Today, Q’uo, our question has to do with how we might be able to determine, perhaps even define, our spiritual path through our daily round of activities. As we’re immersed in all the things that we do during our regular days, it’s so easy to get lost in the details and the ups and downs. Could you give us some little way or a shorthand way of reminding ourselves who we are and what we’re doing, of how to find our way through the maze and to make a spiritual sense of it all?

(Carla channeling)

We are those of the principle known to you as Q’uo, and we greet you in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator, in Whose service we come to you this day. It is a great privilege to be called to your circle of seeking and we thank each of you who has taken the time and the energy to seek the truth at this time. The beauty of your souls as you tabernacle together in silence and in unity of spirit is a beautiful, wonderful play of colors as your energies combine and swirl together to form a literal tabernacle of light. It is most inspiring to us. Your hearts and your souls express most beautifully the challenge of the tempering furnace and the extreme beauty of the subtle colors that are brought about by the interplay of tempering influences in that furnace of catalyst and experience.

You create a unique thing when you come together in groups such as this—a point of light that cannot be expressed in any physical sense, but which is an event and an occasion for rejoicing in the unseen planes, or as this instrument would call them, the inner planes. Such events as you as a group choosing to come together are as locations in time/space and beacons of light that strengthen the light of the whole of those unseen planes within your Earth energy. Thank you, for this expression of seeking and for the beauty of it. It inspires us greatly.

As always, we would ask each of you to listen carefully to those thoughts that we share, realizing that we make many mistakes. Please keep those thoughts that you find useful and discard the rest. This will enable us to share our thoughts freely without being concerned that you might see us as authority figures and try to follow thoughts that simply were not your own. If thoughts do not resonate to you then please leave them aside without a second thought. We thank you for this care.

You have asked this day concerning how to wend your path through the miasma of details and the seeming chaos of manyness that you are offered each day as you awaken and open your eyes to the kaleidoscope of events that will unfold. As you rise from the bed perhaps you cannot imagine what the day will bring. Certainly if you are thoroughly sure of what the day will bring you shall be surprised, for each day has its uniqueness and any hope of a perfectly conformable daily schedule is usually lost by midmorning. Much is occurring within your physical world and the ability of each entity to communicate with each other entity in a variety of ways and mediums creates a continuing atmosphere of surprise because, at any moment, entities might call or use the internet to write email or send paper mail so that you are constantly receiving a new voice or a new e-message or a new letter which changes the details of the day—adds to them and creates a new list of things to do and perhaps, a new way of prioritizing those things that you need to do. Seldom is it possible for any of those within this circle to arise, face the day, and go through the day with every aspect of the day being that which was expected and that which does not create any requirement for discipline or for the amalgamation of change.

Indeed, it has often been noted by many in this group and in your society in general that the rate of change seems to be accelerating and therefore time itself has the illusion of seeming to accelerate. There is a feeling of becoming swept up and carried away by the torrential waves of chaos and detail that wash over each of you. In this atmosphere, it is easy to lose one’s balance and to surrender to a state of mind in which the requirement is simply to survive, to do the next thing on the list, and to make it to bed time without losing one’s precarious and tenuous place in all of the bewildering array of detail.

Your request was to find ways to determine and define what the path was in the midst of all these details and there is, we would be quick to state, a path for each of you. Not a regimented, strait-and-narrow, straight-line path in which there are no deviations—this is not what we intend to suggest. But there is a path of… we are challenged, looking for a word within this instrument’s vocabulary for what this path would be called. If we call it a path of rightness, that suggests that there is a wrong path. If we call it a path of resonance, that immediately places an entity upon very subjective ground. Let us work with this concept of a path. The one known as Lao-Tzu created a system of philosophy which is called The Tao or The Way, the word meaning, in general, the Path.

It might be posited by this general line of thinking that one’s life itself is a path. And, inevitably, that path, that lifetime, that incarnation, wends its way up and down hills and around corners, many a time. There is no such thing as a broad, straight, easy incarnation. It is often hoped by entities in the midst of incarnation that their path might be straight and easy and clear, and yet, the essential requirement of an incarnation is mystery. Mystery was built into each entity’s path by the entity himself along with that guidance which was consulted before the incarnation in drawing up the various aspects of the incarnation to come. Each of you carefully chose the relationships that would challenge and befuddle you in order to point up and bring forward incarnation lessons which you wished to tackle, not because you wished to defeat yourself or to confuse yourself, but because you wished to move the balance of your energies by decisions made within the incarnation.

