We the Choir Gather and We Learn to Sing Together

[Steppingfeet]

Surely, it is well to protect the young from predation and misfortune, but the time arises when each must venture out into the cold unknown to find one's "pearls of great price," those things for which one would give all, and thus enter into the dark tunnel of transformation.

This speaks to me of the hero's journey: separation, initiation, and return.

If you'd be interested in sharing, I'd be interested in hearing. What was your cold unknown, the dark tunnel, and the pearls gained thereby?

Can outer circumstances distort the mature being?  Certainly so.  Am I wrong, or do Confederation sources not teach that seeking the deeper self in such a context is the basic reason for taking incarnation in 3D?

“Seeking the deeper self in such a context [as adverse catalyst creates] is the basic reason for taking incarnation in 3D” is a helpful way to frame it. I like that. In fact, the early Logoi in this octave, according to Confederation testimony, intentionally made third-density much more difficult, catalytic, confusing, and therefore prone to disharmony because those blissed-out third-density entities weren’t performing the seeking you describe.

The Logoi did this by innovating the veil. We became cut-off not only from each other, and the Creator, seemingly, but from our own deeper resources, our selves. Such was the consequent confusion, in fact, that a whole new path immediately sprung up, one predicated upon the rejection and wholesale denial of truth, of love, of What Is.

I’m not contending that a hard third-density environment is wrong or should be abolished. Nor that the entity should be placed into bubble wrap to protect them from the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

The “pearls of great price” you referred to in this post become all the more dear because of the sacrifice and effort of their purchase or acquisition. In other words, the hard catalyst that burns away the false self has purpose.

But precisely because of that challenging environment, particularly our catalyst-on-steroids environment, being with other like-hearts becomes all the more conducive to polarization, that is, *toward achieving what the Confederation says is the goal of third-density.*

Again, it was a group that produced the only third-density entities to be available for harvest at either of the last two 25-thousand-year openings of the gateway. It was group work, according to Ra, that produced their third-density positive harvest.

I am saying that there is value in supporting one another in shared culture. Wasn’t that one of your primary hopes and objectives when asking whether the forums ought to be closed? You seemed to want a more curated environment in a protected space that cut out the “detuning” elements so that harmony, connection, community, and upward movement would be more readily available.

I may be misreading your contributions to this thread. If so, I apologize. If not, I would be interested to know how your thoughts in this thread square with your previous visions for Bring4th.

Do they not aver that the riches thusly found far outweigh the burdens of the seeking?  Do they not say that coming to a clear understanding of what one truly seeks helps to refine the balance of one's soul stream?  Do their sermons not typically end with an exhortation to find pure Divinity within self (not in a group)?

I think those are well articulated, the first two questions. There is indeed an unmistakable fundamental tenet in the Law of One which places radical responsibility on the self for its own processing of catalyst, reinforced in the thought that we cannot learn for another and another cannot learn for us. Ra even indicates that....

Ra: It is impossible to help another being directly. It is only possible to make catalyst available in whatever form, the most important being the radiation of realization of oneness with the Creator from the self, less important being information such as we share with you. - 17.2

As to your third question, though - “Do their sermons not typically end with an exhortation to find pure Divinity within self (not in a group)?” - we may be reading different Confederation material.

The Creator is to be discovered not only in the self, but in all others. And toward that end they speak repeatedly of the benefits—from the opportunities of service to others, to the strengthened capacity for *self-discovery*, to the increase in power via the Law of Squares—available to those who work harmoniously in group.

Questioner: Could you expand on what you mean by that interaction of polarized entities in piercing the veil?

Ra: I am Ra. We shall state two items of note. The first is the extreme potential for polarization in the relationship of two polarized entities which have embarked upon the service-to-others path or, in some few cases, the service-to-self path. Secondly, we would note that effect which we have learned to call the doubling effect. Those of like mind which together seek shall far more surely find. - 83.17

***

Rereading my own text, I think I might have overstated my case.  I'm guessing now that my reaction to the Eisenstein quote in the OP was more that I see the sentiment expressed there emphasizing comfy social acceptance more than I feel it to be fundamentally seeking to know the Creatrix in all her unguarded nakedness.  Maybe it feels too facile?

It is also plucked from a book of thousands of more words that speak to the possibilities of a more beautiful world with open-eyed, sober awareness of the harsh and degrading circumstances that imprison many in our world systems.

