David Barnes and Anne Blaney Salmon Arm, British Columbia
May 25, 2025 Temple of Light Service
Steve Ventola — I'd invite all of you now to put your cameras on gallery view, so we can see and acknowledge each other; and during this time we'll share attunement—you may want to use your hands share radiation with one another heart-to-heart, eye-to-eye, while Robert plays selected flute music:
David Barnes — Well, there's been a strong current of welcome that we've extended to one another, in the attunement sanctuary where we meet here, in this Holy Place, this service ritual space. On the Holy Ground of this sanctuary where we meet, it's not possible to mistake one another. Coming into the sanctuary, in attunement, it becomes quite clear that however I or anyone looks in outer appearance, I am in the presence of angels, and in particular a very specific angel. We meet in the flesh of our substance of consciousness and heart, the flesh of our physical bodies. We're incarnate in flesh and blood; heavenly flesh and earthly flesh, in the Body of the Christ Spirit, the Body of the Lord—collectively, the flesh and blood Body of the LORD that is gathering on earth, many human beings making their heavenly and earthly substance available to the creation of the Body of the LORD on earth. And we are a few who are gathered in the sanctuary, wherever that sanctuary is taking form in the lives of people who are awakening, or awake already, to these things. We're among those people, many, many people around the world who are participating in the formation of what we have called the Christ Body. There's no need for us to rehearse the principles of spirit, of life, of truth, of reality, that brought us to this point—we know them well. But there are a few words from the Book of Revelation that I'd like to read, Chapter 10. John the Beloved wrote these words:
“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices … And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me. Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”
Here is a picture of incarnation: my incarnation and your incarnation—incarnation into the Body of God taking flesh form now. There have been many thunderings and lightnings in the processes of that incarnation. There's been sweetness and bitterness; sorrows and joys—all opportunities for us, incarnate in flesh, to generate the pneumaplasm that draws into consciousness an understanding of the commission that we agreed to, and received, and took, when we ate the “little book”, and moved through the processes that allowed incarnation in the flesh, my flesh, your flesh, the flesh of this Body.
It's taken a lifetime to come to a vivid realization of the significance and the importance of the flesh body—to love the flesh body, the flesh of the mind, and the flesh of the heart, and the flesh of other angels who are cells in the Christ Body. It's taken a long time, relatively speaking, to reach the point where there could be a prophesying before many peoples and nations and tongues and kings—for each of us as individuals to come to a point where expression originates in Divine Being, in the one I am; for us as individuals to be alive, awake, functioning, coherent, and able to express the spirit of the One who sent us into this world to participate in the creation of a Body through which He, and the Angelic Host, could incarnate and be present in flesh on earth. Here we are, and this is the day.
This is the day. And so, an aspect of our work today is to acknowledge, and delight in, and allow an increased understanding of how important it is that we are here in flesh and blood, living in these body temples, through which finer and richer and greater varieties and qualities of substance can be generated in this One Body, composed of many, many people. People who, like us, have come to generate specific kinds, qualities, and vibrations of substance that allow the Spiritual Body to be, ultimately, fully functional on earth, with doors of the heart, gates of the mind, and this threshold of the physical body wide open for the coming of the One whose Body this is. We know that the One who comes, comes with great respect and care to the Door; and only comes in when the welcome is there: “Welcome. Welcome, my Lord; come in. Welcome. We have prepared a place for you.”
It is a real pleasure, and fulfillment, to meet together in this place, in this spirit, with this understanding. It is a great joy to participate in this service, and share something generative and significant with Susannah and Anne. We meet each other on the Path that we walk towards the fulfillment of our incarnation. We know how the scripture goes: “And without Shekinah there is not anything made that is made.” On the Path, and seeing someone walking toward you, we know, I know, that this is brought forth by Shekinah, by the Christ, by the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of the LORD drawing together people who need to be together, in a particular Shekinah Pattern in an overall sense—One Pattern, with the LORD of Lords at the apex, and other Archangels and angels filling in the substance of the upper creative triangle. And below, in this vibrational realm of flesh and blood, we are here to fill in this lower creative triangle. We notice and acknowledge one another. We have been brought together by Shekinah, in particular Patterns of Shekinah, for specific creative purposes within this Christ Body.
