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Why have people been fascinated by fire since primordial times? Why dothey worship it and try to unravel it? And on the other hand, why doesthe fire of matter torment them so fiercely that they do not shrink from confronting their fellow human beings with suffering, hatred andviolence?

Is it not because deep within us a spir it fir eof another, higher form of lifecalls us? We actually drive ourselves, while the human being himself

carries a power that will never let him find rest in this world. The original,divine human being has, after all, always been called a ‘son of the fire’.

In his book Auro ra, or dawn ing of the day in the East , Jacob Boehmedescribes the spirit fire as a flash: ‘Now notice: When the flash in themiddle lights up, the divine birth is fully at work.

This always occurs eternally in God, but not in us, poor children of theflesh. In this life, the triumphant divine birth within us only lasts as long as the flash lasts. This is why our knowledge is dispersed (in part). In God,however, the flash is unchangeable and exists always and forever.’

The flashing fiery principle in the heart requires a transformationwithin us. It wants us to give up our mortal life in order to be ableto win immortality. It would like us to focus our lives on the Light ofthe spirit, because this Light does not belong in the material world and wants to return to the world of immortality. It desires that we let our acting be inspired by the Light, emanating from the world of the spirit,to pull us up.

L e c t o r i u m R o s i c r u c i a n u m

Fire, water, love

The creation story of the Hopi

The bridge of fire and water

Leila and Majnun

Son of the fire

Weigh anchor

Living Water – The universal remedy

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2009 N U M B E R 1

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living water the universal remedy 2silent bearers of everything that exists 6earthly and heavenly love stories Leila and Majnun 10the bridge of re and water to the Light 16

son of the re 22re, water, love 26the art of pottery spiritual awakening and metamorphosis of the soul 32the creation story of the hopi 38weigh anchor 46

content

volume 31 number 1 2009

cover:

The four elements re, water, earth and air arein conict with each other, until the spiritualsun rises over them and their properties achieveharmony in new purity

Earth and human being constitute a unity. When the ear thchanges, the human being changes in its wake, and currently,

the earth is in full motion. The winds of change, blowing over the earth, have a great inuence on the human consciousness.Nervous tension and stress are increasing; people are living under

great pressure and inner balance seems far away.The human being is in balance when heaven and earth meet eachother in his inner being. He who hears the inner voice, will see alloutward things in their right proportions, and standing rmly in

the storm, he is like a house on a rock.But who hears this voice? And does he who hears it, believe init? How unreal seems its sound, and how vague. Are we able toreact to it with our current consciousness?But then there is the path, the way. There is a path of prepara-

tion and a path of achieving. Both are paths of Light, foreverlinked with humanity, as a safe refuge. They open, when you pay

the entrance fee with an open heart and with great longing.

Once underway, the voice becomes more distinct and clearer,and teaches you to understand its language: the language of theheaven within you.

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substance, the receptive mother eld, from whichthe child of God is born. The living water is pure,gnostic light power, the light power of eternity.Since primordial times, it has been descr ibed asthe universal remedy, as for example in Revelation7: ‘They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; the sun shall not strike them, nor anyscorching heat. For the Lamb in the midstof the throne will be their shepherd,and he will guide them to springsof living water; and God willwipe away every tear fromtheir eyes.’

THE UNIVERSALREMEDY How doesthe living water,the gnostic lightpower ac-complish its

benecialwork in the

the universal remedy

In all elds of life, the old structures are beingbroken up. As a result, human beings feelinwardly torn apart and confused. On both a

physical as well as a soul level, they seek healingand liberation from their state of deadlock.Utilising various remedies and therapies for body,soul and spirit, copied and mixed from all partsof the world, cultures and ages, their promoterspromise: ‘You will become a new person!’

GOOD WATER – REMEDY FOR EV ERYTHING?Wa-ter in all kinds of forms is said to have an excel-lent, fundamental healing effect. But in the mean-time, the water itself is i ll, and is produced by veryold or very new methods (see also the next articleof this i ssue).Man believes in the benecial effect of the ‘foun-tain of life’ and uses the vivied, ‘living’, ‘good’water profusely as a remedy for change.However, soon he must conclude once again that

he has not become a healthy, complete or newperson. He becomes aware that his problems in lifeare of a different kind.

During the last few decades, the Age of Aquarius,with its specic intercosmic radiation, is breakingup everything that exists in the world and in hu-manity ever faster. The decay of the old structuresis reinforced by the purifying effect of the relatedvibrations. Just as every person breathes the sameair, nothing and no one is able to withdraw fromthis re. The world has entered an extraordinarilyery period, a period of fundamental decisions andfundamental change.

AQUARIUS AND URANUS Uranus is theruler of the sign of Aquarius. The Uranus principlerepresents intuition, renewal and genius. Uranusis Love. It is the power of realising and knowingwhat does not have to be explained. At one andthe same time, Uranus means individuality andwilfulness, as well as social awareness, unity andfreedom, loving support and the long ing and willfor what is new, unusual, ideal. On the one hand,Uranus implies extraordinary dangers for people,and on the other hand, also extraordinary pos-sibilities for liberation from this nature-boundstate of li fe. The danger for people is that they ‘areconsumed’ as to their consciousness in the ten-sion eld of their seeking. The liberating possi-bilities are found in the rebirth of the New Manwho, after a process of healing and sanctication,can return to his orig inal eld of life, the divinenature. In order to achieve these great revolutions,Aquarius pours his ‘living water’ over humanity.

THE ‘LIVING WATER’ Some therapies are based onthe idea that any illness of the physical body canultimately be traced back to a lack of water. Afterall, vital processes are not possible without manyfunctions of water. Continuing this line of think-ing, we may also say that humanity suffers froman existential lack of ‘living water’, of the true,universal remedy.

What does ‘living water’ mean to the Rosicr uciansand the Gnostics of all ages? It is the divine build-ing material of realisation, the pure astral primor-dial eld of the beginning, the ocean of primordial

living waterIn our time of great political, social, professional and personal unrest, outwardlyas well as inwardly, humanity is increasingly confronted with exceptional livingconditions and demands. Ever more people are approaching their physical andmental limits. Where and how can we nd healing?

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Willing means: by the will, the whole being is keptin a continuous state of alertness and is focused onthe expected salvation, the sanctication.

Acting means: the person then shows a clearly vis-ible, new mode of life. His life achieves harmonywith the Light Radiation of the Gnosis and thesoul will grow.

SYMBOL, RECOLLECTION, REMINDER Since pri-mordial times, people have known the way back tothe ‘house of the father’. By symbols, they were fo-cused on the purpose of their earthly existence, ontheir true task in life. The grail, a cup, a chalice orbasin, the mixing vessel, is such an ancient symbol.In it, the human being is alchemically transformedby the living water, the gnostic light power, frommatter-born person to a man of the Light, with

spirit and soul living in the original realms.

In the Bible, we nd many references to thesymbol of the living water like light power, ChristPower, universal remedy: striking with the staffon the rocks, from which the living water ows,changing water into wine at the wedding inCana, the healing of a sick person near the bathof Bethesda, the healing waters of Siloam, and ofcourse, the baptism with water preceding the bap-tism with re. The ritual act of the baptism withwater – the sprinkling with or the submersion intoor under the ‘water of conversion’, is known inalmost all religions.

The fountain in the focal points of the GoldenRosycross is also a symbol of the living water thatcontinuously renews everything. It encourages thepupil on the path not only to perform his workof the soul, but also links him with the soul powerthat enables him truly to perform this work of thesoul.

The whole world is becoming i ncreasingly unbal-anced. However, since striving for harmony is alaw of the spir it as well as of nature, spiritual andnatural forces intervene in a corrective way. Thismeans breaking-up, but, supported by the activityof Aquarius, it also intensies the work of salvationof the Gnosis.

Everything is mutually dependent, but it alsobelongs together! It is solidarity, unity, being one.

Any person who is aware of his fundamental dis-tress, his unholiness, also abundantly receives thepossibility and power of true healing, of sanctica-tion: Aquarius pours out his never empty pitcherof living water abundantly over us. The wholecreation waits with eager longing for man to -nally use the universal remedy, the living water, toignite the Light that is locked in matter µ

fundamentally ill human being who seeks sancti-cation? Everything begins with the purity andsilence of the heart, because to the Gnosis, theheart is the gateway to the human li fe system. Inthis silence, Light can enter, and with and throughthis Light, the human being can purify his heart.The living water as light radiation is assimilated bythe etheric or vital body, of the human being. Theliving water corresponds to the life ether. Humanbeings use the gnostic light in order to nd liferenewal, and this must take place in and throughthe etheric body. Life renewal means soul renewal,that is: (Re)birth and growth of the ‘new’ soulthat, after a long alchemical process of change, willunite with the spirit, the re pri nciple. The soul i sthe intermediary between the water and the spir it.‘Jesus answered: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unlessone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot

enter the kingdom of God.’ (John 3:5)

THE FIVEFOLD SYSTEM OF SANCTIFICATION Thehuman soul has ve aspects or states of being, inwhich ve uids work, corresponding with thepath of the vefold Gnosis.

