Arterial Self, Problem m

Problem m: Thrilling & the Three Episodes

The early hours of the morning are pregnant, expectant with the happenings of the day to come. Caught in that pause before sunrise, that waiting watchfulness, alive in a darkness complete, the anticipation of the future's presence stirs through the being of all that sleeps ...

With this approaching, there has galloped in the tides of new life that lap impatiently at the edge of this new day. As the forces of the preceding empty out, those of the new thrill to the wakefulness immanent within the World.

Commentary:
Ever so, the lesser example sets the patterns found elsewhere throughout all realms, as is here in our story of impending evolution. Such anticipation as is known within those early hours when life crams its way in, when the ethers are charged with the effluence of a new existence, this same lively expectation gathers also at such evolutionary interludes as we are now experiencing, when Man and all the Kingdoms which he conducts, has arrived at the pre-dawn of his arterial knowing.

Nightly we are summoned to our Father God, as also in yet a slighter fashion we return to Him with every closing of an eyelid - when a man blinks in just the natural course of his wakeful day, he is in this part referring back continuously. Just as with the action of sleep, there is upon us an 'unknowing' in which the involuntary actions of withdrawal (momentary or prolonged) are unrecalled by the consciousness, though vital to its very life and continuance.

Whenever there is an inactive representation in manifestation, there has been a resumption with God. He keeps and protects all those which have vacated their natural place. If they have made an exit or not yet fulfilled their perimeters of existence, He houses those parts of their beings until such time as it is so.

When we began this arterial examining we chose issue with futures that befell prematurely. By contrast today we can go on to study the excellent importance of a future which is perfectly placed in relative time and exacting to the needs of the beings enclosed, when the spiritual worlds swell with their intuitive foreknowledge and forewonder at those very things awaiting.

The principle of all returns withdrawing to Father God explains something also of the 'empty' existence. Often it is asked, "How can things appear so, yet not be so?" This does of course, occur on many levels whereby what one may imagine from past knowledge to be there quite simply isn't, and yet could be if conditions were forthcoming.

Think for a moment of an idiot-born child, this child is represented as almost he would and could be, but does not go on in this life to fully represent himself in his arterial consciousness. But where is his latent being and this self-ego consciousness? It is quite literally kept with God.

This is not speaking in figurative terms, but is plainly meant - and to great purpose - for as long as Father God Himself safekeeps something, someone, some element of being which is held back from manifesting, for whatever reason, then when it does come into its perfect timing it has been protected in such a way that there is still remaining the freedom of that signature expression and of being to become so. Verily there would be no safe place to shelter from all other influence if it were not for Father God.

This occurs upon all planes of being, for men also, because they simply cannot be simultaneously active in their conscious expression in every way that is possible for them. Wherever it is that they reside in self-consciousness there are portions of that soul-mind or ego-mind which are illuminated, active and receptively knowing; whilst also there are many other faculty impressions and reasonings which are at any given time not functioning. And, we may say once again, that if something is 'not there' yet with the possibility and promise of being so, then it is safe-guarded with our Father God - from Whom all things began, and to Whom all shall return. So when the future enters in it does so fresh from our Father God, and the anticipations summoned in the surrounding souls is one of thrilling to His emissaries becoming apparent.

For this reason it is most natural for men to cleave to habitual behavior. The higher set sequence of withdrawal, anticipation and their return, can be satisfactorily mimicked or played out in all kinds of habitual routine which becomes pleasing to a man, moreso for the habit than for the substance itself. Children delight in this set sequence, and for adults the issue here is to be comfortable arterially with all of its phases, and come to welcome and honor all three.

