2. The Sanctuary of the Beloved

THE PATH OF SEARCH, Chapter 2.

The month of Jamál (Beauty) 176 BE

Memorising the 2^nd Paragraph of The Tablet of the True Seeker

This image from a beautiful arrangement, with the 361 Days of the Badí' Calendar and the 19 days of each month arranged into a hexagram by New York Bahá’í friend Leland Wright, and available online as a pdf or hard copy decorative wall calendar…

 That seeker must, at all times, put his trust in God, must renounce the peoples of the earth, must detach himself from the world of dust, and cleave unto Him Who is the Lord of Lords. He must never seek to exalt himself above any one, must wash away from the tablet of his heart every trace of pride and vain-glory, must cling unto patience and resignation, observe silence and refrain from idle talk. For the tongue is a smoldering fire, and excess of speech a deadly poison. Material fire consumeth the body, whereas the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul. The force of the former lasteth but for a time, whilst the effects of the latter endureth a century. 

10 Jamál (Beauty) 176 B.E.  7 May 2019 C.E.

Home for a few days after a few days visiting family and friends in Australia, I had 3 days left before I flew to the Land of Oz for another work stint, and along with starting to memorise the 2^nd Paragraph I had discovered more synchronicity related to the tablet in a couple of books on my iphone6+ during my flights. However the coincidental findings related to sentences in the 1^st Paragraph that I assumed I had not sufficiently integrated or explored yet, as on arriving to the Far North and trying to remember the 1^st Paragraph, I had some difficulty reciting the WORDS freely, which told me that there was still more to learn from them before I moved on to the 2^nd Paragraph. The phrases I had to look at again were the ones about the heart and the breast:

The seeker must cleanse his heart, which is the seat of the revelation of the inner mysteries of God, He must purge his breast, which is the sanctuary of the abiding Love of the Beloved…

This must mean that the heart is at the very centre of our beings, I thought… the seats of the Revelation of the Inner mysteries of God in each and every one of us! But what could the revelation of inner mysteries of God be? I remembered being awestruck at the revelations of Dan Winter, which I recorded in my book Search for the Feathered Serpentway back in 1999, in the chapter entitled The Return of Quetzalcoatl, about the secret subtle structure of the human heart, being indeed shown by science and mathematics to be as the Theosophists had drawn it with 7 spins on the outside and 5 on the inside, relating to 7 tilt angles of the tetrahedron, making up 7 letters of the Hebrew alphabet (and ALL other alphabets according to DW), and the 5 cubes that can be nested inside a dodecahedron, and many other exotic descriptions. Also, how it was a replica of the actual solar system, with the Sun and planets.

I had skim read another book on my kindle while flying from Oz to Nz, a massive effort of Research by David Livingstone, entitled Three Thousand Years of Terrorism and the Illuminati, in which, in Chapter 3: Mithraism Ancient Armenia and CiliciaI thought Livingstone had misconstrued the ancient Mithraic Mysteries, believing them to be evil machinations of the Illuminati. Although he recognised that Jewish mysticism in fact incorporated much of the tenets of ancient Zoroastrianism, including astrology, numerology, etc, Livingstone believed that it was in Jewish Merkabah mysticism that the first evolution occurred of “that doctrine which would become central to all the schools of Hellenistic mysticism: the ascent through the seven planets” to the knowledge and presence of the inner mysteries of God. Also, in his book he mentioned the concept of The Beloved– from his own personal favourite point of view in the Jewish Kabala, in which the Beloved is Shekina–seen as the Divine Female to match the male aspect of God, which was something that was mostly hidden in the Christian Bible, both the old and new testaments, except perhaps in The Song of Solomon… which was a song of Love of God for His Beloved. 

The Sanctuary of the abiding Love of The Beloved is the breast, but it would be very interesting to see what the original Persian word for breast was, I thought. Again, showing his preference for Jewish mysticism David Livingstone appears to believe that the concept of The Beloved originated in the Jewish mysteries, but like the former reference to the Inner mysteries of God seen in the Sun moon and planets, with more reading around the topic it was evident that this was something they had in common with the Zoroastrian mysteries, perhaps picked up during their stay in captivity in Iran about 2600 years ago. In the Bahá’í scriptures this relates to The Maid of Heaven, or The Maid of Eternity, seen in beautiful form in the Rashh-i-'Amá, Bahá’u’lláh’s poem or hymn to God and the Universe, incredibly deep and rich in Allusions to God, the Universe, and the Maid of Eternity, of which a new version put to song with guitar was sent to the seeker by my Bahá’í Friend Jan in response to my first blog post… 

