Sacred Objects
The Use Of Material Objects To Focalize Vibrations
Uranda January 5, 1954
One of the things we have to do this evening is the carrying out of the patterns suggested the other evening with respect to the use of material objects—which in and of themselves have no power—as a means of bringing vibrational factors to focus. I notice that in harmony with the word I sent to you, many of you have brought pictures this evening which you wish to use, from the standpoint of focalization of attunement currents in your own rooms or quarters. You will notice that I have brought the little statue which I mentioned to you before.
This little statue in and of itself has no power. A wrong pattern of expression or attitude with respect to these things could develop the concept that we are somehow utilizing what could be called idolatry. In other words if there is an understanding of what we are doing there is no danger of any such false concept developing. But in utilizing these principles, I wish to emphasize the fact that it is very important that you be very careful what you may say or how you may say it to others. Now I am not suggesting that we somehow try to hide the application of this principle. At the appropriate times and seasons you may utilize it regardless of who may be there. But it needs to be very, very clear in our consciousness, individually and collectively, that we are not accepting some image as being “the thing,” but rather recognizing that an image in the sense of a picture or in the sense of a statue—the principle is identically the same in either case—may be looked upon as a point of focalization of vibratory factors in representation. The image, the statue, has no power in and of itself. It is not able to do anything, but we can do something with it. It cannot do anything, but we can do something with it—a visual recognition of that which represents.
When our Master was on earth in the body of Jesus, the man, that body represented the Father, in the representation of the God Being whom we speak of as our LORD and KING. His physical flesh body was in oneness with the spirit of the God Being, and yet, even in that oneness was representative of that God Being. Anything that is to be made manifest on earth must, by some means in the realm of form, be a representation of that which is in heaven. That which is in heaven cannot project itself as it is into the earth, in the sense of the vibratory level in which we function. That which is of heaven must come into the earth through some form which represents that which is in heaven, or in the realms invisible to the human eye.
Man as such cannot see spirit as such, and yet spirit is made manifest through man. As I emphasize this point, that the image, whether in the form of a picture or a statue, cannot do anything, but that we can do something with such an image, we might remember the statement as given in the Ten Commandments: Thou shalt not make unto thyself any graven image or likeness of that which is in heaven above or in the earth beneath. Now it might appear to some, who have not stopped to consider the matter, that I am suggesting something which violates that commandment. But let us take another look at it. We find the record in Exodus 20. First, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” That is clear, a point upon which we have given meditation many times. “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.”
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness… Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.” This expression appeared at a time and a place where images as such were worshipped as God. In other words “Thou shalt not make a god unto thyself. Thou shalt not make anything which thou shalt consider to be a god, which thou shalt undertake to serve.” Now we all know that we are not in any sense bowing down to an image, to serve the image, whether in the sense of the picture or the statue. We have not made these unto ourselves. They are made unto God. We are not in any sense detracting from, or separating from, God, but in the field of representation they are accepted as a point of unified focalization in response to God—not to the image. If your response to me is limited to me as a man it would be wrong. But your response to me is in recognition of that which I represent, something brought to focus to me, and through me to God.
“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” The commandment does not say “Thou shalt not make unto Me any image which may be used as a means of recognizing the focalization of My spirit.” As we bow down before God and serve Him, remembering “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” there is no reason why we cannot use this principle of representation, which has been in use down through all recorded time. It was in use before that. It is something which the Master used; it is something which we see was in actual fact in the Master's own manifestation—that which represents. There may have been times when, with that fact in mind, one might prefer a flesh-and-blood point of focalization. We recognize that we can utilize persons as the means of focalization in the vibratory field in love response to God, but we need to recognize that it is possible for us to use material objects, lifeless and helpless in and of themselves—for us to use them; not for us to serve them, but for us to use them in the service of God. Herein we see the vast difference between the right pattern of function and the wrong. I wish to make it very clear, so that there could not be any possibility of misunderstanding.
Now let it be recognized that the value of any such object depends upon the individual who uses it. If you are undertaking to serve the object you are wrong, but if you are using the object it can be done correctly. The value to be derived from such a process depends upon the individual who uses the object, not upon the object itself. We might presumably use almost any object which to our minds, our senses, might be deemed fitting. If it violated our sense of the likeness of things, the value of the object would of course be lost; but any object which might be deemed fitting. In the days of the apostles, and in the days of the Master Himself, objects were so used. The woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years used an object on that basis—the Master's garment. She said to herself, “If I touch the hem of His garment I will be made whole.” And when she did touch His garment on that basis, on the basis of her right use of such an object, the Master felt the virtue issue forth from Himself into the one who received on the basis of such response. Later, pieces of cloth were so used, and other objects, but the tendency was, among those who did not have full comprehension, to attribute power to the object and therefore to have a certain amount of response to the object, to become subject to it. If you are going to attribute power to the object as such, then it is wrong. But instead of serving an object, we are using an object. So whether, as in the days of the apostles, when they used what we call a handkerchief, which was blessed to act as the point of focalization in the vibratory field, or whether it was something else, is of small consequence.
