As I greet you once again I am reminded that it is exactly two weeks to Christmas Day, the day decided upon and set apart to celebrate the birth of Jesus. This particular day was chosen not because it was actually the birth date of Jesus but because it coincided with another celebration popular at the time, so that those who called themselves Christians could celebrate without sticking out like a sore thumb. However, that other day of celebration coincided, as we have noticed before, with the period of the winter solstice. Here was a recognition of something of the relatedness which the function of human beings on earth has to larger cosmic events, in this instance the passage of the earth around the sun in its annual orbit. So, inadvertently there was an acknowledgment on the part of Christians of participation in cosmic events with respect to the One they have claimed as their Savior. Of course, according to the record, He Himself emphasized the reality of One to whom He referred as His Father, which would indicate relatedness to the larger pattern of things.
The planet Earth is not an isolated speck of dust spinning by chance in its orbit around a rather mediocre star. In our earthly consciousness we are made aware, through our physical senses, of a rather limited range of substance present with us, close at hand and also apparently spread around throughout the whole universe. This substance is largely discernible because it reflects electromagnetic radiation of a certain wavelength. That reflection we call light. Out of the total range of electromagnetic radiation, what is perceptible to us as light is a very small portion; therefore what we can perceive on the basis of sight with respect to what we call substance is small. This is one of the reasons why it seems as though the universe is full of empty space, because very little of the substance that is actually present throughout the whole universe reflects light that we can see. In recent decades human beings have come again to recognize that there is far more substance present in the universe than was first thought.
We had the opportunity of viewing some slides yesterday evening of various designs of substance both in the solar system and beyond in the universe. When the narrow range of visible light was expanded to include the ultraviolet part of the spectrum and the X-radiation part of the spectrum it became possible to observe a vastly increased amount of substance. Of course in order to make it seem comprehensible to the limited state of our earthly consciousness it had to be colored, so that it might be interpreted on the basis of what we think we already know. The point I'm making, however, is the fact that there is an increasing amount of substance made recognizable when the reflection of electromagnetic radiation extends beyond what is seen by the eye as light. If the whole range of electromagnetic radiation were made perceptible by reason of its reflection it would be found that the whole universe is full of substance. As human beings we think there isn't much there, when we look out into the night sky for instance, because all we see is the reflection from a certain level of substance, little pinpoints. We have been informed, of course, that those pinpoints are sometimes of considerable size; but it doesn't seem so, relative to the whole range of universal blankness. Yet it isn't blank; it's full of substance.
Even if we bring it down to the solar system, there is an inclination to think of this as being mostly space. There is a lot of space to be covered apparently, if we happen to go on a trip to Mars. But, as was noted yesterday evening, the so-called corona of the sun includes the whole planetary system, and the planets are in fact a part of the sun. They are not isolated objects floating around in outer space; they are embedded in the substance of the solar entity. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2014/12/from-martin-cecil-october-24-1976-first.html] When we look at the sun—it is wise to look away quickly—we observe a flaming object in the sky, very bright, and also radiating warmth, which we are able to sense. We feel uncomfortable if there is too much of it, and uncomfortable if there is too little of it. But we see the sun as a separate object; the earth is here, the sun is over there, ninety-three million miles away, with apparently nothing in between. Of course we are informed that there are magnetic fields, solar winds, showers of particles, all this. We may observe something of the effect in the northern lights, for instance, but we are still rather convinced that there is a great abyss between the earth and the sun; also between the earth and the other planets. And yet when the reflection of other ranges in the electromagnetic spectrum is made apparent to us we find that the sun extends out a long way and there is quite a bit of stuff around the earth; but even what is observed on the basis of the limited reflection seen from the ultraviolet light, for instance, does not inform us of all the other levels of substance that are actually present. Perhaps it is rather fortunate that in earthly consciousness we do not have the facilities for perceiving the reflection of radiation from the total range of substance; it would likely be very confusing to us. All we see is a very little bit, minute relatively speaking, of the substance that reflects what we call visible light. The vast majority of the radiation is not visible light. The vast majority of the substance that is present all around us is not seen. To all intents and purposes, human beings in general have no awareness that it is present at all.
