Version: October 10, 2004
In the Inner Temple of thy Heart, on the Mystic Altar of
Compassion wrought therein of essences distilled of holy
aspiration, of anguished prayers, of sacrificing Love and Service
of countless lives in aeons past, burns a Living Flame of Life
fed by the quenchless Love of God, commingled with the fragrances
of thy noblest ideals of Beauty, Truth, and Service to all thine
Other Selves, and uniting thee with the Divine in all creatures
throughout the Seven Worlds of Being.
If thou wouldst keep the noxious weeds of self from choking
life's pure stream 'twixt thee and God, then each day offer thou
thyself on that Altar Flame of Sacrifice in the Inner Temple of
thy Heart, whatever be the pain, so that the dross of all thy
lower selves be burned away, leaving thee each day an Image true
and splendid of the Shining One within -- Thine Own True Self
Divine.
At the beginning of a new year it is fitting to stop and
take stock of where we have come from and where we seem to be
heading in the year before us. The future is always conditioned
by the past. January has ever been a month for resolutions,
whether those resolutions are held or broken. In either event our
choices determine the direction of our lives, whether we know it
or not.
We need to feel that we are rededicating, reconsecrating our
life in faith and resilience to help carry on the ideals we all
cherish. In a Mountain Top message entitled "The Peace of
God" we are told, "Gather up in one bouquet, as you would gather
roses rare, the loves of all the creatures of all worlds; of man,
of woman, of animal, of plant, of whirling planet, sun, and
nebulae -- the loves that rise as perfumes to the skies. Add to
these all shades, and combinations of all shades that Light has
flashed to color. Then bind them with the force of every note and
tone which ever gushed from the throats of humanity; bird and
beast in song and praise; the chords of that sweet song the
morning stars have sung since dawn of life; the rustle of the
winds; the moaning of the waves; and if you have no name for such
a marvel, you may call it God.
"Then, if you can see and know the spirit of those loves,
those rays of color, perfumes, notes, and chords and feel that
spirit fold you close when one short day of time is closed, as,
at the setting of the sun the mother folds her little one and
hushes it to sleep and only lays herself to rest when the great
Bird of Life has folded close its wings, then and only then shall
you, the offspring of that God, feel and know the peace of God."
And then, glimpsing or knowing that Peace, we must use it
from the place of balance within ourselves to reach out to
others, or it will turn to dross in our hands. The choice is
ours.
-- Eleanor L. Shumway
Guardian in Chief
On a recent trip to Marin County, we stopped just north of
the Golden Gate Bridge at a point overlooking that magnificent
span and the city beyond. With its vast view of the Pacific and
panoramas of San Francisco, this spot was once an artillery
battery protecting the gateway to the Bay. In one area of the old
battlement was a series of tiny rooms, each with a door and a
barred opening where a window used to be.
I stepped briefly into each room, feeling cool protection
from the chilly wind outside. While I wondered whether they had
been soldiers' quarters or prisoners' cells, it occurred to me
that these weren't unlike the small rooms that traditionally
serve those in monastic life. How very similar the housing can be
for these three very different pathways. Whether following a
discipline of aspiration and prayer, incarceration and
rehabilitation, or of defense and protection, the members of
these three groups inhabit little rooms differing scarcely more
than in which side of the door the lock is on, even while the
motives for being inside are distinctly different.
I thought of those other cells -- the almost invisible units
of life working in concert to make our bodies function, our
plants grow, our lives possible. Unlike the human inhabitants of
cell rooms who can make choices, these smaller cells are
motivated solely by the biological beckonings of DNA and RNA,
signals and strands of protein that do their work whether or not
we are paying attention or are even conscious of them. It is
amazing to realize that our mysterious DNA carries a code that
tells ear cells to help us hear, liver cells to purify our blood,
and muscle cells to move us around. What a miracle it is that
most of us can breathe without having to think about it, that we
don't need to set a metronome to prompt the regular blinking of
our eyes or the pumping of our hearts, because each cell follows
the directions of its DNA and the body's various regulators. It
is intriguing to consider the mystery of this kind of
intelligence, and how in the plant world one seed knows to grow
into corn and another seed into an oak tree; and, until we mess
with genetic engineering too much, the plants have the ability to
regenerate themselves, season by season, far longer than we'll
ever be able to record. The word "cell" means "little room, as in
a convent or prison," and it seemed curious that an encounter
with a little room could spark such a parade of thoughts.
