They Have Taken Away My Lord

They  Have  Taken  Away  My  Lord

from  The  Passing  of  Graven  Images

Martin Cecil   Dec 21, 1986

I was thinking a little about our use of that portion of the Bible which purportedly describes to us the Master's presence and experience on earth. We have something here which has come alive for us so that it is no longer merely a story in a book. It has come alive to a certain degree. 

Christians talk about Jesus Christ. We may speak of our King. When it comes right down to it, what's the difference? There is a character described here in the Gospels. This is a story. No one really knows where it came from. There has been a certain amount of effort to find what might be referred to as the historical Jesus, rather than the Jesus of the Gospels. I think it is fairly safe to say that no one has been very successful in this. Many ideas have been put forward as to the nature of the Jesus of the Gospels. Where did this character come from? Was it a real character? 

If you're trying to make it so by looking at the form of things you will come up with an image. And human beings, obviously, have come up with an image. I'm thinking of this particularly in the Christian world; and I suppose most of us have had some sort of a background of Christianity, certainly from the standpoint of heredity in many ways, of generations and generations of people who read this story in the Bible and assumed that it was true and that it had reference to some certain particular character. However, as I say, when you start looking for that character, historically speaking, you don't find him. 

There are those who have postulated the idea that the Jesus of the Gospels was invented out of the characters of certain historical personages, maybe a couple of them or more. Well, someone was quite bright, evidently, if this was done. Of course, it is true that the Jesus of the Gospels largely supports the building of the Christian religion. So presumably the things that are there were there because they did support this human effort. More recently of course there have been what are called the Dead Sea Scrolls, which have described another character. No doubt there has been a suppression back along the way of certain aspects of what it was that appeared on earth, in order to make possible the building of the doctrine of Christianity. This is not exceptional, mind you. You can look into this from the standpoint of other religions too. 

All I am saying here is that, insofar as we are concerned, we have seen Jesus very largely through the eyes of the Gospels. However we have also seen something which went beyond that, because there has been some sort of a living experience, something that we have had in our own experience which transcends the form. We don't need the form, really, to tell us what the experience is. It's something that springs forth into expression in our living if we will let it, let the light shine. The idea has been, in the Christian world at least, "Look at the light.'' The light was Jesus, Jesus of the Gospels. The statement has been made a number of times that all history is fiction. Are we to exclude this? 

We have all, I'm sure, established images in consciousness relative to Jesus—largely based in the story of the Gospels. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.'' Some have painted pictures of the image they had in consciousness. But everybody had the image in consciousness, in whatever measure and whatever it seemed to be. I am suggesting that this must be relinquished. It must dissolve. 

We find ourselves in a situation somewhat like what was spoken of in this story when Mary Magdalene was in the garden—again according to the Gospel—and couldn't find the body of Jesus. There was someone there whom she questioned: "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.'' I would suggest that everybody needs to come to that point. 

Here is an image which people cling to; it's very precious to them. But one cannot experience the truth if one clings to an image, even the image of Jesus. How then can the truth be known? Well we are aware of the way. But fundamentally it is taking the same position in one's own world as Jesus was purported to have done in His. That's the only way you could find out what the truth is. We don't need to go back there because all that is real is here now. The truth can be known now. 

An aspect of judgment is this business of setting up an image. Thou shalt not make unto thee any image or a likeness of anything, even in the heaven above, certainly not in the earth beneath, though everybody has done that. Everybody has worshipped their external idols and been largely governed by what is present in the water under the earth, in other words the subconscious elements that come out of the past through heredity and in various ways. But there has been a deliberate setting up of an image of Jesus Christ in the Christian world, and other images in various ways in other religious doctrines. The view is: "There is the light''—the image is the light. One may feel rather self-righteous by reason of the fact that one may not have externalized one's image, but you still have it. There are people of course who seek to externalize it in their living. This would require a very, very good person, if we are considering the Jesus of the Gospels. It isn't a matter of trying to imitate Jesus according to one's image of Him. Immense numbers of people have endeavored to do this, to make a facsimile of Jesus. What blasphemy! 

