Liturgy

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Dead Sea Scrolls Presentation 1 of 15 Liturgy Presented by Roger Weir Tuesday, April 4, 1989 Transcript: His center there and what we're doing here and a number of other places in the country. The Charistic Institute in Washington and various other places. sensitive and intelligent people like ourselves are trying to discover what is viable within our capacities to experience and to express. And what threads can be taken up and woven together to make a continuing life for ourselves and for our kind. And here at this particular Center, this is about six years now that we've been here trying to look at the old classical Hellenistic World. The way in which the Hellenistic world came together. Came together in a very powerful symbolic implosion somewhere around the time of the life of Jesus. And that many of the viable traditions of the ancient world, Egyptian, archaic Greek, ancient India, the ancient Semitic traditions, all came together and were fused into a symbolic unity. The unity has not held in its civilized expression. But the unity has been unimpaired in the deep psyche all this time. And we still have within ourselves the capacity to touch that single center and revivify for ourselves an interior experience which can be expressed in language. And so, the work here has been to make an educational program, a two-year cycle, that we work on Saturday mornings. And a center of experience from the deep psyche which we are trying to tap on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Thursday nights at the Philosophic Research Society with Manley Hall's facilities and backing. And Tuesday night here with our tried to go into Mahayana Buddhism. Trying to understand how Daoism became a religion out of the Chinese tradition. Trying to understand how Christianity and Judaism began. And in that work in the last three years more and more the material has taken a shape. And the shape is becoming a book which is being written now. And I have somewhat over 400 cassettes and about 300 in some pages written. And the book will be entitled Jesus in Alexandria. And the appendix to that book is a liturgy which has been pieced together. A Hermetic wisdom liturgy. And we can't really call it a Christian liturgy because this would have been practiced before there was anything like Christianity. This would have been practiced before any kind of happenings in Jerusalem. This would have been practiced around, I used the date symbolically 0 B.C. And as close as I can I have put together from excerpts from insights over the last three years, this Hermetic wisdom liturgy, and tried to focus it in Alexandria about 0 B.C. what would the practice have been for those spiritual communities, not always ascetic but very frequently so. Whose origin was most likely in the Synedra of the Pythagorean communities from the late 6th century, early 5th century B.C. The Synedra of the meeting houses of the Pythagoreans later on became the places of gathering for several major world religions. Early Christianity one of them. So, this Hermetic wisdom liturgy will be an appendix to the volume Jesus in Alexandria. And we're trying here every seven weeks to follow the ancient Jewish tradition of having a record of the deepest cycle of response that we're capable of. And the deepest cycle of response apparently is every fifty days. So that this Jubilee, this seven times seven and then the next one, this 50-day cycle seems to be not only characteristic of the ancient festival cycle, planting and harvesting and first fruits and Thanksgivings and praisings and so forth. That ancient festal cycle was every fifty days. But for us we're trying to establish here a sensitivity. Not so much as a religious performance but as a show and tell on the deepest level. So, we're going to present as best we can this liturgy. and we're going to use some of the elements that were characteristic of it. And you may recognize some of them you may not. But none of them come from any identifiable religious tradition that is now operating. This would have been characteristic of something 2,000 years ago in a city which at that time was very much what LA is today, the meeting place of all the world. As you know Alexandria was made to be the megaphone of Alexander the Great's ecumenacos, one world. And the structure of the one world was a one-man kind. And for that single mankind there was to be a meeting of the psychic energies of all the peoples of the world. And Alexandria was the place for that. It was the anvil and the megaphone where that was to happen. And some 350 years after it was founded for that purpose, it apparently did happen. But because of the vicissitudes of geology and history we have absolutely nothing left. Classical Alexandria has subsided. And most of what would have been of interest to us is now under 60 feet of water and mud in the harbor of Alexandria. There have been some expeditions my friend Steven Schwartz it took an expedition to Alexandria some years ago and found enough to merit going back. But what we're after here is to perform a ceremony as best we can, which is evocative. And if we do it right, we should be able to have something to talk about after the ceremony is over and after we have some refreshments. To just talk among ourselves a for half hour or so. What with, what have we seen? what have we experienced? How do I feel about this? What do I hear in others' comments? And so, this is an open forum. And rather than a church or as some esoteric above-ground catacomb, it's merely a schoolroom for the spirit. A place where we can observe with as much dedication as we can bring to bear on a focus like this Hermetic wisdom liturgy. I wish Sydney had been here, but I will have to perform the elders role. And so, I'm going to step in front of the desk and move these