Transcription
And so it is taught that once you have mastered your lower nature, you can begin to master the elements and command the winds, the waters, the fires, and the very earth beneath your feet. Magical invocation will become a second language, and you will speak to the stars, the planets, the elements, and spirits as clearly and directly as you speak to your friends and family.
>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Hello and welcome back to tracing the circle. I would like to offer a very special thanks to all of the people who left kind and interesting and very encouraging comments. And I would like to thank everyone who stuck around until the very end of the video. And I'd like to thank those curious folks who hopped on just for a moment to see what was going on. You have all contributed to a rather surprising reception and I was not expecting such a successful first go and so I'm very grateful. You are all giving me the fuel I need to go on in my endeavor to offer something beautiful and meaningful. So, thank you.
I received a few comments which surprised me regarding my very brief address on how I struggled in school and the way in which I assimilate knowledge into my heart rather than commit the information to memory. And this has inspired a string of thoughts which connects to the subject matter of our first episode, the matter of mysticism, adeptship, and the highest possible path of the occult. I think you will enjoy listening to a few words from Manley Palmer Hall. Just a few, who had some very interesting things to say about education. The following is an excerpt from Manley Palmer Hall's monthly magazine. He had many over the years, um, called The All-Seeing Eye. The conspiracy theorists are going to love that one. A magazine which is said to have been devoted to the search for the fundamental verities existing in the educational systems, religions, and philosophies of all ages.
So, open quote, "Education is emancipation from herd opinion," writes Everett Dean Martin, who then adds that it is self-mastery, capacity for self-criticism, suspended judgment, and urbanity. Urbanity being an old word for courtesy. We are profoundly impressed with the importance of the first six words. Education is emancipation from herd opinion. Can there be a more dangerous form of herd opinion than that which results from the gathering together of hundreds of young minds from every walk of life into one room and they're teaching them all the same thing in the same way? Does the cramming of a mind with a heterogeneous conjury of unassimilated facts produce a thinker or a mental dyspeptic? And now, I, I forgot to write, uh, uh, what exactly dyspeptic means. So, I'm looking it up now. Dyspeptic, uh, of irritable or bad temper. I love reading these old magazines because you get to learn all of these awesome old words that you can't find in new dictionaries.
He says, "It is not what a man knows that makes him wise. It is what he knows about what he knows that makes him wise. The mere dissemination of facts unaccompanied by their application in the problem of daily existence is comparatively useless to the average individual and therefore education should properly include the study of applications. The student should incessantly ask himself, 'What does this thing I am learning mean to me now? How may I use this knowledge to attain the greatest good to the greatest number? How will it assist me to more successfully solve the problems of my own life and those lives which will in the future be influenced by my attitudes and my knowledge?'" And that last part is very important to me.
The word education is derived from the Latin *edo*, which literally means to draw forth or to bring out. Thus, the primary purpose of education is to draw forth from the student that knowledge and understanding which is latent within the subjective nature of every human being. He is best educated who can most fully express his own innermost urges and convictions. It is curious that modern educational institutions are too prone to interpret *edo* to mean cramming. Fill the young mind with the thoughts of others and declare him an abnormality and a menace if he dares to interpret any subject at variance with the rules laid down on page 152 of the little green book by some eminent authority. Instead of using academic education as a means to the attainment of self-expression, we accept the means as the end by permitting the thoughts of others to fill our minds and crowd out our own individuality. We may diagrammatically divide the individual into an outside man and an inside man. And we best accomplish the real purpose of education when we succeed in bringing the inside outside.
A critical examination of educational methods disclosed that the only mental faculty really developed to a superlative degree is memory. Too often it is memory and not thought that ensures graduation from our modern schools. Sometimes even when memory fails, ledger domain may be resorted to. And if I remember correctly, ledger domain is a word for, um, a skillful use of one's hands when performing or conjuring tricks. Brilliant. Any well-trained parrot, often to the mortification of its owner, can recite mere words that have been continuously repeated in its presence. And as a reward for this accomplishment, we exchange, we, we change the water in its cage occasionally. When a human being has successfully mimicked his instructions for 12 or 14 years, we reward his cleverness with a sheepskin bearing the signature of the individuals who have done his heavy thinking for him. I love Manley Hall.
