Post by david on Oct 25, 2020 16:29:36 GMT
Dear friends,
Imagine taking part in a ritual which started at your moment of birth, maintaining it through every moment of your life and not stopping until death. You think that this is not
possible? What actually are we doing when we perform a ritual?
The most potent action is the action which is most real. Imagine trying to do something not with your hands but with the shadows of your hands. Imagine if you could not see your actual hands but could only see their shadows. If everybody was like this then somebody who could see the things which cast the shadows would be unbelievably powerful. Bear in mind that if you could only see shadows you would only be able to see black and white. If you learnt to see the things which cast them you would be entranced by the beauty. You would also cause less harm by accident.
What distinguishes the mystical from the materialist point of view is that a materialist believes each thing is real in itself while the mystic looks for a higher reality of which the
material thing is a lower manifestation, rather like a shadow. Unless you have this concept of seeking for the higher reality you are really a materialist.
The first step is the understanding of true reality. If you think about the transition from seeing shadows to seeing the things which cast them you will realize it is done by seeing things more clearly. It cannot be done by gaining a sense of power in our shadow movements. That only fixes our minds more firmly on the shadows. The most true perception of things is the one that involves the most perception and the greatest possible perception involves not just observing a thing in its present state but of being aware of every state that it has been in and will be in. In order to do this you must be aware of every possibility. This is why I keep maintaining that the antirational methods are bogus and that true spiritual teachings are intellectual. Every
possibility has a relationship with every other possibility. The Universe is unfolding through these possibilities and our ultimate objective is to be aware of them all at once. It is in fact to be aware of all time and space in one instant which lasts for ever.
Extension into space is a form of disharmony. The most harmonious existence is when all things occupy the same space and everything is then a variation of the same principle. We
are seeking a universal principle which contains every principle. We are not seeking an abstraction because it contains every form of consciousness. We are seeking the Ultimate Person Who contains every person. We are seeking the Mother of All. We are seeking She Who contains every emotion and desire in its purest and most harmonious form which means every desire will be perfectly fulfilled.
This is why a truly mystical religion is matriarchal. You act and think from the feminine conception of things at all times. Matriarchal religion is not just about the earth or the irrational unconscious or emotionalism. It is very harmful to see intellect as a principle which opposes other faculties. We cannot become one with our actions by overcoming the intellect. I have done judo which is a fast skill sport and cross country running which is an endurance sport so I know something about action. We act best through the mind. When we think about something we sensitise ourselves to it. This is how meditation works. The more we think the more
sensitive we become. This is how we became civilized. Intuition works best when it interweaves in a subtle manner through our rational thoughts. Although mind is not pure Spirit it is the closest level to Spirit of which we are normally aware. Certainly the difference should not be used as an excuse to concentrate on the purely physical as is being used by fantasy and commercial artists.
The next step is to apply this method to individual things. Each thing is a particular idea of existence. First a simple exercise. Stand motionless in mid air. You cannot do it? All you
have to do is jump. But this is not motionless, you say. Well, I have seen photographs of people jumping and they have always been motionless. A material thing looks complete in itself but it is only an aspect of a thing. Anything made out of wood, for instance, is part of the possibilities of a tree and if you could truly see a tree growing you would see every kind of furniture as part of the tree's growth.
What we are doing when we perform a ritual is simply making an intensive effort to act with purity of perception. In practical life we tend to be anxious about the practical results which are a distraction from the abstract principles. While crossing the road as a contemplative act we do not notice the car. If this should happen a true mystic should get run over contemplatively. What we try to do in ritual is arrange a period without distraction or worry and concentrate on the pure principle of the action. We have instruments that are consecrated, that is made to reflect a higher principle, by which we raise our minds from the material manifestation to the principle. If we try to achieve a material result what we are really doing is annihilating space. We point a wand at an image representing something which may not actually be present and trace a sign over it. On a higher level of existence the image, the thing it represents, the wand and the sign are all in contact. If we are healing or correcting anything that is false (we should not be doing it the other way) the subject is made to become one with its true nature which is in a perfect state. Evil magic attempts to reflect a lower rather than a higher state but since the lower conforms to the higher it is weaker magic. Evil magicians tend to lose control over their faculties and become unhealthy.
Ritual is not a means of overcoming the rational consciousness but uses the mind to mediate a higher level and to link what is physically separate. The wand is an extension of
the mind and serves a similar purpose to a pen. A true wand should occupy no dimension at all but should be an extended point. If you are not that good at carving make it pointed and just thick enough to avoid being fragile. One should never forget that true intellect and true emotion are the same. What you know you love and what you love you know. If you hate something this is because you love what it ought to be. There are many ways of doing ritual but if you want to use ritual for spiritual development this is how it should be done. The idea of a chair in your mind is more real than a physical chair.
