Sample Chapter One : Alternate Realities

T. S. Eliot

Gaze into the looking glass to find reflection, and stare with dark intent. Lest you forget that pale moment of your forgotten life before the world was borne. You traverse this plane with longings, secrets so silent you fear their utterance. Though the darkness shines brightly, your candle ever burns. At times each end alight with splendid colour, dancing before the sun.
You lose your Self to the shadows of this realm. Within the illusion lay the road to truth. What sets before your conscious mind be called the waking realm. It devises all that you embrace while alight from slumber. It betrays no confidence save the one you admire. Beware this shadow, for it shines like ebony draped in sun-god robes.
Captured, a lost prisoner between wars unending, within the resting realm. A land for traverse and folly, a moment of breath between engagements. This place of the subconscious mind reflects shadows behind every tree, dancing between the flame. Carry forth engaged, for to lose your thoughts here makes forsaken soldiers of us all.
At least, but surely nonetheless, remains the whisper realm. So filled with burning light that shadows walk as subtle hints of gray. To reflect the essence of this plane becomes the promise of all. This be the heart of magick, what we think becomes, and what becomes, we perceive. Falter not, for we become the prisoner of the realities we acknowledge.

Travel onward with gentle strides, but wary. To be alive remains a prisoner of death. In the absence of death Life burns eternal. Set the match, fan the flame, and walk the path. Without which this Life would not be worth the asking, much less the reward.

What deeper light will shine, save the luminance of your soul? Cast not your eyes upon that distant horizon seeking shelter from the storm. Rocks hide beneath those waves. For all the oceanic depths of this present reality, the bottomless soul hides the greatest treasure. When has one been lost to the sea of immortal understanding? None. Yet, you would strive to be found broken against the barren shoreline of this realm, as if being shipwrecked by illusion is a fate better than death.
You are fashioned to leave no lasting impression. You strive to make a mark on a society that has no awareness. You are immortal, and such trivia evades you. As a bloodhound you linger with a scent that has become mingled. You run about in loping circles, to what, the evidence of your own achievement? Surely you can see that these words, this present concept of reality, remains a dream and deep within lay the soul of a dreamer.
What appears to be solid and real withers into fade. The eternality of being removes this world's stale taste from your mouth. How can you recompense to sustain, for even one endless moment, the illusion that drives the mortals of this realm? It behouves your immortal being to discover the truth, your forever truth. None can dissuade the heart of valour, and you re-alighted with this realm to fulfill a higher purpose. It remains your calling, and the answer that you give becomes destiny.
Has not your will perceived a greater virtue than what presents itself? By your will you aid creation, by perception you design. Rather that you should find a prototype to the Divine within the very structure of your soul, than struggle with unfashionable stone. Your flesh, that flawed and scattered spark, genetically displays the stuff of the Universe, star-stuff. Reach beyond single-minded perspective into the heart of the everlasting and realize your greater worth. You are more than this. Now is the time to live your rainbow.
As you breathe this feted air, you realize innumerable possibility. Yet, the denizens of this realm retain only the concept of greatness, and not the whole. Beyond personality lay wonder. These poor souls have no revelation of what vast depth wonder decries. Alas, you understand. You know. Wonder and all its enchantment lay at the heart of your being. Time has come to release it, and live as God intended. You are royalty! Cast aside these servants' rags, don your magestic robes, and rule from a heart of understanding.

You burn from an eternal spark. A candle flame alight within a world of darkness. Then, you wake. Those around you slumber, like aging giants, while you live. To arouse, to alarm, to speak, your soul weeps for utterance. To shake the cobwebs of uncertainty from the heads of human reason. You fly, while the world simply dreams. What have you become?
What the rest fail to see, much less appreciate, flies your standard. A flag held high against the battle of wits set about you. You survive the only victor with a calling. You are alive, now what? You, too, have slumbered. Walking through each day as if caught within a dream. Struggling to make sense of a world gone mad, fearing madness would carry you away. Yet, a flame burns within your heart. A fire so bright it would snuff out the sun.
You have gained consciousness. Within this awareness, you realize yourself, and the world in which you abide. Abide is all you do, for this realm is not your home. No placards boast your achievement. All you own remains silent emptiness, an itch unreachable.

