The Jewish New Year is a Spiritual Reminder for Everyone

Happy New Year - or Shana Tova, for all you Hebrew speakers!

The Jewish New Year begins at sundown on Sunday, October 2nd, and is celebrated for two full days. During that time, families sit down to special celebratory meals, which will always include plenty of sweet things, eaten to symbolize our wish for a "sweet" New Year. In our household we have apples dipped in honey, and for a special dessert I always make sugar-free, diabetic-friendly cake or pudding. It doesn't sound wonderful, I admit, but it tastes great! And my blood sugar doesn't suffer.

The pomegranate is a special symbol of the New Year and appears on many tables. Round and red and bursting with nourishing seeds, it shows the blessings that we may expect if we are living with spiritual intent.

For observant Jews there are special synagogue services with once-a-year prayers and readings, and people greet each other with wishes for a happy year and that they, their friends and families be inscribed in the Lord's Book of Life.

The good news is that you certainly don't have to be Jewish to celebrate the Jewish New Year. And I much prefer it to the secular January New Year of Western custom, when people get drunk, make fools of themselves and get up to all sorts of mayhem just because of a change in the calendar! I never saw the point of that.

The spiritual New Year, however, is full of meaning for everyone on a spiritual path. I thoroughly recommend adopting at least one of the spiritual customs that Jewish people observe at this time, because the time of year is right for reflection now. We might add special prayers to our morning preparation, add more Work readings during the day. Perhaps we need to accentuate our daily appointments with ourselves, changing the times so that we include more "snapshots" of ourselves.

We can all practice the custom of making amends to those we've hurt, as I'll explain in a moment.

Why is the Jewish New Year celebrated at this time?

Cosmically, the position of the Earth in relation to the Sun and other stars has changed significantly since Midsummer. We have just passed the Autumn Equinox, when days and nights are of equal length, and now we can begin to see for ourselves how the hours of light are becoming less, the hours of darkness increasing.

It is this time that is most propitious for pondering spiritual matters, going within and reconnecting ourselves with our spiritual purpose, drawing closer to the God of our understanding and seeking His help in our new beginning. Over the summer we may have become immersed in the world of nature, in our secular holidays and our worldly ambitions, in other words, in Life; now, we turn our face to the world of Spirit and towards our Creator.

For, just like the secular January festival, this spiritual New Year is also marked by resolutions, this time concerning our relationship to God and to our neighbours.

In these special New Year days, we remember ourselves and why we are here.

We recall our spiritual aim, and review how far we have kept it and where we've strayed from it.

We renew our intention to be ever more aware of our need for God. The Jewish New Year mystically marks the anniversary of the day when God created man. What is our purpose? Have we lived up to it? What do we wish to be during the year that is to come? What do we need to work on?

Whom have we hurt, to whom do we need to apologize, to make amends? In many respects, preparing for the Jewish New Year is akin to making a Twelve Step amends list. If we can possibly do so, we make restitution to anyone we've harmed; if not, we swallow our pride, say we are sorry, and we mean it. And if the person has died, we resolve never again to repeat the mistakes we have made, and to become better people in the future.

From the standpoint of the Work, we ask ourselves which I's are helpful to our development? Which are harmful? What is the direction our personal work must take if the coming year is to see us develop as God would wish?

Without God, the Jewish New Year reminds us, we are nothing. We are dust. We did not make ourselves, as my Work teacher, Marian, often said. We think that we are "doing" in the world, when in reality every breath we take, every movement we make, exists only through divine decree. Without God, we can do nothing; indeed, without Him, we truly are nothing.

In the Jewish New Year, tradition holds, God decides who will live and who will die during the year to come; who will prosper, who will fail; whose health will improve, who will fall sick; and so on. Every decision God makes is planned for us, for our best and highest good, if we remember our connection to Him and truly intend to live out this connection in our daily lives.

That is why people wish each other the blessing of being inscribed in the Book of Life; there are other Books that are less propitious, and we certainly don't want to find our names written in them.

To each person will be given according to their needs and their merits. What seems like good fortune to us, however, may not be; what seems like a curse may be a blessing, to those with spiritual insight. We trust that, as long as we are doing our best to follow God's Will for our lives, He will give us exactly what we need for our best development.

The New Year is the time when God, the true and only Ruler of the Universe, picks up each one of us and gathers us into His bosom. He examines us with a loving gaze and sees where we are, what we need, what we may become.

To the spiritually aware, the prodigal son is home again in his Father's arms.

