Copyright (C) 1999 by William Mistele.  All rights reserved. 

Note: I had to edit this article on line since my two versions of Works
didn't like each other and produced some odd characters in the script.  If
you notice something funny in a spelling, I missed it.

Meditations on the Salamander Aphtiph--Faith, Conviction, and
Absolute Power

Outline

Introduction
AphtiphFs Aura
On Internalizing AphtiphFs Qualities and Powers
The Cosmic Letter K
Four Points for Internalizing AphtiphFs Energy
Concluding Comments


Introduction

Aphtiph is one of the eight salamanders mentioned by Franz Bardon
in his book, The Practice of Magical Evocation.  The notes which
follow are not intended as a description of Aphtiph.  Instead, they
represent my thoughts after meditating on Aphtiph's energy and
will.  
     For me, Aphtiph's aura is an embodiment of the cosmic letter
K which Bardon describes in his third book, The Key to the True
Quabbalah.  The letter K, according to Bardon, is one of the 26 or
so cosmic energies which the Creator created the universe.  Inherent
in creation is a sovereignty and will which has the highest insight
into the meaning behind the world.  
    This will is extremely important because it unites in itself the
visible and the invisible, the manifest and the manifest.  In more
common terms, it is embodied in faith and conviction.  This is the
faith which transforms the world.  

Aphtiph's Outer Aura.  Aphtiph's aura is extremely
commanding, demanding, and controlling.  These qualities derive
from the intensity and the purity of the fire with which  Aphtiph
works.
     Aphtiph is similar in appearance to a human though perhaps a
little  more slender.  He is like a very sincere young man who
happens to hold the mysteries of fire within his hands.  If Aphtiph
were a human being, say a high school student, he would be
president of his class and voted most likely to succeed.  This would
not be because he is popular or appealing.  It would happen because
his sincerity has an astonishing effect on others.  
     Later on he would be elected the youngest person to ever
become a U.S. Senator. He has that kind of glow and promise about
him.  Even his enemies would admit forthright that his integrity is
without equal.  

Inner Aura.  Aphtiph perceives the energy within and behind
anything which exists.  He sees the form which is present but he is
naturally aware of what motivates and animates with life force and
spirit the thing he is perceiving. 

On Internalizing Aphtiph's Qualities and Powers

I think it is always important in evocation to emphasize that any
spirit of whatever rank is best utilized as a teacher who assists you
on your path to perfection.  The powers and abilities they possess
are meant to become your own.  A spirit can do a whole lot for you. 
But you will always be ten times further along on your path if you
can take a small part of that spirit's abilities and make them part of
your self
     The four points I mention latter on are a presentation of the
fundamental qualities which Aphtiph embodies.  But they are not
expressed with AphtiphFs words or his perspective.  Aphtiph
possesses a fierce, primordial, fiery energy on the astral and etheric
planes.  What I do is translate what that energy means in human
terms.
   Aphtiph does not need to talk about faith, conviction, or belief.
He embodies these energies.  For him, they are a pure form of
action.  There is no need for cognition or interpretation.  Faith and
conviction are inherent in the act of concentration and perception.  
     When you make a picture in your mind of what you want, the
act of concentrating on that picture makes it happen.  When you
look to see what courses of action you have open to you, you see an
entirely different world if you have the faith which believes that you
can accomplish whatever you need to do.  Faith creates results and
it finds things which otherwise remain hidden.

