Course XXXV - Teaching 1: Journey of the Soul

Here is a transcription of Symbolic Teachings of an ancient Esoteric School left to its adepts, and translated from an ancient language by some lovers of Wisdom
These Symbols describe the journey started by the human soul from the lower planes to reach the spiritual freedom.
This Way is divided into seven parts. Lower planes are indicated by the Abyss, the Shadowy Forest and the Turbulent Lake; and higher planes are expressed by the Way that leads to the Summit of the Mount, the Garden of Trials and the Temple of Gold, –images of the mental worlds of feeling, understanding and knowledge.
The Spirit, or rather, the Spiritual State, is symbolized by the Sacred Summit, located beyond the inextinguishable flames, that is, beyond any mental state; this is a Sacred Summit that keeps the Tomb of the Divine Mother.
Three types of men with different aspects describe the human soul, in its upward evolution, but they are only one; because a man changes continuously from one state to another, being fundamentally the same being.
Man dragged by passion is called Wayfarer; when he is self-reliant and knows how to control his instincts is called Pilgrim, and when he achieves spiritual freedom is IHS.
The Divine Mother –manifestation of the Eternal One– is imagined and described by different female aspects, according to the grade of manifestation that it expresses.
She is the Black Lady or Babel, when manifests heavy and gross matter.
When she expresses feeling, her name is Anhunit.
When she is led by reason, becomes Philo.
When the Superior Mind and intuition enlighten her, is Beatrix.
When she is the pure expression of the Spirit, is Aeia.
But, when Spirit and matter have reached perfect harmony, she is the Sleeping Divine Mother: EHS.
When the human soul hears the call to a more perfect life, at the supreme moment when it decided to follow the Path, the pressure of human matter retains it.
The Black Lady is there, always watchful and always fearful of losing her prey: she is the Great Enemy and Owner of the Threshold, and the Wayfarer must fight fiercely with her if he wants to pass through the centre of the Little Ring within which she is the Queen and he a subject.
When the Wayfarer wants to leave the Little Ring, the Black Lady brings about a frightening whirlpool that blinds and discourages him, burns his flesh with sulphur of scorching passions and, like a tempting serpent, memories of past pleasures and laments ascend terribly to his memory and do not abandon him.
Then, how can a man abandon the Abyss? How can he remove dregs which tie him to the Earth, since he has reached the crossroad where he intuits that beyond physical senses something immense and unknown really exists?
It is the Time of times, and for a decisive moment, creative powers –latent in the innermost depths of being– stand up straight like a lightening illuminating the soul and indicating the Way to the Spiritual conquest.
Since then, the Wayfarer comes back to his usual state, but unable to be such as he was.
The Divine Light –which he glimpsed for a second– has left an ineffaceable stigma on his eager soul for progress. He will not desire any more what he previously desired so much, and fleeing from worldly goods, he will find himself driven to go on forward following the new Path.
Who cares if the Journey is hard, if the Abyss is terrible, if the Way is steep, if the Forest is thick and if the travel to the Summit is long? Love will guide him, and thanks to Love he will cross the great kingdom of the beautiful Anhunit, and reason will help and guide him until he stops being a Wayfarer to become a Pilgrim.
The soul reaches this point, enters the Deep Grotto where the Book of All Times with the secret about the destiny of men, but this Book never has been read by any non-initiated mortal.
There the disciple can unravel his past, live it again more consciously and more really, and from there he can enter the pure waters of Knowledge. Beatrix herself will sink him in the waters of the Fountain where only aspirants to Wisdom can enter.
But the fight still did not end. Now it is not the night of senses and reason, but the very dark night of Trial of the Spirit.
Joyful those who, in the bitter time when they are suspended on the space between Heaven and Earth, know to surrender to the Mystical Sleep in the arms of Faith because they will awaken in the Temple of Gold!
The Pilgrim must immolate until the last personal remnant, with Supreme Renunciation, to be worthy of the Divine Mother.
Before identifying himself indestructibly with Her, he has to sacrifice even the very idea of his distinction as being, and after being everything dead, and by renouncing to the fruits of the very Wisdom, he will meet her Beloved Wife.
After this Supreme Wedding, the Pilgrim –transformed into God– lives in the Eternal One and is IHS. The Divine Mother and IHS are One.