We do not speak disparagingly of education because we fail to realize its invaluable contribution to society and the well-being of humanity, but rather because we believe that it can accomplish even greater good if it will devote more time to the building of individuals and less to the production of stereotyped men and women. The major part of the time spent by the child in school is devoted to a study of the accomplishments of others. But the awe and respect generated by such study is far more likely to produce followers than leaders. The youthful mind discovers somewhere among the hosts of the famous or infamous in history some favorite hero or heroine. He then erects an altar to his newly found god and hero worship ensues. Apropos of this is the story of the man who was told that he looked like Theodore Roosevelt. Obsessed by the idea, he thereupon studied the life and characteristics of this great American. He gradually came to idealize all the accomplishments and attributes of the immortal Teddy. He began to wear Roosevelt clothes, to smoke Roosevelt cigars, and even to smile the unforgettable Roosevelt smile. In fact, he did everything that Roosevelt did, except amount to something. The moral is simply this: When we follow in the footsteps of others, we do ourselves a terrible injustice. There is an individuality within each of us capable of infinite achievement that must express itself in its own peculiar way. So long as we copy others, so long as we are servants to the discoveries, the theories, and the reflections of others, the individual greatness within each one of us is denied suitable expression. The lives of the great and the true who have gone before are noble examples from which we may gain much inspiration and knowledge. In its final analysis, however, each must live his own life. And when we permit ourselves to substitute the achievements of others for individual achievement, we lose the greatest opportunity in life, the opportunity to be ourselves.
This reminds me of something I, I said in the introductory episode, which I'm calling episode zero, uh, about your own very personal and unique quest and to not get sucked up into hive mind quests. In our introductory episode, sorry, end quote of, uh, Manley Hall and moving on. In our introductory episode, we made mention of how the teachings of all ages are within us. And if we were to enter into silence, or into the silence, we just might hear that call beckoning us home to the source of all creation. Meaning that the source is within us and the return home is a slow remembrance, the attainment and awakening of the knowledge, the knowledge of the self, the true self. And we must go through many layers of the self. What might seem like an infinite number. The layers which make up our personality, our character, our desires, wants, and needs, that which we hate and that which we love, that which moves us and that which pains us, our shortcomings, weaknesses, and vices, our merits, the layers of our subconscious mind. Until eventually we transcend all of those and enter into the macrocosm of humanity. And we peel through layer after layer of the collective consciousness, the collective desires, our merits and faults, our highs and lows. And we see that we are all one. That's very hard to do when you consider how ridiculous, insane, and dark some of humanity really is. Very hard. And those are only the layers at the very surface of it all. But if you keep going, you will peel through the layers of nature, the inner workings of the solar system, and beyond into infinity until you reach a state of all-consuming bliss, the simplicity of what they call nirvana. And wouldn't that be nice?
The path of mysticism or occultism or adeptship is more than just learning some ceremonial magic. It is more than the creation of an altar, the burning of candles, the chanting of mantras, or the proclamation of divine names of the various celestial beings or bestial apparitions. It is not the mere accumulation of practical knowledge to cast spells and manipulate the ether or the acquisition and development of powers that can heal or beguile others. The neophyte could include all of those things or none of those things into their routine. What makes for an actual mystic on the path of adeptship is one who wishes to attain self-knowledge and self-mastery. And this is one of the highest forms of any kind of magic or spiritual practice of devotion. While the layman went to the churches and temples to pray for something which would free themselves or their loved ones from sickness or to grant them blessings, the holy men and women who gave birth to the religions sat in the caves, tunnels, and houses of learning, undertaking the most difficult tasks of self-discipline in their endeavor to attain mastery over their own thoughts, to master their mind, their lower nature, their passions, and desires, learning to fix their mind on a single point, to kill out all the chatter, all of the yearning which usually fills us and overflows. The secret, however, was not in achieving silence within the mind so that you could go into meditation and become one with God, but in making the mind quiet enough so that you could see inside yourself with full clarity. Look upon all of the things which act in the background like clockwork. It is our subconscious mind that rules over us like a puppet master. Every victory and every tragedy we ever experienced since birth offered a hand in creating this invisible master of puppets. Master. Master. Master. Master.
