Final Hermetic Wisdom Liturgy

Transcript (PDF)

Dead Sea Scrolls
Presentation 15 of 15

Final Hermetic Wisdom Liturgy
Presented by Roger Weir
Tuesday, July 11, 1989

Transcript:

Now you're not going to have any Tuesday night preparation for the next six weeks. So, you'll have to do this on your own. The procedure is as follows. Before you go to sleep, to take one of the hymns. Either something that you've written or something that I've given you. The Thirteenth Hymn Of Solomon. The Poem On The Inaccessible Inaccessibility Of Wisdom from The Book Of Job. Any number. I've given you about seven or eight. And I'll give you one more tonight, which is the beginning of The Hymn Of Jesus. In the tradition of G.R.S Meade from about eighty years ago.

Fix in your mind the words of the hymn. Visualize them in your mind. As calmly and as intently as you can. Just before you go to sleep. And then go to sleep. However, you sleep, when you wake up in the morning try to remember the feeling from those words. Not the word so much but the feeling. so that your memory, which habitually in your daily life is thought oriented, you're now directing it towards feeling. Feeling tone. So that the words of these sacred hymns are going to engender a kind of a meaning. And on just the basic level of presenting them to yourself before your sleep, there’ll be a feeling tone. And you want to retry to remember your feeling. And you want then from that feeling, from remembering that feeling, to try and, and write something of your own.

Now the practice was to do this for six days. And on the seventh day to do what we are doing. To come together and to bring something to read it out loud. So, what you need to do is on the seventh day, which would be Tuesday, is find someone that you can just read something of your sacred poetry, your sacred hymn, too. You have to be able to read it out loud.

Now the enunciating of it out loud is a trigger mechanism. It constellates. The sound of the voice is a, is a constellating element. It's just like in the, if you if you have a DNA code there is a trigger mechanism that comes at the end of a sequence, which is the designation for end of sequence. That means that what has gone before now is all of one piece. And that's it. But that end code triggers the constellation of it into action also. Precipitates it. Manifests it as we would say in occult circle. The manifestation is from the sound of the voice.

What you're trying to do is you're trying to bring primordial feeling tone into consciousness. So that your written language is expressive of the primordial feeling tone and not of your thought. All of us are much too clever, much to trained, for our thought to be legitimate automatically on this deep level. But all of us have our feeling tones in pretty good working order. We all have felt anxious about this world and it's a sign that that we're all right. People that don't feel anxious about this kind of a world are the ones that are anesthetized. Because the world is not all indeed.

So, what you're trying to do is to get your written language to and to you're feeling tone.

And then on the seventh Sabbath we'll all come together, and we'll juxtapose all of our works together. And that's the fire of the liturgy. That's the fire of this ceremony. It's like if you aim nine lasers together you will have, when they fire together quite an intensity. And that's what this ritual is for.

This ritual is the way in which in Alexandria in the 1st century, first half the 1st century, that the community would establish its unity. And out of that unity have that that core experience together.

Now let's see. I guess I'm gonna have to get the Bell. Could you get the bail out of the right-hand drawer? We're gonna need that I guess for this.

Now Sidney's going to be there on the 29th, August 29th. But he is only going to do the regular elder part. He's not going to do the sermon Herminia. He doesn't, he doesn't feel comfortable with that. So out so I'll do that. And also, for the end of the ceremony, the laying on of hands. For some reason he wants me to do that too. So, I'll, I'll do those two things.

So, let's go through this this liturgy. And our community poem for tonight is The Hymn Of Jesus. Now I'm not sure if you're familiar with this or not. This little quest book has been in print for a long time. It's only a dollar. You can find it almost anywhere that quest books are sold. G.R.S. Meade was Madame Blavatsky’s secretary. He's extraordinary scholar. The Hymn Of Jesus was also set to music by Gustav Holtz, who wrote the planets. And was a great friend of Ray Vaughan Williams. So that you can for instance find on record The Hymn Of Jesus with Holtz's music.

The original place where The Hymn Of Jesus is in the apocryphal literature is The Acts Of John. Which were written sometime in the 2nd century A.D. Now Meads addition of this is quite excellent and quite accurate. We are told that this was in fact an esoteric personal ceremony that Jesus conducted. And in the, this is the hymn that he used. So, it would be a version of the Hermetic wisdom liturgy. And this would have been the hymn from it. So, you can see this is another correlation that what we have done here is quite accurate. Because here's an example of hymn ostensibly collected in the 2nd century A.D. and used as an example of the way that Jesus would have done this esoteric ceremony.

So, that in the acts of John, John says, “I held firmly this one thing in myself that the Lord contrived all things symbolically.” That is everything that Jesus would have done would have been done symbolically. Now we don't, we don't hear it with the profundity that's there. In the 2nd century A.D. they would have they would have understood his ritual level was on the symbolic level. Those of you in the Saturday class realize then that his foundation level is already the culmination of nature. Symbols as the culmination of nature. That in a normal sequence you would have nature and then a ritual level. And then a mythic level. And then a symbolic integration level, which would be fourth. At the level that Jesus worked on primordially was already symbolic in the first place. So that the ritual level would have been that magic level. And mythic would have been an artistic level. And what was symbolic would have been a historical level. In other words, he's working on a symbolic level in order to manifest something in history. making it manifest in history. Which is exactly right.

