The Significance of Restoration of True Image of Christ

Greetings of
peace from Peace,

love from Love,

grace from Grace,

faith from Faith,

life from Holy Life!

 
1.

Cosmic Cycles

Those who are knowledgeable with the archetypal astrology and cosmic cycle (yuga in ancient Indian term, meaning era, epoch) have intuitive understanding and wisdom about the holographic relationship between the micro and macro realities, "as above, so below". There is a transcendental synchronicity inter-woven into the fabric of cosmos which is also a governing tool for Divine Will to manifest on this planetary existence.

Have they not looked into the dominions of the heavens and the earth and what Allah has created, and seen that it may well be that their appointed time is near? In what discourse after this will they have insightful conviction? - The Quran 7:185

Different cosmic cycle with their unique inner energetic patterns influence the archetypal evolution of humanity collectively, on a grand scale. The process is extremely slow from individual's point of view, but from collective human civilization, the influence is very exact (compared to how we inhabiting the familiar earth, it's ground feels standing still, yet in truth it is revolving on its axis at a speed of 500 meter every second). Or it can be said in other way, the major characteristic of collective progress of human race from one stage to another can be characterized with different and gradual cosmic cycles. These cycles or ages last for thousands of years.

.. a single day in the sight of thy Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning. - The Quran 22:47

He directs the entire affair from heavenly realm to earthly realm. Then it will again ascend to Him on a Day whose length is thousand years by the way you measure. That is the Knower of the Unseen and the Visible, the Almighty, the Most Merciful. - The Quran 32:5

From primitive human race to more and more sophisticated pattern of evolution of human psyche are often been attributed to the energy of the cosmic age. In ancient wisdom tradition, different civilizations had different way of honoring this insight. Wise people of the past used the pattern or arrangements of the great celestial bodies in the cosmos as an indication or sign for the arrival or departure of such cosmic cycles.

He made the sun and moon subservient, each running for a specified term. He directs the entire affair. He makes the Signs clear so that hopefully you will be certain about the meeting with your Lord. -The Quran 13:2

Everything in the universe is a Sign (ayah in Quranic term). Every creation bears the signature of the Creator Who is Without a beginning and an end, rather Himself is the Beginning (Alpha, Awwal) and the End (Omega, Akhir). The galaxies, planets, stars in their mysterious way participate in the grand play and ancient sages have observed their role on a grand scale.

He has made night and day subservient to you, and the sun and moon and stars, all subject to His command. There are certainly Signs in that for people who use their intellect. - The Quran 16:12

Furthermore I call to witness the station of the Stars,

And that is indeed a mighty adjuration if you but knew.

- The Quran 56:75,76

2.

From Age of Pisces to Age of Aquarius

According to those who study the cosmic cycles and have its intuitive knowledge through authentic study and research tells us that we are moving from Piscean age to Aquarian age. Some believe we are at the cusp, into transition. Generally speaking these grand cycles are marked by great beings (messengers, prophets, illuminated sages) and very small group of people (visionaries, great thinkers, mystics) with radical consciousness.

If we go back further, when Moses threw out the golden calf, he knew it was the end of the Taurus Age or the fourth age in our present great era. He instructed his followers to get rid of the bull, put lambs' blood on the doors, and place Rams' horns in the temples. By looking at the Master Calendar, the Mazzaroth, or the Zodiac in the heavens, anyone could see that it was the dawning of the Age of Aries, the ram or lamb. The Age of Aries ushered in efforts to replace polytheism with monotheism.

