It is highly significant that the inner sanctuary that housed the Ark(anum) measured

twenty cubits square. For this, we must refer to the Arcanum Twenty: Resurrection.
The Hebrew letter Reish (contained in CHiram) is the twentieth letter of the alphabet and
symbolizes the head, where we house our pineal gland and need to bring the fire to.

Furthermore, in the center of the temple was the cubic stone, the perfect cube which has
nine faces, and that nine-faced cube relates to the Ninth Sphere - Yesod, the ninth sephirah
of Kabbalah. If we place the Tree of Lifeover the body of a human being we see
that Yesod sits directly over the sexual organs. So, the holiest of holiest, the most holy part
of the Temple of Solomon, relates to sex.

According to tradition the temple stood in place for thirty-three years. This is the same
amount of time that David ruled as king, the same number of segments that we have in our
spine, the same number of degrees in Masonry, and the same number of years that Jesus
lived. The number thirty-three is symbolic and points to our spinal column, which is the
central column of the temple. The spinal column is where the temple is built. Upon the top
of the spine sits our head, which is the Mount, and that head on the Tree of Life is the
Logos, the Lord, the Dharmakaya, the Trikaya.

Cedar and Pine Trees

We see that the types of wood have significance here. The two types of wood
mentioned repeatedly in the story are cedar and pine. This is because the energy,
the Consciousness that is behind those plants, has direct relationships to the processes of
initiations.

Cedar is used in the temple construction because of its sacred nature. Cedar is the wood
used on all the doors of the temples.
 This is because the Angel of the Cedar is related to the door - the chakra Muladhara,
which is at the base of the spine - and it is through the doorway that the fire must enter into
the channel of the spine, through that door of the cedar tree, the symbol of the chakra
Muladhara. That is why all the temples have doors of cedar. We enter into the Temple
of God thorough the proper use of sexual energy, through the door of the cedar in
ourselves. Samael Aun Weor wrote of this in Igneous Rose:

The inferior orifice of our spinal medulla is the door of our ardent furnace.

The guardian of this door is the Angel who governs all the elementals of the cedars.

All the doors of the temples are made with the wood of the cedar.

“Open thy doors, o Lebanon, that the fire may devour thy cedars.” - Zechariah 11:12

When that fire rises up the spinal column, when we surpass all the difficulties of the
construction and that fire enters into the head or the mount, it inflames and invigorates the
pineal gland. The word ‘pineal' comes from ‘pine' - the pine-gland. The pine tree has an
esoteric relationship with the mind, and this is part of the reason why monasteries and
places of Meditation are often built in environments with cedar and pine trees - because
these trees have an influence on our inner development; the intelligence of these trees, the
powers of these trees.

The pineal gland is in the center of the

brain, and thus is at the top of the spinal column: this is why the priests and prophets carry
staves topped by a pine cone.

When the pineal gland is saturated with light, with this fire of Hiram, of Christ, that eye
opens and pineal gland is inflamed - clairvoyance is born. This is why in all the world's
traditions we see the saints with halo of light around their heads, and that halo is the
transmuted sexual energy which is illuminating the pineal gland and filling them with light,
giving them the capacity to see with this third eye - the pineal gland.
 That is the great source of all of the world's most spectacular art: the window of the
third eye. The great prophets have made their prophecies, the great artists have composed
their paintings, the great musicians have composed their symphonies because they saw
them first through the use of their imagination: by means of the pineal gland.

The pine tree is also where we get the tradition of the Christmas tree. The Christmas
tree is a symbol of the Tree of Life - the Kabbalah; and we always see in the western
tradition how the Christmas tree is decorated with lights and usually has a star on top or an
angel, and this is symbolic of how that fire rises up the tree and illuminates all its parts,
with the little lights or candles that are placed on the tree, till reaching its ultimate
expression at the very peak, which is our own inner star, our own inner angel.

If you look into ancient Egyptian scriptures, you will see that the deceased are enter
into the Hall of Judgment with a pine cone on their heads - this is because the deceased in
The Book of the Dead of the Egyptians are deceased psychologically, have killed
the ego and have developed the pine cone, which is the pineal gland. And, actually the
shape of the pineal gland is roughly similar to a pine cone.

