The Myth of the Third Millennium - realm-2.comLibrary of the New & Free Expression of the Priesthood John: The Myth of the New Millennium p1 The Myth of the Third Millennium Lecture

Retreat Christchurch 2009

Library of the New & Free Expression of the Priesthood John: The Myth of the New Millennium p1

The Myth of the Third Millennium

Lecture – Christchurch Retreat 2009

IntroSome time ago now, I agreed to give a lecture at the Christchurch Retreat. I think that when I received Ursula’s invitation via email, I was in the middle of checking out some very nice Australian red wine. The next day, when sobriety struck, I remembered this particular email exchange and I was further struck that I had absolutely no idea what this lecture was going to be about.

I then had a little conversation with Christ that went something like this: “Lord, I realise that I probably overdid your favourite drink last night – but since you are, after all, ‘Lord of Wine’, perhaps you could give me a hand here and provide a hint at least what I should talk about in Christchurch. There was a slight, thoughtful pause in the heavens, then the answer came. I didn’t expect that Christ would give me the whole lecture word by word – for Christ tends to answer questions fairly concisely. But even I was a bit taken aback at what echoed back from the heavens. It came in a single word. That word was “Hobbits”!

This lecture then, is the story of the process of unravelling the relevance of “Hobbits” to New Zealand, to the spiritual impulses of our time and to the Order of Melchizedek.

The QuestionsTo have a conversation on deep spiritual matters is not like giving a lecture on mathematics or literary criticism. This would be a linear process. One starts at point A, connects to point B, then to points C, D, E and so on to the end.

Our process on the other hand is one that starts from the periphery – and it may begin from multiple starting points – and proceeds to a central understanding.

The Myth of the New Millennnium


Some of these starting points are simple concepts (in no particular order):

HobbitsMythMysteriesTeams

Some of the starting points are questions:

“Why was the Lord of the Rings written in the Northern hemisphere but not produced in pictorial form until the early 21st century in the southern-most country of the Southern hemisphere?”

“Why did Mario keep as one of his treasured possessions a small statuette of Gandalf holding a palantir in one hand and his staff in the other?”

“Where does the Order of Melchizedek come into this anyway?”

Of course, there should be (preferably) seven starting points. Having established our (seven) starting points let us pick one and try to unravel a complex plot that will take us from remote antiquity to New Zealand in the twenty first century.

The MythFor the benefit of those who like titles, the title of our conversation is, The Myth of the Third Millennium. Of course, as well-educated, intelligent people, you will say to me, “John, we don’t believe in myths and legends – and we certainly don’t need a new one!”

The Greek word “mythos” simply means a story. But this story is not a simple narrative, nor a piece of creative fiction. A myth is like a dream story. The story of a dream has a meaning, a significance that relates to the dreamer. A myth is the story of the dream of a culture. If we understand the myth, then we understand the dynamics, the conflicts and the tasks of that culture.

Our spiritual tradition is basically a Western tradition. It originates in the Mystery Schools of Egypt and Greece, but it traces its ancestry back to the Lodges of Atlantis. In this tradition, it is said that a new myth comes into existence every one thousand years. The myth marks new spiritual impulses that will come into humanity. If we understand it, then we shall gain an insight into the purposes and the tasks of that particular period in human evolution.

Perhaps the oldest myths are the Creation myths. We are, of course, brought up on the myth of the creation stories as told in the book of Genesis – but there are so many others. In Aboriginal mythology we have the stories of the Dreamtime; the Maori people tell the story of the separation of Rangi and Papa. These myths come from the ages when consciousness was beginning to emerge from the matrix of the unconscious.

Scientists who like to pontificate on the existence or not of God, hone in on God as creator



of the physical universe and then discover that mathematics has excused him from making an appearance. From the spiritual point of view, this is a very naïve approach to God. God is the creator of consciousness. This is where we find God. To the extent we experience consciousness, we experience God. I would like to write a book called “The Dawkins Delusion” that would explore the way Richard Dawkins creates his own universe every time he wakes up – but that is another story.

The second oldest myths – and they are common to very many cultures – are the “flood” myths. Once again, the version of Noah and the Ark is familiar to most of us, but (amongst others) let us not forget the Greek version – the story of Deucalion – and the Babylonian version – the epic of Gilgamesh.

