Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, Chapter Six...The Creative Power of Thought

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science,

Chapter Six...The Creative Power of Thought

Chapter 6 of Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, 'The Creative Power of Thought,' focuses on the logical basis for why individual thought possesses creative power and the correct method for applying it to shape external reality.

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1. Thought's Divine Origin

Troward's starting point is the axiom that Thought possesses creative power because it is identical in kind with the thought of the Originating Spirit (Divine Mind) that created the cosmos.

• Since the whole creative process consists of the Universal Spirit continually expressing itself through the individual, any genuine thinking power must be an expression of the same power latent in the Originating Spirit.

• Man is a thought of the Parent Mind; by consciously thinking this thought (realizing his Divine nature), he ensures his own perpetuation and draws from the infinite potential of the Universal Mind.

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2. Standing Between Two Infinites

The realization of man's creative ability places him "standing between two infinites":

• The Infinite of Mind: The Universal Mind, from which we draw the creative power.

• The Infinite of Substance: The primary, formless substance (ether), which our thought can mould.

Recognizing this, the individual can use the Creative Power drawn from the Universal Mind to impress specific conditions onto the Universal Substance, thereby shaping their external circumstances, including their body.

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3. The Right Mode of Application

Troward emphasizes that this creative power is not exercised through personal will-force applied directly to the substance, which is a common and error-prone misconception.

• The correct approach is to realize the individual mind as a channel through which the Universal Mind operates upon Substance.

• This operation occurs according to the mode of thought that the individual is seeking to embody.

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4. Concentrating on Principles

For the most effective and harmonious creation, Troward instructs the reader to concentrate thought on principles rather than on particular things.

• The principles originate from the Divine Mind (e.g., the principle of health, abundance, or harmony).

• When we focus on the principle, we enable it to manifest its corresponding facts (the physical manifestation) in our lives.

• This avoids antagonism and ensures that our individual creative use of the power is a particular application of a universal power, maintaining harmony across all individual expressions.

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Source

Google Gemini

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, Chapter Five...Alpha and the Omega

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science,

Chapter Five...Alpha and the Omega

Chapter 5 of Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, 'Alpha and the Omega,' deals with the necessary completion of the creative process, explaining that every thought, idea, or creative act must return to its source, the individual mind, in the form of manifested reality.

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1. The Circularity of the Creative Process

Troward's title, 'Alpha and the Omega,' signifies the completeness of the creative cycle, where the beginning (Alpha) and the ending (Omega) are connected:

• Alpha (The Starting Point): The thought, idea, or desire formed in the individual's mind.

• Omega (The Destination): The ultimate physical manifestation of that original thought.

The law is that every creative emanation must complete its circuit and return to its point of departure in the form of manifestation. This means that when you project a thought of wealth, health, or harmony, the Universal Law compels the corresponding return of that reality to your personal sphere.

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2. The Universal Medium of Thought

The chapter emphasizes that the Universal Mind (or the subjective mind) is the medium through which all individualized creative thought operates.

• Your thought is essentially a spiritual energy that leaves your conscious mind and is impressed upon the receptive, formative Universal Mind.

• The Universal Mind, acting deductively, takes the quality of the thought you impress upon it and immediately begins to organize corresponding objective conditions to bring that thought into reality.

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3. The Power of Intentional Impression

Troward highlights the importance of the deliberate intention behind the thought. While the Universal Mind is not a conscious thinker, it is a perfect executor of the thoughts impressed upon it.

• The only check or obstacle to the return of the manifestation is an alteration or contradiction in the original thought by the sender (the individual).

• If the individual wavers, fears, or doubts, they impress a new thought on the Universal Mind, interrupting the creative process of the first idea.

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4. Resting in Assurance (The Omega)

True success in Mental Science relies on understanding that the completion (the Omega) is certain once the initial impression (the Alpha) has been clearly and confidently made.

• The individual must maintain a state of calm assurance and certainty that the creative law is already in motion and is bringing the desired reality back to them.

• This rest, or "resting in the assurance," is not passive waiting but the deliberate maintenance of a mental attitude that is harmonious with the idea that has been sent forth. This ensures the creative circuit remains unbroken until the manifestation is complete.

