The first part of an ongoing Signal chat amongst Natalia, Sabrina, Phillip and Joel. Much of what follows centers around a shared study of the “Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz” during Holy Week. See for example here: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/chymwed1.html
March 30:
Natalia on reading the notes to the Ace of Swords…the void was brought up. The silence of the prophetess. Nature waiting for a redemptive gesture. It makes her think of making the Word whole again. Like in Sabrina’s process her Word, her power of speaking, was “updated.” After the Swords and the wounds with silence, is it a new level of Word that is there, the Cups flowing more abundantly, substantially, with Word?
Like Phillip once said about the red portion of the Cups forming a Vesica Piscis and what comes out of the cup comes through that Vesica Piscis…
March 31:
Sabrina is wondering about the mysterious initials SM on the Chariot.
It’s interesting that Christian Rosenkreutz in his Chymical Wedding receives from the second Porter (on the second day) the initials SM as a gift in return for the salt. Anthrowiki.at explains SM as:
Studio Merentis (to study the worthy?)
Sponso Mittendus (to bring to the bridegroom)
Sal Mineralis (mineral salt)
Sal Menstrualis (salt of purification)
Natalia shares some Arcana that have come up in different occasions, somehow connected to the Chymical Wedding’s first and second day. The Six of Cups, the rope where people try to catch on in the first dream. The Fool when he is running to the road. The Chariot with SM sign on it as on the coin he receives. The Hanged Man as the people hanging in the second dream. Maybe Libra (i.e., Justice) too as they wait for the morning to be judged, weighed.
In the past, Joel has also thought of the “S” above the red horse as indicating Sulphur (Hot, Lucifer, Astral, Moses, Tree of Knowledge, Pillar of Wisdom, etc.) and the “M” above the blue horse indicating Mercury (Cold, Ahriman, Etheric, Elijah, Tree of Life, Pillar of Strength, etc.). So the Charioteer would be Salt—Christ, the Tree of Love. The turning point of time holding the balance between the two halves of Earth evolution (Mars/Sulphur and Mercury). “You are the Salt of the Earth.”
But “to bring the bridegroom” is new to him. It feels very true to both the Chymical Wedding as well as the Suit of Cups.
April 1:
Natalia shares that in the Finnish transition it explains SM as:
1. For someone who has developed worthily
2. Sal humour: possibly a mistake?
3. Sponso mittendus, bridegroom’s pledge
4 and 5 are the same as what Sabrina shared.
Joel shares that it’s quite a thing to be living with the Chymical Wedding during Holy Week. Yesterday’s section was so long and strange and laborious, felt rather oppressive. Reading it, you’re also being weighed like these men in the story. He got this initial impression which will be tested as the story unfolds, that the first day with the receiving of this invitation is actually expressing this moment of death. The second day is more of an etheric review. This third day is the passage through Kamaloka, a purgatory experience. And it’s only on the 4th day that you enter the planetary spheres proper, so to speak. And he kind of had a bit of that experience when he says on the third day that he had a quiet night but was kept awake all night by a dream where he’s tormented by a dream of a door he can’t open. Joel had difficult sleep last night, a real “panic and anxiety” feeling, but akin to this feeling of being tormented by a door you can’t open or a problem you can’t solve or something. Bringing this into connection with trying to figure out the new date for the Footwashing Ritual and the Sophia Foundation’s Annual Retreat, which has been postponed once again. A dream of Natalia’s that indicated that Joel already knew or had chosen the date, even though he is not aware of that! A little bit of a door being unlocked or a mystery beings solved on the fourth day. But then the ending of the fourth day is quite intense, with this beheading of the six kings and queens, and then the beheading of the executioner himself! We got the Lover and Death quite a bit today, and a lot of Justice yesterday.
Natalia also had dark dreams Thursday to Friday, energetically, taken into very deep corners. In a kind of asylum, she was crazy. All this very heavy atmosphere, waking many times. It feels the planetary spheres releases this tension a bit.
