No ritual can force a breakthrough the soul isn’t ready to carry, and no lack of ritual can keep a ripening truth from revealing itself. The timing belongs to the inner life, not to the gatekeepers. When the capacity appears, the so-called secret steps forward on its own.
And that’s why the Holy Fools matter. They slip past every hierarchy because something in them stays unguarded. Call it sincerity, call it innocence, call it the blessed refusal to pretend, or maybe they are just fools. Whatever it is, it leaves a crack wide enough for Wisdom to walk through. They don’t climb the ladder. They let the truth wander in through the side door.
Yes, those Holy Fools flowing with openness and innocence allowing the eternal current to guide them—ready to follow where their trusting heart leads—reveals more (side) doors in the cathedral than taking it by force. Truth will unfold, maybe just not in what we consider a “timely” manner.
I do hear what you are saying but I also wonder if we can't push the unfolding with a little extra force right now to get over the shock point that we find ourselves in!!?? It seems to me that many are thirsty for Spiritual Truth but have wandered astray, down the path of conspiracy. Can we help to right the path? I feel the urgency and wonder if I am just not far enough down my own path or if that urgent feeling is call forward to action. -or- maybe both/and 🙏🏻
Hi Cynthia. This situation, along with the tension it generates, reminds me of the longstanding disagreements between contemplatives and actives in Christian practice.
Emmanuel Swedenborg said that angels on a given lower level of heaven can’t even see the other levels, because their understanding is different from one another, and that determines what they see.
In the same way I seem to recall a comment by Gurdjieff in which he pointed out that you could put a secret out in plain sight in and most folks wouldn’t even notice it.
Or perhaps we could refer to Winston Churchill’s comment, which was that many people stumble over the truth at least once in their life, but almost everyone picks himself up and carries on as though nothing had happened.
Struggle is needed. No one likes struggle and would prefer it went away. That’s why it’s called struggle.
Lee.... Perhaps you will write more about the longstanding tension between contemplation and action, especially as these 88 exercises seem to sit directly in the venn of that tension? I, for one, would love to read your exploration.
Hi Jennifer. In a general sense there is probably no better comment on this question than in Meister Eckhart's sermon 3, to which I defer. You can download and read it here: https://german.yale.edu/sites/default/files/meister-eckhart-maurice-o-c-walshe-bernard-mcginn-the-complete-mystical-works-of-meister-eckhart-the-crossroad-publishing-company-2009.pdf. ...We should note that this question is generally, in Christian terms, considered in light of the question of monastic (or perhaps even individual) cloistering and withdrawal versus concrete charity towards the poor in the outer world; and indeed there's even an active and contemplative argument within the Gurdjieff work about that... which should IMHO be actively contemplated. Eckhart takes up the question in somewhat... but not quite... the same light; and it leaves the question of what the whole thing means inwardly more open and perhaps a bit more related to the interests of readership on practice. I'll perhaps write on that in the ZYG space if I can fit it in the calendar somewhere.
Lee... Thank you for this generous reply and the pointing of a pilgrim toward Meister's Eckhart's Sermon 3. This venn is an area of particular focus in my study right now and I look forward to pulling the Sermon and your new post into my 'active contemplation' and synthesis. Truly, thank you.
Perhaps, I am not worthy enough to eat the secret food from the table of the esoteric secret keepers, but I am hungry enough to eat the crumbs from the Master's table.
My experience confirms your assessment. The attraction to “secret” teachings in me seems to come from the ego centers of power and control, my sense is that the “secret keepers,” keep the secret from the same place.
In my search, the prospect of access to so-called "secret" teachings are often held out as a hook to bring people in by the nose of the ego, like one of the old cartoon characters that gets hypnotically lifted to the toes and dragged across the floor by the nostrils to wherever the delicious secret scent hand emanates from.
As Valentin, Tomberg notes, “secrets are only facts, procedures, practices, or whatever doctrines that one keeps to oneself for a personal motive, since they are able to be understood and put into practice by others to whom one does not want to reveal them.” He also reminds us that there is distinction between secret and silence, and that silence is about silencing our arbitrary will and imagination—not necessarily teaching and practice.
The handful of Gurdjieff exercises that I have been taught and worked with have been extremely helpful for me and many others. I have been careful and respectful. But could they be misused? Sure. Could some of them be dangerous to people that are not stable enough to work with them? Absolutely. Are respect and discretion warranted in their dissemination? Of course.
