The Story of an Articulate Man- 22nd November 1996

IT ALL began in a time not quite dissimilar to that of our own - yet by contrast, not ununique to it either - in a place, in kind, accessible now only by the reaches of the heart's and mind's imagination ... A far-off place, albeit resting so close in it was known to all men, and although it seemed more distant than that of their earthly home, to some it was as the seed of their earth, to others it was that they were reminded in aspect alone.

Ferns and tufts of long slender grasses draped over the hillocks all the way to the creek-bed. Overhanging drowsily in muddy incline were the vast bulrushes, bending heavy with overgrowth alongside their companion fellows, the sweet reeds and the twisty willows, all thirstily meditating the properties of the sun and the water about. Those very properties (to be described as best as one can) of that sun and that water as they were known in this sanctuary, were unlike the sunshine of timidity that we are accustomed to. For theirs was perpetual and everlasting, without so much as a cloud to come between its radiance and all that lay beneath. It remained fixed in the sky, staying somewhere between tens and elevenses. This Sun remained host to the ethers about, without the usual interruptions and nightly intervals.

Of course you might well then wonder, what of the stars, should there be no night sky to know them by? Well of course there were the walking stars, the souls of the folk in that place that are as the living stellar beings circulating the land instead of the sky above... But also, quite oddly, there was a way in which each one could find his entrance into the blazing heavens, and that was with inner sight, with the closure of the outer day. For amongst the velvety darkness, in warm and gentle lights diffused a'many, singing as they do from one to another, there was always especially to be found, before each man's eyes upon sleeping - just on the closing of the lid - there was the opening to that great and vast window past the brilliance of the immediate Sun.

Has anyone ever told you that the Sun in part, is quite green? Not to look at, of course, yet moreso characterized in its true nature; just as men are known also by the color of their eyes, that small but all-telling color, and that is they there in that color. Well it is so with the Sun itself; its eyes if you will, are green, a glorious green, a golden green, a ripe, effervescent and lively green.

The days in this place therefore, held to something of a tedious repetition, a constant accumulation, running beside each other without definition, without distinction. So because of this there was no calendar to mark the days as days, and no festivals to celebrate because there were no calendars besides.Yet this single day did seem conducive to concentration, proving useful to the single-minded men, with whatever their thoughts were bent upon. Whilst the dreamy-minded women who lived there alongside, could likewise care not for the time that passed, but give themselves up to the moment however long it became.

Now and then they would pass each other in thought, the dreaming women could see the men's intent as it proceeded out from their concentration and flew into the future. Whilst ever occasionally the men would stir from their great projects and happen upon the caress of a passing dream which had included them in its imaginings.

One such man, Craven, a local resident in that place, was in meditation that day when his accompanying Muse addressed him:
"What is today?" she would ask him, as if for the first time.

"My Birthday!" came the reply, as it was conveniently affixed and to remain.

"Is it my Birthday too?" she would eagerly, greedily urge.

"No, mine alone!" he would tease, and then add, "But you and I will celebrate together, because you, my darling, can at least share in mine."

The reasoning was, that just as the Sun had to perpetually shine, it was similarly so that all men held the full profit of knowledge beyond the making of their Muses, who all the while had to be content with learning from their endeared companions.

Every man-soul had his friend and every child also, but not all knew them well enough to necessarily recognize or converse with openly. These Muses were interpreters of all things otherwise foreign, and inspiritors of such things hidden, that they managed to find their ways to talk to men nonetheless, even if the men themselves were unaware of it.

The Muses' abilities brought light into places where the men ordinarily had no lamps at hand to illumine. For example, I knew a man who had misplaced his heart, and wearied at the search, he sat upon a steamy rock to sit and 'think', allured by the irons that warmed him below and the impetuous sun showering down, causing his eyelids to droop with all the obligingness to a summer's day buzzing...and just as the stars began to rise before his inner eyes, up popped his Muse and toppled him off his rock!

"Look, see here!" she begged his attention.

But in untoward behavior he ignored her, still taken to his sleepiness - "deep thought" he told himself. As well he might, so deeply taken was he that it threw him past the eons of Graces, into those regions removed from the lost and the found... and with his being cast likewise, he did not hear her or care for her. But however, she knew exactly where it was, and kept watch over it for him until he awoke.

His name was Craven. His Muse was nameless. Not because she lacked being or identity for that matter, but was as insubstantial as she was real, and had not yet been afforded a name. Names endow realness to something don't they? When born at first we are given our names, but this Muse, like so many others, did not have such a name, more often to be mistaken as part of his own nature and mind all told - but then this she was also, even though a museling as well.
He, alike to most man-beings, would bully her at times with his well-considered authority, and on this day, on this part of the big day, he had forced her into one of her hiding places again, deep within a split tree stump, where dejected from his disregard she would sulk and weep and glumly sit in mock protest.

Meanwhile an aged scrap of a man came forth and took position upon Craven's rock couch. With sallow skin and sunken cheek, he had all the appearance of Death himself. He said, almost addressing no one but himself: "I am accursed, I am accursed, for this vision aggrieves me so".
He then turned to Craven and burst into plentiful tears.

"Tell me old man what this vision is that has brought such unhappiness to you? Surely it cannot be all that bad" he added kindly, yet the old man before him wailed even louder.
Seeking a mild distraction to offer him, Craven inquired gently of his name.

"I have no name to speak of, at least I used to and I did, before I had it stolen from me" he muttered ruefully... "And now all I have is this vision that returns every time, every time that I look inside; and I can stand to look no more!"

