 |
CONTENTS:
Teaching 1: Spirit of the Regulation
Teaching 2: Cafh
Teaching 3. Regulation
Teaching 4: Knight Great Master
Teaching 5: Sons
Teaching 6: Tables
Teaching 7: Admittance of the Sons
Teaching 8: Duties of the Sons
Teaching 9: Benefits of the Sons
Teaching 10: Spiritual Exercises
Teaching 11: The Solitary
Teaching 12: The Ordained
Teaching 13: Knight Masters
Teaching 14: Vows
Teaching 15: Attributes, Habits and Festivities in Cafh
Teaching 16: Superiors
Teaching 1: Spirit of the Regulation
As the Son enters the Great Cafh’s Current, he promises to carry out faithfully his duties and responsibilities that the Regulation establishes. His permanence in Cafh is only conditioned by the strict observance of the Regulation that the Superiors shall offer him; but if his early craving for God and liberation are greater, if the Divine Love hurts his chest and the Divine Mystery further inflames his mind, a mere observance of articles and clauses of the Regulation shall not be enough, but he must contact the very Spirit of the Regulation.
.The Regulation, like the Teachings, is one and multiple as to its aspects. It talks to the souls with different tone according to the level of understanding and development that these souls have achieved.
So, if to certain souls it is a mere enunciation of rules to carry out, to other souls is a source of possible realizations.
Externally, it looks like an organic statute containing severe demands and heavy burdens; but as its Spirit makes feel life palpitating in the Mystical Body of Cafh, it grants to beings, named Sons, the bliss of an intense spirituality. All lies on the perfect contact of the Son with the Spirit of the Regulation.
Love to observe the Regulation leads this Regulation to unveil its Spirit.
The Spirit of the Regulation deletes pain of rules and disciplines, and brings the soul into contact with Freedom: unique Freedom, which looks for the union with the Divine Mother that is within our self.
Souls are in tune one another through Cafh. Cafh makes an abstraction of the worldly personality of its members for it reunites certain individuals only through the magnetic thread of their souls.
For their inner liberation, Cafh grants to these souls a unique method, that of individual realization and harmonious application on the souls of Cafh.
During his civilian life, each Son shall continue to observe the religion and laws of his country.
The only possessions of a soul must be of spiritual kind. Material goods are external to the soul by virtue of their own nature. So, Cafh, which is a reunion of souls, lacks possessions and is only composed of intrinsic possessions.
The oral Teaching is the first good that the soul is given.
The Teaching of Cafh tends not only to the capacity of the disciple, but acts integrally on the soul. It is not transmitted, but also given in terms of life. It is poured orally through the heat, vibration and persuasive strength of one’s experience, under the expressive gaze of the Orator who is always alert.
Moreover, Cafh possesses in symbolic figures its doctrinal concepts about man and the universe. Its symbols have preserved throughout ages the purity of its archaic conceptions, and its virtue consists in fixing the concept in the mind of a disciple through images.
Cafh has a peculiar way to assimilate and distribute the magnetism of the Great Current among its Sons. As a whole, its Ceremonial contains steps carrying out this purpose. The Ritual includes magnetically the birth to spiritual life, different stages of the Son on the Path, his mystical year, his physical death and his entire course until the realization of his cravings.
Other invaluable wealth is the Spirit of the Regulation.
The Regulation is exact, restrictive and disciplining as to its letter, but behind the letter one finds the Spirit of the Regulation whose conquest grants to the soul vast strength and boundless power.
Through the Regulation, the Son is incorporated in Cafh and lives in Cafh. Through the realization of its Spirit, the Sons commune with Cafh and become an integral piece in the Great Work. They are part of the Mystical Body of the Divine Mother, and their Observance becomes a habit for life. This is the Method.
As a whole, the Method implies rules whose observance Cafh imposes on its Sons, and as these rules become individual habits, the former open their souls to the Spirit of the Regulation.
So, through these inner riches, Cafh lead the souls to take gradually part in the Great Work through the realization of its Teaching, Symbols, Ceremonial and Method. Also, its Divine Gift consists in making the souls able to managing the Great Current and the Substantial Union with the Divine Mother.
These are Cafh’s possessions, the heritage of its Sons.
But Cafh is a living body and as such radiates its influence on the world and places where its vibration settles. The expression of this influence implies outer works of any kind and character, which contain efforts and sacrifice of all Sons.
After the first authority of Cafh, which is that of its Knight Great Master, all Sons are subject to the rules of the Regulation.
Through this disciplinary subjection, the soul introduces slowly and gradually the Spirit of the Regulation into his life, and personally intensifies the current of Cafh.
Thence the Son needs to assimilate the Regulation into his life, and to become a living example of this Regulation.
But, the authority of the Regulation is not compulsory to all Sons for the same period of time. Knowledgeable about the greatness and misery of the souls, Cafh does not tie them in terms of their enthusiasm, but in terms of their deep vocation, known to the disciple as he progresses and perfects himself.