April 3:
Joel shares about these seven ships on the fifth day of the initiation. The 7 planets are assigned to them, except instead of Jupiter there is Earth. And it made Joel think, what if this whole 7-day initiation is some kind of vision, like his consciousness is transported to Future Jupiter? Therefore, Jupiter would equal Earth? Maybe this whole bizarre, fairy tale, non-rational, image rich experience is expressing in our language to a limited degree the way that reality will be experienced in Future Jupiter, as this recapitulation on a higher level of the dream consciousness or dream experience of Old Moon. Maybe there’s an emphasis throughout on the number six, and then especially on the fifth day of the initiation he sees Venus sleeping in the heart of the Earth, waiting to be resurrected. So in the Jupiter consciousness or planetary evolution is Venus, the goal is this sixth stage.
Natalia is reminded in this part of the lifting of the veil of Isis, these curtains around Venus, he’s forbidden to go and have a look during the night.
And he’s sitting in this boat with this ball which is connected with the Earth. She has something in her Finnish translation about the signs on those boats. Not sure if it exists in every translation. The Pyramid is mentioned in the Saturn. In the Mars, the boat is called B, with Dodecahedron. Then G which is Venus icosahedron (21 sided). Then D which is Mercury is octahedron. Then C is the Earth which is a ball. Does that give more information? Or how was that brought? That is like the translator’s extra at the bottom of the page. All these forms that the different boats had.
Sabrina is living closely with these images as well…the 8th Major Arcanum wove into her day, as well as the Cosmic Dance of Libra, and a course she is doing called “The Power of Eight” by Lynne McTaggart. Quite a powerful tapestry!
On Easter Morning (April 4) Natalia shares some different collages of Arcana to express the Chymical Wedding. She particularly points out Death who has the heads of a King and Queen under him, and a “red moon” scythe.
A few reflections from Joel:
Rudolf Steiner says Mani-Parzival initiated CR at this time. Was Mani the Virgin in the Chymical Wedding?
The presence of Atlas as a kind of spokesman for the King is significant.
Why were three couples slaughtered/beheaded and only one couple resurrected? Does this have some connection to the dissolution and recreation of the body/bodies between death and rebirth?
The bittersweet ending, when CR must take over as gatekeeper for the “famous astrologer” because he too had seen Venus in all her glory in the subterranean realm resonated very deeply with Joel, as a kind of experience or life situation or destiny that feels so familiar and personal to him.
April 5: Sabrina points out the various Steiner editions (CW, ha!) that refer to the CW: 35, 175, 232, 262. She responds to Joel’s reflection on the bittersweet ending…First of all, she feels what he means and she had been thinking of him. But then, for her understanding, especially after having read Steiner’s comment, CR gets back to his hermitage and he kind of simultaneously is the gatekeeper (from CW 35). She’d say he masters this experience and is the one on the Chariot, SM.
In any case, this Libra-Venus aspect is very interesting, CR sails under the sign of Libra, and Venus rules Libra.
Joel responds…Yes! And interesting how on the way the boats are planetary, and on the return they are zodiacal. Which again makes him think of the journey of the soul through the planetary spheres to the midnight hour/realm of fixed stars after death. And he could tell in his translation, which is a bit arcane, but it did seem like CR goes to bed thinking he will awake the next morning as the gatekeeper, but instead he sleeps for two days straight and awakes back at home. So a kind of ambivalent, paradoxical ending. This is akin to the ending of George MacDonald’s Lilith. It ends with the main character experiencing two biographies simultaneously, one in the waking realm and the other in the realm of sleep. It is equally bittersweet and ambiguous. And this is pretty much how Joel’s life feels all the time!
The Tarot really do feel like the cast of characters from the CW now.
