How Enlightenment is the Process of Creation in the Universe in Reverse

The process of creation of matter and spiritual life at the beginning of the universe is one of the greatest of mysteries and understanding its basic principles is important for understanding how enlightenment works, as enlightenment is the re-absorption back into the one, the divine source of creation.

An ancient Taoist text wisely states that those who wish to reach enlightenment must look for the place where creation originally came from:

Whoever seeks eternal life must search for the place whence human nature and life originally sprang.
~ The Secret of the Golden Flower

Where we came from and why we are here are fundamental questions which lie at the heart of every quest for spiritual truth. Throughout ancient spiritual teachings and cultures we find a story of creation, which if we look at closely, share remarkable similarities. Creation gave rise to our universe, it gave birth to us, and is constantly creating the life born all around us. We too are creators, as we bring children into the world. But, we also have the potential to be spiritual creators. The process of spiritual creation (in enlightenment) on an individual level is a replica of that on a universal level as the fundamental principles are the same.

Diagram showing the possible expansion of the universe

The Microcosmic and the Macrocosmic

Most cultures have a creation myth, which explains how they and the universe came to be. Sneered at by some as a simple story to explain existence to primitive people, many of these myths which we find in ancient texts such as Genesis, the Rig Veda, on the temple walls of ancient Egypt, or in the legends of the Incan and pre-Incan people, are actually profoundly symbolic descriptions which can be understood on many levels.

It is now even known by science that the same principles that govern the movement of planets, also govern the inner workings of atoms. The same principles that make a spiral galaxy, also create the structure of a seashell and unfurling of a fern. This is why ancient spiritual people used natural symbols to convey universal concepts, and also why people, who don’t understand this intuitive language nor the principles of creation, can easily write creation stories off as simple nature myths.

Scientists are just discovering the nature of matter and the fabric of the universe from the study of what lies within minute particles. But many thousands of years ago in ancient Egypt the knowledge of sacred geometry was used to build temples to harness the same energetic principles and aesthetics found throughout creation, and many ancient religious symbols such as the spiral and yin and yang, can be found in the movements of the heavens and the earth. Mystics throughout time and the world have known about the relationship between the macrocosmic and the microcosmic, and symbolized it in sacred texts and temples in many different cultures. This is where the famous maxim of wisdom comes from, “As above, so below.”

The External and the Internal

But there is another important maxim of wisdom that says that not only is there an intimate relationship between the macrocosmic and the microcosmic, but that there is also a relationship between the outer sensory world, and the inner spiritual world. The symbols of creation myths now take on another level of meaning, as they also come to describe principles of the inner, spiritual realm.

This maxim can be found in the ancient esoteric Christian text The Book of Thomas the Contender in the Nag Hammadi Library, when Jesus says:

For he who has not known himself, has known nothing, but he who has known himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge about the depth of the all.
~ Jesus, The Book of Thomas the Contender

We humans have the ability to understand the greatest of mysteries by understanding ourselves. Genesis of the Bible says that we were created male and female, in the image of God. In Hindu mythology, the supreme creator is said to exist within and pervade everything that is, including us. These sacred teachings tell us that by looking within, we can find and know God.

The spiritual principles of creation have been imbued in all of creation, and thus can not only be found all around us but also within us (which can be done through the study of esoteric self-knowledge), thus allowing us to understand our origins and the true purpose of life whenever we choose to look.

Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which will not become manifest.
~ Jesus, The Book of Thomas the Contender

The Creative Power of Sex

Sex is the foundation of all life. Life is created from the union of male and female in the birth of a child. In the ancient Indian text, the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad, the primordial being, after realizing it was alone, created a woman from its body. From their union humans were born (just as Eve is created from Adam’s body, and their union gives birth to the human race). After this the woman hid from the man by taking the form of a cow. But he came as a bull and from their union, cattle were born. She then hid as a mare, but he came as a stallion, and from that union, all one-hoofed animals were born. This went on for each of the various animals for which there is a male and female, right down to the ants. This incredible teaching illustrates the creative power of sex found throughout life and the universe – the union of male and female forces are what gives birth to and create all life on the largest of scales, right down to the smallest.

