The power of the Word and how to use it

This morning we're going to speak about the power of the word and how to use it.

As we all know, the Bible starts off with quite a long series of declarations said to be made by God. And God said let there be light and God said let the firmament be divided and God said let there be this that and the other the fowls of the air the creatures of the earth now in Qabalah the The whole idea of God said, of course, has very special meaning.

The Tarot Key No. 16 shows it, incidentally, in some of its phases. If you'll remember, Tarot Key No. 16 has this tower built quite high with bricks. And we have a terrifying picture of the two figures symbolizing self-conscious and subconsciousness being thrown out of this tower from a bolt of lightning coming presumably from the white sun in the distance.

A very terrifying scene this is. And the Hebrew letter assigned to this particular tarot key is Pei, which means, Kabbalistically, the mouth as the organ of speech.

So here we have creation starting with a series of declarations and God said. And yet we also have a picture that looks quite terrifying in the 16th Tarot Key, also involving the principle of speech.

And furthermore, all through the Bible, both the Old and New Testament, we have the various mentions of the Word of God in its various aspects.

In the New Testament particularly, particularly if you'll remember Saint John said in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God And he goes on to say and this life was the light of men But the light shineth in the darkness and the darkness comprehendeth it not then again a little later on he said the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us so you see we have quite a long background of meanings which would take interpretation but we don't like to do this in the sunday morning talks we like to present you with the actual principles so that you can take the applications of these principles out into your daily life without having to go into any deep or consistent thought about the way we arrive at these principles through the Qabalistic methods. In your lessons which you receive at home and in the various parts of our other work, we give you the ways and means to arrive at these types of thinking, feeling, and doing by yourselves, that is, in terms of the technical training in spiritual attainment.

But just as important is the need to show it in its rounded principles in the everyday speech. This is what we attempt to do Sunday mornings, along with heightening your own consciousness so that you can have your realizations. So what we're going to do this morning is try to show several areas of power that are involved in the idea of the word and we're also going to tie it up at least to some degree with our Qabalistic chant. Little by little here and there will give you more understanding of what it is we are doing with the color and sound work. So let's first consider this.

When we speak, no matter who it is who speaks, actually what is occurring is that an expression, a vibrational expression is being given to something which has been or is a thought. And this thought is practically always tied up with emotion because it's impossible really to have a thought that hasn't got some kind of emotion involved in it even if it's just the emotion that loves to deal with abstract intellectuality vibration remember when we consider that creation was started with a series of and God said really really involves the whole vibration of consciousness from the most primal beginnings of creation down to the very last part of whatever we think is expressing this sound or this vibration or this idea.

Now, words, of course, are an evolution of thought as we express it with each other on the physical plane. And the purpose of this evolution is in order that we be able to communicate with each other, you might say second-hand fashion, in order to be able to communicate with each other, to be able to attempt expressing to each other certain thoughts, certain feelings which we are unable to do directly on this physical level. Now, why are we unable to do this directly? Remember, in order to evolve the self-consciousness, we have what you might call our private field of expression.

And so in each of the private fields of expression, we are sort of cut off from each other like the tower in the 16th Tarot key.

Being cut off from each other, that way on the physical level, we have been pushed by the divine life into developing and evolving methods of communication in order to sharpen our consciousness, that is, in order to also intensify our consciousness, which is what evolves ever more individuality within this one vast cosmic creative process, this one mind. So we have in speech on the physical plane what is practically the only really overall method of communication with each other which we can become self-consciously aware of. Those of us who are super sensitive or psychics have consciously a few added faculties. We pick up, shall we say, the emanations that come from others. But remember, if we are picking up emanations, we are still picking up the same thing that makes a word.

It's still the same principle, because a thought and a word are not two different things. A word is the final expression of a thought on the physical plane, or in other words, a final creative act, in a sense, even if this act be in relation to a thought, whether it be an abstract thought or a definite thought. And the word, therefore, that you or I use is really indicative of our state of consciousness.