Sometimes there is a perception of peculiar phenomena which do not seem to be included in the normal range of human observation. We have all sorts of stories about these phenomena, some of them supposed to be somehow supernatural, some of them presumably explained in scientific terms. Most people don't look too closely at these things because they are a little scary, but actually we live in the midst of all the substance there is, whether we are aware of it or not. If we do become aware of something more, then we are keenly conscious of our own ignorance. Most people don't like the idea of being ignorant, so they try to limit their awareness of things to what is immediately perceptible through the physical senses and ignore all the rest. Under the human circumstance perhaps that is wise but it doesn't lead to very intelligent function in our momentary living, because we ignore 99.999 percent of all that is present and we try to function on the basis of the very little bit left capable of our observation. And as the whole range of substance is not separate—it's all one thing, just different vibratory levels of this one thing—if we try to manipulate the substance that we do perceive as though we could successfully govern our experience on this basis, we will at the same time be stirring up all sorts of storms and vortices in the substance that we don't see, and these will be reflected back in the substance that we do see. So, no matter how carefully we govern our actions with respect to what we do see, we find very shortly that everything is out from under control because we never took into account all the substance that we don't see. Of course on the basis of the true design of things it is not the intent that human experience should be governed merely by manipulating what is visible. We have come to recognize that there is a level of understanding available which makes possible right function with respect to the whole range of substance which is present, but the means by which this may occur is not the human intellect, because the human intellect functions—in its present configuration at least—on the basis of what is observable, what we call the environment, on the basis of the substance that is perceptible in that environment. The perception of some people goes a little further than others in this regard, but regardless of how far it goes from the standpoint of the earthly state of consciousness it's not very far, and the vast majority of what is present is utterly ignored. That is the reason for ignorance.
The whole universe is filled with substance, and all substance is one substance, and whatever occurs in one part of that substance will affect all other parts of that substance. How important it is that we as human beings should discover how to live in the midst of all this substance without injecting into it extraneous currents of action, action that doesn't belong, action that is based merely in the observation of the limited range of substance of which we as human beings are aware. It's interesting to note how expertly human beings rationalize what they do. Actually, there is something moving through the substance of the universe which extends creative control at all levels. Let us consider this little planet, which after all isn't merely a little planet, because it is an essential part of the whole solar entity, which in turn is an essential part of the whole galactic entity, which in turn is an essential part of the system of galaxies, and beyond that again, however far you would like to go. The earth that we know is a little range of substance under our feet, a part of a far larger range of substance that occupies the whole space of the solar entity, at the core of which is what we call the sun. But nobody ever saw the sun. It has a garment about it, a garment down to the foot.There is a face which may be said to shine as the sun, an observable face, an observable garment. The garment includes the earth and extends beyond into the uttermost reaches of the solar system.If we took the total quantity of substance that there is present relative to this little piece of substance that we are aware of and call the planet Earth, we would find that it extended a long way beyond that speck of dust.
Mention was made that Uranus and Neptune are quite small planets actually, insofar as mineral substance is concerned in the ordinary sense, but they are encased in an immense amount of ice, which makes them very big planets. Perhaps that illustrates something of what the earth itself is, although it isn't ice in this instance. It is vibrational substance at other levels which extends way out, and even when it extends way out it is all included in the sun substance which fills the whole space of the solar entity. In that sense, it's solid substance everywhere. We live in quite a world, ignorant, for the most part, of it. We just stumble around upon the surface of this visible substance which we call the earth, aware that there is fluid substance also, and gaseous substance, besides what are now called electromagnetic fields, and beyond that again; but here is a whole range of substance, and there are currents of life moving through it. Human beings are always looking for the origination of life—the amoeba must be it!—but the substance of this solar entity is the flesh of life; here's the living entity included in a far vaster living entity.There is no substance in which life is not. These currents of life move through this substance to give it form and meaning. How utterly futile to try to understand the meaning of the universe by simply observing what comes within the range of the reflected radiation of which human beings are aware. Obviously human beings have no awareness of the vast majority of what is present.You can't take a little bit and find out what the meaning of the whole is. It's a futile endeavor, stumbling around in the dark; the darkness comprehends not the light.
I am mentioning all this this morning partly so as to impress all concerned with their ignorance. Perhaps for those of you who were here present yesterday evening to hear what Hugh had to say and to observe the slides, there was a sense of the insignificance not only of puny human beings but even of this solar entity, and yet a sense of the essential nature of each part. When we become aware of such things there is properly a compulsion to repent in dust and ashes for having given ourselves so much self-importance; and how little human affairs become when seen in this setting; hardly discernible, the affairs of the human race hardly discernible. What then about the affairs of the individuals who compose the human race? Why do we give such importance to human affairs, our own individual personal affairs in particular? It's crazy; it's completely irrational. Human beings are able to rationalize almost anything, failing to realize that what they do is in reaction to this current of life that moves through the substance that is everywhere present.
