2016.09.17 - Living Life as if Everything Were Rigged in Your Favor

[octavia]

Hello everyone. The 2016.09.17 Q'uo Channeling has been published.

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In this channeling Q'uo seems to describe the unmanifest future self "that you are in the process of becoming" as a soft body of shoots, protected by the manifest conceptualization of selfhood which envelops that fragile form.

Now, the growth that you are familiar with are those productions of selfhood that, from a small child onward, you have learned to create. The net result being a sense of self, a sense of who you are that you are able to make be a sustainable vehicle for your mode of interacting with the world, your way of relating to others, and your pursuit of further spiritual development within this, what we might call, “envelope of being.”

Now, it is important to have an envelope of being, for the self that you are in the process of becoming has to it many tender shoots, many vulnerable appendages, and these can be easily damaged. These can be easily torn asunder by the harsh winds of catalyst. So it is well to keep in mind that you live within an envelope of your own creation, and that this envelope serves as a kind of membrane, if you will, that allows the outside to come in and the inside to express itself by moving without:[...]

Third density is an extremely intense experience, and over and over again you will find that the self that you have built to serve as the envelope for your spiritual endeavors will have to be forsaken, will have to shatter on the shoals of very hard weather, and will, in the end, be forced into new and completely unanticipated shapes, so that the self that you emerge from this life experience as will quite likely be of a seemingly very different sort than the self that you thought yourself to be in your younger years.

I have a few ideas about this imagery, but I am unsure. I'm not certain whether the soft body of shoots and its envelope is intended to parallel or even represent the personality shell and the magical personality in an allegorical sense. There appears to be a close parallel, however the magical personality does not seem to me to be that which can be truly dashed upon the rocks of the shore by the shipwreck of harsh catalyst, which is however true of this so-called body of shoots. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts on this imagery of the tender body of shoots enveloped by the protective membrane of selfhood.

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[Jade]

To me, Q'uo seemed to be talking about the Lightning Struck Tower, Potentiator of the Spirit:

Third density is an extremely intense experience, and over and over again you will find that the self that you have built to serve as the envelope for your spiritual endeavors will have to be forsaken, will have to shatter on the shoals of very hard weather, and will, in the end, be forced into new and completely unanticipated shapes, so that the self that you emerge from this [Sarcophagus?] life experience as will quite likely be of a seemingly very different sort than the self that you thought yourself to be in your younger years.

The magical personality is definitely fragile, so to speak - at least, our ability to utilize it in the third density. If we are unintentionally/unconsciously depolarizing ourselves, if we are letting the harsh catalyst destroy our fragile blooms, we could be setting ourselves back, on a few seasons of growth, so to speak.

Notice the imagery of a budding plant is also on the Catalyst of the Spirit:



The lightning could come and strike down that flower at any time. Does the flower give up? If there is still a small seed of hope remaining, the flower can try to bloom again. But, growing from damaged shoots is more difficult - but in the end it makes for a stronger plant, more unique plant.

So, in short, I believe your perception of the allegory is correct - the interaction of the personality shell and the magical personality. The winds of harsh catalyst do not have to destroy our tender shoots - in fact, as we learn to protect and tend to these tender shoots, they grow into much sturdier plants.

We will say that some catalyst will be of such strength that it can seem to threaten not simply this life, but your spiritual well-being in your deepest capacity to understand what that involves.

All of this is an illusion, yes, but it is the illusion which you face, and the challenges it presents to you are very real, and the self that founders on the shoals of difficult seas is indeed the nature of incarnate experience that you have conjured for yourself in coming into this third-density experience.

[octavia]

Wow Jade! I am very impressed by your focused application of the archetypes of the mind/body/spirit! Thank you!

[Although I am interested in archetypes, I generally do not regard myself as intelligent enough to meaningfully understand the archetypes of the mind/body/spirit, such that it was surprising to me to see them used in a context wherein I felt capable of understanding them at least in the context of their application.]