Before the incarnation, you were able to have a good overview of the incarnation to come and of yourself as a soul entity. You looked at that entity that you are and you asked yourself, where you would like to go? What path that you would like to take from the beginning to the end of that very brief period of incarnation that you are looking at? Perhaps you felt that you had an overbalance of love and needed to learn wisdom; perhaps you felt that you had an overbalance of wisdom and needed to bring that balance between wisdom and love back more towards the true center in which love is informed by wisdom and wisdom is informed by love. We cannot define for you the basic direction of that path; each entity’s path is unique. Each entity, however, has in common that it is seeking an improved, more balanced polarity as it approaches that great testing ground of graduation from third density to existence in fourth density. Each entity hopes that this incarnation will be the final incarnation within third density. Consequently, the concept of polarity is all-important in understanding how the mysteries of the path make themselves known to you.

In doing third-density work where you are attempting to improve your service-to-others polarity, you are always working against resistance. You are working against a potential difference. You are standing upon that which you envision as the desired ideal or the desired balance and you are pushing against the resistance to that change that is necessary in order to increase the polarity. Consequently, there must be the hidden corners, the blind defiles, 1 the ups and downs of a surprising and adventurous lifetime, in order for that deeper entity that you are to be constantly nudged towards awakening to the deeper purposes, the deeper desires, that lie beneath the easy, soft and sweet of surface emotions. How easy it is, my friends, to move from the delight of a good conversation to the irritation of a bad conversation, and so forth. And how difficult it is sometimes to see through the surface details to the issues that are half-hidden and half-revealed by surface emotions, surface occasion, and surface reaction. Yet those surface expressions are as the foam upon the top of the waters. They have no substance. They have no longevity. They have no reality. Yet because they recur with such steady regularity over the course of the waves of the day, it is easy to become fixated upon watching them and surfing in them, to the exclusion of doing that work which deepens the requirements upon the self; which pulls the self into the more mysterious precincts of the deeper waters of the path.

So it is, indeed, a very good question that you ask in terms of how to find little ways to jog the memory, to create for the self a self-sustaining system of little alarm clocks that reawaken the memory of who you are and why you are here. This instrument was conversing with the one known as J the other day concerning football and in particular the comment of a football analyst that pressure is needed sometimes to change coal into the diamond that sparks the light. 2 The pressures of daily life are not random or unexpected. They are blessed and very much expected and anticipated, not by the conscious self but by the entity that you are beneath the conscious mind. For your consciousness is connected with all of eternity and is infinite, being part of the creative principle. As part of that creative principle, you have a far different schedule or calendar for your life than you as an egoic being with a personality shell might create from day to day. And these mysterious and winding ways of the spirit are very much planned upon and greeted with great thanksgiving and gratitude.

To move into that portion of the self where these things are true, then, is the challenge. And this instrument was saying to the one known as J that indeed it is interesting to reflect upon the difference between coal and the diamond in terms of emotions. For if the reaction of emotional nature to incoming catalyst is that of the coal, it will have generated heat; whereas if one’s reaction to the incoming catalyst has the emotive qualities of the diamond, it will reflect and refract light. One quick way to determine where you are as a person with respect to the catalyst of the day, is to evaluate your emotional set. Has it generated heat or has it generated light? Have the emotions of the self been fiery and bright and sharp? Or has it been that emotional set which is as the diamond in taking the incoming catalyst and being with it in such a way that light is refracted through you from the catalyst to express light, color, beauty and those ineffable qualities that are part of a system of color and light. As the one known as T was saying earlier, the effort that this entity is making at this time is to decrease that heat and to increase the light that is produced in the soul’s response to catalyst. When the self experiences heat, that in and of itself may be a good marker for activating that alarm clock that says, “There is work that I need to do on who I am and why I am here.”

It is difficult sometimes, in the midst of a heated reaction, to corral the self. The reason for this is that much of the reaction to catalyst that is expressed by an entity is the result of habit. For instance, this entity has a habit of interpreting certain kinds of statements as a rejection of the self. This interpretation is biased in the extreme and has long been realized as such by this entity. Nevertheless, this entity often finds itself in the midst of a reaction to catalyst which can be seen in an instant evaluation as being that which has generated heat rather than light, that which is a colossal metaphysical mistake. And yet, because the habit began very long ago within this instrument’s incarnation and because it has never completely been eradicated, it takes any opportunity in which it is given free rein, not simply to play for a moment but to play from beginning to end, as if it were a tape recording that, once started, must be played through. A good deal of retraining the self in the disciplining of the personality is in identifying and then going after those triggers to those old responses, those old tapes, that are so deeply buried within the upper reaches of the subconscious mind. A habit is a beautiful thing when it is working. A habit of diet and exercise have created continued health for many and certainly habits of healthful thinking are just as excellent. But when a habit has gotten out of control and is no longer useful, it can be a persistent and irritating difficulty which is constantly nudging that soul that you are off of its path and into the side road of useless, outdated, response.