Of course, the souls come to the Path with plenty enthusiasm, but do not understand what efforts they have to carry out or what sacrifice they need for their spiritual improvement. Many times, one’s imagination weaves illusions and one’s enthusiasm belittles difficulties. Thence the regulation is compulsory whether temporarily or perpetually according to the progress of the Son and his subsequent will to follow it.
Teaching 4: Knight Great Master
Cafh is one and its ruling head is one too, and the Knight Great Master possesses this unique and supreme authority.
The Great Work demands that the different spiritual works carried out for the souls must be represented as a whole not through disturbed minds or through well-meant individuals and efforts lacking consistency but through a unique expression of their labor, ideal and will to do well. The Knight Great Master leads the expression of the work in the Holy Order through participation in the Great Work.
The Great Current, which is energy in the service of the Great Work, is distributed in the world through certain channels not to waste energies in vain but on the contrary to facilitate the easy application of these energies.
By taking part in the Great Work of Cafh, the Great Current arrives and remains in it through the Knight Great Master. He distributes it among different Tables, and the Great Current attains the Sons through the Superiors of those Tables.
But an efficient participation in the Great Work and a due preservation of the Great Current require peculiar conditions, personal and intrinsic: ordered life, pure intentions and personal sanctity. So, one of the exclusive and primordial functions of the Knight Great Master is to carry out a secluded life in prayer. Just this way he can become a perfect receiver and preserver of the Great Current and a pure and impersonal tool for its distribution.
Moreover, the Substantial Union with the Divine Mother, which he must seek and teach to the Sons, demands of him this life of absorption and absolute retirement.
The Son of Cafh has to forge in his soul veneration for these higher spiritual functions of the Knight Great Master, and his life in the Holy Order never shall disturb them but on the contrary has to promote them.
Besides the attributes of his character as Knight, the Knight Great Master possesses the Cross, symbol of his human sacrifice and magnetic realization of divine forces; he uses the Signet, symbol of his supreme authority, which confirms the divine injunctions with human characters; also he wears the chain of Gold, whose united links are a symbol of the ethereal union of his priestly and knightly blood with that of the Superiors that assist him, being Priests and Knights at a time. The Red Ribbon, being a characteristic of his office, means the union of his ethereal blood with that of every Son.
Besides his participation in the whole Great Work, in the power of the Great Current and in the Substantial Union with the Divine Mother, which are exclusive by virtue of his office –since he is the only that can transmit them proportionately to the Sons and Tables– the Knight Great Master rules through the Superiors over all Tables, which are Groups of Sons, members of the Holy Order.
He pays attention to the entreaties of his Sons through the Superiors or privately by writing; he watches over the Superiors for a strict performance of the Regulation whose ranges he establishes and for a written or oral report about the state and development of Tables and Sons.
The Divine Mother wanted members of Cafh to have an original name, and the Regulation calls them Sons.
While other Orders have name their members brothers, with a prevalence of the link of those that are united by one and the same faith or ideal, Cafh does not make prevail the link of members among them, which could give rise to the word “brothers”, but the link between members and the Divine Mother: Sons and Mother, Sparks and Fire, Rivers and Sea.
The Sons form groups of Tables with 43 members, distributed into six groups of seven Sons each, under a Knight Master.
Of these six groups, three are men and three women, being the former formed by Knights, Squires and Pages, and the latter by Ladies, Damsels and Maidens.
Hierarchically, the Sons are as follows: Knights, Ladies, Squires, Damsels, Pages and Maidens.
In due proportion, the spiritual teaching, assistance and strength of the Great Current attains the souls in the world through Pages and Damsels. They are in contact with the world.
At the same time, they are the hope of Cafh.
Squires and Damsels represent the transition between the state of Pages and Damsels, and that of Knights and Ladies.
If on the one hand they live in the world that receives their help and whose evils they share, on the other hand they come into contact with Knights and Ladies and serve them; they receive continuously teaching and strength from the lips and presence of these Knight and Ladies
Cafh guides Knights and Ladies toward a superior life. Physically detached or not, they have to live in retirement in the inner temple that they must build. Bearers of the Great Current, they must preserve it pure and integral. Thence Cafh takes for granted that its Knights and Ladies are devoted to the ascetic and mystical exercise, and the establishment of spiritual forces in those environments where they are acting.
The Sons are numbered in each group, from one to seven, and every one corresponds to certain appointment.
So, number 1, is Secretary; number 2, Almoner; number 3, Reader; number 4, Archivist; number 5, Orator; number 6, Assistant; and number 7, Key keeper.
As to the indispensable age so that a candidate assumes the responsibility for a Vow, the Regulation does not determines it and leaves it to the due decision of his Superiors. Candidates can flourish at any age and the years of a lifetime are relatively important, since the Superior must especially consider and appreciate the disposition of the candidate, his habits, convictions, enthusiasm and the intensity of his vocation.
A Table implies a group of Sons acting on certain magnetic area of a place, where this group carries out a spiritual mission. As the Table is complete, its 43 members form a group in the way described on the precedent Teaching
The establishment of a Table can be set up only by the Knight Great Master. This demands three Sons as minimum. One Knight-delegate of the Knight Great Master must attend to this act.
