The Gospel of Mary Magdalene

Thinking about the actual teachings of Jesus from the gospel—

Finding the Christ within. Aligning your heart (organ of spiritual perception) with the Good (God). Drawing peace and courage from this alignment, from this inner world.

He's talking about entering the inner temple, the temple of contemplation and meditation. Shutting off the mental chatter, the endless stream of language, the monkey mind. The left brain is the worldly mind, the linguistic, literary and literal mind. It works through words, rather than The Word. And it houses the Ego.

In esotericism there's a concept that the cross represents this. It's two beams attached to each other, right? One vertical and one horizontal. I've heard it said that the horizontal axis represents the forward progression of time, the way we normally live it, from the past on the left toward the future on the right. But yet we always live in only the present moment. Right at the point where the 2 axes meet, where we always have access to the vertical beam, which connects us with the Good, with the timeless realm, with eternity. We can enter this peaceful timeless eternity at any moment.

Here's an article

I believe this is at least a big part of what Jesus was teaching in that gospel.

What Would Socrates Do?

I've been thinking about what it means to think like Socrates. This is the advice John Vervaeke gives, in order to reach awakening experiences.

In all his dialogues Socrates was doing essentially the same thing (as far as I'm aware)—trying to figure out what the Good is, what are the Virtues and the Vices, what is Justice and Injustice. And how do we fool ourselves (bullshit ourselves, as Vervaeke calls it). In The Republic, the whole reason Socrates elaborates on what would be the ideal city-state was in order to think about Justice.

He's having one of his discussions with someone, probably a sophist or one of their adherents. Sophists would use philosophical thinking, but disconnected from morality, in order to argue their points. They used special rhetorical techniques to win arguments, they weren't concerned with the Good. Like lawyers or advertisers. Socrates was different. His entire goal was how to strive toward the Good.

They were discussing Justice and Injustice, and Socrates suggested they first think about how those things manifest in a city-state, and then work down from there, from macrocosm to microcosm, to see how it might work inside a person. The tyrannical state everyone remembers from the Republic wasn't his first idea, originally he said a truly just city-state would be something like a totally free society, but that was rejected by his interlocutor because, how could you enforce Justice?

So he then developed ideas for a very different kind of state, one that would need to be ruled by philosopher-kings and guarded (policed) by specially-trained individuals raised for the purpose. But he definitely saw this as not the ideal form of governance. It was merely speculative, in order to properly frame ideas about justice and injustice.

But to my point, pretty much every Socratic dialogue centered on how to strive toward the Good, by first aligning yourself with the Virtues. And as you get this under control, they begin to allow you to reach toward the greater Good that overarches them all.

So Thinking Like Socrates (WWSD) does not simply mean philosophizing in general about everything, it has a very specific aim toward the Good, toward moral living.

Oh, and I've reached the tentative conclusion that Socrates' whole "The only thing I know is that I know nothing" deal was mostly a gimmick—his shtick, that made it possible for him to play the ignorant fool, so he could keep asking "And then what?" or "What exactly does that mean?" Then he could spring: "Whoah there my dude—isn't that the opposite of what you said a moment ago?"

Think about it. It's like the perfect setup.

I don't think it was only a setup though. I think it was both. It allowed him to proceed using the Socratic Dialogue method, but it's also probably how he worked deep into his own ideas long before he started using it on other people. He seemed to have his ideas pretty straight by the time he started making his public appearances.

Maybe Thinking like Socrates is the same thing as Wrestling with God?

... Or is it more like wrestling with Satan?

I'm not quite sure what Wrestling with God means, is it the same as wrestling with temptations? Seems like it must be something else. Setting your terms? Coming to an agreement? Must ponder on it, or look up info.

Maybe wrestling with God means agreeing on terms

Something like "I can overcome most of the sins, but this one is too overpowering, you know I can't always best it. But I can do better than I have been, and I vow to do that."

This goes with what I understand about Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was told by the angel to get out of the city and climb the mountain (metaphor for ascending to spiritual heights by purging yourself of sins and getting aligned with God). He pleaded with the angel, saying he couldn't make it all the way. The angel allowed it, and let him live in a cave partway up, under the guardianship of his 2 daughters.