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Source

Google Gemini

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, Chapter Four...The Life of the Spirit

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science,

Chapter Four...The Life of the Spirit

Chapter 4 of Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, 'The Life of the Spirit,' provides a practical guide on how the individual can deliberately cultivate a consciousness that allows the Universal Life Principle (the Spirit) to flow through them, enriching their personal life and circumstances.

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1. The Necessity of Repose and Stillness

The chapter emphasizes that the activity of the Spirit requires a counter-balancing repose on the part of the individual.

• The individual mind is the channel through which the Universal Life flows, but the channel must be clear and still to receive the full flow.

• By cultivating a state of repose or stillness in the mind, the individual allows the Universal Livingness to provide innumerable avenues for enrichment, whether in giving or receiving, which they had never before suspected.

• This is a purposeful attitude, where the will does not relax its control, but merely alters its direction from external effort to internal receptivity.

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2. The Power of Unrecognized Working

Troward discusses the unrecognized working of the Spirit, which is the sub-conscious mind at the individual level and the silent power of evolution at the universal level.

• This unrecognized power is the spring of all automatic action in the body and mind.

• By conscious recognition and rapport with this power, the individual can gradually bring the automatic action of their circumstances under their control, eventually controlling their whole individual world.

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3. How to Contact the Sub-Conscious Mind

The chapter provides the practical key to putting oneself in touch with the sub-conscious (subjective) mind, which is the link to the Universal Spirit. This clue is found in the impersonal quality of the sub-conscious mind.

• Pure Being: To make contact, we must endeavor to think of ourselves as Pure Being—the entity that interiorly supports the outward manifestation—losing sight of the facts connected with the external personality (Kim’s riddle in Kipling’s story is used as an analogy).

• Affirmation of Good: The essential quality of Pure Being is Good (pure Life). Therefore, the purer our intentions, the more readily we connect with our subjective entity, and by extension, the Greater Sub-conscious Mind.

• The Deductive Process: The Universal Mind acts deductively—it starts with the principle and applies it, not inductively (working from a concrete pattern). Therefore, the individual must form a clear, objective conception of the idea they wish to convey, and then mentally impress this idea onto the subjective mind as though it were an independent entity.

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4. Subjective States are Reality

The chapter concludes with the fundamental law of the subjective life: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."

• Our inward, subjective states are the true reality.

• What we call external realities are only their objective correspondences.

• By entering into the life of the Spirit through conscious, deliberate thought and feeling, we make that Spirit's inherent reality manifest in our external world.

For more insights into Troward's philosophy on the nature of reality and the Universal Mind, you can listen to The Edinburgh Lectures on Mental Science Full Audiobook.

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Source

Google Gemini

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, Chapter Three...The New Thought and the New Order

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science,

Chapter Three...The New Thought and the New Order

Chapter 3 of Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, titled 'The New Thought and the New Order,' focuses on the transition from old, limited ways of thinking to an enlightened, expansive consciousness that recognizes and utilizes the infinite possibilities of Universal Law.

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1. Transitioning to the New Thought

Troward describes the "New Thought" not as a fixed system but as the result of an enlightened intelligence stemming from a persistent determination to discover truth, independent of preconceived notions or old frameworks.

• The Old Order: The old, limited mode of thought is based on judging solely by external appearances and superficial interpretations of words, which bind people to a limited perception of reality.

• The New Order: When one begins to inquire into the real causes behind appearances, the old notions fall away, and the individual steps out into a new order characterized by liberty and life. This is a liberation from the restrictive logic of the senses.

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2. The Personal Factor in Universal Law

A key idea is the relationship between Universal Law and the Personal Factor (the individual human mind).

• The Laws of the Universe are eternal and cannot be broken. However, Troward asserts that these laws can be made to work under special conditions that produce results not achievable under the conditions spontaneously provided by nature.

• The personal factor—the intelligent mind of the individual—is the instrumentality by which the infinite possibilities of the Law can be realized. It is the intelligence that looks beyond the present limited manifestation of the Law into its real essence.

• This is analogous to scientific progress: iron, which naturally sinks, is made to float by applying the law of flotation in a specialized way (shaping it into a ship that displaces more liquid mass than its weight).

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3. The Power of Specialized Thought

The ability to create this "New Order" hinges on the individual's capacity for specialized thought and action.

• The Universal Spirit, without the element of individual personality, can only work cosmically by a generic law (the law of averages).

• The introduction of the personal factor allows for far higher specialization of this law, enabling the individual to draw from the universal source to meet specific, desired ends.

