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ecosophia
As mentioned in an earlier post, I've decided to make the teachings of the Octagon Society, the first of three levels of the Order of Spiritual Alchemy, freely available here. If you didn't read that post, please do so -- it explains what the OSA was and is, summarizes its history, and explains what the teachings are meant to accomplish. You can also find all the earlier OSA posts here. Since the lessons are meant to be done in sequence, if you're just joining us now, please go back to the beginning and start there. The tools you'll need for this work, as explained earlier, are a notebook and a pen, along with patience and privacy. One piece of advice: read the whole lesson from start to finish at least twice before you begin the work. It was quite common for people back in the day to read only part of the lesson, misunderstand it, and either get the instructions scrambled or fly off the handle completely. We are dealing with emotionally difficult issues here, and it's worth taking the time to be sure you understand the instructions.
The papers below are the last set of practical instructions given to students in the Octagon Society, and will qualify you for the rank of 8/8. This last round of work is the most difficult stage for most people, and you are not expected to complete it perfectly on the first try. Give it one to two weeks of sustained effort, as before. You can always return to these lessons, and if you choose to continue with the work of the Order of Spiritual Alchemy, you will be expected to go through the Octagon Society lessons several times.
Next week I will post instructions for those who wish to proceed to the next stage, the Order of the Temple of Solomon -- the second level of the Order of Spiritual Alchemy. The work of the Octagon Society is an essential foundation for everything taught in the Order of the Temple of Solomon, and so the work of the Temple is only available to those who have proceeded through the eight steps of the Octagon Society work. As already noted, this does not mean you have to complete that work perfectly. It means that you have given each of the stages your honest effort and learned something of what it has to teach. If you have done this, you will be prepared to proceed.
The Octagon Society
The Eighth Law: The Law of Unconditional Love
Congratulations on your advancement to the rank of 7/8 in the Octagon Society. You've now reached the final part of this phase of your spiritual-alchemical journey. You now have access to all Eight Laws: the Law of Acceptance, the Law of Happiness, the Law of Joy, the Law of Peace, the Law of Forgiveness, the Law of Strength, the Law of Teaching, and the Law of Unconditional Love.
Unconditional love is exactly what it sounds like: love without conditions. So often we hedge about our love with conditions, or even convince ourselves that we can only love because of this or that thing that someone else thinks, says, or does. In reality, love is a choice. We choose to love, or not to love. We choose to place conditions on our love, or not to do so. We choose to fill our lives and the world around us with love—or we choose not to. It’s up to us. This is the Law of Unconditional Love: Love is the ultimate expression of our freedom as spiritual beings. When we choose to love unconditionally, rather than making our love depend on condition and circumstances, we become free of all the burdens of our past, and we become free to embrace whatever future we choose.
Learning to love unconditionally is another very difficult task in the work of spiritual alchemy, though it is easier than it could be, because of the previous steps we’ve taken on our spiritual-alchemical journey. If you have already learned to accept the people in your life, and then learned to forgive the people in your life, taking the next step to love unconditionally the people in your life becomes easier. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy!
It is important not to misunderstand unconditional love. To love someone unconditionally does not mean to ignore their less lovable characteristics, much less to pretend that these don’t exist. It does not mean to forget what that person might have done in the past. It does not mean that you have to give someone who harmed you free rein to harm you again. It means that neither that person nor anyone else has the power to make you stop loving. It means that love is a free act on your part, not something that is controlled or conditioned by people or things outside you.
You may find, despite the work you’ve already done on the path of spiritual alchemy, that you are not yet able to direct unconditional love toward everyone and everything in your life. If you haven’t yet been able to accept or forgive someone or something, it’s a safe bet that you won’t yet be able to love them unconditionally either. If there are people, places, or things you can’t yet love unconditionally, accept that fact, forgive yourself for it, and love yourself unconditionally. As you become more aware of the power of unconditional love to transform yourself and everything around you, you will find that it’s easier to direct unconditional love even to those people, places, and things you thought you couldn’t possibly love.