An endless loneliness that beckons for distant stars, never comprehending it be the stars themselves that call your name. They are your brothers and sisters. They are family. We are all made of star-stuff, and from mortal tether, we escape, to return to that cosmic essence which borne us. Within this awareness, you alight with utter fancies. Flights so distant that you fear you may never return. Earth, your sweet, dark mother whose womb you continue to suckle, albeit through fettered teat. Her sweet milk warms your soul. You embrace her comfort.
Connection indwells you, a communion with all that is. You reach for an answer, often hearing echoes in reply. Fear Not! These are not your voice returning, but the distant song of days forgotten. You are immortal, and require an everlasting truth to sustain you. Trouble Not! Your destiny awaits. Seek within your tattered brow and discover the answer. It is Done! For the key to everlasting peace becomes you.
With infinite mercy, you formed of the Divine. The Creator breathed Life into your being. Sophia, the wisdom of the Spirit of God, animates your spirit. In such grand design, you folly, only to realize the absurdity of the game. Once you cast upon this visage, you discover that you have a choice. Life is no longer a losing trial, but a victory assured. Naturally, as long as you play it by your own rules, you always win. So, let fall your dispersions. All your hopes and dreams come true when you believe.
Tis your decision what, and whom to believe. It matters not. The only matter must be that you believe. In faith, remarkable power abides. Tarry just a moment longer and your answers will find questions, your relief will find disaster to thwart, and your eternity will find a soul.

The waking reality that you daily perceive remains an elaborate illusion. You hold within the strength to dissolve strong barriers. The ground beneath your feet "feels" solid enough, nonetheless it remains as clay in the hands of the Potter. Who, pray tell, can this invisible maker of dreams be? Nothing more than your conditioned desire for acceptable reality, molded into articulate being. Without your influence, your love, your fear, God cannot exist. You give life to God, as they give Life to you.
Touch anything within this realm and know it remains solid. Stand apart, ever so slightly, approach it askance, and the illusion unfolds. Walls become mere vapours. Earth remains an enigmatic concept that binds your very soul. Beyond these illusions delve wonders. But, for the sake of heaven, none would know death. Death, that final mask of sleep, once tasted awakens the soul. What you are led to believe as solid and whole, fades like the breath.
What is real? That which you enfold within your soul remains "real". None can forsake the virtue you suppress. Neither can they malign it. To seek virtue remains dissidence. How can one so filled with light remain encased in darkness? Because, this world is an illusion. Few riddle makers survive the generations to seek beyond the shadows. Fewer light-bringers, still.
What abides are the enlightened, the enigmatic vessels of deeper truth. What you find beneath the surface may, at first, scare you. Yet, the denial of what lay beneath would surely haunt your soul. You are a pathfinder, a dreamer of dreams. To deny your destiny lay paramount to never taking breath. You are tomorrow, and tomorrow is Now.
The beginning step is to realize that this realm of light and shadows exists as nothing more than energized matter. If matter, then it be vibrational energy. If energy, then a moldable form from which you can design. You are the maker. You hold the keys to the kingdom within your grasp. Nay, it lay within the beating of your own human heart.
Since you now know, tis your choice what to do with this knowing. Do you remain a shadow among cascading light and darkness, or will you venture into the outer reaches, the far places where logic and reason fall victim to the true nature of being? You are creator and creation. You are the dreamer and dream. Make a dream to live by, and follow your rainbow.
Your only limitation remains bound to perceptions. Without the colouring of this false realm, your perceptions would fly higher than the strongest eagle. The only creator of your true destiny lives within. Find that source, and nothing can limit your dreams.
However, you are subject to the perceptions of reality that you acknowledge. Were it not so, then no such reality would command your attention. You feel, because emotion remains a human virtue. What of the value before you were human? Did you not love? Did you not feel? Alas, emotion resides not compelled by human circumstance, but embraced by it. God is said to show anger, and yet the purest definition of such deity is Love. How can such discordant emotion reside with a single entity? The everlasting hems itself to the immortal, a decoration and purpose. Man remains the seamstress of the Universal soul. You gather your garments within Space and Time, only to wear them upon the final day. Yet, much more exists. There be much, much more!
You rule your vision of what remains with your perception. You deduce a man a crook, and by virtue of the thought, he creates himself to be. You deduce a woman a cheat, and given time, a cheat she becomes. You create the world around you with the truth you define. Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. You are born with the knowledge to cast a net. What you gather lay in the casting.