The Cosmic Letter K

The cosmic letter K is a silvery blue colored fiery energy.  It
represents the first light of manifestation. It is not the unmanifest
aspect of divinity.  That is found more in letters like SH, E, and U.  
   The K is also not the raw power and might of fire which is seen in
the letter S which is  your basic cosmic force.  The letter S is an
accumulation of fiery power. By contrast, the K is the light which
fire emits.  It is the first and highest illumination of light within the
visible spectrum.  
     Basically, the letter K represents authority over the manifested
aspect of creation.  It is the original principle of sovereignty, that is,
it is an aspect of the will of those agents who act purely on behalf
and out of complete union with Divine Providence.  
     Obviously, anyone who touches this aspect of fire and faith
should have a great sense of their humanity and possess a humility
which is equal to the power they wield.  Any power,  of course, is
easily abused.  Any human being with power can easily suffer from
an inflated ego and make the incredible mistake of imagining that
possessing power somehow makes you valuable.  
    Nonetheless, the cosmic letter K is everywhere around us. The
Fuller brush man who sells brushes door to door (one of whom
turned into Billy Grahm, the famous evangelist) or any salesman or
advertising agency works with the cosmic letter K.  Any lobbyist,
revolutionary, or reformerFs success depends on his ability to trade
and persuade on the basis of this energy.   
    Every prophet or evangelist is a salesman because they are trying
to take a vision and make it reality.  They ask for or demand a
change in your behavior.  And when they speak, they present
themselves as if there is nothing more important than the words they
have to share. 
    Lovers give their lives into each other's hands because the
partner makes them feel more important and valuable than anything
else in their life.  Lovers take possession of each other based on this
light--that there is nothing more profound or powerful in life than
the love they have to give with each other.
   The letter K, then, reveals the world as it is and as it is meant to
be.  Its degree of faith and conviction are without equal.  Its
endurance and persistence have no match.  And quite naturally,
based on its revolutionary and divine authority, it claims possession
of the world.  A prophet like Isaiah can proclaim that they will beat
their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks
not because God will intervene and make it happen.  This prophecy
will be fulfilled because a day will come when there are men and
women who have the love to accomplish this result. 
    When you meet individuals with authority reflecting the cosmic
letter K, you will notice they often have a negative version.  They
may challenge you to attain your highest  in life.  They may offer
you the greatest insight into who you are and what you will one day
be.  They may have the wealth of the earth and spirit to offer you
out of generosity. 
   But they can also be negative in that their demands serve selfish
purposes.  They use and manipulate you to serve their ends.  Their
insight is limited.  Their relationship to you involves too much
demand and command.  
   Every religion has it shadow.  Doctrines and ideas love to be
exclusive so that they can define themselves in opposition to
something else. In the history of Christianity, there are times when
we see an organization so thirsty for power it steals from its
practitioners their ability to seek and to experience God for
themselves.  At such times, it fails to offer individuals the tools they
need to attain inner union with divinity.  Deep down in its heart it
wants a monopoly and it is willing to annihilate its own sources of
inspiration in order to preserve control.  
     Faith is often mixed with other things like hate and fear.  Then it
is willing to torture others or demand that dissenters go into exile in
the exactly the same way that the Roman empire used to do to the
early Christians.  You do not need to listen to the content of
people's words to figure out what they are saying.
    I tell my kids when they watch various proponents of doctrines
on TV, tTurn off the sound and look at the face and gestures. 
Turn the sound on but only listen to the tones and qualities of the
voice.  What is the energy they are conveying?   Is it love or fear? 
Are they empowering you or trying to take power from you?v 
    In summary, the letter K--the image and power of absolute faith--
is a terrible energy when it presents itself in a negative way.  Like a
dictator or tyrant, it feels it has the right to torment and twist
othersF lives if that is what it needs to get what it wants.  I have
seen this again and again. But those who dream, desire, envision, or
who seek their destiny must decide if they will draw upon the
positive power of faith and conviction.  The letter K is the power of
divinity acting through a human being.  Even reality will negotiate in
good faith with what such an individual demands.

