The Core Of The Body Of The Archangel
Martin Cecil April 27, 1979 Assembly
One of the principal purposes of these Assemblies is to bring a core consciousness to those who participate, so that the core of this ministry may be strengthened and become more effective. Anything that occurs of a creative nature in the field of responsibility carried by this larger body, the Body of the Archangel, only comes because there are those who have accepted responsibility in the core. In other words it only comes because there is a Core.
This we see lacking in so many ways relative to the actions of human beings who seek, maybe most sincerely, to do something that is of value spiritually speaking. You can think of many who have considerable followings in the world—great crowds; a spirit that is desirous of conveying something that would be a blessing and of value to people. The spirit of God—even though it is interpreted on the basis of some human nature attitudes and views—but it is still spirit there, and a lot of people are moved by it. But where is the core? Where is the core that could make such an undertaking of real value? It simply is not there. Precious little responsibility is taken to carry those who do respond any further, principally because the ones who might have that responsibility do not know how to carry anyone any further. There has been an assumption made in Christianity that this is it. According to the particular doctrine that is propounded, this is it. If you want to go any further you’ve got to die to do it. In any case, people who do come forward—of course there are various reasons why people do come forward, but some of them are no doubt based in response to the spirit of God, a compulsion that is there because of the spirit of God—they come forward and then they are channeled into a back room somewhere, and then channeled again into some already-existing structure. It all goes around in a circle, so what might have happened has not happened. Something builds up and goes right back into the structures of old. People become frustrated, or self-satisfied as the case may be, because of this sort of thing. We see the futility of it.
Who is capable of carrying forward into the experience of the new heaven and the new earth? This is what is required, obviously—we have recognized that this is what is required. Now there is a greater understanding of how responsibility may be taken for what is required. If there is to be a carrying forward into the new heaven and the new earth experience, it can only be done by those who have that experience. And let us not imagine that that experience is, in any given moment, an ultimate one: “Now we have it made.” That is the attitude, as I have just said, that has been taken by Christianity. When that attitude is taken everything comes to a full stop, because the truth is that nobody has it made. There is a creative movement, but there must be a core which provides the leadership in that creative movement. If it is a creative movement for others it must be a creative movement in the core, because the core provides the compulsion for what is to be experienced by others, therefore it is something that is being experienced in the core. Let us never imagine that we have arrived therefore, because the very moment we do that the creative spiral turns into an uncreative circle—you just go around back to the same point again. So we keep moving as a core.
This little formation here is composed of forty-nine people—angels, I trust; they are angels whether they know it or not—who are now included within a larger core, a larger formation, partly composed of those who have associated themselves previously with the sessions of last year. Some of those, I am aware, have tended to forget the angelic experience and the fact that responsibility had been accepted for the continuing magnification of the core. Do not let this be said of you! Obviously there is this tremendous need for the living core, which by its own experience in living offers leadership. It is the creative expression in the moment, the spiritual expression of the angel, the changes occurring in human consciousness consistently, that offers the leadership that is required from the core. Then something can happen on the periphery. What needs to happen on the periphery is rightly a reflection of what happens at the living core. But if the core stops living, then the periphery stops living too.
We see the nature of leadership clearly enough, I am sure. It is never a dictatorial imposition. It is always an invitation: “Come near unto me. Take my yoke upon you. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” How is anybody to know that? Only because we know it in our own experience at the core. Is it your experience that the yoke is easy and the burden light? Or are there moments when you deny this, in your own attitudes if not in words—although I have heard it done in words too. “It’s a hard world.” Is it? Which world do we live in? Is our world the heavenly world or the earthly world of human nature? The latter is certainly a tough world; it requires, seemingly, tough and coarse people to maintain it, and there are quite a number of those on earth, aren’t there, doing their best in this regard.
We are not interested in that, surely, but in the easy yoke and the burden of light—the light burden, the shining of the light—it doesn’t weigh much. We are not crushed to the earth by our burdens, and we do not pretend to people that we are carrying some awful and weighty burden, so that human nature may be impressed. This is why people put on that sort of a show, isn’t it? To impress human nature: “See how much I am doing! See what awful burdens I am carrying!” “My yoke is easy, my burden is light”—this is the leadership that is required, not the other. There are plenty of people exemplifying the other. So our core expression, individually speaking, should proclaim the truth.
