Practical Teachings of Esoteric Work

I always love a title like Practical Techniques of the Mystery School or of the Esoteric Tarot or any such topic because it gives me such leeway. And whenever possible, I always try to sort of, you might say, influence my near and dear ones who help bring these titles into being. I try to influence them into giving titles that give me quite a bit of leeway. Otherwise, I have to, you might say, sort of do mental acrobatics to bring whatever it is that you have decided you need for the talk into the framework of the title, which I can do. But it's always nicer when I don't have to do the mental acrobatics because I think you must surely realize, certainly, I know most of you do and those of you who don't will in time you must realize that whatever talks we give here that is whatever talks I give are always involved with what you have been wanting and needing and I mean every one of you not just some of you because you basically are the ones who give the talk I am merely your mouthpiece temporarily I tune into your heart I tune into your souls with love and your higher soul speaks to me because it has not yet managed to consciously give you the messages that it wants and so together we walk towards the stars or we fly towards the stars whatever cycle we happen to be in sometimes we crawl I don't like the crawling stage I admit neither do you and of course I'm always in favor of developing fine find muscles where we can stop crawling. That's also part of the work that we do. Nevertheless, always we share together something that is part of the heart, the soul, the need of this particular time. And so that which is not a particular problem of the moment for us, if it is for those behind us or in front of us or on either side of us, it is still our problem in a subtle way.

Way. Nevertheless, we even get to the actual problems, as you all know, before the talk is over so that something will come that you particularly have needed for that time that week. Because this is what happens when we are willing to walk together without one or the other attempting to impinge the personalized consciousness or the personalized prejudices or the personalized coloring aside from using those colorings to sort of love and help each other. And of course, in that case, it is valid. But when one has learned that freedom of the soul is the only thing that brings complete individualization and therefore the growth and the beauty and the awareness and the depth of being, when we come to this realization together, then we can share certain riches. Which we really couldn't otherwise.

And if you wonder, well, why am I not more open to others, I might say to you, though this may sound most unspiritual, there are times when we have to be not too open to those who are still very much crawling or haven't even learned how to crawl yet. In other words, we have to learn how to love the babies, even though we are not going to be too open to the infantile, immature thinking feeling of certain individuals.

