The Mock Turtle's Dance- 9th June 2007

CONSCIOUSNESS is everywhere. To some degree, in all ways of being, wherever something is, it is also with consciousness.

Manifestation is drawn into being by it in the first instance. A rock, a tree, an animal - these all have levels of their own consciousness, and whilst it may not be primarily featured alongside us on this beloved planet, it is present and participating and reporting back to a yet more keen self-consciousness elsewhere. 

We have only just begun to appreciate life as it circulates other life in minute forms and expirations.... and this life, in all life, bears its consciousness as well, for this is what drives it above all else.

Perhaps then, ordinarily to ask, what is consciousness? What is meant by this word? For the purposes today we can say, it is the beingness, the awareness, plus two. Now what is meant by this relates to the first precept, that for consciousness to occur it requires something outside of itself to know itself by.

Formerly we have spoken of consciousness being at that point where two separate entities meet. That for anything to sense itself, its own perimeters, its own nerve-endings as it were, it needs to 'touch', to come up against, something else. Consciousness in the first sense relates to that very fundamental truth. It requires a meeting of the two, and not just one, to occur. 

This may be as simple as rock meeting air as the wind passes over it; hand touching hand, cow taking grass. Rock will feel where it begins and ends with the sweep of the air, cow will feel its own mouth and tongue with the experience of the strands of grass there in it; and with a hand in ours we feel our own hand like never before.

Bare consciousness requires a clothing of sorts, and a meeting thereafter to help know itself. That we are driven by it, and that it pre-exists all forms of materialized life may be debated. However, when you come to think of it, animate objects without a measure of consciousness would just be robotic at best.

For example, the top two computers in the world alongside each other, can dance as one, but they cannot turn each other on. Put them together and they become as one entity - they cannot remain as two separate entities when working properly together in the tasks they perform. They may hold differing functions, but once mutually communicating they have the one purpose. They do not enhance their own identity through this interfacing, nor do they gather impressionings of that process. If one computer is aligned with another to work accordingly, by that very programming which enables that, it is therefore one of the same, and not two distinct entities. 

Now having said that, the very consciousness which has turned the computer on, has ways of manifesting through and expressing by, some of its functions and programs. The consciousness of a man can creatively use the functions of a computer, and in the extreme instance follow the pathways generated by the internet and meet minds with other individuals from all over the world. Our consciousness can be clothed in part in an email, but once sent is no longer connected to we who have sent it. It is more like a wandering ghost-like representation of ourselves to which we are not connected. 

And of course this comes about because the computer itself is not a living vessel, but is rather composed of such components that do (for most of the time) exactly what they are meant to do. Obstinacy and variables are only within the preset bounds; and the preset boundaries are all in singular function.

This is very different to our own consciousness traveling down to our fingertips when we have sensed something or someone meeting our skin....the consciousness does not depart out through the fingertips into the other, but remains very much connected to where it came from, and the sensation of this knowing is all the greater by it.

The subtle difference firstly, in the way the consciousness can travel and yet be for the main part elsewhere, is important to the understanding also of the obstinacy and variables which it considers.

Whilst the hands are doing their sensing there can be a measure of consciousness in the stomach also, in the heart, in the head and beyond. And whilst the rock feels the breeze on his stippled head, he may well have his conscious pathways connected to that mountain he has grafted from - and that mountain, like a sleeping giant, may have its consciousness operating self-consciously in an etheric world of a former time.... and its bulk may be compacted with but a deceased lava whose lively consciousness still extends as far as Mars*, borne by the molten iron now hardened in the rock.

Consciousness is the prima-anima, the first movement preceding all life, from the very beginnings of all into now. And it continues on. Self consciousness is consciousness in time, where in one single moment (or many single moments) the flow of the consciousness has actually stopped. 

 

Consciousness itself is ever moving and can be in many places, on many planes, all at once. We have our own consciousness working and operating and sensing so many things that we are unaware of self-consciously, however it is deftly moving throughout every aspect of life that we engage in. Remembering too, that we are a walking consciousness amongst a sunlit sea of consciousness all about us.

