The following article is a brief excerpt from my 2017 publication entitled Gender and Sexuality: In Light of Esoteric Science, and is available from Amazon.com
From what has been discussed thus far, it is obvious that esoteric science fully agrees with traditional Western theology that the One God is a perfect unity of three deific personifications―or simply, “three divine persons.” Furthermore, this “Trinity” of divine persons is agreed to be co-existent, co-equal and consubstantial with one another.
There is, however, a couple of noticeable differences. In Western theology, the divine Trinity is understood to be Father, Son and Holy Spirit; whereas the esoteric understanding of the divine Trinity is Father, Son and Holy Mother.
Moreover, in Western theology it is believed that the divine person of the Father eternally generates (or “begets”) the divine person of the Son; and together, the Father and the Son eternally generate (or “spirate”) the Holy Spirit. The esoteric understanding, however, is that the divine person of the Father together with the divine person of the Holy Mother eternally generate the divine person of the Son.
Esoterically speaking, then, the divine person of the Son is not a third gender; but rather the perfect union of the only two genders in real (divine) existence―the Heavenly Father (divine masculinity) and the Holy Mother (divine femininity).
Given the real-existence and complementarity of the Heavenly Father and the Holy Mother, it’s abundantly obvious that divine gender is transcendently more alive, personal and powerful than the various cosmic manifestations of universal gender. The infinite and eternal rhythmic interplay between the divine masculine (Heavenly Father) and the divine feminine (Holy Mother) is superlatively beyond any mechanical-style, vibratory oscillations that generate subatomic particles. As well, divine gender is transcendently superior to any back-and-forth mental vacillations which generate human thoughts and ideas. Divine gender is even infinitely grander than the recurring collapse and expansion of the entire universe.
The two divine genders, then, are much, much more than simply being universal forces of Nature; or universal mental operations in Nature; or universal principles (laws) of Nature. The two divine genders transcend the entire natural world; but are likewise much more than being simply supernatural forces, supernatural operations or supernatural principles (laws). The two divine genders are fully-alive, deific personifications―divine persons―who have eternally existed in perfect, mutual complementarity.
Esoteric science and Western theology also mutually accept the revelatory truth that “God is love.” How this is esoterically understood is that the spirit-nature of God is synonymous with divine love; that is, divine love is the spirit-nature of God. In this light, the two gender distinctions of God’s spirit-nature are also correctly understood to be two distinctions of divine love. The Heavenly Father, then, is the perfect personification of divine “masculine” love; and the Holy Mother is the perfect personification of divine “feminine” love.
The eternal, back-and-forth contraction and expansion of God’s spirit-nature, then, is best understood as an eternal interchange and infinite reciprocation of divine love between the Heavenly Father and the Holy Mother. Moreover, the Eternal Son is best understood as the perfect union of divine masculine and divine feminine love. As the divine offspring, the Eternal Son is eternally generated by the mutual love of the Heavenly Father and the Holy Mother (see Figure 1 below).
The divine Trinity, then, is best understood as a transcendent, “familial” love-relationship of divine Father, divine Mother and divine Progeny (Son). Of course when applying human familial terms and interactions to God’s Trinitarian spirit-nature, it must be kept in mind that they are all raised to a degree of infinite and eternal perfection (unlike the finite and temporal limitations of human nature).
Figure 1: The Trinity of Divine Love
The co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial love of the three persons of God is logically the highest and most perfect expression of love in reality. As such, the love of the Trinity serves as the goal and ideal of all love relationships in the created universe. In other words, the principles of universal gender strive to best reflect and manifest the divine gender expressed in Trinitarian love.
Of course the perfect love as expressed in divine gender is transcendently beyond what manifests as human sexuality and procreation. Human sexuality and procreation are temporary, limited, imperfect and undeveloped reflections of divine love as it manifests in the physical world.