Some people treat sex as ungodly and taboo, as if it was something separate from spirituality. But spirituality is not apart from life, and thus sex is not apart from spirituality either. Sex is part of the great mystery of creation. In spiritually advanced creation myths we find the union of male and female forces which give birth to life. Deified in ancient sacred teachings, man and woman are seen as god and goddess with the powers of creation. This is also why in genuine spiritual teachings the sexual relationship between a man and woman is seen as sacred, as in essence it belongs to the processes of divinity unlike any other human relationship. Within this relationship is the potential and power of the divine if used properly. It has been referred to as tantrism in the East, the Mediaeval transformation of lead into gold termed alchemy, and the bridal chamber of the esoteric Christians.

Spiritually advanced ancient peoples knew that creation is a process which is universal and which is found in the very largest scale, to the most microscopic. Therefore, they knew that the forces of male and female united give birth on earth, give birth to the spiritual within, and also to the universe.

The Union of Male and Female Forces in Ancient Creation Myths

One of the most famous teachings on creation is found in Genesis, and starts:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it wasgood: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
~ Genesis from the Bible

Genesis describes the process of creation by merging the natural with the supernatural. We have the symbols of water, the spirit of God, and the light of the first day. These are the three fundamental forces of creation which gives rise to all life over a symbolic 7 days (7 is the number through which all creation is organized), which Genesis describes as it continues.

The waters is the female seedbed of all life, which is fecundated by the male through his Spirit, and the light their union produces is the son/sun, who is known as the “Son of God”, the universal spiritual force of the Christ (the Christ is a term used to describe a universal force that does not belong to any religion, but has been symbolized throughout all great spiritual teachings).

The druids also symbolized creation being brought forth from the union of male and female forces. In the beginning of creation, the druids believed that the sap of the cauldron of the Great Mother goddess Cariadwen/Cerridwen was fertilized by three drops of dew from the Word of the Father god Celu.

In ancient Chinese texts, the intercourse of female and male forces called yin and yang, brings all of creation into manifestation.

If you go searching for the Great Creator, you will come back empty-handed. The source of the universe is ultimately unknowable, a great invisible river flowing forever through a vast and fertile valley. Silent and uncreated, it creates all things. All things are brought forth from the subtle realm into the manifest world by the mystical intercourse of yin and yang. The dynamic river yang pushes forward, the still valley yin is receptive, and through their integration things come into existence.
~ the Hua Hu Ching

The ancient sacred Indian text the Rig Veda, also describes the origin of creation, again describing the waters and the deep of Genesis which preceded creation:

At first was neither Being nor Nonbeing.
There was not air nor yet sky beyond.
What was wrapping? Where? In whose protection?
Was Water there, unfathomable deep?

There was no death then, nor yet deathlessness;
of night or day there was not any sign.
The One breathed without breath by its own impulse.
Other than that was nothing at all.

Darkness was there, all wrapped around by darkness,
and all was Water indiscriminate, Then
that which was hidden by Void, that One, emerging,
stirring, through power of Ardor, came to be.

In the beginning Love arose,
which was primal germ cell of mind.
The Seers, searching in their hearts with wisdom,
discovered the connection of Being in Nonbeing.

A crosswise line cut Being from Nonbeing.
What was described above it, what below?
Bearers of seed there were and mighty forces,
thrust from below and forward move above.

Who really knows? Who can presume to tell it?
Whence was it born? Whence issued this creation?
Even the Gods came after its emergence.
Then who can tell from whence it came to be?

That out of which creation has arisen,
whether it held it firm or it did not,
He who surveys it in the highest heaven,
He surely knows – or maybe He does not!

~ The Rig Veda, Translation by Prof. Raimundo Panikkar (Ref. 3, pp 58)

In ancient India, Brahman (also called Narayana, and Svayambhu) is the impersonal and immanent, infinite uncaused cause and support of the universe that has no form or attributes.

In ancient India, an initial account of creation says that everything was in a state of sleep. There was nothing either moving or static. Then Svayambhu, self-manifested being—a form beyond senses arose (the Being). First Svayambhu created the primordial waters (the Being divides to separate into male and female, just as Adam divided becomes male and female) and established the seed of creation into it (the union of male and female). The seed turned into a golden womb (or egg), called Hiranyagarbha. Then Svayambhu entered into the womb, and from this womb all of creation manifested (was born). It is also said that from this golden womb the creator god Brahma emerged, along with the entirety of creation called Brahm-anda.

