Here’s another one of those one-off contacts: Kasara of the Ora constellation, whatever that is. Laitos and Latuii chime in later on so I feel pretty good that this is a legitimate contact and that it arises in harmony with the general tenor of seeking in the Louisville circle at this time. Honestly, Kasara’s thesis – even the metaphor of the walking stick – is used by other Confederation contacts. However, it is a salient point always worth revisiting on the seeker’s path.

The mission of a seeker seems to be merely the pursuit of the goal, the promised land or mountaintop that will signify to her the attainment sought. But what does it mean to achieve that? Is the location or the state of awareness really distanced so severly from the seeker in the moment, or does the attainment stand in for so many different lessons learned, so many thresholds of consciousness crossed, so that perhaps the goal is simply a draw upon the seeker through these stages, and the journey is the whole point?

This is important to contemplate, I believe, in light of Kasara’s message, since we often wring our hands about the perfect model for seeking, the most helpful teachings or way of talking and thinking about them. I believe that’s the healthy way to regard religion, philosophy, ethics, moral precepts, etc. – as walking sticks on the path. They can be helpful; they can never do the walking for you.

I am with this instrument. I greet you in the love and the light of the infinite Creator. I have not previously spoken with this group but have been asked to do so, in the name of the Creator, by the chief teacher of your group, the brothers and sisters of Hatonn.

We are attempting to transmit our name to this instrument, as we have used it before in other groups, but this transmission is, of course, very difficult as this instrument does not know our name.

We are of the constellations of what you know as [Ora,] and we call ourselves [Kasara.] We would like to share with you a little story, my friends, that we offer to you this evening in the humble hope that we might spark a thought or two in your minds that may help you in some way.

Once, my friends, there was a mountaineer and this mountaineer was a wanderer and he wandered up hill and down, many the day and many the night spent he [in] loneliness and enjoying the beauties of his scenery and enduring the hardships of all weathers. This mountaineer had but one desire and that was to find the perfect walking stick. For it was his belief that with a stout stick at his side, he could climb the highest mountain, traverse the longest distance, and always, without fail, keep a sure footing.

For years he tried and tried to find the right stick. He whittled on sticks, he carved on sticks. He traded sticks with others. But somehow, they never seemed to fit his hand just right or to hold him up just right. And one day, after many years of trying to find the right stick, he got tired of looking for something to lean on and decided that if he did not need a roof over his head or walls between himself and the winter, shelter between himself and the rain or anything but a hat between himself and the summer sun, that perhaps he did not need any stick, either.

And once he had found that he had all he needed in himself, then and only then did he become the true wanderer. Then and only then did he become truly happy. Satisfied at last that his purpose was not that of another and his needs not that of another, but that he was complete within himself.

We realize that in your culture it is not acceptable for a man to walk for a living, to live of the land, to have no money, and we do not encourage you to do this. We speak to you allegorically, my friends. What we are encouraging you to do is to leave off looking for the right walking stick in life. You did not come into this world to lean on others, to lean on ideas, to lean on possessions or to lean on preconceived ethics.

You came into this world a perfect creature and that perfection was rapidly overlaid by a complex system of intellectual limitations which were placed upon you by others. You then carefully continued the work of your parents, believed what they told you in good faith, and for your lifetime have been trying in good faith to live according to the precepts of people and ideas and ethics and ways of being that have been taught to you. These are your walking sticks, and none of them fit, do they?

No one else’s ideas will carry you through, no one else’s ethics can make you feel right if something is wrong, or wrong if something is right to you. Why spend so much of your life confused because of what others think? They may have traded you a walking stick, but you don’t have to have it. You don’t have to have any!

It is written in your holy works, my friends, “My rod and my staff shall comfort thee.” Yes, my friends, even if you walk through the valley of death, you have a rod, you have a staff. You have the Creator within you; you are part of a perfection that is the Creator. And that part of you is the only walking stick you will ever need.

You cannot get in touch with that part of yourself by any outer means; you cannot, even though you think you might, get in touch with that part of yourself by intellectually understanding the means of meditation and service to others. What is a walking stick for, my friends? It is for the steep places. When you need comfort, know that that comfort exists within you. Even if you walk in the valley of death, the Creator is with you. His rod and his staff shall comfort you. Stand on your own two feet, my friends. And in your spiritual path remember that the way of the mountaineer is the true way. Walking, going, journeying, seeking, that is all that there is to living. The rest is illusion!

- Kasara via Rueckert: September 27, 1979