Essences

Essences

Alan Hammond   October 14, 1987  World Service Class

I thought I would begin by reading a few verses from Revelation, Chapter Eight:

“And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.

“And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.

“And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense,

that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.

“And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel’s hand.

“And the angel took the censer, and filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth:

and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.

“And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”

There is a rather dramatic, symbolic description of something apparently going on in heaven. Prior to those verses there is a description of seven seals being opened. This no doubt correlates with the Seven Spirits that are focused in every human being, and the opening of different levels of consciousness so that finally there is full consciousness in heaven, where angelic action is then initiated.

When people contact us they are invited to share in a process of awakening the outer consciousness to union with the Angelic consciousness. You could put it this way: where seal after seal is opened, level after level of substance is generated as the focus of Identity is known in each succeeding level. We have that experience as one of ascension. [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/2018/10/getting-above-it-all-ascension-john.html] Our consciousness is raised. The first level relates to the physical level, and that is where babies and young people are identified. I won’t go through the progression of the seals, but suffice it to say that the opening of each seal does relate to the ascending focus of consciousness of Self as levels of substance are generated.

Is it not so that we and others have aspired to experience heaven? We’ve had our problems, troubles, frustrations, anxieties and resentments, and have thought, “Oh, to be free! Oh, to ascend into heaven and be an Angel there—that would be lovely!” And even after people have substantial spiritual education, there is still the aspiration in many to get into heaven. There is the matter of opening the seals, of letting Identity ascend as finer substance is generated. And there does come a point where there is adequate fine substance generated because of the quality of our living, moment by moment.

When the seals are opened adequately, so that we find ourselves living in heaven, an Identity is known in an eternal quality of Being, and we express ourselves as best as possible through whatever substance is available in our human forms.

There’s silence for half an hour. We become aware of the power of stillness. This is not just a cliché but awareness that external activity is not really what is required to achieve what we are here to achieve. In fact the whole process changes. Instead of the Identity trying to get into heaven, we find that we are an Angel seeking to get into the earth. That’s the real creative challenge before us. God has been excluded from the earth (I won’t say has been trying to come into the earth), and that is our creative challenge. The Angels in heaven experiencing the fulfillment and delight of Being, no matter what is going on in the external levels of substance, address the challenge of coming into the earth.

This is symbolized in the passage I read about the sounding of trumpets. Each Angel is responsible to sound his or her trumpet in the earth or, as it is alternatively phrased, to let the incense of their Being be released in the earth. Incense always relates to essence. The Angelic Presence, when released out of the heaven, has effects in the earth, not by sweat of the brow, organizations or organizing. A little bit of all that may be done in the very peripheral reaches of our Being. But the vast majority of Angelic function is experienced in the heavenly levels of Being, not the external ones.

Every Angel is a focus of Divine Being, the Spirit of God, and has the full range of Spirit with dominant and subdominant factors—differentiations of the One Spirit. Each of us is a hologram in the spiritual sense. This is significant because when people contact us, you often hear the moan go up at some point or another, “I’ve been moving in this program and gave up certain talents, a certain career. There are certain essences of my Being that I know are dominant.” In the early stages of our program one is somehow encouraged to forget that talent as the pathway to fulfillment and wash dishes, weed gardens, clean toilets, etc. Invariably in the human consciousness there is a certain amount of rebellion, resistance and argument about that, because, “What about my particular essences? Unless I have the chance in life to develop these dominant essences of my Being, I will not be fulfilled. How can I get into heaven unless I fulfill these essences?” Before I talk seriously about this, often people who say that are deluded about their level of talent and were never going to do anything much anyway in that particular field.

Speaking for myself, and I suspect for you too, I’m aware of many essences of my Being that I know will never be fulfilled. I’m very musical and like listening to music. I suspect I could have been a wonderful pianist if I’d had the musical education, parents that pushed me into it perhaps to start with, and the time and the money to do it. The essences are here in me. But that didn’t work out. I could have been an artist, I think. I feel artistic essences. That didn’t work out either. I could rehearse a long list of careers and areas of self-expression that I would have loved to do, where I feel the spiritual essences are present.

From the Angelic point of view (and very often our external capacities come along semi-consciously to go along with this), what is required is an outer capacity, because the outer capacity of the human form is very flexible. It could have done all these things—from businessman, to musician, to politician, to gardener—I love doing all those things in essence, and you would say the same in some way. This facility, the outer form, is very facile, very flexible, and could accommodate many of those essences. But from the Angelic standpoint, what is required in the overall creative process where I am?

