Maria Duval - And the Meek Shall Inherit the Earth...

And the Meek Shall Inherit the Earth...
‘Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.’
William James, 1842-1910, Psychologist and Author

‘Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth.’
Matthew 5:5, The New Testament

What do Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Professor Mohammed Yunus of Bangladesh, Immaculee Ilibagiza, Rwandan holocaust survivor, and the Amish community in Pennsylvania have in common?

Let me briefly tell their stories based on the little information I have read.

Prof. Yunus teaches economics. What made him increasingly uncomfortable was the ever-widening gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots.’ In his country, millions of people were destined to never raise their heads in life because in the eyes of the current banking system the poor are not credit-worthy. Prof. Yunus thought differently; he thought that applying for and getting a loan or credit was a basic human right and was the only way to start to close that gap.

So he started up his own system, called ‘microcredit,’ where he loaned small amounts of money to poor struggling families who wanted to start a business so they could provide basic necessities for their families through their own efforts. These loans were around $100-500US and required no collateral. They now have established the Grameen Bank which services millions of people and has helped countless impoverished men and women start home-based businesses. (Interesting to note that no-one has ever defaulted on their loan repayments even though they have no contracts and the deal is based on trust.)

Immaculee Ilibagiza was a teenager during the Rwandan holocaust in 1995. She spent 90 days in a bathroom with 8 other Rwandan women hiding from the murderous Hutu extremists. She lost both her parents and two brothers in the massacre and managed to escape, eventually getting a job with the United Nations and migrating to the US with her husband.

Once the war was over, Immaculee went back to Rwanda to her village to piece together what happened to her family and to complete that chapter in her life. This included visiting the man who murdered her family in prison. When he was brought to her, the man fell to his knees and couldn’t even look her in the eyes. She asked him to look at her and when he did, she simply said ‘I forgive you’ and left. The man couldn’t stop crying.

The Amish community in Pennsylvania suffered a terrible loss when 10 girls were brutally attacked and shot by Charles Roberts, five of whom died. Although this caused shock waves around the world, the Amish quietly went about their business, living and taking care of things the way they always have: with forgiveness and love in their hearts.

It was reported that an Amish neighbour went to comfort the murderer’s family after he shot himself; that they also attended his funeral; and that, when a fund was set up for the grieving families, an Amish leader insisted that one also be set up for Roberts’ family.

Here are the common threads I see:
1. They are all unremarkable, simple people yet their actions are an example to us all.
2. They live according to their beliefs, not seeking rewards or recognition but simply doing what they think is right.
3. Their humility (and by that, I mean an acceptance of life) in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles has led to actions that have irreversibly changed and touched people’s lives, and the world.
4. They take 100% personal responsibility for their lives, living on their own terms without blaming this, that or the other for their plight.

I don’t believe these people are blessed with anything extraordinary. They are ordinary people, just like you and me. I don’t believe they ever intended to do anything in their lives that would be worthy of media attention. They followed what was in their hearts. Most of us may never be rich or famous but we are all influential. These stories prove that beyond doubt.

Given we are experiencing much despair and disillusionment with leaders, government, churches and business, it’s time for us to look elsewhere. It’s time for us to put our hands down and stop pointing fingers of blame or throwing them up in resignation. At this time of year, when there is so much talk of ‘peace and goodwill among men’, we cannot afford to remain idle any longer.

We need leaders, yes; but what I see happening more and more is that true leaders and leadership is coming from among the people and not from ‘the elected few.’ We need to appoint ourselves as leaders because no matter how small your contribution YOU CAN and DO make a difference �" the question is ‘what sort of difference do you want to make?’ Whatever you decide, DO IT NOW.

Till next time,
Love, light and laughter to you

Jenny


You are free to use material from this newsletter in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read:

‘From Jenny Mallos of Total Transformation Life Coaching. Please visit www.totaltransformationlifecoaching.com for more information.’

