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Remember that once you have held the vision of the cloud and turned it over to your Higher Self to sustain, to the latent God-faculties within you, your God Presence will sustain it for the required period. In time you will find that the glow of the cloud will softly suffuse itself through your physical body, and as this takes place there will come a sharpening of the mind and a new sense of awareness of all life everywhere.
As you perform this ritual-exercise of creating the cloud through attunement with the creative power of the universe, becoming thereby a co-creator with God, you will gain a feeling of detachment from the world as though you were merely an observer to what is taking place around you. This will occur as you allow yourself to flow automatically into the great creative power of the Macrocosm.
This experience in flow, whereby the lesser consciousness of man flows into the greater consciousness of God, is what is known as "going up into the mountain."1 It is called a mountaintop experience because through it man discovers the Summit of his being, the place where the lower self is wed to the Higher, and Matter and Spirit merge.
Therefore, throughout this ritual your consciousness must be kept pure, charged with love, aware of the infinite potential of the cosmic mind of God, and completely identified with all constructive momentums. If there is an introduction of hatred or even mild dislike of any-one or an attempt to interfere with the cosmic flow of the infinite plan through any part of life, such activity will, of course, create a karmic situation that will prove most unfortunate to the individual who allows his energies to become so engaged.
Those who have irresponsibly used alchemical techniques, whether in ignorance or with the intent of bringing harm to other lifestreams, have in fact brought about great harm to themselves. Others who harbor feelings of criticism, jealousy, and irritation concerning the actions and accomplishments of friend or foe may create just as much harm as those whose malice is intended. Gossip itself is one of the most deadly forms of black magic and can bring about the physical death of its victims.
Seeing that all harm eventually returns to the one sending it forth, would it not be well for all true alchemists to take the vow of harmlessness, at the same time recognizing that the defense of truth and freedom sometimes necessitates making a choice between the lesser of evils?
I urge, then, that all understand the need to magnetize the grand design of God for all parts of life. Naturally, everyone cannot be expected to be in sympathy with your aims. After all, on the great ladder of souls ascending progressively (hopefully toward the light of purpose), there are many levels of attainment.
None should condemn those of lesser understanding or do aught except to emulate those of greater understanding. Above all, do not be jealous of those who may be more successful than you in their application of the science of intermediate alchemy. Remember that it is practice that makes perfect, that it is motive that transfigures design, that it is beauty that transfixes the soul.
Thus the loving purposes of God come to fruition in man as he originally intended them to do, for the Garden of Eden was a place where the beauty of communion with the LORD and the understanding of his laws could be imparted to man. It was intended to be the most beautiful school in all the world, where the dreams of God could flow through the branches of the tall trees, where the billowing clouds of morning, of noon, of even would be highlighted by the sacred glow of the luminous sun, "a light to light the day."
Lament not, for the Edenic school shall be reestablished in this day and age to fulfill the plan of paradise ere the golden age shall manifest. And it shall appear when enough alchemists of the Spirit unite in the common goal of bearing witness to the truth.
Now let us place our attention upon the science of picturization, for without it nothing shall appear. You will find this science illustrated in the story of Jacob, who used alchemy to increase the numbers of his cattle.2 Visualization is important to the alchemist, because it is the overlay of his visualization upon the creative cloud that actually produces the miracle of alchemical manifestation.
If you wish a more youthful appearance, you must visualize yourself as having just that. If you wish more vitality, you must visualize yourself already having that vitality - your muscles rippling with God's energy, your mind brimming over with vital ideas, tingling with life and light and love. You must feel and know that the energies of God are flowing through your fingertips and toes, emanating into space the glow of abundant health and a transfiguring countenance.
As you proceed with this exercise, there will be produced, without additional effort on your part, a beneficial effect upon those whom you contact. But you must be very careful not to seek recognition for this service; otherwise, as it is written in the Book of Life, "ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven."3
I know that you will smile when I say that we are aware of some students who, when they are given this material, may become so enthused with it that they will say to those who are uninformed of their efforts to become more godly, "Do you feel something when I am near?" And of course this will spoil the whole effect of any virtue they may have developed during their study.
Calling attention to one's accomplishments produces a concentration of energy upon the personality and away from the soul whence the radiance of the source is derived. Whereas the inherent God-qualities of the soul are like radioactive substance imbedded in and composing the soul, the radiant cloud is the soul's own alchemical altar which makes possible the soul's expansion - like unto the expanding universe - from the fires of its own central sun out into space.
Some may ask, How can we produce miracles that affect others without taking that energy which belongs to them or without depriving them of the opportunity of producing their own wondrous changes? These seem to be of the opinion that the fires of God have a decay rate and that sometime, somewhere these fires will come to an end or burn themselves out.
Let me hasten to assure you that though all of the suns in the physical universe were to fall as burning cinders into the central sun and the central sun by God's law were to be dissolved in its physical manifestation, the fires of the soul of God would never burn out. They are immutable, infinite, and eternal. Have no fear, then, that you are using up God's energies or that you are taking that energy which might be used more profitably by another.
When the fiat "Create!" went forth, it was the signal of God's gift of freedom to man. Therefore, man should be free to create. Moreover, he should be free to create without condemnation. To insure his freedom from the impinging thoughts of others, the matrices of his mind must become receptive to and fortified by the thoughts of God and there must be spaces in the time of the day when, apart from the creating of the cloud, the alchemist attunes with the mind of God and drinks in the fragrance of his being.
True alchemy draws man close to God and to his Christ, and it enables him to fulfill the ancient fiats "Man, know thyself!" "Create!" and "Take dominion!" The benefits of man's communion with all life through the sacred science can and will spread abroad throughout the earth. These benefits can and will exert the pressure of the higher techniques of heaven upon the world below.
Have you not read "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares"?4 Let men entertain you as angels unawares. Do not sully your alchemical results by imposing the dregs of the human personality upon any man; rather continue in the joyous faith that God will expand and expand and expand the domain of yourself in limitless light and love.
One of the most important points for you to understand in the science of intermediate alchemy is that whereas you are only beginning your training, this is not the only opportunity you will have to use these laws. For you will be able to use them not only all the days of this life, but should you not win your ascension at the close of this embodiment, you will find that so long as you live upon this earth, the science of God's alchemy will help you to be changed "from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."5 You must understand that there is nothing counter to his law in the correct use of alchemy, for true alchemy is the change from glory unto glory by his Spirit.
I know that some who are reading this course may not have considered themselves religious at the beginning. Perhaps the intended functions of the spoilers, the brothers of the shadow, to ruin the purposes of religion by ruining the lives of those who profess to follow religion may have corroded your acceptance of the laws of cosmos.
But I think that some of you have already begun to experience profound results in your lives through the practice of the rituals I have given you. And I am certain that those of you who have not will begin to do so as your faith mounts and as you counteract all your negatives by the exhilarating sense that you can change your world and that you can make your life what God wants it to be and what you, deep inside, want it to be. For you can find success in all that you are doing. And that success need not be confined to the spiritual side of life, but it can also include the material.
The Lord has said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Therefore, fear not to ask that ye may receive of the earthly things that you need even as you have first sought the heavenly.
Remember the story of our Lord who, when he would ride into Jerusalem, told two of his disciples to go to a certain village where they would find "a colt tied, whereon never man sat." They were instructed to fetch "the colt, the foal of an ass,"6 and to tell those who might question them, "The Lord hath need of him."7
Will you develop this sense of knowing that what you have need of, God will supply? Oh, build and build, brothers of Light! Build, sisters of Light! For God needs you. The kingdom needs you.
[Taken from the book version, Saint Germain On Alchemy]