Meeting The Masters: Reflections

Showing posts with label Reflections. Show all posts

Monday 28 February 2022

Materialism is a Kind of Immaturity

Have you ever wondered whether people who don't believe in God or, at the very least, the reality of a spiritual world might actually be incapacitated in some way? Because if you aren't alive to the reality of spirit it means you have no real sense of the good or the beautiful or of glory or nobility or mystery. If you think these are just human constructs you can't be aware of them at all.

You truly think there is nothing beyond what you can see and touch, and that human beings are sacks of meat with bodies that are just machines and minds that are only like computers? If you have any real sensitivity you must be at least somewhat aware of the fact of spirit. Even if you can't quite believe in God because the religious presentations of him are outdated in many ways you should have some kind of sense of the spiritual behind the everyday. The problem of evil often brought up as a stumbling block to spiritual acceptance makes no sense. What about the far greater problem of good?

Are materialists people who simply lack imagination? Or do they just need to grow up? A bit of both, I would say. Then, of course, there are some who don't want to believe in the spiritual and we will leave their motivations for another time.

Thursday 4 November 2021

Sickness and Health

We should understand life, not just physical but spiritual too, in terms of health and sickness and the latter should be recognised as such and not redefined as just a different, equally valid sort of health. If we do not have that attitude then society will become sick and out of touch with reality. As now.

Rational distaste for something is not irrational fear of it. The feeling of disgust for the unnatural all human beings experience when in a spiritually healthy state should not be stigmatised as prejudice or intolerance but seen as part of a properly operating spiritual immune system. Of course, the old adage of hate the sin, love the sinner means we should always distinguish between the sickness and the person who is sick but loving the sinner does not mean accepting or, worse, celebrating the sin.

We live in an age of spiritual sickness but don't recognise it because we don't know, or won't accept, that there is such thing as spiritual health. If we were true to the inner compass we all have when not turned aside from it by selfish desires, ego, ideology (any ideology), prejudice, wishful thinking and so on we would know it and be spiritually healthy. With plenty still to learn but in a good spiritual state, aligned with both God and nature. Now, however, we are very sick and getting more so by the day. The good news is that the cure is always at hand and only requires that we cease to resist reality. The bad news is that most of us do resist reality.

Friday 1 October 2021

Leonardo, a Fallen Genius?

I saw another programme in the Ancient Aliens series recently, a series I enjoy for its examination of unexplained phenomena and ancient mysteries without going along with its central premise of "It's all aliens!". The programme was about Leonardo da Vinci and how he may have been inspired by encounters with extraterrestrials (don't ask) to include strands of esoteric thought in his work, some of which he encoded in his paintings. There was a best selling novel about this not so long ago though I haven't read it and don't plan to do so. One of the ideas was that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. As far as I can see this was suggested for no better reason than that, as a Jewish man of around 30, he must have been married to someone. But why? He was Jesus. He had a unique mission. There was no reason he should have done what was customary at the time. If he was married why would that have been left out of the story of his life? And how could he have asked his disciples to leave their wives and family if he had a wife himself? No, this idea seems to be a bit of wishful thinking to me.

The image of the admittedly female-looking St John in the painting of The Last Supper was brought up to support this contention along with the fact that this figure and that of Jesus next to it form an M shape but, frankly, so what? Leonardo may well have believed this story but that doesn't make it true. There were dozens of underground sects and heretical offshoots in the Middle Ages, mostly descending from some form of Gnosticism, whose members might have been convinced they were the possessors of hidden knowledge but that doesn't make it so. The temptation of being a possessor of esoteric wisdom hidden from the masses is a great spiritual trap, designed to induce exclusivity and spiritual pride. So, Leonardo may have belonged to a group that fished in the pool of the occult but there's a lot of murky stuff down there. Truths and deceptions are often all mixed up in those waters.

None of that is why I am writing this post though. The programme showed us the 15 or so (I can't recall the exact number but it's not high) surviving paintings by the master. And a master of art he clearly was which makes the question I am about to ask (which was not a point made by the programme) all the more relevant. It is this. Why are so many of the faces in Leonardo's paintings so weird, and not in a good way? I find them disquieting and I assume he meant them to be. He was too great an artist for this to be an accident or the result of incompetence. Look at this picture of Christ, for example, currently the most expensive painting in the world.

Is that a good face? I don't think so. I find there is something almost evil in it, especially the eyes. There is a certain beauty and mystery but there is also something uncanny, even cruel and I don't like it. I am certainly not inspired by it as I am by many pictures of Christ.

Then there's the Virgin of the Rocks from the National Gallery in London.

The babies are too plump and ugly, especially Jesus, look at his left hand and legs, but that was the style of the time. But then the expression on the baby Jesus's face suggests just a bit too much self-assurance (you bow down to me) while the faces of the Virgin Mary and the angel seem somewhat complacent, even narcissistic. The style of their faces is spiritualised but the actual execution puts a kink in that to create a kind of unsettling discord. Something is not quite right.

Am I being over-imaginative? Then look at this picture of John the Baptist.

Come on! This is sly, seductive, sexual. The finger is supposed to be pointing to heaven but it doesn't come off like that. This is not John the Baptist by any stretch of the imagination. Leonardo's homosexuality is well-known and it seems to have affected his approach to spirituality. Maybe it drove him to hidden things and rebellion against convention and orthodoxy but it also seems to me that he was trying to create a kind of spiritual corruption in his work. The famous smile of the Mona Lisa, which I shan't bother to include here since I assume you are familiar with it, has always seemed to me more like a self-satisfied smirk of superiority and I find this in most of Leonardo's paintings as though he was deliberately trying to poison beauty by creating beautiful things and then putting a worm in the apple. One can only speculate as to why but I have to say that, despite his inarguable genius, I don't see him as on the side of the angels.

Obviously not everyone will agree!

Sunday 13 June 2021

Thomas and Henry

I went to the Thomas Becket exhibition (as they call him now, I always thought he was Thomas a Becket) at the British Museum last week. Whilst giving a good account of its subject the exhibition wasn't quite as interesting as I'd hoped simply because there isn't that much that survives. There were some beautiful reliquary boxes and illuminated manuscripts, some stained glass and seals, and they did the best they could with what there is but it isn't a great deal.