After establishing the Table and fixing its area of stability, it enters the orbit of Cafh as an organic whole, by acquiring rights and duties of any Table. It is led by an Invisible Protector that watches over its spiritual progress and integrity, and by a Superior of Cafh.
Each Table unites its Sons with its peculiar magnetic thread. The Great Current arrives at the Table through its Superior. Thence Tables are independent each other and outside their authorities: they are subject only to the authority of the Knight Great Master or to that of the delegate appointed by him.
Just the Knight Great Master can disintegrate the vibratory vortex established as a Table is established. Moreover, he can distribute or not among other Tables those Sons that were members of the Table.
There are three categories of Tables in Cafh, which form groups with their Sons according to their respective Vows.
So, the Ordained determine the category of Table of the Ordained; the Solitary, the category of Table of the Solitary; and the Sponsored, the category of Table of the Sponsored.
A change of category in certain Table and a confirmation of category in a new Table are established by the Assembly of Full Moon, and later granted by the Knight Great Master.
Tables are named according to their ordinal number, establishment date, category and operation place.
In Cafh, Tables keep certain hierarchical order, as follows:
a) Table Mother of America. The stability of this Table is on the entire
American territory. The Knight Great Master personally rules over it.
b) Tables of the Ordained according to their antiquity.
c) Tables of the Solitary according to their antiquity.
d) Tables of the Sponsored according to their antiquity.
Teaching 7: Admittance of the Sons
The Regulation sets up requirements of outer source for those candidates eventually incorporated in a Table. These requirements are as follows:
a) Good reputation assuring that the candidate has lived a discreet life, without morbid inclinations to evil; surely, the Great Current would be harmful to beings with such inclinations instead of improving them.
b) To possess necessary instruction to receive the teachings. Although the Holy Order is not fond of extremely speculative beings, it does not admit those who lack the least indispensable instruction. The one that in his life lacks sufficient will or mental capacity to get the least knowledge cannot be helpful for the path, with the exception of extraordinary cases.
c) He is bound to have honorable and sufficient sustenance means. Neither affluence nor indigence is an acceptable extreme in a spiritual man. One can be sure that a man is in the quest of God for the sake of God when he earns his livelihood in a sufficient and honorable way. Thence the above-mentioned demand.
d) Submit a written work. The individual shall express there the kind and intensity of his vocation.
These are outer requirements; also there are inner requirements observed by the Son that assists the aspirant in the usual way.
The first requirement is that of conversation, through which the Son can detect problems of the candidate and assess his sincerity and ability.
The second requirement is that of observation. The outer behavior is a reflection of inner convictions. The observation of the former illuminates the path of the latter, and reveals how consistent the candidate’s behavior is with his Ideal.
As the candidate is admitted, he must be aware of his duties, and his incorporation depends upon his acceptance of these duties.
Teaching 8: Duties of the Sons
Cafh’s labor particularly influences those souls that form groups of seven Sons each in order to get the spiritual teaching. Each group has its characteristic, labor and mission; thence the Sons of one Table never assemble entirely, but by forming groups, with the exception of certain event or established festivity.
As the Son enters the Holy Order, he assumes duties whose fulfillment conditions his true permanence in Cafh since the soul of the Son comes into contact with the Mystical Body of Cafh through this fulfillment.
First, the Son must fulfill the Regulation with entire fidelity.
Fidelity is the fundamental virtue that Cafh makes all Sons cultivate.
The demand does not imply mere observance of the Regulation but intrinsic attachment to it, and the fidelity to the Regulation leads the Son to commune with the Spirit of the Regulation.
The Son comes into permanent contact with the Great Current through a perfect observance but he takes part in the Great Work through fidelity.
The Son must attend punctually to meetings of his group. A meeting is a holy date; it is then when the Orators impart the Teaching and the Superior blesses the Sons. So, an unpunctual attendance is a serious fault that the Superior can justify but not to excuse, since this fault affects the Masters.
On the other hand, unpunctuality is one characteristic of the disordered living of men in the world.
Those diligent Sons to fulfill this duty with the Group shall get used to be punctual at any job and to distribute orderly their time.
Other duty of the Son consists in studying with diligence and in carrying out any appointed work.
A mere reading of notes about the Teaching is not enough so that they become a living knowledge in the soul. One must study and learn the teachings, since this is the way to introduce and harbor them in one’s soul.
These teachings shall remain there if they have been study with application for a long while: meanwhile, the subconscious shall develop them and grasp their spiritual contents, which shall flourish at the exact moment before the astonished eyes of the disciple. So, memorization is the first step that demands diligence.
The Son can have many and varied appointed works; he has to wish them fervently, since the Son should not be the passive element of reception for life, but gradually and slowly he must become able to receive in a divine way, that is, to give of himself, and to work for the sake of work.
These works are not as much necessary to Cafh as to the very soul, and Cafh uses this tool to prepare the Sons for the Divine labor. So, any resistance is harmful. Any reluctance makes the work unproductive.