Jenny Mallos is a coach and author who works with individuals and groups to find and follow their own path with a heart. The most frequent comment her clients make is that she messes with their minds, which is exactly her intention! Jenny realises that all of our grief and unhappiness is caused through our own fixated thoughts and the only way to a truly fulfilling life is to mess it up so we can finally uncover what is true for each of us. Living true to yourself is not for the faint-hearted nor is it an easy path to tread. That’s where the most valuable work is done – supporting you while you go through that journey and most importantly allowing you to experience your journey. Whether you are working on your business, your health, relationships or some other facet of your life there is only one prerequisite: the willingness to face the music no matter how out of tune it may seem. "There is something in human nature that wants to soar, to be free to express itself in life and work." Kermit Campbell, CEO of Herman Miller

Occult Fiction: Novels for Your Private Collection, Part 1
For years I’ve heard complaints about a lack of Occult fiction portraying Witches realistically in a contemporary setting. And it’s true. As a Wiccan and novelist writing Occult fiction, I’m just as much a fan of the genre as any reader. However, I have found if you search carefully, there are dazzling gems awaiting discovery, novels that should be a part of your contemporary Occult fiction collection.

To find these novels I have narrowed my search criteria to dark urban fantasy novels set in contemporary times or in the near future. At least half the rituals, magick, or sorcery used by the main character must be based on real magickal principles. The main character must be human, and the plot not overshadowed by trendy leagues of vampires.

Having set those guidelines, I want to present my first recommendation for must-read Occult fiction. All I can say is if you’ve never read Lilith Saintcrow’s “Dante Valentine” series you are in for a treat!

Saintcrow is best known for her paranormal romance novels, the “Watcher” series, featuring elemental Witches and their handsome guardians. However, Dante Valentine was created from an entirely different cut of cloth.

There are five novels in the series. The first two, “Working for the Devil” and “Dead Man Rising” have already been published. The last three novels are scheduled for publication in 2007 and 2008.

Dante Valentine is a Necromance, who works for lawyers, raising the spirits of the dead when wills come into question. She also takes a few bounty hunting jobs on the side to help pay her mortgage. “Danny” is a wise-cracking whirlwind of energy with a haunting past that won’t quit. Devoted to the Egyptian god Anubis, she entertains Pagan readers with plenty of rituals, spells, and magick.

The series takes place in the near future, as the plot races from one high to the next at lightning speed. This is contemporary Occult fiction at its finest, the kind of book you can’t put down until you finish it. And one you’ll still be thinking about months later.

Saintcrow is a master at creating memorable characters and deftly plotted novels. If you’ve been searching for awesome Occult fiction to add to your personal collection, this should be the first series on your list. You won’t be disappointed!

Laura Stamps is an award-winning novelist, as well as a Wiccan and feral cat rescuer. The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize nomination and seven Pushcart Award nominations, she is the author of a popular series of Occult Novels for Women found at www.KittyfeatherPress.blogspot.com

What most psychics don't want you to know!
How do you find a good accurate psychic?

You could look up the yellow pages but any good psychic will have enough word of mouth business and web site traffic that they would not waste the money on a yellow pages advert.

There is always a hot line psychic. The advantages are immediate response and you can pay by the minute. Is it a good idea! The reality is many of these psychics make about 10 cents for every dollar you spend and they are prepared to read for you at a moments notice!

Personally I would not recommend a hot line psychic. A number of my psychic friends have told me about their terrible experiences with psychic hot lines, which range from underhand tactics to keep you on the phone as long as possible and more worryingly the psychics were expected to read from a pre-rehearsed script.

The likelihood is many of these hot lines are poor very value for money. One thing is for sure if the psychics are prepared to work for $10 bucks an hour at a moments notice you have to assume the chance of getting a quality reading by a hot line psychic are very remote.

Disillusioned your next stop is your local metaphysical store however if you think about it these psychics are all part time psychics that need the foot traffic of the store to be busy. Some of these psychics may well be good but lack the experience of a full time psychic who have their own client base. In short you may well get lucky and get a fairly decent reading at an attractive price. If you’re on a tight budget and don’t have any life changing decisions to make then this would be a fairly attractive option as prices will be around a dollar a minute.

How about a psychic fair, all the psychics in one room and you get to pick! If you really need your reading to be in person then this is an excellent option however you have to be very selective. Look for an excellent presentation, brochures, business cards a banner or a poster; these are all good signs of a professional psychic that makes enough money to afford to invest in their business.

Particularly good signs are the psychics that collect your email and have a web site that has a real domain name rather than some myspace or freebie hosting account; these are the real professional psychics who know how to market their skills. You will spot them from across the room they will ooze confidence and be busy all weekend long.

