Spiritual Progress and a Cathar Calling
May 6, 2014
I haven’t written for a while as I was waiting for the inspiration to pop up. Today, May 6, 2014, seems like a good day to share some of my progress; some of it comes from walking my own path and reflecting; some of it from contacting people who have information about my soul path.
This post is in fact partly an update of the account I produced last August under the title My Hero’s Journey.
There has been interesting information communicated to me last month as I did work on the Divine Feminine as part of a virtual class with a small spiritual organization. As I understood back then, when I started learning about the Divine Feminine, I was about to return to the conscious phase of my hero’s journey and enjoy what Joseph Campbell calls the “Gift of the Goddess.” Throughout the class, I was part of a pod, or discussion group, under the tutelage of the Celtic goddess Ceridwen. Things were interesting for a couple of weeks, we shared a lot of insights about astrology and the divine feminine, which dwells in every one of us, and then my interest started to dwindle; drastically. I had started to transcribe The Mother, from Sri Aurobindo, which was part of our reading assignment, but didn’t go any further than chapter one of this small book. It felt very organic, or synchronistic if you will that, at the same time I was taking the class, I had an exchange with my friend Gary, the astrologist whom I mentioned in my Hero’s Journey post. His take on my studying the divine feminine was to the point, well aligned with what I am pursuing. Here is an excerpt of what he shared with me.
Your work on the Divine Feminine sounds very interesting. It accords very well with the placement of Mars in Virgo in your chart in its own house of the 8th; this being in trine aspect to the Ascendant, Saturn and Jupiter. To me, this implies the requirement of developing an enhanced appreciation of the ‘goddess archetype’ and the various gifts she offers. As well as the Hercules and Hippolyta myth, it also accords well with the myth of Isis and Horus, or Mary and Jesus, whereby one gives birth to the spiritual principle within. In your case this is occurring through the expression of courage and heroism towards spiritual transformation due to the location of Mars, and also the Moon, in conjunction to Pluto in the 8th house. Working with the goddess principles is favored further by the placement of Venus in Cancer in the 6th house, in trine aspect to Neptune in Scorpio in the 9th house, which suggests a capacity towards penetrating Maya (or the ‘veil of the goddess’) with the assistance of subjective pursuits such as dreams and meditation.
I don’t know if I penetrated any veil at the time but, based on Joseph Campbell diagram (which I am repositioning below), the spiritual warrior is then supposed to reenter the conscious world and share his or her gift with it. What could this gift be in my case? And what did I learn from the goddess in the end?
These questions are somehow still open and yet, something quite unusual happened to me, which was definitely a spiritual gift. I was offered in mid-April a soul reading by a person (her name is Judith Kusel http://www.judith-kusel.com) who lives in South Africa. As synchronicity and spiritual complicity would have it, I met her through one of her writings one day, totally unexpectedly, and signed up to follow her blog. The next day, I received a note inviting me to check her biography and services. And the next thing I knew, I had signed up for a soul reading—a Diamond soul reading. There was so much fluidity in what I did and how I did it that it was obviously made to happen.
The most important life episode that Judith highlightened is one that I experienced as a Cathar in early 13th century France. My name then was Raimond de Péreille and I was present during the last few days of what could be considered the extermination of the last of the Cathars. This took place on March 16, 1244, in the form of a pyre which was built and lit on by the armies of the French king, supported by the Pope, interestingly named Innocent III. Over 200 hundred Cathars perished that day, purified that they were a few days earlier in a ceremony called Consolamentum. It appears that I wasn’t one of those who perished in the fire and that I clandestinely escaped, in due time, to accomplish what was then my mission.
I still have a lot to learn about those Christian Cathars and reading The Cathar Prophecy by Mark J.T. Griffin provided a lot of background information, although the author doesn’t seem to know what exactly happened to Sir Raimond de Péreille. It is up to me to find out and put all the pieces of the puzzle together, going back way, way before Cathar time.
In fact, what became clear to me is the connection between the Cathar faith and the history and life of Mary Magdalene after she left Israel, moving to France and landing near Massilia (Marseille nowadays), pregnant that she was then with their (Yeshua and she) third child. Montségur, the castle that became the last resort of the Cathars, is situated near Carcassonne in southern France; Rennes-le-Chateau, a small village whose name is strongly associated with Mary Magdalene and the hero of Mark J.T. Griffin’s book—a Templar of the Order of St. John of Malta, by the name of Arnaud de Blanchfort—being some 30 miles or so east of Montségur. I could feel or intuit the connection between these different times and people while reading the book. It is now up to me to find about the missing links, which will take me in the first place into the reading of another book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail, by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln. Or will it be, Crusade against the Grail by Otto Rahn?