As you define reality by your perceptions, so may others define you. We mold and are molded by the creator beings with whom we share our illusions. Were it not so, you would not have discovered this deeper yearning. You thirst for a knowledge that you already posses. Yet, it eludes you with every casting of your net. Why? For, you have cast your pearls before swine.
Realign your perceptions with that greater divinity which inhabits your soul, and with it know truth. Upon the rocks of broken dreams, destiny builds. Trust your heart. Aid destiny by maintaining residence with your deepest spiritual truth. Surely, we wrestle not with flesh and blood but with personalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places. You soldier for a higher calling. Trust yourself, and know that you will find abundant Life. In this peace everlasting, you find endless possibility.
Within waking reality, concepts mingle with possibility. They flirt within set boundaries and fear induced limitations. The achievements of this mortal realm may shine, only to pale compared against the brilliance of eternal truth. The black and white perception colours the images of everlasting virtue with is lackluster monochrome desire. Alas, hope remains.
Out of the ashes of failed dreams, arise the embers for a brighter tomorrow. You remain an eternal being trapped within corporeal form, conjured from immortal existence. From this rich heritage, you possess the ability to transform the Universe. Dreams fail because of the illusion and myth prevailing within this realm. You cannot play by the rules of this world and expect to truly survive. Once you realize that all remains illusion, that it does not exist beyond what you perceive it to be. Then, you have the power over the limitations of this present form.

The depth of your personality remains ever present within eternity, retaining all the power and presence thereof. The key is to realize how to unlock your true everlasting potential. To take the meandering possibilities of this age and mold them with immortal form. With every inward breath you ingest the air of the divine Creator, every exhale delivers power and might. The impossibility resides within your own perception. When you do not limit yourself, you can accomplish anything. All things are possible to them that believe. Have faith, and it will carry you to the greatest heights.

The practical aspects of reality rely heavily upon the understanding of the human mind. We dissolve conscious reality for the virtue of the fantastic. To dream is to create. Without societal influences you might not have a reality at all. You remain bound, and gagged, within a realm that no more relies upon your inner truth than you gain from it. Which explains why every fight for virtue and honour becomes a battle of will. For every being has their own will and the deep desire to express it. Whereby you express your will at the sacrifice of another's. In Time, or in Eternity, whichever comes, mankind, and subsequent sentient forms, shall understand that a shared will must survive, else all sense of what is true fades completely.
You produce harmful energies with every backward thought. Think of it, a single positive thought can change the world for the greater good of all, not merely the condolence of the elected few. To enhance every breath of man with a solitary image of reason and selfless action remains the veritable result of all human effort.
This world of sheep searches for worthy Shepards. Lost souls who desire to be found. Why else would every religion on the Earth seek to save the lost? Why else would every path require a conversion experience from the mundane into the spiritually enlightened? Everyone seeks fulfillment. Everyone seeks enlightened truth. The harsh reality remains that few truly find it. You have the duty, as one of the few, to illumine all that you encounter. Your truth may be the only virtue those around you acquire.
You are an Earthbound spirit, bound to mortal flesh. You do not inhabit this realm so much as possess it. Never forget that we live in a physical Universe as spiritual beings, conjured from eternal form. We do not belong here. Yet, we must make the most of it. It will become our eternal home. Venture not to imagine that some enraptured event will call you away from this realm, if so it shant linger endlessly. From the Earth you are formed, unto the Earth you return. You are bound heart and soul to this realm. Only when the physical and spiritual collide may you find Paradise.
Have hope, you are not as prodigal a child as you might imagine. As a human being you retain mortal clues to supernatural existence. Faint moments that beckon a deeper spiritual resolve. Aspects of deity become your highest principle. All but for the mortal coil that so encumbers you. Nonetheless, the value of the everlasting hangs on you like the remnants of a fading sunset, a garment rent. You own it, nevertheless. Some would deign to pack away this vestige of immortality, and bring it out only at the time of sacredness. Others refashion it, forging a usable, although less than divine, garment suitable for current fashions.
Alas, this vestment of eternality remains a shroud, where it should be worn an emblem. Some raise it high as a standard, whilst the wind rends it further. What has become of your divinity? Rather you should make it a kerchief to capture your stray blessings, than a liner for some forgotten design.

