו Vav, which relates to the spinal column. In the story, the couple has to fill six waterpots with water.  Those waterpots are also related with the spinal column.  Through the spinal column flows the energy of the Kundalini, which is derived from the water, from the sexual water.

At the base of the spine are the sexual organs, which is where that water resides. From that water emerges the fire of creation. This is symbolized in the Vedas, the ancient books of Hinduism, when the gods and demons churn the waters by pulling back and forth a serpent wrapped around a great rod.  The rod is upright in the ocean, the gods on one side, the demons on the other side, pulling the serpent back and forth and churning the ocean, and from that emerges all the benefits and beauties of the soul.  Here we see the same symbol in the Arcanum Six:  the Divine Mother and the demonic mother, fighting over the soul, and that soul is centered in his spinal column, the rod.

What you might not have noticed is that the story that I am reading to you about Jesus and his mother overseeing the wedding, happened at a place called Cana:  this is where we get our word "cane," or staff.  The word Cana means reed, a bamboo reed. The wedding happens "in Cana of Galilee," and Galilee is a sea, is a body of water.  So, obviously this story is symbolic.  The marriage happens in Cana, "the place of the reeds," by "the sea of Galilee," the waters of מ Mem.

So the story continues:

And he (the priest) saith unto them, Draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast.  And they bare it.

Who is the governor of the feast?  Our own Inner Buddha, Chesed, our own spirit, who is the governor of our soul, the governor of our own wedding feast.

When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was: (but the servants which drew the water knew).

This represents how our own Innermost does not know where that wine comes from, because our own Innermost is not the one who works in Daath.  The couple, the servants, work in Daath, which is Tantra.  They know where the wine comes from because they are the ones who did that work.

On a deeper level, this story also symbolizes the nature of the serpents of light, which come after the serpents of fire. In the serpents of light, the Innermost does not raise those serpents, the Christ does, and that is what is represented in the story; Jesus, as Christ, performs that miracle.  That is why the Innermost does not know who did it.

Wine as a Spiritual Symbol

Why wine?  Why is the Bible using the symbol of transforming the water into wine?  And why is wine such a deep symbol in all these religious ceremonies?  When we look at the Hebrew, we can understand why.

vayin

The Hebrew word for wine is pronounced "yayin," but this is only because of a general rule in the Hebrew language, which is that anytime a word begins with the letter Vav, it is actually pronounced and written with a Iod.  So the word יין yayin, is actually וין vayin: vine, wine. It is spelled Vav, Iod, Nun:  vayin.

Right there you have all the symbols, in those three letters, of why wine is used as a symbol.

  • ו Vav represents the spinal column, the human soul, sixth Tiphereth.
  • י Iod is the man.
  • ן Nun is the salt of the earth, the combination of the three Amens which descend into the sexual waters.

In the previous lectures we talked about the three Amens which are א Aleph, ש Shin, and מ Mem, related to the three triangles on the Tree of Life. These are air, fire, and water. Those three elements condense themselves when they flow into the physical body, and they become the letter נ Nun, which symbolizes the fish, and it is that force of the three Amens, contained in the sexual waters.  The force of the trinity, the three in one.

The word וין vayin, or יין yayin, literally means "that which is pressed out," that which is extracted. The reason wine is used as a symbol is because it represents what we must extract from the combination of the Vav (the spine), the Iod (the man), and the Nun (the sexual seed).  What we must extract; what we must transmute, or transform.

The wine also represents the intoxicating power of sex.  We all know that.  There is no more intoxicating power in existence.  Sex is the most intoxicating force that exists.  The question becomes-how do we utilize it?

In the Zohar it states that wine has two colors: white and red. It says in the Zohar that the white wine is related with the right side of the Tree of Life, with Chesed:  mercy, love, our Innermost, the governor of the feast.  The red is related with the left side of Geburah, which is strength and judgment. Geburah is related with Mars, with Samael.

These two colors of red and white wine are also related with Ida and Pingala, Adam and Eve.  When we transmute our waters into wine, those forces, the transformed, purified wine, flow upwards in our body, through two energetic channels that flow alongside the spinal column; they are called Od and Ob, Adam and Eve, Ida and Pingala. These two forces are also in the Bible as the two candlesticks, or the two olive trees.

And these two forms of wine, white and red, are also represented in Tantric physiology.  When you study Tantra from Buddhism, you will study "the white drops and the red drops."  These are forms of energy that exist inside of our subtle body. The white drops are related with the masculine aspect, and the red drops with the feminine aspect. These are said to be the pure essence of the sexual fluids of male and female.  These two kinds of drops are within all of us, but when we work with Tantra, we purify them, we awaken them, we enlighten them, and they help to heal us. It is said in Tantra that these drops, white and red, originate from one drop, the indestructible drop, the immortal drop, which is in the heart.

If you study Tantra, you can easily find information about these drops, but in Gnosis we have different names for them. The indestructible drop or immortal drop, we call the Nous atom, which is a particle of Christ within our heart.  That drop, that particle, is the exponent, or the architect, in relation with the human soul. It is from that master architect, that master builder, the Nous atom, that we construct the soul and become a Bodhisattva.  Very deep significance here.  That drop, the Nous atom, comes from Daath, the union of Father and Mother.  This is the son of the father and mother.

When the drops, white and red, or the wine, in other words, are purified, they become vayin chayah: living wine, purified wine.  This purified wine is also symbolized in the Bible as oil, sacred oil. Remember that Jesus was anointed with oil before his death.  And we have oil that flows through the lamps of the temple.  The candlesticks are empowered, their flame is derived from oil.  That oil represents the Kundalini:  the power of the Divine Mother. In Tantra, that oil, or that purified wine, is called Tummo:  "fierce woman," in other words: the destructive power of the Divine Mother.

