In Search of the Oracle

A book of Spiritual philosophy

by Jimmy Henderson

Published by Neo-world Copyright 2002 by Neo-world consultants

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in

any form or by any means, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Published by Neo-world, Durban, South Africa. (2002) ISBN 0-620-28639-3

Acknowledgements To Nickie, who encouraged me to eventually complete this book.

Contents
Foreword 4

Introduction Meditation on the search for the Oracle The narrative 1 The background to the journey The psychological perspective Think tools In search of the oracle Questions on God and Spirit What is God and Spirit? Does a spiritual set of Laws exist? What is the Christ-being? What is religion? Are the churches fulfilling their role? What is Spiritual Truth? Who are we ? What is our real nature as human beings? Our relationship to God and Spirit The purpose of man What is our human consciousness? Are there really degrees of consciousness?

6 6 7 9 9 9 12 16 16 23 28 34 36 36 40 42 46 49 51 54 60 63 66 68 69 71 75 79 86 86 91 92

2 3

5 Morality, freedom and responsibility Is there such a thing as good and bad, right and wrong? Our personal freedom and responsibility Human rights 6 What role does our mind play? The power of art and symbols Can we understand the language of our mind? Can growth take place in our mind? Entering our mind Can we ever be totally certain of anything? The power of self-deception Personal certainty What is doubt?

What is life? What is the real meaning of life? Why do we suffer? Is there a Heaven and a Hell? Personal Revelation Is there such a thing as a personal revelation of truth? Conclusion Bibliography

95 95 95 97 102 102 106 107

Foreword

Our inner being is a source of knowledge and power which we can approach daily in an attempt to answer many important questions on the meaning of life, on who and what we are, our ethics and morality, our world with its natural laws and so-called supernatural events and the existence of a higher spiritual reality and God. How we access this knowledge has been for many centuries the subject matter of science, psychology, philosophy, Theology and mysticism. I believe that these are ultimately all different approaches or paths to the same source of knowledge and revelation that is available to us deep within the levels of our own consciousness. During our lives each of us should be encouraged to complete a personal journey through the writings, scriptures and available information in the world today to find this wellspring of truth which is within our reach. We can call this our search for the Oracle of our inner being or spirit, that part of us which we have forgotten. The successful completion of this search results in the gifts of Understanding and of Revelation, which will be for each of us a state of inner peace and a very personal experience or revelation of Truth. This journey, which can be long and arduous, begins with the correct preparation and the use of basic principles such as our common sense and sound thinking as well as our conscience and intuition, which will enable and empower us to separate falsity, deception and illusion from truth and reality as we continue along the path. We can also make use of more advanced techniques such as meditation. One such exercise, a visualisation called the Oracle, has proved to be extremely powerful. This particular technique was used extensively as a basis to this book to obtain the insights that are presented here. I have explained it fully in the introduction for those of you who wish to make use of the exercise. There is great power in the actual process or search itself and if we follow this path diligently, our thinking will be progressively transformed from stereotyped beliefs into a broad, active and growing personal awareness and knowledge of ourselves, God and the universe. This book has been written on two levels. It contains firstly an allegory of a seeker for knowledge following a path up a mountain to consult a famous oracle and to find answers to many important questions and is deeply symbolic. Secondly, a simpler interpretation of the passages has been provided to explain and discuss what was revealed, implied and 5 understood during the exercise. The method used for these discussions

follows the path of spiritual philosophy, that is, what is presented on a higher level as divine revelation, will be argued and supported by examples from real life and the everyday world of human experience. The reader therefore has the freedom to accept or reject that which is presented as truth. All that is requested is that the information be viewed with an open mind. For the purposes of this book, God has been introduced in the masculine as He. I understand that there may be some who do not agree with this concept or idea, but I request you to bear with me in the use of this term in the interest of simplicity. I pray that what has been written here may assist in some small way, in the growth of our human understanding and consciousness.

Introduction

There comes a time in the life of each of us when we are given a gift. It may be the gift of love, abundance, wisdom, inner strength or peace. Sometimes it may be a little of each or of several such graces. In my case it was the gift of thoughts, the ability to think clearly and I believe, to understand from my thinking, a degree of the truth and reality that is actually presenting itself to us, but which is normally hidden by the limits of our human mind and a lack of self-awareness and understanding, as well as our own self-deception. In this book I shall share with you firstly a meditation and visualisation exercise called the Oracle which forms the basis of the information presented and secondly, provide a narrative on my own questioning and inner journey to clarify and provide possible answers to a number of real issues which we confront in everyday life. The oracle mentioned in the passages is therefore not a living person, but rather our own inner being or spirit operating through the level of our superconscious mind or soul consciousness, that original spiritual state which as human beings, we have forgotten over the many eons of mental conditioning. If we are once again able to access this level of consciousness, our mind is placed in a state of listening sufficient for us to experience whispers of divine revelation. What we experience is a level of knowledge considerably higher than normal thinking. Although we lose much as we interpret the experience in terms of our personal concepts and feelings, the ideas that do emerge are often unusual, extremely personal and joyfully surprising and powerful if we understand them correctly. Meditation on the search for the Oracle For the purposes of this book I will have to assume that the reader is familiar with the basic steps of meditation, but a relaxed state of mind, free from interruptions and disturbances, is all that is really required. However, the technique itself is quite advanced and is recommended for those of you who have performed inner work. This is firstly an exercise in imaging and visualisation in which we use a very light meditative state to form a mental picture of the oracle. This should be an old man or woman who symbolises to us, God ", "wisdom ", "inner guidance" or merely a wise person whom we can trust and respect. We also provide a suitable simple imaginary context, such as having him or 7

her seated in a cave or on top of a hill or mountain. This exercise can also be performed with suitable soft, background music. We begin by visualising ourselves initially standing facing the mountain and slowly beginning the climb towards the top. We may note vegetation, trees, flowers or rocks along the way, but should not give too much attention to these details. Once we reach the top of the mountain (or hill), we are to imagine the oracle sitting a short distance in front of us. We should see ourselves moving towards him (or her) with our heads bowed and pose our question simply and unambiguously. The answer will generally be short but we are not to consider it immediately, but merely give thanks, walk backwards away from the oracle and descend the mountain. Once we have returned to our starting point, we may consider what was said and write it down for further interpretation. If we have more than one question, it will be a good idea to prepare them beforehand on paper, in which case we will not descend the mountain immediately, but merely withdraw from the oracle, write down the reply to the first question and then proceed to approach him or her once more for answers to the other questions (one at a time). If we wish to return to this visualisation exercise regularly over a few weeks or even months, we can extend the context to include ourselves as one of a group of students serving the oracle, in which case we can continually return to where we left off on a daily basis and pose further questions as the opportunity arises. Once we have mastered the technique, we will begin to experience ourselves as actually becoming one with the oracle and receiving inner guidance directly, but this comes much later. This procedure of spending extended periods of time with the oracle will become clearer as we proceed through the narrative of the book. This is a very powerful exercise which links us up once again with our inner being or divine spirit and the deeper hidden areas of our superconscious mind. This inner communication normally occurs by means of subconscious feelings, intuitive messages and symbolic images such as are represented in our dreams and require careful interpretation if they are to be understood correctly. The narrative In this book I have placed my own search for the oracle in a storyline containing a host of characters and images to simplify matters. I have introduced simple contexts involving people within everyday situations,

8 facing life's day to day challenges and uncertainties, to showcase various important questions on life and existence, our true nature as human beings, religion, ethics and morality, the natural laws underlying our world and the universe and our relationship with a higher spiritual reality. The narrative will also contain commentaries to explain the processes involved and provide an ongoing interpretation of the often obscure answers provided by the oracle.

1 The background to the journey

The psychological perspective This exercise is actually an exploration of our inner being and we should understand that the images we see are symbolic and reflect our internal states and even personal obstacles to progress in our lives. We are functioning within the realm of our spirit and subconscious mind and every image, figure or event will have a very personal and special meaning and should be recalled and written down for later interpretation. The mountain actually represents our subconscious mind and the path up the mountain is the route we will be following in order to reach the superconscious level where we find the wellspring of truth and knowledge and confront our true nature or innermost spiritual being. This can be an uncomfortable process, especially as once we begin the exercise, many of the images will spontaneously present themselves to us and may not all be pleasant, as will be seen in the narrative. We therefore need to be prepared for this journey with the correct mental attitude and proper motive. Think tools There are a number of philosophical tools or mental instruments we can use which will assist us. These include an increased awareness, clear reasoning, independent and critical thinking and the use of our real life experience in forming new opinions with which we can question and reevaluate our old beliefs, values, perceptions and present understanding of the world. These think tools which are used during the later discussions, will be explained briefly. The quality of our thought is related to our level of self-conscious activity or consciousness. What exactly do we mean by our selfawareness or consciousness? Consciousness is not the same as thinking and reasoning, but is rather the underlying level of conscious awakening which makes these activities possible. We often approach a problem with a one or two-dimensional view, when the potential exists for us to think multi-dimensionally. This can only be possible if we are able to raise our level of conscious awareness or consciousness. An

increase in our state of 10 awareness will have a great effect on the content and depth of our thinking and understanding as well as our perception and the interpretation of our experiences and eliminate many of the bad habits in our thinking such as self-deception which prevent us from freeing our mind. This growth can be brought about by an increased focus, attention and intention and should occur naturally as we grapple with the many problems and questions which face us in our journey to find the oracle in our own lives and in trying to make sense of the incomprehensible powers that exist. We merely need to remain vigilant not to fall once again into the trap of conditioned thinking. The ability to think independently is a great asset. If we are to be successful in this search, those lessons that we learnt as children, as well as the conditioned thinking and behaviour which we have grown accustomed to as adults, such as believing everything we hear or see on television or read in newspapers, books or magazines, will need to be re-examined using our mature reason and personal life experience. Borrowed ideas about life which we have not personally experienced or have never really considered and have merely accepted second-hand from other people, can at best, only result in our believing them to be true. If we really want a higher degree of personal conviction and to move closer to what is really true, we will have to learn to formulate our own opinions. It is therefore not so important whether others agree with us or not. What is necessary is that we claim for ourselves an understanding of life which is really our own and which satisfies our needs at the present time. Having an open mind is most important for the purposes of this journey. We have to see and experience ourselves as totally free to explore and express our feelings and thoughts and should not feel our thinking bound in any way. Our own common sense, reason, conscience and intuition will be our guides. This is often frightening, as we may have to put aside some teachings we have previously believed in and clung to for security. I must explain that it is not expected of us to reject all our past beliefs, but merely to be prepared to re-evaluate and adjust our thinking in the light of a deeper understanding that we will be given as we travel this path. Having an open mind also implies that we are willing to be non-judgmental, reasonable and to respect other points of view. Our reasoning will be greatly improved by the use of common sense and real-life experience. We need to be able to measure new ideas against

what we have experienced and how events actually take place in everyday life. We would be entitled to regard with scepticism any views which cannot be 11 explained in terms of our everyday experience or current scientific knowledge. Another important aid in this journey is the use of logical inference and analogy. Our powers of reason do have their limits and during this process, we can augment our reasoning abilities by using indirect knowledge in the form of available evidence. We can use evidence to arrive at a reasonable conclusion even if we dont have all the facts available. For instance, if we discover human footprints in the sand, we can reasonably infer that a person passed this way earlier, without actually seeing him or her. Another useful tool is that of analogy. This can be explained as attempting to describe or convey in a very simplistic way, something which is in effect very complicated or cannot be explained in terms of our present understanding. An analogy is not a complete version of the facts, but bears a resemblance to the truth of the matter and for this reason can provide us with some sort of explanation which allows us to remain on the real-life level to which we can all relate. A typical example of an analogy is that of a watch. A watch or clock is often used to explain the precise mechanical movements and coordination of the physical universe. The watch in no way resembles the universe but uses similar laws and principles and gives us an idea of how the universe operates.

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2 In search of the oracle

My search began in the very early hours of the morning, a short while before sunrise, whilst it was still dark. I followed a path leading out of the city towards the mountain a short distance away. Soon I arrived at the base of the mountain and looked up. It was dusk and the form of the mountain was barely visible in the available light. It looked almost like a giant medieval castle with jagged peaks, outcrops of boulders and a narrow rocky path leading upwards towards the summit. Commentary Once we make the commitment to the journey and begin the climb with the intention to complete it, we harness other often latent mental faculties, which we place in our backpack for later use. Climbing the mountain actually symbolises entry into our subconscious mind. However, we find that as we visualise moving up the mountain, our state of mind actually changes and begins to rise and follow an upward trend. A feeling of expectation also assists in opening our mind to a deeper experience. A similar exercise is also used by psychologists and this kind of visualisation is well-known in meditation. The path up the mountain was at first gradual, but later became increasingly steep. Struggling upwards in the semi-darkness, I often stumbled on loose stones or bumped my legs against boulders lying across the path. Fortunately, the haze of the early morning mist had begun lifting and with the light of the sun rising on the far side of the mountain, I began to see the path more clearly. I had planned the climb to the top of the mountain so as to approach the summit at sunrise, as this would be to me a powerful symbol of a new beginning. Commentary Symbolically, it is important for us to experience the climb up the

mountain as quite long, winding, arduous and treacherous. This allows our subconscious mind the opportunity to form images such as boulders, 13 holes and rock slides in our path, which will be indicative of actual present obstacles along the way of our spiritual path in life. Once we consciously choose to pass or climb over them, we will gain the feeling of having overcome these obstacles and our resistance to growth and change, which may have built up over years of doubts and fears. We should also experience a sense of achievement when we finally reach the summit of the mountain. Other images began to spontaneously present themselves to me. I saw other figures moving up the mountain a short distance away and felt a comforting sense of not being alone. I also saw a sadder picture of a number of less fortunate souls huddled around fires, seeking shelter from the night and relief from the pain in their bodies and minds. This image served to remind me that we are all not fortunate enough to be on the path returning to self-enlightenment and those who have not yet made this decision, are likely to remain in semi-darkness until such time as they do. Commentary Once we are performing this exercise, we may be amazed to see other people and objects spontaneously appearing in our visualisation as we go along. This is understandable, as our subconscious mind has now opened and is in the process of revealing to us our inner states and concerns in symbolic forms, each of which will have a special personal meaning. Visualisation is a very powerful tool in the exploration of our subconscious mind and this is why it must be used with care. The images may be accompanied by pleasant or unpleasant feelings and become even more powerful as we move along. They may even become threatening and make us pause and rethink our decision and even to consider abandoning the exercise. As I have mentioned before, this particular technique is quite advanced and we must be prepared to confront our inner feelings and fears contained in images and impressions generated by our subconscious mind at this stage and even more so later, and be able to move past them. At this point it was possible to see a little of the city in the distance and

I was able to feel a small sense of separation from the business of everyday life. Before long I had reached the summit and was able to witness the splendour of the sun rising over the valleys below. I offered a prayer of 14 gratitude for having had the privilege of being able to make this journey. I continued my search for the oracle and after a while saw a large cave which I entered. In the cave I saw the figure of an old man with white hair and a beard. He was seated on a large stone with his eyes closed. He did not move, but somehow I knew that he was aware of my presence. As the series of images unfolded in my mind, I saw myself drawn closer to him as if I were a moth being attracted to a flame, but in this case, it was a spiral towards spiritual enlightenment and not self-destruction. As I continued, the old man lifted his head, slowly opened his eyes and smiled. Commentary At this point in the journey, we may begin to experience strange emotions and notice we are feeling and sensing events and images, rather than thinking about them, as our intuition is being enhanced by the exercise. We may also become confused or fearful. In meeting the oracle in this way, we are actually coming face to face with our own inner being and superconscious mind, pieced together in our consciousness in the form of an image of an old man or woman, as the result of our intention and desire for knowledge and guidance. This can be quite a shock. It may be difficult to react at first and there may be a long silence. This is also the point where we have to make a decision either to continue or to turn away and descend once again to the city below. It will be found that in life, many of us begin well by asking the right questions and yet we do not always remain to hear the answers. We often turn away in doubt or fear and lose the opportunity of a great personal adventure. The decision to serve the oracle (our inner being, higher self or divine spirit), requires only that we should be sincere in our service, willing to cooperate and to listen with an open mind. Many times this is seen as too simple and elusive to our complex ways of thinking and especially to those of us who demand a tangible, factual and scientific explanation for everything before making any decisions. In life, we can choose to avoid the issue of conscious personal growth altogether and remain in the bliss of mediocrity or we can join those who are able to make the choice to hear the sweet voices of true reason and Truth. We

choose by our commitment to serve the light and being prepared to submit to the guidance of our inner being, immortal spirit and the Grace of God. Having come this far in my journey, I committed myself in service to the 15 oracle as one of a group of students. This would provide me with the opportunity to present my questions to him on an ongoing basis. I continued the visualisation and ministered to the old man together with the other students, taking him simple foods and drink and occasionally providing him with a fresh robe. These services become an important act of dedication. I imagined myself living in a shelter of natural rock, one of the caves on the mountain. I lined this grotto with sufficient material to rest on, but there was no need for furniture, natural contours and rocks served adequately as our chairs and tables. The oracle sat in a state of profound harmony, stillness and silence, mostly with his eyes closed, yet he appeared aware of his surroundings and even of those things which are beyond our normal sight. By now, the news of his presence had reached the city and I noticed that a number of different people were following the path up the mountain to consult with him. This provided the opportunity I had been waiting for to begin my questioning. Commentary We always need to keep the contexts very simple so as not to waste too much time and energy on the background, which is not that essential. We should also understand that the words of the oracle are normally spoken on a level which is at first difficult to understand, as these messages are coming from our spirit and inner being through the medium of our superconscious and subconscious minds. Yet the words flow like sweet waters and crystallise into highly personalised ideas of great power and clarity for those of us who are open to the experience. The revelations will be reproduced in their original form, highlighted in italics and interpreted during the narrative as commentaries. I will also describe the feelings and emotional states which accompany the experiences. Although it is usual to approach the oracle directly with our questions, I found that, in addition to this method, witnessing the questioning of the oracle by other persons provided a most favourable situation, as the answers can be interpreted within the contexts of a number of different sets of circumstances. If we do pose our questions directly, we must bear in mind that our superconscious and subconscious minds operate on a very straightforward principle and do not respond to ambiguous or vague requests. We should therefore consider the questions carefully

beforehand and phrase them clearly and concisely.

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3 Questions on Spirit
What is God and Spirit? It is always important to ask this fundamental question on the existence and nature of God. Without dealing with this issue, any spiritual journey would be pointless. The wording of the question can differ according to our personal requirements and beliefs but should be very direct and clear. In my visualisation, I turned to the oracle and phrased it very simply. "Teacher, what is God?" The old man slowly looked up and gave me the following reply:"Dear friends, how does one form a concept of One who is above all human thought? Yet the very need for a concept of God calls us to create an experience in the mind in order to prepare for a truer experience of the One. How can one truly know that of which he has never thought?. How can man realise that which he has never attempted to contemplate? It is thus true that a lower realisation of a being by analogy may prepare the mind for the higher realisation of the truth of God's presence. The concept thus has power for the individual, albeit merely a creation of the mind. The concept marks the beginning of the awareness and not the end. Thus let this image not be the end unto itself, merely the means towards the higher realisation, a tool of the mind. Let the first conceptions give way to the conceived realisation and the conceived realisation fall away to reveal the knowledge of the presence that always is, yet calls one away to awaken slowly in accordance with its Law and the weakness of man's mind. It is this weakness that demands the use of tools of concepts to precede the gift of true realisation. Commentary This first answer did not explain exactly who or what God or Spirit is, but it did reveal that we are required firstly to have some fundamental belief in a higher Being, or at least to have some ideas about God or