If we can let our outer consciousnesses yield to what the creative process, the Whole, brings to us to be done, and release the essences of our Angelic nature into what actually comes, interesting things begin to happen. For one thing, we are able to lead a far more varied and balanced life than most other people. Angels do that. Angels, you see, are quite capable of creating heaven through virtually any form of activity. A human ego can’t do it. But an Angel can and does and, therefore knowing the eternal nature of its Being, is in no hurry to lose the unique opportunities to express the particular blend of essences that are required in this short cycle of a life in this form. Whatever our circumstances are, it is a unique artistic challenge to create the experience of heaven out of the raw material of circumstances. We naturally accept that challenge with delight, not wanting to change some of the raw material and say, “I’d rather have more of this, and less of that.” It’s the futile habits of the outer consciousness to think that way, because the Angel can very easily create heaven with the raw material that is at hand. And there’s no frustration, because every circumstance affords the opportunity to express the creative genius and essences of one’s Being.

We must know the experience of heaven before we can offer much leadership on earth. Unless we are experiencing the creative fulfillment that is natural in heaven, our service on earth is limited. We can still serve even with our frustrations, anxieties and fears and know we are still playing a part. But we must also know that it is a natural part of the cycle for us to generate the fine substance required to come into the experience of Self in heaven, fulfilled. Then we find that certain of our essences can be expressed in every moment of our living. Then after that generalized expression of Self, it does happen that there are certain dominant essences of our Being that can move into focus so that we can sound those trumpets on earth. We have particular areas of essences that we are individually responsible for sounding in the body of mankind. It’s important that those do come around (and they will if we do it right), because the expression of these Angelic essences is the means of control and government within the larger body of mankind and beyond.

I’d like to look at some areas where people tend to experience frustration because they feel they are not expressing the essences of themselves in that field. One is sexual relationship. I think we can all relate to feelings of frustration. We have essences of love within ourselves, and may feel there’s no one in our vicinity that we can see who complements these intense currents of love that are essences of our Being that we long to release into the Earth. Much of the frustration generated in human beings is because they are focused in the level of form. The art of arriving on earth is to begin to release the essences, the currents, and the incense, with the forms that are actually available, even though a person may not be married or have some physically intimate relationship. Well, that’s tough then. That’s the situation. Must we be frustrated? No.

The Angel in heaven, one with his or her own essences (that’s who they are, after all) feels these currents emerging and looks around in the earth for someone to complement the current of love that may be moving. Now it would hardly be appropriate to jump on the first person of the opposite sex that one clapped eyes on—it’s not the creative way to do it! However, one can find in one’s world a symbol of the Beloved—perhaps a person sitting at a dinner table, and smile and converse with them appropriately in the current of the essences of one’s Being—and know that one is releasing into the earth, with this particular contact point, a complementary factor. It’s a complementary factor in heaven but looks as though it is someone out here. An Angel relates to them fittingly, creatively, and those essences are released.

There’s a progression of form available to release these essences: holding hands, giving a hug. If it is done artistically in the pure essences of your Being, you will find that you are releasing these essences of your Being, sexual factors, through the contact point on earth of someone you can hold hands with. The power is being released and the fire is being released through that small symbol. If it is the pure, clear essences of Spirit that you release through that small symbol, it moves out and achieves what it needs to achieve, and is also part of the creative process whereby a more substantial form or symbol is being created, through which greater intensity may in due season be released as needed in the creative cycle. We have to use the symbols that are present now, exactly as they are—and release the essences of Spirit ourselves through available forms, as part of the creative process for the achievement of larger purposes.

So we need never be frustrated in that field if we realize that fulfillment is always primarily in the experience of essences. I’m sure many of you have on occasion experienced communion and fulfillment sexually in essence, when you’ve held hands with someone, and can contrast that with having sexual intercourse with someone where those essences were not in focus. One experience is delightful, thrilling and fulfilling; the other is an empty husk. Form is not the dominant factor, ever. That’s not to say that there are not fulfilling factors related to all levels of form, but that is not the core factor of fulfillment.

YouTube Video  Part 1

Let’s take another relationship: children. There are many people who feel that they will never be fulfilled on earth because the essences of parenthood cannot be fulfilled. They’re either not married, or not likely to have children, so they feel frustrated. It’s because they don’t know how to live. Their identity is not in Angelic Being, with their essences; because there are children around all over the place! Those essences of parenthood may be exercised if they really need to. Opportunity abounds for the release of those essences.

How about money? Some people feel they would be fulfilled if they had lots of money and could show their expertise in handling it if they had enough to perhaps play the stock market. The essences of stewardship and money management can be released through a welfare check, in the same way one handles all physical form effectively and efficiently.

