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The Grail Path: Achieving Mystical Transformation for the Creative and Emotional Person
Mystical Transformation should never cause catastrophic psychological breakdown.
The Grail Path is an ancient system of inner transformation developed specifically for creative and emotional personality types.
In this book, the creative-emotional person and the trained spiritual advisor will learn:
If you have experienced an energy imbalance then the devastation can be reversed. Spiritual practices and rituals are designed to invoke and enhance one of the two Divine Energies. By changing the practices and rituals you can change the energy that runs through through the spiritual system.
I know this because I have done it. The first time took me 10 years. The second time took me 5 years. The third time took only 12 weeks to recover and rebalance my energies. You can do it for yourself or as a spiritual professional you can help others reverse the damage and reach their highest spiritual potential.
Why did one car die and one car roar to life? Why would putting gas in a car that is mechanically sound cause it to choke and die?
Could it be that there are different types of gas? Could it be that there are different types of cars?
The answer is yes!
If you guessed that one of the cars was a diesel, then you are right. Putting regular gas into a diesel powered car would damage the engine and cause the car to choke and die. While putting gas into a regular engine would make that car roar to life and travel another 300+ miles down the road.
The same is true of spiritual initiation.
There are two types of personalities
Each requires a different Divine Energy to run properly.
When the master initiates the wrong energy, the initiate cannot function properly. They do not have an experience that inspires them to reach further or delve deeper to develop their spirituality. They are not able to travel the road of enlightenment. They just choke and die at the site. They require much maintenance just to get back to regular functioning, because improper initiation can bring on many psychological and physical health problems.
Many times those who have been hurt by religion despise spiritually altogether. They consider all religion a heinous parasite of which humanity needs to rid itself. This in itself is sad, because that which makes us human – that which designates our species as “Homo” – is the striving to integrate ourselves into the sacredness of life by using metaphor and ceremony. The earliest documented ceremonies are burials. The use of red ocher, beads, flowers and other sacred objects placed with the remains marks the difference between human and ape.
When spirituality is rejected, then the means to enhance our humanness and humaneness is forever lost.
For those who seek: Know thyself!
For those who teach, lead or mentor: Know thyself AND Know your student!
One size does not fit all. It is time we stop assuming that there is only one type of “car.”
It came to me the other day,
That Which is Everything,
Can Be Anything.
Yet, there is a relatively narrow band of items that are used to represent the Universal Principle or Ground Of Divinity.
Why does the serpent pop up in religions all over the world and throughout time, even though these cultures could never have communicated or influenced each other? Why is water part of most every religion from the beginning of time? Why do we frequently see ladders, rainbows, or spirals associated with the divine?
Could it be that we are like the blind men of the ancient Taoist parable, when they examined the elephant? What if these men battled over who was right? It seems absurd to declare just one attribute as the “true nature,” when all they had to do to gain a true understanding of an elephant is to combine their observations.
Could there be a method to the madness? Is it possible to stop the conflicts between the belief systems of the world? Is combining the realizations of the different belief systems the way to understanding and enlightenment?
In order to create a full picture of the Divine, it is important that we include everything. To leave one thing out would make our picture incomplete. Just as we cannot exclude the description of the elephant’s ear in the above parable, we cannot exclude any one spiritual belief system. We cannot continue to drive unfamiliar spiritual systems into extinction. Every time we do so, knowledge is lost. It takes hundreds if not thousands of years for these realizations to resurface because like every life form a spiritual realization needs a specific environment for it to be born, flourish, and bear fruit.
Is it possible to identify the patterns and put the pieces together into a single model that incorporates every belief system? Can we find an equation that is similar to E=MC2 that describes everything spiritual?
What do you think?
Come see the YouTube video of the model I created.
Earlier this month I was reminded of the medieval May Pole celebrations that occur on the 1st of May. The memories of my childhood celebrations of new summer dresses, flowers in our hair, and dancing the May pole in the back field came flooding back into my mind.
