9. The City of Certitude
THE PATH OF SEARCH, Chapter 9.
The month of‘Izzat(Might) 176 BE
Memorising the 9th Paragraph of The Tablet of the True Seeker
As each chapter and Paragraph of the Tablet has come into synchronisation with the Badíʿ calendar, a screen shot of the month of ‘Izzat introduces this chapter, taken from a beautiful arrangement of the calendar, with each month AND the whole 19 months of 361 days arranged into a hexagram, by New York Bahá’í Friend Leland Wright, and available online as a pdf or hard copy decorative wall calendar…
he will
likewise
clearly distinguish
all the signs of God –
His wondrous utterances,
His great works, and mighty deeds –
from the doings, words, and ways of men,
even as the jeweller who knoweth the gem from the stone,
or the man who distinguisheth the spring from autumn
and heat from cold.
When the channel of the human soul is cleansed
of all worldly and impeding attachments,
it will unfailingly perceive
the breath of the Beloved
across immeasurable distances,
and will, led by its perfume,
attain and enter the City of Certitude.
Therein he will discern the wonders
of His ancient wisdom
and will perceive all the hidden teachings
from the rustling leaves of the Tree –
which flourisheth in that City.
With both his inner and his outer ear
he will hear from its dust
the hymns of glory and praise
ascending unto the Lord of Lords,
and with his inner eye will he discover
the mysteries of “return” and “revival”.
2‘Izzat Might 176 BE 9 September 2019 CE
After a weekend at friends who synchronously were watching GAIA TV the Ancient Discoveries Series, from which I got a lot of confirmations that the Names which came up in last month’s chapter were correct, particularly one episode From Atlantis to Aztlan in which practically everything that was written about Quetzalcoatl and Huitzlipochtli, the Feathered Serpent and Hummingbird angels gods seraphim came up. Then on the drive back I heard Jordan Maxwell being interviewed by George Noori the well-known host of Coast to Coast Radio, about the angels and pointing out that the very word Angel meant Messenger of God El. Also heard interviewing Michael Tellinger about the Annunaki, how he had discovered vast Gold diggings in Africa from ancient times, confirming that at least some of Zechariah Sitchin’s interpretations had been correct – of a race that was very interested in the gold on the planet, thus the presence of ‘gold fever’ in human DNA. But Michael Tellinger explained that he had deciphered 2 types of Annunaki or Elohim, a high vibration type like the angels of peace and a low vibration like the angels of slavery and war more reptilian in their nature
I could not wait to get back to my meditations and study of the words for this month, and in fact I had before going away for the weekend made a random reading in Javáhiru’l-Asrár– Gems of Divine Mysteries, which I had thought was a good focus for starting the Month of ‘Izzat Might, as it summed up a lot of what we had discovered last month, but had lost the reference… Now on return to the desk it was time to have another look for the reading…
3‘Izzat Might 176 BE 10 September 2019 CE
I looked through the entire Javáhiru’l-Asrár twice from cover to cover last night and could not find the paragraphs I read that shed some light on the relationship between angels, prophets, Divine Manifestations and God Him/Herself. Then on waking up this morning I spent a couple of hours memorising the 1st Sentence of Paragraph 9, and realised that even if I had possibly erred by making a start on this month’s writing yesterday on some of the doings, words and ways of men, the Words for this month of ‘Izzat Might were definitely pointing me in the direction of all the signs of God – His wondrous utterances, His great works and mighty deeds!
Then as another sign of the Universe filling in more of the tapestry that made up the whole of reality and illuminating the relationship of God to His manifestations and prophets, on this date 3 ‘Izzat Might there was a curiously synchronous quote on the free daily email I had just signed up for and was now getting a Quote of the Day for every day: “Whenever, O my God, I soared into Thy holy atmosphere and attained the inmost spirit of prayerfulness unto Thee, I was led to recognize that Thou art inaccessible and that no mention of Thee can ever reach Thy transcendent court. Therefore I turn towards Thy Loved Ones—They upon Whom Thou hast graciously conferred Thine Own station that They might manifest Thy love and Thy true knowledge. Bless Them then, O my God, with every distinction and goodly gift which Thy knowledge may reckon within the domain of Thy power.” Selections from the Writings of the Báb, Author: The Báb, Source: Bahá’í World Centre, 1982 lightweight edition, Page: 201
It was finally time to watch Steven Phelps’ 4th Workshop on the new spiritual guidebook from the World Centre, the twin mystical guidebook with Gems of Divine Mysteries from the early Baghdad days, The Call of the Divine Beloved, this one focused on the 3rd Valley of Knowledge.
The first thing SP pointed out was that the Knowledge referred to in the realm of Knowledge was not the word ‘Ilm that referred to book knowledge or acquired knowledge, but a Word that’s sounded like “Mahrafat”, based on the same root as an Arabic Word that sounded like “Arafon”. So, in Arabic the two types of Knowledge were Arafon and ‘Ilm, but in the 7 Valleys it was the Valley of Mahrafat which if translated into English is getting close to “Intuition”. The two types of Knowledge are described in many places in the Bahai writings, for example by ‘Abdu’l-Baha in Some Answered Questions, which SP read out to the group at 3minutes: Know that the power and the comprehension of the human spirit are of two kinds, that is to say they proceed and act in two different modes. One way is through instruments and organs, the other a manifestation of the powers and actions of the spirit without instruments and organs.
Bahá’u’lláh in The Book of Certitude says: Know verily that Knowledge is of 2 kinds, Divine and Satanic. The one welleth out from the fountain of divine inspiration, the other is a reflection of vain and obscure thoughts. SP went on to read a few more excerpts from the Bahai writings to illustrate the point and pointed out that the type of knowledge known as ‘Ilm, relating to book knowledge or “sight” is not even mentioned in the 7 Valleys at all; the type of Knowledge referred to in the Valley of Knowledge was “insight”. ‘Ilm describes analysis, pulls apart and sees the trees in the forest, as contrasted with Mahrafat, the type of knowledge that unifies, reconciles opposites, and sees the whole Forest.
