Five Little Pigs- 26th May 1991

THE flesh colored pig has brought much controversy with him, for many centuries. The animal has been despised, insulted and shunned; particularly by those races who would not ingest any flesh for fear that such assimilation would invoke evil into their own being, also the wrath of the Almighty by such an offence. 

The pig of itself does not appear to exhibit an evil nature. In a well-kept environment, a clean farm or the wild, there is no particular slovenliness which should markedly suggest that which his name now implies. He is intelligent and compatible with men - many a myth has cited cases of human babes being turned into piglets - but apart from his fleshy fullness and his indigestible qualities, one must ask why the pig is the object of such ridicule?

The boar, which has a much hairier hide and pronounced snout, has a temperament in compliance with the wild - and in strict terms the boar is a far distant relative to the pig, in nature but not in form. The Chinese have held to twelve differing representatives from the animal kingdom, which are said to mark twelve differing qualities within the constitution of Man. The boar being one of these, indicates a strength and an earthly steadfastness in his attributes and nature, and is linked closely with the evolution of Man.

The pig however, does not enter into the calendar, because as stated, the pig’s family is quite separate in nature to that of the boar. If the boar is characteristic of a certain facet within the nature of man, and the pig held to be some perversion of the boar, then the pig must also be a perverted characteristic of modern man. It is small wonder then that the pig is held in horror by Man, or distance to say the least.

But one must question whether it is a case of perversion or evolution, or perhaps even a mixed evolution: that is the pig today.

The more compatible an animal is with Man, the less compatible his flesh is to consume- this is a fact. But laws against such ingestion were not simple statements to this effect, for there would be many other such animals implied in this instance, where the flesh itself would detrimental to Man's wellbeing (and remember when one is hungry, one would eat just about anything cooked or raw).

Many who are not even vegetarians, would find the idea of horseflesh or dolphin meat undesirable, if not revolting. If such a meat was prepared to taste as well as any other meal, one would find still a natural aversion to the foodstuff; just as there is today, a natural aversion to certain organs of the accepted fleshes that are consumed.

This is the beginning of where Man finds he cannot indulge in the flesh of a brother. Where the relationship is so closely linked, he identifies such characteristics- various attributes that he himself is endowed with. It is but a disgusting and degrading practice to enter into cannibalism of this kind.

Historically and quite mistakenly, there have been practices of all kinds of cannibalism that suggests to the people that certain attributes can sheath the consumer, by the act of that very consuming. Whilst not commenting as to the morality of this unhappy misguided notion, and further in the evil practices that also encourage such ridiculous assumptions, not only is the effect quite the opposite, but largely destructive. 

The result of consuming that which is the expression of a being so closely linked with that of ourselves, calls upon the lower realms. Flying in the face, so to speak, of one's humanity and compassion, is to negate that which is characteristic of such humanity, and degrade the consciousness to that of the flesh. For of course, flesh can devour flesh, and in respect to the lower aspects, be quite given over such attributes that are within the flesh, but the essence of that being, which calls the physical form, cannot be devoured. If this could be so there would be men trying to pick the bones of Angels!

Lower entities delight in such an indulgence that negates aspiring humanhood (certain lower entities). And so not only is there a difficulty in the act of such practice, but the added complication in the attraction of equally disgusting elemental creatures, who indulge with the man and cheer him on.

Returning to our friend the pig: The pig is only disagreeable to Man if eaten, as his nature is so developed that Man crosses boundaries, commits the sin of taking into himself the flesh of one who is too closely linked with the nature of himself, in part.

In future days to come, Man will find that the humble pig shall offer to the farmyard a way to earn his keep that shall not be provided by flesh for diet (or for medicine - another disgusting practice), but through a most unexpected contribution.

Dance- 25th May 1991

THE performance of dance is unlike any other performance of movement within the arena of action and reaction. Certain rhythms are implied in a particular dance sequence and certain responses are called forth by such a sequence of movements.

Would that one should dance through the world of thought!