I'm sure everyone knows the story. On 29th December 1170 Thomas, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, was murdered in his cathedral by four knights acting, as they thought, at the behest of the king, Henry II. Thomas and Henry had been friends in earlier times but had fallen out over, as I understand it, disputes to do with secular and ecclesiastical power, for instance whether the clergy could be tried in secular courts. It was basically the typical Medieval tussle between church and state. The whole of Europe was horrified by the assassination and a mere three years later Thomas was canonised by the pope. Henry was forced to do penance, even though he hadn't directly ordered the killing, and walked barefoot into Canterbury Cathedral wearing sackcloth and ashes where he allowed himself to be flogged by monks. Canterbury thereafter became a famous place of pilgrimage as depicted in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in which a group of pilgrims entertain each other on the way to the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket.

The story had a curious echo about 350 years later when another Henry and another Thomas clashed. This was Henry VIII and his Lord Chancellor, Thomas More. The situations were surprisingly similar. A proud and arrogant monarch and a man he thought his friend and "good servant" who fell out over religious matters. In Thomas More's case it was his refusal to accept the annulment of Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Like his predecessor he put loyalty to God above loyalty to King even if he was never disloyal to the King other than in matters of conscience. This dispute also ended in death although this time it was a legal execution after Thomas had been convicted of treason. Curiously, this Thomas wore a hair shirt under his outer garments just as the earlier one is said to have done.

Both these men stood up to the worldly powers when they saw these powers as exceeding their authority and stepping into spiritual territory. They paid for their principled stands with their lives. Without wishing to appear melodramatic, (for instance, I don't envisage executions) I wonder if we might not take some heart from their examples. It seems very possible that the world will demand more and more from us, going from gestures of allegiance to its cause to intellectual and maybe even physical signs of submission. This has actually started to happen over the last year and may well increase. It is important to avoid the "martyr complex" in which you self-importantly see yourself as a valiant soldier for truth but are really just giving in to egotistical inflation. The humility of both Thomases, especially, I think, the second one, is critical. But the signs are there. The churches appear to have put the state before God recently and one must assume that anyone who takes the opposite stance will be condemned, probably as a mad person and hater of humanity. But those of us who believe in God have to put that belief first. If God is real everything must be seen in a spiritual light. The spiritual cannot be secondary. It must always be the reason for everything else which makes sense only as an expression of the spiritual. This hierarchy is now being reversed. That is something the two Thomases understood, resisted and died to prevent.

Tuesday 19 January 2021

Unity and Division

We all know, we can all sense, that something very powerful is in the air. There are obvious outer signs, as in plagues and political turmoil, but the real crisis is spiritual. The sifting process of sheep and goats is well under way. Now, divisions are going to increase and all those who call out for unity, thinking that unity is necessarily a good thing are going to be disappointed. There cannot be unity between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, and these things are being separated out. We are experiencing a ratcheting up of spiritual tension, perhaps even the prophesied time when members of the same household will look at each other with incomprehension and deep hostility, when, according to Luke 12:53, "They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” See here, for instance.

Modern forms of spirituality always emphasis unity. And, in many circumstances, unity is undoubtedly a good thing. The attempt to overcome division and reach a point of mutual understanding is right and proper, but only when division is superficial. When, as increasingly now, it is fundamental, you reach a point when to talk of unity is naive foolishness. When too much has to be sacrificed to reach unity, what good is it? We live in a world of darkness in which powerful forces work against God and creation. There cannot be unity in such a world. Unity can and should be reached between such complementary things as man and woman but not between opposites which are mutually exclusive.

However, if division is inevitable we must try to avoid some of the usual consequences of division. Anger and hatred are also increasing now it seems. We must try very hard not to succumb to these because they will turn good to evil. We may be directed towards God in our minds but if our hearts are full of hatred then our true orientation is in the other direction. This is why we are told to love our enemies. Not so much for their sake as for our own. We must not let ourselves be poisoned by our resistance to evil. Recognise it, denounce it, fight it but do not let it into your own heart. I say this because I see the tendency in myself and I know it is wrong. We need Christ to discern truth from lies and we also need him to show us us to respond to the lies.

Thursday 24 December 2020

Christmas Light

If there was ever a time when we awaited light to be born in darkness, it is surely now. The darkness is all the more intense because most people don't recognise it for what it is. But those who do recognise it perceive that we live in a time of very great darkness.

For darkness read spiritual ignorance which results in spiritual evil. It would surprise many people to be told that now is a time of great evil. Are we not more enlightened than ever with our progressive attitudes of empathy and equality? Do we not care for others more? Have we not largely overcome cruelty and become more compassionate than our ancestors? This is all quite true. We do have more sympathy with the other than we used to, externally, at least, but ask yourself why this is. Could it be we have more feeling for material suffering because we are more materialistic? Nicolai Berdyaev seemed to imply this when he wrote as follows in his work The Destiny of Man from 1931.

"Modern civilised man cannot stand cruelty, suffering or pain, and he is more pitying than men of earlier times, not because he stands above them morally and spiritually. He has come to be more afraid of pain and suffering, has become softer and less courageous and fearless: he has less endurance. He has weakened, spiritually. This is the reverse side of the increase in sympathy and pity, the lessening of cruelty."

In other words, have we become more compassionate not because of an increase in spiritual understanding but a decrease? Have we so lost focus on the spiritual plane that all our attention is transferred to the material so that what seems as an advance is actually a grave loss? I would suggest that much of our modern empathy comes from our disconnect from higher levels of being. When our entire being is materially focused that sphere becomes the centre of our attention. It seems we are more compassionate but our compassion is really only directed towards the earthly man. Christmas is there to remind us of the spiritual man and to tell us that this little limited earthly self is by no means all there is to us. In fact, it is merely the projection of the soul in 3 dimensional space. It is not even our real self. It is part of the totality of our being and so of course it should not be neglected or denied. Its suffering should certainly be relieved as much as possible within the bounds of spiritual good. But Christ did not come to remove suffering. He came to sanctify it so that it could be the means of redemption, the way whereby the soul could be liberated from identification with the earthly self. The birth of spiritual light in material darkness, which is what Christmas is, should point us towards that deep truth. The light comes from beyond this world. There is nothing in this world that can save us or liberate us from the pain and suffering to be found here. It is only by following that spiritual light from beyond the darkness of matter that we can really find both ourselves and our freedom from suffering.

