APOTHEOSIS

                Apotheosis is the pinnacle achievement of spiritual development for an individual. There are a plethora of pathways for one to take to get there. Once divinity is accepted and brought into one’s life, the clarity that leads to this goal becomes more defined. By mastering the spiritual concepts that lead to this perfection, its’ aspirants have been known to perform miracles. For most it remains an enigmatic concept, because its’ truths lie outside the confines of the Earth. To obtain apotheosis, is to truly know God; and this is the ultimate goal for each of our souls.

                Apotheosis is defined as the highest point in development of something. It also means the elevation of man to divine status. From Greek apotheoun, “to make a god, “to deify”, implies a polytheistic conception of gods. It also recognizes that some individuals cross the dividing line between gods and men.

                It is assumed that godhood, associated with such characters as the Greek pantheon of gods, is mythical. It also has been proposed that the myths have something to do with ancestor worship, or reverence for the dead. Some assume that godhood has been attributed to past rulers as a method of mere flattery. It is uncommon today to assume that the myths of godhood were literal.

                Though, it is often observed that mankind had in the past, has always had the ability of achieving, and has to some degree at all times, a god-like potential that goes unseen. These abilities have been recognized throughout all of time and are usually likened to the ability and product of prayer. The potential of this power is directly related to the spiritual purity of the individual.

                Where does this quest for spiritual purity begin? For Christians it is possible that this journey begins with the sacrament of Baptism. All religions have rite of passage rituals that bring their members through a type of spiritual advancement. Throughout history there has always been a service offering all mankind a separate form of advancement outside the confines of religion. From ancient Egyptian mystery schools taught by Hermes Trismegistus, whose reincarnated governance of the craft has been attributed to the works of Thoth, Hermes and Tubalcain, to the schools governed by King Solomon, Pythagoras, and all the way to Freemasonry today; no matter what path is chosen spiritual truths are always within our grasp.

                Most mystery schools have a symbolic “lodge room” where groups of practitioners perform their ritual. King Solomon’s Temple is proposed to be a symbolic representation of the Mind of God. Initiates to the craft are always brought through from the West. Some medieval rabbis claimed that today's Western Wall, at Temple Mount in Jerusalem, is a surviving wall of the original Temple of Solomon, and cautioned Jews from approaching it, lest they enter the Temple precincts in a state of impurity.

“Man is born without raiment; he is born helpless; he is born dependent upon those who love him for everything that makes life possible. The candidate for the Entered Apprentice Degree must be born again, before he is really entered; and when his preparation is so regarded, the rite becomes solemn, convincing, sacred; there is no humor in it, nor any intention or desire to wound the most sensitive feelings. The initiate does but go the same way as all good brothers who have preceded him through the West Gate.”

- Carl H. Claudy

                Freemasons today recognize and respect a similar concept of the Western Wall of Temple Mount with the Western doors of their lodge room. A Mason is essentially one who has acknowledged what spiritual purity is and has vowed to ever work towards it. That is the first step towards spiritual understanding.

                Throughout the Degrees of Freemasonry a Mason learns the methods in which to purify himself. He studies the world around him and works to obtain a ‘gnosis’ or ‘nirvana’ state of understanding, and with that wisdom he can see that his own Apotheosis is potentially obtainable. For most, the work is never complete during their lifetime.

                The Monomyth, as presented by Joseph Campbell, vaguely represents the journey of a Freemason through the degrees. It has been used as a template for telling stories by Hollywood, Disney, and many others for many years. It can be found in a broad category of tales that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, and in a decisive crisis wins a victory, and then comes home changed or transformed. It is important to note that adventurer must answer the call before he begins the journey as that is the required first step for spiritual growth; choosing to believe in deity. Then the adventurer seeks out his cause, his journey; he chooses to seek out deity. In doing so the adventurer comes back changed; his ignorance of deity dies. This is the symbolic return of the king.

                Phophecy in the Bible talks about the return of the Messiah coming through the Eastern Gate of Jerusalem. Not often is it publicly disclosed, but the truth in understanding the wisdom offered by all myth is that this prophecy is symbolic of the Temple within man. Freemasons understand this concept as their journey from the West to the East.

                For the followers of Dzogchen, ancient teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, the pinnacle achievement is known as the Great Perfection. Upon realizing the Great Perfection, practitioners’ bodies transform into a light body. The key to turning into a light body is based on one simple, but hard to do premise: love everything, all the time. Of course, it goes much deeper than that such as the recitation of mantra, performance of mudra and visualization; as well as wisdom awareness, observing the egolessness, emptiness, and impermanence of all phenomena. All sound is heard as mantra, awareness of thoughts is the primordial dharmakaya, and appearances are the mandala of deities. At the highest levels of this teaching, telepathy and clairvoyance are achieved, along with complete enlightenment.

