The Griffin & the Mock Turtle- 3rd June 2007

...the Mock Turtle said: "no wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise."

"Wouldn't it really?" said Alice in a tone of great surprise.
"Of course not," said the Mock Turtle: "why, if a fish came to ME, and told me he was going a journey, I should say "With what porpoise?"
"Don't you mean 'purpose'?" said Alice.
"I mean what I say," the Mock Turtle replied in an offended tone. And the Gryphon added "Come, let's hear some of YOUR adventures."

- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll

WITHIN the Chinese culture of the Dao, Spirit is everywhere, manifesting through the elements, throughout Nature, underpinning all. Folk often misrepresent or mistake the Dao, by leaving out the actual Spirits behind the forces that they sense; believing that there is something of a spiritual perception without deity or entity infilling their concepts. Whereas in truth, the Spirit moves through all elements, all life, in all ways, and is bindingly one with it - and yes it is simply not spoken of.

And it was in the past that the student of the Mysteries would not speak openly of the Spirit, or of God, that Divinity was held to be too sacred to be written of or called forth in voice. More than that, this was no rule, but rather felt - an experience itself, which maintained that one simply did not call upon the higher Spirits in speech or word at all (unless in private prayer which spoke directly to them rather than of them).

But they are there: beyond the dragons and fairies, further than Bodhisattva or Cherub, Spirit moves beneath and above Creation; and through the Wind, the Water and the Sunlight, Spirit is present. There is no absence of Spirit.

Up until just recently it could be said for all spiritual and religious cultures, that this was so. That conversation or text around Deity may have been guarded, but it was not obsolete. Anyone who maintained it was, simply did not understand the higher creed of their faith or their doctrines. The black hole of Atheism is but a non-notion - something which would not occur to the men of the past, in concept or kind.

So why did the shift come, from the numinous to the naught? (And why do we labor this so?) In point of fact, the whole notion of the unspoken sacredity has also departed, whereas before, the Mysteries and the Divine were regarded, and guarded as well.

Firstly there is the intrinsic soul knowledge, which the senses of the spirit can interpret and remember through, and then there is the Causal Soul which interfaces the world and mind during birth and life, and then there is the Astral house, whereupon the astrality of a man or woman draws down and filters the influences permeating from the planetary stations without; then there is the Anima-magi (being the majestic and holy animal body that we incarnate in); and then there is the Muse...

The Muse 

There is a Griffin and a Mock Turtle that accompany each other, and Alice for part of her journey - and as a depiction of the ever wondering muse, they are excellent travel fellows worth a study of.

The Mock Turtle is consistently whining - sometimes reminiscing, sometimes doubting, or questioning in a complaining demanding way - he is melancholy and difficult to shift from mood or attitude.

The Griffin is the yet more sober of the two - he is stern and sometimes impatient, trying to retain a point, and steer them well - he has a voice of calm and sometimes, reasoning. Alice tries amongst the two to be affable and adaptable, and is taken on a journey of thought and questioning that is sometimes whimsical, sometimes associative but nonsensical, and at other times as an indirect cause of it, most reflecting.

Within a thinking mind, a considering mind, this interjection of 'outside' musing enters in with a juxtaposition for the prior thoughts and ideas we have had. Thought itself is a living material. It cannot remain still as it presents within a memory. Memory itself is not composed of living thought, and often when people reflect on a memory in words, they are apt to repeat the same words that go with the memory time and time again. The memories themselves can be very vivid indeed - and truly within their own realm are three dimensional and experiential. Yet they are not alive because they can go no further than what they are or have been. 

To be live is to be actively, currently renewing and improving - it is to be: able to evolve, adapt, interact and change afurther. It is not static, morbidly composed, without vitality and momentum, ceasing and drawing back, retrogressive or moribund.

By this measure, we can find that the thoughts themselves, that we are entertaining, could be quickly considered as static. By reasons of practicality, they cannot all go further in our company; some by necessity needs be ended and discarded.

If it were not for the Mock Turtle and the Griffin within our thinking, our thoughts would become flaccid all too quickly. For some there is a fall back into the quarters of memory and repetition, or for others there can be a familial mode - which is thinking that is not contested at all.

Example: familial thinking goes over plans which have been thought of previously and have been reenacted before:

"I must go to the shop, and take my shopping bag; and buy two pounds of chops, and then be home at three to start boiling the carrots, and put them in the frying pan, to make dinner by five. We will finish in time for the news at six."