At 8minutes SP read Para 23 of the 7 Valleys, where all opposites reconcile and the Seeker enters the City of Certitude as in the 2nd Sentence for memorisation this month: When the channel of the human soul is cleansed of all worldly and impeding attachments, it will unfailingly perceive the breath of the Beloved across immeasurable distances, and will, led by its perfume, attain and enter the City of Certitude. So, we find that the Valley of Knowledge is also the City of Certitude! All the opposites are resolved here, e.g. the drop with the ocean the atom with the sun, and the lover with the Beloved. All the opposites are resolved, but still remain in existence, as the Valley of Knowledge is still in the 3 Valleys of Limitation, whereas in the Valleys of Unity the opposites are not only resolved, they are dissolved into each other. So, the scheme is one of tension of Search and Love, with the tensions resolving into Knowledge, and then in the 1st Valley of Unity there is resolution of opposites and then transcendence in the Valleys that remain.
This equates to a state of mind in the 1st 3 Valleys where the seeker sees the various manifestations of God as separate, then moves to the Valleys of Unity and sees them all as One and United, and where one sees the end in the beginning; for example Muhammad might be “the seal of the prophets” but in the Valleys of Unity every prophet is first and last! And in His description of Prophets we find that according to Bahá’u’lláh Ten thousand Prophets, each a Moses, are thunderstruck upon the Sinai of their search at His forbidding voice, "Thou shalt never behold Me!"; whilst a myriad Messengers, eachas great as Jesus, stand dismayed upon their heavenly thrones by the interdiction, "Mine Essence thou shalt never apprehend!". So given the fact that later in the TOTTS we find that the City of Certitude is renewed every thousand years or so, that means He is talking about 100,000 years of history on planet Earth!
At 19minutes SP has Bahá’u’lláh quoting Hermes saying that the Universe in in Perfect Order – there is no flaw, everything is Perfection, As Above So below, however ‘Abdu’l-Baha shows that in nature there is imperfection for example in weeds clogging up a garden. At 23m there was a reading from 'Abdu'l-Bahá making some points in his Tablet of the Universe… These are heavenly truths relating to the Spiritual world. Infer then from these truths that which pertaineth to the physical world. For physical things are signs and imprints of spiritual things. Every lower reality is the image and pattern of a higher one. Nay, inferior and superior, material and spiritual, accidental and essential, particular and universal, foundation and structure, form and meaning, and the outward and the inward reality of all things, all of these are connected one with the other and are inter-related such wise that ye find drops to be patterned after seas and atoms to be fashioned after suns in accordance with their capacities and potentialities …etc.
I remembered my own revelations in the dream time the last time I was home, when on two occasions I saw people as more real and whole in the dream time than when I saw them in 3d later that day, and realised again that the REM sleep time was a higher reality (named by 'Abdu'l-Bahá as The Kingdom, one of the two realms between man and Manifestations) than normal waking reality, which He referred to as drifting shadows, as He explained in this beautiful tablet to a handmaid of God who must have been even more aflame with the Fire of Love when she received Tablet 150:
O thou handmaid aflame with the fire of God’s love! Grieve thou not over the troubles and hardships of this nether world, nor be thou glad in times of ease and comfort, for both shall pass away. This present life is even as a swelling wave, or a mirage, or drifting shadows. Could ever a distorted image on the desert serve as refreshing waters? No, by the Lord of Lords! Never can reality and the mere semblance of reality be one, and wide is the difference between fancy and fact, between truth and the phantom thereof.
Know thou that the Kingdom is the real world, and this nether place is only its shadow stretching out. A shadow hath no life of its own; its existence is only a fantasy, and nothing more; it is but images reflected in water and seeming as pictures to the eye.
Rely upon God. Trust in Him. Praise Him and call Him continually to mind. He verily turneth trouble into ease, and sorrow into solace, and toil into utter peace. He verily hath dominion over all things.
If thou wouldst hearken to my words, release thyself from the fetters of whatsoever cometh to pass. Nay rather, under all conditions thank thou thy loving Lord, and yield up thine affairs unto His Will that worketh as He pleaseth. This verily is better for thee than all else, in either world.
I managed to listen up to 36m of Steven Phelps 4th Workshop where I heard him saying that one has to remember that even though this is the Valley of Knowledge, it is only the 3rd of 7 Valleys, so at this point all sorts of things remain veiled for the seeker…Then at the end of the Valleys of Search, we find this is also the end of wayfaring and wandering because at this hour the morn of true knowledge hath dawned and the lamps of wayfaring and wandering have been quenched…Bahá’u’lláh goes on to quote a verse from Rumi, which must have multiple mystical layers of meaning, as Moses in the Wilderness never got to the land promised to Abraham Isaac and Jacob, and this seems to be suggesting with the allusions to the wings that this also applied in the Spiritual world…
Veiled from this was Moses too,
Despite His virtue and His light.
Then thou who hast no wings at all,
Abandon any hope of flight!
Then the last verse in the Valley of Knowledge as we noticed it in a previous chapter, was another quote from the Qur’an, i.e. from the Ark Angel Gabriel, seeming to say that both angels and men can soar with wings of assistance… If thou be a man of communion and prayer, soar upon the wings of assistance from the holy ones, that thou mayest behold the mysteries of the Friend and attain the lights of the Beloved: “Verily, we are God’s, and to Him shall we return.”
