March 31, 2024 • 46 mins
Replay from the dark times of COVID - In this is a very special episode of The Abracast we are going to talk about the meaning of Easter, in the context of the weird times we are living through. Let’s talk about the divine act of sacrifice, loving your neighbor and salvation through the self, in these turbulent times.
Featured Material:
Easter Sermon – Eldon Reich 2004
Gnosticism New Light on The Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing – Stephan Hoeller
The Bible
***Credits***
Featured Material:
Easter Sermon – Eldon Reich 2004
Gnosticism New Light on The Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing – Stephan Hoeller
The Bible
***Credits***
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- Written / Produced / researched / Performed – Jon Towers
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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In the dark shadows, in thewhite cold. Fearlessly we search for knowledge
new and old. We drink thestrong spirits and read the ancient toms the
order of the abra cast We arethe brave and the bold. After the
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Sabbath, at the dawn of thefirst day of the week, Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary went to lookat the tomb. There was a violent
earthquake, for an angel of theLord came down from heaven, and,
going to the tomb, rolled backthe stone and sat on it. His
appearance was like lightning, and hisclothes were white as snow. And the
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guards were so afraid of him thatthey shook and became like dead men.
And the angel said to the women, do not be afraid, for I
know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not
here. He has risen, justas he said. Come and see the
place where he lay, and thengo quickly and tell his disciples that he
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has risen from the dead and isgoing ahead of you into Galilee. There
you will see him. And nowI have told you Matthew twenty eight one
through seven. The abracast A culthistory, conspiracy and violence, preaching to
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you from the Sigmada Studios Cathedral andQuarantine Zone Taco stand in the heart of
this deal city. I am doctorJohn Towers, and this is a very
special Easter sermon episode of the Abercast. I'm not gonna lie. I never
preached the gospel before, and ifyou are a listener, you know I've
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said some pretty terrible things about God. I mean, just some despicable things
about God. So I want toapproach this as sort of a deeper story
other than Christian mythology. It's astory. It's a story about me,
the story about you, the storyabout us. I want to talk about
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sacrificing. You want to talk aboutsacrifice and taking care of each other in
this weird fucking time we're suffering through. So I'm not gonna lie. It
was fun putting this together because we'regonna there's some there's some funny like quarantine
synchronicities in some of the stuff we'regonna be talking about tonight, So I
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think I think it's cute. I'mprobably not gonna call all of them out
as we go through, but there'sone in particular that just hilarious. So
before we get started, a couplethings. Please check out the website.
This very special Easter sermon episode ofthe Abercast is free, but it is
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on our Patreon and subscribe to ourfeeds. Please check out the website,
and please consider supporting the show insome kind of degree of the Abercast.
You can find the information for thatabraca. Also, while you're there,
check out the shirts. We're rollingnew shirts out all the time. They're
great shirts, they're the best shirts, the best shirts. I'm looking forward
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to getting my magic Circle shirt inthe mail this week. I'm very excited
about it. That's how you practicesocial distancing Sun Magic circles. So while
we'll talk about Patreon and Subscribe Star, if you have a vessel of the
art, you're generous enough to havea vessel of the art, please raise
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it to the sky. And asall of our ham and stuff is digesting,
let us thank our Patreon and SubscribeStar supporters. Thank you, guys.
We got a new one. I'llintroduce some the next regular show.
So here's you, guys. Thankyou very much for your support. Please
consider supporting the show. So thefuture material for this evening, this sermon,
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at least the first part of itwas inspired here to buy a sermon
this guy named Eldon Reich wrote isentitled Easter. I kind of used it
as a springboard to talk about someof the things that he talked about in
his sermon. But we're also goingto be talking about gnosticism. A New
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light on the ancient tradition of InnerKnowing by Stephen Holler, Doctor Stephen Ahler
Heller. I think he pronounces Iam. It's an essential book. It
should be in the indispensable book list. If it's not already, I'm sure.
I'm sure it's there. It hasto be there, all right,
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So let's get into this thing.Huh, that's so bad. I didn't
babble for so long. Okay,It's Easter Sunday. And if you believe
in this good book, you knowthat it's God's grace has been given for
this world. John three point sixteenhas been fulfilled. Psalm's twenty three has
been given flesh and blood, andPsalms twenty three as a psalm of David,
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and it's the classic. The Lordis my shepherd, and I shall
not want it makes me lie downin green pastures, and he leads me
beside the quiet waters. He restoresmy soul, and he guides me in
paths of righteousness. And for hisname's sake, even though I walk through
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the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you
or with me. Your rod andyour staff they comfort me. You prepare
a table before me in the presenceof my enemies. You anoint my head
with oil. My cup overflows.Surely, goodness and love will follow me
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all the days of my life,and I will dwell in the House of
the Lord forever. So we're gonnamove on to the next one. But
before we do, I just wantyou to put a pin in it.
I want you to put a pinon Psalm's twenty three four, because it's
gonna come back to us in avery subtle way. So I'm twenty three
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four. Even though I walk throughthe valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. Matthewtwenty three thirty seven has been obeyed.
This is the commandment. And Jesussaid, love the Lord your God with
all of your heart, and withall of your soul, and with all
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of your mind. This is thefirst and greatest commandment. And the second
is like it. Love your neighboras yourself. All the law and the
prophets hung on these two commandments.So I also want you to put a
pin. Love God with all yourheart and all your soul and all of
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your mind. Also love your neighbors. That's a good part too. So
Jesus has won the battle. Jesusis victorious, and with his sacrifice we
are redeemed. The letter of Paulto the Ephesians one seven and eight.
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In him we have redemption through hisblood and the forgiveness of sins, in
accordance with the riches of God's gracethat He lavish on us. With all
the wisdom and the understanding, thereis a state of grace to be obtained
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through sacrifice. I actually think thatthere is a state of u There's a
you could start on this road tothis state of grace if we ever get
out of this quarantine. Am Iright start on this road just by witnessing
a sacrifice or just witnessing an actof kindness, an unexpected thing. I
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see a lot of that in ourworld right now, Folks going out of
their way to help each other.So if there's anything positive to come out
of this nonsense, I think thatthat might be one of them. So
there's this old story, this oldstory about a lizard. No not that
one. Okay, there's an oldurban legend about a lizard in Japan.
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No, not that one. Sothere's this urban legend about this. This
Japanese guy remodeling his house. It'dbeen like built or remodeled like ten years
or something previous to that. Andhe's in there working on his house and
he's like tearing floorboards and whatnot outand he finds this lizard, this living
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lizard, stuck in a stuck inthis wall, and his foot has been
nailed from the outside. So likewhen they built this house, someone accidentally
nailed this lizard this to this board, and this thing was alive. It
was surviving for ten years, nailedto the nailed to this, nailed to
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this board in this dark crevice,Like think of the hell that this little
lizard has been in for ten years, stuck And the guy started thinking like,
well, how is this motherfucking lizardstill alive? So he's looking at
it and he's just like So thisguy stops his work and he's observing this
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poor fucking amaziated enter feed lizard thatliterally can't move anywhere because he's fucking nailed
to this board. And after alittle bit of time, another lizard shows
up with food in its mouth andhe starts feeding this this lizard that's nailed
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to this board. And that's howthis poor lizard is surviving. This other
little lizard had been feeding its partnerfor ten years without giving up. That
is a sacrifice. That is asacrificial giving. So there is this whole
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Gnostic twist on this story that I'mgonna skip. You know, something about
a lizard being nailed to a pieceof a piece of wood. Anyways,
so according to this book, thebab bull God had created this flawless world,
and he had created these people withfree will, as a man and
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a woman who had free will,and you know, whatever they did and
they had sex, or they atean apple or in my canaan eve figured
out how to make wine. Andthat goes to Cain, who is a
farmer or a gardener, and thatgoes to Noah gardening these wine dudes.
