by Guardian in Chief Richard A. London
Given in the Blue Star Memorial Temple
November 8, 2026
From 1 2 3, to A B C, to Do Re Mi, there has always been a “Sequencing of Order,” based on the Overarching Creative Law, along with the Law of Cycles being in tune with the inviolable nature of the same sequencing of order. While the debate over “Law and Order” from the spectrum of political points of view, continues in its polarizing tones, Law and Order has never ceased being the Universal Principle at the Helm, guiding every developmental impulse influencing the fundamentals of existence. Despite this Guidance, we find throughout the evolution of matter, force and consciousness, of human nature, just enough individuals persistently ignited by some reason, desire or affinity for disturbing, if not disrupting the varying degrees of civility, depending on their relationship with the concept of law and order.
On the other hand, doing the don’t, turns out to be one of our children’s, our youth’s most informative and useful strategies for learning. We can also find many examples when doing the don’t has led to novel innovations, breaking through pure ignorance or oppressive forms of control that were resistant, if not obstinate to being aligned with the Creative Law’s Sequential Affinity for Order.
Not to be taken for granted would be the quantity and quality of whatever is endeavoring to fall in line with the North Star of Order. Numbers are so profoundly foundational to all aspects of life, for without them nothing would add up, let alone make any sense to our present way of thinking. In fact, I would suggest that we all our being impacted by the need to Balance the Books of Life, by honestly reconciling our relationships with one another, with our environment, with our finances and economies, with our desires and fears, our hopes and dreams, and especially with the truly spiritual nature of our Souls. These days, the more mature raising of hands and taking of turns in an orderly fashion would seem to require more patients, tolerance, and forbearance, than consideration, respect, and obedience.
The increasingly common invoking of some potential existential threat through some political overtones, while by no means new, most certainly is in alignment with the need to Balance the Books.
The preventative guidance coming through numerous directives in their varying numerically delineated forms for who to follow, how to behave, what to do and not to do, are now like low hanging fruit, easy to pick and available for consumption. And yet, ever present remains the ongoing need for discerning one’s vulnerability to the trees bearing the fruits of deception.
These Mindtools for Guidance can simply begin with a focus on a single word, a pair of words, or a trinity of words, and yet the numbers are not necessarily influential to one’s ability to also take into account the karmic relevance of numbers into one’s station in life. From the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love,” to Eckhart Tolle’s “The Power of Now,” from Law and Order, to Yin and Yang, from Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, to Love, Will, and Wisdom, the cornucopia of groupings that may anchor one’s thoughts to what is sacred can be overwhelming.
Here’s another grouping of Mindtools available for Guidance:
Rotary International is one of the world’s largest and oldest service organizations, founded in 1905 by Paul P. Harris in Chicago. It brings together business, professional, and community leaders to provide humanitarian service and promote goodwill and peace. The Rotary Four-Way Test is a 24‑word ethical guide created in 1932 by Herbert J. Taylor and adopted by Rotary International in the 1940s, consisting of four questions. They are: (1) Is it the truth? (2) Is it fair to all concerned? (3) Will it build goodwill and better friendships? (4) Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom is a 1997 bestselling self‑help book rooted in ancient Toltec wisdom. It teaches that much of human suffering comes from unconscious “agreements” we make with ourselves and society. By adopting these four new agreements, Ruiz argues, individuals can transform their lives toward greater freedom, happiness, and love. They are: (1) Be impeccable with your word. (2) Don’t take anything personally. (3) Don’t make assumptions. (4) Always do your best.
From the non-secular Four Way Test and Four Agreements, many have contemplated the Buddha’s Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path to the cessation of suffering. Metaphorically, many have made their way through the Red Sea up to Mount Sinai to embrace the Ten Commandments as given to Moses after the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt.
Many have put one foot in front of the other, by strolling along a path known as the 12 Steps, a structured, spiritual‑based recovery framework created by Alcoholics Anonymous in 1939. This secular practical guide is now recognized as a Mindtool for admitting powerlessness over nearly any form of addiction and ending with helping others after a spiritual awakening.
