Samael Aun Weor

For those who do work on themselves, depending on the degree of perfection, happiness and wisdom they wish to attain, two distinct paths emerge: the Straight Path of the Razor's Edge and the Spiral Path. The Spiral Path involves reaching a state of relative enlightenment by choosing the enjoyment of the Higher Worlds (Heaven or Nirvana), and occasionally returning to a physical body in order to pay out a little more karma and help humanity in the process. Aun Weor refers to these as the Pratyeka Buddhas and Sravakas, and that the vast majority who reach this state choose the Spiral Path because it is very easy and enjoyable. The dangerous Straight Path of the Razor's Edge is the Path of the Bodhisattva who renounces the happiness of the Higher Worlds (Nirvana) in order to help humanity. In the doctrine of Aun Weor, the Bodhisattva has a very specific definition, as it is not merely someone who has taken the Bodhisattva vows. It is the physical (Malkuth), vital (Yesod), astral (Hod), mental (Netzach) and causal (Tiphereth) vehicles – in other words the human soul – of a self-realized spirit, (Geburah-Chesed) who has chosen the Straight Path of the Razor's Edge in order to incarnate the Christ (Kether-Binah-Chokmah). In other words, the Bodhisattva is the "Son" of a self-realized God who is trying to return to the Absolute or 13th Aeon of the Pistis Sophia.

Glorian Publishing (formerly known as Thelema Press) is a non-profit organization translating and publishing the Gnostic books of Aun Weor. Since 2001, Glorian has published books and operates Gnostic Radio (a free internet radio service) and a podcast.

In 1991, F. W. Haack (1935–1991), who was chief delegate of the Evangelical Church with responsibility for sects and ideologies, attacked Weor's ideology in a German book published in Zürich — nevertheless, the Gnostic branches of the movement in Germany and Switzerland are still active and expanding. The Gnostic associations are active in Switzerland with a moderate following of Italian-, French- and German-speaking members.

In 1990, after numerous consultations with high-ranking members of the Roman Catholic Church and other figures who preferred to remain anonymous such as lawyers, public prosecutors, psychiatrists and psychologists, Pilar Salarrullana, who has been a political figure since 1974 and is considered an expert on sects, published Las Sectas (The Sects: a living testament to Messianic terror in Spain), which became a best-seller with six editions the first year alone and, in spite of its popularly inquisitorial tone, it denounces the Gnostic Movements among others as some of the most dangerous anti-social plagues in Spain.

As of 11 February 1984 or thereabouts, the Ministry of Tenerife, Spain, denied incorporation to Aun Weor's Universal Christian Gnostic Church of Spain operating from 38 San Francisco St., in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, on the grounds that said organization is not a legitimate church as it does not have any record of incorporation as such in any country whatsoever.

By 1972, Samael Aun Weor wrote that his death and resurrection would be occurring before 1978. In the chapter entitled The Resurrection, in his work The Three Mountains (1972), he stated that the eight years of ordeals within the Trial of Job would occur between his 53rd and 61st birthdays. Furthermore, in the same work, it is stated that this ordeal occurs prior to resurrection, and the one going through it is "deprived of everything, even of his own sons, and is afflicted by an impure sickness." By August 1977 he had developed stomach cancer. During this time he continued to speak to both his students and the general public, giving radio and television interviews while touring Mexico. Eventually he was forced to stop, due to debilitating stomach pain. As his condition steadily worsened, he would mention to those at his bedside, "Don't cling to my battered body, instead cling to my doctrinal body." Aun Weor died on December 24, 1977. He was survived by his wife and children.

In spite of its success, the development of the Gnostic Movement was not without dramatic setbacks, according to its followers. By the time of publishing the revised edition of The Perfect Matrimony (1961), the movement had fallen apart. Aun Weor wrote that "those who did not leave the Gnostic Movement can be counted on the fingers of one hand." However, by the time of his death, Samael Aun Weor had completely re-established the broad international reaches the movement previously held.

