The Holy Meeting Place

Today, we’re back to the seven trumpets and the three woes from the Book of Revelation, following a brief-but-productive detour into cherubim-hunting. For those not keeping track, we’ve reached Revelation 11, which describes the second “woe” foretold to occur in the final ays before the dream-world disappears.

To recap:

The first “woe” was the “plague of locusts,” sent forth by the Angel of the Well, who is Nisrok, the eagle-headed Living Being whose name means “miracle-saliva.” Nisrok’s well is under the Seventh Seal, the seventh Sefirot of the Tree of Life in Jewish mysticism. That seal or Sefirot is called Netzach, a Hebrew word meaning “falcon-brother.” The locusts represent the Holy Spirit’s tonal buzzing, which acts as a thresher to separate Satan’s chaff from God’s wheat in our minds.

That’s my interpretation of the confusing phrasing found in these verses, anyway.

To translate the next bit proved challenging, but I gave it my best shot. Here’s the result:

And I was given a reed resembling a staff, and the angel said, “To uphold the Metron of God’s Temple and altar, bow down inwardly, and also in the courtyard outside the Temple. The metron of the Self gives not unto the ethnos in the sacred city walking the path for forty-two months; but to give unto my two witnesses speaking through divine inspiration of two hundred and sixty days wrapped in the spiritual vestments of healing (sak-kos).

These are the two olive trees (in Zechariah’s vision); the two candlesticks to be placed upright before the God of the world. And whoever wills to do harm to the Self, from the mouth of the Self will come forth fire to devour this Self-hatred. And whoever wishes to wrong the Self, needs-must, in this way, break the hold of the power shutting off the celestial sphere. Otherwise, it will not send down the inner-rain of the Rays of the two witnesses prophesying, as well as possessing the power to act upon the waters to change them into blood, and to strike the heart of the whole earth with the plagues, as often as they wish.

And when they complete their witnessing, the beast ascending from out of the bottomless well will wage war against the (ego) self, and will conquer and prevail over that self, and even kill that self — the self of the body upon the wide street of the city anyone spiritual calls Sodom and Egypt, where even our Lord and Master was crucified. And to perceive people and families and language and nations is to perceive the self of the corpse for three days and a half. And to forgive not the self of the corpse makes the tomb that IS living settled on earth.

To rejoice in the True Self is to make happy and to send gifts to one another, because these two prophets torment those living settled on the earth. After three days and a half, the Breath of Life from God enters into the Self and makes the Self stand upon the Self’s feet or footstool, and with great reverence fall down at the sight of the Christ Self, and to hear the Great Voice from the Celestial Sphere saying unto the Self: “Come up here.” And to ascend and enter into Heaven in the cloud wherein even the self of hate perceives the True Self. And, at the same time, there will be a (spiritual) shaking so great that even the tenth city will fall, and by the shaking will seven-thousand humans die; and the rest will become spiritually concerned, and give glory to God in Heaven.

The second woe is past, and behold, the third woe cometh quickly.

Let’s start with the word “Metron,” my chosen definition for the Greek word metreos. Metreos generally means “measured allotment,” but can also mean Metron–a word more specifically describing “a function or allotment assigned by God.”

And the Metron of God’s Temple and Altar is giving and receiving the grace that heals the separation. But we can’t give and receive our allotted grace (through miracles) until we completely give up our attachments to the physical world Satan made to give pain and pleasure to the body-dwelling individual self-concept.

Herein, we are told that “the self of the body (walks) upon the wide street of the city anyone spiritual calls Sodom and Egypt, where even our Lord and Master was crucified.” The narrator adds to this the warning that, “to perceive people and families and language and nations is to perceive the self of the corpse.”

“The wide street of the city called Sodom and Egypt” is the broad way Jesus warns us NOT to take in Matthew 7:13 (Enter ye in at the strait (narrow) gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat,)

The narrow gate is the path of escape in our minds, while the wide street is the dead-end road of worldly life. The gate at the end of the narrow path leads to resurrection into eternal life; the gate at the end of the wide street leads to mortal death and repeated suffering through karma and reincarnation.

Another shot at the golden ring of salvation, so to speak– or another chance to crucify ourselves, if we continue to choose the wrong road.

Egypt, as I keep saying, symbolizes the desert of earthly existence, while Sodom, which means “scorched,” is the “scorched land” referenced throughout the Old Testament. The land is “scorched,” we are told in Deuteronomy, by our upside-down ego judgments — the error in perception shutting off the inner rain coming down from the celestial sphere.

