This article by John-Roger was first published in The New Day Herald, March 2010.
“You must arise to the Consciousness of the Christ that is within you, and that is your salvation. It is the God-form within you that frees you from the bondage of the negative worlds and brings to you your liberation.” – John-Roger
At this time of Easter each year, we look back to the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus the Christ and reflect upon the meaning that action may have for us in our individual consciousnesses today.
The Christ, in its most perfected and absolute manifestation, is an office (much like the presidency of the nation is an office, that a man occupies) and the man who occupies the office of the Christ sits at the head of this whole planetary existence. The Christ sits as the supreme master, the cosmic form. The Christ is the extension of God Itself. And as the Christ manifested in the man, Jesus, it was the extension of God into the human form.
Many religions have stated that you must confess the name of Jesus to be saved. Actually, you must arise to the Consciousness of the Christ that is within you, and that is your salvation. It is the God-form within you that frees you from the bondage of the negative worlds and brings to you your liberation. And there are many ways to accomplish this—as many ways as there are people doing it— and ultimately it is all one.
The man, Jesus, seemed like any other man. And the Christ is the essence of God in every man. All the trials and tribulations, the training and the discipline that Jesus went through were the demonstration that he was part of these earthly patterns. Jesus brought forward, demonstrated, and completely fulfilled the ancient law of Moses—which reads “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Jesus foreordained even his own sacrifice, and so demonstrated that mankind must perpetually sacrifice the illusions of the physical-material world in order to gain the reality of the spiritual world. In the fulfillment of the law of Moses, Jesus dissolved that law for those who would follow the Christ, and he instituted the law of grace. Through grace, the form of Jesus the man was resurrected as the Christ, as the extension of God almighty, as universal consciousness.
To those who would follow the Christ, Jesus gave the keys to overcome darkness, freed us from our own ignorance, and proclaimed that those who would call upon his name could not be denied the existence of Light. And so he broke the chains of hell and purgatory and extended to all who follow the Christ consciousness the grace to move from the despair and darkness of their own bondage and imprisonment, into the Light that is the Christ within, into the soul as it transcends all the lower realms and realizes its own joy, beauty, and perfection. The resurrection of the Christ is the transcendence of the soul.
And this is the time of the year when we as a group, and in our traditions, recognize Jesus Christ’s ascension. We recognize life over death, the strength and power of spiritual consciousness over darkness. There is a strange and interesting thing said in the Bible: Jesus came into the world and the world did not perceive him. He was Light, and he came into the world. If people didn’t see him, where were they? There are a lot of people who can bring darkness into the world. The trouble with that is, they can’t bring the enlightenment after the darkness. Jesus could bring darkness into the world. He demonstrated it. And then he brought enlightenment.
That is the challenge of the resurrection. Can we bring lightness into the darkness that is around us? No one is going to own up to perceiving darkness, or bringing darkness. We all like enlightenment. Who goes for “endarkenment?” It’s not popular. But the very nature of what we do is accruing debts and karma from what we’re unable to mend. There are too many broken hearts in the world, too many things that we’ve done that we can’t undo. The event may be past, and the people we’ve hurt, or who have hurt us, may be dead or gone. How then do we forgive?
I know of one way. It’s a very simple—it is just to be held, to let somebody hold you until whatever has blocked you has broken free. Jesus sat on the side of a mountain overlooking Jerusalem and said, “I would have held you. I would have nurtured you. You wouldn’t let me.”
So what is our responsibility now? We have to step forward in order to be held. If Jesus were to appear, here and now, would you allow him to hold you? He said something else that is very interesting: “This that I do, you too shall do, and even greater, because I am going to go to the Father.” We are put in a very hard place. Do we follow the enlightened one, the Christ? Or do we follow the “endarkened” one, whoever that is? It’s a tough choice, because “endarkenment” looks so exciting.
St. Patrick also said something interesting:
I arise today through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
through belief in the Threeness,
through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.
I arise today through the strength of Christ with his Baptism,
through the strength of His Crucifixion with His Burial,
through the strength of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
through the strength of His descent for the Judgment of Doom.
I arise today through the strength of the love of Cherubim in obedience of Angels,
in the service of the Archangels,
in hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
in prayers of Patriarchs,
in predictions of Prophets,
in preachings of Apostles, in faiths of Confessors,
in innocence of Holy Virgins, in deeds of righteous men.
