Chapter cut from Fifth Gospel - A Novel - HOSANNA

HOSANNA

‘Behold thy king cometh unto thee; he is just and having salvation; lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a colt the foal of an ass.’

Zechariah 9:9

IT WAS ON Sunday, on an ass’s foal, that Christ Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem followed by those faithful to him. As he entered through the great gate of the city the crowds, having received tidings of his approach hastened to meet him and upon seeing him they were seized with ecstasy and began to throw palm fronds over the ground in imitation of those primitive rites of spring. He was to them a symbol of a king, the sun that rises out of the darkness of winter’s night; and also the symbol of a priest of the order of Melchizedek who has come to bestow his blessings on those who are gathered in the oldest sun-sanctuary of humanity - Mount Zion.

He knew their thoughts and understood that the frenzy in their souls would not last.

For three years he had held back his magnificence not wishing to prematurely dazzle human beings. But now his divine selfhood was consuming his very humanity and so it radiated outwards through his human body like a flame that burns brightly one last time before reducing the wood to ashes. Soon he would stand before them like a dying star, a powerless human being and he knew what they would do.

It was his destiny to pass calmly through this festival of merriment, meekly through the welcoming praise of Hosannas to show the world the way that leads from the powerless body to the resurrection of the spirit.

This morning he had instructed his disciples to go to Bethphage, which means the House of Figs, a hamlet situated on a rocky plateau on the other side of Olivet. He had requested that they find him a foal of an ass, the white colt upon which he now sat.  He had chosen this place because in Bethphage the old initiatory practice of ‘Sitting Beneath the Fig Tree’ was still cultivated and it was here that these animals were held sacred. They were held sacred because Balaam, the old prophet, had also sat upon an ass. But the ecstatic visions that Balaam had achieved through the state of soul bound to the body, the ass, were no longer appropriate. He wanted to show his disciples how the Fig Tree was barren, that the old initiation must give way for what he would bring and so he had pointed out to them the Fig tree with many leaves and no fruit. He wanted to show the people that the time of ‘riding of the ass’ was over, for a new awakening was upon them, so on this day, when the old sun still shone in the heavens, he used a symbol the people recognised from the past but he showed them how he would use it in the way of the future.

He looked about him now to his disciples. They were revelling in the royal acclamations; laughing and smiling to see so many happy and ecstatic faces - all except Lazarus-John. Tomorrow Christ Jesus would curse the Fig Tree and in the coming days they would come to observe how fruitless were these Hosannas and how temporary and superficial were these cries of Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord! For he knew these Hosannas would prove not a blessing but a curse; they were poisoned fruit; an echo of the ancient and archaic language sung by jubilant crowds on Mount Zion soon to be traded for angry calls on that other mount, the arid place where lived the old moon religion of Jehova, Mount Moriah, where was situated the Temple of Solomon. For tomorrow he would enter the temple and cleanse it one last time of those nefarious intruders who, under the guise of priesthood, tainted his Father’s house with the traffic of money. One last time he would show them the power of his spirit before the great battle with the Pharisees and Scribes, which he knew would come. Then at last would the Fig Tree wilt and wither away and the people would realise that he had not come to bring back the old mysteries - to breathe new life into an old corpse - but to show them the seed to something new – something they could plant in the soil of their hearts for later times.

This realisation would eventually nail him to the cross. 

And with sorrow in his heart among the excitable sounds of the jubilant, fickle populace, he wept for Jerusalem. He wept for its people and he prayed to his Lord on their behalf.

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!’

             

Excerpt - Author's Cut Fifth Gospel - A Novel

EVIL COUNTERPARTS

‘He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good

and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.’

Matthew 5:45

AT THE MOMENT the mother of God was receiving the essence of virgin-hood from the far-spread dominions of the Divine Sophia, leagues away upon an Island that faced Vesuvius called Capri, Caesar Tiberius was making room in his soul for a demon.

Some time ago, fascinated by the occult, Tiberius had become addicted to the pagan cults and rituals of the mysteries belonging to his conquered peoples. Ill prepared for the accelerated initiations to which he had subjected himself, his ignoble nature, already impetuous and prone to indulgence, became unfettered through a loosening of the mind from the heart and the will.

This loosening caused his thoughts to become crowded with hallucinations and delusions. He saw enemies around every corner, he heard of conspiracies, all men lay in wait to put a dagger into his back. Having succumbed to madness and fury, he plunged into a chaotic program of revenge. In the night his men seized unwary men, women, sometimes children, those whom his disordered mind suspected of treachery and in the day, loved ones would drag the countless bodies with hooks from the Tiber River, afraid to burn their loved ones or even to grieve, lest it be seen as a sign of treason. Some poor victims were made to drink poison, others were strangled and those young virginal women, who were protected by the law while inviolate, were first raped by his torturers before Tiberius’ sentence was carried out.

Not only delusions but also fits of excitement seized him, where his self love soared upwards in grand overestimations of his divine powers, of his status as a superhuman being whose surroundings in Rome could not hope to match his intoxicating grandness! In Capri he abandoned himself to sensual excesses, treating his deviant guests to grand orgies of food and wine that lasted days, with scores of naked dancers engaging in multiple lurid unions for entertainment, or with romps in the woods and groves where, in feverish stupor, his guests could find those boys and young women who, dressed as Pans and nymphs, would solicit their attentions in any way they desired.

At other times he experienced a pitching of his gloom into an abyss of despair. Unfettered by clarity of thought, he fell into states of anguish and hopelessness, which he sought to console through acts of cruelty against others. More and more did a depraved delight in suffering surface from out of the depths of his volcanic temper, whose volatile hungers increased with the distortions of his deranged thoughts and the fire of his disordered passions.