Organization of the Workers

When Hiram came he organized all the workers to build the temple in three groups
according to their capacities. He organized them as:

1. the apprentices (beginners)

2. the craftsmen or Journeymen (skilled workers)

3. the Masters (the highest level; the overseers)

He organized all the workers in the temple in this way so that everyone could fulfill
their duties to the best of their ability and no one would fall short. These symbolize the
three degrees of initiation into the Gnostic Church.
 But, unfortunately, there were three craftsmen who felt they deserved the title of
Master, and so they plotted to force Hiram, the architect, to reveal to them the passwords-
the secret knowledge of the Masters. So, they confronted, ambushed, and killed Hiram
Abiff in the temple.

These three craftsmen symbolize the three traitors within ourselves, the three traitors in
us:

1. the demon of the mind

2. the demon of desire

3. the demon of evil will

These are symbolized in Buddhism by the three daughters of Mara. These are the three
traitors in our own psyche who plot to kill the Soul, to kill the Christ, to undo the work of
the Temple. Why? Because of pride. Because of envy.

Envy is the secret trigger of evil action. Envy is that psychological quality which
desires to have what someone else has. When we see someone who is successful and we
want that for ourselves, that is envy. And that is ego. Envy causes harm. Envy is the great
destroyer of art. Envy destroyed the temple. Envy destroyed Rome, destroyed the Aztecs,
destroyed all the great civilizations. Envy and fear and pride and lust: all of these qualities
which make up that horrible creature called the ego.

Fear is closely related to envy; we envy what someone else has because of fear. In
many cases when we feel that we do not have something that we need, usually it is because
we are afraid of something else. For example, we see a rich person and envy the wealth
because we are afraid of poverty or we are afraid of illness or we are afraid of any number
of different circumstances that we imagine. So, fear and envy, you can see, work very
closely together.

It is important for us to be very aware of how these three traitors interfere with the
construction of our own temple because they always try to interfere. The way we overcome
them is by applying the method that Hiram Abiff used, which is to build the temple in
silence: in Meditation.

When we work in Meditation, when we maintain silence in the temple grounds, then we
have the capacity to always be aware and watching when the three traitors approach - we
will hear them, we will see them, we will sense them. But if we do not meditate, if we do
not keep our mind in a state of serenity, in a state of watchfulness, then it is very easy for
the three traitors to overcome us. It is very easy for our envy, for our pride, our lust, our
fear and any of those other elements in our own mind, to take over in order to feed
themselves.

The creation of the soul, the creation of the temple, takes a lot of courage. We have to
be fearless, to do our will, to do the will of God, the will of our Inner Buddha - not the will
of the envy, not the will of the pride, not the will of fear, but to do what is right.

We have to always do what is right, even though it is scary, even though it looks
impossible, even though it looks like we are crazy.

We have to always reflect on this: we do not know our inner capacities, because we do
not know our Being. We do not know what we can or cannot do, because we do not even
know ourselves. Instead, we listen to fear which always tells us, "You need to go get a good
job and make money," or "You need to find a good husband (or a good wife) to have
security," or "You need to be respected," or "You need this material good or circumstance
of life..." All of these are excuses, desires, lies. Fear is the great enemy, envy is the great
enemy, pride is the great enemy. But the greatest amongst them is lust.

If Samael Aun Weor had listened to his fear, we would not have these teachings. If
Gandhi had listened to his fear, India would still be in ruins. If Jesus had listened to his
fear, or Buddha, any of these great human beings, Joan of Arc, George Washington - they
would not have been able to accomplish their work. So, it is important for us in our own
lives to build the temple of our soul by doing that what is right.

High and Low Art

 We need to understand that art, like the other aspects of the teaching, is a polarity. Like
the Consciousnessitself, like most things in nature, art has a duality. There is high art and
there is low art, and there are many degrees between.

The highest forms of art are forms of creation which bring high ideals into form, into
matter, which create and elaborate something higher and bring that into existence. We can
see this in the philosophy of Buddha, in the architecture of the Egyptians, in the language of
the Chinese. We can see that there are hints and elements that are aspects of these forms of
art that are very high, that are very beautiful.

If we look at the symphonies of Beethoven, we can see and taste and experience
harmony, structure, and musical laws that are beyond the capacity of our intellect to
understand. Within that music there is clearly a structure; there is clearly a principle; there
are clearly laws that are very high; and yet, it is so natural, so ecstatic, and sounds so
spontaneous. That is what we would call genuine art, real art.

