The Higher Faculties of the Mind

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2 The Higher Faculties of the Mind Introduction One of the most difficult problems of our time is certainly the intricate labyrinth of theories. Undoubtedly, many pseudo-esoterist and pseudo-occultist schools have nowadays multiplied exorbitantly here, there and everywhere. The buying and selling of souls, books and theories is appalling. Very few are those who, surrounded by the cobweb of so many contradictory ideas, can really succeed in finding the Secret Path. The most serious thing about all this is the existence of intellective fascination. There is a tendency among people to be intellectually nourished only on anything that comes to the mind. The vagrants of the intellect are no longer satisfied with all this general subjective literature that is so abundant in the book markets; but now, and to make things worse, they also stuff themselves with cheap pseudo-esoterism and pseudo-occultism, which abounds everywhere like weed. The result of all this gobbledygook is the evident confusion of the knaves of the intellect. I continuously receive all kinds of letters and books. Their senders, as usual, question me about this or that school, about this or that book. All I do is answer their questions with the following words: Give up mental idleness. You do not need to concern yourself with other people s lives. Disintegrate

3 the animal I of curiosity. You do not need to concern yourself with other people s schools. Become serious. Know yourself. Study yourself. Observe yourself... The important thing is to know ourselves deeply and in all the levels of our mind. Darkness is unconsciousness; light is consciousness. We must allow light to penetrate into our own darkness. Obviously, light has the power to overcome darkness. Unfortunately, people are self-imprisoned in the fetid and filthy environment of their own minds, worshipping their beloved Ego. People do not want to realize that they are not masters of their own lives. Certainly, every person is controlled from within by many other people. I am emphatically referring to all that multiplicity of I s that we have within. Evidently, each one of those I s puts in our mind what we must think, in our mouth what we must say, in our heart what we must feel, etc. In these conditions, the human personality is just a robot governed by different people who struggle for supremacy and who aspire to the supreme control of the capital centres of the organic machine. In the name of truth we have to affirm solemnly that the poor intellectual animal mistakenly called man, though he thinks himself very balanced, is actually in a permanent state of complete psychological imbalance... How could the rational humanoid be balanced? For there to be perfect balance in us, what we need is an awakened consciousness. Only the light of consciousness, fully and centrally directed towards ourselves, and not from the angles, can put an end to our contrasts, to our psychological contradictions and establish a true inner balance in us. If we dissolve all the I s that we carry within, then the awakening of consciousness comes to us and, as a consequence or corollary, a true balance in our own psyche is established in us. Unfortunately, people do not want to see the state of unconsciousness in which they are permanently. They are deeply asleep. If people were awake, everyone would feel the presence of their fellow human beings within them. If people were awake, our fellow human beings would feel our presence within them. Then, obviously, wars would not exist and the whole earth would be really a paradise. The light of consciousness, giving us a true

4 psychological balance, comes to establish everything in its right place, and what was previously in inner conflict with us is in fact put in its right place. The multitudes are so unconscious that they are not even able to find the relationship existing between light and consciousness. Unquestionably, light and consciousness are two aspects of one and the same thing. Where there is light, there is consciousness. Unconsciousness is darkness, and it exists within us. Only through psychological self-observation can we allow light to penetrate into our own darkness. Light came to darkness but darkness did not understand it. (Excerpts from the book by Master Samael, The Great Rebellion, chap 11)

5 The Knowledge of Truth First of all, we must know that there is a transcendental type of experience that leads man to the direct experience of what we could call the Great Reality. It is a state of consciousness in which man can know Truth. This experience is universal. The description given by the mystics of the different religions who have had this experience coincides in a series of common characteristics. One of these common characteristics is that they use the same esoteric language in describing their vision of the intrinsic conditions of man and the world, which proves the tremendous reality of their mystic experience. These are some other major common characteristics: 1. - Oneness: sensation of unity of all things. Sensation of being linked to everything Timelessness: a very peculiar sensation of what is called time (deep experience of the eternal now, in the absence of sensations of past and future) Immortality: unforgettable experience of life and infinite consciousness Penetrability: ability to acquire an integral knowledge of the whole in any of its parts. In order to attain this transcendental experience, man must develop the higher faculties of the mind. Let us study this subject thoroughly.

