Question from G: Q’uo, within this illusion, even with our most certain of hunches, I feel we are doing guesswork in the darkness. I may be fooling myself, but, based upon my own study, some part of me feels that I am currently knee-deep in that phase, point or portion in the development of mystical consciousness known as The Purgative Way. 1 If this is so, is there anything that I could do to accelerate and successfully complete this stage of the journey so that I can more fully realize that which I desire?

(Carla channeling)

We are those known to you as the principle of Q’uo. Greetings in the love and in the light of the one infinite Creator. It is a blessing and privilege to be with you. We thank you for inviting us to join your circle of seeking. It does us a great honor and enables us to perform our humble service, just to share our thoughts.

As always, we would request that you be captain of that which you take in to think about. As the one known as G has noted recently, it is the wolf you feed that prospers. It is the thoughts that you think that create your reality. Think on those thoughts that have true resonance to you. You do not have to explain the resonance to yourself, but only to note it and to follow it. Equally, it is useless to attempt to become interested in a thought that does not resonate to you. No matter how interesting, it is not for you. Take what is good for you and blow the rest away, as the one known as Robbie 2 said.

The creation is, indeed, dark to those who have come through the gates of birth on planet Earth to enjoy a lifetime within the valley of the shadow of death. The veil between the local consciousness of your everyday mind and the universal consciousness of the deep mind is thick upon planet Earth. And a powerful, pure free will has been given by this Logos to your people.

Your experience, therefore, is carefully arranged that it may have all manner of shades of gray and seemingly inky black. Metaphysically speaking, to awaken the light within you is a challenge you take upon yourself in the dark.

The process which you have called The Purgative Way is intrinsic to the light, just as the light is intrinsic to the Dark Night of the Soul. Indeed, that process of spiritual evolution is a spiral; not simply a cycle but a spiral at which, at the same point in the spiral but higher, you enter the natural, intended, fruitful and challenging Dark Night. And well it is called the Dark Night of the Soul, for both the light and the dark parts of this spiral are designed to ready the spirit within to enter the gateway to intelligent infinity.

We therefore confirm your assumption that those who are new or feel that they are young upon the spiritual path do go through the Dark Night of the Soul. However, there are many witnesses throughout history who have written about the fact that the night will come again and again as long as you are incarnate in third density. This is not a function of punishment or judgment, but of your desire to progress spiritually.

One great resource for being skillful in your dealings with this state of mind, emotions and increasingly spirit is patience. We do not speak of the patience of one who endures. We do not speak of the patience of one who counts the seconds. We speak of the patience of a scientist fascinated with the growth of a flower, who sets himself to watch the flower every day from its bud until its bloom.

And then that scientist continues watching the flower, day after day, so that he may know precisely how it decays, how each petal falls away, how the calyx and the sepal crumble inward and the stem gradually withers until it is brown and dead.

And then that scientist continues watching the empty ground for an entire winter, every day watching and brooding over this miraculous flower, for he wants to know just how every bit of its miraculous life comes about.

And he is rewarded when the flower is pulled up through the soil by the weak March sun and is rained upon by the sweet rains of April and May, until once more its stem is green and strong, its sepals and calyx are firm and out-thrusting, and the bud begins to grow from its nest to burst into bloom once again.

The scientist is not satisfied with one revolution of the cycle. He watches again and again, year upon year, lost in the wonder of every detail, drunk upon the beauty of something so rare and so freely given. This is the patience we recommend.

Another great resource when going through The Purgative Way is a lack of pity for the self. Do not move into that space where you are aware of being bothered and suffering. We do not know how to say this in words but there is glory in the furnace that tempers the soul. If you can find the courage and the fearlessness to thank the furnace for this discomfort, then the fire shall not burn you but shall be your friend, your brother, and your sister.

Another great resource for one who moves through darkness and pain is a sense of humor, or a wider viewpoint that sees the lightness of heavy situations. When a seeker can laugh at the peculiarities of his suffering and embrace them instead of expressing jobations 3 and complaints, that seeker is tuning himself as a musician tunes his instrument or a singer vocalizes before a performance.

