The last book of the commonly accepted canon of the Holy Bible is undeniably filled with symbolism and coded prophecy and has been subject to many varied explanations for as to it’s meaning.
However I assert that the book encodes Esoteric teachings and was written to convey those hidden meanings across the centuries.
Firstly – A Bit about The Bible
There are a number of authors who have multiple works in the protestant Bible. Excluding King David (because his multiple psalms are all in one book) the others are Moses, Solomon, Luke, John, Paul and Peter. If we were to remove the epistles (that’s a biblical term for a churchy letter) then Moses and Solomon remain in the Old Testament and John and Luke in the New Testament.
Looking at the first two books of Moses, Genesis and Exodus, these are the creation myths and patriarchal stories leading to the formation of God’s chosen people whereas Solomon’s books; Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs are ‘wisdom literature’.
In the New Testament (the Christian bit of the Bible for those unfamiliar with the collection) we find that Luke wasn’t an apostle but rather an author of the ‘Greek cultural’ version of the Jesus story which he continues on in a Part Two – The Acts Of The Apostles. John on the other hand is one of Jesus’s chosen and writes his Gospel along with three letters and the book of Revelation.
With his epistles St John has five books in the New Testament just as Moses has five in the Old Testament. John’s Book Of Revelation ends the Bible, a mirror as it were of Moses’s Genesis that starts it. Moses’s books lead us from creation to entering the promised land, John’s take us from the creative Word to the promised new Heaven and Earth.
Of course St John isn’t a Moses; the cultural significance of Moses is almost as strong as his religious authority. St John’s message is significant but it’s context is confined to those who identify as the ‘body of the risen Christ’ – in other words those undergoing The Mystery enshrouded in his writing.
An Instruction Book
Have you ever looked at one of those instruction manuals packaged in the carton of some new household item? My favourite ones have a step one, step two etc series of tasks to get it up and running. Also, at the end of the manual is usually the technical stuff – schematic diagrams and such. I hope this sounds familiar.
St John’s writing is just like that. The first bit you read is The Gospel which tells you about the experience you’ll have becoming ‘reborn’ in the Christ. Stage by stage, step by step, SIGN by SIGN, John leads you through what you must think, feel and assert to be raised as a conqueror over death. In case you’ve forgotten the text John says there are Seven signs, proofs if you like of your triumph.
The technical bit (the end part) of this cosmic manual of re-creation is the Book of Revelation. It breaks down the inner psychic and spiritual circuits that will have to be connected if you wish to be transformed. Of course everything is done in Seven Stages so you can ‘live out’ the seven signs of the Gospel as you unseal the seven seals of Revelation.
This common blueprint of seven stages serves to be a place-marker between the two works. I have absolutely no idea which book you should work through first but I feel that The Book of Revelation is for study and background clarification whereas the Gospel is for more mystical contemplation.
Both start with a prologue, though you will admit that the Gospel’s has more ‘gravitas’, more dare I say it – ‘magic’. Then each is divided into a drama of seven sections and ends up with a finale. So the two books cover the same process but from different points of view.
The Gospel tells of the experiences you will live through under the transforming influence of your Noetic self. The Book of Revelation details the ‘site manager’s’ plan for the construction of the New You. That’s where we will begin.