Has man ever known a point of time when he was not something remembered? - The Quran 76:1 

After Age of Aries came Age of Pisces, which many believe we might well be in it and slowly moving towards age of Aquarius. The Piscean Age was the rise of a global religion centering primarily on symbols of water: baptism, walking on water, changing water into wine, washing the feet, and so forth. Pisces comes from the Latin for "fish" and its symbol is two fish swimming in opposite directions. This represents the dualism of man's finite consciousness and the infinite consciousness of universe, material man versus spiritual man. Jesus embodies the highest aspects of Pisces: universal love, compassion, sacrifice, intuition, servanthood, martyrdom, and spirituality. Jesus represents the birth of non-ego (Pisces) from ego (Aries).  Jesus' walking on water symbolized that man must rise above "his emotions, fears, and superstitions [the water] in order to be master of himself and thus worthy enough to be a true servant of the God-force."

Symbolized by the Fish, Age of Pisces representing the Sacred descending to the Mundane world. Pisces is a feminine sign, yet during the reign of Pisces we have seen the suppression and re-emergence of the feminine, and no story tells this quite as dramatically as the transformation of Mary Magdalene. Only very recently the Church admitted that Mary Magdalene was not a prostitute but a true follower. However, when the Nag Hammadi scrolls were discovered and translated, it was revealed that Mary was more than a follower but an actual apostle, probably the wisest of them all who understood the esoteric teaching of Christ the best, she was the wisest gnostic.

The connection between all symbolism corresponding to the Age of Pisces and Christianity's evolution are far too great to ignore. Jesus was reported, in Matthew 4:19, as saying to two fishermen brothers, (Simon called Peter, and Andrew) on the shore of Lake Galilee, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” - a tradition that the Christian Church has continued even to today.

In the Book of Luke when Jesus is asked “where wilt thou that we prepare?” concerning the Kingdom of the New Age of Jesus’ return, Jesus says to follow a man “bearing a pitcher of water” into the house he enters. A man bearing a pitcher of water symbolizes the coming of the Age of Aquarius and is known as “the water bearer”. In Astrology, the Age of Aquarius comes directly after the Age of Pisces. The monastic tradition introduced during the Piscean age led to University education and the process of peer review, a vital component of the impending scientific-accented Aquarian Age.

The Piscean Age has been marked by the growth of the three major monotheistic religions, and the attempted dissolution of the individual ego. As we move from the Piscean age into Aquarius, the Awakener, we are being shown that the Emperor doesn't have any clothes, that any unreality upon which we have based our false and covered up so called "religious foundations" will be shattered in the upcoming years. 

Truth has arrived, and falsehood has vanished.
Lo! Falsehood is ever bound to vanish.
- The Quran 17:81

With the coming of the Age of Aquarius, its expected to see a transition from the patriarchal institutions and religions to those which are run by the 'feminine principle' and influence which teach that free thinking, creativity, intuition, are foremost, and that the education and nurturing of the children and the enhancement of the quality of life for all people will be uppermost on the agenda.

The sign of Aquarius is two parallel lines of waves, the meaning of this sign is "the dissolution of forms". Aquarius is an air sign, and is the 'water bearer'.  The forms that may be dissolving under the influence of the patriarchal systems of government, church, and family. The waves that are dissolving them are the figurative waters of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. This truth is on the airwaves, the waves of mass communication and the free press, which have made our globe, the Earth, into a village. The artificial barriers of nation, race, and creed, are breaking down, allowing individuals to see themselves as one with all creation. The space flights of recent decades have enabled us to see 'from a distance' our whole planet as it really is with no fences, no barriers, no walls, no lines of demarcation between one or the other.

The Aquarian age has its key characteristics according to the wise that esoteric science will explain the mysteries of religion; knowledge and reason; freedom and equality of the sexes and of religion, religion will cease to be authoritarian and based upon the individual; new age movement, evolution of individuals and society to higher levels of consciousness, technological advancement, space exploration, conquest of airwaves etc. Aquarius rules technology and radical thought, invention and ascension. According to the Esoteric Christian tradition, such as the Rosicrucians, the proximity and entrance in the Age of Aquarius will bring to the majority of human beings the discovery, true living and real knowledge of the inner and deeper Christian teachings which the Christ spoke of in Matthew 13:11 and Luke 8:10.  This is the age also when Christian Religion will be given impetus in a new direction. What was falsely labeled and imported through cover up of original teachings will be unveiled. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Nag Hammadi Library, a new rise of interest in less dogmatic and universal spirituality through the embracing of other traditions are no less part of this new wave of energy.

