We have been considering the basic theme of Heavenly Magic, and yesterday we shared meditation on three of the basic Functional Factors of Magic. I wonder how well you would do on an examination this morning on that subject. Perhaps we will not go into it right now. Do you all remember clearly, however, the three points? If I asked you, could you all name them, the three basic Functional Factors? Could I see hands of those of you who think you could name them? I have made a real impression on this Class!
The first one was acknowledgment. The second one was with respect to the four types of people in the world: those who are dead, those who are asleep, those who are awakening, and those who are awake. And the third was with respect to the process of function in the current of inspiration in relationship to the basic pattern: a recognition that personal interpretation of the impulse of the spirit might seem to direct an individual in one certain direction, and might in actual fact be doing so, but that the individual would be under the necessity of functioning in relationship to the basic design in order to share the building of the place to which the individual is moving; and if he or she refuses to function in relationship to the building of the place, then it is never built, so that the human being is in the position of trying to get into something which does not exist. Now if these three basic functional factors are borne in mind, much of the confusion, misunderstanding, resistance and tendencies to rebellion should be eliminated. And these three factors must be borne in mind constantly if you are going to function with any effectiveness in the field of spiritual psychiatry, or from the standpoint of Heavenly Magic.
Human beings have for so long been in the habit of trying to build a form in the outer sense, build a body, and then somehow to inject life and meaning into the body. Now this is the reverse of the divine process. The divine process is to provide the life, to provide the meaning, to provide the design, under control, and then to make it possible for the outer form to manifest around or in relationship to the already established factors of life, meaning, design and control. If you, in your own processes of living or service, remember this it will be easier for you, because it will make it possible for you to avoid the pitfalls into which human beings stumble when they attempt to build the form and then project the meaning into the form, as if you could do it with a hypodermic. It does not work.
So we are interested in the factors of life: meaning, design, control. Life appears by reason of the union of love and truth, so that means that at the very outset the creative triangle must already be established before anything else is done. And then meaning springs from relatedness. Relatedness is an aspect of cohesion. Cohesion in the vibrational, or inner sense, is one of the qualities of love, something which manifests in relationship to physical law and function in this realm, and in other realms, as gravity. In other words, the vibrational factors back of the working of the law of gravity are to be found in the cohesive or attractive qualities inherent in love. So, physically speaking, in the final analysis, it is love that permits you to sit on your chair without bumping your head on the ceiling. The centrifugal force of the earth spinning round and round would tend to throw you off into space unless it was counteracted, the surface of the earth traveling roughly a thousand miles an hour, a considerable speed. We are moving constantly, but because there is no point in the immediate sense to which we can relate that speed, we have no particular consciousness of it. Everything else is traveling with the same speed, and unless we look at the moon or the stars or the sun, we do not have any reference points by which to determine the fact that we are moving.
So there is the centrifugal force and the attractive force which we call gravity, and these stem from the working of the One Law—positive and negative aspects of being, the energies that are at work, or that were at work in relationship to the movement of the earth, which has two movements primarily—we can say three; there are three movements of the earth. I was thinking of it fundamentally in relationship to other objects in the solar system: the movement of spinning, the movement of the orbit around the sun, and the movement of what we might call the wobble on the axis. These are the three constant movements of the earth, all in action all the time.
The earth's movement in its orbit could properly be classified first; the earth spinning on its axis, second; and its wobble on the axis, which gives us our changes of seasons, is the third point. And all of these patterns of action are taking place all the time, constantly. So, we recognize the fact that even such movements as this are hardly perceived unless we stop and think about it, unless we know something of the principles involved. So if there is so little consciousness of these physical movements which are so meaningful to us, we can readily understand how man, centered in relationship to himself and physical things, has forgotten his capacity of awareness with respect to spiritual things or vibrational factors. Now, there are other fundamental functional factors in relationship to magic, but I think we will leave it at these three for the moment and go back to our text. But the points which we have examined were essential to a reasonably adequate understanding of the text.
We remember, beginning with the 12th verse of the 1st chapter of the Book of Magic: “And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks.” You are in the process of turning. You have not yet completed that process.
“And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
“And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength [that is, at noonday]. And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.
“Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter; The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.”
Here we have an outline in mystical language with respect to basic, fundamental factors of Heavenly Magic. Seven Churches. Does that mean seven groups of people and seven church buildings within a specific denomination? Or does it mean seven different denominations? Or what does it mean? Obviously it means neither of these two things which I suggested. It does not mean seven denominations and it does not mean seven churches within one denomination. The Seven Churches: the seven basic patterns of classification within the One Body of responding humanity, the whole world pattern insofar as there is response. And the Seven Spirits, or the Seven Angels, the Seven Spirits before the Throne of God, or the Seven Angels, which function in relationship to the Seven Churches. I believe that you have been studying something of the endocrine system in the human body, the endocrine glands, and the more you may study these more or less mysterious bodies the more you will realize there is to know and the more fascinating will the subject become.
I might mention that we have here in the Book of Magic a remarkable description of these seven bodies in the physical organism which are classified as the endocrine system. Perhaps we will have an opportunity to study that. In any case, the seven bodies, or the seven classifications of bodies—there are more than one in some instances in the particular groupings—but the seven classifications of bodies in your body are the Seven Churches of your body. In other words we have exactly the same pattern present in the world body of responding humanity as we have in your body as an individual human being. And these seven bodies are classified here as Seven Churches. The Seven Golden Candlesticks are the Seven Churches; and the Seven Stars are the Seven Angels, which represent the focalization factors of the Seven Spirits before the Throne of God. The Throne of God, insofar as you are concerned—a distinct, separate individual—is in relationship to your own God Being within you; that is, insofar as the physical factors are concerned.
Insofar as the consciousness factors are concerned you have to share with your own God Being the recognition of the next higher point of focalization if you are to function correctly in relationship to your own God Being, still assuming by such wording something of a separation between the two. But from the standpoint of the physical organism, the Throne of God is in your own body. From the standpoint of you as a being, the Throne of God is in the Body of which you are a part. If you try to establish the Throne of God within your own body in relationship to your consciousness as a being, you would thereby be declaring that you are not a part of the Body and Being of God. Do you see that? It is a vital point, one over which many, many people have stumbled and about which there has still tended to be considerable confusion in our own membership.