Rendering distracts with perception. You react seasonably to the influences ill perceived. Your responses are conditioned by formal education. Educated ignorance replaces the natural state of magick. You become too happy to respond with reliable prose. All of this for the sake of social norms which defy reasonable logic, and dissuade responsible magickal truth. Polite society has standards, and you deign to deify these human conditions above instinctive sensibilities. Were it not for fear of your own divine nature, then every thought would be a true reflection of the Divine. We do better to rend this garment and castigate its measure. Saving our ills for the privacy of the Self, rather than fertilize the lawn of polite society with indiscretion.
Society suppresses the human condition. What occurs in private rarely becomes common understanding, and yet, the mere hint of impropriety reeks more strongly than the stench of the vilest act. Why are we so inebriated by the illusion of social order? For centuries we have been ruled, or sought to balance rule among the strong. Never seeking equal purchase between one and all. While an individual has high ideals, the consensus remains lost in fear. The majority would rather be told what to fear and think than personally perform the task. What have we become?
From this stagnant swamp have you arisen. Away from its stifling fog you flee. You are the bearer of divine understanding. You have communion with a greater dignity, no longer content to stand aside and watch the masses self-destruct. You are Creator-Man, and social inadequacies infuriate you. You have walked a long road to gain this freedom, and nothing will call you back to the muck and mire. Regardless what separates you from the pack, you are separate. You stand apart and deserve to be heard. Your still small voice echoes from the dissident heart of ever rebel fighting injustice.
Would that we could rule our own hearts with such passion. For to yield your inner divinity to another, even in the briefest instant, disarms your own virtue. Pale shadows encumber the smallest truth. Rather to walk stoically in the light than yield to the touch of the merest darkened lane. What has failed to present remains the integration of the light and dark. Not to create a mingled sensibility, but a deeper shade of crimson. For every heart, even the darkest, bleeds red.
Your magick beckons you, from the deepest realm of heaven. The holiest of valour rewards you with small virtue. Power presumes not force, but energized mobility. To do, to act, becomes the strength of true magickal prowess. Not the vain attempts at controlling mortal outcomes. For the tears of heaven fall for the valiant and true. Equally so, the anger of hell's gate flares within such immaculate regard. Rather to be holy and honourable, than desolate and treacherous.
You have found that truth most evident, that reality which escapes this present realm of illusion. For its societal limitations, and educated conditioning mean nothing to you. You have risen above the vain and vernacular. You are Immortality formed into mortal flesh. What separates you from the clinging masses of flesh and blood creatures remains your royal lineage. For some are destined priests and kings, the remainder their fortuitous subjects. You reign, not by virtue of the throne, but for the principle of dignity. Had you not this persuasion, then you would also lie groveling at the feet of deity instead of boldly approaching the throne, taking the reigns and driving the pack.

What waking reality lacks in principle it makes up in polarity. Humanity seeks to harmonize balance into its angry posturing without a single thought to the unity required. We stand aside, left or right, hurling insults and obstacles to human progress. All the while feigning surprise when nothing gets accomplished. How vain has man become? The starkness of this illusion world ingrains itself so deeply that we fail to mark the colours. Where are all the good men dead, in the heart or in the head? The bold vibrancy of essence, the simplicity of meaning, becomes lost in the meandering prose.
Yet, the very nature of the mind has become so formal in its comprehension. That conscious reality understands only the black and white. The mortally possible and mundane registers with familiarity, while the incomprehensible elicits alarm. Have we lost our vision? Has all passion faded into mere particles of flesh? Have we no more magick?
The most profound symphony blends into its harmony the deepest note and highest trill. It compels you to reason by exhorting you to emotion. Music grabs the deepest ache and thrusts it, proudly, defiantly, upon the shores of innuendo for all to see and hear. Can we not exude meaning without the muted voice? For words fail to convey the absolute value of our most unutterable truth. The raw emotion, once taken for granted, now traded for dignified resolve. Do you not breath? Does not the blood of heavenly fire surge within your veins? If so, then you would be well to take up arms against this sea of complacent hopelessness, and fight.

To assume that things will always be as they always were is to remain ignorant within a deluge of knowledge. You will surely be washed away, having no scrap of reason upon which to lash yourself. Therein lay the purest hope. For we have not completely lost our way. We have such brilliant lampposts to guide us. The brightest lights do guide our every step. Yet, many fumble, lost in a world of darkness. How can there be such blindness? Not to see, written within every post, every printed form, some hope, some pearl of wisdom that will lead beyond this disparaged time. Even Moses was a man with limitations, and he led millions across burning desert sand into a Promised Land. What more can you accomplish without such vanity, without self-persecution?
The Christ himself foretold that despite all his vast workings of the miraculous that common man would perform greater deeds than his. From the mouth of the God-Man came the call to deeper meaning. Trust not this sole comparison. The great Buddha taught that we are to seek enlightenment, that all mankind would breath the air of understanding and harmony. Have we so far gone that we cannot see the truth, as it stands naked to our sight?
Or, have you fallen so low that even the faintest candle burns like a shimmering beacon against the darkness? That your slightest hope has been dashed against the pebble-sized stones that line the sandy shores of faith. Faith, that enigmatic witness to mankind's smallest belief, glimmers briefly in the purest of hearts.

