The Power of Words and their Meaning

The Power of Words and their Meaning

Sarah Murphy

Energy follows thought. Words carry thought. How does the energy behind the words we use make a difference?

This question has relevance for those of us doing triangles work, and who sound the Great Invocation regularly. The Great Invocation is a “word of power” which we can use to help inaugurate hasten the New Age. It is worthwhile considering the extent to which we are correctly using these words. We know that simply reciting them is not enough.

History can be our guide. With all respect to those who came before, we have evidence, in the Tibetan’s words, that they fell short in using the Invocation. In 1957, The Tibetan said that if it had been used as intended, the war could have been averted. He urged his students to make the sounding of the Great Invocation dynamic and with “affirmative will” to precipitate the release of energy that could have caused an “immediate defeat of the forces of aggression.”

How about us, today? Are we fully making use of the energy and intention behind the words we use? What would the Tibetan and the other Masters of the Wisdom say about our work with the Great Invocation? And more importantly, – because there is usually room for improvement – How can we do better?

People who study the Ageless Wisdom know that the Christ will reappear, in fact He is reappearing; they know that the New Age is dawning. The issue for us, gathered in this group, and more broadly, incarnated today, is more a question of timing: How can we rightly use the opportunity before us to do our part in the One Work as efficiently as possible?

Part of the answer can be informed by the idea we remember every Thursday when we meditate on the reappearance of the Christ. Esoteric students need the heart approach, as well as the mental approach, in order to make this meditation the powerful instrument which it can be. Energizing the Great Invocation with intention can bring more power to it, and give it more efficacy. We know that these are Words of Power, and as such, are an invocative demand. If we only sound the Great Invocation half-heartedly, we are not making the most of our opportunity and deprive it of its potential.

I think that this year even more than ever, we are called to step up our game. It’s 2025; we are the Hierarchy convenes this year, as it does on the 25th year of each century, to plan the next phase of unfolding for humanity. Perhaps we, disciples and aspirants on the physical plane, might rededicate ourselves to thoughtfully sounding the Great Invocation with deliberation and full commitment to its meaning at this auspicious time. Perhaps as well, we can re-energize each other and our fellow human beings, and do our part to move things along.

Energy follows thought; words embody thought. As a therapist, I see how our words really shape us. For example, negative self-talk is defeating because it is self-fulfilling. At a really basic level, it’s impossible to be cheerful when we are ruminating on what is wrong; it is impossible to be friendly when we are consumed by self doubt and an expectation of rejection; we can’t be calm if we are telling ourselves how anxious we are. Rooting out and repatterning these words that form the internal dialogue is one of the most change-producing aspects of therapy. When we change our inner dialogue, we begin to see things differently and change how we feel about them.

Of course, how we feel and think about things matters. I work mostly with people who have been diagnosed with cancer. Over the years, I have met some amazing people. One of them was Kathy, who lived with advanced ovarian cancer for 15 years, outliving her diagnosis by 10 years. She was one of the most positive people I have known, cheerfully facing her disease and the physical limitations it imposed. During the course of her illness, she fell in love and got married. She was a writer with a dream of being published, and she did get published, right before she passed away. She was determined to have what she called “a good death.” She was courageous and cheerful despite the fact that she was “living with dying,” as I call it.

Kathy had something that allowed her to “beat the odds”. Of course, some people with diagnoses like this understand that their productive time in this incarnation has come to an end, and they gracefully make their transition to the other side to continue their service and learning over there. But for the ones who do live long and even become disease-free, there seems to be a set of commonalities, and many hinge on how they think and feel.

Kelly Turner’s book, Radical Remission, documents the results of survey data to people who “beat the odds” and survived dire cancer diagnoses, laying out these commonalities. The first couple of these are not within the scope of practice of a mental health clinician. But most of these factors have a place in the therapy room. These involve releasing negative emotions and increasing positive ones; relying on our intuition and advocating for ourselves; embracing social support; having a strong reason to live; and enhancing our spirituality. It seems to me that these are helpful and healthy principles for everyone, for the collective.

Continuing with the thread of cancer, I’d like to share a quote that I came across years ago when I showed my students a video about epigenetics. While people are often looking for “the gene” that causes certain diseases, usually there is no one single gene at play. What’s more, not everyone who has the same gene or genetic mutation will get the disease. The epigenome is the protein covering outside the DNA strand that “turns on” or “turns off” the expression of a gene, and this is what the study – a cancer trial – was working on.

The researcher said something that I think of often. His approach was to coax a cell by working on its epigenome, saying, in a very gentle loving way:

“Hey, you are a human cell; you’re not supposed to act like this.”

Does the analogy that struck me, strike you? Because I often think of us as human cells in the body of God, I can imagine someone saying this to certain people or groups of people.

“Hey, you are a human; you’re not supposed to act like this.”

For those of us in the Arcane School, and those who study the Ancient Wisdom, we understand that the Seventh Ray is coming, and with it, cooperation, understanding, and a knowing that none of us is well if the least of us is suffering.

We know that the Christ has made His determination to reappear.

And even more to the practical point, we know that there is work to do, and that we are here to do it. As humanity is evolving, the hierarchy turns its attention to other work, and leaves to us, the living, the work of “impression and expression of certain great ideas” to form the backbone of Aquarian thought.

And just in case anyone wants to feel a little complacent, I would like to share a quote from Externalization of the Hierarchy, published in 1957:

“I said earlier that the war could have been averted from expression on the physical plane had the disciples and aspirants of the world measured up to their opportunity and responsibilities. The Great Invocation was rendered relatively powerless … those who used it turned it into a peace prayer. It was instead a great spiritually militant invocative demand. This must not happen with this Stanza of Invocation.” (EH, 250-251).

An earlier version of the Great Invocation includes these lines, speaking of love, will, and active aid:

Come forth, O Mighty One and blend these three.

Construct a great defending wall.

The rule of evil now must end.

The great defending wall is still being built, and obviously the rule of evil has not yet ended. We have consistently been admonished to make the sounding of the Great Invocation dynamic and with “affirmative will” to precipitate the release of energy that could have caused – and presumably still could cause – an “immediate defeat of the forces of aggression.”

I’ll close my talk with an invitation. Let’s rededicate ourselves – we, this group of thinkers, meditators, students – let's be dedicated to the great task remaining before us. Energy follows thought. Words carry thought. Let’s re-energize our use of the Great Invocation.