Resurrection
The Ascension Temple at Luxor is the place prepared for the Last Judgment of those who have passed through the schoolroom of earth and earned the right to sit at the right hand of God. The Ascension Temple is a part of the retreat at Luxor, which is presided over by Serapis Bey. A few miles from the focus is a pyramid, also superimposed with etheric activity. Here in the upper room of the pyramid is the King’s Chamber, where the initiations of the transfiguration and the resurrection take place.
Following the initiation of the transfiguration, the candidate is placed in an unsealed sarcophagus in the King’s Chamber. Here he undergoes the initiation of the resurrection, which makes permanent the expansion of the Light that occurs during the transfiguration. At that time, the latent image of the Christ is “developed” in the four lower bodies. Now it must be put in the “fixing bath” of the flame of the resurrection. The transfiguration, then, brings out the seamless garment of Light—the deathless solar body—which the resurrection and the ascension make permanent.
The Ritual of the Resurrection
As the Council of Adepts gathers around the sarcophagus, the Hierarch of the Retreat standing at the head, they recite the Ritual of the Resurrection, which begins:
“O Son of God, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.... There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”[1]
The conclusion of the ritual follows closely the remaining text from chapter 15 of Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians.
The crucifixion
► Main article: Crucifixion
The room is then sealed and the disciple is left in the tomb for three days, during which time he dies to the self. All energies must be withdrawn from the ego and from the consciousness of selfhood apart from God. Truly, here is the death of duality. For if he would follow the Christ in the regeneration, he must do all the works that Jesus did prior to his ascension, and he must pass the same tests that Jesus passed.
While in the tomb, the disciple leaves the land of the living; and with what attainment he has received from God prior to and during the transfiguration, he descends into the astral realms[2] and preaches to those spirits who are held there in bondage to their own misqualified energies.
This initiation reveals the candidate’s ability to invoke the Light of the resurrection from his own God Presence—without the assistance of either ascended or unascended lifestreams—to carry it as a torch of freedom into the astral realm, and then, after having spent two full days there, to return to Luxor. While in the astral belt, he offers himself as a living sacrifice, as an example of Christ-mastery that they, too, the very least of the brethren of God, must one day accomplish. This anchoring of the Light of the Christ in the astral plane is a necessary function of the Servant Sons of God; for without this assistance, there would be no ray of hope for the souls lost in the dark night of their own human creation.
The resurrection flame
Having preached to these rebellious ones, having withstood their condemnation and their foul reproach of the Spirit of the Christ, having returned to the King’s Chamber and to the focus of his body in the tomb, the disciple is ready for the resurrection on the morning of the third day. At this time, he draws the resurrection flame, the mother of pearl that contains all the colors of the causal body, through his consciousness and his lower vehicles.
The flame is actually his own momentum of the sacred fire focused through the threefold flame, which is now expanded to a height of nine feet and a width of six feet. The spiraling threefold flame is accelerated by the disciple to the exact frequency of the resurrection flame. When he thus invokes and sustains his own momentum of the threefold flame at this peak velocity, he is awarded the added momentum of the resurrection flame focused in the King’s Chamber. The full power of the resurrection flame is then anchored throughout his entire being and world for the complete raising of the form and the overcoming of the last enemy, death.
Saturated, then, with the luster of pearl, the disciple rises from the tomb clothed with the seamless wedding garment of the Christ. He hears the same choirs of angels who sang, “Christ the Lord is risen today,” and he knows that right within his form he has realized the oneness of his divinity and his own portion of the sacred flame.
Opportunity following the resurrection
Now he is called upon to go forth for forty days and forty nights to commune with the Christ Selves of those still in embodiment who look to him for Light and for the grace he has received. He is authorized to impart to receptive souls revelations such as those given by Jesus to the disciples and the holy women during the period following his resurrection.
This is the final opportunity prior to his ascension for the candidate to anchor in the world of form the electronic pattern of his God Presence. This tangible presence of Immortal Life will give his unascended brethren who are following the Path in his footsteps a tremendous impetus of victory. Knowing that one who recently walked among them has overcome, their hearts will be quickened with hope, and they will determine that they, too, shall go and do likewise. The record of the candidate’s forty days of service to the children of God will remain an etching in the etheric and mental belts of the planet, and all those who follow this path will one day tune in to those records and thereby know that the goal of total reunion is an imminent possibility.
Jesus’ resurrection
The first biblical records of Jesus’ use of the flame of resurrection to restore life to the physical body were the raising of the widow’s son and Jairus’ daughter. Subsequently, with the raising of Lazarus[3] and ultimately with his own resurrection, Jesus proved for all time the superiority of divine science over the laws of death and decay.
During the three-day initiatic period following his crucifixion, Jesus drew the resurrection flame into his four lower bodies, where it quickened the action of the threefold flame of life that forms the nucleus of every cell. The resuscitation of his physical body was made possible by the overpowering radiance of his eternally conscious, immortal spirit, which was transferred to his form through the impelling currents of the resurrection flame.
As Jesus’ body lay in the tomb, the angels of Alpha and Omega stood at the head and the feet. Jesus came in his etheric body and his Christ Self. He stood before his physical body. He commanded the energies to reenter the body. He called forth the threefold flame to reignite within the physical temple to start the beating of the heart once again.