You cannot accept your pattern of relatedness to others—and that pattern of relatedness must be there if there is to be meaning and you are to share the cohesive quality that makes the Body a reality—you cannot have a pattern of true relatedness to others without sharing with your own God Being the centering of identity; for as long as you deem yourself, the outer "I", to be separate from yourself, the Inner Being, you have not begun to function according to your Divine Design, your heavenly purpose. Your purpose, insofar as the outer form with its capacities of consciousness, etc., is concerned, is to be the means of manifestation for that God Being within, so that they two shall be one, and as long as your outer consciousness is trying to accept a point of polarity within yourself, in relationship to your own God Being within, you are classifying yourself as being separate from your Inner Self and consequently you are not functioning in relationship to that for which you were designed.
The physical organism as such, must have, and accept, that point of polarity in deity within your own body. That is essential with respect to the physical organism as such, and is necessary to the reality of oneness of the physical body and the God Being. But the consciousness aspect, which calls itself “I”, must share something with the Inner Point of reality, and not be something or try to be something separate from that Inner Point of reality. So consequently, until you share and accept the reality of “I” as including both inner and outer as one thing, you cannot possibly begin to be what you ought to be, and you are not in position to share effectively in the functions of Heavenly Magic.
Therefore, as soon as you recognize this basic, fundamental functional factor—it is one—you can see that to maintain the working of the Law, immediately there must be the same acceptance in outer consciousness as there is in Inner consciousness of the next higher point of focalization, to maintain the balance of positive and negative factors. And this comes back to acknowledgment. Acknowledgment. The Inner Point of being, the focalization of deity in you, already has that acknowledgment. The problem has been to get human beings to respond to Inner reality enough to begin to share in consciousness that which is true of Inner reality, so that when you say “I” it will not in fact be something different from that which is of the Inner reality. Therefore the maintenance of the pattern of the One Law, the outworking of acknowledgment, is seen to reoccur. And so you have the acknowledgment in the outer consciousness which correlates with the acknowledgment of Inner consciousness, and you immediately thereby accept the privilege and responsibility of membership in the Body of Many Members. There is your pattern of relatedness which is essential to meaning. Otherwise meaning will always elude you.
The seven classifications of the endocrine system you have recognized as being essential to the development and function of the body, but you have noticed that certain of these tend to become atrophied and to cease external evidence of function as the human body moves toward maturity. We recognize two points of focalization in the glandular system in this regard, as primary evidences. One, the pineal gland, and the other the thymus. You have no doubt already noted that, in your studies. The thymus tends to cease giving evidence of outer function somewhere around seven years of age ordinarily, and gradually, by the time the child is what? nine, ten years of age? there is no remaining evidence. Sometimes it extends longer. And you have no doubt noted that when it does extend longer than the usual pattern, the child has a peculiar angelic appearance, generally with a very white or thin, transparent skin. Very often you can see the blood vessels with a greater ease than is ordinary, and in such a case there is, many times, other factors being equal, a more or less angelic disposition. Very often it is of this particular pattern that people have developed the saying, with respect to a child, a young person, “He or she was just too good to live.” Now of course that is not the case, but under the peculiar situation of this world, the vibratory factors impinging, generally speaking if the thymus gland continues its function longer than is ordinary the human being becomes so subject to the impulses of the surrounding vibrational fields that he or she is placed in extremes of unnatural tension, which tend to choke off the life pattern—a high sensitivity to vibrational factors.
And since man fell and forfeited his use of this functional factor through his period of maturity, he has to a high degree lost his ability to perceive the vibratory factors readily. So we have to in a sense substitute. We may note that there are certain types of paralysis, where the usual patterns of control factor do not reach the muscles and there is no control, but where it is possible to activate some uninjured brain tissue, etc., or brain cells, and gradually, by careful persistence, develop a pattern of control in a new locality or on a new basis. This is something that requires a great deal of patience and perseverance, both on the part of the individual himself and those who are working with him.
Now something of that same principle is necessary in our spiritual development in the world as it is, because under the present circumstance we do not have available to us, immediately at least, all of the natural or divinely ordained faculties. And this pattern of atrophy that appears in relationship to the thymus gland is a significant illustration of that. We have something of the same pattern in relationship to the pineal gland. And in that sphere we see how it is that human beings do not have an adequate consciousness of their relatedness to the Inner focalization of deity.
Now let us note that something of these factors—all seven of them, thymus and all—must remain in operation in the individual life or there tends to be the development of a completely animalistic pattern that is lower than the animal, and there follows annihilation. The point is, then, that although there is the process by which certain of the glandular bodies tend to atrophy, the vibrational factors remain; the focalization of spirit in relationship to the God Being is still there regardless of what takes place in the physical form through which those vibrational factors would ordinarily manifest. The Seven Focalizations of spirit are still there, and to some degree something of these particularized seven factors tends to manifest through the channel of other glandular formations; in other words, certain degrees of substitute function. If it were not for this degree of substitute function man would have been annihilated from the face of the earth long ago. But if man is to have, for instance, the right pattern of function in relationship to the thymus gland he must of necessity dwell in a realm of peace and harmony.
The full function of the thymus gland into the range of maturity would be impossible in the world as it now is. The very factors which we have in the world, the crosscurrents, the inharmonies, the fear factors, all of the ill vibrational factors impinging on the individual, begin gradually to cause this process of atrophy, and so it is a part of the outworking by which there is self-preservation. It is something that is permitted in relationship to the Divine Design so that man does not immediately destroy himself. He is given an opportunity to find his polarity, to reestablish the right vibrational pattern. So something of this vibrational factor of the thymus gland must be reawakened in you, the contact with the particular focus of the spirit of God must be allowed to begin to work in you, so that you begin to have perception, sensitivity factors which were before unknown to you.