But when we, through tarot, and incidentally, tarot is the only thing I know of that really helps to hold the consciousness and the aspiration solidly enough for long enough periods so that we get a truly intensified conscious development of our powers, that is, our spiritual powers, not that other systems do not bring spiritual powers they do I'm saying the long consistent usage within the framework of our particular society the western society tarot is the only thing I know of that helps to hold you might say the mold of what we're after consistently enough to help change whatever it is that's interfering with our attainment all I can say then in terms of tarot at the moment until we work out a certain idea that I want you to take home with you is that when together we are willing not only willing but wanting each other to be the unique glorious beings that we are when within our own heart we've reached the point where we don't want someone else to be a rubber a stamp for ourselves, where we don't really want someone else to have exactly the same thinking, feeling aspects as ourselves, when we come to a point where we realize that only as we have the riches of the differences that we have, only then can we appreciate this riches and start to share in the experiences of others, of each other, of the different levels of life so that we open the gates of our own consciousness to levels of experience and awareness, to levels of love and of ecstasy, to levels of power that we could never have had otherwise. Remember that the whole idea of freedom really has to do with our own willingness this to have freedom or to give freedom to another and curiously enough this is what the techniques of tarot are involved about in some ways almost more than anything else uh and yet the techniques of tarot esoterically speaking have to do with helping you to develop a certain discipline of your mind and heart so that you can hold your thinking and feeling within a very special framework and in a way you can call this a sort of imprisonment can't you and yet again think could there be any expression of consciousness unless you had a framework for it that is an organized type of vessel could you hold water together unless it was held within a special cup and the shape of the cup is what puts the water into whatever shape it is a goblet or a tall glass a short glass a wide or narrow whatever you pour that water into are the shape of that water must be the shape of the container in the same way tarot was given to us by those who've gone before for us. For what purpose? So that we could learn how to take the water of our consciousness and pour it into an imaged goblet, so that our subconscious being, that part of our nature which takes on the habit patterns and keeps us beating on the special image that we have become through our long evolutionary period. The idea then is that when we can learn how to pour our consciousness into special images and keep them there, and then start relating our everyday experiences, our waking and our sleeping, our living, our laughing and weeping, our loving and even a lot hating all of these things when we can start relating them to specialized images and see how these images actually become something that projects the next cycle or the next set of experiences though sometimes the cycle is so large sometimes it takes many years before a cycle turns upon itself though a cult aspirants usually see it very shortly because I'm sure most of you have recognized that to the degree you become interested in your own spiritual growth to that degree have you hastened the repercussions of your thinking and feeling and I mean that both in terms of loving thinking and feeling as well as the other kind we mustn't make the mistake of just thinking of miserable or unhappy experiences as being the things that rebound upon us the love the sweetness the compassion all these things also rebound on us they rebound with laughter with joy with fulfillment so that the rebounding of the thinking feeling part of our nature is not an unhappy aspect of life at all but where we are miserable miserable or unhappy it's because we have set into motion at some time or other an attitude, not necessarily incidentally an evil action, an attitude, a misinterpretation of life, an inability to hold the vessel of consciousness in a special shape. And tarot is what helps us to change it, nor does it do it overnight. Now, it's true newcomers to this field have very phenomenal successes but remember any newcomer has a special enthusiasm which is difficult for most people to hold on to because most people have not yet become as a little child you know it's a little child that holds on to the consistent enthusiasm haven't you found that true and uh the so-called grown-up has become so immersed in so much phenomena so many happenings uh that he and she they forget really they forget to hold enough consistency of image to bring about strength power fulfillment and insight now what does this mean basically it means of course that justice does rule the world this is one of the the deepest of realizations that any of us can have it means that justice rules the world not in terms of those who say if you're unhappy you've been a bad or boy or girl or you have sinned or been evil it just means that justice rules the world in terms of ignorance if you have been ignorant of the way to use your power you will naturally have been suffering repercussions in order to develop knowledge and wisdom. And then finally, then finally we reach a point where our knowledge and wisdom actually start to drive us into searching for the answers answers to the mysteries of life now once we really are interested in the answers once we want to know what in other words what we once we want truth once we want reality beyond all else then we can said to be really on the path of return not that we haven't been before but let's say in an accelerated manner.

I will never forget the time an early adept asked me the question when I was so very, very young, very young indeed, barely out of my teens perhaps, not much out, and I was showing this tremendous intense aspiration, almost to a degree that frightened him, I think, and he said to me, look I have to know something before I show you any further aspects of power he said I have to know this are you out to prove that god is I thought for a moment I said no I want to know whether there is a god I have had experiences that say there is but I have want to even know that these experiences are reliable and so he shook his head then he went on he said suppose in your aspiration in your researches into the consciousness of life you discovered that there was no such thing as survival or reincarnation or any of these things but then I thought for a moment and I said well then I'd know wouldn't I and isn't that the idea he shook his head he said you're ready and he proceeded to train me in certain very uh profound techniques in other words he felt I was ready for what reason I wasn't out to prove my own point all I wanted was reality or shall we say truth you know you've heard people tell us that they're students of truth well bless their hearts students of truth this is a lovely thing to be but when you decide that what someone else has told you is truth without proving it out without continuing the divine discontent that will drive you to more and more self-development.

Could that truly be called being a student of truth, especially when you want to put the capital T on it? In other words, the true aspirant isn't out to prove somebody else's point.

The true aspirant is out to follow certain procedures, mainly because these procedures sound logical. For example, take trained scientists. Now if a trained scientist makes a pronouncement saying, I have done such-and-such a test and I have found in this test that certain things occur. Now because this person is a trained scientist, the other scientists in that specialized field will also make the test but they'll make it in accordance with the methods that the scientists uh used otherwise how can they prove it is proven then if other scientists can repeat this test then together they say yes we have tested what our uh collaborator here says and we have found that this is true. We also have achieved the same result.