Anyone who has developed even the slightest perceptiveness can see that what a person says, more or less habitually or in emotion, really indicating what his state of consciousness is and is not. But most of us have not learned how to interpret this correctly and so we get ourselves into lots of trouble. Sometimes, in fact, we face the same kind of catastrophes that we see in Tarot Key number 16 and these are good because we have to discover exactly what is being expressed out there or what seems to be out there in order to learn how to express the word truly from within ourselves so let's take some practical considerations first the things that we run into the things that we show others about ourselves not others show us about themselves so that we can learn how to become more aware and on guard.

You've heard me say several times that there's a little expression I'm so fond of using, don't look now but your consciousness is showing. Well you know this really takes place mostly by listening to what people say and understanding what it is that they're giving away. Your words give away your total evolutionary level, whether you recognize it or not, people seem to think that they have to be psychic in order to directly perceive what goes on in the human heart. This isn't really true at all. When you're psychic you have an added way of, shall we say, perhaps verifying of what your evaluation of words happens to be let's take a few of the usual words that are used for example if you get mad at somebody now you perhaps all have different ways of showing it sometimes you show it by deciding not to give any words at all this is a woman's habit more than a man's though they both have quite a gift I think actually a genius at this type of expression we clam up and give the cold shoulder it's called also the silent treatment and so if we become annoyed if we think someone has done us wrong so to speak whether this injury is real or not real, we give the silent treatment. Which means what? We are cutting off communication. Think of it psychically, think of it inwardly. We are cutting off communication. So we are saying in essence, without using vulgar language, we are saying that we think that that person is much too low and vile to be worthy of communication with ourselves. And so we cut it off. We're punishing them.

Between husbands and wives, incidentally, this is a fantastically effective punishment. And if you want to make each other miserable, you keep it up. You'll succeed marvelously.

Now, we have the other use of the word when we get angry, which is bursting forth.

With vile name-calling. We invite people to go to certain regions which are very much lower than whatever we think, or wherever we think the cellar is.

And we invite people to go to places that are very much warmer than the hottest desert.

And we feel that that person deserves this kind of attack.

Now, I wonder if we really want them to go to those places, either in terms of depth or in terms of temperature. Well, the point is a part of us does, even though a part of us doesn't when we're angry at someone. And the fact that we have a need to burst loose and invite the individual to go to these specific regions indicates again a shutting off of communication through hatred even though you're still in the physical presence you're still sort of offering them a place in another area which of course you don't belong to it's always the other person who belongs in that area because we have this righteous indignation that is that's what we call it righteous indignation so We have ourselves a beautiful time.

And the point is, what we so rarely seem to remember is that once a word has been said, it can never be unsaid. It's a creative act, really.

And all relationship, all relationship is a continuous function of the creative act, a back-and-forth flow. Friends or employer or employee, you know, or the family relationships. The act of creation, as when God said, is in essence no different than the type of creativeness that takes place between ourselves in the way we use words, because these are what make and break our relationships poison or bless our various relationships. And we have this tremendous sense of isolation because we've taken the words of others and accepted them as being something very holy and sacrosanct. And we accept what other people say all the time, not realizing that what people say most of the time is again dependent on their level of perception. And most of us do not perceive on very wide levels as yet, because we're children. We're infants of God, and we see very little. We form judgments of other people, which are not accurate judgments, mainly because what we are needing to do most of the time is to show that we are wiser or smarter or more active or more talented or more spiritual than the other person and as a result we say things about other people that we can put into the areas of being the real hell on earth because of what it does to relationships.

The word that goes like an arrow can never be recalled. And just look back into your own hearts and we certainly feel that today it is less true of you then say yesterday and yesterday and yesterday in terms of the past however far back we go. But when we look into our own hearts, we see how often we have accepted what someone else has had to say about another, which tears down the feeling aspect between people. For example, look what Hitler was able to do with the power of the word.

This is a tremendous power.

The power of the word is what helped to intensify the emotion of hate and blame in order to be able to attempt to destroy specific groups of people and which almost destroyed the entire world. And it was the power of the word being used in reverse.

