Listen to a recording of this dictation (subscribers only)

Ascended Master Saint Germain through Kim Michaels, January 2, 2019.

I AM the Ascended Master Saint Germain, and it is my great joy to give you this first installment in the levels of initiation that you go through under me in my retreat, which has been called the Cave of Symbols. Let me begin by talking about this retreat.

You may be familiar with previous ascended master dispensations and teachings that talk about this retreat in more detail. You may have seen pictures of how there is supposedly great halls that have various occult or esoteric symbols that supposedly have some special significance. If you know these symbols, you will be able to precipitate anything you want. This, of course, is a teaching that was given for a lower level of consciousness than the teachings we are giving today. Therefore, we had to appeal to what people wanted at that level of consciousness. The previous Chohans have done everything they could to help you rise above that level of consciousness so you are now ready for a higher teaching.

The true meaning of symbols

What does it truly mean that my retreat is the cave of “symbols?” Well, in order to understand this, let me reach back to something that was taught by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato quite a number of years ago. Plato said that beyond the physical, material world there is a higher realm, a realm of what he called “ideal forms.” These ideal forms could also be said to be symbols. It was the interaction of these ideal forms in the higher world that determined what would be manifest in the physical realm and what form things would take here in the physical realm. This is a more accurate description of the Cave of Symbols but we can, of course, go further today.

We have given you teachings that you have a physical body but beyond that you have an emotional, mental and identity body. How do you co-create? Well, we have taught you that you receive light and energy from your I AM Presence. As this energy passes through the three higher bodies, it takes on the forms of whatever structures, images, symbols, forms you have in those three higher bodies. This is truly a representation of the co-creative process.

What Plato called the “world of ideal forms” was to some degree the spiritual realm, the ascended realm, but it could also very well be said to be your three higher bodies. You have certain forms in the three higher bodies. In your three higher bodies you may indeed have certain forms that are more ideal, more pure, more elaborate, more detailed than what is actually manifest in the physical realm. The reality is that most people have a certain ideal form, ideal image, ideal symbol in their three higher bodies. The question now becomes: “Why can they not manifest that in the physical realm?”

People with a self-centered vision

You will know, when you look at humankind, that people are at many, many different levels of consciousness. The majority of human beings on this earth are at a much lower level than the consciousness you are at when you start this course [This book], at least if you have followed the instructions by the other six Chohans. You will look at many people on earth and you can see that what they actually have in their three higher bodies is not necessarily what Plato would call an ideal form. They have a very limited vision, they have some very distorted images and ideas. Nevertheless, you will see that most people actually have higher forms in their three higher bodies than what is manifest in the physical, material realm, at least in their personal lives.

The question becomes: “What is it that prevents people from manifesting the forms they have in their higher bodies at the physical level?” This is a question that could be said to be as relevant for a person with the lowest level of consciousness as for an ascended master student at your level of consciousness. Now of course, if you go to the very lowest level of consciousness, you will see that there are actually some people there who are able to manifest something in the physical that is very close to the forms they have in their three higher bodies. Unfortunately, what they have in their three higher bodies is very, very low, very distorted forms, very impure. You can actually see some people at a low level of consciousness who have a certain higher vision, for example, a king who wants to manifest a certain palace. He may be able to envision this palace and he may actually be able to bring into physical manifestation something that is very close to what he is envisioning. Unfortunately, this is, of course, an entirely self-centered vision. In order to actually build that palace, it requires the slave labor of tens of thousands of people.

You see here that there are some people who are able to formulate a vision in their three higher bodies and bring it into physical manifestation. It may not be a destructive vision. You cannot say that some of these elaborate palaces, that you find in most nations in the world, are necessarily ugly or distorted. Some of them can be quite beautiful from a certain earthly perspective. Nevertheless, when you see how they were actually brought about, you see that the people who originally envisioned these palaces did have a very low, very self-centered, very self-focused level of consciousness. In order to manifest their vision, it required the slave labor of tens of thousands of people.

You are seeing here that at a lower level of consciousness, you have some people that are actually capable of bringing forth a vision into physical manifestation, but, number one, the vision is self-centered and, number two, the way they bring it about is also self-centered.

How a golden age can be manifest

The question now becomes for you as an ascended master student: “Is this what you want to accomplish?” Are you somehow thinking that by following this course, I will give you some secret formula, some secret symbol, that will allow you to manifest anything you desire? You see my beloved, at the first level of initiation in my retreat you are, of course, facing the combination of the First Ray of Will and Power with the Seventh Ray of Freedom. When you look at the history of humankind, you can see that there are actually people who have had a considerable momentum of will and power but they have been completely unbalanced when it comes to freedom. In other words, in order for the one king to manifest his will, he had to use his power to take away the freedom of tens of thousands of people in order to build that palace, that stone structure.

This, of course, is not what I am going to teach you in this course. I am in no way going to teach you how to use your willpower to override the free will of other people, whether it be one person or tens of thousands of people. Do you understand, my beloved, that we of the ascended masters, as we have now said many times, have absolute respect for free will? You may say from a certain perspective that it is my goal to manifest a Golden Age on earth. In that Golden Age no one will be lacking the basic necessities of life and no one will be suffering. Yes, that is my goal, my beloved, but how can I accomplish this goal? I do not envision that a Golden Age will be manifest by a limited number of powerful kings and emperors or other kinds of leaders who are having some vision but who are manifesting that vision by forcing, by manipulating, by overtaking the free will of their underlings. This is not how I envision the manifestation of my Golden Age.

Now, I know that you will say: “Well, this is obvious to me.” Is it equally obvious to you that I do not intend to manifest the Golden Age by having a limited number of spiritual people, who may have a benign intent, override the will of the majority of the population? We have talked about the top 10 percent, the 80 percent of the population in the middle and the 10 percent that are the bottom. Naturally, the fallen beings in embodiment and those whose minds are taken over by the fallen consciousness, form the lowest 10 percent. They are very often using force to bend the will of the 80 percent of the population to their schemes. There are ascended master students who have thought that being part of the top 10 percent means that you are supposed to bend the will of the 80 percent, based on your higher vision and your higher intent.

We have attempted to make something very clear to you, especially by the teachings we have given on the primal self, the avatars coming to earth and how you can fulfill your Divine plan, fulfill your highest spiritual potential. We have attempted with these teachings to make it very clear that we do not want you to override or force the will of the majority. This is not how I intend to manifest my Golden Age. This means that at the end of this course, I will have taken you, if you follow my instructions and are willing to come up through these seven initiations, to the 96th level of consciousness.

The rest of this dictation, along with an invocation based on the dictation, is found in the book: The Mystical Initiations of Freedom