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Right. So anyhow, this wholeOld Testament God was wandering around and he
was just changing the rules all thetime. These guideline, these rules to
salvation you know, you have towatch what you wear. You can't wear
this thing and that thing together.Fucking is God being like in his OCD
phase. You can't eat this,You can only eat that. No shrimp
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for you in all of this untilwe get to this idea of him or
a part of him becoming a man, or him making a sun to be
you know, hung out or hungup to dry or to die whatever,
to sacrifice for whatever. This sinwas, this sin of disobeying. And
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so we're gonna shift gears here alittle bit, switch books. We're gonna
be talking from Stephen Huller's Gnosticism,New Light on an ancient tradition of inner
knowing. Doctor Holler starts chapter fiveout by talking about who is this Jesus
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anyways here to the book at thebeginning of the twenty first century, we
readily encounter a bewildering number of characterizationsof Jesus in the world of popular entertainment.
The legacy of the sixties included JesusChrist Superstar, where Jesus appears as
somewhat eccentric social critic and perilous sphereof politics. And we find the liberation
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theologians who do their best to portrayJesus as a proto Marxist revolutionary, a
sort of first century cha Rivera.In the more sober world of scholarship,
we find the rather dull Jesus ofthe Jesus Seminar and of the Blah blah
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blah let's kip ahead. To these, we might add the phallic, psychedelic
Jesus presented by the eccentric Dead SeaScroll scholar John Allegro, or the scheming
Jesus extolled by Allegro's colleague Hugh Shonenfield, the revolutionary Jesus, the sensuous Jesus.
So many jesus Is, and solittle clarity. In the last quarter
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of the twentieth century we are introducedto them all. All of these images
of Jesus, and quoint a fewmore are based on the New Testament.
It has been pointed out that morethan once that on the basis of this
evidence, the central figure of Christianitycan be made out to be almost anything
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anyone wants him to be. Eversince his in reduction of the rationalistic approach
of the Bible in the form ofa higher Biblical criticism and similar approaches,
the search for this historical Jesus hasbeen on, yet in more than one
way, this search seems to havefailed. Neglected, however, perhaps is
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the most influential Jesus of early Christendom. This gnostic Jesus. To the early
Christians, Jesus was not so muchhistorical figure as an inspiration witness. For
instance, Paul's Apostle Paul the Apostlesdescription of Jesus as far above all rule
of authority and power to dominion inover every name that is named, not
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only in this age aon, butthat which is to come. This statement
is so gnostic and tone that onemight conclude that Paul and the others did
view Jesus in gnostic terms, asa being superior to authorities in their kin,
the demiurge and the Arkans of thislower world. For a long time,
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the only sources for the teaching ofJesus were the four Gospels. Of
these, the Gospel of John hasalways been the favorite of gnostics and agnosticizing
isotericists throughout history. Along with themiracle stories, the accounts of the Passions,
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the Death, and the Resurrection ofthe Gospel of John includes a number
of discourses attributed to Jesus that havea great deal in common with the teachings
indistinctly gnostic literature. The Gospel ofJohn is not only canonical evidence for the
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gnostic character of the teaching of Jesus. At least part of the considerable body
of the sayings of Jesus incorporated agnostic of Matthew and Luke, sometimes even
Mark. Many of the sayings andthe canonical Gospels contain teachings that make emminent
sense when interpreted in a gnostic light. A good example is the parable of
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the wheat and the tears in Markthirteen twenty four through thirty. A man
sows a good wheat and seeds hisfield, but later he finds that an
enemy has sown weeds among the wheat. When the workers ask if they should
pull the weeds out, the farmertells them to allow both the wheat and
the weeds to grow until the timeof the harvest one the two can be
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more easily separated. According to Gnosticteachings, the world is a mixture of
seeds of light and darkness. Althoughit is impossible to distinguish between them now,
the fullest of time, they willseparate naturally as ordained Jesus as a
Gnostic teacher. There are many sayingsattributed to a Jesus that are not found
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in the canonical Gospels, but areincluded in Gnostic scriptures. The greatest profusion
of these is in the Gnostic orthe Gospel according to Thomas, which is
part of the Nagamadi collection. TheGnostic scribes seem to have been principally interested
in recording the teachings of this Jesuscharacterized as secret, the meaning the teaching
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of strictly gnostic character that he gaveto select disciples after his resurrection. How
then the Gnostics view Jesus, well, there's a little doubt that they revered
him exceedingly, that they saw himas a manifestation of the Highest Godhead,
and that they regarded him as theliberator and enlightener who burst open the prison
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of humanity's confinement in material and mentalunconsciousness. According to the Gnostic tradition,
Jesus exercised his ministry in two principalways. The first of that might be
called his ministry of teaching, andthe second was a sacramental ministry of initiatory
and liberating mysteries. It is quitelikely that there are common people in Palestine
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regarded him primarily as a rabbi ora lay teacher of religion, since he
did not belong to the hereditary priestlyclass. Thus, in the sense,
the role of teacher was his externalpersona, while that of the spiritual hierophant
was more hidden. The majority ofthe sayings of a Jesus contained in the
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Gospel, according to Thomas, canbe classified under fourheadings. The saying concerning
the human condition, the sayings regardinghuman conduct, the sayings alluding to his
own role as a redeemer or liberator. And sayings emphasizing the importance of self
knowledge and precondition for the knowledge ofthe divine. So I needed to get
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there, the self knowledge and theprecondition for the knowledge of the divine,
And I'm gonna skip ahead. Weneeded to get to that before I can
move forward the atonement or liberation.We're asking, did this story of this
crucifixion and resurrection take place to payfor the sins? Or did it take
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place to liberate us? The dominantcon contemporary Christian belief is that Jesus came
to atone for the sins of humankind. And thus make salvation possible. The
justification for this belief is, inbrief, God created the world, which
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became a fallen world world due toGod's wrath. Once the first humans disobeyed
God, death and suffering were introducedinto what until then had been paradise of
creation and time. God's wrath waned, and he sought to reconcile himself with
humankind again. And the agents ofreconciliation was God's only begotten son of Jesus
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Christ, who was sent by hisfather into the world to suffer and to
die on the cross for the sinsof humanity, including the original sin committed
by the ancestors of the human race. The postulates of the atonement theology have
come under question as a result ofthe scientific discoveries of the last two centuries.
