The Tie That Binds - The Seal of Solomon

In my last two blogs I have introduced you to two distinct triads, or triangles, the one with the apex up symbolic of the highest three levels of consciousness, and a second inferior triad, or triangle, with its apex point down representing the three lowest levels of consciousness.

What we are seeking here is Unity, the highest level of consciousness available, yet we have two distinct and separate triangles. If we think of the triad of Sun, Moon, and Mercury as the triad of Spirit, and the triad of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn as the triad of Matter, the only way Matter can rise to union with Spirit is Venus, love.

Venus, love, is the tie that binds. The attraction of Spirit to love draws Spirit to Matter, and the attraction of Matter to love pulls Matter to love, thus the two Spirit and Matter are harmonized by Venus, love. Only through love can our level of consciousness rise above the world of Matter. It doesn't matter what you think you know, it doesn't matter what you preach, without love you just ain't getting it.

Now I know many within the esoteric traditions are familiar with the interlaced triangles with the Sun in the center, where as in mine I placed Venus, and with due cause.

In the hexagram we have created by the higher triad descending and the lower triad ascending can only make sense when we are discussing the raising of ones consciousness, symbolized in the raising of the Master Mason and all those who seek Enlightenment, Self Realization, Samadhi, etc.

Because of love the triangle of Spirit descends to Matter, and because of love Matter ascends to Spirit, forming the union that allows one continue the process of expansion of consciousness.

The question we should be asking is what type of love has the ability to bind Spirit and Matter? Clearly we're not talking the simplified version so commonly labeled love, our love of spaghetti, or love of Spot, or even our love of spouse, each and every one of those loves has the ability to discontinue. We're talking of a love that has no limit, no time frame, no boundaries, no conditions. This is I would give my life type of love that has the possibilities to override your survival instincts, without thought. I'm pretty sure if you let your intuition kick in you'll know where I'm going.

I remember hearing this wonderful little tale of the Buddha and his deep compassion. One day the Buddha, in one of the many life's, was making his way through the forest when he came upon a cliff. As he looked down over the edge he saw a mother tiger and her cubs. The mother tiger was frail, skinny, and visibly unable to hunt. It came to the Buddha that because of the mother's woeful and hungry condition without food the mother and her cubs would surely die. Without hesitation the Buddha threw himself off the cliff, spiritual love.

“You have heard that it was said, 'Love (agape) your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love (agape) your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?” — Matthew 5:43-46

The Female or Venus symbol ♀, is made up of two symbols, the circle joined to the cross. The circle symbol meaning is universal, sacred and divine. It represents the infinite nature of energy, and the inclusivity of the universe, an appropriate symbol to represent our apex pointing up triad. The cross in its simplest form, as +, is the glyph for the quaternary or square, representing the four lower planes of consciousness, or more simply, Matter.

Any Freemason should be able to see the results of our most notable and easily recognizable symbolic tools in the sign of Venus, the circle is drawn by the Compass, the cross by use of the Square, also symbolic of Spirit and Matter.

Enlighten Your Path Part #2 Harmonizing Spirit & Matter

This is a continuation of the previous blog.

There is another triad to discuss, the one with its apex pointing down.

Now that I've made the case for the triad of Sun, Moon, and Mercury actually representing levels of consciousness, the Sun our highest aspiration, the next triangle also represents levels of consciousness, also symbolized by planets, yet these are the levels we must rise above in order to make our way towards the symbolic Sun.

The apex of our downward triangle is symbolic of Saturn. Saturn in the Cosmos corresponds to the outer realm of the physical and is called the "first born" because farthest in expression from the centre. Also he is called the guardian of the outer gate, the ruler of the world of Matter, standing with scythe and hour glass at that mystical point where cause and effect meet. He is seldom loved or welcomed because he is the law, the Reaper. Old, fixed, slow of movement, because first born, he is, in the individual, Destiny. He releases through the outer gate that initiate only who is strong enough to be at one with him and know his majesty.

