The disciple. The spiritual student. Fellow companions, it is we as humanity who is the World Disciple. We are the spiritual student. We are the ones who progress toward greater light and love. Indeed, the Path of Discipleship belongs to all of us, whether consciously realized or not. Remember, there are varying levels of awareness. Although we all participate in the same wonderful journey, not everyone is at the same level of understanding, or point of development. This path, this path that we travel, is indeed a battleground, for the most part, and for quite a long time. It is a battleground within, and a battleground without. The battleground we face is very difficult at times. This is a simple truth very few can deny. But, I tell you, this battle can be won. I tell you, we are winning it every day. The true disciple is a human being who fights for light and love, and makes every attempt to make it available for everyone. The spiritual student fights for a higher understanding that will provide the simple realization that each of us is becoming more in every moment of every day. The human being fights for a feeling within the heart, and a knowing within the mind, that the soul is the real self, and is in fact, the one who provides the light and love sought. A pursuit of the most important relationship ensues. This real self is realized in every moment of willingness, in every effort put forth, and every healing gained. It is critical for each of us to understand that this most necessary battle, this challenging path we travel, is not ultimately accomplished alone, but together. In this highest of understandings, we have every promise that we will succeed. Together, my friends, we have already won. Is it not true in those realest of moments?
Humanity enters this great battle in the great sign of Scorpio. The twelve astrological signs are the twelve divine archetypes of every soul. Each sign indicates a phase, or specific area of development, in the ongoing journey of the soul. It provides a well-roundedness, if you will, a richness, a wholeness, that is truly indescribable as of yet. The energies of Scorpio, as they apply to humanity as the World Disciple, are held, and given, by great beings of light, love and purpose. Again, these powerful energies are being offered to us today. Let us accept them. These energies are essentially tools that we need in order to be successful in this battle. Indeed, the spiritual disciple is the spiritual warrior. This warrior brings forth strength, courage, and willingness. The warrior also, undoubtably, brings to us a powerful dedication and commitment that will ensure all success. The warrior has light, which cuts through all illusion and deception. The warrior has love, which allows all to come together in one united effort. The warrior has a sensed purpose that anything and everything that is possible to achieve can and will be achieved. We have it all. We can do it all.
Today, humanity confronts its old self. This old self has been entirely selfish and self-serving. Again, a necessary and unavoidable part of our development. This old self has been afraid, unwilling to move forward, unwilling to change, unwilling to take charge of life, to direct life toward its greater glory. This old self has been separative, believing there is only one person and one way. This old self has forgotten the glory from which it came, and has therefore failed to bring forward this glory to a new place. Dearest brothers and sisters, this old self is no longer. The new self has arrived. A new way is ours. Our mission is to establish this new self, which is essentially a group-awareness and orientation, a group endeavor and enterprise, yes, an entirely new way of being and living, right here, right now.
The sign of Scorpio is represented by the scorpion. A painful sting, indeed. This is symbolic, of course, for all things just outside our awareness always are. But, my friends, does everything important always have to be symbolic, remain where it is, never to be brought forward in any significant and meaningful way? Remember our goal, that is, practicality. The sting of the scorpion is essentially our projection of ourselves onto others. Understandably, we want to be free of our pain. But, you see, our misunderstanding is that we believe we must have company in this pain. Our realization must be that hurting others will only increase their pain, a pain they already share with us, and inevitably, will only increase our own. Dear friends, from a purely mental perspective, a perspective we sorely need today, this is simply the universal reality of cause and effect. Perhaps this projection returns to us as guilt. Guilt can be a great teacher, but only if it is recognized for what it is. Ultimately it is a temporary tool. In other words, it becomes a useless tool when it consistently, and always, takes us back around the same circle, over and over again. The solution is thoughtful words and thoughtful actions. The World Disciple learns about the importance of ownership and sameness. Two of the keys to our eventual freedom.
One of the most significant aspects of this great battle is a constant confrontation with deception. What will we do? What is real, what is unreal? What is true, what is untrue? Friends, we believe what we want to believe, but we never seem to take a moment and ask ourselves why. We adhere to the truth we believe we have found, but require no proof of it. The honest spiritual student, the true disciple, will provide all effort to become the investigator of truth, or untruth, as the case may be, and often is. Why? Because we must have the experience ourselves to really know. Even if this experience is temporary, and incomplete, and all experience is, we will give our beliefs, what we believe to be true, an opportunity to be real, even for a short while. Again, to see, to know. It is the process of creation. It is experience. Let us use the intelligence we have been given to seek knowledge. Knowledge of truth. Truth is freedom. Freedom is truth. Experience will show us.
