From Bondage to Freedom: The Path of Redemption

By William Stansmore

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jan 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664154605

William Stansmore

Formal Education: BA Brown University Masters of Divinity (M.Div) Yale Divinity School Ph.D Trinity College, Cambridge University, England Informal Education: Esoteric & Historical Studies, from Rudolph Steiner's work on spiritual science to Stonehenge and Glastonbury, England. All things that give reflections of eternity and immortality.

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Copyright © 2021 by William Stansmore.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version). First published in 1611. Quoted from the KJV Classic Reference Bible, Copyright © 1983 by The Zondervan Corporation.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 01/26/2021

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CONTENTS

Preface

Transfiguration

Runes for Reflection

The Spirit of ’76

Alzheimer’s

O Light Eternal

The Influences of Lucifer and Ahriman

The Incarnation of Ahriman

The Spiritual Foundation of Morality

My Shadow

The Kenosis of God

The Fall of the Leaf

Being and Kenosis: The Concept of Sacrificial Love in the Theology of Paul Tillich

Hierarchy

All Things New: Understanding the Book of Revelation

The New Jerusalem and the Natural Order

Antichrist Rising: The Coming Global Storm

The Echo of the Sunrise

Ulysses

The Prince of Darkness

The Humanitarian Cross

Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained

Powers of Evil: A Biblical Study of Satan and Demons

Deliver Us from Evil

The Awakening

Losing Our Religion

The Closing of the American Mind

The Apocalypse of Saint John

The Commitment of Acceptance

September 11

The Three Years

Ode to Voidness

O Light Eternal

Rudolf Steiner’s Vision of Love

Lucifer and Ahriman

Knowledge of Higher Worlds and Its Attainment

Michael and the Two-Horned Beast

The Philosophy Of Freedom

Satan and the Problem of Evil

God and Donald Trump

Live Free or Die

The Call of Cosmos

Bibliography

PREFACE

The books that I have written are essentially an effort to restore to America its sense of greatness, not so much its political, economic, or social greatness but a greatness of the spirit, of a land founded by God to combat the forces of darkness that ever seek to obscure the light of freedom. As Christ is the light of the world, so is America a light for the world, as envisioned by our nation’s Founding Fathers, a people raised up by God to inspire the world. That is its essence, its true source of power, distorted by modern-day materialism, secular nihilism, and spiritual powers beyond this world.

At the end of this book, From Bondage to Freedom: The Path of Redemption, I have inserted the entire first book I have written: The Natural Order: The Blueprint for the New Age. That order represents an order laid down by God as a means to bring our country back to the course first established by our nation’s Founding Fathers, a course from which we have dangerously strayed.

It is my contention that such a Natural Order does exist, and there will truly never be peace in the world until humanity is made aware of, understands, and ultimately conforms to that order. In light of experience, two conclusions may be observed:

1. History attests to the sensitivity of man to the existence of this order.

2. That sensitivity has been intelligently nullified.

It is our intention to present the nature of the Natural Order to indicate why our sensitivity to that order has been nullified and to demonstrate the means by which that order may be restored, implemented, and made universally known.

This book is basically spiritual in nature. It will include some of Rudolf Steiner’s works, the Austrian seer who defied Hitler, such as Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment. It will include a number of poems that I have written. And it will employ the Christ-principle to overcome the evils in this world, embodied in two personalities, Lucifer and Ahriman. Most Christians consider this to be a battle between God and the devil. Steiner sees this battle as a triad in nature.

Steiner sees Lucifer as a past incarnation, a spiritual personality from the east who sought to draw humanity away from any knowledge of the spiritual world. He would have us consider such notions as flights of fantasy, denying any true reality beyond ourselves and the physical world. Lucifer represents a world of illusions.

Ahriman will be a future incarnation from the west. His task will be to delude us through black magic and gross materialism into believing the material world is the only true reality. We have already seen evidence of this materialistic power reaching out to deny God and seduce the major world religions. These are very powerful spiritual beings now operating, as does Christ, from the spirit realm.