But we also have degenerated, low art, and these are forms of creation that bring what
is inferior into manifestation. Low art is very common now. These forms of art celebrate
and feed and develop the ego. These are forms of art that celebrate discord, chaos, lack of
harmony, lack of beauty, lack of virtue - the celebration of greed, the celebration of avarice,
of lust, of gluttony. So, when we look at what we in these times call art, this is what we
generally find.

People say now that movies are the great art of these times. But what is celebrated in
the movies that are made these days? Lust, violence. Who are the great heroes of our
movies? Criminals, gangsters, killers, murderers, people who are sexually depraved, people
who are greedy and hateful, people who commit acts that are criminal. The rest are about
grotesque crimes, sexual depravity, and hateful sarcasm. And we celebrate that in our
movies, television, magazines, music, and books.

Some believe the internet will herald the birth a new art form: but the single most
prevalent force driving the internet is pornography. What beauty can come from bestial,
animal, filthy lust? The only thing that pornography can create are degenerated, depraved
individuals seeking stimulation in ever-more extreme sexual perversion; pornography can
only create sexually impotent men, sexually wasted women, dried up old carcasses drained
of all strength from too much fornication, who desperately take expensive chemicals to
"enhance" their sex life. These - and worse - are the most common creations or works of
"art" resulting from the internet.

The forms of art that we observe and ingest through the senses have a profound
influence on the construction of our own temple. When we are observing art, when we are
taking these elements into our psyche, these are the materials with which we work. We
ingest them, we digest them, they become part of us. So when we take in influences that
celebrate lust, violence, and greed, what will be the result? Can you build a beautiful temple
out of rubbish? Can you build a beautiful soul from trash?

We can see this especially in the relations between a man and a woman. It is there
between a man and a woman that the power of creation is most profound. Physically, it is
obvious that a man and a woman can create a new physical body, that a man and woman
have that singular power to create a new life, but it is also between a man and woman that
the soul is created - this is the only way to give birth to anything! But that man and woman
create according to the nature of their Consciousness, create according to the nature of their
mind. So, what would be the result of the creation that they elaborate if in their mind they
perpetuate vice? If they allow fear to dominate their mind, or lust, or greed? What would be
the result of that creation?

In these times, what we see is that instead of celebrating the ideals of virtue, the ideals
of Consciousness, men are celebrated as beasts. In our culture and our world traditions
now, our movies, television, books, our cultural values celebrate man as an animal: as
lustful, as violent. And we like it - we celebrate that: that a man has the right to be a beast,
should revel in filth (like pornography or guns and killing), should be covered with dirt and
the blood of "the bad guys." We think a real man is an expert at fulfilling his greed, has the
right to be lustful, has the right to be violent against anyone who he does not like, should be
cunning, greedy. The ideal of a man in these times is that he should be a money-making
machine who will step over anyone and crush all those who oppose him. These are very
low ideals. These are very far from the masculine virtue or beauty of the ancient cultures.

The ideal of a woman in these times is equally bad. In these times, we do not celebrate
the natural beauty of a woman or the virtuous qualities of woman; in these times, we want
women to dress, adorn themselves, and paint themselves like prostitutes. Our culture
celebrates the idea of a woman being a whore, having no prudence, no Chastity. We
celebrate the idea of a woman being very foul, with the grotesque list of a harpy, and this is
very sad. We see nowadays that very young girls dress like prostitutes, wearing makeup
and revealing clothes, having lost even their childhood because of the influence of this very
low ideal of a woman.

What we see in our contemporary ideas of a man and woman is that our cultural values
are very low. They are the celebration of lust, of greed, of pride. A man wants a woman
who will satisfy his lust and a woman wants a man who will satisfy her fear and envy. And
this is sad. The result is marriages and homes that are true hells. The truth is that lust is
never satisfied, fear is never satisfied, envy is never satisfied. As soon as the spouse fails to
satisfy the lust of their partner, that partner will leave and find someone else who will - and
sometimes they find someone of the same sex. As soon as one partner is no longer satisfied
with their fear, or envy, or greed for money, they will leave and find someone who will
satisfy their fear and greed and envy. This is because real love is no longer cultivated and
appreciated. What we want is security, to look good to others, material goods, and sexual
satisfaction. And that is all!

