Tableau 9

The tableau for this week is:

| 11 | 12 | 13 | | 14 | 15 | 16 |

The magic square is:

In both arrangements Key 12, THE HANGED MAN, is at the center. The constant summation of the magic square is 36. It shows responsiveness (Key 9), expressing the power of discrimination (Key 6), through creative imaginative (Key 3). Key 12 represents the principal means for balancing the forces symbolized by these Keys. Key 9 shows the outcome of this.

Keep in mind this week the various complementary opposites shown in the tableau. Key 12 represents the agency through which are carried the actions and reactions of 8 and 16, 9 and 15, 10 and 14, 11 and 13. Key 11 balances Keys 8 and 14. Key 13 is the equilibrating unit between Keys 10 and 16. Key 15 mediates between Keys 14 and 16. Study each of these groups of three Keys, and record in your diary whatever ideas they may suggest.

One reason for dealing with the Tarot Keys as we are doing in this Section is to show how the forces they represent act and react upon each other. No single force can be wholly insolated. Thus the very same word TAROT is made from the letters of the Latin noun ROTA, a wheel. Every part of a wheel is in relation to every other part. All the parts move together. The force symbolized by any one Tarot Key is correlated with the forces represented by all the others. Thus the make-up of Tarot brings home to us the fact that all the activities of our lives are aspects of a fundamental unity. It is his higher spiritual consciousness which enables man to apprehend the Whole. His intellectual consciousness sees only the parts. The divisions are in his mind, not in the true nature of Reality. No lesson of the Ageless Wisdom is more important than this. It serves to correct a whole brood of errors.

The mode of consciousness attributed to Key 8 has a long name – Intelligence of the Secret of all Spiritual Activities. First of all, it means that there are no unspiritual activities. Everything in your experience expresses the power of the Life-Breath. The Great Secret, pictured by Key 8, is that all the subhuman expressions of that Life-Breath are at all times subject to the control of the human sub-consciousness. This truth, which has been repeated again and again in these lessons, is of paramount importance to every practical occultist. It is his means of utilizing an unlimited supply of energy. It is the secret of his power.

The conscious mind, as a rule, must learn this truth from the instruction of a teacher. Very gifted observers learn it by watching the course of nature. Once perceived, however learned in the first place, this truth becomes a new foundation for our interpretations of experience. Taken in conjunction with the other truth which modern psychology has so definitely established -that the human subconsciousness is always and automatically amenable to suggestions originating in the conscious mind – the absolute subordinancy of all subhuman levels of the Life-Power’s activity – becomes evident. Then it appears that our task begins in the conscious mind, with our conscious interpretations.

There follows naturally the perception symbolized by Key 12. We come to see that the way to secure results opposite from those which we find restrictive and painful is to reverse our conscious attitude toward life. We can see easily enough that what most persons think is wrong. Thus, it becomes evident that those exceptional persons who astound us by their mastery of nature owe their ability to an exceptional mental attitude. Over and over again such persons assure us that they accept the point-of-view represented by THE HANGED MAN. Their perceptions and statements vary somewhat, but the gist of their doctrine is this: “I have not done these things. They were accomplished by a power higher than myself, working through me.”

The thoughts and actions of these persons are always more or less terrifying to the rest of the world. Often they are regarded as being enemies of society. Their ideas and practices are condemned, as offering a threat to existing institutions. In a sense this is true. The present state of society would soon be overthrown if all men lived as these few live. The existing social order (or disorder) is founded upon fear and upon the delusion of separateness. It is a system of organized selfishness. It could not long survive amongst human beings who were released from the bondage of fear, and cured by right knowledge of the ignorant supposition that any man lives for himself only. (Keys 8, 12, 16)

Ageless Wisdom tells us that everything is under the supervision of a universal beneficent Consciousness. It says that the world and all events therein are expressions of the Will of a single Knower. It counsels us to place our whole dependence upon that Will. They who are best versed in its teaching astonish their contemporaries by their extraordinary command of the forces of nature and their freedom from the bondage of circumstance which enslaves most of mankind. They agree that their secret is simple. As Jesus put it, they do the will of the Father.