Approximately one thousand years before the birth of Christ, a new myth made its appearance. The best-known version of this comes in two collections of poems from ancient Greece, known as “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”. An interesting aspect of these poems is that the author, Homer, is now thought by scholars to be not a single person, but a group of poets whose works, composed about the 9th century BC, were later collated into two collections a century later. We could take from this, that the “myth” is not so much the work of a single individual, but rather a collaborative effort from a number of psyches who are “tuned in” to the unfolding impulses of their culture. The Homeric myths are complex, but we will simply call them myths of the city (Iliad) and the journey (Odyssey). Some five hundred years later, the “city” myth is crystallised in The Republic by the philosopher Plato, and by the founding of the City of Rome.

In the first century a powerful new myth arose into prominence: “The God who dies and is resurrected”. The story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ is of course, the best known to us. But at about the same time, other myths were prominent in various mystery religions. There is the story of Osiris in the Mysteries of Isis – very popular in the Roman Empire. The gods Adonis and Dionysios in the Greek Mysteries suffered the fate of death and rebirth, and finally, the greatest rival of Christianity in the first and second centuries was Mithraism – also a religion centred around the death and rebirth of a god.

We shall leave the first century and journey forward another 1000 years in time. The myth of the “Holy Grail” is created about the tenth century – once again by a group of writers.

If we pause for a moment, then a sort of pattern emerges:

Myth Relationship with godsCreation Birth of consciousness as a gift of the gods.

The FloodThe threat of losing consciousness; the old is destroyed, something new is given from God (the gods).

The Journey Humans enter into the conflicts with the gods;



The City

Humans gather together to develop a new type of consciousness. This development is overseen by the gods – but they are not involved directly.

The Reborn GodThe divine enters into matter. It suffers the fate of humanity in order to overcome that fate.

The Grail The Hero searches for the hidden link with the gods.

We might well say that the myths delineate a process. This process describes how consciousness develops out of the godhead. It suffers from the potential of being overwhelmed by the powers of the world, but eventually evolves to a stage where it can stand separate from the gods. Another way of saying this is that the human consciousness comes from the spiritual worlds where there is no separation from god, and dwells in the physical world in a state of separation from the spiritual realms. It is at this stage that the crucial myth of the Reborn God enters our cultural framework. This myth says that the time has come for the journey to be reversed. From now on, we need to find a way to reconnect with the spiritual worlds and to reascend. The human that reascends now, is very different from that which descended. The difference can be described in one word: individuality.

The myth of the tenth century is the story of the individuality (depicted as the perfect knight) striving to discover the link between the spiritual and physical worlds (the Grail). It foreshadowed the breaking away of the human consciousness from the chains of traditional religious dogmas to search for a new, vital spiritual reality outside the structures of the Church.

This, of course, brings us to the next one thousand year leap. Is there a myth for our new millennium? If so, has it made an appearance as yet, and what will it portend for the future development of our culture? In order to begin to discuss these questions we need to move sideways to another of our starting points.

The MysteriesThe lineage of our Order is the lineage of the Western spiritual tradition. This might also be called the Western Mystery tradition. The word mystery derives from the ancient Greek word, musterion which means silence. The initiates of the Greek Mysteries were commanded to silence. Not so much because the information they received was secret, but because the experience could not be communicated in words, so the only response of the initiate to questions was silence.

The Mysteries developed because, in the history of consciousness, we lost the direct experience of communication with the spiritual worlds.



In that stage of human development we name “Atlantis”, we enjoyed direct communion with the gods. We therefore possessed direct knowledge of spirit. We did not have to systematise or label such knowledge – it was simply part of us. The totality of this spiritual knowledge was kept within the Lodges and could be experienced by those who were admitted to the Lodges. With the destruction of Atlantis this knowledge was no longer available to the individual person. The knowledge of the spiritual worlds, the knowledge of human purpose became fragmented. This is because the Atlanteans migrated in four distinct streams. These are traditionally simply called East, West, North and South. With this fragmentation, the Mystery schools began. There are basically Mysteries of the East; Mysteries of the West; Northern and Southern Mysteries. Each Mystery school teaches a different truth about the relationship of spirit to matter.

The Mysteries have a dynamic relationship with our culture in this way: every one thousand the Mysteries flow together to create a new “myth”. To take just two examples: The story of Christ is a fusion of the Eastern Mysteries with the Western Mysteries; the story of the Grail fuses the Western Mysteries with the Northern Mysteries.

The myth of the third millennium will fuse the Mysteries of the North with the Mysteries of the South.



The Origins of the New MythIn 1892 a particular soul incarnated in the Southern hemisphere, and later moved to the Northern hemisphere. In this hemisphere he became a distinguished professor of English and an expert in Anglo-Saxon literature. One day, as he was immersed in marking his students’ papers he paused and wrote the following sentence:

“In a hole in the ground, lived a hobbit.”