We just took a very brief dip in a drip from the ocean of offerings proclaimed over the ages, as expressed through all evolving consciousness, as experienced through the human condition. All look to mitigate the Law of the Jungle’s propensity for a more instinctually competitive inclination towards order, by offering the contrast to the possibility of more responsible, justly and compassionate perspectives. All inspired by reckoning with the nature of freewill becoming subjected to the need for having an intentional accountability to the functioning sequencing of order. An intention that strengthens the aspirational transmutation of Humanity’s relationship with those Laws of the Jungle. While it is also important to consider focusing on the relevance of any one individual component of order, the consideration is enhanced when the individual components are contemplated within the context of the whole.
While every other living thing and creature instinctively knows what to do and how to be, for many of us human beings, there remains the potential for an insatiable form of questing. Questing to quench the thirst for fulfillment. Fulfilling a need to make sense and understand the meaning of life, a quest that can reach beyond the need for nutritional sustenance and shelter.
As disconcerting as these times may appear to be, the present state of conflict and controversy is providing opportunities that are leading humanity to an enlightened consensus about the necessity for an intentional conscientious civility within Humanity’s Hierarchy of Life.
Ironically, while the world seems to be on fire with controversy and conflict, we are drowning within an overwhelming flood of wisdom and insightful options for navigating our way towards the Higher Ground.
While I’ve had some familiarity with all of the aforementioned “tip of the iceberg” strategies or mindtools for getting closer to being at “Peace with one’s Soul,” my questing is now being primarily quenched through my study and practice of the Temple Teachings. I have found that my questing and quenching has become an ever-evolving process to not only make sense of the Temple Teachings, but to better know myself. To understand the deeper contrast between my will and ─ Thy Will.
Not unlike being nursed, then crawling before learning to walk, there has been a sequential order to my growing and expanding understanding of what the Temple of the People means to me. To that point, since the 2026 Temple Convention, the story of Noah’s Ark has been more present on my mind and not necessarily as an impulse to “batten down the hatches.” Although it does remind me about how accurate my mother could be, when predicting the onset of rain based on the level of her pain.
Without debating the validity of the Bible, one can only imagine the level of conviction and belief necessary for Noah to persevere through the scorn and ridicule and total lack of support for building the Ark. The building of which would seem to have been motivated by the need to preserve what had been created as intended by God, the Law of Love. For me, whether or not Noah’s Ark is a mythical story is incidental to the value of my endeavoring to have the Ark of Life in shipshape before the challenging floods of life have their chance to drown my potential for learning to choose more wisely.
While I now find myself endeavoring to walk with the Teachings of the Temple, I believe that I experienced a phase when the Teachings were nursing me to a crawl. That initial sequencing of order began with, Creeds Disappear, Hearts Remain; Do unto others as you would have them do unto you; and Judge not lest you be judged, three of the most basic tenets of the Temple. In hindsight, I must admit that these three basic tenets made more sense to me in my crawling phase than the following declaration that: “In the Temple the priests do not intercede, as our teachings clearly state that each person is their own priest when it comes to ultimately knowing their connection to God or All That Is.”
Today, I now associate that declaration with the last few lines found in the poem “Invictus,” by William Ernest Henley, written in 1875. “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul,” meaning it is my responsibility to save myself by endeavoring to realize the presence of “God or All That Is” as a living Power in my life, while also remaining connected to those three most basic tenets of the Temple of the People.
In other words, the Temple of the People isn’t responsible for building an Ark to save humanity; we all are individually responsible for building our very own Arks together.
From those three basic tenets I have now come to believe in the harmonious evolution of all creative Force and Consciousness, and in a geometrical plan according to which each atom, molecule, human being and star must attain development under fixed, inexorable Law, which Law is Love. I now find myself endeavoring to work in harmony with that Law as far as lies in my power.
I find this belief from the opening passage found in the Pledge to the Order of the 36, theosophically relevant to the Sons of Fohat, also known as the Holy Spirit or Cosmic Energy bridging the span between Spirit and Matter. It is by these energetic Fohatic Forces of Sound, Light, Flame, Magnetism, Attraction, Repulsion and Cohesion, operating under the fixed and inexorable Law of Love, that the geometrical plan for the development of each atom, molecule, human being, and star on the physical plane of existence may be fulfilled. This Divine plan has always been operating under a preordained sequence of order as dictated by the necessity of the varying periods of specific cycles.
