Baptism and Belly Dancing—what’s the difference?

Jean Erdman, dancer and wife of Joseph Campbell

by Michael Maciel

What is the purpose of baptism? Is it merely a ceremony, a dedication of one’s soul to a particular religion or body of believers? Or does something actually happen? Are people somehow different after they’ve been baptized, different in a real way? If they are, then there would had to have been a movement of energy. Power had to have been invoked, and its movement would have had a lasting effect on the initiate’s energy body.

That’s right, baptism is a spiritual initiation. The priest places his or her hand on the initiate’s head and says, “Pass into this body, Father. Bring this child into the Cosmic Consciousness for its life of service.” Baptism is the activation of the crown chakra, the Thousand Petaled Lotus at the top of the head. It’s purpose is to prepare for the “coming of the Lord,” which is religious jargon for the initiation of Illumination. By waking up the crown chakra and infusing it with the Christ energy, which has its own unique vibratory signature, the initiate is oriented toward the Christ experience—the Illumination.

In terms of auto mechanics, the baptism is like charging up the battery and connecting all the wires. All of the car’s circuitry is hooked up, programmed, and tested with electrical current. The Illumination is like turning on the ignition—actually firing up the engine. The human body has its own electrical circuits and its own energy. The vibration of that energy has different levels or frequencies—octaves, if you will. The higher the octave, the more attuned that energy is to the Cosmic energies, the spiritual energies of the Sun. This is why we call techniques like baptism “solar” initiations. The Illumination is getting the energy body of the initiate fired up with the Light of Christ. It begins the process of switching over from deriving one’s spiritual energies from the Earth to getting them directly from the Sun.

The Earth has powerful energies too. Its energies are similar to the energies of a bell when it’s been struck by a hammer. They are secondary energies. The Earth swims in a sea of vibratory energies, and in turn vibrates synchronously with them. The Earth’s energies are a combination of its magnetic field and the electrical energies from the Sun. This is the metaphysical interpretation of the Earth’s symbol—the Cross, the intersection of two distinctly different energies for the purpose of creating a pulse.

Just as there are techniques for activating solar energies within the human body, so are there techniques for amplifying the Earth’s energies. The body has a particularly strong energetic relationship with the Earth, one that can be exploited to harness different physical energies. The center or focus of the body’s attunement with the Earth is called hara. By focusing one’s mind on the hara while performing certain physical actions, great strength can be acquired. This is the secret of the martial arts. The martial arts initiate can do things with his or her body that ordinary people who haven’t had that training can even imagine, everything from healing disease to punching holes in a wall with one’s bare fist.

Over the course of human history, three spiritual paths have developed. One path focuses on adapting the body so that it runs on solar energy, thus developing cosmic consciousness; one path utilizes the Earth’s energies for the accomplishment of superhuman feats; the third path is the path of the Moon. This is where we learn about cyclical forces, time, and the subconscious mind. Which, in a timely way, brings us to the subject of . . . you guessed it . . . belly dancing.

You know how it is with bells—once you start banging them, you just can’t stop. Nothing gets people’s attention more than the movement of life energy in their bodies. Joseph Campbell once said that people aren’t looking for the meaning of life so much as the experience of being alive. Once we find out that the body has different frequencies of energies and that those frequencies can be manipulated for different purposes, watch out! There will be dozens of different schools popping up overnight, historically speaking. And each of those schools will have its spin-offs—one of which is belly dancing.

Belly dancing is a curious blend of Earth and Lunar energies worked in such a way that they activate and amplify the second chakra, called svadhisthana, which in Sanskrit means “her favorite resort.” Gee, I wonder what that is. A skilled belly dancer (an initiate in her own right) can open and potentialize the second chakra of every person in the room. She does this by using the Lunar and Earth frequencies in conjunction with time, or timing, the rhythmic and arrhythmic beats of cymbals and drums. Combined with specific abdominal movements and breathing techniques, the same Lunar and Earth energies can be activated in the body of each person in the audience, creating an altered state of consciousness. This altered state of consciousness is as powerful as a drug experience. Because the techniques of belly dancing focus directly on the autonomic nervous system, the audience gets high on the energies through sympathetic resonance.

Women are particularly well-suited for belly dancing for two reasons: one, because they’re female; and two, because who wants to watch John Goodman do a belly dance? Being female usually makes you more attuned with cyclical forces, time, and the subconscious mind. So obviously, all the best belly dancers are women. Men can belly dance too, of course, but for whatever reason, that particular art form never really got off the ground.

