On Giving Thanks- 1st May 2008

TIME was, time before, when the term 'giving thanks' had something of a different meaning to what it has today.

In the early Christian tradition (where the phrase was entirely born from), it referred to finding something latent or left, and then exposing its goodness, going on to put it to good use or display.

Expressions of gratitude to our Father and to the Heavens and to Christ, are of course, worthy affirmations of the strengths we have and our ability to acknowledge them and give all honor and glory over to a higher source.

Gratitude is of itself, a preliminary to moving forward into further spheres or opportunities in that which we are grateful for. Heaven itself can be further enabled in respect to that which we thoughtfully engrace.

There is however, a situation for example, whereby you have found something put away, that has not been used for some while, and you see its purpose or its function or some way it can bring help or cheer to yourself or another, and you take whatever it is and then do something positive with it. This is the original meaning of that phrase - to give thanks.

Occultly speaking it is always good to use what one has or to pass it on. As milk itself may sour (in a very short period really), the early Christian Fathers acknowledged that the whole philosophy of earthly abundance became a discredit to God and to self. 

Religion set about to invest in a higher providence of course, and cynical minds have attributed this to being a mere placebo for the poor - for those who had no choice but to live day to day on the very meager portionings they would have.

But more than this underlay a deep and treasured philosophy. Born of the prayer for daily bread, the concept was that it is good to look about ourselves and rediscover that which we can make eminently useful. And this can apply to material items, or to self. Much like the Phoenix having risen, much like the whole of the resurrection principle, redeeming of itself has a magical quality that revalues and transforms, that which is given thanks for.

Sometimes (particularly in times of hardship), resourcefulness must seek out that which is already there within our reach, not that which we would fancifully hearken for.

Too often folk are dissuaded from finding the treasures that they do have by believing that they are deplete - and not remembering to give thanks for what they do have (i.e. finding it and putting it to use).

It is understandable in material conditions, which are never ever perfect or comfortable, or safe for that matter, that we should all wish for a more solid ground to stand upon. And this World is being fabricated now, in all of the strivings from each man and child - it is truly being forged for the future.

 Yet as Saint Francis went and collected the single bricks, one here and one there, to build his most magnificent of monasteries, in this way, the only way available, can we also fossick and forage our way to our own temples of design and good purpose.

"It is good to give thanks" reminds us to be active as well as inwardly grateful. To look fervently for those virtues ourselves and others have to offer, or find that which has been commissioned to uselessness and redeem its purpose, and by this action feel the acceleration within this activity of the momentic force that does build Humanity's future.

Order of the Golden Thorn-16th April 2008

THERE is nothing that separates the good men from one another in this world and beyond this world further, for they are combined.

In this true unity there is the bond which is both simple and strong, of their Humanity. And for those pledged to uphold and support their brothers and sisters in this fellowship of souls, there is no deeper or stronger friendship to be had, save but with the Gods and the Father Himself. There is no special key or code to be used, save the love of Goodness and the love that Goodness brings.

There is no formal membership that can overtake that signature of Christ that all men wear upon them right now. And should they subscribe to a devil or pretender, that signature still survives upon them, and protects and dignifies their being.

The noblest order of all the spheres of worlds dissolved and worlds to come, the highest and with true and glorious prestige, is The Order of the Golden Thorn. Other societies might mimic this order and some wear rules that they might appear to shoulder beside, but they do not, and there is naught to be taken seriously and neither to be coddled nor entertained, and none so worthwhile.

For this order knows itself without pretense, and its gathering have the deft mind of this knowing as well. Subscriptions, uniforms, outer signs and handshakes are for those who do not know one another, who do not have the significant means of perceiving who is who and what is what. Such extraneous means of acknowledgement might be self supporting but have no purpose of themselves; and they will in turn, by their mode of insincerity, exclude themselves from The Order of the Golden Thorn.

A mother does not ask her child for his passport every time she goes to hold him. Yet it can be with the animal world that in a manner of speaking, they do. Animals will outcast members quite readily for small reasons and sometimes fail to recognize them as being part of their own species if moderate changes ensue.

However, human souls are each different to a point, and same to a point as well; and as different and as same as one another. And despite of exterior changes, they do have the ability, when clear in mind and heart, to see the soul within and feel its palpable love.

Sometimes it is that men will go the long way around. They seek the invisible door, when that door really truly is the very heart itself; and not just in fancy, but in all discerning, all knowing, and more importantly all action as well.