This stop/pause/start, exhale/rest/inhale, die/withdraw/revive principle of episode, provides us with an ongoing continuity. If we are fearful during the period of pausing, resting or withdrawing, that we are subject to an uncontained void, then it is natural to inhibit the process of due future, by hesitating at its preliminaries - as similarly, the man who denies himself the proper time required for a restful sleep. We may disrupt our spiritual anticipatings with a consciousness that refuses to let go, and cease and die unto itself; one that is gripped by an anxiety, a 'Fatherlessness' anxiety, which can't recall God because it cannot entertain the consciousness of non-existence. (But this is not for all time and all men to come. Future-man can actually embrace Father God in his full wakeful mind and know Him consciously).

On the other hand any one of those three elements may be disproportionately indulged in by a man also. This then sets up a spiritual illness of a kind: the exaggeration of promoting life through death is one which we have discussed previously; as is too the man who is forever seeking the thrill of the forthcoming, to-ing and fro-ing in and out of excitement to excitement, without giving commensurate maintenance to preparation and cessation of those things entered into aforehand. Then there are those sleepy individuals who take rest within themselves and are rarely provoked into a fuller manifestation.

All three modes can become so fixed that the overall man is sickened by that fixation and this can be witnessed in the subsequent personality (which can and does, continue on with or without arterial/set conscious deliberating).

The illness of becoming too fixed into death is not pessimism as one might first presume, it is moreover a misplaced, poorly gauged optimism. It is an offbeat optimism which is divorced from the underpinning realities - insensitive to the psychology of true futures ordained - one which can no longer interpret the intimations of their accompanying Angels or intuitive resources enough to understand the right timing.

This is a misguided optimism because it suggests incorrectly that "everything will be all right in the end no matter what the case". It relies on the Father God to whom we can withdraw to, but does not take the responsibility for consciousness at all in this. It is a nonsense to say that "everything will work out just fine" if the timing was out and the purpose was gone. Too much sun, too little water or too much compost makes too little plant. Overall every component of life has its exact requirements to survive and it is deathly to not respect this.

New Ageism has promoted a laziness of this kind, whereby the truth is out of context and exaggerated to the point of an unhealthy soul-view. It is surely not enough to merely trust in death and in sleep, without also having a commitment to wakefulness and to life itself. This commitment must necessarily follow through to the immediate stations, those placings where we reside. Over many incarnations a man will find himself in countries and occupations and in social placings that are defined by his effort; all different, but nonetheless reliant upon his exertion of self.

The physical problems which result from too much death are the extraction from life, the excarnating whereby in subsequent lives the man may be born with redundant limbs or senses, requiring that his effort be all the more driven, and the will once again motivated into life itself. The inanimation of a man does give time to Father God, being a 'saving' grace indeed.

Conversely, what of the powers expended in revival and life when indulged in to excess? This, as wasted fruit does sour into pessimism. The man or woman who overly takes revival out of time and out of proper context, looks for life also where it has not yet chanced. However, as things are wont to do in working backwards within the soul-nature of an individual, the pessimism knows that cessation and death are required, but once again does not know when. It is true to say that when a man is brought to excessive wealth for example, he is known to suffer within himself an emptiness, an unfulfilment and a dread of loss, a pessimism if you will, and so forth. This is the consequence of seeking out too much early life when dusk has come.

Too much wakeful consciousness when it is proper time for the mind to rest becomes painful in the extreme. Too much light to eyes that do not close; too much false hope inevitably promotes inherent gloom.

The illness which comes from this self-seeking, self-gratifying and selfish temperament is tragically tumourous. The overgrowth is largely related to a man whose own natural forces become saturated in this pessimism, this doubt, fear and grave distrust. 

The back-tide to overly indulging in anticipation is realism. This pre-dawn existence is most likely the preferable on which to be fixed. However, even with its connecting bridge from Heaven to Earth, when stayed in, out of the context of the three, it too promotes an illness in a man, and this is one of addiction: obsessive, addictive dependence.

Realism says "I know what is to come"; and often an individual in small ways can set about to preordain an experience for himself that he may know this and prove himself right. It does lead however to a false sense of a) self importance and b) foreknowledge as it stands. Self-fulfilled prophesies hold no lasting value and addictions of any kind feed upon themselves eventually taking more life than they offer.