The human body runs on spiritual energies. These energies are subtle and are cosmic in origin, which means that they were already here when we arrived on the scene. Through a series of step-down transformers called chakras, these cosmic energies are translated into physical expression. The interplay of these energies has been a major focus of humanity’s attention since . . . well, forever. There are all kinds of names for the different energies, their location in the body, their use, etc., but it sometimes helps to forget all that and simply talk about them in terms of what they are—power, force, and energy. Sanskrit names, color charts, and diagrams are too intellectual. After all, it’s not the meaning of life that we’re after but the experience of being alive. Besides, without the experience, all the explanations are meaningless.

Emptiness and the Priest

How does a priest do anything and still be empty? Is there any personal will involved at all? How can we be active in the world, surrounded with the needs and requests of others, constantly being beseeched to create this or negate that, and yet do God’s will in every case? We might ask for divine guidance, but will we understand what we hear? How can we be sure that we are hearing it right, that we are doing the right thing and not merely interfering with right action?

We’ve talked about what it means to be empty, how to recreate the vibration of God in ourselves and have that vibration infuse us with itself. Being a priest means carrying that vibration into the world. Having some training in basic metaphysics, we know that God does not magically appear on the earth, in this realm of physical vibration, without a mediating agent. There must be a way for a very high vibration to connect with a very low vibration—a step-down transformer, if you will. Not only must there be a step-down in power, there must also be an attunement—the vibration we bring must communicate with the already existing conditions in a meaningful way in order to effect changes in the mind and matter of earth.

How is this done?

Just as there must be contact in an electrical circuit before electrons can flow, so there must also be a connection between the vibration of God and the people with whom we are dealing. That connection is our attention. We must be there! In order for God to work through us, we must be present in the world. Whatever is needed, whatever energies are to be provided, whatever power of presence is to prevail, we must bring it. We don’t invent it, we don’t make it up, we don’t do what we think should be done—we simply show up. We let the power of God do its work—through us.

The minute we try to step in and create a vibration of our choosing, something that intellectually seems right in that moment, we get in the way of the pure vibration of God, and its power is substantially reduced.

Does this mean that we can’t say anything, do anything, or engage with the situation or the problem? No, of course not. If we are going to be present to what’s going on, we have to interact with it. We have to use our skills, our understanding, our ability to communicate, to mediate, to mitigate, to broker appropriate actions. Why is this? Because a mediator is a two-way street. We become the go-between for God and the people. Those involved in the situation must have the opportunity to interact with the energies, the vibration of God, that we bring to them. If there is no meaningful interaction, there can be no possibility for lasting change, no transformation. The energies we bring must be integrated into the hearts and minds of the people for whom we are mediating. It is our job as priests to facilitate that integration. We are the midwife, the one who allows the new possibility to emerge into their physical, mental, and emotional reality.

The response we get will not always be positive. In fact, sometimes the raw energy of God can produce a reaction. The light we bring can also produce heat. If we know this in advance and are prepared for it, we can “turn the other cheek,” as Jesus advises us to do. The professionalism we bring to our craft will help us to not take it personally when the inevitable push-back occurs. If our ego is empty, it cannot get hit.

We cannot live in an ivory tower and fulfill our function as priests. Red blood cells and white blood cells can only do their work when they are circulating in the body. We must be in contact, whether physically or in prayer, with those whom we were sent to serve.   Only then can we deliver the vibration of God that we carry with us, the energies that move through us—the Body and Blood of Christ.

Knowing Nothing

Knowing  is not knowledge. Nor is it opinion or speculation. Opinion and speculation require an object, whereas the faculty of knowing does not require an object. You are probably wondering how this could be possible—how can you know without knowing something?

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word know as a verb, meaning to perceive directly or to have direct cognition of something. But, there is no reference to the word knowing as a faculty. Knowing, like seeing or grasping, seemingly cannot do without an object. Perception and cognition have no meaning without first having something to perceive or of which to be cognizant. And yet, the mystic in you knows that knowing is a faculty—like seeing and hearing. And just as the absence of a visible object or a sound does not negate the eyes and ears, neither does an absence of knowledge negate your ability to know.