Today is the 18th Anniversary of 9:11 – the fall of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre, as well as Building Number 7, and although vast millions of people know who did it, the official story still stands that it was Osama bin Laden and a few Arab terrorists! Yesterday I had a long talk with my wife who had been feeling out of sorts for a few days. I thought it was due to the fierce electromagnetic solar storm that enveloped the Earth coincidental with Hurricane Dorian, but she was of the firm opinion that it was because she had made a fish pie with her clients and had a few mouthfuls last week, and it was through her breaking her strong commitment to a GW (Vegan) diet. Remembering my own experience in a previous chapter while learning the words… he should be kind to animals etc… I could empathise with her feelings…
To confirm this in her mind she made another pie but used cauliflower in the recipe instead of fish and that night had a sequence of awesomely clear dreams in which she was given a number of baby rabbits in a hat, and she became their caretaker. They all had different faces and one she remembered vividly had a face like a funny screwed up Persian cat face… I told her about the connection with my dreams and the illumination from the DJ and GiGi workshop X62 in which we found out with Alice that the rabbit was the keeper of the keys of space and time for the rabbit hole also known as star-gate.
It was awesome beginning to dream with my other half these mystical dreams and illuminations together, in fact almost exactly at a distance of a thousand leagues! (if calculated from the common conversion factor of 2.2kms to the league), and definitely inhaling the fragrance of God and reciting the Verses of God together, and is if to confirm the new level of alchemy, both of our GW names, Crystal (Gem) and Spring, were in the 1st sentence of the Words for this month, in which the seeker will likewise distinguish the signs of God … from the doings words and ways of men, even as the Jeweller who knoweth the gem (crystal) from the stone, or the man who distinguisheth the spring from autumn and heat from cold.
Dreaming together like this and coming up with such beautiful synchronicity or signs of the universe made me remember the alchemists of history, that their greatest achievements and breakthroughs, although concealed for reasons of their own safety, and considered too sacred to reveal in public, were apparently always achieved with the alchemical wedding of male and female, husband and wife. This new level of communion and understanding in the world of dreams as well as the world of dust brought with it a vast feeling of happiness and a very warm heart which I felt was even moving past the Valley of Knowledge into the Valleys of Unity. On further contemplation and looking at the Words I also realised that our communion, which was like the breath of the Beloved, even if it was just a thousand leagues, and not an immeasurable distance, still did seem to bring a kind of fulfilment of the whole sentence… When the channel of the human soul is cleansed of all worldly and impeding attachments, it will unfailingly perceive the breath of the Beloved across immeasurable distances, and will, led by its perfume, attain and enter the City of Certitude
Perhaps because of the new feeling of harmony, the Emergency Department, after what felt like weeks and months of chaos without a break, became beautifully quiet, with only 1 minor problem all night, (a boil) which allowed me for the first time for a while to catch up fully into the REM stage of sleep. Then coming home and having in mind my wife’s strong opinion that eating non-GW food has the effect of drawing us out of harmony, because it is covered in blood, I threw out a couple of slabs of cheddar and a small amount of smoked salmon I had in the fridge and ate ½ an avocado before going down to some more REM sleep.
The dreams were indeed awesome and VERY clear, although at the point of writing I have only the vaguest memory of the details. I do remember seeing an old friend of mine for many years, who seemed to have embodied the energy of Zadkiel, and I could see in the dream that the phenomenon was an “over-shadowing” in the world of dust, so it was an actual incarnation in the body, not just an “over lighting” of a material body by the light of the angel. Along with this came the sound of awesome music which I recognised as the song “Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica, but was much richer than I’d ever heard it on the radio or on YouTube, and enveloping me in ecstasy, as I lay on the bed still ½ in the dream time but also awake and conscious, aware of the music and understanding with an inexpressible feeling of gratitude that this was another reflection of the Words for this month in which the true seeker is promised that when he enters the City of Certitude, with both his inner and outer ear he will hear from it’s dust the hymns of glory and praise ascending unto the Lord of Lords.
Coming to this point in the writing and meditation I developed a rainbow shimmering halo in my vision, a kind of pre-migrainous scotoma or shimmering blind spot, which I know from experience is sometimes associated with a strong electro-magnetic field, but also at times associated with particularly powerful holy places on the Earth, for example at the 3 standing stones of Merlin in Brittany. For whatever the reason I can now hardly see the page to write upon, so getting the message that some secrets are not to be divulged… The Full Story will not be written. Suffice it to say that in the dream, which involved the angel Zadkiel, there was confirmation that he is present in this material world, but invisible to those whose inner eyes and inner ears have not been wakened, and his purpose does appear to be to help defeat the evil-doers on this planet, but he can no longer use weapons of destruction and death, as this dispensation is ruled by the Pen and not the Sword. As if to miraculously confirm that fact the Bahai Quote of the Day on this day, 9:11, 18 years after the event, was hair-raisingly appropriate, in fact another Zikru’llah Khadem moment, (O Lord, Increase my astonishment at Thee!) in confirming my interpretation of the dream:
Aid ye your Lord with the sword of wisdom and of utterance. This indeed well becometh the station of man. Gleanings– US Bahai Publishing Trust, 1990 Pocket Edition, p296
Having succeeded in writing the last paragraph into my diary the shimmering halo in my visual field began fading, so I decided the description of the dream content was complete and the rest of it should be allowed to drift back into the unmanifest and unrevealed Ocean of being. Still contemplating the meaning of the dream, however, and seeing it as the “reincarnation” or return and revival of an Archangelic energy down into the world of dust in a mortal 3D body, I realised that there was some further illumination contained in the next sentence of Words as well, in which the seeker is promised and with his inner eye will he discover the mysteries of “return” and “revival”.
After recording the extraordinary dream, I made a few notes on the rest of SP’s 4thWorkshop on the (3rd) Valley of Knowledge, with the first one being from 'Abdu'l-Bahá’s Ultimate Limits of Knowledge, in which SP read an illuminating writing showing that Knowledge of the Inner Mysteries of God is impossible for the mind of man to understand… Of course, having learnt in Chapter 1 that the human heart is the seat of the revelation of the Inner Mysteries of God, we could appreciate SP's illumination from this tablet that reminded him of the quote from Bahá’u’lláh from Arabic Hidden Word 13:
"O SON OF SPIRIT! I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? Out of the essence of knowledge I gave thee being, why seekest thou enlightenment from anyone beside Me? Out of the clay of love I molded thee, how dost thou busy thyself with another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting
Then searching further on this intriguing tablet which echoed the direction of the TOTTS in the last couple of paragraphs with their focus on recognising and inhaling the fragrance of God, across immeasurable distances, which phrase was more understandable when I realised that those distances might be within rather than without, I found some more elucidation in the Bahai Library Online in a Hidden Words Training Course:
To provide some additional enlightenment on the meaning of that last Hidden Word, #13 from the Arabic, next is presented a statement on this Hidden Word by the officially appointed Interpreter of all of Bahá'u'lláh's Writings, the Centre of His Covenant, 'Abdu'l-Bahá. The following statement is attributed to Abdu'l-Bahá through a translation of a letter to an individual made early in the twentieth century that was published in Star of the West.
'Thou hast asked about the statement in the Hidden Words, which reads: "O Son of Spirit! Turn thy face so that thou mayest find Me within thee, Powerful, Mighty and Supreme." This is the statement to which His Holiness the Christ, referred His apostles in the Gospel, saying, "The Father is in the Son, and the Son is in you."
This is evident that, when the hearts are purified and through divine education and heavenly teachings become the manifestors of infinite perfections, they are like clear mirrors, and the Sun of Truth will reflect with might, power and omnipotence in such a mirror, and to such an extent that whatever is brought before it is illumined and ignited. This is a brief interpretation because of the lack of time. Therefore, do thou reflect and ponder over it so that the doors of significance may be opened before thine eyes.' ['Abdu'l-Bahá, quoted in Star of the West, Vol. II, No. 7-8, pp. 11-12.]
At the end of his 4th Workshop SP spoke about the fact that leaving the Valley of Knowledge for the 1st Valley of Unity is a significant transition, being a transition from a dualistic to a monastic view of the Universe. Then at the beginning of Workshop 5, he began by making some more comments on this theme, saying that this crossing is a kind of ‘pivot point’ for the 7 Valleys, and one of the realisations moving on is that this Path of the Seven Valleys is not only a personal spiritual journey, it is also setting the groundwork for a collective (social) transformation of human consciousness. In the 1st Valley of Unity Bahá’u’lláh identifies the root cause of suffering in the world, which is mainly caused by other humans; in other words, human conflict is the root cause of the suffering, and He then gives the keys for the solution to the suffering. The solutions for the personal seeker can be in a heartbeat but for the human consciousness these solutions are generational, meaning that by following this Path of Search we can put the wheels in motion for our grandchildren to benefit down the road.
5 ‘Izzat Might 176 BE 12 September 2019 CE
Later in the day yesterday I called my friend I’d seen in the dream and heard him with my outer ear playing Metallica, about a thousand leagues away, and connected with 3d WIFI. Funnily enough he’d been having nightmares battling and having to kill lots of zombies and eventually remembering his dowsing rods, realised there was a major electro-magnetic ‘Hartmann grid’ line crossing his pillow where he had moved into a new room in his house. I suggested to put a large crystal cluster with some obsidian and rose quartz on his bedside table, which he did and then he was intrigued to find that there was now no Magnetic line at all (previously dowsed at a level of 8/10) even upstream, which I then understood as the field of protection of these large charged crystals was very strong and would have shifted the whole magnetic flow line away from the bed. In the process of clearing the new sleeping space I was amused to see that the swords on his walls, of which my friend was an avid collector, were causing him some problems by falling off the walls!
Then at work I had another 4 hrs of sleep with one eye open as it were, which then with a solid sleep of 4 hours was enough to punch me into REM sleep again, then with waking I went back to that delicious ½ dream ½ wake state, not as clear as clear as yesterday but still able to retrieve the content, seeing my wife and I creating a beautiful peaceful harmonious place with a sea view, with effortless manifestation in which money was irrelevant and of no consequence; an effortless flow of energy generated by our harmonious marriage. I thought initially it was a little irrelevant to the Path of the True Seeker but now realise that the intact plasma sphere of our Bahai marriage was in fact a natural outcome of treading the path of guidance, both of us, and now in turn the manifestation would be a natural outcome of the harmonious marriage… and assisted by lots and lots of angels.
