Ascending from the Bottom of the Cave

The sacred mountain Rila – photo Pepa Girginova

In our Summer Assemblies on the sacred mountain Rila we transformed both Plato's myths into living experiences. For instance, when we were on Rila, we felt as if we were in our true celestial home. The purpose of all our spiritual activities was to ascend though the vertical structure of the Universe to the higher spiritual worlds, i.e. to the top of the sacred mountain, or in Plato’s words – to the shining world of Divine ideas! In most cases we really succeeded, reaching at least the astral world of the Universal Soul. Then of course, when we were coming back to Sofia, we had the feelings that we were entering again into the "clouds" of the ordinary earthly life ("the bottom of the cave"). Many times on Rila we witnessed dazzling light in the spiritual mountains and deep fog in the earthly valleys. This was a perfect illustration of Plato’s myth: the bottom of the cave is our material world, the shining mountains symbolise the higher spiritual worlds. 

We experienced many times on Rila the other Plato myth as well – the search of the Soul Mate. This second myth (for some of us) was activated in the area of the Seven Lakes, walking slowly, in meditation, from the plateau towards the Fifth Lake. This area resembles a majestic Divine Temple, where the plateau is the holy ground of the Temple, while the Summits, from Kabul and Ostretz to the Salonite are the Altar.

During the seventies, I had a beautiful vision of walking with the Beloved in peace, love and meditation towards the Fifth Lake as if entering into the Temple of Creation. In this Temple the Soul of the Beloved and my Spirit (and vice versa) entered into a Divine Wedding and merged with the Lord God and the Divine Mother. There we were able to open the seven chakras and to experience an ecstatic Enlightenment through Love, Tenderness and Unity.

I am sure that in our fourteen International Summer Assemblies after 1999 some of the participants were experiencing deep sacred feelings in this Temple of Creation. In fact, this sacred place contains three Temples one above the other – the Temple on Earth, the Temple in the Celestial World and the Temple in the Highest Divine World. In accordance with their life journey, some of the participants experienced warm links with their Soul Mate, others - the union between their Souls and Spirits within, while the most advanced could have been witnessing the Divine Wedding between the Universal Spirit and the Universal Soul in Heaven. It is remarkable how rich is Plato’s myth of the search of the Soul Mate on all levels of Creation. In essence it is a Divine Union and achieving complete self-realisation by merging the Universal Masculine and Feminine energies!

From Philosophy towards New Living Mysteries

It is very important to understand the essence of the coming New Reality which changes the intellectual, ideological framework of the world religions into an integral Teaching about life in the Kingdom of God.  In the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth the conceptions and ideologies of the existing world religions will become a living experience - we will move from intellectual reflections and occasional communions with God through the Divine Masters to a complete life in the reality of the Kingdom of God.  We can compare this shift in the life of humankind with the opposite shift which occurred in the time of Plato. One of the greatest initiates and philosophers of his time, Plato translated the mythological reality of the ancient Greek mysteries into the language of philosophy, ethics, aesthetics, gnoceology and so on. In other words, he took the living practice of the mysteries, and while keeping something of their essence, presented them transformed into intellectual conceptions. It is not surprising then, that he compared the life of human beings to life at the bottom of a cave where the dazzling light of the higher world of Divine ideas comes through only as shadows.

Now humankind will move in the opposite direction: from the abstract  reality of  philosophy, ideology, religion, ethics, aesthetics, etc., back to the reality of living mysteries, a movement which will be initiated by the new creative impulse of God. So, if Plato translated the Greek mythology into the language of philosophy and ideology, now humankind will move from the reality of contemporary philosophy, ideology and religion to the new living mythology of the Second Coming which integrates the mysteries of all spiritual traditions. Thus, humankind will ascend from the 'bottom of the cave' to the transcendental world of Divine ideas. This is the metaphysical essence of our epoch.

The key to Plato's myths is the shift from the Babylonian civilisation to the New Jerusalem civilisation, described in the Book of Revelation (Chapters 18, 21). It will be achieved by adopting a New Spiritual Paradigm. Through the New Spiritual Paradigm we will move in the opposite direction: from the abstract reality of philosophy, ideology, religion, ethics, aesthetics, forward to the reality of living mysteries. This is a move which will be initiated by the new creative impulse of God.