The flame of life, magnified by the Holy Spirit and the ministering angelic hosts, was thus breathed into his form. The ritual of the resurrection, reenacted in the nature kingdom each spring, was fulfilled in the Son of God on behalf of the Son of man on that first Easter.
For a prescribed period of forty days following his resurrection, Jesus instructed his disciples in cosmic law. At the same time, sustaining the momentum of the resurrection flame within his being, he was able to anchor the hope of the resurrection in the four lower bodies of the planet and in the evolving consciousness of humanity.
Gnostic teachings
The resurrection is an essential element in Gnostic theology. But like other Gnostic beliefs, it developed along different lines than the evolving orthodox view of the early Church. To the Gnostics, the resurrection was not just the unique event of Jesus arising from the dead on Easter morning: it became the springboard for understanding the process of their own personal salvation.
The starting point in a study of the resurrection in Gnosticism is an understanding of what they called the Call. This is based on the fundamental Gnostic belief that a spark of light, identical in nature with God, which we call the threefold flame, resides within man, and the soul, embroiled in this world and unaware of its divine nature, must be awakened from its state of slumber or drunkenness.
This Gnostic theme is also found in the New Testament Epistle to the Ephesians by the apostle Paul,[4] where he addresses the “saints which are at Ephesus” and “the faithful in Christ” with the words: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”[5] This “rising from the dead,” or “resurrection,” to which the soul is being summoned had a dual meaning for the Gnostics.
First, the Gnostics believed that resurrection occurred at death when the soul, released from the body, begins the ascent back to its heavenly home, clothed in a transformed “spiritual” body. This resurrection could only occur if that one had walked in holiness, in light, and was weaving the wedding garment, the deathless solar body.
The second instance of the resurrection is that of the daily rebirth and renewal, as when Paul writes to the Colossians: “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge.”[6]
Generally speaking, the Gnostics did not share the orthodox belief in the resurrection of the flesh because they believed that the body is destined to perish. This is the teaching of the ascended masters and it is the lost teaching of Jesus Christ. The Gnostics refuted the literalists of their day. They taught there is no resurrection of the flesh but only of the soul, and in support of this belief they cited Paul’s teaching that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”[7]
Passages from Gnostic scriptures point to the all-important aspect of the resurrection missing from orthodox theology: that it was an experience to be realized in the here and now. Contrary to the orthodox view—then and now—of the resurrection, the Gnostics did not limit the resurrection to a one-time event that took place on Easter morning to Jesus and would occur at some future date at the end of the world for all believers all at once.
For the Gnostic, the resurrection is the glorious liberation of the soul from a state of forgetfulness and ignorance to self-knowledge in God. It is the resuscitation of the divine spark of light, or spirit, within man, whereby that spirit can and does increase. It is the initiation of spiritual self-transformation and self-transcendence.
Your resurrection
You can receive the initiation of the resurrection without having to go through the process called death. There are initiates who walk this earth in the resurrected state, having passed through the initiation of the resurrection. This is a pre-ascension initiation in which you walk the earth in a physical body yet bear the flame of the resurrection, the spiral of mother-of-pearl radiance whereby you emit the rainbow rays of God.
Like Jesus, we must prove indestructibility here and now within this temple. It serves no purpose for us to be indestructible in heaven. We must show the indestructibility of the light of the Christ here on earth. That is the point of the resurrection. That is why he raised up the physical body. He could have left that body in the tomb and returned as a spirit, but he wanted them to see the nail prints in his hands and feet. He wanted them to know that the physical temple, the Mother, the Matter body, was restored.
We must prove this to the very best of our ability, here and now. While we have life, we must determine to be that resurrection and that life where we stand—not dying, but living the life of the Christ.
The resurrection is a spiritual awakening that begins the process of union with God. It is an infiring and an impelling. It is when the flame in your heart has been fanned to such an extent that you are no longer comfortable identifying with impermanent things. It happens when your soul decides that her goal is divine union and places that goal before any other. When you have experienced the resurrection, you have both the vision of what is attainable and the commitment to achieve it.
You are meant to accomplish your own resurrection and ascension in this life. Your resurrection is your awakening to your identity as a Son of God. Your ascension is your final union with God. Each mystical experience is a preparation for that ultimate union, which can occur either before or after death when you have balanced a sufficient amount of your karma.
See also
For more information
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Masters and the Spiritual Path, chapter 2.
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Path of the Universal Christ, chapter 3.
Lecture by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, April 14, 1987, “Christ’s Resurrection in You.” Available from Ascended Master Library.
Sources
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Masters and the Spiritual Path, pp. 87–88, 89
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Path of the Universal Christ, pp. 207–08, 210.
Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Path to Immortality, pp. 241–43, 244–46.
Elizabeth Clare Prophet with Erin L. Prophet, Reincarnation: The Missing Link in Christianity, pp. 170–71, 316.
Lecture by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, April 14, 1987.
- ↑ 1 Cor. 15:36, 40–45.
- ↑ This plane of the astral belt has been called “purgatory.”
- ↑ Luke 7:12–16; 8:49–56; John 11:1–44.
- ↑ Some of the Gnostics revered Paul as a Gnostic initiate of Jesus Christ. They taught that it was Paul who had handed down to them the secret teachings and inner mysteries he had learned from Jesus.
- ↑ Eph 5:14.
- ↑ Col. 3:9, 10.
- ↑ I Cor. 15:50.