1. Kether

The title of our talk for this morning is Cosmic Unity in Occultism.

Last time I spoke, two weeks ago, I spoke about the Limitless Light or the Absolute.

Now, out of this no-thing, out of this Limitless Light, something does happen because here we are at least under the illusion if it isn't real and it could easily be real as we shall show you and is real in its own area or level out of this comes what we call a manifestation out of this limitless light or substance and this in qabalah is referred to the number one on the Qabalistic tree of life. Now, one, O-N-E, actually can be translated from its original Aramaic, Chaldean Hebrew as unity. We could say, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is unity, and that would be equally correct, in fact in some ways more correct as a translation.

And when the Qabalist says unity, this unity is meant to include anything and everything that appears to be non-unity. Anything and everything that we experience in manifoldness.

Anything and everything that appears to us as being separate.

Unity is unity. It is an altogether complete oneness. And so that number one, the crown, that white Sephirah, which means divine emanation amongst other things, is referred to when we declare this unity. And I'd like to remind you that the very beginning of the Hebrews came about because Abraham heard the voice of I Am saying unto him, There is but one God. God. Up to that time, the peoples had a God for this and a God for that and a God for something else. And each country and each nation and each culture had a different kind of a God or many kinds of gods. No one had just one God. And whenever you had a ruler ruler of a country anywhere, that ruler decided that people will bow down and worship him as a god. And then images were set up for this worship and announcements were made and pronouncements to the people saying, from now on you worship me, you add me as a god.

Now, they didn't say as the only god, but you add me as a god, but you have to worship me all the time or every day because you see right now I am God and this was the condition of the entire cultured world of that time the concept of unity had not yet been declared anywhere it was known by the few the very few but it It certainly had not been declared, and the few were very few indeed in that time and that climb, for it was the beginning of a new cycle for the evolution of humanity.

And so Abraham gathered his family, and remember family means spiritual family, just as much as it means anything else and perhaps more so, and under the directions of this particular declaration, this insight. In other words, you might say this knowledge, this experience. And incidentally, Abraham, Kabbalistically, is assigned to Ab, the father, the cosmic father, if you will, so that we have historically represented an outer manifestation in miniature of a vast cosmic reality or truth.

Just like with Jesus, we have in manifestation a specific aspect of a cosmic truth. In other words, man, the Qabalistic atom, which is generic humanity, is the begotten offspring of God. And in Jesus we have the manifestation of a specialized instance of the, at that time, perfection of this manifestation of the offspring aspect that we ourselves have, but have not yet perfected in its expressions, in its manifestations. In the same manner, that which happens without comes from an original within, as we shall see when we analyze a little more of the ideas of unity. Now then, we may ask and we may ask, how did the universe come into being?

And of course, we have to go back to theories.

You know, on the physical plane, we have those who give us theories. After studying the universe, the galaxies, the suns, the planets, the physicists, they give us the theories they have. And we have two main theories, scientifically speaking, as to how the universe came into being, the universe that appears to be what it is, to the senses and the extension of the senses, that is, the use of instruments. Instruments. So, and the use of instruments which give certain information about the universe from or through our modern scientists brings back to us various theories, and these are just theories. One school of thought amongst the scientists is that there was a time when all of the physical matter of this universe – that means all of the atoms that exist and even the nucleus of the atoms were condensed into an unthinkable mass, a complete condensation of just one unthinkably heavy kind of matter that we can't even remotely conceive of in our intellects, and that for some reason the equilibrium of this concentrated mass of material which cannot be described because they would not remotely know what that material would be like in that state of compression or condensation its equilibrium because of its compression and condensation the equilibrium was lost and so it exploded and that the expanding universe the fact that everything appears through the instruments to be going outward is the result of the explosion so the scientists call it by a very cute little name they have a term, they call it the Big Bang Theory you know, it goes bang bang or one big bang and so they claim that everything we see in galaxies suns planets is the result of that unthinkable mass of matter going bang that's the big bang theory but they do not even remotely attempt to say how did it all come together you know to begin with in one big mass how come that because anything that's going on something must have been it to begin with they don't remotely attempt to tell us anything about that.