The power that the couple extracts by transforming the water into wine, into those two drops, the Ida and Pingala, which in turn become the Kundalini, the oil, that is the power of the Divine Mother, Tummo, Kundalini, the fire of the Pentecost, from the Gospel.  That fire is the power to destroy illusion, the fire of Christ, the fire of the Divine Mother, which consumes that which is impure.

When the Divine Mother is inflamed with the transmuted sexual fires, she can destroy the ego. This is the great Tantric secret of sex: sexual power can destroy the mistakes that sexual power once made. To return to eden, we use the same door we exited through: sex.

In Hinduism, this destructive power of the Divine Mother is represented by Durga, who wields her weapons against the demon we have within:

durga

Everyone knows about the intoxicating power of the orgasm, of the way sex is practiced commonly in couples, but what people do not realize is that that same intoxicating power, when it is harnessed, and transformed, becomes the power of the Divine Mother, the Kundalini, and it becomes vastly more powerful, and potent, and intoxicating, when the Divine Mother has it in her hands.  This becomes the power of the gods. In all the religious traditions we see that sacred liquid, symbolized as amrita, which is the elixir of immortality, or ambrosia, the food of the gods, or soma, the intoxicating drink that gives the gods their power.  This is all symbolizing the same force.

The Tantrics in Tibet state that even though the orgasm feels powerful, there is a more powerful feeling when that energy is restrained, when it is held, when it is transformed by will, --and will in the Tree of Life, is Tiphereth, our human soul, the priest,-- that intoxicating power is a hundred times more powerful than the normal orgasm. That is the power that creates the bliss of the soul, the ecstasy of the consciousness, the awakening of the Bodhichitta.  In fact, in Tantra, Bodhichitta refers to the sexual energy.  In the exoteric level, it is discussed as compassion and knowledge of pranja or emptiness.  But in Tantra, Bodhichitta directly means the energy of sex, the bindu or tigle.

That is why the commandment number six is, "Thou shalt not fornicate."  The sixth commandment is related with Tiphereth.  That commandment comes from Daath, --Thou shalt not fornicate,-- because it concerns Tiphereth, in the center of the tree, who must command the forces of Yesod in the center of the tree.  The forces of Yesod are the sex, the lower waters of Eden.

So all of this is elaborated under the guidance of Tiphereth, our human soul, who symbolizes the priest. He does all of this under the guidance of the Divine Mother, who is in Daath.

The Virgin Mother

It is beautiful to realize that this is a universal teaching.  You remember in the story that the virgin Mary called for the wine.  She told Tiphereth about this, commanded for the wine to be brought.  Compare this with this ancient hymn that I will read to you, from the Tantric tradition.  This is a hymn to Kali. It begins with three vowels which relate to the three mother letters: א Aleph, ש Shin, and מ Mem:

ह्रीं (Hrim, Hring), O Destroyer of Time,

स्रीं (Srim, Shring), O Terrific One,

ख्रीं (Krim, Kreem, Kring), Thou Who art beneficent,

Possessor of all the Arts,

Thou art Kamala [lotus],

Destroyer of the pride of the Kali Age,

Who art kind to Him of the matted hair [Shiva, her husband],

Devourer of Him [time] Who devours,

Mother of Time,

Thou Who art brilliant as the Fires of the final Dissolution [Second Death],

Wife of Him of the matted hair,

O Thou of formidable countenance,

Ocean of the nectar of compassion (bodhichitta),

Merciful,

Vessel of Mercy [Chesed],

Whose Mercy is without limit,

Who art attainable alone by Thy mercy,

Who art Fire [ש Shin],

Tawny,

Black of hue [like the Egyptian Nut, whose name means "night"],

Thou Who increasest the joy [bliss] of the Lord of Creation [in Daath],

Night of Darkness,

Image of Desire,

Yet Liberator from the bonds of desire,

Thou Who art (dark) as a bank of Clouds,

And bearest the crescent-moon,

Destructress of sin in the Kali Age [our current age],

kali Thou Who art pleased by the worship of virgins,

Thou Who art the Refuge of the worshippers of virgins,

Who art pleased by the feasting of the virgins,

Who art the Image of the virgin [Mary],

[...]

Thou Who art youthful,

Who hast a soft low voice,

Whose voice is sweet as the cry of a Chakravaka bird,

Who drinkest and art pleased with the kadambari wine [Sanskrit: मद्य, madya, written with the letter M],

And Whose cup is a skull,

Who wearest a garland of bones,

Who art pleased with,

And Who art seated on the Lotus,

Who abidest in the centre of the Lotus,

Whom the fragrance of the Lotus pleases,

Who movest with the swaying gait of a Hangsa [swan]

[...]

Who art pleased with the nectar of purified wine,

Giver of success to them whom purified wine rejoices,

The own Deity of those who worship Thee when joyed with wine,

Who art gladdened by the worship of Thyself with purified wine,

Who art immersed in the ocean of purified wine,

Who art the Protectress of those who accomplish vrata [sacrament] with wine...

As you can see, the Tantrics knew all of the mysteries of this sacrament when this hymn was written.  This hymn could easily be written to any religious representation of the Divine Mother, because her symbols are universal.

nut and geb She is black, because she is the night, the night sky filled with stars. She is Nut, which is Egyptian for night.  The goddess Nut, in the Egyptian mysteries, stretches herself over creation and longs to join in sexual union with her husband, Geb, who is the earth, and is always represented with the phallus prepared to enter his wife.  These two represent שמים Schamayim and מים Mayim; they also represent Daath, the union of the Father/Mother.

