The Emperor

 May we present the Archetype of the Experience of the Mind: the Emperor.

Currently, we are given a great opportunity to manifest this Archetype, through the collective catalyst that is the Covid pandemic (regardless if you believe the pandemic is real or not). You may think for all the spiritually awaken people, such as people in the Law of One community, there would be a general consensus on how to process this catalyst. However, from my observations, this is so far from the fact. From the people in my real-life and online circles, I have observed the following variety of reactions:

1. Covid is a hoax, it's just a bad flu: not going to change my behavior.

2. Covid is a catalyst, but I'm safe from it: no vaccine or mask for me. 

    2.1. Vaccine is harmful and dangerous, a tool for the negative to control.

    2.2  Any mandate on mask, vaccine, or social distancing is a free will infringement, therefore I will not use mask, or take vaccine, or social distance for principal. 

3. Covid is dangerous, but I don't trust or want vaccines. Everyone need boost their health and protest themselves, including through social distance and mask. 

4. Covid is dangerous, everyone need to get vaccine if they can so we can be free of social distancing and masking measures. 

What's more concerning is that people holding these different views all express anger and frustration at those who have an different view. Those who don't agree or act differently are either sheep/slaves, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorist, STSs, selfish, ignorant... basically stumbling blocks for the collective spiritual evolution.

Depicted as a male figure, the Experience of the Mind is an archetype that we consciously manifest. What is the Experience of the Mind of those with these feeling of anger and frustration? Is this the right-hand path depicted with the hand holding the orb? The mind recognizing itself as the Magician who has the ability to transform? Or the left-hand path signified with the foot, garment, and the hand, pointed and stretched, guarding and keeping itself at a distance from the other selves? 

May I offer another view of the pandemic. Its existence indicates a collective catalyst that we all need, recognized or not. I do feel a majority of people in the Law of One community are pretty safe from it. By that I mean we would not experience something serve enough to cause the end of our incarnational experience: death. The logic part of assumption is from the "great cat"(Ra95.23) that guards depicted in the box upon which the Emperor sits. The box signifies our 3d illusion, and my interpretation is that the "great cat" guards the positive from "the gusts, flurries, and blizzards of quick and cruel catalyst."(Ra95.24) This doesn't mean those along the positive path are protected the same way. There will be variations in our experiences. As Ra said, "the great cat guards in direct proportion to the purity of the manifestations of intention and the purity of inner work done along this path."(Ra95.18) So we will experience different degree of protection. Some may get Covid but recover, some have more severe symptoms than others, some may not get it at all.

Now, what about those who have not polarized positively sufficiently? We probably all agree that's the majority of people here on Earth today. How can they be protected? Masks, vaccines, and social distancing, these are the measures that can offer protection in the material illusion. Yes, the negative could and would use policies with regard to these measures to control. But if we come from the place of Love, do we ignore their suffering because it's the result of their own shortcomings, do we let them be what they need to be? Or do we do something that may be unnecessary for us but would help the less fortunate? This is the Choice, there is no right or wrong answer, but the choice we are here to make in 3rd density. If your choice is not aligned with the choice your Higher Self would make, it will be made known to you somehow.

What is the left-hand path signified in the Emperor with the out stretched arm, leg, and garment? I think humanity has been far too familiar with this path, which is the struggle against something. May it be anti-fa, anti-vaxx, anti-abortion, war on drugs... Let's look at the example of Ten Commandments discussed by Ra. Ra said the commandments "copy or ape positivity while retaining negative characteristics."(Ra16.15) Ra later confirmed the negative characteristics was exhibited in the "Thou shalt not"(Ra16.20) commands. To me, this is a good example to see that the positive path is not about against something that seen as negative, but about operating in a totally different way that's rooted in the positive perspective. Something we've probably not been taught before. 

Now let's look deeper. What are the positivity Ra mentioned in the commandments? I see "not kill" for one. We know that the thou-shalt-not's were for "conquest and enslavement"(Ra16.17), does it mean that we should be against "not killing" and kill as we please? Consider another example. Spiritual information transmitted ages ago have long been distorted through negative influences, especially in many organized religions. Religions have been used to manipulate, control and commit atrocities throughout history. Does it mean we should abandon all the spiritual teaching that's been used negatively? Ra said old and new testaments had the equal amount of Law of One information even though the old testament was more negatively influenced (Ra26.7). 

