Rehearsed Reverse Ritual

Firstly an unhealthy ego activity is reflected in the ego-veneer which becomes as sticky or tacky, and is visibly thin in patches, but murky also. One would imagine perhaps that less ego activity would amount in a greater veneer to encase it, however it requires an inner maintenance of sorts and condenses unreasonably when there is a deficit of inner warmth and activity.

Contrary to this comes true humility. Here we may witness the very real differentiation which proves that humility enhances the self with egohood. For it is that this protective veneer may at suitable times, be shared by individuals who are responsive to each other and remitting of their selves. Not only do the aureoles stretch out and contain in combination the two or the many (who for that time are in true humility towards each other) but also the aureole intensity becomes magnificently illumined and is truly colorful with hues of blue, sprinkled with stars. The heavens become literally mirrored as the ego begins to fully function in 'open' activity.

One must realize that our self-consciousness is supported by:-

1. That we are what we are: Beingness.
2. That we know it: the gift of the ego.
3. That Christ knows it: our higher astrality.
4. That we know Christ: our Christ-Soul - not ego, but heart.
5. That we are separate - our greater ego - to all other beings: the ego-veneer.
6. That we may combine with all other beings: our Christ-soul combined with ego in possibility through empathy shared and in consciousness experienced.
7. And last but not least, our Father God, our Spirit permits us to be, and furthermore is the very Life which does sustain us.
   

So the conductivity of the active ego is relative to its exterior shawl: our greater ego as is borrowed from Christ. Our true individuality is not compromised by that humility which leads us to 'combine proximities' (yes that is the very real meaning) and envelop ourselves within that which we adore.

Loving Christ, as with the love of another individual, expands the greater ego, and when rehearsed it may become sufficiently healthy and coherent, and this does reflect back into the consciousness of the man thereby. In this he shall be ever stronger in the World - by this we mean to say that he shall not be or feel buffeted this way and that by the thoughts and opinions of those men to whom he comes in contact with. For many such offerings are remarkably unhealthy to accommodate or wear and there are many who do know instinctively that they are burdened thereby.

-B.Hive

Inverted Pentagram

Eliphas Levi stated that the inverted pentagram was satanic:

"The Pentagram with two points in the ascendant represents Satan as the goat of the Sabbath; when one point is in the ascendant, it is the sign of the Saviour."

-Ritual of High Magic, ch. 5

"A reversed pentagram, with two points projecting upwards, is a symbol of evil and attracts sinister forces because it overturns the proper order of things and demonstrates the triumph of matter over spirit. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns, a sign execrated by initiates."

"The flaming star, which, when turned upside down, is the hierolgyphic [sic] sign of the goat of Black Magic, whose head may be drawn in the star, the two horns at the top, the ears to the right and left, the beard at the bottom. It is the sign of antagonism and fatality. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns."

"Let us keep the figure of the Five-pointed Star always upright, with the topmost triangle pointing to heaven, for it is the seat of wisdom, and if the figure is reversed, perversion and evil will be the result."

- Eliphas Levi

What he said is correct, we don't approach the spiritual by means of the "earth pole"- "triumph of matter".

Rudolf Steiner on the pentagram:

"We're always surrounded by five ether streams in the world around us on earth. They're called earth, water, fire, air and thought ethers. These etheric streams are also active in man: earth ether from the head to the right foot, from there water ether to the left hand, from there fire ether to the right hand, from there air ether to the left foot, and then thought ether back to the head.

"This is the occultist's sacred pentagram, the symbol of man. Its point is directed upwards, which indicates that the spirit streams to man from the heights. The pentagram is present in many flowers and other things in nature. The sign of black magic is a pentagram with one point at the bottom, through which magicians attract bad forces from the earth and send them out of the two top horns into the environment by means of their bad will in order to use soul and nature forces for their own egotistical, evil purposes."

This links in with another process used in Black Magic- drawing up forces through the feet.

