Your Higher Self

In the 1970's and 80's there were many channelers, channeling information from a number of great teachers such as Seth, Ramtha and Old Chinese. When the channelers went deep into trance these energies would come through them and teach the students that were drawn to them. For the most part when they came out of trance the channelers would have no idea what information had been channeled.

It is my belief that these beings were coming through their Higher Self and as Old Chinese once taught that when a message comes from our higher self that the ego or subconscious mind would have no memory of what was coming through. If the channeler had a fully memory of what had come through then it was because it was created by his ego to make him or her more special.

In the twenty first century there seems to be many individuals who seem to be channeling information from the gods, Angels, beings from other planets and other dimensions or from great teachers of the past. What makes them different from channelers of the past is that in many cases they have a full memory and understanding of the channeled information. Normally I would have let these teachings go as manifestations of the ego, but I have seen and met many of these, so called, channelers and modern day mystics who have access to the inner worlds. Although much of this information appears to be coloured by the thoughts and belief of the channeler, there appears to be wonderful information that is coming from the area of their Higher Self which is connected with everything.

My old teacher quite often talked about the spiritual quickening which was going to take place on the planet in the last twenty years of twentieth century and on into the twenty first century. I wonder whether this quickening includes greater access to the information that is stored in our higher selves.

Old Chinese was an energy that came through Marshall Lever to teach a group of students who wanted to move beyond the ego and the Earth plane. His teachings required discipline because he believed it was necessary for discipline for the individual to move beyond the ego; for the ego doesn't like discipline because it wants to have its own way. By providing it discipline it tends to quiet and let the higher self come through and around the subconscious mind. This energy from the higher self allows the individual momentary glimpses of the divine. In those moments when we have this connection with the higher self we are connected to all things. The challenge is that as soon as we recognize these moments of pure creativity coming from the higher self; the ego tries to hold on to it, but in the process of hanging on to it, all that is left is the ego and its self importance. Like the Tao the Higher Self is an energy that is indescribable. We have moments of it enlightening our lives or a situation, but because in most cases these moments are so brief we cannot describe them and in the end the higher self withdraws into itself and our ego believes that it does not exist and that it was an epiphany from our own wonderful goodness or intelligence.

You can recognize that it was your higher self because, it is an energy that you cannot put your finger on. You have a wonderful insight and then it is gone; most times you don't even have a memory of what the insight is.

Through discipline, such as meditation, fasting and time spent in nature you can slow down your ego to the point where these insights increase. You can even ask a question and an insight is immediately given; sometimes in the form of a feeling or a single word; sometimes these insights come from something in the outside world such as a sign or a word that would not normally have this effect on you.

Another discipline that allows your higher self to come forward is the discipline of creativity. It would seem funny to use the words creativity and discipline in the same sentence, but to be truly creative, you must have discipline. It is one of those strange quirks of fate that when you are at your most creative, whether a writer, painter, sculptor or anything that is creative, that in that moment of creation your are extremely focused and yet also in a meditative state. People who meditate regularly will tell you that in those moments when you are in your deepest meditation are the moments when you are connected with everything around you. If you want to feel the energy of the higher self then find what is your stick, what it is that drives you creatively. For me I am at my most creative in three situations; firstly when I am writing, secondly when I am teaching spiritual or metaphysical concepts or when I am meditating. In all these situations it is like there is a little voice that I am not aware in my normal life that comes around my subconscious mind and shares its wisdom. The trick I find is not to try and hold on to the little voice, but allow it to share what it needs to share and let it go. When you try to hold onto the little voice or the concept that is coming through it is only your ego which is feeling full of itself as it believes it was the creator of the idea or concept when in reality it comes from the higher self. But I hear you say that if it is from the higher self does that mean that we cannot create by ourselves. My answer to that would be it is the act of creation that we allow a window between ourselves and the higher self. If we could keep our ego out of it and continue in the act of creation like a little child then these moments of connection with the higher self can become longer.

Interestingly last night I had one vision and one dream. The vision occurred during my meditation. When I was completely relaxed what appeared to be a tunnel could be seen off in the distance. At first I thought it was the tunnel to what some have called heaven, but which is in reality a tunnel which can take you to the spirit world and a number of other dimensions based on our belief patterns. Unlike the normal tunnel which usually appeared right beside me this one appeared off in the distance and I found myself just staring at it - not sure whether to go towards it or not. It was then that my spirit guide Bartholomew (great name for a guide - he is also sometimes called Nathaniel, but that is a story for another time) entered my meditation and told me that the tunnel in front of me was the connection to my higher self. Connection was not quite the right word though because we are all connected to our higher self. What Bartholomew explained was that each of us has the opportunity to open up and enter into our higher self, where we will have the knowledge and understanding of what we have ever been and ever will be. I immediately felt nauseous and was almost spat out of the vision. As I opened my eyes I had a feeling that we are not meant to strive towards this connection with the higher self, but through our work on ourselves we draw the higher self to us.

That same night I had a dream where there was a group of us sitting around a table and I was teaching them how to connect with their higher selves. It was fascinating as I was sharing stories and teachings that I had been receiving and yet most of what I was teaching was from my upcoming book 'The Way of the Initiate,' a book that was written in parable form about a disfigured young boy who becomes a wise old sage and an Initiate of an ancient brotherhood.

Blessings and Peace - may your higher self give you a hint of its magnificence


The 33rd Sage and the 33rd Sage and the Initiate are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Watersons, Xlibris and a number of online book stores.

Twitter @GeofSpalding
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The Legend of the 33rd Sage - Chapter 3

Chapter 3 Flow

The boy woke after sleeping for eighteen hours, with little or no memory of what had happened the day before. After waking he stretched both arms above his head as if to welcome in the day; little realizing that his partially paralyzed left arm was no longer paralyzed, there was still some scarring but during the night it was as if the withered muscle in his shoulder had come back to life. The healing had begun; there was no need for the old sage to acknowledge the changes, for that would be living in the past and there was only the now. He would one day teach Huo about the reality of time, but for the moment he would just allow him to exist in this point and time. The healing had occurred because he had begun to release the pain from the fire; a pain that he had caused himself but there was time enough later for revelations.

The old sage greeted this young apprentice, "From this time forward Huo we will rise at 4 a.m. and walk in the dark and allow our energy to go forth in the day before the animals in the forest or the people in the villages wake and fill the day with their energy. Each day we will let our feelings lead the way. We will rise in silence and stay silent for the first hour of our walk. As part of this exercise I would like you to silently ask the Tao a question you want answered in that day. If you are open to it the answer will come to you in any one of a hundred different ways. It could be a word or vision that comes around your subconscious mind, an answer from nature or someone we meet along the path; be open and the answer will come. Having the courage to give yourself over to the beauty of the higher self allows your life to enter into the dynamic spontaneity of the flow of the universe. It is about taking life as you find it rather than force it into you preconceived notion of the world. By giving the infinity within you credence you empower that same infinity to come into and be a part of your life. Let's now be silent for the next hour while we let spirit be our guide."