This is a time of great evil but we don't see it because we don't acknowledge spirit. We know and recognise material evil but we don't see how we have fallen into spiritual evil. Evil is what damages good. We see what damages material or earthly good while at the same time perpetuating the attitudes that damage spiritual good. We are guilty of great spiritual evil, perhaps more than any previous generation. The light in darkness that is Christmas should awaken us to that and bring us back to our spiritual senses.

Thursday 24 September 2020

You Are What You Think

Sometimes I discuss spiritual matters with non-believers, and sometimes with ardent non-believers who do not just dismiss religion and spirituality but see them as positively pernicious, the product of superstition and ignorance. Often on these latter occasions I end up being accused of ad hominem arguments in which I supposedly play the man not the ball. I have to concede this is very probably true but that is because of my sense when I speak to a person like this that they believe what they believe, or refuse to believe what they want not to believe, because of the sort of person they are.

The root of faith is in the will not the mind. There is plenty of evidence for God in scripture, nature, the human mind and life itself, but there is no overwhelming intellectual evidence nor meant to be since that would remove the essential role of free will in the matter. This means whether we believe or not depends on the sort of person we are, on a natural tending towards God or one away from him. God is truth and love so this means that whether we believe or not is ultimately down to whether we respond to, value and treasure truth and love, particularly whether we do so above ourselves Doubt is permitted, that is a normal part of the human experience, but outright rejection is not. And even doubt should not be a permanent or dominant state.

I will not go so far as to say that good people believe in God and bad people do not but, in spiritual terms, there is certainly an element of truth in this. If you accept God that means your heart is open to the spiritual heart of the universe, and this essentially is goodness. If you reject God that means your heart is closed and that essentially is evil. You may be a moral and virtuous person in your everyday dealings with other people, but that means very little if you refuse to acknowledge your Creator. It implies there is an egotism and a self-will within you that denies and rejects the source of all truth and beauty and goodness. In this sense, you are what you think.

Critics of this point of view will point to the many people who claim they believe in God but behave badly. I would say two things to this. Firstly, we are all sinners and fail many times. What counts is whether we repent our failures and sincerely try again. Secondly, there are, of course, many hypocrites and self-deceivers who use God for their own ends. These people clearly do not believe in God. If you believe in God, you love him and keep his commandments or, at least, try to keep them. There is belief of the head and belief of the heart. I am talking about the latter here which is the only one that counts.

Thursday 18 June 2020

A Reflection on the Present Time

I have been following a spiritual way of life for 42 years now. That sounds rather grand but all I really mean by it is that I accepted the reality of God 42 years ago and have tried to live according to that reality since then. I am painfully conscious of the many ways in which I have fallen short of my aspirations and ambitions, and I understand more than ever now how we are only saved from the sin of egotism and selfishness by the grace of God. We are totally dependent on that. Without it we cannot escape from this world which we carry with us all the time because we are part of it and it, in a very real way, is part of us. But if we genuinely do turn ourselves over to the love and mercy of God then we are saved. I remember reading some time ago a quote from the prophet Isaiah, "All our righteousness is as filthy rags". I was struck by the power of this statement and I recognise its truth more and more. That doesn't mean that we should not try to be righteous (a lovely word, by the way) but we should do it for the love of God not trying to use it as some kind of passport to heaven because it never can be.

All this is a preliminary to what follows. In around 1990 my spiritual teachers told me that we were currently living during a period of greater vulgarity than at any time in the history of our planet. I believe they knew that history and therefore could speak with authority. What on earth would they say now? Most people of my acquaintance genuinely think that things are better than ever today. Only recently I was told that this is the best time to live despite its problems, and this is not just because of greater material ease due to the advantages of a modern technological society. We are kinder, more tolerant and more equal and this makes us better than our forefathers. I don't doubt we are better in some ways but the fact is we are a spirit-denying society and this makes everything about us evil. Yes, I use that word. Not mistaken or in error but evil. Evil is the rejection of God. Certainly it can have more dramatic manifestations as in violence and cruelty but those are just particular sorts of evil. The heart that is closed to God lives as a material being (even if it has some spiritual goals) and this makes it open to all kinds of spiritual (as opposed to material) evil. The behaviour of a material being does get increasingly vulgar (to use the Master's word) because, losing touch with higher reality, it becomes increasingly debased, focused on its material self and the pleasures of that self. Material pleasure is not wrong but it should never be seen as primary let alone all there is. It must always be known in the light of our reality as spiritual beings.

Once you abandon God, you abandon reality. That is what we have done. It explains why the natural way is rejected now and anything that happens to exist in any form is regarded as equally valid as anything else that happens to exist. When the spiritual order, the vertical hierarchy of being, is denied, the horizontal or natural order cannot stand since it has its roots in the spiritual. Now we have no roots. We are blown about in any direction dictated by the worldly powers because there is nothing else against which we can measure truth. We are like corks drifting around on the ocean. Past generations may have lost their spiritual understanding but they still had the worldview built by that understanding and it was the determining part of their experience of what life was. But this worldview has been chipped away at and gradually demolished over the past few decades and the speed of demolition has increased dramatically since the turn of the millennium, coincidentally or not. I feel the solar eclipse in August 1999 marked a definite shift from a time when the old world still had some authoritative power to one in which new ways became completely in the ascendant. They are now the norm.

The only thing we have that is wholly our own is our will, our capacity to make a free choice. This is the part of us that is actually independent of God. That is why what we decide to believe is of critical importance. From the acceptance or rejection of God (and agnosticism is still a kind of rejection) comes everything else. Clearly, it must be a proper acceptance. It must be God we accept not some kind of idea we might have about him, and it must be an acceptance of the heart not just the mind as appears to be the case with so many of the current church leaders whose understanding of God is filtered through a basic worldliness. The present time is the result of a mass turning away of the human will that now seeks its own independent fulfilment rather than fulfilment in God which is the only true fulfilment. The modern world may have been inspired by forces of spiritual evil but it has been chosen by us. We cannot claim innocence. We may have been manipulated and deceived but nothing obliged us to succumb to that. It was a free choice on our part and we will have to live with the consequences of that choice.

