AKASHA - excerpt from earlier version of FIFTH GOSPEL - a novel - (ETERNAL GOSPEL)

IN THE BEGINING, in the fine airs of heaven, was written the Eternal Gospel, and the Gospel was with God and the Gospel was God. All things were written therein and without it there was not a thing written that was written. It speaks of the life, the life that is the light of men. This light that shines into darkness and is not understood by men is Christ, the true light, which enlightens every man. Christ came into the world and Christ is the Gospel and the Gospel was made by Him. But the world has understood it not.

I am the Akasha, the ancient breath of the spirit. Upon my airs is written the Gospel. I am the guardian of beginnings and endings; the possessor of the eternal knowledges and intelligences; keeper of hidden things. In future times, when wisdom has ripened in the soul, what I embody shall be seen and heard and known by every human heart. Now I give it only to those who are mine, and I will make them who see and and hear it to swear an oath, by heaven and earth and fire and water and the seven rulers of the substances and the creating spirit in them, that they will guard these things, for wrath will come to each one who violates it.

  It begins before the remote first making when the purest essence was lifted out from Adam and the purest essence was lifted out from Eve and taken to the sun to be tended and nurtured and loved. Inwardly luminous, morally chaste, unmixed with knowledge and worldliness and untouched by sin, this dual life creation, waited. Now did the sun gods know the earthly Eve and she begat Cain. The moon god, the Lord Jehova breathed life into the earthly Adam and separated him from Eve and man and woman created he them.

Thus was Paradise.

But Eve desired more than this eternal bliss. She was inquisitive, she sought a wisdom that was promised only by Lucifer and fell into his waiting arms. Adam who loved her followed and Lucifer opened both their earthly eyes to the world made by wisdom’s working…and at the same time passed a veil over their spirit eyes. 

Thus was the down-fall of man and woman.

On earth now Adam knew Eve and Eve through wisdom begat Abel and from that time onwards, Cain and Abel, sun and moon, fire and water, knowledge and wisdom, king and priest walked the earth, side by side.

Generations passed and the light of the spirit, which yet shone beyond the veil of darkness, grew dim. Forgotten were the fathers in the heavens, deserted were, therefore, the great sanctuaries of the mysteries in India and Persia in Memphis, Delphi and Eleusis, their altars lay broken and forsaken for the priests of the ancient oracles were no longer able to evoke the forms of the true gods.

Darkness of night held sway.

Selfishness ran free.

But the spirit light of the world was descending.

The mystics dreamt of a saviour.

In Egypt and Israel prophets foretold His coming.

In Chaldea astrologers began to calculate His arrival.

In Greece Sibyls, drunk on sulphurous fumes, swayed and danced to the portents of the last age.

Those who still remembered the echoes and the shadows of former days drew together in austere circles and waited with hope for the plague of deafness and lifelessness ravaging the earth to end.

What had long ago been taken from Eve-Adam and kept from the fall was male and female and the male formed a body garment for the coming God while the female part, descended to earth to prepare a womb for his birth.  

The world held a breath.

The task fell on the people of Abraham, those chosen by God to prepare this perfected body, the vessel for the Messiah.

When fourteen generations had passed, a king called David had two sons: to his first-born son Solomon, he gave the Kingdom; to his second son Nathan, he gave the Priesthood. And so those who yet possessed spirit sight presaged the birth of two children. The first child would be a wise, old soul, destined to enter into the womb of the oldest woman, Eve, from the lineage of Solomon. This child would be born first and would be known as the King of Kings. The second child would be a young soul untouched by sin, preserved from the fall and destined to enter into the womb of the youngest woman, a heavenly Eve, from the lineage of Nathan. This child would be called the Priest of Priests.

Because both children were destined to be the salvation of their people, they would be called Jesus; their fathers who would be lifted up by God would be named Joseph and their mothers, who were set to suffer a harsh fate, would be known as Mariam or Mary, according to the law - she who will suffer bitterness.  

Through the centuries successions of old Magi noted the skies with dreamy eyes, looking for the sign that would herald the birth of the Kingly child - a great conjunction of planets in the constellation of Pisces – an effulgent star.

In the depths of their souls generations of young Shepherds dreamt of the birth of a Priest, whose coming would be announced by the great choirs of heaven intoning melodies that would set a seal upon their souls in the image of a lamb.

