Unveiling: An Inner Journey Links Major Archetypes with Myers-Briggs Types
If you followed the course of Robert Langdon, Dan Brown's heroic "Professor of Symbology" in his most recent adventures, you'd have seen him tracking down the most revered and esoteric secret hidden within a Freemason pyramid's special "magic square" code. Cracking this code gave insight into one of the major hidden "inner truths," known only to an elect few within the highest ranks of Freemasonry.
The truth is, we don't need to do Dan Brown-style continent-crossing adventures in order to "crack the code." What we DO need is some painstaking research, piecing together the insights that we obtain when we find the lost (or perhaps deliberately mislaid) real meanings of one of our well-known esoteric teachings. These teachings themselves have been available for all to study, over the past several hundreds of years.
Why this timeframe?
Actually, the "secrets" themselves go back much, much farther in time. They very likely were developed at a time when the Hebrew people were living in Egypt, and there was not only prosperity (for both Hebrews and Egyptians), but likely significant cross-cultural intellectual fertilization. The best minds, of both cultures, were - for a brief period of time - living amicably and in close quarters.
It is likely that from this timeframe, when there was both prosperity and intellectual stimulation, that the greatest "esoteric secrets" of our Judeo-Christian world were discerned and codified. They were also very likely taught in what we have now come to think of as the "Mystery Schools."
What happened to these secrets?
In short order: The Hebrew people were cast into slavery, and then thrust out of Egypt. They claimed a new land, and solidified their culture. The "esoteric secrets" continued to be developed, and taught in an oral tradition. Over the next several hundred years, various elements were put down in writing, although the primary interpretation was still done in the time-honored oral tradition; master to disciple.
But at a certain point, the continuity was broken. The Grand Masters feared - with good reason - that their "secrets" could be lost for all time.
Why?
Plain and simple: The Inquisition.
The Crusades began just before 1100 AD, and lasted until the latter part of the 1200's.
The Inquisistion began in the early 1200's, and continued through the 1600's. Most importantly, significant Papal Bulls, giving authority and direction for the Inquisition, were drafted in the 1200's - while the leading nobility were away from their lands, the European power centers, and access to the Vatican. ("While the cat's away, ...")
The Inquisition was a power and money grab on behalf of the Catholic Church, which was then (and possibly still is) the most powerful and wealthy organization in the world. In fact, the Inquisition was largely what made "Holy Mother Church" so powerful, wealthy, and influential.
In Europe, the practice of primogeniture - handing down a lord's full estate, and his title, to his eldest son - made for some very unhappy second-eldest sons. The "typical assignments" of duties for a lord's sons were: The eldest received the title and the lands. The second eldest, regardless of "vocation," was destined for the priesthood. The third (and any remaining) sons became warrior-knights; they performed military service in the land of either their eldest brother or the king.
The eldest son could - and would - marry and have children. The second eldest son, becoming a priest, was not allowed to marry. (Of course, he had mistresses. The church history is replete with the various offices and honors given to the "nephews" of various high-ranking churchmen.) Even though a nobly-born priest could use his influence to improve the lot of his "nephews," he did not personally own property. He could not bequeath property. This would make for some serious envy!
The solution?
Send the eldest sons, and many of the younger ones, off to fight a war in a foreign land. This left a power vacuum.
The lands themselves, of course, were being managed by the lord's wife and his stewards. The solution to that little conundrum? Find heresy.
Thus, the Inquisition. A useful tool, which is why it was continued for four hundred very active years. In the course of this time, many, many women (and a few good men - most notably scientists, "heretics," and other free thinkers) were burned at the stake. Also, of course, a good many Jews.
The Church, of course, laid claim to the estates of all these "heretics." Over four hundred years, Church coffers swelled considerably, as estates, gold, valuable artworks, and jewels were all consumed by the overarching maw of the Inquisition's venerable activities.
During this time, the last vestiges of a "woman's pathway" disappeared - as did the women who possessed healing knowledge. (Is it any surprise that the Black Plague broke out in the mid-1300's, and consumed approximately 50% of Europe's population?)
Likewise, the population of Jewish peoples living in Europe was hugely diminished, as a combination of both the order of expulsion from Catholic Spain (mid-1400's), the attempts (by many) to convert to Catholicism, and then the following pursuit by members of the Inquisition, which then had authority over the converted Jews (since they had turned Catholic, and thus were under the rule of the Church).
Clearly, during this time, it was unsafe to be a Jewish person, living in Europe. The masters of the great esoteric traditions had to find a way to communicate their knowledge.
In fact, they had to do so - with the thought in mind that not only they, but all their living disciples - their entire lineage - would be destroyed. They had to find a way to safeguard their knowledge, so that wise and discerning people of future generations would find it, and re-discover their esoteric teachings.
The great masters did precisely this - by hiding their "secret knowledge" in plain sight!
What these great thought-leaders knew honored women as much as men. Their "secrets" - once properly deciphered - show an even-handed balance of masculine and feminine perspectives.
However, as their "secret knowledge" began to be copied, morphed, and disseminated by those who did not know the inner meanings, the "symbolism" used to encode the original "secrets" was distorted over time. And without the Grand Masters to correct the course, and bring the insights back, the true meanings were lost.
To be continued.