We have been lost, but now are found, as the hymn says.

We are loved.

We are remembered.

And we remember.

So You Want To Become A Work Teacher .......

Generally, when someone says they'd like to become a Work teacher, it's a sign that they're not ready.

In order to be able to teach the Work we have to have above all a sense of our own littleness, our own inadequacies in the light of the vast and awe-inspiring teachings of the Fourth Way. We need humility, for humility is the number one requirement both for learning and for teaching the Work.

Someone who's actually ready for this difficult task will feel great diffidence. They'll question whether they really are ready, whether their knowledge and understanding are enough to be able to help students. They won't mind admitting their own ignorance when students ask questions they can't answer; they'll say they don't know and will refer the question to their own teacher, and they will be grateful for all the help their teacher can give. They won't boast or brag about their achievements, for in the light of the Work as a whole they will know they are very small indeed.

Therefore, they won't let the position go to their heads; quite the reverse. Each time a real teacher conducts a Work group, he remembers his own powerlessness, and prays for the help of Conscious Humanity. He doesn't stand on his dignity and doesn't demand any kowtowing from members of his group, although he does ask that they show respect to the role of the teacher and towards the Work as a whole, and he sees whether they have the right attitude by the questions they ask, and the observations they bring.

You don't just wake up one day and decide to teach the Work! No, you must first be asked by your own teacher, who will see when a student is ready to begin taking on limited responsibilities. The teacher may already know of one or two newcomers who could form the start of a small, beginning group for the novice teacher. Or he may suggest that the student try to find a few possible candidates among her own acquaintances, or perhaps put up a small notice in a public library or bookshop.

It's vital that the beginning teacher maintain close contact with her own teacher throughout the process. She will in any case be a continuing student, going to regular Work meetings or maintaining the relationship with her teacher through phone calls and emails. The constant support and help of one's teacher is absolutely necessary when one first begins to teach the Work. Without it, the novice teacher is doomed to fail. And if the student does not continue to work on herself with her own teacher, she will not last long when she herself begins to teach; she will stagnate and be no use to her students.

The whole lineage of the Work is brought into play when a new teacher starts out; energy is passed down the line from Conscious Humanity through the student's own Work teacher, and then on to the new students. The beginning teacher must acknowledge that she is merely a link in the chain, that she needs help. And she must be able to generate her own energies to pass on to the students in her group, in addition to what is received from higher up.

When the student teacher has collected a nucleus of beginners - which should be no more than three or four, at the very most - she will make sure that her own teacher is kept fully informed about the potential students. Normally, the Work teacher will meet all the potential new students before the group gets underway, to make sure that they are all suitable candidates for the Work.

A novice teacher won't necessarily be able to judge this; the new students must all be Good Householders, and they must also be mentally stable and well grounded, so that the Work won't harm them at all, and neither will any of them harm the group or the novice teacher. Damage can and does happen. Vetting is extremely important. If distance is a problem, the newcomers need to be interviewed by the supervising Work teacher by phone or Skype, at the very least; otherwise they cannot be allowed into the new group.

When the group gets underway, the novice teacher keeps her own teacher fully informed about each meeting. She lets her teacher know what has been read, what observations have been given, and what new task has been set. She normally sends her teacher written notes, keeping copies for herself so that an invaluable record is formed. The notes are there for both her and her teacher to refer to when discussing the progress of individual students, as well as the novice teacher's own development.

By doing this, the novice ensures that she is teaching the Work as it was passed down to her by her own teacher, not deviating or distorting it in any way.

The supervising teacher will normally attend the new group meetings from time to time, and will invite all members to take part in a Work weekend at least once a year, more often if this is practicable.

After a year or so, the novice teacher will have gained enough experience and confidence that she will be able to carry on and enlarge her group, and will be equipped to continue teaching the Work as long as may be necessary. She will always keep her own teacher well informed about the group, and will always make sure that written notes are sent. As time goes by, however, less time will be spent discussing the progress of the new group; the novice teacher will become a seasoned leader in due course, and can handle most of the problems herself, without referring to her teacher.

The supervising teacher will always be available for consultations, however, and if he spots a problem that the new teacher hasn't noticed he will be able to help her nip it in the bud before it spoils the group's work.

Why do we need to keep this accountability? Why can't the teacher just get on with leading the group as he or she sees fit?