6 The Three Minds Speaking about the mind, Master Samael said the following in one of his lectures: First of all, we have to know that our mind possesses higher faculties of cognition which, when properly developed, would allow us to attain real knowledge. To better know the limitations and possibilities of the mind, we must know that there are three minds in us: The first mind can be called Sensual Mind. The second one is known as the Intermediate Mind. The third one can be called the Inner Mind. Let us think a little about this Sensual Mind, which we all use every day. There is no doubt that it elaborates its concepts-of-content with the information provided by the five senses, and with those concepts-of-content it forms its own reasonings If, as the only mainspring of its functionings, this mind only has the information provided by the five senses; undoubtedly, it cannot have access to anything that escapes the vicious circle of external sensory perceptions. That is obvious. The Sensual Mind can know nothing about the Real, about the Mysteries of Life and Death, about Truth, about God, etc., because, where could this mind get that type of information, if its only 'source of nourishment' is the information provided by the five senses? Obviously, it has no resources to know the Real I now remember something very interesting: A great conference was once held in Babylon, in the time of the Egyptian splendour. The conference was attended by many people from Assyria, Egypt, Phoenicia, etc. It is clear that the conference theme was really appealing. Its aim was to find out, through purely analytical discussions, whether the human being had a soul or not. It is obvious that, by then, the five senses had degenerated very much. Only then can we understand the fact that people chose that theme as a leitmotiv for a conference. In the past, a conference like this would have been absurd. The Lemurians would never think of holding a conference of this kind. They only had to leave their bodies to know whether they had a soul or not, and they did it very straightforwardly. They were not trapped in the physical organism at all. So, only a, by then, involuted, decadent and degenerate humanity could think of that kind of theme for a conference

7 The truth was that there were many discussions both for and against the soul question. A great Assyrian sage finally mounted the rostrum of eloquence. That man had cultivated himself in Egypt. So he had studied in the Mysteries And he spoke in a very loud voice, saying: Reason can know nothing about Truth, about the Real, about the Soul, about the Immortal. Reason can sustain both a spiritualistic theory and a materialistic one. It could elaborate a spiritual thesis with a formidable logic; it could also structure, by opposition, a materialistic thesis, with a similar type of logic. So then, since the sensualist Subjective Reason is nourished with the information provided by the five senses, it can produce all

8 kind of theories: it can create any type of theses, both spiritualistic theses and materialistic ones. Reason is not, then, something reliable at all. There exists a different sense. This sense is called the Instinctive Sense of the Perception of Cosmic Truths. It is a faculty of the Being. But Subjective Reason, per se, cannot really give us any information about Truth, about the Real. Sensualist Reason cannot know anything about the Mysteries of Life and Death...' That Sage spoke like this, and said even further: You know me. I have some prestige among you. You know very well that I come from Egypt. You also know that my life has been devoted to study, and my Sensualist Mind could not provide any information about the Real That man spoke like this, and finished his speech, saying: With your reasoning power, you cannot know anything about Truth, about the Soul or about the Spirit, because the Rationalist Mind cannot know anything about those things Well, that man spoke very eloquently, and then he withdrew. He permanently abandoned all scholasticism. He preferred to leave aside subjectivistic rationalism and to develop in himself that faculty of the Being which I mentioned earlier, known as Instinctive Perception of Cosmic Truths, a faculty which humanity in general formerly possessed, but which became atrophied as the psychological I, the Myself, the Oneself, gradually developed They say that that Egypt-educated Assyrian sage abandoned all schools and went to cultivate the land and to solely trust that wondrous faculty of the Being, known as Instinctive Perception of Cosmic Truths

