Casting On- 2nd February 1992

The world's one giant ball of yarn,
A cat does toss and tease,
Until his master comes along,
To knit as he does please.


Perhaps a cap? Perhaps a coat?
Or a blanket,
Lest the Cosmic winds do blow!


Scurry cat!
Your paws are black,
With sharp attack,
They fray the yarn.


Untwist, unwind,
Unkind the pounce;
With measured grace
The cat does dance -
It is no fair play,
This imaginary prey.

Unravel this riddle,
And pick up a needle;
Click-klack, click-klack,
Pearl to plain,
Front to back,
And back again.

Imaginative Cognition- 27th January 1992

Life goes on, and round and round,
Inside out, and up and down.


The people climb, they slip and slide,
Upon the ice they skip and glide.


A piece of this, a piece of that,
A piece of happy happenstance.


We move to and fro, around we go,
Out from the world, and into the Know!
Knowing this and knowing that,
One hat, two hat, three hat, Fohat.


The scales do summon, the music plays,
Out from the night and into the day,
We skip and slide, we cross the night,
We jump the cliff and into flight!


(Warming up- it's like tuning an orchestra!)

TO be completely comprehensive, untouched and untampered-with and natural to its own, is the mark of a genuine article. "Genuineness" is a concept which needs be defined to be looked for; and the importance of there being intrinsic value to genuineness rather than second best or derivatives three, four and so on - removed with synthetic overlay. 

When the would-be prince set out to return with a feather from the Phoenix, it should not have sufficed for him to have fetched it merely from a seagull and painted the plumage red, green and blue. It simply would not have completed the story or the task well at all. Many a grail has been recovered and honored, and interestingly enough, they were all crafted in metals! 

There are many who would deceive and many who would eagerly welcome such deception. But do we seek for convenient results or do we seek to find something truly worthy of a wonderful find? We must ask this of ourselves and ask it honestly. 

Men have most powerful imaginations which presently are mostly underused. The imaginative powers are not only conjective, but productive and may of their own creating skills preclude forthcoming eventualities. Man may summon many images and designs before his inner mind, and will one day be so definite and practiced in this, that he may command all physical form in the immediate (within reason- forgive the pun), as he does after death.

Here we come to an interesting philosophical point. For when we go further and discover the motivating cognating elements which comprise the imagination, one can argue that the creativeness is born from fantasy, which is anything but real. It then appears contradictory to suggest that one must perfect the visions and gauge 'genuineness' that we might be more potent in the calling forth of such imagery, and therefore reality. 

But it is certainly within one's power presently to pre-empt an action with an initial thought to do so, before carrying out the then existing motions of actuality. This we can understand, e.g. I may think to myself that I should like to make a cup of tea, and may then go on to carry out the task. The desire prompts the thinking, the thinking inspires the activity to follow. None of the above may be classed as fantasy. It is acceptable to plan. The conditions of success rely on the aspects of knowing how to make a cup of tea, what is required and what the tea should look like, taste like and so forth, that I may work properly and thoroughly to produce it. 

Imagination is no different in man. The essential rudiments are not in any way made of pure fantasy. It is that we are ill-defined for end results, for perfect visions, that we may confuse our confusion with rudimentary ability. Therefore, if it is put forth that one must understand the 'genuineness' before one may work the imagination thoroughly, it is not contradictory to say so.

If one believes that the imagination works from creative conflicts that have no true substance, that are rooted in madness, then the notion appears contradictory. Except to say that if one does believe that the imagination is so undependable and so ridiculous, then one could still go by the theory of perfecting genuine visions, for they should be no more ridiculous than anything else also envisioned. The follow on argument could be that seeking out perfected visions may become restrictive and therefore not imaginative, however one would have to exercise the imagination to come close, and such exercise would imply anything but sclerosis of the powers.

