12 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. 14 The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. 15 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16 calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Rev 6:12-17
We have come to the base centre, the gonads centre. This is the centre of raw sexual force. It is the centre that desires to continue physical life. In the Tibetan Book of the Dead, we are told that after the soul dies and spends time in the spiritual worlds, it is attracted to a man and a woman having sex. The attraction is so strong that the soul is drawn into the sexual act and returns to incarnation in the embryo that is created. In our tradition, the Fall into physical existence occurs when Adam and Eve first see themselves as naked. That is, as sexual beings. The strongest energies then are found in this centre. This centre is linked to the crown centre. The energies which entered into the lowest centre also entered into the highest and cut us off from our connection with the spiritual worlds. We lost the memory of our spiritual origin, we thought we came from the biology of the physical earth.
Opening this seal then causes the greatest shift in our consciousness so far. It is a seismic experience. Our whole world changes. The old consciousness was illuminated by the old Sun, our understanding that we are physical beings. The old unconscious, the Moon, connected us with the evolutionary past of the physical body. First to our parents, their parents and all former generations, back further and further to the origins of our species in single-cell organisms.
When this centre is unsealed, we experience an enormous life crisis. Every understanding we have of who we are is destroyed. The old ruling energies, the kings of the earth, the great ones and the generals are no longer in charge. They return to hide in the earth from whence they came.
The only way forward is to embrace the new consciousness of the Lamb. This is a consciousness of sacrifice, of letting go, of dying to the old. It is on the other side of this experience of death, the Dark Night, that the final centre, the crown centre will be unsealed. This final transformation will take time, and it will change everything.
The image
This is one of Albrecht Durer’s famous woodcuts of the Book of Revelation. The black and white image reminds us that when Durer was creating these famous woodcuts, Western spirituality was indeed black and white.
We see the serenity of the heavenly worlds (the Crown Centre) and we see the panic and terror of the earthly world, the Base Centre.
Rev Mario tells us that our consciousness is currently that of the fifth seal. We are experiencing an awakening of consciousness. We are now moving into the future, the consciousness of the sixth seal. John’s vision promises us a complete transformation of our current consciousness. Alas, for most of us this will occur through a complete transformation of the earth we live upon. The signs, as Jesus would say, are already visible.
For today, let us reflect upon our behaviour. Are our thoughts and actions connected to the past? Do we make decisions because of our links to family, social group, social status or nation? These decisions are empowered by the base centre. Let us today make at least one decision from consideration of the future. After all, we are creating this future, for our children, our children’s children, and, finally, for ourselves.
The fifth period, the fifth seal is the present culture. That’s why in this particular period you will find the awakening of consciousness among the people seeking and searching many spiritual dimensions. How many people have I met who say, “What you are saying I have been looking for, for so long”. Yet in spite of the injustices, even on religious levels, I think the world is much more religious now than ever before. In spite of the fact that people do not go to church. In spite of it all there lies a deep motivating force within the souls of today. People, like the souls under the altar, are saying, “How long dear Lord?” People are spiritually conscious because they are conscious of their spirituality, where previously they went to church but weren’t conscious of their spirituality. So today there is a much greater brewing of spirituality than there has ever been before in history.
In the future the sixth seal brings earthquakes. Here we find the coming together of the elements that have separated, i.e. the sun, the moon, the stars. Already there are signs that this is happening. When this happens then obviously something has to happen to the make-up of man; man will no longer live as he does now. Something must give way. Will we be again what we were in the Lemurian Epoch without bones etc? How will man look in the future? From epoch to epoch man has always changed his expression.
Rev Mario Schoenmaker, The Book of Revelation, 1983 Lecture Series