                The lightbody transformation is known in many cultures by various names:

Sufism: the most sacred body or supracelestial body

Taoist: the diamond body, the immortals and the cloudwalkers

Yogic schools and Tantrics: the divine body

Kriya yoga: the body of bliss

Vadanta: the superconductive body

Ancient Egyptians: the luminous body or being (akh) or the karast

Gnosticism: the perfect body

Hermetic Corpus: the immortal body

Alchemical tradition: the Emerald Tablet calls it the golden body

Tibetan Buddhism: Rainbow Body

                Tibetan Buddhism has ongoing reports of the “Rainbow Body” to this very day, in which people transform their physical bodies into a new, rainbow-colored energetic form after many years of practice. In many cases, they would complete this process of transformation by meditating in a cave. When they come out, and are ready to graduate to this next level of their own evolution, they will often push their hand or foot directly into the stone. They can now easily flip the stone molecules into time-space, and leave an impression behind. Some of these handprints and footprints have been photographed and published online. There are fully 160,000 documented cases of the Rainbow Body in Tibet and India alone.

                The Rainbow Body concept has been the goal of many within the occult. It is the inspiration for Transhumanism; advancing human capability through means of science and technology. Inspired by the works of H.P. Blavatsky and Friedrich Nietsche, Adolf Hitler employed the Anenerbe, a dark Nazi occult group, to develop an Ubermensch army for his war efforts. This is also where the concept for Super Man comics came from. The fallible concept of a master race started a quest for power and a movement that practiced eugenics, racism, and war; all due to weighing heavily on one end of a polarized concept. They didn’t follow the middle path, nor did they understand any semblance of spiritual purity.

                The symbol the Anenerbe were said to worship was that of the Black Sun. It is essentially a Sun Wheel. The Sun Wheel is an ancient symbol featuring an equal-armed cross within a circle. It is quite a popular spiritual symbol that has been discovered in the iconography and religious art of a number of prehistoric cultures across the world. It is also known by the alternative names of Sun Cross, Wheel Cross, Solar Cross, Pagan Cross, Woden's Cross and Odin's Cross.

                Throughout history, the Sun has always been worshipped and considered to be all-powerful, supreme and a preserver. It is supposed to control the actions and impact of the planets as well as their moons. The Sun Wheel symbol is believed to invoke the great cosmic powers to bless the Earth with fertility, life, abundance, prosperity and peace. The cross in the Sun Wheel divides the circle with four parts, which are said to be representative of the solar calendar and are marked by the solstices. They symbolize the four annual seasons that have a very significant influence on the agricultural cycles.

                This symbol originated in ancient Mu as the circle, then a point within the circle, then as a swastika, and has been misunderstood for thousands of years. The swastika was known in Mu as a hydra. It represented the four primal powers, which came from the divine source. This alluded to physicality’s symbolism of mans’ four appendages, the four corners of the Earth, and the Galactic Cross. It was a spiritual symbol of truth that was admired by all in antediluvian culture. Due to the connotation that Nazi Germany and Marvel Comics have given to the swastika and the hydra, it can be understood that there has been a massive misconception of these sacred images in our modern times.

“Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle.”

- Ezekiel 1:10

                The galactic cross is formed by the zodiac the sun appears in during its’ equinoxes and solstices. Two thousand years ago it crossed Aquarius the man, Leo the lion, Taurus the bull, and Scorpio which was then represented as an eagle. Ezekiel’s vision of the angel was an amalgam of the primal forces, like that of the swastika. This same concept is reflected in the much older Sumerian sphinx, Lamassu; which has the head of a man, body of a bull and lion, and an eagle’s wings. This is also synonymous with the 4-headed Hindu god Brahma. These symbols were meant to represent the concept of All Creation. They show primal forces emanating in the center, and the epitome of God’s reach in the stars. It is a conscious reminder that God is within, and as God works through man, reality is set in to place.

                Like voices in our heads, the angels and demons, the elemental gods, Jinns and Neters, etc., are emanations of our own mind. They represent concepts. The Seal of Solomon represents the mastery over these forces. It represents the understanding of Maya, the illusion of physical reality in Hinduism. It is a reminder that all these things are a part of the divine whole.

                The Seal of Solomon shares this concept. It has also been confused in its’ meaning due the stories of Solomon sealing 72 demons to do his bidding. This story is more of an allegory for the truth, but it is also literal. The number 72 comes from the observance of the stars in the physical heavens. It is the number of years it takes for the entire star chart to shift 1 degree. (In his fallen state, a man believes that the Creation rules over him, instead of God within him ruling over the Creation.) The 72 represents the ‘gods’ of ancient religions that are found within the stars; such is the myth in ancient Sumer. These ‘gods’ are called ‘demons’ to those that understand the truth, because they are merely ‘demonstrators’ of the conscious work that occurs within. To have power over demons is the concept of the Seal. Through this understanding great works can be achieved.

