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[Tau Malachi]

The Feast of the Apostolic Succession: 2008

This year our solar cycle began with the celebration of the Woman of Light and her Holy Child in the Feast of the Mother and Child on winter solstice, and her blessings and energy have been felt within and behind all of the Holy Feasts and the movements in the Continuum of Light Transmission this year – it has, indeed, been a year of radical transitions and change, and embodied illuminations. Through the inspiration flowing from our celebration of the Woman of Light, the image of the Holy Mother in the Apocalypse, the Second Coming, naturally we have focused upon the Gospel of the Holy Bride this year, celebrating her co-labor of preaching, teaching and initiating with Adonai Yeshua.

As we come to the Feast of Apostolic Succession, we remember and celebrate her as the apostle of the apostles, taking up the position of Yeshua Messiah in the center of the sacred circle and her earthly ministry as the first apostle; hence her movement as a light-bearer, healer and peacemaker in the new land, France.

The Book of Acts, of course, becomes a natural focus of contemplation at this time of year, and it reflects the true movement of the apostolic succession. Generally speaking, in fundamental and orthodox terms, the “apostolic succession” theoretically represents an unbroken line of the ordination of priests and consecration of bishops stretching back to the original apostles, various lines being traced to various disciples. With great pomp and ceremony, and the symbolic gestures of age old rites and rituals, priests are ordained by the outer and unspiritual church, and bishops are consecrated, and bishops are said to stand fully as apostles. This, of course, is one interpretation of apostolic succession, and yet, if we study and contemplate the Book of Acts we find another interpretation – through a mystic word, radiant holy breath and laying on of hands, the apostles receive the Holy Spirit, and this reception of the Holy Spirit comes by way of the direct revelation of the Risen Messiah, then, having received the Holy Spirit, they are set into motion by the outpouring of Pentecostal Fire, a spiritual nuclear fire, the Shekinah of the Messiah, supernal.

The nature ordination and consecration by the Shekinah of the Supreme is made perfectly clear by the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who becomes the apostle, St. Paul; although he never knew the Master personally during his earthly ministry and was never his direct disciple, and although he was an active enemy of the followers of the Way, nevertheless he is chosen and ordained by the Shekinah of the Supreme, receiving the Holy Spirit and Supernal Light from a direct revelation of the Risen Messiah – according to the Book of Acts, this constitutes a holy apostle.

Yet, the very title of this holy book – “Acts,” and the stories told of the apostles in this holy book reveal something more of the actual apostolic succession; rather than knowledge of a religious creed and doctrine, or of rites and rituals instituted by mortal men, the apostolic succession is founded upon direct spiritual and mystical experience, and upon a living presence and power that can be communicated and witnessed – through apostles we hear of others receiving the Holy Spirit and Shekinah of Messiah, direct spiritual and mystical experience of the Risen Savior, and we hear of the active power of the Holy Spirit working wonders, a profoundly magical movement just as embodied in the Master. What we hear about is something much more like the Mahasiddhi traditions in the East – lineages of great spiritual adepts and masters who are realized individuals and who are noted for the signs of their realization displayed in wonderworking power.

This, of course, is something very different than what is presented to us by orthodoxy, or by the outer and unspiritual church, as “apostolic succession,” for according to the Book of Acts there is an actual Light Transmission and experience of the Risen Messiah underlying true apostolic succession – the reception of the Holy Spirit and the play of wonderworking by the Spirit, an active and dynamic spiritual movement.

Thus, with true apostles there is the witness of the Holy Spirit – her power and illumination, and very distinctly, the capacity to communicate the experience of that living presence and power to others. In the Feast of the Apostolic Succession it is this Continuum of Light Transmission and the witness of the Holy Spirit that we remember and celebrate, not only in the experience of followers of the Way in the ancient past, but in our own experience as followers of the Way today.

If we are ever blessed to encounter a holy apostle and draw close to them, having a true heart-connection with them, we may experience something of this Light Transmission and the reception of the Holy Spirit – so we are celebrating this divine potential and its actualization, the reality of direct spiritual and mystical experience of the Shekinah of Messiah and Holy Spirit.

Now, on the one hand, taking up the celebration of the Gospel of the Holy Bride we are celebrating this realization of Messianic Consciousness in a holy women and the Acts of Lady Mirya as a holy apostle; yet at the same time, she is the personification of this Shekinah of Messiah, the presence and power of this Light Transmission – a Gnostic Apostolic Succession.

The story of the exile of the Holy Bride in France fleeing persecution with her children, of course, represents the denial, rejection, and loss of the golden energetic thread of true apostolic succession by orthodoxy; but celebrating the life of the Holy Bride following the resurrection and ascension, we celebrate the truth that it cannot be contained, controlled, lost or destroyed – or stamped out, for it is like a wildfire that no one can stop, the illumination of Wild Gnosis or Crazy Wisdom.

As we see with the story of St. Paul in the Book of Acts, the Risen Savior can appear to anyone, anywhere, at anytime, and the Holy Spirit moves with, in and through whomever she will, all as ordained by God, the True Light; as we see in the story of Lady Mirya (St. Mary Magdalene) and other holy women of the first circle, this includes men and women alike. Again and again throughout the generations the Risen Savior appears and this Light Transmission is imparted – the Holy Spirit being received and working wonders – thus the Holy Gospel and Acts are not a spiritual movement of the past, but is an ongoing movement, an ongoing revelation of the Messiah and Shekinah of Messiah, this Light-presence and Light-power.