Because human beings are composed of substance—not only physical substance but all the rest of the substance too—they find life moving, impelling in various ways. People do things and then explain why they do them. Usually the thought is that we have considered the matter ahead of time and so we do this, and it's very rational action. That isn't the way it really works. We do what we do on the basis of being impelled by life but also on the basis of the reaction of our earthly consciousness to that, and it's a very distorted reaction. So we do very irrational things, which we attempt to explain rationally as resulting from our emotional and our intellectual action. Well, emotions and intellect are involved all right. I was thinking of an example, a rather usual example apparently this time of the year, when the postal workers go on strike—it's becoming sort of a habit, and regardless of the intention not to do so it happens. So it has to be explained, and very rational explanations are put forward. Some people were suspended and they shouldn't have been suspended. This is the rational mental explanation of why this phenomenon appears. That has nothing to do with it, whatsoever!
It is the reaction of human beings in particular ways, according to the patterns in which they find themselves, to what is moving through this living substance. That's chaos, increasing chaos, because there is an intensification of the movement of life. There's a reason for this too; not a reason that human beings could fathom, but they merely are aware, indirectly at least, that it is happening.So we find a condition of anarchy increasing. There are even those who suggest that anarchy should be an article of faith. And there are all kinds of different activities with which human beings align themselves, completely ignorant of the fact that what is happening is happening because of the intensifying compulsion of life moving through this total spectrum of substance. The human experience has got off on its own in an isolated pattern of attempted function, as though human beings didn't really belong in the universe, as though they could somehow stand apart from the universe and decide what it is all about. That's like the eye trying to look at itself. So there are these compulsions of movement through the total spectrum of substance present.
The substance which is present here in this particular corner of the total universe embodies a certain specific expression of life. There is immense detail, obviously, in the universe, immense detail in this solar entity, and these details are unique to themselves even though they fit harmoniously in the whole. Human function has been largely in violation of the movement of life through this substance, a violation which has been established because it was imagined that the intellect of man could control the earth, this little planet Earth, while ignoring the substance of the greater entity. Such endeavors, pushing and pulling and manipulating in the world, have caused this chaos which human beings call civilization. An interesting rationalization! The fact of the matter is that it is meaningless chaos, going nowhere. The theory of evolution had to be invented in order to make ignorant people imagine that they really were going somewhere. Well I suppose they were going somewhere, but the somewhere, when they reached it, was found to be nowhere. That is what is called death. That's where we're all heading, isn't it?We don't like to think of it too much. But, all this experience is consequent upon the fact that human beings have been isolating themselves from the real movement of life, trying to make life serve them; and the way this is supposed to happen is by manipulating that very minute range of substance of which they are aware. As I say, any such manipulation is going to have repercussions throughout all the rest of the substance of which human beings are not aware, and those repercussions will come again into the world of which human beings are aware. Then people are inclined to say, “Well I didn't deserve this.I'm being mistreated.I want justice.” Do you, really? Well, you'll get it! The universal system, if we were to call it that, is a just system, absolute. No matter how human beings complain about their undeserved miseries, what is happening is not the way human beings have interpreted it. So there is a hopeless state here as long as there is contention with the movement of life. Most human beings have no realization that they are contending with life but the very endeavor to use life to one's own ends produces that result—one's own end. Many people say, “My life is my own, to do with as I please.” Is it, really? When did you make it? Life is universal. There is the necessity then of being restored to alignment with life.
We have considered this in terms of the angel present, incarnate, in every human form, and in terms of the Archangel collectively. Here is life in expression as it really is throughout the universe, in expression at all levels of substance—insofar as this spot in the universe is concerned, restricted in expression by reason of the attitude of human beings who try to manipulate life to suit themselves, being ignorant of the fact that life has its own purpose. Contending with life is a futile undertaking; we find ourselves increasingly out on a limb and eventually we saw the limb right off, because we become useless in human form—not that the substance is useless; it's still valuable substance; it's still included in the total spectrum of substance. Even when the human body disintegrates that is so, isn't it? The substance is useful. It will be used again in the expression of life one way or another; but if we have diverted that substance to be used in the expression of something that is not true of life—and this is the human condition—then it must pass away. The human condition must pass away, not the substance; the substance remains. Our ability to function in this total spectrum of substance is based in what we have spoken of as the angel; the angel, the reason for the individual's existence. The whole reason for anyone's existence is in the angel, not in the earthly consciousness which assumes roles of various sorts in order to manipulate things to suit itself.