Now, another school of scientific thought says, no, that isn't how the universe came into being. There is the steady state theory. The steady state theory, and incidentally, this has to do with all kinds of mathematical configurations. They all use mathematical configurations because it is true, no matter what theory you have, you have to use numbers. And this is what the Qabalists said way back, well over 6,000 years ago. It's nice to have modern science catching up with occultism, especially the Western occult school of thought. But the steady state theory says, no, the reason the universe is expanding is because there really never was a beginning, and there'll never be an ending. But in space, every once in a while, every so often, an atom appears out of nothing. And so it's just like a balloon that gets a little extra air puffed into it that's expanding because all through the universe or all through space an atom is appearing out of nothing and so it just keeps doing this and that's the steady state it always was this way and it's always going to be this way so again one can ask well I don't know nothing, well, what is the nothing, etc.?

Well, no one is always prepared to say. They say, we cannot deal with these things. It's a good way of just starting with trying to start a series with number five or ten or a thousand instead of starting it with number one. They say this is how it began, but no one is starting with the real number one. Only the Qabalists are willing to put themselves out on a limb. And I think that's very clever of us. So we put ourselves out on a limb and notice even though it was six thousand years ago we can go either way I think that is very clever you know when you can you can let many ten people or a thousand or million people figure that you're agreeing with every one of them uh there's something very amazing about that well the qabalistic description of how creation began actually has at all times remained in harmony with any and every scientific theory or development which in itself tells us some fantastic consciousness has been behind this and so it has and so it is because what the qabalists say is shown here by the tree but from the moment you have the development of what we call number one something in us can start to comprehend it because it is something specific is taking place and how is that specificness listen to the amazingness of the qabalistic uh explanation qabalah has said right through these ages that the cosmic mind stuff or the I am begins creation by an act of intention which means you You know, some people call it divine will, and that's a good thing to call it.

But there's an active intention of consciousness, an incomprehensible vast consciousness.

This active intention brings about a condensation or a compression of its own mind stuff about itself. Self and this active intention mind you every active intention is a compression because a compression is what a concentration and the mind concentrating always condenses its attention does it not no matter what we do you and I do this all the time remember being the offspring of the most high how else could we do it there's only one way to create whether it's vast universes words whether it's the beginnings of all things or whether it's a miserable life or whether it's a gorgeous life there's only one way to create there's a principle it's it's the way our fathers and forefathers and divine father divine parents divine mother have done it and do it now this act of intention brings together its own mind stuff and I'll ask you to just for a moment in order to understand this a little more readily when you make up your mind about something say you set yourself a goal what do you do you go in for an act of intention so everything takes starts to take place with here o israel the lord our god the lord is one we draw into the withinness of the power that is what like a wound up power a compression condensation when you wind up the the spring of a clock, you're winding up power.

But it cannot, the clock cannot perform its function without unwinding.

The unwinding is the development of the goal, but the winding of the clock is forming the intention, it's bringing the power together. So the actual unwinding isn't power. In other words the expansion of the universe is the expression of the motion of something that has been winding it up or wound it up all motion in other words everything you do or I do is the expression of previous set images the power being concentrated into image inside now you cannot have have anything winding up unless there's a goal. So the very fact that something is unwinding, for example, like a galaxy, automatically shows that it had to be wound up to begin with, just like a clock. You cannot conceive of a clock winding itself up. Something had an active intention to wind up this power. That's consciousness. All right. Well then, we, our consciousness being an aspect of the only consciousness there is here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one there is no other consciousness but the absolute consciousness we are aspects of it therefore, all things are begun by acts of intention and what we can say also then is that everything that is no matter where it be is the outwinding of the area, the goal, that we have placed within our selfhood, that we have wound up where we have put the power, because winding up is compression, putting power.

And I'd like to remind you how often, for instance, we wind ourselves up by putting power, say, in an expression of jealousy or we you know people say I'm all wound up have you noticed when a person is all wound up what are they it's interesting how consciousness even uses the right expressions uh that deal with basic principles when we're all wound up we are we have a fantastic amount of energy that is compressed in us that's seeking an outlet and of course if we don't learn how to direct this outlet it's going to explode isn't it but that very explosion is not going to be as haphazard as we think because anything wound up is wound up because it was put there and whatever unwinds out of it whether it be by explosion or by very set release of the energies under careful conscious direction the result is there because the goal was put into the wind-up but you just try walking along without having some active intention even the most aimless of people are intending to be aimless you know it is still an active intention to accomplish nothing our beloved Dr. Paul Foster Kay says in one of his lessons those who truly love God are more than willing to take on the responsibilities of self-direction in other words intention setting goals this indeed is our responsibility to that divine consciousness to take on our portion of creation so that we can put in our creative originality which is a part of the divine creative originality into the total through the personality so the beginning of the whirlings is the terminology given to number one, the crown.

And isn't that interesting?

