The Old Times Speak

THE WAY OF THE GRAIL – SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS – August 18, 2022

Czech original: Staré Časy Prehovárajú · cesta-gralu.cz

Nothing will remain hidden in the sands of time,

but there will come a time when a mighty wind will blow,

to sweep aside the drifts and to show the traces,

which were graven into the course of the history of this earth.

Likewise when a man leaves his body, nothing is lost nor melts away, but the sequence of events flows on. Although time has blown away many names and they have vanished from the awareness of the inhabitants of the earth, everything continues in its cycle. If it serves mankind for instruction and for help, it is permitted to draw aside the veil behind which there lie hidden many stories worthy of emulation…

Today no one will know any more of the wise master Kleofas, who once excelled in wisdom and in a good word. People came to him from the whole region. It was rumoured that the master abounded in supra-earthly abilities and was able to govern the sequence of events in such a way that the truth always came to the surface and things showed themselves in the light in which they truly were. Under the influence of the master's fluid many people suddenly seemed to lose their sound sense entirely and began to reveal their own motives, far removed from what they had been saying. Often the master did not even have to be directly present at some event, his influence sufficed and the events arranged themselves. Master Kleofas was quite an ordinary man who liked to go out into nature and was wont to spend even several weeks there. He returned from it an even happier man, who had meanwhile learned much that was of benefit to those around him as well. There was no one to be found who did not love the master and who had not at some time come with a request for counsel. The master was very glad to meet with people and imparted to them out of his knowledge of the stars, of the laws of justice, of the happenings of nature, but most gladly of all Kleofas spoke of the Most High, whose power and workings lie concealed behind every happening upon this earth. People governed themselves by the master's counsels and rejoiced in the beneficial effects of his counsels upon their own lives. What mattered most to the master was the spiritual growth of his fellow men and their spiritual independence. Sometimes, instead of explaining, he let people experience something for themselves, for it was precisely the experiencing that opened to them a better possibility of understanding what had hitherto been unknown.

Once, when a common meeting with the master had been announced, several people came with complaints. They concerned an alleged sage and enlightened man who let himself be called Kvan and who was able to tell people much that was interesting. At first what was said either flattered people or spoke to them through its severity, but they were not able to work it over inwardly, or else they clung to it. In the beginning he started to speak to people about nature and the laws within it, which people also knew from master Kleofas. It was something very similar, and therefore no one had the slightest suspicion of foul play. Many were downright proud that they knew almost everything already from Kleofas, and with enthusiasm they spread and supplemented what Kvan had uttered. He acted thus deliberately, because he knew that the people in the vicinity of master Kleofas were spiritually mature and had already experienced many of the manifestations of the laws of nature upon themselves. Outwardly Kvan too rejoiced at the knowledge of these people and invited them for the evening, because what he was telling them now was self-evident and clear to everyone. He possessed, however, a still higher knowledge, which he would reveal only to the most discerning, whom he himself would choose. Everyone who presented himself in the evening would be judged by the master himself and inwardly weighed as to whether he was worthy of so great a grace. He who wished to take part in the evening meeting was to bring with him an offering for the great spiritual gift he would receive. If the offering were sufficient and the gods consented, this man would be initiated into the higher knowledge.

This time master Kleofas was the one who listened with tension. It had been revealed to him that something would come to pass and that his intervention would be needed, but that he himself was to wait. Outwardly he showed his readiness to help, but he could do no more. He waited for his hour, which was to come. The account continued and master Kleofas listened on…

In the evening many people gathered before the tent of master Kvan. They were not there alone, but the sage's disciples, or rather helpers, appeared there too, who willingly collected the offerings intended for the master. Since everyone had gathered together a sufficient quantity of provisions and of various other precious things, the disciples decided that every one of these people would be able to take part in the evening of initiation into the higher knowledge.

