#and raise above themselves and truly see that in all this infinite universe
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“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”
― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space
#Carl Sagan#Pale Blue Dot#if only people were able to have a different perspective#if only for one moment they were able to leave the ego behind#and raise above themselves and truly see that in all this infinite universe#we are just tiny creatures of no consequences in the greate scheme of things#but that at the same time it's what we do with everyday that gives meaning to our own existence and makes us all all so incredibly precious#If you have never ready any book by Carl Sagan)#please do#I know that when I did it created a new humbling perspective for yours truly#I truly had an epiphany
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Got back to college and immediately fell asleep for two hours. Then I woke up and ate. Pretty accurate representation of all I do tbh, I hope to write more this semester though!!! Ngl I feel kind of lonely at college now though but my fluffy little backboard thingy feels kind of like a hug. I want Jing Yuan to hug me qq (let's see how many times I say that).
Warning: Depressed reader, mentions of no longer wanting to exist
You leaned further into the broad slightly hard chest of your lover, hoping to bury yourself in it and never resurface. It rumbled beneath you and you raised your fist against it. "Don't move," You grumbled but Jing Yuan's small chuckles didn't stop.
You couldn't hold back your aggravated sigh and the urge to disappear was reignited. Your face flush against his chest, his silk shirt billowing around you and swallowing you whole. A hand rested on your back stroking it comfortingly and the other rested around your waist holding you closer. The fingers drifted up and down, resting at your neck momentarily if it was anyone else you probably would've felt threatened. Then they moved themselves to your arms, leaving you completely entrapped in his arms. Not that you minded.
It was nice. It felt warm. It smelled familiar too. Like home. If there was home, then this was it. You could travel universe from universe in search of purpose, in search of your family, in search of this feeling but somehow you found it here, out of all places. You reluctantly looked up, top of your head brushing against his jawline.
He smiled down at you, "Are you feeling better?" Jing Yuan's smile was slightly teasing, one side of it lifted above the other, but his voice held warmth. Your hands clutched onto the fabric of his shirt tighter, feeling the warmth of your own hands through it.
"No," You spoke rather stubbornly, not wanting to leave his arms. If you felt better, wouldn't that mean everything would be over? Every happy moment you experienced would inevitably have to end.
His legs bent a bit further upwards, remaining on either side of you, "Then tells me what plagues you, my love?" Jing Yuan's voice always held a seemingly carefree lilt, one that would lure you into telling your deepest sins or, perhaps a worse sin, believing he truly was carefree.
"Sometimes I want to disappear," You muttered truthfully, out of trust for him and you felt his grip tighten ever so slightly. "I want to hide away from it all," You admitted.
Jing Yuan looked down at you, smile no longer on his face as he rested his chin upon your head. It left your head completely obscured, his hair acting like a curtain, or maybe a blanket it was certainly as soft as one.
He was quiet for a moment, searching for the right words to say, the right words to reach you, "For now, you can hide. I'll keep you safe and hidden until you are ready. But, you must never disappear on me, alright?" There was a hidden layer of deep rooted insecurity in his words and you nodded.
"I wouldn't dream of it. How could I leave someone I hold so dear?"
The two of you remained in each others embraces quietly, only enjoying the feeling of each other. The feeling of home.
This wasn't what I planned to write but what comes out, comes out right? How many times can I write about Jing Yuan giving huggies? Infinite.
I wonder if I should make this a series haha
#hsr#reader insert#hsr x reader#jing yuan#gn reader#jing yuan x reader#comfort#huggies#jing yuan hugs
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In Another Universe Part 3 (Marcus Moreno x Reader)
Summary: You are trying to normalize a world without Marcus, months after you snapped back to Earth. But in that other universe, an accident occurs in their mission to bring you back.
Pairing: Marcus Moreno x Fem!Reader (We Can Be Heroes/MCU Crossover)
Word Count: 2.08k
Warnings: Nothing, just some language.
A/N: So... it’s embarrassing how long this part took to be published. If you’ll except an apology, I’ll be the first to beg for forgiveness. On the other hand... here’s part 3! Part 4 will be the conclusion of this miniseries so thank you for reading thus far and stay tuned for that. Right now requests are CLOSED but I am going to open them again soon when I get through the ones I have waiting and I’ll be adding L&O:SVU characters to the list. :)
Pain is a difficult concept to understand.
There are infinite reasons to feel a certain kind of pain or to be in a specific kind of pain, but no one can truly understand it until it happens to them. Which in the case of you, is no one.
At some point during the last five months, you had made a move to Clint’s farm. James thought it would be better for you to not be in the city where your closest friends were gone and weren’t returning. It was the constant memories of Natasha holding your hand when things got rough or Tony obnoxiously slapping you on the shoulder in a message of congratulations.
There were so many memories that simply seeped through the walls, both physically and metaphorically, but it wasn’t as if a move was going to change that. All you wanted was to move, home, to Marcus and Missy and the life you had built in what James had called ‘Earth 2.’
Earth 2.
Earth 2 was the only Earth that mattered to you and his deflection of it being secondary to the one that only caused pain was hurtful. But it wasn’t like he was going to understand that. So, you took up the offer to move to Clint’s farm and the second you landed and walked off the jet, you regretted the decision.
Clint was surrounded by love. His wife, his daughter, his sons. They were everything and nothing to you at the same time. Clint had his own problems to deal with upon meeting a young woman who took up skills like his own and often left you with Laura and his children.
Laura kept you occupied with small projects as they were renovating the barn and their basement, but it was just as mundane as the topics of conversation she tried to engage in. But with even the slightest mention of Nat, or Steve, or Tony, or the world you left behind, you shut down.
It was intentional, but it wasn’t avoidable. Pain wasn’t avoidable when it was buried so deep.
But there were the occasional good days. Like today.
Laura had taken the boys to soccer practice and promised Lila a day out at the aquarium. She extended the offer to you but she never thought you would accept. When you did, she was pleasantly surprised and also promised she would pay for lunch too. It was rare that you would pass up the opportunity to snag a free lunch because you obliged and allowed her to plan the day.
‘Maybe a day out would be good.’ You thought to yourself as you readied everything to go. For the first time in months you put effort into your appearance. A bit of makeup, nicer clothes, and shoes that weren’t scuffed or covered in dirt from the non-existent basement floor.
And for what it was worth, the day was good. You allowed yourself to just enjoy, learn, and watch a mother interact with her daughter and in turn, the daughter made you feel like the aunt Clint had always told her you were. Lila saw the effort and wanted to make you feel as welcome and as loved as possible.
And as the cracks of a broken soul begin to slowly merge together–where time would surely heal it to properly function again, a wrench is thrown to stop it.
James Rhodes wasn’t sure how it exactly happened.
He had been standing against a lab table, watching Clint (the only other resident at the compound at the moment) work on his bow. The two were making small conversation about their day to day lives since everything had gone down just a few months ago. While Clint had just finished installing a replacement valve on the base of the basket that held his arrows. It hadn’t been turning properly and the only place that would have the parts was Tony’s former playground. Then an earthquake occurred... or what they could equate to an earthquake.
Neither of them had ever been a witness to one, but the ground shook violently, quickly, with little give. Parts fell off tables and the two men grabbed at whatever they could to remain steady. By the time they had steadied themselves, the movement stopped. It was followed then, only then, by a loud crashing noise about a floor below and glass breaking. Clint was the first to reach for his bow and James grabbed the closest gun he could find. Neither of them thought anything other than “my god, what Thanos level shit is it now.”
Like the sleuth heroes they were, they managed to silently exit the lab and descend the stairs without so much as a creek. The living space that was located on the third floor was relatively untouched but the sound had echoed from the room. As soon as they turned around from the steps, they realized their suspicions were correct but it didn’t look like a Thanos level threat.
Behind the couch, the broken lamp that had no bulb laid on the ground beside a man. A man dressed in black tactical gear and swords sheathed on his back. He had other small weapons on his clothes but none of them were drawn and from the reflection of the glass window, Clint could see a perplexed look on his seemingly worn face. Although he didn’t feel the man was particularly threatening, Clint drew up his bow and held it steady from his position before calling out to him.
“Put your hands where I can see them.”
Cheesy, he knew it was but he wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t know where the hell this guy came from and he could easily be a sorcerer or God even though he looked like a regular Joe.
“Sir, I need you to show us your hands!” James was more assertive from behind Clint but didn’t move from his position. Ever since the accident years ago, James took a step back whenever he didn’t have his armor on.
The man had flinched a bit upon hearing their voices. He slowly raised his hands as asked and turned around to meet the eyes of two men who he had never met. Their weapons drawn on him but not unfamiliar to other situations he had been in before. This time, it was just more human.
“Who are you?” The one with short hair, a bow, asked him with a hesitant, gruff voice.
“Where am I?”
The man spoke their language—maybe not an alien.
“I asked you first who are you?”
“Where am I? Where is-“
“I do not want to have to shoot you, who are you?” James was aggravated, perhaps a little scared but he wouldn’t shoot unless the man made any aggressive moments toward them.
“M-Marcus. My name is Marcus.” Marcus’ voice was firm but scared. He didn’t know where he was. It was all an accident. One minute he was testing the machine and the next he was moving through a kaleidoscope of colors until he saw a blinding light and landed on a lamp in the middle of a futuristic looking living room.
There was a moment of realization in the bow-wielders face that gave Marcus a second of hope. Had this really worked? Was this your world?
“Alright Marcus, I am going to need you to tell me where you came from and how you got here.” The one with the gun in Marcus’ eyes began to move around the one with bow. He held out his hand calmly, signaling to Marcus that he wasn’t a threat but was protecting himself and his friend out of precaution. Marcus did not move his hands but nodded in agreement. What did he have to hide when he was now in an unfamiliar land with weapons pointed at his chest?
“I don’t know how I got here. I work for a team and we were trying to get someone back. I was working on it but something went wrong.”
“Do you know where you are?”
“No.”
“Who are you looking for?”
“Our teammate.”
Clint knew it was him. This had to have been the man you talked about with him and James was getting that sense as well. He was exactly as you spoke, handsome with a slight carelessness to his appearance. He had a mustache and his name was literally Marcus. It couldn’t have been anyone else, though they had no idea how in the universe he found his way to the middle of the Avengers living room.
“Marcus, I am going to ask you a series of questions I need you to be honest with me.” Clint put down his bow this time and James looked at him with wide eyes but continued to hold his stance.
“Does your world look like this one?”
Marcus took a second to let his eyes drift out the windows around them. The world looked similar, almost an exact copy. He had remembered your startled realization that his world was just as similar to your own even though it wasn’t the same one. It was a strange concept that was hard to grapple with.
“Yes.”
“Do you have a daughter, Marcus?”
“What?” This absolutely terrified him. As much as he wanted to be hopeful to find you, a mention of his daughter in a new world was not what he wanted. Now the question if he even escaped his own world and found himself in a new one was wavering. These people couldn’t possibly know he had a daughter unless they were familiar with the Heroics.
“Do you have a daughter? I need you to answer this so I can-”
“Yes. Yes, I have a daughter.”
“Missy?”
Marcus nodded his head and Clint looked at James who lowered his gun now. This was that Marcus. This was your Marcus and he was here to find you.
“And what can you tell me about Y/n?”
His heart leapt out of his chest with a fury at the mention of your name.
“She’s my-my she’s-”
Clint nodded his head and officially dropped his bow before extending his hand for Marcus to shake.
“My name is Clint Barton, maybe she mentioned me, I don’t know. But she’s talked plenty about you.”
“She’s here?” It came out just above a whisper as he met Clint’s hand.
“Y/n is with my wife at our farm. I can take you to her.”
It was like that final stretch of battle you had described to him before. This was his endgame, his chance for peace with you and the friends you left behind for years are willing to help make that come true. Much to his word, Clint prepared a jet to set off to the farm and James kept Marcus from stirring alone in his thoughts. It wasn’t as if the reunion would be soured because the relationship ended, no, quite the opposite, but the idea that maybe you would rather stay with the people who you had always been around was an invasive thought. James had eased those thoughts with stories of your return and subsequent difficultly to adapt to this life. That wasn’t an easy thing to hear, but it meant that somewhere inside you, you believed that life was better with Missy and himself.
James reassured him that you were very much in love with him. You had told the two of them about your “other” life, about the team, Missy, Mrs. Moreno, and everyone else who made that other world home.
Home.
By the time James had gotten around to recalling the moment you had realized you loved Marcus, Clint had come back, gathered his own bags and motioned to the jet.
“Looks like he’s ready to go.” James said and gave Marcus a friendly pat on the shoulder.
“She deserves to be happy and I know with you she’ll have that. It’s what they would have wanted.”
“Thank you for your help. I don’t think I would have found her otherwise.” Marcus chuckled but couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face. It was a contagious one because the two men couldn’t help but feel the love the radiated off the man. They were happy for you and if leaving this world for another meant you would finally be at peace, then that is what it meant.
“Go get her, Marcus.”
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Tag list for series:
@pasckles @jupitersmooneuropa @agingerindenial @karnita-mexicana @mcueveryday @shadowolf993 @computeringturtle @roxypeanut
#marcus moreno#Marcus Moreno x OC#marcus moreno x reader#Marcus Moreno x you#we can be heroes#Netflix We Can Be Heroes#We can be heroes x Reader#x reader#Pedro Pascal#pedro pascal imagine#pedro pascal x reader#pedro pascal x oc#netflix#x female reader
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Enter! Muse Duellist: the Heroine Who Fights Armageddon with Song
Written for the 100ships Challenge on Dreamwidth
Prompt #31 Cadet
Ship: Petuniashipping | Gakuto/Romin
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Word Count: 5,622
Rating: T
Warnings: No Warnings Apply
Tags: Alternate Universe - Magical Girls, Aged Up Characters, Meet Cute, Sci-Fi Elements, Action, Affectionate Parody
AN: The AU is a mash-up of Tokyo Mew Mew & Megaman with other magical girl anime influences but Gakuto/Romin’s relationship is meant to imitate Ryou/Ichigo from TMM and Gakuto & Yuga’s relationship is meant to imitiate Dr. Light & Dr. Wily from Megaman
Yuga shook his head, “You are naive, Dr. Sougetsu,” he chided his dear friend who could only stand there, helpless, as Yuga lectured him, “the future is decided. I can see the end of my Road. The flesh is weak but the mind… the mind is unknowable, infinite. Humans may be finite but I shall not be. Nor shall my creations.”
Gakuto’s hand turned to a fist by his side.
“All our roads shall come to an end and they will be by my design, my creation.” Yuga told him.
Gakuto was unable to bring himself to say something. Not because there was nothing to be said but because there was too much to say. Too much to protest. The future that Yuga saw and desired to bring about was not one of coexistence between forces such as robotics, humans, and A.I. but armageddon. Pure and complete and total armageddon. He wanted to open that box, bring about the apocalypse, shiny and chrome. Yuga thought, at the very least, that it was shiny and chrome. Gakuto only saw rust and endless dust.
It broke his heart but Gakuto knew that he had to be the one to stop Yuga from piling high his monopoly and bringing about this end that he foresaw. But how? If the enemy was inhuman, the solution could only be uniquely human.
Parting ways with Yuga, and with such little time between their verbal and ideological sparring, Gakuto threw himself into art. Literature. Into what was sensitive and poetic; things that couldn’t be perfectly recreated by robotic touch. And in his immense and expansive reading, in every genre and every niche, Gakuto had the epiphany that he was after.
There was an archetypical champion that was trusted instantaneously by the public, adored and rarely ever turned against. Someone who was a paragon of goodness, morality, and put all humanity above themselves for little or more commonly, nothing in return. All because they had an everlasting love inside their heart and a belief in the inherent goodness of mankind. That person, that hero… no, that heroine was, of course, the magical girl.
Gakuto knew what he had to do. The revelation sank deep down to his theatrical bones. He needed to create, to assemble, his very own magical girl. Flashing in his glasses and in his brain, Gakuto already had a name in mind for this cadet to champion the continuation of humanity rather than its end: Muse Duellist.
Racing against his rival who aspired to the end of the world, Gakuto was highly motivated. He threw himself into creating as close to magic as he could using his breadth of scientific knowledge. After all, sufficiently advanced technology was indistinguishable from magic. He embraced those intelligent words from [guy] in the long hours that he slogged to create the perfect frilly armour, the perfect weapons to disarm technology, and so forth.
The only thing that Gakuto could not create, was of course, the girl herself. No, he needed to find her, his Muse Duellist.
He could just harass random young ladies on the street - and Gakuto knew that from experience as he had tried that. He got hounded on by many saviour boyfriends, a few policemen, and even some strong-armed ladies who would have made a brilliant Muse Duellist if only they listened, and believed, in him. The mad scientist on the sidewalk, spouting endlessly about the end of the world.
Yeah, Gakuto wouldn’t want to work with Dr. Sougetsu either, actually, but so went his eccentricity. He had no idea how his beloved Ranze and Rinnosuke put up with him but he was endlessly grateful that they did and were happy to go along with his insane ideas.
But then he saw her on the televisions in the electronics store window display. He was entranced by her music. Gaktuo stood there, enchanted, as he watched this rock and roller on the television slamming on her guitar. She looked like she was having the time of her life; the camera loved; Gakuto loved her. Her smile was wide and sparkling. She looked so good in her high heels and mini-skirt; the partial mesh body-suit and the loose, over the shoulder, 80’s style torn top.
With her wild pinky-purple coloured hair and her bright eyes, Gakuto could all too easily imagine her donning the armour of Muse Duellist. Gakuto had to have her. This… This…
“And that was Roa-Romin with their new hit single! Give it up to Kirishima Romin and her boys!” the announcer rattled off from behind glass.
Kirishima… Romin… Her name was sweet on Gakuto’s tongue. His eyes were all lit up. He had to meet her. How on Earth was he going to manage that? He was some washed up weirdo from the strangest parts of academia. This Kirishima Romin girl was a mega-famous superstar from the reception that she and her bandmates were getting.
So, he did what he did best. He threw himself into yet more research and he discovered something very, very usable about this Miss Kirishima Romin: she was an amateur food critic. She had a very widely known appetite reputed for being humongous and Gakuto didn’t consider himself too bad in the kitchen. Thus, a plan was hatched - and one inspired by one of the magical girl anime that he had watched in the first place in the beginnings of his plan to save the world.
Using what little of his dwindling generational wealth that he had left, and of course the assistance of his beloved assistants Ranze and Rinnosuke, Gakuto set up shop. Literally. He opened Cafe Muse from behind his house and he did his best to spread word of it as far and wide as he possibly could. All so that Kirishima Romin would be attracted to it - and pinging her across various modes of social media about it did help because she did, eventually, agree to come to the grand opening of it.
Kirishima Romin looked so fashionable in a beret and cut-out skinny jeans as she was escorted inside by Ranze, ahead of everyone else who lined up in a queue for the grand opening. She looked around the Cafe. It was a lot more saccharine-looking than she was expecting, she mentioned to Ranze. She sat back casually in a pink metal chair and slung her handbag over the back of it.
“I thought that a newly opened cafe was going to be more upscale than this,” Romin mused to Ranze as she waited hand and foot on her, “but so long as the food was good, I won’t complain.” She shrugged.
Ranze hesitated, “Yes, well, Master Gakuto has always had unpredictable tastes. I wasn’t quite expecting the architectural plans either and I’m one of his investors.”
Romin laughed at Ranze’s humour.
“Would you like anything to order?” Ranze asked sheepishly.
“Oh boy would I.” Romin was already all but slobbering. She ordered a lot of food, much more than Ranze was expecting but she diligently scribbled down every whim that Romin had for her stomach and then excused herself.
Ranze returned to the kitchen, the base of operations for Gakuto, both as chef and as a mad scientist looking to turn this rock star into a magical girl, Rinnosuke slunk out in tandem. He was performing a bit of reconnsanice and of course, he was the waiter and a few guests had already ordered food so that had to be delivered to him. He kept an eye on the one guest that they had been fishing for but his attention was truly hooked by someone else. A familiar face.
Yuga smiled blithely and flagged Rinnosuke down. “Yo.” he said.
“Hello Dr. Ohdo, I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” Rinnosuke tersely replied, his hackles raising. “Should I go fetch Master Gakuto for you?”
“No, no, it’s fine. I’m just here for a snack.” Yuga said and he drummed his hands on the table in front of him but he was wiggling in his chair, craning his head, trying to catch a glimpse of Gakuto who was out in the back. “Dr. Sougetsu and I had a very heated discussion about our irreparable differences of perspective last time we met, I don’t think it's wise but I'm glad he’s come around. Throwing in the towel, deciding to live the rest of his road to the fullest by opening a restaurant. It's unexpected but he’s always been a weirdo. I used to love that about him.”
Rinnosuke’s expression was dark behind his spectacles but he felt obliged, “Should I take your order, Dr. Ohdo?”
“That would be fantastic, youngest Nanahoshi.” Yuga teased him with a cruel, fox-like smile. “Now, do you guys have any udon or should I just order a strawberry shortcake?”
Rinnosuke gravely took Yuga’s order and scurried off. By the time he arrived back in the kitchen, Gakuto had already realised that his rival in the world’s final fate was here. He blamed himself for attracting too much attention. It was, in hindsight, ill-advised to stir such a hullabaloo but Gakuto was certain it would be worth it so long as he could get Kirishima Romin on board with his plan to save the world.
But how?
Walking straight up to her and asking, Gakuto had learned, was the quickest way to be slapped and disbelieved but deceiving her would be immoral and counterintuitive to his noble goals. It was all very difficult. If only Ranze hadn’t declined; stating she preferred to be the backstage hero, not the heroine on display front and centre amid the fray. They needed someone with a loud and bombastic and friendly disposition, someone exactly like Kirishima Romin.
Wary that he was going to run out of time or that this opportunity would slip through his fingers, Gakuto resolved to act fast. He had been hoping to save this maneuver for later but every episode one had a good, gimmicky little mascot character. It was time to introduce Kirishima Romin to her fateful and adorable little partner: Musa.
Discreetly as possible, Gakuto fed the Tuning Pick to Musa and then slipped over to where Romin was sitting. As soon as he left the kitchen, Gakuto realised that Romin had someone sitting with her. His blood ran cold as he approached her and Yuga.
“Oh, I didn’t realise that you two knew each other.” Yuga said to Gakuto as he inched closer to Romin’s puff pastry perfect table. “I was just saying hi, introducing myself… I’m a big fan of RoaRomin. Are you into them, as well, Dr. Sougetsu? Or should I just call you Gakuto since you don’t seem to be much of a professor these days, running a sweets shop.”
“I was just coming over to thank Miss Kirishima for her patronage. Her celebrity presence has increased our business tenfold from what we were expecting on our first day.” Gakuto said and his heart began to quake as he set down the little, fluffy trinket known as Musa in front of romin; a gesture that Yuga eyed with delight. Resistance, excellent, just what he was expecting. “Here,” Gakuto said, “a small token of appreciation, leftover from my bygone days as a scientist. It has no purpose other than to look cute and hold small items, like car keys, for example.”
“Oh, interesting.” Romin blinked as she picked up the item.
“Its name is Musa, but I suppose you are free to rename it how you please.” Gakuto said nervously.
Yuga cooed at them, “Aren’t you two sweet?” he teased.
“Musa is a cute name, I’ll keep it as is.” Romin replied as she admired the object in question.
It was almost keyring like in that it had a chain link and hoop at the end of it but other than that, it had a fluffy, little body and was a charming pink in colour. It had googly eyes and a cotton ball tail. It was everything that was meant to be cute or adorable, turned into one conundrum of an unidentifiable creature but it certainly served its purpose.
“Well,” Yuga said, “I best be going.”
“It was nice meeting you, Dr. Ohdo.” Romin said.
“And it was good seeing you again, old friend.” Gakuto added, his voice was bittersweet.
“Yeah, see ya.” Yuga said and he gave them both a two finger salute.
He got up and walked away, whistling a little tune to himself, his hands behind his head. The very picture of nonchalance. Meanwhile, Romin and Gakuto exchanged a very awkward look and Gakuto couldn’t take the pressure. He excused himself back to the kitchen, claiming he had much to cook and prepare, namely thanks to her, their current number one customer and Romin laughed half-heartedly. Her reputation, per usual, preceded her.
As Gakuto left the table, he could only hope that Romin would poke and prod Musa until its functions were revealed and Romin’s destiny would be all lit up in a blue hologram. Until then, Gakuto could only hope that everything would turn out alright - and that Yuga hadn’t gotten up to anything awry when they weren’t looking. It was already suspicious enough that he had puzzled out who Gakuto and his team were aiming to make their champion for the future of the world.
Back in the kitchen, Gakuto went through the motions of cooking and preparing food for the patrons to eat. The bombardment of popularity, in any other circumstances, would be seen as fortunate but this place was only meant to be a front for their saving the world efforts so it was more of a hassle than anything else. Still, busying their hands helped distract them from the possibility that Yuga might have something planned.
Throughout the afternoon, Romin single handedly depleted their larder. They ended up closing early because of it but that might have been a blessing in disguise, even if it was an expensive one. Still, within minutes of closing shop, glowing reviews were going out from Romin’s phone which was an appreciated gesture.
Gakuto met her again outside with a wobbly smile, “Thank you again for visiting our humble shop, Miss Kirishima.”
“No problem,” she beamed, chatting idly whilst she texted on her phone; organising for her private chauffeur to come pick her up, “I’m glad I took a chance on this place. Dr. Ohdo was telling me about how good his strawberry shortcake was and he wasn’t wrong. I went for thirds and fourths on it.”
She laughed and Gakuto laughed with her. It was weird to be with her but Gakuto found himself just a little bit infatuated with the rock star in front of him; just like he had been in front of the electronics store, seeing her perform on television for the first time. He took a deep breath.
“And thanks again for this little guy,” Romin said and she took out Musa, letting it hang off the hoop which she had threaded onto her finger, “he’s very cute. I can’t wait to show him off to my friends in the band. By the way, totally bringing RoaRomin ‘round here the next chance I get.”
“We will look forward to it.” Gakuto smiled warmly.
Romin replied with a small smile of her own and the conversation drifted off into silence. Romin was half expecting for Gakuto to disappear back into his own shop behind them but no, he seemed intent on sticking around. It wasn’t creepy, per say, but it was odd. Fortunately, Romin’s phone buzzed in her hand - spooking them both.
“Oh, it's my chauffeur saying he’s about to arrive.” Romin said. “I should get going.” She slipped her phone into her purse.