While Manley Hall was more impressed with the first six words from Everett Dean Martin, I am more impressed with the last eight. Self-mastery, capacity for self-criticism, suspended judgment, and urbanity is what he considered to be a part of the best education. Or anyway, at least that's what I'm more concerned with in the context of this episode, as it is self-mastery that is requisite for a true magical attainment of the highest order, and self-criticism can and should be turned into an organized system toward achieving this goal. And it is urbanity which is the refinement of character, sophistication, civility, diplomacy, and gentleness which comes as a result of this practice and which allows us to walk through the world in a different kind of way. A way which allows us to offer something of supreme value to every living thing on this earth. This very important part of initiation seems to have been completely abandoned by all of the, let's say, philosophic mystery schools and mystery cults, and probably pays a significant contribution to the major mess we are in today with regards to the cults all being led and manipulated by dark forces. Dark and weird and perverse and creepy and just foolish and ridiculous forces.
The great magician Franz Bardon has written of this in his incredible work titled *Initiation into Hermetics*. He speaks of the soul mirrors, one white and one black, into which the initiate reflects on all of their merits and weaknesses, making a large list of both, finding hundreds of faults and merits and then assigning to each of them an element: fire, water, air, or earth. And then through self-discipline, one can balance out the elements within the body. Because he posits that for one to become a magician, one must master the elements. And before you can master the elements in nature, you have to balance out the elements within you.
But what is the point of all of this work anyway? Another oversight in mystical and spiritual practice of today is that the driving force behind all of this is the selfish pursuit of a better life so they can be happier and feel better about themselves and to be healthy and uplifted. And these are all great things to take upon yourself, sure. But what is self without the other? Life would have no meaning if it were not for the millions of other people that populate this earth. The reason I want to become the best version of myself is so that I can be a better friend, a better partner, a better colleague, a better civilian toward the community. I want to develop patience, courage, and strength and compassion. Compassion is the most important one. And most of us are compassionate. But how can we better our compassion? For example, compassion is not just about kindness. Sometimes you must be stern, fierce, or even brutal depending on the situation. Sometimes there's a friend or family member in your life who are making an absolute mess of themselves and all of the kindness in the world won't help them. What they need most is brutal, piercing honesty to shake them to their very core and wake them up. Or at the very least, plant seeds of inspiration or guidance within their subconscious mind. And isn't that in itself an act of compassion?
This world is a duality. Elbert Benjamin, also known as CC Zane, describes it thus. Open quote, "Night and day, inhalation and exhalation, heat and cold, the most evident thing in existence is duality, truth itself being dual, esoteric and exoteric, the truth of the real and the truth of appearances." Unquote. Out of the one came the two, and from the two came the many. We do not exist without the other, and the true spiritual aspirant should keep the upliftment of humanity as their driving force. The healing of the self is just a means to an end, and this is truly a lofty and noble pursuit.
If you have ever spent considerable time around the so-called spiritual community, you might have eventually noticed a sort of resounding pulse of selfishness permeating the air. You can almost see a shimmering bubble of self-centeredness surrounding some of them, disconnecting them from reality. They repeat empty platitudes. They speak softly and slowly. They are like floating in a trance. But after a while, you might notice that what they have to offer others is more a sort of disguised masturbatory exercise in self-approval.