Craven placed his hand upon the bony forehead of the forlorn man, which he could then see as he did see - for in this place such things were possible; it was as a physical and immediate empathy. As his hand trembled ever slightly, resting on the tormented head, he was shaken like never before. He was saddened and wrenched into perilous grief. He was lost to the wretchedness of certain despair. He was torn inwardly with rents in soul, piercing all but the spirit. For the daunting vision he saw was the witnessing of Christ's own agony - His Pain, in His Persecution. So this was what the old man had suffered repeatedly, without remission!

Craven jerked his hand back hurriedly from the old man’s forehead, but the anguish had contaminated him already. His arm ached in a current of sadness which ran all the way through to his heart. The old sage's temples had relaxed momentarily, but his head was still cowered in sorrow.

Looking up at him something caught Craven's eye, something, no, someone, had appeared. There at the side of the shrunken figure of the sorrowful man was a queer but beautiful light emanating, as he sat in his upset. In the light itself Craven could just make out the figure of a man, a man whose hand rested upon the old fellow's shoulder.

The call of many an Easter's celebration echoed across the ethers and into his memory, when assuredly Craven maintained "Christ is risen old man. I see Him as He stands at your side just there! Christ has risen I tell you, you can mourn no longer my friend for He is cheery and resents not our sins."

"But I see Him I tell you!" The man began to wail once more, "Here, if you do not believe me, look again!"

So saying this, he made a grab at Craven's wrist and urged him to place his hand back onto his mind's picture. Reluctantly Craven complied, while all the while the water burbled contentedly, playfully, just close by.

Overswept by emotion once again Craven felt the darkness close in all around him with an anxiety and coldness; every guilt and fear he had ever known clutched at his throat, burned his eyes and pained his chest, for there once more he saw our Lord in degradation, and somehow if that wasn't enough pain in itself, he also felt utterly responsible.

It was just then that the two men were interrupted by the rustlings of a third approaching, another man, clad in fur-skins, fur which was of a soft grey graduation. His appearance was attractive, self-assured but not self-conscious. He openly smiled a greeting.

"Uncle, I have looked all over for you. They are waiting and you are overdue, what in Heaven's name brought you here?"

He hesitated after a reproachful frown and then turned to Craven saying: "I hope that he hasn't been bothering you . . . I'm Deva, his ward, a ward that spends more time these days caring for him rather than he for me, I might add!"

"Craven!" said Craven, holding out his hand (handshakes are universal - at least they are where people have hands).

He added, "I am not in the least bothered by your Uncle" he said this as a polite reassurance, but felt the pang of deceit at having just endured one of the most harrowing and disconcerting experiences he would ever feel. Deva did not appear believing.

"He has that effect on everyone" he said, and then mumbled something under his breath inaudibly. He continued: "I myself have not seen this picture that I've heard of, but I've met with too many to date who certainly have. The power is extraordinary!"

Here he too looked troubled, and then went on: "I've seen Uncle come away from fighting men who have collapsed in grief, dancing women who have flung themselves into domesticity; and ... " he lowered his voice, "I've also seen men lose their minds after seeing it. Snap! Just like that! They've lost their minds I tell you!" Then he finally added, with an unfriendly air pointed towards the elderly man accusingly, "And it's all his fault!"

It was at this point that Craven disregarded the fearfulness of the whole situation and actually was brought to feel sorry once again for this 'Uncle'. It was obvious to him that the Uncle himself could not be brought to answer for the martyr-enchantment that he now was caught up in. It also occurred to him that he himself would not be free of that vision until he effected some help or relief for this old master. So smiling as casually as he could manage, he asked Deva, "Would you like me to take care of your Uncle for a few hours?" Fortunately he had not offered to take care of him for the rest of the day, else this obligation would have been for a very long time. Deva was delighted, but then drew back a little with a second thought.

"No, perhaps it might be better if I take him home with me now, he really can cause a lot of trouble with his ways you know; and besides which ... " he paused thoughtfully, "Oh what am I saying! Yes please, if you wouldn't mind I'd be grateful; and I do have some things that need to be done, places to go, people to see and all that - where I can't take him."

"Alright then, sounds good to me. How about we say, back here in, oh, four hours?"
Deva nodded.

"Fine by you?" Craven turned to the Old Man.

"Fine by me" said Uncle looking sideways, then saying under his breath as Deva turned to depart, "Never seen him before in my life".

Craven caught this comment and took it to be a joke - at least he had dearly hoped so. Anyways he thought to himself, "The Sultanus will know"; and he had calculated that the trip to them and back again, even with slow going, would only be three hours at the most. There should be plenty of time before Deva returned.

The 'Sultanus' were the people 'in the know' about everything, so to speak. Their services they considered underrated and under-used, but were pretty well kept busy with all affairs that could not be settled with or understood by fellow men who had not yet the 'sight' established within themselves.

 
The fraternity boarded up in something equivalent to a timeshare village arrangement, for it was a floating population which passed through and stayed, depending upon their individual concerns. But one could always be guaranteed that a Master would be on site at any particular time; just not any one particular Sultan, unless of course he was called in for especially.

Uncle was amiable enough, glad to have the interested company, and though he walked slowly he kept pace with Craven the whole journey's length. There were roads they could have used, but Craven preferred the country shortcut he knew, which apart from the scrummage amongst the blackberries and the nettles, the two kept in humor and loved every minute of the walk.

Presently they came to the great lake. This lake opened out as wide as the eye could follow; in the distance there were piers with little boats moored, and huts leaning one beside another almost at the water's line. It curved in and out of the surrounding hills, with a glistening going on into the distance, beyond which one could not tell what lay.