• The New Thought provides the logical, reasoned understanding of this process, teaching how to intentionally select the conditions (i.e., the specific mental attitude or feeling) necessary to make the Universal Law work in a way that manifests a new, desired result (the New Order).

This lecture provides the foundation for the practical application of mental science, showing that while we are subject to law, we have the intelligence to apply that law in new, life-enhancing ways.

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Source

Google Gemini

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, Chapter Two...Individuality

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science,

Chapter Two...Individuality

Chapter 2 of Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, titled 'Individuality,' explores the essential nature of the individual as a necessary channel for the Universal Creative Power, emphasizing that true livingness is measured by intelligence and will.

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1. The Measure of Livingness

Troward begins by noting the graded scale of life in the universe, from inanimate matter to man. The difference in the quality of "livingness" between a plant, a fish, an animal, and a human is determined by the degree of intelligence.

• The higher the intelligence, the more completely the mode of motion (action/experience) is under its conscious control.

• Intelligence is therefore the essential quality of Spirit (Life), while Form is the distinctive quality of Matter.

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2. The Universal vs. The Individual

The chapter makes a crucial distinction between:

• Cosmic Intelligence (Universal Law): This operates by a law of averages for the maintenance and advancement of the race. It is a process in which the individual has not taken a conscious, volitional part.

• Individual Intelligence: This is differentiated from the Cosmic Intelligence by the presence of individual volition (will-power). It represents the highest product of the cosmic evolutionary process.

Troward argues that as intelligence advances, the individual is increasingly taken out of the law of averages and gains greater power in controlling the conditions of their own survival.

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3. Man's Function as a Distributor

Troward's central tenet in this chapter is that the Universal can only act on the plane of the Particular by becoming the particular—that is, by expressing itself through the individual.

• Man's function in the cosmic order is to act as a distributor of the Divine power.

• Our part is to provide a concrete center around which the Divine energies can play, attracting and differentiating the undistributed flow of the Universal into suitable directions.

• This means that our individual creative power must be in harmony with the Universal Principle, because we are distributing, not originally creating, the power.

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4. The Power of Self-Recognition

The chapter concludes by defining the highest form of self-recognition:

• Lower Self-Recognition: Realizing the self as the ego—separate and distinct from the non-ego (everything else).

• Higher Self-Recognition: Realizing one's own spiritual nature as an individualization of pure Spirit, seeing others not as the non-ego, but as the alter-ego (another self) in a different mode of expression.

This higher recognition of self necessarily controls the lower modes of spirit (matter/circumstance) that have not yet reached the same level of self-recognition, as those lower modes are in bondage to a law they do not yet know.

The book The Creative Process in the Individual explores similar concepts about how individuals harness universal creative power: The Creative Process In The Individual – Audiobook preview.

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Source

Google Gemini

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, Chapter One...Entering into the Spirit of it

Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science,

Chapter One...Entering into the Spirit of it

Chapter 1 of Thomas Troward's The Dore Lectures on Mental Science, titled 'Entering into the Spirit of it,' establishes the fundamental principle of the entire course: that to benefit from any creation, one must understand and participate in the creative idea behind it.

The synopsis of the chapter is as follows:

1. The Meaning of "The Spirit"

Troward defines the "Spirit" of a thing as the idea, creative impulse, or living principle that gives it life, movement, and existence. Just as one must appreciate the thought of the author or the feeling of the musician to fully enjoy their work, one must also "enter into the Spirit" of the universe to understand and utilize its laws. If you cannot enter into the spirit of a thing, it remains "dead" to you.

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2. The Nature of the Primal Power

The chapter focuses on identifying the nature of the primal moving power that is the source of all life. Troward argues that physical science, by reducing all material things to a universally distributed ether in absolute equilibrium, logically compels the deduction of an immaterial power—the Spirit—that must have initiated the first movement of creation.

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3. The Creative Mind Analogy

Troward draws an analogy between an artist's original creation (a work of art, literature, or music) and the creation of the universe by the "Greater Creative Mind" (the Parent Mind/First Cause).

• The artist's work is driven by an inner "motif" or feeling—a reaching out for self-realization.

• Similarly, the initial movement of creation by the Parent Mind must have been purely a matter of inner feeling because, being the First Cause, no existing conditions could have externally compelled its action.