It seems that when describing the wonders of heaven the bottom of the barrel of words adequate to the occasion is frequently scraped: “It is wonderful, isn’t it? Marvelous, tremendous!” Well, it is not so much that we need to describe the situation as to reveal it, and let the describing be by somebody else. There needs to be something to describe. Often words are used to fool people. They are really describing a blank; there isn’t anything there. So let us not get too caught up on these magnificent words, but let us let our experience and expression be magnificent, wonderful, marvelous, all these things, so that others can recognize the fact. And if they want to scrape the bottom of the same barrel for a while they can do it. But let us be the genuine article, so that other people have something to describe if they want to do it. Sometimes we are not, in our expression, described in such glowing terms, are we? Perhaps partly because whoever it was didn’t really see what was there—we trust that that is the case—but it also might be because what should be there was not there, adequately at least, to be seen.
We allow our circumstances to change, willingly accepting a new set of circumstances. We all have to do this—moment by moment we are required to receive the circumstances that are offered to us. Let us receive them with thankfulness and delight. Let us never object, but let our behavior be magnificent in them, wonderful, marvelous. Well, we like these sort of words; we use them all the time. Why not let them be applied to something in fact, in the experience itself, in the circumstance as it is? We have been advised not to judge. If we don’t do it, then what is the difference insofar as the nature of the circumstance is concerned? We can describe them all as circumstances, without any adjectives. In all things give thanks; and in our living we proclaim that the yoke is easy and the burden is light. If we really do proclaim that, that in itself is an invitation. People may sidle up to us and look over: “What is this marvelous thing?” Let us let the world be filled with genuine marvels. Then we don’t need to say too much about it. But others no doubt will, if the genuine article is there. And that is fine for a while, until they decide that it is time that they should offer the genuine article rather than talking about it.
So we accept our responsibilities in the core. The responsibility in the core is the revelation with greater exactness, effectiveness, detail, what is anticipated will be reflected on the periphery. It will be a little paler by the time it gets out to the periphery, probably, but it cannot be a very clear-cut expression on the periphery unless it is first at the core. In other words, it needs to be much more intense, much more genuine, if that is possible. I don’t know how you can be more genuine—you either are or you ain’t! But we may see here the clarity that is required in the miniature if it is to be reflected when magnified. So let us let the core be exact, be absolute, be completely genuine, revealing the experience of the new heaven and the new earth because we acknowledge that this is our responsibility to do.
There are plenty of people revealing the first heaven and the first earth. That doesn’t need to be added to at all, does it? What is the nature of the new heaven and the new earth? Reveal that! You may on occasion have a feeling which would like to reveal the nature of the first heaven and the first earth, but that is not your responsibility. Why kowtow to that feeling? You do not undertake to do anything that is not your responsibility. We always do what is our responsibility, and we see this as relating to this revelation of the new heaven and the new earth. And accepting that responsibility, insofar as we are concerned, immediately the first heaven and the first earth are passed away. Here we are to accept our true responsibility, our true commission, to eat the little book which is sweet in the mouth and which human beings have always insisted on making bitter in the belly. But that is the first heaven and the first earth, isn’t it? If it is sweet in the mouth there is the new heaven. Let it be sweet in the belly and there is the new earth. What is sweet in the mouth rightly is sweet in the total expression. We don’t change it on its way out. Have we tended to have a habit of doing that? I mean, we know so well, don’t we, how marvelous, how beautiful, how tremendous it is in the heavenly state, but how is it when it gets out here? Do we insist at times that it is bitter? Or do we let our expression be genuine?
It is a peculiar thing that human beings often think they are being genuine when it is a pretense. We know better. We know that it is so tremendous in heaven. Okay, if it’s tremendous in heaven it is tremendous on earth. Heaven and earth are one. If we say it is tremendous in heaven and miserable on earth, that is a pretense—we have no experience, actually, of what is in heaven. We just have a theory about it. But having the experience, then we say, loud and clear, “Look, this is the way it is.” And saying that, it is said on earth. “My yoke is easy, my burden is light.” This is the way it actually is. And we do not make a pretense of that either: “I’m going to pretend that it is easy and light, but I know darned well that it is going to be tough.” What is the use of that? It is not a matter of putting on a good front, as they say. There are lots of people doing that. If we have a good front it is because we have a good back too. What comes out front is backed up by the genuine expression—spiritual expression we call it.
So this little focus of core is going to pass away, but the core for which we are all responsible is not—at least it is not if we take responsibility for it. We have to take responsibility for it exactly where we are, obviously so. We cannot take responsibility for it where we are not. It is in the circumstance of the moment that we do it. We do it with all those others who are honest in this regard and have accepted that same responsibility. We recognize this with respect to each other, and we certainly enjoy doing it. There is nothing more enjoyable than abiding in heaven on earth. The human consciousness may be inclined at times to say, “I don’t like this,” or on the other hand, “I do like this.” But whatever it says, that is beside the point. What do we know?