9 Now let us go still a little further. There is a mind different to the Sensual Mind. I am emphatically referring to the Intermediate Mind. In this mind we find all kinds of religious beliefs, inflexible dogmas, etc. Obviously, the information provided by religions is, after all, contained in the Intermediate Mind. Nonetheless, this mind does not know anything directly about the Real either. All this mind does is to believe, and that is all. And finally, there exists the Inner Mind. This is something that we must explain clearly The Inner Mind, in itself and per se, functions only with the information provided by the Consciousness of the Being. The Inner Mind could never function without the information provided by the Inner Consciousness of the Being Here we have, then, the Three Minds! 'In the Gospel, the Sensual Mind, with all its theories and the like, is known as the Leaven of the Sadducees. Jesus the Christ warns us, saying: Beware of the leaven of the Sadducees! That is to say, beware of the materialistic and atheistic doctrines (such as Marxist dialectics). This type of doctrines exactly corresponds to the Doctrine of the Sadducees, of which the Christ spoke. But the Lord of Perfection also warns us about The Doctrine of the Pharisees. This doctrine corresponds to the Intermediate Mind Who are the Pharisees? They are those who go to their temples, to their schools, religions or sects just to be seen by everyone. They listen to the Word, but they do not do it in themselves. They are like the man who looks himself in a mirror, turns his back and goes away... They attend their rituals only to be seen by others, but they never work on themselves, and that is very serious. Such people are satisfied with mere beliefs. They are not interested in inner transformation. All in all, they miserably waste their time and fail Let us beware, then, of the Leaven of the Sadducees and of the Leaven of the Pharisees, and let us think of opening the Inner Mind. How can we open it? We can, of course, open it by learning to Think Psychologically. Here you are receiving classes for psychological thinking. If you learn to think psychologically, you can eventually open your Inner Mind. The Inner Mind, I repeat, functions with the information given by the Superlative Consciousness of the Being. Then, as a result, it can experience the truth of the different phenomena of Nature. With our Inner Mind opened, we can speak, for example, about the Law of Karma. And we will do it, based no longer on what others may say or may fail to say, but based on our own direct experience. Also, with our Inner Mind opened, we are sufficiently

10 prepared to speak about Reincarnation, or about the Law of the Eternal Return of all things, or about the Law of the Transmigration of Souls, etc., but, I repeat, we will do it, based no longer on what we read or heard from some authors, but based on what we experience for ourselves in a direct and real way. That is obvious Emmanuel Kant, the philosopher of Königsberg, makes a clear distinction between The Critique of Practical Reason and 'The Critique of Pure Reason. There is no doubt that rationalist subjective Reason could never provide us with anything that did not belong to the world of the five senses. The intellect, per se, is rationalist and subjective If an intellectual person hears about Reincarnation, or about Karma, he will surely demand proofs or demonstrations about it, as though the truths that can only be perceived by the Inner Mind could be proved to the Sensualist Mind. To demand proofs of it in the external sensory world amounts to demanding that a bacteriologist studies microbes with a telescope, or that an astronomer studies astronomy with a microscope They demand proofs indeed, but Subjective Reason cannot be given any proof, because Subjective Reason, or sensualist reason, has nothing to do with that which does not belong to the world of the five senses. Subjects, such as Reincarnation, Karma, life after death, etc., are in fact exclusive to the Inner Mind, never to the Sensual Mind. The Inner Mind can indeed be proved, but what is first demanded from the candidate for a demonstration is to open his Inner Mind. If he has not opened it, how could we prove to him anything in that field? Obviously, that type of demonstration would be impossible, would it not?

11 Psychological Thinking We will now digress from the lecture of Master Samael to say that, essentially, man has two methods to study the universe and its laws. The first one is by induction: he examines a phenomenon, classifies it and then tries to infer the laws and principles causing it. This is the method generally used by science. The second method is by deduction: once particular laws and general principles have being perceived or revealed or discovered, man tries to deduce the application of those laws to the phenomena of existence. This is the method generally used by religions. The first method starts at facts and tries to rise to laws. The second one starts at laws and tries to descend to facts. These two methods in fact correspond to the work of two different mental functions. The first is the method of the ordinary logical mind, which is permanently within our reach: it is logical thinking. The second is derived from a function that is potential in man, and which is ordinarily inactive for lack of development. This function can be described as a higher mental function: it is psychological thinking. This higher function of the mind, on those rare occasions when it acts, reveals to man laws in action and, as a result, the phenomenal world around us is perceived as a product of those laws. All true formulations of the universal laws come, recently or remotely, from the work of this higher function in some place and in some man. Logical thinking remains in the external part of things and phenomena, and it tries to explain them for themselves as they are known and experienced. (It is the basis of the functioning of the Sensual Mind or intellectual mind). Psychological thinking penetrates into the internal cause of things and phenomena, and it studies them as they are. (It is the natural functioning of the Inner Mind).

