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The Holy Spirit is Sophia, Wisdom : God’s Consort;
and the Logos, the Aquarian Spirit of Truth for the New Age

                           ‘Jehovah made me his..
                           before his creation began…
                           I was at his side, a master craftsman,
                           delighting him day after day,
                           ever at play in his presence.’
                                   Proverbs on Sophia (Ch.8 v.22,30 RV; NJB)

The Holy Spirit is a Christian translation of the spirit of Sophia, Wisdom, the female partner of Jehovah in the Old Testament. This makes the identification of the Holy Spirit with Uranus at Wisdom on the Tree of Life much clearer.

The recognition of the science of the spirits behind the portraits of these figures will prove invaluable in clarifying this age old question. It will also prove the value and validity of the Kabbalistic astrology of the Tree of Life in understanding Christian theology and particularly the obscure but fundamental theology of the Trinity.

This connection between the Holy Spirit and Sophia is often suggested, particularly in a feminist context, but it is not now well known. It is worth tracing a fascinating evolution which gives a revealing insight into how theology develops and how the Third Person of the Trinity has come into being. We will also need to reassess the character of the Second Person of the Trinity. Christ is more normally associated with Sophia, Wisdom but we shall try to understand how this confusion developed.

This insight might give us an appreciation of, for instance, how the Immaculate Conception of Mary and the Virgin Birth of Christ can be more helpfully understood in a theological perspective, appropriate to the educated, rational and comparatively sophisticated times we live in. Revealing the mechanisms behind the mysteries. If we understand how religion works we can understand how the spirits operate, how we work : we can understand God better and understand ourselves better.

In order to establish the primacy of astrology as the science of the spirits, it becomes necessary to challenge one of the fundamental concepts of the Christian Trinity : Christ as the Logos and the Wisdom of God.

In order to understand the history of the scriptures it becomes necessary to challenge another fundamental pillar of Christianity : the literal history of the Gospels.

The issues are raised in the frame of a faith based on rational fact, empirical and historical research.

While academic standards of scholarship are valued, these fundamental questions can only usefully be addressed in the larger context of modern life, the dawning of the new age and what this means to us all. Essentially these are not academic questions and will probably not be decided by scholarly opinion.

The Holy Spirit from Genesis
The Holy Spirit is far from a Christian invention and has been by God’s side from the very first. She first appears in the second verse of Genesis.

(We can refer to this Spirit as ‘she’ in recognition of her close identification with the female Sophia who, with the Assumption of Mary, now gives an equal, and long overdue, feminine balance in the heavenly realm, in the Christian Quaternity. The Third Person of the Trinity is referred to in the Gospels as ‘he’ but this ignores ‘her’ OT genesis and is not imperative. With the epoch-making announcement of the Assumption, it is perhaps specially appropriate to revert to a more modern, balanced view of the Quaternity, restoring Sophia to her proper recognition.)

Verse 2 of Genesis is properly translated by the New Jerusalem Bible as :

‘there was darkness over the deep, with a divine wind sweeping over the waters.’

The King James Version, no less correctly, has :

‘darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.’

Translators have recognised this single Hebrew word ruah can variously be translated, wind, breath and spirit and the choice is not always obvious.

We can recognise already we are dealing with a Spirit very close in nature to the Christian Holy Spirit which is associated with the wind and the air.

An Early Version of Pentecost
We find this same spirit of Yahweh makes an appearance in a more familiar role alongside the prophet Moses. But it is not Moses who starts prophesying with this inspiration :

‘Yahweh descended in the cloud. He (Moses) spoke to him and took some of the spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the spirit came on them they prophesied and could not stop.

Joshua said, ‘My lord Moses, stop them !’ Moses replied, ‘Are you jealous on my account ? If only all Yahweh’s people were prophets, and Yahweh had given them his spirit !’
Numbers Ch.11 v. 25,29.

This is the Spirit of inspiration and prophecy we shall meet repeatedly through the Old Testament and into the New. Prophecy in the Bible simply means ‘speaking on behalf of God’ which is no great feat if we speak good, honest truth, without fear or favour. Speaking from the heart. Telling it like it is. The kind of truth which will make the world a better place. Sometimes ‘prophesying’ in the Bible is simply proclaiming the glory of God, the wonders of Creation.

In the New Testament Christ echoes Moses and encourages us all to embrace this Holy Spirit. Perhaps these are times when truth is at a premium. False prophets raise a cacophony of false dreams, designed to please the people and please themselves.

This Moses episode is a wonderfully graphic description of the descent of the Spirit of God and it is remarkable the image of a cloud is chosen. The astrological spirit of the planet god Uranus is characterised by the Sign of Aquarius, the Water Carrier. The Water Carrier is the air Sign of the heavens, so called because the skies bring us the waters of life, the blessing of heaven, the rain. The clouds are the characteristic pitchers the Water Carrier is constantly pouring in images of this Sign : when ‘the heavens open.’

The cloud could not be a more appropriate image for this Spirit of truth, this Spirit of prophecy, this Spirit of God. If we want to consider this a mere coincidence, we must also extend this judgement to the fact the spirit is always described by a term which signifies the ‘air’ : in Hebrew ruah, in Greek pneuma, both signify wind, breath, spirit. It is for the same reason the Holy Spirit is portrayed as a dove, the purest creature of the element of the air.

The metaphysics of astrology is the most ancient science, its knowledge stretching back into the most distant mists. There are many things the ancient Jewish prophets and priests will not have known which we know now. The Tree of Life does not permit us to imagine astrology and metaphysics were one of these.

(Metaphysics is used here precisely as the science of the spiritual energies, beyond physics. This science recognises a higher, subtler dimension, really a parallel energy. Equally metaphysics recognises that the infinitely complex and subtle world revealed by sub-atomic physics confirms the physical world is merely the base, earth, level within the metaphysical hierarchy, the ascending levels, of the spirits. This metaphysical recognition is the basis for understanding all spiritual phenomena, lore and theology and appears to have been basic to ancient wisdom and knowledge.)

It is worth noting this gift of prophecy, this gift of speaking the truth for God, is not a matter of outward pride :

‘Now Moses was extremely humble, the humblest man on earth.’

Yet Jehovah says he is more than a prophet :

‘to him I speak face to face,
plainly and not in riddles,
and he sees Yahweh’s form.’
Numbers 12 v.3,8

If our truth is given us by God’s spirit, we have no cause for arrogance. We naturally measure ourselves against our best friend God, and recognise our mean worthlessness, His glory. And if we are not an empty vessel but puffed up with pride, what room is there for this quiet Spirit ? It will not be God’s truth we pronounce but our own.

The spirit of Uranus : the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Prophets, the Spirit of Wisdom
Astrologers will have no difficulty identifying this Spirit with the character of the spirit of Uranus, though what we are seeing here is the divine manifestation. The more mundane influence of Uranus in astrology is certainly marked by this gift of eloquence but does not usually attain these ecstatic, or prophetic heights.

Isaiah lived through some extraordinary times, almost a prerequisite for a major prophet, around 700 BC. This is not long after the first Books of the Bible were written down and it is not impossible Isaiah himself was involved in this as Chief Minister to the King and a man of some influence and learning. It is he who first prophesies the Coming Messiah in a famous passage which quickly turns into a hymn for the prophet’s friend, the holy spirit, the Spirit of Yahweh :

‘A shoot will spring from the stock of Jesse,
a new shoot will grow from his roots.
On him will rest the spirit of Yahweh,
The spirit of wisdom and insight,
the spirit of counsel and power,
the spirit of knowledge and fear of Yahweh :
his inspiration will lie in fearing Yahweh.’
                                                      (11 v.2)

This is particularly significant as the first clear association with Wisdom, which we shall find a developing theme of no small significance. We find references throughout Isaiah to this spirit, as throughout the early period of the Bible. Unsurprisingly, since it is mostly recognised as the spirit which inspires prophets. 

The prophet Ezekiel lived during the Jews Exile in Babylon and dates his first vision to around 590 BC. Ezekiel speaks for God saying, ‘I shall put a new spirit in them’ (11.19) and this is recognised as the first prophecy of the gift of the Holy Spirit which Isaiah has already identified with the new start of the new age and the new covenant which is the essence of the message of the New Testament. We find this message is repeated more and more urgently as the apocalyptic times of the dawn of the new age of Pisces draw close.

Ezekiel himself repeats this apocalyptic, new age message much more strongly when he repeats Isaiah’s prophecy of the final resurrection of the dead and again it emphasises the identification of ruah, the spirit of Yahweh, with breath (37 v.5,13,14) :

‘I am now going to make breath enter these bones , and you will live …. When I … raise you from your graves, my people, and put my spirit in you, and you revive.’

Prophesying Christian Baptism
In the previous chapter this spirit takes on an even more familiar role, in terms which later became formalised as the ritual of baptism (Ez. 36 v.25,26) :

‘I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed; …. I shall give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies…’

A century and a half after Ezekiel, Nehemiah (9 v.20,30) has not forgotten this Spirit and her character is clearly recognisable :

‘You gave them your good spirit to instruct them…
‘You warned them by your spirit through the prophets.’

It is generally recognised we find the Holy Spirit again acknowledged in Psalms (51 v.11 and 143 v.10) :

‘do not take away from me your spirit of holiness.’
‘may your generous spirit lead me on even ground.’

In the later prophets this Spirit is still known, in terms quite like those used of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament (Haggai 2 v.5) :

‘my spirit is present among you’

Prophesying Pentecost
This trend towards a popular inspiration reaches a full flowering in Joel (3 v.1-2), written over a century after the Jews’ return from the Exile in Babylon. It promises a fulfilment of Moses’ fervent wish for the spirit of God to reach every heart and give prophetic inspiration to every tongue. It looks forward to Isaiah’s new age and Pentecost with exactly this outpouring of the Spirit. This prophecy is quoted by Peter to explain the effects of the Pentecost descent of the Holy Spirit :

‘I shall pour out my spirit on all humanity.
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old people shall dream dreams
and your young people shall see visions.
Even on the slaves, men and women,
shall I pour out my spirit in those days.’

This is the gift of the Holy Spirit which is waiting in every breath to be released by a confident heart, ready to speak truth for God : the simple truth which says nothing is impossible if we believe, and love is the only way to go.

St Paul is nothing if not a confident heart. He usefully puts all these dazzling inspirations in perspective : ‘And though I have the power of prophecy, to penetrate all mysteries and knowledge, and though I have all the faith necessary to move mountains – if I am without love, I am nothing.’ (1 Cor. 13 v.2)

Seduced by Sophia : Heavenly Wisdom
In the centuries immediately before the Christian era we see a build up of recognition for the Holy Spirit and the full flowering of Sophia as Wisdom, acknowledged in the strongest terms as a divine partner of Jehovah. This is the period of the wonderful ‘Wisdom literature’ which is still a joy to read with a particularly modern and accessible message.