In ancient Indian texts, it is said that there is nothing beyond Narayana (also called Vishnu). ‘Naara’ in Sanskrit is another name for water, and it is said that Vishnu’s resting place called ‘Ayana’ is ‘Naara’ – hence both Narayana and Vishnu are depicted as resting upon water and Vishnu is also known as “one who moves on the waters” ( just as the Spirit of God moved upon the waters in Genesis). Another ancient Indian myth of creation says that in the beginning a vast dark ocean washed upon the shores of nothingness and licked the edges of night (the primordial waters). Vishnu was asleep on Seshnag the serpent upon the waters. At the time of creation the vibrant sound of Om filled the void with energy (referred to as the Word in esoteric Christianity). The night had ended and Vishnu awoke (the creation of the light from the spirit moving upon the waters). As the dawn began to break, from Vishnu’s navel grew a magnificent lotus flower. In the middle of the blossom sat Brahma. Vishnu commanded Brahma to create the world. Brahma split the lotus flower into three. He stretched one part into the heavens. He made another part into the earth. With the third part of the flower he created the skies. These also represent the 3 steps of creation, which are explained in the article The Spiritual Meaning of the Winter Solstice.

The Limits of Science in Understanding Creation

It’s widely accepted in scientific theory that the universe was created around 13.7 billion years ago from a huge explosion called “the Big Bang.” Literally, from a golden fiery ball which expanded faster than thought, creation began, as did all time, light, matter, and space at this moment.

A representation from NASA of cosmic history, with a big question mark over the origins of creation.

Energy, known as quarks, formed into protons and neutrons, which bound together with electrons (the three primary forces of positive, neutral, and negative) to create atoms. These atoms formed the first elements, which were hydrogen and helium. Gradually, these elements condensed into stars, from which all the other elements of matter were created.

Incredibly, the Big Bang, and expanding golden ball from which all creation emerged, is just like the ancient Hindu explanation in which all of creation expands from a golden embryo or egg resplendent as one thousand suns.

The scientific approach is to look at matter and to see how it was formed, and thus science can only tell us about the creation of physical matter. But science is not able to answer where the fire and light of the Big Bang actually comes from? This is because understanding the process of creation requires knowledge of the multidimensional spiritual realms and the Absolute source to be more complete. And yet, as the spiritual is only known by its own kind, it is impossible for matter to measure it. Matter can only be used to measure the material—it is useless for discovering the immaterial or spiritual, and that is why mystics who can explore the spiritual realms through spiritual experience, can go beyond science in understanding creation. This is why ancient spiritual teachings are not only similar to the scientific explanation of creation, which are themselves only very recently discovered, but also explain it in greater depth.

Life is multidimensional. Creation has its source beyond the dimensions, in the unknowable. This is why the ancient Hindus said that Brahman was the unknowable and indefinable origin of creation. This source creates the dimensions and at the same time permeates them, and is also why it is said that God is all, is everywhere, and in everything. Gradually creation forms through the dimensions until it crystallizes as physical matter in the 3-dimensional world. In the physical world we can see the same principles of creation and the physical manifestation of it, but this physical manifestation is only one part of it.

The Spiritual Process of Creation

The human psyche has remarkable powers of exploration that are not simply mental, and it is from these extra-sensory faculties that people through time have discovered creations spiritual parts. Accounts of creation exist in many religious texts and many of them share similarities with science’s own explanations. Those who go through the process of enlightenment also discover the principles behind creation, as enlightenment is a return to the source, to that which existed before the big bang and from which the big bang arose. Going back to the source in enlightenment is going through the process of the creation of the universe in reverse, where the many parts become gathered together in one, and the one becomes absorbed into the source.

In spiritual accounts, creation begins from the unknowable creator who exists in unity, referred to as Brahman, the Ancient of Days, and Atum in different ancient teachings. The supreme creator emerges from the unknowable source as a divine androgyny. In the ancient esoteric Christian text, the Pistis Sophia, Jesus describes the source of creation as the Hindus do, as a place of incredible light, and also as a place where male and female do not exist, as it is the place where all is one before it divides into duality.

…it will lead your souls into the Light of lights, into the regions of Truth and Goodness, into the region of the Holy of all holies, into the region which there is neither female nor male, nor are there forms in that region, but a perpetual indescribable Light.
~ Jesus, the Pistis Sophia

The androgynous being that emerges divides into duality, male and female, positive and negative, the waters and the spirit, yang and yin, in order to create.

