Our basic theme is the magic of creation, the magic of the creative life. We are beginning to review something of the basic principles by which God's creative work is carried forward, so that we may understand more clearly how we can share in that creative activity. We began yesterday to note something of the working of the four forces—water, air, earth and fire. These words, or names, are of course symbolical of something. They are names of something with which we are familiar. Water we drink every day—or at least most of us; we all should. And we all breathe air or we could not be sitting up here. And the earth is important—the earth of our own bodies, and the earth from which the vegetation grows, the earth upon which we live. And then the fire—the creative fire, or the flaming fire of God's love, symbolized by the fire of the sun, or of the suns which we see.
It is very intriguing, interesting and instructive to note the meaningfulness of these four terms in the symbolical sense. The nature of truth is revealed by the nature of water, the symbol of truth. It evaporates and it is gone. We have a lovely rain and then, if it is too long before the next rain comes, the earth becomes dry, the vegetation parched and wilted, and we lose the effectiveness of our crops. That is why we have the sprinkler system running. We had a little rain recently but it only moistened the top surface of the soil. If that water is going to be truly effective it has to penetrate deeply. And this is true with respect to truth and you. If the water of truth gets on the surface only and doesn't penetrate deeply into mind and heart, we do not have that which will withstand the fire. The fire is important; without the fire we would freeze and life would be impossible. But with the right balance of fire and water we begin to have the conditions essential to life. Just as water becomes stagnant when it is confined, so does truth. As water evaporates, so can truth. We have to let it be a flowing fountain within us and let it penetrate deeply and have meaning to the depths of our own beings if the fire of love is not going to produce some abnormal condition within us.
And then we note the air, the symbol of the spirit. You cannot see air; you can feel it however. You cannot see the spirit but you can feel it working within you. We recognize, in relationship to spirit, that there are many evil spirits, in old-time terminology sometimes called devils or demons. But these evil spirits are not entities, just as the devil is not an entity, not a creature with horns and a forked tail, carrying a pitchfork, determined to send you to hell if possible. Man has created his own devil. There is the devil of the mass consciousness of man, the devil of the individual's own self-active mind, which when it becomes the instrument of God's spirit is no longer a devil but becomes the guardian angel which guards the way into the subconscious mind, so that only those things which are true and real, beautiful, creative, can enter into the subconscious realm of our beings. The air of the spirit. Sometimes the wind comes, the air is in motion, and it becomes destructive. If the human being distorts the pattern of the working of the spirit within himself it becomes destructive. There is no such thing as an evil spirit of and by itself, as a segregated state. In order to have an evil spirit human beings must take the spirit of God and give it an evil form, distort it, spoil it. But all spirit is of God, without any exception. If man uses the spirit of life, for instance in his own body, to take the spirit of love for instance, and cause it to work through himself in a distorted fashion under the control of his self-centered mind, he can turn it into something ugly, something destructive. The spirit of hate is a distortion of the spirit of love. Then there is the spirit of envy, the spirit of greed, the spirit of jealousy. The spirit of jealousy is one of the most devastating spirits, and in some ways the spirits of hate and jealousy are, almost without exception—I think I could say without exception—present when the cells in the body go wild in the production of what we call cancer. These evil spirits, which human beings themselves produce, are very destructive of the individual who produces them. Sometimes a person feels justified in hating another, and he destroys himself. Hate, fear, envy, jealousy, all disrupt the normal function of the endocrine system, begin to produce adverse situations within the individual, spoil the potentiality of his own life. Jealousy is the cancer of the heart, or the emotional realm. It is just as much cancer in the emotional realm as what we call cancer in relationship to the physical, and if allowed to develop without being restrained or cleared out it will eventually strangle the individual's life and destroy the person who indulges in it. Jealousy is one of the most devastating of all the evil spirits, one of the most horrible. It causes the individual to do such unreasonable things, when he becomes subject to this evil spirit. So there are many evil spirits which man has made, not in the sense that he can make spirits, but he has taken spirit from God and forced it into an evil pattern of his own making, distorting, spoiling, destroying. Now we are considering the magic of creative activity, the magic of sharing in God's creative work. If we would be creative we must of necessity eliminate from the patterns of our function those things which are destructive. Any destructive spirit has no part or place in the equipment of the individual who would truly share God's creative work. And so we see how beautifully air symbolizes, by representation, the reality of spirit.
