6. Seven Stages to Spiritual Unfolment Through Tarot

You see before you the three Tarot keys which are involved with the sixth stage of spiritual unfoldment. Now, again we remind you the sixth stage of spiritual unfoldment can also be thought of as the sixth stage involving the solution to any particular problem, whether it be a problem with a person, with a job, or with an attitude towards life, with situations in general, with the various developments of our own outlook, our own perceptions. These seven stages of spiritual unfoldment actually can be brought down to every detail. And when we learn to follow these procedures in a disciplined manner, when we learn to sit down and take these stages as we've been outlining it in this class, in order to make sure that we're using our faculties and not trying to run away into some lovely little mystical escapism, then we develop what we require, then we develop an ability to to see, to understand, and to receive very conscious guidance from higher levels.

And by higher levels, remember, we do not mean psychic levels, though occasionally people do get help from psychic levels. But an occultist is working for something much more sure, working for something that is permanent in the entire evolution of the selfhood. And that means that an occultist is working to have continuous and conscious guidance from the sources which should shall we say gave us birth to begin with or as we read to you from from the beginningless and timeless you notice when he was asked that when and at what time did he become familiar with yoga and with the methods of attainment with love and he answered by before the universe was formed and do you remember the tradition that's taught in Qabalah when asked where does the Qabalah come from the answer is from the angels when did it come into being? The answer is why it always was. And it's given to men, to evolving entities as they reach a point of capacity to receive, because Qabalah means to receive, you know. When they achieve the capacity to receive the higher teachings and to really walk on the path of return without having these continuous compulsions to go off on the highways and byways in order to really escape the disciplines of growth, though we rationalize and call it by other naturally and lovely names.

So here we're dealing with the sixth stage of spiritual unfoldment and we We will recapitulate last week in just a few words by reminding you that in last week's stage of spiritual unfoldment, the fifth stage, which was symbolized by the two children, the little boy and the girl, dancing in the fairy ring, the tarot he called the sun, assigned to the ideas of regeneration and, remember, fertility and sterility. We pointed out to you that this has to do with an actual change in the very atomic structure of the cells therefore with a different type of cellular structure in our bodies which no physical scientist could differentiate as such basically nevertheless the fact does remain means that those who have certain types of physical vehicles are the kind, for instance, who are usually either psychic or mystically inclined. And you know it was found many years ago that, for instance, psychism runs in families. If you had a mother or a father or grandmother or father who was quite psychic, our chances are that quite a large percentage of the offspring also are and you may say well my goodness then the spiritual developments depend on inheriting a certain body no we're talking about a psychic vehicle and this capacity for psychism actually has to do with a certain electromagnetic structure that is either very firm or very loosely bound you might say so that there is less of a veil between the conscious mind and the subconscious aspects of the astral and that is why just being psychic really has nothing to do with spirituality because in a sense you can say it is inheritable now the spiritual vehicle you cannot inherit inherit from any parents. This is what is meant by being born again. The spiritual vehicle you make yourself. And last week we were discussing the fact that it is as we learn to hold our self-conscious individuality inviolate. Invariate in the sense that the mass mind, lower thinking thinking, feeling, cannot push us around in this lynch mind mob kind of responses, in getting caught up in the excitations of the mob in all sorts of ways, whether it be politically or socially.

Remember it's still being caught up in a washing sea of that which the masses have determined is the proper judgment you see here judgment on this they are on the tarot key that symbolizes this stage of spiritual development and both people when they look at this key might be inclined to think of the idea of Gabriel blowing his horn and you know then the souls are judged and some are sent up there and some are sent down there and this becomes quite a at least an anxiety producing situation. Are we going to get up there or are we going to be sent down there when Gabriel blows his horn? Well this is what it might seem like on the surface and here again we see the nonsense that comes about due to mistranslations of the true teachings as they were meant to be indicated because Gabriel blowing his horn has nothing to do with the soul shall be judged you know to go to eternal damnation and eternal salvation we certainly should know very well by now that in Western occultism it is claimed and not only claimed but insisted upon that everyone and everything shall attain to the highest state in its good time that there is no such thing as shall we say any eternal damnation and we don't care what it is that the person has been this would even include those horrors in human form the hitlers and the musolinis and the stallions and so on everyone in good time achieves that state of evolution which brings about the higher perception. So you see on the surface this key might seem to hold a certain meaning and yet it isn't that at all. If we give you the Qabalistic attributions you'll start to see it very quickly because by now you should be acclimated to the idea of taking a few Qabalistic attributions and finding your own consciousness start to get stimulated with the meaning, especially in as much as we've been sharing with you by a sort of osmosis, you know, these insights and perceptions from the higher level.

So let's look at the Qabalistic attribution for this stage of spiritual unfoldment before we show it in its series of three tarot keys and also show the logic of the whirling around onto the next higher level of the spiral circle for the unfoldment. The consciousness attributed to this particular key and letter by Qabalists is the perpetual intelligence.

And perpetual could be just another name for eternal, couldn't it?

Or infinite, but certainly eternal.

Now that is one indication, the perpetual intelligence. Now another attribution in relation to this particular Tarot key is realization.

Realization and here is really the crux of the matter, decision. Decision. How many of us find ourselves in a situation where we find it so difficult to make decisions? It happens to us all the time doesn't it and the more sincerely we aspire curiously enough the more difficult we find it to make decisions for a while because we're so afraid we're going to make the wrong decision and it's so important to us that we know whatever it is that's right so that we can do whatever it is that's right and decide whatever it is that's right and so we give ourselves several nervous breakdowns and injure our nervous systems and I suppose that's also part of the growth process or we wouldn't do it. It's part of the learning process without question. The indecisiveness because of it and why do we have this indecisiveness? Well I think if you analyze it you won't have to dig very deeply into your own being to realize that we have this indecisiveness because we just plain are not sure of the outcome and we're afraid. Therefore it's fear that makes for the indecisiveness. Fear of the repercussions of making a wrong judgment and therefore a wrong decision. We're therefore afraid of the laws that deal with growth.