[Jade]

The archetypes are difficult, but it is not an intelligence factor that is required to understand them!! I have spent enough time with them however that I can say, Oh, Q'uo's talking about the potentiator of the spirit, with relative certainty... but, Q'uo doesn't say as much because the archetypes and their "titles" -are- intimidating, and then distracting. So I'm glad my attempts at teaching what I've learned as far as the archetypes go is resonating well. I think if we can all recognize that we do understand the archetypes, we can consciously utilize them more often.

[rva_jeremy]

Thanks for making me aware of the release of this session, Octavia!  I like to tweet these out as they come in, and its helpful that eyes are paying attention.  Pardon the late reply but I really like to digest this stuff before trying to "re-channel" it through my own biases, as it were.  And I really like Jade's archetypal interpretation, too!

With respect to your question, I model spiritual evolution mentally--to the extent mentation is helpful, which is not a great extent--as one of human instrumentality.  By that I mean a way of assigning priority to a deeper process than I perceive in my waking consciousness, so that my human experience is more a means to a greater end than an end in itself.  This is another way of describing the attitude of faith, I suppose, where you simply trust in the beneficence and purpose of the Creation.  The gist is that what we perceive through our third density waking consciousness is an epiphenomenon of a more fundamental process or telos.

So the question naturally arises: if that's the case, to what extent do our waking experiences even matter?  I think that is precisely where the Q'uo's description of this "envelope of being" factors in.  It seems to me there must be some kind of gravity with which manifest experience imbues our more complete selves, perhaps by offering distorted and therefore novel reflections of unity back to the Creator.  This is part of the unity of the evolutionary path, but one we only participate in as a sort of (crucial) functional partner.

One way to think of our participation in this bigger process is that we represent a kind of differential transmission. We are transferring energy from higher to lower orders as well as lower to higher orders.  The personality shell allows us to have an experience of this reflected unity as distortion qua distortion, directly and without pretense, instead of from some higher position where we understand it as distorted unity. It therefore allows us to yield up to the Creator the experience that informs It.

The parts I found particularly interesting were those where the Q'uo discuss the need to actually reject catalyst that is too harsh, and the way that the personality shell of "envelope of being" participates in it:

We will say that some catalyst will be of such strength that it can seem to threaten not simply this life, but your spiritual well-being in your deepest capacity to understand what that involves. You do well not to yield completely to catalyst which is of such a nature that it cannot be squared with your resolve to develop in a positive manner, in a manner which we have called "service to others."

Note that when they discuss this, the function of the self-conception in waking third density is to regulate when catalyst will be yielded to versus not yielded to.  It is less an issue of the catalyst itself, and more an issue of what kind of self-conception you want to assume in response to the catalyst.  There may be, if I interpret correctly, true value in using the differential transmission to "step down" incoming catalyst and not yielding immediate experience of it to the Creator if it would retard the efficiency of one's evolution.  I suppose sometimes a slower, steadier pace can yield more issue of experience to the Creator and more growth than simply having the personality reconstitute at every irreconcilable encounter on the spiritual path.  

What's fascinating to me is that this seems to imply that the superficiality and shallowness of third density consciousness may actually be one of our greatest assets in spiritual growth.  For all its coarseness, the personality shell allows us to fine tune and dial in our larger evolutionary progress, a kind of blunt brake we can invoke through the vehicle of our human identity.  Our impulses to not accept all as self may be crucial to accepting all as self!

So I see the point about the "tender shoots" as that deeper process that is being distortedly reflected back in incarnate experience.  What is vulnerable is not our deeper selves, which have all the time in the world, but the efficiency of our spiritual evolution.  Our third density personality shells act as a membrane or transmission that helps us regulate when internalizing catalyst would be too great a price to pay.  I think this also gets back to the mystery of "efficiency" in evolution, but accepting that concept as a given, the ideas in this session dovetail nicely.

One final point on the catalyst being regulated: keep in mind that, according to those of Ra, our experience of catalyst is itself an epiphenomenon, with the actual, genuine catalysis occurring prior to our perception of it:

93.20 Questioner: I was just wondering if the transparency of the garment on the third card indicates the semi-permeable nature of the veil between conscious and subconscious?

