82. Dealing with Obstructions

©2002 Athene Bitting All Rights Reserved

LXXXII

Obstructions in Life: Their Nature and Treatment

Lecture based Questions:

1. Draw or describe a reminder or symbol of one of your hundreds of helpers.

You have hundreds of helpers: friends and loved ones, angels, nature spirits, pets, teachers, guides, Masters, ancestors. Pick the one that is just at the surface of your thoughts and record your impressions.

2. Can obstructions be classified into different categories?

Yes, there are three major types of obstructions, each with a different approach and meaning. These are:

1) obstruction as a delay for the purpose of Divine Timing

2) obstruction as intervention for the safety and well-being of a disciple

3) obstruction as a manifestation of neurosis.

3. How can we tell the difference between the three types?

Obstruction as neurosis is the easiest to discern, because the disciple knows what procrastinating behaviors are siphoning away energy from his success. However, the Hierarchy uses our neuroses to bring us into learning situations that we would not necessarily choose for ourselves. Our faults bring us to our unique places of enlightenment.

The other two are fairly easy to recognize as well. When an effort is halted because of circumstances beyond one’s control, this is a definite sign to relax and bless the day and its unplanned events. One can say an affirmation such as “I believe in God’s perfect timing,” or “My heart is at rest because I trust in the order of the Divine Plan,” or something similar.

4. When dealing with neurosis-driven obstructions, what can we do?

A variety of factors are karmic—astrological challenges, physical limitations, social bindings, emotional weaknesses, and attitude mistakes. These are our keys to unlocking the shackles of stagnant energy.

•Knowing one’s astrological chart and its meaning can help a person to uncover behavior loops.

•Honoring one’s physical needs as a foremost concern will allow the body to recover from years of abuse and neglect. Then it can contribute enthusiasm to a goal.

•Too many social interactions can drain success energy, especially during a phase of momentum gathering. Stay away from all unnecessary commitments when building a business or cultivating a project.

•There is a commonplace emotional weakness that contributes to obstruction. This is when the identity feels convinced that its survival depends on a particular type of activity. It would sacrifice the world and the soul to maintain this precious habit. This sounds similar to addiction, and it is to a certain extent. The identity can be rooted in failure. Sometimes it feels dependent on the support of other people. Other times it is truly involved in addiction. Some examples are busyness, shopping, medication, or validation through sexual encounter. Any sense of desire or fear that drives the personality will tear away the focus from success.

•There is no room in success for rebellion, self-congratulation, weariness, or pessimism. The attitude that brings success is a combination of the following virtues:

•focus on the goal

•persistence

•patience

•faith in Divine Support

•commitment to effort

•archetype building.

5. What do obstructions look like in the Astral World?

When a neurosis is responsible, the disciple appears to be surrounded to be in a stormy cloud of grays and dirty colors. This haze occludes the vision of the aspirant. The smell is unpleasant and putrid. The texture is similar to steel wool. When we pray for each other, our neuroses become more transparent and vulnerable to Light.

Obstructions of a divine nature have no telltale markings in the Astral World, unless the neophyte is resisting the situation. Then the will force that a person uses to fight the status quo becomes apparent through anger, the beak-like projection of will, and the blotches of pride between the shoulder blades.

6. When are angels involved in obstructions?

Angels are involved in every aspect of our lives all of the time. Of course the Guardian Angel is most intimately involved with daily events—our hopes, dreams, and exertions. You can ask her for feedback, validation, and guidance at any time. She has been waiting for you to do so. The more specific your question, the better she can help you.

When we are consistently closed to angelic advice, then the Angels of Awakening go to work. They smash our stiff attitudes and our hardened opinions. This usually occurs during the Open Key period of the year, about 100-50 days before the birthday.

7. If I want to manifest something, how do I know whether or not it is the right thing for me?

We must always depend on Divine Mind for the final say and for the big picture. Whenever we affirm or pray for anything, we always qualify it thus, “through bless channels, under Grace, in perfect ways, according the the Divine Plan.”

This prevents another person from being harmed by our blessings, and avoids attracting the wrong situation. Florence Scovel Shinn said it well, “I manifest this or its equivalent.” She meant that Divine Mind would substitute the correct answer should one’s own plan be incorrect.

8. Exercise: Sphere of Command

• Choose a specific point that you feel would improve the quality of your life, such as good health, perfect memory, the right relationship, a new skill, the right career, a new toy, more time, etc.

• Concretize the idea into a thought form symbol. Imagine it resting in your upturned hands.

• Breathe deeply and slowly. Encase the thought form in an iridescent bubble. As you breathe, the bubble with your goal inside of it grows larger and more solid.

•From your solar plexus and heart chakras you are feeding the sphere with focused energy.

•Focus and breathe intentionally, until you feel that the sphere has ripened. When it is ready, release it. Observe it rising away from you into the universe.

•Say, “According to Divine Will, so be it. May there be fun, easy, quick enlightenment.”

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Ora et Labora

Pray as You Work

Our lives are both manifested and affirmed by our belief systems. The nexus of your behavior pattern is always rooted in this. No matter what you say, the circumstances of your life testify to the inner workings of your mind and heart.

You are aspiring students who are learning the skills that will one day master the universe. Again, let me assure you that you must not expect nor burden yourself with standards of life and behavior that are unrealistic. There is no unforgivable sin in making errors. It is all right to fall ill, to let down your guard to attack, to make bad choices. This is a path of learning. Patience with yourself is the beginning of perfect patience. Let there instead be gratitude and humble surprise for a smooth and harmonious day, for a correct choice, and for receptivity and enlightenment.

It is a mistake to drive yourself with iron resolve to your perception of perfect consciousness. First of all, your perception is necessarily limited and therefore flawed. Next, your spiritual ambition is an expenditure of will force, and therefore deflates your purpose by using up the very thing that you would expand. Let your imperfections be your allies. Use them to keep yourself from taking your self seriously.

Our lives are a collective tapestry of daily foibles, involvements, “Aha!”s, and blessings. This is a rich and beautiful thing, appreciated by all the Light Servers who observe it. There are miracles hidden within the weaving of this participatory work of art. Power and magic rise up from the most mundane and repetitive of small events. Appreciate the journey for the precious experience that it is. You will look back on this time of your evolution with affection and gratitude.

In the laws of the universe, certain things apply to our subject.

•Resistance creates obstruction.

•Taking something for granted creates loss.

•Fear attracts destruction.

•Lack of focus causes decay in paradigm archetypes.

Avoiding the [above] behaviors is to achieve half of success. Conversely, the application of certain positive laws [below] can be helpful.

•Say affirmations often. This maintains and builds paradigm archetypes.

•Bless everyone and everything you encounter. This returns that energy to you, three times three.

•Have faith in the rightness of Divine Will. This quiets the Astral Body, which makes it receptive to Divine Guidance. Gratitude creates an indentation in the fabric of life, which can be filled by any blessing.

•Maintain a constant intention of energy on your goal, no matter what your outer occupation may be. This paves a clear highway of success.

•Embrace the necessary commitments of the day with excellence and enthusiasm. This produces the condition of perpetual success.

Gentle is the hand that guides my way

Though I sometimes strike against it.

Patient is the heart that teaches me

Though I have cried at the cruelty

That turned out to be my own

Revisited upon me by my own contract and my own command.