There is a beautiful description of the Rashh-i-'Amá in Adib Taherzadeh’s Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, Volume 1, Chapter 4.“To our knowledge Bahá'u'lláh's first Tablet was a poem in Persian, Rashh-i-'Amá, revealed in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán soon after the descent of the Most Great Spirit upon His radiant soul. It is a song of victory and joy. Although its language is allusive, His divine experience is clearly proclaimed. In every line He extols the glory of God of which He had become the embodiment, and in every phrase He unveils the spiritual worlds which were then manifested within His soul. Although consisting of only nineteen lines, this poem in itself constitutes a mighty book. Within it are contained the potentialities, the character, the power and the glory of forty years of Divine Revelation to come. It announces the glad-tidings of the release of spiritual energies which are described by Bahá'u'lláh in such terms as the wafting of the divine musk-laden Breeze, the appearance of the Ocean of the Cause of God, the sounding of the Trumpet Blast, the flow of the Living Waters, the warbling of the Nightingale of Paradise and the appearance of the Maid of Heaven. In language supremely beautiful and soul-stirring, He attributes these energies to Himself. His choice of words, and the beauty, power, depth and mystery of this poem and, indeed, of others which were revealed later, are such that they may well prove impossible to translate.”

Also, there was a beautiful introduction to the Rashh-i-'Amá in the Preface of the new book released by the World Centre in 2018 – The Call of the Divine Beloved – Selected Mystical Works of Bahá’u’lláh:  

“Although most of the Tablets in this collection were revealed during Bahá’u’lláh’s sojourn in ‘Iráq (1853–1863), the first, the poem known as “Rashḥ-i-‘Amá”, was written in 1852 in the Síyáh-Chál and is among the few He revealed while in His native land of Persia, and in verse. Bahá’u’lláh recounts: “During the days I lay in the prison of Ṭihrán, though the galling weight of the chains and the stench-filled air allowed Me but little sleep, still in those infrequent moments of slumber I felt as if something flowed from the crown of My head over My breast, even as a mighty torrent that precipitateth itself upon the earth from the summit of a lofty mountain. Every limb of My body would, as a result, be set afire. At such moments My tongue recited what no man could bear to hear.”2 The poetic reflection of that experience, as conveyed in Rashḥ-i-‘Amá, can perhaps never be adequately rendered into another language, yet the present translation is an initial attempt to impart a glimpse of its power and momentous themes.”

When I spoke to my wife that morning about what it might mean to purge the breast, she remembered some words from another prayer regarding men’s breasts and the Evil Whisperer and then as I was writing this down she presented me with a pen, for my 63^rd birthday, and a card “for the wounded writer in you!” as well as a lecture about the need to keep my personal journal private, and the desirability of waiting a while before putting it out in public… lol! The quote was found after a short google search in a Prayer from Bahá’u’lláh, including some new light on The Beloved, entitled O my God and my Master…

…Keep us safe, then, through thine unfailing protection, o Thou the Beloved of the entire creation and the Desire of the whole universe, from them whom Thou hast made to be the manifestations of the Evil Whisperer, who whisper in men’s breasts. Potent art Thou to do Thy pleasure. Thou art, verily, the Almighty, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting. 

14 Jamál (Beauty) 176 B.E. 11 May 2019 C.E. 

Back at work in the Land of Oz, I knew I had been presented a very nice ink pen by the blessed beauty who was my wife, but I was still inclined to use the keyboard when ensconced in my comfortable accommodation by the field of kangaroos, where it was now just after sunset and I had 3 and a half hours before starting work. The gift of the pen reminded me of one of the beautiful teaching workshops mentioned in the previous chapter, made by Dr Nader Saiedi to an awesomely lucky and grateful group of students in California in 2018 CE, which were entitled Bahá’u’lláh and Peace, with a different aspect of this concept in each of the 4 talks. In the first talk he went on at length pointing out the allusionof Bahá’u’lláh being given the gift of the Pen by The Beloved, to replace the sword of the past, therefore resulting in one of the first things He did in the Garden of Ridvan, which was to outlaw any arms even for the purpose of self-defence. Many years later in His last book Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, pp. 20–21, Bahá’u’lláhmade another reference to how he had received His mission while imprisoned in the Síyáh-Chál, the terrible dungeon of Tihrán…

One night, in a dream these exalted words were heard on every side: “Verily, We shall render Thee victorious by Thyself and by Thy Pen. Grieve Thou not for that which hath befallen Thee, neither be Thou afraid, for Thou art in safety. Erelong will God raise up the treasures of the earth—men who will aid Thee through Thyself and through Thy Name, wherewith God hath revived the hearts of such as have recognized Him.”