Spirit. The oracle outlined the advantages and usefulness of having a broad and satisfactory concept of God. This will obviously need to embrace our current view of the world and also not contain contradictions which can confuse us. This initial idea on God or Spirit acts as a focus for our thinking, meditations or prayer and becomes the foundation for the later 17 development and growth of our spiritual understanding. Even if we deny that God or Spirit exists, we are all required to have some idea or framework of ideas to explain our own existence and that of the natural world. This implies that a number of different ideas on God and Spirit will exist. These frameworks of spiritual thinking arise at different times in history in various cultures and also appear related to the level of understanding of the people at the particular time. Even today, some persons are quite happy to accept a simple picture of God as a loving father, which is usually the case in a paternalistic culture in which members have strong feelings on the importance of family relationships. Others who are more scientifically-minded, may see Spirit as a formless, benevolent, pervasive energy acting as a first cause for the natural phenomena we see today. If we understand this and are reasonable and objective, we will see that we cannot really judge one as more or less acceptable than the other. Each concept of God or Spirit may, in its own way, be seen as useful and important for the group by which it is accepted and can bring them the power of belief. The oracle explained that having some ideas on God or Spirit can actually assist us in our religious and mystical experiences. If we are able to form spiritual concepts, hold certain opinions and believe what we understand to be true, we are more able to accept and interpret a higher spiritual experience than someone who has no such belief. By having some sort of understanding and acceptance, our minds are predisposed and more receptive to higher spiritual knowledge. The ability of our understanding to grow or to be simplified, is very important. Our only problem appears to be where we cling to a rigid and unchanging idea of God or Spirit because we are indifferent or afraid of change, even though we know it no longer meets our need for a greater spiritual experience. The need for a concrete image of God seems to become less as our ideas become more universal and our thinking is transformed into a more active spiritual realisation and personal experience. When we are working with images of God or Spirit, a danger

exists that we may attempt to build up a "mental mosaic" of God using our thinking and a set of borrowed ideas. Confusion can occur if we are confronted with some ideas that appear to contradict each other. Worse still, our understanding of the nature of God may remain poor, narrow and bigoted as a result of our not being able to put together the parts of the puzzle that we have created. This can be seen in the exclusiveness of many formal religions or sects, 18 who refuse to acknowledge even the possibility that "their "God could have the power, or be willing to make Himself known to others in different cultures and times and to include them in some way or other in a Divine plan. Wars, inter-racial hatred and our religious intolerance are often the result of spiritual near-sightedness or of such deficient concepts of divine mercy. A good beginning to any spiritual path is to accept the possible existence of God or Spirit and to make some sort of commitment to seek a deeper understanding. This may be compared to the search for the oracle as described in this book. A useful framework of understanding can be based on the mystery of nature and the visible universe. If we take the time to view nature and the universe, we will observe a number of natural phenomena which we cannot possibly relate to anything else but an underlying active and guiding force. Natural laws, cycles, regularity and intelligent cooperation in nature point to things being more than mere coincidence. If we relate some visible aspects of nature such as beauty (perfection), intelligence (consciousness), strength (power), love and cooperation (benevolence), balance ( harmony ), and growth (expansion) to a divine or supernatural source, we will have the beginnings of a workable general concept of God or Spirit. From this point, we will be able to interpret our personal experiences in the light of this initial understanding and belief and build on it by including further information from sacred scriptures and other writings which we find useful and acceptable to our common sense, reasoning and conscience. It is unfortunately possible in practice, that under these circumstances, we may never reach a level of understanding which completely satisfies us, especially if we are only working with our own thinking and scriptural interpretations. By this I am not saying that reason has no part to play in our relationship with God and Spirit. Reasoning is, after all, the method we use to make sense of our experiences in life as they occur. With clear thinking and an open mind we should at least be able to arrive

at the position where we are willing to consider the possibility that a higher level of being and reality exists. We should therefore also feel free to explore other avenues of deeper knowledge and experience which may provide us with a more satisfying explanation of Divinity. Actions such as prayer and meditation as well as advanced techniques including visualisation and contemplation, all have the purpose of opening up the most neglected parts of our subconscious and superconscious minds and elevating our consciousness to a point where we 19 may come to recognise and know our own divine spirit or inner being and experience moments of guidance or an intuitive personal revelation of Truth. As I was not satisfied with the first answer on the nature and Being of God or Spirit, I returned to the oracle and asked the same question a second time. The old man replied as follows:"Is the Father a body as many would have us believe? Yet God as Creator requires not the body of a creature. Does God not have sufficient bodies of creatures to perform His will? Is not the purpose of man in a created body to serve the expression of the Father? Is God then merely mind? Yet He must be much more than this, for the sum of the minds of all men of all time cannot be equal to the whole of which they merely partake. Is God then Spirit? Yet what of Spirit? Is Spirit the abstraction of that which we cannot hope to understand, a mere creation of man to explain away a spontaneous reaction of purely material existence? For as true as matter has existence must Spirit too have existence to be considered at all. It is said that matter moves and forms according to Law, yet what is this Law? Is the Law not bound in patterns of a substance yet non-substance which gives rise to the world of form? What of this is God, you ask, my friends. Think you not that this Law has a source in a pure act of infinite Will? Think you not that the imperfect qualities of this existence have not a perfect source from which they derive their act of reflection according to their complexity and to which they aspire to return in growth towards this perfection, the model already being present? Yet the perfections of this world are but mere shadows of the glories of the One, all worldly perfections partaking of this One and all worldly imperfection not partaking more fully of the One. Know then, O stranger, that the One is the wholeness and fullness of true Spirit, the true Mind, the true perfection and that it

is we that are merely further created and diversified Soul expressed into bodies formed by the lower laws and that we must awaken to this Essence and presence which thereby gives us the Life and Mind of itself, in order to fulfil the Will to express and bring forth to the very limits of creativity." Commentary As I have previously stated, during a search for the oracle, we begin with a personal journey through our existing experience of God and review ideas which we subconsciously do not believe to be true or have problems accepting due to their inner contradiction. Moving as we are, out of the 20 darkness and away from conditioned thought towards a clear understanding, it may take a while before we grow accustomed to new ways of thinking. This could be quite frightening if we believe ourselves to be alone on this journey. I can assure you that we are never alone and if we are sincere, we will discover that there are many wonderful spiritual forces as well as enlightened people to assist us. To return to the task at hand, we will see that much of our lack of understanding and many of our doubts are due to contradictions in our everyday thinking on God and Spirit. We could say that an idea has contradictions when, if we unpack the statement or idea and look carefully at its implications, certain parts of it just don't make sense, or "add up". Let us use the example provided by the oracle. If we tend to think of God as a person having a body, the same as ourselves, then it becomes impossible to explain how He is able to know all things and have the many divine powers that we associate with God. We may believe in this or that idea of God, but subconsciously we may feel that something is "not adding up" or we have missed something and this leads to feelings of uneasiness and uncertainty. Faith in God is important, but a blind faith in concepts of God that are illogical and unacceptable to our common sense and reason, will only create doubts in our mind. Even if we are not consciously aware of this, doubt will affect the power of the Spirit to work through us and must be removed. Clear and logical thought therefore also has a place on the spiritual path and our present understanding of God and Spirit, whether it is simple or a complex set of ideas, must be acceptable to our normal thinking and reasoning. The oracle was aware of the danger of contradiction and therefore approached the question carefully by referring to characteristics which Divine Spirit and therefore God, by His very nature, could never

embody. By knowing what God could never be, we may get a better idea of what God is. The oracle revealed that many of our current ideas on God could be misleading, as they may not really be logical. We may have learnt and accepted them during our early childhood and youth and did not, at that time, fully understand the possible contradictions in them. Much of our present spiritual understanding could also have been shaped by our specific culture, family tradition or a handed-down belief system, leaving us little room to form our own ideas.

21 Firstly, the idea of God having actual physical limbs and organs seems unlikely in view of His having no need for such things. Our bodies have been created and have evolved largely according to our need to walk and act in our physical world and are also influenced by natural laws such as gravity and balance. Nature and natural laws, according to the oracle, have their source in the actual Being of God and certainly cannot act on Him. However, it is not so much of a contradiction if we accept by analogy, that human faculties which exist in relation to our physical bodies, such as our rational thinking and normal self-awareness (consciousness), our form and shape (structure), our balance ( harmony ), our strength (power ) and our ability to move ( activity ), are all derived from higher, universal principles that exist within Divine Spirit, giving rise to the statement that mankind is created in the image of God. Many people, including theologians and philosophers, have seen God as being a great Mind. The oracle revealed intelligence (or consciousness) to indeed be an aspect of Divine Spirit. He spoke of a relationship between what we call the "Universal Mind of God" and the small part of this universal mind present in each human spirit. In this way God-intelligence is revealed in our super-conscious mind. Unfortunately, certain natural principles come into play during the progression of our divine spirit into our bodies and by the time we become objectively self-aware through the processes of our human brain, we lose much of our knowledge of this higher or superconscious mind. To return to the question of Divine Spirit, some persons believe that any talk about spirit is meaningless, because we cannot prove that spirit energy actually exists, as it can neither be seen nor touched. They

maintain that our spiritual experiences could merely be the result of activity in our brain. However, there are also many recent scientific findings on non-material states of existence that are making the idea of a spiritual substance more acceptable, even to sceptics. For instance, in pondering the words of the oracle, we may begin to understand how easily we could be blinded by the substances we can see so that we do not recognise anything which precedes the formation of this substance. Fortunately, today we have Einsteins theory of Relativity and scientists involved in Quantum physics speak openly of sub-atomic structures as being composed of pure energy. The oracle referred to these energy states preceding the actual formation of matter and went further to explain the existence of certain natural laws which act upon these energies to produce an active ethereal substance which eventually becomes matter as we know it. It seems strange to talk of 22 science in relation to God, but revelation takes place within each person's own framework of thinking and experience and therefore those of us with a technological background could come to an understanding of spiritual matters in more scientific terminology. It is after all, our individual superconscious and subconscious minds which are re-framing spiritual truth into concepts we can understand. Critics of the idea of spirit energy also point to certain laws in nature and say it is these laws and not some superior guiding force that are responsible for the created universe, living things and man. There is no doubt that several great laws do exist which have been identified by scientists, such as polarity (attraction, cohesion and bonding), gravity and evolution, but as I have stated before, behind these laws we can still reasonably accept that a divine principle and infinite guiding force with the power to mould and transform matter and energy could be present. Perhaps I can more clearly explain this as follows: let us look at two simple principles which can be associated with the act of the creation of the universe, namely order and chaos. We already know from scientific research that if left to themselves, all things tend towards a state of rest and eventually break up and spread randomly into basic elements or a state we can call "chaos". On the other hand, if we assume the universe began with some sort of primal matter or "chaos", whether from a "big bang", or as some esoteric teachings explain, a more gradual formation of matter from spirit energy, the fact is, that to have activated and directed this "chaos" on such a grand scale so as to bring about order

and the orderly creation of the whole universe and still have provided the direction for growth and evolution, would have needed an indescribable amount of energy and a universal guiding (active) force. We can see this energy, which is maintaining the whole structure of the universe by continually producing order out of chaos (and would therefore underlie the principle of life itself ), in the power of the atom. If we notice the amount of energy released by a nuclear bomb when the atomic structure of only a small amount of radioactive material is ruptured, we can begin to comprehend the vast amount of energy required every second to hold the entire fabric of the material universe together and prevent it from returning to chaos. It is simply not reasonable to suppose that this energy just exists in the universe, but rather it is more logical to accept that it is being produced by "something" with the power and the consciousness to transform and direct it wisely (in an orderly manner ). By implication, an infinite, conscious, vastly superior force or Being, something totally different to what we 23 normally encounter in everyday life. In order to find a final answer to this question, the oracle took us back even further to the source of natural law itself. He asked what it is which gives rise to such laws as attraction and repulsion which cause movement and cohesion? He asked who (or what) instructs the powers and potentials that they will act on one another in a certain way so as to produce this or that law? In all reasonableness, we could say that decisions are being made somewhere along the line, acts of pure will and intention, which must surely lead us back to an active omnipotent Mind. My conclusion is that these decisions would have to have been made by an eternal and conscious Being and certainly not any act of blind nature, as nature exists as only as a result of these laws. Finally, on a purely human level, if we consider what actually happens when our body is formed as a result of the interplay of these natural laws, the orderly coming together of tissue and the development of complex organ structures such as the brain and the rest of the central nervous system, the idea that this can be caused and directed by some irrational or chance cosmic happening is, in my opinion, absurd. According to the oracle, the visible universe with all its laws flows from the world of spirit energy and forms a matrix held together by the Mind of God.

Does a spiritual set of laws exist? I had begun the search for the oracle by actively creating the visual context, but I now found that I was able to let go and feel the images flowing by themselves from my subconscious mind. These images now crystallised of their own accord into persons, events, situations and even objects which were symbolic of my inner state of mind, needs, feelings and desires. As I continued, I noticed that a few people had gathered below the entrance to the cave hoping to get a glimpse of the oracle during the times that he emerged. At this point, a well-dressed gentleman appeared at the mouth of the cave. He discreetly roused the old man from his slumber. "I am du Bois, said the stranger, "of the firm of du Bois and du Bois, attorneys-at-law." The oracle did not respond immediately. In his peace there was no haste and in his simplicity I never sensed confusion. "Yes" , he replied at last, You serve the Law and yet know nothing of this Law which is your master. 24 "That is so," du Bois replied, "But I do wish to know what is this Law." Commentary The figures that are spontaneously appearing and approaching the oracle during this exercise are symbolically representing the many unresolved questions within our own minds, even those we are not always consciously aware of. I know that for a while before this particular visualisation, I pondered the true purpose and essence of Law. Whether a law has any true power in itself or whether it is only an arrangement which controls our behaviour in everyday life, a man-made system of checks and balances to regulate our personal desires and actions in line with the greater good of our particular society. The laws of society do appear to be different from spiritual and moral laws and even scientific and natural laws which control things in nature. Yet I also wondered if they did not have something in common. I knew that other important issues were also related to this question, such as our human freedom. The oracle paused and spoke the following:There is only one law broad enough to answer these questions, Mr. Du Bois, only one true Law from which all others are derived. This law

of which man realises only the shadows of its highest principles and yet seeks to arrange them in patterns which only serve to reveal the limits and absurdity of his thought. This is the Law of Spirit itself. Dear friend, let us begin by knowing that this law exists, so subtle that in being born into the presence of such Law we do not realise it, yet so powerful that the goodness of Gods power resides therein. For how long have we existed in the bosom of this very essence, the Being of God, which in itself is true Law? Yet we claim to be unaware of it. We place ourselves in a pool of clear water and we become immediately aware of its texture, colour, taste and degree, yet even now we exist in an essence so subtle and perfect, coloured with a rainbow pattern of Divine aspects of harmony, life, strength, supply, growth and love combined to form the white light of the benevolent presence of God and yet we deny this presence. Why is Man so blind to the laws derived from the very perfections of the Being of God? Who will deny the laws of Nature? The supply of Nature from itself in sufficiency for its organisms, so that even in man the Law remains, that in the death of one be there growth in others? Yet the laws of Nature are but the very least of Spiritual Law. These laws to which the created body of man is merely a witness and unto which the mind and depth of man bear a 25 greater witness. For does harmony not imply order and order imply control and control not the existence of an intellect? Yet let us not appeal blindly to the pattern of this Law, for there is no excuse. The law being a framework within which man moves by his own will. Just as it is true that God fixes limits, so has man the freedom to challenge these limits, whether they be spiritual, mental or a purely physical law, but he must bear the consequences of his will. The law is a call to obey and truly, in obedience comes fulfilment. All of Nature knows God and yet knows not. Man too, knows God, but knows not that he knows. Nature obeys Gods call and abides in His presence and benevolence, sharing those aspects that it may realise by the limits of its complexity. Man in his freedom, may appeal to his ignorance of the Law, but the law remains. The Law is related to Gods Will. We see the movement towards growth and harmony in all Nature and this is the least of Gods law. We feel the call towards growth of mind and thought, but do we heed it? Gods Law is not one of pain and want and darkness. His law reflects the benevolence of His Will and His Will becomes laws to the consciousness of Man and Nature. Only Man has the freedom to disobey and his suffering bears testimony to

this. We hear the cry of the children and seek meaning in the Will of God. Better for us to look to the will of man for this tragedy. Let the father of the child look to his decision taken without the need of his God, or look to the decision of he, who without the Will of the One, has sought to trust his own judgement and whose weakness now touches all. Nature suffers not, for Nature has no choice but to obey. Nature rejoices and thrives in the Will of the One. How much more should man rejoice? If man should choose the darkness, how can the Father be to blame? Would the Light choose the darkness? The fullness choose that which is nothing? As this law exists, the exchange of harmony and growth, will it not even be the call to the spirit to be still and abide in the Will of the One? Is it not perhaps this call to growth and harmony that prompts man to remove himself from a destructive situation over which he has no control, or to assume techniques of the mind and spirit to enable him to cope with the stressful situation that is judged within his control? Such leads to growth and is this not the will of God? For in truth, man must face this call to growth, it can not be avoided. Is it not possible that, as with all Nature, the lives of individual men are structured towards this end by influences of higher Nature or happenings or an attraction to particular circumstances in accordance with their individual needs? Yet the decision to move 26 with this call to growth, to avoid or move away from the path of enlightenment ,remains with each. Thus will man return to his need, for the Law will not pass away until the fullness of the One is with all. Let us know then that God is a God for all time and the Law is a law for all time. Whether it be in the world of prehistory or in the testimony of our age, Gods law is broad enough to encompass the demands of mere men. Who can say that the farmer knows God more closely than the scientist? Might they both not know God equally well in their separate patterns of mind, otherwise neither realising the jewel within their reach? The Law as Universal manifests equally well in the field of the ploughman as in the readings of the scientist but each or neither recognises this as Gods presence and law. The question remains thus that of awareness and growth and not of circumstances and content. For all is law and the law is in all and all is directed to the fulfilment of this law. First towards harmony, then growth whilst in harmony. Thus does harmony precede growth, for true growth cannot come from disharmony. You ask then if this law does not imply that the God of all

is impersonal and unconcerned with the individual and I tell you both impersonal and yet personal. The law is impersonal with the presence of the One being equally available to all, yet is the benevolence within the law not a personal call to each? Is it not true that a personal relationship may exist between a father and his servant. A commitment from the servant resulting in the personal understanding of his master? For in truth, it must be so. Does the sole ruler of a land not authorise the laws of the land which reflect his will as representative of all and yet does he personally enforce each one of these? These duties being performed by various forces of the law? Does this imply that the ruler is not personally involved with his people? Does it necessarily imply his unconcern? For it is truth that this man may be approached on matters of state and thus even approached by the individual, which is right. It is merely a question of structure: the ruler loves his people and his people love him. Commentary It is never easy to understand the words as they emerge. We lose much of the power when divine truth passes through our mind into everyday human concepts and understanding. If we wish to obtain the highest possible realisation and understanding, we may have to meditate further on the answers of the oracle. This is why it is important to be able to write down the words, emotions and images as we receive or feel them or as soon as possible afterwards. 27 If we return to the question posed by Mr. du Bois, as an attorney, within his framework of thinking, he had been unable to find any connection between the legal system and what he believed to be the Law of God. To understand the problem, we need to accept that this inability to see the big picture is quite normal, as our present human perception is quite limited and very selective. If this were not the case, our minds would be overloaded by everything that is happening around us and we would be unable to cope with day to day living. Our thinking mind therefore tends to chunk up information into manageable sizes and we are generally unable to view the whole scenario at once or see all the implications of our thoughts and actions. Knowing this, the oracle took time to explain that there was really only one source to all laws, a divine set of principles which exists within the Being of God and from which all laws derive their power. He referred to a relationship whereby aspects of these divine precepts are recognised by us to a certain degree, in the laws of nature, science and in the underlying principles of our human legal

system. With our limited insight we are as yet still unable to see that our laws are only part of a great continuum of principles with their source in God. He explained the source of all law to be the infinite universal Mind. From the will of God to be, emanate patterns of pure divine intention (principles) which underlie the laws which govern life and existence. Some of these laws are revealed to us in science as the transformation of energy, attraction, cohesion, bonding, structure and the later formation of matter. The will of God to actively express His universal essence and consciousness, becomes known to us in a similar way, as laws governing activity, growth and the evolution of consciousness in various forms. These laws govern the expression or emanation of a hierarchy of spirit and spiritual beings, including our individualised human spirits, which emerge later in an objective form in our human minds and bodies. This emergence of creative consciousness in living things begins with the development of physical life as we know it, ranging from only partly conscious forms of life, such as minerals, plants and animals, to the development of self-consciousness in the highest earthly expression of spirit in human beings. By a process of evolution and a gradual increase in conscious activity, all nature, including ourselves, reflects to various degrees, this one divine life and consciousness, as well as the other aspects of the divine nature, such as activity (movement), harmony (balance), benevolence (love), perfection (beauty) and power (strength). 28 Divine law also finds expression in the legal system of man. Some of these divine aspects, such as justice (fairness),benevolence (mercy, tolerance and reasonableness ), harmony (keeping the peace) and power (strength and protection), find form in basic principles used in our legal system. Divine justice is related to the essential unity of God. Justice on a human level could also be said to represent a state of unity in which individual rights are balanced with group rights in a perfect balance of harmony and co-operation (Plato, 1987). Fortunately, at present, our minds are evolving and moving away from understanding Divine Law to be only a list of specific draconian commandments and prescriptions, such as was understood in ancient times. Today, reasonableness, sensitivity and a respect for human rights are recognised as being essential in law. Modern legal systems are in the process of progressing from a framework of rigid control and enforcement to the promotion of a sense of social responsibility. In this

progression, the true purpose of Divine Law is also becoming more evident, that is, to encourage the responsibility of the individual towards God and his or her fellow-man. Hopefully, for this reason, we will no longer always see spiritual law as harsh and something to be feared. The oracle also provided answers to a number of questions related to our human ability to challenge Divine Law and the possible consequences of this. This will be discussed later on in the book when we deal with issues of human suffering, morality and freedom. What is the Christ-Being? Commentary As I continued in my search for answers, I became aware of questions being introduced without my having prepared them beforehand. I understood this to mean that the many unresolved issues in my subconscious mind were finding their way into this new channel that was prepared by using this technique and images of persons and situations were spontaneously being presented to me, acted out and resolved. A new and exciting phase was attained, where the context was unfolding of its own accord and far less effort was required to maintain it. 29 During this time, I visualised multitudes of people continuing to visit the mountain on a daily basis, men and women of many cultures, nationalities, religions and beliefs. From this I began to realise the great truth that spiritual revelation is available to all, regardless of colour, creed or affiliation. One particular day they all assembled, waiting for the appearance of the oracle at the mouth of the cave. The noise of intense argumentation aroused him from his sleep. It was unusual to notice such a din amongst the pilgrims, as their presence was normally only announced by a harmonious buzz of light conversation and greeting. The reason for the disturbance this day appeared to be a group of ministers of different religions, some recognisable by their special dress and others by their speech and by the waving of books of Holy Scripture. They were busy with a heated discussion on Theological viewpoints. I have always found it to be a paradox that the proponents of many traditional religions call upon their followers to love all people and yet often effectively exclude those who do not share their particular beliefs from this love. I personally believe that the person who is not caught up in problems of

dogma and is free to experience the fullness of the Spirit, is the most fortunate. The dispute soon ceased and all attention was turned to the old man who climbed down to the foot of the rock face. A moment of silence was followed by a crash of confusion as the opponents hastened forward to greet and question him. They only ceased when he raised his hand and a resemblance of order was restored. "Teacher, one asked , "Who is the true God above all, Jesus, who is the Christ, Allah or perhaps Jehovah? "Hare Krishna!" shouted a devout follower. This idea of shouting out aloud appealed to the rest of the crowd and all around groups of believers gathered together to call out their holy name. I suddenly noticed that the assembled body had separated into living, moving entities, each having its own character, where before it was one, as it was before the God of our pure realisation was disjoined by various historical and cultural revelations and interpretations. Commentary In my mind at that time, the problem facing the oracle (and my own personal conviction) was immense. Yet it is one that faces all of us. Many people are raised within a specific family religion or belief system and it seems easy and simple merely to adopt this as your own. Unfortunately, such handed-down beliefs may prove insufficient and unsatisfactory if we accept that each of us has a unique perspective and that there are various 30 ways of looking at and understanding things. One who is able to satisfy his or her search for spiritual meaning within the framework of the traditional family religion, is truly fortunate. The path of the spiritual student, one who feels that he or she must seek further, is lonely and often filled with doubt, uncertainty and sometimes even ridicule and exclusion. However, our soul and inner spiritual being will not rest until it is nourished with a full and open expression which can only come if we are totally free of self-deception and completely at peace with our religious or metaphysical beliefs. I thought at the time that it was ironical that the oracle was being put to the test by different spiritual protagonists, each with a different concept of religious truth. They themselves did not have all the answers, but felt competent to judge him on issues of divinity. During the continuation of the exercise, the oracle addressed the

