Thresholds

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

4:15 a.m. I am not quite sure if we’re going to have a session or not. You tell me.

It is almost always up to you. If you don’t feel like it, or feel up to it, who is going to force you to do it, and what kind of results could be expected?

But occasionally it has seemed like, on your end there was – well, not that there was nobody home, but that in some way the time wasn’t propitious.

As we have said, it can happen, but it is rare once you on your end have mastered the trick of an active receptivity. It isn’t like there is ever a lack of things to talk about. More common limitations are on the 3D end: energy level, attention, wellness or otherwise, emotional and mental tranquility sufficient for the work.

And sometimes I just feel lazy, or I want to read, or go back to bed.

We’re satisfied with our progress and our routine if you are. There isn’t any harm in a brief hiatus. What would be undesirable would be to shirk an uncomfortable topic, but that isn’t what is happening at the moment. By all means, take the time off if you wish.

That sense of a comfortable, pleasant routine that incorporates freedom to take a break from the routine – or I suppose I should say, a comfortable routine that includes freedom within it – is very agreeable, much more so than if I felt I were being held in tight harness by some “should.”

Righteous persistence rarely includes external coercion.

Yes, well put. So, let me set my switches, and I’m open to whatever you want to talk about.

You are at the threshold of greater things, and perhaps it would be as well to point out that sometimes greater things come to you whether you are willing or not, and in such case your own free will takes greater importance than even usual.

I think you are saying, in effect, the times come round, prior to which it was “You can’t really experience this yet, except perhaps by exceptional effort or by unusually propitious circumstances,” but once they do come round, it’s “Ready or not, here you go.”

That’s a very striking way to put it. Yes. At one age, in which we might call certain cosmic circumstances (denoted by, not caused by, astrological symbolism), a given achievement or attainment or even aspiration may be quite difficult for any given individual to obtain or pursue. At another age, Joe Schmoe will be able to do, naturally and easily, things the greatest adepts of earlier ages were unable to do, or could do only after long preparation and with great effort.

(Of course the changes that now make certain previously difficult things easier may also make previously easy things difficult, but while we wish to put that on the record, we don’t intend to dwell on that aspect of reality, at the moment. We merely wish to remind you that everything has the defects of its qualities; that specialization is always a narrowing as well as an extension. However, let us concentrate upon new possibilities rather than older doors closing.)

You could say that is what happened every time a new religion swept the field, I suppose.

Yes. Very good. Very good. That is the connecting theme here. The characteristics of an age manifest through individuals, of course. How else can they be seen, except through individuals? But those changed individuals are not of concern to themselves alone: They are of concern to themselves and their own development, but they are also representative of their times and of the newly flowering potential.

So, when Christianity replaced paganism in the Roman world, it closed certain doors and opened certain doors. This was not a case of bad side-effects accompanying good effects, it was the principle we have alluded to in the past, that in order to manifest a rose, you must suppress manifesting what is not-rose.

Which is not to say that Christianity was necessarily as broad-minded as it might have been.

That is more a matter of “season to taste.” For some personality types, a new manifestation must appear narrow and tightly bounded, or it would be shapeless and uncertain and without effect. Other personality types cannot abide narrowness and find new material satisfying only when it incorporates previous understandings, rather than rejects and supplants them. But a religion, like any broad cultural movement, must simultaneously appeal to many psychological types. The better it fits some, the less well it will fit others. There is always going to be a tension there, it’s inevitable. Still, when the time comes round, in effect the cosmos itself leans toward a certain new way of seeing and experiencing things, and so every individual’s judgment is skewed – or, not skewed (which would imply error), but – weighted in a certain direction. At a certain time, even if that “time” spanned generations, it became impossible to bring oneself to believe what one’s ancestors had believed and experienced naturally and easily and accurately.

And of course we are saying “religion” to make a point, but any new way of seeing things – or rather any new way of living things – is going to be subject to the same rules of life. If you believe in science or in materialism or in the great No, or whatever, it is going to be a matter of you tending to be able to believe this rather than that, and that tendency is likely to have more to do with the shared subjectivity expressing as “your times” than with any individual qualities you bring to the mix. There was a time when Voltairean skepticism seemed the latest liberation from a smothering orthodoxy, and was. But later ages do not find in it what its own age did, simply because the times have continued to roll around. This is not abstract and without specific application to you who read it. As we said at first, you are at the threshold of greater things, and it is up to you how you will respond to the opportunity: It is not up to you whether or not the opportunity comes round.

Sure. You can’t sail on the ship till it comes to the harbor and is ready to go, but just because the ship is there doesn’t mean you’re going to ready and willing to set foot on it.

You are in very good accord today. Yes, that is it exactly. The times have come round. What may have been long held aspirations that you mostly thought could never be realized, now await your decision. Rejoice.

Of course the ship being in port does not by itself guarantee that we know how to get a ticket.

Don’t fool yourselves. You were born with the right to a ticket. The question is not, will the opportunity arise. It is right here. The question is, do you wish to board, or to stay ashore, or to ponder what to do. We do not imply that there is a right or wrong answer. How could we decide for others? But we do point out, you’ve longed for the ship to arrive. It’s here. Don’t make your decision by default, whether or not to board it. Deciding by default is rarely satisfactory.

I take it, by the fact that we were born with the right to a ticket, that we can count on our non-3D and on the shared subjectivity to not only not impede, but to facilitate.

Of course. The only joker in that deck is that your own unknown mind may have unsuspected cross-currents. That’s one more reason for you to know yourself. Openness is all.

In effect, do our past-life review while we’re still here, as best we can.

The more you face what you are reluctant to acknowledge, the freer you are, yes. Enough for the moment.

Our thanks as always. Very interesting. Our theme?

Perhaps “thresholds and decisions,’ or “thresholds and choices,” something like that.

Okay.