3.

Paradigm Shift

In order to understand our moment in history and where we can go in the future, we have to know what brought us here. In order to be strategically intelligent, we need to be able to comprehend the sources of our world. Our world is shaped by our worldview. How we approach reality is defined by the kinds of assumptions we have about that reality, and that, in turn, shapes reality and feeds it back to us. The subject and the object are deeply implicated in each other.
- Richard Tarnas, author of ground breaking work, The Passion of the Western Mind (credit)

A paradigm shift will often be initiated by a distinct, extraordinary break from the past - a kind of declaration of independence - yet this initial breakthrough will retain from the old paradigmatic structure certain essential and usually unexamined assumptions that limit the success of the new vision. - Richard Tarnas

If we carefully observe the loosening of authoritarian institutionalize religion power structure (specially true for Judaism and Christianity, and further specific to Christianity in the West) and an ever widening interest into learning other faith traditions (which began in the 60s with interest in Eastern religion including Buddhism, Zen, Hinduism, Yoga and Sufism) opening attraction to universal spirituality and thanks to communication, information are quite easy to reach which also helps the process of evolution of consciousness.  The transition has already begun for the transformation from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius.  One can see this from the numerous web sites about the New Consciousness which people are attaining and of the Awakening that is occurring all over the globe. Dreams which show the awakening of people are numerous as well.

This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. But the Piscean Age energy still affects us. And if we honor the cosmic cycle and the energy that is shifting, we must also turn our attention to the shift in consciousness that is demanded of us. Its equally imperative of individuals as well as collective whole. Under the affect of the Age of Pisces, the Piscean archetypes of sacrifice of the individual ego, universal love and compassion, assimilation, and the more negative projections of illusion, fantasy and delusion still with us and will be for some time. Since Christ symbolizes the archetype of Piscean Age, the symbolism of true Christ Image is essential to be understood for our own becoming and inner transformation.

But before that its absolutely necessary to restore the True Image of Christ by breaking the idol that is placed between our inner eye and True Christ. As long as this false idol shrouded in myths, no matter how dazzling and how decorative and how familiar it has become to us is there, we can not truly be receptive to the Christ Consciousness that is our birth right.

"A dark age began, a time of savagery of barbarism, of book-burning, of superstition and worship of empty idols. The gentle Jesus was lost forever in the image of a crucified God. The Essene brothers hid their teachings in the minds of the few who could preserve them for their descendants, and the Scrolls of Healing lay neglected beneath the shifting shadows of the deserts."

- The discovery of the Essene Gospel of Peace, by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely

4.
Christ Consciousness

It is to those who are worthy of my mysteries
that I tell my mysteries. - Jesus Christ, Gospel of Thomas

It is the Age of the coming of the Cosmic Christ, not to any special group or church, but to the individual spirits of men and women who prove worthy of it. And by Age it doesn't mean a small span of time, but hundreds and thousands of year this unveiling will continue.

The Sufi gnostics, the door keeper of esoteric mysteries of the age, for them Jesus is the Insan Kamil (Perfect Man) who realized and embodied Christ Consciousness, the innate divinity in all men. Christ is the divine-idea of man. Christ Consciousness is described as an awareness each of us has, which can be "awakened" by our will, "of the soul's oneness with God." Christ Consciousness as "the universal consciousness, oneness with God, manifested by Jesus, Krishna, and other avatars (messengers)," and is the realization of "God immanent in all creation." The greatest teaching of Christ was that we all have everlasting life, brotherhood in God, and that we have whatever we request. The return of Jesus apart from its literal meaning for the present moment also holds the reality of "the reception of the Christ Consciousness in an individual."

