Suffering- 9th January 2007

WHENEVER suffering is usually addressed it is either philosophical and comparative, or requisite to the need.

Perhaps it is too difficult to contemplate the nature itself of suffering - and also the terms in which it dwells; not only here, but in the Spiritual Worlds.

Sorrowing and its suffering comes into being where a consciousness is 'at odds' with something they desperately would seek to change, but cannot. The will is strong, the mind in the matter is resolved, yet the truth of the reality refuses to comply - and this is suffering: an inner tension that struggles with the outer reality that refuses to conform to it.

In this we can sorrow for ourselves or for others, for events cannot be changed because they have come and passed. And for those we see coming, we can struggle and suffer for the largest and minutest of trials. The fighting disappointment that glares, gripes and knifes, is as the lonely warrior who will not concede that the battle's moments are in fact quite gone.

Having said that, suffering itself is born of the will and the mind-consciousness also. We can deter much of its sad poison by learning to extract back our wills and willing out from the experience.

Using our active will is painful to the soul when there is simply no plan for that willing to be directed properly with. Suffering is essentially that exact problem.... that the active will is thwarted and the individual is putting much vitality into a screaming farce.

In this you can see the two parts to Suffering now clearly - the one is the inner knowing and deciding of hardships that you personally argue with - taking on destiny, karma, the elements, death, aging, injustice, men and monsters, lost love, and all injustice; whilst the second part is the inner mustering of will which rises up to effect a change towards the better, but has nowhere profound to go. This becomes a worse aggravation and a suffering in itself - secondary suffering as it were.

Learning to pull back the will is extremely useful; not only in suffering, but in all kinds of daily situations. Whenever we advance ourselves, it always requires a propulsion of will to cut through the inertia within and without.... however, just as we breathe a good breath, we can also consciously retreat our wills and monitor the expense we so give to them. Always better not to overspend.

Internal imaging can help at first with this new discipline - it maybe of dogs on leashes drawn back, light from the hands and wrists pulled in, fire down, going to ground.

Conversely, using will in a constructive way alleviates the suffering. That is why you often see folk who have suffered much, working to bring positives into their life and investing their will in something - almost anything - which will bear fruit. It is not injurious to themselves to do so and the suffering is indeed alleviated.

To lament or to sorrow is to grieve at the deepest level. It begins to mourn the primeval injustices, the causal iniquities and the sadness of all. With this there is no strength for the will, and it appears as if the soul who grieves thusly is bereft of any sense of self thereby it - lost amongst just one eternal cry. These very sad lamentations are audible all throughout the Heavens.

Not only are these bleak remonstrations coming out of the one soul that is Humanity, but also echoed by the attending angelic and archangelic soul-mates to Man.

There are so many numerous splendors in the Heavens of rich expression - and experience for all. Yet underneath that lively hemisphere of dancing worlds is still the ineffable contrast of primeval woe.

This subject touches upon the flip flop reasoning which can be in the practice of esoteric thinking. Because having entered upon this level of the topic, we now need to press further and ask "to what good purpose can this essential sorrow prove?" and "why, when we are promised so much joy in Heaven, should there be great grief as this, as well?"

Somewhere in the halls of fakery is a place of serenity without end. Serenity that does not alter becomes inertia, and inertia is a greater death and therefore sadness, than any death by change could cause. All misery and upset, even cruelty by those who are yet to learn the consequences of those acts, is better with time, rather than committed to a ceaseless void of no change and no improvement.

To be static even in bliss, is annihilating. Life which is powered by the Holy Spirit, by this Divine Will, and is exaggerated into Creation by those inspired by Him - such Life is ever moving and seeking new forms to infill new episodes, to become and new futures to behold. And whenever change occurs - be it here or elsewhere - that change, for some, will be too early or too late and therefore struggled with.

Yet it can be said also, that there is forever a striving to improve such conditions so that these margins become less, and the general swerve of Creation moves together with a satisfied timing throughout.

Of course all periods of time do cease, and with that cessation prayers are answered. There is always a gathering in of souls where individuals are reunited and hopeful imaginings can become more possible with the new opportunities to follow.

Past sorrows are truly forgotten in the shift, and the transitional woe dissolves in the dewy morning of Eternity's herald.