The neck of the creek idled, gathered and then dipped into the lake; and a bridge, newly built, crossed its preamble into the main. Once over this bridge (a bridge with no tolls and no trolls) they eked their way up an embankment - Craven leaning back, drawing Uncle up the slippery part - and to the side entrance of a large garden wall which surrounded the homes in the village of the Sultanus.

The garden wall was of massive proportions, the brickwork was stuccoed and tiled and stood over fourteen feet tall. The tiles themselves were the exact colors of the surrounding garden, harmonizing in a way that brought pictures without calamity, with a bright white background and brickwork edging.

The pictures were of all kinds of scenes, some not so distinct, some patterned, some complete. But travelers were known to come to this wall, just to stand and admire the work that was upon it. Artists would come to sit and copy the relief, and children would be brought, large and small; the delight was in all.

At the top of this wall sat a great line of birds - living birds, not sculptured ones - each had a brick a piece. They were not uniform, not in groups or size and nor did they bicker (which, amongst birds is rare indeed), but they took to their station at the site, perched above. When one flew off another would come in its place; and so the whole complete vanguard remained, to the extraordinary fascination and appreciation of the onlooker.

When Craven had first happened upon this place he had fancied that it would, according to mystical bibliography, have no visible entrance and require some code or some trick which he could not access. But plain as plain could be, there was a gate and a door, front, back and even at the side in the garden wall; and it was to the side door that they made their approach.

"Craven!" a voice cried out with exuberance and joy.

"Master!" Craven called back - feeling welcomed and glad to be welcomed already. The bolt on the door clanked, the hinge groaned as it swung wide open. Uncle drew his breath, forgetting himself as he looked into the gardens which lay inside. Neither man was an accomplished gardener but both could see that paradise did indeed need a caretaker! Wildness and randomness in a garden can be natural and beautiful, this is so, but here in this garden there had been a design and a planning, a pruning and a tending, a confabulation of wildness expressed and wildness contained. The hand of man, God and nature-spirit, had composed the complex harmonies here, and the perfumery was magnificent!

Was it the fertilizer? How often that one was asked! The colors did seem to be a little more than the usual - the blossoms more buxom, the leaves burgeoning, the fruit unblemished and plentiful - it was truly worth the visit, if not for the garden alone.

"Master, I have brought a friend to you who has lost his name and his sanity as well. I was hoping that you could help him?"

"Is this true?" addressed the Sultan to Uncle enquiringly. He did not seem as perturbed as Craven would have him - reserved, yet not in fact, as 'quick to respond' in such ways as was expected. His eyes smiled beyond his stern frame.

The Old Man nodded and then took faint. He and Craven were brought inside the gate and directed into a small anteroom which lay at the entrance to what appeared, by its doors, to be a much larger area behind. There were windows in the ceiling and so the area was warm and lit; terracotta floors and not much else, save for the seating of wood.

"If you put your hand up upon him you can see a picture which will tell you from what it is that he suffers" said Craven.

"Thank you, but there is no need for me to do that." replied the Master thoughtfully, "For I saw it upon him from the first at the entrance. Your friend here has met with Death."

He continued, "It is a common enough belief for men, that to meet with Death means that you are obliged to follow, but this is not so, not in this spiritual world and its reality.

"When our Lord took it upon Himself to descend into Hell and deliver men from the greater death which threatened their souls, He gave His experience to all men thereafter. Whether seen or unseen every man knows for himself the piety of Christ and his reverence for Man. For not only does He revere our Father, but also our Father in Man and in our Manhood.

"As men we may well fear what we perceive in Christ's agony, but it may be known and remembered, that for Himself Christ did not fear this. Nor did he fear Death or its consequence, and neither did He give in to the demands he suffered from.

"All initiates must come to the Cross. It is as natural to the soul of man as food goes to mouth and travels downward. But this food of the spirit is no ordinary happening with an ordinary response, it is explicit, fundamental; it is the contrast to know great joy by.

"He did not fear the afeared. He would not have you do so for Him. There was no demon or sin which could inhibit His Loving Sacrifice for Man; there was no going back without the retrieval of each last one.

"Can you forgive the World of its evil? Or do you take to yourself also the blame that you feel? Do you despise, or are you brave enough to trust, trust that men, all men (meaning you included) are beyond the reproaches of sin and even death?

"Old Man, you gave many the opportunity to find their gravity and come to a seriousness which will suffice their love yet further. And now if you can come to that forgiveness of the World and of self, you may yet move past this as intended.

"We become indignant on His behalf, and protective of His Valor, but we must also know then that if He can forgive the World its woes, then it becomes that example we must follow.

"We may wish to please, and with ambitious enterprise work to be the pride of His glorious army, but also we must come to know that each is precious in His sight - no more one than another - and even still we must try, therefore, not for our own sake but for His.

"We may ridicule ourselves and admonish our shortcomings so, but this we may come to know, that in this time the army is but few, and the determination known in the bones that goes soul-deep speaks comforts to our Christ, that we are one with Him in this Spiritual Life. Do not discount yourself for that does injure Him cruelly.

"Craven, you have done well to bring your friend here to our fort. His anguish will pass and to youth he will return. He may still induce a stirring, but not to the same degree, his work was quite before. For he has earned his peace to know, and is better qualified to pass that on now.

"You did not ask for yourself today, but I am aware that when you came you were troubled also. How can there be such a contrast as known between the greater sorrow and the greater joy to follow? You have seen Christ as almost defeated, with evil both there and then somewhere in you, but you have also seen His actuality as it lives in both love and concern. And you wonder if after such mortal sorrow you could ever be truly lighthearted again? I do not know.

"Perhaps it is enough to become a fellow member in the extravagant passions? He knows the hearts of all men, and the judgment, if any, is not hesitant to love. An extravagant passion spends itself more fervently than commerce. It spends and expends until it is spent, until the man is wrung out and emptied of himself. That he gives fully and unreservedly, and in love the grace returns. His peace resumes. Death passes by and life reforms."

