In Three Days
Martin Cecil April 14, 1974
“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” The Son of God is the Shekinah. The Shekinah is indeed sent into the world, or the world would not exist. But the Shekinah was sent into the world, specifically the focalized essences of Shekinah, through Jesus, that the world might be made aware of the reality of Shekinah. The world certainly did not see Him or acknowledge Him but, rather, rejected Him. The Shekinah has always been present for the children of men, although for long they have been unaware of it. The Shekinah came into the world through Jesus, so that the reality of it might be known to the children of men within the range of their own state of consciousness. The Shekinah, although present, has remained unknown because of the impurity of human hearts. The veil has been present, obscuring Shekinah, obscuring the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells.
Jesus spoke of the One Who Dwells as “the Father.” He, Jesus, was the evidence of the presence of the Father within the range of human consciousness, so that they might have seen Him and known Him and He might have led them into a new state of consciousness where the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells should be the experience of all people. These words are recorded as having been spoken by Jesus; they are contained within the 6th chapter of the Gospel according to John:
“And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.”
In this particular chapter is recorded what has been called His great discourse on the bread of life. “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
What is the last day? First of all we may recognize that the raising up, as it has been translated, the raising again, the resurrection, is achieved by Shekinah. “I” will raise him up. It does not say that human beings will be able to change their minds, change their consciousnesses, raise themselves up. Shekinah gets the job done — the Son of God, the evidence of the presence of the Father. The Son of God is the evidence of the presence of the Father in the dimensionless state. The Son of man is the evidence of the presence of the Father in the dimensional state. The Shekinah revealed through the refined substance of consciousness in man, in the dimensional state, has always been present with man; for this is the source of his life and being. But the veil has stood between the Shekinah in the dimensional realm and the level of consciousness at which he existed. The mind of man knows not Shekinah. Pharaoh knows not the Lord; there is a veil. The veil is the impure heart. The heart cannot be purified by any human effort, only by Shekinah — Shekinah which is present. Shekinah is present as long as there is the experience of life, but because of the veil there is a distorted experience of life. The impurity of heart, which produces all this, may be seen as being described as sin. On one occasion in particular Jesus said to someone, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” There were others present at the time who felt that He was blaspheming by making such a statement, so He asked whether it was easier to say, “Thy sins be forgiven thee,” or “Arise, and walk.”
Human beings have been very much engaged in this business of trying to get healing, of trying to make it so that they could arise and walk. Great effort has been expended in this in all the affairs of men. Would it not be easier to say, “Thy sins are forgiven thee”? — because, in spite of all the effort that has been put forth, human beings have not yet arisen and walked. They have remained in the crippled state. They have remained in the crippled state and must remain in the crippled state until their sins are forgiven them, until the veil is dissolved, until the impure heart is no longer a barrier to the working of Shekinah. So the obvious requirement is the forgiveness of sins, the purifying of the heart, which allows a change of consciousness so that all that comes within the range of human consciousness is no longer distorted because of the veil. Human beings think they see what they see, in themselves and in the world around them, but they do not truly see; they are in darkness because of the veil. What they think they see is a distorted image. There is no way, really, by which that distorted image can be changed, except as the veil is dissolved. But over many thousands of years human beings have attempted to change the image without letting anything be done about the veil. Clearly that is quite impossible.
To God all things are possible, because whatever is right and fitting to be expressed in consciousness allows the true image to appear. But it will not appear, insofar as man is concerned, as long as the veil remains in him. It is still anticipated that by the efforts of human beings, particularly because of their supposed scientific progress, they're going to be able to defeat the enemy, the enemy who is out to get them. The enemy is out to get them by war, by pestilence, by starvation, famine. He's out to get them in every conceivable way. But what human beings see in this regard is evil imagination. It is a false image, generated by reason of impurity of heart. The false image is not going to change if there is no change in the heart. If the heart is polluted the image will be polluted, and there is no method available to human beings to make it any other way. A change of heart is what is needful. And how does that come? Through Shekinah. And Shekinah raises again the consciousness of man in the last day. The last day — doomsday? For some perhaps. Here reference is again to the creative process, days of creation.
Here is another passage, from the 2nd chapter of the same Gospel: “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.”
This has been interpreted to mean that He was simply speaking of Himself. What He said included what occurred in His own experience, but His own experience set the stage, sounded the Tone, for something more to which He had reference in these particular words. Who is going to destroy the temple? Many people look upon such events as the judgment of God, something like a hurricane — an act of God! All bad experiences are attributed to God, apparently. But human beings, behind or below the veil, function in that state of consciousness to destroy themselves. The prince of this world is lost. So no one has to go about destroying the temple — certainly not God! Human beings themselves do an excellent job and have done an excellent job, individually speaking, generation after generation. They destroy the image which they themselves create.
We might remember that the temple, far from being a house of prayer, became a den of thieves and consequently is destroyed by the thieves. “Destroy this temple” — that's sure, from the standpoint of human consciousness below the veil — “and in three days I will raise it up.” Three days. Human beings in their self-centeredness have been hopeful, apparently, that somehow or other, even though they had been in the grave for many, many years, on the day of judgment they would be resurrected. I think this view has tended to pall a little in human consciousness. But what are the three days to which reference is here made? Our vision, of course, needs to expand, see beyond the self-centered individual state where human beings try to relate resurrection to themselves.
The first three creative days are necessary for the resurrection of the body of the Son of God. We may recognize the four forces at work in their sequence of dominance: water, air, earth. This cycle was initiated within the scope of recorded history at the time of Abraham. It was initiated on the basis of the water force. It emerged into specific evidence at the time of Moses, and we may well recall that he led the children of Israel out of Egypt over the Red Sea; and later they moved over Jordan. Moses brought what has been called the Law, which relates to the design of truth, and water is a symbol of truth. Here was the first day.
