Your Higher Power

In AA, as in other Twelve-Step programmes, it's vitally important that we come to believe in a power greater than ourselves, a power that is loving and compassionate, that will restore order into our unmanageable lives.

In the Work, we have the plethora of diagrams, from the Step Diagram to the Ray of Creation, to illustrate the teachings of all mystical religions - that there is a Higher Power, called the Most Holy Sun Absolute in the Work, and by the names for God used by different, valid religious paths.

The Twelve Steps teach alcoholics and addicts how to begin to live a normal life, called in the Work the way of the Good Householder.

Mystical traditions and Fourth Way schools begin with this level of being, and teach those who are willing and able to follow their instructions how to live in such a way that we may ultimately be used by something higher, by God or Conscious Humanity, for transforming consciousness. In working on ourselves, it's not simply our own Being that is raised. Our eventual aim is to become useful in the great work of transformation and evolution throughout the universe.

We can see that the Fourth Way and the mystical path begin where AA and its offshoots leave off.

What both have in common - what is absolutely vital if any progress is to be made in either of these methods of raising our level of Being - is the concept of God, a Higher Power.

And this is where these ways differ from so much of what is taught in New Age thinking.

The appeal of a great deal of the New Age, whether it be casting candle spells, fortune-telling, rune magic and so on, is that the New Age follower is invited to become his or her own higher power. And this, of course, is impossible! We can't lift ourselves spiritually by our own bootstraps. We need help.

Exactly the same methods may be used by the mystic as by the New Age devotee; casting horoscopes, for example, which is used by Sufis and by New Agers alike, or carrying out rituals to impress truths upon the Higher Emotional Centre.

Yet the difference is in the Third Force, that which motivates them.

In the Work, we want to become more conscious not only for our own sake but for that of the rest of the Ray of Creation. We want to help God, as it were. Conscious Humanity, whom we may picture at the level of the Sun in our solar system, has given mankind huge possibilities, but wants something in return - our efforts.

Working for purely selfish ends, for life reasons, might be possible to begin with, but the student who continues to work just for themselves soon realizes that progress depends on a higher level, not solely on themselves and their own actions. We need help. We cannot "do", and we must acknowledge this fact before we can transcend the mi-fa gap and receive the help that is vital if we are to continue the octave of ascent.

In the Twelve-Step programmes, too, a newcomer may wish simply to stop drinking for his or own personal benefit, and although this can be enough to keep them going to meetings, it does not go very far. It is simply Step One, which says that we admitted we were powerless over alcohol, and that our lives had become unmanageable.

Immediately after Step One, however, come Steps Two and Three, which encourage us to seek the help of God as we understand Him.

Later, we learn from AA and the Big Book that the real purpose of becoming sober is so that we may be of maximum service to others and to God. This comes as a real - and salutary - shock to many.

Inevitably, alcoholics and addicts have already made more than one attempt to sober up before they ever enter the world of AA.  They tried doing it themselves, or with the help of family members or friends, and they failed.

They could not do it because they were trying to work on their drinking or drugging problem at a purely life level. But addiction is not simply a mental or physical illness; it is primary a spiritual illness. To succeed in the heroic task of achieving sobriety, help from a higher level - the level that most of us call God - is absolutely vital. We simply cannot do it by purely human means.

I want to draw your attention to the need for a Higher Power in both the Work and in AA because it is what differentiates them from so many New Age teachings which strive to make the follower the sole authority over his or her life.

Granted, there may be vague references to some greater power that can be invoked to help in the devotee's progress, but it is often very fuzzy, and written about as though it were within the follower's power to control; as if God Almighty could become the servant of the New Age practitioner.

This is one of the ways that we can know a false teaching from a true.

True religions, like the Twelve Step programmes, require that we conceive of a power infinitely greater than ourselves. That power is not simply strong. It is a loving, compassionate, merciful and just Power which asks that we live according to certain moral and ethical standards, that we do battle with our uncooperative I's (the real meaning of "jihad" in Islam, by the way); that we become willing to bend the knee, as it were, and surrender control to that God who alone can bring order out of chaos.

Without the help of God, we are bound to fail. With it, there are no limits to our progress except those that we ourselves create,

As AA says, we find that trying to do our own will always leads to failure and even death, whereas striving to do the Will of God is the gateway to life.