Now, you see, the thing we don't seem to realize is that if a friend should come to us or anyone and say you know so-and-so I like him or her I love oh I really love her but and then proceed to give but what's wrong what we don't realize is that when a person comes to us and does that what they're doing is poisoning our minds and hearts against another human being.

This is what we mean by don't look now, but your consciousness is showing.

And if you love someone else, tell me truly, truly, are you going to advertise whatever you might think their imperfections are? Or are you going to protect them from being discovered? If you truly love, are you?

So to say I love someone but is one of the most dangerous uses this is one of the things that we would say definitely comes from the deepest and most profound levels of the separativeness in human consciousness which we must all evolve out of and we can't evolve away from being influenced by these things unless we become aware of them first. We must never let the power of the word influence us into hatred or resentment or false pride into looking with contempt upon or thinking with criticism about another human being because if we do all we are doing is showing our need to also feel superior to someone else and as long as we feel this we are going to be the seducers and the betrayers of each other it just comes about automatically from the push of the heart from the push of the pathetic need to feel better than the other person now I wonder how many of us when someone comes to us and says says, I love somebody but, and proceeds to give the but. How many of us have the courage to stop that person? This is using the power of the word positively. You stop the power of an evil, even when it's a self-deceived evil, from continuing on in its influence.

You just stop it cold, and we don't mean to stop it with hatred. But all of us know that we do not need to listen and ooh and ahh about the gossiping reports about our fellow human beings or to accept them. Most of the time they're not really true anyway. And as you have heard us say before too, judge no man until thou hast walked in his moccasins for three moons. If you truly develop that, you will be developing a far more powerful usage of the power of the word in your whole spiritual experience and aspiration. And for this reason, we waste our energies continuously by letting them come into us from other people and go out from us to other people in the criticisms, in the searching for what's wrong, in the spiritual pride that walks about in a false humility.

When we say, well, I don't condemn so-and-so, but, you know, you know you have heard this many a time, you who have had the advantage of knowing occult aspirants because you see at least the one thing the occult aspirant does is start becoming more subtle about the assassinations that go on whereas the person who is not an occult aspirant is more apt to be direct and someone said to me not too long ago go in terms of this very idea with love like that who needs any enemies someone who had this feeling of I love someone but and I don't condemn so-and-so but and usually the but the one who says it is building himself up subtly and the more blind we are to this principle the more dangerous we'll be the repercussions when they come to us and they will because a word gone out we repeat can never be taken back therefore if you find that you've become angry it's sad enough to become angry and we all do but isn't it sadder yet to send out the most potent power that exists exists in its final expression, the barb, the thing that will dig, the thing that will hurt, the thing that will undermine. Isn't that even worse? Try to remember that you can never unsay anything you have said, even though you may not be able to help feeling certain things on this evolutionary level and in view of the impact that certain types of people make upon us we can at least have developed enough occult discipline so that we make an effort to lift our emotions to the higher self and remind ourselves that we are all one and as one there is nothing you can say about another in injury which is not injuring yourself and all else nothing the same way with our actions which are another form of words now the curious thing is that in occultism most of the people seem to have developed an incorrect idea as to why they're told to keep their mouths shut when they are working on a project in other words when they are attempting to use the power of the mind in order to accomplish some type of demonstration or change in their environment. You remember in seven steps you are told, decide what you want to be, decide what you want to accomplish, work towards it in the various ways as you're given in the lesson, and then you are told, keep quiet, silence. Why do you think that you are told you must remain silent about these things. Well you see there really happens to be more than one reason for it. When you talk about it you are already performing such a vastly creative act that you have lost a great deal of the concentration of that creativity that is going in order to get you to manifest it in the flesh. You know when we say the the word was made flesh, and we remember the word is not separate from a thought.

It's merely a different vibrational level of expression.