If you see an out of state psychic who gives you good vibes, go with your gut only an exceptional psychic is willing to pay for flights and hotels plus their booth fee and still expect to make a profit. Expect prices around $2 to $3.50 a minute, if they charge less they are probably not that good.

Ideally your first stop should really be a word of mouth referral from a trusted friend or your next best bet is to search on line. Surprisingly the phrase psychic is not a particularly fruitful phrase to search for as you’ll end of with directories full of Google adverts or encyclopedias and skeptic sites.

Look form more refined searches when looking for a quality psychic, search for psychic medium or better still international psychic mediums are really the psychics psychic, when a psychic wants a reading they look for psychic mediums.

However you will have to search a bit deeper as you will not get a consultation with the celebrity psychics such as John Edward or James Van Praagh as they are too busy with group sessions and book promotions. Before you pick up the phone you must consider the following very important points when selecting your psychic

1. Is this psychic better known for their TV, radio or books than their psychic ability as many a psychic that can write profitable books have been overly hyped by a great PR and marketing team.

2. Is there price both realistic and affordable to the point you can justify the benefit to you. This is very important as rates can vary from $75 to $750 dollars for 30 minutes however please note you will not get a reading 10 times better for 10 times the price!

3. Be selective check out the top twenty psychics in MSN, Google and Yahoo, you should see a few psychics covering all the search engines. It is easy for a celebrity psychic to buy links in directories and flood the search engines with book reviews to dominate the top spots in Google however it is much more difficult to get into all the search engines purely on merit.

4. Lastly avoid the paid psychic listings; many of these are hot line or psychics that can’t get ranked on merit. None of the paid listings are in the top twenty organic search engine positions! Some of these paid listings are $2.50 per click. An old psychic hot line trick is to sell your contact details to online marketers to make even more obscene profits! I repeat avoid the paid listings if you want to avoid a sea of spam email.


By now you are sufficiently educated to make an informed decision, good luck and when you do find that one good psychic tell your friends.

Psychic medium Rosemary The Celtic Lady founder of the American Association of Psychics & Healers. America's top psychic directory and spiritual healers directory of independant professional psychics and healers.

JFK Conspiracy And Other Historical Secrets
The prophecies of Nostradamus, today popularly believed to be the work of a charlatan, are given new life in Morten St. George\'s Incantation of the Law Against Inept Critics: A Guide to Cryptic Thinking. St. George discovered that some of the famous stanzas masked their message by means of a unique type of cryptography involving the deployment of a wide array of deception devices. Nonetheless, a rigorous and systematic unraveling of these devices does not always wind up with the prophecies confirming recorded history. Unperturbed, St. George allows his decoding techniques to take the prophecies to where they lead: * Napoleon Bonaparte was murdered on his island of captivity by poison in the wine, instigated by a woman enraged over the defeat of his army in 1813. * President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a group of conspirators led by his vice-president, Lyndon Baines Johnson. Officially accused by the Warren Commission, Lee Harvey Oswald was completely innocent since the bullets that killed Kennedy were fired from a rooftop, not from an open window. * The JFK conspirators were also behind the assassination of Kennedy\'s brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, several years later. * Martin Luther King was assassinated because of his opposition to the Vietnam War, not because of racism. * Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was assassinated because of his support for the anti-Islamic Shah of Iran, not because of his efforts to make peace with Israel. * The Russians paid the Bulgarians with a suitcase containing gold and more than a hundred thousand rubles to attempt the assassination of Pope Juan Paul II. * American satellites over the Falkland Islands guided a British submarine to an Argentine cruiser, which was torpedoed resulting in the death of hundreds of Argentine sailors. St. George claims that this information, as well as a clear allusion to all the major events of world history from Hiroshima to September 11, are conveyed by a mere forty-two stanzas that interconnect in intricate ways to supply the needed details. According to St. George, these forty-stanzas were originally part of a group of one hundred stanzas written in the sixth century, a thousand years before the time of Nostradamus. St. George, however, does not view this as a strategic problem for the prophecies: \"If the prophecies foresaw historical secrets, it is safe to assume that they also foresaw their translation into French; consequently, what we see in Nostradamus\' book are the intended prophecies. Even the destruction of the remaining fifty-eight prophecies can be deemed as foreseen and thus intended.\" As for the other nine hundred stanzas (Nostradamus published a total of 942 stanzas), St. George says they are largely re-writes, re-combinations, or thematic derivatives of elements of the original one hundred stanzas, with lots of new place names thrown in for good measure. Indeed, meticulous analysis of the 942 stanzas reveals a large number of repeating terms and concepts. Consequently, according to St. George, the other nine hundred stanzas have no prophetic merit at all; their purpose was only to mask or conceal the forty-two stanzas of the sixth century, and they were very successful at doing just that. When asked if the forty-two prophecies were the product of extraordinary psychic powers, St. George asserted: \"The future cannot be foreseen by means of psychic powers, nor by means of astrological calculations, tarot cards, black magic, crystal balls, or any other such thing.\" Then pressured to explain the prophecies, St. George replied: \"Super-civilization technology. Very simple, really. You gain access to the time stream by orbiting our planet at the speed of light.\" The final question was: What was the motive for writing one hundred prophecies in the sixth century? To this, St. George responded: \"The gloom of the Dark Ages was already upon the scene, and ignorance became perpetually self-generating. It\'s a common misconception that technological progress is an inherent characteristic of humankind. Without intervention, western civilization today would be exactly like it was back then, embroiled in an endless cycle of famine, plague, and petty warfare. It took the prophecies fourteen hundred years to achieve their objective, which seems like a long time by the standard of a human lifetime, but might not be such a long time by other standards.\" # # # Article by Gersiane De Brito, with special thanks to Morten St. George and the www.crypticthinking.com web site. In an upcoming article, tentatively entitled \"The Mechanics of Deception Cryptography,\" Morten St. George goes into detail on how the prophetic verses technically manage to convey historical secrets and other information.