Anne and I came walking towards each other 29 years ago. We heard the call, inside first, in the inner ear, and then externally a few weeks later. And we've been walking together, not just walking toward each other, but walking together for almost 30 years now. I remember when I first noticed Susannah—it was around 2012. I saw a photograph of her and made note of this woman; and it was just a little over two years ago that we began to meet Susannah face-to-face in a Temple of Light service, and we've been walking toward each other ever since. Anne, Susannah and I have been drawn together by Shekinah for a particular creative purpose; and we came closer, and now we're not walking towards each other—we're walking together, and talking together, and creating together. We are thankful together to be present in flesh and blood to continue the processes of creation by Shekinah, through us, with you, in your fields of Shekinah. And I suggest, if you don't know what they are, that they are here most certainly, at hand, ready to be discovered and unveiled in various ways. This is Holy Ground, these are sacred things, this is ritual space, this is the beginning of something. In the beginning, God creates. I want to give space now to our beloved friend Susannah, who is speaking from her Garden Village Sanctuary and home in Costa Rica. Susannah …
Susannah Light — Good morning. It’s a joy to come into this Beloved Space again with you. I’m seeing your faces, loving you, knowing you, and remembering who we are, remembering our purpose of Being. So, I enter softly into this rich space, for it is Holy Ground. I have removed my shoes; I come in peace and in vibrancy of Spirit. We, the angels, have decreed this to be so, for the purpose of following life’s true nature and allowing it to be clearly present now and always, together. I come this morning with a full heart, and an expectant heart. My heart has been activated by what has been brought into this Temple of Light already this morning, andalso by what has been powerfully stirring in these times and days and months. The passion and urgency of spirit has been very clear.
This morning, I want to share some of the essences of my heart with you, and along with that, the essences of my Garden Home from which I greet you. So come with me for just a moment and I’ll show you around. I live on 11 acres of jungle, and meadows, and gardens, with cows and chickens, and my sweet dog-children. The voices of nature are abundant here. I live next door to my sister’s dairy farm. Twelve years ago I named this property Garden Village and built this Sanctuary Home with a conscious and passionate commitment to allow the things which God has planted Eastward in Eden to come alive, to be alive in my flesh and blood, and upon this sacred ground.
In recent Temple services we heard the invitation to sense, to feel, see as it were, the Cathedral of our Life, the arches and pillars, the spaciousness, the Light flowing in. I want to add my word to that reality. And this is not only words or imagination—it is in what we give room for in our hearts and in our minds. This morning as I meditated, my sister Hannah walked in, saddened for something that had gone wrong for her in cattle-care just then. I rose up and we both walked out into the rain; together we resolved the matter and brought it to peace. So, we can say that these vast arches of this Great Holy Arena from which we live and express and create, extend out over the far reaches of the world, for we are indeed living in Temple Space, the Garden Space of God. I feel this vividly. I feel this as though in a Holy Continuum of Ritual Space.
I want to speak a bit on being in Agreement with Life. When we are in agreement with the Spirit of Life through various forms and essences that come to meet us. It has been my experience in these times that moment by moment there is a beautiful, beautiful union, in which I notice an exquisitely fine intimacy with this Presence which is Life, the Divinity that is natural to Life—one could say, the rising up out of the East in each holy moment, which is every moment, every breath.
Last December after a particularly rich Temple Service given by David and Anne and Steve, I wrote a letter to them, and there is a paragraph which I would like to read with you now; so here’s the paragraph:
“For me today, to have been with you in this glowing opportunity for Life to be real in my Body, and in the Greater Body, takes my breath away. I now have more place, more divine placement for my Passion, for it is Holy and has been Holy. And now I can meet, see, acknowledge and feel, and agree with, all the ways and forms through which Sacred Life is presenting itself before me in every Divine Moment— which is every moment, in every breath. For all that is within this Kingdom and Queendom which has come; is here not only to be known and met by me, but now calls me into Union with this Life and therefore Radiant Creation after the Nature and Will of Almighty God, which was from before the foundations of this world. I experience this more every day, through my cows, through the land that offers me ground and fruit, for my incarnation, and to which I in turn bestow my great love. I meet this Divine Presence in everything, through each creation, the creatures, the tall trees, the winged ones, the mountains and the rivers; the marvelous patterns of sky, cloud, sun, moon and a million brilliant tones of Light and Color. And of course through my sisters and brothers of this incarnation.”