You can see that when you talk about something that you are working towards, you are letting the very creative power, the power of the word, go out prematurely before it is permitted to gather strength in order to be able to actually project itself into being made flesh. And yet curiously enough this isn't always true. Sometimes, although this is very rare, by talking about it with one or more who share in the same emotional drive towards that picture. Rather than weakening it, you strengthen it. Because by By communicating a picture, you pick up then from a group the intensity, and you have a manifestation that comes far more readily than if you were working on it alone. Yet very rarely will you find another fellow human who will be able to hold with you the same desire and creative build-up of a picture. That is why it's so important to remain silent, rather than to let your energy waste.

And along with the speaking about whatever it is you are working towards, other people are very apt, almost always apt, to put up a block between your thought, once you have expressed it to them. Because unconsciously you see other people are not accepting the same principles and so if you should tell someone that you are working towards a specific goal if that person isn't 100 sympathetic towards your goal that person will have a thought and an emotion which will weaken your thought and emotion by so much more that is another reason that it is important to remain silent. And again, it's because the power of the word is so potent. It isn't because a word weakens as much as that the potency of the word takes away from a continuation of an up-building on another level for special purposes. Now in color and sound work, if you notice, what we do is combine the use of the color and the sound. And recall now what we have said to you about the power of vibration, that if you take the vibrational rate of any sound, for instance the note C, and you keep geometrically doubling it, doubling it, doubling it, doubling it in geometrical progression, it will finally, you know, and this means this is the vibrational speed, that vibrational speed will make of that sound a vibration in the range of light.

And in this range of light, there's a division into colors.

Now actually, that continues to keep doubling and doubling also when we combine the work of color and sound. And that reaches into the actual primal principle of the vibration of thought itself.

That is why you have heard it said from the Bible, and the Word was made flesh, for instance. This is the creative thought of God through the vibrational area, and where the light was the life of the world. You notice here the talk or the idea being given is in relation to the Word, and then And then suddenly St. John was speaking about light being the life of the world. So our livingness, which expresses vibrationally on another level as thought, actually the livingness and the thought are on the same level, but which coming through expression vibrates on the same speed as light.

This comes down to a slower and slower speed until we have the vibrational speed of sound.

And finally, we have the vibrational speed of the electromagnetic field, which we call a physical thing or a physical condition. These are not separate things. They are all one thing. And remembering that the word is the most direct expression of the thought when we use it towards each other you can see that when we take up certain practices as has been taught us in the Qabalah the use of the color and sound what we are really doing is taking the power of the word or the thought and we are intensifying it in our nature so that everything that we think and feel as we work with these principles, becomes more and more powerful. Now the thing though is this. Power does not make it good, nor does it make it bad. To become more powerful is a dangerous thing if you are going to permit your resentment, your hatreds, your inferiorities, and all the host of other immature parts of the personality, if you're going to permit them to hold sway, to run you, to influence you.

Having more power does not make you good. Having more power gives you the ability to express more more of the good, and also more of the evil. This is the reason you've heard it said that occultism can be a very dangerous thing.

This is why in our work you're given quite a long term of training in the tarot to help you become aware of and transmute those parts of your nature which could make it dangerous for you to tread the path. And yet you have to take up risk the dangers or you'll never get anywhere because as we said especially in this day and age you're taking your life in your hands when you cross the street but you're going to you have to take the risk or you won't get anywhere you can't just sit down at home and just sit there because of the danger of getting behind your car the wheel of your car or crossing the street. In the same way, if you aspire, you have to recognize that there are dangers involved in intensifying your nature. Because as you intensify your nature with the use of the color and sound, you see what you are doing is taking the most intense kind of power of sound that exists. In the Eastern thought it's called the mantra and you see it's this chant which has a definite meaning and has indeed a group of meanings those of you who came to the Sunday morning talks I gave about a year ago on color and sound have become familiar with some of the meanings but you see when we chant and intone the note which includes the red for example there are meanings involved in that way beyond anything like just a color there are all the meanings that belong to the zodiacal sign which we call Aries you see all the character qualities that are involved with the sign Aries all the drives that are involved the emotional reactions which are involved and the ability to gain dominion from the spiritual level which is involved whenever we intone this note of C on red which we do where we intone all the notes covering the twelve signs of the zodiac in a very special way when we do our Qabalistic chant here together now the thing we want you to remember from this morning's talk though is this basically that by by the very nature of joining together here, week by week, in this Qabalistic chant, we have, because of the influx of the extra power that we tune into from the inner school, going right up the hierarchy into the heart of God and descending right into the depths of our own being, involving every cell of our bodies and every atom of every cell, that we are intensifying our nature so that the power of the word as it comes from us becomes far more influential than it would have done were we not utilizing these very particular practices.

