The Western Occult Techniques of Meditation

The talk for this morning is the Western Occult Techniques of Meditation. And what I thought I would do this morning in discussing the Western Occult Techniques of Meditation is to try to show you what an extraordinary, almost unbelievable system has been inherited by this particular Western occult mystery school, which carries every single phase of spiritual techniques.

Some people have told me not to use the word spiritual disciplines because it frightens people away.

But the point is in the Western occult methods This does not surprise those of you who were come have been coming regularly But those who are perhaps our guests or haven't been coming here so long. It may surprise you to hear that we intend to frighten some people away Not out of lack of love But the point is, just like in a public school, you have many levels of teaching, starting from the nursery to kindergarten to elementary, high school, college, and then you have postgraduate college work in preparation for various phases of activity in this world. In the same manner, and indeed our educational system is basically derived from the esoteric system, even though those who follow it are not aware of this, the Western occult techniques of meditation and of attainment actually carry what we would call the most intensive forms of training, and only those who have evolved to a point where they are able to take it, take it in this way, that they, where they have reached a point where they are not only able to but are eager to look into their own consciousness, their own minds, their own hearts, discover for themselves how it is they have been using their powers of consciousness which everyone has. Everyone certainly has this, but how it has been used is the question. And in discovering how these powers have been used. We are at the same time in the Western occult methods given the techniques for learning how to dissolve the old outworn patterns and to take this energy in order to release into the new patterns which are part of and in fact identical to the entire evolutionary scheme and therefore the evolutionary necessity every single human soul sooner or later has to come to a point in life due to the various experiences which certainly involve evolve many, many past incarnations. But every single soul does have to come to a point where that soul can say, I want to know everything about myself that I'm capable of knowing.

I want to learn how to be honest with myself instead of having to continue to walk in the the patterns of self-delusion, illusion, instead of continuing to play-act the various roles that have been causing me so much agony, misery.

In fact, the terms used by our youngsters are very nicely expressed here when they say, tell it like it is. And the true occult aspirant has to have reached a point where he wants to know everything that is reality, rather than fighting for a continuation of the illusions, the delusions, or the unrealities which we take for truths or for ourselves. For example, we each carry an idea about ourselves. What does that idea mean? In other words, we carry an image. You see, consciousness basically does what? It creates images or it receives images. Images, and by feeding these images, and how do you feed the images? You feed them with your attention and the emotional intensity of the attention, and that emotional intensity can be negative as well as positive, you know. There's just as much emotional intensity in hate, for example, as there is in love. And so we can feed an image negatively just as readily as we can feed an image positively, and as a matter of fact, even more readily, because it is easier to fall back into patterns of the past than it is to protect ourselves from our patterns of the past in order to form new patterns. And so in the Western occult methods, it becomes vitally necessary to discover exactly what patterns we have been nourishing, which have therefore brought us into a state of compulsion. In other words, we follow our old habit patterns pretty much like a needle follows the grooves of a record.

And so what we have to do are form new grooves of course well the western occult aspirant therefore has to reach a point where he wants to see to know and to change and in actuality not too many people are like this you know many people who are sincere aspirants it is true are nevertheless sincere aspirants only up to a point, though they don't recognize this consciously. They are sincere aspirants as long as it doesn't mean bringing up or tearing up something from the deepest part of the nature that they have identified themselves with, with, which they may be calling by beautiful names, but which basically would be past immaturities, you know, past lack of evolution. And remember, all of us have to have this, because certainly none of us have been evolved or created out of the one life, the one consciousness, in a fully perfected, evolved form. Now some of us may think this was so and in some strange way we fell and now we want to go back. I don't think that that is at all logical. In the consciousness of the Most High, the Divine, certainly that which has been created or is being created in consciousness doesn't have the time sense that we have. Beginning, ending and in between are all one vast knowingness. And the divine father, divine mother level, in that level we can say, yes, all beings, all creatures have been created as perfected and perfect all at once.

However, that all at once has to do with that level of consciousness.

The working out of that image, that creation, is a time and space series. In other words, it's a projection then where each portion of the divine mind, or each ray of the one divine light, goes through a sequential type of consciousness. It's more like a self-examination.

For example, if you're interested in something, really focused down with interest, and you're trying to find out what it's about, your mind, your attention, follows it step by step.