Sabrina has a seven year old friend, who sent her a picture via her grandmother of four red roses…so tuned in, without any conscious idea what her endeavour is! This symbol of the four red roses resonated so deeply with Sabrina…
For Natalia, this is very interesting, because she has not read Steiner’s work on CW, but had similar thoughts to his coming up…because it seems like there is all the time this sort of Venusian mood and also, she understands what Joel is saying but then again it seems like he is led by this maiden as if that would be a conscious entering into that realm of the underground Venus. On the other hand, she thinks He’s so modern in his way, the way he observes things and writes down what is written there, the threat there. As if he would need to also enter there, and he’s led there. And in the end, everything comes out yet he agrees and acknowledges it, he is honest about it and takes ownership of it. There is this difference with the astrologer in that he not only sees but touches or holds Venus, and with CR it is more observation. Really hard to memorise all those details.
As he becomes this gatekeeper, it reminded her of the analysis that Joel did of Natalia’s dream with Schythe and Queen of Swords, with CH pointing to Christian Rosenkreuz and Chymical Wedding. What came out of this was also these Masters of the lower chakras: Zarathustra with the Heart, Christian Rosenkreuz with the Solar Plexus, Mani with the Sacral, and Skythianos with the Root. If Mani—this Venus/Sacral/Grail realm—is the next…he needs then Rosenkreuz also before him to make this moral development for humanity before the confrontation with evil can really happen with Mani. So that made her think, this portal, this solar plexus (ruled by CR) could also be where the gatekeeper is needed. Because this solar plexus really is the portal to the underworlds, and that really does need to be held in check or morality needs to develop there.
The gatekeeper needs to know also what he is gatekeeping, that was her conclusion yesterday evening. So he needs to have seen Venus in the underground.
Also this initiation, that the Masters go before the other portion of humanity…that is this change of consciousness, the Consciousness Soul. This was in 1459. Only later do more and more “ordinary” people enter into this state that the initiate has achieved already much sooner. Tarot was already existing before that, right? And then the Parzival story in the 800, where Mani-Parzival goes through his experience, it was also written down later on. It has a very different view on some things, but there is still this feeling like there is an echo with these maidens, still this kind of…another kind of Grail initiation, but still some kind of connection one could feel to be there.
So perhaps this maiden is somehow Mani? Is she the same which is called Alchemy? The one in the beginning who is telling her name after CR asks? Now she can’t recall if that is the same one who is leading him every night and day…that is one of her questions…what does that perhaps mean? But Atlas, perhaps he didn’t understand so well. She forgot all the things he was doing there. She only knew that he was the brother of Prometheus in Greek mythology. This holding of earth and sky. He was giving advice throughout the book.
She agrees with Sabrina, that CR was given the mission of gatekeeper, and at the same time he was having the initiation, so there is something that shows the paradoxical side of it. But still back to this night, Thursday to Friday, that many of us had something going on there. For her it was also about taking her to this realm of Venus and something of her transgressions with that. Now she sees that is part of reading the book, is also showing that side of ourselves more clearly in one way or another.
Natalia shares a portion of the Lord’s Prayer Course about the transformation of the double with the help of Zarathustra (heart chakra), Christian Rosenkreuz (solar plexus), Mani (sacral) and Skythianos (root). This portion has taken on significance for her ever since this dream.
Joel is on vacation at his cabin, so might not be so responsive…but he wanted to respond to this image of the Solar Plexus as gatekeeper, and then Mani in relation to the sacral chakra…so Christian Rosenkreuz as this five at the solar plexus setting the stage for the six, for the Venus of Mani and the sacral chakra and the next stage of human evolution. That feels very true.
And he got the impression from the CW that…well, it was hard to keep track of which Virgin was which and how many there actually were…it’s very vague. But you feel as though she/they were the ones who initiated CR. So, he got this strong impression that the whole initiation was about guarding or becoming aware of the Venus stage of evolution or consciousness. The Divine Feminine and the Earth Mysteries. Those belong to Mani. He…or rather she is the one who can initiate you into these mysteries. CR, because he becomes aware of these future mysteries…well, it’s like the initiation is to become a gatekeeper, in a way.