The only way to discover what the truth is is to be it. You can't be it if you think it's over there somewhere, even if it's over there simply in consciousness. So there is something to be relinquished here, simply because one assumes the responsibility of standing in the place where we have an awareness that He stood relative to the world. 

The image has always been valuable to people because it helped them to feel right about not accepting the responsibility. If one can have an image to worship, well, provided that image is at the very peak—and in the Christian world that would be Jesus Christ, presumably—then one doesn't need to assume the responsibility that He, even in the story, suggested that we should. As long as we have an image, there is something separate from us, and we remain in the identity of human nature. Human-nature identity is the identity that is separate from the truth; and if we see an image, obviously we have an identity still which is separate from the truth. I think it is well due that we should realize that "they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.'' We don't need to know, because each individual assumes the responsibility of being the truth. 

Nobody can ever assume that responsibility and identity as long as the human-nature identity persists. So, clearly, one must come to that point, somewhere along the line. I think most of us have been sidling up to it a little. But the truth is now. It's not in the past. It's not in any image that we could create in consciousness. There are those who have tried desperately to do this. They have read the Bible with such care and application, seeking to find that truth. Well of course it isn't there. The truth is here. The truth is in the individual himself or herself. Only when it comes out can he know it or she know it. Let the light increase.

© Emissaries of Divine Light

KING and QUEEN

Glory  to  God  in  the  Highest

KING  and  QUEEN

from   Instructions  For  Married  Couples

Uranda   October 16, 1939

 

Since man was created male and female, in the image and likeness of God, it at once becomes evident that all God Beings are under the Law of the Positive and the Negative, and so are they male and female. The Great Master pointed out that there is no marriage in heaven, neither giving in marriage. He was pointing out that because God Beings are eternal, they have their eternal cosmic mates. So there could be no cause for marrying or giving in marriage, because all those who are in heaven, or are in the inner planes, already have their cosmic mates; for they are the angels of God in heaven.

The Great Master came into the outer planes to bring the truths of salvation to mankind, but His place was and is in the inner planes. He was revealing the Father from the standpoint of the inner planes. If He had married in the outer planes it would have indicated that there is marriage in heaven. Therefore He could not marry during His life on earth, though His cosmic mate incarnated to be with Him during His outer ministry. Mary of Bethany and the Master Jesus, being cosmic mates, were very close sweethearts during all of their outer life manifestation.

Let it be noted that Mary of Bethany was not Mary Magdalene, and that it was Mary of Bethany, and not Mary Magdalene, who anointed Jesus, as recorded in Matthew 26:6-13; also, that Mary of Bethany was of all women most beautiful, holy and pure.

So it is that it was necessary for them, under cosmic law, because of their mission, and because they were and are our great KING and QUEEN, to wait until after the resurrection and ascension of the Master for the time when they might properly experience the completed union. But such a limitation does not, and cannot, apply to any being other than Jesus, and certainly does not apply to any person living on earth today.

©Emissaries of Divine Light

Authority Agility Grace Stature

Authority  Agility  Grace  Stature

The  Body  of  the  Archangel

from  a  Special  Session  at  Sunrise  Ranch

Martin Cecil   August 18, 1978

You know from your own experience that if there is a refusal to accept responsibility you lose your authority. When you accept the responsibility, even though you may feel inadequate in the situation, the authority is still there. The authority goes with the responsibility—reject the responsibility, you reject the authority; accept the responsibility and move in it, and you have the authority. Not because you thought you had it before, perhaps; you may have thought you lacked it because of the sense of inadequacy—but accept the responsibility and you have the authority. 

You may handle it, consequently, on the basis of the Tone which you have come to know. You really know what that is, so don’t dither around—sound it! Don’t say to yourself, “Well I am not just sure how the Tone should sound in this situation.” That is rejecting the responsibility, so you don’t have the authority or the experience of the Tone. Accept the responsibility and the Tone sounds, and you know the authority. 