And then the earth is a little more easy to see—the symbolism here. You know something of the physical substance of your own body, and you more or less naturally correlate all physical substance with the basic substance of the earth itself.
And then the fire. We all know that love is a fire. The nature of the fire that burns in the sun, for instance, is something that has been of great interest to human beings. Generally speaking, the concept is that it is a nuclear fission process, atomic explosion or atomic burning. I do not want to argue the point this morning, but from the standpoint of God's creative processes we do not need to worry about the sun going out, even a few million years from now. But we do find that planetary systems become suns. Now that is the reverse of what human beings imagine. They think that planetary systems are produced by reason of the explosion of suns and the going out of the fire. We are inclined to believe just the opposite. I do not bring that in particularly to emphasize the point of the popular concept but to emphasize the reality of fire. How beautifully love is symbolized by a fire. If the fire of love burns in your heart it is something that is constant; it isn't just a flickering thing that is turned on and off. One may have a fluctuating pattern of human affection. One can feel affectionate toward some individual one moment and hateful the next. But that is not love, and we must not confuse the mere affections with love itself. The manifestation of the affections as they appear through human beings is a limitation, or a distortion, in the field of love—perhaps sometimes touching into love, but it is what human beings attempt to produce as a substitute for love. And substitutes for love are of no more value than would be a substitute for fire. You need fire to help prepare food, keep you warm. That fire must manifest in some form—the generation of heat. We may have an electric range for our cooking, but it is still the principle of fire. So, here in these four words with which everyone is familiar, we begin to see the real significance—the significance that is contained in what we might properly classify as the allegorical story of creation. When I call it allegorical I do not mean to say that the processes of creation were not more or less as outlined. But consider the fact that the happenings of one day, in a very small city, or a comparatively small city, occupy a large newspaper—pages and pages of happenings, and not all of them get in the newspaper. One day's newspaper, giving something of world news, something of national news, and something of local news, and we have pages and pages—huge newspapers. The news story—and it is a news story—of the creation of the world, with all of its incidents, all of its outworkings, is portrayed for us here on how many small pages? One chapter, thirty-one verses, tells the story.
Now in the second chapter, we have something about the creation of man, the crowning creation; but everything—and most of this page is taken up by footnotes, which are not of any value as far as I am concerned—but here, just a few words in the middle of this page, just the top half of this page, the top third of this page, a few words here, and you have the record of the story of creation, utterly incomplete insofar as detail is concerned: a simple revelation of basic principle that was utilized in relationship to that creative process. We cannot properly call it, in any true sense, the story of creation unless we modify and say "as contained in the Book of Genesis," because it is little more than a headline, a few subdivisions, but the story isn't there. An outline of basic principle—and that's all we really need. The story of creation, no matter how interesting it might be in an historical sense, would be of very little real meaning to us. But the thing that DOES have meaning to us is here, the outline of the creative process on the basis of law and principle. That we can use today just as surely as it could be used at any time in the past. So we study this, calling it more or less an allegorical story, because the incompleteness of it tends to produce wrong concepts, wrong beliefs, in the minds of human beings. But once we begin to see it for what it is and realize that all of the books in that set of encyclopedia volumes over there would not contain, could not contain, the whole story of creation, once we realize that you could not tell the whole story—if you knew all about it and wrote thousands of books it still would not tell the whole story. So here we do not have anything like the whole story. We have a revelation of principle and that is important to us today.