12 The Higher Faculties of the Mind To continue with the lecture of Master Samael: After he spoke about the three minds, he then began to go deeply into the subject of psychological thinking and the higher faculties of the mind: 'Now let us go into the subject of Faculties in some detail. The intellect, per se, is one of the coarsest faculties in the Levels of Being. If we think that everything can be achieved through the intellect, we will never manage to apprehend the Cosmic Truths Undoubtedly, there is another faculty of cognition beyond the intellect. I am, this time, emphatically referring to Imagination. This faculty has been generally much underestimated, and without any good reason, because were it not for imagination we would not have this tape recorder here; there would be no cars, no trains, etc. If a scientist wants to invent something, first he must imagine it, and then he can materialize his invention on paper. If an architect wants to build a house, first he must imagine it, and then he can draw a plan of it. So, Imagination has allowed human beings to create every invention. Imagination is not, then, something to be despised We cannot deny that there are several types of Imagination. The first could be called Mechanical Imagination. This type of imagination is fantasy itself. Obviously, this type of imagination is made up of our memory waste; it is of no use, and is even harmful. There is, however, another type of imagination indeed. I am referring to Intentional Imagination, that is, Conscious Imagination. Obviously, this type of Imagination can be splendidly developed, and it can lead us to the ultra of all things.

13 Nature itself possesses imagination. That is obvious. Were it not for Imagination, all the creatures of Nature would be blind. But, thanks to that powerful faculty there is perception; images are formed in the perceptive centre of the brain, or perceptive centre of sensations, and in this way we can perceive. Nature s Creative Imagination has produced the multiple forms existing in all that is, in all that has been and in all that will be Creative Imagination can be developed. This would lead us beyond the Sensual Mind. This would teach us to think psychologically. We said earlier, and we repeat it, that only psychological thinking could open the doors of the Inner Mind for us. If we develop the faculty of Imagination, we can learn to think psychologically Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition are the three compulsory pathways to Initiation. But if we remain solely cooped up in the functionings of our intellectual apparatus, we will not be able, by any means, to go up the steps of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition I am not saying that the intellect is not useful. I am far from making such a statement. I am just clarifying concepts. Any faculty is useful within its orbit; outside its orbit, it is useless. A planet is useful within its orbit; outside its orbit, it is useless and catastrophic. The same happens with the faculties of the human being: they all have their own orbits of action. To want to get sensualist reason out of its orbit is absurd.

14 Why do many people fall into materialistic scepticism? Why are the students of pseudo-esoterism and pseudo-occultism, which is so in vogue nowadays, always struggling against doubts? Why are so many people flitting all the time from school to school, eventually reaching old age without having realized anything? By experience I have been able to observe that those who remain cooped up in the intellect fail. And those who want to verify the truths that do not belong to the intellect with their intellects, also fail. They make the mistake of wanting to study astronomy (speaking symbolically) with a microscope, or to study bacteriology with a telescope. Let us leave each faculty in its right place, in its orbit. Let us not take it out of its orbit. We need to think psychologically, and it is obvious that we must flatly reject the leaven of the Sadducees and of the Pharisees, and we must learn to think psychologically. This would not be possible if we continued to be cooped up in the intellect. Consequently, we had better begin to go up the ladder of Imagination. Later on, we will move on to the second rung, which is that of Inspiration, and finally we will reach the faculty of Intuition