This wise advice can be surprisingly down to earth and more engaging than anything our prudish preachers can manage today, trying to convey the same message :

‘Find joy with the wife you married in your youth,
fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn :
hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight,
hers the love that ever holds you captive.
Why be seduced, my son, by someone else’s wife,
and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs to another ?’
                                                                      Proverbs 5 v.18-20

Sometimes, as in the rather unecclesiastical Ecclesiastes, this message is so far from religious dogmatism commentators are surprised at its inclusion in the Bible. It reflects an inspired breadth, a wisdom, which accepts people reject dogma in the search for God and prefer a message which makes sense to them without the heavy hand of Establishment rhetoric.

For some the Established dogma is the way to God, for others the path is simple common sense, following our own best selves. God possibly prefers us to do good just because it makes good sense but the truth is we can be confident He just loves everyone immensely and knows it takes all sorts to make a world. St Paul expresses rather eloquently the idea of different inspirations reflecting a single, common spirit as we shall see below.

Wisdom Conquers with Humility
The dating of scripture is elusive but Sophia probably comes into Judaism with Alexander the Great. Alexander conquered everyone, past Afghanistan to the plains of the Punjab in north western India. Jerusalem was just a minor molehill which wisely threw open its gates. Alexander was renowned for his enlightened tolerance and interest in other religions.

So the story goes, the Jews were amazed to see this irresistible conqueror honouring their High Priest, Onias I, actually prostrating before him and saying he could aspire no higher than to be the son of such a lineage. A son of this lineage was Onias III who is recognised as the Messiah in the Book of Daniel and the Teacher of Righteousness and the Messiah by the Dead Sea sect, the Essenes. He was probably the historical model for the Gospel portrait of Christ. There are no other candidates. We return to this Teacher below.

It is hardly surprising the Jews welcomed Greek wisdom under such conditions. The personification of Sophia clarified and formalised the position of a Spirit which was already recognised as a vital part of the heavenly set up. For the next century and a half Alexander’s successors maintained this benevolent relationship, even maintaining the Temple services at their own expense.

Unfortunately this relationship deteriorated some time later when the Olympics, big money and, frankly, madness, mixed in a lethal cocktail, ending with the extraordinary execution of the Messiah and all hell breaking loose. By then Sophia was firmly established and so was the legacy of the Messiah. Two centuries later the Essenes, caretakers of the sacred flame, would ignite the fire of Christianity which still burns with a worldwide passion, Christianity. Sometimes still under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

All sorts of useful ruses are recognised in Bible writing and ascribing your best efforts to a famous name is the most common. Isaiah only wrote his first chapters which were added to more than once. This period includes the final chapters of Isaiah where we find a small but significant development in phrasing (63 v.10) :

‘they rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit.’

It is hard to overestimate the importance of the dramatic new development of the Wisdom literature in the Scriptures. Entirely new themes and attitudes are explored with a challenging sophistication. It is perhaps a measure of our modern spiritual naivety this brilliant heritage is virtually ignored in favour of much older, more primitive biblical texts. It is the wisdom literature which paves the way for the Gospels’ supreme sophistication.

Sophia presents this Spirit as Yahweh’s partner on high :

‘Wisdom is with you…
She who was present when you made the world;
In ‘the holy heavens’ and on ‘your throne of glory.’

Yet she is also much more accessible to all men, just like the Holy Spirit :

‘Blessed are those who have discovered wisdom,
those who have acquired understanding.
Her ways are filled with delight
Her paths lead to all contentment.
She is a tree of life to those who hold her fast,
Those who cling to her have happy lives.’
                                                    Proverbs 3. 13,17,18

Wisdom literature : Sophia Personified
In the Book of Proverbs, Wisdom is praised and recommended extensively, chapter after chapter, sometimes abstractly as the wealth of the good man, sometimes personified as Sophia (Ch.8 v.4,7,8,11) :

‘I am calling you all people,
my words are addressed to all humanity…
My mouth proclaims the truth..
All the words from my mouth are upright…
Wisdom is more precious than jewels,
and nothing else is so worthy of desire.’

She is given a paean in her own praise (Ch.8 v.12,14,22,23) :

‘I am mistress of the art of thought
..I am perception : power is mine.
…Yahweh created me, first-fruits of his fashioning,
before the oldest of his works.
From everlasting I was firmly set,
from the beginning, before the earth came into being…
When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there,
when he drew a circle over the surface of the deep..
when he assigned the sea its boundaries..
when he traced the foundations of the earth,
I was beside him, a master craftsman,
delighting him day after day,
ever at play in his presence,
at play everywhere on his earth,
delighting to be with the children of men.’

We have seen a different version of these lines opening this article, where Wisdom’s position as Jehovah’s female partner is given more rein. This New Jerusalem Bible translation, for all its academic authority, seems intent on suppressing this idea and there are certainly some compelling theological reasons for this. Every translator has a pet agenda, a view, to which a translation will more or less conform.

The Revised Version takes pains to justify its wording ‘Yahweh possessed me...’ and it is the more common translation. Not necessarily in a sexual sense, although there has long been a recognition of a union between Jehovah and Sophia. Jung sees this union as the precursor of the Birth of Jesus. Jung observes the unions of the gods are seldom infertile.

It is another passage from Wisdom which probably portrays her close association with Yahweh, Jehovah, most strongly (9 v.9,10,17) :

‘With you is Wisdom, she who knows your works,
she who was present when you made the world;
she understands what is pleasing in your eyes
and what agrees with your commandments.
Despatch her from the holy heavens,
Send her forth from your throne of glory
To … teach me what is pleasing to you;
Since she knows and understands everything…
And who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom
And sent your holy Spirit from above ?’

The portrait is one of the closest intimacy, together from the beginning of the world, with a complete understanding, sharing even the same throne in heaven. Sophia is certainly repeatedly portrayed as the ideal wife for any man, particularly for Solomon, and it is impossible not to extend this suggestion to the heavenly realms. Wisdom, also called the Wisdom of Solomon is the last of the Wisdom Books in the Bible and may well not predate Christianity by many years. The recognition of this union may well presage the birth of a new divinity, initiating the Trinity.

We know the Jews recognised Jehovah’s partner as the Canaanite mother goddess, Asherah, at various times. Her image, a tree, was prominent in the Jerusalem Temple. This tree is widely identified with the Tree of Life and we have already seen Wisdom is identified with the Tree of Life in Proverbs 3 v.18. In Ecclesiasticus (24 v.13-17) there is a long passage identifying Sophia with various celebrated trees.

This association with the Tree of Life is quite appropriate if the common identification between Asherah and Sophia is accepted. The spiritual science of astrology is certainly under the celestial aegis of Sophia’s sophisticated Aquarian spirit. Asherah was also known as ‘Lady of the Stars of Heaven.’

In Proverbs 9 v.1 Wisdom has a seven-pillared house which recalls the menorah, the Jewish seven-branched candlestick, which symbolises the Tree of Life and the seven visible planets.

The Spirit of Creation
It is also the Revised Version which makes Wisdom the ‘master craftsman’ rather than Yahweh. But there is no doubt of the creative role of this powerful spirit whether this is explicitly as an active agent or more usually only by association with Yahweh.

It is remarkable to note how often Wisdom is associated with the Creation and particularly the creation of the heavens. This is a vital and repeated theme in the various portraits of this planet’s spirit around the globe. This emphasis immediately identifies Sophia with the ruah, the Spirit of God in the Creation story of Genesis (1.2)

We shall find this pre-eminent and comprehensive, ‘almighty’ creative power represented in the NT as the logos, ‘the Word,’ the definitive metaphysical expression of this universal Aquarian spirit of Uranus at Wisdom, Hockmah, on the Tree of Life. The NT readily associates the logos with Sophia, Wisdom, Hockmah. Hockmah is the original Hebrew name for the Sephira of Wisdom on the Tree. Equally it is the term used for Wisdom in the original Hebrew versions of the Wisdom literature.

Wisdom as ‘the holy Spirit’
Naturally it is the Book of Wisdom itself, otherwise known as the Wisdom of Solomon, where we find perhaps the richest exposition of the Spirit of Wisdom, the Holy Spirit (Ch.1 v.5-7 and 9 v.17) :

‘wisdom will never enter the soul of a wrong doer..
For the holy spirit of wisdom flees deceitfulness…
Wisdom is a spirit friendly to humanity..
The spirit of the Lord fills the world…’

‘Who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom and sent your holy Spirit from above.’

There is already little room for doubt at this stage but this passage makes absolutely clear the identity and equivalence of these two different names for the Spirit of Hockmah, Wisdom, on the Tree of Life, the divine Spirit of the planet-god Uranus. Hockmah, Wisdom, Sophia is clearly identified with the ‘holy spirit’ and ‘the spirit of the Lord,’ Jehovah.

This identity proves a major embarrassment in the NT where the ‘spirit of the Lord’ is naturally identified with the Holy Spirit, the Third Person in the Trinity. But the spirit of Wisdom is clearly associated with the Logos, the Word, which is identified with Christ, the Second Person in the Trinity. So this OT identity between Wisdom and the Holy Spirit is rejected in the NT. Later we will try to explain this odd conflict.

We find another similar clear statement of Wisdom as the spirit of God, ‘a spirit holy,’ while ‘a breath of the power of God’ again directly identifies Wisdom with the ruah or Spirit of God which is breath, wind, air :

‘Now I understand everything, hidden or visible,
for Wisdom, the designer of all things, has instructed me.
For within her is a spirit intelligent, holy,
Unique, manifold, subtle,
Mobile, incisive…
Lucid, invulnerable…shrewd,
irresistible, beneficent, friendly to human beings,
steadfast, dependable, unperturbed,
almighty, all-surveying,
penetrating all intelligent, pure
and most subtle of spirits…
She is a breath of the power of God…
Although she is alone, she can do everything;
Herself unchanging, she renews the world,
And generation after generation, passing into holy souls,
She makes them into God’s friends and prophets.’
Wisdom 7 v.21-27

The last lines declare both an independent omnipotence and an individual inspiration which strikingly match the picture of the Logos in the opening of John’s Gospel. There is equally a clear identification with the role of the Holy Spirit.

Finally another characteristic definition where the inspiration and eloquence of this Spirit is emphasised :

‘Wisdom opened the mouths of the dumb
and made eloquent the tongues of babes.’ (10 v.21)

In Ecclesiastes (24 v.3) we find this classic image of the ruah, the Spirit and breath of God, again applied to Sophia. Wisdom takes over the role of this Spirit personified, although in some extraordinary imagery. This is the same characteristic imagery of the Water Carrier we found portraying this Spirit in the story of Moses above, the water carrying clouds of the Aquarian heavens on high. Wisdom is breath and a mist; as with Moses, a cloud come down :

‘I came forth from the mouth of the Most High,
and I covered the earth like a mist.
I had my tent in the heights,
And my throne was a pillar of cloud.’

Coming ‘from the mouth of the Most High’ also identifies her strongly with the logos, ‘the Word of God,’ a connection emphasised in the NT.

Evidence of Astrology ?
Uranus Gives Us the Word of Truth
All this unmistakably gives an astrologer a clear portrait of a spirit readily and definitively associated with the spirit of Uranus. The inspiration, eloquence, intelligence and friendliness are particularly characteristic of this spirit. Inspiration and eloquence are simply the characteristic gift and signature of mighty Uranus’ presence, when he is strong and on song.

