Well folks, it’s that time of year again — New Year.  It’s a time when many of us make New Year’s Resolutions for things we wish to either eliminate from our lives, or bring into our lives.  This brought to mind a piece from Crowley’s Gnostic Mass (some of you Gardnerians may recognize it as well) — a piece on manifestation of the Infinite in Love.

…not unto Thee may we attain, unless Thine image be Love.
Therefore by seed and root and stem and bud and leaf and flower and fruit do we invoke Thee.

This sort of imagery can be used in any desire for manifestation.  Ask yourself what it is that you wish to bring into your life in 2007.  Imagine this first as seed, then watch as the root system takes shape followed by a stem emerging from the soil.  Next watch as the bud of your desire sprouts from the side of the stem, followed by the emergence of a single leaf, then many leaves.  Inevitably the most beautiful flower blooms, the beauty being followed by the fruit.

It is rather strong imagery and is great for guiding meditations for manifestation.

May 2007 be all to you that you dream it can be.

Brightest,
Tara

The Substance of the SPirit is my Daily Supply.
I cannot be without my Good.
I can see that the constant stream of Life, flowing to me, brings into my experience all that makes Life happy and worthwhile.  I rest in security, knowing that Infinite Good is within and is expressing through me.

I receive my good.

To those who have not realised the Self (God) as well as to those who have, the body is “I.” To those who have not realised, the “I” is limited to the body. To those who have, the “I” shines boundless. Know that this is the difference between them.

– Sri Ramana Maharshi

This one was sitting right under my nose:

I don’t care how smart you are, and neither do those seekers encountering Gnosticism for the first time. We care about how much you can love, about how much beauty you can stand.

Jordan Stratford

Envelope me as in the light of Thy Divine Spirit;
raise me from the denseness of the earth.

Nature Meditations of Hazrat Inayat Khan

“How does one
seek union
with God?”

“The harder
you seek,
the more distance
you create
between
Him and you.”

“So what does
one do about
the distance?”

“Understand that
it isn’t there.”

“Does that mean
that God and I
are one?”

“Not one.
Not two.”

“How is
that possible?”

“The sun
and its light,
the ocean
and the wave,
the singer
and his song
– not one.
Not two.”

Anthony DeMello

Spiritual conditioning has often told us to be separate from everyday life, to hide what is most precious from the crowds, from life around us.  This may have been appropriate at one time, when the inner life of the spirit was emphasized and everyday life carried the shadow of spiritual aspiration.  But those times have passed.  We can no longer afford to split ourselves in pieces, to darken our daily life with disdain or disgust and offer our hearts only to a pure and transcendent light.  Our love for God, our deepest and most sacred needs, must all be offered in every moment, to every detail of life.  We are here to help the world come alive with divine love, to awaken humanity to a new level of consciousness.  And this work cannot be done with an attitude of isolation , especially spiritual isolation.

Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee - Working with Oneness

Understand that as the mighty wind, blowing everywhere, rests always in the sky, all created beings rest in Me.

Chapter 9:6 Bhagavad-Gita

In order that the mind should see light instead of darkness, so the entire soul must be turned away from this changing world, until its eye can learn to contemplate reality and that supreme splendor which we have called the good. Hence there may well be an art whose aim would be to effect this very thing.

Socrates

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance;
The wise one grows it under his feet.

– James Oppenheim

There is no place to seek the mind;
it is like the footprints of birds in the sky.

– Zenrin “The Gospel according to Zen.”

Seeing God without seeing the Self,
one sees only mental image.
Only he who has seen Himself has seen God,
since he has lost his individuality,
and now sees nothing but God.
– Sri Ramana Maharshi.

Let the Light of the Divine Soul illumine us, that we may be guarded from distress and want:
That all our days be perfect, holy and peaceful:
That what is good and profitable for our souls and for the peace of the world may be granted us:
That the rest of our lives may be spent in the knowledge of Truth. So let the Light of the Divine Soul illumine us. Amen

Post communion prayer from the Holy Gnostic Eucharist Liturgy of Ecclesia Gnostica.

I am still and receptive to Life.
I let Life flow through me into all that I do, say or think.
I shall let my Life be what it is, and shall not worry nor complain.
I am now entered into the Secret Place of the Soul where complete quiet reigns supreme and where God talks to me.

I receive.

I shall keep the promise that I have made to myself.
I shall never again tell myself that I am poor, sick, weak nor unhappy.
I shall not lie to myself any more, but shall daily speak the truth to my inner Soul, telling It that It is wonderful and marvelous; that It is One with the Great Cause of all Life, Truth, Power and Action.
I shall whisper these things into my Soul until it breaks forth into songs of joy with the realization of Its Limitless possibilities.

“We are on the path of experience, just waking up to the real fact of our true being; as we awake, we find we are surrounded by many false conditions, but there is something within which remembers the real state.” - Dr. Ernest Holmes

If I didn’t know any better, I’d swear the author of the above quote was Gnostic. Dr. Ernest Holmes is the found of the ‘Science of Mind’ philosophy. I find that his ideas are particularly compatible with root Gnostic principles — The Fullness, the Spark of The Divine within, (as the quote above reveals) and the need for praxis to come from the depths of our True, Inner Selves, Our Divine’ness’ — Our True Will. He supports the idea that waking up to the reality of our True Nature gives way to living truly in happiness. An interesting concept.

Dr. Holmes focuses on ‘the mind’ and thought and the power of these in forming healing and “True Happiness” in our lives. Not so very different than the use of magick. Crowley states that magick is:

“…the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the Will.”

How wonderfully appropriate and complimentary this Thelemic thought is to the Science of Mind philosophy.

I’m not surprised that his ideas have survived so long (The Science of Mind was written by Dr. Holmes in 1929) and that the philosophy is experiencing a lot of support these last couple of decades.

“There once was an open-hearted man who invented the art of making fire. He took his tools and went to a tribe in the north, where it was very cold, bitterly cold. He taught the people there to make fire. The people were very interested. He showed them the uses to which they could put fire– they could cook, they could keep themselves warm, etc. They were so grateful that they had learned the art of making fire. But before they could express their gratitude to the man, he disappeared. He wasn’t concerned with getting their recognition or gratitude; he was concerned about their well-being.

The same man went to another village, where he again began to show the value of his invention.  People were interested there, too, a bit too interested for the peace of mind of their priests (obviously a less open-hearted class of clerics). The priests began to notice that this man was drawing crowds and they were losing their popularity. so they decided to do away with him They poisoned him, crucified him, put it any way you like.

But the priests were afraid now that the people might turn against them, so they were very wise, even wily. Do you know what they did? They had a portrait of the man made and mounted it on the main altar of the temple. The instruments for making fire were place in front of the portrait and the people were taught to revere the portrait and to pay reverence to the instruments of fire, which they dutifully did for centuries. The veneration and the worship went on, but there was no fire.”

Anthony DeMello

I bet you were expecting a big, fat, 42. Sorry. I have an answer that is much more compelling.

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being.”
Carl Jung