Self-consciousness, unlike consciousness, can only be in the one place at the one time. It is true to say that our self-consciousness is as one uninterrupted continuum, however, it is truer to say that the self-consciousness itself is a particular action which is causal to our knowing our minds (higher mind included) in relation to what is about us and separate to us, and that this 'mind' is directly and in currency with the Spirit that exceeds it in total.

And so this is just to say, that the apex of our own divinity does not end at the reaches of our self-consciousness, it is merely that our own self-consciousness begins to faithfully relate to that self-of-selves we are - it is that higher man which is more of the uninterrupted continuum than the self-consciousness is, in the action of this knowing it.

Consciousness flows out from itself and is causal to much vitality. The energy that is required for a green shoot of grass to rise up from the earth is powered by the consciousness which desires this action. One could say that all Nature is born of a divine curiosity.

Consciousness attracts vitality - it is a higher nova from which the comet grains circulate. Consciousness pokes at the ethers and promotes activity there - it calls forth more life upon itself in eager acquisition. Consciousness is what makes both the Buddhas and the babies laugh. And further to this, it is from that One great Consciousness, that by it, knows All.

Self-consciousness is an action whereupon the consciousness itself has a foci point and this foci point contains this vitality and blocks it from moving out and around for a time. And during this blockage the consciousness-vitae turns back upon itself and in doing so illumines the greater mind.

It is a little like running, running, running down a tunnel. You could keep running and even run out of the tunnel. Or, you could close a hatch door at the end and the vitality stops at the door. The vitality momentarily intensifies as it collects at that ending and then very quickly now flows back, being blocked at that door. When the energy is blocked and in retrograde, it travels as far as it can the other direction and will, by doing so, come to the perimeter of what is there at that end... the higher soul-self.

The higher-soul-self is tweaked and responds, sending more consciousness - slightly different this time - down to the end of the tunnel. This referral process can be sensed in 'lively' discussion where the energy of the discussion and the working self consciousness is invigorating. Yet that action in itself is not the whole story, but only a part of a process that occurs. The whole story is that behind this activity is a divinely functioning, self aware individual that holds much more knowledge, wisdom and memory that is retrievable or evident in this life alone.

And this is not just wishful or fanciful thinking, it is fact. The experiences that go with a man from lifetime to lifetime and his associated wisdoms that have been present within him ever since the infinite beginnings - his impartial and partial knowledge, his heavenly attributes and virtues won, and the weight thereof - these qualities and that which does comprise his true majestic self are very much present, although not within plain view, even to himself.

Nor is this simply collective Man - that pool of pneumatic instinct and concept that is shared - but rather many, many men, each individually and yet divinely inspirited.

Our empirical knowledge honors our own soul's wisdom but also mourns its forgetfulness. There really is no way one can say that all is well when clearly it is not in this regard. The paradoxical anomaly is that self-consciousness requires an interruption to the overall consciousness before it can 'know' in the singular and distinct reference. Usually however, the experience, and wisdom of the experience, is lost as a whole, after this.

As a human being I am conscious of the world at large, and of other human beings and our inextricable connection to one another - a living connection from root, and with the body of consciousness cradling us together. But when I go to self consciously reflect on goodwill to Mankind, and this community of Humankind, I lose in the reflection, my active connection to it in that thought. I do not expire the connection at all, but my thoughts and impressions become my referral, and I return to that referral in my consciousness thereafter, rather than acknowledging the whole.

Of course the sensations and feelings of this soulic knowledge are overrated these days, because modern man does not truly experience them within his waking consciousness.

Our working ego (which is independent of the processes we are examining above) enables us to begin to discern differences and be choosy as to what, when, how and whom we engage with. Without the ego so developed, there can be throughout Nature and the Universe abroad, a more 'fly by the seat of the pants' kind of attitude. It was the introduction of the Ego which brought a focus of purpose decided, to the whole.

But today we are trying to cite with our inner minds, something of the processes involved when it comes to the consciousness we experience in general and the self consciousness activities we experience as well.

In our former study, we visited the actions of the Mock Turtle and his companion the Griffin, who as sparring partners to our thought introduce into our lively thinking a discourse from which we are strengthened by.

And it could be said that there is an increased self awareness, self-consciousness, as a result of this banter:

Imperious Prima flashes forth

Her edict "to begin it":

In gentler tones Secunda hopes

"There will be nonsense in it!"

