Spirits of Stone: Chapter 4 - Ascension Maps: Mystery School Teachings of the East and the West Reveal the Power of Crystals and Gemstones

Vedic Wisdom Teachings on Crystals and Precious Gems

 

In the Vedas, the Sanskrit literature of ancient India, which comprise some of the oldest sacred writings on Earth, contemporary mystics like Sri Aurobindo and modern scholars both East and West have rediscovered a treasure trove of Mystery School teachings. The Vedas include the basics of Vedic Astrology; the foundations of Ayurvedic medicine; and Vedic ceremonial rituals designed to communicate with spiritual worlds and to infuse earthly life with Divine abundance, power, wisdom and love.

The Vedas paint a picture of a very advanced spirituality. Not at all some primitive attempt to use ritual and ceremony to placate or control a pantheon of gods and goddesses representing the fearsome Forces of Nature, the Vedas provide a very poetic guide to spiritual practices designed to guide the aspirant on an ascension path leading ultimately to Unity Consciousness.

In many ways the Vedas are the root texts of global Mystery School teachings both East and West that speak of humanity's struggle to transcend ignorance, limitation, suffering, pain and death and to attain truth, wisdom, love, joy and Unity consciousness in this life and the next.

". . .The central idea of the Vedic Rishis was the transition of the human soul from a state of death to a state of immortality by the exchange of Falsehood for the Truth, of divided and limited being for integrality and infinity," explains 20^th Century Hindu Spiritual Teacher Sri Aurobindo in his masterful work, The Secret of the Vedas. "Death is the mortal state of Matter with Mind and Life involved in it; Immortality is a state of infinite being, consciousness and bliss. Man rises beyond the two firmaments, Heaven and Earth, mind and body, to the infinity of the Truth, Mahas, and so to the divine Bliss. This is the "great passage" discovered by the Ancestors, the ancient Rishis."[i]

The Vedas provide a road map detailing the Ascension Path, in which the various rituals, ceremonies, gods, goddesses and demons represent inner states of being and fields of energy that spiritual aspirants will encounter, both within themselves as they progress on the path of Spirit, and in the subtle energy realms known as the etheric, astral and causal planes of existence. Aspirants must confront and conquer the forces representing the human subconscious, conscious, and collective unconscious, eventually achieving transpersonal states of superconscious awareness known only to advanced mystics and Ascended Masters.

The Vedas, the Puranas, which are later Hindu sacred texts, and Hindu Tantric scriptures all describe the beneficial uses of gemstones and prescribe the use of quartz crystals and precious gems for a variety of purposes.

These sacred scriptures provide extensive directions for wearing quartz crystals and gemstones next to the body to alleviate negative astrological influences. These texts also describe how to use these sacred stones as key ingredients in elixirs and medicines to be taken internally for the healing of a variety of physical and spiritual ailments.

Specific crystals and gems are associated with the various chakras in the body, and used to treat specific ailments associated with these energy centers. In addition, Vedic astrologers pinpointed physical, emotional, mental and career problems in a person"s chart, and identified when during the person's lifetime these problems would occur. Vedic astrologers even predicted the death of the individual.

Gems and crystals are prescribed to ameliorate the worst effects of "negative karma" manifesting as specific planetary afflictions and inauspicious planetary transits throughout the course of the person's lifetime. Specific stones are recommended for success in business, for success in marriage, for a happy home and to insure successful transitions in other important lifestages and life events.

In Vedic astrology, gems and crystals are not enough to offset negative influences, so the astrologer will recommend specific offerings, the repetition of mantras, and other spiritual practices designed to purify the individual and rectify the imbalances in their body, mind and soul caused by difficult planets, aspects and karma.

In the Vedas, water clear quartz is called bhisma-ratna, and is sacred to Sri Shukra deva, the planet Venus, along with the diamond. In the Vedic tradition, clear quartz crystal is considered 1/100 as powerful as a clear diamond in healing and meditation.

Inexpensive, three dimensional clear quartz mandalas, called Sri Yantras are readily available today all over the world. In Hindu spiritual practice, these Sri Yantras are geometrical depictions of the energy of the Great Mother, and are placed on altars in the home or temple to facilitate communication with the Divine, and to channel the energy of the Divine Mother into the lives of those who meditate upon her Divine presence. The crystal Sri Yantra is especially sacred to the Divine Mother in her aspect as MahaLaxmi, the Goddess of Material and Spiritual Abundance.

Crystal Sri Yantras are often placed on the yogi's altar and on the home altar of practicing Hindus, for whom this sacred 3-D geometrical energy diagram also represents a focal point for the reception of Divine energies, which can induce the blessings of health, wealth, family, love, social status, and spiritual attainment.

For advanced spiritual students of Hindu mystery schools, including yoga, Vedanta and Tantra, "yantras" are equivalent to Buddhist mandalas, and are used in meditation to connect with very complex and elevated spiritual forces, to focus the mind completely on these forces, and to facilitate the meditator"s ability to harmonize and attune the aura, the human energy field, with the high-frequency spiritual energies that resonate with the yantra's specific sacred geometry.

The Sri Yantra is a an ancient Tantric tool to facilitate ascension practices used to transcend mind, body, and emotional conflict, and enter into a state of Unity Consciousness, bliss and pure being.

The crystal Sri Yantra depicted above is a three-dimensional representation of the two-dimensional Sri Yantra. The Sri Yantra in all its forms represents the interpenetration of spirit and matter, Shiva and Shakti.

The two-dimensional Sri Yantra is surrounded by a frame consisting of four gates, representing the four directions, demarcating a sacred space.

The three circles surrounding the lotus petals and the inner triangles represent the three worlds, called the triloka. The triloka consists of the physical plane of existence, known as Bhuloka; the subtle or astral plane of existence, known as Antarloka or Gandharvaloka, the dwelling place of genies and elemental spirits; and the causal plane of existence, the site where the ideational templates for all manifestation are created and maintained, also known as Sivaloka, or Brahmaloka or Satyaloka, the realm of the Divine.

Inside the three circles are two circles of lotus petals, one containing 16 petals, and one containing eight petals. These lotus petals protect and vivify the universal life force energy that manifests within creation, depicted as a set of interlocking triangles centered within the diagram.

There are five downward pointing triangles representing Shakti, the female principle who births this material Universe, intersected by four upward pointing triangles, representing Shiva, the male principle, representing Spirit.

The center of the diagram is the bindu, which is the point of Unity, sometimes called the "seed" or the "pearl", symbolic of the third eye chakra, where the three major spinal channels, ida, pingala, and shushumna circulating prana or universal life force energy, converge.

Here Shiva and Shakti consummate their loving cosmic Union, elevating the egoistic consciousness and transporting the meditator to a point from which the broader vistas of Universal energies, manifest as both physical creation and the subtle spiritual worlds all appear spread in a vast cosmic landscape before the inner eye, intertwined and harmonious.