The mystery schools have been in plain sight for eons. They have always been accessible to the ones who have championed both goodness and love. There are no fortresses or caverns, nor temples of worth, that exclude the exemplary. Perhaps to some it might be a sore point that they need to try a fraction harder or desist their selfishness before gaining entrance to the true treasures of the world. Perhaps to the downhearted it seems too difficult, and they yearn for someone else to be themselves but for them, and that they might sleep eternally, whilst their deciding is thusly given over....

The good news is that each good man is sensitive to the striving of another's. As a collective we know and sense when any man chooses rightly.

And there are no shortcuts, fast roads, smuggled loads or bribery that can get you to salvation. No secret words or special deals, no mysterious codes, privilege or pact, that will get you to the heart roads that lead to us. It is only with the sincere goodwill to all men that you can be prepared for what then will be ahead of you.

Life itself takes a leap when you commit to the pledged existence. When you can count more than one, and care abundantly for others; when you are ever ready to do what is needed, even at times with a cost to yourself; when your selfhood matures and settles into a quiet knowing and each word is weighed with multiple considerations, when your discerning is divorced from criticism and judgment and motivated only by kindness; when you can understand that Masters and even Gods have their bad days too....when you can take pause for a thought and reflect honestly on that which needs improvement about yourself and thereby work further into betterment.

The Middle Path so called, is not for the middle of the road man. It is for those individuals who are tired of pretenders and half faiths. It is for the men and women of this world who are repelled by greed and lascivious extremes, and prefer peace and humility to the uncharity of false pride and its attention-seeking associations. 

The wealthy have made a bad investment. Would that they would work to invest within their own character as much as they seek to amass their worldly power, they would have exceeded their hopes and fulfilled their greatest of desires. Conceit and carelessness in relation to other people, disables the perception and disqualifies the wicked from their own understanding. Further to that, if an individual persists in only selfish passions and pursuits, they are literally cutting off their future at the roots.

As harsh as this may seem, nonsense has no place or opportunity to further itself and develop yet more of the same. Nature and Heaven demonstrate a supreme commonsense that guides all of the participants to employ themselves in either beauty or usefulness. Nature and Heaven do not support nonsense enterprises - they are all very short-lived and cannot perpetuate themselves.

Over time there have been many instances of catastrophe, where hundreds or thousands of men have been retired too early with epidemics or disaster, and many souls have been swept into the spiritual worlds all too quickly together, wrenched from their realities, dismissed from their duties and loves. But with these events comes also a solidarity between the folk who have had this experience together, and a forging of a kind occurs within that experience.

The Order of the Golden Thorn was begun also in such a way. 

On the Edge- Heart to Heart- 1st April 2008

THERE are certain concepts, like over and under, above and below, inside and outside, empty and full, endless and finite, brief and prolonged, small and gigantic, purpose and obsolete; and these concepts, all of them, are matched because they insinuate a measure, a measure without prejudice, a measure of proportioning space.

Interestingly enough, these concepts give more of a picture of something else to that they refer to, rather than just the concept itself. For example: if I am considering something above or something below, it is the something which I consider in relation to it being positioned. The land is below the clouds on high. I am seeing land and clouds.

The concepts above are spatial verbs. They are used to set our bearings, to find our place within the inward space of our imagined planes... to position our selves in relation to that which we consider, to chart and to find.

And they are not intended to be anything more than general thoughts within ourselves - how high or low, how deep inside or far outside, how empty or how full, how endless or how finite, how brief or how prolonged, how small and how gigantic, how much purpose or lack thereof - the 'hows' are mathematically inconsequential to the task of this positioning. 

Is it hot or is it cold? Far or near? Wide or narrow? Our thinking references these dual plural contrasts in a multitude of positioning tasks daily. And although we may go on to ask how cold, how far, how narrow, it is by the very basic action of citing preference in dual extreme, that we ascertain ourselves amongst it all.

That is one way of thinking. And inevitably amongst its mix becomes also the determiners of:

• Is it good or bad?

• Wrong or right?

• Ugly or beautiful?

• Just or unjust?

• Dangerous or safe?

• Appealing or disdaining?

And the task of asking the above is really not within the mode of the question in its asking, but to find our own position literally, in relation to that which we are considering. If we are making an internal judgment about our neighbor for example, we are asking ourselves to decide more about how we feel about them and who we are in relation to them, rather than really judging are they good or bad, wrong or right, etc. It is not just about relativity, but finding ourselves in relation to our new bearings when they are put before our consideration.