The Tao gives birth to One. One gives birth to yin and yang. Yin and yang give birth to all things.
~ Hua Hu Ching

In ancient India, the supreme creator god Brahman assumes a dual nature, which is Prakriti the female, and Purusha, the male. To the Egyptians, the male was Amun (later becoming Osiris), the self-created supreme god without mother or father, and his wife was the goddess Mut (who was also Neith, and later became Hathor and then Isis), the primordial waters of the cosmos, and the mother from which the cosmos emerged. Her titles included “World-Mother”, “Mother of the Gods” and “She Who Gives Birth, But Was Herself Not Born of Any”.

The womb of creation, the chaos and pre-matter from which creation is born, “the deep” and waters of Genesis, is the female aspect of creation which became symbolized as the great virgin mother goddess in spiritual teachings throughout the world, such as Isis (Egyptian), Anahita (Zoroastrian), the Virgin Mary (Christian), Gaia (Greek), Athena (Greek), Kubau (Akkadian), Hepa (Hurrian), Pachamama (indigenous peoples of the Andes), Toci (Aztec), and many others. The earliest found depiction of figurative art is a carving called the Venus of Hohle Fels, dating from approximately 35,000-40,000 years ago making it pre-ice age. It is of the form of a woman carved from the tusk of a wooly mammoth. Similar figures found, such as the Venus of Dolni, are believed by some to be the representation of the mother goddess.

Worship of the Egyptian goddess Neith can be traced to as far back as 7,000 years ago. The famous British Egyptologist Wallis Budge noted that on an inscription on a statue of Utchat-Heru, a high priest of Neith, relates that she “was the first to give birth to anything, and that she had done so when nothing else had been born, and that she had herself never been born.” The Greek historian Plutarch refers to an inscription on her statue in Sais that says, “I am everything that has been, and that is, and that shall be, and no one has ever lifted my garment,” and also “The present and the future and the past, I am. My undergarment no one has uncovered. The fruit I brought forth, the sun came into being.” This is perhaps the oldest and clearest reference to the great mother goddess who is not born but is a division of the original androgyny, who gave birth to the Christ, and the universe, and who remains ever-virgin.

Statues of the Egyptian goddess Hathor, showing her triangular shaped face and pointed ears resembling the shape of a womb (photo copyright Wolfgang Sauber)

The Egyptian goddess Mut has a precinct dedicated to her at the Temple of Karnak, a site ascribed to the worship of the supreme creator god Amun (her male counterpart). Mut’s precinct is believed to be the oldest part of the temple, which encloses a sacred lake in the shape of a crescent, representing the waters and the womb. The association with the womb and the great mother goddess can also be found clearly in the Egyptian Goddess Hathor. She is symbolized as a cow, depicted with a triangular shaped face and often with a cow’s ears and horns. Incredibly, the shape created by her image is that of a woman’s uterus, which also resembles the shape of a cow’s head. Thus we see in Egypt and India, the veneration of the sacred cow.

The spirit of God, the male aspect, moves upon the deep, the female seedbed of creation. The female is impregnated through the Spirit, animating life. This act can be found in the annunciation of the birth of Jesus and the divine king in ancient Egyptian temples, as well as in many other miraculous virgin births.

The Birth of the Son

From the joining of male and female forces (which are positive and negative) the neutral force of creation is born as the light on the first day, the spiritual aspect of the sun known as the Christ, and symbolized by the birth of Jesus, Horus, Mithras, Krishna, and many other deities. This is why each of these deities were so associated with the sun, with light, and referred to as a divine child born of a virgin at the winter solstice. In Persia, Mithras is known as “the Mediator” as he is the neutral, conciliatory force (who in the process of enlightenment, reconciles us with the divine), and said, “I am a star which goes with thee and shines out of the depths”—like the light that shines from out of the deep in Genesis. According to Persian traditions, the god Mithras was born of Anahita, an immaculate virgin mother who was said to have conceived the savior from the seed of Zarathustra preserved in the waters of a lake. Here again we see the seed in the waters also found in Hindu mythology, from which the Christ is born.

The Son/Christ is a neutral force and is genderless, incarnating into both spiritually prepared men and women alike.