In deep meditation, yogis visualize the Sri Yantra and journey from circumference to the center, progressing mentally from the outer circuits of this yantra, inward toward the very center of this complex geometrical form, moving from the dense physicality of material reality to progressively more elevated, refined and subtle energies until they reach the center point, the bindu, which represents the pinnacle, the crown of creation, the still point of Union with the Divine, Cosmic Consciousness.

This ascension path is very clearly visible in the three dimensional representation of the Sri Yantra. Those who meditate deeply upon the two and three dimensional Sri Yantra will reach a point where they can visualize their own energy body in its beautiful complexity, including the various auric sheaths corresponding to the major chakras.

 
The Sri Yantra contains a very important esoteric secret, which is contained within the symbol of the sun, a circle with a dot inside it. The symbol of the sun is really a symbol of elevation, of the crown of creation, in that the sun is the primary stellar source of universal life force energy that nourishes all life on planet Earth. The symbol of the sun is a figure of a cone, viewed from above.

The cone represents a mountain-top, and mountain tops are traditionally the home of the Gods and Goddesses. Mt. Kailash in the Himalayas is the home of Shiva, Hindu Lord of Energy, Lord of Yoga, and Destroyer of all Illusion. The mountain top is symbolic of the third eye and crown chakras, the summit of the human chakra system, and the sacred site where heaven and earth meet and unite, the inner space where the sacred sun of Unity Consciousness arises within the yogic adept, producing enlightenment and clairvoyant vision.

The two and three dimensional Sri Yantra provides a tremendous wealth of spiritual wisdom and a doorway to Higher Worlds that have been of great benefit to spiritual seekers, disciples and Adepts for thousands of years.

The clarity of the three dimensional crystal Sri Yantra represents the purity of body, heart and mind, clarity of purpose, and the crystalline strength of will that are united in the yogi on his search for enlightenment. The crystal Sri Yantra also signifies the clarity, beauty, purity and power of the Goddess herself, MahaLaxmi at her most beneficent.

As we have seen the crystal Sri Yantra is a powerful transmitter and receiver of universal life force energy, a cosmic communication tool, a bridge between worlds, and a tool for ancient ascension practices focusing on the Union of Shiva and Shakti.

Shiva is Lord of Light and Shakti is Goddess of Universal Life Force Energy, so it is appropriate that the symbol of their union be a meticulously formed quartz crystal with a very specific sacred geometry that encodes both a map of the Universe, including both physical and subtle worlds.

That same crystal Sri Yantra is also a representation of the human energy field and the chakra system.

The use of the Sri Yantra in meditation helps the meditator to experience the essential Unity of macrocosm and microcosm.

Five Element Theory

 

Quartz crystals have been used by healers, spiritual teachers, and scientists of the sacred for hundreds of thousands of years to receive, transmit, store, focus, amplify, transform and balance the various forms of energy found in our Universe, including prana, chi, kundalini, sound waves, visible light, ultraviolet, infrared, radio, X-rays, and pure Spirit -- all of which can be considered to be varying frequencies of light in its most ubiquitous form as Universal Life Force Energy.

Quartz crystals have this marvelous ability because, metaphysically, quartz crystal expresses the unity of the five elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Ether or Spirit.

The five element theory has been beautifully articulated in Western alchemical tradition, which has its roots in the Greek philosophy of Plato, Diogenes, Empedocles, the Orphic Greeks and other pre-Socratic teachers.

The five element theory also appears in ancient Hindu cosmology: Earth is known as Prithvi; Water is Jal; Fire is Agni; Air is Vayu and Ether is Akasha.

Classic Hindu spiritual teachings and Greek Platonic philosophy share many key concepts including: reincarnation; the doctrine of maya or the illusory nature of material creation, which gives rise to the illusion of the separate self; the concept of liberation through meditation; vegetarianism; the importance of compassion and good works; the idea of dharma or duty and higher purpose; and the cyclical theory of history.

Thus the five element theory as it pertains to crystals comes later in history than Shamanic traditions, but encompasses the Mystery School Teachings of both High Eastern and High Western civilizations.

How do crystals represent the Unity of the five elements?

Crystals are of the earth. Crystals grow deep in the earth and form much of the earth's crust.

Crystals, partaking of the element air, allow light to pass through them just as light passes through the Earth"s atmosphere.

Crystals are fiery in that they have piezoelectric properties. When pressure is applied to quartz crystals they generate electrical energy, and when voltage is applied to crystals, their shape will change slightly.

Crystals are watery because of their hexagonal molecular structure which resembles snowflakes, and in their ice-like appearance. In addition, crystals often grow into long hexagonal rods, replicating their microcystalline structure on a macro scale.

Crystals, being congealed Light, originally descended from spiritual realms as a celestial rainfall of prana or Universal Life Force Energy, then formed their beautiful geometrical structures hidden within the Earth, appearing as congealed water, or Pliny's "ice" in the earthly realm, but never relinquishing their true nature as quintessential expressions of the element of Ether or Spirit, the fundamental energy that sustains all forms of nature in the known universe.

According to five element theory, crystals are both spiritual allies and spiritual tools for human beings. Crystals represent the unity that underlies the apparent multiplicity of material creation, the unity of material and spiritual worlds. A quartz crystal acts as a bridge of white light connecting the two diverse realms of human experience, allowing human beings to more easily communicate with spiritual realms and more fully experience their reality.

Quartz crystals are tools we can use to expand our consciousness and become more aware of the multi-dimensional energy fields that interpenetrate physical and spiritual worlds.

Quartz crystal can also help us to access the unlimited energy which is the Source of creation. Crystals are tools that can be used to infuse material reality with the elevated energy frequencies characteristic of the subtle spiritual realms, imparting Divine energy, love and wisdom to human beings, animals, places and power objects to be used for healing and in ascension practices.

Buddhist Wisdom Teachings on Crystals and Gemstones

 

 The use of quartz crystals is certainly not confined to the shamanic practices of pre-literate cultures, or to Hindu and Greek metaphysical philosophies. The use of quartz crystals as spiritual tools is indeed global and a universal element of the human experience.

Quartz crystal is often considered one of the seven precious substances of Buddhism. The seven precious substances are usually considered to be: ruby, emerald, sapphire, diamond, pearl, coral, and lapis lazuli.Sometimes, silver, gold, crystal, turquoise, or amber are substituted. In both Hindu and Buddhist traditions rosaries or malas of 108 beads, used to keep track of mantra repetitions, are often made of quartz crystal, amethyst and gemstones.

 One often sees quartz crystal dorjes or thunderbolts, called vajras by the Tibetan Buddhists, crystal conch shells, crystal mandalas, ritual crystal daggers, and crystal stupas on Tibetan Buddhist altars, along with chunks of unpolished rose quartz.