How to counter these triggers is certainly a tremendous challenge. Mechanically speaking, there are ways to interrupt such tapes, shall we say, from rolling. Identifying the trigger is very helpful. And any work that can be done in honest communication with the self on identifying these triggers and the really deep nature of these triggers, will be a good resource for any. But more than that, when the trigger has been [pulled] and one has only identified that trigger after the fact, it is still possible, through the discipline of the personality, to halt long enough to say to the self, “I am being triggered,” and to stop and celebrate the fact that you have realized this and are therefore taking the first step towards the actual eradication of this deeply buried trigger. It is helpful, then, if you take additional time to laugh at the self, to give the self a hug, and to ask the self, if it had the choice of any way of meeting this particular situation, what would be the highest and the best way? If there is time then for a little more thought and contemplation on seeing the best way, on envisioning the best way, and on, perhaps, moving forward in expressing this best way, then all of that is a great asset to your seeking. It has taken time to embed this habit. It will take much more time to bring it up, see it for what it is, and allow it to fall away. It must be pulled up into the light of day. It must be appreciated, and it must be loved and accepted as part of you before it can be released. So that which you can do when you find yourself expressing heat instead of light is, if you have the luxury of time, to take that time to interrupt that sequence and to redirect it.

Let us return to consideration of the path. The Path of Lao Tzu was ever undefined. Breathing in and out was the path. Listening and talking were the path. Doing and being were the path. All things were the path. Yet the fact that there is a path in this philosophy suggests that many things are not relevant to that path. And by various stories, the teacher known as Lao Tzu would attempt to describe the way that entities could find their way upon the path. We would suggest that it is impossible to be away from the path. It is possible, certainly, to stop by the side of the path and to amuse oneself without moving forward upon the path in meadows of side interest, places to rest, places to recreate and enjoy the self, places to sleep, and places to dream. It is good sometimes to stop in one of those places upon your path. It is not a path that one must embark upon a certain amount of time each day in order to be worthy. Indeed, in some ways, it can be conceived of as a path that does not have to be trod. It simply is, and you simply are. But the desire of anyone within a time-bound incarnation is to measure things by achievement and so, inevitably, that path is modeled as a path through space and time going somewhere. Try to remember that there are aspects of your path that never go anywhere, that you are always, if you choose to, able to operate from the very center of your being, having nowhere to go, no “what” to do, no “when” to do it, but simply being as you are, existing in essence and in truth. That is the heart of your path. Who you are is the essence of that path and what you are attempting to do as you wend your way through these mysterious turnings is not to do more but to do anything that you do with more truth.

Have you experienced entities that, when you met them, were within their integrity in a tremendously powerful way? Perhaps they did not even have to speak much for you to be able to feel the power of their being. That is the power that lies within each of you and the way to find that true nature of self is in the work that you do in determining and finding and defining what that path is through your crowded and busy days.

It helps, in a way that is difficult to define, for you to have some model within yourself for what that path that you are on is, and how it goes. This entity, for instance, being a mystical Christian, tends to model her rule of life and her path on the teachings of the one known as Jesus. And like all paths, and all models of paths, this model and this path has obvious flaws. The one known as Jesus walked the path of the martyr and while the path of the martyr is to be seen, in the case of the one known as Jesus, as an appropriate and a loving path, yet still it is not obvious, from the surface of the story of the one known as Jesus, that this entity was at all responsible or conservative in walking that path that eventually led towards a cross on a hilltop near Jerusalem. As this entity stretched its arms out upon that cross, it lost all ability to serve within this density. That is the difficulty of the bias of the path of a martyr. And so this entity must constantly ask itself where the appropriate balance is between service to others and martyrdom. Others following other paths must look at the biases that are connected with that model and that path and then ask the self what the issues are as one attempts to follow the way of a hero or an avatar.

The virtue of having a model or a hero for a path is simply that it is a shortcut, if you will, an icon on the desktop that you can click on in order to see deeper into the issues that you are facing. The cliché of modern day that this instrument would use, then, is “What would Jesus do?” Or as this instrument has altered it many a time, “What would Jesus be?” Asking the self what one’s hero would do or how it would be is often very instructive to one’s own private communication with the self. For one is working in deep waters and the light is dim. It is not easy to see one’s way when one is attempting to sort signal from noise and truth from chaos. But we would suggest, if there is that feeling for a certain hero or avatar or icon of some kind, to use that, not blindly, but asking the self, “If I were thinking as this entity, how would I see my situation?” It helps to bring one up from the morass of confusion and give one a promontory upon which to stand, from which vantage point you may see the surrounding landscape of the moment that you are facing. If one does not have a hero, a master, an avatar, an icon, then one simply must move within the self and ask the guidance of the self, “What is the highest and best part of myself going to do in this situation?” And then await that wisdom in confidence and quietness.