Four Points for Internalizing Aphtiph's Qualities

1.  Imagine faith and conviction on the highest conceivable level. 
They are part of a will which is perfect, complete, and absolute. 
This faith, conviction, and will belong to those who join themselves
to Divine Providence.
     Such an individual can say, "I embody the laws of the universe. 
My actions are an expression of their perfection, their beauty, their
harmony, and their authority."
     From the point of view of the salamander Aphtiph, every kind of
matter has a temperature at which it vaporizes and turns into a gas. 
Every molecule has a temperature at which its chemical bonds
dissolve and the different atoms separate from each other.  Every
kind of atom has a temperature at which nuclear forces binding the
protons and neutrons of the nucleus divide or fuse so that a different
element results or else the atom splits into subatomic particles.  
     The ability in fire to command derives from a heat so intense
that the forces binding matter dissolve.  The power of heat
supersedes and has command over all other laws of nature.  This
principle is absolute and effective throughout the entire universe.  
     Faith is built on this principle.  There is an intensity of
conviction which is so strong it dissolves every kind of obstacle.  This
is because its vibration is more primary and dominant than the energy
bonds and configurations in form, matter, or anything in manifestation.
     In other words, fire has a sensation within it which is very similar
to the energy within an individual with strong faith.  Aphtiph"s
aura has both--the sensation of intense heat which is at the same
pure faith.  But a candle burning in a church or temple is not
significant because of the intensity of heat present. It is the light
illuminating the darkness which symbolizes hope and the desires of
the heart.  
    Stars in the sky at night are just accumulations of cosmic dust and
gas which managed to reach a point of density where fusion occurs
and they ignite.  But every star has a spiritual component.  They are
focal points for the heart God.  They reveal aspects and qualities of
an infinite love.  It takes a big universe with a lot of stars to even
hint at the nature of omnipresent love. 
     There is, then, a basic connection between comprehending fire
and embodying faith.  When fire reaches a certain degree of heat, it
emits a light which illuminates the world and offers new life as does
the star we call our sun.  If you can imagine this fire and this degree
of heat so you feel perfectly one with it, then faith will be easy for
you.  If you can see the sun in the sky and feel that star burning
inside of yourself, then you are learning form the created universe
about who we really are.  
    The earth has been illuminated by the sun for four and a half
billion years and yet the sun goes on burning bright and strong.  It
has played its part in creating life on earth.  This fire and light are
within every one of us.  Each of us is meant to illuminate and
transform the world through love.  You can see this intense heat and
light in a star.  You can see this same intense heat and light in the
heart that loves.  There is no limit to its illumination.  Its inspiration
is inexhaustible.  
    The first point, then, is to imagine faith and conviction on the
highest conceivable level.  There have been men and women of
faith and conviction in history.  Their works have been astonishing
and they have enriched the human race.  Imagine you are inside of
these individuals and that you embody their faith.  But donFt stop
there. 
     Feel the beauty of the universe burning inside of you.  Become a
candle flame which in keeping watch during the night represents all
the love an individual feels for another who has departed.  And be a
star which has been saying to the human race since our beginning--
vAwake. Rise up and attain to your destiny.v Find this light inside
yourself so that you have the illumination to follow your path.

Personal Thoughts:  Faith is also something personal. It is
transmitted from one human being to another.  For this reason, it is
very helpful to do case studies of the lives of saints or of those who
have transformed themselves through faith.  It is great to sit down
and listen to someone tell their life story.  Because as you listen you
discover those moments when they exercised their faith, their
volition, and their conviction to become more than themselves.  
    My track coach in high school, the former Marine captain,
transmitted to me a conviction about getting the job done.  His
belief in what I could do empowered me to attain my highest.
Similarly, when I was handed the controls of an airplane at age
eleven and left to fly it for three hours, it conveyed to me the power
command.  Or, about the same age, during a night watch, my uncle
gave me the helm of his forty-five foot sailboat during an important
race.  For me, these were tremendous moments because another
placed his trust in me and offered me a taste of his deepest sense of
joy.
    All of which is to say that for me the highest conceivable faith
and conviction involves doing what you love to do.  It is kind of like
the first commandment, tLove God with all your heart, soul, mind,
and strength.v  This is impossible to do without internalizing in
yourself the absolute faith and conviction of the cosmic letter K.  In
other words,  absolute faith, conviction, power, and will are born
from out of love.
     My conservative Christian friends relish their Christian
community--they take great satisfaction in the way they have the
same beliefs, actions, and forms of worship. They love their
traditions.  They have developed a strong faith which has been
nourished by their community.
      But my Jewish friends point out that the Bible does not say,
"The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."  Instead, it says, "The
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."  The
point is that each had to seek God for himself and in his own way in
order to find Him.  If you are going to interact with the unmanifest
source of the manifest universe, you have to be not only pure and
devout but also original. If you interact with a Creator, it makes you
creative. It does not make you a slave. It definitely does not make
you feel weak and without power.  It does not make you a carbon
copy of other people or a clone of a teacher.

2.  This faith penetrates, contains, and illuminates whatever it
touches. It reveals the highest purposes of life and the source of
anotherFs being.  By virtue of its authority and light, it commands
and makes available the best resources of both the physical and the
spiritual world.  
    Again, as fire produces light, faith produces an inner illumination.  
This light of faith, like the light of stars whose rays reach the ends of
the universe, is so bright, so penetrating and commanding, nothing is
hidden from it. It grasps the totality--every aspect and facet--of what it
gazes upon.
     Without the highest faith and conviction, you can still have great
wisdom, enlightenment, knowledge, love, harmony, and peace.  Your life can
be rich and satisfying.  There is no question about this.
    But what the highest faith does is that it lays claim to the physical
world as its domain and sphere of action.  It is so furious and
intense, its purity so divine, that it fuses together matter and spirit so
that two domains can not be kept separate.  
    It takes a physical situation and offers not a higher but the highest
purpose and use for that situation. Or it takes a spiritual purpose
and, by virtue of a will which is normally beyond human reach, it
lays claim to the resources it needs so that purpose can fully
manifest. 
     In practical terms, whatever motivates someone, whatever instinct or
drive is behind their actions, this faith steps in and offers a more
powerful desire and a more commanding vision.  It does this because it
sees what is inside every human being.  It sees the reasons why people
have been created and it sees courses of action which no one else can
conceive.