Craven appeared satisfied with this advice, and settled back in his chair relaxedly.

The Master turned once more to the Old Man who gaze was fixed upon him with a wide-eyed marveling, and he said to him softly "When you see Death again you don't have to go with him you know. He cannot take you where he wants to go."

"Death?" the Old Man questioned.

"Yes, the chap you were with but a few hours ago."

"No, not Death" interrupted Craven, "that was Deva" he explained.

"No" replied the Master, "that was Death... and you can't believe anything he says"; he then pointed to the Old Man and said: “And that is Deva.”

"The guy in the skins that didn't belong to him was Death."

["Craven": Characterized by abject fear; cowardly.]

A Place for Everyone & Everyone in their Place- 26th October 1996

Question:
Dear Teachers,
There is one aspect of the last teaching on Angels which we seek to pursue, and that is their role as 'Chief Comforters'. The Christian Christian up until now has been referring his discomfort to Christ in line with the Scripture 'Come unto me all ye that travail and are heavy laden and I will give you rest'.

At this point we can consider the chain of command that exists in big companies where staff who want to discuss any matters that concern them need to go via their immediate superior and never go above them or direct to top management.

You have encouraged us to pray to our Father God and to our dear Christ and to invoke the powers of the Holy Spirit, so obviously these teachings are valid for eternity. However are we to pay increasing attention to who we approach with what in the Spiritual Worlds, knowing full well that a complete disregard for this required discernment will lead to all sorts of untoward developments?
Love,
J.W.

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever;
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
-John 14:16-18

IN the Gospels we are given both a Holy Spirit of the Father, who by divine action moves as the very breath of life bringing anima, firing motiva, impelling and compelling existence with a fiery ferocity; as contrasted to the Holy Spirit Angelus, who by personal attendance may offer guidance, inspiration and comfort on behalf of our Christ.

One may review the texts with this insight into angelic activity - these unseen 'ghosts' who have done divine bidding abetting Man; being of heavenly countenance, though not of the Holy Spirit to whom we attribute all Life.

That Holy Spirit (Maximus Move-us) would be intolerable if personified, deified, or represented as is to a man. Life cannot face life in double - it would discount itself, or ruin the lesser. For a man to realize the presence of the Holy Spirit Insignia he would break apart and turn inside out confronting the mighty wealth of powers that Father God's Life presents.

Yet we have here now witnessed the problem of dual currencies attributed; and mistakenly so, as are so many surface readings which are pieced together and placed in treasure. However, thankfully, treasure finds its owner - eventually. Often in studies the student is arrayed with finding complexities highlighted which before were neatly covered to be then exhumed and tried. And this fallout from learning makes one feel at times that the actual knowledge brings about a misgiving as to former knowing, and our confidence is wanting because we are adapting or incorporating new views.

Of course this effect is quite transitory, as it soon becomes so much a part of the individual's own knowing that all newly acquired learning finds its home and settles in quite comfortably. We should not be deterred from new findings and reviewing the old ideas, even though it may appear that we have been formerly inadequate because of it.

The spirit's wisdom is wrapped up in us and has been there always, and our individual learnings will always grapple with contrast; being both insensible to their properties, yet divinely placed as well. We are always gathering our learning - collecting, assimilating, loving our knowing and comparing that loving. Like a succession of sunrises with all of each day's contrast there, we have a calendar of knowledge in a variable of seasons, coming to us.

The meaning becomes quite plain when one holds the relevant keys into the insights required. In the instance of the dual meanings here, we find that the angelic domain is honored under the one title, and yet this is in keeping with their one persona consciousness that they collectively experience, whist at the same time they hold distinct operations and duties - and in terms of our Guardian Angels, each are personally qualified and given separately to individual men to care for us.

We may find something of the story given to us in the passages in Hebrews 1:1-2. Our Father God (given to sundry times and divers manners) has appointed our Christ heir of all things. It is asked that the Angels of God worship Him (Hebrews 1:6). 

Furthermore it is then said: 

"Who maketh his Angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire." Hebrews 1:7

Following on there is:

But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
- Hebrews 1:13-14

The Angels were given to be 'spirits', when from Father God the legions of Christ were first assembled. There were of origin the first-born, and then those that were to follow the first-born of Christ. The question "but to which of the angels?" tells us of the differing scores; to which the reply then counters "are they not all ministering spirits?"; and of course, this is so.

The "flames of fire" denote the Holy Spirit in the uppermost context given to Father God's life empowerment. The power to create and the active builders who execute the blueprint of the Creator, comes from the angel mass, which on universal whole may stimulate all life. This is not one single entity to be so prayed to or petitioned with. The only petitioner qualified is Christ - and as an emanatory force which flows directly from our Father God, this angelic stream (if cared to call it that) of the Holy Spiritual Force, is quite distinct from the lesser hosts so titled and made separate from.

God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will. For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking.
-Hebrews 2:4-5

And finally:

For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
-Hebrews 2:16

Jesus the Christ, was distinct from the Angels - truly being neither above nor below their status from God, for how could He be beneath or reconciled above that which directly was of His Father? Nonetheless, He was distinct, and to the glory of Father God this was made possible.

The Son was distinct therefore, from His Father - born of, but not the same as, as was not the case of the Angels. The Angels are Father God in representation - in living action. Because they are faithful to Him and consistent throughout; without the slightest departure they are as Him.

