TAKING THINGS LITERALLY

TAKING THINGS LITERALLY

Every day that goes by we say things in a literal way, but we don't really mean them to be interpreted in a literal sense. Yet, when it comes to the Bible and other ancient Wisdom and scriptures that were written as allegory and metaphor, they are still taken to be literal and historical events, locations, people, and names.

For example, we might say: “I told you a thousands times.” And yet, we didn't really tell anyone one thousands times. It's an expression and exaggeration. We used the statement to infer something that had a deeper message. That message is “I’ve told you multiple times, is there a need to constantly remind you?”

Another example, “It's hotter than hell today, and I'm sweating my butt off.” First of all, it obviously is NOT hotter than the inferno of what some would call hell. Even if it were 100 degrees, this is far from a hellish blast furnace. Also, you can't sweat your butt off because it's attached to your body. One more ... “moving this sofa is gonna kill me, it's heavy as crap.” It's probably NOT going to kill you, unless you have a heart attack ... and even then it's heart failure that kills you, not the couch. Secondly, have you weighed “crap” lately? I'm really not too sure how heavy crap is and what amount would be needed to determine that it's heavy. Heavy to one person may be light to another, etc.

Anyway, I've spent enough time on the examples. I'm sure you get my point. So now let's return to my earlier statement concerning scripture and the dangerous literal and historical interpretations of mythological, allegorical, and metaphorical teachings. These metaphors and celestial astrotheologies have been handed down by one civilization to another since long before biblical times. Even professors at Tel Aviv University in Israel have said the Bible is not meant to be merely an historical document. Many of the geographic places in Israel and all around the Holy Land, were named AFTER the stories had been written.

Just take a moment to think about all of the impossible events spoken about in the Bible. Donkeys and snakes talking, making a human being out of a rib, shouting to knock down the walls of a city, parting the ocean with a cane and command, raising the dead, supernatural healings, demons being cast out of people and into pigs, men dying on a cross, being dead for three days, and then raised from being dead, walking through walls, bodily flying up into heaven, walking on water, stilling the winds and the oceans, multiplying loaves of bread, turning water into wine, etc. I could go on for paragraphs.

These things were never meant to have been taken as LITERAL and historical. They are myths and fables with a deeper inner meaning and Truth meant to be discerned through our spiritual journey here on Earth. All of these events happen WITHIN USE ... where the Kingdom of God/Heaven is located. In our consciousness ... in our Higher-Self ... our Christ Self. The Bible and so many other sacred texts are not meant as HIStory, the are OUR-story. It is the path of the Eternal Soul as it grows and expands knowledge and awareness of the Divine within each of us. We are ALL the Christ and the Begotten Son. Why did Jesus say “you will do greater things than I” if he didn't mean it, and if he was the only begotten Christ?

If Jesus was God, then we are ALL God - collectively. Didn't Paul say that WE are the “body of Christ?” Paul never knew of an earthly Jesus, his was a Gnostic and Mystical Christ/Karest dating from stories 10,000 years before any man from Galilee walked the hillside and hung upon a tree. Only 7 of the 13 Epistles credited to this man named Paul, were actually written by the same person. The others are anti-Gnostic forgeries inserted by the Roman Church many years ago. Ask them, and they will tell you.

Once you grasp the Inner Mysteries of original Christianity (which was Paganism), you will be exposed to the Truth of the amazing and powerful transformational parables and metaphors contained in scripture. Jesus was quoted as saying “you shall know the Truth ... and the Truth shall make you free!” I have never been more free in my life, and have never had a better understanding of the Oneness of God/Source Energy and the oneness of all things in the Universe. Question everything, and you will find the answers.

Just a thought ...

Justin Taylor, ORDM.

LIGHT OF LIFE

LIGHT OF LIFE

When a light bulb burns out, we say that it is “dead.” It becomes inert … lifeless. But the Source of life … light … is endless energy. The filament in the light bulb receives the light, yet when it no longer is able to receive the light … it is considered to be dead. But the Source of that light, the very light itself, is unaffected. 

This is the same for you, and for me. Our bodies receive the light … the light of consciousness … and we live our Life powered by the Source of Life itself. When the body dies, the light of our consciousness lives on. In fact, since energy cannot be created or destroyed, the light that is the true us ... is eternal in nature. 

Our thoughts, our soul, our true Self is the power source that provides light so that we may live. When the light goes out, leaves the body, we leave behind the inert (dead) physical body, but our consciousness never skips a beat.

