Reflection N° 136 - Symbols
The extraordinary growth of Christianity for the last 2000 years covering the planet and beyond toward the infinite space, with instruments and physical presence as previous Races never did, the detailed exploration on corners of the Earth, even at deep beds of Oceans, the control over secrets of matter in its diverse manifestations, and the creation of new elements, the inrush in life and its mysteries producing new species used en masse for daily nurture, and the construction of gigantic devices for reproducing the creation of the world and understanding it, all those things that the modern civilization has produced are based on a symbol: the Cross.
The power of such symbol –the Cross– must be so strong when it has so many achievements. As a symbol, the Cross is ancient and dispersed. You can find it on Azteca and Maya relieves of America, and on the ideographic Chinese writing. The great triad is two convex curves one over other and a cross in the middle; sky, earth and man. The prototype by Leonardo da Vinci, a man in a circle marking perfect proportions, is a Cross. The gigantic Christ, on the summit of Corcovado protecting the city of Rio de Janeiro, is a Cross. In European cities, over belfries of Churches, on fields along Medieval routes, in family houses over walls, in front of school classrooms, offices and government bureaus, at any outstanding and public place, squares, stores, groceries, and gas stations there are crosses, sometimes with the crucified one, other times a lonely cross. Priests and nuns, pious persons, children and old women wear crosses hanging from their necks, golden crosses, silver crosses, or wooden crosses. When Saint Paul of the Cross left Mount Argentaro to preach to peoples of Italy, in the eighteen century, along with his brother John Baptist, they both were ever wearing a big wooden cross as a motivation for the sermon. The Cross is a defenseless man of open arms in all cultures because he looks like that and his power lies on such analogy; he is the wayfarer seeking a path; he is the Pilgrim and his road. The Cross along with the crucified one is the Christ, the man of all days that undergoes pains and suffering, the hungry man, the destitute man, the sick man, the tortured man like Christ in Jerusalem, the one that has been forgotten by an opulent society which does not give anything; those men are you and me and millions in deserts of Africa and in slums; they are jobless people in Europe and United States, and the handicapped.
The ancient Romans used to crucify. The first century A.D., the first slave uprising took place in Italy, led by Spartacus and repressed by the Marcus Licinius Crassus, the Consul, one of the triumvirs along with Pompeii and Julius Caesar. From one end to other, the Via Apia was full of crosses with captured slaves as an example for the destitute and satisfaction for potentates. The ancient Romans used to crucify as a warning. In Palestine, the year 33, by means of his words, Jesus subverted the people, and Pilate did not hesitate and crucified him to placate the Jewish priesthood. Jesus passed away as a loner. But the symbol was so powerful so that millions of slaves of the Empire to follow his Teaching despite persecution. The Christians grew up without doctrines or philosophies, for they came later but became majority some few centuries later. Along with the Empire’s decadence, Christianity became official religion with rites and ceremonies, expanded throughout the world little by little. But Jesus Christ remains a loner whose sorrows have been forgotten. Now he came back, as he has promised, but victorious, and Maitreya, his present name, is Master of Justice. A New era open its gates.
Many religions and undertakings have symbols for their immediate identification. The Jews have the six-pointed Star of David, and the awful circumcision that is unappealable and private. The Moslems’ identity is the Half-Moon (Crescent) covering from Morocco on the Atlantic Ocean to islands of the Pacific Ocean. The Half-Moon is the Prophet, and the Sun illuminating it is Allah. Among the Assyrians is the Winged Bull –a symbol of big power. In Japan, it is the Rising Sun represented on its flag. In China, it is a Winged Dragon, –a symbol of human wisdom. In France, it is a Blue, White and Red Flag, –colors of bourgeoisie, monarchy and the people. The Soviet Union had a red flag with a Hammer and Sickle. And the United Nations have a World Map.
