We are delighted to be able to introduce James Citron for this month’s Rosicrucian Mass service and sermon. James comes to our congregation with a strong, knowledgeable background in the Western Mystery Tradition. And he is finding his own inimitable path to Gnosis. We congratulate him on his performance, as Acolyte for our mass service on December 17th. Despite all the technical problems we’ve experienced; almost a comedy in how much went wrong for us, James delivered a magnificent sermon.
Please see the sermon video below, and the notes used to deliver the sermon below that.
And please join in our email list: Preparing for Gnosis! https://GCL.gr8.com/
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Sermon Notes
0) Intro –
Saturn in Sagittarius: An Inquiry
Let me start by posing the question: What is a mirror?
Dictionary.com tells us that it’s:
“a reflecting surface, originally of polished metal but now usually of glass with a silvery, metallic, or amalgam backing”
and also
“something that gives a minutely faithful representation, image, or idea of something else”
and furthermore, that it may be
“a glass, crystal, or the like, used by magicians, diviners, etc”
Today, Vedic astrologers – using the SIdereal system of astrology – are telling us that Saturn entered Sagittarius on October 26, 2017, and it will now stay in Sagittarius for 3 years. Additionally, Saturn entered the Mula Nakshatra, also known as the Milky Way’s “Galactic Center”, which is contained within Sagittarius, and Saturn will stay there until March 2, 2018.
And, this important transit is happening in Autumn, which we most often speak of as, “the Fall”. For me, the Fall, is like Nature’s mirror, both physically + metaphorically, as it reveals and bridges the transition from Summer (as the peak of embodied life) to Winter (as Death, the end of embodied life).
Also mirror-like is Samhain, which happened 5 days later, on October 31st. Samhain, the time when the veil is thinnest between our “real” world + the Underworld, when embodied souls most closely mirror disembodied souls.
Along these lines, the qualities of Saturn + Jupiter (the ruling planet of Sagittarius) are thus mirroring each other, now more than ever.
Meanwhile, Saturn has also moved into our Galactic Center.
According to Wikipedia, the Milky Way is a “barred spiral galaxy”, with four vast arms, joining together at the Galactic Center, mathematically determined as the star Sagittarius A*, which is both an “astronomical radio source”, and is thought be the location of a “supermassive black hole”.
In Vedic astrology, the Galactic Center is the Mula Nakshatra, which is the 19th Lunar Mansion, a cluster of stars in the tail/stinger of Scorpio, akin to our own Muladhara Chakra, the root chakra, located in the perineal region, near +/or at the base of the spine.
Energetically speaking, the Muladhara Chakra is the foundation of our embodied existence, and thus a primordial mirror of everything going on in our lives.
Additionally, Vedic astrologers tell us that “…Mula (Nakshatra) is said to hold the secret of the origin of life, as well as its eventual destruction and transformation”, and that “…this realm is ruled by Kali, who manifests as Nirriti, goddess of dissolution + chaos”
All of the above suggests that Saturn in Sagittarius portends a major astrological influence at both the global + personal levels.
And, as members of the Gnostic Church of LVX, Saturn in Sagittarius suggests a way to parse these important topics:
1) The Osiris Myth
2) The Sethian Gnosis
3) The Demiurge, Yaldabaoth
In so doing, we will examine Tarot Keys 13, 14, 15, 17, and 21, and their places on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life.
1) The Osiris Myth
The Osiris Myth is one of the most famous and important myths of the ancient Egyptians. According to Wikipedia, the myth “reached its basic form in or before the 24th century BCE”.
The story, which you’ve probably heard, goes like this:
At the beginning of the story Osiris is the primeval ruler of Egypt, his lineage originating with Ra or Atum, the original world creator. His father is Geb the Earth god + his mother is Nut (a.k.a. Nuit) the Sky Goddess. Osiris’ siblings are Isis, Set, and Nepthys. Osiris is considered a righteous, beloved, and successful king by his people, the ancient Egyptians.
