MYSTIC LIGHT: Speaking and Creating "But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof, in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned." (Matthew 12: 36-7) One of the greatest truths which the Western Wisdom Teaching gives us is the one that we are all gods-in-the-making. Some day, we shall be "perfect as the Father is perfect." This is a tremendous fact to ponder. The time will come when each and every one of us will possess the power and love exemplified by the Christ. And we will continue to grow beyond that, for the path leads onward and upward forever. In the past, man was dependent upon Divine Leaders in his journey godward. But now he has reached a stage where he must learn to assert his own initiative. So the gods have left man to his own devices. In order to become a creator, he must seek within himself and draw upon his own creative genius. Since our destiny is to become creators, it will benefit us to study the method which the Great Architect uses in creation. The Bible tells us that ". . . there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one." (I John 5: 7) It is true that God is one, but in the process of creating, He engages in three distinct activities. Each of the members of the Holy Trinity is involved in a specific activity vital to the creative process. The activity of the Father can be conceived of as Will. At the dawn of manifestation, there emerged within God the will to grow, the will to be. Before His omniscient vision, God saw Himself in manifestation, expressing the qualities of His Being in matter. This Will is the activity of the Father. Let us not think that this Will existed only at the beginning. It is the underlying cause of manifestation at all times. The Father must hold that vision of Himself in manifestation continually. When He ceases to do so, the worlds will once again dissolve into primordial matter and chaos will reign. The vehicle of the Father in our system is the invisible, spiritual Sun. It is seen only by the greatest of human seers who describe it as a violet- blue ring around the circumference of the physical Sun. Like the Father, the spiritual Sun is invisible and unmanifest, yet is the cause and purpose behind all that exists. The activity of the Son, or the Word, may be expressed as Love, or Imagination. By His activity of imagination He draws to Himself a plan of sequential stages necessary to bring about the Will of the Father. When primordial matter has been prepared by the Holy Spirit, the Word emits the tones necessary to mold the matter into forms according to the plan He has devised. The vehicle of the Word is the physical Sun, the Light of the World, the Source of all Life in this solar system. By His activity of Love, He draws the planets together to form a system. On the microcosmic level, His is the force of cohesion which binds the atoms together to form molecules. In human lives, Love is the power that draws people together in families and will eventually unite them in universal brotherhood. The activity of the Holy spirit is that of separating the homogeneous primordial matter into separate, individual atoms. He does so by setting them into vibration and tilting their axes to a specified degree. Thus, the activity of the Holy Spirit is the opposite of that of the Son. The Son's is to unite and bind, while the Holy Spirit's is to divide and separate. Both activities are necessary for the evolution of Spirit. The vehicles of the Holy Spirit are the Moons of the planets which have need of His influence. After the Holy Spirit has separated the atoms into individual, building-block units the Son sounds the Creative Fiat and marshals them together to create forms. To understand how the Son creates by the Word is to understand the mystery of creation itself. We know that tone molds matter. A violin bow drawn across a plate with sand on it will cause the sand to arrange itself into geometrical patterns. The occultist knows that each human body has a particular tone. That tone is sounded in the cerebellum, ruled by Taurus. When the identical tone is played softly on an instrument, it can improve our health and strengthen our constitution. When struck loudly and long enough, it can kill us. In fact, every manifested form has its own keynote. The occultist does not doubt the truth in the biblical story of the wall of Jericho, which tells us that rhythmic tramping of soldiers and the blowing of horns crumpled the wall of a city. If the keynote of any object is sounded in a shrill enough way, it will destroy the object, just as sound at a certain pitch can shatter glass. The Word The Word, also known as the Logos, creates by sounding tones of a proper interval to attract matter to it according to the plan it has devised. As the tones change, the forms change correspondingly, and such change provides the basis for involutionary and evolutionary development. In Isaiah, we find the following beautiful description of the work of this principle of creation: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 5 5:11 ) The creative tone is one with the Word Who sends it forth, and thus it carries His life (and Himself) into every form it creates. Therefore the Creator, the creative agent, and the form created are, in reality, one. This explanation will help us to understand one of the most mystic passages in the Bible: the first verses of the Gospel according to John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:1-5) Let us return to our original consideration: man is a creator-in-the- making. Since this is so, he must have the means by which he can create through tone. The larynx is the physical organ by