Or, to quote Bible-Jesus:

Judge not, that ye not be judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with that measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, “Let me pull out the mote of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thins own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye; and they shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote in thy brother’s eye.

Stated another way: we don’t see clearly until we stop judging others as our egos wrongly perceive them. As Jesus counsels in the Course, whenever we see a brother doing something we don’t like, we should consciously send them a blessing to block the ego’s judgmental thought, before it can bounce back to us. If we do this enough, it becomes habitual.

Or, to again quote Jesus:

Spiritual vision literally cannot see error, and merely looks for Atonement. All solutions the physical eye seeks dissolve. Spiritual vision looks within and recognizes immediately that the altar has been defiled and needs to be repaired and protected. Perfectly aware of the right defense it passes over all others, looking past error to truth. Because of the strength of its vision, it brings the mind into its service. This re-establishes the power of the mind and makes it increasingly unable to tolerate delay, realizing that it only adds unnecessary pain. As a result, the mind becomes increasingly sensitive to what it would once have regarded as very minor intrusions of discomfort. (ACIM, T-2.III.4:1-7)

Okay, so … bottom line: At some point billions of years in the future, it sounds as if Nisrok, the eagle-headed cherubim guarding the bottomless well, will wage open warfare against Satan on earth. And anyone who has so far managed to evade the first two preemptive “woes” — the locusts and fire-breathing Army of Christ– those who would rather “fight than switch” — will either give up their ego illusions by being shaken awake, so to speak, or through the reverential awe these miraculous awakenings engender.

All of what these passages describes takes place internally, in the Temple of the Higher Mind. So, the shaking has to refer to spiritual tremors, rather than a massive earthquake. And, according to Google: “Spiritual shaking refers to profound, involuntary bodily trembling, vibrations, or intense life disruptions often linked to divine presence, spiritual awakening, or energy shifts. It is interpreted as a manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power, a release of stagnant emotional/nervous energy, or a divine process removing unstable, temporary aspects of life to build maturity.”

So, we’re talking about a Kundalini awakening on a massive scale, which will motivate those witnessing this miraculous phenomenon to seek such an awakening for themselves.

And this, in fact, makes perfect sense, in light of what Course-Jesus explains below:

The acceptance of the Atonement by everyone is only a matter of time. This may appear to contradict free will because of the inevitability of the final decision, but this is not so. You can temporize and you are capable of enormous procrastination, but you cannot depart entirely from your Creator, Who set the limits on your ability to miscreate. An imprisoned will engenders a situation which, in the extreme, becomes altogether intolerable. Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way. As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point. This ultimately reawakens spiritual vision, simultaneously weakening the investment in physical sight. The alternating investment in the two levels of perception is usually experienced as conflict, which can become very acute. But the outcome is as certain as God. (ACIM, T-2.III.3:1-10)

Let’s move on to the next section of Revelation, which chronicles what happens after the seventh trumpet sounds.

And the seventh angel’s trumpet sounded, bringing into being a Great Voice in the Celestial Sphere, saying, “The kingdom of the Cosmic Order has come to pass, through our Lord and Master, the Self of the Christ, and he shall reign into eternity. And the four (ekiosi) yielding Soul-Mind elders (rather then “twenty”), which sat in the presence of the God-self upon the throne, to superimpose the self; the faces for bowing down to God, saying: “To be thankful to your own, is to be thankful to the Lord and Master, God Almighty, the being within making known that to receive your mighty powers is to have dominion over the habitual mindset of sickness (ethnos = ego thinking); whereas, to make anger, vengeance, and passion brings into existence the time of the dead, to judge and be judged, and to give rewards to your servants and prophets, and even the holy fear you call small and also great, which corrupts utterly the earth.”

And the Temple of God was opened in the celestial sphere, and there appeared in that Temple, an ark of the True Self’s covenant, to bring into being brightness and voices of thunder, and shaking and great hailstones. And to make visible a great sign (miracle) in the celestial sphere: A Bride clothed in the sun, with the moon beneath her feet, and upon her head, a crown (stephanos) of twelve stars. The Bride held within her womb a cry or call to be birthed in the trials and torments of delivery (deliverance).

And there appeared another sign in the celestial sphere: the vision of a fire-colored dragon, having seven heads, and ten horns, and seven royal crowns (diadems) upon its head; and a tail pulling a third of the stars in the heavens, to cast them down to earth. And the dragon stood in front of the Bride — the one about to give birth — in order to eat up her child, when it came forth.

