T H E T R E E OF L I F E

THE GREAT MOTHER (2)

Lesson Sixteen

M ere recognition of the Indwelling Presence m entioned at the conclusion of Lesson Twelve is not enough. "Not everyone that saith unto m e, ' Lord! L ord!' shall en te r the kingdom .” So the second le tte r of the word Beth, ’H ouse ,' is Yod, the " hand."

From your T aro t studies you have learned that the occult significance of Yod has to do with the physiological p ro cesses which build the physical house of personality . Thus the Yod in r ' 3 rem inds us that we m ust do the Will of the F a th er, and th is m eans we m ust know the W ill. U nless we know it, we cannot do i t .

When we put ourse lves in an attitude of recep tiv ity to the M aster P resence , as shown by the uplifted hand of the M agician, we begin to receive the higher power, and then we m ust d istribu te it in work of the righ t s o r t. The reception is one of ligh t-fo rce , p ic ­tured in Key 9 as the radiance stream ing from the H erm it’s lan te rn . The H erm it is a symbol of the M aster of the House, o r of Yekhidah, seated in K ether.

The path of the le tte r Beth proceeds from that p rim ary cen ter of Will and L ife. Thus the H erm it is rep resen ted as an old m an, o r as the "White H ead,” standing alone.

The light of h is lan tern is the fo rce the M agician draw s down from above. T his light en te rs the personal field as intuition; and thus we find that Binah, at the low er end of the path of Beth, is said to be Intuition, the essen tia l power of the Divine Soul, N esha- mah, nCtfJ.

The num ber of m w i is 395, and th is num ber is rep resen ted also by H a-Sham ain, d ' d " the heavens." Intuition is really the operation, in the field of personality , of the C ausal Intelligence which estab lishes the whole cosm ic o rd e r . The m echanical a s ­pects of th is o rd e r a re physically v isib le to us in the reg u la r m ovem ents of the heaven­ly bodies. From this apparently m echanical regu larity man has developed h is whole conscious conception of Law. The O rder of N ature is the only Kingdom of Heaven. F a il­u re to g rasp th is tru th has made the sim ple p rac tica l doctrine of the New T estam ent a l ­m ost u se le ss to the m ajo rity of human beings.

Heaven is the rea lm of causes, and when we understand that th is realm of causes is ju s t as tru ly within us as it is over our heads in the sky, we have the key to all the m y s­te r ie s of the Kingdom of Heaven. If we m aintain the attitude of expectant receptiv ity to ­ward what seem s to be above u s, we shall com e in tim e to know that it is within us, and within all m en. As we do so, we shall receive d irec t intim ations of the p a rticu la r ap­plication of p rinc ip les to the special work which is ours to do, a possib ility of the L ife- power to exp ress as an ex ternalized , tangible re a lity . Man is not only the "house" of God, every one of us is also a "hand” of God.

Thus the le tte r-n am e fi1 Beth, ends with Tav, the le tte r we found cen tra l in the word 1DD, K ether. Read again what is said of it in Lesson T en. Review also w hat­ever you may have concerning th is le tte r and its re la tion to Key 21. H ere we wish to em phasize the notion that Tav rep re sen ts the A dm inistrative In telligence. That is to say, the power dwelling in the "tem ple of holiness in the m id s t." The power at the

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C enter of the house of personality is the power which ad m in isters the whole business of our l iv e s .

According to the Q abalistic descrip tion of the A dm inistrative Intelligence, it is the power which d irec ts the operations of the seven p lan ets. These p lanets a re the inte ­r io r s ta r s , the seven cen te rs of force within the human body which control the functions of the en tire organism .

When a human being puts every detail of his personal life under the d irection of th is C entral A dm inistrative Principle, he speedily d iscovers how adequate that power rea lly is . Nothing is im possible to i t . No problem is insoluble. More than th is , the personal organism itse lf begins to experience the benefits of the operation of th is C entral D irec ­ting P resen ce .

Health im p ro v es . Understanding deepens. Action becom es e ffic ien t. Skill is de­veloped. The consequence is an ev er-in c rea s in g command over ex ternal conditions and c ircu m stan ces . When the full possib ilities of what we a re now d iscussing a re r e ­alized, the physical organism itse lf begins to be transfo rm ed little by little , until th e re is developed from the corrup tib le body of the natural man the incorruptib le body of the sp iritua l m an .

