Wars, earthquakes, floods; it often seems that we live in a hellish world.
Many people seem to close themselves off from the indescribable suffering. But aren’t these calamities also an intruding call? For example, the earthquake disaster in Morocco last September was etched on my retina for days. I was struck by the primal reaction of the people in the remote mountain villages who had lost everything in one fell swoop: wife or husband, children, family, housing.
“It’s God’s will,” they said almost unanimously. No bewilderment in the first place, but sincere, almost instantaneous inner resignation! The sadness only came afterwards.
This is a deeply respectable religious conviction, but the question is whether an earthquake is the will of God. To me it seems to be the result of a sample of uncontrollable tectonics, the sliding of tectonic plates over each other. The citizens of the world who have not been affected can express their condolences by sending relief supplies to the Red Cross or a voluntary contribution. Then we have to wait for the next suffering that will befall humanity.
It was J. van Rijckenborgh who foresaw the current global calamity decades ago and placed it in a deeper gnostic perspective. These disasters force man to adapt himself in body, soul and spirit to
the atmospheric revolution that is currently taking hold, both from above and from below, by man himself.
He wanted to stimulate his audience and readers to a personal activity in accordance with the demands that this revolution places on man. In the booklet The Great Revolution we read, freely reproduced:
All the kingdoms of nature will be affected by the ’emotion in the clouds of heaven.’ And in the School of the Golden Rosycross, all these activities make the pupil wide awake. They call him into a serious examination and drive him to an attitude to life that thwarts the urge to destroy and connects him to the forces that sanctify and build the structural rebirth, that want to lead him -as it were- into a new world. A great tragedy is taking place in the history of the world as a result of this atmospheric revolution, a drama in which disasters are only incidental phenomena. (…)
There is no point in standing on the sidelines, while watching and contemplating. Man will be forced to make a positive choice in life.
Thus, according to Van Rijckenborgh, for some the atmospheric revolution offers a confirmation of the ‘earthbinding-ness’ and for others ‘a passage to a higher good’.
Shortly before his death, the Bulgarian spiritual master and mystic Peter Deunov (1864-1944) called this ‘higher good’ the ‘golden age’:
Your present life is a slavery, a veritable prison. Understand your situation and free yourself from it. Everything around you falls apart and disappears. None of this civilization is preserved. This false culture that keeps man under the yoke of ignorance cannot continue. The purpose of earthquakes is to awaken people’s intellect and hearts so that they can free themselves and understand that they are not alone in the universe. Through suffering and hardship, the consciousness of humanity is awakening: there will be floods, hurricanes, great fires, earthquakes and revolutions. It is nature’s response to humanity’s crimes against its Mother, the Earth. But after suffering comes the “golden age” full of harmony and unlimited beauty. So hold on and keep hoping when the time of suffering comes; follow your personal path of fulfilment. You have no idea how grand the future is that awaits you. A New Earth is taking shape.
Peter Deunov and the atmospheric revolution in perspective
- Our solar system traveled through a region of the cosmos where a constellation that had been destroyed left its mark, its dust. This polluted space not only affects the inhabitants of Earth, but also all the inhabitants of the other planets in our galaxy. Only the suns are not affected by this hostile environment.
- This region is also called the thirteenth zone, or the zone of opposites. Our planet has been in this region for thousands of years, but we are nearing the end of darkness to enter a more spiritual realm, where more evolved beings live.
- Less work needs to be done so that there is more time for spirituality and for intellectual and artistic development. Masculine and feminine energy come together and relationships are based on mutual respect.
- The Earth, the solar system, the universe, everything is being placed in a new direction, namely the direction of Love. Most see Love as a ridiculous force, but in reality it is the greatest force that exists.