“Safe travels then, Miss Kirishima.” Gakuto replied.
“Thank you, er, um… I don’t know how to address you.” Romin rambled.
Gakuto didn’t know what to tell her. So he just stood there, awkwardly, weirding Romin out so she took a big, and exaggerated, step back. He waved her goodbye and across the road, he watched a limousine park. That must have been her ride and he really did wish her safe travels.
But she didn’t even make it to the ledge next to this side of the road before she needed such sentiments on her side. The purse that she had slung over her shoulder began to glow - and explode.
It happened in the blink of an eye. Shafts of bright, yellow light branched out from inside the clutch top of the purse and just expanded outward. Romin yelled and screamed as she rid herself of her purse and then there was the bang as something impossible happened. The explosion knocked Romin and Gakuto to their feet. It caused the whole street to tremble; branches on trees came loose and the rumble was felt for miles out.
It was blinding at first. Dizzying, disorentating but when the effects began to wear off, as blurry as that was, it was more than apparent that everyone in the immediate vicinity of Cafe Muse was in great, big danger.
“What is that thing?” Romin yelled as she stumbled to her feet. There were grass stains on her jeans and her wrists felt jarred. Her eyes were wide with defiant fear. “And why the hell is it my phone?!”
A giant monster loomed in front of them. It looked like a smartphone; slick black screen and a phone case on the back, it was even pommed with decorative charms. But there was something else latched onto it, at the top rim beside where the phone charms hung: it looked like some sort of drone had taken hold of it, like a parasite and its host. Thus, it donned abominable arms and legs, ready to rampage, giving a staticky screech.
Gakuto grit his teeth through the horrendous noise. Romin stood there, stunned, by the utter impossibility of a monster looming and screeching in front of her. A monster that had somehow spawned from her phone - and that was definitely her phone case and phone charms.
“I was hoping that Muse would do the explaining, but there’s no time for that.” Gakuto said, his voice projecting far and wide. He ripped off his Cafe Muse apron and replaced it with a lab coat. “Enter! Muse Duellist: the Heroine Who Fights Armageddon with Song! Musa, begin protocol M-U-Five-Three!”
The little animatronic known as Musa began to chirp and chatter. Its little fuzzy wings began to buzz and it revealed the maw that it hid. Romin squeaked in surprise as the little critter tried to escape her finger and it forced itself in her face. It bore its tongue at her and atop its tongue there was a strange, teeny-tiny item that looked like it belonged in some sort of dolly’s playset. It looked like a stick decorated with an… R?
Whatever it was, Musa spat it in Romin’s face and it hit her right across the bridge of her nose. She flinched and she had no idea what was happening next. There was another bright light - white, this time, rather than the yellow of the prior explosion - and then her body was just moving on its own.
The little trinket that had been inside of Musa became a scepter for Romin to wield and from the R-shaped charm atop its crown, ribbons flew out and captured her. The next thing she knew, she was all gifted up in pantyhose and frills. The fashionable, heavy metal style clothes she had been wearing before turned into something truly a one-eighty to her usual.
Romin’s hair, once down, was now up in twin tails adorned with red ribbons. She was wearing a frilly little dress that was pink and white with gold buttons down her sternum. The cherry red high heels were cute though, even if Romin had no idea where any of this wardrobe change came from - or how it had happened at all. She just felt like it happened in an instant, from nowhere but that white light.
Gakuto grinned, “Yes!” he yelled. “Yes, here she is! The magical girl who shall champion humanity and keep us on an eternal road: Muse Duellist.”
“Muse who?” Romin yelped as she scrambled in her ankle breakers close to Gakuto since he seemed to have some idea of what was going on, as insane as it was.
“Muse Duellist, of course, the one who will destroy Dr. Ohdo’s terrible Roads and save the day! The future! The entire world!” Gakuto said and he struck a sharp pose for emphasis.
Romin’s jaw just dropped. She could not take this man seriously at all.
“Now go, Muse Duellist, save us all with your song.” Gakuto said and he pointed at the monster.
The sun was glaring off. It leered and loomed and now that they were making a lot of noise, it seemed more than content to rampage. Merely taking a step forward with its gargantuan body was enough to crack and crater the pavement below.
Romin squeaked, “Play music? Yeah, that I can do. Dunno about that other stuff.” she said.
“I’ll support you as best I can,” Gakuto said and from inside his sweater vest, he drew out a handheld device, “this can detect any robot’s weakness, with just a mighty Scholar Scan, we’ll be able to take it down.”
Romin nodded her head, she had no idea why but she was going along with it. She may as well. It was likely her only option to get out of this crazy situation at all.
“Now go forth!” Gakuto yelled. “Sing your song, Muse Duellist!”
“Okay,” Romin said, her voice completely neutral, “so where’s my guitar?”
Gakuto blinked, “Your guitar…?” he echoed.
“Yeah, I’m lead guitarist, not lead singer, you know that, right?” Romin pointed out.
“But you're in a band, surely you can sing, right?” Gakuto said, blinking again. “Muse Duellist’s entire schtick is that she sings a song that reverberates at the correct frequency to disable and disassemble Dr. Ohdo’s Road.”
Romin blushed, she toyed with the scepter that she held, it was actually quite light-weight and even fun to play with, “I’m tone deaf. I can carry a tune with a guitar, not my vocal chords.”
“Pardon?” Gakuto said in a tiny voice.
“I’m a horrible singer.” Romin reiterated.
Gakuto’s eyes glazed over. He had done hours and hours of research into Kirishima Romin and the band she was a part of, RoaRomin. He learned all her favourite foods, that her blood type was AB, that her zodiac sign was Pisces. He had even happened across her three sizes and her grades even so far back as elementary school. He had scoured dozens of magazines and gossip websites and plenty more too.
Everything that he researched just confirmed in his mind that Kirishima Romin would make the perfect Muse Duellist; he even fashioned the accessory that adorned the Muse Scepter after her initial because of this certainty. Not once did any of these sources that he had inquired into ever mentioned that, apparently, famous guitarist Kirishima Romin was a terrible, no good, horrible singer. It simply did not compute with Gakuto who felt his heart and pride shrink in on themselves.
So, in an even tinier voice than before, Gakuto uttered, “We are so screwed.”
That they were, that they were.
The monster lumbered over and smashed an arm down through where they stood. Romin jumped out of the way, shrieking, but Gakuto was knocked down again. The telephone monster’s fist broke the pavement there, too. Shards of concrete spiked up from the ground. It gave another, awful screech which was raw and staticky.
Gakuto groaned. His pants ripped at the knees and he was seeing stars. Most of them around Romin, his dear Muse Duellist.
Romin felt her heart steel. Gakuto could be hurt. Severely wounded, even. And she had just dashed away like it was nothing, there was something about these clothes, as impractical as they were, which gave her an agility she didn’t realise she had. Gakuto was practically defenseless compared to her. She had to do something. He had entrusted her with this power for some weird, cosmic reason, so may as well use it.
“Hi-yah!” Romin yelled as she surged forward.
She ran towards the monster and hit it with the scepter. She bashed at its back side, over and over again. She grinned whilst doing it, her heart racing as she had an incredibly good time unleashing her inner brutality on it. Totally unafraid of either breaking the scepter or phone which had become the basis for this monster at all.
It was just a shame that it didn’t seem to be doing much at all. Nothing except annoy the monster. It shifted slightly, pulled its arm away from Romin and lunged at her with the other. She yelled as she gave it a great swack, like it was from a baseball bat, and it turned into a gritty parry.
Gakuto held his head and groaned. The Muse Scepter was not meant for close combat but he was suddenly glad that it was reinforced anyway. He knew that bright idea would come in handy for one reason or another.
“Muse Duellist!” he yelled out but his voice had a loose tremble to it. “Use your Maximum Song!”
“Who-? Oh right, me,” Romin murmured as she jumped back from the fray, trying to close in on Gakuto without luring the monster either, she turned her head, “wait, my what?” She took a few more steps back so she could regroup with Gakuto.
Gakuto sighed, “Your Maximum Song,” he insisted, “even if you can’t sing, surely it’ll still work. Put your scepter in front of you, line up your mouth with the R, and sing, Muse Duellist!” He then used that Scholar Scanner of his and lined it up with the monster, like he was trying to take a photo of it.
Romin screwed up her expression. It was a weird instruction but she did it anyway. There was a tremble in her forearms as she aligned her mouth with the R of the Muse Scepter. She swallowed and even though it was against the grain of her talents, she sang a note into the scepter.
Her off-kilter note that she sang warbled through the R but it came out the other side as something else. A weak sonic boom of all things. Her eyes went wide as she managed to shoot her shot though, damaging the side of the monster. But that just made it mad.
The monster shuddered and gave an even grander screech than before. It caused more branches to fall off trees and for tiles on the roof to come loose. It shook the foundations of the cafe, even. Gakuto and Romin could hardly withstand the aural assault but they managed.
Gakuto held onto Romin and he pulled himself up. Romin struggled with Gakuto’s weight but came good once he was on his own two feet. He placed his arm around her waist and brandished a fan - she had no idea where it came from - with passion.
“Seize the sonic wave, Muse Duellist!” he yelled in her ear with a flourish of his fan. “According to my Scholar Scanner, this monster’s weak point is in the middle of its top vertice so aim there.”
“Got it.” Romin nodded.
Gakuto held her steady whilst Romin wielded her scepter once more. Knowing it's true function as a long range, sound based weapon, having given it a crash test, she felt more confident with it. She took a huge breath and felt her diaphragm flex. Even if she didn’t know how to sing in a way that sounded good, at least she knew how to sing in a way that was good for her body.
Romin moved the scepter upwards, she tilted her chin up, too. She could see that funny little device at the top of her phone which had caused this monstrosity to become a monstrosity in the first place. The weak point, she didn’t even need the Scholar Scanner to realise that. Holding on tight to the sceptre, Romin used her finishing attack: her Maximum Song.
She sang the opening lyrics of RoaRomin’s most iconic song into the R of the sceptre and the effect was immediate. It wasn’t just a sonic wave, it was a sonic boom. It was enough to flatten the vicinity of the cafe, Romin and Gakuto barely holding onto each other through the immensity of the sound.
The monster screeched out but began to crack. The sonic boom had been concentrated, funneled through the hole of the R and it assailed the top vertice of the monster. It tried to resist but it began to buzz. To fumble. Its body fell away, piece by piece and Romin could hardly believe her eyes as every iota of the machine was just shed so easily.
Then poof! Another explosion and the monster disappeared. Became its omega and its alpha: in other words, Romin’s phone and Dr. Ohdo’s device that he used to turn it into a monster.
Romin squealed as she raced forward, catching her phone before it could crash land into the ground. Gakuto was also hot on her heels, catching the Road that had infected the technology. They both sighed in relief as neither seemed too damaged and then exchanged a smile.
“Well…” Romin murmured, her high heels clicking as she dawdled, “I think we can call that a success.”
“I think we can.” Gakuto said.
Romin leaned over and peered over Gakuto’s arms. She looked at what he was holding, cupped, in his hands. Some sort of tiny, green drone with frazzled, yellow eyes.
“What is that?” Romin asked, blinking.
“A Kaizo.” Gakuto replied gravely. “One of Dr. Ohdo’s favourite inventions. It's a versatile Road and seeing what chaos it caused today, one he has improved of late.”
“But we broke it, right? Destroyed it? So it's all good, right? We saved the day and never have to do this Muse Duellist thing ever again, yeah?” Romin asked, rambling.
Gakuto shook his head, “This fight was just the first of who knows how many. Your duty as the champion of humanity’s future, ensuring that we have one, just begun, Miss Kirishima.”
“Wh-What?!” Romin stammered in exclamation.
Gakuto put his hand firmly on Romin’s shoulder, “Worry not, you will do well. I shall assist you above and beyond all expectations.” His mind was already brimming with calculations and ideas on how to improve the Muse Sceptre now that he had seen Romin action as a close quarters combatant rather than a ranged attacker like he expected.
“That’s not really the-” Romin gave up mid-sentence. Gakuto was practically shining with his conviction so she sighed. “As long as it doesn’t interfere with any commitments I have with my band.”
“Thank you, Romin, I have no doubt you will be hailed and regarded extremely well in the future, once we have acquired its certainty. We will not allow Dr. Ohdo to end our road in armageddon.” Gakuto said firmly.
“Yeah…” Romin murmured and she looked around, her eyes went wide as she realised that two people were standing them, half-crouched, hands reached up and they were twirling brushes in their fingers like they were meant to be bouquets. “Um, who are…?” She looked around in panic and realised that the impacts and craters from their fight, the fallen branches, a lot of it had been cleaned up and away somehow.
“These are my trusty assistants, Ranze and Rinnosuke, they will be assisting us in our endeavour to protect the future as well.” Gakuto explained.
“Okay, well, good to meet you both.” Romin said.
They ceased their stagehanding with the brushes and got up. They saluted Romin and appeared to return her sentiments: it was good to meet her, too.
“So, um, how do I get out of this outfit?” Romin asked in a small voice. “Just by the way.”
“Musa, activate protocol Three-Five-U-M.” Gakuto recited.
“Mu-Mu-Musa!” Musa chirped.
Romin was flung asunder again, this time in reverse from before. The Muse Sceptre vibrated in her hands and began the de-transformation process. She was forcibly put through the wringer and when she came out the side, her hair was down, her beret was back, and she was wearing her cut-out denim jeans again. She couldn’t believe it.
Her sceptre had also become that tiny little charm again - the Tuning Pick - in her hand. Knowing the safest spot for it was inside Musa, she offered it to the little guy who was brimming with jubilance as it hovered around her like an enthusiastic fly. It happily swallowed up the Tuning Pick and Romin sighed, exhausted.
“What a day it’s been…” she mumbled and felt her stomach growl.
“And what a future it shall be,” Gakuto reminded her and Romin look up at him, the weirdo in a lab coat, shiny orange glasses, he looked bizarre but he also looked like he knew what he was doing, he offered her his hand, “and to thank you for your services, would you like an early dinner with us?”
Romin smiled and she took his hand, she felt her heart skip a beat and now she was the one enamoured with this person from an entirely different world to her, “That would be lovely, thank you. I’ll let my chauffeur know that I’ll be a bit longer.”
“Sounds good.” Gakuto agreed, squeezing her hand, noticing the callouses on her fingertips, and so ending the beginning of Muse Duellist’s saga to protect the future through song on a happy note.
#100ships challenge#petuniashipping#yugioh sevens#sevens#yugioh#gakuto sougetsu#romin kirishima#kirishima romin#sougetsu gakuto#writing tag#i had a lot of fun writing this fic and i hope the affectionate paordy elements convey that way
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Binary Stars - Obi-Wan x Reader
A/N: Uh lemme just uh rant about my feelings about being in a secret relationship because I specialise on that front. 10/10 would not recommend that particular experience my dudes. You can read this as both reader and Obi being Jedi, it’s left fairly ambiguous.
Title: Binary Stars
Tags: @fangirltothe-end , @hellotherekenobi
Words: 1000+
Masterpost: here (x)
Prompt List: here (x)
Mixtape Archive: here (x)
The Obi-Wan Kenobae playlist (x)
“But what is that?” The young Jedi sitting beside you had asked, pointing to two stars so close together they seemed almost as one.
“Binary stars.” You had replied, recalling some footnote in your lessons. “Two stars trapped within each other’s gravitational orbits and destined to eventually collide.”
“Inescapably so?”
“I guess.”
The first thing that alerted you was the idle feeling of wetness upon your cheeks, like the gentle fall of rain against your skin. Part of your mind was convinced that it was all part of a dream, the other- no the other began to rouse you from your sleep, eyes opening and adjusting to the darkness of your room. Speeders raced past your curtained windows, looking to all the world like blurs of passing colours and stars. And you became aware of a warm body pressed against your side, holding you fast.
“Forgive me,” His voice choked out, you instantly lifted your hand to Obi-Wan’s face, his forehead pressed against yours. “I shouldn’t have woken you up.”
You sat up, tucking loose strands of hair behind his ears, brows furrowing at the sight of his face. “No, no darling you haven’t done anything wrong.” Your lips found their way to the corner of his eye, feeling the wetness of tears as you tried your best to wipe them away with your sleeve. “What is it? Obi?”
His eyes looked down towards the tangled sheets for a moment before meeting yours again, words unable to come to his tongue. You continued to press kisses against the familiar warmth of his skin, fingers idly brushing the scruff of his beard as you traced a line of kisses from cheek to jaw. Your nose was now buried into the crook of his neck as you both sat in a tight embrace, arms looped around his shoulders as Obi-Wan’s wrapped around your waist. He smelled of comfort and the herbs folded into his robes for storage. Clean, honest, without pretention. And despite however much you thought the pain would stop, a wave of sadness washed over you once again. And you held onto him tighter, feeling him respond in kind.
No matter how long you’d both spent apart, you felt as if these moments together were never real. Like living a life that was not truly your own. And in those moments your heart numbed itself to the ache and desperation of longing, willing to let you act as if everything was fine. As if you didn’t spend each waking instant together yearning that the next and the one after and the one after that would be the same.
In the days after Obi-Wan would return to the war front, you would spend what felt like hours in bed, fingers feeling the phantom touches of a face you had become so intimately familiar with, your skin remembering what it felt like to have calloused hands gently skim along the curve of your cheek. You don’t know for how much longer you could do this, but you would. You said you would. You knew the price of that love, and you knew you would bear that pain in the knowledge that he was yours.
“Do you hate me?” You never thought he could sound so… so defeated. “I’ve caused you such pain and it’s all my fault.”
You raised your head, hand resting upon the side of his face. “Stars, how could I ever hate you?”
It wasn’t always like this.
Once you had both been reckless. Running through streets and racing speeder bikes, stealing kisses in alleyways where no prying Jedi Master could see. Perhaps you had both simply grown up, and the crawling nightmare that was the war weighing down upon both of you. But sometimes, even now, those stolen kisses behind senate buildings still felt as thrilling as the first. And sometimes you would hear Obi-Wan laugh as clearly as he had once done. He wasn’t built for infinite sadness, no, no how could someone who lit up the way he did ever deserve that?
“I made my choice.” You finally whispered back, leaning in to kiss him. It seared, feeling your very breath stolen from you as his hands buried themselves into your hair. As you pulled apart his teeth caught your lower lip for the smallest moment, nibbling a little, taking all of your self-control to pull away. There would be moments to continue this, but not now. He needed something else.
“You can always leave.” He murmured into your skin, pressing yet another kiss against your forehead. “Be happy.”
“But it won’t be you. It wouldn’t be the same.” You said back, tilting his chin down with your fingers so you could meet his gaze. “I could leave you, yes. But nothing will stop me from feeling as if the universe were pulling us together. Like heavenly bodies upon a collision course. I won’t leave you, and nothing you say can make me.”
“But am I worth this pain?” He was almost pleading with you now, both hands cradling the sides of your face. “I’m just a Jedi. Not some brilliant senator or wealthy nobility.”
Your mind raced with the memories of freckles on a padawan after too much sun, of a General singing idly as he made a mug of tea. You were consumed with the ache of all those quiet moments spent memorising the lines of his face and the shape of his lips and the way he frowned when he couldn’t quite understand something. The way he laughed about his former padawan just as much as he claimed Anakin would send him to an early grave. But above all else, your mind was filled with the memories of watching him work upon his datapad, a quiet intensity in his eyes as he strategized for yet another mission.
How could you want anyone else?
“No, you’re not.” Your lips met the palm of his hand, “You’re a good man Obi-Wan Kenobi. All the pain in the universe would be worth it just so I can see you smile.”
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Before I Fall, Fall
It was quiet in the Library.
A clock ticked rhythmically in the lazy light of the morning. The constant whir of cog and wheel filled the air, punctuated by a hum and bend, phasing between Aidorinian styled bannisters, past crane carvings on the side of a bookshelf, and above a sandy blonde head hunched in front of a small shrine, tucked away in the corner. A single incense stick smoked from where it stood in its base as Juro sat in silence, his eyes closed and hands held together in prayer, glowing softly between blue and gold as he paid his respects to the Bookkeepers that disappeared several hours ago.
Virion gave a single croon as it landed on his good shoulder in worry. He opened his eyes to give the golem a scratch on the head, “I’m fine…” he assured it softly, carefully getting to his feet. He was still sore all over, accompanied by lethargy in his limbs from the massive output of magic he made. He carefully thumbed the torn fabric of his kimono on his shoulder, lamenting the loss of the garments, the blood already dried a while ago. He had yet to change.
"I was careless. I forgot she saw everything," he murmured as Akkey's interrogation replayed in his head. "You're attached to Yun Milae." He placed a slender gloved hand on the edge of a table, leaning his full weight against it, the other covering part of his face as he struggled, "I know that. That's the problem…"
One thought led to another as he spiraled through his memories, ones he wished to forget but couldn’t. Virion could only watch and extend its magic around its master in protection.
“You are nothing but a tool. A vessel for infinite power, destined to be alone. You can’t leave this place. There’s nothing, nobody out there for you. Don’t let her stories get into your head.” There was a scream of pain as a whip was brought down onto his handler. He saw nothing but white.
-
“Well… this was Jurou’s idea, but I can’t fault him for it, I understand where he’s coming from. We’re your family now. Our law is no help, no harm, and record what you see...” The Elder’s lopsided grin shone down on him. He smiled back in the same way, “But between you and me, I break that rule a bit. I like helping people even just a little, makes me feel more myself, more human. But don’t tell the others.” They laughed together.
-
He fought with his Mentor, “She’s bad news, I can feel it! Why won’t you listen? She’s nothing like you!” He didn’t see him for years after as the Mentor stubbornly searched for where the suspicious girl came from.
-
“This is all my fault,” His Mentor was crying, “I’m the one who dug around and set off their radar. You need to run, Jin. I won’t have you pay for what I did!” The Elder laid in his lap, dead. He had lost control again. Everyone was gone, it was just him and his Mentor left, cowering away from the Weapon as she pressed on with her duty to bring him back to Chuugo.
A flash of light on blade. A protecting arm flung over him. The sickening sound of sword through body, streaking blood over his face. The tip of the weapon nicking him along the jaw in the process. The Mentor heaving against the pain to keep her away from him, the blade slicing him again as bodies collided. Blood trailing in two lines down his neck as he was pushed towards nix portals, whose captured users were also escaping themselves.
“Don’t forget who you are, Little Crane.”
He ran.
A bell-like sound pinged from the flat device with the multiple buttons that he used frequently to read entries from the Modern timelines, interrupting his light speed thoughts, bringing him back to the present, “It’s like Jii-jii and Jurou-san decided to reincarnate in one goat body…” Juro couldn’t help but laugh. The smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
Juro shook his head, stretching his long arms up and growling softly at the back of his throat as he returned his focus to the rest of his intended tasks, "Right. Catch up on entries…" He pulled scrolls and devices towards him, supporting his weight against the table, and got to work.
The minutes passed, slowly turning into hours, daylight sliding across books and dust and inkwells as it filtered through the windows of the Library, only the workings of machinery and the scratch of pen heard for a long time. It was a picture of peace, just like the old days.
Juro reached for another black, flat box, fingers flying over the buttons all over its surface. The face of the box lit up brightly, its blue-white glow shining softly on his cheekbones. Text appeared from the light, and his amber eyes swept across quickly as he read them.
"Nothing out of place for Dario. Out for the weekend with friends as always. He has a show next week."
Juro's lashes lowered. Jin's entry was right on time. They've been very regular as of late, particularly revolving around a certain seidkonur's partner, worrying and keeping an eye on him. The Worst Bookkeeper truly… he grinned to himself in reproach at the Modern Bookkeeper’s unabashed display of his affinity towards Yun and his life, but it wasn't a serious issue any longer, and more in amused surrender. After all, their neutrality was a choice--it was his that wasn’t. And it was exactly how he was reprimanded in his early Bookkeeper days as well.
His brow furrowed at the intrusive memory, gritting his teeth as he balled it up and threw it in the darkest corners of his mind as he always did. His fingers clicked away again on the buttons, and the light shifted into a different set of words.
Binate World. A fairly new thread that appeared only a month ago. It wouldn’t have garnered such attention from Juro if it weren’t for two things: the timing, and the nature of the timeline. And he might have an idea of why.
He didn’t have as deep an understanding of other universes as either Yun or Milae, but he could still tell what generally happened. Two threads twisted into one, spawning two bookkeepers housing the same soul. Juro skimmed the entries from the timeline, a small laugh escaping him. The bookkeepers were young, and the way they wrote reflected it, wonder and awe seeping into their words as they learned how to string their sentences together in neutrality. They were growing fast, their world a mix of magic and mundane. They were already 8.
But there was still the question of when it happened that metaphorically raised a brow more. First, the Battle of the Jaw kicked off way earlier than it was supposed to, bringing a seidkonur all the way to the opposite side of the multiverse. Then, within days, the unnatural thread was created, seemingly out of nowhere. There's outside forces affecting these, I'm certain… His eyes lowered even further as he stared blankly at the entries, thoughts turning in his head. Immense power surges. Twisting threads. Disappearing marionettes and souls of the Court. Weaving of time and stories.
Golden eyes and a creeping darkness.
"I can't think of anyone else but her. It must be Frigga…" Juro’s lips barely moved when he commented, his eyes going out of focus.
The sounds of the Library became muted, like a veil was hung in the dimension where it existed within the Golden thread. Light and shadows began to melt together through his vision, becoming more hazy and indecipherable. The pen in his hand was still. Stringy shadows streaked across his line of vision. The Library disappeared.
Juro found himself in a bottomless abyss peppered with stars, standing on nothing, hearing nothing, feeling nothing. Across from him was a large, arch shaped shadow that hung from an unseen ceiling. He could barely make out the chains that wrapped around it, then shot outwards in millions of directions in a horrible scrape of metal sounds.
A small lonely figure stood in between him and the shadow, faced away from him, yet he knew who she was, with her light locks and bare feet.
“You’re a fucking mess, aren’t ya…”
Her voice bounced around in echoes, filling up the entire space, doubling, cycling, amplifying. Chains began straining against the dome, moving and pulling across space. She spoke again.
“All this power you sealed, uncontrolled, creating problems that you can just solve on your own if you would just accept it and learn… but you don’t want that, do ya?”
Several of the chains began to glow blue then gold, and his mouth opened in a voiceless scream at the sight, crying desperately for the light to stop, to keep the lines intact.