15 How can we develop the Faculty of Imagination? You can begin with a simple exercise. I have talked to you many times about the exercise of the glass of water a very easy exercise. You have to place a glass of water on a table, at a short distance, so that you can see the bottom of the glass. Put a little mirror at the bottom of the glass and adds quicksilver, some drops of mercury, to the water (this is called a clariteleidoscope). If you then concentrate your sight on the very centre of the glass, on the whole central area of it, that is, on the water, but in such a way that your sight goes through the glass, then obviously, you will have a splendid exercise for the development of Imagination. In this exercise, you will try to see the astral light in that water Yes, you will make a great effort to see it. At first, you will see nothing. That is obvious. After some time practising, you will see colours in the water: you will begin to perceive the astral light. Your sense of psychological self-observation begins to be activated. And some time later, if, for example, a car goes along the street, you will see a strip of light in the water, and you will see the car travelling along that strip of light. This is a sign that you are beginning to perceive with the transcendental faculty of Imagination. Finally, the day will come when you will not need the glass of water any longer to see, but you will see the air with different colours; you will see the aura of people. We know very well that every person has an aura of light around him or her. Auras have different colours: the aura of sceptic people is always green, dirty green; the aura of a devotee is blue; yellow reveals that the person is very intellectual; grey shows sadness; lead-coloured grey reveals that the person is very selfish; black represents hatred; dirty red represents lust, fornication; bright blazing red represents anger, and so on. Obviously, if you want to see the aura of people like that, then you have to practise this exercise a great deal. You will have to practise at least for three years ten minutes a day, without leaving one day If you are

16 firm enough to practise this exercise ten minutes every day (during three years), then the moment will come when your faculty of imagination, or clairvoyance, which is another term by which imagination is known, will develop But this is not the only exercise for the development of that precious faculty. Something else is needed. What is needed is Meditation Visualization Practice Sitting in a comfortable armchair, with your body perfectly relaxed (or lying in your bed, with your body relaxed and your head pointing north), you must imagine something, the growth of a plant, of a rosebush, for example. We imagine a seed being carefully sown in black and fertile soil. We visualize that we water it with pure water of life. To continue with this imaginative process, both transcendental and transcendent, let us visualize the rosebush in the process of growth: how the stem finally comes up, how it unfolds marvellously, how thorns come up from the stem and, finally, how it puts out a number of branches. Let us imagine how those branches are, in turn, covered with leaves until a bud finally appears. Later, this bud opens delightfully, forming a rose In a Manteya State, as the Initiates of Eleusis would say, speaking in the Greek style, and maybe even in the Orphic style, we would say that it is advisable to feel in ourselves the delightful fragrance that comes out of the red or white petals of the precious rose. The second part of this imaginative work would consist in visualizing the dying process of all things with entire clarity. All we would need to do is imagine how those fragrant petals gradually fall little by little, becoming withered and lifeless, how those branches, formerly strong, become a heap of sticks after some time, and finally the hurricane, the wind, comes and sweeps away all the leaves and sticks. This is a practice of deep meditation on the process of birth and death of all things. Obviously, this exercise, when practised regularly, every day, will in the long run give us a deep inner perception of what we could call astral world.

17 First of all, it is good to warn aspirants that any esoteric exercise, including this one, requires continuity of purpose on the part of the disciple, because if we practise today but not tomorrow, we are making a very serious mistake. Only if really there is true application to the Esoteric Work is it possible for us to develop the precious faculty of Imagination When, during meditation, something new, something different to the rose, appears in our imagination, then it is a clear sign that we are making progress. At first, images lack colour, but as we keep working, they are gradually filled with multiple charms and colours. This is the way in which we will progress in our deep inner development. A step forward in this subject would lead us to remember our present life and even our previous lives. Unquestionably, those who have developed the imaginative faculty in themselves could well try to capture or apprehend, with their imagination, the last moment of their previous existence; then, a dying person s bed would be reflected on that lucid mirror of their Imagination (assuming that the person has died in a bed, because, by the way, someone could died in a battlefield or in an accident) It would be interesting to see the person's loved ones, those who were with him in the last moments of his previous existence, those who heard the screams of pain at the supreme hour. To continue with this marvellous process connected with Imagination, we could try to know not only the last moment of our previous life but also the last but one, the last but two, the last years, back to youth, adolescence, childhood, and in this way we can recapitulate our whole previous life. Similarly, this, if taken further, would also allow us to capture each one of our previous lives and, as a result, we would verify, by direct experience, the reality of the Law of the Eternal Return of all things. Precisely, it is not the intellect the one that can verify these realities. With the intellect we can discuss a subject, we can affirm it or deny it, but that is not verification. So, I invite you to understand. Imagination will open the doors of Nature s Elemental Paradises for you.