As for taking over for the “famous astrologer,” Joel’s mind goes in two directions. If we’re heading down towards the sacral chakra of Mani via the solar plexus of CR, the heart chakra of Zarathustra precedes CR/Solar Plexus. And he is the Astrologer, right? He’s the one who more or less initiated Babylonian astrology in the 6th-5th century BC or so. So this CR taking over for Zarathustra is one piece of that, as the guiding initiate of the West. Steiner or Tomberg says that, that at the time of the CW, CR took over for Zarathustra as guiding initiate of the West.
On the other hand, when Robert talks about this meeting of the Masters of the lower chakras as initiates in the 4th century AD, Mani organises this. And Rudolf Steiner says that it was Skythianos and Zarathustra and Buddha who were invited by Mani. Robert clarifies, and says that Buddha was no longer incarnating at that point, and so it was the earthly representative of Buddha, who is Christian Rosenkreuz. At other times, however, Robert says that this earthly representative of Buddha is Maitreya Boddhisatva. So Robert more or less indicates that these two are the same individuality. So on the other hand, it’s CR as Maitreya taking over for Gautama Buddha as gatekeeper, Gautama Buddha’s successor.
But he thinks in general it indicates that there is something bittersweet in coming to self-awareness through karma. It’s very much this thing of a blessing and a curse at the same time. That the initiation is at the same time a punishment. “Oh, you saw what you weren’t supposed to see, so now you have to be the gatekeeper.” But also a recognition, “out of gratitude for this person who has stood this post so long, I will gladly become the gatekeeper.” It’s a whole mixture, it’s a multivocal thing. So Joel can relate to that in the most practical sense in terms of, say, taking over Journal for Star Wisdom from Robert. At times it feels like a privilege and at others a punishment. He’s not a famous astrologer per se, but he’s dear to all of us.
And the Tarot…they were coming out at the same time that CW is supposed to be taking place, around 1459 the first Tarot decks were being created in Europe. And it would probably be more like the time period that CW was published in the 1600’s that the Tarot were widespread and the designs that we’re familiar with, the oldest ones that are still in existence were coming out around that time period—the 17th century. Definitely something there in terms of the imagery and the tone and the dream-like mood of it, something very similar between the Parzival story and this. And with Parzival the action takes place in the 8th-9th centuries, not published until the early 13th. This takes place in the 15th century, not published until the 17th. Something really analogous between those two in that way. Again this thing of, something is taking place in preparation for the future. There’s the time during which it takes place, but it’s actually setting the stage for the culture in the next couple of hundred years or so.
The question of Atlas…well, this mythological figure of Atlas is very much tied up with Robert Powell’s mission. That’s over on one side. On another side, Robert has characterised himself at times, and his own work, in that he is not a Master per se. He’s not a Boddhisatva. He’s the supporter, he’s the spokesperson, the helper of the Initiates. And that’s exactly the role that Atlas plays in this story. That seemed significant to Joel.
April 6: Natalia feels Atlas sounds like Robert in the way Joel put it. She is reading Four of Coins. There was a comparison of Ace of Coins—Steiner; Two of Coins—Tomberg; Three of Coins—Robert; Four of Coins—Future generations of Hermeticists, Grail Knights, etc. Also toward the end about the Initiates as ahead of humanity but also having a human side and struggles. Reminds her much of what we have talked about lately. Also there was this observation of the small red flower, similar to our recent conversations.
April 7: Natalia is still playing around with CW Tarot imagery. Schythe is still making her ponder. The three beheaded couples makes her think of the three doubles and how they are beheaded in the Queen of Swords. CR says that only one Queen is smiling, the others were serious and soon they had to change their wedding clothes to black. The couples become wax-like too. The room was made black, and everyone had to wear black. On the altar was a skull, snake, black book, crystal ball. Schythe (Death) has much of that mood. What if the first part of the wedding has to do somehow with the Doubles? Something needs to be cut off, right? Then a new Creation can arise, through an alchemical process.
