Tableau 12

The tableau for this week is:

| 14 | 15 | 16 | | 17 | 18 | 19 |

The magic square is:

In both arrangements the central Key is No. 15, THE DEVIL. The constant summation of the magic square is 45. It shows our consciousness of the overshadowing presence of the One Identity (Key 9) as the consequence of the operation of Intuition (Key 5) through reason (Key 4). Thus, this tableau shows intuition as the source of material upon which reason works, to the end that we may become truly responsive to the One Identity. Key 15 shows what brings us to this awareness. Key 9 is the Tarot representation of that awareness itself.

It is almost noteworthy that the constant summation of the magic square is the number of the word ADM, Adam (A=1, D=4, M=40). Thus, we may expect to find that this square of Tarot Keys yields some definite answer to the question, "What is man?" Again, 45 is the extension of 9, or sum of the numbers from 0 to 9, so that the constant summation of the magic square points to the complete expression of the power represented by the 9th Key.

If we put all these ideas together, it begins to be evident that here the Tarot is reminding us: 1. That reason is not limited to past experience, or the sense-life, for materials. It may receive material from above its own level. And when that higher knowledge comes down, it must be just as carefully classified, and just as carefully fitted into our reasoned constitution of the universe, as anything learnt from observation, as anything called forth from memory, or as anything suggested by imagination. The Emperor, in other words, does not surrender his rule, at his own level, even to the Hierophant, and reason must check up on intuition, before intuition can be of use here on our present level of human operation.

2. That although awareness of the One Identity comes to us intuitively, that intuition is not complete realization. To attain to realization, the intuition must be clearly perceived at the conscious level of reason, and that level built into our mental scheme of the cosmic order. This is necessary because full realization of our relation to the One Identity requires certain definite changes in our bodies, both as to structure and chemistry. It is perfectly true that the merely natural man cannot receive the higher knowledge of the spirit. It is also true that the bodily changes which enable him to receive that knowledge must be effected through the agency of the subconscious mind. But the subconscious mind is normally under the direction of the self-conscious levels of awareness. True it is that, as Key 6 intimates, we may so train sub-consciousness that she will act as the reflector of super-conscious knowledge into our field of personal awareness. Yet to give us the full realization, sub-consciousness must change or transmute our physical bodies, and this it cannot do unless we accept such transformation as not only possible, but reasonable. This is the inner significance of that passage which says: 'I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not confirmed to this world: but be yet transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.' Note, too, that Key 9 represents Intelligence of Will.

3. That the place of man in the cosmic order is precisely to act as the agency whereby the Cosmic Will may be provided, or tested or tried. Man, where evolution leaves him, is ready for transformation. Evolution can carry him no farther along the path. A thousand generations hence will find no man liberated from conformity to 'this world,' unless he participates in his own self-evolution. The unique position of man among all creatures that we know anything about is that he can change his body by changing his mind, and thus provide himself with a new instrument through which the Life-Power may manifest the higher levels of its infinite potencies.

Faith is required for this, but all the attributions of Key 11, which represents the Faithful Intelligence, show us that this is no blind faith. The properly instructed student of Ageless Wisdom has a deep and abiding faith, but it is rooted in observation, and perfected by reason. The problems of life do not look less terrifying to an occultist than they do to an ordinary man. The difference is that the practical occultist has been through a course of training which makes him know that no problem is really so bad as it looks. Furthermore, as he advances in his experimental work, he learns that there are other sources of knowledge and power than those which are reported to us by our senses. He is not sense-bound, for when he begins to succeed in his practical work, he becomes actually a new creature. His outward appearance may not be strikingly different from that of the rest of humanity. His inner life, however, is of a very different kind. He knows himself to belong to what is virtually a new species on this planet – a species, so to say, self-generated. (Keys 11, 15, 19)