In the Trinity we find that there is Father God who is withdrawn and unknowable, but signified and whole (and knowable nonetheless); there is the Holy Spirit, His Spirit made manifest, which may work its way throughout Creation as life-force or angelic mind, substance itself and all things which are consistent, permanent and of existence. Whilst also there is the Christ-Son who heralds that divinity which seeks change, new creativity, realization of godhood in Man sanctified in Father God; and although is not dissimilar to God is now distinct from Him.

This is the Trinity, and from these three divisionings comes all else. These three principles are the primary elements to all life manifested. Nothing exists without them. Nothing may enter into being without the three, and we can find the three in one.

In our efforts towards prescriptive prayer and consideration it is necessary to discern and learn to differentiate subtle, peculiar and perfunctionary dissimilitudes, for herein are the very marvels of being! This is yet another 'sense' to be developed, as developed it is in a man who strives to consciously work for his spiritual fulfillment and grapple with the innate life distinguishing the realities within. The sorry fact that men are not encouraged to reason with the definitives and become thereby so further connected in with that which they may then distinguish, is yes, something which we may seek to remedy.

Your question regarding the who as opposed to what, is most relevant to the whole matter of Man and his spiritual discernment. For example: men may go to seek a comfort from many sources which may prove to be only a facsimile at best or an synthetic imitation at worst - a comfort which is verily spiked with future discomfort would they but knew what they sought - and so the 'who' is much, much more important than the simple 'what' - particularly as there are very few reliable 'whos', yet a multitudinous bevy of 'whats'.

The untoward development is an issue of marked concern. If we appeal to the correct and the worthy spiritual powers and principalities, in full knowledge of their relevancies and their gifts on offer, then we become endowed with their properties by association and by cultivating their influences. If men continue on believing that all will take care of itself and that their part in the learning is all but done, then their insights shall be glib and misplaced and the charm of the world will slowly become awash with the very sameness that they claim.

It does take an effort of concentration, and a trying to reach for the concepts which take us into the definitive, yet comprehensive understandings. But this is surely the future of Man to try for just that, for he above any other kingdom has the power of such wakeful observation and learning to make these comprehensions and find them as living realities within his heart and mind, within his very trinity of self as is manifest.

Angelic Soul Agencies- 4th October 1996

SUBTERRANEAN to men live their Angels. In one sense, Man's Avant-garde (first guardian souls) encompass such an extended view into their lives and their immediate futures - as with a broad-range telescopic lens - that the Angels' interpretation alone brings intuition into the man's consciousness and helps in the governing of all relevant and proceeding wisdoms.

A man on his own would be rather helpless and without. He could no more motivate a steam train with his own puff and pant than instigate the necessary negotiations within a single day of a single life were he totally alone.

It is true that we are given a certain privacy and sense of solitude within our consciousness, this being only right, as the concerns of other beings (other men, women or otherwise) must hold to their own quarters also impinging not; whilst it shall be the wit and wisdom of any man eventually which makes his decisions upon his own life's leading. However there are whisperings from his life's interpreters and would-be advisers everywhere, making many suggestions with an eager interest and at times an overbearing concern. Men instinctively push back such assaults from other men or beings, although needing an effort of will to do so because all other's opinions encroach the freedoms of the future and subsequent decisions therewith.

This is mentioned because it is relevant to the guiding angels, who do not work to direct or advise or coerce, simply and firstly because the man himself would eventually refuse them; and both spiritually and consciously would be right to do so. They cannot intervene with an assistance which objects his thinking, crosses his decided path or pushes him against his desire. To do so would instantly disassociate them from their role beside him, besides which, they love their fellows so completely it would not become possible for them to act willfully against him.

Also there is no self-interest or self gain. Unlike other beings who enjoy the saturation of a man's attentive company and the vitality besides, the guardian Angels of a man do not receive a 'kick-back' of any kind; they are not elemental in nature. Were this to be so one would find that they would soon become depleted in themselves and well spent, having to rely upon a constancy which would not sustain them. No, their own pleasures and sustenance is quite removed from the interaction; and yet as said, the love remains, being pertinent to their greatest joy and ward.

So there is a different way which they may intimate their warnings and express their offers of help in their companionship. Before continuing on it should be added here that there are myriads of helpful entities that do not come under this subject today. There are numerous varieties of angels themselves, some which are so large their bodies can encompass a whole mass of sky. There are helpful souls who having moved from this world return to their great loves and keep contact. There are faerie workers who are brightly intelligent and servants to men. There are, of course, those selected animals which oblige and assist, alongside the spiritual beings of the plant kingdom which live to serve men completely. So we are placed within a commodity of community that offers itself ever graciously to meet our desires.

However, our guardian Angels are to be distinguished because they may personally know us in ways that the others do not. It is they who are the chief comforters bringing this to the man or child when he is without. No matter how deep the devastation or how lonely the experience, there is in the world, behind this and every sadness, the consoling of our angels, which can be felt.

Comfort itself comes from a medicinal, remedial love which understands in essence the nature of both the man and his calamity. True comfort is the most wonderful supplication and experience, because here we are instantly brought to find (yet again) something of the miraculous qualities which we assume should exist, however profoundly. The properties of pity, nurture, compassion, communion and divination all invoke the highest intuitive powers which are communicated not only from being to being, but being to God and then God into being and back again. Think for a moment of those cherished times of great and meaningful empathy - a reprieve from our own consciousness! Putting self aside we may come to God (and if to Man, then to Christ) by our very unities. For the greater cosmic influences are subtle yet powerful, in invocation. 

Our Angels in this are often our teachers, for they speak to us not in words, but with intuitive reasoning which enables our own to come more readily to understandings. If we are without the means to interpret another man justly or comprehensively, we are afforded the faculty through that of our Angel's, and also their relationship with the other man's Angel.