Then came the second day, when the Lord Himself came, in the body of a man, into the consciousness of the world to make evident Shekinah, to provide the only means by which resurrection of the consciousness of man might occur. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” — no other way, one truth, one life: Shekinah. He spoke and acted from the standpoint of spirit. He said that it was necessary to be born of water (the first force, the first day) and of the spirit (the second day). Water, air — air is the symbol of spirit. There was a baptism of the holy spirit, the spirit descended upon Him as a dove — the second day.
And the third day centers in relationship to the third force, earth. In the creeds of Christianity the statement has been made, “I believe in the resurrection of the body”; and of course people, being self-centered, thought of their own bodies. But the resurrection is the resurrection of the body of the Son of God, which obviously would relate to the earth force. The resurrection of the body comes because sins are forgiven, because the heart is purified. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Where? In the dimensionless realm? Physical eyes don't work there. No, God is seen by reason of His image. Man is made in the image and likeness of God, truly. When the heart is pure the image which appears in the consciousness of man is the true image, no longer the false distorted image; the pure evidence of Shekinah revealed at those levels of consciousness that are described as earth — physical, mental and spiritual expression. Three days. The third day is the last day in this cycle as it relates to the resurrection. If it goes longer than that, there is nothing. If the body isn't resurrected, if the true image and likeness of God does not emerge out of the tomb state of distorted and disordered consciousness, there is nothing left. If the body disintegrates in the tomb, that's it.
The resurrection comes because sins are forgiven. The fact that sins are forgiven is established by Shekinah. It is certainly not established by human beings trying to be good; they remain sinners on that basis, as has been recognized in the Christian world. The assumption has been made that it must stay that way and the only possibility to emerge out of the sinful state is to die. To die is to make sure that that emergence could never happen. Jesus said that He had the power to lay down His life and to take it again. In the human state of distorted consciousness such an idea seems impossible; it doesn't conform to the images in the distorted state of human consciousness. Therefore human beings say, “Such a thing could not happen.” It could not happen in the distorted state of human consciousness, that's for sure! But that is to change; sins are to be forgiven so that there may be a pure heart, a pure heart experienced now here. Shekinah is not sent into the world to condemn the world, to destroy the world, but that the world, through Shekinah, might be saved, resurrected; that sins might be forgiven, that hearts might be made pure, and that consequently a new experience of identity in consciousness might be known.
So may there be a single eye, not so much spelled “eye” as just the letter “I” — not a human “I” and a true “I,” but a single “I,” the single eye which is true. Then the whole body is full of light, and, standing at the apex of true being in the dimensional world, all else is below that apex. The whole of the dimensional consciousness is below that point. Whatever is right and fitting and true may emerge through that point to be differentiated into all levels of consciousness, initially at the level of Shekinah in the dimensional world. And Shekinah, now moving unhindered through the pure heart, re-creates the earth. The resurrection of the body results. “Behold, I make all things new” — a new image, not the image of the beast anymore but the image which man is, the evidence of the presence of the One Who Dwells, the evidence of the presence of the Lord in dimensional form and expression in the world composed of the substance of consciousness.
The third day, when the earth force is dominant, relates to the resurrection of the body, the body of the Son of God which has for long been in the tomb. This is the last day. It has been said that the Third Sacred School is the last call, the last opportunity, because if it goes beyond this level it moves out of the level where man has self-consciousness at this present time, out of the level of human existence. In such case humans are left behind. So it is the last call, the last opportunity. It has of course been working out so that nothing has been lost; all is to be raised up at the last day. That was the first statement — all, not just human beings. All! But then everyone who permits certain conditions to be fulfilled is raised up at the last day, not because of human efforts to arise and walk but because there has been a willingness to let sins be forgiven. And that obviously is the easy way. The fact of the matter is that it is the only way; the other way is tough and never succeeds: the attempt to make the false image arise and walk — it won't do it! There is no life in the false image. This fact proves itself out in the end.
Life is in the true image, the true image which is a reflection of Shekinah, at the levels of consciousness designated as the earth. And when that true image is there it is found to have arisen and walked; that is the nature of the true image. It doesn't have to be cajoled into arising and walking; it doesn't have to be forced to arise and walk because it's filled with the required kind of drugs to make it do so. The resurrection of the body of the Son of God on earth reveals life, made evident in the true image which is man. From the standpoint of the false state of consciousness all this has seemed to be very mysterious and mystical, but as the veil dissolves it is all seen as being very natural, very practical, very sensible. There is nothing really mysterious or mystical about it at all. The very idea of mysticism indicates that the individual who is engaged in this sort of approach is still embedded in the disordered and distorted state of consciousness, where he sees through a glass darkly. And what he imagines is beyond the glass is called mysterious or mystical, but then it is all imagination anyway. “I will raise it up on the third day.” That is the word of Shekinah.
This is the third day! The raising up comes because sins are forgiven, because the heart is made pure so that the Tone of Shekinah can be clearly heard; and the reverberations of that Tone call the mental and the flesh levels of consciousness to rise and walk, to be the evidence in dimensional consciousness of the presence of the Lord. Clearly, none of these things come because of human endeavor. All that human endeavor can do is to fiddle with the false image. Some fiddle in a way that makes the false image look better to them; it probably looks worse to somebody else. But nothing is achieved by fiddling with a false image. Only when Shekinah brings forth the true image, which is man, is the resurrection a fact — not a mystical fact but an experienced and very real, natural and beautiful fact, a fact in the experience of the consciousness of human beings who have been restored to the consciousness of God, who knows man as being made in His own image and likeness. In the consciousness of God that's what we know. And what we know, we see. “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Here is the resurrection and the life.