multitude and spoke out clearly and directly:"What is the Christ of which much is spoken, the Being of many names called God by some, Divine Spirit by others, Lord by many and even Nature itself by a few? Yet even Shakespeare knew that a rose by any other name smells just as sweet! For as much as the Absolute Father of all is likened in analogy to the state of ice in constant form, must the Christ be revealed as the stream of living water that flows from this state, at once both retaining the essence and at one-ness with the Father and yet changing in expression to give rise to and to fill the vessel of creation. This Christ will not be limited and shall express into universal function such as would the heated vapour of such water be transformed into as essence of subtle and pervasive condition, having the power and benevolence of the original state. The water of Life thus becomes the life and source of all, all partaking of this essence of the active manifestation of the Father. The One which becomes known in many. For indeed this is indeed the One of which we know, the One that was through Jesus and yet is more. For Jesus is indeed the fullness of the Christ, such as was required to have performed the task of greatest magnitude. Yet the Christ is never limited to historical incarnation alone and let the bearers of religious prejudice and intolerance heed this truth. He who is Eternal is known, albeit to lesser or greater degree, to all Nature and to all men and women of spiritual knowledge, to those who reveal to us by noble motive, the elements of religion. For from 31 the One come the many in richness of diversity and from the many, comes forth the Christ, upon the waves of individual consciousness. Herein lies a danger, my friends, in limiting the Benevolence of the Eternal to the knowledge of any single cultural or historical revelation, for as we move and live and exist from your Being, O Lord, (and this is the great truth), shall you not impart to men and women of pure motive, the knowledge of your Will and Being? What then of this Being, the One and the many? Is this not the greatest role of any being, the highest expression, that to be creative, to express ones own subject into objective revelation? For in being creative in a world of art and literature does man fulfil the highest nature of his being , even though this be a mere shadow of Divine creation. Thus the Christ as One, reveals the highest level of His own Law as a most perfect method of

growth. The separation into parts of the whole, which although they appear distinct, remain a whole, each part to grow in its own condition and by interacting with others, produce even greater growth, these to unite once again to produce an even greater whole. Is this not like unto the cell of the body of man, which, in the words of science, differentiates into units for the purpose of growth, later forming one organ and more and each organ forming part of the whole, the body being far more than a mere accumulation of its cells? Yet with the One who remains, there is neither separation nor division, merely the emergence of the one light in many points of expression. Note this well, O seeker, and this be the key, for the growth is not one of essence, the Father being whole, but merely growth of expression, which is creativity, even unto the depths of matter and the grossness of our creation. Thus does all creation reflect the light of its Source, each having more or less awareness of this whole of which it reflects a part. Such be the purpose of creation with man as its crown, and all this from the Christ. Yet the Christ is known closer than this, revealed in degree in all and yet fully in one, Jesus of Nazareth, the one whose body was provided by the laws of Nature, yet in whose Soul there was no separation from the One, for His Soul is the whole. It would need to be so, for the demand of a vast and yet finite disharmony created by the weakness of man would only be overcome with a harmony of Infinite supply, the fullness of Power from the Father, and it was so. The man who rose to the fullness of the realisation of His source and Being, reflecting within himself the point at which the restorative Divinity of the Father does merge eternally into the finiteness of man, absorbing thus within himself, the fire of disharmony eternally. Such be the benevolence and call to restoration within the One, the Christ, which is Eternal, creates 32 windows of divine soul to enter history as men and women of spirit and revelation. Call them masters or saints, as you will, yet He exists as before as the sum of all Soul. For insomuch as the Christ be known and realised by man himself, be this the call to, and the purpose of expression and of Gods Will for man. Commentary I noticed that the people remained quiet after the old man spoke but I wondered if, in view of their strong cultural and religious backgrounds, they were really listening at all. The oracle did not deny Jesus's Christ-

hood but stated that it was important to realise that that which was seen in Jesus's life was only the physical expression of a far greater and higher universal spiritual reality. To explain this further and to also find common ground in the religious controversy, he spoke of the ChristBeing in relation to God and creation. Exactly who or what the ChristBeing is, remains as much an enigma to our three dimensional thinking and perception as the question of who or what God is. We do understand from scriptural teachings, channelled information and by reading from other spiritual sources that the Christ -Being proceeds from or is emanated by the Father and carries His authority to the point of being viewed by many as the underlying power of creation and all consciousness as we understand it. Some see the Christ as representative of a group consciousness at a very high level of existence, part of the collective Son or active principle of God and therefore far more inclusive and universal than we have previously imagined. If we turn to the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, he refers to the ChristBeing more specifically as a Lord of the universe, who may reveal Himself through persons such as Jesus or to a degree in others who have spiritual awareness and are able to express this pure state of Being. This universal access to the Christ-Being is a very important point. The oracle also revealed that an intimate relationship existed between the Christ and the human communal spirit (the son of man) by means of a process of reconciliation. To understand this reconciliation, we first need to be aware of the universal law of Karma, or cause and effect. Contrary to popular opinion, the law of Karma is, in fact, revealed in the Christian Bible in the teachings "as ye sow so shall ye reap "and "if you live by the sword, you shall die by the sword ". It is also revealed in science as the law which states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. In a universe of energy, negative or destructive actions introduce the element or 33 principle of chaos and create an energy imbalance which needs to be reconciled or balanced by good deeds or positive karma. This normally takes a very long time, even, according to some beliefs, following us into later incarnations. If we note the current limitations in human thinking and behaviour, we can well imagine the sum total of the world's accumulated karmic debt over the ages and can certainly see a reason for the continuing worsening situation of humanity and our isolation from our own spiritual essence in God. This is certainly not a favourable state to be in. Over the passage of time this fallen state of man had resulted in

a vast separation from the perfection of God. What exactly does this imply in relation to the Christ? If we refer once again to Rudolf Steiner, we can see that the Christ event in Jesus of Nazareth can be explained firstly in terms of the power of the Christ-Being to incarnate in a human form and secondly, we must understand that many spiritual events are intrinsically linked to actual historical events in space and time, all being part of an energy continuum of expression and manifestation. If we consider the death of Jesus in terms of the transfer of karmic energy, power and reconciliation, things may be a little clearer. The Christ-Being, emanating directly from God and therefore also God, was able to carry God-perfection (a perfect energy state) into our physical world in the "vehicle" of Christ Jesus. The suffering and death of such a perfect host was recorded in the very Being of the Christ as an immense (incomprehensible) karmic "positive " and during the passing of the Christ "vehicle" (the death of Jesus), this positive Christ energy was released to more than match the sum of the negative karmic debt owed by mankind and to inextricably link the Son of God with the son of man. In this way, a reconciliation takes place between God and His third emanation, that is, the communal spirit of mankind or son of man, by means of the active intercession of the second emanation, the Christbeing (or Son of God). At first glance these statements of the oracle appear to be one-sided in favour of traditional Christianity. However, if we examine the passages more deeply, a golden thread is introduced that links all religions. Earlier I introduced the revelation that the Christ-Being is universal and not bound by religious sectarianism. Secondly, the reconciliation between the highest God and the communal spirit of man has already taken place whether we like it or not and no-one is excluded. Any exclusion or separation from God therefore takes place in our own minds and exists only in our minds. The obvious conclusion is that only we can exclude ourselves from this 34 reconciliation either by means of our ignorance, a lack of faith or an unwillingness to believe that God could be so merciful and benevolent so as to compensate for our weaknesses within His own Being. Problems in understanding this great truth are often related to traditional religious dogma. This brings us to a necessary discussion on religion which will explain further how we effectively exclude ourselves from Gods mercy and benevolence because of specific beliefs. We really need to ask ourselves

what is the real role of religion and if it is, in fact, fulfilling its true purpose. What is Religion? Commentary We have to accept that our present human understanding is comprised of ideas that are formed in our mind, mental conceptualisations of what we see, hear, feel and experience in the everyday world. The formation of religions too, is based on our understanding and interpretation of events, happenings and sayings which have been recorded in scriptures, retold or passed on in the form of tradition through the ages. If we thus view the matter in terms of past and even current limits to our thinking, it will be seen that religious truth is largely dependent on what we can or cannot understand at a certain time. I have said before that I and others, even with the services of the oracle, do not have all the answers, yet there does appear to be commonality underlying established religions and thanks to the oracle, I have identified three keys that may assist in the unravelling of at least part of the mystery relating to what is religious truth and whether there can be, in fact, such a thing as the one right religion. The first key is the nature of our human consciousness itself. I have just pointed out that our human understanding at present is based on the formation of concepts or little manageable chunks of information which are linked together to make sense of our experiences. At present we can only see and think three-dimensionally and our minds are simply not designed to view a bigger picture involving other dimensions of energy and meaning, which could be linked to more fundamental spiritual truths. It is also a fact that the same thing, whether it is an event, a situation or an idea, can be viewed and interpreted differently by people from various historical periods and cultures. Even within a single society, there are individuals and 35 groups who have conflicting viewpoints, either by just exercising their freedom of choice or as a result of having different ways of understanding and levels of moral development. This is related to the principle of perspective, which will be discussed in greater detail in the section on Spiritual Truth. Let me therefore introduce what I believe to be the second key, that is, the structure and nature of organised religions. Without wishing to be

disrespectful, I venture to make the statement that all formal religions are almost tailor-made for certain cultures and historical times, as a result of being interpreted, discussed and understood in the language, concepts and value systems of the particular period in history. The third and final key to the mystery of the golden thread is the nature of Spirit, which we have already discussed to a degree. If we examine our present understanding of Spirit, we will discover that it includes the aspect of "universality". In other words, we accept that the divine spirit of God as omnipotent and omnipresent cannot be confined and may reveal Himself (as divine revelation) in His natural creation (the laws of nature ) as well as to persons in various historical periods and cultures. This latter revelation is usually written down or otherwise recorded and forms the basis of a religion. Who or what is responsible for attempting to limit divine revelation to only this or that religion, sect or belief? The answer is simply, people, or more accurately, the selective way in which we apply the principle of perspective in our human mind or consciousness. The founding fathers of all religions feel an obligation to present what they conclude to be the only or absolute Truth, with a view to offering their adherents "salvation". The question can therefore be asked, in the light of the very real limits of our human understanding at this time, is this the true purpose of religion and a reasonable thing to expect? Strangely enough, most religions actually do deliver what is promised (in a manner of speaking). Devotees of a religion which advocates reincarnation, will in all probability, reincarnate. Those who do not accept this belief may be spared the later efforts of subsequent lives, but will have to accept that any judgement will be based on this one life. Those who unconditionally accept the mercy, forgiveness and benevolence of God, irrespective of their religion, should experience that mercy and forgiveness. After all, reconciliation has already taken place within the universal Christ. Those who doubt or cannot accept forgiveness and reconciliation, will die with this doubt, confusion and uncertainty and have to accept the results of this 36 state of separation from God. In death, our state of mind is more powerful than we think. Such is the power and freedom given to our human spirit and consciousness. Would it not be more reasonable therefore if the true purpose of religion was not to act as a "ticket to heaven" but merely to redirect and

make us turn within to reflect on our relationship to God and our inner being and thereby unlock our true spiritual potential? Taking the present limitations in our thinking and understanding into account, we simply do not know enough about spiritual truth to remain preoccupied with dogma and to judge others who do not share our particular dogmatic convictions. Perhaps if we did know more, we would have enough wisdom not to judge at all. Hopefully with growth and the development of our human consciousness, a time will come when more will be revealed. Are the churches fulfilling their role? Commentary Having discussed religion, we need to ask the question whether the traditional churches are still fulfilling a role. In the light of what has been said, the role of the church should be to guide us to seek within, assisting us to make personal spiritual decisions and commitments and providing a place of dedication and worship. If a church can do this, it can play an important part in our spiritual lives. However, if we still feel an inner spiritual need which is not being fulfilled, we should be prepared to move beyond the prescribed and repetitive forms of spiritual expression and dogma, with the aim of entering into a deeply personal one-on-one commitment and relationship with God. What is Spiritual Truth? Commentary In the previous section, I referred to the power of Perspective. In every society people have different ways of seeing, interpreting and understanding situations and events. This is due to differences in culture, education and background as well as our personal and emotional 37 involvement in an issue. We may have been born with a certain personality which influences the way we think or have developed our perspective as the result of earlier factors and experiences in our life. Our perspective could include ideas we have been brought up to believe as the result of a social conditioning process. We learn from others and to a

large degree, our framework of thinking is moulded by our parents, teachers and other persons whom we regard as role models as we proceed through life. Having a personal perspective also means that we have a fixed point of view based on our personal involvement and that it is extremely difficult for us to see a situation or experience an event objectively. Much depends on from which side of the fence we are looking. For example, many war films that appear on our movie screens are produced from a particular local perspective. Usually one side is cast as the heroes (soldiers from the country that produced the film) and we identify and sympathise with them because we experience and share their trials and tribulations in the film from their perspective. However, if we have ever been exposed to a film about the same war produced in a different country we may find that the war takes on an entirely different perspective and we may even find ourselves, for the period of the film anyway, identifying, siding and sympathising with the other side. This is the power of perspective, in that once we become emotionally involved in an issue, a group or a cause, we tend to see things only from that point of view. The divided world opinion on the September 11 attack on the USA and the subsequent invasion of Afghanistan bears witness to the power of perspective. We may ask how all this is relevant to spiritual truth? Given that our present understanding is based on human concepts and relative to our culture and past experiences and that there are such differences in the way people see and interpret things (perspective), we can rightfully ask the question if there can ever be an Absolute Spiritual Truth and will we ever be capable of recognising and knowing it? Religions are based on divine revelations recorded throughout history. Many people have claimed to hear the voice of God, others to have had visions or dreams or to have received messages in various other ways. Sometimes these messages have conflicted with guidance received in a similar manner by other persons or even clashed with existing scriptural norms. What then is the truth? The only common denominator appears to be that a message was given which was understood by the person receiving it, to mean "something important". At this point I wish to refer to the work of Immanuel Kant, who spoke of 38 categories, patterns or structures which occur naturally in our human mind as the result of our mental evolution and actively govern our

perception, thinking and understanding. In other words, these categories control the formation of our thoughts, concepts or ideas. This natural inner fixed structuring of our mind also forms the basis of what we believe we are experiencing. If we add to this the tendency of our human mind and consciousness to interpret messages in concepts that are understandable and acceptable to each of us specifically, I may, in fact, be forgiven for suggesting that a spiritual revelation may be in the form of an intuition or impression ( a wordless message or pure realisation of truth ), and that the actual ideas are assembled in the mind of the person who receives it. Having said this, I must explain that I in no way deny the validity of spiritual revelation or messages, or the guidance of higher benevolent spiritual personalities. I have a firm belief in such guidance as a natural gift to mankind. The actual moments of spiritual awareness are, what can be rightfully called, the revelation of Absolute Truth. However, if we allow that this may be in the form of intuitions and impressions and that they are taking place at various times in different cultures, traditions and civilisations each with its own perspective and level of moral development, the actual words and concepts presented could differ. We can therefore say that Truth exists in the original realisation, intuition or impression, but unfortunately, it becomes coloured and may be distorted and misunderstood during interpretation by a person with a particular mind-set, limited conceptual ability (which we all have) and a personal perspective. Let me provide a real-life example to explain what I am trying to say. For this exercise, we need to assume that God is calling people to return to a state of peace and harmony in a country where there has previously been strife, discord and injustice (very appropriate for this country at this time). At this very moment this call is being interpreted in various ways according to different perspectives, frameworks of thinking and even political ideologies. What then is the truth of the message? In this case the Absolute Truth would be the essential spiritual call towards love, (unity) reconciliation and justice within the Being of God. This is, in fact, a universal call being made in all places at all times by the very nature of God as harmony and unity. Fortunately this message is being received and interpreted by some as a call towards unity, brotherhood and reconciliation but possibly by others merely as "please solve the problem" of discord and 39 this solution may have nothing to do with brotherhood. Let me put this

another way. In ancient times, this call to "please solve the problem" would very possibly be interpreted by warlike primitive tribes as a divine call to subjugate, conquer and even destroy the other groups in order to "solve the problem " by removing the cause of conflict, which is obviously always the other tribe. This becomes their personal truth and no degree of argument will persuade them otherwise. In a modern society with a high moral awareness the same spiritual call to harmony would be realised and expressed in a movement towards a non-violent reconciliation based on mutual agreement and compromise. It is therefore quite a paradox that a universal spiritual truth can be realised in such different ways and who is to say that one interpretation of the message is more accurate or valid than the other? What we consider to be a deviation from spiritual truth could therefore sometimes even be excused as being due to the limits of our human understanding and the result of a particular level of moral and spiritual awareness and not be "wrong " in the true sense of the word. This also applies to the formation or development of religions. It is quite possible that the different ideas on what is spiritual truth which exist within the dogma of different religions or even within a single religion, arise only on our human (conceptual) level and that the one spirit of revelation is merely being interpreted differently due to the way our mind categorises ideas and to variations in our culture, perspectives and levels of understanding.

40

Who are we?

Commentary Before we deal with this very important issue in life, the question of who we really are and what is our relationship to God, we need to note some additional information about the visualisation process. As we advance in the exercise, our superconscious mind becomes more trusting and willing to give up its secrets and situations, places, persons and objects will present themselves to us spontaneously. These all represent something in the symbolic language of our mind and if we are able to interpret these symbols almost in the same way as dreams, we can obtain the answers we require as well as valuable information on our state of mind, framework of thinking and our deepest hopes and fears. I have previously said that the images that emerge during the search and the answers that are provided during the questioning are usually deeply personal and often appear at first to be quite complex. It is only through experience and by building a relationship with our own inner being or oracle that we become familiar with the concepts and the way in which the ideas are being presented. To continue with the issue of our true nature and being, in this case I approached the oracle directly and phrased the question as follows: "Teacher, who are we and what is our relationship to God? The oracle answered as follows:"My dear friends, he began, "You ask of the bond between man and God, the relation between the limitation of a personal mind and the fullness of the One? Man, being conceived of Benevolence into this bond, even unto the very breath of life, partakes of the life of the One, without which there would be no life and no existence. Is this life the sole gift of friendship? It is written that man is such as he is in goodness, by relation with the Father and yet becomes more still by a greater relationship than this. Let us conclude that man is what he is in perfection, by this relationship, or such that he may be in limitation, by the absence of such bond of acquaintance. For the absence of the light leaves man in the darkness of his own mind, wherein dwell the self-created images of despair. Such need for this bond is indeed great. The power of man to receive of the Father and thereby to fulfil, comes of this relationship. Does one give the greatest gifts to a stranger? Does one truly enter into the dwelling of him whom you do not know? Yet a bond of 41

acquaintance is sufficient for all these. What use is a light when there is no means to express and no path of realisation? Such light might as well be the light under a bushel. It would be as distant as this. If man have need, then the One has a supply of infinite abundance. Is this bond not the gift of the knowledge of His presence and of His Law and Will even unto all his Being in aspects of Divine perfection? And is this knowledge and responsibility not to be called the very image of God? What of this image? Is this not the true purpose of man which was lost with his self-created selfhood moving from the path of the light of the One? Is this not the call of the Spirit, to return to one-ness by bringing forth a growth of relationship, a flow of aspects from the One such as Life, Awareness, Harmony, Strength and Benevolence? Must man remain thus little more than an animal, left to a mind with no knowledge of itself ? Or may he realise once again the Being of the One and be raised to return and be called Sons of God? For each in turn is called to bear the image and each may realise the fullness of the One, if he but would. Yet what of the conditions of this relationship? May man then merely demand as his birthright, the knowledge of the One? Or be he called to produce proof of his worth? Let us know of His benevolence and the fullness thereof, lest we feel righteousness in the very face of our inadequacies. Let us learn the role of expression and seek the position of the least, the servant before the One and as water flows from the vessel of fullness to that of lower degree, so then will the living water of revelation and divine perfections flow into the vessel so created. For to assume equal proportion before God will not bring the flow, insomuch as water flows not between two vessels of equal content. It has been heard to be said that the Father is impersonal or that He is personal and I have said both. The Law within the One remains impersonal and Just in equality for all, yet knowledge of the One becomes personal with the personal commitment. The call of the One to each, points to the beginning of the end, which is the relationship one-to-one. Such relationship is personal growth, the point of first commitment revealing the way for a later personal revelation. The password remains thus "decision" and "commitment". Even though the commitment be a mere possibility of an existence of God, as the faith of a mustard seed, let the beginning be made. Such is the power of this growth that the child becomes a man. At first the awakening to mere possibilities ,in limitation of the mind. Yet the

42 personal decision to commitment shall open the door of this mind for light to dispel the darkness unto the path of growth. The possibilities being known, thus give way to belief and belief later to the joy of a personal knowledge in which the weakness of a borrowed belief becomes known. Later still, the light of personal realization of the true Law, Will and Being of the One, becomes the gift of the relationship one-to-one. The personal conception has become personal experience in the path of growth , moving always forward to the point of highest expression, when in one-ness, the many may once again become the One, yet one of greater expression Even this path be wrought with danger, for a knowledge of the One becomes closer realisation, so will grossness of the world and self wish to hide man from this light. It is written that the Christ ever knocks for the door to be opened. It need be that this path of the mind remain open with pure motive, dedication and commitment, lest the darkness of the weakness of the flesh and self cause the bond to falter. Beware also, of seeing the means as an end to itself. For all is directed to this end, the relationship one-to-one. Even so will church and teaching lead one to this end, which is merely the beginning. To profess any of these without the relationship, is to be likened unto the child, who, in refusing to enter into examination, reveals his unwillingness to part with the days of schooling, thereby denying himself the greater relationship with Life itself ." What is our real nature as human beings? Is not the purpose of Man in a created body to serve the expression of the Father? Commentary Are we really only a body? During this earlier revelation on the nature and Being of God, the oracle referred to our body as part of Gods creation, but the question arises as to whether this body is us in the true sense of the word. If we look at science and biology, a human being is seen to be a purely physical organism and that which we call our mind is said to only a "phenomenon" brought about by active processes of our brain. It is true that what we see and feel is our body and it is very easy to accept that this is "us". However, if we accept this argument we will still have difficulty in explaining how our body (our physical brain) can produce self-awareness or self-consciousness. Even our most advanced present technology is unable to produce self-awareness. This problem is

far easier to explain if we accept that our self-consciousness may originate on a higher energy level and is 43 merely "stepped down" or mediated by our neural structures. There are also a number of other mental phenomena that we cannot explain by referring only to our brain and nervous system, such as exactly how images or non-material pictures can be produced from our physical brain or stored as visual memories and how are we able to conjure up an image without using our eyes, merely by using our imagination (visualisation). The old argument that our memories are only patterns set into the neural structure of our brain during thinking is no longer valid, as recent research has revealed that a memory does not appear to be restricted to a specific area in our brain and some mental functions can also be taken over by other areas during brain damage. However, we know from medical science that if our brain is seriously damaged, our thinking, as we know it, is severely affected. Can we assume therefore that our normal thinking or perception cannot take place without our brain? If we want to answer this question, we will need to further examine the relationship between our body and mind. Most philosophers and psychologists see the human being as a psycho-biological unity of physical (body) and mental (mind) processes. As explained before, the problem arises in explaining what is a thought or mental image and how two different substances, that is, the non-material mental processes (thoughts or images) and material bodies (brains) can interact. This is called the Body-Mind problem in philosophy. There are a number of arguments on this issue. The first view is that they cannot interact and therefore our mind is actually only the activity of our physical brain. The second argument states that we are composed of two separate substances (mind and body) which are interacting in some way or other (Descartes, 1999). The final possibility closely fits a later revelation offered by the oracle on the role of our mind. In this be the mind of man but a shadow of the Mind of God, which is the fullness of Consciousness, Will and Law. According to this statement, we do have a mind and this is derived from the universal Mind of God. This links up with the third idea that our mind and body are actually part of one spiritual substance or energy which exists on different levels. To address the question of the possibility of a spiritual substance and the existence of our divine spirit, let us again examine some earlier statements from the oracle on the nature and Being of God. Know then, O stranger, that the One is the wholeness and fullness of

true Spirit, the true Mind, the true perfection and that it is we who are merely further created and diversified Soul expressed into bodies formed by 44 the lower laws and that we must awaken to this Essence and presence which thereby gives us the Life and Mind of itself , in order to fulfil the Will to express and bring forth to the very limits of creativity." This extract describes mankind as diversified soul expressing into human bodies. This implies that we are in essence, spiritual beings, emanating from the universal Spirit of God and that we form, at our very source, a collective spirit or soul of humanity, the son of man, which later differentiates further into individual soul personalities and physical bodies. This revelation forms the basis of explaining a community of spirit and a brotherhood of man. This standpoint is also supported by a later revelation of the oracle on the Christ-Being, recalled as follows:The separation into parts of the whole, which although they appear distinct, remain a whole, each part to grow in its own condition and by interacting with others, produce even greater growth. These to unite once again to produce an even greater whole. Is this not like unto the cell of the body of man, which, in the words of science, differentiates into units for the purpose of growth, later forming one organ and more and each organ forming part of the whole, the body being far more than a mere accumulation of its cells? Commentary As our human divine spirit emanates from the Being of God, this will by implication mean that this is our true self and we are an actual being of spirit-energy having faculties such as intelligence (consciousness), power and activity which are derived from God. It is these attributes that we see and experience in our minds and bodies at a lower level. Obviously we will experience problems if we try to prove this using scientific methods and we will need to use our reasoning and the tools of inference and analogy to see how an eternal non-material substance in the form of our spirit, is related to our mind and how this interacts with our body. According to the Oracle, the aspect of our mind we call selfawareness or consciousness proceeds from the Being of God and His universal consciousness by the path of our diversified spirits or souls.