We want to make sure we're already there. And if we were always sure that we're already there, do you realize how much of the adventure would be taken out of the whole process? See how we've kept the fool up there? If you go to a movie and you know what the ending is, how much pleasure have Have you got him a movie? And of course there are some people who, when they read a whodunit, first must rush to the back end to see what the outcome is. But these are the people who can't bear to be kept in suspense about anything. These often are the most fearful about their own decisions.

And then they can go back and let themselves get all tense with anticipation patient and put themselves into rapport with all the people who are having all the various problems you know or whether it be the killings or the robbings and so on however on the whole the thing that makes the story exciting is wondering how is it going to to come out? How is it going to come out? And this excitement is really what makes it interesting. Would you go to a movie if it weren't for the fact that you want to be put into a state of excitement, wondering how is it going to come out? Would you read a novel, you know, a book if it weren't for the same reason? You want to have the charming experience of entering into a drama with the characters and going through all the various situations with them and wondering what is going to happen.

Will he get her or will he lose her? I mean, will he make the grade or will he not? So, with the reaction.

And in this case, we enjoy it tremendously. Why? Because something in us knows that well even if he or she doesn't make the grade ha it's not gonna hurt me the story it's a movie so I'm safe so you see we enter into the adventure vicariously in book and in movies but in our own living we have this fear and we have this fear because we're afraid that just like in the dramas we've just been relating to you the outcome might not be because what we would want it to be he or she or no etc whether it be success professionally recognition for doing or despair and death and so on now you might say well that's all very well nevertheless none of us want to suffer and we do aspire and the the fact that we want to do the right thing seems to me then that we should have at least earned the privilege of at least knowing what is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do. And here again, you see, we are not judging correctly. See, I'm deliberately showing this to you in everyday matters, as you can see, before we take it up from its spiritual level of spiritual experience, because everyday matters are not separated from spiritual experience.

And those of us who are going the way of Qabalah which is the hard way in one way and yet the easiest way that exists in as much as it integrates all the ways and keeps us safe and sure because of this then we would do well to stick with the various disciplines that are involved and stop seeing them as exactly disciplines one. So then back to the idea of the judgment involved, the fears of the decisions, now that we have analyzed a few of these Qabalistic elements in this particular key, let's try to see it in another way, in terms of our everyday living first. Then we'll go on to the other factors in this series. Now, making what we might call a right decision really involves the fact that what we want is to make the kind of decision that's going to keep us from having troubles or give us disappointment or in other words to keep us secure. Now those who want that kind of security better just stay in that coffin and put the lid over them where most people are anyway you see the three coffins floating on the water and that way they'll have security and a dark nothingness in a sense because to search for security on that level is not wise it's not wise at all and the aspirant discovers us after a while and discovers why it isn't wise.

Now, why are we afraid of making the wrong decision again? We'll show it in another way.

Because of the pain involved, naturally we always want to avoid pain for fear that the wrong decision will give us pain.

But you see, I know there's someone I know who gets annoyed once in a while. He loves what he calls the logical processes. And he thinks this is the most tremendous rationalization he ever heard when I point out to him that the wrong decision is not a wrong decision it's still a right decision he says well how can you argue with that he said that sounds just like a woman and if I'm in the mood to retain my last incarnational old verb I'll go off on a feministic lecture but if I'm in the mood to go off into some other aspect of my being I will shake my head very agreeably and say yes it's exactly like the woman in the in the tarot key number six and in the Tarot Key number 20 because each of these are very much involved with the angel.

And receiving information or receiving help or receiving energy from those higher sources through subconsciousness to be given to self-consciousness is a process that makes it inevitable that we shall make the right decision even when it might seem like a wrong decision. You see, we call a thing a wrong decision just because it may give us a few extra problems.

Like a friend I have, not very long ago, was in what I consider a really hellish state. What was the state? He was in a state of complete inertia. In other words, nothing was happening. He was in a vacuum. Wherever he turned, he couldn't find work in any of the fields in which he was accustomed to have it. He was in a state of forced inactivity, and it was hellish beyond description, because this is about the most hellish state I think anyone can be in, really.

So we talked about things, and I tried to get him to see a few other points of view. Then a little activity started, and he found himself involved in a whirl of a little commercial enterprise, which meant being involved with people, some of whom were, of course, very unreliable. Because humanity, still being an infant, we inevitably will run across very unreliable individuals.

This was part of the process of living. So he proceeded to fret and to moan and to groan and say, Why?

Oh, it looks to me like a phone call has to be made.

Little doglings haven't been put away and he said why do I have to be thrown up against a thing like this why do I have to cope with such lowly types I've been through it for a lifetime years and years and years I have had to cope with this type of thing I see nothing to learn from it I am just very annoyed about the whole thing. Seems to me the whole process is bad. And so he fussed and he moaned and he groaned. And I listened for a while and then I said, has it ever occurred to you you should be very grateful for these problems?

He looked at me as though I were crazy. Maybe that's what you're doing.

If I am I really hope that it is contagious as some things are and that we can spread an epidemic of this kind of craziness because the thing I was trying to show him was that to be in action into actual activity which was bringing about something making something happen them was an indication of his livingness for one thing of the fact that things were occurring therefore he was in motion and motion is one of the attributions incidentally of key 13 there that charming skeleton which you probably think is not a very pretty key or picture and that would hurt my feelings because I'm honor bound to think that's beautiful on account of it being a scientist to Scorpio, you know. Matter of honor. And at any rate, I tried to make him see that this motion involving the problems was really a wonderful thing, that it was a blessing.