This is important to cite because a lot of such discerning is under the guise of pragmatically understanding and judging that person or situation with some authority to do so, and meaningful deciding, whereas the true meaning is specific to ourselves and our own bearings and what it may mean to us in the future. There is very little truth to be had in the external reality we are trying assess.

As small a point as this may be, it is a stepping stone into recognizing just how thinking can misrepresent the truth of a person or a matter quite easily, and also if we cite these processes within ourselves, we have an opportunity to make many changes within our thinking, that are decidedly more difficult if we do not.

Discernment of itself is both necessary and practical.

In all life there is one Heart that beats, and that one Heart knows all. What is truly good and that which is not so good, is known by this Heart for what it is. For what it is, in relation to that which it is, is evident. And there is no question or debate about the quality or nature of any act within this reality, for the one Divine Heart that is, has named it for that which it is. This is independent of us, of our conscious questioning and deciding, it just is.

There is no persuading or hesitation in this knowing. No weighing, deliberating or changing this Heart. Assumption in its true and glorious context is most wonderful. The divine state of Assumption is when the individual knows the mind of the Heart, and further ascertains through that.

When folk speak of knowing their own hearts, it can be that it is the heart that can recognize the greater Heart's deciding. By the coordination and alignment of our heart to the Heart, we can experience Assumption.

One of the odd things here is, that over time there have been moral and philosophical arguments contending that there is no exact wrong or right in any situation. But in point of fact there is - and The Heart knows it. In the overall picture, individual entities and their commodities are all with a given space. They have a place and a quota and a size and a coordinate that is entirely knowable, measurable and fixed. It would be nonsense to imagine a reality where there was no fixed reality. It might not be known to us, for this whole, and the positioning within the whole, is too large to comprehend. Yet nonetheless it exists and is, and in truth, has place, space, bearing and measurability.

And isn't it exciting to know this? One of the fundamental most frightening misconcepts of this age has been that everything within the Cosmos and beyond is undefinable, unknowable, not only to ourselves but in general existence. What a relief it is to say out loud that everything does have its place, space and bearing, and even the wrong and the right of each and every situation also has its exactitude!

If you can possibly acknowledge that everything really does have its place, you can begin to appreciate it and see it, at least in some aspects, for what it is. Your relationship between it and yourself, is more measurable than by generalities - and depth perception can ensue.

Individuals who rest with fundamental religious tenets do so because they have experienced Assumption and the reality of The Heart's deciding, and put that experience into laws and behaviors that are meant to signify the Divine. And with a dedicated zeal, all attempts at new or original thinking are inhibited, for it is determined that there can be no individualistic deciding outside of The Heart and subsequent Divine Law.

Such a sense of correctness can be a comfort - particularly when all in daily life has proven to be unreliable. Yet the contention that The Heart is ever aggressive or reciprocatory is unproven - it can be savory or sweet, but it is not retaliatory.

Within perfect place - i.e. that space infilled truly and exactly - everything literally has its place. What this means is that no action or judgment on behalf of a man for example, will alter the place, positioning or lot, of that which is being judged.

You can lock a criminal up to stop him doing harm to others, or if you have charity you might try to help encourage him out of his ways. But do not lock up a criminal to punish him, for there is no worse or more apt punishment, that by which he has already become and is.

A man's soul concedes to Karma because he seeks betterment. He seeks betterment because he seeks a better place to be within and without himself. Our higher instincts command that we improve our conduct until we can rise again to that place which we formerly knew (another chapter), and there is no punishment or law that could coerce a man more effectively than what he already has in place in acknowledgment of where and who he is currently.

If we reprimand a child it is with a view in mind to discourage that which he has done in bad behavior. We do not reprimand for the sake of punishment alone. Would you punish a child who has learnt their error, or repented their problem? Would you punish a child too young too know?

Equally still it is the same for a man. When we view a man with venomous criticism or damning judgment, we are invoking a punishment that is aggressive and unhelpful. It is not the place for a man to judge or punish another, by thought or by action, ever.

Beyond the Threshold- 21st March 2008

IN all things of human experience, there comes a threshold where a duty is fulfilled, a quota completed, a karma conceded and quelled, an expectation realized, a promise enacted, a generosity given, an exercise performed, a good word said... with all of these and more, there is an acceptable threshold we can come to where we are released by that which we were committed to and are then now free to withdraw. And it needs be said here, at this passage's such threshold, that this is still a fine and goodly thing to make such a completion, and it is neither delinquent nor derelict to leave at this point of said completion.