“I held firmly this one thing in myself that the Lord contrived all things symbolically and by a dispensation towards men for their conversion and salvation.” In men that means human beings but human beings as individual. In other words, the only reality and in the historical level of consciousness is human character. There's nothing else there. The historical horizon without human character would be a horizon which is vacuous of content. It would be like a blank stream with no content whatsoever. That only when human character is matured an individual for real does the historical horizon have any content whatsoever. That is to say, there was a time when there were, when there was no content in the historical horizon whatsoever.

For instance, in the historical time of the Buddha some 500 years before Jesus, when the buddha manifested his consciousness in the historical horizon it was empty. There was no one there. At all. It's like a, it's like the movement of evolution that after the Buddha, 500 years after the Buddha, the historical level began to be populated with human character which had been achieved. Individuation had come so that there were fully matured human beings. And history began to be real instead of a, of an abstract level which was empty of content. Nirvana was a stream that was empty. There was nothing there.

In fact, in The Deega Nyika the Buddha's asked specifically in your sentientness has anyone in any other way ever achieved enlightenment. By any method in any other planetary system in any other universe has anyone ever achieved enlightenment. His answer is not a single one. Not one. Zero. Null.

So that the esoteric movement of Jesus is to populate the historical level. So that history becomes real. And thus, God becomes the lord of history. The kingdom becomes a populated historical level, which really does exist.

So that it reads, “Here in by a dispensation towards men for their conversion and salvation.” That is to say that all truly inspired narratives of the doings and sayings of the Christ are typical. That is to say they are type quality. Like **inaudible word** type. They're special types. Instead of them being just actions they are examples of types of action. And the sequence is to pioneer each type of action. So that every type of action has a representative model as it were, which then could be followed by anyone and everyone. Literally.

“He who is Christ in all he does and says as Christ acts with the cosmic order. This is his economy and his ministry and the doing of his father's business. We will now turn to the hymn itself and give a version of it from Benes text.” This is Mead writing in 1908.
In the newly discovered fragment, it is introduced as followed, as follows. Now before he was taken by the lawless Jews. By them who are under the law of the lawless serpent. he gathered us together and said, before I am delivered over unto them. We will hymn the Father and so forth to what lieth before us. we will hymn the father and so go forth to what lieth before us.
We will hymn the father. This is we will bring out of ourselves, just like we are doing in our practice here, a hymn. And in the presentation of this hymn we are then able to go forth to what lies before us. What lies before us. When we bring the hymn forth, we're bringing it out of the symbolic level and we're bringing it into that magical language. That magical language of poetry. Or the Greek word poesis. To make. To create. So that the magical language is a creative imaginative language creates. It makes happen.

For instance, Oooommmmm is a magical word. It constellates the harmony of the five-fold cycle and the Indian Upanishadic version. Ommm mani padme ommmm, is also magical language.

But in the Western esoteric tradition every sacred hymn, every sacred poem, every sacred song, that comes out by this inner method. Like the Bell. The shape of the sound of that Bell is the very shape of this cylinder in this case. The sound waves are the shape of it. In the language, the magical language, is in the shape itself. And the self is a spherical integrated pattern. When it speaks with integrity the words have that shape so that the sacred poem has that shape. So that someone who can receive it wholly, in a holistic way, receives the shape of wholeness. Do you remember in Philo's on The Contemplative Life where he gives it gives us a, a view, an esoteric view of Jesus’ teaching. And he says, if you recall, we read it about three times in the last year. How there was such a silence. And that when he spoke, he spoke in such a way that the words were engraved upon the mind of the listener. It's that kind of, of a transmission.

“Then biding us to make, as it were, a ring by holding each other's hands with him in the midst.” By making a ring. By holding each other's hands. Now you can graphically on like a grade school level hold each other's hands. But the more powerful one is the one that we use of passing that consecration. So that it goes from hand and mouth together to the various spots making the quaternary. It's a stronger link than just holding hands. It's a symbolic link of wholeness that carries through.

“Once that was done the archetype is in the midst, in the myths. And the words answer amen. To me.” Now what is amen? Amen is one of those magical words like ohm. Amen end a sequence. notice that you can begin with amen. What's it, what does it end? It ends the sequence of worldliness. Whatever was going on that's through. Now we're beginning. Or if we shape a prayer the end of the prayer is amen.

Now in The Old Testament they use the term David used the term Cielo, which is very similar to Amen. But Amen is a more complete. Cielo is like a mythic word of closure and Amen is a magical word of closure. It has a lot of qualities.

“Then he began to hymn a hymn and say.” And this is the this is the beginning. “Glory to the Father.” And then going around in a ring, “We going around in the ring answer to Him. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Glory to the logos. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Glory to the charis,” which in Greek means grace. Charis. We get the word charisma. And we think charisma is like something to do with power. It has nothing to do with power. The Greek word for power is Dynamis. charisma comes from charis, which means grace. It means overcome grace. Charisma is not something that you throw at someone, it's a gift that you give someone. The gift of grace. something charismatic is, is that gift. It has nothing to do with power at all.

“Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Glory to the spirit. Glory to the Holy One. glory to thy glory.” now the glory is the aura. It's like the Nimbus. It's like what the halo became ichnographically in art. The glory, the aura. That, that glory. That radiance of psychic energy.