Having travailed the exaggerated aspects given to isolation, we can now look and find what it means to a man to hold all three equally in his Arterial Soul-consciousness. For one thing it means to say that our 'multi-level freeway intersection' has its red, amber and green traffic lamps! For another it tells us of the very pattern of early being, that we may come to change, rested, prepared and awake.

Dialogue requires these three elements to be lively and fruitful overall. So too do all components to living, from our arterial relationships to our digesting of food. There are periods of that which must come to a close, with then the quiet that follows, preparing for new issue descending from Heaven.

In this knowledge lies many useful secrets for Man. His keys to understanding and interpreting how life flows, in arterial currencies, will be markedly assuaged if he can find which of the three phases he is in at any given time, so that he may prepare for that to follow. 

All problems can be applied to so. Impatience can be quelled and the patterns surrounding may begin to make the mysterious ever more legible as we are drawn out from our Father God's essence and personified.

Arterial Self, Problem l

Problem l: Using the Rod

"That's odd" he said, having never before held a compass or seen its magnetic north, "Whichever way I stand it still points to its preferred!"

Commentary:
Abject selflessness tells us that our own desires and knowings are not important.

It is possible for a man to spend many years learning to quash his inner understandings and desires which stream out from his arterial being. In trusting that we know ourselves, we can help others to do so similarly. This is important from the very highest view, that we also honor our knowing of Christ, for one follows the other, just as all true compasses point to Heaven.

If we discredit ourselves we discredit everything about ourselves and our love for Him. This is the sickness which is rife amongst the seemingly lukewarm Christians. They have been weathered by their own selflessness and are quick to believe as a consequence that no man excels another in any regard, and so then doubt themselves. They trade this humility for self degradation, in the effort to put themselves last, and they put Christ last by doing this as well.

By not honoring one's arterial knowing you have not the understanding to question as whether or not another man is acting out from his primary self, or indeed he has come at you from the many other directions which are on or off course. It could well be that we could respect all men's views providing that they were not so flimsy, changeable and incoherent, and that they were uniform to the arterial being, and not to the one hundred and one other faces that they may wear at the time.

We can learn to approach our innermost selves with same reverence as that we know when we go to God in prayer. For it can be said that it must be with a piety and a thanksgiving, the mysterious yet also the greatest familiar; a quietness, discharging all superfluous self; a reliance, a credibility and an open question, that we may come to do this. Our innermost arterial selves deserve that field of operation.

We are ancient, we are our own very best connection with Father God Himself; and we are duty bound to consult ourselves before any other upon any matter. It is we who are responsible for all that we do. It is we who are answerable to God. It is only by this maturity of being that we can begin to operate amongst the World and the Spiritual Worlds with the forthrighteousness necessary to help further equip Mankind.

Learning to lean on the staff of this reckoning brings us to a self questioning which accepts the answer that is given. When we pray we do not go to Father God and then query His reply. We do not discourse or make argument, we pray, we are answered and we know. There is no second advance or other approach.

If we are sincere with ourselves, then it will be that our reply to ourselves will be as sincere. This is something between ourselves and no other. This is the deciding as to what you need, feel, decide, etc. And though it is not with the same weight of God's deciding (this is, of course), it can be understood in similar terms of consulting and so forth, not allowing the self doubt which trivializes after the fact.

Arterial Self, Problem k, Objective Innocence

Problem k: The Arterial Self and the Objective Innocence

He had been feeling nostalgic as he sprang down that familiar track. Effigies of himself, he espied almost everywhere, for this was his wood, his World and his way. They called him the Christ.

With a sublime confidence our Christ took stock yet again, perusing his fine Creation. He hesitated in the space of one breath, and then, as if with an invisible answer to some ethereal question, He smiled ... approvingly.