After meditation and recitation of the LOP I had another look in the Gems of Divine Mysteries for the elusive paragraph and went straight to it at Para 44. I now understood why I couldn’t find it before, as it was across the stream from the Valley of Knowledge, in the Valleys of Unity… If thou be of the inmates of this city within the ocean of divine unity, thou wilt view all the Prophets and Messengers of God as one soul and one body, as one light and one spirit, in such wise that the first among them would be last and the last would be first. For they have all arisen to proclaim His cause and have established the laws of divine wisdom. They are, one and all, the Manifestations of His Self, the Repositories of His might, the Treasuries of His Revelation, the Dawning-Places of His splendour, and the Daysprings of His light…
Then looking back a few pages for some more Words on this transition into the Valleys of Unity I found that in this phase of the Journey the seeker moves directly from, in Para 38, the station of the ardent lovers and the enraptured souls, into Para 39: And when this stage of the journey is completed and the wayfarer hath soared beyond this lofty station, he entereth the City of Divine Unity, and the garden of oneness, and the court of detachment. In this plane the seeker casteth away all signs, allusions, veils, and words, and beholdeth all things with an eye illumined by the effulgent lights which God Himself hath shed upon him. In his journey he seeth all differences return to a single word and all allusions culminate in a single point. Unto this beareth witness he who sailed upon the ark of fire and followed the inmost path to the pinnacle of glory in the realm of immortality: “Knowledge is one point, which the foolish have multiplied.” 27 This is the station that hath been alluded to in the tradition “ I am He, Himself, and He is I, Myself, except that I am that I am, and He is that He is. 28
6‘Izzat Might 176 BE 13 September 2019 CE
On this Friday the 13th I woke with the Metallica song again going through my head over and over after listening to it on YouTube before sleep. Then I finished reading the latest Nexus magazine, which had a couple of interesting articles with a focus on the next world, one about the incredible proofs of reincarnation, and the other about the often-eerie experiences of nurses in hospitals around the world, and their connection with souls passing on, especially powerful with children. I also noticed that the next issue due in October 2019 had even more of a focus on the after-life as seen in the cover copied here…
This led me once more into contemplating the mysteries of “return” and “revival”. Why the quotation marks? Obviously, they must be deep words taken from another tradition and with allusions to all sorts of other hidden knowledge… It didn’t matter of course, now that we were in the City of Certitude and beyond into the Valleys of Oneness, it was just a matter of following the path of guidance, while being able at any moment to unfailingly perceive the breath of the Beloved across immeasurable distances.
The Words for focus this day, having memorised the 1st sentence, and the 2nd sentence, and having the realisation that it is the channel of the human soul…that will… attain and enter the City of Certitude, led to contemplation again of how the soul fits in with the spirit, the mind, and the heart. The Nexus article looked at all the amazing stories of people remembering past life experiences, and even bearing scars on their bodies to prove the memories of past-life death or injury to be true, and there was no doubt that a definite connection existed between the experiences of people at different times in history, and there were recurring patterns of behaviour, and even connections between different soul groups, for example in the sleeping prophet Edgar Cayce’s readings. Putting all this together with the controversial Bahai belief that there is no reincarnation, which is based on some of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s comments, when one peruses the new translation of Some Answered Questions many of these points of contention dissolve away, at least for me, and I realise that it is all true. There is definite evidence of return and revival, of Prophets and men, as above so below, but for the Prophets and manifestations infinitely more exalted.
In the new 2014CE edition of Some Answered Questions which I picked up at home a few days later, I opened the book coincidentally at 33: The Return of the Prophets, which started as follows: Question: WILL YOU explain the subject of “Return”? Answer: Bahá’u’lláh has set forth a lengthy and detailed explanation of this matter in the Kitáb-i-Íqán. Read it, and the truth of this matter will become clear and manifest. But since you have raised the question a brief explanation will also be provided here. 'Abdu'l-Bahá then made some comments on the connection between Elijah and John the Baptist and clearly showed how it is the attributes and not the essence of the spirit that reincarnates, explained in these Words from Tablet 33:
Now, they asked John the Baptist “Art Thou Elias (Elijah)? And he answered, “I am not”, whereas it is said in the Gospel that John was the promised Elias himself, and Christ clearly stated this as well. If John was Elias, why did he say he was not, and if he was not Elias, why did Christ say he was?
The reason is that we consider here not the individuality of the person but the reality of the perfections – that is to say, the very same perfections that Elias possessed were realized in John the Baptist as well. Thus, John the Baptist was the promised Elias. What is being considered here is not the essence but the attributes.
For example, last year there was a flower, and this year there has also appeared a flower. When I say that the flower of last year has returned, I do not mean that the same flower has returned with the self-same identity. But since this flower is endowed with the same attributes as last year’s flower – as it possesses the same fragrance, delicacy, colour, and form – it is said that last year’s flower has returned, and that this is that same flower. Likewise, when spring comes, we say that last year’s spring has returned (!) since all that was found in the former is to be found again in the latter. This is why Christ said, “Ye will witness all that came to pass in the days of the former Prophets.” Matt 23: 34-36
More knowledge is gained by looking at the different parts of the entity as they are divided in the Tablet of the True Seeker: We have the heart at the centre, and this is the seat of the revelation of the Inner Mysteries which we see represented in the existence and structure of the Solar system, and beyond to the Galactic and Cosmic spaces... It is the heart the soul and the spirit that will be awakened from the slumber of heedlessness. Then 4 higher functions are described that would open up in the higher dimensional realities, and the seeker would find himself endowed with a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind. Reading between the lines and also seeing the agreement of Mehran Keshe of the Keshe foundation in the 53-odd books of his Knowledge Seeker Workshop transcriptions, with the Bahai teachings of the soul, it becomes more evident that there is indeed no ‘reincarnation’ of a soul into this 3d reality.
The Soul is created as a unique combination of its Mother’s and Father’s DNA, and it seems like each and every one of us are destined for an unimaginably amazing evolutionary trail into many dimensions and worlds of God: Ye are even as the bird that soareth with the full force of its mighty wings. The Spirit appears to be a more ethereal presence and on different levels or dimensions, coming to men the same way as Bahá’u’lláh described His experience, when He said I was but a man like others … when lo, the breezes of the All-Glorious were wafted over Me, and taught Me the knowledge of all that hath been. At this stage of the path it was still not crystal clear how it all fit together with the embodiments of the Divine mysteries, and the return and revival into men of angelic and archangelic energies and entities, but it didn’t really matter on the Path of Guidance as to get here we have had to learn in earlier paragraphs of the TOTTS a few tactics to deal with negativity, and now possess a new heart and mind with a plasma torch to burn away the veils and wayward thoughts, and feel the gratitude while reciting the Words of promise to the true seeker that with his inner eye he will discover the mysteries of “return” and “revival”.