You may be watching a little creature going from here to there. Your attention watches its progress from beginning to end. It is sequential in order to see where it has gone to. And only then can we be said to have experienced the totality of that particular trip. You know, trip is a very funny word to me. It's been used at the LSD because actually the journey into consciousness is the old occult teaching. And I've been very amused at some of the terminologies our youngsters have developed out of these things. However, the point is, we are, Consciousness is on a trip of self-experience, like traveling up a ray or up a line step by step in order to become consciously aware of and to consciously develop the fullness of what it is potentially. And yet the fullness of what every living being is potentially is already the perfected completion in that level and this is where incidentally many of our Eastern occult schools of thought have gone wrong because some of these good meditators shall we say have managed to have one or more experiences of a higher level where they see this or experience this utter perfection. They have come to the erroneous conclusion that all you have to do is meditate via the Eastern methods and by just meditating along along with a few other details, like in Buddhism you do have your eightfold path, etc.

But mainly by meditating, they think or feel that you are going to then get away from this illusion-delusion snare, which is called the physical universe. That's from the point of view of most of the Eastern philosophies. Now in Western occultism, as many of you know by now, we definitely do not hold with that point of view whatsoever. What we say is this.

The level of experience in which we can see that time and space are non-existent for that level, the level of experience in which we can see that beginning, ending, and in-between are one. This is a level that is a level of totality that we can touch. But an evolving center of God cannot stay there, even though many individuals, the so-called mahatmas or mahatmas, think they have.

But this is their illusion or delusion. And this has been one of the great problems that we have come across too with some of the kids who have experimented with drugs because they have managed in the drug state to experience something that certainly makes them feel that there is a level of reality that is far more real than the physical universe in that state. They get an idea that the only thing to do is to withdraw. And you remember the terrible thing that occurred with Professor Leary, who kept advising people to drop out.

Now, the sad thing is, most of the Eastern philosophies have, step by step, brought about the kind of changes in evolving souls that have gotten them to drop out.

And I cannot begin to tell you how many precious aspirants, through the many years, have said something to me similar to, what I want to do is to go to some Mount Shasta or Mount Olympus or Mount something in order to really meditate and achieve and reach illumination, liberation. In other words, the idea being, an erroneous idea, that in order to achieve illumination, liberation, samadhi, nirvana, all these various terms, the thing you need to do is just withdraw from the world and get up where it's pure and all these impurities are not, and then you can meditate and then you make it. Well, what is this? Think a moment. This is pure escapism.

And everyone who tries going to any mountaintop usually discovers the one thing they've taken with them is themselves, which is a fortunate. The one thing you cannot leave behind is yourself.

And yourself is your state and level of consciousness and its controls, wherever you are. So you can be just as much of an escapist in a valley if your mind is dreaming of that mountaintop, as you can be on the mountaintop because of having withdrawn there. And certain forms of meditation, basically, do not bring about the things that people are hoping or that they have been told it will do. There are many forms of meditation, usually in the Eastern schools of thought, though not all of them, but let's say most of them, which on the whole really offer a way of escape. So you're told, well, come. Now withdraw to this center, which is, I mean, the advice is good, but the reasons for it is not good, and what one does with it is not good, as you will see in a moment, I hope. So one is told, well, now you meditate. Some say all you have to do is chant on one thing. Others say all you have to do is to chant on two things. And you know, you can chant and you can count beads or you can, in other words, you can fidoodle around in many ways. But that, the big trick, it's simple. And as I've told all of you darlings so often, remember to beware, always beware of the promises that tell you it's going to be so super easy. And of course, as I pointed out earlier in the talk, so I have had many people say, Dr. Anne, Reverend Anne, you shouldn't tell people that. People don't want to think that it's going to be tough. They're But you see, back again to what I mentioned earlier, the integrity of the Western occult school of training is such that we are not out for numbers, though certainly we want every single soul that's ready for this work to come.

We are not out, we're not in the number game, and we're certainly not in the money game, as you can see very readily.