While Tertia interrupts the tale

Not more than once a minute.

- Lewis Carroll, (introductory poem to Alice in Wonderland)

Imperious Prima flashes forth, her edict to "begin it"

The curious consciousness has ventured out from itself into inquiry. The flash demonstrates the vitality which it carries alongside with it; and the stipulation then follows that there is the herald to begin it.

In gentler tones Secunda hopes "there will be nonsense in it!"

Now enter the Mock Turtle, who cannot only contribute nonsense, but go further in that nonsense to self-indulgent hysteria and complaining. This is where it starts to get interesting. 

Do you remember the discussion about familial thinking? Well, whenever there is a single dialogue of thinking (rather than a contested inner dialogue), it is just as if the individual has run down the tunnel of their consciousness pursuing their interest and slammed off the door when they came to it, and then refers back to their own knowing with this information, and it is sealed.

So at some point it was firstly asked, "is chicken preferable to beef". And they ran down the tunnel and sealed it off at the deciding that it was chicken, and from that time on have associated within their own thinking and persona that chicken was the better choice.

And every time they ask again what it is they are to have for dinner, they are self aware that it is they having it, and that they have a choice, and it does make a difference. However, they will run the route of the tunnel and come to the same impasse/closure and go back with chicken, time and time again - the one first run really determining all subsequent runs.

So the familial thinker is self-conscious - they are not operating at the level of an animal in respect to them knowing their own names and knowing they have preferences. However they do tend to be repetitious, with the past usually dictating much of their future behaviors and learning.

Now, the action of the introduction of nonsense means that there are fissures which have opened up alongside the tunnel run. Out through the walls of the tunnel there will be small streams of active lit consciousness raying out in obscure projection. With linear inquiry usually, the next set of thoughts or questions we might logically come to, is predictable. The tunnel has increments, or at the very least one tunnel leads to the next and so forth.

However, with the nonsense of the Mock Turtle, the conscious inquiry is by majority heading towards its precluded end - i.e. the question is: which is preferable, chicken or beef. And so the designated answer you are trying to arrive at is either chicken or beef.

Now while we are visiting this, we do not prescribe narrow inquiries where the premise is restricting. But in truth our thinking is so narrowly based and defined. We rarely hold impartial and comprehensive researches into any field of inquiry - the first reason being that you need to be fully informed in order to achieve such, and being fully informed has not yet been achieved.

So, enter nonsense. The bulk of the vitality is still headed towards the chicken/beef ending of the tunnel, and evidence may be gathered to support the preference for one above the other. This evidence may be correct or incorrect and could be meaningful or immaterial, the point is that the summation of the answer will still be either chicken or beef.

However, with the consciousness leaking out left and right there are smaller questions appearing - such as:

• Should I have chicken or fish?

• Do I trust the butcher?

• Does the butcher look like a chicken?

• Do chickens wear striped aprons?

• I think I once saw a painting of a cow in a striped apron at the Butcher's

While Tertia interrupts the tale not more than once a minute -

Enter the Griffin, and his work is usually to block up the holes before they become too increasing. He will sound as though he is the voice of reason, but usually is rather the guy who closes the holes up -

• No, I think we are deciding today between chicken and beef - not chicken and fish.

• Yes of course we trust the Butcher; he is a good man who washes his hands.

(Griffin does not really know this but is putting his case forward to seal the hole of inquiry.)

• Yes the Butcher does look a bit like a chicken. (Then seals that question off also.)

• It is ridiculous to think that chickens wear aprons, how could you think such nonsense? Your hair needs straightening.

• No, that was a chicken.

Now the very good part of all of this, is that those holes once opened by inquiry remain as possible holes to invest interest in at a later date. The nature of the nonsensical thought that went with the thought, dissolves (usually with the Griffin's answer), however the possibility of further exploration into the original question about the chicken/beef preferences is not only there, but has increased in its potential for inquiry.

For the thinker that has gone through this seemingly irrelevant discourse, there is the ability at a later and relevant time, to revisit the review and gather more information along different lines of opinion or evidence. And this by and large, is a good thing.

