Cultivating Continuity of Consciousness
Sustaining & Metabolizing the Spiritual Sustenance from the 12 Holy Nights CONCENTRATION
Continuing with our work from the Holy Nights, I want to emphasize the importance of what births between the image & the after image...the space in between.
What lives within this stillpoint & why does it matter?
The entire month of January is devoted to understanding this sweet spot, the Nous, which is connected to the work carried out on December 25th, the 1st Holy Night.
On this Night, we contemplated the following:
“I SEE.”
HOW CAN I SEE THE WORLD WITH NEW EYES SUCH THAT THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH ARE UNITED WITHIN ME?
And…we discovered that it is through Loving Surrender of the lower ego (judgement/opinion/etc.) that one can begin to conceive of the ‘eye of the heart.’
Through this inquiry, it is my wish that the reader enter into “I SEE” to a greater degree, perhaps 5° more.This 5° difference poses this question before our souls:
How does one transfigure “I SEE” into “I CONCEIVE?”
In my subsequent spiritual research, what has come to my consciousness is that direct Meditation upon the space in between the heavens & the earth, the reverse image & the image, the moral & the physical is key to unlocking & lovingly surrendering to this new sight.
One can only know this omniscient space of fertile darkness through the spiritual organ of the heart, specifically through the steadfast commitment to developing the 5th Chamber of the Human Heart.
What is this 5th Chamber?
“In our time there are certain changes taking place in the heart, by which gradually a fifth chamber will develop. In this fifth chamber man will have a new organ which will allow him to control life forces in a different way than is possible at the moment...All that happens in the moral life, and all that happens physically in the world…the moral and the physical….are found in their real union when we learn to understand all the configurations of the human heart.”
What does this ask of us?
“Our first hurdle in opening the window to the occult understanding of “THE FIFTH CHAMBER” of the human heart is to grasp where in nature we have found a five chambered heart. It so happens that Bees have a five chambered heart. This sets the tone of our research.”
Conceive this in your mind’s eye:
“A beautiful story tells us that when Christ hung on the cross, bees came and drew honey from his bleeding wounds, as from red roses otherwise. The blood’s composition had changed through the sacrifice and had become like the sap of red roses.”
Let us lay our eyes upon the Rose Cross:
Now Consider the following:
Bees then receive into their innermost being the most noble substance, the most divine essence from the seed center of the plant, the mouth of the plant - the unspoken, unuttered WORD, & then use the emanations from the union of this substance combined with the radiating vibrations from the 5 chambered heart within their being to create hexagonal (6 sided) structures on behalf of the entire hive.
The secret lies in the space in between the pentagon, the five sided sacred geometrical structure & the hexagon, the 6 sided sacred geometrical structure.
What lies between the 5 & the 6?
Let this question ring within you for a moment.
So how does this apply to the human heart?
What does the bee represent & exemplify to the human being?
Sun-Being.The bees teach us how to become Sun-like.
Let us think with the ‘heart of a bee.’
Let us enter into the bee for but a moment.
The existing materialized understanding of the human heart is such that we see the image of a square. 4 sides. 4 chambers.
How can one conceive a transfiguration of the human heart from quaternary to hexagonal? When one begins to weave the golden thread, putting into practice the art of SEERSHIP, one must begin to see both the center and the periphery at the same time. Sun Vision. This takes the focus from flat & 2D (a corpse of thought) to 3D (breathing life into the thought).
This is a kind of breathing through the eyes that must be cultivated during the epoch of Consciousness Soul.
“We must learn to look out on the world with keen, healthy senses, and quickened power of observation, and then give ourselves up to the feeling that arises within us. We should not try to make out, through intellectual speculation, what the things mean, but rather allow the things themselves to tell us. We can call this breathing — living sensitively into a whole range of impressions, often of a contradictory nature. These polarities in reality form the field, in which we orientate ourselves, but also find mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. It is here we find the first questions - so, breathing, we sense into things. Is there sufficient lightness of touch to allow these questions breathing space, or do we cramp the breath through too many concepts and interpretations, brought too soon, or too quickly? Another word for lightness of touch is tact. In sensing all the polarities and contradictions, we become aware of the whole situation - of possibilities becoming perceptible. As we live into these, we also need to be accommodating others, ensuring there is spaciousness enough for them to come to terms with the issues, so that their doubts or anxieties might be allayed.”