Now these objects which we have brought before the throne of God tonight are to be blessed, not in the assumption that they are thereby to have some strange and mystic power so that you can respond to the object as such and have some kind of blessing, but that they shall be recognized as objects of focalization in the vibratory field, through which there may be a conscious contact with that which is invisible, with that which is represented. This object of representation here in this particular case—whether it is the Master's picture or the statue representing Him, or the picture representing myself—is of small consequence, because you recognize that the two patterns cannot be segregated in any case, and that whatever is used, whether it is my body, my physical presence in the form of a man, or some object, it is all in representation of our Lord and King, that we may have on earth that which represents heaven. We cannot have heaven, in the sense of the invisible realm, manifest on earth any more than it is except by means of that which represents heaven. When we have discord and turmoil and chaos we have that which represents hell. On earth we are functioning constantly with those things which represent something, and any object which represents that which is of heaven becomes a means by which the things of heaven are made manifest on earth. This is something which you need to realize more deeply in relationship to yourselves.
You as human beings are supposed to represent something in heaven, so that the factors, the qualities, the realities, of heaven may be revealed on earth through adequate and proper representation. Our whole program is designed to establish on earth an adequate representation on earth of that which is in heaven. If we present on earth that which reveals heaven, then we have on earth that which represents heaven.
Remember, with respect to these objects, you are using them as a means by which your faculties of perception—sight, feeling, smelling, hearing, taste if you wish to include it, all your senses of perception—are brought to a point in love response to God. The degree of response, the nature of response, brought to point in a specific object, or the sense of perception which is focalized in such an object, determines the extent to which the cycle may work in the particularized field involved; not in the sense of responding to the object as an object, but recognizing the object as a point accepted by many, through which response is extended to God. If you think you are to respond to the object you are wrong. If you are to respond to God through the object you are right. And by use of an object we can bring the pattern of response in many people to a single point, so that as the pattern of response is concentrated to point the current from God to those who so respond can be increased in power and in meaning.
One of the great illustrations in history with respect to the working of this particular process was the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was a box covered with gold, having some handles, a plate on the top of it, and two images—an image on each end, of an angel. This box, this object, had absolutely no power in and of itself, but as the central object of focalization of the vibratory pattern of the people, the children of Israel, there was a tremendous current allowed to work through it. And it was so designed that the patterns involved could work effectively. The Ark as such, when it was first made, had no power. As an object it never had any power, but as an object it was the central point of focalization for the entire people of the children of Israel. With their response so centered the current of God's power working through that object to them was greatly increased.
Now there are many patterns which might be used, and which perhaps in the future may be used, to some degree at least; but we are starting, opening a cycle, in the simple recognition of these factors, and the acceptance of an object as a means by which your focalized response to me and to our Lord may be established here, regardless of where I may be in person geographically speaking.
I wish to draw your attention to this object which I present before you here. You may say it is a human concept with respect to the appearance of our Master when He was on earth, but I do not think that we need to be concerned about whether He really looked just like that, whether His facial features were just so. We may perhaps examine it closely. I would not be happy to find that you had been coming up here and picking it up and handling it and looking at it. If you do you will spoil the pattern. It is not to be picked up and handled by just anyone. I would ask Lorraine to take care of it, if it needs to be moved, or if she is not present to do so, Grace or Lillian may do so. But it is not an object to be picked up and handled. If you start handling it you are going to begin to establish your vibrational pattern in the material object itself, and that will not help matters any. It will not let you gain anything from it, a piece of bronze, with ivory hands and face, representing the form of our Master, representing His spirit of givingness, His spirit of compassion, His spirit of love, His spirit of blessing—representing Him.
I wonder, would you like to accept a point of focalization in this image and receive an attunement now? This object, this material object, becomes a sacred, holy object to the degree that we recognize the sacred and holy nature of that which this object may properly represent to our consciousness. We can, as you consider the matter, see here a representation of the Master, of the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. We may say the head represents our King. We may properly say that the right hand represents me, and we may say that the left hand represents the Lord of Life. And we may say that the body of the statue, down to its base, represents every earnest, sincere responding one the world around, including you; for you are a part of the Body of God on earth. And the Body of God is a body of flesh. So this is not the Body of God—for you are a part of the Body of God—but this represents that of which you are a part.
