Light and truth are eternal. Neither can be extinguished. Both will always prevail. Everything depends on them. Man could not exist without them. They are essential. Yet, man, in his ignorance, fails to recognize its tremendous impact on his own life. Due to the precarious position he is holding in the animal world, he shuns the light at times when he needs it moist. Truth does not fare any better in his daily life. Man tries to evade the inevitable. He wants to postpone what he knows is impossible to prolong forever. Some actually fear the light. It will reveal too much about them, what they would rather like to remain hidden from the light. Lurking behind it is the fear of truth. The failure to live up to what the light has revealed and still reveals, causes man to hide behind falsehood. He misrepresents what he knows is different. He fears his own ignorance more than the light. Not recognizing that the light will dispell his insufficient knowledge, he, nevertheless refuses to bask in its warmth. When the chill of evasion hurts his ego and body he crawls like a hurt animal from his hiding place to soak up the healing rays of light, only to hide from it again as soon as someone approaches who could see his plight. He can not stand the truth. He is ashamed of himself being helpless. He has to acknowledge that there is more to life than he knows. That there are forces greater than he can command. He knows it by experience. But he is reluctant to admit it. 0nly by painful
experience will he learn. And then slowly. Therefore, man will never accomplish all that to which he may aspire until he sheds his fear for light and truth. When he will have realized his need for the greater light and the necessity for living a life according to the highest truth to which he may attain, then only, will he became aware of his true dignity as a child of God. He is then ready for the rebirth in the spirit.
Delegatus non Potest Delegare
Why? Because a delegate can not delegate his powers. They are limited to him only. Those who assume the right that they can delegate an office or authority to others must be in possession thereof. Anyone
authorized to perform a certain work should be able to cite proof to the extent that he is capable to; execute his assigned task within his sphere of activity. And there it ends. It does not carry with it the right of further extension. A delegate's authority is limited. On the other hand, he who delegates, may do so by the right of his authority. This implies full knowledge, understanding, and the means for the plan or work to be consumated. A delegate may not have possession of that fullness. His may be only a partial knowledge, understanding, and means of the entire scope. While in the capacity of his specific assignment he be fully capable to perform the task to which he has been delegated. As above so below. It is men's perogative to aspire to greater things in life. Comparisons should be based upon the qualifications inherent in the persons and their acts that are to emulated. Those who will always look below their present standing will find those who are not as fared developed. Comparisons made with such individuals does not help much in the furtherance of one's development. It may develop into a smug feeling of superiority. He, who is not more developed than you can be of little assistance in the furtherance of acquiring greater knowledge. If the latter is our aim we must look above. We must find those who do know more than we do. There is the storehouse from which we may draw. There will be found the ways and means for greater knowledge. But then we become insignificant. Our former standing of selfmposed agrandizement becomes nill. Instead of looking down we will have to look up.
We will find ourselves in the center of things. There will be those below us and those above us. As soon as we have realized that there is always one below us, who is not capable to perform a task as good as we are able to do, by that same token do we acknowledge that there is one who can do it better. This should help us in establishing an equilibrium within ourselves. It will help to forstall a feeling of continuous superiority. Too many harbor such a feeling by constantly making comparisons with those below their present level of knolwledge and understanding. This is selfdelusion. Remember: there is always one who can do things better than you and who has a greater knowledge and understanding than you possess. From there we can expect help which will enable us to do the same unto others who look to us for help. But then we will render it in a spirit of meekness and thanksgiving and not in arrogance and self-agrandizement.
Memor et Fidelis
To be mindful and faithful are wonderful attributes. Minding what has been said or taught requires a careful absorption and paying attention when the subject in question comes up. Scatterbrains that jump from one thing to another and never, or seldom, pay enough attention to the essential occurrences in their lives are unreliable. They cannot be trusted. They do not mind. They always have excuses for everything. It can be said that the only contribution they make to human society is for the latter not to imitate their behavior patterns. A faithful individual does not necessarily have to confine this virtue to religious precepts. Here we speak of trustworthy individuals. To be faithful is no compulsory state of mind but a voluntary one. To be faithful means to have trust and confidence. Being taught essential laws requires to be mindful to the enlightenment expounded and to show our faithfulness, confidence, and trust to those teaching us.
Applying the teachings that have been given will let us arrive at the crucial point of self experience. This is the payoff for being mindful and faithful in the beginning in order to be entrusted with the success based thereon.
Students of alchemy will have to be endowed with these essential qualities. One will have to mind very carefully what has been laid down by those who, through personal experience, have obtained what was predicated upon their being faithful. Impatience and doubt are the greatest obstacles to those entering the alchemists' realm. Decrying as nonexisting what is invisible or presently not obtainable because of one's inability to accomplish it, establishes a barrier that can only be overcome by being mindful and faithful to what has been taught.