One day, he was taken by a stroke of genius, he ordered his guards to drag the half living and tortured carcasses of his imagined enemies and their supporters to the high cliffs where he had them cast headlong onto the rocks below. He was surprised and elated when he experienced the profoundest sexual raptures on observing his men break the bones of the dead with boathooks and oars!

Thus was his Satanic empowerment accomplished while at the same time two other events were occurring, side by side in Judea - the sublime spirit of the Sun was entering into the soul of Jesus, and not far off, in the province of Perea, the son of Herod the Great, Herod Antipas, friend and admirer of Tiberius, was taking his demonic sister in law, Herodias for a wife.

It was a resplendent wedding, followed by a feast to rival those feasts on the isle of Capri. Midway through the banquet, whose excess could have fed an entire village for months, Herod stood, with a goblet in hand and made a toast.

‘To Caesar Tiberius! The noble Wolf!'

Epiphany Part II 'The Baptism', Excerpt from Fifth Gospel - A Novel.

THE BAPTISM

     

T

HE day was nearing its apex. Sharp talons of light fractured the water and made short shadows of men. From the crowds, Jesus saw the priests of the Sanhedrin leave the river, and he waited for a time, until the voices of the people had died down and many had left, seeking their midday meal.

He laid aside his garments and took himself to the river in his loincloth. The man in the river was aglow with light. Colour spilt over him like fluid fire. Jesus saw him put a hand over his brow. He did not pause but entered the silvered water. First his feet, then his ankles, and knees, until the cold came over his thighs, until he stood before the man whose height was greater than his, and whose face was, of a sudden, full with awe.

The man let go his staff into the water, and his knees buckled and he fell into it.

He cried, ‘I should be baptised by you! I cannot endure to do it!’

‘In the same way that once my presence awoke your limbs in your mother’s womb, I shall awaken your thoughts to your duty!’

The man called John looked up and Jesus’ shadow fell over him. Jesus could now see, unclouded and undisturbed by the light, a reflected mirror image of himself in the other man’s face. An image of something he had misplaced. He was given the knowledge at Qumran that this man was the same as Elijah, and now he recognised in him, the oldest soul of humanity, Adam, and he realised that some part of him belonged to this man and was conjoined by a remembrance of times lost in a dream.

When the baptiser stood, it was a signal to Jesus.

He crossed his arms over his chest. He felt a support behind the small of his back. It seemed to him then, that although Yeshua was leaving him, little by little, the soul of the baptiser was uniting with him –  to sure up the pathway to the God. And he was comforted by it.

John guided him into the water, and he was submerged into light and colour and sound. His soul was wedded to the element of the river. All the pictures of his life rushed past his eyes until he heard a flute song, and he could smell sheep, earth and grass. All of it was married to the warmth of friendship, the lulling breezes, the glow of the sun, the fingers of the wind, the soothing feel of his mother’s hand and the cry of a child in the wilderness.

Now, there was nothing more.  

He did not breathe. He was lost. He was alone. A flame hovered over him. A sparkling, ever-tranquil, lilting radiance issued from the encircling round, and above him the spirit of Yeshua gathered up to form the shape of a bird. It lingered a moment over him, as if in a final farewell, and was given up, with light in its wings and life in its breast.

Surrendered!

The majestic and wise spirit of Yeshua, which had fashioned his soul and body over eighteen years, was severed from him. Within him was left a hollow place, unopened yet to the spirit, like a spring bud that trembles in a cold wind.

How could he open it, when he had no forces left to him? A great lassitude overwhelmed him and threatened to extinguish him. He was alone. And yet…and yet…Jesus sensed the soul of his dead mother draw near. His mother, whose purity was the likeness of his own, came to his aid. She plucked tenderly at his heart, to unfold him in readiness for the descent of grace; for the pulse of heaven’s glory. When the clouds parted and rent was the veil that separates above and below, the God fell downwards, from the heart of the Father, like a brand of light moving through the spirit’s fluid stream. Jesus inhaled the breath of the God into his lungs, and the spirit orphaned from heaven, innocent of evil, immortal, blameless, without guilt and eternal, began its descent into the soul of Jesus.

Now, when Jesus opened his eyes, he saw the world differently for the second time in his life, and in his ears the thunder call came:

 ‘Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I behold my very own Self, in whom my own Self confronts me! Now you are begotten in Jesus!’

     

                                

The Day of Epiphany! A New Season - Excerpt from Fifth Gospel - a Novel

A NEW SEASON

I

T was the fifteenth year of the rule of Tiberias, on a day when Venus stood in Aquarius that John the Baptiser awoke, feeling his muscles and sinews taut, his mind awake and alert and his heart calm.

The sun had popped up out of its desert crib to cast its fiery eye over Israel and to beat upon the brows of men and the backs of beasts. Each day he faced this sun, standing waist deep in that freezing river, observing with an unfaltering eye the whirling tumult of dead thoughts and sins that were discharged into the river from the souls of those whom he baptised. Each day he wondered where the strength would come for his work and each day he was given the forces necessary. But this day something was altered. In himself he felt it, the nearness of the fulfilment of his task, accompanied by a strange bewilderment…since he found himself desiring to forestall it!

In this mood he left his hut of rushes to say his prayers to the God of Israel and to perform his ablutions before taking himself to that little bend in the river near Bethany, situated in the lower Jordan. 

Large crowds came to be baptised and he worked for hours without pause, looking into each soul to determine its measure and value, dividing the lambs from the vipers. Near the midpoint of the day the leaders of these vipers arrived at the river, a deputation of priests and Levites upon asses preceded by a retinue of guards whose swords caught the bold sunlight and reflected their sharp sting into John’s eyes. They pushed aside the crowds to allow the priests to come to shore.