Will their wider dissemination and misuse create an army of demonic egregores or Hasnamusses? I think that army already exists and, at least on the surface, it looks like they are putting up a good fight.
Is hierarchy needed? Yes, but as you note that word requires discretion.
As you point out in the distinction between red-shift and blue-shift metaphysics, the vertical dimensions of hierarchy are often overly emphasized and divorced from the horizontal dimensions, which are equally necessary and required for real order and to foster growth. It’s not just top down, or bottom up, but also, it is moving from inner to outer, and outer to inner, integrating all of it into one dynamic swirling whole.
The Lakota have this mastered in their sacred teaching of the seven directions (as I understand it): 1-west, 2-north, 3-east, 4-south (the horizontal), 5- below (the earth), 6-above (Great Mystery), and 7 – the inner dimension (associated with the eye of the heart)]. It it’s a multidimensional crucifix. It’s probably the same as the Enneagram somehow.
But the point (or at least a point) of hierarchy as I understand it is mutual benevolent exchange and growth!? If any, hierarchy is not serving that, no thank you!
As I continue to explore your work, or that of Tomberg’s, or Gurdjieff’s, I keep asking myself, why did I not find this teaching earlier? And the answer invariably is that I was not ready for it. If my experience has taught me anything it is that help comes when I sincerely want and need it. No secret keepers can prevent that!
There is a great saying often used in recovery circles, “you can’t transmit, what you don’t have”, but once you have it, then you can’t help but give it away.
I thought giving it all away was the whole point anyway, but of course, that isn’t easy.
Daniel... thank you for this feast (especially the visual of the Lakota 7-directions!). I find myself wondering on your idea of the ego (in this case the qualities of power and control) nudging one hypnotically toward the boundary line of the inner circle. As Cynthia writes of these concentric circles of inner/power and asks us to wrestle with our immediate notions of hierarchy, I find myself reflecting on the Holy of Holies...rooms within rooms where the voltage becomes increasingly raw and hard to bear. Most of us can't 'handle' it, but darn if we are not drawn toward it, long for it even. Is it a small-self egoic power that drives us to want to know the secrets? I wonder if it is a more of a beautiful marriage between egoic Moi's will and desire and Je's holding of the bigger aim and essence.... at least I want to believe this... that the pull toward the inner sanctum is in someway us being called and fed by a higher umbilical cord... And... as Cynthia names... the construction of these circles can drop away instantly, internally, when we are ready to see and bear, in those moments when Je & Moi dance together. ❤️
Amen! Beautiful. Thank you. I want to believe that too. Experience suggests you are right. . . a beautiful marriage between Moi and Je. This is what comes up from Tomberg (I had it up on my computer . . . it's that kind of day:):
"Monsieur Priest, pardon me concerning what you think to be human pride
which wants to penetrate into the mysteries of God, instead of bowing before
divine wisdom and goodness and accepting with humility, as befits a
Christian, the revealed truths of salvation—which, in so far as they are
practised, suffice absolutely for the well-being, happiness and salvation of the
soul.
I say this to you now as if at confession: I am unable not to aspire to the
depth, the height and the breadth of comprehensive truth, to comprehension of
the totality of things. I have made the sacrifice of the intellect (sacrificium
intellectus) in all sincerity and without reserve, but what an intensification of
the life of thought, what increased ardour in the aspiration to spiritual
knowledge, that has followed! I know that the truths of salvation revealed and
transmitted by the Council of the Holy Church are both necessary and
sufficient for salvation, and I have no doubt whatever that they are true, and I
strive to do my best to practise them; but I am unable to arrest the current of
the river of thought which bears me towards mysteries that perhaps are meant
only for saints—perhaps only for Angels—in any case, that I know without
doubt are reserved for beings more worthy than me. Father, will you grant me
Thank you Daniel. This is stunning. I love that we went around the circle only to come back to Genesis, "I will not let you go until you have blessed me."
