Lecture 12a of 25 by [R]<\/p>\n
Regeneration\u00a0and the Aquarian Age<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This talk is called Regeneration and the Aquarian Age<\/em>, and before getting into it we have to review what we\u2019re trying to do.\u00a0 As sincere spiritual students, we\u2019re trying to do a number of things.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to be servants \u2013 servants of the spirit and servants of the spirit for the needs of the world.\u00a0 This means that we have to constantly be rethinking what service is, because very often what we assume service to be is not what our most important service is.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Boxer of Quirinal - 3rd Century B.C.<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 From a spiritual point of view, at this time in the evolutionary creation our most important service to the world is thinking.\u00a0 You might think of all of our deeds, and even the objects of the world\u2014as thought come to fruition.\u00a0 We cannot help or harm unless we have had a helpful or harmful thought to precipitate the action.\u00a0 We are becoming, if we practice spiritual exercises (especially concentrated spiritual exercises), analogous to the lethal state of a boxer.\u00a0\u00a0 The fists of a boxer are considered lethal weapons because of\u00a0his training and ability.\u00a0 Because of our training, and because of our skill and the potency that we learn to put into our prayers, thoughts can be lethal weapons if we are not careful about them.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This is especially a problem in dealing with each other, because we are brought together to grow through each other and this sometimes means fighting and battling.\u00a0 We have to be very careful about our thoughts or we become unconscious black magicians.\u00a0 Spiritual philosophy tells us that all thought is creative, and that in thinking we are led to new things.\u00a0 Socrates said, let\u2019s follow the thought and let\u2019s see where it takes us.\u00a0 It\u2019s not all cut and dried<\/em>, so we\u2019re looking toward understanding creation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another thing that we\u2019re trying to do as seekers is review ourselves and regenerate ourselves with the aid of spiritual philosophy.\u00a0 We\u2019re trying to see what we really<\/span> are and not just the illusion that we are sweety sweet people when in many regards we are not.\u00a0 Because if we were, we would be entrusted with many more spiritual powers, but as it is, the spirit cannot put that into our waking consciousness because we are not worthy of that; we would do too much harm.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As enthusiastic astrology students what we are also doing is keeping ourselves in the astrological mandala \u2013 trying to see the ideals and the ideas that are behind the forms of the cosmos so that we can work better with them.\u00a0 Another thing that we\u2019re trying to do in all of these talks is tell as many stories as possible, because stories have life.\u00a0 If we get too pedantic and too analytical in dealing with spiritual ideas it is not too dissimilar from cutting an animal open or dissecting an animal in a laboratory.\u00a0 On the other hand, stories are full of life.\u00a0\u00a0 We study spiritual things because we want life, because we\u2019re tired of the depth of materialism around us.\u00a0 One final reason we\u2019re doing all of this is to have fun.\u00a0 Spiritual seeking and spiritual study, to that end, should be enjoyable.\u00a0 It should be fun and we should always have smiles on our faces.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Usually, when I review and do this much talking about what we\u2019re doing, that usually means that I don\u2019t have much to say.\u00a0 I\u2019m a rather stubborn person, and I persist even though I don\u2019t have\u00a0 much to say so we\u2019re going to muddle forward anyway.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about the mandala and astrology in general, because both are always fruitful.\u00a0 That\u2019s one thing about the mandala and the people who live it out \u2013 it’s how many different sides and how many different possible sides there are to people.\u00a0 When I used to have the book store open there used to be a lot of interesting conversations going on.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I remember one time working with a man who had rather serious psychological problems.\u00a0 He wanted to talk about those problems astrologically, but if you gave him something to do, he would never do it.\u00a0 He would feel offended if there was something that he could do.\u00a0 It was a book-store night and I was talking with him, and we had his horoscope and we were \u2026\u2026\u2026(this is really a very neurotic person).\u00a0 I would say to him, \u201cWell, you could try to do this … this would be a way to alleviate this condition in your horoscope which indicates that you have this in your personality.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t responsive, and I wasn\u2019t using any astrology [astrological terminology].\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then, another person came in, and this other person thinks he knows everything, and he thinks that my knowledge of astrology and my knowledge of people is deficient compared to his.\u00a0 He\u2019s watching what\u2019s going on and you could see that he was (so called) chomping at the bit<\/em>.\u00a0 He wanted to get in there and take a look at that horoscope, and it was all he could do to keep from reaching over and grabbing the horoscope and looking at it.