Rudolf Steiner:

Streams of ether are always circulating out of the cosmos through the human body. One such stream enters through the head, passes from there into the right foot, then into the left hand, then into the right hand, then into the left foot, and from there back to the head. If we think of a man standing in the position just described, with outstretched arms, then the streaming has the form of a pentagram.

 It would be bad for man if the stream did not enter into him through the head but through the feet. All evil influences enter the human body through the feet. The black magicians make use of this.

-Guidance in Esoteric Training, Talks & writings 1903-1913, GA#245

Healing Prayer

Healing is a return to grace, in soul or in stature, we pray that:-

Let there be no further insult to our being -
This being of Man, and our being of Christ.

Within each one of us there is that undertow which summons us back,
Back to the perfection of Love
Whose pinions brush past and carry twofold.

In strength of the soul,
Great and fantastic goodness does multiply,
Whilst virtue's draughts infill our being
With momentous tribute to this Life we are living
And compounded to.

We pray, as we wake,
That our first choice is made and made well,
And may each of our brothers and sisters also come to this World
In full happiness, and health -
The health of a happy spirit,
Who understands the Grace of God
Which smiles with constancy and Love
Undeterred, unharmed, unmarred.

Christ give us the patience,
Whilst we are incomplete,
To forgive ourselves of that which makes us weak,
And know only of Love as is perfect.
AMEN

-B.Hive

Book of Revelation Gemstones- Amethyst

Amethyst is the final gemstone of the Apocalyptic ring. Since 610 A.D. it has been the gemstone of the bishop's ring in the Roman Catholic church. It mainly appears in pyramidal hexagonal violet crystals. The color stems from iron together with titanium and manganese, two of the higher congenial elements of iron. So, we have before us a scale of higher ego aspects together with the violet color which involves the blue of devotion and the red of the blood forces. Add to these the sun-like hexagonal symmetry and we have the basic features of what in the Gospels is called love of one's neighbor. The Greek word amethustos means: sober, not inebriated. How true it is that love of one's neighbor should be free from any intoxication.

By the way, amethyst is the third gemstone with hexagonal crystals. The three: amethyst, emerald and beryl form a triangle within the circle. The Greek author Lucian, in the second century A.D., describes in his Vera Historia the city of the Islands of the Blessed. The walls of this city are of emerald, the temples of beryl, and the altars therein of single amethysts.

Complementary qualities appear in amethyst and carnelian, love of one's neighbor is both conditional to and as a result of the way which leads to resurrection. They are the response (German: Antwort) on the Word of God.

Bringing now together the qualities which arise between the pairs of gemstones we recognize the "armor of God" St.Paul describes in the sixth chapter of his epistle to the Ephesians:

"Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."

- Dr. Simon van der Heide, Haarlem, Holland- past Secretary-General of the International Union of Geological Sciences.

Book of Revelation Gemstones- Carnelian

Carnelian, also called cornelian or sard, is the sixth gemstone. It is a chalcedony coloured by iron hydroxide. The name carnelian stems from the wonderful red color, a real incardanine. It is indeed a gemstone related to the process of incarnation. Max Stibbe, one of the first Waldorf teachers in Holland, considered the sequence of gemstones on the high-priest's breastplate as a reflection of the spiritual way of the old Jewish history. These twelve gemstones begin with carnelian, the gemstone of consanguinity, and is finally leading to jasper, the gemstone of unselfishness. That means: the blood had to be kept pure in such a way that it would provide unselfishly the body and the substance in which the incarnation of Christ could take place. 

The twelve gemstones of the apocalypse represent the way of Christendom, beginning with the ego endowed unselfishness of jasper and completing its way in amethyst, the gemstone of the love of one's neighbor. Stibbe's problem was, what is the role of carnelian in the Apocalyptic sequence? Here we should look at the ultimate goal of incarnation: that is resurrection, the "Geistesmensch".

In the aspect of gemstone of resurrection carnelian is one of the two gemstones representing the highest divine being in the vision of Apocalypse chapter four.


- Dr. Simon van der Heide