The Trumpet

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