Therefore I bless this sacred object in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, that all who will respond to our Lord and King, by a centering of attention to this object, may thenceforth and always receive, according to response, the current of love and truth and life, in the filling of every empty vessel, according to the working of the will of God on earth, in the current of the spirit of our King, in recognition before Him that Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Aum-en.
And so here, in the Shekinah of our King, the evidence of the Presence of the One Who Dwells, we behold an object wherein we may let our attention center in love response to Him, to His glory and to the blessing of the children of men. And so it is that we use this object, this sacred object, in the service of our God as we respond to Him, worship and serve Him, now and always. So let it be. Aum-en.
And now I shall be seated and you will please let the attunement pattern continue, as you are doing, for a time. The value of this inanimate object, this holy object, to you here and now, at this level of your progress and development, is very great. You need something to help you center on a unified pattern, to a Central Being as it were, so that the vibrational patterns may no longer be scattered. And because we have a material object before you there is no need for you to have some personal attitude toward the object as such, other than appreciation for that which it permits us to do. With a person, even with me, your response is tinged and changed by reason of your attitude toward me as a person. You can be impersonal in this sense toward this sacred object. There is no reason for you to resent this object. It has done nothing, it has said nothing; therefore why should you resent it? Let your response be to our Lord and King, for this object represents Him, as surely as it represents His representative.
Now, continuing in the pattern of attunement, so that there is another step in that which you are now sharing, will you please pick up the picture which you brought and hold it with your two hands, facing me. The objects which you hold in and of themselves have no power at all, but you have brought them to be blest, that they may be objects focalizing the spirit of your response to God and focalizing your reception of the spirit of God into the realm of form, particularly in the sense of attunement.
The Master said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world”—of evil. He did not say, “You are to try to project your spirit to be with me where I am, no matter where you may be.” He said, “Lo, My spirit is with you, and by reason of My spirit I am with you always, even unto the end of the world of evil.” So I say unto you, by reason of my spirit I am with you here on Sunrise Ranch, even though I in person may be far away. Some of you have tended in times past to try to project your spirit to me, and you have found me pretty far away. But if you will remember that you do not have to project your spirit to me, but that my spirit is here, then you will know that I am near unto you. Lo, I am with you here, through all the days of your service in this place. And if at any time you need to be reminded that by reason of my spirit I am with you wherever you are, you may look upon this sacred object which I have set before you, or upon the sacred object which you hold in your hand, that you may be reminded that it is not needful for you to try in some strange fashion to come unto me. It is rather that you should realize that I am with you where you are. As you begin to realize that I am with you here, or where you are, it will be much easier for you to realize and know that you do not need to try to go to where you think our King to be, but that by reason of His spirit He is with you here. And by reason of the sacred object of representation, you can center your attention here in love response to Him, that you may receive of His spirit in this place. And as you receive of His spirit you shall receive of my spirit; and as you receive of my spirit, so shall you receive of His spirit. So let it be, now and always.
I have blessed these objects, these material objects, these sacred objects, in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit, that they may be sacred unto you and that you may use them to the glory of God and to the blessing of the children of men. So shall you do your part toward revealing on earth the fact that the kingdom and the power and the glory belong to our King; and because they belong to Him He has the right to grant you the privilege of sharing in the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Aum-en.
So is the cycle established unto you, that according to your use of the opportunity that is granted unto you in the holy name of our Lord and King it may in season be extended unto others, that all who will may share in the working of heaven on earth. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Therefore serve ye in the secret place, in quietness, in stillness and in assurance, that this which is established unto you may be so, truly a representation of that which is of heaven, that it may increase and in season enfold the whole earth, to the glory of God and the blessing of the children of men, in the Christ. Aum-en.
In the days before us, if any shall call upon you for assistance, to receive healing power or the need of blessing in any form whatsoever, in spirit grasp their hands in yours and lift their hands before the throne of God, just as your hands are lifted in receiving attunements here. Let the objects you have been holding be placed upon your laps now, and lift your hands once more. In your hands lift the hands of someone whose response you feel, someone whom you would bring before the throne of our King. Do not try to radiate to someone. Take the hands of those who respond and lift them, sharing with them your response to our Lord and King. So shall you be blessed.
According to thy response, so be it unto thee, now and in all the days to come. Let thy response be such as to glorify our Lord and King and to increase on earth the recognition of His kingdom and His power and His glory. Let the Shekinah of His Presence be made evident in your body, your mind and heart, in thought and word and attitude and deed, now and forever, in the Christ. Aum-en. Father, I thank Thee that it is so, in Thy Shekinah, in Thy Christ. Aum-en.
© emissaries of divine light
