Translate

A CLUB OF SUPERNAL INTERESTS Christian Esotericism, Spiritual Science, Esoteric Christianity - All Authored by a Lodge of Christian Teachers (unless otherwise stated.) (All writings copyright) ©

Monday, November 8, 2010

The Communicative- 28th February 1999

Question:

Dear Brothers,
In reference to your thrice emphasized Definitive Decision, formally stated, to "wholeheartedly and unreservedly receive Christ and hence the whole world into our beings, and dedicate our lives back to Father God by acknowledging that it is His life in us - firstly".

Most Christians would say that they have made and perhaps remade these decisions many times and in various forms, i.e. going forward at the call of an evangelist, giving our worldly goods to the poor, receiving Holy Communion etc. etc.

And yet dear teachers your point is needed. Many of these very dedicated churchmen who would say that they have made all of the above decisions and even say that they believe that they have made all possible decisions on this subject (mea culpa). If someone were to ask them 'How aware are you of the indwelling Christ, and is it Father God that lives in you firstly?' they would be left speechless and feeling inadequate.

Is it possible therefore that you are hinting at a decision making process, ritual or formality which is entirely new and which if followed leads us into a closer and conscious union with Father God and Christ, prerequisite for the stormy waters foretold in the same teaching.

Secondly, may I come back to 'integration' as a function of consciousness and place it against the background of the prevalence of distractedness and a lack-of-fulfillment of expectations during the Christian Communion as reported by honest priests and laymen alike.

We know Christ to be the Alpha and the Omega and can see that the experience of the Mass integrates our consciousness wonderfully via the path of memory to the His-story of Christ.

However you have shown us that Christ approaches us predominantly from the future.
Could it be that our hopes of meeting Christ in the Communion service as it exists, need to be much more defined and limited to that which it is - His-story, and that the higher experience of Him needs be sought by the integration of our consciousness with some new form of ritual celebration of His future - albeit an integration with mystery.

Love,
John W.

Preambly:

THE intercessionary period of Kali Yuga makes difficult and murky conditions within all phases of activity pertaining to the physical world, and the supersensual impressioning within and without it as well. Much like a trumpet with a muffler, our inordinate senses of spiritual divining are distorted to the point where at present, materialism prevails (even amongst the most clairvoyant). You might have a high-pitched vantage with a massive lens to view the stars, and still it will be a cloudy night. This is what Kali Yuga is and more: a clouded night and a fog-filled day.


And He is needed. With all of the urgency that presses in amongst us, He is needed. With Man so disabled, cut off from his heavenly perceptions and made distraught thereby - He is needed. Amongst the doubt in the hearts of the goodly and the recklessness in those who believe themselves abandoned - He is needed. This is His time, because we need Him most, right now.

If our spiritual impressionings are vague it is not because of an emptiness within, but that we are extraordinarily compressed within a physical existence that is taut with unrelenting tensions. Seized up upon itself, our compacted matter is still yet to be permeated respondingly. The only reason why experiences of a psychic nature glaringly break through at times in the comprehension of they who are open to that influence, is because the experience is more physically related than it is spiritually defined. It comes via the astral/physical sense conditions and is restricted to the immediate (quite often mirroring a physical condition within a man) in cooperation; whereas the experiences of the spiritual worlds directly are quite blocked insofar as the consciousness that is receiving them. The imaginative forces bridge the clairvoyant inadequacies, however they cannot translate a spiritual actuality as is.

Ordinarily, with the correct perception a spiritual actuality would be an objective event to be observed and agreed upon. Within the conditions of the Globe today, and within our physical consciousness which receives such conditions, the only way a man may come to realize and experience a spiritual event is via his subjective reasonings, rather than through clear observations without himself.