This reminds me of the story by Leo Tolstoy….about the three hermits. They lived on a remote island (in the world, not of the world) and a bishop pays a visit and is horrified at their prayer life. The hermits only prayer was, we are three, You are three, have mercy on us. The bishop then sought to teach them the right way to pray and tried to get them to memorize the Our Father. The hermits tried their best. (Respect for the hierarchy). When the bishop was satisfied that they knew the “right way” to pray, he left the island. As he was sailing away he saw three figures running to his boat, walking on water, asking the bishop to once again remind them of the words to the new prayer that they were to say.
I don’t remember the end of the story, but if the bishop could see properly he would fall prostrate before these three simple, we are three, You are three, have mercy on us.
The tzimus of the perspective: "They hide in plain sight. They cannot be revealed before their time is ripe, nor can they be hidden once their moment has arrived. For the totally unexpected power they confer is not ultimately the information itself, but the inner capacity to receive and integrate it."
The inner capacity to receive and integrate it... to *embody* it.
One may find exercises and collect them like stamps or coins, believing that they are better off for it, maybe even more spiritual for just having them, but they are of no use if one has not struggled, as Lee van Laer says, to create a place in oneself that CAN receive them and absorb them into their very Being.
In this way, the real Teaching is a living thing brought alive in those who work. It is not an institution, a book, or a ritual.
From this perspective, perhaps it is even *impossible* to hide an esoteric teaching. It *will* emerge when the student is ready.
Thanks for this "seeing with the eye of the heart" and naming the truth at the core. It is so holistic and agile enough to render the dynamics and name the truth.
I know it's true in my own journey ... what Jesus says to his own "inner circle" in John 16:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming." (v12-13)
(On a much more whimsical note, I remember Mom (with her 8 young sons) would spell her words so Dad could catch them ... and her young brood would not be able to intercept anything for further debate! Of course, when we learned to spell ... that encryption technique lost its zing. LOL )
"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it."
Echoing through time in a place deep in out hearts is the faint whisper calling us home: "I have loved you with an ever lasting love. I have loved you and your are mine." The task is to believe it.
My thought on reading this is; "I get it, but God doesn't work this way." My biggest vision happened almost 50 years ago and I mostly didn't get it because of who I was at that time. Over the decades, I have revisited it again and again as I've lessened - and it's new every time.
I’ve pondered why we beings feel we must “protect “the truth. That we can keep divine love a secret ? Its very nature can’t be hidden. It’s us who hide.
Thanks Cynthia for this very stimulating discussion you bravely raise!
It seems like the history of secrecy has depended on whether it is coming from care, or sometimes self-protection, or from hoarding.
There’s this old documentary about Ben McBrady, the man they called the “last druid” of Ireland, and he said that his order had to stay hidden because their telepathic gifts had been misused by people in power... “secrecy is not something we think a good thing, but it was essential for survival." But I remember him also saying... "Where do you hide a pebble but on the beach?”
The teachings have many layers... the outer story, the symbolic and numerological, and those mysteries that can only be revealed when a student is inwardly ready. It seems what you're noticing is that the wisdom teaching itself can be the good teacher... because it is layered in such a way that it doesn't push the student to breaking... and instead coaxes them along toward breakthroughs. Maybe we need to be trusting in this layered way because sometimes it seems we’ve now swung so far the other way, we're either hoarding the teaching, or we're being so trauma-informed we've become trauma-indulgent... like we’re afraid of any kind of stretching or friction.
I remember you mentioning once that there is a tendency inside certain spiritual circles to see people who aren’t as far along as “food for the moon" and I can't exactly remember but you said something about going willingly ourselves as food for the moon. Maybe the gatekeeper grip needs to unclench, and come what may, it is time to be less tame, and for the wisdom we need to be offered more openly. Knowing that a "hierarchy" of layers is there, and that the presence in each layer has its own beauty and shadow... and that is always the risk, and perhaps even dare i say, the recipe?
I appreciate the delicate way you move through this subject — almost tiptoeing, but with intention. I can sense what you’re pointing to: that many of the gatekeepers are themselves not ready, and that their tight hold on secrecy often comes from their own insecurity or unreadiness. You seem to see their resistance as part of the larger spiritual process — one of the forces that must play itself out along the Ray of Creation.
What strikes me, though, is how universal this pattern is. It’s not only in spiritual circles that the unready guard the gates — we see it in leadership everywhere. And as we witness in the world today, the consequences are no longer subtle. When people without inner maturity hold authority, the impact can be catastrophic. Those who are ready get held back or dismissed, and the truth becomes shaped or delayed by those who fear losing control.