What we know has the power to shape our lives. It acts like a vacuum that draws to itself anything and everything that is in alignment with what we accept as real. Understanding knowing as a faculty is the first step in learning how to direct our knowing—how to choose the reality we want to call into being. In order to understand our faculty of knowing, we must first become familiar with it. We must learn what it feels like to know without an object.

This is what Eastern philosophies cryptically refer to as emptiness and no-self.

The logic is simple. By definition, an object is something separate from you. As long as a thing is separate from you, you will never attain it. Because to attain something, you have to become it. This is how the spiritual world works. Nothing is “out there.” But as long as you consider it to be an object, it is out there, and it will be out there forever. To grasp something in the spiritual world, you must first identify its vibration and then recreate that vibration within yourself. You don’t go anywhere; it doesn’t go anywhere. You reach it by becoming it. It’s that simple.

To know without an object is to become a negative potential. You become the vacuum that nature will fill. In metaphysical terms, this is called “undifferentiated potentiality.” But like any object, even undifferentiated potentiality is something external as long as it remains a concept. Have you ever wondered why in esoteric schools so much emphasis is placed on quieting one’s mind? As long as there are thoughts in there, you cannot be that undifferentiated potentiality.

Of course, there are prerequisite states of mind that must first be mastered before you can know without an object. First is concentration. You must be able to focus your awareness on one thing and keep it there despite any distractions. Prerequisite to concentration is trust. Unless you can relax into nothingness, fear will keep you attached to external objects just as surely as a person drowning will hang onto a life preserver. Why? Because most people identify with the things that occupy their awareness. Their thoughts, their possessions, their body, their relationships—all these things tell them who they are. Letting go of these externalities can be tantamount to losing one’s self. This can be terrifying.

Until you are confident in your own eternal nature, letting go of the contents of your knowing will be difficult. It will feel like you are going to die. This is why Self-realization is important—you must know who you are. This cannot be intellectualized, however. That’s why simply saying “I am one with God” doesn’t work. Being “one with God” is a concept and is therefore separate from you. As long as it is separate from you, it is impossible to be one with God. In order to be one with God, you must first identify the vibration of God and then recreate that vibration within yourself. You must become God. You must realize the Self.

It can be confusing to be told that you must do this or do that, while at the same time be told to let go. But this is what you must do. Everyone has their highest conception of God, a knowing of God that is based on an experience they have had. This is where you start. Each spiritual experience—the ones that have convinced you that God is real, even if still out there somewhere—carries with it a vibration, a feeling, or what the Sufis call a scent. This is the vibration that you must recreate in yourself if you are to become God.

Now, make no mistake, the average person will think that “becoming God” means that they will be omniscient and omnipotent, that they will actually become the Lord of the Universe. This is a foolish and immature notion. Becoming God in the sense we mean here is to become one with God, to attune our vibration with God’s vibration—the vibration we have been blessed to know in our highest spiritual experiences. We take our mountaintop experience, whatever that may be, and we sit in it. We fill our awareness with it until there is nothing else. And we do this until the ordinary part of us begins to fade away. It becomes more and we become less.

Soon, we will surpass our previous mountaintop experiences and find new ones. We continue sitting with those, integrating their vibration into our cells and our consciousness until still more descend into our vision and our feeling. We keep doing this until we can create the vibration of God within our being at will, wherever and whenever we want.

But, to reach this point, we have to master the ability to know nothing, to clear our innerspace, turning it into a staging area, a blank canvas, an empty vessel, or whatever metaphor you want to use. You must become empty.

Humility—a quality of being

You may have heard the story of the prospective student and the overflowing teacup. The master pours him a cup of tea and keeps pouring even as the tea starts spilling out onto the floor. The prospective student is alarmed and offended. He questions whether the master knows what he is doing, whereupon the master informs him that just as there is no more room in his cup for more tea, there is no more room in his mind for further teaching. The student thinks he already knows what the master is going to say and is therefore non-receptive.

Humility is all about being receptive. It is the willingness and the ability to learn. It is the foundation of successful spiritual training. And it does not come by degree; you either are humble or you are not. You may cycle in and out of the state of being humble, but there is no such thing as partial humility.

It has been said that the ego is the first thing to be attracted to the spiritual path and the last thing to let go. It takes one look and says, “Hey, this is for me! I can really use this to make myself look important.” A skillful teacher will let this run its course and not hit it too directly, because it can carry the student through the more difficult stages of learning early on in his or her training.

