As we have noted, we have six senses. We added one to the usual five, but I think we are aware of the nature of that sixth sense. In fact people talk about a sixth sense; it discerns many things. All that is discerned by this sixth sense is contained in the same world which is observed by the other five. The sixth sense is very often looked upon as opening a door into some sort of a new heavenly state. It may cause a person to become aware of some things that he hasn't been aware of before, but they are all present in the same old world. These six senses are all present and available for the observation of the nature of the world of form. Form is usually thought of in physical terms, but the nature of physical forms is more than physical. By the use of our senses we are able to observe not only shape but color, we are able to observe aroma, we can hear; and we can observe through these six senses various aspects of the nature of form. All these observations relate to form. There are many dimensions to form — more than the three we usually think of — and we have the equipment to observe this world of form. We are now aware that this equipment made available to us is not for the purpose of judging what we observe, but just for the purpose of observing what we observe, without judgment and without attempts to manipulate what we observe. It is the fact of judgment and consequent manipulation that has produced the fallen state in human experience.
There are many issues — one might use different words to describe the same thing — some people have called them problems, difficulties, diseases, whatever. This is an interpretation of observation through the six senses or just some of the six senses. On this basis we create our world, through the judgment of what is observed. You know very well that you may observe something and judge it one way, while someone else, standing right next to you, may observe the same thing and judge it completely differently, thereby creating different worlds, different worlds in the same space. Well, of course, as long as there is judgment none of the worlds so created are accurate or are the fact of the matter. They are humanly created in human imagination. We have a very ephemeral world on this basis. But once we begin to recognize the right use of the six senses and let them simply be used that way, there immediately comes into the range of awareness what we have called the seventh sense.
If you stop judging your observations — you do not stop observing through your senses but you simply stop judging what you observe — if you do not judge what you observe, there is no incentive to try to manipulate it. The incentive to try to manipulate something is because it is somehow displeasing or thought to be bad. These judgments demand manipulation. Issues demand to be resolved. That's the way it is, isn't it? In other words if you succumb to this commandment by issues then obviously you are subject to the issues, and you can well see that those would be a false god. Issues are very demanding, aren't they? When they put in an appearance you feel it to be essential, even that you are duty bound, to try to resolve the issue. You only feel that way because the issue is demanding that you do so, and you bow down and worship and say, “Yes, I agree. I need to resolve you.” So the issue is in command now and you are placed in the position of a slave, not only to that issue but to — how many others? — maybe a thousand other issues that put in an appearance from time to time with this demand that you do something about them. And the habit has been firmly established in human experience that one has to kowtow to the demands. This certainly isn't evidence of keeping the first great commandment. No matter how religious a person may be, and how sincere in his religion, as long as there is response to the demand of issues — they don't mean a thing. They don't mean a thing, because the person is actually worshipping the issues and obeying their demands. Clearly something is reversed here. On that basis no issues could ever be solved. Clearly, then, there must be a cessation of such ridiculous conduct; otherwise we are slaves.
Now this is the state human state — the state of slavery. We define it in these particular terms this evening. There is slavery everywhere. Those who live in the so-called free world usually look with condescension toward those who live in the unfree world, where there is seemingly less choice because of the tiresome results that put in an appearance if one should object too strenuously to the slavery. But the same is true of the free world; the only thing is, in the free world there is seemingly less compulsion to make the wrong choice. Nevertheless everybody does make the wrong choice, pretty well. We ourselves have considered something different, but just how much that consideration has been accepted as practical experience is possibly another question. So we have six senses which, in their wrong use — that's unrighteousness, by the way — produce slavery. All are slaves. In the free world, so called, many people do not think of themselves as slaves; but I suppose that's true also in the communist world. One lives, or exists, with whatever the state of affairs is. But there is slavery. We ourselves are well aware of it and have undertaken to allow a change to occur in our own experience by lessening the government of issues. I say lessening it, because I suspect that issues still do quite a bit of dictating in our own individual experience. Well we can't jump into a state which is completely clear of this habit in one step. As we have put it before, there is the necessity of moving from the known into the unknown. Well presumably we are not so foolish as to try to leap from the known that is present with us now into some theoretical unknown far distant, to leap from the state of slavery into the state of freedom in one great bound. I doubt if that would work.