So while I appreciate the beauty of your emphasis on inner readiness, I still feel the tension between that ideal and the human reality we are living in — a reality in which the unreadiness of those in power carries enormous consequences. That tension remains for me.
Thanks so much, I will keep looking for those little hints of love, using often my artist eyes which get cloudy some days in the midst of all this suffering
My comment is a question. Why? While it’s an interesting topic, what can we do? If you post these keepers names and addresses, perhaps some of us would petition them to publish these hidden teachings. Otherwise, I’m not sure I get it.
Even Gurdjieff was wary of some practices. I’m sure he saw the masters and the weeping and wailing. Until Mr Azize published his book, those teachings were hidden, unknown to a broader audience. I’m sure at the very least you’ve had experiences that you’ve held in your pocket until you could put them in a more useable format. I’ve personally had inklings that have taken me years to unwind and even then proved useful only to myself.
So, if I can do anything to help move things along, let me know.
what comes to me is the need to remember we are all always beginners.
I have been a member of two very different spiritual organisations over the years in which there was no mention of secret teachings as such but each in their own way did have incremental teachings, and it was asked that as one progressed through the teachings and reached different levels, you didnt share those with people who had not reached that stage, because it would be meaningless to them and so useless to share.....and to me that seemed fair enough. and in my experience realisations come when you're least expecting them , thus expanding understanding, yet going back to the simplicity of the first teachings sometimes helps to remind me that the most important thing is maintaining that capacity to rest in the Divine within and live from there , and if further teachings reveal deeper layers thats fine but being aware of when the mind and the ego are just reaching for more in an unhealthy way is important to be aware of.
No ritual can force a breakthrough the soul isn’t ready to carry, and no lack of ritual can keep a ripening truth from revealing itself. The timing belongs to the inner life, not to the gatekeepers. When the capacity appears, the so-called secret steps forward on its own.
And that’s why the Holy Fools matter. They slip past every hierarchy because something in them stays unguarded. Call it sincerity, call it innocence, call it the blessed refusal to pretend, or maybe they are just fools. Whatever it is, it leaves a crack wide enough for Wisdom to walk through. They don’t climb the ladder. They let the truth wander in through the side door.
Yes, those Holy Fools flowing with openness and innocence allowing the eternal current to guide them—ready to follow where their trusting heart leads—reveals more (side) doors in the cathedral than taking it by force. Truth will unfold, maybe just not in what we consider a “timely” manner.
I do hear what you are saying but I also wonder if we can't push the unfolding with a little extra force right now to get over the shock point that we find ourselves in!!?? It seems to me that many are thirsty for Spiritual Truth but have wandered astray, down the path of conspiracy. Can we help to right the path? I feel the urgency and wonder if I am just not far enough down my own path or if that urgent feeling is call forward to action. -or- maybe both/and 🙏🏻
I think Rabbi Rami's term was Holy Rascals. A call to get past the institutional.
My Eastern Orthodoxy is showing
Yup!!! Amen!!!
Hi Cynthia. This situation, along with the tension it generates, reminds me of the longstanding disagreements between contemplatives and actives in Christian practice.
Emmanuel Swedenborg said that angels on a given lower level of heaven can’t even see the other levels, because their understanding is different from one another, and that determines what they see.
In the same way I seem to recall a comment by Gurdjieff in which he pointed out that you could put a secret out in plain sight in and most folks wouldn’t even notice it.
Or perhaps we could refer to Winston Churchill’s comment, which was that many people stumble over the truth at least once in their life, but almost everyone picks himself up and carries on as though nothing had happened.
Struggle is needed. No one likes struggle and would prefer it went away. That’s why it’s called struggle.
Lee.... Perhaps you will write more about the longstanding tension between contemplation and action, especially as these 88 exercises seem to sit directly in the venn of that tension? I, for one, would love to read your exploration.
Jennifer, there is now a brief post on this subject available on my "Inner Christianity" substack page.