Things were happening. He had opportunities. There was growing to do. And he said, I see no way I can grow because I have to cope with a bunch of you know what. And of course when if you can't see you can't see. Nevertheless after a while he did start to perceive of what was involved and he did start to see that having problems was really a wonderful thing. The fact that you are in motion shows that there there are something there being prepared for harvest, for harvesting. Therefore it's an indication that there is an expansion of consciousness about to take place because remember what we've told you over and over again how could consciousness expand if it weren't through experience. We absorb an experience and what is it then it's an extra bit of something that's happened where and where has it happened in our consciousness where else so every experience we've had is that little drop in the ocean of our consciousness that expands our consciousness and therefore expands our experience therefore expands our discrimination there's discrimination in key six that is one of at that, we'll go into it more a little more fully. So fear of making a wrong decision is something that we as a cultist will have to work on in order to overcome. And how do we do it?

Well the whole series before this of course is part of it, you can't just take one and single it away. We whirl around then from the previous series of three which involve Tarot Key 5, having opened ourselves to intuition, which remember could take place only because we were willing to use our analytical abilities, our reasoning, and so on. We didn't step away and we must never step away from the faculties which the good Lord has grown in us. Because the minute we do that we're leaving out an important ingredient and the cake is not going to come out like you want it to. Whatever it is you're cooking is going to give you indigestion. It won't be the dish that it's supposed to be. So the intuition that results from the using our faculties of the previous key, and remember then the hanged man which meant what the ability then to reverse our ideas the ability and capacity to reverse our attitudes and in terms of reversal the idea of suspended mind remember the ability to suspend all the things we think are so you know the things we're so sure of about what is a goody and what is a baddy and who is one or the other are the ability to be to put aside on a shelf temporarily our preconceived notions only this can open us then to what will develop further and we remind you all over again if we know something already then nothing in us is open to finding out.

How could it be? Because we already know that cup is full.

And I've often thought that occultism is nine-tenths learning how to unknow everything we know and one-tenths meditational work or learning the techniques in order to open ourselves up to the higher knowing.

And maybe I seem to be a little extreme there, but I doubt it I think that the proportions really are pretty much something like that and yet that is the way growth takes place as we come up against all the things that we know so well you see because everything we know so completely when it isn't so it is it not being in harmony with the universal interplay of forces inevitably then we will run up against problems which will force us to take another look and then go through this whole series starting with that tarot key number one we're going round and round and we'll keep knocking up against that same type of situation whirling through the whole series over and over again that's one of the reasons you know we have what are called these patterns you know psychology has discovered modern psychological research shows that people seem to get stuck in certain patterned behavior, certain patterned attitudes. They have an erroneous idea though as to what causes it.

Modern psychology doesn't realize that the very pattern brings with it the emotion, the kind of discrimination we do or don't have, P6, the motion of life and the harvesting, because you know this charming fellow here is harvesting as you can see the harvesting of our discriminant of the results of our discriminative faculties whether they be large or small and finally the kind of choices that is the judgment the realization the decisions we'll make as a result of that this goes goes round and round. Then whatever these decisions are, if the original premises or perceptions were correct, all of it follows them on the highest level. But if they're incorrect, which they are most of the time because we're still pretty green apples on the tree of life, as Dr. Case used to love to say, well then each decision causes a similar problem and so we are all around again that's why incidentally as perhaps you've heard me say that one major transmutation in the personality often takes about three incarnations just one that is overcoming one real stone block that's how slow it is but once we've entered on the path and worked with these transmutational methods, particularly with things like tarot and the use of the esoteric techniques.

We speed this up. As you've heard us say, we can't eliminate any portion of it. It is impossible to eliminate. It's like saying an embryo can jump from age three months to nine months and get born without going through the interim six months. It can't be done. It needs all that period to develop but it can be done more rapidly and that is what occultism is you know it's the hothouse forcing the growth of the plant to blossom far sooner than it would under normal conditions that's what we are doing and that is why it becomes really quite important to know what we're doing because I'm sure that those of us who sit here are sitting here together because we've gotten pretty weary of the slow grind and the slow rounds now then back to just one more idea in relation to the fear and then we'll cover this from several other points of view this series the fear of making decisions because the fear of making the wrong move as we work with the tarot at home regularly and it takes regular work because you don't get transmuted by going in for just little intermittent intermittent study for just intermittent aspiration.

Better than nothing, naturally. But it takes the regular work to really accomplish the deeper things that are essential. As we do this, and we start from that previous Tarot key. You remember the children dancing on that fairy ring you notice how gay they were they weren't just they weren't worried about anything they weren't carrying burdens no clothes free there was a gaiety of their their awareness of their individuality as being children of god now how did that come about and how does it come about for you and for all of us practicing it that's That's one of the many things the tarot is meant to do for you. Because if you will notice, every one of the lessons on every one of the tarot keys that you receive at home, it keeps throwing you back and throwing you back to the basic idea, which really could be put very simply. The only trouble is that just putting it simply doesn't stay with us.

We need the continuous drop of the water on the stone. We need the continuous inspiration.

Together and from each other to make it work effectively otherwise we forget but it's this continuous work that we do regularly at home that we bring into our living processes that we bring into our relationships and into our work it is doing this which changes our idea it changes the attitude it makes us realize that it's the angel or that being what that which the angel is symbolizing and call it the higher self you can call it that part of you which is the aspect of God or the conscious aspect of God growing its personality but it is by continuously relating everything that occurs to that you know God lives me God God walks me. God talks me. God sees through my eyes. God hears through my ears. And the higher self, don't make it an abstract something up there. I mean, it's in you. You're the experiencer, aren't you? God experiences me. This is the idea. As we do that, then we start developing more and more of that feeling of the perpetual intelligence which this Tarot key is attributed to Kabbalistically. And what does it mean, perpetual intelligence? It means an awareness that you are a perpetual being. Now, if you were really sure that you were perpetual, if you were really sure, you wouldn't be so upset about making a wrong decision while you're learning, would you now?