So, the Bahá’í World Order is ruled by the Penand not the Swordof several previous dispensations and Covenants… and now the gift of a pen from my own beloved in this world of dust actually gave me some more courage to continue this narrative… JThe talk of Dr Saiedi’s that really called out to me for listening again, and to which I had listened twice already the day of this writing, was his fascinatingly beautiful exposition on the Mystical Poetry of Bahá’u’lláh, in which he goes on at length about The Beloved. One of my favourite Bahá’í books to date had been I BEHELD A MAIDEN – The Bahá’í Faith and the Life of the Spirit, by Terry Culhane, who went in search of the Divine Feminine in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, but Dr Saiedi’s amazing trails into the mystical writings now surpassed the previous astonishment and love of the Beauty of The Beloved I had felt from the book, even though I had so far listened to it only 3 times! I was discerning that each time it was a deeper dive into the waters of the Mystical writings of The Beloved Who was also within all of us, and this was only 1 of the 4 workshops! 

  

Along with each of these Talks there is a document attached which can be found on the notes under each Video on YouTube… In the document on this particular video Professor Saiedi shared some of the amazing Mystical poetry of Bahá’u’lláh. In his massive book, which is introduced by Kalimat Press as “a fascinating and brilliant analysis of the major works of Bahá’u’lláh from a scholarly perspective”, LOGOS AND CIVILISATION, Spirit, History, And Order in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, he mentioned in this talk that he had included a chapter on the Blessed Beauty’s statement that His writings were: First for the Mystics and Truth-seekers, Second for the Mullahs Popes and Priests of Religions, Third for the Kings and Rulers of Humanity, and finally for the Mass of Humanity. 

So the early writings during His ten years in Baghdad were mainly for the Mystics, and He was still occupied in His total love affair with the Poetry of Persian mystics and Sufi poets such as Rumi, Attar, Sa’adi, etc and a lot of His work was in addressing and answering their poetry and taking it to a new level of Beauty and Integration, as Dr Saiedi points out – from the Arc of Descent into matter, and then the Arc of Ascent to the place of Unity and Universal Consciousness, to which their poetry took them, but still not applying the Unity to the world of reality in their time, demonstrated by their fixed ideas relating to their time such as the inferiority of women and slaves to take one small example. Now, in this new dispensation, Dr Saiedi points out, Bahá’u’lláh is bringing a 3^rdArc of Descent, integrating the two previous Arcs into One, and bringing the mystical consciousness down into harmony in the world of matter and dust and water and clay. 

Several amazing and beautiful examples of the Divine Mystical Writing Dr Saiedi included in his document attached to this Video, which were all about uncovering a glimpse of The Beloved, and the Flame of Her Beauty, (as in his corrected translation wherever he saw the Male pronoun he would replace it with the Female) Even the address line in this Hidden Word, when seen from the perspective of the Persian Words used, is incredibly deep, and bringing the demonstration with tricks and puns of the Persian letters, that the Stranger Being Befriended by the Beloved (you and me) is also The Beloved! Then the rest of the Hidden Word points out that the only thing we need to find The Beloved in our breasts is remembrance! 

O BEFRIENDED STRANGER! The candle of thine heart is lighted by the hand of My power, quench it not with the contrary winds of self and passion. The healer of all thine ills is remembrance of Me, forget it not. Make My love thy treasure and cherish it even as thy very sight and life

The most illuminating mystical poetry in this presentation for me was Bahá’u’lláh’s Mathnavi, a very long mystical poem yet untranslated officially that He wrote in answer to Rumi’s Mathnavi, a Word meaning "Rhyming Couplets of Deep Spiritual Meaning." Professor Saiedi included in his document some examples of a translation of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mathnavi, by Professor Frank Lewis of Chicago, which can be found on the Bahá’í Library Online, and then applied his own intellect wisdom and his immersion in the Bahá’í Persian scriptures in refining the translation and showing forth more aspects of its true deep exquisite beauty and meaning… Particularly enlightening was the part of the poem that addressed the reed pipe (Nay) and the Player (Na’i) and started (with Dr Nader’s translation of the 2^ndline) 

Since you have heard the reed pipe’s plaint of love

It is now the time to recognise Her out of love 

You’ve heard the reed pipe sing, now look Who plays it 

Or you’ll stay wholly heedless of the King! 

Dr Saiedi went on in the Video to show many examples of how these words Pipe and Piper played together on different levels of meaning in the poetry, extending even into the translations in English and Francaise, and his way of transmitting his excitement into these understandings is something that is worth spending a few more moments immersing oneself in, especially with the recognition of the musical reed-like quality and beauty of Dr Saiedi’s voice when he is excited about his discoveries! One of these moments was when the heat of the breath of The Beloved burnt the reed and gave the seeker a glimpse of Her Immortal Face so now I also had more knowledge of Who was being referred to in the closing phrases of the Words still under meditation at this moment, when I recited the Words …how most of the people, because of such love and hate, are bereft of the Immortal Face, have strayed far from the Embodiments of the Divine Mysteries, and, shepherdless, are roaming in the wilderness of oblivion and error!  