Children are inheriting all of these unfortunate influences. Our children now are
becoming more and more rebellious, more and more lazy, more and more spoiled, and
more and more degenerated. If you have stepped into a school in recent times, you will see
how different it is from when you were a child, and how shocking it is. Children curse like
filthy criminals and taunt each other with sexual innuendos. Children play with sex, drugs,
and alcohol instead of dolls and blocks. Children kill children. Children kill adults. All of
this is happening because the adults are allowing it to happen, because the adults are
producing the causes culturally, psychologically, artistically, and politically.
 What is expressed now in our culture is no longer the love of beauty, the aesthetic of
grace and harmony, and the aesthetic of the cultivation of high ideals. Instead, in our art,
architecture, crafts, and storytelling, we celebrate greed - we want things cheaper and
faster, and that is all. Our art in theses times is all about making money, about celebrating
our anger, about celebrating our fear.

Cultivating the Arts

In these times, most people do not cultivate an art. In ancient times, everybody
cultivated the arts; everyone played music, practiced painting or calligraphy, masonry, or
gardening. Nowadays, if you cannot make money doing it, people do not do it. And this is
sad, because this has an impact on the development on the Consciousness.

All of the great initiates have cultivated the fine arts. Samael Aun Weor stated this
in Aztec Christic Magic.

The fine arts are intimately related to the cultivation of the beauty (Tiphereth) of human
souls, and that is why Gnosis is emphasizes that we need to live artfully, to live creatively
from moment to moment, and this cannot be done by imitation.

We cannot learn about Gnosis, or become the temple that we should become if we are
imitating others. Each of us has our own unique Consciousness, our own unique Being who
has unique gifts, qualities, and powers - that is what we need to embody. Imitation does not
lead to that. We cannot realize our own Being by imitating someone else.

When we are seeking to realize the art of Gnosis, it is an art of the individual human
soul, but it is based on principles; it is not something you can make up. Remember the four
pillars - that art is an expression of the religion, the philosophy, and the science. That is all
the wisdom. Art is the method to accomplish what the wisdom inspires.

Beethoven, for example, is a great master who demonstrated his mastery of the
principles of art; he mastered all of the scientific principles of music, and he expressed that
through his art. He did not abandon the principles, the science, the philosophy, the religion
- he mastered them, and in a way that very artfully expressed his own Inner Being.

There is only one Beethoven. There is only one Richard Wagner. There is only one
Buddha. There is only one Dalai Lama. There is only one Guru Rinpoche
[Padmasambhava]. Each of these beings mastered the science, the philosophy, and the
religion, and expressed them through their own unique art.

Every one of us is the same: every one of us is an artist, a creator - we create from
moment to moment by our words, by our thoughts, by our feelings, by our actions. This is
the art of living well. When we learn to live artfully, consciously, then the works of our
every moment become works of art. This is how we find our true vocation, our true mission
in life.

For this, we need to learn to be aware of the three traitors in ourselves:

 the demon of the mind which is always reasoning and justifying itself

 the demon of desire which is always seeking sensations and satisfaction

 the demon of evil will which is always seeking to fulfill its pride

If we can learn about them in ourselves and learn to listen to the voice of our Inner
Guru, we can become the artist we should be, our own unique individual art.

In this way, we can understand why all the great writers, all the great painters, all the
great musicians, studied and mastered the principles of their craft and then become the
great artists that they were.

Nowadays we think we should just be able to flip a switch and be a master. Mastery is
not like that! It takes study, it takes practice, it takes a lot of effort. Mastery comes little by
little according to our works, mastery in anything. And I would challenge you to approach
any of these Masters and ask them if they feel satisfied with their own level of
development; I am sure that you will find that all of them say ‘No,' and that they are all
aspiring to an even higher ideal. We should do the same.
 We should learn that life is our canvas; our life is where we create our art. The media
that we use is our energy. If you want to be an artist, if you want to learn how to draw, you
need first the surface to draw upon, and that is our paper, our canvas. Then, you need
media, some kind of medium that can render the image - and that is our energy, that would
be the lead of the pencil, or the pigment of paint. But that medium has to be directed, it has
to be guided, it has to be put in place, and we do that with our willpower, and that is the
tool: the brush, the pen, the pencil - the instrument. Thus you can see that from moment to
moment, each of us is creating a piece of art, and that art is us. But what have we made so
far? Have we reached illumination? Have we awakened our Consciousness? Have we
transcended suffering? Have we spoken with the Gods? If not, we have work to do. We
need to study the Wisdom: the religion, the science, the philosophy. Then, we can begin to
create our work: our soul.