We don't really have to look back to anything, do we, because it's all now here. Movement through the first two days has occurred, and the third day is now here. The resurrection is the change of consciousness that comes when the heart is pure. The sounding of the voice of the Tone alone purifies the heart. It purifies the hearts of those who yield their hearts to the sound of that voice, to the sound of that Tone, so that this is all in all to them. The fiddling with false images no longer has any meaning at all, even though it may be necessary to handle such things because we are properly permitting Shekinah to be revealed within the scope, within the range, of human consciousness the way it is. It cannot be expected that something could be done with human consciousness the way it isn't.
So we are here, and we see the false image, but we know it's a false image. We don't give it weight or characterize it as though it had meaning. Being wise, we do not immediately tell human beings the truth of the matter, because they wouldn't understand in their state of consciousness anyway. But we know it! And this we must know constantly, so that we cannot be trapped into the false state of consciousness anymore. We see the false image; we know what it is, but it is false to us. Our concern is to allow Shekinah to emerge, that the veil may be dissolved in all the world, the gospel may be preached in all the world. And then shall the end come. It's the last day, of course — a new state, but a new state not brought about by the manipulations of the false image. This is all that can be seen in the state of the false consciousness. That's all that human beings think they can do. But you, amongst others, are beginning to arise and walk because your sins are forgiven, because the heart is being purified and the true image consequently appearing. The false image cannot blot out your awareness of the true image anymore.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
The True Tone
Martin Cecil March 31, 1974
Out of the nowhere of the dimensionless state comes the differentiation of the sound of the trumpet in the dimensional state, in the now here of the dimensional state. That sound is generated first in the mouthpiece of the trumpet, and the vibration is taken up by the air contained in the whole trumpet and by the trumpet itself. This portrayal indicates a oneness, first of all between the trumpeter and the trumpet; and then the oneness between the air (the substance in the trumpet), the trumpet itself, and the sound that is being propagated — a total oneness initiated by the Lord and reproduced in the world of form. All of you here recognize your responsibilities in these matters, and how what transpires is not just a little thing in a corner of the world but it is something that affects the whole world. Here we have the creative power of God once more in action in a specific, controlled sense, beginning to restore the dominion of God on earth.
We noted this morning the various levels of consciousness, or what have also been described as planes of being, in the dimensional realm. Reference was made to the six planes, the six levels of consciousness, composing what has been called heaven and earth — the triune heaven and the triune earth. The seventh level might be referred to as the Heaven of heavens. It constitutes the connecting point between the dimensional world and the dimensionless world. Insofar as this world is concerned, the One who stands at the apex we speak of as the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. He provides the point of focus in the Heaven of heavens, both for the dimensional realm of this world and the dimensionless realm of this world. What exactly that means is not likely immediately to be understood, but something can be recognized in principle. It has before been noted that while we speak of the dimensionless world it is only dimensionless from the standpoint of what we understand as dimensional. In this dimensional world we recognize dimensions. Those dimensions are limited to the world of space and time. Here may be seen a rather restricted state. However, from the standpoint of what from the dimensional world view is dimensionless, that dimensionless world to itself has dimension. It isn't at all comparable to a vague gaseous state. Utilizing the words Heaven of heavens, we may see that this also refers to the dimensionless world. The seventh level of consciousness as it may be seen from the dimensional state also spills over, so to speak, into the dimensionless state; and whatever is contained in that world is related to the Heaven of heavens.
There are many schools of thought and philosophical concepts which involve ideas about heavenly hierarchies, invisible masters. Sometimes they are so prolifically multiplied that the One who might be referred to as Jesus is pretty well lost in the shuffle. But the fact of the matter is that there is an apex point for this world. That apex point provides the focalization not only for the dimensional realm of this world but for the dimensionless realm of this world. We are concerned, obviously, with the dimensional realm of this world; so the only One in any possible hierarchy with whom there needs to be any concern is the One we refer to as the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. What occurs in the dimensionless state will take care of itself, no doubt; we can't do anything about it anyhow. But we are responsible in this dimensional realm of this world. If we are to consider any hierarchy, it would be in the dimensional world; in other words it would be apparent by reason of human beings. If there is involvement with supposed spiritual hierarchies, separate somehow from human beings, a person will become lost in a realm of imagination, because there is no means whatsoever by which there might be penetration into the dimensionless state. Our point of contact with the dimensionless state of this world is through the LORD of Lords, the only One with whom we need to be concerned. By the same token, the contact from the dimensionless state with the dimensional world is through Him also. So we can sweep out the cupboards, disposing of imaginary hierarchies. The Roman Catholic Church tended to become involved with such things, proliferating saints and such — the Virgin Mary and others — constituting a religious realm of imagination.
So we simply acknowledge the apex point by which Almighty God is brought to focus for this world in the LORD of Lords, being unconcerned for anyone else in some supposed invisible hierarchy. There may be an invisible hierarchy in the dimensionless state, but that at the moment is none of our business. Our business is here in the dimensional world, under the dominion of the LORD of Lords at the apex point of the Heaven of heavens. We are indeed very much concerned with Him. Using our analogy of this morning, He is the trumpeter. He sends His angels with a great sound of a trumpet. His angels are essential to the great sound of the trumpet. They're not separate from the great sound of the trumpet, as though in some distant heaven the trumpet was sounded and the angels marched forth. It is the coming of the angels, the differentiated expression of life in this dimensional world, that brings with it the sound of the trumpet. That sound originates in the LORD of Lords, but it becomes sound as we know it, differentiated into expression, by reason of the trumpet which He is quite capable of playing.