Ultimately the state that you are striving for in ritual is your highest level of consciousness which you should maintain at all times. All life should be a striving for perfect
consciousness. To achieve this it is necessary to be aware of the higher meaning at all times. Nothing on the material level can exist of itself and no action originates on the material level. They originate in Creation and Creation is an expression of the mind of the Mother. The method by which things are created is knowing. The reason they are created is love. At the heart of all action is joy which is love of action. Everybody knows we do things better if we like doing them which is an expression of their divine nature. When you do this your every movement becomes an expression of joy.
No method of spiritual development is complete unless it leads to perpetual awareness of the spiritual meaning of each moment of existence. We were originally created to be an
aspect of pure consciousness and this is what we should strive to be. To act this way all the time we have to be continually aware of the relationship between material actions and true reality. To do it well you have to be something of a philosopher but mystical philosophy does not come primarily from books but from meditation. The purpose of each action is not only to make yourself reflect your true nature but each thing you act with or upon reflects true nature.
This means that you strive for a higher standard in all things as well as correct moral behaviour at all times. The true state of every thing and person is in perfect harmony with the true state of every other thing and person so that when you act from the true nature of any thing it draws you closer to your true self and when you act from your true self this tends to draw other things and
people to their true natures.
Distinguishing true from false is very important. If you reject discrimination you have to reject morality which is about correct and incorrect action. The correct moral action is the correct action to bring about the most harmonious relationship and this is attained by reflecting true existence. All action is a choosing of the correct. When you make a chair you start with wood and you make it by destroying the false. The making starts with the idea of the chair and you make it by causing the wood to conform to the idea. The wood is made to be contained within the correct form. It is wrong to insist that intellect can only take a male form because to govern an action by an idea is to contain the action within the idea. An idea is therefore a maternal principle, as is the tree which contained the possibility of the chair. The male principle is the movement between the two states. The name Themiskyra, the capital of the legendary Amazon empire, means (very loosely translated because Greek words have a much wider range of meanings than English) the conforming to the sole principle.
To understand the meaning of actions correctly you have to remember that on the truest level they all take place at the same time. This means when you cut wood with a chisel the act
of sweeping up the waste and placing it on the fire is a different aspect of the same action. The fire and the chisel are both manifestations of the same principle. Nothing is really destroyed in the Spirit. As the waste is cut it is ascending to its origin by entering the fire of which the chisel is a manifestation. The reason why broomsticks are associated with flying is because they are
the means by which things are drawn to the fire to ascend skywards. It is the orthodox function which manifests the archetypal state. The manifestation comes from the principle, not the
appearance.
To create the perfect action you have to be able to maintain the correct form of your actions through to its completion. All things are maintained by correct form. This is why the
cartwheel has an iron rim. These things are not material accidents. The cartwheel is not a human contrivance but a pure idea in the mind of the Mother which is an expression of true reality. It is no coincidence that it is possible to depict the cycle of the seasons as a circle divided by eight lines radiating from the centre, like an eight spoked wheel, the lines representing the eight major
festivals. This is why meditation on things like cartwheels can lead to spiritual realizations and why craft work is essentially holy. Early inventions were not made by the mechanically
ingenious but by contemplatives applying spiritual principles.
It is by principles such as these that it is possible to maintain a civilization on spiritual principles because it is by this method alone that we can trust the spiritually minded with all
the practicalities of life without the fear that we are gaining virtue at the price of unworldliness. By this method every aspect of central and local government, commerce and industry, can become part of a single, unending ritual which can include the problem of defence which is the maintaining of the correctly ordered society against external disruption. The borders are maintained by the commands of the centre. There is no spontaneous action or Noble
Savagery, nor any rejection of restraints on action to unleash virility. The army is correctly ordered with scouts and intelligence gathering and deployed correctly. The difficulties of campaign and battle stress can be endured by an effort to maintain pure consciousness of action.
The swords are not phallic symbols. Swords do not fertilize and a phallus does not cut. They act like the chisel as part of the process of drawing the false to the centre.
All this may seem complicated but it needs to be meditated on to be really
understood. Once the basic principles are grasped it becomes a lot easier to understand. The important thing is that this method gives a means whereby it is possible in the activities of daily life to see through the outer appearances and be one with the inner essence. It is a bringing down of Heaven to the earth and a raising up of earth to the Heaven. It is not easy, I do not
find it easy, but I believe that once civilization was based on it because fragments of the knowledge remain if you know how to look for it.