Standing there, my awe for the Master Designer and the
beautifully orchestrated design inherent in the universe was
boundless for a moment until it suddenly shifted back to
self-centered human me, standing smack-dab in the middle of this
little six by eight-foot universe, as I recalled those diagrams
of cells from biology class.
The structure of a cell is a pattern which can be observed
in the familiar and the extraordinary. With its outer membrane as
a boundary, a nucleus at the center, and all activity revolving
around that core, it is easy to find parallels on levels both
micro- and macroscopic. We have all seen the amazing pictures of
molecular, atomic, and subatomic structures of life, which are
eerily similar to those of solar systems, galaxies and unexamined
neighborhoods out in space. Forms more readily observable include
the layout of seed centers and petals in the flower and undersea
worlds, and the social structures of beehives, termite mounds,
and ant colonies in the insect world, with one queen and jillions
of workers carrying out specific tasks for the good of the
colony. On a human level, cities, communities, classrooms,
governments, and other organizations mirror cellular structure,
usually with a single center or leader acting as the hub around
which its various components revolve and work. The President and
the executive arm of government are an example at our national
level.
These units of life in their minutiae and majesty are
continuously building in an unending process of creation,
preservation, and regeneration. This pattern truly is a circle of
life, motivated by the creative fire that makes all things live
and grow through cycles of birth, existence, and death. The
seasons are evidence of these cycles, and just now our eyes drink
in the beautiful starkness of winter's tree skeletons without
leaves, dormant and resting before sprouting the fresh greens and
sap and budding fruit of spring. Tides, storms, fires, and floods
have forever brought destruction, which sets the stage for new
life as conditions change, allowing particular seeds, cells, and
ecologies to burst forth and regenerate.
Human beings are subject to the same cycles, partly within
us because of biology, and partly outside of us -- our choices,
our upbringing, and our natures. Biological creation,
preservation, and regeneration goes on without our constant
awareness as cells divide, do their jobs, die, and are sloughed
off; usually we don't notice unless we become ill or injured (or
on our birthdays!). On the other hand, our actions have a social
impact, and our immediate lives -- and those of ones we love --
experience change with the harvest of choices made. Our cellular
selves and our individual selves are a web of interpenetrating
layers of action and reaction, impacting our lives and
well-being.
In these larger mirrors of cellular design, groups of cells
express the building forces of life as a response to a higher
call which mobilizes individual cells to collaborate and create
something together -- a fingernail, a geranium, a human being, a
whale. Likewise, we contribute of ourselves to our families,
communities, and to society, building forms and organizations to
meet the needs of groups, small and large, in our various tribes
and associations. We establish armies for protection, prisons for
correction, churches for spiritual expression; we share
presidential inaugurations, schools, city councils, power grids,
and hospices. Each organization of people requires certain
elements to survive and in turn becomes an element itself in the
fabric of an even larger slice of humanity.
It is interesting to note that a variation on the root of
the word "cell" is cella, a shrine. A centralizing element common
to groups of humans is the sacred space, evolved from our
earliest desires to gather together in reverence of forces more
powerful than we can control and where we can make prayers,
sacrifices, and rituals for the greater good. Temples, churches
and fanes have traditionally have been the nucleus of a village
or town, and as architecture evolved, the ability to make bigger
sacred spaces was enhanced.
Here we move from little rooms to big ones. Around nine
centuries ago, builders hadn't quite figured out how to make
really tall churches because of limitations in construction:
walls thick enough to hold a vaulted ceiling could only be built
so high. But in 1140 A. D., vision and engineering took an
extraordinary turn, fusing into the Gothic style of cathedral
construction. At a time when people lived in small one- or
two-story structures, the development of the flying buttress gave
architects the ability to engineer buildings high enough to
create large open interior spaces. This was indeed a miracle
because this new architecture also allowed for the extensive use
of stained glass in the clerestories, which gave the impression
of weightless, translucent walls. Great rose windows let the
Light Divine enter the space, symbolizing the mystic revelation
of the spirit of God in space and time. It was a revolution in
building sacred rooms.
There were the inevitable forces of politics and power
involved in building cathedrals, but these soaring interiors have
ultimately endured as humanity's tribute to God, a merging of
science, art, and religion. Science -- engineering -- gave voice
to the vision of the architect and master builder who, like the
nucleus of the cell, oversaw legions of stonemasons, carpenters,
metal smiths, glass makers, and sculptors at their various tasks.