I want to emphasize the incarnate experience here—the Life that we touch, the Life that we are. When I am with my cows I am in the Holy Arena, the Great Garden Space of God. I’ll tell you a little story. One lovely morning a while ago I was taking my four young cows, whom I have raised from infancy, across the green hills of my Garden Sanctuary property to a distant pasture. My goal was to take them to their designated pasture across a creek below. Well, my cows began to frolic all around me. They began to dance—up go their heals into the air and their heads tossing gleefully. Then their front feet come up and back down, and so they dance, up and down all around me. They were not too concerned about the distant pasture I was leading them to. They were fully in this moment, and loving it! So, you can picture four happy cows dancing down a gentle hill with me; but I realized I wasn’t sure if they understood their weight compared to mine, and whether I could keep track of where their feet were landing. After all, these are 800-pound dance partners! So, to protect myself I slipped behind a small bush and let them go gleefully by me. Then an amazing thing happened. Two of them came dancing back up the hill, right directly to me as if to say, “Come on already. Let's engage!”
This experience stayed with me as a lasting meditation on what it is that is coming to meet me for my precise attention, and agreement, and engagement. This is a meditation that makes my heart and my mind very still—the realization of the angels at hand—the Hosts of Heaven, in all their manifestations, beckoning for our full attention, now. Well, we might say we are not seeing anything extraordinary, no people with halos or wings or white robes. But if what is coming to meet us in this Holy Moment is from the Garden planted Eastward in Eden, well then, let us be in profound agreement and union with this. Let us be in One Place in One Accord. Let us enter this ecstatic union so that you and I, in this flesh and blood, upon this Holy Earth may speak reality through our living. And may we be alert, ready, eager, and able to see all the ways in which we can now bring the Mystery of God into rich, expansive and beautiful manifestations.
A couple mornings ago I was walking along a jungle trail near the ocean, and as I beheld the pure wonder of the tall trees, the lush green foliage of wild almond trees reaching so high up that the monkeys feel safe to play and let us hear their voices, and a trail with views out to a brilliant blue ocean, alive with wind and waves, I had the sense of something Extra Divine—Extra Divine. Immediately I knew that the “Extra Divine” was in my perception, and in my willingness to open my heart and my mind to be yielded to Life’s Grandeur, in every moment, with whatever it is that is coming to meet us now. So, my realization was that this was not because God was providing something different than that which is always provided in perfect and limitless proportions, to us, in every single moment that we are living.
Again, this meditation brings me to a place of profound stillness and understanding, that it is I—it is I who have the opportunity to open, or, God-forbid close, my heart and mind to this Pure Place of Divine Presence, to the Patterns of Heaven made freely available, with the sweet beckoning to open and receive—and then to provide that same Sweet Welcome to all my world. The welcome to Come Home and Rest.
I will now read an excerpt titled, “The Natural World Longs To Come Near”, from a service by Martin Exeter [titled, “To Speak The Word Is To Hear And Understand” August 24, 1986]
“Let minds and hearts, being filled with this golden, peaceful substance of love, consequently be the gates of heaven, the gates through which the angels of heaven may come into the earth. Human minds and hearts are indeed designed as the gate of heaven, through which the hosts of heaven may come into the earth. They have been a barrier to this, filled with their own thinking and their own emotions—no gate of heaven, no angels in experience. Let minds and hearts be still. Then the angels of heaven may be present and known by human minds and hearts. Be still and know that I am God, revealed in experience of mind and heart by the one I am.
“Be still, mind and heart. Be still and receive the golden substance of love. Be still and know that I am present. I am present in each little human earth and world, but being present there, I am present in the whole of the planet earth and in the whole of the natural world. And I come forth to live and be on earth, providing all that is necessary, and possible to let the gates of heaven be opened everywhere in mankind, so that the hosts of heaven may come into the earth, and so that the whole population, insofar as man is concerned, is an angelic one. This, we have come to know, through our own experience of the coming forth, is what is happening. And it shall be finished. Let the gate be flung wide open, that all may come again into the oneness made possible by the union of heaven and earth, the angel of God and the human being.”