Within familial thinking there is little or no deviation from the prior set of thoughts before, there is an uninterrupted stream in planning, a monologue of repetition. There can be the occasional query - about the price of the meat on the day and so forth - and it might appear that there is some variety and newness to the thinking, but it is quickly brought back to the level of the moribund even so. For in this instance the familial is the key tone to set the constant.

Because of the nature of this thinking, there is very small capacity to learn ideas outside of its own patterning. The individual has difficulty shutting down the cycle of thoughts also. Generally one cycle will replace another, yet it will be equally as familial in content. Activities that do not require a contest in thought back to them, are preferred; i.e the watching of television, playing machine games, gambling with machine games, or hobbies of repetition.

Familial thinking may sound simply naive or merely evolved, but is far more sinister than that sadly - it is as a cancer to the thinking itself. And as a cancer it takes over the healthy responsive tissue of thought and replaces it with matter that is of no assistance to the system whatsoever.

In the not-to-distant future there will be very definite diagnostic evidence that can measure this condition, as it has physical properties as well. It is certainly not a healthy condition or one which lends well to further development out from itself.

Yet all children do begin with lively thinking and questioning, and the contesting of thought. If they are born with familial thinking they are Autistic, and some are very capable in practical terms, and some are very handicapped - however the common thread to their condition is that they have not the contest within thoughts, but rather they have a monologue instead.

For example:

The contested thinking of the Mock Turtle and the Griffin, generally speaking, brings us back to a solid sense of who we are amongst this dialogue. Added to this, we come to know from it over time, that we can and do, survive contest in our thinking. We go on to survive it within the world also. The flexing and the wrestling with ideas - with who we are, with imaginations and who we are not - this is an incredibly strong process all up, out of which we are usually still intact and all the stronger.

If we were to be honest about ourselves, there have to be many points in a day and a life where the world feels like nonsense to us. Primarily this is because we do not have the ability to grasp and grapple with all truths at once, particularly when we do not have a firsthand prior knowledge of them. In other words, there are so many scenarios we are placed in that we cannot consciously connect with knowingly in the immediate.

Now, to the Autistic individual or the Familial thinker the world in its constant contest is very frightening. If you do not practice responding to outer stimuli in your thinking, you feel the pressure of anything or anyone different or unexpected as extremely painful. Such a person does not have the capacity to deal with the different, and you will often see the poor Autistic cover their ears and cringe in a corner, whilst the Familial thinker mentally does the same.

Many folk become concerned that the inner dialogue that they experience is somewhat schizophrenic. However schizophrenic individuals are also familial thinkers (with monologue, the inability to listen, relate or respond; habitual, moribund, repetitive etc.), yet they have the dialogue, but with no level of contest.

So sadly they are open to all kinds of input without a sense of place or self to settle into after the conversations. There is little sense of the 'I' amongst the treacherous voices that then frighten them into a corner.

Child pre age 7

• prepared for the unknown,

• imaginative,

• challenging thoughts,

• instinctive,

• questioning,

• rhyming,

• connecting,

• arguing,

• complaining,

• saying no!,

• desiring,

• striving,

• achieving,

• dreaming,

• hoping,

• intuitive,

• affectionate,

• tactile,

• exploring,

• persistent,

• not fearful of being 'wrong',

• happy disposition,

• astrally impressed and sometimes oppressed by the astrality of those around them,

• drawing vitality from everywhere,

• healthy food tastes as though it nourishes,

• unhealthy food deadens the sense for nourishment,

• has humor,

• has a sturdy sense of the 'I' even though they might not know it.

Child pre age 12-14

• fierce,

• passionate,

• exploring,

• contesting,

• complaining,

• confused - yet accepting the confusion,

• connecting,

• recoiling,

• thoughts are congealing,

• perception is self-orientated,

• ashamed,

• self-conscious,

• humor becomes abstract,

• rebellious,

• cunning,

• struggling,

• senses likes and dislikes quickly,

• identifies,

• self-pacifies,

• imagines intensely,

• self denies,

• empathizes,

• questions authority.

Youth

• ablaze with life (unless it has been extinguished)

• seeking justice,

• experiencing a measure of past life karma,

• arguing with little self argument,

• justifying,

• exploring,

• yielding,

• contesting,

• inner dialogue is melancholy (exceedingly Mock Turtle);

• nervous,

• cautious,

• sensing the sense of the 'I' but not the 'I' itself as yet,

• sensing the senses with different experience,

• seeking approval through grandiose affiliations,

• needing affection,

• half hoping (a reduced disbelieving hoping),

• self calming.