Your mind is very plastic and subject to infinite confusion and self-deceit. You do not mean to deceive yourself. We understand that it is involuntary and unintended, but every assumption, every cultural truism, every authority, everything in fact that is not coming to you at this moment needs to fade away from the spiritual seeker.

Certainly meditation, contemplation and all of the rich array of mind tuning techniques can help you. But sometimes the best resource is a good laugh and a realization that not only are you an object of ridicule, silly, wrong-headed and erroneous, but that that is fine; that is funny; that is the human condition. Feel the judgment and the tension fade away.

When you do realize at last the beauty of this completely rounded life you live spiritually, dark side, light side, dark side, light side, then every turn of the spiral helps you to rewire yourself.

In some ways, this rewiring is useful in this incarnation. In other ways, the heart of its use is the moment when you have shifted from this earthly valley of the shadow of death through the gateway of intelligent infinity for one final time into larger life, at which time, these heart-felt, sincerely offered devotions of serving through the dark times with faith shall have created for you your next location in time and space.

For those who take this purgative way and allow it to shape them, it will certainly result in your graduation. And the fruit of your being shall be delicious to the Creator as you pour out to this source and ending all that you have felt and thought, everything at which you have laughed, and all of those experiences in which you sobbed and wept and despaired. Even your angers, your jealousies, your lust, your greed, and every vice has its information for the Creator.

Allow yourself to rest in the knowledge that, although there are certainly better and less fortunate ways to serve the infinite Creator, as far as being polarized in service to others, even your worst mistake is a gift to the one Creator, adding to Its knowledge of who It is.

As this instrument would say, you cannot go wrong. All that you do is a service to the one infinite Creator and it will be your gift to that Creator, not only in this moment but in the moment of your entry into a larger life, when that personality that you are is released from its stricture and falls away, as the husk falls away from the corn which is then ready to eat.

You shall be ripe and you shall be gathered: not the husk, not the body, not the personality, not the details, but the feelings that were authentic, the services that were given with a whole heart, the intentions that you created and nurtured and polished. Whether you were able to fulfill them completely or whether they remained things of beauty to you for which you strove is unimportant metaphysically.

It is not the goal of the seeker who wishes to be skillful and effectual in his process to accelerate the Dark Night of the Soul any more than it is appropriate for a skillful seeker to attempt to lengthen summer breezes and the good times, the mountain-top experiences and those moments of joy that know no bounds. Rather, we would encourage you to allow yourself to be as even with your process as if all states of emotion were alike to you.

Rejoice equally in the daylight and its bloom and the darkness and its time of maximum chaos, disintegration and eventual fertility, for these things that are broken down within yourself become the fertilizer and soil which allow the seeds of new life and new growth to grow strong and healthy and reach for the sunlight when the day does dawn.

And, my brother, the day always dawns.

We realize that one of the things that is most challenging about The Purgative Way is the chaos and confusion that you experience sitting in the dark, hoping that your ways of dealing with spiritual pain are wise. However, it is helpful to remember that there is an instinctual side to your nature which will stand you in far better stead than that which you know.

This instrument will give a talk in the days to come on the keys to unknowing. 4 My brother, take those keys, stand on your two feet and know that you do not know anything in terms of spirituality. What you receive instead of knowing things is what the Greeks called gnosis. That is the knowing that comes from the heart, from its insight and its intuition and the whispers of the wind of spirit.

As your tuning song said, listen to the winds of spirit. 5 The ceaseless, restive, ever-moving energies of spirit shall nudge you in ways you know not, if you but ask—and ask every day and every hour. “Use me, spirit, I am yours, this day, this moment, I am yours.”

In the heart of darkness there lies a blessed comfort. You can always ask for the Creator to express Its love, to give you a metaphysical hug. Ask and you shall be answered.

We also would encourage you to seek that comfort that is not of this world nor of the mind nor of the senses, but that lies so deep within your heart that is the very nature of your being. Your exploration is inner and when you penetrate the very heart of darkness, it bursts into light, for the Creator is at the heart of all things.