And she brought forth a strong son, who was to act as a shepherd to every habitual mindset of sickness (ethnos), as an inner staff made of iron. And the Bride’s child was pulled forcefully toward the God-self’s throne. And the Bride fled into the wilderness, where she had a place to prepare apart from God, to be nourished (by extension) a thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Firstly, I finally figured out that, when the syllables are divided, the greek word eth-nos means “the identity” or “identification with” (eth) of “sickness” (nos). So, ethnos refers to the Ego Mind promoting the mentality of separation-sickness (the cause of all physical maladies). Also interesting is the nuanced differences between the two words translated as “crown.” Those two words are stephanos and diadem. A stephanos is a crown won through victory, whilst diadem describes a kingly crown bestowed through inheritance.

So, the Bride wears a twelve-star crown she won through overcoming, whilst the dragon wears seven crowns of kingly authority. The dragon can’t, therefore, be a demonic force, in spite of appearances.

The Bride is, I’m fairly certain, the one called Sophia in the Pistis Sophia. In that ancient gnostic text, Sophia represents the “Holy Bride” of wisdom, who unites with the masculine light-power (Christos) in a sacred marriage (hieros gamos) to restore cosmic balance. 

The fire-colored dragon is, I’m absolutely certain, the Vermillion Dragon found in far-eastern mythology. One of the Four Symbols of the Celestial Sphere, the Vermillion dragon is, in actuality, a sacred guardian in the form of a phoenix-like bird whose flaming plumage is generally described as “red” and/or “fire-colored,” just as it is herein. Associated with the fire element, the Vermilion Bird guards the Southern Direction, where he lords over the seven lunar mansions his seven heads likely represent.

In phonetic Chinese, he is called Zhaque (to extract, press, or squeeze out); in Japan, his name is Suzaku (red bird); in Korean, he’s Jujak (celestial bird); and in Vietnam, he is known as Chu Tuoc (vermillion sparrow).

Given the evidence, this fiery dragon-bird has to be the far-eastern equivalent of Nisrok, the bird-headed cherubim. And this association solidly places him in the southeast quadrant — the quadrant governed by Agni, the deva represnting the eternal flame in Hinduism.

John’s description also makes clear that the three “woes” take place inside the Ark of the Covenant, the innermost chamber of the Temple in our minds (wherein we offer our almsgiving prayers to the whole Christ Self and the two olive trees).

Knowing that the Red Dragon is a friendly power, rather than a menacing one puts a different spin on what comes next.

And there came into being war inside the celestial sphere. Michael and his angels engaged in battle in the dream under (kata) the dragon, and the dragon made war with these same angels and prevailed not; nor found any place for them to be discovered in the Celestial Sphere. And the Great Dragon cast out the ancient serpent called the Devil and Satan, leading astray the whole world, and cast Satan down into the world, and the same angels went down after him.

The True Self (still) heard the Great Voice speaking in the Celestial sphere, saying: “In this moment is brought to pass salvation, and the miraculous power, and also the Kingdom of our God, along with the authority of the Christ-Self, because to accuse our brethren is to cast out (project outward) the Satan-self perceiving God as light and dark. And the Self gains victory through the blood of the Lamb, and the Word of the witness-self, and by loving not the self living to die for the sake of making merry. Rise up to the Tabernacle of the Self; and woe to settle on the earth and the sea, because accusing falsely brings down to those possessing great wrath the perception held for a short time.”

When the dragon saw the place of purpose on earth, he pursued the Bride who brought forth the child; and the Bride was given two wings of a mighty eagle, so she might fly from the desert-wilderness to her place to be nourished for a time in time, and to half the time away from the presence of the sharp-eyed one; and the sharp-eyed one poured a flood out of his mouth; a river of water behind the Bride, so that he might cause her to be carried away by the stream. And the earth came to the aid of the Bride; and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood that the dragon cast out of its mouth.

And the dragon provoked the Bride to go out and make war using the remaining seed to safeguard the established order of God, and witness for Jesus Christ.