Diving deeper into The Mathnavi Dr Saiedi also pointed out that most of this long poem in the style of Rumi, was composed in Baghdad, before the exile to Constantinople, but the last part of it, and in some ways the most beautiful because it is not the lament of the Lover for the Lost Beloved, but the lament of the Beloved for the Lovers who did not recognise Her and banished her from their realm… lamenting that the lovers were not ready for Her.  In the last part of the poem included in Dr Saiedi’s document The Beloved is immersed in Sinaitic Mysteries and addresses not only Bahá’u’lláh, but also two of the Prophets of the past, showing their relationship to the New Manifestation… 

Mystic Transcendence 

O Bahá’u’lláh, how fierce Your fire! 

it burns the lovers’ beings all to stubble 

You struck the hearts with one spark from the flame

and set afire whole forests on Sinai

So, from each heart You’ve conjured burning bushes:

O Moses, here it is! Come running fast…

O Sacrifice of God, do not forsake

love’s altar; give your life in paths of love!.. 

You, likewise, Noah, break the body’s Ark 

And hurl yourself into the Sea of Light!

Don’t seek self-preservation; Drown this self!

then you’ll come up for air in God’s embrace

Seek out the King’s protection, not the ship’s 

 - the King’s preserve will then provide refuge

You, too, hasten Moses, come to Soul’s Sinai! 

Forget your cloak and sandals, rush unrobed! 

that you may know the mysteries of that Fire 

which flames from each lock of the Loved One’s hair

I decided that some more time should be spent on the 1^st Paragraph… maybe a few more days… on reading and meditation into the essay in Dr Moojan Momen’s book Scripture and Revelation, Bahá'í Studies Volume III, on The Maid of Heaven… Meanwhile I was still working on memorising the beginning of the 2^nd paragraph… and increasingly amazed at the depth of meaning even in the 1^st sentence--- That seeker must, at all times, trust in God, realising the gift that is contained in this line, and feeling the promise of full guidance and freedom from all doubts and fears when reciting these words, knowing now that the guidance would come in ever more astonishing coincidences, manifest signs of the Universe, sign posts of synchronicity! Also realising the effect of obedience to the words about the seeker who must cling unto patience and resignation, through feeling the communication being a lot easier and closer with friends, and even strangers, by deliberately not pushing my ego and opinion forward, attempting to observe silence and refrain from idle talk

15 Jamál (Beauty) 176 B.E. 12 May 2019 CE 

On this date I first had to relate another remarkable co-incidence, or manifest sign of the universe, I experienced at work the previous night in my reading and research. It was the 2^nd quiet night in a row, and I was giving thanks to the Lord that I had enough time to read a few more chapters of the Book I started on the aircraft – Terrorism and the Illuminati: A Three Thousand Year History. In Chapter 17, The Salafi, I was amazed to discover extensive references to Bahá’u’lláh and the Bahá’í Faith, but totally misconstrued and connected with a British spy by the name of Jamal ud Din Al Afghani who was a covert British infiltrator into the Islamic world, with his mission to begin the Salafi movement, which was a plan to infiltrate the Islamic world; to penetrate into its leadership in order to guide it towards a confrontation with the West, a plan organised by a criminal gang of Illuminati famously headed by people like Alfred Pike to bring about 3 world wars, the 3^rd one being a war between Islam and the West. 

They succeeded in bringing about the 1^st Two World Wars but try as they might they have not been able to pull off WWIII, although their plan did seem to have come perilously close to working at times in the last couple of decades, I was beginning to realise that this might have been because of the sacrifices made by the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh and the 20 thousand-plus Bábi and Bahá’í martyrs; so in spite of the Illuminati program the planet is now transforming and moving rapidly towards the Age of Peace promised by Bahá’u’lláh, and the cheats and liars, kings, robber barons and psychopaths are now losing control of their world, still desperately trying, as their world destroys itself around them, to flex their muscles and build ever more destructive technology to kill their brothers and sisters. 

It was easy for me to understand, on reading through the chapter, that this British agent, whose name was Afghani, was not a true Bahá’í as his connection with the Faith was through the Covenant breaking son of Bahá’u’lláh, Muhammad Ali, whom he evidently met in India. David Livingstone has produced a huge and very useful documentary of three thousand years of history of the cruel inhuman blood lusting Illuminati controllers of mankind, but on two counts at least he has been led up the garden path and proven wrong, which made me decide to treat all of his work and research with a healthy dose of scepticism. 1^st in his connecting the Bahá’í faith to the sinister and devious Zionist British colonial program that has kept manipulating up to the present day, in which the Salafi movement morphed into the Wahhabi Islamic militant movement concealed behind the Muslim brotherhood, and more recently into Al Qaeda (The CIA list) and Daesh (ISIS), he was completely deceived. 2^nd in believing that the ancient Zoroastrian mysteries were part of the sinister controlling program, he was totally wrong also, as I found out after my lucid dream sleep, and then, upon waking, my study of most of the article on The Maid of Heaven. 