                Spiritual perfection relies heavily on only using invocations. Invocation is likened to white magic, as it invokes the True God within to manipulate the Creation. Evocation is likened to black magic, as it evokes the concepts that exist within Creation. Practitioners of magic know that evocations always come with a price. This is because, in practicing evocation, we literally make a sacrifice with our eternal minds. We choose to attribute power to being within the ‘thing’ within Creation that we evoke, and take it away from the source of power that is within. If apotheosis is your goal, you are to bow before no one or thing but the eternal God within. However, it is admissible to evoke the eternal God within others, and to bow to them in reverence to the same; as this is truly an invocation. When raised to understand spiritual wisdom, one can invoke all the same magic used in evocation without the consequences. The application of this ability in the modern world is likened to healing without medication.

                If apotheosis is possible, it must be done in communion with the eternal God within; by aligning oneself with divine will. In no way is the Transhumanist method of Apotheosis possible by combining Ego with Godly powers. To give in to the ego is to make gods of demons. Sacrifices to false gods are something we are all guilty of until we perfect ourselves. Until one obtains spiritual purity, they will never fully know the ruling power that comes from within.

                Also, if it is possible, then those who have never opened their mind to it will never discern evidence of it due to the prime directive. The prime directive is an intrinsic part of our reality, to where one must accept that there is a divine presence before they are given any proof. No matter how hard believers push the truth upon non-believers, there will always be concepts lacking in the relay of information for the non-believer to fail to grasp. The prime directive is the covenant that gives man the ability to choose any path he desires. It is the assurance of free will within the Creation. To know of it is to understand the allegory of Plato’s cave.

                The universe as we know it is a creation of the foolish god of Gnosticism. In other words, it is a projection of the shared consciousness of our fallen nature. Astrological predictions of celestial bodies determining our destiny is only an implication. The studies into our sciences to understand the world around us, is the same as holding up a mirror to the Unknown God of Gnosticism; our true creator and eternal God within. All we perceive with our physical bodies is a reflection of the inner workings of the collective consciousness. In our fallen nature, our physical environment is a powerful suggestion towards our behavior.

                Physically, behavior has been being modified via frequencies since before the times of ancient Egypt. Tools like the Djed pillars, the caduceus rod of the pharaohs and Caesars, even directed intentions like prayer and spell work intentionally alter behavior on a physical level. Also, when people worship symbols they resonate with power. Our physical bodies are always being suggested to behave a certain way due to our environment. The fallen nature of man is the ignorance to the truth that we are the progenitors of the environment in the first place; and that God dwells within man. Those that do not know this truth become slaves to false gods.

                To advance spiritually, we have to choose to be stoic about life. We need to follow the Middle Path, and have the constitution to transmute the energies around us to overcome any detriments. We must get past the dark night of the soul of experiencing the fear of the unknown. Own it. We have always had free will. We can only be subject to suggestions. The light we see is a demonstration of the inner workings of our soul. The demons and angels are fractal pieces of conscious thought. The cosmic egg of Hinduism suggests this same truth. The kingdom of heaven as taught by Jesus Christ is the same.

                This is the interpretation the Gnostics have been trying to inform humanity of since the fall of man thousands of years ago. Thoth and the Vedas of Hinduism, and many others who have felt the truth with their heart, were technically Gnostics. Their knowledge comes from communion with the divine. Mankind has always had this capability. The Sacred Heart of Jesus reflects this same concept. It is the weighing of our sins upon our heart. When we acknowledge power coming from our environment, our hearts feel heavy; and when we acknowledge that true power comes from God alone, our hearts feel light. Through the discernment of our own individual interpretation of our environment we judge our selves.

                The spiritual heart is the source of the Apple of Perception. All we see are signs that we are meant to interpret the meanings thereof.

“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

“Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

- Matthew 18:18-20 (NIV)

                This is what is meant by the alchemical teaching: ‘as above, so below’. This Biblical passage portrays the true tesseract-like nature of Heaven and Earth. It also shows that physical existence is brought on by multiple sources of invisible energy. Multiple people having the same intention, aligned with the divinity within, culminate in the manifestation within the Creation. Manifestation can also occur when one is enlightened through inner harmony of mind body and spirit. Obtaining this power is to perfect the cornerstone within your spiritual temple. This is the secret of the divine trinities, the mystery of the triune god, the refuge of the three jewels and the cintamani stone of eastern cultures; the wish fulfilling jewel. This is the secret of the philosopher’s stone.

                The same message is repeated to us over and over in different ways. Their concepts may vary slightly, but that is for the reason of introducing divine truths to varieties of people. The understanding of this is also unique to the individual. The message can feel redundant as the world around each of us has been presenting this truth constantly in different ways.

                The ultimate conclusion is the realization of reality as we know it as being a conscious mirror of the interworking of the soul. It’s all a dream. It comes to each of us to decide whether or not to wake up. Heaven on Earth can be an individual accomplishment when one achieves a type of enlightenment and finds peace within.

                Heaven on Earth is also the hopes for our collective future, a place in time and space that the ascended souls go to dwell in peace. It is the prophesied Golden Age. The Revelation of the Bible, the returning of the four legs of Dharma, these concepts are a prediction of the future and hope of a time when we all choose to wake up.

                All we can do is keep trying to spread the word. The obligation of the missionary belongs to all who are initiates of this truth.