Every aspirant on the path of self-realization must encounter and battle negative forces, both within themselves and within the internal dimensions. This eternal struggle is represented in every spiritual tradition by the confrontation between good and evil, the struggle of the soul against the animal mind, desire, defects, sins, etc. This arcanum also warns of diabolic entities who fight to pull initiates from the spiritual path, so as to enter submerged devolution within the infernal worlds. T...
Aug 19, 2018•2 hr 3 min
Through consistent discipline, practitioners of the spiritual path learn to overcome great dangers, traumas, and obstacles in their daily life. As students work on the comprehension and elimination of the ego, they experience great joy, enthusiasm, and inspiration, since the disciple, according to Samael Aun Weor, comes to experience divinity and therefore love the gnostic esoteric work above all things. Hope is the result of alchemy between priest and priestess. Through the sexual power of the ...
Jul 22, 2018•1 hr 57 min
The path of initiation is filled with dangers both within and without. Those disciples who want to consciously return to divinity and achieve the Self-realization of the Being must vigorously defend their spirituality against the temptations of the black lodge and the animal ego. This is accomplished through studying, understanding, and confronting this dangerous arcanum within oneself. People who begin the spiritual path but do not conserve and transform their creative energies lose their soul;...
Jun 24, 2018•2 hr 10 min
Religions have taught us to believe that the devil is some extemporaneous, historical personage whom we must despise in accordance with dogma and superstition. However, such a caricature fails to represent the essential wisdom of temptation and the spiritual role it plays in the development of the soul. Discover the genuine significance of Lucifer, the “bearer of light” within sexual alchemy and the perfect matrimony. He is part of divinity that provides rigorous ordeals, sufferings, and difficu...
May 20, 2018•2 hr 8 min
Building off the prior arcanum, temperance or psychological equilibrium is achieved through the radical death of desire. By comprehending and eliminating secret faults, the consciousness gains balance, inner strength, equanimity, and serenity. In this manner, the disciple knows how to create and fully perfect the soul. This card illustrates the principles of the alchemical science, the mixture of two divine substances within the perfect matrimony to form the mighty elixir of long life: the fount...
Apr 22, 2018•1 hr 59 min
Humanity fears death, the unknown. Likewise, the number thirteen is considered unlucky, especially within Western culture. Despite the superstitions surrounding this subject, the thirteenth arcanum contains tremendous truths about the spiritual nature of death that are essential to study and experience within oneself. People fear death and extinction, believing it to be an end to the self. However, all great mystical traditions teach that in order to experience the new, the old must die. Theref...
Mar 25, 2018•2 hr 16 min
The work of the apostle is characterized by profound works in alchemy, meditation, and sacrifice for humanity. Through selfless service, the apostolate experiences all the beauties and sufferings of the path of initiation, from adulation and praise to condemnation and persecution. While the initiate suffers tremendously for the benefit of others, he or she learns to transform and endure tribulations through patience and the perfect matrimony. Discover how to develop the pure potentiality of the ...
Feb 18, 2018•2 hr 36 min
The alchemical science and art of the spirit reside in how the student controls creative energy, which can be channeled through the consciousness or within animal desire, egotism, and defects. The force of persuasion is both social and intimate―sexual energy can empower conscious action, individual liberation, and selfless service for humanity, or that very same force can be harnessed within a matrimony to overcome the diabolical qualities of the lower self. Tranquility and kindness are much mor...
Jan 21, 2018•2 hr 27 min
The mechanical laws of nature govern the present psychological state of humanity―for both good and ill. By transcending the forces of nature and their subsequent influence on the mind, the initiate enters the higher mysteries: states of unconditioned, blissful consciousness free from the limitations of matter. Discover how mother nature functions through the law of evolution: birth, progress, development, and growth; and the law of devolution: death, regression, destruction, and decay. Our full,...
Dec 17, 2017•2 hr 8 min
Every disciple who follows the path of sexual and moral purity encounters solitude and psychological suffering, which must be comprehended in order to be transformed into understanding and wisdom. The fundamental precept of the ninth arcanum is initiation into the higher mysteries, achieved by reverence, remorse, recognition of one's errors, and awakening consciousness. The number nine also signifies the genesis of the soul through the power of sexuality, otherwise known on the tree of life as t...
Nov 19, 2017•2 hr 22 min
The eighth arcanum hides many mysteries essential to kabbalah and alchemy: the different levels of consciousness and the scientific work with creative energy. Discover how the holy eight, the sign of the infinite and sacred tantrism, applies to the mystical science of the Tree of Life ["the tree of lives," otz ha-chaim] and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil [otz ha-da'ath tob ve ra, which can also be translated as "the tree of knowledge of purity and impurity"]. This lecture explores alchem...