Our life reflects our level of being. The nature of our life is the result of our actions,
and it reveals our Consciousness. If we want a better life, if we want to have a life that is
more beautiful, we have to cultivate that beauty, to develop that beauty, to strengthen it,
and that beauty is our Human Soul - Tiphereth. That beauty is strengthened when we
extract the fire from the sexual waters and bring it up the spine to saturate our
psychophysiology, and to give us the inspiration to create light.

Unfortunately, in these times, we see that people are depleted; they do not have the
energy to create. They do not have the energy to live life well; this is because everyone is
wasting their energy from moment to moment through all the three brains.

We waste our energy in our mind by excessively thinking.

We waste our energy through our heart by obsessively bouncing between one emotion
to the next, by being identified with all of our emotions.

We waste our energy through our physical body, through over activity, overexertion, or
through extreme laziness.
 And we waste it most especially through sex. Humanity has failed to realize that the
key of all the powers, key of all development, the birth place of the Buddha is in the waters
of sexuality, so humanity wastes that energy, expels it, indulges in the orgasm, in the sexual
pleasure. And when that indulging persists, that energy is being wasted, consumed by
the egorepeatedly, over and over. The result is that that energy is being depleted out of the
body, out of the heart, out of the mind, out of the soul. What is the case now? We age fast,
we need drugs to arouse us, we need energy drinks, we need caffeine, we need stimulants.
People take drugs, they take alcohol, they take whatever they can to try to build and recover
the energy that they themselves are wasting! The result is: the pineal gland becomes
atrophied, becomes destroyed. The endocrine system becomes destroyed, the sexual organs
become destroyed, they become weak, they lack power, they lack force. So, men lose their
virility, women lose their sexual drive; they lose their mental capacities, they lose their
emotional sensitivities, they lose their physical energy, they decline, they age, they become
sick and they die.

This is the result of the three traitors ruling in our three brains - by pulling energy and
feeding themselves.

The answer is for us to begin to develop this temple for ourselves, to save our energy,
to learn about the three traitors in ourselves, to observe the mind, to watch ourselves from
moment to moment, to be on guard, and to moment-to-moment activate our Consciousness,
activate this capacity of the human soul. This is where the Consciousness comes from, this
is where the beauty arises - it is from the Consciousness itself. When
our Consciousness starts to awaken, we start to perceive life in the new way - to see
ourselves as we truly are, to see life as it truly is.

Little by little, this becomes our great art - the art of the Consciousness: to awaken, to
become a real Human Being, an embodiment of all the Divine Principles: charity, love,
compassion, tolerance, endeavor, diligence, happiness for others, temperance, fortitude - all
of those beautiful qualities of the Soul, the Beauty of Tiphereth. And these are the great
beauties that are born in the Temple of Solomon.
 When you study in the Bible, the temple is described as being made of cedar and pine,
but covered with solid gold, and all matter of gems and jewels. The gold is the gold of the
Alchemist who has taken the lead, the base metals, the filthy metals, and purified them,
extracted the most beautiful and pure elements - this is the gold itself. And that Alchemist,
that Initiate has also extracted from their own earth all the jewels, the gems of
the Consciousness, jewels of love, compassion and patience, tolerance, diligence. And
those are the jewels and gems that adorn the temple and make it beautiful, make it House
of God.

Profound reflection upon this story causes us to realize that this temple is our own
mind, and if we want Avalokiteshvara, Chenresig, Christ, to inhabit the temple of our mind,
we have to make it clean, we have to make it pure. How can we invite the Buddha to come
and sit in room filled with filth, with the stench of fear, with the disgusting vile rotting
matter of pride and lust? - and we all have that. Our own temple is vile, our own Inner
Temple is impure, made filthy by our own hands.

