Retracing Steps

2009-4-10 00:21:00

Originally Ruth made comments in an off-topic post in which she stated:

"A few questions for you Dan, on Prophets and Masters, so I can understand why JS [Joseph Smith] was NOT a Master:

"Firstly, why do you believe that JS was NOT a Master?"

In response to the above, JJ Dewey responded on 04-10-2009 with message number 40764 in which he said:

"Let me clarify. In the past I have taught that Joseph definitely passed the third initiation but failed the fourth when he refused to go west and escape with his life. It is possible he made it farther in past lives but, whatever the case, to become a master he would have to come back and pass the fourth and fifth initiations."

Following the above, Ruth then asked additional questions which are responded to by JJ Dewey below in a post entitled "Retracing Steps" from which the rest of this article was taken:

Ruth:

"So if he had been a Master thousands and thousands of lifetimes ago, he would still have to keep repeating these initiations over and over, to be a Master again in this lifetime?

JJ:

We might have all been masters in a past universe, but the fact is that when anyone incarnates as a baby he has to start at point zero and move in miniature through all past progression in this system.

Ruth:

"How do we know for sure then that he wasn't a Master or one of the Gods who came here before he was Moses?

JJ:

How do you know that you were not? We have to judge ourselves and others by what they are now and not in their last life.

We know that Moses was at least a third degree initiate for his body glowed like the Sun when he came down from the mountain. It is possible that obedience to the command to not enter the land of Canaan was his fourth. Since he did receive some major revelations for mankind, lived to be 120 years in good health and no one could find his body at his death it is quite possible he did achieve the fifth initiation and became a master.

Ruth:

"Is this because of the personality body? Let's say, for example, Moses was a Master, but when he reincarnated as JS or whomever, his personality body was slightly different or altered, so he would have to re Master his personality body all over again.

JJ:

It is more because of the loss of memory when we are born again. This involves more than loss of data in the physical brain but a loss of instinctual reaction that is built into our bodies and loss of most emotional memories in the astral body. The main thing we take with us is our native intelligence.

Ruth:

"Although it seems here that once you have passed these initiations and become a Master, then you are always a Master, even though every time you reincarnate on Earth in a physical body you have to undergo all your passed initiations again but on a mini scale.

JJ:

Let me give an imperfect analogy.

A person may go to a foreign country (France) for a few years and master the language so he is conversant in it. Then he comes home for 20 years and never speaks it. After this period of time he finds he is rusty and when he reads a French article or meets a French person he finds that he is amazed at how much he has forgotten. There are a lot of words he doesn't understand anymore.

Then he has to take another extended visit to France with his wife who has never spoken French. He then finds he is able to again master the French language much faster than his wife, up to the skill he had in his past visit. After that is reached his progress is no faster than his wife's.

I say this is imperfect because there are no points of tension such as the initiations in learning a language. These points can even stop a master in his tracks, but overall he will have an easier time than a novice because he has been there before. Intense, uncomfortable and sometimes painful experiences are involved in the initiations and we never get completely used to them. One person who has had a lot of pain may not fear it as much as a person who has not had it, but it is still a barrier to be transcended.

Ruth:

"So in reality, if he was a Master before he came to Earth, then he would still be a Master now, and as you are not pointing in that direction, then apparently he is not a Master and was never a Master?

JJ:

If a person was a master in the past and is reborn then he is no longer a master until he passes through the necessary steps.