Well…well…his words had moved across the land, so that even the Temple in Jerusalem had heard of him! He was pleased for the sake of his task.

He said to them, ‘The Masters of the ancient wisdom of the snake, the brood of vipers, the initiates of Lucifer, have come!’

One Pharisee said from his high position, ‘We are here on behalf of the Sanhedrin, to ask you some questions.’

‘Questions?’ the baptiser said, looking about with mockery in his eye. ‘If you come asking questions concerning laws that are written in books, you will not find anything here to satisfy you. I do not answer to laws that indicate this or that to be right or wrong. I answer only to the power that exists in every man to know right from wrong in his own heart!’

‘Heresy!’ the Pharisee said, ‘A son of Abraham must follow the laws of Moses!’

The Baptist looked at him with flares for eyes. ‘You make much of having Abraham for a father, but this alone does not make you worthy! Your body of flesh is like the stones at your feet…in the same way that you can pick up any of these stones and make them yours…God can make any man, a child of Abraham.’

Gasps came from the priests. Rants, and raves and astonishment filled the air. ‘You dare to say, any man can be a child of Abraham! Any man can enter the lineage of the blood tree of your forebears, which is sanctified by God!’

The Baptist roared like a lion at them, ‘Why do you call on this dying tree! God has given me the axe–and I will cut it down!’ He pointed to the people and cried, ‘Israel! This tree no longer bears good fruit!’

The delegation was turned over into a rumble of voices. The guards stood at the ready with their weapons.

‘Jerusalem!’ He pointed at the delegation. ‘Your laws and your knowledge were brought to you by way of Moses, but the time of these laws is finished now! Soon, grace and truth will come into the world by way of the anointed one. He will descend to earth so that the blind sons of Israel may see Him! But only those who can hear the voice of conscience in their hearts will recognise him!’  

The rabbis, priests and the Levites talked in an excited fashion among themselves, shaking their heads and distorting their countenances. They could not agree. Meanwhile in the crowds, a man called out to John,

‘But how shall we become good men? What is this voice you speak of, that is in the heart?’

John the Baptiser answered, ‘Do you not shrink to see others cold or hungry? Do you, who have much, not hear a voice that tells you to help those who have little? This voice speaks tenderly in the wilderness of your soul, and it will say to you: he who has two coats, let him share with him who has none; and he who has meat, let him do likewise.’

Then a publican called out, ‘But what of our livelihood?  We have to earn a living, from shelter and food! What will you have us do? Give men a bed, and a bowl of soup for free, to be good?’

‘Listen to the voice, it will say: Do not ask for more than is rightfully yours.’

And the soldiers, who were Herod’s men and had come with the priests and Levites, asked him, ‘How can we soldiers be good men, if we must use a sword and accuse others for our wages?’

John the Baptist told them, ‘The voice will say: do not do violence to any man and do not accuse another falsely. What you do, must be good and right, if you are to take to yourself your wages and be content.’

‘Who are you?’ Another Pharisee called out, ‘Are you the Messiah?’

John knew these questions needed to be asked, to prevent confusion in the people’s minds, and so he answered, ‘Listen to me…all of you…know that I am not the Christ. He shall come after me!’

‘Do you say that you are Elijah, then?’ Another priest said.

John shook his head, ‘I am sent in the spirit of Elijah.’

‘But it is said, that a prophet will come before the Messiah comes, are you not that prophet?’

‘I have told you…do not look at me, look for that other who will come!’

‘Who do you say that you are? We must return to tell those who have sent us, the council of great men at the Sanhedrin,’ that same Pharisee said.

‘Tell them, that I am the voice of the soul, crying in solitude, cut off from the likes of those who hold fast to the blood of Abraham. I am the free voice, without a folk, who seeks Him who comes to sustain me!’

‘Why do you preach repentance and baptise, and make pure men, if you are not a Prophet, or Elijah, or the Messiah?’ A Levite gave back.

‘I baptise with water, but there stands one among you that you do not recognise. He has the forces derived from a higher source than mine! He is mightier than I, for I am not worthy to stoop down to unloosen even the laces of his sandals. I baptise you with water. I do this in preparation for Him, who will baptise men not with water, but with the Holy Spirit fire!’

‘Is he here?’

John’s heart was full with joy, ‘I feel he is among us!’

The priests looked about them.

Each man searched his neighbour.

‘Where is he?’ they asked.

‘You shall not see Him until He makes himself known to you.’

The priests mocked him and said he was a madman. They told the crowds that no man should believe such lies and with their dispositions proud, gathered to them the reins of their animals, and took themselves and their soldiers from the shores of the river. But two members of the Sanhedrin remained behind, and sat among the crowds. John sensed that these men had been touched by his words.

After that, he continued with his work until the sun reached its zenith, and the crowds began, as was their custom, to disperse for the midday meal. Now standing alone in the chilling water, he saw a man step forward and come to the edge of the river.

He put a hand up over his eyes to see, for the sun’s rays were shimmering on the surface of the river, blinding him.

He recognised the man’s form and the contours of his face. How bright did the sun shine at that moment! As if it’s body were leaning over to touch the river! John squinted, and still he could not see, and yet he did see. This was a man he knew, and yet, it was not simply that he saw a man he knew, for this man, whom he had met at Qumran, seemed not to be there at all, but in his place was a soul that he recognised in its essential foundations. It was as if he were looking at his own reflection, a part of himself, long lost and forgotten. Did this soul that came towards him not seem like the youngest, and purest, soul in the world? And was this not the opposite of his own soul, which felt to him ancient, cracked, and used up, like an old jug emptied of its contents?

His heart near burst with the mighty impression this thought created, and his eyes filled with tears, and he let go his staff into the water.

