He Who Takes Away the Sins of the World

"Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked." -- John 2.6

What does it mean to say that he "takes away the sins of the world?" (John 1.29)

The Christ's deed was to redeem the planetary karma of the Earth. He took the collective karma of all humanity upon himself. This was His mission and He succeeded.

As I said before, we should claim our share in the responsibility for all social problems. We don't need to, but if we want to find the Christ it is necessary, if we want to really be in a state of collective consciousness, because that's what the Christ represents. The Christ consciousness is where you are the collective of all humanity. ALL humanity! That's why you "love your neighbor as yourself" because your neighbor IS yourself in that collective state.

It's okay if we're not quite ready to claim more than our share of responsibility. But the Christ claimed ALL of it to himself. When he "takes away the sins of the world" he doesn't erase the karma, but bears the total responsibility. When we can claim at least our share of responsibility, we will "walk in the same way in which he walked". And this makes you not less powerful, but more powerful, since you will attain a measure of likeness to God.

If you try to be always happy and never said, always peaceful and never in conflict, you weaken your power and ability to transform darkness into light. This is an exhortation to find strength and courage through these difficult times.

-- S.A.O.

The Kingdom of Heaven

"To enter the kingdom of heaven, you must become as a child."

The kingdom of heaven is a playground. You must be 'as' a child to enter into it. It does not say you must 'be' a child. It is not a return to a lost innocence. "Even the gods love to play" as even the great philosopher Plato has written. We must grow up beyond adulthood to play the games the gods play. The use of the child simile is meant only to remind us of the innate wisdom we have always had, but have forgotten how to use. But how do we capture the wisdom of the child and harness the knowledge of the 'grown up'?

It is up to the student to ask the questions. The person who 'plays' the role of a teacher cannot answer all questions. You have all the resources within yourself. A teacher cannot give you something you don't already have. All he can do is try to help you remember something you already know.

A teacher 'plays' his role best when he 'plays' on the meaning of words. The Greek god Hermes is the god of writing. The purpose of writing is to communicate thought. A 'good' teacher is one who can skillfully communicate his thoughts into words. But Hermes was also a trickster, a joker, and a game master. And he guards the kingdom of the heavens with many subtle tests. You must be able to laugh, joke and play to participate in the games of the gods.

-- Stephen Anthony Orzel
 

Taking Your Power Back - Claim Your Share of Responsibility

I have been perceiving many things on a planetary level.

What I see is that there are lots of people laying the blame on individuals, or else groups of very few individuals. When all you see is single individuals, that's the only way to explain it. Our ability to navigate these troubling times will depend on being able to see not single persons, but collective ideas, collective beliefs, and collective behaviors.

We have heard it many times that "the people have the power". That is true, but what I see is a collective behavior of the majority of humans giving their power over to others, giving it away for free, although they don't really realize it. If you see a problem in the world, it's so easy to point fingers and blame a person with a name and a face. But can you see how that person became powerful? Can you see the consolidation of power that massive populations of individuals had, but gave away to the few? Every time you blame a small number of people for a planetary problem, you give away your power to those who you blame. And this is collective behavior of 'blaming the few' weakens those who want a better future.

The secret of power is reversal. You are actually much more powerful by claiming your share of the responsibility for all social problems. I embrace my share of responsibility for disease, crime, hunger, toxicity, pollution, violence, abuse, cheating, theft, and hatred. I cannot change others so I work on improving my own character. I am not a perfect being but I strive to be better every day.

This is how you take your power back. This is how you stop freely giving your power over to others. Claim your share of the responsibility, do not blame other individuals. This does not say you are claiming total responsibility. Only your share in the collective. Do not blame others, blame the collective, and the collective includes yourself. You are not a part of the collective, you are the collective. You are also an individual. Embracing this paradox is necessary to navigate these troubled times.

I've said many times that it's necessary to take action. This does not mean you have to solve all the world's problems and carry the weight of the world on your shoulders. It means that you take action to contribute to making the world a better place. Start with yourself, once you have fulfillment, let the goodness overflow. Taking action does not mean complaining about how it's someone else's fault.

