"Coming Age where gifts
poured forth will be the Age of the Holy Spirit."
From:
"jagbir singh" <www.adishakti.org@gmail.com>
Date: Sat Dec 25, 2004 2:44 pm
Subject: "Coming Age where gifts poured forth
will be the Age of the Holy Spirit."
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—- In
shriadishakti@yahoogroups.com,
"jagbir singh"
<adishakti_org@y...> wrote:
>
> From: "semirafields" <semirafields@y...>
> Date: Fri Dec 24, 2004 7:47 am
> Subject: Re; The Truth behind Sahaja Yoga[Resp to
Simon]
>
>> Simon wrote about raising the Kundalini;'Well, frauds
like Mataji,
>> Muktananda and dozens of other fake gurus can do it.'
>> It is not quite so cut and dried.
>> More important even than what kind of person the guru
is, or what
>> they have or haven't done, is the criteria that the
followers
>> believe that the energy exists within themselves. The
existance of
>> Divine energy and the Divine message is not dependant
on the
>> actions or character of people.
>> Messengers are usually considered to be frauds. Jesus
Christ is
>> considered to be a fraud by many. Among other
miracles He walked
>> on water, healed the sick, raised Lazarus from the
dead, and
>> Himself rose from the dead. He claimed to be the Son
of God, and
>> was rejected and crucified. People can either believe
these
>> things or call it all a huge fraud. Let us not forget
that Jesus
>> was betrayed by one of his closest disciples, who had
even been
>> present at the time of many miracles, and who
therefore knew the
>> Truth.
>> The prophet Mohammed had Divine revelations. He also
had several
>> wives, the youngest being about thirteen. He is still
one of God's
>> chosen Prophets, and revealed many important truths.
>>
>> What is the value of special experiences in
religions?
>> The value of having a special spiritual experience is
that you
>> become assured of a meaning to your life, you are
assured that
>> death need not be feared and that the soul continues
after death,
>> you have a way of overcoming personal problems and
you can find
>> security and happiness in your life.
>> Without spiritual experience, what is the point of
life? Can one
>> really find satisfaction in material things and
pleasures
>> alone?...
>>
>> Regards, Semira
>>
>>
—- In
shriadishakti@yahoogroups.com,
"jagbir singh"
<adishakti_org@y...> wrote:
>
> i could not agree more. Thank you Semira for this
great post that
> has give me another way to overcome those who want to
destroy the
> Divine Message to humanity. On this really cold
morning in
> Montreal, Canada and temperatures dropping to -17
Celsius with the
> wind chill factored in, your post has made this
Christmas so warm
> and comforting for me.
>
> i wish today that the world be blessed with more souls
like you. i
> know many are still waiting to take birth on Earth and
help spread
> the Divine Message to all humanity, to awaken us to
the Savior's
> promise of the eternal Afterlife for all His children.
Despite
> obstacles from those opposed to God Almighty's Divine
Plan for all
> (it) will eventually reach all nations and peoples of
many
> tongues. This Millennium of The Mother is just four
years-old! The
> first rays of Light are just faintly visible as they
struggle to
> break though the darkest hours of the Dawn of this
Divine
> Millennium.
>
> Semira, you are one of the first to catch them while
the Adi
> Shakti still walks on Earth and enlightens all to the
greatness of
> Christ, the universal Savior. Thousands are
celebrating Christmas
> with Her today at Ganapatipule, India - Hindus,
Buddhists, Jews,
> Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains - in true
brotherhood and love.
> Semira, She indeed is The Mother of the Millennium
that has
> followed the millennium:
>
The Holy Spirit: The Feminine Aspect Of the Godhead
Abstract: There is currently much talk of "feminine
issues,"
particularly in social and political contexts. This
growing
awareness of gender-related matters was not something
ignored by the
early Church and the writers of ancient religious texts.
As we see
in this article by Dr. Hurtak, the notion of femininity
played an
extremely important and significant role in the thinking
and belief
system of the intertestamental authors. Far from being
the
overbearing patriarchal advocates as they are often
portrayed, more
recent findings reveal an innate sensitivity and
appreciation for
the feminine aspect of Divinity than has been previously
suspected.
For this reason, this particular article becomes a
meaningful and
insightful contribution to the current discussion of the
role of the
female in modern times. Once more we find a rich and
profound
history reshaping the future even as it unfolds before
our eyes.