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If death was brought into the worldby human sin, how is it
that so many life forms perished longbefore human life appeared on Earth. Life
was preying upon life long before menand women joined the fray. Perhaps the
original creation was not as benign andparadisical as we have thought. Perhaps the
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world has always been what has aptlybeen called a giant predatory cafeteria, and
humans merely became part of the foodchain in a relatively late period. Gnostic
followers of Christ, quite early inthe history of the Christian faith, refused
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to go along with the atonement theology, even without the evidence of biology and
paleontology. They did not accept thenotion that a good world had been corrupted
by evil humans and had to bereconciled to a wrathful God by the torment
of death, the torment and deathof Jesus. Does this mean that Nostia
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did not regard Jesus as the Redeemer. Far from it, says Holler.
As we saw earlier, the Gnosticsfelt that they were strangers on this earth
and indeed in the cosmos, andone of their teachers, a Marconian,
called this world heca cellula creatoris,meaning the prison cell made by the Creator
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the Man. Indean Gnostic scriptures ofGenza admonishes human beings, thou wert not
from here in thy root of wasnot of this world. The Redeemer came
not to pacify his angry father bydying, but rather to take captivity.
Captive, as a Gnostic phrase expressedit, to liberate the folorn strangers from
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the prison cell where they had foundthemselves people only superficially acquainted with narcissism.
Often concluded to the gnostic, salvationor liberty is an unmediated experience, requiring
no savior. Nothing could be fartherfrom the truth. The human spirit,
save the Gnostics, came into thisworld from outside of it, and thus
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the stimulus for liberation must also comefrom outside. True, the liberating spirit
potential resides in the depths or perhapsthe better the heights, of the human
soul itself, but realization of thispotential requires a powerful intervention. This assistance
is rendered by beings whom certain schoolsof gnosticism called the messengers of Light,
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salvific messianic figures sent by the highestGodhead. The great gnostic prophet Manni of
Persia states this clearly, Wisdom andgood deeds have always, from time to
time been brought to mankind by themessengers of God. In this one age,
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they have been brought by the messengercalled Buddha to India, and another
Zarathustra Tyran, and another by Jesusto the West. Thereupon this revelation has
come down. This prophecy is thelater age through Me Manny, the Apostle
of God and the Truth of Babylon. Let's skip ahead a little bit.
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Actually we're gonna do this. Learnmore at abracast dot com. Get bonus
(25:48):
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(26:15):
Hey, before we pick it backup, I just want to remind everyone
to check out the website. Checkout the t shirts, t shirt and
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think about if you would consider ifyou may supporting the show. We get
(26:41):
at least one bonus thing episode everymonth, you get access to all the
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So just consider it, please,All right, back to the book.
In Christian Gnocissism, the great Strangeris Jesus, and many scriptures of
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the nostri tradition he is called thelogos and others the sot, which is
a healer or a savior, andmany Chrystos, which is the anointed one.
The exact relationship of these names toeach other is not always clear.
There are indications that the Gnostics believethat the spiritual Christ descended into the person
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of Jesus at the time of hisbaptism and the River Jordan at the hands
of John the baptizer. Jesus wasalso regarded as a holy and supernal being
from birth to sum up. Thesalvation of the Gnostics means not reconciliation with
an angry God but by way ofthe death of his son, but rather
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liberation from the stupor induced by earthlyexistence and by awakening. In this way
of gnosis, Gnostics do not holdthat any kind of sin, including that
of Adam or Eve, is powerfulenough to cause the degradation of the entire
manifest world. The world is flawed, because that is its nature. But
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humans can become free from this confinement. In this flawed world and from this
unconsciousness that accompanies the confinement. Jesusbecame the messenger and the liberator in Those
who take this message to heart andparticipate in his mysteries are like the disciple
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Thomas. Saved by gnosis. Isit a resurrection or an awakening? One
of the most portentous accusations voicing itsGnostics by the Orthodox is that they rejected
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the resurrection of Jesus. Remember thisis our Easter episode. In fact,
there is no evidence that the Gnosticsdoesn't denied the resurrection. They did say,
however, that the resurrection, likemost events around recounted in the New
Testament, is not to be takenliterally. Some sort of reanimation of Jesus's
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body may have taken place on Eastermorning. In fact, and most Gnostic
scriptures in the post resurrection, Jesusis referred to as the living One,
an equivalent to the Latin readvisius,one who has returned to life. But
this does not mean that Jesus cameback to life in a physical body like
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ours. This crude matter, arewe some Yoda impression? Fire strikes back
as Gnostic as fuck everybody. I'mjust gonna put that, get that out
of my system. They should doa whole thing on that. Indeed,
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there was doubt whether he ever occupieda physical body like our own. Physical
bodies do not walk on water,they do not pass through walls or shine
like the sun. The precise natureof Jesus's body is a mystery, said
the Gnostics, and they felt thisapply to both the body he occupied before
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the resurrection and the one which heappeared in after. In fact, the
canonical gospels are uncertain regarding the precisenature of this resurrection body occupied by Jesus.
Certainly, some gospel accounts suggest thatit was solid and composed of flesh.
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However, others leave room for doubt. The story of the Road to
Aminius, recounted both Luke and Mark, states that Jesus appeared in another form.
This is not my final form.No, we know it's not his
final form, because he comes backwith a sword of fire in his mouth,
and this all this stuff that weread about later, and that after
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he blessed the bread at the table, he simply vanished into thin air.
In the Gospel of John, MaryMagdalen, who is surely well acquainted with
her master's appearance, encounters him nearthe grave and mistakes him for the gardener.
The gardener after she recognizes him,and he instructs her not to touch
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him. This command the celebrated nole me tang ray, which means do
not touch me. Social distancing Mary, which gives rise to so much sacred
art can certainly be in interpreted asindicating that his body was insubstantial. Elaine
Pagel's in her book Gnostic Gospels states, so, if some of the New
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Testament stories insist on a literal viewof the resurrection, others lend themselves to
different interpretations which was more important aboutJesus, his fleshly body or his spirit.
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Even the most orthodox might answer thatit was his spirit. It is
quite understandable, therefore, that theGnostics emphasize the spiritual nature of Jesus and
his resurrection. The two views agreedthat both before and after the resurrection,
Jesus appeared to be occupying a bodyof flesh. Many Gnostics felt that his
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body itself might be in appearance adocatose, and thus they were accused of
being docatists, that is, thosewho think that Jesus' body was purely illusionary.
More important for the Gnostics than thesubstance of Jesus's body is the Gnostic
teaching that the resurrection has a deeplypersonal, spiritual meaning for everyone who aspires
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to nosis, For we are notall, in a certain sense dead and
entombed in the material darkness or carbonitewrapped in the winding sheets of unconsciousness.
Is our vision not obstructed by astone of obscurity or obtuseness? And is
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it not our dearest hope that gloriousdestiny to see that stone rolled away and
our spiritual nature awakened from its aonalslumber. If this is so, then
why not do as Christ did andresurrect into a new life of the spirit.
Quite so, say the Orthodox.But this will happen only after our
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deaths, when on Judgment Day thelong decayed and long vanished flesh of our
bodies will rise again. It ishere the Gnostics an equivocally part company with
the Orthodox. The Gnostic is likelyto quote from the Gospel of Philip,
quote, first Christ rose and thenhe died. Quote. He might add
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that if we wish to engage inthis imitation of Christ, this is what
we have to do, all right? So who was this Jesus? Was
he a political rebel rouser? Washe right wing religious reformer? Was he
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a left wing religious reformer? Iguess that would be the better question.