“You’re ashamed of who you were, and you want to erase yourself by locking it all up. You detach from anything that could cause you pain, and disguise it under neutrality. You’re addicted to this solitude. You want it. You need it.”
The child turned to face him finally, but her face was void of any features, a creepy mask of smooth skin and porcelain. Her movements were choppy, unarticulated, inhuman. Her cadence was different.
“You’re trapped, yet you have the key.”
It burst into a chaotic twist of dark lines and threads from behind her, tensing and pulling to its most extreme without snapping. The space around Juro flickered violently, the space phasing in and out of reach in two, three, four, five waves, threatening to rip at the seams, streaking past the girl and heading straight for him, wrapping itself around his limbs and torso and body and face in that familiar, terrifying way. His right side pulsed.
“So many new lines to trace, new stories to collect... and their words…. words are so important,” a different voice whispered in his ear, and his body seized, the sound crawling everywhere on his skin, the dialogue sounding familiar but incorrect, like they were spoken by the wrong lips. Light left his eyes as he stared blankly before him, unseeing. Another chain glowed with his colours.
“...fā vald ađ rifa örlagaröđina,” he replied to seemingly nobody, his voice a hollow sound.
”That’s right, darling,” the voice remained soft, “You know the importance of words and stories. Then maybe…”
It was inside his head now, “...maybe you can rewrite yours.”
The echoes of metal links and soft voices came to an abrupt stop.
Complete silence.
Darkness faded back into the Library as cog, wheel, and hum returned. The second hand of a clock ticked once more. The late afternoon light filtered through the windows again. Everything was still in place.
Juro was staring wordlessly before him, unaware, like there was no alarming bend of space that glimmered around him. With an accompanying sigh, his eyes slowly, finally came to a full close, lashes slipping over amber in one smooth motion. He fell sideways, his knees buckling and collapsing towards the ground until he hit something soft and feathery. His golem caught him in its wings with a worried caw, as his arm dropped to the side, pen rolling out of his fingers onto the wooden floor as he laid within his golem, unmoving.
Virion crooned again in concern, but relaxed when it realized that his breath was steady, “Sorry Vir… I’m… suddenly… really tired…” Juro could only mumble under his breath, sinking into the sea of blue and white.
He had fallen fast asleep.
It was quiet once more in the Library.
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Prophetic Number 367
The Following Channel is from higher powers, Divine, the ancestral plane and is prophetic through Quornesha S. Lemon| Whether the Prophetic Number 367 appears in dreams, visions, waking life, or synchronicities, it is a sign and message that there will always be enemies. And people who believe they are bigger than you. Raise your vibrations above their mess. You are not alone to the people who are always targeted by others and their negative intentions. It is about your own integrity. You were put on this earth because you can handle it. Don’t worry, rise above it all. Till the day you die, someone will say that they love you but inside hate something about you. Don't carry this in your spirit. It is not about how you respond to them that measures you but what you continue to do that you were called to do regardless of them. You don't need them to fulfill your purpose. They are just a window passing through your life. You have angels all around you. Just be sure to tune in every once in a while. And know, no weapon that is formed shall prosper. Let them throw whatever they would like to throw. You cannot undo hate in anyone’s soul or heart. Let them be their own destruction. You are a person who sees beyond what people tell you out of their mouth. You see beyond the surface of things and you truly are a force to be reckoned with. This does not mean that people should test you though because that could cause them great trouble. You are powerful beyond what you perceive or even aware of. You seem to have no negative karmic challenges other than people being jealous of you. Those who are telling you that you are crazy or at least thinking it. Are speaking and thinking from fear and holding themselves back from shining their own light. You are a pioneer. Think of these people as visitors who are unwanted and uninvited. Do not answer the door to them. Let them knock and ignore them. Sooner or later they will go away. You are a torchbearer a bringer of light. That source comes from within. Don’t let the darkness in. The number 367 is also equivalent to the number 7. This means that you are experiencing purposeful upheaval. And it is a message to keep going. Stay above pettiness. Shalom!
This message isn't, obviously resonant with all whose paths it crosses, as perhaps you may come into contact with someone of this vernacular, mastery or skill. Therefore, it is a sign from the universe that you're meant to work with such a person.
If this is not you, then it is time to get clear to rejoin your tribe or the rest of the world of infinite beings. It's time to bring your light to the forefront. However, if you aren't able to invoke, heal or otherwise on your own, call on the assistance of shamans, healers, intuitive people, etc. to assist you. This synchronicity can possibly have specific meanings for you, it's time to get insight.
The Gift that Quornesha Has can never be duplicated, She is a Shaman, Writer, Healer, And Teacher with incredible prophetic/healing gifts. Please do not infringe upon her rights as the author. You are not permitted to reuse, nor are you to sale as you wish. This information has been made available to you for the purpose of introduction and demonstration. All rights reserved. If you'd like to use this in a magazine, online publication, or other, please ask for permission first. Legal actions will be taken if you proceed to impose. Be blessed, bless others and be at peace on your journey. What you do is coming back on you. Make sure that it is good and all is well within you, through you and around you. The source sees all and knows what you think it does not.
#prophetic number 367#number 367#prophetic numbers#numerology#empowerment#insight#psychic medium#spirit medium#missing persons#psychic detective#numberology the number#numerology the number 367#367 in dreams#dreams and visions#visions and dreams#journeying#shamanic journey#shamanism#shamanic mystic#mystic shaman#numerology online
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The Hypocrisy of Cathedrals
A show of good faith that I am indeed working on a Primedak fic. Not finished yet, but the intro is solid now. WARNING: Prime is a terrible person and uses terrible language to describe every living thing in the universe basically. So if you’re uncomfortable with that, please do not read.
Nothing sexy yet. Just Prime being terrible.
The universe is governed by very little. For the most part, it is matter gravitating towards matter. Coalescing. Becoming. Morphing and igniting and compounding into stars and planets, nebulae and meteors, burning screaming spinning rupturing crashing uncontrolled. Chaotic. Messy.
Truly, this cacophony is something to be despised as the things it gives rise to are horrendous. Planets laid to waste by dying stars, their surface now an irradiated husk. Solar systems devoured by a star's gravity, their mass so great they pull everything around them down into their flames. Planets so hot that they rain glass; billions of tiny knives ripping through the atmosphere. Hostile, horrible, useless.
But the worst of all is life. Seething, crawling, oozing masses all loudly clambering for more more more, their hunger unending. For eons, he has watched what other life forms are capable of, and he has found them lacking.
Prime has come to live by a rigid philosophy. Curated over the millennia and refined down to a simple fact: to want is a crime. A cardinal sin. Wanting leads to greed; to covetous desire, then to war. Endless, senseless violence where there is no true winner. The only prizes gained were loss and suffering. It was exhausting, really, that most beings were too unevolved to grasp this, too simple in their mindset to realize they themselves were the root of their problems. Wasn’t it better then, that the universe be governed by order rather than chaos? Guided by a deft, firm hand as opposed to the mindless greed of the inhabitants? Too wanton and wasteful for their own good, consuming everything around them. Instead, Prime would provide all that was needed. Prime would bring peace and enlightenment to the unwashed masses. In turn the only thing they should desire was his approval, his love.
Just like his little brothers. All of them together, working in perfect unison. Their small thoughts a happy, thrumming buzz in the back of his mind at all times. How glad they were, to have such great purpose. How thankful they were, to be allowed to bask in his light. What could be better than serving the one who had created order in the universe at last?
Attending to the one who had brought enlightenment and civilization to countless lives, despite the primitives kicking and screaming the whole way. His work is exhausting, and at times even frustrating, but by now he has it down to a science. There's a rhythm to the teaching, an order. A delicate dance of subjugation and indoctrination. They always resist at first, too set in their flawed ways. Generally, they must be crushed completely, their egos broken down to nothing with their kingdoms in flames, in order to finally accept peace and light. But Prime and his brothers are infinite, unyielding. A flawlessly composed missionary melody executed with precision. But then, something discordant happened; a sour note in his otherwise perfect meter. A defect. A mistake. And like all mistakes, he had been cast out.
Prime, in his infinite wisdom and kindness had tried to send him out with honor. To die on the battlefield with glory in the name of his creator. Instead this defect kneels before him again, a testament of undying loyalty, craven to serve. He has returned from parts unknown, dragging with him not only two other lifeforms, but an entire planet of backward creatures. And what a mess he’d made of this new conquest. A terrible impression of Prime’s divine Horde.
Poor little thing, trying to lead an army like that. His brothers are simply not meant to lead. They are created only to serve. It’s no surprise that he had done such a terrible job; that he had been manipulated and felled by his so called subordinates. Lucky for him, Prime is merciful. He is willing to take him back into the fold; to correct his lowly, animalistic behavior. It seems that, hidden from the light of Prime, even his brothers will become corrupt. For this one wanted more than to be a good boy. As if wanting something wasn’t bad enough on its own. This one thought he could be favored. Held on high and beloved above all of his brothers. How selfish, how greedy of him to want more, especially when Prime loves all of his brothers equally. He would have to be reconditioned for that, certainly.
This little brother had to be shown that wanting will only lead to pain. Especially when he had wanted something other than the peace and order Prime had so graciously brought to the universe. And what a strange thing he wanted indeed. Purple hair. Red eyes. Gentle gloved hands. Diminutive. Soft. Despite that, she had been a blur of motion, a wellspring of knowledge and innovation; exuberant and enthusiastic. Her heart so open Little Brother had fallen head first into it.
He had wanted to stay with her. To build a nest for them to tinker away in; two defects hidden from the cleansing light of Prime.
It was only when she was gone did he resume his quest to come home. But still, his labor should be rewarded. And not just that of the portal, but his missionary work as well. Despite his flaws, this brother had been kind and generous in trying to bring these heathens to Prime's light. To fight for so long in order to return to his side; and in such a sickly state too. Poor defect. His body would collapse, as hard as he may try to be like the others. He would only slow them down, gumming up the works of the machine they worked so hard to maintain. He could be propped up with chemicals, reinforced with outside structures, but try as he might eventually he would fail again.
And yet, it seemed a waste to be rid of him. His time away had done things to him. How interesting this one had become. Deviant, in a way; corrupted by the chaos and want of an uncivilized world. How fascinating it would be to crack his mind open, to lay him bare entirely; to witness the seething mass of imperfection he had become. To feel those sins burn away by Prime’s light.
Once his new guests had been settled he would deal with his wayward brother himself.
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Prime is terrible but his tits are huge and he’s hot as hell. He has panache. I cannot resit him. I’m so glad he’s dead. I in no way approve of any of his actions which it’s insane that I have to say that in 2020 in a fanfic. Can’t I just be horny for fat tits in peace?
I wanted to give everyone a first installment because I kind of feel like I’ve been leaching off this fandom and annoying everyone. Unfortunately I specialize in dark fic so my contribution is this. Anyway, I’ve actually got a lot of script format dialog written for Prime and Hordak, and even some smut. But it’s all jumbled up and not fleshed out yet.
And if anyone wants to just chat about how terrible but absolutely fascinating Prime is my ask box is open. It’s so interesting to me that they went with like, a mega church prosperity gospel, pray the gay away, space Catholicism final boss. Prime is deeply rooted in all the negative aspects of Christianity and for someone who was raised Catholic, I love to see people make villains out of that. Spop ended up having its fair share of problems at the end but kudos to them for that callout. I doubly love Prime because despite being all things terrible about Christianity, this man openly fucks? Every move he makes is unabashedly horny. He even wears revealing clothes. And that’s so against modern Christian morals. He’s every scrap of authoritative hypocrisy I was raised with turned sexy. His aesthetic is if Apple went art nouveau. He’s terrible and fascinating and the only reason season 5 is watchable.
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ISLAM 101: Creation: Part 5
Why Does the Qur’an Not Discuss Scientific Issues That Concern Us Today?
The Qur’an was revealed for specific purposes: to make us aware of the Creator, to affirm that He is known through His creation, to direct us to belief and worship, and to order individual and collective life so that we attain real happiness here and in the Hereafter. The Qur’an deals with each subject according to the importance attached to it by God.
Given the above reasons, the Qur’an is comprehensive. This can be seen by the countless books and commentaries written about its various aspects. The perfection of its style and eloquence has been attested to by the greatest Muslim literary masters of every century, and has inspired them to excellence not only in Arabic but also in other Islamic languages. By basing themselves on Islam, Muslim scholars of humanity or the physical world have been able to comprehend the real nature of things and events. Through the Qur’an’s wisdom, psychologists and sociologists have resolved the thorniest problems related to individual or collective affairs. Moralists and pedagogues have turned to the Qur’an as an infinite, inexhaustible resource for educating future generations.
Today, many people want to know what the Qur’an says about scientific and technological matters, and how it relates to modern positive sciences. Many books have been written on this subject. They have tried to relate Qur’anic truths to advances in scientific knowledge. Many of these books were influenced by the culture and science of their time. But despite the care and pains expended on these commentaries, people doubt their accuracy and find them over-elaborate and far-fetched. In particular, efforts to make Qur’anic truths correspond to particular scientific hypotheses appear to distort, misrepresent, and even slight the Qur’an.
When explaining the Qur’an, we must be objective and remain faithful to its precision, soundness, and clarity. Instead of interpreting it in the light of certain phenomena and a non-Qur’anic specialist language, everything should be interpreted and evaluated in the Qur’anic context. Of course, the Qur’an is best understood by a nuanced knowledge of Arabic’s vocabulary and grammatical rules, and the occasions of the verse’s revelation. Thus the best understanding and interpretation is that of the Companions, then of the Successors (the following generation), and then of the first commentators, such as Ibn Jarir. These, and not the later ones, are the most in accord with scientific truths established later on.
We offer several examples from the Qur’an to illustrate the argument.
• The Omnipotent Creator says that the future will be the age of knowledge and information, and thus, as a natural consequence, of faith and belief: Soon We shall show them Our signs on the furthest horizons, and in their own souls, until it becomes manifest to them that this is true. Is it not enough that your Lord witnesses all things? (41:53)
From the earliest days of Islam, Sufis accepted and referred to this verse as a sign and assurance of the spiritual wisdom they sought. However, reading this verse from the viewpoint of scientific progress, its mere existence will be seen to be a miracle.
Everything within the compass of our thinking and research affirms the Creator’s Oneness, as the true nature and interrelationship of microcosm and macrocosm are further disclosed and better understood. When we see hundreds of books on this subject, we understand that what was Divinely revealed is near to being proved. Even now we feel that soon we shall hear and be able to understand the testimonies and praises to God through thousands of tongues belonging to nature: The seven Heavens and the Earth, and all things therein, declare His Glory. There is not a thing but celebrates His praise. And yet you do not understand how they declare His Glory. Truly He is Oft-Forbearing, Most Forgiving (17:44).
This verse tells us that all parts of creation speak to us, in the language of their being, of their submission to and glorification of the One God. However, very few people can hear and understand this universal praise. The sincere Muslims who will bring all people to hear this praise is also few, dispersed, and feeble.
• What the Qur’an reveals about an embryo’s formation and developmental phases in the uterus is striking: O mankind! If you have a doubt about the Resurrection, (consider) that We created you out of dust, then out of sperm, then out of a leech-like clot, then out of a lump of flesh, partly formed and partly unformed, in order that We may manifest (what We will) to you… (22:5)
In another verse, the development is explained in greater detail, and the distinct phases are emphasized more clearly:
We created man from a quintessence (of clay). Then We placed him as (a drop of) sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed. Then we made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood. Then of that clot, We made a lump (embryo); then we made out of that lump bones and clothed the bones with flesh. Then We developed out of it a new (distinct, individual) creature (23:12–14)
And
He makes you in the wombs of your mothers in stages, one after another, in three veils of darkness … (39:6)
These three veils of darkness can now be glossed in detail: the parametrium, myometrium, and the endometrium are three tissues enveloping three water-, heat-, and light-proof membranes (the amnion, chorion and the wall of the womb).
• What the Qur’an says about milk and its production: And verily in cattle (too) will you find an instructive sign. From what is from their bodies, between excretions and blood, We produce, for your drink, milk, pure and agreeable to those who drink it (16:66).
The Qur’an narrates the process in remarkable detail: the partial digestion of food and its absorption, followed by a second process and refinement in the glands. Milk is wholesome and agreeable for people, yet it is a secretion rejected by the cow’s body and bloodstream as useless.
• The Qur’an reveals that all things in nature are created in pairs: Glory be to God, who created in pairs all things, of what the soil produces, and of themselves, and of what they know not (36:36).
Thus everything has a counterpart, whether opposite to it or complementary. This is obvious in the case of people, animals, and certain plants. But, what about the pairs in all things … and of what they know not? This may refer to a whole range of inanimate as well as animate entities, subtle forces, and principles of nature. Modern scientific instruments confirm that everything does occur in pairs.
• The Qur’an recounts, in its own unique idiom, the first creation of the world and its inhabitants: Do not the unbelievers see that the Heavens and the Earth were joined together (as a single mass) before We clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? (21:30).
The Qur’anic account is clear and should not be mixed with the different creation hypotheses put forward by others. It states that every living thing was created of water. The Qur’an does not concern itself with how this unique source of life came into being, but with the fact that the universe is a single miracle of creation. Everything in it is an integral part of that miracle, bears signs that prove it, and is interconnected. The verse emphasizes the vitality and significance of water, which constitutes three-quarters of the mass of most living bodies.
• The sun has a special and significant place in creation. The Qur’an reveals its most important aspects in just four words: And the sun runs its course (mustaqarr) determined for it. That is His decree, the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing (36:38).
In fact, mustaqarr here may mean a determined route in space, a fixed place of rest or dwelling, or a determined route in time. We are told that the sun has a specific orbit and that it moves toward a particular point in the universe. Our solar system, as we now know, is moving toward the constellation Lyra at an almost inconceivable speed (every second we come ten miles closer to that constellation, almost a million miles a day). We also are told that when the sun has finished its appointed task, it will abide by a command and come to rest.
Such words were spoken at a time when people generally believed that the sun made a daily circuit around the Earth.
• Another four-word inspiring and eloquent Qur’anic verse says that the universe is expanding: And the firmament: We constructed it with power and skill, and We are expanding it (51:47–48).
This verse reveals that the distance between celestial bodies is increasing, for the universe is expanding. In 1922, the astronomer Hubble claimed that all galaxies, except the five closest to Earth, are moving further into space at a speed directly proportional to their distance from Earth. Thus, a galaxy one million light-years away are moving away at a speed of 168 km/year, one-two million light-years away at twice that speed, and so on. Le Maître, a Belgian mathematician and priest, later proposed and developed the theory that the universe is expanding. No matter how we express this reality, the Qur’an clearly presents the reality of this expansion.
• The Qur’an indicates various laws of physics, such as attraction and repulsion, rotation and revolution in the universe: God raised the heavens without any pillars that you can see… (13:2)
All celestial bodies move in order, balance, and harmony. They are held and supported in this order by pillars invisible to our eyes. Some of these “pillars” are repulsion or centrifugal force: … He holds back the sky from falling on earth except by His leave… (22:65).
From this verse, we understand that the heavenly bodies may at any moment collapse on the Earth, but that the All-Mighty does not allow it. This is an instance of the universal obedience to His Word, which in the language of contemporary science is explained as a balance of centripetal and centrifugal forces.
• Qur’anic commentators have considered one verse as a reference to traveling to the moon, which is now a reality: By the moon’s fullness! You shall surely travel from stage to stage (84:18–19).
Some earlier commentators understood this verse figuratively, as a reference to one’s spiritual life considered as an ascent from one stage to the next, or as a general process of change from one state to another. Later on, Qur’anic interpreters tried to explain it in non-literal terms, for the literal meaning did not agree with what they “knew” about actually traveling such a distance. But in fact, the more appropriate sense of the words following the oath (By the moon!), given the verse’s immediate context, is that of really traveling to the moon, whether literally or figuratively.
• The Qur’anic account of the Earth’s geographical shape and change in that shape are particularly interesting: Do they not see how We gradually shrink the land from its outlying borders? Is it then they who will be victors? (21:44)
The reference to shrinking from its borders could relate to the now-known fact that the Earth is compressed at the poles, rather than to such earlier believed ideas as the erosion of mountains by wind and rain, of the sea-shores by the sea, or of the desert’s encroachment of cultivated lands.
At a time when people generally believed that the Earth was flat and stationary, the Qur’an explicitly and implicitly revealed in several verses that it is round. More unexpectedly still, it tells us that its precise shape is more like an ostrich egg than a sphere: After that, He shaped the earth like an egg, whence He caused to spring forth the water thereof, and the pasture thereof (79:30–32).
The Arabic verb daha means “to shape like an egg.” The derived noun dahia is still used to mean “an egg.” Some interpreters, who might have viewed it as contrary to what they “knew,” misunderstood the meaning as “stretched out,” perhaps fearing that the literal meaning might be difficult to understand and so misleading. Modern scientists have established that the Earth is shaped more like an egg than a perfect sphere, that there is a slight flattening around the poles and a slight curving around the equator.
• As a final example, consider what the Qur’an says about the sun and the moon: We have made the night and the day as two signs; the sign of the night We have obscured, while the sign of the day We have made to enlighten you… (17:12)
According to Ibn ‘Abbas, the sign of the night refers to the moon and the sign of the day to the sun. Therefore, from the words the sign of the night We have obscured, we understand that the moon once emitted light and that God took its light from it, thereby causing it to darken or become obscured. While the verse thus accurately recounts the moon’s past, it points to the future destiny of other heavenly bodies.
Many other Qur’anic verses are related to scientific facts. Their existence indicates that our quest for knowledge is a portion of Divine Mercy graciously bestowed upon us by our Creator. Indeed, Divine Mercy is one of the Qur’an’s names for itself, and all that it contains truth and knowledge is beyond our ability to relate or to hold in our minds.
We must remember, however, that while the Qur’an contains allusions to many scientific truths, it is not a science textbook. It is a book of guidance leading humanity to right belief and right action so that we may be worthy of Divine Mercy and Forgiveness. Muslims must ensure that the pursuit of scientific and other types of knowledge is guided by the light of the Qur’an, which so encourages and supports it, and not by the spirit of arrogance, insolence, and vainglory. The latter path, that of unbelievers, leads only to the mind’s desolation, our own degradation and that of the Earth, our temporary home entrusted to us by God.
#allah#god#islam#muslim#revert#reverthelp#reverthelp team#convert#new revert#new convert#new muslim#muslim revert#muslim convert#welcome to islam#revert to islam#convert to islam#how to convert islam#prophet#muhammad#quran#sunnah#hadith#dua#pray#prayer#salah#help#religion#muslimah
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longing.
Anonymous spoke: They will meet him again in the dead of night when they are alone - truly alone - with no hand to hold and no company to call their own. Only then, the blue shadow comes clawing through the rift in their bedroom wall, cradling their face as he kisses their temple and caresses their hurt and upset. The windows howl when the bed sinks. "Your absence is a curse, cure me of it. Say what you need, but I beg of you: lift the spell and spend your nights with me for the rest of our lives!"
『🌹』 The loneliness is something that hardly ever would get to them; they would never allow it, should they have had the chance. And, oh, did they ever long for such a chance, to escape to that distant dream again, to fly among the infinite cosmos with that lucid lover, to feel as if they had found a sanctuary, a home among the cold, unforgiving reaches of the void lingering ever above them.
Their prayers never left their lips, no matter how much they might have bid them to; would the unforgiving abyss hear their plea? Was it all worth it, for the embrace of a strong, tender woman? Perhaps so... perhaps the universe did hear their silent beseechment. Sapphire eyes of the same hue as he would stare in bewilderment, excitement, joy as he stepped through, back into their grasp at last.
They had to be dreaming. They couldn’t hope to have felt that gentle caress, handling them as if they were the same battle-scarred being that he was, they couldn’t have dreamed of once again melting at the blessing of those lips that bestowed a saccharine kiss upon their brow. His beauty always did shine in the dead of night, where their feelings would come out full force, where they had no need or worry to mask themselves with enthusiasm, with a face for the cameras - where they could truly well be Yeong-Hui.
Though, his proposal... they could not stomach. They wanted to smile, they wanted to say yes, yes, of course I’ll go with you, back to that wonderful place, that frigid infinity where the warmth I feel comes from you, Cadillac. But, instead, their face - vulnerability clear as day without the armour of makeup they donned within the daylight - would see their lips pouting into a sigh - a tear dripping down their cheek, stopped by those same tender hands they had been begging to hold them and shelter them from this Earth for what felt like forever... yet now, they knew it could not be right.
“I can’t.”, they would mourn, hands coming up to meet his face, their foreheads pressed together as they whispered what they couldn’t deny any longer. “I would love to. Believe me, Cadillac, I would give up anything to be by your side again, to feel your lips on mine forever and ever, to be the one who calms your quiet fury with the touch of my hand upon your chest,”, they breathed longingly, their eyes staring into his with a sense of desperation plaguing their irises. “But my place is here. On Earth. Living the life I always have. I want to give into this wanderlust, this longing for you to whisk me away and take me back to these worlds that we both find beauty in, but... this is where my home really is.”
Their head would finally raise up just a little - their lips pressing against his for one second, two seconds... ten seconds, though they wished they could have sank into that warmth for the rest of their lives. “Maybe in another life, another time... I’ll find my way to you. I’ll love you and adore you in all the ways we experienced together, in another time where I’m not so burdened with... all of this. With all of this material stuff that I can’t let go for the sake of the system that people higher than me have put in place. I’ll be there for you, with you - forever.”
They hardly wanted to part - they wanted to lay him down with them, to hold onto his body, to press skin on skin and allow their warmths to once again guide them through a frigid night. Their denial was a knife through the heart - not just for them, they could easily have assumed. “I’ll always be here, Cadillac. On Earth, my planet. And my real, true home-”, they cooed, pressing a finger to his chest - feeling where his heart may be, eyes never breaking with his. “Will be right here. In your heart, in your arms, in your lips.” Their tears remained silent as they streaked down their cheeks, their arms finally, unwillingly parting from his towering form - but never, ever closing up that chapter of their life, that fleeting dream they would never accept will have passed.
“Remember what I told you, Captain.”, they hummed, a humorous, nostalgic grin to their features as they sat back in their bed. “My love for you exceeds the vastness of the universe, and the beauty of all the planets and stars within it. My love for you would conquer even the strongest of foes, and uplift even the most depraved heroes within this universe we learned to love together. Please. Cadillac....
“Never forget that. Never forget me. I love you.”