The Tenth Holy Night - Twins/Gemini

TWINS/GEMINI

The region of the twins is connected with the Hierarchy known in Christian Mysticism as the Seraphim and in Spiritual Science as the Spirits of Love. This hierarchy is known by this name because it is the bearer of the forces of spiritual love, a love that arouses the will to sacrifice. The Greek myth of the twins Castor and Pollux is a representation of such a love, where one twin is willing to sacrifice even his immortality for his brother.

We have seen this will to sacrifice through love, in the being of Zarathustra, who, at the turning point in time, incarnated as the Jesus of the Matthew Gospel (Yeshua) mentioned previously in several of our Holy Nights. We see it in the being of the Nathan Soul, the Jesus of the Luke Gospel, who sacrificed himself four times to be the vessel of Christ. We see it in the Mary of the Luke Gospel, who united with Mary of the Matthew Gospel. 

Ultimately this will to sacrifice can be seen in the Being of Christ Himself, who sacrificed his Godliness in order to descend from the heavenly spheres beyond the Zodiac, to earth evolution so as to unite Himself for all times with humanity by performing the highest sacrifice of all. Christ brought to Earthly evolution, thereby, a love that is not founded upon blood-ties. A spiritual love that lives in an etheric body that has been impregnated with the Christ Spirit. A love capable of inspiring a greater sacrifice than the sacrifice of Castor and Pollux who were blood brothers, because it can inspire sacrifice in 'brothers' who are united in Christ. It is a love that can also sacrifice not only immortality but the bearer of immortality, the lower ego itself, in order to receive it again as the immortal True Self from the being of Christ. This is characterised by the two brothers who are not brothers in blood - Yeshua and Jesus - who united through the Christ Spirit to provide a vessel for Christ's incarnation. After that Christ's command to his followers to love one another and to lay down their souls for their 'friends' because 'there is no greater love than this', was given its ultimate example on the hill at Golgotha when Christ Himself, a God, lay down his life for the world, to die an earthly death in Jesus.

It is from the region of Gemini that all impulses towards community, mutual love and the social life arise. The Seraphim also have the responsibility to ensure the regulation of a loving communion of the planets, that is, their communications with one another across the widths of space.

In ancient Persia, the age of Gemini, Zarathustra, the great Magi, was able to foretell the coming of Christ, whom he saw as Ahura Mazdao. This vision gave him the impulse to sacrifice himself in his coming lives in order to prepare for it, finally incarnating as Yeshua, the Matthew Jesus. Since his own sacrifice at the baptism, where he separated himself from the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth, the individuality of Zarathustra has incarnated again and again as Master Jesus -  and is one of the circle of twelve Bodhisattvas or Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings and Sensations who inspires humanity towards developing this 'selfless' love.

The sixth epoch will see a recapitulation of the age of Gemini on a higher level. It will be a time that stands under the signature of the Wedding at Cana, where those who unite in the Spirit of Christ will feel good-will towards one another even though they are not blood relations. Finally at the end of earth evolution, this sacrificial love on Vulcan will have created a new Cosmos, a cosmos of love created by  human beings - the hierarchy of Freedom and Love.

So, when we look up to the region of Twins/Gemini this Holy Night, may we see the connection between it and the Seraphim, the Spirits of Love. May we see how Castor and Pollux represent, in  our times, the image of a higher sacrificial love, a love that is capable of uniting 'like minded' people who are willing to lay down their lives for one another, because within their thinking hearts they are conscious of the Spirit of Christ, who sacrificed his life for all men. May the Glory of God in our hearts, the love in our hearts inspire good will among men so that peace may reign on earth.

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.

The Seventh Holy Night - Virgin/Virgo

VIRGIN/VIRGO

The Region of Virgo is related to the Hierarchy of the Kyriotetes, or in Spiritual Science - The Spirits of Wisdom. The Imagination that corresponds to this Zodiac is of the leading Kyriotetes on the Sun, the Virgin depicted in the twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse of St John, the woman clothed with the Sun, wearing a crown of stars and standing on the sickle moon with the dragon at her feet. The Gnostics knew this being as the Divine Sophia whose wisdom has rayed down towards humanity during the three evolutionary stages prior to earth evolution - Saturn, Sun and Moon.  The twelve stars correspond to old Saturn evolution; the Sun image corresponds to Sun evolution; the sickle moon to old Moon evolution. 

As we have seen before, Christ in his descent to earth was 'born' into the sphere of Kyriotetes, into the sphere of the Sun Spirit, or Sun as a Star through the gate of Ram in order to redeem the twelve senses and the physical body.

The Mary of the Luke Gospel was closely related to this being of the Cosmos. She is the Twin Soul of the Nathan Jesus, a pure soul that like the Nathan Jesus had not participated in the fall of man and was Paradisal. Because of this she was given the task to make her own descent towards the earth carrying the wisdom of the Sophia down into the Souls of men ahead of time, in preparation for both the descent of Christ and the birth of Jesus who would become his vessel. Rudolf Steiner named her Anthroposophia, for she is the inspirer of the Wisdom that lives in the soul of Man. At the turning point in time, she had the task of uniting the Region of the Virgin to the Region of the Fishes through the deep connection that existed between the two Marys: Mary of Luke Gospel and Mary of the Matthew gospel.