The Path of Discipleship reveals the nature of opposites. Oh yes, Scorpio introduces us to darkness. This darkness is fear. I understand our goal is to find the light. But, this light cannot be recognized unless the darkness is seen alongside it. In essence, friends, the darkness will reveal the light. Remember, we are spiritual warriors, we have everything we need. So, we enter the darkness, willingly, only to find fear. See fear for what it is, and accept it. Ironically, we can accept it, because it was never real in the first place. Then, the Angel appears. The Angel tells us the only thing we have ever needed to know. “I am you, and you are me”. You are, then, courage, not fear. You are, then, light, not darkness. You are, then, love, for we are one thing, not two. The disciple succeeds on the battleground by becoming that which is sought. Come out of the cave, then, and use the light and love that you really are. Fight your way through all of it, all the way to the top! But, if you arrive at the top, and you find yourself standing there all alone, you have succeeded at nothing. Only together can we achieve. From the tests and trials of the disciple in Scorpio, the disciple becomes the teacher in Sagittarius. Oh yes, finally an opportunity to truly be of help, to teach, to love. Our journey continues. We’ll talk more about that later. Let’s do our work first. Let’s clear away the obstacles.
Hypocrisy
Hypocrisy is the tool of the ego, the lower self. The ego will always pretend to be something it is not. Does the ego see the soul, does it wish to deny what it is, and therefore become all there is, thereby denying the opportunity for the real self to come forward and be all there is? Friends, on our path of becoming more of who we really are, essentially, the higher self or soul, we must first accept who we are now and love it for what it is. We have to be who we say we are. Then, we can begin to understand the very important reality, which is, “As a man thinketh, so is he”. Hypocrisy is our greatest, and easiest, escape. What is this all about? Do we believe that we are so lowly that we cannot allow anyone to see us? Must we prove ourselves to every other in every moment? Dearest friends, humility is an important part of love. Self-love in this case. True acceptance is true humility. Self-love is now possible. Live in your current reality, and know, beyond any doubt, this reality will change when the time is right. Be who you are now, there’s no hurry. Let’s get real. Let’s be real. If we pursue our lives in this way, we will indeed love ourselves more, and others will love us more also.
Deception
How are we to see our way through, how are we to proceed down our path with all clarity, when we have deception at every turn? Fellow companions, again, there is no person, no institution, no area of human living that is free of deception. Can we own up to this? We must. The only reason we are deceived is because we allow ourselves to be deceived. The only reason deception actually exists is because we deceive ourselves and we deceive others. Why would we want to do this? After all, it only keeps us stuck. There can be no forward, positive movement without truth. Perhaps we don’t want to see the truth. Maybe the truth might hurt a little. Sometimes, the truth may hurt a lot. Remember, all hurt, all pain, all discomfort, are fleeting. Nothing is forever, all things are temporary, if we let them be. If our goal is truth, and truth will set us free, I think we can handle a little discomfort in order to get there.
Trust
Clearly, the pathway to trust is a freedom from deception. Deception is born in the outside world. We keep waiting for someone else to tell us what the answer is. My friends, can we take a moment and go within and discover what we all share? This, we must do. Each of us has part of the answer. Perhaps from this inner knowing we can then come together and discuss what we have found. One of the biggest problems we face is that there is no trust in the world today. The cause of this lack of trust is a continual bombardment of information and opinion from various sources, outside sources, some good, but honestly, mostly bad. If we are to discover what would be truly helpful to us, we must consider what would be truly helpful to others as well. This can only be found within. And again, friends, if we are sincerely willing to see what exists there, we will find sameness. Then, we can bring this inner knowing to the outer world, together, and transform all of it. Does this sound overly simplistic? Real truth always is. Ultimately, then, it is not a lack of trust coming from the outer world that is our problem. It is a lack of trust of our very own self, the soul. A trust of this higher part of us is essential in creating what everyone and everything needs. The disciple, the World Disciple, humanity, is ready. Let us begin. Let’s bring it forward.