microphones there and conduct a liturgy as best I can. **inaudible word or two**. I'll narrate the happening so that you can follow. Most of you have had a copy of this at some time or another over the last two months. as far as I can tell the liturgy began with a bell rung with the resonance allowed to just occur and fade out. So, we'll begin with that. Then came the invocation. And the words were, "Holy Spirit of wisdom flow through our persons with your person freely. Expressed within our images your deep remembrance. Truth coherent life. The unseeing, unveil. the seeing, perfected. Come Holy Spirit be here at home from the fold to the field all is full." Then after the invocation was the establishment of the community on the spot in terms of the voices. In terms of the voices accenting to the establishment of the community. Which had to come down apparently every time that the population came together. It was by their assent only that the community was established. And that the liturgy could continue. And so, the establishment of the community was in this way. Will the men able to be fully present signified aloud by saying yay assenting their willingness. **misc. yays from the room** Will the women able to be fully present signify by saying aloud yay. Hereby is the community assembled. will all confirm this a third time by saying aloud yay. Yay. Then the bell was rung three times to signify now that from the invocation the community had taken the dynamic from the invocation and established the community. From one bell ring now, for three. I believe at this time that incense was lit. Because of the heat of the evening if you will all been sent through imagining incense. Now the incense was of two kinds in Alexandria at this time. one was kyphi, which had sixteen different ingredients. And the other was just a single incense of , made out of frankincense. So, it was either kyphi or frankincense. And I'm not sure which one. I would think that frankincense. The next section follows on the establishment of the community. And the community once established was put into motion so that the Liturgy now is developing. And the invocation to the establishment of the community and putting that community into motion. And the term that was used at the time is sojourn, I suppose the connotation that we would recognize here is like a stranger in a strange land. That we are in an alien environment and our true home is elsewhere. And we are moving towards that true home. That we are on a journey. That our life here is a journey moving towards that. And so, we are sojourning but together. One person alone is at rest. Does not move. Is unmoving. Finds the fount within in an unmoving way. But the community finding it discovers that they traveled together, sojourn. And that these words go with it. The self-existent, the Holy Spirit rests within this assemble community together. Sojourning in this world, place to this star system. now the very focus of right speech. The **inaudible word** freely speak through our office psychic condition. May the Lord in open speech bless this sacrificial **inaudible word**. Made of true nature nourish these shapes of **inaudible word** and say, Lord be with us, **inaudible word** than one, **inaudible word** primordial **inaudible word**. And closing out this whole section was a single bell rung. So that in this sequence in the liturgy, from the invocation to the establishment of the community to putting the community into motion. The next phase began with a statement of vision. And that the vision was an opening out from within. And these words were meant to carry this. "We desire to see beyond this image world. our sight perfected to discover the existence soaring above. The star of our senses staying with this company enfolded by the Holy Spirit to carry us to hold us indeed." Then as the vision would be shared by these words an undercurrent was added. Which the traditional word for it in Latin **inaudible word**, passion. And in this the bell was rung insistently, rapidly. With this kind of language, "Lord….most **inaudible word** wisdom here. We are **inaudible word** and ready and yearning still yearning." With the vision and with the passionate undercurrent added to it then came the first manipulation of ritual ceremonial objects. And the first object was a consecration of oil. And the traditional ways for this was the oil of gladness. Now this use of oil became truncated later on in Christian Church practice. And the modified in Islamic and Jewish practice. But in the ancient Alexandria technique I believe it followed this kind of concourse. A statement of the oil of gladness. Through the Holy Spirit we are engaged begotten **inaudible word**. But we have begotten through the lord of the two. We are anointed through the spirit. When we were begotten, we were from the two. Begotten again. We first accept the oil of gladness preparing us for a mystery. Mysterious person that bellowing discoveries prepare us to find. Then came the consecration of an oil dish. And I'm using a sterling silver dish that was found on a house that I owned up by the observatory one time. It has a tree of life engraved on it with the roots. And the roots are separated from the tree of life by a space, a gap, kind of a synapse gap. it seemed an appropriate cup. The consecration of the oil dish was then with these words, "What is within, hold space and time in form in this world. What is hidden as their inner parts stands upright and lives. This dish is able to hold within it in an oil." Then came the consecration of the oil. The traditional oil was an olive oil and added to it the balsam. Now the supply of balsam in Los Angeles is not readily available so we're going to use a rose water. The bringing of the two together is called a prism. I use just a little of this here filling just the bottom of the