Lively Thinker

• relieved to have survived youth,

• calm but excitable,

• pondering, contemplative,

• stern (enter the sagely Griffin)

• questioning,

• contesting - self and world of thought around,

• learning,

• acquiring,

• laughing,

• accepts not-knowing with a confidence,

• accepts contest with a confidence,

• has now a sense of the sense of the 'I', along with the solid sense of the 'I' as it is to refer to;

• thoughts have a three part analysis (Mock Turtle, Griffin & personable),

• views all people in caricature,

• holds solid friendships,

• risks over-doing things (eating, sleeping, working, sporting etc.),

• feels magnetic attractions,

• empathizes,

• imagines well,

• imagination blends with curiosity,

• desires to know, voracity to learn,

• experiences reverence and devotion,

• is humble,

• is arrogant,

• protests injustice,

• protects,

• is affectionate,

• responsive, sympathetic,

• socially responsible,

• articulate,

• kind,

• appreciative,

• considerate,

• creative,

• dedicated,

• inspired,

• repelled,

• guilty, repentant,

• strong in voice without over-powering,

• conducive.

Familial

• Constant,

• determined,

• opinionated,

• single thinking Mock Turtle melancholy

• or single thinking solemn irate Griffin (not single thinking from the 'I'),

• habitual,

• uncomfortable,

• selfish,

• not empathetic,

• unlikely to change,

• protests change,

• quotes truisms,

• lives memories,

• likes definite answers (like Trivial pursuit), 
• wears the same colors,

• has difficult sleeping properly because cannot connect to the spiritual worlds,

• little or no spiritual imaginings,

• has astral imaginings,

• has fearful imaginings (all self orientated, not for the world),

• socially reliable (even in the context of a criminal in criminal surroundings he will live to the norm of his immediate society),

• rarely tests self, does not admonish self or reflect on own behavior,

• justifies,

• accuses others with voracity,

• admonishes others with intent to dispel own sense of failure,

• feels inadequate at the core but does not know why,

• privately is frustrated, cranky and miserable.

Autistic

• Single threaded thinking from the 'I' without contest or opportunity for self appraisal.

• Unpracticed and uncomfortable with flexible challenging thinking.

• Cannot comprehend the concept of challenge or success, striving or surviving.

• Experiences oppression everywhere, is mentally out of synch with temperatures, noise, air pressure, etc.

• Loves repetition, finds refuge in the familiar.

• Does experience affection but does not demonstrate it.

• Holds a strong sense of the sense of 'I', experiences their 'I' but cannot remain strong enough within it to combat the influences outside of themselves.

• Cannot distinguish dreams from reality.

• Does have imaginative cognition, but does not use it to create thinking, cunning, or learning - just perceives with it.

• Can be empathetic and can learn that way, but it is far from obvious.

• Is not selfish, just entrapped in self.

It is a strange observation that the outer personality of the familial thinker is more alike to the inner personality of the Autistic person, and vice versa, the outer Autistic personality really portrays quite well the inner personality of the familial.

Schizophrenic

• Familial patterns in thinking but exposed to the imaginative ramblings and ravings of demoniacally destructive Mock Turtles and Griffins.

• Cannot find the sense of the 'I' or the 'I' itself, and is understandably horribly afraid.

• Has little or no ability to empathize,

• is fragile to contest,

• too interrupted to find comfort in routine,

• wants a strong affiliation in an effort to strengthen self and so is drawn to the grandiose,

• little or no self calming,

• protests injustices,

• can be self absorbed and selfish,

• cannot differentiate imaginings,

• most planning is unproductive although appears to have a working purpose (has a mock/fake quality to it).

Contemplative

• A lively thinker who can calm the Mock Turtle and drift into a gentle Griffin discourse.

Imaginative

• A lively thinker who works with a creative Mock Turtle and phantastical Griffin.

• Is perceptive,

• can forecast events,

• can be creative, and

• tries to understand the spiritual worlds as well as the physical.

• Can gain much vitality through exercising the imaginative complexities.

Cognoscenti

• A lively thinker that endorses his own thinking after the weighing and the contests have subsided.

• Logic on its own is not enough when deciding truths and knowledge, there needs to be decisions as to when to start and stop. An opening premise and closing summations are known to the 'I' of a man who can sort through and cognize his thinking well. So there is a very firm ability to strengthen the thinking through exercise, and as well as this there is the ability to stop. Within the patterning of nature there are always the two governing impulses - that of projecting forth and that of containment.

