Key 17 - The Star

First of all, as you know, there it is, Tarot Key number 17, the Star.

This is what represents meditation symbolically.

As we know, the Qabalistic attributions, when we have all of them, interact together. They keep the mind in a state of association so that it will not go wandering off into that which is not part of the particular aspect of requirement in other words the idea of concentration is is automatically a part of meditation. And yet, when we see and look into these Qabalistic attributions, we'll see that even concentration isn't exactly what we think it is most of the time.

Of course, we know concentration has to do with the magician, Tarot key number one. And we see that it's the ability to hold the awareness within a field of attention.

Attention, that is, the ability to keep the mind on one particular basic idea.

But, you see, what we do not realize, and what's shown very clearly in the Qabalistic attributions, is that it's impossible to keep the mind concentrated on one thing unless something in us is interested enough.

Now, interested enough means it has to care.

In order to care, it means there has to be feeling.

And so on the Qabalistic tree of life, which you see before you, Sadi, Tarot Key 17, the star, is the channel.

It is the force that connects the desire nature, victory, to foundation. Foundation, foundation being, remember, amongst other things, the subconscious aspects of awareness, that part of consciousness that holds the patterns of the past, being the sphere of the activity of the moon.

Foundation also, please bear in mind, are the reproductive organs of what is called in Qabalah the Grand Man that's with a capital G and the capital M this is very important in order to bring all of the attributions together get an idea of meditation and perhaps together rise on the wings of the real spirit of of meditation, so that the very combination of forces in their activity on the tree give us some inkling, and subconsciousness instantly would go to work on it.

Now, when we think of foundation, I'd like you to notice that the symbolism on Key 17 is showing this figure utilizing the waters as something with which to keep balanced or as something stable as well as the ground. The knee is on the ground, but it's the foot that's really steadying the entire body in its position. And notice in Key 17, we have lots of suns. These are stars. Every star is a sun, from the main one to the other seven, which are symbolic of our seven inner holy planets, or the seven chakras, as called by our brethren. So that we see that meditation, which is the subject of our talk, you know, meditation, secret of peace, has to do very basically with the sun or stars. It has to do with foundation and or subconsciousness, as we see on the tree of life, and preceding the ability for proper meditation or for getting proper results from meditation is key 16, that is, the being freed by the lightning of God through this symbolism, as we see, which is also Mars, and that means our action.

And Mars, incidentally, is also the symbol for the reproductive energies. The reproductive energies are always a part of the meditative process as taught both by our Eastern brethren and the secret wisdom of Israel, this, the Qabalistic way of return. So that we must always bear in mind that any kind of meditating Meditating not only must, but automatically does include the reproductive energy, whether we know it or not, whether we have an awareness of it or not. If we meditate, this is the energy that we utilize.

It is the Mars energy. But I'd like to remind you that in the previous Tarot Key, number 16, the Mars energy, which is a state of consciousness that precedes the ability to truly meditate, to meditate from the deeper areas of our mind, our hearts, our souls, that the pair of opposites assigned to pay, Tarot Key 16, is called grace and sin. This is a very important thing to remember, or call it sin and grace if you wish to reverse. It doesn't matter.

Sin being ignorance, sin being misuse of our, say, reproductive energies, sin being ignorant and selfish use of any of our powers, sin being the ignorance of action that comes from a sense of isolation, because remember, this tower also is an isolation.

That is, this idea that life is separate, that one person is separate from another, that there's anything we can do to another which does not have its very inevitable repercussion whether that repercussion be something lovely or unlovely in other words grace and sin is not what people usually think it is and we have to understand it at least to to some degree, if we're going to understand meditation properly.

Because being freed from sin does not require a sort of, I accept somebody, whether you want to call that somebody, by any name under the sun. Grace is not a state of accepting something or someone as being our Savior because basically grace and sin are involved with the realization that inasmuch as all life is one, all isolation, that is all acts of selfishness, all acts of the misuse of our energies, our powers, all acts that are injurious to others, all acts that use others, any others, in the ways that are antagonistic towards union with God, love of God, humanity, humanitarianism in general, that these acts are what you might call acts of sin. And no amount of accepting anything frees us from our acts of sin, so to speak. We can only free ourselves by going through the changes that are necessary. That is, by changing our actions. The grace of God comes to those who are willing to change their thinking, their feeling, and not only willing, but who go ahead and do it.