From Motion to Color, to the Spirit of Flame in Fire, all are brought to the perfect point in time, without fanfare or adulation, by the contributing Fohatic Forces of Attraction, Repulsion, and Cohesion. This Divine Process is accountable for creating, organizing, and assembling the multitudes of non-living atoms and molecules that are foundational to the cell, the smallest living, independently functioning unit of the human body.
Up until this perfect point in time, the fixed, inexorable Law of Love has nurtured this Divine Process to when the consciousness of matter becomes conscious of its existence and has attained the wherewithal to make choices that are one with the Law of Love. Choices that can brighten or dim the process of Consciousness becoming One with the Light, as in the White Light emanating from Stars and Sun in Celestial Spaces.
Still remaining to be determined, will be the necessary gulf of time required from when humanity began coming to terms with the sphericity of Earth orbiting the Sun to when humanity finally realizes and accepts the Existential Reality of a geometrical plan according to which each atom, molecule, human being and star must attain development under the fixed, inexorable Law of Love.
Which now brings me to the Sequential Order of The Ten Rules of Discipleship of the 4th Degree of the Great White Lodge and the role they play in how we endeavor to build our own individual Arks together.
From the 2026 Master’s Message: “Becoming One with and faithfully applying the Ten Rules of Discipleship is imperative to building character and proficiency, as you practice living by the Golden Rule. My Cherished Ones, learn to be grateful and obedient to the spiritual principles within these Rules, for each is a Guiding Light illuminating the way through the shortsightedness of lower desires. If you relinquish that responsibility, you derail recognition by future generations of the true nature of their usefulness and unity, both essential for bringing loving meaningfulness to and through their work. The resulting well-being inspires cooperation, harmony, and resilient economic conditions. Meeting those needs is the Golden Rule in action.”
It is by the Ten Rules of Discipleship, and their relationship to the Fohatic Forces, that we may discern a deeper meaning to being in alignment with the Law of Love’s Geometrical Plan.
Keeping in mind the Sequencing of Order, within the context of all Ten Rules of Discipleship, it is the First Three Rules that I find offering a deep clarity to the inviolability of the Law of Unity.
God is Love, and Love is the Fundamental Source of Being, therefore, if thou sin against Love, that sin is against God.
1. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. This is the highest law.
2. Thou shalt obey the laws of Life. The Higher Law will hold thee accountable for the breaking of every lesser law.
3. Thou shalt not sin against thine own body nor against the body of thy neighbor by concupiscence; for the Lord thy God will demand an accounting of thee for all of the Creative Fire enthroned within thee.
You may have noticed that the First Rule is a three in one. In other words, we need to embrace the Law of Love’s Geometrical Plan, we need to be living by the Golden Rule, and we need to do this with no ifs, ands, or buts. The Second Rule makes quite clear the necessity for the Sequencing of Order and its inviolability.
As far as the Third Rule goes, despite my original lack of clarity as to the meaning of concupiscence, I also didn’t comprehend its importance of order within the ranking of Universal priorities.
However, within the context of the Law of Love’s Geometrical Plan, it is concupiscence that may be identified as the most significant disrupter to the Sequencing of Order, for it violates the Fundamental Sacredness of the Creative Forces of Attraction, Repulsion, and Cohesion. For a correspondence, imagine if Hydrogen and Oxygen had the capacity and inclination for disrespecting the Sacredness of the Creative Forces. We can only speculate how their irreverence could detrimentally impact the Geometrical Plan of Evolution, by altering what many of us now take for granted. And yet, despite various religious and moralistic attempts to demonize certain aspects of human behavior in all of their manifestations, there still remains insufficient reverence and respect for the sacredness of procreation. And yet there is no denying the potential for one becoming excessively attracted or repulsed by the ever-evolving Creative Forces of Attraction, Repulsion and Cohesion.
In Genesis chapter 1 verse 28, God blesses the first humans and tells them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.” After the flood, God repeats the command in Genesis chapter 9 verse 1: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth,” renewing the obligation to Noah’s surviving family.
