In Jesus you see a heart centered approach emerging in his teaching. The marriage of heaven and earth in the ground of the heart. The living colors of the rainbow that appear in the sky … we see unity in diversity

An Intermediary Zone

“Doubt is more than a psychological state of indecision; it is the soul’s sojourn in the intermediary sphere between the two fields of attraction—terrestrial and celestial—from which there is no other means of escape than a pure and simple act of faith, issuing from the soul itself without heaven and earth taking any part in it.” Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot p596.

“Certainly the mystical practice of religion transcends cerebral intellectuality. But it does so in order to attain heaven, and not the intermediary zone between heaven and earth, where the primordial revelation of the ‘mysteries of heaven’ are found deposited. Saints live the light, warmth and life of heaven. Celestial gold, blue and white radiate into their lives and through their lives. The thinking which unites heaven and earth, which is immanent equally in every earthly phenomenal structure and every celestial noumenal entity, is that which is the vision and comprehension of the totality of things, as the power to reveal it and show it. Saints do not aspire to cosmic thought, to a comprehension of the totality of things, but rather to divine life.” Meditations on the Tarot p263.

The Tree of Life: Living Synthesis

“Imagine, not an explosion, but rather the blossoming out of a constructive ‘atomic bomb’. It is not too difficult to imagine, because each little acorn is such a ‘constructive bomb’ and the oak is only the visible result of the slow ‘explosion’—or blossoming out—of this ‘bomb’. Imagine it, and you will have the ideal of the great work or the idea of the Tree of Life. The image itself of the tree comprises the negation of the technical and mechanical element. It is the living synthesis of celestial light and elements of the earth. Not only is it the synthesis of heaven and earth, it constantly synthesizes that which descends from above and that which ascends from below.” Meditations on the Tarot p68.

A Rainbow: Unity in Diversity

“The living colors of the rainbow that appear in the sky are the visible manifestation of the idea of peace, because the rainbow causes us to see unity in the diversity of colours. There the whole family of colours presents itself to us as seven sisters who join their hands. For this reason the rainbow is the sign of peace (or alliance) between heaven and earth, as in Moses’ Genesis:
Meditations on the Tarot p224.

And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations—I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. (Genesis ix, 12-13)”

The Heart as Integrating Center

“There are many who stand at the door and knock, but only those who are single, who are unified, enter the place of union, enter the bridal chamber. So these practices invite us to stand in the heart as the integrating center between two worlds, that the heart is the place where the infinite flows outward into form and expression in the finite, and also the finite flows inward into the infinite. It’s the marriage of heaven and earth there in the ground of the heart. And it’s sometimes called an intertidal zone. I think Cynthia mentioned this earlier as well, that the heart is an intertidal zone where I wash into God and God washes into me.” Matthew Wright, Rebuilding Trust Feb 2022, Day2.3-Names-of-God-Zhikr.

“If you look on the cross, what’s the cross? Where do the two axes intersect? In the heart.  I think it’s no mistake that the early Christian contemplative tradition profoundly rooted its contemplative practice in the heart center because it’s the integrative center that marries heaven and earth.  And so in that map, the goal isn’t to raise the energies up and out. It’s to pull the subtle energies down to raise the dense physical energies up And to marry them to unite heaven and earth. So in Jesus you see a heart centered approach emerging in his teaching.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Stonington 2016 June, 2016-06-10f Friday Evening Session.

Human Development and the Connection

“One task of Esoteric Humanity was to raise culture to a degree in which people could hear and understand enough to take in the Work. The Personality had to be built up, by education, by all the arts, sciences, literature and so on, to make it possible for mankind to grow and keep open a connection between ‘Sun’ and ‘Earth’—or, if you use the language of the Gospels—between Heaven and Earth.” Maurice Nicoll, Psychological Commentaries, p1200.

“Man is both Heaven and Earth and when he reaches a certain point in his development in life which is called Good Householder … he cannot grow unless he turns his face the other way and begins to take in the spiritual meaning of this Work. Yet at the same time, owing to this possibility, he must hold both Earth which is below him and Heaven which is above.” Commentaries, p1411.

Alchemical Work of Transformation

“Through the quality of your alchemical work in this world, working with your own stuff, the material of your raw untransformed energy, your raw untransformed ego, your story sacrificing your ego self to your emerging person. Then something happens in both heaven and earth. Would they have told me that when I was your age, I wouldn’t have wasted 40 years.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystery of Death 2021, 26:37 02 Tuesday Afternoon Session Mystery of Death.

“In the old order, we used the collective called the church or whatever to improve our being and ensure our individual salvation, it’s flipped now. We have to take responsible custodianship of our individual being at a much more subtle level in order to be able to grow up enough to merge and reform at this new level and begin wielding the kinds of energies that can actually harmonize heaven and earth.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Nurturing Second Body, 41:57 Day 2 Session 2.

Beyond Manageable Programs

“We’re managing our spiritual journey towards perfection. But what if it all of a sudden hits you with a freight train and there’s no way you can hang on to it? You can’t take notes. You can’t retrieve it on your computer. What if the price of it being given was you had to throw your computer in the river first? Who would take it? So this tension we have, again, because we are much more comfortable in finite chronological time than we are face up against the kairos, so we settle things into these manageable routines.

“How did the disciples come to Jesus and say, well, tell us, how much should we fast? When do you want us to eat? Should we offer prayers? And Jesus said, stop lying and do not do what you hate for everything lies open in heaven and earth. Out the window with all these little manageable programs of spiritual advancement and just stop lying and do not do what you hate.” Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystery of Death 2021, 2:13:32 06 Thursday afternoon session Mystery of Death.

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Logion 75
Yeshua says…
Many are standing at the door,
but only the single or solitary
will enter the place of union.

Logion 6
His students asked him,
“Do you want us to fast?”
“How shall we pray?”
“Should we give offerings?”
“From what foods must we abstain? “
Yeshua answered,
“Stop lying.
Do not do what you hate,
because everything here lies open before heaven.
Nothing hidden will remain secret,
for the veil will be stripped away
from what lies concealed behind it.”

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Valentin Tomberg, Meditations on the Tarot, Jeremy Tarcher, 1985

Page numbers for Maurice Nicoll refer to Psychological Commentaries on the Teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky (Eureka Editions:2020) unless stated otherwise. 

Quotations from the Gospel of Thomas are from Lynn C Bauman, Ward J Bauman, Cynthia Bourgeault, The Luminous Gospels (Praxis 2008.

Read the Impression introducing the Gospel of Thomas.