So instantly we have access to a greater ability improving a wonderful friendship, providing it is those powers of intuitive knowledge that we decide for ourselves to firstly call upon, pertaining to the higher aspects of the other man concerned. You may consciously try this, and with the ensuing assistance shall find that strangers will become endeared to you in no time. You may have met them for the very first instance and have had no past signatory relationship with them - no experience to share, no resonance mainstaying - and yet by the powers of your guiding Angel it will happen that you may intuitively know them with all of their appeal as known to God.

It is guaranteed that if a man approaches any other having first asked for the counsel of his Angel and so attending to it, his company will recognize that the reality between them is not set upon the ordinary and the obvious but has been removed into realms of insight which provoke the higher influences now working through them. In other words, because of the Angel's wisdom there shall be a lightness of heart shared amongst them. The heart is well eased when it does not have to battle with inaffable people. A soul may relax when he feels truly accepted; as by great Grace we most certainly are. It is often with the qualities as brought to us by our advisory beings that we can quite quickly come to understandings which ordinarily are out of our ken.

There is so much a man can come to! Our Angels cannot lead us by any means, but think of the multiplicity of ranges we have as yet unknown, but have the means to interpret because of their insight. They are, in a manner of speaking, our higher faculties; whilst at the same time they are also very much beings in their own right, with their own consciousness and their own being.

How may I know that the cow finds the dewy new sprouts of grass so sweet? What may fire my imagination in a way that, although I am not a cow myself, nor have I eaten grass, I can bridge the signatures and appreciate it as the cow might have it? It is by my Angel that I can do this. I have a key into perspectives and a key into the higher natures and their aspects. Because of this, as well as all of this, I am also given (should I listen) a key into the remarkable events pertaining to my own life just outside my own perspective.

To some these intuitive gifts would seem inadequate. As powers go, there are many who would prefer something more worldly perhaps. Yet what has just been described if cultivated seriously, brings such a talent and leap into knowing, that there could not be a greater service provided. 

Oh yes, our Angels may alert us to an impending danger, or even the right spin of the wheel, or an opportunity arising; but the cognizing factors to these are one and the same. For example: the overview of the Angel realizes predestined events because of their pertaining to the higher nature's of all around them. It is not merely a gift of seeing outward events as they may occur in the future, as they live in possibility, for that vision alone is exterior and an event like any other if taken to be so. No it is the interpretation of what incurs these events that makes it realized as to their forthcoming. It is the interpretive powers within the higher intuition that can work within the outer world understanding its spiritual causes.

Our Angels therefore can be our spiritual eyes and ears when we in earthly incarnation have not the ability of range for ourselves. The fact that we have the faculty to interpret our Angels however, is in itself a supersensory talent acquired by the correct exercise of conferring with them to such a purpose. There is no cunning to be had, only an examination of things as they are in the spiritual worlds.

After death these Angels can make for wonderful companions doing likewise, providing we have incorporated them as part of our lives whilst incarnating. They are beings of Christ, subtitled to His Thought and Wishes.

As Man has bravely gone on into godhood he has challenged the existence of all other kingdoms, if only in his inquiry. Uniquely alone and upbuilding evolution, Man holds to one side a predestined certainty and to another, the unknown. It is through these individual charges that we may come to be known by Christ as we to Him, as they are of His Substance, of Him Himself, that we may have a secure and accurate reasoning in higher matters. For it is He that understands all keys and all signature characteristics and all futures within.

There are two types of beings, the Creative and Angelic - from Father God this was so; so too, from Christ as well. Demonic beings come from when the one develops into the other and the perversion of influence reaffects malevolently those whose influence still streams pure and intact.

Creative spirits who have come into Angelhood and have been inducted into armies by higher beings who drew their will away from them and bled their individualities away, are now dark-angels who are in service to that which overpowers them, and uses them for the creative vitalities which they hold signature to. It is the inordinate blend of corrupted creativity and the subservience of a lesser angel which creates the malformed anarchies. Then also, in regards to the 'fallen' angels, there is the truth that when they stepped out of their parent stream and incorporated powers which were not of their license, once again the unfavorable influence upon all else in the plan ensued.

Our own Angels cannot perceive our Double's activities. Their higher concentration seems to preclude much of what our formidable selves present. It is not in their nature to understand and therefore not considerate to them. So we find that Man has the loving assistance of the higher powers directly beside him when required and called upon, and yet also his examiner in which he has invested much evil.

The thought and desire-bodied elementals which Man colors the personalities of, are firstly compliant to Man, impressionable to Man and therefore angelic in nature. However, by the very creative impulses man has imbued them with, if they are not of the higher substances these creatures become 'demonic' in their action back upon Man. They are useful in the negative sense and reinforce much of his own behavior, but when developed properly they can be aids in measured disciplines and repeated behavior, by establishing many constants within the individual who has brought them up, so to speak.

Similarly, the agent of our Double is also angel in makeover, and once again, in the more permanent sense, has been individually characterized by the creative factors as given in Man.

Angels by makeover, have no capacity to willfully make new and varied anythings. Put simply, if you had one hundred thousand tiles to make a mosaic, and all of the palette of colors there as well, and if you gave these tiles to a one hundred thousand men you would have one hundred thousand different murals to purvey. Then give them to one hundred thousand Angels and you would have but one. Angels are like that. They would be most pleased that they had got them all fitting and looking the same. In point of fact, they would be in pain, if one tile was traded out of place.

Having said that, offer one hundred thousand Angels the plans to follow according to the Creation of our great Benefactor and watch the world then grow! Give that same plan-sheet to the men (or demi-gods) and not one plant would take in the grit of their chaos!