The King of Swords has a very similar writing on his throne to the “Venus writing” in CW.
April 9:
Natalia wonders about connections between Tarot and Beatitudes? It was in her dream last night. Also the King of Swords has appeared two or three times this week in her dreams. Maybe time to read the notes on him!
The first thing that comes to Sabrina’s mind is the Pope (Vow of Poverty) in connection with “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit” and The Fool in connection with the 9th Beatitude (Blessed are you when you are reviled in my name).
Natalia had simply lined up the first nine Arcana in order, which would put the Magician with Poor in Spirit, but maybe he is not so poor. The Emperor lines up well: Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Pope could be Blessed are the Merciful. How does that feel?
Lovers, Blessed are the Pure in Heart, for they shall see God.
The Ninth is very much the Fool…
Joel sees the Hermit as “Blessed are the Peacemakers”, the Hanged Man as the 8th Beatitude, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for Righteousness’ sake.”
Natalia feels maybe the Hanged Man is the first part of the 9th, and the Fool the second part, “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad.”
She wonders who is mourning, in terms of Blessed are those who Mourn?
Joel points out that sometimes it is translated “Bearing Suffering” rather than “Mourning.” That makes him think of the Emperor. Poor in Spirit as Pope…Blessed are the Merciful as Temperance…The Pure in Heart either the Lover or Force. Blessed are the Meek as The World. Those who Hunger and Thirst for Righteousness as Justice. Meek could also be The Star or The Sun.
Uberta shared with Natalia that the lowest Sephiroth, Malkuth, is ruled by the Ishim, the 10th Hierarchy, which comes from Hebrew. Ish = Man, and Isha = Woman. This she did not know. Uberta was thinking Meek would go with Star or Temperance or Force. Interesting how many possibilities for Meek we all find.
Tomberg writes in The Lord’s Prayer Course that meekness is a condition of the astral body which can behold the Truth about ourselves, and the Angel helps in this. One day we need to create this mood of calm ourselves. Would that be Temperance then?
With “Blessed are the Meek, for they shall inherit the Earth”, this inheritance made The World jump naturally to Joel’s mind. But also this meekness seems to him to have something childlike about it. Like St. Francis, so that’s when he thought of The Star, The Sun, also Force perhaps.
He think of Temperance in terms of Mercy, because she is like the “defense attorney,” always advocating mercy for her charge in the face of the “accusers” of the hierarchy of the left.
Maybe there is a call and response though? For example, maybe one Arcanum is “Blessed are the Meek” and another is “For they shall inherit the Earth.”
April 10:
Natalia also wondered about this call and response, due to the Hanged Man and Fool being paired together for the 9th Beatitude. Maybe something like this for the first five beatitudes:
Magician and Pope for the first Beatitude
High Priestess and Emperor for the second. Her heart is pierced by she also receives, that could be “comforting.” That would make the Emperor the first part, the “mourning.” But perhaps that goes a bit for both.
Lover and Force for the sixth Beatitude, Blessed are the Pure in Heart.
For Blessed are the Merciful, Temperance as the merciful one, and then who is “obtaining Mercy”?
For the 4th Beatitude, Justice as the first part, but then who represents “For they shall be filled”?
Sabrina responds to this indication about Ishim from Natalia…yes, Humanity = Ishim, the 10th Hierarchy. “Im” usually indicates the grammatical plural form such as in “Cherubim”, that’s quite interesting and useful to know maybe!
In terms of the Sephiroth Tree, she has a question…what role to Archangels such as Metatron and Sandalphon play for us? She feels them quite close to her personally. In other “systems”, such as in the Universal White Brotherhood (Aivanhov group), Metatron is connected with Kether, and Sandalphon with Malkuth. She shares a picture of “their” version…what do we think about it?
…to be continued
The Unknown Friends 