• The Cognoscenti individual may be imaginative or not, he may be able to switch to Contemplative or not. His strength lies in not being afraid to hear out the Griffin and the Turtle and sort through the arguments with patience and perseverance.

We began today speaking of the peculiar mindset which cannot sense or acknowledge Divine Deity within Nature or the supporting Universe about them. It was also discussed that this is a modern problem, which hitherto has not been experienced by Man.

The cause of this inability to intuit or acknowledge Deity is familial thinking corroding the lively connections. Familial thinking stultifies the heart as well as the brain, and interferes with the arterial knowledge that the individual can come to know himself by.

Needless to say also, that 'death' forces are introduced into the thinking with the consuming of narcotics and alcohol. These substances promote death to thought, and cause familial pathways long after their poison has drained from the system. 

As for the Griffin and the sobbing Mock Turtle: our companions in thought are innocent of their own promptings, and the truth of their truth. In our next discussion we will examine what they are and how they came to be, and how they can travel with us.

"And how many hours a day did you do lessons?" said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.

"Ten hours the first day," said the Mock Turtle: "nine the next, and so on."

"What a curious plan!" exclaimed Alice.

"That's the reason they're called lessons," the Gryphon remarked: "because they lessen from day to day."

This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over a little before she made her next remark. "Then the eleventh day must have been a holiday?"

"Of course it was," said the Mock Turtle.

 

The Bene Factor- 20th May 2007

IT is only through that of our Divine Benefactor of All, do we share the Grace of the Wellness of Being. Firstly it is to He that we give our most sincere gratitude to, and pledge to uphold and work for this wellness at all times, for all others as well.

Thanking a faceless, spiritless Universe, is tantamount to thanking a rubbish bin for its existence and for your own. It does not make sense. Without intelligent design and purpose, without a higher Will and motivation, could nothing but substance itself, create and sustain, let alone care that you are indeed thanking it?

Godlessness is an epidemic at present. One cannot say if materialism has given birth to it, or vice versa, but what can be observed is that without this fundamental first premise, men and women are become detached from the commonsense that follows.

Primary concepts are the rocks we build our temple on. They are more important than we know. We carry them also, upon our supernal person - day or night, these concepts follow us and determine the coordinates for all else to follow.

'The Secret'* expects not only wellness, but in many instances, abundance, and believes that this is but a Universal Law. Father God or any spirited Divinity, is not essential to their concept. There is no knowing intelligence which decides and wills that things be so - it is based on an automatic response that of itself is not moral necessarily, or wise.

It believes that the thoughts of a man or a woman are very powerful - as is so - and encourages them to be positive in general - which is of itself, very positive in the doing and the outcome....but then goes to the idea of some generic principle's action which will comply with our own will, want and imagining.

Meanwhile there are so many we leave out and unknowingly ignore. So many beings, loved ones, Angels and Gods, who all have and do contribute to our wellbeing. And yes (thank you Martin Luther King for saying it out loud), what of the nations of the world also, whose labor support the breakfast tables of the wealthy, and whose looms clack and cleave so that we might clothe ourselves?

The greater Secret in all of this is, of those souls and spirits we should thanking and working to give back to. The far bigger Secret speaks of such denial that refuses to acknowledge the Bene Factor, our benefactors - not forgetting either, those who labor in slavery, impoverished and compromised. God Bless them all.

Primary concepts tend not to be unique to the individual, for at that level they are shared in common with a bulk of others, who not only promulgate the same, but are actually linked by this community of thought together. This is nothing to do with core wisdom however, but more to those consciously accepted and affirmed precepts by which our life philosophy runs. And they are usually very simple.

Here is a useful list of examples (not to be read out loud) -

Father God exists.

Father God hears my prayers.

God exists.

God is Divine.

God is unknowable.

God is fair.

God is just.

God is indiscriminate.

God is unjust.

God does not exist.

There is only one life.

There are many lives.

All is good.

People are good.

People are not good.

The world is changing.

I am loved.

I am not loved.

I will never know.

I can never know.

I don't want to know.

The mysteries are mysterious.

The mysteries are there to be known one day.

I can know the mysteries in time.

I am a good person.

I am not a good person.

No one understands me.

People love me.

People do not love me.

People are crazy.

I love people.

I love animals.

I love children.

I love Angels.

I love power.

I love myself.

I want someone to love.

I want to be someone, someone wants to love.

I love eating.

I delight in cruelty.

I have great humor.

I am creative.