TRANSFIGURATION

I f we have lost the spirit because we bear the mark of Cain

Then we must learn compassion for that love to flow again

If there is suffering upon this plane and in it evil does abide

We must learn to conquer pain and death for that evil to subside

W e shall build our alters to transform dogma and misconcep tion

And celebrate the sacraments of a new and cultural resurrection

We shall rebuild the temple, Solomon’s pillars of wisdom and strength

Unifying the head and heart, science and religion, knowledge and faith

A s the disciples saw on Mount Tabor, like the pillars of a gate

Moses and Elijah in a cloud of light, standing tall and straight

And through the gate Christ appeared, shining as the central sun

Balancing the moon and Mars, wisdom and strength, joined as one

T he law and the prophets, past and future, one in the eternal now

So Christ marks the way for each of us, where and when, why and how

Knowledge of the past and faith in the future revealed pure and clear

Swift as sunbeams and as bright, the light of truth transcends all fear

A nd so we face the world, what we are, and what we yet ma y be

A two-edged sword that can kill the spirit or make us truly free

As we give life to lifeless thinking and with devotion build our nation

In wisdom and strength, balanced by Christ, each finds transfiguration

G ood would not be so great a good if it did not know evil for a w hile

Nor love not be so great a love that did not know the tests of trial

It is in the knowing and the testing that both pain and joy abounds

For the peak can only be measured from the abyss which it crowns

RUNES FOR REFLECTION

I would like to continue by citing a few biblical and spiritual truths that form a foundation upon which to construct the diagram of the Natural Order:

Logic is merely the beginning in the search for truth, but logic, forever, will end at faith. If men did not believe in Satan, then they would not believe in God.

It is a long journey from faith to faith, from believing to disbelieving, and believing again. From beginning in darkness to find your way through the labyrinth of lies and deceptions, the misuse of truth, separating the known from the unknowable, and accepting.

In the beginning you simply believed, so a prayer was just a prayer. But then you began to question and after a little while, a prayer was not just a prayer. It was a mystery. Questions without answers. The mystery never ends, so you are back where you began, at simple faith.

War opens the most fruitful field to all human virtues, for at every moment constancy, pity, magnanimity, heroism, and mercy shine forth in it, and every moment offers an opportunity to exercise one of these virtues (Winston Churchill).

Death and destruction, horror and anguish. Belial- Theramo. Malleu Malaficarum. Spenger and Institorus. Lucifer and Satal- alfano. ‘El adversao Rog Alexandria.’ The purity of evil. Grimorium Verum (Cain).

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen (Cain). It is only the hubris of man that compels him to place himself at the center of the universe. Samhain is when Saturn and Mars conjunct the water of the moon. Cain is the prince of the air. Cain is a dead man without a soul, inhabited by Satan.

Nothing physical is ever lost, even in death. It is only transferred. If we do not stand together in faith and hope and prayer, then we shall not stand at all. My twelve years of college (Brown, Yale, and Cambridge) could never build a tower to God. Faith alone can do that.

Faust sold his soul to the devil to achieve intellectual perfection, which is forever ultimately unsatisfying. The Society of Jesus, Jesuits, undergo a fifteen year training program and a vow of celibacy and poverty. Beware of Leviathan and Gehenna lurking in the darkness.

True love requires sacrifice. Love always brings the greatest sadness. But it is also God’s greatest gift, symbolized through the sublime sacrifice of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. As He died for our sins so must we die to ourselves only to be raised up again by Christ, through God’s gifts of hope and faith.

Desperation has bred more ideas than complacency. Certainty is a mistake committed by the young. It is better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. Hitler sought to rule. The servant is only a reflection of the master. Hitler was possessed by Lucifer.

We must not allow sentiment to cloud our judgment. We must be strong in our faith. In times of trial and tribulation we may ask: ‘How long God, must we endure?’ The answer is ‘to the end.’

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind: ‘Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Who stretched the line upon it? On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy’ (Job 38:1–7).

A Psalm of David: Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend to heaven, thou art there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there thy hand shall lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me and the light about me be night, even the darkness is not dark to thee, the night is bright as the day; for darkness is as light to thee. How precious to me are they thoughts, O God! (Job 139:7–12, 17).

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary, his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40: 28–31).

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of the present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace, besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that utterance may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:11–19).

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.

This was the theme of my doctoral dissertation at Cambridge University: kenosis—Christ, the second Person of the Godhead, emptying Himself into the body of Jesus at His baptism in the River Jordon. This is not only Christ’s sacrifice but also that of God the Father, who allowed His only begotten Son to be crucified. Let those who ever doubt the love of God for a fallen humanity dwell on this.

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father...Therefore work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:5–12).

Pandemonium is the capital of hell, Lucifer’s abode. Man cannot understand pure evil because at the core of even the most immoral man, there lies the faintest measure of good. God, being God, cannot create evil. But by the gift of free will, to man and the angels, evil came into the world. After the war in heaven came the fall of the darkened angels, one-third of the heavenly host. The shining archangel Lucifer became Satan, the prince of hell. Grimorium Verum.

In the book Cain by James Huggins, to which some of these references refer, Cain is Satan himself, who draws upon multigenerational families devoted to Satan and the other fallen angels. In Rudolf Steiner’s Christology, this brings us back to Satan/Ahriman, who will incarnate in the west at the end times. Against such a compilation of evil stand the angels of light, Michael and the heavenly hosts. We do not stand alone. For through Christ and the light of the Holy Spirit, even such powers of darkness may yet be turned to the light. But don’t hold your breath!