Each step of the vefold system of sancticationleads to purication, to a change of one of the vesoul uids, and each step inuences all the othersto make them suitable for the next stage of devel-opment. Five uids, stages and effects, on the basisof the blood, mark the path of transmutation andtransguration:

1. The blood uid – insight into the nature of oureld of life and the awareness of being called toreturn to the divine order.2. The hormone uid – the true longing for sal-vation.3. The serpent re uid – the surrender of thepersonality, of the I, to the realisation of the salva-tion.4. The nerve uid – a spontaneously arising, newmode of life, described in the Ser mon on theMount: the new deed.5. The consciousness uid – the completion ofthis path: the awakening, the resurrection in theoriginal eld of life.

This vefold soul uid, the Star of Bethlehem, theliving water, is poured out generously and abun-dantly over all of us, particularly now. A human

being has only to open himself to it and preparehimself for it, that is, make himself suitable for it.

PATH AND GOAL OF SANCTIFICATION As ‘meth-od’ of sanctication, we can also mention ‘know-ing-daring-willing-acting’, the practice of the newmode of life:

Knowing which help we receive and why, whatpurpose this serves and to which point we are led.

Daring to accept the accompanying consequencesand in complete trust, faith and deep l onging, go-ing the path.

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silent bearers of everything that exists

The water of our world reflects all aspectsof human existence. As a silent pioneer,water mercilessly manifests the course of

humanity. In a neutral way, it assimil ates and storesall information, and distributes it throughout theworld. Water is the strongest solvent on earth.Without water, substances cannot mix and nocycle can follow.

When a contemporary person speaks of the livingwater, he refers to the puri ty of earthl y water. Thisconcerns both the gross-material as well as thetenuous nature of this element. The usual watersuppliers advertise with slogans like ‘the waterunto life’ or ‘number 1 of the still water’. The‘wellness’ needs of our consumer society increaseas fast as the poor of this world long for water tosurvive. Fresh spring water or sparkling mineralwater currently symbolises the pure quality of li fe.There is also a broad supply of water filters. Their

purifying capacity lies between the removal ofhazardous substances and reprogramming vibra-tion patterns, to which we refer as spiritual pu-rification. Scientists like Victor Schauberger havedeveloped a turbulence technology, which musthelp water to preserve its long-ter m ‘vitality’.

The truly living water, however, the pure gnosticLight power, can never originate i n the dialecti-cal field of life. It only wells up in the field of theholy spir it. This divine, original substance, the‘materia magi ca’, is present everywhere in thehere and now, even ‘in places that men reject’, ac-cording to Lao Zi.

The entire household of the world is maintainedby it, but this world cannot assimilate the astralprimordial substance directly. The aeons, huge,invisible power concentrations, transmute thispure substance into Light energy that can be as-similated by nature, because to enable natural life,the horizontal forces of this nature vibrate with alower frequency than was originally the case.

THE THIRST OF THE SOUL Since the beginningof time, true thirst, experienced as inner dis tress,has accompanied humanity. It is omnipresent andalways linked with a great longing for our father-land, our origin. We are living in the r un up tothe Age of Aquarius. This causes new atmosphericconditions to affect humanity ever more intensely.The waterman pours out his pitcher of living wa-ter. With its sword, Uranus brings the hour of in-sight. The great helping forces of dematerialisationon the path to transformation are often misunder-

stood in these days. What is the reason for this?

CAUGHT BETWEEN THE POLES H 2O containstwo hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. To-gether, they form a molecule, a chemical build-ing stone of matter. As information carri ers, thesemolecules are continuously in motion. Theycombine just as easily as they detach from eachother. Because they form a dipole (meaning thatthe centres of gravity of the positive and negativeelectrical charges do not coincide), they imme-diately react to electromagnetic impulses and arecombined into so-called ‘clusters’, structured mo-lecular hydrogen bonds. These crystalli ne grids vi-

Lao Zi once said: “The highest virtue is like water, which benets all things and does notcontend with them. The proper mode of life is like water. Water is everywhere and exists in allplaces. It ows even in places that men reject… “

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LEILA AND MAJNÜNThis concept is transmit-ted in a penetrating way in the story of Leila (thename means: her eyes and hair were black as thenight) and Majnun, written in 1888 by the Persianpoet Nizami. Briey, the story runs as follows. The

young Bedo uin, Qays, falls in love wit h Leil a andshe with him. However, Leila’s father is againstthe marriage, and she is forced to marry someoneelse. Qays is desperate and ees from his family,his tribe and his f atherland. Aimlessly and alone,he wanders about the rocky desert area. ‘The eyesof the gazelles remind him of the lost beloved. Noone can help him; no one can give him rest. Hedoes not know anything else and does not speak ofanything else than Leila.’ He loses his sanity by hisimmense grief. All efforts to bring him back to his‘senses’ and to his tribe f ail. His father even takeshim along on a pilgri mage to Mecca to ask Godto liberate him from his pain, but even that doesnot work. Majnun prays to please his father and

asks: ‘… You who make love descend upon us, Ibeg you for one thing: raise me up in love, so thatprosperity may come over me and my beloved,even if I were to die by it.’

He expresses his sorrow in moving poems. Manypeople visit him and li sten how beautifully hesings his verses and how enchantingly he plays onhis reed pipe, and they copy the poems that hespontaneously recites. In the meantime, Leila hasremained faithful in her love for Majnun. After herhusband’s death, she neglects herself, complains

and continuously weeps for her lost beloved, andon a cold autumn night, she quietly passes away,her eyes xed on the door and whispering ‘Maj-nun’. After Leila has died, Majnun, utterly miser-able, goes to her tomb and also dies. For a year,Majnun’s body remains in Leila’s tomb, and untilboth corpses have decayed, they are guarded bythe wild animals that accompanied and protectedMajnun in the desert. Not until the anniversary ofher death, do her friends and relatives nd Maj-nun’s body in the tomb on top of her grave; a fewschoolmates recognise his body. He is buried nextto Leila. The two lovers, who were linked in eter-nity, but separated on earth, are now one.

THE RELIGION OF LOVE Leila and Majnun arenot allowed to see each other, but through hispoems, well-known in the whole country, Leilaknows of his sorrow. Helped by a friend, they suc-ceed only once to see each other. Although they

are not disturbed, they keep some distance be-tween them. ‘Clothed in her veil and protected bythe twilight, Leila hurries to the garden. Her soulrushed faster than her steps. Then she saw Maj-nun. However, she stopped before she reached thepalm tree, against which he was leaning. Her kneestrembled and her feet seemed to grow togetherwith the earth. Ten steps separated her from herbeloved. An enchanted circle surrounded him,which she was not all owed to pass. She turned tothe old man next to her and said: ‘Noble man, Iam allowed to go this far and no further. Look, Inow already seem a burning candle. If I were tocome closer to the re, I would be wholly con-

Most love stories that became part of the universal ideas of humanity did not have a happy ending.Or more exactly: the love between two lovers could, for very diverse reasons, not be fully experiencRomeo and Juliet, Faust and Gretchen, Orpheus and Euridice, Tristan and Isolde. We can add to this the oriental story of Leila and Majnun. Why have these stories been read and told throughout the agTime and again, they are portrayed, made into a lm and performed as dance. Why are there no storiwith a happy ending? What are the characteristics of the love stories that have been taken up into thuniversal ideas of humanity?

Birds and lovers © Werner Forman Archives

earthly andheavenly love stories

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‘Yet, what is one must appear as duality here…

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to write a few verses for her. He wrote:

‘Yet, what is one must appear as duality here, andis not allowed to unite into one already now. Nopath leads from one body to the other, only soulcan go to soul. The heart is eternal, because itloves you; death is where you are not. As long as

you stay w ith me, I remai n a whol e, for you are mypart of eternal life…’

In the poem for Leila, we read of the duality thatcharacterises our life: ‘Yet, what is one must appearas duality here.’

On earth, here, the original unity of man andwoman has been removed. People are now man orwoman. From unity, duality has developed. And inthis way, also the longing for the original unity hasbeen passed on. Ever since, life on earth is deter-mined by seeking for unity and seeking for the lost

other half. It becomes clear that this unity cannotbe realised by a human being. ‘Only soul can go tosoul.’

Although, says Majnun, there is also a healing ele-ment in this sorrow. It is the loving heart, thoughit is only the gar ment that hides the story of eter-nal love. This turns the story of Leila and Majnuninto a special love story. It relates the love story ofthe spirit and the soul.

When Majnun writes: ‘Death is where you arenot’, he does not mean to say that he, the personMajnun, would die when he is without his belov-

sumed. Closeness leads to our downfall; in thereligion of the lovers this is wrong…’

Leila sees herself as a lover who knows herself tobe bound to the ‘religion of love’. What is this sup-posed to mean? Leila knows that there can be nofullment of her longing on earth. ‘Closeness leadsto our downfall.’ The love that unites her and Ma-nun cann ot be f ullle d by physi cal c losenes s. Anyattempt to express it at that level contradicts this‘religion of love’. The use of the concept ‘religion’,religio, means that Leila is aware that her longingfor love is a longing for the orig in. The religion oflove is, therefore, actually the promise of the loversto full the task of the reunion with their origin.

MAJNUN, A SAGE OF LOVE If we see Majnun’slove as human passion, it would be judged as exag-gerated and immoderate. However, if it is consid-ered a symbol of a higher longing, Majnun clearlybecomes a lover. Similar to ‘not having enoughfaith means having no faith’ (Daodejing), he cansay: ‘Love that is not eternal love remains a toyfor sensual passions and decays like one’s youth.However, what perishes is time, not love. Even ifeverything else is only delusion and imagination,love is not, because the stove on which it burns iseternity that does have neither beginning nor end.As a sage of love, Majnun has earned his venerablename.’