I hated school.

I loved school.

I could have done better.

I should have done better.

I want to do better.

I want to be better.

My mother loved me.

My father loved me.

My mother did not care for me.

My father did not care for me.

My mother loved my sister/brother more.

My father loved my sister/brother more.

My mother loved me the most.

My father loved me the most.

I loved my mother.

I loved my father.

My childhood was difficult.

My childhood was sweet.

My adolescence was difficult.

My adolescence was fun.

I want to grow old.

I do not want to grow old.

I prefer salty to sweet.

I like sweet things.

I want sex.

I do not want sex.

I need more sleep.

I do not want to sleep.

I am too fat.

I am too thin.

I am not bright or intelligent.

I am self conscious.

I am proud.

I am strong.

I am the best.

I am holy.

I am admired.

I am powerful.

I am scared.

I am habitual.

I hate cleaning.

I love to organize.

I love books.

I love movies.

I love computers.

I do not like computers.

I feel peaceful.

I feel restless.

I always want more.

I am satisfied.

I am grateful.

I am wishing.

I am lonely.

I am selfish.

It is alright to be selfish.

That's just me.

I have a right to be me.

I am proud to be me.

I am not listening.

No one can convince me.

I cannot stand religion.

I cannot stand atheism.

I am a people person.

I am a patient person.

I will do what it takes.

I cannot be bothered.

I am lazy.

I like to cheat.

I like to steal.

I like to get more than I have paid for.

I need to be honest.

I need to lie.

I need to be fair.

I need to be happy.

I like singing.

I do not like singing.

I believe in Angels.

I do not believe in Angels.

I am a gardener.

I am no good in the garden.

I love nature.

I love the city.

I believe in Karma.

I think when you die you are dust only.

I think when I die I will go on.

I am afraid of heights.

I am afraid of women.

I am afraid of illness.

I am afraid of being wrong.

I am afraid of getting older.

I am afraid of losing my mind.

I am afraid of losing another person.

I have been disappointed.

I did not deserve my life.

I deserve more.

I am sad about the world's problems.

I am confused.

I cannot tell anyone how I feel.

God does not approve of me.

I am scared that God will cast me out.

I cannot stand violence.

I love color.

I am a good cook.

I love to do for others.

I love to be a mother.

I love to be a father.

I love to be a grandfather.

I love to be a grandmother.

I wish I was a mother.

I wish I was a father.

I do not want to be a mother.

I do not want to be a father.

I wish to be a grandmother

I wish to be a grandfather.

I wish for more children.

I do not wish to have children.

I am afraid to have children.

I love TV.

I love hobbies.

I love sport.

I love Church.

I love to kill.

I love to create.

I repent.

I have done nothing wrong.

I have faith.

You have to have faith.

I want faith.

I have no faith.

I am sincere.

It is all too hard.

I am dying.

I am afraid of pain.

I am afraid of death.

I am unhappy.

I am very happy.

Something is wrong.

I am never wrong.

You have to be positive.

You have to be wary.

I have to be on the look out.

There is a wisdom behind everything.

I understand spiritual things.

I do not understand mumbo jumbo.

I love the sunrise.

I am afraid of the dark.

I love the night.

I am afraid of being seen for who I am.

I am nervous.

I always laugh when I am nervous.

I cannot stand laughter.

I cannot tolerate loud noise.

I cannot tolerate bad smells.

I cannot tolerate off food.

I need to wash.

I need to wash constantly.

I can never wash enough.

You can never wash enough.

I want to be left alone.

I want to party.

I want to get high.

I want to get drunk.

It is OK to get high.

It is OK to get drunk.

It is not OK to get high.

It is not OK to get drunk.

It is not OK to eat meat.

I love eating meat.

It is not OK to be unkind.

I love being unkind.

I find sport in being critical.

I am smart when I am critical.

I belong to the University of the World.

Experience is everything.

Love and kindness are everything.

I am superstitious.

Knowledge is everything.

Reading through these primary concepts we immediately recognize what feels correct about ourselves and our self statements, and what does not. The issues they address are colorful and go further than simple negatives or positives, because they speak of very real qualities, virtues, conditions and precepts that will definitely lead on to very certain effects and further thinking thereon.

These concepts are not arguable, in the sense that they are subjective and personal to ourselves. They may not even be current with our very own consciousness, desire or thinking, but have been born from other folk who have impressed us with the same concepts or situations, from which they have naturally arisen.

