The Sword And The Cup

The  Sword  And  The  Cup

edited excerpts

Martin Cecil  January 12, 1969

The state of man's consciousness has produced the state of the world around him. As long as the state of man's consciousness is conditioned by the world around him he cannot but participate in a process of disintegration. The world around man is the effect of the state present in his consciousness. When the state of man's consciousness is an expression of absolute cause, then the world around him will reflect that fact. These basic principles to which I have given form in words should be familiar to you, but you need to be so soaked in the water of truth that you find it impossible to dry out.

As long as human beings seek the answer in the world around them polarity has been reversed and the result is nothing. This search has continued in the attitudes of human beings all down through the ages: somehow the answer can be extracted from the environment, it is supposed. If it cannot be found in the immediate environment then we need to look further, and further, and further. But if we look far enough, finally it is anticipated that the answer must be found. But the answer is not in the realm of effects.  The answer is contained in cause.

I would like to meditate upon these matters this evening so that we may share something more vividly as to the true state of affairs. As a starting point, I have a letter here of response received a little while ago from Ted Black: “The eternal quest of human beings to discover in the environment the reason for their existence is parabled in the medieval legend of the quest for the holy grail.  Knights in shining armor (spaceships?) set off into the wilderness, sword in hand, to search for the grail, supposedly the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. However, this form of the legend is merely superficial Christianization of a very ancient ritual theme in which sword and cup are the basic sexual symbols. The picture is of the folly of man, the sword seeking the cup—man in subjection to that over which he is supposed to have dominion. When the sword is wielded rightly, the cup returns willingly to its rightful place. The head, or point, is anointed with oil (the positive expression of love in action) and the cup runs over (the visible fulfilment of the negative in true response). Nevertheless, the value is not in the contents of the grail but in the action of the sword, not in the effects but in the cause.”

I am particularly interested in the sword-cup metaphor. The sword represents the positive causative aspect of being and the cup the negative creative aspect of being. We have the same story portrayed through Adam and Eve. In man's upside-down world the sword is supposed to seek the cup. Here we have the representation of man, who is supposed to be the sword in the hand of God, trying to find the answer in the creation round about, seeking his fulfilment in the world around him. This is the cup being sought by the sword—the male chasing the female: man's eternal quest for the fulfilment that he thinks he is going to find in the world around him. Is it not the concept of the vast majority of human beings that somehow or other in the relationship between male and female fulfilment will be found? So it is sought that way, but it is never found that way. Obviously there is a right relationship between male and female; there is a right relationship between the sword and the cup.

In the story of Adam and Eve, Adam was created first apparently. The cause comes before the effect. Adam may symbolize the state of Divine consciousness which is the cause of the effects which appear in the world round about. The physical form of man is an effect caused by the Divine state of consciousness present, within which is what we call the Divine Design and the means of control. This is obviously so, if we observe the physical body of man, as long as life remains. There is a design to it, and there is a method of control which causes it to be operative. Eve represents the physical form, the effect. The physical form, by reason of the presence of Divine consciousness, develops a capacity of consciousness. This capacity includes what we call the senses, so that there may be an awareness of the world around. The body-consciousness in this sense permits the world around to be observed; it permits the effects produced by absolute cause to be seen. This opens the door to what has come to be known as the fall, because, observing the results of absolute cause round about, the feeling nature may be attracted to the effects which are so seen. They are desirable apparently, and therefore may become motivating factors in what the individual does. He acts to obtain the desirable result. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was much to be desired to make one wise. It was pleasing to the eyes.