The answer is clear. The Work is a hierarchy. We are always answerable to our own teachers, and the help they give us is even more necessary if we ourselves become teachers in turn. We must always remember that we are responsible to Conscious Humanity when we take on the position of Work teacher. We owe it to them to swallow our pride - which in any case will always spoil our own work if we don't let go of it - and ask for help. Only someone willing to ask for help, and to act on it, is worthy of becoming a Work teacher.

It isn't easy. It's the most difficult task I've ever undertaken, even though I taught at University level for many years and was used to planning lessons, helping students, and directing groups. The Work demands all these skills and more: it demands our own continual spiritual work, because we dare not rest on our laurels.

We become accountable not just to our teacher but to our students, too, and we owe it to them and to the whole hierarchy of Work teachers who came before us, stretching all the way back to Gurdjieff himself, to maintain the legacy they bequeathed us, and to advance its knowledge in the present world.

Teachers are always looking for students who they believe can carry the Work forward after their own retirement or death, whichever comes first.

But it is a huge responsibility; it is very taxing; it demands that the potential teacher be able to work at a sufficient level to generate enough energies to support her students as well as for her own personal work; and there is no guarantee of success.

Most Work students will never become teachers, and this is no disgrace. We are all here to learn. And one good student is worth an infinite number of poor teachers.

Thoughts On the Gurdjieff Glut Throughout The Internet

If you're interested in Gurdjieff - and you must be, if you're reading this - then you will surely have noticed that in the last few years there's been an enormous glut of Gurdjieff materials on the internet.

Is this a good thing? And how can we judge the value of each article, website or book?

Of course, more genuine material about Gurdjieff is always welcome. We need as many notes of meetings, accounts of personal encounters with the great teachers, and serious, well-thought-out articles on the Work as we can find. Books by real Work students and teachers on their own experiences on the Fourth Way are a valuable accompaniment to our personal Work journey.

The problem with the internet is that anyone can publish anything at all on it, and the reader is hard put to distinguish the false from the real.

So how can we decide whether something's worth reading or not? We need guidance, especially if it concerns something relatively expensive, such as a new book on the Work. Enormous sums of money can be thrown away on worthless matter unless we're very careful and discriminating.

And even the free websites and articles can do a lot of damage. People can get a wrong impression of the Work from reading something by an individual or group who's left the Work, either of their own free will or because they were thrown out of it - not to mention the pieces written by those who've had no real experience of a Work school at all, but are Fourth Way wannabees, writing from theory only.

And this falseness damages the Work as a whole. It lures away students who have Magnetic Centre and hinders them from finding the real teaching they seek.

I've always maintained that the only safe path to learning about the Work is to join a real group. By "real", I mean a group in the lineage of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Nicoll. And to verify the lineage of any group or individual, you need to know whether they're connected with any of the Gurdjieff Foundations around the world, which promote only genuine Gurdjieffian material, or with the Study Society based in London, when the material concerns Ouspensky.

The Nicoll line of groups still exists - that is my own lineage - and any Nicoll Work teacher will at some time have been connected with the Foundations and will maintain good relations with them. If you come across a site purporting to be of the Nicoll line, contact the teacher and find out his or her lineage and current affiliations. Don't be fobbed off by clever window dressing. If there is a real group with a real teacher they will be only too happy to tell you their credentials.

Books are much harder to judge. One sure guide, if you can find it, is of course to ascertain the lineage of the author. Many books out there now, available from Amazon and elsewhere, are genuine and worthwhile. The authors are affiliated with one of the three lines I've mentioned above, and the materials they publish are well worth reading.

Others, however, are useless - or worse than useless, because they give quite wrong ideas about the Work. These come from individuals who've left the Foundation, or been thrown out; who have seen a chance to make money out of their limited experience of the Work; and are unscrupulous enough to try to gull innocent readers into buying their products. Some may actually believe what they write, and if so, they can be even more dangerous, because more persuasive!

There are some excellent websites out there, and some very worthwhile publishing houses. If you buy something from the Eureka press, you're in safe hands. Websites such as my personal favourites, which include the wonderful zenyogagurdjieff, are definitely worth checking out. I always try to read his latest post, and have also found much to stimulate my intellectual centre on the websites of Charles Tart and other Foundation-linked men and women. Well-known publishing houses, with a good reputation, are usually reliable. Self-published books may be very good or they may be quite worthless - I speak as one who's published a book myself, which I obviously think is worth reading! But my experience of this process showed me just how easy it is these days to get into print, and why it's a case of "caveat lector" on the internet and elsewhere.