To view a dancer is to witness a transformation of the particular level of consciousness from the active to the receptive. For those who are impelled by certain rhythms, quite insteeped by them, the level of experience is transformed whereby the relationship between their consciousness and the outer world is attuned perfectly in a certain way.

When inspired it is very natural to young children to express themselves through dance movements. They respond readily with cheery disposition to an outer rhythm inciting and impelling a moving response. This need not be expressed in a sequence of differing notes: one note repeated - e.g. a banging of a drum or saucepan - is quite sufficient.

Many teenagers who experience extreme discontent with a somewhat painful consciousness in daily life, are happiest when given over to forms of dancing - which may or may not be inspiring on higher levels of expression, but nonetheless offer a condition in which they are most comfortable, and for a time alter their interactions with the world where they may instantly attune themselves to something totally rather than nothing, sufficiently. Many a teenager will try to hold back the world with loud music, and in measure by this, can achieve just that.

Primitive peoples perceived the motivation of dance to be a fulfilling reality. Within their communities such dances performed were held to be of greater importance to the whole, than any other activity. This form of interaction is for the native, a complete expression of partaking in life itself. If one were to seek communion with the Gods or Devas, they would dance. If one sought the assistance of the elements, they would dance. If calling for change, in healing or in war, they would dance. In ritual and celebration, in community and for manhood, they would dance. Dance to the native is not only an expression of life, but is life.

In many respects modern forms of dance are a corruption if not performed with inner recognition, but out of a clumsy rehearsed sequence- which if it was a book, would be written with numbers rather than characters, with no intrinsic meaning or interpretation to be had.

It could be said that the animal kingdom dances also. This can be defined as such, when in mating or hunting the animal or the bird performs rituals with a rhythm that has no directly perceived consequence on that which they are about to do. Prowling or prancing has no relationship to self-consciousness, in the case of the animal. An animal does not 'show-off', for that would be beyond its comprehension. The animal does however enter into certain dances which most certainly have cause and effect of themselves.

Within the Western world, ballet is held to be the highest expression of dance. One must question where the ballet has evolved from; also the attraction and pleasure of the awestruck audience, whereupon no direct interaction is required for the inspirations of movement to take effect. 

The dancers weave a spell for the spirit of the onlookers, who moved inwardly by the music also, lend of themselves their consciousness to the performance, enraptured by the language of the movements.

Discontent & the Atheist- 23th May 1991

DISCONTENT is a fine motivating factor and alarms the individual to the possible consequences of pursuing further any particular line of operation, because they can identify having been down that road before. But once this is acknowledged, discontent with oneself generally is unproductive and is only a self-indulgence that delays further learning.

Once an individual has sighted a path that resounds in the heart as being true and correct, then a certain rejoicing in spirit takes hold of a weary soul who has tired of the error of former ways. Release and renewal from the past that one might go on, this grace is the Shadow of Christ in which we all dwell. This grand possibility for divine renewal is the release of our former ways, the indelible imprints and the burdens we carry; the ability at any time to throw off the cloth of our former selves and find identity in worlds of a higher nature, a finer substance.

There is no limit, no boundary set, in the ways one may improve and learn. Many are caught in a net of repetitious delusions that require submission, that the creations of our own being may perpetuate themselves. However, desire to effect changes in one's condition and within one's own being, will of its own present opportunities and challenges before the soul, that should assist in offering the progression onto the desired 'new life'.

Such challenges may bring either the extreme of suffering or temporary indulgences. However, inwardly the soul at all times is far stronger than the personality would have us believe, for the personality never endures, it must effect constant change and be impressionable from within and without. The soul welcomes the unfolding drama, as it seeks to glean from the arena of expression and existence, and is never satisfied.

Many individuals renounce their immortality, but can they come to terms with their own mortality? The former denial is understandable. For within one's consciousness daily it is almost impossible to grasp knowingly the consciousness of eternity and immortality; a glimmer yes, but an actual impression conceptually, no. For consciousness is such that it requires us to be in the one place at the one time and not expanded in a way whereupon we may realize all places at all times. One must fix a position, a center of operation, so to speak.

