How To Make Every Day A New Year.Wav

...into what is behind it and cope with the appearance in terms of the reality behind it, which does not make us run away from the fact that there is this apparent evil. It is there, and of course, if it presents itself to us, we must fight it. But you know there's such a way to fight that is different so different from the ordinary emotional mental point of view different indeed and I think that when Jesus got annoyed enough to whip the money let lenders out of the temple perhaps he was showing us at least part of the attitude though we need to even look behind that but this friend of mine then sighs and walks about a little stooped a little grim brooding insecure and every once in a while though truly I suppose is foolish of me but then I never claimed to be very bright I attempt through love to show him another picture I say to him look my dear how can you say that life is a weary gruesome painful sort of thing how can you say that all we need to do is try to live the good life whatever good means you know good means many things to many people the cannibal thinks that the good life includes beheading the enemy and often eating parts of the flesh in order to get his courage and strength into him what is good every culture and every group develops an attitude and a point of view and until we know truly what good happens to be how can we recognize the true apparent evils and know how to cope with them properly so this friend of mine feels that all one has to do is try to live the good life and growth evolution will automatically come well my darlings you know we sort of work with a type of shock system in qabalah because fastened as we are with our attention to the usual thinking and feeling and interpretations it seems to take a little shock to help us to look at another point of view.

And so we just ask you to look. Don't accept it.

Look.

And then when your heart sees it is true, only then is the time to accept it. We want you to discover these principles for yourselves, otherwise they won't be real. The child does not experience wonder through the emotions of another person. Only through his own emotions and experiences.

So I attempt to say to my friend, but you are seeing the picture of life incorrectly.

Your attention and your emotions are so hypnotized and so focused on what you call the frustrations and the sorrows and the injustices and the insanities, why deny it? They're there.

That you have overlooked the main aspect of life, and that is the fact that it is at all a miracle.

You see, we get used to things.

We become so used to that which seems to us to be repetitive, because it's presented to our consciousness over and over again, that we forget it isn't really the same picture, number one. And also, we forget to look for the wonder and the meaning behind it.

And I say, look, the miracle of the sun. Can you explain the sun? Is it not a miracle?

Look at the wonder of the firmaments that we read to you from the Psalms just now look at it can you explain it what is its meaning look at the marvel of a creature isn't it there all around you this miracle inexplicable amazing explain it look at the marvel of consciousness what is consciousness What is this miracle that we can be aware, the awareness of it?

Isn't this a miracle?

Look at this.

And he looks at me sadly and shakes his head, says, the trouble with you, my dear, is that you are so very young.

When you have lived as long as I have, you will see and you will understand the trouble with you is that you're just young well of course we will not give you the history of my incarnation except to say I have lived practically a thousand incarnations from the moment of birth and I'm not very young and they'll say I am a grandmother but that is beside the point because this is not a physiological thing we're speaking about this has to do with the spirit it's the spirit that that pours from the heart.

And again, incidentally, it is a spirit that does not come by itself. You see, one of the main reasons that people who enter metaphysics and occultism gradually become very frustrated and discouraged is because they're presented with a principle, a miraculous principle. Suddenly there's something new. See, it's the new, the wondrous. They're presented with this wondrous, amazing idea that consciousness can create whatever we want. It's taught in Christian science, it's taught in unity, it's taught in religious mental science and umpteen other names which the amazing ingenuity and creativity of man has managed to bring about so that we're surrounded with names of schools of thought which teach this basic principle and it is good it is very good because it is not untrue nevertheless it is not true either in the way it sounds because you see a little truth can be a dangerous thing especially when we think we have the whole truth and a true cabalist always remembers that whatever apparent truth which we put in quotes we have it cannot be the whole thing because we are not the full expanded consciousness of the cosmos we are aspects of god with certain limited perceptions and therefore the whole truth belongs to no one nor indeed is it possible for a human soul who is evolving to have what is called the whole truth yet we pound and we yearn and we fight clutching for what we think is a whole truth oh the lack of humility we don't know how to be children do we not at all how can we conceive of the limited senses as having the whole awareness and why should we want it you know why because it's an escape from living the wonder of the here and now that is why it's because it isn't that we're so old and we've seen so much and lived through so much and therefore know that life is pain. That's our misinterpretation. That's the real devil. It's because we have surrounded ourselves not with a magic fairy ring, but with thick walls of lies to ourselves about about life and about ourselves.

That truly is the main principle that is involved in this kind of response.