Hi Jennifer. In a general sense there is probably no better comment on this question than in Meister Eckhart's sermon 3, to which I defer. You can download and read it here: https://german.yale.edu/sites/default/files/meister-eckhart-maurice-o-c-walshe-bernard-mcginn-the-complete-mystical-works-of-meister-eckhart-the-crossroad-publishing-company-2009.pdf. ...We should note that this question is generally, in Christian terms, considered in light of the question of monastic (or perhaps even individual) cloistering and withdrawal versus concrete charity towards the poor in the outer world; and indeed there's even an active and contemplative argument within the Gurdjieff work about that... which should IMHO be actively contemplated. Eckhart takes up the question in somewhat... but not quite... the same light; and it leaves the question of what the whole thing means inwardly more open and perhaps a bit more related to the interests of readership on practice. I'll perhaps write on that in the ZYG space if I can fit it in the calendar somewhere.
Lee... Thank you for this generous reply and the pointing of a pilgrim toward Meister's Eckhart's Sermon 3. This venn is an area of particular focus in my study right now and I look forward to pulling the Sermon and your new post into my 'active contemplation' and synthesis. Truly, thank you.
Thanks for this, Cynthia.
Perhaps, I am not worthy enough to eat the secret food from the table of the esoteric secret keepers, but I am hungry enough to eat the crumbs from the Master's table.
My experience confirms your assessment. The attraction to “secret” teachings in me seems to come from the ego centers of power and control, my sense is that the “secret keepers,” keep the secret from the same place.
In my search, the prospect of access to so-called "secret" teachings are often held out as a hook to bring people in by the nose of the ego, like one of the old cartoon characters that gets hypnotically lifted to the toes and dragged across the floor by the nostrils to wherever the delicious secret scent hand emanates from.
As Valentin, Tomberg notes, “secrets are only facts, procedures, practices, or whatever doctrines that one keeps to oneself for a personal motive, since they are able to be understood and put into practice by others to whom one does not want to reveal them.” He also reminds us that there is distinction between secret and silence, and that silence is about silencing our arbitrary will and imagination—not necessarily teaching and practice.
The handful of Gurdjieff exercises that I have been taught and worked with have been extremely helpful for me and many others. I have been careful and respectful. But could they be misused? Sure. Could some of them be dangerous to people that are not stable enough to work with them? Absolutely. Are respect and discretion warranted in their dissemination? Of course.
Will their wider dissemination and misuse create an army of demonic egregores or Hasnamusses? I think that army already exists and, at least on the surface, it looks like they are putting up a good fight.
Is hierarchy needed? Yes, but as you note that word requires discretion.
As you point out in the distinction between red-shift and blue-shift metaphysics, the vertical dimensions of hierarchy are often overly emphasized and divorced from the horizontal dimensions, which are equally necessary and required for real order and to foster growth. It’s not just top down, or bottom up, but also, it is moving from inner to outer, and outer to inner, integrating all of it into one dynamic swirling whole.
The Lakota have this mastered in their sacred teaching of the seven directions (as I understand it): 1-west, 2-north, 3-east, 4-south (the horizontal), 5- below (the earth), 6-above (Great Mystery), and 7 – the inner dimension (associated with the eye of the heart)]. It it’s a multidimensional crucifix. It’s probably the same as the Enneagram somehow.
But the point (or at least a point) of hierarchy as I understand it is mutual benevolent exchange and growth!? If any, hierarchy is not serving that, no thank you!
As I continue to explore your work, or that of Tomberg’s, or Gurdjieff’s, I keep asking myself, why did I not find this teaching earlier? And the answer invariably is that I was not ready for it. If my experience has taught me anything it is that help comes when I sincerely want and need it. No secret keepers can prevent that!
There is a great saying often used in recovery circles, “you can’t transmit, what you don’t have”, but once you have it, then you can’t help but give it away.
I thought giving it all away was the whole point anyway, but of course, that isn’t easy.