Both Buddhist and Hindu traditions place great importance on the highly purified "diamond" or "thunderbolt" body (vajra body), which the advanced spiritual practitioner achieves through arduous exercise, dietary restrictions, renunciation and abstinence, meditation and Divine grace - and of course the judicious use of crystals and precious gems.

The Agni Purana tells a fabulous story about the mystical origins of the vajra. In Ancient days, the great Demon Vrittasura defeated proud Indra, Lord of the Gods and Wielder of Thunder and Lightning in battle. The gods were driven from their home in the heavens, and Indra, very downcast, approached Brahma, the High Lord and Creator, to ask for help.

Brahma said that on Earth there lived a great sage named Dadhichi, who spent most of his time in meditation, and who had achieved Samadhi, the elevated state of Unity consciousness. Brahma said that if Dadhichi would agree to give his spine, and if Indra could fashion a vajra, or thunderbolt, Indra's favorite weapon, from Dadhichi's spine, then Vrittasura could be defeated.

Dadhichi, being a Master of Compassion and also an ascetic who was basically unattached to his physical body, readily agreed to Indra's request. Dadhichi told Indra to cover his body in salt and to have a black cow lick the salt off. The cow licked the skin right off Dadhichi"s bones, and Indra recovered the hermit's spine intact, giving it to his architect Vishwakarma for carving. Vishwakarma lived in a celestial realm at that time which was protected from Demonic intrusion.

Vishwakarma carved a beautiful thunderbolt dorje from Dadhichi's spine, but in the course of his work high above the Earth, some bits of the spine fell to the ground. The spots where the four largest pieces fell became the first diamond mines, and diamonds have been known as vajras ever since. In those places where other chips of Dadhichi"s spine fell to Earth, deposits of other precious gems appeared. That is how precious gems appeared on Earth. All diamonds and precious gems are infused with the spiritual energy of Dadhichi and of Dadhichi's compassionate self-sacrifice, a sacrifice which was made for the benefit of the gods themselves, and that is why precious gems have such potent spiritual power.[ii]

Egyptian Mystery Schools and Crystal Technologies

 

In Egypt, the path of the spiritual disciple runs parallel to the ancient shamanic path of initiation. Similar in broad outline to what we have seen of yogic practice, alchemy, and New Age Ascension practices, the initiate of the Egyptian mystery school dies to the world of the flesh, the materialistic conception of reality, and is reborn into the world of the Spirit, a Self-conscious soul able to operate with equal facility in both worlds - the material world and the world of Spirit. The Egyptian civilization also possessed a sophisticated knowledge of crystals and gemstones, which they used in their sacred technologies in conjunction with the great pyramids to facilitate ascension into Higher Worlds.

 

In Egypt, the pyramids, the sacred texts known to today's scholars, and the abundance of precious gemstones and crystals found in tombs all indicate that a primary focus of spirituality in Egypt centered on the cult of the Pharaoh, who was considered to be a potential god, a human being who was perhaps an old soul, perhaps in his last incarnation, and therefore a prime candidate for ascension. The ascension practices that today's scholars have unearthed focus primarily on preparing the Pharaoh for a journey into the heavens and for ultimate Unity with the Supreme Being.

 Little is known of the spiritual practices of the vast majority of ancient Egyptians, although it is clear that many many temples and priests dotted the landscape and that many many individuals of all classes wore sacred amulets of less expensive crystals and gems and practiced various kinds of magic, along with mystical spiritual practices.

As we have seen, the theme of ascension into Higher Worlds, like the use of crystals and gemstones for healing, meditation, and self-transformation, is so ancient that it predates the earliest known sacred texts of India, Egypt and other ancient societies.

"The Spells of the [Egyptian] Book of the Dead have been associated with the 'shape-changing' common in the realms of shamanism and primitive magic," explains Dr. Thomas McEvilley, in his magisterial work entitled The Shape of Ancient Thought.[iii]

The powers that the shaman once exercised in his excursions out of the body into the afterlife realm were preserved in the afterlife ritual of the deceased, who was, in effect, to act as his own shamanic guide in the other world, aided by the instructions in his Book of the Dead.

"The soul, for example, is repeatedly said in pyramidal texts to 'mount to heaven by means of a ladder', an almost universal shamanic ritual practice," McEvilley continues. "The shamanic performance, with its dismemberment-initiation, its shape-changing, and its symbolic ascent of ladders into other worlds, seems to have been one of the central formative structures underlying the Book of the Dead," concludes McEvilley.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead, originally called The Book of the Coming Forth by Day, is a set of sacred texts providing both instructions and tools for the souls of the deceased. What we know as The Book of the Dead is a compilation of sacred Egyptian texts dating from the mid fifteenth century B.C., essentially a book of spells, which was buried with the body of the deceased, along with charms or talismans designed to help vitalize the individual's body of light, protect that soul in the next world, and help them on their ascension quest for immortality and Unity with Osiris, the great dying and reborn God who reigned supreme in the Realms of the Dead.

The souls of the deceased had to undertake extensive, dangerous journeys in the spiritual world in order to win for themselves the freedom granted to the worthy, the freedom to come and go as they pleased in the afterlife. Perils included having one's heart stolen or displaced, being boiled in fire, dying a second time, rotting, having the soul's head cut off from one"s heavenly body, being held eternal captive in unsavory spiritual realms, and much, much more.[iv]

The Book of the Dead gives instructions to initiates on how to successfully exit this world, release bodily attachments, avoid the many spiritual pitfalls encountered on the road to the final spiritual goal, called the "field of reeds" or "field of peace", and, above all, how to successfully navigate the rigorous and complex Judgement of Osiris, the final obstacle to the obtainment of heavenly bliss.

Purification and atonement must be observed, in either this life or the next, to attain the final goal, just as in the elaborate observances enumerated in the Hindu sacred scriptures.

Each soul undergoes a kind of "life review", and must render self-judgement. Each soul must also submit to a confessional ordeal involving many powerful deities, as described in Chapter 125, the best known chapter of the Book of the Dead.[v]

Finally, each individual's heart is weighed in a cosmic scale against the "Feather of Ma'at", and if the individual soul is found worthy, Osiris guides that soul into the realms of bliss.

The soul who successfully completes the arduous and difficult journey into the "field of reeds" in the next world wins several rewards. First, the individual soul unites with Osiris, the dying and reborn king of the underworld, and takes a new name. If the individual's name were Ahmed, for instance, the new name would be "Osiris-Ahmed", and that soul would be forever assimilated into the Deity.

The liberated soul ascends. The ascended one can then come and go at will in the heavenly realms, traveling in the company of the stars. In fact, that soul becomes a star incarnate.

The ancient Egyptian Pyramid Text #474 describes how, rising to the heavens, king Unas joined the stars:

This Unas comes to you, O Nut,

This Unas comes to you, O Nut,

He has consigned his father to the earth,

He has left Horus behind him.

Grown are his falcon wings,

Plumes of the holy hawk;

His power has brought him,

His magic has equipped him!