This new kind of personal vehicle is physical as well as m etaphysical. The t r a n s ­m utation is not by any m eans lim ited to the sub tler vehicles, though it does effect some modification of the e theric and a s tra l b o d ies . What occurs is that the personal con­sciousness offers no obstacle to the free operation of the Principle of Embodiment which is located in Binah.

When that princip le has unobstructed play in the field of a p a rtic u la r human p e rs o n ­ality , the effect produced is that the man can m ake fo r h im self a body suitable fo r any physical environm ent w hatever, whether here on earth , o r elsew here in the u n iv e rse . Thus in the system of R osicrucian G rades, the Grade attribu ted to Binah is named Ma- g is te r T em pli, M aster of the T em ple. T his name re fe rs to the perfect adaptability to any so rt of environm ent which is expressed by a person whose consciousness offers no obstruction to the free working of the cosm ic Principle of Em bodim ent.

Such a consciousness is m eant when it is said that the le tte r Beth re p re sen ts the twelfth Path on the T ree of L ife. This Path is named "Intelligence of T ran sp aren cy ."It will be explained in detail in our course on the T hirty-tw o Paths of W isdom . H ere, we need only point out that transparency is the quality which p e rm its fre e , unobstructed passage to ligh t. In re la tion to m an’s personal self-consciousness, th is indicates that the highest function of th is consciousness is to c lea r the way for the influx of light from above.

Again, the twelfth Path of Wisdom is said to be "the source of vision in those who b e ­hold apparitions." T his does not re fe r to clairvoyant v isions only, though it does in ­clude them . The "apparitions" a re a ll the various appearances in m an’s sphere of sen ­sation, w hatever may be the plane whereon they a re m anifested .

The power of sight, considered as a function of consciousness, is an in te rio r power

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of the o b se rv e r. Many of our early lessons in seeing have been fo rg o tten . We do not easily rea lize that vision is fa r m ore than m erely an operation of eyes, optic nerves and brain ce lls reacting to l ig h t. Vision is p rim arily a m ental pow er. Hence every human being sees in his environm ent what he has learned to look fo r . The m o re p e r ­fectly he ex p resses the sp iritu a l power of vision, derived from the potency of M easu r­ing Intelligence e ternally p re sen t in the P rim al W ill, the m ore tru ly do the appearances in h is environm ent correspond to actual r e a l i ty .

H ere we approach the g rea t sec re t in the p ictu re of the M agician, the sec re t of the transfo rm ing and transm uting power of atten tion . By using attention in ac ts of concen­tra tio n , we can see our environm ent with the eyes of U niversal M ind. That Mind knows no a fflic tion . That Mind has no f e a r s . When its pure vision of the G reat W ork flows down from superconsciousness into our ac ts of conscious perception , we share its b l is s ­ful, fe a r le ss observation of the wheelings of the various cycles of m anifestation .

A true m agician does not rem odel h is world by personal volition . He d iscovers the tru th that the re a l world does actually correspond to h is h e a r t’s d e s ire . The re a l world, as the U niversal Mind sees it, is a world in which every activity w orks tow ard the ex ­p ression of freed o m . It is a world in which every chain of cause and effect leads to the production of a beautiful r e s u l t . Your world, the one you a re looking a t, may o r may not, at the p resen t m om ent, seem to be such a world as th is . Yet the appearances of fa ilu re , of d isease , of inharm ony, of lack, o r ugliness, of fu tility , begin to d isappear when you learn to ex p ress the m agical v ision .

The transfo rm ing vision of an adept in the p rac tice of the Way o r Method leading out of delusion, enables him to see things as they rea lly a re . He builds h is house of life in accordance with p a tte rn s laid out by the Grand A rchitect of the U niverse . His acts a re potent because the power exp ressed in them is not m ere ly the physical and p sych i­cal energy of h is own personality , but is actually the physical and psychical energy of the whole u n iv erse . The All-Power finds expression in the le a s t of his thoughts, w ords, and d e ed s .

The consciousness corresponding to the twelfth Path is the essence of a ll m agical pow er. It is the path of attention, d irecting the energy of superconsciousness into sp ec i­fic m anifestation in the subconscious lev e l. The la tte r includes all the fo rm s and fo rces in m an’s environm ent, which begins with h is physical body, and extends, without any b reak in its continuity, down to the field of the m inera l Kingdom. Magic is the awaken­ed perception of th is fact in the cosm ic o rd e r , combined with action which is in harm ony with the percep tion . When we see the world as it is seen by the tru e I AM, seated in K ether, we understand what we see , and fo r us, things actually a re as we see them . P ractice holding th is m agical attitude in your every thought, em otion, word and deed.