Difficult as this step may be, it is worth taking. The Law of Unconditional Love is the Third Gateway to Adepthood, the third doorway we need to enter to follow our spiritual path and become the person we want to be. The Third Gateway is the Third Great Secret. The secret is that learning to direct unconditional love toward all things and all beings, including ourselves, is an essential part of our spiritual path. The secret is that learning to love ourselves and all others unconditionally is a requirement for Transformation. The secret is that loving ourselves and all others unconditionally is a requirement for creating the Philosopher's Stone. Unconditional love is the Third Great Secret.
Going through the Third Gateway takes us further down the spiritual path that leads to Illumination, Enlightenment, and Rebirth as a new person. The Key to the Third Gateway is called the Golden Key and the Third Gateway is the Golden Gate of the Ancients. The Golden Key is unconditional love for yourself and all others. Use this key and you open the gate. Use this Key and you can pass through the Third Gateway.
The Divine loves all things in the universe unconditionally. One essential goal of spiritual alchemy, and of the broader spiritual path in which it has a central role, is to become like the Divine, to the extent of being able to love everyone and everything unconditionally. We proceed toward the summit of our spiritual path to the extent we're able to accomplish this goal. We progress along this path in eight separate and distinct steps:
• Love your father unconditionally
• Love your mother unconditionally
• Love your children, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins unconditionally
• Love your aunts, uncles, grandparents, great uncles, great aunts, and all your ancestors unconditionally
• Love your spouse, lovers, friends, fellow students and fellow employees unconditionally
• Love your enemies and antagonists unconditionally
• Love all other persons, places, and things unconditionally
• Love yourself unconditionally
1. Your first task is to love your father unconditionally. Review the work you have done with your memories and experiences of your father in passing through the previous ranks of the Octagon Society, reading what you wrote in the first task of each step you’ve taken. You have accepted your father; you have reviewed the feelings of sadness, fear, and anger you feel toward him, or because of him; you have forgiven him; you have started to make positive changes in your life; and you have reviewed all the good things you learned from him, or because of him. With all this in mind, practice the Breath of Unconditional Love until you feel that you can love him unconditionally. You may also find it useful to do the Letter of Love exercise. Both of these are explained at the end of this section.
2. Your second task is to love your mother unconditionally. Follow the same strategy for your mother as you did for your father. Continue in this manner until you feel you love your mother unconditionally, to the extent you can at this time. This completes your second task.
3. Your third task is to love your children, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins unconditionally. Follow the same strategy as you did for the other steps in this sequence. Continue in this manner until you feel you love them unconditionally, to the extent you can at this time. This completes your third task.
4. Your fourth task is to love your aunts, uncles, grandparents, great uncles, great aunts, and all your ancestors unconditionally. Follow the same strategy as you did for your father. Continue in this manner until you feel you love them unconditionally, to the extent you can at this time. This completes your fourth task.
5. Your fifth task is to love your spouse, lovers, friends, fellow students and fellow employees unconditionally. Follow the same strategy as you did for the other steps in this sequence. Continue in this manner until you feel you love them unconditionally, to the extent you can at this time. This completes your fifth task.
6. Your sixth task is to love your enemies and antagonists unconditionally. Many people find this to be a very difficult project! It can be the ultimate test of your own freedom: to direct unconditional love at those who hate you. Follow the same strategy as you did for the other steps in this sequence. Continue in this manner until you feel you love them unconditionally, to the extent you can at this time. This completes your sixth task.
7. Your seventh task is to love all other persons, places, and things unconditionally. Follow the same strategy as you did for the other steps in this sequence. Continue in this manner until you feel you love them unconditionally, to the extent you can at this time. This completes your seventh task.
8. Your eighth task is to love yourself unconditionally. Many people find this just as difficult a project as loving their enemies and antagonists! Follow the same strategy as you did for the other steps in this sequence. Continue in this manner until you feel you love yourself unconditionally, to the extent you can at this time. This completes your eighth and final task.