The genius of a great thought is measured by its simplicity.

Faith is all I have. I cannot live without it. I have been to the desert and returned, as all of us must. Logic is merely the beginning in the search for truth, but logic, forever, will end at faith. It’s a long journey from faith to faith. From believing to disbelieving, and believing again—separating the known from the unknowable, and accepting.

Do not despise the day of small things.

THE NATURAL ORDER

DIAGRAMS_NAT%20ORDER.jpg

THE SPIRIT OF ’76

O ver two hundred years ago this nation gave b irth

To a new light of freedom for all the earth

Where liberty and justice worked hand in hand

And the dream of brotherhood filled the land

T his country was founded upon tumult and toil,

Wrenched from wilderness and blood-soaked soil

A land with resources from eons dating

A land with spirit, primeval and waiting

F rom the spirit of nature and the spirit of man

Merged a chosen people to fulfill God’s plan

They forged the framework of the Constitution

A foundation of strength and resolution

B ut behind this structure that man perce ived

Lay a Natural Order the mind of God conceived

Where the arts and sciences, philosophy and religion

Provided wealth and equity, justice, and wisdom

M an’s energies applied to his duties and ri ghts

To help build this nation to ever new heights

Government, education production, distribution

These were the means to a more perfect union

W hen held in balance those forces conta ined

Both purity and power perpetually sustained

An endless source of wisdom and strength

Infused this land, its breadth and its length

B ut over the decades this vision has f aded

Not by alien foes was this nation invaded

Nor by myths and specters of the mind conjured

By a slipping of spirit, of purpose obscured

T he freedom to live and the freedom to ch oose

Was confused by the freedom to decry and abuse

The priceless became common, familiarity brings

Contempt and preoccupation with trivial things

T here is no such thing as the land of the free

If its people have lost their responsibility

If it fails to discern between evil and good

Those issues upon which our nation first stood

T ime and again it seems so much is in d oubt

The institutions we revered in a state of rout

Pragmatic formulas without a moral equation

Reduce man to a number with no true valuation

T o compromise essence, to debate away ri ghts

Leads to darker days and still darker nights

Above all there must lie the essential distinction

Between evil and good, irreconcilable contradiction

W e need a spiritual and moral regenera tion

To once again kindle in the heart of this nation

The fire and strength found in toil and tears

That held fast this land over two hundred years

S trife and confusion, suppression, delu sion

When mixed in the heat of man’s resolution

Temper that steel from which greatness is born

Forging link upon link to weather the storm

T his is not just your land or my land to know

It belongs to all who make it prosper and grow

Those who nurture that oneness as best they can

Each freely bound in service to his fellow man

I n all of our dealings whatever the af fair

We must look to balance to avoid despair

All is interwoven in the cloth of the state

No act is isolated, whether small or great

F or each one of us is a single st rand

Within the vast fabric that is our land

As each of us thinks and each of us acts

So swells this nation or so it contracts

W hat we as a country would endeavor t o be

Is no more than a projection of you and me

That spirit which binds us to a common cause

Uniting God and man through its natural laws

W e have but one purpose, to evolve and grow

To that end it is vital that we come to know

When a nation unites with its source of power

It manifests that source as its finest hour

F or that which we were we still are if we see

One nation, born in spirit, in spirit set free

A diverse people with but a single face

A land blessed by God and touched with grace

ALZHEIMER’S

I would have you remember, my darling

As darkness approaches and memory dims

That image of hope caught up in the words

Of Albert Camus, that you so loved and taught

Those bright young minds that defined your life:

"G reat ideas sometimes slip into the world as gently as d oves,"

That beyond the tumult and the striving

Of lives and nations and fading thoughts,

There lies, enshrined in light eternal,

An all transforming love

A s you struggle in that battle of polar oppos ites:

Clarity and confusion

Cognition and incoherence

Intellect and indifference

R emember, my precious one

You are never alone

But borne up by the soft flutter of wings

In beauty, power, and supernal love

O LIGHT ETERNAL

From the Divine Comedy: Paradiso

DANTE

O Light Eternal, who in thyself alone

Dwell’st and thyself know’st, and self-understood,

Self-understanding, smilest on thine own!

That circle which, as I conceived it, glowed

Within thee like reflection of a flame,

Being by my eyes a little longer wooed,

Deep in itself, with color still the same,

Seemed with our human effigy to fill,

Wherefore absorbed in it my sight became.

As a geometer who bends all his will

To measure the circle, and howso’er he try

Fails, for the principle escapes him still,

Such as this mystery new-disclosed was I,

Fain to understand how the image doth alight

Upon the circle, and with its form comply.

But these my wings were fledged not for that flight.

Save that my mind a sudden glory assailed

And its wish came revealed to it in that light.

To the high imagination force now failed;

But