However, Majnun is more. He is not only a ‘Kingof Love’, but, lonely in the desert, he also becomesking of the animals.

Majnun and Leila are two people who rememberthe lost paradise more strongly than many oth-ers. Also Majnun’s living together with the wildanimals refers to this. ‘Majnun was never threat-ened by the animals, whose hunting grounds aresteppes and deserts. This is considered very amaz-ing. Gradually, the animals got used to him. Yes,they felt attracted by him. They smelled him fromafar and approached ying, running, galloping,crawling, and the circles around him became eversmaller. There were animals of different speciesand size. And, o miracle, they did not tear each

other apart and lost their mutual fear, while thisfamiliar stranger dwelt amongst them. It seemedas if they had suddenly forgotten their voracity,and they became ever more intimate… Within thisretinue, he had become a king, just like Solomononce was… The wolf no longer tore up the lamb;the lion pulled in his claws for a wild donkey; thelioness gave milk to the young gazelle that was anorphan and the jackal buried his ancient feud withthe hare…’

During their encounter in the garden, the onlyone during all those years, Leila asks the friendwho made this encounter possible, to ask Majnun


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‘If I were to come closer to the re, I would be whollyconsumed’

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Because the longing for imperishable, eternal loveremains unfullled, the kiosks are lled with lovestories that have a happy ending. The illusion maycomfort us for a few hours, but the hunger re-mains unsatised. The stories with a happy end-ing may just as well be subtle literary treasures,

like Jane Austen’s novels, as trivial romance novels.Both forms of literature should satisfy our longingfor perfect love, but fail to do so. This theme alsomakes every soap opera on television attractive.

However, we can also learn something else fromthe story of Leila and Majnun. It is also the story

of the spirit and the soul that are unable to meetin the human being of this nature and whollyexpress themselves there. Does Leila not say: ‘If Iwere to come closer to the re, I would be whollyconsumed.’ Leila understands that she cannot ap-proach the re in her current state. The nature soulis unable to do so. To be able to approach the re,the spirit, Leila, the nature soul, must be trans-formed. The spirit can only meet a prepared soul.

THE CHANGE OF THE HUMAN SOULDuringthis preparation, man and woman have differenttasks and to this end are also differently equipped.The goal of this path is to return from the dual-

ity to the unity. We might also say that this pathmust guide us out of the polarity. This leads to truechange, to transguration. Polarity, the result of thefall – the separation that, by the way, is at the sametime the incentive to movement and change – hasthen been neutralised. It is this permanent change,

this alternation between happiness and unhappi-ness, life and death, that awakens the longing forthe neutralisation of this polarity, and hence alsothe longing for the neutralisation of the separation.

THE GOOD END On the human level, re andwater conict with each other. Spirit and nature soul

cannot go together. After the soul has developed, itwill one day be possible to approach this re withoutbeing consumed.

Angelus Silesius describes the goal, the formationof the unity from the duality as follows:‘If I want to nd my lastend and rst beg inning,I must establish myself inGod and God in me, andbecome what he is: I mustbe a light in the light, aword in the word, a god inGod.’ µ

Leila und Madschnun,

Nizami, Manesse Verlag,

Zürich 1963, Nachwort

von R. Gelpke.

A. Silesius:

http://felix.unife.it/ ++gedichte

ed. He points out that a life, touched by the spirit,can be true l ife. If the spirit is not there, then‘death is where you (the spir it) are not.’

The line: ‘As long as you stay with me, I remaina whole, for you are my part of eternal life…’,emphasises what was said before. It refers to theeternal, imperishable principle of love, which isalso described as the rose of the heart or the lotusower. It, love, is a part of eternal life, or, in the us-age of the Rosicrucians, it is a spark of the eternalLight, the smallest part of eternity that we carryinwardly.

A LOVE STORY WITHOUT HAPPY ENDINGThisstory explains the impossibility of ideal love underthe conditions of duality, the separation of thesexes. However, Majnun’s poem makes it clear thatthe memory of the original unity is preserved. Theprinciple of love is a part of eternal life. To us, this

memory of the origin is both a permanent, latentsorrow as well as, in the best of circumstances, thedrive that makes us seek the cause of this sorrowand a path to healing. There are different ways ofdealing with s orrow. One of them is by seekingideal human love. Now we can understand why weare touched so deeply by the s tories about ‘unhap-py loves’. Although the story deals with ‘ordinary’human pairs of lovers, their misfortune touches usdeeply on the level of the soul. In their unhappylove, we recognise the impossibility of nding theideal love between two people and we suffer withthem. We know why it cannot exist, but time andagain desire that they may succeed.

‘Who is able to cure my illness?I have become an exile.

Where are my family and my house?

There is no path to them and no path

leading to my beloved. My name and

reputation have been destroyed, like

glass that is shattered on a rock.

The drum that once brought good

tidings is broken and the only thing

my ears now hear is the hard beat of

separation. I follow my beloved slave.She loves my soul.

When she commands: “become

drunk”, I do so. When she tells me to

become insane, I do so.’

Majnun in Nizami’s Leila and Majnun.The smell of the desert,A Harvey and E Hanut, Su Publications


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There is still another question circling in his mind: who is this old man who keeps him company every evening?

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nevertheless, Roman returns to his world withoutlosing contact with what he experienced. Thereis still another question circling in his mind: whois this old man who keeps him company everyevening, sitting next to him, but rarely saying aword? At night, Roman remains awake for a longtime, looking at the night sky through the skylight.He can hardly wait until the evening to go to thebeach again. During the day, he senses time andagain how the different experiences and feelingsare competing for precedence in him.He calls it the struggle between light and dark-ness, because this image best represents his experi-ence. Continuously, the sentence haunts him: ‘I amthe Lord your God. You shall have no other godsbefore me.’ This sentence is like a dark abyss open-ing within him. Each time Roman threatens tofall into this abyss, he feels a second power, a ercelonging that prevents him from wholly surrender-ing to this s uction power of the depth. A longing

is burning in his heart that is stronger than anypower of this world. Roman becomes consciousthat his inner darkness, the power from the abyss,and the ruler stem from the same source. Only theLight in his heart is different. He senses that lastnight’s mighty entity is afraid of the longing well-ing up from his heart.As soon as possible, he sets out for the beach. It iscalm and the sea i s like a mirror. He sees that theold man is already sitting there and that reassureshim. He immediately goes up to him and theygreet each other, exchanging a few trivialities.Then the old man turns away and stares out to seaagain. Roman sits down next to him and a f amiliar

sense of certainty ows through him. Each imagethat falls upon the surface of the water is reectedunaltered. It is as if the silent, seemingly un-touched, neutral atmosphere of the water’s surfaceis transferred to his inner being. He sees last night’simage before him. All energy lines are now con-centrated in the ruler. He hovers above the water,and a mental stream unceasingly emanates fromhim, affecting the water, which contains unlimitedpossibilities and innite darkness.Roman concentrates on the silence within himand at that moment, he recognises a new gure,wholly consisting of light.This light evokes an almost inexpressible peaceand harmony in him. There is no space that is notilluminated by this light, but the ruler does not seeit. The light being accompanies and pervades theruler of this world. At that moment, it becomesclear to Roman that this entity of light is stand-ing behind him like a mother. She gives him the

power to stand above everything belonging tothis world.The light being affects the ruler as ifthrough a veil. When the veil becomes too thin,the ruler begins to rage and pandemonium breaksout in his creation. Time and again, the eyes of theruler rest upon Roman. He experiences the refrom those eyes as a changed, distorted activityof this light being. Roman also notices the directeffect of the light. It burns in his heart, evokinglonging, and it gives him peace.He becomes aware of the conict developing in hisinner being. Both these powers are always in conictwith each other. One wants to rule while the otherwaits until the elementary forces adjust to him.

tinuously, it emanates a stream of thoughts which,clothed in re, always elicit new possibilities fromthe water. Composite forms are created that existfor a shorter or longer per iod. Everything movesthrough time and space.Roman now begins to wonder what grants thisentity the power to rule. It consists of the energyof the world, which it controls, and yet, Romannotices that all other entities are subject to it. Theruler turns to Roman and opens its eyes to himwhich seem to consist of only two great wheelsof re. At the same moment, Roman feels the rein his whole being. He has the sensation of be-ing burned. He tries to focus his attention on

something else, but he is fascinated and captivatedby this entity and he experiences the unlimitedpossibilities that are linked with this entity. Powerand freedom chain him, and with every bre, hewants only to be linked with this mighty source ofenergy.‘I am the Lord your God. You shall have no othergods before me.’ This call unceasingly emanatesfrom this ruler and everything obeys him, for eve-rything consists of him.

