Publications
Quest for the Soul (2004), The Soul and Its Destiny (2004), Christianity: the One, the Many (2 vols., 2007), The Sacramental Church (2011), and Mary: Adept, Queen, Mother, Priestess (2021, see below).
Mary: Adept, Queen, Mother, Priestess
The nature, life and work of Mary, mother of Jesus, Queen of Heaven, Mother of the World, and senior Adept
in the Planetary Hierarchy. Topics include Mary in Scripture, Mary in the visions of stigmatic Anne Catherine Emmerich, Mary
in early church writings, Mary in Christian doctrine and devotion, Mary in apparitions and esoteric teachings, Mary (quite
literally) as Queen of the Angels, and Mary as Priestess at the foot of the Cross and in the restored Mysteries of the
Aquarian Age.
For more information
Journal Articles and Other Publications
Journal articles, papers, book reviews, and miscellaneous items on esoteric and religious topics.
Refereed articles include: "The Solar Angel," "Sanat Kumara," "The Seven Rays: A Case Study in the Dissemination of Esoteric Knowledge,"
"Abraham Abulafia and the Ecstatic Kabbalah," "Mary, Blessed Virgin and World Mother," "The Etheric Body," "Theosis: a Christian
Perspective on Human Destiny," "Musical Harmony, Mathematics and Esotericism" (with Celeste Jamerson), "Prayer and Meditation in
Christian Mysticism," "Occult Orders in Western Esotericism," "God, Humanity, and the Universe," "Opportunities and Challenges of Christian
Esotericism," Adept, Queen, Mother, Priestess: Mary in the Writings of Geoffrey Hodson." and "The Feminine Face of God in Judaism and
Christianity."
Among the short papers are several in the series "Great Esotericists of the Past". They include Anna Kingsford, Tallapragada Subba Row,
Arthur Waite, and Geiffrey Hodson. The most recent is Theosophist and composer Cyril Scott.
Miscellaneous items include book reviews and sermons. One of the most important books reviewed was Sensa: The Lost Language of the
Ancient Mysteries, by Dorje Jinpa. The most recent was Conversations with Mary: Messages of Love, Healing, Hope, and Unity for
Everyone, by Anna Raimondi. Sermons include August 16, 2020: Sunday within the octave of the Dormition of Mary.
Handouts of a course on the Kabbalah developed for the School for Esoteric Studies.
The Author
Biographical sketch and personal reflections
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Participate in daily recitation of the Great Invocation.
Selected Quotes
We have grown tired of self-serving materialism and tired of separateness. At every step, the dim memory of a higher reality and our intrinsic oneness
gnawed at us—and to a great extent still does—urging us to take the next step forward in the evolution of human consciousness. Yes, we are unique, and we
can stand on our own feet. But we also want to connect: to be loved and to love. We sense the possibility and the need for a better world in which people
live together in a spirit of caring and sharing. What we are only now discovering is that the inner stirring is the response to the call of the angelic
presence within us. The solar angel has been waiting patiently, from lifetime to lifetime, for us to wake up to its existence. As we acknowledge the angel’s
presence and enter into dialog with it, our human soul awakens too. With this awakening we are urged forward on the path of aspiration and then onto the path
of discipleship. Our destiny is to serve. [The Soul and Its Destiny, 2004.]
Anglo-Catholicism emphasizes God’s transcendence and the profound mystery of Christ’s birth, transfiguration, death, and resurrection. The resurrection, in
the words of Richard Benson, was “the beginning of a new Creation, the exaltation of man’s nature to a region of spiritual power that is altogether new . . .
The whole human being of our Lord Jesus was glorified by the Resurrection.” However, Anglo-Catholicism affirms that the gulf between us and the transcendent
God is bridged by the incarnation, by Mary Theotokos, by the angelic hosts, by the visible church, and by the sacraments. As Bishop Grafton declared:
“[The Church] had Christ for its Founder, the Apostles for its authorized Ministers, the Sacraments for its means of grace . . . It was a spiritual living
Organism, through which Christ, ever present in it, acted. An Organism in which the Holy Ghost dwelt. An Organism by whose Ministry and Sacraments the life and
light of Christ was conveyed to individuals. An Organism which was to be eternal and was to be the Bride of Christ.” [The Sacramental Church, 2011.]