Commentary:

The young Christ with all of His idealism and self confidence knows an unwavering happiness returning to Him from all of that He has confided with in soul. The soul life of the entire world springs up in a greeting so bold and completely unencumbered; carefree, completely at trust, with their Christ - their Christ, their God.

The lies of the world are but pizzle piss. How can you conceal our fair Christ? These times may well be difficult, but it shall not be for very long now. Before the end of this century all men will find His face amongst them.

True objectivity leads men to Him. The lesser kingdoms who hold innocence do know Him. Those which are as so self important, and have forsworn their generosity, then they are sullen in spirit and quite interred within themselves.

The 'cold creatures' come from a time when the parcels of being were splintered and left wanting. Humanity has always had the full complement given. As 'old souls' we have, in actuality, known existence with Father God back before the deepest memory. The realms of indifferent beings, those which storm the outskirts of our cosmic trailer, are in part synthetic, and part obscure, and have more recent beginnings to their natures and their knowing. 

The elite Angels are formidably stern and refuse to suffer them. Contaminated men who hold unwholesome investments in demonic inclination suffer their crudeness and encourage their presence in bordering realms. Good men ignore them, or if versed with the divine contradictions, do pray for them, acknowledging that it is men who have the stronger wills and fashionings, and may very well hold the title to these demons' futures.

When asked if there are those things by which a man can help to quicken or maintain that no other being may conjure the same, it is with all of the happy arrogance one can muster which affords the 'yes' to this in reply. The Angels cannot recondition themselves, and nor should they wish to, for adulteration would befall those with sympathetic callings. Christ has vouchsafed the demons as redeemable, in that He has not hurled them from this planet but tolerated their presence... and He would not endure what was to be intolerable to Man, for that would be an oblique acceptance indeed.

There are evil beings in existence who are simply devoid of any sympathy, empathy or objectivity, they do not even understand what it is to uphold their own kind, having no endearments with family or species, no preferences other than that of their own immediate gain. They would and do devour. They are fearless, humorless and characterized best by the dragoons of old who would mercilessly feed on their offspring only moments after their resented birth.

Yet to men it has been given the divine virtues of correspondence; that is, to know by self and also from others, of self. Our objectivities can be shared and then complete, that the pictures drawn from our finest impressionings are made composite of shared realities. Reality is affixed and made stable, this is so. Reality may also be imbued with purpose, fed, just as the rains supplicate the porous ground to receive them. Our purpose is in twain with reality's complex, and this far better done en masse than tried alone.

To the fascination of a few it was discovered that a plant was found to prosper when given a man's loving attention. Whether music was played or praise was enjoyed, men could affect the growth of an earthy green being, with their involvement to fertilize.

A man may interpret plant qualities but is not a plant nor holds the dialect of consciousness to fully participate with a plant on plant matters. As far as a fulfillment to man, plant cannot extend himself this far either. So to man, even the most loving of men, a plant will be plant and be separate to his own internal, subjective reckoning. Here with all the care of the Creator Himself, we can come quite close to Christ in our tendering. To both a greater and a lesser extent this is also so when we find love with other folk, whom the similarities are spread so thin and the individuals are so different.

It is this that the cold creatures hold no essence for; but it is by the active participation Man can lovingly employ himself with, in that which is contrasting to himself, that will eventually impart something of the beginnings of this ability to even the demon.

The prayers are important because they too will help men as well as creature, but of all the instruction it is the act of Christ, the deliberate mixing and association of fellowship with the unfamiliar, that will eventually bring these fellows some measure of understanding.

Not all individuals are so strongly placed within their egos as to withstand these associations without some grave demerit resulting. For example, it can be that children (who are innocent) are at risk with their indiscriminate mixing because they have not the consciousness to fully differentiate themselves from who they are with. They are Christlike in their acceptances though, and perfect teachers of attitude in many respects.

In later years they may shun differences and be markedly outspoken about such. This can occur because of their innate sensitivity which knows that they have not the wherewithal to withstand another's nature upon them, that the young are indeed all too impressionable.