In the passage just quoted from St. Paul, the original Greek says: “Be not fashioned in accordance with this age.” Such is the invariable message of the Ageless Wisdom. Therefore are its adepts invariably strangers among their own kin, men and women whose course of life is looked upon with distrust, and unless they conceal their aims and convictions, such persons are often denounced and persecuted. What is the fashion, in any age, is never the Inner Truth, for fashions change under the influence of the race sub-consciousness. The practical occultist aims to reverse conditions by reversing his thought, first of all. His views are in nearly every respect the exact opposites of those held by the merely natural man. Listen, for example, to Eliphas Levi, who tells us of the Great Magical Agent, in these words: “The Astral Light is the key of all dominion. It is the first physical manifestation of the Divine Breath. The Gnostics represented it as the burning body of the Holy Ghost. It is represented on ancient monuments by the serpent devouring its own tail. It is the Hyle of the Gnostics. Lastly, it is the devil of exoteric dogmatism.” That is to say, it is what Tarot represents by Key 15. But what a reversal of common opinion to say that the “key of all dominion” is “the devil of exoteric dogmatism!” Small wonder that the sages have suffered martyrdom in every age when the herd-mind has had the upper hand in the affairs of men! The great problem the practical occultist has to face is one which assumes protean forms. It is the problem of his own ignorance, and particularly the problem of his ignorance as to the reversal of the currents of the Astral Light. He who solves this problem can rule all things, for he can so change his physical body that it may be used as an instrument for the direction of modes of force which would consume the ordinary physical vehicle of human personality. (Keys 12, 15, 18)

“Dissolution,” say the alchemists, “is the secret of the Great Work,” and they represent dissolution by the symbol which you see on Key 10 of Tarot, just above the letter “R” on the wheel. This you know also as the symbol of the sign Aquarius, the Water-Bearer. The sign Aquarius is the particular one which has greatest influence in the age we are now entering. It is peculiarly the sign of Man, and is represented on Keys 10 and 21 by the man’s head in the upper left-hand corner of the card. Thus, it is toward what this sign represents that the Fool, in Key 0, is looking. In chemistry, dissolution is now termed analysis, and this is what is meant by the alchemical dictum quoted at the beginning of this paragraph. Every problem has first to be analyzed. Its component parts must be separated from each other and carefully measured. In Key 15 we have the picture of many parts put together in disorderly, or chaotic, fashion. To understand this picture of the Devil, we must take it to pieces. Then only do we see that what it really represents is something that is both male and female, something that is found in all the elements (wings=Air, eagle's talons=Water, goat's horns and gross body=Earth, torch=Fire). Then it dawns upon us that the whole design represents a disorderly combination of forces, and the reversed pentagram at the top of the picture gives us the key to the cause of the disorder. It is when man's ignorance reverses his true position of dominion over the elements that trouble comes. And, in general, breaking every problem into its parts is valuable because it shows us where those parts fit into the cosmic order. And thus analysis leads to synthesis, and synthesis is what unveils the beautiful truth behind the ugly face of every problem. (Keys 13, 15, 17)

I previously stated that man must participate in his self-evolution if he is to advance to higher levels than those represented by the consciousness of the herd-mind. Yet you must not understand form this that Ageless Wisdom holds that man has a power which he may contribute to the Great Work, or may, if he chooses, withhold from it. For then man would be more powerful than the Universal Spirit whence he came, and could defeat the purposes of that Spirit. To be exact, it is not until work of the Spirit upon us has so changed us, that we do consciously realize what is going on within us, that we can be said to participate in the Great Work. Those, for example, who reject the Ageless Wisdom, cannot accept it, and this is also declared by St. Paul when he says: 'The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.' Up to a certain point, we are all the subjects of the work of transmutation. Beyond that point we become participants. From this time on there is a subtle, but very real change in our mental attitude. We no longer fear problems. We welcome every problem as a fresh opportunity. As I said before, the problems do not look any less terrifying, but they no longer terrify us. And because we know ourselves to be centers of expression for a power wise and strong enough to resolve every problem into its component parts and bring those parts together again into orderly arrangement, we face every problem boldly and without bitterness of heart. The state of mind I am now describing does not come all at once. It is preceded by the break-up of a great many structures of false knowledge. Storm and stress precede the calm of serene meditation. Thus the Psalmist tells us that a heart utterly shattered and broken is not despised by God. By which he means that until we have dissolved our subconscious complexes of erroneous opinion, based on our acceptance of the illusion of separateness as being not an illusion but an actual reality, there is no possibility of advancing beyond the state of bondage to problems and circumstance which is the ordinary predicament of the natural man. (Keys 14, 15, 16)