Cafh desires to guide the souls toward the fulfillment of the divine laws and introduces and cultivates among its Sons the concept of hierarchy, which so real in the higher worlds but so resisted in the world of man. This concept is one of the foundations of obedience to the Superiors, which the Regulation establishes.
On the other hand, obedience is a basic virtue for the spiritual progress. No virtue can be considered definitely realized without obedience, since obedience fulfilled since the first steps on the Path disconnects the soul from a personal –ever passion-like– will by subjecting it to the will of a Superior; which however be a strange will is already more divine than personal.
So, whether for the sake of health of the soul or for the sake of due Cafh’s organization, obedience is an essential regulation requirement.
The Regulation also establishes the duty of respecting one’s companions; and not to forget that a spiritual friendship unites the Sons, which derives from a community of ideals and from their permanence in Cafh. The nature of this link is higher than any conventionalism, and the expression of this link implies mutual respect.
Obedience and respect are externally expressed by giving to each person his place and title, according to the Regulation.
The Regulation establishes as a moral duty of the Sons to make a monthly collect to sustain Works protected by Cafh, and other Works; so the Sons contribute to affirm spontaneously the material aspect of the Great Work for the sake of Humanity.
The Son must not leave the Stability Area of his respective Table.
The stability fixes the aura of the Table on the environment. It encompasses an area and spreads its influence on it. If the Table unites all its Sons with a magnetic thread and acts in this way, the absence of a Son disorders the whole, and therefore spoils expression of it.
When a Son has to leave for a just cause, he must ask license of his Superior so that the latter appraises this cause, and grants the license or not, and then replaces the absent Son in the mystical choir of his Table.
Moreover, the Son must ask license of his Superior not to attend to a meeting for inevitable motives.
We have already said that the meetings of the Sons are holy dates, which they must compulsorily attend to. If the Son does not attend without license and a just motive, his attitude would be haughty and conceited as to his reasons. But if he expresses these motives to his Superior, and sacrifices his personality, then he would redeem his absence before his Superior.
If members of an outer enterprise for a better organization must report any change of address, this is far more important in Cafh, since the address of the Son is where the Great Current should be harbored. Any change must be reported for the Superior to be able to delimit the magnetic field where his blessing shall be poured.
The most direct method for the self-exaltation is to try to exalt Cafh, and also the Regulation establishes this.
The more fervent is the Son in his relationships with Cafh, the more depersonalized he is and lives on the great vibratory orbit of Cafh.
The more the Son works for Cafh, the closer he is to the divine labor, and the more he moves away from the limited circle of personal problems.
Cafh’s fervor opens the soul to understand other souls and widens the heart to make it fit to feel the Great Love.
Teaching 9. Benefits of the Sons
Cafh is a living body. Cafh develops and grows as the Sons express fervor, respect and dedication to it, as an organization or as a group of souls.
The Great Current is the sum of efforts and energies brought by Holy Masters and Great Beings from immemorial times to help men realize their divine purposes in them.
There are other currents that collaborate with the Universal Current in the realization of certain part of the divine plan of help, at the same time that they take part as channels to disseminate the Great Current.
Cafh takes part in the Great Current and has its own current formed by the contribution of all those that belong to it, and by that of those that constantly make efforts to work for the progress of the souls.
This current permeates every Son and its intensity varies according to the category of the Son.
The category reveals the grade of the Son’s identification with Cafh; the greater identification, naturally the greater is the proportion of the Current, and this involves another benefit for the Sons.
Certain characteristics of the spiritual teaching differentiate it from the ordinary teaching.
The object of the ordinary teaching is to transmit knowledge orally or by writing, from teacher to disciple. In the same way, the disciple can disseminate this knowledge among his companions.
But on the spiritual field, the teaching has a deeper meaning that is wider and supernatural.
Moreover, the spiritual teaching is imparted not only during the time of study and under the form of lessons. An opportune reprimand, warning, encouragement or mortification many times is source of important knowledge to the soul. Even the mere reaction of a Superior before a gesture or a word of his disciple involves for the latter a valuable observation. And this is so because the Master transmits with every teaching something of his own life, that is, knowledge, experience and strength to the Son.
Retirements, conversations, collective walks and travels are other living teachings that Cafh engraves in the souls of the Sons through their Superiors. And since each Son requires of the teaching that his state needs, then he possesses only a part of it.
Another benefit that Cafh grants to its Sons is that they can ask counsel of their Superiors.
Cafh reunites again the faith of him who looks for a counsel with the light of that fountain. It re-establishes the hierarchy of the spiritual man by estimating the counsel that the Superior can grant to the souls and by establishing this counsel as a benefit for the Sons and a holy mission for the Superiors.
There is other benefit that the Sons of Cafh enjoy.
We mentioned above how valuable to Cafh this spiritual hierarchy of the Knight Great Master is. So, the Regulation has established a retired life to the Knight Great Masters, and the guide of the Sons and Tables through the Superiors.
But the Sons many times need not the usual tone of their Superior but an extraordinary word. Their state may need not the limited inspiration of the Superior but the word of him who lives in permanent contact with the Great Current and for the Great Work.