And here people have thought that in those days everybody thought the world was flat, the universe was flat. How come then beginnings are given the beginning of the whirling? In Tarot Key number 10, the Wheel of Fortune, look at the whirlings being shown there.

Rotation. And incidentally, the name of the Hebrew letter is the beginning of Kether, that's on Tarot Key 10, is the beginning, the first letter of that, the name for that, Sephirah, showing that the brothers, the sisters, those who've gone before us, they knew. They knew exactly how things were or how things appeared, and they knew the principles because through direct experience we can know them. And the first thing that we have to know is that the powers of consciousness always wind up in acts of intention, whether these intentions are evil or whether they're good. When they're evil, it's because we are very young indeed, or there's a portion of our nature that is still unfinished. And what will we do? We will reap the whirlwind. Because an evil intention, incidentally, like, for example, injuring another, or permitting ourselves the indulgence of disliking or hating another, what does it do? It is pouring power into an image that says, hate, dislike.

And since everything is taking place inside our consciousness, consciousness, what else could possibly happen than the outflow or the development or the final experience of the goal, because that has been wound up, the energy has become a goal, whether we have consciously recognized this or not. The beginning and the ending are one, say the Qabalists, at all times and in all ways, in every shape, in every form possible. But what is the ending? The ending is the fulfillment it is the ability to experience and express that beginning intention and what is the intention? The creation of divine centers of love, tenderness unity, originality a unity within manifoldness but the beginning of the whirlings, the unity of the Most High, has to be a central theme in our lives, that the very first commandment that's given and the whole entire preamble, remember the Ten Commandments, are given after the preamble, after the announcement of the unity of God.

And then it is said, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Or we can put it another way. Kether, the one, the only, is also called I Am. Yechida, existence, I Am. Remember Moses said, Who are you? Who are you giving me these messages? I am that I am. And Jesus referred to the I am. So that existence, beingness, is I am-ness. Your I am-ness, my beloved ones, yours and mine. Therefore your I am-ness is not really different than mine. It is a unique expression of the same I am-ness that mine is. We are a unity.

We cannot injure another without injuring ourselves.

Incidentally, nor can we injure ourselves without injuring another. I'd like you to think about that too.

Some of us are perhaps careful about not hurting others we've developed enough tenderness but how careful are we not to be masochistic how careful are we not to go in for an over abundance of self-flagellation instead of putting all that energy into self-correction, self-direction how many of us let our energies unwind by just holding images of misery in relation to ourselves.

And so what are we doing to each other? We are then not bringing the love and the tenderness and the care to each other. We are not undertaking our share in the constructive way we can, should, and incidentally will, because all of us, sooner or later, will come to the point where we will place our intentions intentions our goals in harmony with the divine I am intention because it is said kether that is the one the only is in malkuth that is the kingdom the manifestation as the kingdom the manifestation is in kether in other words everything we experiences outside is still inside in a different way it is still the mind stuff it is still the creative imaging imagery and we every single one of us my loves can walk in a heaven on earth, which incidentally we must learn to do. Because we make everything that we wish, whether we wish to make it in the way we think we have made it or not.

We can bring every true desire into fulfillment and eventually will. A true desire remember conforming to the divine desire we indeed have to learn how to do this so every one of us should bear in mind that the one, the only the unity of the most high which is the beginning of the whirlings is not really any different than any beginning, any goal any intention that we set it's merely a difference in kind a difference in degree no, not a difference in kind it's the same kind it's just the difference is only in degree let's decide together beloved, beloved let's decide together that if this be true and surely our hearts know that this be true Every one of us here know.

We don't have to think or wonder. We know that that declaration, Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God, the Lord is unity.

We know this is true. Something deep within your soul knows it. If it hasn't known it previously on a conscious level, in a deeper way, through the heart, it is starting to know it. Right now because we are pervading you with this knowledge with this insight with this fantastically glorious proclamation hear O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is unity everything I see everything I do is unity is a part of unity every flower and every tree and every cloud is unity.

Every living creature upon the earth is unity.

I cannot think I am looking upon anything but that I am not looking upon I am.

Thank thee, I thank thee, Lord of the universe, that my awareness of I am experiences this unity. Just imagine the beauty I am beauty because why I gaze upon beauty before me the actual essence the complete manifestation of beauty the begotten of god the central theme on the tree I am experiencing beauty because I am beauty, and I am beauty because I'm experiencing it.

And that means you are, because your I am and my I am are the same. And if you don't love it, I do.

And what is it indicative of? God is love and you are the love of God together.

Let's intend to create and express this beauty and love all the days of our lives and beyond. Amen.