Could the labels of “order” and “chaos” be applied here to represent the same idea? Order representing masculinity (the Heavenly Father) and chaos representing femininity (the Holy Mother)? And the balance and harmony of order and chaos representing “the Eternal Son”?
(In this context, by “order” I mean something along the lines of “the force that maintains structure”, and “chaos” meaning “the force that updates structure”.)
Also, in Chinese philosophy, could the the concept of yin and yang be applied in the same way?
Hiya Ryan,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply to my article on “Divine Gender.”
At the level of the Divine Trinity (which is the nature of God), the standard definition of “chaos” (ie: a state of disorganization or confusion) cannot apply. Logically, one cannot declare that some aspect of God’s nature is “chaotic” or “disorganized”; since God is perfectly complete in every way.
As well, even with your novel definitions of “order” and “chaos,” you do recognize that both the divine masculine and the divine feminine are personifications of “order” and not “disorder.”
Besides, doesn’t “order” imply “structure”? Therefore if “order” only refers to the divine masculine, then “updates structure” can’t apply to the divine feminine.
Not only do the terms “chaos” and “order” cause confusion when referring to the Trinity; but they lack the fundamental characteristics that the divine masculine is a contracting or centralizing personification, and the divine feminine is an expanding, proliferating personification.
Sincerely,
Ron
Thank you very much for the reply.
In the context of structure, I guess the way I am conceptualizing the holy trinity is that structure itself could be “the Son”. In this case “structure” has form (order) but is also dynamic, in motion, and able to adapt (chaos). As an example, maybe “structure” could represent something like a society. And the forces of order and chaos are just simply forces that shape a society. More abstractly, “structure” could represent life itself, or even more simply “the physical world”, while order and chaos are the two most basic forces in the universe that compliment each other and let “structure” exist in the first place.
Indeed, maybe the labels of “chaos” and “order” could cause confusion. “Chaos” or “order” can bring about ideas of one being “undesirable” and one being “desirable”, or one being negative and one being positive, but I believe I’m thinking of them in a different way. (It could just be semantics, I’m not sure.)
In this context, I found a quote from someone on an online forum discussing the author “Jordan Peterson” and his intentions when using the terms “chaos” and “order” in relation to masculine and feminine in the way that I currently understand the subject. I apologize if it’s a bit lengthy.
“In metaphor, chaos doesn’t stand for “bad”, it stands for everything that’s unknown, new, rejuvenating, creative, and passionate.
Order stands for that which is structured, explored, traditional, old-fashioned, and inhibited.
Like yin and yang, these are two sides of the same coin, which need, and enforce each other. Neither is “good” and neither is “bad”. Without order there is no stability and tradition, without chaos there is no rejuvenation, new life, creativity, or exploration.
In biological terms, even a woman’s ability to create new life is a function of chaos. Chaos is the force that births new creation, and in this chaos a woman gives birth to new creation in the form of human life. Creation of new life in an update of the structure. They are the rejuvenating force which brings change into existence; by the very fact that they literally create life from within their body.
While order is the force that reacts and makes sense of the new. Men symbolize order in that they are the reactionary force—they can only work with what is there and what the world gives them, and then try to shape that. Order is the force that reacts and makes sense of the new.
Both chaos and order have positive aspects, and negative aspects. Order without chaos leads to stagnation, chaos without order leads to things spinning around in circles because nothing gets accomplished. Order and chaos are dualities which are codependent on one another.
Everybody has the duality of chaos and order inside of themselves, and that when left unchecked, the unbalance inside of them manifests itself as an internal dragon that they need to conquer in order to have a fully integrated personality.
Think about how the Greeks identified femininity with Dionysus and masculinity with Apollo.