The myth of the third millennium was about to be born.

The Background of J R R TolkienJohn Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, in 1892. His father (a bank manager) had moved to South Africa because of a promotion. When he was three years of age, he went with his mother to visit relatives in England. While they were there, Tolkien’s father died of rheumatic fever, and they never returned. Tolkien’s mother, Mabel, converted to Catholicism in 1900 and her staunchly Baptist family promptly severed all connections with the family. Mabel died of acute complications from diabetes in 1904 when Tolkien was 12 years old, and the two boys were placed under the guardianship of Fr. Francis Xavier Morgan. Tolkien married his wife Edith in 1916 then left to serve with the British army in France. On the completion of the war Tolkien took up an academic career. Amongst other posts he held the professorship of Anglo Saxon at Oxford and later became the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature, also at Oxford.

When we look at this life, there are certain elements that stand out.

In the first place, Tolkien is born into the Southern hemisphere. This means that he comes into incarnation within the fabric of the Southern Mysteries.

Secondly, Tolkien’s father dies when he is only three years old. The etheric of the child develops from the etheric of the father. If the father dies, then the etheric must unfold from what was given at birth – in this instance the etheric of Tolkien develops from the seed of the Southern Mysteries.

Next, Tolkien’s mother also dies when he is twelve years old. The child develops their astral body out of the astral of the mother. If this is not possible, then the astral of the person develops from the astral of the surrounding culture. In the case of Tolkien this was the culture of the Northern Mysteries as expressed through the focusing lens of the English culture. So much did this become a part of Tolkien that he became a great authority on the legends of the Northern Mysteries. For example, his work on Beowulf was a standard text for many years as were his translations of some of the old Arthurian texts.

We can see how this special soul was prepared to become the vehicle of the myth of the Third Millennium through carrying within himself the fusion of the Mysteries of the North and the

Tolkien 1972



South. There is one more aspect of the myth-bearer that we have encountered. From the time of Homer and even before, the myth has been the product of a group of writers. Tolkien’s myth was also exposed to the criticism and refining of a group of writers. This group is known as “The Inklings”.

The Inklings were a group of writers who got together at Oxford to discuss their current works and ideas. Some of the members of the group later became prominent authors in their own right: C. S. Lewis (author of the Narnia tales); Charles Williams (poet, author of “occult” fiction and expert on the Arthurian legends); Neville Coghill (an expert on Chaucer) and the philosopher Owen Barfield all left important literary legacies. Meetings of the Inklings were informal discussions where works were read, discussed by the group and ideas contributed. It must also be said that quite a lot of drinking and smoking were also part of the group activities! It was at these meetings that Tolkien shared and developed the unfolding story of Lord of the Rings.

The Myth of the RingBefore we embark on an outline of the essential features of Tolkien’s new myth, we should first emphasise the two messages of the myth. These messages are very different from the cultural matrix of the Northern Mysteries.

In the first instance, the new myth is about power. The theme of power is central to northern cycles of myths such as the Icelandic Volsung Saga. The old myths often centre about a struggle for power. This may be military power, power of rulership or sexual power. The new myth, however, is not about a struggle to gain power to control – it is a story of the struggle to destroy a power of control.

The second departure from previous myths is in the nature of the task. The story of the myth of the second millennium revolves around the heroic activities of individuals (the Knight-seekers of the Grail). In the new myth, the task is not accomplished by one, outstanding heroic individual –it is to be achieved by a team. In this team, each person has a role and the whole task is only successfully achieved through the successful completion of the task of each individual.

In these two features of the new myth are embedded the most important truths for our period of human evolution.

Before we embark on a detailed study of the new myth, it is fair to ask how we know that this is in fact the myth of our time. The answer is very simple. It is the myth of our time because it is the most popular story of our time. Lord of the Rings took America by storm in the 1960s. Students would wear buttons bearing the message, “Gandalf for President”. In 2004 the book was voted the most popular book in England and two years later Australians gave it the same status in a large poll of favourite books. The myth of a culture, is simply the most popular story of that culture. It is the most popular story of the culture, because it resonates most closely with the spiritual impulses at the heart of that culture.

The Story of the RingLord of the Rings is a long and complex tale, and the following summary is therefore the



barest bones of the myth.

The story actually begins in a prequel book, entitled The Hobbit. This little book, originally written for Tolkien’s own children, was published in 1936. It is a delightful tale about elves, wizards, dwarves and dragons and has entertained generations of children of all ages. The book is (of course) about the adventures of “the Hobbit”.