Let’s pause here, because the original Greek (very confusingly) uses the words for snake/serpent and dragon seemingly interchangeably. Perplexed by this, I researched the etymology, finding that ophis, the Greek word for snake, originally meant “the sharp-eyed one” or “the one who sees.” And the Red Dragon is, in fact, the eagle-eyed cherubim, Nisrok. So, it is Nisrok, the sharp-eyed one, who chased the Bride, and gave her eagle wings to fly away from the earth to the Resting Place. And it is also Nisrok, the miracle-saliva, who spewed a river of water behind the Bride (between the Resting Place on the right-hand side and the earth on the left-hand side). That river, which the earth swallowed up, is the Euphrates we discussed earlier.

Moreover, Michael and the archangels didn’t fight against the dragon, they were brought into being to fight under the dragon’s command, in the lower chambers of the dream-realm. And the dragon made war “with” those angels, as his fighting forces.

Let’s proceed to the next section:

Briefly, the sword that must destroy the sword here (on earth) is the Flaming Sword of God’s Word (Michael, the Archangel). The sword here, where there is pestilence, is the ego-engendered separation-sicknesses of enmity, war, and murder.

And to stand upon the sand of the sea is to see the Beast rising out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns; and upon those horns ten crowns (diadems). And upon the heads, the name of blasphemy (Satan’s lies substituted for Truth).

And the Beast looked like a leopard (or panther), and his feet were like the feet of a bear; and his mouth was like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority.

And to see one of his heads is to slay death, and also to cure the deadly plagues. And all the world will marvel after the Beast, and even bow down to the Dragon, which gave power to the Beast. And to bow down to the Beast, say, “Who is like the Beast? Who has the power to make war with the Beast, and to give him a mouth to utter mighty lies in place of truth? And the authority to give him work for forty-two months? And to open his mouth in blasphemy toward God, to slander His Name and His Tabernacle, the pitched-tent in the Celestial Sphere?”

And to give unto the Beast is to join the forces of the holy, and to gain victory for the Beast, and for all the clans and tongues and habitual mindsets of sickness. And all who dwell upon the earth will bow down to the Beast whose name is not written down in the Book of Life, the Lamb slain (the innocence of the Christ-self cut down by ego judgments of sin and guilt) away from the Established Order of the Cosmos.

He that has an ear, listen: For whosoever comes together in captivity to depart from captivity is he that kills with the sword that must destroy the sword here, where there is pestilence, in the faithfulness of the holy.

And to perceive another Beast rising out of the earth is to have two horns like the Lamb, and to speak like the Dragon is to produce all the powers of the first Beast in front of the Dragon, and to cause the earth and all who dwell thereupon to bow down to the first Beast, whose death-plague was healed.

And to perform Great Miracles to make the purifying fire come down from the Celestial Sphere to earth in the sight of humankind, those wandering in the deception of dwelling on earth. Through these miracles, which the True Self has the power to give the vision of the Beast speaking to all who dwell in the earth. To make the mirror-reflection of the Beast, with the wound and the sword, and to live and even to give life to the mirror-reflection of the Beast, so that the reflected image of the Beast should both speak and make as many as possible of the Souls not bowing down to the reflection of the Beast adopt the goal or purpose of producing both great and small, rich and poor, and free and bound, so that they be given the mark of the Beast on the right-hand side or in the forehead. So that no man has the power to purchase or sell, if he has not that mark of the name of the Beast, or the number of the Beast’s Name.

Here is wisdom: to have understanding, calculate the number of the Beast as the sum total of humankind. Here is the number of the Beast: chi xi stigma.

Let’s untangle what’s reported line by line. To stand upon the sand of the sea is to reach the Borderland, the inner Sefirot of Tiph’eret on the Tree of Life. The True Perception we achieve at this level of spiritual awareness allows us to see the first Beast rising out of the sea of higher thought — the sea on the right-hand side of the Wheel. The Beast has seven heads and ten horns. On the seven heads is the name of blasphemy (the ego’s lies blocking the truth), while the ten horns wear diadems (kingly crowns). The seven heads probably represent the chakras or lunar mansions, whilst the ten horns represent the Sefirot emanations.

The Beast looks like a leopard or a panther (a dark-pigmented leopard or black cat), with bearlike feet and a lion’s mouth. And the Dragon bestowed on this Beast all his power and authority, as well as his throne. These are all symbols, of course, so let’s deconstruct their meaning. The lion’s mouth means he speaks the Word of God. The bearlike feet are probably a fractured metaphor for bare feet, because leopards don’t wear shoes. Showing the prophet a shoeless leopard would, therefore, communicate nothing. Whereas bare feet are a symbol for holiness in many religious traditions. So, to borrow from the Course, this barefoot Beast “walks with God in perfect holiness.”