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4. The Conclusion: Entering into the Feeling

The core lesson is that since the creative process originates in the feeling or motive of the Universal Mind, to cooperate with the creative power, the student must learn to partake of this feeling. By entering into the original creative feeling of Life, one accesses the "fons et origo" (source and origin) of the entire chain of causation, allowing the individual to reproduce that livingness and creative power in their own lives.

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Source

Google Gemini

Transiting Pluto activating my natal Saturn/Neptune midpoint?

Transiting Pluto activating my natal Saturn/Neptune midpoint?

Regarding midpoints in astrology, how would you define transiting Pluto activating my natal Saturn/Neptune midpoint?

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This is a profound and transformative transit, as it combines the energies of three heavyweight outer planets: Saturn (Structure, Reality, Limitation), Neptune (Dreams, Dissolution, Idealism), and Pluto (Transformation, Death/Rebirth, Power).

Here is a breakdown of how to define and interpret this activation:

1. Understanding the Natal Midpoint: Saturn/Neptune

The natal Saturn/Neptune midpoint represents a core psychological complex in your chart.

• The Conflict: It symbolizes the tension between reality (Saturn) and illusion/ideals (Neptune). It's the point where your practical, structured world meets your spiritual, imaginative, or confusing one.

• Key Themes:

  • Emotional Vulnerability: Sensitivity to undermining circumstances or chronic worry.

  • The Struggle: The difficulty in distinguishing between concrete limitations and imagined fears or self-deception.

  • The Struggle with Ideals: Trying to give solid, practical form (Saturn) to a dream or an ideal (Neptune), or experiencing the gradual dissolution (Neptune) of structures you thought were solid (Saturn).

  • Potential Manifestation: A deep spiritual longing, existential ache, or the surfacing of old delusions or escapist tendencies. In the positive, it can be a capacity to give form to spiritual or compassionate works.

2. The Transiting Planet: Pluto

Pluto's transit signifies a deep, intense, and often unavoidable process of transformation.

• The Power: Pluto acts as a force of death and rebirth, bringing what is hidden to the surface to be purged, empowered, and radically changed.

• The Action: When Pluto activates a point, it brings its power to that area, demanding that you confront the core issues associated with it. This process can feel like a "descent into the underworld".

• In this context: Pluto focuses its transformative energy directly onto the struggle between your reality and your ideals.

3. Defining the Activation: Pluto activating Saturn/Neptune

The transit is defining a period of intense, compulsory transformation regarding the natal Saturn/Neptune themes.

Planetary Component	Core Action/Principle	Combined Experience
Transiting Pluto	Transformation, Purge, Power, Intensity	The need to radically restructure or let go of old forms of fear and illusion.
Activating	A point of critical focus and powerful energy	An intense confrontation with long-held, but unsustainable, structures.
Natal Saturn/Neptune	Concreteness vs. Illusion, Responsibility vs. Escapism, Physical vs. Spiritual	The death of a foundational structure (Saturn) that was built on a delusion (Neptune).

Possible Manifestations & Interpretations:

• The Breakdown of Delusion: This transit often forces a confrontation with a long-standing illusion, fantasy, or deception (Neptune) that has been a foundational part of your reality (Saturn). The Pluto energy will expose and destroy this structure, so a more authentic and powerful reality can be built.

• Reckoning with Fear: Deep-seated, chronic fears, worries, or feelings of inadequacy (negative Saturn/Neptune) can be intensely brought to the surface. Pluto demands that you look at the source of these fears and dissolve their power over you, leading to a profound inner empowerment.

• Spiritual Transformation: A crisis in belief or an acute spiritual longing may occur. Your existing spiritual or philosophical structure (Saturn) may feel inadequate or dissolved (Neptune), forcing you to dig deep (Pluto) for a more authentic and powerful spiritual commitment.

• The Empowered Ideal: Positively, this is an opportunity to manifest a deep, long-held dream (Neptune) into a concrete, powerful reality (Saturn) through intense, committed effort (Pluto). It is about clearing away the inauthentic and giving form to your highest ideals.

In summary: Transiting Pluto activating your natal Saturn/Neptune midpoint is a time to shed the structures (Saturn) that have been holding a lie or a self-deception (Neptune) in place, forcing a necessary and powerful transformation (Pluto) towards a deeper, more realistic, and ultimately more empowered truth.

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Source

Google Gemini