GOING WITH THE FLOW!

I am a strong swimmer. I have always been. Near where I live there is a rip in the ocean which takes you out to sea but brings you back to another beach, and the locals call it an 'express lane'. From above you can see how it gently takes a person around the rocks out a little and then back again to shore. 

People who don't know this rip, or this beach, and get caught up in it, struggle to swim against it and often drown. Those who allow it to take them out and back to the beach survive. Occasionally there are the clever ones who can swim across the rip to get out of the flow, but people rarely see that it is really just a narrow band of water that pulls one out to sea for a little while and then returns them to the shore again. They are not conscious of the big picture.

Life is like that in a way and writing for me is always like this; like trying to survive in a rip. It is not always a fun process, particularly when one is sensitive to the requirements of the spiritual world. 

I set my deadlines, I think I am writing the book I think I'm writing, the water is fine and it is a beautiful day and then I find myself being taken out to sea!

How did that happen? Who created that rip? How will I get out? That was not the plan! Ah but this is the point exactly: There is a plan!

The rip one could say, is the flow of inspiration - the flow of life, and it is created in my sleep in consultation with my angel every night. In the day I may resist it because I forget that it exists. I get caught up in what fun I'm having and suddenly realise I'm being taken out to sea! At this point I think can get out by swimming against it. But I tire myself out - I am resisting myself! I feel sorry for myself, my limbs grown tired. Meanwhile the shore is further and further away and the feeling of being out of control, causes panic and despair to rise up - will I ever find the shore again or will I
drown?

Yes, my heart sinks when I hear those helicopters which fly over our town looking for those who have been caught in the rip and have felt powerless against the force of it.

If I am wise I do a retrospect of the past books, as I have just shared with you. It always brings me to something that I have forgotten: I know this rip. I have been here before, and I can do three things: I can drown by continuing to swim against the flow of inspiration - which means I will burn myself out and the book too; I can be 'clever' and swim across the rip and get out of the flow of inspiration altogether which means the book will not be what it was destined to be; or I can allow the flow to take me out to sea knowing it will bring me back to shore at some exact right point. 

I have freedom. 

Now there may be a handsome life saver coming out to save me and I think this happens all the time, but I refuse to listen - 'I'm alright mate!' I call out, 'I know what I'm doing!'

Do I?

This is the agony I go through with every book in one way or another, the agony of forgetting my past books and the agony of remembering that I can create new ones! 

In the end, the more I trust in the big picture, the more of the book I remember and the closer it will be to the truth I created with my angel. 

Now my angel has to trust also. My angel has to trust that sometimes the 'truth' of the spirit can only find its way to human hearts through a human voice and this is not always what the angel can foresee! 

I trust that my angel knows what I should be doing.
My angel trusts that I know what I should be doing.

Oh dear. smile emoticon

THE WATER OF WISDOM, AND THE WATER OF LIFE: A discourse on Morality and how it can be taught.

A pupil said to his master. 'What can I do, master, to be as wise as you?'


The master said, 'You must climb that hill.' He pointed to a steep hill with a winding path. 'And carry two buckets of water without spilling a drop, you must do this every day until you have gained wisdom.'


After some days, months, and then years of carrying water up the hill the pupil came to his master and said. 

'I have not learnt any wisdom at all, I am almost middle aged and I am still the same. Carrying that water up the hill has not made me wise for I cannot even prevent myself from spilling water. I have learnt no skill! At the top I am the same as I am at the bottom. Then I have to descend and take more water up the hill again.'


The master said. 'What has changed? Are your legs not stronger than when you began?'

'Yes.'

'Is the path more worn?'

'Yes.'

'And did you not see further at the top than at the bottom?'

'Yes.'

'Is the path now more alive with plants than before?

'Yes.'

'But you have not yet learnt how not to spill water, is that it?'


'I still spill water all the time. The trouble is, the stronger I have become, the faster I can walk up the hill and the faster I walk up the hill, the more worn the path becomes, and for both these reasons it is harder not to spill water!'


'So you have found the paradox.'

'The paradox?'

'Ideas that are contrary and must live side by side....this is the path to wisdom.'


'I don't understand!'

'Wisdom is not found at the bottom of the hill for this is ignorance, nor is it at the top of the hill for this is knowledge. The greater the knowledge, the harder is the task to stay balanced and to contain what one knows, but the paradox is this, the containment of knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom must be carried but it must also be released.'

'So, you mean, that wisdom is knowing that the water I have spilt on my journey is really wisdom?'

'Wisdom is life. Your journey, each day, each month and each year has created new life along the path. You have become a creator, you have changed yourself and in doing so, the world. You have used the faculty of transformation! When one realises that one walks the path of change for the sake of the world, one is wise.'

'Then what is love?'

'When one consciously walks the path, each day, each month and each year, knowing one already knows the view at the top, knowing the changes to the soul have already been made...why does one do so?'

'Merely to water the plants, to bring them life!'

'This is morality, my son! Morality is the greatest wisdom of all...for it is the fruit of a path to wisdom which is life and in bestowing life, becomes love. That is what this means: to be a lover of wisdom.