Was he a god man? Washe a doomed a cult leader? He
might have been none of these,He might have been all of them.
But on this Easter Sunday, inthis weird situation we have found ourselves in
this year, I choose to thinkof this story as psychological crisis and also
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how we get through it. Whateverthese issues we are dealing with in our
lives, this payable of what magicianswould call shadow work or what psychologists would
call, I don't know, psychoanalysts, psycho analysis. We must have the
courage to face our shadow selves,or we must have the courage to face
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you know, our opposite, orwe must have the courage to face whatever
is holding us up from achieving thisnosis. And what these things are?
These are are these christs, thesecrisises, these crisises. We must face
these things. We must get thescourge, and we must get nailed to
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the wall in the case of thelizard, and we must take the spear
to decide, and we must takethe cup of vinegar and our and our
mouths. And once we go throughthis crisis, once we go through this
fight, once we go through thissacrificial act, we're gonna come out the
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other side. We're gonna come outreborn on the other side. And the
first thing we're gonna get is we'regonna get our loved ones. We're gonna
try to get our loved ones.We're gonna try to get our friends to
follow to follow us through the hellwe just went through. So of course
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this is where I'm gonna land,right because if you've listened to the show
before, you know I'm a bigfan of you know, the occult or
magic whatever, the paranormal as anaspect of psychology. So I've been talking
a lot about this lately. Thisis this story of the crucifixion and the
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resurrection of a Jesus Christ. IsI've been talking about this a lot lately.
This terror card lady named uh,what's her name? Named Scarlet Ravenswood
Uh. She is discussing this cardin a major arcana of the Tarot deck.
By the way, if you're trackingthis at home, I finalized my
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terror card decks. I sent theprint file to the printer yesterday, so
stay tuned for that. Anyhow,she talks about this Moon card, and
she talks about it as she Ithink she talks about it as as shadow
work. Let's I think about itmore as like a psychological crisis. So
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let me describe the card. Ifyou're unfamiliar with it. It's the moon.
You get to see the face inprofile. There's these two towers in
kind of like the middle ground,and like a mountain range behind it,
and starting at the mountain range andwinding all the way up to the foreground
is this road. And the roadends with this aquatic kind of like crab
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monster emerging from this shore. Soand on each side of the path,
on one side there's like this domesticatedsort of dog creature, and on the
other side is this wolf creature.So it is like this moon card of
the major arcana. You are onthe path, you're half god or half
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man, you know, a lightside or a shadow side, a divine
spark and the material kind of meatrobot you're driving around in. And the
dog is civilization or it's this divinecanine and the savage wolf is on the
(39:22):
other side of the paths. You'rewandering between these two nature, this civilization,
maybe your humanity or divinity, andthis material or this savage animal side
of it. And wherever if youstay on the path in the middle,
you're gonna have to wind up fightingthis crab monster in the underwater world of
(39:45):
your psychology. It's a motif indreams, often being underwater or even just
looking at water, like if ifa body of water shows up in your
dream. A lot of times thatis about It's about your subconscious it's about
(40:07):
your psychology. And so you haveto stay between these these paths, or
you have to stay on the pathbetween divine and material or sacred and material
mundane. You know, whatever youwant to sign about, whatever value you
want to sign to these beasts.But wherever, however you go, you're
(40:30):
gonna wind up having to deal withthis sea creature. And this is the
card that is This is you dealingwith your shadow. This is the card
of I'll be calling it psychological crisis. But once you get down there in
the mud in the water and youfight this fucking crab monster and you beat
(40:53):
it, you get nailed to thefucking cross, and you get the spear
in your side, and you getthe crown of thorns, and you get
the stigmatic studios and you get allof this. The next card is the
sun card, and it's about beingreborn. It's about being renewed. You
come out the other side smelling likea sunflower. Apparently, according to the
(41:15):
imagery, of the card. Butthat's it. You come out and it
smells like a new car in here, and that's it. This is the
divine sacrificial act. You know.In my case, you got to pick
up when the bill collector calls.Yeah, and that's it. That's this.
(41:37):
That's my message to you in theEaster time. Get nailed to a
piece of wood. Answer when thebill collector calls, deal with your shit
and help your fellow man. That'swhat Jesus would do, you want to
know. WWJD. That's might thatmight be what he would do. Or
(41:58):
he also might take a whip intoyour bank, flip some fucking tables over
and whip them. Motherfucker, takean ear or two off. You might
do that too. He use thatkind of dude. And y know,
this has been a very special Eastersermon from the Abercast. And let me
know what you think about this.Maybe you can do this more often.
I don't know. I'm John.This is the Abercast, and have happy
(42:22):
East or everybody. I hope youenjoyed the time with your family over zoom
or Skype or whatever. You know. I hope that this madness ends soon.
I just sincerely do and you know, maybe we come out of this
thing realize that kind of how luckywe are. You know, that would
(42:42):
be nice realizing how lucky we areto have been born in a first fucking
world, civilized place where we think, maybe we should think more about this
kind of stuff. Another thing wemight learn coming out of this is like
me, Hey, maybe I shouldhave an extra pack of toilet paper in
the back of the closet in casesome silly bullshit like this happens again.
(43:07):
Maybe that's something. Anyhow, Igot a roll. I hope you guys
enjoyed the show and maybe I madeyou laugh. I don't know. Here
we go. Thank you consider becominga supporter of the show. Pretty please
(43:36):
thank you for listening to this episode. Send an email or visit us on
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(44:14):
Did you laugh? Supporting me isa way for you to be a
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(44:57):
the hosting bills out of my ownpocket, I volunteer my time and talent
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(45:19):
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(45:47):
of the supporters help me focus mytime on the quality and development of the
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(46:09):
please consider leaving a five star rateand review on your preferred podcast app.
And don't forget that you could signit to the mailing list and still unlock
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much it means to me that youlisten to the show each time I post
(46:30):
a new episode. Your feedback,support, and love of those stories that
we talk about here is what keepsme going.
In the dark shadows, in thewhite cold. Fearlessly we search for knowledge
new and old. We drink thestrong spirits and read the ancient toms the
order of the abra cast We arethe brave and the bold. After the
(00:27):
Sabbath, at the dawn of thefirst day of the week, Mary Magdalene
and the other Mary went to lookat the tomb. There was a violent
earthquake, for an angel of theLord came down from heaven, and,
going to the tomb, rolled backthe stone and sat on it. His
appearance was like lightning, and hisclothes were white as snow. And the
(00:49):
guards were so afraid of him thatthey shook and became like dead men.