This day was a day I would always remember vividly in my personal calendar, as this morning for the very first time I met an actual maid of heaven in the dream time – a beautiful maiden with blond curly locks – that I eventually realised after reading the piece on The Maid of Heaven might have been my own female opposite in the spirit realms! The interaction with the girl in the dream was a powerful one in my reality… The dream also included music from the ukulele Overdriver Duo combo in a song entitled Sweet Child of Mine by that very spirited and loverly example of how male and female can work together to make love and music at the same time! – which I decided would be the next song to learn on the ukulele, and very appropriate for the moment with the lines from the original Guns N’ Roses classic song …Now and then when I see her face, she takes me away to that special place, and if I stared too long I’d probably break down and cry… 

 After the lucid dream with the maiden I was wide awake and in gratitude recited the Words of the 2^nd Paragraph, and then got up for my morning meditation with the Maid of Heaven article. It was while reading into the Zoroastrian, or Zarathustrian depths of history and how they saw the Maid of Heaven in the ancient religious rites, and how this is the same Maid of Heaven that Bahá’u’lláh saw in his dream vision, that I suddenly realised the girl I had seen in my vision was very much like a grown up version of my sister with her curly blond locks, who was herself a lot like a female version of me! There had been a fierce fire of attraction to the girl in the dream but I was aware of my newly cleansed heart and the purging of the defilements of my flesh, and this left me in a state of purity I had never felt before. I thought it was very likely that it was only because of this pure state through reciting the Words of cleansing and purging that I had been allowed to meet this beautiful female and touch her and interact with her in the dream time. 

The essay in Dr Momen’s book was entitled Daēnā-Dēn-Dīn: The Zoroastrian Heritage of the ‘Maid of Heaven’ in the Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh by Kamram Ekbal, and was all about tracking Bahá’u’lláh’s Maid of Heaven that appeared to Him in the Síyáh-Chál of Tihrán to her roots in the Zoroastrian religion as She appeared to Zarathustra in this passage known as Yasht 22, which constitutes one of the most ancient parts of The Avesta attributed to Zarathustra: 

Four glorious Dawns had risen,

And with the wakening loveliness of day

Came breezes whispering from the southern sky

Laden with fragrant sweetness. I beheld, 

And floating lightly on the enamoured winds

A Presence sped and hovered over me, 

A maiden, roseate as the blush of morn,

Stately and pure as heaven, and on her face

The freshness of a bloom untouched of Time.

Amazed I cried, ‘Who art thou, Maiden fair, 

Fairer than aught on earth these eyes have seen? 

And she in answer spake, ‘I am Thyself, 

Thy thoughts, thy words, thy actions, glorified 

By every conquest over base desire,

By every offering of holy prayer

To the Wise Lord in Heaven, every deed 

Of kindly help done to the good and pure.

By these I come thus lovely, come to guide 

Thy steps to the dread Bridge where waits for thee 

The Prophet, charged with judgement.’ 

The comparison to Bahá’u’lláh’s description of the Maiden who appeared to Him in his dream vision while He was imprisoned in the filthy pit of Tihrán with the two massive chains cutting into His neck, with Zarathustra’s vision perhaps 3 thousand years earlier, according to this article had ‘striking similarities’ so was quoted in full from the Súratu’l-Haykal (the Súrih of the Temple) 

 While engulfed in tribulations I heard a most wondrous, a most sweet voice, calling above My head. Turning My face, I beheld a Maiden—the embodiment of the remembrance of the name of My Lord—suspended in the air before Me. So rejoiced was she in her very soul that her countenance shone with the ornament of the good-pleasure of God, and her cheeks glowed with the brightness of the All-Merciful. Betwixt earth and heaven she was raising a call which captivated the hearts and minds of men. She was imparting to both My inward and outer being tidings which rejoiced My soul, and the souls of God’s honored servants. Pointing with her finger unto My head, she addressed all who are in heaven and all who are on earth, saying: ‘By God! This is the Best-Beloved of the worlds, and yet ye comprehend not. This is the Beauty of God amongst you, and the power of His sovereignty within you, could ye but understand. This is the Mystery of God and His Treasure, the Cause of God and His glory unto all who are in the kingdoms of Revelation and of creation, if ye be of them that perceive.

In the article in the book I read on to find that this Daēnā or Dēn or Dīn, was a Maiden Who had many different levels of manifestation, on one level being a Personification of the Religion Itself with the Manifestation, and on another level the beautiful 15 year old Maiden Who would meet the deceased Initiate leaving this realm for the next realm and become his guide in the ancient Zoroastrian rites of the Dead, and also in the Manichean rites in later times. (The lady in my dream time was more like in her late 20s or early 30s) I found it interesting to find on a Google search that the Zoroastrian rites of the Dead in some respects were identical to the Maori rites and their 3-day Tangi. In ancient Persia when any man (or woman) died, his soul would be separated from his body, but would stay in its vicinity in this physical world (called Gaethya) for three days and nights and would spend them in prayer. But from these readings it seemed to me that the Prophets could not only meet Their Maid of Heaven after death, but also during life in this world in the dream time… and so too, apparently, could mere mortals like me and my friends, if we follow the instructions and keep to the Covenant with Mubárak– The Blessed Beauty – Who together with His Maid of Eternity is the New Sun – Light bringer and Life Bringer – for this dispensation, and Who in BE 176 has already risen High in the Sky, and Whose Greater Peace is inevitably drawing nigh.  