Finding & Embracing our Double- 28th September 1996

Reginald Machell 

Question:
Dear Teachers,
After your last message (thank you) there were questions arising concerning the 'Double' you mentioned. We have a collection of aspects discussed that we ask that you comment upon please?

In defining our Doubles a little further, is it true to say that they are corruptible or immortal in substance? Does it signify past karmic remnants of former lives belonging to the reincarnating ego? Is it the lower astral body, or lower self or any part thereof? Is it a "ghost" which may live separately from us, or are we inextricably connected?

We know of the dual relationships between the Sun as contrasted to the Sun's rays illuminating the Moon; and we know of our Christ as being contrasted to the Anti-Christ also; now we are brought to consider our own Double's contrast to that of our Higher Self and we ask about the prospect of likeness here, and how it is that it becomes so close to the undiscerning that we may be easily deluded - we are unable to know the activities of the Double, which is strangely so diametrically opposed to its 'other'. Also, that we may live under a presumption that it doesn't exist at all - could you explain this please?
On the matter of likeness we suggest that there are shared signatures which happily enable redemption to occur - is this so?

In the circumstance of men who behave badly, despising good men, (acting out of envy for example) is this their Double which is responsible?

Do we have difficulty interpreting the actions of the Double as that of our own when we have effected an evil of sorts?

On the subject of fear: if we learn more about this dweller, is there a way to approach this mystery on behalf of healing and come to some answers which will highlight and alleviate some of the more hidden fears which haunt all of us? Fear is a huge problem and there are perceived fears from without that we may deal with, but there are those fears from within, perhaps less easily perceived that you could help us to identify? Is all fear, inner fear, destructive, and therefore for us to seek to remove by love? Or are there fears of the higher nature which are valid and valuable and qualified that we must endure in order to sense the challenges ahead?

Is the forming of our Double an elemental process?

And finally, can we dare to go into this subject of learning for the healing? Are there rewards to all in our venturing further by this approach?
Thank you for your thoughts on this, they are appreciated,

- J & G

IT is the Double that shields us from the otherwise penetrating blaze of purity, that in a higher form of passion is diffused and filtered by the host of past company we bring with us. Here is a different angle again to add to the collection, but for a moment we can try this approach so as not to begin with a fear itself of our very Double.

The phantom man is not to be despised inasmuch as it is what we have made it, and also from the viewpoint that all parts which comprise our being hold great and significant purpose. So we begin by seeking to ease the tension which is building upon this concept.

If you consider the position of men who are growing in evolution, you will find that goodness may well be disproportionate and uncontainable to aspects of their fledgling egos. Too much of anything can bring about unbearable pressure from without and within, and this holds true also for even goodness as known to us by the actions of the spirit.

The body of the Double is astral indeed, although it is not the whole of our astral composure, yet it can most definitely walk about as whole when cleaved from the constitution of a man. Yes, as a ghost it can and does wander seeking out those things to which it is stimulated to - ever wanting of the world even after its connections have been severed from.

Depending upon the spiritual nature of the man from whom it has been made, it may be that it does disseminate quite rapidly. Or if it has been comprised and saturated with life during the incarnation and belongs to a temperament which lusts and leaks with habitual self-indulgence which lies contrary to creativity, sharing or life, then this shade of a man can wander quite strong in self, having had so much vitality poured into its nature whilst the man had lived, that it may then go on into perpetuation, hovering and leeching off those who hold to similar activity.

Our first consideration with this being is that it is foremostly impressionable to us and of our making and that we are indeed responsible in every way for it. It is the greater host to the community of lesser elementals which we carry; whilst at the same time it, unlike they, holds signatory and solitary being. The lesser elementals and thought-forms which flit around a man have a primary body which is shared amongst them and it is innocuous to good or to evil permutations. This primary body holds a group consciousness of kind, which experiences the impressions of the man collectively amongst other men concurrently.

Our Double however, holds an individuality which is its own insofar as it is distinct from our own spirit-beings and holds a degree of self-awareness which may one day work independently of the man to whom it is attached. The difficulty in concept here, is only that the Double referred to comprises an impermanent body which breaks down eventually after the soul of the man has retired from the Earth (usually this is so, but there are exceptions longstanding). Whilst also there is the being of the Double, who is as a deformed Angel that is committed to the individual and all of his story over the eons of lifetimes and has been scorned in nature, and like the knotted and twisty-gnarly tree of countless seasons of soul, bears all of the sins attributable to that man for which it follows.

Oh, what hideous spectre does pursue me!
All my years from Heaven to Earth and back again;
That gaze goes through me and I am shamed once more!
I have led this pitiable creature to Hell,
But it would not stay; saying:
"Do you not love me for what you have made of me?"
And of all the vile essences expressed in that accusation,
No truer judgment could set upon the jailer himself.
And once again I know my remorse.

These beings of remorse are the ongoing soul-natures which are ensheathed in astral passion, central to our Double's manifesting. They too have being and incarnating body - that of the astral substance in which we have clothed them.

The souls of Man have caused much pain to many kingdoms which support him. There are creatures dismissed into death for the purpose of sustenance; and this does not only occur with man as carnivore, but also Man in thought. His very processes impinge upon the sensitivities of beings who dwell in the neighboring etheric World, and then also into the higher realms as well. All of this must eventually turn around and change, when Man is then servant to the life he has expended on his account; and opportunities for such will arise and greet him, and the processes he goes by will be exchanged for a maturity of proper community.

Fundamental principles live themselves out in Man and must work their way through in every respect, in all of the layers of his behavior and design. These principles must make their shift from the core itself as it seems, and can only do so in the persistence of the ego's conscious demands to align with the truth of the spirit.