In Freemasonry we can see him symbolized by the Tyler, who protects the outer door. The level of consciousness symbolized by Saturn is Materialism, at this level the individual is totally egocentric, his or her own little island, hence the reason the Tyler sits outside the door of the Lodge Room. Everything taken in by their senses is out there, separate, they are the subject, everything else is the object. Here we have the deepest of Buddhist samsara, ignorance, greed, and hatred, the three assassins.

Here's a rubber meets the road moment, if Saturn consciousness is not working for you, inside a switch is thrown. Sadly not all will hear the call, the world of the senses is very strong, and fortunate is the one who senses that which you seek is causing you to seek.

Allow me to make a very important point again before we continue, Freemasonry is a spiritual path, not religious, spiritual. If it was solely a moral tradition it would never discourage atheists from petitioning, it’s absurd to think atheists can't be moral, but because of its spiritual make-up it would be disrespectful to allow one to begin a path that is not in the person's interest. Freemasonry does not “save” souls; neither does the dummy downed religious dogma being promoted by ignorant literalistic thought.

One level up from the apex of Saturn is the angle representative of Jupiter, the planet of expansion, growth and cooperation.

The planets of conscience are Jupiter and Saturn. Jupiter relates to the consciousness expanding principle; while Saturn relates to the consciousness limiting principle.

The Jupiter principle relates to the centrifugal or externalizing force of integration. Jupiter, by broadening the horizons, forces that self, now integrated, to acknowledge that there is still more, that there can be more awareness by reaching out from the center towards the universe. Together Jupiter and Saturn act as rival agents that affect a continued and steady growth process of consciousness, not too fast, but then not too slow either, by providing for the balancing awareness of a conscience. These two together represent the balancing agent of the self vs. others... the ability to balance the needs of the self with the needs of the other.

If find it interesting the Jupiter was also known as the God of lightening and the thunderbolt, the lightening bolt is symbolized on the electrician's apron in Freemasonry. Coincidence?

Our next position on the downward pointing triangle opposite of Jupiter is Mars.

This level of consciousness, symbolized by the planet Mars, is influential in illuminating our vision as to what is no longer serving us. This makes Mars symbolism relevant to cycles, and the natural rhythms of life and death, something understood by the warrior planet. On the one hand we have the driving force of new beginnings followed by a period of thoughtful retreat and a symbolic death to the things which no longer serve.

Working with the Mars symbol and Mars symbolism means being honest with ourselves. Mars energy forces us to confront our deepest, darkest secrets and drive a spike of active understanding in the heart of our shadows.

I have introduced you to two distinct triads, of triangles, the one with the apex up symbolic of the highest three levels of consciousness, and a second inferior triad, or triangle, with its apex point down representing the three lowest levels of consciousness.

What we are seeking here is Unity, the highest level of consciousness available, yet we have two distinct and separate triangles. If we think of the triad of Sun, Moon, and Mercury as the triad of Spirit, and the triad of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn as the triad of Matter, the only way Matter can raise to union with Spirit is Venus, love.

Venus, love, is the tie that binds. The attraction of Spirit to love draws Spirit to Matter, and the attraction of Matter to love pulls Matter to love, thus the two Spirit and Matter are harmonized by Venus, love. Only through love can our level of consciousness rise above the world of Matter. It doesn't matter what you think you know it doesn’t matter what you preach, without love you just ain’t getting it.

Now I know many within the esoteric traditions are familiar with the interlaced triangles with the Sun in the center, where as in mine I placed Venus, and with due cause.

In the hexagram we have created by the higher triad descending and the lower triad ascending can only make sense when we are discussing the raising of ones consciousness, symbolized in the raising of the Master Mason and all those who seek Enlightenment, Self Realization, Samadhi, etc.

Because of love the triangle of Spirit descends to Matter, and because of love Matter ascends to Spirit, forming the union that allows one continue the process of expansion of consciousness.

Three Lesser Lights - Enlighten Your Path

My wife says my blogs are to long, and nobody can understand them…Ouch.

Oh well, here is a short one, although it is Masonic in nature, an intuitive individual might find it enlightening.