We move from the known to the unknown, but we move from the immediately known to what is next to us in the unknown. Whatever the extent of our motion thus far, it is carrying us into the unknown, but we are never far from the known. We do not leave the known until we are sure that our foot is firmly placed in what was the unknown, but now it's known because we have found the place to put our foot. This begins to occur when we have reached a point where we stop judging, where the use of our six senses simply acquaints us with what is present. Because we have been accustomed to judging in the past, we don't really know accurately what it is that is present when we stop judging it. We had seen it a certain way because we had been judging it; and we liked this, we didn't like that, we wanted to change the other thing. So that kept us in a state of self-delusion; we lived in an illusory world. Now we are drawing back so that we are not going to judge anymore, and it leaves us in rather a peculiar position, because we don't really know what the world is which we are observing. We have imagined that to know the world of our observation required judgment, but now we are not going to judge it, so it's strange. We are not going to decide that it's good or bad, that we like it or don't like it, but we are going to decide that it is the way it is, whatever that way is and whatever it proves to be to us. We are content to leave it that way. We may know for sure that it's not going to stay that way, but it is the way it is in the present moment, always. And without judgment, and without consequent endeavour to manipulate, suddenly the realm of issues is freed up. We are not trying to resolve anything. We wouldn't know how to resolve anything when we stop judging and finally are honest. We have no faintest idea how everything should be. There is one thing we do know: it is the way it is! So we are content with that, and if we are content with that we can give thanks for it — what would be the point of doing anything else? — because it is the way it is; we might as well be happy with it. We can give thanks that it is the way it is. We don't really understand yet what it is, but whatever it is, it is the way it is, and we are quite satisfied with that; we are not going to misinterpret it by judging it. If that leaves us with a sense of vacancy, so to speak, all right! Let's give thanks for being vacant for the moment, because then there is room for something else to put in an appearance.
The state of non-judgment with respect to the issues of the moment, the circumstances of the moment, whatever they may be — and we don't really know yet — is a state of standing still. We are not going to try to manipulate them. Why? How could we? We are not judging anything; we wouldn't know how we would want it to be, then. So we are content to leave it alone, and that could be describable as standing still.
I have a passage here with which I am sure you are familiar. This was an occasion quite some time ago, recorded in the Old Testament, when Moses and the Israelites had come to the Red Sea. Whatever that event was, it is an excellent analogy of something. They were apparently faced with an issue. The way was apparently impassable, and here were the Egyptians in hot pursuit. They were caught in a squeeze, between a rock and a hard place, as they say these days. This was an excellent situation, because according to the appearance of the thing there was no way out. Should that, do you think, be cause for thankfulness, that at last you have reached a point where there is no way out? Because as long as human beings think that they can get by, slip by, they will do just that. But if it reaches a point where there is nothing, what are you going to do? Well of course there was something present in this particular situation which could allow the no-way-out situation to be used to advantage, and this involves what I have spoken of as the seventh sense. The seventh sense permits a perception, a discernment, of the Tone of the spirit which creates the perfect living form. Theoretically you know that forms are the creation of spirit, but you are not quite sure that in this particular instance, whatever it is, the spirit is going to create the perfect living form. Because of subjection heretofore to the demands of the issues, you haven't learned how to trust the spirit, even to be aware of what the spirit is. Well for ourselves we have become aware of what has been called the Tone, the Tone of the spirit. If we have such an awareness, it relates to the activation of the seventh sense, the seventh sense which acquaints us with something out of this world.
In one way or another, I suppose all of us have had that experience; otherwise we would hardly be sitting here. I personally had that experience back along the way when I first met Uranda. I knew him! But of course the mind gets busy and starts wondering how this could be, never having met the man before. “He must be like somebody, somebody else, that I had met before, that I knew.” And the mind starts comparing this way and that way, and wondering after the beast. There was no explanation, just the fact that one knew something. You didn't even know what it was. It related to a specific person. So at that point, something entered into my consciousness that had not been there before. The same thing occurs for each one; it happens in your own ways. Something enters into your consciousness that wasn't there before. You can't explain it; you can't figure it out by comparing it to anything. It's incomparable. But it happens to the extent of the activation of this seventh sense, which relates to what we have spoken of as the rent in the veil. Something is discerned. At that point of discernment one may be afraid of what is happening, or one may be delighted. If there is delight, thankfulness, then this activation can continue, so that the discernment of the Tone out of heaven which is being sounded in one's own consciousness may permit an awareness of the creative process by which the perfect living form is brought forth.
All this is not immediately understood, of course. Maybe it takes years for the understanding to begin to percolate. It will do so, sooner or later, to the extent that one's integrity maintains association, close association, with this activated seventh sense. In other words the activation, which heretofore has occurred to produce action in oneself out of the six senses, recedes, and the activation begins to become clearer and clearer from the standpoint of the seventh sense. As it does so, the other six senses are still there but they become the facility of observation, not the facility which causes the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. No judgment, just observation. And because the seventh sense is activated, so that there is discernment of the Tone of the spirit and that is received into one's own experience and expression, the process by which the perfect living form is created is set in motion.