It is the sound that is differentiated in this dimensional world that has stirred that space in you which may be called sacred, so that the resonance began to be present in your hearts. To whatever degree this was so, you found yourselves impelled toward participation in the instrument in the hands of the Lord. I'm sure all of you have been made aware that you didn't move in that direction on the basis of your own conscious intention. It happened in spite of any conscious intentions you may have had. Wherever there is room within a person for the vibratory Tone to be initiated there is a compulsion present, which may be overridden, it is true, and is by many people; but when it is sufficiently strong, because there was sufficient room for it to be so, the person is compelled to come to the Lord through the instrument of the Lord on earth. This has of course been happening. You are here to testify to the fact, and there are many more besides. In the sense of your conscious awareness you didn't come of your own volition. We may remember the word of the Lord spoken on earth: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you." There are of course some who insist upon rejecting that choice, but if a person does come it is an indication that there is a yielding to the choice of the Lord.
The sound was, long ago in the record of the Old Testament, called a still small voice. It's something that occurs in the realm of stillness in the human heart. Because that realm is usually pretty small it seems like a pretty small voice. But as the instrument forms, so that this vibration is increasingly differentiated, coming into phase, the sound obviously increases and consequently is able to penetrate into areas where it was prevented before. There is the increased touching of human hearts therefore, everywhere. An increased experience of this compulsion begins to be known in human beings the world around. Geographical distance has no limiting effects upon the Tone, which is simply intensified as there is more air available and more instrument available to vibrate. Gabriel's trump, it has been called. People have pictured in imagination an angel with a trumpet, blowing somewhere over there, wherever there might be, when of course we begin to see and know and experience that it is here. And if the sound is in one place on earth, it is in every place on earth.
This sound is indeed the Good News which has been called the gospel. "And this gospel ... shall be preached in all the world ... and then shall the end come." Those who have called themselves Christians have thought this meant that there should be those who sprang up on the soapbox and proceeded to tell a story based in human imagination. But the Gospel is real; it is this Tone. This is the Good News which stirs human hearts, stirs them to they know not what. It doesn't generate, rightly, any beliefs or cause a person to join this group or that. It is a still small voice which brings people into the instrument of God on earth, or to find a relationship to that instrument.
All people do not compose the instrument. We may see the trumpet as relating particularly to what we have referred to as the priesthood. It includes more than that, but it is not intended to include all people on earth, although all people on earth must hear the Tone and respond to the Tone or perish. The dimensional state of mankind is of a very specific design, a design which is unknown to the mind of man and which cannot be grasped by the mind of man, but this design is naturally experienced by those who are drawn into phase with the Tone. Then there it is. No one had to make it be so; no one had to invent it; no one had to organize it. But it is found that there is what may well be described as organization. After all, our own physical bodies are organized. It's when they become disorganized that there is trouble. The world of mankind has been very much disorganized. It is because of this Tone that the organization may again be brought to pass. No human being is going to think it up or make it be, according to some human concept. It simply is, on the basis of the Tone.
Now this brings us back to the vital nature of this Tone, the Tone which is not consequent upon intellectual awareness of the principles of reality. The Tone is a reality and may engender an understanding of the principles of reality when the Tone activates the consciousness of the individual concerned. The Tone activates, rightly, the whole consciousness, not just a little limited space. Human beings try to set up a design of their own making, with what was supposed to be spiritual relegated to a restricted space. This has been done very much in the religious pattern of things, particularly in Christianity, so that there was a space for spiritual things but the majority of the space was for material things, as though there was a distinction somehow. But the fact of the matter is that what are called material things are composed of the substance of consciousness just as surely as what are supposed to be spiritual things. The only distinction relates to the level of the substance of consciousness. I have described those levels as extending from the very fine to the very coarse — different vibratory rates. And what appears in consequence of the vibratory rate is translated in consciousness to be thus and so, so that we may say, "Here is a chair." But it actually is a structure in your consciousness, isn't it? You say that the chair is over there. Is it? Insofar as you are concerned it is in your consciousness, and you project it over there on the basis of your translation. There is no need to become all involved in obscure endeavors to understand. The point is that what you know and experience is contained in your consciousness and composes the world of your consciousness. This world is to be re-created, not in the sense that we anticipate turning this chair into something else. It's convenient as a chair; we'll leave it there.
You know, fairy stories often convey truths. In fairy stories people are changed into frogs, or what have you, and back again — a more or less simple undertaking if necessary — on the basis of the changes in consciousness. We are concerned with permitting changes in consciousness. These come because of what has been called Tone, the right Tone. Now the first evidence of that Tone emerges through the mouthpiece of the instrument. It is present already, obviously so, in the trumpeter, in the Lord. He knows what He is going to generate. But what He knows in the dimensionless realm is unknown in the dimensional realm until it is generated there, and it is generated there through the consciousness of those who compose the essential instrument. And it is generated in a particular way.
In the world as we know it a trumpeter who wished to play the trumpet would need to have a trumpet of the required design, with all its parts, including the mouthpiece. He wouldn't, for instance, say, "I don't think I'm going to need a mouthpiece, so I'll just throw that into the wastepaper basket and play this trumpet without a mouthpiece." He wouldn't anticipate that it could ever be played without a mouthpiece. That would be foolishness, wouldn't it? This has something to do with what is called focalization. There have been those who always want to throw away the mouthpiece, the means by which the Tone is set. If there is to be the right Tone in the trumpet, of which the individual may be a part, the mouthpiece must be in place. This is the only way that the Tone can be produced. The mouthpiece must be in place, connected to the rest of the trumpet. The mouthpiece is the link between the trumpeter and the trumpet. The trumpet as a whole is a link between the trumpeter and the audience. One can carry it further actually. If the audience is moved by the Tone of the trumpet then the trumpet and the audience are the connection between the trumpeter and the rest of the world, however far that may extend.
