Working with Jesus outside of Religion

On the first day of working the Warriors of the Heart path at this year's Winter Witch Camp, several events of note took place. First, I saw my different points on the Iron Pentacle in various states of health. My point of Sex (top of the head) was like a blue flame having a difficulty catching the wick. My point of Pride (right foot) reminded me of a machine that was trying to work with a whole bunch of mud thrown into its works. My point of Self (left hand) was a nice bright yellow light, my point of Power (right hand) was a purple Nerf ball(!), and the first day I worked the IP, my point of Passion (left foot) was shrouded in fog. For some reason I visualized the sword from the 7 of Swords in the Cosmic Tribe deck sliding down the bone of the leg into the ankle. It just happened like that for some reason.

The instructors told us to anchor the experience, and asked if any of guides appeared. That was when Jesus (of all avatars!) showed up and smiled at me. I grimaced, surprised, and then I touched my right side. The word "spear" came to mind as the thing to anchor the whole experience, because my affinity group was Tiwaz, the rune for Spear and the warrior god Tyr.

Since then I've been working with Jesus a bit more. I see him somehow as connected to The Blue God, at least he is to me. And there are mystery schools that believe Jeshua bar Joseph did actually go to India to study esoteric Hindu ideas. (Whitworth's The Nine Faces of Christ depicts several mystery-cult initiations of this figure, including Druidic, Persian and Egyptian, with some references to the Mayan Jaguar Priests as well.) When I was 11 and had my Dian-y-Glas/Kitty Carlisle Hart dream, I knew I had experienced a vision of some sort and believed it was Jesus who was showering.

For all I know, it might have been. (Ah, :) I feel Jesus smiling at this winsome possibility.) I've been reading a couple of books now about Jesus, with the openness to working with the cute avatar of the Essenes in my spiritual development. I've been reading now the books of Jim Marion--Putting on the Mind of Christ and The Death of the Mythic God. Both have been really helpful, but the Mind of Christ book has helped me to understand more of where I am on the spiral of spiritual development.

When I was in Madison, Michael and I did a ritual where I basically journeyed into the Underworld. We called Freya and Hades into the circle. Hades was the decided-upon god because a mourning dove showed up on the deck as I asked "Which God should we call?" I really was open to anyone, and when I clarified it was "mourning dove" not "morning dove", I said "I guess we call Hades then." The mourning dove showing up at that moment, and then another one crashing into Michael's window the next day alerted me to the need to pay attn. to these birds. I'm pretty sure one was outside my window just the other day. And so, I'm reading this book in Washington Square Park yesterday morning and I'm in a section about The Dark Night of the Soul (which evidently is different from The Dark Night of the Senses, something I've heard absolutely nothing about but which Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross both discussed). All through Marion's book, I had many pings of recognition as well as moments of "I didn't have that experience at all." So I'm feeling fairly confused all in all about what level I'm at. I was pretty sure I wasn't in The Dark Night of the Soul when it started to become more and more obvious to me that I'm probably about to enter into it. And that Hades and Hecate and the other deities in my pantheon are here to help, as is Jesus of course.

Marion's book is also helpful to any seeker of any spiritual understanding be it Hindu, New Age, Sufi what have you. And for gay/lesbian seekers, it's especially helpful because Marion is a gay man. Today I had a dream, after asking for more clarification about this stuff. In the dream, I saw three boxes in my heart, each one inside the next. The three boxes were also attached to three other Selves. The innermost box was the Psychic Realm Box, the Middle one the Subtle Realm and the Furthest one in the Causal Realm. I was trying to pry the Psychic one out of my body, and having moderate success in lifting it but something was keeping it stuck from below. It would "thunk" back into place. My Psychic Realm Self seemed pretty solid as did my Subtle Realm. The Causal was barely a presence, but he wanted me to know he was there too. I feel the mystery of this dream points me to an awareness that I'm really in all three at once, even though I haven't yet gone through the Dark Night of the Soul. Part of me feels that it might not be necessary for me to do this, but I don't know. I'm truly open to however this manifests.

(I think. I say that now, but I might change my mind, knowing how these things can go.)

Still, I'm confident that the choices I have made have been largely good ones. I look forward to how things develop, as always.