Gersiane De Brito was born and raised in Fortaleza, Brazil. An English language student and aspiring writer, she works part time as an assistant to author Morten St. George and the www.crypticthinking.com web site.

Create Fear for Inspiration and Action
You've brought books, CDs, those old cassette tapes, searched the internet, and maybe even attended seminars, but yet you find yourself falling short of your desire or you don't even come one step closer to what you tried to achieve. You lose any inspirational thoughts you once had and sink back to where you came from. You may ask yourself "Why do I keep failing? Am I supposed to just remain who I am today?"

Do not lose hope and sight of your goal. If you have obtained self improvement resources before, you have a desire to improve. You have a desire to free yourself from debt. You have a desire to look your best. You have a desire to be intimate in your relationships.

Here is a fantastic analogy and inspirational thought to help you see the problem. By not defining the problem correctly you can not provide a correct solution, leaving you to wonder your whole life about "what could have been". Think of the books you read, the CDs you listen to, the seminars you attend, as a spark. This spark has an extremely powerful potential. It has the potential to ignite and create fire. Can you see the relation between the spark and the resources you read and listen to? These self improvement guides create an internal spark of motivation in you. They temporarily inspire you and pump you up, gearing you towards your goal and setting you on the correct path.

However, it isn't too long until you find yourself not moving forward on the path toward your goal, or that you have totally diverted away from the path. You may have even lost ground by feeling so beaten up after failing you enter into a state of depression and fear. What you need is to turn the spark gained from the self improvement resources into a roaring fire. A fire so powerful and independent that it will continue to burn without 'outside help' in keeping it that way. To learn what can fuel that spark into a fire, ask yourself, "this internal desire I have to improve, where is it coming from?" Is it that you're tired of worrying about being able to put food on the table, provide clothing, and shelter? Are you sick of arguing with your partner or friends and you want to have more intimate relationships? Are you ashamed of how those extra pounds make you look?

Now that it is apparent as to why you want to improve, make it a strong fear. Using a relationship example; let's say you are struggling to have a loving, conflict-free, and open relationship. Create or bring out the fear that one day you'll lose contact with the person. Make the fear a real possibility. If you continue to have average or poor communication with this person, it is a reality that you could break-up or lose contact altogether. This is your fear. This is your fuel for the spark to ignite it into a roaring fire and keeping it burning strongly.