The grace of God is not something that comes as long as we are determined to hang on to any of our attitudes any of our feelings any of our actions which are still part of the old that is of the old patterns of the foundation remember the connection between the star foundation and victory the desire and foundation now cabalistically Saudi is assigned to the object fishhook and this is very important fishhook now you say well what can be inspiring about fishhook now what can be peaceful about fishhook what's the matter with these cabalists I mean what nonsense they expect me to think about Well, I'll show you what nonsense we expect you to think about.

What Hebrew letter is assigned to the fish?

Tarot key number 13, death.

Now, noon is assigned to the fish. Noon, so that meditation, you cannot think of meditation without understanding the principles of key 13, and indeed putting them into action. Because noon, remember, assigned to key 13 and death is not just what it looks like. First of all, it's assigned to Scorpio. Now, what does Scorpio rule in physiology? The reproductive energies. The reproductive energies. We keep getting thrown back to that basic idea. Always, in all of occult training, we have to come to see this basic principle principle that all reproductive energy, as a matter of fact, is the expression of the creativity of the Most High in its various ways and areas. So that we have here one attribution we have to think about very carefully. The intelligence given to known is called the imaginative intelligence. This means the use of the mind. What does the mind image what kind of creativity goes on in the imaging part of the mind which is the way creation takes place through consciousness mind image-making powers the image-making powers of Tiphareth the metabolistic tree of life called beauty, you know, of the divine atom, the begotten of God, the sphere of the sun, these, as you can see, the path of death, or key 13, connects between desire, which is victory, and beauty.

So that we have to recognize the fact that fish, which is the object assigned to noon, involves more than one thought here. It involves all of the actions taking place in Key 13 on all of the levels. Now, death basically, remember, means change. This whole Tarot key and its symbolism are assigned to transformation, to change.

Fish, then, has to do with a very deep esoteric recognition of the fact after all. Where can a fish live? There's only one place a fish can survive, and that's in the waters.

In the waters. And remember, the waters of consciousness.

All things begin from the waters of consciousness. From the time we started the whole series, we've been pointing this out. Wherever we see the waters of consciousness, Here in Tarot Key 17, we see the waters of consciousness in a very special function and motion. There is the pool.

There's also the utilization of the vases.

There are the five senses. You notice how the figure here is pouring water from the pool onto the ground.

Five streams, but it all returns to the pool.

And in the pool, you see the whirls taking place of one vas lifting it up, returning it. In other words, showing in more ways than one that your body, your five senses, all things are part of that pool. If they came from it, they must return to it, and they're therefore never even separated from it. The separation itself is a delusion. It's in our minds.

It isn't real.

Now, in death, then, fish, remember, a fish lives in the waters. It's the only place it can live.

Whichever way we turn, Kabbalistically associating the ideas, we are always being returned to the idea that in order to be able to have the true peace and capacity for real meditation, we have to work at purifying our desire nature. Notice victory and desire, purifying our desire nature. And incidentally, I'd like to point out that Uranus that has the white rose, the Tarot Key of the Fool, assigned to superconsciousness, and Saturn, key 21, which you see behind me.

The other planet that is assigned to Aquarius, because key 17, the star, is assigned to Aquarius, that the two rulers of Aquarius are Saturn and Uranus. In other words, beginning and ending is thy holy name. The very beginning of the tarot series of the major keys and the ending. So that meditation carries within it the ability to receive all answers from the beginnings to the endings, all knowledge, but it involves the very functions that these keys represent. That's just a starter. Now, it is natural to your consciousness, and so incidentally the natural intelligence is the kind of consciousness associated, given by the Qabalistic masters to this Tarot key, to this Hebrew letter, the natural intelligence. In other words, meditation is a natural function of human consciousness, whether we know it Purified or not, are you not the imaging consciousness?

Are your desires not the victorious victory there?

Purified or not, your desires are victorious. They bring you the manifestations. That's another thing that's being told you in Key 17.

The desire manifests. There it is, you know, on the ground, that is. It manifests out from this pool of consciousness. Now, how do we bring this together in order to help ourselves and certainly in order to help us understand what meditation is and is not, and even also, therefore, to help us learn how to have the true peace, the peace that passeth understanding. You know when we latch on that's a fishhook isn't it you want to know what meditation is latching on fishhook latching on you can meditate negatively which we do I told you meditation is a natural process what we're learning to do is to recognize meditation so that we can use this process process, for that which it is meant to bring and is going to bring when we learn to use it, and that is the peace that passeth understanding.