Before the fall, one could say, the two Marys were one being, a being which separated just before the fall into two beings. These two sister souls found one another again in Palestine. Mary of the Matthew Gospel was the incarnation of the oldest woman the earthly Eve, while Mary of the Luke Gospel was the youngest woman, the paradisal Eve. And, in the same way that both Jesus children, one a young soul (Nathan) and the other an old soul (Zarathustra), united at the steps of the Temple in Jerusalem to create the perfect vessel for Christ, Rudolf Steiner tells us the two Marys united at the moment of the Baptism in the Jordan to create a vessel for the Divine Sophia. Mary of the Matthew Gospel, the old Eve individuality on earth, united with the Paradisal Mary of the Luke gospel, who had her abode in heaven, and this made the old Mary into a 'Virgin' again, that is, pure. Through the power of the Paradisal Mary or the heavenly Eve, the earthly Eve was united with the heavenly Sophia for all times. The heavenly Sophia  incarnated 'Vicariously' into the Matthew Mary right down into her bones, perfecting her soul into a 'Mother of God' in order to enable the Birth of Christ into Jesus of Nazareth. Thereafter, Mary of the Matthew Gospel became the earthly reflection of the Divine Sophia, and the bearer of the highest human virtue - the Wisdom of the Kyriotetes. From that time on humanity became the lowest member of the Sobornal (collective) being of the Sophia. And when the Matthew Mary died she became a Bodhisattva and joined the circle of masters.

At the foot of the cross it is John who is asked by Christ Jesus to take this Wisdom of the Sophia, the Mother of God, into his 'house' or soul. And it is for this reason that later he is able to write his Gospel and the Book of Revelations. John becomes known from that time on as John the 'Divine' because he is overshone by the Divine Sophia.

John's connection with this being occurred in a Macrocosmic way when he ascended,  many incarnations later, to a 'conscious' experience of Christ as the Cosmic Lamb in the region where Christ unites with Virgo - the Sphere of the Sophia or Kyriotetes in a marriage, an initiation which Valentin Andrea calls, The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosencreutz'.

Rudolf Steiner tells us that it is from the two Regions Fishes and Virgin that in future times will proceed spiritual forces that are beneficent for human evolution because this represents the boundaries of the workings of the Cosmic Sophia. The Hebrews knew that the Sophia would one day bring man in connection with the seven zodiacal regions - from Fishes to Virgo as stated in the book of Proverbs: 'Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars'.

So when we look up to the region of Virgo on this Seventh Night, may we see the connection between the Sphere of Kyriotetes, the Divine Sophia and the Sun. May we see how the Luke Mary descended to earth to give birth to the Sun Garment of Christ, the Nathan Soul, and may we see how she and the Matthew Mary enabled the Birth of Christ into Jesus at the Baptism. May we feel gratitude for the being of Anthroposophy and her connection to the Divine Sophia, for it is through this connection that we can acquire the wisdom to bring about the birth of the Christ within our souls! 

The Third Holy Night - Goat/Capricorn

GOAT/CAPRICORN

The Archangels rule the Region of the Goat or Capricorn. The Archangels have a special relationship to the birth of the inner sun and the foremost of these Archangels at the time of Christ was Michael.  Rudolf Steiner tells us that the Archangels were able to imbibe the wisdom of the sun and to create light from it, and so the light in the cosmos is their gift. For this reason they have a particular relationship to the heart which is like an inner sun, and the light the heart engenders within the human being. Michael battles with the dragon of darkness every Autumn so that the Christmas season, the season of the Goat, can be experienced in the right 'light', preventing thereby, the darkening of the Christ Impulse.

John the Baptist was able to experience the midnight sun and this became the Waterman initiation. Such an initiation always reveals the circle of twelve archangels that form the cosmic aura around the sun in rainbow colours. In the north in the depths of winter darkness, this is an inner experience, here in the south it is an outer one. Those of us in the south, have the opportunity to observe the sun around the midday hour, on a warm summer's day. At such times, if the conditions are favourable, one is able to see a corona - a rainbow around the sun. This is a gift of grace which we carry with us into the depths of winter, and the memory of it can help us to observe the inner sun (the midnight sun) and the corona of the archangels around it who are the heavenly inspirers of the Holy Nights which occur at the time of their greatest influence. These are the Masters of Wisdom of Feelings and Sensations and their task is to shine down to earth the twelve cosmic aspects of Christ. They were the inspirers of the twelve disciples who, as their representatives, had the task of reflecting these twelve aspects physically, outwardly on earth.

On earth it is the Archangel Gabriel who announces to Mary the Birth of Jesus. In the heavens it was through the gateway of Capricorn, or the Goat, the region of the Archangels, that Christ descended into the sheaths of Jesus at the Baptism in the Jordan, bypassing the region of the angels altogether, to bring with him the Baptism of Fire we spoke of -  the baptism of the spirit. Air and Fire, are the lowest physical elements in which Archangels can become manifest on earth.

How do we draw close to the Archangels?

At this time of the year, our words must become spiritualised if we want to draw close to the archangels who rule the element of speech. Capricorn is also connected to the knee  - bending the knee is a sign of reverence - kneeling in prayer for instance - spiritualised speech.

This night also has a special relationship to Zarathustra, the individuality who was the most exalted pupil of the Sun oracle and so capable of observing Christ in the corona of the sun. He was incarnated again as the Matthew Jesus from the lineage of Solomon, and he sacrificed his abode in Jesus at the Baptism in order to make way for the being of Christ.

So, dear friends, when we look upwards on this night to the region of the Goat, may we see the connection between Christ, the Archangels, specially the being of Michael, and Master Jesus, the individuality of Zarathustra, the great Persian king, who sang his Hymns to the sun. May our words in the day express the warmth and light of the spirit that has entered into us at night because we have drawn close to Michael and the Masters of Wisdom. Perhaps we might even wake up in our sleep a moment to see the sun at midnight!

Let
Love
Warmed
Words
Light-
Filled
Live!

