Contents Introduction 1. Plato and Ancient Initiation 2. Plotinus: The Neoplatonic Path 3. Augustine: Unexpected Illumination 4. Gregory: Enlightened Soul in an Active World 5. John Scotus Eriugena’s God Who is Not 6. Bernard of Clairvaux: The Way of Love 7. Chariot, Throne, and Kabbalah 8. Meister Eckhart: The Wayless Way 9. John of the Cross: Dark Nights of Suffering 10. Developed Kabbalah: The Cosmic Tree 11. Carl Jung: Enlightenment “Science” Introduction Over the centuries seekers of truth have developed complex and seemingly very different pathways toward knowledge of God in which the underlying principle is the same for all systems. It is the idea of return to the Creator, the source of all existence, which transcends time and space. The many traditional methods of seeking the divine nothingness, all of which require the sacrifice of self, are like spokes of a wheel leading to the same center. And one may accept as reliable the assertion of Meister Eckhart that “theologians may quarrel, but the mystics of the world speak the same language.” The subjects of this study have been carefully selected. Each is considered to offer the most profound and instructive example of a specific means of approach to divine union. Diverse systems are compared, such as the Greek world’s common use of drugs and meditation to achieve ecstasy, Saint Bernard’s emphasis on the power of love, the self- mutilation of Saint John of the Cross, Abulafia’s brilliantly-complex mantra of Hebrew letters based on the 72 names of God, as well as Carl Jung’s encounter with God as the unconscious. Enlightenment, often called “The Great Work” involves Exitus and Reditus—the going forth of the soul born into the material condition and return to the divine nothingness. The process is explained by many Christian theologians as an individual redemption for the “Fall” of mankind brought by the sin of Adam and Eve. Others reject the idea of “original sin” for which everyone must suffer, and argue that return to the Creator—after being perfected through many incarnations—is the divine heritage intended by the Father for his children. In this regard, Saint Paul’s simple and poetic explanation of emerging self- consciousness is well-known. He says “When I was a child I spoke like child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. (I Corinthians 13:12). On this road to spiritual maturity belief systems may provide a useful structure, but teachers of mysticism assert that as inner consciousness develops, the restrictions of religions are transcended. The understanding gained through devotion, isolation, pain, suffering, and the inevitable frightening spatial confusion, begins to dissolve the seeker’s ego. The “I,” which masks the true spiritual self, is put aside and the human collective gains. Those who succeed in passing through extraordinary transformational stages, and who achieve a level of consciousness beyond human thought, are often explained by religious futurists to be an advanced guard of a perfect world that is to come. They are among the first to experience a natural course of human evolution. And, if this is indeed the case, one does not need to actively seek God because divine union will eventually happen to everyone. This assertion that human consciousness will expand, and that there is a perfect messianic world to come is especially prominent in Jewish Kabbalah. In his brilliant but 1 little-known Olam-Ha-Ba (World to Come) Abulafia relates future perfection to principles of symbolic death, resurrection and to reincarnation. He states that, through his system, divine union can be developed within a person’s lifetime. And Rabbi Abulafia called his methods “science,” guaranteeing his followers that they will quickly achieve the desired effect using his supervised methods. More commonly, inner development is considered to be slow and cumulative, but Abulafia’s teaching is not the only exception.. A few, including the Sufis, who seek immediate results, assert that their methods expeditiously lead to higher levels of consciousness. Similarly, Saint John of the Cross states that he can help beginners “to reach divine union quickly.” And, of course, an immediate effect on consciousness happens with psychedelic drugs such as Ergot (actually LSD) which is assumed by current scholarship to have been used at the yearly initiations in honor of Demeter and Persephone into the mysteries of Eleusis near Athens. However, not all pursue the divine light. Some seek darkness. Enlightenment is not necessarily a simple progression of individuals following a course of sanctity and goodness for whom Saint Peter swings open the heavenly gates. In fact, many ancient documents (especially Greek and Egyptian) attest that evil seekers of power may achieve low levels of cosmic consciousness and gain some control over a physical world which exists only within the restrictions of human