#[𝒲𝒽𝓎 𝒹𝑜𝓃'𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒶𝓎 𝓈𝑜?] IC#Cadillac#Farida#{ I MISS YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOU FARIDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA }#{ if... you wanna do a good ending to this......... I am always here }#{ but i hope you enjoy this in the meantime }
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hi I love your blog!! I just wanted to ask what your background is in spiritual matters are because you seem so well-versed in them and your applications of some concepts are absolutely spot on!! I’m just curious haha
Why We’re Never Going To Find Out How Saïx Got His Scar
Thanks! Pretty much all learned outside of school, haha. I don’t have a special background or anything. I am just an ordinary person drawn to strange subjects. I guess if I’m being honest, I became immersed in these subjects because I used to deal with depression, lol. I don’t anymore, but I still really love Axel’s character arc for that reason. He wanted to find hope. And he did.
His arc is based on the Phoenix—dying, rotting away, turning to ash, and then being born again. You need to experience a form of death, to shed away the old self. Only then can you be reborn into something higher. You need to suffer pain and despair. That is the only way to be liberated from your previous state. It’s one of those special character arcs that resonated with me strongly. It does kind of kill me to see a work of fiction incorporate genuine spiritual concepts, then get butchered. Because you don’t get that message from mainstream entertainment very often.
Zuko: “I used to think this scar marked me - the mark of the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But lately, I’ve realized I’m free to determine my own destiny, even if I’ll never be free of my mark.”
The only other one I personally recall that had a similar realistic spiritual aspect was Prince Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. He is another character that I connected with a lot. Another Fire-type character associated with the sun, strangely enough. Zuko’s arc reminded me of Axel’s, actually. As you wander through the valley of the shadow of death, you are purified. You shed the snakeskin of the ego, and are capable of transforming into your highest self. You become capable of unconditional love. He had his own awakening experience during a dream. The way he loved his sister Azula also reminded me of how Axel loved Saïx. He reminds me of Isa, too. Both have iconic scars that symbolize their trauma.
The deeper you go, the more you realize how interconnected all these metaphysical concepts are, too. Eastern/Western. Alchemy, Shamanism, Kundalini Yoga, Kabbalah, Jungian Psychology. Doesn’t matter. It’s all the same thing when you get right down to it. Raising your state of consciousness, and seeing the illusion of the world for what it is. This realization allows you to become a new being.
The two snakes/dragons represent Masculine and Feminine. Yin and Yang. Shiva and Shakti. Sol and Luna. The energy rising up the two pathways and opening the chakras, is referred to as sacred fire. When these two energies unite, one becomes enlightened, and transcends desire, duality, karma, space and time, etc. One’s true nature is realized, which is infinite. You have the compassion and love of the Feminine, and can combine it with the strength and intelligence of the Masculine.
And Axel’s character arc is essentially the same. They are both alike in so many ways. His Ultimate Gear is called “Double Edge”. His Champion gear is called “Rapid Spinner”, referring to the chakras, which are said to be like whirlpools of energy in the body. Chakra means “wheel” in Sanskrit. And these weapons are shaped like mandalas of the Third Eye and Crown chakras. Mandalas are geometric figures representing unity and harmony.
It’s also known as sacred geometry. It’s a symbol in a dream, representing the dreamer’s search for completeness and self-unity. Carl Jung used them a lot in his practice. He said they symbolize the wholeness of the self. These specific mandalas are used in Reiki for healing. And this is exactly why we’re never going to find out how Saïx got his scar. It’s fundamentally tied into these spiritual concepts.
Xigbar: “Xion’s disappearance is fascinating. It seems Saïx doesn’t truly “see” her.”
Origin: The Sanskrit name for the 3rd Eye Chakra is called the Ajna (command, or in control). The color of Ajna is indigo or midnight blue, associated with depth of awareness.
Xemnas: “As your flesh bears the sigil, so your name shall be known as that…of a recusant.”
Location – Brow: Located in the center of the forehead between and above the eyes, this Chakra governs psychic abilities and spiritual discernment. Bodily, it governs the pineal and pituitary glands.
Saïx: “Settle down. Xion’s failings won’t affect your standing with us. You’ve nothing to worry about.”
Roxas: “Won’t affect my– What is WRONG with you? Look, I’ll do my mission–later.”
Level of Consciousness – 6th: Ajna Chakra is the command center, or the seat of wisdom where the consciousness evolves to understanding and acting on what we experience from a much deeper place of wisdom and insight. When Kundalini Shakti (spiritual energy) is awakened in this Chakra, it opens the 3rd eye, the inner eye of intuition and inner guidance. An under-active Ajna Chakra may show up in a lack of spiritual depth and understanding.
Saïx: Do you know what happens to those who lose their true purpose? Inevitably, they destroy themselves.
Soul Journey Stage – Breaking-Open: You have an urge to connect with your inner wisdom, to live your life in alignment with your inner guidance.
Xemnas: “Our experiments creating Heartless were attempts to control the mind, and convince it to renounce its sense of self.”
Element – Mind: In yogic tradition, it is believed that the mind is made up of the same 5 elements that the universe is made up of (earth, water, fire, air and ether). Ajna Chakra transcends the individual elements and opens the door to universal intelligence.
Saïx: “Nonsense. I see no problem whatsoever.”
Xigbar: “Ha ha! Well no, apparently you don’t!”
Saïx: “Something you find amusing?”
Xigbar: “If people see with their hearts, Saïx, then you’re even blinder than the rest of us.”
Quality – Intuition: The 3rd eye vision is the inner vision of intuition, insight and wisdom.
Saïx: “Pitiful Heartless, mindlessly collecting hearts. The rage of the Keyblade releases those hearts. They gather in darkness, masterless and free… until they weave together to make Kingdom Hearts. And when that time comes, we can truly, finally exist.”
Origin: The Sanskrit name for the Crown Chakra is the Sahasrara, meaning the lotus of a thousand petals. Violet is the highest color in the light spectrum, and represents wisdom, awareness, and spiritual energy. White is also associated with the Crown Chakra. If your Chakra is underactive, you may lack interest in your spiritual self, you may not be open to intangible spiritual experiences.
Xemnas: “My friends! Remember why we have organized–all the things we hope to achieve. The strength of the human heart is vast. Soon, though…we will have gained power over it! Never again will it…have power over us.”
Level of Consciousness – 7th: This is the last milestone of the evolution of human consciousness, the door to Pure Consciousness. When Kundalini Shakti (spiritual energy) is awakened in this Chakra, the illusion of the individual self is dissolved. Self-realization sets in.
Xion: “I love Roxas and Axel. I’m sure Saïx would scoff at that. Call it a trick of my artificial memories. But the time I spent on that clock tower was real.”
Soul Journey Stage: You have an awareness of your own consciousness, a knowledge that the planet is connected by love, your philosophies are simple and straightforward.
Xemnas: “But then, through Roxas, Sora himself began to shape “it” into “her,” giving Xion a sense of identity. I was ready to scrap the whole project…”
Element – Energy: represents the cosmic energy that is awareness and pure consciousness.
Saïx: “Nngh… How much longer…Kingdom…Hearts… Will your strength never be mine?”
Quality – Bliss: When the Crown Chakra is open, we experience the eternal bliss, the peace that “passeth all understanding.”
Saïx: “Well, that didn’t take long. Did it break again?”
Roxas: “She’s not an ‘it’!”
Axel: “Keep your mouth shut.”
Sense – Empathy: This is because of the deep connection that we experience when the Crown Chakra energy is active.
Axel’s purple mandala-shaped weapons are the Emperor and Empress arcana of Luxord’s Tarot deck. The Red King and White Queen. Sol and Luna. Ultimate and Champion Gear. Saïx’s two weapons in these categories are the pink ones, lol. The ones shaped like Venus, the goddess of love, and Vesta, the goddess of sacred sexuality who’s known as the Keeper of the Sacred Flame.
And in Luxord’s deck, you also have the Sun and Moon arcana. For the Moon arcana, Axel’s weapon is called “Dive Bomb” and shaped like more sacred geometry, and Saïx’s weapon is called “Luminary”, shaped like energy healing.
The Sun arcana is the red “Omega Trinity”, shaped like the Ouroboros, another symbol of Rubedo and the union of Sol and Luna. It’s also a symbol of infinity, beyond the limits of time and space. And Saïx’s is called “Light Year”. Isa is light years away, but the red light can reach him and heal him. Their characters were all about healing each other. It’s why it’s so heartbreaking for me to see how Lea and Isa’s story was treated. You just don’t see many stories like theirs. It’s so positive and uplifting.
The writers have all of these sophisticated concepts in mind, and their artistic integrity gets trampled all over. KH is a lot like ATLA. They are both marketed as child-friendly, but you can tell that the writers for both series are extremely intelligent and well-educated. Though even ATLA got compromised artistically to make the live action movies…
#kh meta#kh saix#kingdom hearts#kingdom hearts meta#anti-kh3#kh axel#kh lea#kh isa#kh isalea#kh leaisa#kh akusai#atla zuko
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Ephemeral Iridescence
Pairing: Wonho x OC
Characters: Wonho, OC, Monsta X, BTS
Warnings: Fluff, Angst, Romance
Haru watched as the vibrant color swirled around her hands, glowing red for the anger she felt. Seeing all the colors of the damn rainbow was horribly useless. She already knew what mood she was in, Haru didn't need the stupid colors to show her.
What was the damn point of all of this?
Day in and day out she wished for something to change, longed for the colors to disappear.
But what happens when Haru can suddenly see someone else's colors?
Well, isn't life just one cruel motherf*cker
Haru had always been able to see the colors swirling around her fingers, ever since she was five.
At first, she thought they were beautiful and amusing, like little silk ribbons. Haru enjoyed watching the beautiful colors flow and dance before her eyes.
“Haru baby, why do you keep looking down at your hands?” Her father asked her at the age of eight. “The colors around my hands are a pretty light blue papa,” Haru smiled and looked up, raising her hands so her father could see for himself. “There’s nothing on or around your hands, Haru. What are you talking about?” He asked, confusion scrunching up his features. Haru retracted her hands to her lap, staring at how the color slowly changed from the light blue to a muddy orange. “The colors. You can see them, can’t you? See, right now it’s orange!” Haru said excitedly again as she stretched her hands straight up in the air above her head. “Haru, there’s nothing there…”
After insisting that she indeed had colors floating around both of her hands, her parents decided to take her to a psychiatrist. There had to be some logical reasoning as to why she was seeing these things.
Just as she had explained to her parents various times, she explained the colors to the psychiatrist, but this time with much less enthusiasm. Haru knew the reaction she would get.
Soon after the visit, Haru was told by her parents that she needed to take medicine to make the colors go away; because as they had worded it, ‘it wasn’t normal.’
But the medicine did nothing for her. After taking it for half a year, she could still see the colors just as clearly.
The kids at school would tease her for taking her medicine. They told her she was all sorts of crazy and that no one should go near her because they would catch whatever she had.
Soon enough, she grew to dislike the fact that she could see her colors. If she was the only one who could see them, what was the point? It was wasted beauty.
As she got older, the emotions flooding her system wreaked havoc before her eyes.
Sparks of a variety of reds would shoot up into her field of vision when she would get angry and light swirls of feathery yellow would cover her hands when she was happy. When she was sad, a deep blue would stagnate at her fingertips, looking almost as invisible as she felt.
She dealt with how she felt by herself for the longest time. She pretended to take her meds to make her parents happy and she never mentioned the colors to anyone unnecessarily.
Then one fine high school spring day in her first year, she met them.
Life was infinitely better from then on, bright yellow flowing out from her hands more often than she had ever seen in her whole life.
Now, Haru was in her second year at Korea National University of Arts, majoring in fine arts.
Haru loved every minute of being able to photograph beautiful scenery, but her favorite was taking photographs of people. There wasn't anything more satisfying to her than capturing a human’s natural beauty through her lens, and them feeling equally as confident about themselves after. It made the yellow swirls extend all the way to her elbows when people got a confidence boost from her work.
But today was a Wednesday, and Haru absolutely hated Wednesdays.
Wednesdays meant she had pure general education courses, meaning she would be bored out of her mind all day.
Since second semester of last year, Haru planned for Wednesdays to be the main day to get her gen eds out of the way so she could enjoy her major classes in peace.
As Haru got up from her bed, she looked at her left hand pressing down on the mattress, a mist of gray floating over her hand. She sighed and grabbed her phone to check the time, only to see a message from her mom asking if she’d taken her pills yet. She typed out a quick yes, a little white lie she told her mother every day. Haru lived alone in a one bedroom apartment with her cat Butter, what her mom didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.
She glanced at her hands again, the gray starting to turn into a hot pink as she spotted Butter at the end of her bed. She loved her lazy orange cat to pieces, but the colors that emitted from her hands whenever she saw or hugged him were blinding.
The colors were all too much for her these days. Sometimes she was so happy that the brightness of all the yellows would give her a headache, other days she was too calm and the blue would drive her up a wall. Frankly, Haru was sick of seeing these colors day in and day out. Sick and tired of the same shit every day.
Haru was really trying not to be bitter about it all. She had people who loved her for who she was now, what more could she ask for? But love couldn’t take away the constant emptiness she felt at the pit of her stomach.
Haru decided to take a seat at the back of her English class as usual, far away from human interaction. Unlike with Butter, where she would gladly suffer through her blinding colors; Haru did not feel that humans were worth the effort. If they weren’t her muse for her photos, she preferred the least amount of human interaction as possible.
Also, she hated these classes and it definitely showed on her face. Resting bitch face usually kept them away, so it all usually worked out in her favor.
As if on cue, the color around Haru's hands swirl into a hue of amber. Amber for her meant calm, but unsettled or nervous. And indeed, she was slowly becoming more and more unsettled as she watched the class room fill up with people she didn’t know.
Suddenly, a tall model like guy sat right next to her and oh god does she want to move, but Haru doesn't want to be rude and just get up and change seats right in front of him. She stared straight at her hands as the amber glowed more vivid now, going past her wrists. It wouldn't be that much of a problem if he hadn't brought his little posse of friends along.
Haru watched as model guy and the rest of his friends joked around, but quickly noticed something off about one of them.
She squinted and rubbed her eyes with her palms once, and then twice, because what she was seeing couldn't be possible.
Model guys friend had his hands supporting himself as he leaned back against the table, his hands emitting a mist of gold. Haru had never seen such a bright, almost glittery gold in her whole life. Hell, she had never been able to see anyone else’s colors except her own, so what the fuck was happening right now? Was she truly crazy and hallucinating it all?!
"His hands are radiating gold, and I can fucking see it. I have got to be going insane," Haru mumbled to herself, a hand against her mouth to hide her blatant astonishment at the sight happening before her.
Haru decided to get herself together and stop staring so openly at glittery gold guy. She decided to put her head down on her arms and mind her own business until English class started, because thinking of the latter would just drive her more insane at this point.
"Hyungwon can get a modeling contract so easily, but can't even talk to any of the girls he models with other than 'Hi, let's work hard today' or my absolute favorite, 'Thank you for your hard work.’ Our Hyungwonnie really is hopeless."
What a way to roast a guy so openly, Haru thought as she tried to keep herself from eavesdropping.
"Hey! Leave him alone Minhyuk. At the very least he can speak respectfully to them, that’s something."
"Shut up Wonho. Like you're one to talk, you’re the ladies man of the group. You should give Hyungwon some tips."
They started to laugh and Haru turned her head to the side from all the noise, instantly locking eyes with glittery gold guy as he was still laughing. He was actually quite attractive, she thought in retrospect.
As their staring contest continued, one of glittery gold guys friends abruptly interrupted.
"Hey Wonho," the guy said, waving his hand annoyingly fast in front of Won...ho was it? "Earth to WONHO!" His friend continued as he smacked the table, effectively bringing Wonho back to reality. "What were you staring at?" The persistent one asked as they all began to turn their heads, signaling for Haru to quickly turn away in the other direction.
"N-Nothing. I gotta go to my class though, I'll talk to you guys later," Wonho said as he noisily got up from his seat on the table.
When Haru opened her eyes again, the color around her hands were pitch black.
How did she go from wanting her own colors to disappear, to seeing someone else’s? It’s too cruel to be true. In fact, she was convinced it wasn’t. It was her mind playing tricks on her, a fluke. That’s what she was going to believe.
The only thing she was certain of was that this school year was off to a damn strange start.
If you would like to read more chapters, I have them all posted here!
https://archiveofourown.org/works/10743249/chapters/23814861
#chapter one#Ephemeral Iridescence#flordemens#fic#bangtan#monsta x#monstax#wonhoxoc#bts#synesthesia#college au#punk au#wonho#shin hoseok#monsta x wonho
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The Gamemaster
Here you are! Part IV, and before Christmas, to boot! Brax is scarily easy to channel…. Anyway, only an epilogue to go, now.
Rating: FR13, like the rest of it. Also, Brax is, as always, Brax, I’m afraid…
Wordcount:3,447
Author: @the-ripper-rides for @presidentromana
The Gamemaster
The stars keep circling planets.
The planets themselves keep turning.
Time keeps marching ever onwards.
Somewhere out there, people are living and dying, laughing and crying. Some things about the universe never change. It keeps moving on, in spite of us, and our best efforts to destroy all of this. Sometimes, I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
But since it does, someone needs to steer it in the right direction, don’t they?
Of course I knew what was going to happen, that Romana was going to offer herself to Pandora. Forewarned is forearmed, and all that. It would be a moment when so many chances, of so many possibilities came to pass.
I knew what I had to do, after having seen several different versions of my future self over the years. With a little nudge in the right direction, it truly was for the good of everything, to let history take its own path.
Nudges, such as the death of Darkel, and setting the cradle of Free Time up as an active threat to Pandora and her cause, so that she’d have no choice but to cut that poison-baring tree off at the source, before in could do any real damage.
Of course there have been a few civilian casualties, from the other races that Pandora has targeted, but everything will balance out in the end. Let a planet get destroyed now, save five in the future.
The scales of wrong and right are a delicate and complex thing, and only a person with a clear overview of the scheme of things has any right to manipulate that balance. There is no other that would be capable of bringing this all to pass, other than me.
Pandora had to rule in this present time, in order to afford the galaxy, and Gallifrey herself, a chance at a stable future. Or any future at all, for that matter.
For the Greater Good. That is all that matters, in the end.
Pandora always was paranoid about things. That was why she was willing to read a note, left in her desk drawer by my faithful insider, which suggested that she keep a very close eye on Darkel. Without that, then Darkel never would have been forced into a collar, like so many other old Gallifreyans, in order to prove her loyalty.
If she hadn’t been pressed into a collar then I never would have been able to set up my trap for her, on the planet of Michtiaum.
As soon as I heard what the destination was, I moved into action. The spaceport was the obvious choice, and sometimes the most obvious solution really is the best. With high-powered transmitters in all of the walls, to guide other ships in and out, it was child’s play to alter the frequencies that were being beamed out, and double them back in on themselves, so that the signal from the transmitters was the first thing that the landing party walked into.
Those that were in collars were separated from those that weren’t. Pandora wasn’t fool enough to risk herself, in such a way.
She knew about the chance of stray frequencies triggering the collars. After all, it was hardly the first time that it had happened; I made certain of that. Pandora never suspected a thing. I never gave her a reason to.
It was just another planet trying to fight back against the wrath and gathered might of Gallifrey, in any way possible, as far as she was concerned.
Just over a dozen Time Lords from the landing party lost their lives, that day.
Of course the planet paid the price. By the time that Pandora was finished with it, there was nothing left apart from barren land, shattered ruins, and twisted bodies. She was nothing if not ruthless and efficient.
I almost had to admire that.
Still, that was score one to me; Pandora had no idea what Darkel was carrying. She’d have taken more care of her, if she had.
Step two – make contact with those that I knew I could rely on, to set things up for the next round. I gathered the ingredients needed, and passed them on to my insider, to be mixed in with the food for Pandora’s prisoners. Psychoactive, perception-altering, telepathic-range increasing chemicals, extracted from plants on Earth, of all places.
Then it was a waiting game once more, while the chemicals built up to a level where I could make contact with the two that I needed.
Narvin and Leela.
I knew just how well Leela knew Narvin, and Narvin had the technical knowledge to assemble what I passed onto him, for use. He was also a rather adept psychic, and the chemicals in Leela’s body would also assist her in doing what was necessary. They were fully reactive with humans, as well as Time Lords, see.
While they worked on their side of the bargain, I nudged Pandora towards a few more strategically placed planets. Keep her distracted, keep her gaze turned away from Gallifrey, and what I was doing there.
It was easy, with the delight that she took from destruction.
More time passed.
The planets kept spinning, and Pandora spread like a virus.
I moved my collection out of normal space-time, in order to keep my prizes safe from her far-reaching grasp.
To one who can afford it, then time is the only true necessary currency. Not lives, and not gold or land. There are those races out there, that things like that don’t matter to in the slightest. Time, though… well, she could buy anything and everything.
I already have everything I need; my players in place, a Censure Device, which is so much more powerful than the average Mindwipe device, a Cryogenic Storage unit, and knowledge of Gallifrey’s future security. All right, so I’ll admit that there will be a few annoyed people, once this is tidied up, but there isn’t any amongst them with the strength to so much as scratch at Gallifrey’s surface.
At least for now.
I’ll only get one shot at this. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll need to find another plan.
There’s a chance that Romana’s body will be killed, outright. There’s a chance that Leela won’t actually be able to get Romana out, which would be a spanner in my works, to say the least. I really do need her, to tidy things up afterwards. However, these are risks which I’ve weighed, and which I’m willing to take.
I’m beginning to wonder whether we haven’t been caught out, by the time I finally hear back from Narvin and Leela, again.
“Brax? Brax, can you hear me?” It’s Leela’s voice that I catch first, far too loud for the circumstances, and excited, rather than blank and exhausted, as it had been the first time that I’d spoken with the two of them.
“Leela, keep your voice down.” I hear Narvin admonish her, as soon as her voice falls quite.
“Yes, I hear the two of you.”
“We have news.” Narvin’s voice is as low and tightly controlled as ever, but there’s a life to his tone that wasn’t there before, as well.
I nod to myself, satisfied, and aware of what they’re about to say before they say it.
“Go ahead, then. Report.”
“It worked. I cannot believe it, but it worked.”
Of course it worked. I was the one who planned it, wasn’t I?
Then Leela’s tone altered and slipped. It was still her voice, but the pronunciation was different, even more familial before.
“Thank-you, for getting me out of there, Braxiatel. It was getting rather stifling.”
“Romana.” The name slips from me, before I’ve a chance to stop myself. Now isn’t a time to allow any weakness, or softness. It doesn’t matter that I’d call her a friend, that I’d like to hear her call me by my first name, even just once. Anything that isn’t integral to the plan cannot be allowed to impact upon things.
The silence draws out, and I realize that they’re waiting on me to speak again, waiting to see if I have anything else to add.
I shake myself, a flick of my head, and clear my throat. “You sound…quite well.”
For someone speaking through the mouth of another.
“I’ve been worse.”
I raise an eyebrow at that. “No doubt you’ve been better, too.”
“That doesn’t matter.” I’ve long-since come to recognize that tone of iron determination. “Braxiatel, listen to me. I need you to do everything in your power to bring Pandora to her knees. Nothing else matters.”
Well, that makes this easier. Not that it should make a difference, but it does, all the same. Having permission feels as though a rope has been loosened around my throat.
“You need not concern yourself on that matter, my President. I already had every intention of doing so.”
“Good.”
The two voices on the other end speak as one.
“I’ll be in touch. I have… business to attend. Goodbye.”
I slip the earpiece of my communicator out of my ear, and remove the transmitter from my tongue.
Time to get the last of what I need in place is running short. I already know what Pandora’s next target is, and I need to be there well before she reaches it, so that I might lie in wait for her.
She intends to take Mars, press those that she finds there to be her force in the Sol galaxy, and then move onto Earth. Theta has been keeping her distracted for me as well, without even knowing it, and having had access to Romana’s memories, it’s no surprise that she knows what that tiny little blue-green planet means to my brother.
Pandora isn’t above being petty, even after all these years.
“That will be your downfall.”
I speak the words to myself, as I make my way across to to my TARDIS, so that I can head out.
Energy Restraint, Censure Device, Cryogenic Storage Unit. Check, check and check. Not that I need to; they’ve been on my TARDIS since I first told Narvin and Leela what I required.
It doesn’t take long to reach the Red Planet. Then again, I do know all the shortcuts. The Martian air is heavy and thick, and I can see the Osirians Pyramid standing up proudly from the rough, bleak landscape, and the light of Earth, a tiny speck glowing in the distance.
Does Pandora know the importance of that Pyramid? Well, that matters not, because if she reaches it, then she will. And my job will become infinitely more difficult.
There’s also a human base, abandoned, empty and silent in the distance, and the caves in that cliff, which I know lead to a chamber where Ice Warriors are resting.
There’s no space-port here that I can trap, but no doubts she’ll be interested in the Pyramid, which makes the path to that the best place to set up. The area is too wide to cover effectively, at the moment, but that’s only a minor annoyance. A few bolts with a plasma rifle, to bring some rocks down, and make the path narrower.
I’ll only get one shot at this.
I scout out the area, then lift the high-powered rifle up onto my shoulder, peering through the sight. That rock there, and that one there ought to do it. If I burn those away, then they should make the rocks behind them cascade down the cliffs, and give me an area that I’ll be able to use, to cut Pandora off from those following her.
I know Pandora will be leading, from observing her in the past. She always leads, to start with, before finding a place that’s safe and out of the way, to order and observe from. This time, it will be her downfall.
A pair of quick squeezes of the trigger, and I move back to a position of safety as and the rocks roll down the steep cliffside, to fill in the space that I need them to. They throw up red dust as they roll, which sweeps out and engulfs the area. In a way, it reminds me of what Pandora does with every fresh planet that she touches down on.
Turning back for my TARDIS, to dive the dust time to settle, I take possession of the Cryogenic Storage next, and set it up under a camouflage cloak, right next to the entrance of the Pyramid, so that it’s out of the way, and won’t be damaged in what’s to come.
I walk the path that I’ve created with the Cryogenic Storage, in order to test it out, and make sure that it’s suitable. Hardly the first time that I’ve walked the path of a dead woman.
It’s suitable. Then, it’s back to the TARDIS once more, to tuck the Censure Device and Energy Restraint into my pack, and finally, take my place just above the path which I’ve made, to watch and wait.
I am very good at waiting, if I do say so myself.
Time passes.
The planets maintain their dance with the stars, and I don’t so much as twitch a muscle.