Faith
Faith is one of the greatest tools available to the spiritual warrior. Dearest companions, we must know, with all our heart and mind, there is something much greater than ourselves. Has this not always been the case? Although the power of faith will always guide us forward to the better way, it has no real effectiveness without our action. God, the soul, the Hierarchy, can do much more with our assistance. Again, we have a simple willingness, and a necessary cooperation, that will guarantee our success. There is nothing wrong with being honest. It is not hard. It’s only scary the first time. After that, it becomes the only way. What do we expect without it? How can we find the better way without trying? These are actions, we make our faith real. You see, we can hold no person to any standard we cannot also meet. Here we have the resolution to hypocrisy and deception. Criticism and judgment will only provide a way for the shadow self, essentially the Black Lodge, to succeed with its goal of a neverending separateness. The White Lodge succeeds with its goal of togetherness in our every attempt to love, in our every moment of willingness to be compassionate, even if it is not understood. Faith, my friends. If we are consistently and always hard on our own selves, we will never give anybody else the break they really need today. Love and compassion are born of a true self-acceptance. And again, a recognition of sameness to be the freedom from the self-imposed prison we wish to escape. The Path of Discipleship, the human path and the spiritual path together, is all about friendship. Within this required friendship, we will find the light and the love and the purpose and the truth we have been seeking. All along this beautiful path, indeed, at the end of this path we travel is the soul. The soul is we as a group. A group who expresses that which we have found on the journey. Again, remember, alone means a little. Together means a lot. This is faith fully implemented.
Light, love, purpose. I don’t deserve it? We don’t deserve it? I can’t do it? We can’t do it? I tell you, we tell you, you do deserve it, you can have it. But, you must do the work. Cry, because you feel ashamed? Ashamed of what? Mistakes? You have fallen short? Short of what? Friends, we are simply learning how to be our real self. It takes enormous commitment, incredible effort, and yes, a willingness to make many mistakes. Risk it all! The true self, the real self, is the soul. But, the soul cannot get in with so much in the way. This applies to what exists inside of us and outside of us. The spiritual path, then, is mostly about letting go of what we no longer need. Have we not said, “simplify all of it”? Wholeness is simple. Love is simple. Life is simple. The World Disciple, humanity, stands at the precipice. Although the view is certainly overwhelming at times, it is also quite beautiful at all times, isn’t it? A precipice, a cliff? Oh my, what do we do now? You see, the precipice is our decision. The cliff we see before us is an illusion. The illusion of fear. I guess we’re just going to have to jump off and see what happens. Fellow companions, it’s not really a cliff that confronts us, it is a threshold. All we have to do is step over it. Even if we jump, I’m quite certain someone will catch us. Unknowing requires our humility and trust and faith at this point, then, does it not? What lies at the end of this very difficult path is absolute, unconditional, love. That’s worth stepping into. It is what will catch us. We walk, we fall down, we get back up. We can see the light now, we can see the glory. Sticks and stones, forget about it. We are well on our way. To truly achieve, to truly succeed, all we must do is continue. We’re almost there. Time, too, forget about it. The past, the future, let them go. You see, the threshold we must cross is the threshold into the eternal now. Today is all we have. Let’s get it done.
*Fellow disciples, we have yet another powerful, highly symbolic image I chose for this piece today. Spend some time with it. Two of the same image, with a slightly different orientation. What do you see? What do you realize? We’ll return to this image again in the near future, and I’ll tell you what I see. The beauty of strength is ours.
Friends, the work we do is not a vague mysticism, it is not yet another attempt to have faith be the only way. Spirituality is who we are. It is what we do. It is what we live. The Path of Discipleship is a practical matter in every way then, is it not? Together we achieve. Together we be.
By the way, I think we’ll keep November’s meditation as our guide through this holiday season. It is a powerful message, indeed, a powerful prayer from our Hierarchy we can use. Again, it can have no effectiveness unless it is put into practice. Recite it to yourself in some of those quiet moments. Better yet, recite it in a group of others you enjoy being with, and working with. In all certainty, it is our time today.
The Path of Discipleship is the way to light
The Path of Discipleship is the way to love
The Path of Disipleship is the way to the revelation of purpose
Humanity is the World Disciple
Together, we proceed with the greatness that is ours, the soul in all
Be well