And the angel said to the women, do not be afraid, for I
know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not
here. He has risen, justas he said. Come and see the
place where he lay, and thengo quickly and tell his disciples that he
(01:12):
has risen from the dead and isgoing ahead of you into Galilee. There
you will see him. And nowI have told you Matthew twenty eight one
through seven. The abracast A culthistory, conspiracy and violence, preaching to
(02:15):
you from the Sigmada Studios Cathedral andQuarantine Zone Taco stand in the heart of
this deal city. I am doctorJohn Towers, and this is a very
special Easter sermon episode of the Abercast. I'm not gonna lie. I never
preached the gospel before, and ifyou are a listener, you know I've
(02:36):
said some pretty terrible things about God. I mean, just some despicable things
about God. So I want toapproach this as sort of a deeper story
other than Christian mythology. It's astory. It's a story about me,
the story about you, the storyabout us. I want to talk about
(02:58):
sacrificing. You want to talk aboutsacrifice and taking care of each other in
this weird fucking time we're suffering through. So I'm not gonna lie. It
was fun putting this together because we'regonna there's some there's some funny like quarantine
synchronicities in some of the stuff we'regonna be talking about tonight, So I
(03:21):
think I think it's cute. I'mprobably not gonna call all of them out
as we go through, but there'sone in particular that just hilarious. So
before we get started, a couplethings. Please check out the website.
This very special Easter sermon episode ofthe Abercast is free, but it is
(03:43):
on our Patreon and subscribe to ourfeeds. Please check out the website,
and please consider supporting the show insome kind of degree of the Abercast.
You can find the information for thatabraca. Also, while you're there,
check out the shirts. We're rollingnew shirts out all the time. They're
great shirts, they're the best shirts, the best shirts. I'm looking forward
(04:08):
to getting my magic Circle shirt inthe mail this week. I'm very excited
about it. That's how you practicesocial distancing Sun Magic circles. So while
we'll talk about Patreon and Subscribe Star, if you have a vessel of the
art, you're generous enough to havea vessel of the art, please raise
(04:31):
it to the sky. And asall of our ham and stuff is digesting,
let us thank our Patreon and SubscribeStar supporters. Thank you, guys.
We got a new one. I'llintroduce some the next regular show.
So here's you, guys. Thankyou very much for your support. Please
consider supporting the show. So thefuture material for this evening, this sermon,
(04:57):
at least the first part of itwas inspired here to buy a sermon
this guy named Eldon Reich wrote isentitled Easter. I kind of used it
as a springboard to talk about someof the things that he talked about in
his sermon. But we're also goingto be talking about gnosticism. A New
(05:17):
light on the ancient tradition of InnerKnowing by Stephen Holler, Doctor Stephen Ahler
Heller. I think he pronounces Iam. It's an essential book. It
should be in the indispensable book list. If it's not already, I'm sure.
I'm sure it's there. It hasto be there, all right,
(05:39):
So let's get into this thing.Huh, that's so bad. I didn't
babble for so long. Okay,It's Easter Sunday. And if you believe
in this good book, you knowthat it's God's grace has been given for
this world. John three point sixteenhas been fulfilled. Psalm's twenty three has
been given flesh and blood, andPsalms twenty three as a psalm of David,
(06:03):
and it's the classic. The Lordis my shepherd, and I shall
not want it makes me lie downin green pastures, and he leads me
beside the quiet waters. He restoresmy soul, and he guides me in
paths of righteousness. And for hisname's sake, even though I walk through
(06:26):
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you
or with me. Your rod andyour staff they comfort me. You prepare
a table before me in the presenceof my enemies. You anoint my head
with oil. My cup overflows.Surely, goodness and love will follow me
(06:47):
all the days of my life,and I will dwell in the House of
the Lord forever. So we're gonnamove on to the next one. But
before we do, I just wantyou to put a pin in it.
I want you to put a pinon Psalm's twenty three four, because it's
gonna come back to us in avery subtle way. So I'm twenty three
(07:08):
four. Even though I walk throughthe valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. Matthewtwenty three thirty seven has been obeyed.
This is the commandment. And Jesussaid, love the Lord your God with
all of your heart, and withall of your soul, and with all
(07:30):
of your mind. This is thefirst and greatest commandment. And the second
is like it. Love your neighboras yourself. All the law and the
prophets hung on these two commandments.So I also want you to put a
pin. Love God with all yourheart and all your soul and all of
(07:54):
your mind. Also love your neighbors. That's a good part too. So
Jesus has won the battle. Jesusis victorious, and with his sacrifice we
are redeemed. The letter of Paulto the Ephesians one seven and eight.
(08:22):
In him we have redemption through hisblood and the forgiveness of sins, in
accordance with the riches of God's gracethat He lavish on us. With all
the wisdom and the understanding, thereis a state of grace to be obtained
(08:46):
through sacrifice. I actually think thatthere is a state of u There's a
you could start on this road tothis state of grace if we ever get
out of this quarantine. Am Iright start on this road just by witnessing
a sacrifice or just witnessing an actof kindness, an unexpected thing. I
(09:09):
see a lot of that in ourworld right now, Folks going out of
their way to help each other.So if there's anything positive to come out
of this nonsense, I think thatthat might be one of them. So
there's this old story, this oldstory about a lizard. No not that
one. Okay, there's an oldurban legend about a lizard in Japan.
(09:35):
No, not that one. Sothere's this urban legend about this. This
Japanese guy remodeling his house. It'dbeen like built or remodeled like ten years
or something previous to that. Andhe's in there working on his house and
he's like tearing floorboards and whatnot outand he finds this lizard, this living
(09:58):
lizard, stuck in a stuck inthis wall, and his foot has been
nailed from the outside. So likewhen they built this house, someone accidentally
nailed this lizard this to this board, and this thing was alive. It
was surviving for ten years, nailedto the nailed to this, nailed to
(10:18):
this board in this dark crevice,Like think of the hell that this little
lizard has been in for ten years, stuck And the guy started thinking like,
well, how is this motherfucking lizardstill alive? So he's looking at
it and he's just like So thisguy stops his work and he's observing this
(10:41):
poor fucking amaziated enter feed lizard thatliterally can't move anywhere because he's fucking nailed
to this board. And after alittle bit of time, another lizard shows
up with food in its mouth andhe starts feeding this this lizard that's nailed
(11:03):
to this board. And that's howthis poor lizard is surviving. This other
little lizard had been feeding its partnerfor ten years without giving up. That
is a sacrifice. That is asacrificial giving. So there is this whole
(11:26):
Gnostic twist on this story that I'mgonna skip. You know, something about
a lizard being nailed to a pieceof a piece of wood. Anyways,
so according to this book, thebab bull God had created this flawless world,
and he had created these people withfree will, as a man and
(11:50):
a woman who had free will,and you know, whatever they did and
they had sex, or they atean apple or in my canaan eve figured
out how to make wine. Andthat goes to Cain, who is a
farmer or a gardener, and thatgoes to Noah gardening these wine dudes.
(12:13):
Right. So anyhow, this wholeOld Testament God was wandering around and he
was just changing the rules all thetime. These guideline, these rules to
salvation you know, you have towatch what you wear. You can't wear
this thing and that thing together.Fucking is God being like in his OCD
phase. You can't eat this,You can only eat that. No shrimp
(12:37):
for you in all of this untilwe get to this idea of him or
a part of him becoming a man, or him making a sun to be
you know, hung out or hungup to dry or to die whatever,
to sacrifice for whatever. This sinwas, this sin of disobeying. And
(13:03):
so we're gonna shift gears here alittle bit, switch books. We're gonna
be talking from Stephen Huller's Gnosticism,New Light on an ancient tradition of inner
knowing. Doctor Holler starts chapter fiveout by talking about who is this Jesus
(13:26):
anyways here to the book at thebeginning of the twenty first century, we
readily encounter a bewildering number of characterizationsof Jesus in the world of popular entertainment.