So the next time you feel you do not have what it takes to accomplish that elusive goal, remember the inspirational thought of fearing what could be. Pull out that fear and use it to drive yourself. By asking yourself "what could be", you will prevent yourself saying later "what could have been".

Get your free personal | self development course "Become a Superior Earthling". Effective | Good Communication Skills Copyright Joshua Uebergang.

Approaching Metaphysics Part 2
If we think about it we will realize that we are unable to take anything material with us to the higher worlds when we pass on. We are unable to take along with us our house, our money, our possessions, our titles, etc. What we do take along are things that are immaterial--our knowledge, our memories, our karma, our habits, our character, our spiritual and psychic development, our aspirations and desires. We can see from this that our purpose in this world, in this physical plane is in connection with those immaterial things mentioned above, and if--and metaphysics declare it to be so--evolution is a law of Nature, a Cosmic law, then our true purpose is to evolve, to improve and to purify those immaterial things. Our greatest opportunity in this world is the correct use of time. Use this gift of God searching for Truth and not wasting it on non-essentials.

Perhaps after being a little pessimistic about reflecting death just awhile ago we may now be cheerful and be optimistic about life and to carry-out the main purpose of physical existence instead of wasting our precious time, energy and resources on immoderate and excessive entertainment: too much watching TV, too much sex, the taking of drugs, and indulgence in other material devices invented and designed by the Dark forces to sidetrack and make us forget our divine heritage, purpose of being and our mission here on Earth. This is the nature of evil: it diverts us from experiencing our true soul-purpose and need. Anything that distracts us from improving our soul nature, our character, our morals, or acquiring metaphysical knowledge of Cosmic laws and truths, is to be considered as an evil mechanism and an intruder to our microcosmic system. These evil intruders sometimes work in such a subtle manner at times that even disciples of metaphysics are sometimes caught off-guard.


The Pure Life

A metaphysical life entails living a life of purity. Even before approaching a Master for apprenticeship, a pure, spiritual, constructive life should be lived as best as one is able to. The degree of purity within us can be seen and felt by the Spiritual Masters and Adepts of metaphysics and the occult. They know our spiritual state and status by the colors and the luminosity of our aura, by our facial expression, by the quality of the emanations of our eyes, and by the way we think, speak and act.

By the above we do not imply that one has to be a saint in order to be a worthy student of the occult or metaphysics. What we are saying is that purity is a necessary quality to possess and to develop when one becomes a serious student of the occult. It is an indispensable quality for it prepares our psycho-biological system, our nervous systems to withstand intense energies that we invoke from the higher worlds through our occult and metaphysical studies. We often hear of people going insane because of their involvement with the occult or metaphysics. This is because of their lack of purity. Their nervous systems were not able to sustain the spiritual vibrations coursing through them. When this occurs, as mentioned before, the nervous system ruptures, certain brain cells and nerve centers are destroyed, and the etheric webs protecting the student from overexposure to impressions of higher frequencies coming from the other dimensions, are shattered. One is then unable to shift focus from one reality to another but is opened to both. This causes too much strain. Insanity is the sad result.

Spiritual energy invoked through mystical practices also evokes the undesirable elements lying within us. If these elements are not cleared by a process of purification, they would cause us trouble. This is not to say that metaphysics or the occult is an unsafe study. There is danger in everything. One simply needs the right information and common sense, and take precautionary measures when delving into any study, especially metaphysics and the occult.

Purification is a multi-level process. It should occur on all levels of the microcosm. For instance, our physical body, our blood-stream, our energy-structures, our emotions, our minds, our aura, and chakras, all need to undergo purification. The Path of Purification is a basic step in any system of occult, metaphysical, and spiritual study. To neglect this essential step is to open-up ourselves to spiritual dangers. Any Guru neglecting the Path of Puification in his or her metaphysical system is a false teacher working against the evolutionary tide and spiritual current. It is not beyond the means of any average person to become pure and holy. The difficulty is that people do not see purity or holiness for what it is. They have many erroneous concepts regarding it. For instance, some of us believe that to be holy one has to seclude oneself from society, be celibate, or wear white robes or even tattered clothing. They believe that to be holy one must dress oneself in some special way or wear a certain hairstyle or do strange things, or act a little mad. These are all fallacies. We should all strive for holiness by being what we truly are, and not be what we think ourselves to be. In the name of Light, Life and Love, we appeal to all students to be pure and holy.