What we're out for is the quality. Quality because only quality is going to be able to stay with this method. Only quality is going to want to go through the step-by-step work that is laid out, and only quality is going to be able to use these methods in order to bring about the changes in self and in the world that is so absolutely essential to the whole evolutionary scheme. The rest are just going to be able to withdraw into their cheap drunks, whether they're using alcohol or drugs or not, because there are many ways of drugging the awareness without drugs themselves. It's not as damaging to the physical system, so that's the only thing that one can say is in its favor, that at least the physical body isn't being damaged in the same manner. Now then, what are these disciplined methods? All right. They are a step-by-step presentation to each aspirant of the laws, the principles of consciousness, and training the aspirant step-by-step in ways and means of using these principles in order to gain control over the very portion of the nature that has caused us the sorrow, the unhappiness, the despair, and so on. What is this step-by-step? Well, in the lessons you receive through the mail, is laid out the work that you do at home. Here, those of you who are fortunate enough to be in an area, in the area of headquarters, also have the advantage of receiving the personal work as we do here on the Sunday mornings, the Thursday nights and so on. And so there is a greater intensification that takes place.

The capacity is heightened. But bear this in mind. Those souls that are weak still —weak means they're young incidentally— those souls that have not yet gotten to the point in their evolution where they have deepened enough to have developed that complete drive towards becoming something more beautiful, more close to the spiritual ideals.

Those souls who go in for any kind of serious occult techniques not only are not helped, they're hurt. This is another reason we deliberately discourage the false ideas that are presented out of, mostly incidentally, out of ignorance, I think, though sometimes deliberately, but usually it is ignorance. It's like the blind leading the blind. This takes place so often. But you see, Western occult techniques are aimed at what you might call intensifying, increasing the evolution of each person who undertakes it. In other words, it is shortening the time for one's evolutionary growth. Now, it's like going to school. In a way, you can say it's cramming. You know, when you're going to school and you want to make do say three you want to do four years work in three years you have to knuckle down and cram you also have to have a good mind to be able to do it you also have to have a strong desire and determination in you because you're going to have to give up certain things you're certainly going to have to give up a lot of the activities that go on on campus that are aimed at the social and other levels not that in a cultism we have to give up the same type of thing I'm just pointing out that when anyone decides, like my favorite expression, gee I've had it, now on I want to get out of it, whatever you know this misery that I've gotten into and I've got this hunger, when anyone gets to that state they have to then want it enough getting out of whatever state they're in. They want to want it enough so they're willing to give up unnecessary trifling toys. For instance, like being all overwhelmed with whether a hair is sticking up in the air or lying down flat. You know what I mean? This overwhelming attention to the vanities and egos of the personality self. This is the thing that takes up more attention. And you see, these are the things we have to be willing to give up as we discover them.

So, you know, getting rid of this need to feel terribly hurt because so-and-so doesn't appreciate me.

This need to be overwhelmingly disturbed because so-and-so has betrayed me. It's a sadness.

But when we focus in on the negatives, You see, we keep promoting them for ourselves over and over again. And so we have to have reached a point where we're willing to give up these toys. And even, incidentally, if you think that personality level emotional miserableness isn't a toy, you have something to find out. Because consciousness, on the whole, in order to keep from getting bored, gets itself into trouble over and over again.

In other words, anything is better than nothing. This is a subconscious habit pattern. Anything is better than nothing, we say to ourselves subconsciously, though not consciously. And so in order not to be bored, we'll get ourselves involved with the types of people that subconsciously we know are going to make us wring our hands, and that puts us right into the role of being, you know, being able to beat our chests, you know, with, oh why does this happen to me? Why can't I ever find somebody who will meet me mentally or emotionally or spiritually? You know and we beat our chests and ass and acclaim you know we march up and down the platform of our lives you know making these and playing these scenes to ourselves and that way we're not bored haven't you found how fascinated your consciousness is whenever you're in extra trouble with the whole situation oh gosh could just really the attention can hardly get pulled away but it gets pulled away very easily from anything that is even meaningful if it has if we aren't able to go into this hamming it up perhaps is the best way, hamming it up to ourselves. If there's anything happening that doesn't help us to ham things up to ourselves, we find that our consciousness will start wandering hither thither and yon. And here this is the reason that in occultism we do not say, look you've got to learn to concentrate and meditate this way and that way. You look at a flower or you look at a rose or you look at this and of that and try to see into the heart of it. Look, the true soul can't even remotely be interested in wasting its time focusing in on this kind of unproductive type of meditation, even though many of the Eastern schools of thought have presented this.