A question was asked by one of you: “How big are you?” Insofar as our physical forms are concerned, they are not all that big. In this sense, some are larger than others; some smaller; different shapes. But we realize that there is more even to the external manifestation than the physical form. There is the substance of consciousness which fills the form and extends beyond the form. There are the levels of substance in this regard—seven such levels, of which the physical form is one. On this basis I suppose we could say we are seven times bigger than our physical form. There are occasions when a person says, “Well, I just felt ten feet tall.” Well, it may be the fact; maybe twenty. Are you six feet tall? Multiply it by seven. That would take you up into the forties, wouldn't it? Even from the standpoint of our facilities of incarnation, we are not just as small as we thought. But is that the gauge of our real size, do you think? That gives evidence of the fact that we must be bigger than what we create.

We are able to encompass the creation. Let us not downgrade ourselves by assuming a false humility. If there is the inclination to say in any circumstance, "Well I'm only one person, what can I do about it?"—you are at least one forty-foot person! And if a forty-foot person looms on the scene I am sure everybody would take note and there would be a little hesitancy about contending. So let us be assured in this regard, partly because the facilities of incarnation are a lot bigger than we had previously thought, but also because we who incarnate are any size that is needful, and we are capable of encompassing whatever is required of us—namely our worlds. We encompass our worlds. Let us therefor see our worlds from the standpoint of One who encompasses them, and not from the standpoint of some little human form crouching there, who doesn’t see much beyond the end of his nose. The human form is handy; we need it; but we need all the other levels of our incarnation as well, in order that there may be an adequate capacity of incarnation to accommodate US as Angels. 

We do not accommodate our worlds merely on the basis of our physical forms. Of course not! How could we? But we are able to encompass our worlds because of all the levels of this machinery of incarnation; and because we ourselves as Angels are capable of using these facilities of incarnation—and they are sufficient to do what needs to be done. Let us not accuse the Lord of making us inadequately. That is what happens when a person says, “Well, I am inadequate.” He is saying, “Lord, you should have made me much more than I am.” The Lord made each of us of sufficient magnitude! Insofar as our facilities of incarnation are concerned we can encompass whatever is needful. That’s the fact of the matter—we should acknowledge it, and not try to shrink down into our little physical forms, oh so humbly!

And yet, of course, it is not a matter of arrogance either. It’s not a matter of brashness. There has been a certain amount of this within the scope of our Emissary experience—a foolish brashness. No, we don’t make a display of what we imagine to be our great magnitude. We let the facts speak for themselves—and they do incidentally! And by the way, we don’t need anyone else to blow us up to size. If I am speaking of these things now, it is not because I am trying to operate a bicycle pump and blow you up to size. I am simply speaking of the way things are. We better align ourselves with the way things are, rather than denying the way things are and insisting upon the way things aren’t. This is what most people do. They feel so insignificant that they have constantly to be inflating themselves to make it seem as though they have some significance and some authority. How quickly the bubble bursts, doesn’t it! Just a little pin-prick will do it. 

We have size, magnitude, in the sense of the machinery of incarnation, sufficient to handle the incarnation—and we begin to know these things; we begin to function from the standpoint of this awareness. Most people, when they look at the time when Jesus was arrested and subjected to all the indignities to which He was, most people look at that physical form; that’s all they see. Well, certainly something was happening to the physical form, but was that all that there was to Him? There was something so tremendous standing there, that completely dwarfed the physical form, and what was happening to the physical form in that sense was quite insignificant to the machinery of incarnation, because of this great form that was present there, and known to be there, by the One who was incarnate. Do you suppose it was so very difficult to permit that physical form to experience what was called resurrection? One could almost say it could be done with one hand tied behind one’s back. 

We need to have a consciousness of our real capacity, not merely of that little thimble which is seen by human nature consciousness. We don’t need to boost our egos to make it seem as though we are something which we are not, because the Truth is right there—and we become aware of it as our expression begins to sound the Tone of Life continuously. Then we find that Tone reverberating in far more than our physical form. It reverberates through this vaster form which is actually present, and which is being fleshed out as there is the generation of substance. I commented that there was considerable substance present during the time when you were each speaking here in turn, because each one who came up here brought far more than his physical form. There had been far more substance generated which fills out something much bigger, and we all have a sense of substance, we say—of largeness, really. It isn’t just something hollow. We are not looking at a bigger form. We say, “Oh yes, there are seven levels. That form must be considerable.”—but if it has no substance, if it’s just hollow, it doesn’t mean much. But because there is the generation of substance, then this larger form begins to have increasing meaning, and we sense it with each other. 