Therefore, you will probably be learning humility your entire life. The moment you think that you have it is the exact moment you do not. And this will never cease to be an issue, not as long as you are living on Earth in a physical body. This is why humility comes first in all valid courses of spiritual study, instead of high-minded theories or tidbits of information designed to impress you—or that you can use to impress others.

Understanding the Priesthood

In order to understand the Priesthood, we have to go back to basic Holy Order of MANS teachings about one’s personal atmosphere—that field of energy around each person’s body that is encoded with the thoughts, feelings, and experiences of an individual’s earthly existence. I have come to feel my own atmosphere as my “presence,” meaning, for lack of better words, the effect I have on the world around me in an energetic sense—not like a mechanical force field so much as a field with personality. Everyone has this, although they might not be aware of it in a way that lets them also see it in others.

Once you do, however, it becomes possible to offer it up as a vehicle for higher beings—those humans who have evolved beyond the need to be here on the earth plane—so that they can impart their spiritual energies and consciousness through your atmosphere/presence to those humans who are in need, whether those needs are physical or spiritual, which I have come more and more to see as the same.

Giving oneself up as a vehicle for a higher being is precisely what Jesus of Nazareth did, only the Being that used him was the Christ Being, or the Lord of the Sun. This idea might sound foreign to some readers, but it makes perfect sense to me, not because I learned it in the HOOM, but because everything I know as a human being on this planet tells me that the Sun is the source of all life, and not just as a blind force but as a living conscious presence, full of intelligence and personality.

When I was ordained a priest, it was through and by the authority of Jesus AS Christ (I like that better than simply “Jesus Christ,” because it better describes who and what he is). Jesus AS Christ conveys the reality of the greater being of The Christ working through the personality of the human person of Jesus. After being ordained, I began to become more and more aware of Jesus AS Christ showing up in my atmosphere/presence, especially while serving communion, which I have come to understand as the best way to grow and develop this relationship with this particular being.

The communion is an ancient ritual, preceding Jesus of Nazareth by hundreds if not thousands of years (no one really knows how long), which was appropriated by early Christians as a sacrament. It acts as a vehicle of sorts through which Jesus can “communicate” his life energy and presence to people on the Earth plane through the mediation of a priest. This energy isn’t “his” so much as it is the One for Whom he mediates, namely the Christ Being, the Lord of the Sun.

If the term “Lord of the Sun” bothers you, which it does most people, please bear in mind that we’re not talking so much about that massive star at the center of our solar system as we are the spiritual body of the Sun, the one that fills and permeates the entire system in which we live.  Every living thing bears its imprint—from the molecular level all the way to the level of consciousness. Science is discovering every day how and why this is true, although they use different names for it.

So, to understand the Priesthood is to understand the way the Christ Being, working through Jesus AS Christ, who in turn works through the atmosphere/presence of the priest (whether male or female, by the way) for the purpose of being a channel of grace to everyone living on the Earth plane.

This is the “function and purpose” of the Priesthood. One can aspire to it if one feels so called, but the actual hook-up, so to speak, has to come from above. It is not an earthly institution, although it is specifically designed to function in the Earth plane. It is an “initiation,” which means that your entire life will be different—forever. Once you have it, the presence of God becomes a part of your presence, so much so that people can sense that there is something different about you, even if you’re not wearing some kind of identifiable garment or insignia.

But just know that the motivation for becoming a priest must come from the heart—from the soul, actually—manifesting itself as an intense desire to serve all people everywhere, not just those of your own family or clan. It’s not like becoming a politician where you represent only certain interests over others. You become a universal servant in every sense of the word.

Those Three Words

There are three words that seem to create more problems than they solve: vows, devotion, and renunciation. It’s not that there is anything wrong with the words themselves; it’s just that the connotations that have been built up around them have made them nearly useless in describing the spiritual principles they represent.

Vows have been inextricably linked with one’s commitment to an organized religion or church. Ostensibly, vows are taken to God, but everyone knows that it’s the organization that judges whether they are being kept. This turns vows into a set of rules one must follow or suffer punishment when one breaks them. In a world already overburdened by rules, it is no wonder that vows are looked upon with suspicion, even by the most spiritually oriented people.

