Part of a teaching that recently came forward was that it is essential that we be aware of what is happening in the waters of the world, which also means the waters of our bodies, because we are 70% water.  In the wake of the Tsunami disaster there is a tremendous amount of energy and negativity being held in thoughtforms. We see pictures in the news of people who have made their living from the sea who are now cursing it. There is great anger, fear and resentment, and this is being registered in the waters, because the water is malleable and it is responding to the thoughts. This also means that our physical bodies are responding to these thoughts. 

We may find ourselves looking upon this tragedy with horror, which from one perspective is entirely understandable.  How can we look at this level of devastation and not feel some degree of horror?  So are we not in a Catch-22 situation?  How do we deal with it?  We cannot be in the frame of mind that says, “I’m on my mountain, looking at my navel, declaring that life is good”, and be disassociated, and yet at the same time if we go into a place of horror, victimhood and powerlessness, then we abdicate our responsibility.

There is a tidal wave of fear, resentment, blaming, anger and retribution which we are all subject to, and yet with our thoughts we can change that tidal wave.  We can change it to one of understanding, compassion, healing, wisdom, inclusiveness, and of will-to-good. As we go about our day-to-day world we often find ourselves saying, “I'm not making any difference. I'm here, I’m working, I’m sitting behind my computer, I’m driving my car. How can I make a difference?”  How can we not? Everything we think and do and say does make a difference. Life is all-inclusive, and that is what the waters of life remind us of.  There is no place on earth or in heaven where there is not water. There is scientific proof that there is water on the sun, there is water in the solar winds and our breath is water. The power of the word, your breath, your thoughts and your body are all connected.  We are all connected.   And when we gather here, we use that connectedness to augment and magnify that which we are called on to do today.

In alchemical terms, the black crow is associated with those experiences which lie beyond our five senses, and this seems in some ways to cast us into a time of darkness. In essence what it means is that we are no longer identifying with the outer world of form and all those things that we have been taught are real. We no longer feel them to be real and so we shut down, as it were, and for a while we go into what seems to be a period of darkness. It is as if you are in the womb, not yet ready to attune to that which is beyond the five senses, and yet aware that you can no longer identify with them. When we start to identify with the light which radiates from within, the light which is a light unto the world, then we begin to be the embodiment of the swan.

After that we bring forward the energies associated with the peacock, which is a time where we become a light unto the world. We begin to explore that which we call the astral level, our emotional bodies, and the difference between desire and aspiration. For many of us, as we begin to identify with the light we find that we are dancing with some pretty ugly monsters, for within our desire body are the memories, the pain, the hurt, the sorrow, the resentment and our own angers that are mirrored to us from the outside world.  As we take the light from within and radiate it through our desire body, the desire turns into aspiration, and we are like the peacock spreading its feathers as it turns its regalia up to the Divine.

The next alchemical stage is that of the pelican, and if you who have read Manly P. Hall’s The Secret Teachings of All Ages, you will remember the image in the book of the pelican. This is a very well-known Rosicrucian symbol where the pelican takes its beak and plunges it into its breast and takes its own blood to feed its young. What the pelican does is what we as adepts are being called to do, which is to take our spiritual blood, the spiritual manifestation of our being, and to feed it to our brothers and sisters, to all life. This is the sacrificial aspect of the Divine so that we can then rise as the phoenix. We do this, not for ourselves, but we do it for all life, for we are not alone and we are not isolated.

Ray One, Divine Will Power: “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of sacred fire to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Two, Divine Love-Wisdom: “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of universal love-wisdom to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Three, Active Intelligence:  “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of greater wisdom to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Four, Harmony and Art: “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of purity and beauty to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Five, Concrete Knowledge and Science:  “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of higher mind to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Six, Idealism and Devotion: “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of the reality of Spirit to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Seven, Order and Ceremonial Magic: “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of the right use of law and order to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Eight, Cleansing of Karma: “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of fortification and self-realization to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Nine, the Ray of Joy:  “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of hope to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Ten, the Ray of Beginnings and Energies of Expansion: “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of mysticism and alignment to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Eleven, the Ray of Balance and Service: “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of communication to sustain throughout this action?”