Humanity has been on the cross...nailed to its own narrow vision, unwilling to sacrifice ego for the resurrection of divinity. Discovering the Christ within frees us to experience that divine nature; what Christ did physically, we must do metaphysically. Contained within the Piscean Avatar is the Evolved Age Christ as the one who awakens Christ Consciousness within. This Avatar also is a man, Jesus, who became the Christ. The Christ is the final step in the evolution of Man. It is a level of consciousness in which the individual has unified his self with the God-Self. Jesus becomes the Christ through attaining the Christ Consciousness, the awareness of the divine Self.

5.
Recognizing and Witnessing the Third Jesus

Once every hundred years Jesus of Nazareth meets Jesus of the Christian in a garden among the hills of Lebanon. And they talk long; and each time Jesus of Nazareth goes away saying to Jesus of the Christian, "My friend, I fear we shall never, never agree." - Kahlil Gibran

In his book, The Third Jesus: The Christ We Can Not Ignore Deepak Chopra introduces us to "Third Jesus", the Christ who is overshadowed behind the  untraceable historical Jesus and  mythical figure constructed by the Church to serve its own purpose. In praise of the content of this book Sam Keen expressed: "The hardest thing to see is what is hidden in plain sight. After 20 centuries of doctrine and dogma we have nearly lost sight of the Jesus who was a wandering teacher of mystical truths. In his imaginative reconstruction of the inner meaning of the gospels, Deepak Chopra reminds us of The Third Jesus, the enlightened master of God-consciousness. It will disturb the minds of the orthodox, and delight the spirits of mystics and progressive Christians."

I am quoting excerpts from the book which is quite relevant here.

No matter where you look, a cloud of confusion hangs over the message of Jesus. To cut through it we have to be specific about who we mean when we refer to Jesus. One Jesus is historical, and we know next to nothing about him. Another Jesus is the one appropriated by Christianity. He was created by the Church to fulfill its agenda. The third Jesus, the one this book is about, is as yet so unknown that even the most devout Christians don't suspect that he exists. Yet he is the Christ we cannot--and must not--ignore.

The first Jesus was a rabbi who wandered the shores of northern Galilee many centuries ago. This Jesus still feels close enough to touch. He appears in our mind's eye dressed in homespun but haloed in glory. He was kind, serene, peaceful, loving, and yet he was the keeper of deep mysteries.

This historical Jesus has been lost, however, swept away by history. The first Jesus is less than consistent, as a closer reading of the gospels will show. If Jesus was perfectly peaceful, why did he declare, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword"? (Matthew 10:34) If he was perfectly loving, why did he say, "Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth"? (Matthew 25:30) (Sometimes the translation is even harsher, and Jesus commands "the worthless slave" to be consigned to hell.) If Jesus was humble, why did he claim to rule the earth beyond the power of any king? At the very least, the living Jesus was a man of baffling contradictions.

And yet the more contradictions we unearth, the less mythical this Jesus becomes. The flesh-and-blood man who is lost to history must have been extraordinarily human. To be divine, one must be rich in every human quality first. As one famous Indian spiritual teacher once said, "The measure of enlightenment is how comfortable you feel with your own contradictions."

Millions of people worship another Jesus, however, who never existed, who doesn't even lay claim to the fleeting substance of the first Jesus. This is the Jesus built up over thousands of years by theologians and other scholars. He is the Holy Ghost, the Three-in-One Christ, the source of sacraments and prayers that were unknown to the rabbi Jesus when he walked the earth. He is also the Prince of Peace over whom bloody wars have been fought. This second Jesus cannot be embraced without embracing theology first. Theology shifts with the tide of human affairs. Metaphysics itself is so complex that it contradicts the simplicity of Jesus' words. Would he have argued with learned over the meaning of the Eucharist? Would he have espoused a doctrine declaring that babies are damned until they are baptized?