The vibration is set in the mouthpiece. If there is a sour note in the mouthpiece, of course there will be a sour note in the trumpet. However, the responsibility for the note belongs to the trumpeter, not to the trumpet. The particular tone that is to be generated is to be generated by the will of the trumpeter. We speak about God's will. "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." But whatever the Tone actually is in the mouthpiece, in its initial generation, must be picked up as it actually is by the substance of consciousness in the rest of the trumpet. Now we have a little different state of affairs insofar as this living instrument is concerned. A trumpet, in the ordinary way, has no choice but to produce what the trumpeter determines. However here is a living consciousness, a living trumpet, which may have other ideas. The necessity is to find that attunement with the original Tone which will allow that original Tone to be generated and regenerated throughout the whole trumpet, everything coming into phase accurately.
Obviously this requires that those concerned begin to neglect their own notes, their own noises, which have seemed to be so important and to be required to maintain individuality. Human individuality in the world the way it now is, is maintained by playing sour notes, clashing notes of some kind, without regard to any true Tone. And the individual is inclined to imagine that his importance is based in his continued strong maintenance of the particular sour note which composes his individuality, as he thinks of it. But that isn't individuality; that's just simply a sour note. And people trying to do their thing is exactly that — multiplication of sour notes. It seems that some nowadays think there is something new about trying to do one's thing, but everybody has been trying to do their thing for ages past; and the result has been chaotic noise. So there must be a willingness to relinquish one's thing in this sense. That thing, anyway, is the end result of heredity and environmental experience. There's nothing very new about it; there's nothing truly very individual about it. It's just a rehash of sour notes which have been played all down through the ages. And that sort of rackety sound becomes very boring, to say the least, very tiresome indeed. Of course many people just get used to it. I suppose it's not surprising that there is Tone deafness because of all the racket. There is physical deafness multiplying in the world today because of all the racket in the sense of physical noise. But this vibrational noise has certainly engendered deafness with respect to the true Tone. However there must be some space, even though it is very little, present in which the Tone may reverberate, if the individual is still alive. If it's too small, the sound is too small, the voice is too small, the individual never really hears it. Well we can correct that to some degree by intensifying the sound, by making the Tone louder. And then it can be heard even though the space is quite small, and something begins to happen in people who before completely ignored the presence of any Tone at all. So we are very much concerned with intensifying the Tone because of this, but we need to know first what the Tone is. And we can't know what the Tone is if we are busy blowing our own trumpets, so to speak. That human ego, again, gets in the way. It wants to have its own way, and if it does give consideration to the possibility of a trumpet and a true Tone, it wants to be where it wants to be in the trumpet, for one thing, and it wants to adjust the Tone just a little so as to make sure that something of the old sour note is maintained — something of the old individuality, the self-important human ego.
All that can go without mourning as we respond to the true Tone because we are concerned to discover what that true Tone is. And as I say, we do not discover what that true Tone is merely by studying the principles of reality. This is the Tone of life itself, a Tone which, when it begins to sound so that it can be clearly heard, will never allow a person to veer very far from that Tone, because immediately there is deviation the sour note becomes so apparent that the sole concern then is to get back in tune. But if a person doesn't really know what that Tone is he stumbles around producing more noise. So the real concern in those who are to compose the instrument is to become increasingly aware of the nature of that Tone as it may be found in the mouthpiece. That's where it first is, and then it may be extended, through the mouthpiece, further afield so that it is easier for others to connect up with it — because, after all, everybody is not right up against the mouthpiece. The whole of the trumpet is not connected to the mouthpiece, just part of it. And the parts are connected to the parts are connected to the parts. But the Tone totally stems, absolutely stems, from the mouthpiece. There is no other way. This is the way it works. This is the way it works in an ordinary trumpet! This is the way it works in Gabriel's trumpet.
So we need to be alert to the nature of that Tone, so that we will become so familiar with it that anything that is off-key is immediately discerned. That Tone has to be clear in consciousness if this is to be so. If it's a blurred tone, well we can wander around quite a bit and never know the difference. But those who are aware of the true Tone always know the difference. Sometimes a person will want to have an explanation as to what's wrong in his own particular function. He's so sure that what he's doing is right. How could it be explained? The only way the individual could find out would be to allow the true Tone to be generated in his own experience. Then he knows. I'm sure that you, having made some progress toward the experience of the true Tone, can look back and see how gauche you were in times past. You may be even a little embarrassed by some of the things you did or said. Well that may deflate the ego a little, and that's all right, but remember that the same thing is true now at the level where you are. Don't imagine that you have yet found an entirely accurate attunement with the true Tone. That's yet to come, and it will come to the extent that you are interested that it should. If you're not interested that it should, because you are so concerned to continue in your own ways, without regard to the true Tone, then you'll never know it. And no explanation will bring it to you. It isn't a matter of explanation, ever. It's a matter of experience, to find again attunement with the true Tone.
Those who are concerned that this should be so will be those who find it. The seekers find, but they need to know what it is they should be seeking — the true Tone, the Tone which is made evident initially in the mouthpiece. And as it expands through the trumpet it becomes more and more apparent, more and more evident, more and more easily discerned, more and more understood, more and more experienced, and the opportunity is extended to others likewise. Then the blast finally becomes so great that it awakens those who may be awakened and disposes of those who cannot be awakened. All things are thereby made new.