TWO FIRESWhen Roman returns home, he isstill restless. Meanwhile the old man had left, andthe images of the evening gradually vanish as well;

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surrounded by something elusive.’ The old mannods, as if he indeed understands him. ‘This state iscalled “the end of the world”. At the moment thatthis becomes clear to you, you know that there is anew beginning. All people in this world are walk-ing in a sphere. A sphere has neither beginningnor end. You have arrived at the point where youobserve the sphere from the outside.’‘But it is so hard to imagine what you are nowsaying. Why should I, of all people, forge a linkbetween what is unimaginable and what is imagi-nable, if the mightiest god of this world is unableto do so? Why would I be able to do it?’‘Roman, you are able to do it, because you are ahuman being.’The old man turns to the horizon again and Ro-man understands that the conversation has ended.Roman, too, looks at the horizon again and seeks

the thin line that separates heaven and earth.At that moment, a door, or rather a gate, is formedon the horizon. He cannot say whether the hori-zon is far away from him or whether it runs rightthrough his body. Is the door on the horizon orin his heart? Once again, the view changes. He isstanding on the horizon again. He passes throughthe gate and arr ives in an unknown room withmany doors. In the centre, closed off from aboveby a large dome, there is a fountain.This dark room should actually be darker. He can-not discover any illumination and the light that heperceives has no centre. Everything that he sees inthe room gives off light. The strongest light comes

from the fountain in the centre. It seems as if theindividual jets of water consist of water of light.He feels that this ’water of light’ nourishes himinwardly and at the same time, that it turns hisperception upside down.Looking at everything, he walks around the foun-tain, which changes with every step. At one point,he sees a jet owing from the centre, and when hecontinues, there are two, then three, until there arenally seven jets, and then seven times seven andthen an innite number times seven.He walks around the fountain a few times to expe-rience the living, always changing spectacle of the

jets o f water.Finally, he approaches the fountain and looks inthe chalice that receives the water. Behind himis the gate i n all its glory, through which he nolonger will have to return. And everything con-

nected with the past dissolves in the depth of light.His rst thought that reaches the water’s surfacecauses a wave, by which an entity is formed.His rst thought begins to live µ

At his rst opportunity after experiencing this,Roman decides to go to the park. It is one ofthe rst sunny days in spring and there are manypeople. He does not really notice them, because heis still contemplating yesterday’s impressions. Thebeing, formed of light, touches an absolutely newand strange inner level in him.He is unable to comprehend that this l ight entitycooperates in the totality without being noticed.He perceives the light waves and also all theseother people, who are apparently untouched bythem. He feels that he is a totally different person,to whom something extraordinary has been g iven.He would like to share this with the whole world,but none of the people passing by notices anythingof what occupies him. In his mind, he returns tothe light being and his environment immediatelychanges. He experiences everything around him

as if it is a lm projected onto a screen and hebecomes a spectator. From his heart, an indescrib-able peace ows through him. He feels that heno longer appears in the lm; he is dissolved as itwere.This light is greater and more powerful than any-thing of which he has become aware until now.There is a world without conict, fear or darkness.It must be omnipresent, yet unnoticed by anyone.This being is the God of gods, more powerful thanany power and absolutely invisible in what is vis-ible. He becomes dizzy and has to let his experi-ence sink in in order not to be lost in unimagi-nable ‘nothingness’. When he comes to his senses

again, he sees another question in space: is there adoor by which what is unimaginable can be linkedwith what is imaginable?The entity that touches him most profoundlydisrupts the whole world. In the past, he alwaysbelieved that creation, as he knows it from thebiblical story from Genesis, begins with a spiritthat moved over the face of the waters. Now herecognises with joy that there is an unimaginablecreation, which is always new and always continuescreating, but at the same time, has always existedand includes the creation from Genesis, but whichstill continues to work. He becomes aware of whatis unimaginable and he is able to look into anotherworld as if through a window. Where there is awindow, there must also be a door. Where thereare doors, there must also be a path. Then he goesto the beach with this in mind.

THE WATER OF LIGHT He feels as if a burden islifted, when, through the dunes, he sees the oldman already sitting there. Today he wants to speakwith him. He sits down next to him and waitsuntil the old gentleman turns to him. Then he says:‘By the experiences of the last days, I feel like Ihave been in a movie theatre.When I look at the screen, I see a movie in whichI no longer play a role. If I turn around, I only seedarkness and a small lens, from which everythingseems to ow. I myself am sitting in an unimagina-ble nothingness, without a front or a back door.I am alone in the theatre and notice that I am

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There is hardly a child or adult, who doesnot begin to dream or reect when seeinga crackling re. When the licking ames

burn a solid block of wood to ashes, we see an ir-reversible process. What moments before seemedto be real and solid is dissolved in the gl ow andthe shimmering heat. The remaining pile of ashesno longer has the properties of the wood; the rehas changed it fundamentally. An organic substanceis converted into pure energy; matter is separatedfrom what is etheric, what is alive from what isdead, what is perishable from what is i mperishable.What is dead is left behind in the ashes, while eve-rything else was, by the heat of the re, convertedinto another state, which we can no longer fol-low automatically. Will we nd the essence of thewood somewhere in the air? Where did it go? It isno longer to be found.This is what essentially fascinates us about re: itshows us how matter turns into energy. It shows

us the image of what will one day also happen tohuman beings themselves: being taken up fromtheir current state into a wholly different reality,in which apparently everything personal disap-pears. Fire causes a denitive metamorphosis. TheHermetics of all times call this transguration. Thisis why it is said: ‘God is a consuming re.’

THE DISCOVERY OF FIREThe history of humanityin our familiar world is closely linked with theessence of re. When approximately 1.5 million

years ag o, the rst p eople l earned to control re,this actually signied the beginning of civilisation.Fire gave man power over nature. He could use

it to keep wild animals at bay, to cook meals andenjoy light and war mth. Later, he also learned toabuse re for exercising power, with all kinds ofrearms that destroy and kill. And still later, mandiscovered how to release the atomic re con-tained in matter, for energy production and also,again, for killing and destruction. Atomic re is theinnermost re of matter. Seen spiritually, it is there of darkness, of mortal nature.

THE MAGICAL FIRE Since the dawn of history, rehas also had a magical meaning for people. In aGreek myth, it is described how the titan Pro-metheus brought re to man. He stole it fromZeus, the father of the gods. The latter was soangry about the loss of this valuable commod-ity that he chained Prometheus to a mountaintopand every day, an eagle came and ate his liver. Animmortal, Prometheus also symbolises the re ofthinking. Not only in Greece, myths and legends

tell about the power of re and about the waypeople have worshipped it throughout time.In all these stor ies, a relationship with the divineworld is pointed out. Sometimes, one speaks oftheft, at other times of a gift of the gods to thepeople.Priests ignited temple res and people kept resgoing in their hearths. Sacrices were burned, be-cause it was believed that the gods were nourishedby the ascending smoke. And even nowadays, can-dles are lit during ceremonies and fragrant essencesare burned to allow the atmosphere to be per me-ated by energies, which otherwise would remainhidden behind the veil of gross matter.

son of the reIn his heart, a human being possesses a ery principle, as the indeliblesignature of a once divine state. As ‘son of the re’, the original humanbeing was linked with the spirit. Until this day, the memory of this linkis expressed by the relationship between human being and re.

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In the old texts from the Vedas, the electrical re iscalled ‘Pavaka’ or ‘the purier’

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that have nothing to do with the re in mortalnature. Why have human beings been fascinatedby re since primordial times? Why do they wor-ship it and tr y to unravel it? And on the otherhand, why does the re of matter torment themso ercely that they do not shrink, reacting to it,from confronting their fellow human beings withsuffering, hatred and violence?It is because their inner, fundamental nucleus is are principle that cannot be explained from mortalnature. The spir it re of another, higher form oflife deep within us is, after all, the power that willnever let human beings nd rest in this world. Weourselves are, therefore, the cause! The original,divine human being is a ‘son of the re’.In his book Aurora, or dawning of the day in theEast, Jacob Boehme describes the spirit re as aash: ‘Now notice: When the ash in the middlelights up, the divine birth is fully at work. Thisalways occurs eternally in God, but not in us, poor

children of the esh. In this life, the triumphantdivine birth within us, human beings, only lasts aslong as the ash lasts. This is why our knowledgeis dispersed (in part). In God, however, the ash isunchangeable and exists always and forever.’The ashing ery principle in the heart requiresan inner transformation. It wants us to give up ourmortal life in order to be able to win immortal-ity. It would like us to focus our lives on the Lightof the spirit, because this Light does not belongin the material world and wants to return to theworld of immortality. It desires that we whollyconcentrate our attention on the Light, emanatingfrom the world of the spirit, to pull us up.

This longing for the spirit is the highest form ofery desiring that a human being can experiencein this life. When he makes room for these desires,the new gure of the immortal soul will r ise up,the quality of which resembles the re of the sun.This re grants light and life to everything thatlives. It is the embodiment of the universal love,which is also called Christ or the solar spirit.

THE LAST METAMORPHOSISThe new soul, the

essence of which is love, is nally recognised by its‘alchemical bridegroom’, the spirit of original be-ing. In the spinal column, its electrical re is , as ina ash, linked with the soul unto a last metamor-phosis, the ultimate, irreversible transguration.This last metamorphosis does not leave any ashesbehind. This is why i t is said of all great i nitiatesthat their tombs were found empty or that theydisappeared in an inexplicable way µ

Fire puries the atmosphere and by its heat, in-creases its vibration and per meability. Hermes Tris-megistus says that re is ‘the fastest of all elements’.And indeed we know from the theory of mechani-cal warmth of physics that intense heat is accom-panied by a very rapid movement of molecules.Even a mirage on a hot summer day is caused bythe effect of re on the atmosphere, of which thevibration is accelerated by the heat.