Well then, why is it that those who follow the various metaphysical schools of thought eventually become disillusioned? At least those who have the capacity and the yearning to search for reality, whatever it may be, and the humility to know they haven't found it yet.

Mainly because just knowing one aspect of a principle, knowing about it and attempting to practice it, that is, the principle that consciousness creates what we want, although at the beginning because the wondrousness of the new sweeps us, we have amazing successes and you know most of the demonstrations that the metaphysical aspirant receives curiously enough, most of the amazing ones come in the early years of their marvel, the glory that exists in their hearts and minds because of discovering this new beauty. But then something happens.

And it must happen.

And what happens is that this sense of wonder, this emotional attitude, gradually subsides because it is based on an erroneous focus not that the principle isn't true but the importance placed upon this principle is like worshiping false idols in a way because it takes away from looking into to that which is behind the principle.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me, saith the Lord.

And what does this mean?

Pretty much the same thing that except you become as a little child in a way, except there's more behind it. So the cult metaphysical aspirant starts to become rather depressed and then starts heaping coals of fire on his head or ashes, some types, and saying, what am I doing that's wrong? And he'll wring his hands and he'll weep. And it's really sad, really.

Nevertheless, it's also ludicrous and funny.

We must never forget the humor in life. If we forget the humor, we're lost because we're taking ourselves too seriously. And the moment we take ourselves too seriously we've become focused and lost in our prison those who have the spirit of the child have the spirit of play and know they're playing at being grown up and don't fool themselves and incidentally everyone loves them a great deal more if you want to be loved start chuckling at yourself you'll be amazed at what happens happens but of course there's a special way to do it so the prison sweeps over one again and usually the metaphysical occult aspirant finds himself in a worse state than he was before he found metaphysics and this is the blessing of god because at least then another search is on and why does this occur it is because holding on to the wonder and magic of life keeping the awareness alive doesn't come by praying for it it doesn't come by wanting it it doesn't come in any way except assiduously practicing it of course first you have to pray and want it but we are very much like children except children have more sense than that who put our fingers in the fire and we hold the finger there we start screaming god if there's of god why don't you relieve me of this pain this is an evil universe the devil rules it god help me help me cure me and all the time we hold our finger in that fire and then we can become atheists and agnostics and we lose our faith in god in humanity in justice because we're not so bright We've forgotten how to woo the spirit of wonder.

And when we forget to woo the spirit of wonder, in truth we have forgotten to worship God, whether we recognize it or not. We are worshiping false gods when we keep praying to something far off and away way to release us from various problems we are worshiping false gods when we lean on all the various paraphernalia given us in the various schools of thought for that which is supposed to bring us fulfillment because if we are the sons of god God and we are, we truly are. And if in eating of the apple from the tree of life, of the knowledge of good and evil, as the angel said, now man has become as us. If indeed this be be true, and it is, then we need also to know and work with the principles and the powers and the disciplines that are involved in becoming what it is we wish to be. I have someone very very near and dear to me, who during her early phases in occultism walked in wonder, lost bitterness, had love, had aspiration, and she said, ah, at last I've got it. And then, just as we said before, the darkness descended again because as soon as life presented her with the impact of problem and tragedy, she found that her emotional reactions became focused and fastened on the sorrow and on the frustration, and she lost her faith in that principle and said it was a false joy that she walked in and a false wonder that she walked in.

And she started to develop again the various physical ailments, the various emotional problems, and incidentally far worse than they had been before. Before. You know, in Qabalah we always warn aspirants, the path is not easy. It is our obligation to do so. The more we test and try and grow and meditate and search, the more intensive become the energies within us and around us. And therefore, for every step up we take we have that many more steps to fall down from and be hit hard with and we do and in qabalah it is taught no matter how high you go don't be sad because we'll make you a little happier in a moment we hope no matter how high we go, as high as the Archangels indeed, we can fall. And you know the saying, Ah, how the mighty have fallen, and great is the fall thereof. Well, the occult aspirant, when he falls, falls much harder. Because if he's taken one step up, it's that much the fall is going to give many more bruises and injuries, is it not? And And this is a principle.

Let's not try to run away from it. Let's not try to escape it. Let's try to understand it and know what to do about it. Now then, as we said, you cannot pray and receive this spirit, really.

