As is so often reiterated in our lessons, no one, not even a true spiritual teacher, can magically lift you to higher levels of attainment. All a true teacher can do to help you grow is to give you the methods and show you the map for the journey you must make! You have to tread the path yourself. No one can tread it for you. A spiritual teacher, however, can intensify your aspiration while instructing you and preparing you for your journey.

When one reaches the point of true aspiration he realizes from the depth of his soul that there is nothing, but nothing, that is more important than transmutation of his own personality so that it can become a perfected instrument for the Higher Soul within which we all live. We all share this Higher Soul, but this does not take away from each person's own unique and eternal individuality. Actually, it adds to it. We must come to a point where we realize that this is all that matters, because all of us must drop the physical body sooner or later. What are we going to have when this temporary vehicle is dropped? We will have our emotional, mental and spiritual development. The rest -- the personality foibles, the heartaches and even the immature pleasures -- fall away. They have been an interplay of cosmic forces. It is what our evolving consciousness has received from this interplay of inter-personal relationships (whether they have seemed to be fulfilling or frustrating) that is important. Our inter-personal relationships are the proving ground for what we are! Qabalistic teaching has always held that whatever cosmic principles we have grasped or not yet grasped can only be verified in and through the impacts and associations that come between the various thinking, feeling and reacting beings here on the physical plane.

We finally arrive at a point where we realize that we must go to work on our own personal responses to our selves, to other human beings, and to life in general. All our responses to life are responses to the vibratory expression of the One Life. Those who are familiar with recent scientific findings know that there is no longer any question regarding the non-material basis of all physical phenomena. All physical objects are caused by an interplay of cosmic forces. Everything that exists has a specialized vibratory rate within an electro-magnetic area of space. We are all conscious expressions of the Lord of Life. We are no more separate from the Source of our being than we are separate from the creations we make in our minds. The difference is only in level or degree (vibratory rate of motion).

The true Qabalistic teaching, encompassing Tarot and the Tree of Life, has always taught that the entire universe is a vibratory formula; different waves (wave lengths) within the One Sea of Life. Because the physical universe has been correctly perceived as having a non-material basis, some have wrongly decided that it is an illusion or a delusion. Some partially developed teachers have experienced levels of awareness which give them true enough knowledge that all experience is colored by the level of evolution, perception and understanding of the one who experiences it. Those who become aware of this type of Samadhi or Nirvana sometimes come to the conclusion that the physical plane is unreal. Actually this is just one portion of the total picture. Mystically they have seen that everything is whirling energy, whirling motion. So from this they decide that the physical world is not real. Where they go astray is in their misinterpretation of the vibratory aspects of manifestation. What we must learn is that this experience of the non-physical basis of the physical universe does not mean that the physical level is an illusion or a delusion. It is just that consciousness has not yet learned how to understand, and utilize completely, the vibratory level that we call the physically manifested universe.

In Qabalah the physical universe (Malkuth) is called the flower of God. The flower is something very lovely indeed, is it not? What we are doing in occult work is expanding our ability to interpret the significance of vibration, and thus expanding our control and mastery of the physical plane. Actually we are the way the Divine Consciousness can experience certain unique aspects of Its Selfhood. We reside within all the vibratory levels of the Most High. The different levels are like the various depths within a vast ocean of consciousness. It depends upon the amount of discrimination we have and the use to which we put these vibratory awarenesses as to whether they will be beneficial or destructive.

Published by BUILDERS OF THE ADYTUM, B.O.T.A. ---- Copyright 1967
5105 North Figueroa Street, Los Angeles 42, Calif., Telephone Clinton 5-7141
Vol. 8 ---- 1967 ---- No. 1 ---- Page 7