This spirit also rules the Eleventh House, the House of society, where relationships can be formal and superficial but can be so much more genuine, really what you make them. The ‘players’ favourite game of ‘networking,’ where every man and every woman is a star and friendship is power.

Electro-magnetic Dynamic : Cosmic Wonder and Beyond
The spirits of astrology extend the full metaphysical spectrum from physical things to our everyday psychology, our minds, to the divine powers which rule the universe. On a physical level the spirit of Aquarius embraces the full range of electro-magnetic and higher spiritual energy which unites the stars and ultimately all matter on earth, not just the wonderful modern dynamos of current industrial materialism which have exploded into temporary world domination with the arrival of the new age.

This is a measure of the power of this spirit in mere human hands. This hint of the creative energy of this spirit provides the parallel portrait of this Spirit we have already recognised as the logos, ‘the Word’ : ‘almighty,’ ‘irresistible,’ ‘a breath of the power of God.’ (Ws. 7, above) We find this creative nature is pre-eminent in the representation of this spirit in other cultures. It is ‘the Creative, Heaven' in the Chinese Tao, Shiva, the Creator and Destroyer for the Hindus.

The same spirit of instinctive intelligence which inspires and orders our thought and speech, on a higher level on a greater stage this same spirit inspires and orders the eternal, unceasing dance of creation. Certainly both roles are readily identified with the spirit of the Water Carrier.

The Spirit of the New Age : Getting Together on the Internet
A measure of how this relatively crude physical energy can be transformed into a higher, greater, more powerful spirit might be gauged by the image of friendship, relationships. When we plug into the network of humanity, the potential is like plugging into the electricity supply, in Britain the National Grid. Only much more so.

The internet materialises and empowers this universal network of humanity. Powered by Aquarian electro-magnetic energy and circuitry, inspired by Uranian ingenuity and ruled by the new age spirit of liberation, independence and the love of free information, it brings unprecedented power to the people, the ability to broadcast without hierarchical control. Abused shamefully it may be, it is also used to great effect to leap forward into a new future, a one-world vision which is not get rich quick globalisation but the person to person unity of humanity.

One day, metaphysics and visionaries tells us, we may be united by the rather more sophisticated software of our psychic minds, the unlimited super nuclear energy of our hearts. This will do for now, a physical prototype.

(Metaphysics is used in this article precisely as the science of spiritual energies, beyond physics. This science recognises a higher, subtler dimension, really a parallel energy which is usually referred to quite unscientifically in the catch all phrase, ‘spirit’ or ‘spiritual.’

Equally metaphysics recognises that the infinitely complex and subtle world revealed by sub-atomic physics confirms the physical world is merely the base level, the earth spirit, within the metaphysical hierarchy, the ascending levels, of the spirits. This metaphysical recognition is the basis for understanding all spiritual phenomena, lore and theology and appears to have been basic to ancient wisdom and knowledge.)

Dove Power : Getting Together, Getting Prophetic
In February 2003 the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) joined other groups in organising a protest against plans for a brutal, ruthless and criminal invasion of Iraq to grab its mineral assets, particularly oil, for strategic and financial advantage.

With everyone logging on to the ‘technological logos,’ the international grid of the internet, this brought up to two million people, way beyond all bounds, onto the streets of London. The word spread and similar unanimity was achieved the same day in Madrid and Rome, other governments supporting this disgusting and blatant war crime, with massive demonstrations in the US itself and elsewhere round the globe. The war still went ahead, wisdom did not prevail, wisdom went begging in the streets. Ministers didn’t listen.

And truth has proved itself cruelly in the new Iraq, America’s Iraq.

Our leaders hide behind their piety, armoured in self-righteousness but politics always comes first. They use the Good News as a ritual excuse for abuse.

This Spirit will not go begging in the streets forever. The power of this Spirit will have its day, the people united will have their day. This was a relatively small cause, less than twenty million lives at stake, and an early trial of the power of truth to unite. We still have the future of this planet to settle some time soon : the truth will out and the people will out, and have their say. Ministers will listen.

This recalls the prophecy of Joel, endorsed, as we shall see, with interest by Christ in the Gospels (Joel 3 v.1-2) (John 14 v.12,16,17) :

‘I shall pour out my spirit on all humanity.
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy’

‘In all truth I tell you,
whoever believes in me
will perform the same works I do myself,
and will perform even greater works…
I shall ask the Father
and he will give you another Counsellor, the Holy Spirit,
to be with you forever,
the spirit of truth …
he is with you, he is in you.’

And we remember Moses’ heartfelt cry (Numbers Ch.11 v. 29) :

‘If only all Yahweh’s people were prophets, and Yahweh had given them his spirit !’
We might wonder whether we are not living to see Joel’s prophecy fulfilled on a greater scale. Certainly no less impressive a demonstration than the people of Jerusalem witnessed after Pentecost; and too, like Pentecost, testifying to the truth in a glorious rainbow coalition of languages ! Wouldn’t Moses have been pleased ?!

When literally millions come out together on the streets, worldwide, to speak truth to power, to prophesy against their leaders, a prophecy that proves only too true, this is a new age indeed, just beginning. This is the Spirit in action. A second Pentecost indeed ! It may yet prove a greater ‘outpouring of this Spirit.’

It is not for nothing the symbol of peace is the dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

This is why the Bible describes Wisdom as a Spirit of power and warns the gift of the Holy Spirit is not to be trifled with. If we deny God’s truth, whether we hear it within or on a larger stage, we are lost indeed, as we have seen, all to clearly.

Advertising Astrology’s Patron Deity
Astrologers have acknowledged this universal spirit of power, the power of truth and humanity, only too long. They are only waiting for the world to want to know.

This Aquarian energy is a spirit of relationships and humanity. Proverbs’ repeated images of Wisdom going out into the streets to address the people, to tell them her urgent truths, is particularly evocative and appropriate. Equally the internet is an ideal modern material manifestation of this new age energy whose relationships embrace independence and a free spirit above all else. Astrologers can readily recognise this distinctive and potent Aquarian spirit in its sharply etched theological portraits in different cultures around the globe.

Equally it is difficult not to turn this round and imagine astrologers wanting to tell the world about the wonderful, dynamic spirit of inspiration and creativity we all have within us; the powerful and inexhaustible spirit of Uranus. Urging us to make use of this planet’s innate inspiration by getting on the right wavelength, tuning into our inner truth and higher ideas, the fountain of these vital inspiring waters of life.

Modern astrologers could hardly make this call more eloquently or powerfully than the poetry we find in the Wisdom literature. They would certainly draw much the same portrait of this planet’s eloquent spirit, ‘friendly to humanity.’ (Ws. 7.23)

Almost certainly they would want to propose some kind of objective metaphysical, scientific expression for this spirit, probably inventing or adopting a term such as the logos to convey the principle of logic and reason which is definitive of this spirit. This would be defined as both individually inspiring and eloquent yet at the same time creative on a cosmological scale, essentially the creative principle and energy ordering the universe.

Modern astrologers might also choose more modern language and, for colour, point to the image of the dancing Shiva, Nataraj, Lord of the Dance, to illustrate the unlimited individual energy of this perpetual dynamic, on any floor, in any field. Coincidentally they would wax lyrical in remarkably similar biblical, unrestrained style.  After all, Uranus is the god of the heavens, the stars, the patron deity of all astrologers, their favourite muse, indispensable inspiration and god. And his is the spirit of truth not to be denied.

The dawning Age of Aquarius is Uranus’ age, ruled by his Spirit, and he would not leave his star children, his disciples, his circle drawers (these astrologers), dumb in the publicity department if they did decide to advertise the goods on free offer, gratis, by the grace of God. We may say it’s all been done but brilliant as it is, this scripture is twenty centuries old and a new age seems to demand a fresh assessment. Especially of Aquarian Wisdom.

‘Thy Holy Spirit’ in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Before we compare briefly the presentation of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, we should look at the bridge between the two. We have already sampled scriptures which are a supremely sophisticated testament to the sages of the Old Covenant of Moses, the scribes of the old Bible. As the Kabbalah of the Tree of Life implicitly insists, these were men of knowledge, men of understanding, men of immense learning.

The New Testament is if anything an even more sophisticated scripture. It is no less redolent of the insights and imagery of the Tree of Life and is certainly the work of some supremely sophisticated sages, men of knowledge, men of understanding, men of immense learning. Biblical Scripture is only written this way.

The New Testament was not the product of a band of fishermen but of a school of supreme fishers of men. We find the prototype of the New Testament, in ideas and even precise phrases, in the Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes, the Holy Ones. The Essenes were certainly held in the highest esteem in Israel, above the Sadducees and even the learned Pharisees.

In the Scrolls we find the high esteem of Wisdom is maintained, along with a recognition of the Holy Spirit in terms which clearly anticipate and prepare the way for the Christian recognition in the New Testament. It is ‘thy Holy Spirit,’ still acknowledged as the Spirit of Jehovah, rather than ‘the Holy Spirit,’ which emphasises the spirit within. But it stands out as the missing link between the Wisdom literature and later prophetic writings and the bold new departure of the New Testament. The Scrolls certainly present a bold new departure themselves but the Gospels and Epistles take this a bit further still.

This is one of the Thanksgiving Hymns, possibly the work of the Essenes founder, the Teacher of Righteousness they recognised as the Messiah, the Christ. Perhaps not so different to the Christ we recognise, or don’t (Hymn 4 lines 11-12) :

‘And I know through the understanding
which comes from Thee,
that in Thy goodwill towards man
Thou hast increased his inheritance in Thy Holy Spirit
and thus Thou hast drawn me near to understanding of Thee.
And the closer I approach,
the more I am filled with zeal…’

This hymn contains a wonderful, authoritative affirmation of the spiritual evolution we recognised in the biblical literature for this spirit. God has ‘increased man’s inheritance’ of the Holy Spirit. As we have seen , this increase, this evolution, may still be going on. Something would be wrong if it wasn’t.

This next mention in another hymn celebrates the attribute of truth so familiar with this Spirit, linking it in a timeless fashion to our own inner wisdom, the song of our hearts (Hymn 18 l. 32) :

‘Thou hast upheld me with certain truth;
Thou hast delighted me with Thy Holy Spirit
And hast opened my heart till this day.’

The Damascus Document is one of the most important Scrolls and gives the clearest clues to the identity of the Teacher of Righteousness, almost naming the day (the Jewish priests were always good at their own history.) It contains an early recognition for this Spirit, again in close conjunction with truth (and the Teacher) (col. II l. 13) :

‘He made known His Holy Spirit to them by the hand of His anointed one (His Messiah, His Christ) and He proclaimed the truth to them.’

Dead Sea Astrology : the Sabbath Becomes ‘Stars Day’
There is no question the Essenes practiced astrology. They saw it as a spiritual science. A horoscope dictated the proportions of good and evil in a man (4Q186), though at this distance we should suspect there was rather more to it in practice. Nevertheless this rather judgemental measure seems to have been expressly repudiated when they transformed themselves into the Nazarenes :

‘For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.’ St John 3 v.34

It is equally appropriate in this context to notice what is being celebrated in the title of a Scroll devoted to the cycle of the calendar and called The Words of the Heavenly Lights. Generally ignored by commentators, this title leaves little doubt we’re into astral science, the logos of the stars, astrology. The science of the spirit of Wisdom.