  

The sky-goddess replies:

Make your seat in heaven,

Among the stars of heaven,

For you are the Lone Star, the comrade of Hu!

You shall look down on Osiris,

As he commands the spirits,

While you stand far from him;

You are not among them,

You shall not be among them![vi]

The bodies of the deceased were buried along with sacred texts and a large variety of sacred stones, amulets of power, and jewelry designed to empower the soul and preserve the corruptible body so that it might be of service to the immortal soul during its long sojourn in the afterlife.

As we shall see, the Egyptians used a variety of sacred stones for these rituals, including several varieties of quartz crystal and other precious gems.

Amulets are "a class of objects and ornaments, and articles of dress and wearing apparel, made of various substances which were employed by the Egyptians, and later by other nations, to protect the human body, either living or dead, from baleful influences, and from the attacks of visible and invisible foes," according to Egyptologist E.A. Wallis Budge.[vii]

"When men in Egypt began to lay amulets on their dead cannot be said, and it is equally impossible to say when the belief in the efficacy of such and such an amulet sprang into being; it seems clear, however, that certain amulets represent beliefs and superstitions so old that even the Egyptians were, at times, doubtful about their origin and meaning," Budge explains.

"It is not clear whether the amulet was intended first of all to protect the living or the dead body, but it seems that it was originally worn to guard its owner from savage animals and from serpents," says Budge. "As time went on the development of religious ideas and beliefs progressed, and as a result new amulets representing new views were invented; and the objects which were able to protect the living were made, by an easy transition in the minds of those who wore them, to protect the dead."

In his book Egyptian Magic, Budge describes a variety of sacred talismans, activated with words of power inscribed on the sacred objects or on sheets of papyrus buried in the tombs of the deceased along with amulets of power.

The "amulet of the heart" was essential to the deceased on its long journey in the spiritual world. "The heart was not only the seat of the power of life, but also the source of both good and evil thoughts; and it sometimes typified the conscience. It was guarded after death with special care, and was mummified separately, and then, with the lungs, was preserved in a jar which was placed under the protection of the god Tuamutef," Budge explains. "Its preservation was considered to be of such importance that a text was introduced into the Book of the Dead at an early period, with the view of providing the deceased with a heart in the place of that which had been removed in the process of mummification."

Budge tells us that the "amulet of the heart", which was designed to provide the soul of the deceased with a functional replacement heart, was to be made of lapis lazuli.[viii]

By means of incantations provided in the Book of the Dead, the deceased would gain mastery over his heart, and then obtain the power to move at will anywhere in the spiritual world.

This was only the beginning of a long spiritual ordeal, however. "It was necessary for the deceased to take the greatest care that it was not carried off from him by a monster, who was part man and part beast, and who went about seeking for hearts to carry away," continues Budge. To prevent such a calamity no less than seven Chapters of the Book of the Dead (Nos. XXVII., XXVIII., XXIX., XXIXA, XXX., XXXA, and XXXB) were written. The XXVIIth Chapter was connected with a heart amulet made of a white, semi-transparent stone, and reads:

 "Hail, ye who carry away hearts! Hail, ye who steal hearts, and who make the heart of a man to go through its transformations according to its deeds, let not what he hath done harm him before you! Homage to you, O ye lords of eternity, ye possessors of ever lastingness, take ye not this heart of Osiris into your grasp, and cause ye not words of evil to spring up against it; for it is the heart of Osiris, and it belongeth unto him of many names, the mighty one whose words are his limbs, and who sendeth forth his heart to dwell in his body. The heart of Osiris is triumphant, and it is made new before the gods: he hath gained power over it, and he hath not been judged according to what he hath done. He hath gotten power over his own members. His heart obeyeth him, he is the lord thereof, it is in his body, and it shall never fall away therefrom. I, Osiris, victorious in peace, and triumphant in the beautiful Amenta and on the mountain of eternity, bid thee [O heart] to be obedient unto me in the underworld."

This white translucent stone could very easily have been quartz crystal, or possibly chalcedony. (See picture of head of Titus cameo from 2^nd Century A.D.) Chalcedony is a variety of quartz called "microcrystalline quartz" by scientists, and occurs in a variety of colors, including translucent, waxy white. Heliotrope is another form of chalcedony, with a greenish gold color. Clear red chalcedony is called "carnelian", which was one of the Egyptians" favorite sacred stones, used in many burial talismans.

Budge describes heart amulets of carnelian inscribed with incantations designed to invoke the protection of Osiris and Ra, the Sun God, for the soul of the deceased individual. Such carnelian heart amulets are found in large numbers in museums around the world.

Scarabs, or gemstones carved into the shape of sacred beetles, are among the most common talismans found in Egyptian burial sites. Budge describes a green scarab stone normally laid on the breast of the deceased where the heart would ordinarily have been, prior to mummification.

A powerful incantation was often engraved on the green scarab stone, from the most popular and important Chapter of the Book of the Dead. It was intended that the deceased soul recite this powerful incantation during the ritual of judgement in the Hall of Osiris, which would determine whether or not the soul would be granted entrance to the "Field of Reeds".

The text is as follows:--

"My heart, my mother; my heart, my mother! My heart whereby I came into being! May naught stand up to oppose me at [my] judgment; may there be no opposition to me in the presence of the sovereign princes; may there be no parting of thee from me in the presence of him that keepeth the Balance! Thou art my double (ka), the dweller in my body, the god Khnemu who knitteth and strengtheneth my limbs. Mayest thou come forth into the place of happiness whither we go. May the Shenit, who form the conditions of the lives of men, not make my name to stink. Let it be satisfactory unto us, and let the listening be satisfactory unto us, and let there be joy of heart unto us at the weighing of words. Let not that which is false be uttered against me before the great god, the lord of Amentet. Verily how great shalt thou be when thou risest in triumph."

"It was this Chapter which the deceased recited when he was in the Judgment Hall of Osiris, whilst his heart was being weighed in the Balance against the feather symbolic of right and truth," says Budge.[ix] "From certain papyri it seems as if the above words should, properly, be said by the deceased when he is being weighed against his own heart, a conception which is quite different from that of the judgment of the heart before the gods," Budge explains.

 Other burial amulets included: the amulet of the buckle of Isis, usually made of carnelian; the amulet of the pillow, usually made of hematite; the amulet of the serpent"s head, usually made of carnelian; and the amulet of the Eye of Horus, usually made of carnelian, lapis lazuli, hematite, gold, and silver.

Each of these amulets had their own very special significance and served as additional tools to aid in the individual's quest for immortal bliss in the spiritual world.

The use of amulets of power made of carved quartz, chalcedony, and other gemstones was one of the defining characteristics of Egyptian culture. The use of magical talismans to communicate with Deities residing in spiritual worlds became ubiquitous in Egypt, where both men and women commonly wore many kinds of jewelry made of the same sacred stones described in the Book of the Dead.