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

But what, precisely, are hobbits?

I suppose hobbits need some description nowadays, since they have become rare and shy of the Big People, as they call us. They are (or were) a little people, about half our height, and smaller than the bearded Dwarves. Hobbits have no beards. There is little or no magic about them, except the ordinary everyday sort which helps them to disappear quietly and quickly when large stupid folk like you and me come blundering along, making a noise like elephants which they can hear a mile off. They are inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow natural leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it). Now you know enough to go on with.

Gandalf geets Bilbo outside his comfortable hobbit-hole



Hobbits are the very stuff of “ordinary”. They have simple names like Bilbo, Frodo, Pippin, and Merry. By nature they eschew adventure, choosing comfort every time – and yet Bilbo Baggins, the central character of this story, does have an adventure.

The Hobbit is full of adventures. There is one, however, that has particular significance for the development of the myth in Lord of the Rings. Bilbo discovers a magic ring. This ring has the power to turn the wearer invisible – a very handy ability for someone trying to hide from wolves, giant spiders and dragons! It is the nature of this ring that will become the focal point of the myth of the new millennium.

The Lord of the Rings begins with Bilbo’s ring. Here it is discovered to be a sinister object indeed, with a profound and menacing history.

Over three thousand years before, the Dark Lord, Sauron, forged the rings of power. The purpose of creation of the rings was to gain control over the various races. With this aim, he gave nine rings to men and seven rings to the dwarves. The elvan smiths forged for themselves three rings. Sauron then created the “One Ring” – the master ring that would control all the other rings. With this strategy he intended to gather all the races under his dominion. Sauron was defeated at this time in an epic battle and lost the master ring. It is this ring that Bilbo found.

At this point, it is worth making an interesting observation: Tolkien was almost certainly familiar with the teachings of Rudolf Steiner. We have already mentioned Owen Barfield, a founding member of the Inklings. Barfield studied the writings of Rudolf Steiner in the 1920s and many of his early essays were printed in anthroposophical publications. In his lectures on the book of Revelation, Steiner interpreted the number 666 as a being he named “Sorath”. This being he described as wanting to exert a control over all living things and squeeze the life out of everything – quite an apt description of Tolkien’s “Dark Lord.”

The story of Lord of the Rings begins with a very much older Bilbo. Bilbo bequeaths his ring to his heir, Frodo Baggins. It is only then that we discover the dark significance of the ring. After much difficulty, the ring is taken to a conclave of wise and powerful beings drawn from all the races of middle earth (Men, Dwarves and Elves) and the decision is taken to destroy the ring. This is the first salient point of the new myth: it is a myth about the destruction of a certain power. The power that needs to be destroyed is a power that would bind the minds of other beings under the domination of another. We are therefore destroying a “power of control” – and ensuring that beings have the freedom to develop through their own strength of will.

We now come to the second point of the myth. This task is not given to some hero with superhuman qualities, it is given into the hands of a small team. Each person in the team has a role to play and represents the different races of beings. The team comprises:

Frodo, Sam, Pippin, Merry - HobbitsAragorn, Boromir (later replaced with his brother, Faramir) – HumansGimli – DwarfLegolas – ElfGandalf (also known later as Mithrandir) – Wizard



The actual task of ensuring that the ring is destroyed in the furnace where it was forged, the volcano “Mt Doom”, is placed in the hands of Frodo. The weakest, least heroic beings have replaced the greatest of the heroes.

As the story progresses, the team of nine is broken up into smaller teams. Each of the sub-teams still has its purpose, and the purpose of the tale is only fulfilled through each small team completing its part of the larger task.

This is enough of the story to go on with. We need to return to a consideration of the Mysteries. The Northern Mysteries are part of our European heritage. The Southern Mysteries however, are not.

The Southern MysteriesThe Southern Mysteries are Mysteries of the Earth. They are found in South America, Southern Africa and Australia. It is interesting that the Maori myths have more in common with the Egyptian Mysteries than with the Southern Mysteries. For example, the Creation story of Maori mythology tells how Papa (the sky god) and Rangi (the earth goddess) were joined and had to be separated by Tane, the god of man and of forests. Thus Papa became the sky and Rangi, the earth. There is an Egyptian creation myth that sounds very similar. Ra, the earth god and Nut the sky goddess are separated in order for creation to come about.

