The Light Not Eclipsed
excerpts
John Gray December 27, 1987 Glen Ivy, California
[These words were spoken fourteen days after Martin Exeter's final Sunday service;
exactly seven days after Martin entered the hospital in Kamloops, and he was in a coma;
and they were spoken sixteen days before Martin left this outer sphere on January 12, 1988;
these words by John are imbued with the radiant and everlasting life current, and so they are timeless and pertinent.]
The solar cycles progress perfectly. A natural phenomenon from our earth-dweller’s perspective is a solar eclipse, which occurs when the moon is positioned between the earth and the sun, blocking from view of part, or perhaps all, of the sun's light temporarily. In ancient times before this enlightened scientific era, such occurrences were viewed fearfully—the appearance being that some dark disk was eating the sun. The metaphor of an eclipse has relevance to us, for Martin personally has been a Sun around which our lives have tended to orbit—a point of stability, radiance and life. Whether an eclipse is partial or total depends on where one’s position is on earth.
For us, Martin's illness might be analogous to an eclipse of the sun, being visible only to emissaries and resonant associates around the world. It isn't geographically confined, as the view of a physical eclipse tends to be. If we share an awareness of the natural order of things and of what is actually transpiring, we won’t react primitively, in fear, to a metaphoric eclipse. There are many suns, countless suns, and each of us is one. Identified with the source of light, an eclipse is not disconcerting.
Insofar as each of us is concerned, is spiritual focus any less present, any less a reality, now than it was two weeks ago? No. Something is different, yes, and perhaps that might raise questions in minds and hearts such as, "Am I adequate to do what I need to do?" But is anyone's task now different from what it was a week or two ago? Is anyone's responsibility different? In fact it isn't, though perhaps in the experience of mind and heart it may seem to be. If so, hallelujah! The fact of personal responsibility, known more theoretically heretofore, is brought right home by current events. But the fact of responsibility is neither less nor more, no different from, what it has always been. The need to fulfil the responsibility is great, yes, but no greater now than it was before Martin’s illness.
During an eclipse the sun is still there and continues to shine. Only the evidence of it is temporarily blocked from view. But again, it is only blocked from view if one is standing where the shadow falls. To someone else, somewhere else in a different position, there is no eclipse. What do we see? A shadow falling on the earth? Or no lessening of the light?
There may well be questionings about personal adequacy, feelings and thoughts of that sort, arising in many. When something so steady and so consistent and so dependable as Martin has been—I suppose one could count on the fingers of one hand how many Sunday services he has missed in thirty-plus years, and most of those were probably due to traveling—when such a steady, reliable presence seems to be eclipsed, it does change the familiar status quo. But, as I say, it does not increase the responsibility that we each already had. There may simply be an internal quickening, an enlivening, a brightening, of a sense of spiritual responsibility, so that the central spirit symbolized by the sun is borne adequately by us as a body. Wonderful!
It’s sometimes casually said that the LORD knows what He is doing. No doubt there is spiritual expediency to this present state of affairs. Seeing that, then there is no judgment that something is occurring which should not be occurring. There is no sense of loss, no sense of something going terribly wrong. Perhaps there is a sense of change, but no less awareness that all is well, all is strong, all is perfect. Perhaps you, as I, have been aware of a very considerable increase of radiance, of spiritual presence, in ourselves and our friends who compose this body. The whole of this body steps forward. There is continuing sharp focus and an increased manifestation of the light present.
One quirk of human nature is the irrational desire to remain childish. One evidence of childishness is the reliance on a parental figure to be a provider. This appears to give one license to be a receiver. Initially, that is normal and necessary, and the provision made specifically by Martin over the years, and Uranda before him, has been magnificent and copious beyond belief. This spiritual body has been abundantly nourished during its infancy and childhood and adolescence. Now there is the necessity to move into radiant adulthood, which involves, of course, the assumption of spiritual responsibility for oneself. That assumption, which is not a mental decision, allows sufficient light in expression, personally speaking, to see things as they are. Consequently the light of another is not required to be shone on our personal affairs, the world of personal responsibility; the light of personal expression is sufficient to see what is there to do. In any moment there is only the next thing that needs to be done. That is all. By saying that, I don't suggest that somehow light in expression through one person is independent and separate from light in expression through another. One of the characteristics of light is that it blends—it is completely compatible with itself, for the source from whence it springs is one.
The state of oneness is factually putting in an appearance through many individuals who compose a collective body which reveals the one source. This is what is occurring in our own personal experience. We see things in the light of our own expression. If the light is shining, vision is adequate, understanding is adequate. Mental understanding isn't all-encompassing, universal in scope. Thankfully it doesn't need to be; that isn't the design of the mental apparatus. The mind's function is to accommodate the light, to be Lucifer, the bearer of the light. As the current of light moves, the mind is moved, and vision is suitable and adequate to the present need. We trust the creative process working through our own consciousness.
