The Reactor is a male baby, nude, holding two keys, standing in front of a gate. It is a gate consisting in seven pairs of doors, one after the other. These pairs of doors are unusual in that one opens forward (white in color) and one opens rearward (black). These alternate in their left-right arrangement. There is a full triangle lock or latch on the rearward (black) doors, and a half-triangle cut-out of the forward (white) doors. The arches of the doors are to be colored in mandala fashion in whatever colors feel right to us. Notice that the lock arrangement is such that the white doors will swing full circle, but the black doors only half-way. A straight road leads through the gate and over a mountain. In the sky seen through the gate there is a full moon containing the waxing and waning quarter moons, facing one another. No matter which of the seven paths you choose, there is a white door and a black door. One of the things you learn in the illumination of fire is that both white acts and black acts may be necessary at different times, and in different lives, to further the creative progress of mankind. Let me give you an historical example from Toynbee. Thinkers still moan about the fall of the Greco-Roman civilization (hellenism), resulting in the famous dark age of Europe, in which countless libraries and works of art and architecture were destroyed. Yet had this destruction not taken place, Gothic fantasies would never have arisen, modern science would not have developed, and the world-girdling civilization of the present would have been stillborn. As it was, enough of the hellenic civilization survived to destroy the Gothic style (a great and irreplaceable loss), and almost managed to suffocate the rise of modern science. For the first three centuries of its existence, science had the same status as new age thought today. It was largely banned from the universities, condemned by religion, but nevertheless pursued by the brighter spirits of the day, mostly through various unconventional societies and organizations. Not until the 19th century did science become the bastion of the universities. What served to block progress from the 16th to the 18th centuries was a stale classicism. It was the same stale classicism that destroyed the youthful art styles of Western civilization, and unfortunately no great new style has ever emerged to replace Gothic. In short, the Renaissance (rebirth of Greece and Rome) only revived a corpse, a kind of ghoulish and destructive demon, almost able to prevent new life, but quite unable to truly come to life again. The ancient followers of the Way of the Saints knew you sometimes had to make a distincticn which cuts across good and evil. There can be unwholy good, and wholy bad. There can be acts of kindness with the best of intentions which really serve to stifle and stagnate. A good example is modern medicine and public health measures. Was it really a kindness to India to end her epidemics of malaria, small pox and cholera? India did not ask for this largesse. She was probably content to keep her population balanced through a high death rate, rather than a low birth rate. Indians may prefer having many babies and not too many old people. Is that a bad choice? But with the 'best intentions' we upset this ancient balance, and now there is the possibility all will starve. This is an unpopular, even unbelievable teaching. Yet every great Way-Shower or wholistic illuminati has said the same thing. Indeed, this is a kind of test of whether someone has really experienced illumination, or only says he has. Yehoshua said, 'Think not I bring peace, but the sword." He also said "See, I bring fire to scatter throughout the world, and I shall guard it until it burns." Yet, Yehoshua is remembered as the prince of peace! His followers simply could not believe that the light of the divine purpose, in its wholeness includes every extreme, every opposite, every polarity. There is a time for growth, a time for preservation, and a time for destruction. That which seems wholly negative and evil, may still serve a purpose as a challenge to our creativity, a foil to build up our strength, a spark to ignite our feelings, a wall or barrier which forces us to build lofty bridges. There is a white and a black door to every path, and we are given two keys, a yin key and a yang key. The waxing moon and the waning moon are both part of the same whole moon in the background. We should not arbitrarily prefer the upswing in the cycle of any phase of existence or being. The downswing is equally a part of the glorious full moon, and may offer equal opportunities to fulfill the divine purpose that runs through all things. Place no expectations on the successful Seeker. Anything is possible to those who find the Whole. |
The Seeker goes up the mountain feeling very old and jaded in spirit, and comes back down again all renewed, reborn like an infant, with infinite possibilities, able again to react to anything and everything freshly again. This is the Reactor.