In Australia we have the myths of the Dreamtime, or “the Dreaming”. This was a time before time began when the ancestral beings roamed the earth creating sacred sites and significant places. At the end of the Dreamtime, these beings became identified with a place, or a feature of the landscape such as animals and birds. In Aboriginal belief, all humans come from a “child-spirit” that arises from the earth and returns to the earth until it comes back in another human form. The Australian myths are our link to the purest form of the Southern Mysteries. Here we see literally, that the “I” arises from the earth and returns to the earth.

The Ring is a product of earth energies. It cannot be controlled, and will end up controlling anyone who tries. In order for the Ring to be destroyed, it requires a combination of other energies.

In one sense, the myth of Lord of the Rings is about a renewal of the Southern Mysteries, for the Mysteries of the South are the last to be renewed by the new evolutionary principle of Christ.

The Myth and Purpose of the Third MillenniumThe theme of the myth of our new millennium is to bring a new freedom to humanity. This freedom is a freedom from a particular power. This power is one that would bind us back into the earth.

We can understand the rings of the Myth in two ways. Firstly, if you have read the New Year Reading of 2009, you will have discovered that the Ring is an actual spiritual reality. We shall return to what the New Year Reading has to say a little later. The second way we can understand the rings is that they are part of our own spiritual being. In other words, there are



certain energies acting within the fabric of our human nature that try to control who we are and how we express our real individuality. Whichever way we understand the symbol of the rings, the task of the third millennium is to destroy the power that the rings have over us, and in order to do this, the master ring, the One Ring, must be returned to where it was born – the energies of the earth.

This master task, which will take one thousand years to achieve, is to be taken on by a team comprising a wizard, heroes (the men of the story), an elf, a dwarf and a number of hobbits. Let us ascribe some meanings to these strange characters:

1 The Wizard is the Initiate whose work it is to begin and to complete this task. At present this Initiate incarnated in the twentieth century to set the work in motion. We know him as Rev Mario Schoenmaker.

2 The Heroes, ie the men in the story, represent the astral forces operative within humanity. These astral forces out of which the soul builds soul forces, range from the highest to the lowest. Aragorn, Faramir and others represent the highest of the astral energies in that they seek to build and create something higher with others.

3 The Elves (represented by Legolas in the team) are powers of life. That is, they represent the forces of the etheric world.

4 The Dwarves (represented by Gimli) are the powers of the mineral world.

5 Finally the Hobbits are the Order of Melchizedek.

I realise that to those who harbour a concept of Melchizedeks as heroic initiates who labour to bring light and knowledge to the world, this will not be a welcome identification. When we come to Hobbits we are talking about humble, non-heroic, ordinary beings who prefer comfort and quiet to debate, battle and conflict and whose greatest gift is to pass unseen and unnoticed. (Hobbits have furry feet so that they can walk quietly!) Before we examine the members of the team more closely however, we shall examine the nature of their task in more detail.

The Rings of Power 1: The Rings WithinWe have already recognised that one way to understand the rings of the myth is to think of them as parts of our own being. In fact the penetration of our spiritual fabric by other powers was described two thousand years ago:

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems upon its horns and a blasphemous name upon its heads.

Rev 13:1And again:

And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads.

Rev 13:3



The beast and the dragon with the seven heads and ten horns represent energies that have permeated our subtle bodies. Here the seven heads represent the seven major spiritual centres; the ten horns represent the centres on the Tree of Life. If we confi ne our observations to the seven spiritual centres, these can be divided into four groups. The bottom two centres are expressions of etheric forces – in particular the way the etheric energies interact with the physical world. The third centre is where the astral energies enter and leave the person. These are what Mario called the “animal” centres. Then there are three centres that are associated with the development of the individuality of the person. Finally the Crown centre should be where the individual interacts with the higher spiritual worlds. These are the rings. In fact if an individual has not developed their thinking and feeling in a spiritual direction, the centres are lustreless, dull and literally confi ned within an imprisoning boundary. It is these boundaries of negative energy that are the “rings”. The bottom two centres correspond to the rings of the Dwarves; the astral centre to the rings given to Men. The next three centres are the rings of the Elves and the Crown centre corresponds to the controlling ring, the One Ring.

The key to the workings of the spiritual centres lies in an understanding of the Crown centre. In most people, this Centre is as shown, like a cap that seals off our connection to the higher spiritual worlds. It is like a “ring” around the top of the head. It was important in evolution that this centre be sealed, for separation from the spiritual hierarchies creates a certain ‘self-hood’. This type of self-hood gives rise to a “self” that sustains an understanding that



the person is alone, isolated in the world. Because of the power of the rings we have been cut off from entering into the thoughts and feelings of others. This “self” feeds us with the thought: “Nothing exists apart from self”. As long as the rings continue to exist restricting the expression of spirit within us, we are controlled by the energies of the rings.

