Death- 1991

IF the Lord reveals to you much beauty in life and sweet satisfaction thereof, why not in death also? From where does the babe spring from? Shall we commit our beloved and also our self, merely to dust?

Grief speaks to us of personal loss, but one need not grieve for those who have gone ahead of us. As on holiday, when one awakes to a new bed and glances all around, so saying:-

"Now I know where I am, for I am not in my bed back home. I have journeyed to where I shall best recuperate and invigorate.

"It is as a warm summer breeze coming through my sunlit window, carrying those fragrant echoes from that glorious garden which awaits my exploration. Down into meadow, through forest to crystal springs that flow - I can smell the sweet pasture, now the herb garden and now the fruit grove.

"I have returned to a favorite spot. I shall make many a new friend. The lines of tired years have dissolved, and a certain strength, a youthful excitement, runs through my being. I can move without effort! I am content and yet in quiet ecstasy, as so many worries I have had all around me are no longer with me. I am thrilled with the prospect of discovery.

"Ah yes, I had a dream whilst I slept. Curious it was, this dream that I held. May I peep through the window to remembrance? There were faces and places, and much goings-on. Just now in thinking of them, it is as though I hear certain voices a'calling.

"I can see the beautiful faces of my family as they are gathered in a crowded room. Yes there are others I know also, some I recognize and some I do not recognize. They are solemn today. Perhaps I shall look in tomorrow. But wait! I may hear their prayers, I hear their music. I can hold the flowers that they brought to me.

"That's it! This is an occasion, held in my honor. Oh dear God! I am startled, for I realize that this party is gathered for a funeral. A funeral for my death! I wish them well, these special people. I am sorry if I have caused them pain. I shall look in on them from time to time.

"I do not wish to forget; no I shall not forget - but isn't it strange how clearly I do perceive those events and those people? Goodness, I was one of those people! And that which I enjoyed, pales compared to that which I loved. But I know this place well. . . I have been here before; it's like home to me now.

"I wonder what is outside of that door. I wonder what I shall go on to find. I am relieved that this is death. I am relieved of much. I must find the ones that are here already. I shall go and be with them, for I have missed them dearly. There is so much to do and I have only just begun.”

The Rock-Face- Easter 1991

I GIVE you the picture of a man edged up against a rock-face. With sheer will his strength has caused a boulder to hold the gate of the mountainous rock-face, supported. There is an opening from which many flee out from behind that rock, verily a multitude of beings, of souls, all who were prisoner- the aged and the children of God- all who had been in captivity from what had seemed since the world was new; stumbling and fleeing, some leading, holding hands and guiding. Picture the multitudes in tatters and rags, blind to the sunlight, supporting one another.

And this one man still holds fast, supporting the immense bulk that towers above. He must continue until the last soul has escaped the gate, and still they keep coming. No-one can take his place. There is no rest offered, and the time has escalated to such, that this was the task set to do and that it will be done.

Three days and three nights the rock-face has been held. Those who were captive are captive no more - sublime and holy, miraculous release! But what of the solitary figure who withstood the damning rock-gate? Now we give you the last days of our Savior and Lord: the Christ.

Although unseen, there was much that was done - all was accomplished, in those hours of Crucifixion. Verily, souls were given their sublime release, souls whose freedom had been bound to both kings and demons, in chains and bondage that no other could have brought release from.

Here the mission reached total fruition. Here, although not documented as in a visible gateway, our Lord with all His Might threw over the powers of darkness. Out from a seeming feebleness came a Might unimagined.

Sweet passing could have been instigated at any moment, there need not have been a spear or nail; but the task was set, and freedom, freedom from earthly reins, was not sought until the freedom of the children of Man had been accomplished - as was done. 

In joyous uprising our dear Christ gave forfeit to those plans and destinies that had otherwise been played out and maneuvered, to enslave and encapture the kingdoms of Man.

When the boulder was drawn back, our dear Lord Christ did defy the wardens! He who went first down into the prisons and tombs of humanity, then followed last to signal the age of entrapment to have crumbled.

And when in the days to come when all humanity places Him first and above all, we may pass joyously yet, through the gates ahead: the gates of gold. (Not pearly!)