And the same thing is true with respect to what is classified here in the Book of Magic as the Seventh Seal, the pineal gland. Here the process of atrophication is only partial. If it were absolutely complete, well the physical body would die. But it takes place to a degree which, broadly speaking, shuts out the consciousness of relatedness to God. The little child, not yet having reached the realm of logic and reason, not having reached the point of egomania, where he or she thinks that the thinking apparatus is all that is necessary, naturally has something of this divine sense of relatedness to Deity, without necessarily being in position to say it. Now many children brought up in harsh atmospheres, where they early develop the factors of being hard, lose this pattern of relatedness at a very early age, and at a very early age they begin to show the signs of age. They look hard; they begin to look old. Have you ever seen children who are under that particular pattern? And also, you will remember, this shows up with very marked emphasis in countries where there is war, famine, where there are those factors which force particularized centralization of thought and concern with respect to the physical body for self-preservation. So something of this pattern of relatedness is lost at too early an age, and then there tends to be a hardness. But this is something which can be gradually reawakened.
Now one of the problems I have in beginning to present some of these basic functional factors of magic arises, or may be clearly seen at this point, because for those who are willing to be even a little dishonest, a little evasive, there begins to appear a beautiful opportunity to have an extraordinarily wonderful excuse for being less than one could be, because here I am putting into your hands certain awareness, certain knowledge, or information, which can be twisted around by the self-active mind into an excuse: “Well my substance hasn't awakened enough yet. I'll have to wait. Meanwhile I can't be expected to be too good or to have too much awareness,” or this, that and the other thing; and if any of these factors are accepted as excuses in relationship to yourself in your own function, then you defeat yourself.
How is anything developed in relationship to the completed physical form? How is muscle tone developed? By a certain amount of exercise. How do you develop the capacity of your eyes? You use a certain amount of exercise in relationship to your eye function. In other words that which is not used tends to weaken and more or less disappear. Use involves exercise. A certain amount of exercise is essential to the adequate functional development of any part, and unless we live on a basis of constantly tending to overreach ourselves a little bit, a little bit more than we think we can comfortably do or easily do—now I am not talking about trying, and I am not talking about the development of strain; I am talking about the refusal of the individual to accept a lesser goal—unless we are reaching out to the full potential and pushing it a little all the time, we are not going to have an increase in the development of capacity. And here we have substance which must be to some degree reactivated in order to allow the full potential of the focalization of the spirits before the throne of God to have meaning in your own body, and the development of a constant, conscious awareness of relatedness to Deity.
When there is no consciousness of this particular pattern it is natural that there should be a consciousness of relatedness to other things, relatedness to external things, ill things, because they are manifest, because they are in one's environment. Here you begin to see one of the secrets of identification, because that with which you identify yourself becomes the controlling factor in your life. So, having lost the conscious awareness of relatedness to Deity, the human being was left in a position where he established a consciousness of relatedness to things, to circumstances, to ill conditions, etc.
Well now, these Seven Spirits, or seven aspects of spirit, have been given a certain amount of consideration before. I suppose that all of you could without any hesitancy name these seven aspects of spirit, could you? Let me see the hands of those of you who could name them. A few, a few. Good. And you have noted, in relationship to that, the seven opposite aspects of vibrational void; for that is what it is, isn't it?—not something real, but the vibrational void which appears when these seven aspects are not present in active manifest form. These seven aspects of spirit are the Seven Spirits before the Throne of God, and this is One Spirit; for the Seven Spirits are simply the manifestation of the aspects of One Spirit. The One Spirit we speak of as the Christ Spirit. The Christ Spirit is the focalized, or complete, or whole, manifestation of spirit, as we think of Love, Truth and Life. But these aspects of focalization extend into the various levels of being.
For instance, we can recognize the Trinity of Spirit and see the seven aspects of spirit as they are dominant or vibrationally focalized with respect to the specific levels of the trinity of spirit. Love, for instance. Now we cannot have love absolutely, completely distinguished, segregated, from truth and life. It does not work that way. But where we are considering love as the dominant aspect of the trinity, we can see the seven aspects of spirit, focalizations of spirit, in relationship to that particular level. The same is true with respect to truth, or the spirit of truth. You cannot in actual fact have the spirit of truth completely segregated from the spirit of love or the spirit of life. It may seem to limited human vision that it can be so completely segregated, but it cannot. It simply means that one is dominant, and so the aspects of focalization are seen in a different octave, shall we say, a different vibrational field, in relationship to the specific focalization of dominance. And then the same thing is true with respect to life. You certainly cannot have life without regard to love or truth; you cannot segregate the spirit of life from the other two, but you can consider the aspect of the Christ Spirit which we speak of as the life phase of the Trinity, in relationship to its dominance in manifestation or functional factors. And here again we have a specific octave, or vibrational pattern or field, in connection with the manifestation of the Seven Spirits before the Throne of God. While they are in all cases the same spirit, or the same focalizations of spirit, they have a somewhat different pattern of manifestation, depending upon which of the three phases of the trinity may be dominant at the moment.
And we have to consider these things in relationship to the trinity of man. There is a more or less vague recognition of a divine trinity. But we have seen specifically the trinity of man: the spiritual aspect, the mental aspect and the physical aspect, and interpenetrating the three we have the factor of the heart, or feeling nature, which makes possible the interrelationship and inter-function of the three. But if we are going to study the aspects of the Seven Spirits before the Throne of God from the standpoint of what we might call the spiritual level, we must of necessity consider that in relationship to the dominance of the love factor of the trinity. If we are going to consider the seven focalizations of spirit in relationship to the mental, or intellectual, levels of consciousness, the subconscious mind, etc., we must of necessity consider the particularized pattern of the seven focalizations of spirit as they appear when the spirit of truth is dominant. And again, if we are going to consider them in relationship to the physical body, as for instance in relationship to the endocrine system, we must see the vibratory pattern specifically made manifest in relationship to a focalization in the spirit of life made dominant.
Now it would be utterly impossible for anyone to reach a point of full or true comprehension of the significance of the endocrine system as it relates to his own physical body without having a recognition of these basic factors, without beginning to see that the focalization of the Seven Spirits before the Throne of God manifests under the dominance of the life current in a somewhat different way than it does under the other two points of dominance, and to see how this works in relationship to the Inner Point of focalization, that is, with the life factor dominant in relationship to you as a particularized individual. We have the pattern of the Seven Spirits before the Throne of God focalized in the endocrine system, with the life pattern dominant now, on a basis which makes the focalization of deity within you the particularized focus of the Throne of God insofar as the physical organism is concerned. But that particularized pattern never applies with respect to the dominance of the spirit of truth or the spirit of love. It does apply in the individual only under the dominance of the spirit of life, and it is with respect to that dominance that you must consider the peculiar patterns of function in the physical organism and recognize how it is that you as a being have a relatedness to the body, and what the relatedness of the body is to you once you have achieved a point of focalization in consciousness where “I” means both theInner and the outer, unless specifically indicated to be otherwise.