Individual craftsmen in each of these trades worked at their
specific jobs, combining efforts into something no one guild
could accomplish on its own.
These multifaceted structures took many years -- usually
decades -- to finance and build. Within the completed cathedral's
interior as well as outside its walls, the activities of
community life took place: commerce, politics, science, worship,
thought, compassion. The sacred and the secular, the scientific
and the religious, met at the core of the town in its spiritual
center. They were, and still are, constructed to the glory of
God, as places to celebrate life and creativity, places for the
whole city to gather.
One of the most interesting aspects about cathedrals is that
they are never quite finished: some still have parts unbuilt;
some need repairs, restoration, or reconstruction after centuries
of use. Which leads us back to single cells and the pattern of
life.
-- Jurgen Scheutzow
Growth is neither complete nor static. You could say that what makes life happen is the tension of opposing forces -- the yin and the yang, the masculine and the feminine, the young and the old, the drive to be unique or to conform, the sacred and the profane. It's part of any community, any family, any organism in one form or another. Amoebas are fortunate in that regard: they don't worry about reconciling their various parts; they just react to subtle signals and go about the job of dividing and multiplying. We humans, on the other hand, inhabit our cells with the complications of choice, emotion, conscience, desire, and the influences of other human beings. Integrating our own inner natures, let alone working together for the common good, isn't so fluent a language for us.-- Marti Fast
-- Linda Rollison
The Cross and Crown of the New Humanity is balanced living
and thinking in clear heart consciousness to be born out of the
strife, greed, struggle, intellectualism and commercialism of
today -- the humanity now passing. Unity of spirit, kindred
feeling, tolerance, liberty, and sympathy -- with recognition of
rights of individual, group or nation to work out its own
problems or ideals and thus establish a general basis of common
brotherhood -- will be its fruit.
This spirit of unity shall prevail independent of race,
color, nation, organization, creed or caste of any kind. Utter
selfishness is the great obstacle in the way of development. In
our great greed for all and everything that can be of service to
us individually, we pass by Love, Mercy and Justice and grasp at
every hope as a drowning man at a straw, regardless of what it
may have cost others to extend a helping hand to us. If we
perfectly realized the law of supply and demand, we would be more
careful. It is exact in its action. If one gives us something
that is of great use and benefit to us, by that giving he has
created a demand on us which, if we do not supply to the best of
our ability, nullifies the gift as far as we are concerned.
Spiritual truth cannot be sold; but if we are given a great
truth, we should immediately set about seeing in what way we can
return to the giver an equivalent, or at any rate supply a need
of his which is perhaps equal to ours. This interaction produces
harmonious conditions which permit of mutual help.
The cup of cold water given in His name to the disciples was
an application of the working of this same law. Consequently,
those who grasp for all with outstretched hands, without offering
help in return, bring into their lives a force that can only
repel the longed-for assistance. This is the fundamental cause of
a constant attempt of spiritual teachers to incite pupils to
unselfishness.
We are one and inseparable in essence. No one can live at
the expense of another without creating an unbalanced condition
which always results in pain and suffering. This is the primary
cause of the present unsatisfactory state of modern life --
social, ethical, political and philosophical -- and unless
remedied the disease will grow worse and worse until finally,
like a huge cancer, the whole will become a mass of putrefying
matter and will end in great cataclysms and upheavals of
governments, nations, and the very earth itself.
It is to create a Brother-Sisterhood, indeed, of all the
scattered lambs of the Great Flock of incarnated souls now on
earth -- to merge all the differences of opinion, to stop the
great war of mere words, and unite all factions in a common
cause, i.e., true evolution -- that the Universal Order of the
Cross and Crown is being brought to the attention of humanity.
Its mission is preeminently one of harmonizing discordant
elements and unifying the separated parts of the scattered flock.
One of its greatest efforts in this line is directed to
persuading all to lay aside peculiar personal opinions and unite
on the one fundamental plank that is acceptable to all: common
unity based on the Brother-Sisterhood of all humanity and the
Father-Motherhood of God.
In this presentation of Universal Truth and Principles, no
organizational lines, creeds, fees or dues exist. Spirit alone
ensouls all things without form or obligation, each one following
our own light within our self and our own particular field of
endeavor, aspiration and influence -- trying ever to realize the
Unity of All Things in the Great Father-Mother Source of all
Being through our own spiritual principles.