One may observe with one's six senses this form which is now putting in an appearance. It will not look like it did before; you find the world changes in this sense. But then comes the question: “What are you going to do in this situation now?” Are you going to revert, because of your observation? Or are you going to refrain from any judgment? The fact of the matter is that you don't really know yet what it is but you are willing to let it be what it is. And it will be what it is without your having to know what it is. That of course undercuts the human state of self-centeredness, doesn't it, where human beings always imagine that they have to know what something is, otherwise they can't function intelligently. Do they function intelligently? Have we functioned intelligently? Hardly. No, we don't have to know; it can be what it is. Gradually, as this process continues, things begin to clarify. No judgment. And we know that what before we might have assumed was evil — presumably because we didn't like it — is in fact what we have referred to as evol, in other words part of the continuing creative process which is now working to produce the perfect living form.
It has to go through a cycle, the same cycle which we are experiencing by our walk from the known into the unknown. We are all coordinated in the process, moving together. The cycle is moving; we are moving with it; and we discover, step by step, that what was before unknown is now known. We do not try rushing ahead and we do not unnecessarily hold back, but with deliberate tread move from the known into the unknown. We become aware of what was before unknown as it takes form; and we can observe it, observe it with our six senses. What we observe wasn't that way when we looked before, but now it is the way we observe it; it has changed. Good! It's moving in the creative cycle. Don't judge it; don't take the attitude that you like it or don't like it. Let it be whatever it is and allow this cycle to pick up steam, so to speak, moving with it, gaining assurance, and I suppose you could say trust in the fact that there is something here present and at work which you know to be so but you can't prove it to yourself or anyone else. You simply know that it is so, and you give up that futile endeavour to try to figure it out with your mind, because you can't. Your mind wasn't designed to figure it out.
So here we have the continuing movement of the creative cycle, and all of us associated with it — no longer troubled by it, no longer concerned about it. But:“And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not,” be not afraid of what's happening. “Fear ye not, stand still,” don't judge. If you don't judge, you don't need to fuss with it. “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day” — today, now, each day. If He is going to show it to you today it must start at midnight and move moment by moment for the next twenty-four hours. Right? He is going to show it today. That's what happens; there's a constant movement. “For the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.”
The issues which you have seen today, you will see no more again forever! They are gone. Now this is not to say that there may not be the Amalekites and the Philistines! In other words there are other issues to arise, and you need not expect that it's all done in one moment, because we are moving forward step by step in this recreative process. We are providing the focus for it, the experience of it, the factual reality of it — not a theory but something that is known. This is the way it works on each occasion, when you stand still and do not judge, do not try to manipulate. But because the seventh sense is now being activated you are aware of the Tone of the spirit in the moment and you allow that to come into your experience and be expressed. Consequently “the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.” Gradually all the issues are dissolved in this fashion.
“Behold, I make all things new,” and we share the responsibility for this easy, natural, simple movement in the creative process. This is administering the creative cycle; not dispensing something out there somewhere, but right here, right in one's own experience. Knowing this, we share the wonder, the beauty, the glory, of creation — a cause for thanksgiving, a cause for delight and happiness. There is no labor to it. We come again to the place where we belong, no longer laboring and being heavy laden, because there is no necessity. And we discover that in many ways there is increasingly less to do in the sense of the things that we had been doing before, the things that we thought were so necessary. A very great deal of that was manipulation, and the manipulation always tends to interfere with the natural creative process. We find that, in alignment with the Tone, we may just put a finger on whatever it is and that's all that's necessary. We have a new perspective, and in this fashion we participate in creating all things new.
It needs great alertness — and the alertness relates to little things, to things that are deemed sometimes to be insignificant: they don't matter, they are insignificant. But unless we are alert to such things and allow the Tone of the spirit to cause intelligent action with respect to these things, even insignificant things, we could never be trusted with anything more significant. So we find that alertness is necessary in our moment-by-moment living, so that nothing slips by. We see what's there, and if something needs to be adjusted we adjust it. If a watch needs to be wound we wind it. This is all very practical, but actually new. Oh, you have some experience, I know, but there is a lot of which we have had no experience yet. Let's use the opportunity we have now, so that we are in place as the steps are taken from the known to the unknown.