FIRE IN THE PHYSICAL HUMAN BEINGThroughresearch of the external re, the human beingbecomes increasingly aware of the fact that hehimself is living through re. The warmth of theblood, the metabolic processes and life itself canbe traced back to the effects of re. It is the reof matter that vivies our bodies in the materialworld, until death extinguishes this ame. Thisre burns in the spinal column of people as the‘serpent re’ as well as in the energy centres, the

chakras.

THE ASTRAL FIREActually, also our emotional lifeis merely a process of combustion. The humanbeing is ‘burning’, when he is in love; he knows‘burning anger’ and ‘burning hatred’. On the levelof emotions and astral states, a mighty re is burn-ing, too, that rages through the blood and alwaysgives people a hard time. We are often unable toprevent this re from driving us to rash words ordeeds, which may inict burning wounds uponother people. The re of passion stirs in our blooduntil it ‘boils’, and the human being collapses ex-hausted. These res consume our vital power, until

the supply of vital energy has been used up. Thenthe natural soul, the astral principle of ordinarynature, leaves the body and gradually evaporates.There is one certainty: It is not the human beingwho is master of the re, but rather material andastral res control people as compelling forces.Atoms, too, have a ‘ery nucleus’. Nuclear scien-tists are stil l busy making the atomic re ‘useful’to society, at the expense of a number of insolubleproblems. In the long run, the radioactive energy,released by nuclear ssion, is incompatible withlife.

THE ELECTRICAL FIREHuman thinking is alsobased on re processes. In our brain, countlessnerve bundles and ganglia are linked by synapses,between which electrical impulses discharge. Froma material point of view, thinking is an electricalprocess and electricity is a form of re. A singleelectrical spark may start a combustion proc-

ess. And all of us have once in awhile looked at athunderstorm, during which enormous electricalforces quite often set houses and trees ablaze. Inthe old texts from the Vedas, the electrical re iscalled ‘Pavaka’ or ‘the pur ier’.Electricity is the highest form of re in the mate-rial world. It also symbolises the spirit, which noone can tolerate for even a second. How wouldit be to be confronted with the Divine Spirit? Itwould be like being in a ash of lightning.

THE SPIRIT FIRE IN THE HUMAN BEING Yet, the reof the spirit is anchored in the human system,because there are also quite different kinds of re

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LOVE Living means thinking, feeling, desiring,wanting something, hoping something, rejoic-ing, suffering from something, experienc-

ing pain. Above all, life means seeking, nding andliving love. Love is the power that forges the linkbetween two people, the relationship between manand woman. But love is much more; it is the powerthat in many places is put above faith and hope. It isa universal, divine energy. It forges the link betweentwo opposite poles, unites them and leads themfurther.Love is the power that is in the centre, and directlyties in with every human being individually, touchinghim and guiding him through life. And even more, itsurpasses his physical life. It is the guide that forgesthe link with a higher level of being. It is the powerin what is highest and in what is lowest. It begins inthe human body and leads via the soul to the spir itand to unity with God.

LIVING BETWEEN WARM AND COLDLiving in thisworld means being touched by two power centres,on the one hand, positive, warm and ery, and onthe other hand, negative, cold and watery. When weassign masculine and feminine characteristics to thesetwo poles, we see a tension eld between receiving– feminine and creating – masculine. Between thesedynamic poles, life is experienced. On the one hand,there is creative energy, expressed in active deeds,and on the other hand, there is the long ing for restand contemplation. We see a horizontal line with thedualistic forces on either end. Life develops along thishorizontal line of movement. Life on earth meansbeing physically linked to the earth and at the same

time, bodily experiencing this life. Physically, we areseparated into two sexes, and we experience our-selves as man and woman. Yet, processes take place ina human being in which both aspects are active. Theuniversal teachings explain that the human systemconsists of four bodies that are differently polarised.Of these four bodies in both woman and man, twohave a strongly radiating aspect and two have a morereceptive aspect. With regard to the sexes, positivealso means dynamic and creative, fertilising, whilenegative also means receptive and manifesting.

THE POLARISATION OF THE WOMANHow doesthe positive polarisation, the radiation and creationwork in the woman? In what respect is she the re-ceptive and manifesting, negative pole? The negativepolarisation can be seen most clearly in the visiblebody. The receptive, bearing aspect becomes visiblewith every birth.The female astral body (desire body) is also s imi-

larly polarised. In addition, she is very s usceptible toemotional and sensorial impressions and inuences.Her mental body is positively polarised, and hereshe is radiating and creative. In a certain sense, wemight say that a woman may emanate strong mentalimpulses, while a man can be quiet and controllingin the large eld of the world of human emotions. Inspecic instances, a man may receive the mental im-pulse of a woman and realise it. The female etheric orvital body is also positively polarised. It is, therefore,dynamic, empowering. This means that a woman in-uences the atmosphere of life. She creates space andgenerates the energy, from which the people in herdirect environment are living.

re, water, loveIn the universe, modern scientists observe tremendously high temperaturesin addition to unimaginable coldness. The element re is always centrifu-gal, while coldness is centripetal, contracting. Through re, the expandinguniverse develops, and through intense coldness, the contracting universe.Coldness causes petrifaction, crystallisation. Now clearly understand thesetwin forces in our eld of life.

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How interwoven both sexes actually are! Everyone experiences these ‘correspondences’;there is an intense interaction of energies between the two poles at all levels

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THE STREAM OF VERTICAL ENERGYThe beginningof this touch can be found in the body and in thetime of the material worlds of life, because the proc-esses of creating and receiving at the level of thebodily manifestation of life are a reection of theprocesses occurring between body, soul and spir it.These three levels of manifestation must be distin-guished very consciously. Body, soul and spirit areeach manifested in their own way, but there is never-theless the closest possible link between these three:they do not exist without each other and there is anunbelievably intense interaction between these three

different aspects. This can be represented by a verti-cal line of movement, because in it also receiving andcreating, giving and taking occur. Only here we see awholly different direction of movement. This move-ment does not remain bound to the earth, but ratherleads away from it to something quite different. Seenfrom the highest point, is the spirit the ery principlethat transfers its creative energy to the soul, whichhas opened itself to it. What the soul receives is thepower of the re and the matrix for the body. Thepersonality, which is part of the body, uses this energyin its life. It is clear that this cooperation is a continu-ous and undivided process, occurring permanently.

CROSS AND BIRTHWhen considering these twolines of movement, we see a cross. The horizontalline of the worldly movement is intersected by thevertical one, emanating from the spiritual energy. Thevertical line signies the outpouring of the power ofthe holy spirit, a stream of energy that cascades like a

waterfall over the individual levels of manifestation ofspirit, soul and body.Now the question crops up as to what people aredoing with it. After all, we human beings turn thisenergy into action. Do we notice this power? Arewe aware of it? And if so, how do we react to it? Arewe prepared to erect the cross, in which our being isthe horizontal beam and the universal stream of loveis the vertical beam? Do we develop susceptibilityfor the highest energy that reaches us? For if we donot react to it, we are not a living pillar, but rather abalancing item of energy that is unable to work in aregenerative way. Thus we nd ourselves in a sleepof death, touched, but not yet reacting. Then nei-

THE POLARISATION OF THE MANWhat does a manemanate? In which respect is he the receiving andmanifesting pole? In the visi on mentioned before, themale physical, visible body is positively polarised. Inother words, he creates, testies and produces. He isdynamic; power and dynamic energy emanate fromhim. The male desire or astral body is also positivelypolarised. He is able to more cl early emanate desiresand feelings of desiring than he is able to receivethem. However, the male etheric body is primarilyreceiving and assimilating, that is, negatively polar-ised. The male mental faculty is also negatively po-larised. It is open and receptive. It is able to assi milatethe ideas oating about in the atmosphere.

THE LINKWhen we let the relationships betweenthese forces sink in, we will simply see how interwo-ven both sexes actually are. In addition, the inuenceof the sexes functions above all atmospherically.

Everyone experiences these ‘cor respondences’, theselinks, regardless of whether one lives alone or in arelationship. It is giving and taking.Everything is linked, and there is an intense interac-tion of energies between the two poles at all levels,a mighty combination into one magnetic sphere ofpowers. And yet, this unity is not perfect.As an unbalanced globe, time and again it spins fromits centre, sometimes to the left and sometimes to theright. The connecting energy is missing, the line, thestring to which the small spheres are attached likepearls, for it is irrelevant whether a person decides infavour of or against living in a relationship. Consideredconsistently, any state will prove to lack something.

There is inner unrest, an unbalance, which makesus suspect that we are, at all levels, still seeking for atrue, harmonious link between the poles. The trueconnecting energy is the universal love that wants tomanifest itself and which follows a tremendous planof development.This dynamic, creative energy, lying dor mant in theheart is able to manifest itself in a human being. Andit is logical that this begins in the heart, in the centreof every human being. This process can begin withthe very personal, physical experience as man orwoman.