Another mistake people within the spiritual community make is the happy declaration that they have outgrown the people of their older life. That those people have somehow become inferior, no longer worthy of their love and devotion. If there are people within your life who do considerable harm or act abusively and amass incredible destruction all around them, it is probably best to say goodbye or at least keep a substantial distance. But that is often not the case. They often leave behind people with whom they shared their most beloved and important years of life simply because they believe that person is not as spiritual or in tune as them. Or you could say not as political or not as, uh, righteous, or, or you can apply a number of, uh, a number of things to that. If your spiritual path has led you to such selfishness and short-sightedness, you will find the direction of your life takes will eventually, over the years, become more and more unreal, more and more disconnected from the world and reality until you are surrounded only by people that are the exact mirrors you wish them to be, to make your life seem more safe and more comfortable with no black mirrors to reflect back at yourself. Your own flaws and the parts of yourself and your life that need work. That work which would so greatly enrich your life and the lives of those around you will likely never reach fruition. I have seen this very phenomenon with my own eyes over a span of decades. And the later it gets in life, the more sad the life seems. It is often the people in our life that have the most flaws that teach us the most about our own self and help us to grow.
The scourge of our age is selfishness, our perpetual pursuit of what else can benefit me. And while self-help and self-healing is an indispensable part of our evolution, if we are not considering what all of this self-healing can do for the people around us and the world at large, how much have we really healed? And if you want to heal the world, but you are not offering yourself up to the people in your immediate life, how much good can you expect to achieve for the millions of others across the globe? We see a lot of encouragement these days towards the people-pleaser to put themselves first. But the people-pleaser was never in the business of compassion towards others anyway. The people-pleaser's disposition has always been a result of some kind of anxiety, some kind of inner turmoil. Meaning the people-pleasing comes about as a result of the relationship toward the self. [snorts] The desire to keep their anxiety at bay. This is not compassion. The people-pleaser must find a way to heal their anxiety so that they can offer something more deeply meaningful to the world. People often make the mistake of thinking they have healed because they are no longer pleasing the every whim of every Tom, Dick, and Harry. But what they have likely done is avoid their anxiety without actually tackling the root cause of it. And instead of becoming a more healed person, they just become a more selfish and self-centered person, unable to discern the difference between people-pleasing and an offer of true compassion.
If you are an aspirant toward adeptship and mystical union with God, you should make healing and self-discovery or introspection your mandate so that you can operate in the world as a force of good. As I believe all true aspirants are on the course because one day they declare to themselves or up to the sky, "I want to realize an important mission here on earth. I want to change the world." And you can change the world just by healing yourself and becoming a beacon of light to lead the way for others. Helena Blavatsky's book, *The Voice of the Silence*, offers the most profound meditation on compassion and the pursuit of adeptship for the upliftment of humanity. Never have I read something that has moved me so deeply that stirs up tears every time I return to its worn and wearied pages. There she posits that there is a path toward Nirvana, the eternal blissful sleep. But that the most noble of what she terms disciples, when they have done all of the work necessary to bring them to the foot of Nirvana, they instead turn away and decide to stay in the realms as a conscious being with a mission to aid and guide those who struggle on in the land of Mara. What a tough decision to make. So many of us have said, "I am not coming back in the next life. I have had enough." And Lord knows I have said it. I have dreamt it. And I have wished for it. I have prayed for it. But something else kept returning to me. That damned quest that just won't seem to die out. That damned spirit that seems to always lift me up from the most horrific hells and shows me that there is yet beauty and light and love all around. And you must go on and you must live. Those words within me that just won't die out. Those cursed, blessed, fateful words. "God, please help me to change the world. I want to change the world." Where does this desire come from? Where should this desire come from? Why, the heart, of course, the most sublime of all chambers, the abode of our very soul that connects us to the divine mind.
