All Text, Music, and Illustrations, including Paintings, Photographs, and 3D models, Copyright © 2022 by Jim Robbins.
THE LORD OF MATERIAL TROUBLE
As Nathan was riding through town, he noticed a man and a woman slogging barefooted through the snow next to a church. The man was crippled and the woman trudged along in front of him. They didn't seem to see the stained-glass window that revealed the higher Emanations of the Tree of Life. Nathan for a moment imagined being crippled in battle and from that point on being unable to keep up with others he loved.
As he rode through town, Nathan found destitute people everywhere. Suddenly a man with a lion's head riding a brown bear appeared, who blared, "People in poverty, too lazy or too irresponsible or too stupid to deal with your own condition! I know a rich master who will guide you, a leader who will show you how to attain the riches you desire! Most people say, 'Do not help the poor because that will just make them more dependent. We will just end up with more and more beggars!' Do not listen to them! My master will guide you. If you listen to him, you too will be wealthy one day!"
Nathan rode out at sunrise to the fields surrounding the city. Poor people had recently tilled the soil for the wealthy landowner who owned the castle. Nathan pulled out a pentacle and stared at it for a while, feeling the unity of the elements of the natural world, the oneness of Universal Consciousness.
Nathan still felt disturbed by the lies told by the strange man riding the bear. With so few rich people and so many poor people, something had to be wrong with society, not with all the people who could barely scrape by. Every time he rode into the city, he witnessed a horrific lack of harmony and order in human society, which angered and frustrated him. Nathan galloped back to town and gave his golden pentacle to the homeless beggars whom he had witnessed struggling barefooted through the snow.
As he rode into the wild, Nathan came upon a Queen upon her throne, which resembled a large stone. Nathan dismounted from his steed and bowed. "How may I serve thee, my Queen?"
The Queen smiled. "You seem a bit disturbed, valiant knight. Something tells me you have just come from the city."
Nathan responded, "Yes, my Queen, and I saw terrible poverty. I am so glad to be back here in the wild again."
"Poverty is a form of cruelty perpetrated by a tiny group of people who have far more wealth than most people. The ultra-rich get away with their barbarity because the allurement of power has overwhelmed so much of humanity. So many people become obsessed by the thought of accumulating great wealth, despite all the horrific poverty around them. They would rather have money and riches than experience their connection with nature and other people.
"Poverty and the destruction of nature are forms of sadism. The wealthy maintain their power, dominance, and control through calculated systems of brutality and exploitation. The rich convince themselves that they deserve their wealth because they are superior to other people. They want us to believe that through the perpetuation of poverty they are teaching others who are inferior to them how to climb out of their destitute condition. To justify their own self-interest, the rich tell all kinds of absurd stories while remaining dedicated to making sure that more and more wealth flows to them at the expense of other people and the natural world. The people they consider inferior to them are usually people of a different ethnicity, race, sexual orientation--people, in other words, who are different from them. Without considering the web of life, the rich also want to believe that all the other creatures of the earth are inferior to them because that gives them just another reason to plunder the earth."
"That is only too true, my queen," Nathan responded.
"People survive in poverty and work in soul-crushing jobs that blind them to the paths on the Tree of Life and the dimensions of Universal Consciousness, and the rich continue to exploit labor and resources and sow division so that they can dominate without many people organizing against them, and they can destroy the few who do. One path between The Foundation (Yesod) and Victory (Netzach) contains a powerful life-changing mythological principle: Opening the heart. The last thing the wealthy want the poor and exploited to do is open their heart. This path connects the mythological principle of 'The Descent of the Divine' in The Foundation with 'The Marriage of Heaven and Earth' in Victory. How long would the wealthy be able to continue destroying the planet for their own profit if a large number of people experienced the divinity in nature? How long would the wealthy retain their power if exploited workers and poor people regularly experienced divine energies?"
"Probably not long, my queen," Nathan responded.
"You are a courageous knight, but you are from the castle. Are you going to fight the people who own the land or are you going to protect them and their power? You will have to make a choice."
"I would be greatly honored by any assistance that you might provide me, your Highness," Nathan responded.
The Queen commanded, "Look at my golden pentacle, and you will know what to do."
Nathan gazed a long time, how long he wasn't sure, but suddenly he thought he knew exactly what he needed to do. He bowed, "I understand now, my Queen. I will serve thee by first attempting to neutralize the dark forces possessing the greedy people in the castle. If that doesn't work, I will fight all the powerful, sadistic people who perpetuate the horrors of poverty."
The Queen smiled, "Valiant knight, you cannot fight a whole army. Let the powers of the magic pentacle affect you. The pentacle would want you to open your heart and help one or two people on a spiritual and physical level. So many people have been forced to close their hearts. Opening your heart will make it easier for others to do the same. You can also fight with others for systemic change in a nonviolent way. What it means to be a knight is that you might be burned down to the ground as a human being for loved ones or another caring individual and rise as a spiritual being. Can you do that?"
"I will do my best, your Highness," he responded.