In this our experience this evening there has been something of the essential Tone made evident. Now the Tone is not merely made evident through words. It is made evident, if it is made evident, through what is totally present. Words may be a part of it, but those words can mean very little unless the Tone is present by reason of living. If a Tone has been touched in this service this evening, it could not have been so if I'd only come up here and spoken words. If it is so, it is because what comes to focus in the words is gathered from the experience of living. This is what permits the Tone to be generated. We can bandy words, but it's another thing to live and to experience the true nature of the Tone consequently. That's the only way it can be found. So in some measure the Tone has been present this evening and been touched, or has touched you, to the extent that there was space in you for the touching. And to that extent the sound has been intensified, and to that extent what we have sometimes called radiation has gone forth, gone forth into the consciousness wherever there was space in mankind. So to this extent we play a part in letting the gospel be preached in all the world. Let us continue to move together in harmony with the true Tone.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
The Sound as of a Rushing Mighty Wind
Uranda May 14, 1952 Class
We remember that, at the time of Pentecost, the record states that they were all with One Accord in One Place, about one hundred and twenty people; and they had been devoting themselves to prayer and meditation for a period of ten days, to achieve that Unity of the Vibrational Pattern which finally developed. And when they reached a point of Being with One Accord in One Place, vibrationally, there came a Sound as of a Mighty Rushing Wind, and it filled the Whole House where they were sitting. There came a Sound as of a Mighty Rushing Wind and filled the Whole House where they were sitting, and there sat on them as if it were cloven tongues of Fire. When we reach that point of Attunement with the Cosmic Forces of Being which permits a True Centering in the Spirit of God there is always some experience which more-or-less correlates with that which was experienced at the day of Pentecost.
In the ancient writings of various parts of the world there is recognition of the Aum, for instance, and then there is recognition in various ways of what is called the Music of the Spheres — all touching into the same thing. This particular experience of letting the Divine Current flow freely is something that is really indescribable, and any consideration of it, of course, moves into the realm of Holy Ground, the most sacred of things. It is a little difficult to say anything much about it without touching into the field of some personal experience or other, and that has its drawbacks. A personal experience is just that — personal — and the details involved will vary from person to person, from time to time, or from group to group, as the case may be. I do not think there is a better way to describe one aspect of it, at least, than the Sound of a Rushing Mighty Wind. But it is not a Sound that you hear with the outer ears — this Sound fills the Body. One has a consciousness of it from within Oneself.
Perhaps we do not need to go further into that for the moment, except to point out that only to the degree that we, individually and collectively, share Attunement in that Mighty Reservoir of Eternal Power can we truly, effectively, serve. The relationship of all of this to our present problem can be seen in the fact that we are beginning to let an increased Current of Power manifest.
But there has not as yet developed a central Solid Pattern or Core of personal understanding, realization, centering, with respect to it. So the whole matter appears on the basis of the fact that we are building something. Something that is not yet manifest is appearing, and when that process is taking place someone has to take the Central strain or responsibility of developing a Control Pattern. That is naturally my responsibility, and I am not in the slightest degree objecting to it; but the more rapidly you gain an understanding of what is involved, and your personal relationship to it, the more rapidly will you share in the greater manifestation of God’s Power working through you, and the more quickly will you reach the point where, because of sharing in a Core or Solid Unit Pattern, you will not be under the necessity of facing unnatural, or in the ultimate sense unnecessary, stresses and strains yourself.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
The Trumpet
Martin Cecil March 31, 1974
This morning I would like to talk to you of a trumpet. A trumpet is mentioned in many places in both the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible. It is used to indicate a particular musical instrument, but many times in speaking of that musical instrument something symbolical is being portrayed. There is one particular passage, purporting to be the words of Jesus, which I would read to you. This is the 31st verse of the 24th chapter of Matthew. “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
If a trumpet is to make a sound there must obviously be someone present to play the instrument, but there cannot be the sound of a trumpet without a trumpet. Essentially the trumpet is composed of two parts: the mouthpiece and the body of the trumpet itself. Only when a trumpeter, a mouthpiece and a trumpet get together is there a sound. Any one of these three essential requirements will not get the job done; in fact any two of them won't get the job done either; it takes all three.
Now there may be a trumpeter, but nobody knows he is a trumpeter until he has the trumpet complete and proceeds to play it. He may indicate that he is capable of playing a trumpet, there may be those who recognize that he is a trumpeter, but it all remains quite speculative until he has the instrument and proceeds to play it. We can see that this portrayal should relate in our consciousness to something we already know, or at least know about. We might say that the Lord is the trumpeter. There are many human beings on the face of the earth who claim to be aware that He is a trumpeter but there are few who have recognized that they themselves have the responsibility of providing Him with the instrument so that it might be made apparent that He really is the trumpeter. To believe that He is a trumpeter is one thing, but to let the sound of the trumpet be heard is quite another.
In our recent considerations we have recognized two essential states: the dimensional state, of which we are currently aware in some measure, and a dimensionless state which is beyond the range of dimensional comprehension. The Lord occupies the dimensionless state. What is symbolized by the trumpet, both the mouthpiece and the body of the trumpet, occupies the realm of the dimensional state. The mouthpiece and the lips of the trumpeter would then make connection between the dimensionless state and the dimensional state. The sound is to be heard within the range of the dimensional state because this is where the trumpet is. When the trumpet sounds, it is made clearly evident that the trumpeter is present. Even though we might have known about the particular One who generates the sound through the trumpet, we did not know Him as the trumpeter until the sound was heard. It is this sound generated through the trumpet that composes the essential creative expression of the dimensionless Lord in the dimensional state. Now I am sure that all of you recognize something of the application of this analogy to present experience.