Sacramental ritual expresses spirituality through symbolism, beauty and drama, all of which influence the human psyche on multiple levels. Attempts
to explain the mechanisms underlying sacramental efficacy confront the basic fact that the sacraments are mysteries that transcend human understanding.
Nevertheless, valuable insights are provided by theories that involve the etheric subplanes and the role of devic entities. The etheric subplanes—which
deserve more detailed study by esotericists and particularly by religious philosophers—provide a clearinghouse for energy flowing to and from the
physical plane. One source of beneficial energy, or possibly its destination, is the buddhic plane, which we recall is the fourth cosmic ether.
["The Christian Sacraments: Significance, Relevance and Power," The Esoteric Quarterly, Summer 2012.]
French nobleman Saint-Martin (1743–1803) was an initiate in the Elect Cohens. During magical rituals he sensed the presence of various entities and received
communications from them: “[C]ommunications of all kinds were numerous and frequent, in which I had my share,” and there was every indication that Christ was
present. Yet Saint-Martin was suspicious of “the forms which showed themselves to me.” “[U]nless things come from the Center itself,” he continued, “I do not
give them my confidence.” Eventually, he distanced himself from the Elect Cohens and from magical rituals to promote a strictly mystical form of Martinism.
In place of Pasqually’s “Divine Regenerator,” Saint-Martin spoke of the “Repairer of humanity.” ["Occult Orders in Western Esotericism," The Esoteric
Quarterly, Spring 2014.]
Sophia was almost entirely an archetypal figure; no suggestion has been made that she ever took physical incarnation. Yet writers from Theophilus of Antioch
to [Sergei] Bulgakov had no doubts that she was female. Sophia was rarely described as a virgin; but neither was any reproductive role projected onto her. Modern
feminist theologians have seen Sophia as the closest approximation to a Christian goddess, and a substantial literature has emerged in her support. Official
reinstatement into the Trinity seems unlikely, though some mainstream Christian authorities now refer to the Holy Spirit as “she.” ["A Study of Gender, Part 1:
Gender at the Human and Higher Levels," The Esoteric Quarterly, Fall 2017.]
Geoffrey Hodson recorded one of the most profound statements about the Lady Mary in 1978. The Master Polidorus urged him: “Consider the three Offices—Queen,
Priestess, and Mother of aspiring souls—the World Mother. Meditate upon the mystery of the deific Feminine Principle.” That statement forms the basis of our
story and the basis of Geoffrey Hodson’s relationship with the one to whom it refers. ["Adept, Queen, Mother, Priestess: Mary in the Writings of Geoffrey Hodson,"
[The Esoteric Quarterly, Winter 2019.]
Based on Blavatsky’s statement and citations to follow, a Creative Hierarchy can be defined as a group of Monads at a particular stage on their evolutionary
journey and active at a particular level of reality. “Activity,” in this context, refers to the awakening of consciousness, expression of creative potential,
and response to the evolutionary impulse. From this perspective we can compare the Hierarchies to classes of children in a school system. The American system
provides an appealing analogy because it is divided into twelve grades. Children in each grade have age-appropriate experiences and opportunities to learn
relevant lessons. If successful, they move up to the next grade. Using that analogy, we discover that humanity corresponds to children in but two grades. A
tiny fraction have graduated to fourth grade (nine-to-ten years of age). Nearly eight billion—the current world population—are in third grade (eight to nine),
for limited periods of time. The rest of the sixty billion are eligible for third grade but are waiting for positions to become available on a rotating basis.
All other grades in the school system are occupied by members of nonhuman lifestreams. ["The Creative Hierarchies," The Esoteric Quarterly, Fall 2019.]
Today there is growing awareness of the Feminine Face [of God] as expressed by Sophia and Mary, either separately or understood as a single entity. The “return of
Sophia” and what seems to be Mary’s initiative to reveal herself are seen as consequences of, but also as driving forces behind, the empowerment of women.
