Summary: Lecture quote: "Amongst all of the most basic aspects of the existence of humanity, the most fundamental unit in our social fabric is the marriage between a man and a wife. It is the union of male and female which provides the opportunity for the arising of life as we know it, and yet in this time, in these days, the sacred nature of the relationship between man and wife has been forgotten. It seems that in these days, the relationship between man and woman has become a game, a plaything, a little thing, something without gravity, and yet if you examine the very nature of society, the very nature of each individual life, we find that without the beauty and inherent necessity of the relationship between man and woman, none of these things would exist. It is no accident that when we study Gnosis, our fundamental concern, our primary point of issue, is precisely the relationship between man and woman. This is because not only do we find all of our social and individual needs arise out of the relationship of man and wife, but also all of our spiritual needs, because, as we know, âas above, so below.â With the recognition of the necessity of man and woman for the development of our social, political and family existence, we find that the relationship between man and woman is also necessary for our spiritual existence. The Arcanum 19 is the Arcanum of the alliance. It is also called Inspiration. This term "alliance" has a number of meanings, but in the immediate sense, it is obviously the alliance between a man and a woman, between husband and wife, and in Gnosis, in Gnosticism, we have this term, this phrase, The Perfect Matrimony, which of course is the title of the first book written by Samael Aun Weor. This book has the subtitle, "The Door to Enter into Initiation", and this is because the marriage, or the alliance between man and woman, is the very door to Eden, the door to heaven, the door out of suffering. So, in the Arcanum 19, we see the ideal couple, the perfect matrimony, the equilibrium, the balance between the two halves, the male and the female. The Gnostic student has as a goal the achievement of the perfect matrimony, the arrival at the development of the perfect matrimony, and it is easy for the student to assume that one begins with the perfect matrimony, but that is not the case. We begin with what we have. We begin where we are. The perfect matrimony is something that has to be developed, something that we have to aspire towards. That is part of the reason this card is called "Inspiration."