Osiris’ brother Set eventually becomes angry at him, for various reasons, and so Set kills Osiris, either by drowning him (in the earlier version), or by cutting him into pieces (in the later version)
Isis and Nephthys search for Osiris, gathering up his parts, and then restore his body, usually with the help of Thoth and Anubis.
After Osiris’ resurrection, be becomes Lord of the Underworld, and then he impregnates Isis, who gives birth to Horus.
We may choose to consider this story as a reenactment of Saturn in Sagittarius.
So, who is Saturn in this way of understanding the story? Clearly it is both Set, as the Devil/Killer, and Osiris, as Ruler of the Underworld.
For the Romans, Saturn as both planet and god represented generation, dissolution, plenty, wealth, agriculture, the four seasons, liberation, and eventually, Time itself. The Romans took these characteristics from the earlier Greek gods of Cronus and Chronos. Cronus was the son of Uranus (the Sky god) and Gaia (the Earth goddess). Cronus kills Uranus, thus overthrowing his father’s rulership, by castrating him with a sickle, and thereby becoming ruler of the Gods (until later overthrown by his own son, Zeus). Meanwhile, Chronos, the deity/personification of Time itself, was often represented as a wise and benign old man.
And then, if we consider Osiris’ reign – of many years, peaceful + successful, widely revered + honored by the ancient Egyptians – as a constellation, like Sagittarius, but of people, places, and events, reflecting a divine order and balance supportive of both self-actualization and empire building – then his murder by Set was surely the intrusion of Saturn into Sagittarius.
Thus, as Hermetic paths on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, perhaps Osiris is Key 14, Art/Temperance, Sagittarius. As “King of the Living”, one of his titles, his rulership starts out in the physical realm, in Egypt, an empire of Sun worship. Then Set, as Key 15, the Devil, Capricorn, kills Osiris, who thus journeys to the Underworld, a lunar domain. There, he is resurrected by Isis, as Key 17, the Star, who is acting both from a Jupiterian impulse and her Venusian aspect, as creatrix of Nature + life. Osiris then becomes Ruler of the Underworld.
Meanwhile, for the common man and woman, this story and its characters are one allegory (of many) describing the Hero’s Journey, the process of self-actualization which is at the core of our existence. The Osiris Myth tells us that we must be prepared to die – emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and sometimes even physically – a number of times in this life in order to achieve our dharma. dreams, goals, heart’s desires (+ in his case, to become Lord of the Underworld) . This death comes in many forms: typically when we feel that we’ve failed at something, this failure, or defeat, is a kind of death. This defeat may be dropping out of school, or losing a contest, or failing at business, going bankrupt, or becoming addicted to anything, and then recovering. Like Osiris, our rebirth comes when – having hit an emotional bottom, we then see the light, and we integrate our defeats, using them as fuel and inspiration to recover, and then start a new chapter of our life, with a newer better idea, or business, or relationship, or spiritual path or artistic project, etc. And so we must also be grateful to Set, the Adversary, for pushing us to our limits, killing us, as it were, breaking us down, only so that we can become better, faster, stronger, smarter, more creative, more aware. And thanks also to Isis, who represents our healing process, and the divine, underlying “primal will to good, which eternally creates and sustains the universe”.
2) The Sethian Gnosis
About the Sethian Gnosis, Wikipedia tells us: “The Sethians were one of the main currents of Gnosticism during the 2nd and 3rd century CE…Sethianism attributed its gnosis to Seth, third son of Adam and Eve, and Norea, wife of Noah…The Sethian cosmogonic myth gives a prologue to Genesis, and the rest of the Pentateuch, presenting a radical reinterpretation of the orthodox Jewish conception of creation, and the divine’s relation to reality.”
Is it possible, or even likely, that the story of Seth, Adam, and Eve is a reinterpretation of the Osiris myth?
Story #1: Osiris and Set were born of Geb and Nut, then Set killed Osiris, who was resurrected by Isis, which resulted in the birth of Horus.