This will not always be the same within the conditions of matter and makeover, but for the present it is sorely the situation we must bear with. So in relation to the way in which any given man will experience the holy powers working through him and into the world, it should be explained that this will reflect only partially that which does occur, and also it shall be summoned up through his consciousness subjectively through imaginative recall. Eventually each man's preliminary interpretations will coherently coincide with the exact realities as they are adhered in nature. The senses will incorporate many subsistent planes of actuality as they co-occur. But for now the lenses are obscured and we are given to rely on our deeper, yet unseen reaches within the determination of heart and heart's mind. We must depend upon such inner bearings that will find their way through without the outer instruments to guide. We can do this with the right coordinates and the help of Christ, God-willing.


The Question: The 'How to' of the Decision

True decisions are never made hurriedly or on the spur of the moment. Some decisions may appear to be summoned all of a sudden or pressed to be answered immaturely, but in relation to the nature of an inner decision, the preparation and formulation makes for the resumé and is essential to the consistency resulting.

A Christian may be called to reaffirm his position in a variety of ways throughout any given day. There can be many responses, differing responses, which go to make up the 'meat' of the final decision. For there are components to every man which must all be heard: some that will argue, some that must needs be worked through. Even when our prospective self comes to the fore and takes authority in that of the future, there comes also that creature from the past who cries to maintain all that has gone before and perhaps wills to remain, rather than let go to change.

Decisions take much providing for, even when the heart prescribes quite knowingly that which is the right and proper decision to come to. Ahead of such time as is manifest, there requires thoroughness on behalf of the man to pay respect to every facet of being and condition which is to be affected. It is upon entering into such mighty decisions that those facets and conditions begin to present most markedly to be guided. This is why the student who begins his path in earnest is immediately beset with all kinds of opposing tests, as it were - simply because he is called to address and reconcile every detail which will call upon him, out from him. As often it is, the more important and heart-driven the decision so formulating, the harder and more difficult the faculty which is exhumed is to put to the test.

From this you may understand therefore that the decision spoken of, which asks each and every incarnate should they wish to remain upon this particular Tree of Life, is well prepared for in advance and answered largely in small portions throughout the preceding periods. In short, although however it is that there comes the time eventually (and soon) for such preparation to come to a close, whereby the soul no longer has that liberty of time to take up the pieces in deciding, if they have not worked through the necessary fulfillments, this may not have been won in the parliament of self, sufficiently to go further.


The Question of Feeling Inadequate & Unholy

It has been said that one of the greatest 'blow-outs' of excess vitality misused and spent within the aspirant can be that of megalomania. To this we would add, that there is the same demon manifest also in spiritual self-doubt and annihilative thought suffered within.

The corruptive passion of desiring to contain and control the world is born out from an immature ego which has been enlivened with the holy realities yet has not exercised them out from himself. The virtues become corrosive if they are not expressed, made manifest through action and thought without. This often comes with a strong willed person, who of high mind has drawn such powers unto himself initially, but has collapsed within at the gates of action and turned virtue into further empowerment for will. He will then go on to project this will into outer circumstances believing this to be equally holy, and in the course of the inverted astralities (see Narcotics- Corrupting the Astral) the discernment and practice will go on to manifest the very opposite of the virtue first drawn in.

Now in relation to the 'Christian man' who is pained by a low attitude of self-worth and deficit of sacred experience, this same demon offers the corruptive passions of desiring to contain and control the person within as though that very person was distinct from who they really are. The ego can be as subjective yet mistaken in this investiture, just as it is with the megalomaniac who cannot determine the perimeters of self and willfulness in relation to the outer world. The individual in this instance turns upon his inner world and dictates in ways which cause self-affliction. Once again we have an immature ego who has initially drawn in such vitalities from inspirative sources yet not qualified them in the immediate.

In other words, when the force from the virtue was received it should have been translated into manifest action, but because of the disablement of self (and this can come about for many reasons) this has not occurred. Eventually the virtues appear as poisons and the man begins to hold an extremely low view of himself (and of others) because of this. He may go into Church or to revelry for further inspiration, which can actually cause further aggravation given the above. The only way out from this particular spiral is in the 'doing' rather in the reflecting (or even praying) ... it comes of the release and expiring of the heavenly forces.