The young boy packed up his pack, put the long staff through it and tossed it over his shoulder. There was much he did not understand about the old sage. If there was one thing he was sure about, it was that his life would never be the same again. Until this journey with the old sage much of his time was spent talking to the elders of the village because they were the only one's that did not seem to be scared of his looks. He would sit and talk with them for hours. Most of them were uneducated and simple people, but if you delved deep enough you would find that they had a deep understanding of the cycles within nature and a knowledge of human nature that could not be found in the few books the village possessed. Each of the elders was like their own little library of information and Huo had consumed whatever they taught him. Even as a young boy he was well versed in the art of fishing and carpentry and his understanding of farming was not too shabby either. 'Not too shabby,' he laughed at that last thought because if he had a mirror he would have looked pretty shabby in his worn out clothes.

What question would he ask the Tao to answer? He mulled over that for about an hour, although for the most part it was at the back of his mind while he enjoyed the bounties of nature. It was cold when they first started out, but he loved the cold; in many ways it allowed him to bring forth his own nature. Even as a very young child he had a way of bringing up the fire from within his own being. He was never cold, even on the coldest winter night. All he had to do was imagine a fire and then he could draw the heat of the fire to himself. It was as if at will he could heat himself from within. Of course the ability was a two edge sword and this ability had been at the heart of the fire that had killed his parents. He had learnt early on that the element of Fire was either a boon or a curse depending on how you used it; he wondered momentarily about the other elements, but that soon passed and the element of fire; his element returned. For the first two years after the fire he stopped using the techniques until he realized that it was not the Fire that was the problem and that he would need to be careful when he used the element because he never wanted anybody to suffer at his hands again.

While walking silently and looking back on his life to date, he felt a gentle wind come around him; she caressed him with her icy fingers, not yet touched by the morning sun. He stopped for a moment to fully experience the wind when he realized that the wind was coming from within him. He reached out his hand and watched as the feeling of the wind, from within, wrapped itself around his fingers and then up his arm, until it came all the way up to his head and gently caressed his face. He looked deeply into the energy which surrounded him and knew at that moment that he was the wind. He was not sure yet whether he had created the wind or if he had become one with the wind. It did not matter for in that moment he realized that the illusion of separation no longer held him in her grasp. He had only been with a the sage a few days but in many ways he seemed years older than the young boy who left the village. He had seen the energy behind the form and no longer would he feel separate from anyone.

He took a moment to sit by himself and experience the connection with all things. First it was the Elements dancing around and through him, then it was the forest and the animals who were becoming active, not only could he seem them all he could feel them all and he had become them. It was then that it struck him. Tears began to escape from his eyes as he realized; if he were connected to everything then he was still connected to his parents and he began to understand what the old man had meant when he said "Nothing ever dies."

With tears streaming down his face he realized that the Tao had not only given him the answer to his question, it had done more than that and allowed him to see a deeper connection;  a connection he had with everyone and every thing that had existed or will exist. The concept was too much for his young mind which was being stretched in a thousand different directions.

He looked across at the old sage who was watching the young man with an enigmatic smile on his face. "Welcome to the flow, it is something you will never be able to describe, for to describe it puts barriers around something that is infinite. It is like trying to hold an ocean in a tea cup. The beauty of the flow is to experience it and to know that you are always connected. Now let's take 24 minutes to meditate and reflect on the lessons we have both received this morning."
The young man and the old sage put aside their packs and sat with their backs touching an old tree as they reflected quietly on what they had experienced that morning. Each in their own world, but both connected in ways they were yet to understand.

**********

A special for all my followers, friends and blog readers. My publisher has offered a special either through my website or amazon of the ebook version of The 33rd Sage at $3.99. Take advantage of the offer. Apart from being a modern fable it is filled with teachings that you or your family can use for the rest of your life. Who knows if you are open to the possibilities an old Chinese Sage might just wander into your life?

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Elements part 19 - Water Transcript 3

Water Transcript Three

Now, the female Water Element is learning to deal with their emotion, and they have to learn, with fear, whatever it is, in any area - they can be afraid of the authority of money, or the authority of poverty, this essence - they have to realize that they have the ability, through non-recognition, to be spiritually in charge, more than any others. Secondly, in judgement, they have a tendency to judge themselves. The Hermetic tells old Chinese that if you put all the Water women together, you would have at least seventy five percent of the mirrors in your world. Meaning, basically, they are their own worst judges, for they are always looking at themselves, more than the others who have a tendency to throw themselves together. That term within your world, is most definitive.

But the Water female must be intricate, must be exacting, must work with every intricate detail. Not because they want to flaunt, but because they want the water to be clear, that people will drink and that they can see themselves. That is important.

The Water male will be somewhat of the same kind, but will have a tendency, in many ways, to be not as exacting with their presentation but be more exacting with their relatedness. The Water male will have more difficulty with interpersonal relationships than the Water female. One reason is that the Water make does not take as much care of their physical presentation. The female has - and it is good - a seemingly positive facade around them to be able to strengthen them. The Water male, of all things they deal with, they deal not much with fear - some; not much with anger; not much with judgment; but with frustration. In frustration comes the subheadings of jealousy, having a tendency to be anxious, to worry, always to wonder where things are going to come from. They will have a tendency to see a situation and, if it is a tornado, they will see it as a typhoon. They, basically, deal with frustration, trying to get things aligned. They will have a harder time consolidating their energy than the Female Water Element; but, in strength, the Water male has the ability to give a great amount of spiritual energy in the mediumship. The sad thing that happens in your world is that those Water makes who do this usually have homosexual tendencies. Because the effeminate energy that they have learnt to use and project is not accepted by masses of other men, they, basically, turn it in. They will pull to them strong Fire Element women who will have a tendency to say, 'This is where you put your water.' In the higher sense, the Water male can do things in intricacy, more than the Earth. they have abilities in intricate and long, exacting chores. They will take hours and spend hours on a project that a Fire Element would give up in minutes. They are long-suffering; they will be frustrated, but they will stay in a situation. Where the Water female will yell and scream and maybe leave a male who is not there, the Water Element male will stay with the wife, no matter how burdensome they may be. But, in creativity, they are strong. In empathy they will perceive, they will feel emotion, they can give it easily; they are strong in that way.