A child can grasp this idea and put it into operation, but it is too simple for persons caught in the web of delusion. Such persons point to the semblances of evil in the world and ask how, if there be a beneficent Supervisor over the whole scheme, such conditions (which those critics usually term “grim realities”) can possibly exist? They ignore the fact that those who apply themselves wholeheartedly to living the life of surrender are invariably happy and healthy, find their wants met, and truly enjoy themselves.

The critics pooh-pooh the esoteric doctrine that their “grim realities” are not realities at all, but are, instead, waking nightmares produced by a sort of hypnotism which affects certain levels of the race-mind. They are victims of that hypnosis themselves, and like persons having a bad dream, cannot perceive that it is preposterous from beginning to end. Sooner or later even they will be awakened to the truth. In the meantime, we must not accept their specious arguments. After all, Ageless Wisdom can cite a long line of conspicuously successful men and women who have said that their secret was the simple one of surrender to the guidance of the One Will. The critics have no such evidence to offer in support of their views. They are defeatists, every one, and the logical outcome of their influence in the world is the sorry spectacle of our so-called “civilization.” (Keys 9, 12, 15)

Grasp, or comprehension, is the root-idea of Key 10. The entire symbolism of that Key is based on the Hebrew letter Kaph, which represents the hand in the act of grasping. When one grasps a tool he is ready to use it. When one grasps mentally the actual significance of human personality in the universal scheme, he can employ that knowledge as a means to effect his release from bondage. For the bondage is lack of comprehension. All the forces of the cosmos are ready to work for the man who perceives his true relation to them. It is hard for most of us to realize that our states of body and circumstance are primarily dependent upon our comprehension of relationships. The connection is by no means obvious, and the natural man loves the obvious. Yet there is a way to get beyond the limitations of the natural man. It is the way of surrender. This it is that is meant by the ever-recurring theme of renunciation which runs through all the books of wisdom. What is renounced, remember, is a delusion – the error that any of us is separate from the beneficent order of the universe. When practice has made this renunciation a subconscious habit, then one becomes ever more and more aware of the guidance of a higher Intelligence. Then the way to heights of achievement and realization opens before us, and we begin the ascent which leads at last to perfect blending of personal aspiration with the Cosmic Will. (Keys 10, 12, 14)

Faith is required for such surrender, but not a blind faith based on unquestioning acceptance of dogma. It is a reasoned faith, growing out of the imaginative development of knowledge which is available for anyone who will master the technique of closely scrutinizing what goes on in his environment and in his inner life. Lack of attention is responsible for our erroneous opinions. We do not see what we look at. Hence, we draw false conclusions from our faulty observations. Then these false conclusions become the promises which subconscious deduction elaborates into systems of error and defeat. If we practice concentration, so that we observe accurately, we cannot help reading the message of the Book of Nature. When we see what we look at, we store our memories with correct representations of reality. Then we make correct deductions, and the fruit of these deductions is a faith nothing can shake. Out of that faith comes full surrender to the inevitable perfection of the cosmic process. As a consequence of that surrender, even death loses its terror, transforms its dreadful countenance, and at last is overcome completely (Keys 11, 12, 13)

I cannot too often remind you that subconscious response to conscious mental attitudes is wholly automatic. Sub-consciousness is like a garden. If you plant weeds, it grows them just as vigorously as if you plant flowers. It has no choice, and can offer no opposition. Thus you need never concern yourself with practices designed to overcome subconscious resistance. It is true that time is required to exhaust the consequences of former errors. Correct procedure, however, consists merely in repeating the assumption of correct mental attitudes again and again, until new habits have been formed. It is like learning to maintain a proper bodily posture. At first there are many relapses into the old wrong attitudes, but as time passes and honest effort continues, these become less and less. The most fruitful thought upon which you can dwell is that which is symbolized THE HERMIT. It is the thought that there is always to be reckoned as part of one’s daily life the overshadowing presence of One who knows, understands, and lights the way for our upward progress. Made habitual, this thought works subconsciously to bring us into harmonious adjustment with the sweep of the cycles of cosmic activity. Then we find the wheels within wheels of the Life-Power’s manifestation are working together to bring to fruition the realization of our aspirations. (Keys 8, 9, 10)