For those who have never seen or heard of the May Pole dance, let me give a little explanation. A large pole with multiple streamers attached at the top was erected in an open area. The streamers are twice the length of the pole and the number of streamers attached determines the number of dancers.
The dance is set up by placing the dancers so that there is male, female, male, female all the way around the circle. When the dance begins, the women take 2 steps toward the pole and turn to face the men who now form the outer circle. When the music starts, the inner circle of women moves to the left while the outer circle of men moves to the right. As you reach each partner the ribbons are alternately moved over or under to move to the next partner. The effect is to “weave” the ribbons around the pole and create the Fabric of Life that covers the central pole. When the dance is complete, the ribbons stay woven once the dancers drop the ends.
An adult revelation occurred from these fond memories. This dance requires that one half of the dancers move to the right and one half of the dancers move to the left. If everyone moved in the same direction, then nothing would be woven. It would be just a swirl of ribbons that would immediately unwind once the dancers released them.
In so many spiritual writings, I have seen the Left-Hand Path deemed as wrong or the way of terrible sin. This is true for ego-based personalities who become arrogant when Grace is infused. However, the emotion-based personality needs and thrives in an atmosphere of increasing Grace.
Chapter 42 of the I-Ching tells us that, “The One gives birth to The Two.” Duality is a fact of existence. Unlike the divine, the spiritual seeker begins in the realm of multiplicity and must work backwards to The One. The main goal of spiritual development is not to ignore or banish one of the divine energies in order to create The One. The goal is to unite, marry, or weave these two energies into a wholeness or Holiness.
The Left-Hand Path is the yin to the Right-Handed Path’s yang and a necessary part of the universal duality that creates our world.
Throughout human history there has been the spiritually righteous and the heretic. What if there was no such thing as a heretic? What if the belief system that the heretical they followed was just as valid as that of the righteous? The thought that there is no right or wrong path is in itself heretical.
The earliest known Christian document opens with the acknowledgement of the two ways. The Didache fully endorses the Way of Life and bans the Way of Death for all those who are entering the Christian faith. When we live in a black and white world, there are those who are right and those who are wrong.
Why must we live this way? What event(s) caused people to draw a line in the sand and defend their territory?
The answer lies in the simply complicated energetic world of the spirit. Since the energetic world is invisible to the uninitiated, the majority of people had to rely upon those who were deeply involved in the matters of the divine for guidance. When we study the myths, practices, and rituals of the different religions and belief systems, we find the two distinct spiritual paths that are described in both The Didache and the I-Ching*.
These two paths are direct opposites and are mutually annihilating. This means that if someone moves from one path to the other all previous spiritual attainment will be lost. It is as if the soul is reset to zero and the practitioner must begin again. This reset can happen by jumping from one spiritual system to the other or when the opposite belief system is forcibly imposed by society or change of leadership.
Here is where it gets complicated.
If the path the person was on WAS NOT right for them, bringing in the opposite divine energy would feel like getting a new life or liberation.
Martin Luther broke away from the Catholic Church because he did not believe that a person was born purely good and that the soul is like a mustard seed that should be watered or fed. He believed that the flesh was evil and that ego must die before the soul could be considered good. This is the The Way of Death referred to (and banned) in The Didache.
Martin Luther focused on the rebirth after the crucifixion. To kill the ego and to be “Born Again” is the main concept he advocated. This is one of the concepts that splits the Christian faith into Protestant vs. Catholic.
If the person WAS ON the path that harmonized with their personality, then bringing in the opposite divine energy would be feel like a violation of the soul and psychological devastation would be the result.
The Inquisition and the Crusades were all created to abolish those who posed a threat to the psyches of the Catholic faithful.
What proper leader would let their population be violated and devastated? Protection of the people and the territory of the belief is the most basic tenant of compassionate leadership. (Let’s leave the political maneuverings and power games to another discussion. Let’s just assume that the leadership in this case is compassionate and well meaning.)