\u00a0 But he didn\u2019t know what was afoot, and I could see this, so I excused myself to go to the washroom.\u00a0 Before I got out of the room, he had that horoscope in hand and he was looking at it.\u00a0 The neurotic guy said, we\u2019re looking at this combination \u2013 do you think it could mean \u201cthis\u201d or \u201cthis\u201d or \u201cthis\u201d or \u201cthis\u201d or \u201cthis\u201d or \u201cthis\u201d and they were things that \u2026\u2026conceived, and he was totally dumbfounded, because the guy had so many potential interpretations, and when I came back, I just sat there and smiled.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The book store \u2013 in a way I miss it being open \u2013 but there have been some really interesting and weird adventures.\u00a0 There is one man who for years would come by \u2013 he\u2019d come and then he\u2019d leave and then he\u2019d come back again.\u00a0 One time he ordered an ephemeris and came back several years later and I said, \u201cYou\u2019re ephemeris is here\u201d and he got all shook up about that, but I knew he didn\u2019t have the money and he didn\u2019t want to pay for it.\u00a0 He was rather obsessive, and down on Regent Street, (I think it\u2019s called \u201cThe Regent Street Retreat\u201d now), it used to be a bar called \u201cRafters\u201d and he was obsessed with one of the female bartenders there.\u00a0\u00a0He would tell her about how they had been together \u2013 had been all these famous couples in history when they had been together, and he must have been very busy\u2014he would have had to have several incarnations simultaneously to be with all of these people.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And then I didn\u2019t see him for a few years until one night I was\u00a0in the book store and I got a call from him and he\u2019s in the dangerous ward of the mental institution, the ward where if you go to visit the guard has to go in.\u00a0 You know, it\u2018s under lock and key and these are not flimsy doors; these are metal doors.\u00a0 He was said to be something like a homicidal maniac.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know \u2013 I am told that he did kill one person and he pleaded insanity, which would seem kind of obvious, but he was offended if you told him that, but at any rate, he got out, and the first place he came to was Microcosm Book Shop.\u00a0 (These are just stories to get us warmed up.)<\/p>\n Combat of Arthur and Mordred - N C Wyeth<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s on a new thing, and he thinks he\u2019s the reincarnation of King Arthur.\u00a0 Everybody loves King Arthur, because it\u2019s such an aspirational thing, and he tries to hook me into it.\u00a0 I missed one of the greatest opportunities for a sharp line in my life, just because I was too slow.\u00a0 He starts to try to co-opt me into his delusion and he says, \u201cYou remember when you were Merlin, don\u2019t you?\u201d\u00a0 I said, \u201cNo, I don\u2019t think I was Merlin, because if I was Merlin I wouldn\u2019t be in a bookstore on a side street, and such.\u00a0 Everything\u2026.. he tried to draw me into Merlin \u2013 he took a course at the university, he showed me his term paper and it was a course covering King Arthur, and in his treatise on King Arthur, he quotes all of the sources \u2013 The Venerable Bede, The Winchester Manuscript, all of these sources, and then he starts saying things that deviate from these sources and finally he puts in the sentence, which was sort of like the watershed sentence of the whole thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He said, How can I disagree with all these scholars about King Arthur, because I AM King Arthur, and it all just degenerates into delusion at that point.\u00a0 When he sees he isn\u2019t going to co-opt me into that, he starts with \u2013 he quotes a psalm.\u00a0 He says, you think a psalm means this, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 I said, \u201cI don\u2019t know, I\u2019m not familiar with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Merlin the Wizard c 1300<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He says, well it means this, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I said, \u201cI don\u2019t know, I can\u2019t talk about what I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 He said, \u201cWell, you\u2019re supposed to know everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I said, \u201cNo, I can\u2019t talk about it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 He\u2019s all upset, and he bolts for the door, and he got out before I could say, \u201cYou\u2019re not listening to me, and you didn\u2019t listen to me when you were Arthur, either.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n So, what we\u2019re talking about is bringing out different sides of character.\u00a0 Basically, there are positive people and there are contrary people.\u00a0 I plead to being a contrary.\u00a0 I used to be so bad that anything anyone said, I would say \u201cno\u201d to it, and I would have a good reason why it couldn\u2019t be true.\u00a0 Contrary\u2019s do everything the opposite of everyone else.\u00a0 If you ever saw an old movie\u2014a very good old movie\u2014it was called, \u201cLittle Big Man.\u201d\u00a0 There was an Indian that turned into a contrary who would ride his horse facing the rump and he would say goodbye instead of hello and he would be the opposite of everything.\u00a0 Those are the kind of people, the contrary\u2019s, that bring things out of other people.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On the mandala, Scorpio rules the contrary people.\u00a0 In case you haven\u2019t realized it, this is the Scorpio and Aquarius talk.