Oct 22, 2017•2 hr 2 min
Spiritual development is based on struggle, effort, challenges, and difficulties, primarily in how the consciousness learns to comprehend and eliminate egos, defects, vices, and errors. This is a spiritual war mentioned throughout the conflicts of the Bible and the Qur'an, how the Innermost, our spirit, commands, conquers, and overcomes the obstacles to His Self-realization. Discover the principles upon which the spirit triumphs over animality, desire, egotism, and conditions of mind. This lectu...
Sep 24, 2017•1 hr 45 min
To arrive at complete knowledge of divinity, the soul must undergo specific trials and temptations, symbolized by the Sixth Arcanum of the tarot. The disciple must confront, in a state of equanimity, insight, and dispassion, the undesirable elements he or she carries within the psyche. Such egotistical elements come in the form of pride, anger, greed, gluttony, laziness, envy, and most of all, the capital defect of lust. Sexual desire is the original sin that expelled Adam and Eve from Eden, the...
Aug 20, 2017•2 hr 14 min
The law of causality is present in every level of nature, from gross materiality to the heights of the psyche and spiritual abstraction. This law has been known as karma in the East (from the Sanskrit karman: action and consequence). The Judeo-Christian tradition has referred to this law as the Torah: the divine law of balance and equilibrium that serves as the basis for every mystical tradition. Spiritual life is based upon laws and the implementation of their causes. Therefore, learn how to de...
Jul 23, 2017•1 hr 39 min
The Emperor of Tarot and Kabbalah represents our inner spirit, known as Chesed: "Mercy" in Hebrew, the fourth Sephirah or sphere from the top of the Tree of Life. Our inner spirit, divinity, or particular God, is perfect, yet he longs to acquire self-knowledge, unity, and integration of the inferior parts of his psyche, represented by the four elements: air (Netzach / mind), fire (Hod / emotions), water (Yesod / vitality) and earth (Malkuth / physicality). This feat of religion (religare: reunio...
Jun 18, 2017•1 hr 34 min
The trinity constitutes an important aspect of many world religions and reflects the generative laws of divine nature. The number three is the synthesis of the previous two arcana, how the masculine / affirmative and feminine / receptive forces combine and reconcile into a perfect unity, the neutral / synthetic principle, to create physical and spiritual life. As above, so below. Just as human beings cannot create children without masculine and feminine principles, likewise individuals cannot ge...
May 21, 2017•1 hr 30 min
For creation to emerge, the unity (masculine, positive, or projective force) unfolds into a duality (the feminine, negative, or receptive force). Just as divine nature is initiated and formed through these two principles, likewise the human being must work with both the sacred masculine and sacred feminine in order to advance spiritually. Every priest (representative of the Divine Father) requires his priestess (reflective of the ineffable feminine or Divine Mother Kundalini) in order to perform...
Apr 23, 2017•1 hr 47 min
Every cosmos, whether macrocosmic (universal) or microcosmic (within the human being) is based upon divine, eternal laws, the latter being systematically represented within the tarot. The Magician is the divine masculine principle that initiates any endeavor, specifically in relation to the path of initiation: the induction into a higher way of spiritual being and the complete development of one's true human potential. Learn how to become a practical magician: a being who fulfills the divine wil...
Mar 12, 2017•1 hr 39 min
"Blue time or rest therapeutics [retrospection meditation] has basic rules without which it would be impossible to emancipate ourselves from the mortifying shackles of the mind." ―Samael Aun Weor, The Revolution of the Dialectic The culminating lecture of this course provides definite, scientific methods for perceiving, understanding, and eliminating the causes of suffering. Learn how to perform retrospection meditation: the review, study, and transformation of internal psychological conditions....
Feb 26, 2017•1 hr 34 min
"[Al-Jurayri] said that whoever does not establish awe of duty and vigilance in his relationship to God will not arrive at disclosure of the unseen or contemplation of the divine." —Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Continuing the discussion on spiritual insight, this lecture outlines the path of meditation in accordance with Sufi mysticism and the three fundamental stages of initiation: imagination, inspiration, and intuition. Through imagination or perception of internal imagery in...
Feb 12, 2017•1 hr 38 min
"For the wise, to imagine is to see." ―Samael Aun Weor "The key to success in worship lies in meditative reflection (fikrat)…whoever persists in such reflection in the heart will behold the invisible realm in the spirit. Whoever contemplates God through keeping watch over the thoughts which pass through his heart will be exalted by God in all of his outward deeds." ―Dhu'l-Nun al-Misri Upon attaining serenity of mind, the practitioner of meditation must develop and rely on developing the penetrat...
