Being prepared for understanding William Arkle

I have derived tremendous spiritual nourishment from the writings of William Arkle. Indeed, over the past couple of years I have studied his available work with perhaps more detailed attention than I have ever given to anything.

http://williamarkle.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/william-arkle.html

Since there were multiple examples of synchronicity pointing me at Arkle dating from 1977, how did it take me so long to engage with his work? And would it have been better (better for me) if I had taken one of these opportunities and got to know Arkle personally before he died in 2000?

It is quite possible that in failing to get to know the man I have stunted my spiritual development irrevocably. But on the other hand, by Arkle's own scheme of understanding, this may have been an example of progress by trial and error, and learning from mistakes; such that eventually my understanding will be deeper than if I had known the man, and had absorbed his teaching more directly and easily.

In particular, it seems probable that I would not have been prepared for Arkle until very recently - and that I simply could not have understood his work at any time before I actually did.

Most obviously, I was not a Christian until 2008 and would have lacked that necessary context. But even more exactly, it was not until late in 2012 that I had clarified my Christian faith to the point of realizing that I believed Mormon Christianity specifically and fully.

Once that background was in place, I was ready to receive Arkle's teachings within that framework; so that I could benefit from his many detailed clarifications, but without becoming entangled by his 'errors'. For example, Arkle's proposals of multiple reincarnations as normal and necessary for Men, or of Angels being a separate creation from Man.

(I now interpret these as being Arkle's misinterpretations of genuine revelations that were actually related to pre-mortal spirit life, the voluntary status of incarnate mortal life, and the doctrine of multiple levels of post-mortal salvation.)

I hope the above interpretation is not just Pollyanna-ish, everything-is-always-for-the-best, wishful thinking - but that in this specific instance perhaps things really did work-out as-well-as (realistically, and given my own deficiencies) they could have done.

The psycho-spiritual groups we need, and which are provided, for raising our level of consciousness

Hope and courage may be sapped when an individual has worked-out what is going on in this world, has recognised God's plan for our salvation and progression towards divinity and begun to work toward it... and then finds himself (apparently) alone, isolated, without any visible means of support.

Yet, the difficulties of raising our level of consciousness, the obstacles in ourselves and from the world about us, are so great that the task is impossible to achieve alone. So, the seeker and striver cries in his heart: where is my Fellowship of the Ring? The answer is that although we are seldom part of any recognisable physical group of any significant size, strength and cohesion; we are indeed part of groups, indeed hierarchies of groups, at a spiritual and psychological level - can we but become aware of them.

 Because help and guidance are necessary, they are provided; but (as always) they can only be given if they are accepted, and they will only be given on condition of our own voluntary efforts - otherwise help and guidance would prevent, rather than assist, our education and growth. Thus, we will be put in touch with the most suitable group for our needs and our situation; and we will be shown the next step - and enabled to take it.

This help on condition of acceptance and effort can be termed Passive Help - and it is the main way that we are helped. Active Help is rare since it is only truly helpful when we lack responsibility or are unprepared and unable. We are never alone, never without supervision, never without fellowship - however, we are not prevented from making mistakes (from 'burning our fingers'), nor from experiencing their consequences; especially with respect to pride.

Pride is the major problem, so pride must recurrently be humbled - pride must again and again be brought to self-awareness with the possibility of repentance. Only when we get past the false interpretations of pride can we see through to our real selves in our true relation to God.

How may we recognise the main group to which we belong? Not by a common vocation nor by proximity or frequency of meeting; but by a particular Quality of Attitude - it is by this that we stimulate and inform each other by indirect, even roundabout, means - often through what may seem to be coincidences but are in fact communications. This we mutually recognise.

It is not easy it is not meant to be easy - but the potential to discover and work in these psycho-spiritual groups is always possible and unobviously pervasive.

Paraphrased from the chapter The Problems - in A Geography of Consciousness by William Arkle (1974)

You simply cannot do everything all of the time. Experiment and waste go together and lead to discovery

&ME "My cup runneth over" and I am concerned to catch the valuable life experience and not allow it to go to waste doing the wrong thing at the wrong time. There are so many possibilities to choose from in my creative play.

GOD You simply cannot do everything all of the time. Experiment and waste go together and lead to discovery, so don't become anxious about results. Try to enjoy the process itself which allows for lateral thinking and lateral diversions.

The new things are not found where you expect them to be. We can't live "new beginnings" without letting go of the "old beginnings" and allowing them to slip away. All that is really valuable will come back to you when it is needed. This is part of The Game of life which requires forgetting and letting go with good grace and a sense of non-importance of ones valuable Self.

Do not fear to waste your time and energy, you will never run out of them and the "Crisis" in the World is only solved by those who follow the best instincts of their Spiritual Nature. As these work out all together, so each one of you finds yourself holding and demonstrating a bit of the necessary jig-saw puzzle of life...

By William Arkle - written in the last few weeks of his life. 
http://www.billarkle.co.uk/prose/enjoytheprocess.html 

For as long back as I remember I have had frequent periods - usually in the afternoons, when I worried about wasting time worrying instead of getting on with ... something important.

I neither seem to enjoy the freedom of this time, nor yet actually 'do something useful' with it (such as what I ought to do, or might help other people) but witter and fritter.

There have been vast changes in my life across the decades - yet this characteristic endures.

So, the words of William Arkle, the final distillation of a lifetime of spiritual enquiry and insight, are something I find reassuring and inspiring. In particular, they encourage me not to make matters worse by adding futile and ineffectual worry to the situation.

It is even a genuine possibility that (up to a point) the waste of time is not - but some kind of deep preparation, or even growth - and that the busy efficient productive spells have been the real waste.