Contact or relationship with any church, organization, group
or society with which one may be affiliated shall in no wise be
interfered with or disturbed. The Great Law has never been
without witness in any age or clime. All sacred writings of past
ages and past races, as well as those of the present dominant
races of the earth, show one universal thread of Fundamental
Divine Truth running through them all. Without prejudice and with
open-mindedness, all these should be examined and studied in view
of the profound truth symbolized by the Cross and Crown. By the
Cross of Sacrifice, involving renunciation and non-attachment to
outer things, we attain the Cross of Inner Balance in Love,
Wisdom and Compassion, and the Crown of Spiritual Mastery over
all limitations and forms.
The disintegrating power sadly in evidence in this century
is tearing apart nations, states, societies, and families. Unless
its opposite pole, the power of unity, is brought into
manifestation -- developed and put into immediate action on all
lines where the good and happiness of the human race are
threatened -- the consequence of this tearing apart is obvious
and not far distant. The one lesson that consolidation of the
great money combinations of the day should teach us is the one we
are slowest in absorbing. If we are going to permit everyone who
has a little personal magnetism or grievance to cause us to first
lend an ear and then persuade us that a split is necessary in the
particular organization to which we have given our allegiance,
the evil will continue to grow until no two people can hold
together even where the most vital interests are concerned. This
spirit has gathered power with success until the mental
atmosphere is impressed with it; and it is time to call a halt
and begin to work with full force, power and energy for
combination, for unity.
The reform parties all over the world are rendered useless
because of these tendencies; and while quarreling goes on among
ourselves, the octopus that will surely devour us if we do not
keep on good watch is strengthening itself at our expense.
Effort should be made between different movements of all
kinds for promoting a better understanding of the objects and
aims of all: to find a common ground upon which all can unite for
rendering the greatest good to the greatest number; to ignore
points of disagreement as far as is possible and work for the
combining and uniting of all on some one or more principles that
are common to all; to study and consider all the live issues of
the day and apply the lessons taught by historical, spiritual and
scientific research to such; in short, to form connecting links
and friendly association with and between all bodies of people
who believe in the Brother-Sisterhood of humanity and who are
working for its fulfillment in the world.
There are no two people built just alike in the universe.
Consequently, perfect agreement on all questions is impossible.
But all earnest and progressive people can agree on main issues;
and if they cease bickering among themselves, there is nothing to
stand in the way of final success for practical realization of
true Unity and Brother-Sisterhood on Earth. It is a most
disgraceful fact (but none the less true) that paid agents are at
work to foment insurrections -- and we stupidly permit them to do
so instead of settling upon some main issue and standing on it
with both feet, so to speak. For instance, if we took one issue
which all could truly understand, and fully agreed to drop all
differences of opinion on other lines and worked for all we were
worth for that one, we would ultimately get all the other true
ones too, which we are now wrangling over.
Philosophically, if we were to take one command of the
Greatest Teacher the world has ever known -- "Do unto others as
you would that they should do unto you" -- we would find the
spirit of truth had come to dwell among us, and the differences
that now prevail would vanish like the dew before the sun. So
long as we split hairs we are doomed. In other words, as another
great teacher has put it, "The solution to the whole problem, the
key to universal life, lies in the one word Love -- `Whoso loveth
most hath most to give' -- not love to any one man or woman, but
Love -- unselfish, trusting Love -- to and for the whole race of
Divine fragments scattered over this and all other worlds."
In renunciation of self, inspired by desire for perfect
service to and for all, the Cross of Sacrifice on which we are
nailed by selfish and personal desires will be changed into the
Cross of Perfect Balance in Infinite Love for all beings, who
collectively constitute our Higher or Lower Self in a Golden
Brother-Sisterhood of Souls on earth -- the Crown of the New
Humanity.
-- William H. Dower
-- Jurgen Scheutzow
Through me sunlight shooting outwardly into the world-darkness;
Through me warm, wholesome love to the Hungry-hearted;
Through me balanced independence into the serf-minded;
Through me heart strength and endurance to the lost.
From me happiness to the sorrow-ladened;
From me courage to the weak-souled;
From me perception to the blinded;
From me expression to the dumb.
Radiance to the world,
Peace to the earth,
Truth to the Law,
Love to the folk.