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Spirit

Creation spirit – re

Soul receives – water

Body receives – water

Creation body – re

Deed

ther conscious reception nor creation is taking place.Then we are like seeds, resting deep in the earth andbearing the genetic information that might lead togrowth, but unable to receive air or water. Hencethe grains of seed remain closed. The plant’s geneticinformation remains encased in the hard shell of thegrain, unable to achieve realisation. When we focusour consciousness on this cross, this energy must beused. The creative deed must follow, and if this doesnot happen, a blockage develops, leading to crystal-lisation (undercooling) or explosion ( overheating).The question arises what we as personalities c an do.In our physical gure as man or woman, we regulatethese processes in a very individual way. But regard-less of whichever sex we are, in our relationship tothe soul, and through it to the spir it, we as personali-ties are ‘receivers’.The act of creating never originates from us. On thebasis of our consciousness as seeking human beings,we let go of our focus on the outward, physical form,

and are absorbed in our quest for the highest prin-ciple that touches us. This touch also implies a task,because this touch cannot be merely contemplative.The seeking human being is expected to convert thistouch to the physical level, otherwise it will with-draw! This deed always implies serving humanity.Only in this way does the plan of creation becomevisible in time by what the conscious soul humanbeing does. In this context, it is good to consider thatthe body as well as time have their own laws. On thehorizontal level, there is death, but on the vertical line,the new life pulsates. When soul and spirit meet andmerge into a new unity, the spirit-soul human being isborn and it is he who is able to enter the vertical path.

THE RETURNIt is described in Genesis that theCherubim guard the entrance to paradise. Adam (thespirit) and Eve (the soul aspect) were expelled fromthis garden. The physical form s temming from it, thehuman being, cannot possibly live in the paradisiacalstate, just as we cannot live underwater. Adam andEve, together constituting ‘man’, are tossed to andfro between both poles, until the soul and (above all)the spirit once again sees what was, is and will be intheir small world or microcosm.This is Chr ist, the path to the Father. At the sametime, Christ, the new atmosphere in the humanbeing, is God’s act of love within us. RecognisingGod’s act of love means being able to walk this path.The scorching heat of the I-consciousness yields;the mild, warming re of the soul, the illuminatingChrist, is benecial to the environment: it is the trueservice to humanity.This constitutes a power that combines receivingand creating wi thin itself . The new creation, the

‘child of God’, is born in this way through the pow-er of the re wi thin the human being. This divinechild of the re nds the gates of the city opened, aswe can read at the end of the Revelation of John:‘And its gates will never be shut by day, and thereshall be no night there. Then he showed me the riverof the water of li fe, bright as crystal, owing fromthe throne of God and of the Lamb.’ µ

There is a world without con ict, fear or darkness. Itmust be present everywhere…

Literature:

Egyptian Arch-Gnosis, part 2.

J van Rijckenborgh, Rozekruis Pers,

Haarlem, The Netherlands.

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During alchemical exper iments, scientistsobserved the changes of matter entrustedto the re. These changes corresponded

to those in their own being. They gained muchknowledge concerning the changes occurringwithin themselves from their observations of theeffects of re. The application of this knowledgealso resulted in a renement of the art of pottery:through chemical reactions during the process ofbaking, a vase could beautifully reect the variouscolours of the re. These colours were then inter-preted alchemically.

The story of the Gospel contains three differentaspects:1. the birth of John the Baptist and his life2. the birth of Jesus and his life3. the birth of Christ, his life and his passion

John was the las t of th e prophets and he b aptised

with water. He announced the coming of Him,‘the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy tountie’. The name ‘John’ means water.

Jesus was baptised by John i n the Jorda n. The spi rit,in the gure of a dove, descended upon Jesus, whowas baptised with re; at that moment, Christ waslinked with the human being, Jesus.The apostles were baptised with re on the dayof Pentecost, and received the power ‘to speak intongues’. ‘Christos’ is he who is baptised with oilor with re.The art of pottery begins wi th the selection ofpure clay. Then the potter mixes the clay withwater to make it moist and mouldable. From the

The birth of the new soul is a mystery of lifethat during the Middle Ages was mainly soughtby the circle of alchemists. During the 8thand 9th centuries, people still knew the in-ner meaning of alchemy. The science of innertransformation was, according to the laws ofalchemy, usually practised by scientists living asecluded life. Alchemy was often compared tothe texts from the Gospels, as is shown by an-cient manuscripts. Some alchemists knew thatthe stories from the Gospels concerned aninner transformation, and not historical facts.The supposed historical aspect constitutes thevery myth of the Gospel!

SPIRITUAL AWAKENING AND METAMORPHOSIS OF THE SOULthe art of pottery

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When we, therefore, read in the holy books that God is

a living re, this does not mean that the re is identical to

God, but that God, the Logos, manifests himself in the re,

manifests himself through the re, as well as in and through

the other elements.

When, therefore, a so-called re worshipper approaches the

holy re, he was not and is not a pagan, but a human being

who shows to have some knowledge concerning a divine

science! When the Rosicrucians approach the mystery of the

re, like Moses approached the burning bush at the hand of

God, they are standing on the basis of the holy language and

they are called philosophers of the re, because they have

gained some insight into the foundations of the holy spirit,

with which they are or will be confronted.

What happened to Moses?

He approached the burning bush; he approached, in his days,

the divine, descending ether power. And in this way, standingface to face, his reserve, his half-heartedness, is corrected, and

his fear is punished. After all, was he initially not eeing from

his own high calling? He is instructed to guide himself and the

herd entrusted to him to the promised land. And when he,

after long consideration, was going to full this great task, the

‘cloud of the Lord’ preceded him […] The holy re, lost in

an ether substance not of this world, does not consume, on

the contrary, it guides the human being, who perceives this

inwardly, to resurrection in the new, radiant life.

Catharose de Petri, The Rosicrucians and the re;in:New Religious Orientation, May 1948

The Rosicrucians and the re

The ame burns and ares up; the re is vigorouslystoked and fuelled, until the earthen vase begins to be-

come red, and then radiates in a brilliant, white light

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cal stage unfolds. In the context of this article, wecannot go into details about it, because they aredifferent for everyone. We can only say that theoven is gradually closed and that all oxygen it con-tains is burned. The temperature is still rising. Thenatural process of oxidation changes, and coloursappear on the earthen vase through the transfor-mation of the metallic salts of the clay. The vase isadorned with bright colours. We speak of the ‘lightgarment of the soul’ or of the soul that generatesthe Golden Fleece.From a Jesus human being, the candidate becomesChrist. The fundamental white ray is split and theseven colours of the rainbow appear. The candidatemay call himself ‘master of the stone’.The vase is ready to be taken from the oven, andwe may say to the candidate, to the pupil of aSpiritual School: ‘Stay close to the vase in order toreveal its colours.’ µ

way. While the candidate invokes the light, so thatthis light may change him, the light sur renders tohim and asks to be changed by him.It is not John who is baptised by Jesus, but ratherJesus w ho wholl y immer ses hi mself in the water tobe baptised by John.All brotherhoods of the Gnosis explain that Jesusthe Christ is only an appearance and that his deathon the cross is consequently impossible. By this,they want to express that Jesus the Chris t was nota nature-born human being, and therefore couldnot possess the personality made ‘of clay’, in otherwords, of an ordinary human being.Once the Johannine human being has accom-plished his task, he disappears and becomes one

with the Jesus human being. Jesus accepts his wayof the cross in the person of the Johannine hu-man being to evoke all karmic memories, to purifythem, and in this way to change the personalitycompletely.Divinity has descended into nature and the divinespark absolutely changes the clay of the personality.This is placing the earthen vase into the re. A vi-bration of another nature is accomplished in l ife ina concrete way. It is a self-initiation, not through aritual, but by the constant desire: ‘Create in me apure heart, O God.’

John, the most perfect human bei ng of t his na-ture, decreases, so that Jesus, having become onein him, will increase. For the rst time, the soulpasses through the re. Then it discovers that itwas its own, limited insight that prevented it fromcontinuing. The ame burns and ares up; the reis vigorously stoked and fuelled, until the earthenvase begins to become red, and then radiates in abrilliant, white lig ht.In this glow, the ordinary consciousness is unableto maintain itself, and the moment of the decisivechoice approaches: either staying in the re andchanging completely, or rejecting the re. He whois unwilling, is taken from the re, and the workaccomplished with the clay of the vase, is then

reduced to its earthly elements. However, the claypreserves a trace of its course through the re, sothat the personality may be puried during a fol-lowing attempt.But if the natural consciousness accepts that it nolonger plays rst ddle; if the soul surrenders toGod, the voice of the new consciousness begins tospeak. It is the great metamorphosis of the soul. Inaddition to the voice of the teachings, the voiceof the new soul can be directly perceived. It is aluminous consciousness that pierces everythingit approaches with i ts light. The actual alchemi-

