11:1 Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 2 but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. 3 And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”
4 These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. 5 And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. 6 They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. 7 And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, 8 and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. 9 For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, 10 and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. 11 But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. 12 Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here!” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. 13 And at that hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.
14 The second woe has passed; behold, the third woe is soon to come.
Rev 11:1-14
We have arrived at the halfway point of our journey through the book of Revelation. Revelation as a vision can be interpreted on many levels, but we have chosen to understand it as a description of the occult anatomy of the human being and its transformation by the risen Christ. This transformation first occurs on the spiritual template of the human being. Each time we incarnate we utilise this template to design our physical and subtle bodies for the new incarnation.
Chapter 11 puts a number in front of us. This number is forty-two. In the Ancient Greek culture, the months were measured by the lunar cycle and contained 30 days each. Forty-two months of thirty days contain 1,260 days, which is equivalent to three and a half years.
John is first told to measure the Temple of God. The body is the Temple of God. Paul calls it the Temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 6:19-20). We are not talking of just the physical body, but the whole complex of spiritual bodies, known as the subtle body.
The two witnesses now come into play. The two witnesses are two olive trees and also two lampstands. That is, they are connected with the earth and the energies of the earth. They “stand before the Lord of the earth.”
Much of the knowledge of the energies and energy channels of the subtle body was lost in the West. It was however retained in the East. In the Indian tradition these channels are called nadis. In the Chinese tradition they are known as meridians.
Two of the most important channels run in parallel up the spine. These are the two witnesses. These channels are connected to the meridians which run down the front of the legs, through the centre in the sole of the foot, known in Chinese medicine as “the bubbling springs”. These channels connect with the two channels of the “two witnesses”. These channels diverge at the shoulders. Each channel runs down the back of the arms, through the centres on the hands, back up the front of the arms and unites with the central channel which runs up through the spine and into the spiritual centres of the head.
There are two points to consider. First, after 1,260 years, the transformation will reach a critical stage. From this point, the great beast, that is the energies which want to bind us to the earth, will rise. Since the thirteenth century, these energies have entered into our cultural consciousness to such a point that our modern western culture denies the reality of spirit.
Second, Revelation tells us that after three and a half days, “a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet.” Three and a half days is the period of initiation, so our subtle body is being transformed since the thirteenth century. In Revelation, years and days can be interchanged. Three and a half years is 1,260 days, which again translates to 1,260 years. This means that the transformation of the subtle body will be completed in the future, in the twenty sixth century (2520).
We are currently in a time of great transformation of human consciousness. Eventually, in about four hundred years, we will be able to incarnate in a body which has become completely transformed by Christ. Those who have committed themselves to Christ consciousness will be able to manifest a spiritual consciousness in their waking lives. They have, as Revelation puts it, gone up to heaven. The difference between these individuals and the rest of humanity will become so evident that humanity as a whole will be pushed to reconsider their assumptions about life and reality.
Our choice, as we walk the path of Pentecost is to willingly undertake this transformation now. If we do this then we too become the witnesses. Our connection to the earth is first honoured and then transformed. As we perceive the wounding of our planet caused by the development of the modern mind, the need for more and more souls to witness for the earth becomes the greatest source of hope for our future survival.
The image
Here, in the Angers Tapestry, that enormous compilation of the Book of Revelation, we find the death of the two witnesses dramatically portrayed.
For today, let us realise the enormity of our thinking energies. They have carried us through thousands of years of evolution, but now, it is time to lay them to rest, so that we can move to the next level.
For today, let us give thanks to our thinking and reasoning abilities which have created our present consciousness, then release them. Let us move into the silence of the greater fulfilment, a deeper love and a greater wisdom.
“May we listen with an inner ear to the secrets which are only revealed in the silence. Make us deeply conscious of that which you have entrusted to us. Grant that all of us present here may find in ourselves and in our interaction a greater fulfilment, a deeper wisdom and a greater love. This we pray in the name of the Christ. So shall it be.”
Rev Mario Schoenmaker, The Book of Revelation, 1983 Lecture Series