on Light (part one Introspection)

Light. What is it? We say we seek it in the Western Esoteric Tradition, but what are we seeking here?

St John 1:4/1:5 "In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

On one level, Light is that intuitive and inspirational knowledge that one gets while contemplating a subject or object. If focused, one can see the reality behind what was focused on. It is the literal and figurative light bulb that comes on over the head of a person depicted in modern illustrations. It is that 'aha' moment when we didn't see the solution before, although it was right in front of our face and now we do. It is the Light that shines upon darkness! We all have it to a degree. We all use it one way or another, but do we have access to it on greater levels?

What if we turn this Light towards ourselves, our inner selves, in order to introspect and understand ourselves better? "know Thyself" How can we accomplish this?

One way is to look at a specific feeling, emotion, or thought that we are having and trace it back intellectually as far as possible. Using our imagination to assist us and doing this until all our intellectual / reasoning faculties are exhausted, then letting it all go and await The Light to shine on the subject! Centering prayer helps one reach this 'calming of the waters' of the mind, and once the waters are calm, they can reflect the Light more clearly! This is a 'circular' type of introspection were one can be in Light, get the information, go back to intellectual thinking, reasoning, back to imagination, back to the calmness, back to Light, back to intellectualizing and so on.

Honesty and Purity of motive in searching for truth is important here. We have to be honest enough to let go of all preconceived ideas about what the answer could be. We cannot force the Light to answer things 'our way'. We have to have the purity of motive to search for the truth, no matter how that could effect us.

Writing is also very helpful in introspection, it helps to *verbalize* ourselves. Once verbalized, we can see ourselves in others... understand others better as we understand ourselves better... For we are closer to each other more than we might think!

in LVX,
a +brother

Karma take two

Is karma a simple law of cause and effect? Is it mechanical? Does it have a purpose? Is it simply so that people that harm will 'get theirs'?

Karma has purpose and direction! It is conscious meaning it has intelligence! Karma interplays with the river of Life!

Karma has purpose so it is not a simple law of cause and effect. Its purpose is nothing less than OUR SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION! It has a specific direction that it leads us. It's lessons are there for us to learn what we have done to another so that we can grow. This growth will lead to increasing Spiritual Power and we learn to use it responsibly... Karma is directing us towards that Spiritual Evolution.


Karma is conscious and intelligent so that when we reap what we so, it is not simply a mechanical law of the universe, but rather is pointing us to a Spiritual lesson that we've missed or have yet to learn. When bad things happen to us and we are capable of tracing the roots back, maybe we can understand the WHY. If we don't learn this lesson, we keep repeating it and keep 'paying for it'... even through lifetimes... until we do. Karma will make us feel the way we made others feel so that we LEARN and EVOLVE!! Karma is not sadistic in that even when we learn we still have to 'pay' the karmic debt. Our Karma is released once we learn the lesson, so we can move onto another one!

Life and Karma interplay in a very sophisticated yet simple pattern. If we raise our perspective and look from a standpoint on this pattern, this fabric of Life, we can see how 'good' and 'bad' interplay with each other to sow the fabric of life. A 'bad' spot on the fabric from a higher view can be seen as a part of the most beautiful mosaic! Maybe instead of focusing 'good' or 'bad' in life, we should focus on Life herself and see the Karmic events in the direction Life is leading us?

Once we know that the underlying fabric of Life is made of Love and Light (understanding) then we may realize that Life itself is a manifestation of these two great forces which melt into one... LOVE! Love once KNOWN on all levels will erase Karma because it contains Light which is Understanding the WHY. Love will resolve and melt 'good' and 'evil' because it contains them both and reconciles both... Love reconciles duality! Love will reconcile and so transform us!

So, what do we do about all this? How do we reconcile 'good' and 'evil'? We melt ourselves in LOVE, that essence of the ALL.

in Love, Light, and Life,
a +brother