They led them to a meadow below the mountain, from where the master's voice carried well. The presence of the mountain formed a pleasant setting and lent the master's discourse earnestness and an apparent power. The master told the people of the many helpers who surrounded them, naming the highest of them by names hitherto unknown to them, as well as of the threads with which the people themselves were bound. In one he saw this, in another that. He spoke also of the dark and gloomy threads around certain individuals, and at the same time of the luminous ones coming from the realm of peace. Around some people he discerned the working of beings from the realm of peace, around others even from the realm of joy, which lies still above the realm of peace. Some were astonished at what they heard and their eyes shone as though they saw distant images coming from these realms. Every word that came from Kvan was for them perhaps the chief and important thing that separated them from the degree of enlightenment and from the possibility of becoming a servant of the highest lord of the realm of peace and of the realm of joy. The master did not forget to disclose to most of them that it was no accident that they of all people had come there, because they were predestined to become servants of the son of the highest lord. For those assembled there existed no greater happiness than to be permitted to hear this. Some of them were beside themselves with happiness, they gave the master out of everything they had with them and thanked him that their lives at last had meaning. They did not understand how they could hitherto have lived such a simple life without a higher meaning. Towards evening the master dismissed them all and solemnly gave them the possibility of coming to the same place in a few days, at the full moon. The master did not forget to add that only those would come whom the highest lord appointed, and that many of them would fall away from this path because they were not prepared for it. For the present they were not to forget to bring jewels and furs as an offering for the initiation into the mysteries, for which the master would hand over to them their personal amulets, consecrating them to the service of the son of the highest lord.

Among the people there were also to be found such as did not share this enthusiasm with the others and who came to master Kleofas. They did not come because master Kvan had announced to them that they were connected with the nearest plane of the dead, or that they were entirely ordinary and unsuited for anything higher, but because they intuitively sensed that not everything master Kvan told them vibrated in the truth and the clarity to whose working they were accustomed from master Kleofas. At the same time they asked the master for a common prayer of clarification, whose words the master was able to catch so beautifully from the heights. He simply let himself be led by his inner being, attuned himself to the heights, and the words came to him:

O Almighty and most high Father!

Receive our thanks for all Thy strengthening and help hitherto, with which Thou dost endow us.

We thank Thee for the wise guidance and the counsels with which Thou dost lead us and help us.

Clarify, we pray, our minds and give us that clarity and direction, so that we may be able to recognise the working of Thy wisdom in whatever form.

Show us, we pray, that which is true and which comes from Thee, our Lord and Ruler!

So let it be!

After a moment of silence those assembled there continued. You know, master Kleofas, not all were able as we were to bear the weight of the words that were uttered. Some, around whom the master saw dark and unlovely threads and to whom he foretold a hard fate, are tormented and afflicted. One brother confided that he intends to take his life, so that he may be permitted to begin anew. Another sister, under the weight of what she heard, is unable to live her everyday life and broods continually over what she heard. Master Kvan also assured us that if we do not govern ourselves by his words and do not see ourselves in the light in which he sees us, then it is precisely then that evil spirits work out of us and we slide still further towards the great abyss than was the case before. Even now, however, we know that he will easily be able to explain to the others that if we do not appear at the next gathering, we have fallen away from the spiritual height which he discerned in us.

Master Kleofas reflected for a moment and began to speak to those assembled: “Friends, do not despair! For you who have come I have no fear at all. You have recognised the falsity of the teaching of this self-appointed master and false sage, he has no hold upon you. Whatever wrong and reprehensible things you may have done in a previous existence, precisely now you have the possibility of redeeming it through your good existence. Everything that could endanger this new right direction of yours will remain unspoken by a true spiritual master, for he will build upon your good qualities and will strengthen you in how to overcome what is evil and dark precisely through the growth of what is luminous and beautiful. Far greater concern, however, is caused me by those who hold this wrong thing to be the truth. They are like flies caught in a web of falsehood and lies. They are so weak that they luxuriate in their own height and in imagined lofty realms. Yet they are building only an altar to their own indolence. The worst of it is that they really do form such realms in the low worlds, and these, together with the false sage, will one day await them after their departure. Let us keep watch together this night and pray for their highest good. Let us give ourselves into the service of the Most High and seek ways to help these companions of ours.” With these words the evening gathering came to an end and later dispersed.