Some authors who claim to write about the Work seem to be just self-seeking, self-justifying liars. They make untrue assertions and give wrong ideas. Some may even be hasnamusses.  The Work has always taught that we need to check everything out and verify it for ourselves, but the huge glut of materials now available makes that very, very difficult, if not impossible.

So - use your judgement. Consult the rest of your group and your teacher, if you have one. And if you don't - then try to find one, as that is the only way you can really, fruitfully work on yourself. Books and articles alone won't do it. Nor will discussion groups, useful though they are in counselling and therapy. They operate at a life level and can't raise the members to a higher level than life.

Beware of websites that advertise Fourth Way groups, but don't have a lineage, or won't say what it is. To produce results, a Work group must have a teacher, someone whose Being is at a higher level than that of his or her students. Without such a teacher, a group is merely a counselling, self-help group, and although that can be useful in many ways, it won't teach anyone the Work or provide the conditions for individuals to work on themselves.

The teaching cannot arise from the mass of people; it comes from above, from a level higher than life. Just as our normal state of waking sleep consists of warring factions of different I's until Deputy Steward or Steward begins to organize them, so a group without a Work teacher has no way out of life-level conflicts. Discussions go round in circles. No progress is made, and much energy is wasted.

As the original teachers are now passing away, an increase in efforts is very necessary for the Work to maintain its standards. We are passing through a difficult interval in the Work, when new shocks are needed. The addition of new, genuine materials is very, very welcome to all of us who try to work on ourselves in the great Tradition of the Fourth Way, in a lineage that descends from the Messengers themselves, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, and Nicoll. But don't be misled by people claiming to be of this tradition but having no antecedents in this lineage. They aren't Work groups at all, and they won't help you. They may ruin your chances of ever meeting the Work in its genuine form, or of staying with it if you do.

Could You Be Used By Something Higher?

What is the overall aim of the Work?

When we ponder this question, we realize that in sowing the seeds of the Fourth Way for our time, Gurdjieff was setting up groups all over the world that could channel higher energies and assist in the evolution of the universe.

Of course, we ourselves have our own personal aims, which are quite valid. Do you seek understanding? Wisdom? Enlightenment? To be able to be a real Christian - or Muslim - or Buddhist - or Jew? To be a compassionate, enlightened person? To serve God and humanity in the unique way you were created to do?

All these are legitimate aims for us. We always break them down into smaller steps, as to achieve this great a leap would be too much for us, and every year we review our aim in the light of our personal work, our group, and the Work as a whole.

One day my teacher, speaking of Aim, made what to me was a startling statement.

She said, "We need to make it possible for us to be used by something higher".

To be used? Wasn't that a rather negative idea? Nobody wants to be used by anyone or anything, in ordinary life. That would limit our freedom, wouldn't it?

But Mrs Davison went on to explain that Conscious Humanity, whom we may picture as being at the level of the Sun in our solar system relative to our own individual existence, needs to work through conscious men and women on Earth. In fact, that is our purpose - to be transformers of higher energy.

In a previous post I wrote how progress through political means is always an illusion. Only people whom we call "lunatics" in the Work believe that by changing anything in the material world we will bring about progress to mankind. Changes occur, yes, but they don't lead to better conditions for all; they eventually turn into their opposite, because they are directed by sleeping people.

The only real progress is achieved when people become more conscious. Then, the higher beings which guard the Earth and the Solar System can send their energies through them to enlighten the Earth and transform it, at the same time as they also transform us.

This is a wonderful aim, and it's an example of what Gurdjieff called "thinking longer thoughts", or "active mentation".

In each generation conscious men and women act as channels through which this enlightening and vivifying energy can reach the Earth. They have fulfilled their "earthly mission", as it were, and in the process have achieved personal enlightenment.

And this is the aim of the Work: to offer us the conditions so that each one of us may become transformed in this way, and be a living vehicle for God and His saints, known and unknown, to transform the universe with their energies.

Gurdjieff was clearly such a person. So, I believe, were Ouspensky, Dr Nicoll, Mrs Pogson and all the great Work teachers, both those who've become household names and many more whose names have vanished but whose work lives on in the form of their students' understanding.

Not only people in the Work may be used in this way, of course.

In our time, we have the example of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the little Albanian nun who devoted her life to serving the poor and destitute who were dying on the streets of that city. Her work has spread to many countries and has brought light and love to hundreds of thousands of humanity's poorest members in their hour of greatest need. She was recently officially recognized as a saint by Pope Francis, but she was a saint long before anyone outside the church knew of her work.