Without faith all hope is dead. Alas, with such measure, even that the size of a grain of sand, crumbles the most immovable of mountains. Within the countenance of humility the heart of a king arises. It requires equal balance of virtue and honour, of faith and hope to lead beyond the moderate and the mundane. Humanity has lost her heroes. Will you don your crown and fight for her, one more time? Without such arrogance of virtue, the smallest weakness will sink this once sturdy vessel. You remain the sole author of healing. You may be the only form of godliness some may ever witness. Wear it well. For that garment, once rent, becomes the banner upon which future generations will wage their wars.
You are only subject to that measure of reality that you actively perceive. Within this perception you find a deeper truth. Without such boundaries, your virtue may falter and stagnate. The most practical aspect of this reality remains its presence to define unused space. For what you perceive as true, remains such until discounted by a stronger actuality. Unresolved space embraces a no man's land, a barren desert upon which failed visions and broken dreams perish between baking sun and burning sand.
Except reality, that frail illusion you create daily with every imagination, every thought, which becomes your most solid footfall. To know that what you think as "real", remains someone else's illusion. Would this not compromise your virtue? Would not your dignity shrivel compared to the deeper sense of right and wrong?

You, a king among men, would have it so that all your realities become abundantly perceived by all. That your vision of a brighter, more perfect tomorrow becomes the destiny of all mankind. What innocence, what folly. What joy? To think such lofty thoughts, and remain so valiant in their execution, becomes the stave of true heroism. For you to be immovable and unyielding as to not compromise your principles, even against the dishonour this world finds most appealing, rings voluminous within the most resounding heart. You are to be admired, and compelled to share your dreams with all mankind. For a prophet is never welcome in his hometown. You must reach beyond the sheltering of your current state and announce your intentions to the world. Then, within such elegant enchantment, bewitch all mankind with your words and hymn.
You enact your perceptions with every thought. Every outward gait bestows your desired humanity upon everyone that you engage. Should not the quiet moments find solace within your embrace? Alas, they should. This power is immense. As connected to the collective unconscious it resounds within the minds of every created thing. Even the rocks shall cry out, does not the scriptures say? How can such a seemingly inanimate object, as a rock, cry out unless it bears a deeper connection. A relationship with the Divine must therefore exist. Else, the poor rock would remain dormant, unspoken, unheard, unwept.
Your confidence brims with unconscious perceptions that you actively engage. Consciously, with the waking mind, you facilitate the outcome of every momentary form. Naturally you perform such a task without active knowledge. Regardless, the deed is done. How so, you might inquire? Simple. You will it to happen.

The will remains an active participant with the waking mind. For without the will nothing would be accomplished, save the droll aspects of mundane living, which pared against the more vibrant forms, cannot be considered Life. Your will actively engages your conscious thought to perform. You form a thought, seeking a desired outcome. This desire propagates to express a mode of thought. Such thought behouves your mental processes, into an ideal. Once it expresses itself an ideal, then valour takes control and enables this, once, willed and silent aspect to divulge your deepest heartfelt desires. Hence, you are no longer merely a product of the realities that you perceive but the creator of those realities.
Left to vanity you might espouse grandiose encumbrances, yet, it remains your higher self, your inner divinity, that purges such sublime being from becoming ultimate form. Your imaginations and desires remain contained within the context of your immediate surroundings. Nonetheless, you create reality. You entice others with your belief in this reality, thus encroaching upon them to yield their inner, and perhaps unknown, divinity to you. This feeds your power, this creates a shared reality. What is this illusion we call Life truly, but a condition of shared reality accepted by the majority. Without such acceptance it would crumble. Shared acceptable reality takes place every moment of a day. Without it this world would simply fade.
Therefore, we cannot blame degrading human conditions on the few criminally opportune. We must lay the burden upon the shoulders of society, by whom this reality of crime enables itself to birth. Fear begets fear, which breeds ignorance and anger. One fearful thought creates others until the host remains nothing more than a quivering mass. Regard this as not the ultimate conclusion. For this present realm was originally founded on love. Love, unbridled, conquers all. It remains fear that keeps love from getting out of control.
What would you do as a member of a society if everyone truly loved their neighbour as themselves? Would you honestly be able to survive in such a world of pure truth and virtue? Alas, I think not. You need the darkness of your soul to reflect the light. Society needs it dregs in order to measure its own provincial worth. Without such we would float away into utter bliss, and the balance would be lost.
Balance requires integration of the whole. Integration requires a combination of differing elements. Unless such differing elements exist, no integration of dissimilar substances can occur. Without disunity, harmony cannot be made. Balance requires darkness and light in order to exist. Else we do not have balance, but a singular polarity. Let's face it, singular polarity wobbles. If it wobbles, then unbalanced.

