Oahspe Study and Faithism

Four Foods of Man Part 7

Bon's Search for the Ideal Form
Depends upon Man's Soul Growth

How far the door would open in Bon toward an Ideal Form for man's social order greatly depended upon, indeed, hinged upon, man's capacity in Soul growth. Building an Ideal Form requires development in Soul, for the Soul is at the Foundation of Life, and all durable buildings require a sufficient foundation. Said another way, even as the Mind is necessary to perceive the ideal plans, so the Soul is necessary to ground those ideals in a sustainable reality. In part 6 we saw the process of opening man's Mind for desiring and understanding soul growth. Now in this section man's preparation for Soul development in Bon is exampled. Man's inward turn in Bon allowed for the Soul to become the true anchorage for an Ideal Form.

Accommodating Soul Development

Consciously striving for soul development requires the Inner Temple of Jehovih. Specifically, the Inner Temple of Jehovih is structured around man's individual (and later collective) Soul development. It offers a step-by-step approach to experiencing and understanding soul matters. Thus it was that man's inward turn in Bon (as sketched forth in part 6) was being prepared by the Faithists of Jehovih (including many Me-de-ans) so that in the Kosmon cycle, the bulk of humanity will come to perceive the need for a "school for the soul", and to adopt and adhere to its wisdom.

As for the Faithists, the Rites and Ceremonies Section of Oahspe's Book of Saphah indicates some Inner Temple Teachings, such as the Tablet of Ancient Egypt (i046) given initially for the Faithist followers of Abraham, and the Hy'yi Tablet (i047) given initially for the Faithist followers of Moses. The Tablets themselves signify certain soul realities. For those who are sufficiently awakened to soul realities, the Tablets are as a portal to perceiving the actual soul reality being signified by the emblems (or at least such of it as man can understand at the time). The ceremonies accompanying these Tablets touch upon the lessons (or shall we say application of the fruits, i.e., certain soul realities) of the Inner Temple. The given ceremonies themselves set forth a specific application of those inner realities toward the work / path laid out by Jehovih through His God's kingdom for the purpose of raising humanity toward the needs of that particular dan'ha cycle.

This does not mean that the Tablets or the Ceremonies accompanying them are impotent for today, rather that man was ready at a particular time of development to receive them in the form they were given. More than that, man was ready to understand soul realities from a certain immature perspective, for which reason the Tablets in time can become more comprehensive. For instance, other soul realities (emblems) are sometimes revealed. In any event, the meanings that were provided for each symbol, can grow considerably in comprehensiveness. Or more precisely, man matures sufficiently to understand more of the soul realm and the particular emblem reveals through its portal a greater scope of application.

For example the word Sa at the time Se'moin was given to man was understood by man to simply represent evil. But by the time of Kosmon, man was able to understand far more comprehensive and subtle meanings of the same soul reality. The difference comes from what man expresses and subsequently experiences the fruit of those expressions. Because the evil comes from man reacting to the soul reality. So for corporeal man, what was at the core of things (which is one of the meanings of Sa) is that man had the beast within himself. In other words, from being acutely attuned to his animal nature and the beastly expressions of it (which he also saw in the behavior especially of the carnivore beasts), so man came to perceive that at the core of man's world was evil.

Accordingly, whenever the cycle for SA came upon man, man would learn to recognize that period as being a period of evil. In the course of time man was taught to abstract. From that time forward, whenever evil showed, man would learn to call it Sa. Further, man learned that although there might be times of good, but there were also times of Sa, although in early man, none other than the I'hins were capable of discerning those times beforehand and therefore prophesying. For the most part, though, the I'hins relied upon the Lord to tell them when a time of evil was coming.

In Kosmon man will come to understand that Sa actually means much more than what is at the core of the Social Order. For more than that, Sa actually represents the Fullness of the Ideal of Man's Social Order. So for the beast-man (man who is oriented toward the beast), his social order tries to manifest his beastly ideals, and therefore man will sense the evil somewhere within the social order. The es-man will also try to manifest his higher ideals, and according to his approximation to Jehovih's kingdom, so will that social order manifest in degrees of JOY at its core. Prior to Kosmon, man could not sufficiently differentiate / identify / analyze the elements of his social order to understand; that is, he could not judge as those high-raised-in-grade would as to grade and intent, system and order.