When you've completed these tasks to your satisfaction for all eight of these steps, you have completed all eight of the lessons of the Order of Spiritual Alchemy’s first section, and have fulfilled the requirements for the rank of 8/8, the highest rank in the Octagon Society and the threshold of the work to come.
If you’ve gone through all eight ranks from 1/8 to 8/8 in eight weeks or less, you may find it helpful to go back over the work and make sure that you’ve really given it your honest effort. If sixteen weeks have gone by and you haven’t yet reached the work of the 8/8, you may find it helpful to look at how you’re doing the work in order to make sure that you’re not unduly delaying yourself. Progress, not perfection, is the goal of the work! Under most circumstances, your first passage through the eight levels of the Octagon Society, from 1/8 through 8/8, should take between eight and sixteen weeks, not counting the three preliminary lessons.
The Letter of Love
As you proceed through this stage of the work, you may find it helpful to use a simple technique that was developed many years ago by members of our order. This is the technique of writing out your feelings toward some person, as though you were writing that person a letter. This is called the Letter of Love. Write it in the same notebook you use for the rest of your Octagon Society lessons. You’re not going to mail it, and nobody else will ever see it, so you can be completely honest.
In your Letter of Love, explain to the person what they did that made it difficult for you to accept them, and tell them that you accept them as they are despite these things. Explain what it was you had to forgive, and tell them that you forgive them for these things. Explain why it was difficult for you to love them unconditionally, and tell them that you love them unconditionally. Then sign the letter.
Write a Letter of Love to as many people as seems appropriate. Don’t forget to consider writing a Letter of Love to yourself! Take your time and let yourself go through the emotional response that writing the letter will likely stir up. Accept, forgive, and love yourself as you do this.
You may also find the following breathing exercise useful in the work of this stage.
Breath of Unconditional Love
The Breath of Love is the third and final breathing meditation technique we recommend to our students. You should already be familiar with both the Breath of Acceptance and the Breath of Forgiveness. If not, now's a good time to review those techniques.
Stage Five of the Final Phase is to love ourselves. Having forgiven yourself and all others, you're now in the position to love all people, places, things and events in the Creation. Until you've forgiven yourself and all others, your capacity to unconditionally love anyone or anything is limited. This limitation restricts your ability to heal yourself and others. But before you can love any other person, place or thing unconditionally, you must first learn to love yourself.
Send the message to your own image during the pause in your breathing that you love your body just the way it is, you love your mind just the way it is, you love your heart, soul and spirit just the way they are. You accept your imperfections knowing these are the tools to help you learn. You accept your limitations knowing they confine the space of your learning, the space in which you need to do whatever it is you need to do.
Love yourself for who and what you are – a child of Deity with a purpose you are now beginning to understand and one you're willing to perform. Love yourself so you can love others. Love yourself so you can heal yourself and others. Love yourself because you're a Child of Deity who receives the unconditional love of the Divine. Love is a decision. Decide to love yourself.
Stage Six of The Final Phase is to love all other people, places and things. Once you accept and forgive yourself and others, and once you learn to love yourself, you're in the proper place to decide to love all other people, places and things. Love is a decision. We decide what we're going to love and what we're going to avoid loving. Decide during your breathing meditation to love everyone and everything. Then love yourself, others and all other things.
Stage Seven of The Final Phase is to love the Divine, in whatever form we experience the Divine. This is the final stage of our spiritual meditation. We cannot honestly love the Creator until we love the creation. When we reach the point where we love the creation and everything in the creation, we reach the point where we're able to decide to love the Divine. Make that decision and transform yourself forever.
Imagine the Creator and all of creation standing before you during the pause in your breathing meditation. Consciously say: "I love you unconditionally. I love myself unconditionally. I love you and your creation unconditionally."
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-14 08:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-14 09:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-14 10:28 pm (UTC)I've worked with that extensively in the past. A singularly powerful practice. Very hard. Needs constant reapplication.