16 Jamál (Beauty) 176 B.E. 13 May 2019 CE 

I decided on a quick update on this day to keep the dream diary going – I did not meet the maid of heaven, but instead ended up with a friend or companion – I thought – as I woke up when the danger factor loomed – as a juicy red crunchy cracker for a passing small carnivorous dinosaur right out of Jurassic Park that saw me and my friend and started after us! Wide awake and alert in a sweat, I found I was quite fluent with the 1^st part of the Words for this month so started my morning meditation with the Long Obligatory Prayer, and a first session trying to memorise the 2^nd page of Words from the 2^nd Paragraph… 

For the tongue is a smoldering fire, and excess of speech a deadly poison. Material fire consumeth the body, whereas the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul. The force of the former lasteth but for a time, whilst the effects of the latter endureth a century. 

While reading the rest of the Maid of Heaven article sitting on the couch under a Himalayan Salt lamp there was a power cut and the light went out. The lamp was still warm, but I could not get it going again when the power came on a few minutes later, not even when I drove down to the supermarket and bought 2 new bulbs and tried to get it going again. Knowing that nothing happens in the contingent realm without its mirror in the spirit realm, and feeling somewhat chastened, I was thinking that perhaps there must still be a lechery factor, or some tattoo or defilement unpurged from my breast, which is (meant to be) the sanctuary of the abiding Love of the Beloved, about Whom I was reading when the lamp went out. Through the reading I re-learnt the continuity of Her Name though several religions being Daēnā (almost like Diana) in the Avesta, to Dēn in the later Zoroastrianism and Manicheism – which was an attempt by the beautiful pure youth Mani to meld the ancient mystery schools with Roman Christianity – to Dīn in Shi’i Islam. 

Maybe the Allusion of the Lamp going out referred to the Lamp of the Goddess going out in those beautiful religions of the past, I thought, and so maybe some more work needed here, not only to get my Himalayan salt lamp going again, but also in purification to even begin to take a careful peep at the Face of the Beloved Who is the Mirror of Bahá’u’lláh. What came to my mind was the phrase in the LOP where the seeker is commanded to rise and say… O God, my God, my back is bowed by the burden of my sins, and my heedlessness hath destroyed me. Whenever I ponder my evil doings and Thy benevolence, my heart melteth within me and my blood boileth in my veins. By Thy Beauty, O Thou the Desire of the World, I blush to lift up my face to Thee, and my longing hands are ashamed to stretch forth toward the heaven of thy bounty…  Then when I went to my pdf of the LOP to check the Words I had written were correct, he found that I had drifted into error and forgot one phrase, now corrected. Also, I was pleased to find ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s comment on the Words and Movements of the Long Obligatory Prayer - “Know thou that in every word and movement of the obligatory prayer there are allusions, mysteries and a wisdom that man is unable to comprehend, and letters and scrolls cannot contain.”  

With reciting the 1^st Part of the 2^nd Paragraph over the last few days I could feel my heart palpably warm in my breast, like a flame, and I felt very grateful to realise that, even if I had again fallen into error, all I had to do was remember that the seeker must, at all times, put his trust in God, seeing this now in a new light as an incredible gift rather than a command. I also remembered that …Only when the Lamp of Search, of earnest striving etc. is kindled within the heart of the seeker, and the Breeze of His loving kindness is wafted upon his soul, will the darkness of error be dispelled etc…  also having learnt today that it was probably the Breeze of Her loving kindness, as The Maid of Heaven is also referred to in all the ancient scriptures and now in these Words, in Her various forms of movement of breath or wind as a Fragrant Breeze, or a perfumed Zephyr in a Rose garden. 

Trying to find a mention of the Word Zephyr in the Bahá’í writings I then came across a Tablet of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá addressing a woman who sent him a letter while He was in Paris, which he evidently enjoyed immensely, as he addressed her in similar words to how Zarathustra addressed Daēnā, and Bahá’u’lláh the Maid of Heaven… O Thou my beloved daughter! Thine eloquent and fluent letter was perused in a garden, under the cool shade of a tree, while the gentle breeze was wafting. The means of physical enjoyment was spread before the eyes and thy letter became the cause of spiritual enjoyment. Truly, I say, it was not a letter but a rose-garden adorned with hyacinths and flowers. It contained the sweet fragrance of paradise and the zephyr of Divine Love blew from its roseate words… etc. 