May She be with you,
David.
Imagine taking part in a ritual which started at your moment of birth, maintaining it through every moment of your life and not stopping until death. You think that this is not
possible? What actually are we doing when we perform a ritual?
The most potent action is the action which is most real. Imagine trying to do something not with your hands but with the shadows of your hands. Imagine if you could not see your actual hands but could only see their shadows. If everybody was like this then somebody who could see the things which cast the shadows would be unbelievably powerful. Bear in mind that if you could only see shadows you would only be able to see black and white. If you learnt to see the things which cast them you would be entranced by the beauty. You would also cause less harm by accident.
What distinguishes the mystical from the materialist point of view is that a materialist believes each thing is real in itself while the mystic looks for a higher reality of which the
material thing is a lower manifestation, rather like a shadow. Unless you have this concept of seeking for the higher reality you are really a materialist.
The first step is the understanding of true reality. If you think about the transition from seeing shadows to seeing the things which cast them you will realize it is done by seeing things more clearly. It cannot be done by gaining a sense of power in our shadow movements. That only fixes our minds more firmly on the shadows. The most true perception of things is the one that involves the most perception and the greatest possible perception involves not just observing a thing in its present state but of being aware of every state that it has been in and will be in. In order to do this you must be aware of every possibility. This is why I keep maintaining that the antirational methods are bogus and that true spiritual teachings are intellectual. Every
possibility has a relationship with every other possibility. The Universe is unfolding through these possibilities and our ultimate objective is to be aware of them all at once. It is in fact to be aware of all time and space in one instant which lasts for ever.
Extension into space is a form of disharmony. The most harmonious existence is when all things occupy the same space and everything is then a variation of the same principle. We
are seeking a universal principle which contains every principle. We are not seeking an abstraction because it contains every form of consciousness. We are seeking the Ultimate Person Who contains every person. We are seeking the Mother of All. We are seeking She Who contains every emotion and desire in its purest and most harmonious form which means every desire will be perfectly fulfilled.
This is why a truly mystical religion is matriarchal. You act and think from the feminine conception of things at all times. Matriarchal religion is not just about the earth or the irrational unconscious or emotionalism. It is very harmful to see intellect as a principle which opposes other faculties. We cannot become one with our actions by overcoming the intellect. I have done judo which is a fast skill sport and cross country running which is an endurance sport so I know something about action. We act best through the mind. When we think about something we sensitise ourselves to it. This is how meditation works. The more we think the more
sensitive we become. This is how we became civilized. Intuition works best when it interweaves in a subtle manner through our rational thoughts. Although mind is not pure Spirit it is the closest level to Spirit of which we are normally aware. Certainly the difference should not be used as an excuse to concentrate on the purely physical as is being used by fantasy and commercial artists.
The next step is to apply this method to individual things. Each thing is a particular idea of existence. First a simple exercise. Stand motionless in mid air. You cannot do it? All you
have to do is jump. But this is not motionless, you say. Well, I have seen photographs of people jumping and they have always been motionless. A material thing looks complete in itself but it is only an aspect of a thing. Anything made out of wood, for instance, is part of the possibilities of a tree and if you could truly see a tree growing you would see every kind of furniture as part of the tree's growth.
What we are doing when we perform a ritual is simply making an intensive effort to act with purity of perception. In practical life we tend to be anxious about the practical results which are a distraction from the abstract principles. While crossing the road as a contemplative act we do not notice the car. If this should happen a true mystic should get run over contemplatively. What we try to do in ritual is arrange a period without distraction or worry and concentrate on the pure principle of the action. We have instruments that are consecrated, that is made to reflect a higher principle, by which we raise our minds from the material manifestation to the principle. If we try to achieve a material result what we are really doing is annihilating space. We point a wand at an image representing something which may not actually be present and trace a sign over it. On a higher level of existence the image, the thing it represents, the wand and the sign are all in contact. If we are healing or correcting anything that is false (we should not be doing it the other way) the subject is made to become one with its true nature which is in a perfect state. Evil magic attempts to reflect a lower rather than a higher state but since the lower conforms to the higher it is weaker magic. Evil magicians tend to lose control over their faculties and become unhealthy.
Ritual is not a means of overcoming the rational consciousness but uses the mind to mediate a higher level and to link what is physically separate. The wand is an extension of
the mind and serves a similar purpose to a pen. A true wand should occupy no dimension at all but should be an extended point. If you are not that good at carving make it pointed and just thick enough to avoid being fragile. One should never forget that true intellect and true emotion are the same. What you know you love and what you love you know. If you hate something this is because you love what it ought to be. There are many ways of doing ritual but if you want to use ritual for spiritual development this is how it should be done. The idea of a chair in your mind is more real than a physical chair.