In the pre-Inca and Inca mythology of the Andes region of South America, Viracocha is the creator god of all things, and the substance from which all things are created. He was represented wearing the sun for a crown, with thunderbolts in his hands, and tears descending from his eyes as rain. His name Vira-cocha (in the Quechua language) literally means sea- foam. Interestingly, sea-foam is a substance produced by the ocean (symbol of the primordial waters).

Legends of the Aymara Andean people say that the Creator God Viracocha rose from Lake Titicaca (or sometimes the cave of Pacaritambo) during the time of darkness to bring forth light (again, like Brahma emerging from the union of Vishnu on the ocean, the creator god emerges from the primordial waters, or the cave which is a symbol of the womb, and precedes to make creation). Viracocha made the earth, the stars, the sky, and mankind. It was said that he wandered the earth disguised as a beggar, teaching his new creations the basics of civilization, as well as working numerous miracles (just as Jesus did, who had the Christ within). He wept when he saw the plight of the creatures he had created.  It was thought that Viracocha would re-appear in times of trouble (just as other Christic saviors such as Jesus, Horus, Mithras etc., are believed to).

The first day of creation is found relived at the time of the winter solstice, when it’s as if the sun is born for the first time out of lifelessness, chaos, and darkness. To read more about the winter solstice see The Spiritual Meaning of the Winter Solstice.

The Three Forces of Creation: Father, Mother, and Son

At the creation of the universe there was darkness, but that is the Absolute, the source, inverted and it contains the seed of generation. From the Absolute came the Universal Being, which is androgynous, but creation needs three forces to create and so the androgynous being must divide. Atoms, which are a basic unit of all matter, are composed of positive, negative, and neutrally charged subatomic particles. And so from the division of this being comes the father and the mother, and from their sexual union comes the son. From the son comes the creation of the universe, just as in ancient India, the golden womb created from the male and female forces at the dawning of creation, gives birth to Brahma, the creator god, and the entire universe, called Brahm-anda.  Viracocha rises from out of the waters (or cave), to bring light to darkness, and to create.

Father, Mary, and Jesus, symbolize something much greater than many suspect – they represent the three forces of creation (photo copyright Deror Avi)

These are the three primary forces of creation from which all life originates –father, mother, and son; positive, negative, and neutral, found symbolized in Father, Mary, and Jesus (Christian); Osiris, Isis, and Horus (Egyptian); Zarathustra, Anahita, and Mithras (Persian); Amun, Mut, and Khonsu (Egyptian); Prakriti, Purusha, and Brahma (Hindu); Celu, Cariadwen/Cerridwen and Hu Gadarn (of the Druids). It is from the birth of the Christ—the cosmic fire and light of the first day, that all of creation unfolds and manifests.

The trinity of the Christian Church, of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which was something adopted by a patriarchal group of powerful men, excluded the female force of creation. Mary Magdalene was turned into a prostitute, and the female aspect of creation was deliberately kept out of what became the Christian Godhead creating a terrible social injustice of women having lesser rights than men. Going back to the original sacred teachings however, found in the unaltered esoteric Christian texts and ancient sacred teachings throughout the world, the female force of creation is found as an essential part of Godhead and creative divinity. More on this in Reestablishing the Feminine in Godhead: The Role of the Mother Goddess in Divinity

Fire Creates

In ancient India, it is said that the golden womb fertilized at the dawn of creation is resplendent as one thousand suns and from it expanded the manifest universe, which is reminisce of the “big bang” in which the universe began its expansion from out of a central, pressurize hot core. Krishna, who represented the Christ in India, is said to be that from whom this universe proceeds, in whom it subsists, and to whom, in the end, it returns. The Christ born of the union of male and female forces at the dawn of creation is the light of the first day, the sun, which is fire.

When we look at the sun, we are watching a blazing fire. Fire is not the result of combustion as many believe. Instead, fire is condensed matter, and when we witness a fire, we are seeing the fire released. When the fire is burned out, the object once full of color, texture, shape, and substance, has now disappeared and all that remains is grey dust.

Fire destroys things, but little know that it is also what creates. The sun, so associated with the Christ (as Jesus, Horus, Hu, Mithras, etc.) is a raging fire and that which creates, sustains, and ultimately destroys all of life. Without the sun, no life could exist on our planet—its rays nourish plants, which we and animals nourish ourselves from. It is well known in science that literally everything in our universe, all that we see around us, including our own bodies down to the very atoms, originated from within the fiery furnace of the stars. When we look around, we can begin to see that all we are looking at are forms of fire. It has been said that all that separates us from the burning stars above is time.

