Divine Memory

To forget is to dismiss the things which do not interest us to the darkness of latent memory; and to recall things is to call anew to active ego consciousness – because t hey interest us – from the same darkness of latent memory. It goes without saying that it is not the images and concepts which come to birth when we recall them, or perish when we forget them; rather, they are present in our mind or are removed from it.

to be endowed with good ‘concentration’, therefore amounts tot he faculty of chasing away swiftly and completely all images and concepts which are not useful for action. It is mastery of the art of forgetting.

To be endowed with ‘good memory’, in contrast, signifies mastery of the mechanism of recall – of that which renders present the images and concepts which one needs. It is mastery of the art of recalling.

There is therefore a continual coming and going between ordinary consciousness of the waking state (or cerebral consciousness) and the domain of memory. Each ‘going’ corresponds to the action of falling asleep or dying. Each ‘coming’ corresponds to awakening or resurrection. Every representation that goes from the field of cerebral consciousness experiences an analogous fate to that stated by the saying: “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep…Lazarus is dead.” And every representation that one recalls has a fate analogous to that which took place when Jesus cried with a loud voice: “Lazarus, come out!

Memory therefore supplies us with a key of analogy which allows intelligence not to remain simply taken aback in the face of the problem of resurrection. It renders it intelligible. Indeed, the analogy between the ‘loud voice’ which called Lazarus to life and the inner effort which evokes a memory reveals, mutatis mutandis, the essence of the magic of Jesus’ ‘loud voice’ and of the ‘sound of the trumpet’ of the Angel of the resurrection – as the following shows.

Experience teaches us that we easily forget, and recall with difficulty, the things to which we attach no value – that we do not love. One forgets what one does not love and one never forgets what one loves. It is love which gives us the power to recall at any desired moment the things that our hearts preserve ‘warm’. Indifference, in contrast, makes one forget everything.

It is the same with the ‘awaking and resurrection of the dead’. Here it is not cosmic indifference (what we call ‘matter’) which will effect anything, but rather it is cosmic love (what we call ‘spirit’)which will accomplish the magical act of resurrection, ie, the reintegration of an inseparable unity – the unity of the spirit, soul and body – not by way of birth (reincarnation) but by way of the magical act of divine memory. What can one say about divine memory?

Meditations on the Tarot, Letter XX, The Judgement

 

Dew of light

Thy dead shall live, their bodies shall rise.

O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!

For thy dew is a dew of light,

and on the land of the shades thou wilt let it fall.

Isaiah xxvi, 19

School for Godhead

The Fall of Man was not a once for all thing in some historical past but is repeated over and over again by every individual who fails to live according to his or her own creative spiritual integrity. This causes more unbalance and suffering but at the same time gives the opportunity for further intercession of God’s redeeming love.

The Redemption of Sin brought by Christ at the Incarnation is often too narrowly understood. It was, and is, a mark of the forgiveness and redemption of all human error, past, present and yet to come. By our sin we make the universe a prison house for ourselves. But this is transformed by God’s redeeming love into a school for godhead, with the earth as a classroom and the angels and saints of God as the teachers.

The curriculum of the school is the realisation and acceptance of the reality of our own sinfulness, and the seeking with all our heart, mind and strength for the love of the God whom we have rejected. This is not a matter of learning ‘obedience’ in its usual submissive or authoritarian sense, but the learning of love, from which obedience, or common purpose, naturally follows.

Gareth Knight, Experience of the Inner Worlds

Light

At time’s turning point

The Cosmic Spirit-Light entered

Into earthly life-stream.

Night-darkness

Had ended reign.

Day-bright Light

Rayed within human souls.

Light

Which warms

The simple shepherd-hearts,

Light

Which enlightens

The wise heads of Kings.

Rudolf Steiner, Foundation Stone Meditation

Circuit of Force

The whole of magical theory and practice turns on two points – autosuggestion and the astral light. These two points must therefore receive the careful consideration to which their key position entitles them, and not employed as stick-on labels – terms of abuse that explain nothing but discredit everything.

Auto-suggestion is a method of manipulating one’s own subconscious mind and persuading activities that go on beyond the control of the will to obey its behests – performing their subliminal work and delivering the results to consciousness in the form of finished production whose fabrication one has had no conscious part. Remarkable results can be obtained in this way, character and habits being changed and unsuspected energies released to a degree that has to be experienced to be believed.

The technique of this operation is simple – so simple that it eludes our rational minds as an object held too near the eye becomes indistinct – the subconscious mind has to be approached by means of the imagination, completely disregarding reason, will and concentration. One has, in fact, to rely on cannoning off the cushion, for a direct approach defeats itself. There is a knack in his procedure which has to be laboriously acquired, and its satisfactory use depends on the right understanding of one’s condition and needs.

It will be observed that I say ‘satisfactory’, and not ‘effectual’, for it is possible to use autosuggestion most effectually with very unsatisfactory results if one’s philosophy of life is remote from the fact – a by  no means uncommon state of affairs.