Lastly we would recommend the resource of fearlessness. The Purgative Way is one way of saying that things are being purged from you. The human personality wonders, “How much more can I lose before I am no longer myself?” In all humility, my brother, let that self go. For you truly wish to change, to deepen, and to become an ever more fit vessel for the love and the light of the one infinite Creator.

The Dark Night of the Soul is house-cleaning time for the temple of your body and your mind. You are reforming the way that you think about yourself, the way that you see and view yourself. You are moving from the little “I” of ego to the I AM that is the one infinite Creator.

We have said through this instrument many times that the essence of the faith is that all is well. And all shall be well. When you feel lost, try saying those words to yourself and see how the tuning effect of such reminders brings you to a state of remembrance of who you are and why you are here.

We are those of the principle of Q’uo, and would ask if the one known as G has any questions to follow up with?

Yes, I often have massive, instantaneous, knee-jerk resistance to my girlfriend’s daughter, without seeming provocation, and at times to my girlfriend herself. I desire greatly to proactively feel love for them rather than react in unconsciously created and sustained resistance, yet no attempt to get to the source and the mechanism of this resistance has borne fruit. My question for you is: Would you be able to direct me to the portion of my psyche responsible for this experience and then would you offer me any counsel as to how I may understand and heal this handicap?

We are those of the principle of Q’uo, and are aware of your query. As perhaps you may have surmised, there is much that we cannot say about something that is so centrally a part of your process at this time, for we cannot do the learning for you. To do so would not benefit either you or ourselves, for you would not truly learn to see through this catalyst and we would lose polarity by infringing upon your free will.

We can talk about the general principles involved in relationships. Some portions of relationships are based upon the difference between yourself and another person, such as the difference in age or the difference in sex. You are older than O. You are a different sex than the ones known as V and O.

It is difficult to look straight into mirrors that are distorted. Mirrors that come across the earthly boundaries of that which you see as gender and age distort the image, as though you were in a fun house with its crazy mirrors and corridors. Other portions of reactions to people can be as shallow as a trick or quirk of the voice or the shallowness of the personality you are watching in certain areas.

But the deeper portions of responses to people often have to do with your being involved with them in other incarnations, in which relationships with them play a powerful part in this incarnational experience. Whether or not your karma with them is balanced or unbalanced, the more you become involved with entities that penetrate the outer shell of personality, the more those energies that have spoken through the ages in other incarnations to yourself begin to speak again, ever more resonantly with ever more good information, good catalyst, good grist for the mill to offer you.

And deepest of all, my brother, you are gazing at yourself. Those things which irritate or upset you or cause you to have a bad chemical reaction to another are those things which characterize a part of your shadow self. As always, the work that you truly do is upon yourself. When you are aggravated or have this bad chemistry, when you have the time, whether close to the event or later in remembrance, sit with that feeling and ask it for the wisdom that lies in its folds.

You may need to be very patient, for the forces of darkness do not like the seeker who is patient with his pain and confusion, for they know that it is to those who are prepared to bide with themselves through thick and thin, believing in themselves and yet asking, “How can I learn? How can I be more when faced with daunting feelings?” that the light shall dawn ever quicker. And meanwhile your faith has made a flame that the darkness cannot put out.

We apologize that we cannot get close to, shall we say, earthly advice, but this is indeed an important, ongoing part of your spiritual seeking and thusly we leave you to it with our encouragement, faith and support.

We are those of Q’uo. May we ask if there is another question, my brother?

For the seeker yearning to experience mystical unity, what role does the ability to concentrate for an extended period of time play? Is it critical? And what can I do to further develop this faculty?

We are those of Q’uo, and are aware of your query. My brother, you are already doing one exercise that promotes focus and that is your practice of watching your breath. That in itself is a focusing activity. The practice of the disciplines of the magical personality, as this instrument would call them, are very helpful to one who wishes mechanically to increase concentration abilities. The visualization, for instance, of one shape and color, can be useful. This is a technique of the so-called magical way.