This is dramatically confirmed by the calendar’s unprecedented departure from Jewish custom to celebrate the Sabbath on the fourth day, Wednesday. Because this was the day God created the heavenly lights (Genesis 1 v.14,16) :

‘And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years….
And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made the stars also.’

Nothing was more important in ancient Judaism than the calendar which determined the celebration of the sacred festivals on the correct days, according to the Law. The Essenes were particularly zealous in this respect and constantly complained the Temple tradition in Jerusalem had got their festivals all wrong.

Yet their revolutionary accolade to astrology is not so strange and our modern calendars still testify the ancients’ acknowledgement of the power of the planets. Wednesday, Woden’s day, is translated in French as Mercredi, Mercury’s day. Woden is the Norse Mercury. European languages generally honour the seven visible planets in the days of the week.

Before modern technology has allowed us to acknowledge Uranus as the patron deity of star gazers, all these ‘occult’ arts were put with medicine under the wand, the Caduceus, of Mercury, Hermes, as Hermetics. There has always been the closest relationship between Uranus, the inspiration of ‘the Word,’ and the magician of words, Mercury.

The evidence of the Essenes’ interest in astrology is what we would expect from the authors of Christianity’s supreme metaphysical and Kabbalistic teaching. Their choice of a Sabbath on Wednesday resoundingly announces a leader, their Teacher of Righteousness, who was that passionate about the importance of these spiritual truths, the spiritual science of astrology. Messiahs should be keen on heavenly things.

A thousand years ago a Jewish sect in Israel began celebrating the Sabbath on Wednesday. It seems they had discovered some ancient scrolls and were so impressed by what they read, they changed their ways dramatically. Perhaps they found the Dead Sea Scrolls we didn’t, which explained, plain as day, astrology is the ‘golden road’ to God, or enlightenment, as the Tibetan Buddhists put it. Still, we’ve found enough of the puzzle.

The Holy Spirit and the Immaculate Conception
The Dead Sea sect are not being promoted here as an alternative source for Christianity because of their aptitude and interest in astrology. The Essenes do not provide an alternative origin for Christianity. They provide the only rational and historically credible origin for Christianity.

The stable, star and magi story are simply not historically plausible. Perhaps this is why these stories and even the massacre of hundreds of infants around Bethlehem, all these implausible ‘events’ are apparently long-forgotten when Christ is growing up and his family and neighbours are the last to give him any credit, to believe he is the Chosen One.

Taken literally the Gospel stories are especially implausible as the foundation for a sophisticated faith, particularly a dazzling astrological, Kabbalistic religion which has sustained faith for two thousand years.

When we read the Magi, the astrologers, attended the most sacred occasion of Christ’s birth, we might pause for thought. In the symbolic language of the Gospels, the language of parable, this signifies the role of the Essene magi, the Essene astrologers, closely associated with the birth of the infant Christianity.

The Virgin Mary has always been recognised as a symbol for the Church. In this case, at the very beginning, this was the pure, unspotted, white robed Holy Ones, the Essenes. As ‘the true sons of Zadok’ they were the true heirs of Onias III, arguably the last legitimate High Priest of the Jews at the Jerusalem Temple. The Essenes were the true heirs of the Temple tradition of Judaism. With a scrupulously preserved integrity.

The Immaculate Conception of Mary, ‘through the Holy Spirit,’ (Mt.1 v.18) represents the divine inspiration, or immaculate conception, of the Holy Ones, inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Essenes changed their name to became the first Nazarene church which in due time brought this divinely inspired conception to birth : infant Christianity with the birth of a new God, the divinity of the Pisces Messiah, the Christ and the Saviour, a man who was at once God.

An Irrational Shadow Steamrollers the Scrolls into Holy Oblivion
Our modern commentators stop short of noticing any significance in the title of The Words of the Heavenly Lights. They wouldn’t want to upset anyone by suggesting this revered Jewish sect was strongly committed to astrology, whatever the evidence.

Our modern commentators stop short of noticing any significance at all in ‘the close parallels’ between the Essenes and the Nazarenes, the early Christians. There are no ‘close parallels.’ It is wholesale copying : principles, Messiah, texts, names, everything. Copied from a secret sect dedicated to protect their sacred mysteries. They want to preserve the Christian foundation of believing twenty impossible things before breakfast …and again before supper …and even just to die in peace. They want to preserve disbelief.

We shouldn’t blame to greatly. Truth always takes second place to preserving established power. In families, school, university, business, even friendships. Any truth which challenges accepted authority is simply ignored or ruthlessly squashed. When the established authority is the church we all know the history and things haven’t changed greatly even if ‘excommunication,’ and ‘being crucified’ have a rather less grave interpretation.

Whatever the evidence, they wouldn’t want to upset anyone by suggesting this brilliant Christian sect was built on a rational foundation by a revered Jewish sect, founded by a real flesh and blood, historical Messiah. Even though it was and it’s something we can believe in.

When this spirit changes, when we realise we have everything to gain from embracing new ideas, we will find everyone jumping on the bandwagon and our whole vision of things religious will change as in the twinkling of an eye. We will have a new heaven and a new earth. It’s that simple, when the time is right. The important thing is, it’s not a question of good sense or truth but of fitting in with what’s wanted.

We must always recognise the overwhelming weight of feeling tipping the scales when any judgement is being made on hefty questions. Feeling which is merely fronted by a superficial stab at rational analysis. This is natural and common to us all when we have vested interests, commitments of any kind. It is also a judgement rightly judged as prejudice. Yet crucially it is a weight of feeling which its subjects are entirely unaware of and would deny blind; honestly… and wrongly. We rarely recognise how far our unassailable deeper feelings dictate to our clever intellect, ardent rationalists least of all.

This is the axis of ‘thinking’ and ‘feeling’ according to Jung’s cross of the four functions. Air and water on the metaphysical Cross of the Elements. The opposite psychological function is the repressed ‘shadow’ and emerges on the blind side, always unacknowledged, often all too obvious to everyone else.

The top experts have spent years pretending the Gospels represent some kind of history, against all the evidence, and in the absence of any evidence whatsoever. Naturally they cannot listen to anything which suggests otherwise. Meanwhile all the innocent grown up children shout out, ‘The emperor’s got no clothes on ! This history’s a transparent sham !’ And stop believing. The show just carries on, regardless. Who cares about those unbelievers ?

It’s one thing when faith had nothing better to dress itself up in. All eyes were blinded by faith. Then we were given eyes to see more clearly. And, with sensational timing, God offered us a treasure of vestments in the Scrolls, an inestimable wealth of telling vellum, scriptures invaluable before the first millennium. Leather decorated with the exquisitely rich and dramatic patterns of Christianity’s true history : the life of the Messiah, our historical Christ. When we still prefer naked denial, there’s not much excuse. Just the pressure of convention.

Words of the Heavenly Lights
The Words of the Heavenly Lights is short and fragmentary, most of it lost, as most of the Scrolls are fragmentary at best, and mostly lost. We still find two references to Thy Holy Spirit (4Q504-6 V line 15; fragment 4 II line 5) :

‘For Thou hast shed Thy Holy Spirit upon us, bringing upon us Thy blessings…’

‘We know these through Thy Holy Spirit which Thou hast granted us…’

We also find a reference to the ‘fountain of living waters,’ a familiar phrase from the NT and a phrase we have already associated with the gift of the Water Carrier, the source of a spiritual truth ever fresh, the difference between a life lived with spirit and a living death.

These references in this scroll not only confirm the evolution of the NT concept of the Holy Spirit from the OT. This document proclaims astrology at the heart of its theology, for there is no more sensitive question than the calendar in Judaism. For the Essenes to change everything to acknowledge astrology is astonishing. It presents us with the strongest possible acknowledgement of the astrological tradition behind Judaism, the astrology of the Tree of Life behind the ancient Kabbalah Tradition.

The Essenes were obviously keen on the theology of the Holy Spirit. St John is the Gospel singled out as closest to the Essene style in many ways and it is certainly bursting with phrases taken from the Scrolls, a truth which will out. It is remarkable for its distinctive, rather Essenic emphasis on the calendar and the festivals. John’s Gospel is also jam packed with references to the spirit and the Holy Spirit, not to mention the logos … and Wisdom.

This is the power of this Spirit of truth which the scriptures relentlessly proclaim. It only takes a little Spirit for us to find our true selves : to discover the riches within, to trade make believe for the naked truth, translate wage slavery into liberation and turn looming doom into a brave salvation.

This honest Spirit is not one to leave us in want of a little truth. Rather it is inclined to shout it from the house tops.

Wisdom in the Scrolls’ Beatitudes
A passage sometimes proposed as the Essenes’ original version of the Beatitudes is dedicated to this Spirit of Wisdom, for there is no greater blessing. There are other Scrolls with even closer parallels to the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, but this is an appropriate example (4Q425 l.1-5) :

‘Blessed are those who hold to Wisdom’s precepts
and do not hold to the ways of iniquity….
Blessed are those who rejoice in her…
Blessed are those who seek her ….
Blessed is the man who has attained Wisdom,
and walks in the Law of the Most High.
He directs his heart towards her ways…’

Has the Wisdom Literature Hidden the History of the Passion ?
We find the Essenes readily embrace Sophia, as Hockmah, with extensive references in the Scrolls and there is every reason to suspect they were closely associated with the later tradition of the Wisdom literature. The Essene priests were refugees from the elite priesthood of the Jerusalem Temple and they or their forefathers would certainly have been involved with the earlier Wisdom scriptures. There is compelling evidence of an Essenic hand in major works such as Daniel and Enoch.

The last of these Books, Wisdom itself, contains a remarkable passage which appears to comment on the death of their Messiah, Onias III, and echoes his story in many respects. The fact the Book of Wisdom was probably written in Alexandria in Egypt does not necessarily diminish this impressive evidence of the involvement of the Essenes in the composition of the Wisdom literature. The Essenes were sophisticated operators and Onias’ son, Onias IV, fled to found a replica Temple in Egypt. This helps to explain the enthusiasm with which this literature is echoed in the NT.

The following passage certainly seems to present a sensationally close model for the story of Christ’s Passion, possibly a century before its Gospel date (Ws. 2 v. 12-20 emphasis added) :

‘Let us lay traps for the upright man, since he annoys us
and opposes our way of life,
reproaches us for our sins against the Law…
He claims to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself the son of God.
We see him as a reproof to our way of thinking,
the very sight of him weighs our spirits down;
for his kind of life is not like other people’s,
and his ways are quite different.
In his opinion we are counterfeit;
he avoids our ways as he would filth;
he proclaims the final end of the upright as blessed
and boasts of having God as his father.
Let us see if what he says is true,
and test him to see what sort of end he will have.
For if the upright man is God’s son, God will help him
and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.
Let us test him with cruelty and with torture,
and thus explore this gentleness of his
and put his patience to the test.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death
since God will rescue him – or so he claims.’