Dionysus is identification, Apollo is objectification. Dionysus is the empathic; the sympathetic emotion transporting us into other people, to other places and other times; think Hollywood. It is no surprise Hollywood leans towards the feminine. Apollo is the hard, cold separatism of western personality and categorical thought. Dionysus is energy, ecstasy, hysteria, promiscuity, emotionalism – heedless indiscriminateness of idea and practice. Apollo is obsessiveness, voyeurism, idolatry, fascism – frigidity and aggression of the eye, petrifaction of objects.
These aspects exist in both men and women, and men and women can embrace masculine or feminine roles in different ways in different societies, but men will tend toward objectification and women will tend toward sympathy.”
If you’re interested I am going to include some links to short clips of author Jordan Peterson speaking about the two terms in relation to masculinity and femininity. If not, no problem.
https://youtu.be/viGgB44rxdU
https://youtu.be/deZbUJNDRro
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGEph0jU0lw
https://youtu.be/tKwC7GvYfI0
Sorry for the lengthy comment, I just recently found your website and I’m very fascinated with the information here. I’ve been trying to understand the holy trinity for a little while now and your understanding of it seems to make the most sense to me. I guess I’m just trying to incorporate what I’ve learned in the past, with the information here.
Thanks again for all the info.
Greetings, Ryan,
Thanks once again for detailing your ideas; it helps me to understand your reasoning and background.
Perhaps I can best respond by emphasizing that the Divine Trinity is a transcendent interaction of “divine Persons”; and not forces, or conditions, or symbols or things. As such, the three divine Persons can’t be “forces of order and chaos”; nor can they be conditions of order and chaos, or states of order or chaos. It’s also important to keep in mind that the Heavenly Father is the “Supreme Being,” which is the living, centralizing personification of the divine spirit-nature. The Holy Mother is “Supreme Wisdom,” which is the living, expansive personification of the divine spirit-nature. Both are mutually interactive personifications, resulting in an eternally fluctuating “motion” within the spirit-nature of God that generates the divine Person of the Son.
Obviously one cannot similarly regard “order” as a centralizing personification of divine spirit that characterizes the supreme-being of the Heavenly Father. Nor can one regard “chaos” as the expansive personification of divine spirit that characterizes the supreme wisdom of the Holy Mother. Simply stated, at the level of the divine: “order” is not a living personification of “being”; and “chaos” is not a living personification of “wisdom”; nor can the fluctuation of “order” and “chaos” generate the divine self-awareness (being + wisdom) of the Son.
Also worth recognizing is that polarities and dichotomies that may have some application in the created universe, don’t necessarily apply to the divine nature or the Holy Trinity. Dualities such as Dionysus and Apollo, yin and yang, men and women, positive and negative, may be applied in the created universe; but don’t really apply to the Trinity. Similarly, “chaos” — as a “state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order” may somewhat apply to aspects of the universe; but not to the divine nature. You yourself stated that “structure” could represent … “the physical world”, and “order and chaos” are … “basic forces in the universe.” This obviously doesn’t apply to the Divine Trinity.
Regarding some specifics you mentioned, I can’t say that I agree that “Everybody has the duality of chaos and order inside of themselves.” My understanding is that as physical human beings we all embody creative, up-building forces of life; and disintegrative, chemical forces of death. But even disintegrative chemical forces are not chaotic; but are very ordered and well-organized in their behaviour. Indeed, there is nothing chaotic about the marvelous complexity of human life — which has taken numerous cosmic ages to perfect.
Regarding your mention of Apollo, according to anthroposophical research Apollo was an actual being, and not just a mythological creation. More specifically, he was the angelic-like being who later incarnated as the Nathan-Jesus who was indwelt by the Solar-Christos (the “Christ-Spirit”) at the baptism in the Jordan. Clearly the qualities you associate with Apollo: “hard, cold separatism of western personality and categorical thought … obsessiveness, voyeurism, idolatry, fascism — frigidity and aggression of the eye, petrifaction of objects” don’t apply to the real Apollo. Also worth noting, Rudolf Steiner has described Dionysus as a “Lucifer spirit in a human body”; once again, a real being and not a mythological abstraction.