Today we are faced with a false good and a true good. The false good is the good of this world. It is political good, humanitarian good. Any good without God. It is the good of the human race considered primarily as human beings and without reference, or with just token reference, to their Creator who is also their properly destined end. It is not just a matter of a different kind of good but of a false good which is actually evil because it redirects spiritual qualities such as love and intelligence into material channels, seeking material good. But it is even worse than that. It is not just spiritually neutral but anti-spiritual. The 20th century was largely spiritually neutral, for the majority of people anyway. The 21st has become anti-spiritual because even the forces that pretend to material good are, as we see now, motivated by hatred and the desire for destruction. We live in a time when evil runs rampant disguised as good. I do not think we can escape this, and even to try to stand against it outwardly, thinking that the tide can somehow be turned, is a mistake. We should always proclaim our opposition to it but not in the hope that this will have any effect other than for those relatively few individuals who look for light in a world of increasing darkness. These are the end times and our hope must be in God and he never fails those who place their hope in him.

Wednesday 22 April 2020

The Present and the Future

From a personal point of view, and setting aside its wider implications, I am actually enjoying this lockdown. Where I am in the south of England the weather has been glorious over the last month. Sunny days, not too hot, blue skies and clean air, possibly due to the fact that traffic is back to the level of the 1950s. There are few people when you go out, much less noise and overall a feeling of peace and calm. I hesitate to say this, but the fear people are feeling actually appears to be making them behave a little better.

I have two comments to make on this. First, it is easier to be aware of the spiritual undercurrent to life when the material world has slowed down to a minimum. It's nothing like a monastery, of course, but there is an element of that. When I go out for my daily walk there is a relative silence and stillness that is conducive to directing one's mind towards God. It makes you realise how in the normal world everything conspires against that. Now, when people are not bustling about and car radios are not blasting their infernal racket into the public space, you notice that you are not constantly having to surround yourself with a sort of psychic armour which is quite exhausting, energy-wise. You can engage with your environment without having to fight it off. I find this a blessed relief and it makes me realise how degraded the atmosphere of the world has become, even in my lifetime.

The second thing is this. Are people becoming, ever so slightly, more prepared to open up to spiritual things? Fear of death is a wonderful prompt for doing this and Covid19 obliges in that respect. The opening up is clearly on a rudimentary level but let us suppose for the sake of argument that the virus and the response to it have been steered and directed by the demons with the eventual aim of control then collapse then despair or something along those lines. What if these things lead to a spiritual reaction as the only alternative to suicide? If there is nowhere else left to go then people might go there. That's not as good as them going there of their own accord because they have outgrown the attractions of worldly materialism but if worldly materialism turns very bad then it might cause them to search elsewhere, and that is a start.

The world has changed over the last few weeks and I don't believe it can ever go back to what it was. Where it will go is anyone's guess. Further down into increased spiritual emptiness and the next phase in the tightening of demonic control? Or might it start some kind of turning around? My best guess is that both things may happen. For a majority, the former looks most likely but a substantial minority may start to have the scales drop from their eyes. If you go by the media, this virus is an excuse to effectively deny the reality of God even more. It is quite remarkable how the media is so drugged by its own importance that it actually seems to want the virus to be really bad, seemingly for the sake of a story. The left, too, appears to want the situation to be bad and will attack anyone who says it's not as bad as all that. I would surmise that's partly because they see it as an opportunity to extend state control but also because the left is consumed with a desire for destruction, that's what it's all about after all, so something like a pandemic is grist to its mill. On the other hand, many on the right, particularly in America, go to the other extreme and dismiss it, and that's misguided too. Believing what you want to believe to suit a political agenda is wrong whatever stance you take.

One thing is certain. We have moved on to the next step. This will be a short phase between the past and a new world with different preoccupations. If the economies of the world shrink severely, as seems inevitable, the situation a year or two from now will be very different to that a year or two ago. The virus will be the least of our problems. People will become more dependent on the state which will not be a healthy position. But none of that will ultimately matter for those individuals who place their faith in God and their hope in a spiritual world far removed from the darkness of this world when it is separated from its spiritual source.

Friday 10 April 2020

A Short Good Friday Reflection

Easter Sunday is the most important day in the Christian calendar and commemorates the most important event in the history of the world. The day that death was conquered. But Easter Sunday needed the tragedy of Good Friday for it to happen as it did. The resurrection could not have taken place without the death of Jesus, killed on the instigation of a baying mob convinced of its own righteousness.

The lesson I draw from this is that the gateway to eternal life is through death. That does not just mean physical death. It is the death of the old person which entails the complete renunciation of the earthly man with his worldly desires and fears. There is no entry to the new life of heaven without the giving up of everything associated with the old life of this world. That doesn't require us to abandon genuine love for what is true in this world but we must see that in the light of heavenly reality. If we do not see it in that way but in its own light then we are still attached to the world, and nothing that has anything worldly in it can get into heaven. The way is guarded by a holy flame through which none can pass whose being is not purified of all worldly stain.

Good Friday represents final purification. It is the stripping away of all the residual "dark matter" that contaminates the soul and prevents it from receiving and reflecting the light of God. It is a bitter day of sorrow and grief but leads to the brightest of heavenly dawns.

Saturday 28 March 2020

The Moon and Venus

Last night there was a conjunction of the crescent moon and Venus. Above is a terrible photo taken on my 5 year old phone, which wasn't that great in the first place, at about 7pm GMT.The photo is bad but it was a beautiful sight. The moon appears to be hanging directly below Venus as from a thread, and the two planets are brought into a harmonious partnership that brings out the benevolent side of both of them. The moon and Venus are both feminine planets associated with feelings, nurturing, beauty, attraction and the like, and when they come together in conjunction their influence is gentle, peaceful, loving.

The moon travels swiftly so this won't last long. Look at the two tonight and you will see that she has moved on several degrees to the left as it is in this picture. But this is a reminder that while everything in the world seems to have been turned upside down over the last couple of weeks, the deep eternal truths remain as they were. The servants of God carry on with their business, sometimes supporting, sometimes chastising but always working towards the great end of instilling the whole of creation with the divine word before eventually raising it up in to the throne of God, purified and resplendent. Matter exists to glorify the Lord which means give full expression to the hidden majesty of God and enable his light to shine. Without the material world love and beauty could not be known. The moon and Venus are reminders of this holy truth.

Update 29th March

Here's a picture of the Moon and Venus showing them 48 hours later. You can see how the moon has progressed in that time.

Saturday 21 March 2020

Hope

Yesterday was the first day of spring. It may seem irrelevant that the present panic/crisis coincides with this time of the year but God speaks to us in a variety of ways, though rarely directly, and I like to think he is speaking to those of us who care to listen now. And what he is saying is this.