What this means is that it becomes in that man that he needs and must find ways to provoke happinesses, joys, inspirations, good work (not insincere, empty or heartless enterprises), effect love, communion, goodwill, charity, compassion etc. out in the world effectively. He must expend this virtue in order to contain it properly. Mere talk and conjecture and abstractness will not provide the relief needed, nor can more goodness flow back into a man until it is spent amongst others.

Question: of Ritual & Consciousness

The question here was regarding a ritual or formality which might assist with the decision making process; and it is a very good question because it immediately helps us to understand just how difficult it all is.

When we defer ourselves to ritual we are, in fact, most ill-disposed to any decision making whatsoever! The decision process cannot be exteriorized or made to occur apart from us, without from us, or encouraged to effectively inspire, conspire or make of us - it has to be self-consciously deliberated one hundred percent within; self-determined, self-realized, self-acquitted, arterially and thoroughly, self-consciously within.

If we participate in a ritual we are giving over to the collective strengths and influences which it might present. We are predisposing our own mindful directives into the care and direction of another being (be them invisible or priest) and to the effects of whatever percussive effort is enabling the ethers to strengthen. 

If such a ritual could be prescribed that would assist a man to come to those decisions of Christhood it would demean the properties of selfhood in consequence. There has been no way to reform such as this... even though there have been those faculties of the Church which severely believed that Christ could be delivered within Man in this way. Methodology denies ego, and for Christ to be born in the ego of each Man, this must be invoked by self-conscious reckoning and not by an artificial stimulation.

This is not to say that some rituals aren't beneficial to Man ... it is just to answer the question in relation to the Decision and whether or not we may be enhanced through practice rather than self-conscious thinking.

One more thing to add here however: it is also true to say that there are some practices which can and do lead to a man developing an enstrengthened measure of focus, concentration and direction of purpose. These practices are exercises which are not involved communally, but in isolation, under the direction of one's own will and ability. Any repetitive practice actually strengthens a man in the process. Where there is will, effort, intention exercised there becomes a certain reinforcement in the etheric body maintained. If you couple this will, effort and intention with a physical percussive movement - digging the garden, stirring the porridge, swinging a pendulum, striding a walk to a rhythm etc. with using significantly inspirative mantras, verses, prayers, in repetitive dance alongside the physical movements, then you have an exercise which will work through the etheric body enhancing the memories, vitalities, and in this instance we speak of, the quickening of the thought processes with its clarity and definition which enables us to reaffirm and meet our decision making when required.


Postscript to the exercising: further repetitions such as same time of day etc. enhance the powers further. Also, the nature of the meditation entertained, and the characteristic of the employment you are involved in with the percussive effort makes for great and subtle differences.


Question: as to Integration as a Function of Consciousness and its Place in Communion in Relation to the Path of the Memories
  • Our consciousness can be infused.
  • Our consciousness can be integrated.
  • Our consciousness can be combined with.
  • Our consciousness can be determining.
Infusion occurs when a 'higher' consciousness over-lights (as distinct from overshadows!) that of our own self-determining consciousness. This occurs during the receptivity provided during prayer, Communion, inspiration, rapture etc. - the influence ranging from Christ to Muse. It suggests an inequality of mind, whereupon we are enlightened or expanded for a time and raised beyond what is ordinarily achievable with our own working day-to-day awareness.

Integration denotes the mingling of principal qualities. This can occur when the past represents itself to the consciousness enabling a bridge into the future thereby. Integration makes the differing aspects respective to each other. It can be in the meeting of equals or unequals (in plane, principle or persona) and is prerequisite to any action of consciousness which relies on the power of two that it may know itself in relation to something else.

Combining is an important differentiation to make from integration. Combining requires two equals to participate firstly. Necessarily this also must occur same plane, same shared reality etc. Combining also requires a living, enspirited presence of two parties to share in the commune. Therefore by definition, one cannot combine with the past and have the past actively participate. The term integration was used in relation to the process of Communion because, via the memories we meet with certain planes of happening, thought and experience, but do not actively, in equal or by living (currently living) means, combine with those memories.