One of the factors which we might inject here parenthetically at this point, in order to be sure that comprehension, or the opportunity of comprehension, is clear, is this: Some people assume that the God Being as such, the inner point of being, is supposed as such to take care of every little detail of everyday life. Now, that is not the case. In other words the outer aspect of consciousness, being one with the inner aspect of consciousness, is supposed to take care of a multitude of details, the things that are worked out more or less automatically. As soon as there is a recognition in outer consciousness, so functioning, that something is getting out of pattern, something needs to be adjusted, there is an internal process by which the focalization of consciousness in inner deity is allowed to come into play to take care of that.
But the process of taking care of all the little details of life, of deliberately determining that now is the time to put on your shoes, or now is the time to take them off, or a thousand and one other things that you do in daily life, does not have any direct relationship to the focalization of inner deity within you, because the outer aspect of consciousness is supposed to be able to take care of those things without interfering with the vibrational factors of the inner. And as long as the outer aspect of consciousness, functioning in actual fact at one with the inner, takes care of these things without trying to assume control, on a basis that is harmonious to the One Law, harmonious to the divine purpose, etc., the God Being simply leaves it to what we might call the human being, without in actual fact establishing any differentiation between them.
But there is a point where, under pressure, or because of some factor getting out of hand, the movement back into the Inner Point of control takes place, and it is a direct expression from the inner to the outer. So you cannot actually divide the two at any point. But it is not, with respect to a lot of things that your outer mind is supposed to know, actually a movement of the inner point of reality out through the consciousness as a particularized expression; only a general pattern, so that the mind can function on a basis of intelligence.
Now if you expected the God Being to take care of every little detail, there would be no need of you having, in the outer sense, self-awareness, self-consciousness, would there? You are supposed to be the outer manifestation of the Inner, functioning on a basis of oneness. But suppose the central focalization of deity, which we speak of as the Lord of Love, or the LORD of Lords, were to particularly delegate to you some responsibility. You have some job to do from the standpoint of inner being and outer being. Well then, does that mean that every time you are to determine whether you should pick up a glass or set down a book, or do something else, so to speak, that you are to run to the Lord of Love and say, “Well now, Lord, what would you have me do about this matter? Really I … I want to just obey you, I want to do just what you want me to do, dear Lord. What would you have me do?” And so the great KING stops to consider all of these little matters and He tells you just what to do and how to do it, in every sphere of function. Why? It would be easier for Him to go and do it Himself and there would be no need of you. No.
When He delegates responsibility He expects you to do a job in harmony with the laws of His Kingdom, period. There may conceivably be some point at which you might need to have a consciousness particularly of established, what shall we say, vibratory interchange with that focalization of deity. But you were delegated to do a job, and if He expected to do everything, make every decision, work out every little detail, He would have gone and done it Himself. It would have been much easier. So this works in exactly the same way, just as the inner point of focalization of deity in you, functioning with the oneness, or full response, of the outer aspect of you, proceeds to do a job within the pattern of the Law, and unless something gets out of hand beyond the range of your proper responsibility, you do not refer back to center. You go and do a job. But you do it within the vibratory field, you do it within the Law, you do it within the patterns of the Kingdom. And so you, as a focalization, may have the privilege of providing centering for the factors of others. If you expect to go out and tell them how to think every thought and speak every word, and so on, it will not work. Well the same principle carries on out to you, the focalization of deity within and the outer manifestation of consciousness.
Now human beings, tending to recognize the fact that there is a God Being within, start out to try to work in the field of magic; but it is the outer phase of the mind tending to direct and to determine; it is not the outer phase of the mind working within the Laws and Principles of the Kingdom. And here we begin to have the difference between so-called white and black magic. And as soon as you, in outer consciousness, have accepted identity in and with inner consciousness, anything that is beyond the range of your true ability automatically begins to flow out from the inner point of being and will be met in the pattern of Divine Magic. But if this outer consciousness denies relatedness with the inner identity, it will try to do something which it is not equipped to do, and then there will be futility and failure.
There is a point, however, in every individual where the pattern of particularized action is more or less automatically established on the basis of the outer aspect of the one consciousness and it does not even enter into, or concern, the inner aspect of the one consciousness, so that you go ahead and do; you function without having the inner aspect of consciousness being under the necessity of particularly determining when you will put on your glasses and take off your glasses, and when you will put on your shoes, and when you will eat and when you will drink, and a thousand and one other things through the day. That is the right and normal pattern of living in the Divine State. But the easy flow, back and forth. When the pressures increase, instead of the outer aspect of consciousness breaking and becoming subject to the outer and trying to do something of itself, it just lets the pressure increase; it holds steady, it gets connected up with the Inner. The Inner comes into play and moves out through the outer, and it is all done—beautiful, wonderful, glorious, the working of Heavenly Magic.
I would like to meditate with you on operational factors of magic. The first one, and one that is of vital importance to all of you in your movement toward a sphere of service in the Master's harvest field, could be classified as the factor of acknowledgment. We begin to see that to the degree that we begin to acknowledge God, God can begin to acknowledge us. Until we do acknowledge God, God's love for us is of small meaning in direct relationship. Until we do acknowledge God we keep everything of God in a sphere of small meaning. Did you ever look through the wrong end of a telescope and instead of seeing everything magnified you saw everything brought down to such small sphere of form that it looked as if it amounted to very little? This principle of acknowledgment must extend on out until in the basic sense you have acknowledged God, so that He can begin to acknowledge you. You are not in position to begin to acknowledge the focalization factors of response which come within the sphere of your influence—you do not even see them; they are overlooked, they are ignored, and until you begin to see them you cannot very well acknowledge them. But once they are perceived, recognized, you can begin to acknowledge them within yourself; and once they are acknowledged in relationship to those whom you may influence, and you hold the pattern steady without violating the hedge, you begin to find that there are those who will begin to acknowledge you.