So, the consciousness of man, instead of remaining the consciousness of Divine Being on earth, began to absorb from the realm of effects. The desirable things round about began to be the controlling element in experience, brought about by the fact that the body has sense-consciousness. As this occurred, Eve offered the fruit to Adam, so that man's capacity for Divine consciousness began to be filled with the state simply of what was conveyed through sense-consciousness. So the experience of Divine consciousness, true consciousness, was lost. Adam fell too. Now it is fortunate that it worked out on this gradual basis and it did not involve the immediate obliteration of the body, because thereby opportunity was extended, for a period of time at least, for the individual to return to the Divine state of consciousness. We are well aware of the fact that human beings generally didn't take advantage of that opportunity, and in that sense we are inheritors of their failure. But every generation has failed. Polarity was reversed. Sense-consciousness dominated. Divine consciousness was almost completely obscured. We are witness to the fact that it has not been completely obscured. We have a certain sense of something above and beyond what is considered to be the normal state of human experience. This human condition is a state that is way subnormal. But most people seem to accept it, and even though there may be some nudging from within themselves, they do their best to pay no attention to it, so that they may, if possible, be successful in the sense world.

Success in the sense world is measured by what one can obtain out of it, how much one can get—presuming that the more one gets the more one is likely to find the answer—because it is imagined that the answer comes out of the world around us. Therefore if we can gain the whole world we'll have, presumably, the whole answer. And so this quest is continued from generation to generation, but nobody ever found the answer. The very compulsion, Divine compulsion, in human beings has been used to keep human beings from finding the answer. It is said that hope springs eternal in the human breast. So he is eternally hopeful that he can find the answer in his environment, where it isn't, whereas the fact of that hope indicates that the answer is at hand, if he would only look where it is. If he has been looking where it isn't for all these thousands of years, it is surely about time that someone woke up to the necessity of looking where it is. We have found ourselves to be nudged in this direction.

The sword does not seek the cup. When the sword is returned to the hand of the one who rightly wields it, the cup returns to the sword. The creation was made by God and belongs to God. The link of man's Divine consciousness has been missing in this world, so the creation in this world has thereby been separated from God. The creation returns easily and naturally to God when the link is once again in place. Man tries to wield the sword and he is sure that the grail, or the cup, is somewhere to be found in the environment. But it is always being protected by the dragon. He has to slay the dragon to get to the cup, he thinks, and he has been busy slaying dragons for ages. But there was always another dragon behind the dragon—never the cup, never the answer, never the fulfilment.

The sword belongs in the hand of Divine Being; man belongs in the right hand of God. What was it Jesus Christ was supposed to have done? He went and sat down at the right hand of God. The consciousness of Divine Being on earth belongs in the right hand of God. This is the symbol of the sword which represents the positive or male aspect of Divine Being. It isn't an instrument of destruction in the hand of God. It is an instrument of destruction in the hand of fallen man. Perhaps we can see this destructiveness now in what is called the population explosion.  In the hand of God man is the only begotten Son of God on earth; he is the creative instrument on earth. The cup returns to the left hand of God when the sword is in the right hand of God, for here we see the representation of what we have called the creative triangle. There are positive and negative points at either corner of the base and there is the supreme positive at the apex.

The natural union of the sword and the cup occurs when the consciousness of man once again becomes the consciousness of God on earth. The consciousness of God on earth is a specific differentiation of the consciousness of God as this relates to the overall pattern of the cosmic scheme of things. The sword is in the right hand of God and the cup comes into the left. It is returned to the pattern of the Divine Design to function in balanced union with the sword. That is what has been called the restoration, or the salvation, of the world. Not just the salvation of man, but the salvation of the world for which man carries divine responsibility. All this symbolism has been present in the consciousness of man for ages past. The application of the sword and the cup to the Christian theme is merely making use of something that was present in the consciousness of man long, long before our Master was on earth. The symbols have been known, misused, and the truth consequently lost to the consciousness of man. Of course the truth can't be lost in fact. It's always been present, but unknown to man. God has been a mystery to man, just as man has also been a mystery to God.