Personal Thoughts.  I donFt suppose anyone goes out and learns to
see through the eyes of God or master the cosmic letter K on first
try.  You learn by seeing through everyoneFs eyes.  And you
develop your will step by step by mastering one problem or
challenge at a time.  If you are comfortable imagining what life is
like for other human beings and you feel you are in charge of your
life, it is not so difficult to learn to see through the eyes of various
spirits. 
   I often try to understand others by gazing at them through the
eyes of Ugolog, Cermiel, or the archangel Gabriel. These spirits
specialize in revealing the deep seated purposes, karma, and destiny
behind human incarnations.  
    There is this funny thing, though, about prophecy.  When an
elemental being or an archangel like Gabriel gives you a prophetic
vision of what shall be, they are really only showing you what is
possible.  For that vision to manifest, they expect you or the human
race to use a magical and divine will to bring it about.  
    At the same time, especially when you look at the lives of great
entrepreneurs and businessmen, what makes them so successful is
the level of faith and conviction they embody.  To their credit, they
have been unwavering in their determination and relentless in their
endurance.  On the other hand, many times they have taken a divine
principle of faith and applied it only to material ends.  
    They have failed to embody the divine light shining within
themselves.  They have failed to recreate the world through love.
They have failed to see that success is not just about prosperity but
about justice, peace, and equality.  They have made a home for
themselves in a hostile world but they have failed to make the world
into a home for all living beings. 
     Alice Bailey likes to talk about the sixth ray of devotion and
sacrifice.  It grants individuals incredible faith and determination to
pursue their cause.  They are willing to make great sacrifices for a
higher purpose.  But there is always something selfish behind what
they are doing.  
     For this reason, they like to commit to beliefs which make them
feel special and different from other human beings.  They like to
feel elite because they have tthe truthv which no one else has. They
are true believers.  This is a natural human response.      
    Con men love to play on the human need to feel special, to get in
on a "deal."  But eventually individuals make a transition.  Their
cause becomes more universal.  They no longer want to feel special
because of their beliefs or the advantages they have over other
people.  Instead, they want to feel the satisfaction which comes from
seeing the results of having taken on positions of responsibility
     When people use power to promote a cause which serves a
specific group of people, it is easy to lose the sense of  beauty and
justice which motivated them in beginning.  Are there
revolutionaries, men of great power, who are practical, pragmatic,
and effective who also celebrate in their hearts the sacredness of all
of life?  Are there those who fight with great will for a specific cause
who also seek to an equal extent to be fair to everyone with whom
they interact?  Can they honor not only their own life path and
religious instincts but all paths of life and the soul within every
human being?  
     I like CHibys, a spirit of the solar sphere, on this point. He says,
tPass through the heart of every kind of being, embrace the divine
light in every path of life, and then you will see the great harmony
which governs all of creation.v  

3.  Anything which manifests physically or which has presence as
spirit is under the control of this will because this will is the source
from which matter, spirit, space, and time derive.  This light, this
faith are the focal point through which the original purposes of
creation are revealed.  
   There is a power which moves without love. This power is
destructive. There is a power which moves with, for, and out of
love. This power is creative.
    To control is not to destroy, degrade, or reduce in value, not
when your will derives from the highest light of creation.  Ego is not
and can not be a part of such a will.  In this light, the only intent is
to bless, to fulfill, and to enrich life.  
    There was once a magical theory which stated that if you knew
something's magical name, you had power over that thing.  This
wasnFt an external way of knowing.  To know anotherFs magical
name meant that you were one with its sources of inspiration.  You
embodied the energies and elements which made it what it is--you
are everything which grants it life, health, beauty, and wholeness.  
    In this sense, nothing can resist your voice because you speak
from the core of the other's being. You represent all that they love
and cherish about themselves as well as their dreams.  True faith is
like that.  
    It neither sells a set of man made doctrines nor does it promote a
cause, philosophy, religion, or political agenda.  Its nature is to
reveal the highest purposes of creation because its eyes see with the
first light which brought life and the universe into being.  It
perceives the roots and history of any institution, karma, desire, or
agenda. It contains within itself every motivation.  
    For this reason, its presence bears the weight of fate and destiny
because it assumes total responsibility.  While maintaining order and
continuity, it also demands original creativity.  When it says, tGive
me what I need,v it is embodying a prayer which is both terrifyingly
pure and utterly sublime as it proclaims, tMay the work of Divine
Providence be fulfilled on earth.v
    
Personal Thoughts.  