Continuing our basic pattern of Magic, we have emphasis upon the basic practicality of the Divine Plan in relationship to man. At this particular time we can wisely consider some of the factors with respect to the Tabernacle itself. We remember that there were Thirteen Tribes of the children of Israel, and that the Levites were those who were charged with the responsibility of the Priesthood. And in the encampment of the children of Israel there was the outer encampment, divided into four parts, and in the middle there was the encampment of the Levites. We remember that there were three Tribes in each of these four, to take care of the Twelve, the Twelve Tribes in the main encampment; and then the Levites were encamped in the middle, and in the middle of the encampment of the Levites there was the Tabernacle — so they account for the Thirteen Tribes, the Thirteenth being the Priesthood, carrying out the pattern as the Master — His body being the Thirteenth. He had Twelve disciples. And so there were Twelve Tribes. Jacob had Twelve sons, but there was no tribe of Joseph. Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and there were two Tribes who were fathered by these two men. So Joseph fathered two Tribes, and the other eleven brothers each fathered one Tribe. We must remember always that there were Thirteen Tribes of the children of Israel. There were Twelve disciples, and the Master Himself made Thirteen. We begin to see how the same principles were revealed in both the Old and the New Testaments.
In this encampment of the children of Israel we recognize that each Tribe was composed of both male and female. So the positive and negative aspects are seen in the body of the encampment itself. But the positive and negative, or male and female aspects, manifest in many different ways. We have recognized that this particular pattern extends from the solar system to the atom, and is in control in the Divine Design, with all things between these two extremes. So let us note with respect to the Tabernacle itself what the pattern is. There was the Outer Court of the Tabernacle, a sort of goatskin fence that extended out in front of the entrance, and anyone who was properly clean — not degenerated into a pattern of just physical cleanliness, etc — but anyone who was classified as clean and was a member of the encampment, in a right sense, could go into the Outer Court under certain conditions or at certain times. It was more or less open to all. And then there was the next point, with respect to the Holy Place. It was one of the two rooms of the Tabernacle itself, and the Holy Place was forbidden territory to the people, generally speaking, but any of the Priests who were properly officiating could enter the Holy Place. At one end of the Tabernacle there was a smaller room, cut off by hangings, which was classified as the Holy of Holies. So we see here the three again: the encampment itself, composed of the people, the physical body; the Outer Court; and then the Holy Place. And then the Holy of Holies. With the Holy of Holies we have the fourth place, which was the place of the Ark; and the Ark of the Covenant provided the means by which the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells could be made manifest.
The encampment itself represented the physical body, male or female, your physical body. (And there was the encampment of the Priesthood, which correlates with that.) Next we come, as far as the Tabernacle is concerned, to the Outer Court, which symbolizes your outer or conscious mind. And then the Holy Place, symbolizing what we call your spiritual expression plane, or the third plane of being. Then, within the Tabernacle, inside of all of this, was the Holy of Holies, and the only entrance to the Holy of Holies was through the Holy Place — no entrance into the Holy of Holies except through the Holy Place. The Holy Place is the place of spiritual things, of spiritual realization, of spiritual understanding, of spiritual correlation with Deity. But the Holy of Holies is the place of Deity, and only the High Priest was authorized to enter the Holy of Holies. And it is in the Holy of Holies that we find the Ark of the Covenant, representing the reality of the presence of the One Who Dwells. So your own Lord, or your own individual God Being, is indicated there.
Or we can carry the pattern out to a group, or to the whole body of mankind. When we say mankind we don't think of just one person; we think of all men and women upon the face of the earth. When we say God, we shouldn't think of just one Being; we should think of all God Beings. Just as mankind indicates many beings, the word God signifies many Beings. If we are thinking of focalization in Deity we might conceivably say the Lord God, or our Lord, or the LORD of Lords, and recognize the reality of our King. But the word God used alone never signifies one Being any more than the word mankind would signify just one being. So the reality of mankind as a whole can be seen in relationship to this design. We have the Twelve Tribes of the children of Israel in the world today. We have recognized that in our previous meditations: the Twelve segments of mankind. And we need to have some realization of the reality of those Twelve segments and recognize that there is also the Thirteenth, which is the Focalization of the Priesthood. So every man, woman and child upon the face of the earth, without regard to color or creed or belief or nationality, is contained in one of these Thirteen. We say one of the Twelve — yes, one of the Twelve segments; there are Twelve segments. The Thirteenth emerges out of the Twelve, as the body of Jesus emerged out of the body of mankind, so that He was born on earth. We have the same principle. And the Priesthood, those men and women who belong truly to the Priesthood, emerge out of the Twelve Tribes to make the Thirteenth. There is the point of crossing over from the field of being served to the field of true serving. We might correlate that with the pattern of restoration or resurrection from the state of being a sheep to the state of being a member of the body of the Shepherd. It applies in so many ways.