But if you read that quote as advocating for “comfy social acceptance,” then that helps to speak to the adjectives and allusions that you previously used. SF, I am not particularly drawn to inauthenticity, feigned acceptance, or shallow, persona-based relating. True group work ought to be that which uses and communicates shared catalyst. I have learned and earned MUCH in that regard through both great success and abysmal failure. But hard work and nourishing, mutual support can go hand in hand, yes?

Community can fail spectacularly for so many reasons - primary among them being we're not all that great at harmonizing - but where it succeeds, it feeds, nourishes, and supports the self on its journey toward greater authenticity.

Not to uphold this group as the quintessential example, or the only model in the world, they are simply the ones most proximate to me, I watch a group of spiritual seekers in Asheville dig into this very hard work of literally practicing "radical honesty" (particularly through regular circles they call "radical honesty"). They have ups and downs, successes and failures, cohesion and entropy, but I have heard repeated testimony of the benefits that community brings, that being with one's choir confers upon the self. And I notice no diminishment to individual will and faith. To the contrary, each of their fires burn brilliantly, so much so that work in consciousness is pretty much their main vocation.

I'm probably making too much out of this, but the point I was labouring to make is about the surrendering of self to the endeavour.  For example, you can't just "have children," you have to dedicate a good chunk of self, not to yourself, but to the "project."  For a soul alone in the desert, this may be more apparent.  The verbiage in that quote--the putative subject of this thread--doesn't carry that depth for me.  That's my feeling about it.   That's all.

You just don't want it to come easy, do you? You want some grit and hard work in there.

I’m joking.

But there IS a point to stripping the cozy level that the original 3D inhabitants had and making it more difficult.

Ra: Let us continue the metaphor of the schooling but consider the scholar as being an entity in your younger years of the schooling process. The entity is fed, clothed, and protected regardless of whether or not the schoolwork is accomplished. Therefore, the entity does not do the homework but rather enjoys playtime, mealtime, and vacation. It is not until there is a reason to wish to excel that most entities will attempt to excel. - 82.28

Ra: Those entities which do not do their homework, be they ever so amiable, shall not cross [the boundary of third density into fourth]. It was this situation which faced the Logoi prior to the veiling process being introduced into the experiential continuum of third density. - 82.29

The realization of ALL goals requires a price of the self. I guess it all depends on how high the self or the group wants to reach:

Questioner: Then I am guessing that the crossed legs of the entity in Card Four have a meaning similar to the cross of the crux ansata. Is this correct?

Ra: I am Ra. This is correct. The cross formed by the living limbs of the image signifies that which is the nature of mind/body/spirit complexes in manifestation within your illusion. There is no experience which is not purchased by effort of some kind, no act of service to self or others which does not bear a price, to the entity manifesting, commensurate with its purity. All things in manifestation may be seen in one way or another to be offering themselves in order that transformations may take place upon the level appropriate to the action. - 94.26

***

P&D:  Those are both very sweet stories and I appreciate where you're coming from.  I certainly felt that way singing along in my high school choir.  It was such a pleasant shift to be participating in something beautiful that was bigger than self and, frankly, better organized than self.  It's a cool experience of subordinating (or lending) individual primacy to the conductor and to the group as an whole for a "greater purpose."

Carla’s soul was fed and nourished simply by being able to be one voice singing in unison with other voices. My wife, Trish, sang in a choir throughout school and still thinks about returning to one, feeling her heart open when we have choir music on around the house. And me… I played the alto sax from 5th – 12th grade, but never had an experience of transcendence.

But my own experiences of harmonized group work, particularly the 18-yr-long one with a small band of spiritual seekers I work with in shared mission, has been one of my greatest sources of joy, comfort, and means of service that also provides a strengthened field for doing all that hard statue-in-the-raging-fire work ofself-discovery.

Could I discover the self in a Russian gulag? Certainly. People do. But whatever your solitary wiring may be, I find myself most strengthened when lending my service to a group and “blending energies.”

Which makes me think and then laugh about “intelligence adequate to process” in this statement:

Ra: There are societies wherever there are entities conscious of the self and conscious of other-selves and possessed with intelligence adequate to process information indicating the benefits of communal blending of energies. – 83.10

***

Singing along wasn't enough for me because, in my being, it just let off hints of the far more satisfying experience of perfecting the instruments of body and soul in order to much more deeply interweave self with the medium in a more self-directed way: as soloist and as composer.

Some people shine more brightly as a soloist. The choir or the soloist can share their song for the upliftment of others. And you do. Much love.