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From Anarchy to degeneration- Imposing External Law. Quakers. Extract Two. Part Seven: The Path Of The Masters
by Katherine Frisk, The Phaser.com:
The spirit of the Cathari never died in the south of France. They evolved into what later became known as the Huguenots and an inspiration for the many Protestant churches that later evolved throughout Europe. Again they raised the ire of the French Kings and the Roman Catholic church. The turning point came in 1572 when Catholics went on a rampage killing thousands of them in Paris in what is remembered as the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.
By 1643, over one million Huguenots fled France to live in Protestant countries and escape the civil bloodshed imposed on them by the monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church. Protestant countries throughout Europe opened their doors to them including Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland where they found a safe haven in Geneva. Others sailed to the new colonies of South Africa and North America.
Many found help and assistance in Britain and became leading intellectuals, doctors and business leaders. And it is in Britain that we find the emergence of what most closely mirrored the Cathari, and if we are to extend this line of thinking, possibly back to the Essenes themselves.
The Quakers, also known as the priesthood of all believers, began to gain ground in the 1600s. They did not hold to the concept of priests and as a result turned their backs not only on the Roman Catholic Church but on the Church of England as well. They are an Apostolic group believing in direct knowledge of both the “Supreme Being,” and Jesus and that this relationship is a personal experience of the individual.
Much like Buddhism, private worship is tantamount, developing healthy habits of behaviour, speech and thought and here we come to Johnson again, developing emotional purity and the light of God. What they call “inner light,” or the “inward light of Christ,” a concept repeated over and over again by Dr. Johnson and a teaching that goes back thousands of years and is part of all teachings that truly embrace the real nature of the “Supreme Being.” What is more, there is an emphasis on using the inner spiritual ear and “hearing” God. Again we come back to the sound/light current that permeates the whole universe and the many beyond it that we cannot see with our physical eyes. The essence of the soul, our true nature and that we are made in the “Supreme Being’s” image and not the other way around.
Like the Cathari Parfait and the Essenes teachers before them, they dressed plainly, drank no alcohol, many were vegetarian, refused to be conscripted into the military or take part in any war, refused to take oaths and opposed all forms of slavery.
The Quakers became a social and political threat in the British Isles for more reasons than one. The most threatening of which is that Quaker women walk in the shoes of Mary Magdalene. Quaker women play a central role in the Christian ministry where family and community is largely entrusted into their hands as well as the spiritual guidance of children. Included in their teachings is the importance of telling the truth, treating others equally and being pacifists. Instead of carrying the burden of cause and effect, of karma in a never ending trial of suffering as they still do in India, the Quakers, like the Buddists, moved onto the “Go and sin no more,”section, and left the cage. As a result the social concept of a caste system or the abuse of women and children is not part of their social structure.
And here we come back to Dr. Johnson. If ever there was a Christian group that embraced all that Dr. Johnson has written, it was and still is the Quakers. Their whole belief system is anarchy and the internalisation of the spirituals laws. They embody the teachings of Jesus, that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand and that through the inner light and sound of the “Supreme Bring,” revelation is a living stream, an on going process rather than a stagnant, lifeless, set of rituals and ceremony in the hands of the priesthood framed in old, dusty texts. As Jesus himself said:
“God is the God of the living, not the dead.”
Anarchists and The Golden Age- Extract One: The Path of The Masters
