Spiritual Symbols and Traditional Paths

This is something fundamental. In the spiritual aspect, it is very important to distinguish between the paths that are subjective and those that are usable for us. They are not necessarily objective, but at least they should be usable for us. For what purpose? To reach a spiritual state, it is possible to use many different paths. It is not necessary, there is not just one single path. To reach a specific point in the cosmos, it is possible to use various paths. As we said, it is like the circle with a central point: the truth is one and the paths that lead to this truth are many, but some of these paths that were realized by some geniuses of antiquity are simply useful for them. A very important case is that of John Dee, for example. He was an English mathematician who began to conduct ultraphanic sessions, that is, calling angels. He went to Germany, found a very ancient German tradition and when he returned to England, he found a medium, this Edward Kelley, and with him he began, through a crystal, a specific mediumistic session, beginning to list those he called angelic entities, that is, the angels and using a whole way of his, a method of his that perhaps could have been - for him it was effectively, perhaps, we are not certain. But for all the others who were not him and who used his path, generally they all ended up in madness. Because, it depends: if you don't have the same mentality, the same experiences, the same meanings, then you cannot always repeat what another person did, with another mentality, in another time. Therefore, these are subjective symbols, totally subjective. Another case are the collective symbols, that is, those that possess a form of universality. They are not simply from someone who invented them, but they possess a more or less partial validity, and, for example, we can also think of symbols of ancient cultures; like, Ancient Egypt has here partially - ancient Egypt mixed eternal traditional symbols, besides other symbols that, by chance, were useful for the mentality of that epoch. If we had to use the same symbols they would not lead us anywhere. It would be something totally useless. Different symbols and those that for us are traditional, symbols that for us are more important, are traditional symbols. What is meant by traditional symbols? It is not meant ancient symbols. Traditional means transmitted, that is, they are symbols whose construction is only partially human. That is, we said (...) let's say this: the symbol translates forces and forms. If behind the symbol there is gnosis, that is, primordial wisdom - let's say that we have God, gnosis, that is total wisdom - if behind the symbol there is gnosis, that is, this primordial wisdom, this symbol is called a traditional symbol. Although it is made by someone at a specific time, this someone has a mentality so perfect and so adherent to the divine mentality that he managed to translate into a form, into a symbol, into an image, he managed to translate and link to this symbol this gnosis, that is, either force or primordial wisdom. In this case, the symbol is called traditional because it is part of tradition, that is, of transmission, something that was transmitted to men, essentially, from divine will. This is a definition, this one of traditional symbols that is very important because if I do meditation on the subjective symbol created by William Blake, the force that I will find behind the symbol will be the force of William Blake, who may be a great poet, but is not Christ, is not God. On the contrary, if I use traditional symbols, then, behind these symbols there is the same tradition, that is, gnosis. Question - Can you give an example? - Let's make several examples. Question - But can they also be collective, or not? - Yes, they can be collective. In collective symbols, we can put, for example, the flag of Portugal. It is a collective symbol, but it is not a traditional symbol and this does not mean that (...) it is a collective symbol, it has power, it is a force, it is not subjective. It is objective and it even has a force, but it is not in this line, in this line of traditional symbols. Therefore, if you do meditation on the flag of Portugal, you will become a great patriot and embody the perfect Portuguese.