The consciousness will either withdraw and go wandering off into the thinkings and the ideas that are interesting it, like, you know, how worried it is or, you know, how insecure it feels or fearful somebody's out to get my man or my woman or my job or my what-have-you, you know, the consciousness will go off with the things that it's really interested in. And it will not remain with a concentration or a meditation on some object that one is told off very often to become at one with.

You see, that's why on the Qabalistic tree of life, the green Sephirah, Saphira means an emanation of God. You know, each Saphira is an emanation of God or an emanation of an activity of the divine. And the one that's called victory there is assigned to the desire nature.

And, you know, that's our subtle Kabbalism, if ever there was one, because it is giving us this basic idea that that which is always victorious is that which stirs our desire.

And therefore, only that which we desire is going to hold our attention to help us to discover what our consciousness does. And so, in the work, the lessons that our members receive at home, first, the principles of consciousness are given in a simple, condensed form, things that thousands and thousands of books have been written, which would cost untold numbers of monies, and not any one of them as well done as these first simple seven lessons that give the principles of consciousness, basically. And that becomes the foundation. From that develops the work with the tarot. What is the work of the tarot? With notice that each tarot key is what? It is a picture. And consciousness thinks in pictures, consciousness images. Even in Genesis we can see this basic idea when mention is made that man is made in the the image and likeness of God.

Man is an image-making being because man has that power. You know, now man has become like us, said the Elohim, which is the divine parents. You think maybe we could have a little air circulated through for just a minute? Because I don't want you to get so warm that you can't listen properly and it'll clear it out see it makes too much noise for talking with it right now we're gonna have to do something about meditating something better into the temple example. That'll cool us off in a moment or two. Can you hear me back there? Ah, 100% free for your ability to receive sound vibrations. Now, the image-making powers are the exact powers we use in order to start changing whatever patterns we have within our subconsciousness which have been keeping us from attaining to higher states of awareness.

Now how is that? That. Remember that each tarot key, starting with the zero and then going right on to 21, they're the 22 major tarot keys, they each represent one of your powers. Now each one of your powers of imagery, when you have them presented via the tarot keys, the thing that that happens is that it starts gradually to replace your own image of yourself. All the meditations are aimed at helping you to replace the false images that you've been holding of yourself, like for instance, I am somebody who has a temper. I am a non-temper type. Type. I am an aggressive type. I am a shrinking violet. You know, we have images of ourselves that really are not us, and we always, we express these images, and we think that they're us. This is our basic problem. So to start working on yourself in any other way, usually the various other methods simply don't come through. The only way, in other words, just like there's a little saying, you have to fight fire with fire. Well this isn't really a fighting thing, but although in a way it is. If it's the image-making powers that have been used clumsily, which it is, because we're just learning how to use our image-making powers as divine children of the divine God, and And all of our miseries, remember, just because we have been, we're clumsy.

When we're learning how to write, we don't write so beautifully. And when we're learning how to play a musical instrument, we sure hit some terrible, raucous chords and notes. And when we're learning how to cook, we can sure poison people fast or give them enough indigestion, which is just as bad. So you see, anything that we're learning how to do, of course we do things wrongly and erroneously. And all our past mistakes, all our evils, are the experiments of consciousness learning how to be a conscious co-creator with God, but not yet having reached that point. Point. And once all of our clumsy, miserable creations have made us miserable enough, then we're ready to start trying to work at creating, learning how to develop images of beauty. And that's why you see beauty centers that whole Qabalistic tree of life on the paths of return, that is the balancing point. Learning how to create with beauty. And beauty means balance too, remember, along with many other things. So with the tarot techniques, we give you ways of replacing your negative self images with positive ones. So that instead of walking along the street, for example, and saying, oh my I feel so alone I feel so alone you walk along the street say with Tarot Key 14 and you say the Divine Higher Self is living me now you can't be very alone that way can you and you see that richness and when you look at other people instead of looking at them and sort of raising your your nose and your your mouth in a sort of contemptuous snarl and you think God well God awful people ye you know gee no wonder people want to run off to the mountains or what have you gee did you ever look aren't people ugly and look at the terrible way they act and in other words boy this is guaranteed to give you misery with all your personal people relationships because people are people and you see these this is a way we what do what we making negative images that we karmically have to work through in order to find out not how not to do these things so with the tarot though instead of uh of hunting around the people to find out what there is in them to tear down in order to build ourselves up we start saying well now the lord of life sees through my eyes, you know, the vision of the Emperor, Tarot Key 4, the lover of humanity, Tarot Key 6. In other words, we start changing our imagery by key, with key by key. And because every one of these keys are aimed at a basic, real power of consciousness, we find that that gently, happily, beautifully we can change these portions of our being except when we run into a streak of stubbornness in our subconsciousness, something we've been hanging on to very intensely, like, for example, hating men or hating women.

