Samael Aun Weor

Samael Aun Weor (סמאל און ואור; March 6, 1917 – December 24, 1977), born Víctor Manuel Gómez Rodríguez, was a teacher and author of over sixty books of esoteric spirituality.

He formed a prominent movement which he formed under the banner of "Universal Gnosticism", or simply gnosis.

A prolific author, Gómez believed himself to be the second coming of Christ and the messiah of the Aquarian Age.

Few details of his life are known between the mid-1930s and 1950.

He became a spiritual vagabond of sorts, traveling with neither home nor income.

At one point he said he had lived with a tribe of indigenous people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in northern Colombia, learning the healing secrets which would later form the foundation of his medical treatise, Occult Medicine and Practical Magic.

It was also during these years that he described his first experience of the Illuminating Void meeting his "Inner Being" or Atman whose name is "Aun Weor", meaning in Hebrew "Strength and Light".

He was briefly married to Sara Dueños and they had a son named "Imperator".

However, in 1946, he met and married the Lady-Adept "Litelantes" (born Arnolda Garro Mora) with whom he lived for 31 years and had four children: Osiris, Isis, Iris, and Hypatia.

Samael Aun Weor explains that as soon as he met her, this "Lady-Adept" Genie began to instruct him in the Science of Jinnestan or Jinn State also known as Djinn State or Djinnestan, which involved placing the physical body in the fourth dimension.

In Aztec religion this practice is known as Nahuatlism, and according to Aun Weor it is related with hyperspace.

Following his self-described "awakening" or "initiation" in 1948, Gómez started calling himself Aun Weor, which according to his own words would mean "the verb or messenger of God."

By 1948 he had started teaching a small group of students.

In 1950, under the name "Aun Weor", he managed to publish The Perfect Matrimony, or The Door to Enter into Initiation with the help of his close disciples.

The book, later entitled The Perfect Matrimony, unveiled the secret of sexuality as the cornerstone of the world's great religions.

In it he addressed topics such as sexual transmutation, "white tantra", and esoteric initiation.

According to his diary, writing about sex in such a candid manner was met with disdain by the majority of the public at the time.

Seen as immoral and pornographic, Aun Weor found himself fleeing angry mobs attempting to silence him through violent means.

From March 14 to 19 of 1952 Aun Weor spent five days in jail for "committing the crime of healing the sick".

) The account of his incarceration is recounted in a personal diary he later published as Secret Notes of a Guru.

After March 19, 1952, Aun Weor and some disciples built and lived near the Summum Supremum Sanctuarium, an "underground temple" in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia.

In 1954, after undergoing a ceremony he described as the birth of "Inner Christ," he adopted the name of Samael Aun Weor, which he used until his death in 1977.

Samael Aun Weor referred to his teachings as "The Doctrine of Synthesis", which not only emphasizes the existence of the perennial philosophy, but that its highest teleological function is the accomplishment of "Christification" and "Final Liberation".

Victor Manuel Gómez Rodriguez was born in Bogotá, Cundinamarca, Republic of Colombia, son of Manuel Gómez Quijano and Francisca Rodríguez de Gómez.

He was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, but later rejected the Church of Rome.

His childhood and family life are not well known, except that he had a brother, and his father remarried after a divorce.

He was sent to a Roman Catholic Jesuit school but soon dropped out, disappointed by religion; he was twelve years old at the time.

Instead he said he invested most of his time in the study of metaphysical and esoteric treatises.

At the age of 17, 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.).

On October 27, 1954, Aun Weor received what is referred to as the "Initiation of Tiphereth", which, according to his doctrine, is the beginning of the incarnation of the Logos or "Glorian" within the soul.

He states that in his case the name of his Glorian has always been called "Samael" through the ages.

From then on, he would sign his name Samael Aun Weor.

Aun Weor stated that this union of Samael (the Logos) with Aun Weor (the human soul) is the Maitreya Buddha Kalki Avatar of the New Age of Aquarius.

Upon being asked exactly what such a title meant, he replied:

"A messenger or avatar, in the most complete sense of the word, is a courier, a man who delivers a message, a servant or maid of the Great Work. So, the word avatar must not fall into misinterpretations, it must be specified with complete clarity. I am, therefore, a servant or crew member, or messenger who delivers a message. Some time ago I said that I am a cosmic mailman, since I am giving the content of a cosmic letter. Therefore, my beloved brethren, the word avatar must never lead us to arrogance, since it only means nothing other than an emissary, a servant, a crew member who gives a message, an epistle, and that is all. In regard to Buddha Maitreya, we must analyze these two words a little in order not to fall into misinterpretations. The Innermost-Buddha in itself is the real Being, the Innermost of each one of us. Thus, when the Innermost or the real Being of somebody has attained its proper intimate Self-realization, then he is declared a Buddha.

However, the term Maitreya is individual and collective; thus, from the individual point of view, it represents a teacher whose name is Maitreya, but from the collective point of view Buddha Maitreya must be understood—in the most complete sense of the word—as any initiate who has managed to Christify himself, and that is all."

Although he would declare himself as the true Kalki Avatar many times throughout his works, he also cleverly and regularly rejected the cult of his personality despite definitively having founded a cult:

"I, Samael, am not in need of henchmen or followers, but only imitators of my doctrine: Gnosis. I do not follow anyone, nor do I want anyone to follow me. What I want is for each one of you to follow his own Self. I am only a lighthouse in the sea of existence, and I do not need clientele in order to subsist. Since I am against the slavery of souls, I do not want to enslave any soul, nor do I agree with executioners of ideals. Masters exist in abundance, and I am only one of many; thus, those who want to find the Masters will find them inside, within the profundities of their own inner consciousness."

He first made a name in the early gnostic movement in his native country of Colombia, before moving to Mexico in 1956, where his movement gained increased popularity, and his works became popular among practitioners of occultism and esotericism, and were translated into other languages.

In 1956, he left Colombia and went to Costa Rica and El Salvador.