If a person's consciousness-state changes, so will his soul-state. The soul becomes what it aims at. In the ordinary situation the soul tries to achieve physical pleasure and the excitement from changing emotions. The soul ends up being enslaved by them. It becomes helplessly subject to the multiplicity of desires and interests occuring in life.

However, in its innermost being, there is still buried the original divine idea which forms the foundation of human existence. When the soul remembers its descent and is moved by divine forces it raises itself from the depths. It purifies and liberates itself.

How does a person prepare himself for the path of return? The first step is insight into the limitedness of this world and knowledge of the two nature-orders: the external world of incessant change and the "inner world" of imperishability. The world of eternal being.

The second step is yearning for salvation. The human soul opens itself to the Good and a yearning for healing.  On the third step the candidate learns to withdraw his interest from the external, transient world by attuning his soul to the world of eternal being. The soul is touched by the power of purity and imperishability which enables the soul to become changeless despite all the chaos around it.

The fourth step is  that of  "justice" of the soul becoming the governing principle. A way of life that no longer looks for justice in the external world, but in the new order within. Only then will the soul free itself from the desires of the body. He is identical with the world of eternal being.

Lectorium Rosicrucianum

Today there are many definitions and notions of meditation. There are breathing exercises, mantrams, mandalas, prayers and many other techniques and methods. Why is meditation so popular? Modern life is the reason. People are submerged by all that seduces and stimulates the senses. They are conditioned for a competitive society. Technology forces people into patterns wherein they think more and more like a computer. It is then that the body sounds the alarm! Physical and psychic tensions appear: stress! Behind this are a variety of obsessions, fears and anxieties. On one hand we aspire to live and seek adventure. On the other hand, we are exhausted.

The techniques of modern meditation promise at one and the same time: invigoration, rest, inward assurance and also the experience and discovery of the inner spaces and whiffs of mysticism. This is what has made meditation techniques so attractive. And ... people of the twenty-first century are used to learning techniques in order to obtain results. It latches on to our known experiences and appears familiar. Experiences in the inner world exert a strong magnetic attraction and promise grander possibilities and liberation from our problems.

However, this liberation is not liberation from the wheel of birth and death, but deliverance from the forces that we have called into this world and now dwell in. Certain meditation techniques can bring relief from this dilema, as well as create a merging into a superhuman state of the personality. Many gurus and masters are living proof of the results of such a path. However, it is precisely the personality  and its desire for expansion that is the cause of our problems.

Meditation therefore is a means of escaping one's destiny. It further consolidates our connection with the personality. The personality remains tied to its karmic conditions. It remains under the the influence of the individual and collective consciousness. The true path of liberation must be aimed at victory over I-centrality. This no longer consists of exercises to reinforce the personality, but in voluntary surrender of the I so that the original, divine soul might develop that transcends the consciousness of the personality and is directed toward the divine Spirit.

Lectorium Rosicrucianum

According to the Universal Doctrine a part of humanity detached itself from the original idea in order to pursue its own path of development. As a result, the metabolic processes began to move in opposition to the original development.

The chakras - the original centers of energy which assimilate the pure divine forces and transmute them - began to turn in the opposite direction, integrating the much inferior vibrations of perishable nature in order to animate their own system. Man is imprisoned by this unholy fire.

When one reconnects with the soul, the "rose of the heart", the conditions for transfiguration can be born in the system of the chakras. There is real inner conversion only when a whole new metabolic process and new etheric assimilation develops. In order to do this, the chakras must turn in the opposite direction. It is possible, in the protective and dynamic field of a Mystery School, to bring the chakras to rest and subsequently to make them turn in the opposite direction.

Occultism and different systems of yoga pay a great deal of attention to the root chakra - the home of the serpent of the kundalini. By means of various exercises and techniques people attempt to open this source of subconscious force of enormous power and to guide it upwards to the head with the goal of awakening omniscience in the personality. From a gnostic point of view such exercises are extremely dangerous to health and sanity, as well as provoking strong ties with the powers of our visible and invisible world.

The gnostic path results in a vivification of the "rose of the heart" which instead sets free the kundalini of the heart. This force flows into the head preparing a transmutation in the brow chakra. A liberating understanding, new thinking and new will are born. Then the kundalini of the heart flows downward influencing all the chakras and corresponding endocrine glands.

In reaching the root chakra it is not the I that opens the sacral plexus, but the gnostic force of love that confronts the accumulated karma. One can know true liberation only when all ties with the karmic past are broken. If the ancient serpent of the kundalini is vanquished, the new force of the soul, the kundalini of the heart ascends. It pierces the Crown Chakra and the connection between the soul and spirit is accomplished.

Lectorium Rosicrucianum

The Sphinx has the mighty body of a lion. On that body is the head of a man, his face turned toward the East. The Sphinx is male and its head represents the sun god. The Sphinx is the symbol of the royal annd priestly task of the Pharaohs and it is the embodiment of Ra, the sun god, who brings light to his people and leads them back to the divine-human origin. Pharaoh, by his shining example, had to awaken in his people those impulses that, until then, it had not been possible for them to follow consciously. In other words, he had to awaken the desire to return to the original state of existence in the divine order, and the urge to follow divine harmony and law in unselfish service within the divine plan.

Lectorium Rosicrucianum

Jesus says: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me."

This hidden, holy way called Gnosis is directed to all who will listen. Jesus, the Son of God, descends to reveal the mysteries to humanity and to teach the holy way of the Gnosis. The reuniting with God.

What does this way of the Gnosis look like? Man is separate from God, a mortal soul of nature, disconnected from Life's original source, the Spirit. Without the divine Spirit, which is the only true life, humanity remains tied to wheel of birth and death. One's innermost nature, the eternal Spirit-Soul, cannot unfold and ascend to the realm of Light. Thus, it remains latent in the world of matter, incarcerated and longing for freedom.

A force in the Gnosis emanates directly from God into this world imparting itself to those who are receptive to it. This force enables one to walk the path of the Gnosis. With the aid of this force the latent Spirit-Soul can actually unfold. It leads the soul through the process of transmuation and transfiguration.

Through this force, the immortal Spirit-Soul can finally manifest itself. It will rise from the grave of matter and return to its divine homeland. As Paul expressed it: "The mortal puts on the immortal and death is swallowed up in victory."

Lectorium Roscircucianum