Key 18 - The Moon

The name of our talk for this morning has to do with evolution, natural and supernatural, but that really on the inner planes you might say is the story of Jerusalem, which I shall I'll point out to you, and which in Tarot Key number 18, the Moon, is being shown rather specifically, but with only one portion recognizable to the uninitiated, because you notice the towers. These actually are symbolizing the evolution or the evolutionary level which we call man and remember man is Adam it's the same Adam attained how by first attaining to humanity because that's where you see the walls and the gate, these symbolize the attainment of humanity up to a specific point.

And then to go beyond that point, we have to go beyond the atom made out of the dust, that is, the atom that comes from the ground and is not of the upper spheres as yet. The very name of the city, Jerusalem, incidentally if we said yeah Shalom you get it that is its actual or more accurate pronunciation and it means literally city of peace city of completion city of perfection city of wholeness It is that spot, you might say, physically speaking, it is that psychic, spiritual spot on the earth which symbolizes the attainment for all who become the true spiritual Israel. In other words, all of us, as we attain and work at attaining to that level which is beyond natural man, and this is what we do here, this, remember, is the very training, the secret wisdom of Israel, that all the prophets of the Bible partook of. Is certainly and definitely including the greatest of these the rabbi jesus of nazareth and so this this city of peace the name that symbolizes completion of evolution also has been called the city of david you know and david means beloved because Because corporeal intelligence, cabalistically assigned to this letter, to the numbers, and then also we'll explain it through the symbols of the key.

Corporeal intelligence cabalistically is also giving a message the message being that all awareness of ourselves in and through a body because corporeal means experiencing via the five senses via the kind of consciousness we have which is via this type of vehicle a human vehicle experiencing via these senses that aspect of awareness which actually has to do with the way the Lord of the Universe experiences his-her with a capital self-knowledge of form or to put it in one or two other ways when when we are experiencing ourselves then say as a friend we are doing it via this form in relation to another form that is of like kind that is a the human form, and it is therefore in and through the human form that we experience that something we call friendship.

When we experience love, we are experiencing it in the only way that the human consciousness consciousness can experience it, that is, via the conditioning of the awareness in relation to its form. So that whether we talk about a tree, a rock, you see evolution here starting off actually with the idea of from out of the waters of consciousness, this pool of consciousness, comes the evolution of life in and through the series of forms.

And this is what you would call an organization of self-unfoldment.

The self-unfoldment with a capital S, if you please, the divine self, the one self that we chant, around a haya when we attune ourselves to that portion of our being. But we have these different grades or levels which we think of as evolution, which we experience as evolution, which we analyze as evolution.

So that when we think of it in this manner, we have the tendency to make the mistake that every kind of life experiencing itself via that specific form is some different life you see and this is where we make our greatest mistake because there can't be a different life there's only one life and that's the livingness of God the livingness of the divine and any place any time we see anything anything whatsoever whether it's a grain of dust whether it's a blade of grass whether it be a rock or the grass which is the vegetable matter or the creature in the waters or coming out of the waters anything and everything just by the fact fact that we become aware of any kind or type of form. This in itself, Kabbalistically, is indicating that we are experiencing a very specialized aspect of God. I am the Lord, O Israel. There is none else. Now there is none else, not only none else is the Lord, everything is a specialized expression and the expression that specialized is done via the form so that obviously we know that the kind of body we have gives us the kind of consciousness we have a mouse cannot have the consciousness of a cat nor can the cat have a consciousness of the dog because a mouse has a mouse body and the cat has a cat body and the dog has a dog body you cannot play the organ with a violin that's simple so when we think of evolution we should bear in mind always that the very presence of form is really a message, always a message that is saying, Hear, O Israel, I am the Lord, there is none else. I present myself to thee in a thousand million infinite numbers of ways take heed as it says in the book of tokens that thou despise not thy Lord in human form but I say take heed thou Thou despise not thy Lord in any kind of form, human or stone or creature or sky or star.

And even as mentioned in the Book of Tokens, again, in one part, the self-declaration of the Lord of the Universe is, is I am not less that which is left at the temple gates, the shoes that aren't so very clean, you know, than I am the holy sacred vessel on the altar.

Wherever there is anything, there the presence of the Lord abides. But our experience of it and the self-experience of any of these aspects of life are conditioned via the form and the form is the way this particular eyes aspect of consciousness is able to have the experience the knowledge or what appears to us like evolution via the forms that go up a ladder so to speak now of course that's because remember we are conditioned by our vehicle and therefore by our senses to see all evolution in terms of a slow painful process in other words something if we examine various things geologically we say well some so many millions of years ago there was this form and that form and the other form in the world and then painfully it evolved from this form to the next through all of this time but you see the actual consciousness or or awareness of those levels that go beyond the gates, goes beyond our immediate concept of time and space also.