Just like the light bulb, we are enclosed in an physical environment that allows our presence to be seen from the inside out. The Source of all light, life, and energy … is One. For many, this One is God, or Source. The Absolute. 

When we come to the understanding that all is One, and One is all there is … then we begin to understand that what we do to others, we do to ourselves. We are the aperture for which the Universe is experiencing itself through us … with us … AS US. 

Just a thought ... 

Justin Taylor, ORDM.

SOPHIA: SPIRITUALITY OF LIGHT

SOPHIA: SPIRITUALITY OF LIGHT 

In this writing, we talk a bit about Cosmology and the emergence of our Inner Light. This article involves not just a Trinity, but a Quaternity (union of a group or set of four). My granddaughter has been named Sofiah (Sophia) and it pleases me spiritually. You see, this “Sophia” (Greek for Wisdom/feminine) and her Inner Spark provide us with a completion of the original creation of the Trinity. The actual Quaternity, involves Father (God/Source), Divine Mother (Great Emanation) and then paired with the offspring of the two ... the Logos and His consort, Sophia. The Greek Goddess of Wisdom. 

To say the least, Sophia is vastly important in the role of cosmology. We ourselves awaken the Divine Spark of Light within, and join with our Christ consciousness to complete the cycle of base nature animalistic man, to resurrection as the Divine Christ or Higher Self ... Godman. The Light body of Christ ... as Paul wrote ... “we are the body of Christ.”

Consider this: 

The Unknown God or “Agnostos Theos” (Ancient Greek: Ἄγνωστος Θεός) is a god mentioned by the Christian Apostle Paul’s speech in Acts 17:23. The ancient Greeks worshipped a deity they called "Agnostos Theos"; that reference is to the “Unknown God.” Plato wrote of the One who is “neither named … nor known. The Founding Fathers of the Christian Church were fond of quoting Plato in order to show that the philosopher urged pagans to seek out the unknown god. The patristic tradition of the church is nearly unanimous in recognizing Christ as a type of hierophant of Divine Mysteries.

“Christ had left men with no excuse for ignorance, since he was the visible image of the invisible God and the revealer of the divine mystery.”

-Colossians  1:15

Now, consider this:

“In the beginning, there was Source, an unknown God, All That Is. This being was All that there was, as there was no other. This Being had within all that it knew. The crisis of solitude led this Being to let go and allow for what was within him, to express itself outwards, and this happened in a burst of Light.”

This Great Emanation (Ruach/Pneuma/Holy Spirit) that was the burst of Divine Light came from the original unfathomable Godhead. What She would call “Father” and saw the face of the Godhead who would be known as “The Ancient of Days.” In the amazing writings of Manly P. Hall in the book “The Secret Teachings of All Ages” he depicts the relationship between the original Godhead, “Divine Mind” (which released cosmic thought) - the Cosmic Light which in Greek is "Pronoia" (forethought/feminine) used as Divine Maternal Being in Gnostic texts ... the Thought that emerges from Divine Mind. 

From a union of Love, between the Ancient of Days, and the Emanating Spirit (Father/Mother) came the Logos (Word) which is the Christ (Christos) ... Eternal and beyond any religious system. It is this identity incarnated into the physical vehicle (body/soma) of the Christ that brought to us the Wisdom (Sophia) of the Higher Self. From the Gnostic Mass we find “they say Christ came for all, but instead, he came for her who came for all.” This presents us with the Christ Sophia, two aspects of the Logos ... masculine and feminine, using the Christ to bring Her Light from the Pleroma (heavenly realms) to the outer regions of chaos (material world). 

From deep within the ancient Wisdom of multiple civilizations of Mythology comes the creation of the world, man, and the Divine Spark within all that is seen. I will end this writing with a scripture from the Nag Hammadi Library in The Secret Gospel of John:

“I Sophia, am the Light which exists in the Light.

I am the remembrance of the Pronoia. (Divine Thought / Holy Spirit)”

Just a thought ... 

Justin Taylor, ORDM. 

ABRAHAM SARAI AND BIBLICAL SYMBOLISM

ABRAHAM SARAI AND BIBLICAL SYMBOLISM

Before we go deeper into the metaphysics of this Biblical couple, we need to reflect on their origins. 

There are certain striking similarities between the Hindu god Brahma and his consort Saraisvati, and the Jewish Abraham and Sarai, that are more than mere coincidences. See will cover these similarities in another chapter.

Let's start here with some etymology. 

