Friday, May 31, 2013

The Philosopher

Giambettino Cignaroli


Man was made in the image of God.  He made you a “What-if”.  To live to become a Man or Woman, because I mean both, you move from a human to a Man; it is a completely different species.  A man is somebody who has a soul and a body and is connected to the Gods.  That is the Trinity.  And if we are in that position, even if we suffer, it doesn’t matter.  We say that the philosopher always wins, because if things happen, he transforms them, and becomes wiser; if things are beautiful, he enjoys them.


Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Connecting

Felix Parra


... the machine will determine that it does not agree with certain aspects of the system because it has friction with them or that they do not fit their view of the world or spirituality.  These types of conclusions are usually drawn before proper investigation, questioning and verifying have occurred. Also, it will try to mix the system with other traditions. There are of course many connections, but it is important connect from the perspective of the system...connecting is not mixing...


Tuesday, May 28, 2013

New Things Possible

Jean-Honoré Fragonard


And this teaching is often not part of soaring higher states
but of simple (if one dare call it that) presence. Not only
intellectual revelation but a true enabling or third force
that makes new things possible. Help with "doing".
A Great Leap Forward, a new level of being made possible.

It feels like a light is being shone through my being,
this is really higher energy and its heat is Love, but the
consciousness aspect is like light. All pervasive. The only
limitation to this almost insistent, non stop teaching is the
loss of presence, as long as I am present it is given,
poured out endlessly.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Familiar

Caravaggio


In the meeting a student asked, "Why is it that it can be easier to be
sympathetic to strangers than our loved ones?" It is unfortunate

but common in the world of the creature that 'familiarity breeds
contempt." From spouses, siblings to co-workers, it is more likely
that our mechanics and features become entangled - from this
comes pleasures as well as pains. Patterns are developed and
attitudes become crystallized between familiars. The once
beautiful car we bought is now ordinary, as you get accustomed
to it.

The English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley reminds us, "Familiar acts
are beautiful through love." It is only through the soul - the bridge
to divinity that we are given the grace to overcome our basic
inclinations.

Sunday, May 26, 2013

Taste of the Sublime

Peter Paul Rubens


There is human love and there is divine Love. The Soul is the part
of us that can receive and transmit divine Love. Once it is
experienced, the initiate or student 'knows'.

This taste of the sublime, this feeling of 'coming home' is what we
are all searching for and the aim of our work is to keep it, to learn
how to stay in this state. Because it beautifies, protects, teaches,
gives, heals and leads us to wisdom. It reunites us with our
essence, with our birthright, with 'our father, who art in heaven'.


Possibilities

William Blake


When a man awakens and gains access to his higher understanding and when his soul becomes developed to the point where it now has "Independent Existence" and he is "Present", he has a duty to pass on his understanding using the "Talents" he has received from the "Gods" in a manner fitting, conducive and relevant to the time he finds himself in, and according to the level of "Being" of the people around him.

 

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Aim

Claude Michele


The Aim is the whole point of this journey on the spiritual path, yet I am bewildered at how often I lose sight of it. It seems that the recovery rate from entertaining detours and distractions takes some time and extra effort too. I observe myself spending some of my time on a see-saw; on the one hand making efforts, then getting caught up in I's on the other.
Recalling the aim reminds me of our purpose and restores me to sanity.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Harmonious Working

Canaletto


It would have been hard not to have been present looking at these
wonderful buildings in the clear morning light, the soul emerged
naturally in response to the beauty around one. After only a few

minutes I started having 'I's about the relationship of Presence to
the harmony of centres. The first thought was that what I was
seeing was the result of what a civilisation at its height can
produce. I was surrounded on all sides by the products of the
harmonious working together of all four centres. I could feel the
near perfect balance of the kings of the moving instinctive,
emotional and intellectual centres operating in concert. They
were together pointing to, leading to the Soul but also being
inspired from that level.

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Infinite Connection

Leonardo da Vinci


I feel like there is a web and I am a part of it.
Many lines depart from the point where I am,
like all relationships that I have in this life.
Many other lines are related and connected to those lines,
moving forward and backwards, in the future and past.
I don’t even know about them
and yet there is a feeling of infinite connection,
Union.


~A



Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Unless you can use it...