We may properly at this point pause to consider something with respect to the Class which preceded you. I brought up some of these factors in a different setting, without particular reference to magic, pointing out that here I am the server and you are my servees. And in this previous Class there were some who acknowledged my position in that manner without any hesitancy. Others held a resistance pattern; they were not going to be caught responding overmuch. And others maintained something of a resentment and rebellious pattern. Of course with these basic factors we could never get the vibrational field cleared the way it should have been, could have been, and so the initial vibratory factors with respect to these Class members going out into the field could never be properly established. I pointed out that what they did here was establishing the vibrational factors which they would have to contend with out there, and that their attitude toward me was sowing the seed for the attitude of others toward themselves, and some did not believe me. They thought they could maintain any attitude toward me they wanted to and still go out there and inspire other people to acknowledge them and respond to them and accept what they offered. And lo and behold, time has passed and the story is told, and the evidence indicates that I was right. There were those who thought they could inspire others to respond to themselves when they refused to be inspired and extend any response to me. But it didn't work!
Now of course that outline is in a lower vibrational level or pattern than what we are considering in the field of magic, because that Class never let me move into this field. However, the principles apply and we can see it on a higher level in a larger sphere, and when we begin to consider the basic, functional factors of magic, we must have a starting point, and from that which we have studied before, that which is evident from the structure of the universe and the manifestation of life all around us, we know that that starting point must be always with the One Law, with orientation to the One Law; not merely as a theory, or the center of a picture, but the center of a field where there is action—functional factors. So you can see, with a little meditation, why I put acknowledgment first, because it is the manifestation in action, in function, of the One Law in relationship to yourself.
The first part of the Two Great Commandments, as the Master outlined it, emphasizes acknowledgment of God—not a partial acknowledgment; a complete acknowledgment, with one's whole being, one's whole soul, body, mind and heart, and with all one's strength, a complete acknowledgment of God. Remember, this is a functional factor of magic. So we see in acknowledgment something that is active, not passive. We cannot acknowledge something merely by perceiving it. You may see the beauty of a flower, but if you acknowledge it you have to say it. Your actions and your words must give evidence of your perception. You may see many things without acknowledging them. But if there is acknowledgment of that which you see, then there are words, there are feelings, there are thoughts, there are actions. So we see acknowledgment as a functional factor.
The acknowledgment of God permits this functional factor to begin to work in relationship to yourself, so that you begin to receive acknowledgment, you begin to be aware of that divine acknowledgment of you. As long as you are not aware on a functional basis of the divine acknowledgment of yourself you cannot very well function from the divine standpoint; the pattern of relatedness has not been established. So on a functional basis you begin to be aware, not fully yet, not completely, but you begin to be aware of the divine acknowledgment of you. With this cycle opening, you begin to have the ability to perceive the focalization factors of response, or potential response as the case may be, in those around you upon whom you may begin to exert influence. Unless you do exert influence that is received and acknowledged you are not going to be much of a server.
The process of serving is a process of exerting influence on a basis which causes others to accept that influence. If you attempt to exert influence only to have it rejected, you may be trying to serve but you are not actually serving. The influence exerted must be received and accepted and allowed to have meaning in the lives of others. At first you may not be particularly aware of any extensive meaningfulness through influence upon others, but you do not go through a process of thumb-twiddling and drifting and daydreaming, and then suddenly wake up someday as a powerful figure of influence in the world. It doesn't work that way. It has to be built; the patterns, the cycles, have to be built; and there will be those who refuse to receive the influence and others will begin to receive it. Some will reject, some will accept.
This field of influence should not be immediately, generally speaking, given form in the sense of words spoken; that is, not obviously so at least. I am not suggesting something deceptive. I am suggesting the influence of a life that does not immediately plunge into an avalanche of words to try to tell someone everything you know. One is not in any sense denying one's own relationship to the Third Sacred School if one simply lives and allows one's expression to be in harmony with the patterns of response to the occasion. And then there is a recognition that our primary means of influence is not through the words we speak. Most people imagine that if they are not speaking words or doing something that can be seen with the physical eye of the person around, they are not doing anything. One of the biggest problems I have here is to convince even those who have been here for some time that they do not have to do something where it can be seen, and they do not have to say words that have to be heard, in order to be doing something.
What was it the Master said about doing something to be seen of men? The alms, the good deeds, do they have to be seen of men? No. We can work in the Secret Place. In other words we have the privilege of functioning from the standpoint of Heavenly Magic, and that is our primary field of influence. Once that current is working, once that influence is being exerted, and someone is responding to it—whether he or she knows what it is or not is beside the point—if there is anything real in the individual there will begin to be questions, there will begin to be inquiry, there will be evidences of response, and then when those evidences are there, after they are plainly manifest, you can say a little something. You are not going out with your lips to try to sell a bill of goods.
We are salesmen, salesladies; it is our business to sell the things of God, the Kingdom of God on earth, the realm of Divine Design and Control, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually; because there is no other basis of healing, no other basis of correcting ill things in the world. But how do we sell it? By much talking? No. There may be times when much talking is required. I do some talking here in the classes and so on; but it is in order, it is in the pattern, because there is a responsive pattern, recognition, meditation and acceptance. But if there was a vast field of resistance, do you think I would be talking about such subjects as I have considered with you? Not at all. So you have found that my presentation depends upon your response. I do not arbitrarily make a presentation, hoping you will respond. If there is no response there is no presentation, period. And I let it go at that, as far as the outer sphere is concerned.
There is a constant radiation through the hedge, as constant as the hedge structure will permit, but that is something which the human being must constantly accept or reject within himself. If there is a resistance pattern, he has to be constantly fighting lest it get in; if he stops resisting, it starts getting in and working inside. And so it is the life we live that really counts. It is in the living of life that we begin to do that which must be done, and unless that living of life begins to carry a current of influence, we will never get very far. Just going out and preaching, or teaching, or trying to sell an idea through the use of words, will not get the job done. We must function from the standpoint of Heavenly Magic, meeting the issues, pressing back the ill conditions and opening the door so that those who begin to respond can have an opportunity of movement in the right direction. So first we have acknowledgment, the fulfilment of the Law; and if you hesitate to acknowledge you are setting a pattern by which others will hesitate to acknowledge. Your attitude toward me is sowing the seed in the hearts of others which shall blossom into their attitudes toward you. Acknowledgment.