The Water Element female to Fire male must learn these things. There are very few true center Fire males - meaning that they have reincarnated in the center of December 21 - March 21. Very few; most Fire males are on the fringes. A Fire male that is on the fringe of Earth has a tendency to be like an Air male. A Fire male on the fringes of Water has the tendency to be like an Earth male. And so a Water female must know, that if they are dealing with Fire/Earth male, they will be dealing with an intellectual who tries to think and tries to think things for them, does not like to do things too fast, is a very slow individual who smokes a pipe. They have a tendency of this energy. The Water/Fire deals specifically with their sexual energy and with material. That will not have the confidence that things will be taken care of financially. They will have a tendency to worry a little too much of where the money is coming from, and of their sexual prowess. The Water Element dealing with these two fringe areas can understand them in regards to these concerns. But with the true Fir make, the Water female will have things that they must know. First, the Fire male in the center can deal with energy in any area. They will have, initially, no fear. If someone calls them a bad name, they will look at the individual as if they are right. They will go any place within your earth. There is no fear. There is usually not much judgment, hardly and frustration, and the only anger usually comes to the Water female herself, not to anyone else, and it is because of this projection of emotion. The Water female will feel that she is not being loved adequately by the center Fire male, and she will press, will want to have some kind of recognition. The Fire male gives the recognition by the total energy. The Fire male will be pulled to the Water female, and the other way also, because, together, working as a team, they have the greatest abilities, they will have the most difficult time.

The Water male, dealing with a Fire female, will find that, basically, they will be dealing with an energy that they will have to do what the Fire female wants and their life will be regulated along that area. They will find that their Fire female, if it is a Water make in the companionship, will have a difficult time spiritually projecting. To the water male, it will not be easy, and they will be torn between their individual growth and staying and steadying the relationship. The Fire woman, in relationship to the Water male, will try to regulate and strengthen them through physical action; through disease of the body, through feeling badly; through feeling, basically, that hey are being subjected, or not liked, because the Water male is growing in other ways.

The Water female in relationship to the Earth, dealing with the Earth male, will be dealing with an individual that is dealing materially and physiologically, sexually oriented, having a tendency to have difficult times with interpersonal relationships, being introvertive and very creative. The water female will drawn to them in this way; they will be drawn to the creative Earth male, to the one that can project themselves through the fine arts, or music, and want to be around them. They will want to feel that creativity, that energy, that power. But they will find that, within it, they will be the major strength and there will be slowly a draining of what they are, even though there cane be excitement in what they are doing. If they stay, or they match, then, the Earth male will have to deal with his creativity in a highest level, meaning that everything they do is creative art. That, the Water female can deal with. But if the creative art has tinged of financial insecurity, and sexual, there will be difficulty. Very seldom will you find an Earth male or an Earth female that will be what you may call a one-person man or woman. They will have a tendency to need the physical satisfaction and review of what they are from many people. The Earth male will be pulled to the Water female; the Earth female will be pulled to the Fire male.

The Water male cannot stand - and usually have great difficulty with - an Earth female. The Water male is dealing with spirituality; that is wrong analogy, but it has a tendency yo be soft, loving, warm, emotional, and to cry at the drop of anything. Whereas the Earth female, who has a tendency to deal sexually and materially, will have an area of wearing out the Water male. If the Earth female is creative, dealing in fine arts or the creative form, in the higher sense, a Water make can work with them. But it would be most difficult and, over long term, most unlikely.

Water/Air: what does Air do to Water? It churns it it up, it blows it away, it does not allow it to fall where it wants to fall. One thing you should learn about a Water person: don't push them away from where they are going - and wind or air does that. If it is raining, the wind will push the rain away; they will push the water someplace else. Water and Air. A true Water female and true Air male will have great difficulty: not being able, in the true sense, to have any lasting relationships, because the Air male will think so deeply and be so deeply involved in the scientific, the logical, the political, the psychological, that they will be, in many ways, intellectually above the Water female; but not in dealing with feelings, where the Water female is way above. A most difficult interrelationship, if it is true Air and true Water. The Air person will deal in a lot of insecurities; and a Water female will have a tendency to bring out these insecurities in an Air male. The Air male will say, 'We cannot do that because it costs two ninety-five,' and the Water female says, 'But I feel we can do it,' and the Air male will not be able to fathom that. It is that conflict. The Air make will have a tendency, in the metaphysical line, using their highest point, to be able to deal with a Water female, but as a working companion, not as a mate. Old Chinese has not seen one true Air male, one true Water female, that can make a lasting relationship.

But there are fringes. The Air/Water male and the Fire/Water female have a strong connection. It has a tendency to solidify: enough of the emotion of the air and enough of logicalness, or thinking, or what you may call orientation, to be able to help the emotion; enough of the Fire in the female to overcome and say, 'We are not going to do that, even though you have thought it to death.' That can go, both with the Fire female and the Air male, Air/Water, Fire/Water, or Water/Fire. The same with the make who is Water/Fire, and the female who is Air/Water, for they have a tendency to solidify; and all what you call the cusp alignments, that is one of the strongest, mainly because they have a tendency to balance each other very well. One of the difficulties is that an Air/Water male, in their thinking and in their logicalness, will be in many ways a part of other worlds in their mind. They learn very slowly that they can feel the water, what the female is putting forward; and even what they are thinking, or studying, they will begin to perceive, as the female projects. In her projection, she does not do it in yelling; she does it within visualization, and it will work, strongly. Even to the point of deep concentration, the Air/Water male will succumb easily. Now the Air female - very few, very few. The Water make will not be pulled together. You will not find them even aligning. That relationship, basically, is not a coordinate. The female will not want to have children and the male will; and it, basically, will not work.

Water is the spiritual: easy for the individual to develop a reality of self, and project it and live with it, more so than others. But equally is hard because, in that projection, they deal with the emotion that others put at them and they feel of self. fire, Water, Air and Earth each correspond and interrelate. But all of all them, Water deals with family, with home, with consolidation of your world and it's spiritual projection. Find a community, a group, an organization, a religion, a creed, a philosophy, a teaching, a guru, and you will find more Water females and Water makes than any other Element.

In Old China, the sage was walking slowly. He had had a very long day with many students. And as he walked through the spring for a drink, there sat at the spring a small girl. And the sage knelt and drank from the spring. And the small girl said, 'Are you thirsty?'

And the sage said, 'Yes; talk to me.'

Peace

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Elements part 16 - Fire Transcript

Fire Transcript Continued

The Fire female can find a good match with a Fire male; and many times the communication, or the togetherness, will be a companionship but a very strong one, a very overpowering one, one that will get things done, no matter what stands before them. It will be one of dedication, one different from the Fire male and the Air female; but it will be one of love, mutual strength, and sexual energy. Dealing with a Fire male, the Fire female will have to learn to allow the energy to be a small bit brighter, even though they know they can be equally as bright. They will not be dealing with emotion so they have a tendency to be overpowering in groups. A very good alignment; but a Fire female dealing with a Fire male needs to project themselves a little softer, for they will be learning to be soft. The softer they become, the more powerful they will become and the stronger will be the relationship.