Lastly, I’m also a big fan of Jordan Peterson; particularly his outspoken, intelligent, science-based criticism regarding “political correctness,” “gender theory,” “speech control,” “socialist ideology,” “radical feminism” and “white privilege.”
Take care,
Ron
Your opinion of Jordan Peterson is almost identical to mine. He has helped me understand life in many different ways. I also loved, and passed on to others, your latest article about Donald Trump. The current state of events couldn’t have been wrapped up any better in an article in my opinion.
I will have to purchase and go through your books as I find the articles here very fascinating. I will also have to read over your last reply to my comment a couple of times as some of it seems to be above my head but I will try and take my time to understand—even though a lot of did make sense to me and helped my understood your points better.
One last question if you had the time—why was Jesus a male? I apologize if that is an obvious or simple question, but it is something I have been wondering for a little while. Why was the divine offspring the “Eternal Son” and not an “Eternal Daughter” for example? I’m just curious how gender played a role in that situation. If you had the time to get to that last question that would be great, if not, thanks Ron for all your other replies and information.
Dear Ryan,
I realized from your reply that my abbreviated and condensed explanation of the Divine Trinity could be a bit overwhelming. For this reason, I strongly suggest that you read my publication: The Greater Mysteries of the Divine Trinity, the Logos-Word and Creation (2015). There I draw out my explanation in a gradual, step-by-step manner which makes the esoteric details much easier to understand. The book is available from Amazon.com and all royalty proceeds from my publications have been dedicated to assisting persecuted and struggling Christians in Greece and the Middle East.
As you have correctly surmised, since the Eternal Son is the perfect union of both the divine feminine (the Holy Mother) and the divine masculine (the Heavenly Father) it is more correct to refer to this divine Person as the “divine Progeny” or the “divine Offspring” (as was done in my article). The designation of “Eternal Son” has been esoterically retained out of religious familiarity, tradition, and familial warmth.
When the Eternal Son hypostatically united with the human nature of Jesus, the male sex was chosen mainly for practical reasons: such as security when traveling; the cultural restriction that Jewish religious leaders and teachers (Rabbis) had to be men; and because high initiates in the ancient Mysteries were only accessible to men.
Thank you for your kind remarks about my “Trump” article. If you enjoyed that, I’m sure you would really like my more detailed book: Spiritual Warfare in the 21st Century: Donald Trump vs The New World Order (2018).
Or does the “Divine Son” mean Jesus at all in Esoteric Science? I may have confused myself. Sorry if I further misinterpreted the article.
Hello, thanks for the article.
Does Steiner speak of this familial Trinity ? Where ?
It’s not so much Western theology, rather christian Scripture that introduces these three Persons, isnt’t it ?
Thanks Abaris for your interest in my website article; and also your brief but perceptive questions.
Interestingly, Rudolf Steiner spoke very little concerning the divine Trinity, even though he did accept the existence of a Triune God comprised of Father, Son and Holy spirit. Moreover, he also made it clear that understanding God is incomplete without accepting the Trinity; as in the following quotation from a lecture given on 30 July 1922, entitled “The Mystery of the Trinity”:
The divine principle working as Christianity within evolving humanity cannot be understood without the Trinity … One must understand the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit if one would understand the teaching concerning God concretely and in a genuine way.
While the use of the words, “Father” and “Son” imply a familial relationship (of divine sorts), I am not aware of Dr. Steiner referring to the to the Holy Spirit as “she.” Nevertheless, it is my contention that the Western esoteric tradition (including the true Rosicrucian Order) was accepting of the assertion that the Holy Spirit was the personification of divine femininity. Ancient Gnosticism, for example, very often equated the Holy Spirit with Sophia, the personification of divine wisdom.