What is being communicated in William Arkle's paintings? Sunny optimism in the long-term

I recently posted four paintings done by William Arkle in (probably) the 1950s -

http://williamarkle.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/some-1950s-watercolours.html

These are strikingly simple, child-like and 'naïve' in style - apparently rather superficially and idealistically happy images in luminous colours... Many other, somewhat similar, examples can be found here:

http://www.billarkle.co.uk/greatgift/pictureseq/thumbs.html
http://shepton.org/page/the-paintings-of-william-arkle

So, what was Arkle getting-at by painting in this way?

First, we must acknowledge that what he did was deliberate - it was not because he couldn't paint in any other way. An engagement with his work, and knowledge of his biography, makes clear that he was an extremely tough thinker, and a practical man. He had the typical inner strength of a genius - and the confidence of a seer.

Plus - his vision of life was deep and profoundly true (in essence and outline).

So where is the horror and corruption of life? Why did he paint to exclude this - apparently as if he was a sunny optimist who was unaware of anything else?

The answer would seem to be that sunny optimism is the true-est and deepest attitude to life - to any life... in the long-term.

We ought to be simple optimists - but over a large timescale.

And we must not - as Arkle never did in his work - lose sight of the tiny and vital aspects of life. Arkle's paintings combine overall happy optimism in the long term - as often depicted by tranquil cosmic figures hovering over landscapes, or light emerging from things, places people - with little scenes of ordinary human life: people (sometimes tiny people) standing and sitting, holding hands, at work, walking, playing, on holiday, boating, eating and drinking...

Why no horror, pain, corruption? Because in the end is does not matter very much to those who choose to become divine friends of our Heavenly Parents. Sooner or later - but probably later - it is not negated but swallowed-up and put into perspective in the fulfilment and creativity of love. Suffering is subordinated to delight - this is what the pictures show.

What about 'other people'? The universe is set-up such that they are given what they want. But how if they want not to be with us? Well, would we prefer that they were forced?

Yes, but how if those we love are fooled, duped, misled into self-damnation. This is indeed tragedy - but in a universe presided over by a wholly Good creator, we know that this tragedy is expressed mostly in term of delay - not exclusion.

Arkle's paintings tell us that the powers of evil are simply wrong. They are mistaken about teir own power. They have much less power than they suppose - and that mainly to delay, confuse etc. but not to damn.

Their triumphs are fragile - even their own evil self-will is in constant peril of repentance...

Some 1950s watercolours

I got these from William Arkle's son Nick's open Facebook pages - I post them here so the images may not be lost to posterity.

Will, Providence and Winston Churchill

This exposition is edited and adapted from William Arkle's A Geography of Consciousness pages 213-4:


We sometimes consider the human will to be something like a show of psychological strength and virility. And providence or fate, therefore, may seem to be a product of mastery by some individual's will. But the true will works in a manner that is almost completely contrary to this idea. 

The true will achieves its purpose in harmony with every other will. This happens by the true will working behind the scenes, along with all other wills, at a level far behind the surface of things. 

The true will recognizes the value of all things, and aims to be harmless towards every form of life, by working quietly and patiently, and eventually bringing-together and arranging all the correct factors in the correct place and at the correct time.

So, by the time we observe the will at work in some way which seems providential, this is merely the endpoint of a vast and complex and extremely subtle arrangement of factors which have been coming-together over a long period of time. 

So subtle; that the appearance is one of a staggering multiplicity of coincidences, or a providential event of extraordinary improbability.

When we notice that a strong and able individual (a 'great man') appears in political life at a very critical time, we may say that 'the time produces the man'. This may partly be true; but in reality the necessary individual may be present at the critical time because the crisis and that individual's being were inseparably connected by that individual's true will from a long time previously. That individual's true will was able to foresee the confrontation of the forces which created the crisis.  

In effect, the true will of the great man designed-itself to be present as an individual person, exactly in order to be able to take part in the crisis which required it.

Winston Churchill is a case which comes to mind. 

**

Twelve steps on the path to escape alienation and evolve towards higher consciousness

Derived from A Geography of Consciousness by William Arkle (1974) - Chapter Six "Problems" pages 108-114

1. The difficulties of improving and increasing our level of consciousness are so many and so great that we cannot achieve this alone.

2. Therefore help and guidance are necessary; and will always be made available.

3. But we must use our own initiative if evolution of consciousness is to occur - because the process depends upon building our true-self (our soul) through experience.

4. When we express the strong resolution and desire to understand and enter-into the deeper meanings of life - then some agency will put us into touch with a suitable group to assist the process.

(By agency is meant a supernatural personal purposive entity - such as an angelic being or the Holy Ghost.)

5. Making contact with a suitable group may be regarded as destiny, or just random luck - but that doesn't matter either way.

6. Then we come to see the beginnings of the next step.

7. We must take the next step ourselves from our innermost and most-fundamental being; because what we are building is our own directive ability.

8. When we have taken that step, help will be given as needed - this may appear as serendipity, personal miracles, lucky breaks...

9. As a rule, active external help is restricted to situations for which we are not fully responsible, where we cannot cope or understand, or are unprepared or incapable.

10. External help therefore reinforces the primary goal - reinforces our will - it does not take over from it.

11. When we are on the path towards self-knowledge and higher consciousness, we will never be truly alone nor without supervision.

But supervision may allow us to 'burn our fingers', if this is a lesson we need to learn and this is the only or best way of learning it. For example, pride often needs painful experiences to expose and tame it.

12. As progress is made, our true-self and our short-comings, errors, and lapses become more obvious to us. Our self-evaluations become more accurate. For instance, the personality - often, mistakenly, prized and developed - is shown to be merely a means to an end.