Notice that the psychic energy comes out in a sophomoric way in kind of like flash, like a flash, surrounding the person. But if one sees it in accuracy it actually has the same shape as the body, the human body. The aura is in the same shape as the body. But on the deep symbolic level where the mind would be, the mind does not have a shape of the cranium at all. The mind has a shape of a mandala.

And so, you see the glory around the head like most powerfully in like a Tibetan Tonka. You'll see it have a radial pattern around the head. In other words, on the mythic level it looks like, it's a like, it's a splay of light. So that the mythic iconography of the glory is like the spikes of light coming out, which is like the crown of light of Helios the Sun God. But that's only on the mythic level. That's not really true. That's only a feeling tone interpretation. But the more accurate seeing of it is that it's shaped like the body. And the more, deep symbolic seeing of it is that the mind is a mandala pattern. So that whenever you see a mandala for instance that's a glory of the mind. It's an aura of the mind.

It allows you to visualize and to see what shape the mind has. The mind is patterned. It's always patterned on a pair of pairs. And for instance, the pair is actually like a resonance. Its oneness which is brought into motion so that if you strike oneness it pairs itself. It's just like, if you strike a tuning fork it makes a single sound. And the converse of that if you penetrate a single sound there's a tuning fork in it. So, the pairness comes out of that quality. But the pairness exists only on a plain level. On a geometric plain level. On a trigonometric spherical level, it's a pair of pairs. that's where the quaternary comes out. But because there's an inside and an outside of it usually it is styled as an eight.

Now The Hymn of Jesus later on has a dance in it. And I want to carry this through to, to this. Here's pretty accurately, I should think, language of Jesus in the midst of his Hymn. “I am a way to thee. A wayfarer. I am a way to thee, a Wayfarer. In myself I am a way. But from your perspective I am a wayfarer. I am someone who is on the way.” That is to say in his own authenticity he is a numinous way. But to a phenomenological perspective he is a person who is on the way. One doesn't see the way. One can see the wayfarer following or I, I think we used to use the term follow all the time. But I think a better term for our age as companion. Being a companion with the wayfarer than you were on the way. Then whatever you are doing that is the way.

“I am a way. To thee a wayfarer. Amen. Now I answer to my dancing. See thy self in me who speak.” See thyself in me who speak. This is a poor grammar here it should be speaks. The me who speaks, if you can see yourself in me. The person that you see, the wayfarer that you see, is your own self. in other words, the wayfarer which is Jesus is like a hundred percent mirror. So that any angle if one would see, one would see yourself.

But it's not seeing yourself just visually there's a crisscross here. You see yourself in me who speaks. So, you seeing yourself in the words. Notice that the words have a kind of a twist to them. It carries the visual into the audio. And conversely the audio carries into the visual. It's like on a mythic level one speaks and as one speaks you visualize something on the symbolic level. But if you see something on the symbolic level, it speaks and manifests itself on the magical level. So, there's that kind of a conversion. However, you convert from the mythic to the symbolic in just the complimentary way, the symbolic converts to the **inaudible word.** it goes in one way and then changes. it comes out and changes back. So that myth and magic are continuing but has a twist in it. And the twist is exactly where the symbolic self is. If it works perfectly.

So that here he says then, “Now answer to my dancing.” his movement. “see thyself in me who speaks. And seeing what I do keep silence on my mysteries.” What does he do? He manifest. What, what does he manifest? He manifests you. In your fullness. What could you say? You couldn't say anything. Keep silence on this mystery.

“Understand by dancing what I do for yours is the passion of man that I am to suffer. Thou could not at all be conscious of what thou do suffer were I not sent us thy word by the Father. I am that word sent by the father.” So, there is a, there's a profound quality in The Hymn of Jesus. And I'm just excerpting the core of it. The knot of it.

Now this will be what we're going to use tonight in, in the Hermetic liturgy. So, let's go through it now and start.

The elder rings a bell once allowing its resonance to fully fade out. that is to say it's like a punctuation that begins. Then the proper beginning is an invocation.

Now the ancient, the ancient Greek word was not invocation but was paean. P-a-e-a-n. Paean. And a paean was a hymn of phrase in particular to Apollo, the God Apollo. And the invocation was a kind of a paean. But instead of being to a Apollo was to the wholeness of God.

Now some of you who have been with me for a while remember now that Apollo was not a God like other Gods in Greek mythology. Remember that there, there are three ways of going outside of yourself. You can go outside of yourself ecstatically. And the mythic figure for that was Aphrodite. You can go outside of yourself terrifically. It can be scared out of yourself. And the mythic image of that was Ares, Mars. You can go outside of yourself in a transcendental wisdom way. And the mythic image of that was Athena. Aphrodite and Ares focused together, that was Apollo was. Apollo was the, the triune God of transcendence of our, of our humanness. Not our form but going outside of our form into a Gods form. And so, Apollo was a God like that. And the complement to Apollo was the Aneciad, who was the, who was the underside focus of that. So, Apollo is a very particular kind of God and that's why he was using out of three things. Of medicine, of music, and of prophecy. Because those are the three modes of transcendence.

So, the Greek paean, which was a hymn to Apollo, through a series of cultural transformations came by the 1st century A.D. to be an invocation. But the invocation here was to the presence of God. And so, the invocation runs like this. “Holy spirit of wisdom.” holy spirit of wisdom, Sophia. “Flow through our persons with your person freely.” Remember The Hymn of Jesus. Remember that, that quality of a person reflecting. “Holy spirit of wisdom flow through our persons with your person freely. Express within our images your deep remembrance. Truth. coherent life. The unseen unveiled. The seen perfected. Come Holy Spirit be here at home. From the **inaudible word** to the **inaudible word** all is full.”