The dreams each night were getting more vivid, and definitely focused on what I’d gone down to sleep with, as the last thing was watching Metallica performing in concert, and that was the level of my dreams – as opposed to the sleep periods when I went to sleep reciting the Words, which sensitized me, I think, to be able to recognise and inhale the sweet savours of God in the dream-time, including contact with His angels Who promised In Our Ways shall We assuredly guide him. Then appreciating the immersion, with the old ear and the new ear, into the upper and lower worlds of divinely inspired music I read some more in the 7 Valleys and discovered that the Messengers of God, through the Prophet and Divine Manifestation Muhammad, had left another message within the Valley of Certitude just before crossing to the Valley of Unity, when they said Verily, we are God’s, and to Him shall we return.”
I was also keeping in mind (old and new) the teachings of the Tibetan Rainbow body, from Padmasmbhava, whom I also discovered in browsing on YouTube, though he was in India, he was actually Persian, and the teachings were originally transmitted in the Aryan tradition centred in Iran with the original language of light being the Persian from millennia past in the teachings and religion of Zarathustra. This connection came with a beautiful realisation that we were the keepers of divine secrets in old koro’s inter-dimensional travelling map, and I went online and finally ordered William Henry’s flashdrive, which had 18 Books and many hours of Video teachings, culminating in his amazing knowledge and experience of ascension. I was sure that these teachings would lead to extensive study and enjoyment down the trail, and more revelations on our local inter-galactic neighbours, and more and more contacts with angels while hearing their music with both the inner and outer ears.
Also wanting today to finally complete listening to Steven Phelps 4th Workshop into the Valley of Knowledge, that we now know is also the City of Certitude, mainly because of the direct confirmation of dream time with its immediate translation into the shadow world, I went to check the comments below the Video, and as in our previous study of the Valley of Love in his 3rd Workshop, we found some more fragrance of The Beloved in the writings of Nick Okamoto:
@43:40you read the Rumi poem that begins, "Veiled from this was Moses too," which Baha'u'llah quotes not long after discussing the concept of seeing the end in the beginning. That makes me think it's in reference to the passages in the Qur'an about Moses traveling with Khidr (18:60-82), which is a story that seems to imply shortcomings you would not expect in a Manifestation of God. For me, this issue is completely resolved by a statement in Baha'u'llah's supplementary notes to His "Ode of the Dove." Here is a provisional translation I found online of the pertinent paragraph from His commentary on verse eight: "All that of which mention hath been made concerning the ranks of guidance and the grades of self-purification in the station of Moses--may peace be upon Him and our Prophet--hath reference to the manifestation of these effulgences in the world of outward appearances. Otherwise, that Exalted One was always and shall forever be led by the guidance of God. Nay, more, it was from Him that the sun of guidance dawned and the moon of God's grace appeared. It was from His essential being that the flames of the divine Essence were ignited, and from the brilliance of His forehead that the light of eternity became radiant."
I had previously understood from the Words of the Blessed Beauty in His Tablet of Hikhmat, that Idris was another name for Thoth Hermes, so thinking that Khidr might be another of His Names, especially as he was superior in stature to the Prophet Moses, I made a Google search and found the following on Wikipedia:
Astrologically, the planet Mercury represents the principals of communication, intelligence and elegance. Therefore, Khidr refers directly to Mercury in astrology. He is a typical Mercurial character, like Kothar wa Hasis, Nabu, Hermes, Odin etc. Firstly, he is lord of wisdom, he has hikmah and also a kind of esoteric knowledge. According to the Qur’an, he is more intelligent than Moses (18: 65-82). In ancient Greece, Hermes was Mercurial type and he has capacity to explain (hermeneus) the secret (sacred) doctrines. He inspires the poets as oneiropompos (the guide of dreams). Same function is familiar among the other Mercurial divinities. Like them, Khidr inspires the poets (for example Hafez Shirazi) and teaches dhikr to some Sufis. Khidr who is different in folk religions than the Quran, moves very fast, like other Mercurial types; Nabu, Hermes, Odin and even Zoroastrian yazata Sraosha. This feature is originated from the rhythm of the planet Mercury. Because Mercury is known with his swiftness. In mythology, Mercury is the messenger of the gods, noted for his speed and swiftness. It symbolizes the conjunction between the material and spiritual world. Therefore, Mercurial gods are psychopomp, like Hermes. They bring some messages also in dreams.
The position of Khidr is same in the folk beliefs. For example, according to two different stories from Dersim Alevis, he introduces to dream of hero and says to the person what he must do. Mercurial type of mythology is regarded as guide of travellers and the souls, like Hermes. Khidr is also known as a guide (murshid) among the Sufis and he saves the travellers in danger. Like Hermes, Khidr is mostly described with his staff. In some cultures, the people believe that his staff can sometimes turn to a snake, especially during the ritual. Caduceus is Hermes's staff and it's always described with two snakes. They are symbols of the healthy and the medicine. Mercurial gods fight to dragons or evil spirits. They use their staff as a weapon. In some religious contexts, Khidr fights also with dragons or helps some Sufis for their struggle with the dragons. Most of the gods which symbolize Mercury, are not only lords of the sacred or magic words, they are also related with the writing. This feature corresponds to the belief of Islamic calligraphers that Khidr is their patron. Khidr brings luck to the people, like Hermes as Mercurial.