You know, this is usually a rough one because it takes many incarnations to develop that kind of an attitude and so it takes a more condensed work to get over it and because we've all had problems Certainly all of us have had problems not only with the opposite sex if we're honest enough We realize we've just had problems with people period and we've had problems with people mainly because we figure people are problems You know in one way or another we keep wanting somebody else to be the beautiful the understanding the the the good, the kind, you can't do anything about what they're going to be. You can only do something about what you are going to be. The only place we can work, the only place we can work, is on ourselves. And so if we work on our own imagery, and as I said, the tarot is here, and then we have the further methods, of course, but the tarot techniques are aimed at giving us the ability and the capacity to take responsibility for our image-making powers, and therefore we change our own beingness, and we change all of creation that way because we're all part of it.

Every single one of us are an eternal aspect of the total divine consciousness, and we working positively then meditating our life instead of going off to a distant meditation meditating our life in our everyday being everyday feeling everyday thinking this then is what makes the change and as I said even though it's the hardest thing is in bringing about the self transformation formation that involves our attitude towards the opposite sex. It is very doable indeed, very doable, and through the tarot we do it far more readily because, again, the tarot and then the Qabalistic Tree of Life bring us to that recognition that the divine life, the Divine Creator is not He. You know, when we chant right here in Temple, when we chant Yod-Heh-Vah-Heh, we're chanting He. When we chant Elohim, we're chanting the Divine She. We start off with the with aheya, which means the One, the Only. That has no He or She appellation at all. And then when we chant Adonai, we're chanting the manifestation of the Divine He, Divine She, in other words, the Cosmic Masculine, Cosmic Feminine. And so we start getting over these conflict drives, these energy drives, through the work of the Tarot keys, through the work of the Qabalistic Tree of Life.

We do it to the degree we are willing to. Some people get to a point in their natures, incidentally, where they're unable to face a certain portion of themselves. They don't realize that if they would only be willing to face it and transmute it, life would take on a greater brilliance and glory and ecstasy than they could ever dream. But it's at these points that people often drop out. Sometimes it's just for a little while and they come back something in them their inner being of their soul strengthen them and back they come with others it's just too much for them and they have to go elsewhere and that's why we try to discourage those who haven't got enough aspiration coming here to begin with is which seems foolish to some but it isn't because you see consciousness influences consciousness and in the Western occult meditation techniques we use group work just as assiduously as we have the individual work each is vital now when we're together here in temple for instance on Sunday morning we are doing group meditation when we are chanting the divine names and a little later in the service we'll be chanting the archangelic names which are really the forces of God in order to align ourselves with these forces this gives us the extra energy and the extra power to attain to the expanded states of consciousness now in this group meditational work it becomes very necessary for everyone to be willing to be to transmute themselves because if they're not they're going to get very uncomfortable in chanting these fantastic chants of power because the Western occult mystery system remember is at least 6,000 years old it has been working it has been bringing specific souls who have reached the point of wanting to go in that direction it has been bringing the specific souls to the the highest levels of evolution possible within this area and then beyond.

Jesus of Nazareth was trained in this system. Jesus of Nazareth was trained in the esoteric wisdom of Israel. And the whole teachings of this esoteric wisdom, the Western mystery schools, along with the true meaning of Christianity, Christianity, not what the churchy-o-sities have developed, but the true Christianity, is contained in this work. And Jesus himself attained his complete liberation, finally, from the ties of the past negatives through this system, the system that we work with together. And it includes every single aid that there is meditationally. We use the image-making powers, we use the regular deep breathing, and on Thursday nights, those of you who come know, we use the various subtleties of vibratory powers, the colors and the chanting of the sounds that go with the colors. On Sunday mornings we use the ritualistic aspects. All of these are part of a total picture, And then there are even further, there's the pranayas portion for those who enjoy a more intensive personal ritual to attain to greater controls.