From the solid, immortal form of our creation we have fallen into shattered elements. We are broken vessels needing to be filled, mended in spirit and in heart. Our silent cries survive the last exhale of breathe. They live beyond mortal words to become everlasting sentiment. Without such prevalent understanding our next embrace of this beloved Earth would remain nothing more than an exercise in futility. Trudging onward for the sake of the next step, never gloried into meaning, not sung into hymn. What would Life become but a collection of random moments woven into a patchwork of corporeal form devoid of a supernatural embrace.
Yet, Life is not so desolate. We are products of the realities that we perceive. If we believe it to be real, then real it must become. Else, we are left abandoned to a world without meaning, a night without stars. Wrestle from that miry clay and set your feet upon a firm foundation, a higher ground for moral integration and spiritual expression. You are the product of the Divine, take heed and know of what you are made. For within the embrace of a deeper, magickal, Self lay the heart of the Universe. A relationship so rich with blessing, so resplendent with possibility, that the mortal mind can barely contain it.
One breath, taken wisely, as from the lips of God, tastes ever the more sweet. All for the knowledge of who held that breath for you. Stir within you the elements that weave you. Test the fiber of your being, and know its divine workmanship.

For without a true challenge of its virtues, no greater comprehension can be made. Sit you not upon the sanctity of wondrous form. Rather formulate the most extensive verification that no single doubt can reside within your being. Chancing the depth of your own immortality allows the emergence of a more unified, holistic Self. "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." For truth hides no fear.
Alas, the fear of what lies beneath remains so strong that many fail to grow from superficiality into depth. Such stagnant development accounts for the denial, and subsequent abolishment of the higher, magickal, Self. The essence of the Universe breathes magick. To deny this innate truth, is to deny the very principle of being. You exist as the bi-product of magickal form. Without it, you would not be. To negate your magickal being invites fear. This fear keeps everything stirring near the surface. What may seem like a wading pool remains a shallow stream. The rushing water flows so swiftly that the more substantial personality has no opportunity to emerge. The starkness of this present realm of "reality" engulfs with vessels immersed in shallow streams, barrels of light cast over falls of imagined depth and unforeseeable disaster.
The strength to plumb the profundity of your own soul remains a dormant thought, in the least, or a stagnant encroachment at best. Few wager to test the more fertile, undercurrent, for fear of what may be found. Therefore, many lack the ability to soar the heights of the spirit. We test these limits within our hearts, our minds, and our spirit.
Spoken no truer than with Shakespeare's epithet,

Knowing yourself reveals a relationship with divinity. Once you decide to reach within to find the virtue of absolute truth, this tarry way you cannot falter. By nature of the path, you are bound to its convictions. In this realm of illusions, few find themselves so hard pressed to reach beyond the momentous. How temporary to never know your true Self, and in that knowledge to discover a counterpart in those around you? All for the sake of fear, how sublimely corruptible?
This lack of desire, or intensity of fear, forces emotions and personality to remain infantile. In this light, few find enlightenment, for sake of fear. Overcome fear and release your personal freedom.
A great battle emerges within the soul destined for higher being. It wages war against itself for the sake of love and fear. We must not forget that the power of Light is love, and the power of darkness is fear. Whilst you stand perched betwixt the two you condone the other. Your own failure to take a stand allows for lesser foes to vanquish that very sanctity that you chance to believe. Rather you should stumble headlong into the darkness, than have the slightest erosion of character at the hands of your complacency.
For what do you chance it all, fear? That silent enemy that invades the encampment of your soul? Fear captivates and entices the human mind to folly. Given the human propensity for fear tis no wonder that such vile, lower, management of the mind occurs. We feed off fear, instead of enrapturing one another with love.

