This painting by Raphael is awesome but confusing, at first sight. The whole clue to this episode is that there were only three elect disciples (Peter, James, John) invited to witness the Christ in all his heavenly glory, fully eminating the Logos-Sophia Light, prefiguring (apocalyptically) the ultimate victory in the battle of light and darkness, on the Mount of Olives. He went up to this mountain for a meditation with his three finest disciples, hoping they might have the soul it takes to become imbued with the necessary courage and strength to continue the struggle without him. There was no amazed audience. In fact, the sad thing was everybody fell asleep and witnessed nothing! This indicated how nobody was ready enough for the Light of Christ, or his Revelation of the Sophia Wisdom that is to become the leading force for Mankind.
We are still only learning, studying his teachings as paths to walk while we could actually already be "meeting him" in person, for ourselves without mediation (priests) and we could thus test and testify to our spiritual nature from personal experience (this in Esoteric Christianity, is the Second Coming of Christ, the Parousia: a personal encounter and relationship with Christ in our every day life). Literally, making of it what you will - and seeing how little of it is left if you only follow your little will.
I have lost count of the times that I have encountered Steemians "preach" to a similar extent the following:
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
But what packet of seeds comes with this exhortation? These seeds have to be of a highly spiritual quality to make the difference. All the book knowledge in the world is useless (see Matthew with his fat tome at a loss as how to cure the child); confusion and chaos is quickly sown.
Nine out of the 12 disciples didn't have enough faith to cure the possessed boy....They thought they believed (in Christ) but they didn't see the demon for real. Now they cannot see the Higher Worlds for real either, to which their master will ascend shortly, about which he has been trying to tell them all along.
Like us, they trust more what they saw (an epileptic fit, the illness) rather than what only the soul can see with imagination: the whole and healthy potential obstructed. This positive affirmation is belief. We currently heal from negative perception - which works to a degree, but transforms our soul not at all. Until we understand this we will continue to mock the healings of Christ as hysterical accounts of "faith healing" without ever exploring what guidewires of spiritual reality are actually being revealed in the miracle of every day existence. (Don't forget to look up into the night sky in the middle of the wilderness to comfirm this outrageous miracle!)
The planetary stages of the drama of Holy Week have a significance that transcends time, and the drama is re-enacted in every detail in decisive turning-points of human history.
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That power of the sun which brings unfailingly to light everything that is false and degenerate.
Emil Bock, “The Three Years”
From my previous post you already know how each day of the week relates to one of the seven "Planets". Tuesday, Martes, Mars-day is a bellicose one with Ares at the helm. Mars kindles the torches of the Apocalypse. Spiritual conflicts hide behind outer warfare. This is reflected in the bellicose nature of Christ's encounter with the Sanhedrin, the College of Seventy whose task it is to guide the destiny of the people, who hope to expose him as a fraud and rebel without a cause. We find arrows of hate slung out of fear.
Yesterday, we saw Christ Purifying the Temple, opposing the Pharisees as the ghosts of themselves they had become as wire-pullers for the Romans. Decadence is rife, spilling from the Temple, where profiteers force the pilgrims to change local coinage at exorbitant exchange rates to buy their Passover lambs (for the necessary sacrifice) with Roman currency.
“Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” (Mark, 12:17 - NIV)
Today, on the Tuesday of the Holy Week, we take the opportunity to examine the clerical authorities and how they feel particularly nervous with the momentum this Messiah seems to be gathering. They come to disturb Jesus teaching to the people with spear-point questions. They need to catch him out on a violation of the Law. But Jesus is careful to work within the parameters of the law (and has every intention of observing the Passover feast, albeit with a few modifications once the time, on Thursday, comes....). He is not about disrupting the social order. He is about awakening the soul to the True Potential of Mankind. The Temple Complex owned by the Elite is to become the New Jerusalem under your own two feet. We are all born EQUALLY WISE, if we take the trouble to realise that.
"One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the good news, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, together with the elders, came up to him. 2 “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things,” (Luke 20 - NIV)
The Pharisees doubt Christ's spiritual provenance. They fail to see what makes him special. To be honest, don't we all, unless it has been impressed upon us that "it is so"? We may take on this Messaiah's positive intentions "in good faith" but just as the Pharisees want to know by what authority (legality) this man dares to preach, we struggle to accept the authority of all things of a spiritual nature. How can we examine the value of the (supposed) incarnation of Christ for ourself? If seeing is believing, how can we believe what cannot be seen? What happens if we first believe? Is this not a form of indoctrination (brainwashing)? We are the Pharisees as unbelievers. Or side with them in our doubt, as does Judas (on Wednesday).
After answering the four questions of his assailants, on his authority, on taxes, on the resurrection, and finally which Commandment is the most important (# 1, Love God; # 2 Love your neighbour), he hands them a couple of parables, which foretell of his crucifixion, but also prefigures the Apocalypse. This really is an earth-shattering day!
The Parable of the Husbandmen: this fortells of how the Hight Priests fail to remember to what they owe their successs. When the glory of God is in their midst they fail to recognised it and even condemn it to death, afraid of renouncing their position. This is a tale of injust ownership. It points to a corruption born out of a posessessivenes of the Truth by those who merely have had it handed down to them as second hand news through the generations (Jesus tries to show that the bloodline of Judaism - a powerful incarnation tool - working from the bottom-up, has no place anymore in the respiritualisation of life on Earth. We should work from the top down, looking to heaven for inspiration.)
The Parable of the Royal Marriage Feast: The invited guests don't feel like attending the wedding. They decline with the well known pathetic excuses. These represent the hypocrite privileged church people by acient tradition. In the end of days these fake friends are the dark spots of Mankind.
Blessed be...the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted because of righteousness, you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me)
The last counterblow and public discourse of Jesus is full of warning and lament; we find the denunciations or nine Woes, and the cursing of towns. Much can be transposed onto our stormy and devestating times. The nine-fold
The Transfiguration is not easily understood as a work of art nor as a New Testament event. It is the prophecy of Adam in Paradise/Eden fulfilled: the radiant Ego and an intimate cosmic soul-life filled with the Logos. This is the life-force behind the materialisation of the spirit in blood (birth) and the dematerialisation of the blood back into spirit (resurrection).