Consider when others have tried to control your will, to exert an
influence over you, to command or bind you?  When has this been a
positive thing and when has it been negative?  What did they want
from you?  Did they want your money, your body, your emotions,
you beauty, your ability to work, your mind and skills?  Or did they
exercise a diabolical malice which wanted to posses and destroy
your will? Everything else was merely an means to attain this end.  
     Some of the most generous individuals I have every met have
been very devoutly religious.  But repressed sexuality is a sure thing
if your goal is to produce conditions leading to demonic malice. 
One evangelical preacher I knew, to put it as fairly as I can, wished
to rape the souls of those he who sought to save.  With more skill
than any Stephen King, he implanted terror, horror, and fear in the
souls of children.  He embodied the negative version of the cosmic
letter K.  His faith sought to destroy, to bind, and to blind rather
than to free, liberate, and empower to create. 
    The reason I can write about the letter K and feel comfortable
doing so is not because I have met individuals who embodied faith
in a positive way.  It is because I have met so many powerful
spiritual teachers whose mastery of faith and the ability to
materialize their goals was based on manipulating others.  Their
success has been a function of their ability to command othersF
wills.  
    Consequently, over the years, I have had to do a lot of
processing.  I have spent decades trying to comprehend this fire
which is absolute faith and will.  I have wanted to  place power and
will within a larger context so I can see precisely how they exist to
serve the greater purpose of love.  For me, power in every form
deserves respect.  Even the most negative exists to serve a purpose. 
It fills in to provide order and motivation until those who are subject
to it commit to a higher calling.   
     I have a ritual relating to Eralicarision, a spirit of 23 degrees in
Leo in the earthzone, under my essay on The Shadow in
Psychology and Magick.  Eralicarision summarizes the motivation of
a magician through the following words which one student of
Bardon called, the magicianFs prayer: 

"May the work I perform in training to be a magician serve the
highest light of Divine Providence.  May divine justice, fair play,
and harmony shine through and within all that I do.  May the words
I speak, the breath I breathe, the light in my eyes, and the love in my
heart transform the world around me.  May my path be anointed
with Divine beauty. 
    "May all who enter my life see divine peace reflected through me. 
May the truth of the universe, the mystery of creation, the light
which sustains and shines within every created being use me as its
servant.  May my will be so perfected that in the end there is no
distinction between the satisfaction of my desires and the work of
Divine Providence on earth."


4. The universe exists to celebrate love.  Power, will, faith, and
conviction serve this purpose. The ultimate and highest source of
power and will are found in the ability to join and be one with
anything.  Those who embrace the oneness of the universe have
access, if they so desire, to the creative, original, and sovereign
power of Divine Providence. 
     In review, my first point was to imagine the highest level of faith
and conviction.  In point two, we touched upon the original, first
light which reveals the highest purpose within and behind anything
which is manifest.  In point three, we saw the power to take charge
of and be held responsible for anything in manifestation.  
   It might seem from all of this that faith is goal oriented, that its
job is to get things done and to manifest its purposes.  But these effects
are secondary.
    In its essence, faith is a celebration of love.  It is the bird that
sings at dawn and the archangel who shouts for joy a the first
moment of creation.  It is the bliss that will forever ask lovers to
recreate themselves and the world through love. 
     It is the heart which knows that all of the universe, every galaxy,
every star, every planet, every evolution and being, is a part of its
love.  It is the soul who has found his or her way into the heart of
God and who now burns with those flames.  
    In truth, power is nothing at all but the ability to create, to make
something new, and to make life more beautiful, satisfying, and
fulfilling.  In the heart of faith, everything is sacred and holy.  Every
being, thing, and creature shines with inner light. The greatest
challenge to such faith is to endure the ecstasy of tasting this love
which knows itself to be a part of and within everything.  