Not only religious and political institutions express themselves by a usually generally graphic symbol, which is easily perceived by the eyes. Also factories, stores, sport organizations and clubs, and even trade marks use and register symbols. Such symbols are worth millions though they may say nothing. Marlborough is a cigarette, though later it has invaded other areas like sport games, TV stars, clothes, drug addicts, and androids, and becomes a terrific market power. Paco (drug) is a logotype for discredited night persons. In Mendoza, like everywhere, the winemakers are proud of transforming their own wine, of any quality, into an international trade mark like Coca Cola. Maradona is the symbol of a decadent Argentina, and he is protected by the Government, in spite of his failures, drug, obesity and mediocrity. He is a symbol of the political power.
The Canon of Master Santiago’s Teachings, printed on books and Internet pages offers a complete Course, –XXXV, Archaic Symbology– whose lessons have been used for years the foundation and material of daily meditation for the Sons. Also they can be studied on Courses XCV, Affective Meditation, XX, Exercises and Examples of Meditation, XXI, Commentaries on Meditation, and XXII, Methods of Meditation. On the Course Archaic Symbology, Teaching 1, March of the Soul, you can read: “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 a human soul from lower planes to reach spiritual freedom”.
In Cafh, during years of is existence and under Master Santiago’s guide, the main tool of spiritual development has been meditation exercises daily practiced, so as they have been explained by the above-mentioned Courses and by free meditations according to needs of the soul anywhere and anytime. These meditations, based on traditional symbology, offer many techniques, which are affective, discursive, sensitive, intense or soft, simple, et cetera, and constitute a spiritual practice for all lifetime. Certain souls practice exercises of only one type; other souls practice all exercises in harmony with operative meditation (manual work), concentration, gymnastics and postures, strolls and group or lonely retreats, at home, in a temple, in the open through the countryside. Master Santiago ever warned about meditation to remain alive and move the soul with new spiritual undertakings. In Cafh, meditation and all mystical and ascetical efforts do not aim at achieving psychic powers of expanded consciousness, but at Renunciation. Those symbols of the above-said Courses take the practitioner to the spiritual freedom by permanent Renunciation. Therefore, a symbol becomes tool of integral knowledge that is more suitable to work spiritually because it does teach and transform.
After continuous practice and endless search one is discovering his own symbols that have led our lives throughout many incarnations –they are exclusive symbols acting from silence and secret darkness, and guiding and discovering things. Such symbols become clearer and clarer, acquire consistency and meaning, and bring about a genuine vocation to guide our steps through the lifetime, –not only deeds of the soul, feeling and ideals, but even the full man, including family-, society- and economy relations, that is, integrality.
History gives us examples of lives that were symbols to themselves and to a society where they were acting. Louis Pasteur, a discoverer of so many benefits, was a living symbol that awakened many vocations; in France, the main Institute of Biological Investigations is named after him, The General San Martin is a model of patriotism and moral integrity for the Argentine people. Since his childhood, Werner Von Braun worked on space rockets, and his ideal was to reach the Moon; he achieved it with the rocket Saturn and a North American crew. A person that is able to discover his particular symbol and consequently acts with it every time of the day becomes a model to others.
As extracts of wisdom, symbols reach quickly the souls; they are not concepts or code laws; they are condensed wisdom. A soul can follow them or not, but even when symbols resist a reasoning analysis, they cannot be taken to pieces like a clock. They are simple objects. A continuous meditation shall allow our soul to open, and some unexpected day, such resistant symbols, opened like a flower, entirely delivers its fragrance, color, beauty and meaning. It is from that illumination that such symbol is ours and the symbol becomes oneself.
Certain splendid beings have lived for years and suffered a lot, and though they do not meditate or know exercises, they have become a symbol of what they are within. Little children, by their condition of pure and merry beings, and by spontaneity and lack of malice become potential symbols of beautiful life; to take care of them is a sacred duty that becomes one’s reward. Many peasants that have ever been contacting the earth and plants, working with their hands and far from covetousness and will-to-possess, become symbols of potentials in the New Race –a naïve, primitive and healthy Race.
Dear Reader: If you are young, nothing can be more beautiful than to start the path discovering what it is, and not what universities might say about social competition or street passions. Inner loneliness, disagreement, sleepless nights and rebelliousness shall push you to seek your own personal meaning.
José González Muñoz
January 2001