At the turning point in time the Akasha, the imperishable substance upon which all things are written, spoke out from the heavens and into the heads and hearts of men. It rang out this word:

Awaken!

Chapter Cut from Fifth Gospel - A Novel - TEMPLE SLEEP

TEMPLE SLEEP

‘And the youth looked at him and loved him.’

The secret Gospel according to Mark

To Lazarus Christ Jesus said, ‘Soon you will pass into spiritual worlds, and your sister shall prepare you for your burial, she will sit with you and hold you in her heart, for she shall be the guardian of your soul until I return…Have faith Magdalena,’ he said to her, ‘support your brother as you support me…for in every death there is a rebirth…Wait for my call, then shall you see the last sign before the Son of Man begins his journey to his death. In your brother shall be resurrected what lives in me, the eternal Word, the light and the life that comes from those heavenly spheres from which I have come to earth. He shall be the first to see the Kingdom in all its fullness on earth, for his illness is not unto death, but to the glory of God, to the revelation of the eternal Word.’ Now to Lazarus he said, ‘Through this initiation, you shall venture into spirit worlds and you will become another man, you shall have another name and they shall call you John the beloved disciple of Jesus. It is true that every birth is accompanied by an illness, the illness of the mother. But this illness does not lead to death, but to new life.’

Lazarus was amazed by these words but his eyes were heavy laden and his heart seemed to falter. At this point he heard his sister Martha hurrying into the booth. ‘Lord,’ she said, ‘do you not care that my sister has left me to serve you alone? Please tell her to come and help me!’

Mary answered, ‘Martha, sit with us…the master is speaking of eternal truths.’

But Martha’s voice, very far away now, came into his mind, irritated and unhappy, ‘There is so much work to do! I should also like to sit and to listen to eternal truths, but who shall feed the master, then?’

‘Martha, Martha,’ came his master’s gentle words, ‘you are careful and troubled about the food, which is your task for you must care for my physical well-being; in you lives what is active. But one other thing is also needful - Mary listens to my words because she has a task that is different from yours, she cares for my soul, what lives in her is contemplative…and as you have chosen, so too has she chosen what is suited for her part…and this shall not be taken away from her.’

Lazarus heard his sister’s voice say, ‘Yes, my lord,’ and after that her footsteps in the courtyard.

Christ Jesus continued with his teaching and as his words were spoken Lazarus felt his body at peace, its turmoil stilled. The world too seemed quiet, the sea, and air and the very heavens came to rest and among this harmony did his acquiescent soul lift up from him.

And he fell out of his head.

                        

               Lazarus sees himself stripped of all earthly pretensions standing beside his master in the temple of Jerusalem, before the Pharisees.

          ‘Verily, verily,’ Christ says, and it is as if Lazarus himself were saying it, and it seems not strange at all but the most simple thing, for he feels as if he is one with Christ. ‘I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death…’

The Pharisees answer, ‘Are you greater than our father Abraham which is dead, and the prophets which are dead? Who makes you so great?’

Christ tells them, ‘If I honour myself, my honour means nothing: it is my father who honours me, of whom you say that he is your God…but you do not know him! I know him! And if I were to say that I do not know him to please you, then I would be a liar, like you. I know him and I keep his word, you only speak of Abraham. Abraham himself rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad.’

‘You are not yet fifty years old, how can a man so young have entered so deep and risen so high as to have seen the father Abraham in the blood of his generations?’

‘I am not an initiate. I am the initiator, and yea more than that, I am the subject of initiation itself! I am the foundation of the very world! I am not only one with Abraham, but with what pulses in the entire cosmos, I was before Abraham was. Before Abraham was, existed the one who is I AM and I AM He.’

The people grow angry. They take up stones to cast at him and he has to flee. There are hindrances all around. He feels pain as stones strike him but they are not stones, it is that his soul is being wrenched from the temple, the grave of his body.

He realises that Christ is the door and that through Him he can enter a higher sphere, a glorious mountain.

From the outspread widths of space comes to him an angel, the self of his great teacher, John the Baptist, whose words had so often warmed his heart. His mighty cosmic form seems to Lazarus like Adam and he blesses him with his greatest gift – the gift of his own spirit. Lazarus feels it enter into his emptied soul.