\u00a0 With the Sun in Scorpio, it is clear that the speaker has more than a little bit of contrariness in his character, but I\u2019m getting healed, slowly.\u00a0 Now this will probably be a contrary talk in that it\u2019s going to go against the grain of all the other talks.\u00a0 I have concluded in the other talks that we have been way too serious, and when you\u2019re way too serious and you take yourself way too seriously, what happens is you become self-important, and that\u2019s a sign of \u2026.. kinds of egoism and all of those kinds of things.\u00a0 And so, we\u2019ll try to be a little bit wild, even with the ideas, if it isn\u2019t funny.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ironically, there are times and there are things and subjects that require a contrary attitude.\u00a0 That\u2019s what this talk is all about.\u00a0 This is perfect.\u00a0 Some of those times are funerals.\u00a0 Spiritual students are not the ones to invite to funerals.\u00a0 I have given several eulogies, and I\u2019ve even conducted an entire memorial service.\u00a0 In each case that I have done so, most of the people left smiling, so I considered the whole process a success.\u00a0 I\u2019m one of those people who believes that if you really believe in spiritual things, especially if you believe in forgiveness and regeneration, that there should be no fear of death.\u00a0\u00a0 Death is one of those subjects that people take too seriously.\u00a0 They take it with gravity, even people who believe in life everlasting.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To me, it\u2019s almost unbelievable how people will shrink from a subject that is one of the most inexorable things in life.\u00a0 All of our bodies are going to die, and we have to realize that, and we\u2019re proving a materialistic grasping if we have a terrible fear of death.\u00a0 So, it is a pleasant thing when a contrarian visits the grave with a smile.\u00a0 There have been contrarians throughout history that have greeted death with more than a smile.\u00a0 \u00a0They have greeted it with positivity.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Don Juan Matos in the Carlos Castaneda stories tells us to always look over our shoulder, because death is right over our shoulder and we must be watching, because in that recognition and with that realization that we could die at any moment, we\u2019re much more likely to live impeccably, and what is important is impeccable living.\u00a0 That is what we are all about, and so\u00a0death being over our shoulder was a friendly thing for Don Juan Matos.\u00a0 Socrates looked forward to death because he felt in death would be the proving of his life.\u00a0 Moreover, he felt that after he died, among the dead or among the Gods there would be people that he could ask and get answers with so there would be even better discussions than there were here.\u00a0 And then there is that lovely poem which I didn\u2019t have time to find a copy of; it is called, There is No Death<\/em>.\u00a0 A very lovely, uplifting poem, so we can talk positively about death.\u00a0 Scorpio is said to be the sign of birth and death and rebirth, but we seem to be so preoccupied with death that we rarely think about rebirth and we rarely think about a progressing, ongoing rebirth which is what regeneration is.\u00a0 I have taken 20 minutes to mention \u201cregeneration\u201d once.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had a deathly experience when I was composing these notes.\u00a0 It was a really interesting thing.\u00a0 I got to exactly this point in composing the notes and I got stuck.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t do anything.\u00a0 My whole inner process came to a halt.\u00a0 At first I thought I had hit some kind of inner wall, and maybe I didn\u2019t have anything else to say for the rest of my life.\u00a0 I was very tired, but I didn\u2019t think I was that<\/em> tired.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what was going on.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then, I thought well, maybe it\u2019s the subject,, maybe I have some kind of a block about death \u2013 or about approaching it, because in order to have a decent talk about something or to share your thoughts and feelings about it, you have to be able to live it.\u00a0 When the subject is death, that becomes a little bit problematic, because no one wants to really experience death.\u00a0 However, that didn\u2019t turn out to be the full story either.\u00a0 These notes were composed during a complete eclipse, an eclipse of the Sun.\u00a0 In fact outside of where I was preparing the notes, people were watching the eclipse.\u00a0 I was sort of watching it inwardly, because it was almost exactly conjoined to my Pluto, which is the planet of death, and so what was happening was I had a paralysis where I was stymieing myself and I was incapable of doing anything.\u00a0 Whether I realized it or not, it was a kind of psychological death.<\/p>\n Computer Generated Image of Pluto's Surface<\/p><\/div>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 That made it even better to be going through this, and no inflection ever did come out right.\u00a0 When I once realized that this was what was going on, I just took the time and looked at what had been happening in reverse order, which is what happens after death.\u00a0 You see your life backwards and you try to harvest all of the information from your life so that nothing will be lost \u2013 so that all of your experience will be available to you in all of your future.\u00a0 So, that is what I did, and then the next morning restarted working on the notes and everything went much better.