Esotericists emphasize that we are in transition from the patriarchy of the Piscean Age to the inclusiveness of the Aquarian Age. Accordingly, we can expect the
veil over the Feminine Face of God to be lifted further as we contemplate the human and heavenly realms. ["The Feminine Face of God in Judaism and Christianity," The Esoteric Quarterly, Fall 2020.]
Mary seems to have engaged in priestly activities during her ministry. Furthermore, and perhaps even more importantly, leading churchmen in later centuries
affirmed that her participation in the Sacrifice of the Cross established her as a priestess for all time. For example, French priest Julien Loriot (1633–1715)
declared: "Mary is a divine priestess, she is a great sacrificer who takes the place of all people and offers to God in their name the greatest and most worthy
sacrifice that has ever been offered, presenting to him his unique Son, so holy, so pure, so innocent, which makes St Epiphanius call her the priestess of our
religion .... Oh blessed virgin, you truly are the priestess of our religion; you have put together in one sacrifice, the most perfect sacrifice which the earth
has ever offered. Bishop Jean Nazlian, speaking at a Eucharistic congress at Lourdes: "Mary is also something greater than temples or tabernacles ... she is
priest .... A priest has the power to mystically produce the body of the Lord giving that body its sacramental form .... I allow myself to say that Mary is the
first to say Mass, by agreeing to the Incarnation and so preparing the victim ... Mary fulfils in advance the sacrifice of the cross by preparing what is required
for it .... More than any priest she can point at her crucified Son and say: 'This is my body!' Mary is therefore not a priest who does not share in the sacrifice,
but a priest who puts herself into the victim who is the heavenly bread." [Mary: Adept, Queen, Mother, Priestess (1/e), 2020.]
Mary has maintained surprising consistency in apparitions extending over a period of seven centuries. In multiple instances Mary appears as a young woman, in her
late teens or twenties. She has dark hair—though we do not hear of the auburn, or “reddish golden,” hair of the historical Mary. Her head is usually veiled, and she
wears flowing robes that fall to her feet. In a few cases her robes have been purely white, but more often she dresses in blue and white. Accessories may be of a
contrasting color, like pink or yellow. On special occasions she may wear golden robes and a crown. Witnesses to Marian apparitions frequently comment on Mary’s
beauty. After the eighteenth, and last, apparition at Lourdes. Bernadette Soubirous remarked: “I have never seen her [Mary] so beautiful before ... so lovely that,
when you have seen her once, you would willingly die to see her again!” The Medjugorje witnesses commented in a joint statement: “It is not our kind of beauty. It
is something ethereal, something heavenly, something that we’ll only see in Paradise.” One of them asked Mary, “How is it possible that you are so beautiful?” The
response was “I am beautiful because I love. If you want to be beautiful, then love.” [Mary: Adept, Queen, Mother, Priestess (1/e), 2020.]
Upon her arrival in the deva evolution Mary found orders of angels waiting to serve her commands. She now needs human disciples to help spread her message and to
make it a reality in the world of human affairs. Among the masters, Mary is perhaps in the enviable position of being able to draw upon a billion devotees around
the world, as well as many others for whom devotion may not be a natural instinct, to build a network of active disciples. Those who pledge themselves to her
service have a unique opportunity to serve alongside devic colleagues. Multiple esoteric teachers have predicted closer contacts between the devic and human
kingdoms in the Aquarian Age. [Mary: Adept, Queen, Mother, Priestess (1/e), 2020.]
Why Uriel?
When this website was created in 1997 the objective was to have a short URL address that people could easily memorize and
key in. A seach of avaiable addresses turned up uriel.com as a suitable choice. Uriel is one of the four archangels mentioned
in Christian, Hebrew, Kabbalistic and Islamic traditions. The word Uriel literally means "Fire of God," "Light of God," or
"Sun of God." Unexpedtedly, I soon found myself at the center of a Uriel cult; people started sending me images, poems,
prayers, and stories about Uriel and asking me to post them on the site. Perhaps I shall change the name one day. For the
moment, so many people know my website by this name that it seems appropriate to continue using uriel.com.