Abraham, a'-brå-ham (Heb.)--father (source, founder) of a multitude.

ABRAM consists of;

Ab = “father or Mind,” Rham = “Spirit breath.”

The breath has always been associated with ‘“Spirit” and is powerful metaphysical knowledge (gnosis).

So Abram (Abraham/Ibrahim) is a part of us that we need to develop within to find our Divine essence. Biblically stated in a literal sense, God renamed Abram to Abraham (meaning exalted father) because he was to be the father of many nations. Sarai means “princess,” but since she will be the mother of nations, with kings of peoples coming from her, God changes her name to “Sarah” which means “noblewoman.”

Further, Sarai represents our “emotions.” When the emotions become detached from thought and become virgin she becomes Sarah. In that virgin consciousness she will give birth to the child. This is the creative feminine principle. In ancient metaphysics:

Husband = Mind - Wife = emotions

Wife subjected to husband ... emotions subjected to Mind. St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:6 “He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant - not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.” There have been many vile acts committed by a literal interpretation of these ancient scriptures.

Now lets move to the deeper symbolism of all these names and people. We move to a scripture quote from Galatians 4:24 from the Bible:

"Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants ..."

Right here were are told in plain simple terms, that the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar, is an allegory. It is metaphorical. Myth ... with a hidden deeper meaning rather than just a physical, literal, and historical event. Science and biology tell us 90 years old women cannot have babies. This is a story of highly symbolic value. It isn't commentary, it is saying to us that it is allegorical. There is symbolism in this myth that is intended for discovery by those who have eyes to see, and ears to hear. 

This goes hand-in-hand with us being told in scripture NOT to take the letter (scripture/hand written letter) literally, by reminding us to NOT be a “Minister of the letter.” The Bible communicates to us in Parables, Proverbs, Allegories, metaphors, and Dark Sayings. Modern day Archaeologists from the University of Tel Aviv have even told us the Bible stories are intended to be symbolic and allegorical. Consider the captivity in Egypt. Egypt is a metaphor for our own dark ego animal based mind. "Aigyptos" in Greek meant "dark place." Egypt, was a symbol of base nature man. 

The Exodus, was an allegory for leaving the darkness (Egypt) and entering the Promised Land (Is-Ra-El) and Jerusalem (yeru-shalom) the place of peace. Again, what takes place within us as we transmute from base nature to Divine. Generations have searched for the literal places in the Bible but to no avail. Either they were built and named in honour of the symbolism, or they simply did not exist. The Ten Commandments (the negative commandments) were derived directly from King Hammurabi's Code. A list of negative commandments of things NOT to do that preceded the Hebrews by hundreds of years. These codes are currently on permanent display in the British Museum. 

Joshua of the Old Testament, the one who conquered Israel, is the same story as Jesus of the New Testament. The very name itself is the same. Joshua from the Hebrew, and Jesus from the Greek, are “Yehoshua, Yeshu, Yeshua” literally a word composed of Hebrew aleph-bet (alphabet) symbols that mean “God is Saviour.” There was wandering in the desert for 40 years in the OT, there was a flood of 40 days and 40 nights in the OT, Jesus wandered in the wilderness for 40 days in the NT ... this is ALL symbolism. “Forty” weeks is the gestation period of a human being (9 months). From conception, to birth ... marking a new person with new beginnings. A “born again” time frame. Everything is symbolic. 

Even top officials from Universities in Israel today will tell us the Bible stories and the history of the Hebrews are not considered as merely literal historical events, if at all. Joshua could not have knocked down the walls of Jericho because Jericho didn't exist at that time. Jesus could not have been “of Nazareth” because there was no Nazareth at that time (it meant Nazarene/Nozrim). Camels were not domesticated at that time. 

So if so many of these stories never literally or historically happened, then what do they mean? There must be something deeper than the surface story. These secret Truths were taught to initiates into the Mystery School of old. And by taking these stories to be only literal, it has wreaked havoc all over the world for centuries. War and violence, degradation of women, child abuse, lies and deceptions, and a total misunderstanding and mistranslation of the true nature of Life, and of ourselves as being the “Light of the world.”

The Bible characters, locations, stories, miracles, crucifixion, resurrection, raising of the dead, ascension, transfiguration, crossing of the Red Sea, Mt. Sinai, are all intended to be taken as allegory and metaphor. All Myth ... “Mythos” in the Greek. In the Greek, mythos means there is MORE to the surface story ... a deeper Truth to be discovered. Joseph Campbell put it wisely when he described “myth” as “something that never was, yet always is.” We must go beyond the name, places, and events ... deep between the black and white letter, and find the pearl of great price. The Truth, that lies in waiting ... for Revelation - to be revealed, uncovered, unhidden. The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth Life. 