Between this assertion from the Old Testament and the Ptolemaic system’s superseded theory that placed a stationary Earth at the center of the universe, these two antiquated expressions offer a glimpse into the necessary sequencing to humanity’s evolving understanding of order. A previous understanding that now seems infantile to the quenching of humanity’s questing for a deeper meaning to the purpose of life.
Without a respect and reverence for a belief in the Sacredness of Life, there will always be the potential for the malignancy of license to overwhelm the compass of Liberty. We have been blessed with the guidance offered through the 12 Step Program. Perhaps a Divinely inspired Mindtool, a practical approach for providing the ways and means for realigning to the Geometrical Plan, for recalibrating, no matter the cause of the obsessive-compulsive disorder. It takes vigilance for Liberty not to become desecrated by an unrestrained sense of license.
I believe that the Ten Rules of Discipleship were also made available by the Masters of Wisdom, as an all-encompassing Guide to assist Humanity with the realization that the value of the Liberty we all are endowed with, will always necessitate being fully aligned with the Law of Love’s Geometrical Plan.
The Ten Rules of Discipleship provide the way to Divinity within the Sequencing of Order. They are the blueprint for Nurturing our Civility, for Balancing our Books, for Building our Arks together.
From the Temple’s Aids to Study: “It requires all of the mental and psychic power of the student to examine what is given, to the end that the real meaning of the teaching may be discovered. While studying, the student must strive to free the mind from all preconceived ideas resulting from heredity, education or other teachers so that the inner sense of the Teachings may be impressed upon it regardless of the words with which they are clothed. The mind needs to concentrate upon the Teachings as a whole, also upon every statement in them. In this way, what is best from heredity, education and other teachers will be synthesized with the Teachings.”
While a separate talk could be given on each one of the following Rules, let us simply keep this Aid to Study excerpt in mind as I conclude by reading these last seven Rules of Discipleship:
4. Thou shalt not needlessly take the life of anything or creature.
5. Thou shalt not speak falsely, unnecessarily or critically against thy neighbor and so put in action the converse force of creative sound and word; for the Higher Law will reverse the action of the force thus directed and bring back upon thee, with intensified strength, the results of the broken Law.
6. Thou shalt bear constantly in mind the unity of the human race, and treat every member of the Great White Lodge as though they were of blood kin; for unity is the law of discipleship and if thou sin against this law, thou shall be greatly hindered in thy progress toward the goal of thy desires.
7. Morning and evening thou shalt lift the eyes of thy soul toward the Throne of thy God with strong aspiration, gratitude, and devotion; for according to thy desires — thy demands upon the Center of all Being, desires expressed in purity, thanksgiving and unselfishness, shall the supply be vouchsafed thee.
8. Thou shalt give of thine abundance to all the poor, but of thy poverty, the price of thine own pleasures and that which would minister to thine own desires shalt thou give to the Great Mother and to the Guardian of the Shrine, through which the Great Mother Love of the universe radiates for thine own eternal good.
9. Thou shalt not despise nor ill-treat any thing or creature. Matter, Force and Consciousness are but different degrees of the one eternal, all-pervading principle of Love — which is God; and he who despises and reviles his body because it does not radiate the light of his soul despises God as certainly as does the man who despises and reviles the soul and spirit of God.
10. When the Law of Love — of Karma — has brought thee out of the morass of spiritual darkness to the beginning of the path which leads to spiritual illumination, woe be unto thee if thou obstruct that path for thyself or others, by refusing to obey the Master to whose feet that law has brought thee.
Only by implicit obedience to the commands of the Master-Teacher shalt thou be able to lift one foot after another while treading that path of discipleship.
Commune long and earnestly with the God within thyself ere thou darest to make demand to tread that path, for once thou hast entered it, thou canst no more return to thy former state of irresponsibility than thou canst re-enter thy mother’s womb.
Behold the Path before thee; a clean life, pure aspiration and unselfish service. Art thou prepared to tread that Path?
By learning to raise our hands and take our turns we become familiar with the Sequencing of Order, with the nature of Law and Order.
Respect, consideration, and obedience, tempered with patients, tolerance, and forbearance will always be essential to the essence of Kinship, to Nurturing Civility, and to living the Golden Rule.
— Richard A. London, Sixth Guardian in Chief