So, the Art of the Initiate is to build the house of the Lord, to perfect it, to make a holy
place in ourselves which can perfectly reflect the Light of Christ, the Light of Chenresig,
the light of Tara, Sarasvati, whatever you want to call that Source of Virtue.

We begin this process now! This does not start next week when you decide you are
going to take a painting class, or join a choir - these are good things to do - but the
cultivation of art is how you artfully utilize your will. That is the Art of Gnosis! To utilize
your willpower for the purposes of Beauty - not for money, not for fame, not because
somebody told you, not because all your friends do it, or your family, or your religion, but
because you know it is right. And you can only know that by awakening
your Consciousness, by awakening your Human Soul and coming to know your own Inner
Spirit - to receive those commands directly.

This is symbolized when Moses approaches the mount and sees the burning bush and
humbles himself and receives the instructions of God.
 This is symbolized by the Buddha in Meditation, with his mind perfectly serene, within
which is reflected all the contents of the Universe, and that way he can see the truth.

In that silence we construct our temple, and the art of the Soul of the Consciousness can
be advanced.

Questions and Answers

Q: Can you explain to us the way we can differentiate between good and bad art? For
instance, Niccolo Paganini wrote very mathematical, precise music, but it seems it was
black music, right?

A: To learn about art requires that you learn how to awaken your Consciousness. When
you come to know yourself, then you can start to know what is outside of you. Unless you
awaken your Consciousness and know your mind, you will not be able to see anything
outside. Your Consciousness becomes the mirror that reflects the contents of everything
else.

When we remain asleep, without the Consciousness awake, we cannot differentiate

easily between good and bad art, between good and bad influences, except with things that
are very crude or obvious, right? I mean, it is sort of obvious in some cases.

But you cite, for example, Paganini. In order for you to have the capacity to fully know
the meaning of a given work of art, you have to have an awakened Consciousness that can
perceive the conscious source of that art - does that make sense to you?

So, as an example, Samael Aun Weor used to visit museums and sacred sites all over,
and was able, because he awakened his Consciousness, to observe and reflect upon a given
sculpture or piece of art and intuitively comprehend its meaning. And that meaning would
not be visible to anyone else, but because he had awakened his Consciousness and knew
himself, he was able to penetrate and see the objective knowledge hidden in that artwork.

Sometimes we get a sense of it; we may have a feeling about it. If we look at the Mona
Lisa, its meaning is not obvious, but its power is undeniable (it is an Initiatic painting that
hides a profound message for those who know how to see). If you look at the statues of the
Greeks, or the great temples of the Egyptians, or the Aztecs, you see the same - the power
of these creations is undeniable, but the meaning eludes us. So, we have to
awaken Consciousness.

The point is made that ‘it is from the heart that art emerges' and that heart is the method
through which, the mirror through which, we can perceive beauty. Of course, the heart is
where we find Tiphereth on the Tree of Life. Tiphereth sits on the heart.

So, in general, in synthesis, it is a very powerful and useful tool for us to use in our own
development - to cultivate the fine arts. To take up an instrument, or a pen, or a brush, to
write, to paint, to do our gardening, to use our creative expression, but to do it because we
love doing it. Not because we want to show it to someone, to compete with someone, to
impress someone, or to get rich. Cooking is another example. So, I encourage you to
cultivate the fine arts in yourself, but if you feel those influences of competition, of money,
of fear - then, keep your art to yourself. Keep your art in silence until the time comes when
those influences are not burdening you any longer.

All the great masters of art in our history simultaneously developed the physical skills
of their art; Richard Wagner studied painting and drawing, studied music, studied
symphonic constructions, stagecraft, dramatic writing, poetry, studied how instruments
work, studied how the human voice works, studied composition, theory - all of the aspects
of art. At the same time, he cultivated the practice of Meditation; he cultivated the art of
transmutation. And when the time came, when his mind was prepared and sufficiently
developed to reflect the light of his Innermost, he was able to do it because he had the
physical skills to do it. So, we can proceed likewise.

Where we feel a calling, an impulse, an interest, just because we love it, just because
we care for it, in whatever field of life, be it business or painting or music, cultivate those
skills, develop those skills. Any skill can be compatible with the development of your soul,
but develop them simultaneous to your spiritual practice. And, in that way, you can develop
psychological harmony, which is necessary for the complete construction of your own
temple.