Then we get to a point where other human beings, hearing about it, accept it. Now we have all sorts of things scientists tell us that we accept on faith, don't we? But on what kind of faith? Not blind faith, this is enlightened faith. In other words, we know that these individuals have had a very specialized training. We know they have gone through years and years and years and years of training, schooling, and then very special type of specialization in their fields, whether they be physicists or astronomers, etc. And so we take their pronouncements, we take on faith, really, what they have said, but this is enlightened faith. We're not able to go out and make the same experiment. We could, if we were willing to go back to school and study for some 12 years, and then get into certain laboratories and make specialized tests. In other words, we could, if we were willing to, what, learn their language and their methods, and this takes many years, and then be able to do the same test. This This is the same thing or principle that we have in tarot, actually.

Now, in tarot, we have certain individuals. By tarot, I mean that as used by the higher mystery training system, not by those who try to get into the field in order to cash in. We have many of those, but if you fall for them, you develop discrimination in time. The point is that in the system of tarot training, training, we have a method that has been actually scientifically devised in accordance with the psychological principles of man. This is the claim of the expert, shall we say the scientist in occultism, or shall we say those who have attained enough of the knowledge so that they have tested and tried the method. And when we use the word adept, what we are really saying is here is a person who's gone through the elementary school college university and even taken their degrees say in the bachelor's masters and even attained a phd if they've been able to go that far in their thesis and they've been able to do the experiments that they have also discovered these truths this is what is really meant by an adept you know and the difference between an adept and an initiate is that an initiate is one who's sort of starting the higher schooling and an adept has gone through enough of the schooling to prove these principles of consciousness to himself or herself now in the powers in the development of the powers of esoteric tarot. And esoteric tarot, incidentally, cannot be taught by anyone, though anyone can claim to teach it. And, of course, just like anyone can claim to be a psychologist and perhaps put you in a mental institution with the way they can fiddle with your mind, in the same way anyone can claim anything. And only those of us who have enough experience know the difference.

The point is in the usage of tarot in the esoteric system there has been a method and it has been there at all times which sort of checks itself just like the scientific methods in the laboratory every single tarot key remember is assigned kabbalistically to a special part of consciousness Every single Tarot key is assigned to a special power of consciousness, as well as the various levels of expression. And the level of expression of that power has to do with just how much we have managed to understand and use that particular Tarot key. Key. And the basic idea is to learn how to pour the water of our consciousness, as we mentioned before, into the cup or the glass or the goblet, which takes the shape. And so each tarot key, you see a group of them above you there, of course, is what? It's an image. And when you take in an image, the water of your consciousness is taking in the shape in other words it's giving a shape that has to do with that image so that uh as you learn to control your consciousness what is it you really do say you are feeling depressed all right now if you have gone through the training and you really you really just is determined to prove out the system as a scientist and you should be and you are intending to achieve whatever highest level you can for this incarnation and say you're depressed all right now if you forget that you're going to school spiritually speaking you're just going to feed this depression and you're going to to say, oh, life is terrible.

Life is horrible. All I see around me is hatred, jealousy, envy. Life is terrible. The minute I love somebody, I lose him or her, or else he or her deliberately loses me, which is even worse for the ego when it happens that way, of course.

We say life is horrible. My neighbor doesn't appreciate me, or maybe it's my family, or some part of my family, or it's the husband or wife, and of course, or the lover. The children, of course, almost never appreciate the parents when they're adolescents. In fact, they appreciate them in reverse, as we all know. They figure their parents ought to be hidden away in a closet because they're so square. I don't know what the term is today. It used to be square.