The second Jesus leads us into the wilderness without a clear path out. He became the foundation of a religion that has proliferated into some twenty thousand sects. They argue endlessly over every thread in the garments of a ghost. But can any authority, however exalted, really inform us about what Jesus would have thought? Isn't it a direct contradiction to hold that Jesus was a unique creation--the one and only incarnation of God--while at the same time claiming to be able to read his mind on current events? Yet in his name Christianity pronounces on homosexuality, birth control, and abortion.

These two versions of Jesus--the sketchy historical figure and the abstract theological creation--hold a tragic aspect for me, because I blame them for stealing something precious: the Jesus who taught his followers how to reach God-consciousness. I want to offer the possibility that Jesus was truly, as he proclaimed, a savior. Not the savior, not the one and only Son of God. Rather, Jesus embodied the highest level of enlightenment. He spent his brief adult life describing it, teaching it, and passing it on to future generations.

... Jesus is a misunderstood spiritual teacher. Jesus intended a completely new view of human nature and unless you transform yourself you can struggle your entire life to be a good christian without succeeding in doing what Jesus explicitly wanted. He wanted to inspire a world reborn in God. This vision is breath taking in its ambition. It points us towards a mystical realm, the only place where human nature can radically change. Jesus' name for the realm of the soul is the 'Kingdom of God' and he clearly intended for it to descend to earth. "On earth let it be, as it is in heaven."

Jesus couldn't have been more direct when he said that total transformation was near. In fact this was perhaps the first and most important message he wanted to deliver. From the time Jesus began to preach, he said, "Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven at hand". His radical vision was compromised only a generation after his death

Jesus' vision isn't impossible to realize. Yes it is radical and mystical, none of that has changed. But the underlying dilemma, how to live as Jesus wanted us to, can be resolved. In fact it must be resolved if Jesus is to have any kind of meaningful future.

Jesus intended to save the world by showing others the path to God-consciousness.

Such a reading of the New Testament doesn't diminish the first two Jesuses. Rather, they are brought into sharper focus. In place of lost history and complex theology, the third Jesus offers a direct relationship that is personal and present. Our task is to delve into scripture and prove that a map to enlightenment exists there. I think it does, undeniably; indeed, it's the living aspect of the gospels. We aren't talking about faith. Conventional faith is the same as belief in the impossible, but there is another faith that gives us the ability to reach into the unknown and achieve transformation.

Jesus spoke of the necessity to believe in him as the road to salvation, but those words were put into his mouth by followers writing decades later. The New Testament is an interpretation of Jesus by people who felt reborn but also left behind. In orthodox Christianity they won't be left behind forever; at the Second Coming Jesus will return to reclaim the faithful. But the Second Coming has had twenty centuries to unfold, with the devout expecting it any day, and still it lies ahead. The idea of the Second Coming has been especially destructive to Jesus' intentions, because it postpones what needs to happen now. The Third Coming--finding God-consciousness through your own efforts--happens in the present.

6.
'And you shall know the truth'

Truth, which existed from the beginning is sown everywhere. And many see it being sown, but few are they who see it being reaped. 

- Gospel of Thomas

Jesus said: 'The Pharisees and the religious scribes have taken the key of knowledge and hidden them. They themselves have not entered, nor have they allowed to enter those who wish to. You, however be as wise as serpent and as innocent as doves.' - Secret sayings of living Jesus to his companion Didymus Judas Thomas

As Christ commanded us, to know the truth which is also one of the essential commandment for the seeker of Real. That the seeker must never cease the journey to know the truth from one horizon to further ones and more. And to attain that reality, one must remain open to every new revelation of every new age. To be free from the karmic bondage, one must know truth, must thirst for truth first. 

The restoration of the true image of Christ has to begin by removing the veils of what is not true. Khalil Gibran once said, "Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth."