We begin to see the truth of these things relative to ourselves, that we may be soaked in the water of truth thoroughly, that there may be a constant consciousness of one's own responsibility in the position of cause. That responsibility relates to the quality and the nature of one's own state of consciousness. The quality and nature of one's own state of consciousness will be dependent upon whether one is governed by emotional reactions and responses to the environment, to the world around one, or whether the government is of God. The government is of God when the feeling nature is open, yielded, to the quality of Divine consciousness. When Divine consciousness is supreme in one's attitude then the sword again begins to be returned to the hand of God. There certainly is no more looking for the answer in the world around.

I am a part of your world. Are you looking for the answer from me? If you are, you will not find it. You yourself are the answer. If you don't know that, you'll never know the answer. Human beings have recognized that Jesus was the answer, but has that provided the answer for anyone else? Not as long as they were looking to Him, because if they were looking to Him they were looking into their environment, where the answer isn't. The answer is experienced when the Divine state of consciousness is experienced, when you, at the center of your world, are permitting the sword to be wielded by the hand of God. You are not seeking the cup. If you are the sword in the hand of God the cup seeks you.

We find this distorted pattern in the function of men and women in the world. Men are supposed to chase the women, and the women enter into the game by extending lures of various kinds, and this nonsensical pattern of destructiveness has been dominant in the consciousness of human beings all down through the ages, dominating the consciousness of man. A man is going to find his fulfilment in a woman; a woman is going to find her fulfilment in a man. It isn't so! The answer is not in the environment. We have had those within the scope of our ministry, many who have never seen this. They have always been on the prowl, so to speak, anticipating that some sort of fulfilment is going to come out of their environment. What blindness. What stupidity. What have we been considering all these years? And still human beings go on blindly in their old ruts. Oh yes, it's nice to have spiritual ideas, but when it comes down to practical doing, “Well my fulfilment, I know where that is!” Do you? I trust you are beginning to remember where it is. It is in cause. As long as the serpent in the tree can persuade men and women to run after each other he has the world bound in the pit. The physical bodies of the male and the female are a part of the creation, they are a part of the effect. In and of themselves they are not causes of anything. They cannot cause fulfilment to appear for anyone. When fulfilment has been found in cause, then the effects will reflect that fulfilment, but that is an entirely different thing, because those concerned are not trying to get the fulfilment out of the environment from somebody else.

Man was created to be the sword in the hand of God on earth. The rest of creation is the cup. There is a proper union between man and his world. Man only has a true world when he is the sword in the hand of God. Then there may be a right union between man and his world, and the world will reflect the Divine nature of man. Amongst the elements that reflect that Divine nature are rightly the bodies, the physical forms, of men and women—just as a reflection, just as a result of a cause. The cause is the experience of the state of Divine consciousness. When that state of consciousness is experienced the results of it appear. But they do not appear because they are felt to be essential and therefore have to be arbitrarily produced somehow. They appear simply because they are inevitable when absolute cause is in effect.

The first great commandment is valid, but not really taken seriously, even by most Emissaries. They assume that they are able to judge good and evil. It is only possible to eat of that forbidden tree when there is a failure to love God, because loving God places man back into the hand of God, and he has no rights on his own. He is in the right hand of God. When the positive expression of true cause is on earth, because the Divine consciousness has been accepted, the cup returns. It is natural for creation to be one with the Creator when man does not keep Creator and creation apart.

What beautiful symbols have been provided for us in so many ways! Do you ever pay any heed to these symbols? Do you ever think on these things? Do you ever allow your consciousness to be filled with the truth of them? Or do you go along day by day without thought? Do you let the water be poured over you, or do you put up an umbrella so that you don't get wet? What abundance is present with us, all around us—it's been here all the time if we would look at it. And we have the keys, don't we? We have the keys to unlock all these doors. But nobody can do it but the person himself.

“Look no further, I am the answer.” That applies to you. If you are not the answer, you don't know the answer and you can never find it, never! If your world is to change to be a reflection of the divine state, it will change only because of you, because your consciousness allows absolute cause to be in action in the world where you are. That makes you, on that basis, of supreme importance. There is no one more important than you in your world when you take that responsibility. It is not what anyone else is going to do out there, it is what one does oneself that is the answer. How about being the answer!