Next is the factor of consideration with respect to the conditions with which we are working. What are these conditions? There are four, only four, four types or conditions of people in the world, without respect to race, color or creed. There are four types of people in the world, and only four. Once we begin to recognize this factor with respect to function in the realm of Heavenly Magic—we already have our orientation, we already have our polarity through acknowledgment—we have to look around us to see the field in which we are to function in letting the things of God be extended into the earth. Therefore we need to see clearly that with which we must work.
These four classifications are: Those who are dead—as the Master put it, “Let the dead bury their dead.” They are completely dead to the influence of the spirit, impervious to the currents of the spirit of God. Those who are dead. Those who are asleep—asleep in Christ; that is, they have no awareness of the things of God but in their sleep they have a vibrational attunement with divine things. Those who are dead, those who are asleep, or asleep in Christ or the Christ spirit, those who are awakening—those who are stirring from their slumber—and those who are awake. Now any person you meet anywhere in the world will come under one of those four classifications, always.
Those who are dead;
Those who are asleep;
Those who are awakening; and
Those who are awake.
Now consider the basic, simple principles of the practical living in daily life. If you are talking to someone who is wide awake you will probably proceed on the assumption that you will be understood, that there will be no difficulty in being comprehended. But if you start talking to someone who is just in the process of waking up, you use an altogether different approach. You do not start in talking as if you expected everything you say to be fully comprehended. You will make some simple statement and if there is any response, it will be, “Huh? What is that you said?” “Huh? What is that you said?” And you are prepared to repeat it and say it again if necessary. “Time to get up.” “Oh, I am so…” Those who are awakening must be treated differently from those who are awake. Then there are those who are asleep, and if you go out and start talking to those who are asleep as if you expected them to function as if they were awake you will talk and you will talk, and say, “I guess there is something wrong with me. I don't get my point over. They just don't get it.” Of course they don't get it; they are asleep. And there is something wrong with you if you expect people who are asleep to understand as if they were wide awake. They won't! Then there must be the recognition that there is a very, very large proportion of the people in the world who are dead. They are dead, and if you try to talk to them, function in relationship to them, as if they were just asleep or as if they were waking up, it won't work. Now there may be some hope for those who are dead. There will be a resurrection one way or another, and you don't want to be too quick to arbitrarily classify someone as being dead. You don't have to classify people at all. Let them classify themselves. It's simple. If you go around trying to classify them and say, “Well now so-and-so is thus and thus,” you are liable to get into trouble.
Sometimes you may think someone is dead when he is only sleeping. Remember the story of Lazarus? That story has a great deal to reveal from the standpoint of heavenly magic. The shortest verse in the Bible has two words in it: “Jesus wept.” Why? Because the vibratory pattern that He was depending upon broke down and those who were supposed to be functioning with Him failed. It is the one recorded instance in which Mary of Bethany failed our LORD. Mary of Bethany was the Master's sweetheart, and this is the only recorded instance in which she failed to hold the pattern steady. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2023/04/let-her-alone_16.html] She rendered a wonderful service on earth in relationship to Him and she was of course one of those who stood at the cross. But in any case Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha—now don't get Mary Magdalene mixed up with Mary of Bethany; they were two different people entirely.
Mary and Martha were sisters, and Lazarus was their brother, and he apparently died and everyone was sad, and so on, and the Master was coming in from a journey and they said, “Oh if you had only gotten here sooner you could have healed him, you could have made him well, but now it is too late; he is dead.” And the Master said, “He is not dead, but sleepeth. He is not dead. Do not be troubled. Take it easy. He is not dead, but asleep.” And they said, “No, he has been dead for three days now.” Finally the Master came closer in and He found that Mary had failed to hold the line, failed to hold steady in consciousness, true to the truth. She had let her feelings and the concepts of those around her sway her into the wrong pattern of belief and attitude. That is when the Master wept; not because Lazarus was in the tomb. Those standing around said, “Behold how he loved him!” They didn't know what He was doing; they had no idea, completely oblivious to the factors that were at work.
But the pattern got straightened out and the Master was able to get Mary back into the vibrational field, and her little slip, shall we call it—she broke the hedge, she breached the hedge—the Master cleared it from her and repaired the damage and then proceeded to the place where Lazarus was buried. And what took place? He told them to open the tomb. And they said, “No, by this time he stinketh. Don't open the tomb!” And the Master said, “He is not dead, but sleepeth.” The silver cord had not been broken. Lazarus was in a coma but he was not dead. This is of vital importance to us in many ways, because it reveals some of the basic factors with respect to the working of Heavenly Magic. It reveals the principles with respect to the Master's own experience. This worked out on a basis which permitted the vibratory factors which would be at work in relationship to the Master Himself to be established, a preview if you please, a cycle establishing the vibratory patterns during which the Master Himself could be more or less in control.
As the Master said with respect to Lazarus, so was it with respect to Himself. He emphasized over and over again that “He is not dead, but sleepeth,” and human beings around Him couldn't see the difference. And people to this day have not been able to see the difference; but there is a difference. He was not dead. The silver cord had not been loosed, had not been broken. He caused the tomb to be opened and called with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” And Lazarus began to stir. He came out of the coma; he was released from the graveclothes and restored to life with his sisters. This was the preview of the outworking of the basic principles that were in operation in relationship to the Master Himself, and human beings to this day still confuse the issue, just as they did at that time, and they have failed to recognize the significance of the Master's word, “He is not dead, but sleepeth.: He was in a coma.
So we begin to see that those whom the Master raised from the dead, supposedly, were not dead in the sense of having the silver cord loosed, the connection between the God Being and the body broken. After that is done the body does not come back to life, period. The Master did not cause any such person to come to life and it has not been done and is not going to be done. But those whom the people thought to be dead, and would have been dead as far as the ordinary course of events was concerned, whom the Master called back to life, were dead in the sense of being in a coma. The silver cord had not been loosed. After the silver cord is loosed the physical body returns to the dust from whence it came.
