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In this third volume on the Egyptian Arch Gnosis, Jan van Rijckenborgh discusses books 10, 11 and 12 of the Corpus Hermeticum, bringing the reader a deeper understanding of the development and significance that a new mode of life plays as an expression and testimony, of the path towards soul rebirth.

In this volume the author discusses the esoteric aspects of the inner developments of the head, the heart and the hands, and the role played by the Gnostic Light- forces in these processes. By continuing his analysis, he offers the reader a deeper insight into their own state of being, showing them how the words of Hermes contain the same universal truths that have always been freely offered to those who genuinely seek.

Focusing on the threefold consciousness of man, the head sanctuary, the heart sanctuary, and the hands (the life sanctuary), Jan van Rijckenborgh explores the spiritual necessity of bringing these three levels of consciousness into a true harmony of activity. What the heart feels, the mind thinks, and what the mind thinks, the hands will enact - such is the union of head, heart and hands - a union that expresses the very essence of the new soul.

Beschrijving

The impediments on the path are described by the author in volume three, based on the books 10, 11 and 12 of the Corpus Hermeticum. He makes clear to the reader that a new attitude of life is a necessity. A new desire in the heart attracts light force, which influences the blood. The blood, charged with light force, subsequently enlightens the head and induces a new thinking! This sustained new attitude of life is the gateway to the mystery temple.

Inhoudsopgave

Preface .......................................................................... 15

I Tenth Book: That The Good is to be Found in God Alone and Nowhere Else

II The Mystery of The Good

Human good and evil

Love also is to be found in God alone

Stand in detachment

III The Path of Self-Surrender

Aesclepius, the seeker and healer-to-be

The academic sea and the journey to the isle of Caphar Salama, the land of peace

Self-surrender

Group unity: the soul community

IV The One Path to Liberation

The ark of the young Gnosis

The path to the Only Good

The essence of the soul

The birth out of passion

Human goodness and its opposite

V The Delusory Goodness of Evil

Pessimists and optimists

Why man forgets so easily

The sensorial state is unsuitable for perceiving the Only Good 

A twofold burden

The need to experience the path

Help is available in abundance

VI The Redeeming Song of Repentance

The state of detachment

The sevenfold heart

The song of repentance

VII Eleventh Book: About the Mentality and the Senses

VIII The Mind and the Senses

Earthly man's bondage to nature

The refinement of the mentality

What is purely human

The self-unmasking of natural passion

IX Astral Influences

What happens during sleep

Hereditary and karmic predestiny

The influences of the universal Gnostic Chain

The way most pupils come to the School

Who shall liberate me from the body of this death?

X Black Demonism

The earth and the world

Reason and mentality

The drama of our lives

Counternatural sexuality 

The result of misusing astral forces

Black demonism and the liberating path

XI The Formula of the Path to Life

The divine seed

The light shines in the darkness 

The law of sin

He who persists in living according to the flesh, will die

Hermetic virtue

Hermetic moderation

Hermetic godliness

XII The Earth, Womb of the World

Man's cognitive faculty

The disruption of the divine order

Christ, the Planetary Spirit

The most powerful hermetic advice

XIII Receive All Things, Relinquish All Things and thereby Renew All Things

The divine dialectics of the world

The avenging dialectics of the earth

XIV Man's One and Only Aim

The world's cyclical rhythm

The proof of sin is the law

The experiences of the Cathars and Bogomils in relation to the law

XV Our Way of Life and Present-Day Circumstances

The ancient Brotherhoods’ method of work

The garment of the country where we live

The necessity of the living soul-state

Mercury, the god of merchants and thieves

Professional practice and the new way of life

Education and the new way of life

XVI The Circulation of the Gnostic Light Forces

Blessed are those who yearn for the spirit

The tenfold process of the retrograde movement

The four roses on CRC’s hat

The outpouring of the Holy Spirit

XVII Twelfth Book: The Key of Hermes Trismegistus 

XVIII Seek First the Kingdom and Its Righteousness 

The Only Good

A comforting certainty

Two aspects of the fundamental nature

Desire and volition

The face of unholy desire

The nature of death

XIX The Sancta Democratio

The cohesion of the All

Our forefathers, Uranus and Chronos

How the retrograde movement comes about

XX From Living Soul to Life-Giving Spirit

Entering into silence

Learning to hear the voice of the silence

The process of deification

How the downfall of the soul is kept within the limits of the law

How souls come into being

How does a microcosm come into being?

Return again, O sons of the fire!

XXI The Seven Periods of Creation

The origin of the opposing state

Eras and cycles

The Fall: curbing our development

The danger of denial

The Judas drama

The punishment of the sinful soul 

XXII He Must Increase, I Must Perish

The darkening of the intellectual brain-consciousness

Back to recognition 

Our debts to the other realms of nature

XXIII Man and the Path

Man and the divine plan

The consequences of denial

The karmic higher self

A key to the path

The necessity of silence

What does talking mean?

What does listening mean?

XXIV The Soul-Man

The creative power of the head sanctuary

Speaking and listening

Being creative in the service of the Gnosis

The consequences of abusing the higher creative functions

God's name cannot be pronounced, nor can our hearing perceive it

XXV The Captivity of the Senses 

The urge to travel 

Art, science and religion

Grail, Cathar and Cross with Roses

Denial and acceptance

XXVI All Gnosis is Incorporeal

What is knowable and what is not

The religion of Hermes

The Spirit-Soul 

A high, innate duty

XXVII The World and Its Task

Karma

The treasure of the Universal Chain

A cloud of witnesses

The planetary god of mankind

The classical image of the two heads

The physical consciousness of nature-born man

XXVIII Spirit and Matter

The natural consciousness

The necessity of the link with the spirit

Attaching the rose to the cross

A retrograde movement

XXIX The Essential Mystery of Man

God, the world and man

The second death: the victory

The earthly soul and the rose

Cooperation between the earthly and the heavenly man

XXX The Mystery of the Fire (I)

The unknowable and the knowable fire

The earthly fire and the spiritual fire

Unmasking

Fire and water

The root-fire of the spirit

XXXI The Mystery of the Fire (II)

A tree is known by its fruits

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God

The ascent of the spiritual body

Be steadfast, immovable ............................................................... 221

XXXII Cain and Abel

Spiritual man and nature-born man

The true man and the pseudo man

The legend of Cain and Abel

Fire-types and water-types

Eden, the land of heavenly joy

XXXIII The Classic Betrayal (I)

The children of God

The possibility of regeneration of the Abel-man

An ever-repeated endeavor

Fratricide

The indestructibility of the Church of the Spirit

The aim of the aeonic priesthood

The betrayal of the spirit

The Council of Constantinople

The Council of Chalcedonia

XXXIV The Classic Betrayal (II)

Objections against aeonic science

Theology

Truth and falsehood

How the Bible came into being

The magic of betrayal

The realm of the spirit

When Cain's sacrifice is accepted

The path of those dedicated to God

Glossary

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