Practice this transfiguring gaze by softening your focus, noticing both the center & the periphery:
A Divine 3rd arises from this breathing of the eyes, the union of mind & heart. In the light of this Divine 3rd, we enter the realm of 3D & begin to merge thinking & feeling.
In other words, we offer the thought to the heart. Heart-thinking becomes possible. Imaginations become possible.
The 3D version of a square forms a cube. A cube contains 6 sides, each side containing 1 congruent square.
Here we find a connection to the hexagonal force & the number 6.
Let’s go a step further to 4D.
To this hexagonal force we shall add our will forces or the essential element of COURAGE.
Within the realm of 4D one begins to merge thinking, feeling & willing.
A kind of ‘fermentation’ begins within the alchemical vessel of one’s devoted concentration & a Divine 4th arises before the innermost eye from the living trinity of the 3 fold thought (thinking, feeling, willing).
One takes a single courageous step forward beyond 6 in the light of this Divine 4th, hence the number 7 becomes perceptible to the soul.
It is here that one beholds the Spirit within the form. 5D.
Here begins the 5° shift.
Where does one go from here? What does one do with the number 7?
Let us begin anew with a focus on the element of courage, the living force of the will in the form of FAITH that allows one to gaze into the sea of the unknown without fear of falling into the abyss of uncertainty.
Weave the golden thread through the beautiful story above about the bees who visited the sap of the red roses that formed from the 7 stages of the Passion of Christ at the Mystery of Golgotha (the crucifixion).
Weave the golden thread through to the following: What might the number 7 look like in the light of the rose?
Steiner gave us a brilliant imagination to work with:
Saturn Planetary Seal by Rudolf Steiner
Consider that perhaps this above imagination arose from Meditation upon the Rose Cross & the reverse image, paying special attention to what lies between the two images.
With the above in mind, let us dive deeper into the mystery of Saturn. The Saturn stage of evolution contains a key vision to the mystery of the 5 chambered heart.
“In order to understand what underlies the world it does not suffice to speak of it in concepts, or to form concepts and ideas on it; it is far more necessary to call up an impression of the feeling aroused by the infinite emptiness of the ancient Saturn-existence. A feeling of horror accompanies the mere hint of it. If we wish to ascend clairvoyantly to the state of Saturn, we must prepare ourselves by acquiring a feeling, more or less known to everyone, that may be compared to the giddiness experienced on a mountain, when a man stands at the edge of an abyss and feels that he has no sure footing under him, that he cannot retain it in any place and wants to give way to forces over which he has no longer any control. But that is only the most elementary of these apprehensive feelings. For he loses not only the ground beneath him, but also what eyes can see, ears hear and hands grasp; in fact all spatial environment. And he can do no other than lose every thought that may come to him, in a sort of condition of dimness or sleep; and then he can arrive at having no perception at all. He may be so deeply absorbed in this impression that he can do no other than come to the condition of dread, which often is like a giddiness not to be overcome.
Man of to-day has two possibilities. The first is that he may have understood the Gospels, or the Mystery of Golgotha. Anyone who has really understood these in their full depths — naturally not as modern theologians speak of them, but in such a way that he has drawn from them the deepest that can be expressed in them — will take something with him into that emptiness, which seems to expand from a given point and fills emptiness with something similar to courage. It is a feeling of courage, of protection through being united with that Being Who accomplished the sacrifice on Golgotha. The other way is to penetrate into the spiritual worlds without the Gospels through a genuine true Spiritual Science or Anthroposophy. This is also possible. (You know that we emphasise the fact that we do not start from the Gospels when we consider the Mystery of Golgotha, but that we should arrive at it even if there were no Gospels at all.) That would not have been possible before the Mystery of Golgotha took place; but it is the case to-day because something entered the world through the Mystery of Golgotha which enables a man to understand the impressions of the spiritual world directly through his own impressions. This is what we call the ruling of the Holy Spirit in the world, the ruling of cosmic thought in the world. Whether we take one or the other of these with us, we cannot lose ourselves and we cannot, so to say, fall into the bottomless abyss when we stand before the dreadful emptiness. If we now approach this dreadful emptiness with the other preparations given us by the various methods, for instance, those in my book, The Knowledge of Higher Worlds, etc., and other methods dependent on these — and enter a world born from that which can shake our minds, which can seize upon our conceptions, when we live into that world, when we place ourselves, so to say, in the Saturn-existence, then we learn to know Beings — not in the least similar to those we perceive in the animal, plant or mineral kingdoms but Beings. This is a world where there are no clouds, no light, where it is quite devoid of sound, but we become acquainted with Beings — indeed those Beings called in our terminology Spirits of Will or Thrones. We learn so to know them that it becomes a true objective reality for us — a surging sea of courage.