And so, this, this invocation is an opening out. And if you remember the, the, the primordial way would be to hold your hands out like this. This is called the aurochs posture or gesture. And in for instance, in the earliest Christian catacomb art you will see the or aurochs posture. It's always there. You will also see it in the Greek mystery religions in the Roman era. It's always like that. it's a, it's a universal way. And when one delivers the invocation one delivers it with that kind of a posture and that kind of a gesture.

Later on, the transformation was to bring the hands together in the form of what we recognize as a prayer. Or in Buddhism you recognize it as a Go shul. But in primordial Buddhism there was no Go shul. There was nothing like this the monks did not do this in primordial Buddhism. What did they do? They did this. It was different. Different. So, this is, this is actually a very powerful Christian thing which has gone into Buddhism. Buddhism has a lot of Christian elements in it. Especially Mahayana.

Here is the invocation. And then once the invocation has been delivered which is a, a call to the spirit of wisdom to be, to be here. It's like Black Elk says one has to begin with a cry for a vision. one has to do this. Then the establishment of the community is next. And the community is established by assent. By those who are there giving their assent to this. “Will the men able to be fully present signify by saying aloud, yay in ascent of their willingness.” Then the men will say. What will the men say?

Yay.

Indeed. Amen.

Notice it's a different inflection. I'm playing a little bit so that you can, you can get to feel for it. How many people are here? How many men are here? And how many women? “Will the women able to be fully present signified by saying aloud yay in assent of their willingness.”

Yay.

I didn't hear it before.

Yay.

Hereby is the community assembled. We'll all confirm this by saying aloud for the third time together yay.

Yay

Now notice the harmonic. Notice the harmonic. If you have eight voices together saying that single syllable together, it has a certain tone. If you had 8,000 voices saying it together it wouldn't be much closer or much different from that tone. That is to say the human voice in unison has a certain tone. 8 is certainly enough to establish that tone. What does that yay establish? It establishes the community. Does it? Yes. The yay is a magical word in this case.

What have we done so far? We have called for Holy Spirit. We have established a community where in that Holy Spirit can be. We've called forth the lightning. And we've put something up to for the lightning to touch.

The elder then rings a bell three times. Why three times? Because there have been three yays and the three, the thrice, is a, is a Hermetic archetype. That you have the same thing. You have the same thing in, as I guess the, the highest development of it is in Shingon Buddhism. When you take, when you take the three refuges in Buddhism. And you say I take my refuge in the Buddha. I take my refuge in the dharma. I take my refuge in the Sangha. But in Japanese style Buddhism because of Shingon level there are little finger cymbals. And it's three times. And we have that.

This actually is a Christian also it comes from, from this. And there's a quality here. If you hear the bell once, it has a certain quality of being there. Now notice what happens to that quality with three.

Have you ever seen a really good magician? A really good magician doesn't ever just move in one movement, but there's a kind of a staccato movement to their hands. In fact, a really good magician can move his hands in such a way that you only follow every other movement. And he has free every other movement for that to do whatever you want, and you cannot see it. Your eye will not see it. I remember once Mr. Hall at 80 years of age still could, could do this. Could still take the Rings apart. He was entertaining my daughter one time. And you could you could catch the movement of the elbow, but you couldn't see the movement of his hand. Your eye picked up the movements that he wanted to show to you. And your eye did not pick up the movements he didn't want to show to you. You can do that.

And the three together, this kind of a staccato, has also the quality that's called the cumulative penetration of going right to the heart of something. Then incense is lit. and notice here the Rota is usually a series of three or four people from the community or the same. Rota is the is the wheel. or the Tarot whatever you wish. The esoteric anagram of it. But the Rota is the wheel of the dedication. So, the incense carries, the incense carries that further.

Then the sojourning is like, is like that wayfaring. Let's, let's come back to this. Let's come back to words of Jesus here just for a minute.

Here it is.

“I am a way to thee. A wayfarer. I am a way to thee. A wayfarer.” The word sojourning makes the whole community a wayfarer together. Sojourning is a communal wayfaring. So here in the sojourning….

**inaudible audio clip played**

We've got existent misspelled here. We're gonna have to…

The self-existent and Holy Spirit rest within this assembled community. The self-existent in Holy Spirit rests within this assembled community. There are three, three nests. The self-existent within the Holy Spirit within the assembly community. It's like three. But three in one.

Notice here there's a self-existent. There's a Holy Spirit. There's a unassembled community. It's like there's the Buddha. There's the Dharma. There's the Sangha. There's the father. There's the son. There’s the Holy Ghost. It's a primordial quality of this nestling into that and that nestling into a third.

The self-existent in Holy Spirit rests within this assembled community. The rests is a tranquility. It is like a yoga of the community that's happening here. Just like in an individual one can bring oneself to calm. One can bring oneself to rest. The community also has this capacity to bring itself to rest. Bring the center of it to rest.

Time seems to be going too fast.

END OF SIDE ONE

At the tail end. But I think it's apparent enough you can see.

