Invested Vestments, & the Immortals- 6th September 1993

IN Medieval times a man would usually have but one coat of which he was known by; for invested in and about this apparel was the denotation of character, occupation and wealth, or lack of. A man's coat would be well-loved. Stitched and re-stitched, it was there between him and the harshest of elements; with his scent and his familiarity, it was as his outer armor.

Of course all of this could be well said for all time, with no particular oddity remarkable to this earlier period, except to say that it was at this era of which the favored overcoat or jacket was prized beyond all other garments, being not only an extra necessity, but also a vehicle of sorts, of worldly identity. In this way, in like manner we may glean an impression of the 'looseness' of thought and aspect as experienced by those folk in the world, who for any number of reasons do not clothe or contain themselves according to one favored article.

The vestments (or more correctly: in-vestments) - the garb of the priestly service actually draws into the fabric as worn, many, many influences as do ray out and shower down from such ordinances as conducted. One should not contemplate dry-cleaning with such an investiture! From some it is known to shimmer a faint halo of gold, that the robes or the cassock, the stole and associated adornments, would be endowed with the emmanatory force accredited to the divining, the prayer or the ritual-majestic.

Similarly, lovers would wear an article each which was especial to their communion, and such pieces were often buried alongside the beloved upon passing.

You see, we have discussed ones street-clothes from the viewpoint of collective refuse: of unseemly, inharmonious recollections speaking as loudly by emanating back those impressions of the day as spent; and too of casual meetings, yet with influence also. However today, the directive emphasis expounds this thought that we may look to the particulars and be generally enlightened.

For example: we may set aside favored garments for a certain purpose, and each time return to these garments to the exclusion of others. The sports shoes are a good example of this as they are most likely to be employed exclusively in a particular occupation repeatedly. A man may be responsive at once to the impressions his shoes now hold for him, that they by contrast, speak to him of him, and the experience one to the other have realized together. 

Of course we do not mean by this that the shoe is in any way conscious, it is merely a term regarding the memory of matter and its adopted persona. Now then, one does suggest that the favored sports shoe is worn and rubbed in all of the suitable places, this making it uniquely comfortable to the wearer, but also one knows that another's sports shoe, even being extremely plastic to the foot, would not share the qualities of the familiar.

Now we may apply this similarly to that which is worn during personal prayer, night attire, recreation, even whilst singing - as an aid to that which we are fully involving ourselves in at that time, we may do this. And it may be a simple piece of cloth for instance - a handkerchief one takes on long and contemplative walks, another for chapel or temple, another for discourse, and so forth.

Often a hobo who has only the one set of clothing, with only rare occasion to disrobe and wash himself or his costume - quite often he survives the conditions of his lifestyle because of his 'personal armor' which ritualistically accompanies him everywhere- self-absorbed and self-absorbed. Take the man out of the clothing and exchange them for new and instantly he shall have a fresh aspect of perspective also.

From this one may gauge that the uniform which either binds or empowers men is doubly effective, that the repetitive wearing to a purpose enforces that purpose with the aura of the garment, and is enhanced with every such application thereafter.

Clothing which has been impressed by deleterious circumstances would be better burnt in most cases.
Repetition is the key word here. Potency is increased by repetitive action. So, if we apply this to 'articles of association', then we acknowledge an extraneous factor which may alter or assist our wellbeing.

Obsessive behavior deters good instinct. We must be careful at all times to prefer to exercise personal judgment, discernment and intuition, rather than try for such rules which cannot be sustained. It becomes difficult for most to cease their chatter and come to counsel with specialist guidance.

Many preconceive the advised instruction and thereby negate the incoming wisdoms, upon a tandem of will, want and levy. Of course, experience is paramount to all good learning and by this no exercise in daily life is lost. However for those who genuinely implore the heavens for substantiation, it is recommended that they allow the heavens time to reply. That they give their day or their week or whatever time it may take, to prepare for the blessings that they seek.