What at first can only be pictured in thought, becomes through clairvoyance, objective reality. Think of yourself as immersed in this sea — but now immersed as a spiritual being, feeling one with the Christ-Being, carried by the Christ-Being, swimming — though not in a sea of water but in a sea filling infinite space, a sea (there is no other description for it) of flowing courage, flowing energy. This is not simply a uniform and undifferentiated sea, but we meet here with all the possibilities and diversities of what we call a feeling of courage. We become acquainted with beings who, to be sure, consist of courage, but although they consist of courage alone, we meet them as really concrete beings. Naturally it may appear strange to say that we meet beings just as real as man who is made of flesh, and yet they are not of flesh but consist of courage. Yet such is the case. Of such a nature are the Spirits of Will. To begin with, we shall only designate as Saturn-existence what the Spirits of Will, consisting of courage, represent — and nothing else. This, in the first place is “Saturn.” It is a world of which we cannot say that it is spherical, hexagonal or square. None of these definitions of space applies to it, for there is no possibility of any end being discoverable. If we revert to the simile of swimming, we may say it is not a sea in which one would come to any surface, but on all sides and in all directions are to be found Spirits of Courage or Will.”
One must pause at the abyss between the known & the unknown, raising themselves up to direct vision.
“When we have lifted ourselves to this vision, something meets us of which it is extremely difficult to form an idea, except for one who has taken the trouble, slowly and gradually to attain to such conceptions. For something ceases, which is more intimately connected with our ordinary human ideas than anything else: space ceases! It no longer has any meaning to say — we swim “up or “down,” “forward “or “backward,” “right or left,” these have no longer any meaning. In this respect it is everywhere the same. But the important thing is when we reach these first ages of the Saturn-existence time, too, ceases; there is no longer “earlier “or “later.” It is naturally very difficult for man to imagine this to-day, because his ideas themselves flow in time. On Saturn no thought is before or after another. This again can only be described by a feeling that time ceases. This feeling is certainly not pleasant. Imagine that your concepts are benumbed, that everything that you can remember, everything which you undertake is benumbed into a rigid rod, so that you feel yourself held in your conceptions and are no longer able to move, then you will no longer be able to say that what you formerly experienced you experienced “formerly”; you are fastened to it; it is there, but it is benumbed: time ceases to be of significance, it is absolutely no longer there. On this account it is rather foolish for anyone to say: “you describe the Saturn-existence, the Sun existence, etc., now tell us what was before Saturn.” “Before” has no longer any meaning because time ceases to exist; we must also cease all definitions of time. In the old Saturn-existence, speaking very comparatively — the world is really boarded up, inasmuch as thought must stand absolutely still. It is the same with clairvoyance, ordinary thoughts must be left behind, they do not extend so far. By way of a comparison and expressing it in image, we must say that our brain is frozen. And when we realise this condition of rigidity, we shall have a comparative conception of the consciousness no longer enclosed in time.”
In this light, consider the following research:
I would like to highlight the following from the above article:
“The idea that the heart is a pump has dominated medicine for centuries. Yet at the apex of the left ventricle of the heart, the bottom point, the tissue is paper thin, not strong enough to enclose fluid under pressure. With the vortex model for under standing the motion of blood within the heart, one can see how this part of the heart never receives dangerous pressure, which it would, if the heart were indeed a pump. Other researchers have been able to show with cameras that the blood courses rhythmically through the blood vessels of the human embryo, before the heart is even formed. Something else is moving the blood. This is another reason Frank Chester believes that the heart is not a pump.
He has found that the heart is a streaming organ that is itself formed by a reversing, swirling stream. The blood enters the left ventricle in a clockwise spiral. By the time it moves out of the left ventricle, it is spinning in a counterclockwise motion. It reverses direction inside of the left chamber.