You see? So the heart of your problem is that though intellectually you may think you believe in survival, you may think you believe you're an immortal being.

Something deep down in you is afraid it isn't so.

Well, forget.

If we are perpetual, what have we got to fear? A perpetual being has all the time in the world in eternity to get to develop an ability for good penmanship or or proper walking or proper talking or graceful dancing or excellent musicianship and if you're going to hit a sour note uh what's to get so excited about sure you will hit sour notes so you see we are afraid of hitting the sour notes basically aren't we or when we're afraid of making the wrong decision and we're afraid of that because we really are not sure we're perpetual beings and so we haven't got that feeling of security nor have we got that feeling of mirth you know the first stage Tarot Key 15, the devil. And remember that is called the renewing intelligence. And it is through our mistakes, that which looks like the devil, that we become renewed to go through this process of the stages. That's why we say there is no such thing as a mistake. And if we do that that which brings about a problem to us, it only means that we haven't yet learned how to see the situation correctly or handle our emotions correctly.

And we certainly haven't learned to say, and some people get shocked when they hear me say this, if I want to blame anybody, well, blame God.

It shocks people. They say, well, what about our responsibility? Well, an aspirant always feels responsible for that portion which pours through him or her. And it's the responsibility of feeling that God lives us. When you love, you feel responsibility automatically. You don't have to grit your teeth and have it.

And it doesn't even seem like responsibility to you. I mean, it just comes, it's automatic. That's really perhaps at the heart of it. So overcoming the fear of decisions really is based on needing to work more on the idea that it is your higher self that's growing your personality, that's growing your mind, growing your emotions growing the integration growing your perceptions and that you are a little wobbly and spot but the very experience is growing you and it is going to be all right there's a matter of fact when you have that attitude are the so-called mistakes become more and more minor you might say until finally you can't make what we might call a mistake, though in essence there is no mistake. Your decision you will know consciously, and you will know it from the highest intuitive sources, that whatever decision you make, you'll know is the only decision and the right decision for this time and this place and this condition and this situation.

And you will know that you might change it tomorrow or next week a man might say gee that sounds like a woman who changes her mind but in actuality the ability to hold ourselves open to change as shown here in key 13 really is at the heart of all growth processes otherwise we're frozen as you know now then let's see uh tarot key number six the lovers in another way because remember every phase of life is involved uh in these series of whirling cycles and stages and we do want to discuss because I uh this particular series of three uh lends itself to it more than any other series we have. We do want to discuss a little bit the whole male-female significance in a little more detailed terms than we've done during this series. Because look here, in Tarot Key 6, the lovers, that in itself says something, doesn't it? And here we have Adam and Eve.

And in Tarot Key number 20, Judgment. Here again we have what look like Adam and Eve, except that now they have a baby. And the very curious thing is that they've developed a different color they're gray if you'll notice they're not flesh colored we'll go into that the gray is very important because it has to do with another level of awareness of consciousness so we have and then tarot key 13 you may not be seeing the same thing yet in a way you are look there's a there's a her and there's a him right there in the tarot key you see the head of the the woman and the head of the man the man looks like a king although you figure a king he's not sitting on a throne but there's a crown on his head which tells us something so even there we're being shown both a male and a female and remember tarot key number 13 13 kabbalistically you know means love and unity also hate by the way and uh uh tarot key 13 assigned to scorpio scorpio is the eighth sign of the zodiac which is the sign that is related to death and to the reproductive organs so you see we're dealing with the male female and with the reproductive aspect in every one of these keys as I think you can see in the series of three and this series holds it more completely than any of the other series that we have going through it the others show it in one key or in another all of them are indicating it in one way or another but here every key is indicating it and indicating it not thoughtfully but quite strongly. So let's analyze that and see how we can more thoroughly understand it for our own aspiration, our own growth, our own spiritual attainment, and also our own ability to handle ourselves and our attitudes and our relationships in all ways.

Tarot Key Number Six, The Lovers. Kabbalistically, the Hebrew letter is assigned to the sword. That's the name of it, the sword. And the sword, you say, that doesn't sound very lovey-dovey. You know, a sword is something that's rather frightening. And nevertheless, when we remember the sword of justice, when we remember that the sword also is a symbol for air, that the sword is related Kabbalistically to the idea of the disposing intelligence, because that's the consciousness Qabalah assigns to this letter and therefore this key. The disposing intelligence. And the functions are related to smell and discrimination.

Now, the sword, really, this cutting apart idea, isn't that involved with discrimination? How do we discriminate one thing from another? By being able to differentiate them, isn't that so?

To cut them apart. So you can see that the terminology is very accurate.