And with that passion and that love I invite my dear friend Anne, and turn it over to you.
Anne Blaney — The flute has been somewhat of a music theme this morning, it's a beautiful little instrument. I came across a few lines from Rumi that I'd like to read:
A craftsman pulled a reed from the reed bed
Cut holes in it and called it a human being.
Since then it's been wailing a tender agony of parting
Never mentioning the skill that gave it life as a flute.
Listening to these beautiful flutes got me thinking about my love affair with flutes. When I was in high school, in music classes and band, there came a time to decide which instrument you were going to play, to commit to and enter this whole world of music. My first choice was the flute. But my girlfriend Josie told me that I had clarinet fingers and because I was only 13 I believed her, and I chose the clarinet. But I tell you, as I sat in the clarinet section I longingly looked over at the flute section and wished I had chosen flute. Thinking of the flute as a symbol for our time together, the flute can represent either an individual, as Rumi was saying, or mankind which I think he was also saying. When you think about a flute, it has one player who breathes a controlled breath into the mouthpiece and brings an invisible spirit into the instrument. The player can cover or release various holes in the instrument, with precision, so that each combination allows a particular sound to come forth. The player can trill a key and then there's a tremulous sound that comes out. Another kind of breath changes the whole sound that's coming out. As a metaphor, an individual's capacities are like a flute, in that, according to the ways of expression that we cover or uncover, allow a particular spirit to come through to make a particular sound. Here's that poem again:
A craftsman pulled a reed from the reed bed
Cut holes in it and called it a human being.
Since then it's been wailing a tender agony of parting
Never mentioning the skill that gave it life as a flute.
Now isn't that so with man! We have these capacities—our own flute, and mankind has not remembered the craftsman who made it. A friend of mine played his flute inside the King's Chamber in the Great Pyramid of Giza. I imagine he sat there, maybe it was sort of dark, and he meditated on the presence of this massive and ancient structure surrounding him, and felt how he could issue forth a sound that would translate what he was feeling, what he was subconsciously picking up. He had to be open, had to divest himself of any excitement (my goodness I'm in the Great Pyramid!) or concerns (how much time do I have?) and let something come through, something out of the invisible into the sounding chamber. What a chamber to sound your notes into! I’m sure it was a tremendously expansive experience to hear his sound magnified in that outer instrument, and very moving to feel the eons recorded in the very stone which was built for the future—and here he was in the present, releasing his sound into that. Profound experience.
Susannah mentioned flinging the doors open to allow what is seeking to come into the earth, through this earth, and I think we're all familiar with what she was speaking of. I've come to cherish that ritual space experience that I can create in my days where I’m waiting for something to come through, letting the doors be flung open to receive—to sit in the silence and open, open, open. No preconceptions; but there's a passion that is present, and a very distinct desire to let go—the experience of letting go: letting, letting, letting. Not meditating—not meditating on something—in fact if anything I'm focused on letting go, and over time I have gotten able to let go quickly. Maybe you have that experience too—I hope so—to drop in to that place, open, waiting, expectant. And I think that the predominant feeling, which is very interesting, is relief—relief that you're finally present, and not only present but you're useful, you're finally useful because you're present and open and receptive. And then you know that ancient knowing, like that consciousness that was present in that Great Pyramid with my friend; here you are in the great pyramid called the earth, and in your own personal pyramid temple, waiting to see what it is that you need to sound into that space.
When we're in that silence it's not that we come with nothing, even though we have let go of the outer mind and the heart experiences that might be present. We come with the substance of our living. We bring that into the silence. We bring our unique spirit, the unique qualities that we all have, and we bring into it the unique paths that we've traveled in our lives. We've met people, we've had experiences, some of them have been “good”, some of them have been “bad”, but you know you learn just as much from the so-called bad experiences as from the so-called good. In fact, sometimes I think you learn more from the so-called bad. We've acquired certain skills; we've learned how to deal with situations; and our passion has deepened and deepened over our time in this incarnate experience. So that comes into the silence with us. Our minds and hearts must be still, as Martin was suggesting, but here we are bringing something of our own essences in.