The words were dramatic confirmation that my thought was correct, and the new mind was working well with its new Intuitive type of Knowledge, and these revelations also slotted effortlessly into my own path of search in which Thoth Hermes had been a major guide, and now was coming into focus through many different allusions in many different mythologies to the planet Mercury. The planet Mercury then was the guardian and embodiment of the higher form of an Angel of God, identified at the level of the Ark Angels as Michael, who is also associated with a certain star in the heavens: one of the handle stars of the big dipper. On the earthly realm he was more recognised in His form as Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, and Himself recognised by Bahá’u’lláh as the Original Divine Manifestation for this cycle, so a different spiritual level of expression. Then on another level as the Patron and guide, in the dreams and the shadow world of poets and writers, He came into focus with the forward and backward relative movements of the Planet Mercury, whose energy could be harnessed and amplified especially by the lunar cycles that brought connection and reflection of cosmic energies through the lens and mirror of the moon. Then apparently expressed in the alchemical wedding and forming a trinity with the Sun (element of Gold) and the Moon (element of silver)
7 ‘Izzat Might 176 BE 14 September 2019 CE
I was hoping to have a nice easy night at the ED as I wanted to drive the 360km round trip to see my daughter who was visiting my 2 spirit god daughters, but it was not to be as I got an all-night thrashing at the ED, followed by a short catch up sleep and then the drive.
I seized the opportunity to watch Ben Davidson’s film “COSMIC DISASTER CIA Classified” with an intriguing story about Adam and Eve from a book that was classified and buried by the CIA in the 1960s. Being deliberately taken from public knowledge must mean that it had some important information that the Powers-that-be did not wish the mass of humanity to know about, Ben Davidson thought, as he picked up the scent and fragrance of government sponsored lies on his very informative website SuspiciousObservers.org.
The book, or a few heavily redacted pages of it, was released in 2016, and is now available as free-pdf download. It carries the very scary story of the cataclysmic cycles of planet Earth preserved in all the old mythological histories, detailing a regular approximately 12,000-year cycle of huge planetary cataclysms associated with a magnetic and geological pole shifts on the planet. Moreover, the evidence shows that this process indeed does seem to be underway at this moment with the north and south poles heading towards each other at accelerating velocity, with a point of meeting somewhere northwest of Australia. As Ben Davidson presented it the story in this book revealed, and agreed with several other scientific studies sleuthed out by him, that a point north-west of Australia had indeed been a previous pole in ancient history, along with its other pole off South America, somewhere near the well-known Atlantic Magnetic anomaly.
It was very interesting in itself, but it also made me remember that these huge changes we see happening on the earth and the Sun, and with unprecedented storms and changes happening on all the planets of the Solar system, are reflected in the subtle structure of our hearts each and every one of them, with each heart being the seat of the revelation of the Inner Mysteries of God.
On the drive I also watched an awesome documentary, a new offering from Robert Sepehr, Mithra and the Aryan Renaissance on Zarathustra and the ancient Aryan traditions and religion, and the influence of the Persians from the beginning on World Culture, into ancient China, and then with the Scythians and Sarmations into Europe. That was complemented by another documentary, still focused on these Aryans or Iranians, but now bringing the focus into the new millennium in 2019, and the miraculous changes happening in World events. 2 months ago, heading off to the Big Island of Hawaii, I was half expecting on return to have witnessed the outbreak of war at this trouble spot, but instead, as documented by this persistent and honest truth-seeker Kim Iverson on her YouTube channel we have just witnessed the sacking of John Bolton, and President Donald John Trump now making friendly overtures to President Rouhani of Iran. Massive changes can take place overnight and it is possible a gentle transition might take place with the coming pole shift in the consciousness of the people, which may in turn have a harmonising and peaceful effect on the crustal displacement in the physical event in the world of matter.
In my book Crystal Mission I recorded how Hopi elders prophesied a huge shift and said it would be precipitated by the element of Fire, and we as humanity could make a choice to go through purification with the Fire of the Spirit, but if humanity did not listen and continued on its path of division greed and warfare, it would be the Fire of Volcanic fault lines, lava and volcanoes bringing the Earth back to balance by deleting a large portion of this parasitic harmful infestation, which scenario was vividly depicted in Ben Davidson’s film on Cataclysms above.
Last night after reading about Khidr and his meeting with Moses related in the Qur’an, I listened to a whole series of 6 documentaries from the Bayyinah Institute on the story from a Muslim point of view, and for the first time in my life I felt in my heart the warmth and depth of the Muslim stories of their prophets of former times, catching a fragrance of truth sincerity and beauty in the Words of this inspired young Muslim scholar wise man, who was fluent in both Arabic and English. This was the real Islam, a religion of truth beauty and honour, I realised, Universes away from the militant and blood thirsty diet of Islam fed to the public in the MSM.
This reference brings us back to the present day in which I chanced across a reference to Elijah and Elisha, in Marzieh Gail’s book, Dawn over Mt Hira, and Other Essays, which I was browsing for another taste of that particular fragrance of the sweet savors of God, bringing us the Breath of the Beloved, and I found a reference in the last chapter in the book, which was the story of Shoghi Effendi and the way he came to be guardian. 'Abdu'l-Bahá kept his grandson’s identity very secret but he did make a few references that were very telling, and give us clues as the real stations of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, in an early reference of 'Abdu'l-Bahá to His grandson when he referred to him as “his Elisha”!
At this point I’m not totally sure of the relevance of all of this today. We are only 7 days into ‘Izzat but only have 1 more day of writing at the desk, before hitting the road for the next 10 days, beginning with a dose of Fleetwood Mac live in concert one more time, this time with wife and 3 of my kids in Auckland, so by the time I make it back to the desk it will be just into the next month of Mashíyyat Will.
8 ‘IzzatMight 176 BE 15 September 2019 CE
This is the last day to get down a few more thoughts for the month of ‘Izzat before hitting the road for 10 days, then writing a few more pages, with some more of the insights gained on the road, as by then I should have this paragraph off by heart. Today the focus for the first time was on the 3rd sentence for the month: Therein he will discern the wonders of His ancient wisdom, and will perceive all the hidden teachings from the rustling leaves of the Tree – which flourisheth in that City.