The Rings of Power 2: The Rings WithoutWe can view the rings of power from a different perspective.

Being shown a picture of the Earth again, of the globe, but this is a very different picture. Here we have the Earth surrounded by a band, or a ring of negative energies if you like, negative beings if you like. And this band of energies shifts. At present it lies particularly strongly over the Middle East, but it moves. And I’m being given the explanation of this picture, that when the Christ descended into the earth, as He did after the entombment, that beings made a choice, they either became part of the Christ force, which is an evolutionary force, or they chose to try and resist it. And those beings who became part of the Christ force are the spirits of Earth. That’s not quite right, what would we call them in Hinduism, the Devas, the elemental spirits, the Gods that are behind everything that grows from trees to minerals, because even the minerals grow. And these became part of the evolutionary force of Christ.

New Year Reading 2009

In this picture of the rings, they are a spiritual power of control. The New Year Reading states that the major ring (the One Ring) is composed of beings who made a choice. This choice occurred at a point in human history – the crucifixion of Jesus upon Golgotha. The gospel stories tell us that Jesus dies, is three days in the tomb and then rises again. The question posed by this account is: “What was Jesus/Christ doing during the three days in the tomb?” This question finds an answer in the Letter of Peter.

18] For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; [19] in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, [20] who formerly did not obey,

1 Peter 3:18-20

The “spirits in prison” refer to beings who have become trapped within the earth. During the three days between the death of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection, Christ descended into this “prison”, that is, into the depths of the earth. We get another tantalising glimpse of this from St Paul:

8] This is why it says:

“When he ascended on high,he took many captivesand gave gifts to his people.”

9] (What does “he ascended” mean except that healso descended to the lower regions of the earth?)

Ephesians 4:8-9



The idea of Christ descending in spirit deep into the consciousness of the earth should remind us that the Mysteries of the earth are, in fact, the Mysteries of the South. Rudolf Steiner remarked that at the time of the crucifixion, the Mysteries of the South had become stultified and filled with negativity. We can see this, for example, in the rituals of human sacrifice practiced by South American tribes such as the Maya. It was necessary for the Christ to descend into the earth so that the Southern Mysteries might be renewed. We can now understand that Christ descended into the regions of the earth in order to give the beings of the earth a choice. They could become part of the Christ force – the force of evolution – or they could reject this path. Those beings who became part of the Christ force now participate in the evolution of our planet. These include, for example, the elementals who give their spirit to the plant and mineral kingdoms.

There were, however, beings who refused this path because they themselves wanted to control the path of human evolution. These beings are portrayed in the New Year Reading as making a “ring” of negative energy around the planet. Where this ring is most active, the stunted understanding of “self-hood” as an isolated consciousness persists. This inevitably leads to conflict, bigotry, misunderstanding and war.

The control of the “ring” of beings is exercised on three levels. On the first level we can look to the nine rings given to mortal men. These represent energies that work on the astral levels. The astral levels are the levels where the mind, both conscious and unconscious works and it is also where we make instinctual and emotional responses. The “ring” energies work to control us through ownership. This ownership is expressed in three ways. The first way contains the three forces of guilt, fear and greed; the second way is desire for possession, need to consume, and need to control others; the third way is to do with the use of force: physical, emotional and mental force. If we identify with any or all of the energies of these rings, then we can no longer mature spiritually. We become more and more isolated and separate from other people, until we become a caricature of who we really are. We have lost the connection with spirit – in a very real sense we become a wraith – a “Ring Wraith”.

The second level is represented by the seven rings given to the dwarves. This represents the desire to exercise control through dominating natural forces. There are seven of these. The first four were known to the ancient world as Fire, Earth, Air and Water. Our modern world has added three additional forces. We know these as electricity, magnetism and nuclear forces. The effort to control these energies does not make them fade away (the dwarves did not fade into invisibility, they became more wilful and even stronger). The results of trying to dominate these forces have results in our world as follows:

Fire produces forest fires and bushfires.Earth produces earthquakes and landslides.Air – particularly the pollution of the atmosphere – produces hurricanes and tornadoes.Water produces tsunamis and droughts.

The last level of control is represented by the elvan rings. These were forged with the desire to heal and to conserve. These rings represent the etheric kingdom and that is the kingdom of the plants. Misuse of this realm will produce botanicals and drugs that create a semblance of life, while at the same time accelerating the process of decomposition. For example, the designer drug, Ecstasy, produces an illusion of happiness and energy but is capable of destroying the nervous system and the brain. The ultimate result of overuse of such a drug is death.