I want to read something that I wrote to David Karchere, after he spoke about a particular experience, of how we bring into our lives very specific abilities, passions and intentions, and how we learn what is ours to do. Ours! Not his or hers, but what is ours to do. He was bringing that to focus. In that train of thought I wrote: “Just a note to pick up on what you said. You brought up how we find ourselves in present-day positions by reason of our particular natures and lives moving in the flow and then we recognize that we are the one to do or say something in the present moment or in that cycle, that needs to be fulfilled. It's ours! There is such joy in making ourselves useful to the creative process and consequently we also recognize that others are fulfilling their destinies and for me this has reduced the urge to judge; that tendency to think: ‘Why aren't others doing what I think is important? How come they're not seeing as primary what I'm doing?’ If we really see what is ours to do then we surely recognize what others have been brought to do as well!”
Going back to the flute analogy, the Player is opening certain holes in the flute, closing others, sending air through various groupings of holes you might say, and creating a particular sound, a particular note. We may not know what he's actually doing. We don't know what his intention is. And then the note changes and another movement takes place. But, in the silence we can recognize what is ours, what is our note or song to play in a particular moment or cycle. We are the ones now present, who have been uniquely designed; breathing beings with our flute bodies, ready to play whatever sound is coming through. The other day Susannah and David and I were talking and I spoke of the human voice, how each human voice is so uniquely produced out of our physical structures, the way we're designed, and also by the consciousness that we have, by a particular spirit that is moving when one is speaking. We come to express our ageless being now, in the flesh.
I’ve been thinking about the concept of differentiation. We've been talking about differentiation in services, and I wonder sometimes how deep we go in that thinking. There's a line from Robert Bly that goes, “We cannot remain in love with what we cannot name.” And I would say we cannot name others, understand the truth in differentiation, without knowing first the One who is differentiating, who is differentiated: the Craftsman, the One who created the flute. When first of all we come to know our name, which is I am—I am life, love truth, spirit, I am—then you may know, if you're silent, the name of the One in whose image you were created. It's a very personal access to that One. And then knowing that One, the Craftsman, you can name the whole, the one, and begin to see that One that you and we and I am part of. Then, it seems to me, that state of knowing sets you up to be able to name differentiations, His differentiations. You can look around and you can see those who are differentiating various expressions. They may not be aware that they're differentiating the One, the Whole, but if we're conscious we know whether or not they're differentiating the One. Isn't that part of our job, as the conscious part of Being, of mankind? I think we've established that we have a conscious role to play. So, understanding the oneness, the whole, we get to name His differentiations when we see them, because we understand that they're His differentiations. It's a very powerful ability.
I want to read more from the poem by Robert Bly, titled, “A Cry Going Out Over Pastures”. I want us to hear it as if it's the Lord's poem; that it’s the One, the Craftsman, the Flute Player speaking to us about His Body, and about the one planet. I want us to hear this as seen through His eyes. Here's what the Craftsman is saying to us:
“I love you so much with this alive and lonely body. My body is a young hawk sitting on a tree by the Mississippi, in early spring, before any green has appeared on the earth beneath. Some days walnut hollows in my chest fill with crackling light and shadows. There birds drink from water drops... My body loves you madly, beyond all rules and conventions. Even the six holes in the flute move about under the dark man's fingers, and the piercing cry goes out over the overgrown pastures no one sees or visits at dusk except the deer, out of all enclosures, who has never seen any bed but his own of wild grass.
“I first met you when I had been alone for nine days, and now my lonely hawk body longs to be with you, whom it remembers... it knew how close we are, we would always be. There is death but also this closeness, this joy when the bee rises into the air above his hive to find the sun, to become the son, and the traveler moves through exile and loss, through murkiness and failure, to touch the earth again of his own kingdom and kiss the ground...What shall I say of this? I say, praise to the first man who wrote down this joy clearly, for we cannot remain in love with what we cannot name.”