Thence the Sons can come to the Knight Great Master by writing and without intermediaries. Of course, this should not be vain or for insignificant motives. The Spirit of the Regulation has to inspire the Son when this is timely.
Another invaluable benefit is that of being helped in case of serious need.
Desires intensely fostered, uncontrolled vices and passion-like inclinations many times appear as if they were needs before the limited human knowledge.
Just a due understanding of the souls can establish the real existence of a need and his eventual repercussion on a being; so, it shall permit a true help and a well-understood charity.
Poverty not always is negative, since it removes from the soul burdens of pride and vanity, and even physical pain removes haughtiness and pride from man.
When there is a true and serious need, Cafh goes and helps the Son. The Regulation establishes this for the sake of the souls as it includes this among those benefits that the Sons enjoy.
Cafh assists their Sons during their diseases in several ways.
Ultimately, any disease involves an organic unbalance that has to be re-established. Physician and medicines are the proper tools for this purpose. But many diseases become more acute because the individual is not ready within to feel better and lacks a fit psychic stimulation. Then Cafh appears through the assistance of the Superior and through the influence of the Great Current and prayers; these factors bring the recovery of the sick Son.
On the other hand, vices as gluttony, lust and avarice are also cause of diseases of any kind. Important factors to prevent from such diseases are the method that Cafh inculcates, the sobriety derived from its spiritual teaching, and the personal hygiene that it prescribes.
But this assistance is materially perceptible by the bed of a sick Son. Cafh even goes there through the presence of its Superiors, through the care of its Sons, through prayers of its groups, and through the necessary economic contribution so that the soul of the Son lifts the body from the bed of pain.
Cafh also assists its Sons at the moment of their death, and after it.
The eyes shall be spiritually open to the transcendental vision, and just then it shall be possible to understand sufficiently the importance of assisting a dying person.
Cafh loves the soul, and not only takes care of this soul, but also prepares it for the hereafter.
The Son does not go alone through the path to his astral abode after the separation. The Knights Protectors of Cafh go with him and assist him during his journey. The Son, acquainted with the concept of a post-mortem life, is truly comforted by knowing that the Knight of the Threshold is patiently expecting him to lend his hand, and that the Holy Company around has to guide him with his spiritual protection toward the long-wished rest and not toward an hazardous prolongation of the struggle that has caused his death.
Teaching 10: Spiritual Exercises
Through the spiritual exercises of Cafh, the soul is prepared to achieve the technique of asceticism and mystique.
Through these spiritual exercises as a whole and through this technique, physical body, psychological powers and mind forces get used to guide themselves subconsciously and super-consciously toward the proposed end: the Union with God.
Certain spiritual exercises are common to all Sons of Cafh and properly recorded in the Method. From the house of the Son to his way of making his travel, everything follows certain rhythm and mode to get from all the highest performance, and eventually through acts that are not separate but as a whole, they form an indispensable good habit to achieve this technique that shall guide the Son toward his soul within.
In the Tables of the Solitary, this does not involve any more just ordinary acts of life, directed toward certain end and made in certain way according to demands, but is a part of his daily time that has to be devoted to their spiritual exercises.
Spiritual reading, recitation of certain hymns and prayers, and meditation, are a duty that shall turn these exercises, which in the beginning are strange, into indispensable habits for the life of a Solitary Son.
The license that the Son has to request continuously from his Superiors to perform certain acts in his life, and his constant control which he is continuously subject to, strengthen any psychic influence and prepare nerves and the whole psychology of the individual to feel certain usual and fast reactions in order to achieve certain inward mystical effects.
As to the Ordained, these spiritual exercises become a continuous daily trial, since the Ordained Sons are integrally and continuously subject to these exercises.
A very severe stability radius, their secluded apartments and rooms, the total control of their acts, even the most insignificant, and their lack of freedom to express oral opinions or opinions by writing, all of these are spiritual exercises of higher character, which by closing the soul in a circle of fire, mercilessly burn any habit resulting of a previous life and only leave the divine habit of the presence of God, that of surrender to the arms of the Divine Mother, and that of a supreme mystical realization. The spiritual exercises are a shame and tie to worldly men. Every aspirant or most of them shall find these exercises fastidious and useless, but the Son that perseveres on the Road discovers day by day their merit, and recognizes their value and importance, since they are the most valuable tools of spiritual perfection.
The Sons belonging to Tables of the Solitary as such have a series of peculiar duties.
Besides those spiritual exercises indicated in the respective teaching, the Solitary must attend monthly to a particular conference with the Superior of the Table.
To open the soul to the Superior and to express his problems is to protect wisely the health of the soul, and to be ready to a better spiritual orientation. Lack of understanding, impatience, and doubt can give rise to inward negative states that are imperceptible to the Son. His communication with the Superior makes the intervention of the latter easier, and a consequent solution of this state. Even excessive enthusiasm can be directed toward a better profit.
Moreover, the Solitary must inform their Superiors about material and spiritual events of their lives. This step permits the Superior a better knowledge of the soul and a due appraisal of such events. Many times the Sons give to certain events an importance that is not such for the soul. Other times, they deny importance to events of transcendental importance. As the Superior knows this, he can encourage the Son to repeat those fruitful events to his inner life, and this way he teaches him how to appreciate properly diverse steps of his spiritual progress.
