The Power of a Glance - From The Book of Divine Magic
By Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov
Just as our ears enable us to hear sounds, our eyes enable us to see light, colours, and forms; like the ears, they are passive, receptive organs. But the eyes differ from the ears in that they can also be emissive and active; one can suggest, influence and command with a glance. For this reason, looks or glances fall into the category of gestures and, like other gestures, they have to be brought under control and educated so as to produce only beneficial effects.
The first rule is never to look at someone insistently, in an attempt to impose one's will on them; no one has the right to do this. But it is not good to look at people purely passively and without expression either; this can make them feel demagnetised, vampirised. Yes, vampirism can exist in the form of gestures, words and looks. In fact some people have cultivated it, consciously or unconsciously, so such a degree that they can drain away your last drop of vitality just by looking at you! I have often seen this. I don't like to meet the eyes of certain people because they paralyse my energies, feeling of listlessness comes over me and I cannot do anything for them. Whereas others give me something when they look at me; their glance is alive, and I can give them a great deal more, also.
You should try to observe yourself and pay attention to the expression of your eyes. Ask yourself, 'Am I giving or taking?' It is good to give and it is not a bad thing to take something in exchange. We feel like running away from someone who always takes, because he is like a thief, whereas we are drawn to someone who knows how to give and radiate, because this is the highest from of magic.
You must look at others with love, therefore, but without insistence, so as to leave them completely free. Don't try to force people to respond to your look and to manifest themselves according to your own wishes. If you project your will at someone in this way, he will feel it as a constraint and a violence; besides, nothing you can do will force him to open himself to you. He will remain unmoved by all your wiles. The secret of how to win over other people is to show a disinterested love which never attempts to take their hearts or souls by storm.
Astrologers will tell you that the kind of glance people have depends on the ruling planet in their chart. If it is the Moon, for instance, they will have a vague, dreamy look that shows that they are 'in the moon'. If their ruling planet is Mercury, their eyes pry into everything . . . sometimes even into your pockets! Those who are ruled by Venus have a languorous look and will try to attract you with 'the glad eye'! Mars will stare at you defiantly as though to say, 'Be careful, I'm quite willing to wrestle with you'! Jupiter folds you in a protective glance which means, 'Rely on me, I can help you; I know a lot of important people. I'll talk to them about you.' Saturn's gaze is full of suspicion; he looks at you distrustfully because he is always thinks you are going to do something to injure him. The gaze of the Sun, on the other hand, is frank and open and full of light.
How should we look at people? Not, at any rate, like Saturn, who looks at you suspiciously. You will say that you have to distrust everybody, otherwise you will be cheated and robbed. True, but if you are perpetually distrustful of others, you will create the same frame of mind in them and life will be unbearable.
More often than not, when human beings meet in the street or elsewhere, they look at each other with indifference, like strangers or even enemies. Unless they have any specific reason for attracting someone's attention, it does not occur to them to give others a look of kindness and light which might help them. And yet you all have the power to help those who are threatened by doubt, sorrow or despair and renew their courage, simply by the way you look at them. Wherever you go, in the streets or in trains and busses, you meet quantities of people whom you could help and encourage with a kind look and a positive thought. At the time, they will certainly not realize what you are doing to them, but their soul and the spiritual entities that inhabit them will welcome what you send them and their frame of mind will change for the better.
Sometimes you suddenly feel happy and joyful without understanding why. The explanation is very simple. Has it never happened that you have glimpsed someone in the street who struck you as being particularly attractive and to whom you sent a rapid thought or feeling of sincere affection? The person is question may not even have seen you, but they will have received the gift you sent them and will certainly feel enriched. Well, when you suddenly feel happy for no apparent reason, it is certainly because an inhabitant of the visible world has passed by and, in passing, has looked at you and sent a ray of love that has reached your heart.
Yes, there are many beings in the visible world to whom you are very dear and, when they meet you, they send you a loving glance. But you can also meet an enemy and, in this case, you will suddenly feel bruised and wounded. Everywhere in the world, crowds of people meet and mingle and exchange things. And it is the same in the invisible world: there, too, we are constantly in the midst of a multitude of beings; some send us beneficial currents and others harmful ones, and our state of mind can very often be explained by this. The power of a glance is immense; in fact, people sometimes actually fall ill because a being who does not love them whether in the visible or the invisible world has looked at them with malevolence.
You must be careful never to give anyone a black look. Human beings are constantly slaying each other with hostile looks. You should be thankful, in fact, that the laws on earth are less severe than those in the kingdom of God, for an inhabitant of the Kingdom of God who allowed himself to give even one hostile glance would immediately be expelled and sent to wander in the infernal regions. Surely we must all have been sent down on earth because we have aimed at least one black look at someone! The gates of Paradise have been closed to us and we have fallen into this place where these faults are committed every day. In fact, war is one of the consequences of the murderous looks human beings never stop sending each other.