Now, all of the stories of the teachings and wonders Lady Mirya performs is a profound message concerning the Holy Gospel, for if she embodied something of the Divine Presence and Power of the Messiah as Lord Yeshua did, then the self-realization of the Messiah is not isolate to him, but rather, the embodiment of Supernal or Messianic Consciousness is the divine destiny of all – he being as the prototype of a Divine and Supernal Humanity, the race of the Great Seth (Shin-Tau).

This, of course, is another dimension of Gnostic Apostolic Succession – the embodiment of an actual self-realization or enlightenment.

To celebrate the embodiment of Supernal or Messianic Consciousness in others – in the tzaddikim, is to celebrate the potential for the embodiment of Supernal or Messianic Consciousness in us all, the eventual enlightenment and liberation of all living spirits and souls (universal salvation).

Quite naturally, this is a Holy Feast filled with great awe, wonder and joy – for what we are celebrating has transpired and is transpiring in our own experience; so it is near and dear to us, and we have intimate personal knowledge of it – the advent of Messianic Consciousness continues among us, and will continue until its fruition in the Second Coming, the full reception of the Holy Bride, the Shekinah of Messiah.

If we look into the solar year, this Holy Feast stands directly opposite the Feast of the Baptism – indeed, it is the Holy Feast celebrating the confirmation of our faith through direct spiritual and mystical experience, the Gnostic experience, our faith bearing the good fruit of True Gnosis.

With the coming of the Holy Day of the Feast of Apostolic Succession may we rejoice and celebrate in the Living Presence and Power of Hayyah Yeshua, the Shekinah of the Messiah – Hallelu Yah! Amen.

May all who desire to receive and be received be taken up by the Holy Spirit and Shekinah – may all receive the perfect illumination of the Spiritual Sun; amen.

Blessings & shalom!
_________________
Tau Malachi
Sophia Fellowship
Ecclesia Pistis Sophia

[Elder Gideon+]

Solar Feast Greetings!

Thank you Tau Malachi, for drawing out the points of this solar year as we come to the Feast of the Apostolic Succession! We are indeed greatly blessed on so many levels to enter this rite with joy and thanksgiving for the gnosis of our forebearers, reaching from so deep in the past into our very present place-time, as a lifeline of light and remembrance.

Outstanding to me in contemplating the feasts of this year in the blessing of the Woman of Light of St. John's Apocalypse is the shelter the Shekinah offers to all who cleave to the Risen Savior. She is a shield to all who remember, recognize and realize the empty tomb and upper room as a door open even now: by the merit of Lady Miryam, Hayyah Messiah--Living Messiah--is imprinted into history, forming a sanctuary of grace. What is this which we most truly seek, ask and knock, but sanctuary? This promise was first made to the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, seen and spoken into greater detail by the Prophets, and, by the grace of the Apostle of the Apostles--Lady Miryam--embodied in the Apostolic Succession.

I am a shield to you,

said the word of the LORD to Abram and Sarai immediately after their encounter with Melchizedek (Gen 15.1). This shield was already with them in their war with the kings of Edom, for it was not Abram who fought, but the Shield--the Shekinah--who went before him and was his victory crowned by Melchizedek. Likewise, Jacob was shielded by his wives Leah and Rachel who respectively embodied the Upper and Lower Shekinah in Esau's advance. What would be Joseph's exile in Egypt, apart from the Shekinah orchestrating all events with, in and through his receptivity to her shielding wisdom? And how does a mere shepherd boy strike dead a colossal monster like Goliath, or any other astounding victory after victory unless the Spirit of the LORD was upon him? David's Psalms are replete with praise of the LORD as a shield; his and all of the lives of Partriarchs and Matriarchs before him testify to the Shekinah as a shield going before them according to their faith.

Faith, then brings another beautiful angle into this mystery of the Shekinah shielding us, for in Kabbalah, the Parent of Faith is a cognomen of the sephirah of Mother Binah, the Upper Shekinah. Likewise, the principle of shield and being shielded in Kabbalah is attributed to Daughter Malkuth, the Lower Shekinah. The Mother of Faith is Her Daughter, manifest as a shield to the Children of Israel who cleave to the Holy One. St. Paul knew this intimately when he tells us in Ephesians 6:16 what faith-as-shield does,

quenching (dissolving) all the flaming arrows of the Evil One.

When we comprehend, then how this Light Transmission links from millenia past into our own place-time, we see that all Apostles of the True Light, have been shielded by their faith. The faith which shields from within against the accusing arrows of inadequacy, lack, and insecurity of the Evil One is the same faith shielding from without in the Divine Will against physical harm plotted by archons and "forces of wickedness established in celestial places". We have fully received this sanctuary and shield of the Shekinah when we become this for others asking, seeking and knocking.

May we become the very Shield under which we have come into being!
As us, may this Apostolic Succession prevail into the next generation!

Amen and amen!

Elder Michael+