In other words, what to man's consciousness, to natural man's consciousness, appears like an extraordinary, long, painful process to the consciousness of that which has risen above time or beyond time.

Beginning and ending are one.

Ending and beginning are one.

The goal is as real already, even before it is experienced by our consciousness. This is the point. But experiencing it via our consciousness is the attainment of the levels that go into the conscious creativity which each and every one of us are working for. In other words, to become conscious creators with the one life. And we do this to the degree that we learn how to understand what is a body what is the corporeal intelligence what is this fantastic consciousness that beats your heart what is this extraordinary awareness and knowledge that flows through your veins what is this amazing miracle miracle? What is it that hears and tastes, that touches? What is it that walks? Oh, that walks. What is this extraordinary thing? Well, that is what we are being taught to find out, isn't it and that is what takes us beyond our present concept of time and yet this concept of time that we have when we start going beyond it becomes even more treasured more precious because it becomes one of those of ephemeral, delicate things, the gift of time out of timelessness.

The experiencing, moment by moment, out of momentlessness, out of no time, out of no space.

This is the extraordinary miracle. This is the mystery, which is the gift of the grace of God, whether we know it consciously yet or not. So that our attitude towards bodies, all bodies as well as our body, is one of the great secrets taught in the Western mystery schools of training.

Rather than look down at the body, which alas and alas is done by so many schools of thought that call themselves religious or mystical, rather than look down on the body, the children of true spiritual Israel say, say, take heed that thou doth not despise thy Lord in human form, thy form or any other human form.

To look down upon the body is a desecration to the divine and sacred God, the God of Israel, which means the God of all true spiritual aspirants working to attain to make this your body a city of peace now organization is the other Qabalistic attribution then given to this letter organization we could not there could be no physical vehicle of any kind unless it were organized therefore corporeal intelligence is assigned to organization organization and if you want to look down at organizations that you're a prerogative but when you haven't got organization you have chaos well chaos are the kings of edom before they ruled the king and israel and the king and israel is beauty different attaining to our sonship, our awareness of our spiritual body, which means we follow the laws of God.

And the laws are what? Organization. You have no organization without rules, regulation, laws. Your body has a group of rules and regulations, laws. Who laid them down? Who else but God?

What else is there to make law so we have certain laws and we have the laws of the corporeal intelligence for the proper functioning of these mysteries these miracles we call our body and these laws have to do with giving taking proper care of this miracle is mystery this grace of of god that gives us the privilege of awareness and consciousness via this organization where we don't have to consciously worry our heads about beating the heart and breathing the lungs the fantastic divine intelligence which is god's self-knowledge of form in us is doing it all the the time furthermore it does it when we sleep as well as when we're awake and that's why sleep is the next qabalistic attribution to this hebrew letter this tarot key and the full symbolism because if we had to worry about keeping these functions going how could we sleep in fact even and waking can you imagine what would happen if you have to keep thinking now it's time to breathe in now it's time to breathe out now it's time to go beat and plunk and ping and etc all of those fantastic infinite numbers of movements and activities and interactions and interrelationships taking place in your body?

Do you realize what a miracle you've got? What an organization.

What a city.

You are a city.

A temple not built with hands. That's your body.

Do you realize what you've been doing? What kind of sin you've been committing against this city of peace?

Against this temple? Of David the beloved?

How dare you talk about your bodies the way you do?

I won't have it. I simply will not have it.

Do you see what you've been doing?

And how dare you pick on anybody else's looks?

Do you realize what you're doing, despising your Lord in human form?

And talk about ingratitude with God working and working all the time. Look, you go to sleep.

God doesn't even sleep.

God, what would happen to your heart and your blood pressure and all of that?

Just imagine, your conscious mind, which has not yet evolved to knowing fully who and what you are, goes nicely to sleep at night, uses the sign to sleep, but always God's knowledge of you, the fact you are a living soul in the consciousness of God, keeps this vehicle going. And indeed, another very important thing we must understand in relation to this key, and that is that the proper care of the vehicle has to do with more than one level in other words those who say oh I'm too spiritual to think of food are being the reverse absolutely the reverse because the laws laid down for the maintenance and organization of this city the city of God your body the such that it has to have nutrition and air no way you have have to breathe air and you have to drink water and you have to have nutrition and this is the upkeep that is required for this your city and you have to do it always the middle way you know in other words it's a straight and narrow path that leads to the mountaintop the heights beyond the towers of natural man that means you have to be balanced uh this tarot key is assigned to the zodiacal sign of Pisces, you know.