Returning to the Dean Martin quote, what is the value in suspended judgment? What does this even mean? How does this relate to self-mastery and compassion? Well, it has everything to do with both. Social media has rather reduced our attention span in more than one way. Not only are we consuming at a much more extreme pace, but we are also quicker to judge. Everyone is a little more cynical and critical, a little more doubtful and pessimistic. The internet has revealed to us all the tricks and all the follies of the world, and we are always positioned at the ready to defend ourselves against potential attacks. "Suspend judgment," someone once asked, "What's with all the cuts? I feel like I'm missing out on on profound insight and the things that you're trying." No, you're not missing out on anything. Suspended judgment is something I have slowly developed over many years. I was always a very impulsive, somewhat aggressive person. Aggressive in my approach. I always said what was on my mind and I said it totally unfiltered, and I lauded myself for that. I was proud of it. It's something my mother gave me: piercing honesty and no fear of being myself and expressing myself fully. But I have realized over the years that such quick wit can cause unnecessary pain and it might not have the positive effect I'd hoped for. Especially in recent years when most of my friends and family live overseas and I see them a few times a year. I've, uh, learned the, um, the quality of this, uh, this, uh, suspended judgment. I experience huge gaps, months and months, in between our meetings, thinking about all of the things we shared and everything they told me. I sit with myself in my profound and welcome solitude, and I solve the problems in my mind over these long periods of time in preparation for when I might see them, and how I might be the most positive influence in their life as I can. And of course, I don't always achieve this, but I do try.
Furthermore, when a friend or family member will tell me something over text that triggers very strong feelings within me, I want to react immediately. I don't always hold myself back, but I try to do as much as I possibly can. I try not to respond until that blazing urge to respond is put out. Sometimes it takes a day or two. And once that blaze in my chest and my head has passed, my actual reasoned and rationale can get to work rather than just an emotional response. And I think that the best response that will have the most positive impact for everyone involved. As I said, I try.
Another great practice is with the strangers online in the various comment sections. I'm certainly not afraid to speak my mind in anonymous forums where thousands of people comment on videos or images of people that they don't know doing things that they don't understand. And that's what the internet is for, right? And I have found that my simple and straightforward approach to sharing my fleeting, passing thoughts in the comment sections has upset so many people who misunderstood my intent, which is likely, you know, it's very likely because if you're commenting a very short and fleeting thought, the only way to truly understand it is to ask that person what they meant by that thought. Um, so instead of asking what I meant, they make many judgments and things get ugly. And because of this experience, which is an experience that has only cropped up in the last six years since the world went into mad polarization mode, I have made it my mandate to suspend my judgment on any and all comments and to perceive every single comment as though me and this person are sat at a bar looking eye to eye and having a beer. Would I interpret what they are saying in such an awful way if we were in that environment? How would I interpret them if it was my best buddy or my brother saying it? What tone would it be in? And what's behind it? I don't actually know any of these things. And so I make the best possible assumption rather than the worst. Try it. And I try to maintain civility and reason. And this has often led to very enriching exchanges with people online.
Now, in general, suspended judgment can save us and others so much stress, tension, anxiety, and separation or division. And isn't that in itself a way of being a beacon of light and changing the world? Replacing moments which could have been stressful for everyone involved with moments that enrich us and bring us closer together. And not just stressful, but moments that really divide people and create hatred and fear. Let's stop that.
Now, having said all of that, I wish to cast no illusions about who I truly am. My gentleness on screen, the humbleness in my voice, the subjects which I dedicate myself to and share with you here, they create an idea of who I am, but they are not who I am. I guarantee you if all the people who have joined me on this new podcast journey could see my every word, my every deed, and my every thought, my every opinion, my every feeling that I've ever, ever felt throughout my whole life, half of you, and I'm being generous, would write a lengthy, a lengthy review of why you no longer support me and would leave. And although I might think I'm a bit more complex than many, the same thing is true of most people. If you could lay bare everything, naked, fully exposed, the world would eat you alive and parade your bones around gleefully as though marching at a carnival, shaking them in the air, claiming, "The monster is dead! The monster is dead!" And you might think, "Well, no, not me. I'm a good person. There is nothing for anyone to hate or fear in such a way." I have no doubt that you are a good person. But people, when they look into the deepest, darkest depths of others, they fail to do it with compassion. Especially when you are just a face among the many, when you are anonymous. When you are a stranger.