With an open heart and operate without fear: not fearing Covid, not fearing the vaccine, not the masks, not any mandate, not any attempt to manipulate or control. Do what you consider best to express love on your own accord, not doing it to show that you are "against" something. I think this is what Ra meant with the allegory of the poker game: the positive path is not follow the rule of the game, but to show your hands and say "I love you" to all (Ra50.7).

Q'uo have called vaccine a "healing modality"(2011/03/05). Masks and social distancing have been shown to be effective protection at least for some by science. If you have the trust and view this material illusion from the highest perspective, then you know everything is well and as it needs to be. Then you may see everything is there for a reason. You may not need these protection in the material world, but others do. What do you do then? Force them into the path that they are not well equipped to handle? 

Knowing all is well and allowing can reduce the anger and frustrations of the negativity we see. Here's my choice:

5. I don't fear Covid nor think it will harm me. But being inflected by Covid will cause great suffering and stress to my loved ones. I know getting the vaccine will provide a sense of safety to them. I let the universe direct me, I do not go seek out vaccines, but accept when offered. I got vaccinated when it's offered to me. I know the great white cat protects me from both Covid and any negative manipulation of the vaccines. I follow preventive pandemic measures with flexibility, not with fear but with desire to protect others. I do not let fear override love: if someone are in distress, I would be happy to give them hugs and console without fear even if it violates any mandate in place. 

Basically, operate from love and an open heart instead of fear. It's not about the action. Q'uo spoke at length about "being" and "doing", with "being" as "all that there is" (1991/02/22,1987/08/16). When you try to get someone to see your point of view, you could see that someone as egotistic, stupid, controlling, etc, etc, or you could see someone whose perspective is different because they had not the resources, environment, "the advantages that you had" (The Great Gatsby). These different being-ness while doing the same actions will generated different effect (maybe unseen effect). The difference in the being-ness can sometimes be subtle, and requires inner works to recognize. 

Now you ask, but what about these attempts to manipulate, control, and violate free will that I can see? Do I just not do anything about it? If I don't protest against it, how can it change? Good question. The answer is probably different for everyone. Spiritual teachings tell us that changes come from within and will be reflected in the outward manifestation. Gaze at the Emperor, his work (for the STO path) is learn to better use the orb. To be free of control and manipulation is not to do exactly the opposite what the controlling power direct you to do. Your action is still the result of their manipulation -- this is a trap of their clever control tactics, and it has been repeated through out history. To make a long lasting change, do what Love direct you to do. Do not what your judgement tell you to do. This can feel a bit scary. Consider the question Jesus asks in A Course in Miracles: "do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?" If you think choosing "happy" is easy, consider this hypothetical scenario that can make someone change their answers: travel without the fear of a contagious disease would make me happy. I want that. Getting the vaccine would give me that. But negative entities also force a vaccine mandate on everyone, violating people's free will. Thus I think getting the vaccine means submission to the negative force, thus not a right thing to do. So I cannot choose happy, I need to do the right thing...(then I may start to argue: that's not true, vaccine cannot be good and make me happy, it's probably a negative plot as well... so I am not choosing being right over happy. I'm choosing being right and happy...)

Choose only Love. Be the magician, the Creator. Be the Emperor who learn to master that orb in your hand, and let the magic of transformation happen.

Even as I write this, I also have a small lingering doubt in the back of my head. Does it really work like that? Maybe I'm not advanced enough for it to works me. I decided just to go with it as an experiment that is life. Start with small steps, do what you can. Don't be hard on yourself. Let go that fear. 

The Distortion of the Golden Rule

I meant to write about this for a while (since 2014) and the photo I came across below inspired me to finish this blog.

The image lists The Golden Rule stated in different belief systems, yet I do not see them all as the True Golden Rule. Let me explain.

From the above image, we can see the statement of the Golden Rule in earlier teachings such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Judaism are consistent. They are all in the form of

If you do not want to be treated a certain way, do not treat others that way.