And Pisces is a natural, fervent mystic. But on the negative side, it can be a very unbalanced kind of a mystic. I mean, there can be such fervor that it goes overboard into what we can call bigotry.

Instead of the spiritual side of the compassion and understanding it can go over into bigotry so we have people who think well to be spiritual you have to be very careful to eat only this this and this and they take such care that they become what Dr. Case called slaves to their belly just slaves just think you concentrate it down you become slaves to the belly Now that's not freedom, and that's certainly not walking the path of return that we see marked out so clearly.

So some people, they become tremendously terrified to touch this or eat that or do the other, and instead of a good balanced diet or learning how to utilize a well-balanced diet, they go into the other extreme, or they feel it is very spiritual to forget to eat.

So what we have to do is certainly realize that this glorious vehicle needs its proper nourishment it needs its proper amount of fluids it needs its proper amount of air it needs its proper amount of rest you notice the undulation of the hills in other words like there's a time to wake and a time to sleep there's a time to eat and a time to let the eating assimilate spiritually Spiritually speaking, even in our intense aspiration, we will find there's a time when our aspiration takes on a charge of intensity, and then there's a time when it seems to let go. But when we have learned these principles, we're able to keep walking on that path. We just know we're just walking downhill a little ways in order to go back up to the next higher height. In other words, it is the cycles. And that's why, again, the moon is attributed here, because the moon has always been assigned to periodicity, you know, cycles, waxing and waning.

And so all things with eating and digesting or waking and sleeping, the keeping of the vehicle in proper shape has to do with learning also how to go with the rhythms. And each person has very different kinds of rhythms. We learn by just studying it. But of course, when we think we are only a body, you know, and Qabalah calls that the goof, malkuth on the tree of life, this is where I remind you the word goofy comes from. Because anybody who thinks they're only a body are obviously goofy, seeing that this is God, God's self knowledge of form in the vehicle that makes for that extraordinary miracle or mystery, the body. So going into these extremes, this is one of the dangers that so many spiritual aspirants have to watch for.

Furthermore, as you become a city of peace, this city of peace means being at peace first, naturally, with your mind, with your heart. You have to make yourself at peace with your conscience. That has to do with what you're doing, what you do. You're naturally your full ethical code is involved here but think how extraordinary it is that this vehicle this body that you have is able to see or appear to see very things colors forms to hear but you know it isn't the body that sees, here's the point, nor is it the body that hears. There is a center in back of your brain, and incidentally it's a rather interesting thing that the ancient way, one of the ancient ways of writing this Hebrew letter was in the form of a knot, and so a knot, you know, where you tie a knot, is one of the Qabalistic attributions to through this letter in keys. And you see in back of your brain there is what you might just as well call a knot. There are a group of nerves, quite an extraordinary number of nerves, a whole little grouping like a knot within the medulla obbligata or something something like that, I think science calls it. And within this particular knot in the back of the brain, which is fascinating because Qabalah calls, along with other things, gives back of the brain as the attribution, this letter and key. Now, back of the brain then, we have these various processes within the area of the knot, these glands and activities activities where that actually direct the full functioning on the physical plane of the vehicle and this functioning along with the various unconscious aspects or with that with that which isn't we are not conscious of with our conscious mind the way we see in other words you don't see with your eyes your eyes register certain vibrations and you literally see with the back of your head you surely know this our present science has certainly proven this out it's with the back of our brain that we see because it's that center or that knot in the back of the brain and that registers the image and the image that it registers has to do with the way you've taught Taught yourself to look.

When we present ourselves to others with the beauty of God, the feeling, well, God is loving me and living me, others are going to see us as beautiful. Do you know that? So remember, my darlings, use this tarot key from now on to realize that your ability and capacity to experience union with all humanity, your ability and capacity to walk in a true compassion your ability and capacity to truly serve to the beauty and compassion and glory of this twelfth house and sign of the zodiac which is assigned to the feet your capacity then to use your feet to travel up towards the mountain comes with your capacity to recognize beauty and loveliness and and mystery and miracle, and to be searching for it, and to be expressing it. And now we're all going to have so much more fun looking at each other, aren't we?

Perhaps that's enough of my message for this morning.