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TOKPELA – THE FIRST WORLDThere was no beginning and no end, no time, noshape, no life. Only an immeasurable void

that contained beginning and end, time, shape andlife in the mind of Taiowa. In it, if we may speakof in it, the creator, the primordial creator worked.The Hopi call the most ori ginal world Tokpela(endless space).Then he, the innite, conceived the nite. Firsthe created Sótuknang to make it manifest, sayingto him: ‘I have created you, the rst power andinstrument as a person to carry out my plan forlife in endless space. I am your Uncle. You are myNephew. Go now and lay out these universes sothey may work harmoniously with one anotheraccording to my plan.’Sótuknang did as he was commanded. From end-less space he gathered that which was to be mani-fest as solid substance, moulded it into forms, andarranged them into nine universal kingdoms: one

for Taiowa, one for himself, and seven universesfor the life to come. With Taiowa’s approval, Só-tuknang created the water and then the air and thewinds. Taiowa then said: ‘But your work is not yetnished. Now you must create life and its move-ment to complete the four parts, Túwaqachi, of myuniversal plan.’Sótuknang went to the universe wherein Tokpelawas to be, the First World, and out of it he cre-ated her who was to remain on that earth and behis helper. Her name was Kókyangwúti, SpiderWoman. When she awoke and received her name,she asked: ‘Why am I here?’ ‘Look about you,’ an-swered Sótuknang. ‘Here is this earth we have cre-

ated. It has shape and substance, direction and time,a beginning and an end. But there is no life uponit. We see no joyful movement. We hear no joyfulsound. What is life without sound and movement?So you have been given the power to help us cre-ate this life. You have been given the knowledge,wisdom, and love to bless all the beings you create.That is why you are here.’Spider Woman took some earth, mixed with itsome saliva, and moulded it into two beings. Thenshe covered them with a cape made of whitesubstance which was the creative wisdom itself,and sang the Creation Song. The twins awoke andasked: ‘Who are we? Why are we here?’ SpiderWoman gave them the names Pöqánghoya andPalöngawhoya. It was their duty to help keep thisworld in order when life was put upon it. Pöqáng-hoya, travelling throughout the earth, mouldedthe earth with his hands, so that it completelysolidied. Palöngawhoya, travelling throughout the

earth, produced sound that was heard in the wholeworld. This is the true or igin of the echo, becauseall sound is the echo of the Creator.When they had accomplished their duties, Pöqáng-hoya was sent to the north pole of the world axisand Palöngawhoya to the south pole, where theywere jointly commanded to keep the world pro-perly rotating. Pöqánghoya was also given the powerto keep the earth in a stable form of solidness.Palöngawhoya was given the power to keep theair in gentle ordered movement, and instructed tosend out his call for good or for warning throughthe vibratory centres of the earth.To the Hopi, the body of the earth and that of

the creation story of the hopiThe Hopi are the last survivors of a specic Indian people that mainly lived inthe state of New Mexico and in the northeast of Arizona. It is the most westerngroup of the Pueblo Indians. Their creation story is a myth of destruction andeternal return, which lasts until the Ant People understand autonomously whatthe creator intends with them. The Hopi call the endless space, from whicheverything originates, Tokpela

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‘With all these I have given you this world to live onand to be happy’

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ed forms, took away the white-substance cape andthese forms received life. The purple-red tur nedinto yellow light. Man was then stil l surroundedby dampness and had a soft spot on his head. Thebreath of life entered man.The dampness disappeared when the sun appearedabove the horizon and the soft spot on the headhardened. And man, fully formed, proudly facedhis Creator.‘That is t he Sun,’ said S pider Woman. ‘You aremeeting your Father the Creator for the rst time.

You must always remembe r and ob serve the sethree phases of your creation. The time of thethree lights, the dark purple, the yellow and thered reveal in turn the mystery, the breath of life,and warmth of Love. These comprise the Creator’splan for you as sung over you in the Song of Crea-tion.The First People of the First World did not answerher; they could not speak. Since Spider Woman re-

ceived her power from Sótuknang, she had to callhim through the echo Palöngawhoya.All at once, with the sound as of a mighty wind,Sótuknang appeared in front of them. ‘I am here.Why do you need me so urgently?’Spider Woman explained: ‘As you commanded me,I have created these First People. They are fullyand rmly formed; they are properly coloured;they have life; they have movement. But they can-not talk. That is the proper thing they lack. So Iwant you to give them speech. Also the wi sdomand the power to reproduce, so that they may en-

joy their life an d give t hanks to the Creato r.’So Sótuknang gave them speech, a different lan-

guage to each colour, with respect for each oth-er’s difference. He gave them the wisdom and thepower to reproduce and multiply.Then he said to them: ‘With all these I have given

you thi s worl d to l ive on a nd to be hap py. There i sonly one thi ng I ask of you. To respect the Crea-tor at all times. Wisdom, harmony, and respect forthe love of the Creator who made you. May itgrow and never be forgotten among you as alongas you live.’Man was now going to populate the earth and wasliving in peace with the earth, with other peopleand with the animals. However, in the course oftime, there were people who forgot the task thatSpider Woman had given them, the task to respecttheir creator. Gradually, they began to use theirvibratory centres for earthly purposes and forgotthat their primary goal was to car ry out their crea-tor’s plan. Until then, man had lived in peace withthe animals, but they began to distance themselves

from man and ‘go wild’.Ultimately, people even began to ght each otherand only a small group was left that rememberedthe original task.Taiowa decided to destroy the rst world, exceptthe group that remained faithful to his laws. Só-tuknang told them that they had to let themselvesbe led by their crown chakra. ‘This inner wisdom will give you the sight to seea certain cloud, which you will follow by day,and a cer tain star, which you will follow by night.Take nothing with you. Your journey will not enduntil the cl oud stops and the star stops.’ All overthe world people disappeared from their homes

people have a similar structure. This is why theynot only know all vibratory centres along theearth’s axis, but also the vibratory centres along theaxis of the human being. These vibratory centrescorrespond to the chakras, though the Hopi onlyknow ve of them, the crown chakra, the frontalchakra, the throat chakra, the heart chakra and thenavel chakra or chakra of the solar plexus.Spider Woman then created from the earth, trees,bushes, plants, owers, all kinds of seed-bearersand nut-bearers to clothe the earth. In the samemanner she created all kinds of birds and animals,moulding them out of earth, covering them withher white-substance cape, and singing the Crea-tion Song.Sótuknang was happy, seeing how beautiful it allwas – the land, the plants, the birds and animals,and the power working through them all.

Joyfully he sai d to Taiowa: ‘Come s ee what ourworld looks like now!’

‘It is very good,’ said Taiowa. ‘It is ready now forhuman life, the nal touch to complete my plan.’

CREATION OF MANKINDSpider Woman gatheredearth, this time of four colours, yellow, red, white,and black. From them she created four human be-ings in the image of Sótuknang, the man. Then shecreated four other beings after her own form, thewoman.These human beings experienced a development,comparable to the rising of the sun. It began withthe dark purple light, the rst phase of the dawn.This was at the time when Spider Woman, afterhaving sung the Song of Creation over the mould-

The dark purple light rises in the north,A yellow light rises in the east.Then we of the owers of the ear th come forthTo receive a long life of joy.

We call ourselves the Buttery Maidens.

Both male and female make their prayers to the east,Make the respectful sign to the Sun our Creator.The sounds of bells ring through the air,Making a joyful sound throughout the land,Their joyful echo resounding everywhere.

Humbly I ask my Father,The perfect one, Taiowa, our Father,The perfect one creating the beautiful lifeShown to us by the yellow light,To give us perfect light at the same time of the red light.

The perfect one laid out the perfect planAnd gave to us a long span of life,Creating song to implant joy in life.On this path of happiness, we the Buttery MaidensCarry out his wishes by greeting our Father Sun.

The song resounds back from our Creator with joy,And we of the earth repeat it to our Creator.At the appearing of the yellow light,Repeats and repeats again the j oyful echo,Sounds and resounds for times to come.

The song of creation


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Those who still sang the Song of Creation werelaughed at

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TOKPA – THE SECOND WORLDIt was taking along time for the surface of the earth to cool off .While this was going on, the people lived hap-pily underground, although the food began torun short. Then Sótuknang began to create theSecond World. He changed its form completely,putting land where the water was and water wherethe land had been. Once again, Sótuknang com-manded man to live according to the plan of theCreator.Again, man began to populate the world, andagain, things went wrong. They lived separatedfrom the animals and tended to their own affair s.They built homes; they made things with theirhands and began to trade and bar ter with oneanother. This was when the trouble started. Every-thing they needed was on this Second World, butthey began to want more. Gradually, their songs ofpraise to the Creator changed into songs of praisefor the goods and they strayed from their duty.

Those who still s ang the Song of Creation werelaughed at.Again Taiowa, the primordial Creator, and hisNephew Pöqánghoya, decided to destroy the worldand again, those who did not stray were put withthe Ant People.Again, the twins, Pöqánghoya and Palöngawhoya,were prevented from their task to keep the worldin balance. Again, the world rotated crazily, sothat mountains plunged into seas and tidal wavessloshed over the land. This caused the world tocool off and become covered by ice. In the mean-time, the surviving group lived in peace with theAnt People.

