The Path to Pentecost: Day 10

The angel of the Church of Ephesus

“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: ‘The words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands.

2 “‘I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.”

Rev 2:1-7

In our previous meditation we encountered the real self. The real self, the I AM stands in the spiritual worlds. It is preparing to enter into human consciousness, but in order to do this, it has to make changes in our psyche. The I AM “walks among the seven golden lamp stands.” This is the spiritual archetype of our seven spiritual centres. John is directed by the I AM to write to himself, that aspect of self called the angel of the church in Ephesus. The angels of the seven churches are the governing intelligences of the seven spiritual centres. The church of Ephesus is the heart centre.

In some Eastern traditions, the practitioner begins at the bottom spiritual centre and opens the centres in order up the spine. This is an ancient practice, the new practice, which becomes available to us after the Resurrection, begins at the middle centre, the heart Centre, and radiates outwards in a spiral order.

Ephesus then, is the heart centre.

Ancient spiritual traditions knew that the seed of divinity lived in the heart. The Hindu writings, the Upanishads declare

Subtler than the subtle, greater than the great is the Self that is set in the cave of the heart. One beholds Him as being actionless and becomes freed from sorrow, when through the grace of the Creator they see the Lord and His majesty.

Shvetashvatara Upanishad

This seed of the divine has been waiting for the new entry of the IAM into human evolution which happens with the Christ event. It has been “enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary.”

All the centres have, over the many thousands of years of incarnations, become suffocated and clogged by different energies and entities that have entered into them. These energies have made us forget our heavenly origins. We have come to think ourselves as physical beings and this physical world as the only reality. We have lost touch with the love that dwells within the heart. The I AM accuses the heart centre of having abandoned its divine love, and directs it to remember its spiritual origins and return to its original purpose.

The reward for this return is to “eat of the tree of life which is in paradise,” in other words, we shall again be united with our spiritual home, and we shall be energised with spiritual nourishment. The renewal of the heart centre renews our memory. We are no longer physical beings on a spiritual journey, we know that we are spiritual beings on a physical journey. We come from God, and will return to God.

The image

Angel of the Church of Ephesus
The Angel of the Church of Ephesus, from The Swedenborgian Angels, Tiffany Studio 1902

The striking images of the angels of the seven churches were created in the famous Tiffany studios in 1902 as stained glass windows for the Swedenborgian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. The church was eventually demolished, and the windows disappeared from sight. They were rediscovered in the C21 and in 2003 more than one hundred years after their creation,became a travelling exhibition called, “In the Company of Angels”.

The Angel of Ephesus holds a branch of the Tree of Life in his hand, representing the renewal of the heart centre. In our thoughts and meditations today, let us become more and more aware of the power that dwells within the heart, radiating out, uniting us with itself until we are filled with light. Imagine yourself holding in your hand a branch of the Tree of Life. May this day be filled with the energies of growth and beauty.

What the angel is trying to say in this text is that the person who is integrated in Christ has only one spirit that is guiding and leading him from within. So that the seven psychic centres are being led by one spirit alone, not two, there is no division within you concerning one or the other.

Rev Mario Schoenmaker, The Book of Revelation, 1982 Lecture Series

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