The legacy of the sixties included JesusChrist Superstar, where Jesus appears as
somewhat eccentric social critic and perilous sphereof politics. And we find the liberation
(13:50):
theologians who do their best to portrayJesus as a proto Marxist revolutionary, a
sort of first century cha Rivera.In the more sober world of scholarship,
we find the rather dull Jesus ofthe Jesus Seminar and of the Blah blah
(14:11):
blah let's kip ahead. To these, we might add the phallic, psychedelic
Jesus presented by the eccentric Dead SeaScroll scholar John Allegro, or the scheming
Jesus extolled by Allegro's colleague Hugh Shonenfield, the revolutionary Jesus, the sensuous Jesus.
So many jesus Is, and solittle clarity. In the last quarter
(14:35):
of the twentieth century we are introducedto them all. All of these images
of Jesus, and quoint a fewmore are based on the New Testament.
It has been pointed out that morethan once that on the basis of this
evidence, the central figure of Christianitycan be made out to be almost anything
(14:56):
anyone wants him to be. Eversince his in reduction of the rationalistic approach
of the Bible in the form ofa higher Biblical criticism and similar approaches,
the search for this historical Jesus hasbeen on, yet in more than one
way, this search seems to havefailed. Neglected, however, perhaps is
(15:18):
the most influential Jesus of early Christendom. This gnostic Jesus. To the early
Christians, Jesus was not so muchhistorical figure as an inspiration witness. For
instance, Paul's Apostle Paul the Apostlesdescription of Jesus as far above all rule
of authority and power to dominion inover every name that is named, not
(15:45):
only in this age aon, butthat which is to come. This statement
is so gnostic and tone that onemight conclude that Paul and the others did
view Jesus in gnostic terms, asa being superior to authorities in their kin,
the demiurge and the Arkans of thislower world. For a long time,
(16:08):
the only sources for the teaching ofJesus were the four Gospels. Of
these, the Gospel of John hasalways been the favorite of gnostics and agnosticizing
isotericists throughout history. Along with themiracle stories, the accounts of the Passions,
(16:29):
the Death, and the Resurrection ofthe Gospel of John includes a number
of discourses attributed to Jesus that havea great deal in common with the teachings
indistinctly gnostic literature. The Gospel ofJohn is not only canonical evidence for the
(16:49):
gnostic character of the teaching of Jesus. At least part of the considerable body
of the sayings of Jesus incorporated agnostic of Matthew and Luke, sometimes even
Mark. Many of the sayings andthe canonical Gospels contain teachings that make emminent
sense when interpreted in a gnostic light. A good example is the parable of
(17:12):
the wheat and the tears in Markthirteen twenty four through thirty. A man
sows a good wheat and seeds hisfield, but later he finds that an
enemy has sown weeds among the wheat. When the workers ask if they should
pull the weeds out, the farmertells them to allow both the wheat and
the weeds to grow until the timeof the harvest one the two can be
(17:34):
more easily separated. According to Gnosticteachings, the world is a mixture of
seeds of light and darkness. Althoughit is impossible to distinguish between them now,
the fullest of time, they willseparate naturally as ordained Jesus as a
Gnostic teacher. There are many sayingsattributed to a Jesus that are not found
(18:00):
in the canonical Gospels, but areincluded in Gnostic scriptures. The greatest profusion
of these is in the Gnostic orthe Gospel according to Thomas, which is
part of the Nagamadi collection. TheGnostic scribes seem to have been principally interested
in recording the teachings of this Jesuscharacterized as secret, the meaning the teaching
(18:23):
of strictly gnostic character that he gaveto select disciples after his resurrection. How
then the Gnostics view Jesus, well, there's a little doubt that they revered
him exceedingly, that they saw himas a manifestation of the Highest Godhead,
and that they regarded him as theliberator and enlightener who burst open the prison
(18:51):
of humanity's confinement in material and mentalunconsciousness. According to the Gnostic tradition,
Jesus exercised his ministry in two principalways. The first of that might be
called his ministry of teaching, andthe second was a sacramental ministry of initiatory
and liberating mysteries. It is quitelikely that there are common people in Palestine
(19:17):
regarded him primarily as a rabbi ora lay teacher of religion, since he
did not belong to the hereditary priestlyclass. Thus, in the sense,
the role of teacher was his externalpersona, while that of the spiritual hierophant
was more hidden. The majority ofthe sayings of a Jesus contained in the
(19:44):
Gospel, according to Thomas, canbe classified under fourheadings. The saying concerning
the human condition, the sayings regardinghuman conduct, the sayings alluding to his
own role as a redeemer or liberator. And sayings emphasizing the importance of self
knowledge and precondition for the knowledge ofthe divine. So I needed to get
(20:11):
there, the self knowledge and theprecondition for the knowledge of the divine,
And I'm gonna skip ahead. Weneeded to get to that before I can
move forward the atonement or liberation.We're asking, did this story of this
crucifixion and resurrection take place to payfor the sins? Or did it take
(20:37):
place to liberate us? The dominantcon contemporary Christian belief is that Jesus came
to atone for the sins of humankind. And thus make salvation possible. The
justification for this belief is, inbrief, God created the world, which
(20:59):
became a fallen world world due toGod's wrath. Once the first humans disobeyed
God, death and suffering were introducedinto what until then had been paradise of
creation and time. God's wrath waned, and he sought to reconcile himself with
humankind again. And the agents ofreconciliation was God's only begotten son of Jesus
(21:22):
Christ, who was sent by hisfather into the world to suffer and to
die on the cross for the sinsof humanity, including the original sin committed
by the ancestors of the human race. The postulates of the atonement theology have
come under question as a result ofthe scientific discoveries of the last two centuries.
(21:47):
If death was brought into the worldby human sin, how is it
that so many life forms perished longbefore human life appeared on Earth. Life
was preying upon life long before menand women joined the fray. Perhaps the
original creation was not as benign andparadisical as we have thought. Perhaps the
(22:11):
world has always been what has aptlybeen called a giant predatory cafeteria, and
humans merely became part of the foodchain in a relatively late period. Gnostic
followers of Christ, quite early inthe history of the Christian faith, refused
(22:36):
to go along with the atonement theology, even without the evidence of biology and
paleontology. They did not accept thenotion that a good world had been corrupted
by evil humans and had to bereconciled to a wrathful God by the torment
of death, the torment and deathof Jesus. Does this mean that Nostia
(23:00):
did not regard Jesus as the Redeemer. Far from it, says Holler.
As we saw earlier, the Gnosticsfelt that they were strangers on this earth
and indeed in the cosmos, andone of their teachers, a Marconian,
called this world heca cellula creatoris,meaning the prison cell made by the Creator
(23:23):
the Man. Indean Gnostic scriptures ofGenza admonishes human beings, thou wert not
from here in thy root of wasnot of this world. The Redeemer came
not to pacify his angry father bydying, but rather to take captivity.