The theological idol and deity that unjustly Christ have been made into have done tremendous damage to the purpose of Christ's teaching and the potential of attaining pure God-consciousness (taqwa). When Christ was the vessel who is ever pointing to the divine reality within and without with his finger of  haqq (truth), by mistake the focus of the Church has been only to the finger but not to the real object. By making Christ into an object of worship, by calling him God the inherent human possibility within every human being have been denied.

The fundamental flaw in the forgetfulness that Christ was a man, in fact the archetype of Perfected Man (Insan Kamil), the most evolved stage of sainthood (Sufis call Seal of Universal Sainthood or Belovedness), which also symbolizes that every human being can aspired towards that summit. The moment we ascribe divinity in the sense of calling Christ 'God' (may God forgive us for distorting the truth), we in a strange way create a chasm between his humanity and that of ours. It is pushing Christ away, rather than approaching his intimacy.

Again to quote Deepak Chopra, "The Third Jesus inhabited a higher state of consciousness, he was already in the Kingdom of God. It was as familiar to him as breathing and just as central to his being. The intimacy between God and Jesus was total at the level of consciousness. There is no other place where it could be so complete. Because contrary to Christian Law Jesus didn't physically descend from God's dwelling place above the clouds, nor did he return to sit at the right hand of a literal Throne.

What made Jesus the Son of God was the fact that he had achieved God consciousness. Jesus said as much as, over and over when he declared that the Father and I are One. He knew no separation between his thoughts and God's thoughts, between his feelings and God's feelings, his actions and the actions God wanted performed. Radical comes from the Latin word 'radix' or root. Jesus the radical went to the root of human condition.  To understand just how Jesus' vision actually was we must consider its entirety."

The Sufi Gnostics understand the primordial and unchanged truth free of age old conjectures and biases by the final revelation of the Last Testament that God is One, without any association and Christ is Sign of God (Ayatullah), Divine Breath (Ruhullah) and Divine Command (Holy Word, Kalamullah). Christ like any other Messenger was a human being, a man sent to mankind to transmit holy gnosis. He was Son of Mary,  whom God honored among the creation and both Christ and Mary are servants and instruments of God. Trinity is rejected by the Gnostics as there are no partnership and association and compromise to be made with Single Divine Reality which is One. Christ never taught such idea and it was not fitting for his glorious sevanthood. Jesus Christ was a model par excellence and a teacher of God-consciousness. Jesus never intended for his followers to worship him instead of the Father who sent him and to Whom Christ ascended at the end of his mission. While on earth Christ performed miracles by the permission of the Father and by His Name. The nearest to Christ are those who have attained God-consciousness within themselves like Christ and ever witness the Real (in His work, in His Glory and in His Majesty) wheresoever they turn.

La ilaha illallah,
Allahu Allah.
Isa Rasulullah, alaihi salatullah.

There is none worthy of worship but God,
God Alone is God.
Jesus is message bearer of God, divine peace be upon him.


May our understanding and love be perfected for our Noble Master Isa ibn Maryam, and may we be accepted among those who are Brought-Near (al muqarrabun) to the Kingdom. 
Amen (Sealed in trust, faith and truth).

Sadiq Alam

Dhaka, Bangladesh

End of Part 2.


Next Post (Coming Up, God willing): The unveiling of the True Image of Christ according to the Final Testament
# Previous:
Part 1: Resurrection of Jesus | Gnostic Perspective and Beyond


# Recommended Reading:
. Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View
. Cosmos and Psyche via Google Book
. The Law of Correspondence
. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
. The Hidden Gospel: Decoding the Spiritual Message of the Aramaic Jesus by Neil Douglas-Klotz
. Astrological Age
. Age of Pisces to Age of Aquarius
 
# Recommended Listening:
. The Art & Science of Astrology Podcast Series
. NPR on Misquoting Jesus

# References:
. The Grand Ages and the Coming of Aquarius
. Excerpt 'The Third Jesus' A Selection From Deepak Chopra's Book
. The Piscean Avatar: The Jesus of Astrology