I am John!

Now in the upper airs the moon’s snow face cuts the night’s skirt, and is stirred by delicate green whirlwinds that move from star to star inscribing in astral light grand pictures for his seeing.  He rises higher through the agency of another angel, upwards to a sea the colour of peach blossom that stretches out to distant purpling plains and resounds in glorious songs. This angel points to the father of his people. 

Abraham!

He is one with Abraham. his ancestor.

A light rises over the horizon of this unpolluted, immeasurable landscape. A sun, suspended, luminous, diaphanous. incandescent and transparent all at once permeates the heaven-opened world from all sides like the rays of a dawn sun. These throw their luminance upwards to the hems of a lowering cloud making it gleam all gold.

The Sun is the light and life and love of the world and it is born now in me!

I am a Son of Man!

I am one with Christ who is the light of the world.

From those mighty cosmic reaches, come the resounding words,

‘Lazarus…come forth!’

And Lazarus tells himself, 

‘Now do I truly recognise without hindrance what lives in the soul of Jesus…Him who has awakened me - the sublime being of Christ!’

             

The Eighth Holy Night - Leo/Lion

LEO/LION

The region of Lion is related to the Hierarchy that is known in Christian mysticism as Thrones, and in Spiritual Science as the Spirits of Will. This hierarchy is connected to the earthly developmental stage which Rudolf Steiner calls 'Saturn' or the primal beginnings of earth evolution. The sacrifice enacted by the Spirits of Will on Saturn was the motivation for all that happened afterwards on the Sun and for this reason the Lion is associated with Sun forces in the outer Macrocosm and inwardly, Microcosmically to the human heart - the inner Sun. Leo's relationship to Saturn means it is also associated with the Karmic Past, Karmic Laws, since Saturn is the Father of Time - Chronos.

The foundation for the human heart was laid down on old Saturn and it is in the region of the human heart that we find the 12 petalled chakra, or heart chakra. Six Petals relate to Buddha's 6 fold path and the other 6 petals relate to the 6 Beatitudes of Christ. The complete development of this chakra creates a fifth chamber, a Fountain of light which generates a spiritual heart, that Rudolf Steiner calls an Etheric Heart. The Bible calls this spiritual heart the fountain of love from whence comes the Water of Life. In Arthurian Mythology it is the Holy Grail in which one finds the mana of life, the transmuted sacrificial substance through which we commune with God - Communion.

And so the region of Lion is associated with the courageous heart forces necessary for Sacrificial Will, which comes about through the activity of the spiritualised blood - water - in the heart, working into the physical body - the metabolic system and the limbs - engendering Eternal Life. The alchemical Sulphur process and warmth associated with it, is, spiritually speaking,  the sacrifice of the blood as it 'dies away' into the muscles and limbs and 'moves' the human being towards acts of 'Goodness' - or 'Good Will'. That is why Rudolf Steiner calls the heart the seat of the will.

On Saturn was also seeded the human ability to stand upright (something which we have already seen was vouchsafed by Christ when he entered into the sphere of the stars through the gate of Ram, coming into relation particularly with Leo and through it to its planetary counterpart Saturn). This ability also relates to the Archai who were the ego bearing beings of Saturn (in us this is denoted by the fact that the ego has its seat in the warmth of the blood). For this reason 'heart' consciousness is connected to this sign and it is through this connection of heart and consciousness that the redemption of the physical body will eventually take place, through the fructification of the entire bony system by way of the blood.

Interestingly, Jesus of Nazareth was called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah because the Tribe of Judah was one of the twelve tribes of Israel related to this region of the Zodiac designated as Leo. When speaking of this aspect of Jesus, the writer of the Matthew Gospel was referring to the individuality of Zarathustra, who had once been the pupil of Manu/Noah, or Melchizedek. Melchizedek was also the teacher of Abraham. Abraham was given the task by Melchizedek (both pictured on the right) of preparing the forces of the physical body for the birth of Jesus children. Forces which unfolded over 42 generations. We see how Leo's connection to Saturn and to the physical body relates to this mystery, creating in Yeshua of the Matthew Gospel, in particular, not only wisdom and an understanding of Laws, but also courage and the will to Sacrifice (we should note that the individuality of Zarathustra not only sacrificed his physical body twice, once on the temple steps and again at the baptism, but in earlier times he also sacrificed his etheric body which he donated to Moses and his Astral body which he donated to Hermes, according to Rudolf Steiner).