The sound of Pandora’s fleet is almost painfully loud, when they enter the planetary atmosphere, and I feel a twist of anticipation in my hearts.
That’s what war is, though. Ninety-five percent waiting and boredom, then five percent action and interest. It’s on that five percent, that the tide of the battle swings.
I lay low, watch as Pandora and her people emerge from the ships. I’m too far away to hear what she’s saying, or to read her lips, but I can tell that she’s directing her people and giving orders from the way that she’s gesturing.
I always did have spectacular long-distance vision.
When they move, it couldn’t have gone any better than if I’d directed things myself.
A moment spent in reconnaissance….
I shoot, the moment that Pandora is past the point that I’ve been lining up, this time aiming for one of those Time Lords that has been indentured to her. The collar goes up just as cleanly as Darkel’s had, all that spent time ago, and the power of the explosion disturbs the cliff once more, bringing down rocks to block the path and separate her. This time I am close enough to hear the words.
“Move these rocks, now. Or you will all be paying the price.”
I’m already moving, slipping down the cliff behind her.
Pandora hasn’t survived this long by being a fool, of course. But nor have I.
I’m quick and confident in my movements, keeping myself down below the rockline, working my way down the cliff, even as she scans in every direction around her. I’m a few feet from reaching the ground, when I hear her speak again.
“Braxiatel, isn’t it? That is your name, I’m fairly certain. Move again, and I’ll shoot you where you stand, put you down like the coward you are.”
“I need to talk to you, alone. I have certain… information, that you might be interested in.” I keep moving, calling her bluff. I need to be as close as possible, if I’m going to have a chance of pulling this off. I’m nowhere near close enough, not yet.
“You can talk to me perfectly well, from where you’re standing. I’ve heard a lot about you, and to be quite frank, I wouldn’t trust you for anything. You’ve been far too quiet, since I took over.”
“You only think I’ve been quiet, my Imperiatrix. Do the names Maranal, Troth and Sebon have any meaning to you?”
I see her eyes narrow, a thoughtful look on her face.
“What are those planets to you?”
“Those, and a good dozen more. It was through an anonymous source that you found out they were moving against you, wasn’t it?” I cover the last of the distance to the ground, and bow low to her. “I’m no fool. Self-preservation has always been my end goal, my Imperiatrix, and I well know what side my bread is buttered on. I always have.”
“Speak, then. I’m not stopping you.”
I take two steps forward, a third, a fourth. “This information is for your ears alone. I dare not risk the wrong person overhearing.”
“That is close enough.” She raises her voice this time, and I know that she means it. She’s right, I am close enough now, though.
I’m fast, too. I always was. I quickly remove the energy binding from my pack, to toss it in her direction. She shoots at me, stasar in one hand, even as she catches the binding with the other, instinct winning me the ground that I need.
I drop, and the shot goes over my head - then I hear the energy binding activate, and Pandora freezes, halfway through the action of pulling the trigger to take another shot at me.
Her people don’t seem to be in a hurry to rescue her. Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that I told my insider to pass word to those he knew still disliked Pandora and the way that she runs things.
Another two steps, and I’m close enough to rest my hands on her temples, as I close my eyes, turning inwards and tuning out everything else around us. This is even more important than anything that has come before it.
I meant it, when I said that self-preservation was important to me.
That black, twisted trigger which linked me to the past and present pieces of Pandora has been tucked away in my mind quite long enough already, and with the death of Darkel, I have no further need of it.
I gather it up with a delicate touch, then with decidedly more force, focus on Pandora’s shielding. She is strong, I’ll give her that, but I’ve had infinitely more practise at this than she has. Drawing myself up to a mental point, I slash at Pandora’s shielding, gritting my teeth as I feel her fighting back, struggling against the intrusion.
I duck around one mental shot, but the second hits its mark, and almost makes me lose concentration. I feel her hands twitching and brace myself, then strike a second time and a third, as though I’m trying to puncture through a shield door with a knife. All I need is one tiny crack, but I’m running out of time.
The Energy Binding is running out of power - I can hear that deep hum that means a low battery. It feels like it has been no time at all, but time doesn’t work the same way in a mental landscape. Her next blow strikes the side of my mental projection, and this time I strike out as she withdraws her mental dagger, and I can hardly believe it when it cracks.
Another blow finally gives me the opening that I need, to roll the last of Pandora back into the mind that it came from, in the first place.
I’m soaked through with sweat, hearts pounding and dizzy, as though I’ve been running for hours, when I open my eyes. I know I’ve only got minutes left to spare now, if that. I can see Pandora straining, chest moving as she fights to draw breath, sweat running down into her eyes.
It takes seconds to grasp the Censure Device, press the cone of it against Pandora’s head, and pull the trigger. She has enough time to scream, as the battery powering the Energy Binding dies, and then her expression becomes completely blank and dull.
She stops moving, stops fighting back, stops breathing, and just stands there. There’s nothing in those eyes, and nothing to block me, when I nudge against where her shielding was.
With nothing to stop me, it’s the work of moments to knock her out with a mental tap, as her lips begin to turn blue. Sealing her inside the Cryogenic Storage is also equally easy.
“So, this is the way that the great Pandora ends, not with a war, but a whisper.”
It seems too simple, but I know that it won’t feel that way for long. There’s still so much left to do.
I need to get Romana’s body back into my TARDIS, let the people here know that they’re free to make their own choices, get her back to Gallifrey, and then back into her own body. Then everyone can begin to clean up the mess that Pandora has left behind.
Still, this is a start at least.
The pieces are falling into place.
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Within You is the Power
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Within You is the Power
WITHIN YOU IS THE POWER
by Henry Thomas Hamblin
PREFACE.
There is a power lying hidden in man, by the use of which he can rise to higher and better things.
There is in man a greater Self, that transcends the finite self of the sense-man, even as the mountain towers above the plain.
The object of this little book is to help men and women to bring their inward powers of mind and spirit into expression, wisely and in harmony with universal law; to build up character, and to find within themselves that wondrous Self, which is their real self, and which, when found, reveals to them that they are literally and truly sons of God and daughters of the Most High.
There is no way whereby the discipline of life can be avoided. There is no means by which fate can be “tricked,” nor cunning device by which the great cosmic plan can be evaded. Each life must meet its own troubles and difficulties: each soul must pass through its deep waters, every heart must encounter sorrow and grief. But none need be overwhelmed in the great conflicts of life, for one who has learned the great secret of his identity with the Universal life and Power, dwells in an impregnable city, built upon and into the Rock of Truth, against which the storms of life beat in vain.
While this little work does not offer any vain promises of an easy life–for, if this were possible, it would be the greatest of all disasters–but rather endeavours to show how to become so strong that life looks almost easy by comparison (the life or fate does not change or become easier, but the individual alters and becomes stronger), yet, it does show the reader how to avoid making his life more difficult than it need be. Most people’s lives would be less filled with trouble and suffering if they took life in the right spirit and acted in harmony with Universal Law.
It is hoped that this little book may help many to come into harmony with life’s law and purpose and thus avoid much needless suffering: to find the Greater Self within, which discovery brings with it a realization of absolute security: to bring into expression and wisely use their inner spiritual and mental forces and thus enter a life of overcoming and almost boundless power.
CHAPTER I.
INFINITE LIFE AND POWER.
Man possesses, did he but know it, illimitable Power. [1] This Power is of the Spirit, therefore, it is unconquerable. It is not the power of the ordinary life, or finite will, or human mind. It transcends these, because, being spiritual, it is of a higher order than either physical or even mental. This Power lies dormant, and is hidden within man until he is sufficiently evolved and unfolded to be entrusted with its use.
[1] The powers of the sub-conscious mind are dealt with in other chapters. The Powers of the Spirit are far greater and finer than those of the sub-conscious mind.
Thought is a spiritual power of tremendous potency, but this is not the power of which we speak. By thought, man can either raise himself up and connect himself with the “Power House” of the Universe, or cut himself off entirely from the Divine Inflow. His thought is his greatest weapon, because, by it he can either draw on the Infinite or sever himself (in consciousness, but not in reality) from his Divine Source.
Through the Divine Spark within him, which is really his real Self, man is connected with the Infinite. Divine Life and Power are his, if he _realizes_ that they are his. So long as he is ignorant of his oneness with the Divine Source of all life, he is incapable of appropriating the power that is really his. If, however, he enters into this inner knowledge, he finds himself the possessor of infinite power and unlimited resources.
This Power, then, is God’s, yet it is also man’s, but it is not revealed to him until he is fit to be entrusted with it. It is only when man realizes his oneness with his Divine Source that he becomes filled with Its power. Many teachers and initiates lament the fact that certain secrets are being spread broadcast to-day; secrets that, in the past, were kept closely guarded. They fear that unillumined and un-evolved people may make destructive use of spiritual power. This, to the writer, appears to be improbable. It is true that strong personalities, who have a great belief in their own power to achieve and succeed, draw unconsciously on hidden powers, and thus are able to raise themselves high above their fellows. The use, however, that they can make of spiritual power for base purposes is limited, and is not to be feared. There are others, of course, who are misusing their powers. These are black magicians, and while they may do a certain amount of harm, they become reduced, ultimately, to beggary and impotence. There are also others who spend the whole of their spare time searching for knowledge of this very subject. They read every occult book they can lay hands on, but they never find that for which they seek. There are spiritual powers and influences that withhold the eyes of the seekers from seeing, until they are ready for the revelation. When man, in his search for Truth, has given up all selfish striving after unworthy things, and has ceased to use his self-will in conflict with the greater Will of the Whole, he is ready for the revelation of his oneness with the Infinite. Yielding implicitly to the Will of the Whole may seem, to the unillumined, an act of weakness, yet it is the entrance to a life of almost boundless power.
Man is not separate from his Divine Source and never has been. He is, in reality, one with the Infinite. The separation which he feels and experiences is mental, and is due to his blindness and unbelief. Man can never be separated from Spirit, for he himself is Spirit. He is an integral part of one complete whole. He lives and moves and has his being in God (Universal, Omnipresent Spirit), and God (Spirit) dwells in him. The majority of people are unaware of this intimate relationship with the Divine, and, because they are unaware, or because they refuse to believe it, they are, in one sense, separated from the inner life of God. Yet this separation is only in their thoughts and beliefs, and not in reality. Man is not separated and never can be, yet so long as he believes that he is separate and alone, he will be as weak and helpless as though he actually were. As soon as man realizes the truth of his relationship to the Infinite, he passes from weakness to power, from death unto life. One moment he is in the desert, afar off, weak, separate, and alone; the next, he realizes that he is nothing less than a son of God, with all a son’s privileges and powers. He realizes, in a flash, that he is one with his Divine Source, and that he can never be separated. He awakens also to the fact that all the Power of the Infinite is his to draw upon; that he can never really fail, that he is marching on to victory.
It will thus be seen how great is the power of man’s thought. While thought is not the power of the Spirit, it is the power by which man either connects himself up with the Infinite Power, opening himself to the Divine Inflow, or cuts himself off and separates himself from his Spiritual Source. Thus, in a sense, man is what he thinks he is. If he thinks he is separate from God and cut off from His Power, then it is as though this were really the case, and he is just as impotent and miserable as though he actually existed apart from God. On the other hand, if he thinks and believes that he is one with the Infinite, he finds that it is gloriously true, and that he is really a son of God. If he believes and thinks that he is a mere material being, then he lives the limited life of a material being, and is never able to rise above it. But if, on the contrary, he thinks and believes that he is a spiritual being, then he finds that he possesses all the powers of a spiritual being.
Again, if he thinks that his work is difficult and that he is not equal to his tasks, he finds that really his tasks are difficult and beyond his powers. Yet on the other hand, if he believes his work is easy, or, at any rate, within his powers, he finds that such is the case, and that he can do his work with ease.
The power within is infinite, for, by faith in it, man is directly “coupled up” with the Spiritual Power of the Universe. The Divine Spark within him connects him to the Sacred Flame, thus making him potentially a god in the making.
A change then, must take place within man before he can enter into his Divine inheritance. He must learn to think after the Spirit, _i.e._, as a spiritual being, instead of after the flesh, _i.e._, as a material creature. Like the prodigal son he must “come to himself,” and leave the husks and the swine in the far country, returning to his Father’s house, where there is bread (of life) enough and to spare.
CHAPTER II.
THE OVERCOMING OF LIFE’S DIFFICULTIES.
The true object of life is that man may attain wisdom through experience. This cannot be accomplished by giving in to the difficulties of life, but only by overcoming them. The promises of God are not made to those who fail in life’s battle, but to those who _overcome_. Neither are there any promises that man shall have an easy time and be happy ever afterwards. Yet, it is after this that the majority of people are for ever seeking–an easy life, a good time, freedom from suffering and care. But, in spite of all their seeking, they can never find that which they desire. There is always a fly in the ointment of their pleasure, something that robs them of true happiness; or, possibly, combinations of circumstances conspire to upset all their plans.
Life is a paradox; the true object of life is not the attainment of happiness, yet if we attain the true object of life we find happiness. Those who are ignorant of life’s true purpose and who seek happiness high and low, year after year, fail to find it. Like a will-o’-the-wisp, it for ever eludes them. On the other hand, those who recognize the true object of life, and follow it, attain happiness without seeking for it.
In times past, people have made God a convenience. They have thought they could drift through life, learning none of its discipline and then, when in trouble, or things were not to their liking, they could pray to God and have the unpleasant circumstances taken away. The same idea is prevalent to-day. People have left the old orthodoxy and look to various “cults” and “isms” to get them out of their difficulties. They do not believe now that they can curry special favour with God by prayer, but they firmly believe that they can get what they want from the Invisible by demanding it. They think that by this means they can have their own way after all. By this they mean having a good time, with no unpleasant experiences, trials, difficulties, adversities. They are, however, merely chasing rainbows. The easy life they seek constantly eludes them, simply because there is no such thing. The only life that is easy is the life of the strong soul who has overcome. His life is not easy in reality, but appears relatively so because of his strength.
It is impossible to have an easy life, and, if it were possible, then life would be not worth living, for the sole object of life is the building of character and the attainment of wisdom through experience. Life to all of us must always be full of difficulty, and it is to help those, who, hitherto, have found life rather too much for them that this book is being written. What the majority are seeking for is an easy life (which they will never find, but precisely the reverse) and for them I have no message. But to those wise and awakened souls who are seeking for Truth, no matter from whence it may come, and who desire to overcome life and its difficulties, instead of weakly giving in to them, this book, it is hoped, will bring a message.
At this stage we cannot go into the subject of why we should meet with disasters and adversity in this life, nor why some people should have, apparently, a smoother life than others. [2] We must therefore be satisfied to know that we have to meet trouble and overcome difficulty, and that it is only by so doing that we can attain wisdom and build up character. The question, then, is not _whether_ we shall meet the trouble and adversity or not, but rather, _how_ we shall meet them. Shall we be victorious or shall we be submerged? Shall we overcome life’s difficulties or shall we give in to them?
[2] This subject is dealt with in “The Path of Victory” by the same author, and published by The Science of Thought Press.
The majority of people are drifters on the sea of life. They are wafted here and blown there: they are also carried hither and thither by every current. It is only the few who realize that they have the Power of the Infinite within them by which they can rise superior to all their difficulties, overcome their own weaknesses, and, through victorious experience, attain wisdom.
At this point some practical reader may say that attaining wisdom is all very well, but what he wants is practical help. He is perhaps out of work, has sickness in his house and is in debt. Or, he may be well-to-do, and yet in the deepest distress and misery. To all such I would say that they possess the Power by which they can overcome all their difficulties, and, through overcoming, attain wisdom. A man’s success depends, more than anything, upon his faith–his faith in the good purpose of life: his faith in the Power of the Infinite within him and his ability to overcome every obstacle in his path.
The extent of the Power that man can bring into his life is the measure of his faith in that Power. If his faith in It is small, then his life will be feeble and lacking in achievement. If his faith in the Power within him is large, then great will be the power manifesting in his life. The Power of the Infinite is illimitable and inexhaustible: all that is required is an unquenchable belief and trust in it. The weakest and most timid can make use of this Power. There is the same Power in the timid and weak as in the brave and strong. The weakness of the former is due to a lack of faith and belief in the Infinite Power within them.
Difficulties and troubles there will be in every life, and sometimes disaster and heartbreak, when the very earth slides from under the feet, yet, by calling upon the Power within, it is possible to rise from the ruins of cherished hopes stronger and “greater” through experience. Happiness and true success depend upon how the troubles and difficulties of life are met. Adversity comes to all, but if it is met in the right manner even failure can be made the stepping-stone to success. Trouble comes to all, but, while it makes some people stronger and better in every way, it submerges others so that they never rise again. The trouble is the same, it is how it is met that makes the difference. Those who meet difficulty and adversity in the feeble strength of their finite minds and false personality are speedily overwhelmed and broken by the storms of life. But those who rely upon, and have faith in the Power within them, can never be overwhelmed, neither can they ever be defeated. The Power, being infinite, is always sufficient, no matter how great the need may be.
One who realizes his own real spiritual identity, knows that he can never die, that he can never be defeated, that he can never really fail. He may lose his body through the change that is called death; but he, the true man, can never die. Neither can he fail, though he be defeated a thousand times–he _must_ rise again.
Only have faith in the Spiritual Power within you and you can know all the joys of overcoming and achievement. All things will become yours. Seek first the Kingdom within you (your spiritual union with the Infinite, and harmony with the Divine Will and Purpose) and all these things shall be added unto you. You will have no need to fear the morrow, for you will know that all provision has already been made. There will be no need to hoard up wealth, for there will be the necessary daily supplies always available. There will be no need to live near a doctor, for God, the Infinite Life, shall be your health. There will be no need for regret or lamentation, for you shall know that all is well. There will be no fear of future happenings, for you shall realize that the Infinite One makes no mistakes.
CHAPTER III.
FATE OR FREE-WILL?
Great has been the controversy in the past, over the vexed subject of fate versus free-will. On the one hand, fatalists claim that man is so closely bound to the wheel of fate it is impossible for him to live his life in any different way than that which is mapped out for him. He can bring a quantity of first-class evidence in support of his claim and believes in his theory with all his heart. On the other hand, the advocate of free-will believes just as whole-heartedly that man is not bound at all, being as free as air. He, too, can bring plenty of evidence in support of his theory, which confirms him in his belief. Each one of them thinks that the other is wrong, yet they cannot both be wrong! Let us therefore examine the subject for ourselves, for it is an important one, being intimately connected with the subject which this book discusses.
First of all, let it be said, they are both wrong, in part, and right, in part. Man is bound to the wheel, yet, at the same time, he has free-will. Let us, therefore, explain this seeming paradox.
It is an ancient truth of the inner teaching that man, when he is unevolved and before he is “unfolded,” is bound to the wheel of fate very closely. The unevolved man follows his desires, thus creating for himself a future from which he cannot escape. When however, he becomes more evolved and emancipated, he begins to resist following his desires and strives, instead, to follow higher things. This creates for him a better future and thus he becomes free in comparison with his former slave state. Man is a slave to fate as long as he is a slave to the desires of the earth plane. He is, however, free to overcome lower things and thus rise to higher. When he does this he ceases to create a painful future for himself and thus becomes free.
There is, therefore, fate which is self created. It is necessary to acknowledge this before we can proceed further. One who has not had much experience of life or who has not been a close observer, may deny that there is such a thing, but one who has had great changes in his life, against which he has fought and struggled in vain, knows that there is a purpose working behind the events of life, against which even kings and mighty men are powerless. There come times in man’s life when he moves heaven and earth, figuratively speaking: prays until he can pray no more: sacrifices, it may be, his money, his health, his prospects, and does everything that is in the power of a human being in a vain attempt to stave off a threatened disaster. But, in spite of all his efforts, in spite of his cries to a pitiless heaven, the relentless march of fate cannot be stayed. It moves forward like a huge juggernaut and crushes his hopes, his dearest idol, his very life itself or all that then makes his life worth living–and leaves him desolate.
“If then,” you may ask, “fate is so pitiless and so powerful, what can be done with it and where does free-will enter into the matter?” In reply it must be admitted at once that it is no use fighting fate. The more man fights it, the more completely he gets broken. There are certain main events in each life which must come to pass. These events and changes are inevitable and it is hopeless to fight against them. While these things, which constitute what we call fate, are inevitable and therefore cannot be avoided, it rests with ourselves how we meet these adversities and disasters. If we meet them in the wrong way they break us. If, however, we meet them in the right way we become stronger through discipline and experience, thus becoming better fitted to bear life’s responsibilities and to overcome its difficulties and temptations. One who meets the setbacks, griefs, bereavements and disasters of life in the right spirit becomes a strong and rich character. He becomes mellowed through experience, strong, stable, a helpful influence to all who meet him.
When things go smoothly and life is a merry round, no philosophy or religion seems necessary, and “as for an inward power, what of it, we can do very well without it.” So say the thoughtless and inexperienced, but there come times in every life, when, not only is a philosophy, and that a very sound one, necessary, but also a power, of which the finite self knows nothing, is needed in order to raise the soul out of the dust and ashes of its despair. It is one thing to try and meet trouble and adversity in the right spirit and quite another thing to have the power to do so. One who thinks that he has no power within him but that all the power is in circumstances, can never rise victorious over his troubles and become a conqueror over life’s difficulties; but one who realizes that he possesses a wonderful power that can raise him up, no matter how crushed he may be, can never be a failure in life. No matter what may happen to him he will play the man and act a noble part. He will rise from the ruins of his life and build it anew in greater beauty and splendour.
At this stage it is necessary to point out that there is a difference between “big fate” and the circumstances of life. “Big fate” as it sometimes is called antedates this present life and its cause does not come within the scope of this little book. [3] Sufficient if we say here that, through the ages, we reap as we sow, therefore our future depends upon how we meet life and its difficulties _now_. Big fate, then, cannot be successfully fought, simply because it is the working of Omnipotent Law, but our life generally and its circumstances depend upon how we meet “big fate,” and how we recover from it. No matter how seemingly unkind “fate” may be, it is possible for us to make our life a beautiful thing. Inspired and energized by the Power within, we can rise from the ashes of our dead hopes to build anew our life in greater beauty and more in harmony with the Divine Ideal.
[3] In addition to the “fate” or “future” which every thought and action builds, there is, behind all evolution, a gigantic plan. This wonderful plan that embraces all, from the stupendous conception of a limitless universe down to the smallest electron, is being worked out through the ages with absolute precision. Nothing can prevent this plan from being brought into manifestation. It gathers up our past and weaves it into our present life, just in the same way that it is busily gathering up our present life and weaving it into future fate. It works it all into the big plan, somehow, and with infinite skill. The plan is bound to be followed (this, too, is fate) but HOW we follow it, either with willingness and happiness, or opposition or woe, rests with us (this is free will).
Those who have studied the Occult sciences may say “what about planetary influences?” They will point out that, according to the ancient science of astrology, a man’s life is determined by the “star” under which he is born. This is true, if he gives in to the influences around his path. At different times in his life man meets with influences that are sometimes “favourable” and at other times, adverse. These influences are, however, only influences after all, and one who will stand firm during periods of adversity and refuse to give in, relying upon the great Power within to carry him through, will find that he can weather all storms of life and come out of his trials greatly strengthened. He cannot prevent these influences from coming around his path of life, but he can rise superior to them. He will meet with failures and set-backs but he will make of these, stepping-stones to success. He will experience griefs and bereavements, but out of these he will build a finer character and rise to higher things. One, however, who gives in to these things, refusing to rise again and reconstruct his life, condemns himself to further suffering, thus making utter shipwreck of his life.
Let the despairing take heart again. Believe in the Power within you and you will rise to heights before undreamed of. With this Power to help you, you can accomplish the apparently impossible.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III.
Our life here is not governed by a capricious Being who blows first hot and then cold or who favours one person and tortures another. The Supreme Being works through laws that are absolutely just and unchanging. Therefore all disaster and trouble in the life is the effect of certain causes. These causes are our own wrong doing in the past, which set in motion forces, against which the power and wit and wisdom of man are powerless. [4] However, because the fundamental law of the Universe is love, it follows that the working of the law of cause and effect is not vindictive. Its object is our highest good, viz., to bring us into union with the Divine or in tune with the Infinite. Therefore, by rising up to a higher plane and coming more into harmony and union with the Divine, we rob even big fate of something of its power. We cannot oppose it, for by so doing we fight against Omnipotence, but we can _forestall_ it by doing willingly, and of our own accord, that very thing which experience comes to teach us.
[4] Another cause is that the soul has failed to learn certain lessons, therefore, in this life, many painful experiences are brought to bear, in such a way, as to teach the necessary lessons. The lessons are, however, learnt only if painful or unpleasant experiences are met in the right way. So long as man believes that he is unjustly treated by fate and that he does not “deserve” what life metes out to him, he intensifies his troubles, both now and hereafter, through not learning the lessons that life desires to teach. When, however man realizes and admits that life is just and that the cause of all his troubles is within himself, he, like the prodigal son comes to himself and, soon afterwards, begins his homeward journey. Yet another cause is that the soul is deficient in character. Strength and stability of character can be built up through the soul meeting trouble and difficulty. Again it must be pointed out that they must be met in the right spirit.
It will be seen then, that our future depends entirely upon the way we think and act in this life. Our future lies in our own hands. If we violate the law of love in this life, we create disaster and suffering for the future, which will have to be met, in the form of “big fate” of a painful character, some day. Therefore, by right thinking and right doing now, we not only ameliorate conditions in this life, but we also create a future that will be more harmonious and freer than anything we have experienced hitherto.
It is also necessary to point out that, even in this life, some of its big disasters are the result of thoughts and actions committed during this present existence. A youth or young man may commit a folly that brings, in after life, a terrible retribution. Or he may do another man a grievous wrong and years afterwards someone else does the same wrong to him. It is always an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth on this plane of cause and effect, but the Great Way Shower, by His teaching of the power of love, enables us to rise above these lower things and live a life of harmony and peace.
CHAPTER IV.
CAUSE AND EFFECT.