cup. And adding a little bit of rose water. Then came the words the consecration of the oil, "The free fluidity of this balsam of oil and spirit is able to hold within it the ceiling shape of the wisdom light." Then this was applied in an individual sequence that followed this. The elder returned to the first person and make a consecration by holding the dish in the right palm. and with the ring finger of the left hand dabbing a little oil. First on the temples and just letting the finger rest a little bit on the temple with the words, "This inner horizon awake." And then again dabbing right between the eyes on his forehead. "This **inaudible word** awake" And then the consecrating vehicle was given to that person. And they pass this on to the next. Following the same procedure. So, we'll just do that with your permission to see how this **inaudible word**. Would you like to stand for it? **inaudible response from the room** This inner horizon awake. This **inaudible word** awake This horizon awake. This **inaudible word or two** **inaudible comments from the room/apparently misc. repeats of above. This continues for several minutes** By now the community would have been brought to a focus. quietness individually but shared **inaudible word** sharing dynamic. Two different movements, a center and a spin. And these two together were preparing one then for the spiritual dimension. And I believe that the focus at this time was to bring out of the experience of the individuals sacred Psalms and hymns which they would have written themselves out of their own practice. Out of their own contemplative practice. Out of their own meditative experience. And we have a few people who have been doing this. So, we have some individuals who are able to do this. This was a call or hymns, sacred hymns and the words run like this, "This community has sealed itself. Are there hymns are sacred poems from individual experience to offer? Words from individual contemplation for shared experience in this self-sealed community." The emphasis was here that there is no hierarchical structure. There's no authority being used but the community has engendered its own integrity. And in the shared dynamic of that integrity, the quiet personal voice of the individual was welcomed. Was able to be heard in its own terms. And for the individual this was a juncture, a meeting, of their deepest private language with the attentiveness and receptiveness of the shared community. Just as the shared community's voice met the quiet privateness of the individual. This is the other movement out. The one movement is an integration. The other is a differentiation. The integration is towards the private silence and the differentiation is the words from the individual coming out to the community at large. So, both movements. And in the Hermetic tradition always these two movements occurred together. And it was they're paired complementarity that produced the sealing, the Hermetic seal, which could not be broken. And so, we are calling for hymns or sacred poems. and those who have been following this on Tuesday night I expect will have some. And so, it's a call for some of you who have them to offer them up at this time. **inaudible few words** freed of the yoke of trivial things. **inaudible few words** we bring our gifts to the alter. All that we are and know **inaudible word or two** be better. Bless us oh Lord to be **inaudible few words**…of life's love. And so, it **inaudible word**. Keep us, oh Lord, we stand before thee with **inaudible word** eyes and open hearts and serve you better. Lead us, oh Lord, into ourselves that we may know thee more and serve you better. Are there other hymns or sacred poems from other individual experience to offer? **inaudible word** waters **inaudible word**. Send ships. Opening up pathways however **inaudible few words**. Are there other hymns of sacred poems from individual experience to offer? **inaudible word** with pleasure and ecstasy. Suffering and delight. I am a seductress and a virgin. Mother of all possibility. Father of all actions. Realization of all beings. I am **inaudible word or two**. I am the fuel to the spark. I am the fire, the heat, the smoke, the life. I am the dream of possibility which makes life tolerable and worth living. I am the chaos which transformed. I am the center of the storm. I am the fury of the storm. I am that which seeks freedom. I am that which loves entrapment. I am the master of all, yet I do not know myself. I am the realization of time and pattern. I am eternal outside of **inaudible word** and system. I am an irreducible mystery. Are there other hymns or sacred poems from individual experience to offer? **inaudible several words**…in voices and in words. **inaudible word two** Satisfy **inaudible few words**. Are there any other hymns or sacred poems from individual experience to offer? **inaudible word** hands **inaudible word** like these deep waters upwards. Wisest dynamic flow opening hands wide in praise. Now as that cycle would have generally included everyone in the community. That is to say everyone who would have been present would have had the practice. And would have brought something to the community. And at this time, it was up to the elder who was sometimes styled the president. Philo in his writing style **inaudible word** figure sometimes as the president. The translation to word would be president. Elder is probably better for our consideration. The elder at this time would choose one of those poems, one of those sacred hymns and deliver an **inaudible word** spontaneous sermon which was a particular kind of the sermon. It was a sermon Herminia. Herminia generally translates as interpretation now. Hermeneutics we get the word from **inaudible word**. And the interpretation, the hermeneutic angle of this, was to try to bring out a cyclic indirectness