Then, when we see the body of mankind, the Twelve segments, we also must recognize that out of the Twelve, without respect to race or color or anything of that sort, emerge the members of the Thirteenth. If you are not emerging from the Twelve to share the responsibilities of the Thirteenth you do not have any business here, really. Why are you here? To take part in the resurrection, to share the resurrection, so that you can move out of the Twelve Tribes of the children of Israel. What does Israel mean? God's chosen ones, or the chosen ones of God. And so today, on the face of the earth, as far as God is concerned, in the broad sense, He chooses all human beings — but those human beings have to choose to be chosen if they are to be truly chosen. In the overall sense, God chooses all, everyone, without an exception; but God's choosing a person does not make that person be something or other. The individual himself must choose to be chosen — he must volunteer. And then the fact that God has chosen him already begins to have some meaning. So all people come under the classification: the children of Israel.
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In our own thinking, in our own attitudes, we must never assume that the children of Israel means, well, for instance, the Jews. The Jews were made up of two and a half tribes of the children of Israel, plus the Oriental influence — for instance, at the time of the Babylonian captivity there was an intermingling of blood, and so on. Those who come to us today as Jews are not Jews. As it is put in the Book of Magic, the Book of Revelation, those “which say they are Jews, and are not.” There aren't any Jews on the face of the earth today in actual fact. There is not a Jew alive today, in the sense that the idea is usually expressed, because a Jew was truly, or in the sense of exact principle, one of the sons of Judah, and Judah was one of the Twelve Tribes — one of the Thirteen Tribes — but one of the Twelve in the outer encampment, just one of the tribes of the children of Israel. But at the time of the separation of Jerusalem and Samaria, the break in the tribes, nine-and-a-half tribes went with Samaria and two-and-a-half tribes went with Jerusalem. And those two-and-a-half tribes became all mixed up — the children of Benjamin and so on; Benjamites were included. Well then, that mixture of blood produced a situation where there was not any true Jew left. But there were further mixtures that took place, in spite of what the so-called Jews like to think or imagine. They are not just a pure strain of the sons of Judah; they are a mixture; and there is a mixture of some Oriental blood during the patterns of captivity and so on, which became involved.
Well then, we must never think of the Jews as being excluded from the children of Israel, but we must never think of those who call themselves Jews as being the children of Israel. They are no more the children of Israel than you are, or you are just as much one of the members of the children of Israel as any so-called Jew on the face of the earth. We need to realize that, to know it, so that you don't ever segregate yourself from the reality of classification as one of the chosen ones of God. The attempt that has been made to segregate God's chosen people into just one mixed-up tribe that is called the Jews is a complete fallacy. There is no truth in it. So we have no quarrel with the Jews, but we refuse to acknowledge that those who call themselves Jews are a pure strain of the children of Judah, and only those who are the sons of Judah can properly call themselves Jews. So we have the fact that today there are the children of Israel, just as much as at any time in any past cycle — the children of Israel. And you are one of them, of the Twelve segments of mankind, out of which emerges the Thirteenth Tribe, the Tribe of the Priesthood. And your presence here indicates that you are interested in being numbered as one in the Tribe of the Priesthood. You have your background pattern relationship, however, with the Twelve segments, or at least one of them. Actually you don't find the Twelve distinct divisions; you find factors where one of the Twelve segments carries a dominant pattern in relationship to the individual. We are all mixtures, shall we say. We all have something of the Twelve segments within ourselves individually, and yet one is dominant. So mankind is pictured here, mankind as a whole, including every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, without a single exception. We all belong, as far as God is concerned, to the Twelve Tribes, and we may all be properly classified as the children of Israel, God's chosen ones, or the children of God's chosen ones.
Next we note that the body of mankind has meaning only in relationship to the body of God. Remember, God is not one being, any more than mankind is just one being, although the whole of mankind constitutes one body with many members. So God constitutes one body; there is just one God. In the days of the children of Israel, when they said, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God,” they were right. We have just one God, not many gods. We have one God. But God is not just one Being. There is only one God, but this one body of God contains many God Beings, just as the one body of mankind contains many men and women. And man, mankind, was created and brought forth on earth in the image and likeness of God — one body with many members. So the body of mankind cannot have true meaning without a true relationship with the body of God. And here we see the revelation of the principles by which that relationship is established: The physical body as such; then, next, the mind — we have noted the importance of intelligence, and that without intelligence there is no meaningfulness as far as the individual is concerned — so the conscious mind; and then the reality of the Holy Place.