Determination in consciousness directs our wonderings, seekings, furthering because of the curiosities - our willing, our efforts, our deliberating, our deciding. Determination depicts who we are, who we go to in thought, who we choose to deflect ourselves against and who and what is best to combine with.

Now given the above we can look to the sacrament of Communion in relation to the memories and ask what occurs. As we began with initially, we find that the condition our consciousness is cradled in at present, is not with the spiritual perceptors or sense of presence or actuality that it could objectively have were it to perceive the ritual as it is happening. We have little or no immediate means of knowing, for example, if the event of the Communion was worthwhile at the time - such as if our host (the one we rely on to govern the proceedings) were nursing a hangover which is dogging his consciousness. If he is waylaid by a personal misery or given to a wondering which distracts him out from his purpose of that holy moment, then the efficacy of his procedure will be gravely marred. Were this to be the case, would we know any different, given the shadow world of the spiritual that vaguely graces us?


An effective Communion enstrengthens the participants in a way which reinforces their own incarnating within the physical world (as wanting as it is). It means that limb by limb, where the will drives into the blood and circulates, it does so with more of the sureness of definition, that the 'I am' is indwelling and supreme.

In a roundabout way we have something of a comparison, if not a contradiction to what was examined earlier in relation to ritual and awareness. However, as fine a point as it is, we may say that it is not the ritual or given method which will choreograph an effective 'I am' (and therefore self-consciousness to follow) but rather Christ's presence so called and taken in (through the physical water and bread).

So what we are saying here is that it need not be sophisticated or complicated, rehearsed, ritual perfunctory to a repetitive strain. The means of ritual can bring about gifts of other kinds, but on the highest of all high planes to be on - in relation to the practice and meaning and purpose of the Communion - it is the asking and the receiving of Christ which is all important. It is the genuine intent on behalf of the host, it is the sincere calling for on behalf of the wanting mass; it follows then, that Christ be there and so made in us.

And this you will know. If you remain uninspired you shall know this also. Do not be afraid to ask "Can I feel, really feel His Presence here? Do I feel Him within? Do I know myself to be stronger because of it and determined by Him?" If the answer is "well, no, not really" then you may begin your pilgrimage into finding whatever circumstances that shall speak to your spirit thus. Do not be content with the mundane particularly when it is meant to be of the especial!

This is not a request for a psychic benefaction. It is seeking to 'know' and experience the full health of the spirit. This can be found amongst enterprises which are of great love, creativity and joy… in a serene seriousness, in a profound environment ...


It can be worthwhile to want more and to know that you are so far unfulfilled. Christ wants much more for us ... so much more than we have been content with! We can hope for all of our brothers in this way. We can believe also that they too will find such completion and happiness remarkable to them.

We walk back through the ancient doors to return to the beginning. Planets retrace their cyclical spiraling that we may make a fresh start; every time we reference thought we do this in miniature before the mind's eye; all things go back and begin yet new life before resuming. The quickest way in most to invoke the imaginative powers (and therefore entertain the spiritual consciousness within) is through the memories rather than the actualities, in process. We associate, we integrate. 


The journey though, from the deep past into now and then on to the Future Christ who bears our stories yet to follow, starts at that beginning, that soul-reference, in which we are introduced to our Father and name Him such. This first recognition was a momentous occasion in our being (and to Him also); and following on from that we are reminded of all of the times since then (in the collective) that we have gone to Him.

Sandwiched within the sanctity of the Alpha and Omega we live our lives. Every time we work a thought, striving for betterment, attempting to grapple with the divine mysteries as we may find them, interpreting the angelic signs and speak, giving ourselves to the purpose of higher thought, cherishing our beings and honoring those of others in all of their godly aspects, we polish the gold on our reflective consciousness and bring precision to its definitive picture. We make fine ourselves, our world and our futures ...and slowly but surely it is happening! We are qualifying our decision with actuality. We are giving it both substance and meaning and reaffirming His Faith in us by such becoming. 

Amen

1 comment:

My Blog List

Followers

Esoteric Christianity Archive