The disharmonic, rebellious spirit of individual pride engrained into the nature of mankind hinders true spiritual growth. It becomes a challenge that must be overcome. The righteous counterpart to pride finds itself in personal divinity. For vanity, mankind has thrust aside the embrace of holiness for sake of Self-dignity. To purport the Self as solitary and not the deeper aspect of a whole. No wonder the family of mankind has many bastards of truth and virtue. To deny the ingrained sensibilities for the enticement of the moment, we have wagered Eternity for the sake of today. How sadly mistaken are we?
Yet, the principle remains that often what you do, is not that which you should. You face this challenge daily. The true seeker delves beyond these mental limitations. Such virtue outgrows the fighting for the "good fight". It adheres to the fabric of your very soul. In time, you become stained with it. The fragrance of success entices more deeply than its antecedent. You are commissioned to rise above the stench of failure, and chance to compleat the task set before you. The value of reward prevails beyond mere survival and the finishing of the race, into the worth of its running.
True spiritual growth arises from a single thought. That miniscule moment of blessing blooms into a forest of healing attitude. Were it not so, then nothing of virtue would remain. You are the keeper of the flame, the bearer of light. Without you, this realm would plunge into utter darkness, devoid of meaning, absent of reason. You cannot allow the encroaching darkness to overcome your restorative light. You must fight, although often with yourself, to remain victorious.

True victory lay not in the accomplishment of battle, but in the reasoning to overcome evil with good. You are a soldier of the light, take up your arms. Tis a war of your slumbering honour to that of waking reality. A realm that barters in moving pictures, rapid frames of light and dark overwhelming our conscious understanding of the honourable. We remain dumbstruck by its lack of elegant splendour, all the while enticed by its glimmer and glitz.
Waking reality slumbers in the arms of magick, while the heart of mirth grows dim. We lack honest laughter. Joy without folly, peace without understanding. We compare and compromise so easily that who we are loses distinction against whom we are meant to be.
Trap not yourself within that subtle elegance of the surface. Dig deep, find the fertile soil of sacrifice, and plant virtue deep within. For the harvest is plenty but the labourers are few. The truth of peaceful union, the comprehension of absolute meaning, dangles barely out of reach. To reach that distant star requires more than stout arms and the breadth to bear it. You must be willing to dream. The dream is your guide. To know your soul you must be willing to search for it. Fight the fear, overcome it, and be the victor of your very life.
Nothing can be accomplished, save actions make it so. As a solid expression of this present reality, we think in concrete form. Actions deliver results. Albeit some results occur from our own inaction. Amazingly, some never realize how subtly manipulated they become. What you think as "real" is not true reality for it lacks the aroma of the supernatural.

Without such communion you have not Life, but the pale reflection of it. If a reflection of Life, then a testimony of death. For Life remains the true totally fatal disease. Within that living death, miracles abound. How then can you recompense to linger on the sidelines, whilst the game plays itself? Can you honestly admire the one who warms the bench, while another makes the plays? Nay! Neither should you feign to acknowledge that lack-luster enchantment you perceive as reality. It fades, as the illusion it becomes. The only truth arises from the depths of your own soul. Activate its energy, and know power.
The Creative Power that birthed the Universe indwells you. This true source emanates through all created forms flowing with energy from the Divine. Humanity expresses divine mortality. You are an incarnation of the Infinite. Now, what are you going to do about it? Will you remain trapped by your own perceptions of mortality? Or, will you reach beyond the surface, performing a soul regression, and unearth the very nature of your being? You alone hold the key to the eternal and everlasting.
Because you define your reality by your actions, enact the reality that you truly desire. Are you merely a person of words and intellect, or do you give action to your faith? Creating that better world through heart-rending desire, and soul-embracing determination? Look about you at all the time-bent mortals clutched within the grasp of death, bleeding away Life for the sake of living. Yet, you are not bound by these distractions. They present themselves as mere reflection to your true countenance. You know the deeper perspective, comprehending a higher truth. You are immortal.

As light-bringer it remains your task to awaken the slumbering flame-bearers around you. Should that fail, then you are to energize the slumbering mortals with whom you share your "reality". Anything less becomes sacrilege. By virtue of your higher nature, you are commissioned, not to spread antiquated gospel, but to share the "good news" of Life and Love.
You possess immense Creative Power. It ebbs and flows through you like water through a spigot. Tap into the source and drink. Were it not possible, then you would not be so compelled by these musings. You would not become morally vexed at the words. Words are the most ancient magick. They bear the deepest power. You already know this. Use your words wisely. They will guide you. They will destroy you. It is all in how you use them.
"How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?" Awake, O dying soul! Your destiny beckons with a loud voice. Can you hear? Do you slumber yet? Arise and grasp your immortal blade, bearing arms against the gentle breath of darkness that creeps into your mind.
Once you have overcome your doubt, then will you have the power to overwhelm that lesser foe. The true battle rages within. All else remain minor skirmishes, mere testimonies fought with words. Take this moment to contemplate and regard your destined truth. The choices that you make, although seemingly unrelated, lend credence to your overall, or holistic, Self. The cosmic Universe breathes continuity, balance flows from energy matrix to energy matrix. You comprise this same pattern of energy. To find holistic tranquility requires enacting the all-encompassing power of the unified, holistic, Universe.