What do we know in our own experience of living as members of the Core of the Body of the Archangel? Let us abide in that place, sharing the responsibility of revealing the truth, describable in terms of “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” That is a very inclusive, all-inclusive statement. We need to see it in all its details, in our momentary living relative to the circumstance where we find ourselves. Aha! here is the opportunity to reveal that the yoke is indeed easy and the burden light. If we have that sort of zeal I suppose you could say we have it made, but not in the sense that nothing else is going to be experienced ever—we have reached the ultimate heights of angelhood. What would that be, I wonder. And what would it be after that? No, the creative expression that is required in the core is always a continuing expression, and it moves in what we have described as a creative spiral—constantly upward. Is it going to reach its ultimate one day, do you think? If it did, then thereafter the only thing would be down, wouldn’t it? No, this is not the way of the Lord. It is resurrection and ascension, an upward movement.
And if there are those aspects of experience which necessarily need to move down and out, whatever composed those experiences will not be lost. It will participate in the creative spiral from a different level, and ultimately everything is moving up, even though in the meantime there is the disintegrative aspect of the creative process within the range of our immediate experience. If we don’t object to this we are kept from the evil—that is, we do not become involved with that creative process. We are a part of what makes that creative process possible in the true way, and we share that responsibility. In the expression of that responsibility the yoke is easy and the burden is light. And we would never claim anything different; we would never feel inclined to claim anything different. We would never feel that we were doing our duty to claim that this is the way it is, because when we have that sort of an attitude there is an underlying indication that we do not really think that is the way it is: “It is not easy, and it is not light.” What is your experience in this regard? How much is it of the truth, or how much is it of what is not true, namely that it is a tough row to hoe?
So we take the responsibility of revealing the truth. Because we do so, we breathe the breath of life into all that we touch—everything and everyone is given the opportunity of participating in the resurrection. Here is our responsibility as the core. Here is the responsibility of leadership. The spirit that we have known in this regard needs to be carried with us, clear and bright, wherever we are, whatever circumstances may come to us. They come to us to be filled with the spirit, and thereby to share increasingly with us in the resurrection and the life, in the movement around the creative spiral rising up. Anything that associates itself with us in our circumstances should be given that opportunity. And we do not judge what associates itself with us and say, “Well this doesn’t deserve to be lifted up.” Give it a chance! Let it prove itself out. We sometimes may be amazed to discover what it is that does come up. By the same token, we may be amazed on occasion by what it is that goes down. But our concern is to offer what is necessary for the resurrection, for the restoration. “Rise up, my love, my fair one”—this is our attitude in living. This is the attitude of those who share the core. And all of you have this responsibility, with many others beside yourselves. Let us move together in this with assurance and with certainty, completely willing to allow this particular formation to be dissolved into the larger formation—and we have the greater experience now, the greater ability therefore to move in the larger formation of the Core, and to keep the faith as we continue to move around the ascending spiral, inviting all that is present with us to share the experience of the resurrection.
We leave what needs to be left behind without regret, because all that is worthwhile is not left behind but is still present with us, and will continue to be present with us as long as we provide space for it to be so. Let us never exclude the Spirit of the Living God in our momentary experience. So we may continue to share closely in the Core of the Body of the Archangel, extending the impact, the creative power of the spirit by which all things are made new. We do this because we love and serve the Lord, the One whose commission we hold. We would never let that commission fall to the ground, but we would hold it firmly in our hands in our living, because we love the Lord, because we know why we are here, and because we always are concerned to represent Him rightly in all our ways.
So, with the spirit of these words, let us continue together in agreement in the experience of fulfillment. The fulfillment is the angelic expression. The fulfillment is the acceptance of the responsibility of which I have been speaking, the easy responsibility, the one that is light. It is in all your hands. It is in all our hands. Praise the Lord. May we individually and collectively come into position to say and to speak truly, “I have finished the work which thou hast given me to do.” Let us conclude our time together in this Assembly with a prayer, from our hearts in oneness, to be offered before the throne of God.
O Lord, as the creative cycle moves on, we move with it on earth. We continue to accept our responsibilities in and for this creative cycle, that in the discharge of our commission in Thy name, we may finish what we are here to do. We would not delay it but let all be brought to fruition according to Thy will. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Accepting our responsibilities as individuals, with all those who truly serve Thee on earth, the truth is revealed, and the truth makes free. The truth brings the power of resurrection increasingly into the experience of the world. O Lord, we are deeply thankful for the opportunity we have, with all Thy servants everywhere, to do what we are here to do, to do it with the ease and naturalness of angelic nature, to share in the increasing intensity of the expression of Thy love on earth, Thy creative spirit. We would always, in all our ways, give glory to Thee in the highest, in the Christ. Aum-en.
© emissaries of divine light