Thinking about being unable to unconditionally love and a thought and feeling of anger arose to my attention. There's the block...
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-14 10:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-14 08:43 pm (UTC)You can download a free sample here: https://www.readpbn.com/pdf/Self-Discipline-in-10-days-How-To-Go-From-Thinking-to-Doing-Sample-Pages.pdf and the actual book is available in all the usual places.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-14 09:14 pm (UTC)Enemies
Date: 2021-10-15 03:10 am (UTC)I'm struggling with the sixth group of people in each step - enemies and antagonists. I simply don't feel that I have any. Sure, there are/were people in my life with whom it was difficult to have a good relationship. I've experienced a good share of bullying back as a child/teenager and some forms of abuse. I do experience moments and periods of animosity and anger towards some people past and present but in those moments I tend to feel angry or sad about a lot of people and sometimes it is focused on the people I love and care about. Those moments and periods are temporary and when they go away I can't really call anyone an enemy. Not even the politicians who drive up these 'green passes' right now. They all belong more to the category of 'all other people' rather than to 'enemies'.
It feels as if somehow labeling someone an 'enemy' locks me into an antagonistic relationship with them that I see no point of having.
Any advise on how to deal with this?
Re: Enemies
Date: 2021-10-15 03:42 pm (UTC)Forgiveness
Date: 2021-10-15 09:25 am (UTC)How do you suggest dealing with the body of people who appear hell-bent on doing many of us harm?
Count the ways at the moment.
Just forgive them and get on with life seems a bit trite considering their in your face determination to do harm.
Thanks
Re: Forgiveness
Date: 2021-10-15 03:50 pm (UTC)Unconditional love is the same way. It's entirely possible to fight someone on the battlefield and kill them while directing unconditional love toward them -- the Bhagavad-Gita and Japanese Zen literature from the Sengoku Jidai, the era of warring clans, are especially clear on this. The sword of the warrior is at its highest effectiveness when it's motivated by unconditional love.
Re: Forgiveness
Date: 2021-10-16 04:20 am (UTC)Tonight I am feeling quite fond of our host, his wife, and my fellow readers, coincidentally. 🥰
—Lady Cutekitten
Re: Forgiveness
Date: 2021-10-16 05:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-15 01:05 pm (UTC)I have my own thoughts getting ready to jump in, but honestly I couldn't help but think bout how blind these people were to certain ideas and actions, why they would be done or created. There is an importance of the foundational principles, no matter how common, to a prospective member of a group. I'm sure you've gotten many thanks already, but thank you again for sharing and prompting people to think.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-15 03:52 pm (UTC)As for the OSA, you can find a fait amount of it stored on archive.org's Wayback Machine, but other than that, yeah, it's vanished. I intend to fix that.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-15 03:54 pm (UTC)http://forum.alchemyforums.com/showthread.php?744-The-Order-of-Spiritual-Alchemy
16 Days average per Lesson?
Date: 2021-10-15 03:24 pm (UTC)It seems to be taking me on average 16 days per lesson. One day to do the writing on a category, a second to the reflection x 8. This is two days over the two week limitation, but strikes me as a reasonable way to work through the lessons. I can squeeze out some of the people perhaps in the mid-later categories (cousins, archduke uncles, etc.) (Wait, I don't have an archduke uncle.) Thoughts?
Know Wonder
Re: 16 Days average per Lesson?
Date: 2021-10-15 03:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-15 08:12 pm (UTC)I've started practical work on the website after some web development refresher and I had a few questions for you regarding the content that you'd like to see on the website and some design elements. These are the requirements that I have thus far:
* Lessons available in both html and pdf formats.
* Registering a domain name (alchemicalorder.org is available) spiritualalchemy.org as well
* Information about the Order from the old webpage
-----
Anything you'd like to add to that?
Should I format the lessons for ebook/kindle too? There is a way to write them up in markup and then generate from that the other formats
Should I keep the same egyptian style logo?