The Conductors- 6th January 2007

TWELVE Spirits were born, one each day [of the Holy Nights], heralds of the months ahead, guardians of the microcosmic world.

Every year is differently characterized and every month of every new year has one shining being at the head of it - appearing out from the planetary expirations, which go to infuse their sphere with that of our own.

These great beings, the Conductors, are intermediators between this World and their own sphere of being. In light, in force, in property, in council, in dialogue and epilogue, they are working ambassadors of planetary acumen, overseeing and discharging their great wealth.

In so many respects our worldly embassies and their country's representatives have been modeled on the Conductors' charge. 

They have a region within, that is specific to their astrological league, yet travel out and permeate the rest of the world in kind. They can appear to have animal heads, and during certain periods there have been countries which have deified or mythologized their planetary chaplains. And even though year by year it is a different individual from the one preceding, they have appeared similarly, and so the stories have lived vividly for centuries in the past.

The Minotaur for example, was popular in Crete during a time when Taurus was strong in that part of the world. He was seen at festivals, he was out in the marketplace and then in the hills - he was one of the more flamboyant ambassadors.

As the year unrolls its successive play of force and frolic, there becomes in the World a cooperative patterning that manifests itself most everywhere. The ordering of these cosmic forces reintroduces to our own systems (not only geographic but biological), the ordering of all.

And this might seem simplistic, if not obvious, except for the fact that the actual beings who are responsible for this impulse month by month, are exchanged for different ambassadors after the course of one entire yearly cycle.

This is intense, because the Zodiac as a whole shifts its own bearings constantly - one step to the side in its own progressive movement. Therefore the Conductors, who by their presence help to manifest the cosmic influences into every detail within our worldly sphere, do so in a slightly altered and varied state from the previous.

Christmas

Memories & the Pearls

Once there was a very wise woman who knew the value of her memories. She treasured them so much that they were carefully kept secure in a little box tied to a silver chain, anchored in the deepest of seas. 

One day (a day like any other), this dear woman could not find her way back to her treasure box... and she became so very distressed. "What will become of me if I do not have my memories?" she wept.

Just then, three angels appeared before her: one from the past, one from the present and one from the future. In their hands were beautiful pearls, each.

The angel from the past brought the blanched white pearls of pure times.

The angel of the present bore flesh colored pearls, which shone with life itself.

The angel of the future had pearls a darker and mysterious color - for these were the memories not yet illumined by fact.

"Wear these" they said, "and remember also, we are never far away."

Angels of the Morning-11th September 2006

THE ANGELS of the morning sunrise kiss each roof as they pass through.

Every house is blessed with their bright gold presence, every bird's head and the scruff of their neck, is kissed. 

With ease and grace, they sweep each country in turn - with gossamer residue beading the grasses, the flowers and the trees. With caring and blessing, in greeting, they are.

What is this dew? And whyfor the romance? It comes from that close travail, where those Angels of the morning have touched us all, descending and heralding all that is new and is bold.

Angels are not automata - do not get confused. They can have strength and they have attitude; and knowingly also, their purpose lives within them. They just do not recognize our 'choices' as being choice at all.

With clarity and heart there are few actual choices outside what is needed- and as for creativity, no time at all for those who work to maintain what is already in existence and improving its form.

The Lion & the Fish

One day a lion was crossing over a bridge and a troll leapt out at him - roaring and gnashing his huge and horrible teeth, shaking his scraggy hair and pounding with his bare but hairy feet upon the rickety mount.

The Lion, who was very dignified and courageous said to the Troll "look down there and see the God of the River" and the Troll leaned over, looking hard at the water. Suddenly the sun appeared, and he could see a face staring back at him! It was his reflection of course, but nonetheless, he was quite taken by it, so taken that he leapt off the bridge and into the water.

Just then a curious fish was swimming by. He looked up at Lion and the two mutually regarded each other for awhile - in great consideration. This is to say that each knew their place and also the place of the other - and from this came great appreciation and strength also.

The Golden Child & the Preparation for the Baptism- Christmas 25th December 2005

TWO days before he came, Jesus (Zarathustra) had gone into a reflective mind - he had, of course, been issuing his silent goodbyes, knowing that his lot of life was to be changing very soon.

During his childhood he had got used to a small but invisible companion that had followed him throughout all of the changes to come - a child that grew as he grew: as an infant in the crib, crawling, sitting, sprawling, grabbing, laughing, playing; a child of light that was always close by.

