A blogger called GunnerQ has responded to my last post about the Masters. He was not impressed. As matter of fact, I don't actually disagree with a lot of what he says. The original article was one I wrote some years ago when I was more of a universalist than I am now and expressed myself a little differently to how I would today. At the same time, I do stand by the essentials of what the article says. There are spiritual beings who have won through the travails and tests of this world and they do stand ready to help those who are receptive to their impression. There are demons and imposters too, no doubt about that, and they are probably more readily accessible to the psychically inclined but why should we let the reality of lies deter us from the fact of truth?
GunnerQ quotes a few sections from the article and comments on them so I will do the same. He takes this passage
"the word (Master) describes souls who have mastered their lower nature, overcome the world, the flesh and the devil and passed out of the ordinary human kingdom into the fifth kingdom, that of souls united in full consciousness with God"
He responds that "we need a Savior because we cannot master ourselves and overcome the world. If you don’t know this then have you even tried to be good?"
I know what he means and he's not wrong but he has misunderstood me or I have expressed myself badly or perhaps we are just coming at things from a slightly different perspective. We assuredly cannot attain any kind of spiritual perfection by our own efforts. All comes from grace. However, it is by our own efforts that we make ourselves able to receive grace through purification of the heart and mind. That's surely standard Christian doctrine. Mastering the lower nature means controlling anger, lust, tendency to lie etc. Obeying the 10 Commandments and the injunctions to love God and love our neighbour. It means living a life of faith, hope and charity rather than one of disbelief, greed and selfishness. It's tilling the soil but obviously only God can plant the seed. Still, the ground must be well prepared if the seed is to grow as it should.
He doesn't like the phrase" divinization of consciousness". Again, I take his point. It's a clumsy phrase and many seekers after higher consciousness are indulging in the satanic attempt to be spiritual without God. On the other hand, there clearly is higher consciousness. To think we will be as we are now when we reach heaven makes no sense at all. Heaven is not just a pretty place. That's the paradise of the other big religion.
GunnerQ also doesn't like the idea of achieving theosis. Fair enough, if it's taken to mean doing that by one's own efforts but that's not how I meant it or how it would be understood in Orthodox religion from where the concept comes. Becoming a saint is the hardest thing any human being can ever do. It does require work and great effort. It's not just a matter of believing in Jesus. But GunnerQ says that the only difference between sinner and saint is repentance and that is just wrong. Repentance is merely the beginning of the road to sainthood, and it's a long hard road.
There is quite a bit more and I don't want to go through it all but I would like to correct misunderstanding, some of which I acknowledge is my fault because the article is quite old and the ideas are expressed in language that comes more from esoteric terminology than I would normally use now. A major point is that GunnerQ seems to think that I am saying the Masters come from the astral plane whereas I am saying precisely the opposite. What is called the astral plane is the plane of illusion and is where the demons operate. Then he decides that I am claiming that “I am a wise, immortal Master Spirit who has transcended mortal limitations to achieve oneness with God Himself". Not sure where he got that from but may I reassure him that nothing is further from the truth. Like him, I am a human sinner struggling to make his way in life and be faithful to God.
He concludes "Mr. Wildblood needs to accept that demons got to him in his youth, and consequently, he filled his head with esoteric garbage for many years. He’ll never overcome his human nature… let alone achieve perfection… on his own efforts. Any spirit that says otherwise, is a demon wanting company in Hell. Any human who says otherwise, has rejected the only spiritual superman that he’ll ever encounter."
I cannot overcome my fallen human nature on my own. I need Christ to enable me to do that. However, Christ needs my help too. I have to fight the falseness within me on a daily basis. I cannot just say I believe in Jesus and leave it at that. I have to fight the evil in my heart and cultivate the good and it's a constant battle. I am sure GunnerQ would agree.
Finally, I would say "by their fruits"etc. The spirits (for want of a better word) who spoke to me were pure and good and holy, full of wisdom and love. For GunnerQ to assume they were demons is rather presumptuous but I know he only does it to protect the truth as he sees it and that's reasonable enough. I didn't accept them indiscriminately but to have rejected them out of fear or suspicion would have been quite wrong and increased experience only confirmed their authenticity as far as I am concerned. I am greatly indebted to them for their spiritual advice and for pointing out the flaws in my character I needed to work on. That's all they did though always lovingly, albeit sometimes sternly too. In the context of the relationship I was a novice and they acted like a kind of father superior. However, let me reassure readers of this blog that if obliged to choose between them and Jesus I would choose Jesus every time but then I believe they were and are working under the overall leadership of Christ. A monk in a monastery obeys his abbot but sees the abbot as representing Christ. That was my position.
Anyhow I am grateful to GunnerQ for giving me the opportunity to clear up any misunderstanding. I don't think he and I are as far apart as it might seem.
10 comments:
Well, I have nothing but respect for the way you have responded to that diatribe.
I must say, I was a little beside myself after reading that post. Gunner is usually fairly solid, but that particular post was ill-tempered and grossly unfair. I won't wade into the errors and misunderstandings because you have covered those commendably here.