consciousness. There is a great deal to be said for ancient Dualism, which postulates a creation in which the light and the dark forces are eternally at war, with humanity being drawn to both. But the men and women in this book are revered by tradition as having passed beyond all opposites and to having produced miracles in the physical world while moving effortlessly through multidimensional doorways known to very few. The resolution of inner opposites is a practical key to ancient thought, especially that of Plato and Plotinus, who established a baseline of the Western mystery tradition upon which the earliest Christians built their doctrines in a hostile Roman world. Indeed, the first few Christian centuries were intellectual war zones in which every other statement of religious principle begins with the word contra, against. Fathers of the Church, were on a holy mission as they accused both pagans and disliked fellow Christians, of heresy and righteously crafted a catechism which reconciled many diverse ideas. Intertwined ancient influences shaping the birth of the Church led, as it did in evolving Judaism, to a mysticism of multiple threads. There is the mystical Neoplatonism of Plotinus as reflected in Augustine, or the Scholasticism of Thomas Aquinas—who taught that the way to God was through Aristotelian reasoning. Moreover, Christians may follow Meister Eckhart’s “Wayless Way” which has much in common with Eriugena’s teaching about an emptiness similar to Buddhist meditation. But not all systems of inner exploration are based on traditional philosophy or religion. Of the more interesting of the practices seeking enlightenment is Alchemy. This was a special study for Carl Jung who saw this process as a philosophical one in which spiritual “gold” was created within the Alchemist himself. Of course, everything about Alchemy is confusing. Isolated experimenters created obscure manuscripts which were 2 atonce records of their own experiences and an attempt to keep secret their work from those who might want to steal their gold. And, not surprisingly, those very few scholars of obscure alchemical Latin, report that the documents often suggest practices which are self- contradictory but still claiming success in their operations.. However it is approached, the study of divine union is obscure ground and there is certainly no easy formula to attain inner knowledge. Nor can mystics use words to explain experiences which transcend human thought and feeling, but must rely upon symbols to suggest hidden forces that are constantly interacting within and without the created universe. The attempt to explain mystical experience to others allows for only the most simple of symbolic pictures and words. some of which have become traditional axioms. A good example is found in the well-known alchemical Emerald Tablet. The candidate is instructed that: “You must separate the subtle from the gross, gently and with great care,” suggesting that at the required level of subtlety, straying from the emptiness of a contemplative path, whether because of mind-wandering, ego intrusion, or even self- deception, is a risk. Moreover, all mystics warn their students of real psychological dangers, especially for the person with an unbalanced personality who believes that knowledge is power. The idea of angels at the gates denying passage may be metaphorical, but Saint John of the Cross teaches that seekers of God suffer many Dark Nights of testing in which only faith protects them. Much the same may be said of the Jewish mystical traditions, which are the most complex and in which, even today, extreme secrecy is maintained by Kabbalist rabbis. It is taught that God created the world through the Hebrew letters, which are not a mere alphabet, but are living energies—aspects of Himself which through their activities brought about creation. And it is asserted that Moses provided, to the most devout rabbis, a secret interpretation of Genesis by which they could unlock the secrets upon which the all creation is based. One important effort of this present work is to acknowledge the historically significant interaction between Christian and Jewish mysticism over the centuries, an example of which is Gnosticism—considered by most to be a Christian school, but which was primarily a Jewish movement. Another striking example of cross-cultural influence is seen in, The Zohar, a revered document of Hebrew symbolic thought written by Moses de Leon in the 13th century. The city of Leon Spain was on a Christian pilgrimage route and was the center of a cult of the Virgin by which the writer was clearly influenced. He wrote that the Shekinah, a female image who is a manifestation of God’s presence, rises daily into the heavens to feed the angels, A similar story is told in The Golden Legend, a book popular at the time, which describes Mary Magdalene as having been carried by angels into the sky each day.