On the other hand Leo and its influence on the development of the Etheric body during old Sun evolution is connected to the 12 petals of the heart chakra. This path relates to the special development of the loving heart forces that were inherent in the Jesus of the Luke Gospel and accounts for his heightened ability to 'heal'.  A different stream - the stream of the Essenes - had the task of preparing the right 'community' into which this Paradisal (Etheric) Nathan Soul could incarnate. These conditions were created by Jeshu ben Pandira, the leader of the Essenes who had once been inspired by Buddha. A hundred years before Christ he created the 'pure' etheric community into which the child who was united with Buddha - that is, whose etheric had united with the Astral body or Nirmanakaya of Buddha, could incarnate. 

Cosmically speaking Christ sacrificed himself four times in order to take upon himself the 'sins' or objective karma of mankind bringing the old Laws of Saturn (of the Father and the Sabbath) the Laws of necessity, to an end, and inaugurating the new Laws - the Sun (Son) Laws, the Laws of freedom from karmic necessity. In other words He is the Lord of Karma. On the other hand His forces worked particularly strongly in the heart of Jesus. Mark, the Evangelist has always been seen to be related to Leo and Rudolf Steiner tells us that the Gospel of Mark is a 'cosmic gospel', that is, it focuses mainly on the journey of the outer sun of Christ which entered the inner sun/heart of Jesus so that it could walk about the earth in a physical body. Christ's connection through Jesus to the Etheric of the earth is illustrated in the Transfiguration.

Since the Mystery of Golgotha the forces of Christ Live in the Sun/Heart of every human being (whether that human being knows it or not) and in the etheric sheath of the earth.

So, when we look up to the region of Lion this night, may we see its connection to Saturn and Sun Evolutions. May we see the connection between Melchizedek and Abraham and Jeshu ben Pandira and the Essenes, both preparing the way for the two Jesus Children, Matthew and Luke respectively. May we  see the sacrifices that were made by Jesus of Nazareth and Christ to enable His birth for the salvation of the Heart Consciousness of humanity.

Sun, thou bearer of rays,
Thy light's power over matter
Magics life out of the earth's
Limitless rich depths.

Heart, thou bearer of soul,
Thy light's power over spirit
Magics life out of the human being's
Limitless deep inwardness.

If I gaze upon the Sun
Her light speaks to me in radiance
Of the Spirit, filled with grace,
Wielding through the beings of worlds.

If I feel within my heart
The Spirit speaks its own true word
About the human being, loved by him
Through all rhyme and eternity.

Looking upwards, I can see
In the Sun's bright disc
The mighty heart of worlds.

Looking inwards, I can feel
In the heart's warm beat
The human Sun ensouled. - Rudolf Steiner.

Excerpt from Fifth Gospel: MARY

MARY

F

ORTY generations after Abraham, and some months after the birth of that first child, a young woman called Mary accompanied her husband on a journey from Nazareth. It was the era of Caesar Augustus. Herod the Great had died and his cruel, sadistic son and successor, Archelaus, was deposed and Syria was made a Governorship of the Roman Senator Quirenius.

Under his rule a census was announced for the purpose of taxation and the people of Judea were required by law to travel to the seat of their ancestors to be counted. Mary’s husband, Joseph, was of the lineage of David and so he and Mary had to make the journey to Bethlehem, the town of his forebears, even at this difficult time.

For Mary of Nazareth was long with child.

Nine months earlier the seed had been sown in her belly. That night, the Essene priests had called her and her betrothed, Joseph, to the veiled place. They had given them both a cordial, after which all had fallen into nothingness. So it was with surprise and anxiety that Mary herself greeted the news of her conception, for she could remember nothing of her union with Joseph. It was only the warmth and protection of that radiant angel of God that had calmed her worried heart. For the angel’s soft whispers had announced the birth of her child in these words:

Ave Maria! Blessed are you among women! To you will be born a child and you will name him Jesus, and he will be called the Son of God.