I arise today, through the strength of Heaven;
light of Sun,
brilliance of Moon,
splendor of Fire,
speed of Lightning,
swiftness of Wind, depth of Sea,
stability of Earth,
firmness of Rock.
I arise today, through God’s strength to pilot me:
God’s might to uphold me,
God’s wisdom to guide me,
God’s eye to look before me,
God’s ear to hear me,
God’s word to speak for me,
God’s hand to guard me,
God’s way to lie before me,
God’s shield to protect me,
God’s host to secure me:
against snares of devils,
against temptations of vices,
against inclinations of nature,
against everyone who shall wish me ill,
afar and anear, alone and in a crowd.
I summon today all these powers between me and these evils:
against every cruel and merciless power that may oppose my body and my soul,
against incantations of false prophets,
against black laws of heathenry,
against false laws of heretics,
against craft of idolatry,
against spells of witches, smiths and wizards,
against every knowledge that endangers man’s body and soul.
Christ to protect me today against poisoning,
against burning,
against drowning,
against wounding,
so that there may come abundance in reward.
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ on my right,Christ on my left,
Christ in breadth,
Christ in length,
Christ in height,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
through belief of the three in one,
through confession of the Oneness of the Creator of creation.
We have the Biblical tradition, we have the Church tradition, and we have religious tradition, but there’s also an esoteric tradition that also speaks of Christ. The esoteric tradition is probably the one that has been hidden the most from all of us, and it says that we are all Christ. We are all that.
It’s not that we are all Jesus Christ the anointed one, but we’re all Christ in the making. Someone once said, “Why have a heaven?” I say there has to be something beyond our grasp, or we’d never move towards it. We’re a reward-seeking creature. Those rewards may be material, or mental or emotional. We seek for what we don’t know, and when we get it we’re not sure that’s it, but we kill and die, and scream and moan, in order to get to it.
We eat depressions, we eat instability, and we really sit at the table of fullness. In fact, we’re abundantly rich with illness, and we’re trying to get out of it. How do we do that? If you won’t allow yourself to be held, maybe you’ll allow yourself to be cuddled. Who shall we ask for that? Ask yourself, because in truth you’re going to know what you need, and you’re going to know what you don’t need. Will you be willing to get rid of what you don’t need? You’ll hang on to it, and we all have a lot of it—but just give yourself permission to empty out all the closets of nothingness.
There’s a part of our consciousness that seeks sensationalism, that knows itself through sensation. Many people don’t like to pray and meditate because they move into another structure of consciousness that doesn’t have the same perimeters that we have here. They get lost and frightened, and they yell, “Don’t do that. All you people that do that are terrible people.” Not everybody can handle it. I like the concept of getting so sick and tired of being tired and sick that you finally just change. But it’s not a place that’s fun to go to, because all your righteousness is going to go—and all your “wrongeousness” is going to go. And then you may go into idolatry thinking somebody else’s is “it.” They’re not. Theirs is theirs.
The esoteric Christ came for all of humanity. The “church Christ” came for that church, the “religious Christ” came for that religion. And the Cosmic Christ is here. There’s no need to fight, to put down anyone else, or to declare anything good or bad. But there is a call for you to look in the mirror and to reflect upon where you are—not as a negative statement, but to see that part of God’s consciousness is in that place also. That day will come, and it’s not too far in the future. I’m not an “end time” person, I’m a future person. I think that we’ll be all here to enjoy it, to see it and to know it, and God consciousness will reign on the planet, in and around all of us.
I don’t think we’re going to have a utopia, because that would be boring. Everything would be so good and perfect that it would become mechanistic, and mechanical things are like bad habits. You don’t like them but you stay in them because there’s a payoff. The payoff for bad habits is security. You know what it’s going to be, you can predict it, and then when you live it, you complain about it because you’re living a life based on security.
When you get those butterflies in your stomach and you think that’s anxiety, there’s a good chance that it is. But that doesn’t mean it’s negative. I’ve had a couple of anxiety feelings come upon me, and it’s the amazing the strength I had. I felt like I could jump out of a twenty story building. That’s the power of the energy that’s floating loose inside of you, once it is harnessed by the mind, by a discipline of focus in the emotions, and by the discipline of the energy flow in the physical body. That brings about outstanding results. Some of us have known each other for a long time, and I’ve watched a lot of you over the years. You’ve seen me grow, and I’ve seen you grow. The only way we could see that is because we’re both growing. When you’re not growing, you don’t see anybody growing. You see them doing the same junk that they’ve always done.