For that reason, we have that much more responsibility for what we say and what we do not say, for what we control, what we permit to emanate from us.

You know, one of the greatest sorrows that a true sensitive has is the awareness of the various emanations coming from the people about him and her.

This is the greatest sorrow that exists because, you see, these emanations are the power of the word, and they will express in some word or other, somehow or other. These are the attitudes these are the types of thinkings and feelings that we permit ourselves to carry for and towards each other with a word we can give another human being a lifelong sorrow and so can we do this with what we emanate in our feelings and with a word we can give someone a comfort which he will never forget so that if he lived through a thousand eternities still the heart was warm with gratitude because of that word of love of acceptance and of comfort so what are we going to do with this intensified power which we have been gathering together week by week here and And in the Thursday night classes, of course, we do that also using other means and methods. And in our Pranaeus work, we do it also using the ritualistic means and methods.

And we do it most of all, and most powerfully, in the chapter work. What are we going to do with it? Please remember this. Every stage of the way, you are faced with tests and trials.

Every step of the way Jesus was taken up to the mountaintop and tested and what are these tests and trials if you could but know it and remember it every moment of your life they amount almost completely to your attitude towards those about you in other words it is in your intimate intimate relationships. You cannot say, I love humanity, but I can't stand people in particular, because you don't love humanity, or you would yearn with love and comfort towards the people in particular, and you would certainly not condemn them or sit in judgment upon them, because you know you haven't got the data. You haven't got the data at all. Not that it isn't true of course that many people are tremendously destructive it is true but we've got to be aware of that destructiveness in them and make sure they don't let it poison our hearts and we've got to remember that no one is completely destructive or completely constructive one side could be very beautiful and nice that side we can love the other could be very destructive we must not let that destructiveness come into our hearts from them and we certainly must not let ourselves pour out that is pick up their destructiveness and pour back to them because we can't afford to and if we do we will suffer repercussions far more than the average person because we have greater power but remember having greater power we have a greater power to love and we have a greater power to hold the constructive thought and we have a greater power to forgive and even if we are attacked we have the power to be able to say with Jesus blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you for my sake that is a thing to remember because all of you have at some time been reviled by someone and all of you have had somebody come back to tell you about it and how you have reacted has been your test and and also what your feeling has been in terms of a need to retaliate this is just as true of what happens between you and your husband and wife and friend or sister or mother and brother as it is between employer employee or anything else the power of the word is becoming mightier and mightier in you it's the power of the creation that exists more potently in relationships than anywhere else and it is in our interrelationships that we are acknowledging the oneness of God and therefore the brotherhood of man in this and in this alone can we do it and do we show it so try now on more than ever to shrug off any of the things that come to us or that is said to us that may be unkind let's not react in the same way let's lift our hearts and our minds to the higher self. Let's recognize that if we refuse to be pulled in to the criticism or the maliciousness, if we refuse to accept it, whether it's in terms of somebody talking about somebody else or about ourselves, but instead lift our consciousness to the oneness of all life, that to that degree we are making the power of the Word of God more vibrant and more vital. We are helping to bring about the brotherhood of man as an active center. We are serving the Lord of the universe, and we are living a life of love and serenity, which we can never have if we permit ourselves to be influenced by the seducer, the slanderer, the prideful one, and the sorrowful one that resides in our own bosoms and in the bosom of our fellow man when we forget our unity.

It's really just a little talk about love isn't it? But we hope we've shown you how important it is to watch, watch and watch the power of your word and everybody else's word and to make it a positive loving thing in ever greater measure.