Even at this time, when there is darkness all around, and fear and uncertainty and no one knows what to believe, look to the eternal truths. The beauty of life goes on. New life, new growth continues. Behind the chaos of the human world there is an underlying goodness and truth which is reflected in the cycles of nature and the patterns of life. You are frightened of death but look to the bigger picture. God has not abandoned you. He sees you have wandered far from him and he is giving you the opportunity to reflect on what really matters. You might have dedicated your life to a false idol, whether that be money, pursuit of pleasure or just the self. This idol will end up taking from you all you have, all you are. You will be left the husk of a person if you carry on worshipping it. But look up from the earth to the heavens and rejoice in the fact that God loves you. You have only to open your heart to him and it will be filled, not necessarily with happiness on a personal level but with understanding.

Spring is the season of hope. Out of the darkness and death of winter arises a new beginning. I would not normally bother to point out such a truism, but it seems appropriate to do so now, given the extraordinary period we are suddenly living through, though it has to be said that what is occurring now has been on the cards for quite some time.

On a totally different note, there was a conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn in January. This lasts for about a year as Saturn moves forward then goes retrograde in May, going back to within a degree or so of Pluto in October, before moving forward again and going out of orb, as it is called, early next year. Saturn and Pluto are the two of the most difficult (in terms of the challenges they present to human consciousness) planets to deal with. Saturn represents restriction, limitation and what is hard and unyielding while Pluto symbolises forces of death, transformation and destruction. Put together and in Capricorn which is ruled by Saturn, meaning its effects are magnified because of a similarity of expression, they represent quite a package. What it means is that problems that have been suppressed or denied will be brought to a head. There will be no escaping them and they must be faced and dealt with. This will mean hard times but out of that may come, if one reacts with sense and really does face them, a new understanding. The potential for new life or death are both there.

The next year is going to be hard but remember the fresh growth in spring out of the hard ground of winter. Never give way to despair. Place your hope in God and it will be justified.

Sunday 15 March 2020

Plague and Death

I have nothing to contribute on the subject of the coronavirus scare as far as its spread and seriousness are concerned. I don't know if it is being used by governments to see how easily the populace can be controlled though I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. But it may have taken them by surprise and they are reacting as best they can with no motive other than to protect their countries (as well as look good so they can be returned to power later on). So I don't have anything to say about it from a political point of view and, not being a doctor, obviously not from a medical one. On the other hand, I believe I can say something about it from a spiritual point of view.

To begin with, I don't believe, as some have said (as they always do on such occasions), that it is a punishment from God for our wicked ways. It may be a consequence of our behaviour but it's not sent by God to chastise us. God does not punish, he teaches and he generally teaches subtly so that the lesson is learned at a deeper level than that of the emotions. Turning to God at a time of pandemic may be better than nothing but it does not really show how you will be when times are good and your panic has passed. But God does send us experiences and this could be one. How do we react in the face of a threat like this? With self-concern and fear or with an equanimity that accepts what is while in no way just succumbing to it? Trust in God and keep your powder dry is wonderful advice that applies to most situations and certainly to this one.

The real issue, though, is death. At a time like this the reality of that comes closer to all of us. The modern world is very good at shutting death out. We in the West live lives of unimaginable security and luxury compared to any previous generation. We are insulated from the harsh nitty gritty of life by our advanced medical knowledge and readily available healthcare. We have easy access to food, energy sources and good quality shelter. We turn on taps and out comes water whenever we want it. We press a switch and hey presto, light and heating are there. We are in danger of becoming spoilt and assuming that all that we have is somehow our natural right. But when something comes along that disrupts our regular life then we are posed certain questions.

For those of us who say we believe in God, the first question is do we, do we really? If our primary reaction is fear then our belief is not as it should be. Fear is natural but it should not be primary. We know that God is always there, "closer than breathing" in Tennyson's words. Now is our chance to put our belief into practice and perhaps that is the lesson that these crises help bring about. They show us or can do that there is something more than everyday material existence. They put things in perspective. Who are we? What are we? Just animals crawling about on the surface of the globe, looking to fulfil basic instinctual needs and desires or is there something more to us, and, if there is, how important is it? Could it be all-important, the actual purpose of everything else?

Well, all readers of this blog know the answer to that! We are spiritual beings on the earth to learn the lessons that will help us grow as spiritual beings. A time when the fundamentals of existence are brought to closer attention than normal is a necessary part of that growing process. Humanity today has completely forgotten what it is and what it is meant to be doing with itself in this world. A situation like this can, if we react to it correctly, call us back to our true nature. It can call us back to God.

Monday 3 February 2020

Genetic Engineering

I watched a television programme over the weekend about CRISPR, the gene editing process which allows for the modification of DNA, in other words genetic engineering. The science is extraordinary even if, like many technical breakthroughs, it seems to be based on the exploitation of something that occurs in nature, in this case the immune system of certain single-celled organisms.

The programme raised the inevitable ethical problems of tampering with nature, bringing in the usual idea of how human beings are playing at being God. This is emotive language but there is something in it. However, it could be countered that we have been playing God for millennia. Since, at least, the dawn of agriculture. We have developed certain crops, improved fruits and vegetables by selective breeding, domesticated wild animals and actually created types that suit us. We have already altered nature and moved from cooperating with her to exploiting her. So there is nothing new in the idea of tampering with nature.

The question is how far should we go? Is there a limit beyond which we should not pass? Genetic engineering would be tampering with nature at a much more fundamental level than heretofore. We don't know what the consequences would be. Those in favour of the process cite how diseases can be cured, genetic problems corrected before a child is born and even how parents could select for an ideal child who would still be their genetic offspring just the very best combinations of their genes. They predict a bright future with a new and improved humanity and see this as just a further development of what we are already doing. With vaccines, for example, or even with a better diet. Those against worry about what we might be doing without realising it and what the potential side effects could be. They also express concern of a potential increased separation between a high caste rich who can afford these interventions and a sizeable chunk of humanity who might not be able to and who would therefore be relegated to an underclass.