into a direct expression. The move was from two different modes of language. the first mode of life which is a mythic mode, which has a cyclic pattern. And the second mode is a logic controller which has a vector or has a line of development, a train of argument **inaudible few words**. And so, the motion would have been one of converting the sacred language. Using the sacred language of the poem or the hymn as the fulcrum and beginning to take its meaning in the mythic centers and develop it into its logical directive. Always exhibiting in the logical mode, a purpose. Whereas in the mythic mode will it not so much purpose but a sense of completeness of pattern. The purpose would have been a perfecting mode of language. Whereas the mythic would have been a sense of completeness. So that you have two different movements again in language. Two different kinds of sense of meaning. Completeness. Perfection. And that balancing between the two of them was the example. And if the example were from deep meditation. and we talked about this, those of you who have been here on Tuesday nights, how one takes initial words, quotations, **inaudible word** as they were called. Like the Gospel according to Thomas is a collection of these kinds of **inaudible word**. The Pythagorean sayings were a collection of these kinds of **inaudible word**. And the Dhammapada is a collection of these kinds of **inaudible word**. It is a classical form in antiquity. And those would have been the seeds for your meditation or your contemplation. And the technique was to engender images out of those words for yourself. And then in your imagination using those images as your image base to engender a sense of feeling tone meaning. So that now the feeling tone meaning has come out of the images of someone else's words. Some sage, Buddha, Pythagoras, Jesus. Their words made your image base that you're using now. And that image base has been amplified and refined into a feeling tone experience, which is within. Then the technique was to let that become quiet. Let that become silent. Let that settle into the Gnostic word was rest. And then to pray. Or contemplate. Or meditate in silence. Without images. Without words. Without fear. And then coming out of the meditation, coming out of the contemplation, coming out of the prayer, again the feelings flow. Again, the words flow. Again, the images flow. But there was a distinct difference. Instead of having an imagination matrix they now have a memortive, mnemonic matrix. That instead of working with imagination you were working with memory. And instead of the focus being, as it is in imagination, using a referent going back to nature, natural thing for the final reference in the imagination. But in the memory the referent is always the deep self. Whatever memory, the art of memory, is working when one remembers the basis upon which memory works is its deep self-distinct from nature. Nature transformed into its deep self. So that now the words, whatever works came immediately, those were the words that were the fruitful words for your hymn or your poem, sacred poem or your prayer. And that's what would have been brought here. That fruit of that individual experience. And shared in this process. And the priest, the elder, would have chosen one of those to speak of. Let's wait for these cassettes to change. END OF SIDE ONE All of the, the individual contributions were offered up. And the elder would have chosen one of those to make his sermon Herminia on. And would have talked in this specific technical structured way of transforming the mythic into the logical. Bringing the symbolic focus into balance in that way. Not throwing the mythic away. Not ignoring the logical. But bringing them into balance in terms of the symbolic self. Then the community, this sealed community, this community would have uttered a prayer together. And this would have been a typical community prayer which all would have recited together. And I suppose that a few of you brought this so I'll read this out. At the beginnings, light of the world shine for all. Those in need. Those giving. give for us the **inaudible word** brightness of heavenly light illuminating our minds, ourselves and our lives. May the quest for truth continue. Thrive in our nourishment. We thankful **inaudible word** for this radiance that we are due. Then following the prayer would have been a community song. A community prayer and a community song. And it would have been something familiar. These were highly literate people. They would have had a broad acquaintance with all kinds of literature. Now in the Christian early church what was used were the actual Psalms, the Old Testament Psalms. Very, very frequently. An example of this for instance in the New Testament is the Epistle to the Hebrews. Which is a sermon Herminia on the hundred and fourth Psalm. And it's an example of just how this kind of community would have been operating in the city of Alexandria about 53-54 A.D. written by Apollis of Alexandria. But the community Psalm would have been sung together men and women alternating lines. So that they would have sung this for memory together. The men would have sung the first line. Then the women would have sung the second line. And the women the third, the men the third line and then the women the fourth. Until they got to the last line of the Psalm, which they would sing together. Again, the technique is one of interweaving, men and women. The voices of the men the voices of the women. The community made in this way. And I was going to use what we had years several months ago in just a trial run of this. We used Shelly's Hymn from the hymn to intellectual beauty. But because of the heat of the day and, and everything we'll just move on from this. Once the community prayer and the community Psalm were sung then it was time for a deepening. Now