As a boy there were times together that only boys can know. Life was difficult and trying, even for an adept - especially for an adept. But his friend was frequently there, up to and amongst the adult hardships; and if you had had the eyes to see, oft times, out on errands or meditative rests, you could glimpse the young man Jesus sitting beside another, who although quite ethereal, appeared very much the boy, as his friend.

There was a constant consoling of sorts, for Jesus could not abide the current world as it was, and wrestled his own fit within a people and a time that had dust for words and even less for thoughts.

Yet the presence of his ethereal brother never failed to soothe him of these troubles. There was always a reasoning and enlightenment that answered his baffled protests. In turn he cared for Him, inspiring and likewise comforting his companion in kind.

And soon, very soon, he was to make ready for the exchange. All of his life he had wanted nothing more than to change places with his beloved Christos. How often the solid souls of The Faith cry unto Him from the Eons past until now that same plea:

"Oh Lord, come fill me with Thy Presence,

And I shall surrender unto Thee

All that it is that I have,

In my power and possession,

That is most rightfully Yours,

To become and perfect in me."

The romance of melancholy drew him into a conflict of airs - yes, to say goodbye to those he held close, in circumstances that could not be well known....this in itself was a sadness perforating the instinctual joy.

Mother had sensed a preparation and change about to become. She had always been able to perceive little Christos, and regarded Him (although unseen to most and ephemeral to the World itself) as one of her own also. She held an understanding when there was no one to explain the many cosmic movements conspiring around her. Perhaps another silent counsel tutored her? Or even still, was it just another norm so known? Man replaces child, why not then man replaces man?

Two days before, Jesus stood at the riverbank and preambled his transference - in the uncanny way our imaginations can, snatching into the unveiled futures. Past his inner eye trudged the procession of Humanity pushing right up through the gates of the Ages. Their faces were ashen, expressionless and weary. Yet in this vision their robes were superior and quite glamorous.

It was not as an exodus of migrants fleeing an unwelcome land - displaced poor, ill, old and ugly. This representation of the souls of the World was well formed and nurtured, yet spiritless, humorless and impotent.

Even with the disdain so strongly experienced, Jesus went to that inner place where hope for these souls was yet believable. He could feel in himself so closely and almost, the very strength it could take to absolve each one of the countless into a life eternal, full of grace and abundantly glad. It seemed both real and possible.

His resolve was clear and charming. He looked mentally over his shoulder for Christos, who was not there but rather had been playing catch-up with a passport authority, somewhere between the Young Spirit of the Ages and the benevolent Father Time.

Jesus could not tell really who and what had to be in obeisance to pull this one together. What planets were fixed, and did it really matter? He knew that Christos was that strong, not just by sense, but in that the weather seemed to change around Him, as so did people for that matter, in extraordinary calm. It would not surprise him if a painting could paint itself or the stars would step aside to let Him pass - moreover it seemed natural, for that was exactly how he felt before Him.

Love with reverence, and Love with Love - knowing Christ as he had done, he recognized that all was empty without Him. The sweetness of the sweet and the flavor of all flavor, how apparent it was when one saw this great God and how all hearts would beat much faster around Him.

Two days later he went back to the River to see John....

All that is Man is mighty and strong. Our physical frame holds it well. This physical life tempers the god within; and with restraint and constraint we evolve.

Maria hugged her son goodbye - she could feel the tiredness within, and that his Spirit was stretching itself to get out.

This was too blessed a time to become upsetting to her, for also she understood how very close the two had always been, and in her mind bethought that somehow there should have occurred two births, rather than the one. Mistaken or not, her reckoning was that they had been twins and it was their right to share, even this, the one Life. She had no foreknowledge that that life so given, would hardly go on past a few years to come.

He did not see a dove or any bird above that day. The very last thing he felt was the weight of John's hand - a thick hand, but a good hand, guiding him down. The water filled his ears and his soul spilled right back out hemorrhaging into it, diffusing itself into expanses that spanned the very skies.

He felt good, really good, albeit briefly. For what seemed like only moments later he could see himself standing upright again. And there, wearing his mantle so well, superimposed over and through the sodden flesh was his shining Beloved. "I do hope it goes well" he thought....

Easter