***

The term 'immortal' is a dubious one. It once referred to the 'undead': the 'zombie' variety of specter-flesh which was animated after the soul had divorced and separated, and the flesh was compelled to appear whole without decay or great rot. Such individuals were the product of certain magicians - happily, the art seems to have been forgotten along the way, and more than uncommon.

The Immortals of the good Greeks were never Men to begin with, and decided such fates with interfering design as was invited.

The notion of ongoing is valuable and relevant and undoubtedly (presumably) true. And yet, to qualify this in the context to which it is hoped for, there becomes an expectation of the cessation of re-embodiment.

Usually when one is within the confines of worldly self-consciousness, one is content to be within the realm of the Earth and all that is natural to it. Manifestation is not to be spat upon or held to contempt; rebirth and renewal afford true triumph and redemption over death, and we cannot come to the end of this passage if we are imperfect, for the very reason we should then be bound to the inadequacies forevermore.

Our beings are eternal, yes, and could not contemplate compromise to this. At times the personality overrides the whispered cries of the soul and arrogantly contests the necessity for self-improvement. It assumes worth and self-importance and may be so well developed and rehearsed that after death, the personality itself is immortalized - continuing on long after the soul of the man has departed. This is not unusual. However, we wear our personality as we do our favorite coat; whilst the naked soul beneath is sensitive moreover to the chaffing of the coarser material, but sheathed protectively by its coverment.

If we can occasionally exercise abstractions, objective or philosophical thinking, then we may wrest ourselves from our personality long enough to gain a soul's perspective. In prayer we come to know of our 'truer' self also; whilst also of our Beloved, through whose eyes we may exchange our own, for a time.

There is always a provision for growth, and for rest. Rest is not unproductive, rest provides for the upcoming growth as the afterlife provides for the impelling processes of subsequent lives and so forth.

If we choose to seek something - viz. in this instance to become immortal - we must call upon our true desires and come to realize what exactly it is we hope for, and why; and then question the reality of such propositions and their desirability.

One thing may be said about 'the system' to date: not a better one has been found! And there is proof of this, for should a better one have been established it would have clearly overwhelmed the one we currently enjoy.

And so we suggest candidly and with persuasive humor, that one is best to sit back and prepare for the longer journey, because though eternity is inconceivable, it is conceivably a very long time. Better to rather goodness than perpetuality, for even if the holy is transient it is sublime. . . and a day of Heaven is worth an eternity of shit-shoveling.

The Kernel of the Heart- 30th August 1993

Dearest _ ,
Upon your brow is written, of the immediate woes and strife, the weighted decisions, the challenges set before you, the urgings, the comparisons, the cautions and the concealed – nonetheless you are expectant of receiving great and powerful truths, believing yourself coherent and able to withstand their potent draught.

So many of the cares of today are inconsiderate to the gravity of our destinies, whilst our future paths are clearly marked by this our conduct. Therefore we are immediately required to set about sorting our preferences of concerns and acknowledge them thus. For worries unattended to are as unpredictable as Pompeii in a red fog - we are best advised to address all concerns, meeting them before they meet us.

What of those fretful issues to which there is little resolve? This we may make peace with. If a man contains upsets, deep upsets which contrast his happiness, he may consciously accept the sting of it, as it once again hovers in close to him, and de-power this centre of aggravation by forgiveness. We either come to forgive ourselves, others or even circumstance, and thereby reduce the tension and disarm the embattlement.

Now to maladies within the cavity of the chest: With love restrained, there are 'cold spots', frozen and aching, where the children of the heart have hidden, afraid to come out. For all of those expressions never imparted, for tears and happinesses withheld, for love unaccomplished and love unfulfilled, for misplaced trusts and ideals quashed, grim niceties that deterred a true word, denial of self and denial of Providence in turning from God and the space that remains - the inner altar of Him, to wit the fount of life, your life, all life - the insolentries and unsympathies, the residual of acidic cruelties, sarcasm, blame, vengeance, false pride, arrogance, intolerance etc. These are some of the contributing aspects to such 'cold spots' as suffered within.

Should a man believe that harmony may be reintroduced to his temple by a simple inoculation of exterial force? And we are not without Love already! We are not without the reaches of the subtle energies and ethers, of which we may be composite or reflective to.