Daniel... thank you for this feast (especially the visual of the Lakota 7-directions!). I find myself wondering on your idea of the ego (in this case the qualities of power and control) nudging one hypnotically toward the boundary line of the inner circle. As Cynthia writes of these concentric circles of inner/power and asks us to wrestle with our immediate notions of hierarchy, I find myself reflecting on the Holy of Holies...rooms within rooms where the voltage becomes increasingly raw and hard to bear. Most of us can't 'handle' it, but darn if we are not drawn toward it, long for it even. Is it a small-self egoic power that drives us to want to know the secrets? I wonder if it is a more of a beautiful marriage between egoic Moi's will and desire and Je's holding of the bigger aim and essence.... at least I want to believe this... that the pull toward the inner sanctum is in someway us being called and fed by a higher umbilical cord... And... as Cynthia names... the construction of these circles can drop away instantly, internally, when we are ready to see and bear, in those moments when Je & Moi dance together. ❤️
Amen! Beautiful. Thank you. I want to believe that too. Experience suggests you are right. . . a beautiful marriage between Moi and Je. This is what comes up from Tomberg (I had it up on my computer . . . it's that kind of day:):
"Monsieur Priest, pardon me concerning what you think to be human pride
which wants to penetrate into the mysteries of God, instead of bowing before
divine wisdom and goodness and accepting with humility, as befits a
Christian, the revealed truths of salvation—which, in so far as they are
practised, suffice absolutely for the well-being, happiness and salvation of the
soul.
I say this to you now as if at confession: I am unable not to aspire to the
depth, the height and the breadth of comprehensive truth, to comprehension of
the totality of things. I have made the sacrifice of the intellect (sacrificium
intellectus) in all sincerity and without reserve, but what an intensification of
the life of thought, what increased ardour in the aspiration to spiritual
knowledge, that has followed! I know that the truths of salvation revealed and
transmitted by the Council of the Holy Church are both necessary and
sufficient for salvation, and I have no doubt whatever that they are true, and I
strive to do my best to practise them; but I am unable to arrest the current of
the river of thought which bears me towards mysteries that perhaps are meant
only for saints—perhaps only for Angels—in any case, that I know without
doubt are reserved for beings more worthy than me. Father, will you grant me
absolution?
Come what may, I can only echo Jacob’s words:
I will not let you go until you have blessed me.
(Genesis xxxii, 26)"
Thank you Daniel. This is stunning. I love that we went around the circle only to come back to Genesis, "I will not let you go until you have blessed me."
Thanks for the exchange! I hope to see you soon.
This reminds me of the story by Leo Tolstoy….about the three hermits. They lived on a remote island (in the world, not of the world) and a bishop pays a visit and is horrified at their prayer life. The hermits only prayer was, we are three, You are three, have mercy on us. The bishop then sought to teach them the right way to pray and tried to get them to memorize the Our Father. The hermits tried their best. (Respect for the hierarchy). When the bishop was satisfied that they knew the “right way” to pray, he left the island. As he was sailing away he saw three figures running to his boat, walking on water, asking the bishop to once again remind them of the words to the new prayer that they were to say.
I don’t remember the end of the story, but if the bishop could see properly he would fall prostrate before these three simple, we are three, You are three, have mercy on us.
The tzimus of the perspective: "They hide in plain sight. They cannot be revealed before their time is ripe, nor can they be hidden once their moment has arrived. For the totally unexpected power they confer is not ultimately the information itself, but the inner capacity to receive and integrate it."
The inner capacity to receive and integrate it... to *embody* it.
One may find exercises and collect them like stamps or coins, believing that they are better off for it, maybe even more spiritual for just having them, but they are of no use if one has not struggled, as Lee van Laer says, to create a place in oneself that CAN receive them and absorb them into their very Being.
In this way, the real Teaching is a living thing brought alive in those who work. It is not an institution, a book, or a ritual.
From this perspective, perhaps it is even *impossible* to hide an esoteric teaching. It *will* emerge when the student is ready.
Thanks for this "seeing with the eye of the heart" and naming the truth at the core. It is so holistic and agile enough to render the dynamics and name the truth.
I know it's true in my own journey ... what Jesus says to his own "inner circle" in John 16:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming." (v12-13)
(On a much more whimsical note, I remember Mom (with her 8 young sons) would spell her words so Dad could catch them ... and her young brood would not be able to intercept anything for further debate! Of course, when we learned to spell ... that encryption technique lost its zing. LOL )
Brilliant Tom...kitchen table inner gnosticism! thank you for this sweet levity. ❤️
Deuteronomy 30:11-14, says:
"Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it."
Echoing through time in a place deep in out hearts is the faint whisper calling us home: "I have loved you with an ever lasting love. I have loved you and your are mine." The task is to believe it.
My thought on reading this is; "I get it, but God doesn't work this way." My biggest vision happened almost 50 years ago and I mostly didn't get it because of who I was at that time. Over the decades, I have revisited it again and again as I've lessened - and it's new every time.