A Balanced Approach Towards Metaphysics

In metaphysics or in the occult, the student is requested to take a balanced approach. There are three factors that students have to consider:

1) Knowledge of metaphysical laws, principles, and cosmic truths.

2) Unfoldment of spiritual and psychic senses, faculties, and abilities.

3) Acceleration of one's spiritual development, of one's soul evolution.

The pursuit of these three together in a harmonious way is necessary in developing a well-rounded attainment. When one is over-emphasized and the others compromised as to their importance, then trouble results for the metaphysical student. For instance, too much knowledge without spiritual abilities and a spiritual development results in a poor instrument, one ineffective in the service of men, and one filled with pride and vanity. Psychic abilities without knowledge and a degree of spiritual advancement causes similar symptoms as the above--pride and vanity, together with a poor understanding of what one registers through the psychic centers. Though one be "spiritual," without metaphysical knowledge and understanding one is often deluded and misled by psychic forces. One falls into the trap of glamour and illusion.

To be spiritually developed without adequate knowledge and psychic ability results in one's ineffectiveness in serving humanity. We can see from this that the problem facing the metaphysical student is the correct pursuit and development of those three factors simultaneously. The unfoldment of these three factors causes that Divine Spark (Spirit), the Soul-Flame within us to grow in strength and magnitude. This Spark is threefold. There is a will-power aspect (blue), a love-wisdom aspect (pink) and an intelligence-understanding aspect (yellow). This divine flame, metaphysically, has its location within our physical heart and is about 2 cm in size. It is representative of the Higher Soul within the microcosm which is likewise threefold in nature. Esoteric students of Theosophy, for instance, call these components of the threefold Soul, atma, buddhi, and manas.

Too often metaphysical, occult, or so-called spiritual Gurus teach on the basis of a single approach. This does much harm to the student and to society in the long run, or in the very least, it does no lasting good. Advanced teachers, or true Spiritual Masters would synthesize the above three factors. Their approach as a synthesis of those triune factors, would be practical, instructive, and informative.

Let us look again at those three factors. What do we mean by occult and metaphysical knowledge? By such knowledge we mean of the following :

Knowledge concerning, the origin of Spirit-Man; the origin of human beings; the origin of the solar system; civilizations of unrecorded hstory; the real history of man; man's purpose of being; the progression and the transmission of the ageless teachings throughout the centuries; the origin of religion; the Mystery Schools; the occult anatomy of man; man's latent powers and faculties; the secret teachings and oral tradition of the prophets; the nature and laws governing the higher worlds and man; the application of Cosmic laws; the hidden laws of this three-dimensional world; the principles of counseling and healing; the nature of man, etc.

Now what do we mean by the unfoldment of psychic and spiritual abilities? What are they? Here are just a few: the ability to register spiritual impulses emanating from the Soul, the Spirit, the Spiritual Hierarchy, one's spiritual group, and Master; telepathy; the ability to direct the elements and forces of Nature; spiritual vision; etheric vision; the ability to function consciously in the higher worlds; the ability to attune with the Divine Cosmic Mind; the ability to know the past, present and future; the ability to heal body, mind and soul; the power to create; etc.

And lastly, what do we mean by spiritual development? We means expanding one's consciousness; opening up the intuitive channels; the transcendence of the false ego; the expression of one's divinity; oneness with Nature, God and one's fellow men; the purification of one's thoughts, words, and actions; the realization and awareness of one's true identity, and the unfoldment of all spiritual virtues and attitudes such as sacrifice, renunciation, detachment, steadfastness, endurance, strength, self-control, patience, magnanimity, purity, heroism, truthfulness, generosity, compassion, understanding, love, affection, serenity, faithfulness, altruism, tolerance, reason, devotion, adaptability, sincerity, joy, discernment between the real and the unreal, service, balance, beauty, harmony, creativity, confidence, perception, reverence, sympathy, punctuality, love, tenderness, gratitude, gentleness, harmlessness, inclusiveness, desirelessness, forgiveness, trust, self-discipline, etc.