‘The Spirit of Holiness’ Attends an Essene Baptism
The Essene recognition of this Spirit is neither quite Old Testament nor New Testament. It seems to be at a halfway house between the two. The term ‘Thy Holy Spirit’ as a title is a clear and telling anticipation of the Christian title of the ‘Holy Spirit.’ This refers to the same Spirit of God and spirit of Wisdom we see gaining increasing recognition through the evolution of the OT. Equally, there is no question this is how we find the Christians present the Holy Spirit in the NT.

In the Community Rule scroll, however, we find the balance tips decisively and we are presented with two references to the Spirit of truth which are such powerful echoes of Christian scripture it is difficult to accept they are not copies. They are copies. Only the Christian version followed two centuries later.

This passage from the Community Rule is a rather informal description of the Essene ceremony of baptism. It suggests an early version of Christian baptism in general and John’s baptism of Christ in particular (col. III l.5-9 emphasis added) :

‘he shall .. be cleansed by purifying waters, … sanctified by rivers and seas, … washed clean by ablution … He shall be cleansed of all his sins by the spirit of holiness uniting him to his truth.… And when his flesh is sprinkled by purifying water, and sanctified by cleansing water, it shall be made clean by the humble submission of his soul to all the precepts of God.’

And, for good measure, we are given a reprise (Com. Rule IV l.15-20 emphasis added) :

‘He will cleanse him of all wicked deeds with the spirit of holiness; like purifying waters He will shed upon him the spirit of truth (to cleanse him) of all abomination and injustice. And he shall be plunged into the spirit of purification.’

In both these passages we see the Holy Spirit, ‘the spirit of holiness’ in close association with a ritual of purification with water. It may in some way fall short of the one-off ceremony of baptism introduced, we are told, by John the Baptist and certainly pivotal in early Christianity but it is remarkably close prototype.

In two sects definitively committed to an evolving tradition under the supreme authority of the Messiah, there are naturally developments. The Essenes did not become the Nazarenes, the early Christians, to change just their name.

At first the Holy Ones had no wish to depart dramatically from the Judaic tradition but later were ready to proclaim a new faith. A new faith marked with the baptism by water and by the spirit. The Acts of the Apostles (11 v.16) emphasises even John’s baptism is developed further by the early Christians : John’s is said to have been a baptism only by water whereas the Christian baptism is with the Holy Spirit. In fact Christian baptism remains, like the Essenes’, a baptism by both water and Spirit.

We may perhaps understand the emergence of the Holy Spirit to such prominence in Christian theology by recognising its importance to the Dead Sea Community. The Essenes were above all concerned with the battle between good and evil which they expressed in terms of the Spirits of Light and Darkness, Truth and Falsehood.

Truth was their overwhelming preoccupation and this last passage from the Community Rule is preceded by a reference to ‘the Community of His truth.’ These concerns are also prominent in the NT but are much the most pronounced in the Gospel of St John. The association of truth with the Holy Spirit is evident in both traditions and in both scriptures it is ‘the spirit of truth.’ This is still its official title in Catholicism.

Heresy ! Heresy !
If the NT Holy Spirit is the OT holy Spirit, Christ is NOT the Logos !

The identity between the NT Holy Spirit is the OT holy Spirit is readily recognised but it does lead to some important yet heretical conclusions. We have seen how in the OT the holy Spirit of God is clearly identified with the spirit of Wisdom, Sophia.

In the NT a clear distinction is made between these two. The spirit of Wisdom is identified with the logos and the logos is identified with Christ. So the connection between the spirit of Wisdom and the Spirit of God, so readily made in the OT, is actually quite unacceptable in the NT.

In the Christian tradition the Holy Spirit is frequently called the Spirit of God, most notably by St Paul in 1 Corinthians (eg 2 v.10-14) while later (12 v.3,4) Paul actually speaks of the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit in the same breath and then helpfully points out :

‘There are many different gifts but it is always the same Spirit;’

Paul goes on to list these gifts as a range of inspiration which has become fairly familiar from the OT descriptions of the Spirit of God and the spirit of Wisdom. None of these proves too difficult to associate with Uranus, the planet and spirit of Wisdom on the Tree of Life, the irresistible inspiration of the Aquarian new age. And Paul begins with a prologue which could be a manifesto for an interfaith understanding which is no less Aquarian (1 Cor. 12 v. 6-11) :

‘There are many different forms of activity, but in everybody it is the same God who is at work in them all. To one is given from the Spirit the gift of utterance expressing wisdom; to another the gift of utterance expressing knowledge, in accordance with the same Spirit; to another, faith, from the same Spirit; and to another, the gifts of healing, through this one Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the power of distinguishing spirits; to one the gift of different tongues and to another, the interpretation of tongues. But at work in all these is one and the same Spirit, distributing them at will to each individual.’

Paul might just as well be saying, ‘There are many different names but it is always the same Spirit,’ speaking of the different names for this Spirit in the Bible. In our own times he could be explaining the different names for the same spirits in different faiths, the different names of God in different faiths. Or the ‘many different forms of activity’ in different religions. In Paul’s day that divergence of terms within the scriptures was understood. In our own day we need to expand that understanding a bit wider, as the world has shrunk so suddenly.

St Paul was referring to the diversity of inspiration in the early church which threatened unity and a common understanding. We still need to learn that lesson now, in different terms, with a wide variety of different churches. As we have quoted Paul already, there is no gain in sorting theology while the Spirit is unwilling to love.

The time may have come when we need to recognise all the world as the single body of the church of God. The doubters and disbelievers no less than the fervent apostles, not to mention different faiths, everyone makes a vital contribution to ensure we present the variety, the bursting diversity of God in ways which are universally recognisable, valuable and acceptable.

Ultimately every hardened heart has a valid reason for its resistance and faith has not presented an attractive model to many. Many believe we can do better without it. It is up to believers to show truth can be more inclusive : to reach out and present God not on their own favourite terms but on terms the world wont spurn. After all, every heart holds this spirit, every heart is ready to know its better self. But sometimes this better self will not fit into the models of dogma.

Equally we need to find a broader understanding of this Universal Spirit which recognises common ground with the wonderful inspirations of other faiths. Instead of pointing to the interfaith prohibitions of the past. Paul, again, offers provocative hints on the scope of the inspiration of the Spirit (2 Cor. 3 v.6) :

‘He has given us competence to be ministers of a new covenant, a covenant not of written letters but of the Spirit; for the written letters kill but the Spirit gives life.’

This line might also offer caution to those Christians who quote the OT to condemn and ignore the NT spirit of forgiveness and love.

Is the Holy Spirit Still Alive and Kicking ?
The designation ‘the Spirit of God’ throughout the NT is familiar from the OT, and we see references to ‘his holy Spirit’ (1Thess. 4 v.8) which again takes us back to the OT sources.

We also find several references where wisdom is closely associated with the Holy Spirit (eg 1Cor. 12 v.7) but the identification of this Spirit with the Spirit of God and the spirit of Wisdom in the OT is not really in doubt. Though it is strictly heretical for reasons we shall soon see.

This identity between these different designations of the Spirit is most clearly confirmed by the events of Pentecost which Peter specifically defines as a fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel. There is no question Joel’s prophecy is fully in line with the powerful tradition of this Spirit in the Bible, from Moses on, and theologically, from the foundation of the world. Peter essentially confirms the Holy Ghost as the Spirit of God, which is so closely identified with the spirit of Wisdom.

The Holy Spirit is extremely active in the early years of Christianity and it is constantly associated with the gift of prophecy and ‘speaking in tongues.’ We get a clear picture this was not necessarily a gift of great eloquence or clairvoyance but rather an ecstatic state of praising God, much as we see in many churches today when people are said to be ‘in the Spirit’ and ‘speaking in tongues.’

Yet Paul has pointed out, there is no need to distinguish between this spirit and the more expressive spirit which possessed the prophets. As we learn the language of heaven’s blessings we will all wax more eloquent when we are inspired by Uranus, or overcome with the Spirit of God.

Paul specifically took up this issue in one of his letters, complaining this ecstasy of ‘speaking in tongues’ was all very well but was ineffective in communicating one’s rapture to others (1 Cor. 14 v.2,3) :

‘Those who speak in a tongue speak to God but not to other people because nobody understands them; they are speaking in the Spirit and the meaning is hidden. On the other hand, someone who prophesies speaks to other people, building them up and giving them encouragement and reassurance.’

Paul’s passionate plea is likely to find an answer in the fullness of time, in the evolving drama which is our religious tradition, our spiritual evolution. Just as in the Pentecost apotheosis, the fulfilment of Joel’s prophecy, we have seen the granting of Moses’ wish (Num. 19 v.29) :

‘If only all Yahweh’s people were prophets, and Yahweh had given them his spirit !’

We find one of the most recognisable characteristics of this Spirit in the formal blessing bestowing the ‘fellowship of the Holy Spirit.’ This is a perfect definition for the ‘friendship’ of this Spirit (Ws. 7 v.23), often recognised both in the OT and the New. It is readily identifiable with Uranus’ Eleventh House rulership, the House of society, friendship, fellowship. And it is identifiable with the Sephira of Wisdom, Hockmah, on the Tree of Life.

Is the Holy Spirit still alive and kicking ? – ‘The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.’ As some prophet once said.

Jung on the Trinity : Now Christ’s Marriage with Mary Makes Four
A Spiritual Psychologist
Equally our OT studies leave no serious doubt of the identity of the Holy Spirit with the Spirit of Wisdom, Hockmah, Sophia, who is the consort of Yahweh, Jehovah, from the first. The union of Jehovah and Sophia is alluded to frequently in the Wisdom literature without ever being explicitly formalised and we find this coyness is characteristic of biblical theology.

There is a similar reluctance to state things plainly when we get the announcement of the union of Mary, the Bride and Queen of Heaven with the heavenly Bridegroom, her son, Jesus Christ. This may seem a much more sensitive case but we can readily understand there is considerable sensitivity in any such divine union, so powerful and holy are our images of the Trinity.

From a Christian standpoint the identification of Sophia with the Holy Spirit is actually considered heretical. So it is valuable to have a reliable commentator on these enigmatic issues. CG Jung’s field of spiritual psychology brought him into close contact with Christian theology throughout his long and illustrious career.

He studied it in detail and commented on it extensively in his writings, not infrequently bringing in astrology to explain Christian imagery. This was particularly true of his recognition of the fish symbol for Christ which he connected with the Sign of Pisces. Equally he did not hesitate to connect the Christian era with the past age of Pisces, approximately the last two thousand years :

‘Astrologically interpreted, the designation of Christ as one of the fishes identified him with the first fish, the vertical one. Christ is followed by the Antichrist.’
Aion Col. Works 9, Part II, Ch. IV, para.149

Jung’s Answer to Job and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
In 1952, at the end of his life he wrote his extremely thoughtful and provocative essay, Answer to Job. This presents the Christian Trinity in a bold psychological light and discusses the significance of the announcement just two years earlier of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Jung clearly uses his own insight, perhaps confirmed by consultations with his eminent friends, to say quite clearly what the Papal Bull on the Assumption only alludes to at best. ‘Mary as the bride is united with the son in the heavenly bridal-chamber, and, as Sophia, with the God-head.’ (Answer to Job XVII)

It is not impossible to gather the gist of the first of these extraordinary statements from the official text and this is discussed in the Note on Mary. The union of Sophia and the Father is something understood from the hints in the Wisdom literature. The Papal Bull does refer to ‘the spouse, whom the Father had taken to himself’ (the Papal Bull Munificentissimus Deus of Pope Pius XII, para. 21, quoting St John Damascene.) Unfortunately this clearly refers to the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God.