Can you see? To be or not to be, that is the question. As the nature of "being" requires the mere essence of itself. The action of "being" demands active relation ship between the internal Universe of you, and the greater, holistic, Universe. Such enables the tranquility of holism. For to "be" enacts that greater power and applies it with your own to form a higher magickal Self; an active manifestation of spiritual form.
All meritorious concepts require an aspect of action in order to be performed. Fret Not! Thought denotes an action of the mind. Conceptualization evolves from thought actions. Creation therefore reduces from immeasurable form into active concept. To think, to live, to be, and each grows from the seed of a solitary thought.
And you imagined it would require some great expenditure, while it requires but a single positive idea. Grasp this truth and carry it as a torch. For the light of knowledge illuminates your path. Feet set firm upon a road tarry not to fall away. In this you have already achieved every grand task.
All heroic conditions derive from a state of mind. So I challenge you to think, it may be the greatest action you will ever accomplish. Compel yourself into belief from that place where dreams dare to fly. Capturing your essence between pages of immortal prose. Know that there is more to your mind than subtle hues and pastel utterances.
The Ego serves the mind as the organized conscious mediator between the Self and reality. By facilitating works of magick into the world of form, it acts as a circuit judge for the unfettered spiritual Self; integrating reality into your magickal work. Without its continual involvement with every thought, and deed, then your puritanical, magickal, Self would run amok.
Where, then, would you be? Lost and abandoned in a world that does not understand your true being. A world that fears and vilifies the very truth that defines your being. Wait, perhaps that is what this disillusioned reality has already performed. This would account for your angst and adjunction of false reality into your immortal magickal Self. Thus corrupting the immortal with corporeal intangibilities.
Rather it should be used to align your holistic Self with the holism of the Universe. Not bring such a place of separation, but an integrated whole. Unfortunately, the Ego also infuses the heart with mortal tendencies. Only by training ourselves to work beyond this distraction can the human mind learn to utilize its inherent potential. Which, aligned with the will, enable man to control magick and its sundry elements.
Once again social influences have bastardized positive intentions. Originally, the Ego worked in connection with its related mental elements, the Id and the Superego. It has evolved into the superfluous barometer for our natural and socially integrated Self. Without individual distinction, and its conscious influence, the two realms would become mingled into a degenerate form of limited impossibility.
The mind would be nothing more than a bureaucracy hell-bend on the destruction of one's magickal identity. Therein we find the extremes of the egotist, and its cousin the egomaniac, or its non-integrated form the alter-ego.
Alternate states of expression present themselves when the natural Ego becomes suppressed. With social, professional and religious life unfolding into diverse societies of their own, tis no wonder that the Ego fractures into the maniacal or alternately composed.

Social protocol has so diminished individual freedoms, abolishing the Divine Right of Self, that barely enough room remains for the mind to compensate. Again, the complacency bred into the human of being results in the mingling of immortal desires and corporeal limitations. We have not, because we ask not. We ask not, because we are taught early on that it is wrong to ask. Have we become so prudential that we cannot derive the simplest of pleasures without resulting in an overload of conscience? Have we become so human that we are no longer humane? When a subtle enjoyment becomes a "guilty pleasure", and demonstrating Political Correctness results in the loss of the very freedoms that make us who we are.
Granted some limitations are necessary to maintain order. Yet, when we allow ourselves to be forced into a prison of our own making for the sake of social order, then what have we become? Are we caged animals waiting for the most opportune moment to lash out at our keepers? Or, do we repress our immortal nature so deeply as to domesticate our truer Self?
Shakespeare's Hamlet states the case most succinctly,
This goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory;
This most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me but a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form, in moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god!

Therefore bind not yourself to reason, nor delude your mind with folly. Rather seek to comprehend that most pure and noble state. In your own manner of being you express divine attribution. You represent the very breath of heaven with every word. Cast you not a vain reflection, but a countenance of infinite wonder and everlasting virtue. Become that which you desire. Wager not your Ego as a parcel to be shipped from one state to another, but delight in its embrace. Become that soul which can fully integrate your divine magickal abilities with your mortal form. Be a human in being and in truth.