If you can hold the image, for instance, of a green circle or a blue rectangle or a yellow pyramid or a rose for fifteen seconds one day, and if you can repeat that for a week of days, then you may increase the time that you hold that visualization quite clearly in your mind’s eye as if it were just before you and commanding your attention. Eventually you will develop that faculty of the mind which is called focus.

It is indeed a useful and helpful practice, however you choose to do it, in that it disciplines the wayward attention. You are already aware of the amazing amount of distraction within the normal daily experience. You are perhaps aware also of the more subtle distractions that stem from the self and the self’s distortions. And you may not be aware of how those balancing dynamics of your Earth world—darkness and light—are ever at play within you. The darkness desires you to be dark, for it needs a heavy place to hide. The lightness invites you to soar, but it cannot lift your wings. Thusly, that focusing practice, however you wish to pursue it, is helpful and may bring you more and more into that state of recollection and remembrance of who you are and why you are here.

May we ask if there is a final query at this time, my brother? We are the principle of Q’uo.

I don’t have your traditional type of nightmares, exactly, but I do have three types of recurring dreams that occasionally haunt me and are, like nightmares, just plain terrifying. In one of the recurring themes, I am locked away in prison, my freedom and rights taken from me in what is a deeply, deeply horrible experience. Would you be able to help me unravel the symbolism to this dream so that I may understand what spiritual principles are being communicated to me about my situation within the incarnation?

We those of the principle of Q’uo, and are aware of your query, my brother. There are aspects of this dream about which we cannot offer comment, but in terms of spiritual principles, we may say that your opinion of your incarnation is not all good! And it is accurate, for are you not in a prison, waiting on the executioner’s block for the scythe of death to swish down? And meanwhile, are you not often uncomfortable, driven by the demands of the heavy chemical body and subject to countless irritations and distractions?

There is much more to this than that spiritual principle, but in general, dreams tell the dreamer what is on his deep mind, what is bothering him. They have to tell it in code. It cannot be straightforward. For truth is like a blinding light to one who is in darkness. They cannot open the door all the way, for you would go blind. Dreams crack the door and let in a little light, a little inkling.

We would suggest, my brother, that you begin a notebook, either on your computer or with a pad of paper and pen, and journal through an extended length of time about this one type of dream and, indeed, about the other two as well, building intelligence over a period of years, to find out the nuances and the intricacies. Dreams in a way are like a maze. When you reach the center, then the light dawns and you go, “Ah, okay, I see.” But until that point you are going up into and back from many blind alleys.

We are reluctant, my brothers, to leave such delightful company. Yet the energy of this instrument wanes and the energy of the group as well, and so we take our leave of this instrument and this group, leaving each, as always, in the love and the light, the peace and power of the One. We are the principle of Q’uo, and we leave you in love and light. Adonai. Adonai.


  1. This is an ancient term, used in the Christian church since medieval times, to denote the first of three states which the seeker undergoes. The other two are the “illuminative way,” and the “unitive way.” St. John of the Cross also calls this stage the Dark Night of the Soul. Gary describes it in his experience as being a stage before illumination takes place, characterized by higher confusion, conflict within, and renunciation of worldly desires. 

  2. Robbie Robertson, music CD titled Music for the Native Americans, from a song titled “Golden Feather,” © Robbie Robertson, all rights reserved. Part of the lyrics are:

    When you find what’s worth keeping With a breath of kindness Blow the rest away.

     
  3. A jobation is defined by www.dictionary.com as “A scolding; a tedious reproof.” 

  4. A transcript of that talk, offered at Mackinac Island August 11, 2007, and two others from the event are available in the www.llresearch.org library. 

  5. Lacy J. Dalton, from her CD, The Last Wild Place. The song is titled “Listen to the Wind,” © Lacy J. Dalton, all rights reserved. The lyrics, in part are:

    This old world’s wild; she won’t be tamed. The only thing you can trust is change. Listen to the wind—listen to the wind.