We also get a reference to the New Testament as ‘that divine deposit which Christ has delivered to his Spouse to be guarded faithfully and to be taught infallibly.’ Here Christ’s Spouse is Holy Mother Church. Holy Mother Church has always been identified with the Holy Mother, Mary.

We should recognise this is only theology and pretty abstruse theology at that. The science of the divine spirits translated into the language of myth. A tricky business. It is not a moral myth such as we find in the NT which is designed to guide us in our earthly lives. This is an attempt to make sense of the complex metaphysics of spiritual truth and particularly the spiritual evolution we are dramatically involved in. We shall find it does a pretty good job, quite sensational really, while Jung does a superb job of making sense of it all. Yet there remains a huge confusion over who’s who, and who’s what, which Jung doesn’t quite untangle. After all it is rooted in the scriptures themselves.

Besides we are still dealing in a field where men have burned and died on the rack or been Crucified for saying something new and different. It is not surprising the language of the Vatican itself is less than transparent while Jung succumbs somewhat to the resultant confusion.

It is impossible to resolve this problem without knowledge of the astrology and metaphysics of the Tree of Life, the heart and art of the Kabbalah, the esoteric Tradition of Judaism. The secret science behind this mystery.

Is Mary Really Sophia ?
Jung sees Mary as an alternative identity for Sophia and this is probably how the Church likes to confuse the issue. Jung suggests Christ is really the Son of the late scriptural recognition of the union of Jehovah and Sophia. The Book of Wisdom where this union is most strongly suggested was probably written less than a century before Christianity and we have seen strong suggestions of the involvement of the Essenes, the midwives of Christianity.

The Virgin Mary plays the role of surrogate mother. An earthly Mother for a divine Child. This is probably the best explanation of her miraculously preserved Virginity and her eligibility for her new role of Heavenly Bride.

In fact there is no attempt to seriously present Mary as an incarnation of Wisdom. This would have contradicted the NT identification of Wisdom with Christ as the logos. The characteristics of Sophia are never part of Mary’s nature which is different. The emphasis on her earthly, human qualities, essentially her physical virgin body, evokes her role as a second Eve, a role theology explicitly recognises. Mary is the idealised Earth Mother.

A Psychological Theology
It seems two feminine Persons in the ‘heavenly courts’ is just too much for an exclusively patriarchal church. Although he is quite coy in stating this plainly, Jung’s analysis cannot escape the conclusion he is interpreting the heavenly set up in psychological terms which relate directly to his interpretation of the astrological elements, earth, air, fire and water. That is, in terms of the ‘four functions.’ Occasionally this interpretation slips out :

‘The Christian deity is one in three persons. The fourth person in the heavenly drama is undoubtedly the devil. In the more harmless psychological version he is merely the inferior function…. There are two conscious, therefore masculine functions … represented in dreams by, say, father and son, whereas the unconscious functions appear as mother and daughter… It was in keeping with this psychological fact that the Holy Spirit should be heretically interpreted as Sophia.’

Individual Dream Symbolism In Relation To Alchemy Ch. 3 The Symbolism of the Mandala, Sec. III The Mandalas in the Dreams, Col. Works vol. 12, para.192.

The rationale for a psychological theology is not insignificant. If the four functions determine our entire experience of life, the universe and everything, they may be said to play an omnipotent role in our lives. In fact Jung recognised their was more to it than he could plainly say.

Beyond Psychology
Jung certainly does not go as far as to recognise these divine Persons in an astrological definition. Surprisingly, it is even unclear in Answer to Job whether his psychological interpretation insists on two feminine Persons to balance the two male functions and Persons of the Trinity. By apparently merging Sophia and Mary, he seems to leave the fourth function to the Devil.

Revelation makes it clear the Devil’s reign ends at the same time as Mary is elevated to the Quaternity. This signifies the redemption of the earth element, embodied by Saturn and represented by the Goaty Capricorn image of the Devil and the idealised, earthly, ‘second Eve,’ portrait of Mary.

This collective ‘inferior function,’ our senses, our physical natures, the element of earth, are integrated into the spiritual consciousness of the other three higher elements, functions. Our higher minds learn to recognise the spiritual dimension of all physical matter. In return, our blind prejudice in favour of materialism and power learns to recognise the vital role of the other subtler elements or functions.

It is necessary to observe Jung’s psychological analysis is not entirely borne out in detail by the astrological, metaphysical facts. This is only to be expected in a field where Jung is virtually exploring terra nova. Besides he is entirely unable to give more than passing credit to the science of astrology which ultimately lies behind all his psychological speculations. In addition we must recognise his difficulty in challenging theological dogma which finally proves all too human and fallible.

A Happy Balance in the Christian Quaternity
Jung’s Cross of the Four Functions is a psychological translation of the metaphysical the Cross of the Elements discussed in detail in connection with the portrait of the Christian God.  This Cross comprises earth, water, air and fire, the first two being feminine elements, the latter two male.  This is not as clear in the psychological definitions.  In any case, a sense of natural balance demands the male is balanced by the female.  This is the pattern of the astrological horoscope.

When we recognise the portraits of the Christian Trinity are taken from the characters of the major outer planets on the Tree of Life the picture becomes more complex. Christ represents Neptune in Pisces wearing the sacrificial Crown of Keter, a male figure representing the female element of water. Sophia has represented the powerful creative male energy of Uranus in Aquarius, the element of air, at the head of the Male Pillar on the Tree of Life, Adam’s seat. This becomes translated by Christian theology as the Holy Spirit who is recognised as male. (The Father represents the element of fire, the Virgin Mary the element of earth.)

Yet as Jung was quick to recognise, when we picture the Quaternity, it is necessary to restore recognition to the feminine Sophia to achieve balance in the heavenly realms. This image is beautifully endorsed by the 15th century illustration, taken from Jung’s work, of the Quaternity at Mary's Coronation.  Sophia’s translation into the Holy Spirit may be conventionally heretical but it has been widely recognised in esoteric, metaphysical circles. After all, the evidence is not difficult to muster.

Without Sophia’s presence in the Quaternity, we get a most unfortunate picture of Father and Son apparently in conflict for the affections of Mary, the new girl on the block. (A picture the Papal Bull on the Assumption seems to foster.)  And we get the Christian era’s most unfortunate male domination of affairs, most notably spiritual affairs, perpetuated into the new age.  An unacceptable prospect.

The Logos : Christ and the Holy Spirit Compete for the Ultimate Metaphysical Definition
The Word Becomes Flesh
A more difficult problem arises in another form and Jung himself struggles with it. Theology has been quick to recognise Christ as ‘the Word,’ the Greek Logos. This is almost the one point theologians can agree on and it is an invaluable recognition of the objective metaphysical realm on which theology depends. This identification brings theology extremely close to the science of astrology. As we have seen, the logos is definitive of the Aquarian spirit of Wisdom.

Unfortunately this identification of Christ with the logos depends on a slight misapprehension. It is entirely at odds with the major features of his portrait as the Saviour and Redeemer. We will attempt to dispel this contradiction using the clarity of the metaphysics of the Kabbalah, the astrological metaphysics of the Tree of Life.

Christ is unequivocally recognised as ‘the Word made flesh’ in the opening verses of John’s Gospel (1 v.14) :

‘The Word became flesh,
he lived among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory that he has from the Father as the only Son of the Father,
full of grace and truth.’

The problem is clear, however, from the first verse of John’s Gospel (1 v.1) ;

‘In the beginning was the Word :
the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
The Word, then, was with God at the beginning.’
(NJB, NEB)

Biblical commentators agree this passage is deliberately echoing the portrait of Wisdom in the Wisdom literature and in this way the Logos is being identified with the Spirit of Wisdom. As we have seen it is the spirit of Wisdom which is ever with God and is involved from the beginning in the Creation.

Equally there is an unavoidable association with the Spirit of God we have recognised from the beginning, from the Creation story of Genesis. This is inevitable as we have seen the two are closely identified in the OT. In Genesis (1 v.2) the ruah, the Spirit of God, is also present with God from the beginning and involved in the Creation.

This identity is particularly marked in the creative role so prominent in the various portraits of this spirit, a role John is not slow to ascribe to the Logos in the strongest possible terms (1 v.1,3 KJV)

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God….
All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.’

Wisdom says :

‘Yahweh created me..
before the oldest of his works.
From everlasting I was firmly set,
from the beginning, before the earth came into being…
When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there,
when he drew a circle over the surface of the deep..
when he assigned the sea its boundaries..
when he traced the foundations of the earth,
I was beside him, a master craftsman…’
                                          Proverbs 8 v.22,23,27,29,30

‘Jesus, Can You Also Do Sophia’s Part This Time ?’
Time and again commentators recognise, particularly in John’s Gospel, the same imagery used for Wisdom in the OT is echoed for Christ and the Logos in the NT. The authoritative New Jerusalem Bible comments : ‘John in his prologue attaches the characteristics of the creative Wisdom to the Word and his Gospel throughout represents Christ as the Wisdom of God. Christian tradition from St Justin onwards (c.150 AD) sees in the Wisdom of the OT the person of Christ himself.’ To a lesser extent this identification of Christ with Wisdom can also be found in the other Gospels.

This is slightly astonishing. The role allocated to Sophia, the female partner of Jehovah, from the beginning, is now being totally recast and personified as the spirit of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. This tremendous theological contradiction is not inexplicable, as we shall see, but it does give us a valuable glimpse of the all too human art of theology.

By far the most significant thing to recognise is that there is clearly an extremely important divine spirit here and theologians are keen to give it a primary position and prominent recognition in the heavenly hierarchy. To make sure it doesn’t go unnoticed. And they are not too fussy how they do it. After all, most of the audience were illiterate and wouldn’t really notice. Those who did would be insiders who wouldn’t want to rock the boat. The proof of the pudding is, no one’s complained that we’re aware of, two thousand years later. It’s all much too holy, way above everybody’s head. Too ‘numinous.’

Nevertheless, this accomplished slight of a scribe’s hand does beg some serious questions which are much bigger than even dropping Sophia to opt for Jesus instead.

There is a wealth of material identifying Wisdom with the ruah, the Spirit of God in the OT and we even find this identification occasionally slips into NT scripture as in Acts (6 v.10) :

‘They found they could not stand up against him because of his wisdom and the Spirit that prompted what he said.’

In the OT this equivalence is presented most clearly in the Book of Wisdom in passages quoted above, Wisdom is ‘the spirit of the Lord,’ ‘a breath of the power of God,’ and ‘your holy Spirit from above.’ (1 v.7; 7 v.25; and 9 v.17)

Metaphysics as Myth : Making Uranus Presentable
This is not just an academic argument based on a clever selection of references. The point here is to show the writers of scripture, especially in the later period towards the end of the NT, knew just what they were doing. What they were doing was based strictly on the knowledge of the Kabbalah, the metaphysical Tradition of the Tree of Life.

