THE ALCHEMYCAL PAGES

THE ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE.

Chapter One.

Macrobiotic practice and living is characterized as "living in harmony with The Order of The Universe". This statement implies that there is an orderly harmonious pattern and rhythm to the whole cosmos and the evidence for this orderliness is everywhere on earth and in the heavens, and also in the functioning of the human organism. Furthermore, it seems implicit, at least to me, that there is a conscious design and intent behind and within this orderliness. In other words, the fact that the world, life, the human organism and the heavens reveal a remarkable order and pattern which is harmonious in every detail tells me that this is not random, accidental; that it is actually intended and therefore designed. Life, Nature, Humanity and Cosmos is of a piece, a magnificent work of art and science.

It is difficult to deny the evidence of our senses and feelings when we practice macrobiotics, even for a short period of time. When we participate on a daily basis, as we do in macrobiotic living through our cooking and eating, with the rhythm of the earth as manifested in the seasons, our body responds to this harmonious eating pattern in a manner which elicits profound positive changes physically, emotionally and mentally- at least, it did for me.

So the question came to me after ten or so years of macrobiotic practice, "What is 'The Order of The Universe'"?

Around then I read a book by Jerome Canty, also at that time active in macrobiotic teaching and lecturing, called "Sounding the Sacred Conch" (he also wrote "Healing Naturally" with Richard France) in which he is meditating on the logarythmic spiral and he says that logorhythm means the 'rhythm of the logos'. This hit me like a bolt of lightning, as the Greek word, logos, means 'word'.

In the Prologue to The Gospel of St. John, it says:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made."

I ought to point out here that the Bible is written by people who were spiritual initiates. The meaning of this is that these men and women had so worked on their spiritual development that they were able to see into the spiritual worlds. Now, one of the phenomena of the spiritual worlds is the Akashic Chronicles or "occult script". Briefly described, the Akashic Chronicles are the record inscribed spiritually of everything that has happened, is happening, and WILL happen in the physical world (for there is no time, as we experience it, in the spiritual worlds). This means, among other implications, that the Bible has to be taken literally on the one hand, and every word written in it taken very seriously, while on the other hand, it cannot be read with our normal, everyday habits of thought if we hope to gain any insight from what is written there.

The above lines mean to me that the Order of The Universe is the rhythm of the Logos, which is also called Christ. That is, the Order of The Universe IS Christ.

In 1945, in a cave in Egypt, a bunch of scrolls which are now called the Nag Hammadi Library were found by an Egyptian shepherd. The Nag Hammadi are a collection of writings of the Gnostics hidden when the Gnostics were pronounced as heretics by the Christian Church around the first two or three years after the Crucifixion. Among the extensive collection of writings found in The Hag Hammadi Library is the Gospel of St. Thomas. In The Gospel of St. Thomas, it recounts Christ as saying, "Split open a piece of wood, and I am there; lift up a rock and I am there". This points to me that Christ is indicating He is a living presence within the very heart of Nature, both in the vegetation ('wood') and the soil ('under a rock').

I now bring to your attention to Rudolf Steiner's accounts of Christ, focusing on the sublimely wonderful, pivotal Point of Time in the entire history of the Creation having to do with the Earth and Humanity, the Crucifixion.

Rudolf Steiner (who was also a spiritual initiate and therefore was able to investigate the Akashic Chronicle) describes how if one were to view the earth with spiritual vision from a vantage point above the earth prior to the Crucifixion then one would have perceived the earth as a spiritual darkness, an empty place lacking any spiritual life, a void in the deep.

During The Crucifixion Of Christ, He was nailed to a cross along with two thieves. It was the policy of the Roman Authorities that if a criminal was sentenced to die by crucifixion, and it was deemed that the crime had some mitigating factor, then the crucifixion was terminated by a 'coup de grace' after a short period of time on the cross, rather than the criminal being simply left to die on the cross, thus having to have a prolonged, drawn-out, agonizing death, which would be the case in the judgment of a particular heinous criminal and/or crime.

The duty of carrying out the 'coup de grace' was done by a detail of Roman soldiers under the direction of a Centurion. On the day that Christ was crucified and it being the decision of the Roman Authorities that He be given the 'coup de grace', the Centurion in charge of the detail was a man named Longinus.

When the detail arrived at the cross to which Christ was nailed, Longinus decided he was going to be the one to administer the blow to put an end to the sufferings of Christ. However, Longinus was partially blind and he administered the thrusting of the spear into the side from the left side of Christ, rather than His right side. This meant the thrust of the spear missed Christ's heart, thus fulfilling an Old Testament prophecy. The piercing of Christ's side necessarily meant that His blood was coming from the wound.

Steiner describes that with spiritual vision looking at the earth, at the time of the Crucifixion, what one perceives from a vantage point above the earth, the 'black spiritual void' where the earth is located in the spiritual 'landscape', the instant Christ's blood touches the ground, is the earth immediately begins to radiate spiritual light from its entire circumference into the farther reaches of the spiritual cosmos. From that point on, literally speaking, the physical earth is the physical body of Christ.