The Holy Place is a place where all true members of the Priesthood may serve in their appointed season, representing the people to God and representing God to the people. There is the dual function of those who are true members of the Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. We are functioning on the basis of the Priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. So we have the realization that the Priesthood serves in a dual capacity: representing the people to God, and representing God to the people. Then, in the Holy Place there is a direct contact — the people could come into the Outer Court, and any authorized member of the Priesthood could be in the Holy Place. There we have the close association pattern. But only the High Priest could go into the Holy of Holies, carrying the pattern to a point of focalization. You have come to see the Principle of Focalization, and to realize that only on the basis of focalization can there be any true meaning. The people themselves, the body of the Twelve Tribes, is carried into a pattern of focalization in the Priesthood; and the Priesthood is carried into a pattern of focalization in the High Priest, the supreme point; and the supreme point of this focalization meets the Focalization of Deity in the Holy of Holies. So there is the contact, in the direct sense, with God.
We have studied something of the Shekinah Pattern, but don't imagine you know all there is to know about it yet. We have only introduced it. We have recognized the reality of the presence of the One Who Dwells in the midst of the Fire between the cherubims. There are a number of interesting factors here that we have not studied yet — the cherubims, for instance. But here, in the Holy of Holies, there is the High Priest, and there also we have the pattern of association with Deity, the High Point of contact with the body of God on earth, so that the body of humanity is really a body for the body of God. As you put clothing on your physical body to give it an outer form of appearance, you may say that the body of mankind is supposed to be the clothing for the body of God. We begin to see that mankind is supposed to be the clothing for God's body on earth, so that God's body can be exposed to the view of man — not naked, but clothed. The kind of clothing that mankind has been offering God down through the centuries has been unacceptable. The clothing that mankind has been offering God has been worse than filthy gunnysacks; it has been putrid, rotten. Most of it stinks! Mankind is supposed to be the clothing for the body of God, so that God can come on earth to reveal Himself, to express Himself, to act, to do, on earth. But we must provide the kingly robes for the King if He is to visit us. We are supposed to provide the clothing for the body of God. And here is the picture of that clothing: mankind, the Twelve segments, emerging through the patterns of focalization into the Priesthood, and through the Priesthood into the High Priest, to provide the contact point.
Now we have people here in the Twelve Tribes, and also the Thirteenth — but that emerges out of the Twelve, and represents the heart principle. There are other things there, but representing the heart, the emotional pattern — not emotionalism, but the true perception through the heart, the feeling nature, in relationship to love and beauty, appreciation of the Divine Design. Other factors are included; that is not complete. But in any case, we have male and female in the body of mankind. When it emerges to the point of the representation where we are considering the Priesthood in the Tabernacle, what do we find? The Priesthood as such, then, represents the positive or male principle, and the tabernacle as such represents the negative or female principle. In the final analysis we find that the High Priest represents the male sex organ, and the Holy of Holies represents the female sex organs; because sex, in its Divine sense, in its true sense, is the holiest and most sacred thing there is in relationship to mankind on earth. And yet man has tended to make it something sordid, something evil. We find human beings who take the attitude that any function in sex, particularly if it is not for purposes of reproduction, is somehow vile, somehow sordid, somehow evil. And under the sordid patterns of the world's function, the filthy garments of the gunnysacks, it probably is a bit on the sordid side. That which carries the potentiality of the highest vibrational factors, the most delicate that can be known to human beings, has under misuse the capacity of being the worst. We find things that are crude and that are not delicate; they don't have the capacity for the delicate aspects of life. And the most delicate thing in life is sex, the thing that can be most easily bruised, most easily spoiled, most easily made sordid. But that does not change the fact that it is supposed to be the apex of beauty in the Divine Design — delicate in relationship to the Holy of Holies, the most sacred thing there is.
When we consider the body in the absolute sense, we have to recognize that the male and the female, separate, do not complete a body. Actually, in order to have one human body it takes a male and female body to make one human body. But these human bodies don't make a complete body. We have to have the aspects of Deity; we have to have all of the factors — the Whole, extending clear to the Cosmos, is One Body. And our relatedness to that Whole is essential to our wholeness. So until we begin to have a pattern of relationship with the Whole, on the basis of the principles by reason of which God created us, we cannot be whole. But we are not whole by ourselves at any point along the way. You as a person, you can't consider yourself a complete being, a whole thing, all by yourself. No two people can be a whole thing. A man and a woman together, properly balanced, properly coordinated, cannot be considered to be a whole; because they need their neighbors, they need their other parts of the body of mankind. And the body of mankind, with all of its members, is not a whole without its relationship to the body of God. And so on, up and down the line. And so, the Wholeness.
