How do I gain power over my mind?

Keep in mind ever the importance of thought—the power it has to contribute or to take away.

Thought is the background and basis of all action. That is why the physical mind needs to be strictly looked after. 

But carry this on to a further stage—that of creating the garment of the soul, which it does in a literal sense and figurative sense. 

You must try to visualise thought as something quite definite, not as an intellectual quality only.

Thought has form and colour and individuality, so much so, that once the physical body is discarded, it is, for the want of a better word, materialised into the next body in which the spirit carries on its evolution. 

There you see what an important part thought plays. 

Thought is materialised in form, in colour, and in individuality—therefore, the next citadel of the spirit is being built every minute and every day of your existence.

Beauty of any kind is at once shown in the new body.

On the other hand, the thoughts of self and the darkness of the physical mind are also portrayed in all its sadness. 

It is as though a beautiful scheme of things had gone wrong at a crucial point thus marring its perfection. 

That is often so, and when the stranger sees what represents the marring, he is grief-stricken indeed. It is not a matter for over-anxiety, however, because once it is seen where the weak part lies that can soon be built up by the owner because remembering all the other beauty produced, it means that he possesses a strong will and has overcome much. 

That is rather a hard thought for you to take in, but you must remember that I am speaking of the covering of the spirit and not the spirit itself.

Just as you would imagine, the bodies assumed after the earth body can be quickly changed and changed again, but each one bears and retains all the characteristics, which you associate with those you love. 

You must remember that the physical body you know so well was not created by physical birth alone—

Its individuality was perpetrated long before that, and that body is discarded when finished with, just as the previous bodies have been discarded and as future ones will be also. 

It is seldom that perfection is reached with any particular body.

As a rule, the occupier progresses to a certain extent, and then, before all the resources of that body are completely exhausted, another is assumed. 

There are no gaps or waiting spaces here. 

It is as though you on earth when a coat was getting worn, provided another before the old one fell to pieces. Another point is this—

How often it is forgotten on your side that action is subservient to thought.

The physical mind and the practical side of human nature assume an importance altogether beyond its merit. The world judges by action and not by thought, and so you on your side take this view almost entirely. 

Here everything is reversed. 

Action is recognised as only the outward and visible sign of thought and like all physical things is soon merged and forgotten in the past. 

The life of the thought behind the action however is much longer, but that life is not forever, otherwise it would be a very hopeless thing altogether. 

The life of that thought only lasts so long as is necessary for it to be either worked out by the spirit or merged into the spirit when it no longer has a separate existence. 

Until either one or other of these things happen that thought is as definite and separate as human beings are definite and separate from each other. There is no vagueness at all about them—they have their own individuality.

Thought then is one of the most beautiful or most dangerous things to indulge in, and it literally means that what each one sows has to be reaped in time with sorrow or joy—the choice remains open to all.

There are many thoughts of a trivial and entirely physical nature that really do not emanate from the person concerned at all—

They are the reflections from others either in your world or in the world just outside the earth plane. They have no roots at all and it is only when those thoughts are welcomed and voluntarily taken in by the individual that they become attached or personal. 

The mere fact that some thoughts are unwelcome or are distasteful shows that they are not your own thoughts at all and never can become your own thoughts unless you are very much off your guard.

I tell you this because so many people are troubled by thoughts, which are not of a spiritual character at all—almost the reverse it would seem. They are troubled by them and search through their own characters to find out what is in it that has attracted them—they cause sorrow often and distress always. 

These thoughts are but tests, which have to be endured to prove the metal of those so attacked. 

If the pure were never assailed by thoughts not wholly pure, they would be untried and, therefore, not in a position to claim their purity entirely as their own. 

It is the same with everything of a like nature—

The mere fact of possessing a quality in an advanced stage means that that quality has to be tested and retested over and over again to grow still stronger.

And it is only by using the antithesis of that quality that the test can be satisfactorily carried out.

I want you all to think over this and apply it generally. It is exactly the same with bad temper—or rather I should say good temper, and with patience, especially with patience. 

Could you see what patience looks like here, you would think that nothing less than equal beauty could come close to it. 

But how is patience gained? The answer is obvious to you all—it is gained by much vexation and much trying of that patience by others. 

In colour, it is lavender.

The Zodiac Messages—New Revelation—Volume IV—July - December 1925—Extract From the Effect of Thought—32