But the One who incarnates is greater than the facility of incarnation. In fact, the facility of incarnation seems to become less—even though it is so great, just simply looking at it from the outer viewpoint. It becomes less as the Angel comes forth through it, because the Angel is so much greater. And we find that individually speaking we all blend together in the larger form, which is vast in the external sense. We think of the numbers of people in the world as being great, and the body of mankind as being vast—compared to what it was 500 years ago—but it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the True Stature of Man. But that True Stature of Man is absent. There is just a space there where it should be. But as we allow, in this Body, the generation of the substance that fills out the true stature of this Body, then the stature of this Body is far greater than the stature of mankind the way it is now—and because of this we are quite capable of handling whatever needs to be done in this rather small sphere of responsibility. 

We are no longer so impressed with numbers. This is what impresses people, isn’t it—numbers—numbers of people, very often numbers of dollars. We are impressed by something different. It isn’t numbers, because as far as we are concerned there is just One—and that is sufficient. That’s all that is needed. We see all these numbers of isolated people in the world, composing what is supposed to be the body of mankind, but that is very small potatoes from the Angelic standpoint, because there is One who is much greater. We are not overly impressed with respect to the numbers participating in this ministry. One of the questions that we are often asked is, “Well, how many are there in your program?” I suppose we have difficulty in answering because the fact of the matter is there is only One—there is only One, and to most people one would not be very impressive. But when that One is seen for Who He is, and when His Body of incarnation is seen for what it is, that is greater and more vast than all the rest of the population of the world put together. Of course, they’re not put together! They are all scattered abroad, and there is very little substance, obviously. The evidence of the substance being present—the True substance—is Oneness. If there isn’t Oneness there is not much substance. 

Mention was made of the United Nations this morning. There is not much substance there, is there—because there is no cohesiveness. There is no Oneness. It is all separateness; people jockeying for position, jockeying for position as individuals and also in representation of nations. Is that so great to us? We acknowledge the fact that it’s there. 

But what we see as being great is the One—the One whom we Love above all—not only from the standpoint of what He is, but from the standpoint of His Body of incarnation on earth, because this is fleshing out. Usually when those words are used it is thought of in terms of more people. I am not thinking of it in those terms at the moment—no doubt there will be more people—but more substance, more spiritual substance generated by the people who are present now. This is the important thing. If we have that substance, and there is the Oneness of the Body, then the sound of the Tone can reverberate through that Body and it will have an effect upon those who are open to be affected.

We have a responsibility for the sounding of this Tone collectively speaking, and this is done in many ways—but one of them is in the extension of the sounding of that Tone in a peripheral sense. Not that we moved anywhere—we stand where we are and sound the Tone, but that Tone will sound right out to the periphery of whatever substance we have, and there are those who will be more responsible on the periphery just as there are those who are more responsible at the Core. But it’s all One Body anyway. You can’t separate the Core from the periphery. If the Core could be separated from the periphery then there would be a corpse, wouldn’t there? That’s what happens in the individual experience. We are interested in the True experience, not in the human nature experience. 

It could be said, in one sense, that we believe in the resurrection of the Body. The resurrection of the Body—we believe in it because we are it. We are not looking at some body over there. It is right here where we are. This is the Body! This is the blood. This is the living form—not only physical form, with just a few people, but a form composed of substance, far more than flesh substance, and yet it is not separate from the flesh substance. It simply extends through it and beyond it. And in this sense there is a heavenly giant present on earth. We need to have a strong awareness of this so that we never shrink into a state of uselessness. We do not lay claims to anything as individuals, but we honor and respect the Body. 