Dion Fortune, Circuit of Force, 7

 

Darkness without shadow

We pull an unwinding thread through to the centre and destroy all monsters.

By the silver cobweb we retrace our steps, slowly through the darkness without shadow.

The sun rises; water evaporates to mist. Freedom beckons, love cries and there, a rainbow, frames the hidden gateway.

Paths unfold before our feet….

Across the bridge of twilight space dissolves.

All is transfixed in perpetual motion, beyond the borders of time.

Only eternity, silent and golden, is present within us, beckoning always.

So, we rise, on ultra-light rays, white birds with transforming wings,

High above the mountain, far beyond Earth’s atmosphere, until we are suspended, rooted to Heaven.

Then we see, then we feel, then we know, that the whole of life is from a vow to save love, to rectify and redeem the moment

It was lost.

To return, be reunited,

To never relinquish the quest, seeking always the Beloved, who is still in the only hidden place.

Inside, when everything else is revealed, when all that there is can be reached.

In the mind, out of the mind.

Spark of soul untarnished by dark matter.

Ready to be raised upon the pinnacle, always, ever longing for reunion.

Litany of the Saints

Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, have mercy on us. Lord, have mercy on us. Christ, hear us. Christ, graciously hear us. God, the Father of heaven, have mercy on us. God the Son, Redeemer of the world, God the Holy Ghost, Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on us.

Holy Mary, pray for us. Holy Mother of God, Holy Virgin of virgins, Saint Michael, Saint Gabriel, Saint Raphael, All ye holy angels and archangels All ye holy orders of blessed spirits, Saint John the Baptist, Saint Joseph, All ye holy patriarchs and prophets, Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint Andrew, Saint James, Saint John, Saint Thomas, Saint James,  Saint Philip, Saint Bartholomew, Saint Matthew, Saint Simon, Saint Thaddeus, Saint Matthias, Saint Barnabas, Saint Luke, Saint Mark, All ye holy apostles and evangelists, All ye holy disciples of the Lord, All ye holy innocents, Saint Stephen, Saint Lawrence, Saint Vincent, Saints Fabian and Sebastian, Saints John and Paul, Saints Cosmos and Damian, Saints Gervase and Protase, All ye holy martyrs, Saint Sylvester, Saint Gregory, Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine, Saint Jerome, Saint Martin, Saint Nicholas, All ye holy bishops and confessors, All ye holy doctors, Saint Anthony, Saint Benedict, Saint Bernard, Saint Dominic, Saint Francis, All ye holy priests and levites, All ye holy monks and hermits, Saint Mary Magdalene, Saint Agatha, Saint Lucy, Saint Agnes, Saint Cecilia, Saint Catherine, Saint Anastasia, Saint Clare, All ye holy virgins and widows, pray for us.

All ye holy men and women, saints of God, make intercession for us. Be merciful, spare us, O Lord. Be merciful, graciously hear us, O Lord. From all evil, O Lord deliver us. From all sin, From Thy wrath, From sudden and unprovided death, From the snares of the devil, From anger, and hatred, and all ill-will, From the spirit of fornication, From the scourge of earthquake, From plague, famine, and war, From lightning and tempest, From everlasting death, Through the mystery of Thy holy Incarnation, Through Thy coming, Through Thy birth, Through Thy baptism and holy fasting, Through the Institution of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Through Thy cross and passion, Through Thy death and burial, Through Thy holy resurrection, Through Thine admirable Ascension, Through the coming of the Holy Ghost the Paraclete, In the day of judgment, O Lord deliver us.

We sinners, we beseech Thee, hear us. That Thou wouldst spare us, That Thou wouldst pardon us, That Thou wouldst bring us to true penance, That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to govern and preserve Thy holy Church, That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to preserve our Apostolic Prelate and all orders of the Church in holy religion, That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to humble the enemies of holy Church, That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to give peace and true concord to Christian kings and princes,That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to bring back to the unity of the Church all those who have strayed away, and lead to the light of the Gospel all unbelievers, That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to confirm and preserve us in Thy holy service, That Thou wouldst lift up our minds to heavenly desires, That Thou wouldst render eternal blessings to all our benefactors, That Thou wouldst deliver our souls, and the souls of our brethren, relatives, and benefactors from eternal damnation, That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to give and preserve the fruits of the earth, That Thou wouldst vouchsafe to grant eternal rest to all the faithful departed, That Thou wouldst vouchsafe graciously to hear us, Son of God, we beseech Thee, hear us.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, spare us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, graciously hear us, O Lord. Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us.

Let us pray: Almighty, everlasting God, who hast dominion over both the living and the dead and art merciful to all who, as Thou foreknowest, will be Thine by faith and works; we humbly beseech Thee that they for whom we intend to pour forth our prayers, whether this present world still doth detain them in the flesh or the world to come hath already received them stripped of their mortal bodies, may, by the grace of Thy fatherly love and through the intercession of all the saints, obtain the remission of all their sins. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth God, world without end. Amen.