Dysfunction of the mamilla, though disconcerting, is irreconcilable to the associated problems of a dysfunctional heart. You may suffer argument unto yourself, believing that the pouring from self should be limited, that one must contain love in composure, and at the same time underestimate the value of your prayers. 

For when love goes out from a man, it goes out, and by its very nature it is not, in this process, required to 'give back' a satisfaction in any way. In other words, the experience of love in issue from, may contrast the totality of exaltation experienced and actually stimulate no centre within a man, save to be able to pour out all the more. Affection, contrary to this, may be well satisfying, for this becomes an inspired reveling in favored associations, from the subliminal to the advanced. If I enjoy affection I am rejoicing in the better parts of said relationships and the heart is glad.

However love is like the purest of water to whom we accredit no taste and no color. The receiving of love is all that we live for. It is true that much follows after this fact. The poet's melancholy fears the demise of all true love, and much is fancified according to the popular muse. Regardless of abstractions the reality is ever-present; it is the buoyancy that supports our being and all other beings besides.

The Love of our Father is anything but impersonal. We are because it is.

As for meditations, the image of the lighthouse is an excellent invocation. There we behold the constancy as represented in the outpouring of the light - of the love - significant to the space it reaches into, significant to the penetration of the darkness, whilst ever the great purpose on behalf of those who are in need of its light.

There used to be a story of a crypt which did conceal the seed of an ancient tree. The deceased had been sealed in a leaden case, the seed still contained in his hardened fist. The tree, of which it was but a germ, was to be of great worth as a preventative and as a remedy to many ills: afflictions that caused death and grief to old and young.

It is a rather long tale, but the upshot of it was, that eventually the seed was prised from the corpse and put to the rich soil with vast and hopeful expectation. However it did fail to take. There was no bonded union and the seed remained intact, refusing to sprout.

As the seasons turned over, they did pluck it back out from the ground and replant it in firmer, then looser soil; with water and then without, and so forth; but still the seed remained seed.

Disgusted and with disappointment, it was eventually surmised that there was no value to be had, and that either by corruption or inadequacy this marvel of a tree was not to be brought forth into the world.

And so it became a worthless curiosity which was commissioned to sit upon a plaque within a glass cabinet, along with several hundred other oddities for public display. There became the standard one line joke - "A dead man's remedy that will not subscribe to life!" And it was soon forgotten.

However, as with most famed articles, there was a presence of truth about this tiny seed, which had been invested with much conjecture. For all around the country there became a new variety of tree sprung up, and each and every one of them were ethereally bound to this precious seed. In point of fact, the owner from whose hand it was taken, knew of its remarkable link to life at a distance - dependent on it - and for reasons of security, planned to conceal it with his burial after long provision for care during his life.

However, the trees for which this seed was the parent, did go unnoticed by those who sought their properties, and flourished neglected. Came maturation, pods popped and birds pried, plucked and pecked the precious seed-peas. The birds as a result of this, became so overfull with life that the motion of the wings sweeping across the breast would enliven the currents around them.

You see, there may be mighty activity coming into and through the smallest of beings. These birds fed from the revivifying tree, and in turn gave out all that was not required, for them to be. Their tiny presence would alight at a distance a man, or to a child who was dejected or ailing miserably; and then in a passion of sympathetic understanding their need would be answered by the movement and presence of this empowered friend, for they knew also of the related properties and their purpose of prescription.

This is the nature of Love. It finds its way through mediums that will have it, go to it and give it. The men would not have profited similarly by scalding the leaves or boiling a brew, this was not the case, for the special nature of this tree was in relationships as ethereally supported from one to another, and by such we are suckled and sustained.

The tree would not be owned selectively to this or that community privy to its properties. And the men could not determine which foliage and what bough bore the effervescent vitalities, as the birds did see it a’ blazing, as if on fire.