Anna Lea Merritt


Today, strangely enough I bought a new computer, and there is nothing on it. That's the way you are when you are born – there is nothing on you. We have to learn, we have to push "Enter" for information to go into you. One computer can have lots of Giga-bites disc and can have lots of information; and another can have very little information; but the one with lots of information is not necessarily any better than the one that has no information. You can fill up your hard disc with all sorts of rubbish. And these people who have full hard discs, full of rubbish, and they think that they are intelligent, or that they are capable of discussing many subjects, I have to show you that having knowledge is nothing. It just means your hard disc is full. Unless you can use it, it is no good.

    ~Mervyn J. Brady



Monday, May 20, 2013

We're Never Alone

Arthur Hughes


We're never alone. Looking for inspiration in a place where we can
be fed by something Divine is one of the ways we can be sure that
we are holding on to the Work. Something is there to hold us up
and we have to hold it in return. This is most true in the moments
when we feel far away from God, and when we find ourselves
experiencing longer stretches of time without 'taking a moment'.


Sunday, May 19, 2013

That was us.

Edmund Dulac

Under a clear starry sky in the crisp night air we know what is expected of us. But the journey itself is our reality and it is the journey that must be lived wherever or however we are. The Doing of things. The end is always in our heads and our hearts,
but after all is done the journey was what we were. That was us.

Karnak

 
In this process we are eternally coming into being,
recognizing through all senses our own eternal beauty,
shattering in joy, and being remembered again whole.
Like the great light of spirit holding each part of my
body in cohesion. In this moment I can reach out and
touch the spaces.
Many years ago, while working with Mervyn, I dropped
a plate on the floor. He looked at me with great love and
said: "That is your soul, it will unify in order for you to
remember yourself". I felt the beauty of his gaze as the
wisdom of his words and being pierced my heart and soul.

Today, I realise I have to become the spaces between
all the shattered parts. It is in that divine space that
we become the architects of our own souls.


~C




Friday, May 17, 2013

"go to the limits of your longing"

Arthur Rackham


I hear Rilke encouraging us not to fear our longing.  Let it bring us to our knees and destroy all that is not real in us. Once we reach the limits, nothing else will remain  - only the peace of a soul in eternal love and freedom.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

...it entered this world

El Greco

In Christian terms, in the Old Testament it was God the Father,
In the New it was about the Son,
and now I put it to you that there is something else;
 the Holy Ghost.
 And not long ago it entered this world.

It is no longer up to man and his stupid brain
to figure things out in regard to the soul.
I am telling you that Love is a gift and it is given to you by God.


Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Remorse of Matter

Evelyn Pickering De Morgan


Heat and light are the remorse of matter.
When we are in a state of self remembering
elements in our body experience a state of remorse.
Not a feeling of inferiority but a kind of sorrow for what we are,
combined with an aspiration,
and a light dawns on us,
we can observe something in ourselves
that had been hidden in darkness.


Tuesday, May 14, 2013

"Lost Illusions"

by Charles Geyre


I have changed the old "As above, so below" to something that feels more relevant for me: "As inside, so outside." We construct the outer world from our internal needs and features and habits. We project our features onto others and produce a subjective
picture of them that fits our model.

This is why it’s so important to really listen to each other and try and talk from our highest parts when together as students.


To Remind You

William Blake


We have come to remind you that the prison no longer exists.
We can get out of it, and there is no reason to stay here any longer,
and in order to get out, we have to wake up from this dream;
our souls can return to God. We have been forgiven,

and they are waiting for us to go back into the Light.
Free at last!

 
Part of the beginning of the way back is to help each other,to aid in the process of waking up...we belong to the same species.

My job is to remind you who we are, and what are we doing here,
that is why I came back.
Remembering your Soul, your job is being completed!
So there is no more pressing business here on Earth…
Nothing is more important than this!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

The Real Third Force

Botticelli


One will not be able to understand the necessity of making efforts unless one knows what it is that one wants here. Right third line work comes from the understanding of WHY you are here and using one’s evolution as the third force. Feminine Dominance and Mechanical Goodness may help one at the beginning,
but will fail at intervals;
the real third force must prevail.


Harmony

Lawrence Alma-Tadema

 
Rodney Collin explains in "Conscious Harmony" the chapter on
"Harmony" how the Greeks saw and understood music as a
complete way in which ALL parts of the organism could be united.

It was supposed to contain three elements. MELOS... or melody
developed in the throat. RHYTHMOS.... or rhythm felt in the solar
plexus, and HARMONIA...which was connected to the perception
and beating of the heart.