To further elucidate, I now take a look at the Last Supper. Here Christ is with the disciples at the Feast of Passover. He takes bread, blesses it, brakes it up into pieces to the disciples, saying as He does:

"Take, eat, this is my body".

And he takes a cup of wine and after giving thanks and offering it to the disciples, He says:

"This is the blood of the new testament, which is shed for many."

Looking at this event macrobiotically it appears extraordinarily significant that bread - the product of whole grains - is used, as well as wine. I feel that interpreting this from the perspective of macrobiotic theory means that Christ recognizes that whole grains is the proper food for humanity (reinforcing what is said in Genesis, Chapter 1, verse 29.) and he also says "Do this in remembrance of Me". That is, whenever we eat cooked whole grains we ought to remember Him. I suggest that in so doing we immeasurably reinforce the body's harmonious response to the eating of whole grains as our staple food.

Now, today in macrobiotic theory, we obviously do not recommend people drink wine at every meal. The reason why Christ gave wine is because wine at that time had the desirable effect of bringing people who drank it into a stronger relationship with the earth. Now, of course, we need the opposite, since humanity as a whole today is strongly materialistic and wine (and alcoholic beverages in general) acts, therefore, today, as a hindrance to our spiritual development.

Nevertheless, if we look at wine symbolically we can say that is represents the sap of the vegetable; that it symbolically represents the vegetable kingdom. Now, this is very significant in the light of macrobiotic theory.

Although most people in macrobiotic teaching appear to not teach it, the crux of macrobiotic eating has to do with the process of digestion being the transformation/transmutation of food into blood. In this process, one of the most significant processes is the transmutation of the chlorophyll found in plant food into iron used to create hemoglobin. (I go into this in great detail in my book "The End of Medicine"). This whole process then thus resounds magnificently in Christ's words "This is my blood", since the earth is his body, whole grains the product of his body and therefore eating whole grains is eating his body and eating vegetables is creating the blood which is the bearer of the Christ impulse in the human organism. Now, this may make people uncomfortable, unsurprisingly, but at the same time it is necessary for us to understand this if we are to truly heal: living in accord with "the order of the universe" is "living in accord with Christ", who is the Word, who is with God, who is God.

Of course, the story doesn't end there. Christ has been since the Crucifixion acting from within the Earth and Humanity, and is the main and central impulse in the ongoing evolution of the earth and humanity. A great deal can be said about what I call the "ongoing Deed of Christ" but what I want to focus on here is the question "Why did Christ do this?".

In order to understand why Christ sacrificed Himself on behalf of humanity and the earth- that is, on behalf of everyone without distinction as to race, creed, color, sex etc. - we need to take a look at the story of Creation from the perspective of spiritual science (the technical term Steiner gave to the investigation of the spiritual worlds, Akashic Chronicle etc. out of developing the ability, latent in everyone, to "see" into the domains of spirit).

Additional Material - December 1999.

Now, let us talk about the origins of the word Tao. I refer here to the book of Steiner lecture's entitled "The Festivals and Their Meaning", in the Chapter "Signs and Symbols of the Christmas Festival". "Above is the symbol of the TAO - the sign that is the reminder of the conception of the divine held by our early forefathers. Before Europe, Asia and Africa were scenes of early civilization, these early forefathers of ours lived on the continent of Atlantis, which was finally submerged by the mighty floods. In the Germanic sagas of Nifelheim or Nebelheim. the memory of Atlantis still lives. For Atlantis was not surrounded by pure air. Vast cloud-masses moved over the land. like those to be seen today clustering around the peaks of high mountains. The sun and moon did not shine clearly in the heavens - they were surrounded by rainbows - by the sacred IRIS. At that time the human being understood the language of nature. Today we no longer understand what speaks to us in the rippling of waves, in the noise of winds, in the rustling of leaves, in the rolling of thunder - but in old Atlantis it was understood and felt as a divine reality. And within these voices of clouds, and waters and leaves and winds a sound rang forth - TAO - THAT I AM. The people of Atlantis heard and understood it, feeling that Tao pervaded the whole universe. Later, Tao was expressed by the by the letter T, upon which rests a circle, a sign of the all - encompassing divine nature."

In another lecture, Steiner emphatically states that the true name of Christ is I AM. Therefore the Tao IS Christ.

However, these are not the only names of Christ revealed by Steiner. The same spiritual divine being referred to as Christ, is also called Vishnu Karman by the ancient Indian, Ahura Mazdao by the ancient Persian (these two cultures are pre-historical cultures), The Logos of St. John's Gospel, Jahweh in the Old Testament, Osiris of Ancient Egypt.

Thus, accurately and properly speaking, the way of life in accord with the Order of The Universe, that is, macrobiotic way of living, is the way of life in accord with the Tao, with Christ, the I AM.

This essay was first published in the April 1999 issue of "Macrobiotic Times" - see Resources Page.

Chapter Two

Comments or questions can be sent to the address below as I check this address every few weeks. Please mention Alchemycal Pages in the subject line. Thank you. Patricia

kaareb@mac.com