In the Egyptian mysteries, the symbol of Nut is a ladder. The ladder was seen by Jacob when he laid his head upon the stone and had the vision of the ladder to and from heaven.  That stone is the stone of sex, Yesod; that ladder is the spinal column which rises up to heaven, the שמים Schamayim; that ladder is vav, the spine.

Nut is also often depicted in the form of the Tree of Life (Kabbalah), who gives nectar - sacred fluids - to her devotees, in order to illuminate them. This is clearly representative of the wine of alchemy, the amrita or ambrosia.

Nut as Tree of Life

When we transmute our sexual waters, the tree of the Divine Mother is enlivened, and we in turn are nourished by Her. This also empowers her with the forces she needs to destroy our impurities. Therefore, marriage is the sacrament of the Divine Mother, for only thorugh a marriage can she be empowered within us, and thereby can she free us from our mistakes.

"According to the secret doctrine, the supernal [virgin] Mother [Aima] is together with the male only when the house [sex] is in readiness and at the time the male and female are conjoined [in chastity]. At such time blessings [wine, ambrosia] are showered forth by the supernal Mother upon them." - Zohar, Genesis 101b

The Hindu hymn above was written to the goddess Kali Ma, which sounds a lot like Aima, from the Hebrew tradition.  The important thing to know about Kali is - like every Divine Mother, every representation of the Divine Mother - she has multiple aspects. In Gnosis we study five aspects of the Divine Mother.  Today we are going to talk about two.  Even though in our scripture that we read from the Book of John, we see the virgin Mary who oversees the ritual of the sacrament of matrimony and orders for the wine to be brought, we see in Hinduism a little more complete picture of the Divine Mother, of Aima, a little bit more of the duality of that force. Unfortunately, in Christianity, some of that duality has been masked, or obscured.  But it can also be seen in the Zohar, in Kabbalah, in the Egyptian mysteries, in the Aztec mysteries, the Greek, and other traditions.

The Divine Mother Kali Ma, or Aima, represents our own inner Divine Mother, and she is symbolized in the Arcanum Six as having two fundamental aspects about which we need to learn.

The positive aspect is the virgin, and in the story from Jesus and his wedding at Cana, his mother is a virgin. We hear in this hymn that Kali is a virgin.  So in the Arcanum Six, the virgin is on the left side of the card, but to the right of the initiate-this is the right hand path, the path of purity, of chastity, of truth-the path that follows the pure Divine Mother.  The path of the sixth commandment: thou shalt not fornicate.

When we follow the teachings of the Secret Doctrine (of Tantra, of Daath), we learn how to extract the yayin, the wine, to press out the purified wine, the purified sexual energy and intoxicate the soul with the essence of the Divine Mother.  But, unfortunately, we all learned how to press out fermented wine, rotted wine.  You know that when you ferment something, you really rot it-it turns rotten; it becomes impure, and it intoxicates the senses.  Through sex we can create pure wine, unfermented wine, or we can produce fermented wine, alcoholic wine, intoxicating wine that deludes the soul, that blinds the senses.  In other words, sex can create, or it can destroy.

When we observe the sacraments, when we follow the commandments, the wine is good and creates in harmony with the law. That is why our story continues from the Book of John:

...the governor of the feast called the bridegroom, And saith unto him, "Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now."

In other words, our Being, our Innermost, enjoys the wine that comes from respecting the commandments, the sacraments; that wine feeds Him.  That is the amrita, the ambrosia that gives life to the gods, our own inner God, Chesed, our Inner Buddha.  It is the wine that gives the immortality to all the gods.

What he says here, in other words, is that the real man, the man of the sixth day of Genesis, who already has incarnated his Geburah and Chesed, always gives forth good wine from the beginning (Genesis), because he is not fallen into sin.  In other words, his use of sex is pure, his use of that energy is pure, and what he presses out, from his Vav, from his spine, and his sex, is purified wine, which nourishes the gods.

But unfortunately, in our story, this bridegroom was fallen and from the beginning did not give forth good wine, but that which is worse.  In other words, the bridegroom was fallen into fornication and disgrace, just like all of us.  But, through the intercession of Christ (Tiphereth, the human soul), the bridegroom has entered the sacrament of matrimony and learned how to make purified wine, which delights the Innermost.

Then the story concludes:

Thus this beginning of miracles did Jesus (Tiphereth) in Cana (the spinal column) of Galilee (the waters of sex) and manifested forth his glory (Hod) and his disciples (the married couple) believed on him.

In other words, they followed the path of Christ, the Bodhisattva, Bodhichitta.

This is what we need to do: to learn how to practice the sacrament of matrimony, to follow the commandments.  To do that we need to understand the duality of the forces that are involved. Usually, however, we do not. Instead, we marry in the church of Lilith and Nahemah. We are seduced by the negative aspect of the Divine Mother: the black Kali.

The Whore

The Zohar gives a very clear description of the inverted forces of Daath, or sexual knowledge:

The secret of secrets: From the strength of the noon-flame of Isaac, from the wine lees [the mucky, solid sediment from making wine that settles to the bottom: ie., Klipoth], a naked shoot came forth, comprising together male and female, red like a lily, and they spread out on several sides, down several paths. The male is called "Samael," and his female is always included with him. Just as on the side of holiness there are male and female, so on 'the other side' there are male and female, included one with the other. The female of Samael is called 'snake,' 'a wife of harlotry,' 'the end of all flesh,' 'the end of days.' Two evil spirits are attached to one another. the male spirit is fine, the female spirit spreads out down several ways and paths, and is attached to the male spirit. - Zohar

This says, "The secret of secrets," which is a reference to Daath, the secret knowledge of sex, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, good and bad.  That tree is the knowledge of how sex can be used in the positive way or in the negative way, the upright way or the devolving way. The Zohar clearly states that just as on the side of holiness there are male and female, so on the other side, there are male and female.