I did not sense the protective presence of Mary Magdalene over the Cathars by chance or accident and I feel a true connection to her. While exploring what my coach called my “inner sanctuaries” in October of 2011, I came across Mary Magdalene in the second sanctuary, that of Ancestral Memory.
Here is what I wrote in my notes after my session with Lev on October 4, 2011:
Sanctuary of Ancestral Memory
Mary Magdalene comes to mind as she moves from Israel to the south of France. She is wearing a white robe. The symbol in this sanctuary is a dove; a white dove.
I learned since that Mary Magdalene is indeed associated with a white dove; I also remember seeing white linen floating in the wind, as if on a cloth line, in that sanctuary of Ancestral Memory. Again this is not something that came from outside my psyche while reading a fictitious book, but rather from some deep connection I had been nurturing all along and that made ‘its way up’ with the assistance of Lev.
Where is this going to take me? I certainly do not know at this early time, but my spelunker’s gear is on! Please stay tune, my friends, and feel free to share any information that you would deem helpful to me.
Nurturing the Gift of Seeking 
I am familiar with what you are going through. This blog may have some clues about the next part.
http://jesusweddingthebook.wordpress.com/
My blog may also assist you. You know how to get there 🙂
Thanks, Dennis.
This is exactly the kind of information and resources I was asking for. I like article at http://www.jesuswedding.com/the-holy-grail.html as well as this sentence about the Grail:
“The Grail is NOT a physical object. A quest for The Holy Grail is a spiritual quest of inner work and meditation.”
Are you asking me to dig through the archives of silent wind of change? Big 🙂
Thanks again, and may the wind be at your back, my friend!
Great I’m glad that blog was helpful 🙂
Hero’s Journey is bottom up awakening. I had a top down awakening. It’s called The Grail Path. Here is my post explaining what I experienced during that.
Thanks Dennis,
So it looks like you drove from Chicago to New Orleans when I drove the oposite route!
That is very valuable information and I would have a couple questions. The first one being, were you aware of the two types of awakening paths before you awoke? And did it make a difference?
I’ve experienced bouts of kundalini, some of them pretty potent, and I wondered about what was going on.
I also experienced what I would call “volcano eruption” and that is definitely an inside out (or down to up) move. Writing about it helps to put it in perspective, as it is still fresh!
Have a good one!
No I wasn’t aware of their being two paths. I had only known of the one you traveled. So I was waiting for that while I was actually traveling the other path. I have lived from my heart all my life and although it was difficult as a man living that way I am grateful for the experience.
I lived my life from the start with my ego as my friend. It wasn’t that negative nagging voice, it was supportive and reassuring. That is ego’s true role for us. As I did more research it seems I may have been “born realized” (you can research that term).
I’m happy to assist you with any other info I may have. Just ask. 🙂
Hello Dennis,
Thanks for getting back to me so promptly. I will certainly check what it means to be born “realized” although I can tell it wasn’t my case! The ego’s nagging voice you are talking about is way too familiar to me and has brought a multitude of irritation and anger over the years, just like a good teacher. Perhaps the ego or lower self needs to be tamed, or “loved into subjection” as someone told me.
I have a question about Jana Dixon’s book, Biology of Kundalini – Exploring the fire of life. Have you ever read it?
I browsed through it late last year and although it didn’t provide me with the answers I was seeking, I found interesting because her awakening experience is so different from mine. Perhaps hers is closer to yours. Anyhow I wanted to mention that book which is very informative in terms of what kundalini can do to you. I haven’t obviously experienced full fledged kundalini, just pieces of it, as it relates to what I call my ” volcano.”
Thanks!
I haven’t read her book but I will check it out thank you.
If you do a search on the word ego you will find a few suggestive posts on how to convert the ego into your buddy. 🙂 People have tried the methods and found positive results from them. Basically you have to show the ego it has no power over you. When it says dumb things like you aren’t worthy, laugh at it. Literally laugh out loud to it. Results can begin within a week but most times it takes 30-90 days to work through the transition. Tell it you won’t let it play until it supports you completely. It really just wants a job and you need to prove to it that the only job available to it is one which supports you in every way.