A new response to the "image" of the Holy Spirit is
taking shape
quietly in scholarly circles throughout the world, as
the result of
new findings in the Dead Sea Scriptures, the Coptic Nag
Hammadi and
intertestamental texts of Jewish mystics found
side-by-side the
writings of the early Christian church. Scholars are
recognizing the
Holy Spirit as the "female vehicle" for the outpouring
of higher
teaching and spiritual rebirth. The Holy Spirit plays
varied roles
in Judeo-Christian traditions: acting in Creation,
imparting wisdom,
and inspiring Old Testament prophets. In the New
Testament She is
the presence of God in the world and a power in the
birth and life
of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit became well-established as part of a
circumincession, a partner in the Trinity with the
Father and Son
after doctrinal controversies of the late 4th century AD
solidified
the position of the Western Church. Although all
Christian Churches
accept the union of three persons in one Godhead, the
Eastern
Church, particularly the communities of the Greek,
Ethiopian,
Armenian, and Russian, do not solidify a strong union of
personalities, but see the figures uniquely
differentiated, but
still in union. Moreover, the Eastern Church places the
Holy Spirit
as the Second Person of the Trinity with Christ as the
Third,
whereas the Western Church places the Son before the
Holy Spirit.
In the Old Testament and the Dead Sea Scrolls the Holy
Spirit was
known as the Ruach or Ruach Ha Kodesh (Psalm 51:11). In
the New
Testament as Pneuma (Romans 8:9). The Holy Spirit was
not rendered
as "Holy Ghost" until the appearance of the 1611
Protestant King
James Version of the Bible. For the most part, Ruach or
Pneuma have
been considered the spiritual force or presence of God.
The power of
this force can be seen in the Christian church as the
"gifts of the
Spirit" (especially in today's tongues- speaking
Pentecostals). The
Holy Spirit was also a source for Divine guidance and as
the
indwelling Comforter.
Likewise in Hebrew thought, Ruach Ha Kodesh was
considered a voice
sent from on high to speak to the Prophet. Thus, in the
Old
Testament language of the prophets, She is the Divine
Spirit of
indwelling sanctification and creativity and is
considered as having
a feminine power. "He" as a reference to Spirit has been
used in
theology to match the pronoun for God, yet the Hebrew
word ruach is
a noun of feminine gender. Thus, referring to the Holy
Spirit
as "she" has some linguistic justification. Denoting
Spirit as a
feminine principle, the creative principle of life,
makes sense when
considering the Trinity aspect where Father plus Spirit
leads to the
Divine Extension of Divine Sonship.
The Spirit is not called "it" despite the fact that
pneuma in Greek
is a neuter noun. Church doctrine regards the Holy
Spirit as a
person, not a force like magnetism. The writings of the
Catholic
fathers, in fact, preserve the vision of the Spirit
encapsulating
the "peoplehood of Christ" as the Bride or as the
"Mother Church."
Both are feminine aspects of the Divine. In the Eastern
Church,
Spirit was always considered to have a feminine nature.
She was the
life-bearer of the faith. Clement of Alexandria states
that "she" is
an indwelling Bride. Amongst the Eastern Church
communities there is
none more clear about the feminine aspect of the Holy
Spirit as the
corpus of the Coptic-Gnostics. One such document records
that Jesus
says, "Even so did my mother, the Holy Spirit, take me
by one of my
hairs and carry me away to the great mountain Tabor [in
Galilee]."
The 3rd century scroll of mystical Coptic Christianity,
The Acts of
Thomas, gives a graphic account of the Apostle Thomas'
travels to
India, and contains prayers invoking the Holy Spirit as
"The Mother
of all creation" and "compassionate mother," among other
titles.
The most profound Coptic Christian writings definitely
link
the "spirit of Spirit" manifested by Christ to all
believers as
the "Spirit of the Divine Mother." Most significant are
the new
manuscript discoveries of recent decades which have
demonstrated
that more early Christians than previously thought
regarded the Holy
Spirit as The Mother of Jesus.
One text is the Gospel of Thomas which is part of the
newly
discovered Nag Hammadi texts (discovered 1945-1947).
Most are
composed about the same time as the Biblical gospels in
the 1st and
2nd century AD. In this gospel, Jesus declares that his
disciples
must hate their earthly parents (as in Luke 14:26) but
love the
Father and Mother as he does, "for my mother (gave me
falsehood),
but (my) true Mother gave me life." In another Nag
Hammadi
discovery, The Secret Book of James, Jesus refers to
himself as "the
son of the Holy Spirit." These two sayings do not
identify the Holy
Spirit as The Mothering vehicle of Jesus, but more than
one scholar
has interpreted them to mean that the maternal Holy
Spirit is
intended.