What struck me is that even though the playing God phrase was used the whole debate was framed in materialistic terms. It was assumed that we basically are our genes. Everything about us from our physical appearance to our degree of intelligence and capacity for creativity and even love is genetic. I don't doubt that the genes do determine these things to a great degree but a spiritual person, someone who believes that the soul exists prior to the body and actually uses the body (including brain) as a vehicle of expression, must surely question this assumption. Are we really just our genes or is there something behind these that lies at the root of what we really are? Do the genes we inherit in life reflect something of our pre-existing capacity to use them? Such a person might also point out that if we are on this Earth to learn then maybe some of the things we think of as bad or limited might be actually there to help us do that.

There are religious sects that refuse the use of even ordinary medicine. This is clearly extreme. I remember the Masters telling me years ago that doctors are there for using. God sends us or allows us to discover means to make life in this world more tolerable. He may use suffering but he does not endorse suffering per se. Moreover, we are supposed to be co-creators with God. That is our right and our role. Again, though, the question is how far do we go? What is within the bounds of spiritual permissibility and what is beyond it? This is something none of us can know and each person has to use his intuition in the matter. It may even vary from individual to individual. I, for instance, would not want an organ transplant - though we shall see if it ever comes to it. But I intuitively feel that such an intervention is anti-spiritual and a refusal to accept God's will. However, if someone asked me what the difference was between that and an operation for appendicitis, which I have had, I would be hard-pressed to give a satisfactory answer. Similarly if asked why I consider it is acceptable to use medicine in certain areas but not in others. Sometimes the answers to deep questions cannot just be reeled off pat.

In the end the ethical discussions are probably academic. There are very few cases in which humanity has a technology and doesn't use it. If we have discovered how to alter the genome then that is what we will do. Maybe, just maybe, that is what God intends us to do though I have my doubts on that score. This strikes me as a technology somewhat similar in its moral dimensions to nuclear weapons. It is peering into the heart of life, physical life that is. If I had to decide I would basis my decision on our degree of spiritual maturity and by that criterion the answer would surely be no. This is not a path we should explore at the moment.

Nature is not separate from Man. We are part of Nature and a part that is able to influence Nature. That is the benefit of self-consciousness. However the crucial point is a religious one. We are intended to be co-creators with God but our creations should be in line with God's will and his laws. They should further his purpose which is to make humans fully aware sons and daughters of God. Would genetic engineering as it would be practised at our current state of understanding contribute to that or would it work against it? The answer to that question will determine its justification or otherwise.

A final point I would make is that in the spiritual scheme of things internal causes are meant to produce external effects. Life works from inner to outer. Mind precedes matter. With genetic engineering the potential is there for the opposite to take place. The outer could be altered to affect the inner. But if we do this might we not be separating ourselves even more from God than is the case at present? This is not something to be taken lightly.

Tuesday 24 December 2019

Christmas Darkness and Light

Human beings descended from the unity of unindividualised spirit into the duality of matter where they are able to develop their individual selves. The time of pre-history was the time of the descent. History begins when human individuality has started to have a significant impact on consciousness. When the descent has reached its furthest point, meaning consciousness is fully embedded in matter, it must be redirected upwards or else it will stay where it is, stuck. Its momentum has carried it down to the earth but now something radically different is required to turn it around and start it on its ascent back to spirit. That something was the birth of Christ.

We had come down from the realms of light into material darkness. We had reached the bottom. Christ was born to reorient us to the light and enable us to transform our earthly selves into true (rather than potential) sons and daughters of God through assimilation into his being. This requires that we freely give ourselves to Christ and so, in return, can partake of his being. Unity of consciousness is known in a way that combines the individual with God without loss of either. Originally, we were one with God but did not know it. Then we knew we were separate from God. The intended final state is that we become consciously one with God and with all other spiritual beings in a union of love and creative self-expression.

Christmas is at the darkest time of the year, when the days are short and the nights are long. The symbolism here is that the first Christmas occurred when human consciousness was at its darkest, at the nadir of its descent, deeply locked into the world of matter. Christ's birth changed that even though it may be hard to believe, given what has happened since and especially given the rampant materialism of the present day. But Christ's birth served to turn us around and re-polarise our individual selves to God. If we accepted him, that is. Many people have done precisely that but we live at a time of mass apostasy when recalcitrant souls are being given another, maybe a last, chance to turn to the light. The options of God or no God are being clearly laid out but the choice is not made easy or it would not be a true test of the heart. Evil can appear good to those whose heart inclines towards evil. This is a time of reckoning.

The symbolism of Christmas is that of light appearing in darkness. Let us remind ourselves of that at this time of deep outer darkness. Christ was physically born 2,000 odd years ago but he can be born in us spiritually at any time. Light in darkness.

Happy Christmas!

Monday 11 November 2019

The Gods of the Copybook Headings

I'm not sure if we ever mentioned Rudyard Kipling on Albion Awakening but if we didn't let me rectify that now because he certainly belongs there. Puck of Pooks Hill is all about Albion, and even The Jungle Book and Kim have a taste of it, especially the latter, despite being set in India. Here, though, I want to look at his poem 'The Gods of the Copybook Headings' which, in a certain manner, is all about the times we live in. Here it is.

AS I PASS through my incarnations in every age and race,

I make my proper prostrations to the Gods of the Market Place.

Peering through reverent fingers I watch them flourish and fall,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings, I notice, outlast them all.

We were living in trees when they met us. They showed us each in turn

That Water would certainly wet us, as Fire would certainly burn:

But we found them lacking in Uplift, Vision and Breadth of Mind,

So we left them to teach the Gorillas while we followed the March of Mankind.

We moved as the Spirit listed. They never altered their pace,

Being neither cloud nor wind-borne like the Gods of the Market Place,

But they always caught up with our progress, and presently word would come

That a tribe had been wiped off its icefield, or the lights had gone out in Rome.

With the Hopes that our World is built on they were utterly out of touch,

They denied that the Moon was Stilton; they denied she was even Dutch;

They denied that Wishes were Horses; they denied that a Pig had Wings;

So we worshipped the Gods of the Market Who promised these beautiful things.

When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace.

They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease.

But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know."

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life

(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)

Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "The Wages of Sin is Death."

In the Carboniferous Epoch we were promised abundance for all,

By robbing selected Peter to pay for collective Paul;

But, though we had plenty of money, there was nothing our money could buy,

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "If you don't work you die."

Then the Gods of the Market tumbled, and their smooth-tongued wizards withdrew

And the hearts of the meanest were humbled and began to believe it was true

That All is not Gold that Glitters, and Two and Two make Four

And the Gods of the Copybook Headings limped up to explain it once more.