In the meditation today I glanced again through Marzieh Gails’s book and found a reference to this Tree in the rest of 'Abdu'l-Bahá’s letter to her father, Ali Kuli Khan. I wrote the first part of this letter in a previous chapter to show the fervent nature of the young man’s Love and HIS passionate pleas to 'Abdu'l-Bahá, which prompted Him to respond with great power and poetry, telling the young man to focus on the Blessed Beauty and not him. In the rest of the letter, directing the young man towards the rustling leaves of the Tree – which flourisheth in that City, he also made another allusion to His father as the Tree addressed in the MOP as the lote tree beyond which there is no passing.
The way to praise this servant is to adore the Holy Threshold, to worship humbly at the doorstep of the one Lord. This is perpetual grace; this is heavenly bestowal; this is achieving the uttermost goal; this is ‘the Sadrah tree that marks the boundary’ (i.e. the Manifestation of God). Speak thou of this almighty Height, this wondrous Station, open Thy lips in praise of Him. Pluck thy strings on the theme of servitude to Him, and with the song of this bondage awaken thou a world.
…These are the cleansing waters; this is the flaming up of splendour; this is the laudable grace; this is the paradise of all delights; this is bounty pressed down and running over; this is 'Abdu'l-Bahá’s most burning wish – the supreme desire of this embodiment of indigence, of nothingness… Al-Baha be upon thee.
This tree we now also remember encountering in an earlier chapter when we took a random dip from the Gems of Divine Mysteries at Para 71: Say: O People! The Tree of Life hath verily been planted in the heart of the heavenly paradise and bestoweth life in every direction. How can ye fail to perceive and recognise it? It will in truth aid thee to grasp all that this well-assured Soul hath disclosed unto thee of the essence of the divine mysteries…
Bahá’u’lláh also referred to this Tree in a very powerful way in another mystical tablet from His Baghdad days, The Tablet of the Holy Mariner, in which the Holy Mariner was told, in reference to the dwellers in the Ark of Eternity, in verses 6-9: with the picture and the words from a beautiful illustrated book by Michael Sours, entitled THE TABLET OF THE HOLY MARINER - An Illustrated Guide to
The shore of the crimson seas,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious
7. Bid them issue forth
and attain this invisible and ethereal station
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious
8. A station wherein the Lord hath
in the Flame of His Beauty appeared
within the deathless tree,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious
9. Wherein the embodiments of His Cause
cleansed themselves of self and passion,
Glorified be my Lord, the All-Glorious
I also feel like touching on ‘Izzat Might, the Name of God for this month, before heading off for 10 days, and the role this Name plays in our daily lives. Something I realised years ago was the importance of those verses in the Long Obligatory Prayer in which the seeker bows in front of His Lord and says… Thou seest, O my God, how my spirit hath been stirred up within my limbs and members, in its longing to worship Thee, and in its yearning to remember Thee and extol Thee; how it testifieth to that whereunto the tongue of Thy Commandment hath testified in the kingdom of Thine utterance and the heaven of Thy knowledge. I love in this state, O my Lord, to beg of Thee all that is with Thee, that I may demonstrate my poverty, and magnify Thy bounty and Thy riches, and may declare my powerlessness, and manifest Thy power and Thy might.
It made me remember the story of Jesus and the Fig tree, and how it shrivelled on the spot when he showed his Might in destroying it. His disciples were shocked and wanted to know why? Whereupon he told them that if they had faith, they would do even greater deeds in the last days, even to the extent of telling the mountain to fall into the sea. It was comforting to realise that this God Given Might was only in the hands of the humblest seekers on the path, and I started having a small song or poem go through my head, which eventually I scribbled down before going to work last night…
With every step, in every new day,
I feel better, and better, in every way
Not my Will but Thine Be done O God!
Is what I love to think and say!
2 Mashíyyat Will176 BE 28 September 2019 CE
Back at the desk after 10 days of travelling it is time to complete this chapter to move on to the 10th Paragraph… For the whole month of ‘Izzat in Australia there were hundreds of bush fires and it was so dry the whole country was burning including a massive fire that almost took out a village near where I work. So, trying to follow the example of Elijah who communed with the still small voice in the cave, I tried to pray for rain, but nothing came for the whole 2 weeks. The whole of Australia was suffering from drought as were the continents of Africa and South America that were also both on fire, and it seemed like nothing would break the drought. Then on the first day of travelling staying at my friends on the Gold Coast, catching up with some well-earned REM sleep with my inner ear I heard the music of thunder in my dreams, and when I woke up it was heard with the outer ear also, and we were then blessed with a massive thunderstorm, inhaling the fragrance of a parched and watered earth, and witnessing an all-night soft rain with occasional thunder and lightning.
Of course, I could not take any credit for this, as no doubt there were also millions of other Australians praying for rain, but I thought it was a good example of the potential Might of human beings like Elijah and other Prophets through history with His attributes, the attributes of the exalted, who could summon wind hail rain and fire from heaven at Will… which nicely brings us to the month of Mashíyyat Will and Paragraph 10 of the Tablet of the True Seeker.
How unspeakably glorious
Are the signs, the tokens,
the revelations, and splendours
which He Who is the King of names and attributes
hath destined for that City!
The attainment of this City
quencheth thirst without water,
and kindleth the love of God without fire.
Within every blade of grass are enshrined
the mysteries of an inscrutable wisdom,
and upon every rose bush a myriad nightingales
pour out in blissful rapture their melody.
Its wondrous tulips unfold the mystery
of the undying Fire in the Burning Bush,
and its sweet savours of holiness
breathe the perfume of the Messianic Spirit.
It bestoweth wealth without gold,
and conferreth immortality without death
In every leaf ineffable delights are treasured,
and within every chamber
unnumbered mysteries lie hidden.
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