The Regulation enlists especially certain circumstances when the Son not only must report to his Superior but also must request his blessing: to engage and marry, to change job, to give or take a loan, and to sell or buy goods and properties of certain value.
There are other events that are even more transcendent to the soul and therefore demand the Knight Great Master’s license, such as marriage or acquisition or sale of very valuable goods.
This duty of the Solitary, this limited freedom to act individually and to handle their own possessions, fosters the highest spiritual profit. It reduces the natural selfishness of the right of property, promotes impersonality and grants more freedom to the soul.
In the Regulation there are few rules related to the Ordained. They are totally subject to the will of the Knight Great Master, and their duties are established in the Regulation in a general way.
First, the Ordained must live in a common place, under a Superior, and to adjust their lives to precepts of the Method.
To live in common, besides promoting the method –which favors the mystical development– limits the Current to certain point and makes its preservation and proper radiation easier.
To live under a Superior means a continuous subjection of the personal will to him, permits the exercise of obedience and close dedication to only one objective, and sets the mind free of multiples problems of the life in the world.
To adapt life to precepts of the Method impedes wandering and inveterately being in search of texts, doctrines, exercises and spiritual ways of living that are so attractive to disturbed persons.
To live in community gives rise to a series of labors in agreement with the specific mission of each Table. Any labor that the Ordained must carry out is totally compulsory under the Regulation: they must practice daily half an hour of meditation, half an hour of spiritual reading, and half an hour of backward survey and night prayers, and even they must devote as much time as possible to study and to inner life.
The Solitary can manage their incomes, in such a situation, according to the measure and quantity that the Knight Great Masters considers convenient for personal expenses of the Solitary, but the latter cannot carry out any operation in this sense.
The Ordained can be exempt from living in community, if the Knight Great Master decides this. In such cases, the Ordained shall continue their tasks and jobs, but according to rules determined by their Superior.
But the Ordained shall have the right to return to the community for a while, annually, and when their external labor ends, the Superior may decide to incorporate them definitively.
The Knight Master is the supreme authority in the Table. His mission is to watch as a father over the spiritual, moral and material concerns of the Sons trusted to him.
To watch as a father excludes any arbitrary command, but gives rise to certain severity of a paterfamilias. Also, it involves personal selflessness, invariable love to the souls, and spiritual zeal.
The vast responsibility of the Knight Master is proportional to the importance of those interests which he has to watch over; because he shall take care not only of the spiritual process of the Sons, but also that of their material and social concerns, since both concerns are related to the soul.
As the Knight Masters is chosen, he assumes the responsibility not only before God, but also before the Knight Great Master whom he must report periodically about his acts and about the acts of the Sons of his Table, since the Knight Great Master is the one who transforms him through an act of confirmation into a channel of Cafh’s Current, custody of its knowledge and tool of its Work.
As to how the Knight Master must exercise his authority, the Regulation says his authority must be eminently moral. That is to say, he shall not impose his authority through no other tool than the example of his virtuous life and his consecration.
The Knight Great Master has his exclusive functions in the spiritual labor that each Table carries out.
So, the Knight Master must impart Retirements in the Stability radius. Retirements are for the Sons a source of encouragement and increase of mystical fervor; so, nothing is better than the guide of the Knight Master that by virtue of having been chosen and confirmed, one can take for granted that he is an expert in this sense.
Moreover, an exclusive function of the Knight Master is that of receiving the Sons for a particular conference. We have already mentioned the significance of these conferences for the Sons. So, necessarily, the Knight Master must carry out these conferences, even when sometimes he is not the Spiritual Director of the Son.
On the other hand, the Knight Master must watch over the teachings imparted in the Table by instructing the Orators and imparting personally those teachings, and even by asking Orators of the Knight Great Master, if his Table has no Orators.
Finally, the Knight Master must watch over the fulfillment of the Regulation, for the Sons to stay in the Stability Radius of the Table, to be in touch with the Secretaries of the groups and to make fulfill meetings of numbers. Moreover, he must make the Sons of Cafh cultivate candidates to enter the Holy Order. This must be his particular task.
The Regulation establishes in detail how to choose the Knight Master. It is an important and transcendental act for the Table, and the Sons must attend with spiritual unction. This is the only opportunity for the Table to reunite totally, and encouraged by only one purpose, it unites this day the strength of their emotions and minds. So, the spiritual assistance is intense, and this allows the Sons taking their Vows with their thoughts centered on the souls for their sake, and on no other secondary concern.
If the trust of Cafh in the Knight Masters is great, also their mission is great: because of its category and beauty, because of the knowledge that it offers, and because through his labor guiding the souls toward God, the Knight Master inadvertently comes personally close to God.
With extraordinary exceptions, the soul does not keep the mystical fervor with the same intensity. Periodical enthusiasm and discouragement mark the path toward God. The triumph is of those that, despite their state or stage, never lose sight of the forged ideal.