The question arises therefore as to how such radical changes can take place so as to transform a spiritual reality and divine consciousness into what we come to know as our mind and our normal thinking processes. Our human body is simply not designed to 45 respond fully to energies of such a high order. Fortunately, our soul can function on these levels and is able to reproduce levels of consciousness which we come to know as our superconscious and subconscious minds. In this regard, our soul can be seen to be a sort of intermediate stage between our divine spirit and superconscious mind. To continue, our subconscious mind in turn, filters that consciousness and by means of our central nervous system (the brain and other structures), provides that level of conscious awareness, understanding and thinking ability that we require for everyday use. Our thinking, from this point, is little more than the sum of our accumulated experiences from everyday living. Unfortunately, this process of filtering also produces a state of forgetfulness which is of such a degree that over time, we experience ourselves as separate and isolated from the higher source from which we originate. If we were to have continuous access to this higher level of consciousness, we simply would not be able to function in our everyday world. To allow for our day to day functioning, our superconscious and subconscious minds are usually cut off from our normal thinking and can only be reached under certain subjective conditions. There are, however, certain areas of our brain which link us up with our superconscious and subconscious mind and which we can stimulate to improve our creative thinking and perception. In order to critically examine these statements, I will subject them to the scrutiny of a scientific perspective. Science, in the field of Quantum physics, has already proven that our entire universe, including our human body, consists of atomic structures which are essentially pure energy of various levels and potentials. This is the basis of Albert Einstein's theory of Relativity. There is no therefore no reason not to believe that our mind or mental processes too, could consist of patterns or fields of radiated energy, probably at far higher levels than we can currently measure. The most sensitive instruments manufactured today have only begun to tap into the regions of our mind activity. Perhaps, due to the subtle nature of our mind energies, technology may need to advance significantly before it will be able to provide us with more information and concrete evidence of the existence of these fields of energy which we call our mind and consciousness and how they actually do interact with our body, as

psychological research and our everyday experience indicates. At present, science is able to link different states of our consciousness or awareness to 46 specific frequencies of radiated energies from our brain (Alpha , Beta and Theta waves ). If our bodily radiations and mental processes can be seen to be, in fact, different modes or levels of the same energy, then there is no reason why they should not be able to interact. It is ironic that our inability to see our body and mind interacting as modes or fields of energy is due to our own unwillingness to see beyond the physical nature of matter at our present point of scientific development. Our relationship to God and Spirit Commentary During the previous revelation on the relationship between God and man, the oracle indicated that we need to look at the ultimate unity or oneness of God as the source of all relationships. Flowing from this essential unity, there are various lower states of existence or emanation, each level giving rise to another and sustaining it. Once a separation takes place, a strong relationship of affinity between the levels remain, which forms the path for the continuous transfer of energy. Even within a level, a separation between units or different expressions would likewise produce a relationship of affinity. In its ideal or pure state, this unity or oneness would be the actual binding force of God-will or the power of divine intention, seen on the lowest levels within science as the law of attraction (due to the separation of different polarities), the affinity between physical bodies (gravity ) and the chemical bonding of substances. These inter-relationships can be described as the common factor which links forms of life together and provides structure. Relationships work just as well in nature, in our social life or in our dependence on a higher spiritual power (as above, so below). As separate and diverse human beings, we build relationships and transfer our love, caring and support between each other by means of commitment (intention). In our human minds and hearts, this call to return to unity or oneness is experienced as

physical attraction, love, friendship or brotherhood. The oracle stressed the importance of a personal relationship between each of us and God. As I understand it, once we have consciously reestablished this relationship, it becomes a very real path for the transfer of spiritual energy, an ethereal connection through which guidance and power can 47 actually pass and is certainly not only an abstract idea. It takes a while before we get used to this new understanding of a relationship but affinity and the exchange of energy is at the very basis of all relationships and we need to accept this before real divine energy and power can be passed on to us. If we wish to begin a personal relationship with Divinity, we merely need to make this commitment (intention), set a course towards higher spiritual principles and seek the source of inner power and inspiration (the search for our inner oracle). In order to examine the aspect of personal and impersonal relationships further, we review an extract from the oracles revelation on spiritual law provided earlier on in this book. You ask then if this law does not imply that the God of all is impersonal and unconcerned with the individual and I tell you both impersonal and yet personal. The law is impersonal with the presence of the One being equally available to all, yet is the benevolence within the law not a personal call to each? Is it not true that a personal relationship may exist between a father and his servant? A commitment from the servant resulting in the personal understanding of his master? For in truth, it must be so. Does the sole ruler of a land not authorise the laws of the land which reflect his will as representative of all and yet does he personally enforce each one of these?, these duties being performed by various forces of the law? Does this imply that the ruler is not personally involved with his people? Does it necessarily imply his unconcern? For it is truth that this man may be approached on matters of state and thus even approached by the individual, which is right. It is merely a question of structure, the ruler loves his people and his people love him. Commentary

The question often arises how God, who is transcendent and immutable (untouchable) could become intimately involved with human beings. In other words, is it possible to have a direct personal relationship with God at all? This personal aspect is important, as it is very difficult to imagine a relationship with a Being that is untouchable and unapproachable. The oracle explained the problem as follows ; God has established laws which can be called absolute (in human terms ) and it is the immutability of these laws which have caused Him to be labelled as impersonal by some people, when, in fact, it is only the totally fair and impartial application of these 48 laws that is in a sense, impersonal. To add to this, God is by nature also all-benevolent and is forever calling all of us, no matter what our creed, culture or religion, to spiritual growth and in this sense, can also be said to be impersonal, but a better word would be all-inclusive or universal. We in turn, choose to answer this call with a decision that at the very least, God may exist and reach out to Him in faith and commitment to some form of worship, service or manner of righteous living. The very fact that our divine spirit is an emanation of Gods Spirit, indicates that we can never be truly apart from Him and any separation takes place only in our minds by our lack of understanding or commitment. At the point we decide to include ourselves in a relationship with God our experience of Him becomes more personal. We are therefore ourselves responsible for a process of selection, election or whatever concept we use to describe our conscious acceptance of this one-on-one relationship. From this sort of word-play, we can see that many of the so-called contradictions we attribute to God and Spirit in religious, philosophical or scientific dogma, are as a result of our own poor use of concepts and understanding and therefore exist only on the level of our three-dimensional (and in many cases, single -dimensional) thinking. These problems simply do not really exist and we would see them merge into the larger spiritual reality if only we were able to step back and look back on them with a higher consciousness. To conclude our discussion of the true nature of man, we need to examine what is meant by the idea of man being created in the image of God. Thus does all creation reflect the light of its Source, each having more or less awareness of this whole of which it reflects a part. (Extract from the revelation of the oracle on the Christ)

Is this bond not the gift in benevolence of the knowledge of His presence and of His Law and Will even unto all his Being in aspects of Divine perfection? And is this knowledge and responsibility not to be called the very image of God? What of this image? Is this not the true purpose of man which was lost with his self-created selfhood moving from the path of the light of the One? Is this not the call of the Spirit, to return to one-ness by bringing forth a growth of relationship, a flow of aspects from the One, such as Life, Awareness, Harmony, Strength and Benevolence? Must man remain thus little more than an animal, left to a mind with no knowledge of itself ? Or may he realise once again the Being of the One and be raised to 49 return and be called Sons of God? For each in turn is called to bear the image and each may realise the fullness of the One, if he but would. (Extract from the revelation of the oracle on our relationship to God.) Commentary These extracts are specifically related to the idea of man as being created in the image of God. Understanding this mystery is important in establishing who and what we are. According to the oracle, the basis of our relationship with God is the fact that we are created in His image. We, as men and women, are fully human and yet we have a divine source and the power to express the spiritual image of God in a concrete form. This is a very special relationship involving a one-on-one correspondence and provides us with the power, energy and consciousness by which we exist. How is this achieved? As the image of God, we are able to embody God-attributes as faculties that exist in our minds and physical bodies such as the principles of life ( health ), consciousness (awareness), structure (form and shape), harmony (balance) , power (strength ), activity (movement), perfection (beauty) and benevolence (love). Other living things in nature are also able to embody and express these aspects, but not to the extent and level to which we are able. This is why we are regarded as the crown of creation. However, without a real and dynamic relationship, we will not be able to express these attributes to any significant degree. By remaining uncommitted, we separate ourselves from the divine energy, power, gifts and knowledge to which we are called. If we remain isolated from our

superconscious mind, inner being and spiritual source of power, we will return to being only a collection of self-conscious matter acting according to our basic needs and will never fulfill our higher function and potential. The purpose of Man The question can therefore rightly be asked that as we are created in the image of God, what would be our true purpose on this earth? What then of this Being, the One and the many? Is this not the greatest role of any being, the highest expression, to be creative, to express ones own subject into an objective revelation? For in being creative in a world of art and literature does man fulfil the highest nature of his being, even though this be a mere shadow of Divine creation. 50 ( Extract from the earlier revelation by the oracle on the Christ.) The separation into parts of the whole, which, although they appear distinct, remain a whole, each part to grow in its own condition and by interacting with others , produce even greater growth. These to unite once again to produce an even greater whole. Is this not like unto the cell of the body of man? Which, in the words of science, differentiates into units for the purpose of growth, later forming one organ and more and each organ forming part of the whole, the body being far more than a mere accumulation of its cells. (Extract from the earlier revelation by the oracle on the Christ) That it is we who are merely further created and diversified Soul expressed into bodies formed by the lower laws and that we must awaken to this Essence and presence which thereby gives us the Life and Mind of itself, in order to fulfil the Will to express and bring forth to the very limits of creativity." ( Extract from the revelation of the oracle on the nature and Being of God ) Commentary The above three quotations from the revelations of the oracle clearly indicate the purpose of mankind to be the expression of the divine life

and Being of the Father. This ability to create or to reproduce oneself into billions of life forms, each with the ability to reflect ones nature and being to various degrees, is indicated by the oracle to be the highest form of self-expression or self-existence. It can be seen that this idea links up closely with the image of God. The Universe and all physical life as we know it, including ourselves, are therefore part of an act of divine creativity designed to bring forth a richness of diversity and an expansion of divine Spirit into objective and concrete forms. Given that we are born into the limitations of our current human level of understanding and consciousness brought about by layer upon layer of mental programming during the time of human evolution, or in our case, devolution, achieving this goal or purpose would need to become a life-long process of growth in understanding, consciousness and the expression of divine attributes which form the image which we have already mentioned above. This learning, growth and expression cannot take place in isolation and would therefore need to be the result of our 51 interaction (relationship) with God and our everyday world. The ideal expression would normally be achieved by means of unconditional and selfless dedication and service to God and our fellow-man (good works). What is our human consciousness? To answer more fully the question of who or what we really are, I felt it necessary to question the oracle on the aspect of our consciousness, the act of self-awareness that makes us human. There is such a strong relationship between our degree of consciousness and conscious awareness and gifts such as understanding, wisdom, extra-sensory perception (psychic abilities ) and the ability to heal, that I needed an answer to the question of exactly what consciousness really is. We were sitting quietly in the cave. Outside, a great storm was passing by. I saw how billowing clouds swirled and formed a blanket of darkness around the mountain and for a while, my mind also entered a state of confusion. Fortunately, the storm was short-lived and I was soon aware of a new freshness and a state of quiet. We were drawn out into the sunlight which again began to stream from open patches in the clouds. I saw the mist clearing in the valley below and understood this to mean that I was beginning to see and comprehend more of the lessons and the

answers that were being presented to me. Commentary We must understand that everything that happens spontaneously during visualisation, represents new information, a window into our subconscious or even our superconscious mind. At about this time, I noticed a figure of a man emerging from the valley and making his way up towards the meeting place below the cave. He was strongly built and was carrying a small child on his back. We greeted the stranger and he informed us that he wished to speak to the oracle. He told us that he hoped the oracle would be able to help and possibly cure the little boy, who was mentally handicapped. During the storm, the old man had been resting, but when he heard the soft small voice of the child, he awoke and came out to meet them. I noticed that the eyes of the oracle were filled with compassion and I started to feel a similar emotion within myself. Hopefully, we will all discover that having 52 an understanding of life alone is not enough, we have to actually experience compassion for life as well (The gift of feeling). I have learnt that our emotions, far from being a sign of weakness, are derived from divine love and the rainbow colours of the divine image and we will need to integrate these into our personality if we are to reach a state of human fulfilment. In the visualisation, the old man reached out with his hand and gently touched the little forehead. The boy was very quiet, yet I noticed that his eyes became clear and bright. Was this indicating a new beginning? The father then embraced the oracle, took his son and moved down towards the city to return once again to the noise and confusion of this sometimes absurd world. At this point I posed a question to the oracle on the nature of consciousness and received the following reply:"Let us pray for the realisation, the greatest gift of God to man. For in this consciousness be man the receiver of the very Mind of the One. With this be man more than mere Nature, more than animal and a little less than angel. Be this not the very mark of man, that he might know of himself and more and is this not the gift of Soul? For what is consciousness if not an awakening to the existence of that which is? First does man merely awaken to that of himself, the life, the desire, the thought. Then does he awaken to these in others and even to life itself

as a borrowed attribute of One most higher. That the attributes of the One become even more apparent, until He stands revealed in his very relationship to man, be this not growth and this the law of God? How shall we reveal such consciousness to be? If not to be likened to the light which, although faint at first, grows to brightness to illumine the darkness of limitation of a personal mind. For be this not the path of all revelation and growth, that one merely awakens to that which already is, that which exists in Law and in aspects of the One? Let us see the power of this truth, that the lion and the lamb may lie together, parted merely by a veil, and this in peace, being unaware of each other, yet if the veil be removed, will the wrath of the lion not equal the fear of the lamb? Is this not true of man himself ? That if the veil be removed from the limitation of a personal mind, will the power of the fullness of truth not devour the strongest of these minds of men? Be this therefore not the will of the One unto harmony, that man be born into ignorance by the veil of the limitation of mind and slowly raised out of Nature's laws unto the Consciousness of the One and that the light of this wisdom not dispel the darkness of the veil, until by act of Divine Benevolence, the veil be removed 53 to reveal the fullness of the One that is in all? For this be the path of expression, insomuch as one cannot express that of which he has no knowledge or realisation. Thus may consciousness be likened also to knowledge, yet knowledge which is not pure fact, but which is of the realisation, the awakening by which the expression reveals the Source. Thus in power of consciousness may man fulfil the call to express that which he may realise, unto the very being of God Himself. Is this therefore not the talent of worth, by which means man may grow? Be this not the pearl of great value by which man passes into the presence of the One? Will the failure to succour and tend to such gift not bring the wrath of the Law as well as the fruits of ignorance? Let man therefore take heed of his task. Let the call of the Spirit be recognised as the call to awaken, first to the existence then to the Will and Law of the One and even unto the very aspects of His Being. Does God Himself not provide the means to such awakening in experiences of human life itself, and even greater than this in personal revelation? Let he who has eyes to see and he who has ears to listen heed the lessons that may be revealed, and in this, realise the existence, the Law and the Will of

God. For insomuch as do the colours of divine attributes, shaded by the darkness and disfigured by the images of a personal mind, become even more translucent and glorious during such growth in awareness, shall the white light of the very presence of the One become more fully imaged in the consciousness of man. All shall pass by this path, the shared consciousness of the One. Commentary The child is often regarded as a symbol of innocence and of a stage in our lives when our spirit and inner being can be most clearly seen expressing itself in the beauty and sweetness of a child-like simplicity. Our inner child is also the path to our deepest emotions and feelings. The child is thus a symbol of our early, more spiritual consciousness, a time when we were still "real" and experienced things as they are, with an excitement and joy which is not yet polluted by fear, doubt or suspicion. Psychologists inform us that this archetype or pattern of thinking is never totally lost, but merely concealed by our adult thoughts and experiences. It can still emerge at times such as when we are filled with a childlike enthusiasm.The father who carries the child, symbolises the adult consciousness in all of us, that part of our being which is tasked to nurture or protect the child (innocence) of our earlier consciousness. Unfortunately, this "father" can also be brutal, 54 mistrusting or over-protective and not allow our inner child to express itself later on in life. This can lead to our becoming insensitive, sceptical and cynical. With the forming of our ego, or sense of personal identity, we find that we tend to assert ourselves and become involved in the complexities of our adult consciousness and much of our childlike nature is lost. It is therefore significant that in this scenario, the father brings the child to the oracle ( superconscious mind ) to be restored once again to its proper place in the personality. This suggests that if we are prepared to let go of the masks and power games of the adult world, we open our minds in an almost childlike way, to the possibility of further growth. Secondly, the oracle revealed our self-consciousness to be as a result of us having a spirit and a soul. Our soul is said to flow from our divine spirit, which is part of the third emanation of the divine Spirit of God. This soul, which shares in the consciousness of our spirit, finds expression firstly on a superconscious level (our inner being) and then passes into or is submerged in our subconscious mind, emerging later by

means of our brain and nervous system as our objective or everyday consciousness. Our soul, as a sort of intermediary between our divine spirit and our objective selves, is individualised and provides us with a distinctive and unique combination of God-attributes which then form our individual human identities and personalities. What exactly is our consciousness? Consciousness itself can be explained as a state of awakening which is not the same as thinking, reasoning or understanding, but this being awake makes these other processes possible. Our everyday consciousness can be explained as the level of self-awareness or self-realisation which we have, which allows us to realise that we are alive, separate from other things and that we have control over our bodily senses which we use to interact with the rest of the world. Following the process previously described, our everyday consciousness can be said to be derived from the universal divine consciousness. This appears to be in opposition to the scientific view that our consciousness is only the result of the processes of our brain and has no other source other than our nervous system. Most esoteric writings, however, support the revelation of the oracle that consciousness is a divine attribute in which we share and that our brain is merely a transformer which changes our higher spiritual or soul consciousness into day to day consciousness. Are there really degrees of consciousness ? 55 Commentary From our own experience, we know that our consciousness or awareness of things can also change. The oracle continued by likening an increasing consciousness to the awakening of someone who was asleep, enabling him or her to see more clearly. Plato, the Greek philosopher, used a wonderful simile to describe a rising consciousness. Instead of consciousness he used the word reason, which was the highest state accorded to our human mind at the time. He describes a group of people sitting in a cave with their backs to a fire. All they are capable of seeing and have ever seen are shadows which are being thrown on the wall of the cave by the fire. Because they do not know any better, they assume or believe the shadows are things as they really exist. Plato compares this to our normal everyday perception and understanding of things, which he says are mere shadows of reality (Plato, 1987). He goes on to compare a process of education with one of the figures being released from his bonds and allowed to slowly crawl along the cave floor and out of the

cave into the daylight. As he moves closer to the light of the sun outside, the shadows begin to fall away and he begins for the first time, to see objects as they really are. At last, after much effort and time, (as his eyes grow accustomed to the changing light), he is able to face the sunlight, which is the symbol of the full knowledge of reality (total consciousness). The oracle revealed our human consciousness to have various levels or degrees which influence what we believe, understand and even what we see in the world or in situations (our perspective ). This can be explained by showing that changes in the quality, level and degree of our consciousness, have a great effect on the content and depth of our thinking and understanding as well as our perception and interpretation of things as "real ". If our conscious awareness is high, it indicates a higher level of conscious activity in our minds, which also points to an increase in conscious energy in and around our nervous system. This heightened conscious activity results in a greater capacity for creative thinking, insight and unconditional love. Unfortunately, the opposite is also true. A lower consciousness is associated with a sluggishness in conscious energy activity and results in our thinking ability and moral behaviour being limited, as we are not so aware of the implications of our actions and deeds. If our consciousness is rising, it is almost like being asleep at first and being unaware of the important things going on around us and later slowly awaking and becoming more aware of these happenings. This brings us new insights, 56 perceptions and a growing understanding. Perhaps it will be clearer if I explain it further. We may understand the growth of our consciousness better if we look at the normal process of our aging and maturity. For instance, if we think back to our level of understanding, thinking and our beliefs when we were children, I am sure you will agree that as a child with a child's consciousness, we had no idea or awareness of the complexities and stresses of adult life. Only later in life did we become increasingly able to understand what is really happening in the world and to make more conscious decisions. Although there is a vast difference in our adult and child consciousness, we can actually recall being a child and therefore know that we are still the same person. Growth of our consciousness can also take place during our adult life. In this case we speak of personal growth or self-actualisation. This can be further explained as follows ; if we have a limited ability to form concepts and ideas as a result of having a low education or if we have a "closed mind", fixed patterns of thinking, set ideas or merely the habit of