The Fire female dealing with a Water male will be difficult, for the Water male will try to be emotional, be in the emotion, but will be trying to be the male image. Where the Fire female has that image, the Water male will be usually dealing with the spiritual evolution. The Fire female will be dealing with a very positive, one minded evolution, and will usually direct the energy, even though she wants to have the support of the Water male. She will not usually be too spiritually involved through a Water male, even though he will be deeply spiritual; and she be deeply involved with him. The Fire female in dealing with that must learn that she must help the Water male in allowing and working with him in the spiritual attitude; for if they do not, the relationship cannot last. They cannot be directive, they must be supportive with the Water male. It must be a supporting relationship - they cannot be leaders; it must be supporting, it must be a team. But the Fire female has the tendency to be the leader, to direct, to say, 'This is where we must go.' They must learn to be supporting, to bring out the strength of the Water male.

The Fire female can get along fairly well with the Air male; in fact, they can be pulled strongly together. The Air male being intellectual, will need energy; and there can be a good strength, a mutual energy return. The only difficulty is that the sexual energies will not ever be too strong and will usually be children because it is the thing to do, not because it is a deep emotion. The Fire female pulled to the Air male can make a strength. If the Air male is getting into the metaphysical, then it can have a strength, for brings out the height of metaphysical teaching, which Air male can do in its highest form. If the Fire is pulled to that, it is the best match, for there will be mutual support and mutual strength. In dealing with that she will have to learn that the Air will have a tendency to be logical about his approach, while she will have a tendency to be very moving. There will have to be a compromise; that is a compromising marriage.

The Fire with an Earth male usually is where they are pulled. Fire looks for something that will, basically, allow them to use their strength, to be strong. They are pulled to an Earth male, who is physical. You will find that the Earth male in the physical form - that is, what you would call rough, a typical Earth male, very sexual, very energetic, very pushy - will pull the Fire female. The sadness is that it will usually not work. The Fire female dealing with an Earth male, who is creative in the art form, will usually help their creativity; but the Earth male will not need the Fire female after a while. So it is not a very good strength; but if they want to make it, the female must know that her energy can bring the creativity out; but they have to deal with the softness to help the sexual energy. They cannot deal with just a positive energy pushing forth.

The Fire Element female is extremely strong. Learning that the beauty they have within them is their greatest spiritual endeavour; learning to express this softly and warmly. The Fire male uses his energy to warm all the time, to be positive to them, accepting and listening.

The Fire Element, both male and female, in the spiritual highness, can use either a clear crystal or a rose crystal for their strength. They can use these other stones but not as high as the crystal - the diamond and all minerals or gems that deal with the darkness of reds.

The Fire male and female are very sexual. The males are very energetic in this way. If their energy is not being used, if they are not going forward, they will have a tendency to be pulled to a very sexual relationship, usually Earth, or a female in the water Element that is trying to understand their emotion. The same with the Fire male.

Musically, they are pulled to the music of the earth, of air, of water, not of fire. They need emotion within music. They need the strength of air, the baseness of earth. They need all three, but not the strength of fire. That only cause them a little more difficult to deal with. They should never deal with Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, most of the Russians, Khatchaturian. They should deal with Mozart, Beethoven, Handel: those, basically, that deal with the earth, which would be more modern in your world, what you would call 'country-western,' not what you would call 'soul' (Hermetic says: That is unusual, music call soul), because that deals specifically, with a high vibration Fire should be not dealing with. Jazz is not a good one either: more Earth Element.

Fire basically will be pulled in reading to those things that can relax them and take them away from their energy, not getting them involved in more energy. They will be travellers, they will be the strength to your world. The Fire Element is the light; but, used negatively, they are the darkness that you see daily.

In Old China, there was sage sitting under the plum tree in the dead of winter, with snow all around him, piled up above his knees. The student was walking hurriedly down the road, bundled heavily. He saw the sage sitting under the tree and he said, 'Your crazy. Why do you sit in snow under a tree that has no cover? Why do you not come into the village where it is warm?

The sage said, But I am warm; I have warmth. Feel my face.

The student touched his face and it was warm. He said, 'But come into the village. You will feel the warmth and their will be people. Why stay out here within the forest? The animals are asleep; the trees are asleep.'

Then the sage said, 'But the coldness is on the outside here. The coldness in the village is on the inside. I would prefer the warmth within and the coldness without.'

Peace….to you all.

Elements part 14 - Fire Transcript

The Fire Element Transcript

The following transcript is of a channeling that was delivered by Old Chinese when he delivered the talks on the Elements. Over the next few weeks I want to share these with you as they will deepen your understanding of the Elements. This is Fire week; so over the next few days I will deliver the Fire transcript in three parts. 

May the spirits of Fire be with you in this time. May they shine their light upon you and keep you warm on the inside.

The Fire Element is that individual who reincarnates into his body between the 21st December and the 21st March in the Northern Hemisphere. This individual has the ability to reincarnate into the body from conception to eight weeks after birth. The individual choosing this period of time is choosing a high strength Element, a power, as you can see. Of all the Fire Elements in your world, approximately seventy five percent of them are men; approximately twenty five percent women. We will deal with their spiritual growth.

A man basically growing within the Fire Element has one of two ways to go. There is no grey within the Fire Element. It is either, a strong, powerful, positive, projecting individual; or an individual that uses the fire in the negative element to bring chaos and ruin to all he touches. So the Fire Element can be the most fearful, especially within the male. But at the same time, it can be the most charismatic, for the amount of energy, used in the higher sense, brings warmth to all who come around them; brings an energy; brings the sun after a long fall. Water, Air and Earth are automatically pulled towards the Fire Element, either out of respect or out of deep fear; not ever out of nonchalance.

The Fire male, using the energy he has, can melt all negativity in front of him. He has the ability of the sun, or the burning fire within the winter, to melt, to heat, to warm, to bring strength. He has the ability to see not only the warmth within all things, but to humidify and to make water less flooding in its essence, to make the air or wind less terrifying and to bring things from the earth by its energy. Without Fire, without its energy, Water, Air and Earth could not survive. If, at this day, all Fire Elements were eliminated from your earth, you would have chaos.