Imaginative cognition requires two elements. Firstly it is brought into play when the man governs the calling forth of thoughts, rather than responding to his immediate environment. Rather than answering and responding to exterial subjections (even mathematical equations), he has divorced himself from necessity and withdrawn into an inner chamber protected from such demands. 

Secondly the man must know that which he seeks out in the higher realms, to which in thought, he withdraws to; and decipher accordingly. There is a bridge laid from which he may travel, from inner reality to outer world. This is a very complicated and busy process. In order to fire the cognitive powers of the imagination he must identify that which he seeks to call forth. The more aligned the initial vision is with cosmic reality, with spiritual base and spiritual certainty, the more he shall recover and return with consciously. 

One might ask at this point - but how does he know what to search for if he does not know in the first place? The point is that he is to be both 'open' to genuineness and choosy for genuineness. To be mindful at first, consciously mindful, is the first key to this practice. 

One cannot arrive logically at a complete soul picture of spiritual teachings. Logic works well, on a single flat-planed grid, and is fine on that plane to which it relates to. Even though the teachings should and do comply with all logic, they also go beyond worldly logic, as must do; and it requires imaginative cognition to begin to comprehend the spiritual natures of spiritual applications.

One cannot therefore, try to convince anyone of anything. It is the same as one trying to educate the computer, who is a master logician, at such teachings. By way of logic we may formulate and speculate, and project more formulae - and this is commendable and exceedingly needy. But logic must necessarily be governed by higher instincts and higher wisdom for the logic itself to become valuable.

Logic rests on certain realities. Logic defines those realities. It says something is what it is. It also speaks of accuracy and predetermining. The logician works on the basis that all formula will remain the same and therefore all outcome will do also. But he cannot account for larger formulas that he may not incorporate, for they are unknown to him. 

Furthermore, Creation works by way of laws - and here is another interesting philosophical point: which came first, the law or Creation? Creation, by nature, is anything but predictable.

It is precisely the balance between the two, the harmony which coincides, which gives license to both; that there are higher determinations predicating the manifestation of lower extensions of such impulses, of both law and Creation.

Therefore it is incorrect to perceive all of that within the world as mere chance offspring or self-enclosing formula - and the visions which reach into higher spheres are necessary to truly begin to examine our reality,

When we begin to work the imagination we do not pluck nonsense from accumulated banks of impressionable knowledge. We endeavor to enter into realms above the immediate by means of a higher door. If we reach into our imagination and seek nonsense, then we shall produce some recollection of such. If we task ourselves to find some genuine reality, which at present we are consciously divorced from but is true and correct, then we begin to establish a relationship between ourselves and the imaginative/cognitive reasoning. 

It is as though a man does swell and become much larger, in that, the field of auric vitality and activity, when he endeavors to strengthen his imaginative comprehension. The peripheries enlarge. The span of consciousness widens, but it is entirely dangerous when artificially induced and rapidly propelled, for there are conditions whereby a man who has not the practice of will, of daily connection, of exercise, may jump headfirst into a headless practice of imagination. If one is to be drugged or 'lit up' like a shopping mall Christmas tree; charged with the vitality from outer sources all at once, one enters into the imaginative realms seeking nothing in particular. The question of 'genuineness' is not even made account of.

After such experience there is a greater shaft between the consciousness of that individual's reality and imagination than ever before - because there is no bridge; because the overwhelming experience has no foundation or relation which translates back into the daily experience. He is not enriched, but bereft. There is no determination of will, for this is forfeit in the acute, overwhelming, indulgent experience. Enhancement in this way, of exaggerated swelling, is dangerous to one's mental stability and dangerous also to that of the psyche. It is as with a stomach quite empty, being loaded with ten times more than it can contain. It cannot be digested. The vitality must expend the vessel; the vessel inflates with such rushes of force, undirected. Therefore, those who seek fast and furious experience of this nature must be wary to the concerns of forfeiting general health and mental capacity.

It is a question of plucking the feather from the Phoenix and returning without being burnt.