But the point is, usually the average reaction When we get depressed is to start hunting in our environment for our excuses and let me tell you there's no end to finding it One of the wonderful things about us is that we're eternal creatures and we can eternally find good reasons And if this is what we enjoy and in our in the use of our powers, we should continue to enjoy it Incidentally until we're just sick of that kind of joy But we can always find reasons for depression around us we are tired of life life we've withdrawn from life I know someone who's very dear to me who claims a withdrawal from life just withdrawal fine well this person is withdrawn from life because this person has never been willing to live to be willing to live is to be willing to walk in the sun in order to enjoy the sun even if you have a little sunburn or get a tan to be willing to live is to deliberately take your mind and your emotions and reach for response to life to deliberately be willing to take whatever consequences life has to give you and there lots of them are painful let's grant it to be willing to live is being willing to take the consequences for ability and capacity to love and to expand the consciousness because you don't get anything for nothing you have to be willing to take whatever consequences mainly because until we have evolved to the point where we have perfect wisdom and perfect insight we are going to make mistakes. And we have to be willing to make mistakes, that's the whole point, in order to learn how to become true scientists of life, that is, true and active children of God. Well, this is what tarot trains us to do if we are willing to work with tarot. If we have, again, as I said, a disposition that brings us towards the sort of unthinking reaction to despondencies. In other words, if when we feel despondent we start finding reasons in our environment for it, instead of hunting for the reasons within ourselves and going to work to change these reasons, then we need to be despondent to be tired of it, no matter how many incarnations it takes us. And if we have tendencies towards morbidity and we hunt outside for the reasons for this morbidity instead of in our own hearts, then we need to be morbid until we're tired of it, no matter how many incarnations it takes. And if we have tendencies towards hatred and jealousy, then we need it until we suffer enough repercussions. And if we have tendencies sees towards power complexes then we need to suffer the consequences of that by finding ourselves trapped psychologically mentally or emotionally so that we stop having these power complexes that is the desire to be the ruling principle over another human being's mind or heart which so many of us have you know though we call it by other names trying to reform them and all that sort of thing the only way we reform life or other human beings is by becoming the ideal ourselves in every way that we can to whatever degree and not to expect perfection and to just sort of wash it and emanate it to those who are ready to receive it if we love personally of course we'll have pain but we should be willing to take that pain for the privilege of being able to love there's nothing more deathly in life than the heart that cannot love it withdraw it is truly withdrawn for whatever reason it can't love whether it's because fear of pain or fear of loss which is fear of pain or because it doesn't trust which again is fear of loss in other words at the heart of the problem we might say insecurity rests and the tarot image that we learn to pour our consciousness into helps to change that insecurity when you have retrained your consciousness by the continuous dropping of the water on that brick on that stone by the continuous changing of the emotional tendency by grabbing the tarot key and the lessons teach you to do this as well with the various classes that give you added techniques to utilize.

When you have learned, instead of letting yourself fall into whatever emotion is there, unless it's a happy emotional loved one, by all means, always fall into it.

In other words, it's worth it. I'm talking about that which we call the negative emotion. The emotion that, if we multiply it upon itself, will just help keep us miserable. When you have learned to recognize these emotions as fast as they're arising and to stop using environment but look to yourself even though another person may be the channel through which that misery is coming to you remember if you want to be miserable you're going to be related to people and hang on to them the very ones who are going to keep you miserable and again you will never be released from this unless you learn how to pour your consciousness into the joy the fulfillment the wisdom the growth the willingness to live in order to grow because you do not grow except that you live and the moment you stop wanting life you stop real growth the moment you see you decide I want nothing uh you might as well be dead and come Come back as a baby form with the blessing of divinity that helps give you forgetfulness so that you can look with new wonder at the world.

And for the esoteric tarot techniques, then, have to do with giving you images in which to pour your consciousness into.

Every time anything negative remotely comes on the horizon, and this you learn gradually, not at once, and you need all the help you can get in the beat of the forces, vibratory forces we use here in the Sunday work, as well as whatever extra class work and techniques, with your home environment. You will have low periods, but if you keep with the group spirit, your low periods will never be as long.

And this, perhaps, is one of the greatest things that tarot can teach you, and that is that as you pour your consciousness into these cups and images through the regular beat of training, you discover that we are not alone no matter how lonely we've been. And when we discover it, we stop being lonely because of the discovery of the unity. And that's when everything comes towards us in a special magnetic manner because of the fact that we have transmuted the tendencies of consciousness enough to have control over the very things that make us so miserable other times so would you please for this next week not just this next week but we always have to sort of give a certain limited period so as not to frighten you know and if you think you can do it for a week maybe you can do it longer so at least try for this next week every time you find any emotion coming towards you of depression now when I'm going to tell you about the others you should use them on all negative emotions but just take depression because that's terrible and every time you that comes to you grab the tarot key that means the opposite for you whether it be the fool or the sun or the star or the dance of life anyone the world whichever one will help you at the moment the most grab it and pour your consciousness into that image reaching to the higher soul as you're doing it and then you'll discover how much easier it is not to be a pawn to these foolish emotional forces and to start developing your emotions in the way you're meant to do sooner or later.

Let's then live with greater joy because we can and we will working together and helping each other. God bless you.