the oil of concen…of praise, consecration the oil of gladness was a preparation. Following all of the development of the ritual from that point to this, was a practicing of that preparation for something deeper. For a mystery. And the mystery was focused around an inner group called the Rota. The Rota. And you can play with the anagram and come up with taro or whatever. The Rota **inaudible word** connect around but it meant the cycle of an inner group, a consistent group. Not a more esoteric group. I imagine that the origin of it was like in the Pythagorean synedria. There were Akumaa Tiki and mathma tiki. And the mathma tiki were the inner group where those who are able to see with their minds eye. to see the structure. Not only to hear it from the master and recognize it but to see it with their own minds eye. The mathma tiki. So, the Rota probably comes from that, that kind of a referent. That kind of a geometric inner sight capacity. But here we have from the Tuesday night class; we have three people who are going to be the Rota. And it reads something like this, certain regulars of the community in this ceremony constitute the Rota. The round of persons midway between the elder and the community as a gathered whole. This may be any small number of persons to include both men and women. But always a regular group as much as can be. So, the in the ongoing life of the community those who had been around for a long time, who were consistently around, a selection of those constituted the Rota. The Rota then stand in a regular line before the community and their offering service. So those who are going to begin this Rota, if you would come up here. There are three of you. And the elder on the left end. And our hands and eyes lifted up. Hands open in token of clean giving and acceptance. And we pray to God that our feasting may be acceptable to see **inaudible few words**. Now **inaudible word**, now in classical times there would have been an actual feast, a banquet. A dinner. A meal. It was only through later practice that this was reduced to what has become the standard communion. It would have been but in the practice, the ascetic practice of later times, it came to be bread and wine. Now the Rota, we're going to serve just some parts of this matzos. If you could pass that around. And now we need some….we're not going to use wine tonight. We're going to use sparkling Martinelli apple juice. With your permission. And If you would start that around. If you could pour and I'll get some more cups. We'll need some more **inaudible word** **misc. inaudible background movement/chatter** We're almost through. Notice the change in atmosphere. Notice that there is a kind of an upwelling going on. Nourishment. Sustenance. You can feel the change in the atmosphere. That was a natural part of it. A solemn kind of a communion is not it and this is it. It's beginning to come out. Yeah. We may have to open another…would you open another one? A Martinelli? Yeah just bring one from the refrigerator and there's an opener in the second drawer on the left. **misc. movements in the background with occasional inaudible chatter for several minutes** Well there would have been phrases holding up the food and the drink and participating. "Substance of life and the spirit in life." I wasn't served so pretend that I have some. They drank together. Then our old friend the bell would have been rung three times. While eating **inaudible word**. In other words, the deep concentration is blended back into life. the primordial life activity of taking the nourishment and sustenance. And life is not other than but is an application of this very activity that we have been concentrating on. The contemplation is the center of life and not an opposite from life. It's not a way to extinction but a way to. Then the end of the ceremony there would have been a closing hymn. Whichever hymn or sacred poem or prayer that had formed the basis of the elders sermon Herminia that would have been sung from memory by the community together. So that one would have had to be in a very attentive mode, very deep contemplative mode, to have remembered that hymn or that prayer. Because you would never have heard it before. In fact, nobody would have heard it before. And part of the elders sermon, the effectiveness, the technique of the effectiveness, was to have made that prayer, that sacred poem, that hymn, rather indelible in your mind, in your memory, and your hearing, so that you could have sung it from memory. If the community was unable to sing that the elder would not have done work right. His sermon would have not been effective. So, then there was a closing hymn, whichever hymn or sacred poem or prayer the elder used for the service is the closing hymn. The entirety, entire community sings this together from memory. **inaudible word or two** 14:58 copy page if necessary. and 15:02 the community stands to sing. Now we're not going to sing but if you would all just stand together. And if we could all just hum together for 20 seconds. Hummmmmmmmmmmmmm. Then the elder goes around the community line on hands, saying let us take this into our world. Let us make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word**. Let's make a give of ourselves to **inaudible word**. Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word**. Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word**. Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let's make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let us make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** Let us make a gift of ourselves to **inaudible word** **inaudible words, presumedly repeating the same phrase over and over again** And the Rota would have led everyone out of the building. and let us go outside and out the back way and just **inaudible word**….. END OF RECORDING