making assumptions when we reason, (in other words, we are an inflexible type of person ), we will normally read into situations, seeing what we want to see, or believing what we wish to believe, rather than face the possibility that things may not be exactly as we understand them to be. It is possible, however, that this can be overcome or changed if we raise our level of awareness to a point where the new conscious activity "shakes loose" our blocked or repressed feelings, beliefs, fixed mental thought forms and ideas and we are actually able to let go of them and thereby reach new levels of self-knowledge and understanding. Changes to our level of consciousness can occur either as a result of our own inner (emotional or psychological) states or because of factors outside of ourselves. If we are very upset or traumatised, we are not always fully aware of what is happening around us. In such a state we are also not always able to think rationally. Stress or severe pressures in our lives can cause our essential conscious awareness (consciousness ) to lower as a protective mechanism, as it is very painful to always be aware of unpleasant things that are happening to us. On the other hand, as stated before, it is possible to actually raise our level of conscious awareness, which is related to mental activity, by means of exercises such as meditation, prayer, dedication, study and other methods which open our mind to the higher energies. The fact that people have different levels or degrees of consciousness 57 explains the differences in human thinking, moral behaviour and what is seen or understood about substance and reality that exist in the many philosophies, religions and cultures. This has many implications if we are in the habit of judging people (moral judgements ), as the question can rightly be asked whether a person with a lower consciousness is as accountable as one with a higher consciousness and whether they are not actually doing the best they can with that which they have. People are far more tolerant with a child than with an adult, as a child just does not have the awareness (and therefore the responsibility) of an adult. In our everyday lives, it may therefore not be so much a question of the right or wrong type of behaviour but rather one of our behaviour being limited by a lack of awareness or consciousness. The oracle also related the growth of our consciousness to the will of God and the purpose of mankind and said that we are, in fact, called to have a greater knowledge of God, ourselves and reality (truth) by having to make a conscious effort to nurture the pearl of our human

consciousness into a full expression of the divine consciousness. He revealed our self-consciousness to be the key to our understanding of our humanity and superiority over the rest of nature. All living things have consciousness to some degree or another and it this degree of consciousness that decides their level of expression and activity. Holy Scriptures speak of the new person that is reborn by obtaining a higher spiritual consciousness. The raising of our level of consciousness, therefore, is the key to our understanding and our acting according to higher standards of morality that will lead to the reflection of the image of God and the perfection of our human personality. The growth or expansion of our consciousness does not have limits except for those limitations which we ourselves impose or allow to be imposed on us. We are continually warned against negative ways of thinking (which create negative thought forms) and actions which alter our state of mind and lower our consciousness. The gift of a higher level of consciousness requires a quiet and receptive mind. However, raising our consciousness by simplifying our life and removing areas of unnecessary conflict, does not mean that we have to withdraw totally, as our mind and spirit cannot grow if we are not interacting with other people or partaking of world events. Normal experience is necessary for later deeper levels of awareness. What is important, however, is for us to strive to maintain our equilibrium in such a way that we do not allow or attract destructive or 58 negative influences into our lives and minds. Tempters or spiritual entities and forces whose purpose it is to lower our consciousness towards a state of chaos, do exist. However, we also have our own human weaknesses with which to contend. Behaviour which is potentially harmful, such as an excessive pre-occupation with pleasure and material possessions as well as selfish thoughts and deeds can limit our growth and even lead the formation of thought patterns, thought forms, mind-blocks or habits which are negative or destructive to our consciousness and personality. In our search for our inner being or oracle and ultimately re-uniting with our divine spirit, we require a reasonably clear mind as well as a sincere motive, dedication and a commitment to spiritual principles and service. Our goals are the gifts of feeling (intuition, compassion and heightened sensitivity), understanding, (being able to intuitively answer our own questions) and ultimately the gift of wisdom, which is a state of

pure awareness or knowing which comes if we can become totally aware of the divine presence and universal consciousness, sometimes also called the state of cosmic or Christ consciousness. The growth of our consciousness also occurs naturally on a universal level, although it is slower than if we are consciously striving for it. All life is geared for growth and advancement (in consciousness) and astrologers will tell us that the entire universe, with all the creative and formative energies, is designed to bring about those experiences for each person that should result in personal growth. Different cultures and peoples and even the Earth itself are experiencing a shift in consciousness which has resulted in an improvement in moral and spiritual values since the dark ages. Unfortunately, rapid growth can also cause problems and this could account for today's moral and ethical confusion. As Plato pointed out, we need to grow accustomed to the increasing experience of light. Although this evolution is natural, it is guarded by our subconscious mind which acts as a protective mechanism as well as a set of ethical standards. We therefore need to be aware of the danger of forcing ourselves into a higher state of consciousness for which we are not prepared by using drugs or other unnatural means. As stated before, our motive is very important, so too our sense of responsibility and accountability. If we enter this state with serious unresolved issues, it is likely that this will result in severe confusion and psychological disorders, as the "dial" of our consciousness is being turned up. With our increasing sensitivity, we will be more open to all influences including negative experiences, which could become like raving lions and tear at our minds if we are not sufficiently prepared, dedicated and able to 59 maintain an inner harmony. Finally, we must understand that consciousness is not simply an idea. It denotes an energy state and has a real power to act on things. What we see and understand, using the power of our consciousness, is converted into thought forms with actual energy, which are known, felt and expressed in our actions. Our consciousness also can and does, form energy relationships (links) between things and creates an open path in our minds for divine energies to assist us in self- development and service to others. The ability to heal, as with other spiritual gifts, comes with a raised consciousness. This was demonstrated by the oracle in the healing of the child. During normal medical treatment, we work with the physical needs of an injured person and by applying certain laws of biochemistry, we may be able to assist in the natural regeneration of the patient's body

and help him or her to regain physical health. Mental healing, such as psychiatric care or counselling, is directed at removing obstacles, energy blocks or barriers in our thinking, subconscious mind and emotional life and may assist us on a mental or physical level to restore harmony. During the higher forms of healing, including absent and faith healing, the ritual may differ from religion to religion and person to person but all spiritual healing has one thing in common. It always occurs on a level of consciousness where the healer is aware of the presence and power of God. His or her consciousness therefore becomes the bridge for the passage of healing energy from the divine source according to Spiritual Law. Our consciousness therefore, is the key to understanding ourselves, other people, the mystery of life and our relationship to God. If we purposely strive towards raising our consciousness, we will link up with the ultimate purpose of life, which, as I have said before, is our growth in the knowledge and expression of God.

60

5 Morality, freedom and responsibility

Is there such a thing as "Good"and"bad ","right and"wrong"? The Law is related to Gods Will. We see the movement towards growth and harmony in all Nature and this is the least of Gods law. We feel the call towards growth of mind and thought, but do we heed it? Gods Law is not one of pain and want and darkness. His law reflects the benevolence of His Will and His Will becomes laws to the consciousness of Man and Nature. (Extract from the revelation of the oracle on spiritual law)

Commentary Concepts of good and bad, right and wrong are intrinsic-ally woven into our everyday lives. We simply cannot escape them. A realistic and workable idea of human morality and right and wrong is therefore extremely important for our personal growth and spiritual development. Let us therefore examine a few of the different ideas on morality which could assist in us reaching a deeper understanding. Religious arguments for good and bad, right and wrong are embodied in scriptures as commandments. If we act or behave in such a way that we are obedient to the will of God as directed in these scriptures we would therefore be seen in a religious sense, to be behaving in a good or right way. On a more universal level, if we look once again to spiritual law, we could say that certain principles present in the Being and divine laws of God, such as benevolence (love), justice (equality) and righteousness (fairness), enter into our relationships with other people to form our morality. The proper application of these divine principles should therefore result in good or right behaviour. Many people will not accept that morality has its source in spiritual or divine law. This does not mean, however, that they necessarily believe that our ethics, morality and legal system have no real foundation and that we are free to do as we like and disregard the feelings and rights of others. It is possible to have a system of human rights and ideal behaviour towards each other based on mutual respect and a sense of fairness or justice, as exists in our Constitution. 61 A more scientific view of morality would state that our con-science or sense of right and wrong, good and bad, is related to the functioning of our brain and can be described only as behaviour that we learn during our life which would have a purpose in building better social relationships with other people to ensure that we all have a greater chance of survival. Right or good behaviour in these terms would be those actions which improve social relationships and wrong and bad actions would be those which trouble the social fabric of the group or community and work counter to the evolutionary process. A practical perspective on good and bad behaviour and right or wrong

choices, can be inferred directly from real-life experience. People speak frequently of experiencing severe emotional distress, either as the result of being hurt or of having caused someone else pain (guilt). They also acknowledge that their decisions or actions may have damaged something which they held dear, whether it is a relationship with God, parents or friends or even their own sense of self-esteem, peace of mind or something which gave meaning to their lives. Based on this understanding, a good or right decision or action would be one which does not harm ourselves or others and does not damage anything important in our lives, in other words, behaviour which is constructive and positive for physical, moral, intellectual and spiritual growth and well-being. Our conscience is said to be the voice of our soul moving through our subconscious mind and is made known to us by means of feelings, impressions and thoughts. Guided by our conscience, we can intuitively judge a thought or action by means of an emotional response such as guilt.Guilt is an emotion which normally arises when we believe we have done something contrary to our highest values or beliefs and feel we are unable to be forgiven or to atone for what we have done. People can experience severe crises in their lives and can even turn to suicide as a result of this emotion, which is actually a call to re-evaluate our lives or past actions. This powerful relationship between our conscience and right and wrong may be able to provide us with further information on the origins of human morality within a framework of spiritual law. Let us therefore consider how our conscience actually operates. Firstly, our conscience functions in such a complex way and involves so many deep feelings and thoughts that it seems impossible that this can be merely a reaction or a way of behaving we have learnt to please other people and improve our social relationships. Our conscience usually becomes known to 62 us firstly as a feeling of general uneasiness and discomfort and usually results in an inner questioning where we not only judge our own actions but also view contradictions in the behaviour of our society as a whole. If we are not able to find satisfactory answers and our condition gets worse, the uneasiness may result in feelings of doubt and cynicism, either with regard to our own human nature or towards life itself. A negative cycle of thinking could result in and lead to our alienation from other people or our own inner being. Such feelings and thinking will

eventually rob us of our peace of mind, confidence and inhibit our growth and understanding. The question can therefore rightly be asked, if our moral behaviour is only designed to improve relationships and assist in the development of the human race, why then does it produce such guilt and suffering when an individual judges himself or herself to have made a wrong or bad decision? It is therefore obvious that our conscience arises from a deep sense of morality which goes far beyond the reactions of our body and what we can call adaptive behaviour and this depth can only arise from a higher source such as our own soul which functions on the level of the spiritual ideal. Another problem arises if we do not relate our morality to a spiritual ideal, in that we will need to accept that people can now create their own human ideals which may fall short of the highest good. This can be explained as follows; if we act without a higher guiding spiritual principle, a divine aspect such as righteousness would only be understood in human terms and limited to what people see as righteous behaviour towards each other and this can be interpreted and understood in various ways. If we, as human beings with our present limited understanding and capacity to love, begin to create our own value systems, these could degenerate, as in many cases they have, into what is expedient, practical, workable or possible (pragmatic), without any true feelings of love, benevolence or justice whatsoever. This does seem to be an extreme view but if we look around us in the world today, it is true that many of our everyday values do appear to be changing. It is obviously difficult to judge if they are getting better or worse as this will depend on our perspective and what we regard as good or bad but certainly in many cases peoples behaviour towards each other is not improving and is far from ideal. Finally, in cases where our morality is not linked to a spiritual source, the power of the spiritual presence and guidance will be lost. The relationship between God and man is an actual binding force and we will only feel and realise a perfect sense of justice (or fairness) in our moral thinking if we are able to experience the power of this relationship. I understand that 63 many of these concepts may be new and confusing, but once they are grasped, they are extremely powerful. Our personal freedom and responsibility Commentary

The search for the oracle takes us on a journey where we re-consider our views on many important questions in life. The reason for this is that we will only be able to release our doubt and uncertainty if we find answers that are really acceptable to our present understanding. At some time or other we will need to look at this whole issue of freedom of thought and action, which is very important. Unfortunately, we are at present still so easily misled by wonderfully sounding and profound arguments and catchy phrases which appeal to our emotions and sense of idealism that the true meaning of human freedom can be lost in a popular interpretation or a commonly accepted belief. To those of us who accept the existence of Spirit and a higher divine self, it is therefore essential that we have insight into the true nature of freedom as well as our responsibilities in this life. As the images continued to unfold in my mind, I became aware of a group of young people gathering below the cave. The oracles teaching on spiritual law had become known in the city and had resulted in intense argumentation and debate. From the ongoing conversation, I gathered that it was the view of the majority of those present that our human freedom could not be determined or regulated by any absolute law but needed to be governed by a balancing of the human rights of the individual with the needs of society for peace and stability. At this point I posed a question in this regard to the oracle and was able to record the following response:"My dearest friends, there was one known as Disraeli who did wisely say that man is not a creature of circumstance, but that circumstances are the creatures of men. If man does thus not choose to know and use his true humanity then shall he be tossed by the very circumstances he did knowingly or unknowingly create and he shall surely be overcome by this torrent and lost in the darkness of despair. Yet how are we to understand this personal freedom in humanity when all is the Law of the One? Let us understand that the Law is one of benevolence and the Father's Will towards growth in the Expression of His very Being. Will the growth of a 64 man in freedom acting for his God , not exceed the growth of a slave, limited by an unjust master? Yet what is this freedom? Be this the right in each to indulge one's desire in total expression, knowing only of

ourselves in such personal freedom? May one man even wrench the life from the body of another in his own pleasure? This cannot be, for the Law remains and the Law is justice for all. The right of one remains the right of each and each may know only such personal freedom that will not remove the freedom of his brother. For what be the worth of such freedom which is freedom for one and yet enslavement for the other? Are not all equal in worth in the call to expression and before the Law of the One? Thus be personal freedom not indulgence, but choice. The freedom to choose be sufficient unto satisfying the needs of man, even unto fulfilment. Such freedom reaches from a mere choice of words unto even a choice of life or death for self or others and the most important of these be the decision to a relationship of one-to one with the Father. Thus a full cycle may pass, for the relationship with the One stands revealed as the source of such freedom. As man doth demand the freedom to choose, so must he accept the responsibility of his choice and blame neither others nor his God. Failure may yet be the result of his not knowing the Father, for the Father doth provide the wisdom unto fullness for the decision in sincerity towards His Will and such decision shall know no fault. The Law of the One is plain, it stands revealed in the scriptures of Revelation and in personal revelation in the minds of all men. The Law doth show the way to the decision towards, first, harmony and then growth in each situation and, knowing the benevolence of God, carries with it due regard for all others. So may failure even be a lesson, a lesson to reveal the ignorance and limitation of a man alone and thus it has great value, sometimes even greater still than a small success which may bring only vanity. Thus may man choose either the way of darkness and failure or of light and fulfilment in his own life and may not appeal to the Law for allowing such suffering and misfortune. God will not stand accused of a decision made by the will of man . Much of the suffering and distress of man may be known as the fruit of such a choice made by man alone, or by the need to make a better choice, for this too, would be a call to growth. Let one man not blame another for his decision , for the final decision remains one of a personal nature and there be few circumstances where man has no choice at all. Man also cannot appeal to the weakness of his will, for in knowing the Father in humility, would the wisdom and strength be his. Even in the midst of battle be the decision to kill that of a personal nature, for a 65 weapon is wielded only by one person at one time. As a man stands

accountable, so too stands he judged. Whether judged by his own conscience or the One, what matter shall it be? For the conscience stands revealed as the light of the One in each. He stands alone in his judgement. Alone must he face his judge and his consequences, whether it may come now or later, surely it will come, and the pain of his atonement will cause his soul to cry out in its torment for his ignorance, for judgement and consequences be on many levels. God is kinder than man, for the Father in the Benevolence of His nature does restore within Himself the injustice of man.. But lesser beings forgive not, and man's judgement by his peers may follow him until his mortal end. Know then, o man, of your dependence and bondage to this Law. Yet the Law is kind to him who chooses in wisdom and caresses those who nurture it. But the Law will not fall away for any man and he would be wise to heed this call. Commentary An open mind and independent thinking appears to be a gift given to those of us who can balance our ideals with a healthy realism drawn from our common sense understanding of everyday life and human behaviour. If we are intensely emotional or fanatical about an issue, we can generate uncontrolled energies which can in turn lead to an inner turbulence, inconsistency and subjectivity which will all obstruct our ability to think clearly. On the other hand, if we are prone to follow the will of the majority because of fear, doubt, apathy or habit, we limit the growth of independent thinking in our mind. The oracle indicated the modern notion of human freedom to be misunderstood. He showed absolute human freedom to be an ideal which can only exist in circumstances where the freedom of others would never be affected. It is apparent that such an perfect situation can never arise in a world shared by so many people and this implies that absolute freedom can only exist in a spiritual state where the needs of all can be met without any person being prejudiced. It is thus true that in order to be fair and just to all (equally), we have to limit our freedom in everyday life to behaviour in which the reasonable requirements of each person are measured against the needs and demands of others in our particular society. Our freedom of action can therefore never be absolute but will always be relative to the society in which we live. 66 Human rights

Commentary There are therefore various degrees of freedom which appear related to the prevailing circumstances as well as levels of consciousness and the moral development of a particular society. The oracle explained that freedom should therefore be understood as something else other than our right to indulge ourselves in a selfish way or the power to behave in any manner we see fit. However, the assembled group had rejected the idea of any absolute spiritual law, believing it to be oppressive and depriving them of their freedom and rights as human beings. It is therefore ironic that normal limits on our behaviour, which we see as an infringement of our human rights or freedom, are actually regulated by ourselves (society) and not by spiritual law. I can explain this as follows; if we believe in principles of social justice, fairness and equality for all, we will have to accept that no one person or group should be able to dominate others by removing their rights or freedom. This implies that each of us has to accept some regulation of our needs and actions so that other members of our society will also be able to share our "place in the sun". In addition to this, if we accept that spiritual law is concerned primarily with our spiritual growth and development, we will see that we are, in fact, not inhibited by this law. The oracle explained that we are in principle, totally free to grow intellectually, morally and in spiritual consciousness. God has placed no limits on our ability to grow mentally or spiritually and none exist except those which we choose to impose on ourselves by allowing fears, doubts and conditioned responses to fill our minds. Total freedom therefore applies to our thinking and capacity to grow and not to our human behaviour. The perception that we are bound by oppressive spiritual laws we cannot accept is an illusion which hides the fact that these very laws are there to guide us in our growth and freedom of thought and spirit. This growth leads naturally to a greater sensitivity and improved moral behaviour as well as a better understanding of the actual nature of freedom. It is this higher knowledge that sets us truly free. What can therefore be said with regard to spiritual law and our choices? The oracle revealed that we do always have the freedom to choose from a series of alternatives. Sometimes our options may seem limited, but these are normally determined by our own personal circumstances and not by any spiritual law. In this way the whole of life can be seen as a series of personal decisions which either hold us back or move us forward and

these 67 ultimately determine the route we take. We can also choose to rest for a while before another growth experience comes along. Moments of peace and relaxation are always necessary to allow us to return to inner harmony. The oracle also showed how our choices are ultimately our own responsibility. Every decision carries with it a degree of responsibility proportional to the amount of freedom we have had in making that decision. If we are forced into a certain action where we have absolutely no alternative and the situation is beyond our control, we cannot be held fully accountable for that action. If, on the other hand, we knowingly and willingly choose to behave in a way which is harmful to others, we are most certainly fully accountable. Human freedom does therefore not mean that we are free from judgement, responsibility or accountability. We can never view our motives in isolation from our actions and their consequences and we certainly cannot justify a harmful action with a good motive. Noble motives have often been used to justify wars, which always lead to serious infringements of human rights, great suffering and the death of innocent people. In judging others we should, however, first understand that none of us is truly qualified to judge another person on spiritual matters, as we are all limited in consciousness and a spiritual judgement should ideally be performed by a spiritual being free of our human weaknesses and subjectivity. This also applies to moral judgements. Labelling a person as wrong or bad is problematic, as we open ourselves to the question whether we ourselves are qualified to throw the first stone. What we can condemn, however, are a person's actions and their effect on the well-being and rights of other people, as these effects can be observed and experienced first hand. In this way, moral judgements of actions or behaviour are possible. From the contradictions that exist between our thinking and behaviour as pointed out by the oracle, we must accept that our own understanding of what divine or moral law actually entails, is severely limited. We simply do not know enough to be that critical. To say that no absolute principles exist whatsoever, would remove any possibility of order and structure from the universe and this cannot be acceptable to any thinking person.

68

6 What role does our mind play?

Commentary By now we should be aware of the importance of our minds in our spiritual development. The presence of mental blocks, conditioned responses, subconscious programming, negative patterns of thinking and unfavourable emotional states all prevent our mind and consciousness from being clear and natural. In everyday life it is possible to bring about a resolution of inner conflicts, blockages, fears or emotional pain by means of professional therapy or a self-initiated process of personal growth, usually called "inner work". This clearing out of our mind and thinking is essential if we wish to seek a higher understanding. If we enter alternate states of consciousness with "unfinished business" (Kubler -Ross, 1975), our problems will only be exacerbated by our increased awareness. Reason has an important part to play in our understanding and experience of the world. However, we have seen the affect of social conditioning on our consciousness, thinking and perception and our reasoning clearly has its limits. In spite of this, by maintaining clarity of thought and an open mind we reveal that we are willing and able to process new possibilities and knowledge and this leads the way for our subconscious and superconscious mind to provide us with a deeper personal understanding of ourselves and higher levels of truth. Krishnamurti states that real understanding and realisation actually occurs in the "moments" or silences in-between our thinking and talking and that our mind has to be quiet to hear these unspoken words of revelation. He also tells us that the secret is actually to learn to simplify our thinking, overcome the limitations of our human mind and perception and Truth will reveal itself to us. Truth reveals itself when the mind is silent, but to find that silence, our thinking first has to be ordered and clear. Philosophy is therefore only the beginning of the search for Truth, the first step in a process whereby we can prepare ourselves for this level of understanding or realisation called personal revelation.