Thanks Frank. I very much appreciate your support.
I think if he read Meeting the Masters he'd come away with a much milder take to say the least.
I would hope so.
That's an excellent and evenhanded reply, William.
One little mix-up, though. Whatever other unfair things he said, I don't think Gunner was saying you claimed to be an immortal Master Spirit, though his awkward wording certainly invites that misreading. He quotes you as saying "One thing I would say though" and then sarcastically guesses what it is that you would say:
That “I am a wise, immortal Master Spirit who has transcended mortal limitations to achieve oneness with God Himself, yet am still so capable of being flat-out wrong that you badly flawed, mud-bound mortals must judge my teachings better than I do” puts the MORON in oxymoron?
The sentence in quotation marks is not the claim he is attributing to you but is the subject of the verb puts. The sentence in quotation marks is attributed not to you but to the Masters, and he is suggesting that you ought to find the Masters' claims (that they are "immortal Master Spirits" and yet that their teachings can and should be judged by the presumably much lesser spiritual discernment of mere mortals like yourself) to be absurdly oxymoronic.
I still disagree with his point. We must pass judgment on higher beings, not because our judgment is superior, but because you can't defer to a higher authority until you've judged it to be a higher authority ("Know ye not that we shall judge angels?"). But at least he's not making the outrageous claim that you, William Wildblood, are setting yourself up as some sort of Mahatma.
If I have misunderstood you then I apologize and would retract accordingly. You are also the only esotercist I have sampled who talks like he wants to be understood, so I confined my bile to the spirits.
Perhaps California is further gone than where you live. I know I'm developing a siege mentality and honestly, I need it. I wandered into a bookstore over Thanksgiving holiday and the Wiccan section was larger than the science fiction/fantasy section, not counting the shelves of Tarot by the front door. I know where some witch covens are because they advertise on their front lawn, like BLM yard signs. The few churches still operating either have female clergy or are megachurches. The Dia de Los Muertos is a bigger holiday than the Fourth of July despite the Latinos' cultural Catholicism. Ayahuasca and peyote are available and reportedly popular. Zero tolerance for the spirit world is the only way forward.
FYI, I have a post on esoteric religion coming up. It'll have nothing to do with you, I've already had my say and will move on, but you'll probably notice it.
Wm Jas, rereading the post I think you may be right. My bad, as they say. Still, even the spiritual beings who spoke to me would never speak like that, either literally or figuratively. On the other hand, I am well aware there are plenty that do and they are the sort you can dismiss right away.
GunnerQ, I appreciate your apology and thank you for it. I realise you were writing from the pov of someone who wants to protect goodness and truth from the many assaults on it and I took your post in that spirit. I realise that because I feel exactly the same way. For years I've been repelled (not too strong a word) by the spiritual vulgarity that is rife and the trashy esotericism of the sort you describe. In England where I am it may not be as bad as California but it's not far behind. When I wrote my books I was always very careful to separate my experience from the channelling and mediumistic stuff that's around even though it was technically similar. I still do believe genuine spiritual beings communicate with us sometimes but 99.99% of cases are from the lower realms and that's not counting the ones that are outright fakes.
I look forward to reading your post. Even though I am interested in esoteric teachings such as are found, for example, in the Meditations of the Tarot book (not really about the Tarot if you don't know it) I shall probably agree with a lot of it.
I also take GQ's post in the spirit of coming from someone whom I regard as being on the right side of the spiritual war of this world, and of good heart.
But I think GQ is making mistakes here - as evidenced by the phrase "Zero tolerance for the spirit world is the only way forward."
Because, for most mainstream modern materialistic people, this dogma would absolutely exclude all forms of Christianity - along with the kind of thing GQ wants to exclude.
If we are to have nothing at all to do with "spirits" (zero tolerance) that would surely be atheistic materialism, and exclude most definitions of being a Christian?
I don't see any real way out of the fact that Christians need to discern *between* spirits - at the very least between The Holy Ghost as we apprehend Him (which is spiritually, not materially), and other kinds of spirits; and probably also between angelic and demonic spirits (since Christians pretty much *have to* believe in angels, and demons too; given the number of mentions in the Bible, and through Christian history).
Secondly; I would say that this attitude is probably evidence of a self-defeating attitude, which is that of trying to find a "safe" way of being a Christian; and an "objective" way of knowing for sure what spiritual promptings are good and which evil.
In other words, Christians pretty much have to regard spiritual things as real, and *that* means we must discern which are good and which evil; and yet this discernment cannot be based on "objective" criteria without taking a fundamentally atheist-materialist attitude to Christianity.
You're right, Bruce. Christians see there is a lot of dirty bath water but there's a baby in that bath too. The spirit world in the true sense is the whole point of Christianity.
If I may post here a prayer, off-topic although perhaps thee topic.
Grace is power. Grace is knowledge. Grace is word. Liberation only comes through this. Know the genuine and know the counterfeit. Struggle brings unity in the end. The highest struggle one must face is against their own self. Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice. Amen.
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