-- J. O. Varian
Over two hundred years ago, a young Englishman, in what was
then the colony of Pennsylvania, wrote a little pamphlet called
"Common Sense." His name was Tom Paine. As a person, he was
neither very wise nor very good, but he was one-pointedly devoted
to the service of the dignity of the human spirit. And it was his
good karma to live in a cycle of great events and to play his
part in them. How large a part is a matter of opinion, but it may
well have been a vital one. For something in him knew one of the
fundamental secrets of Occultism: the way to ensoul a
thought-form, the power of what Vincent Sheean calls "the
symbolic act." So, printer Tom Paine poured all the intensity of
his nature into a pamphlet that rudely thrust aside tradition,
convention, conservatism, expediency, and simple fear --
everything, in fact, but the bare actualities of the situation
and the one honest conclusion to be drawn from them. Then, having
built the mental form, he set out to give it life by pouring his
own life into it. And soldier Tom Paine, carrying a musket and
wearing what somebody thought was a uniform, joined Washington's
everlastingly defeated army.
For a few months he ran away from the British with the rest
of them, then holed up for the winter in a sod-roofed hovel at
Valley Forge in the midst of the woebegone encampment of what no
soldier in Europe would have called an army. There they spent the
winter, these beaten, hopeless men and, often, their women with
them, snarling at one another, stealing food from one another
when there was any, cursing Congress, defaming Washington, hating
themselves, sickening, dying, deserting. But some stayed and
lived, and in the spring there was food and the sun came out and
there was water to wash in. Moreover, there was tough old Von
Steuben, who lined them up and drilled them while they still
staggered and fell in the mud from weakness, drilled them and
coaxed them and swore at them in five languages until he had them
believing they were men again; until they learned to keep their
heads up and their muskets clean; until they knew that the
inconceivable had happened -- that they could face the bayonets
of the best professional soldiers in the world and drive them
back.
And Washington and Lafayette were there, beaming from the
saddle, and Tom Paine was there, grinning from the ranks. And at
least two of those three were Master Masons, who had received the
mystery teaching concerning certain of the laws of life. They
knew what had happened as well as something of why it had
happened and what it was for. Furthermore, they had helped in
inner as well as outer ways to make it happen.
So a nation was born, as all things are born, with agony and
distortion and confusion without, and the steady white fire of
faith within. Masonry played a major role in holding the faith
steady, for in those days its organization was a keen-edged
weapon in the hands of the Lodge of Light. Later, the edge
dulled, the point blunted, the inner fire passed to other
vehicles.
That is the way of the inner fire. It never wavers and never
dies and, by its nature, it cannot cease from furthering the
evolution of humanity, step by step, point by point.
Organizations come and go, are born and expand and harden and
die, since that is the way of everything in form. Sometimes, they
appear to be dying but, since the White Lodge still has need of
them, their tangled growths are cut away and pruned back, as a
grapevine is pruned, to its basic structure, so that they climb
once more and bear fruit for another season. But, in the end,
each must go and give place to something better fitted for other
kinds of men and women. Soon the United States, and every other
nation now existing, will have passed. Soon every Christian
church and every Theosophical group in the world will have
vanished. The exterior organization of The Temple of the People
will have vanished.
To be shaken by such a thought is to demonstrate our
incredible lack of common sense. What greater good can there be,
for any nation, any group, any individual, than to serve the ends
of evolving life for a little while and then pass on? That which
is at the heart of America cannot be bound. Let us hope that we
Americans in this time will be great enough of heart to begin to
voluntarily release that essence into a more inclusive unit,
great enough to sacrifice a little of our wealth and our notions
of superiority and what legalists call our sovereignty to the
common good of mankind. If we fail to do so, we will soon find
ourselves bereft of these things anyhow, and bereft of them
without honor.
-- Linda Rollison
In like manner, but in much more subtle ways, the fire
and the force and the pattern which are the prototype and reality
behind this mortal vesture we call the Temple of the People must
continue to be released to meet the needs of evolving humanity.
For should we ever turn to serving and worshipping our
organization as an end in itself, in that moment we would be
turning against everything the White Lodge has ever taught and
against the laws of life itself. Our existence, therefore, would
be brief and, once again, without honor.
This is the most elementary common sense and it has been
summed up, with much besides, in a familiar sentence: "The letter
killeth but the spirit giveth life."