This other side is being described here as Samael and his wife: Samael in the inverted way. But Samael also has his positive aspect.  As we studied in other lectures, Samael is the regent of Mars, an Archangel related with Geburah and Tiphereth.  Geburah is the sphere of strength, justice.  Samael is the archangel of strength, the ruler of justice, who enacts the law.  So in the positive aspect, Samael is the regent of Mars, the force of war against the ego, the arm of karma, the sword of karma, and he has his wife.

But in the negative aspect, Samael is also there.  And as we studied, Samael is the one who provides the sexual fire, who works through sex to give us sexual strength.  But that strength can be misused which inverts the power of Samael.  That is why Samael is called the tempter and is identified with the serpent.  Again the serpent is dual; the serpent can rise; the serpent can fall.

So in this story we are studying how Samael and his spouse who is the inverted aspect of Kali Ma, or Lilith, Nahemah, these fallen aspects of the Divine Mother.  The Zohar continues:

She dresses herself in finery like an abominable harlot and stands at the corners of streets and highways in order to attract men. When a fool approaches her, she embraces him and kisses him, and mixes her wine lees [sludge from the intoxicating wine] with snake poison for him [lust]. Once he has drunk, he turns aside after her. - Zohar

Here we clearly see Arcanum Six in the Zohar - the man who is intoxicated by lust because of the power of Lilith and Nahemah turns to the whore, to worship her.

When she sees that he has turned aside after he from the way of truth [the Virgin Mother], she takes off all the finery that she had put on for the sake of this fool.

In other words, as soon as we become intoxicated through our lust and we fall from the way of truth, then we can see the harlot for what she is; then we experience pain, suffering, regret, anger, and worse.

This is the finery that she uses to seduce mankind: her hair is long, red like a lily; her face is white and pink; six pendants hang at her ears; her bed is made of Egyptian flax; all the ornaments of the East encircle her neck; her mouth is shaped like a tiny door, beautified with cosmetic; her tongue is sharp like a sword; her words smooth as oil; her lips beautiful, red as a lily, sweetened with all the sweetnesses in the world; she is dressed in purple, and attired in thirty-nine items of finery.

This fool turns aside after her, and drinks from the cup of wine, and commits harlotry with her, completely enamored of her. What does she do? She leaves him asleep on the bed and ascends to the realms above, accuses him [in the court of the Divine Law], obtains authority [from the Divine], and descends. The fool wakes up, thinking to sport with her as before, but she takes off her finery, and turns into a fierce warrior [Geburah - Samael], facing him in a garment of flaming fire, a vision of dread, terrifying both body and soul, full of horrific eyes, a sharpened sword in his hand with drops of poison suspended and dripping from it. He kills the fool, and throws him into Gehinnom [hell]. - Zohar I 148a-148b, Sitrei Torah

When we become intoxicated by Lilith and Nahemah, by the whore, who opposes the virgin, what arrives for us?-but karma-the sword of Samael drips with "poison." The name Samael literally means, "the bitter beverage" or "the poison of God."  [Learn more about the name Samael here]. Samael is the one who can raise us to the heavenly realms or, if we fornicate with the whore, he is the one who casts us into hell.  This is why the Master, Samael Aun Weor, who is the Bodhisattva of the Archangel Samael said very clearly, "stay back profaners and curious ones, because the doctrine of Gnosis will make you an angel or demon"-there are no other outcomes. This is because he understands the nature of his Inner Being, Samael, the Archangel.

Through the power of sex we either create the soul or we create the demon in us.  So this story tells us a lot of important things that we need to comprehend in our own mind, in our own psyche:  that Samael has a dual aspect; the Divine Mother has a dual aspect-and it is up to us to choose.

The Arcanum Six shows our soul having to choose between the virgin and the whore.  This is not a decision we make just upon hearing of this teaching and saying, "from now on, I'm gonna follow the virgin."  This is a good intention, but the path is not walked from a decision like that; the Arcanum Six happens every day; we make this decision continually, from moment to moment, when we are confronted with the impressions of life, with the surging impressions that come out of our own mind.  We have to choose from moment to moment, who do we serve-the virgin or the whore?

This story also represents for us why people suffer so much in life.  People in these times have made marriage into prostitution.  Marriage has lost its sacred nature.  Marriage has become a bed of fornication, with little difference between how the so-called humans perform sex and the animals.  The humans (so-called) perform sex even worse than the animals do-like prostitutes, like pigs-and because of that, they suffer. They become enamored of the whore, with all her finery and her beauties, and they lay with her and cohabit with her in their psychology, in their minds.

The result is, after a short period of that enjoyment or sport, they then begin to see the truth of it-that their spouse or their partner, is actually offensive, that there is no love there, there is only lust.  And then the suffering comes; and then hell enters into that relationship.  And that relationship becomes the source of incredible suffering.  That is why divorce is so common; that is why adultery is so common; that is why pornography is infecting all of the minds of people in these times.  The pain and suffering of humanity is due to this.  This is the cause.  It can all be traced back to the abuse of sex.

So, we need to learn the sacrament of matrimony-to learn how through the alchemy that transforms the water into wine, we develop that Nun, the letter Nun, in the sex, which is the embodiment of those three Amens, the force of Christ. Through that transformation, we can develop the soul.  If we squander the sexual force, if we fornicate, if we commit adultery, if we abuse the commandments, if we lay with the whore in our mind, we cannot develop the power of the three Amens.  The power of Christ cannot mix with the power of the devil.  We cannot sit at two tables at one time; we have to choose.