Ray Twelve, Luminous Service, the Ray of All Potentiality: “Will you and those who follow you accept this bridge of Sacred Royalty to sustain throughout this action?”

I call you now, Ahmarah, to guide us in the next level of Alchemy.

Ahmarah:  For the next piece we want to call to Hamsa, the swan, and we will be using the Hamsa Gayatri chant, and I want to tell you what the words mean so that you can connect with those words as you listen to the chant.

 “May we realize Hamsa, that is our own Self, as swan. Let us meditate on that Paramahamsa, the Supreme Self. May Hamsa illumine us.”

We are going to use the sound, and as you listen, remember that the sound is the body of a god, and every breath is a mantra. We breathe in on “So” and we breathe out on “Ham”. As you listen to the chant think that with every breath you are identifying with that Great Self, So’ham, which is the reverse of Hamsa.  It is said that the Hamsa chant, the So’ham chant - which we say every time we breathe in and breathe out - and the Om are equal in their power to call forth the Divine. The Hamsa Mantra is called the King of Mantras, evoking, invoking, connecting, and helping us to become the Divine. So I want you to sit quietly and listen to this mantra and breathe it into yourselves.  Breathe the So’ham, So’ham, so it becomes like the light in the Sun, like the fire in the wood, like the movement in the water. Become the luster and feel the liberation.

(Ahmarah chants the Hamsa Gayatri:)

Om Hamsaya vidhmahe

Paramahamsaya dhimahi

Tanno Hamsa pracodayat

Aeptha: May the power the one life pour through the group of all true servers.  May the love of the One Soul characterize the lives of all who seek to aid the Great Ones. May we fulfill our part in the One Work through self-forgetfulness, harmlessness, and right speech.

And I ask you now to bring the prayers of your heart, the thoughts of your mind, the love of your being, and the light of your spirit to this alchemical container that has been created.  Let us send forth from this place the vibration of love, wisdom, faith, peace and hope, and allow it to reverberate through all the waters, through all of the lands, above, below and all around.

There is a vortex that is moving out from this place that is moving through the twelve gateways and over the bridge.  We are asked to stay with this a little longer for we are a light, and it is fueled by our faith, sustained in our hope, rooted in love, held in aspiration, and enlivened by will.  Let us all take this light and offer it to the angels, and we ask that they take this light to the places where there is darkness, pain, hunger and despair, where there is hopelessness, where there is no love. Take this light and this love. We offer it freely, and we offer this as the pelican who takes from its own breast to nurture its young.  We seek to serve and not hate. We seek to love and not exact due service.  And from death let there be transformation, and from life let there be renewal, and from water let there be life, and from fire let there be illumination. So mote it be. 

(The group recites the Mantram of Unification:)

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.

I seek to love, not hate.

I seek to serve and not exact due service;

I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.

Let the soul control the outer form,

And life, and all events,

And bring to light the Love

That underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.

Let the future stand revealed.

Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.

Let love prevail.

Let all men love.

Aeptha:   And God is great, and Goddess is great. The Sun is above and below. The Daughter is uplifted, and we leave this place knowing who we are.  We leave this place not in defeat. We sustain victory in the face of what appears to be loss.  We sustain love, even when there appears to be no love. We hold the truth, even when things appear to be untruthful. We bear faith, even when the burden seems overwhelming. We believe in life and know that life is everlasting even when there appears to be destruction. And we offer our hands in service, we offer our hearts to the One, and therefore to all Life, and we raise our voices. We bear joy, because joy is the Divine, and we embody the Light for we are the swans upon the waters of life. 

And so the Great Work continues and the alchemy unfolds.  I invite you on this beautiful day to walk on the earth and know that as you walk, the vibration spreads throughout the earth.  Walk gently and with love.  And as you gaze upon the sun, know that the sun lights the way even in what appears to be darkness. Thank you.