The Magic Path ep2

   This castle is the home of the Master Magician, Merle Havgud. He Does not own the castle, but lives there by the invitation of the rocks from which it is built. When Merle first encountered the stones, they were little more than a large pile of moss covered riff-raff that had been left there by a retreating glacier, about one million years ago. Rocks can be very hard headed, but their group was more than happy to hear what Merle had to say about the benefits of organized higher life forms. Merle explained that the three main rules of life are to 1) Have Fun, 2) Learn New Things and 3) Become a Useful Member of groups and communities. The rocks discovered that, by getting themselves into shape and forming a castle, they enjoyed life in greater abundance and showed their gratitude by becoming a home for Master Merle.

      Amity is one of Merle's best students of White Magic and has been gathering students of her own. For their next important lesson, Amity inspires her growing class with a field trip to Master Merle's home.  Woody is always looking for ways to be a good guardian to his growing community, so he climbs up on the wall for a look at the surrounding countryside. "Wow", he shouted, "from up here I can see all the way to tomorrow." "Good for you sir" Amity added, "And, as you study White Magic, you will learn to see even farther into the future and even the past".

    Grendel, the Deputy Queen of the forest, has brought along Alice Anne Bunny, to get her included in Amity's classroom. Neville, Amity's clockwork squirrel has come along to see what kind mischief he can get into. The lofty view from the castle balconey is indeed inspiring and the group is ready to absorb all that Merle can teach them.

   As they go inside, Merle waves a hand and creates a large balance scale in the center of the room. He invites Rusty and Misty to sit on the two weighing pans, because it plays an important part in the lessons of Duality. To Merle's dismay, the group is having a bit of a laugh, as they notice that Neville is giving a hand to helping balance the scale.

   Being "light-hearted" is important in White Magic, so Merle lets the laughter continue as he forms a large feathered symbol on the wall. You have probably seen variations of this "Yin-Yang" symbol. It reminds us that, when we are using White Magic, to make forms out of thin air, they will always contain elements that have opposite polarities, like up/down, in/out, plus/minus and male/female. Throughout the ages, the Master Teachers have taught that there is only one Spirit and that these dual elements are only illusions. If you are a student of white magic, you have probably heard this said and even say it yourself, but magicians are very curious and you will also want to ask how One Spirit seems to make itself into two opposite things. Taking it another step, you might ask how the One Spirit creates a universe of countless galaxies, stars and planets from nothing at all.  It's really not that hard, when you think about it. In fact, using only your mind, your imagination can create a whole universe of it's own.

   If we follow this line of thinking, we might soon find ourselves wondering Who or What is thinking up this universe that we are in. Most of us lack any memories of having put some thought into building anything as big as a whole universe, so we might take the easy way out and say that it is all taking place in a mind which is very much larger than our own and give it a grand title, like Lord or God.

   This might sound like a good idea, but the Mind of Spirit is infinite and eternal. If there can be a "Higher Mind", there will always be a higher level above It. You will get nowhere and get dizzy in the process, if you ride that merry-go-round.

   The Master Teachers told us there is only One Spirit. If that is true, there is no point in asking which spirit is thinking a universe, because every person and thing is doing it together. While it is true that everybody and everything is taking part in making the universe, we don't all do the same jobs. You have many parts in your body, but each part has a job that it does best. There are no good or bad jobs. The best jobs are those that are the most usefull to the groups you are a part of.

   Merle explains,"When we think, our thoughts swirl around the idea in a ring. These spinning thought rings are the seed of every form in the universe and beyond. They are also the birthplace of opposites"

   "I have a new theory", Rusty shouted out. "The next time I have to think of something complicated, I'm going to try thinking, while riding on the merry-go-round."

   "Brilliant hypothesis young man", Merle complimented, "and adding fun always makes any work a lot more fun."

   Minds create forms and forms create dualities like top/bottom, inside/outside, left/right and a host of other polarities. Just because there are opposites doesn't mean that one is good for us and the other must be avoided. We need contrasts to fully understand the meaning of the things that we come in contact with. If you were given a big book that contains all the answers to any question that can be asked, it would be very hard to learn anything from it, if it was made with white ink on white paper.