The leopard description brings to mind Lord Shiva, who is commonly depicted in a scant and primitive leopard-skin garment. Sometimes, he wears a tiger’s skin or even rides on a tiger.

Google tells us

The leopard as a spiritual symbol embodies power, independence, and agility, especially the stealthy ability to navigate darkness and overcome obstacles with grace and confidence. As a spirit animal, it signifies intense personal transformation, urging the reliance on intuition, strategic action, and the “spots” that make one authentic. 

All of these symbols suggest that the leopard-like Beast we see in the Borderland represents the stealthy power of Divine Grace. And that power is what Lord Shiva represents in Hinduism (whether Hindus know it or not). This cat-like Beast also is, therefore, Bastet, the Queen of Heaven, who anoints our offering cakes.

Everything else this verse says about the first Beast tracks with this interpretation.

To see the second Beast is “to have two horns like the Lamb.” The two horns of the Lamb are the Great Rays, which we can both perceive and command (i.e. speak as the dragon with all the powers given to the First Beast–the Beast of Grace). We perceive the two horns of the Lamb after crossing “the bridge,” as Course-Jesus explains below:

Across the bridge it is so different! For a time the body is still seen, but not exclusively, as it is seen here. The little spark that holds the Great Rays within it is also visible, and this spark cannot be limited long to littleness. Once you have crossed the bridge, the value of the body is so diminished in your sight that you will see no need at all to magnify it. For you will realize that the only value the body has is to enable you to bring your brothers to the bridge with you, and to be released together there. (ACIM, T-16.VI.6:1-5)

Those who perceive the Beast with the two horns, perceive Molek, the cow-headed Cherubim producing the miracle-milk from the seeds of our almsgiving offerings. So, perceiving the second Beast makes us bone-fide miracle-workers.

Hence all the stuff about Great Miracles in the next paragraph. And through our miracle-working, we imprint on others the mark of the Beast on the right-hand side (of the wheel?) or on the forehead.

The mysterious mark of the Beast is, therefore, the signet of the Holy Spirit. Based on what Revelations says and other evidence gathered, I believe that mark to be what Hindus call the Tripunda — a Sanskrit word meaning “three marks.” Associated with Shiva, the mark is commonly drawn on the forehead or other parts of the body using the ashes from a sacred-fire yajna (the ego-body reenactments of the true Vedic yajna).

How do I know this represents the mark of the Beast? Because I made a spirit-guided sojourn of discovery that led me from Egypt to India and China before returning to Greece. In Egypt, I discovered that Bastet’s sistrum bears the same three parallel bars as Shiva’s Tripunda. A sistrum, I then learned, was a sacred instrument in ancient Egypt played by shaking. The Sistrum was used in dances and religious ceremonies, particularly in the worship of the goddess Hathor, with the U-shape of the sistrum’s handle and frame seen as resembling the face and horns of the cow goddess.

The sistrum was a sacred instrument in ancient Egypt. Perhaps originating in the worship of the goddess Bat, it was used in dances and religious ceremonies, particularly in the worship of the goddess Hathor, with the U-shape of the sistrum’s handle and frame seen as resembling the face and horns of the cow goddess. So here we find the Egyptian version of Moket, the miracle-cow.

The red dot or Bindu seen in Shiva’s Tripunda is probably the big red dot or Bindu balanced atop the heads of these two goddesses (within a circle formed by a golden snake, in Bastet’s case).

Most translators of Revelations make two fundamental errors. Firstly, they wrongly equate the Beast with Satan. And secondly, they presume the Greek letters chi xi stigma translate as numbers. Far from a Satanic emblem, 666 is a very lucky number in China, where it is phonetically written as liu liu liu.

Whilst liu can represent “six” in modern Chinese, the character originally had a different meaning. In ancient times, the Chinese character liu symbolized a particular kind of battle-axe.

Let’s take that clue with us to India, where we find divine battle-axes galore throughout the Hindu literature. Brihaspati, the guru to the gods, for example, has a Golden Axe he used to cut away the truth-obscuring fog of ego-thinking. Described in the Vedas as a sage born from the first great light, Brihaspati also carries a sacred bow whose string is “the established order of the cosmos” (Rita or Rta in Sanskrit).