However, though it is showing one aspect of it, there's another level that has not been taken up in the lessons anywhere. Because one really can't. As we've told you before, there are certain things you cannot put in general lessons to the general going, to general members, because of the fact that there are quite a few percentage of very sincere aspirants who are still so fixated and locked down in the coffins not open like these but in the coffins and have such a strong and emotional attitudes they're so frozen in these attitudes that to tell them certain things too soon would would make them lose faith in the past and so you have to baby along the groups of aspirants who have been mistaught and mistrained and incidentally that really involves 99 and 9 tenths of all aspirants surprising as that may seem to you who have been mistrained and misread regarding this whole subject that has to do with male-female, the Kundalini energy, which basically is the sex energy and its usage. You see, this is a greater greater problem than anyone can even begin to realize. I remember the Master told us when we were having some very intensive communications that it was the greatest problem, they considered it the greatest problem in helping to guide the evolution of humanity, that is the whole mass attitude towards sex. That it was, that it sometimes, even they, had a tendency to become discouraged because it required so much of a complete transmutation of attitude, the purification of mind and heart, which really is related to what attitude and why is this necessary for this very reason I mean I can't give you all the reasons the kundalini energy I'm going to give you this much our eastern brethren call it the kundalini energy actually it is there's a psychic fire and it is not just psychic it's a psychic spiritual mental fire. It involves the fire of the higher, the highest consciousness.

Our Eastern brethren call it the Kundalini energy. Actually, there's a psychic fire, and it is not just psychic. It's a psychic spiritual mental fire. It involves the fire of the higher, or the highest consciousness it's almost in a way like the life of the being is all tied up in the fertilized egg you know what is going to be is already in the genes of the seed in the same way at the base of the spine physiologically speaking though it isn't in the physical part of the body mind you it's in our astral and mental emotional spiritual body that this force exists but it has its physical um outlet you know like it like you plug a plug into an outlet and it's the point of connection when you remember because we must remind you when you remember that the physical universe or the physical body is not something separate from the spirit it is condensed spirit it is concentrated spirit being held by the concentration of the attention of the Lord of life in and through the vehicles it's evolving which are us and when we remember that we'll have more respect for and feel more reverence towards are the physical appearances, seeing that this is what they are.

Now then, this energy is called up there similarly just to the way the whole development of a tree or flower or a person is in a seed or the fertilized egg now what perhaps you don't realize Dr. Case has put it in some lesson or other I don't remember where children have that energy flowing quite freely from the base of the spine upward there's no blockage there it isn't locked down or blocked away that's why children are usually psychic you know and they have invisible playmate and they're more prone to all sorts of very strange experiences and I know many of you you go back in your mind and you remember when you were children there were some very strange experiences most of you who don't remember you've had them too you know you the reason you don't remember is because it was just part of what seemed like a natural thing to you and you never realized it was a little different from what went on on a purely physical plane and so you it never made enough of an impression on you for you to differentiate it that is it being something other than the purely physical physical appearance from the awareness of the sensory organs.

Now, as children start to approach adolescence, this closes up.

And the energy becomes, it's like held at the base of the spine, but not really in the body part. Still, it's in the base of the spine area. It's held there. Why? Why? Because the puberty, remember, is that part of our development which brings about an awakening of the whole reproductive energy. And you see Tarot Key 13, really, is representing the whole reproductive element. And incidentally, actually, so does Key 20. Because Key 20, though in our literature you'll see it assigned to Vulcan. Remember, our work was written before Pluto was discovered. And we didn't have a name for the planet we knew was there and so we called it Vulcan and the scientists called it Pluto and incidentally they're the same they mean the same thing you know in mythology so we were still right or they tuned in properly so they even gave it a proper name the name that meant the same thing you know it's sort of God of the darkness is it's more of its basic or the god of hades and hades doesn't mean hell incidentally it means uh the um astral uh levels these darkly splendid worlds as they've sometimes been called so that pluto is what really it relates to and pluto is definitely known to be uh involved with scorpio practically all the astrologers assign it now to the rulership of Scorpio so that Scorpio has both Mars and Pluto as the rulers now. So we're dealing with that energy even in the tarot keys. The symbols are indicating that in their own ways, and it's a very amazing thing that they should have been so accurate, or it would be amazing if we didn't realize that this information is something that that has come from sources way beyond our present development at any rate.

Now, at puberty then, at the base of the spine, there is a sort of blocking off that is developed, and the subconscious does this deliberately. That is, nature does it deliberately. Because if it were not done, puberty couldn't take place.

In other words the energies have to become focused to develop the reproductive abilities because this is the way the lord of life perpetuates uh itself uh in and through the various vehicles that it is evolving and so the perpetual intelligence is again another interesting appellation for Key 20 isn't it when you realize that now then the we know that also often when you have this poltergeist phenomena for example you know how practically always it gets tied up with some adolescents usually a girl or boy in adolescence has somehow shown up most of the time and all this tremendous poltergeist activity comes up. Why? Well, of course, our modern scientists don't know why, but the occultist has always understood why it is. It's because the locking down of that energy has not taken place properly. There's still a lot of it coming out, and so there's an excess of this energy, this basic energy, which is really the energy of the universe, the driving energy of life itself. And there's this excess available which starts all kinds of psychic phenomena and incidentally poltergeist phenomena doesn't come from the deceased as people think. It's really from all the mischievous subconscious levels of the adolescent tuned in to the whole mass mind that's why it's so it is usually so meaningless it hasn't to do at all with the deceased except in some rare instances that wherever you have psychic activity there's always a possibility of some deceased entities getting involved in it but on the whole it has to do more with just element the elemental sources are running away and the adolescents themselves isn't aware of it at all that this is that uh you know it's from his or her own energy that hasn't gotten properly sank down in the base of the spine all right so then you'll say well in that case it sounds like it's a pretty serious thing to get that energy up from the base of the spine you know you our eastern brethren teach us for instance that this kundalini energy has to be um awakened awakened, you know, that it sleeps down there and it has to go up the spine to awaken the thousand-petaled lotus up in the head.

And from what I've just described, you might say, hmm, this sounds dangerous. Well, actually it is. This is the greatest danger in occultism. And this is why so many people who go in for Eastern Method in the Western world, incidentally, get themselves into so much trouble. And perhaps you've heard me say before, the only reason more don't get into trouble is just that they're just no good at it.