If we are to confuse identity we are not so objective, but rather subjectively projecting from the anterior position. This is why it was maintained earlier that to see in the purest objective is to find Christ. If we only see ourselves in something or somebody, or they in us, then our perceptions are still nonetheless subjective. Were we to see them as they are without our identity we would find Him. And when Christ is subjective He finds us.

Arterial Self, Problem j

Problem j: The Arterial Self & Cannibalism

He looked down to see if he could find what had caused him to stumble. One of his toes was missing; he just caught sight of it as it inched its way through the scrub that lay beside the dirt path.
He made a dive to catch it before it disappeared from view altogether, when to his dismay his arm fell off.

Commentary:

In Man's endeavor towards edification he has come to the blessed but mistaken concept that anything within the world and beyond is merely a consumable for his purpose. This notion is born from the desire to not only endorse signatory keys within his own system of systems, but also from the combining which in turn affects his ego and subsequent perceptions about him in his relations.

The Arterial Self is his signature key, the one key which stands quite separately to that mix which has shared over and over in relation and with relation to a multitude of beings. In the combining of a man with animal or with plant we have such an experience and subsequent knowledge (astrally, psychically, spiritually, morally) with their inherent characteristics and plan of physiology.

Whenever there becomes a crisis in the evolution of Man there also follows a clamoring in and out of the gates, from beings who wish to either maintain a different status and depart (men included) or those 'outsiders' who have awaited their opportunity and make the cyclic dive to come in. Man has at one time or another adopted a myriad of uncertain entities into his own system, along with the score he has exhumed from times past.

With respect to the animal kingdom we can firstly observe that their hierarchy of being manifests quite differently to the individual incarnating of men with single bodies. The animal and the plant have a limited consciousness manifest within the physical. Although they are self-aware they are at the same time concurrently aware of those fellows to whom they share soul with. As corporate beings there can be an entire herd of beasts belonging to the one governing soul. They may be as one party combined or dispersed upon the Globe. There are groupings of the same species which share their peculiar signature and soul merit, and are not dependent upon the survival of one or of some, in order that their representing incarnation be maintained.

So the piece above is thus explained: that when an animal or plant has withdrawn (deceased from the world) it is not as it is with the death to one man, for there are, whilst others exist, other limbs as it were, of the one remaining body. So the insult of death is not as it would be considered in the instance of a murder of a man. However, and having made that point, we should at the same time examine what it implies to kill anything and to take gain from it.

The statement [by Rudolf Steiner] that killing impedes occult development shows the nature of the man who expressed this and his allegiance to both the truth and to Christ. It is interesting to note that the very opposite is asserted by black magicians of the corrupt persuasion, as they would extract life unlawfully just as their masters do to they.

Once again the critical issue has leveled itself to life and to death and to what may be our own significance here. Some plants and some animals are already inextricably linked to the overall keys in which humankind share. Our natures are not only compatible, but our evolutionary pathways are as dual carriageways because of their service to us - having of their own spiritual volition, given to us, we commit to carry them. (These are to be distinct from those who are 'brothers' in common, who share traits but not the involvement implied to the same level - horses, dolphins, pigs, bears etc.)

To eat of a cow for example (given that our relationship to the cow is so close that we are cow and cow is us) is an instance where the separateness is illusory, in the sense that we are no more morally unusual in this compared with digesting our own ecoli or chewing our own finger nails. (This does not take issue here with the karma of causing pain; it is simply to address the practice of meat-eating itself).

Not all plants or creatures have the physical, psychical, spiritual endorsement with Man. Nor would it become desirable for this to be so. It would be retrogressive for men to adopt the qualities of the reptilian races and others which are equally as foreign, and try to take into him such anti-man forces which they now contain.

Many such creatures have bonded with other entities since their initial extraction from Man. There are reasons for this which are better not entered into, however, if for nothing else than the logic of it, we can observe that Man himself could not possibly find a harmonious correspondence with all varieties of kingdom concurrently as they stand represented today.