So far we have used the words occult, metaphysics, and spirituality interchangeably. At this time this suits our purpose, but we have to realize that these terms are not synonymous and each have a specific definition of their own. To these terms we may include mysticism, magick, parapsychology, parapsychic science, and esotericism as each having a definite meaning and yet still connected with metaphysics in general. In the course of one's metaphysical study one would gradually come to realize the fundamental difference.


Humility and Fearlessness

So far, we have already dealt at some length with the qualities that the candidate of metaphysical studies has to possess, such as purity and an open mind. Other important qualities are those of humility and fearlessness.

Humility is the quality of acknowledging the greatness of God as expressing throughout Nature. It is the realization that no matter what one attains or what one becomes there is always room for further growth. Thus, one never view oneself as representing a final attainment such as being the smartest kid in school, for one knows that there are still others much more smarter than oneself. There is always room for improvement. We should not just look down before us, look upwards as well and see that there are others far above us. Reaching one peak allows us to see a higher summit.

There is pride in thinking of being wise or in being stupid. There is also pride in thinking of being rich or in being poor. The writer has often heard people lamenting on how poor they are, and they enjoy saying this and proving it. They would take quite a lot of trouble to prove that they are poor and that none are in as much a need as themselves. This is pride expressing itself, for they fail to see that they possess many of God's precious gifts to them, such as their senses to register impressions, their minds to think, their will to act, and their hands and feet to carry-out their desire; in short, all that is required to manifesting prosperity. Such people are ungrateful beings. In this they show their lack of humility.

When approaching an Occult Master in an egoistic manner, he would most certainly reprimand us verbally . . . or in silence. Such applicants for the teachings are quickly shown the exit. Demanding to be taught indicates one's unreadiness for occultism and metaphysics. Instead of requesting from the Guru the higher teachings, one should come to realize that one still requires the lower teachings and disciplines from the many challenges that life has to offer and instruct us. All of these challenges are simply for the purpose of taming the human ego. The ego when unbridled, is an unfit vessel for metaphysical and spiritual teachings. Where the ego strives, there humility dies.

Fear is one of the obstacles to metaphysical understanding and awareness. Approaching and advancing on the occult path entails facing many enemies and frightening phenomena, the worst of these is our own lower self with its many subconsious projections which in occult circles is called the Dweller on the Threshold. If we wish to pursue occult studies, fearlessness is a paramount virtue to possess, for in truth nothing can hurt us unless we give it the power to do so. One of the maxims of the Great White Brotherhood is to know, to dare, to do, and to be silent. Make this maxim a part of yourself.

In the maxim above the student is advised to be silent. It is disrespectful to the teacher and to the Cosmic to reveal secret and esoteric matters to those unprepared for it. Be ever watchful of your mouth, for as the Master Jesus said: "Do not cast pearls before swines." Silence is a protective quality. It protects the person who keeps silent on sacred matters as well as others who may be inclined to misuse the information. Assume silence when you should be silent and only speak when others are not courageous enough to defend Truth. Silence is golden at the right place and at the right time, and on sacred matters. Students will progress more rapidly should silence be a part of their being. Do not draw attention to yourself. Do not speak of your occult experiences to those unsympathetic to metaphysics, for this would simply provide them with offensive weapons.

In metaphysics too often than not, one may encounter contradictions. These contradictions may just be apparent and not real. Truth is like a cut diamond with its many facets. Keep in mind that what is relatively true is synonymous to being relatively false. However, in cases of contradictions, adopt that which seems more logical to you.

This is an important article and the student is advised to consider it wisely. It is hoped that the student be sincere and apply these teachings that he or she may acquire the virtues that we have referred to. In the days of Atlantis, men misused and abused occult and metaphysical teachings. This was one of the direct reasons why the continent submerged and leaving very few traces as to its geographical location, its place in the memory of men, or in our history books. Many civilizations ended drastically because of the misuse and exploitation of knowledge for selfish ends. People mistakenly believe that the ends justify the means. This is false. The means determines the end. Let us not repeat our ancient mistakes, as it interrupts the evolutionary process and cause the holy ones to weep.

Copyright © 2006 Luxamore
Leonard Lee aka Luxamore
Metaphysical teacher, counseler, healer and merchant of occult/magickal items of Indonesia.
Magickal Items from Indonesia: talismans, mustika pearls, kerises, etc.
Magickal Bezoar Mustika Pearls from Indonesia.