If they're good at it, most of them are going to get into a great deal of trouble because they're forcing open a fire, a power source that they're not prepared to handle that will explode and will cause all kinds of neuroses psychosis often permanent institutionalization in a mental hospital I've known quite a few cases like that as they fool around foolishly with something they shouldn't now then the way of the Western occult method the way we teach is different you see because the point is this that energy does have to be awakened that energy does have to travel up the spine it does have to irradiate all the centers we don't say the higher center up there it has to awaken them properly one by one but it has to do it in and through a vehicle that has been going through transmutational processes in terms of character.

You heard me talk about what we must do about our attitudes, because this is our basic strength. And of course, though perhaps everybody thinks he's got a good character and the rest of the world better reform, when we say character, we mean perhaps a little more than the usual idea might imply.

But we won't tell you about it now, because it's time to have a five-minute stretch.

All right, let's get back to this tableau because I haven't even remotely begun to say what I want to. I find that this is my habit whenever I bring up this subject. I deliberately keep putting it off. This is what I do this subconsciously, you know.

I keep putting off and putting off the things I want to say because I'm a little worried about upsetting a few people and I don't want to upset anybody because I love you all and I know the problems you all have with the conditionings of the race mind and the family backgrounds and the genetic backgrounds.

And that's why I'm always afraid I might say too much to disturb somebody who is not ready to be disturbed.

So disturbance is good when we come to a point where we can see what it is and cope with it and make it into something positive uh anyway I see it's too late for me to beat around the bush anymore so I will I will come right out with the with the actual elements that are involved now that I've tried to show you some background the point is then that it is the kundalini energy Is really just another term for the sex energy the sex energy is that which? The Lord of life uses to reproduce Each its own kind. It's an activity that goes on Perpetually actually the perpetual intelligence is involved with this basic idea Are these key 13 which is called taboo stick Lee the imaginative intelligence?

And And you all know that imagination is the largest percentage of sex activity, really, along with its, shall we say, offspring, means emotion, and the whole reaping of the results of this particular motion and this force of course exists on all planes this is the thing now unfortunately the greatest tragedy that really has befallen our culture and most of the world is the fact that because intuitively so many human beings have realized are the importance of this energy because they have not yet developed the discrimination tarot key number six because they have not yet had from the previous whirlings that we did you notice the purity of those children dancing nude in their magic fairy circle because they have not yet had that regeneration of outlook and therefore that feeling of freedom as children of god and by freedom don't go getting wrong ideas. We are not advising any free love cult. That's a hundred percent the opposite of what is implied by an understanding of this energy and learning how to use it correctly.

Freedom is being able to be free in terms of feeling pure with your beloved, with your partner, and pure about the act in itself like uh in a sense you know the animals are pure and though we don't recommend that you go that back to animal nature in one sense they're still in the garden of eden at least as far as being channeled for the reproduction of their kind they are not full of guilt in relation to the expression of unity so the the spiritualization the ethereal ization of the atoms of your of your being which make up your cell is vitally involved with actually bringing about a whole change of attitude towards that that which is the giver and the producer of life, which the sun is. And remember, the previous tarot key is the sun. So we whirl around, then, to the next principle here, the lovers, the disposing intelligence, remember, cabalistically, called the sword, assigned to discrimination and smell.

And this helps to develop what? Discrimination in the choice of your partner. And you know the expression of smelling a thing out you know something smells good or bad I was just told that I had a very excellent odor and I pointed out that it was my natural spiritual odor one of the gifts of one of you you know and a little bottle but it does have to do with a subtle faculty and truly this subtle faculty involves what on the esoteric plane would be you might say the esoteric aspect of what on the physical plane recall the aspect of smell and do you know in those who have not been conditioned erroneously that the sense of smell is the most stimulating sense in the union of sexes did you know that I mean our psychologists those of you who have gone in for reading modern psychological findings would know this because this has been found that on the whole the sense of smell along with the sense of touch are the two most highly developed senses that have to do with the stimulus of this reproductive energy towards union in the whole sexual field it involves all the creatures are the every creature that we have science has shown a male is attracted to female through the sense of smell interesting and actually uh and vice uh in a sense vice versa but of course in our culture we have had our some of you smile I know because why you've been conditioned into certain ideas or attitudes you don't realize that the uh smell of the beloved is something extraordinarily beautiful you know you you're used to hearing feel really clean for the first time in your life you zing or zang or whatever it is you know you've been you've been inculcated with black magic you have been so that you have that you You have lost the realization that the emanations of a human being, the natural pungent odors of various peoples, are very specifically their own, for one thing, certainly, and that they are more like some of the poetry you read about in Songs of Solomon.

Go home and read Songs of Solomon in the Bible.

And I'll even let you ask me some questions about it, if you like.

So I ought to give a few lectures on it because it's a really cabalistic book the songs of Solomon you know very much so I'm pointing this out here discrimination, the sense of smell we have been so conditioned so that we're so afraid somebody's going to inhale us and say oh my you haven't been using life boy or zing or zang you know whatever it is at the moment you know and why are you unpopular ah well well we know why you're unpopular you surely we know well well oh yes oh yes yes uh the the way uh we have been really black magic you know into these feelings of guilt and humility and shame so that we have been interfered with in terms of reacting and responding with purity and I mean with purity to the essence of human beings, and particularly the beloved. You see here, you see two nude figures in Adam and Eve as discrimination.

Their whole mind and heart, their responses are pure, not conditioned by this is evil and that is evil. And yet the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is behind Eve, as you can see. And there's the serpent tempting. The whole allegory is right there on that Tarot key fixed. And behind the man you have your twelve friars that relate to the twelve signs of the zodiac, the living qualities of the twelve types.