Although it is said, prayer is always answered. But you see, we don't really know what prayer is. If we knew what true prayer was then this is true but most of us think of prayer in terms of like someone who was very close to me in my childhood who used to go off into bargains with god and say now god you know it's very important to me that such and such come true and now if you will give me what I want, like health for my child, or my loved one, return to me, and so on, why then in return I will light a candle for you every so often, and I will say glory, hallelujah, praise the Lord. You're making bargains with God.

And this was done in sincerity and this person would have tears streaming down her face she meant it with her heart and unfortunately God was not in a mood at least to put his signature to the bargain which he was attempting to make though sometimes it looks like he's done so so doesn't it? Well, we cannot receive it and keep it, sometimes the grace of God, because of other things we've thought and done, will descend on us, and indeed it always is the grace of God, and into us. And we will have this spirit of wonder, and we will look at life with new eyes, the renewed eyes, and everything is beautiful and magical and glorious. But we lose it. And why?

Because you see, the subconsciousness holds the habit patterns.

The subconsciousness. In Qabalah it is called the automatic vital animal soul which we share with all creatures below us as human beings. In this area of our beingness we have all the patterns in qabalah it is called the shells of the dead you know this tarot key has assigned to it a pair of opposites called sterility and fertility and indeed we are sterile when we are lost and imprisoned by the habit patterns and we are fertile and creative look how creative the child is sometimes he can drive us a little mad with the ingenious and mischievous creativity but it's creative he has to learn how to focus it but we are lost indeed when we hold on to and respond to life with our old habit patterns because these shells of the dead which are our consciousness as well as that of all others these are the energies which it is man's destiny to transmute these are the energies which must must be released into the larger, fuller, conscious experience of life.

So we have these habit patterns inside ourselves, and it takes work to transmute these habit patterns. That is why we usually fall. Because we think that having had a realization, we're going to keep it. But we have to work to change the very cells in our body in order to keep it and how many of us have enough true perseverance aspiration and love of God and man and life enough drive to persevere in order to change these habit patterns of reaction. How many of us do?

Sometimes we go along, we do very well for a little while, and then again, great is the fall thereof. But remember, suppose we learned a language when we were children and then we haven't used this language for a long time.

If we go back to any part of the country or to a situation where we need the language again it is easier to re-establish it for both understanding it and speaking it than it would have been had we we never had it at all.

Therefore though, no matter how high we reach, we can always fall.

Remember, it becomes easier and easier to get up the steps again.

And at least we hope that this is a comfort because surely we all know how often we fall.

Nevertheless, working at developing this different response to life at coming out of these habit pattern reactions has to do absolutely and completely with wooing the spirit of wonder with making ourselves recognized and because it isn't easy and because we need help this is why the adepts and masters and wise ones have devised the tarot and the Qabalah they have given us all the symbolic aids that are principles of our consciousness things to help us to help us hang on to help us continue to aspire to intensify the ability of consciousness to dissolve the old in order to form the new continuously actually the tarot key I really wanted to put up here this morning is called the devil have you all seen our beautiful devil and tarot but not knowing how many of you might still have certain reactions or whether somebody new might not walk in and not wanting to shock too quickly we usually, you know, we are very insidious but it is love, truly it is love that is behind this insidious trait that we have we try to beguile and woo our beloved followers and aspirants into the new thinking the new feeling the needs the desires because we know and we sympathize we know all too well how emotional reactions can put us off because they are based on erroneous interpretation of yesterday and we don't want to give a shock that is too great at the beginning so that is why we try to be careful not to shock instantly but to beguile away from the worldly thinking and interpretations from the materialistic aspects which we don't even recognize as that and then show the other side of the coin which has been kept so very esoteric for so very long and only in the last 50 years has it been coming out and been given to humanity more and more so actually I wanted to have the devil put up there to show how it is the habit pattern the chains that are around the figures if you all have the tarot you can picture this key in your minds it is the chains around the figures which keep us in subjection and it is interpreting life upside side down which gives us the devilish appearance of life and it is the it is these chains which keeps it is the chain which keeps us from seeing the sun because we're looking at its shadow when we're looking at the devil and in qabalah you know the hebrew letter assigned to the devil as I am and it's called the eye as the organ of vision and of course this is our problem the child looks with open-eyed wonder and the very wise person who has truly lived and therefore knows that all is very sad and terrible and evil this is the one whose eye as the organ of vision is is fastened on outer appearances and has not seen into and through these appearances.

And again in Qabalah this Tarot key is called, or rather the Hebrew letter, the renewing intelligence.

How to make every day a new year?