Notice here that the whole community, the whole community is a wayfarer now. Together. And for instance, this term is used all the time in an address in early Christianity. Say like the letters of Paul. Or the letters of John. To, to the church in Corinth sojourning in the Lord. To the church in Philippi sojourning in the Lord. Or in the Mahayana way of speaking the very same thing to the Bodhisattvas who are coursing in the way of endless wisdom. To the enlightenment beings who are coursing in the Shunyata of universal openness. It's a, it's a form of recognizing that the dynamic here is not a dynamic of think but the that the dynamic is a contextual juxtaposition of focuses. It's a lot of words to string together. The dynamic is a contextual juxtaposition of focuses. In other words, if you read that out conversely, it's a radiance. But in order to focus the radiance you have, you have to see it backwards, as it were into its implosiveness. And that's what's happening here in this.

The self-existent in holy spirit rests within this assembled community together. Sojourning in this world. Placed in this star system. Now the very focus of light speech. May Curios speak, freely speak, through our offered sight and condition. May the Lord in open speech bless this sacrificial way. May the true nature nourish these shapes of viewing and saying. Lord be within us. We are within the one. And more primordial **inaudible word or two**.

The division which follows that is like we have; we have concentrated on presences. What, what presences are here? And there are presences within presences within presences. And now we're going to look up from that complex focus. And when we look up, we look up with the eye that has tutored itself to see in this complex juxtaposition of presences. So that when the eye looks up, we do not see the object in this world at all. What do we see? We see a vision. We see a vision.

“We desire to see beyond this imaged world. Our sight perfected to discover the existence soaring above the star of our senses. Staying with this company and folded by the holy spirit. Carry us whole to wholeness indeed.”

But a vision needs an underscore. a vision because of its inherent radiant quality has an intensity. And in the literature the intention, intensity the exponential of the vision is what is called the passion here. So that as soon as the vision is expressed, is seen, its underscored by the passion. “Lord most high wisdom, here we are wrapped and ready yearning still dreaming.”

Then comes the oil of gladness. “Through the Holy Spirit we are indeed begotten again. But when, you but we have begotten through the Lord in the two. We are anointed through the spirit. When we were begotten, we were from the two. And again, we first except the oil of gladness **inaudible word or two** mystery.” This is a mysterious person that you knowing discovers **inaudible word or two**.
Then there’s a consecration of the oil. And there is this little cup. just water.

“What is within hold space and time in form in this world.” In other words, was without holds the material. That this is the clay and the glaze. But what is within holds space and time in form in this world.

“What is hidden as their inner parts stands upright and lives.” What lives in us is not just flesh and bone. What lives in us is a hidden inner part which stands upright and lives.

“This dish is able to hold within it an oil.” Then the oil is mixed in poured in, in the consecration of the oil. “The free fluidity of this plasma of oil and spirit.” Notice that the oil is not a liquid. It's not a gas, a solid, a liquid. it's the fourth state of matter, plasma. Oil and spirit together. It's like oil Carmody…carbonated by the spirit. That form of Materia is known as plasma. Plasma. Not a liquid.

“The free fluidity of this plasma of oil and spirit is able to hold within it the sealing shape of the wisdom light.” What is it holds within it? The plasma has something hidden within it. Now the ancient Greek word for this which was taken over in the Christianity was prism. Prism. That is to say the, the electrical manifestation of any sacrament was the, was the prism. The wisdom light. The sealing shape of the wisdom light. So that when we get our finger into this oil. This is just water here as an example. And we do that, when we tough someone, we're physically putting not an oil by the plasma. But what's being transmitted here's a sealing shape of the wisdom light.

What is that sealing shape? It seals one to another. And that feel can be extended to another and another and another and another. All the way around and come back to its origin. If it is able to come back full circle, then that seal is an invisible inner intangible seal, which the language has prepared for but now the activity carries through in the manifestation. In other words, the language, the ascent, the invocation, the vision, the passion, all of this is in language preparation. It's like seeding the clouds now it's going to rain. Now there's going to be a real bringing into this world that power. And that's what this does. that is to say the oil carries this.

Notice that the oil is essential every time the liturgy is made. Now it got completely truncated through all of the councils and theological debates and centuries of arguments. So that the only time that there was any kind of a consecration by oil like this was like a baptism. Generally, if you're a little baby. Or generally if you're just coming in for the first time to community. Became like a bigger thing. It misses the whole thing. Later on, it became something which a priest and making a priest their consecrated by law. But it's not there for everyone all the time. But originally by a standard light, it was always engendered in the ritual. Always made this way.

The earliest, the earliest form of the, of the Christian use of this liturgy is the dedica. And a manuscript for that was found about a hundred years ago. And it’s available now and you can see it. And it's the Christian version of The Testament Of The Twelve Patriarchs from about 100 B.C. And the dedica was later as about 150 A.D. And it’s the first ritual that what became the mass. The mass was not the mass that you would recognize until the 12th century. There was no thing, there was nothing like the Eucharist that you would recognize before the 12th century. It was a, it was a different form before them completely. There was the great arguments of the skull solaced in the 1100’s that finally came to constellate the Eucharist in the form which you would see it today in, in Christian tradition. It's not a very long tradition in that form.

This form is not only 2,000 years old but is archaic in a sense that it goes back even to the Egyptians Sed festival of 5,000 years ago. There is a consistency. In other words, there is there is a ancient element here, which is much more ancient than one that would be in practicing in churches today. Much, much more.