While our awareness of the Trinity was indeed a revelation from Christ-Jesus (as recorded in scripture), further understanding of the Trinity was developed by Western theology; such as the idea that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are “co-equal, co-eternal and consubstantial”; and that “the Father begets the Son, while the Holy Spirit is spirated by the love of the Father and the Son.”
For more Western theological detail please refer to the Athanasian Creed; for more esoteric Christian detail please refer to my book The Greater Mysteries of the Divine Trinity, the Logos-Word and Creation (2015) available from Amazon.com.
I have come to the conclusion myself that Our Mother is part of the Holy Trinity, but further, She is the Wife of God The Father, and They have a divine Son, Jesus Christ. I really like your Trinity pics – I’m a retired math dude. Thus, it is incumbent upon us to adore Her, not the “venerate” crap that the Catholic Church has been driveling about for the past two millennia. I was born and raised Catholic, and still consider myself one, but they don’t make it easy – all politics! Like in 1876 when they gathered in Roma and let everyone decide on his own the outcome. If you didn’t agree to the doctored up Doctrine of Infallibility, that was perfectly OK. You were given your own private room in the sweltering heat of the Holy City, until you decided in favor of the holy Doctrine.
What about Jesus and Mary Magdalene? I think they were married at the wedding of Cana, and when they ran out of wine, Mary (the CC got that right, only they still don’t know the right one) asked her Husband what to do about it. As the Father created the world in 6 days, His Son turned 6, like Father, like Son (Am I the only one who notices these things?) cauldrons of water into wine. His trick was that He used Smart Water from a nearby 7-11, but don’t tell a soul. By the by, SIX is the key to understanding prime numbers, and our world runs on prime numbers – just look at the Periodic Table and factor the atomic numbers of each element, you’ll see the lav everywhere. In the Jewish language the lav is their symbol for SIX, and it also means “connections.”
After all, wasn’t it Mary Magdalene stood up for Jesus, and went to Rome to ball out Pontius Pilate to his boss. He was a weak ruler and caved in to the rants and ravings of a mob of Pharisees. They were scared to death when He raised His brother-in-law from the dead. Next thing they were afraid that He’d be a-tellin’ them they wouldn’t have to pay their taxes, and they’d all have to go to work for a living. Horrors!
How about that Pope dude in 591 claiming His Wife was a whore. The worm has certainly turned on that one, considering the many priest, who are pedophiles??? What about this phony business of the US bishops having a Big conflab in Baltimore and exonerating themselves of all responsibility, by praying for the souls of those that they covered up for. Some 25 years ago, a black bishop, Gregory came to Belleville, carrying mucho buckets of white wash paint with him. So armed, he held a grand commission and kept the ring leader’s name out of his comprehensive investigation of the ring of pedophiles. Of course, that was the most reverend Albert R. (for Rudolf, no less!) Zuroweste, Bishop of Belleville. The little black man did such a great job with all his buckets that they made him an archbishop in Atlanta. He built himself a $2.5 million rectory, as befitting his elevated station. I’m sure he’ll be even more exalted in Baltimore. We can only pray.
Kit Carbon (my new pseudonym)
Chris,
Since much of your commentary is a critique of the Catholic Church, as a fellow Catholic myself, I wanted to say that I understand your anger and alarm concerning the abuses that have taken place within the Church. What helps me to understand and to deal with this corruption is the knowledge that like its founder, the Church is both human and divine. On the divine level, our mother the Church is the “spotless bride of Christ.” Unfortunately, on the human level the church has been open to corruption, abuse of power and personal sinfulness throughout the centuries.
Moreover, as Christ himself recognized, the spiritual powers of darkness have been intent from the very beginning to destroy Christianity and the Church. As disciples of Christ, it is therefore our duty to assist in the defense of Christ’s Church. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Church of Christ continues to be attacked from without and from within; but it’s important to not lose heart, nor the will to fight for the true Church.
Also, since Christ is not about to abandon his body the Church to darkness and evil, we are confident in his divine goodness being the ultimate victor in this struggle.