That was in one of the John St. Julien videos, I think I posted it earlier. He said you can bargain with God, you can try to set some terms. It isn't strictly a matter of obeying. This is a much better use of prayer than making a Christmas list of things you want.

... aaaand I just realized Sodom and Gomorrah is the same story as the flood. A smaller version of it. God rained destruction on two cities (sin-filled cities to be sure) and saved one family. Lot's wife looked back, against God's injunction (yearned to return to sinning ways? Or to hold onto material possessions?) and was turned into a pillar of salt.

Once by fire and once by water (2 of the classical elements of the ancient world). And both times 'raining down', meaning coming from above—from a higher spiritual level (well OK, the highest).

Each element has its good and bad form

Similar to how each archetype has a shadow half.

• Earth—earthquake, mudslide, landslide
• Water—drowning, flood
• Air—tornado, hurricane, high wind
• Fire—well, pretty obvious

This goes hand in hand with what I wrote some time ago about Loki as a fire elemental, with a charming and entertaining side as well as a destructive one.

My current understanding of each of the elements:

Earth is the ordinary ground of being, the material world, it represents the physical, the body and the ego. It's your foundation. The world and the Worldly.

Water is an element of transformation (I suppose they all are, though Earth is the lowest or first, so there's nothing below it to transform from). So this makes water the first transformational element. It's water that purged the earth of sin (or sinful Mankind) in the flood story, and that carried Noah and his family to the new world. Water represents the emotions (tears), which are powerful accelerators of transformation. It also seems to represent the unconscious, where emotions come from. Water can be entered directly from land, or can rain down on you. A long hard rain (a flood) can soften the earth and transform the shape of it, turn what's normally solid into a liquid.

Air—I know a lot less about air. I believe it comes after the water level in transformation, and is lighter, buoyant. You're losing the need for the physical, for material possessions and the body, moving away from slavery to the ego. Moving upward toward the fire (in the sky).

Fire was the purgatory element for Sodom and Gomorrah, and for Lot and his daughters (and his wife, who unfortunately wasn't up to the test). It's the highest element, it's celestial (the sun and stars). But it can also get you on the ground. It can keep you warm and alive in winter, it can cook your food, but it can kill you or destroy your home and possessions.

These 4 elements are also the first (lowest) 4 chakras. They correspond to astrological signs and I'm sure Tarot cards etc. All the Hermetic disciplines are interlinked like that.

The way it seems to work is, when you're being threatened by one of these elements (when crap is raining down in your life) you must let go of whatever is being purged. Material possessions, bad relationships, bad habits, whatever is being destroyed. If you hold onto them you're destroyed or severely damaged, but if you let them go then you're purged and purified.

You'll tend to see the appropriate element in your dreams when this is happening. I've dreamed many times of suddenly being submerged in deep water, or water or mud swallows something in my life. And the dreams do seem to happen at those transformative points in my life, generally before I realize they're happening. Maybe several such dreams in succession.

Just had a thought—I wonder if flying dreams are Air dreams? I suppose it depends. Usually they seem to mean I'm ungrounded and need to get it together better at a very basic level.* Same for dreams of being in an out-of control car or a car driven by somebody else taking me places I don't want to go.

* I suppose technically those aren't flying dreams so much as drifting dreams, where I'm not really in control. Occasionally I can fly under control and under power. Those might be Air dreams.

I think the destruction stories are about your world

In a way I suppose they do represent the entire world or a major portion of it becoming too decadent and sunk in sin, so needing to be destroyed, and only the pure of heart will survive.

But more to the point I think they can be taken esoterically (like every Bible story). It means you should see yourself as the one being saved (or being offered the option, if you choose to accept). You're Noah or part of his Family, or you're Lot. It's your world that's under threat. To you that's essentially the world.

Maybe you've been hanging with the wrong people, or fallen into some bad habits that are supported by the people around you. And shit's about to go down big time. You can feel it coming, and you have a chance to get it together if you act immediately (this is the warning from the angel). But if you don't get yourself straight you're done.