In both cases the offending party would be considered a heretic and dubbed the Anti-Christ, worthy only of loathing and destruction. It is only natural to hate that which wounds and damages.
The time has come for the people of the world to rise above the small villages of our little selves and see the need for both paths in this world. When the beauty and benefits of the psyche’s dual sacred nature becomes universally accepted, spiritual conflict will no longer create animosity and divide the populations into warring sects.
Why does universal agreement on spiritual ideology seem impossible? What is causing so much disconnect between not just the different sects of the world but also between the different denominations within each sect?
Why did the followers of Jesus feel the need to create a whole new religion? What made Martin Luther separate from the Catholic church of Rome? Why do Catholics and Protestants bomb each other in the streets of Ireland? Why do the Sunnis and the Shiites clash? Why did the Northern School of Buddhism separate from the Southern School? Why are there 5 different schools of Tibetan Buddhism? The political reasons for the turmoil were not enough to cause such deep animosity. As each piece of the puzzle came into focus, the evidence pointed to the fact that there are two paths of spiritual attainment that share the same road. The path to attainment is not a one-way street. Like the highways of today,
The road runs both ways.
Let’s imagine two travelers who plan to trek the entire length of Interstate 55 or I-55 as it is more commonly known. This road is 964 miles long and it is a north/south corridor through the center of the United States. This road runs from Chicago through St. Louis and Memphis and culminates very near New Orleans. The first traveler begins the journey in Chicago and traverses the road south to New Orleans. The second traveler is traveling the exact same road, but they begin in New Orleans and journey north to Chicago. Both have traveled I-55, but they have not had the same experience. One moved from the land of the Cubs to the land of the Saints. The other started in the steamy jazz salons of Bourbon Street and ended in the Windy City, a cold skyscraper filled metropolis. They have seen the same landmarks like the St. Louis arch and Memphis’ pyramid, but these landmarks appeared on their horizons in a different order. The order of events has bearing on the archetypal meanings that are ascribed to each event. For the southbound traveler, the pyramid was the last major event before attaining New Orleans. However for our northbound traveler, the pyramid was the first major event they encountered.
Imagine how the conversation would go when these two people compare notes. One would declare that Chicago was the starting point while the other would emphatically know, from their personal experience, that Chicago was the final attainment. They would not be able to agree on any point except that they both traveled I-55. So, who is right? They both are! The experience of each traveler is relative to the starting point and direction of travel. It is not until each traveler returns to their point of origin that they are able to understand the viewpoint of the other.
The archeological evidence confirms that there is a basic two-fold energetic system that explains the multiplicity of human spiritual development and belief. There is the Way of Grace, more commonly known today as the Grail Path. This path is for those who have creative, mentally scattered, nurturing, or an emotionally based personality. This traveler begins at the northern most point or in the previous example, Chicago, and moves down the road. There is the Way of Passion, which is commonly referred to as the Hero’s Journey. This path is meant for those who have an intellectual, logical, or ego-based personality. This was the traveler who started from the base of the path, New Orleans, and worked their way up the road.
These two paths are mutually annihilating. This means that when a person switches from one path to the other, in mid-stream of the spiritual journey, all previous attainment is destroyed. It is like a sand castle that is washed away every time the tide comes in or like Sisyphus who pushes a boulder up the hill only for it to roll back down again. When the practices of the two paths are mixed and matched, the result is a continuous cycle of advance and retreat. The student launches a new voyage into the inner consciousness again and again, never to complete the journey or reach any level of sustained attainment.
Great animosity is created when an inharmonious energy is imposed upon a person without their consent because it inflicts psychological damage. The psychological damage can be a temporary setback like having a brain fog that lasts from a few days to a few weeks or it can be a permanent mental debilitation.
Who wouldn’t want to destroy a person or group that is constantly causing psychological distress? Might as well add the label “Anti-Christ” to further ignite the populous to violent action.