Man is the cause of the disasters in his life. He reaps through the ages exactly as he sows. Life is perfectly just and rewards every man according to his works. The fate of the present is the reaping of his sowing in, it may be, a distant past. Therefore, the disasters and sufferings of this life, must not be attributed to the interference of a capricious and unreasonable God, for the truth is, they are due to the exact working of a perfectly just law. Fate, once created, is irrevocable. It can neither be fought nor evaded. By fighting against fate, man merely smashes himself to pieces. To do so, is equivalent to running his head against a stone cliff: the harder he charges, the greater the damage to his head–but the cliff is unaffected. Fate, although largely self-created, is really the Divine purpose of life: therefore, to resist it is to fight against God. Fate, again is not punishment, in any vindictive sense, it is the drawing together of certain remedial experiences, through which the soul can learn the lessons it has failed to learn in past ages and thus attain wisdom. The object of fate is the highest good of the individual, although it may entail suffering and painful experiences.
Because the disasters in man’s life are due to past wrong doing, it naturally follows that his future depends upon the kind of life that he lives to-day. If, in the past, he has created for himself a sequence of events and experiences, from which it is impossible for him to escape, it is obvious that his future lives depend entirely upon how he lives the present one. It will be seen that if man can learn the lessons of the present life, and live in such a way as to cease creating trouble for the future, he is beginning to climb the Path of Liberation, which is the road all advanced souls have to follow, or, rather, have the privilege of following. By following this path, man ceases to be bound to the wheel of fate.
This little work does not teach reincarnation, but its teaching is based on a belief that man, in reality, is a spiritual being, a Divine Spark from the Sacred Fire. Spirit being immortal has no beginning or end therefore always lives. This present life is one of countless experiences, each one of which helps to build up character. There is no death, but only changes from one vehicle to another. There is no beginning, or end, or time in reality, these are mere limitations of the human mind. It is impossible for man to die: he can only leave his body. He cannot kill himself, try how he will: he can only force himself out of his body. Man must always go on, whether he likes it or not: he proceeds through the ages, _reaping exactly as he sows_.
We have already seen that man cannot avoid or fight successfully against fate, but that he can become free from the wheel of fate by living a life in harmony with Divine Law. [5] At this point it is necessary to point out that most of man’s troubles are not caused by fate at all, but are due to his fighting against or trying to resist the great plan. If the experiences of life are resisted, or an attempt is made to evade its discipline, troubles and difficulties will repeat, becoming more painful and insistent until their lesson is learnt and the life changed accordingly. Therefore man has it in his power greatly to improve his present life, as well as to create a far better future, simply by living his life to-day in harmony with Divine Law. Further, it is necessary to point out that all thought and action have an _immediate_ as well as a far reaching effect. It is true that the full effect of life here is not reaped until after our little course on this plane has been run, but great differences are effected in the present life nevertheless. The way a youth makes use of, or throws away his opportunities, either makes or mars, to a very large extent, his adult career. Opportunities, once allowed to pass, can never be recalled. Sins committed and wrongs done to our fellow men have an unpleasant habit of repeating themselves in a reversed way later in life. For instance, a man may get on in life, and, in his selfish climb, may trample on one weaker than himself, ruining him and driving him to despair. Years afterwards, he will probably be treated in exactly the same way by someone stronger and more favourably situated than himself. Therefore, there is an immediate sowing and reaping that finds fruition in this life. By “immediate” is meant, within the compass of this life. The reaping may be delayed ten or twenty years, but in the writer’s experience, it not infrequently comes. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Those, therefore, who think that life is not just, and who whine and complain about the way they are treated, are simply increasing their own troubles. Until man realizes that the cause of all his troubles is within himself he can never do anything to remedy matters, because, obviously, the only thing that is required is for him to change within. Man has to become changed within before his life can be altered. His thoughts, his ideals, his attitude towards life must all become transformed. When this change has been effected, he not only begins to repair his present life, but he creates a fairer and nobler life for the future.
[5] This is the inner secret of all esoteric teaching. The new birth, or regeneration, means the awakening of the soul to conscious immortality. The old self, that was bound to the wheel of fate and the plane of cause and effect from which it could never free itself, owing to the fact that it was continually binding itself to the wheel afresh, through following selfish desires, dies, and a new self is born. In other words, the consciousness is raised from the plane of sin and death, of sensuality and desire, of restriction and captivity, to the higher plane of Spirit, where man realizes that he is a son of God. He discovers that the Divine Spark within is his true self. He realizes also that he has always lived–in his real Spiritual Self. Beginning and end, like change and decay, belong purely to the material plane and have no place in Reality. They form part of this present three dimensional existence but have no reality. Endless being is the reality. Anything short of this is mere illusion. It is not necessary, therefore, to believe in the theory of reincarnation or that all our experiences must of necessity take place on this plane. Sufficient to know that we can never die, that we cannot escape from ourselves, and that to neglect seeking with all our heart for union once again with our Divine Source, is merely to prolong our sufferings.
Man, then, has to change. His desires and aspirations, instead of being directed towards hate and evil must be transformed to love and good. Instead of wallowing in lust and selfishness he must lift himself to higher and better things. How can this be done? It cannot be accomplished by the finite man at all, but it can be achieved by the Infinite Power within. It is only when man realizes his oneness with the Infinite and _believes_ that Omnipotent Power is at his disposal, that the Spiritual Power within becomes available. So long as man has doubts and fears or disbeliefs, this special power is not available. It is his, but his state of heart and mind prevents him from either realizing the presence of the Power or making use of it. Before the machinery of a workshop can run it must be connected up with the engine room. In the same way, man, before he can live the new life, must become one with the Infinite Life and Power.
Entering this new life of power, does not take away life’s experiences, its trials, troubles and adversities, but the change within does prevent the creation of unnecessary troubles and suffering. Also even a so-called unkind fate loses much of its power to wound, for the higher man rises into union with God and Infinite Love, the less power it has in his life. It still operates, but it fails to wound so deeply, for man, seeing with illumined eyes, knows that it is good that has come to bless; and not evil that has come to slay. Painful fate loses its power to hurt when man ceases to resist it and meets it with open arms, seeking to learn the lessons that it has to teach.
CHAPTER V.
SUCCESS.
What is meant here by success is the achievement of something worth while, that shall make the world better and richer, and add something to the common good. Our sphere in life may be very humble, but if we overcome our own weaknesses, help others along life’s pathway, and do our daily work better than we need, our life cannot be other than successful. If, at the end of our life, we can be thankful for it, realizing that we have made the best possible use of it, we have achieved real success.
Success, to the unillumined, may mean the accumulation of wealth and the winning of fame. Yet those who give up their lives to the acquirement of these things are the greatest failures in life. They gain wealth, it is true, but they find that their money can buy only those things that bring no satisfaction: that it cannot purchase for them any of the things which are really worth having. Success of this hollow kind, can be won, but at too great a price. The greatest Teacher of all once said: “For what shall it profit man, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” What _does_ it profit a man if he “gets on” at the cost of happiness, health, joy of living, domestic life, and the ability to appreciate Nature’s beauties and simple pleasures?
Yet man must be a striver. He must be for ever seeking better things and to express himself more perfectly. One who drifts through life, making no effort to rise to better things, is not worthy of the name of citizen. Man, if he is to be worthy of the name, must be for ever striving, overcoming, rising. Failure in life is always due to weakness of character. It is only strong characters who can resist the buffetings of life and overcome its difficulties. The man who would make his life worthy of respect and who would rise to high achievement and service, will be confronted by difficulty at every turn. This is as it should be, for it weeds out the weaklings and unworthy aspirants, and awards the spoils to those who exhibit faith, courage, steadfastness, patience, perseverance, persistence, cheerfulness, and strength of character, generally. Success, especially material success, is not, in itself, of much benefit to the one who wins it. It does not satisfy for long, but it is valuable in other ways. For instance, success, based on service, is a benefit to the community. If, it were not for successful people of this type the ordinary man in the rut would have a bad time. Also, the winning of success builds up character. One who would be successful in the battle of life, must be prepared to be tested and tried in every possible way. One who survives them all is built up in character in almost every direction. Even in his success, however, he will be tempted and tried. One who is engaged in the harsh struggle of business, or who takes part in public life, may, if he does not watch himself very carefully, become hard and callous. Of all failures this is probably the worst. One who succeeds in other directions and becomes a “hard man,” is, after all, a sorry failure.
Again, people of the successful, striving, climbing type, are tempted far more than those who are afraid to venture and who remain in the valley of mediocrity. This is true, not only of those who seek to climb the steep path of spiritual attainment, but also of those who are successful in mundane affairs. In each case, they have placed in their keeping great powers and influence such as the ordinary man little dreams of. This is a grave responsibility, for if these powers are used for self-aggrandisement the results are disastrous. Thus, those who climb, are beset on all sides by temptations of a very subtle kind, which, if yielded to, will ruin the life and do grave injury to the soul.
Life is a continual battle. To the ordinary person it is generally a fight with circumstances and the ordinary difficulties of life which are very important in his eyes. The more advanced soul is not troubled much by these things–he rises above them–but he is tempted and tried to a much greater degree, and in a far more subtle manner. Those who think that by following a certain “cult” or “ism,” they will be able to have an uneventful walk through life are merely deluding themselves. As he learns to overcome the difficulties of life which baffle the ordinary individual, he will be tempted and tried in other and more subtle ways. This is because life is not for mere passing pleasure, but is for the building up of character, through experience. Therefore, one who would succeed must be strong, and wise and patient. Those who aspire to make their lives really worth while: who desire to serve their fellows more perfectly: who want to build up character through experience and overcome all their weaknesses, inherited or otherwise, must look within for power and wisdom.
It must be pointed out, however, that man must not use his spiritual powers for selfish purposes and self-aggrandisement. There is an immutable law, which has been known to the inner teaching all through the ages, that forbids the use of spiritual powers for the creation of wealth or even of daily bread. Jesus was subject to the same spiritual law, and was tempted exactly in the same way as we. The tempter said: “Command this stone that it be made bread.” If Christ had turned the stone into bread, He would have failed in His great mission, but He knew the law. There are thousands of people to-day who are trying, not only to turn, by the mis-use of their spiritual powers, stones into bread, but also into motor cars, fat bank balances and lands and houses. Such are heading to disaster, for they are working _against_ the combined Spiritual Power of the Universe. The Enemy of Souls offers those who have learned to tap the inexhaustible Power of the Universe, and who have discovered that they are sons of God, wealth, power, pomp, the applause of men–the glittering things that perish–if only they will mis-use their God-given power. Like Jesus, they must refuse. They must put service before self, and give instead of grasping.
Thousands are being taught to-day to force their human will upon life and to use occult powers for the acquisition of wealth and power. They are taught to enter the Silence and demand “what they want.” “How to get what you want” is the slogan of these modern teachers. Not merit, not service, not giving, but demanding, compelling by human will-power and by the use of occult forces. This is another device of the Enemy of Souls, and it is taking tens of thousands of seekers for Truth out of the Path. This subject is dealt with more fully in a separate chapter.
If, however, man’s ambition is to serve and to give, instead of to grasp and to grab: if, also, he seeks success through merit and not through the mis-use of his spiritual powers, he can go forward and the Power will go with him and will help him. When once the Power has been aroused, man must cease all purely selfish striving, although, of course, there will still be much selfishness in his motive. He must seek his success through service and through following noble aims: through merit and a fair exchange, instead of trying to wring success from life, no matter who may suffer thereby.
Further, when this Power has been brought into expression it must only be used in love, for if it used otherwise it will destroy the user. Again, the Power must not be used by the finite human will, but an endeavour must be made to find what the Will of the Whole is, and to work in harmony with it.
Behind each life is the Divine Will and Purpose. Each life is perfect as it is imaged in the Universal Mind. The highest success, indeed, the only true success, is to live the life according to the great Cosmic Purpose, or, in other words, as it is imaged in the One Mind.
Do not imagine, however, that it is the Will of the Universal Mind that man should be a failure or lacking in achievement. Far from it, for we have only to contemplate the Universe to see that the Infinite Mind is for ever achieving and that it never fails. Man, too, must succeed, but let him mix wisdom with his ambition, and work for the benefit of the Whole, rather than for any purely selfish purpose.
It is natural for man to “get on” in life, to a moderate extent. [6] In order to “get on” he must become more efficient, and thus serve life and his fellows better. Therefore, there is no harm in success of this kind. It is natural and laudable also for one in poor and unlovely surroundings to have an ambition to raise himself to better circumstances. It is only right that he should desire to make life brighter and better for his wife and family. So long as he indulges in ambition wisely, and if he seeks success through _better service_ to his fellows, his is a laudable purpose. If, however, he does not curb and control his ambition but allows it to “run away” with him, he will lose all real joy in life, and, at the last, when it is too late, learn, to his sorrow, that his life, through too much “success,” has been a failure.
[6] It must not be deduced from this that the author deprecates large achievement. There must always be the few who have to bear huge responsibilities. The real success of the lives of these great ones depends entirely upon their MOTIVE. If they seek merely power, fame and self-aggrandisement, then their life, no matter how it may APPEAR otherwise, can be only a failure. If, however, their motive is SERVICE, then their life is truly successful, no matter how it may appear to be otherwise.
The writer’s experience has been that it is necessary that we should always be progressing, achieving, overcoming and endeavouring to succeed. One of the greatest laws of the Universe is progress, therefore it is fatal to stand still. We must go forward, we must achieve, we must accomplish things. If we do so, we may find that many things which cost us much effort, and hard work are not worth the having, yet all the time we are learning, through experience, and are being strengthened and prepared for greater things. Through repeated failure to find true satisfaction we arrive finally at true knowledge, wisdom and understanding. We are wise then, if, with the world at our feet, we can be satisfied with a very moderate material success, and turn our attention and aspirations to higher and better things.
In concluding this chapter let it be pointed out that success and achievement will not drop ready made from heaven into your lap. All who succeed are gluttons for work, toiling whilst others play and sleep. All teaching to the contrary is erroneous. To think that success is going to come to you when it is unmerited, simply because you make use of “affirmations” or employ mental “treatments,” is folly of the first water. On the other hand, to use the inner forces in an occult way, so as to compel material things or “success,” so-called, in any shape or form, to come to you, is black magic. One who stoops to such practices becomes a black magician, earning for himself a terrible retribution. There is only one way to succeed in the affairs of life, and that is by raising oneself to greater usefulness and service. By doing things better than they have been done before, by bearing greater responsibility, you serve humanity better, and therefore merit success. “It is more blessed to give than to receive,” said the Master, and this is true even in the practical and material affairs of life. First, you must give better and more valuable service: in other words, deserve and merit before you expect to see it materialize. You must sow before you can reap: you must become too big for your present position before you are capable of occupying a larger one. You must grow and expand in every possible way, and as you grow so will your success increase. Outward success is only a reflection, so to speak, of what you really are, and a result of greater and more valuable service to humanity. It requires great effort and determination to get out of the rut, but so long as your ambition is not ignoble or selfish, there will be found within you power sufficient for all your needs.
To win success, either in the hurly-burly of life, or the more difficult path of spiritual progress, demands imagination, vision, courage, faith, determination, persistence, perseverance, hope, cheerfulness and other qualities. These are all to be found within. All these qualities lie more or less dormant within, and can be called into expression if we believe that Infinite Power is ours.
Again, however, must the warning be repeated that this Power must not be used for selfish self-aggrandisement, still less may it be used, or, rather, mis-used, either to influence or dominate others. If this Power is mis-used the results are terrible and disastrous. Therefore, use the Power only for the achievement of good and noble aims and in service which shall enrich the life of your fellows, adding to the common good. Having arrived at this stage you must go forward. There can be no holding back. Ever onward, the Divine Urge is sending you, to greater achievement and accomplishment. Just as surely as the planets must revolve round the sun and fulfil their destiny, so also must you go forward. See to it, then, that your aims and ambitions are based upon eternal wisdom, for upon this does your whole future depend.
CHAPTER VI.
HEALTH.
It is impossible, in a little work of this description to explain why it is that one person inherits a weak and ailing body and another enjoys a strong and robust constitution. Sufficient for us here to notice that the days of rude, rugged health are passing, and that man is becoming more highly strung, nervous and psychic in his make-up. The old type of rude, unconscious health was due to the animal-like nature of man, which caused his body to be governed more completely by the instinctive mind. Less evolved humans are not affected, apparently, by the mental storms, psychic changes, and spiritual disharmonies that disturb the health of the more evolved types. We have an illustration of this in the case of some forms of insanity. The patient “goes out of his mind,” with the result that his bodily health becomes wonderfully good. The instinctive mind takes control of things, and rude, robust animal health is the result. When the patient was sane and his mind filled with worry, ambitions, plans, cares, lusts, hates and griefs, he was probably very far from well. This would be due to the disturbing effects of his thoughts and uncontrolled emotions. When, therefore, his conscious mind gave way and he became happy in an imbecile way, he ceased to think of these disturbing things, with the result that the instinctive, animal mind was able to work undisturbed.
It is of no use sighing for “the good old times,” when people were rugged and strong in the way that savages are rugged and strong, for evolution has decreed that man shall change into a higher and more nervous and sensitive type. In this sensitive type wrong thoughts and emotions quickly produce pain and suffering. The majority of people do not know what good health is. Not only do they suffer from minor ailments, such as headaches, indigestion, rheumatism, neuritis, but they also never feel hearty or completely well. They are strangers to the joy of living. Life does not thrill them: nothing quickens their blood: they have no moments of vivid ecstasy–in other words, they do not live, they merely exist at a poor dying rate.
Again, the majority of people are susceptible to infectious diseases and epidemics, yet, if they were really well, they would be immune. Instead, however, of seeking immunity through health, they are seeking it through the use of vaccines and serums, thus adding to the burdens which the body has to bear. All attempts in this direction are bound to end in failure, for, as fast as one disease is suppressed another one will appear.
Many people look upon disease and sickness as inevitable, yet the truth is that health is the normal state and ill-health an abnormality. In tracing back ill-health to its source, we find, first of all, that it is due to disobedience of natural law. Large numbers of people break nearly every known natural law of health, and are surprised that they become ill. Yet the wonder is that they are as well as they are. Yet, while obedience to nature’s laws and the use of nature-cure methods will carry us a certain part of the way, we find that there must be causes even deeper than those which are physical. We are confronted by the fact that there are many people who obey every known physical law of health, who bathe, exercise, breathe, eat and drink scientifically, who adopt nature-cure methods instead of drugs and serums, who yet cannot find health. Therefore we must search deeper and go to the mind in order to discover the cause of ill-health.
When we look to the mind we find a prolific cause of sickness. Man thinks himself into ill-health and disease. It is well known that thinking about disease and sickness produces them in the body. People who are for ever thinking about disease, illness, operations and other morbid subjects, become a prey to these things. Those who believe that sickness is inevitable, manifest it in their life. Morbid thinking produces a morbid state of the body, causing it either to fall an easy prey to infection or to break down into chronic ill-health, or even disease. Allowing the thoughts to dwell upon morbid things is a sure way to sickness and invalidism.
Man is not only made ill by his own negative thoughts and emotions, he is also under the hypnotic spell of the race mind. “The God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.” We are all under the spell, more or less, of a huge illusion. The evil, disease, sickness and other imperfections that we see and experience, have no reality, _in reality_, but have an _existence_ in _unreality_. [7] Although they are not real in a real sense, yet they are terribly real to this present limited consciousness. By realizing the truth, and by thinking and living in its light and power, the hypnotic spell becomes broken, not completely, else we should not grow old, but to such an extent that a state of greatly improved health can be enjoyed.
[7] For a fuller explanation of this metaphysical statement see Science of Thought Text Books, Nos. I. and II.
We are also hypnotically affected by suggestion, which reaches us from a thousand different sources. The conversations of friends and acquaintances, affect us adversely. Their belief in disease and sickness as realities, and in its inevitableness, colours all their conversation, and, unless we guard against it, this unconsciously affects us. Newspapers, magazines, books, all steeped in the same error, also influence us unless we have become too positive to be affected. From innumerable sources it is subtly suggested to us that disease, sickness, infection are realities that cannot be evaded, and to which we are prone. The effect of all this, putting it in simple and elementary language, is to divert the life power into wrong channels, thus producing disease and ill-health in place of perfection. The normal state of health has to give place to an abnormal state of disease or sickness. The normal health-state is, however, restored when Truth is realized, and the life lived in Its light and power. Absolute Truth and Perfection stand behind all the illusion and imperfection of the sense life. It is by realizing the Truth and the perfection of the Reality, and by establishing the thought-life in Truth, so that our thoughts cease to be negative and based on error and illusion, that health is to be found.
It is often said that ill-health is the result of sin. It is, for thinking about disease, sickness and ill-health, believing them to be inevitable, is one of the greatest of sins. The way of life is to walk (think and act) after the Spirit (which is perfect, whole, immortal and incorruptible) and not after the flesh (corruption, disease, sickness, death). By thinking “after the flesh” we dishonour God who is absolute Wholeness and Perfection, and cut ourselves off from the Divine Life and Power.
But there are other ways by which wrong thinking destroys the health. Thinking thoughts of lust is a prolific cause of unhappiness, sickness and nervous disease. The divine forces of life are directed into a wrong channel, resulting either in indulgence and inevitable weakening of body, brain and will, or in repression and its consequent nervous diseases. If the thoughts are allowed to dwell upon impurity, evil results must follow in some form, either in action or ill-health, or both. Thought must be controlled and reversed continually. Not repressed, but reversed, be it noted, for there is a tremendous difference between the two. Repression creates nervous trouble, but by reversing or transmuting the thoughts the life becomes transformed, and the bodily health greatly improved.
Further, indulging in thoughts of hate, resentment, ill-will, fear, worry, care, grief, and anxiety, produces ill-health, and, by lowering the tone of the body, lays it open to infection and disease. We therefore see that the state of the mind and the character of the thoughts are important factors which cannot be ignored. It is useless to treat either ill-health or disease if they are merely the external _effects_ of hidden causes of the mind. In order to effect a cure we have to get back to the cause of the trouble.
Thought control [8] is a great assistance. Substituting a right or positive thought for a wrong one, will, in course of time, work wonders in the life. In the sub-conscious we have an illimitable power of extraordinary intelligence. According to our thoughts this wonderful power either builds up health, harmony and beauty in our life and body, or just the reverse. The power is good, the intelligence is apparently infinite, but it goes where-ever our thoughts direct it. By our thinking, therefore, we either create or destroy, produce either good or evil. If, therefore, all our thoughts are good, positive and constructive, it follows that both our body and our life must become built up in harmony and perfection. The question is, can this be done? It can be done if we have the desire, and are willing to discipline ourselves and persevere in the face, often, of seeming failure. Some readers may say, at this point, that they have no desire to be so frightfully good, that they are not prepared to give up lust, impurity, hate, anger, malice and thoughts and emotions of this kind. Very well, if this is so, they must go on and learn, through suffering, the lesson which they refuse to learn willingly. Others may say: “Yes, I want to control my thoughts, but how can I cease to worry when I have so much about which to worry, and how can I cease to hate when I have been so deeply wronged?” This brings us to an even deeper cause of ill-health than that of mind, viz., the attitude of the heart. Our scriptures tell us that “as a man thinketh in his _heart_ so is he.” By “heart” is meant the soul or feeling, desiring part of man. It is here where the conflict between the self-will and the Divine Will, between the desires of the flesh and the longings of the Spirit take place. The real root cause of all unhappiness, disharmony and ill-health is spiritual, and not merely mental or physical. The latter are contributory causes, but the former is the fundamental cause. Spiritual disharmony is, in reality, the cause of all ill-health and disease. Until spiritual harmony is restored, man is a kingdom divided against itself, which, as our Lord said, cannot stand. Healing, then, must be of a spiritual character. Until this harmony exists there can be no overcoming of hate thoughts, fear thoughts or worry thoughts, and until these are overcome there can be no true healing. Our Lord’s healing was a gracious healing of the Spirit. It restored inward harmony by forgiving sin, by changing the heart’s desires, by bringing the will of the subject into harmony with the Divine Will of the Whole. Our Lord’s healing was not accomplished by means of suggestion, neither was it achieved by human will power; it was done by a bringing into harmony of the heart and desires and will with the Divine Will. At the same time there must have been a revelation of the truth that the Will of God is love, wholeness, joy and perfection, and not disease, sickness and misery.
[8] See also “The Power of Thought” by the same author, published by The Science of Thought Press, Chichester.
Mental healing does not become possible until we have made our peace with God. Until we have surrendered entirely to the love principle, we cannot overcome our hate thoughts and malice thoughts or resentment thoughts, by transmuting them into thoughts of love. Until we surrender to the Divine Will and leave all our problems to the Infinite Mind, we cannot cease to worry and fear. Mental discipline and thought-control are necessary after this inward change has taken place, for we all have to work out our own salvation, but the essential thing is the inward heart surrender in love and trust. So long as we hate our brother, or fear what the morrow may bring forth, or worry about the things of this life, we can never be well. When, however, we have become attuned to the Divine Harmony, and have learnt to control our thoughts and emotions and to transmute fleshly and material desires into loving service, a state of wholeness is the inevitable result. Old, deeply-seated disorders die away, and a steady improvement in the state of health takes its place.
In order to regain health it is necessary to raise oneself up continually to the Divine Ideal of health, harmony and perfection. But this is useless if there still remains a clashing of the personal will with the Divine Will, or if there is any hate, malice, envy, or fear in the heart. The will must be surrendered to the greater Will (this, in reality, is our highest good, for the fulfilment of the Divine Will is the happy destiny of man): the heart must forgive and be filled with love; fear must be cast out, and replaced by confidence and complete trust, before we can enter into that happy, care-free, restful state which is necessary for healing. Health is harmony–a delicate balance and adjustment between spirit, soul, mind and body. This harmony is dependent entirely upon the greater harmony between ourselves and God. So long as there is a conflict of will, so long as there is hate or resentment, so long as there is selfishness or while there is fear, this harmony cannot exist. Therefore, the bed-rock cause of health is spiritual harmony, all healing being a restoration of harmony between man and his Divine Source. When this harmony is restored, man is no longer a kingdom divided against itself, for he becomes established in _unity_: he works with the Universe and the Divine Laws of his being, instead of against them. The Divine Life and Power flow through him unimpeded, promoting perfect sub-conscious functioning. His thoughts become cleansed at their source (“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me,” “Cleanse Thou me from _secret_ faults”). He becomes free from the hypnotic spell of the race mind: his eyes, through the influence of the Divine Spirit, become opened to the Truth; therefore he is no longer blinded by the Prince of this world. In the Divine Union he becomes free. (In Christ all are made alive).