18 If, with our Imagination, we try to perceive a tree, if we meditate on it, we will see that it is composed of a large number of small celluloses. We will perceive its physiology, its roots, its fruits... but we will also be able to go a little deeper and directly see the tree s inner life. There is no doubt that it possesses what we could call Essence or Soul. When we, in a state of manteya or shamadi or ecstasy or rapture, perceive the consciousness of a plant, we discover, with perfect clarity, that it is certainly an elemental creature, a creature with a type of life which the five senses cannot perceive; a creature that is not perceptible to the intellective faculty, which is completely excluded from the sensory sphere, but which is indeed perfectly perceptible to the translucent (conscious imagination). It is interesting to know that in later steps it is possible to talk to that Elemental. Obviously, the Fourth Vertical possesses unusual surprises. Undoubtedly, the Paradise of Eden, of which the Bible speaks, is the very Fourth Dimension of Nature itself. Earthly Paradise is the Fourth Coordinate, the Elysian Fields, the Promised Land, where the rivers of pure water of life flow with milk and honey; it is precisely the Fourth Dimension of our planet Earth. Creative Imagination, the translucent, the wondrous mirror of the Soul, when it is properly developed through precise esoteric rules, allows us, undoubtedly, to verify what I am here stating emphatically. So then, I clearly invite you to make a superlative analysis of all this. I invite you to develop the cognitive faculty known as Imagination. It is an extraordinary faculty In the Fourth Vertical we discover extraordinary Temples, and the fact is that Elemental Life is classified by the Logos: for example, one is the family of orange trees and another is the family of eucalypti. There are Temples of Nature for each vegetable

19 family. The Devas, mentioned in the theosophist, pseudo-esoterist and occultist texts, govern elemental life. These Devas are perfect Men in the most complete sense of the word. They are Initiates who know how to direct the Laws of Nature. Creative Imagination allows us to verify, for ourselves, that the Earth is not a dead organism, a rigid body, a physical crust devoid of life. Creative Imagination allows us to know, for ourselves, that the Earth is a living organism. I now remember the Neoplatonic statement that says, The Soul of the World is crucified in the Earth That Soul of the World is a collective of Souls, a collective of lives that throb and have a reality If you develop the faculty of Imagination in an efficient way, you cannot only remember your previous lives, but you can also specifically confirm what I am here clearly expressing in a didactic way.

20 The Faculty of Inspiration But Imagination, in itself and per se, is just the first rung on the ladder of Faculties. A higher second rung takes us to Inspiration. The faculty of Inspiration allows us to talk, face to face, to any particle of elemental life. The faculty of Inspiration allows us to feel, in ourselves, the beating of every heart Let us for a moment imagine again the rosebush exercise. If, after all, once our meditation on the birth and death of the rosebush has finished (once the sticks and petals of the flowers have disappeared), we want to know something else, we need the faculty of Inspiration A plant has been born, has borne fruits, has died, and what after all? (What is the meaning of all that?). Then we need the faculty of Inspiration in order to know the meaning of the birth and death of all things. The faculty of Inspiration is still more transcendental and needs a greater expenditure of energy. The point now is to leave aside the symbol on which we have meditated. The point now is to capture its inner meaning. To this end, what is needed is the faculty of emotion, the Emotional Centre. The Emotional Centre comes, therefore, to revalue the Esoteric Work of Meditation. The Emotional Centre allows us to feel inspired; and then, once we are inspired, we will know the meaning of the birth and death of all things With the faculty of Imagination we could verify, for example, the reality of our previous existence. With the faculty of Inspiration we can capture the meaning of that existence, its reason, its cause Inspiration, therefore, is one step beyond the faculty of creative Imagination. With Imagination we can verify the reality of the Fourth Vertical, but Inspiration will allow us to capture its deep meaning How can we develop the Faculty of Inspiration? Any disciple who wants to reach Inspired Knowledge must deeply concentrate on music. The opera The Magic Flute by Mozart reminds us of an Egyptian Initiation. Beethoven s Nine Symphonies, and many other great classical compositions, raises us to the higher worlds. The disciple, deeply concentrated on music, must absorb himself into it like a bee into honey, the product of all its work. When the disciple has reached Inspired Knowledge, he must then get ready for Intuitive Knowledge