Allow me to introduce to the three Lesser Lights of Freemasonry, the triad, or triangle of the Sun, Moon, and Mercury.

No I haven't forgotten what the ritual told me, that the Lesser Lights represent the Sun, Moon, and Master of the Lodge, I tend to agree with Brother Pike, “The Temple of Eleusis was lighted by a window in the roof. The sanctuary so lighted, Dion compares to the Universe, from which he says it differed in size alone; and in it the great lights of nature played a great part and were mystically represented. The images of the Sun, Moon, and Mercury were represented there and they are still the three lights of a Masonic Lodge; except that for Mercury, the Master of the Lodge has been absurdly substituted.” When one begins to look at the bigger picture you will plainly see that Mercury, symbolic of wisdom should be returned to its rightful place in the triad known as the Lesser Lights.

Freemasonry is old, as a matter of fact no one really knows how old, but that's not my field of interest, we'll leave that to the historians. The problem with being old is that many assume wrongly that because a tradition is old it must be out of touch with many of the advances made in philosophical thought and spiritual sciences, which couldn't be further from the truth. By its nature symbolic thought is progressive, in order to understand the veiled symbolism one must first attempt to find the universal meaning of a symbol, then the cultural as to how it is being used, and then to the personal, the level in which the symbol speaks to the individual. Think of it as learning a new language, a language made up of beautiful pictures.

Now let's get back on track. What we are discussing here is the triad of the Sun, Moon, and Mercury, although called the Lesser Lights, these three make up the highest level of spiritual enlightenment symbolized in the Masonic Temple, not in position, but in consciousness.

In position, the three Lesser Lights are symbolized by the Senior Deacon symbolic of Sun, the Junior Deacon symbolic of the Moon, and the Marshall symbolic of the messenger Mercury.

Now when we look at consciousness, and how the symbols allude to states of mind, the Sun is symbolic of divine Unity, called by many names, Divine Union, Self Realization, Nirvana, Samadhi, the end of the subject object dichotomy, the end of opposites.

Simplified, it’s the pinnacle of our journey, immortality can only happen when one reaches this level.

Please allow me before we continue to show you how symbolism progresses. The symbol of the Sun, which is also the symbol of gold, is the “point within a circle”. In today's modern psychology many symbolize the conscious mind as the tip of an iceberg, the ever so small pinnacle that is visible above the water line, with the largest portion unseen and below the water, a “point within a circle”. It's only when the above and the below become one do we become whole, “and the two shall become one flesh: so that they are no more two, but one flesh.” Mark 10:8.

So here we have this triad with the Sun at the apex, the highest level of consciousness, below it is the Moon and Mercury, both separate levels of consciousness that must be harmonized in order for one to progress to “Unity” consciousness, the Sun.

The Moon is symbolic of intuition, a necessary component to the spiritual path, insight in the sixth sense that must be tempered by Mercury, wisdom.

This is a state of consciousness that is a little hard to explain, how does one describe light to a blind man?

According to the dictionary intuition is defined as a "quick and ready insight;" and "the act or process of coming to direct knowledge without reasoning or inferring." It is derived from the Latin word "intueri" which means "to see within." It is a way of knowing, of sensing the truth without explanations. Someone my not consider themselves to be particularly spiritual or metaphysically adept yet may be quite good at following their gut instincts.

According to many Freemasonry a bye product of the “Enlightenment” is a “reason” based philosophical path with in roots in moral philosophy, a presumption that many within Freemasonry hold true today. Yet only intuition will assist those hoodwinked individuals go inside and uncover the true meaning. I promise you may know the rituals backward and forward, control your passions, practice charity, and read everything written about Freemasonry but without intuition you'll be stuck on a level that may have a few rungs above it.

Before we explore the level of Mercury, wisdom, allow me to share a very unscientific observation, believe it or not, but at least consider it.