Remember that the transformation begins with faith. For faith, be it understood, is not in these days exclusively limited to religion, philosophy, or metaphysics. Our modern scientists exercise a degree of faith that surpasses in its intensity anything achieved by the religious devotee. Nobody ever saw an electron, but a few scientists doubt their existence. And as this is being written, Dr. Crile has just told a Cleveland audience that in every cubic inch of our muscles, there are probably 4,000,000,000 tiny points of radiant energy, each of which has a temperature from 3,000 to 6,000 degrees centigrade. His faith in the presence of these tiny hot points in our bodies is a reasonable faith, justified by the fact that protoplasm emits ultra-violet rays. Hence he argues correctly that, since we know it takes a temperature of at least 3,000 degrees to produce ultra-violet rays, there must be these high temperatures in extremely diminutive hot points in our muscles. We do not feel the heat because the points are so small that they do not affect our senses. This discovery of Dr. Crile’s, by the way, is a direct confirmation of the old occult doctrine that man is a microcosm, and the newspaper dispatch in which it is reported by The Associated Press says: “We may say that protoplasm is a Milky Way consisting of ‘solar systems’ infinitely diminutive, each created in its own image by the sun’s radiance. So, step by step, does the advance of science confirm the ancient doctrines of occultism, and strengthen our reasonable conviction that human life is related to, and dependent upon, the world-organism. The whole universe flows through us, and the very stuff our bodies are made of is structurally a miniature copy of the stars of heaven. This fiery energy is the basis of our existence as human personalities, and the particular form of it which holds the greatest possibilities for us is that which ordinarily finds expression through the reproductive function. When we know the nature of this energy, we can control its currents, and reverse their ordinary operation. It is by this means that we may emerge from the bondage of the natural man into the freedom of the higher order of being, for which “natural humanity” is but the seed-form. And in so emerging from natural humanity, we shall be released, as our final demonstration, from the bondage to death which the Bible rightly describes as the “last enemy.” (Keys 11, 12, 13)

Meditation is one of the most important practices involved in our release from natural humanity. It is primarily a state of intentional receptivity to the spiritual life that flows into our field of personality from super-conscious levels. We must open ourselves to that life in order to mediate. At the same time we must keep self-consciousness on the alert, and hold our attention to some specific object towards which, or around which, the stream of intelligence which comes from higher levels may be directed. Right meditation should be aimed always at the co-ordination of all our energies, as hinted by the balanced arrangement of stars in Key 17, and this co-ordination has a physical result. Meditation is not merely a mental process. It changes the physical body, modifies its chemistry and structure. For our emergence from natural humanity is just as definitely a physiological modification as is the emergence of the natural man from the animal kingdom. If we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, it is not less true that the result of the transformation is a real regeneration, to which the wise refer when they say we must be born again. (Keys 17, 18, 19)

Meditations

FIRST DAY: Keys 11, 15, 19. Today I have fresh opportunities to adjust and adapt the forces of life. Those opportunities come as the problems I shall meet this day. Through solving them, I may become a new creature. I HAVE POWER TO ADJUST ALL DIFFICULTIES, FOR I AM A DIRECT EXPRESSION OF THE RULING POWER OF THE UNIVERSE.

SECOND DAY: Keys 12, 15, 18. Today I set myself to reverse my former errors. Let me remember that whatever frightens me does so because I have not learned its meaning. Let me press onward in the way of liberation, towards the goal of enlightenment. I AM THE AGENT OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE. IT KNOWS MY PROBLEMS, AND IS SHAPING MY VERY FLESH TO THE END THAT I MAY SOLVE THEM.

THIRD DAY: Keys 13, 15, 17. I am transformed by the renewing of my mind. There is no bondage for me save that of my own ignorance. That bondage I dissolve today through calm meditation. I ANALYZE MY PROBLEMS, AND DISCERN THE OPPORTUNITIES THEY HOLD FOR ME, THROUGH MY PRACTICE OF CALM MEDITATION ON THEIR TRUE MEANING.

FOURTH DAY: Keys 14, 15, 16. I see myself today as the subject of the Great Work of spiritual transmutation. My bondage, however real it may appear to be, is only a delusion. It will end when I am released from the prisons of error I have built myself. THE ONE SELF IS WORKING THROUGH ME TO SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM AND RELEASE ME FROM ALL ERRONEOUS OPINION.

FIFTH DAY: Keys 11, 12, 13. My faith is grounded in reason. I entrust myself to a cosmic order for which I have abundant evidence. Not even death frightens me, for I know its purpose. I AM POISED AND SECURE IN THE MIDST OF CHANGE.

SIXTH DAY: Keys 17, 18, 19. Today, in silent mediation, I shall catch a new glimpse of truth. For I am being transformed bodily by the new knowledge I am receiving. The process of regeneration is at work within me. AS I SEE TRUTH, I AM TRANSFORMED INTO A MORE PERFECT LIKENESS OF MY SPIRITUAL ORIGIN.

SEVENTH DAY: Pattern on the Trestle Board only.