which he might be able to do so, but it will be necessary to trace the development of that organ to determine how the speech of man will someday create directly in matter. Epochs During the Polarian Epoch, man could create a physical body from himself, but could not yet create in thought or word. Man's body, in that far distant past, did not even vaguely resemble the splendid physical vehicle he possesses today. It was a large, baggy object from which an organ of sense-perception protruded. To propagate, these huge baggy creatures divided into halves, but the separate portions did not grow, since man had not yet acquired a vital body. Each remains only half as large as the parent. In the Hyperborean Epoch, man continued to be a hermaphrodite Ä that is, bi-sexual. He could produce another being from himself without cooperation from any other being. Since the vital body was added, man could grow. So, when the baggy bodies separated themselves into two unequal parts, these grew until each had attained the original size of the parent. It was in the Lemurian Epoch when the division of the sexes occurred. The earth separated from the Sun and shortly thereafter threw off the Moon. Some bodies more influenced by the Sun, became masculine, while those more amenable to the lunar forces became female bodies. In previous epochs, the bodies were bent together in a bag-like shape as described, but in the Lemurian Epoch they straightened out and became upright. When they did, part of the creative organ remained with the upper part of the dense body and later developed into the larynx. This is the origin of the connection between the creative force and the larynx. Larynx Previously, each individual had possessed the dual creative force: masculine and feminine. It had worked together in one direction for the purpose of creating another body. But with the separation of the sexes, it divided; half continued to be used for propagation while the other half was sent upward to build the larynx and the brain. So man became a creator in the mental and emotional realms, but at the cost of the god-like status of being a complete creative unit. After the larynx had been built to some extent, the Lemurians became the first to have speech. However, theirs was not a language of vocabulary and grammar, as ours is, because that requires memory, a faculty the Lemurians did not yet possess. Their language was living and creative. The sounds they uttered had power over Nature. Therefore, the Lords of Venus, natives of the planet that rules Taurus, the sign of the larynx, taught the Lemurians to use the power of speech with great reverence, as something most holy. The Lemurians did not abuse their creative ability because they knew themselves to be descendants of the gods and were still in tune with their divine heritage. With the Atlantean Epoch came a change in humanity's speech. Instead of noises like the Lemurians made, the Atlanteans evolved words. The first Atlantean race, the Rmoahals, were still a spiritual race and possessed the Lemurian ability to mold form with their speech. They were the first to give names to things, and their words had power over the things they named. This stage in humanity's development is reminiscent of the story of Adam naming the animals as they passed before him. Since the Rmoahals still recognized their spiritual origins, they never abused their creative power of speech. To them, language was holy, the highest direct expression of the spirit. Separation In the middle of the Atlantean Epoch, we find the beginning of separate nations. With this event came the division of speech into dialects and foreign languages. Man at this time was growing selfish and began to misuse the spiritual powers he still possessed. As a result, black magic flourished. Kings rose up who were ambitious and selfish and were worshiped as gods. Men became drunk with power. The essence of this era of history is captured by the biblical story of the Tower of Babel. With the fifth Atlantean race, the original Semites, thought and reason were evolved. This faculty was gained at the expense of control over the powers of Nature. At this point, language became devoid of power directly to mold the surrounding environment. Thus, no matter how selfish man became, his speech could not prove completely destructive of himself and Nature, as would have been the case had he retained his spiritual powers along with his growing selfishness. Aryana With the beginning of the Aryan Epoch, we developed our present form of language. The Divine Leader who guided a remnant of humanity from flooded Atlantis into the rainbow age of Aryana gave a set of commandments as a standard by which humanity could measure its righteousness. It is noteworthy that two of the ten refer to speech. One is, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." The name of God is one of the secrets most wisely hidden from man until he reaches universal love. If a person knew the sacred name of God and pronounced it with unholy lips, he would not live to pronounce it again. But he who misuses the substitute is also guilty. By learning to respect the substitute, man is becoming qualified to know and use God's holy name. The other commandment is, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." This injunction refers to honest speech Ä to speak the truth. Today we find ourselves in the Aryan Epoch with our language largely devoid of its former creative power. The Word, with which we created directly in Nature, has been lost. Nevertheless, our present-day speech has greater power than we might think. Part of the creative force is still being sent to the larynx as