Story #2: Cain and Abel were born of Adam and Eve, then Cain killed Abel, and then Eve gave birth to Seth.
Gary Greenberg, a noted scholar, has an essay online which starts out: “This paper examines some of the verses and images associated with the story of Adam and Eve and compares them with elements in the Heliopolitan Creation myths. It will be suggested that Adam and Eve correspond in part to Geb and Nut and in part to Osiris and Isis. Additionally, it will be suggested that the three male sons of Adam and Eve—Cain, Abel and Seth—correspond to the three male sons of Geb and Nut—Osiris, Seth, and Horus.”
A primary Sethian text is “The Apocalypse of Adam”, which describes the “Fall” of Adam and Eve, and the subsequent birth of Seth; and then foretells of Noah, and the Flood, and their divine significance.
Like the Osiris Myth, this narrative also plays out on the same Paths of the Tree of LIfe, with a few notable additions.
First, we are told that this text is: “The revelation which Adam taught his son Seth in the seven hundreth year.”
This suggests the connection of Seth (as Egyptian deity) with Seth (the Hebrew son of Adam) through the number 700, which in gematria, is the value of Shin + Tav, the two letters of Seth’s name. 700 is also the value of final Nun, which, along with regular Nun (with a value of 50) is Key 13, Death. As shown previously, Seth the Egyptian, represents Death in the Myth of Osiris, and Osiris also comes to represent Death, after his murder and subsequent resurrection as Ruler of the Underworld.
The text’s second paragraph concerns the origins of Adam and Eve, and their “Fall” into the physical realm. This narrative parallels the story of Saturn in Sagittarius:
“Listen to my words, my son Seth. When God had created me out of the earth, along with Eve, your mother, I went about with her in a glory which she had seen in the aeon from which we had come forth. She taught me a word of knowledge of the eternal God. And we resembled the great eternal angels, for we were higher than the god who had created us and the powers with him, whom we did not know.”
Adam and Eve, in their original and undivided supernal state, in their relationship with the eternal God, and in being superior to the Demiurge, the creator God, are symbols of divine equilibrium and creative possibility, just like Key 14, Art/Temperance/Sagittarius.
The text continues:
“Then God, the ruler of the aeons and the powers, divided us in wrath. Then we became two aeons. And the glory in our heart(s) left us, me and your mother Eve, along with the first knowledge that breathed within us. And it (glory) fled from us; it entered into [“the great something”] which had come forth, not from this aeon from which we had come forth, I and Eve your mother. But it (knowledge) entered into the seed of great aeons.”
Here we have Saturn’s entry into Sagittarius, symbolized by Yahweh’s wrath, this emotional condition which resulted in his separation of Adam + Eve – as a conjoined hermaphroditic entity, of Love + Light, Consciousness + Creation, Shiva + Shakti – and their transformation, or “Fall” into the physical realm, and the subsequent birth of Seth.
This is metaphorically described by Key 21, Tav, The Universe (or World).
The second paragraph then ends with:
“For this reason I myself have called you by the name of that man who is the seed of the great generation or from whom (it comes). After those days, the eternal knowledge of the God of truth withdrew from me and your mother Eve. Since that time, we learned about dead things, like men. Then we recognized the God who had created us. For we were not strangers to his powers. And we served him in fear and slavery. And after these things, we became darkened in our heart(s). Now I slept in the thought of my heart.”
This seems to suggest that the Hebrew Seth, may well have descended from – or even have been – the Egyptian Set. And another aspect of Key 21 – the creator God, the Demiurge, as the source of Adam + Eve’s newly physical bodies – is further revealed. Although he is not named here, the other Gnostic writings tell us he is called “Yaldabaoth”.