“The elder holds this dish in his right palm. And with the ring finger of the left-hand dabs oil on the right temple and the left temple saying, this new horizon awake.” Notice that the two temples are like putting parentheses around the eyes. that plain, this, this plain is someone awake. This horizon of someone awake.

What is that horizon? That horizon is the focus of your eyes. Now in the exterior way your eyes focus on one thing. Stereo optic vision is meant to see one thing at a time. Really excellent looking sees one thing. Notice how natural the yogic quality of fixing the mind on one thing is. In in a normal scattered mind though you never just see one thing but you're sweating around constantly. And it takes a lot of practice just to be able to see one thing.

To give you an example I used to show a film years and years ago of Marc Chagall sketching pigeons. And the camera was behind him. One camera was behind him showing the old Marc Chagall sketching pigeons with his hat and his coat and all that. But another camera was behind the pigeon and caught him looking up. And when you saw Marc Chagall look up, he looked up and you could see in the look of his eye that he saw exactly one point at a time. He saw what it was and that's all. There was, there was no glancing around at all but there was a very peculiar pointed look. He as a Hasid And, and a very great artist. And he knew how to look **inaudible word**.

But that's the stereo optic vision of this horizon when it turns inward with the same intensity, instead of seeing one thing see the wholeness. See the all.

It's very hard to explain in terms of the perception of the way that the Western tradition came down. Probably the best discursive presentation of this is in Heinrich Zimmer's book on Art And Intuition In Yoga that Princeton published a translation in English about five years ago. It was Heinrich Zimmer’s first book that he did in 1926. And he has it he has a chapter in there about inner perception. And that the inner spiritual perception does not see one thing at a time, it sees the allness. So, if this inner horizon awake sees the allness within and one thing out here. It's like seeing, as the phrase goes, seeing the universe in a grain of sand. One sees the one thing but in terms of the allness, the wholeness.

Now there's a kind of a knack to that. not a trick but a knack. If one sees one thing with the allness well that's like a Zen kind of, of a seeing. The…every, every Tibetan teaching begins with the word Evonne, which means thus. As in the phrase, ancient Indian phrase, thus have I heard. But in the Tibetan because it's a magical language one just says Evonne thus. Which prepares you that everything that is coming after this is seen exactly with the allness. So, you just, you go into that mode. In other words, is a coherent tendency. So, this inner horizon awake. And that's all of that.
Then this manifesting vertical awake. And one touches here between the eyes and **inaudible word** here for the **inaudible word**. Notice that the voice and the inner seeing on a vertical. And the balance of the two are the sarcoptic side of the two eyes. **inaudible word or two** is horizontal . so that you have this kind of a coordinate of capacity. You have this quaternary. And you have this focusing.

Now this is done in such a way that it goes around the group in this way. The elder who is, who is not performing, but who would be hosting this liturgy simply initiates it. What makes this work is everyone else being able to do this for each other. In such a way that it can go all the way through the entire community and come back to the eldest of the elder is consecrated by someone in the community.

There were a lot psychological experiments done at one time in perception. Where somebody would draw a figure and show it to somebody, and they would draw that figure and go around. And if you went around with about 15 people by the time it gets towards the end the figure would be very greatly changed. It takes a lot of practice to be able to have that figure remain intact all the way through. And the difficulty on a visual level is exponential on a spiritual level. to maintain the flow and the integrity and the coherence of that in the field. And in the psychic umpff of it all the way through that's very, very difficult to do.

So that an elder who is hosting this would be able to tell from what he received how well that went through the community. Would be able to feel it and sense it. And if it came to him just as he had given it out that's like a community that is really sealed itself. that's like being an open ring in all the magnets working and then the particle can accelerate to optimum stage **inaudible word**. There's no, there's no resistance. Because everyone who passes this on, passes it from there capacity. And whatever resistances they have, they interfere to that extent.

The elder passes the dish to that person who performs the parallel act and speaks the parallel words for the next person.

Should we stop? Should we take a break? You want to take a break? We can take a break. **inaudible few words and chatter**.

Then comes the call for the sacred poems. And at that time, you should all have something. So that on August 29th bring with you one of your prayers. Bring one of your sacred poems. Any one of them but bring it. And try and bring us some copies. And we have a copy machine here so you can ahead of time make some copies. I would think we should make about 20 copies. Just in case. Because one of those will be chosen for the Herminia. and then that will be the communal prayer at the end of the liturgy. So, you want to have copies because they're not going to be schooled together to remember. Mr. Hall will be able to remember but nobody else will be able to remember what, what it was.

Then the community prayer. And all say it together.
At the beginnings. light of the world shine for all. Those in need. Those giving. Good for **inaudible word** find brightness of heavenly light illuminating our minds, selves and lives. May the quest for truth continue. And continuing thrive in our nourishment. We thank openly for this radiance that we are and do.
And so, it's just a what comes down to be homiletic, I think is the word that's used. But it's after the sacred poems have been offered and there's a certain intensity. Because they have come out of the deep self. A community prayer like is a has a form of feeling in language and smoothing out that kind of intensity that's there from the sacred poems.

“Then the community psalm. the psalm is sung together at this time. Men alternating lines with women.” Now I’ll provide some community psalm. And I should think that for that I’ll, I'll take something appropriate. If you remember the first time, we did it we used some lines from Shelly's Hymn To Intellectual Beauty. And then they used The Thirteenth Ode Of Solomon. And we've done various things. I'll pick something appropriate and make copies again.