The Spirit of God is identified with Wisdom in the OT because both these spirits clearly and definitively represent the spirit of Wisdom, Hockmah, on the Tree. Both characters are presented in a way which makes this quite certain as we have seen. These characters fit the Sephira of Wisdom like a glove, made to measure. Made to treasure. This Tree spirit of Hockmah, Wisdom, represents the powerful breath of God, the inspirational eloquence of God, and the great creative power of God which has been with God from before the foundation of the world.

It is simply not credible to pretend the Bible writers are presenting a different spirit which shares all these characteristics but is not metaphysically definable; which comes from somewhere we cannot even imagine, while at the same time ignoring this very real, very powerful spirit of Wisdom on the Tree of Life. Ignoring their sacred Kabbalah tradition while using its language : its names and its metaphysical imagery.

It might be objected the spirit of the great Uranus is actually no older than the earth itself. This may be true. Certainly it would be ridiculous to imagine God stops beyond Pluto because this is the limit of the astrology of the Tree of Life. Any God, any Universal Spirit’s got to be at least as big as the universe. Probably rather bigger.

There is every reason to suppose the physical and metaphysical pattern of the solar system and the Tree of Life owes everything to a Universal Spirit which contains all these spirits on a greater scale. Just as the Tree is the model for all creation within the solar system and certainly on Earth.

The spirits of the Tree of life are the plenipotentiary ambassadors of this Universal Spirit for us. Omnipotent Gods. Effectively the spirits of the Tree of Life are an overwhelming everything for us and cannot be ignored. They compose our being, make us what we are. They were not ignored but celebrated by the men of ancient science and wisdom. The men of ancient knowledge. In every culture around the globe.

Splitting the Spirit : Giving Christ a Bit of Wisdom
Generally in the NT the Spirit of God is formally identified with the Holy Spirit.

Conventional theology asks us to accept a clear division between the Spirit of God and Wisdom which were one and the same in the OT. In the NT the Spirit of God is naturally translated as the Holy Spirit. But Wisdom is identified with Christ and particularly with Christ as the Word, the Logos, in John’s Gospel.

Essentially, in the NT we have the Second and Third Persons in the Trinity representing a spirit which in the OT was identified as one and the same.

They are both one and the same. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, and Sophia, Wisdom, are all one and the same spirit, as the OT presents them. They can all be correctly identified with the Greek concept of the logos. The logos is the metaphysical definition of the spirit of Wisdom on the Tree of Life, the great Aquarian Spirit of the heavens. It is identical to the power of the Holy Spirit but it does not properly belong to Christ except in special circumstances, like John’s Gospel.

The one and only appearance of the Logos in John’s Gospel readily suggests the solution to this impossible contradiction. The Logos is originally presented as a spirit, like the Holy Spirit, ‘coming into the world’ with the power to transform men into ‘the children of God.’ Only then did the Logos become Incarnated in the Person of Christ : ‘the Word became flesh, he lived among us.’ John makes quite clear, before he presents Christ as ‘the Word become flesh,’ this spirit is incarnated in us all, as far as we are all ‘children of God’ (1 v.8-14) :

‘The Word … was coming into the world….
He came to his own
And his own people did not accept him.
But to those who did accept him
He gave power to become the children of God …
Who were born not of human stock…
But from God himself.
So the Word became flesh…’ (NJB, NEB)

Christ is essentially only the Logos in the same way we all incarnate this spirit : in the same way the Word becomes flesh in us all. Unfortunately, as we shall see, current fashion seized on this passage to exaggerate the importance of this metaphysical definition.

The term Logos is not used in the NT to define Christ apart from this Prologue to John’s Gospel and two other references. The first is the Prologue to the First Letter of John (1 v.1) which is a deliberate emulation of the Gospel Prologue. The second is in Revelation, referring to the Second Coming which requires separate consideration.

It would be wrong to imagine a systematic or sustained attempt even in John’s Gospel to identify Christ with the logos.  It is a passing reference, albeit in an extremely prominent position, which in essence conveys no more than the recognition we can all be identified with this spirit.   Nevertheless there is a clear attempt by John to promote this metaphysical spirit.  The Aquarian Gospel promoting the definitive Aquarian spirit to which we are all heirs, with Christ.

There is also a repeated association of Christ with Wisdom, although these are only once explicit and are generally only by allusion, as in Jn. 6 v.35 or Mt. 11 v.28 which echoes Si. 51 v.25,26. This one explicit reference to Christ as ‘the Wisdom of God,’ is by Paul in I Cor. (1 v.24) when he has just given us a wonderful insight into the fashion demands of his time : ‘the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom.’

It seems apparent the association with Wisdom is no more than an attempt to borrow the intellectual strength and popularity of this OT presentation without too serious an attempt to adopt this character or persona. Perhaps even to defuse claims Sophia had been dropped or lost in the less personable Holy Spirit.

Astrology, Metaphysics and Theology Inextricably Mixed
Knowledge and wisdom presents the four Evangelists in the four astrological symbols, the Bull, the Lion, the Eagle and the Man. These are generally recognised as representing the four fixed Signs, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius; the four elements, earth, fire, water and air respectively. John’s Gospel is properly recognised under the symbol of the Man, the spirit of Aquarius, the Water Carrier.

We should not expect these Gospels to have been written specifically according to this design. It is more a brilliant metaphysical expression of their different accounts, even an excuse for their contradictions. We find this same scheme of four different, often contradictory, accounts deliberately presented in Laurence Durrell’s inspired ‘Alexandrian Quartet.’

John’s Gospel might be suspected of being the exception which inspired the idea. John’s unique approach to the person and mission of Christ is widely recognised. It carries this Aquarian character strongly in a number of features, not only it’s striking opening where the Logos takes centre stage.

The logos is metaphysically the very definition of the Aquarian spirit, the air spirit of logic. The logos defines our psychological ‘thinking function’ where its translation as ‘the Word’ fits well the character of inspired ideas which is typical of Aquarian thought.  It extends beyond our minds to a universal principle and spirit which orders all Creation, essentially the living logic of the universe, the logic of cause and effect.

It is worth noting the other air Signs in the zodiac, Libra and Gemini, although equally dealing with intellect and ideas, logic and reason, have characters which are distinctly different. Neither is a rival for the title of the logos.

The logos has been the profound subject of philosophical and metaphysical speculation since the ancient Greeks but it is sufficient for our purposes to recognise its close parallels with the universal spirit of Aquarius. It is quite probable the ancient term was coined to define the metaphysical reality of this Aquarian spirit. Certainly the traditional definitions of the two could not be closer and are identical.

It is already quite orthodox theologically to recognise the logos as identical with the Spirit of Wisdom although they are not explicitly linked in the NT.  Merely John’s Prologue echoes the OT presentation of Sophia, especially in Proverbs 8.  We found in the OT Wisdom was identified with the Spirit of God, the ruah, and the pneuma, those great Spirits of the Old Testament which are defined by the element of air. We have already recognised these both reflect a character which is readily identified as Aquarian and especially Uranian. The Spirit of the Sephira of Wisdom, Hockmah, on the Tree of Life.

This explains why the church has always been unable to recognise the identity between Sophia and the Holy Spirit. If Christ is identified with Wisdom there is no wish to suggest a duplication of this Spirit within the Trinity. Unfortunately this suggestion is inescapable, just below the surface.

Even if this implication is strictly mistaken. Really just a result of taking the Essenes’, the Evangelists’, pragmatic, probably opportunistic, theology a little bit too seriously.

This and other monumental contradictions in Christian theology, and particularly the vexed question of Gospel history, are only possible because these subjects are too holy to question. Too ‘numinous’ as Jung put it, too profoundly emotional. Jung’s brave Answer to Job has helped to remove the taboo from this discussion and make it accessible by laymen.

Whenever these questions are raised among those who can handle this material, the defence is always one of paternal protection. But we are being protected from the truth and, being God’s truth, it is always rather more glorious than our petty fears can imagine.  As Christ himself said, ‘You will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ (John 8 v.32)

To make sense of these issues it is vital theology is accessible to outsiders who are not bound by vested interests and the ‘insiders’ code of reverential and deferential silence. Jung’s contribution cannot be overestimated.

Jung himself struggled with this contradiction and identifies both Sophia and Christ as the Logos and equally identifies Mary with Sophia with scant explanation. He is quite ready to admit this makes Mother and Son spiritually, metaphysically, identical :

‘As the son of Mary, who is plainly a copy of Sophia, he is the logos (synonymous with the Nous) who, like Sophia is a master workman, as stated by the Gospel according to St John. This identity of mother and son is borne out over and over again in the myths.’ Answer to Job V.

This starkly reflects the theological contradictions which surround the Trinity, not to mention the Quaternity but the scriptures are brutally confusing. It is only a resort to the original metaphysics of astrology and the Kabbalah which offers hope of clarity. This was naturally beyond Jung’s ambition.

It is extraordinary to find such a pre-eminent commentator as Jung wholly at a loss for clues to make sense of this ultimate mystery, to distinguish meaningfully between these Three. This lack of clarity and understanding metaphysically and theologically should be understood to be universal throughout the church, of whatever denomination.

When a Papal Bull, quoted above, refers to Mary as the Spouse of the Father in the same document which announces Her union with the Son as the heavenly Bridegroom in the heavenly bridal chamber, we cannot doubt confusion is absolute.

It is unequivocally confirmed by the historic confusion over the identification of Christ as the Logos and his identification with Wisdom which inevitably produces such absurd implications in a coincidence of metaphysical significance with the Holy Spirit. Two Persons supposed to represent a single spirit.

In the appropriate Note we will consider the metaphysical definition of the Spirit represented by the figure of Christ, the Saviour. Properly more pathos, even eros rather than logos. It is the water spirit of sacrifice and compassion, the fish and the wine, the Spirit of the last age of the Fishes, Pisces. Pisces is the Sign of wine, sacrifice, suffering and compassion, caring, caritas, Christian charity, and rules the Sephira of Keter, the Crown on the Tree of Life. The Crown of suffering at the top of the Tree, at the top of the Cross.

Yellow Spectacles : an Aquarian Interpretation
Christ should not properly be understood as the logos. This metaphysical definition properly belongs to the inspiration and power of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. But John’s Gospel demonstrates superbly what it is to see things through the eyes of a particular spirit, through Aquarian eyes, through yellow-tinted glasses, the metaphysical colour of air. Just as the green glasses in the Wizard of Oz produce the Emerald City, everything in John’s Gospel takes on an Aquarian character.

As we saw in the opening verses, this is quite right, looked at in that light. We are all incarnations of the Word, in as far as we admit this Spirit. Just as we are all incarnations of Christ and children of God, to the degree we live His Spirit (John 1 v.8,9,11,12. 10 v.34) :

‘The Word…. was coming into the world …
… to those who did accept him
he gave the power to become the children of God …’

‘Jesus answered : Is it not written in your law :
I said, you are gods ?’

Significantly we find the Holy Spirit is mentioned in John’s Gospel with special emphasis. John’s style is striking : the unqualified, undisguised naked spiritual truth so characteristic of this Spirit, this inspiration, this planet. Uranus is known for blunt forthrightness.