Our subconscious is the key to our superconscious mind and our realisation of God. We can often be disturbed by the contents of our own subconscious mind. These undisclosed and often unknown areas are filled with images of our early childhood as well as recent experiences. Some of these memories or images are particularly intense, especially those we 69 experienced as negative, as well as issues and conflicts which are still unresolved. These continue to influence the way we see and understand things. They can lead to feelings of doubt and insecurity and sometimes emerge in our dreams, in an attempt to reach some sort of resolution. During our search for the oracle, these unhappy states of mind are often amongst the first to take form and present themselves to us in some symbolic way. A large part of our personality exists on this subconscious level and as I have previously said, aspects of our personality, thinking and even our emotions will present themselves as characters, symbols and things (objects) during the visualisation.A knowledge of symbolism is therefore a very powerful tool for understanding the inner workings of our minds. Being able to interpret our own dreams and visions can be of great help in our personal growth. The power of art and symbols I believe that the power of art is that it is essentially a language of symbols and has the ability to reach and activate archetypes or energy patterns of meaning and emotion deep within our subconscious mind. In this way we recognise in an artistic work one or more of these archetypes and discover what we call an aesthetic experience. I needed a tool to unlock the secrets of my subconscious mind and art was one key that I was able to use. I chose to study the symbolic inner world of the subconscious mind using the character of a gifted spiritual artist I previously met. I introduced him to the oracle as Lourens. Lourens had a great sensitivity and spiritual awareness. Through his dedication and commitment to painting spiritualised portraits of people, he became aware of the hidden power of thought and the effect of artistic form and figures on our minds and behaviour. I believe that his portraits established an actual energy relationship with the subjects and activated the ideal spiritual archetype within them and in this way, assisted in their spiritual and moral growth. I therefore pictured him approaching the oracle with a question on the spiritual importance of art and the role of

symbols in the formation of our thinking. The oracle replied in the following manner:"What is that which exists in the mind if not symbols? For all that which we see and know and hold in the mind are but mere symbols of that which is, the one a mere representation of the other. That which is in the world cannot be placed as such into the mind, therefore each mind has a 70 language in personal symbols whereby it admits such images. Be our concepts then not mere symbols? Will knowledge and revelation not pass into the mind in this form? What then is the entity which we call a symbol and what is the essence and power of its pattern? Let us not be deceived by seeing the revealed image, a mere picture, as the full extent of the symbol. For insomuch as the symbol be the language of the mind, be the spoken word and bodily action from this mind, even greater symbols. Thus do symbols become the very skeleton of bone, for the muscle and flesh of the mind to act withal. Let us then discover the full extent of this, how there be symbols of the thought, the spoken word and of the bodily gesture. Truly, a design may carry within its lines the deeper meaning of a truth or experience of great significance and thus may be called a representation of the laws therein, but symbols be far more than this pattern inscribed on paper. It stands revealed that man's knowledge of the world and even of his God be known in personal symbols by the limitations of the mind and that the very words that are spoken be mere expressions of the image that may exist in the mind or the object that may be known in the world. Thus be a word even a symbol of a symbol. Will the pattern with a pen, known as a symbol, be not the equal of a pattern that may be created with the body? For insomuch as the body be the instrument for the expression of the mind, be not each gesture therefore the reflection of the idea within? Is not the gesture the symbolic expression of the thought which gave rise to it? Does the symbol therefore not carry with it the power, designation and force of the idea which spawned it? But insomuch as the gesture and word be the outward movement of the inner concepts of the mind, be they not also the means to return to this mind or the mind of another, to the first message of great importance? Herein lies the power of the symbol, that once created, whether in writing or word or body design, it remains united with its source, and the consciousness of others, if found in affinity with its truth, return also to this source

and know the power of its revelation. Who of us does not use the body and the word to give force to his will? Will a gesture of the body, of determination, or a verbal affirmation of intent, not fill one with the power of that will? For the symbol doth have power over others that know it, and even over its creator. It is the power of certainty and reveals the idea as complete and committed. It be a crutch of the mind which may fix the experience and realization of the decision and will to point of great power, or even create such experience if used to this end. With the gesture of commitment shall we seal our dedication and with the sign of will shall we truly know of our decision. The words of affirmation 71 shall be sufficient if affixed to the will and the determination, or even greater, if uttered with the raised hand of a personal decision, amen. Thus does the power of the symbol abide in its effect upon the mind and does the pattern serve to fasten the will to the idea. Know then, o seeker, the power of the symbol, for the symbol be also the tool of revelation and thus an instrument of God. Can we understand the language of our mind? Commentary You may be asking why a question on symbolism is important to our personal growth and understanding? I believe it is important that we have at least some understanding of how our mind uses symbols if we are going to continue in our search for the oracle or participate in any form of self-exploration. The oracle reached beyond the question of art. He included art in a more universal explanation which touched on the very basis of our experience of life. We were led to understand that a symbol is not only a diagram or a picture, but rather can be any form of activity which represents, replaces or expresses a personal experience. This can be an action, an image, a concept or idea or even a single word. Words and concepts have a certain power to activate and unlock our thinking processes and lead us to an understanding of what is being presented to us. Symbols are a step higher in this line of communication. It has been discovered that our subconscious mind responds more readily to symbols than to words or thoughts. A symbol can be a picture, image or pattern and has a silent ability to evoke emotions or experiences which we may not even be able to fully understand. The symbol appears to be able to

"push certain buttons" in our inner states of mind, usually resulting in feelings or impressions which are often difficult to explain. These feelings, intuitions or impressions can be either pleasant or unpleasant. Let us now examine a specific symbolic structure called an archetype. Archetypes are mental forms or energy patterns which are stored deep in our consciousness. They can either be part of a natural structure which pre-exists in our mind as a result of some evolutionary development, or else images or thought forms from the past, or even impressions from the world of spirit which have entered our superconscious and subconscious minds. Archetypes are therefore composed of complex subconscious memory images or impressions, have links to a wide variety of emotions and can 72 produce a powerful experience. They almost appear to be the guardians of the deeper areas of our minds and awareness and can therefore be the key to higher knowledge and realisation. Because they exist at a subconscious level, archetypes can be activated or accessed by means of their corresponding symbols. They can therefore be used extensively during inner work and the exploration of our subconscious. The most well-known use of archetypes is during readings of the Tarot cards. We should understand that all things are made known to us in terms of images, words and concepts displayed in our consciousness. I personally believe that our early thinking as an infant, operates initially as a series of impressions, pictures and images linked together in our consciousness and later as we mature, is replaced by a language of words and concepts which we use to talk to ourselves during a more complex process of thinking. However, the power of images to evoke our feelings, thoughts and experiences remains. This becomes clearer if we realise how advances in science and psychology have suggested that what we see and experience of the world is actually a collection of mental representations (images) pieced together out of various bits of information from our senses. What we perceive therefore, is not really the object itself, but our interpretation of its essential form or attributes in a mental or symbolic image. The point is often made in esoteric literature that what actually exists in the universe, is emanations, patterns and different modes or degrees of spiritual energy, which we experience as this or that substance or object due to the limits of our senses. This has now been confirmed by recent discoveries in Quantum physics which state that what we see and experience is only different levels of electromagnetic energy (vibrations).

Our very perception can therefore be said to function entirely with symbol representations of the true nature of reality. This process will continue even after the death of our physical body. Although the loss of our physical sense organs will alter our perception, what we will see or experience will still be our own personal representation of a higher spiritual reality. I have previously explained that, as a result of our unique past experiences and patterns of thinking, it is probable that the experience of the afterlife will be a little different for each person. This introduces the deeper meaning of symbolism. Being closer to the reality "out there ", our superconscious and subconscious mind uses symbols, intuitions or impressions rather than words to communicate this reality to us. Words and concepts are formed by our rational thinking processes and are actually quite complex and ambiguous to our inner or 73 higher states of mind. Words and concepts therefore seem to operate best in our subjective and objective thinking. If we understand this and can actually learn to work with symbols, we have a key with which we can unlock personal experiences of spiritual truths that could otherwise not be explained in words. Recognising a symbol can trigger an inner experience which can raise our consciousness sufficiently for us to grasp the deeper meaning. I believe this is possible because of our mind's natural ability to recognise certain symbolic shapes, signs or patterns as the result of the storehouse of archetypes already in our subconscious mind. Our inner being is therefore able reveal itself to us through symbols, images or feelings (impressions). Unfortunately these impressions appear to lose their power when passing into our normal thinking, probably because the formation of words and concepts in our minds is such a complex and objective process. This ability of our subconscious to communicate with us by means of symbols is revealed in our art or drawings and is used extensively by professional therapists. The oracle also explained that in our everyday human behaviour our body reveals our inner emotional or spiritual states and in this way even gestures can be seen as symbolic. Most of us are familiar with the modern notion of body language and without going into detail, research indicates that the position of our limbs, body orientation, level of tension and facial expressions, all reveal our thoughts, feelings and subconscious experiences. If we apply this principle of the inter-relationship between body and mind to our conscious movements, we can actually use symbolic gestures to act upon our own mind to reinforce decisions and improve our willpower or intention. Our subconscious mind is not

ambiguous and will not accept a weak or badly phrased command and for this reason responds well to symbols. A gesture such as raising or extending our hand or even a more complicated set of planned movements such as occurs during rituals, may assist in fixing an idea in our minds. This can produce a greater personal belief, conviction and certainty and reinforce our willpower if we are trying to convince or program our subconscious mind to accept and abide by a particular decision or commitment we have made. To conclude, we must understand that both the symbol and the archetype are forms of energy. Even our spoken words are (sound) energy which have a certain specific pattern and effect. During writing or drawing, we are converting energy from our minds (thoughts or images) into a written form. When speaking to other people we are, in fact, busy with an exchange of energy. Every object itself has a feeling or an energy emanation which has 74 the power to activate a subconscious experience. Energy is therefore the common factor which forms the relation-ship between an outer expression (symbol) and the inner experience. The full role of the mind in our spiritual search was still not clear and I rephrased the question to the old man. He answered as follows:"How then, my friend, shall I reveal to you the role of the mind in this pattern of things? Where the mind forms the key to the Revelation of the One and through which passes the Presence, first in concepts and symbols , being the first fruits of relationship, then in growth unto the fullness of realisation in the higher relationship one-to-one. That of which we are told is the heart of Man , is this also not in truth , the depths of mind itself? Is this not therefore the place of growth, that by which the way be made straight for the coming of the One? The mind remains that which is first man's realisation of himself and later, realisation of God. For the light of the One enters the path of the individual mind and encounters that which is already there. As the natural colour of things be merely limited reflection of the light of a sun or its created image, so do the creations of the mind, whether as mere concept or predisposition, serve only to refract the true light of the perfections of Universal Consciousness into what may be known in colours of virtue and emotion in individual self -personality. In this be the mind of man but a shadow of the Mind of God, which is the fullness of Consciousness, Will and Law. Yet it is known that the mind of

man, when alone, is full of darkness and such creatures of darkness as may be created by man himself abide therein. Although the light would enter even unto this darkness, why then is the light not revealed as such in the mind and action of man? Commentary The oracle further explained the role of our human mind in the relationship of mankind to God. He maintained that it was by way of our mind that we first become aware of ourselves and only later of God or the "One". (The One is a neo-Platonic name for God or the Supreme Being). To simplify the explanation, he used an analogy, comparing the universal Being or mind of God with a white light and likened our individual soul-consciousness to a glass prism. God-consciousness passes through our human spirit and enters the prism of our individual soul-consciousness on a high level, travels by way of our inner self or superconscious mind and later enters our subconscious, filtering through and resulting in what we 75 experience as everyday self-consciousness. Continuing the analogy, he compared the variety of colours produced during a normal process of light refraction (in the same way that a rainbow is produced by the rays of the sun being refracted during wet weather), with the range of pure human emotions, virtues and attributes occurring in our personalities as the result of the entry of God-consciousness. What we come to know under normal circumstances, is not the pure light, perfection or presence of God, as this "white light" is being distorted (or refracted) by the density of the physical plane and our limited human perception to form separate colours or aspects. If we look carefully, we will be able to recognise some of these perfected attributes as principles in nature and in the ideal human personality. Here I am referring to divine consciousness (knowledge and wisdom), divine perfection (beauty and grace), divine love (unconditional love), divine harmony (balance and inner peace), divine power (inner strength and willpower), divine life (health, vitality and activity) and divine abundance (joy and happiness). Unfortunately, other human factors also play a role and what we actually realise in our minds and bodies is a rather distorted and limited expression of divine aspects and consciousness. Lack of awareness or understanding, errors in our thinking, negative attitudes, biased judgements, uncontrolled emotions and the influence of unpleasant spiritual entities, all have the effect of producing further impurities or

flaws in the quality of our soul consciousness as well as our superconscious and subconscious minds, which results in the further discolouration of the pure light of the divine presence. Can growth take place in our mind? Such is the power of this growth that the child becomes a man. At first the awakening to mere possibilities, in limitation of the mind, yet the personal decision to commitment shall open the door of this mind for light to dispel the darkness unto the path of growth. The possibilities being known, thus give way to belief and belief later to the joy of a personal knowledge in which the weakness of a borrowed belief becomes known. Later still, the light of personal realisation of the true Law, Will and Being of the One, becomes the gift of the relationship one-to-one. The personal conception has become personal experience in the path of growth, moving always forward to the point of highest expression, when in one-ness, the many may once again become the One, yet one of greater expression . (Extract from the revelation of the oracle on our relationship to God) 76 Commentary To continue, the oracle addressed the aspect of growth in our minds. He referred to darkness in our mind as the result of these problems in our thinking and understanding bought about by our current human condition. Fortunately, most bad habits of thinking and behaviour are learnt and can therefore be unlearned and the influences of unfavourable spiritual forces which also affect our state of mind, lessened or removed by dedication and spiritual cleansing. The activity of our mind and consciousness, including our ability to translate our human experiences and perceptions into mental images, ideas and concepts, can therefore change and improve. As we clear out these impurities from the prism of our consciousness, more of the pure divine light will pass through into our human personality. Our mind and consciousness is therefore all-important, as this is the place where we translate the higher spiritual impressions into forms and images which we can understand. If we have made a spiritual commitment and dedication to search for the oracle of Truth, we should really begin to rid our mind of unwanted negative thoughts, ideas or attitudes, as well as any destructive feelings and influences. This will allow a purer realisation and a more natural expression of the divine personality and aspects to manifest. Limited thinking and perception can take on a number of forms usually resulting from earlier social

conditioning and I will discuss these briefly. Distorted views as well as inaccurate perceptions can result from unreliable sources of information or a lack of personal experience. Often we do not have all the facts and reach our conclusions using second-hand information we have only heard or read about. Unfortunately, this kind of borrowed thinking results in assumptions, presumptions and generalisations which are often not accurate at all. Alienation occurs as a separation from our rational (thinking) self and is usually due to social conditioning. We may have learnt certain ways of thinking and acted out certain roles which have been reinforced over the years and eventually we believe this image is us. As a result our thinking and behaviour becomes artificial, superficial and unnatural, we create a world of masks and mind-games and become separated from our true spontaneous inner nature. A third problem is that of self-deception. As a result of our unique perspective, needs and agendas, we read into everyday events and situations that which we wish to see. In this way we can create obstacles to the truth or are unable to accept the possibility that we are ever wrong. This 77 can result in denial and a refusal to believe even what is blatantly obvious to others. In many cases self- deception can be so pervasive that we are unable to see the truth even if confronted with the facts. Another similar obstruction to clear thinking is having a closed mind. Often, as a result of our personality, beliefs or even our culture, we tend to hold a very firm conviction that we are always right and have all the answers, when, in fact, this may not be the case. This kind of thinking gives rise to intolerance, prejudice, stereotyping and egoism, or an exaggerated sense of our own importance. Emotions such as guilt and fear can greatly cloud our ability to think clearly and can sap our resolve, intention and will-power. In addition to this, doubt and uncertainty can form negative blockages in our thinking which prevent us from acting positively. We could also be the victim of a lack of plain old-fashioned common sense. This can also be due to our personality, such as if we are gullible or easily bullied into accepting another persons forceful point of view. However, in our everyday world we often fall prey to emotional "hype ", misleading information, half-truths or innuendo, whether it in sales, advertising or even politics. It is unfortunately a psychological fact that if an idea is presented to us over and over again, we will eventually believe it to be true. Sometimes we really need to be able to think

critically in order to find the truth. We continually need to be on the lookout for contradictions. Something that is being said is a contradiction if, when we unpack the concepts and look carefully at what the statement actually implies, certain parts of it just don't make sense or "add up". An example would be the notion of a good war. If we critically review the implications of war, the suffering, death and destruction it implies, it simply cannot be understood in terms of our normal definition of goodness. This kind of contradiction entering into our thinking, especially our religious or spiritual beliefs, can bring about feelings of doubt and uncertainty. We often sense the inner tensions produced by the contradictory belief without being consciously aware of it. Finally, if we do not have clear ethical or moral beliefs in what is right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable which we use in our thinking and judgements, we could experience guilt, doubt and an inability to decide for ourselves. In this way we can be easily influenced by someone else who has a very definite view. The oracle explained that the most perfect method of allowing our mind and spirit to grow and develop was not to focus or concentrate on any 78 particular "sin" or specific behaviour and try to overcome it with our will-power alone, but rather to seek an altogether higher awareness and relationship with God, either by means of dedicating ourselves to service or by some method of spiritual exercise such as prayer or meditation. The idea is to allow our spiritual centre to rise up and our mind to be enlightened by our divine spirit, inner being and superconscious mind and thereby purge ourselves naturally of errors of thinking, undesirable behaviour and unwanted influences. The beginning of any spiritual search will result in a heightened awareness and feeling of expectation which is the foundation for our later spiritual and inner growth. If we continue to follow this path diligently, our thinking will be progressively transformed from stereotyped beliefs into a broad, active and growing personal awareness and knowledge of ourselves, God and the universe. According to the oracle, this takes place in stages as we move closer to God in consciousness. Ideally a persons actions and moral behaviour will also improve with this spiritual unfoldment. As our thinking begins to evolve, we first encounter a stage of belief. This state of mind is usually the result of accepting and internalising what we have read in scriptures or other written works as well as what

we have understood from other sources such as sermons and discussions. As belief is not initially based on our own personal experience, it is not a very powerful state of mind and can be easily influenced and even changed. Changes in our belief system can occur as we read more deeply or widely or have experiences which contradict our initial beliefs. Spiritual power can be transferred and received as the result of our beliefs, but it is severely limited. Following on belief, we can reach and access a state of mind usually called knowledge. We know" something when we have had some personal experience of the event or situation. At this point we are more aware of the real issues involved and can normally adopt very definite standpoints on these issues. With a sense of knowledge or knowing, we begin to actually feel the energy and power of our superconscious mind, will and intention. If we are able to successfully combine belief and knowledge,(or understanding and experience), we can be said to be in a state of faith. Faith provides us with a real working relationship with God through a higher self-knowledge, dedication and service, during which we can experience the higher powers offered by divine spirit. Finally, I believe a personal revelation and the pure expression of our 79 divine spirit and the Being of God to be the final stage of spiritual understanding and moral growth. At this point our relationship with our source in God should have become so intimate that we will consciously experience the presence of divine energy, real power and inner guidance in all of our thinking and behaviour. This unity with our own spirit and God is the ultimate relationship. This path through the mind to the rediscovery of our true state of being is not easy and unfavourable experiences along the way may deter us from completing our journey home. I believe that many of us are still not "real ", in the sense that we are not in contact with our inner being and may be shocked as I was, to discover the pretence of my self-created images and conditioned behaviour. However, it appears as if this is all part of the learning process. I am sure that if we examine our lives, we will all discover times when we have had to face severe challenges to our growth and development. Some of us may recall moments of intense emotional distress when we felt our world had come to an end and can remember the inner strength or assistance that was required to overcome them. There are powerful influences and experiences in our pasts, many of them unpleasant. For example, we may have been born into poverty

and have had little opportunity for education or been part of a rigid culture and tradition which did not allow us a free and open awareness and expression of our thinking. Home and family circumstances may also have been difficult and limiting to our attempts to learn or grow in self -knowledge. Unfortunately, along the path each of us has to eventually pass through a valley of darkness and grow through these painful experiences. The good news, however, is that there is a universal law governing our development. Growth is usually preceded or even set into motion by periods of mental, emotional or interpersonal turmoil. I summarise this belief in the statement "from short term stress comes long term growth". Even conflict can bring about a new understanding, provided we are reasonably aware of what is happening and can handle it effectively. It is unfortunately also true that in some cases, if we do not properly understand, accept or manage these experiences, we could regress or even suffer damage to our minds and personality. Entering our mind In continuing the visualisation, I noted that our numbers had by now dwindled to only a few. Some felt that they had completed their service to 80 the oracle and others left for the larger cities to continue their service there. Commentary This idea of being left more or less alone coincided with a great turbulence and anguish in my mind. This period, sometimes referred to as "the dark night of the soul ", can occur when we first open up our subconscious mind during meditation or visualisation or in this case, in the search for the oracle of our inner being. As our consciousness expands, we normally become more acutely aware of our own inadequacies and guilt and in some cases, experience a greater temptation to indulge in material excesses. This effect could also be related to the influences of spiritual entities which are not always benevolent and during such exercises we should always take care to seek protection from God, the Christ, angels of protection or our spiritual master or guides. During my meditations, I personally experienced it as a time of intense emotional turmoil. It was almost like having to battle a hydra-like monster with many heads, constructed by my own mind, with each head having a name such as confusion, doubt and temptation. This apparition,

which has been mentioned in many myths and legends, is the first we will find lurking in the background as we pass through the portal and enter the dark valley which represents the depths of our subconscious. I fortunately did not actually come face to face with this powerful archetype, but I did experience strong feelings and impressions which I believe indicated its presence. However, I have no doubt that there may be many who might actually see this apparition during a journey into their subconscious mind and for this reason, once again, we should all approach this exercise without fear, but with caution. Mapping out of the depths of our own subconscious mind is, however, very important, as unresolved past experiences, feelings and issues which are normally hidden from our conscious thinking will use this opportunity to reveal themselves in symbolic form and can be addressed. As I continued with the visualisation, I noticed that I was slowly beginning to merge with the oracle and could actually see through his eyes. This is understandable and is likely to happen in the advanced stages of the exercise in view of the fact that the old man (or woman) is a creation and expression of our own inner being. Any description of a journey through the valley of darkness provided by the oracle, would therefore be our own. This method of using the oracle to enter our subconscious is quite simple. It also takes the form of a question along the lines of Teacher, what is that 81 which exists within my mind? Following the question and my surrender to the inner guidance of the oracle, my consciousness was overtaken by a fading light and as the shadows emerged, words and images began to form in my consciousness:For the light came on in degrees to reveal the first monster of my own creating, and upon seeing him I was driven to laugh. Be this then the monster, the terror of my mind, What? A joke? This little man I see, frail and weak, emerging into realisation with the coming of the light. I did challenge him to speak and his words were the words of sadness of what could have been. "Ah, my master, as you see me, so should I have been a being of light, strong and powerful, abiding in the knowledge of the One, but as you see me now, so have I become. For I am ignorance, and in my despair does my being merge with the darkness, and in the darkness alone have I spawned those whom I shall now reveal to you, for these

are my children, and yours. With the coming of the light did shadows emerge of the darkness, which did become forms, and the forms became creatures of countenance so frightful that I did call out in fear of my awakening to them. The largest, with face transfigured into features of hate and whose powerful gross frame did cause me to tremble, did I charge to speak. As it was revealed, I did later wish that I had not done this, for the pain of awakening is greatest when one's guilt be revealed. Yet he spoke in words of anger. " I am Prejudice and it is I with my violence who do discolour the noble shade of righteousness from the light of the One into a mixture of injustice and corruption, which you know." " Yet you say you know me not, o hypocrite.It is I who takes the glorious luminous shade of Love itself into my hands of bias, as it enters the mind, then does love become merely a falsity, robbed of its virtue and polluted in its colour until it becomes merely a shadow of what it may have been. " And this babe I carry, do you not recognise this as my infant false judgement, which springs from my loins, being of the same flesh? Together shall we add to the darkness, such is my pleasure. I could no longer bear the features of this giant whom I knew so well, and would leave to return to my guilt, when the light revealed the naked body of one who appealed in promise as a whore or a virgin, I know not. Yet the cloak which did scarcely cover the bosom and which even now would lure me, did fall away 82 to reveal the face of a death's head. I did know the horror and yet did question of this being. " What manner of being be you, whose body would lure me and yet whose features would terrify ?" " I am Lust, you know me and yet you deny me? Shame for you.. "For it is I who do rend the noble colour of love into dark shades of red in lust which you knew in your passion and who deceives your conscience that the injustices of my favours to others may appear to be mere inevitabilities and trivialities to yourself.You who would remove love from its true condition, now you must face me whom you have created. Yet again did I turn from this accuser and still the light emerged in the mind and the creatures did come closer, drawn as moths to the light and yet devouring the light, leaving the path in darkness. Yet here is one who is noble in his splendid attire, surely this must be a being of light? But the light enters his presence and does not return. "