So that the men and the women alternate lines. And the last line is sung together. This is a reverberation of the initial establishing of the community by **inaudible word**. Only instead of the yays this is the community psalm.
Notice that the community psalm comes after the community prayer. So that you have a double seal. It's been right here. the community prayer seals the, the aspect that can be sealed by language. the community psalm feels by a weaving sewing kind of a motion of kind of the underside of that. These two together like a double seal that goes around.

So that whole happening in the first part of the liturgy is something that has to do with language and manifesting the invisible. It's what you can say and it's what you can't see. Those two qualities are brought into play.

Now a different quality, a third quality, is brought into play that is different. It's not so much what you say. And it's not so much the invisible. But now it's what you do in this world. So, it's like if you have two forces, one of the forces is what you can say. And the other force is manifesting the invisible. If you do these together one of the laws of physics is that you get a third force. You get a vector that comes out from these two. The vector is what you are able to do in this world. What you are actually able to do in this world is the resultant vector of these two forces. Your spiritual language and your power to the manifest the invisible. Than what you do in this world is a resultant.

Notice that that there is absolutely no possessiveness over what you do. Because you're not, you're not with any kind of purposes paying any attention to what you do. What you do is the resultant of your sacredness of saying and your manifesting of the invisible. And what you do happens to be the result of that. It's like in the Bhagavad-Gita Arjuna is told do not covet the fruits of action. Well how do you not cover the fruits action? How, how can you not do that? And as you try to, to juggle that and work with that you can see it is not possible as long as you're paying attention to, to what you're doing. It is not possible. You cannot get great enough yogi. You cannot manifest the karma yoga that way. There's no way whatsoever.

So, the way, the technique, is to let the re…reaction be a result of other concern. Whatever it turns out that's just fine. Notice that it also is not the popular kind of thing, well just let it happen. If you let it just happen randomly happen, only instead of it being randomness the under toes of psychic unconscious that's constellate negative patterns. It always happens. It goes from bad to worse. It's a conscious spiritual activity. You're not acting in this world at all. You're paying attention to this sacred language. And you're paying attention to manifesting the invisible. And the result of whatever occurs out of that is what is going to happen.

And so that's what the second part of the ceremony is, is of that third factor. And that third factor manifesting in this world, the spiritual action, what if one looked in any kind of phenomenological analytical way you would see that there are not…there is no one who is doing anything. Everyone is busy doing this. And everyone is busy doing that. And yet this occurs. There is no doer, but the way happened.

Now notice that's also Universal. That's really what the Dao is. You can't pay attention to the Dao. There's no way. But you work with the yin and the yang and the Dao occurs. You, you can't pay attention to the Dao there's no way. There's no, there's no Dao there. It's more subtle than a zero base. But you can do the others.

So, the Rota then is the first symbol. the Rota is the first symbol of this spiritual activity. Worldless activity. It happens in the world but is not of it. It definitely happens in this world. It is definitely not of it. It's a sacred language and of invisible manifesting. And though it occurs in this world is certainly not of this world. There's no cue ball causality in this kind of activity whatsoever. There's no intent. There's no purpose. There's no blame. There's no repercussions. There's no negativity. There's no positivity. There's, there's nothing. It has no qualities other than the reality that it does happen. It's mysterious and that's why always was called a mystery. What is the mystery? The mystery is that it occurred.

So, the Rota. “Certain regulars of the community in this service constitute the Rota. a round of persons midway between the elder and the community.” So, the Rota is like a prism. The elder is like the center. And the Rota is like a prism. And the community is like a wheel.
And the community as a gathered whole, 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. The Rotas stand in a regular line before the community assembly with the elder on the left end.
So, the elder positions himself with the Rota. That is to say now we have a circle of community with no center in particular. Just the Rota and the elders as part of that Rota. Notice that the center, the elder abrogates the center. Or vacates the center.

“The hands and eyes are lifted up.” And that orients you, coming back to that. Why? Because we're, we're now going to do in this world without, without worldly action. We're going to be doing the real in this world without worldly action.

So, here's the archetype of it. The hands the eyes are lifted up easing on eternities. Worthy of contemplation. What are the eternities? The sacred languages. The sacred words. The manifesting of the invisible. We're not looking at this world at all. Even though what one does is going to be right here, we’re not looking it.

“Hands open in token of clean giving and acceptance. They pray to God that they're feasting may be acceptable. And to perceive as he would have it.” In other words, the first activity that's going to occur was a meal together. What is the primordial activity of life? Nourishment. Eating. The primordial activity of the community, eating together. So, the meal, the communal meal. Notice that it has nothing to do with the theological doctrine of the Eucharist. Frankly that’s a mythic bastardization of the process. It has nothing to do with it. It's that this is the first real activity that occurs without any worldly willfulness on the part of anybody. Everyone is together with their sacred language and everyone is together with manifesting the invisibles. But the first activity that really does occur is the meal together. And it's an example that give the foundation while the sustenance of life can be done together in this way then everything else in life can be done also in this way. It's like proof by example. Because we can do this together in this mode every other aspect of life can also be handled in this way.

Then the communal meal. “The Rota served the bread. A single loaf portioned by hand by the elder.” He used matzah. “The bread portion is held in the right hand of each person in the community. The Rota served the wine,” mixed some wine and water together, “poured by the elders. The wine is held in the left hand. So that when all are served all raised the bread and wine portions. And the elder says, the substance of life and the spirit in life. Enjoy eat and drink together.”