The Twelve Holy Nights - Pisces/Fishes

The Twelve Holy Nights 

Two festivals stand at opposite poles at this time of the year: Christmas and Epiphany. They mark two births.  Christmas celebrates the birth of the Son of Man - Jesus, and Epiphany marks the birth of the Son of God - Christ. We could say that the twelve nights are those nights that fall between these two festivals and which  mark, on the one hand, an earthly path from Jesus to Christ, and on the other, a Cosmic path from Christ to Jesus. Two paths, one of a man towards Godhood and the other of a God towards manhood.

From Jesus to Christ:

The man's journey is a veiled one. We know something of the birth of Jesus but not much is written about his life thereafter. Why is that? Because it was far too complicated. Only recently, since the Renaissance,  have we developed a consciousness capable of understanding it.

In order to understand the path that Jesus took to become Christ we have to know that there were two Jesus children. The first being of the line of Solomon - I call this child Yeshua. Yeshua was a native of Bethlehem and his birth is depicted in the Matthew Gospel.

The second child, which I call Jesus, is the younger child from the lineage of Nathan and a native of Nazareth and his life is depicted in the Luke Gospel.

We know these are separate individuals because not only do Matthew and Luke give different genealogies in the bible, but the Matthew Jesus and the Luke Jesus are shown to have had different experiences: the Matthew child was born earlier, in the time of Herod and is visited by Magi and thereafter journeys to Egypt; while the Luke child is born at the time of Quireneus and the Census and travels to Bethlehem where he is visited by Shepherds and thereafter returns to live a quiet life in Nazareth.

Rudolf Steiner was the first modern human being to recognise this mystical fact and he has many lectures devoted to the understanding of this mystery.

The younger years in the live of the two Jesus children are similarly veiled, but we do know that the Luke Child unites with the Matthew child when the Luke child is twelve and the Matthew child is around 14. This mysterious unification occurs at the Temple in Jerusalem and is depicted in the Bible in that part where Mary loses her son and finds him speaking 'uncharacteristically' to the rabbis. This is because her quiet child is now united with the wise child who subsequently dies.

In his lectures entitled the Fifth Gospel, Rudolf Steiner gives an account of this mystery and the years that follow.

From Christ to Jesus:

The journey of  Christ through the spiritual world and His descent into a human being is also veiled.  There are various lectures in which Rudolf Steiner gives account of this journey - a journey that is sacrificial and encompasses the entire cosmos and various Zodiac constellations as he descends towards the earth and into the body Jesus of Nazareth.

During Christmas and Epiphany we celebrate Jesus' individual's outer journey in the physical world, the inner revolution occurring in the body and soul of a human being who is being prepared to accept a god into his body and soul, and paradoxically, a god's journey through the outer cosmos which is really a contraction of His heavenly nature and a sacrifice of His various exalted members through the regions of the 12 Zodiacs, in order that he might enter into the body of that prepared human being.

So, when we look at the twelve regions (the circle) of the Zodiac during those twelve Holy Nights we can find a memory of that momentous parallel path which forms a kind of cosmic ladder from human depths to spiritual heights and from spiritual heights to human depths - and for the man Jesus, it begins with the Zodiacal region of the Fishes.

    FISH/PISCES 
The first Holy Night

The path symbolised by the Fishes is the path taken by every human being who is born on earth. It is so because long ago it was taken by the first human beings who descended from the realm of the spirit to the earthly realm. They descended by  relinquishing their connection to the outer light of the spirit, in order that the unification with darkness might eventually teach them how to kindle, through their own efforts, the light within their own hearts.

This descent was experienced by the two Jesus children, who both entered into the womb of their respective mothers in order to be born into the darkness of matter - the physical world.

This descent was also experienced in a higher way, by the second Logos, the Son, who had much earlier journeyed from the heights of the Trinity into the realm of the zodiac and the Sphere of the Sun as a star. Thus was Christ born into the Spirit womb of the divine Sophia, the Sun as a star.

We can see how the two images are a wonderful unification of Christ with the realm of the Fishes and the realm of the Virgin which both stand at opposite positions in the starry sky.

In the future this unification will be a practical experience - a conscious one - undergone by the prepared human soul (Virgin/Fish) with the Spirit of Christ. This is what is mean by the Second Coming.

Within ourselves we have two fish - one swims upwards and the other downwards - one part of us is male, outward striving, individual, wise and fiery  like the Matthew Jesus, and the other part of us is feminine, inward gazing, communal, calm and loving like the Luke Jesus. The two must come together inwardly in the same way that outwardly the two Jesus'  children united in Jesus of Nazareth - if we are to find the inward and outward Christ.

It was understood in the age of the 'Twins', that is, in Persia, that the realm of the Fish and Virgin would one day unite to prepare two human beings (twins) so that they could make ready the womb for a God. For this reason the Fish has always been synonymous with Jesus Christ. He not only called Himself the 'fisher of men' but many of his disciples were 'Fishermen'. This knowledge was carried  in the soul of the early Christians who always associated Jesus Christ with the sign of the Fish until it was replaced by the Catholic Church with the sign of the black cross. On the other hand, the Vesica Pisces, the womb of the Fish, is the ancient symbol which signifies the birth of the spirit of Christ - Fish - into the womb of the soul.

John the Baptist was the initiator of the Fish initiate - Jesus. He initiated Jesus of Nazareth and facilitated the release of the Matthew Jesus from the Luke Jesus by Baptising Jesus of Nazareth with water. He could do this because he was an 'Aquarian' initiate, one who has been initiated from the region of the starry realms which was later called after him: Waterman. John the Baptist spoke of one who would come to Baptise not with water but with the Fire of the Holy Spirit. This is Christ.

So, when we look upwards to the realm of the Fish on this Holy Night, may we see what has been in the past as a sign of what is now happening within our souls so as to pave the way for what will be the experience of all men on earth - the birth of the child...the Christ within the human soul.