So we have recognized the reality of the angel incarnate in human form but imprisoned by the earthly consciousness of that form which assumes that it is something all on its own. It discovers eventually that that isn't true, but it doesn't do the human consciousness much good at that point. There is a heavenly state of consciousness available to fill the earthly state of consciousness, as we recognize, and it is through the vibratory levels of heavenly substance that the earthly substance is controlled. So it is only on the basis of the heavenly state of consciousness that things begin to come under control again in the visible substance of which human beings are most keenly aware. That substance is not controlled creatively by manipulation, because, as I say, that sets in motion all sorts of forces at other levels of substance which come back and clobber whatever human beings were trying to do. I am sure you have had that experience. Your intentions were so good, you were so careful in what you did, but look what happened! “It wasn't my fault; somebody else was to blame over there.” So human beings blame each other, criticize each other, condemn each other, and, if that is done sufficiently, work themselves into a frenzy of hate until they start killing each other, as though that is going to solve the problem.The mind gets in there busily rationalizing, “Well what would you do in this situation?I have to protect myself.” Everybody has the attitude that they're the ones who are on the defensive; everybody else is positively hostile. So it is by reason of the angel that the heavenly state of consciousness is present with us in this moment, available to us in this moment, to the extent that we are willing to relinquish our ignorance and stop insisting that mentally speaking and emotionally speaking we are capable of handling what is essential in our own experience of existence. Do you think you can? Oh yes, you've been trained in this and in that and you're very capable, but that is a state of delusion.
The heavenly state of angelic consciousness permits the right use of substance, the right use of heavenly substance initially, the heavenly substance of which earthly consciousness has been completely ignorant. The earthly consciousness says it doesn't exist. The earthly consciousness says, to me now probably, “I don't know what you're talking about.” Of course not! How could it? Only where there is a beginning discernment from the standpoint of heavenly consciousness—spiritual things are spiritually discerned; they are not discerned by the intellect—is there an awareness of levels of substance which are, in this sense, first substance. It is here that the true design is, and that true design needs to come through into the earthly substance because no longer is earthly consciousness in its present state blocking it, blocking it by reason of its own arrogance. So we are concerned, as angels, with our true state of consciousness and with the substance which moves easily under the influence of that true state of consciousness. From level to level that movement is reflected until it includes all levels of substance. That is the restoration. That is the earth restored to its true state. Most people think of the true state as a nice garden growing out here, trees and fruit, and everything's lovely, and the lion is lying down with the lamb, just as though it were merely a little thin layer here on the surface of the planet. That's the view of earthly consciousness, but on this basis human beings don't know what they're doing. “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” They're ignorant. The great sin is a refusal to acknowledge ignorance and to be willing to let it go in favor of the wisdom that is already present. If one insists that ignorance is wisdom then there is no space for wisdom. This is the attitude that human beings have: they know so much, or think they do.
So we come again to the angel, and collectively to the Archangel, that there may be a flesh form which includes all the substance that is already present, not merely this that we call physical substance but the total spectrum of substance. That is wholeness, holiness, making possible righteousness, the right use of all levels of substance according to the true design of life. What has this to do with the ridiculous affairs of human manipulation? Nothing whatsoever. It's a new state, not the old state made over, a new state in which God is glorified because there is an awareness that the glory of God fills the temple of this solar entity, of this universe, and shines round about.
O LORD, we are thankful for the opportunity of sharing increasingly in Heavenly Consciousness, and consequently an awareness of the reality of Universal Substance, thereby revealing the fact of Oneness. How good to be offered the opportunity of rising out of abysmal ignorance into a consciousness of the True Wisdom which enables life to be expressed on earth as it really is, thereby revealing Thy Glory, In the Christ. Aumen.
We are gathered here in this room, apparently a number of individuals. Is there really space between you and your neighbor? Is there really space, vacant space in this room? Or do you sense that the room is full of substance, substance of which we have no mental awareness and can have no awareness but which we may comprehend to the extent that that is necessary to our angelic expression of life in the fulfilment of our creative responsibility? We are not isolated entities, and this fact is known in angelic consciousness.