The Body of the Archangel, we have called this Body. We would never, in anything that we do, or say, or think, or feel as individuals detract from that Body. Our concern is that there should be the generation of more and more substance, that it may be filled out at all levels; not merely trying to grab more and more people, as though that was going to make it great. It isn’t that, that makes it great. It is the quality and quantity of substance that makes it great. The stature is vertical more than horizontal. (Even human beings are a little concerned when their stature begins to be more horizontal than vertical.) Let us have a vision of magnitude—the magnitude of what we are in this One Body. It is vast, entirely capable of handling everything that needs to be handled. 

The population of the world is incapable of functioning together. Well, we can take advantage of the principle then—divide and conquer—because that which is to be conquered is already divided; we don’t have to divide it. There may be configurations in that body where a certain amount of substance has been developed in various ways to allow that particular configuration to function in a manner that seems to be quite powerful in the human nature world. But how do you think that stacks up against the Body of the Archangel? Obviously, such substance as may be generated beyond the physical substance—it’s mostly physical substance, numbers of people—but such substance as may be generated beyond that only goes to a very limited level, perhaps what we might call the psychological level. 

Where does our substance stop? It goes, presumably, to any level, and we are concerned that there should be a sufficiency in this regard at every level. Then it becomes easy to handle these seeming giants in the land, who are pretty dense up here, who have no idea really what they are doing, clumsily maneuvering around, trying to crush opposition by falling on it. That’s about it, isn’t it? Well, we’re nimble on our feet, and if anyone tries to fall on us they may find we’re simply not there. There is great agility in the Body of the Archangel—agility and grace, grace and stature—and capability beyond anything that the human mind ever thought of. 

In this sense we see clearly that as the Body is there, as the substance is there, we have it made. Insofar as the Lord is concerned, there is no problem—no problem at all. But let us be convinced in our earthly consciousness in that regard, so that we may share what is present. It has often been said that all the provision essential has already been made. We begin to discover that it is the fact of the matter, not just a nice theory! But of course, all of us as individuals have something to do. Behold I come quickly—and this is so when we let that coming be quick, because we function on the basis of the true vision which accepts the true responsibility, and which thereby lets the coming be quick. 

If we move quickly, then those who are going to share the movement with us will move quickly too. They don’t have to go through all the rigmarole that may have been necessary—for some of us at least—to get us on the road, so to speak. Those old methods don’t apply any more. I was commenting recently, that there are those servers who are continually offering introductory material. Introduction has been made long ago—long, long ago! There are all kinds of people who come to the services in the Dome Chapel who have never been to a service before. If I reverted every Sunday to introductory material, where would we be! It is introductory material at this level now, and those who have any openness of heart, they’ll move right along with it. They will see what is offered at their own level of experience. Let us all have confidence in this, so that we can move with the Spirit now, with what is current now. Behold I come quickly—like this! That’s the way it works. We don’t have to try to paint everybody with the same brush with which we were painted. We may have been dumb, but why lay that on everybody else? That would be rather a self-centered attitude, wouldn’t it? Anyone who is going to come to the Lord must come through all the rigmarole that we went through. Nonsense! If we’ve done it, that’s enough! We leave all that behind, and come quickly. And as we come quickly, so will others—all on the basis of the sounding of the Tone of Life now, through the Body as it is now. 

It is never one individual doing anything. Anything that is done is done by the whole Body, and in fact it is done by the Archangel, who is incarnate, and that isn’t a little thing. That is tremendous, and we need to be assured—because we ourselves accept responsibility in the matter—of the magnitude of that expression. We stay put in the Body of the Archangel and all that is needful to be dealt with will come to us. We handle it intelligently, with dispatch. Behold I come quickly. 

So this is the conclusion of these Sessions that we have shared in this particular configuration, but we’re not going anyplace. We stay put. We are all part of the same body, and you each carry that brilliance of Light wherever you may be, and it is this that continues the cycles of resurrection for this Body—transforming the Body, transmuting the Body, so that it may be a whole, adequate instrument for the incarnation of the Archangel and the achievement of the Archangelic purposes.

© Emissaries of Divine Light