HOPI IS THE ABBREVIATION OF THE TERM THAT THEPEOPLEuse to refer to themselves: ‘Hopituh Sinom’ or ‘thepeople of Hopi’. In the past, the Hopi were also referred toas Moqui or Moki. Different translations exist of the nameHopi, like ‘people who live in the proper way’ or ‘the peace-ful’ or also ‘good, peaceful and wise’. The Hopi speak a dialectfrom the family of languages of the Uto-Aztec languages.Of the approximately 18,000 remaining Hopis, most are liv-ing in the Navajo reservation, divided over eleven autono-mous villages. They are living in their characteristic, terracedPueblo buildings.The Hopituh Sinom possess a great love of peace, which isaccompanied by an almost conictless acceptance of fate.They are awaiting the return of their lost white brotherPahána, in the same way as the Mayas expected the white,bearded god Kukulcan, and the Toltecs and the AztecsQuetzalquatl.

and began following the cloud and the star. Manyother people asked them what had come overthem. And when they were told about the cloudand the star, they were not believed, because noth-ing was seen.Thus a group arrived from all quarters at a cer-tain place. When the last ones arrived, Sótuknangappeared and led them to a big mound where theAnt People lived. An opening was made on top ofthe hill and they entered. Sótuknang said to them:

‘Now you will enter this Ant kiva (Hopi settle-ment), where you will be safe when I destroy theworld. While you are here I want you to learn alesson from these Ant People. They are industrious.They gather food in the summer for the winter.They keep cool when it is hot and warm whenit is cool. They live peacefully with one another.They obey the plan of Creation.’The world was destroyed by the re of volcanoesand this was the end of the First World.


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To save them, Spider Woman put the people inlong bamboo stems with enough food to under-take a l ong journey. When the rains stopped,Spider Woman made rafts of reed for the peoplein the bamboo stems. With these rafts, they trav-elled in the direction of the rising sun. Stepping-stones were laid down for them, where they couldsow and harvest before continuing on.

TÚWAQACHI – THE FOURTH WORLDFinally theyreached a great land with high mountains. ThereSótuknang appeared before them again and said:‘Look now at the way you have come and seethe islands upon which you rested. They are thefootprints of your journey, the tops of the highmountains of the Third World, which I destroyed.Now watch!’As the people watched them, the islands sank un-der the water one by one. Sótuknang continued:‘See, I have washed away even your footprints, the

stepping-stones which I left for you. I have some-thing more to say before I leave you. The nameof thi s Four th World i s Túwawachi, World Com-plete. You will nd out w hy. It is not all beautif uland easy like the previous ones. It has height anddepth, heat and cold, beauty and barrenness. What

you choos e will determ ine if this t ime you c ancarry out the plan of Creation.’ µ

Literature:

F.Waters, Book of the Hopi ,

Penquin Books, 1977,

Again, Sótuknang decided together with SpiderWoman to destroy the world and to save thosewho continued to sing songs of praise. The de-struction took place through water. Heavy down-pours caused all the lands to be ooded.

KUSKURZA – THE THIRD WORLDThen, after along time, the twins were ordered back to theirstations at the poles of the world axis. The worldfound its balance again. Gradually the world beganto warm and Sótuknang set about the third crea-tion of life on earth. When the earth was ready

for human occupancy, he came to the Ant hill andcalled the people to come out. Then he said:‘I have saved you so you can be planted again onthis new Third World. But you must always re-member the two things I am saying to you now.First, respect me, your Creator, and one another.And second, sing in harmony from the tops of thehills. When I do not hear you singing praises toyour Creator, I wil l know you have gone bac k toevil again.’Man began to populate the earth again and con-tinued his path of development. In the First World,they had lived with the animals. In the SecondWorld, they had developed handicrafts, trade, and

Their creation story is remarkable and actually consists

of two parts. The rst part describes the creation of the

rst, original world, including the rst human being. The

second part describes the successive recreations of the

world. These recreations followed destructions by the gods,

because humanity had forgotten to worship its creator.

According to Hopi tradition, the rst world has been

destroyed three times until now, while current humanity is

living in the fourth world.

The creation story of the Hopi

had built villages. Now, in the Third World, theycreated big cities and developed an entire industry.They even knew ying shields, with which theycould attack other cities. They used their creativityfor destruction.


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T he long journey is nearing its end. Ahead on starboard, the homeport is discerned; arrival inearly evening. Clear sight and despite a choppy sea, we make good speed. Something unexped happens: a pilot comes onboard, who conrms, by delivering a personal message to the d

ofcer, my most secret suspicions.By order of the admiralty, a new captain will take over the ship immediately upon arrival. I will bedemoted to the rank of rst ofcer, while an adjusted crew list has been attached. In the meantime,new order for the journey has been given.

I had already expected that this last trip under my command would not remain without consequensecretly, I had longed for it. Actually, the message was even almost a relief – despite my ambition a

belief in a maritime career. It was something like removing a disgrace, an inexplicable debt, and atsame time, a return to respectability and a sense of responsibility.

Three shipwrecks, breakouts of contagious diseases among the crew, looting and embezzlement ofthe cargo as well as high-handed changes of course during different journeys had undeniably beeresponsibility. There were also deaths, not only by violent conicts in distant regions, but also by awholly wrong evaluation of the situation. Many loyal and respectable crewmembers, no longer aboare mourned.

These tragedies in particular, the ultimate failure of all our tasks and the irreparable damage to theship have exhausted the admiralty’s patience. However, it should not pass unmentioned that, until tday, it was heard among the crew that there were doubts whether the admiralty really existed.

The high-handed changes of course and the self-selected missions caused the idea to take root thathere was neither order on the ship or with the crew nor was order imposed from above. Time andagain, this seemed to be conrmed by the immense distances and terrifying mercilessness of the sbreathtaking shallows with the strangest and most dangerous creatures. In addition, there was anunrestrained lack of discipline aboard, not only caused by a continuously deteriorating attitude, bugnawing discontent resulting from the need to trust a captain solely because he was aboard and haplotted the course. How often was the situation not close to mutiny, the bridge occupied by heated

crewmembers and any order ignored with jeers. Only because of the threat of chaos and the dangeof ultimate ruin were the worst mutineers able to feel that a bad captain was better than no captainall.

It was, therefore, a surprise to receive a pilot from the admiralty onboard. To me, it was quite a miracle; even more so because the pilot remained unknown and left the ship immediately after deliverithe new orders. For a moment, this incident brought more rest, order and clarity for the crew thanany orders had so far. Although I had never doubted, as former commander, the existence of the admiralty, yet I always felt compelled to act freely, and it seemed to me that my decisions were alwayline with the wishes from the top. However, there was yet another hint, something that was so scaryand undeniable that I have always tried, until this day, to keep it from the crew: the ship was hidingsomething. During our rst journeys, it had already struck me that over time ever more new proper-ties and possibilities of the ship’s construction became visible, particularly when specic demandsmade or we were facing dangers.

weigh anchor+++ From the log of the rst ofcer: +++ Recorded and transmitted for theships of life on the oceans, a call to all inner seafarers and to the spiritual hon-our of the maritime tradition. +++ We hope that our ships will one day crosspaths in the radiation of the new dawn +++ ad honorem jesu +++ Ahoy +++

+++ Personal log of the captain, year 7, day 40, 09.00 +++ Arrival at the point ofdeparture +++ new orders of the admiralty +++ last entries as captain +++

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During my rst journey, we had established that our ship was perfectly seaworthy and that we did ndepend on the nearness of a known landmass for our orientation. In addition to new functions as seaand airship, we also continuously had to adjust our evaluation of the size and the shape of the ship. true length, width and height of the ship are not even known to me as the ofcer in charge nor do Iknow the number of decks.

I remember with horror and dismay how we entered one of the between-deck compartments. Out ofpure curiosity and with a passionate urge to investigate, the rst ofcer and I broke one of the shut-ters, closed until then, by force. Behind it, there were countless huts and other between-decks, which

were inhabited by all kinds of creatures that were nonetheless quite familiar to us. Though we had nencountered them before, their specic aura and atmosphere held a strong attraction. We were hardlyable to distance ourselves from this strange magic and to reseal the hold. Then we swore that wewould never enter these compartments of our ship forcibly again.

When the crew on the bridge was busy installing new instruments to improve navigation and steering wputting into port, something peculiar happened, too. We were so enthusiastic about the new technologyand the modern instruments that we were almost condescending about the ship’s traditional instrumentswhich until then had belonged to the inventory. Our ofcers were very diligently engaged in this.

This enthusiasm reached its peak when it was proposed to leave the whole navigation to the newinstruments. However, the consequences were terrible and, to this day, the shipwreck is recorded inthe Mare Mentalis as one of the most serious we ever experienced aboard this ship. The navigationainstruments showed a wholly wrong course; and all stellar points of orientation had also disappeareWe did not discover this until the damage incurred was repaired.

As a result, we discovered that our ship was suitable for wholly different journeys than we had imaginedour wildest dreams. Therefore, we were not surprised, when we encountered totally unknown instrumentand equipment during the removal of the cables of the bridge. Though they were optimally integrated inthe ship, they neither appeared in any construction plans nor could a manual be found anywhere.

Judging by our experiences on the between-deck compartments, gradually a certain respect dawnedus as well as the insight that we did not understand anything of these things. Therefore, I cannot denthat by the appointment of a new captain, the memory of these specic events surfaced again, and aa daring coherence presented itself. Which course is lying ahead? Where will the new captain lead u

We returned to the harbour from which we had departed. Before dropping anchor, I turned the shiparound completely, after which I gave the order to ‘stop engines’. As symbol of the new beginning ato hear the new task, the whole crew assembled on the upper deck. Because a new crew would comeonboard, we would have to bid farewell to a few old and good friends. We would welcome new crew

members and it is to be expected that these changes would not take place without any trouble aftersuch a long journey. In order to reinforce the general morale, I announced that the speech to the crewand the ofcial transfer of the authority to the new commander would take place at 12.00 hours. ++May God be with us +++µ

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