Now the seed that was in the hand is one and the same which is kernel to the heart. All effort made manifest in the world, Love's efforts, are linked to that kernel. The offspring is always for the greater world and for so many who are as strangers to us, and yet dependent on our safekeeping of love's seed and our tenuous relationships without. Personal maturation does come after death, by which we truly come to eternal life.

The greatest affliction is a loveless life (and in life after death also) - the remedy being the giving freely, cultivating loving itself.

 

Comments on a Dying Friend- 26th August 1993

YOUR friend does not see the world as you do; he is as a man talking in his sleep. Perhaps this is why he does not believe that he ever sleeps, because he is caught in a bevy of preponderances.

Such a soul has shining accompaniments - he is shrouded by attendances of being and worldly relation. There is also a friend who left by way of an accident (male) who has been beside him as his 'light' blazes ever brighter.

It is true that his body is now wasted and so corrupted with a mean and vile disfigurement which mocks this tired man. The diseases did venture in before his emotional collapse. An abundance of sentimentality poured into his daily consciousness and ever pressed him into passages of the past: comforting reminiscences rather than those morbid terrors which were there affronting any gateway-perspective into the present. 

Three demons stood before his eye of consciousness, separating him from rail and barrier, unnerving and disarming, alarming him to fumble and lose footing. These three demons were: Resentment, Death and Irony.

There is a mystery, a further mystery as to why some unfortunates are given to excess with the debilitating aggravations borne by Man. Whilst we can say we are relatively free from overloads of the abovementioned maladies, we may be thankful to be saved from the accompanying agony each one issues. 

So if it is said that a man was given to resentment, and it is implied that he overly does exercise this corruption, then we are to understand that he suffers from the outset and that vanity would prevail to save him, were that it could. However resentment itself does come from an individual who has placed his ego-credibility for a time in those things most disassociated with self. Rather than achieving an accurate self-image and working to improve upon that, the man invests himself in those things - objects, work, even other people - and binds himself with what he can best associate with.

As an attempt for self-improvement such an endeavor is never satisfied, partially because the process is exteriorly contrived and partially because the cunning within the man ever seeks out presumed-to-be 'better' associations. The resentment follows at that point whereupon the man has 'emptied himself out' into those investments, and the remaining feeling within intuitively corresponds - the experience is emptiness. The ego has been dissipated far and wide, given up by the very will and want of this man himself.

Resentment tells us that if things had been quite different then things should have gone 'our' way, and we become ill-satisfied, perturbed and markedly unbalanced, because we seek to combine with the grand and glorious, believing it to be that simple - to become as. This is why there are so many believed affinities with folk of notoriety. Of course it is possible that a worldly soul shares signature keys with large numbers of identifying individuals; however often it is more the case, that as with a catalog, the man or woman chooses quite loosely, the figure which they best should like to become. Were that they sought Christ, in like fashion! (n.b. The name: 'The Imitation of ...') 

But rather there are considerations of beauty and power and desirables which seduce the optimism so, that the underdeveloped ego does eventually frustrate itself entirely. Unless there is a worldly or spiritually binding intimacy shared with the famed object or person there is complete frustration, and the man does turn upon himself with resentment. Outwardly he may make blame on particulars, however it is the disassociative process from self which surrenders to the congestion of resentment. 

Death enters in when the ego has become derelict, he stands opportunistic, delighted by a chaos in identity. Death is ever with us, this is true, but usually does behave himself, submissive to the power as brought by the Divine Will made manifest in Man.

Irony, being the last of the three so named, is very pitiable and twisted, for it contains its own undoing. Irony is one of those properties that invoke more of themselves and hold specific natural laws only unto their own. What is meant by this is, Irony is Humor which as been perverted, no longer of the realm which is Humor. Divine Humor manifest, is the quickening of realization, flashing through to the soul and expired rapidly also. It is a comprehension which enlivens, because it is entirely sympathetic and knowing by very nature. 

Good humor therefore, is an expression of a likeness to God, a nearness to God, inasmuch as there is also a greater relationship between he who is enlightened with the moment and that to which he is sympathetically interacting with, in deep and high communication. Generally speaking it comes and it goes, and the awareness sparks to a maturity of knowing, and then as the humor subsides and the man settles, the experience is difficult to achieve again to such a degree with same knowing. For it is incorporated and having been realized, is usually not repeated. The second time around is less severe but more lasting, and so forth.