The purpose of the Third Millennium is to destroy the rings. The task then, is to destroy the One Ring.

The Task of the Third MillenniumThe key to destroying the rings is to destroy the Ring. If we understand that the Ring is a force within us that wants to create the illusion of a separate “self”, then we shall understand that the key to destroying the Ring is through a surrender of this self. This surrender comes in two stages. Firstly we recognise that we, isolated and separate as we are, are incomplete. Secondly (and paradoxically) in order to achieve completion, we have to surrender a part of who we think we are. One might say, that in order to find Self (the real individuality), we have to surrender “self” (the illusory personality). We shall find ourselves in good company here:

Christ… though a god, emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant …Philippians 2: 5-7

The TeamIn the last few years of his life, Mario put forward the need within the Order of Melchizedek, to form small teams.

A team is a partnership where each serves the other.

If we take Paul’s statement in Philippians seriously, then we could say that Christ has committed to serve us in a partnership where we serve him. Such a partnership is very special. We become co-creators with Christ of our own destiny and evolution. The second aspect of a team then is this:

A team always creates.

Many years ago, Mario gave a lecture on occultism where he explained the “dialectic”. The dialectic is an opposition that creates a third point in order to resolve the tension.

A simple example would be that the resolution of black and white is colour:



As the story of Lord of the Rings progresses, the large team of nine is split into smaller teams. Each of these teams of two is completed by a third. Here are some of the Lord of the Rings teams:

We should note additionally that the Order of Melchizedek (represented here by the Hobbits Pippin and Merry) has a connection with the nature spirits (represented here by the Ents). The work of this part of this team then, is to open a partnership with the forces of nature represented by the Ents.

The second team comprises Gimli, the Dwarf and Legolas the Elf. In the mythology of Lord of the Rings, Elves and Dwarves have quite a rocky relationship. Although they are on the same side, there have been conflicts in the past. In modern terms, they have a lot of “baggage” between them! The resolution of this dialectic occurs twice. In the first instance the polarity between Gimli and Legolas is resolved through their mutual love for Galadriel. (Lord of the Rings Book II). Galadriel represents a being we might perhaps call the “earth mother” – a deva or angel that unites the mineral forces of the earth with the plant forces.

There is another resolution between Gimli and Legolas:



We see this take place before the doors of Moria:

“Well, here we are at last!” said Gandalf. “...Those were happier days, when there was still close friendship at times between folk of different race, even between Dwarves and Elves.”

“It was not the fault of the Dwarves that the friendship waned,” said Gimli.“I have not heard that it was the fault of the Elves,” said Legolas.“I have heard both,” said Gandalf, “and I will not give judgement now. But I beg you

two, Legolas and Gimli, at least to be friends, and to help me. I need you both.”Lord of the Rings, Bk. II, Chap. 3

The resolution of these dialectics has a profound meaning for the next one thousand years, and to investigate is properly will have to await another lecture!

The next team is the team of men. This comprises Aragorn, who is the rightful King and his interaction with the Stewards. Firstly through Boromir, and then when Boromir dies, the relationship is resumed with his brother, Faramir. This is a dialectic between ideas of rulership and custodianship. Once again, the mediator is Gandalf:

Once again, the implications of the work of this team are too involved to discuss in any detail now. It is enough to say that in order for humanity as a whole to progress, it needs to embrace the leadership of spiritual insight (Gandalf). Mario sometimes described himself as “a prophet” and also as “the oracle”. This is role symbolised by Gandalf holding the “seeing stone” or Palantir, that found a place of honour amongst Mario’s possessions.

The final team is a surprising one:



If you have read Lord of the Rings then you will know that Gollum too is a Hobbit. When the Ring was lost about three thousand years before, it was a Hobbit named Smeagol who found it. Under the corrupting influence of the Ring, Smeagol fled the light and became a wretched fugitive, haunting the tunnels and caves of the great mountains. Here he renamed himself, “Gollum”.

There is a general solution to the polarity of the dialectic:

The figure of Christ is easily seen in terms of Gandalf (the representative of the Order of Melchizedek) or even through Galadriel – but it is harder to envisage Gollum as a representative of Christ!

Many thousands of years ago, certain entities entered into our subtle bodies. That is, they entered into our consciousness. This altered consciousness “took up the Ring” and began the process of binding us back into the earth. The lesson of Gollum is that if we persist through trials and tests with a real partnership, eventually this “shadow self” is exteriorised as negativity.

The Melchizedek priest is one who, through ordination, receives the seed of Christ. As this seed grows, eventually even the shadow self becomes permeated with Christ. It completes the task and eventually it will return to the earth from whence it originated, returning the Ring to the forces that created it and freeing us from its controlling power.



The Myth of the New MillenniumWe have passed through an enormous process in order unravel the myth, the story, of our age. The new myth forges a union between the Northern Mysteries (the triumph of individuality over matter) with the Southern Mysteries (the emergence of individuality from matter). This fusion was originally created in the person of the author, J R R Tolkien who was a product of both North and South. It reaches a new stage in the production of the myth as a movie. The great myths always give rise to images. This may have been the pictures that decorate Greek vases, or the great paintings depicting the Crucifixion. The pictorial art of our time is the movie. Through the movie the actual images are placed directly into the etheric memory bank. The movie also was required to be a fusion of North and South. For this reason it was completed in the southern-most country in the world, New Zealand.

The Task of the Order in the New MillenniumWhen Mario and Colin founded the Centre, they adopted a particular motto. This motto is:

To set men free.

This motto came from the words of Christ in the gospel of St John:

[31] Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, [32] and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

John 8: 31-32

Jesus is quite explicit about what this “truth” is. Firstly to continue in his word, that is the very nature of Christ and become his “disciples” – that is the priests of the Order of Melchizedek. This will create an inner truth that is the product not of faith or belief, but of knowledge. Through becoming this truth, we then have the power to become free.

The task of the Order in this time is to destroy a power which governs and controls human behaviour. Our work then is two-fold:

Firstly, we form teams. Secondly we take up the task.

In order for the “truth” to permeate human existence, we ourselves have to permeate human existence. What an incredible difference this is to past expressions of the priesthood! In known history, a priesthood is always separate from those it ministers to. Sometimes this is achieved by retreating from the world – to temples, churches, abbeys and convents. Sometimes it has been achieved by dressing differently – adopting robes of many colours and hues. Sometimes we have separated ourselves by privileged behaviour, for example, celibacy and ritual. Now we have to slip unnoticed into the interstices of human existence. Without fanfare, without acknowledgement we are asked to “be” with people.

This may be the most difficult time to express the priesthood. So often people ask, “How do I express my priesthood?” Not everyone can relate to the answer, “Just be!”

We can of course, do more! The next step in human evolution will come in the next one thousand years. The formation of real teams with others first of all begins with the smallest possible team: two people. The paradox of the team is that by each person surrendering some



of their own “self” needs, each of the members of the team actually gain in individuality! The reason for this gain in consciousness is because what is shared between people is the Christ consciousness, and the more this is shared and given away, the more you have.

Many years ago Mario made a very surprising statement. He said that the Christ consciousness is actually a group consciousness. This group consciousness needs to be distinguished from, for example, a tribal consciousness or a mob consciousness. In the consciousness of a tribe (for example a group of football supporters) or a mob, the individuality of each person in the group is diminished. If we can share in the Christ consciousness with others, then our own individuality is enhanced and this enhancement, this augmentation comes about through the acceptance and the embrace of the individuality of the others.

When I first came to The Centre in Perth in the late 1970s there was a little brochure that used to sit on a small table at the door for visitors. It was titled: “Religion 2001”. In it, Mario talked about the new religion that would emerge from the death of the old. There would no longer be formal church structures. People would not meet under the umbrella of spiritual organisations. Instead, they would be drawn together to meet and embrace one another in a sharing of love. In that meeting, the Christ would become present. Well, we are now in the Third Millennium and Mario’s prediction has come true. The Free Priest movement, as it has been developed in the last five years, is where we come together without organisations, without group structures. Here we share a consciousness with one another, and then Christ becomes present among us.

As good Hobbits we do not need to be noticed; to be great in the world; to be seen as heroes. Rather we move unseen, intent on our task: to destroy the Ring of power that binds and imprisons the consciousness of humanity within the walls of a false self-hood. If we succeed in our task, then the new consciousness of Christ will build and spread throughout the world. Everything in spirit has a beginning. May this Year of New Beginnings mark the time when we, as Priests of the Order of Melchizedek become conscious of our task: to fulfil the Myth of the New Millennium.

So shall it be.

Documents

The Myth of the Third Millennium - realm-2.comLibrary of the New & Free Expression of the Priesthood John: The Myth of the New Millennium p1 The Myth of the Third Millennium Lecture