The Secret of Shekinah is the Secret of Focalization
from Shekinah Fire
Uranda
June 15, 1953
Carrying forward in the current of our
basic theme of Heavenly Magic, we have reached a point where our
attention has been introduced to the reality of the Shekinah fire. The original Hebrew word from which this word Shekinah was
derived used the a sound instead of the i sound, something after the order of
Shekanah; and bringing this out in relationship to the particular pattern that
I suggested from the standpoint of the vibrational factors of the Motherland,
the short pronunciation, as I have used it, is really a bit
on the inadequate side. There is more of
the vowel emphasis if we utilize all of the vibrational factors possible.
You will notice that you can prolong vowel
factors, if you have the breath to do it, and the e sounds here in the
three-syllable word, concluding with the ah sound, provide us with an
opportunity to begin to feel the vibratory factors in sound. If you have thought of the vowels primarily
simply as letters or particularized sounds utilized merely to convey the sound
of a specific word, you need to begin to realize that the vowels, particularly,
have the peculiar quality of conveying the current of feeling. Now what is conveyed will depend upon what
you are feeling.
Assuming that the heart
has become attuned to the divine source, we have the current of that divine
source moving through the vowel sounds. You should bear this in mind in your exercising, from the standpoint of
speech, in the development of your capacity in breathing, the control of the
air which you use in breathing, the proper pattern of inhalation and the proper
controlled patterns of exhalation. If
you try to get all of your air, while you are speaking, inhaled through your
nose, you will not have a good speaking voice. The air must be received, partially at
least—some of it will come in through the nose—but received through the mouth,
at the top of the mouth, along the roof of the mouth, the manner which you
learn to utilize without interfering with the expression through speech.
One thing we will begin to note as we
proceed, and that is that you can come to a certain definite limitation when
you are speaking audibly in the sense of the ordinary vocal expression, but
that certain possibilities are present from the standpoint of expression,
somewhat audible of course, in what we might call whispering. Now there are times when whispering is not
considered to be good manners, but the use of the voice conveying sounds
vibrationally in what might be conceived to be a whisper is something that is
important to our attunement with the powers of reality, and it is important to
our ability to convey. You notice that I
used these patterns when I introduced to you the mystical significance and
expression of the two words commonly spoken as Jesus and Jehovah—the speaking
on the breath, in other words. Whispering of course suggests the idea, but it is speaking on the breath
on a basis which modifies the more harsh aspects of the word and allows the
peculiar qualities of the vowels to come into play. And you will find this to be of great
importance as we move along. One of the
things that we need to begin to realize from the standpoint of the Shekinah
fire, or the Shekinah light, is that this must be understood if we are going to
begin to comprehend the significance of this text which we have been studying
together:
“And in the midst of the seven
candlesticks one like unto the Son of man.”
Now notice that this is in the midst
of the seven candlesticks. The candlesticks give light, but in the midst of the
cloud there is one like unto the Son of man. Here we have a Biblical
description of the Shekinah fire surrounded by the light, and in turn
surrounded by the cloud. You will have no doubt thought of the Biblical
passages speaking about the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. It is
something which you are now reaching a point where you can begin to understand;
for wherever the clouds of heaven are mentioned in the Bible we have a
reference to the Shekinah fire, around which there is the light, and around
which there is the cloud. The Shekinah fire always manifests in the midst of a
cloud and in the midst of the glowing of the light.
So these are the clouds of heaven, or
the heavenly clouds, which the Master used.
It was in such a heavenly cloud that He disappeared from the view of
man, and it is in relationship to such a cloud that all things heavenly must
appear to men—the clouds of heaven. Until you begin to see this, realize the
reality of the Shekinah fire and the cloud of glory, or the cloud of the
presence—it is expressed in various ways—you cannot understand what the Bible
means. And you can see how it is that so many millions of people, failing to
recognize the mystical significance of the Bible terminology, have turned their
attention to fanciful concepts, imagining that some cloud goes floating around
in the sky.
Now, if you begin to see the One in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks as the centering of the fire, we can
begin to comprehend the nature of the fire, for it is differentiated. Notice the
manner of its differentiation—“one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a
garment down to the foot.” What is the garment? The garment is the cloud—“and
girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white
like wool, as white as snow.”
In other words, we begin to recognize
that the upper vibratory factor, the pattern of that which is seen in the
Shekinah fire, is pure white, and the white like snow—“His head and his hairs
were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire.” Now
here we begin to enter into the fire pattern of the Shekinah fire.
“And his feet like unto fine brass, as
if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. And he
had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged
sword.” We have recognized that the sword is a symbol of truth; that means the
voice which has the sound of many waters conveys the expression of truth, the
sharp two-edged sword. You have begun to realize yourselves that the two-edged
sword of truth is in fact very sharp. It is something which cuts away that
which ought not to be and allows that which should be to remain. So, "out
of his mouth," clearly indicates the expression of truth by reason of the
voice—“out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword: and his countenance was
as the sun shineth in his strength.”