Oh, I was supposed to put something in at that point and I forgot to put it in and I could do it now, but I'm not going to because the camera's going to die and I might be able to finish this before the camera dies. So, on we go. Instead of trying to understand why you may have felt a certain thing in envy or pride, or said a certain thing in anger or ignorance, or why you may laugh at something which would make others cry, the wounded child within them jumps out and becomes a devil on their shoulder. They do not ask you, "Why did you say that? Why did you think that? Why do you feel that way? What was going on in your life at that time? What did you actually mean by that?" And that's a very important one. "Explain to me your reasons, your perspectives." Instead, they make many assumptions and they feel justified in doing so because if these assumptions are right, they are certainly justified. [laughter]
And this goes back to the idea of memorizing information versus assimilation. It's not what you know, it's what you know about what you know. You can see all of my thoughts, opinions, feelings, and deeds, but that doesn't mean you understand them. We can look upon the private thoughts and feelings of others, but you still have not developed an idea about what it all means with your swift judgment. Your swift judgment is not enough because it is tinged and distorted by the power of the subconscious mind, which colors you with all manner of deep-seated emotions.
I recently did an interview where we spoke about the music industry and many people in the comments came in and declared how they began to hate an artist that they once loved, an artist that once inspired them, because of who they became after COVID, or because of who they support politically, or because the music industry is full of manipulation and Satanism and witchcraft and mind control and all the rest. If we took every artist, every pioneer, every revolutionary, every inventor or hero in the whole world in the history of mankind and laid bare every single detail of their life, their thoughts, their feelings, every word, humanity would abandon all hope, all reason, all sense, and it would descend into complete chaos and madness. Doesn't that sound kind of like what's happening right now? If we were to achieve such a thing, not a single one of them would go unscathed by scorn, disgust, rage, or horror. Not a single one. As for every thought, every word, every feeling, there would be a hundred thousand people who would hate it. And perhaps they have good reason to. And no, of course they do have good reason to. But black and white thinking will get us nowhere. Within the darkness, there is a light. Within the illusion of matter, there is a truth. Beyond every evil, there is good. Before we make an assumption or a judgment about our fellow man, we should pause and imagine this person as our own brother. How would you respond? How would you approach them? With scorn and hatred? Or would you try to fix the matter by seeking out middle ground or understanding? Maybe you hate your brother, but you know, try to see the person as though that person is you.
At this point in the conversation, you might be wondering, "What on earth does any of this have to do with adeptship and mysticism? Isn't she going to teach us the secrets of initiation so we can gain ultimate power and mystical union with God?" As I said in our introductory episode, I am not a master and all I can do, all I can hope to do is point the way. You could pick up Franz Bardon's practical manual, *Initiation into Hermetics*, right now and start practicing all of the lessons that will turn you into a fully-fledged magician. But the practical manual is nothing without a solid philosophy to back it up. You can pick and choose whichever philosophy suits you best, or religion, or whatever it is. But I would only recommend that you choose one which is centered on the heart. One which emphasizes our connection to all living beings and all living things.
In the end, mysticism is the path and practice which leads us to union with God. And I would say, what is God but the living force which gives life to all things? And what is that living force if it's not all-pervading love? Love is the nucleus of all. Love is the thing that powers all. God is pure love. And if you want to become as God, as the mystics do, you must become compassion absolute. But do not be fooled. If you are devoting yourself to someone or some cause that drains you of your life force, that takes all of your attention and destroys you from the inside out, and that can be something political as well, you are not wrapped up in compassion. You are likely wrapped up in an addiction, even if it feels like something very virtuous and righteous. Whether it be a self-destructive and abusive person or a self-destructive and abusive lifestyle or philosophy, you must nourish your mind and soul. You must make your life like the rich bed of soil that feeds and gives nutrients to the spring flowers, those which give nectar to the bees which propagates the very cycle of life. Take good care of your body. Take good care of your mind. Live humbly and gracefully.
As for me, I have picked up that book. I picked it up often and I read it over and over again. But I am not ready. There is still so much to tend to within me and around me. I am still becoming.