Fulfillment is in the level of essence, of Spirit, handling that more intense level of substance. The outer levels of substance are less intense, with less dense substance. The most intense experiences of life are known when one is consciously engaged in the denser levels of substance, living and acting from them. This is the art of creating heaven. Heaven, in all its dimensions, is created through handling spiritual essences. As soon as you become aware of a spiritual essence on the move and allow the careful release of that essence—the fire that is moving into the earth—and let it come precisely into the other levels of substance, fulfillment will be known.

This is how Angels begin to sound their trumpet in the earth. If I had read on in Revelation, you would see that when the Angel began to sound the trumpet, all sorts of results occurred in the lower levels of substance. Our crudest awareness of focalizations of Spirit, the presence of Angels, has always pertained to whatever level of substance our own Identity was focused in. Therefore when we were children, humanly speaking, or spiritually, our experience of focalization or leadership was an external control through someone else.

There’s a need to move successfully through the experience of focalization in all the different levels as they appear. Usually there’s no need for rebellion. There’s a wrong rebellion that is resistance to the Divine Design, taking the form of a naughty child or rebellious human ego. Then as one comes to the successful filling of the vessel with substance of a certain level, one naturally feels that that kind of control, external perhaps, is no longer quite fitting. There is a sensing that one has generated finer substance that transcends that level, and so the old patterns of focalization—yes sir, no sir—don’t feel quite right, and therefore there’s a change. There is no need to feel rebellious about it just because there’s change, and one naturally explores in a creative Spirit what the new patterns of interaction are. The crude experience is the teenaged thing. We know the same sort of machinations go on spiritually. So let’s be more graceful in our awareness of what is going on.

As the Angels do appear in the heaven and sound the trumpet, in order for a creative experience to occur, there has to be response to that. In one sense, the Angel doesn’t care. The Angel is always in heaven. It might be said by the Angel, “I Am always fulfilled.” I know I speak for all the Angels present. As the Angel actually appears in heaven on earth, the Angel doesn’t try to impose control. There’s no need. You might say the human consciousness’s experience of focalization is being imposed upon by something so-called higher than I am. Coming out of heaven, there is no need to try to exert control over anybody or anything. It’s a different process altogether. It’s just the presence of the focalized essences with their particular authority, and as that presence manifests more and more intensely through the levels of substance that have been generated in the earthly form, then the radiance does the job. Resonant substance in other people or objects throughout the body of mankind or the planet simply respond as the radiance is present, and find union in the experience of heaven, union with the Spirit.

Any substance that resists or doesn’t want to be unified, well that’s fine. It doesn’t matter to the Angel because we know that the process is under way. You might say that the beauty of Angelic focalization is that it is all done by love. It’s All Love. An Angel doesn’t want anybody or anything to respond, and doesn’t want anything. Government is maintained by the working of love. As the quality of the Angelic Presence appears, and its particular focalization of essences, then that which should be unified simply responds out of love. Anything that doesn’t love the point of focus from the Angelic standpoint doesn’t find union there and is not included in that part of the heaven, anyway; maybe they are orienting somewhere else, and that’s fine. It doesn’t matter. This takes a lot of the anxiety out of “who is responding to me” and “who isn’t.” Only a human ego would be bothered by such a thing. From the Angelic standpoint, ultimately everything is unified in love, and that’s where we begin to sense our Being is.

As we sound our trumpet out of heaven, things begin to happen in the earth, and the Angel uses available symbolic objects and situations through which to sound the trumpet. The essences, the power, the fire must have a medium, contact points into the various levels of substance. Thoughts are things. Thoughts are objects. Thoughts are symbols. They should no longer just flit through our minds. They are contact points with the whole consciousness of the body of mankind. When an Angel thinks, then that substance resonates throughout the whole consciousness of the body of mankind. No sweat. It just is so.

There’s another aspect to this matter of Angelic Presence that I would like to just touch on. I think we would say that Spirit is animating all the earth forms that exist throughout the whole Cosmos, wouldn’t we? There are some rather interesting implications to that generalized statement, because human beings usually think of the universe as an impersonal machine. We look up into the night sky and see all these solar systems, the galactic systems. We look out on the surface of the planet and see all the vegetation and other systems. It’s a very impersonal world that human egos live in. As far as the Cosmos goes, they live in the midst of what is thought of as this huge machine, and think only they have this intelligence and heart, and that everything else is machinery supporting this consciousness capable of experiencing love. It isn’t so. That’s the isolated human that has come to that pass. 

As the subsequent seals are opened sequentially, we begin to find that the universe is not an impersonal place. If Spirit is Love, which is animating everything, it’s the Spirit of God. It is love. Well, what is this love? A sort of electricity? No. For love to be meaningful, identity must be involved, so that as Angels we begin to meet each other as focalizations of love. I know that I am a focalization of love—my real Self that my outer consciousness is beginning to know. I know my nature. I love to love! I’m beautiful. I’m noble. I’m honorable. Yes, I am this Angel! The outer consciousness begins to be aware of the presence of an Identity—the true Self, a focalization of love.