Therefore the Western occult system of meditation isn't one thing. It carries every device that there exists in the way of techniques to help bring the heart to a state of capacity for love beyond description, to help bring the mind to an awakening, to help bring the whole spirit into an expansion, to bring the soul into a complete and absolute knowledge of the unity of life and the unity with God. All of these things are attainable. But remember, as I said, they are not that easy. They are attainable to the degree that you want to work with it to the degree that you want to achieve true and lasting development to that degree is it here available for you furthermore it isn't necessary to be miserable about it anybody who's miserable with their aspiration is just draw making extra misery true aspiration and true spiritual work are supposed to be a work of joy and it's supposed to be a work of laughter and we're supposed to learn and here we are learning and you know I insist that we do this we are learning how to laugh and chuckle with the lord of life at our own immaturities at the immaturities of other levels of consciousness how to chuckle, transmute, love. Because you know you cannot truly love as long as you have to condemn. Nobody can. But when we can start loving and chuckling at ourselves, which is what this work teaches us to do, we get to the point step by step where suddenly that flash of lightning will come, sometimes for a fraction of a second sometimes much longer that flash of lightning will come which will give us that permanent connection where we will know that we will never fall again that is fall off the path again because do you know an awful lot of people in this western occult path of return have already been on it previously and they have misused their powers and this is why that's why right now they've been given the privilege of this concentrated and condensed work never before has this much been given out in public I agreed shall we say to release the extras that I have been releasing as did Dr. Case before me with what he released because of the fact that each of us have been in our emissaries from that level that broods over and loves and aids the evolution of humanity.

And because of this time, because of this age, because right now we have an influx of some of the most spiritual beings, and that's these youngsters so many people are worried about. Some of them of course have gone haywire but let me tell you we have more old souls have come in recently in these youngsters percentage wise than we've had in humanity for untold untold millennia and for this reason because things are being prepared we're giving things out here in a group like this which we've never done before never in the history of occultism never in this last six thousand years anyway let's put it that way I'm not sure about what was done previously with this system but on this planet because we are giving everybody that is ready for it willing for it the opportunity to do this cramming shall we say spiritual cramming in other words to attain to far more intensive in higher states than they possibly could otherwise and that's why why we have so much concentrated work being given here, and that's why so many of you, as you well know, have developed awarenesses, like practically over 75% of you, I know, after coming here for a while, started to develop the awarenesses of this subtle love wave substance, something that is a super sensory awareness. How many of you has that happened to since you've been would you raise your hands high see now that's something now that I think is a thing now that incidentally awareness of that subtle love substance when that comes is an indication that we definitely are already connected through the aspiration of our soul with the level of love with the inner teacher via the emissary from the outer, of course.

But we already have that connection. And this is the thing that we work on here to awaken this awareness of this high love essence substance. And then following that, once we have that and start to work with it and use it properly, then we're ready to start experiencing the secrets of the universe which step by step become unfolded to us. The fact that never a time we were born, never a time we will die, this we experience through these meditations. The fact that we have nothing to fear, that no matter what happens there's something in us that has an eternal stability within and with God. This we can all experience when we work with these methods, and many here already have developed that. We can experience that tremendous samadhi aspect even of consciousness, but when we do that, those of us in the Western occult school of thought do not think that is the finish.

We realize that it's just a step, a resting place to receive the extra energies to return and to keep working for, with the Lord of Life to bring this awareness, this beauty, this knowledge of unity out into the world because only so do we truly receive and hold our complete individuality and that's what we're working on now to bring heaven to earth not to try to escape there because we'll only be knocked down again later to bring the higher livingness right here to look out wherever we go and to pulse with this beauty this knowledge that I am in God which you are I walk in God which we do I breathe God which we do God breathes me which God does this is is the experience that brings what you might call the heaven to earth, and this all of us are being prepared for.

Let's work with it.