Samael Aun Weor: His Life and Work

We have studied archeological artefacts, we have profoundly investigated codices, we have analyzed the Wisdom of ancient civilizations, we have performed comparative studies between Mexico, Egypt, India, Tibet, Greece… and we have come to the conclusion that the Universal Wisdom is always the same; only the diverse representations change, according to the peoples, nations and languages. -Samael Aun Weor

                                                                 

Samael Aun Weor was an anthropologist, humanist, author and contemporary lecturer who, in the last century, had a considerable impact on the historical evolution of Gnosis. 

This is primarily due to two reasons: firstly because he demonstrated, in an intelligible and systematic fashion, through a body of work that exceeds more than 60 books and hundreds of conferences, the uniqueness of the metaphysical knowledge he was unveiling (knowledge that edified all of the past civilizations, that was the source of all religions, and that all the pioneers of the movements and authentic schools had used to inspire throughout the centuries). Secondly, because his work is invigorated by a well-articulated, practical didactic method, based on his own personal experiences, and thus inviting the aspirant to experiment for themselves the postulates of the teachings.

Samael Aun Weor was certainly not the first modern seeker to abound in this universal approach of Knowledge and its applications – let us note here for example such names as Mircea Eliade, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Max Heindel, Carl Gustav Jung, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff and Sri Ramakrishna. But we can say that in our time, his work and experience stands out amidst their wide scope, their depth and conceptual clarity.

Born on the 6th of March, 1917 in Bogota, Columbia, Samael Aun Weor began early on in life to demonstrate a particular interest in the quest towards the spiritual. Like many great mystics throughout history, he experienced unusual states at an early age through which he witnessed certain universal truths. Furthermore, he claimed to be born with the particular faculty of astral projection, which permitted him throughout his life to directly investigate the great metaphysical questions and to verify the affirmations of the ancient peoples and religions on the spiritual world and what exists there. Thus, he sheds a particular light on a large number of questions that have remained in suspense to this day. 

Having left his parents’ home in his early adolescence, he started traveling, always in search of his path. His research brought him, among other things, to the Theosophical Society of Blavatsky at the age of 17, and to the Ancient Rosicrucian school of Krumm-Heller at 18, where he became aware of the works of numerous authors, including the sacred scriptures of the diverse religions, ancient and modern. Anthropology, science, philosophy, spirituality, esotericism, yoga, theurgy, theology, comparative studies… he read an impressive quantity of books and taught himself via the inherited knowledge of his predecessors.

Practically speaking, his studies brought him to obtain interesting results, but he eventually grew tired of theory. At the age of 19, still driven by an insatiable thirst for enlightenment and truth, he withdrew to seek, as he called it, “the inner Master” through deep meditation…

An important fact is that it was at Krumm-Heller’s school that he heard talk of white tantrism, or super-sexuality; a well-kept secret throughout the ages that’s goal is to awaken the “Kundalini”. He later came to call it the Great Arcanum, or Sexual Magic, and he publicly unveiled it.

At 28, Samael Aun Weor met Arnolda Garro, the woman who became his spouse and with whom he would spend the rest of his life. 

With a desire to share his knowledge and growing experience, he began to teach the local population of the Andes in Columbia where he lived. Thanks to his knowledge of healing plants, he also carried out a great deal of healings. It was during this epoch that he wrote his first books. 

In 1954, at the age of 37, he left Colombia on foot in direction of Mexico, and settled down in the capital. Having already left behind him, from Columbia and Venezuela to Mexico, a considerable number of disciples and adepts seized by his knowledge and by his wide range of faculties, it is in Mexico City that he would come to actualize his impressive body of work, found the International Gnostic Movement, and become known the world over. It is also here that he disincarnated in 1977. 

Samael Aun Weor lived primarily off of public charity during his entire life. Because he always taught free of charge and voluntarily abandoned his royalties to his books so that, as he said, even the poorest may have access to his writings, he himself often experienced poverty. At the end of his life, he even refused a monthly salary offered to him by the members of the Movement. 

Samael Aun Weor also refused all forms of personal gratification throughout his life work. He advised those who attempted to glorify him to better apply themselves to the inner work, rather than wasting their time on vainly exalting his person. In this sense, he retransmitted an impersonal message, that has always existed and that was not invented by him, in the image of other messengers who transmitted it before him. 

This message is based on what he calls, “the three factors of the revolution of the consciousness”, and that can be summarized thusly:

• Psychological Death: to profoundly change our psychology by auto-discovery, auto-observation, and the annihilation of our defects, in order to awaken the Consciousness and the virtues. 
• Birth in Spirit: to develop the supernatural faculties of the soul through meditation, devotion and white tantrism, and thus crystalize the superior bodies and incarnate the most divine part of us. 
• Self-Sacrifice: to love and to help our fellow humans and to retransmit the universal teachings as well as perform charitable acts. 

Today, the work of Samael Aun Weor has been translated into several different languages, and we can find numerous subsidiaries and ramifications of the Gnostic Movement on each of the continents. 

**For more information, please take a look at : gnosis-mgi.org**