What is the Castlemaine Johannine Community?

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        The Castlemaine Johannine Community is an independent esoteric community of people drawn together for worship, learning and self-discovery. We trace our lineage back to other such communities that have sprung up in various places and various times throughout history, in answer to a perennial impulse that seeks to connect and unify matter with spirit, earth with the heavens, human beings with higher realms. We take our name from the fourth Gospel, the most mysterious and arcane gospel, and we draw on the wisdom contained in all scripture, all the holy books and teachings from all cultures, inspired by great Initiates.

 

        We have sprung up in Central Victoria, Australia, directly out of the Independent Church of Australia founded in 1975 in Perth by Mario Schoenmaker and Colin Read. Yet we are independent of the ICA and our affiliation is with our inner authority and the inspiration of Spirit. We exist through maintaining a connection with a spiritual brother-sisterhood, a universal Johannine Community also known as the Order of Melchizedek. We are guided by our Meriti Stephen Cugley www.stephencugley.com  and Helen Martineau www.helenmartineau.com.au , the initiators of our community.

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A Grail Community

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        We have built a chapel in the bush in Central Victoria as a place of focus for our activities and consecrated it with the name ‘The Grail Chapel’, for we are also a Grail Community in which each individual not only seeks union with the divine, but also seeks to become the Grail, the vessel of plenty out of which nourishment can pour for the good of humanity and the world.

 

        Some may wonder, what is the Castlemaine Johannine Community, and why have we built a chapel in this day and age. I ask a bigger question; actually two bigger questions. What is the meaning of life? And what is the purpose of life? Of course those two questions are intertwined, and the answer is, that our life has meaning when we have a purpose. Each of us has a specific purpose or purposes for incarnating, and we have a collective and common purpose. We are here on Earth to effect transformation, to grow, to expand and to evolve. And surely it is clear that the human race needs to evolve, lest we continue to cause harm, wreak havoc or perhaps destroy ourselves and our beautiful planet. The reason for the existence of our Johannine Community is reunification, to assist in our transformation, our evolution, and the evolution of the world.

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        To some we may seem anachronistic, as more and more people turn away from the church and religion. Some have suggested that evolution is the reason why religion has become irrelevant and why many churches are struggling to survive. We have simply outgrown the superstitious nonsense we used to believe in. Yet there are also some churches with burgeoning congregations, evangelical ministries attract followers with a simple message of family values and national pride. They appear progressive with their groovy pastors and rock bands but they have a very conservative message that promotes intolerance and divisiveness.

Religion that once promoted acceptance, forgiveness, peace, love and understanding, is diminishing, and a renewed exclusive Christian fundamentalism appears to be increasing; perhaps as a direct response to the fear generated by Islamic Fundamentalism. It is little wonder that many people are turning away from religion altogether. Little wonder that Richard Dawkins criticises Christians as being mentally ill.

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        But beware of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Beware of extinguishing the light of truth. The secular world also has a fundamentalist ideology, the worship of Mammon, the promise of ‘jobs and growth’, increased prosperity, comfort and security, material wealth. And fundamental to the materialistic world view is the triumph of human intelligence and reason over faith; believe only what is verified by your senses, rely on the evidence, trust in the data. God is a myth that only the truly ignorant ascribe to.

Why is there a Castlemaine Johannine Community?  

 

        So here we are, the Castlemaine Johannine Community, with a message to convey that few may listen to. Yet we uphold a vital tradition, and we are neither anachronistic nor irrelevant; nor are we ideologues or exclusivists. We synthesise all religions, seek the truth and proclaim loudly that there is a physical world and a spiritual world and the two are entwined, the two encompass reality. Anybody with an open mind is welcome. And we continue to do the work of Johannine Communities down through the ages, to serve God and humanity for the highest of purposes, to shine a light in the darkness, to reunite science and religion, unify head and heart, integrate thinking feeling and willing, effect healing, reconcile the rift, promote unity, acknowledge the reality of Spirit, nourish our own souls, to be agents of transformation and catalysts of evolution. Although we are informed by paganism and what we call ‘Mother Earth Spirituality’ we align ourselves most strongly with the ‘Western Mystery Tradition’.

We are an esoteric church on guard against dogma, wary of the danger of getting ‘stuck in form’, looking towards the future. We are informed by the wisdom of Initiates with clear sight. We are deeply ecumenical, for the wisdom we draw upon comes from all streams of human evolution. We seek God through intelligence and reason and through our own perception, our own experiences of the world, nature and each other, every single day.

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The Turning Point of Time  

                                                                                                                                

        We recognise the mysterious events on Golgotha, 2,000 years ago as the turning point of time. Because of that event the Christ has been implanted in all human hearts - the still small voice, the awakening conscience, the Christ in us whom we call ‘I Am’. To acknowledge the presence of this spirit within our souls is to awaken to the ‘hope of glory’ and facilitates the activation of an inexorable process of renewal, and the full realisation of our human potential. ‘I Am’ is the core and essence of who we are, beyond form, eternal, immortal and infinite, generator of our inner light, the alpha and omega of existence, the source and the end and the test of who we truly are.