I think sometimes when the creative process is mentioned it is seen as being separate from oneself in some way—"Yes, the great creative process is working out everywhere, and I am somewhere in the everywhere so it must be working out in me too." This is the theory, whereas the fact of the matter may be that mind and heart have a sense of somehow being left out, of being not quite sure, hanging back in the shadows. To step forward in the assumption of responsibility is not to be brash, pumping oneself up egotistically—"I am able. Oh yes, here I am, Lord. Send me!" We've been sent and we are here. The assumption of responsibility comes as gently as the shining of the light, no imposition, but with it come strength and power, the power to transform first the mechanism which accommodates it—our own capacity of consciousness—and consequently what that consciousness creates, that which seems to be beyond ourselves. The creative process in personal experience moves from nowhere out through our personal equipment for its manifestation, into the world. This is how we know it ourselves and how we are acquainted with its working in one another. We see what's what and thus respect what is occurring in ourselves and in our friends. Let’s be assured. Here is something absolute, steady and stable and trustworthy. And it isn't external to us; it isn't a light from somewhere else. It is oneself.
Someone who is considered a leader, in the usual sense of that word, is seen as a person of vision, a person of character, perhaps with something charismatic and inspirational about him or her. Great leaders are often portrayed in history books as larger than life, people of great stature. I remember as a child being surprised when I found out how short Napoleon was, because I had had an enlarged image of a great general—the conqueror of a big portion of the then-known world. Characteristics such as vision and largeness are acknowledged in people who are leaders of men in the ordinary sense—of course such are usually acknowledged a generation or two or three later, after their flaws have receded from memory. In the United States there are few, if any, clear national heroes in the last century—you have to go back as far as Abraham Lincoln to find someone who became impeccable, right? There is obviously a lot of imagination involved here!
Vision and largeness of stature describe true leadership, spiritual leadership. There is vision because the light is shining—we can see. There is largeness because one knows and understands and intelligently cooperates with life's creative process. Insofar as my own sphere of responsibility is concerned, I feel immense and my sphere is very manageable. This is the view from heaven. This is the view in the light. This is our view as emissaries of divine light: "The world of my responsibility is very manageable; it isn't overwhelming. There is nothing fearful in me about it. I am well able to possess the land in the name of the KING.”
Obviously if we can't get out into expression through our own minds and hearts we are not going to have that kind of view of our creative fields beyond. Hence there is the first necessity for mind and heart to come to rest, to be still. In stillness is the face of the deep, a setting where the light may manifest. Knowing something about the creative process, we are aware that that relates to the first creative day. The earth is without form, and void, and darkness is upon the face of the deep. It’s a womb-time. The spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters, on the available substance of consciousness, and there is light. Light is born into the dimensional universe in personal experience in this way.
I am the light of the world. I am—and here I am emerging: the light, born in consciousness, of the world which I create around me. Nothing can eclipse that. Nothing can stop the creative process from working. Nothing can impede the shining of the light. It can be blocked from view, but it can't be stopped. Life itself is unstoppable, and it is the nature and character of our KING. As we personally, individually, accept that identity with increasing lightness ourselves, then we walk with assurance and exhibit the same spirit and character that we so love and admire in Martin, and in others. It is the character of the KING, accepted and expressed.
This is our responsibility, is it not?—no more and no less than it was a week or two ago; just as easily accepted as ever, just as joyfully known. Let there be light. Let the light shine. Let there be no preoccupation with apparent eclipse, but let us remain identified in what is represented by the Sun. Thus we know that all is well, all is strong, all is perfect.
It is great to participate together in an hour like this, to focus more sharply in consciousness—and I’m speaking of and to my own—these things which we know. Let us be in accord in a current of assurance and reliability, no less available in this world, and presumably moreso than it was. So we play our parts, and joy fills us.
Martin Cecil 1983
We find ourselves in a position of continuing stability as a Body. Here is something dependable, something which will be there regardless. Because one human form is no longer present, it makes absolutely no difference to the operation of the Body. Is the Body so puny that the absence of one person can stand as a barrier to the outpouring of the spirit of the Living God? Of course not! The question always arises as to whether the concern is with the person or with the truth that that person reveals. If you know the truth for yourself you can never be left desolate. But if you depend upon some person, even if that person is an expression of the truth, you will be trying to live a theory. And when a person in such a situation discovers that it was a theory, there is the opportunity. When it gets right down to it, a theory is a lie. A theory is never the truth. So if one lives on the basis of a theory one is living a lie. I trust that all of us, in one way or another, will be faced with this issue. Do we place our dependence in a person or in the truth?