Where is the point of wholeness? Now I have known people to imagine, “Well, if these things are true, then I must get a husband or a wife; then I would be whole, everything would be all right.” That is one of the worst delusions. How many are there who have husbands and wives that are whole? Not very many, not very many. At least ninety percent of the marriages on the face of the earth are not Divinely ordained. They are not married, except legally. I think I am being generous when I say that there might be ten percent of the marriages on earth Divinely ordained, properly correlated. I think I am being very generous. If God were to set things aright by some magic means, it means He would dissolve ninety percent of the marriages just overnight like that, reshuffle the works and put them together the way they ought to be. So, even husband and wife together in the proper balance of being are still not whole without the rest. We need each other in the patterns of being, up and down the line. So, unless it is the right relationship, you can function better alone than you can in the wrong relationship. So be careful. When I talk about sex, don't jump to the conclusion that there is the necessity of some kind of immediate development in the pattern of sex in order to be spiritual. But I am talking about basic principles, which you have to begin to see, you have to begin to get the idea, before you can accept and before you can let your consciousness expand so that you can understand the basic principles of being.
And the High Priest in the Holy of Holies represents union between male and female on earth, as the highest form of worship before God, in the revelation of the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells, the most sacred, the most holy, of all those things which human beings can experience. But sex is not limited merely to the function of the sexual organs of the body. Everything that we do is sex. Let us remember that. We are functioning on the basis of sex here. I am carrying the positive pattern of sex and you are carrying the negative pattern of sex — men and women, all together here. If we did not have a sex pattern set up here, in this sense, your presence here would not mean a thing — the positive expression of that which I offer to you and your response to it. The One Law, is the positive and the negative. Without it there can be nothing. Every function of life is under that Law in one way or another. And in the way in which I use the word sex every function of life is included, all of our relationships, without any exception. It is all sex. So let us enlarge our vision, stop thinking of sex merely as the physical, intimate relationship between a male and a female. Let us begin to realize that if I am carrying the positive expression to you here, if I am here as the High Priest, shall we say, expressing to you, then you are functioning in the pattern of the female body. Whether you are male or female is beside the point. And is there anything intimate in it? If there isn't, why are you here? Of course there is something intimate. Not in the ordinary concept of physical sex, no. We are not interested in that sort of thing. We are interested in something that is holy and pure, sacred and Divine. But unless we can establish an intimate relationship spiritually, an intimate relationship mentally, on the basis of the sex principle, we have nothing.
There are perversions of the sex principle — we recognize that. But I am talking about the fact that you cannot have friendship between two men, between two women, without the manifestation of the sex principle. But does that mean that they have some kind of intimate relationships necessarily? Not at all, not at all. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about the fact that you cannot have anything in manifestation without the reality of the sex principle. And if it is going to function it must have a pattern of focalization. There must be the reality of the High Priest; there must be the reality of the Holy of Holies. But can there be a Holy of Holies if there is not a Holy Place? Can there be? The individual who tries to have a Holy of Holies without having a Holy Place, will it work? No. Can you have a Holy of Holies without an Ark of the Covenant? No, impossible. There must be the Ark of the Covenant or there is no Holy of Holies — the Ark of the Covenant. There must be the Outer Court; there must be the encampment. We cannot leave out one of these principles and have anything. We may have the appearance for a little while, but it disintegrates — it is soon gone; it is lost. We cannot have a Holy Place without a mind, an Outer Court, that is related to the Holy Place, that connects up with it, that is true to it. And we must have a relationship between the Outer Court — the mind — and the body; and the body has its own direct relationship to the Holy Place then too, as well as through the mind. There is also a connection through the heart. And we begin to realize that the whole thing is integrated and that every human being contains all of these things.
Do you think it is only as we have a husband-and-wife pattern, for instance, that we have this? No. Take any one of you, male or female, and there we find what? We find the male and the female in the one body, in every human being. You have your male aspect and your female aspect. We may call you a woman, dominantly female; we may call you a man, dominantly male; but you carry within yourself both male and female principles. You are both positive and negative inside of yourself, over and over again. And you have the Tabernacle inside of yourself. You have the High Priest and the Priesthood within yourself. You have the Twelve segments of mankind in your own body, as a single, individual person. It is all in you and it is all in the whole. But you, segregated from the whole, cannot have any meaning in relationship to the expression of these things. You need to know these things.