"Man know thyself" begins very much with the reviewing of these concepts affecting our thinking, our behavior and our futures, so that we might later go on to learn of the greater man, and what that means in relation to the systems and conjunctures in which we are fixed.

It is so important to not only review our day, but to go through these primary concepts and work to review them also. You might feel some of them impinge upon you even though you do not agree with them. Bring them out from the dark and consider them. By accepting and rejecting and self reflecting we are becoming stronger in ourselves.

An entire book could be written on what it means to hold just one of those concepts about a person. We begin each day with them, repeating them over and over in our psyche. They determine many of our decisions before our working ego can grapple with the moment at hand. We rest and rely on such 'truisms', without them necessarily being unchangeable. They appear to hold some biblical importance, but really are secondary to our active consciousness and true deciding. They each have their gremlins that are in constant argument with one another.

However it is helpful to cite those ones which we are encumbered by, and those which are assisting us - and then also to know that we are truly none of the above, for this reason:

True goodness is not done by rote. Our godly selves, our reverential selves - all of those primary concepts above are definitely affecting them, but when we look to thought and action in the moment it really requires a conscious exchange.

For example: if I help a brother, which is preferable? -

• That I should help him because my repetitive concepts steer me

• or that because of the need, because it is right, because it is something I choose to do in that very moment, it is something I consciously decide.

There is a difference. 

Believing in something because you have always done so is just not enough. It becomes lukewarm at best. There can be no true conviction if it is just repetition.

Especially that which is good about ourselves, needs to be lively and executed with verve, with intention, rather than a fit in profile. Even positive affirmations cannot be delivered with a momentary vitality unless they have the grit of understanding within them, and gratitude to Grace for their existence.

Grace is very personal. It is not compelled - for were it merely a compulsion it would be just another law. It is personal. It is personal to the receiver, personal to the situation, and always with intelligence.

The gods make decisions all the time. They are not compelled or robotic servants to our lives. When Christ acts, He does so, not to merely fill a profile of Himself. And nor should we. The very reason why so many folk think that Christ loved because He had to, by definition of Himself, is because they live the profile of the primary concept, rather than so living in the momentary self themselves.

Living in the moment is not encouraging one to merely live for the moment alone. What it requires moreover, is a reasoning that is ever weighing a situation or a motive, without and within, and questioning what is correct at that very time to do, truly deciding for oneself, without merely going to the preconceived text of who we are.

For each of us clothe ourselves in these simple statements, but they are in fact quite dead within their own nature. Their time has gone when first thought or uttered; and impressed upon us though they be, they are but shrieking ghosts.

Man know thyself within each living moment. For it is within the present we only have ourselves to know, and it is there our strength and glory lives.

Perhaps some of the concepts above have been good to us, and some have undoubtedly weighed upon us most heavily, but all in all, there is only one we need to hold to, and that is:

It is only through that of our Divine Benefactor of All, do we share the Grace of the Wellness of Being - and for this we are ever grateful.

Amen.

*[Comments on the book: The Secret]

Projecting Forth- 13th May 2007

TIMES traveled before used to be very different. For example: if a man or woman set out on a very long journey, either with animal transport or across the sea, they could not picture where it was that they were going, and had no means of being prepared.

The experience for them was surprising, at least, and although there might have been expectations, there was no real prior knowledge of landscapes and cultures, unless they had been there before.

Nowadays we have movies, photographs and many ambassadors from all the continents. Cultures are blended and architecture itself testifies to a historical metamorphosis rather than a style. Generally however, the world is a familiar place.

It could be said that men and women are thinking more than ever before. They may not go far with their reasoning on any one subject, but their speed of thinking and range is considerable. 

With the seasons themselves, we have begun to lose our instincts; and it is true as well to say, that we are diminished in those peculiar knowings that would forecast the time of a birth, or death, or storm coming in. The thinking has overrun these kinds of instincts and does not listen very much to the clock of the Sun or impulse of the Stars.

Some instincts are stronger, yet different. They are imbued with thought and yet remain intact and with purpose. The affection and nurture of one another as babies, friends, in family, in relationship - these instincts of love in action have triumphed those aspects that are still in want and wane.

And so it is that the flux is hard but the flow is good. It feels like a time of great change, yet in so many respects it is not. Only so much can be varied, and it is simply because of the speed and variety of thinking that folk feel like the circumstances of the world also are changing; perhaps beyond their control.

However, intrinsically, substantially, fundamentally and remarkably, there is no major change in the universal law, the range of colors and light, the difficulties between differing realms, the constant of renewal and the grace of eternal life - these things have not changed.