Now you are wise...go and take life and love to the world!'

HOW THE SPIRIT OF GOETHE ENTERED A CONVERSATION ABOUT OPPOSITES AND GAVE BIRTH TO INSPIRATION.

The artist stands by his painting pondering it when a woman comes to stand beside him.

'I never understand your paintings. To me the colours and forms do not seem aesthetically pleasing.'

The artist considers this and says, 'Perhaps it is because what you find aesthetically pleasing is merely what corresponds to the world of nature and I try to convey not nature itself but my soul's experience of nature.'

'Is that why you paint roses green?'

'When I see a red rose, and I look within my soul, its imprint is green and this to me is the essential nature of the rose - its counterpart, or hidden spirit. This one might say is the truth of the rose, what is hidden from physical eyes - the green seen only by the eyes of my soul! For me this truth is more beautiful than the red you see with outer eyes, and which is only it's outer material counterpart.'

The woman looks at the painting and closes her eyes. She opens them excitedly. 'I see what you mean! But for me it is a different experience.'

'How so?'

'Well, the moment you painted that rose green on the canvas, it acquired a material substance which is seen by me as green with my eyes. Your soul's spiritual experience when made physical is a physical experience for me until I look inside myself and find the red rose again!'

'I hadn't thought of that, but I suppose you are right! When you look at the green rose, inside you, you now have a red counterpart which corresponds to what I have made physically perceptive! How odd!'

'You have added something to creation, turned spirit into matter through your soul.'

'And you have turned the matter I have created into spirit in yours! The cycle returns, the rose is red but this time it is red in your soul!'

'I have learnt something now...!' says the woman, 'I have learnt that I must pay more attention to everything I see and note its counterpart for its truth!'

'And I have learnt that whatever I create, no matter what it is will always bring the spirit down into matter and by doing so take the spirit truth out of it!' he says dejectedly.

'Unless you show both!' she offers.

'How do you mean?' the artist asks, almost breathless.

'When you look at a yellow bale of hay, do you not notice how its shadow is always purple?'

'Yes! Indeed! You mean one can show both counterparts together and in this way the experience in the soul of the viewer will always be complete, no matter whether they are seeing it physically or spiritually?'

'When I look at your green rose now,' the woman says to him, 'I see the red hovering all around it...is this not the spiritual shadow? I see the activity of both physical and spiritual!'

The painter smiles widely, so widely it fills the world with warmth.

The woman has never seen this young man, who looks so old in his eyes and so tormented, smile this way before, and she walks away from him smiling too because the world has changed for her now. The world will never be the same and her soul will also never be the same. For she has realised what it means to free the soul so that it can find its wings!

The artist now contemplates his painting in a new light. He realises that in expressing the spirit of the red which is green, he has created a physical green, whose spirit is red!

'So that is what old man Goethe was trying to say!' he says to himself, almost with a chuckle. 'I have been trying to understand it all my life and now I do! If I only show one side of existence, be it spiritual or physical, it will never speak the whole truth and it will, therefore, never be beautiful! I must show both and not merely that! I must show how they interact - how they converse. To perceive this one needs a higher faculty than the faculty of imagination, which knows only the image of the opposite. One must be able to observe the conversation of opposites that goes beyond words, a form of seeing which is a hearing! A hearing that does not need ears to perceive it - and yet, and yet! Which has been inspired by words, just as red in the eyes, inspires green in the soul, and green, red!

'My conversation with that woman has reconciled the opposites in my soul and I have come to something higher! This must be what happens when the gods converse with their creations, they learn something and rise higher! The creator learns from His creation and His creation becomes creative, in turn a creator who again learns from His creation! And the cycle continues...

'But how to express this mystery without using words! Using only colours, shadows, light and lines? How to show the weaving movement of inner and outer, darkness and light, image and after image, colour and counterpart, spirit and matter, matter and soul, soul and spirit? After all, to show what inspiration is, I must first be inspired by God! I must enter into His soul, just as the red rose has entered into mine!'

Thinking such deep thoughts Van Gogh leaves his paintings behind and with a frown and fitful purpose goes out into the starlit night, in search of inspiration...

...And he finds it by listening with his eyes.

Love unites with all it sees.
And by its very nature
It reveals
The Truth
That those who do not love
Do not see.

So it is that those who love
Love because they see the Truth.
And because they see the truth,
They are be-loved
By Christ,
Who is love and truth combined.

The Riddle.

'What is a light that is more radiant than the sun?' The youth asks the dragon. 


The dragon being clever answers before he thinks. 'A light born from out of the darkness of the human soul!'

But upon saying this the dragon is immediately enlightened!

'So, is this the secret of the demons then?' I ask the dragon. 'That consciousness turns darkness to light?'

The dragon now answers readily. 'Yes...when the light of the sun, the Word, entered into the darkness of the earth, the sun weakened but a seed was laid in the earth for a new sun. This new sun is the Light born from darkness. This is Christ Himself. This the demons would keep from the consciousness of men and so from the understanding of the gods: The way in which evil can be used against itself so that it can be transformed into goodness, through consciousness.