But in essence, what we want to point out to you is that our whole reaction, due to the books we've read, the movies we've seen, the things we've been taught both inadvertently and deliberately by our elders, and the whole mass mind culture has given us a type of reaction and response to the reproductive function and therefore to the whole urge towards unity which is utterly different than it is in essence to those who are pure in heart. And as we hold these attitudes and these guilts and these fears, we keep ourselves from releasing this energy for our spiritual attainment. This is the whole point. We imprison this energy in locked down coffins indeed. We reap the rewards of death instead of life because life that that sun is rising in the death key which remember alludes to the whole reproductive urge as even the seed should be painted white in that upper left hand corner as you look at it and wasn't by the one who did this particular set of keys so that we have the job of completely transmuting our attitude. It doesn't matter whether we happen to have a husband or wife or are amorously stimulated at the moment towards any particular member of the opposite sex with ideas of marriage at the moment.

The thing that is important is the basic attitude. This is what imprisons that energy or releases it. And as you heard me mention, I don't remember if it was last week or the week before what we do is react on the whole with such a lewd lewdness taught us by the culture as a whole that there's either lewd laughter or lewd uh shame depending on whether we consider ourselves free souls or moral characters I mean by free souls I put this in quotes not freedom as the occultist sees it and you see the thing is that unless and until we can see the unity between creatures and creature as being the the most glorious act of expression symbolic and ritualistic expression of oneness that is possible on this plane we cannot react with the kind of purity we need to to the idea and it's the idea that's involved whether we are age 10 or 110 it's the idea it isn't you know whether we happen to be in a special situation or not and therefore purification is extraordinarily involved more than I could begin to tell you with this of this training ourselves to feel reverence the same reverence towards this act as we feel towards sunrise and sunset as we feel when we go into a meditative prayer to god or a song of praise to god and does that seem strange to some of you that we need to feel this way when you realize that god is said to be love when you realize that this is the way god reproduces each in the image and likeness of its own kind surely you should be able to see that we have to do some very extraordinary work on that and this has to do with the discrimination that must be learned in terms of tarot key six as we look at it that is one of the vital things to know that is the holy overshadowing guardian angel that is involved in unity and men and women creatures who uh express this urge in terms of just the need to titillate I'm speaking very uh boldly and frankly now it needs to just titillate the sensual elements of it you know and concentrate on that in other words they are leaving god out of the most godlike performance that is and these do not achieve the kingdom of heaven believe me they don't they can't how can they this is the energy that gets you there and this is the thing that I wanted to impress on you more than anything for this evening's tableau therefore you look at key 13 this was the principle we've just been talking about now here's key 13 the agency or law through which the principle works and here we see what looks like the grim reaper but you know notice what he's reaping really is knowledge and wisdom because wisdom is assigned to the male head with a crown on it and on the tree of life uh the king is that particular element assigned to wisdom and the female is understanding it's really the cosmic female and cosmic male principle that's involved here and it is through the use of the reproductive um energies that we do attain because practically all growth takes place through the interaction between male and female whether a person is a bachelor or a spinster it is the interaction between the polarities the opposites that brings about all growth otherwise there would be no growth and that's why it is often said that married people learn far more than anybody else not necessarily so but a good part of the time this is so and the male-female interaction it doesn't have to be married couples it could be a father daughter it could be brother sister friends of male and female platonic friends it's the interaction of the different thinking feeling responding of the principles that brings about this extra motion this growth and that's why this motion and this growth really because when you're reaping something it's because something is grown you're harvesting you see something that has grown and the hands for instance and the feet these are all in terms of the works of the activity remember that the open and hand is yote you know the hermit and remember what we said this is the sense of touch amongst other things kabbalistically and the sense of touch is really the primary sense of all our senses it's the touch of our eyes that makes us see that is vibrations hitting the retina retina and then our consciousness uh relating it and it is a touch in the ear follicles that our consciousness misinterprets as sound and so on so that the sense of touch here is another thing that makes us do the real growing and and don't forget that touch along with smell are the two elements involved most as aspects of basic response to the interaction of male female in this whole sex urge drive that God made remember we have no right to look at something as evil but God has made do it this is something we should keep in mind very very often now this motion then which is also called transformation this transformation brought about by the motion because of the imaginative intelligence and certainly as I think I pointed out it's the imagination that really has almost everything to do with the response of human beings and if you will remember that the function of imagination is also assigned to the empress who is aligned with venus and love you'll start seeing then that love must be at the heart of all expression and particularly so intimate an expression and that's why we have the white rose there are just two places in the whole tarot series you'll see the white rose that's with the fool and here and what with the white rose is what purified desire purified desire now the thing I want to point out to you and without equivocation is that purified desire does not mean becoming celibate or ascetic.

There are periods when every aspirant will need a certain time, limited time, for celibacy.

But it's limited.