The Fire male puts forth an energy, in the negative sense, that is equally as terrifying upon the opposite scale. Instead of basically projecting the Fire outward, they pull it into a depth that is within them. They create what has been known by the biblical and ancient wisdoms as Hades, Saliel; as in China, Chou Me Ong - the hell within. You go to Hades within, you go to hell, because it is within an individual. A positive Fire Element brings it out into the world and it is not within. It is salient for all to see. A negative Fire Element pushes it so deeply within that it becomes chaotic, masochistic and terrifying. it is equally strong because, within your world, people are pulled to fear; they are pulled to negativity. If you say, in a brief moment, 'Go down this street, there is a positive man talking of the beauty of spring; but go down that street and there is a man talking of death, killing' - there is a man talking of the negative. you will have a horde going to the negative and very few to the positive. Because of that one thing, the negative is powerful in your world, but never as powerful as the sun. And the weakest point of the negative Fire Element is at the Summer Solstice when, in essence, the sun is the highest and the moon the lowest. One of the reasons that it is said that things happen differently at the full moon is because the negative Fire Element uses the coldness of the light, the reflection of the sun as, in essence, their energy; and it manifest then. Positive Fire Elements get along well together if they have the equal balance of Water, Air and Earth working with them.

The female Fire Element has great difficulty in your world. She usually comes into this world to deal specifically with understanding her femininity because she is coming forth from a lifetime or lifetimes that have been extremely degrading to others. She is having to express her femininity in the hardest way. A positive Fire female becomes beauty as the sun, but soft. A negative Fire female becomes what you might call, in your words, the darkness on wheels: meaning, specifically, that the female negative element uses the energy in a more secretive way. Because of that, it is more terrifying and usually they will support a negative male element. But because there are so few of them, there are not usually too many problems.

The attributes of the strengths of the male Fire Element are that they are leaders, they have the strength of society. They have the rapport; they have the ability to lead; they have the ability, in war, or in peace. Dealing with the Fire Element male, you must know these things: at times, his energy is like the sun and can come so that it is over powering. His energy, his instance that things, basically, must continue to go, asking for no rest, is very tiring to those who need relaxation and rest. He usually does not need long hours of rest but consistently wants to pout the energy forth.

They will deal with people usually very curtly and very straight forwardly. If you say to a Fire Element, 'Am I doing the right thing?' They will usually say, No,' it is 'No.' If you say that to a Water Element, they will cry and probably in one way say, No,' in a long explanation of emotion. To an Air Element, they will try to explain it, in depth, why it is 'No,' and usually put you to sleep. An Earth Element will usually not know which way to go, or will not have the strength and will say, 'Wait a minute, while I consult someone else.' But a Fire Element will say, 'This is the way we are to go.' Sometimes, when they are doing this and are not in tune, they go where they should not go, too fast.

They interrelate very strongly, in the male energy, with other male Fire Elements, as long as there is a balance. If two male Fire Elements are to work together, there has to be at least two female Water Elements to balance it, or three Air Elements, or a whole legion of Earth Elements. It is because of the energy. the Fire Element male, basically, does not get along with the Water Element male. Not saying they cannot be friends but to work together is very difficult. Not that the Fire does not need that emotion, that softness to balance, that intuitive point, but the male Water Element, because of the masculinity, will have a tendency to be a little draining and the Fire Element will usually not deal with them. The Water male will usually turn into intellectual projection and the Fire Element does not like to get into intellectual games. The Air male can get along with a Fire Element male, if the Fire is a strong one; if he has the patience to listen to all the Air Element wants to say and then go ahead, no matter what has been said. The Air Element and the Fire male can have a deep relationship if there is mutual understanding that they are sounding boards for each other. The Fire Element and the Earth Element can work together. The Earth Element usually becomes attached, or a follower, or what you would call a very strong second person or supporter - a minister of creativity, for it is the Fire that will pull out the creativity of Earth.

A Fire Element dealing with the other males deals best with an Earth Element; secondly with an Air; third with a Water; and with a Fire Element last, because they are so much alike in energy. You have heard that in Old China many empires fell because there were many generals who The 33rd Sage is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Watersons, Xlibris and a number of online book stores.

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The Elements part 9 - Time

Time

The old sage wandered through the forest of Kan, stopping every now and then to touch a tree or linger for a moment as he watched the beauty of nature. To anybody watching he would have appeared to be in a daze, but he was truly connected with all things. The more he connected with nature and the seasons the more they opened up their secrets to him. In his younger years he was always in a hurry to get somewhere, to learn more, to do more, but as he got older he realized that he was a part of all things.

He came to the Lake of Li, sat on a log and and stared out into its waters. He was waiting for his students to arrive. Years ago if the students were not waiting when he arrived for the lesson they would be banished for ever, but now as he got older, his teaching had changed. He knew that the students would arrive based on their Elements and how they saw time. For time was different for everyone. This was long before Einstein and his theory of relativity. 

The old sage fumbled with the plum red sash on his robe. For a moment he was the young student again, sitting at the feet of his master who was dressed in a plum red robe. It was his master, one of a group of 33 sages, who had taught him about nature and the cycles within man. He had studied with the other 32 sages but nothing they taught him could compare the teachings about nature. In the last 55 years he had lived in the forest and studied and lived with nature. Over the years students had been drawn to him and he would teach them all that he knew. Some would even love nature so much that they would take these teachings to other countries and share them. 

He watched as his first two students arrived. It was the Fire and the Air students. Nothing strange in that they we nearly always the first to arrive but for very different reasons; reasons he would share with all of them when the others arrived. The first two students were getting upset when they third student arrived. It was water and she was always late. The three students were arguing when the Earth student arrived. He sat down quietly and waited for the sage to begin. None of the other students had even seen Earth arrive and they continued to argue.

The sage smiled to himself, turning his attention inward he began, "Time itself does not exist it is something that man has constructed to allow him to know when to eat or meet someone. How each of us view time is a good indicator of our personality. For the introvert, time is one continuous line, whereas for the extrovert time is discontinuous. The introvert (Air/Water) has strong memories of the past and becomes distressed if the past is invalidated. For them, the past is important because it is what the present and the future is created from. Before stepping into a new situation, they check to see if it meets the requirements of success on previous occasions. Anything new is taken in and compared to the wealth of data that the introvert has already collected; if it is a totally new situation, then the introvert may not choose to go forward whereas, the extrovert under the same situation will probably go forward just for the chance for a new experience."

    The old man’s eyes came back to normal and he turned towards Huo (Fire). "What do you remember of your childhood?"

Huo raised his head slightly and looked up towards the right, "nothing before the age of ten and after that, only certain experiences. I guess I do not focus energy on the past. Once it’s gone it’s gone. That's weird. I am trying to remember my childhood and I can remember some of the things I did and achieved, but no actually memory of them, and yet I can picture in my mind what the future is going to be and some of the pictures are so real I am sure that they will happen."... Then a picture flashed through Huo’s mind, of writing and teaching about the Elements and he was sure it was so. The future memory was so strong, it was as though on some level it had already happened and the key for Huo was to bring the vision into the now. How often had he given up on what he was doing, in the chance to take a new direction or try something different? His passion always burned brightly when something new offered itself. His past was littered with unfinished projects and unfinished courses. Even past relationships lay unfinished, either financially or emotionally. It was much easier to move onto something new than finish what was already dead, as far as he was concerned. 