Ra: I am Ra. This is a thoughtful perception and cannot be said to be incorrect. However, the intended suggestion, in general, is an echo of our earlier suggestion that the nature of catalyst is that of the unconscious; that is, outward catalyst comes through the veil.

All that you perceive seems to be consciously perceived. This is not the correct supposition. All that you perceive is perceived as catalyst unconsciously. By the, shall we say, time that the mind begins its appreciation of catalyst, that catalyst has been filtered through the veil and in some cases much is veiled in the most apparently clear perception.

Gary made a similar point in the latest podcast. We often talk about catalyst as something that happens to us, but this may not be entirely correct.  What we are referring to, I believe, is more experience--the reflection of the catalyst rather than the original ray of catalysis shining in.  This may color some of how we think about the regulatory function of the personality shell, since in many cases when we cannot accept catalyst, perhaps we are acting from a deeper intuition about how experience ought best to issue up to the Creator.  Our personality response is perhaps once again a mere epiphenomenon of what is being processed at a lower level, a tool our higher self uses as an interface to the mystery of manifestation in space/time.

Thanks for starting this conversation, Octavia, and thanks Jade for bringing your archetypal insight to bear--it is truly a gift well appreciated here!

[Jade]

A couple other things I want to point out from this session that have still stood out in my mind.

Q'uo describes the vital energies as the energies which are increased by the use of the mind, body, and spirit complex in an integrated fashion. This is why, for one example, Ra says sacred singing was helpful to Carla. Another suggestion to increase vital energies is often to take a walk/hike in nature. Utilizing the body in spiritual activities seems to be the key in increasing vital energies.

Questioner: If there aren’t any other questions I would like to ask Q’uo if you would be able to help us better understand vital energy and how it differs from physical energy? And perhaps how the types of things we might be able to do to enhance vital energy in our lives and in ourselves and things that we might be doing that deplete vital energy?

Q’uo: I am Q’uo and am aware of your query, my sister. Vital energy is so described as it is that energy or combination of energies within your mind, body and spirit complexes which are useful for enhancing your life vitality, your ability to recognize catalyst, to use catalyst, to glean experience from catalyst and to move further along your path of seeking the One Creator, and of serving that One Creator within all beings who you may meet in your daily round of activities. You named many sources of how one may increase vital energy as you discussed this query prior to this session’s beginning. We may say that in general the energies of the mind, the body and the spirit, when combined in a useful fashion that is in a spiritually dedicated fashion, do enhance one’s ability to become able to perceive the world around one in a spiritual nature, in a spiritual way, so that one may grow from this perception and may offer the perception to others as a service to them as well.

Also, Q'uo says that a spirit complex is "quite frequent" in pets. (!)

It is rare, but not unheard of, for second-density creatures to have also the spirit complex added unto them. This happens as you are aware quite frequently in the case of that creature which you would call the “pet,” that creature which is given love and affection by the third-density entity. By this giving of love and affection, the second-density entity is enhanced in its ability to give and receive love itself, to be able to develop the complex of the spirit, and thus be ennobled in a sense, so that it is perhaps harvestable within its next incarnation into the third density itself at the lowest levels of the third density.

The third thing is when Q'uo comments on Jim's special breathing techniques that allow him to channel Q'uo better. At Homecoming, it was easy to notice a stark difference between Jim's channeling at the beginning of the session (slow, careful) and at the end during the question/answer portion (much, much quicker, no delays). Q'uo shares why this is:

Gary: Yes, this query is about the instrument known as Jim. The instrument began at a very mellow and subdued pace in the first portion of the channeling, but the follow-up has is much more gusto, much more energy in his channeling at a faster pace. Is there a reason for this difference in his channeling?

Q’uo: I am Q’uo and am aware of your query, my brother. This instrument says “yes there is, but it is trademarked.” (laughter) We shall now respond with more helpfulness. This instrument has utilized a certain process of deep breathing which it engaged in while the one known as S. was channeling. This not only helps the instrument to remain alert, but also gives it additional energy with which to use in the question and answer session, which it is so doing.