YESHUA AND JESUS - Excerpt from Fifth Gospel

THE two boys sat on the grass. The priestly child, Jesus, was only twelve springs and fair, for he was a Galilean of mixed blood. The older boy, Yeshua, was fourteen springs and from the lineage of kings, as a Judean of pure blood he was of darker of complexion.

Jesus played a plaintive song on his flute. At one moment, the song wafted downwards, over the ridge of the mountain, floating over the Nazirite township below with its rows and rows of houses scattered among figs and pomegranates and grape vines. At another moment the song soared upwards to the sun’s jewel whose gleaming fell over the world and came to rest on the squat fig tree beneath which they sat.

Before them plump, white sheep stood silent and obedient in the grass. From the wide spaces there came a sharp breeze, herb-scented and cool, carrying the sound of a flock of doves flapping their wings in time to the dying and becoming of the soul-full tune.

Yeshua was restless.

He held a stick in his hand. He made figures with it among the cyclamen and the anemones and in a moment he threw the stick away and fell to watching the rustling leaves of the small tree.

He told himself, I see all created things because they are; and they are because God sees them, and because God sees them, I see them in the world, and because they are perfect, I see them in my heart.

But this did not content him.

He looked beyond to where the clouds melted into the heavens. The flute’s song would have calmed him enough to make him fall to sleep except that a dream in the night still lingered in his heart and filled him with puzzlement and concern. Jesus would know its meaning but he was taken with his flute. Yeshua would have to wait, for he did not wish to interrupt him.

Years ago when Yeshua and his parents had arrived in Nazareth Jesus’ family had been the first to befriend them. Discovering a shared lineage had added to their kinship and soon the two households seemed to have no distinction between them. This meant that he and Jesus passed season after season in each other’s company and in time developed a particular understanding between them.

From the beginning, the Essene teachers had singled them out from the other village boys and had sent for the Chazzan, the officer from the synagogue to come and instruct them. The Chazzan had schooled them on the Torah and the Mishnah and had given them instruction on the unity of the Law and the Faith. But the teacher soon discovered that a great gulf divided the two of them. Yeshua loved reading, singing and praying. The rituals of the festivals, all that could be learnt from papyrus and from the word resounded in his soul and gave clarity to his mind. In truth, the older he became the more he felt one with the destiny and the trials of his people upon whom he knew lay the destiny of all peoples of the world. Yeshua understood that Jesus was different. He was not one for the things of the world. His mind could not take up the teachings that the rabbis prized so highly, for his mind was flown away with the song of birds or the flight of a butterfly or the angle of the sun as it fell on a leaf. There seemed to be no space in his memory for knowledge and his vision of the world seemed, to Yeshua, like a soft-spoken dream dusted with the pollen of heaven.

The rabbis were knowledgeable but they were not wise for they could not fathom his friend’s soul. They could not see his capacity for love with their hardened minds. They did not realise, therefore, how with one touch of his hand, one look from his far-seeing eyes, one word spoken soft and rounded from his lips, he could awaken truth and undo all manner of harm, illness and worry. They could not see it, and so they thought him ‘addled’, a child that could not be taught - they called him. And so it was they concentrated instead on Yeshua and let go their training of Jesus allowing him to spend his days as he would spend them, with his sheep, playing his flute song.

The flute song came to its end and the silence of afternoon invaded the empty spaces of the day. Yeshua looked at Jesus and Jesus in turn let his eyes – not blue nor green nor brown, but all three in equal measure – meet Yeshua’s dark ones.

Feeling like a boy and forgetting for a moment that he was more knowledgeable than the priests in their synagogues, he said, ‘I wonder what the sheep are thinking?’ 


Jesus wiped the spit from his flute and looked at it. ‘Sheep do not have thoughts, Yeshua!’ 


‘Maze!’ Yeshua said, surprised. ‘No thoughts?’ 


‘No.’ 
‘What do they feel?’ 


Jesus gazed out at the sheep, measuring, or so it seemed to Yeshua, what lived in them. ‘They long for warmer days and greener grass...also...’ His face lit up in a smile. ‘They do not have sympathy for the goats...’

Yeshua smiled himself at the thought of it. ‘They do not like the goats?’

‘The goats annoy them and they smell bad.’

Yeshua laughed. ‘Yes, they smell bad and they are stupid!’ He turned to look at Jesus. ‘You are right! What am I thinking then, what do you see in my head?’

Jesus’ gaze touched Yeshua. ‘Your thoughts are too complicated for my reckoning,’ he told him. ‘They are knotted up, one with the other, and made of sharp corners.’

‘Well...if they are made of sharp corners...' Yeshua threw a clump of grass at Jesus. ‘How can they be knotted? Knots are rounded!’

More grass was thrown and soon the two boys were covered in green and dirt and laughing like anything.

They fell on their backs then and Jesus turned over on his belly, contented, cupping his chin with his hands.

Yeshua looked to the leaves on the tree again, chewing on a blade of grass. ‘Last night I dreamt I was an eagle,’ he said.

Jesus looked at him, ‘How high did you fly?’

Yeshua threw him a speck of a glance. ‘I flew so high that I reached the sun, that’s how high!  After that something strange happened.’

‘What?’

‘The sun turned into a beautiful woman, who stood on the moon and wore a crown of stars. She told me her name was wisdom and she showed me things in a deep well: strange things, terrible wars, fearful sights! She told me it was the future and that it would be grave but that I would perform a task that would save the world, but first I had to remember something, and then I had to forget it again! But I can’t remember what I had to forget!’

‘That is because you have forgotten it!’

‘That is true!’ he said, with a sigh.

‘What happened after that?’

‘The woman moved her hand over the well and showed me something more...she showed me an image of you.’

‘Me?’ Jesus turned his head all smiles and frowns at him. ‘What was I doing?’