It is very helpful when viewing this kind of deep and subtle work within the personality shell to avail oneself on a daily basis of silence. The uses of silence are many but the chief use is simple release. There is a silence in which there is no word. There is a deeper silence in which there is no sound and there is an even deeper silence in which there are no unspoken thoughts. Each of you has these levels of silence within. It is extremely helpful to the decompression of the stress of your daily life to release the self from words, from sounds, and from your own unspoken but certainly multitudinous thoughts. If you do not, they are as the taskmasters that have taken over your precious consciousness. Certainly they must have their reign. One must deal with words each day. One dwells within a welter of sound and, even as this instrument sits within this chair she is able to hear several different sounds that are expressive of the household working: the buzzing of the sound system, the buzzing of the air purifier, the computer system, and the refrigerator, and the sound that indicates that the fans and the heating elements of the house are working. Without this network of tiny sounds, the civilization factor would cease to exist and there would be no aids to comfort. The food would spoil, the house would become chilly or heated depending upon the weather, and so forth. So all of these subliminally heard tones are useful and helpful and certainly not of negative value. Yet, taken all together, they create a body tension that can not be ignored. It is a wonderful thing, my friends, to lift oneself away from civilization, from words, from sounds, and from your unspoken thoughts as well. If you are able to do this by gazing at a candle in meditation of the Eastern type, we encourage it. If your way is prayer and meditation in a more Christian sense, we encourage it. If your way is solitary walks in nature, we encourage them.

What we encourage is that you take the time for yourself, to give yourself the healing balm of silence. How blessed a thing that is. It is so alien to your culture that, in many cases, entities are left feeling very uncomfortable if there is true silence. And they will deliberately turn on the television, or the radio, or the sound system to banish that silence and to bring in the more desired energies of song or speech or drama. And in their place these are good things. But we do encourage the discipline that keeps the self away from distraction, even if it just be for five or ten minutes in a day. We would recommend, certainly, a period of fifteen minutes to a half an hour within each day. And if possible, we would recommend more than one of those places in the day in which spirit and that still, small voice of spirit might actually be able to bloom and to give unto your soul those silent words that are more precious than any sound or word could ever be.

This instrument informs us that we need at this time to open the meeting to other questions. We thank you for this wonderful question and the fun that we had in working on it and would ask at this time if there are any further queries?

[Inaudible] correct physical difficulties, could you elaborate or expound on the causes, perhaps the cures behind them?

We are those of Q’uo, and are aware of your query, my brother. The amount that we may say upon this subject, as you may understand, is quite limited for we do not wish to remove any learn/teaching opportunities for this entity. We may say that a goodly portion of this entity’s experiences at this time have to do not with any particular present catalyst that is incoming but rather have to do with this entity’s position within incarnation in that this entity has moved into the seventh decade of its incarnational age and is experiencing those systems within the body that are experiencing age and a less robust or youthful configuration and therefore are more open to damage.

The sources of stress within this instrument’s incarnation, as the one known as N pointed out, have certainly been many and that stress is that which has been eagerly and thankfully embraced. This creates an atmosphere in which incoming catalyst has a depth and a sharpness which this instrument would call instant karma, and again this instrument has embraced the quickening and acceleration of these energies. To put it in short words, this instrument has agreed to play hardball and is therefore experiencing each and every part of the shadow side of its nature in ways that are much clearer than in some incarnational patterns. The challenge for this entity, as always, is that finding of the path that is in balance so that there is not an over-embracing of energies that would lead to martyrdom; nor is there an under-embracing of energies which would lead to slowing that acceleration of spiritual evolution that this instrument is most eager to accomplish.

The way towards healing is framed in thankfulness, gratitude and peace. And this is true not only of this instrument but is in general the attitude that most efficiently embraces and most skillfully makes use of the catalyst of the moment.

May we answer you further, my brother?

I think that’s plenty for her to consider, thank you. Another question I had. If [the Q’uo] work with crystals, I gave one that I had to Carla to hold. I’m just curious if you can tune into its energy and tell me [what] its purpose is with Carla and with itself?

We are those of Q’uo, and aware of your query, my brother. As we do indeed tune into this entity we find that we are not able to work with this information without infringing upon the free will of those involved. May we answer you further, my brother?