But if one were to go on, to exact a little more than mere duty requires, to act beneficially after the karma is conceded, to be better than expectation fancies, to give greater than promised, and then perhaps even more, even again... to be able to speak beyond words, to offer a man your own shirt, live with an audacious aptitude for openhearted generosity, then you may know what it is to meet the heavenly quota - being one with the brotherhood and sisterhood of the Saints.

Parents will go to all lengths to push through their tiredness to care for their young - often with an exaggerated labor, in an effort to do not only what is required, but also some added extra "just in case". They are working harder than duty alone commands, and with love and willingness in every detail.

Speaking plainly about this phenomenon, we are not saying that it can be advised on the other hand to be overbearing or outstay a welcome, add too much to a given recipe, drive sideways off a bridge, become tedious to others by being overly persistent or tireless in fervor - nay, there is also a very special quality needed which is being able to know in advance what may or may not be good to further, that has value to it to others.

A perfect example of this is with the athlete who feels his body to be weakening and his natural threshold to have arrived, by which he should and could stop participating in the race.... and when he keeps on moving past this point of tiredness he feels the heavenly accelerant to follow. Yet if it is to the detriment of his body, if for example his moving forward caused his heart to arrest, then there would be no value in him having gone further. The going further in itself may make him feel a rush of elevated passion, energy and exhilaration, but it requires a useful purpose that goes beyond self-fulfillment, in order for it to power onto a higher and advanced stage of enterprise. Such energy could easily expire a man and often does when greed alone is motivating the persistence.

There are those who would press beyond the threshold but with no value to others in their extravagances - and here is the true answer as to why wealthy men desire continually more, thrilling to strive for it, with never a consummated fulfillment. Yet self-serving outside the threshold of the natural quota simply creates more karma to be answered at a later time.

Please refer to diagram 1:

When Jesus healed the sick it was at the point in time where they had actually resolved or completed their illness [meant that they had completed their cycle of life and were about to die]. He healed them from dying and passing on. For most it had to be at the end stage of death before the healing could be given; i.e. the cycle set needs to run its own proper course first - and why often it is that blessings take place at the lowest of times and conditions. You have to get to the threshold in order to go past it. 

A lot of folk actually desist before getting to their respective thresholds or completion of any situation. For some it is chronic, where they will measure their words and their money. They are forever reluctant - may try to escape duty, leave early, avoid responsibility, never pay the full sum required and eventually depart their own lives ahead of their allotted schedules. Those individuals have lost some of their sense of participating fully to the end, let alone going further.

Both poets and scientists know what it is like to go beyond their threshold of given knowledge and push into findings that take them into new understanding. And naturally, quite naturally, it is so important to have fulfilled all of the criteria beforehand, leaving no stage incomplete, before advancing further.

Now here is something really interesting: threshold-jumping requires an active choice. Running a cycle set can be motivated by karma, Higher Self determined, yet not actively consciously egoicly decided upon. Whereas once that threshold has been reached and that run made complete, it is then at a point where a true decision can enter in and further what has gone before.

By definition, Charity is giving what is needed, Love is giving even more after having given what was required.

At the very point of death our beloved Christ had completed His earthly set and obligation. And only when He had arrived at the very summation of this time, could He willingly venture further into yet another commitment - past the threshold of Death itself and thereby resisting all Death to Mankind as well.

The sets of Seven offer us a full complement within any manifestive presence. Outside of the 7 is the realm of the 8 - past the threshold of 7.

If that element of the new, of this future 8, cannot succeed within itself, if it has not intrinsic goodness, it will at some stage require fulfilling and will appear as a 6 until it has done so.

Three numbers together often refer to the three realms we immediately note them in:

• The first being of the World and the external conditions

• The second being of both the future and the spiritual conditions (for they are one and the same).

• And the third being the nature and spirit overall.

So by this standard,

777 indicates that:

• All is complete and stable within the physical worldly conditions.

• All is complete and satisfied in the spiritual condition surrounding.

• All is sound within the nature and presiding spirit overall.

This can also be indicated by (a dot within two circles - please see diagram 2).

888 indicates that:

• The physical world is primed for positive change - possibility exists.

• The spiritual conditions (thought world generally, and natures of Men) are co-operating with divinity.

• The Nature and presiding Spirit is having a stronger presence - both in the physical conditions and also in the Heavenly ones too.

666 indicates that:

• There is an incomplete task or obligation which requires fulfilling in a definite, demonstrative way.

• That there is a deficit of spiritual understanding currently and a presiding disquiet perpetuated by the disorder.

• That the overall nature and spirit is not functioning well in other ways and has a weak presence within all respective realms.

Easter