“Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a Sabbath of rest to the Lord” [– Exodus 31:15, Leviticus 23:3]
These six days are not twenty-four-hour periods of time.
They symbolize the psychological moment a definite subjective state is fixed.
These six days of work are subjective experiences, and consequently cannot be measured by sidereal time, for the real work of fixing a definite psychological state is done in consciousness.
The time spent in consciously defining yourself as that which you desire to be is the measure of these six days.
A change of consciousness is the work done in these six creative days; a psychological adjustment, which is measured not by sidereal time but by actual (subjective) accomplishment. Just as a life in retrospect is measured not by years but by the content of those years, so too is this psychological interval measured – not by the time spent in making the adjustment, but by the accomplishment of that interval.
The true meaning of six days of work (creation) is revealed in the mystery of the VAU, which is the sixth letter in the Hebrew alphabet, and the third letter in the divine name – JOD HE VAU HE.
As previously explained in the mystery of the name of Jehovah, VAU means to nail or join.
The creator is joined to his creation through feeling; and the time that it takes you to fix a definite feeling is the true measure of these six days of creation.
Mentally separating yourself from the objective world and attaching yourself through the secret of feeling to the subjective state is the function of the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, VAU, or the six days of work.
There is always an interval between the fixed impression, or subjective state, and the outward expression of that state.
The interval is called the Sabbath.
The Sabbath is the mental rest which follows the fixed psychological state; it is the result of your six days of work.
“The Sabbath was made for man” [Mark 2:27]. This mental rest which follows a successful conscious impregnation is the period of mental pregnancy; a period which is made for the purpose of incubating the manifestation.
It was made for the manifestation; the manifestation was not made for it.
Automatically you keep the Sabbath a day of rest – a period of mental rest – if you succeed in accomplishing your six days of work.
There can be no Sabbath, no seventh day, no period of mental rest, until the six days are over – until the psychological adjustment is accomplished and the mental impression is fully made.
Man is warned that if he fails to keep the Sabbath, if he fails to enter into the rest of God he will also fail to receive the promise – he will fail to realize his desires.
The reason for this is simple and obvious. There can be no mental rest until a conscious impression is made.
If a man fails to fully impress upon himself the fact that he now has that which heretofore he desired to possess, he will continue to desire it, and therefore he will not be mentally at rest or satisfied.
If, on the other hand, he succeeds in making this conscious adjustment so that upon emerging from the period of silence or his subjective six days of work, he knows by his feeling that he has the thing desired, then he automatically enters the Sabbath or the period of mental rest.
Pregnancy follows impregnation. Man does not continue desiring that which he has already acquired. The Sabbath can be kept as a day of rest only after man succeeds in becoming conscious of being that which before entering the silence he desired to be.
The Sabbath is the result of the six days of work. The man who knows the true meaning of these six work days realizes that the observance of one day of the week as a day of physical quietness is not keeping the Sabbath.
The peace and the quiet of the Sabbath can be experienced only when man has succeeded in becoming conscious of being that which he desires to be. If he fails to make this conscious impression he has missed the mark; he has sinned, for to sin is to miss the mark – to fail to achieve one’s objective; a state in which there is no peace of mind.
“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin” [John 15:22]. If man had not been presented with an ideal state toward which to aim, a state to be desired and acquired, he would have been satisfied with his lot in life and would never have known sin.
Now that man knows that his capacities are infinite, knows that by working six days or by making a psychological adjustment he can realize his desires, he will not be satisfied until he achieves his every objective.
He will, with the true knowledge of these six workdays, define his objective and set about becoming conscious of being it.
When this conscious impression is made it is automatically followed by a period of mental rest, a period the mystic calls the Sabbath, an interval in which the conscious impression will be gestated and physically expressed.
The word will be made flesh. But that is not the end!
The Sabbath or rest which will be broken by the embodiment of the idea will sooner or later give way to another six days of work as man defines another objective and begins anew the act of defining himself as that which he desires to be.
Man has been stirred out of his sleep through the medium of desire, and can find no rest until he realizes his desire.
But before he can enter into the rest of God, or keep the Sabbath, before he can walk unafraid and at peace, he must become a good spiritual marksman and learn the secret of hitting the mark or working six days – the secret by which he lets go the objective state and adjusts himself to the subjective.
This secret was revealed in the divine name Jehovah, and again in the story of Isaac blessing his son Jacob. If man will apply the formula as it is revealed on these Bible dramas he will hit a spiritual bull’s eye every time, for he will know that the mental rest or Sabbath is entered only as he succeeds in making a psychological adjustment.
The story of the crucifixion beautifully dramatizes these six days (psychological period) and the seventh day of rest.
It is recorded that it was the custom of the Jews to have someone released from prison at the feast of the Passover; and that they were given the choice of having released unto them either Barabbas the robber, or Jesus the savior. And they cried, “Release Barabbas” [John 18:40]. Whereupon Barabbas was released and Jesus was crucified.
It is further recorded that Jesus the Savior was crucified on the sixth day, entombed or buried on the seventh, and resurrected on the first day.
The savior in your case is that which would save you from that which you are not conscious of being, while Barabbas the thief is your present conception of yourself which robs you of that which you would like to be.
In defining your savior you define that which you would save you and not how you would be saved.
Your savior or desire has ways ye know not of; his ways are past finding out [Romans 11:33].
Every problem reveals its own solution. If you were imprisoned you would automatically desire to be free. Freedom, then, is the thing that would save you. It is your savior.
Having discovered your savior the next step in this great drama of the resurrection is to release Barabbas, the robber – your present concept of yourself – and to crucify your savior, or fix the consciousness of being or having that which would save you.
Barabbas represents your present problem. Your savior is that which would free you from this problem. You release Barabbas by taking your attention away from your problem – away from your sense of limitation – for it robs you of the freedom that you seek. And you crucify your savior by fixing a definite psychological state by feeling that you are free from the limitation of the past.
You deny the evidence of the senses and begin to feel subjectively the joy of being free. You feel this state of freedom to be so real that you too cry out, “I am free!” – “It is finished” [John 19:30].
The fixing of this subjective state – the crucifixion – takes place on the sixth day. Before the sun sets on this day you must have completed the fixation by feeling – “It is so” – “It is finished.”
The subjective knowing is followed by the Sabbath or mental rest. You will be as one buried or entombed for you will know that no matter how mountainous the barriers, how impassable the walls appear to be, your crucified and buried savior (your present subjective fixation) will resurrect himself.
By keeping the Sabbath a period of mental rest, by assuming the attitude of mind that would be yours if you were already visibly expressing this freedom, you will receive the promise of the Lord, for the Word will be made flesh – the subjective fixation will embody itself. “And God did rest the seventh day from all His works” [Hebrews 4:4].
Your consciousness is God resting in the knowledge that – “It is well” – “It is finished.” And your objective senses shall confirm that it is so for the day shall reveal it.