There are also links to the Temple of Solomon and the OSA, are you keeping the same structure of grades?
Do you want me to add user login functionality to track the users' progress and make the corresponding resources available to them? Say if a OS member having competed the 8/8 lessons logs in he can see the corresponding material; administrators can upgrade a users "grade" and such.
Should I add the "Articles" and "Resources" section? Some of it seems relevant but most point to other organizations.
Lastly, what do you think of something like this? With the appropriate modifications and additions, of course, these are just templates that can be modified extensively. Here are three options.
https://startbootstrap.com/previews/agency
https://startbootstrap.com/previews/grayscale
https://startbootstrap.com/previews/clean-blog-jekyll
Also, that was intense. I'll be spending some time away and "alone" to recalibrate some important aspects so will be coming here much less often if at all for a while starting next week. I only mention this so that it doesn't seem like I disappeared, because Ive been coming here fairly often I thought I should let you know. :-)
I will be available through email for further discussion about this if needed though.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-15 09:01 pm (UTC)2) Ebook and Kindle formats for the lessons would be great.
3) The Egyptian logo, on the other hand, isn't something I want to keep. I'd much rather have graphics taken from alchemical sources; https://alchemywebsite.com/images_s.html is a good source online.
4) Links to the Order of the Temple of Solomon and the OSA proper should be in a members only section, so
5) There doesn't need to be a lot of tracking, just a division into a public webpage (where the Octagon Society material is located) and a members webpage (where the other two branches are). A members login capacity would be very useful.
6) I'd like to see a resources page that has links to good alchemy websites, but that's about it.
7) Something along those lines would be fine.
8) Enjoy your break!
Thanks!
Date: 2021-10-16 12:57 am (UTC)* I fully realize I can't 'make' time. It is quite challenging managing the time that is allotted to me & I just to work with what is with my control (exercise of will). Sigh.
Re: Thanks!
Date: 2021-10-16 02:31 am (UTC)What is love?
Date: 2021-10-17 05:51 pm (UTC)I am not currently doing the course because of time constraints, but I am reading the lessons.
It might sound a stupid question but what is it to love unconditionally?
Generally I don't have much affinity with most people. I am not indifferent to their fates but rather detached. I wish them well and wish them no harm and I am sad to see people suffer. Where possible I help and give charity and have a sympathetic ear. I believe I am respectful and considerate to people I encounter, but to love unconditionally....what does it mean? What does it entail? What are the consequences of unconditional love?
For me to love is to find affinities with others and enjoy being with them and want to share and exchange with them.
It's not something I want to do with most people. Hence, unconditional love is not something I appear to comprehend. Any comments?
I would unconditionally love to hear them....
PS: sorry for the cheap pun, I can't help it....
Re: What is love?
Date: 2021-10-18 03:54 am (UTC)Re: What is love?
Date: 2021-10-18 09:36 am (UTC)Lots of fodder for my not so daily meditations...
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-18 03:50 am (UTC)I seem to have another permutation of a situation that might warrant wording changes. This is in conjunction with lesson 1/3, about things that make us unhappy or sad.
The text says "List the things all other persons whatsoever did to you that made you feel sad or unhappy" about conditions or situations that are not caused by persons but that still make you unhappy.
My issue is not with a person. I'm not particularly happy about where I live (and that feeling tends to dominate when I walk out my front door). Now, I live here and not elsewhere because of another person's influence, yes, however my unhappiness with his role in this is distinct from my unhappiness with the situation,and with the place itself (and what I perceive as its deficits)...
I'd be curious to know how you'd approach something that's not so human-centric.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-18 03:57 am (UTC)But that would be experimental, of course. I'd suggest giving it a try one way or another, and letting me know how it works.
(no subject)
Date: 2021-10-18 04:05 am (UTC)For the day I actully free time...
Date: 2021-10-19 04:27 pm (UTC)Do you have any intention of collecting all these and putting them into print? I keep glancing with each new post but between babies and work, this is a long term goal to dive into. Your thoughts?