In reality, vows are principles that spiritual aspirants hold in deep contemplation until they become amalgamated with their souls. Their public administration creates a line of demarcation in the span of a person’s life, marking a point of departure from the world mind. Vows then become an inner beacon—a light to guide the spiritual traveller through the darkest nights. Seen this way, vows are indispensable.

The word “devotion” describes the recognition of the intimacy and sanctity of the presence of God. Many an earnest student of spirituality has succumbed to the temptation of turning God into a theory—an intellectual puzzle to be solved rather than a Living Being to be experienced. But the word itself has come to mean a cloistered lifestyle, habits and rosaries, statues and early morning mass. And, as implied in these examples, devotion has become almost exclusively Catholic.

In reality, unless one has acquired devotion and has integrated it into his or her spiritual life, God can only be a theory, and the Path can only be an intellectual exercise. Even meditation, as mental a thing as that is, will not yield results unless it is approached with a certain degree of devotion. After all, is it your own mind that you love or the ineffable Silence from which it springs?

And finally the Big One—renunciation—perhaps the most loaded word of all. Again, everyone knows that this means no chocolate, no booze, no sex, and no anything that gives one pleasure. Because pleasure is THE problem, is it not? As the saying goes: “It wasn’t the apple on the tree, it was the pear (pair) on the ground.” And thus the word “renunciation” has the built-in implication that pleasure is wrong. But pleasure is not wrong…that is, not until it is. If we live for pleasure alone, then all of our seeking is for something out there.

Renunciation is a turning away from the world. In a sense, it is the very meaning of meditation. We have five senses by which we experience earthly life: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. In meditation, we take each of these and turn them off, just as we would a light switch. What are we if we are not these things? Who do we become if we are not our body? What world do we go to that does not depend upon these five things for its existence? It is the world to which renunciation (and meditation) is the key.

So, here we have three words—three words that simultaneously hide and reveal the spiritual path. There are many more. In The Mystical Christ, there are several articles on the meaning of the Five Vows—humility, purity, service, obedience, poverty. You might want to check them out.

The Illumination – what is it?

Everyone wants to know what the Illumination is, because it’s the first step on the road to Self-realization. Let me rephrase that: it’s the first step toward Self-realization IF you want to keep your sanity. We all know people who forced their way into the kingdom of heaven, only to lose all touch with reality. The veil of matter is ripped aside, and the seeker is left exposed and unprepared for the new environment.

The spiritual path is fraught with danger for those who try to go it alone. This is why the institutionalized churches prohibit dabbling in the occult. What is the “occult”? It is the original “third rail,” a metaphor referring to the third rail of an electrically powered train. You’ve heard the expression: “Medicare is the third rail of politics,” meaning that it is “charged” or “untouchable.” Well, the occult is the third rail of religion, and not without good reason. Touch it, and it can kill you, spiritually speaking. The only problem with this is that occult phenomena are happening spontaneously anyway, with or without preparation, so we have to talk about it. Otherwise, people are going to think that they are going insane.

There are many references in the Bible to the Illumination, but as always, they are couched in symbolic language. The parting of the Red Sea, Moses raising the serpent in the wilderness, the baptism of John, and the Transfiguration on the Mount – all of these are stories about the Illumination and how to attain it. The most obvious of them is the raising of the serpent, a direct reference to Kundalini Yoga and precursor to the Crucifixion. Why the Crucifixion? Sufi master, Hazrat Inayat Khan puts it like this: “It always means that you must sacrifice something very dear to you when God’s call comes.”

So, let’s get down to the mechanics of this thing called “Illumination.” First, we have to recognize that in order to see light in one’s body, there has to be a pathway for that to occur. This pathway is the nervous system. This should come as no surprise, seeing as how the nerves are the conductors of power, force, and energy – the interface between earth and heaven. And this is really all we need to know in order to experience light. If you want to understand the process, that’s a different matter. But why try to understand something until you have experienced it?

Okay, if you want something technical, here it is. Proprioception. What is that? It is the sense we have of our body in space, how our members relate to each other. It’s the sense that tells us to duck when going through a low doorway, and duck even more if we are wearing a hat. How does this relate to the process of Illumination? Well, it is the mechanism by which we can locate the center of our being. And locating the center of our being is essential if we are to find the source of light within ourselves.