Captive, as a Gnostic phrase expressedit, to liberate the folorn strangers from
(23:48):
the prison cell where they had foundthemselves people only superficially acquainted with narcissism.
Often concluded to the gnostic, salvationor liberty is an unmediated experience, requiring
no savior. Nothing could be fartherfrom the truth. The human spirit,
save the Gnostics, came into thisworld from outside of it, and thus
(24:12):
the stimulus for liberation must also comefrom outside. True, the liberating spirit
potential resides in the depths or perhapsthe better the heights, of the human
soul itself, but realization of thispotential requires a powerful intervention. This assistance
is rendered by beings whom certain schoolsof gnosticism called the messengers of Light,
(24:41):
salvific messianic figures sent by the highestGodhead. The great gnostic prophet Manni of
Persia states this clearly, Wisdom andgood deeds have always, from time to
time been brought to mankind by themessengers of God. In this one age,
(25:02):
they have been brought by the messengercalled Buddha to India, and another
Zarathustra Tyran, and another by Jesusto the West. Thereupon this revelation has
come down. This prophecy is thelater age through Me Manny, the Apostle
of God and the Truth of Babylon. Let's skip ahead a little bit.
(25:25):
Actually we're gonna do this. Learnmore at abracast dot com. Get bonus
(25:48):
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(26:15):
Hey, before we pick it backup, I just want to remind everyone
to check out the website. Checkout the t shirts, t shirt and
stuff section. You get some sticker, some notebooks, all kinds of good
stuff there. And also, ifyou're listening to this special Easter sermon,
think about if you would consider ifyou may supporting the show. We get
(26:41):
at least one bonus thing episode everymonth, you get access to all the
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So just consider it, please,All right, back to the book.
In Christian Gnocissism, the great Strangeris Jesus, and many scriptures of
(27:07):
the nostri tradition he is called thelogos and others the sot, which is
a healer or a savior, andmany Chrystos, which is the anointed one.
The exact relationship of these names toeach other is not always clear.
There are indications that the Gnostics believethat the spiritual Christ descended into the person
(27:30):
of Jesus at the time of hisbaptism and the River Jordan at the hands
of John the baptizer. Jesus wasalso regarded as a holy and supernal being
from birth to sum up. Thesalvation of the Gnostics means not reconciliation with
an angry God but by way ofthe death of his son, but rather
(27:53):
liberation from the stupor induced by earthlyexistence and by awakening. In this way
of gnosis, Gnostics do not holdthat any kind of sin, including that
of Adam or Eve, is powerfulenough to cause the degradation of the entire
manifest world. The world is flawed, because that is its nature. But
(28:18):
humans can become free from this confinement. In this flawed world and from this
unconsciousness that accompanies the confinement. Jesusbecame the messenger and the liberator in Those
who take this message to heart andparticipate in his mysteries are like the disciple
(28:41):
Thomas. Saved by gnosis. Isit a resurrection or an awakening? One
of the most portentous accusations voicing itsGnostics by the Orthodox is that they rejected
(29:02):
the resurrection of Jesus. Remember thisis our Easter episode. In fact,
there is no evidence that the Gnosticsdoesn't denied the resurrection. They did say,
however, that the resurrection, likemost events around recounted in the New
Testament, is not to be takenliterally. Some sort of reanimation of Jesus's
(29:26):
body may have taken place on Eastermorning. In fact, and most Gnostic
scriptures in the post resurrection, Jesusis referred to as the living One,
an equivalent to the Latin readvisius,one who has returned to life. But
this does not mean that Jesus cameback to life in a physical body like
(29:49):
ours. This crude matter, arewe some Yoda impression? Fire strikes back
as Gnostic as fuck everybody. I'mjust gonna put that, get that out
of my system. They should doa whole thing on that. Indeed,
(30:10):
there was doubt whether he ever occupieda physical body like our own. Physical
bodies do not walk on water,they do not pass through walls or shine
like the sun. The precise natureof Jesus's body is a mystery, said
the Gnostics, and they felt thisapply to both the body he occupied before
(30:32):
the resurrection and the one which heappeared in after. In fact, the
canonical gospels are uncertain regarding the precisenature of this resurrection body occupied by Jesus.
Certainly, some gospel accounts suggest thatit was solid and composed of flesh.
(30:56):
However, others leave room for doubt. The story of the Road to
Aminius, recounted both Luke and Mark, states that Jesus appeared in another form.
This is not my final form.No, we know it's not his
final form, because he comes backwith a sword of fire in his mouth,
and this all this stuff that weread about later, and that after
(31:19):
he blessed the bread at the table, he simply vanished into thin air.
In the Gospel of John, MaryMagdalen, who is surely well acquainted with
her master's appearance, encounters him nearthe grave and mistakes him for the gardener.
The gardener after she recognizes him,and he instructs her not to touch
(31:45):
him. This command the celebrated nole me tang ray, which means do
not touch me. Social distancing Mary, which gives rise to so much sacred
art can certainly be in interpreted asindicating that his body was insubstantial. Elaine
Pagel's in her book Gnostic Gospels states, so, if some of the New
(32:08):
Testament stories insist on a literal viewof the resurrection, others lend themselves to
different interpretations which was more important aboutJesus, his fleshly body or his spirit.
(32:28):
Even the most orthodox might answer thatit was his spirit. It is
quite understandable, therefore, that theGnostics emphasize the spiritual nature of Jesus and
his resurrection. The two views agreedthat both before and after the resurrection,
Jesus appeared to be occupying a bodyof flesh. Many Gnostics felt that his
(32:51):
body itself might be in appearance adocatose, and thus they were accused of
being docatists, that is, thosewho think that Jesus' body was purely illusionary.
More important for the Gnostics than thesubstance of Jesus's body is the Gnostic
teaching that the resurrection has a deeplypersonal, spiritual meaning for everyone who aspires
(33:19):
to nosis, For we are notall, in a certain sense dead and
entombed in the material darkness or carbonitewrapped in the winding sheets of unconsciousness.
Is our vision not obstructed by astone of obscurity or obtuseness? And is
(33:43):
it not our dearest hope that gloriousdestiny to see that stone rolled away and
our spiritual nature awakened from its aonalslumber. If this is so, then
why not do as Christ did andresurrect into a new life of the spirit.
Quite so, say the Orthodox.But this will happen only after our
(34:07):
deaths, when on Judgment Day thelong decayed and long vanished flesh of our
bodies will rise again. It ishere the Gnostics an equivocally part company with
the Orthodox. The Gnostic is likelyto quote from the Gospel of Philip,
quote, first Christ rose and thenhe died. Quote. He might add
(34:30):
that if we wish to engage inthis imitation of Christ, this is what
we have to do, all right? So who was this Jesus? Was
he a political rebel rouser? Washe right wing religious reformer? Was he
(34:57):
a left wing religious reformer? Iguess that would be the better question.
Was he a god man? Washe a doomed a cult leader? He
might have been none of these,He might have been all of them.