A holy man at the castle had initiated Nathan into the sacred Mysteries, so Nathan knew many of the symbols associated with the mystical Tree of Life. As he pondered his task, he began to think about his guardian angel, Atriel. He had felt the unmistakable energies of the Archangels and the Angel Atriel in his last ritual, energies unlike any he had experienced before. He felt like a tiny ant compared to the Archangels, and he realized that the love of the Angels was unlike most love on earth. Nathan had felt the power of sacrifice as he manifested the Christ-force, and he could feel a powerful sense of new life rising within. He was sure that through his rituals, he could direct the creative energy of the life-force and plant the seeds of new life for himself and others. He did not need to take on an army all by himself. Instead he could focus on transforming negative systems of belief that perpetuated horrific conditions.
So Nathan imagined the beggars and realized, possibly thanks to the magic pentacle, that Mercury was influencing their struggle in some way. Mercury reveals the ideal powers of the creative process on the personal and transpersonal levels, so he knew that Mercury's influence might also be the key to their freedom from poverty. He knew that first he needed to banish the negative influences, so he imagined the two beggars again and performed the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. (See the description in the post of August 26 of The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram.)
As he performed the ritual, he suddenly recognized that Taurus was also influencing the situation. Having been initiated into the mysteries, Nathan realized that Taurus the Bull represents the great power of the life-force as well as a path on the Tree of Life that connects everything living to divine energies. Linked to the heavenly Emanation known as Wisdom, the path of Taurus in the Tarot reveals The Hierophant, a holy man with the keys to the Kingdom, the physical plane, at his feet. On the path of Taurus, the heavenly energies emanate across the Abyss into the planes of manifestation and also from the planes of manifestation into the higher spiritual realms.
After Nathan banished the negative influences by performing the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, he chose to invoke the Four of Pentacles, the "Lord of Earthly Power," the archetype of a great king, a figure who manifests The Sun in Capricorn in the Tarot card that the holy man at the castle had shown him. According to the holy man, the Lord of Earthly Power is also associated with Jupiter in Mercy (Chesed), the Emanation of magnificence, harmony, and abundance on the Tree of Life. In the Tarot, The Devil represents Capricorn, and the card often confuses the uninitiated, according to the holy man in the castle. The mythological principle of Capricorn is "The Meeting with the Powers of Life," the powers of life being extremely high energies reflected in the Two, Three, and Four of Pentacles as well as in all living things. Despite all the unbalanced energies and darkness in the world, The Devil spreads all four fingers upright in blessing, revealing that all is known, including the horrors of poverty and the evils of sin. The holy man in the castle had explained to Nathan that the Hebrew letter associated with the Tarot card is "Ayin," which means eye, the third eye that sees beneath appearances and can understand the reasons for the darkness and light in the world. Nathan did not know if there was a reason for all the evil and horror in the world, but he knew that everything on earth contains the power of the life force, and the power of the Sun continues to renew all things. He could only say "yes" to the great powers of life. The Queen's magic pentacle had shown him that he needed to open his heart, so he was ready to invoke of the Lord of Earthly Power. He performed the first eleven steps of the Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram. (See the description in the post of September 2 of The Supreme Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram.)
Nathan then laid down the Four of Pentacles on a makeshift altar and stated while tapping the card, "The Four of Pentacles, The Sun in Capricorn." Since Earth is a passive element, Nathan used the Passive Invoking Spirit Pentagram while laying down the Aces--the foundation cards--starting in the lower left corner of the pentagram, moving to the upper right corner and continuing from there in a continuous motion. After he had placed all of the cards, he tapped each card in the direction of the Passive Invoking Spirit Pentagram, making sure to tap the one in the lower left corner to complete the pentagram. Then he laid down the modifiers, The Devil (Capricorn) and The Sun (The Sun), on the Ace of Pentacles in the lower left corner of the pentagram.
As Nathan laid down the card known as The Devil on the Ace of Pentacles, he stated while tapping the card, "The Devil, Capricorn."
As he laid down The Sun on The Devil, tapping the card, he stated, "The Sun."
Then he drew the Passive Invoking Spirit Pentagram and the spirit wheel in the air in brilliant white above the Four of Pentacles on the altar, charging the pentagram and the spirit wheel with the Sign of the Enterer. After that, he drew an Invoking Pentagram for Earth directly over the Invoking Spirit Pentagram, charging the pentagram and the symbol of Taurus in the same way.
At that point, he imagined the symbol of the bull turning into the living image of the Lord of Earthly Power a few feet north of his altar and coming alive as a full-length figure. Then he imagined gnomes, brilliant points of light, flowing from the Archangel Auriel and filling the living image of the king while at the same time the bright points of the Earth element flowed from his aura and also filled the living image.
He stated loudly, "I name you Lord of Earthly Power."
Then he said, "I humbly ask thee to help the wealthy and the poor people in the city to see and know the light of the Sun and the magnificence, harmony, and abundance within all people. After you have completed your task, I humbly ask thee to return to the element of Earth, doing no harm."
"So mote it be!" Nathan imagined the great king helping him and others to know the divinity in all people.
In his imagination, he could see the beggars experiencing the earthly power of the life-force and the magnificence, harmony, and abundance within.
When he had completed his ritual, Nathan wasn't sure that he had helped anyone. He returned to the Queen of Pentacles, who motioned to a woman, who was now holding up a hooded falcon next to some pentacles and vines with ripened grapes. "We can all know the great earthly power of the life force within us," The Queen of Pentacles smiled. "Let the wealthy and the poor know the light of the Sun and the magnificence, harmony, and abundance within each person. You have done well, my valiant knight. You may continue now on your quest."
(All AI generated images are based on my 3D Blender renderings, paintings, or photographs.)
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