The most common material used in Egyptian jewelry for royalty and well-to-do commoners alike was faience, a glazed ceramic material composed of crushed quartz, with small amounts of lime, natron or plant ash. Over one hundred objects either totally or partially made of faience were uncovered among the treasures in the tomb of Tutankhamen.

When a faience object is formed and then coated with a soda-lime-silica glaze, sometimes containing blue azurite and other materials, the object most often displays a characteristic blue-green glassy surface when fired.[x]

In Egyptian, faience was known as tjehnet, and more rarely as khshdj, which also means lapis lazuli. "Both words are related to those for the properties of 'shining', 'gleaming', or 'dazzling'," explains Marie Parsons, in an excellent article on Egyptian Faience. "Faience was thought to glisten with a light symbolic of life, rebirth and immortality."

Amethyst, the violet gemstone variety of quartz crystal, was also a favorite of Egyptian royalty. The Metropolitan Museum in New York has in its collection many pieces of amethyst jewelry from the Middle Kingdom, dating from 2040-1640 B.C., which is considered the period that produced the most highly refined, exquisite jewelry of all the Egyptian Dynasties.

From the evidence found in countless burial sites, in modern museums throughout the world, and in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, it is quite clear that quartz crystals played a crucial role in the highly evolved spiritual practice of the Egyptian Mystery Schools, and served as essential tools in all dealings with the Deities that governed the cycles of life and death in this world and in the next, protecting the bearer and empowering the wearer to command the forces of nature, and, indeed the very Gods themselves.

". . .As almost every man, woman, and child in Egypt who could afford it wore some such charm or talisman, it is not to be wondered at that the Egyptians were at a very early period regarded as a nation of magicians and sorcerers," says Budge. "Hebrew, Greek, and Roman writers referred to them as experts in the occult sciences, and as the possessors of powers which could, according to circumstances, be employed to do either good or harm to man."[xi]

Because Egyptian magical workings were intended to subordinate the elemental forces of nature and the Higher Beings of Light inhabiting spiritual worlds to the will of the magician, tremendous power and tremendous danger attended the practice of Egyptian magic.

If the magician harnessed the tremendous powers of Egyptian magic to fulfill the purposes of the egoistic mind, the personality self, then the very Deities themselves might be invoked to serve purposes inspired by greed, jealousy, anger, and other base emotions. In such cases, tremendous harm could be done both to the unfortunate target of malevolent magical practices and to the soul of the initiate.

In any case, the attempt to subjugate the forces of nature and the wills of other human beings to the egoistic desires of the magician is itself the very essence of black magic.

Strong currents of positive energy emanated from highly evolved Mystery School initiates in the Egyptian traditions, and at the same time, a strong tradition of dark occultism manifested throughout the history of Egyptian magic.

In its highest form the Egyptian Mystery School teachings can be said to parallel the Wisdom School Teachings of the Hindus and Greeks, and even to prefigure the incarnation of Jesus the Christ, his life, his crucifixion and his resurrection.

This can be seen in the Mystery School teaching surrounding the yearly Spring Equinox. For millennia the Spring Equinox has been celebrated around the world as a festival of Resurrection, and it marks the start of the astrological New Year. Today in the West we celebrate the Feast of Easter, the Resurrection of Christ, at this time of year.

For the temple priests of the Egyptian dynasties, the Festival of the Spring Equinox celebrated the Resurrection of Osiris, the dying and reborn god connected with the morning star Venus, who was known as "the heart of the renewed sun".

Geb, God of the Earth, and Nuit, Goddess of the Sky, produced several children, including Isis and Osiris, Seth and Nephthys.

In his seminal work Isis and Osiris, the Greek philosopher and biographer Plutarch, who served many years as one of the priests at the sacred shrine of Delphi, tells the story of the dying and reborn Lord of Life and Death as it was understood by the Greco-Roman world.[xii]

According to Plutarch, legends portrayed Isis and Osiris as lovers and as husband and wife. They "consorted" with one another in the womb of their mother Nuit, and their child was called Horus, the Sun God, known as Apollo to the Greeks.

Their brother Seth was known to the Greeks as Typhon, a monstrous demiurge, one of the Titans. Typhon attempted to supplant Zeus as King of the gods, and led the attack of the Titans when they killed Dionysus.

In Plutarch's telling of the Osiris story, Osiris inherited the throne of the Gods and as ruler of Egypt, he delivered "the Egyptians from their destitute and brutish manner of living. This he did by showing them the fruits of cultivation, by giving them laws, and by teaching them to honour the gods. Later he travelled over the whole earth civilizing it without the slightest need of arms, but most of the peoples he won over to his way by the charm of his persuasive discourse combined with song and all manner of music. Hence the Greeks came to identify him with Dionysus."[xiii]

In his absence, Osiris' evil brother Seth lured Osiris into a beautifully ornamented box, made exactly to Osiris" measurements, and then sealed Osiris into the coffin with molten lead and threw the coffin into the Nile.

Osiris died and ascended into the realms of the dead. The story of Osiris is another variant of the ancient shamanic story of a dismembered and resurrected god who mounts to heaven on a ladder.

"Ra setteth upright the ladder for Osiris and Horus raiseth up the ladder for his father Osiris, when Osiris goeth to [find] his soul," says the Book of the Dead.[xiv]

Shamanic initiations quintessentially involve dismemberment, resurrection, and the ascension to spiritual worlds on a ladder, and the Egyptian texts adhere more closely to the original shamanic model than other similar myths, such as that of Dionysus, who was also dismembered.

While Osiris journeyed in spiritual worlds, Isis searched the physical world for his lost coffin, finally coming to the palace of Byblos on the Phoenician coast, where the coffin had been overgrown by a giant heather tree, which had enfolded the coffin within its trunk. That tree trunk had been made by Byblos" king into a pillar to support the roof of his palace. Isis befriended the Queen of Byblos, and subsequently managed to obtain the coffin and open it, but Osiris was already dead.

Seth found the coffin, and dismembered the body of Osiris into fourteen pieces, scattering them throughout the land of Egypt. Isis again searched the land, recovering all the body fragments except Osiris" penis, which had been eaten by fish. Isis made a replica and the body was complete. The gods were impressed with the fidelity and perseverance of Isis, and Osiris was returned from the realm of the dead. He enlisted the help of his son Horus to confront Seth in battle. Horus successfully defeated Seth, and Osiris and Isis were reunited on the earthly plane.

 The death and rebirth of the God Osiris is associated with the low and high tide stages of the Nile River, and the flooding and droughts that affect the Nile delta regions, and thus with the crops along the Nile valley.

Osiris is thus Lord of the Underworld and King of the Dead, and in his role as the resurrected God, Osiris represents light, life and consciousness, the ever-renewing power of the Solar Disc.