Everyone has a piece of the puzzle, no one has the whole solution. What needs to happen is that we all find the 'shape' of our own puzzle piece and find how that fits into the whole, how it locks in to its own perfect place. It also means that no one is excluded. Even those people you now blame, even they have a place in the puzzle. Be sure not to exclude them since you would then exclude yourself as well. Do not say of others, "you do not fit, get out of my puzzle" for then ruins the picture and we are then all incomplete.

Remember also, a puzzle is a game! It's supposed to be fun! Yes, it is a challenge, but it is also a work of great beauty.

This is the task we must accomplish at this time.

-- Stephen Anthony Orzel

A Most Wise Game Master

Tired of playing the same old game, running through the same repetitive loops day after day?  Is there anything wrong with changing the rules of the game as you go along?  You were the one who set these rules, you are the master of the game.  So why not change them if they aren't serving you anymore?

How do you change the rules of the game?  Take an action that's different from the one you normally take.  It's that simple!  Redefine your life by acting in conformity with your highest excitement. 

You must do more than just think positive thoughts.  You must take action on what you have learned.  Apply your understanding.  This is the 'wisdom of the fool' who jumps in head-first, because he realizes that's the only way to test if some idea is valid or not.

There is a serious illness that I like to call 'information-overload-induced-paralysis'.  It happens when your head is filled with thoughts that you have never tested by taking action on any of them.  The only way to overcome this paralysis is to get your body in motion.  Take an action that's different from the one you normally take.  And watch the whole universe change. 

You are the master of your creation.  You don't need to learn how to get power-- you can't get what you already have.  What you need to do is apply your power through doing, expressing, creating.  What you need to learn is not how to do what you already know how to do, but to learn how to use this power wisely.

-- Stephen Anthony Orzel

Activation of Divine Love - Thou Art Wonderful for All Eternity My Lord

In this video I will guide you through an activation of divine love. We begin by considering Jesus' statement in Matthew 22 that the greatest commandment in the law is that "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and all your mind", and the second greatest is "you shall love your neighbor as yourself." The activation is based on the Hebrew sacred mantra "Atah Gibor LeOlam Adoni" which means "Thou art wonderful for all eternity my Lord." We will intone the acronym form AGLA to activate the heart chakra.

Prayer for the Waters of Life - Mayim Chayyim

Please join us in our prayer to let the waters of life rain down upon the earth and allow our crops to quench their thirst.

Please share this video with those who may be interested in joining us in prayer.  Thank you.

On Laughter and Creative Power

Remember that laughter is the most powerful agent of dissolution and always look for the positive. Even those who harm us were acting in ways they thought were good, or were coming from their own place of suffering. We must look past the finite space-time conditions and see it as an opportunity to strengthen the soul.  And we must see the transgressors as being on their own path of perfection. Trust that they will eventually learn from their mistakes and find how to turn their harmful actions into loving actions. 

You must be able to laugh at your fears and enemies.  What you think are your fears and enemies are actually your own creations due to misinterpreting the goodness hidden beneath surface appearances.  But nonetheless, you have created them.  You are a creator, a divine creator being.  You just have to learn to use your creative power in beneficial ways.  You must laugh at your own detrimental thought-entities, for then their energies will have nothing to latch on to.  You will stop feeding them by laughing at them.  Starve them with laughter.  Look for goodness in all situations, you will find it.  Look carefully and with look your heart.  Then you will be using your creative power wisely.

-- Stephen Anthony Orzel

Global Consciousness Activators Network

We have started a new social network of individuals who want to work together to activate global consciousness into a higher vibrational frequency.  It is called the Global Consciousness Activators Network.  Right now we are using Facebook Groups as our platform to build upon.  This could grow into other areas in the future, but for now this will be a sufficient place to begin.  Here is the description and mission of this social network:

The Global Consciousness Activators Network is a loosely organized group of individuals dedicated to activating global consciousness into a higher vibrational frequency. The goal is to accelerate the shift into a dynamic global cooperating humanity that realizes that we are both collectively one and individually unique. The intention of forming this group is to gather together those individuals who are already working in their own way to seed global consciousness by spreading provoking thoughts, inspiring words and images, and healing energies and vibrations.

We come together to amplify our efforts and set an example for others who feel the call to begin activating their own higher consciousness so they may in turn activate others in new and creative ways.