Just a thought ... 

Justin Taylor, ORDM.

YOU ARE AS AN ACTOR

YOU ARE AS AN ACTOR

Everything we experience in our lives, has culminated into what we are at this present moment. All that we have seen, heard, smelled, tasted, and touched; has formed our opinion of what and who we are. But all of these things, are someone else's opinions, Truth's, Lies, etc. that we have experienced. But remember, the most important part of all of this - we are NOT our experiences. We are the WITNESS to the experiences. We are the one experiencing, NOT the actual experience. 

For example, when you go to a movie theatre, everything that is taking place on the screen is an illusion. It's an image ... a projection of what appears to be form. But if you turn around and look behind you, everything that you are watching from the screen is projecting from the bright white light coming from within the projection booth. In this way, we as Light beings - Spirit - are projecting into matter/form from within ... to without. Our thoughts, calculate and ultimately conclude this process into a decision. Then, the decision leads to a belief. This belief can be Truth, or deception. True, or a lie. But we have made a decision to believe it. To “decide,” literally means to “cut-off.”

Most of us believe our lives are what we see on the movie screen (the projection), rather than the projector ... the point of origin. The Actors, the events on the screen, the screenwriters, producers, editors ... they are all YOU projecting outwards into form ... as you experience YOUR Life. You are as the Actor in a play. Life is the stage. You write the script. Remember that the word “personality” comes to us from the Latin word “persona” which literally means “the mask of an Actor.” So, your personality, is an Actor. It isn't really you. 

When we take ownership of our experiences, we actually become the experience. This is an error in thinking. If you make an error, you are NOT the error. You are the one experiencing the error - the WITNESS, or Observer. If you accept the error as actually being you ... then you accept yourself as being flawed. This is when we begin to feel guilt and fear. These “experiences” are our teachers in Life. These experiences we witness, teach us lessons that are intended fo us to know in order to evolve and involve as better humans and to elevate to a higher level of consciousness. 

When you drive your car, you are not the car but you are having an experience as the driver. You are witnessing and observing events from within the car. In life, your body is your vehicle for the driver (your Soul / Higher Self /Spirit) to sojourn in a foreign land/form. We are in Earth School, and we are all students. Except that in Earth School, we are given a test first, then we learn (and re-member) our lessons.

Just a thought ... 

Justin Taylor, ORDM. 

RESURRECTION SAVIOUR AND ANTI-CHRIST NOBODY TOLD YOU ABOUT

RESURRECTION SAVIOUR AND ANTI-CHRIST NOBODY TOLD YOU ABOUT

In this writing, I AM going to offer you a different view from what you have been told from the pulpits and church teachings about the New Testament Christian Gospel.

Before the Roman authorities intervened, usurped, hijacked, and literalized these biblical allegories and created a “literal and historical” based religion, there were many groups such as the Gnostics who denied an actual physical bodily resurrection of Jesus the Christ. 

Instead they believed Christ’s body was of a spiritual nature. In other words, the Gnostics, and many other Pre-Roman Church Christians (Krestiani) argued that Jesus Christ was not raised from the dead in a literal physical body.

Mainstream Christianity today considers this statement to be blasphemy. And here’s the scripture that they often use to put the final nail in the coffin:

“For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist” 

~2 John 1:7

Based on this scripture, the typical Christian argument states that John was aiming this scripture at those who denied Jesus was resurrected in a physical body.

Most Gnostics and early Christian sects, did not view any of the scriptures literally. They were never intended to be taken literally and historically. 

As such, John’s statement is in perfect agreement with what these people would have believed. The resurrection story of Christ wasn’t only about the literal man who walked the hills of the Galilee; it was about the spiritual awakening of the Divine nature that can happen within each individual. 

This awakening happens while “still yet in the flesh” … while still HERE ... and ALIVE in matter, in the flesh. So John’s statement rings true after all. Christ DOES come in the flesh. But this coming of Christ (the anointing - the Christ-ening) is the gnosis (mystical insight - knowingness) attained by the individual going through a profound experience in higher states of consciousness. 

This entire process happens while being in a physical body. It is the born again experience of the spiritual nature which rules over the physical nature. This spiritual nature is the Christ. Our Christ Consciousness ... the Divine Spark of the All. Scriptures remind us “the Kingdom of God/Heaven is WITHIN.” This is the temple ... this is Golgotha ... the place of the skull. 