We have to make our marriage, our sexual life, pure; we have to make it a sacrament, a sacrifice, a force of Christic love, pure love.  We have to make our marriage an altar and to perform the sexual act as if in the presence of God, because we are.

When man and woman join in the sexual act, they unite all of the forces of their body, soul, and spirit, and they become one flesh, not two.

A man shall therefore leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and they shall become one flesh. - Genesis / Bereshit 2:25

That one flesh includes God, because God is within us, We each have our own inner Father and Mother, so how can we indulge in lust in their presence?

Sexual union is always in the presence of the Divine Mother.  Sex is the house (Hebrew: beth) of the Divine Mother.  The marriage happens, sexual union happens, in Her home, and we need to respect that.

This is why the Bible says:

Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

How do we defile the bed?  Through the orgasm.  This is what it states in Leviticus 16, that the orgasm, the excretion, the expelling of the sexual energy is an offence - it is filthy; it is impure; it is unnecessary.  It is the doctrine of Lilith and Nahemah.

What we need then is to make the sacrament of matrimony in our life in order to be born again.  To create the soul requires sex; to be born again requires sex.  We need scientific chastity.  We need to be made into the image of God, the image of Daath:  Father and Mother.

The sexual union of man and wife is instituted through matrimony for a reason.  This sacrament is so important for a reason.  The initiate has to pass through all the previous sacraments in order to be prepared for marriage.  This is not something one just does on a whim, or because it sounds good, or because we are impassioned for another person.  The sacrament of matrimony is a sacred duty, a sacred ritual.  It is very, very important to enter into that matrimony consciously and because of love, not ambition.

Love

tristan and isolde To be made into the image of God means to work within the forces of God, to respect the laws.  God created the heaven and the earth as Elohim.  Elohim is a combination of El and Eloah, God and Goddess.  The Elohim create, God and Goddess in union, in Daath.  This is why in the beginning the Bible says, "Let us make man in our image."  God is not a man.  God is male/female.  Thus for us to enter, to create ourselves, to become the image of God, we do this through male/female, returning to Eden, returning to sex, but in the pure way.

When the sexes were divided it was so that humanity could learn this.  When male and female were divided into separate bodies, it was so that they could join once more in order to learn the mystery of Daath, the union of Father and Mother, so that they could learn the power of love.  Male and female join in the sacrament of matrimony to learn how to love, to embody the power of Christ, to incarnate Christ.

Thus here in this physical world, we seek a partner.  When we passed through the early sacraments, up through the sacrament of confirmation, we pass through puberty, then we enter our youth which begins at twenty-one for the man, and eighteen for the woman.  It is at this stage that we are prepared for marriage, for our own matrimony.  Then we begin to look for our spouse.

This is where the Arcanum Six becomes especially important.  Throughout puberty we deal with this Arcanum Six, of choosing between the virgin and the whore, very much, every day, fighting to control the sexual desires that are rampant in the body between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one.  This is a very big struggle, but this struggle is only a preparation for the struggle to enter into matrimony. Matrimony is also a battle.  It is a battle of the human soul, Tiphereth, in us, to define himself, to choose between the virgin and the whore, in the mind, in the heart, in the sex.

The Search for a Spouse

Thus, when we are eligible for marriage we meet many people, we interact with many people, and we have many pressures upon us to get married.  Nowadays it is not as strong, this push for marriage.  Nowadays it is a push just to have sex, and usually that is from our friends.  We need to fight that and remain true to our own inner Divine Mother and remain true to our ordained spouse.  This is because our spouse is chosen for us by God, not by anyone else.

"...as God hath distributed to every man, as the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk." - 1 Corinthians 7

We, in this time of life, from age twenty-one on, need to enter into the sacrament of matrimony in order to develop the soul, in order to walk the path.  And we feel that pressure; and many people read the books and study the doctrine, and feel that pressure:  "I have to get married now-otherwise I won't get anything!"  And so they have a lot of ambition, a lot of drive, to just find a spouse-anyone-and they actively seek through any way they can, some person that they feel even the slightest affinity for.  This is a very difficult battle, --very difficult--, a very strong ordeal.  But remember: Lilith uses all her charms, dresses in all her finery, looks beautiful, has words of sweetness on her lips, may even speak about chastity, and the doctrine of Samael, because she is his wife-but inverted.

Students of this doctrine need to exercise great caution.  Your Being knows you need a spouse.  Your Being will bring you a spouse when you are prepared, but you have to earn it.  There are no exceptions to this.

The only one who can know who your spouse is, is your inner Tiphereth, your human soul, your consciousness.  If you are identified with your own inner Lilith, your own inner Nahemah, then you are not listening to your human soul, your inner priest.  This is why people become confused.  They marry for convenience; they marry for money; they marry because their instructor told them to; they marry because the Tarot cards told them to; they marry because it seems like a good idea, because Gnosis says we are supposed to get married, etc.-many justifications, many reasons, but no love.

Love is an undeniable force, unmistakable.  If you are a single person, and you are facing the choice of potential marriage, of a prospective marriage, WAIT - until the force of love is undeniably clear to you-irresistible-where you cannot control your love.  But it must be a pure love, the love of sacrifice-a love so strong, so emotional, that you would die for the one you love.  You would give up anything; you would not ask for anything in return.  Then you know you have found the one.  Before that, it is all mind games, trickery, possibilities, illusions, doubts, opinions, reasoning, justifications-possibilities, but no certainty.  If you are facing that, wait.  Do not get advice; do not get opinions.  Meditate.  Listen to your own Tiphereth.  If you are already married and you are suffering, and you have doubt, and you have pain, wait.  As the Bible says, as Paul said:  "Let every man accept what God has given to him."

