The Path to Pentecost Day 34

William Blake, The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea

13:1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marvelled as they followed the beast. 4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven. 7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, 8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. 9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

10 If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.
Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

Rev 13:1-10

We have observed the working of the dragon in the world. The dragon, Ahriman, wants to attack the soul and devour our new-born I AM. Now a second spiritual force enters into evolution.

The beast rises from the sea. The sea is the astral. It represents the reservoir of our emotions, instincts and reactions, so the beast is a spiritual power that works within the astral. We know this beast as Lucifer. The beast has seven heads. Like Ahriman, Lucifer also works within the spiritual centres. The beast has ten horns. Each horn has a diadem. The horns represent the old clairvoyance. There are ten, representing the ten centres on the Tree of Life. Some of these centres are identified with the seven chakras, but others are to do with the way we connect and interact with the world.

Lucifer wants to control our thinking and our spirituality. Unlike Ahriman who wants to absorb the human soul into the earth, Lucifer wants to free us of our physical body so that we might exist as spiritual beings. Christ wants us to become spiritual beings too. The difference is that if we become spiritual beings through Lucifer, we will come under the domain of Lucifer, we will become slaves to the Luciferic influences. Luciferic spirituality is an emotional spirituality. We experience emotional heights and depths. These are fake. We can easily become enslaved to such experiences. Christ on the other hand will make us free. We will even be free to reject Christ.

Our era is permeated by Luciferic energies. We see everywhere the fruits of Luciferic thinking in our science, our technology, and often in spiritual teachings manifested in the world. These fruits are powerful, almost miraculous. They are the miracle of the healing of the beast. It is, however, a false miracle.

Luciferic science and technology give us the power to devastate and destroy the natural world. If this were carried to its logical conclusion, the world would become uninhabitable. Souls could no longer incarnate and would remain in the lower spiritual regions under the power of Lucifer. This result is described by Revelation as the authority that is given to the beast “over every tribe and people and language and nation”. Spirituality becomes mechanical, dogmatic and rule-based, and especially it becomes sentimental. Our lives become dominated by karma. Revelation puts it like this:

If anyone is to be taken captive,
to captivity he goes;
if anyone is to be slain with the sword,
with the sword must he be slain.

There are still however many souls who can distinguish between the lie of Lucifer and Christ. Christ is truth. Truth brings light into the world, because Christ is the light of the world. At one point in our individual evolution we make a choice between the lie and truth. Our particular period of history is making this choice very obvious. If we choose truth, then we choose life. Our names are, as Revelation puts it, “written in the book of life of the Lamb.”

At this point in evolution we have come to a crossroads. We can choose to worship the beast, that is, we give away our ability to think and understand as individuals, or we can choose life. At this critical point in time, we do not need to stand up and make speeches, the world would not believe us. We do not need to take action, the world would resist us. We need to witness on behalf of Christ, to stand firm in our individuality and to live in the truth.

The image

William Blake, The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea (c 1805), pen and ink with watercolor over graphite on paper, 40.1 x 35.6 cm, The National Gallery of Art (Rosenwald Collection), Washington, DC. Courtesy of The National Gallery of Art.
William Blake, The Great Red Dragon and the Beast from the Sea (c 1805), pen and ink with watercolor over graphite on paper, 40.1 x 35.6 cm, The National Gallery of Art (Rosenwald Collection), Washington, DC. Courtesy of The National Gallery of Art.

Blake's portrayal of the beast rising from the sea also features the dragon. Both entities feature the seven heads and ten horns, representing the negative energies that have invaded our own consciousness over many thousands of years. As chapter 12 tells us though, these energies are opposed by the force Revelation names as Archangel Michael.

Since the nineteenth century, Michael has been active within human consciousness. He is creating a Michael consciousness. The individual with such a consciousness is one who is developing the ability to think. Not to think influenced by the emotions, or past experiences, but to think purely. Michael also works to reinstate our feeling levels so that we can communicate with one another on the soul level.

For today, let us be aware of our thinking. Let us watch our thoughts and observe when emotion or negative energies from past experiences try to invade us. Let us think like Michael. Let us think spiritually.

Part of the new consciousness now developing through you and I is what I call the Michael consciousness. With this consciousness we will no longer be abstract and indulge in nonsensical talk. We will acknowledge that in reality the body, soul and spirit are operating in unity in this Cosmos. Then you have to be careful that you don’t become self righteous, for that is one of the great problems of spiritual life.

Rev Mario Schoenmaker, The Book of Revelation, 1984 Lecture Series

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