The subject of grief and its effect upon health has purposely been left to the last. No amount of right thinking will prevent bereavements in this life. These form part of the necessary discipline of life, and it depends entirely upon how we meet our trials whether they shall be hurtful or the greatest possible blessing. By rebelling against life’s discipline, griefs become hurtful, but the hurt is not in the bereavement itself, but in the attitude of the mind and heart. Until the soul is able to drink the cup of sorrow willingly, and say “Thy Will be done,” bereavement is hurtful, destroying both health and happiness. The cause of the hurt is, however, in the hardness of heart, and not in the bereavement itself. There must, therefore, be submission and an acknowledgment that the discipline is necessary. This does not imply, however, a weak giving-in to grief and mourning. One who has been bereaved can never, it is true, be the same again, for he or she becomes more chastened, more loving, more sympathetic, richer and more mellow in character. The loved one can never be forgotten, but that is no reason why the heart should be bowed down by grief and the life made desolate by sorrow. In such cases true religion, not religiousness, is the only thing that can satisfy the soul, harmonize the mind, and heal the body. To be established in Truth, knowing that all is well: that God makes no mistakes and that there is, in reality, no death but only change, is the only way by which bereavement can be made to be a blessing in disguise. When this stage is reached, grief is overcome, death being swallowed up in victory. The only panacea for all life’s troubles is conscious harmony with our Divine Source and the Divine Will and Purpose which desire only our highest good.
CHAPTER VII.
THE SECRET OF ABUNDANT SUPPLY.
It is a metaphysical truth that the outward life is a reflection of the thought life. Our life is affected by our habit of thinking and attitude of mind, in two ways: first, all our actions are unconsciously influenced by our thoughts, thus helping to bring into manifestation, or attracting to us, an environment that corresponds to our thoughts. [9] Secondly, we discharge or emit an influence, silent and invisible, that no doubt affects other people. They are probably not aware of it, but they are either repelled or attracted by this silent influence. Thus, if our thoughts and mental attitude are of the wrong type, not only are our actions affected thereby, but also we exert a silent influence that assists in driving the right type of friends, opportunity, success and every possible good away from us. The reverse also is equally true. By right thoughts and a correct mental attitude we naturally attract to us all the good of which our present life is capable.
[9] This may seem, at first sight, to be a sweeping statement, but two homely illustrations will prove its reasonableness. First we will take the case of a man committed to prison for law-breaking. His environment is obviously due to his wrong actions, the latter being the offspring of his thoughts, for all actions spring from thoughts. Next let us take the case of a man who is the trusted head of an efficient business. Obviously his position is the result of his actions, for he has climbed to it by hard work and faithful service, all due in the first place to constructive thinking and a right attitude of mind.
The Bible tells us that as a man thinketh in his heart so is he. It is equally true to say that as a man _is_, so does he _think_, and, that as he thinks, so do his outer life and circumstances become. Therefore, as a man _is_, so is his environment. This may sound rather metaphysical, but it is really quite simple, and proof meets us at every turn. Take a man from slumdom and put him in nice surroundings, and note what happens. Very soon he either drifts back to a slum or turns his new house into a slum dwelling. Take a man of a higher type, and put him in a slum, and soon he will either leave the slum or change his slum dwelling into a more decent habitation. Put a slut in a mansion, and she will turn it into a pig-sty, but put a woman of a higher type in a hovel and she will make it clean enough to entertain royalty. Therefore, before you can change a person’s environment it is necessary to change inwardly the person himself. When a man becomes inwardly changed and filled with new ambitions, ideals and hopes, he, in course of time, rises above his sordid surroundings and _attracts to himself an environment that corresponds to his new state of mind_. It would be useless to tidy up the house of a slut for her, for she would soon make it like a pig-sty again, but if you could get a new ideal of neatness, cleanliness, order and spotlessness into her mind, she would not rest satisfied until her immediate environment corresponded, in some measure at least, to her mental ideal or image.
Very often, the failures of a man’s life, and its disharmonies and poverty, either comparative or real, are outward symbols of his weakness of character. He may have ability in plenty, but he may lack application or steadfastness, and thus he fails in all his undertakings, and has to be kept by his wife and daughters. He will assure you that his circumstances are due to ill-fortune, but the actual cause of his failure is in his character, or, rather, lack of character.
If, therefore, a man’s poverty and lack, or financial difficulties are due to weakness of character which manifest in his work and dealings with others, in the form of inefficiency, poor service and bad judgment, it follows that he, himself, must change before his circumstances can be permanently altered for the better. The difficulty in dealing with unsuccessful people is in getting them to realize that they, themselves, are the cause of all their troubles. [10] Until, however, they do realize this, their case is hopeless, and it is impossible to help them, but when they acknowledge that the fault is theirs, they can be shown that there is a remedy for their ills and a way out of their difficulties, by means of self-improvement. Let them then search for hidden weaknesses, and build up those weak places in their character, such as lack of grit, determination, steadfastness, persistence, patience, probity, decision, which are the cause of their troubles, and they will find that their circumstances will gradually change for the better. Everything comes from within–first within, then out, this is the law–therefore the change must always take place within.
[10] See also “The Fundamentals of True Success,” by the same author and published by The Science of Thought Press, Chichester.
Going more deeply into the subject and becoming more metaphysical, it is necessary to point out that the cause of all manifestation is Mind. We have already seen that a man’s mind and character are reflected in his circumstances; now let us think, for a moment, about the Mind that is Infinite. The whole universe, which is, of course, infinite in extent, has its origin in the Divine Mind, and _is contained within this Infinite Mind_, just in the same way that you can hold a mental picture in your own mind. God’s Universe, _as it is imaged in the Divine Mind_, is perfect. We see it as imperfect, because we only receive a finite sense-perception of that which is perfect and infinite, from this forming, in our minds, an image that is necessarily imperfect and finite, which we project outwards, and, not knowing any better, think is real. But the universe, _as imaged in the Divine Mind_, and as it actually is in reality, is both infinite and perfect: it is also infinitely perfect. There is no poverty or lack in a universe that is infinitely perfect, whole and complete in the Divine Mind. Poverty and lack have their origin in the mind of man: they have no place in the Mind of God.
We cannot, in a little elementary work of this kind, go more deeply into this extremely fascinating subject. Sufficient if we say here that the only Reality is infinite perfection and wholeness, therefore there cannot be any lack at all (in reality). The obvious lack and poverty that we see around us are the product of the human mind. Those who live in a consciousness of poverty and lack, go through life closely fettered by limitation. They can never escape from poverty, it dogs their footsteps like their shadow. In fact, it is a shadow or reflection, in the outer life, of their state of mind and mental attitude.
On the other hand, those who live in a consciousness of sufficiency, are not troubled about supply. Their circumstances reflect their type of mind and mental attitude. It does not follow that they will be rich, for many of them prefer to live from hand to mouth, and quite large numbers of people have no desire whatever to possess wealth of any kind, but they have no worry about supply, for their needs are always met by sufficiency.
Many of our readers look upon the possession of wealth as an iniquity. Personally, I do not see how, at this stage, it can be altogether avoided. Capital is necessary for the conducting of business and for the carrying out of enterprises, but, as far as the hoarding of wealth is concerned, I certainly think that it is both unwise and unnecessary. There is nothing more deadening to the spiritual life than riches. There is always hope for the drunkard and the harlot, but it is most difficult although, of course, not impossible, for one who is burdened by wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven. Some are able to do so, but they are allowed to enter simply because they hold their wealth as of no importance, merely as something of which they are stewards for a season.
The hoarding of wealth is just as unnecessary as poverty. They are both based upon a fundamental error. This error is in thinking that all supply, being material, must necessarily have a material source: that it is limited in quantity, and therefore must be grabbed at and fought over. The truth is, of course, that the source of supply is Spiritual, and therefore without limit; consequently, one who realizes the truth has no thoughts of poverty or lack, and ceases to fear it. On the other hand, he has no incentive to hoard or to grab wealth, for of what use are riches to one whose supply is for ever assured?
All who enter into this truth regarding supply, either despise riches or hold them very lightly indeed. They cease to have any desire for wealth. Why should they have any such desire? People hanker after wealth because they fear poverty with a deadly fear, and long for wealth because they think that its possession would release them from their fears. When, however, they know the truth, they also KNOW that their wants will always be supplied, therefore they no longer desire wealth and its cares and responsibilities.
Wealth is just as abnormal as poverty. Our Lord showed this to be the case by choosing to be poor (but not in poverty) and by His teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. What Jesus promised was adequate supply, but not wealth or riches, to those who had sufficient faith in their “Heavenly Father.” Many people live this planless life of utter dependence upon their Spiritual Source. They never become rich, but all their needs are supplied. Something always arrives in time to meet their requirements. Such a life requires a very live and active faith, but its results are as certain as the rising of the sun.
An understanding of the truth regarding supply is a necessary foundation for the faith without which the planless life is impossible. It is necessary to _know_ the utter falseness and unreality of poverty and lack before we can trust in Divine Providence or the working of Spiritual (at the same time, mental) law. It is necessary to know that the universe is Spiritual: that God is Spirit, in whom we live and move and have our being, and that because we are a part, very small, but yet a part, of the Whole, all our wants, all through the ages, must be supplied. Supply, sufficient for all our needs, is the reality. Poverty and lack, the product of lack of faith, of fear, of ignorance, of weakness of character, have their origin in the human mind, and are the unreality–the negative which has no permanence or reality.
When we have learnt the truth, it is necessary to live in the Consciousness of it, and to think and act and praise God as though sufficiency were already ours. Not to spend money that we cannot afford to spend, nor to incur debt, but to live mentally in an atmosphere of abundant supply. We have to remember that the change in consciousness must take place first and become well-established, before its effects can be seen to manifest in the outer life.
The entering of this higher consciousness where we know and realize the truth, viz., that the Source of all our supply is Spirit, and that the Divine Source is limitless, is not easy, although it is less difficult to some than to others. It demands constant mental activity and watchfulness: it requires persistence and perseverance in right thinking, yet it is possible to those who are in earnest. By living in the consciousness of God’s Supply and exercising a lively faith, the life becomes affected, principally due to both conscious and unconscious change of action.
Having dealt with the esoteric or inner side of the subject of supply, I will now treat it more from the outer or practical side, the latter being, of course, just as important as the former.
The teaching of this chapter does not discourage industry and thrift, far from it. After the Lord Christ had fed the five thousand, all the leavings were carefully collected so that nothing should be wasted. This is in accord with Universal law. There is a law of economy both in the natural and spiritual worlds. Nature appears, on the surface, to be very wasteful and prodigal, but, actually, she never wastes anything, if it can be avoided. Therefore, the action of the disciples was in accord with universal law. What a lesson for us! To be careful and saving is a mark of superiority both in mind and character. The wastefulness of the helpless poor is notorious. Those who are “well to do” are far more careful and conserving than the very poor. There are exceptions, it is true, but the rule is that a man who cannot save money has not it in him to command success in life. Inability to deny himself certain things shows a weakness of character and lack of purpose which make success impossible. Two men that I knew very well built fortunes upon P5, which they saved out of meagre earnings. It is always the start that is difficult: if you cannot overcome the preliminary difficulties you have not the steadfast purpose to hold your own in the battle of life. On the other hand, once the initial difficulties have been overcome, it is not difficult to get your barque into the currents of prosperity. When once you realize that there is unlimited abundance in which you can share: when once you learn to live in the consciousness of this abundance, at the same time living within your present income and doing your present work as well as it is possible for it to be done, you have set out on the path to affluence. One who realizes and really believes that there is abundance and plenty for _him_, puts into operation a powerful law which will surely bring opportunity to him, sooner or later. Many, however, ruin their hopes by not knowing that for a time they must live a kind of double life. They must be opulent in consciousness, but careful and thrifty in actual practice. The time will come when their means will largely increase, then, if they are wise, they will live on part of their income, instead of living up to it. This will give them a wide margin for charitable purposes, for the taking up of further opportunities and for extensions. Many business men have to let golden opportunities pass, simply because they have saved little or nothing, owing to lavish private expenditure, or they have to let other people in to share their schemes who, in addition to taking a large share of the profits may prove a serious handicap and hindrance in other ways.
While in its essence, the Source of Supply is spiritual, it comes to us through material channels, and, in order to have a share in it, it is necessary to earn it. We have to give something in exchange for what we draw from life in the way of supply. We must give in order to receive, and what we give must be something that the world wants or needs.
The secret of supply is, then, to realize that there is unlimited abundance and to live in the consciousness of it, as completely as though no material channels existed, and, at the same time, to work as zealously and be as careful as though there were no such thing as spiritual supply. At the same time we must give the world something that it wants, or otherwise serve in some useful capacity, exercising honesty, probity and justice in all our affairs. It is folly to expect abundance to drop ready-made in our lap; it must be earned by intelligent and faithful service. [11]
[11] This subject is treated fully in “The Fundamentals of True Success,” by the same author. Published by The Science of Thought Press, Chichester.
Being a retired business man who started life with nothing, not even good health, I have looked at this subject from a business man’s point of view. The principle applies, however, to every walk in life, and each reader can adapt the teaching of this lesson to his or her particular needs.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE POWERS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE SUB-CONSCIOUS MIND.
The sub-conscious mind is the mind of Nature. It possesses extraordinary powers and intelligence, but no inspiration. It is instinctive: it is animal: it is natural: but there is nothing god-like about it–it is of the earth and the physical plane. It can be described as the inner forces of Nature resident within our body. Having said this we have said nearly all there is to be said about the sub-conscious, yet this is the mind of which some people have made a veritable god.
The sub-conscious mind, if led aright, is a very good friend, reducing all repeated thoughts and actions into habit, which, in time, become settled and part of the very life itself. Thus, by conscious right thinking and conscious right action, a good habit is formed, which becomes, in course of time, practically automatic. This, of course, builds up the character, which, in turn, affects the life. It will be seen then, how important is the right use of this willing and faithful servant. It is no god, it has no inspiration, but it is a very useful servant, as we shall see.
Most of our actions or movements are done or made sub-consciously. The reason that “practice makes perfect” is that the sub-conscious mind learns to do the task, and, by so doing, takes it off our hands. How difficult it is to learn to drive a motor-car. How carefully, at first, we have to double de-clutch and obtain the right engine speed for a noiseless “change,” yet, after a time, the whole action is performed sub-consciously. It is the same with pianoforte playing. Many players, some better than others, can play the most difficult classical music without _consciously_ recalling it to mind. As soon as they _try to remember_ the whole “piece” leaves them, but as long as they leave the whole matter to the sub-conscious (which never forgets) they can keep on playing. I and my conscious mind are not doing much of the actual writing of this book. We think the thoughts and have something to do with the formation of the sentences, but the sub-conscious mind writes them down. If I had to think of each word and letter, my task would be hopeless, and I should become half dead with fatigue.
The sub-conscious mind, however, is even more helpful, for it does the bulk of our thinking, and can be taught to do a great deal more. If we had to think everything out laboriously, according to the laws of logic, life would be unbearable. Instead of this our sub-conscious mind does the bulk or our thinking, and, if we give it a chance, will do it in an extremely accurate manner, strictly according to the laws of logic and _without the slightest fatigue_. The more that we train the sub-conscious to do our ordinary thinking for us, the less we suffer from fatigue. Fatigue is unknown to the sub-conscious mind, therefore we can never tire it or overwork it.
The sub-conscious mind can be made to do more and more work for us if we will delegate definite work for it to deal with. One who has learnt thought control, who can take up a matter, consider it in all its bearings, and then dismiss the subject from his conscious thought, is able to increase his efficiency a hundred per cent., and reduce his mental fatigue almost to vanishing point. Instead of laboriously working out his problems and worrying and scheming over them, he simply dismisses them to his sub-conscious mind to be dealt with by a master mind which works unceasingly, with great rapidity, extreme accuracy and entirely without effort. It is necessary, however, to give the sub-conscious every available information, for it possesses no inspiration or super-human wisdom, but works out logically, according to the facts supplied to it.
This great, natural, untiring “mind downstairs,” as it has been called, is also capable of doing even more useful work still. A writer or speaker, or preacher can collect notes and ideas for his article, book, speech or sermon, and pass them down to his sub-conscious mind with orders that they be arranged in suitable order, division, sub-division and so on. When he comes either to write or prepare the notes of his speech or sermon, he will find all the work done for him, and all that he has to do is to write it down, entirely without effort or fatigue.
Again, a business man who has learnt to make use of his sub-conscious mind in this way, need not juggle or worry or fatigue himself by planning and scheming for the future. All that he need do is to submit the facts to the “greater mind downstairs,” and all the planning will be done for him, entirely without effort, and far more efficiently than he would have done it through laborious conscious thinking.
The following, which has just been brought to my notice, is a striking confirmation of the teaching of this chapter.
In a recent issue of _Collier’s Magazine_, an interview with Henry Ford appeared. He spoke of the way with which big business men deal with problems, and pointed out that they did not spend a lot of time pondering and puzzling over plans or ideas. He said: “An idea comes to us: we think of it for a little while, and then _we put it in the pot to boil_. We let it simmer for a time, and then take it out.” What Henry Ford means, of course, is precisely what we have been saying, viz., that the idea or problem is dismissed to the sub-conscious mind, which works it out, and presents it to the conscious mind for judgment.
Yet again, an inventor or one who is constructing something mechanical, can make use of the sub-conscious mind in precisely the same way. Let him sum up the whole problem, arrange all his facts and available information, and pass them all to his sub-conscious mind, when, if a successful result is within the range of possibility, an answer or idea will be forthcoming. All this being done, mark you, without any effort whatever.
All this may seem, especially to some readers, rather wonderful and far-fetched, yet there is nothing occult or mysterious about it. I am perfectly sure that there is no great writer, politician or business man who does not make use of his sub-conscious mind in this way. He probably does so unconsciously, but his procedure is the same. Some employ the whole of their mind naturally. These become men of achievement, who occupy responsible positions, and who bear immense burdens without strain, worry or care. Responsibility sits lightly upon them, and they are serene and untroubled when in positions, and when confronted by tasks and difficulties, such as would drive an ordinary individual out of his mind. Such men develop their powers of attention and concentration (anyone who is in earnest can do this) to a very high degree. They are at great pains to get to the root of a problem, and obtain all the available data possible, but, after that, it is their sub-conscious mind that does all the work, and which arrives at a decision.
While it comes natural to a few to use their sub-conscious mind in the correct way, the majority of people find themselves unable to do so. Such, however, can acquire the art by training. First, it is necessary to learn thought-control, so as to be able to take up a problem or dismiss it entirely from the mind _at will_. When a problem is passed on to the sub-conscious to be worked out, the subject must be dismissed entirely from the conscious mind. The problem must not be worried over, nor the thoughts allowed to dwell upon it; it must be left entirely to the sub-conscious. Second, every possible detail and information connected with the problem must be grasped by the conscious mind, and the whole matter, pro and con, visualized before being passed to the sub-conscious. It will be seen, then, that thought-control of a high order is necessary, also powers of attention and concentration. These can all be developed by anyone who is really in earnest.
A good way of starting the use of the sub-conscious mind is to hold the problem in the mind just as one is going to sleep. There must not, upon any account, be any attempt made to solve the problem or to worry over it. Instead, the main facts of the case, on both sides, must be marshalled, and the case presented to the sub-conscious mind in much the same way as you would place it before your lawyer. Having done this, dismiss the whole matter to your sub-conscious mind, and in most cases you will find in the morning that a solution has been arrived at without any effort or fatigue on your part.
This, of course, is only one of the many ways in which the sub-conscious mind can, and does, serve its master, or the one who should be master. This great invisible force of Nature is for ever working. Whatever ideal is held in the mind becomes woven into the life through the tireless working of the sub-conscious mind. Only set your attention upon high and lofty achievement, and you will focus all the invisible inward forces of Nature upon its accomplishment. In course of time you will reap as you sow. If you will direct your attention into the right channel, backing it up with energetic, conscious action, your sub-conscious will help you day and night, thus making success and achievement possible.
CHAPTER IX.
THE USE OF THE SPIRITUAL OR SUPER-CONSCIOUS MIND.
We have already seen that the sub-conscious mind, wonderful though it be, is instinctive merely, lacking inspiration and what we call originality.
All inspiration comes from the Universal Mind, via the super-conscious. All poets and inspired writers get their inspiration in this way. This higher mind is not recognized by Psychologists, but it has long been known to searchers for spiritual truth.
What we get from the sub-conscious is the outcome of facts and knowledge supplied to it. What we get from the super-conscious is direct inspiration from higher planes. This higher mind might also be called the Mind of Illumination, for those who can enter into it become illumined, being able to know the Truth and to see things as they really are, and not as they falsely appear to the senses.
This limited consciousness in which we live is bounded by our five senses. The universe that we see around us is partly real and partly an illusion. The real universe is Spiritual and infinite: what we sense is a limited, partial conception of a fragment of it. Our limited, finite conception of the universe is entirely misleading and erroneous, and so long as we rely on sense evidence and the human mind, we remain in darkness and uncertainty. When, however, we can rise into the super-conscious realm, our consciousness expands, transcending the senses and the limitations of the physical plane.
The Spiritual mind is, of course, only accessible to those who are more delicately attuned to its finer vibrations. Nothing that is worth having can be had without effort, and it is only after much self-discipline that it becomes possible for the student to raise his consciousness to this higher realm and understand life from the standpoint of the Universal Mind.
There is nothing, either mystical or psychical, about the use of this higher mind. One who makes use of it becomes spiritually-minded, that is all. He does not go into trances, nor need he become clairvoyant: he simply remains a sane, normal individual, with this difference only–he makes use of more of his mind than does the ordinary individual.
One who is able to use this higher mind develops that which has been termed “the divine quality of originality.” If ever a person is to rise above the dead level of mediocrity it must be through direct inspiration from higher planes, through his super-conscious mind. If ever a person is to bring forth a new idea which shall enrich humanity and add to the common good, it must come through the higher mind.
One who is properly attuned, becomes, through the super-conscious mind, a recipient of knowledge that is above human, and wisdom that is divine. He knows by direct knowing: he becomes wise through an influx of Divine Wisdom. He is able to distinguish between the real and the sham, between the gold and the dross: he is also able to see and recognize the right path in life–a thing utterly impossible to the mind of the senses–and to tread it, thus being led into the only true success and real good of which his life is capable.
Let it be said here that all Wisdom must come from within. While books and the written word may be helpful, it is the Spirit within the reader that illumines the word, and makes it real and true to the seeker after Wisdom. One who realizes that he is illumined within by the Divine Spirit, and that this alone can bring him into real knowledge is well advanced on the path that leads to realization.
The wisdom of the human mind always leads to disappointment. It is based on the evidence of the senses, which is erroneous, therefore its findings must always be lacking in _real_ wisdom. One who relies upon the inspiration of Divine Wisdom has often to decide to take a course of action which, apparently, is opposed to his best interests. Yet, if he follows the inward Wisdom, he finds that he is always guided aright, and, later, has cause to be devoutly thankful that he followed the gleam.
CHAPTER X.
CHARACTER BUILDING AND THE OVERCOMING OF HABIT.
Character building is the greatest object in life. It has been said that character is the only thing we can take with us when we depart this life. This is perfectly true, therefore the object of all religion (not religiousness), mental training and development should be the building of character. A religion that does not build up character is worthless. Those who think that they can “flop” through life, avoid, as far as possible, its discipline, make no effort to improve their character, and through believing in a certain creed can miraculously become perfect, simply by dying, are deceiving themselves. We do not become “perfect,” _i.e._, of a strong and perfect character, either by believing in a creed or through dying, but by attainment. God helps those who help themselves, and those people who will not strive after better things cut themselves off from all the glorious and wonderful possibilities of attainment.
Before, however, thinking about such lofty things as entering the Path of Attainment, and becoming changed into, and modelled after the Divine Image, the average person may wish to know how to overcome bad habits and weaknesses of character which are keeping him down in life, and, possibly, undermining his health. Most people are conscious of some wrong habits that ought to be overcome, and weaknesses of character which should be eradicated. Possibly they have fought against their habits or weaknesses for years, prayed until they are tired of praying, made innumerable attempts at turning over a new leaf, yet all in vain, for they are as firmly in the toils as ever. Many people give up the struggle and endeavour to lead a sort of Jekyll and Hyde existence, being outwardly a Christian or righteous person, but inwardly something quite different. Yet they find no satisfaction in this dual life, for they know that they are drifting towards an abyss.
Yet there is a way of escape that is open to all. The Infinite One has provided man with powers that are apparently unlimited: powers which can be used either to build up the life and character or to destroy them. These powers are those of the sub-conscious mind. This mind is a reservoir of unlimited, tireless forces, and becomes, if we use it aright, our best friend, or, if we mis-use it, our worst enemy.
Every time a bad action is indulged in, wonderful changes take place in the nervous system, and energy becomes stored up in certain cells, so as to make it easier to do the wrong act on a future occasion. It is equally true that every time a good action is done, similar changes, but in a reverse direction, take place, that make the doing of the same action easier in the future. This explains the tremendous power of habit. Our body, brain and nervous system become changed, either for the worse or the better, according to the type of action indulged in.
We do not yet fully realize what a wonderful adventure life is. We are entrusted with tremendous powers, and by their use or mis-use we can either destroy ourselves or build up our character in every possible direction. What a responsibility, yet what a glorious opportunity!
In order, however, to find a way of escape from evil habit and weaknesses of character, we must go deeper than actual deeds, for actions are effects of hidden causes. The cause of all action is thought. A thought, someone has said, is an action in the process of being born. It is true that we possess primitive desires and impulses, but these can be transmuted into noble actions and high achievement simply by directing the thoughts and attention to higher and better things. For instance, the powers of sex become transmuted into brain power if the thoughts and attention are completely transferred from sex to intellectual pursuits. If, however, the thoughts are allowed to dwell upon sex or passion, then the kingdom becomes divided against itself, and man begins to drift towards the abyss. The strain of modern life is filling our asylums, yet there are those who can work fifteen or even eighteen hours a day and thrive on it, although engaged in severely-trying brain work. These have learnt to transmute their lower powers into higher. This is not done by means of esoteric or occult practices, but by obeying the Divine Injunction to set our affections on things above. In other words, to keep our thoughts and attention fixed upon higher and better aims, ambitions and pursuits.
It is impossible to overcome bad habits by fighting them, for the more we fight them the stronger they become. The injunction to “resist not evil” is very applicable to habit. The way of escape is not by fighting evil or wrong habit, no matter what its character may be, but by concentrating upon building a good habit that shall cut the ground from under the feet of the bad one, or by turning the attention to higher and better things.