    It did not matter where he looked, forward or back, in the present, or in the people and the Nature around him, in everything was the Elements. When he began the training with the old man, he thought he was getting into a mystery school full of theoretical teachings, but what he got was a mystery school full of experience. The Mystery school of the Elements was there for anybody with the eyes to see. From that moment the world had become a living thing. No longer were rocks and trees separate from him. All of Nature had become his teacher and he their humble student. It was true that the more you learn the more that you realise that you know nothing. Huo had opened up a box of infinite potential. No wonder the ancient tribal people had no writing; it was certainly not due to ignorance. In their world, you had to have a deep understanding of Nature and this could only come through experience. A written story of a flood or a bush fire did not prepare one for the experience. How Taoist was the old man’s teaching? A word for something was never the thing itself. Through the old man's teaching Huo was experiencing his own Fire. The word Fire was not the experience. How easy it would have been to get lost in the words without the experience. Huo thought about how we had become a society where we only had second hand experiences. Much of what we see and do come through a filter called the media. How much of the adventure of life has been stripped from our souls? With the invention of computers, the information super-highway we are becoming more and more removed from the (adventure) experience of living. The story is never the experience, sometimes the stories light our passion for the experience but we need to have our own adventures.

Time, what a subject, he thought; a subject that man has talked about since the cliched beginning of time. He could never understand why many of those around him never shared his optimism about the future. It did not matter how bad things were, he always believed that the future would be better. Of course he was speaking from his Element. 

The old sage now had all their attention, so he continued, “The Fire person, like the Element burns in the direction towards the future. They draw the future into the present, as a living reality. Out of a balance, they are always living in the future and their lives are full of potential and little else. In balance, they affirm and live in the present with a confident belief of what the future holds. Time for them is unstructured. Things go on endlessly for Fire; even death to them is not an end. They are fascinated by the concept of the noble death of warriorhood. The kamikaze pilots of the Second World War or the samurai, both proponents of the noble death came from a Fire country. To die for a greater glory in the future is such a Fire thing to do.’ 

Looking back on his own life, Huo had sacrificed himself on so many occasions under the belief that the future would bring him greater riches.

“Fire hates to be pinned down and be regulated. Fire’s are like a horse that needs to be given their head. Too tight a rein and you will break their spirit or be consumed by their anger; their fire out of a balance. Allow them their space and time and they will warm all those around them.’

    A sense of peace enveloped Huo as he began to understand his own element. How many times had he punished himself for his shortcomings? Now he knew where he had come from, and where he was at. His element was not an excuse for his failures but a point of change. He was always at the point of choice.

    The old man smiled as knew that Huo would be the student who would carry on the teachings. He turned his attention to Shui (Water), "Water has a deep sense of the fragility of life, because it touches it at all levels. The Water Element seeks to preserve self and loved ones by the conservation of energy. Water has a deep memory of the past and any decisions are based heavily on past experiences. Water sees life as a continuous flow of experience from past, through present and onto the future. But wherever the future goes, it takes the past with it.

"There is no separation for the Water Element. Even when loved ones are not around the deep emotions are still felt. In many ways they are so child-like, needing to experience the emotions that they experienced in childhood. Faithful to emotional commitments, they are generally monogamous and have a want and gift for nurturing the young and innocent.

    "Whereas Water can be the power behind the throne, Air has more a sense they have a purpose in the passage of time. Their sense of time is heavily reliant on history and they constantly use history to reference what they are saying. Like the Water Element, the Air Element sees the past to the future in a linear progression, but they have more a sense for timing, believing that things will get better with time, for they have prepared for it. They believe in a structured environment and generally see life as a progression of logical steps."

    The old sage had only spoke briefly of the Earth's perception of time, but in those words there was a great deal of knowledge. "For the Earth was present-oriented, existing in this moment only without reference to the past. What is done is done. They are sense indulgent, and delay time by being total absorbed in the moment and losing themselves in the peak experience. They are at the end, the death, so they are inherently aware of the transitory nature of the physical body.If it feels good, do it; could be their catch cry."

       The old sage turned his back on his students and stared again into the deep waters of the Lake of Li, in the Forest of Kan. The students knew the teaching about time was finished and it was now their role to take time for themselves to allow the teaching to unfold.

The Elements of Man Part 1

The 33rd Sage and the Elements Part 1

My spiritual life began in my late twenties, when I first met my old Chinese teacher. From that moment my inner spiritual life became my dominant life. Before I begin to share the Elements of Man I need to share a small part of my own story to put the teachings in context. 

Most of the posts will be shorter than this one, but as with all things that matter patience and discipline are required. For those of the Fire persuasion that will be quite difficult as you always want the answer before you begin. My little joke to the Fire Elements amongst you.

I thought of doing video and or audio posts but this would prove impossible as over half my current audience is from non English speaking countries. So I will try to make it as enjoyable as possible while at the same time giving you enough information to allow the teaching of the Elements to grow magically and organically from within you.

"It was three days before the solstice and the sage must prepare him."

I surveyed the pale blotchy skin on the back of my left hand. I pinched it into little hills of flesh and watched them slowly collapse back. I looked up towards the receptionist. Her lips moved quickly, sharing a story on the telephone. I looked at my reflection in the glass-top coffee table. I didn’t like what I saw. Stroking my greying skin, I flapped my hand under my double chin. It wobbled in time with my sighs. My fingers reached up for the bags under both eyes. I pushed them up, but they dropped back in resignation. My eyes ached, their red streaks visible in the table’s reflection. I sighed deeply, closed my eyes and lay back, my head resting on the back of the couch.

“Mr. Spalding, Doctor will see you now.”

I shook my head, waking from a slight sleep. Groggy and confused I followed the receptionist into Dr Collins’ office.

Dr Collins sat in his black patent leather chair behind his large mahogany desk. He smiled, hands clasped behind his head. He was in his mid forties, his flecks of grey hair massaging his temples.

“How are you feeling?” he asked. His voice was soft, almost effeminate. His eyes were warmer than his smile.

I grunted, “Okay, I guess.” My shoulders dropped further with each word.

“No improvement on the new diet?”

“No, Doc.” I breathed deeply, my shoulders rising to their natural height. “Some days I wake up with a burst of energy, but it doesn’t last.” My shoulders drooped again, and the corners of my mouth dropped like unexpressed tears. “Why, Doc, why is it happening to me? One day I was fit, healthy and successful, everything to live for and the next I can barely walk to the toilet? Why? Why me? I did everything right. I dieted. I exercised. I took vitamins. I worked hard. I was good to everyone. Why me, Doc?”