Feb 05, 2017•2 hr 11 min
When you lack the elements of serenity, Even if you meditate assiduously, You will not achieve concentration Even in thousands of years. —Atisha’s Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment Tibetan Buddhism has outlined nine fundamental stages for arriving at a calm, balanced, and serene mind, known in Sanskrit as Shamatha or Calm Abiding, a state of concentration marked by its perfect equanimity and effortlessness to maintain. This lecture explains the path of these nine stages of concentration, from a...
Jan 29, 2017•1 hr 49 min
The true nature of the mind is equanimity, a profound state of silence that is actualized through our use of energy: psychological, emotional, and sexual. Prana is the basis of physical and spiritual life, synthesized and highly condensed within the sexual creative energy. It is the power that grants the sincere meditation practitioner the capacity to silence the mind and to develop strong concentration, so as to lay the foundation for genuine meditation. This lecture discusses Swami Sivananda's...
Jan 22, 2017•1 hr 46 min
"Let’s ask God to help us to self-control: for one who lacks it, lacks His Grace. The undisciplined person doesn’t wrong himself alone–but sets fire to the whole world. Discipline enabled Heaven to be filled with light; discipline enabled the angels to be immaculate and holy." ―Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi A continuation of the study of ethical discipline, this lecture elaborates on the interdependent nature of all things: how mind, sentiment, and action, in all levels of nature, produce either ha...
Jan 15, 2017•1 hr 37 min
Genuine meditation begins with the foundation of discipline and ethical principles: kindness, patience, mercy, compassion, and the restraint of the mind's tendencies towards negative behaviors. Through cultivating rich spiritual values, we in turn develop peace, harmony and equanimity. By reflecting upon the causes of our suffering, we can change it. This in turn produces the ability to investigate and gather internal information for ourselves through silence and contemplation. This lecture outl...
Jan 08, 2017•1 hr 23 min
"Imagination, Inspiration, and Intuition are the three obligatory paths for the initiation. We reach these ineffable heights by means of concentration, meditation and samadhi. Whosoever has reached these ineffable heights of intuition has converted himself into a master of samadhi." ―Samael Aun Weor, Igneous Rose Despite their elusive character, mystical experiences possess three distinct, eternal principles: Imagination (perception of non-physical imagery), Inspiration (joyful recognition of di...
Nov 13, 2016•1 hr 46 min
"In general, it is to the measure of one’s alienation from one’s own ego that one attains direct knowledge of one’s Lord… I heard Abu Ali al-Daqqaq say, 'One of the tokens of the gnosis of God is the achievement of deep awe and reverence for God. If someone’s realization increases, his awe increases.' And I heard him say, 'Gnosis requires stillness of heart, just as learning requires outward quiet. If someone’s gnosis increases, his tranquility increases.'" ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles o...
Oct 23, 2016•1 hr 42 min
From the heart of the lovers, blood flows like a vast river. Our body is the windmill, and love, the water. Without water the mill cannot turn. ―Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī, Hidden Music Ali ibn Ubayd said, “Yahya ibn Muadh wrote to Abu Yazid, ‘I am intoxicated with how much I have drunk from the cup of love.’ Abu Yazid wrote back to him, ‘Someone else has drunk the oceans of the heavens and the earth and his thirst is not yet quenched. His tongue is hanging out and he is asking, 'Is there any mo...
Sep 25, 2016•2 hr 9 min
"Iradah, the will to find God, is the beginning of the path of spiritual travelers, the first title given to those who are determined to reach God Most High. This attribute is only called iradah because will is the preface to every undertaking. When the servant does not will, he does not carry out." ―Al-Qushayri, Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism "Know that the foundation and rationale of struggle or striving (mujahadah) is to wean the ego from what is familiar to it and to induce it to oppose it...
Aug 28, 2016•1 hr 11 min
“Al-Wasiti was asked about the practice of remembrance and said, ‘It is leaving the enclosed court of unconsciousness for the vast space of contemplation through the power of fearing Him and the intensity of loving Him.'” ―Al-Risalah: Principles of Sufism Learn about the nature of soul or consciousness: the capacity to perceive thought, feeling, will, impulse, sensation, spirit, and beyond. This lecture discusses the three types of soul mentioned in the Qur'an, as well as the practice of self-ob...
Jun 26, 2016•1 hr 14 min