Now there we have the most remarkable
description of the Shekinah fire, the manifest evidence of the presence of the
One Who Dwells, that can be found anywhere. We begin to appreciate how it is
that we have, in the consideration of this short text, gone into so many
different fields so that you could begin to truly appreciate the beauty and the
wonder that are contained here. Now with respect to the interpretation: “The
mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand [that is, the
positive hand], and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the
angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are
the seven churches.”
We have also noted in this connection
the seven spirits before the throne of God, and we recognize that that
expression means the same thing. Now, there are these seven different
vibratory levels. Just as we have the octave in relationship to music, and the
eighth being the repetition of the first in a higher or lower scale, so we have
the seven vibrational factors in this realm of being of which we are aware. The
seven colors of the rainbow gives another illustration. According to the level to which we relate
words, currents of feeling, etc., they will have different forms. Sometimes the
word itself will seem to have a very definite change, and other times not. In
any case there will be differences of pronunciation, differences of the feeling
current released through the words. Now it would hardly be practical to
undertake at this time to introduce the vibratory factors of the Motherland tongue.
Perhaps sometime we can consider a little of that, but you have much growing to
do spiritually, vibrationally, before that could mean so very much to you. However, we can use intermediate steps, which
begin to convey the idea, begin to let you have an opportunity to experience
that which is possible to you.
So we have the seven stars, the seven
candlesticks, and the seven spirits that are before the throne of God, the
seven angels of the seven churches, and the seven churches themselves. The
churches signify the body of being, the body as it relates physically to the
endocrine glands: the pattern of the islets of Langerhans, for instance—all of
the little bodies put together provide one church in your body; the thyroid and
parathyroid glands combine to provide another church in your body; the
substance of the seven distinct glandular patterns, whether you think of it as
one gland or several. You have noted, I suppose, in your studies, that the
pituitary gland, for instance, has different parts; in other words you say it
is one gland, but it is not one gland; it is a combination; it has different
levels of expression. So we either have divisions within the gland itself or
divisions in the formation of the body of the gland. But you have in your body,
in relationship to these things, the seven churches, the endocrine system. Somebody
spoke about the many systems within the endocrine system, and they form,
insofar as you are physically concerned, the seven churches. But you also have
a mind, and so there are the seven churches insofar as your mind is concerned.
There are the seven churches from the standpoint of the spiritual nature of
your being.
There are the seven churches, the body
of being, in relationship to the focalized function of the heart. But here we
find that the seven churches of the heart combine all of the particular
patterns of the churches at the other three levels; in other words the seven
churches of the heart are simply the three levels of churches, with respect to
a specific point, brought to point. Now perhaps that is not clear. With respect
to the physical body, the mind and the spirit we have at the first level, or
the first vibrational factor, that which would correlate perhaps with the
gonads—a particular pattern at each of three levels. You combine all of those
three levels in relationship to the heart and you have, by reason of that
combination, the church of the heart in the first vibrational factor, and so on
all the way through.
Well now, we are not going to be able to
go far enough in our consideration of the wonderful workings of the mind and
its potentialities to allow us to study extensively the factors of the mind as
such, that is, the seven churches; but we will give particularized
consideration to this matter from the standpoint of the heart, which will begin
to introduce something of these factors as they relate to mind and spirit. But
you, individually, then, have the four patterns of the seven churches in
relationship to yourself as an external being. Do you see that? You have the
four patterns of the seven churches as they relate to yourself in manifest,
external being. Then of course we have the inner reality of the seven spirits
before the throne of God, the same principle carried over into the invisible
realm of Deity. But we begin to recognize that the seven spirits before the
throne of God manifest by reason of specific formations, the formations of the
stars (that is, of the angels) and of the candlesticks (that is, the churches).
So you have—what shall we say? We cannot say that you have seven candlesticks.
You are seven candlesticks, and the seven stars function inside of you. But
this is merely the differentiated individual pattern. We see that the whole
pattern carries over to the body of many members, and it is in relationship to
the body of many members that we can more clearly see many of these aspects in
function.
We should at this point be able to
clearly see, comprehend, accept within ourselves, the fact that the body of
many members, which may be spoken of as the Christ Body, must necessarily have
these particularized factors in it, even as they are present in your individual
physical body. We cannot disregard the principles of life and function as they
appear in the individual physical body when we begin to consider the physical
formation of the one Christ Body made up of many members. And anyone who attempts
to develop a body of power—as in a church or a philosophy or a pattern of
teaching, or anything else, ideology of any sort—any individual or individuals
who undertake to produce a unit pattern of function, while disregarding these
principles, must surely fail. We have seen it happen in the past; we have
recognized it in relationship to the outworkings of history.
It is only as we allow these same laws
and principles to work in relationship to ourselves as many members of one
unit, one body, that we can begin to be the means by which the power manifests.
This is to say, then, from the standpoint of the unit pattern, that there is a
particularized manifestation of the Shekinah Fire and Light and Cloud in
relationship to each of these seven levels of being. This trinity of the
Shekinah fire, or the Shekinah which signifies the manifest Presence of the One
Who Dwells, is something that needs to be clearly comprehended, and how to
convey it to you so that you can feel it and know it from deep within
yourselves is something of a problem.