We noted yesterday in our meditation that we had reached a point in the outworking cycles where we were in the first phase of the third day, or the third cycle of creation, insofar as this Class pattern is concerned. There is the necessity of gathering the waters into one place. We started out with water, the water of truth. We have considered the air of the spirit. But considerations of truth and spirit have been our primary occupation. In relationship to truth we have looked at the design factors and the control factors for the body, but the physical substance of the earth has not yet really appeared. We have these bodies with which we work, with which we identify ourselves, but they are not the true appearance, the true manifestation of that which God designed us to be. These bodies are limited. Nevertheless we must remember that the body is the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in us. There is one of the key points to be remembered always in relationship to our service to humanity, our function from the standpoint of attunements. The physical body is the temple of God, and the spirit of God dwells in us and dwells in all who live. As long as that spirit is not driven out completely the individual has life; but as soon as the spirit is driven out of the body, the body is dead and is ready to be buried. We need, then, to realize that the body is the temple of God—the temple of the living God, not the dying God. The body is the temple of the living God, and the spirit of God dwells in us. When we are working from the standpoint of attunements and ministry we are working on the basis of those two fundamental facts. The reason for attunements is that the body is the temple of the living God. Just from the standpoint of the human being as such, separate from God, what good would healing be? Very little gain, if any. Most people tend to enjoy their miseries, and a great many people deliberately bring illness upon themselves to gain attention or, having developed some illness, they hold it in order to be babied or so that they can be the center of attention or something—all kinds of ridiculous patterns. But the body is the temple of God, and the spirit of God dwelleth in you. So on that basis we make our approach to the reality of attunements. And if we are going to give an attunement we must be functioning on the basis of heavenly magic, the magic of creative processes.
That same pattern holds true with you as a Class. You are here to be members of one body, and this body needs to have a new appearance. I am not thinking of it so much as seeing to it that all the women become beautiful according to their own concepts of beauty, or that the men become handsome according to their own concepts of what it is to be handsome, but that we have a new appearance of the earth. For in the third step of the creative process, which begins to let us have a relationship with the fire, the fire of God's love, we must let the water be divided into one place and let the dry land appear—not just mud. It may be muddy at first; as it first begins to appear it is muddy. And then someone sees the muddy surface of the earth and says, "But this is not what it should be. I expected to find dry land and here it is all muddy. I don't like it." At first it is muddy; we cannot expect it to be anything else. But the dry land must appear, and that means the definite formation or manifestation, appearance, of you as a new person. We remember the creative Word that is given in the concluding portion of the Book of Magic, “Behold, I create all things new.” The pattern of degeneration is not adequate. The ill conditions that exist are not satisfactory for the new state of being. There is the necessity of creating all things new. If that creation is going to have any meaning to us it is vitally important that we begin to have a consciousness of personal relationship with the magic of creation. And following out this step, we come to the point where it is not enough just to talk about it, just to learn some new principles with respect to the water of truth, not enough just to get some new ideas about the air of the spirit. We come to the point where the waters must be gathered together unto one place so that the dry land may begin to appear. Unless you are a fish—poor fish—you cannot live in the water all the time. You need some dry land if you are going to live. You stay too long in the water and you become fish food, and then you are a fish. It is the truth! It is all right to have water; it is very important; but if you are going to live in the true sense—not just existing in a dying condition—if you are going to live, there must be the appearance of the dry land. The dry land must appear. And then, in this third cycle, something begins to appear on the dry land.
Let us note: “Let the earth”—the earth that has appeared out of the water. It must emerge, and that is the only way it will emerge for you, is out of the water. If you insist on having no truth, you won't have any real earth. “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.” That is the creative word of God's command in relationship to you. Are you going to let the waters be gathered together into one place so that the dry land can appear? How about it? This is the reason why human beings have been perishing. They were willing to let the water inside themselves be gathered together into one place; and then they had water on the brain and could not function. No good! It is the truth with respect to all of us put together that must be brought together into one place, into a place of harmony, accord, mutual understanding, correlation, cooperation.