For as individuals it is extremely important that we have the ability to make firm decisions and abide by them, and it is our overall obstinacy that helps to secure our beings and our winnings through striving in an impermeable unshakeable way. Overall it is the prize of the ego and the gift each individual has, that they can and do determine who they are with the rights of soul and self before any god to be so. This choosing and being needs have constancy, body and strength. For this reason it is a very good thing that men do not experience change within their concepts of self all too frequently. Slowly, slowly, great improvement.

However, it becomes painful to the developing individual when they have cordoned off their own vehicle for lively thinking and replaced it with a very limited range of interests and living. For as we discussed earlier, consciousness itself has great vitality and pushes all the time to explore and conjoin amongst itself.

The man that has deviant and obsessive thought that stimulates his astrality with excessive vitality, indulges in fantasy and nonsense largely because he has loosened the pressure of determination and being, by so doing. His tunnels have large openings where the vitality flows out to, into these fantasies that have no end or real summation, and in that experience 'loses himself' without a Griffin to bring him back into order and contain himself.

The hardship with this behavior, is that there becomes such a loss of vitality, there is little to apply to the necessary, or reflect back, and the ability to find a self consciousness amongst the experiences that are real become lessened and weakened and difficult.

Both the Mock Turtle and the Griffin are innocent as to the validity of their interjections. They come from that fay consciousness, that faerie world of the etheric life that mimics and pools in imitation, much of the experience of the Material world we know. The land of Fairy does have a deeper element of spirit also, but that realm which is but a neighbor to our own is the Etheric World, which has no gravity, and few pressing moments; it is both playful and sinister in one.

We spoke earlier of the consciousness about us - that is of all living life around us. And it is true that same consciousness permeates also the Etheric World throughout. However there is a reflected pool of consciousness that just echoes the thoughts and whispers of our world, and it is from that very pool, that the voice of the Mock Turtle and the Griffin will draw together their thoughts, words and concepts.

Yes we do have elemental beings and creatures that can inspire and provoke thought amongst us. However when referring to the actions of thought as given by the Turtle and the Griffin, more specifically this relates to a magnetic action of drawing in and down, such chains of phrase or concept from the etherically reflected consciousness that is local to us or specific to us, and immediately attracted in.

These thoughts may appear personal, but they are not. They may appear and be deep considerations, however the tone will be predictable. Also the quality of the person themselves will govern the quality of the nonsensical (not immediately connected, but rather etherically drawn in) material.

And to the extreme also, we can acknowledge that at heart and at the core, most folk are reasonable, peaceful and joyful beings. It can be helpful to begin to separate ourselves from our thinking and compare in actuality who we really are. Often the tunnel openings of Turtle and Griffin are with the vitality of emotion, and feed further emotion. But our true nature is far more considerate, understanding and aloof from those concerns, truth be known. Very little really affects us at the core unless it is extremely important. 

All in the golden afternoon

Full leisurely we glide;

For both our oars, with little skill,

By little arms are plied,

While little hands make vain pretence

Our wanders to guide.

Ah, cruel Three! In such an hour,

Beneath such dreamy weather,

To beg a tale of breath too weak

To stir the tiniest feather!

Yet what can one poor voice avail

Against three tongues together?

Imperious Prima flashes forth

Her edict "to begin it":

In gentler tones Secunda hopes

"There will be nonsense in it!"

Imperious Prima flashes forth

Her edict "to begin it":

In gentler tones Secunda hopes

"There will be nonsense in it!"

While Tertia interrupts the tale

Not more than once a minute.

Anon, to sudden silence won,

In fancy they pursue

The dream-child moving through a land

Of wonders wild and new,

In friendly chat with bird or beast-

And half believe it true.

And ever, as the story drained

Wells of fancy dry,

And faintly strove that weary one

To put the subject by,

"The rest next time-" "It is next time!"

The happy voices cry.

Thus grew the tale of Wonderland:

Thus slowly, one by one,

Its quaint events were hammered out-

And now the tale is done,

And home we steer, a merry crew,

Beneath the setting sun.

Alice! A childish story take,

And, with a gentle hand,

Lay it where Childhood's dreams are twined

In Memory's mystic band,

Like pilgrim's wither'd wreath of flowers

Pluck'd in a far-off land.

- Lewis Carroll

* "He who knows what iron is, knows the attributes of Mars.

He who knows Mars, knows the qualities of iron."

- Paracelsus

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]