The spirit of God as such has virtually
no meaning to human beings. The meaning begins to appear as the differentiated
aspects of spirit appear. The meaning of God begins to appear to the children
of men as the differentiated aspects of God appear through men, because God can
have no true meaning to us except as He is revealed through the human form. And
as long as you try to comprehend God without regard to the human form, as
something above and beyond this realm in which we live and dwell, you will
fail. You may develop some fixed concepts about an old man with a long beard
sitting on a throne somewhere, but that is not a true comprehension of God; it
is merely child's play. So you begin to see that you cannot in any true sense,
no matter how you may delude yourself, you cannot comprehend God in reality
except as He is made manifest through human beings.
To try to comprehend the wholeness, or
the allness, of God with the human
mind is attempting the impossible. We must recognize that it is the
differentiated aspects of God made manifest through human beings which permit
us to begin to comprehend God in reality. And as the spirit of God can have no
real meaning except as it manifests in its differentiated aspects, we begin to see the secret of the Shekinah
as the secret of focalization from heaven into the earth, and
differentiation in relationship to the practical aspects of living.
The
Shekinah is the point of focus between heaven and earth, that which is of
heaven brought to point for its manifestation on earth, and from that point
expanding outward again into the patterns of life. At the point of its
manifestation of its essence the variations, or the distinctions, the different
qualities, cannot be readily recognized. We see it as a Fire. But here, in this
portrayal that we are considering in the text, there is the beginning of the manifestation
of the differentiations: that which is at the top, the head and the hairs white
as snow, and then the eyes like a flame of fire, and the feet like unto fine
brass, the garment down to the foot round about, the cloud, and so on. So you
begin to see the differentiations.
Now one of the interesting things that
you should always remember, as you either meditate yourself upon the principles
of reality or as you work with those who respond to you and receive of your
ministry, is that those who begin to approach the throne of God always see, if
they really do see anything, they always see some aspect of differentiation
first, of the many aspects of differentiation in manifestation. Each person
will tend to see one little aspect here or one little aspect there, and because
he or she feels it to be something that is true and real in the divine
expression, he or she will say, "Well now, I know God to be this. I know
God to be that. To me God is something else," and they are all dealing
with limited perception of differentiated aspects humanly translated into human
concepts. There you have the basis for all the many varied concepts and beliefs
on the face of the earth. And they become distorted or remain true depending
upon the capacity of the individuals involved to see clearly and translate
correctly, and upon their honesty, because some there are who, being dishonest,
think to translate on a basis which will let them have extra power over their
fellows.
So when you are working with others you
will run up against the fact that they have some little concept humanly
translated on the basis of an imperfectly perceived aspect of the
differentiations of the central evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells,
and if you undertake to clarify the point for the individual, generally he or
she will take the attitude that you are trying to deny God. The person says,
"Well I know I have this! I know I have that!" And you say ever so
gently and so clearly, "Yes, I know. But you need to see something else
too." No matter how you point it out, how you seek to lead, the moment you
turn their attention away from that pet point, they will take the attitude that
you are trying to make them deny what they think they know. So they have a
basis of resentment and rebellion and every sort of thing.
If you remember this, you will
understand the pushings and the pullings and the turnings, and all the
foolishness that manifests with respect to human beings; and if they will
remain honest and steady in the pattern, you can lead them finally, step by
step, to a point where they can begin to see other differentiated aspects. They
do not have the perceptive ability to see the Shekinah Fire yet. Do not try to
get them to. How long did I talk to you before I ever mentioned it? Someone
mentioned that I was talking to the group here about this particular point a
couple of years ago. I don't recall just how long it was, but that was the
statement made, "about two years ago." In other words it is not
something that I just suddenly thought up or discovered or heard about, or
something.
I have known about this Fire all the way
through. I use it all the time, every day; and in actual fact, every time I
come before you, in a class or a service, I begin to work on the basis of
developing that cloud and letting you be in it to whatever degree your response
will permit; you will be in the Cloud, the Cloud of Glory of the Shekinah. You may not see it, but you
can reach a point where you can see it and it is wonderful. Sometimes it may
become so dense, shall we say, so thick or full, that it simply blocks out all
vision of the people around you; you cannot see the far corner of the room. I
have many times known it to be so thick that I could not even see my own hand
that far from my eyes—the Cloud.
And the Cloud you feel, you sense through
feeling, to start with. Finally you begin to have the ability to see it, and to
hear it; for there is a sound in it. But don't go trying now, because if you
try to see it you will not; if you try to hear it you will not. You have to let
it appear.
And remember well that wherever there are vibrations of conflict,
resentment, any ill attitudes whatsoever, you keep yourself shut out of the
cloud of the Shekinah and contain yourself in the cloud of darkness. Wherever there are resentments,
frictions, conflicts, within or without, within the individual or between
individuals, you cannot know the beauty and the wonder, the glory and the
peace, of the Shekinah, the manifest evidence of the Presence of the One Who
Dwells, everywhere, always.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