Freemasonry itself mirrors society, the majority of Freemasons see Masonry as a Moral path, a kind of adult self help group that practices charity and makes good men better men. It has been my personal observation only about ten percent sees it as a spiritual tradition, not religious, spiritual in the sense that the initiate has a goal, in the western esoteric tradition we may call this Divine Union or Christ Consciousness. It has also been my observation that only about ten percent of all Freemasons in a Lodge actually attend meetings and ritual work within the Temple, another proof that most understand little of what they have started. It's kind of scary when we do the math, if only ten percent show up, and only ten percent of those get it, you may think we have a problem. But I don't think that's the case, I have the feeling Freemasonry has always functioned that way. As one who loves to read the old titles from learned brothers I have found this situation discussed by the best of them, here Brother Albert Pike tells it like it is; “Masonry, like all the Religions, all the Mysteries, Hermeticism and Alchemy, conceals its secrets from all except the Adepts and Sages, or the Elect, and uses false explanations and misinterpretations of its symbols to mislead those who deserve only to be misled; to conceal the Truth, which it calls Light, from them, and to draw them away from it.”, the fact is you need intuition to progress, reason and logic will only cause you to see one side of the coin.

I'm not really sure what the percentage of the population is what we call intuitive, some believe as little as twenty five percent, or how many left handed individuals with right intuitive brain dominance compare to the right handed logical dominant left brain individuals, but fear not with a little bit of insight and understanding a new world is there for those that are willing to think outside the bun and step into the world of intuition.

Enough of the respectful critiquing I don't want the wrath of the Apollo to comes down upon me.

In order to progress to the level of intuition we need wisdom, not to be confused with knowledge which can actually be an impediment on our path. The more you think you know the more you judge, the more open you are the more you perceive, dump those judgments and see things as they actually are. When you get to the level of Mercury your ego is on its way out, wisdom keeps intuition from becoming fanciful imagination. Only until wisdom and intuition become one does our consciousness advance to the Sun, a task rarely accomplished, yet possible.

What you have read will not be understood by ninety percent of the population, the other ten will say “I knew that”. Where percentage are you?

The Story of the Master Ladder Maker

It seems like forever since I wrote a blog, in fact I still haven't, what follows is actually a rough draft of a chapter of a book I've been writing. Granted I'm writing for an audience that is mostly Masonic, but fear not, anyone can get the drift.

The ladder can be a wonderful symbol when explaining levels of consciousness, awareness, and even symbolic interpretation. Allow me to share a tale with you, the story of a craftsman that decided to give humankind the ultimate gift.

Our craftsman was a master ladder maker, tried and true. With the dusk soon approaching our master ladder maker decided it was time to build humankind the ultimate gift a ladder to the divine.

As any master ladder maker would do our craftsman drew out his plans upon what he called a trestle board, a blueprint of sorts which would be followed to construct the perfect ladder.

Now you may think that building a ladder to the divine would be simple, but I promise you that's not necessarily the case, because our master ladder maker has decided to give the gift to all humankind he must estimate the height, width, and payload of each and every rung.

He must estimate how many will actually climb the ladder, how far they will climb, and who will actually ascend to the top.
Humanity was large, yet our ladder maker knew not all would would climb, gravity and the world of the senses was strong, many are afraid of heights.

With that in mind our ladder maker knew the first rung would have to be very very wide, most would assuredly take the first step, not all, but most.

As for the second step our master ladder maker realized that less would ascend, again the pull of gravity, materialism, would impede the progress of many.

As the master ladder maker contemplated his ladder he now realized that by looking at the human condition and the pull of materialism, gravity, his ladder would have to be very wide at the bottom to accommodate a large number and slowly narrow because with every step less would ascend, he also knew of the be pitfalls on the way up. Ladder climbing is not always an easy task, one must firmly establish his or her footing before proceeding to the next step, which is not always easy if one does not proceed firmly with the right intent.

Danger awaits each and every step, as one climbs higher there is less help to ascend, less individuals on the level ascended to.

One of the most dangerous and inherent dangers of ladder climbing is that of the inevitable encounter with other individuals that believe they are at the top, so convincing, they are able to stop the progress of certain individuals from ascending to the top by making them falsely believe they have reached the summit when in reality they still have a way to go.