Our recent gathering was essentially of the mouthpiece of the trumpet. It can be clearly seen that there would be no point to such a gathering if there wasn't at least something of the trumpet attached. There may have been the mouthpiece, in this sense, for some time, but for that mouthpiece to be put to use required the rest of the trumpet to be attached to it; and so it was only when this state of affairs had become a sufficient reality in the dimensional world that something of the nature of what has occurred in recent days could be brought to pass. From the standpoint of my own personal awareness I had been looking to this day for some considerable time, and obviously all that has been occurring over the months and the years has allowed this particular focus of creative expression to become more than a dream. It actually occurred because there was a sufficiently established instrument to begin to permit something to occur in this specific way. I made mention of my thankfulness for the part that had been played by you and others in maintaining the vibrational setting, maintaining the connection, maintaining the enfoldment, so that the mouthpiece and the trumpet might be connected. There was an awareness of what was occurring, in the sense of the particular gathering in the South, throughout the whole of our ministry, and there was a particular response through those who compose this ministry so as to provide the essential connected facility.
It could be said that the important thing that occurred centers in the extent to which there was a sound through the trumpet. It is by this sound, or what is portrayed by using that word, that the creative purposes of God in this present moment rightly occur. We may recall the passage in the Old Testament, in the Book of Zechariah: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” Spirit, the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of the living God, relates to the creative expression of God and of the Lord in the dimensionless state. This word spirit, then, describes something that is quite indescribable. If we are thinking of these things in terms of the trumpeter and the trumpet, there is that present in the trumpeter which permits him to make use of the instrument; he is capable of so doing. It could be said that there is music in his soul and he has whatever is necessary to project that music, that sound, that Tone, into the dimensional world when he has a trumpet. You might see a person who was indeed a true artist in playing the trumpet but you would not know just by looking at the person that that was so. In other words that artistry, that mastery, is invisible, potential but unknown, until the instrument is in the master's hand and he plays it. Then what was present in that person pours forth through the sound generated in the instrument. Only in that way is it made known that this person was indeed a trumpeter, was indeed a master, was indeed the Lord. “By my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts” — by the potential of His being, revealed through the essential instrument in sound.
The sound that is generated is the creative power by which all things are made new. Using the word sound, of course, we have reference to something which remains unknown until it is present. We utilize terms about which we know something in the dimensional world to convey an idea; but the reality is what is required, not merely the idea. The reality is generated by the spirit of the Lord by reason of the instrument in His hands, and it is the sound then made evident that achieves what is needful. What needs to be done cannot be achieved by might or power in the sense that human beings try to achieve their purposes. No human effort, no material or intellectual manipulations, can accomplish what is required. It is done by the Lord in this one way, a way made possible by reason of what He designed for that purpose. All the endeavors of human beings to accomplish what they imagine would be worthwhile go for absolutely nothing when it begins to be understood how the true creative purposes are achieved. This way of achievement is unknown to human beings but it occurs, if it is to occur, by reason of human consciousness.
The spirit of the Lord in the dimensionless state must be conveyed through the essential instrument to generate sound, or what is symbolized by that word, in the substance of consciousness essentially present in what is portrayed by the trumpet. If we think of that instrument, it is full of air. Air is essential to sound. No sound can be generated in a vacuum. So air is required if there is to be a translation of what is present in the trumpeter into the form of sound. Air must be present in the trumpet, the trumpet must be present, and the trumpeter must be on hand to play the instrument. But obviously it is something in the trumpeter that somehow generates the vibration required in the air in the trumpet. The air represents the substance of consciousness present in the human beings who compose the instrument. This vibration which is set in motion in the air in the instrument, initially in the mouthpiece, is then transmitted throughout the whole instrument. All the air that is present, all the substance of consciousness which is present in those who compose the instrument comes into phase and a specific tone is generated and reinforced. I suppose it is possible to make a squeak with the mouthpiece, but it takes the whole instrument to generate the essential sound; and that essential sound, as we have called it, is vibration in the substance of consciousness.
Of course the vibration that occurs within the instrument is the means by which sound is transmitted beyond the instrument. It would be useless to attempt to generate sound beyond the instrument without generating it first in the instrument. This is the attitude that all too many human beings have had with respect to God and the divine operation. The Lord is supposed to generate sound somehow without an instrument. Without the instrument the true tone can never be produced. All that consequently occurs by reason of the substance of consciousness in human beings is noise. Nothing is in phase; there is no harmony; there is chaotic noise. When the instrument is present and the sound begins to be generated, the tone reaches forth into the substance of consciousness round about and is heard by some above the noise. Now this is a really beautiful analogy, portraying the creative process by which all things are made new.
Once again we see clearly the futility of the usual human efforts, no matter how well-meaning they may be. It simply is impossible to convert noise into the True Tone. Noise is noise. But when the True Tone begins to emerge through the instrument, then the impact of that in-phase sound becomes increasingly overwhelming, as it might be described. This is a delight to those who find themselves in harmony with the tone but it is devastating to those who do not. I have observed, in some screen portrayals, how the effect of the intensity of sound is used to cause great discomfort, to make the person talk or something, tell his secrets. The sound of which I speak only causes discomfort to those who are out of phase, and that can become very painful; it is a disintegrative experience, dissipating the vibrational patterns of consciousness that are not in phase with the tone. All things are made new.