Ultimately the state that you are striving for in ritual is your highest level of consciousness which you should maintain at all times. All life should be a striving for perfect
consciousness. To achieve this it is necessary to be aware of the higher meaning at all times. Nothing on the material level can exist of itself and no action originates on the material level. They originate in Creation and Creation is an expression of the mind of the Mother. The method by which things are created is knowing. The reason they are created is love. At the heart of all action is joy which is love of action. Everybody knows we do things better if we like doing them which is an expression of their divine nature. When you do this your every movement becomes an expression of joy.
No method of spiritual development is complete unless it leads to perpetual awareness of the spiritual meaning of each moment of existence. We were originally created to be an
aspect of pure consciousness and this is what we should strive to be. To act this way all the time we have to be continually aware of the relationship between material actions and true reality. To do it well you have to be something of a philosopher but mystical philosophy does not come primarily from books but from meditation. The purpose of each action is not only to make yourself reflect your true nature but each thing you act with or upon reflects true nature.
This means that you strive for a higher standard in all things as well as correct moral behaviour at all times. The true state of every thing and person is in perfect harmony with the true state of every other thing and person so that when you act from the true nature of any thing it draws you closer to your true self and when you act from your true self this tends to draw other things and
people to their true natures.
Distinguishing true from false is very important. If you reject discrimination you have to reject morality which is about correct and incorrect action. The correct moral action is the correct action to bring about the most harmonious relationship and this is attained by reflecting true existence. All action is a choosing of the correct. When you make a chair you start with wood and you make it by destroying the false. The making starts with the idea of the chair and you make it by causing the wood to conform to the idea. The wood is made to be contained within the correct form. It is wrong to insist that intellect can only take a male form because to govern an action by an idea is to contain the action within the idea. An idea is therefore a maternal principle, as is the tree which contained the possibility of the chair. The male principle is the movement between the two states. The name Themiskyra, the capital of the legendary Amazon empire, means (very loosely translated because Greek words have a much wider range of meanings than English) the conforming to the sole principle.
To understand the meaning of actions correctly you have to remember that on the truest level they all take place at the same time. This means when you cut wood with a chisel the act
of sweeping up the waste and placing it on the fire is a different aspect of the same action. The fire and the chisel are both manifestations of the same principle. Nothing is really destroyed in the Spirit. As the waste is cut it is ascending to its origin by entering the fire of which the chisel is a manifestation. The reason why broomsticks are associated with flying is because they are
the means by which things are drawn to the fire to ascend skywards. It is the orthodox function which manifests the archetypal state. The manifestation comes from the principle, not the
appearance.
To create the perfect action you have to be able to maintain the correct form of your actions through to its completion. All things are maintained by correct form. This is why the
cartwheel has an iron rim. These things are not material accidents. The cartwheel is not a human contrivance but a pure idea in the mind of the Mother which is an expression of true reality. It is no coincidence that it is possible to depict the cycle of the seasons as a circle divided by eight lines radiating from the centre, like an eight spoked wheel, the lines representing the eight major
festivals. This is why meditation on things like cartwheels can lead to spiritual realizations and why craft work is essentially holy. Early inventions were not made by the mechanically
ingenious but by contemplatives applying spiritual principles.
It is by principles such as these that it is possible to maintain a civilization on spiritual principles because it is by this method alone that we can trust the spiritually minded with all
the practicalities of life without the fear that we are gaining virtue at the price of unworldliness. By this method every aspect of central and local government, commerce and industry, can become part of a single, unending ritual which can include the problem of defence which is the maintaining of the correctly ordered society against external disruption. The borders are maintained by the commands of the centre. There is no spontaneous action or Noble
Savagery, nor any rejection of restraints on action to unleash virility. The army is correctly ordered with scouts and intelligence gathering and deployed correctly. The difficulties of campaign and battle stress can be endured by an effort to maintain pure consciousness of action.
The swords are not phallic symbols. Swords do not fertilize and a phallus does not cut. They act like the chisel as part of the process of drawing the false to the centre.
All this may seem complicated but it needs to be meditated on to be really
understood. Once the basic principles are grasped it becomes a lot easier to understand. The important thing is that this method gives a means whereby it is possible in the activities of daily life to see through the outer appearances and be one with the inner essence. It is a bringing down of Heaven to the earth and a raising up of earth to the Heaven. It is not easy, I do not
find it easy, but I believe that once civilization was based on it because fragments of the knowledge remain if you know how to look for it.
May She be with you,
David.