Before 1960, he had arguably published 20 more books with topics ranging from endocrinology and criminology to kundalini yoga. He founded numerous Gnostic Institutions and created Gnostic centers in Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Venezuela. A "triangle" relationship was established between the Universal Gnostic Movement founded by Samael Aun Weor, the South American Liberation Action (ALAS) in Argentina headed by Francisco A. Propato Ph.D. (graduate of La Sorbonne and Spanish translator of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam), and the Sivananda Aryabarta Ashram directed by Swami Sivananda in India.

Into the 1960s, he continued to write many books on topics, such as hermetic astrology, flying saucers, and the Kabbalah. However, he also wrote sociopolitical works such as the Platform of POSCLA (Partido Socialista Cristiano Latinoamericano, or Latin-American Christian Socialist Party) and The Social Christ. Topics such as the "false" doctrines of wall street materialism, atheism, and particularly Marxism-Leninism are discussed. POSCLA's motto was given as, "All for one and one for all," and its method, the conscious practice of ahimsa.

In 1956, he left Colombia and went to Costa Rica and El Salvador. Later in 1956, he settled permanently in Mexico City, where he would begin his public life.

According to his diary, writing about sex in such a candid manner was met with disdain by the majority of the public at the time. Seen as immoral and pornographic, Aun Weor found himself fleeing angry mobs attempting to silence him through violent means. From March 14 to 19 of 1952 Aun Weor spent five days in jail for "committing the crime of healing the sick".) The account of his incarceration is recounted in a personal diary he later published as Secret Notes of a Guru.

After March 19, 1952, Aun Weor and some disciples built and lived near the Summum Supremum Sanctuarium, an "underground temple" in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia. On October 27, 1954, Aun Weor received what is referred to as the "Initiation of Tiphereth", which, according to his doctrine, is the beginning of the incarnation of the Logos or "Glorian" within the soul. He states that in his case the name of his Glorian has always been called "Samael" through the ages. From then on, he would sign his name Samael Aun Weor.

Following his self-described "awakening" or "initiation" in 1948, Gómez started calling himself Aun Weor, which according to his own words would mean "the verb or messenger of God." In 1954, after undergoing a ceremony he described as the birth of "Inner Christ," he adopted the name of Samael Aun Weor, which he used until his death in 1977. Samael Aun Weor referred to his teachings as "The Doctrine of Synthesis", which not only emphasizes the existence of the perennial philosophy, but that its highest teleological function is the accomplishment of "Christification" and "Final Liberation".

By 1948 he had started teaching a small group of students. In 1950, under the name "Aun Weor", he managed to publish The Perfect Matrimony, or The Door to Enter into Initiation with the help of his close disciples. The book, later entitled The Perfect Matrimony, unveiled the secret of sexuality as the cornerstone of the world's great religions. In it he addressed topics such as sexual transmutation, "white tantra", and esoteric initiation.

He was briefly married to Sara Dueños and they had a son named "Imperator". However, in 1946, he met and married the Lady-Adept "Litelantes" (born Arnolda Garro Mora) with whom he lived for 35 years and had four children: Osiris, Isis, Iris, and Hypatia. Samael Aun Weor explains that as soon as he met her, this "Lady-Adept" Genie began to instruct him in the Science of Jinnestan or Jinn State also known as Djinn State or Djinnestan, which involved placing the physical body in the fourth dimension. In Aztec religion this practice is known as Nahuatlism, and according to Aun Weor it is related with hyperspace.

Few details of his life are known between the mid-1930s and 1950. He became a spiritual vagabond of sorts, traveling with neither home nor income. At one point he said he had lived with a tribe of indigenous people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, learning the healing secrets which would later form the foundation of his medical treatise, Occult Medicine and Practical Magic. It was also during these years that he described his first experience of the Illuminating Void meeting his "Inner Being" or Atman whose name is "Aun Weor", meaning in Hebrew "Light and Strength".

Samael Aun Weor (Hebrew: סמאל און ואור; March 6, 1917 – December 24, 1977), born Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez, was a spiritual teacher and author of over sixty books of esoteric spirituality. He taught and formed groups under the banner of "Universal Gnosticism", or simply gnosis. A prolific author of syncretistic books, Gómez first made a name in the early gnostic movement in his native country of Colombia, before moving to Mexico in 1956, where his movement gained increased popularity, and his works became popular among practitioners of occultism and esotericism, and were translated to other languages.