According to Wikipedia, ancient Egypt and ancient Greece has similar forms of the Golden Rule, that is, the rule is about what not to do to others based on what you do not wish upon yourself. I will call this the original or true Golden Rule.

As you may notice above, in Christianity and Islam, the form of the Golden Rule has changed slightly, to the rule about what you should/could do to others based on what you would wish/allow others do to you. 

This slight change doesn't look significant, but I feel the subtle distortion enabled negative influences throughout the history and is at the root of many stumbling blocks for the progress towards positive orientation. 

Let's take a closer look. Firstly, logically, these two statements are not equivalent. 

Let A be "ways I treat others", and B "ways I allow others to treat me", the original Golden Rule is a logical statement of:

not B => not A

The logical equivalent of the original Golden Rule, which is A => B, indicates

ways I treat others => ways I allow others to treat me

However, the distorted version of the Golden Rule is expressed as B => A, 

The difference is very subtle, B => A states

ways I allow others to treat me => ways I treat others

it is not the logical equivalent of the original Golden Rule.

Are they really that different? What's the big deal? Through the teaching of the Law of One and my own experience growing up in a communist country, I recognize that the distorted Golden Rule led to further erosion that allowed the violation of other's free will. Ra stated that "free will is paramount" at least 6 times in the Ra Material (36.12, 70.11, 72.7, 73.12, 77.17, 84.22), and I see that in the current stage of human development, the major roadblock is not the lack of STO intentions, but the disregard of others' free will while pursuing the STO path. In fact, I see the original statements of the Golden Rule in Ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and Judaism in form of "not B => not A" to be of paramount importance in terms of respecting other's free will. Even the logical equivalent of "A => B" can be misused in polarizing in the STS direction. 

The distorted Golden Rule is easily further generalized to: what you allowed for yourself, you can allow/expect for others. For example, I see the celibacy requirement for Catholic priests to be a misguided application of the distorted Golden Rule. It is known in many teachings that celibacy is beneficial at certain stages of spiritual development. Imagine someone who found this practice helped them making great progress in spiritual development thus decided to require others in spiritual pursuit to do the same. By the distorted Golden Rule, it is the right thing to do. However, to respect the free will of others, the practice should only be suggested but never made a requirement. 

The distorted Golden Rule is in fact beneficial to the control structure of STS. Consider in the movie Godfather III, Michael Corlenoe was polarized negatively to the point that he's willing to have his own brother killed for the benefit of the organization (or is it just himself?).  Following the distorted Golden Rule, he probably expected his underlings to treat their family members the same. According to Wikipedia, the Golden Rule was expressed in writing this way in Ancient Rome: "treat your inferior as you would wish your superior to treat you."(Lucius Annaeus Seneca (1968). The Stoic Philosophy of Seneca: Essays and Letters of Seneca. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-00459-5.) Though I see how the author of this statement had good intentions, I can also see how this rule can be used to pass down the control through the pyramid control structure of the STS. 

Growing up in the Communist China, we were taught moralities not that different from the highly regarded Western/Christian values. We were encouraged to view serving others and serving for the greater good as a life long pursuit. We were told stories of highly positive individuals who sacrificed their processions, families, even their own lives for what they perceive as the greater good of others. By the logic of the distorted Golden Rule, if these people can do it, sure they can expect us to do the same. Therefore, we were encouraged to sacrifice self interest for the greater good, which seemed to be the interest of the Party at the time. It's promoted to such an extreme that the end result: people are led to believe that in order to express their kind nature of willing to help/serve others, they must become inhumane, lose their compassion, and become heartless in carrying out actions to serve the so called greater purpose.

Freedom, equality, helping others -- these are the qualities attracted to people of the positive orientation -- and since most of people in the world are of the positive orientation, the few who wants control know they cannot just ask people to do evil. Instead, they disguise the negative path through positive incentives and mislead many. "The positive polarity sees love in all things. The negative polarity is clever." (Ra 68.17). This is why Christianity and Communism are not evil in terms of ideals, yet in practice they are both used to carry out horrific acts against humanity. It is time for the positive polarity to be balanced with more wisdom.

As a side note, I was disappointed to see the mural done by Normal Rockwell, whom I respect highly, for the UN headquarters in New York also contains the distorted Golden Rule from the Bible. I like the painting none the less.