St Therese of Lisieux, another nun, this time one who lived her short, adult life within the confines of an enclosed Carmelite community, also allowed herself to be completely transformed by God. She wrote of her experiences and of her way to holiness, "the Little Way", or "the Way of Spiritual Childhood", and her writings have changed the lives of millions of people all over the world, from all religious backgrounds and none. Her method bears great similarities with the Work.

Other world-changers whose names we know and revere would surely include Nelson Mandela, who became a vehicle for the forces of reconciliation in South Africa; Sir Winston Churchill, who inspired the Allied Forces in their extraordinary victory over the demonic forces of Nazism in World War II; Anwar Sadat, who as Prime Minister of Egypt defied death threats and persecution to achieve peace with Israel, a peace which cost him his own life, as he had feared, but deemed it worthwhile to pursue anyway; and Dag Hammersjold, the United Nations Secretary General whose Christian faith informed his life and work, and ensured that under his leadership the U.N. was truly a mediator for peace in the world.

The Catholic Pope Saint John Paul II, also known as Saint John Paul the Great, is yet another example of how an individual may be so transformed by personal evolution as to be used by Conscious Humanity; in this case, to liberate millions of people from the grip of the Iron Curtain, and set them free to practice their faith, both Catholics and Russian Orthodox Christians. The Russian Orthodox church is undergoing a tremendous revival in Russia and other countries that belonged to the Soviet Empire; so, too, is the Catholic church, which is flourishing today in countries that were officially atheist before this great Pope freed them from the tyranny of materialism.

Among us there are many great souls, some of them famous, most of them not. I would include my own teacher, Marian Davison, along with the other Work teachers I mentioned above, in this number. She devoted an enormous amount of time and energy to teaching the Work to her groups, which included those she inherited from Mrs Pogson and many which she herself started. Even after she officially retired from teaching, aged 70, blind and in poor health, she never turned away any sincere student who was prepared to undertake the difficult work of transformation. She taught us by telephone or through personal meetings long after her groups had been dissolved, and she remained faithful to the Work until her very last day on Earth, when she slipped peacefully away in hospital.

What does it take to be used by something higher?

First of all, the Emotional Centre must be so purified that it no longer experiences negative emotions. False Personality must wither away and become totally silent. Our Intellectual Centre must be able to contemplate the vastness of the universe and the power of God to transform all of it through evolution. Only when we realize the enormity of the task can we offer our small contribution, knowing that, in the words of the Talmud, "You may not be able to finish the task, but neither are you free to refrain from doing it".

Our Moving Centre must become more conscious, so that it helps rather than hinders our personal work.

Only then, when our lower centres are purified and working harmoniously, can our Higher Centres be heard.

Our entire Personality, though necessary for life and for many Work tasks, must become passive to Essence. Essence knows and understands our true purpose, but in most people it remains a silent, helpless, unheard voice.  When we become more conscious we don't insist on our own way any more, the desire of the Personality or False Personality. We no longer even desire it.

It is our Higher Centres which will guide us in our tasks and channel the energies of Conscious Humanity into our daily lives.

Our Essence becomes active, and we live more fully and more consciously. We know what has to be done, and we know how to do it.

Eventually, our aim is to come under the guidance of Real I, that part of us which is both human and divine, and which longs to bring to us and to the entire planet those forces of reconciliation, love and consciousness which alone bring progress.

At this time of year, the time of turning within, it's good to remember our aim and to form the intention that we, too, may be used by something higher.

Autumn and Elul: Time to Turn Within and Reflect

Elul is the Hebrew name for the month that begins this weekend with the New Moon in Virgo. It is the month when, according to the Kabbalah, we are called to turn within, examine ourselves, repent and draw closer to God.

The mood of turning within pervades all Nature now. For those of in the Northern Hemisphere it's  easy to recognize the signs that this time is now upon us. Leaves begin to change colour and fall from the trees. Days are becoming shorter and the darkness is encroaching. The weather changes, too, and frequently sends us rain and gales, all the more inducement to stay indoors, read, ponder and reflect.

Summer holidays are over. Schools and universities prepare for the new term, and Work groups begin to meet again after the summer break.

The period beginning now lasts for 40 days and culminates in the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShanah. It's a time for cleansing and purification, which the number 40 symbolizes in many traditions. We recall the 40 days of Noah's flood, when the Earth itself was cleansed and purified; the 40 years of the Israelites' wandering in the wilderness, to allow them to shed their old, slavish attitudes and get ready to enter their new life of freedom in the Promised Land; and also the 40 measures of water with which God prescribes the ritual purification bath - the origin of Christian baptism - to be filled.