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now death, whether it is a physical death, or whether it\u2019s symbolic or a psychological death, it\u2019s a situation which is extremely demanding.\u00a0 Demanding things require us to make drastic changes.\u00a0 Suppose you\u2019ve been depending on someone all of your life and they\u2019re not here; they\u2019ve died; you have to make drastic changes.\u00a0 That\u2019s what regeneration is; there\u2019s no more \u201cbusiness as usual.\u201d\u00a0 You have to do things differently.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Tonight we have \u201cshow and tell\u201d and this is our show and tell.\u00a0 [Strikes a match.]\u00a0 That\u2019s it.\u00a0 Some people see the striking of a match as representative of creation, a creation of light and energy \u2013 a spontaneous razing, an invisible inner fire of spiritual creation.\u00a0 Some people see it as an outward experience of an inner spiritual fire that is seen only with the inner eye \u2013 a fire that glows and is beneath the surface.\u00a0 It sleeps and everything.\u00a0 It is the subject of the fire sermon by Buddha when he talks about everything being on fire.\u00a0 There are valid and lofty ideas \u2013 the ones we\u2019ve just mentioned about fire, but in this talk we\u2019re going to talk about fire in a little bit different way.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to talk about a fixed fire, a frozen fire, and that is what Scorpio and Pluto represent \u2013 frozen fire.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking at the fire of redemption and especially the fire of regeneration, but we\u2019re going to try to avoid the kind of fire like Billy Sunday who is a Scorpio, and the fire of Billy Graham who is a Scorpio.\u00a0 We\u2019re not going to talk about hellfire.\u00a0 We could, but we\u2019re not going to.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If we watch trees grow, it\u2019s not too difficult to understand that the wood that is burned up is comprised of wood that stored solar energy.\u00a0 It\u2019s like the sunlight has been captured by the tree, and it has been saved by the tree.\u00a0 We say to ourselves, what we\u2019re doing when we strike a match \u2013 we\u2019re causing, with heat, an interaction between chemicals which starts an oxidation and that oxidation releases energy that has been there for a long time.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s inspiring to see a recycling process like this \u2013 to see the sunlight, years later, in the flame of a match; it\u2019s quite an inspiring thing.\u00a0 It is never lost; it\u2019s sort of like seeing a light\u2019s life cycle, right before ourselves.\u00a0 When we see how many things have been done and when we see how much has been experienced through all of these primal energies that are stored in the trees, it causes us to think, and the thinking is very much like the graveyard scene in Hamlet.\u00a0 We see one thing get metamorphized into another into another into another, and even if we don\u2019t believe in rebirth, we do believe in recycling \u2013 how stuff gets passed on and is shared by many, many things.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As aspiring as that may be, there are still a lot of questions about it.\u00a0 There are still a lot of lies that we don\u2019t understand, like the chemicals that are in the head of the match.\u00a0 Where did they get the energy?\u00a0\u00a0 Where did the energy come and the oxidizing ability of the chemicals?\u00a0 If we answer that question more deeply in terms of astronomy we see how profound the principle of analogy, as above so below; what has gone before in heaven will follow after on earth; we see how profound that is, because it\u2019s involved in all of this.\u00a0 In effect, an astronomer would say that even these elements, the sulphur, the carbon, the oxygen are themselves frozen sunlight from millions of years ago due to the thermal-nuclear reactions inside the Sun.\u00a0 The elements are condensations or products of the elements of the Sun.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now, that\u2019s all very interesting and it really does something to our consciousness \u2013 but it\u2019s still pretty shallow.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically from the etheric and chemical regions of the physical world. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t go into much deeper things like the alchemization of the spiritual worlds that even condense into the energies that become a Sun and such like that.\u00a0 Again, it shows us that if we follow this process, if we follow the analogy back we could carry it deeper and deeper into the worlds of spiritual meaning.\u00a0 This shows how a very simple process is analogously propagated and how it is ramified in many different ways on many different levels.\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s all a part of reality; experiential, testable reality.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/astrowin.org\/rffriends\/wpx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/boxer_Massimo_Inv1055.jpg\" "\\"boxer_Massimo_Inv1055\\"")
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Death is one of those things which is like an experience of the Phoenix.\u00a0 The Phoenix was a bird, the two-headed eagle-like bird that burned itself up completely.\u00a0 It was reduced to ashes and then it rose out of its own ashes, completely renewed.\u00a0 Because everything is burned in the fires of purgation and of purification, it is even more thorough than metamorphosis, which we discussed in an earlier talk, because at least the butterfly keeps the digestive system, but the Phoenix burns everything down.\u00a0 Everything must burn up or burn down, and it has to be redeemed.\u00a0<\/p>\n