21 The Faculty of Intuition Finally, beyond the faculties of Imagination and Inspiration, we have to reach the summits of Intuition Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition are the three scales of Initiation Intuition is a different thing. Let us go back to the rosebush of our example. With the process of Imagination, during the practice of that transcendental and transcendent, esoteric exercise, we have undoubtedly seen a number of processes: we have seen how the rosebush grew, how it bore fruits, and finally, how it died and became a heap of sticks Inspiration allowed us to know the meaning of all that, but Intuition will lead us to the spiritual reality of that. Then, with that precious superlative faculty, we will enter an exquisitely spiritual world. Not only will we meet the Elemental of the rosebush face to face (seen with the faculty of Imagination), but furthermore, we will meet the Virginal Spark or the Divine Monad or the Supreme Igneous Particle of the rosebush. We will enter a world where we will find the Creative Elohim, mentioned in the Mosaic or Hebraic Bible. We will see the whole Creative Host of the Army of the Word; that is, we will find the Creative Demiurge of the Universe It is Intuition the one that will allow

22 us to talk face to face to the Archangels, to the Thrones..., and for us they will no longer be a mere speculation or belief, but a palpable and manifested reality. Intuition will give us access to the Higher Regions of the Universe and of the Cosmos. Through the faculty of Intuition we will be able to study Cosmogenesis, Anthropogenesis, etc. This faculty will allow us to enter the Temples of the Universal White Brotherhood, the Temples of the Elohim or Prajapatis or Kumaras, or Thrones Intuition will allow us to know the genesis of our world. With this faculty we will be able to witness the very Dawn of Creation; we will be able to know, not through what someone has said, but directly, how this world emerged from the Chaos, how it was created, how it came into existence amidst the concert of worlds Intuition will allow us, then, to know, in a specific and direct way, what the bright intellects of the moment do not know There are many theories in connection with the world, with the Universe, with the Cosmos, and they continuously go out of fashion, like pharmacy remedies, like ladies' and gentlemen's fashions. One theory is followed by another, and by another, and by another and after all, the only thing the intellect does is to speculate and fantasize all along, without ever being able to experience the Real But Intuition is different. Intuition allows us to know the Real. It is a transcendental cognitive faculty. It is really extraordinary to be able to witness the spectacle of the Universe, to feel, for a moment, separated from Creation, to look at the world as if it were a theatre and we spectators, to observe how a comet comes out of the Chaos, how any cosmic unit emerges from the Non-Being (which is the Real Being), and so on. It is Intuition the one that allows us to know that the Earth exists because of the Karma of the Gods, because, otherwise, it would not exist. It is Intuition the one that allows us to verify the harsh realism of such Karma. Certainly, those Elohim, Prajapatis or Fathers who, as a whole, constitute the Divine, acted in a past cycle of manifestation, far before the Earth and the Solar System had come into existence Let us see a very nice case: Much is talked about the Moon. Many people think that the Moon is a chunk of Earth launched into space by the centrifugal force of the Universe; something similar to firing an atomic rocket. But Intuition allows us to verify things in a completely different way. Intuition allows us to know that the Moon is far older than the Earth. Which is why our forefathers of Anahuac called it grandmother Moon. She is obviously our grandmother. She is the Mother of the Earth, and the Earth is our Mother; and so the Moon is our grandmother. These Anahuac concepts are really wise!