Accordingly, the ceremonies, though touching upon the tablets, do not actually do more than touch upon an aspect or application of the particular soul realities signified by the symbols. This is to say that the symbols themselves have meanings in the soul realm that are much more comprehensive, even as exampled with Sa. This is one reason that the soul realities depicted by most of the many tablets in Saphah's Rites and Ceremonies Section, and even in the Ancient Languages Section of Oahspe's Saphah, still hold potency to this day.

It bears emphasizing, that the Soul Realities in the Soul Realm are not *ephemeral* as man understands this term, but man's understanding of those realities does change over time to increasing comprehensiveness / completeness of those realities. Or conversely, although the soul realities themselves have not changed, man might lose their deeper / more comprehensive meanings if he slips into darkness. (In that regard, recall that a dan'ha cycle consists of at least one lengthy dark period, called Hyarti or Hyartien Period typically in the second half toward the end of the dan'ha (see e.g., 38/7.7 and 21/16.7 including footnote 659.)

Because of its limited size, Oahspe's Saphah (indeed, its whole history section for that matter) does not, indeed could not, give man an in-depth soul explanation. Yet Oahspe does give sufficient to indicate to man these soul realities and to introduce their nature.

In Kosmon, man shall recover the fuller meanings of these soul realities. But in Bon, man was only beginning to awaken to the idea that his soul had a life beyond that of the corporeal realm. True, he had been told such things via past teachings of the Faithists and also through the religions of the Beast, but to the bulk of humanity these realities had seemed ephemeral, wispy, and of little power --- so why bother to learn of them, he thought. If it were true that his spirit lived on after death, well, so be it, but for the most part it did not concern mortal man. Neither formed he his life around that concept, except maybe out of coercion by or fear of the alpha Beast/s including those of the lower heavens. So yes, man repeated as a parrot might, that the soul might live on after death. But he had little conception of what that really meant. Until Bon.

In the cycle of Bon man began to understand that his soul was real. Heaven might be far off to him, but his soul was real enough (at least to his limited understanding of what Soul actually was). Accordingly, in Bon, as man set forth to build a Perfected Form, his understanding was that this Form required that his soul be satisfied at least to the extent that it would not be a hindrance to him in his quest for the Perfected Form. In other words, for the bulk of humanity in Bon, the soul was all too often conceived as a sort of hindrance which had to be assuaged.

Trying to mollify the soul was hard work, though, and man sought diversion or escape from its deep yearnings. He would do this a lot through alcohol, for instance, or by hearkening to one of the Four Heads of the Beast, since their promoters often promised easy release. This was a learned behavior hearkening back to the start of the sixth era of man (02/1.13). And that behavior in turn taught man to ignore the soul or to call its promptings evil. Yet despite opposition from the Beast, man persisted (with the assistance of Jehovih's God and His workers) in adhering to the light in his soul.

As to the inner temple it, too, not only survived but developed, particularly among the Me-de-ans. (For the most part in these writings, Me-de-ans refers to those of whichever cycle of Spe-ta, Bon, or Kosmon, who uphold the notion of the Golden Mean / the Middle Path / the Midway-up-the-Mountain.) The Anubi rites and ceremonies for the Me-de-ans of early Spe-ta, became as an attractant to the bulk of humanity so that later in Spe-ta by decrees of the kings, secrets (generally of a corporeal nature) were forced to be revealed.

Even so, the idea of initiation spread instead of dying out through attrition --- after all, if the secrets were revealed why take the bother to become initiated into a secret society? One compelling reason was that the Heads of the Beast perceived the potency of rites and ceremonies among mortals---but so did the Me-de-ans, many of whom continued with rites and ceremonies. Of course during the Hyartien Period within any dan'ha cycle much of the higher light and teachings are always lost. Especially due to the great darkness through most of Spe-ta, these rituals had degraded considerably by the time of Bon. Especially toward the end of Spe-ta, as the dark ethe'ic fluid and the overabundance of dark spirits obscured the light of heaven, the higher perceptions of soul reality became increasingly difficult to perceive.

