Healing Tones

THE TREE OF LIFE

IF YOU WOULD GO UP . . .

. . . YOU MUST FIRST GO DOWN AND OUT . . . having kept the First Great Commandment of utter love for the “LORD thy GOD.” The second, love of neighbor as self, being like unto the first.

Just as a metaphor, consider the rocket. It goes up as the fire generated by its engines thrust downwards, giving it lift. Your heart is your spiritual engine, so-to-speak, that generates and channels power. This power is available to whatever spirits reside there and seek expression. Spirits of the world, such as hate, envy and resentment, when harbored and expressed, bring us downward and closer to the world and its loud and dissonant voice. Spirits of Love and gratitude, on the other hand, lift us upward and closer to Heaven, where the voice of the world is not heard.

If we would go up and in, we need only express the power of love downward and outward toward our world; the Earth and Her inhabitants . . . keeping the second Great Commandment of love of neighbor as self. If you would go up you must first go down. It’s the experience of “praying unceasingly.” It’s also the experience of fully incarnating as a Creator Being, an aspect of God the Creator of Heaven and Earth. It’s what we do as angels incarnate. We pray unceasingly. In such an ascension, the voice of the world is no longer heard.

I will share a timely story from my legacy work, SACRED ANATOMY. It’s about the “Tree of Life” in the midst of the Garden planted eastward in Eden, where we live and have our being, only oblivious to it. Here’s the story:

“The Great Tree”

       There is a beautiful and relevant story about a “Great Tree” in The Gospel of The Beloved Companion – The Complete Gospel of Mary Magdalene, translated from the Greek by Jehanne de Quillam.  The gospel itself is part of several scrolls of early Christian and Gnostic texts found in a cave near the upper Egyptian town of Nag Hammadi in 1945. 

       Mary Magdalene – or Miriam as Jesus called her – was one of the women who traveled with Yeshua (Jesus) and helped support his ministry. She was probably wealthy.  She rose to the level of “Apostle of apostles” due to her depth of understanding of her Master’s teachings.  He called her “The Migdalah” which means “tower” in Hebrew.  The name also means  “leader, visionary, powerful.”   

       The story tells of an interchange between Mary and Yeshua shortly after his ordeal and resurrection. In the mournful wake of their Master’s ignominious crucifixion, Mary Magdalene comforts a gathering of his disciples and shares with them what, in the author’s opinion, is one of the most profound teachings of this entire Gospel.  Can one, in this noisy world, ever come to a place where one can no longer hear the voice of the world?  My short answer is “Yes.” The story tells the long answer.

     Miriam:  My Master spoke thus to me. He said: “Miriam, blessed are you who came into being before coming into being, and whose eyes are set upon the Kingdom, who from the beginning has understood and followed my teachings.  Only from the truth I tell you, there is a Great Tree within you that does not change, summer, winter, and its leaves do not fall.  Whosoever listens to my words and ascends to its crown will not taste death, but know the truth of eternal life.” 

     Then he showed me a vision in which I saw a Great Tree that seemed to reach unto the heavens, and as I saw these things, he said, “The roots of this tree are in the earth, which is your body. The trunk extends upwards through the five regions of humanity to the crown, which is the Kingdom of the Spirit.”

Yeshua described this Great Tree as having eight boughs that bore their own unique fruits which he told Miriam to fully consume. The fruits, he told her, would grant her “the light of the Spirit that is eternal life.” On each bough stood a guardian at a gate leading to the next bough who would challenge her worthiness to pass. 

Now, the lower boughs were thick with leaves that prevented the light from reaching them and illuminating the way upward. Assuring her that He Himself would provide the light, and that as she ascended the leaves would thin out, allowing more light through from above, Yeshua told her, “Those who seek to ascend must free themselves of the world.  If you do not free yourself from the world you will die in the darkness that is the root of the tree. But if you free yourself, you will rise and reach the light that is eternal life.” 