Life is multidimensional (this is something that science has just begun to uncover, but has been known to mystics throughout time). There is physical fire that appears from out of objects, but this fire also exists in higher dimensions within matter even when we don’t see it, as every physical form has its corresponding multidimensional aspect. Fire’s origins trace back into the very highest of dimensions, where it is the force that sustains all life, and even beyond the dimensions, into the unknowable where it becomes impossible to see beyond it to where it came from. This is the realm of Brahman, the unconceivable, unknowable creator of all things.

The Divinity of Fire

This painting of Saint Augustin shows the truth ‘Veritas’ as a solar type of light, which he discovers as a spiritual fire in the heart of man, and that they are connected.

Fire has played an essential and central part to sacred rituals and ceremonies that honor the divine throughout the world since the beginning of history. Fire is found on altars and shrines around the world, irrespective of religion. This knowledge of the spiritual nature of fire has come down, at least in part, from ancient sacred teachings.

Here are some excerpts for the Rig Veda, the most ancient sacred Indian text, and possibly the most ancient sacred text in the world:

I worship the Sacred Fire (Agni) that is chief priest, the deity of the sacrifice, who works according to the seasons, the invoker, best to grant the treasure. The Sacred Fire honored by the ancient sages is invoked again by the new. For us he manifests all the Gods. To you, oh Fire, day by day, by dawn and by dusk we come bearing our offering of surrender, the king of the sacred rite, the guardian of truth, flourishing in his own nature.

Thou, oh Fire, shining forth throughout the days, from the waters, from the stones, from the forests and from the herbs, thou oh Lord of souls are ever born pure!

Oh Fire, whom the waters, the mountains and the forests carry as the child of truth, you are enkindled with force by men on the summit of the Earth. You have filled with your radiance both the worlds and stream with smoke in Heaven.

The Atharva Veda, states that divine fire exists within everything—within all the elements, in all life, and in the sun in its Hymn to the Earth:

There is a Divine fire in the Earth and in the plants. The Waters carry the fire and the same fire dwells in the rocks. There is a fire within human beings, within the cows and the horses are sacred fires. The Divine fire shines from heaven as the Sun. The Divine fire extends the wide atmosphere through the wind. Mortals enkindle the Fire that carries their prayers, which loves clarity.

The most ancient scripture of the Zoroastrians, the Zend Avesta, says that the supreme creator god Ahura Mazda is fire, and so is his son. This passage states that fire is the son of God, in other words, is the Christ, drawing a connection between the celestial and earthly:

We worship the Fire, the son of God, the holy lord of the ritual order. And we worship all the Fires and the mountain that holds the light. And we worship every holy celestial spirit and every holy earthly spirit.

The Fire of Ahura Mazda art thou verily; yea, the most bounteous one of His Spirit, wherefore Thine is the most potent of all names (for grace), O Fire of the Lord! And therefore we would approach Thee, (O Ahura!) with the help of Thy Good Mind (which Thou dost implant within us), with Thy (good) Righteousness, and with the actions and the words inculcated by Thy good wisdom!

In the ancient esoteric Christian text, The Book of Thomas the Contender from the Nag Hammadi Library, Jesus equates himself with fire and like the ancient Hindus, says that he is to be found in the elements and everywhere:

He who is near me is near the fire, and he who is far from me is far from the kingdom.

It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.

Jesus also stated:

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

The Egyptian Book of the Dead identifies Osiris, who represents the Father (the whole being – “the great One”) before it divides into the different parts, with fire:

I am the great One, the son of the great One. I am Fire, the son of Fire. I have made myself whole and sound. I have become young once more. I am Osiris, the Lord of Eternity.

In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna sees Krishna as a blaze of light and fire, and as pervading the entirety of creation:

I see Thee, boundless Being, diademed and armed with mace and discus, shining everywhere as a mass of light, and difficult to look at, like the blazing fire or the incandescent sun.

I see Thee – beginningless, middleless and endless; infinite in puissance; of boundless energy active everywhere; having the sun and the moon for eyes; with a face luminous like a flaming fire; and with spiritual radiance energising everything.