Hmm, that’s interesting then, surprising, but interesting. I have none at this time, thanks.

We thank you, my brother, and are most pleased to spend a brief moment of your physical space/time enjoying your presence. It is always a joy to greet you in person, my brother.

I’m curious, since the last time I was here, what do you see from your perspective, from your side, of how I’ve changed?

We are those of Q’uo, and are aware of your query, my brother. We find that the one known as S has somewhat matured in that there is a lessening of naiveté with no corresponding aggregation of cynicism. We find that, in greeting change, the maturing or evolving entity will accept becoming more complex whereas the entity that is attempting to avoid the maturation process will attempt to retain simplicity and in the resulting conflicts find itself becoming more and more bitter. It is that for which we would offer congratulations to the one known as S, that this entity has worked to deepen and to allow complexity within the self without the corresponding tendency towards bitterness.

May we answer you further, my brother?

No, I appreciate that thought and for what it’s worth, for all that I’ve been and am becoming, I do want to express my love and gratitude because you are and have been a part of that and I just give you my love and appreciation.

We are those of Q’uo, and, my brother, we return your sentiments most heartily.

Is there a further query at this time?

Not from me.

I have a question, Q’uo, concerning a catalyst expressed in the physical body as a cancer. I remember reading some explanation of it in the Law of One book. I wanted to ask whether this cancer is in all cases the result of unprocessed catalyst and anger that expresses in the physical body as a growth of cells?

We are those of Q’uo, and are aware of your query, my brother. The query itself is difficult to get hold of because there are so many different kinds of anger. Some of them are obvious, some of them are very difficult to pin down and are almost a portion of the personality shell itself rather than being connected to certain situations or catalyst.

Can I refocus the query?

We are those of Q’uo, and would be delighted for you to do so, my brother.

Let’s speak about an incarnation where an entity is offered catalyst of various kinds and finds an anger. I cannot describe the anger in more detail because it is a query that is partly hypothetical, but would it be correct to say that the cancer would be the result of unprocessed anger within that one’s incarnation, discounting the effects of the previous one?

We are those of Q’uo, and are aware of your query, my brother. That query is easier to answer and we thank you for the change. That which you call disease, of which cancer is a kind, is literally un-easiness within the physical body. It is dis-ease. It is a moving away from the stasis of perfect balance in the body system. At heart, such disease is only partially physical. A large part of disease resides within the mind and the perceptions of that mind. When entities perceive disharmony in a way that is telling, it makes a mark upon the mind. That perception creates an actual change in each cell of the body. It creates an atmosphere in which any incoming agent of disease will be recognized more readily and grabbed onto by each cell of the body more readily. Conversely, when an entity begins to perceive that apparent disharmony has no reality and is therefore able to begin to change its perceptions, that lack of triggering of the perception of disharmony again communicates itself to every cell of the body and therefore when the agent of disease sends its signal to each cell the antennas of that cell do not reach out and grab the catalyst of disharmony because it perceives that there is no disharmony. Therefore, when one is working to lessen the impact of a perceived disease within the body, a part of the working has to do with changing the perceptions that gave rise to a feeling of disharmony.

May we answer you further, my brother?

With enough talent and focus each entity is able to find its disharmony within itself, then?

We are those of Q’uo. That is correct, my brother. In general, certainly it is a short discussion of a sometimes quite protracted process for each feeling entity.

May we answer you further, my brother?

In dealing with this catalyst, when one is able to bring love and acceptance to the process, is it part of the lessening of the over-activity of the antennas that you have mentioned?

We are those of Q’uo, and, this is correct, my brother. The perception is prior to physical reality and this may be seen, for instance, by the entity that is under hypnosis and is able to walk upon coals without having burned feet or to be stabbed by a needle without feeling pain or bleeding. The body is the creature of the mind.

May we answer you further, my brother?

No, Q’uo, that was good. I wanted to make it somewhat general rather than crossing over the threshold of personal data.

We are those of Q’uo, and applaud your discretion, my brother. It is very good to speak with you.

Is there a final query at this time?

Not a question but an invitation. Half seriously, if you would be interested to hang around and stay awhile and eat cookies afterwards, we would be delighted.

We are those of Q’uo, and, my brother, we must confess that we always stay for the tea and the cookies. Our hearts are full as we give our leave of you. It is such a blessing to be with you. We leave you in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. Adonai.

  1. A defile is a “narrow gorge or pass that restricts lateral movement, as of troops.” ↩

  2. Diamonds are the same element as coal, carbon. Great pressure upon coal, through time, creates the diamond. ↩