Newness- 22nd January 1992

WE carry on, but not with tedious repetition. There are ever-new occurrences in every world and every plane, and activity is always exciting. For the essence of Creation is such creative force, which does not linger, does not stay and stagnate but ever moves on, with or without those who choose to experience the new life swells, the movements deep and inclines steep.

We, all of us within this scheme, are not merely the old, rehashed and reshaped becoming new. Folk tend to perceive life with repetition, and grand that might be - certainly when it comes to one's progressive evolution and expansion therein. But it is not the case of an old tune to an unfamiliar beat. It becomes much more than that. A symphony is so much more than the original tinkle of notes: the notes are the mainstay, the notes are essential and the symphony incorporates and enhances with melodic deviation and much new creation to the original tune.

If we look to the changes which occur within our own physiology, we find that they are related, but also quite different, and clearly not more of the same. An adult form is not directly that which the child appeared to be; and before that - somewhat derivative and some parts altered, and both quite separate in unique ways.

• Child to adult: a relationship in which the child is transformed beyond recognition of ever being a child.
• Bud to bloom: we know that the bloom was a bud, but at what point may we identify the bloom to sprout, bloom to seed?

Comparing the forms, they are exceedingly different - quite so with the future in its entirety. Nature is full of surprises. When seen for the first time, and quite unexpected, so much that may appear unrelated and changed, begins anew; and every living item is new.

Newness is a concept which the 'oldness' within ourselves finds difficult to identify; the 'oldness' being that which has past been incorporated but not strengthened by exercise; concepts upon which we rely in order to perceive the given world, and thus go by. But the 'oldness' may become infirm when not given latitude enough to enable new concepts to become incorporated. 

Our picture ideas become weary and so hardened by expectations of the familiar. The question then is, "How do I begin to perceive the world in its true 'newness' without forsaking my very necessary aspects of conceiving and relying upon the familiar?" And the balance is paramount, for on the one hand one is too defined and is self-enclosed in a time that will not allow for grand change; on the other we have insanity.

Tan the leather that it remain supple and pliant! We cannot disregard or forsake that which we have come to know and cherish. This of course is not in question, for what use is one set of principles and concepts replaced by a completely new set, for the sake of newness? One should never keep up! Rather then, the task is more for steady and progressive, constant incorporation - incorporating ideas, with one end closed and one end open - ever mindful of the surprises; and surprises there will be, without anxiety or confusion or a desperate need to remain as is.

Accepting change within ourselves, within those conditions which impinge outwardly, is not easy. One can see how quickly we may become 'threatened' by the mere prospect of change, and frightened of 'newness', even though in truth every new day brings with it a future which comprises of: new breath, new word, new movement, new interaction, and new opportunities.

There must be comfort in the thought that we have dealt exceedingly well up to this point, with all of the confrontations which newness has brought. We still remain throughout. The winds may blow with turbulence but we are safe within. This we must know and do recognize as truth, even though at times we may feel tired of ever more newness. 

That which feels awkward in the presence of the future, that which feels tired and baulks like a donkey, are only those aspects within us which are tired and reluctant - quite reticent to change. This may sound obvious, but we shall return to that thought. 

One simply cannot hold back the tide of Creation - one cannot try to with great merit - but we do. We seldom welcome the newness that greets us daily. We seek rather to ignore that fact absolutely. Where is the pocket of fear deep within us that clings to the spirit of excited anticipation? The soul craves experience, the soul is social and the soul celebrates all wonders. Why then, even with our necessary bank of familiarity, are we in daily life, often the antithesis?

As we have discussed, there is nothing at present which conforms distinctly to previous ways, and one such nothing is our perception as regards the spiritual worlds. At present we are verily 'far from home' caught in an age of darkness enshrouding the Globe, which does not permit the conscious individual born into this world, to gaze out further, further than his immediate sensory perceptions.