This thought is of interest to me because it is my meditative practice to bring my awareness to the space that is my heart. When I align my kinesthetic awareness of my own heart-space with these new images of how my physical heart works, I feel something new.
Chester says there is a moment at the midpoint of the reversing of flow where the blood actually pauses, no motion. I wonder if that moment is the essential meaning of my meditation. What if my heart is a bell, and the still-point is the ringing of that bell?”
Allow the following to ring in your innermost ear:
““If we go back to the edges-only model of the chestahedron and spin it on its axis, the shape that is displayed through that motion is like a bell. Rudolf Steiner reported that the evolving soul, before it becomes living matter as you or as me, is apparent to the inner eye as the shape of a downward opening bell. The bell shape has been used in ancient Egyptian paintings to represent the human soul, coming down to earth from the heavens to incarnate in flesh. These bell shapes, seeds of spirit, are the geometric templates for growing a human heart. - ”
Let us consider this as we consciously walk through the month of January:
“The Heart is a profound micro-field of higher dynamic forces which are linked to human spiritual development. Yes but this discovery has shattered the deadening concept of the heart as a pump. It isn’t, it is an active spinning, kaleidoscope of individual human karma, a vortex of consciousness and an Angelic/Human Time System bridging the Etheric Life worlds, the Holy Grail of the Blood where the I AM of the Christ Being resides, (we’re not done yet) the entire time codes of both the inner and outer starry/astral worlds, a fountain-head for both artistic/poetic and scientific realms of emotion and thought. In other words the Heart the Frank Chester Heart Form is one of the central mysteries of the new human Grail Community.”
May we each come to KNOW this within the innermost chamber of our hearts:
“Balancing is the primary function of the heart. Our inner work improves balance. When we are able to see ‘periphery’ and ‘center’ simultaneously; when we see ‘self’ and ‘other’ with equal equanimity, then we give the heart a loosening quality of balance that allows it to evolve etheric forces.”
Consider this with the eye of your heart:
“All roads meet at the center of the Human Heart and precisely and accurately retrieve and transform intimate data hidden from any external source but gathered up from the heart vortex of the human soul. Forces of the soul, hidden nature mysteries, Karma threads and streams, imprinted forces in the ethers, a refined record and reading library of emotions, thoughts, impressions, higher beings, deeds, imprinted in the sensitive akashic ethers of the eternal records of each human incarnation, meet at the crossroads of the human heart”
Why does this transition from the 4 chambered heart into the 5 chambered heart matter & what might it feel like?
Perhaps you are already intuiting the ANSWER…
“Will this be a pleasant transition? No. Will it happen anyways? Yes. What are some of the symptoms of suddenly or slowly beginning to tap into the very healing and etheric forces, karmic forces, thinking errors, LIFE ISSUES that connect to both Nature and Spirit? Well for one thing, and this is certainly part of the painful change that is in store for us, the painful change that humanity will go through entails that we slowly start to experience the immediate sufferings of any human being in our proximity...We gradually lose the intellectual distance, the sterile icy vacuum we rely on to compartmentalize and isolate others woes and sufferings from our own as if all life were merely a t.v. screen in front of your couch potato eyes.
Already there is a preparation and build up to intercept the etheric and astral forces slowly changing in the foundations of human experience. Sterile materialistic distance from our crimes against our selves, our children and humanity and objective laws of nature and nature herself, let alone the crimes against the Spirit itself, will be medicated and vaccinated to prevent people from experiencing this new alteration of the Heart.”
In the face of great interference, let us stay awake to this task of transitioning the heart from the number 4 to the number 5.
With the above being shared, may the below bring you Faith, Hope & Love to accomplish the tasks at hand:
“‘Jesus sat back against the tree and it seemed to James that even the calm breeze was paused for his answer.
‘To others I speak in parables, but I have chosen you and brought you here because I wish to speak plain with you. The kingdom is a light, a light that shines into the darkness of your souls,’ he said to them.
There was quiet.
‘How is it like a light?’ James did not understand.
‘When a seed falls on prepared ground it creates new life. When you prepare your souls, when the light of heaven enters you, it can grow your heart into an eye, which can see more than the world, it can see the spirit that lives behind the world.’
Judas, the red beard, huffed from his position, ‘On earth we have the sun and we see with our eyes, but now you say we need an eye in the heart?’