So far in Western traditional theology, the voices
advocating a
feminine Holy Spirit are scattered and subtle. But for
them, it is a
view theologically defensible and accompanied by
psychological,
sociological, and scientific benefits of recognizing
"the new
supernature" developing within vast consciousness
changes happening
in the human evolution.
The German theologian Jurgen Moltmann, a well-known
thinker in
mainline Protestantism, says "monotheism is monarchism."
He says a
traditional idea of God's absolute power "generally
provides the
justification for earthly domination"- - -from the
emperors and
despots of history to 20th century dictators. Moltmann
argues for a
new appreciation of the "persons" of the Trinity and the
community
or family model it presents for human relations.
According to Professor Neil Q. Hamilton at Drew
University School of
Theology, the Gospel of John shows us how "the Holy
Spirit begins to
perform a mothering role for us that is unconditional
acceptance,
love and caring." God then begins to parent us in father
and mother
modes.
A Catholic scholar, Franz Mayr, a philosophy professor
at the
University of Portland, also favors the recognition of
the Holy
Spirit as feminine. He contends that the traditional
unity of God
would not have to be watered down in order for scholars
to accept
the feminine side of God. Mayr, who studied under the
renown German
theologian Karl Rahner, said he came to his view during
his study of
the writings of St. Augustine (AD 354-430) who saw that
a
significant number of early Christians must have
accepted a feminine
aspect of the Holy Spirit such that the influential
church father of
North Africa castigated this view. St. Augustine claimed
that the
acceptance of the Holy Spirit as the "mother of the Son
of God and
wife-consort of the Father" was merely a pagan outlook.
But Mayr
contends that Augustine "skipped over the social and
maternal aspect
of God," which Mayr thinks is best seen in the Holy
Spirit, the
Divine Ruach Ha Kodesh. St. Jerome, a contemporary of
Augustine's,
and two church fathers of an earlier period, Clement of
Alexandria
and Origen, quoted from the pseudopigraphic Gospel of
the Hebrews,
which depicted the Holy Spirit as a "mother figure."
A 14th Century fresco in a small Catholic Church
southeast of
Munich, Germany depicts a female Spirit as part of the
Holy Trinity,
according to Leonard Swidler of Temple University. The
woman and two
bearded figures flanking her appear to be wrapped in a
single cloak
and joined in their lower halves showing a union of old
and new
bodies of birth and rebirth.
In conclusion, we are living at a time of profound and
revelatory
discoveries of archaeology and ancient spiritual texts
that point
the way to the future. Christ, himself, was said to have
female
disciples as disclosed in Gnostic literature and recent
archeological findings of early Christian tombs in
Italy. A
beginning has been made to reclaim "the Spirit" of the
Ruach found
in the mountain of newly discovered pre-Christian texts
and Coptic-
Egyptian texts of the early Church. It is becoming clear
in re-
examining the first 100 years of Christianity that an
earlier
Christianity was closer to the "Feminine Spirit" of the
Old
Testament, the Ruach or the beloved Shekinah. The
Shekinah,
distinct from the Ruach , was seen as the indwelling
Divine Presence
that activated the "birth of miracles" or the anointed
self.
Accordingly, the growth of traditional Christianity made
alternative
adjustments of the original position of the "birth of
gifts" as
Christendom compromised for the privilege of becoming an
establishment.
The new directions of spiritual and scientific studies
are showing
that it is now possible that the Holy Spirit, Ruach Ha
Kodesh, can
be portrayed as feminine as the indwelling presence of
God, the
Shekinah, nurturing and bringing to birth souls for the
kingdom.
Spiritual insights recorded in the Book of Knowledge:
Keys of Enoch
carefully remind us that we are being prepared to
understand that
just as the Old Testament was the Age of the Father, the
New
Testament the Age of the Son, so this coming Age where
gifts are
poured forth will be the Age of the Holy Spirit.
However, the Keys
also tell us that the Divine Trinity is beyond the
anthropo-morphic
forms of male and female. Here our own masculine or
feminine
natures are only symbols of the Divine and our Life's
manifestation
in the Universe. And herein we understand who we really
are, as we
both male and female make our own preparation for the
rebirth of
our "Christed Overself," unified as the peoplehood of
Light,
the "Bride," for the coming of the "Bridegroom"- - the
Christ.
The Holy Spirit: The Feminine Aspect Of the Godhead |
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