In order to achieve his longed realization, the Son ties himself with Vows to the different stretches of the Path. His Vows are duties that he assumes to engage his energy and to carry them out.
Cafh is aware of how the Sons may be able to consecrate their lives at certain points of the process and to assume realizable duties, and that is why the Regulation establishes and graduates Vows according to different categories and groups.
The serious first step taken by the aspirant entering Cafh is confirmed by taking immediately his vow of silence.
The vow of silence is like a spiritual baptism of the Son; as the aspirant takes this vow and the Superior receives it, the aspirant enters the Current of Cafh and shares the secret that veils the name and organization of the Holy Order.
Through these vows, the Son and Cafh express externally the inner and divine promise made with the Divine Mother.
Temporary vows can be cancelled by both parties at any moment.
The Sons cannot cancel their solemn vows, but the Knight Great Master can certainly do.
Perpetual vows cannot be cancelled by any of both parties.
Sometimes, the aspirants enter directly a Table of the Solitary. The normal way is to be slowly acquainted with the life and Current of Cafh, which is given by entering a Table of Sponsored Sons.
The Son adheres to Cafh after experiencing inner and outer changes. Then he feels the natural impulse not only to keep quiet but also to be faithful. And for a higher achievement of this virtue, again he involves his will and therefore takes the vow of fidelity.
The vow of silence implies the approach of the soul to Cafh; and the vow of fidelity is an introduction of Cafh into the soul. The former closes the new aspirant in Cafh; the latter consecrates him to the Work through the loving force that his own heart has already produced.
One can say that Cafh starts its true modeling work with the Son when the latter takes the vow of fidelity, since a progressive achievement of this virtue beautifies the soul and leads to be delicate, circumspect and noble. This vow leads the Son to self-observation and self-improvement, since to be faithful implies a control of actions and thoughts in order to adapt them to the object of Fidelity.
The vow of Obedience corresponds to the bold searchers of God. This vow is not taken by the Sponsored or by those Sons belonging to lower groups of the Solitary. The vow of Obedience is only taken by Knights and Ladies of the Solitary, and by Ordained Sons.
A decisive step in the spiritual life is to subdue one’s personal will to that of a Superior for the sake of the true freedom.
Afterwards, the Son notices that the fulfillment of his duties, his consecration, and even his love to the Divine Mother ultimately are a personal satisfaction and a noble pleasure, since the personal will guides always his steps and regulates his realization. It is then when he decides to give an impersonal sense to his spiritual work and to surrender to the freer will of the Superior by taking his vow of Obedience.
The personal will produces problems, promotes ambition and traces little tracks by the Spiritual Path. As the obedience detaches the soul from the personal will, destroys these limitations and consecrates the soul to the Path.
The process of liberation in the personal will starts with Obedience and follows with Renunciation.
As the Son understands that even Obedience does not grants perfect freedom, since always remains a dose of personal will, which escapes from being subject to rules and to the Superior, he involves boldly his destiny taking his vow of Renunciation. No individual or social prejudice, no craving or desire can arise long time in the soul, since the soul knows that ultimately and over and above all things, the Son has renounced to any manifestation of his own will.
It is through these four vows that Cafh guides the undefined anxiety of the aspirant for achieving a perfect freedom: a freedom that, by breaking any personal and personal form, launches the soul toward the infinite bosom of the Divine Mother.
Teaching 15: Attributes, Habits and Festivities in Cafh
Esoteric Orders have used attributes and habits from immemorial times. Also Cafh has its own attributes and habits.
The attribute has a value that is symbolic and real at a time. Its symbolic value lies on the idea that it represents: and reminds continuously to the soul aspects of the divinity that the soul desires to realize. Its real value is on the magnetism that has been pervaded, which turns it into a source of wellbeing for its bearer.
The use of the attributes has its importance. First, as the Son wears the attribute, he establishes a separation between his own origin and the spiritual environment where he enters at that moment. Moreover, he makes the meeting solemn, which reminds to the Son that he is living those moments of transcendence for his soul, and not those of worldly distraction.
Here are the attributes established by the Regulation for several categories of Son: necklace, sword, horse, ring, lamp and cross.
This necklace, composed of 49 links and one medal of silver, is the symbol of 49 centers of force that, being illuminated, show the glory of the Initiate. They are 49 primordial centers that update the comic energy of man and makes him fit to realization. In the medal there is an inscription: the spiritual name of the Son; as one utters this name in certain way, it produces a vibration that puts in tune higher states.
The sword of steel is symbol of individual effort and will in the service of perfecting the soul. It is the most personal attribute, since its magnetization is fruit of psychic and spiritual conquests of the Son; and it is two-edged because makes no commitment with ties, inclinations and memories, and at a time opens breaches in the higher worlds.
The head of a horse is symbol of the horse, or the soul in control of the body. Doubtless, the ring represents the most important attribute. The crown denotes the distinction of spiritual lineage that the Knight possesses, and the sign of Ankh, which he wears, symbolizes the tie of union between divinity and humanity, which suggests to the soul the search of balance between matter and spirit. The brilliant represents the sun of the spirit and in the ring is the accumulator of magnetism harmoniously radiated through eight phases of the crown.