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        We acknowledge and revere the Christ in us and the Christ that surrounds us, the Cosmic Christ, known by many other names, Aten, Solar Logos, The Word, Chrestos, the Anointed One, Dabhar, Ravi, Lugh, Apollo, Helios, Agni, Ao and Wi, whom exists above us, and all around us; assisted by a host of heavenly helpers known to Native Americans as the Grandfathers and Grandmothers, to other First Nations people as Allies or Helpers and in the western tradition as Angels.

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The Resurrection of the Feminine Mysteries                                                                                                  

 

        We also acknowledge the feminine face of God, the Goddess with many names, Gaia, Natura and Demeter; Isis, Mary and Sophia. We acknowledge two trinities whose symbolic interlocking triangles form the Star of Solomon. These trinities are, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and Mother, Daughter and Holy Soul.

Some may ask what difference this tiny little congregation, in an obscure location, makes in the world. And I dare to say more difference than you may realise. Johannine communities have ever been small and always vital. Free thinking radicals, such as we, have been meeting quietly without any proselytising or missionary ambitions, supported by the Holy Ones, to generate a light which the surrounding darkness cannot extinguish.  

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The radiant influence of this light creates a powerful spiritual atmosphere that does affect the consciousness of many. The power of our sacraments, our prayers and meditations are not to be underestimated.  We are transforming ourselves, which has a positive effect on all with whom we come in contact, and beyond. The light we generate is an antidote to the darkness of rampant materialism and the anti-evolutionary forces extant in the world.

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The Fall, Curse or Blessing       

                                                                                                                         

        Those anti-evolutionary forces can be traced back to ‘the fall’; the term used to describe the temptation by the great deceiver, the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience. The doctrine of the fall comes from the decision made by Eve and Adam in the Garden of Eden.  There, in the centre of the garden before the eyes of Adam and Eve stood two trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

They were tempted to make a choice: either they could eat from the tree of life and live forever, or they could eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and die. They chose to eat of the forbidden fruit. The fall was both a curse and a blessing; because of our expulsion from the Garden we were able to become independent, free thinking and intelligent beings. We were thrown onto our own resources and had to learn to be inventive, creative and innovative. But we forgot where we came from and from that forgetfulness there came complete denial of the soul’s true home.

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        Certainly we can celebrate our incredible intelligence. Our ability to reason, cognise understand and invent, sets us apart. But be aware, our cleverness is a blessing and a curse. Our thinking can connect us or disconnect us. We could say there are two distinctive types of thinking, and the dominant mode of thinking in our times is dis-connective and abhorrent, because our egos exist in our thoughts. Eckhart Tolle has awakened millions of readers to the widespread neurosis of identifying too closely with our thoughts; he challenges us to realise that we are not the thoughts in our head, but we are the thinker.

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True Awareness and Heart Thinking                                                                                                                                                 

 

        One hundred years before Eckhart Tolle, Rudolf Steiner warned us that our ordinary, sensible, logical thinking ceases at death. With brain death comes the cessation of brain thinking. Our ego personality is mortal. We take nothing of the egos thoughts beyond the grave, the thoughts stop, the thinker continues, consciousness remains. Our mental picturing, thoughts and ideas, along with our language are acquired anew with each successive incarnation. Our ordinary thinking is dependent on the stimuli we get from the world. After death we don’t have thoughts, but we have awareness. When free of mortal existence we are immersed in a world of concepts which we directly perceive. But whilst alive our thoughts have incredible power and they manifest. Although we don’t take our thoughts with us beyond the grave, we take the effect of our thoughts.  And the memory of our lives, each and every one of our incarnations is retained by the cosmic memory and held in the Akashic Record.   

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        We are encouraged to develop our intelligence beyond the cold corporeal logic of head thinking into true feeling, which is also called heart thinking.  Feeling generates potent impulses of will. And these two soul qualities, feeling and willing we do take with us into the eternal realms. True feeling is not to be confused with emotionality. Emotionality comes also from the realms of ego, but true feeling is thinking infused with love. And the source of love is the sphere of the spirit. It is love that overcomes the tragedy of the fall, love that builds a bridge, love that connects us, unites us, nourishes us, strengthens us, uplifts us. Love, bequeathed to us by God is the central teaching, the core element of the Johannine Community. 

 

'No man has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and God’s love is perfected in us'. 1 John 4:12

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Knowledge of Reincarnation and Karma                                                                                                   

 

        We need to infuse all out thoughts, all our thinking with love. A meditative process is recommended in which we look back on all past events in our life with gratitude, even the difficult and seemingly tragic events. We can conceive that we actually chose the challenging and terrible opportunities. We can envision a second self, a double who leads us deliberately into every encounter and experience, joyous and sad, because those things are exactly what we need for growth. Such a meditation can lead us to understanding the reality of karma, and with that knowledge we realise that karma is a result of actions in previous incarnations. So without clairvoyance or past life memories, but through seeing the patterns of our lives and realising that nothing was accidental, random or chance we can come to the conviction that our lives have a preconceived blueprint.