This entire concept was taught among the Egyptian Mystery Schools and throughout the ancient world of spiritual mythology long before Christianity was formed. The Christ (crestus/krishna/chrestos) is the begotten Son of God … the Divine Spirit/Life force within every person. The breath (pneuma/spirit) that is the giver of Life. Based only on goodness and righteousness, not self serving as the base human ego is. 

Based on this view, the words credited to the Jesus of the New Testament ring true. “The Kingdom of Heaven/God lies within you … and is at hand”

The allegorical beauty of these empowering Truths have been lost on a “literal” belief system. We have lost 2,000 years of advancement, involution, and evolution. While church may offer you community and a social environment, you're missing out on the power, the Truth, and the reality that we are all ONE organism working in unison as the Universe/God/Source Energy. 

The “tomb” is your body … where the Christ awaits resurrection and release. The ancient Greeks would said “soma/sema” meaning “body/tomb.” Ancient Sanskrit defines “Manu” as Mankind/Mind, so The “Son of Man” means "son of Mind." 

When the ego remains attached to the natural man, it cannot be purified and transmuted into the spiritual ego/Higher Self. When it does, it once again becomes a “Son of God” as it was before the descent into a world of physical matter in form.

Always question everything … the Truth will speak to your Soul, and to your Spirit within. 

Just a thought ... 

Justin Taylor, ORDM. 

ALL IS ONE AND ONE IS GOD

ALL IS ONE AND ONE IS GOD

Today, we reach again into the deeper esoteric substance of what has been wrongly taken as literal and historical rather than allegorical within Biblical scripture. The NT confirms to the believer that there is nothing existent other than God. This is a difficult pill to swallow, unless you know and understand the deeper Truths and Inner Mysteries.

“Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word (Logos) of God, so that things which are seen are not made of things which do appear.”

Hebrews 11:3

Now let's break this down. God/Absolute/Source does not appear. He is immaterial, unseen, invisible. No man has ever seen God. So, this verse is telling us that EVERYTHING is made out of God.

“For originating out of Him (being made out of Him), and existing through Him, and returning back into Him are ALL things.”

Romans 11:6 (Literal correct translation)

This verse is telling us that everything came out of God, is made out of God, everything is maintained in existence by God, and all things go back to God.

“As He is, so are we in this world.”

1 John 4:17

In the above verse, the correct language translation would be the word “as” meaning “just as, or exactly as.” This scripture is literally telling the reader that we are just exactly as God in this world. This is because, everything in the Universe, including mankind, is made out of God/Absolute/Source. God is simply playing every role, and man is simply God wearing a mask. The word “personality” as we call ourselves, comes from the Latin word “persona” which literally means “mask of an Actor.”

We are as rays of the sun, beaming individualized light rays originating at the source of the sun itself. A ray of sunlight cannot exist without the sun. Each ray is an integral part of and an essence of the sun itself. If it were to come from the pulpits of our churches that WE are God collectively experiencing human form, that God is IN you AS you, experiencing life WITH you, there would be no need for the multi-billion dollar religion industry. The Bible scriptures even say “you are the temple of God” and “we are the body of Christ.”

When we awaken to the realization that we and God are ONE in the same, as ALL things are, then we come to the realization that the Divinity of God is not only alive in ALL THINGS, but IS all things. “I am the vine and you are the branch” it is written in the Bible. The branch and the vine are ONE. The branch is a manifestation of the vine. So, man, is a MANifestation of God. We are not born INTO this world, we are born OUT of it ... as a leaf from a tree.

Jesus said “I and the Father are one.” Imagine rain falling from a cloud. Clouds are water vapour. So clouds and rain are water. It is the same as when the Source/God fragmented and manifested into all things. The reason and purpose for us to come here, is to realize and awaken to the reality that we are collectively God, and that we should think, act, and create as God ... and to evolve and involve as One ... ever growing. The “Kingdom” is consciousness, and the awakening has begun ... worldwide. Soon, we will all re-member who and what we are, and we can spread the word of Divine power among mankind as was the original intent of so many sages, shamans, hierophants, avatars, and wise men and women who had great inner Wisdom and Knowledge. All things that proceed from a single Source, can be made of nothing other than the same thing as the Source. All is One, and One is God/Source Energy/Absolute.

Just a thought ... 

Justin Taylor, ORDM.