In any case the emphasis is upon the difference between the dead and those who sleep, and you should not be trying to do something with the dead. What did the Master say about it? “Let the dead bury their dead.” Now that is an enigmatic statement unless you understand the basic principles. Why would the Master say, “Let the dead bury their dead,” unless there were those who were the living dead, those who were dead to the influence of the working of the spirit of God?—and those who are asleep, those who are awakening and those who are awake. It is not for you to be attempting to institute the processes of resurrection in relationship to those who are dead. When the cycles work out and the currents of influence are allowed to manifest, those who are asleep will begin to awaken.
What does it take to cause the sleepy ones to begin to awaken? It takes the coming of the dawn of the day, doesn't it? There must begin to be light, so that the darkness is dispelled around them. There has to be the warmth of the sun. There must be the sounds of living and of movement, and then those who are asleep begin to stir, they begin to wake up. And it is as they are awakening that you can begin to serve. But you will not attempt to talk to an awakening one as if he were wide awake and capable of fully comprehending everything you say. So you must use discretion and not talk too much. You cannot live too much. These then are the factors with which we must work, functional factors which must be seen in relationship to the application of Heavenly Magic on earth.
Next we recognize a particularized step in relationship to the building of the machinery of reality. When we first begin to draw together those people who are sufficiently awake that they can begin to understand what we are talking about, they are beginning to get the cobwebs out of their brain so to speak, they are beginning to wake up, we begin to draw them together, to inspire them to move into the pattern of Divine Function. Always during this waking-up time there is much opportunity for misunderstanding, so do not say too much too fast. Take it easy. Repeat if necessary, and do not be offended if someone does not understand what you mean. Be patient! But gradually those who respond, those who are beginning to be awake, must be drawn into a pattern.
If you are out in the field serving, the same thing is true, because until you are able to inspire and draw a few people together who will form a nucleus of a pattern for you, those who will be steady with you, those who have faith in you, confidence, those who are willing to listen to you and be instructed, those who form the basis of a little class perhaps, you do not have anything very stable to work with. Servers have gone out into the field and put it to the test. Some did not think I knew the best way. They were going to just go out and serve—what? No pattern. There has to be a pattern, and until you begin to gather that nucleus together in relationship to yourself you cannot be effective; you do not have any stable, creative field out of which to function. And you cannot build such a nucleus pattern and have such a field unless you are a part of a nucleus pattern, a part of such a field. If you have not become a part of the field here, you will not be able to establish a field there. That has been shown.
But in this process of beginning to establish the formation, there is that which confuses those who are just awakening. They begin to feel something of the working of the spirit within them, they translate that impulse of the spirit thus and so, and then you are under the necessity of gently pointing out that this is what is necessary, this is the Divine Pattern here. And the responding one begins to get skeptical. He says, “Well now, I feel the impulse of the spirit and it looks to me like this is the way, and you want me to be here and you want me to do that. How is this?” There are several factors involved. One is that when the person is first waking up he or she is not going to translate the impulse of the spirit correctly. It is going to be mistranslated in various ways, so you have to be patient with that. But even if the translation were correct insofar as that individual's vibratory factors were concerned, it would still be wrong, even though it is the expression of the spirit of God. Why?
What is one of the basic things that anyone must learn if he or she is going to function from the standpoint of reality? You must learn to follow before you can be a leader. You must learn to obey before you can command. So we begin to see that the impulse of the spirit working through the individual, within the range of his or her comprehension, will tend to appear on the basis of that individual's ultimate potentiality, and so on, but there will be colorations, mistranslations; it will not be something which is dependable yet, but it is working in a certain direction. But while that is working, this individual must learn to fit into the basic pattern and to fill the immediate needs, to do the thing that must be done now, because in the ultimate outworking, after the cycle has grown, after there are more people responding, after the body is filled in, that for which the individual has the most capacity will begin to appear as a specific place, and then the two can be fitted together. But until that place takes form by the working of the machinery of reality, the individual is always trying to get into something that is not there, and then he gets discouraged and befuddled. But he has to be taught somehow, or encouraged, to be not concerned about that; it doesn't make any difference yet. But the individual says, “Oh, the current of the spirit of God in me is moving me in that direction. It must be right. I don't understand. I … I just feel like I must resist. I … I at least have to bring some of these things under suspicion.”
Blessed ones, there has to be a core, there has to be a focalization, there has to be the beginning of the machinery, and those who ultimately will be here and there and everywhere must now function in some other place. And it does not make any difference where they are to be in the potential sense, they must be here, they must begin to function on the basis of the elemental factors of the machinery of reality. And if they are so busy trying to find out just how they are going to fit in, just exactly what they are going to do, and just exactly what the ultimate end of the impulses they feel will achieve, they are not going to fit in. So they are neither here nor there; they just keep themselves up in the air all the time and they are still half asleep. They are not really awake yet, because if they were awake in any true sense they would not be concerned about where they were to serve—just the mere fact that they were a part of the Divine Plan in that half-asleep state.
They cannot possibly understand what their own ultimate point is. They have all kinds of imaginations about it but they do not know. They are just filled with a lot of foolish concepts that mean nothing; and you try to tell them that and they say, “Oh but I feel the current of the spirit of God in this; it is the divine impulse.” Oh it is the divine impulse, yes, but you don't know how to translate it, you don't know what it means. So let it work! Do not be concerned about it, and do that which needs to be done today; fill this place. There must be the skeleton before you can fill in all the organs and all the cells and the tissues and make the body complete. There must be first the skeleton; there must be first the basic design of the machinery. The overall plan, the overall pattern, must control first, and unless you are willing to function effectively in relationship to that overall pattern and the central focalization, you will never arrive at your own true point of being, no matter what it is or where, because you will always and forever be seeing the two as if they were in conflict.
They are not in conflict at all, if you let the superior point of focalization control. But if you bring the superior point of focalization under question and resist and refuse to acknowledge, you will not allow the building of that which will make possible the formation of the place into which you will ultimately come. You will defeat yourself because you are so sure that “This is the current of the spirit of God I feel and I translate it thus and so and therefore it must be conflict.” It isn't conflict unless you make it so. It is not conflict unless you make it so.