Whatever we fix our attention upon, or whatever it is that we idealize, our sub-conscious mind endeavours to actualize and make real in our life. By fighting a habit we direct sub-conscious attention to it, and this is fatal. If, however, we turn our whole attention to something entirely different and which is higher and better, all the powers of the sub-conscious are directed towards the production, in the life and body, of the new object of attention.
We see, therefore, that we do not have to overcome habit. If we did our task would be hopeless, for the human will is helpless before the power of the sub-conscious mind. The sub-conscious powers can be led by the imagination, but they cannot be coerced by the will. The will must be used not to fight the habit, but in raising and directing the attention to something higher and better. By this means a new habit is formed. The attention of the sub-conscious mind is taken away from the bad habit, and all its powers directed towards the creation of a new and better one. The sub-conscious does not care what the habit is. It is indifferent as to whether it is good or bad. It is just as willing to produce a good habit as a bad one. We, each of us, therefore, hold our fate in our own hands. We can, by controlling our thoughts and imagination and by directing our attention to better things, focus all the powers of the sub-conscious on the building up of good habits, or, on the other hand, we can, by allowing our thoughts and mental pictures to dwell upon undesirable things and our attention to be directed to low or weak ideals, fall into undesirable habits. The power that produces the habits is the same in each case; it is the way in which this power is directed that is the vital and essential thing.
It is very necessary to point out that right thinking and correct use of the imagination must be accompanied by corresponding right action. Many people make use of auto-suggestion and expect it to destroy their bad habits and build up better ones, but it never will, or can do so, unaided. Auto-suggestion is useless if it is not followed by constructive action. Young people should expend their energies in physical culture and games. Older people should interest themselves in hobbies and intellectual pursuits. It is only advanced students who can control their thoughts so that they can govern their life forces by mental means. Those less advanced, when attacked by evil or weak thoughts, must get up and _do_ something quite different, and thus get their minds off the forbidden subject and interested in the new object of attention. It is a case of directing the desires and life forces into different channels, by controlling the thoughts and attention. Here is seen the value of true religion, for it brings fresh ideals into the life and directs the attention to higher and better things. The writer realizes that a change must take place in the heart of the individual before he can desire these better things. When, however, this change has taken place, the battle has only just begun, for each one has to work out his own salvation.
At first, then, most people will find it necessary to do something in order to attract their attention and guide their thoughts to something quite different from the forbidden subject. Later on, however, when they become more advanced in the science of right thinking, they will be able to direct their thoughts into any desired direction. This necessitates constant vigilance. Each thought has to be carefully scrutinized before being allowed to pass the threshold of the mind. By reversing every negative or unworthy or ignoble thought into its opposite, a change is wrought in the brain and nervous system. The cells formerly used for wrong thinking and for the production of wrong action go out of use as new cells are brought into use for the production of right action.
This stage leads to one higher still, when it becomes a settled habit to reverse bad thoughts into good ones and perform right actions instead of bad or weak ones. The power of the sub-conscious mind, which at one time seemed so evil, produces right action more or less automatically. When once the habit of cleaning the teeth is established there is experienced an uncomfortable feeling until they have been attended to. When once a dirty person has learnt to wash himself thoroughly and keep himself decent, he will feel uncomfortable if he gets dirty. The same rule applies in the more important things and habits of life. If those who are in the bondage of habit will only direct their thoughts and attention to the building up of good habits, their old weaknesses will die a natural death.
It must not be thought that the victory over life-long habits is easy. It may seem so at first, but sooner or later temptation will come with added force, which may result in a sad fall. If this should happen it is most important that too much attention should not be paid to the incident. Instead, the beginner should pick himself up, and, making a mental note of the immediate cause of his downfall, thus benefiting by the experience, press on again towards freedom. It is most helpful to realize that not only is the sub-conscious mind willing to be guided aright, if we will only persevere long enough (until persevering itself becomes a habit), but that we also have behind us all the Spiritual powers of God. The Infinite One sees to it that the odds are not overwhelmingly against us. Our difficulties are not insuperable, although they may appear to be so. We can always win through if we faint not. Heaven looks on with sympathetic interest and rejoices with the struggler when he succeeds, and mourns with him when he fails. The struggle is a stiff one, for it is only by this that the seeker after God can become strong in character, but the victory can always be won. When the situation appears hopeless, let the struggling one remember that there is a way of escape somewhere, and that God, who is his freedom and deliverer, will reveal it to him if he faints not. If all who seek deliverance will realize that the Power of the Infinite is on their side, and that they are bound to become victors if they will only keep on, they must succeed. And what a joy is theirs! There is no happiness quite like that which comes to one who has fought the good fight and overcome habit and weaknesses of character.
May every reader experience this supreme joy of overcoming.
CHAPTER XI.
HAPPINESS AND JOY.
Deep down in every heart is an unquenchable desire for happiness. The advanced soul desires happiness just as much as the pleasure-seeking worldling, the difference between them is simply that the former, through knowledge and experience, does not search for happiness, knowing that it can never be found by direct seeking, but finds it through service and love to others and in victory over self; while the latter seeks happiness, like a will-o’-the-wisp, in every form of pleasure, and finds it not.
Man is never satisfied with his life: he is for ever seeking something that is better. Until he learns wisdom, he looks for it in pleasure, in sense gratification of various kinds, in wealth, luxury and possession. The less evolved a man is the more convinced he is that happiness can be gained in these ways, and the lower are his desires. For instance, those who form what is called the underworld of our cities, seek happiness in vice and debauchery. Those who are more evolved seek pleasure in more refined things, hoping to find happiness in intellectual pursuits, friendships, and in pure human loves. These more evolved types get much more pleasure through the senses than do those who are more elemental, but they are capable also of greater and more acute suffering. They can derive great pleasure from a picture gallery, whereas a savage would see nothing interesting at all: they can also suffer from things which a savage would not be capable of feeling. Yet, in spite of this developed refinement and ability to derive pleasure from art, science, literature, etc., happiness is still as far off as ever. All attempts at finding happiness lead finally to “emptiness.” There is no satisfaction, either in wealth and all that it can command, getting on in life, or in fame and power. They allure at first and promise happiness, but they fail us, and finally are seen to be but vanity and vexation of spirit.
This desire for happiness is good, for it leads us through innumerable experiences so that the soul can realize, by practical experience, the emptiness of all self-seeking, and thus learn wisdom. After running the whole gamut of experience the soul learns at last that happiness is not something that can be found by seeking it, but is an inward mental state.
Although work, well done, brings a quiet sense of satisfaction, and success in one’s career may also be a source of gratification for a short time, yet even these cannot satisfy the deep longing of the soul.
Happiness, however, is to be found in service. Not if we seek happiness in service, and serve in order to be happy, but if we serve others for the sake of serving we find the only happiness that will endure and satisfy.
One has only to observe the lives of those who are always selfishly seeking and grabbing, who are hard in their dealings, and always “looking after number one,” in order to see how impossible it is for self-seekers to be happy. It does not matter whether they acquire riches or remain poor–they are equally unhappy. In contrast to this, you have only to go out of your way to do a kind and perfectly disinterested action and experience the glow of sheer happiness that it brings, in order to realize that you are dealing with a law of life that is as sure and unalterable as the law of gravitation.
There must be a purpose in life, and this must have for its object the betterment of the lives of others, either few or many. The law of service must be obeyed, otherwise there can be no happiness. This may fill some readers with dismay, for they may be employed in an occupation that apparently does no good to anybody. They may feel that if they were engaged in some noble enterprise for the uplift of humanity, then they could truly serve, but in their present occupation this is impossible. To think thus is very natural, yet the truth is we can all obey the law of service, and can begin now, in our present occupation, no matter what it may be. We have only to do our daily work, not as a task which must be “got through,” in order to bring us a living, or because it is expected of us that we should work, but as an offering of love to life and the world, in order to come into harmony with the great law of service. Our ideas of values with regard to occupations are altogether erroneous, from the “inner wisdom” point of view. The scrubbing of a doorstep, if faithfully done in a true spirit of service, is of as much value and real importance as the writing of a deathless poem, or dying for one’s country. We can never truthfully say that one act of service is of greater value, or is more important than another. All that the higher law looks at is the _motive_. Therefore, if your motive is right, you can be engaged in the humblest and, apparently, most useless occupation, and yet be happy because you satisfy the law of service.
Another road to happiness is the conquest of the lower nature, the overcoming of weaknesses, the climbing to higher and better things. There is intense happiness in realizing daily that old habits are being overthrown, weak points in the character built up, and an ever-increasing state of liberty and freedom entered into. Thank God, we do not have to remain as we once were, but can progress upwards, indefinitely, for there is no limit to our upward climb.
But there is a state that is far higher than happiness, and this is JOY. Happiness comes through service and overcoming, but joy comes only to one who realizes his oneness with his Divine Source. The _reality_ is ineffable joy. Behind this world of shadows is the real, spiritual world of splendour and delight. When the soul, after its immense journey through matter, time and space, at last finds its way back to its Divine Source, it becomes aware of this intense joy, too great to be described in words. It not only realizes that the _reality_ is joy, and the universe filled, not with groans or sighing, but with the sweet, quiet laughter of freed souls! it also is filled itself with this ineffable joy.
What has all this got to do with practical, everyday life, it may be asked? Everything, for the one who possesses this quiet joy can never be defeated in life’s battles. He has something within him that can never be quenched and which will lead him from victory to victory.
CHAPTER XII.
THE USE AND MIS-USE OF MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL POWERS.
The average individual knows nothing of mental forces, and, although he may suffer from the effects of unconscious wrong thinking, yet he is in no danger of making deliberate mis-use of the inner powers. One, however, who has learnt how to use these interior forces must be very careful to use them aright or he will find that the invisible powers of mind and spirit are far more powerful and destructive than dynamite. It is not meant by this that he can blow himself up thereby, but it does mean that he can injure himself, not only in this life, but for ages to come, and, in addition, seriously retard his spiritual evolution.
All use of the mind to coerce other people or to influence them by means of suggestion, not for their benefit, but for your advantage, is highly destructive, not to them actually, _but to you_. On the face of it, it looks an easy road to success and prosperity, but, actually, it leads to failure and poverty. The mis-use of the mental powers in this way is really a form of black magic, and the fate of all black magicians is very terrible. Even the use of the mind to coerce other people _for their good_ is not desirable. It never does any real good, although it may seem beneficial for a time, and its use, therefore, is to be deprecated. Healing, so-called, by hetero-suggestion, is not permanent, for as soon as the healer ceases to “pump” suggestion into the patient the latter begins to relapse into his former state. Far better results accrue if the patient is taught to use auto or self-suggestion for himself. It is seen, then, that the use of the mind to influence others is distinctly harmful if it is used selfishly, and of no real use if used unselfishly. Hypnotism is harmful, no matter which way it is used, and is also detrimental to the patient. Because of this some of our more thoughtful neurologists have given up its use.
We have no right to endeavour to influence other people by the use of our inner forces, even if our object is their good. Each soul has the right to live its life in its own way, and choose for itself either good or evil. That is the object of life, so that each evolving soul should learn wisdom through the lessons learnt as a result of its own mistakes. Far worse is it if others are coerced, not in order to help them, but to defraud them or to make them buy goods they do not require, or sign agreements they would not otherwise put their name to.
One who mis-uses his mental and spiritual powers literally smashes his life up. He works against the laws of life and the universe, and encompasses his own ruin.
There is, however, a far more subtle way of mis-using the mental and spiritual forces than by coercion, mind domination and hetero-suggestion. This method is equally destructive, and if persisted in builds up a painful future. With this method other people are not influenced or dominated, but the finer forces of Nature are coerced by the human will. Mental demands are made on the invisible substance from which, we are told, all things are made, and wealth is compelled to appear. In addition to this, sickness, so it is claimed, is banished, and the invisible forces of life are compelled to operate in such a way as to make life’s pathway a bed of roses, without thorns, so that life becomes shorn of all its discipline and experience.
Its devotees “enter the Silence,” and there visualize exactly what they think they want, and compel it to appear, in material form, by the strength of their desire or through the exercise of their will.
Some followers of this cult may be able to make an apparent success of it, but I have never yet met any. If they do, however, they will live to regret it, for they are merely practitioners of black magic. Their efforts are of the same nature as sorcery. All such methods build up a heavy debt of future suffering, and seriously hinder the soul in its evolutionary journey.
Entering the Silence is a good thing: it is really entering the inner silence of the soul, the inner sanctuary where the Divine Spirit abides in fulness. To mis-use this inward power for selfish and material ends, and for forcing our human will upon life, so as to make it conform to what _we_ think it ought to be is a crime of the first magnitude, which can result only in ultimate failure and disaster.
CHAPTER XIII.
OVERCOMING LIMITATIONS AND AWAKENING INWARD POWERS.
Limitations can be overcome through a realization of Truth. When we say this it is taken for granted that every effort will be made on the physical plane. It is necessary to bathe, exercise and breathe fresh air in order to be well: it is equally necessary to work hard, and to give the best of which we are capable, in service, in exchange for that which we receive in the way of supply, if we are to be successful. If you keep a gardener, you must pay him. The money that you pay him is part of what you have earned by the sweat of your brain. Therefore you exchange the work of your brain for the labour of his hands, and you are mutually helped and helpful to one another, both giving and receiving, and each one serving life according to his ability. Taking all this for granted, we will pass on to the metaphysical side of our subject. This, by the way, is vastly the more important, but the outer, practical work is indispensable nevertheless.
In order to overcome limitations it is necessary to know the Truth and to live in the consciousness of It. For instance, if ill-health is our limitation, then, in order to become free it is necessary that we live in the consciousness of the Wholeness of God and His Divine Idea. If our limitation be restricted means, it is necessary that we live in the consciousness of the inexhaustible and unlimited nature of the Substance from which the Creator brings everything into manifestation. If our limitation is disharmony and unhappiness, then we must become attuned to the Divine harmony in such a way and to such an extent as to cause it to be reflected into the outward life. No matter what our limitation may be, we can find liberation and deliverance by looking to our Divine Source, realizing that in the Perfect Reality all our wants are supplied, and then living in the consciousness of this truth.
Ill-health is, apart from physical causes, an outward sign of an inward warfare or disharmony, caused by wrong thoughts, emotions, beliefs and attitude of mind and soul towards life and God. In other words, the life is lived in an “error” consciousness of disease and sickness. First, the inward life has to be adjusted in such a way as to harmonize with the laws of our own being and the Divine purpose of life. There must be an inward surrender to the love principle, after which the thoughts must be brought under control so that health-destroying emotions may no longer impair the health. Further, the whole consciousness must, as often as possible, be raised to a realization of the perfect Wholeness which is the reality. If this course is persevered with, a consciousness of health and wholeness becomes a permanent mental state, with the result that health becomes manifested in the life. The outward life is always a reflection or external manifestation of what we are within, or our state of consciousness. Therefore everything depends upon which kind of consciousness it is in which we live.
One who lives in the mental atmosphere of Divine Wholeness, health and harmony, unconsciously directs all the inner forces of nature into health channels. On the other hand, one who lives in a mental atmosphere of ill-health, as sick and unhealthy people very often do, unconsciously directs all his sub-conscious activities in such a way as to produce sickness and disease.
Again, with regard to lack of means, this state also can be overcome, spiritually, only by living in a higher consciousness of abundance and sufficiency. This affects, unconsciously, every action in such a way as to bring about a better state of affairs. On the other hand, one who lives in a mental atmosphere of limitation and lack, unconsciously directs all his actions towards the production, in his life, of penury and restricted means.
The same rule applies, no matter what the limitations of one’s life may be. Freedom can be gained only by realizing the truth about life and being. When we realize the truth, live in the consciousness of it, and become obedient to the laws of life and being, the life becomes increasingly free. This does not mean that if we are plain of feature, and of a stumpy figure, that we shall become beautiful and graceful; but it does mean that these so-called drawbacks will no longer fetter us, and that others will see in us something far better than mere regularity of feature and beauty of form. When the soul is _alive_ and the life filled with love, the homeliest face becomes attractive. Neither does it mean that we shall not suffer bereavements and sorrows, difficulties and adversities, but it does mean that we shall cease intensifying these things and creating further troubles by taking life’s discipline in the wrong spirit. It also means that we shall be able to overcome all life’s difficulties and trials, become a conqueror in the strife, and, in so doing, build up character. Thus the storms of life, instead of destroying us, can succeed only in _making us stronger_. Thus our fate depends not on the storms of life, but upon how we meet them. If we give in to them, or, thinking that they are evil and not a necessary discipline, rebel against them and resist them, then we become shipwrecked on a desolate shore. If, however, we are armed with the knowledge of truth we can set our sails in such a way as to compel the storms of life actually to help us towards the desired haven.
The first step in the direction of knowledge of the truth is right thinking. Every negative thought must be transmuted into its positive opposite, [12] for instance, hate and dislike into love and goodwill, fear into confident trust, poverty into abundance, evil into absolute good, and so on. This will be found to be not easy, but it is possible, and the power to control one’s thoughts increases if one perseveres continually, with the passing of the years. A beginner cannot, naturally, expect to be able to exercise the same control as one who has been perseveringly seeking self-mastery for years, but he can make substantial progress and learn from day to day.
[12] See also “The Power of Thought” and “The Way of Escape,” by the same author and publisher.
The result of thinking in this way is surprising. The reversal of thought may appear at first to be simplicity itself, and to lead nowhere in particular, but after a time the vastness of the subject becomes almost appalling. The cultivation and practice of right thinking gradually lead to a knowledge of the Truth. Not an intellectual knowledge of truth, but a realization, by the soul, of _the_ Truth. This is the knowing of the Truth which sets men free. We can then look through all the ages and know that all is well. The heavy burden which has oppressed us so long, rolls from our shoulders, and we become free.
AROUSING INWARD POWERS.
Man is heir to wonderful and illimitable powers, but until he becomes aware of them and consciously identifies himself with them, they lie dormant and unexpressed, and might just as well not exist at all as far as their use to man, in his unawakened state, is concerned. When, however, man becomes awakened to the great truth that he is a spiritual being: when he learns that the little petty self and finite personality are not his real self at all, but merely a mask to the real man: when he realizes that the Spiritual Ego, a true Divine Spark of, or branch or twig of the Eternal Logos, [13] is _his real Self_: when he understands that his body is not himself, that his mind is not himself, that even his soul is not himself, being but vehicles through which he seeks expression, but that he is spirit, deathless, diseaseless, eternal, forming an integral part of the One Spirit and being identical with It, he enters a new life of almost boundless power.
[13] “I am the Vine, ye are the branches.”–Jesus.
It is unwise to engage in any mystical practices in an attempt to “force” development and unfoldment. Mystic trances are highly dangerous and are also unnecessary. Psychic experiences and the awakening of psychic centres are also dangerous and lead away from our goal. Breathing exercises, whose object is to awaken inward powers, are _highly dangerous_ and are to be condemned in consequence. The cultivation of negative passivity such as inhibiting all thought and making oneself quite passive and open to any influence, is also highly dangerous and should be strictly avoided.
In place of all these unwise practices a short time should be set aside each night and also morning, if possible, for getting into touch with Reality. You should then endeavour to realize that the body, mind and soul are but vehicles of expression, mere servants of the true Self or Ego. This will bring about in time, a consciousness of identity with the One Eternal Spirit. What Jesus called “our Father in Heaven.”
One might proceed after this fashion:–
“My body is not myself, but is merely something that enables me to live this material life and gain experience.
“My mind is not myself, but merely an instrument which I use and which obeys my will.
“My soul is not myself, but merely a garment of my spirit.
“My will is not myself, but is something of which I, the true Self, make use.”
And so on. By this means you gradually approach the great truth which cannot be put into words and which can only become yours through realization or inward spiritual understanding.
In addition one can use a positive statement of Truth, reverently, but with full confidence, such as: “I am a branch in the True Vine.”
In course of time you will become possessed of a feeling of tremendous and unlimited power and security. This is a great responsibility for this power must be used only in service and not for selfish purposes. If it is used for the acquisition of wealth and the gaining of temporal power, great disaster will be the inevitable result. Yet, if used aright, it is bound to have a great, though unconscious, influence for good on the life, and for this you are not responsible. Constantly endeavour to serve and bless others, then, because you do not seek them, crowds of blessings will come into your life unbidden, great happiness being one of the chief. Having found the kingdom of heaven it will be your experience that all needed good will be added unto you.
This power may also be used to strengthen character, to overcome in the conflicts of the soul, and to build up the spiritual body which will be our vehicle of expression in higher realms.
THE END.
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Is a Universal Faith Possible?
Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try
No hell below us, above us, only skies
Imagine all the people living for today,
Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do
-John Lennon, “Imagine”
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha) was not a Buddhist, Jesus of Nazareth not a Christian, Muhammad not a Muslim. Yet all three founded world religions while thinking of themselves primarily as reformers. Hinduism was influenced by Buddhism, and Buddhism exported Hinduism worldwide. Christianity includes Judaism, and Jewish people have been irreversibly impacted by Christianity. Islam was strongly influenced by Judaism and Christianity, which were, in turn, permanently altered by Islam.
No faith can be fully appreciated until it interacts with other faiths and starts to blend with them. Very often, people grow up with a specific religion and never even question it until they go off to college. Many people then lose their faith, only to revive it in another form after a vital encounter with another tradition.
Is there one faith that might act as a superset of all other faiths, including humanism? The Hindus referral to Santana Dharma, and modern mystics speak of the Perennial Philosophy. Is there an inner core common to all faiths that might inspire universal consciousness?
All Faith Traditions Are Converging Through Globalization
Globalization has accelerated since the 1980’s, having begun by European and American imperialism and colonialism. After the decline of the Cold War, China, Russia and India all entered the free market. Immigration increased throughout the world.
All faiths are in the process of coming together in a universal consciousness. In many U.S. cities, you will find cathedrals, synagogues, mosques, temples, ashrams and shrines.
Many Americans now actively explore Eastern traditions. Hindus have grown to 1% of the U.S. population. As a consequence, India has become increasingly pro-America and adapted Western conventions.
It used to be a simple choice of Protestant, Catholic or Jew. Now it includes Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Baha’i, Taoist, Humanist, Mystic or “Spiritual, But Not religious.” Today’s college students have a bewildering number of options. If they stay with the faith of their childhood, they will most certainly adopt a broader perspective.
No One Faith Is Complete without All the Rest
Every faith tradition is sufficient for transformation, variously called awakening, realization or being born again. For example, in the Sufi tradition of Islam, you can go all the way through to the very highest realizations of Hinduism and Buddhism. However, no one tradition, including Christianity and Islam, is truly complete, as other traditions reveal subtle nuances of the Supreme Identity and Transcendent Mystery we call “God.”
For example, I was raised a devout Christian and endeavored to evangelize my peers. After going through college, I deepened my respect for other traditions and began to study them. After working with South Asians for several years, I began to feel that Hinduism was superior to every other tradition. Yet ironically, it led my back to a whole new appreciation of Christ.
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After immersing myself for decades in Eastern traditions, I am now convinced that the Western traditions need the Eastern, and vice versa. Ironically, I was first led to the East while studying at Cal Berkeley. I was most influenced there by Jewish students and faculty. Baba Ram Dass was an early example, who, while remaining ethnically a Jew, is truly a Hindu.
Mysticism Is the Origin and Destiny of Every Faith
All great traditions show evidence of being initiated by mystics: Moses with the burning bush, Buddha with enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, Christ baptized in the River Jordan, Mohammad hearing the voice of Gabriel and Guru Nanak in the river with the realization there is neither Hindu nor Muslim.
Mysticism is the direct experience of God beyond rational thought. Many people who ingest the most powerful entheogens, such as 5MeO DMT, find that the only word that comes close to what they encounter is “God.” They encounter the transcendent in a deeply personal way that obliterates all doubt.
A new generation places a premium on spirituality over religion. Spirituality focuses on the practice of religious tenants with an eye to transformation. It is what the Eastern Orthodox churches has referred to as divinization, literally becoming divine. Today, nothing else will do.
A Truly Universal Faith Is Urgently Needed
Faith is simultaneously the most unifying and divisive force ever known. Economics, politics and society can only go so far. Faith touches the unmanifest, that which lies just beyond the senses. It is far more than a belief system. It is an integral way of being that touches every aspect of our lives. It is only within that context that we can realize that we truly are all brothers and sisters.
While every tradition is expanding to touch and include others, each tradition has a long way to go. We can see this in Pope Francis I’s thrust on deep ecumenism outside the Christian faith. It is no longer simply a dialogue with Protestant and Orthodox Christians, but of Jewish people, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists… even humanists.
With the environmental crisis pressing upon us from all directions, along with religious terrorism the new norm and the global economy increasingly fragile, we need a higher court of appeal. Fortunately, mysticism is no longer limited to a few hundred or thousand people, but involves hundreds of thousands, even millions of people.
A Universal Faith Contains Every Other Faith
Imagine that every single religion and philosophy offers a unique piece of the puzzle. What is the full face of God? Only until we contrast the various traditions does the nature of God come into sharp focus. The East stresses wisdom teaching and insight, while the West everyday experience interpreted through revelation.
Judaism contributes a sense of destiny, Hinduism a sense of the divine presence everywhere, Buddhism a deep appreciation of the central role of transformation, Christianity a recognition of the ultimate power of divine love and Islam absolute unity.
Every great tradition is already growing into all the others. What will such a superstructure look like? With the United Religious Initiative and the World Parliament of Religion, people are insisting upon a greater and greater God. No more a vengeful deity on a golden throne throwing down thunderbolts.
A Universal Faith Gives Direct Access to Divine Love
Most importantly, a universal faith will allow anyone at any time to tap into infinite, absolute love that overcomes all obstacles. It takes a transformed consciousness to live the Sermon on the Mount, to actually love your enemy. Only with full maturation do Christians, and even Buddhists, approach that level.
For most of us, it is a matter of presencing God, of simply invoking His or Her Presence. Over time, this is surprisingly effective. Neale Donald Walsch taught us all to have our own “conversation with God.” He maintains that God is always speaking to us in many different ways, through synchronicity, dreams, other people, words and ideas. We simply need to start listening.
Divine Love will triumph in the end, as there really is no other alternative. If God is Love, then Love is God. We all know what love is. We are just foggy on how to access it and freely share it. When the pain of clinging to unworkable lifeways becomes unbearable, we will all let go and let God. As the Qur’an puts it, God is closer to us than our jugular vein. We simply need shift our gaze from outward to inward. We will then find our only true and ultimate Self IS God.
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