I may be doing the same junk, but I’m just doing it for different purposes. Before I used to do it for me, now I’m doing them for other people. Is there a selfishness sitting in there? There sure is. And I would tell you this: Do it for you, or it won’t get done. If you keep looking off in the distance for somebody else to save you, and you don’t step up to the “save circle,” you don’t get to participate. The Lord went to a city and tried to heal people, and their faith would not allow them to be healed. They had no faith. That says something about where salvation starts. It starts with us raising our hand and saying, “Me!” And then it starts with you stepping forward and putting your body on the line. There’s no way out, there is the only way through and onward.
How much more do you think God, our Father in Heaven is setting it up for us? The things I didn’t like turned out to be really the best growers of my consciousness. They were the ones that flattened me out, trimmed me up, rolled me around, and put me on the right direction. We’re still in this universe looking for happiness. We’re looking for something to take place and then we’ll be happy. But happiness is a state of consciousness that you enter into by choice. You say, “I’m just going to be happy.” Then you hear, “But the world’s falling apart!” Then I’m even more happy.
There’s no reason to fear missing out on anything in this world. What is yours is in front of you. You’re going to stumble over it. You’re going to have shinned knees and ankles because you fell over it, instead of on it, or instead of picking it up. It won’t look like what you want because you don’t really know what you want.
We say, “I want expanded consciousness.” But what does that really mean? Maybe you already have expanded consciousness. You say, “Well I want to know that I’ve got expanded consciousness.” I say, good luck. “Why, J-R, would you say ‘good luck’ to me?” Because you don’t know what you’re doing, so how are you going to know when you’re doing expanded consciousness? “Well somebody will tell me.” Who? “Well, somebody.” Who? “Well, I don’t know who.” Well, then just anybody could tell you. You could find it in anything that anybody says if you care to look, if you care to listen, if you care to say, “Perhaps, you have a message for me. Perhaps.” We’re the mystery school, and the esoteric school of hidden information inside of us can only be discovered as we seek within our mind and in the depths of our being, to see how we react consistently, over and over, to the situations that life presents to us.
The most painful thing we experience is personal contraction. Sometimes I’ll get an email from someone, and just seeing the name of who it’s from, my stomach tightens up. I think, “Oh man, I’m contracting, based upon the name.” At that point I have a lot of choices. One is to close the computer, which means I have to re-open it later and deal with it, and another choice is to read that one last, which means I’m going to have it hanging over my head. What do I do? I open the email—because if it’s good or bad news I’m going to deal with it really fast, and have it out of my way. Or I’m going to take it in, in a way that works for me, and equates to more happiness.
I found out that when I stopped reacting even in the unconscious, I decided that it was all good, and that all the information that came to me was going to be good. I couldn’t control it, but I was going to control me, and it was going to be good. If you decide it’s good, you will find that goodness. But you won’t be stupid or unaware that there are negative things that have to be dealt with. It’s just that you deal with them in a positive fashion.
Some people don’t like crazy people. I’m one of those that does. Do you know why you don’t like crazy people? You’re insecure about what they’re going to do. I have the same thing—I don’t know what they’re going to do either. But I’m not insecure. I’m very interested. This life is a Disneyland ride. Our nature is expansion. Our talents are unknown. We don’t know what the architectural design is, we just know it’s not what we’ve got and it’s not what we’re going for. We have to claim what we’ve got, accept it as being positive, and take the next step—because it’s from this state that we’re going to take the next step.
“I bind me today, God’s might to direct me. God’s power to protect me. God’s wisdom for learning. God’s eye for discerning. God’s ear for hearing. God’s word for my clearing. God’s hand for my cover. God’s path to pass over. God’s buckler to guard me. God’s army to ward me against snares of the devil. Against vices of temptation. Against wrong incantations. Against men who plot evil, or near or far, with any or few. Christ near me. Christ here. Christ be with me. Christ within me. Christ behind me. Christ be o’er me. Christ before me. Christ in the left and the right. Christ hither and thither, Christ in the sight of each eye that shall seek me. In each ear that shall hear me. And each mouth that shall speak me. Christ not the less in each heart that I address. I bind me this day on the triune I call, with the faith in the Trinity-Unity, God over all.”
WATCH A MOMENT OF PEACE VIDEO WITH JOHN-ROGER RECITING ST. PATRICK’S PRAYER