Whether I like it initially or not when I look out, I see other focalizations of the one Spirit of Love. It’s true of everybody. We know that theoretically, but in experience we should become increasingly capable of knowing communion with the essences of a person, even if they have some kinky human characteristics that we don’t care for much. If the Angel is increasingly present, we can disregard oddities, knowing that that’s not the eternal part. We can begin to connect with the essences of the Angel that is present. That in itself opens up a vast new world of communion. If you, as an Angel, begin to have control over your external consciousness and heart such that you can begin to forget the garbage that is spotted on various human beings and relate to the Angelic Presence, well then you can begin to be in a totally different world.

Even objects—trees, flowers, everything—are evidence of the Presence of an Angel who is coordinating that particular aspect of Spirit. I’m not saying there’s an Angel in every flower. I am saying there is a differentiation of an Angel in every flower. There is a point of Angelic Focus, a Divine Being, whose level of responsibility is to coordinate the creative field that, we’ll say, includes flowers or plants. That is a differentiation of a focus of Love. There is a point of Angelic Focus, a Divine Being for every species. The Angel’s Identity isn’t focused in that form, but the Angel’s Spirit is present through that creative field for which he or she has responsibility.

Now this has implications, because there is the possibility of communing. We think we’re just communing with nature. People go out and say, “Well, I sense God.” Who’s God? God is focalizations of Angels, Divine Beings who have particularized responsibilities of focalization in the Divine Design. There is a whole network of focalization. That opens up a whole level of communion, not just with a flower. You can commune with a flower, there is a differentiation, but increasingly we may find that it is not an unintelligent, unloving universe in which we find ourselves.

Coming back to the human-nature way of doing things, if a human being doesn’t like their neighbor they will maybe kick their neighbor’s car or, if they’re really nasty, their dog. Let’s put it this way: damage the neighbor’s car, you damage the neighbor. Now we, in human nature, do that all the time. There are people who we don’t realize we are attacking when we criticize their dog. It’s not really the dog, it’s a person we’re getting at—the way “their child is an ill-mannered twit, if ever I saw one,” and so on. And when the child goes by, some ill thought or word passes through us, maybe not even to the child, but in spirit we do our dirty stuff. There’s the person over there, and the differentiation of that person’s world (like their car) is contacted over here.

We have thought ourselves to be in an impersonal universe with flowers, trees and objects. It isn’t that way. We are connected in Spirit, in essence, to actual Beings, so that when we interact with any symbol, object or life-form, we are not merely interacting with that. That is a contact point with a Focus of Love, in fact. Here is an opportunity for communion at various levels, in Love, with a particularized Focus of Love. Heaven is not only vast; it is very personal. And you will find that as you begin to relate, at first you don’t know who the Being is that’s coordinating a pattern.

What I described is just an outline idea for something to begin. As you begin to relate to every object and connection in the current of love, releasing the essences of your own Being, you will find, for one thing, that you are beginning to generate spiritual intimacy in many dimensions. It is communion and the sharing of love. When you start doing it with objects, just expressing that tone of love, respect, cooperation, releasing the true essences of your Being in this interaction—although it may be high in the heaven yet and the outer consciousness is not yet capable of being aware of it—you are, in fact, communing with another Being, Beings. The world, the Cosmos, is actually only animated by Divine Beings. And their radiance is what we have called natural laws. It’s not just inanimate, unconscious power. It is the radiance of Beings. There is no other power except the presence of Angelic Beings. It is not impersonal.

So the experience of love begins to be much more intense, varied and omnipresent. It is a totally different universe than the human consciousness has known. Heaven is full of forms of union in Love. And we are here to provide a focus for this re-creative consciousness that experiences this. This is the Truth of Love. Above all else, we have all longed to love, to know love. As we awaken in heaven, we find (speaking of the outer consciousness) that just as we suspected, love is everything and everywhere. It is very intense, it is mild, and it is all the different nuances to be experienced.

YouTube Video  Part 2

And it is all very personal. The caressing of a flower is the caressing of a Divine Being’s hand somewhere. The healing touch on something that is ugly, with the intent to clear up a mess, is soothing to some Being somewhere; it is of assistance to a Being somewhere. It is not an impersonal act. It is an act of love. And as we begin to function in this world that I have just described, we will find love appears in myriad forms all around us.

Ultimately, the focus of this pattern of Divine Being is what we have called the LORD of Lords and KING of Kings. It is the expression of Love to Him personally. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40) And that’s not just other human beings. “The least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” Communion in love is available to us in every moment.

YouTube Video  Part 3

Alan Hammond — masvill@mac.com