Thou art the first of all divinities and the most ancient of all beings. Thou art the ultimate haven of rest and safety for the worlds. Thou art both the knower and the known as also the supreme Abode. O Thou of countless forms! By Thee the whole universe is pervaded.

Krishna himself says to Arjuna:

That light of the sun which illumines the whole universe, which is present in the moon and in fire likewise – know that splendour to be Mine.

Moses received the Ten Commandments from God who spoke to him in the form of a burning bush. The Holy Spirit appeared on the heads of the disciples of Jesus in the form of a flame.

The most holy site of the ancient Greeks, the temple of Delphi, had a place for ‘the Central Fire behind the universe’ at the apex of its famous pyramidal symbol designed by Pythagoras himself.

Fire was the ancient Celtic God of wisdom. A Druidic poet states:

I am the God who fashions fire in the mind. Who save I knows the secrets of the stone door?

The I Ching, the oldest book of China, also recognizes the spiritual significance of fire.

THE IMAGE OF FIRE: Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness, illumines the four corners of the world.

It also speaks of the “ting” or fire caldron into which offerings are made to the Lord of Heaven.

The Birth of the Fire, the Son of God Within

A medieval depiction of the process of spiritual creation in sexual alchemy between and man and woman. Here they are crowned and transforming and building the spiritual within upon the philosopher’s stone, which is the cornerstone that Jesus refers to. Inside the crucible you can see the birth of the spiritual child, the Christ.

Spiritual texts and sacred sites embodied the principles of creation not because they were simple minded people who told a story explaining how the world was created, but because they knew that these principles of creation are the same principles that create an enlightened spiritual being. In their sacred texts and sites we can see the incredible harmony and unification of the knowledge which today has become split apart, of spirituality, art, astronomy, physics, mathematics, anatomy, etc.

Spirituality also follows the same process of creation, as it is not apart from life—in reality, it is intrinsic even to the very fabric of it. Everything that is, must be created, and all that is created, is born of the same fundamental process.

Physically, sex between a man and a woman creates a child. Out of a tiny egg, an unmanifested potential springs forth almost miraculously becoming an entirely new human being that grows just as a plant from out of a tiny little seed. Thus we see within man and woman, the primordial forces of the Egyptian father god Amun and his wife, the Egyptian mother goddess Mut, which give rise to all creation.

This incredible power of creation we each have is mentioned in Genesis, where it says that we are created in the image of God:

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
~ Genesis 1:27

But this power to create is not limited to the creation of a physical child. Within the human being we also find the materials of spiritual creation. From this union of male and female, not only can children be born, but also the divine fire, the son of God, the true Light, the Christ within – just as the Christ is born from the union of these forces at the dawning of creation.

The first integration of yin and yang is the union of seed and egg within the womb. The second integration of yin and yang is the sexual union of the mature male and female. Both of these are concerned with flesh and blood, and all that is conceived in this realm must one day disintegrate and pass away. It is only the third integration which gives birth to something immortal, In this integration, a highly evolved individual joins the subtle inner energies of yin and yang under the light of spiritual understanding. Through the practices of the Integral Way he refines his gross, heavy energy into something ethereal and light. This divine light has the capability of penetrating into the mighty ocean of spiritual energy and complete wisdom that is the Tao.
~ Hua Hu Ching

This process has been referred to in many esoteric traditions as tantrism, the bridal chamber, and alchemy, in which man and woman in sexual union are depicted as spiritual co-creators. It involves many spiritual processes which must be gone through until the initiate has reached a spiritual level required for the Christ to be born within. It transmutes basic elements into spiritual parts, working with elements that are within each person: salt (basic matter), sulphur (fire), and mercury (the sexual waters of life). These go through a process of transformation in sex to form superior spiritual bodies, fit for the incarnation of divinity.

The energy of the kidneys is under the water sign. When the desires are stirred, it runs downward, is directed outward, and creates children. If, in the moment of release, it is not allowed to flow outward, but is led back by the energy of thought so that it penetrates the crucible of the Creative, and refreshes heart and body and nourishes them, that also is the backward-flowing method. Therefore it is said, The Way of the Elixir of Life depends entirely on the backward-flowing method.
~ a description of tantrism from the Taoist text The Secret of the Golden Flower

Just as physical fire has the ability to destroy and create things, as does the spiritual fire that creates and ultimately destroys the universe, so does this inner Christic fire have the same ability to destroy the negative aspects of ourselves and allow us to be completely “born again” and “born of God” as a spiritual being, which eventually ascends to the source of creation, the Absolute (the Brahman of ancient India), as an enlightened and awakened Deva, a “Son of God.”