Speak and reveal your intention, " I called out, "for it cannot be equal to that which I have known this hour. "Aha, you know me not, o stranger, and yet you know me best. For I am he that gives you false hope and would lie to best serve you." " For I am Vanity and am I not your beloved child in whom you delight ?" " Ha! shall I call you father or call you fool? And shall I not open this cloak of splendour to reveal that which is my being?" In horror did I see but a shell of bones. " Yes, there is naught, and you have been deceived." " I am the father of deception, shall I not call you great when you are weak? Shall I not serve you in all things, yet you see what I am. For my part I am content to add to the darkness and remove even the light, by denying the power of the One. Let us abide in the darkness then, or may you still be willing to know your inadequacy, O man?" " I will deny you, o figure of deception. I said," and pass to this figure who has in abundance. I thereupon left this figure and approached another who appeared less threatening and addressed him." The emerging light reveals your large form and yet these coffers which you guard appear full of light as of a great treasure,surely you be a being of light?" The being replied." Ah, what being of light will abide in the darkness, but yet let me raise the lid to reveal that which is yours, for I am the keeper of the jewels." But within the chest there was nothing. " I accuse you then, O figure of obesity , I cried ," what cruel trick is this, when happy prospect becomes mere illusion." " Ah, my master, he answered," my name is Greed and although the 83 abundant flow of supply from the law of the One doth reach me in the light you see, must I hold it for ourselves. "My task too, is to gather also from others, whether in fairness or injustice and have retained it all, for I know you to be a cruel master and I was afraid that I might lose all and your wrath would be great. Yet it must be revealed now that all which was given of the law or taken from others, has become dust. "The law stands revealed, that only as a part of the river of supply from the One to many others will the jewels be replenished and remain our own, for as the stream grows more powerful by our action, do jewels of greater value pass by for our use, but in holding as we have, alas, so does the flow end." "Even now I see also the judges of law coming, seeking retribution for that which I have denied others to fill your desire, yet let me not occupy you now, for there are many sons

of ignorance who would reveal themselves still. He continued to speak. " See the little figure there huddled in the darkness, he would have been king, he was the prince. He was once clothed in the garb of light and endowed with the sceptre of power from the One, yet you denied him this. "He who should have been Will, is now called Apathy and although he may proclaim his innocence, he is known for his acts. He who will not even now speak, is guilty of the disfigurement of the greatest gift of all, the Benevolence of the One. Yes, beware of the apathy of the darkness, that gift of benevolence, which was to have been nourished, was denied to others and even cast away from yourself in indifference.What remains is now what he has, and that be naught, for he cares not, and even now adds to the darkness by his unwillingness to know the light and the virtuous shade of love is lost in the darkness of his hand. Let me leave you now, the being of Greed continued, " for one approaches who will reveal to you the laws of the darkness, for he is the first son of ignorance. I had time to consider, surely this being of noble bearing, which the light reveals, surely he be one of light amongst all the darkness, for he appears to be so." I greet you, noble one, I said, "Shall you not reveal to me the laws of light? " You stand before me confident and true in your richness of attire, yet who may you be? Shall I call you friend or even prince? Even now I had been a fool, for the noble attire had been cast off to reveal a mass of rotting bones. "Who are you that you would give me such illusion?" I cried out. " I am Deception ,he answered, " the first -born of ignorance. 84 It is I who most of all does dispel the noble yellow hue of knowledge and wisdom that it may become merely a grotesque shadow of that which it once was.It is I too, that gather many of my brethren that you have now seen into my home and present them to you in pictures of richness and innocence.Thus does disharmony appear clothed in the garb of kings to deceive the unguarded and you yourself, most of all. Before me stood the figures which appeared noble in the shaded light of a personal mind and only the presence of the true light of the Christ did reveal them as they are, grotesque creations spawned in darkness. Would I now that the light of God's presence be known earlier to reveal these to me, when as infants, I may have denied and destroyed them, but now fully grown and growing still, they torment me with the words

of truth. " Beware the end when the veil of life lifts and without the light you enter the valley of darkness. We who have been born of this darkness, will not be denied. We will be there to devour you, our own creator, unto Eternity, and this, O man, be your hell. Commentary In using the power of the oracle to enter my subconscious mind, I was being exposed to vivid and often fearful images which I recognised as personifications of my doubts, fears and other aspects of my personality. All the archetypes that I had created and hidden there were being introduced to me one at a time as they emerged from my inner "Pandora's box" and with each meeting I felt intense and often contradictory emotions such as fear, joy and even passion. In some cases I actually saw humanlike figures and at other times I was merely aware of a series of impressions which I linked to an image which best fitted the description. I knew that I had to deal with each of these apparitions in turn, not by using force but rather by accepting them and the lesson they brought and integrating and channelling their power in a new direction towards growth. I also believe that much of what I was confronted with was rather a warning and not necessarily an indication of my final state of mind. In other words, I was being accused by my own inner self of having negative tendencies or weak areas in my subconscious makeup. In this way my attention was being drawn to attitudes, beliefs or character traits that needed work or improvement. It was an extremely powerful experience, one which will remain with me forever. Unfortunately, this is the path which each of us who wish to free 85 ourselves and become "real" again, will have to follow. To explain the symbolism further, the strange use of words, concepts and style can be traced to my earlier study of the Bible, esoteric works, Shakespeare and even a specific novel such as Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (the personified emotional states). The interplay between light and darkness is an esoteric concept and in this case does not denote good and evil but rather the limitations and errors of our current thinking and understanding as opposed to the light of an illumined mind or consciousness. The vivid use of metaphor is mostly Shakespearian but can also be explained by my earlier fondness for

symbolic language, allegory and myth, which as can be seen, is evident even at this very deep (subconscious) level. As I have said before, another person using this technique will notice that the impressions, images, words and even the language style will be specific to his or her own past memories, interests and beliefs. What we see and experience will therefore come from the framework of concepts and ideas that we each have within our own subconscious mind. This whole situation might appear frightening and unnecessary, as so many people can go through life without such inner conflicts and challenges. I understand and accept that we can choose to live and enjoy life blissfully unaware of such self-created demons in our mind, which like the Sphinx, guard the way to truth. In the myth of the Sphinx, none who did not have an absolutely pure motive, dedication and a genuine desire for enlightenment, could pass by unharmed. We therefore have a choice. Either we remain with that consciousness and knowledge that we have and lead a relatively peaceful life and pass, untroubled by undue guilt and confusion into eternity or on to a later incarnation, whatever we believe in, or we may decide to search for the treasure of the oracle, our true inner being and a real personal certainty, truth and enlightenment but have to pass through these trials and face ourselves in the deeper recesses of our mind. I for one, have always been filled with a restlessness, knowing that there is so much more to be known, realised and experienced and I am sure that there are many others who will also not settle for anything less than the truth about themselves, God and the universe. I also discovered from this revelation how easy it is for us to become separated (alienated) from our true inner being by allowing doubt, errors of thinking, conditioning, limited beliefs and illusions into our minds and even unpleasant entities to influence us. I came to understand that this can happen at an early age and may continue for many years, sometimes at the 86 hands of well-meaning people who just do not have the knowledge to understand the true needs of the inner self of the child and how to encourage it to emerge, flourish and grow. I am happy to note that this trend appears to be reversing over the last few years and children appear to be far more honest (with themselves and their feelings), confident and open to new spiritual understanding. The old methods of conditioning appear to be giving way to the encouragement of responsibility and open-ended thinking.

Can we ever be totally certain of anything? Commentary We have seen how crucial our state of mind can be for the development of our consciousness and a growing relationship with our superconscious mind and God. In the early stages of my own personal search for the oracle, it was also necessary for me to clear my mind of all irrelevant and disharmonious thoughts, attitudes and prejudices, to reach a state of clarity and a resolution of my thinking mind. It is essential to harmonise, simplify and empty our minds and thinking to prepare the way for the coming of a higher consciousness. This is not done by building up a new set of coping mechanisms but rather by letting go of hang-ups, fears, resentments and other bad memories or persistent thought forms which we have brought from the past and which block our minds and obstruct real growth. This may take a long time and could require us having to face the person or situation once again with a new awareness and commitment to reach a resolution, or we can use the power of visualisation to consciously let go by confronting the person or issue in our mind. By facing or reliving the fear or resentment in a safe imaginary context, we can come to accept that these feelings or thoughts are certainly not helpful, are causing us unnecessary pain and mental anguish and release them. Alternatively, we can adapt the visualisation to bring about a positive outcome and make a new commitment to release the person, emotion or unpleasant memory. The power of self-deception The power of self-deception was shown later, when I visualised the oracle being approached by someone whom I called "the rich man". He did not give his name, possibly being afraid of ridicule. He was middle-aged, 87 balding and overweight. He wore very expensive clothing which was tailor-made and presented a picture of a distinguished and robust individual who was an important person in the community, but I sensed that deep down he was not as self-assured as he appeared to be. He was very impatient and insisted upon an audience with the oracle. Once the rich man began to speak, it was apparent that he was carrying a load of

doubts and fears far greater than his bank balance. He had reached the point where he was willing to risk everything to find the answers he needed in order to find inner peace. He spoke of how, as a young man, he was certain of his ultimate goal to find wealth and success and this had brought meaning to his life. Now much later, a number of unpleasant experiences led him to consider the possibility that life was not as simple as it seemed and that he was either deluding himself or was overlooking the true source of happiness and fulfilment. His present situation of failed marriages, children who were like strangers to him and his inability to experience any lasting happiness, apart from brief moments of excitement from successful business ventures or extravagant forms of entertainment, had built up over the years and suddenly erupted, like a great boil in his flesh, to bring him a moment of realisation in which he saw a vision of death, ugliness and decay and the emptiness of that which he considered important. He experienced great pain and despair before the merciful darkness once again closed in on his mind. In one brief moment, he had seen that his priorities, beliefs and materialistic ideals amounted to nothing and that they were all part of a gigantic and pervasive self-created illusion. This vision was so intense that it caused this powerful and self-assertive man to return to a state of fear that he had known only as a young child in a room full of dark shadows and his own imaginings, but this time there were no loving parents or friendly light to reveal the shadows to be only the familiar objects that he knew. Things were now no longer as they seemed. He now saw that personal wealth was actually at the mercy of institutions and the whims of governments. He realised that compassion, loyalty and love could not be bought over the counter and that he could never find lasting peace in reaching only his financial goals, as another goal always took the place of the first. By filling his life with business pre-occupations and material affairs, he had tried to avoid having to face his inner being, the real meaning of life and his mortality. He now stood in the shadow of fear and doubt, cowering and feeling their awful power. Yet a gift of a fleeting awareness had been given to him and he had grasped this as a final chance at salvation. The oracle sensed his great need and addressed him as follows:88 "Dear friend," he began," What be certainty in this world except the fullness of truth of the One and His law, and what be doubt but that which may be known in limitation by a personal mind? For doubt, whether seen in the language of the body of one, or heard in the words

of many, be related to this darkness that exists in all minds until the light of the very presence of the One may dispel it. And in this darkness be created all the creatures we have met, that do serve only the darkness and not the light. For the certainty of a relationship with the One would remove the creatures and their spawning grounds alike. Is there, therefore, not the greatest need for this certainty and would not the presence of doubt within one's conceptions, beliefs and understanding be not a matter of the greatest concern? Is not this need for certainty the search of man for himself and his God? Yet the One is known to us in personal conceptions of limited minds throughout all history and still the knowledge and personal relationship has power for he who has realised it. Herein lies the secret of personal certainty. In his limitation the certainty of one man may differ from the certainty of another, yet both may be equally true or equally false. Does not the mind of one man see in the rose a different hue than another? Yet the rose remains the same and has equal power for both. Do not both enjoy the gifts of the rose, of fragrance, colour and touch, yet they differ in their judgement of it . Yet to doubt the existence of the rose would be to remove one from its pleasures and leave naught but the darkness. Yes, there be a true certainty which only God himself doth have and therefore each man in his diversity will know only such certainty as be acceptable to the pattern of his mind. Yet this be sufficient for growth towards the higher and more perfect forms of certainty, but to deny oneself the joy and power of this personal certainty by virtue of its imperfection ,is not growth but stagnation. This personal certainty be within the reach of all, and be this not better than the anguish of doubt? But where lies the power of this certainty? Be not certainty like unto faith which, as a mustard seed, might move a mountain? For the greater mind of man will not be deceived as is man himself. The higher mind of man, being ever closer to the One, carries the power of the Law of God, but will not act without the will of the man in certainty. Thus be certainty related to will, and will to decision. For doubt, whether known openly or hiding like a wolf in a lair beneath the ground of our realisation, is the chains of the mind and binds one to weakness, removing the power of certainty. Yet whence comes this doubt? Be it merely a reaction to the beliefs of others? Be it not also an awareness 89 in man of the impurity of his motive? For an action may have many

motives, some noble, others in selfishness and vanity. Is the imperfect motive not the spawn of the darkness in a mind? For no being of light will come forth out of the darkness and only doubt will spring from the loins of such creatures of ignorance. Thus doubt does add to the darkness, darkness from darkness. Man will not escape his doubt. How can man deceive God when he cannot even truly deceive himself ? The greater mind of man doth know of the illusion and does not act according to this will polluted with the patterns of doubt. Thus will growth cease, except the growth of yet greater darkness and truth will flee with the light that fades in such a mind. Does doubt not have the further power that it doth attract to itself that which it fears most? Will the lion not rend that which does quiver in fear in his sight, while sparing those who might face him in courage? For insomuch as an animal with disease doth reveal its sickness for the predator to know, so does the mind in doubt reveal its content in action and word, whether known to itself or not. The weakness of such a state is great, and this poor soul remains their prey of many who would believe themselves to be stronger than he. How are we then to know this doubt, this path of darkness that removes the foundation from the structure of power? Yet it shall be known by its fruits, for this be the test of true personal certainty. The fruits of certainty be decision, commitment, steadfastness and strength ,the fruits of doubt be fear, indecision and ignorance. Will not these fruits of certainty be the condition for growth towards a higher realisation of the One? It is better for man to recognise these signs of doubt, for doubt, as an illness, does reveal its presence in the human conscience. The search for certainty may demand much of man. To know this power, one is called to review in freedom such previous conceptions or truths as are borrowed from the teachings of others. For a borrowed belief remains at best merely a belief and a personal knowledge of truth would need to be far higher than this. Beware the teaching that is accepted merely on the merits of the teacher, or merely in indifference. Be thus not afraid to test each conception, and if found wanting in the light of a personal conception of truth, it is better to cast it off than to have it hold thee like a millstone unto Eternity. A mere reconsideration and slight alteration of a concept may yet be sufficient to bring true acceptance and a peace, like a refreshing wind, into the mind of the individual. Is this too large a price to pay for true certainty? The dangers of blind acceptance, or acceptance for fear of reproach, are many. The creature of doubt so created, will grow like a disease until it pollutes the mind and body of

its 90 host. Tread warily in the concepts of others. Might the idea of your critic be not equally as limited as your own? Yet if the motive be sincere, will not peace and harmony enter the mind? Beware of insincerity, even to oneself. Doubt has its greatest power when we are not aware. Be then not afraid to peer into the darkness of your own mind, o seeker, and rebuke the creatures of doubt lurking there. For we all know this creature which, as a parasite, does sap our will and remove the power from our mind. This creature must be rejected and courage taken to remove these conceptions and beliefs which come together incestuously to breed the demons of doubt. Surely a poverty of truths of which one is certain, is worth more than a richness of useless clutter which one has blindly accepted? Better to eject from the mind these ideas and decisions placed there by others, and in the light of one's own reason in contemplation, illumined by a sincere motive and commitment to the One, shall certainty be added in personal revelation of matters necessary to fulfil the law of God. Commentary By now I realised that the rich man acting out his role in my subconscious mind was the personification of my own ambitions and desire for material things. I was therefore fortunate that my inner self was using this exercise to warn me of the dangers and illusions of becoming obsessed with things which cannot bring lasting happiness. Every statement of the oracle was directed at bringing me to the same realisation and understanding as the rich man, who represented a part of my own personality. What applied to the rich man, therefore applied to me. I felt the words of the oracle cut right through to that part of the rich man which was hidden, his inner being, soul and divine spirit. For so long it lay like a golden seed waiting for germination in a bed of materialistic fancies and earthly preoccupations and then, for a moment, he bathed briefly in the divine light of revelation and it left him greatly disturbed. It was a paradox that this experience of divine grace left him so confused, but strangely enough, confusion itself can actually be a positive thing in that it is a sign that our mind has opened to a new understanding which is "shaking it up a little " and if we follow this up correctly with an inner questioning, it can lead to a learning experience

and growth. Previously he was blissfully unaware of his true spiritual state but now realised that he had been clinging to a false sense of security and had been deceiving himself. During this time, as a result of this deception, he 91 succeeded in alienating himself from his true inner being, superconscious mind and divine essence. Unfortunately, this happens to many of us when we become caught up with our own ego and self-importance and begin to wear the masks of images and play the power-games of the world. We begin to forget what is real or natural in our lives and lose contact with our divine spirit. Personal certainty Commentary During the revelation, the oracle referred to absolute certainty as an ideal. Being an ideal, it can really only be realised with the consciousness of God and is beyond the natural ability of our human mind. It is extremely difficult to express a higher truth in words or concepts. The best that we can normally achieve with our thinking mind is what we can call a personal or individual certainty. Personal certainty can be explained as having reached a reasonable conclusion using the information at our disposal and being convinced that what we have decided upon, is true. The important issue here is that with a personal certainty we are using only our available knowledge and of course, we do not have the final answers on many issues, especially in our understanding of God and Spirit. The oracle stressed that personal certainty was important, as this is sufficient to lead us into a deeper relationship with our inner being and God. Any degree of certainty, even if the facts are later proved to be inaccurate, is able for the moment at least, to provide us with a positive state of mind and consciousness where we are motivated to act and to seek more of the truth. This idea of a personal certainty links up with the notion of individual perspectives discussed earlier and also explains how people can reach different conclusions on the same matter whilst each firmly believes his or her version to be true. They are using the knowledge which is available to them in their particular historical period, culture or society. This personal certainty and individual perspective can also explain how persons from different religions and beliefs can all exercise similar degrees of faith and devotion, as each is convinced of the power of his or her own personal

religious experience. A higher form of certainty and a deeper understanding of truth can only occur as a result of a raised consciousness and a spiritual experience which normally lifts us beyond rational thinking. As I have said before, such experiences are not easily translated into words we can readily understand. 92 For this reason, many people will say that it is pointless to try to ponder on the true nature of God. I personally believe, however, that if we are sincere and have the courage to enter our innermost being and merge with our superconscious mind, a higher degree of understanding and certainty can and will be given. In the case of the rich man, a brief moment of awareness had brought about a total reversal in his thinking. The realisation that his wealth and position did not bring true fulfilment or happiness left him in despair. All at once he understood that his personal certainty had been based on material considerations which have no real foundation or value except that importance which we ourselves attach to them. He also realised that he desperately needed a new understanding which could end the confusion and return meaning to his life. It was a paradox that even a false belief and certainty had brought the rich man a degree of confidence and success. The oracle pointed out how much greater would be the power of a real moral and spiritual certainty if our mind was free of doubt, totally clear of our self-imposed blockages, negative patterns of thinking and conditioned psychological barriers and really able to express the divine essence of the universal Mind of God. What is doubt ? Commentary It was also important for the oracle to explain the nature of doubt. Doubt is related to self-deception and illusion and is shown to be a conditioned state of mind arising from our conscious or unconscious belief that we are alone and separated from God and our higher selves or divine spirit. Doubt can occur even if we are agnostic or do not believe in God in view of the fact that our superconscious mind fully realises and acknowledges the existence of a spiritual reality. As the result of this negative state, a sense of emptiness, meaninglessness and even panic or despair may enter our minds, lower

our consciousness and place limits on our growth or expression of the divine attributes. This belief that we are isolated or can ever be separated from our essential being in God is all part of a great dream or illusion created and structured by our own mind. The action of doubt has a cumulative effect. As the negative feelings that accompany doubt increase, this further convinces us of a separation from our divine essence and the presence of God (alienation). 93 The power of doubt is that it has a great effect on our behaviour and has the ability to sap our resolve and willpower if we fall prey to its deceit. It can result in fear, indecisiveness, inconstancy, an inability to act (apathy) and can ultimately destroy our will and personality. The oracle revealed a number of steps which would assist us in the reconstruction of our personal philosophy of life and which could help to eradicate doubt from our minds. Firstly, we will need to consciously review all our previous beliefs and assumptions on which we base our judgements and actions. Secondly, we would also have to seriously question our old attitudes as well as our previous decisions using a more objective reasoning process. Finally, we should be prepared to release ideas which we realise are not logical or are not really our own. Any thoughts we keep must be our own truth, that which we know to be true. Strangely enough, we are not to create a complex psychological defence against doubt, but rather the opposite, which is to let go and discard as much of the mental garbage in our minds as possible. Here he was referring to unpleasant images, resentments and negative feelings as well as the bad habits in our thinking referred to earlier. It is also important that we gain a measure of self-control over our thinking. Exercises such as meditation or prayer can assist to draw our thoughts and feelings into line and bring about a peaceful and harmonious state of mind that is the ideal. All we require to begin this journey to return to our true essence in spirit, is a pure and sincere motive and commitment. It takes courage to challenge our early beliefs and years of conditioned thinking, but fortunately our great need and the suffering that occurs when we come to realise the illusion, as the rich man did, is enough to give us the strength and energy to complete this task. We should count ourselves fortunate if we become aware of the necessity of clearing our mind and correcting errors in our thinking while there is still sufficient time. As the images and figures shifted, I noted that the rich man had left. He

was now aware of the task that lay ahead. Commentary Conscious personal growth is a decision that each of us needs to make for ourselves. Once we become aware of our limitations in thinking and understanding, we may decide to continue along the easier road of ignorance, in many cases learning to live with the pain of our fears and 94 doubt, or we may choose to follow the far longer and more difficult path in search of truth and our inner being ( the search for the oracle). If we follow the latter path, we will at least have an opportunity to find ourselves and become "real" once again. In re-discovering ourselves, we will be able to lay aside our masks and false images and regain contact with our true inner being and spiritual source. I pray that each of us will have in our lives, at least one moment of awareness, a point in consciousness and time when we will be able to fully comprehend our present fallen state of being and be able to make a positive decision towards growth and unfoldment.