After the master ladder maker had thought out all the possible scenarios the climbers could encounter he new how his ladder to the divine would be constructed. Taking into consideration the sheer number that would begin the journey he knew the first step would have to be one easy step up, and incredibly wide. Because of the pull of gravity many will not take the next step, this step would not have to be as wide.

You may find it hard to believe but the master ladder maker knew he only needed seven steps to reach the divine, each step would be narrower than the last, each step would be a further height than the last making it harder to ascend but doable.

In almost all spiritual traditions, ladders have been used to symbolize transformation. Not all ladder makers agree on how many levels, yet upon a close look you'll find more often than not its all about leaving the world of egocentric belief, darkness, Unity, illumination.

Years ago in Freemasonry, before the ritual was changed, for reasons I can't figure, it was said; “Masons met on the square and hoped to part on the level”, now we say “meet on the level and part on the square.”

My personal opinion, which I will share with you, is that it took away the original meaning when it was changed.

Symbolically, the square, as we will surely discuss in the future, is actually symbolic of Matter. Freemasons meet on the square of Matter, not to mention we are Matter.

Least we not forget the square shape of our apron, symbolic of Matter.

I understand how one could misunderstand the symbolism and change it, thinking that all brothers should meet on the level, kings equal to subjects, but with the square actually symbolic of Matter why would we depart on Matter, it doesn't make sense.

Now if we go back to our story of the master ladder maker, and use his ladder to the divine where each rung is symbolic of expanding consciousness, we could say that we as Freemasons meet on the square of Matter, the ladder itself, and hope achieve the same level of consciousness.

I can hear it now, where is the seven rung ladder symbolized in the Lodge Room? The answer is in the East, the seven steps to the Master, each and every step smaller and higher than the next, all symbolic of the levels of consciousness required to ascend.

It's not in my pay grade to return the veiled teaching to its original structure, but you can see why some things should not be changed.

Lets return to our master ladder maker, and his ladder to the divine. The ladder maker did not build his ladder just for Freemasons, he built it for all humankind. You could say that each and every individual of every spiritual path, no matter what creed or denomination, is own the ladder at this time. That certainly doesn't mean we're all on the same level, the fact is, as our ladder maker knew, very few will actually finish the ascent in this lifetime. I'm not saying its impossible, but climbing this symbolic ladder is no easy task, there is a certain amount of work that must be done. Just because one sees the ladder, reads of the ladder, and professes to know the ladder, you still have to climb it.

My early Sunday morning television is filled with individuals that know there sacred law backwards and forward, but still haven't gotten beyond the first rung. They have diminished highly symbolic thought and brought it down to a level that makes no sense, preaching fear, sin, and retribution. Many of these individuals believe that all humankind must stand on the same rung, a disaster waiting to happen in the world of ladders.

Chances are, as many others, you think your close to the top. If so, congratulations your a realized Buddha, or a Jesus, or a Krishna, but if you have an inkling that maybe your not there, yet you wonder what rung your own, I'll give you a clue; if you think God's somewhere up there and your down here, you have a lot of climbing to go, if you still have an ego, climb, and if your still in the grip of dualistic thought, you might need a boost.

There is what I call ladder etiquette, something not always followed by climbers, trust me you know them. Ladder etiquette is realizing that we are all on the ladder, many of us on different rungs. Assisting each other on his or her ascent is commendable, but before you attempt to persuade someone to relocate to your rung, respect the persons level, its all the same ladder, my way or the highway is definitely one of the lowest rungs. The more you judge the lower your rung.

Have you ever experienced the dreaded “I don't understand what you mean”? All this means is one is on a different rung, not a big deal, just a different level. If your level fears punishment from a God that sits in judgment, you might just want to seek a new rung.

I am about to share with you a very high rung insight, if you get it, awesome, if not, we are not yet on the same level, yet.

When you get to the top you just might find, the proof is in the pudding, that when you reach the summit all those individuals climbing the ladder were actually YOU.