‘You were climbing steps, carrying something on your back...when I looked closer, I could see that it was me you were carrying, and that I was heavy. And you told me that I would be light if I let go of my treasures...that I would find them again, but that for now they were heavy. When finally I threw off all that I possessed I was light, like pollen in the wind! I knew that from that time there would be no need for words between us.’ He looked at Jesus, ‘I do not know what it means, this dream!’

Jesus nodded, thoughtful. ‘This is a difficult dream.’

Yeshua sat up to look at the heart-form of his friend’s face and the wide set eyes full of colours, ‘Not for you! You always know what my dreams mean!’

Jesus shrugged his shoulders.

‘Will you not tell me?’

‘Perhaps, you know too much already?’ Jesus teased.

Yeshua let his gaze roam over the sheep and the long view of the world, ‘I always tell you what I know!’

‘Yes.’ Jesus frowned. ‘You know many things.’

‘Come...brothers tell each other everything!’

‘We are not brothers, Yeshua,’ Jesus corrected him resting his head on the crook of his arm.

Yeshua scowled, feeling querulous. ‘Why not?’

‘Jacob and Simon and Jude and Jose...they hide behind corners to throw stones at me, they do this because they love you, because they are your brothers, not I.’

Yeshua felt the blood rise in his face. His brothers were mean spirited and ignorant. ‘If I could swap them for you - I would do it a thousand times over!’ he said.

‘That is why they throw stones,’ Jesus pointed out, with a simple clarity that cut at the roots of Yeshua’s anger.

There was a long thoughtful moment and something occurred to Yeshua. ‘Where is your knife...the one you carry for cutting rope? Come...give it to me.’

Jesus hesitated. ‘It is sharp, I am told never to take it from its sheath unless I have to.’

‘The sharper the better...come on...I’ll show you.’ He gestured full of impatience.

Jesus complied, but with caution. Yeshua took it and in a moment had made a cut in the palm of one hand.

Jesus grew alarmed to see blood, but Yeshua ignored it, and said to him, ‘Do you remember how the rabbis taught us that the body of a man, his flesh, Tzelem, is the image of God, and that his blood is Demut, the likeness of God. Do you remember? This blood is the likeness of God because in it flows the soul. Look at it! Don’t be afraid!’ He showed him his bloodied palm. ‘This is my soul you are looking at...now give me your hand.’

Jesus sat up and made a weak smile of hesitation. ‘Come Jesus, don’t you trust me?’

‘I trust you!’

‘Then give me your hand!’ Jesus put out his palm and winced. ‘The knife is sharp, it will not hurt.’ Yeshua made a swift cut and the boy stared at the blood now flowing from the wound with appreciation. ‘It did not hurt!’ he said amazed. ‘Your blood,’ Yeshua told him with a serious voice, ‘is also Demut, the likeness of God...Now, when I bring my blood, my soul, together with your blood, your soul, like this...’ He joined his hand to Jesus’ hand in a clasp and held it firmly. ‘It means that we are the same. Do you understand? We share the same likeness of God in our bodies. This means more than just brothers in the blood of Abraham, Jesus! Even though I share in the same blood with my brothers, my soul is not in Jacob, nor is it in Jude, or Simon or Jose, and theirs is not in me. But you and I, we are one now, and this means they can never come between us. Do you know what else, Jesus?’

‘What else?’

‘It means that if I die, my soul will still live in you...because we now share the same likeness of God, the same soul.’

They let go.

Jesus’ eyes grew soft and distant, and he seemed to be fitting this idea to his mind as he nursed his wound. Yeshua wiped the blood away from his hand and watched it ooze from the cut and spread into every crevice and line. He sucked the wound and said, 


‘Now you must tell me the meaning of my dream, because we are brothers.’

Jesus looked at him with a blank face. ‘I would tell you, because we are brothers, Yeshua, but in becoming brothers the meaning has winged away from my mind!’

Yeshua sighed and rolled over on his back again. ‘You goose! You have lost too much blood!’

The freshening breeze came and Yeshua felt a strangeness creep over him. He turned his eyes to the old road, and saw a caravan making its slow way in the valley. ‘I feel something will soon change, Jesus. Perhaps this is the meaning of the dream? It may happen when we go to Jerusalem, to celebrate our coming of age ceremonies...Do you know the first thing that I shall do in Jerusalem?’

Jesus took up his flute. ‘What will you do in Jerusalem?’

‘I will go to the priests and I will ask them why they shed the blood of sheep and goats and doves, and why they burn them for sacrifices, when Isaiah and David tell us we must not bring burnt offerings to God...’

Jesus began to play and Yeshua was not surprised, for talk of cruel things, of priests and temples and kings, never entered into his knowing. They were like the breezes that moved over this ridge on which they sat. They did not go deep, but brushed past and moved on towards other mountains, and other boys sitting with their sheep.

Yeshua watched the shivering leaves. ‘I think we shall be awakened at the Temple to something new, you and I.’

Jesus paused. ‘When our eyes open, because we are one, shall you see through mine and I through yours?’

These words made an impression on Yeshua. All day his dream had made him feel something in his heart and now that something sat on the lip of his mind, perched just so - near enough for him to taste, but too far from his reach to be grasped. It was tantalising and frustrating, this remembering, and he was so taken with it that he barely noticed Jesus begin to play another tune. And in this way they remained for a time, listening to God in the wind that carried the spring-song, God in the bleating of the sheep and in the chewing of the goats, until the sun began to fall towards the mountains and from below there came the sound of a woman’s voice, calling them for dinner.

They stood together then, as one, and descended the hill to their homes, arms over shoulders.

They spoke no more of their newly won brotherhood, or of the future that awaited them.