I seem to have been born with my kundalini activated. I had hot burning hands my whole life. I decided that (or was guided by higherself) by getting my Reiki attunement through certification that it would free up the energy and become balanced. Yes, it worked. I went for my reiki certification class on 10/10/10 (this date was not planned). I was the only student there. As the teacher pushed the reiki symbols to me while standing behind me, she moved her hands from the base of my spine to the top of the head. As she did that I felt the energy go up with her hands. After that my hands were cool to the touch. My crown chakra was opened. From that point within weeks I began to feel the crown chakra tingling and energy rushing through me from crown and out my feet as I discussed in my blog post. The Grail Path process completed at the end of August 2013. I also was born at 11:11am. Lots of interesting numbers right? 🙂
Thanks, Dennis, and nice to hear back from you with quite a bit of useful info. You keep giving me homework–and I like it!
I can send you Jana Dixon’s book if you’d like. It’s sitting on one of my shelves and I’m not planning to do much with it.
I reread your kundalini experience and am curious about this force of 144,000. Why 144,000 and what are these folks supposed to do, besides helping others to make progress on their path? For one thing, the experience you posted today gives one possible use–how to turn around the energy of a group, and send positive emotions back to them. It is in fact quite powerful.
I read a bit about ‘born realized souls’ and the author said these souls can be cynical. Is that true? It made me smile. Here is the quote:
Shri Mataji:
“Born realized are the people who were realized long time back, before they were born in this lifetime. So they clear out much faster than you do, because they have done the clearing before also, so they clear out very fast. They normally do not take to all the perversions and all the temptations that you take to, and they are very different type of people. They are unique and cynical because when they are born they find the rest of them are going the other way and they don’t know how to deal with the others and with the situation.
Finally, I am curious as to what happened between October 10, 2010 and late August 2013. Did you spend time deepening your awakening, and did you do anything special? Any additional reiki treatment or practice, for example?
I also have questions about developing one’s healing abilities and they will follow, in a not so distant future.
Thanks! 🙂
Maybe we should continue by email. You can email me at my site’s email address. It’s a gmail account and it’s the name of my blog with only the beginning “S” and not the one further in. I think that should get you there 🙂 From there I’ll give you my regular email.
Je reste à l’écoute, Gilles, et ton cheminement me passionne, surtout, parce que, comme par synchronicité, je traite le sujet de la Déesse et du Féminin Sacrée sur mon blog.
Tant que l’Homme n’a pas intégré sa partie féminine et la Femme, son animus, les noces alchimiques du yin et du yang ne pourront se faire, d’abord en nous, pour se refléter à l’extérieur et remplacer enfin la lutte des pouvoirs par une Alliance harmonieuse, fondatrice d’un monde nouveau.
La femme est en train de reprendre sa vraie place, permettant ainsi à l’homme de récupérer la sienne. Et c’est le Féminin Sacrée qui montre la voie, puisque telle est sa vocation.
Quant au souvenir de ta réincarnation cathare, il est passionnant mais je dis toujours que nos vies passées (et elles sont si nombreuses) ne peuvent avoir de l’intérêt que dans la mesure où elles nous permettent d’avancer dans cette incarnation.
Donc, si cette réminiscence est venue à toi, ce qu’il y a peut-être à y chercher ce qui te permettra de mieux de te reconnecter à ton yin.
Voilà, je te souhaite une belle fin de semaine, le printemps est arrivé chez toi aussi…
Amitiés sincères
Merci chère Elizabeth, pour cette belle et longue réponse.
Pour ce qui est du Féminin Sacrée, je dois dire que je ne sais plus trop ou mon intérêt est passé; peut-être aux oubliettes? En tout cas, ce qui me turlupine le plus à l’heure actuelle, c’est mon lien avec Marie Madeleine et ce que j’ai pu entrevoir dans ce deuxième sanctuaire lors de la session avec mon coach (notamment ce linge blanc qui flottait dans le vent). Je pense qu’il y a pour moi quelque chose à approfondir à ce niveau et cela pourrait très bien rejoindre notre analyse sur le Féminin Sacrée.
Quant à ma vie en tant que Cathare, ce n’est pas tant une réminiscence qu’une information qui m’a été communiquée par Judith Kusel; et une information qui a du sens en fonction du peu que je sais de mes vies passées; pour sûr, j’étais au courant de cette identité cathare mais ne savais pas qu’elle était aussi significative.
Avec toute ma gratitude et mes amitiés
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