These three elements, combining in different ways, created the six
or seven modes, which were an evocation of the "six processes" we
study. The chief instrument was the Seven stringed Lyre, the
center string representing the sun, the three above the inner
planets, and the three below the three outer ones.

Melos, rhythmos, and harmonia...realized on these seven strings
made a true image of the interaction of the "Law of Three and the
Law of Seven". This was and is the magic of music. Whether they
understand it or not, musicians are imitating cosmic laws- and
(with help) the strangest things may happen.

 

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Wrestling with the Angel

Rembrandt


It must be realized that in placing himself under the aegis of the Law of Exception (C Influence), man goes against the General Law
(A Influence), which he is even called upon to overthrow, if only on an individual scale.
This is so even though the General Law, being a cosmic law, is naturally a divine law. One must not be afraid, as the Law of Exception is also a divine law.


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Creation

Edward Burne Jones


The goal of the ‘system’ is to supply us with knowledge, which we can, in our own terms, through self-observation, transform into understanding. The ‘work’ part is the doing of it, internalizing it through our Being. This could be said to be the point of creation.


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Words of Our Work

Sandro Botticelli


We need to become the words of our work...
and in that way I feel no matter where we are in our work,
the projection of what we have inside is
being used to help the work of Influence C...
I feel purification is a never-ending process...
and so is Love…
the more we evolve the deeper our connection with our soul,
and the deeper our capacity to Love.


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Unfamiliar Space

William Holman Hunt


I have reached a new beginning in many ways, and I am entering unfamiliar space, with a whole new set of impressions to digest. I find myself standing at the edge of my own personal solar system, and I have no idea what is out there ahead of me in my work. I am once again facing the boundary between what I have verified and what I do not yet understand. For me personally, standing at the edge of my own Being in this moment involves learning how to keep my Heart open.

Monday, May 6, 2013

Every Time

Rembrandt

Every time you are present, it is not only your first line work
which is elevated. The whole School benefits because
you are contributing to the Soul of the School.
You also help Me in my constant efforts to penetrate
into the Unknown Regions.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Roots and Wings

Gustave Moreau


The Cardinal Virtues build root foundations Wisdom, Temperance, Courage, and Justice. Roots are grounding, but also provide legs that allow for movement, stability and strength. The wings are the Virtues of Charity, Hope and Faith.  These are the gifts given to us in the form of grace and higher states. A balance is important. In a beautiful state, one feels lightness and buoyancy. Having strong wings allows us to  fly, but it is important to have the legs to not only be able to land, but also to take off. 



Phenomenon

M.C. Escher


..although it is extraordinarily difficult to divide one’s attention into two, it is much more possible for it to be divided into three: although it is extraordinarily difficult to remember oneself and one’s surroundings simultaneously, it may be much more possible to remember oneself and one’s surroundings in the presence of something else.

As we have seen, no phenomenon is produced by two forces: every phenomenon and every real result requires three forces. The practice of self-remembering or division of attention is connected with the attempt to produce a certain phenomenon, the birth of consciousness in oneself.

Friday, May 3, 2013

As Love Pierces Us

Henry Ossawa Tanner


As love pierces us do we not become like a prisoner
staring impotently out of the prison cell?

This feeling, more than any other must be what
activates the desire to return to the source.

Dare to venture out. The road is safe. I have
trodden it with my own feet. Whoever you are,
 COME FORTH.


Thursday, May 2, 2013

...to its limits

Gian Lorenzo Bernini


There is a point, further on, where one keeps an eye on the
mechanics, and has to be careful that the work does not
degenerate into fascination with self. After several years
in the work one sees the machine is like a car. You have
to have a basic knowledge of it and have to keep upgrading
one's manual, however the idea is to Drive it and make it
serve our inner worlds.
Some people become "Machine Mechanics or Engineers".
We need them in a school to keep us abreast of
"new developments", but most important
 we need rally drivers who will
take this work to its limits.

Third Force

Fresco in the Chora Church, Istanbul, c.1315


Through understanding Triads we can come to a deep
understanding of how we are stimulus response machines.
And our aim is to be able to bring our own third force
or to put ourselves in the right place to take advantage

of the third force we desire to act on us – to be able to DO.

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Impressions

Dante Gabriel Rossetti


Impressions are not just food, but become part of ones being
while passing through many different environments.
I began to realise the space of time changing within myself
as time appeared to move through me.