In his "Theory of Celestial Influence", Rodney Collin shows us a diagram of the year divided into periods of 40 days, the period of time for each cosmic "energy shift" to be fulfilled. The conscious men and women who created the Jewish and Christian calendars knew of these periods, and designed religious festivals appropriate to maximize the energies of each 40-day span.

Other religions also utilize these energies and celebrate festivals that reflect them, but its most accurate form in the West is given to us in the Judeo/Christian traditions. They are what most of us have grown up with, and Gurdjieff always recommended that the religion we followed in our childhood is the best and most suitable for us as adults.

Forty, then, is the number of repentance and renewal.

And Elul gives us the chance to carry out this process with the assistance of those particular cosmic energies that reach the Earth in greater strength at this nodal point of the year.

Kabbalists renew their studies and prepared themselves spiritually to meet God in the Heavenly Court. Of course, we will all one day stand before this Court at the end of our earthly life, when we shall see ourselves exactly as we are and experience all we have done from the point of view of others who've been affected by us, for better or worse.

Christian tradition tells us that we will already be cleansed if we've truly repented of any harm we have done, and the Work reminds us that real repentance involves reliving difficult situations with the empathy that the Work calls "external considering".

With this in mind, we go back and imaginatively live through difficult situations, entering into the feelings of the other person or people. It's an exercise called in the Work "Blessing the Past", and it's essential to carry it out every time there has been a painful or difficult interaction in our lives. It frees us from its effects and releases the other person. It leads to Remorse of Conscience, the basic state we most need to experience if we are to make true progress in the Work. Without real remorse, in fact, there can be no spiritual progress at all. The spiritual life is not all "roses, roses", as Gurdjieff pointed out.

Normally, we shun painful memories and block them out. But this does not remove their effects, and the negative I's in our False Personalities may be busy plotting revenge or feeling self-pity in the dark. Some of these I's may stem from early childhood neglect or abuse, for in the unconscious mind there is no sense of time. What happened long ago feels as raw as if it were yesterday, and they steal our energy today.

 In the Work, we are told that light must be shed on these very dark areas of our psyches. If this process is too painful to be borne, we can seek the help of counselling to face the inner demons that may plague us and hinder our progress. But somehow or other, it is a necessary task and nobody can evade it forever.

In Twelve Step groups, great importance is given to the making of our personal inventory, in which we honestly disclose to God and to one other human being "the exact nature of our wrongs". Unless we carry out this step, we can't go on to fulfill the others. Without it, the addict or alcoholic will inevitably drink again some day, and that drink could lead to his death.

The Bible tells us that everything that is now hidden away shall one day be known; Christians, Jews and Muslims all believe that after death God will see us as we really are, and we shall see ourselves in this way. The more willing we have been in our lifetime to undergo the suffering of repentance and purification, the easier will be our passage to a different realm when we die.

The most important aspect of Elul is the fact that God Himself begins to draw closer to mankind now.

He asks us the important question, "What are you living for? What is the real purpose of your life?" and examines us to see whether we are truly living up to our sacred aim.

The Kabbalists affirm that the real purpose of life is to become as close to God as possible. When we do this, our attitudes to everything are cleansed and changed. We long to serve Him, and to help others to find Him. We awaken to our poor stewardship of the environment, too, and our need to care for the beautiful planet on which we live. If we do not, the conditions for our very existence will disappear.

We realize how far mankind has wandered from the heavenly purpose for which we were all created; how wars, abuse of every kind, cruelty and neglect have entered into the sphere of the Earth through mankind's sleep.

In the Work, we make extra efforts to wake up now, at this time when our efforts are so royally supported by higher forces - by Conscious Humanity.

We willingly do whatever we can to repair the damage we have caused in our own world, whether that be in relationships, in our lack of care for the Earth, in indifference to the suffering of others

Before the 40 days of purifications are complete we will encounter the magnificent archangel, St. Michael, if we have properly prepared ourselves for this meeting. On September 29th, his feast day, we celebrate his leadership of the forces of good, of spiritual evolution, in their battle against decay, entropy and corruption, which are all objectively evil.

The Archangel Michael is Christ's own representative in this battle, and he will lead us too if we make ourselves fit to be used by him in this great battle.

Our life on Earth, our participation in the Work, is the preparation we must undergo so that we become useful to Conscious Humanity.

And Elul offers the needed energies to all who wish to be of that number.