The glorious provision of all things necessary is present with us, but how blindly we tend to pass these things by as though somehow or other the answer is going to drop into our laps from someplace else. Oh no, never from someplace else! just in the expression of oneself on the basis of the experience of the true, Divine state of consciousness, a consciousness which is uninvolved, uncontrolled by the world around. The way is so wide open. I thank God for you and others who begin to recognize the nature of that way. So there it is!

Man was created to be the sword in the hand of God on earth

At one time or another all of you have played hard to get! It is useless to chase people, because immediately you do that you have reversed polarity. The person who is being chased is in control. The expression is sometimes used, “Oh, he led me a merry chase.” Why be led that way? The only true sharing that is possible is on the basis of the working of the Law. The sword must be present in the hand of God. Insofar as the creation—other than man—is concerned there is no problem; but man has the ability to resist God, and has exercised this ability very extensively, become expert at it. He does it by ignoring God and being attracted to the things in his environment, and he is led around by the nose by such things. He is a slave to his world. We have the opportunity of providing the sword, the cause; and with things hotting up the way they are, people are being forced to choose. Of course the choice hasn't been very clear as yet, because the sword hasn't been very clear on earth.

When the sword is clear—the flaming sword which turns every way, keeping the way of the tree of life—then those who begin to see it, because it's clearly there, are close to the edge of the Garden, so to speak, close to the Gate, and it is there that the choice is going to be made. As long as people are way back in the bush somewhere, they can't see the sword, they don't know what's going on, and they can't make any intelligent choice. But when the sword becomes visible, then all who are in its vicinity are forced to make a choice. They are either going to accept the state of the cup or they are going to try to wield a sword in opposition to the sword, and there is no future in that. So the ground begins to be cleared on this basis. But it only begins to be cleared as there is the sword there, and the sword isn't there until those concerned have accepted the responsibility for themselves.

I have often posed the question: What would you do if you were the only one left of all those who have an understanding of the things which we understand, the only one left on earth? Would you be true to that in that situation? Or would you say, “Oh well, it's not worth it now”? Why wait for that situation to appear? It's a lot easier now. There's something else that I drew attention to recently: There is no moment when it is easier to do what is needful than now. It is never going to be any easier.

So when the sword is in evidence it is there because there are those who are the sword for themselves, and we find that we all fit into what might be called the overall sword, so to speak. We have placement in that. I have a position to fill. You also have positions to fill in various ways. We all do in this sense. We still have the responsibility of being the sword in that position, whatever it may be, and that means that one has accepted and maintained and is experiencing the true state of consciousness.

You can't experience the true state of consciousness if you are emotionally involved in the things that are going on in your environment. It's impossible. And you will be emotionally involved in the things in your environment as long as all those things mean so much to you, as long as your love is there, as long as those things look so important to you. This is one of the hallmarks of people who come for help, that all the things in their environment look so important, so vast—so insuperable the difficulties are. They're not! They only look that way to the individual because he loves those things so much. When we begin to love being right in our own consciousness, so that what is present in our consciousness is true to the Divine Design—we love the nature of God, the quality of God; this means more to us, is bigger than anything else—then all these other things, what happened to them? We give life to our world, and if it's a distorted world, we maintain it by our life force poured into it. When we give ourselves back to God, then the life force is withdrawn from all that and down it goes. That's a terrifying experience for some people sometimes: “My world is falling apart!” Praise the Lord! At last! You can't hold it together anymore. But the Lord holds His world together. That's not going to fall apart. It may have been obscured by this other world and it may look like an appalling thing to see this other world tumbling down—it's the one that you were observing—but when it's tumbled down, the Divine World is still there. It didn't fall. Isn't this the greatest undertaking in which anyone could be engaged?

© emissaries of divine light