I AM, Page 4

Only the “Second Adam” (see “First and Second Adam”) could give such a “white stone,” one that was unsullied, for the infection of the astral body, which occurred in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3), had the natural consequence of progressively sullying first the older etheric body and then even, in time, the still-older physical body. As the downward evolution of humanity continued, a “point of no return,” was reached, the “Right Time,” when it became necessary, if the abyss was to be avoided, for the highest spiritual power (the Christ) to sacrifice himself for the salvation of humanity. The Christ had to take on human form (Heb 2), so that all who called upon “his name” could be saved.

The “hidden manna” (2,17) is not physical food, nor was it in the time of Moses (again, see “Manna”), but rather “spiritual food” (1 Cor 10,3), nothing other than the first stage of enlightenment (see I-9 and I-35). Only with the “new name” (Rev 2,17, Ex 3,14 and 6,2-3) revealed to humanity through Moses does such Manna become possible. It would, indeed, only become possible for humanity in the true sense when the blood of Christ (Rev 19,13) had been shed. Why this is so becomes clearer as one gains understanding of the “etherization of the blood,” the continuous transformation, within all human beings, of the blood into a delicate etheric substance that streams from the heart upward into the head in the region of the pineal gland (see “Second Coming”). When one understands and takes to heart the Mystery of Golgotha, the etheric blood of Christ is incorporated into the process, and one’s own spiritual organ (first the pineal gland) begins to develop, eventually reaching the point of spiritual vision (“seeing,” the first stage of enlightenment or initiation). One can then “see” in the etheric world.

Rev 3,12 above has to do with the church at “Philadelphia,” the sixth post-Atlantean Cultural Era, which follows our own. In that era the “manas” or Manna state will be on center stage insofar as Earth evolution is concerned (although it will not be perfected until the Jupiter Condition of Consciousness—I-1). To this effect, see I-24, supplemented by I-25 and I-19. In the outgoing and return of the Prodigal Son (Lk 15,11-32), i.e., the human being in the Parable’s highest application, the seven-stage process (see I-1, I-2 and I-3) requires that each of the first three stages be recapitulated, in reverse order, in the last three. Thus, what was first revealed in the second Cultural Era (the Ancient Persian) must again appear in more perfect form in the sixth (the Philadelphian), and what was first revealed in the third (the Chaldo-Egyptian) must likewise reappear transformed in the fifth (our present Era). In the second, Zarathustra saw the descending Christ clearly, while in the third Moses was given the “new name” (Rev 2,17), “I Am,” but in his “Fading Splendor” he did not recognize it (the life-saving “Rock”) in the Wilderness. And we see in Rev 3,3, which describes our own fifth Cultural Era when the Second Coming of Christ has commenced with humanity spiritually sleeping, “If you will not awake, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come upon you.” We fail, as did Moses, to recognize him upon his return. But in the sixth Era, Philadelphia, the clear (transformed) vision of Zarathustra returns, and we see in Rev 3,12 that the “new name,” i.e., the higher “I Am,” will be written on “those who conquer.”

With these things in mind, it is possible to come to an understanding of the importance of the Sacrament of Communion. Typically, when the bread is offered to the communicant, the priest will refer to it as “the bread of heaven.” When we begin to understand that “the I Am” is “the new name,” we can begin to see the significance of a thread that runs from “the Law” through the Prophets, the Gospels and Paul to the Revelation. We see it in the “I Am” passages. These have always commanded attention, without understanding, in John’s Gospel, but they have not generally been recognized as being connected elsewhere. When we go back to Ex 3 and finally recognize that, in God’s statement (3,6), “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, etc.” (emphasis added) we are being introduced to the “I Am” of Christ, the “Second Adam,” who, through, and only through, the understanding invitation of our own “I Am” can be conjoined to our very being in the process of perfection, then we can see that “I Am” is used with this meaning elsewhere in scripture.

When we see that the true meaning of the “I Am” was providentially cloaked in Ex 3 to “hide its face” from humanity’s cognition until two millennia after the passage of the Twelve (see “Twelve”), Lazarus/John, Paul, the Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and some others (1 Cor 15,3-8), when the prophecy (1 Cor 14; cf. Ezek 33,23-33) of Steiner made it known upon the repassage through the new age of Abraham (also discussed in “Second Coming”), then we can begin to detect its presence in other hallowed passages.