Doctor Collins sat back in his chair, his palms opened out. “I don’t know, every test we have done has shown nothing. There is a hint of something viral left over, but other than that we are simply in the dark.” His hands turned over; he gently rapped on the table. “All we know is that you are allergic to at least 93 substances and it could be more.”

The front door of the clinic slammed behind me. I continued to look down, shoulders hunched, hands slack at my side. Walking to nowhere I began to replay pictures in my mind. I smiled weakly at the picture of myself crossing the finish line of the Melbourne Marathon, and then there was the picture of first place in the Horsham 10K. One after another I replayed pictures and relived the emotions of my many sporting and working victories. 

“No more,” were the only words, which escaped from my lips.

The early winter wind ripped through my clothes. I shivered and pulled the collar of my jacket tightly around my throat.

    I continued walking and thinking. I heard the voice of Doctor Collins in my head. “As I see it, you have two choices. Either you can go on as you are, but this will only lead to a further downward spiral in the foods you can eat. The other, the only real choice, is to spend a month in a bubble while we scientifically quantify the foods and chemicals you are allergic to.”

It was the best science had to offer. I was to become an experiment in reductionism, in the hope that they could rebuild the whole.

    I was in deep shit and I knew it

I continued walking. My arms hanging limply by my sides, my shoulders pinched in an attempt to keep out the cold. More pictures began to invade my mind. I remembered that fateful Sunday morning when I rose for my weekly 32K run. I dressed quickly, taking a noisy swig of orange juice; for there was not time for breakfast: I’d laced up one of my many pairs of old Nike's and ran out the front door.

After a hundred meters I felt like shit. 

Nothing unusual, I would be okay in another couple of kilometers, I assured myself, when I warmed up, or so I’d thought. No such luck; fifty meters further and I was doubled over, spilling last night’s vegetarian dinner in a heap on the side of the road.

    I had walked and half crawled the 150 meters back to my home, where I spent the whole day in bed. Next day I could barely drive the 2 kilometers to work or walk the fifty meters from the car park to my office at the supermarket, where I was manager. I stayed in the office resting for an hour before I made a pathetic tour of the supermarket. Exhausted, I went back to the office and rested for another hour before I surfaced again. I struggled on like this for four days before; finally, my complete lethargy forced me to see a doctor.

    That had been when the tests began and continued for the next eighteen months. I had become a human pincushion. And every time the results showed the same thing: nothing, or next to nothing. The traces showed something viral but not enough for them to be sure what the virus was.

    I was passed from one doctor to another: an endless procession of wise men in white coats, with stethoscopes hanging around their necks. The final doctor I saw had seen recommended me to an allergy clinic, where the tests began again. At least, there had been no more blood tests. The tests they performed were to find what it was I was allergic to. The diet was depressing, but at least it seemed to be helping. That was, until my last bout of sickness. I had gone back to work and for two months everything had been going well: I was working too many hours and had even started running again. Then one morning I woke up and could barely make it to the shower. That had been two weeks ago and that was why the only choice I had left was the allergy bubble.

I saw in my mind a picture of myself in a bubble, sucking foods through a straw and having no contact with the outside world. My mind pictures were over dramatised but they at least took me away from the real world of exhaustion.

When I finally escaped the inner worlds of my mind, I stopped walking and looked around. I shook my head in disbelief. I had walked all the way from Richmond to the city. A distance of only a few kilometres, but given my current state, anything over a hundred meters was a bonus. Confused, I asked myself. “How could I have walked so far?” 

There was more to this illness than the purely physical. I did not know what or how, but in that moment I sensed, in a deeper part of myself, that there was a way out of this debilitating disease and it had something to do with my mind. Given my current understanding of mind body medicine this was a quantum leap of universal proportions. We are talking about a man whose only reading consisted of books on athletics or marketing. My whole world had revolved around work and running. I was obsessed with becoming better. The better I became the harder I worked, the harder I trained. The illness brought all that to an end. The illness caused a crack in the person I thought I was and yet, at the same time, there was a hint, a small glimpse of something else.

    It was then that I prayed for the first time. It was not an ‘our father who art in heaven,' sought of thing, it was more a stillness in my mind where I asked whatever was out there for help, help, plain and simple. I did not ask for any specifics. Then, within seconds, my mind was once again a jumble of the millions of thoughts that fought for my attention in the stillness.

    A red flash appeared at the edge of my awareness. My head snapped back, only to discover it was a red dragon flapping above the entrance to a Chinese restaurant. My mind responded to the memories of food eaten in the past and I began to salivate. 

I wanted Chinese food. ‘Fuck the allergies. What’s happening?’ I thought to myself. ‘I had been so careful to only eat what I was supposed to eat, for such a long time. What was I doing?’ I watched as my feet took my body through the doorway and under the Red Dragon. 

    Once inside the door, my shoulders raised and breath filled my lungs. I sniffed at the thousands of smells that filled the restaurant, smells I had denied myself. I sniffed through the smells, reacting to one spice laid on top of another. There was garlic, which usually made me sick, then lemon grass, then chili, and then I could not quite make out some of the other smells. I closed my eyes and took another deep breath. 

   The waiter led me to a table while I was still in a state of ecstasy. The part of me, which existed in the earthly consciousness, ordered a bottle of De Bortoli Chardonnay and mulled over the menu while the other part of me danced in the province of angels.

    The waiter coughed gently, his hand in a fist in front of his mouth. I shook my head free from my revere. I looked up into the waiter’s smooth, creaseless face and smiled. A smile returned instantly, as if we were sharing a secret.

    

     I did not have to wait long. Within a few days my prayers were answered when I was introduced to a man named G who ran a weight loss program mainly for women called the IFA which stood for "Improper Fat Accumulation". At a sickly 72kgs I did not need to lose any weight, but there was something about him that attracted me to his teaching. The program ran over a season, or about 13 weeks during which time there was a number of cleansings and detoxes, combined with mega doses of vitamins and minerals and a special diet. Within about six weeks my allergies had reduced dramatically and I was feeling better than I had in a number of years.

I was in the audience on one of the last days of the program when G asked a question that would change my life forever. "Would you like to look at a person and know them better than they know themselves; to be able to talk to them in their own language, to know their strengths and weaknesses and be able to their see their health and disease patterns now and into their future?" Although I was one of maybe a hundred in the audience I felt like he was talking directly to me. In that moment my life was changed. My life from that moment turned in a direction that even a few months before I would never have been able to even comprehend what was happening.