Now it becomes difficult indeed when humor has been inverted and touched - contaminated - with such upset; as say for example, resentment. Scorning, mocking, jesting, condemning, humor of cynicism, sour humor and particularly irony - all of these project Man in a way in which he is divorced from true and real sympathy or empathy, and seek rather to elevate the partial humorist in the exchange. It assumes superiority over that which it focuses upon and releases in a laugh, and the act of irony is not elevating to the man or his comprehension as with the laughter of true humor. Moreover it is corruptive to the man and an untrue perception.

Eventually this man shall return to himself, for upon withdrawing out from this world he will be given occasion to re-ensemble and regain his 'I' in identity. Peculiar to this, his soul itself has chosen the 'wind-up' - simply, as the seasons perpetuate, it is natural to the soul, even after an early Winter. The influx of overwhelming impulses have been, in this case in question, dependent largely upon critical weaknesses as laid down at birth. The tendency towards polio worked its way through to the thinking processes and this man suffered refraction and paralysis throughout many centers of his physical/causal constitution.

Reasons affront reasons and each man brings complicated histories into providence. What one may add further however, is that the man before you is an enigma, and just as it may be difficult with eyes of the world to see a lesser god, it is equally difficult to meet the real man who still bears his divinity intact. Fortunately, the souls of men are not so fragile or destructible.

There are men who present well and are coherent, nay, eloquent, and are so morally damaged with but a thin filter between them and savage evil. . . and then there are those unfortunate individuals, unkempt and vague, given to distemper, but wanting also, having lost momentarily, keys, code and cipher.

His dignity shall be reclaimed, his deficits accounted for, and no soul is alone or without, particularly during this transition.

Space, & Memory Impressions- 23rd August 1993

THE question as to the convolutions of space and the perceived sphere, has good value for the consideration of perception and its relationship to actuality; and furthermore, complementary accentuates within actuality. The question was: When globes appear as rounded spheres is it because they are as they appear, or is it because the distance between contorts all mass as an elliptical horizon?

Plainly we may answer, that there are a variety of realities for any given spirit manifested - numerous expressions concurrently being. The planet, this planet, is an enspirited identity who is clothed in a mass which is more fluid overall than it appears. It is not however, her only expression; whilst also, on higher levels related to her 'body', we find that the orb is extended, leaving the surface as we know it, to be at the heart, in the center, of the greater globe.

The argument which suggests contortions in/of space may be set to anything, is in that sense, irrelevant. For truly things are not as they appear; however how they appear on the face of it, rests on many factors, all of which play their part in making them appear so. Do you get it? Nothing is what it seems!

***

The talismanic properties bestowed within the impressionable article are to be valued and discerned where possible, particularly with those things which are 'attached' to our persons. It has been advised (and we shall remind) of the importance of shedding one’s street clothes when home, in preference for those which remain in the house and only worn amongst those that you may feel entirely at ease with. For emanations, as with odor, are lasting and contaminating; especially to those sensitive individuals who are embattled in daily resisting, aware and uncomfortable with impinging influences.

It is not necessary to make a fetish out of the practices of cleanliness, we are rather reminded that quite often the source of debilitation may be very close to us and easily remedied. One would not happily wear the shoe that becomes ensheathed in dog droppings - nor should one go about the house in street clothes either. Also too, it becomes advisable to house the closet outside of the sleeping room, and those articles which maybe subtly impressed with undesirable permeations.

Men are just beginning to realize something of the wonderful properties various emanations may give over. Intangibly and profoundly, there are grades of etheric radiances which emanate from all things living, imparting characteristics of those forces particular to them and of their formation.

Just to be near a fruit may offer a man, by emanation, by etheric radiance, an influence according to the nature and substance of that fruit. Thus the bowl of fruit and of course, the flowers to be given to the ill or infirm, in particular. Whether the fruit is eaten and digested may not be the point at all, it is of great benefit just having such liveliness in close proximity to he or she to whom it is given.