The virtues (each one of them) and their supplement to our invigored souls - curiosity, joviality and congeniality - are still all here. 'Life' in organism, life in fruit, in blood, in sprout and in spirit - Life is ever strong and stronger, in obvious and exuberant manifest.

Warmth is warm, cool is cool, hot is hot and soft is soft - these have not changed. Light is light; touch, smell, sight, day, night, are still the same.

We are here, present now within our selves - in the same spot we always are, in familiar reckoning. And you do know yourself - do not let anyone tell you that you don't, because this above all else you know.

You might not have figured out the contest of details of those things outside your domain, and you may be blighted by the constant thinking or paradigms, current in the now around you - but you do know your quiet self: that feeling of self, being simply and perfectly right here. For a moment just you can hush the details and go to self; and it is plain and clear that you are still here. 

Countless frames of circumstance have greeted you and gone, yet you are here. Worlds have tumbled and been reborn, and you are here. Families have swapped roles, as you have as well - a diminished king, a weather-worn pauper, a hapless criminal, a pain racked cripple... oh dear! You are still here.

Some things do not change. Your Arterial Self's connection with Father God - that one connection that is faster and stronger than all - is still there and shall remain. And from this you will always know your sense of self - in that quiet knowing that is not impressive and sophisticated, in that humble knowing that is not assuming or ingratiating, in that joyous knowing that is the root of certainty and the profound.

We say this because of the epidemic of fear that is eroding the psyche at present, within the World. And in whatever way it is expressing itself, it in itself and of itself, is creating but one outcome - more fear.

If we begin to forget the true constants that are good and most permanent, then we become unstable within ourselves and ready to believe anything. However, you can know that much of the cause of most personal disruption, is of losing consciousness of that good.

Fear would have you believe that bad outcomes can eventuate before they happen. Commonsense can tell you this too, but without the fear. Commonsense will give you a decent plan for a positive outcome as well. Fear only tells you of negative projections.

This epidemic of fear can unravel the self-composure of a man. It is generally unconscious because the population is projecting it, on the whole. With demonic cliché it struts and moans and broadcasts itself with a lascivious overture. It spreads myths like: "we don't know", "you don't know", "you can never know", and so forth, causing the very confusion, it maintains you are suffering.

If you ever watch a professional person trying to remedy a problem before them, you will notice the overwhelming calm they exact their trade with. If you saw a hysterical surgeon, or a confused and stressed out architect, you would be necessarily, concerned.

The overwrought and 'dunno' attitude has no place amongst people who are actually being useful. Certainly you do not see fear glaze their being and freeze their activity. They have to go into their project with a reasonable expectation of success in outcome. We are all the same - the alternative is simply too difficult. 

So if the media or a neighbor is making noise enough to unstable you, or project more fear, you can remedy part of this by simply remembering some of the above - forewarned, forearmed and cherishing your self-peace.

There will be those things you can definitely make a positive contribution to that would not be the same without you. But in order to be effective within the World, particularly at present, it is so much better to work from a place of calm, than of disruption to your discernment.

Fear protests our abilities in general and afflicts our root differentials; whereas projecting out from our true selves and returning to our true selves, enables us all the more.

I adhere to the Constant,

And love all that is lovable.

I move out from that one sphere,

Yet my spirit stays spherical.

And as one to another,

I know you well,

Through He that knows all.

There is calm at this center,

Being central to naught.

I revoke all protesters,

My permission has knots now secure.

I am indifferent to all the persuasions,

But seek to know that which is good.

I pledge to care and be worthy,

To be able, useful and kind,

To sit at the lap of Mother Wisdom,

Heeding her observations of Time.

At the feet of my Father, our Father,

I'm able with His Word and His nod.

I'm inclined by the grace of this Life I'm enabled,

By the strength of His Sun I will shine.

When the play has abandoned its forum,

When the trees have been drawn to the ground,

If my time and all time is abandoned,

I shall still be the Jewel in the Crown.

Fishes & Loaves- 6th May 2007

AS soul proprietors we all know just how difficult it is not to mortgage ourselves into the vagaries of self abandonment, giving up the freehold of Spirit for the tenancy of this World.

And it is somewhat true, that negotiating any lifetime requires a mask and a gluepot (an old expression); meaning that the fabric of earthly living is short-lived and by all appearances ever changing, with an inevitable death.

The question that was raised tonight was: "Why do we incarnate at all?" "What is the benefit and purpose for ourselves and the Spiritual Worlds?"