Normally, we tend to think that the “I,” the self, resides in our head, somewhere behind the forehead. This is not true. What we perceive as the “seat” of consciousness is merely the reflection of a deeper center. If you look at the drawings of the old alchemists, you will see the moon at the head and the sun in the abdomen. The moon reflects the light of the sun, does it not? So, we can use our proprioception to locate the “central sun” of our personal universe. Here’s how:

First, close your eyes. Get quiet and become aware of your body’s sense of itself in its immediate space. This is similar to doing an auric egg exercise, but instead of visualizing it in your head, you are sensing something that is already there. Your proprioception never stops, not while you are awake. Next, become aware of the space in front of you. Feel the body’s awareness of what’s in front. Then, feel what’s behind you. Project you awareness there – reach out with it. Then, do the same with the space to the left of you and the right of you.

Proprioception is what tells you how far you can extend your arms, the range of potential movements you can make with them. The brain uses this information to predict the body’s movement in space, so that it can tell the body what to do in a split second before you have a chance to think about it.

Next, do the same thing with the space above and below you. If you have done these steps experientially and not with your head, if you felt the space and not merely thought about it, you will now feel the place out of which your awareness has sprung, the place from which it extends in these different directions. That place is in the center of your abdomen.

Take a moment right now to try this.

From here on out, this is your “true north.” This is your altar, your place of worship, your Holy of Holies. If you look at it with your mind’s eye, it may appear rather solid, like a rock. But what looks like a surface is actually the “veil of matter.” Underneath that surface is the Self of God, the real You, the source of all light in your being. Behind that veil is a light more brilliant than the noonday sun. And though you might not be able to see it yet, you can most definitely feel it. Light, after all, is light, whether you can see it or not. You can’t see the electricity in that third rail, but you know it is there!

This is the first step in having the experience called “the Illumination.” It is your natural state, something that has been there all along. It doesn’t take a lot of effort on your part, only the desire to see it and the willingness to let go of preconceived ideas of who and what you are. Once you train yourself to feel the center of your being habitually, you will never again mistake yourSelf with the thoughts that rattle around in your head.

Form – don’t let the medium become the message

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by Michael Maciel

We have to watch ourselves that we don’t get caught up in the glamor of liturgy and the paraphernalia of our Tradition. When we do, we lose the intention for which these forms were established.

The tendency is to dress up the simple, to adorn the elegant, to customize the original. Simple formulae become statements of individual style and/or religious identification, and the message – the transmission – gets lost beneath the overlay.

Jesus built his church on the transmission of truth, not on established lineages and outer forms of worship. The transmission is the carrier wave, the power within the tradition, but the uninitiated can easily mistake the outer trappings as the source of that power, what little of it can still be detected underneath the glitter.

We need the form, but we must not exalt it above the transmission. Not ever. The form was made to serve the transmission, not the other way around.

Can you manifest the Body and the Blood while standing in the checkout line at the grocery store? This is the test.

Become the form.

“And may I become the transformed and transfigured Lord Jesus Christ.”

“This is my body – this is my blood.”

If Jesus came simply to turn water into wine and wine into blood, where would be the grace in that? That would be magic – the direction of force outward onto the world. Nothing in us would be transformed at all.

We have to look deeper. Always. The word “mystery” implies this—an invitation, not a prohibition.

The New Teacher/Student Relationship

by Michael Maciel

It stands to reason that the Age of Aquarius would bring changes in all areas of life, including the time-honored traditions of the teacher/student relationship. Perhaps especially in this area, since Aquarius represents a major course-correction in all things authoritative. Yes, authority is the issue. Specifically, it is the usurpation of authority by any person who takes on the authority of God as if it were his own. Sure, you have to step into those shoes if you want to be effective in the world. But, if and when (because every priest does this at some point in their career) you forget that it is God’s authority and not yours, you will become, and I mean this in all sincerity, an insufferable pain in the ass.

Here is the new law about the teacher/student relationship. It’s not a rule, but a principle. And it’s not new, strictly speaking, because it’s always been in play. It’s new in the sense that it can no longer be ignored. Here it is:

Teachers learn from their students.

Now, if this seems like something you knew already, well…of course you knew it already. But what you may not have known is that the student does not know it. And this is where the playing field is changing. Every teacher/student relationship in the past has been based on the contract of “I will teach, and you will learn.” This is straightforward enough, and every teacher has taken comfort in its simplicity. The problem is that it’s an entirely up-down affair. It is hierarchical – linear – with no room for feedback or the living system that feedback provides. The new contract, which both parties must enter into with eyes wide open, is “we will learn together.”