Recollection of past-lives would interfere greatly with one's perception of the moments today and experiences of the future would surely be retarded in like fashion. So if a man has not even a glimmer of the worlds ahead, this is not imperative to his standing in the world today, as the reality of the future of his soul will in time unfold of itself.

However, can a man, particularly the man who experiences no connection with the spiritual worlds, perceive his own mortality? If this was accomplished, what a wonderful carrot and stick for the beast he should have! And so we suggest to the materialist that if it is impossible to contemplate higher worlds, then look hard to the world you know of with a sternness of attitude that a consciousness of impending death requires, and live each moment in the light of morality and self-improvement - waste not one minute! If all men held death before their eyes in waking hours, and before entering the gates of sleep, then surely their seriousness, their pursuits and inquiry, their endeavors, their strengths, their honesty and compassion, would increase one thousandfold!

One's mortality is far more difficult to realize and come to terms with, than that of future existence. Because in truth all individuals know that death is ever a new beginning. If one were to sit at the bedside of any atheist who is near passing, should he tell you then that he is destined for the dirt?

Who might suggest in all honesty, that there could be no divinity, no higher intelligence, above that which we know? The higher-self in man knows of his wonder and gratitude for his spiritual heritage, and if the lower consciousness may be quietened for a time, one's higher-self will reassure the troubled individual of the glorious destiny that awaits him.

Smoke & Smoking- 22nd May 1991

CIGARS, CIGARETTES and pipe-tobacco, have in one form or another, assisted man's contemplative faculties over centuries. As an aid to draw one's thoughts and collect them, as one draws in the breath in intermittent rhythm, the smoke provides an artificial bubble-like enclosure; much like a suit worn by an astronaut within his controlled atmosphere. This buffer-zone created enables the man who smokes to keep the world at arm's length.


The smoker would have it that the world seems to impinge on every nerve, presses in from every direction and interrupts their ability to concentrate and interact with those around them. It also of course, aggravates such conditions and weakens the individuals who rely on such means, to a point where daily life becomes as an open wound ever patched up repeatedly by a razor-sharp bandage.

Not only can one picture the smoker to be contained in such a way that the world is held separate from the individual, but also the individual from the world. From this the individual who may be ordinarily quite passionate or emotional, is utilizing the habit of smoke enclosure to contain and restrain such passions and emotions. There is the tightness, the restrictiveness in the chest, the holding back and inhibition coupled with a desire to dynamically blast the world forcefully, and through fear of such unrestraint he imposes the composure that the smoke-world can bring.


It is not only the substance of the very nature of the tobacco that affects a man, but the manner in which it is ingested. For should the extracts of leaf be absorbed through stomach or skin, the glands would alarm to the poison in such a way that alerts the heart and shocks the entire system, but would not cajole the individual with the subtle change in conscious interaction as afore described.

It is the inhaling and expelling of the smoke- not the free particles in question, but the fiery element - that renders the immediate atmosphere surrounding a man with a shower of down-pouring sparks that interrupt all else in the ether, in fits and starts. With the individual held almost static, central to this activity, he is displaced and separated- for a short time, even from thoughts of his own.


To many, this condition can offer comfort - and in this the smoker is in constant juggle with the pattern of thinking he has been accustomed to use. There is a noticeable difference to those patterns, in regards to the non-smoker, and the smoker when he is smoking and when he is not.


There are many short-lived advantages that the smoker can utilize to help with new perspectives and in adjusting to his environment and according new opinions. However, as stated before, such means of containment artificially induced, render it extremely difficult for the soul to 'come out into the world', not only when trying to give the habit over, but in episodes daily, in between the smoky condition and during.

So unless the individual were to smoke one after the other, the pressures experienced radically in between are felt to a far greater extreme, to the eveness of pressure that the non-smoker encounters throughout the waking day. 