The word education is derived from the Latin *edo*, which literally means to draw forth or to bring out. Thus, the primary purpose of education is to draw forth from the student that knowledge and understanding which is latent within the subjective nature of every human being. He is best educated who can most fully express his innermost urges and convictions. To re-quote Manly P. Hall once more, he who can fully express his innermost urges and convictions is one who has entered the depths of their own psyche without fear or reproach, leaving no stone unturned. One who can face their demons. And once you face them, you can begin to tame them to get yourself in order. It sounds like something JP would say. Got to get your house in order. I can't do the accent. [laughter]
Franz Bardon said in step one of his magical schooling of the soul, which is a, a universal system of initiation. You can apply it to everything and it comes from basically, >> [snorts] >> um, the, uh, the teachings of the various schools of mysticism across the world. He said, "In our abode, which is our body and soul, we must find our way about at all times. That is why the first task is to know oneself. There will be no true ascent without self-cognizance." And he goes on to say, "When practicing self-control, you have to be pitiless and very strict with yourself when it comes to your shortcomings, failings, habits, passions, urges, and any other negative character traits. Be unrelenting with yourself. Nothing should remain hidden. Everything should be unveiled." It is important to note that within these exercises given by Bardon, one is supposed to take the approach of a passive observer. In no instance should shame or humiliation crop up towards yourself and your shortcomings. In fact, he would consider that part of your task. These are negative qualities that you must assign elements, and through his system of magical introspection, you will balance out those elements. Now, the modern psychologist would probably recoil in horror at this, but there is reason psychology mostly takes a strictly material approach and doesn't veer off into the metaphysical. These teachings should not be taken as a replacement for whatever psychological approach you may be currently taking for your own health.
On page one of step one in Bardon's universal system of initiation, he says something very important which parallels our discussion. "Be kind, friendly, and lenient towards your fellow man, but unrelenting and pitiless with yourself. You can only expect success in magic when you act in this manner. Never condemn or criticize anyone and first put your own house in order." And my God, can we say this to so many Christians who condemn and, uh, and criticize people? Why don't you focus on being godlike and Christlike and and helping individuals rather than criticizing and condemning them for what you've been told is sin?
In *The Voice of the Silence*, the "Great Master" is a term. *The Voice of the Silence* being Helena Blavatsky's book, which comes from Eastern teachings. Um, it's a term used to indicate one's higher self, one's higher being. The Buddhist occultists called it Adi Buddha. The Brahmins call it Atman, and the ancient Gnostics called it Christos. We could say that once you have mastered your lower nature, you make room for the Great Master, the higher self, to operate at its full potential through your lower self, your body, and your soul. Blavatsky says, quote, "Be humble if thou wouldst attain to wisdom. Be humbler still when wisdom thou hast mastered. Be like the ocean which receives all streams and rivers. The ocean's mighty calm remains unmoved. It feels them not. Restrain thy lower self by the divine. Restrain the divine by the eternal. Let not the follies of your fellow man set you back and knock you around. Remain steadfast and full of compassion like that great ocean who, despite receiving all the world's streams and rivers, remains calm beneath the surface."
Another quote from *The Voice of the Silence* that I think is important here: "Alas, when once thou hast become like the fixed star in highest heaven, that bright celestial orb must shine out from the spatial depths for all, save for itself. Give light to all, but take from none." And how beautiful. And isn't that precisely what God does?
Something curious I discovered in the impeccable work *The Sacred Tarot* by CC Zane, under the section describing the fifth major arcanum of the pseudo-Egyptian deck. He uses the exact words which Blavatsky used to title her book, and I will quote that here. Quote, "Remember then, son of earth, that before saying of a man that he is fortunate or unfortunate, thou must know the use to which he has put his will. For every man created his life in the image of his works. The genius of good is at thy right, and the genius of evil is at thy left. Their voice can be heard only by their conscience. If the Hierophant should appear in the prophetic signs of thy horoscope, retire into the sanctuary of thy heart and listen to the voice of the silence, and guided by it, thou wilt reach the goal of thy aspirations." Unquote.