Personal Thoughts.   I have run into this ecstasy several times, not
just here and now as I meditate with Aphtiph.  One of the stones in
a stone circle on Mull Island off Scotland has this energy--the
cosmic letter K.  When I placed my hand on that stone, I sensed a
cosmic level of will--a will which was complete and absolute. 
   But as I continued to meditate, the will and power vanished.  I was
left with an image in my mind of being joined to the sea of stars in the
sky.  Cosmic will and power are the same as feeling one with the universe
and this feeling is great ecstasy.  For a picture of
the stone circle on Mull Island (The picture of the stone circle is
under my section on the Gnome's Homepage).
   At another time when I was encouraging an earthzone spirit
named Zagriona to help me in publishing,  Zagriona found me a
muse.  This muse I perceive as a bird of terrifying beauty who flies
between the stars. 
   He will not give me his name until that day and that moment when
I find and enter the world from which he comes.  His aura and
presence celebrate this cosmic ecstasy.  And though all he ever does
is inspire me to write poetry, he embodies the highest will I will
every acquire.  For this muse, to write a poem is to recreate the
world through love.  The power of the archangels are bound into
the metaphors and sounds of the poem.  

Concluding Comments

The first spirit of the sphere of Mercury which Bardon lists,
Vehuiah, is perhaps the best representative in my experience of
absolute faith.  Vehuiah's power name is JHWH. The letter J in
that name embodies a sense of the oneness, the joining for the sake
of love and celebration of all beings whether physical or spiritual.
Actions, then, are intended to express the oneness, harmony,
beauty, magnificence, and lawful order of the universe. 
   The problem is that the manifestation of the will of these Mercury
spirits is so sacred and powerful it may at times cause great
destruction as a side effect.  You see, anything which opposes or
hinders their purposes from being fulfilled gets pushed aside or
annihilated. It is kind of like a laser beam of light or too much
sunlight--the light is so bright it burns away what it touches. 
   For Bardon, therefore, the sphere of Mercury is balanced by the
lunar sphere which offers an inner union with the harmony of the
universe, inner peace, serenity, and, above all, a sense of the
rhythmic seasons and cycles of nature and change.  There is a time
and a place for the highest purposes to manifest.  There is a
harmonious way to bring about peace.  And there is a way to
express the highest power and will with gentleness without
compromising the purpose it embodies.  
   Consequently, if you can keep absolute faith and will completely
positive, they turn enemies into friends.  They take the worst
conflicts of life and use them as an opportunity to offer spiritual
gifts.  They speak quietly, with a still, calm voice,  yet a voice that
contains thunder, the hurricane, the tsunami, and the earthquake
within it, that this is the time to rise up and walk in the light. 
     I suspect that if you were to ever meet those who embody the
highest conceivable faith and conviction, they will speak to you in a
gentle and tender voice.  Yet their words will rise from the core of
your being and embody the perfection of your ideals and dreams. 
Power gets things done.  It offers independence and freedom.  But
the highest power is always a celebration of love.

A Note on Chakras

The throat chakra often expresses faith, conviction, determination, 
commitment, and adaptability.  Some individuals are very
spontaneous.  They can catch an opportunity right in the moment as
it appears.  Other individuals know they can get something done
even when it seems impossible but it may take them a long time
before they figure out how to do it. 
   There are those whose minds are so clear thoughts never confuse
them.  They see what they want and they move toward it inspite of
massive amounts of confusion. And there are those who just have
the tough endurance which goes with making something happen. 
They stick to it because their passion and belief are relentless. 
    All of the above traits are characteristic of the strength and kind
of energy in the throat chakra.  But the throat chakra is balanced by
the lower, sexual chakra--the second chakra.  The second chakra is
more lunar.  It is where you have a natural sense of happiness, of
when something feels right,  of what works for you individually, and
of those things which are healing, renewing, and reviving.  
    When the second chakra is weaker than the throat chakra, the
creativity expressed through the throat chakra can be hit and miss. 
Sometimes it is there and sometimes isnFt.  The creativity, the
faith, conviction, or determination make the individual exhausted. 
Consequently,  creative people limit their creativity to very narrow
channels of expression.  
     If you balance the second chakra and the throat chakra, then you
can look on any experience with the same zest and inspiration. 
Anything you do can become an activity which is joyful, playful,
and new.  
    You can say then that if you are going to work with an absolute
faith--which is the throat chakra--you also need an equally strong
sense of attaining an inner peace with the universe.   If you are
going to speak with a voice which says with absolute certainty,
tThis is what shall be,v then you also need its counterpart. You
need is counterpart--that second chakra feeling of being one with all
things.