Now then, Tarot key number five, the Hierophant, which is assigned to Vav. Remember I spoke about the Hebrew letter Vav as part of this picture. That is called, amongst other things, the revealer of the mysteries.

And this particular Tarot key also has very great importance with meditation then, because meditation is involved in Key 17 with the other Qabalistic words. These are given in Hebrew in the original text, revelation. Revelation.

Revelation is one of the main ones. And realization.

When we have deep, profound realizations, we're really having the results of a meditation, whether we recognize it or not. When we have what we call revelation, it's an even larger realization. It's still the same principle. It's just how much ground has it covered. It now meditation basically is something you you're being trained in from the very beginning of your bota studies as you know from the very beginning you're being trained in it but always you're having it pointed out to you that you have that the changes you have to change certain thinkings you have to change certain feeling you have to change certain doing in other words again Again, there's willingness to die to the old self. Also, there's willingness to know the truth, to have the truth. So the Hebrew letter Vav, I wanted to remind you, is also called the nail or hook.

So we have three things involved, and more than three, but three basically in the very word fish hook. The fish his ability to die to change to give up basically purify and purify our desires that's the fish now the hook love is the ability to kneel that's desire nature the red roses and knowledge lilies the ability the willingness to kneel to give up what we thought we knew to give up again Again, the old desires to kneel before the revealer of the mysteries or the higher self. And yet that inner voice that speaks isn't a voice that you hear.

Nor is it a psychic experience. The true answer to meditation is not psychic.

Realization and revelation are not psychic.

And this is another thing we have to come to know. We cannot and should not be expecting a voice to say, suddenly sound inside of us saying, oh my child, wonderful one, you have passed, you are now going to become my channel to save all livingness or life or this, you know. No, nothing like that.

Nothing whatsoever. The real humility, the real willingness to change has silent realizations that go beyond.

But meditation, secret of peace, my darlings, all you have to do is to stop meditating on your conflicts.

And you stop meditating on your conflicts by facing them, them, by being willing to recognize what's behind them, in other words, by working at purification of the desire nature, that's a very important aspect of it, and therefore there's a basic, even though you may not be full of joy or glory yet, that basic peace, at least that readiness for peace has to be there and you have to care enough for whatever the thing is that you're fishing for or meditating on if it means a lot to you you will get your answer since then I've gotten every answer on everything that means enough to me now there have been times I haven't gotten it right away and when I haven't I have been very careful not to beat my chest because there are times when we're simply not ready to receive an answer immediately or there are times our desire for it has not become a white shining star just taking us over enough in other words when it we don't care enough it has to build the truth is the Lord of the universe means us to learn how to meditate consciously the Lord of the universe your higher soul means you intends for you to learn how to walk in serenity the Lord of the universe is preparing you preparing you and so instead of permitting yourself to hold sorrow you've got to hold joy joy. What is it that I discovered about perfection? I discovered I was perfection that had nothing to do with the physical plane at all. That my perfection of body was the spiritual body as is all. My perfection of body was my ability to keep my subtle vehicles responding to the the star, and that the physical vehicle is an end result of many things, and whatever it is or isn't, finally, the treasures you take with you are something that are so non-physical that the important thing to always remember is never to base, never to base our values on what we think we see manifested on the physical plane.

I discovered that true perfection, true perfection has to do with the capacity to love and to be loved and to see perfection in the beloved.

In other words, perfection is something we hold in our hearts.

It is something we hold in our soul. It isn't something that is out there according to man's point of view.

And so, peace, it comes. We live in it. The stars present it to us as a gift every moment. The sun glows with peace through every day of our lives. Wherever we go, the breeze embraces us with this peace, this peace that passeth understanding, when we finally learn to meditate every moment of our lives, have a part of our consciousness angling, all the time angling, searching and angling for ways to discover God is here, God is there God's manifestation is there it is in that voice it is in the fingers of that organ it is in the genius the director of social activities that gives us such glory this is what we angle for to see God wherever we're looking it is in that tree it is in this pet that is so naughty it is in that pet that is not so naughty at the moment and it is in this color it is there and it is it we have to meditate to receive it and this is truth this is not kidding yourself because you experience the realization it reveals and reveals itself and this is what you have in store for you I only hope and pray that I've been able to pervade you with an inkling a little bit of a realization that cosmic love is that right here now the divine soul is right here now sharing its own unity and love which is yours because you are the child of divine meditation and can never be anything else Thank you.