When you approach others, you must do so with a glance of spiritual love, in imitation of the sun which looks at us and sends us vivifying waves every day. The sun is an image, the most beautiful, sublime image of God. We must put ourselves in the presence of God every day, so as to contemplate Him and try to catch His eye. A single glance from God is enough to transform us, something that we would be unable to forget for all eternity! This is why we must work for a long time so as to approach God and win a glance from Him.
The spiritual life begins with the education of the glance. Of course, in this context, the word 'glance' is symbolic, it expresses everything: a glance is a projection of forces, of energies which can be baneful or beneficial, tenebrous or luminous. Astrology has a proper understanding of this. In fact, if you study it you will see that the whole of astrology can be explained by it: one of the planets in your chart glances at another with animosity, and it is enough to create the difficult conditions from which you will have all the trouble in the world to extricate yourself. Yes, for the glances of the stars crystallize and solidify on the physical plane and, as the physical plane is extremely hard and durable, it is not easily changed.
If we want to counteract the negative influences of the planets, we must begin by learning to look at the whole of creation, at the stones, plants and stars, with benevolence. If we do that, Heaven itself will look on us with benevolence too, and only Heaven's glances of benevolence have the power to counteract all that we have received from our enemies on the physical, astral and mental planes in the course of all our incarnations.
A glance is the starting point of so many things in life! Love, hatred and accidents all begin with a glance. A man meets a woman, sends her a certain look and she falls in love with him; the succession of events that follow all stem from that initial glance. Similarly, he who sends someone a black look triggers disorders and conflict.
Study this question is your own family and social life, and you will see that a great many things depend on the way people look at each other. To know how to look at others is a science in itself: the influence that a glance can have on a person's destiny has never been sufficiently studied. And don't say that it is an unimportant detail. Everything is contained in a person's glance, for it is a synthesis of the whole being; also, it leaves its seal on everything it touches. You can only change your glance if you change your whole life, your whole way of thinking, feeling and behaving, for it is through a person's glance that his character and temperament manifest themselves, that his strengths and weaknesses effect people and objects and leave their mark on them. A glance of the greatest importance; astrology is not in error when it defines a person's horoscope as a synthesis of the glances the planets cast on him at the moment of his birth.
When you are angry with someone, your natural tendency will be to send him a black look. But be careful: you must never look at someone with hostility; in moments like that, it is better to close your eyes and transform the forces that are boiling up inside you. If you let them out in the form of a hostile glance, they will do all kinds of damage, without your realizing it and, in the end, will be turned against you.
Also, you must try not to look down for too long at a time, because this has the effect of linking you to the powers of the subterranean world. From time to time, look up at the sky, so as to detach yourselves from the lower realms. Of course, you must not spend your time looking up at the sky, either. On the other hand, if you are talking to someone and looking at him, it is not a good thing suddenly to lower your eyes to the ground. Also, when you want to see what someone beside you is doing, turn your head to look at him; don't be content to give him a sideways glance; this is a very bad habit; it is a sign that you are not frank. And, when you are talking to someone, never put your hand over your eyes, for this gesture erects a barrier between the outside world and the inner glance.
There will come a day when human beings will look at each other just as God looks at them. They will have no more evil thoughts for each other and every man will give free expression to his love by means of his eyes and his smile. A glance is the language of God. God and the Angels speak with their glances. No one in Heaven has time to stop and talk to you; the Angels move through space at dizzying speeds greater than the speed of light, but as they pass they send you a glance which, if you are conscious of it, you will remember for eternity, and which will heal, illuminate and save you. There is nothing in the world to compare with such a glance. This is the true language of Heaven.
In the future, human beings will speak to each other only with their eyes, for the mouth is not yet capable of expressing our subtlest feelings. Just imagine, for instance, that you went out into the street where you met hundreds of people, and that each one gave you a look full of purity, sincerity and light: you would have the impression that you had arrived in the Kingdom of Heaven. If you had been in a state of despair, you would immediately be healed and resuscitated by those glances brimming over with trust. This experience is enough to drive home to you the power of a glance. What a pity that the glances you have experienced so far have, more often than not, been glances that disturbed or wounded you.
And now, let's pause for a few moments and let each one of us endeavour to send a glance of light and love to every creature in the world.
Someone who has not leaned to master his glance cannot be enrolled in an Initiatic School. If you still unconsciously trigger negative forces every day, how can you expect the greatest secrets of Heaven to be revealed to you? True disciples of the Divine Science know how to send their glance and their greetings to all the luminous beings of the visible and invisible worlds. They know how to transmit their salutations to these beings, every day, and how to receive salutations from them in exchange; in this way, they feel themselves constantly stronger and more brightly illuminated.