John’s Gospel often makes no attempt to disguise his message in the biographical, mythical style of the other Gospels. Jesus makes his bald statements of spiritual truth inspired but without compromise. With no real attempt to pretend any sane man could ever speak in this way, expecting people to listen. It is generally recognised John’s Jesus is often just a nominal mouthpiece for a brilliant theological exposition.

Uranus is known astrologically for a tendency to be left alone. A brilliant social adept, friendly to everyone, he is nevertheless a bit too brilliant and a bit impersonal. His penchant for seeing things just too clearly and expressing them as he sees them is often felt to be insensitive. In John’s Gospel particularly we find a Christ who in reality would repeatedly suffer this fate and eventually does.

Greek Style Logos Theology
This logos and Wisdom theology can only be traced back to the enthusiasm of the Essenes. Apart from the Aquarian view represented by John, the Essenes may well have been keen to bolster the metaphysical status of their Messiah as a divine figure, without too many scruples for theological consistency. This is certainly the obvious explanation of the mainly allusive representations of Christ as Wisdom. As we have seen, the one time Christ is formally recognised as the ‘Wisdom of God’ in the same breath Paul has already acknowledged the forceful Greek fashion for this theology.

We have a priceless insight into the intellectual climate of 1st century Judaism in the writings of Philo of Alexandria. Philo was an eminent Jewish writer and philosopher living in the vibrant Jewish community in that most learned of Mediterranean cities, world famous for its library, reputed to include a wealth of esoteric spiritual works. Works on the secret knowledge of spiritual mysteries.  Founded on the coast of Egypt by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was a focal source for the Hellenistic influence strongly reflected in Judaism in the Wisdom literature. The Book of Wisdom may actually have been written here.

Philo was particularly keen to present Judaism in terms impressive to the rampant Greek philosophical schools.  He is particularly keen to recognise the Greek concept of the logos as the equivalent of Wisdom, Sophia, matching her character so closely as it does.

Philo’s ideas on the logos were hugely influential in early Christianity and clearly fitted well with the prevailing thinking among leading Christian thinkers, most notably Origen and Clement of Rome. It is clear this abstract, philosophical, metaphysical approach was close to the original spirit and thinking of Christianity. Not so remote from our present speculations twenty centuries later.

Philo preceded the writing of the Gospels by a few decades and it is far from impossible his writings actually influenced the prominence of John’s presentation of the Logos. A wise man does not live in a vacuum and does not ignore what is useful in current fashion when he wants to launch a radical new faith.

Paul may well have had Philo’s writings in mind when he complained of the ‘Greeks demanding wisdom.’  It is quite clear he responds to this pressure by first proudly asserting Christ’s confounding differences with this popular philosophy and then conceding to it.  First Paul says Christ Crucified is anything but a figure of Wisdom and then saying, nevertheless, for those who can accept this tortured Saviour, he is also ‘the Wisdom of God.’

In passing it is remarkable to note Paul suggests here that when ‘the Jews demand miracles’ his portrait of Christ is ‘a stumbling block.’  Their demands are frustrated. While he can go on to assure some satisfaction to the Greeks searching for wisdom, he cannot offer any such to the Jews. Paul was writing about 50 – 60 AD.  Paul’s writings make it quite clear he simply did not know the Christ of the Gospels, even though he was intimately connected to the heart of the nascent church in Jerusalem.  It strongly suggests the material on which the Gospels was based was not in existence in Paul’s day.

When the Gospels were written twenty to fifty years later, this current fashion was also liberally catered for. It may seem flippant to say ‘They didn’t miss a trick,’ but they had a job to do, basically saving the world, and they were reaching out to a very human humanity. Should they play ‘holier than thou’ or stoop to conquer ?

Theological marketing skills may seem an oxymoron but we don’t have to look far to realise it’s the biggest, most sophisticated business there is. Often quite literally and materially, as well as spiritually, and the early Christians were no exception, you’re asking people to buy in with everything they’ve got.

This popular logos theology was only eventually dropped because it seemed to present the logos as a distinct spirit apart from God which was considered unacceptable. We can understand this view but it remains true this Aquarian spirit, vast, omnipotent and cosmic in its sweep, is yet only one face and facet of the Sole Spirit Supreme of all Creation.

This insight goes a long way to explaining the eagerness of the Essenes to associate their new divinity with these same fashionable concepts of the logos and the Hellenistic Sophia.  But it is predominantly and essentially an association by allusion rather than by definition.

The definitive characteristics of Christ’s Pisces spirit, the Saviour and Redeemer, the ‘true vine,’ the imagery of fish and the sea and the sacrificial Lamb, are much more forcefully and explicitly presented by repetition throughout the Gospels. It hardly needs pointing out this spirit is wholly incompatible and at odds with the nature of the logos.

Not that ‘a Pisces’ cannot rejoice in the intellectual strength of an Aquarian Moon, say, or a Pisces Messiah be inspired by the Logos, the Holy Spirit. But the Logos is not Christ’s metaphysical or, properly, his theological definition, or his true title. His is a different Spirit.

The Messiah as a divine figure is strongly represented as a very different divinity, representing a very different spirit, the familiar mythical figure of the sacrificed and resurrected Saviour God. There were already several such figures prominent in cults around the Mediterranean : Osiris, Adonis, Attis, Tammuz.  But the Essenes wanted to appeal to the philosophers, the intellectuals as well, so they borrowed Sophia’s clothes and also presented the new deity as the logos. A belt and braces job. And it worked.

We certainly know the Essenes, for all their peerless sanctity, knowledge and scriptural wisdom, were nothing if not pragmatic with scriptural texts and ideas.  It is no coincidence John’s Gospel has long been acknowledged to show the closest ‘parallels’ with the Dead Sea scrolls.

This Essenic ‘pragmatism’ extended to altering scriptural quotations to fit the point being made which sounds scandalous. Scholars have long recognised this same blatant pragmatism is rife within the Gospels. Apparently these authors, these authorities, recognise the importance of ‘letters’ to some but don’t take it too seriously themselves. As if they are saying, ‘It’s not scripture which is sacred but the truths which it tells.’  Not the letters but the spirits, as Paul said.  Perhaps they also wanted to insist we shouldn’t confuse the two.

In a Gospel climate where most of Christ’s actions are deliberately designed, apparently invented, explicitly or tacitly, to fit OT prophecies, we should not be shocked.  There are thirty-nine such occasions actually stated in Matthew’s Gospel alone. Ancient religion was clearly a much less serious job of getting the approximate spiritual facts of life over any which way to an unsophisticated population.

Now we contradict Paul and emphasise the precise letter over the spirit. We miss the spiritual mystery in the history for explicit literalness and with it bring misery, instead of love, happiness and joy.

We’ve lost the plot and the way things are going, we’ll soon lose the lot. No joke.

Philo Facts : Essential Information
This insight into the prevailing intellectual atmosphere, valuable as it is, is insignificant besides the outstanding philosophical and metaphysical value of Philo’s work. Philo’s philosophical equation of Wisdom with the logos strongly confirms the association of these two in the New Testament.  But whereas in the NT this is suggested, in Philo it receives the fullest exposition.

The NT presentation is more than enough to establish dogmatic acceptance but Philo’s writings establish this on a more objective philosophical authority. We have already noted their enthusiastic adoption by leading first and second century Christian writers, quite possibly the Evangelists themselves, is testimony to the extent to which this philosophical and metaphysical interpretation of Christian theology was absolutely orthodox and central in the original Christian thinking.

This is tremendously significant in itself. What needs to be clarified beyond a merely implicit understanding is the metaphysical, Kabbalistic and astrological significance of Philo’s recognition of the identity between Wisdom and the logos. We have already explored extensively the Aquarian nature of Hockmah, Wisdom, on the Tree of Life and found this reflected unmistakeably in the portraits of Hockmah, Wisdom, in the OT. This only confirms the known role of the Kabbalah as the esoteric Tradition of the Tree of Life which lies behind the OT scriptures but it is a valuable observation nonetheless.

In the context of this article, the most important point must be the fact Philo’s objective definition of Wisdom with the logos, essentially confirms the identification of the Holy Spirit with this Aquarian spirit of Wisdom. Philo implicitly confirms the Holy Spirit as the divine Spirit of Uranus on the Tree of Life.

We have seen the evolution of the Holy Spirit through the Bible from the ruah, the Spirit of God to an unequivocal equivalence of ‘the holy Spirit’ and Wisdom in the Book of Wisdom, written not long before the Christian period (Ch.1 v.5-7 and 9 v.17) :

‘wisdom will never enter the soul of a wrong doer..
For the holy spirit of wisdom flees deceitfulness…
Wisdom is a spirit friendly to humanity..
The spirit of the Lord fills the world…’

‘Who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom and sent your holy Spirit from above.’

We find this same recognition of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord, in the NT but we miss the association with Wisdom.

Philo’s expert recognition of the objective metaphysical character of Wisdom means we can proceed to extend this definition of the logos to the ruah, the Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. Philo enables us to recognise the true metaphysical nature of the Holy Spirit as the individual expression and experience of the logos.

Again, this is not an elaborate and academic sophistry.  Inferring from Philo merely confirms the nature and portrait of the Holy Spirit which we have recognised in extensive evidence, as well as the strong confirmation of this character which we have found in its association with Wisdom.  Philo’s contribution is to set this impressively within a philosophical framework which is yet profoundly rooted in Judaism and absolutely orthodox to early Christianity.

Philo establishes the basis for recognising the Holy Spirit as the divine Spirit of Uranus at Wisdom on the Tree of Life, providing only the logos can be recognised as defining the spirit of Aquarius.   The identity of these last two is not sensibly in doubt.

Christ as the Aquarian Messiah
There is one outstanding exception to this theme of deliberately mistaken identity. It is the presentation of Christ as the Word of God in Revelation (19 v.13) :

‘a white horse.. its rider was called Trustworthy and True … He is known by the name, The Word of God… From his mouth came a sharp sword with which to strike the unbelievers …’

Here we find the same esoteric imagery as in Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus (Eph.6 v.17) :

‘the sword of the Spirit, that is, the word of God.’

The Tarot cards are an ancient oracle, like the I Ching, based on the spirits of the Tree of Life. The suit of swords in the Tarot represents the element of air. The twenty-two Trumps of the Tarot represent the twenty-two astrological Paths of the Tree of Life. The use of this image for the Word confirms the ancient Tradition behind the Tarot cards and the familiarity of this Kabbalistic Tradition within the scriptural inspiration. We hardly need to confirm further the definition of the Logos as the Aquarian air spirit.

This portrait of Christ as the Word is presented in the context of the prophecy of His Second Coming as the Messiah of the new age of Aquarius. He represents the spirit, the incarnation of the new age. No longer the sacrificial Fish but speaking with the merciless sword of truth, the inspired and uncompromising revelation of the Word of God.

Remarkably the Hindus seem to have copied this prophecy for Kalkin, their new age Incarnation – down to the white horse. The Buddhists expect Maitreya.

We are already a century into the age of Aquarius, by the best estimates. A similar stage saw the entrance of Onias Christ. Then the sparks began to fly.

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