But as many as received him [Christ], to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
~ John 1:12-13

Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
~ Jesus, in John 3:1-7

When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourself, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.
~ Jesus, The Book of Thomas the Contender

This is not a matter of adopting or changing beliefs—for anything to be born, it must follow the same process of creation which we see on the largest of scales, right to the very smallest. Above Jesus refers to the waters and the spirit that moves upon it, as found in Genesis, which gave rise to the birth of the sun on the first day. The waters is the female force, found symbolized in Mary, and Isis, etc. and the spirit moving upon it is the male force, symbolized by the Father, and Osiris etc.

The male and female forces are what gives birth to all life. At the dawn of creation, their union gave birth to the sun and the entirety of creation. This birth of the sun, on an esoteric level, is the birth of the spiritual sun—the birth of the force of the Christ within.

Without understanding this process of creation and harnessing it within, ancient teachings state that any spiritual practice, no matter how rigorous, is ultimately futile:

This is the reason that all the sages began their work at the germinal vesicle in which outflowing [outflowing of sexual energy, which is orgasm] had ceased. If one does not establish this path, but sets up other things, it is of no avail. Therefore all the schools and sects which do not know that the ruling principle of consciousness and life is in this germinal vesicle, and which therefore seek it in the outer world, can accomplish nothing despite all their efforts to find it outside.
~ The Secret of the Golden Flower

Enlightenment Follows the Process of Creation

Enlightenment follows process of creation in reverse. The path to enlightenment is to return to the Absolute, the unknowable source of creation. The Absolute brings forth creation from itself out of love as individual flames of itself; each of these flames become individual beings of light. These divide into different aspects and send a tiny particle of themselves into matter so that they self-realize and become aware of their own existence. Through the process of awakening the various parts re-merge forming a total flame which is self aware and realizes its own happiness, and thus why Jesus said that one cannot awaken without self-knowledge. Finally, that flame returns to the source, the Absolute, blissfully self-aware.

Creation gave birth to our existence, and through the process of creation we can be born as awakened spiritual beings, and return as a “Son of God” to our Mother, the female aspect of our own being, and from there return to our Father, the male aspect of our being. Whole again, with complete consciousness, we can return to the divine source from where we originated as an awakened being.

Jesus said to them, “When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place of a likeness; then will you enter the kingdom.”
~ Jesus, The Gospel of Thomas

The serpent swallows the person, which is the true human, the person with the Christ within, returning the Son/Christ into the Mother, then the eagle swallows the serpent, which is the Mother being reabsorbed into the Father. This is the meaning of the Mayan/Aztec symbol of the feathered serpent (also found in Egypt), which is the Mother, Father, and Son made whole – the unified self-realized androgynous being whose wings carry them from the earth to return to the spiritual realm, the Absolute source of creation.

The Aztec Christ Quetzalcoatl being swallowed by the serpent, thus becoming the feathered serpent (photo copyright wiki user Ptcamn)

The same Ardor in the Rig Veda (the wanting to be), from which the creative process first arose, which gave life to the universe and to us, also permeates all life. This is why the ancient Hindu god Vishnu is not only said to have given rise to creation, but also to permeate it, as fire creates and also exists in all that is created. This ardor, this intense feeling of spiritual love, of wanting to be one with divinity, is also found within us, and is that which stirs within all life so that it too can begin creation within itself and find its way back to God.

We need to create ourselves anew for creation to have accomplished its task.

Copyright © Belsebuub & Angela Pritchard 2011

About the Author

Belsebuub is an author and practitioner of esoteric knowledge. He writes primarily on the transformation and exploration of consciousness from over 30 years of dedicated metaphysical experience. He has authored a number of books on out-of-body experiences, consciousness, and spiritual awakening, including The Astral Codex and Gazing into the Eternal, which are free to download on his website www.belsebuub.com

Belsebuub is the name of his spirit/soul/consciousness. Everyone has their own unique spiritual name; it’s a matter of knowing it.

This article is offered under Creative Commons license. It’s okay to republish it anywhere as long as attribution bio is included and all links remain intact.

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