Daily Meditation: Thursday, April 24, 2003

We cannot help but observe every day, in all that happens …

04/24/2003

We cannot help but observe every day, in all that happens and in the way people behave, how difficult it is to distinguish between good and evil. We try in vain to see where one begins and the other ends, because they are inextricably mingled. Hermes Trismegistus says in the Emerald Tablet, 'You will separate the subtle from the gross with great industry.' This alchemical precept naturally applies to the problem of good (the subtle) and evil (the gross). If it is difficult to separate them, it is because they feed on one another. Evil clings to good in order to draw on its forces. In the same way, good clings to evil in order to feed off it. We can allow the good to nourish itself with evil because good transforms evil; but we must prevent evil from feeding off good. Plants have the right to draw elements from the earth on which they grow, because in doing so they obey the laws of creation and life, but the earth does not have the right to extract forces from plants.