As the Egyptian god of vegetation and agricultural sciences, Osiris is often depicted with green skin. In November, a great Mystery Festival occurred in Abydos, Egypt, commemorating the death of Osiris, and this took place the same day grain was planted in the ground. The grain was considered to be identical with Osiris, just as the communion wafer is considered identical with the body of Jesus Christ in the Catholic Mass.

Egyptians created wood-framed barley seedbeds in the shape of the god, known as "Osiris gardens". These sacred seedbeds have been found in tombs. Clearly, the plants which sprouted from these beds in the spring symbolized the resurrection of Osiris, the resurrection of life after death.

The soul of Osiris was said to rest in his sarcophagus during the winter season, and the spring equinox marked his resurrection.

In the secret and sacred Mystery School teachings of the Egyptians, Osiris represented the eternal soul that incarnates into the physical world, dies, and yet is reborn into spiritual realms, only to reincarnate again and again in a cycle of transmigration transcending the lifespan of mere empires.

All great spiritual traditions that have left written records behind, from the Sumerian, to the Hindu, the Egyptian and the Greek, tell the story of seasonal cycles of birth, growth, decay, death and rebirth, corresponding to the spiritual cycles of the immortal gods and of the immortal souls of men and women living on planet Earth.

In the Neolithic age, prior to any written records, ancient scientists and priests, shamans and priestesses searched the night sky to find "fixed" reference points in the dance of the stars. This map would provide a structure reflecting the harmony of the universe, and provide an understanding of the orderly procession of seasonal change, rain and sun, that governed the yearly agricultural cycles upon which Neolithic communities depended for survival.

This was the origin of both astronomy and astrology, magical and scientific studies that were simultaneously a source of agricultural guidance, divinatory and ritual powers.

The knowledge of the Equinoxes attributed by many scholars to pre-literate Neolithic societies, and evidenced by structures such as Stonehenge, rests upon very careful, long-term study of the heavens and a sophisticated understanding of the Earth"s shape and movements throughout the year.

The Earth wobbles in its orbit around the Sun. This is the source of our seasonal cycles.

The North Pole of the Earth leans toward the Sun for half a yearly orbit, then leans away from the Sun for the rest of our Earthly year. Twice a year, on the Vernal Equinox and the Autumnal Equinox, the Earth offers half its face to the Sun, and day and night are of equal length.

After the Vernal Equinox, the North Pole swings toward the Sun, which appears to be climbing higher in the sky day by day to observers in the Northern Hemisphere, as the season of summer progresses. In the Southern Hemisphere, the Vernal Equinox signals the onset of autumn, as the South Pole swings away from the sun, and the sun appears lower and lower in the sky, day by day. (Clearly cultures of the North named the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes.)

In mid-summer, the North Pole"s tilt reaches its maximum point, and for observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun has climbed to its highest point in the sky. This is the moment of solstice, which means "sun-stop" in Latin. From this point on, the sun will appear lower and lower in the sky, day by day, to Northern Hemisphere observers.

The Autumnal Equinox, the onset of winter, and the winter solstice follow in sequence, as the North Pole tilts increasingly away from the sun.

The fact that the Earth wobbles on its axis as it spins through space also creates the conditions giving rise to the much grander cycle of the Great Cosmic Year, a cycle intimately related to observations made on the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox by ancient astronomers.

The ancient understanding of the cycles of the Great Cosmic Year, reflected in the calendars, mythologies and mathematics of Mesopotamia, India, Egypt, and Greece were all founded in a seminal conceptual breakthrough " the knowledge of the Precession of the Equinoxes.

What is the Precession of the Equinoxes? In simple terms, it"s another aspect of the Earth"s wobbling motion in its orbit around the Sun. The combined gravitational effects of the sun, the moon, and the planets on Earth's equatorial bulge trigger a slow clockwise swaying motion of the Earth's axis. Picture a spinning top and you"ll get the idea. It takes about 25,800 years for the Earth"s axis to complete one wobble, sway or circle of rotation.

The sun's apparent path around the Zodiac as viewed from Earth, called the plane of the ecliptic, crosses the equator each year on the day of the Vernal Equinox. At the exact location where the sun's plane crosses the equator, the sun is directly overhead, and no shadows are cast. In this context, it is interesting to note that as a result of the angle of the sides of the Great Pyramid versus its latitude, it casts no shadow at noon on the day of the Spring Equinox.

The ancients perceived the Earth as the center of the Universe, and took the Sun as their obvious fixed reference point. The astrological New Year began on the first day of spring, the Vernal Equinox, and many of their festivals, designed to invoke beneficial forces that would sustain the universal order and life in their communities, took place at that time.

Naturally, they looked East at dawn on the day of the spring equinox to find which star constellation would "rise with the Sun". This might give them insight into conditions that would pertain during the upcoming year. What a shock to discover over time that the constellation visible just before dawn was actually moving away, and another constellation was coming into view, very slowly. This process of "moving" from one sign to the next took more than two thousand years. Multiplying the length of time this took by the 12 signs of the Zodiac, they could calculate the exact length of the Cosmic Year, some 25,800 years.

It is interesting to note that the earliest known Mesopotamian cultures used a sexagesimal system of calculation, based upon the primacy of the number six, to define both astronomical and astrological cycles, such as the Great Cosmic Year of some 25,800 years. Even more interesting, the astrological and mythological structures found in ancient India, Egypt, and Greece contain significant sexagesimal components.

Some scholars say that knowledge of the precessional wobble and the changing Zodiacal cycles of the Equinoxes predate writing and the civilizations whose written records constitute our recorded histories.

". . .Sometime in the Neolithic age astronomers became aware of the slippage of the equinoctial sunrise, which threw the invariance of the solar year awry and, in time, invalidated ritual devices, such as Stonehenge, which were based upon it," says Dr. Thomas McEvilley.

The knowledge of the Earth's wobble introduced an element of instability, unpredictability and disharmony into a universe that was seen as potentially deadly, intimidating, full of cosmic forces that threatened the ability of human communities to grow crops, plan irrigation cycles, and feed themselves. In these societies ritual sacrifices made on a regular basis were the guarantors of life"s continuity, and substantial efforts were expended to create predictability, regularity, and harmony in both the natural and social spheres.

 Some scholars propose that the discovery of this minor irregularity in the Earth"s rotation, this wobble, and the precession of the signs of the Zodiac, is the seed and source of all mythology, calendars, astronomy and astrology. These scholars say that many of the ancient rituals enacted in cultures around the world were designed to manage the irregular, unpredictable, subtly changing and extremely threatening seasonal, yearly and multi-yearly cycles unfolding on Earth, seemingly in synchronicity with the complex cosmic patterns revealed by knowledge of the precession of the Equinoxes.

In fact, the Earth's wobble, the seasonal cycles that result from that wobble, and the Cosmic Year unfolding as a further result, were all seen as evidence of fundamental flaws in creation that triggered disharmonious events such as droughts, floods, earthquakes, crop failures, social upheavals, diseases, and even the natural action of aging and the restrictions imposed by life in the material world, structured as it is by the limitations of space and time.