Both paths are valid and necessary for our world to function. Ego-based personalities gain the right-brained capacities of compassion and seeing the whole picture when they “shed the flesh” or are “born again.” Emotional-based personalities gain the left-brained capacities of logical understanding and the ability to break an overwhelming task into manageable pieces when they fill with Grace from above. When we understand that the needs of the ego-based personality and the emotional-based personality are very different, then we can develop strategies for these two mindsets to work together and bring peace to our world.
Weisstein, Eric W. “Young Girl-Old Woman Illusion.” From MathWorld–A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/YoungGirl-OldWomanIllusion.html
There is a mysterious realm that is the undercurrent of all life. It is the quantum world of the soul. It is a place where energies become archetypes and understandings can be explained only through metaphor. It is a place where the divine and the concrete merge into a union of marital bliss. In the ancient societies, the function of spiritual knowledge was about creating a better, more humane, being.
From the dawn of time, man has documented the workings of this mysterious inner realm. Rituals were developed to make it possible to touch and feel the divine. Petroglyphs were carved on rock faces as if they were eternal blackboards, forever guiding the generations of mystical students. Myth and parable portrayed the energies as gods and goddesses. Amazing artifacts were created to commemorate the divine.
Traditionally, only a very few were given access into the inner workings of the mystical realm. Masters, yogis, and priests diligently guarded the teachings that opened the door into the divine. They were not elitist. They knew the path of attainment contained many perils. The ancient masters were fully aware that the spiritual energies could heal and that they could kill. They did not allow random people to hear their teachings or initiate anyone who asked. Every student was thoroughly tested to ascertain whether they possessed the qualities necessary to make the arduous journey. The ancient masters knew that trying to charge up a down escalator was not just an exercise in futility, but was also damaging to the psyche of the student. The first requirement of a student was that they must possess a personality type that would harmonize with the teachings of the master.
The true teacher of mystical knowledge is experience. The mystic’s personal experience is used as the basis for their teachings. The parables and practices they developed into the lineages of today are designed in such a way that the student will have the same experience and achieve the same understandings as the master. A mystic is first a person who in relation to the divine is limited. Even the most adept was able to describe only a small part of the whole model. It is like the classic Taoist tale of the blind men and the elephant. One man describes the tail, one describes the ear, another the back, another the trunk, the last one describes a leg. Each is thinking that they have the full body of true knowledge. It is not until the individual descriptions are combined that the true nature or whole elephant is understood.
It became apparent that mystical understanding is a language not unlike the Egyptian or the Mayan glyphs. In order to unravel the mystery, it was important to decode the metaphorical language. Each piece of art, each mythical tale, each complex symbol, and each spiritual ritual is a part of the breadcrumb trail left by those who had attained the highest understandings of their time. These clues could be either a snap shot of a specific element or an entire road map of the spiritual journey of inner transformation.
However, mystical teaching runs much deeper than the difference between two languages. It is also like deciphering an optical illusion. An optical illusion is a masterfully crafted presentation that makes it possible for two separate and complete images to be discerned from the same depiction, if the attention is alert and the mind is able to switch its point of view. One of the most known optical illusions is the depiction of the young girl/old woman. The earliest rendition of this illusion is an anonymously drawn German postcard from 1888. Which do you see? The young girl? or The old woman? Both points of view are valid because they are relative. Each viewpoint is correct, but an individual will see only the depiction that harmonizes with his or her personality type. It will take a mind shift for the contrasting image to come into view. An experienced teacher, who knows the student, knows how shift the viewpoint so that it is possible to see the masked image incorporated in the seemingly single illustration.
What we see is not necessarily the whole truth. Until we can honor the various spiritual viewpoints, our world will continue to be plagued with mistrust, violence, and war.
The First of our Mystical Transformation Series
Meditation Journal
Meditation Journal
Jesus’ Wedding 
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