well as the brain. So, when we speak, our words do carry power and we must learn to use correctly these powers before we are qualified for greater powers. When we observe man's attempts at creation, we find disharmony, discord, and ugliness. Yet in Nature, we find the opposite: order, balance, harmony, and beauty. The reason for the discrepancy is that the Son is God's activity of Love, and the Word that goes forth to accomplish His purposes is born of that infinite Love. Man is not yet good and yet he has the free-will to create confusion and discord to a certain extent. Proper Speech Nevertheless, it is our destiny to create what is good, true, and beautiful. Therefore, besides learning to love, we must learn the proper uses of speech. This is being done in two ways: through the ordinary slow process of evolution and through initiation. Ordinary evolution is sufficient to lead all to a proper use of speech. In this regard, certain aids have been given. The first aid is our everyday language. Whether spoken or written, our language is presided over by the great cosmic Law of Cause and Effect. Thus, when we misuse the power of words, we reap the suffering thereof; and when we use our words to help and heal, ue reap numerous benefits. The other assistance we receive is the artistic use of speech. This can take many forms, such as reading out loud, poetry, choral reading, declamation and singing. Thus, we learn to handle the power of speech by our ordinary use of it as well as by our artistic expression through it. Those who are treading the path of initiation, however, must work consciously on their speech. There are three important virtues which will enable us to use our vocal powers properly. They are: truthful speech, helpful speech, and quiet speech. The first is truthful speech. To appreciate the importance of always speaking the truth, let us consider an account given in Acts 5:1-10: Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. . . . a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, bound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people. . . . It is of note that the deceitful speech used by Ananias and Sapphira was a sin against the Holy Ghost. The reflection of the Holy Spirit in man is the creative force, half of which, as mentioned, is directed upward to build the larynx. A misuse of speech, then, is a misuse of the creative force. DeceitÄDeath It is also of note that their deceit led to their death. Death is always the result of the abuse of the creative force, as it was in the Garden of Eden. In this narration, we have a very graphic lesson of the wrongness of dishonest speech. Dishonesty is a perversion of the truth; it is the truth off-center or out-of-context; it is a portion of truth with the rest concealed. Obviously, God could not create our beautiful world from a distorted perspective. The result would be a confused and diseased creation. Yet many human creations are confused and diseased. Therefore, if we wish to tread the path of holiness, let us make sure that all our utterances are true. However, merely refraining from distortions is not enough. We must actively use our speech to do good: to help and heal. If we use it to do ill, we commit a serious offense. James tells us: If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body. Behold, we put bits in the horses' mouths that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. . . even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it dealeth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature. . . (James 3:2Ä5, 6) Creative power is a two-edged sword: it can create beauty or destruction. This fact is amply expressed in Proverbs: A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger. The tongue of the wise useth knowledge aright: but the mouth of fools are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. (Proverbs 15:1- 4) Tree of Life Note that the loving use of speech is called "a tree of life." Once again, we see the connection between the creative force and the power of speech. If our lives are pure, harmless, and filled with love, our speech will reflect kindness. Although this may seem like a small point, we should also learn to remove excessive talking and loud talking. In the article "Sound, Silence, and Soul Growth," Max Heindel states; "The loud voice, the coarse laugh, the noisy manner . . . are the signature of the unregenerate, for they love noise, as it stirs their desire bodies." We should "cultivate personally the quiet yet kindly demeanor, the modulated voice . . . the unobtrusive presence and all the other virtues which make for harmony." (Gleanings of a Mystic, pp. 126-8). Our destiny is to become creators. There are some among us, human like ourselves, who have reached such a point of spirituality that they can create a new body for themselves whenever their work for humanity requires it. They are free from the wheel of rebirth and do not need to pass through the womb. They are like the beings of previous epochs who were complete creative units, except that they can create on all levels and consciously. They are the graduates of the Schools of the Lesser Mysteries and are known as Adepts. When they wish to create for themselves a new physical body, they draw the bi-polar creative force upward through the double spinal cord. This force conceives in the twin cerebral hemispheres a physical body fit for their expression and sends it out to be objectified in the world by the spoken creative word. It is heartening to know that our glorious goal is to become creators like them and to bring into manifestation the Divine Will of the Father. --Robert D. Thomas