With the start of Bon, Moses through whom the Tree of Light within the soul relit, was the great Faithist leaderforth for the region of Ham and its surroundings. He reestablished both the Emethachavah to its purity and the Inner Temple rites and ceremonies in great light. The followers of Moses and afterward of the Prophets, were the Oralites (pure Faithists). Among the most prominent Me-de-ans of early Bon were the Jews, who were descended from the offspring of the apostate Faithists who had married heathens as well as hangers-on. Mixed amidst the Jews were worshippers of the Great Spirit Jehovih the I AM, who worshipped Him under the name of Lord and God. All of the foregoing intermarried and their offspring became the Me-de-ans but who went under the name of Jews. The Jews were not the only Me-de-ans from that time period of early Bon, but here we briefly trace their soul development toward the Inner Temple, since they were representative of the upward aspiring Me-de-ans.

Finding the Inner Temple

Progress toward building the Inner Temple in Bon among the Me-de-ans is testified by the fall of the first outer Jewish Temple (aka Solomon's Temple) in 587 bce. At that time, the Jews, as they called themselves, were taken into Babylonian Captivity, as it became known. Without an outer temple there to worship in, they were forced by necessity to worship from within their souls.

From this inner temple the Jews vowed that never again would they let the beast destroy their worship! This resolve, however, became an obstacle for Looeamong, the self-God who was also one of the self-proclaimed Triune Confederacy.  He had held such high hopes for using the Jews before he abandoned them after ousting Baal and setting up a new Testament for man, namely Christianity. By conflating that so-called new testament to the Ezra Bible and vice versa (both of which came together under Looeamong's inspiration and over-seership), he kept both books in his own (Christian) Bible. But while he thus outwardly left open the door for the Jews to convert, he simultaneously did nothing to stop their persecution by the Christians.

Prior to that though, although many of the Jews worshipped the Great Spirit but often substituted other names, so Looeamong had seen how he could use both the Jews and their precedent (willingness to substitute) to advantage for himself. First, Looeamong attempted to gain the favor of the Jews by calling himself Lord God and God, and second, he caused the Ezra Bible to be formed (35/K.48 --Saphah's Basis of the Ezra Bible). That endeared the Jews to him as did that which cemented that trust, which was caused by an increase in soul light (which of course Looeamong took credit for). That increase came about not only because of the inward turn by the Jews, but because of the coming forth of their Bible.

Besides having their supposed* history in hand (*much of the history was gathered from the records of their enemies ), why was the Ezra Bible so important? First, Bon was the cycle of records. Thus, the coming forth of the Ezra Bible seemed to fit the tenor of Bon, which to them would seem to be a sign of approval from God. Second, that to which man was directly headed was Kosmon, whose sign is a book; and because of that the Jews would feel that the receiving of their Bible was in tune with their destiny. Thus, that act of causing records to be gathered up and formed into a book was consonant with the anchored crystallized light of Bon to which the Jews would increasingly pay attention. This made the Jews feel inwardly secure that they were moving-toward / drifting-toward the correct future.

With their history now in hand, the Jews grew in Trust and Faith.

The Increase of Inner Light

Looeamong in his soul reveled at what he could do with the Jewish people because of their deep faith that they were on the correct road. After all, those whom the Jews considered their ancestors had first looked to Abraham, who had led his people in the wilderness but they fell later into slavery and captivity in Egypt only to be delivered out of Egypt by Moses under the inspiration of the I AM, Whom they later learned had the name Jehova (see e.g., 35/D.9). Moreover, the Jews also had prophecies predicting that another anointed of God would arise to once again restore them to their glory. That anointed one would have been Joshu of the Essenes. But by Joshu's time, Looeamong had, in the preceding 150 years, succeeded in moving most of the Jews sufficiently toward himself, so that they rejected Joshu. For these Jews, their conceit rested in faith that their own salvation was assured under the God of their Bible, although unbeknownst to them, their fate was actually very much under the heavy influence of Looeamong who had assumed to be God. So that when their faith had faltered under Baal, they shifted their faith to the Lord and God (Looeamong) who had freed them from Babylonian captivity and through the scribe Ezra had brought forth their Bible. For which reason, through some 150 years of steering their practices in their faith, Looeamong was able to deceive them into rejecting Joshu.