By knowing that every instant is a new thing, a renewing experience to consciousness. Business by learning how to stop looking at every activity as, oh, just another one of those boring days. I'll get up at such and such a time and I'll have to fix my breakfast for my husband and he'll say the same old things or I'll have to sit with my wife's hair on indoor and curlers and she'll say the same old things and I'll go to work and they'll all be chitter chatter chitter chatter about the same old boring things and I'll be coping with the same old problems sigh moan and this is the spirit with which we greet the day more or less and this is the spirit with which we go to sleep more or less because we have not learned how to see we have lost the wonder of the new and yet it can be regained but it must be practiced we will not have it unless we tell ourselves and use the proper symbols incidentally for for stimulation and the devices worked out by occultists for our aid.

When we go to bed at night, we'll have to say to ourselves, I am determined to hold the miracle of life in my consciousness. I call upon God, the archangels, angels, principalities, benefic powers, spirits, and if you can think of anything else, use it.

Anything and everything to help me remember every time I forget yet. I'm determined to wake up and have the first thought that comes into my mind. And you need a tarot key or a Qabalistic symbol to be able to bring it up quickly. Because you see, an attitude involves so many factors that it needs to be condensed into a sort of simultaneous group. This is the reason that symbols are so vital in the higher aspects of occult development, very little recognized. It's the shorthand of consciousness which takes us away from our verbal misinterpretations. You know, science gives description after description about what happens in the universe and everybody thinks it's understood.

If you describe how a thing is happening, within your realm, is that explaining it at all? Or just measuring certain occurrences? That's all science does. Not that we're against it. We're for it. We believe in measurement.

But let's call it what it is. Let's not think that we've been given an explanation of the universe because perhaps a scientist comes out with a new theory and says that apparently the universe is continuously being created that that there's good reason to believe that out of nowhere hydrogen atoms appear and that this may be the real explanation for what is called the expanding universe I mean this hasn't explained anything it's described a theory and even if we say let's say the theory is a correct one it's still a description and not until we directly experience the heart of the reality do we know it and we cannot directly experience the heart of the reality as long as we keep ourselves in this thinking feeling of those who have lived and suffered and know that it's a pretty bad and sad and unjust world and of course so many of us as a cultist give lip service and this is sad too we give lip service to what we think we believe in and we don't really believe in it at all we say God is good God is good and then under our breaths we'll say you know what about a person it has three letters uh don't we who fails to become irritated and annoyed and yet we don't want to see these things in ourselves because we have a picture we're tied to a pattern and so we've lost this innocence of the true spirit and the soul, the sense of wonder of the child. That is why it is so essential to go to bed using the devices we are taught to and with emotion and intensity to tell ourselves that the first thing in the morning we are going to have that symbol, that picture given to us to help us hang up and hang up our consciousness you might say on to or fasten it to like a strap in a subway I don't know if any of you've ever been in those winding subways in new york the east you it's pretty wobbly if you haven't got that strap you're going to fall all over on everybody else you need something to hang on to and that's so you use these symbols these devices these tarot keys these combinations these relationships given in Qabalah and the first thing in the morning you remember that the last thing at night you said to yourself what you're going to remember the first thing in the morning and you grab that and then you get up and remembering it you try to look at your husband or wife or whoever it is you may be living with in the spirit of this determination instead of in the old way this is making every day a new year because you are looking with eyes of wonder then you look at your meal and you marvel at that and you look at the sky you say what wonders have got god wrought and you see a sun or a star or a child or a creature and you ask yourself what is the meaning of this miracle this is the wonder this is prayer did you know the heart reaching in wonder wanting to fathom the miracle this is real prayer and it is not developed in a day or a moment or a month or a year.

It's a growing thing like an embryo. And this is why a work like this apparently does not attract the masses like in the kind of work where they're told, given a nice little formula, and say, think right and all will be right and who knows what right thinking is, really.

Do we really know?

We who so readily and so easily want to take the beam out of our neighbor's eye and are so unaware of that which is within our own our spiritual humility isn't there until the wonder of the child is present and perhaps not until we have fallen from higher and higher steps and become more and more bruised with a few serious injuries, perhaps not until then is it possible to have the spiritual humility which can say, after all, I'm no different from anybody else.

Why should we want to be so different? We're each a unique expression.

No one in all the universe can experience life like each and every one of you. You. Is this not miracle enough? From where you sit there's an infinite radius. The way you see a lamp or a tree or a chair or a flower or a creature is your own unique way. No one in the universe can duplicate it. You are each the eyes of God specialized to see in in a miraculous, wondrous, specialized way. But it isn't the only way. And therefore it isn't the only truth. It is your way. And this is what makes it a miracle.

