Samael Aun Weor: Encyclopedia II - Samael Aun Weor - Life

Samael Aun Weor - Life

"Samael Aun Weor" was born Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez in Bogotá, Colombia. His childhood and family life are not well known, except that he had a brother, and his father remarried after a divorce.

In his autobiographical work The Three Mountains, Samael recounts the ways in which he had already assimilated into his understanding a vast amount of esoteric and occult knowledge before reaching adulthood. He states that because he was born with an awakened consciousness, he recapitulated his practise of meditation and was analyzing previous incarnations before mastering how to walk (Weor 2003).

At the age of seventeen, he was asked to lecture at the local Theosophical Chapter, and a year later was admitted into the occult society Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua (F.R.A.). While a student in the F.R.A., Samael methodically studied the entire Rosicrucian library, expanding his intellectual culture and seeking out the secret path of true religion. It was here that Samael was secretly taught the "Great Arcanum," or White Sexual Magic, the profoundly veiled sexual key which, according the occult sciences, underpins all of the world's great religions (Weor 2003).

A period of historical obscurity ensues between the mid-1930s and 1950. Admittedly recapitulating some of the bygone events of his former incarnations, he became a spiritual vagabond of sorts, travelling with neither home nor income. While exploring the regions of Central America, he encounters a secluded tribe of indigenous peoples called (the “Mamas”) of the Sierra Nevada. Invited to live with them, he recruits a vast wisdom of ancient indigenous medical practises which will later form the foundation of his medical treatise, Occult Medicine & Practical Magic(Weor 2004a). It was also during these years that he claimed to have had his first experience of the Illuminating Void where he first met his “Inner Being”, or Atman whose name is “Aun Weor”.

In The Revolution of Beelzebub (1950), Samael Aun Weor announced himself the White Rider of the New Testament's Book of Revelation, whose name is the “Word of God.” He explained “Aun Weor” in the following way: "The name of my Real Being is hidden within the name “Word of God” because the Bible is highly symbolic. God is represented with the monosyllable “Aun” or “Aum.” Word or Verb is within “Weor,” which is pronounced Veor, so the W is the V sound. This W together with the remaining three letters (e-r-o) of Verb and Word form “Weor.” Thus, we have the name Aun Weor (Aum Weor, Aum Word, God Word) hidden within the phrase “Word of God (Weor 2001b).”"

Although he was briefly married once before, in the late 1940's he meets “Litelantes” (born Arnolda Garro Mora), who, during their thirty five years of marriage together, becomes his esoteric collaborator and mother to three children.

Samael began teaching by 1948, and in 1950, now going by the name Aun Weor, he managed to publish "The Perfect Matrimony of Kinder" (or The Door to Enter into Initiation) with the aid of a few close disciples. The book, later entitled The Perfect Matrimony, unveiled the secret of sexuality as the cornerstone of the world's great religions. Speaking in such a frank manner about sex was met with disdain upon the majority of the public at the time. Seen as immoral and pornographic, Aun Weor often found himself fleeing angry mobs wishing to silence him by whatever means necessary. He was incarcerated numerous times, at least once for “healing the sick without permission.” While in jail, however, he continued to write books. Aun Weor and his small but growing number of disciples also build the Sumum Supremum Sanctuarium, an “underground temple” in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

By the mid-1950s, Aun Weor had become Samael Aun Weor, stating that by choosing the “Straight Path” he (Aun Weor) had begun to incarnate his particular Glorian or Logos (Samael). Later, in The Aquarian Message, he stated that “the Maitreya Buddha Samael is the Kalki Avatar of the New Age.” The Kalkian Avatar and Maitreya Buddha, he claimed, are the same “White Rider” of the book of Revelation (Weor 2004b). Noting that the name Samael has historically been synonymous with a demonic connotation, such as “blind God,” he claimed that in previous incarnations he was a “fallen Bodhisattva” or a fallen angel, who has since repented. Furthermore, he claimed to be the superior teacher prophesied by both Rudolf Steiner and H. P. Blatavasky.

Before 1960, he had published twenty more books with topics ranging from Endocrinology and Criminology to Kundalini Yoga. Gnostic centers in Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, and Costa Rica were also established, and the Gnostic Association for Anthropological, Cultural, and Scientific Studies (AGEAC) was founded. A “triangle” relationship formed between the World Gnostic Movement founded by Samael Aun Weor, the South American Liberation Action (AGLA) headed by Francisco Propato in Argentina, and the Sivananda Aryabarta Ahsram directed by Swami Sivananda in India (Weor 2004b). Nevertheless, the development of the Gnostic Movement was not without dramatic setbacks. At the time of the publishing of the revised edition of The Perfect Matrimony (1961), the movement had fallen apart. Samael Aun Weor wrote, "those who did not leave the Gnostic Movement can be counted on the fingers of one hand" (Weor 2001a). However by the time of his death, Samael Aun Weor had completely restablished the broad international reaches the movement previously held.

Into the 1960's, he continued to write many books on esoteric topics, such as Hermetic Astrology, Flying Saucers, the Kabbalah, etc. However, he also wrote sociopolitical works such as Platform of POSCLA (Latin-American Christian Socialist Party), which attacks Marxism-Leninism and any other aspect of “Materialistic Atheism.”

In what was to be the last decade of his life, he penned such works as Parsifal Unveiled, which details the esoteric symbolism of the Wanger opera, Gnostic Anthropology in which he heavily criticizes the theories of Darwin, Haeckel, “and their henchmen.” The books The Great Rebellion, Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology, and The Revolution of the Dialectic provide a ground work for the vast knowledge of esoteric psychology found rooted in every religion.

Although he never actually received any income from his books, at the 1976 "Gnostic Congress" Samael Aun Weor publicly renounced all his copyrights in an effort to help the books he wrote become more widely available. During this time he was preparing the highest vehicle of his doctrine, "The Pistis Sophia Unveiled," in which he meditated, verse by verse, upon the extremely esoteric Gnostic text The Pistis Sophia. By August 1977 he had developed stomach cancer, but he continued to inspire not only his students but the general public with remarkably uncanny oration, giving radio and television interviews throughout tours of Mexico. Eventually he was forced to stop due to the debilitating stomach pain he encountered, and his condition steadily worsened until his death on December 24, 1977. He was survived by his wife and children.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Life", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki