I thought it would be good for the end of the year to reflect on spiritual and mental health. A lot of people, particularly in December, have a lot of stress from the holidays, familial, personal, economic, social, and professional obligations. December tends to be a very stressful month for a lot of people and I thought it would be useful for us, in our studies, to reflect upon a very particular principle within our psychological and spiritual work. It has to do with the state of our mind, our mental and emotional well-being, particularly in relationship to energy.
 
Psychological health is essential in our gnostic studies. We place a lot of emphasis on the quality of our well-being, the quality of our life. In this lecture we will go into a lot of detail about how our behaviors affect our mental health, and we will approach this study from the perspective of a spiritual lens.
 
So what we’re offering here, obviously, is not professional medical advice. What we are offering here are spiritual techniques which can complement any regimen, which do not have side effects or other consequences. These tools and practices are applicable to any person, of any religion, of any denomination, of any background, of any faith.
 
I invite you to study what we have to offer here and to apply it in accordance with your needs. I hope that as we expound upon some of these pragmatic teachings, that you find something useful for application to your own life. 

​It would be good to emphasize what genuine health is, because in our studies, we have a very particular perspective. We have included some etymology to give us a basic foundation of how to approach our spiritual life.
 
We have included here some definitions: told English hælþ, meaning “wholeness, being whole, sound or well.” Also from the term hal meaning “hale or whole,” and hælan, “to heal.” It is also from the Proto-Germanic hailitho, from kailo, "whole, uninjured, of good omen,” and the Old English halig, Old Norse helge, "holy, sacred;” heill, “healthy.”
 
What is significant about these definitions is that genuine health pertains not only to a physical state of equilibrium. Obviously with any machine, if one part is corroded, is imperfect, is deficient, then the rest of the system will malfunction. In truth, this statement applies to our psychology, to the quality of our mind, and if we are very sincere with ourselves and we observe ourselves, we will find that on a psychological level we are not whole. We are disparate. We are conflicted and afflicted.
 
Most of us, if we are honest, would admit that we have parts of ourselves that perhaps we don’t like. There is opposition or contradiction to our character, our abilities, our quality of mind. We tend not to be unitary in our psychological experience. In one moment we may be afflicted by anger and the next moment by fear, and the next by intense attachment and desire. We are split among many factors, many desires, many elements, and as a result of this disequilibrium in our paradoxical nature, our conflicting nature, we suffer. We experience pain.
 
It is the purpose of these studies to understand the root of that conflict, to observe it, to see from a conscious perspective the root of our mind, the root of our states, so that we can become whole, we can become healed.
 
The ancients thought of health as something of sacred origin, because we know on a basic level that if we are not healthy physically, it is impossible to perform a deep spiritual work. They knew and they understood that health is sacred, but more importantly, our relationship to our inner divinity is sacred. That is the origin of genuine health, of totality, of peace. 

​This is why we study the following diagram. This is the Tree of Life, the kabbalah. It is not the sole patrimony of the Jewish mystical tradition, although this faith had codified a universal strata of symbols, conscious experiences, qualities of mind within a very particular diagram. This image, while it is particular to the Jewish tradition, is something universal. It represents our totality of being from the most mundane, material and dense below to the most abstract, spiritual and refined above. These are eternal truths. They are representations not only of our physical body, but also much more subtle levels of experience, qualities of mind, aspects of our psychology. They map for us in a very detailed way where we are spiritually, and what is the nature of our health.
 
You see, this Tree of Life, as mentioned in the book of Genesis, is a symbol of us. Real life, real satisfaction is based upon health, and the essence of life is health. But that health manifests in different levels. It manifests in different types of experience. It also reflects what we must do if we wish to understand and obtain real balance and equilibrium in our life.
 
So this image we see has ten spheres. It represents, each level, each Sephirah in Hebrew, an emanation or expression of who we are. Malkuth in Hebrew is the physical body. It is the vehicle we use within this world to exist. It is the most obvious and verifiable for everyone. It is called the “Kingdom” in Hebrew because it is the conglomeration of many elements, many parts, many principles, not only from this physical dimension itself, but from other internal principles within.
 
Above that we have Yesod, which in Hebrew means Foundation. It is our vital force. When you wake up physically in the morning, you have a general register or sense of what your state of energy is, how much vitality you have, how awake you are, how much energy you have to go through your day, and this energy can obviously fluctuate. So, oftentimes, when people think of health, they think of their physical body and they think of their vital energy, how much energy they have to go through the day and to do what needs to be done.
 
But beyond that, we have our emotions, relating to Hod. This Hebrew term means “Splendor.” It refers to our emotional experience, our feelings. It is important to remember too that this diagram of the Tree of Life not only represents our psychology, but also represents different dimensions in nature, which are experiences of matter, energy and consciousness, perception at different levels of subtlety and expression.
 
So whenever we go to dream at night, we find ourselves within the emotional world of Hod. Some people call it the astral plane, the world of dreams, limbo, the third heaven, many names, which we have discussed and explained in our previous course called Dream Yoga and Astral Travel. But basically within this dimension, we operate within a vehicle and body related to that level of nature. It also is the origin of our emotions, our emotional health, our heart.
 
To the right we have Netzach, which means “Victory,” related to the mind, thoughts, and our thoughts originate from this sphere, which is also known as the mental body. When we travel in the mental world, we do so with the vehicle related to that level of nature, because each of these spheres represents vehicles, states of being, qualities of perception, and also matter energy and consciousness.
 
Beyond that, obviously we have more subtle levels of experience. For most people it is easy to register the body, and to sense vital energy, some relative degree of health or momentum in life to be able to move and do.
 
Emotions are obviously real for us, but obviously they are not tangible within the physical body. We sense them,p. We experience them, but they are not made of physical matter. They are made of a different type of element relating to that world of Hod, the astral world. The mind obviously then relates to a different level of matter and perception. It does not originate from our physical brain.

​Thus as we see in the right, these three brains, or these three centers of experience in our physical human body, manifest these qualities from the Tree of Life. So we know we have a physical brain in our head. The brain is not the origination of thought. It is the vehicle of thought, and the heart, which we can also call a brain in itself, is also a vehicle through which emotions express from this world of Hod. Also, our physical body, our spinal column is what manifests our vital force, our vital energy and gives us life. The spine is the Tree of Life in our physical body. So there are many applications in this image, which apply to our spiritual, mental and emotional well-being.
 
But driving all of this―beyond our thoughts, which are more subtle than emotion and movement―we find will, the will to do, impulse. We say that this sphere of will―known as Tiphereth in Hebrew, meaning “Beauty”―the beauty of the soul. For some people it can be difficult to pin-point what will is, but if you examine your impulse to attend a lecture of this type, you will find that there is something driving you at that level. It is more subtle, more refined, and notice as we ascend up this glyph we find more verified levels of experience.
 
Unfortunately for us, these spheres in us are conflicted. They are also contaminated. Anyone who seriously studies themselves or who perhaps has had some unfortunate diagnosis, perhaps for a condition―whether physical or emotional or mental, a disease of some type―they know from experience that their quality of life in their mind, their heart, and their body is suboptimal. They have sickness. They have disequilibrium. They have disease, unsatisfaction and pain.
 
Where we demarcate from, or diverge from professional medical science, materialistic science, in terms of health, has to do with our perspective. The source of disease, of disequilibrium, of psychological and even physical affliction, originates from within, primarily. Many states of suffering originally come from the mind, but not the brain. The brain is a vehicle for something more subtle and internal.
 
Likewise the heart. Emotional sicknesses or even physical diseases of the heart have their origin within internal causes. Likewise the body with its sicknesses has causes of affliction that originate not only from the physical body, but from within, from these internal principles, from a disbalance between mind and heart, between the body and its energies, and even our will.
 
But obviously as we approach and study ourselves in our relationship with higher ways of being, we study what is known as the consciousness. This is Geburah in Hebrew, meaning “Justice.” It is the equilibrium, the balance, the justice, the harmony of divinity. It is our root perception of what we really are, beyond will, beyond attachment, beyond craving, beyond fear. It is even before the will to do.
 
We sometimes refer to this sphere as intuition. Some of us might have a project we are working on where we walk down the street, we are thinking very deeply about a problem, we cannot seem to find the solution, and then suddenly (snaps fingers) we know. We have received an insight without having to think about it. We let our mind rest for a moment and then suddenly, the inspiration emerges. That is the root of our consciousness. It is knowing without having to think.
 
But obviously what comes later in terms of that project is our will, and using our mind to plan, organize ideas, working in managing our emotions as we struggle through that project, then also using our body to act it out within our physical reality.
 
So notice that from this example, these principles start from within and move out, not the other way around. We start from an idea and then it manifests physically. The same with all these dimensions and levels of being, qualities of being. So obviously beyond the consciousness there is something more profound, which is the spirit, Chesed, which means “Mercy” in Hebrew. This is the real divine principle and spark within. This is our inner Being. For a lack of a better term, we can call it our inner God, the truth, the spirit, which obviously for many people, we have many ideas and beliefs about the spirit, but no experience.
 
It is the purpose of these studies to experience that for ourselves, because our inner divinity is the source of health, of purity of mind, of happiness. So, by working within and understanding this dynamic, we can better understand how to refine our mind, our heart, our energy, and our body by using our will power in service of the divine. That is the essential truth of this teaching and that is where real health can flow within us like a fountain. 

​So in this lecture we are going to talk a lot about spiritual hygiene, psychic hygiene, psychological cleanliness. We have already received material explanations about physical health and hygiene. This is very obvious. But the purpose of this lecture is to talk about how we can cleanse ourselves spiritually.
 
W have this image here of the statue of the goddess Hygeia in Hamburg Germany. In Greek mythology her name is the root of hygiene, from the New Latin hygieina or Greek hygieine (téchnē) or “healthful art.”
 
She was known as the daughter of Asclepius, who is the Greek God of Medicine and son of Apollo, the goddess of sanitation and cleanliness. She is also the sister to Panacea, universal remedy, and also recuperation from illness; Acesco the healing process, and Aglaïa: beauty, splendor, glory, magnificence, and adornment.
 
People have literally interpreted these myths as superstitions of an ancient past, but in the gnostic tradition we like to study these symbols to understand their psychological value.
 
So the goddess Hygeia represents something within us, our relationship with the divine. Throughout many world religions, water is a symbol that is prevalent within all faiths, as a symbol of gestation, of creation, of purification. This has to do with our psychological level of being, and by working with the pure waters of life, symbolically, metaphorically speaking, with our energies, within the totality of everything we are, we learn to become psychologically aligned with the spirit.
 
As we are now our mind, our emotions and our body tend to be very sick. We suffer with anger, with pride, with fear, with laziness, with gluttony, with lust. We suffer from many elements that cause pain for ourselves and for other people. We have many contaminants, in a Buddhist sense, psychic aggregates, states of being which are very harmful, which cause pain for the whole world, for our communities, for our relationships, and so we want to cleanse ourselves of that.
 
But first we have to identify the root of our problem. The more we do so, by observing ourselves, moment by moment, day to day, we discover what real purity is―not as a dogmatic, moral, sterile code of rigid adherence to some doctrine or religion. It is not a belief system. It is a way of life. We learn to have a better relationship with the divine, our spirit, so that divinity can manifest in our deeds.
 
In this way we learn to bring to the world universal remedy. We also can recuperate from many illnesses, because we are no longer propelling our bodies within behaviors that cause sickness. Likewise we accelerate the healing process of our heart, our emotional pain, our mind. We obtain real beauty and splendor of a spiritual type, glory from divinity, magnificence, and real adornment having to do with the virtues and titles that belong to the spirit, to the divine. 

While we explore this topic, we go into great detail about what is known as the Dayspring of Youth. So, we jump into this slide after having talked about the Goddess Hygeia, who presents a fountain of life, and that fountain has a symbolic significance for current, present day culture.
 
Since the 1960s we have noticed a great revolution. This revolution has impacted social economics, class, religion, belief systems, politics, and more obviously, sexual relationships. The 60s is a period of great turmoil because it was the transition from one period of cosmic activity to a new one.
 
Every serious change within nature is dramatic, can be very apocalyptic in a sense, overpowering, because there are forces in nature that work upon the collective psyche of humanity that has great force. It is the purpose of our studies to take advantage of it, to accelerate and catalyze our spiritual development.
 
The influence that entered the collective mind of humanity from the 60s was known as the Dayspring of Youth, according to Master Morya from his book of that title. Samael Aun Weor called it The Dionysian Wave. It is interesting because Dionysis is the god of wine and revelry, and is also known as Bacchus, which was in the Greek and Roman pantheons.
 
It is a dual symbol. That profound energy can produce the ecstasy of the soul or its intoxication and damnation. This energy is polarizing and that energy polarizes in accordance with our psychological state.
 
Nobody can deny that in this period of time there are great changes. We give a spiritual explanation for its origin, but also more importantly how to take advantage of it, not to be a victim of this energy but to learn to use it spiritually. In just the same way that you put fuel into a car, obviously, you want to learn how to put in the best fuel, so that it operates in accordance with its function. Likewise we are taking in this energy, day to day. It is called the Aquarian influence. We are now currently in the Age of Aquarius, having moved from the Piscean traditions, Pisces, the zodiacal symbol of the fish, to the water bearer, the fountain of life.
 
These influences not only present many changes within our culture and society, but also, more importantly, they initiate a new type of instruction. So different periods of time have always received different messengers, people who teach how to use this force. We are fortunate that in our tradition, as well as throughout the diverse religions of the world, there are instructions for how to master this Dayspring of Youth, so that this fountain of life can purify the mind.
 
Here is what Master Morya had to say about the topic:

If you study the writings of Samael Aun Weor, he talked all the time about alchemy, transforming the dense lead of our personality into the gold of the spirit. By working with the energies of our body but also of nature, by activating the spiritual power within the atom, we transform ourselves, our mind. Therefore, this energy, which is referenced here as atomic, has to do with spiritual forces, principles, atoms and units of energy that we harness within our bodies, but also our mind and within our being. These are not physical atoms, but they are, more importantly, spiritual principles. 

​This also explains why in our current era there seems to be a greater prevalence of mental disorders. There are more cases of people who are suffering mental illness. Now, conventional science would argue that this has to do with the fact that before the 60s, obviously there was a greater stigma attached to mental health concerns, and so many people who were perhaps ill would not diagnose themselves or perhaps seek diagnosis or seek help because it was considered a point of shame. But from a spiritual perspective, we are pointing out that this energy of the Dionysian wave, this energy of the cosmos, of the zodiac, of Aquarius, is producing a great change, and it is essential that we learn to take advantage of it. Otherwise, we will become a victim. That energy will be transformed in the wrong way.
 
As evidenced by our history, within the last couple of decades we have seen a great deterioration of moral, psychological, and spiritual values. While there has been a great re-birth of spiritual traditions since the 60s, the reality is that we have to look at the consequences and behaviors of their adherents, these participants. What are they actually producing? We see that in our current society there is greater suffering prevalent everywhere and that people can’t seem to escape these conflicts.
 
So, by taking advantage of this energy, we learn to enter a new way of life because this force is quite impactful. Morya states the following: 

What is the secret enemy? It is pride. It is anger. It is fear. It is lust. It is gluttony―negative psychological states. It is our animal inheritance, our desires, which are the origins and progenitors of suffering. It is a secret to us because if we are not looking actively within our psychology moment by moment, we will not see it, the source of, perhaps, all of our conflicts in life.
 
When that energy enters us, the Aquarian influence with its wisdom and power, it cannot be rejected. It has to be used. It has to be transformed. But unfortunately, we tend to use it in the wrong way, as evidenced by the social decline that we are witnessing year by year. There is no way to divert this force. One either has to use it consciously or be its puppet, better said, to be a puppet of our own ego, to use gnostic psychological terms, our own defects.
 
In the beginning of our spiritual studies too, when this energy works through us, many people suffer through a period of illusion and even depression, because as we have seen, there is a catalyzation of energy in our life. But students who learn to inspire (and aspire), who learn to use that force willingly, will not be affected. They will render homage and respect to the origin of life within themselves, and they will use it well. 

​In relation to the influence of cosmic energies, it is also interesting to talk about psychological contagion. In our Covid era, people are very concerned about physical contamination. But very few people ever consider or concern themselves with contagion of a psychological type, the contamination of mental states, of negative influences.
 
The truth is that just as there are microbes physically, which can kill, there are also psychological elements which can make people sick. People laughed at those who initially proposed that there are viruses and bacteria which cause illness, but later humanity realized the truth and veracity of these microbes. Likewise there are psychological elements which cause sickness of physical and mental type.
 
So as we are talking about psychic hygiene, we are going to talk about how there are elements within the internal dimensions―not seen physically, but within the state of meditation, but also within the dreaming state―where we can confront and see that there are elements that can cause harm. We should be aware of them. We should be concerned. We should take precautions. But also we should take care of what type of elements we take in with our mind.
 
Samael Aun Weor stated the following in Sexology: The Basis of Endocrinology and Criminology: 

We can prove this from experience. Thought is material and energetic. It travels. When we think of someone, whether they are conscious of it or not, they can sense it. I am pretty sure that most people have had that experience where they are thinking about some relative or friend who is overseas or from great distance. Suddenly they receive a phone call from that very person because they were thinking of them at the same time.
 
Thoughts travel. But more importantly for us, the quality of our thought has tremendous consequences. If we are sending thoughts of anger and malice, or resentment and pride, that force has a negative impact on those around us. We have the illusion that somehow we are separated from other people, that we can think, feel and do what we want, that there are no consequences. This is a lie. In truth, with our actions, with our deeds, we spread contagion.
 
People who have perhaps been in the public limelight of political discourse, of culture wars, are people who, because they are constantly getting attacked by the negativity of others, they get sick. People age quickly. They become ill. They are unwell. I am pretty sure, if you have looked at the images of presidents or candidates who entered office, they look much older than they did when they entered, because they are dealing with psychological contagion, the negativity of humanity, of other people, whether justifiably or not. It is irrelevant. The reality is that this is a very true principle.
 
Mental currents exist. They affect people. They can affect us, and we also can be presenting them and sending them to other people, unconsciously. This has to change. We should be masters of our own psychological nature, so that we don't cause harm. But also, we can learn to protect ourselves and divert harm from ourselves through spiritual methods. 

In this way, we learn to overcome psychic infections. Samael Aun Weor stated, especially in his book Treatise of Revolutionary Psychology, that our level of being attracts our life. Our quality of mind attracts our environment, and the people we associate with, the friends we have, even the family members we are born to, all relate to our quality and level of being, which predates even being physically active, being born. The mind and the heart, our thoughts and feelings, are of a subtle matter and energy in consciousness. They have their own reality beyond the body, although they manifest in our physical body when we are awake, when we’re active.
 
It is important to remember and reflect upon our quality of mind. What is our level of being? What community do we relate with? Whom do we associate with? What kinds of people do we attract? What kinds of people do we avoid? We have to ask this question and answer it, meditate on it. What is our level of being? Because what we are psychologically determines where we go in nature. It is a law. It is a fundamental reality. If our mind is polluted or saturated with anger, we are going to attract situations of anger, or lust, situations of lust, pride, likewise. Based on this, we can basically determine what is the outcome of our behaviors.
 
Our negative states of mind create what is called psychic infections, and this has to do again with mental currents. We attract in accordance with our level of being, as I said. But if we change our level of being, if we change our quality of life, if we transform ourselves and seek to be spiritual, to be kind, to be compassionate, to be selfless, we attract people and situations that vibrate at that level of nature. It is a law of nature. It is cause and effect. It is important to reflect on this truth. It is very basic, but very hard to realize unless you are really mindful and paying attention to yourself.
 
Now, there are people within different social strata who obviously operate in accordance with their level of conditioning, their level of being. There are some people who are better off, and some people who are worse. We exist in hierarchy, spiritually speaking. There is the same truth. There are beings who are more spiritually developed than us and those who are less fortunate than us.
 
One such example of an inferior type of person―obviously, in a spiritual sense―is a medium. If you are not familiar, mediums are people who channel. They preach that they are speaking or manifesting the voices of the dead, those who have died. Disincarnate entities take over their body, and they give “wisdom” from the afterlife, to those who are physically present.
 
This is an example of a psychic infection within spiritual circles. It is very big problem, because the truth is that no enlightened, spiritual being would ever take over the body of another person, because those masters have their own vehicles. Therefore they do not need another person to manifest themselves here. So, mediums who preach or say that they are manifesting Jesus Christ, or some other enlightened being, are being fooled, because any person can show up at your doorstep, knock on your door and say, “I am Jesus. Let me in!” It does not mean that we are going to open our doors. At least we shouldn’t. We have to be very cautious, spiritually speaking.
 
That is an example of a person who, obviously, whose level of being attracts those entities from the infernal worlds, because there are superior regions of nature and there are inferior regions of nature. We want to protect ourselves from negative influences, to purify our homes, our minds, so that we do not attract these forces, because the problem is that these negative entities or elements―we sometimes call them larvae within our tradition―they attach to our physical, but also internal vehicles, like the astral body, the mental body, and they suck away your life. They steal your energy. They sap you of vital force, and many of these entities even compel you to behaviors that you would not do on a regular basis, unless if you have been working for sometime in a spiritual tradition, trying to become a better person.
 
Perhaps you have had old habits that you are trying to kill, trying to abandon, and yet there seems to be some type of compulsion from some direction, somewhere, that pushes one to behave in the wrong way. This has to do with larvae. They are basically, in the internal worlds, they look like bugs, insects, rodents, spiders, many unfortunate and disgusting features. They are very hard to describe and they are very disgusting. Just as you feel revulsion for cockroaches, you would see these elements internally and be disgusted with them because they are infestations. They are the product of negative states of mind. They are produced by bad behaviors. So, we want to cleanse ourselves of these elements, because they sap us of life force. This is why Morya stated in The Dayspring of Youth: 

​So we will talk about what the Silver Shield is in relation to the mind. We have an image of a man, a silhouette with a colorful halo of light and illumination. No person can really deny that people have an aura. People have a type of atmosphere about them. When we meet new people, we find that we register their quality and character. We try to get an impression of them, a first look, a sense of what their personality and mind state may be like, what kind of person they are. They have “an air about them,” to use conventional language. These common phenomena have to do with mental atmospheres. Physically we do not see, perhaps, the mind of a person, but you can sense a person’s attitude towards you, if you pay attention, if you observe, if you’re awake. People have a type of energy about them, which reflects their thoughts, their emotions, their behaviors, their impulses, their character, and it all registers within what we call the aura, famously speaking.
 
But here we will talk about mental atmospheres. Some people have a very different air about them because of the quality of life they live. Obviously a person who goes to church is very different to the person who goes to a brothel. This has to do with levels of being. We have to pay attention to our quality of mind, what type of atmosphere we irradiate, what state of being do we presently sit with, what places do we go. Every person has their own aura, their own register, and if you’re very intuitive, and perceptive, you can sense this in other people. You can even sense, despite charismatic and kind words, perhaps evil intentions from another person, which creates distrust and suspicion. Our intelligences manifest within our conduct, our behavior, our outward radiation of thought, feeling and will, and so it is important to pay attention to our own unique register, our character.
 
In the beginning of our spiritual studies, as we are learning to experience these things for ourselves, many people often become confused. Many people who begin to work with spiritual discipline―they are working with energy, they are learning to awaken their intelligence, become aware, mindful, perceptive― they start to sense that as they are changing their quality of life, that they no longer relate to or resonate with other people, maybe they are friends, they are family members, they are coworkers. This can cause a great period of disillusionment and suffering, a great state of unhappiness. Many people who, perhaps, were living a one type of lifestyle, who become spiritual, can verify this.
 
Now, what is important to reflect upon is that as we learn to become genuinely awake―spiritually, in connection with the divine, learning practices like meditation, self-observation, mindfulness, being more present in ourselves day to day, moment by moment―we’re gaining skills. We have to be patient, because it islike becoming a child again, becoming innocent of mind, innocent of heart. Part of this has to do with the fact that when we develop ourselves spiritually, we develop what is called the Silver Shield.
 
This is a term given by Morya. It is also talked about by Samael Aun Weor in his books. This Silver Shield is an aura that protects the mind. In the beginning of our studies, as we are becoming spiritual and practicing, we feel that we are becoming awake and aware and perceptive, perhaps seeing negative elements from our exterior world. Now what we do with our aspiration practices, our prayers, our meditations, we give energy and strength to our mental body, the mental vehicle, so that like a shield, this energy protects the mind. It is like armor, and this armor can deflect negative thoughts. You do not become a victim of what other people think, say, and do. You merely observe with a state of serenity and peace, with innocence, without judging or condemning or disliking the other person. You just are awake, aware and understanding of the other person, and even compassionate.
 
This Silver Shield is “silver” because silver, as a color, relates spiritually speaking to the mental body. But this Silver Shield is a great asset, and it basically develops in us through many practices that we are going to explain later on. This helps to protect us from any type of negativity. It helps us be stable, in the mind, in the heart, in the body, so that even when you, perhaps, go to places that would regularly throw off your equilibrium, you remain balanced. This is why Master Morya stated the following in The Dayspring of Youth:

​So, we will unpack this in a little bit. When you are fortified in your aura, your Silver Shield, your mind, you don't easily get affected by other people. You neither attract to yourself negativity from others, neither do you resist it out of egotistical coercion or anger or reaction. You simply observe with a state of peace, those, perhaps negative states from other people. This is very important to cultivate in ourselves.
 
As we are doing this, we are developing real, individual, spiritual identity, something that is cultivated and learned through all of our interactions with other people. We learn to adapt to different circumstances of life. But be patient, as you’re experiencing these things. Be patient with yourself, because this is something that is learned with trial and error. 

​So, the mind, according to Morya in The Dayspring of Youth, as well as Samael Aun Weor in his writings, he talks about this vehicle a lot. This is an image included in The Dayspring of Youth that depicts the mental body. He is holding a Caduceus of Mercury, which is a symbol of the mind, and this brilliant aura surrounds him. This is the Silver Shield. Typically our mind is influenced by many negative currents, influences and impressions. In a typical sense, the mind, our mind, is a slave of the exterior world.
 
This is very easy to prove. Some people can be addicted to television, to the news, to ingesting negative stories, videos and images of hate, of lust. We care about what other people think, how we dress, how we appear to the world, likewise in our thoughts, our feelings and desires to belong, to be accepted, to be praised. Our mental body, our mind, typically is controlled by other influences of the world. But, by learning to practice spiritual discipline by exercises such as yoga, meditation, energy work, we take the energies that we carry within, and also the Dayspring of Youth, and we learn to throw off any negative influence within our mind, within our heart, within our body.
 
In this way we radiate our own individual, original identity, our own real spiritual nature. Therefore, there is no need to fit in, to belong. We radiate naturally compassion, happiness, altruism, love for others. We radiate light from our spirit. This is why Morya states the following in The Dayspring of Youth the importance of this discipline and also the need to throw off the control of the world within our mind-stream:

You may be familiar with pranayama, breathing exercises, in which we take in the vital energy of the air, our breath, and we combine it with our own creative force. We breathe that breath in and we also raise the energies of our creative vital potential within our bodies so that they can elevate to our mind and illuminate our mind. Therefore we experience states of clarity and awareness, mindfulness, that is abnormal in consideration of our normal state of being. We undergo a complete change. Therefore we realize that there are potentials that exist for us, a quality of mental and emotional and physical health, spiritual health, that we otherwise may have not known. 

​Master Morya refers to the practice of spiritual discipline as aspiration. The term yoga he uses does not reference physical calisthenics. He is not referencing poses of the body, although physical health is important. It is useful within a larger paradigm. What he is talking about is the union of the soul with the divine, from the Sanskrit yug, “to reunite.” It has the same meaning as religare in Latin, which means to reunite with the divine.
 
So, we have very particular practices we use to take in the air in our lungs, and we combine it with prayer, even sacred vocalizations. In a state of mindfulness and watchfulness, we combine that air and vital force into our bodies, so that it cleanses us, and then we elevate that force through our spine, within our sexual organs especially, to the mind.
 
In this way, by adopting a state of selflessness, of consciousness, of prayer, we become a better instrument to manifest divinity. It is not a personal ambition, like, “I want to be spiritual and therefore I am going to do these practices and get these certain results.” That type of attitude does not produce real change. Instead what produces real spiritual benefits is performing exercises for the well-being of other people, for humanity. Therefore we seek to become better so that divinity can manifest within our actions.
 
So real aspiration should be impersonal. Our personal desires, our attachments, attract negative influences, which we want to avoid. We learn these differences by learning to observe ourselves, be mindful, to be attentive, to watch our psychological interactions, our thoughts, our feelings, our desires.
 
As Morya states in The Dayspring of Youth: 

So again going back to our mental atmosphere, the divine beings evaluate our quality of mind in accordance with what energies we bring in, these atomic forces. Are they pure? Are they refined, or are we saturated with negative qualities? This is something we have to consider. 

Many people have heard from Samael Aun Weor’s teaching about the nature of transmutation, which we talked about at the beginning of this lecture. The creative energy, the sexual force, is the origin of life, and also the origin of health. How we use this energy determines our spiritual trajectory. Just as you can create a physical child with that potential, when it is harnessed and controlled and conserved, refined―spiritually speaking, through breathing exercises, prayers and the ultimate science of alchemy―this creative energy rises within our spine to our mind. It purifies our psychology. It gives us the energy by which we can really divine spiritual beings, pure of thought, mind indeed. 

This energy rises up two channels, symbolized by the Caduceus of Mercury with its seven chakras, as we see here. A chakra simply is a wheel of force. It is where energy circulates, and so we have seven main primary chakras that manifest within our spinal column, which arise from our gonads and then up to our head. When we work with this quality of force within our bodies, they determine our spiritual life. This is why Morya stated: 

​That energy, which can be used for pleasure, instead, is transmuted. It is taken in another form, in substance, in reality. What is interesting is that Morya states that atoms always find their own level. Energies that we accumulate always seek to find their own level of balance. If we are bringing in good energy and we are transforming energy into a positive sense in our interior, they will elevate our quality of life.
 
The vapor that rises, this energy that rises within our internal vehicles, from the surface of the seminal fluids where it is conserved, gives us the force of determination. It determines where we go in nature instead of creating conflict and problems. Instead of that energy being channeled through desire, through attachments and cravings, we learn to  take that force for the spirit. Therefore we vibrate with higher levels of nature. It is a cosmic law, very basic. But we have many exercises that can teach you how to begin working with this force.
 
Personal ambition will not result in any lasting true change. Instead, compassion does. 

​We will touch upon a few more points, particularly in relationship with negative emotions, because in order to psychically cleanse our emotional, mental temples, our physical bodies, we have to understand the danger of negative emotions. Unfortunately, more people today are becoming more negative emotionally, and what is worse is that these negative emotions are contagious.
 
If one angry person speaks to the whole world in a television broadcast, that can affect millions. It can incite wars. I am sure we can think of many examples within the last few years where one person infected by negativity saturated the entire collective mind of peoples and brought about great disasters. This is because negative emotions are more harmful than any bacteria. So we should protect ourselves from this.
 
But here is what Samael Aun Weor had to say about the topic: 

​Therefore, we have to understand a basic principle of, we can say, spiritual self-defense, but also, psychological purity of mind. We have to learn how to close our doors, psychologically speaking, to negative impressions. We have to watch what we take in our mind. What kinds of books do we read? What do we watch on television? What do we look at on the internet? What images, videos, impressions do we eat with our mind? Because, we can listen to perhaps certain songs online and our whole mood will change. It can be afflicted or filled with sadness, with grief, or anger.
 
Many people take great deliberation into what they physically eat, but no consideration of what they psychologically consume. We can eat vegan, all organic food, the best health and nutrition available physically, and yet our minds can be completely poisoned and contaminated with negative elements, because we are ingesting so much garbage. Or we relate to certain people who are very negative and toxic.

​I am pretty sure that anyone who is approaching this type of lecture is coming from a place where perhaps they know someone or people who are very negative, very difficult to deal with, and have very hard impressions to transform, and so we are going to talk about a principle called closing doors.
 
Closing doors does not mean we avoid people who are harmful. It might mean in the beginning we have some distance enough to find some equilibrium in our life, spiritually speaking, to know how to relate to that person with wisdom. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for us), perhaps there are relationships with people―say our families, who are very difficult to relate to―and yet we can’t avoid them because they are family. So, I’m pretty sure we all have some similar experience like this.
 
What do we do? Some people may choose to avoid. Other people may learn to interact with that person with greater intelligence, meaning you are with the person physically, but psychologically you do not ingest the negativity they give you. In fact, you look at it. You observe it. You understand it. You transform your reactions. This also relates to the topic of the Silver Shield because if you are doing spiritual practices and conserving energy, you have more potential by which to reject and nullify these influences, and better said, to close your doors psychologically, so that you do not get affected as much and weighed down by, perhaps, this person. They do not control you anymore. They do not exert their influence or push your buttons, so to speak.
 
It important that we learn how to do it. We do so through observing ourselves and by learning meditation, learning what in us is affected by others, and again accumulating good energy, so that we do not become saturated with negativity, likewise, so that we don’t get infected. Samael Aun Weor makes some very powerful points about this in his lecture called “Mental Representations” about the need, the importance and the necessity, the urgency of this. 

So the term psychological aggregates has to do with defects, egos, because a person can be really angry with us, maybe a family member who wants to argue. We may take in that impression, we let it hit our heart, and then we transform that negative energy into a new condition of mind. We create more anger. Therefore we become poisoned ourselves, and therefore we have a positive feedback loop. We react, we retaliate and therefore that person becomes more intense in their anger, and things spiral out of control.
 
Now, opening and closing doors has to do with how we take in the information through our senses. Closing doors does not mean avoiding people. It means being present, being awake, being aware, and understanding the other person, being patient, watching, being aware, being kind. Impressions are all the information we take in through our senses but also into our mind. What is the emotional quality that we are receiving from this person? What is the mental state that this person is projecting unto us? In that process of being mindful of the other person, we also observe our reactions. We observe what in us wants to retaliate, to become upset, to speak harmfull words, to be negative.
 
Part of psychic hygiene has to do with observing this process in ourselves and learning how to have balance, neither attracting, nor rejecting this influence. It means your energies are present. You have your Silver Shield in your mind. You have a strong spiritual state of awareness, and therefore you do not retaliate. Instead, you learn to treat that person with love. This is very challenging, not easy to do. You are not going to do it on the first day you see your family member. Not easy, but it is basic. Control your emotional center, how you react to this person. Observe it, and if you do need to have some space to transform your own mind―so that you don’t do something you will regret―then take a minute to step away. Be polite, say, “Hey, I need to take a break. Give me a few minutes!” Breathe, but hopefully with these practices that we’re going to elaborate upon, you will have some stability of mind to be able to approach negative situations like this. 

​Part of our psychic health and well-being has to do with how we connect with our inner divinity. The problem is that if we take in negative impressions and we respond with negativity likewise, we would be more inclined to lie, whether we are conscious of it or not.
 
A lie is a distortion of reality, obviously. Negative emotions, more importantly, transform people into liars. If someone is negative or feels like they are going to create a problem―perhaps with a loved one, a family member, and in a negative state of emotion―one doesn’t tell all the facts. Now the problem is that if we lie, we disconnect ourselves, because our inner divinity, known as the Elder of Days within the gnostic tradition, is truth, is reality, is presence, and is the core principle of our Being. If we wish to connect more with it, we should learn to cultivate honesty, even though it is difficult. But of course, one does not have to commit sins of commission or omission, better said, if one is diplomatic, or “wise as serpents and harmless as doves,” according to Jesus (Matthew 10:16).
 
If we lie because we are in a negative state of mind, we disconnect ourselves. We become fractured. This is why Samael Aun Weor stated in his lecture on “Alcyone and Negative Emotions”:

​If you have been studying this teaching and applying it for some time, for those who are more experienced, I am pretty sure you have felt that in a moment where you might have lied or have lied, you feel weak, because the energies of your inner spirit are not manifesting within the moment. They get disconnected. You feel a lack of confidence, lack of ability, lack of cohesion. Therefore, we should learn not to lie, and first off, learn to identify negative emotions, so that we don't have to be in a position like that. 

Part of mental cleanliness or in another sense, the reason why many people feel like they have a clouded mind―perhaps lack a sense of stability in their lives, they feel drained mentally, emotionally―is because of idle conversation.
 
Part of this work of closing doors to negative impressions has to do with the principle called interior isolation and conservation. In the hermetic traditions it relates to the science of Mercury, Hermes, whereby, for some practitioners, they would adopt a vow of silence, so that they can learn to introspect and understand their own inner world. This is a very useful practice to understand the root origins of many distractions in ourselves, and also the root of many contaminants of mind. Certain elements, psychologically, create a conflict in us.
 
Now a basic practice is adopting a vow of silence. Obviously for religious reasons, people can do so, especially on holidays, or we have done this at retreats as well. Always there is a few people who would talk to you and you are silent because you are practicing mindfulness. This is why at some retreats we would have a little card saying we are practicing a vow of silence so no one would feel offended. But still, people do get upset. It is a useful practice to conserve energy, so that you do not feel tense and strained in merely just speaking out of a lack of mindfulness of what we are doing. Too much idle talk, speaking with no meaning, creates a sense of contamination in the mind too.
 
Silence is like a lake. When stable and pure or limpid and calm, in reality, it reflects deeper states of the spirit, stillness of mind. It can be helped in the meditative state, can be developed in physical silence.
 
So, perhaps, if we don't take a vow of silence, we can learn to practice this in the day, maybe by not taking the time to speak our mind the first instant to prove our point, but instead, saving our energies, conserving our mental force, observing ourselves. Become aware of what we say and do when it is necessary, so that we learn to become more mindful, more pure of heart, more psychically clean.
 
Morya stated the following in The Dayspring of Youth:

​We will conclude with a couple practices you can use to promote psychic and spiritual hygiene. We often utilize perfume in our tradition, or better said, incense. We will provide some links at the end, but you can basically use a charcoal within a burner, usually a container that you can hold and you can use different resins or even light incense sticks if you prefer. So that the perfume or the smoke will purify your home.
 
The perfume of incense is very important to use daily, because it helps to reject negative influences, but also promotes spiritual, mental healing. It also cleanses the internal worlds of any type of astral larvae.
 
So there are three uses of incense: cleaning, perfuming and healing. We will talk about each of the three in a bit. Samael Aun Weor stated the following in The Perfect Matrimony:

​High quality incense attracts the masters, to come to our home to give us their blessings. But also, according to Morya and The Lord God of Truth Within:

​So in terms of cleansing, you can work with sage. You can often find these at Wholefoods even. Many stores have them available, in this form, sage sticks. Light the sage. Pray to your inner divinity to help cleanse your home and your mind, your heart, your environment. You can do certain prayers along with the sage cleansing smoke. 

We often use the Conjuration of Four and the Conjuration of Seven in our studies to help remove any type of obsessive thoughts, negativity, or even astral larvae within one's home. You can take the smoke, bathe yourself in it, especially around your head, if you have preoccupations and worries, around your body, around your aura. It is very powerful and useful. 

​If you want to get more radical, if you really want to clean your home, especially if you have not done this before, you can work with sulfur. Now, be warned that sulfur is extremely toxic when it is burned. Use a very little bit. We usually take a charcoal within a burner, we take about a teaspoon of sulfur powder. Make sure there are no living things in the room that you want to sulfur out. You do not stay in the room. Make sure you leave. Make sure you have somewhere else to go, and that the fumes are not going to get out of the room. Make sure the door is close. You can open up the window if you have one in that room.
 
Sulfur fumes are extremely powerful. Now, they are dangerous to breathe in. They can irritate your lungs, or affect your lungs very severely, if you’re sensitive specially. It is very toxic. You do not want to be around to breathe it. The fumes themselves will, in the internal worlds, clean out any gunk that you have: astral larvae, negative thoughts, anything that may be bothering you. They even reject negative influences from any type of entity that maybe is trying to harm you and your home.
 
If you use the sulfur powder to cleanse it out, you can burn it for three days. Take three consecutive days or nine days if you feel like the environment―you just moved in some place, it feels heavy, feels dense―you feel like the place is just saturated with negative energy. Work with sulfur. Now, make sure again when you light it, do not be in the same room. Leave for a couple hours. Come back later in the day.
 
You can also take sulfur powder, without burning it, you can sprinkle it if you can’t burn it where you’re at. Sprinkle the powder across the room. The fumes in the internal worlds will rise up and clean your home. This could be very effective too. Obviously burning it is more powerful, but literally you can get great results just from the astral and vital fumes from the powder itself.
 
You can also take a sulfur bath. Sulfur clumps in water, so you can take it with a bubble bath, usually about tablespoon of sulfur powder. You can put it in the bathtub with you, but with bubble soaps or whatever you have. The powder itself won’t clump together so much. It will spread out evenly and will dissolve. 

​We can also work with the perfume and incense like frankincense. Frankincense is often used to invoke divinity. Here is what Samael Aun Weor had to say about this in the Igneous Rose: 

It also smells nice. Frankincense opens up the heart, helps you be honest, be frank with someone (kind of a play of words here). Frankincense is very useful for deepening your meditative practice and prayer. But also after a strong use of sage, which can have a pungent smell, you can work with frankincense afterward to perfume the environment and invoke the spiritual masters you seek in your meditative discipline. 

You can also heal yourself from the use of your zodiacal perfume. If you are feeling sick, if you are feeling a little off, not in your best state of mind, work with the perfume relating to your zodiac.
 
For Aries you gave the perfume of myrrh.
 
For Taurus the perfume of costus root, an aromatic herb.
 
For Gemini the perfume of mastic.
 
For Cancer the perfume of camphor.
 
For Leo the perfume of frankincense.
 
Virgo has the perfume of white sandalwood.
 
Libra the perfume of galbanum.
 
Scorpio, the perfume of coral. We do suspect that due to a typographical error in some of the very old editions of Samael Aun Weor’s writings that weren’t corrected or caught, he might have been referring to copal, because coral, I have heard from some students, does not burn on a charcoal. Copal does, and it is a very sweet aromatic and cleansing perfume. So you might want to try that if you are a native of Scorpio.
 
We also have Sagittarius relating to the perfume of aloeswood.
 
We also have Capricorn with the perfume of pine extract.
 
Aquarius is the perfume of spikenard.
 
And Pisces the perfume of thyme.
 
You can reference How to Use Incense, an article from Glorian Publishing, which talks about all these incenses that we mentioned, but also, many more. I highly recommend you study it. Apply it in accordance with your needs. 

If you really want to fortify the Silver Shield of your mental body, work with the magic of the runes. The runic exercises are exceptional. They are a form of yoga in which you position your body to match the runic alphabet, Futhark, the Nordic language, the Nordic letters. With prayer, mantra vocalization, aspiration―inhalation of the vital forces and their elevation within your body―you also assimilate and charge yourself with the forces of nature. It is very good to perform the runes out in the open. If you can go to some place nice like a park, some place quiet, alone, you can do these mantras and runes and practices to charge yourself.

There is also a video available from Glorian Publishing that talks about how to perform seven vowels, seven runic letters from that tradition. Highly recommend it. 

​Lastly, meditation. To really deepen your spiritual and mental health, your well-being, your psychic hygiene, learn to meditate. We have two courses from us. We have Gnostic Meditation but also Glorian has Meditation Essentials. Meditation will teach you how to transform negative impressions. It will teach you how to close doors. It will teach you how to observe your own mental reactions to negative impressions, but also how to cancel them, to not be affected―and also, to understand the root of our own defects, so that by changing them, by eliminating them, and by developing real virtue, we have enough stability and consciousness to really reflect divinity within.
 
At this point in time I would like to open the room for questions. 

​Question: How does visualization relate to this shield or the Silver Shield?
 
Instructor: You can meditate and imagine this aspect of your mental body, and with enough concentration and visualization, and with focus you can see the actual aura. You can see it internally, within. Perhaps you physically fall asleep and you enter the dream state. You can access what that reality is like. So, visualization relates to the Silver Shield in that any perception of an internal type has to do with your imagination. When you sit to meditate and you imagine something, you are using the vital forces of your creativity, and you are also activating aspects of your psychology, your consciousness, so that you can perceive this energy shield which you develop through this type of practice.
 
There is a deep relationship between imagination and the mind. The mind and imagination are deeply co-related. I think some people get confused and oftentimes dissociate them, primarily because the mind is imagination in different dynamics. To imagine is to perceive, whereas the mind and its function has to do with thought. Now, when the mind is calm, when it is perfectly still, like a lake, then you can imagine more clearly. Therefore you can start to activate the real depth, profundity, clarity and visualization available through the Silver Shield, because the Silver Shield facilitates that process. It protects your mind. It is an expression of your energy, and that energy helps to calm yourself, so that when your mind is still, you start to perceive images internally. They are deeply related. They are oftentimes different aspects, some of the same principles, but we talk about them separately so that we get better understanding, so we can break it down.
 
Question: In The Dayspring of Youth, Morya states that when we activate the solar force, it feels like it can knock one over. Could you elaborate?
 
Instructor: My answer would be: practice the runes. See what I am talking about, or see what he is talking about. I know some people I have seen at retreats that, when we did runes―usually we will have exercises; people would be performing, let us say the Rune Fah, the Rune Dorn―I have noticed some people who felt dizzy, because they have never worked with that energy before. So in the beginning, as you are learning to transmit that force in you, it can be disorienting because it’s something new, but also something very powerful. But also, we have to acclimate ourselves little by little to become better vehicles of that energy. I would not recommend on your first shot to just spend two hours or one hour to do runes. Take ten minutes, fifteen minutes, and learn to experiment, because that energy is the power of life. It is the power of the Sun literally speaking, the solar energy within your own body, within nature, manifesting in you. That is powerful, so take your time with it. With time and training you can do one hour, two hours of runes, even three or more depending on your needs.
 
Question: How do we get out of negative states when we do not want to, when we feel stuck in a negative state?
 
Instructor: Distract yourself. I do not necessarily mean doing things that are trivial or perhaps harmful, but instead, engage in activities that take your mind off of whatever the problem is, whatever you are fixated on. Mental and psychic obsessions can be very intense, especially if you are in a negative mood. It can be very hard to get out. The thing to remember is to take the time to find activities that you like, that help you relax. Some people, when they are moody, they decide to take a walk. Maybe you have a project going on at the time or something difficult that you have to do, preoccupied… put it aside. Distract yourself. Go out for a walk. Take some yoga classes, or better said, do some yoga exercises. You can do the runes. You can pray. You can write. Some people find writing therapeutic. Write poetry. Write some work literature, something that inspires you.
 
Now obviously, not all these examples are going to be, may not be for you, but they are examples of things people have used in the past when they are caught in a rut, or stuck in a negative state that they seem to not get out. What makes it worse is that you fixate. What I find very useful if I am in a negative state of mind, if I am preoccupied with a problem, I take a sage stick, light it, pray, and then perfume my head. I do the Conjuration of the Four and the Conjuration of the Seven. Those prayers along with sage smoke will remove mental obsessions and can help you get out of a negative state. But it takes skill. It takes practice.
 
Maybe getting some exercise would help. If you feel negative, maybe go to the gym. Take a walk. As I said, exercise, and also pray deeply. Pray passionately to your inner divinity, your Divine Mother. Your Divine Mother has the power to take you out. You have to remember Her. But sometimes She works in ways that, you know, through certain activities. She can inspire you. Listen to your heart. Follow the guidelines of your intuition. Whatever you feel might help you, whatever activity, do so with prayer. Remember your Divine Mother in your heart. She will take you out. She can do so by any activities we mentioned, if we are mindful and paying attention, working to take a moment of breath, of rest. Our Being is the one that can take us out. We have to remember Her.
 
Question: How does carbon dioxide pollution affect us spiritually?
 
Instructor: Well, the pollution of the air obviously affects the quality of our energy. The quality of the air, and what we ingest, in our lungs, but also the food we eat and, obviously, the impressions we take in, all contribute to the quality of our creative force―how healthy we are or what potential we have to be more healthy. Now, carbon dioxide pollution, obviously, if the environment is poor, that will affect the health of our lungs, but also in terms of the air we breathe in, it will affect the quality of our creative energy, because our creative energy is literally formed by the combination of many forces: the food we eat, the air we take in, the water we drink, and the impressions we transform with our mind. These all contribute to a grade of potency or impotency of force.
 
So obviously we want to do the best we can with the environment we live in, to be eating as healthy as we can, consuming as much healthy food but also being more conscious of what we breathe. Maybe quitting smoking so to speak. Obviously, this is very basic. But you know, these things do add up. For your spiritual hygiene, obviously your inner spirit will have more energy to work with, to perform transformations in you, if your lungs are cleaner, if your heart is cleaner, if your mind is cleaner. They all add up together. Obviously the cleaner vehicle we are, the greater expression that our spirit can manifest in us.
 
Question: How do we recognize the Dayspring of Youth?
 
Instructor: You recognize it in yourself, not just from some late or some early history from the 60s, by looking at what happened culturally, but you look at how it manifests in you. You see it whenever you do prayers, transmutation exercises. Thr runes are a great way to activate the force of the Dayspring of Youth. That is literally the force of life that manifests in the spinal column, the lungs, the chakras, the mind. When you do prayer and runes and mantras, you sing and vocalize with fidelity, with faith, with joy―you feel re-energized. You feel real youth flowing through your meridians, your vital body, your energetic channel, so to speak. That Dayspring of Youth is your own creative force that is being transmuted in you. It feels like a day in spring, according to Morya, something refreshing. You only sense it by doing it everyday, being consistent, so if you want to activate and recognize that Dayspring of Youth in you―work with the runes. Work with them daily. If you want to get out of a rut, like, I believe your earlier question was about, you work with the Dayspring of Youth. It will help you get out, by praying to the Divine Mother, with the runic exercises, to resonate with a higher level of being. The more you practice it, the more you will see it, recognize it, and become more familiar with it. That is my recommendation.
 
Question: Are there any benefits of moving to the countryside?
 
Instructor: Yes, obviously. Cities are packed and dense and heavy and saturated with a lot of problems. Not to say that the countryside does not have its problems, but at the same time, it is less heavy in terms of atmospheric energy. Many people report that going to the forest outside of any city where walks in nature are very powerful. I just recently took a walk with my wife today. We were out in the countryside enjoying the fresh air, but also the prana, the life force out of nature, so yes there are a lot of benefits of moving to the countryside. But if you can’t live outside the city, then make trips. Take the time. It cleans your mind, literally, cleans your vital depth, your mental body, your astral body, getting out in nature, because those forces are very primordial and raw. They will help you. But you got your karma. You have to live where you have to live. But obviously we try to make choices when we can.
 
Question: Could you elaborate on the solar power of runes? And also, what does Morya mean when he says we get ennobled by the solar force? 
 
Instructor: Solar power has to do with the force of life, the force of creation, and the greatest force of creation that we carry within is our sexual glands. We are ennobled by the, or empowered by the solar force, in the sense that this energy awakens the greatest virtues of the soul. We have a greater nobility of spirit, more ethics, more creativity, more compassion when we work with this creative energy in us, the solar force. We find it in our sexual glands. It is the force or life, of creation, of sexual power. When we learn to use it for the spirit, it ennobles us, makes us acolytes within the divine knighthood, the spiritual brotherhood or initiatic hierarchies of the divine―which we talk about in a course called The Secret Path of Initiation―of the white lodge, where there are those beings who are perfecting or have perfected themselves, spiritually speaking.
 
To ennoble yourself with the solar force means to work with that creative energy in you. But also, when you work with the solar power of runes, you are adopting certain postures with your body to accumulate force within nature. You are combining the forces of nature with your prayer and vocalizations, your breath work and combination with the solar power of your own creative vital force. They mix together. They combine and then they become augmented. They magnify. They expand. They enlighten. You are combining fuel and fuel in order to revolutionize your psychology. So work with the energy. Work with that force. It is the true source of real, genuine, divine spiritual character: kindness, compassion, happiness…
 
Question: What happened in the 60s that caused these negative energies in society?
 
Instructor: The energy is a volatile force, the Dayspring of Youth, or the Aquarian influence, the Dionysian Wave. Now, I was mentioning earlier in the lecture that the creative energy is in nature, in the cosmos, is revolutionary. That force, called the Dayspring of Youth, has to act. The problem is not the energy. It is how we use it. So the problem with our humanity is that in the 60s we received that energy in a revolutionary impetus, but we transformed it with our desire. So instead of taking that energy and using it to feed our spiritual values, we corrupted ourselves. We became degenerated. We destroyed and continue to destroy our potential. Society became more intensely difficult and negative, because people did not want to work on their ego. We took in that energy but did not use it consciously. So that’s the difference. This is the polarity of Dionysus. That energy can provide spiritual inebriation, spiritual enlightenment, or the intensification of desire and suffering. It depends on how we use the energy.
 
Question: What exactly are the vital values? The master defines this as a way to live longer. Could you elaborate?
 
Instructor: So, vital values relate to what we call in Gurdjieffian terms Bobbin-Kandelnosts. Gurdjieff was a mystical teacher of the Fourth Way school that later propagated in Russia. He called these vital values or vital capital Bobin-Kandelnosts. This is a language from the internal worlds. 

​Our brain, physically speaking, as well as our heart and our spinal column, are three centers of thought, feeling and will with a predetermined sum of vital currency. Every action requires energy, and in order to make a certain action you take out money from the bank, so to speak. The more intellectual action, the more vital values you deplete within your intellectual brain. Likewise with the heart, and our instinctive, motor, and sexual centers, so to speak.
 
The problem is, if you waste all those energies―like you think too much or you are having too many negative emotions, or you have too many activities with your body―you deplete yourself, and people who get sick, mentally or emotionally or physically, is because they have exhausted all their vital capital. They have basically drawn all their sum capital in their bank. When they have no more money or energy left in that center, that brain deteriorates. It dies. This explains why certain people have perhaps mental illnesses or emotional sickness or physical debilitating conditions, because they have wasted all their energies in those centers.
 
In order to live longer, we can learn to transmute the creative energy. You can put more money in your bank. You can preserve those values too, not only by conserving your life force, your sexual energy, and transmuting it, but also you can conserve what you have already. You can learn to not waste energy, which has to do with earlier in the lecture when we talked about closing doors, for example, by not identifying with negative emotions or thoughts, the toxicity of negative people. We choose to identify or associate with certain people based on our needs, spiritual well-being, or by transforming your relationships in general, by limiting your own defects and desires through meditation, we learn to conserve our energy.
 
Because our own ego or desires waste energy. Anger is obviously an explosion of an atomic force, so to speak. The same thing with lust, especially, or pride or resentment, or fear. These elements waste energy. But if you eliminate those elements in you that waste energy, you save it, and you live longer. You are healthier. So, there is a great incentive to perform this work because it will help us live more balanced and healthier lives, not as sick, not as diseased.
 
Question: Would the Dayspring of Youth be the most potent way to transform one's harmful behaviors into positive attitudes if harnessed correctly through study, prayer, and practice?
 
Instructor: Yes, especially meditation and transmutation. That energy is best used in you when you are working to comprehend your own faults, your own defects, and removing them. When you develop real virtue, when you transform anger into love, pride into humility, gluttony into temperance, lust into chastity―you are developing the virtues of the soul. You do so through works with energy, but also by meditating on your defects. Obviously prayer is important because we have to really commune with God, with the Being. Without that there is no possible way to really establish a deeper connection, and to use those positive influences of the Dayspring of Youth, both without and within, with harmony.
 
Question: If we waste our vital values in one brain, can we restore or recapture it by using this brain virtuously, as sick as it may be?
 
Instructor: That is a good question. The truth is that you can to a degree. We can get help, if we have a sickness, whether mentally or emotionally, we have wasted all the energies of that brain, and have suffered from perhaps a debilitating sickness. The reality is that by working with the creative solar force within our glands, through transmutation, especially through alchemy, that energy can help you to restore the balance of the depleted brain. You can also get help from internal masters of medicine, spiritual healers within the higher worlds, within dreams, who can treat your mental, emotional, or vital bodies, whatever body that is sick, so that you can be restored. So, you do it by acting virtuously. Obviously, you know, whatever behaviors made you sick, obviously stop doing them. Adopt beneficial action. Adopt virtuous practice. Adopt chastity, transmutation of the creative force. In that way, your brain will be more nurtured and vitalized. Or whatever brain is sick, you can heal it. So it is possible. It is also a very patient and difficult process, but one that one can perform with the help of divinity specially. [Note: study and apply the sacred rites of rejuvenation for additional support. See Yoga for the Aquarian Era for more information].
 
Question: How one should avoid negative influences of certain individuals? How does sacrifice for others fit into this?
 
Instructor: In the beginning you might find it very difficult to relate to certain people. In many cases we may not have the balance to transform the situation. It can be very toxic, very difficult, very painful. You have to rely on your intuition and the guidance from your inner divinity to show you what the right course of action is, and be patient. Be patient for the results and the answers. But other times, because such relationships can be difficult, it is actually an act of sacrifice to take the time to, perhaps, to take care of your needs and your balance to a relative degree, because we cannot help other people if we are incapable, if we are impotent, spiritually speaking, if our intentions do not align up with our actions.
 
If we want to be spiritual and do good for this person, and yet they keep harming us, sometimes the best thing is to take a break. Gain your balance. Meditate on yourself. Sometimes closing doors means creating a little distance, so that―maybe not separation―but at least you gain some time for you to isolate, psychologically speaking. This is why many masters would meditate in solitude. They would take the time to abandon society, to abandon their obligations, perhaps for an appointed time or term in order to gain enough balance and stability to understand themselves, but also, to have enough strength, so that when they did go back to society they knew how to handle it, the trauma or the difficulty there. Many myths teach this. Many religions also show this principle. Some people think that abandoning the world altogether is the necessary thing, and they do it in an indeterminate way, or for indeterminate time. They just abandon the world, and obviously we do not support that argument. We need to be a part of society. But it also means we have to know how to help society.
 
We need to balance ourselves in order to help other people to balance. If you are a trainwreck, you are not gonna teach other people to get their mess in order. You cannot sacrifice for others if you have no stability. So, you can take the time to get your act in order. Get things right, and then, when you are stable and right, and no longer afflicted by so much negativity, you can begin the real work of re-engaging with certain people. I speak from experience. I used to have relationships and people I knew in the past who were very toxic. I had to take some time in the beginning to develop my own practice, but also, when I gained enough stability, to re-engage with the world, or certain individuals. But obviously there is a shock there, and that is an aspect of sacrifice that is very difficult to achieve, because, perhaps, you come back from a retreat. You are energized. You are happy. You are going to conquer the world. You are happy. You are at peace. You have a sense of nobility and purpose. But then you enter the cities, you come back to society, and heaviness hits you, so that you have to learn how to maintain that momentum you gained spiritually from the retreat in order to be able to apply it in your community. That is the real work.
 
Some people, actually, a lot of people, when they come back to the world―they lose it. They forgo their discipline. They forget everything. They easily get swallowed by the moon, according to Samael Aun Weor, by mechanicity, by habits, by conditions. So, it is a difficult balance. You have to constantly negotiate and renegotiate that within yourself. How much space do you need in solitude, isolation, psychologically maybe, or physically too? But, psychologically, in order to be more useful, a better expression of your inner divinity? So that way, when you do choose to associate with certain people, they do not impact you in a negative way. In fact, they might change because of your character.
 
This happened with me, in terms of certain relationships, friendships I had in the past. People I had to distance myself from, but then eventually came back, with a renewed purpose, and the relationship is no longer negative. It is positive because divinity was able to make the correct changes in expressions or manifestations in my life, because I was working on my defects that were causing me problems. So that is how you sacrifice better for others. It is, first: gain your stability, but then, time and again, refine yourself.