We have a wonderful opportunity because there are those persons who are increasingly revealing the truth. But let us not depend upon the person; let us rather accept the truth into our own knowing because we share the expression of it. And if you are expressing the truth you will continue to be expressing the truth whether this person or that person is there or not. We may, from a human standpoint, perhaps speculate and say, “Well it would have been better if so-and-so had stayed around a little longer; I would have liked it if he had.” There is a like getting into the picture. Any of us could say that, but that is the human view, isn’t it? If we express the truth, we know that what is essential is always present, that nothing of reality has been lost, ever. This is the fact of the matter, a fact that many people are unwilling to acknowledge because they justify their desolation on the basis of their love for a person. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God only; thou shalt love the truth only. If a person reveals that truth, well we love that person because we love the truth. We don’t love the person and then the truth, as a sort of adjunct; that is fatal. We love the truth first, and then it is found that some person who is expressing the truth can’t be separated from the truth. The truth is a spirit. We have been speaking of the Spirit of Truth calling things to remembrance. The truth is not a form. Forms come and go, obviously. They will even come and go in the perfect state of the oneness of heaven and earth, only on a little different basis. But the spirit abides. What has been lost? Nothing.
There are many who are discovering an increase of that spirit in their own experience. Praise the Lord! That is where it was supposed to be in the first place. But we tend to hold back, don’t we? The let-George-do-it syndrome. We know the truth when we express it. As long as we keep expressing the truth we can never be in a state of desolation. We rejoice wherever that expression of truth appears. We love those who reveal that they are one with that truth because they are expressing it, but we love them because we love the truth. And we know that if that person doesn’t happen to be around anymore the truth hasn’t gone anywhere. We know it hasn’t gone anywhere because it is still being expressed by oneself. So we share the opportunity of a larger perspective. Come up hither, that we may see from a level of understanding that has always been available and that is now beginning to come forth increasingly as there are those who are concerned to express the truth for themselves, to be the truth in expression, not depending upon anyone else to do it.
Uranda 1947
I was thinking that, in the conclusion of the activities of a blessed day such as this, we might well again give thought to the Master's Prayer at the time of the conclusion of His Ministry. The conclusion of His Ministry was peculiarly the point where our Ministry begins... The human mind is so inclined to feel the distance of the intervening years, so that there is a loss in a consciousness of personal contact. The Son is the One Christ Body on earth, then and now. The meaning of the Word as He spoke it with respect to His own manifestation is not to be construed as the only meaning, for He spoke also of that Body that is—“Father, the hour is come”. His was the hour of departing; ours is the hour of beginning, of moving forward in fulfilment. The Father glorified the Son then. He is just as capable of glorifying the Son now. “The hour is come. Glorify thy Son”. Why? “That thy Son also may glorify thee”. The beginning and the end, or the end and the beginning, are the same... He was here on earth. It seems but yesterday we heard Him speak. It seems but the passage of a moment since His prayer first ascended as sweet incense unto God. Time—these things transcend all time. It was but yesterday He gave the Promise. Today we let that Promise be fulfilled. We remember how our hearts were stirred at the sound of His Voice, and the passage of an hour or a day cannot quiet that stirring or end that surge of consciousness of the Power of God. It is now, in this hour, that the Spirit of His Word finds fulfilment in our hearts. It is now, in this hour, that we let His Promise be fulfilled. The excitements and the questionings, the fears and the doubts, have been stilled. We have ceased trying to make it be so, for in the vibrant Power of His Love we are not separate or apart and we know that the Father Himself loveth us because we have loved Him, because we do love Him Who has walked the earth before us, Who has revealed the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Martin Cecil 1974
As we share a perspective view of the outworking of the creative cycles over the last four thousand years we discover that time ceases to separate. We might for a moment consider what occurred nineteen hundred years ago, when our Master was here. As we have looked at those events and at what it was He actually brought, does it seem like it was separated from us by nineteen centuries? One might almost say that it occurred yesterday, and the same thing is true when we look even further back, because our concern has been to refocalize the truth as the truth was present then. But it is also present now. If we look at the events that occurred in the external sense, all the failures, the troubles, the difficulties, all these things, then that was a very long time ago; but the truth that was present, the truth which could have permitted a victorious outworking in the First Sacred School, is just as surely present now as it was then. So the intervening time vanishes when we are polarized in the truth. If we are polarized in historical events, then that was way, way back.
© emissaries of divine light