Now, what of the individual, the basic unit of nations and
of occult groups? How are we to implement this creative movement
of the essences? Surely by doing the duty closest at hand, the
one our individual karma has put before us. We must be very sure
that it is our own, that we are not deceiving ourselves and
ignoring what is our own while we reach out for something else
that looks easier, or perhaps is more likely to attract the
admiration and approval of others. We Americans, occult and
otherwise, are very apt to do that and consequently we are not a
happy people. No, we must be sure to find our own thing to do,
which is almost certain to be the thing that comes to us to do
that we do not have to seek, that our own heart's wisdom tells us
we must accept. It may well be service to another individual or
to an organization.
Whatever it is, we must do it as well as we can in its outer
details and we must put into it something of our own life-force,
consciously willing that it go into the common fund for the
upliftment of all men and women everywhere. We must accept
bondage of our outer vehicles in order to effect freedom for the
movement of the creative spirit over the face of the waters. In
so doing, whoever or whatever may be the immediate beneficiary,
we are really serving the Lodge; we are giving to the Lodge the
only kind of service it can use -- the service of a free man or
woman who knows what he or she is doing. The service of slaves is
of no use to anyone; it only creates tyrants.
But the one who consciously serves all mankind in whatever
he or she is doing, no matter how small, is a direct contributor
to every movement for the real welfare of the race. For example,
if a successful world state is achieved, whatever credit may be
due to those who are in the forefront of the effort that achieves
it, the real mass power and direction will have come from those
silent and unknown workers who have made the sacrifices and
accomplished the labor required to create the world-state in
essence in their own hearts. It is the way great things are done
and the only way they are done. For this is the beginning of real
occultism as distinguished from theorizing and day-dreaming about
occultism; it is the practice of altruism, the releasing of the
force and consciousness of the Christ into the pathways of all
humanity.
This is discipleship. This is the way of gentleness and
peace and the flooding ecstasy of inclusive awareness. And it is
also the way of tears and blood and the agony of merciless civil
war. Why? Because the first step of any man or woman upon the
path is the signal for the opposing forces within that man or
woman to form ranks and draw up in order of battle. And it is
from the midst of such battle that the force is drawn which does
the Lodge work for humanity. From unseen and unknown victories of
the souls of human beings over their personalities is derived the
power which makes possible even the existence of mankind upon
this planet. When there is no such inner battle, when we are
quite satisfied with ourselves and sure of our rectitude, busily
pushing ourselves forward and making much ado about our rights
and the respect and appreciation due us, then we are not a
disciple at all. Our consciousness is still seated in the animal
and content to be there; our service is not to God, but to
mammon.
Now, mammon is another word for greed, and greed is not so
obvious and easily recognized a thing as one might imagine. It is
true, greed for money is easily recognized and is not in good
repute. The same may be said of greed for status, for recognition
and approval and importance. These are familiar and pitiable
forms of the thing. Even greed for power can often be observed by
everyone but those afflicted by it. A familiar instance is the
patriarch or matriarch who rules and inhibits the lives of
children and grandchildren -- always, of course, for their good,
either by a rod of iron or by a show of helplessness and
dependence.
But when these greeds in their cruder forms are met and
defeated by the aspiring nature, they always disguise themselves
as virtues and return to take one unawares. Thus, we may find
ourselves believing that the basest avarice and the cruelest
suppression become somehow ennobled when they are practiced no
longer in our own personal interest but in the interest of the
family, the nation, the church. We bring down dreadful karma upon
ourselves by transferring greed for the things of the material
world to the interest of God Himself, by proudly bearing the
fruits of forbidden motives and acts to lay at His feet as an
offering.
Thus greed dogs the steps of even the most sincere and
aspiring of those who have undertaken to fight to the death
against it. But the common sense of the matter seems to be that
sincerity and aspiration are not enough; they have to be balanced
by sharp discrimination and the hard courage to turn it upon
one's tenderest points of self-righteousness and self-esteem. In
fact, it has been suggested that one's progress in occultism may
be measured by the amount of personal self-esteem one can get
along without -- and live.
So it is common sense to say that greed in its many phases,
from utter crassness to the most delicate subtlety, is a major
enemy in the way of one who seeks to cooperate in his or her own
evolution and thereby contribute to the evolution of all
humanity. For it is the truth that all centers are one;
consequently, what is accomplished in the inner sanctuary of any
man or woman, takes place potentially in the corresponding center
of every human being. It is the awe-inspiring power inherent in
the infinitely small, the force of the atom released and
conquering.