As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man

There are only four things certain since Social Progress began.

That the Dog returns to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,

And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wobbling back to the Fire;

And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins

When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,

As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,

The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!

Who are these Gods? As far as I understand it, they represent common sense and native instinct as opposed to fanciful ideology and utopian theory. They are constantly neglected but they always return when the fancy stuff leads to disaster as it unfailingly does. As it is doing now. Clever, unwise people think they know better than the dunderheads of the past. They think human beings can be improved from without, that they can be coerced into goodness, but every experiment in this direction denies inbuilt reality, the reality that water is wet and fire burns, and instead of the promised Utopia we get a version of hell.

Look at that line 'all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins'. Is that not where we are today? Then there is the Fuller Life which starts by loving your neighbour and ends by loving his wife until women had no more children and men lost reason and faith. That's liberalism in a nutshell. And note that it's not just faith that is lost. Reason goes too as it is doing in our day. When you cut yourself off from truth, you have nothing to anchor you in reality. You go mad.

The poem was published 100 years ago this year. Already the direction was indicated but I don't suppose Kipling could have imagined where it would end up. But he knew the path it would take.

Copybooks were books in which you wrote down the same thing many times. This was partly to improve your handwriting but also to impress the lines, a maxim maybe or a rule, on your memory. Dismissed as parrot learning but it actually worked. Naturally, the virtue of the thing depends on what you are writing but, if it is a piece of sage advice, as it usually was, this is probably the best way to get it to stick in your mind and protect you against the fashionable raving of experimentalists who always believe they can improve the world but don't bother finding out first what the world actually is.

Beware the smooth-talking Gods of the Market Place. What they have to sell is spiritual poison.

Wednesday 11 September 2019

Why Did Frodo Fail?

Apparently many readers of The Lord of the Rings are disappointed when Frodo, having struggled heroically to reach Mount Doom in the wastelands of Mordor, fails at the last and claims the ring for himself, refusing to destroy it. Since I first read the book 50 years ago I can't remember my reaction but I suspect I may have shared in the disappointment. I certainly understand it. It's not what you expect to happen to a hero.

But this shows Tolkien's genius and ability to go more deeply into the reality of the human soul than many other more vaunted writers. More vaunted by academia anyway. Because, from a Christian perspective, it is absolutely the right thing to happen. For the Christian cannot claim complete goodness, still less holiness, for himself. All goodness comes from God and all we can do is turn ourselves, heart, mind and soul, over to God, letting him work through us. This we do by cleansing ourselves of sin, pride, anger and all the rest. Then God acts.

The point is we cannot become spiritual by our own efforts. Ultimately, we must rely on grace. Our own efforts are essential to bring us to the point where grace may operate, see Frodo's long and arduous trek to Mordor during the course of which he has to sacrifice nearly everything. But the final transformation of an earthly being into a real spiritual one depends on the grace of God.

Frodo did all that any mortal being could have done and it required an exceptionally high rate of personal purity and integrity even to do that. Nonetheless his personal qualities were not sufficient to accomplish an act the achievement of which went beyond mortal power. This is why Providence had to intervene at the last. But Providence was only able to intervene because of the mercy and compassion that Frodo had shown before to Gollum, and because of Frodo's personal heroism and sacrifice God was able to turn evil (Gollum in his fallen state) into good where good itself or human good was not able to finish the task.

Christianity has been criticised, most famously by Nietzsche, because it seems to favour the weak over the strong, supposedly leading in our day to the celebration of the perceived victim as the purest and most lacking in sin of any human being. The last will be first and all that. But actually Christianity does not favour the weak at all. Christianity has no time for weakness. It favours the strong. But it favours the spiritually strong not those who may be rich and powerful but who are steeped in sin and worldliness. Those people are the true weak when viewed correctly. Frodo may have been one of the little ones in the eyes of the world but seen with the eye of spirit he was a giant. Christianity has compassion for the weak and suffering but those who are highest in its estimation are the strong in spirit who fight and sacrifice and endure. There's nothing weak about these people. They are a vital bulwark against the evil that would otherwise overrun the world as it nearly did in Tolkien's story.

Frodo failed in one sense because he was unable to see his task through to the end by himself. But he succeeded in a greater sense because he brought his mission to the point at which the desired result could be effected. Tolkien's depiction of this spiritual struggle (which is obviously what it was) is all the subtler for showing us failure. "I can of myself do nothing". This is the lesson we must all eventually learn.

Sunday 18 August 2019

Environmentalism

What a long and unsympathetic sounding word for something that should be very simple, namely a love of nature centred on the understanding that it is the creation of a Creator. The environment? Is that a word that conjures up in your mind birds, trees, plants, flowers, animals, fish? Does it speak of mountains, rivers, valleys, hills, fields and hedgerows? Are the wind or the sky or the sea or the desert the environment? Of course, in one sense they are but the point is that something real, life-giving, even alive in a way, and beautiful is often reduced to an object of science, and not just in the minds of professional scientists who analyse and dissect either. It is so too for activists (another terrible word speaking of aggressive ideology) who are supposed to be fighting (again, note the word) for its preservation.

There was a time when people who spoke out against the destruction of what we now call the environment did so from love of nature and a strong awareness of its beauty. Often, on some level at least even if that was only because they came from a world in which a divine reality had long been accepted, they were conscious that it was a gift, a garden to be tended, and though we were workers in the garden we were not the head gardener. Now the situation seems to have changed. Now, many people who would call themselves environmentalists don't believe in God and don't see nature as a creation. Sometimes their approach is purely pragmatic which is to say they want to preserve nature so that human beings can continue to exploit it only more sustainably, the utilitarian attitude. But sometimes much of their motivation seems to come not from love of God but a kind of hatred of mankind and this hatred they can best express by attacking mankind for what it is doing to the environment. They want human beings to take a hit because they don't like human beings or certain sectors of humanity anyway who are perceived as rich and powerful. Not because they love nature. Granted this is a simplification because motives are often mixed, but it is clearly a factor and sometimes a major one.

In the spiritual world (which is the real world) motivation is all-important. Why you do what you do matters much more than what you do though, clearly, the two are interlinked. And fundamentally the only good motivation to do anything is love of God. In the final analysis, what is not inspired by this is not well motivated. Trying to preserve nature or make a 'sustainable environment' if you do not know what (or who) created this is still all part of the rebellion against God. It is part of evil. When all is said and done, good can only flow from love of God. There is no good, none whatsoever, without God.