The Elements of Man

    ‘In Old China, The Emperor of the Fourth Dynasty of Chao did not know what to do. Around him was disagreement. No matter what he tried, his ministers could not get along with one another. They were always fighting. His wife and children he could not understand. The people he was told about, the royalty, the governors, and those of the provinces throughout China - many times there was difficulty understanding them. But specifically, he had difficulty learning what their strengths and weaknesses were. One minister told him that to be able to do this; he needed to have those that would spy secretly. Others told him that he needed a great magician or mystic that could sit and whisper into his ear if a person was telling the truth. Others said that he must be extremely harsh and strong and, no matter what was said, not rely on it. He was always to know that the words that came forward were not true. He did not know what to do.

    ‘Soon he walked within his garden, each evening; and as he would touch the leaves or sit beneath the tree or watch the birds fly, he wondered. The old sage of the forest of K'an had taught him, when he was younger, of nature. What had he said? His memory was old. It was so far away. He had once asked, `How do I know when a person is truthful?' What had the sage answered... what were his words? He could not remember. But as he sat beneath the tree he remembered that the sage had taught him these things. And so he rose, and walked to his most trusted minister, and said, `Go to the forest of K'an and bring back the sage. You will enter through dark trees. Go forth for one half day until you come to a lake, the lake of purification. Sit beside it until the sage comes to you.'

‘And so the minister went and he found the forest and went into it. He sat beside the lake and waited for the sage. As the sun was setting over the mountains, as the birds were beginning to quiet their day, as the insects were defying the silence, he felt a touch on his shoulder. `What can I do for you, messenger of the Emperor?'

    ‘The Emperor would like you to go to him. He has much trouble.' And so the old sage said, `Three days from this day the old sage will be in his garden, beneath the willow tree.' And so the minister went back to the Emperor. He told the Emperor what was said, and he was happy. Three days later he went to the tree and sat, and the sage appeared. They talked for many hours. And the sage said, `I cannot teach the way to do this in one night or two. Being a dictatorial ruler will not bring this wisdom. Mystics and magicians cannot. Spies will not. You must leave your court for one year.'

    ‘The Emperor said, `but I cannot.' And the sage said, `Let me tell you how you can.' And so they prepared. And the Emperor was told how he would begin each day for the next five days, to prepare his court for his leaving.

    ‘And so the routine was changed, and the Emperor would sit upon his throne and he would say, 'Listen. I will sit now.' And the ministers would come and talk; and he would wave them away. This went on for three hours in the morning and three hours in the evening. And the Emperor would dismiss his court. At the end of five days, the sage said, 'We are now ready for you to leave.'

    ‘And as the Winter Solstice approached, in the cold of the night, as the sun was shining in the other parts of the world, and as the moon was high, they slipped through the garden of the palace. And each day, at exactly the same time, the old sage would appear in the guise of the Emperor and sit upon his throne. He would sit and listen, as the Emperor was in the forest of K'an learning to deal with people.

    It was three days before the Solstice, and the sage must prepare him. He told him what his role was to be. He said, `First you must know that man is like nature. Man is but a cycle, as your world is a cycle. Each thing has its seasons, as man has a cycle of the seasons. This is not only within man, but also within the history of mankind.' He pointed that in time he would be learning of the people who identify with the seasons. And the Emperor was glad. As the Solstice approached, the Elements of Man were revealed. Years later, Emperors later, when the Emperors no longer went into the forest of K'an, these were lost."

When G finished telling the story I felt like I had been on the journey with the Emperor and the sage. I knew in that moment that I would spend the rest of my life working to understand the seasons within man and mankind. The story was alive to me. The elements of Fire, Water, Air and Earth were dancing through the room. The elements within my body were reacting with the elements in the room and elements within the earth. In my own microcosm I was connected with the macrocosm. 

This was the beginning of the study of the elements. As the course continued I began to develop my understanding of the elements. There were a number of disciplines which G gave me that allowed a deepening of my understanding of the elements and one in particular that would become a part of my life for the next 28 years. The first discipline was to keep everything I learnt in these sessions to myself. To only discuss it with others who were attending the workshops. This was not done because we needed to keep these teachings a secret. It was because we had such a tenuous grip on their understanding that to discuss them with those who did not understand could cripple the unfolding of the teaching that came from within. We were not to discuss the teachings for a season. I went one step further and did not share any of the teachings for a full year. Looking back I could see that this and my passion for the teachings helped them to continue to develop, even to this day.

Come with me over the next three months, a full season, during which time I will reveal to the beauty and wonder that is the Elements. I bless my old teacher every day for giving me this wonderful gift and although he no longer teaches this course it is a pleasure for me to share these teachings with you.

All that I ask is that while you are studying the Elements that you do not talk about them to anybody who is not also studying them. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly it will take a full season for the concepts to start take root within you and secondly the old teaching of 'those who talk do not know and those that know do not talk.'

If you are excited about the teachings share the link to blog with others as something they may find interesting or buy them a copy of 'The 33rd Sage,' as much of what I will share is in the book. For some the story itself will help them open up to the more spiritual aspects of their life. 'When the student is ready the teacher appears.' 

Although the Elements were never meant to be taught in this way, I feel that the changes that are happening on the planet make it more necessary than ever for people to get back in touch with the Elements and nature. It is important for all of us to realign ourselves with the cycles within nature.

I dedicate these blogs to Old Chinese, G, Stuart and Marshal for they were the wonderful teachers who brought the elements alive for me.

Chung Fu, who first shared the story, was the assumed name of the spirit guide of trance medium Marshall N. Lever. It was chosen by the guide from the I Ching, meaning inner truth. His last incarnation was as a student of Chuang Tzu, in China.

Chung Fu discouraged any form of physical phenomenon in his teaching circles. He emphatically pointed out that his teachings and guidance are not the way, but one of the many ways that individuals may take on their journey to Inner Truth. He taught that there must be an unfolding within the individual and an awareness of Inner Truth through meditation and self-discipline. It was during one of his teaching circles that he shared the story of the Sage and the Emperor. 

Twenty eight years ago I was suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome when I was first introduced to the teachings of Old Chinese, as Chung Fu was also known, by G. Through the wonderful teachings of G and Old Chinese I was not only able to heal myself but have the strength and the courage to attempt the greatest journey of all: The Quest for Inner Truth.

I have not shared G's full name because he has chosen the way of the silent warrior and I honor and respect him deeply. I am one of the many thankful students that he has taught on his journey. A journey that has touched so many people in such a beautiful way.

The 33rd Sage is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, Watersons, Xlibris and a number of online book stores.

Twitter @GeofSpalding

Official Author Blog - the33rdsage.authorsxpress.com/

Translatable Author Blog - 33rdsage.blogspot.com.au/

Thanks to Ella James (Author of Chosen) for this wonderful picture from a castle in Skye. It is perfect for a doorway to another world which is where I hope the Elements will take you.