But there is another enemy of the disciple as huge and as
many-faced as greed, at least in this race. It is the lower mind,
unlit from above and preoccupied with creeds, dogmas,
rationalizations, ideologies, fixed notions, and hard, cruel,
self-willed preconceptions. And this, like greed, has a way of
disguising itself as spirituality.
When we choose to align ourselves with our own
soul-consciousness, we declare war on what we formerly thought of
as ourselves, and we face the gross and the clever and the
self-willed foes of our own households. They are always there, in
everyone, without exception, and to see them is not to have
conquered them; it is only to realize, at last, what we have to
deal with. Many go insane at that realization. The majority turn
and run. A very few stand from the beginning. None are so pure
that they are not shaken and sickened at first-hand knowledge of
what is in themselves.
This experience comes to every man and woman some time. For
in each of us exist the great adversaries, and between those two,
the self-seeker and the doctrinaire, the Christ in man is daily
dragged away to the hill of crucifixion. That is the truth. And
it is the common sense of discipleship that, in this thing, each
man and woman must stand alone and no one will know at the end of
each day how well we have fought, whether we have yelled among
the killers or hung with our Master on the cross. Even without
knowing we must go on, striving to overcome the currents that
beset us.
What, then, is the path of discipleship? It has been often
described, but nobody really knows about it from being told; it
is known only by experience. Then, and only then, what one has
been told takes on meaning and it is not the meaning one had
expected. A little we know and that little has been touched upon.
It has to do with the first steps.
In the beginning, there is a growing weariness with the
struggle for personal success, with no greater issue at stake
than whether we, or some other, should have such and such a
position, such and such comforts and securities. And along with
this weariness, a growing assurance that there really is somehow,
somewhere, a Father-Motherhood of God and a Brother-Sisterhood of
Man.
Then there is the specific ideal, the conscious choice of
direction, the first glimpse of the enemy and, usually, the
feeling of complete inadequacy and the panic flight.
Next, there is the end of flight; there is squalor and filth
and sickness and degradation, the Valley Forge of the soul. And
when there is no more hope, but only endurance, the spring comes
again, the weakened personal will is ready for the whiplash voice
of the drillmaster whose orders have weight because he knows the
game and because he asks nothing for himself.
And, finally, once more the test of battle. The noise
deafens us, the smoke chokes us, the glittering points of
advancing bayonets make our stomach muscles crawl and twitch, but
we do not run. We keep our places and listen for the order. We
hear it, aim at a red-and-white facing, fire, load, aim, fire,
methodically as the drillmaster taught us. We are afraid, but
stand aloof from our fear. The line of bayonets is thinner now,
it shakes and stops moving, it scatters and those rifles are
being thrown away. The thing has happened! We, the beaten
God-forsaken scarecrows -- we, Emil the farmer, Hannah the
weaver, Abe the haberdasher, Susan the cook, Tom the printer --
have broken a charge. We will not run away again, but retreat, if
we must, in good order. We are veterans. And when we march in
review and our leaders smile at us from the saddle, we will grin
back at them from the ranks.
-- Elmer Hedin
As a way of centering for meditation, consider one of these character traits each day: Faith, Self-Control, Altruism, Service, Purity, Truth, and Devotion. As we do this with aspiration, these traits become a part of our consciousness, enriching our lives and the lives of everyone around us.
First--THE ABILITY to stand upright and look squarely at the
sun, while the shadows are engulfing everything upon which he has
leaned, and yet to know that, illusory though they are, it has
been by the means of such supports that he has gained the power
to stand upright.
Second--THE ABILITY to forgive and forget his real or
fancied grievances with the same degree of forgiveness and
forgetfulness that he desires for himself from his own Higher
Self.
Third--THE ABILITY to examine his own life by means of the
same light that he throws upon the life of another.
Fourth--THE ABILITY to mete out to himself the same just
punishment for his offenses that he would wish to see meted out
to any other human being.
Fifth--THE ABILITY to shed his last drop of blood to sustain
his given word, believing nothing less could wipe out the
dishonor of a willful lie.
Sixth--THE ABILITY to pour out his soul in streams upon his
beloved, and yet, when the streams are treacherously turned
aside, to gather up the scattered drops and hold them in leash
against the need of some other soul.