Meanwhile, for the common man and woman, the story of Adam, Eve, and Seth, as told by the Gnostics, is an allegory of our birth into the physical world. Like Adam and Eve, our time in the womb represents direct contact with the eternal God, while our expulsion from the womb represents the Fall, our disconnection from the divine source of all, and our connection with a newer, lesser creator god, born of time, and karma, Yaldabaoth, the Demiurge. And Seth (along with his brothers) represents the earliest embodiment of divinity in the form of humans, and the grand irony of Seth’s troubled origins is that without it, humanity might never have been saved, in the absence of Noah, Seth’s lineal descendant. Thus, we must be also be grateful to Cain for instigating the circumstances which would preserve the human race.
And so, like Osiris, the Hero’s Journey is also undertaken by Adam, Eve, and Seth
3) The Demiurge, Yaldabaoth
Lastly, we come to Yaldabaoth. In a way, Yaldabaoth is the logical result of our thesis, that Saturn in Sagittarius is a profoundly mirroring event. Yaldabaoth incorporates all aspects of Saturn, and the ruling functionality of Jupiter, within himself. Thus, he is a constellation of creative energies, like Sagittarius, but much less equilibrated!
As the 7th Archon, Yaldabaoth dwelt in and manifested via Saturn, the 7th, and outermost of the planets. And thus, as leader of the Archons, the Grnostic creators of the universe, his orbit contained the energies of the 6 others.
As Saturn, Yaldabaoth embodies the combined qualities of Cronus and Chronos, and thus also those of Set and Osiris.
As Jupiter, Yaldabaoth was leader of the Archons, a Gnostic “King of the Gods”.
Yaldabaoth is also known as “Samael”, the “blind god”, who some believe is the same God talked about, and speaking in, the Old and New Testaments.
Thus, Yaldabaoth is also the god of Chaos.
And so, for the common man and woman, Yaldabaoth is the personfication, and largely the originator, of all the trials, tribulations and contradictions we experience while being embodied on planet Earth.
4) Conclusion
On the Hermetic Tree of LIfe, all the paths of Saturn are directly connected with all of the paths of Jupiter.
Thus, Saturn in Sagittarius is a mirror for all of us, because it is both “something that gives a minutely faithful representation, image, or idea of something else” to us, and it is “a glass, crystal, or the like, used by magicians, diviners, etc”, which includes us, as members of the Gnostic Church of LVX.
In considering the stories of Osiris, Set, Isis, Adam, Eve, Seth, and Yaldabaoth, we are looking into the mirror of Saturn to understand more of our connection to the divine as symbolized by Jupiter and Sagittarius.
And so – mirroring the chaos of our world, as possibly created by the Demiurge, Yaldabaoth – here are just a few, of the no doubt many, political + social events occurring in conjunction with Saturn’s sidereal entry into Sagittarius:
1) Robert Mueller serving the first indictments in the Trump investigation on October 26th;
2) The release of the JFK papers, on October 26th, but in a heavily redacted form, and not in their entirety, as “promised” (but hey, what else did you expect from our ruling shadow government?…);
3) All of the sexual scandals in today’s headlines – Weinstein, Moore, Franken, Trump, and many others – which started appearing around, or shortly after, October 26th.
And for me, right around October 26th, and for a week or so after, a few of the many events I experienced, + attribute to Saturn in Sagittarius, include: extended flirtations with an attractive woman who promised we’d get together, but it never happened; another attractive woman who stole $5000 at my job while I watched, thinking everything was ok; yet another attractive woman made a concerted effort to entice me into a potentially lucrative investment scheme, very reminiscent of an earlier phase of my life.
All of these incidents were mirrors for me, to reflect on how I’ve changed over the years, and illuminating what parts of my personality, and unresolved emotional issues were involved,
and what steps I might take to heal myself further of childhood emotional wounds.
In conclusion, I leave you with a quote from Kari Field, the Vedic astrologer whose blog post inspired my talk today:
“Saturn’s journey into the fire of Sagittarius may feel difficult at times, but keep in mind that its ultimate goal is to liberate us from illusion. Humanity is on the brink of shifting to a higher level of consciousness—but in order to arrive there, we have to walk through the collective fire.”
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