In summary, with the increase in inner light (i.e., soul light) that came from turning inward along with the seeming confirmation that came from having their collective history restored via their new Bible, the Jews of that time felt confident that they had the blessings of God, signifying they were on the correct path. Joshu, had rejected the worldliness of that path, but Looeamong was all about encouraging this worldliness. And even though the curves and valleys of that path were unknown to the Jews, they had, they believed, their anchorage of light to look back to (Abraham, Moses, their Bible, prophets, etc.), so as to reinvigorate them and remind them of the path they were on. Hence, they could and would feel secure even as their path seemed to "drift" without purpose other than to be continually ready to be tested so as to prove their worthiness before God. Thus they would be led by God, they believed, into the future, destined for some kind of, mostly undefined, restoration of their previous glory. For which reason, Looeamong knew he could and would take advantage of that faith.

For those who might doubt the deep and vast influence of any of the Heads of the Beast, consider for instance, Ennochissa, the Head of the Beast in the China region. He attempted to counter the Faithist teachings of Ka'yu, who taught that the Creator was a Person. Instead of acknowledging the All Person, Ennochissa taught a notion / philosophy that seemed to require no Person of the Whole. So that under his influence, this "religion" did not acknowledge a Person of the Whole. That teaching was called the Tao or Dao, signifying the-Way-of-the-Creation, run by the interaction of Yin and Yang (Expansion and Contraction), or as we who have read Oahspe might say, m'vortexya and vortexya.

More, this would as well cause people to look inward into things (including into oneself) to determine their yin and yang. This inward turn was in all the four major Religions of the Beast; for instance, the Christian would look inward to judge himself whether or not he was in the hands of the devil or Christ (he would also attempt to look within others to also judge them). Likewise as well, all Four looked into things in the outer realm, thus bringing forth into fruition natural philosophy and the corporeal sciences.

Moreover, just like Looeamong's putting away of the All Person, so all four of the Beast's religious philosophy essentially glorified the individual, and tended to keep people psychologically apart, which kept them from unifying. But Ennochissa was only partly successful with this strategy since he could not eradicate from the soul of the Chinese people, the teachings of Ka'yu and the previous teachings of Chine.

Let us take a closer look at Looeamong, as another example of the great influence of the beast in the social order of man. Consider the ceremony originating with the Faithists: the Ho'ed Ceremony (35/R.1-11) which included the Tree of Light Tablet (i047 Tablet of Hy'yi).

This became part of the Jewish heritage. During the generations as this heritage (now known to many as the Kabala) was passed along, the Tree's Crown remained, called Kether. This actually referred / refers to literally a crown of ether, but essentially means a Shem-lit crown (recall that Shem light is a crystalline light). Yet situated outside the Tree overlooking it, not shown in Hy'yi, was the Eye of the I AM (Jehovih). This eventually came to be known as the A'yin Soph (which originally meant Eye of Wisdom) from A'yin = eye (see 35/I.5.3 --Divan Seal) and Soph, which today we know as an ancient Greek word which meant Wisdom (as in Philosophy = Love of Wisdom). But under Looeamong, A'yin Soph became disassociated from the Eye (which implies Person) and became instead known as the Void, the All  Nothingness, The Infinite (see, e.g., 28/47.16-22). To this day the Kabala of the Jews still retains the Kether and the name Ein Sof, but they still interpret Ein Sof to mean Infinity or Infinite Mystery or the Undefined, all signifying in Kosmon times as the Unknown-but-in-part-Knowable; the Uncreated. Since this latter might imply a Creator, this is seen as a step closer to, a return to, Jehovih the I AM.

But this writing is not about the Four Heads of the Beast nor of the Jews, per se, but as an example of how man in general would move through Bon by looking in and back to their anchorage of light. And that was made possible because the real anchorage of that light was the Tree of Light illumed within the soul of man, and fed from the Crystalline Light. Thus, while the Faithists of Bon with their Hamitic roots looked back to Moses, and afterwards back to Joshu as well, so in Vind'yu (India) the Faithists looked back to Capilya and afterward Sakaya as well, so too in Chine'ya (China) the Faithists looked back to Chine and afterward to Ka'yu (Confucius). Besides those there were the Me-de-an Faithists around the world, and for the most part these held fast to their freedom and independence through the practice of goodness and for the most part the guarding of their souls.