It was not such a quick update after all, as the spirit kept me in front of the screen, discovering ever more depth and synchronicity with these Words… I felt humbled, with my heart feeling like it had a hot flame lit within it, and with tears of gratitude not far from my eyes, as I recited the Words, moving on to complete the 2^nd Paragraph… 

18 Jamál (Beauty) 176 B.E. 15 May 2019 CE 

My next video on Riccardo’s pizza oven would just have to wait, I decided, as the fascination and heat of the Search, felt in my heart like a pleasant pressure in the sternum, kept me focused on this trail! Also there had been some amazing developments and understandings… The night of the 13^th May had felt like a Black Friday, even if it was a Monday night… The lamp going out at home was realised now to be because of a power surge, as similar things happened at the hospital, causing some of the electronic equipment to malfunction, nothing to work properly, and glitches with everything! Also, after 3 blissfully quiet nights it was very busy with complicated patients, and one brain damaged patient upstairs had to be sedated with large amounts of IM droperidol, and was still trying to rip the TV off the wall. To add to the cacophony there was no security guard available, and then a loud alarm went off on the air-conditioning unit in the ED and a disgruntled engineer had to be woken around 4am and then found he could not reset the alarm, so he had to switch the whole system off till morning. 

I had seen these sorts of little tsunamis of chaos descend on the hospital before, and suspicious of solar activity, I went to check out the Suspicious Observers YouTube channel and found indeed, after a long period of inactivity there had been a direct earth facing small filament separation with a CME Coronal Mass Ejection. It was small but it was perfectly earth facing, and when I looked at the time it was around 2300hrs on the 12^thMay UT – Universal Time – so where I was in Oz it would have been about 0900hrs in the morning of the 13^th, about the time I was catching up on sleep and being eaten by the carnivorous dinosaur, with the physical effects seen about 6 hours later at 2pm and then on through the next few hours. 

 

After studying the time stamps, I decided that it must have been the fast moving high energy particles that caused the physical disruptions, rather than the slower speed wave that reached the Earth’s atmosphere more than 24hrs later to light up the atmospheric aurora – causing a typical magnetic storm and raised Kp index in the Earth’s atmosphere, as in the picture from SO News, bringing with the solar rays  all sorts of electro-magnetic malfunctions and melt downs all over the planet. It was a very stressful night and several times I found myself stopping to comfort myself and regain some strength by remembering that first line of Words for this month – The seeker must, at all times, trust in God! With the added strength from these Words I seemed to be allowed to dance through all the chaos and not get caught up in it, and then the following day my main activity was in absorbing some more of the meaning of the Rashh-i-’Amá by tuning into a study circle in the US on the release of the new book by the World Centre – The Call of the Divine Beloved – Selected Mystical Works of Bahá’u’lláh. The 1^st Study Circle, coordinated by a beautifully humble US Bahá’í scholar Steven Phelps, was a profound study on the depths of meanings in the Rashh-i-'Amá. Then after the one night of chaos the next night at work was back to calm and settled as before. 

Getting up from another sound sleep I then read the next article in Dr Moojan Momen’s book which described how the Báb made an after-dinner commentary on the Súra of Wa’l-‘Asr, which had all the religious leaders of Isfahan in awe kissing the edge of His robe. It was the shortest chapter in the Qur’án, but the Báb literally exploded it out examining not only each word, but each LETTER and explaining the higher meanings of each letter! It was a good example of the Power and Beauty of Divine Words and Letters, and it added some more depth of understanding the Words I was now memorising for the rest of this month, and why there are such terrible effects from Words used with negative emotions like Hatred Fear Rage and Anger rather than Love… For the tongue is a smoldering fire, and excess of speech a deadly poison. Material fire consumeth the body, whereas the fire of the tongue devoureth both heart and soul.

Also, in my morning meditation I realised the solar sneeze was adding some more learning to what I had uncovered in the last couple of weeks, about the human heart being The Seat of the Revelation of the Inner Mysteries of God, and how these mysteries were understood in the ancient Mystery Schools to reflect the workings of the Solar system. Co-incidentally I was watching some Bahá’í Youtube Videos, and one of my favourites – O God my God– came up from the Bahá’í Polynesian musical group Mana, and from the graphics on their video it seemed they already knew about the connection with the Inner Mysteries of God!

 With Dan Winter’s understanding that the Solar heart resonates with human hearts all over the planet, I thought, I might be drawing closer to a glimpse of the Maid of Heaven and Her heart, which is also within each and every human heart, resonating with planetary scale events, that also affect everyone on a microcosmic scale – As Above; So Below– the ancient Maxim of Hermes Trismegistus, known also by many other names such as Thoth, Idris, Enoch, Michael or Mercury, who can be found in the Lawh-i-Hikmat – Tablet of Wisdom –to be named by Bahá'u'lláh as The Father of Philosophy. 