Agni, the eternal flame of God’s presence, carries two similar axes, while Parashurama, the sixth avatar of Lord Vishnu whose name means “Rama with an axe, was given a triple-axe by Lord Shiva. That divine axe is called Vidyudabhi, which supposedly means “lightning axe,” but actually means, “the knowledge to unite to give the light.”

Let’s circle back to China now, because it is in the ancient I Ching (Book of Changes) — that we find three solid lines (☰) mirroring the Hindu Tripunda, as the trigram Qian or Ch’ien (the Creative). The first of the 3,000-year-old oracle’s eight trigrams, Qian symbolizes pure unyielding yang energy, the absence of darkness that makes Heaven’s light knowable. In this sense, Qian represents Heeaven, divine authority and power, and the father figure.

Simply stated, Qian is pure yang unobscured by yin (the dark fog of deception).

When doubled (as six solid lines), Qian forms the first hexagram in the I Ching, which states, “These unbroken lines stand for the primal power, which is light-giving, active, strong, and of the spirit.”

Later in the hexagram’s description, we find this explanation:

Since there is only one heaven, the doubling of the trigram Ch’ien, of which heaven is the image, indicates the movement of heaven. One complete revolution of heaven makes a day, and the repetition of the trigram means that each day is followed by another. This creates the idea of time. Since it is the same heaven moving with untiring power, there is also created the idea of duration, both in and beyond time, a movement that never stops or slackens, just as one day follows another in an unending course. This duration in time is the image of the power inherent in the Creative.

With this image as model, the sage learns how best to develop himself so that his influence may endure. He must make himself strong in every way, by consciously casting out all that is inferior and degrading. Thus he attains that tirelessness which depends upon consciously limiting the fields of his activity.

So, by my calculations, the number of the Beast represents the three battle-axes of Qian (the Third Heaven of Perfect Creation, wherein God the Father dwells) given to us by Shiva (grace) to chop away the fog of yin (the ephemeral and valueless) obscuring the yang (the eternal and valuable) from our awareness.

But wait, there’s more, which we find in Greece, where the letters chi, xi, and stigma once had symbolic significance in their glyph forms (like the Hebrew letters in Elohim). According to the website Digital Ambler, all these letters carried specific meaning in the Greek Kabbalah. And the voice addressing John in Revelations does say that to understand, we must calculate the number to find the Mark of the Beast, which is the sum total (purpose) of human existence.

The figurative glyph for chi is an X, as in X-mas. So, Chi represents Christ, as well as the Cross of the Third Tree (the Tree of Life). As a capital letter, Xi is drawn as three straight lines ☰ (like the trigram Qian and Shiva’s Tripunda). And stigma, finally, was an archaic Greek letter combining the glyphs for Sigma and Tau. On its own, stigma represented marking or branding. In the Greek Kabballah “key” at Digital Ambler, stigma has no meaning, but its component parts do. Sigma represents the Savior, while Tau symbolizes the cross and/or the crucifix.

So, chi xi stigma doesn’t translate as 666, it’s a Greek cipher (like ixthus) meaning Christ is Heaven’s savior from crucifixion.

The name of the Beast holding all the Dragon’s power takes the form of Bastet, the anointer, Shiva, the redeemer, and Jesus, the savior. And the power the Dragon gave to Bastet, Shiva, and Jesus is God’s saving grace or Living Water.

And isn’t that also what St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:8? Yes, it is.

For by grace are ye saved through faith [in Christ]; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Moreover, our salvation through grace is the only purpose of earthly life, as Course-Jesus explains below. Until we make that “right” choice, we are wasting our lives by repeatedly choosing crucifixion by the Ego Mind.

The journey to the cross should be the last “useless journey.” Do not dwell upon it, but dismiss it as accomplished. If you can accept it as your own last useless journey, you are also free to join my resurrection. Until you do so your life is indeed wasted. It merely re-enacts the separation, the loss of power, the futile attempts of the ego at reparation, and finally the crucifixion of the body, or death. Such repetitions are endless until they are voluntarily given up. Do not make the pathetic error of “clinging to the old rugged cross.” The only message of the crucifixion is that you can overcome the cross. Until then you are free to crucify yourself as often as you choose. This is not the gospel I intended to offer you. We have another journey to undertake, and if you will read these lessons carefully they will help prepare you to undertake it. (ACIM, T-4.in.3:1-11)

Pretty eye-opening, right?

Open your eyes, brother. And your mind. The truth is everywhere, but only the wise can see it through the fog.

Thanks for visiting. Until we meet again, chi xi stigma!