The Power of Crystalline Light

Those of the Beast were not slow, however, in trying to put themselves in the alpha seat and to keep themselves there. Accordingly, the question arises: How could the Tree of Light survive the Four Heads of the Beast and their organizations? One of the properties of crystalline light is that it is indestructible by the beast, or by any evil for that matter. And from the beginning of Bon that Crystalline Light lay at the base of the Tree of Light and kept it fed / illumed throughout that cycle and into Kosmon.

The task now in Kosmon is how to consciously feed the Tree of Light within the soul so that it grows to become transcendent in the soul over the beast in the soul realm. As to the soul realm, think soul-substance which is either illumed by Ruch in ascendancy or darkened to some degree by the fruits of the beast. In Bon man learned about this, experienced this. In Kosmon, man will learn to keep the beast from destroying man's view of the Ruch. Hence the saying: out of Sabea comes Kosmon --- that is, out of wise stewardship over the beast comes man's fulfillment in Kosmon.

The word Sabea, being crucial to man attaining to Kosmon, deserves another look. As stated elsewhere in these writings, the Panic language meaning of Sabea is: the evil being expressed by the beast everywhere. This means an expression not only in the outer realm, but in the inner realm as well, especially in terms of its effect upon soul substance. To that perception of Sabea, the Kosmon perception also adds this higher meaning which is: Sabea is that which is at the core of the social order ---whether joy or evil --- being expressed everywhere through the Form-part of man. The Form part of man consists of the combined expression of both his es nature and his animal / corporeal nature. In short, that core consists either of orientation toward Jehovih in ascendancy, or that core consists of orientation toward Satan (the beast, evil) standing in charge. The first results in resurrection, the second in death and destruction of the social order.

Providing for the Animal Man so that the Beast does not Dominate

The destination of either the march toward resurrection or the march toward destruction (uz) does not come suddenly, but is drawn out over the course of time. One of the main reasons is because man is in part an animal, and because of the different conditions upon man such as the state of the ethe'ic solution (including whether it is dan, ji'ay, a'ji or nebula) affecting  the animal nature of man. And when man fails to provide wisely for his animal part, the beast (tetracts) fills in (enters), resulting in the animal nature in man doing beastly behavior (placing self above Jehovih).

It is hard on the animal to have two masters. Either the es-man will become the chief master or the beast in man (tetracts) will become the chief master (chief alpha). Having one's animal nature listening to and responding to the beast rather than to the es in man, makes it difficult to transcend the beast. To the animal in man, one or the other is considered the chief alpha. The only way to gain the trust and allegiance of the animal in man is for the es in man to grow toward becoming Jehovih-like in attributes of Love and Wisdom. Using Power exclusively only works temporarily but does not cultivate allegiance of the animal when that animal is sought by such an alpha contender as the Beast / Satan is, who finds every trick in the book. Only the bonds of Love between the animal in man and the es in man are strong enough for the animal in man to turn from the beast toward the Jehovih-oriented es-man. Wise dominion of the es-man keeps strong those bonds of love.

Thus, man in Kosmon will learn to cultivate his animal man wisely and lovingly. And though the animal man might from time to time act according to the beast (beastlike behavior, manifesting / expressing the tetracts), yet if the person is an es oriented man who is constitutionally in ascension, then the animal in man will tend to listen more to the es-man rather than the beast in man.

Thus, being an animal makes it difficult for man to transcend the beast (tetracts). The lesson for man is, in short: Until man (individually and collectively) learns to lovingly treat the animal within man (as an example, think of how man loves his animal pets and provides for them); and until man learns to wisely provide for the animal-man within as well as providing for all other animals including those of the field, he shall not be able to collectively perceive, much less grow, in the Tree of Light.

Likewise, the same necessity for loving care applies to man's behavior toward the corporeal creation including the health / true-vitality of its ecosystems and niches. Man will come to perceive / realize that this is also included in what must occur before man can collectively attain to constitutionally perceive the Tree of Light in Kosmon, that is to attain to more than fleeting glimpses or temporary episodes. For, a polluted or destroyed environment is a milieu unsuited for es-man (or animal / corporeal man) growth in Kosmon.

In Part 8 the Search for the Ideal continues as we explore the sustaining of the Tree of Light with Crystalline Light and nurturing the soul. From Spe-ta to Bon to Kosmon, man is guided in stepped progress toward providing for his soul food needs.

All Oahspe references are from the modern language edition: Oahspe Standard Edition 2007

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