-- Hilarion
"To those who would enter the Temple of Mysteries as disciples, I would say, there are seven requisites: Freedom from Prejudice; and from Thralldom; Devotion to the Principles; Charity towards all; Removal of Stumbling Blocks from the Path of Lesser Disciples; Earnest Cooperation; Burial of Past Mistakes."
-- From Teachings of The Temple of the People
The weeks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day here at
the Center are busy and fulfilling. We were blessed with many
visiting family and friends including Alex and Svetlana Kravtsov
and children; Olga Fedosova and her mother Eugenia Velichko;
Walter and Olga Karshat and children; Natasha and Simon Rykman;
Juel, Damian and Zoe Rollison; Debra Rowlands; Ingrid Paola and
daughter Irina; Dick and Diana Lentz and kids; and Jay Aldinger.
We enjoyed a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner in Hiawatha Lodge.
Then a few short weeks later we were celebrating Christmas with
another potluck dinner in the Lodge followed by a play, The
Three Wise Guys, ably performed by many community members.
New Year's Eve found many people enjoying music and dancing in
the Lodge as they saw the Old Year out. The week following saw a
gathering of Will Dunbar's family from Portland, Oregon; Buffalo,
New York; and Lake Tahoe, California for the wedding of Will's
sister Madonna, which we all enjoyed.
Ron and Nashoma Carlson had a wonderful trip to Canyon de
Chelly in the four corners area of northeastern Arizona where
they met Nashoma's sister, Judith, who joined them from Texas.
Ron and Nashoma also spent Christmas with daughter Shara in
Susanville, California. Barbara Ricardo spent a week with her
daughter and son-in-law in Anchorage, Alaska.
There seems to be a real focus on education here at the
Center with Linda and her kids Kaety and Alex Rollison and Leon
Smith; Marla, Bill and Missy Lowman;
Elena Pletneva, Sheri Sorro, and Susie Clark all attending
classes at Allan Hancock Community College in Santa Maria. Marti
Fast is an art instructor there and Kathy Headtke heads the
College Library at the Lompoc campus. Roy Willey is still doing
consultation work for the Hancock College business education
department. Mindee Thyrring and Mary Foley are pursuing their
degrees at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, and Aureliano Rodriguez
is working in the Master's program in regional and city planning
at Cal Poly. Jennie Foremaster has just completed her course and
is now a licensed massage therapist, while Frank Zuniga has
finished the training necessary to become a certified locksmith.
Temple groups: There are groups in New York City and London, England, as well as several in locations in Germany. Anyone wishing more information about these groups can call the Temple offices in Halcyon.
William Quan Judge Library serves Temple members, residents of Halcyon, and friends having an interest in Theosophy or who are doing research involving some of our special collections. Our library is staffed by volunteers; hours are Mondays, 9-11 a.m. and 6-8 p.m., and Fridays, 9 a.m.-12 noon. Other hours are by ap pointment through the Temple office.
The University Center Gallery is open by appointment. Please call the Temple office at (805) 489-2822 for information. This year the exhibition consists of paintings by Harold E. Forgostein, fourth Guardian in Chief of the Temple. This exhibit, "The Song of Hiawatha," features 12 of the series of 24 four-by-four-foot oils depicting the life and legends of Hiawatha and the League of Six Nations, along with their working watercolor sketches. The sketches give the viewers a glimpse of the creative process Forgostein experienced as he developed the final compositions for the larger paintings. Also on display are many interesting articles and artifacts accumulated through Temple history.
The Temple Healing Service is held at 12:00 Noon each day in the Temple. All are welcome to attend. A Meditation Meeting is held in the Temple on Sunday evening from 7 to 7:30.
Study Classes under the auspices of Temple Officers and various Temple Orders are held regularly in the University Center on Tuesdays and Fridays at 5:30 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Sunday Services are held at 10:30 a.m. in the Temple. The Feast of Fulfillment (the Communion Service of the Temple) is celebrated on the first Sunday of each month. The last Sunday of each month is a prayer and meditation meeting. Other Sundays are speakers' meetings. The public is cordially invited to all services.
Speakers in the Sunday services were: December 17, Zelma Colendich, A Christmas Story; January 14, Eleanor Shumway, A Resolution; January 21, Marti Fast, On Cells and Rooms and Cycles of Life; February 11, Eleanor Shumway, Meeting the Challenge.
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