The sage Kvan had meanwhile won new disciples, who willingly worked in new settlements and spread the light of the new knowledge. In the meantime the master manufactured amulets and a special food intended for those who wished to become still more luminous and still better. The profits and the possessions of master Kvan grew, and the people themselves did not notice it and did not see how their volition was changing. Now it was directed only towards the special food, towards ever more beautiful amulets, and towards where each one was connecting himself. From the people there vanished joyfulness, the longing to help their neighbours, and their former naturalness. With almost every matter they now went to the master and asked for his counsel. It did not trouble them at all that the counsels contradicted one another, as the master changed his opinion about what he had hitherto held to be bound up with the realms of peace and of peacefulness. Each latest new knowledge revealed to him was worthy enough for the master to call the people together on its account, and he did not forget to remind them of an abundance of provisions for this gathering.

As if drugged by the teaching of the false master, his adherents passed through life. They ate nothing other than the dishes from the master's hand, which his wife prepared together with other women helpers out of raw materials from the very best farmers in the region. With them she agreed the best price, so that after preparing the food she could sell it to the adherents even at three times as much. If a farmer could not supply something in the required quantity or quality, he was paid disproportionately less. Everything was justified by the larger quantity of food purchased at one time for the master's needs. The farmers themselves also saw through these people and refused to sell to them. The little beings themselves, who had entrusted the secret of this food to the master, looked upon it with displeasure, until one day a higher being decided to take this gift away, because it was not fulfilling the purpose for which it had been given to Kvan. It would be entrusted to better and more responsible hands.

His adherents changed too. From people hitherto gentle and agreeable there came to be people proud and conceited. At every meeting the master told them to what new heavens and heights they were connecting themselves, while the poor others were in the nearest surroundings, or in dark planes.

Upon master Kleofas the happenings of the last days left almost no trace. He connected himself all the more and asked above for the possibility of intervening, if the Most High deemed it fitting. And the opportunity did not keep him waiting long…

During one of the many fairs master Kleofas too was to be found among the fairgoers, for he needed to replenish his writing supplies. The disciples of the false sage came there too and invited everyone for midday, when master Kvan would appear. Master Kleofas himself did not let this opportunity pass by either. At midday the false master appeared on the meadow above the marketplace in long robes bound with a belt. He spoke of the laws, of the threads with which man is bound, he chose people at random about whom he spoke a few highly spiritual words before all. One of them was allegedly a servant of a god from the lower heavens, another again had come to men's help from the realm of peace.

This time Kvan's choice fell upon master Kleofas himself. He gazed in his direction and wished to utter something. He was not able, however, to bring forth from himself so much as a sound. It seemed as though someone were hindering him in this. All around it grew bright, which was evidently caused by the silent working of master Kleofas. Suddenly, however, Kvan's mouth opened and out of it, against the will of the spirit himself, there sounded a somewhat different voice: “This man has already done enough that is wrong, for which his soul will atone for centuries. The wisdom of the Most High entrusted precious spiritual gifts to him, which he distorted and misused. When the time of the turning of the ages comes, he will have to present himself again. The eye of the Son of the actual Ruler of the world will look upon him and the decision will fall. Either he will find life in the service and in the light of the Son, or he will perish in the deadly fire of dissolution.”

With that Kvan fell to the ground and did not awaken again.

Since those times several thousand years have passed. What the water covered over it has yielded up again, so that it might show its true essence and bring forth its fruits. Likewise the false master Kvan too awaits the closing of the happening of his existence. May those who are in danger of falling victim to him again recognise his lies, and may the true longing for the knowledge of the Most High awaken in him and may he redeem all that is still bound up with him.