The lamp is the attribute of the Ordained Son. Its flame ever burns and suggests to the soul the need of watching over permanently, of keeping the fire burning, which is the element of purification: it is symbol of a constant state of prayer and absorption.
The initiatory cross of the Knight Great Master, and that of the Knights Masters, is symbol of spiritual power oriented toward the supreme realization.
Moreover, to wear the habit is spiritually important. As the Son wears the habit, he leaves outside the material man and gives eminence to the soul. Along with the attribute, the habit separates attitudes and mental moods and makes a spiritual labor easier and better. The Sons of Cafh, with the exception of the Ordained, only wear proper attires. The Ordained Sons wear etiquette attires and cloaks.
Festivities are especial opportunities for Cafh to grant to the Sons higher spiritual power, which provides with increased fervor, greater fraternization and moments of expansion. Generally, festivities coincide with certain planetary aspects that make a magnetization easier and better. On the other hand, on every festivity there is a characteristic ceremony, and these ceremonies are ways to distribute the Current among the Sons.
Each festivity has its symbolic meaning. So, the Moon festivity of the twentieth-eight February symbolizes the opening of the Mother’s Book. The Sons reassume their studies and search of unitive knowledge. This date is favorable to it, since the position of the planets regarding earth produces a favorable radiation on the mental activity.
The Full Moon festivity of May is that of the spirit. Great and little souls, anxious to perfect themselves and live for the Great Work, this time stimulate each other with meetings, talks and healthy joy. Messages of the Masters, collective banquets, and all the Sons together stimulate them to a more intense labor and greater spiritual zeal.
Moreover, the festivity of the Initiated Knight is extremely symbolic. It leads the Sons to admire the Liberated Man, and this state constitutes the object of their aims. The Liberated Man is symbol of a perfect Knight, of an exalted man. The festivity is devoted to the Knight Great Master because he represents for his Sons the supreme spiritual authority on earth.
As the course ends up, its festivity prepares the Son for his vacation. Trials and temptations appear as the book of life closes up its covers for a while. Then Cafh prepares the forces of the Son for the struggle with a spiritual festivity and a subsequent ceremony.
Attributes, habits and festivities are so many other mental and energetic tools through which Cafh pours its power and spirituality on the souls of its Sons.
The Secretary Great Master is assisted in his labor by the Knight Secretary Master that he chooses in the Full Moon Assembly every five years among the Knight Masters of his Table.
The labor of the Secretary Great Master is important because he can be temporarily a delegate of the Knight Great Master’s authority and also, because of his exclusive functions that consist in staying beside the Knight Great Master, mediating between the latter and the Sons, and also representing him before persons outside Cafh.
As we said above, so that the Knight Great Master can preserve the integrity of the Great Current and develop his spiritual labor in Cafh, has to remain secluded in his sanctuary and detached from any contact with outsiders. A function of the Secretary Great Master is to make everything take place more easily.
When a Table has a minimum of 18 Sons, the Knight 8 leads it. His attributions and duties are like those of the Knight Master, but he does not wear special attributes of his office, has no Particular Secretary and cannot be absent from the Stability Radius without license of the Knight Great Master. He must be an Ordained Son and is chosen during the Full Moon Assembly.
The Full Moon Assembly is an extremely important institution in Cafh. As all Knights Superiors take part in it, at certain place and time, the guiding spiritual power of Cafh is focused these days to receive inspiration and energies from the Masters, which later shall be distributed among the souls, labors and Works of Cafh.
That is why during the Full Moon days, the spiritual life of the Sons has to be increased so that its mission involves the whole power of the Holy Order, and its appointments and selections have as much spiritual power as possible.
Tables with reduced number of Sons are conducted by delegates of the Knight Great Master and appointed by him, and lack the power of blessing; this blessing shall be imparted to the Tables that they conduct by a Knight Master of the Table Mother of America.
But every Superior of Cafh has the same and holy function to carry out; to kindle in the souls the flame of the Divine Love, to transmit them the ancestral wisdom of the Knights of Fire, and to make them take part in the power of the Great Current, received from the hands of the Knight Great Master.
Certain rules of the Regulation have not been examined during the precedent Teachings. Those commentaries that so far we made have to serve however as a clue about the wisdom contained in the Regulation and about the way to find in these commentaries their inward spiritual meaning.
But, above all, the Son has to take into account that the Regulation manifests its spirit through his loving observance.
CONTENTS:
Teaching 1: Spirit of the Regulation
Teaching 2: Cafh
Teaching 3. Regulation
Teaching 4: Knight Great Master
Teaching 5: Sons
Teaching 6: Tables
Teaching 7: Admittance of the Sons
Teaching 8: Duties of the Sons
Teaching 9: Benefits of the Sons
Teaching 10: Spiritual Exercises
Teaching 11: The Solitary
Teaching 12: The Ordained
Teaching 13: Knight Masters
Teaching 14: Vows
Teaching 15: Attributes, Habits and Festivities in Cafh
Teaching 16: Superiors
 Back |
|
|