Balance- 1991

ON a sandy beach one may sink their toes into the sand and know the drag and the difficulty in trying to speedily walk. A hard impacted firm surface is preferable for walking with ease, whereby the weight of the body may be evenly distributed. 

When a vocalist attempts a steady range, that they may keep the notes in proper order and not quiver in and out of semitones and flats, there is a balance required for such control, a balance between breath and vocal organs. Birds balance against the various wind drifts and currents, and from these navigate their flight and flight speeds. Mathematics and physics are precise sciences that too, require a balance which as been worked from a steady basis of presumption, into contrasting formulae.

One must set a firm ground, a series of given conditions, which set the balancing determination which one may work from. In all areas of activity this law carries through, for without the correct conditions subsequent interaction - which is ever balancing - may not be established fluently. So one cannot achieve a balance in any respect without the two contrasts being legible. One may determine the other, and the working in between is dependent on both.

Throughout life we have both the capacity to find such balances, and also make up the second score which achieves this reconciliation. It is the personal adjustment to original conditions that determines success or failure in any given situation. And so one must necessarily become adept in the original assessment of those conditions which we must work with.

In the case of the sand beneath our feet, there are difficulties one must adjust to in order to remain upright. The ordinarily unconscious act of walking need be addressed with every step, as the sinking ground stresses the ankle this way and that, providing not the usual firmness on which to spring from. Any ground may have ditches or ridges, where caught off-guard we may be required to reassess promptly our position and footing, and make the necessary adjustments to our response accordingly.

So the question of balance is of relative balance. When one refers to an individual as being 'unbalanced', we are implying that they have difficulties in adjusting to a series of conditions and making corresponding changes, answers to life, that will see them through. Being simply balanced in oneself can have no bearing on making necessary adjustments to outer conditions, as there are all sorts of occurrences that may happen upon a man, in which there is not the time or the know-how to make perfect response. Learned responses and intuitive responses do usually put us in good stead. But it is the unusual or remarkable set of conditions that may challenge us and throw us into semi-chaos when not adjusted to in a balancing way.

Stars determine orbit by balancing those fields of magnetic adjustments between themselves and that which is in opposition to the field of their own making. Without such balancing and cooperative re-exacting one should impact another through conflicting course. Given this line of thought, one may never 'go it alone', as coexistence requires a balancing interaction at all levels, involving all beings, with no one being separate or off-cast to this principle.

One may never divorce oneself from outer conditions in preference to our inner realities, as we are called upon (as captain of our ship) to navigate at all times and continually re-evaluate, reassess our proportionate relationship to everything met in the outer world. Our attention is called for every minute, to meet with new challenges and balance our bearing with them. Many carry on quite well for a time on 'automatic pilot' so to speak, given that we do not make all adjustments consciously and usually dwell in the familiar for this reason. However, inner strength is formed in the process of outer awareness and our ability to meet with challenges that present themselves, and find the balancing answers in our relation to them.

In time there is always a principle where there is a meeting, a conflict, an opposition of two poles: +. One will discharge, one will receive, and the balance is in the regulating, and the regulating is always governed through the possibility which lies through the adjustment of one and the other being stable. 

One pole is unstable and may be altered accordingly; one pole is stable and may stay that way to be worked from. Never try to adjust both poles. Alike to a weighing beam, one must keep one at the level that the other is to measured against and not shift from one to the other, as this will de-stabilize the entire beam. You cannot isolate the beam from the weighing device, de-stabilize it and whilst holding it, add this and that weight to either side. One end of the beam must be suspended with determined significance set, whilst the other is aligned and adjusted from that.

This is the basis of reality. We are answerable to make up the equations. We are fluent. We adjust. We work from that which in time remains static and fixed, so that we may make balances and relations to that being possible. The law of karma works in this way exactly. There is the precision of that being fixed, and the condition of that which is alterable. We continually adjust and readjust in each and every instance.

In a fixed Cosmos there would be no activity. In a non-fixed Cosmos there would be Chaos in activity. In a two-poled Cosmos there is a happy mix of reality and possibility. We have been empowered to dwell in the fixed conditions and effect constant change upon them. The latter determines the former, whilst the former follows the latter.