We must begin to see that the ultimate place in which you may be is utterly and absolutely beside the point. If you function correctly you will be groomed for that, prepared for that, so that when that place is made available to you you can step into it and be what you ought to be. But if you are forever trying to get into something that does not yet exist, what is going to happen? You are going to have a sense of futility, you are going to be all bothered, and you are going to feel that you are justified in having patterns of hesitancy and resistance and questioning and what have you, so that you never become anything. We all have to function in substitute patterns, especially in the earlier cycles of outworking. If I refused to function in a substitute pattern, do you think we would be here? No.
Your facility for functioning in substitute patterns determines your worth, because there are thousands of people who ought to be here who are not. There are all kinds of things that have to be done, places filled, vibratory factors worked out, and there is no one to do it. Are you merely going to stand on the sideline and say, “Well now, when you can put me in the place that I am being prepared for, then I will serve with you. Meanwhile I will twiddle my thumbs. Hurry up and get the job done. I want to be where I am supposed to be”? You will never be anywhere that amounts to anything. Who cares where you are supposed to be? You shouldn't, from the standpoint of some ultimate outworking in the design and the pattern. If you do, you are going to throw yourself away. Where are you supposed to be? You are supposed to be where you can serve today. If you have to be somewhere else to serve tomorrow, that is the Lord's business. What difference does it make? It does not make any if you are a true servant of God. And so the quicker you get away from the idea of trying to fix yourself a little nest into which you can cuddle down and be perfectly content, the better off you will be. Be ready to serve wherever the Lord puts you, and be ready to serve in the way in which the Lord directs; because if you say, “But I feel I am particularly equipped to serve over here. I guess I … I … I … I can, I suppose, and I will try to do my best, but I'd really like to be over here.” Oh you would, would you? You would like to run the show. You would like to be LORD God Almighty Himself. No!
It doesn't make any difference what you would like. If you are going to serve God you would like to be where He puts you, to do what He wants you to do, when He wants you to do it, the way He wants you to do it, where He wants you to do it. And if you will follow you will learn to live, and if you will obey you will learn to command, and when you can be trusted to do what needs to be done regardless of any feelings you may have, divinely inspired or otherwise, you will begin to have some value to the LORD and to your brother man. But you cannot be what you ought to be until you learn to follow. Ultimately there will be that place which is just your own, peculiar to you. Well and good, but you cannot get into it now. You are not ready for it, and the place is not ready for you. We have to function in substitute patterns, and we must be ready to do what needs to be done, or we will never be able to achieve that which is necessary in the divine outworking.
There is so much of this business of human beings trying to maneuver and evade and work around to something that they think they would like. When they do that they show that they are still half asleep; they have not really awakened yet to the beauty and the wonder and the glory of the privilege of serving in the Cosmic Plan of God. They are always bringing the pattern under question. They say, “Well what about the pattern? I don't think it is just. I don't think it is right. I wish it were some other way.” You do not know what the pattern is. You are judging something about which you know utterly nothing; the evil imaginations of your own hearts. No.
If you cannot see enough in the Divine Design of things to make you thrill to the opportunity of being any part of it, anywhere, at any time, then what are you doing here? How is it put by the Psalmist? Willing to be a gatekeeper. Anything, anywhere! Position? What is position? Position, greatness, is by reason of the larger service to others. If I have any greatness it is because I serve. That is all. If I have served all of you, I thank God for it. The point is, we must do what we are supposed to do in the present, regardless of the future. God is perfectly capable of working it out if we will let Him. But if we are so bound and determined to have it thus and so, if we balk over here, who is going to do this? You say, “Well somebody is supposed to.” Yes, somebody is supposed to, but that somebody is not here yet. You are going to say, “Wait until he or she gets here.” Well what is going to bring him here? What is going to bring that person into the pattern, if everybody starts sitting down and twiddling thumbs? Who is going to bring that person here? How is he or she to find the Way?
What difference does it make? We have a job to do, whatever it may be, and unless we take that attitude we certainly are not functioning from the standpoint of heavenly magic, because if you think you are going to make it pleasing to yourself, what is it that is going to please you? If you are concerned about pleasing yourself you are self-centered, and God Himself cannot please a self-centered person. Until you are selfless enough so that you are not concerned about pleasing yourself, God cannot begin to please you. You might remember that! God loves to please people, but He does not attempt to please the self-centered, because that is not possible to God—to violate His own laws of being and destroy the cosmos.
So it is time for us to begin to see some of these functional factors of heavenly magic, the reason why the impersonal attitude is necessary. But if we cannot find it a thrilling adventure and a joy forever to serve God in any place, in any capacity to which we may be called at the moment, there is something wrong with us. What difference does it make? If it is to serve God, if it is a part of the Cosmic Plan of Being, that is enough. For how long? Who is to tell? Until you are needed somewhere else, in some other way. Until God is ready to make a change because someone is ready to be where he or she ought to be.
If we had 144,000 people who were so ready to serve, all properly polarized, all properly functioning, then we could begin to be concerned about place; only we wouldn't. It could be that we wouldn't because we would be so happy to be wherever God wants us to be, all the time. All the futile pushing and pulling and all the nonsense wherein people cause the impulse of the spirit to seem to conflict with the impulse of the spirit through the superior point of focalization. There is no conflict. But until we learn to do that which we should do, where we should do it, when we should do it, we are not true servants of God.
And we are not to tell God what to do, when to do it, and how to do it for us. We are to be ready to serve Him; for a servant doesn't say, “Well now, Lord, you know we have a union here in heaven. I'll do this, but anything that touches on the maid's work over here, well that is hers. Lord, I really want to obey, but that belongs to the maid. You will have to see the union.” Yes! Blessed ones, a servant of God must be a servant of God, period. And if we are ready to obey, ready to be trustworthy, so God's trust in us can mean something, if we are ready to do our part in movement toward that Divine Pattern, then we are not going to be swayed this way and that by feelings within ourselves or by attitudes round about us or by anything anywhere; for if we can be controlled by something other than God's direction we are not serving God. Regardless of what people say or do, what we like or do not like, what is or is not, are we ready to serve and let God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven? If we are we can begin to share in the true beauty and the wonder and the glory of the fact that the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory belong to our KING.