It was a short step from this view of reality to the notion that humanity was living in a "fallen state", that there had been a prior Golden Age characterized by a continuous growing season, long life, social harmony, preternatural clairvoyant abilities and spiritual grace. In short, humanity pictured a time without the wobble, a time of complete cosmic order, reflecting its desire for a timeless state of predictable, eternal bliss, immortal life in a material universe that would be completely orderly, perfectly harmonious, and unmarked by sudden disruptions, complexity and outbreaks of chaos.

Then another short step would bring humanity to the notion that the current sorry state of affairs must be the result of either a flaw in the Divine Architect of the wobbly Universal creation, or a flaw in humanity itself which triggered the onset of imperfection, aging, disease, death, and intermittent disaster.

"The universe was conceived as an armature or frame with four fixed points: the equinoxes (where the ecliptic intersected the equator) and the solstices (where the ecliptic was farthest from the equator)," McEvilley says. ""The sliding of the sun along the equinoctial point affected the frame of the cosmos. "This slippage of the frame was a kind of cosmogonic original sin whereby the circle of the ecliptic (with the zodiac) was tilted up at an angle with respect to the equator, and the cycle of change came into being." The passage of the seasons, which is to say the year, would not occur if the equator and the ecliptic had not slipped apart; this was in effect the beginning of time as history, or time as change."

According to some scholars, the primal mythic motif of the Separation of the Parents of the World, Father Sky and Mother Earth, relates the story of the discovery of the Precession of the Equinoxes, the beginning of measurable time, the moment of the descent from the timeless Golden Age of universal unity, harmony and constancy. In the Golden Age there was only one long season of endless growth, but now we have fallen into the present unhappy world situation of duality, conflict between the primal masculine and feminine principles, irregular seasonal cycles, and variable yearly weather patterns affecting river's flows, rainfall, crops, animals and all human endeavors.

"Every two thousand years or so the original sin is repeated," McEvilley explains, "when the equinoctial sunrise enters a new sign, having passed through thirty degrees of the zodiac. From this arises the myth of periodic destructions and recreations of the world: At the end of every age the world frame slips, accompanied by disasters such as floods which destroy mankind. . .When the frame shifts and the established world order is ended, a cosmogonic hero is needed to adjust it."

 Examples of such heroes include Marduk, the hero who sets out to put the heavens back into order in the Babylonian Creation Epic; Ram, the Hindu Hero and Avatar of the Hindu Creator God Vishnu, who presided over the destruction and re-creation of human society in the epic Ramayana; the Sumerian hero Gilgamesh, and the Greek Odysseus.

Plato and the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers of the centuries just prior to the birth of Christ, at the cusp between the Age of Aries and the Age of Pisces, believed in reincarnation and the Cosmic Year, and their systems of astronomy and music reflect the ancient Mesopotamian and Neolithic sexagesimal mathematics and Near Eastern mythological motifs. Xenophanes and Plato anticipated partial apocalypse in their own societies" near future, while the Stoics and Manu envisioned complete world destruction coming soon.

These types of apocalyptic predictions are characteristic references to the shaking of the world framework during the epochal movement from one Equinoctial Age to the next. This view offers a firm foundation for the argument that the scientific and mathematical skills necessary to understand the phenomenon of the precession of the equinoxes predate all human writing, extending far back into Neolithic times, according to McEvilley, and that the mathematics involved has conditioned spiritual and mythological systems ever since.

Clearly, the story of Christ's crucifixion and triumphant resurrection echoes the early vegetation festivals of death and renewal celebrated at the Vernal Equinox, which existed for thousands of years before the birth of Christ in cultures both literate and pre-literate around the world, and which found a highly developed expression in the Egyptian Mystery Schools in the Rites of Osiris.

The Egyptian Mystery Schools taught a version of reincarnation, somewhat analogous to the teachings of the Christian Gnostics, the Greek Mystery Schools and the Wisdom Teachings of ancient India found in the Vedas, in yogic tradition and in Tantra.

McEvilley points out that in the Book of the Dead, when the soul of the deceased pharaoh ascends into heavenly realms, after passing a series of rigorous ethical tests, the soul enters the realm of the gods, and attains a version of Cosmic Consciousness or Unity Consciousness.

"I came into being from unformed matter," declares the soul newly designated as a new Osiris. "I created myself. . .I am formed out of the atoms of all the gods."[xv] "My soul is god, my soul is eternity".[xvi] I am the great one, I am Osiris, the Lord of eternity."[xvii]

"The Osirian afterlife doctrine parallels the Orphic myth in its overall structure," McEvilley explains. "The basic myth of each portrays the embodied soul as an exile from the world of the gods who must return there. The Egyptian version has reincarnationism, though in an unclear form, overlapping with shape-changing, identity merging and avatarism; it has the idea of a part or aspect of the self that can operate out of the body; the need for purification to do away with faults or expiate a primal crime; the eventual recollection of one"s past lives and one"s identity as a god, and finally simultaneous beatification as one of the immortal gods, and universalization as the pantheos containing them all."

Like the ancient Hindu rishis or sages, like the Christian Gnostics, the pre-Socratic philosophers, the medieval alchemists, modern day New Age ascension practitioners, and like the Tibetan Buddhists who gave the world an equally famous roadmap for ascension called The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Egyptian Mystery Schools taught about the immortality of the body of light, gave disciples detailed instructions on how to prepare while living for ascension, and explained how to survive the trials involved in an after-death journey into higher spiritual worlds, undertaken to fulfill the quest to Unify with the Divine Principle.

The Egyptians provided tools in the form of sacred texts, sacred stones, amulets and sacred jewelry designed to facilitate ascension to higher states of consciousness during life on Earth and after death as well. There can be no doubt that quartz crystals and gems played a crucial role in this highly advanced spiritual tradition.

Clearly the Egyptian, Hindu, and pre-Socratic Greek spiritual traditions, rich in their portrayal of reincarnation and Ascension Practices and replete with instructions for the use of gemstones and crystals for healing and spiritual self-transformation, birthed much more highly sophisticated mystical mystery schools than early twentieth century scholars had imagined, and clearly today's spiritual seekers have much to learn from these Ancient Adepts.

Today's spiritual seekers have a tremendous responsibility -- to initiate the currents of energy that will bring usher in a new Aeon, and entirely new models for individual and group spiritual practices that will result in widespread Ascension practices being adopted, and in massive social transformations that we can only dimly now imagine.

The mysteries of the Equinox, which resonate through the vast corridors of human history, from ancient Mesopotamia, through Egypt, India, Greece, and the Biblical Holy Lands, now take on a new meaning to spiritual aspirants at the dawn of a New Age.

At this time in history, on the day of the Vernal Equinox, the sun appears to us to be located between Pisces and Aquarius at dawn on the first day of spring. This is the scientific explanation behind the expression "the dawning of the Age of Aquarius".