Robert Bly is naming here, naming essences and differentiations. And finally, I want to bring in a quotation by John, the Beloved Disciple, from the Book of John, Chapter 8, one we know well, which says, “And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” I would like to open up some possibilities, speaking about freedom, spoken about in the Bly poem, of the unconventionality of how, speaking from the Creator's viewpoint, of how He might love us, with a suggestion that humans allow themselves to be loved freely by Him. Because we judge, as I was saying in that email that I read, because we judge so much, we create prisons. Doris Lessing wrote a book titled, “Prisons We Choose to Live Inside”. Alan Hammond used to say, “Don't handcuff yourselves!” I'm not talking about license here, I’m talking about what the truth sets free, and the fact that our judgments are holding us back from feeling the unconventional; the ‘out of the enclosures’ way that the Craftsman is waiting for us, to enjoy His planet. And through judgement we hold back His people from enjoying each another.
I think we really keep ourselves in prison when we allow judgment to enter and think, “Why isn't that person doing it the way I think?” Or, “Why aren't those people doing what I think is the priority?” All that kind of stuff. I think we would be amazed at how the Creator views the possibility of enjoyment of His planet and His people—as I said, not with license, but within the truth of correct patterning. So, these are things that I share with you. And I appreciate the whole experience that we've had this morning. I would like to open it up for comments from any of you, anything that has been stirred; anything that you want to sound through your flute, bearing in mind the pauses in between the sounds that come forth from a particular person—to listen, to see what is seeking to come through each of us. I think there's a great opportunity in that kind of openness and sensitivity. I'd like to open up comments. We've put out something, let's see what comes back.
David Barnes — What a fine array of words revealing the Beauty of the Word. There is a lot in the world that isn't very beautiful; it's not pretty even; it's ugly. We see much of a predatory nature walking in the world, that which is of a satanic nature, ready to destroy, devour, consume, make desolate, divide, ultimately separate. Wherever there's a pattern of communion and union appearing there is, at hand, waiting, that which would devour it, eliminate it if possible, but certainly tear it apart, and leave it in a state of separation, fragmented. The LORD has worked all these millennia to bring together a representative Body of love, truth, oneness, differentiated design—a living body composed of living flesh that is beautiful, and now is appearing. I'm always aware that after a time of holy communion, sharing in beautiful things like this service, there are things to be faced afterwards, in the returning cycle, relative to what comes out of the world seeking to tear down, to destroy, to eliminate. Such rapacious energy appears internally; it comes into consciousness through thoughts and feelings; and it comes through predatory people who sense there's an open door; so they come and they tend to walk right in and take over.
The invitation today has been to fling the door wide open in an upward sense, so that the One who owns the Temple has full access to the Temple, and may come in and have dominion within the House of Being, the individual and the collective Body. When the Master of the Temple comes, there's no reason to be afraid of opening the Door, open upwards, to fling it wide open; no fear that we're going to be hurt or destroyed by the LORD God Almighty, or by His angels. So let’s open upwards, open the Gates and the Doors wide in the upward sense; open to the LORD God through His Body on earth.
And there's another Door which opens outward, extending the Word, extending the invitation that indicates that there is a Home to come to, that there is a Holy Shrine on earth, that this Temple is a Shrine through which the Word, the Sound and Light vibration extends; revealing that this collective Temple now coming into flesh form is a Living Shrine through which the Welcome is extended. If what's moving through that Door is radiant and abundant, then there's not much that can come back at that level of things and try to usurp control, because there's a fullness of radiance going out, the invitation extended. When anyone comes in answer to that invitation, they actually come from above. It's what comes from above that belongs before the Shrine and within the Temple. If anyone is coming Home, they'll come from out of the east, or from above, walking towards the source of the invitation—they'll enter the Door from above. The only way to come in is from above.