We have to fight ourselves.  The guidance that we receive in all these ordeals, comes through Tiphereth, comes through Nous, the atom in the heart which is the indestructible drop of Tantra.  Nous is the atom of Christ which can guide us through intuition, and Nous is the force that can bring us that feeling of love, pure love, undeniable love, but in the heart; we need to listen to that.

The Perfect Matrimony

The goal is to arrive at the perfect matrimony.  The perfect matrimony is a union of man and woman on all the seven levels of the body, soul, and spirit.  This is a union in compatibility in the physical world, related to Malkuth.  This is a union in compatibility in Yesod, our energies, especially sexual.  This is a union in compatibility in Hod, the third sphere, related to the astral plane; this is emotional.  Also in the fourth sphere of Netzach, in the mind; a union in compatibility, a sympathy for one another in the intellect.  Fifth, in Tiphereth, a union of will, of having like will, compatible will.  Sixth, in the consciousness, and seventh, in the spirit.

When the two who enter into matrimony have this level of compatibility, they can manifest perfect love, love of Christ, that love that comes from Christ and expresses Christ.  This is the goal.  We do not start there.  We start where we are.  We start here, as slaves of Lilith and Nahemah, infected with lust, with egos of prostitution, and adultery, and fornication, and all kinds of filthiness.  We start here and we start now, defining ourselves, fighting against those aspects.  And if we have a spouse, we work together to change the situation.  We face our inner conflicts and we transform ourselves everyday, from moment to moment.

This is symbolized by the six waterpots that Jesus commands the couple to fill with water; the six waterpots related to the Arcanum Six.  We have to fill those waterpots with purified water, which then the priest, the Christ, can make into wine.  This is a very subtle thing to realize in your own relationship-to know how to transform the sexual energy continually, daily, constantly, in every way, in every interaction with your spouse.  No matter what happens, to transform and to reply with conscious love-not with anger, not with pride, not with lust.  Conscious love.  Sacrifice.

When the spouse comes to you and is angry and is upset, you have to learn to reply with patience, with understanding, with sacrifice; to give to the other because you love them, and you see them suffering, and you want to give to them, to help them.  This is something that the intellect can never do.  This is something that spiritual ambition can never do.  A marriage of convenience cannot accomplish it; it is built on the wrong foundation.  The marriage that is becoming the perfect matrimony, is a marriage that embodies the force of sacrifice, and we learn that first with our spouse, and that sacrifice is beautiful.  It is the most beautiful thing you can imagine.

Tiphereth is Hebrew for "beauty."  That sacrifice is conscious; it is beautiful; it is love, and there is no "I" there, no me.  Through the sacrament of matrimony we learn how to sacrifice selflessly, and we learn that first with our spouse.  The Gnostic marriage is intensely psychological.  It is here that we learn the most about our mind and we have the most opportunity to transform; but it is also the biggest challenge; it is the hardest work.  This is why we have to prepare ourselves through all the previous sacraments.

It takes a lot of work to be ready for a marriage.  And it takes a lot of work to be successful in one.  It is very, very difficult.  Some Gnostics study this doctrine and have the idea that as soon as they are married, they are on the express train to God.  In some way it is true, but it is not a smooth ride.  It is terrifying.  It is terrifying!  It is up and down and back and forth; into the abyss and out of the abyss, through great periods of darkness, through challenges, through incredible storms, because we have all of that in our mind, and our matrimony takes us through it.

The matrimony is our chance to change.  This is why sexual union, the matrimony, is so sacred.  It is treated with so much respect in traditional religious settings.  We need to recall that, to remember that, and embody that, to treat our marriage as something very holy, because it is.

We need to enter into marriage as something holy and sacred, not to enter in because of ambition, or curiosity, or to satisfy someone else.  You might be engaged or involved with someone now who wants to get married and you say, "Well maybe I should because we are already involved."  You need to be very clear with yourself.  To enter into marriage is a commitment for eternity, not for just now.  When the Bible says, "They become one flesh," it is because they do.

The sexual union begins in Malkuth.  But that union is energetic (Yesod), it is emotional (Hod), it is mental (Netzach), it is in will (Tiphereth), consciousness (Geburah), and spirit (Chesed)-all the seven levels that we described.  The seven levels of the male join and unite with the seven levels of the female, and they become one.

It is a law of physics that when any two bodies come in close contact - they do not even have to touch, but come close to each other - there is always an exchange of particles.  The two cross, just by coming close to each other.  In the sexual union, there is a very powerful crossing, and the cross symbolizes that.  We cross ourselves with our spouse in all of these seven levels and we exchange forces and energies and we become one.

This is a permanent bond; it cannot be dissolved.  There will always be a connection.  There will always be a marriage between those two souls.  There will always be a bond.  This is how serious matrimony is.  In this time of Kali Yuga, we think sex is a game, we think sex is a toy, that it is just for fun, that you can go out and have sex with as many people as you want and it is just for fun.  This is what Lilith teaches.  This is how Lilith has deceived humanity.  And this is how she draws them into her bed, she lays with them, and then while they sleep, she goes and gets her husband, Samael, who comes to deliver the karma with his sword-- and it is painful.

If we learn to respect the sacrament of matrimony, we choose the Virgin; we align ourselves with that inner truth, with our own inner Divine Mother, and she guides us.  As we perform the sacrament of matrimony, and we fight against our own inner Lilith, our own inner psychology, our own lust, gradually we pass through all the initiations related to these seven levels.  And in each level we raise the forces of the Divine Mother up the spinal column, Vav, the staff.  With each level, the Divine Mother is more and more present in us.  That power, to raise the Kundalini, only happens in a marriage, a matrimony that is aspiring towards perfection, a matrimony that is in scientific chastity, respecting the commandment of Tiphereth:  "Thou shalt not fornicate."