I have loved the natural world all my life. To begin with, just for itself but even then I felt there was this aspect of a veil to it and that behind it there was something more real and truer, the response to which is where this love came from. I never learnt how to drive a car, partly because of the noise and stink they made, partly because I suspect I am not really someone who can focus on mechanical things (this is not meant as a badge of honour, I see it as a defect), but very largely because I hated what roads had done to the countryside and the town. To nature. Don't get me wrong. I like roads as in tracks and paths that lead to new places and join separated people. But I hate them as metalled scars that deface the environment (appropriate use I would say) and don't blend in to their surroundings. And that take far too many vehicles on them which travel far too fast.

So I would regard myself as a lover of nature, as is any sane and normally constituted person, though now I see it as a creation. Which doesn't lessen it in itself. To see a saint as a person through whom God works doesn't lessen the individuality of that saint. It actually augments it and so it is with regard to nature as creation.

I love nature but I don't like the environmental lobby who often, not all but many and the most vociferous, use nature to advance a political agenda or an ideology that, when looked at clearly, denies God. If you deny the Creator of nature your understanding and appreciation of the natural world is much diminished, whatever wonders you may claim to find in it. And you are not on the side of the angels, not the good ones anyway.

Monday 5 August 2019

Passing Thoughts

I shall be taking a break from this blog for a couple of weeks so I thought I would jot down a few brief thoughts which I might have developed into full posts in time but which probably say just as much (or as little) as they are here.

Truth comes before love which is why repentance is necessary for forgiveness.

Even God can't save those who don't want to be saved.

We all seek happiness but what part of us is seeking happiness? The fallen self with its shallow desires and selfish greed for worldly pleasure or the soul with its connection to deeper realities and truths? Do we seek for our happiness in creation or in God?

God or religion is not there to make you happy in your fallen self which is the false self but to help you step out of that aspect of your being into your true self.

What is the great sin of modernity? It is to seek personal autonomy and fulfilment rather than to coordinate your being to the reality of the Creator. Ironically enough, only by turning to God can we really find the freedom we desire because he is the source of our being and the reality of what we truly are.

The teachings of Christ without Christ himself do not work because reality is personal not abstract so he is his teachings and they are him.

Christianity has been corrupted in modern times because its central doctrine of love has been separated from the teachings about sin and the need for repentance. The two have been prised apart and the distortions of leftism are the result. Christianity itself is not at fault here. It's more that modern men and women refuse to pay the price of real goodness and want its rewards without making the sacrifices required.

A materialist is someone who thinks that object preceded subject.

Those who would stand for the true good which is the truth of Christ must stand against the false good which is the truth of this world. And, strange as it might at first sight seem, the true good divides while the false good unites. It divides truth from falsehood, greater truth from lesser truth, beauty from ugliness, good from evil and higher good from lower good. The false good unites all things in the name of a higher truth. But this means that evil is effectively denied and the material is put on the same footing as the spiritual.

The modern world applies truths that relate to the pure spiritual world of oneness to the material world of duality and multiplicity where they do not apply.

Buddhism and similar philosophies are powerless against the attacks on the world by evil because they use essential oneness to deny proper reality in creation.

Are we male and female in heaven? The Masters were all definitely male except one who was definitely female. To those who say that spirit transcends sex I would reply that no doubt it does, but we are not just spirit. We are a triplicate of spirit, soul and body and cannot be restricted to the most fundamental aspect alone. As long as we are a being, we are a particular kind of being.

When you deny God you seek for the absolute elsewhere but in things that can never deliver. But until you realise that you become obsessive about the thing in which you have invested your desire for the absolute. Hence the fanaticism of political revolutionaries, utopian idealists and many atheistic artists.

For Westerners today Buddhism, despite its profundities, is something of a spiritual dead end. At best it can be a psychological preparation for giving up the ego in a Christian context. This is because the real spiritual goal is not to renounce the reality in creation, which encompasses beauty, goodness and love, and retreat into the oneness of pure unmanifest spirit, but to unite the worlds of becoming and being in full consciousness, bringing matter, purified and exalted, up into spirit. Marriage is better than celibacy.

I'll be back posting towards the end of August.

Wednesday 17 July 2019

Do We Have Spiritual Parents?

This may seem a strange question to ask, especially given Jesus's words that there will be no marrying in heaven, but it would be a remarkable thing if one of the most important of earthly experiences had no correspondence in the spiritual world.

Our earthly parents give birth to our bodies but they do not give birth to our souls. If, like me, you assume that the soul exists before it takes birth in this world and is not formed along with the body at conception or whenever then it must either come directly from God or through a spiritual medium of some sort. You could also say it has always existed and, given that there is a piece of God in all of us (expressing a profound truth very simplistically), that is certainly true. But the creation of an individual soul is something that takes place in time, or at that point where time and eternity intersect, so though we have always existed in eternity, we have not always existed in time. The birth of the soul is the entry into time.

We all have a spark of the divine in us. Everything that lives must get its life from God and that life is the ground of all we are. But this spark of spirit is individualised and has its own quality right from its spiritual conception. I would speculate that this spiritual quality derives from its spiritual parents, higher beings who give the soul life, though in and through God who is obviously behind everything but not necessarily directly involved in everything. God works through intermediaries. This is what the chain of being means.

The doctrine of group souls, souls bound by the spiritual equivalent of blood (for everything earthly has its counterpart in the heavens), is quite well established in modern esoteric thought. I believe that my contact with the Masters reflects something of this truth. To go from group souls to spiritual parents is not a great leap for what are group souls if not spiritual families, and families are not just brothers and sisters and cousins. There is the horizontal family but there is also the family extended vertically through parents, grandparents and so on. If we think that the family is the reflection on earth of a great spiritual truth, and this is surely implied in the idea of God the Father and Jesus the son not to mention many instances of Mother goddesses in pagan religions, perhaps a somewhat confused intuition of a reality, then the notion of spiritual parents is not so far-fetched as at first sight it might appear.

And, of course, if we do have spiritual parents then we may also have, or may one day have, spiritual children. Truly creation is an unending process. It bursts forth from God, Father Spirit expressing himself through Mother Matter, but then spreads out through all things, the creation becoming creator in its own right though co- or sub-creator would perhaps be a better term since there is only one Creator, everything else being dependent on him.