Human beings are inclined to say, “Well I'll do this, but I won't do that. I'll go so far and then I'll quit.” All kinds of limitations, petty limitations. Did you ever see a limitation of the mind or heart that was not a petty thing? I never did. Some people keep them for pets; but they are still petty and most of them have a pretty bad odor. They stink, even if you try to keep them perfumed up. The water must be gathered together unto one place; there must be accord, harmony, coordination, so that the truth of you may function effectively with the truth of someone else. And those things that divide and separate are preventing the gathering of the waters unto one place. Whatever you do—at any time, in any moment—that hinders the gathering of the waters unto one place is preventing the appearance of the dry land; and without the dry land, you yourself cannot live. You may say, “But I am justified. So-and-so did thus and so, and I don't like it.” You don't! “So-and-so has done something to prevent the dry land appearing, so I’ll do something to prevent the dry land appearing and we'll all die together.” What a marvelous portrayal of nobility that is! Noble men and women. No. What is the opposite of nobility? It is pettiness! And it is pettiness that maintains these separations. I don't care how justified you may think they are. Just because someone else tries to condemn everyone to a state of fish food is no reason you should. Let us do the right thing no matter what anyone else does. Let us begin to realize that we are not creatures designed to be denizens of the deep. You are not supposed to be an octopus, or a shark, or even a minnow. You were not created to be a whale or a dolphin, or any of the other peculiar creatures of the ocean. You are supposed to live on dry land. You may muck around in the shallow water a little, but it still is not dry land. Let us have some dry land and live; for we cannot live until there is dry land. The grass, the green pastures, cannot appear until there is some dry land—not too dry, but it has to be dry land. It cannot be under the ocean, or there will be no green pastures for you to come to rest in. We want to walk by the still waters, but we do not need to try to imitate the fish; for if you do it too long you will become fish food.
The dry land must appear—in you, in our whole Unit, in relationship to this Class. There must be a getting together of the truth of your being with the truth of other people's beings; and if you are looking for that which is not the truth in someone else and emphasizing that which is not the truth in yourself, and trying to get the limitations together, well then you can say you have two limitations instead of one. But what good is that? It is the truth that must get together, the truth in you that must get together with the truth in your neighbor, the truth in the husband that must get together with the truth in his wife, the truth that must get together between friends, that must manifest here in a true togetherness which all who will may share—the beginning of the gathering of the waters unto one place. It is the truth that will meet, the truth that will blend, and if you try to get together on the basis of the things you are not, the things that are yet absent, the things that have not yet taken form, you will find it will not fit; it does not work. One absent spot in your makeup added to one absent spot in someone else's makeup may result in friction—a little abnormal heat, a little difficulty, a quarrel, a misunderstanding, some more pettiness—but it will not produce the things of God on earth. We must begin to let the waters be gathered together unto one place, and then the dry land can begin to appear. And when the dry land appears, so that it can be said, “It is so”—and it is said here, “and it was so”—we are beginning to be in position where we can see something else appear.
What is the next step? “And God called the dry land Earth.” And what was man made out of? Earth. Your body was made out of the earth. “And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.” It is good to have the seas in relationship to ourselves; and it is good to have the dry land, the earth. But either one without the other is not good. Some people say they like to go to the seashore. In Colorado we have everything but a seashore. It is all we lack in Colorado from the standpoint of scenery—everything else. But we can have our own sea if we will, and have our own seashore. You would be surprised how wonderful it could be if you would let the waters be gathered together unto one place so that we would have a sea; and I am not talking about just a little reservoir that runs dry every once in a while. I am talking about a sea.