That God, through us, can be aware.

The wonder of it. I remember when I was 14 years old. I was on my deathbed, supposedly. Supposedly. And I was thinking about the various philosophical things that I had a tendency to think about, and all of a sudden I became hit with amazement. And I asked myself, this may sound silly to you, but it had a lot of meaning to me. Why, not just why is there this or that but why is there a why this was the miracle I was overwhelmed with this insight why is there a why because you see this is trying to reach behind the whole question of the questioning an unconsciousness why is there a consciousness that can reach and wonder the miracle this is what keeps life a joyous miracle the magic of trying to discover what is behind every pair of vise and every activity and every creature and yet we form such unhappy attitudes so many of us for example I remember I once told the story of a very glorious and a truly cosmic experience that I had through my little dog sadi God used my little dog Tzadi to open a gateway into an insight and understanding of what love is and is not and how love acts and does not rather than what I had thought it was and I was from the worldly point of view a very loving person truly before that but that was from the worldly point of view and it is different truly different now I told the story of how my little sari was this gateway for me and if it were not so late what time is it I haven't got a watch hmm straight up well you haven't got the time you keep you too long you get tired you won't want to come back you want to beguile you we want to lure you back again so we can tell you more about these marvels that god hath wrought but at any rate this particular person happened to have certain ideas about animals and he looked at me in horror and he said you frighten me why How can God speak through an animal or give you a true message if it comes from an animal?

After all, animals, what are they?

Well, one must be kind to them, of course.

And I said you would exclude animals from the miracle of God's expression.

He says, why couldn't you? It had been a baby.

Don't you love babies and he looked at me very accusingly I said I adore babies I adored my own I adore my grandchildren I would have adopted dozens of them had I had the time and the money and at least I've adopted them in my heart I adore babies what does that got to do with it God didn't use a baby. God used a younger kind of baby, used a dog for this insight. Well, why couldn't it have been a person? Don't you love people? I said, I adore people. In fact, I've been criticized for being much too demonstrative and perhaps undignified.

You know, people in a certain position, we get ideas of what dignity represents, presents and then we love to criticize say this is a very bad example of spirituality it is undignified well that is sad but I prefer being as undignified as the child it's lovelier that way spontaneous the spontaneity of the wonder of life and expressing it with innocence is a happier state truly so I was very criticized and in fact this person was so frightened away that he never came back because despite the fact that he thought the angelic forces acted through me and he had an experience of that kind when he first saw me he decided that this was the lure of the devil that anybody who can experience an insight into the true significance of love through a dog there's something very wrong with them very wrong indeed and you see this is locking out an aspect of god's was glory and wonder and handiwork.

I have had other insights through a cat.

This makes me perhaps more dangerous yet, especially if you remember that they say a witch rides on a broom and you know one of my cats is black.

But nevertheless I have also seen the glory of God through human eyes and through the chatter of children and through the water the wafting breeze caressing me and the rain washing my hair and the flower and the bee oh I must tell you perhaps in the next talk or two about beatrice the bee because you know the child unless it is conditioned otherwise opens its arms to all life and though of course there's a special relationship that human soul has with human soul the more real love we have flowing from our hearts the more all-encompassing it is and the more of life's miracles does it contain within it so please don't be frightened away by the fact that I might be a witch because of what a dog and a cat and even incidentally a toad and a bee have been to me there are other things I haven't excluded the human soul nor the toddling infant so perhaps there's hope for me at any rate practice remembering the wonder the open-minded and open-hearted wonder that you had as a child when you played games when you made believe and magic the magic fairy ring was truly a glory practice this and work with the techniques of BOTA melt away your old misconceptions if you fall don't become disheartened get up like the child does and run some more be willing to get into trouble oh dear sounds bad but if you go with the spirit of the child with the innocent wonder with the love of god with the miracle the searching heart trying to find the miracle in the here and now you will embrace experience in this spirit and even if you get in trouble god will soothe your your wounds more readily because you'll be open and you'll discover that it was well worth it as long as you've been focusing on aspiration and on trying to make every moment a complete and glorious miracle and wondrous direct experience in God of God and for God we would have hoped to said more because this is so important in occultism, but we'll speak on that idea other times and then of course and we take it up from time to time with special techniques in our Thursday evening classes as you know.