As the story goes, Miryam’s soul ascended to the very top of the Great Tree where it was consumed by the fire of the Spirit. On the way up she met each challenge and gained access to the fruits. The fruits of the first bough were love and compassion, “the foundation of all things.” To eat of it she had to come free of all judgment and wrath, which she did, allowing her to pass the first of seven guardians, each one tempting her to fall for their lure.

The second bough was laden with the fruits of wisdom and understanding, of which she partook, having freed herself of ignorance and intolerance, which she did and proceeded upward to the third bough. This bough bore the fruits of honor and humility, which she was able to enjoy after coming free of duplicity and arrogance.  She then moved up to the fourth bough as the light increased. Strength and courage were the fruits of this bough, which she was able to enjoy having freed herself from the weakness of the flesh and overcome the “illusion of fear.” The “Master of this world” tried to claim her as his own, but she denied him.

Before moving on up to the fifth bough, Miryam had to reject the “deceiver” in order to pass through what her Master told her was “the hardest gate of all.” Here she partook of the fruits of clarity and truth, and in doing so she came to know herself “for the first time” as a child of the Living Spirit.

As her soul ascended to the sixth bough, the voice of the world became silent, and in the increased light she saw the fruits of power and healing, the power to heal her own soul and prepare it to ascend to the seventh bough.  The seventh bough’s fruits were light and goodness “that is the Spirit.” Consuming them she was filled with “a fierce joy” as her soul “turned to fire and flew upward in the flames.” Her Master then showed her the eighth and final bough, “upon which burn the fruits of the grace and beauty of the Spirit.”

Upon ascending to the eighth bough, her soul and everything she could see dissolved and was absorbed in a brilliant light, in the midst of which appeared “a woman of extraordinary beauty, clothed in garments of brilliant white.” At this climatic point, her soul melted into the extended arms and embrace of the woman in white raiment, and in that moment she was free from the world.  The vision thus ended.

Then from a distance she heard the voice of her Master telling her, “Miryam, whom I have called the Migdalah, now you have seen the All, and have known the truth of yourself, the truth that I AM. Now you have become the completion of completions.”  From that moment on through her remaining days, the story says, Miryam lived in silence, no longer hearing the voice of the world.

“JUDGE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT“

Silence, in my experience, is a state of being rater than of not talking or doing. I can talk from out of the silence in my heart. It’s always here in my heart when my mind is not paying attention to and judging the voice of the world . . . my heart engaged with the Beloved and divorced from the world. I love being here. It’s where I am intimately aware of being an angel incarnate.

Judgment of good and evil is an ever present trap that can get one involved with the world and the abusive ways of men. Jesus taught that we should not judge lest we be judged, for what judgment we cast toward others will come back to find its measured mark in us. He went on to say that if we judge we should “judge righteous judgment.”

I’ve learned an uncommon meaning of that word: right-use — to judge by the right and wrong use of things, which is usually obvious. One would not use one’s automobile for any other purpose than to convey one from one place to another. That’s the purpose for which it was designed and built to serve. Any other use would be abuse.

The inherent design and purpose of anything and everything indicates its right use. Money was invented as a way of measuring and recording the value of exchange of goods and services. Any other use of money would then be abuse, or wrong use.

Closer to home, my mind and heart, as well as my body, have their unique designs that determine their right and proper use. To use them for any other purpose would be abuse or wrong use. When anything created is put to abuse and used for any other purpose than that for which it was created, it will break down and become useless, at best, and destructive at worst . . . as we’ve all experienced and observed in our own lives and in the world where people use and abuse one another and the things they create.

A blatant case in point is how we have created guns and bombs, which serve one purpose only: to kill and destroy the forms of life. I can’t think of any other purpose guns, bullets, bombs and army tanks serve. These are the evil fruits of the wrong and self-righteous use of human intelligence and free will. It is said by those who have been there that war is hell. War makes a hell out of heaven. Hell is here and is the experience of living in the Kingdom of Heaven while ignoring Natural and Divine Laws. “Thou shalt not kill” is an ancient but active Divine Command . . . to which I will add “with bullets or words.” Let those who have ears hear.

I would love to hear your thoughts. Until my next post,

Be love. Be loved. — Anthony

Email: tpal70@gmail.com