But on this Easter Sunday, inthis weird situation we have found ourselves in
this year, I choose to thinkof this story as psychological crisis and also
(35:30):
how we get through it. Whateverthese issues we are dealing with in our
lives, this payable of what magicianswould call shadow work or what psychologists would
call, I don't know, psychoanalysts, psycho analysis. We must have the
courage to face our shadow selves,or we must have the courage to face
(35:57):
you know, our opposite, orwe must have the courage to face whatever
is holding us up from achieving thisnosis. And what these things are?
These are are these christs, thesecrisises, these crisises. We must face
these things. We must get thescourge, and we must get nailed to
(36:22):
the wall in the case of thelizard, and we must take the spear
to decide, and we must takethe cup of vinegar and our and our
mouths. And once we go throughthis crisis, once we go through this
fight, once we go through thissacrificial act, we're gonna come out the
(36:45):
other side. We're gonna come outreborn on the other side. And the
first thing we're gonna get is we'regonna get our loved ones. We're gonna
try to get our loved ones.We're gonna try to get our friends to
follow to follow us through the hellwe just went through. So of course
(37:07):
this is where I'm gonna land,right because if you've listened to the show
before, you know I'm a bigfan of you know, the occult or
magic whatever, the paranormal as anaspect of psychology. So I've been talking
a lot about this lately. Thisis this story of the crucifixion and the
(37:27):
resurrection of a Jesus Christ. IsI've been talking about this a lot lately.
This terror card lady named uh,what's her name? Named Scarlet Ravenswood
Uh. She is discussing this cardin a major arcana of the Tarot deck.
By the way, if you're trackingthis at home, I finalized my
(37:51):
terror card decks. I sent theprint file to the printer yesterday, so
stay tuned for that. Anyhow,she talks about this Moon card, and
she talks about it as she Ithink she talks about it as as shadow
work. Let's I think about itmore as like a psychological crisis. So
(38:12):
let me describe the card. Ifyou're unfamiliar with it. It's the moon.
You get to see the face inprofile. There's these two towers in
kind of like the middle ground,and like a mountain range behind it,
and starting at the mountain range andwinding all the way up to the foreground
is this road. And the roadends with this aquatic kind of like crab
(38:37):
monster emerging from this shore. Soand on each side of the path,
on one side there's like this domesticatedsort of dog creature, and on the
other side is this wolf creature.So it is like this moon card of
the major arcana. You are onthe path, you're half god or half
(39:01):
man, you know, a lightside or a shadow side, a divine
spark and the material kind of meatrobot you're driving around in. And the
dog is civilization or it's this divinecanine and the savage wolf is on the
(39:22):
other side of the paths. You'rewandering between these two nature, this civilization,
maybe your humanity or divinity, andthis material or this savage animal side
of it. And wherever if youstay on the path in the middle,
you're gonna have to wind up fightingthis crab monster in the underwater world of
(39:45):
your psychology. It's a motif indreams, often being underwater or even just
looking at water, like if ifa body of water shows up in your
dream. A lot of times thatis about It's about your subconscious it's about
(40:07):
your psychology. And so you haveto stay between these these paths, or
you have to stay on the pathbetween divine and material or sacred and material
mundane. You know, whatever youwant to sign about, whatever value you
want to sign to these beasts.But wherever, however you go, you're
(40:30):
gonna wind up having to deal withthis sea creature. And this is the
card that is This is you dealingwith your shadow. This is the card
of I'll be calling it psychological crisis. But once you get down there in
the mud in the water and youfight this fucking crab monster and you beat
(40:53):
it, you get nailed to thefucking cross, and you get the spear
in your side, and you getthe crown of thorns, and you get
the stigmatic studios and you get allof this. The next card is the
sun card, and it's about beingreborn. It's about being renewed. You
come out the other side smelling likea sunflower. Apparently, according to the
(41:15):
imagery, of the card. Butthat's it. You come out and it
smells like a new car in here, and that's it. This is the
divine sacrificial act. You know.In my case, you got to pick
up when the bill collector calls.Yeah, and that's it. That's this.
(41:37):
That's my message to you in theEaster time. Get nailed to a
piece of wood. Answer when thebill collector calls, deal with your shit
and help your fellow man. That'swhat Jesus would do, you want to
know. WWJD. That's might thatmight be what he would do. Or
(41:58):
he also might take a whip intoyour bank, flip some fucking tables over
and whip them. Motherfucker, takean ear or two off. You might
do that too. He use thatkind of dude. And y know,
this has been a very special Eastersermon from the Abercast. And let me
know what you think about this.Maybe you can do this more often.
I don't know. I'm John.This is the Abercast, and have happy
(42:22):
East or everybody. I hope youenjoyed the time with your family over zoom
or Skype or whatever. You know. I hope that this madness ends soon.
I just sincerely do and you know, maybe we come out of this
thing realize that kind of how luckywe are. You know, that would
(42:42):
be nice realizing how lucky we areto have been born in a first fucking
world, civilized place where we think, maybe we should think more about this
kind of stuff. Another thing wemight learn coming out of this is like
me, Hey, maybe I shouldhave an extra pack of toilet paper in
the back of the closet in casesome silly bullshit like this happens again.
(43:07):
Maybe that's something. Anyhow, Igot a roll. I hope you guys
enjoyed the show and maybe I madeyou laugh. I don't know. Here
we go. Thank you consider becominga supporter of the show. Pretty please
(43:36):
thank you for listening to this episode. Send an email or visit us on
social media to let us know whatyou think about this topic, and please
remember to leave a five star rateand review. Hey did you learned something?
(44:14):
Did you laugh? Supporting me isa way for you to be a
part of the abercast and ensure itsgrowth and sustainability. It also means I
could create a normal schedule for showsand bonus shows, as well as the
exclusive Pillowcraft episodes. If by supportingthe show. You are not only a
listener, but you are a partof the show. You supporting the show
(44:37):
gives me a way to offer funrewards as a thank you for showing your
appreciation and support for our projects.Do you have an idea for a reward
that you don't see Let me know. My supporters are my partners. I
currently pay for you to listen tothe Abercast. Not only do I pay
(44:57):
the hosting bills out of my ownpocket, I volunteer my time and talent
to each and every episode of theAbercast. The price of books, the
time and resources of reading and researching, the massive amounts of gin and tonic
needed, the equipment it takes torecord the shows, the time and resources
(45:19):
it takes to create the bonus material, and the cost to maintain the internet
presence. Is it worth your support? I don't know. I'm proud of
the Abercasts and I feel like I'mimproving all the time. In addition to
creating the show that you dig andthat you were excited about, I also
have a full time commitment and otherobligations. So why financial support? All
(45:47):
of the supporters help me focus mytime on the quality and development of the
podcast and what if you can't affordyou know, one dollar or three dollars
or ten dollars or whatever a month. Believe me, I get that there
are many degrees of support, butif you can't support the show financially,
(46:09):
please consider leaving a five star rateand review on your preferred podcast app.
And don't forget that you could signit to the mailing list and still unlock
a lot of bonus content. Thankyou. I cannot put into words how
much it means to me that youlisten to the show each time I post
(46:30):
a new episode. Your feedback,support, and love of those stories that
we talk about here is what keepsme going.
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