Added to this there is beginning to be a concerned awareness of radiations emitted and other such arrays of contaminants as do seep and bleed from artificial resins. If this is to be comprehended in part, then it is possible for men to regard every article before them, respecting that all substance holds memory and continually releases from it that which it knows. (This goes for ghosts also: disenspirited shells, the kind that recap the old stories over and over.)

Matter needs have provision for memory, for it is memory that binds the matter to its original form. The lesser aspect of this law is that the material concerned shall always be a little impressionable, so that the substance receives and imparts qualities as it does know, as exposed to from a radius commensurate to its own aura of emanation.

There has been much talk of 'cleansing' material - viz. the heirloom jewelry - in the instance of there being such unwelcome radiations, perhaps not even of the former person, but rather of their circumstances. This cleansing may be effected by exposing the article to days and weeks of sunlight, whereby its memory will not be totally erased, but rather significantly quietened from a point of view of emitting the said influences.

Conversely, there have been articles of supreme significance, venerated because of their associated histories; and marvelous songs they sing as actual testimonies, as banks of especial memory, imparting.

We collect and gather mementos by way of surrounding ourselves with memories. In this sense the ego of an individual may well identify with all of that which he has taken to possess, because he begins to interpret his being by way of the object's impression of him and the circumstances of which it did come to him. Havingness is rooted in beinglessness, that our aspects of self are apportioned to those belongings we seek to identify with.

Certain symbols belong to a family of memory: that which brought that symbol together in the first place, and too in sympathetic connection to its identical representatives. There becomes a definite code within each one, and the simpler the diagram, the more powerful, potent and pronounced the inherent characteristic-property will be.

Returning to the subject of jewelry: gems have a memory which actually recalls that time when lesser Gods would stride the Earth and deity called them into a fire of evolution, fusing the elements they were born from with aspects of a realized divinity. The 'sleepers', these precious stones, are a living tribute to matter which has been so touched by divinity. Not only as representative, not by look-alike, but in being the crystal kingdom, has redeemed all minerals, by example of living coherent perfection. The minerals of this planet are harvested from a multitude of differing fields, some have been brought in from the farthest corner, aloft a wayward meteor, some/most are received sympathetically from sister stations related to the constituent directly.

Then there is that material of which we have long carried with us from a former globe, impervious to change, too stubborn to disseminate: the 'either-ores' as affectionately termed. (Salts.)

All of these related minerals are prone to consolidation unto their own and are given to argument with one another, having specific tendencies and natures very individual to their families. Islands and ravines, shafts, notches, plateaus and veins - the minerals would choose to be separate were it not for Man and God. When Man forges the uncompliant mineral to associate within an alloy and bring its particular strength into that bonded fusion, he is outwardly effecting what God has detailed within, remarkably. And it was by the advancement of the crystals that this was to be achieved within the physiology of Man.

We may offend our inner ecology if we attempt to introduce deluges of unrefined mineral. The animals do not share our difficulties in this, it is quite possible for a dog to ingest much lead, for example, and excrete it without undue absorption or argument within. However a man has a system attuned to soul and sensibility which affords much more subtle activity to house everything which is conductive to becoming a man. A dog will not draw upon similar needs and because his constitution is incapable of scrutiny with definition, he shall happily pass the same material that may poison or waylay a man at any stage of consumption or exposure.

Eventually men shall acquire the abilities necessary to be able to discriminate substances before ingesting them, and this may apply not only to mineral constituent and its variety but also to affectation. For we may resume upon the line of thought which began with memory-emanations- such is the same for foodstuffs, particularly those which are altered in preparation, in cooking. The hand of the chef and his emanations - his aspects as pronounced at the time of the actual preparation - shall make a discernible difference to the meal consumed.

Thus too, we make impact upon the world at large and are ever reminded that exactly what we exhibit becomes permanent testimony to what we have been. Therefore we must pray to live graciously and offend as little as possible, and give out exactly what we should like to become and be given.

Amen