The interdependence of the working ecology at any geographical site proves that conditions are mixed but particular, and could not elaborate themselves into accommodating all species conducively, and neither can Man.

But for those beings who are represented amongst the species of fish, animal and plant which have already become enveloped and embraced amongst us - those which have beneficent trait, who are willing to be as part of us, even to the degree of death and consumption - then it is by agreement and karmic settlement for which we combine.

There does come a time when the qualities which a man has formerly drawn for himself from the ingesting of an animal, are not significant to his actual eating, that he may entertain the forces or subsequent strengths without. As the constitution refines itself down it will instinctively refrain from flesh-eating, intuitively knowing which foods are profitable and which are not relevant anymore.

With vegetarianism which is adopted too early - i.e. an individual who has morally preferenced the change but not acted from a constitutional necessity – the person invites a soiree of elemental beings who are given to the opportunity of place-filling so to speak.

The process occurs in miniature similarly as with what was described in the closing and reopening of humanity's gates. When we deliberately cast out something from our system radically there are impeding alternatives which happen in upon us, pushing to sequester a space for themselves. This may or may not be profitable in every case, depending upon the readiness of the man: how strong he be, how apt those forces next in line are. Remembering also that the quality/nature of an elemental being drawn to a man requires a similar cast of quality so known in him. In other words, when we invoke forces of being, we shall draw to ourselves that which is commensurate with our level as expressed of virtue and character - so colored, so told.

Therefore, if for example a man has given up meat-eating (and even if it is for the higher good as the case may be) this desistance (if rapid and not gradual) will create pockets within his astral body which would have otherwise been taken up with the breaking down and dissemination, interpretation and assimilation of the animal qualities. These pockets within his astral makeover will have naught to work upon, and just as their habit has constructed, they shall set about to continue on the same.

During this time the excessive vitalities allowed for this will act within the ethers as a beacon to all and sundry elemental astral form. If the man's nature is completely clean of lower nature tendencies of fault, then he may bring to himself beings who are useful to employ and have on team. However, men who are in this category still most usually make the transition a slow one, either never having eaten meat before anyway (in which case the problem does not exist) or because their development is gradual their giving up was also gradual and therefore did not give rise to the situation so described.

It would be difficult indeed for a man to be bereft of all untoward tendencies. These tendencies anyway, have their countering and conjoining virtues in the first place, and in the second there is always, even in the highest man, potential sin at his highest level. So the risk in such radical change is great indeed.

These opportunistic elementals only understand affinity and are so attracted to a man who displays similar behaviors in being. If the man has just given up his meat-eating and has been prone to a 'bad day' it can happen that he acts poorly - perhaps exceptionally - and yet because this has come right at that time, he may consequently be lumbered with an entire troop of guests that have adhered to those places left vacant. They will go on to thrive from the forces which ordinarily were used to work upon the astral properties in the meat which, depending upon its variety would manifest other qualities and traits that are predictable to a large extent. (This is given to 'clean' meats and not those of incompatible variety.)

These newly adopted elemental qualities can then go on into the man and move throughout his other bodies. Not confining themselves to their immediate trait, they can translate into problems such as the 'egotism' as cited by Dr. Rudolf Steiner. This egotism which becomes accentuated and enfired, is most likely to have been the lesser aspect to the virtue of wanting to become vegetarian in the first place. It is simply more of the same but inflamed. Self-improvement can be a virtue; it can also become a consuming egotism when say in this case, the animal was not the concern of the man at all.

So we may understand that for the Arterial Self to work well with the constitution it is preferable where possible, for the man to make this and other change slowly, consistently, and to be most careful as to his thoughts and behavior during this special period of transition.

As a fundamental law we may regard this: that at some times more than others - i.e. at the changing of the guard - we are required to be ever more vigilant as to what strangers and curiosities there are about us, and deciding well as to who we may truly wish to entertain.