This was the same voice which had compelled her to travel to her older cousin Elisabeth’s house to help her with the imminent birth of her child.

Since her youth, the world had seemed a recent thing to Mary, and she had felt like nothing more than a dust mote drawn upwards by the breezes and the winds of heaven, a dust mote that rarely falls down-to-earth. But on her journey to Elisabeth she found that an awakening was taking place in her soul. As she walked through the cold southlands, among the sadness of the mountains and the misery of the desolate trees, among the mocking face of the unforgiving brown coloured sky of Judea, she found that she was not only on the threshold of Elisabeth’s house, but also on the threshold of her own life.

It became clear to her, that she was coming down to earth, and only now did she truly understand what she must give up.

That had been six months ago and now as she cast a glance at her husband, the young carpenter with the soft brown eyes and hair like charcoal from the fires, she knew her descent was near complete and she put her trust in Joseph, who saw to all her needs and pulled the animal gently on the road, so as not to cause her unnecessary discomfort. He toiled over the frozen hills and mountains, with his feet blue and blistered and his hands callused and frigid, and made no complaint, as others did, of the Romans and the census. 

Joseph did not squander his words.

She remembered his face when he had seen, upon her return from Elizabeth’s house, how she was grown with child. No memory lived in his heart of the union brought about by the ministering of the priests and yet, in his dream-full eyes, she had seen no recrimination; from his mouth, no harsh words had come. When the township gathered to call her to account and she feared the people would stone her, Joseph remained steadfast in his love for her, refusing to shun her, making it possible for the priests to keep to themselves their workings.

She looked out of her thoughts and realised they were nearing Bethlehem. Darkness was fast descending over the highland wilderness of Judea and only a red outline remained in the west where the road to Hebron made a thread through the valleys and hills that separated Bethlehem from Jerusalem. The last of the sun was touching the pinnacles of a mighty palace. She looked to the east, to where a star-like moon was rising behind purpling clouds; a strange moon, a moon unlike any moon she had ever seen, and at that moment, the dusk was pierced by the howling of a wolf. It filled her with dread, and she was glad when they arrived at the outskirts of the town of Bethlehem.

It was cold, but the fields that swept upwards to the heights along which the city stretched, were rich with terraced vineyards and gardens well tended. Lights flickered in the houses, full with guests. The sound of merry talk and laughter reached them even here and it cheered her heart, which until now had been heavy with the bitter knowledge that she was homeless and may not have a warm place to bring forth her child.

She bent over to hold her belly for the pain that came then, and she told her child,

‘Not yet!’

Her husband, having heard this, grew concerned. He hastened through the ruined gates of the city, going from house to house in search of accommodation, but no one had room. Joseph asked those on the crowded streets if they knew of any small space wherein they might spend the night, since his wife, he showed them, was great with child and her hour was at hand. They told him the little town was much burdened by visitors, who had come from near and far to be counted. Every house was full, perhaps they should try the Inn?

The Inn was also full to the brim, but the innkeeper took pity on them and told Joseph of a rocky grotto outside the city walls. He warned him that it had once been a place of sinful ritual and that part of it was used now as a stable, because Bethlehem was so full that even those places reserved for animals in the township had been taken by people as lodgings.

The young couple, having no other choice, made their way to it. And thus it was that Mary entered into that grotto where two years before, Herod had performed a black ritual with the blood of the children of Bethlehem. And in that dark space surrounded by animals, fragrant with dung and straw, she sat. Above her, a cleft in the rock allowed a little of that sun-like moonlight to enter. It brought her peace. Here, she was away from the chattering noise-some crowds and could make herself comfortable, to wait for the onset of the more painful spasms that would soon come again and in the meantime, her young husband would go and find help.

When he returned he was accompanied by two women, a midwife and her young attendant, a girl called Salome, whose dark round face and clear eyes made a gladness in Mary’s heart. The midwife told her that the girl had a withered hand from birth, but that it would not prevent her from collecting the water and folding the cloths and cleaning the knife with wine.

It was many hours later, as Mary lay exhausted with her child suckling at her breast, that the old midwife sent Salome to fetch more water. When she returned, Mary noticed that the girl’s malformed hand was now made well and Salome, following her gaze, noticed it also. She dropped the water vase, and fell to the ground and gave thanks.