Yes yes yes
I’ve pondered why we beings feel we must “protect “the truth. That we can keep divine love a secret ? Its very nature can’t be hidden. It’s us who hide.
Thanks Cynthia for this very stimulating discussion you bravely raise!
It seems like the history of secrecy has depended on whether it is coming from care, or sometimes self-protection, or from hoarding.
There’s this old documentary about Ben McBrady, the man they called the “last druid” of Ireland, and he said that his order had to stay hidden because their telepathic gifts had been misused by people in power... “secrecy is not something we think a good thing, but it was essential for survival." But I remember him also saying... "Where do you hide a pebble but on the beach?”
The teachings have many layers... the outer story, the symbolic and numerological, and those mysteries that can only be revealed when a student is inwardly ready. It seems what you're noticing is that the wisdom teaching itself can be the good teacher... because it is layered in such a way that it doesn't push the student to breaking... and instead coaxes them along toward breakthroughs. Maybe we need to be trusting in this layered way because sometimes it seems we’ve now swung so far the other way, we're either hoarding the teaching, or we're being so trauma-informed we've become trauma-indulgent... like we’re afraid of any kind of stretching or friction.
I remember you mentioning once that there is a tendency inside certain spiritual circles to see people who aren’t as far along as “food for the moon" and I can't exactly remember but you said something about going willingly ourselves as food for the moon. Maybe the gatekeeper grip needs to unclench, and come what may, it is time to be less tame, and for the wisdom we need to be offered more openly. Knowing that a "hierarchy" of layers is there, and that the presence in each layer has its own beauty and shadow... and that is always the risk, and perhaps even dare i say, the recipe?
I appreciate the delicate way you move through this subject — almost tiptoeing, but with intention. I can sense what you’re pointing to: that many of the gatekeepers are themselves not ready, and that their tight hold on secrecy often comes from their own insecurity or unreadiness. You seem to see their resistance as part of the larger spiritual process — one of the forces that must play itself out along the Ray of Creation.
What strikes me, though, is how universal this pattern is. It’s not only in spiritual circles that the unready guard the gates — we see it in leadership everywhere. And as we witness in the world today, the consequences are no longer subtle. When people without inner maturity hold authority, the impact can be catastrophic. Those who are ready get held back or dismissed, and the truth becomes shaped or delayed by those who fear losing control.
So while I appreciate the beauty of your emphasis on inner readiness, I still feel the tension between that ideal and the human reality we are living in — a reality in which the unreadiness of those in power carries enormous consequences. That tension remains for me.
Thanks so much, I will keep looking for those little hints of love, using often my artist eyes which get cloudy some days in the midst of all this suffering
My comment is a question. Why? While it’s an interesting topic, what can we do? If you post these keepers names and addresses, perhaps some of us would petition them to publish these hidden teachings. Otherwise, I’m not sure I get it.
Even Gurdjieff was wary of some practices. I’m sure he saw the masters and the weeping and wailing. Until Mr Azize published his book, those teachings were hidden, unknown to a broader audience. I’m sure at the very least you’ve had experiences that you’ve held in your pocket until you could put them in a more useable format. I’ve personally had inklings that have taken me years to unwind and even then proved useful only to myself.
So, if I can do anything to help move things along, let me know.
"They hide in plain site" and "yes, I see" happens when my inner voice says "Take the personal out of it", and a veil is replaced with devotion.
Thank you Cynthia!
As always, you’ve “nailed it “ as we say in Texas. Your light is shining brightly through your words of wisdom.🙏
what comes to me is the need to remember we are all always beginners.
I have been a member of two very different spiritual organisations over the years in which there was no mention of secret teachings as such but each in their own way did have incremental teachings, and it was asked that as one progressed through the teachings and reached different levels, you didnt share those with people who had not reached that stage, because it would be meaningless to them and so useless to share.....and to me that seemed fair enough. and in my experience realisations come when you're least expecting them , thus expanding understanding, yet going back to the simplicity of the first teachings sometimes helps to remind me that the most important thing is maintaining that capacity to rest in the Divine within and live from there , and if further teachings reveal deeper layers thats fine but being aware of when the mind and the ego are just reaching for more in an unhealthy way is important to be aware of.