In doing so, the power of the Kundalini raises through each of these bodies.  We are born again; we create the soul.  The Divine Mother comes to inhabit our soul.  That purified wine inflames our consciousness and intoxicates our soul.

In this way, we develop power.  In the Book of Acts, the apostles receive the Pentecostal fire that shows above their heads.  In the Books of Moses, Moses carries his staff which he transforms into a serpent and works the miracles; the staff is the spine, the fire is the Holy Spirit.  The fire of the Divine Mother, Binah, who separates and divides, and enters into union Daath, and delivers this power unto their disciples.

This is the power of the priesthood.  When the matrimony is following the sacraments and commandments, is raising this power, this fire of the Divine Mother through the seven levels, then the human soul, Tiphereth, is receiving the power of the priesthood.  This is why a priest must be married.  There is no other way for a priest to call upon the forces of Christ.  The spinal column is the vehicle, the means.  The human soul working with the spine, Vav, in the center of the tree, calls upon the forces of Christ, which come through Tiphereth on behalf of the congregation.

Do you have any questions?

Q: In the story you talked about in the Zohar, about Samael being transformed into the, I have forgotten the name, but,-- the whore transforms into the warrior.  How is it that she is allowed to enter into the superior spheres?

A:  That is a good question.  She does so in the same way that Lucifer does.  Remember in the Book of Job, that Lucifer goes into the courts of God, and asks permission to tempt Job.  --To tempt Job, to prove Job's value.  Lucifer is the sexual power, and Lucifer symbolizes the power of Samael, the sexual power of the serpent, which can be positive or negative.  In the story, Lilith is the sexual power, but inverted-yet as an aspect of the Divine Mother, she is connected with the Divine aspect.

This is beautifully represented in Hinduism.  The Divine Mother, Kali Ma, is dual; she is the devourer of time, but also the mother of time; she can walk through all the worlds, whether above or below. Our own Divine Mother gives birth to us, but she can also consume us.  She can give us birth in the Superior Worlds, or she can consume us in the inferior worlds.

All of existence emerges from the womb of the Divine Mother.  It is all because of her, and she has many aspects and faces, which the intellect will struggle to grasp.  When you encounter the Divine Mother, Death, for example, she is terrifying, but she is our own mother.  When you encounter the Divine Mother as Kali in the inverted way, or as Lilith, she is the temptress; she is there to teach us.  But if we become enslaved, hypnotized by that force-she will call upon the forces of Geburah, karmic law, to push us through Klipoth.

In other words, the Divine Mother will save us, one way or the other, because she loves her children.  She can save us, if we want, the positive way, if we do the work ourselves and destroy our own ego.  If we do not do that, she will destroy us the inverted way, through Klipoth, which is very, very painful; either way, she loves us. She respects our will to go up or down, but she will only help us in accordance with the laws of Christ.

Q:  Does that relate to the statement in Revelation, ‘their sins have reached unto heaven"?

A: Yes, in the Book of Revelation it says the sins of Babylon have reached even unto heaven-and this is related to that.  We have to remember that Klipoth (hell) was instituted and put in place by God.  The forces that rule Klipoth are divine.  Pluto, Proserpine, his wife; these forces rule Klipoth.  Samael also has dominion in Klipoth.  So the choice is ours.  This is what Arcanum Six represents; the choice is ours.  We can continue to fornicate; we can continue on the path of filthiness.  And eventually, we will come out the other side, but having gained nothing-but suffering.

Q:  Is that why some people think evil is good?

A:  Yes.  This is why the path of evil is so widely taught and embraced. They are taught (by demonic intelligences) that eventually they will reach heaven, and it is true-eventually all souls will return, but there is a difference between the souls who ascend directly and those who descend through hell - and that difference is what the demons do not teach.  The demons, the disciples of Lilith, teach that through fornication you acquire powers, which you do; they teach that, once you become completely condensed as and "I", as ego, through the teachings of Black Tantra, that you will be propelled out the other side of Klipoth.  And the other side of the Klipoth is the Absolute, the same as at the top of the Tree of Life.  Structurally, dimensionally, this is true. But they are mistaken about the result of their path, because they forget or ignore that no one can mock the Law.  No one can mock Christ. What happens when they pass through that path of Black Tantra is that they receive (due to cause and effect) millions of years of suffering for their demonic ego to be dissolved by the forces of the Divine Mother, Death, Kali.  And when they exit that process of suffering?  They are back where they started, having nothing-no development as a soul.  This is the secret they neglect to teach.

Q:  What about, "lying with the whore in our mind," what did you mean by that?

A:  When I warned about lying with the whore in the mind, I am referring to the teaching that Jesus gave when he said, "Yea, ye have heard of old that ye shall not commit adultery, but even when you look at a woman with lust, you have already committed adultery with her in your heart."  That is the meaning.  We lie with Lilith in our mind through fantasy; and in that process we create incubi and succubi, which are Lilith and Ashrodayi, the male and female demonic forces that feed themselves from our sexual water, from the wine that is impure.

Q:  In Samuel Aun Weor's book, The Perfect Matrimony, it talks about the sphere of Lilith and the sphere of Nahemah.  I haven't yet fully comprehended these two spheres.  Where are these two spheres, and how are they active, in which way?

