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The fervor we seek to convey can be assimilated. The fire of our mind and spirit can be absorbed through a simple reading and application of the consciousness, of the heart. We know that man can inductively enter into a higher state. The sincere reading and rereading of our words until they become a very part of the consciousness of the disciple-aspirant can and does create in him a key by which his own alchemical expertise is developed.
So much interest has developed in many of you concerning the creation of the cloud that I wish to expound still further upon it.
The cloud is the means whereby man alters his destiny. I do not say that there are not other methods that can effectively achieve this purpose. Each karmic act has its own recompense. Each deed that men do, each thought that they think makes its imprint upon their lives. But many of these are negatively qualified, hence destructively manifest. They come haphazardly through experiences which men do not govern; for when men do not govern their worlds, they are governed by the circumstances of the world.
Through the creation of the cloud, then, we seek to transcend time, space, and even karma - short-circuiting many of the old spirals, shortening the time of man's realization of his own God-reality,1 and helping him to realize in an avant-garde manner the graciousness of the Lord of the Universe.
There are many schools of the Brotherhood. There are many methods of achieving. In our releases through The Summit Lighthouse, we seek to assist our students in expanding their consciousness with facility. We seek to weld together the body of God upon earth by first creating the understanding of both the beauty and the practicality of true alchemy. We are not interested in forming a society of magicians who will go around producing seeming miracles - albeit we acknowledge that the proficient alchemist, even through this course, can do just that.
What we are interested in is the subscribing of our students to a universal brotherhood and body already existing spiritually as the Great White Brotherhood. Being in the invisible, this order, comprising the alchemists of the Spirit, requires a union with embodied humanity. For only through this association can we formulate the most beautiful, sustaining concepts that will enable the entire house of the world to breathe the air of freedom and to be infused with the fires of destiny in its individual and collective aspects.
Man must see and know that as he is and as he does, so others see and do. Thus, in perception and in action, man can endow the pages of history with a revelatory illumination, thereby fulfilling the fiats of God "Take dominion over the earth!" and "Set the example for the age!" With each act of grace, man becomes endowed with more grace. Each step of self-mastery raises him higher in the cosmic peerage, until he is crowned at last through the eternal mysteries with the full realization of his own potential.
Our cloud, then, in answer to some of your questions, can become physically tangible. It need not be so in order to endow you with the highest graces. Through the cloud you can draw to yourselves God's holy witnesses that have lived in all generations, that have called him blessed, that he has blessed.
You can be freed through the light and fire of the cloud from the mediocrity of the present age and from the degradations of past ages and their cumulative effects upon the human psyche. You can, as it were, rend the veil of the Holy of Holies if your purpose be communion with the Most High, as was Moses' in the Sinai Desert. You can realize through the cloud the full perfection of your glorious I AM Presence.
Then through your contact with the I AM Presence, the Presence of all being, you can develop a culture of the Spirit at lower levels that will provide stairways of safety upon which others may climb. There is never any need, regardless of what outer manifestations or vile astral energies may seek entrance to your world, to yield to these depredations. You have the power of the Christ to cast out unwanted states of consciousness.2
The Great Alchemist lives within you. You live within him. Therefore, through your conscious experimentations with the cloud, you can surround yourself with the means of producing change.
In our examinations of those who through the ages have worked with the cloud, we have taken note that those who have been convinced of the reality of the cloud, those who have dared to endow their consciousness and being with the very qualities of the cloud itself, have become more and more efficient in its use. For them each daily experiment in creating change has become easier.
I hope that I have conveyed to you in this intermediate course the ideas I have sought to convey. Please understand, however, that the full power and glory can only unfold within the concepts of the total course.
It is my hope, as it was to create this series when I first produced Studies in Alchemy, to one day produce for you Advanced Studies in Alchemy. We shall then be able to offer humanity a beautiful trilogy - the first section laying the groundwork of ideas3 through the golden flame of illumination, the second herein pronouncing the love ray that through the cloud of the Holy Spirit endows your ideas with life, and the third section explaining how to make permanent that which you create through the power of the spoken Word.
This trilogy will be especially valuable to those who are not only concerned with "magick," but who also recognize that alchemy is the means of renewing youth, first in the inward parts of man and then throughout his entire consciousness and manifestation. And if this be accomplished, it cannot help but be the means of enhancing individual and world thought.
Now as you ponder the correct experiment for your efforts in alchemy, remember that the stereotypes that abound in the world are not all ugly. In fact, there are many historical and cultural literary masterpieces that embody divine stereotypes, or archetypes as we would call them. It is not necessary for the student in his alchemical experiments to shun all that appears to be of the ordinary. In many cases, rather than ferret out the commonplace, it is more important that you avoid the classification of a condition as trite, for in reality it may be a great idea.
Do not fear to embrace beautiful thoughts because someone else thought of them first. The time will come when you will develop a greater uniqueness. But until you become more proficient with your experiments, it is more important that you go upon a safe highway - that is, if speed combined with exactitude be your desire.
There comes a time when man passes beyond the pale of that which his own experience patterns can teach him. Then the immortals stand ready, even as they do while he is still learning the lessons of earth, to help him expand in every facet of his endeavors, whether human or divine. Progress is never governed as much by what man desires to do or to be, or even by what the world has to offer, as it is by his realization that he can be all that God wants him to be, if he will just accept that simple thought.
Seek not, then, the bizarre; rather be content to be a good man or a good woman. Place yourself in the hands of God, in the hands of the Father of all, who cares for the birds of the air and the fragile flowers that glow for the breath of a moment.
Do you not think that he cares more for you than for the grass of the field that withereth away - he who esteems you enough to give you his consciousness, to create for you a universe, a universal Mother, Nature herself, and to impregnate that Nature with the fires of his own Spirit - all for you, all for you? Yet man is as the grass of the field4 when he esteems himself so to be, when in mediocrity, selfishness, deceit, and a sense of personal struggle, he strives only for outer recognition.
Let men seek not to be thought great of other men, but to recognize internally the greatness of God that is inherent in all of Life's manifestations. Then their alchemy will hold within it the alchemy of becoming perfected.
I do not say there are not other great mysteries waiting to be revealed in connection with alchemy. I know that there are. I do say that
The way of the Tree of Life
Which is the perfect secret
That God has guarded from the curious
and profane
Remains a penetrable mystery
To him who is not ashamed
To wear his wings,
To him who understands
The diligence of each day,
To him who is content to place his hand
In loving trust that destiny is ours,
To him who is willing to forsake
A past that has not produced
The blossoming beauty he craves,
To him whose heart reaches up as a cup
To the highest and sweetest,
The noblest and best Lord of all
In the desire to have imparted to himself
And every part of life
The best of gifts.
He speaks in summoned, loving tones
Of inward communion,
"O Father, not my will but thine be done!"
To him there is conveyed the highest crown,
The word "dominion."
He is the Son, the Alchemist,
The beloved one.
He can divide the loaves and fishes,5
Walk upon the waves,6
Fulfill his own and others' wishes,
And be the Great Benefactor.
In him the Immortal Spirit prevails,
The ultima Thule is seen.
[Taken from the book version, Saint Germain On Alchemy]