‘It was the light of the sun which created your eyes before you could see the world, Judas. And similarly, in your heart an eye must be created from the light of faith before you can see the world of spirit.’
‘Where is this world?’ James asked.
‘It is here, behind these trees, and behind the clouds and the meadows, my brothers,’ Jesus told them.
Andrew looked at Simon. ‘What did he say?’
Simon sighed and scratched at his beard in irritation. ‘The master said that the spirit is everywhere among us, but if we want to see it we have to make our own suns inside our hearts, so that it can illuminate it!’
Andrew frowned. ‘Make our own sun? Right here, as we sit, you say? Right here, we are among heaven?’ He shook his head. ‘I do not know …’
‘Heaven is before you, Andrew!’ the master affirmed. ‘It is only that you can’t see it until the spirit light fashions the eye of your soul.’
‘What must we do to prepare our souls, master?’ asked little John.
‘Think good thoughts, feel for others, and do good deeds. That is how you prepare your souls. Such men can make themselves new again. This is what I mean when I say, you must be born again.’ He looked at them, ‘If you foster calmness and balance, all comfort and well-being on earth shall be your reward. When I am gone, you must teach others to do the same.’
‘But if we were to tell people such things they would laugh at us! A man hungers and thirsts, and these must be satisfied,’ said Thomas, a cross-eyed merchant who had joined them at Capernaum.
‘Thomas, you must say to them, if you purify your souls, you will hunger and thirst only for what is good. Then, this goodness in you shall feel compassion for all men who hunger and thirst, even those who hate you, and revile you.’
‘These are just words!’ Judas dismissed. ‘What you ask for is impossible! How can we feel compassion and mercy in our souls for an enemy that crucifies us and kills our children, our women and our old men? Sinners must burn in hell if God is just.’
‘Judas, my friend, God is just but I have come to tell you about love. A soul full of hate has only hate for a harvest. Those men that you love in this life, though they do not merit your love, will love you in the next life. If you feel compassion and mercy for a man now, you will find it returned to you later … this is preparing the soil of the soul for a harvest of love.’
Simon said, ‘I have seen what lives and plays in the water and the air and the light, I have seen it! Is this then, the spirit world of which you speak, master?’
‘Yes, Simon, but blessed are those that do not see it and yet still believe in it. But when faith becomes vision it will be as though you had stepped out of your body, as if it were nothing more than a garment. The soul will then shine out like a light over the world of spirit, that is what I mean when I say, you must become naked before God … you see? To you I speak plain.’
Cross-eyed Thomas gave a dismal sigh. ‘If we become seers master, then we are done for! Prophets are not only hated by powerful men who fear their judgements and admonitions but the ordinary people also hate them for they don’t always agree with their opinions! Prophets even hate other prophets who do not foretell the same things! Nobody likes them. They are either stoned or run through with a blade, or else they are torn apart by the crowds, or thrown over the edges of cliffs! And afterwards, no man raises statues to them or truly honours them. All in all, master, they do not fare well!’
‘One would think a merchant would be used to being hated!’ said Matthew, the tax collector. ‘Specially a cross-eyed one!’
Thomas took in a breath of indignation. ‘Look who’s throwing stones! A man who is hated even by his own mother!’
The master sighed, and quieted them with a hand. ‘There is no doubting it. You will be persecuted and killed if you have the light in you, as I shall be persecuted and killed. This is because the blind don’t understand light, you see? But when you are persecuted for the sake of your goodness by blind men, rejoice and be glad, for great shall be your reward in lives to come!’
Judas’ eyes were like two sparks in the night. ‘Well … you say these things to us, and you expect us to believe you, and yet we still do not know who you really are, the carpenter from Nazareth or the Son of God … which is it?’
‘Forgive me, Judas, my brother,’ Jesus said to him, ‘but if you had the light in you, you would see me, and know me.’
Judas fell quiet.”
I leave you with this inspired thought:
“This is precisely what we have to attain; we must be able to transform the ideas we receive into imaginations, into pictures. Even if the pictures are clumsily formed, even if they are anthropomorphic, even if the beings appear as winged angels, etc., that does not signify. The rest will be given to us later; and what they ought not to have will fall away. When we yield ourselves to these pictures we penetrate into imaginative perception.”