The only roads leading out into the starry Cosmos, are in fact those primarily which are come to by extraordinary means; or more importantly, those which are reached directly by the heart and the perceptions of the heart. By the development of certain virtues, by the development of attaining a true morality, one can receive echoes of the spiritual activity that flows into them and permeates their very life substance. Though impressions may be deep, they are not clearly perceptible. Man is ever in doubt and divorced from much that he cares for. 

The conditions of this time are difficult, and it is this difficulty which provokes uncertainty. It is not so much the 'new spiritual day' which man is apprehensive of, it is rather whether or not that day will come. It is in these times, that hands need be held and much guidance is required. It is this which provokes a man to be so uncertain that he would rather cling to familiarity than welcome the wonder which comes with great change.

In times past, the threshold of death from this world into others was not closed to the worldly-perception. Those whom we love were not so detached and divorced, and realities were intermixed, intermingled as it were. Now we find that we are caught with a feeling almost of 'aloneness'. "Why, Father, has thou forsaken me?" That we are so separated from our heavenly homes, as the dust of a heavy materialism clouds our view and chokes our breath and fills our eyes which burn tearless and sting.

Brother to brother in this adversity, have yet separated off. Rather than come in unity as one great strength against this darkness, they have gone a'wandering in different ways - pilgrims who walk the earth, some the ranges, some the caves, all unsettled, orphaned by the conditions of this time. 

All periods have their corresponding joys, and also that which could perhaps have been otherwise. This particular time is one which is perhaps more frightening than else could be. For when one is denied the view, they surely feel helpless in meeting the future. But as with other episodes, this too will end. In the long and in the short, this blinded comprehension will cease. 

It is not for punishment, that the way it is, is the way it is. It is no great sword that strikes the sin of mankind which provokes a wrath uncharitable and unforgiving. This period shall be short-lived, even though it does span many lives and lifetimes - it shall end. Regained will be that heavenly identity and the consciousness which lives assured that it is definitely a part of, rather than apart from the glorious bonds of the embracing Higher Kingdoms of Divinity.

But for now in this present time, there is much turmoil from those who have difficulty in gauging much at all. Much sympathy is expended to humanity for suffering this separation. Invisible hands hold up the weary, invisible eyes shall see for the wary, and new days will follow on from days past, once new.

We must forgive our brothers if they cannot see glimpses of higher realities. We know how it is that often we work from recall or from intimations from soul, or from a heart enriched with vital fluids of inspiration and piety. If we have these ways then we must be grateful and give sympathy to those who are caught in this ineffable darkness, and so confused that the wondering ceases and gives over to a sleeping consciousness.

Welcome Creation and all her manifestations of newness, for it is by her that we shall come to that day when the bridges of consciousness may become renewed and divinity made plain. We must seek out divinity within our reality, for it is surely there even though so difficult to readily perceive.

Measurement without numbers - qualify, not quantify: 22nd January 1992

TRY not to gauge the work, this work, by numbers: numbers of books, numbers of people, numbers of days, for this would be (to the numerist) ever unsatisfying and unrelated. In the worldly scheme folk usually measure success in exactly these terms of relevance, but value is value, e.g. buckets of money are useless if the currency is worthless.

Folk who become of public notice often seek to overcome the world by their presence or their company's presence, and determine that much is gained if they may verily 'outstrip' their 'opponents' by gathering more attention unto themselves. It is an easy mistake, but not warranted by those who should know better.

When a new species of flower breaks ground and is exhumed from the ethers, it has much glory in first popping its head joyfully and courageously into the light of this world's day. This work shall do many things beside that which is readily apparent - one of which, and not the least of which, shall be the bringing forth of another such new species, assisting its formation and creation. And that bloom shall continue as great medicine to the world - prolific or not, it will endure and continue. For it has been introduced into the world and will signify the hopes and strivings, the beginnings of this work. (Small and purple, delicate and four-petaled.)