Today, at the Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, at the Spring Equinox of 2005, we are surrounded by apocalyptic events and here in America, we live in a country where roughly a third of the people believe in the imminent literal end of the world, as foretold in the Book of Revelations.

Esoteric science, as developed in the mystery schools of the East and West and handed down through oral traditions and direct experience of spiritual worlds, indicates that the time has indeed come for a new world hero to emerge.

In the Age of Aquarius, that world hero is no longer a solitary individual god, goddess or Avatar. The identity of that hero is represented by the image of the God and Goddess in rapt, loving embrace. The Divine Lovers represent not only the balance between men and women that will characterize the new Aquarian society, but also the balance between the male and female aspects of ourselves as well as the equality and participation of all men and women in the heroic project of rectifying humanity's monumental disruption of environmental systems, traditional social structures, and spiritual and religious traditions.

This grand insight can be found in the work of a remarkable scholar and clairvoyant named William Irwin Thompson. He combines in one person the mythological scholarship of Joseph Campbell and the clairvoyant abilities of an advanced yogi. Thompson's scholarship focuses on cultures of partnership, and his work totally transcends the patriarchal views of Campbell.

In Thompson's remarkable book The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light, he discusses the crucial archetypal images of the most recent ages of Earth development and the emerging Aquarian Age.

Thompson says, "Myth, as a history of the soul, is still a history, and each stage of the evolution of consciousness generates its appropriate story. As the spiral of history turns, one archetypal story becomes the recapitulation of the old, the performance of the new, and the overture to what is to come.

"As a story, the myth of Isis and Osiris is a recapitulation of the myth of the Neolithic Mother Goddess and the dying adolescent son-lover, but in the case of Isis and Osiris, where the lovers are brother and sister, the relationship between the masculine and feminine is becoming more equal. In the early stages of evolution, nature dominates the human being, the planet dwarfs the tiny human species, but as civilization emerges, the masculine grows to a new level, and so the feminine responds to meet it at that level. The Great Goddess becomes Isis. The story grows from Lascaux to Catal Huyuk to Abydos, but it does not end there.

"The story of Isis and Osiris is an overture to the story of Mary and Jesus. The dead son in the arms of his mother pictured in the famous Pieta of Michelangelo is a recapitulation of the ancient theme of the dying male god and the Paleolithic goddess. But the finishing of a story is also its consummation. In giving his mother away to John while he is dying on the cross, Jesus is preparing to effect his own resurrection. This time it is not the Goddess Isis who raises up the phallus of the dead Osiris to conceive the divine child; the resurrection is not merely the god becoming the Lord of the Dead on the astral plane.

"This time an integral being incarnates on the physical plane, takes on the entire mystery of death in the mortal physical body, and rises from the dead on the physical plane. Osiris expresses initiatic mastery of the astral plane, but Jesus expresses initiatic mastery of the physical plane through the mystery of a conscious death.

"Mary Magdalene is the first to see the resurrected body of Jesus, and in that coupled image of the avatar and the whore is the overture to what is to come in the next world epoch. As the whore, Mary Magdalen expresses the presence and consummation of the archaic feminine heritage and its transmutation into the archetypal androgyne of the future. Peter, the orthodox and conventional Jew, would exclude Mary Magdalen from the mysteries, but Jesus sees sexuality in a totally different light.

"Simon Peter said to them, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of Life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Jesus did not mean that women should become like men, but that, in the process of initiation, each sex must take on the character of the opposite, before wholeness can be achieved.

"Jesus said to them,

"When you make two into one

And what is within like what is without,

And what is without like what is within.

And what is above like what is below,

And when you unite male and female in one

So that the male is no longer male,

And the female no longer female,

" Then you shall enter the Kingdom."

"Mary Magdalen, the surviving form of the temple prostitute, became the initiate of Jesus. . .It is Mary Magdalen who first sees the resurrected Jesus. . .John and Mary Magdalen stand at the foot of the cross, for in the next turn of the spiral their story is to become the historical performance of the eternal myth."

". . .Isis and Osiris are the avatars of one Platonic Month, Jesus and Mary of another. . .If in the practice of Tantric yoga, one looks into the collective unconscious now, one will see a triptych, something like Grunsward's Isenheim altarpiece, vibrating in the air of the astral plane. In one panel we see a painting of the feminine lamenting the fall of the masculine into time; it is a painting of Isis crying above the coffin of Osiris. In the second panel, we see the dead masculine in the arms of the feminine, Jesus in the arms of Mary. In the third panel we see neither the Fall nor the Crucifixion, but the sacred copulation (hieros gamos) of the reunited young lovers. Once it was physical death and crucifixion which nailed consciousness down into matter; then it was a sacrament of Thanatos [Death]; but in the world-epoch about to begin it is a sacrament of Eros, a physical sexuality in which the lovers of eternity give birth to the world on the physical plane."

The energetic form for the New Age has been set in the astral plane, and the energy of the Divine Lovers is available to us all. This is an energy of unconditional love and balanced sexual affinity, an energy Unified with the Source of Creation.

This new marriage of male and female energies is based upon co-operation, balance and co-creation, rather than hierarchical relations between the sexes.

Bringing today's war between the sexes to an end and establishing right relations between male and female has never been more important than it is today. A species at war with itself cannot heal the wounds inflicted by mind-body duality, cannot end war, cannot live in harmony with Mother Earth and the sentient and non-sentient beings with whom we share our lovely blue-green home in this universe.

Those who choose to follow the path of the Divine Lovers choose the difficult but important task of creating a new, conscious form of human love, which has not existed before on this planet.

They are assured of help and blessings from all quarters of the spiritual world. And in following this arduous but rewarding path, they obtain their release from the bondage of this ancient struggle between the sexes, which creates suffering in so many hearts and homes today.

At this critical time in history, the ability of lovers to establish a co-operative spiritual practice, a balanced state of sexual affinity, and an unconditional love sends a healing radiance throughout the collective consciousness of humanity.

Lovers who work together to co-create a shared reality of compassionate service based upon loving wisdom are helping to lay the foundations for a new human culture of co-operation and unity with Mother Earth where individuals, communities and nations live in peace and harmony.

Let us all take heart in this time of great turmoil on the planet. Lovers always live with a joyful heart, confident of the future, for lovers are in touch with the stream of loving energy that comes to us from the future, when the Divine Lovers will reign supreme in human consciousness, cultivating a restored Garden of Eden.

When men and women come to see the image of the Divine Lovers in one another's eyes, and to understand that the Divine Lovers dwell within them, life on Earth will change. Equilibrium will return to human love relations, to relations between husband and wife, relations between families, between communities, between religions and nations.

Equilibrium will return to humanity's relationship with nature, with Mother Earth, and all sentient and non-sentient beings, visible and invisible, with whom we share our precious and most temporary Earth existence.

Of that I am sure.