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        We collaborated in drawing up the blueprint; we existed before this incarnation and will therefore exist beyond. Knowledge of reincarnation and karma is another key tenet of the Johannine Community. Our expulsion from the Garden is recapitulated in every incarnation; we leave our true home and feel like strangers in a strange land. We forget where we come from, but harbour a deep longing to return.

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Remembering with Gratitude   

 

        A significant event can occur that is a turning point of our lives. It takes place when we are actually in mortal danger. We are unaware that the path we are walking is about to lead us over a cliff, or a plane we are due to catch is destined to crash. And a voice, an intuition tells us not to take the next step, not to catch the plane. Many people have such an experience but few recognise the significance, and simply dismiss it. But for those who realise that they owe their life to divine intervention, a reconnection takes place. Life is never the same after such a realisation. The insight gained and the gratitude felt for these profound turning points are also the hallmarks of those drawn to the Johannine Community. We don’t advertise or recruit; we are drawn together through recognition and through karma.

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        Experiences such as those I described, along with knowledge of reincarnation and karma is dismissed by materialistic thinkers as fantasy. And materialistic thinking is very widespread in our times. Materialistic thinking cannot comprehend the power of love or the truth of the doctrine of the fall. Materialistic thinking dismisses the experiences of the great initiates such as St. Paul or St. John in his Revelation or Rudolf Steiner’s extraordinary insight, as fantasy or hallucinations. And the reality of spirit is rejected, the deceiver is victorious and many turn away from the light. That light is inherent in all creation. If we open our eyes we can see that paradise is all around us. The expulsion was simply a clouding of our vision.

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The Light Shines in the Darkness                                                                                                                       

 

        But the deceiver’s victory is not absolute, our community shines a light. We know that we are more than our bodies, more than our thoughts. We acknowledge that the sphere of the spirit is the soul’s true home. We are spiritual beings and we are called to develop our feeling memories and to undertake the ‘great work’ of self transformation. Our Johannine Community is an esoteric community, not dependent on ideology but seeking to tap into that powerful, dynamic and vital force that transforms us, expands our souls and elevates our consciousness. That force is the Christ. Our goal is to align with Christ; cultivate a thinking heart, learn to feel and experience the immortal element that holds sway within us and everything else and utterly transform our character; so effecting a transformation of the world. Aldous Huxley, Krishnamurti, Jean Huston, Eckhart Tolle, Marianne Williamson, Deepak Chopra, Ken Wilbur and so many others tell us that the only way to change the world is to change ourselves.

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        And as esotericists and participants in the mysteries we need always to retain an open heart and an open mind. Materialists tell their children that humanity has outgrown superstition and myth. They tell their children that Santa, the Tooth Fairy and the Stork that brings babies are lies. But Santa is the imagined embodiment of giving, fairies and other elemental beings are vitally active in the processes of nature, and the souls of incarnating babies hover down as bird-like spirit forms from the higher worlds.

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        We know in our hearts that something is desperately wrong with the world in which we live. We treat refugees with cruelty, vilify homosexuals and distrust anyone different to ourselves. Every night the dispossessed and homeless in our own fair cities are sleeping rough. This very day people are enduring unimaginable suffering at the hands of their oppressors; perhaps the Iraqi army or Islamic terrorists, or our own security forces. Innocent children starve to death. People die unnecessarily.  In the previous century millions of people died in war. Not so long ago the Nazi regime cruelly slaughtered millions of Jews. Today the Jews treat the Palestinians with brutality, and vise versa. Crime, corruption, and injustice are rampant in the world. And we continue to treat our beautiful planet and the living things who dwell here with blatant disregard. We pollute, contaminate and destroy our natural resources, countless species have been annihilated forever at our behest. Nuclear war remains a possibility, but perhaps much more pressing is the impact of human generated climate change already upon us. Little wonder that despair runs rife and depression is an epidemic. Or we stick our heads in the sand and talk about jobs and growth.

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Reconnection  Through Love                                                                                                                                                 

 

        All of our problems and challenges are a direct result of our sense of separation, our separation from ourselves, separation from our hearts, separation from each other, separation from nature, separation from Paradise, separation from God. But reunification is our mission, our purpose our raison d’etre. We can know that we are connected, we are One. God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. We are agents of evolution. We can change the world.

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        It is the role of all of us drawn together in this community to take off the blinkers of materialism, open our eyes, open our minds, open our hearts, usurp the deceiver and rejuvenate the world. We can recognise the truth; matter is a condensation of spirit, and the essence of spirit is love. John tells us of the primacy and pre-eminence of love.

 

'For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another'  

1 John 3:11