95

7 What is life ?
What is the real meaning of life? Commentary Our state of mind as well as our thinking, which includes our selfknowledge and understanding of God, is most important for our spiritual life and destiny. Each of us is called to grow spiritually and we can choose either a long, painful life of learning from negative experiences or a more active path which involves consciously cultivating a higher awareness. Along the journey of life, we learn to express the universal consciousness of God and to reflect aspects of divine spirit such as consciousness, life, love, harmony and power. This expression is the highest form of creativity and bringing forth the higher divine attributes in service to God and our fellow man, is our ultimate purpose as human beings. Although we are in essence spiritual beings with our source in God, we can also be thankful for our humanity and the privilege of knowing the joy of an intense physical experience of "being" which can only be felt in our human consciousness and emotions. The biggest danger in life lies in consciously fostering a separate self or ego apart from God. At birth, we enter this world already limited by our human condition, which is the result of an earlier separation from our original spiritual state and our subsequent mental devolution. Following from this, any continued or further conscious separation and loss of consciousness only takes place with our freedom of choice. We can choose to either accept Divine Law, return to completeness and become "real" again, or to oppose this universal law, which leads to our creating a false sense of self and further opening our minds to illusion and doubt,

which inevitably lead to suffering, misery and deprivation. Any separation from God exists only in our minds, but doubt and negative thought carry the principle of chaos and the power to bring us great unhappiness. If we decide to restore the original relationship with our inner being in God, we can discover the power to control and clear our mind of illusion and come to understand and accept the great universal truths. This call to growth and the fulfilment of our spirit, is made to each of us and if we are willing, committed and dedicated, the gift of a personal revelation may be given. Why do we suffer ? 96 Only Man has the freedom to disobey and his suffering bears testimony to this. We hear the cry of the children and seek meaning in the Will of God. Better for us to look to the will of man for this tragedy. Let the father of the child look to his decision taken without the need of his God, or look to the decision of he, who without the Will of the One, has sought to trust his own judgement and whose weakness now touches all. Nature suffers not, for Nature has no choice but to obey. Nature rejoices and thrives in the Will of the One. (Extract from the revelation of the oracle on Divine or Spiritual law) Thus may man choose either the away of darkness and failure or of light and fulfilment in his own life and may not appeal to the Law for allowing such suffering and misfortune. God will not stand accused of a decision made by the will of man. Much of the suffering and distress of man may be known as the fruit of such a choice made by man alone, or by the need to make a better choice, for this too, would be a call to growth. Let one man not blame another for his decision, for the final decision remains one of a personal nature and there be few moments where man has no choice at all. (Extract from the revelation of the oracle on Personal Freedom ) Commentary The irony of life is that God is normally blamed for injustices, or else His existence is denied because of the presence of suffering in the world, when, in fact, it is our human condition, lack of understanding and our own standards of what is just and right that give rise to suffering. The world is full of noble ideals revealed to us by the power of Spirit, such as universal peace and harmony, brotherhood, justice and equality, which

are related to positive growth and spiritual evolution. However, it has always been our folly to place these ideals into human concepts and apply our limited understanding to their attainment to try and create a perfect world. In doing this, we allow our own agendas, perspectives, ideologies and other human frailties to enter and retard or inhibit our natural progression towards these (spiritual) ideals. It is better for us to remain with an understanding and acceptance of general processes, such as the need to adapt, grow, change and transform and merely provide a suitable environment, sufficient opportunities, encouragement and support, but allow space and time for the natural processes (the natural moral development of man), to move us forward towards the ideal under the direction of spiritual law. The minute 97 we apply statistics, figures, time schedules and human standards of behaviour to these ideals, we influence the natural movement and error and limitation result. During this earlier revelation on spiritual law, the oracle compared mankind to the rest of nature. The same divine laws of justice and righteousness apply to the lower realms of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms as apply to us. The lower kingdoms have no understanding or ability to disobey divine laws and yet, provided we do not interfere with them, they prosper. A free decision means responsibility and accountability. It is therefore as a result of our own free will, which we often exercise without divine guidance, that we make flawed decisions and suffering and guilt result. In this way suffering could also be said to be the result of our separation from God and unfortunately it often affects not only ourselves, but touches others as well. A religious person may also say that God is testing him or her in some way or developing his or her personality by means of suffering. It is true that stress, trials and tribulation are a part of human life and what is important is how we react to an unpleasant experience. Suffering itself is part of the process of life unfolding and our learning to move through the pain and make new choices may be a necessary part of our growth and development. Our personal interpretation and understanding of each such experience is therefore important to provide meaning to our suffering and pain and direction to our actions. Pain in our body is a sign and a warning that an unnatural state exists there. Emotional pain similarly indicates that we are in a situation where we may need to make new decisions or changes to our life or perspective. In

this way suffering can also lead to understanding. Unfortunately, we have placed pain and suffering in the world by means of our human condition and only by a process of understanding and learning (spiritual growth), can we ever remove it. Is there a Heaven and a Hell? Before me stood the figures which appeared noble in the shaded light of a personal mind and only the presence of the true light of the Christ did reveal them as they are, grotesque creations spawned in darkness. Would I now that the light of God's presence be known earlier to reveal these to me, when as infants, I may have denied and destroyed them, but now fully grown and growing still, they torment me with the words of truth. " Beware the end when the veil of life lifts and without the light you enter the valley 98 of darkness. We who have been born of this darkness, will not be denied. We will be there to devour you, our own creator, unto Eternity, and this, O man, be your hell. (Extract from the revelation of the oracle on Entering our mind) Commentary The oracle provides a clue to the resolution of one of our most basic spiritual dilemmas, the issue of the existence ( or non-existence) of a heaven and a hell. He reveals the existence of heaven and hell to be related to the actual formation of positive (pleasant) or negative (unpleasant) memories, mental images or energy patterns of blocked emotion in our minds and consciousness which accumulate during our lives. We need to understand that these thought-forms and emotional images have a very real existence, having been built up and structured using our own mental energy. They remain with us during and even after our lives and have a real power to influence our thinking and behaviour. Although they are usually created by our own thinking, they could also form as a result of the influence or presence of an unpleasant spiritual entity. We normally call extreme cases of an unfavourable presence in our subconscious mind, demonic possession. Many people will deny that this is possible, but I believe it is absurd to believe in the existence of a spiritual hierarchy of good" spiritual beings (angels, saints or masters) and then to deny that spiritual entities can exist which are "not good" in terms of our human understanding. Living on a different sphere of

existence does not necessarily imply that you have to be "good " (in human terms). In fact, if we wish to understand the purpose of these beings we will once again note that in nature, the principle of duality exists and is responsible for activity and growth. For example, the separation of the sexes, the interplay of positive and negative energies and cycles of light and darkness which affect plant metabolism all stem from this principle of duality. We can therefore say that in order to know the "good", we must therefore have somewhere along the line, had to experience the "bad ". To explain this in simple terms, we could say that a person who has never had any challenges whatsoever cannot really grow. This need for growth would not have been a problem if we had all been (spiritually) perfect, but seeing that we are now all born with the human condition and severe limitations of consciousness, it could be said that we require the "services " of a range of tempters and unpleasant entities whose purpose it is to make things a little more difficult. 99 While they try to lower or distort our consciousness towards a state of chaos, we are required to work pretty hard to overcome these trials and temptations and this process of overcoming produces the necessary spiritual and moral growth. I am certainly not saying I admire these entities and spirits but I think it is necessary to fully understand their role and power if we are not going to be deceived or lulled into thinking that we are fully in control at all times. These entities have arisen from the duality of Being and incorporate the principle of chaos together as well as the principle of order and will therefore certainly remain with us until our cycle of growth is complete. To continue, the closer we move to God, the more we should experience and reflect the Divine Order and God-attributes and produce thought forms and energies of a pleasant, harmonious, uplifting or loving nature in our minds. In line with our thinking, our behaviour will also reflect this positive trend. This is beneficial to ourselves as well as other people and will certainly not be a threat, as in the case of negative or destructive images and behaviour. Evil can be related to the principle of Chaos, which denotes the absence of the God-Mind or the principle of harmony (Order). This energy can be described in terms of irrational or unstructured vibrations which have a very real destructive power and is the original state from which the First Cause (God ) brought forth order, structure and all creation as we know it. Many of the less pleasant entities described above would embody and emanate degrees of this chaotic state. Chaos co-exists with the principle

of Order and is responsible for what we understand as the incompleteness or duality of Being or nature. In growing or evolving spiritually, we move further away from the principle of Chaos (shadow and darkness) towards the principle of Divine Order (light). Our minds and consciousness are like a mirror and we can reflect within them, that which we ourselves decide to admit. If we consciously allow this principle of chaos to enter our minds, in whatever form or for whatever reason, our resulting thinking and behaviour will be strongly influenced. Neither the resulting thought forms nor the self-seeking type of behaviour will benefit us in the long run, leading only to a chaotic and self-destructive cycle which could include a loss of rationality, violence, disintegration of our personality and a total loss of contact with our higher spiritual self. Evil is therefore the behaviour that results from a mind or consciousness ruled by this principle of chaos. I have previously indicated the power of our mind to create very real 100 thought forms based on negative emotions, experiences and outside influences. This is very relevant to the question of Hell. If the words of the oracle are interpreted correctly, following death our physical body and the protective barriers of our normal thinking mind, which is dependent on the functioning of our brain and the rest of the central nervous system, will fall away to expose our superconscious mind, which becomes our new organ of perception and consciousness. We know that even our present subconscious mind is extremely powerful and perceptive and that we only receive those few impressions which allow us to function effectively in the physical world. At present we have only a relatively small subjective awareness which we use to think deeply. We can therefore imagine the expansion of consciousness that takes place when these limits fall away. Our past subconscious mental life will be thoroughly exposed and those thought forms that are present there will emerge in their full power. A person who has lived a spiritual life will still have to face and come to terms with the unresolved memories, emotions and thought images that he or she has carried thus far. However, as a result of spiritual growth and understanding, most of these should be reasonably positive and manageable. On the other hand, persons who have not lived very moral lives can expect to be confronted with those powerful, unpleasant and destructive memories, emotions, images or thought-forms that they have created or allowed to enter their subconscious minds and have accumulated there during their lifetimes.

Not a very pleasant thought, especially as these images can be grotesque. To add to this, any unpleasant or malevolent spiritual entities or forces which were admitted will most certainly wish to continue with their destructive task of instilling fear and torment (the principle of Chaos) into their consciousness. To make matters worse, the guilt of realising this deception, will also be more pronounced and we can well imagine the feeling of futility and despair of this poor soul, at least for a while until the situation has been overcome, ( if it is of such a nature that it can be overcome). Hell is therefore not a place but rather the totally unpleasant state of mind and consciousness that we can expect to be experienced by a disembodied undeveloped soul who has to face the memories and thought forms of his or her own making.. Holy Scriptures as well as other esoteric teachings always speak of more that one heaven. This suggests to us a process of further growth after death, where over a longer or shorter period of time, our soul has to deal with these past memories, emotions, images and thought forms and can pass through various stages, reaching higher and higher into the spiritual realms 101 according to its level of growth and development. If we have not fully united with our divine spirit in God, we will after death, probably be confronted with choices. Reincarnation can be a real option for those of us who accept it or who die still having what Elizabeth Kubler-Ross calls "unfinished business". Our soul does appear to have a choice. If we believe in reincarnation or even (subconsciously) accept that we are unable to progress further for one or other reason, we would in all probability, reincarnate. The nature of God being benevolent and merciful, it makes sense that He will provide an opportunity for us to continue with our development if we so wish. Those of us who by means of our relationship to God are able to progress further, will likewise be offered the opportunity to do so. Our idea of "Heaven "would therefore depend on our degree of spiritual unfoldment and the structuring of our perception. What we can expect to see or experience, will be largely dependent on our beliefs and should initially form a visual context of images with which we will be familiar and comfortable. The formation of this context has been more fully explained in the section on the language of our mind. Finally, as we progress in this state, the images should eventually give way to a greater understanding and vision of Spirit and the divine, the final outcome of

which I am obviously not able to explain.

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8 Personal Revelation.
Is there such a thing as a personal revelation of truth? Commentary During the search for the oracle, there may come a time when we suddenly become aware of a new depth to our present understanding of God, ourselves or the world. I experienced such a moment of revelation involving the nature of our planet, the Earth. We are reasonably familiar with the universe, the planets and our world but it appears that we know very little of their innermost secrets. Outwardly our world appears to be in a state of reasonable harmony and stability, which we can see in the beauty and laws of nature, the relatively constant climates throughout the world, the changing seasons and the regular movement of the oceans. Yet when I began to visualise the planet, images formed in my mind of a great deal of conflict and activity below the surface, of inner energies and swirling matter, which appeared to be like a great golden serpent, striving outwards, seeking a point of weakness in the earth's crust, awaiting a

moment in time when it would be released. I asked myself a question as to what was the purpose of this vision and in a moment of revelation understood that what I was seeing was in fact a symbolic image of spirit becoming matter and releasing energy deep within the body of our world. It was a powerful and uplifting experience. I chose once again to question the oracle to find answers to these very personal moments of spiritual experience or revelation which can lift us up to new levels of consciousness. As I approached him, I noticed that my mind was relatively quiet. I had been working with the oracle for a number of months and this had brought about a resolution of many inner conflicts. The images now flowed more clearly and I had time to relax and record the words spoken as well as any feelings or impressions that accompanied them. I noted that only a few of the students originally serving with me, now remained. I accepted that many had chosen to move onto further studies or to enter the service of some organised religious or humanitarian movement. Spiritual revelation enters into all fields of life and most can also lead to the fulfilment of our inner spiritual being in some way or other. We cannot all be philosophers nor can we all be tireless mission workers. It 103 depends largely on our gifts, our aptitudes and our personality. There is a richness of expression in diversity. The Spirit and Being of God, which is revealed in all of nature and underlies all laws, principles and things, is also far too great to be confined to one framework of thinking. We may therefore discover a truly personal experience of God in each of the many fields of study and service. Each framework, whether it is art, religion, philosophy or the sciences, provides a particular perspective or view of God and each is of itself, not really able to supply a complete picture of truth. Our understanding improves if we are able to successfully integrate these different views or frameworks into a holistic picture of reality. For some reason the oracle was very quiet and appeared to be overcome with sadness. At that moment I did not know the reason for this strange behaviour. He replied to my question as follows:"Dearest friends, much is lost in the awareness of men when knowledge of the Father becomes mere concept of the mind. Yet an experience of the knowledge is sufficient unto great degrees of faith. Let the growth of faith continue, from the point of first dedication, the

first step in uncertainty unto the law of the One and a first step unto the personal revelation. Such is the power of the personal revelation that the knowledge becomes experience which is both continuous and eternal. Personal revelation is not like unto recorded revelation, which is merely the bones upon which experience shall be placed. In truth revelation stands recorded in the scriptures of many and has great worth, but this is the light that has passed through the consciousness of others and now stands revealed as that which is sufficient for belief and dedication. Yet personal revelation is more than belief, it is experience, realisation, wonderment and power and it remains a gift of benevolence, if we would but be willing to accept. And if this willingness doth come, whether by contemplation, meditation or dedication, all such as these may bring forth the condition from whence begins the opening of first the lesser and then the greater mind of the individual in degrees to the fullness of the Mind of the Infinite. Yet with still higher dedication and expression of this awareness in words, deeds and service, comes the deeper revelation of that which is written, of that which is seen in creation and of that which is hidden, each phase bringing a yet higher realisation and expression until the point of personal revelation and a personal knowledge, first of self then of God and then of the relationship of the two. All Nature knows God, yet Nature knows not. Man too, knows God, yet knows not that he knows. Is this not the veil of 104 ignorance that is, and was and shall always be lifted in true revelation? Is the revelation of the One not consciousness? The eyes that do not see may be opened to the truth that is, the truth that is unchanging in essence and changes only in the minds of men to become concepts of God and His creation. We return to the Source of all, the very Being of the One, in which nature has its law and mankind reflects a greater image in aspects of harmony, strength and consciousness, in a relationship One-to-one. In such personal revelation does experience of the One become fulfilment and is nowhere a truer knowledge but in personal revelation. This too, is from within and not without. As the mind is cleared of illusion and self-created images of power and deception, does the light of pure realisation come forth. This consciousness which is of the aspect of the Father, is the light by which all that is created and uncreated may be known. Deeds alone are revealed as insufficient to cleanse the mind and prepare the way. True sincerity, commitment and willingness be the way, and this is not power

of itself. My friend, you ask of the fruit of personal revelation. Will this truer knowledge thus now revealed bring not personal certainty to the mind which not only believes, but knows? Yet an experience of personal revelation shall be an experience of certainty far greater than mere concept. And what of the Being of the One expressing in such a consciousness? Will such aspects of the One not be known as gifts of the greatest worth, consciousness, health and the Force being but a few? Let us know that the gift of personal revelation is not without demand. More is asked of him to whom more is given and let us be joyful in our greater service to this end, so that Spirit may be fully extended into the world of form." Commentary Flowing deep within our subconscious there are inner streams or "rivers" of knowledge which emanate from our superconscious mind. This is part of our inner being and appears to be our outside link to reality and truth. If these streams can be accessed, we will implicitly know things which in normal experience could take us ten to twenty years to understand. This higher knowledge is always within our reach but under normal circumstances we are not aware of its closeness, as we are usually too preoccupied with our day-to-day activities or problems. The oracle explained how personal revelation was the inner experience of truth, which is above our rational awareness and understanding. It is therefore also a direct inner guidance during which we will implicitly know the will of God 105 and that which is necessary for our further spiritual growth. Illusion and self-deception will cease to exist and solutions to many human dilemmas and paradoxes in life will be revealed. In this state of heightened perception, we will see that the familiar forms of this world are only shadows of the true reality and that which we now see as separate is really part of one great expression or matrix of Spirit. During personal revelation the spiritual message or truth is revealed to us as it is, but it is such a powerful inner experience that we may not always be able to interpret it fully and much will be lost as we attempt to put it into words and human concepts. Let us now try to understand this gift of higher perception from a psychological and scientific viewpoint. First of all, we need to understand that our subconscious mind is not only responsible for controlling certain autonomic processes in our body such as breathing

and heartbeat, but that it actually separates our everyday awareness from the mass of input from our senses by a process of filtering and selection. I have also said that in order to allow for our day to day functioning, most of our subconscious experiences are usually cut off from our normal thinking and we can only reach them under certain subjective conditions, in dreams or by means of special processes such as meditation and hypnotism. If we accept these as psychological facts, we can understand that if we are able to consciously enter our subconscious, reach through to the highest levels ( the superconscious mind) and open this up to everyday experience, our perception and awareness (consciousness) could radically change. Many mental and spiritual exercises practised earlier in the east and more recently in the western world, such as yoga, meditation, visualisation, contemplation and systems of inner questioning such as the I-Ching, Tarot cards and even self- hypnotism, are based on the principle that we can access our subconscious mind and increase our knowledge of ourselves and ultimately of a higher reality. Normally we find that this higher knowledge comes to us in dreams, visions or moments of revelation. It will be found that these "moments' of pure realisation occur during relaxed states when we are not consciously thinking. These glimpses into our subconscious are also called intuition, inspiration or a personal revelation (the "aha!" experience). As yet we know little of these experiences during which we are briefly given a deeper understanding or the intuitive realisation of a great truth. We do know that this is related to the growth of our consciousness and that it is possible to enter higher or alternate states of consciousness for brief periods. 106 These moments of revelation provide us with the key, the "philosophers stone" pointing the way to a state of mind and consciousness during which we will be re-united with our inner being or divine spirit and experience an immediate understanding of Truth. This is the ultimate goal in our search for the oracle.

Conclusion
At this point, it was strange to note that the oracle embraced each of us in turn and moved away towards the cave. It became very quiet and I noticed that the images had stopped forming. I suddenly realised the reason for his departure. As I viewed the motionless form of the old man who had been our teacher, a number of thoughts passed through my mind. Even a flower, whose time on this earth is brief, brings beauty and

fragrance and in its last days will bring forth seeds of new life, which it scatters in its death fall on the ground beneath. The flower does not really cease to exist, it merely returns to the source from which it came. I also realised that death is not a thing to be feared if it is understood in this way. Looking at the still figure of the old man I felt that he had accepted this natural process in a state of peace and tranquillity. I thought how noble it would be if we could all die so well. I began to wonder, however, why he had chosen to leave us at all? Although the questioning had taken place over a few months in real time, the unfolding story-line spanned quite a few years of dedication and service. Glancing around in scenes that once again began to unfold, I suddenly noticed that changes had taken place in my own field of vision and with a shock, realised that I was seeing through the eyes of the oracle. I had also aged considerably and now saw myself as an old man. I understood this to mean that an oracle separate from myself was no longer necessary and that inner knowledge was now directly available to me. It was not long after this that I experienced what I called the resolution of my thinking mind, discovering a new confidence in my thinking. I called this the gift of Understanding. I found that it was now possible using only a light contemplation, to find any answers regarding spiritual truth that I required. It is the search for this inner union with the oracle and the path through the human mind that I have described in this book. I pray that the words of revelation and the explanations provided here will assist you on your own journey. May the power of the Spirit be with you on your path, amen. 107

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