And purified desire does not mean becoming a celibate and ascetic. This is the mistake that has been made it's part of the uh corrupt intuitional perception incidentally that the sex energy is so important to spiritual development with the incorrect interpretation of its application that has brought about this particular idea and that we can't go into as deeply right now in various other classes we bring up the different parts of it that seem succinct or needed at the moment therefore then let's go to key 20 the result the effect the stage of spiritual unfoldment you see now here now basically when you see these figures of gray of course one of the reasons is they have developed the wisdom they're right because gray is the color of chokmah on the tree of life the divine wisdom also assigned to the cosmic father but gray is also assigned to the equal vibration of the pairs of opposites you take any complementary two complementary colors and mix them and you get gray so here again you have an indication you bring together your polarities and you have the gray of wisdom now what does it mean bringing together the polarities here we're seeing a result we're seeing a result of a different attitude of a different uh uh response to a basic energy and idea and thought well what it basically what it means is that in changing the attitude in changing the basic response our whole vehicle becomes able to start receiving the more rapid and intense vibrations you see gabriel blowing his horn goes that's vibrations it's the vibrations of sound your whole vehicle is able to start receiving those vibrations and to start being more and more prepared for the higher uh spiritual experience because your kundalini energy through the use of your tarot and the techniques rises uh safely and gradually vibration being used you know we use you notice how we use vibrations sunday every sunday morning I've perhaps never pointed out to you that this is one of the many reasons we're using it to start uh uh getting you and that's why it's so important to participate regularly to start getting you to develop the the proper uh vibrational uh response to more than just one idea and this this receptivity and notice how here at last self-consciousness is completely adoring and receptive directly having achieved a direct recognition through subconsciousness though it has to have been only through subconsciousness can it occur of the beauty and the purity of complete unity and able to receive the vibrations of higher knowing, of fourth dimensional awareness.

And it comes about because of an ability to release this pent-up energy with purity into the various centers and into the complete awakening. And that needs what? It needs love.

And of course, then the offspring is a perfected personality, as indicated by the child, that That is, at all times, right face to face with the angel. And that's what our personalities are being prepared for, basically and completely.

Now, this vibrational element, incidentally, is really a very important aspect of the whole thing, because, well, I wish I could tell you a little story of an experience, but I think there's not time yet, so I can't tell you that one. But at least this much I do want to say in terms of the vibrational aspect. The use of the reproductive energies between male and female should never be entered into, except except God is positive.

And that means, certainly, that no one is going to be apt to go for misusing or, for instance, go in for things like promiscuity.

And you bring God in when you can love, when you can really love.

And this is the thing that helps seed your capacities, incidentally, for spiritual attainment.

Instead of hindering you it will help you and it will help you in ways you can't even begin to imagine and it helps because the vibrations of the interchange become more and more spiritualized and incidentally another thing just one last thing in terms of these three three karakis as a group and in the development.

Vibration, you know, is used to awaken the kundalini.

But the reason it's so important to first go in for these various talks that have to do with attitude and purity, that I think I mentioned, is to make sure that it doesn't just awaken and, say, get stuck in the Mars center. There you really develop a serious condition, nymphomania, which would be the least serious, and many of your adolescent... the illness called adolescent dementia, for instance, is something that people can develop if they try to directly stir the kundalini while they They have insecure attitudes towards the function of union between male and female.

You have to see it as a function of the unity of God and revere it and treat it as such. And every human being who develops that ability develops a radiating ability to think more potently, feel more potently, and radiate the thinking-feeling element like the radiations that are coming out of that the horn of that angel and to influence more potently because this is the potent energy it is the energy that gives you what the eastern philosophy calls samadhi you can see why I've hammered on itself and why it becomes so important it is the energy that transmutes you it is the energy that you think with that is the energy you feel with whatever level is expressed and it is the energy that the inner school uses to pour the higher intense vibrations from the spiritual plane because it's the energy of unity and love and unity and love is unity and love on whatever plane it exists when we do our vibrating together Sunday Sunday mornings of the divine name and when we do our Qabalistic chant, the vibrating of the holy notes in unison, what we are really doing together is stirring the vibration of of the whole cellular structure to make it more sensitive and open for developing the more purified thought and feeling and at the same time stirring that kundalini energy to get the opening opened up through this transmutational process so that it will rise gradually and bring us the fourth dimensional experience of knowing who and what we are and having a perpetual intelligence or a perpetual knowledge.

And, you know, the reason that we can gather together and have this kind of stimulus, which we do so often, incidentally, is because, I don't know if I ever explained to you, I am what you can call you could the best term I know to use is a catalyst I don't know how many are you of you are familiar with the medical terms of a catalyst you know a catalyst is a certain chemical that we have in our system that brings other things into activity that catalyzes in other words and it energizes whereas those other elements would remain dormant it energizes them into a specific activity itself not being changed by that process that is not changed in terms of becoming a part of the activity itself except to catalyze it this is what's called a catalyst and it's a very important uh part of the whole being it's through the catalyst that we uh develop our vitamins and are able to assimilate our minerals and all the delicate functions of the vehicle.

Really, we need catalysts. Well, in spiritual work, you know, it was above so below. We also have catalysts.

And I said, I don't know, I don't think I ever did explain it to you, did I? I am what is called a catalyst.

And the reason I can be a catalyst, list I mean it isn't that I haven't got far to go I have very far to go we all do I have many transmutations that still need uh transmuting uh but I I am able to take the vibrating energy of that horn from the angel gabriel and bring it through me and pour it out to you and I'm able to do it because I have even though I may have much to develop there's one thing that I have already developed and that is a complete purity tarot key six in my response to the lord of life's reproductive method I have a complete reverence for that process I have a a response that never condemns that never goes in for the lewd either laughter or sneers I mean in that area I have been able and it took me many incarnations to do it incidentally and I'd hate to tell you what was necessary uh in that area I have developed that stability of the stable intelligence of last uh of our last group so that even as a child I was shocked and never stopped being shocked every time I heard human beings make the kind of remarks and do the kind of smirking that they do in relation to something that seemed to me to be a worthy of a reverence and worship and a miracle that god has brought a way to express outwardly the reality of the sphere of the inner life the unity for ourselves with god and expressed expressed through the unity of creature with creature this is why I can be a catalyst you know because the catalyzing energy is the energy of love and unity and if and and if it weren't for that we at least this particular place couldn't be getting together to receive the amazing teachings we do receive together because I receive it with you not separately and I think that should be way enough for tonight because I was I was given a watch and I went way over but it was a subject that was that important that I had to cover it as fully as I can for your sake as well as mine