This is going to rankle the hell out of a lot of people, not only teachers, but students as well. Why? Because it ain’t the way things are s’posed to be. Why fix something that isn’t broke? Well, guess what…it is broke. Every teacher who has set himself up as the ultimate authority in a student’s life has only created a whole lot of issues that the student will eventually have to work through, just like most parents do with their children.

The problem with this is that if you see your student as a child, he will behave like a child. He will abandon every shred of common sense that he has learned in his life, prior to meeting you, in order to fit your preconception of him. Instead of getting what he needs in order to live an independent spiritual life, which is ostensibly what you are trying to give him, he will adopt your idiosyncrasies and personal traits, which for him are inappropriate. Why corrupt the good stuff with your stuff? Why inflict that on him?

Here’s why this has become an issue. The Age of Aquarius is bringing in a new level of energy. Spiritual growth is happening faster and more spontaneously. In the words of the prophet, “No man will have to teach his neighbor, saying here is God, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest.” Our task now is to help students cope with what they are experiencing already. God is becoming part of the landscape, as bright as the noonday sun. And most people don’t need to be told what the sun is, do they? They already know. Your job is to help them deal with it.

So, this is it. This is the new program. It doesn’t invalidate what you know, neither does it put the student up on a pedestal. It makes the relationship real. We have always learned from our students, and we always will. Why try to keep that a secret? Deep down, the student knows it anyway. If we hide behind our robes and our rank, all we do is teach him how to pretend. After all, we are not in the business of creating clones. We want to help the student reveal themselves, not mimic us. Thinking that we already know who they are can only lead to cloning. If we think our spiritual sight is that good, we are kidding ourselves. It’s not. Only God knows the true potential of each living soul. Teaching is a process of revelation – for everyone involved.

Ritual and the Movement of Consciousness

There is a saying: “Where attention goes, energy flows.” Taken at face value, it means that we give life to whatever we think about. Simple enough, right? Every marketing person knows that the first thing you have to do to make a sale is get their attention. What they don’t know is that as consciousness moves from one object to another, there is a corresponding movement of energy.

Before you think you know where this is going, so to speak, consider this: the quality of the energy you set in motion when you look from left to right is different from the energy you set in motion when you look from right to left.

Do I have your attention now?

Have you ever wondered why a male priest enters the Law Triangle from the left side of the altar and a female priest enters from the right? Every movement at the altar is choreographed to produce certain effects. Why is the bread on the left and the wine on the right? Why is the Body served first and then the Blood? Not only does position matter, but sequence matters as well.

And I don’t mean that it matters semantically or because it was scripted that way. It matters because if you change the position or the sequence, you change the energy.

The human body, our body, along with being called our “vehicle,” is also sometimes referred to as our instrument. We use our body in this plane of manifestation the way a trades person uses his or her tools to effect a change in the environment. We use our body the way they use their tools. What we “construct” are patterns of energy. We construct these patterns by the way we move and the way we think. The more integrity our construction has – the more consistent we are in building the pattern – the more power will move through it.

This is why we perform the Mass the same way every time. Not that we can’t allow room for the Spirit to express Itself in new ways from time to time, but the basic structure remains the same.

As with most things of an esoteric nature, explanations are never sufficient to get the point across. You have to experience it. So, here’s something you can try. The next time you are about to raise the chalice to do the transmutation, pause for a moment and look at it while it is sitting there on the altar. Think to yourself, “This is wine.” Then, as you raise it high above your head, and you reach up in consciousness to the Christ Being of the Sun………well, there you go.

Now, imagine doing that in reverse. Not with the wine, of course, but with anything, with your consciousness. What happens when you look up and contact the Christ Being first, and then bring it down  into something here on the earth plane? Here we have both a difference in direction and in sequence. Therefore, we will have a difference in the energy and the form in which it manifests.

In neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), we learn the importance of bodily gestures, eye movements, and vocal intonations, and the way these things affect consciousness and behavior. This is not new knowledge. Nor is it only based on the way the brain works. The brain works the way it does because it is a reflection of the Cosmos. Those who instituted the Priesthood and the Sacraments knew the reality of As Above, So Below, and they could read the “stars” both in the heavens and in the body. The rituals and sacraments handed down to us work best when they are kept simple. Don’t mess with them. If you do, you will only weaken them and yourself in the process. Don’t do that.