Some circumstances are simply beyond personal adjustment. Our capabilities may not extend beyond the boundaries so set and here we call upon Divine intervention in balancing our needs: we pray.

The physical constitution works in this way. One pole receives fixed matter, we must assimilate, adjust and balance such matter, and discharge the rest. We breathe in and breathe out. That which we breathe in is fixed, that which we breathe out is adjusted. If we breathe in water and have not gills for the required adjusting and cannot balance those needs, we die. That is reality.

Fixed realities must be respected, known of and then redetermined. One may not effect change without knowledge of that one seeks to change. This is where the folk who question reality are completely 'off beam' in such thinking. To command change over reality, one must work with a fixed reality.

This too is a basis of alchemy: to know the substance one is working from and adjust and balance accordingly. Change is possible everywhere. That is unquestionable. All that is, is flexible and plastic to change. 

It is the knowledge of given relationships and the determination of that which at the time is fixed, and that which is alterable, so that the fixed may be altered. A bean may never be a carrot, but nine beans may share the same weight as a carrot, and in this respect can be alike. But one must find the formulation of nine, as eight or ten will not hold any similarity. 

Such laws appear complex and in truth are. All workings throughout life run concordantly, and are necessarily interdependent, whilst remaining independent. There is familiarity and uniqueness, there is activity and quiescence; and as with colored lights at an intersection, one must remain stationary for a time, to allow the flow and progression of those crossing through. (+)

The balance learned in self-development, is in the wisdom of that which is fixed and that which proceeds and the according workings thereof.

Raining Reptiles- 21st March 1991

Shalom,
THERE was a time when great showers of frogs were quite commonplace; so much so, that people of certain provinces and periods, grew to expect such an occurrence.

Times do change however, as with the expectations of a people of a certain time, and each period is forthcoming with its marvels which are both feared and admired. Who would have suspected the abundance of radio-waves that are invited into every home, being quite commonplace? And in many respects it is not dissimilar to a host of frogs in mass descent.

Consider the natural habitat of this watery fellow. Springing from the mire as it is apt to do, might we suggest that their transportation was initiated quite directly, in order to prove a particular point of skill rather than a haphazard quirk of the natural surroundings causing the onslaught of raining reptiles. This of course took some effort to negotiate, and with that the consequences that ensued. But however, it is maintained that it was a direct action of a student of the natural sciences who intended and caused this occurrence. Usually only one such man was necessary and not mere accident.

So too, of course somewhat differently, there are plagues and rains, verily storms, of pounding information that settle upon this and that community, country or globe- magicians of a different mode and means, who wish to interfere with the ecology of the world of thought and communication. It is so commonplace that people have come to expect it within the natural course of events. And no matter how hideous the material that falls into one's own home, one must somehow go on awaiting the next rain to fall.

Our Lord and Master gave reckoning to this particular art with the multiples of fish that were distributed, so one can say confidently that this particular act was not confined only to the mischievous. Perhaps also, along this line of questioning, one might point out that by today's reckoning the Lord's work might as well be laid out and multiplied through the means of radio-waves. No possibility is to be discounted.

We only draw attention to the frog, primarily as its qualities were discussed yesterday* in connection with its remarkable astrality. And one must remember that they are of course, remnants of a former age and set of conditions. But however, as we have suggested by the illustration of them being used and called upon by extraordinary means, they hold many a mystery within their constitution. (Pulling off the fish trick is much harder - history will testify to that.)
In point of fact, eons ago one could be slapped, quite naturally, in the face with a distant relative of the frog, and this would have been a natural occurrence. Although it is unlikely that one should be there to witness it. However, if one has the means they may call upon the substance of that which still lives on as memory within our planet; and the frog's astrality is such that it is totally sensitive to playing out its former glory. 

What do the radio-waves work with if it is not recall? This means of repetition, regression and reproduction (and invasion) is altogether made possible. . . and happening daily.

*See Rudolf Steiner,
Spiritual Science and Medicine Lecture III,


Man as Symphony of the Creative Word