This has given me a hint as to what the voice of the silence mentioned in Blavatsky's work might be, other than the voice of God, which is the most obvious and what I thought. But it seems to signify that the voice of the silence is actually your conscience, and that the sanctuary of your heart is where your soul is seated, and so your conscience is the direct form of communication from your very soul. The conscience in the Oxford dictionary is defined as such: "A person's moral sense of right and wrong, viewed as acting as a guide to one's behavior."
CC Zane gives us an example of how the fifth major arcanum, the Hierophant, relates to the soul's initiation into the higher mysteries in the following quote. Quote, "Arcanum 5 represents the point in the ascending arc of the cycle of life where the voice of the conscience calls upon the man to turn from the flesh pots and devote himself to cosmic welfare. He decides henceforth to live not for self alone, but to guide his every action in the direction of aiding cosmic progression. He determines that the good of cosmic society shall be his constant aim." This goes beyond compassion for humanity. It, it bears in mind that on your path toward adeptship, your, your bettering, your, your goal is to aid evolution in general. The evolution of the planets, the stars, the animals, the minerals, the vegetables, everything. [snorts] And, uh, what was I going to say? Can't remember. This is why I need written material because I can't remember [ __ ]. Bear in mind that the Hierophant arcanum 5 denotes law and religion. And it is said that all initiates of all the schools are devoted to the religion of the stars, which encompasses all religions.
And so it is taught that once you have mastered your lower nature, you can begin to master the elements and command the winds, the waters, the fires, and the very earth beneath your feet. Magical invocation will become a second language, and you will speak to the stars, the planets, the elements, and spirits as clearly and directly as you speak to your friends and family. And that you will be able to hear them and see them too. But remember, these skills, these gifts should be wielded for a higher purpose. Mankind struggles on in the darkness and chaos of the illusions of Maya. And if we were to attain to such greatness, we should use it to help others and aid in the evolution of all things.
But if all of this just seems a little too far out of reach for you, it's all just a little too far off and just too much to grasp to put yourself in such a position, that is all right. These ideas can still help you and help you to be a force of good. You do not need to become a magician and wield the very forces of nature. And you do not need to become compassion absolute. But you can suspend your judgment. You can take moments of silence and you can remain ever curious about all of the hidden things within you and within the world all around you. And even just those small moments, those small thoughts and feelings will reverberate throughout your life and into the next. And that is more than enough. Thanks for listening. That's me signing off.
Heat. [music] Heat. [music] [music] We come in peace. We come in peace. Wow. That was an hour. Wow. 6,468 words is an hour. Well, a little less than an hour because there was a lot of tomfoolery going on. A little less than an hour. Let's say like 50 minutes. That's minus 10 minutes from that. It's [ __ ] freezing in here. By the way, the fireplace doesn't work. The smoke comes out and then I have to open the window, direct the smoke up the fire, the fire shoot, and then and then the wind, the cold counteracts what the fire is supposed to be doing, which is warming the room, and then I have a bad throat because of the fire, but I also have a bad throat because of the [ __ ] cold air, so it's just a big, it's a drawing of my mother, by the way. And this, I'm not going to say what this is because it'll upset some people. That's it. That's it. I'm really sad because there was a part I really wanted to add in there, a quote from one of the, uh, Gas, which I started reading a few days ago. The Autita Avadita. I'm not saying that right. Aad Aut. [cough] [clears throat] My throat. Hates me. It's 122. Pretty sure I have fish scales. My teeth. I just ate fish for dinner. Last thing I need is fish scales in my teeth. And the caves, tunnels, and houses of learnings. Learnings. The houses of learnings. I need to do yoga. Learning to fix their mind. That was too fast. I don't know what's going on, but my throat is in pain. It feels like like there's a box inside my throat that just wants to like explode. Anyway, what is the value in? It hurts. All the smoke coming out of the [ __ ] fireplace and the dog's not happy either. Please go away. Please go away. I can't give you attention. Go away. He can't even hear me. He's deaf. I'm dying right now. That's what I'm doing. I don't even know if the camera is still working because like, it's also dying. Don't eat dinner before you make podcasts. That's a bad idea.