The Indians and the Arabs in the past, were not given over to continual smoking but rather used the practice strictly at specific times for specific reasons. With such a constitution that was not dependent or indulging for prolonged periods with overuse, the practice was helpful to that particular consciousness - as one could withdraw upwards for a time and view the world meditatively from many different aspects. However, as to the compulsive overuser this capacity is removed in the loftier sense, as the individual is in a sickened state by that very overuse, physically weakened and mentally overworked.


A superimposed calmness is quite wonderful, except when the calmness is interrupted by a corresponding and extreme expression of tension - twenty times a day! In short, therefore, there is little in the long-term to be gained by such a practice by the compulsive user. Rather the associated problems, outweigh the short-term merits.

As mentioned, the nature of the fiery element is paramount to the dependency of the smoker. In actuality, ask any smoker of the pleasure they receive in the initial 'lighting up': the burst of flame that begins the ritual. It can be of great assistance to those who are wishing to wean themselves from the habit to still carry the matches or lighter, and go through the process of this lighting up without a cigarette or pipe actually being lit. Incense may be of value also, an open fire in one's hearth, candles in the room and so forth - that they may still have in part some of the atmosphere surrounding them, cradling them, that they long for so desperately.

There are very strong and clear reasons as to why individuals get caught in any form of dependence. Judgment of such conditions can never be accurate, as no one man can know the whole condition of another before he may perceive with clarity that of his own.


The relationship of smoking with that of man can simply be viewed as the same as the relationship between man and a domestic pet. One can find grand, but simple companionship, own the pet that it might serve you, work to feed it, pick up after its mess, endeavor to restrain it - and hope that it will never bite you!

Charisma- 21st May 1991

ELVIS PRESLEY was a unique and very notable individual. His popularity and influence breached a spectrum of all manner of people, who when his fame was at its highest peak, could not have put to words the impression that his voice and image touched them with. There was no actual explanation (then and now), as to the overwhelming charisma and presence this man commanded.

The songs sung, the words that were uttered and slurred, did not have to be significantly exceptional. Elvis brought a frenzy of rapture with just about anything he did or said.

Here is a life lived, almost as if in the shadow of a curse. A curse, if it can be imagined, that one was: worshiped continually, harassed perpetually, was given all the worldly goods desired or imagined, and yet had no idea whatsoever in how or why this was effected.

One immediate consequence of such a curse was of course the loneliness endured. The second and most apparent in later life, was the debilitating effect that such adulation caused in weakening the individual's resistance to a point where artificial means of escape were relied upon, until they ceased to assist this tired soul.

Here was an enigma, as to why Elvis Presley suffered from an unbearable charisma.

Elvis had a twin brother, who died at birth (had actually died some time before, with insufficient placenta). The brother's destiny was such that there were great aspects marked out for his life, and the changes this soul should have wrought had the birth occurred happily. However, the individual Elvis was to have taken a more insignificant course, as far as worldly matters go, and had not the will or interest to do otherwise.

The timing of the births was essential to both, but when the soul of the brother had withdrawn, he (the stronger of the two) had imposed his etheric body in that of Elvis, who became as a dual individuality with one consciousness - in many respects haunted by the individuality who would not dissolve, but rather cleave to the life and body of his brother. Almost as an honest mistake in timing and in identity.

The brother had a strong purpose fired to bring with him into this life, a purpose that was never effected or realized. But it did however, bring to the individual Elvis that same quality of presence that was commanded by the soul of the brother. Here was a strong and powerful leader entangled in the carrying on of a pop-star glitter existence. And also, an individual who in innocence had little or no understanding of any particular direction in popular life - suffering under the pressure of mass adoration (and pressure it was) in pain. For no matter what was achieved he could never live out his own life or that of his brother's.

The only sympathy Elvis felt in life with another individual (because of his dual nature), was with his mother, as here was a relationship both individuals had a close bond with. Her presence was a comfort to him, there was a place in the world by her side which he knew was right. But in all other instances he was in the wrong place at the wrong time and hindered by the smothering events that encompassed him until the end of his days.