“And God saw that it was good.” Now do you have any better vision than God has to say that it is not good, or that you can do better some other way? Let's not be arrogant! “And God said, Let the earth bring forth.” There is a statement for you. “Let the earth bring forth.” The earth is to bring forth something. What? If you read these verses and say, “Oh that just meant God created the grass and trees and vegetation, and so on”—your body was made out of the earth, wasn't it? Certainly. Physical substance. “Let the earth bring forth.” Now reproduction of the race has its part, I suppose, in that bringing forth, but it is supposed to be more than that. What do you bring forth in the words you speak, in the acts, the things you do, the atmosphere you produce, the attitudes, the influence upon others? What do you bring forth? Something that tends to crush them down, or something that lifts them up? “Let the earth bring forth” according to the Divine Design. Every human being is bringing forth all the time. In this perhaps we ought to remember one of the mysteries, or secrets, revealed in the Book of Magic. We remember that verse. I suppose you could all repeat it. Remember it? “Here is wisdom.” And what is wisdom? The sense of the fitness of things. Are you wise? “Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding…” Without understanding it doesn't do any good. “Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man, and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” 6-6-6. You have seen some of the most fantastic concepts about what the 6-6-6 is supposed to mean. We will not take time now to go into a dissertation on the symbolism of figures, but all through the Bible, numbers, figures, digits, are used to signify something as symbols. A number of itself has no power, no meaning; but as a name, it signifies something. All the way through the Bible we have this pattern of symbolism, over and over again, and six is the symbol signifying the processes of bringing forth, or the revelation of the womb and birth principles: bringing forth. Six is the symbol used to signify the womb principle and the birth principle, the process of gestation and manifestation, or simply bringing forth. And one of these commands is: “Let the earth bring forth.” Bring forth what?
For the moment let us consider the earth of man, the reality of man's own body. “Here is wisdom.” Wisdom—the sense of the fitness of things. “Let him that hath understanding” do something, but let those who have no understanding leave it alone, because they certainly will not come up with the right answer. “Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is 6-6-6.” We immediately recognize that this is symbolism in relationship to the processes of bringing forth something. And it is brought forth on a trinity basis—three aspects. It is the number of a man and the number of a beast. God created man in His own image, after His own likeness; male and female created He them. But man took the thing that God had created and made it into a beast. Sometimes you hear people talk about some person. The idea was out that Hitler was the beast carrying the number 6-6-6. Well, he was; but he was not alone. It applies to every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, without a single exception—everyone: 6-6-6—the vibratory pattern of bringing forth. And it is the number of a man and it is the number of the beast. If your body is used to bring forth beastly things, then it is the number of a beast as far as you are concerned. If your body is used to bring forth the noble, beautiful, lovely, creative things of divine man or woman, then it is the number of a man. Six: bringing forth. And remember, it was on the sixth day that man was created. But six—bringing forth; the vibratory name or symbol of the process of bringing forth. Remember, numbers of themselves have no power, no meaning, no influence, but they are the names of something in the symbolical pattern of the portrayal of truth as contained in the Bible. And here we have the third day. The third day God said—His third command, by the way, the third command on the third day. His first command was what? “Let the waters be gathered together unto one place.” The second one was “And let the dry land appear.” And the third one is “And let the earth bring forth,” and that applies to us. The third command on the third day: “And let the earth bring forth.” But man was not created yet. So the process of bringing forth related to the manifestation of those things which would let man be created.
God did not try to do the impossible—to create man first. He created other things and created man as the crowning creation, to be man and not a beast. But you would imagine, from the standpoint of the general pattern of function in the world, that God had really intended human beings to be beasts; the women to be cats and the men to be wolves. And when you get them mixed up, oh boy, what comes forth! No. The beast does bring forth something in all three planes of his being of body and mind and spirit. But what do you bring forth? You have to come under the classification of man or beast. You must make your own choice and let the earth bring forth something. And if you are going to share the creative process, you have to share it in the same cycle as we see it outlined here. If something is going to bring forth and appear, it must be in relationship to the earth. “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,” etc. And each thing brought forth was established on the basis of bringing forth seed after its kind. “And God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day.”
So we begin to see the vital importance of letting all things work together to perfection; not causing them, by reaction, to work together to more turmoil and misunderstanding and difficulty, but to let all things work together to perfection, as they do for those who love and serve the Lord. But for those who love and serve the devil, or some false God, all things work together toward more turmoil, more difficulty, more misunderstanding, more misery, more darkness. What shall it be? All things work together to perfection for those who love and serve the Lord. Blessed ones, what shall it be? Man, or beast? The choice is yours.
