The stuff of illusion and imagination.

Card messages in the Illuminated position.

+ Manifestation

(imagination, vision, )

1. In the cycle of birth and death, every incarnation paints a picture for exploration with Maya, the stuff of illusion. The theater of life has these props which provide us with deus ex machina -(devices of the gods). Act from the god within and know you are playing with masks, artifice, and distortion. The attitude here is: “it is what it is.” Take everything at face value. Otherwise, your creations produce samsara – suffering.
   
2. Etheric matter is the stuff of manifestation. The essential elements of matter come together when the gravity of emotion is shaped by the mind into a blueprint; and then through action, into form. Holding a thought form will acquire the mass and bring something into reality. Be clear on what you think and how you feel about it. Aligning the two will get you what you desire.

 Quotations illustrating this concept…

• Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.  ~Albert Einstein
• Few people have the imagination for reality.  ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Reality leaves a lot to the imagination.  ~ John Lennon
• “Every great work, every great accomplishment, has been brought into manifestation through holding to the vision, and often just before the big achievement comes apparent failure and discouragement” – Francis Scovel Shinn

Card messages in the Shadow position.

– Illusion

(projection, )

1. When beset by illusion, we live in denial of what is and operate in a space that sets us apart. In extreme, one can assemble a life of dismal outcomes or glamorous expectations that result in isolation and ineffectiveness. What illusions are you holding and are they separating you from others or the goals you want to achieve?
2. Give up your illusions and see if you can form some new ones.

 Quotations illustrating this concept…

• Illusions commend themselves to us because they save us pain and allow us to enjoy pleasure instead.  We must therefore accept it without complaint when they sometimes collide with a bit of reality against which they are dashed to pieces. – Sigmund Freud
• Objectivity has about as much substance as the emperor’s new clothes. – Connie Miller
• “Illusion is the first of all pleasures.” – Oscar Wilde
• “It is our illusions that create the world” – Deider Cauwelaert

As Defined in the Michael Teaching

MAYA is a Sanskrit work meaning “illusion”. In modern parlance it might better be classified as hologram or virtual reality.  Seeming completely real to the senses, MAYA is the material of physical plane stage craft, like the painted curtains on a theatrical set design they provide an image which allows us to suspend disbelief and play along. MAYA is the stage and the setting upon which we exchange projections with each other.

Why might MAYA exist? From a spiritualist standpoint the answer can be winnowed down to one word: duality! And specifically the sense of separation: or self and other, is creates.  Duality forms the basis of all perception of the animal mind. I/thou or I/it as the philosophers have noted. The first recognizes an inherent similarity of uniqueness and right to exist as oneself. The second, when something is cast as an “it” the relationship is to a thing, and things are to be used, consumed, exploited, feared, and cast away. MAYA is both the mold and the quintessence reflecting the belief and attitude which fills it.

MAYA takes shape and substance in response to the gravity and magnetism of our thought forms. Some might recognize elements of the much noted “law of attraction” in this statement. But whether what is attracted is wanted or not, MAYA will form to the specifications: conscious or unconscious of those items we wish, demand, avoid, or deny. In the same way that steel forms many things: car parts, girders, airplanes, fixtures, tools of all sorts, what they have in common is the material they were derived from.

It allows us to test our experience and “create our own reality”; if not actually then at least metaphorically. MAYA is like being in deep water and your air tanks are filling your lungs with gases that make you delusional.  Immersed in the illusion that you are just fine when submerged one might actually be getting entangled in a kelp bed and is strangles by it.  Descriptions like these are not so far off base when one considers how often life presents a “drama” and we respond with theatrical posturing: our acted persona scripted from years of practice.  Much of what passes for interaction between people or between a person and their actual circumstances is like a movie being projected on a screen. Instead of actually being present, we sit back and watch as our sub-personalities march outward to the threshold and play out their parts as they always have.

In the Michael Teaching, a common statement is: “MAYA has taken you into the grips of Chief Feature (CF) and the negative poles of the Overleaves.” Within the context of Michael’s philosophical approach, MAYA is not wrong, but simply inevitable. It becomes an entanglement and illusion covering what is real and this draws a person into fear; and from fear the cascading effects of CF and Ego take over. Everyone becomes an “it” to fear, conquer, control, avoid, or use.  But seeing life and those within it as “thou” is to practice AGAPE or unconditional positive regard for all the people and creatures you encounter during life’s excursion.

Cultural Meaning

Don’t look too far to see how things have come to this point. Acceptance of the general paradigms of a culture, or religion, or group, or ideological affiliation is an abdication of our thinking and will. They create the reality we live in.  At any given moment, relenting to someone else’s power renders one at effect instead of at cause in their lives.

Modern media provides us many an illusion or meta narrative in presenting us staged images as icons which we should emulate or achieve. One might indeed think of advertising as the source of MAYA in every culture. But why is it so successful? Because we enjoy our illusions! They are what we default to when actual reality is not to our liking. They may act as a stop gap crutch to help us limp through a difficult passage. But when we forget that these illusions are merely temporary bolsters of our own imagination, and indeed they are shared by many, group think creates a kind of distortion and perhaps in the extreme negative an abomination.

Yet, we have all the tools and intelligence necessary to create amazing realities from our visions, if we hold to them and eliminate all that is not them.

by Stephen Cocconi © 2011

For a Tarot Session or Channeled Consultation call: 209.768-4956 or email Stephen at channeling@themichaelteaching.com