The human being,
Standing between heaven and earth,
Carries the light of the spirit
Into the darkness of matter
Where even angels
Fear to tread.

Two Reasons why I wrote The Sixth Key and Fifth Gospel - A Novel.

There were two reasons why I wrote The Sixth key and Fifth Gospel - A Novel and I would like to share them with you.

In actual fact, Fifth Gospel - A Novel was written first though it came out last. I had a desire to bring it out this year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Fifth Gospel Lectures by R. Steiner but I found incredible resistance to publishing it through 'regular' publishers. Random House didn't want it and my agent sent it around to other publishers who didn't want it either. I realised that I had to write The Sixth Key first, as I was committed to write a book for Random. On researching it, I understood the wisdom of the spiritual world - according to Emil Bock the Apocalypse had to come before the Eternal Gospel because it was a foundation for it, because the eternal Gospel given by an angel at a time of great tribulation was found in the Apocalypse. Yes these were the original names of the two books - Apocalypse and Eternal Gospel.

The Sixth Key may seem like an adventure story, but I followed Rudolf Steiner's indications regarding the impulses that led to the First World War very closely. I had a sense that this too was going to see it's 100 year reflection. In the Sixth key I wove as much information as possible on the work of the secret brotherhoods, keeping the book light and entertaining but informative, so that, when it came to it, a feeling for the work of the brotherhoods would come when we were all faced with their work again in the world. (Having taken very much to heart what Rudolf Steiner said when he made the comment that if Schiller had finished his play Dimitri then Kaspar Hauser would not have been killed because a precedent would have lived in the heart of too many people and they would have recognised the work of the brotherhoods.)

The Sixth Key was a warning to the world based entirely on The Karma of Untruthfulness.

Only after The Sixth Key came out could I then bring out Fifth Gospel - A Novel, late last year, and as you know I published it myself.

It is not enough to banish evil through recognising it, but we also have to heal. The Fifth Gospel Lectures were given to the world by Rudolf Steiner a little prematurely because according to Peter Selg Rudolf Steiner would have liked to have given them at the Goetheanum, where the right atmosphere would allow them to enter into the hearts of the listeners. The impulse however to give them was too strong as the war was on its way. Rudolf Steiner gave those lectures to small groups hoping for their understanding. According to Peter Selg, for the first time in all his lecturing life, he read from notes, because he had intended to write a book, he wanted it to be like a story. It was not received with the right soul mood and so he stopped giving the lectures and finally stopped talking about the Fifth Gospel altogether.

The Fifth Gospel cost him the Goetheanum and his life. It was the last straw, the brotherhoods could not tolerate the mention of karma and the unveiling of their work as well as the truth about Christ Jesus to come out!

Why am I telling you this? What are my two reasons for writing The Sixth key and the Fifth Gospel? Am I just blowing my own trumpet?

No.

We are living in Apocalyptic times - Fifth Gospel was given to the world 100 years ago! We can measure where we are in the Book of Revelations by this very fact! The two gifts The Karma of Untruthfulness and the Fifth Gospel lectures, given to us by Rudolf Steiner are incredibly significant right now and I wanted to underline them as they can help us to not only understand what is going on around us but also, to find a way to heal the world.

For it is not enough to banish the devils from the physical body through wakefulness, if we want to bring about healing, we have to then work on the soul, which, free of the devils can now begin to balance itself. What is the balance that brings healing?

This is Christ.

So that is what I, in my own imperfect way have consciously tried to achieve for those who are not Anthroposophists with those two books. To bring them the work of Rudolf Steiner through the artistic element that they might develop concepts other than those they see on TV every day.

Those of us who have Rudolf Steiner's lectures can and should read them at this time, just to reacquaint ourselves with his indications for we need both consciousness of evil and a living experience of Christ if we are to really navigate the fetid sea of lies and propaganda we are experiencing. Those who cannot come to his lectures will hopefully find their way to them through the work we do on their behalf in the world.

The Hibernian Initiate

'Aye!' said, the Hibernian initiate to the postulant, 'This is what you must undergo:'

When you enter into your inner coldness
You will see a vision of Old Moon
And you will understand:
In the mineral substance of your bones
There is Wisdom.

When you free this numbness to the outer warmth
You will see a vision of old Sun
And you will understand:
In the-streaming light that now enters your organs
There is Goodness.

When you experience this sense warmth
You will see Old Saturn
And you will understand:
In warmth perception
There is evidence of Life.

When you learn to out-stream this warmth
You will see a vision of new Jupiter
And you will understand:
Human warmth on Jupiter will issue forth
As a love for the spirit.

Then when you can overcome your lower ego
You will see future Venus
And your will understand:
Only by loving the higher spirit can my warmth begin to shine
As a source of spirit light.

When this spirit light enters your heart again
You will see a future Vulcan.
And you will understand:
The spirit light of thought in you resounds as Word,
To become world comprehending.

Aye! You will work to know Christ, my son,
Before Christ comes,
To unite the Cosmic Word
With the human soul.
And when he comes, you will need no outer evidence,
For you will know: the human word in you
Does recognise the Christ, the Word of Worlds!