If you are going to serve someone, to really help that person come to understand the reality of being, you must recognize that you are beginning to work with an individual where there are the Twelve segments of humanity, the Twelve Tribes. You begin to work with the individual where there is an Outer Court. There must be something of a Holy Place. If you can't find something of a Holy Place, you can't do anything. You might as well quit. There must be a point where you can find the Holy Place in that individual. If you can't find the Holy Place in the individual you will never find the Holy of Holies, you will never find the Ark of the Covenant, you will never be able to save that person from himself. That person who is using his body and mind and heart to produce ill things, to destroy himself and others, must be changed from that pattern of action. And if you are going to change him, there must be the realization of the reality of the Holy Place. And the Holy Place, once it is made manifest — the only entrance into the Holy of Holies is through the Holy Place. You hope to find the Holy of Holies? You must let the Holy Place take form in you. You must be true to the Holy Place within yourself and function correctly in relationship to it in body and mind and heart before you can hope to pass through the Holy Place to the Holy of Holies in the outworking of your own experience, your own individual illumination, your own awareness of relationship with God, or Deity.
Some there are who say, “Well I want to function in relationship to physical things out here. I'm perfectly willing to learn things, gain knowledge. I would like very much to visit the Holy of Holies, but I'm not going to stay steady enough, I'm not going to be true enough, I'm not going to be honest enough, I'm not going to be centered in God enough, to allow the development of a Holy Place within myself. But please take me to the Holy of Holies. I'd like to visit there at least once. I'd like to know what it is to see the Ark of the Covenant, to rest before it, to commune with the One Who Dwells. I would like that very much. But I don't have time, or inclination, or steadiness, or all the other things necessary to the development of a Holy Place.” Without a Holy Place you will never see the Holy of Holies — never — the Holy Place must take form in you and be a reality in you before you can pass through the veil. What is the veil in the Temple? Solomon's Temple or the Tabernacle, they were both made on the same basic design, the same principles revealed. And it was said that the veil of the Temple was rent in twain. Yes, the veil of the temple. Until our Master came and revealed Deity, for a long time no one had entered, in any true sense, no one had entered that which was symbolized by the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle or the Temple. They had not passed through the veil. But how many have done it since? Precious few. They have not been willing to have a Holy Place, so that they would have an avenue of approach to the Holy of Holies, and you will never find the passage into the Holy of Holies unless you have a Holy Place through which you can move to find and know the Holy of Holies. You must be a whole Tabernacle, a whole Temple, with a Holy Priesthood and a High Priest, individually. It is you. Male or female, it makes no difference. And it is not a question of whether you are married or not, whether you have a mate or not; it is a matter of whether you are willing to let the Holy Place become a reality within you, so that you can have an avenue of approach, a way, that leads to the veil that is rent asunder, that you may pass through that veil in your appointed season. I'm not talking about dying; I'm talking about living. But you can pass through that veil into the Holy of Holies right here on earth, and see and know the Ark of the Covenant.
The Ark of the Covenant is right here, but try to find it without a Holy Place! Man has been trying to do it for a good many centuries and no one has succeeded. There is only one Way—God's Way. Our Master revealed it on earth. Until we begin to recognize the Magic of Being, the magic of living which He offered to us, until we are ready to accept and to follow in the Way, the Truth and the Life, and yield to the Shekinah Pattern of Being, we will never know. The Shekinah Pattern of Being must begin to work through you while you are still in the Outer Court. If you see the Cloud of Glory, does that mean you are in the Holy Place? Not at all. It does not even necessarily mean that you are in the Outer Court. “The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and shone round about.” You can see the glory without getting that far. But you have to pass through the Outer Court to get to the Holy Place; there is no other way in. It must be through the Outer Court. Then there must be a Holy Place, functioning correctly, before you can reach the Holy of Holies and come at last to see the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, above the mercy seat, between the cherubims, where you know the wonder and the beauty and the reality of the Ark of the Covenant.
The Master talks a good deal about the Ark of the Covenant. He talked about agreement on earth as touching these things. What things? The things of heaven. Not the things of human imagination. The things of heaven on earth. “If two or three of you shall agree on earth as touching these things, it shall be done of my Father which is in heaven.” Agreement, covenant, the same thing. A covenant is an agreement; an agreement is a covenant. The Ark of the Agreement, the Ark of the Covenant, the center of the covenant, the center of the agreement, the place of agreement, the place of meeting, the place where heaven and earth are one — that is in the Holy of Holies, but you must reach it through the Holy Place.