I had been looking for the chance to include Thoth Hermes in this precipitous dive into ancient mysteries, as from decades of previous research and synchronicity recorded in my previous writings He(rmes) appears to be key to discovering lost history, specifically in how the waves of inspiration in writing, with the consequent discovery of hidden knowledge, I had discerned over the years to be clearly associated with the movements and influence of the planet Mercury (and the element Hg); another glimpse of the Revelation of the Inner Mysteries of God. Now I knew why I had felt called to spend the flight back to work this month perusing and beginning to hyperlink a profound paper presented by Keven Brown, entitled Hermes Trismegistus and Apollonius of Tyana in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh published in Revisioning the Sacred: New Perspectives on Bahá’í Theology, ed. Jack McLean. Studies in the Bábí and Bahá’í Religions, vol. 8 (Los Angeles: Kalimát Press, 1997), pp. 153-187

  

1 'Azamat (Grandeur) 176 BE, 17 May 2019 CE 

It was actually the 16^th of May CE as I began writing but at 1700hrs the sun had already set so the People of Bahá across the Land of Oz would now be having their 19 day feast of 'Azamat, in the Year of 176 BE, as the Bahá’í Day Month and Year starts at the sunset… a very timely thing to understand, as my next reading in Dr Momen’s book this morning was a scholarly presentation by Khazeh Fananapazir on The Day of God (Yawmu’lláh) and the Days of God (Ayyamu’lláh) which explored the different depths of meanings of the Words Day and Days, especially the concept put forward in Haji Mihdi Arjmand’s book, named by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Gulshan-i-Haqáyiq – Garden of Truths– that this Day of Bahá’u’lláh, is the promised Day of God, but also including discussion on when the Days start in different religions, with a New Day beginning at sunset in the Bahá’í and Jewish religions, but at midnight for the Christian religion, etc. 

In the course of this month I switched over to having the BE calendar at the front on the date-lines, very meaningful, I decided, as a concerted Search for the Beloved had occurred in the month of Jamál Beauty! I had decided to continue writing the Day of each entry as there seemed to have been a beautiful synchronicity weaving meaning into each Day’s events with the Words under meditation at each moment or Day in time. (In the 1^st 2 blog entries these were originally led by the CE dates… now corrected.) Now, only today, I realised with reciting this month’s Words fluently for the first time, that I really should get in synch with the 19-month Badí' calendar, especially in this year of the 200^th Birthday of the Báb!  I got to work and looked up the Bahá’í month days and marked them in my calendar, calculating that with about 12 Bahá’í months to go to the end of the CE year he should have learnt the whole tablet by 2020. 

Also having seen the manifest signs of the Universe unfold in such astonishing and dramatic ways, weaving through the various time lines, I decided to keep this blog as a personal diary, and then perhaps in my travelling times I would take my beautiful darling’s pen with me for scribbling on the run. Taking her point about privacy and allowing time before publication, this blog will be only for close Friends, and then maybe later compiled and edited into a book. My wife had suggested a novel, but I decided I wanted the clarity of keeping it a True story, as much as I could, remembering John Keats’ words in his famous Ode on a Grecian Urn – Beauty is truth, truth beauty, — that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know – quite an appropriate observation for the last Day of the Month of Beauty. And also remembering the old saying Truth is Stranger than Fiction, I decided that in the interests of keeping this story as strange and exciting as possible the only reason for fictionalising it would be trying to hide something – right? And then would this not have the effect of moving it away from Truth and Clarity, away from Beauty, and towards the wilderness of oblivion and error? 

I was just finishing the chapter when a text message came from my wife, who was at the Feast of 'Azamat (Grandeur) in NZ/Aotearoa, and she wanted me to FaceTime in and join the Physical part of the Feast, as they had finished the Spiritual part (devotional readings and songs) and were now in the Administrative part, getting ready to have a kai… Hence, I decided that this would be enough searching for this month, and now I would write out Paragraph 3 on A4 sheets of paper for memorising through the Month and Days of 'Azamat Grandeur… 

That seeker should, also, regard backbiting as grievous error, and keep himself aloof from its dominion, inasmuch as backbiting quencheth the light of the heart, and extinguisheth the life of the soul. He should be content with little, and be freed from all inordinate desire. He should treasure the companionship of them that have renounced the world, and regard avoidance of boastful and worldly people a precious benefit. At the dawn of every day he should commune with God, and, with all his soul, persevere in the quest of his Beloved. He should consume every wayward thought with the flame of His loving mention, and, with the swiftness of lightning, pass by all else save Him. He should succor the dispossessed, and never withhold his favor from the destitute. He should show kindness to animals, how much more unto his fellow-man, to him who is endowed with the power of utterance.