Martinus

Martinus lived in Denmark from 1890 to 1981 and had an opening in 1921, which he describes in terms of becoming his own source of light and as a cosmic baptism of fire. He recorded his observations in a series of books over the next 60 years. This book is a translation of Volume 5 of his main work. For the general reader unfamiliar with his work, it would have been useful to have an introduction and also some kind of description on the back cover. The book plunges straight in at Chapter 14 with a densely expressed cosmology. It is impossible to cover more than a few points in a brief review, but two things struck me: first, that the world structure is pure wisdom and love (as in Swedenborg and Deunov) expressing life and that all manifestation and matter constitutes stages in a cycle: 'this cycle is entirely a mental movement from darkness to light, and from light to darkness, and from darkness back again to light, and so on continuously' (p. 43). This reminded me of a corresponding thought in Walter Russell with the continuous process of unfolding and refolding, radiation and gravity. Then there are some pertinent observations on morality and sexuality and the corresponding evolution of the human towards the more integrated types J and Christed K. This embodies the highest fire or sexual energy/bliss and light. At this level, the sexual organs 'are the very sensory instruments for the beings giving and receiving sympathy or for the creation of nothing less than the very highest physical and spiritual union or fusion of two beings' feeling of life into one common feeling. Here spirit merges with spirit… and they are one with God (p. 304). This is a true mystical sexuality rarely expressed in the West, but also with resonances to Swedenborg's ideas on conjugial love.