Those who participate will generally use tools such as Facebook pages and groups, Youtube channels and webinars, blogs, podcasts and radio shows, Amazon reviews, or other social networking tools. There are no rules, except that whatever we say, express, or create, must come from a place of unconditional love for all beings. Each individual will be naturally draw to create activations for what interests them, and would originate from the higher systems they have activated within themselves. The common bond between the members is a dedication to activate as many people who are ready to move into a new reality of peace and love and unity.

This group will be used as a forum to share experiences and give feedback for our creative efforts. This will help in fine-tuning our activations for what we are best at, to leave certain tasks to others who may be more experienced or have achieved a higher level of activation themselves, or for those who are working towards similar activation goals to team up and find each other.

If you are interested in contributing to these efforts or would like to learn from others as an example, please join our Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/groups/262020833911781/

In the group I have posted what I forsee as frequently asked questions, and went ahead and answered them.  Since that information may be old on the page, I will repost here for those reading this blog who may want answers to these questions.

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What does it mean to create an 'activation'?

It means expressing your unique truth for how you feel connected to the oneness of life. By creating a way for inspired messages to be delivered to global consciousness through images and sounds, actions and movements, you will activate that awareness of unity in others. The thing that must be cautioned is trying to blame others for some problem or issue. Expressing anger and frustration about global problems is not allowed, since this leads to separation and fights. That is why the only rule is that whatever you say, express, or create must come from a place of unconditional love for all beings. Only in this way do we work towards the goals of activating global consciousness into a higher vibrational frequency.


What are some examples of creating activations?

It could be as simple as quoting inspiring authors and posting those on your profile or blog. It could be as elaborate as creating documentary films. The avenues I have been exploring are writing blog posts and recording educational videos for Youtube. As long as it has been structured to activate thoughts, feelings, and actions of raising consciousness in a loving way, it will be considered an activation. I will try to use my own examples to set the tone. Although my activations are focused into specific themes and awarenesses, it should not be thought of as covering even a small proportion of what I imagine as possible.


What gets 'activated' in an activation?

Specifically, what gets activated are parts of the human brain. This is the primary focus, to register higher frequencies into certain brain regions to open them up, generating expansiveness and not contraction. What we have been given through media and cultural programming has shut down these brain regions, causing contraction and an impossibility to utilize full potential. The goals of an activator are to realize where they have personally transcended cultural programming by activating their own higher consciousness, and then in turn find ways of opening up others, too.

Let me explain the regions of the brain that are activated by different sensory stimulation:

Thoughts, Ideas, Statements - Frontal Lobe
Sounds, Images, Music - Parietal, Occipital, and Temporal Lobes
Emotions, Feelings - Limbic System
Actions, Motions, Movements - Cerebellum
Health, Nutrition, Stories - Hypothalamus
Blessings, Divine Unity, Feeling of Self as Other - Pineal Gland


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Here is an example of a very simple activation.

See how easy it is? I had been posting quotations from Proclus on my wall, in groups, and in my blogs, but realized that I was only activating people's frontal lobe with the thoughts and ideas. It is always better to activate multiple brain regions. By including the image of a whirling galaxy, it opens up the occipital lobe in synchronicity with the frontal lobe.

Other areas are likely to be activated as a result, for example, the image could have an emotional effect, thereby activating the limbic system as well. Or it could trigger storyline about human origins and destiny, linking up with the hypothalamus. But those are not the focus of the activation, but would be dependent on a person's individual reactions. The two areas that are definitely activated are the frontal lobe and occipital lobe, so we would say that this is an example of an activation for those, but it's not specifically intended to activate the limbic system or the hypothalamus or other areas.

Article - The Lost Works of Proclus

I have just written a lengthy article for my blog Academy of Neoplatonism on the topic of the lost works of Proclus.  It is wholly speculative but supremely interesting considering that the problem of what happened to Proclus' 13 lost works, at the least count, has not been dealt with by scholars .  My conjecture is that these works were actually lost in an accidental fire of Proclus' home.  There is some weight to this thesis, considering the unusual occurrence of the Tria Opuscula, Proclus' three minor works that deal with the problems of providence, fate and evil.  You will find out much more by reading the full article here:

The Lost Works of Proclus

On Giving and Receiving

You have never paid for anything. Everything you have received has been a gift. Everything is free. You can have whatever you want and will always get it.

But there is always a limit to what you can get right now. You cannot have it all at once.

In that sense, nothing is free. There are no gifts, everything has its price. You have to work for it if you want it. You can only get what you are fit to receive. But still there is no real cost to anything. Even the power to do work is a bestowal from above.

Do not be thankful to a higher source for what you have. It is rather that the one who gives is the one who receives. It gives thanks to itself for what it bestows upon itself. It gives itself exactly what it needs exactly when it needs it. And you exist because of that need.

Do not be thankful. Be greedy by giving yourself to yourself. And thank yourself when you pay yourself, for the cost is great, but the gift is free.

-- Stephen Anthony Orzel

Video - Geometric Theurgy 01 - Creation by Numbers

This video will begin the series on Geometric Theurgy by looking at a story of creation by numbers.  We will develop the symbolic meanings of numbers and explain why these meanings go with the numbers.  This is a profound exegesis on the Pythagorean tetraktys.  Learn how you are part of God's unfoldment of self-knowledge.  Once this is understood, you will be well prepared to begin practicing the highest form of theurgy-- creating your own universe.

Stewart Shapiro on Ontological Realism in Mathematics

I've decided to start posting interesting quotations from the books I read here on this blog, and even if the content may be more relevant to my other blogs, I will keep the brief quotations here and keep the articles and other content in the topic blogs.

I am reading Stewart Shapiro's book Thinking About Mathematics (2000 Oxford University Press) and in the second chapter he discusses the ontological theories of mathematical objects.  That is, are mathematical objects such as numbers, points, lines, and sets real in the sense that they exist independently of any mathematicians?  This is certainly my worldview, the alternative being that mathematical objects are not really real but are made up by mathematicians-- that if there were no mathematicians, there would be no mathematical objects.  The first view is called realism, while the second is called idealism.  This is not the space to discourse about the merits of either view, but I think it really depends on your worldview and your belief structure.  The realist worldview is what comes out of Plato's teachings, and that is what excited me the most.

Plato the realist, point up to the World of mathematical Forms.
Aristotle the idealist, pointing outward to the phyiscal world of Matter.

Here is what Shapiro says on p. 27:

The scientific literature contains no reference to the location of numbers or to their causal efficacy in natural phenomenon or to how one could go about creating or destroying a number.  There is no mention of experiments to detect the presence of numbers or determine their mathematical properties.  Such talk would be patently absurd.  Realism in ontology is sometimes called 'Platonism', because Plato's Forms are acausal, eternal, indestructible, and not part of space-time.

This of course opens the door to many questions, such as how do science and mathematics differ, and what can be said about how theoretical physics differs from experimental physics?  Is theoretical physics just a branch of mathematics?  If so, how does its application lead to experimental results?  What is the relation between the Platonic world of Forms and the physical world of matter?

Books mentioned in this post:

Video - Ancient Philosophy of Mathematics 07 - The One, Limit, and Unlimited in Geometry

I have added another video to the video series Ancient Philosophy of Mathematics.  This is part seven, titled The One, Limit and Unlimited in Geometry.  We will explore the metaphysics of geometry through The One, Limit and Unlimited.  We will show how geometric constructions correspond to these first principles, with the point symbolizing The One, the circle symbolizing the Limit, and the line symbolizing the Unlimited. We give a basic description of the practice of geometric theurgy, a form of meditation that requires using body movement, thereby grounding the highest metaphysical principles down into the lowest level.  We read from Plato's Philebus and Proclus' Elements of Theology and Commentary on Euclid's Elements.  This video is the foundation for the next series of videos on geometric theurgy.

Book Review - Proclus: An Introduction by Radek Chlup

Cambridge University Press recently released a new volume titled "Proclus: An Introduction" by Radek Chlup.  The book is an extremely valuable addition to the literature on Proclus and is a brilliant introduction to Proclus' philosophy.  I have written an extensive review of this text over on the Academy of Neoplatonism blog.  Please read the review with the following link.  If you want to purchase please use the link to Amazon below.

Book Review - Proclus: An Introduction by Radek Chlup