A:  In the previous lecture this was discussed at length. You can refer back to the lecture on Confirmation.  But in general, the spheres of the Klipoth are two great realms belonging to Lilith and Nahemah.  These are psychological spheres, not physical or material.  They are realms of the psyche.  So there are aspects of our psychology that belong to the sphere of Nahemah, and these are more mild; these are not as severe.  Lilith is the more extreme:  adultery, fornication, and other forms of crimes against nature.

Q:  So when you see people that are taking part in activities that are of negative sexuality, you can say that, it is coming from their mind; the energetic principle is coming from the lower spheres?

A:  Exactly.  And the thing is that these spheres of Lilith and Nahemah are closely related and their activities overlap, in some cases, some ways.  You cannot say that they are like two cities on a map.  They are psychological aspects and, as you know, everything in our psyche is very dense and intermixed, and interrelated.  They are expressed as two spheres so that we can understand them in a general sense, but in practical terms, it becomes quite complex, when we look into our own mind-the way they relate.

Q: What is the recommendation for people who already find themselves with a companion and they could enter into matrimony in that moment.  Do you recommend that they pass-do they have to pass through all the other stages?  Or should they try to engage themselves in the work?

A: The sacraments are described as stages because traditionally they are given at certain stages of life,--baptism when we are babies, then penance, confirmation, etc.  When we find ourselves facing the discovery of this type of knowledge, then we have to start where we are.  And as we have stated in the course, it is not necessary so much to pass through the physical rituals related to the sacraments; these are really spiritual and psychological processes.

The most important thing is that we take these teachings seriously and we practice them.  If we are already in a relationship, a sexual relationship, then we are already married, even if we have no papers or documents that say so.

If we are transforming, transmuting the sexual energy, we are already performing baptism.

If we are meditating on our ego and fighting against temptations, we are performing the sacrament of penance.

If we are proving that penance, by changing, by facing lust, by facing desire, in our mind, renouncing that and changing, we are passing through the sacrament of confirmation.

And, when we are in that relationship, a marriage, and we are making it pure, extracting the purified wine from the water, we are enacting the sacrament of matrimony.  So it is psychological.

Q:  Do you think that someone should stop having sex with their spouse in order to-If they have not done all these other things, should they stop having sex and try to do these other things before re-engaging?

A:  It is up to the person.  I think each person, you know-you have to analyze your situation in light of your own Tiphereth.  You have to go from the guidance that you receive from your own Nous atom in your heart.  Every situation is different.  There is no golden rule for what to do when.  The golden rule is, "Do not fornicate."  The golden rule is, "Follow your Divine Mother."  She will guide you.  And as the story from John shows, the Divine Mother gives instruction to Tiphereth, but he has to listen; and that is us, our own human soul.  And here, physically, we have to learn how to listen to our Tiphereth, who is our inner priest, and when we do that, then by that means we can hear the message and guidance of our Divine Mother.  Then we know what to do.

Q:  Those who do not have a spouse and are longing for somebody, do you think the reason they have not found somebody is because they have not passed through the previous steps?

A:  It may be.  We all have our own karma and when we discover this type of teaching, when we discover Gnosis, it is because of the intervention of our own Being, our own Innermost-the Innermost is the one that places us where we need to be-to hear this teaching, and it is because he needs us to work-he needs that purified wine to develop himself.  What we need to do as students when we encounter this teaching, is learn to respect his will and listen to it.  And this is the job of the human soul, Tiphereth.  The human soul is the warrior who has to serve his king, and he has to love his lady, which is Geburah, his Divine Soul, who represents the Divine Mother, in that way.  Tiphereth needs to listen to the instructions of Chesed, the Inner Buddha.  The Inner Buddha knows what we need; our Innermost always knows what we need.  The problem is, we do not listen to that.

Q  We have to reach that married age-it has to be psychological and physical too?

A:  That is true; that is a very good point.  The age of matrimony which we state physically is eighteen to twenty-one, but really we have to also reach that age psychologically, to be psychologically ready for a matrimony-and this is the point I was getting at: our Being will provide us with the elements we need in order to be prepared for that.  That is what the sacraments are for.  When our Being leads us to this teaching it is because he is preparing us for a matrimony.  There is no other reason.  The Secret Doctrine, the knowledge of Daath, is the knowledge of the sacrament of matrimony, complete.  When we are led to this knowledge it is because we need to enter that sacrament, but only when the Innermost determines it.  That is why the Innermost is the one who has already chosen our spouse.  If we are single now, it is only because we have not yet heard the instruction or we have not yet earned that right to find that spouse but our spouse is already out there somewhere.

Q:  So it could take a lifetime to link?

A:  It might; it is up to us to earn it.  We earn it by defining ourselves in the Arcanum Six.  There was some advice given that I read once that said, if we want to enter into a Gnostic marriage, we should live as if we are already married.  This is good advice:  to live as if we already have our spouse.  Because, really, when you do enter a marriage, you need to be prepared.  And you need to be prepared to see your spouse as one aspect of your Divine Parents inside, to treat your wife like your Divine Mother or husband like your Divine Father, to treat them with reverence and love.  This is not easy to do, and if we are single, we can start preparing for that now by behaving at all times as if in the presence of our Divine Mother - which we are, anyway.

Q:  The sacrament of matrimony is like the sacrament of the mother?

A:  Yes, that is the basic point of this lecture.  As we were saying in the beginning, matrimony is the state or condition through which the Divine Mother can act.  This is her sacrament.  The Divine Mother is the one who oversees the wedding feast, who guides the priest-and so we need her guidance to enter the sacrament.

Any other questions?  This is a deep topic and there is a lot to it.  So, the best thing for us to do is to study the books, study the scriptures, and meditate-and reflect on our own experience and try to improve ourselves in accordance with the law.  Thank you.