This chapter is titled ‘The Ascent to Freedom’

Jan van Rijckenborgh starts this chapter by reiterating that the radiation field of the Universal Brotherhood does not act electromagnetically within the dialectical life field, because the damaged microcosm would cease to exist. Instead there is a 'calling' radiation, which connects the fallen microcosm, the child of God, with the divine radiation field via the spirit-spark atom at the apex of the heart sanctuary, this spirit-spark atom being the one point that is attuned to the Logos, and by which the fallen microcosm can be 'known', in the sense of God knowing all his children by name.

This association, this acknowldgement of the fallen microcosm on the part of the Logos, creates a restlessness: the entity is permanently seeking, exploring and experimenting. This state can last for many incarnations: we probably have behind us a period of millions of years.

The difficulty we experience during this period is the conflict of two different natures.

The functions of talking, working, thinking, feeling, acting, all our functioning, is performed with our I-consciousness. This, the dialectical consciousness, possesses an atomic focal point in the head-sanctuary. Just as the Luciferan fire was originally the projection of the Christ-fire in the creative field of primordial substance, so too the atom in the head-sanctuary was originally a reflection-atom of the spirit-spark atom in the heart. The head atom burned in the light of the heart atom.

It was aeons ago, however, that the Luciferan atom in the head-sanctuary abandoned its obedience to the Christ atom, to the spirit-spark atom in the heart. The atom in the head took control of the whole system, disorganised it structurally and subjected it to culture over many thousands of years.

This is why transfiguration is necessary.

‘By virtue of its nature, the Christ-atom exercises a disquieting influence on the I-consciousness and deprives it of its assurance. But the reflective effect of the Luciferan atom - by which the soul, the I, was able to live out of the works of God - has disappeared, because the system has been violated beyond repair, both with regard to the soul as well as structurally. A new soul is therefore necessary, a new Luciferan principle, a new reflective factor, and not until this has been acquired can the whole microcosm be transfigured in accordance with its original being.’

This is a process, and a rebirth of this tremendously radical kind cannot be accomplished within a fortnight. But what matters is that a beginning be made on the path of sanctification, of recovery, of becoming whole, original again in the divine sense.

Why are you reading this? Because you have a spirit-spark atom. ‘Your age-old restlessness, your endless searching brought you here. The Christ atom in you now radiates in a personality unable to react to the call in a liberating manner and this fire drives you on.

From across the Jordan, the stream of your lesser blood-circulation, you see the emanations of the Christ coming towards you. Do you now speak as John did: ‘Verily, he is greater than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie’? Do you too now dissolve in the endura like John to enable the life-renewing light-power emanating from the Christ atom to complete its course through your small gloomy world? In order that, in the process already described, the image of the immortal man may be formed so that one day, after the via crucis of the Christ atom, he may rise from the dead within your being? Do you now understand that the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan too is an event that must physically occur within you?

The restless ego-man, the eternal seeker for light in the darkness cries out, so that it resounds throughout all lands like a cry of pain: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’ He seeks righteousness and stands like John in his garment of penance in the desert of this world.

Now it may be that you are still prey to the fundamental delusion that you, as a natural being, are able to partake of divine law, in divine reality.’ But it may also be that you, like the prophet in his camelhair cloak, say ‘Not I, but the Other One!’ You know this Other One, because you are disquieted by him day and night, year after year, one life after another. You are called by the Christ atom in you. And now, in your life-crisis you behold the Other One, coming towards you. The radiations of the Christ atom in your heart burn in your blood by means of the thymus; your blood is being pushed upward by means of your life-Jordan, it fills your head-sanctuary and spreads throughout your entire being.’ But now you must watch whether your reactions are still the same as they always were before, or whether you react in a completely new way for the first time.

The old reaction is to experience the restlessness and affliction, to absorb it as best you can, and carry on without a fundamental change. Then you can choose to say to yourself that everything is fine. ‘But it is not fine at all; it is exceedingly dramatic.

Your reaction is only new and good when you no longer lie away the other blood-power, streaming through your life-Jordan in the old way, but accept it with the most profound principles of your I-consciousness, in absolute peace and inner joy. The messenger of the Christ atom, approaching in the blood, will then be baptized by your innermost I. Then your innermost natural I will definitely be linked to the Christ atom.

This is the great miracle of the baptism in the Jordan at the beginning of the Gospel. It is the final phase of the first process of sanctification, the first voluntary reflection of the Christ atom in the Luciferan head atom. It is the moment when Lucifer falls down from his stronghold in heaven. The new morning star has not yet risen but its bright light has announced itself. The endura has begun.’

In Revelation 17 the beginning of the victory by the Lamb is indicated in three stages. The faithful, those called and those chosen take part in this victory: ‘three groups of spirit-spark entities can be led into freedom in a cosmic revolution. In order to understand this, you must compare this statement with the essence of the Gospel.  

At the beginning of the first evangelical process of sanctification, John is born; he then becomes a prophet; ultimately he becomes a Baptist. Then he disappears and Jesus comes to the fore. The Apocalypse calls the first stage that of the faithful, the second the stage of the called, the third the stage of the chosen.’

If, driven by the innermost urge, you have the absolute conviction that you must abandon this nature in order to enter the other nature as a microcosm; if you are of this conviction on the basis of the endless fire of experience, you are at the first stage. Then you are born as John, then the Gospel has written its first characters within you. Then the Luciferan atom of the I-being will offer its first enduristic proofs and it is logical that, from this moment on, the microcosm takes on an entirely different position within the force field of the Universal Brotherhood. It partakes of the blessing of faith, the foretaste of freedom. That is the birth.

On this basis, the candidate can enter the second stage, the stage of the prophetship. He demonstrates with his life; ‘I must decrease, but He, the Other One, must increase.’ He is no longer the humanist, who repeats these words although focused on the earthly kingdom, but explains: ‘Make the path straight for our God.’ He is a crier in the desert. He is a called one, making his I-being, his Luciferan fire, which he knows to be unworthy, more and more subordinate to the Christ atom. Thus the foretaste of freedom becomes a certainty. This person becomes an unshakeable one. He says: ‘Not that I have already attained it, but it comes!’

And the next day John sees Jesus coming across the Jordan. Now the candidate becomes the Baptist, one irrevocably bound. This occurs in the temple of his profoundest inner being and he can speak like Simeon: ‘Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy saviour.’ ’

‘The evangelical ascent to freedom is characterized by three stages. The birth of John already causes the linking with freedom. To release this liberating faith in the heart does not require a superhuman effort by anybody, because ‘the precious jewel in the Lotus’, the Christ atom, is there. This atom, situated at the apex of the heart-sanctuary is, due to its nature and structure, entirely attuned to the divine radiation-field. The jewel is illuminated by the Gnosis day and night and we need only walk in this light.

It makes no sense and is proof of nervous strain or inward reluctance when, at the beginning, we continuously talk about the end of the path still completely hidden in the mist.

Seize the glory and light of the attainable beginning! Then the day will dawn when your entire microcosm walks in the light, just as the precious jewel in the lotus abides in the light. Stop the constant talk and theorizing. Take up your tools and lay your first stone as a true mason.’