Here is a very specific process. It doesn't just happen. It requires the essential elements to be present. The trumpeter has always been present but His true nature as a trumpeter has never been known. There has been idle speculation and belief with respect to the reality of that trumpeter but anything specific has been largely contained in the realm of imagination and consequently has not necessarily been true at all. However we ourselves, and many more besides us who are here present, have begun to know the truth of these things. What I have been saying now is, to whatever degree, comprehensible to you; it doesn't entirely go over your heads, as it would with most groups of people in the world. In other words there is this much evidence of an in-phase condition of consciousness. Only what is in phase can understand. What is out of phase feels that it is being bombarded somehow, and it makes for apparent confusion. Our concern of course has been to allow our consciousness to come back into phase, that the nature of the instrument might be present once again, with the air, or substance of consciousness, still. The air in the trumpet awaits the breath of the trumpeter, and the vibration that is set up in that air will be exactly consequent upon what is generated through the mouthpiece by the trumpeter. Then the air in the whole trumpet takes on the same vibration and the True Tone emerges into the substance of consciousness, the air, round about.
The trumpeter doesn't play halfway down the trumpet; he plays through the mouthpiece. This is exactly the way it is; it can't work any other way. If we begin to see something of the emergence within the range of our conscious awareness of what is describable as the mouthpiece and as the trumpet, and we begin to see that perchance the trumpeter is beginning to generate the sound, then the whole process begins to come clear in our awareness. Now of course it's not just a matter of looking at it, it's not just a matter of satisfying human curiosity as to how the thing works; that would achieve absolutely nothing. To achieve something it must work, it must be in operation. The operation occurs, the vibration is set up in the atmosphere, in the air of consciousness, by the Lord, and this vibration is present to the extent that there are those who have a still capacity in consciousness for the tone to begin to be generated.
There are many levels of consciousness. We specifically define them in the pattern of seven, but only for convenience' sake. The seventh level — the seventh heaven, if you please — is that most refined level of consciousness in the dimensional world which connects with whatever is present in the dimensionless world. The six levels of consciousness below that seventh level in the dimensional world compose the dimensional world, the dimensional world formed of the substance of consciousness, whatever that may be. Six levels — the triune heaven and the triune earth. All these words are used to describe something which is indescribable because it has been beyond the range of human comprehension. It may come back into the range of human comprehension and consequently be accurately described, but this occurs only when what is present in consciousness has been generated as a result of the action of the trumpeter, of the Lord. And then there is understanding: when consciousness is in phase, comprehension is natural. Comprehension is impossible when this is not so, and it has not been so in human experience on earth for millennia. It is not so in human experience, in the general sense, right now.
Comprehension, true comprehension, makes it seem as though there is infinite confusion in the out-of-phase consciousness, because light begins to be cast, so to speak, upon the out-of-phase state which is confusion; and a person who awakens to an awareness of the out-of-phase state sees it as utter confusion. But the assumption is usually made that somehow this confusion is being imposed upon the person who sees it. All that is happening is that he becomes aware that it is confusion. He didn't know it was confusion before; he thought it made sense, but it never did. As has often been said, the unreal is completely incomprehensible; it's nonsense. And people seem to become proficient in bandying nonsense about, assuming that because they can do this it makes sense out of nonsense. But it remains nonsense, and when comprehension comes it is seen as being nonsense. Consequently there would be no incentive to plunge again into that state. A sense of thankfulness begins to emerge at being clear of it.
In this particular time, which came specifically to focus while we were in the South, there was permitted the increased generation of the essential Tone through the instrument, which you and many more begin to compose, and into the world. This relates very specifically to Tone. The Tone is set in the mouthpiece. It isn't set anywhere else; it is picked up everywhere else. The ability to encompass that Tone in your consciousness determines the extent to which you are in fact part of the instrument which generates the Tone in the dimensional world. There must be sufficient space in your consciousness for this to occur. Obviously a consciousness that is full of nonsense has no space in which this Tone can begin to reverberate, and therefore that individual remains aloof from reality. It is the space that is present, available to be occupied by the Tone, which tells the tale insofar as the person is concerned. It's not what he thinks he knows, it's not the grasp he imagines he may have as to the principles of reality; it is what is actually the case insofar as that space in consciousness is concerned — a space where the air is still and where therefore it can be activated by the True Tone. When there is such a space the activation of the True Tone begins to bring into phase all that is capable of being brought into phase in the rest of that person's consciousness, but it will shatter and dissolve all that is incapable of being brought into phase. And if there is too much of that, it shatters and dissolves what the person has imagined himself to be. But that was unreal anyway, so there's no loss.
This is the way it works! “Not by might, nor by power,” not by any human manipulation of circumstances or events or people or anything, “but by my spirit,” by the generation of the True Tone through the mouthpiece, throughout the trumpet, and consequently beyond in the substance of consciousness present in the world, primarily present in human beings. And what needs to be done then is done and there is nothing that can stop it being done. But all the manipulation that has been going on, even from the standpoint of our own understanding of ministry sometimes, is valueless. What is important? To find and to encompass this Tone — that and that alone — for by this is the job done, by this the restoration occurs, by this all things are made new.
Obviously it would be impossible to minister to others — there are so many others to minister to, aren't there? — if there is no True Tone in those who minister. And this True Tone is not merely an individual thing. There is, after all, the whole instrument involved; it involves many. When the movement in consciousness on the basis of this one Tone is all in phase, then there is power. You know, perhaps, something about a laser beam. The light all comes into phase. That's it! — the sound of the trumpet, the trumpet which awakens the dead, causing all things consequently to be made new.
© Emissaries of Divine Light