23 The Earth came into existence, indeed, far later in the course of the ages. In a remote past, the Moon was a rich world. It had mineral, vegetable, animal and human life. It also had deep seas, erupting volcanoes, etc. Modern scientists themselves have had to bow to the concrete evidence that the Moon is older than the Earth. Those Initiates who mistakenly stated that the Moon was a chunk detached from the Earth, now showed themselves up when it was verified with special devices, through the study of the lunar pebbles, that the Moon is older than the Earth. And this is so. It had a humanity. It had vegetable life. It was a rich world But, why did it turn into a Moon? Intuition allows us to know that all that is born has to die, and that every world of starry space eventually becomes a new moon. One day, this Earth in which we live will get old and will die, and will become a new moon. And there are moons as heavy as, for example, the moon that revolves around the sun Sirius, whose density is five thousand times greater than that of lead So, to return to the subject of our Moon, we will say that it is the mother of the Earth. But, why do I make such a statement? Through Intuition we can see how, after the old Moon, our grandmother, died, the lunar Anima-Mundi (which was crucified in that satellite) plunged into the bosom of the Eternal Common Cosmic Father (the Absolute), and when a new period of manifestation came, after a long interval (when a Great Day of Activity came, so to speak), this Mother-Moon, this Anima-Mundi, reconstructed a new body, reincarnated, formed its new body, which is this Earth. All the creatures that formerly existed in the Moon died, but the germs themselves, the germs of all vegetable, animal and human life did not died. Those germs, projected by the Cosmic Rays, were deposited here, in this new planet (even the germs of our very bodies themselves!). And for this reason we are children of the Moon. She is the mother of all living beings. She is the Mother of the Earth

24 When one makes a statement of this type in front of a group of educated people, in front of the pundits of the intellect, in front of those who are used to juggling with the mind, in front of the fanatics of the syllogisms, prosyllogisms and esillogysms of subjective rationalism, then, obviously one is exposed to mockery, sarcasm, irony, scorn, satire, because this can never be admitted by the subjective rationalism of the intellect. What I am now saying can only be within the reach of Intuition. If one day you want to really attain Enlightenment, the perception of the Real, the complete knowledge of the Mysteries of Life and Death, you will need to go up the marvellous steps of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition. Rationalism alone could never lead you to these deep inner experiences In no way would we declare ourselves against the intellect. What we want is to specify functions, and that is not a crime. Undoubtedly, the intellect is useful within its orbit; outside its orbit, I repeat what I said in the beginning of this lecture, it is useless. But if we fanatically cling to the intellect and we flatly refuse to go up the rungs of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition, we will never succeed in thinking psychologically. Anyone who does not know how to think psychologically remains absolutely trapped in the rustic-sensory sphere, and in fact he may even become a fanatic of Marxist Dialectics

25 Only psychological thinking will open our Inner Mind. That is obvious. Those who have gone up the rungs of Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition, in fact have opened the marvellous doors of the Inner Mind and, as a result, the intuits spring from within; they express themselves through the Inner Mind. That is to say, the Inner Mind serves as a vehicle for the intuits. This Inner Mind is the same Objective Reason, which was clearly specified by the likes of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, Collins, Nicoll To possess Objective Reason means to have opened the Inner Mind, and the Inner Mind only functions with the intuits, with the information of the Being, of the Consciousness, of what is superlative and ethnic in us, of what is transcendental and transcendent in us, and not in any other way.

26 RECOMMENDED PRACTICE Practise the 'glass of water' visualization exercise ten minutes every day. Place a simple glass or a glass bowl full of water on a table. Place a little mirror at its bottom. The mirror will more or less take up the circumference of the container. Put some drops of mercury into the water. (If mercury cannot be obtained, use only the glass of water and the mirror). Concentrate your sight on the very centre of the glass, throughout its centre, in such a way that your sight goes through the glass. Think of nothing during the practice of this exercise. If some involuntary thought appears in your mind, do not identify with it; forget it and continue to be concentrated on the water. When doing this exercise, do not tense your body or your eyes. Concentrate your eyes in a natural way, without thinking of anything, in a relaxed way

27 Gnostic Editions