We should pity the plight of such a man, and from this understand that in no way would one sincerely ask for charisma and the ensuing popularity of its own, with no particular use to put it to or no capacity of will to manage it or its consequences.

The Talents- 19th May 1991

For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.

-Matthew 25 v.29

MUCH ability is acquired and not brought into life with instantaneous mastery. Even those privileged who enter a life with a given set of abilities that come naturally to them, must work to better their talents and develop them accordingly. No one should suggest otherwise.

This work that enhances the individual's abilities may be shunned or welcomed. When shunned and no development ensues, not only are the talents themselves as fruit on the bough, left to shrivel and wither - being void of vitality, putrefy - but also the whole individual with missed opportunities gives up an entire course of life; takes the alley, so to speak, rather than the road.

Talents of any nature can be put to good use within any occupation. However if there is little or no expression of such gifts, it is small wonder that they exclaim "something is missing from my life!” for it is the essence of creativity and right application that is sorely exchanged for the mundane existence.

Interestingly enough, there is a much greater virtue in the very application of the individual who attempts with constancy to master a particular talent, rather than the physical achievement as consequence to such labor and endeavor. For creativity, striving and application, brings together both past and present strivings, building for the future and future worlds. This is essential to future existence. Not only where the individual is concerned but as a collective, humanity must employ themselves daily that they may build the qualities of existence for the days ahead.

The old woman who drives her fingers deftly to crochet on and on, adding the multicolored pieces, arranging them so, laboring daily with constancy, creativity and application: this woman is laboring not only for a rug, and the love of labor imbued in each thread, but for an existence two, ten or perhaps even one hundred thousand years away. A fine contribution with active expression!

Already there are so many gifts which man is given, that lie uncherished and underused. If this is the case, how should he be bestowed with yet more which he would not know the value?

In fairy stories you will often come across a passage where a character is met along the roadside by a beggar of sorts. If this beggar be given what is asked for, the character is returned a gift, later which he finds to be of immeasurable value. This is the lesson of the talents.

The talents, alike to the virtues, have each their spirit which presents itself and manifests through the expressions and strivings of Man. Although such presence comes to us veiled, each with individual streams of inspiration can assist in the acquiring of learned skills and understanding of their cosmic fibers that connect the cosmic creations.

Therefore an opportunity wasted is denial of oneself. Idle pursuits are encouraged by the laggards who now know nothing more, who in refusing such wealth of experience would have all men follow such a smug and defusing course during existence.

There are creatures that come from the realms of certain virtues, who in their very being represent, quite the opposite of such virtues: beings of jealousy and vanity, that present themselves when their corresponding Angels of virtue have been turned away, that they might give of only what they know and are, and offer such persuasions to suggest that this is the reality of the true and correct perception of the world and its labors. For one must actively choose one or the other, and take into oneself the Angel of talent/virtue, or the demon of sluggishness and vice. Often it is a case that a man is misguided in intention alone, and concentration is interfered with, purpose of goal has been replaced by frivolous desire.

Laboring to better any talent is to be enjoyed wholeheartedly; one should miss the point sorely if one believed that these endeavors require arduous suffering. It is therefore to find that which excites and awakes the heart and mind and pursue it further, rather than feed the lower passions whose requests are endless and are never satisfied until the higher man is totally consumed.

It is as though men today were used to disappointments and their expectations have become so limited and inhibited that they should not dare want for quality of experience. Their yearnings of soul are so quietened, for a little voice cannot be heard or answered and they suffer a world with meager satisfaction as though this was their lot and they should hope for no more.

So much competes for one's attention. So many distractions fill the day and bombard the feeble intellect. But the soul shall call for awakening, for it does not sleep; and when the spirit of Talent calls also, Man shall welcome her in and give of what she asks.

***

The day is long,

The hour small....

figuratively speaking.