Love in actuality can be viewed, even in this system, as more of a philosophy. The fact that good and evil coexist has long been an argument for the placing of the shadow in relation to the light, and if for the exercise of thinking alone, there are points along these lines which can be seen to be reasonable. This may ennoble the active choice therefore for loving, inasmuch as it says that love itself is not obligatory and yet it overrides marvelously the discordant and fractured harmonies. (That sounds as though it is a contradiction, but it is no more a contradiction as is the coexistence of good and of evil, and we thought a fitting example, in truth.)

When you say that the likeness is disturbing because of the lack of discernment, this is highlighting one of the most interesting concerns any student or teacher could have. That we may have affection for an Anti-Christ because of his likeness to the Christ, and this is what brings us to him, leads us to ask if the differences between are separately important. Everything is less or more than it appears and it is the very task of the esotericist to learn to divine the properties and discover their intrinsic value as separate to each other. The power in this knowledge is in that we may now further question the apparent from the not-so-obvious realities; and may we be considered in our approach, to see if we have a light which is deflected or a look-alike that is only partly what we may think it to be, and partly perhaps that which we do not.

This study of men and their Double may bring with it a healing in relation to their fears. All experiences encountered within the world are known to Man because they have originated in a spiritual reality, with a similar experience beginning in the Heavens. Fear as it is within the higher man became known when he first felt separation from Father God. The separation itself was and wasn't so; and yet the fear struck at the heart and seized the consciousness because things were not fundamentally what they should be, and it came with the realization of this being so.

It is the fear that alerts us to the 'Uh oh' realization that change is moving upon us a little too rapidly to connect the past to the future with "I looked about and He was gone" - the fear in our soul is that we shall become Godless, because Godlessness to the Soul is death. The soul is in fear of its own end, and there is inbuilt the apprehensive knowledge of this possibility. How this is so cannot rightly be explained, simply because the Soul itself is intact and not given firsthand to the experience ordinarily.

But one may well imagine the horrors the soul may shudder with, when it suffers a loveless life as delivered it by the ego. As the ego advances it quite often is delirious and unempathetic to its encounters. When we first sensed our selves we then lost our sense of God in the strongest intuition, and then this followed through with regards to all other life to which He is apparent. This is one reason why love becomes our greatest savior, because the ego understands love and through it appeases others, our souls and our God; whilst naught else may bring them all together.

It is true to suggest that there are fears (such as this just mentioned) which live on in a man deep beneath his consciousness and have very early and unknown origins. It is interesting to watch a man in his emanations and activity when his consciousness is taken to trust and his thoughts and desires act out from an impulse which is from love before all else.

Any activity of ego can have the burden of the fear (all fears combined) within its structure. Even works which are self-pleasing (or perhaps what should be said is especially works which are self-pleasing) carry with them those fears that live both in higher reaches of self and also in double. However, when the ego is effaced with the action of one's loving occupation, attention, empathetic or sympathetic resonance and so forth, there is God working through them also to bring about the answer to the fear, the great fear, of Him having gone from their lives. So that when we experience the love beneficently, then to same measure we can say God is with us. The panic in the soul may well come from our own lovelessness, and so Man must learn to cease the search for self-indulgence alone, but seek more to fulfill and to love all else more perfectly.

The 'lower self' is a term usually used in direct relation to a specific example, and yet can be misleading if put to a schedule in blatant aspect. For example: the powers which converge around the organs and desires for reproduction are often alluded to as being incorporated within the 'lower self' or 'lower nature' or 'lower desires' whereas, those same powers are of the highest influence and principle working through Man.

The resources which pertain to the physical expression and psychic-astral vitalities can prove to incorporate a greater creativity in which God and Christ enter into Man. Such wholesome and high powers may also be left out of the process; and here the principle and example of the Double and J's remark about likeness is perfectly exampled, in that the physical act alone may well be mistaken for the godly, whilst the godly act may also be misnamed as being only that of the 'lower'. Man must align and synchronize all of his powers that they flow through from the very highest apex of his being into all that he does (and back again), for the powers not to be wasted, spilling over into that of the Double instead. From this you can see that the term 'lower' of itself is relative to that which we describe, and misleading if put to category. That which is divorced from the higher impulses can be confined to being an expression of just that alone, whilst what we may consider to be purely lower may indeed be a vehicle for the profound.

To answer an incidental question also along these lines, relative to what was just said: in the case of a man being influenced by alcohol whilst coupling, he is indeed divorced from the higher powers which perhaps could have become manifest (if also the true love was present). He is literally cut off at the waist (below both head and his heart) and the emanatory process astrally mimic less than the animals. This too falls under the activity of the Double, who is charged with vitality which promotes self-interred activity.

The interest the being of alcohol holds for the promotion of unredeemed Doubles is mainly in that of their likeness to him - a veritable Anti-Christian army, proud and assuming, ruthless in their desires, hollow in their beings, severed from the true heart and mind and their reaches.

There can be much envy which follows from the man who has lived the empty and hollow existence, inspired to hopefully contrast himself with how he could and should one day be; and although the envy is framed in a dark countenance, it comes with a wanting from a haphazard soul. This is the beginning perhaps to a change to be wrought within, for there are many promptings to self-improvement which bring about the necessary beginnings and willings for change.

Often we have stipulated that men should involve themselves in those things day-to-day which fulfill them and inspire them, and warm them to further life, for the consequence of this is that they will learn to lovingly appreciate this world and interact with all beings well because of it. Either we are discordant or harmonious; and in being discordant we are unproductive in the long run, being given to an artificial life which has only the veneer and appearance of living. The only reality is Love, and Man must learn to divine the true from the false accordingly.