With the ascent of human consciousness to the reality of the new living mythology, the two main streams of time - the historical, as a chain of actual events, and the mythological, as an expectancy of the return to the Kingdom of God, will merge. The myths and legends about the Second Coming will become occurring spiritual events, while the sacred books and prophecies will provide plans and scenarios for action (as we saw, for example, with The Book of Revelation). From this perspective, the mythologies in all spiritual traditions will be activated and will introduce us to an immense field for spiritual work.

Now in the physical world human beings have to work very constructively through the socio-cultural structures in all areas of life in order to survive and maintain materially. When humanity enters into the reality of the Kingdom of God, just as it now works in the material world, it will work very constructively in the spiritual world as well. There the tasks are enormous indeed: to transform our lives, to embark on the Nine-Fold Rainbow Path, to heal, purify and illuminate the Earth, to transform the earthly culture into a celestial culture, to participate in the Divine services in Heaven, and so forth. Two thousand years ago Jesus Christ said: The harvest is rich but the workers are few. In the coming new Epoch of the Holy Spirit how much more true this statement could be!

Experiencing the New Mysteries humankind as a whole will be given an enormous Divine task: to transform itself, and to transform the Earth into a Garden of Paradise. Within this task each person will find his or her place and will receive virtually endless possibilities for personal fulfilment and self-realisation. Figuratively speaking, the New Living Mysteries will create the most appropriate 'spiritual job' for every single human being on Earth. The constructive work on the material and  spiritual  levels  will  be  organically  integrated  and  both  together  will  form  the  reality  of  life  on  Earth  for  humankind. The New Mysteries will open the Book of the New Apocalypse that is the Book of the Living, which will record the transfiguration, co-creation, and Divine mediatorship of humankind. Century after century humankind will write in it the glorious pages of the creation of the new reality here on Earth.

The contemporary religions, which are now a special form of worship of God, will become an organic part of the daily life of humankind in the Kingdom of God. From this point of view, the New World Religion will not be a religion at all in the contemporary meaning of the word. It will introduce a new, celestial style of life in Divine Love, Peace, Joy, Wisdom and Truth, establishing the reality of the Kingdom of God down on Earth. Thus, the New World Religion comes not to replace the existing religions, but to fulfil their cherished spiritual goals.

The new creative Divine act which initiates the New Living Mysteries will change the whole perception of the world. As a result of the Second Coming and the entry into the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth, the metaphysics of the world will be different. Naturally, our physical world will be the same but the understanding of this world will change. This change is similar to the Buddhist Enlightenment after which the physical world remains the same but the enlightened see it in a completely different way.

The Testament of the 'New World Religion' is a Testament of humankind's resurrection and its immortal life in the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth. By bringing to completion the metahistorical cycle of humanity's spiritual life on Earth, initiated by the First Coming of the Masters, the New World Religion will resurrect all the 'righteous spiritual deeds' of the faithful from the various traditions throughout the centuries. In principle, we cannot complete this metahistorical cycle without contemplating the whole historical evolution of the spiritual traditions which build the various Temples in the Heavenly Jerusalem. So, when the Temples in the Holy City are revealed in their wholeness by the Second Coming of the Masters, then, by contemplating them in one single act of illumination, we are actually resurrecting the spiritual life of humankind throughout all its history on Earth.

In the new cycle of humankind's evolution in the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth, we will experience an organic integration of the historical past, the creative present, and the envisaged future. The past life of humankind on Earth will appear as the resurrected creativity in the history of the spiritual traditions. The present will be experienced as constructive spiritual work for establishing the Kingdom of God on Earth. The future will spring from God's blessing for co-creation with the Divine Masters. As in any creative work, we will envisage the projects and work then towards their realisation, thus making the potential future an inspiring, creative present, flowing towards the future. The organic, dynamic integration of the past, present and future of the spiritual life of humankind is one of the main archetypal ideas for Immortal Life in the reality of the New Heaven and the New Earth. For this immortal life we have to translate the abstract reality of philosophy, ideology, religion, ethics, aesthetics into life in the wholeness of Creation, into living mysteries arching the ancient Greek mysteries. Definitely, the legendary philosopher Plato will be very happy with this Divine task!