There are two types of Purpose - one is where the kernel of its truth and benefit is there right from the very start and does invigorate the spirited soul who drives it.

The second, is that Purpose that is as yet unrealized until the fulfillment of duty and action has been complete. It is a Purpose which is spirit in the making, unresolved as to outcome, but imagined in the Divine Mind and incorporated there before its play.

Such Purpose could be attributed to the incarnation of the Cosmos as known through the higher Gods, and the extraordinary drive around which the Physical Worlds have been manifested. We can consider what it means for the 'higher' life to be entitled in Matter, and what possible benefit this could bring.

In order for something, for anything to exist, it must have its place within the whole, within the frame. Things, whether they be widgets or new planets, must have a place for their nature to be incorporated; and within that place a solid fit. If one digit of a widget was out of place, for example, then the entire fit would become maligned very quickly and obsolete. 

Place and purpose are prerequisite to existence. Furthermore this Purpose needs be conducive to the whole (must fit also), and cannot stand apart from its environment else the environment would dissolve its place in rapid transit.

This principle cannot translate into the social context, where the world of ideas and paradigm can preexist existence itself, seemingly, but is more to the point of a veritable truth underpinning consequence; i.e. existence requires substantiation from a place and purpose outside of itself in order to be, and this existence needs be in concordance with that which parents it.

Now having said that, one could see very clearly that parentage is going to determine much of the ongoing status of that which is to follow. Life remaining faithful to the Life from which it is born of - that which substantiates its being - is rightfully coherent to the Nature that enables it.

However and having said that, there can be just one very small anomaly in this divine principle of precedence, and that is that life can become static through its own self fulfilling repetition. 

In other words, this requirement of 'fitting in' to a wonderful operating system such as it is, with the highest of Holies and the best Parentage one could hope for, this evolving and perfecting routine is also held in place with a uniform expectation and outcome.

If you ever thought that Karma has a tight grip, just try the slap of the Almighty! 

Now on the whole this is of course, the highest Grace to become ennobled by; and if choosing, there really is no choice, because the ways of God really are the only way. And more than that, there is no better place to be, sustained by the Heavens and protected in their hold. But (and it is a very small 'but') in the scheme of things, it could become, by stagnation, undone.

The physical existence is not anarchical or complacent; it was not, interestingly enough, born of the same either. There was no physical system that preceded it, and the Space and Purpose from which it began, took on attributes of increase - of multiplying - which hitherto had not occurred before. It is now known as the "Fishes and Loaves" principle of need and multiplication. And it is extraordinary.

Formerly, for example, there was (and is) a system whereby the enlightened/advanced beings within the Spiritual Worlds could be graded from the highest to the lowest, in a natural sequence. If you were to pictorially view this, you would see the being who is most advanced at the top and then all the others in their placing, coming in one beneath the other in a gradient that only affords a single plane to each. The positioning might shift from time to time, but the gradient is always there - from the highest to the lowest - you can see it.

Here it should be added that this gradient is not a harmful thing, it merely is a truth of its own keeping. If I held a race, and at the end of that race there was but a very small door to go through, then there would be no doubt as to who managed to get through first, second, third and so forth. There also would be no 'ties' in place, just a single succession of winning places. And so the grading of development finds its levels similarly and obviously, giving one place to one station at any one time.

Yet with the Material World in its system, all men within it can and do arrive at the same stations simultaneously and together. This in itself, as said before, is extraordinary and innovative, and has ramifications for the Spiritual Worlds without also.

Returning to the concept of Space, Purpose and Continuum - we found earlier that Space and Purpose are generally limited to propagating more of the same. We found that the element of repetition is intrinsic to this system, in a positive way, of course.

But now there is another aspect to Cosmic Life that is introduced - and it is not a defiance of Space, but an expansion of it. It does not involve going against the nature of the divine Purpose at the heart of that Space, but rather multiplies its possibilities.

Here is a project and plan of vast proportions - and how quickly we can see the hopes for the many becoming realized as were never before allowed or allocated for previously.

Through Christ, the realization of a divine actuary has been incorporated (through His Being, which is at the pinnacle of this gradient aforementioned, in Supreme development and success), circumventing the one way, small door principle, and replacing it with a charity of the highest, that no longer is the ladder to Heaven with single rungs and constant formation, it is a whole. And added to this, the codicil that Men can acquire on behalf of other Men also, that learning and development is infectious, and improvement can be and is collective.

Fishes and loaves, fishes and loaves....