Constant endeavor to verify our theories should be our aim. Again and again I have had people tell me: “All this sounds so true, so logical, when I hear your lectures or read your lessons. But when I get out into the world, how can I make it work?” First of all, try to keep some part of your consciousness from ever “getting out into the world.” The truth of things is not to be found on their surfaces. Try acting as if these doctrines of Ageless Wisdom were true. Remember that THOUGHT IS A KIND OF ACTION. Let yourself be directed by what Key 14 pictures as an angel. Pause many times daily to remind yourself of that guidance. Nothing is too small to turn over to it, nor is anything too great. Try it, and you will soon find this out for yourself. In the course of every day’s activities, there crop up all sorts of problems. Remind yourself continually that however terrifying they may be, that appearance is due to your ignorance of some factor involved. The ignorance, moreover, is purely personal. Your real Self already knows the right answer. The more you invite its direction, the speedier will come the solution of your difficulties. You will probably have to abandon opinions long held. It may be necessary for you to demolish many a structure of misapprehension. In due course, however, there will be less and less conflict. Keep on exercising yourself in right thinking. Eventually you will reap from your subconscious mentation nothing but a rich harvest of constructive realizations. (Keys 14, 15, 16)

Meditations

FIRST DAY: Keys 8, 12, 16. Every activity of my world is a spiritual activity. Every particular manifestation of that activity is related to every other, and each depends upon the whole. Nowhere is there any real separateness or isolation. THE ONE SPIRIT IS MY SOLE SUPPORT: ITS POWER DEMOLISHES ALL STRUCTURES OF DELUSION.

SECOND DAY: Keys 9, 12, 17. My life and its needs are fully known by the One Identity. I rest calmly in this knowledge. I meditate on it daily and hourly. MY WAY IS LIGHTED BY THE LAMP OF WISDOM: AS I STILL THE TUMULT OF MY PERSONAL THINKING, THAT LIGHT SHINES AS A STAR TO LEAD ME ONWARD.

THIRD DAY: Keys 10, 12, 18. Every cycle of the Life-Power's manifestation brings me nearer to my heart's desire. Let me be free from all sense of struggle. The law of perfection is now at work in all my members. THE

WHIRL OF MANIFESTATION TURNS ROUND THE STILL CENTER, WHERE I STAND AT REST, FILLED IN MIND AND BODY WITH THE POWER OF THE ETERNAL PRESSENCE.

FOURTH DAY: Keys 11, 12, 19. All waste is eliminated from my life-experience. I do nothing of myself. The Life-Power is transforming me, moment by moment, into a more perfect image of itself. POISE IS MINE THIS DAY, AND PEACE, AND I SEE THAT EVERY CHANGE IS FOR THE BETTER.

FIFTH DAY: Keys 8, 9, 10. All the forces of subconsciousness are at my instant command. I am a direct channel for the Master and Supervisor of the universe. My place is truly at the very center of the wheel of existence. NOTHING IS OR CAN BE MY ADVERSARY, FOR I AM ONE WITH THE DIVINE ESSENCE AT THE HEART OF ALL THINGS.

SIXTH DAY: Keys 14, 15, 16. The path of supremacy is open before me. I fear no appearances, whatever be their masks of terror. For I see there is no separateness anywhere. JOYFULLY I ACCEPT EVERY TEST, MEET EVERY PROBLEM CONFIDENTLY, FOR I KNOW I CANNOT BE SEPARATED FROM THE WISDOM AND GOODNESS OF THE ETERNAL.

SEVENTH DAY: Use the Pattern