And then that three again. That staccato action. that accumulated penetration. What is being done in this accumulated penetration? The nourishment together in the spiritual mode. Notice that no one is intending this activity. Everyone is doing this activity, but the intent is in maintaining the sacred language and manifesting the invisible. That's where our intent is. That this happens it happens on a just occurring basis. Very powerful when it, when it happens. When it does.

Then the closing hymn. “Whichever hymn or sacred poem the elder has used for the service uses closing hymn.” And I guess what has been left out here is, is the sermon Herminia. John you left a whole section out here. After the sacred hymns comes the sermon Herminia. We’ll, we’ll amend that and put that in.

That is to say, the elder will have taken one of the sacred poems that was offered up and spontaneously opened that poem up. How does he open it up? He doesn't give an associative level of psychological exposition. He doesn't give a literary criticism of it. He doesn't give any kind of a philosophic interpretation of it. He doesn't give a religious paraphrase of it. But he takes to hymn, just like a yogi will catch an idea. Catch an idea in the mind and hold that idea. And slowly disassemble that idea in terms of the shape of its structure. However, that idea is put together in just that way, the idea is disassembled into its nuclear parts. The sermon Herminia does the same thing with the sacred poem or the hymn that's chosen. What the elders responsibility to do here is the show that this can be done. That this can be taken and unfolded exactly back to the deep self.

Now that poem came out of, say we used one of Hayden's poems, that poem came out of the deep self-experience of Hayden. And if the elder unfolds that just right that deep self of Haven is disclosed in the presence of the group right there. How can that be? If it were legitimate hymn, a legitimate prayer from the deep self the elder will be able to open it up and disclose that presence of the deep self. You say then, well how can other people see that? Well they couldn't see that if they're looking in terms of something in this world. But if they're tuned in their language and in manifesting the invisibles that presence occurs to them also. Right there in the midst of it.

Now again the mythic bastardization of this is that the only person he could do this with Jesus. And that's just not so at all. He was like the teacher using himself as an example and saying that everyone can do this once you have this technique. Once you have this art. Everyone can do this.

If John can bring a sacred poem, a prayer, a hymn out of his deep self and if accurately has come out of that. And this ceremony is conducted by an elder who is capable. Then I would be able to take that and unfold that sacred hymn in such a way that John's deep self would be there. And the community would be able to resonant with that.

Now you see that the sealing many times of the community is to make sure that that magnetic chamber, as it were, is going to hold those energy because they're very subtle. You talk about sub-nuclear particles that are only there for a few nanoseconds. And the third **inaudible word** is so much more subtle. So much faster than the physical realm. If it's not, if you're not able to appreciate with instantaneousness there's no way that you're going to catch it at all.

Latzu says that the way of the Dao is spontaneous. There's no time whatsoever. Or I-Ching says that heaven suspend its emblem. They don't occur visually. They occur suspended. Where are they suspended? In between sacred language and the manifesting of the invisible.

So, the closing hymn. “Whichever hymn or sacred called the elder used for the service is the closing hymn. The entire community sings this together from memory if possible. From copy page if necessary. The community stands to sing.” The closing of the liturgy is them being able to reconstitute that deep self-resonance that the elder had brought into being for the community. And now the community does it for themselves. And in this way the community shows themselves that they can do this. It's not because the elder is some great magus that he can do this. He's not some cosmic mutant only he can do this. It is that the community together can also do this. And it's not like watering it down so that one says well this is not such a big deal. But it's the other way, it's raising the community up to see that together this community is a divine capable of getting and manifesting the deep self in this world. Because as any son of God might do.

The community stands to sing. And that's the end of the ceremony except for one other activity. And that is when the community stands to sing it's like raising the tuning fork. Or like that yoga position of raising the Lotus. You have raised the Lotus and now you're going to bring it down and open it. You're going to free it. You're going to free the birds. Free the spirit.

So, the community stands the saying and when they finish singing then there's an egress. The elder goes around the community laying hands on heads, saying let us take this into our world. Let us make a gift of ourselves to life. Let us make a gift to life. And each, each person touch that way.

“The elder leaves the Rota who leads the community outside ringing the bell rapidly as they egress. The Rota may ring bells also at this time.” And they’re outside. One goes outside. And there with kisses on cheeks and wishes of good cheer, the community transfers their seal to life in the world in general.

They resonate, they radiate out the power that they have brought together. Why? Because you cannot hold on to it. There's nothing there to hold on. And the worldly reaction is that well now that I've done this, I don't want to let go. I don't want to go back. I don't want to do the other. The, the wise thing is to let it go. To give it away. All of it. One hundred percent. Empty your pockets out. Empty your psyche out. Empty your mind out. No ambition to hold on to any of it. Give it all away. Every bit of it. It's the only thing to do. To the extent that you cannot do that you run the risk of electrocution. To the extent that you can…because the more that this actually does occur, the more any fraction of that energae is a universal quantum. And you don't want to be carrying that around. If you do this in a dry ring and you get shock electricity, what do you think happens when the deep self brings the universe together in that flat. You don't want to carry that around. Give it. Give it to life. Give it back. Radiate it out. So that’s, that's what the egress is, is to do that. Give it back to life. To bring it back into the world.

Notice here that there is no permanent consecration to the temple. There's no permanently consecrated altar. To think that there is….

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