So, in closing I feel we should recognize the predatory nature of what is present in the man-made world, and how it tries to dominate attention. Let’s remain alert and keep safe these Holy generations, maintain the hedge, and let the radiation flow forth freely. In conclusion, and to help emphasize this, I will read an excerpt written by Uranda in 1936, titled Beauty. The Word is Beauty. So much of beauty came through this morning, that must be magnified in what we do, the beauty of God's creative action, and God’s creation of which we are a part, as creators. So here it is, from Uranda:
“He who looks for Beauty in all people and all things soon finds that which he can truly Love. The blending force which draws one into a realization of Oneness is Love, and the Presence of Love in people and all creation is discerned through a perception of Beauty. Beauty is not to be confused with surface prettiness. Beauty is that deeper quality which partakes of the Divine. The Inner Being of all things is Beauty. Look for Beauty and you will find it. When you find Beauty, you will have found the Key to Love. When you have found Love, you will blend with that in which you find it. Thus is Oneness attained.
“The impersonal expression of Life depends on the ability to perceive Beauty everywhere. Everywhere present, Beauty will attune you with Love, and Love will blend you with God. Beauty and Truth are One. The Essence of all things is Beauty. The Essence of all things is Truth. Through the Pathway of Beauty, you can ascend to the limitless heights. Set yourself to the pleasure of looking for Beauty. Beauty is Reality. Behold it, and the clouds of darkness and illusion will vanish away. Fill your mind with Beauty and there will be no room for the ugly things of the personal life expression. The Christ is Beauty. The Way of the Christ is Beauty. The Truth of the Christ is Beauty. The Life of the Christ is Beauty. You cannot Love that in which you do not see Beauty. Therefore look for Beauty and you will find Love. Look below the surface in contemplation and you will find Beauty. Beauty often hides beneath a veil of seeming ugliness, that it may remain pure and unsullied from the eyes of vulgarity, lust and passion. Surface seeming blinds unworthy eyes, that they may not behold Beauty. He who hurries sees not Beauty. Only those who linger long before a rose can see the Beauty. The hurried passerby sees only its prettiness. Follow Beauty and you will find Love. Enter into Love and you will find God. In God you will find the ALL in All.”
Susannah, over to you for your final words
Susannah Light — Thank you David; thank you Anne; thank you everyone. I have deeply enjoyed the spirit present with us today, in this gathering, and I just want to speak a Word of Blessing: May we always together, and individually, find and amplify the grandeur of life. And I know that the Path of Life in this flesh and blood can sometimes be an uphill climb. So may we remember one another in compassion. I wish you fortitude. I wish you joy. I wish you safety. I wish you love and blessing. And with that I think Robert Kauffman has some music for us, to close our time:
The Tabernacle of God is with men. The consciousness of human beings is experiencing once again the evidence of the Presence of the LORD; not merely a theoretical evidence but something actually known. It is interesting to note that there have been various names given to the evidence of the Presence of the LORD at various times in the unfoldment of the creative cycles by which restoration has been made possible.
In Old Testament times, at the time of the Israelites, the First Sacred School, the name of that evidence was Shekinah. Shekinah is defined as the Cloud of Glory, the Light that Glows, the Fire that Burns, all relating to well-known phenomena in the experience of human beings in this physical world. Clouds we know, light we know, fire we know. And so the name Shekinah described, during the period of that First Sacred School, the evidence of the Presence of the LORD, and it was to those concerned an observable phenomenon. It was something apparently separate from all concerned. It seemed to have some relationship to the Tabernacle but it was apart from the people, who were able to observe something. They observed, for instance, the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, and on certain occasions the Glory of the LORD filling the Tabernacle and shining round about. So the evidence of the Presence of the LORD, and therefore of the LORD Himself, seemed to be separate from those who observed.
Later, in the Second Sacred School, the evidence of the Presence of the LORD appeared in a person. It was possible to observe this man whose name was Jesus and to see a person closer to those who observed than Shekinah had been, but nevertheless separate from them. The evidence of the Presence of the LORD had entered the consciousness of human beings at the time of the First Sacred School through what was called Shekinah; the evidence of the presence of the LORD came into the consciousness of human beings at the time of the Second Sacred School as the Christ. The Christ, the Spirit of God — Love, Truth, Life — all related to what might be described as mental experience. Physical experience first, then mental experience with respect to the Christ; but still, what appeared seemed to be, and has seemed to be, separate from human beings. Capable of being observed, yes; considered, perhaps analyzed to some extent, studied. Anything of this nature is obviously still separate insofar as the experience and attitudes of the people were concerned. So there was Shekinah and then the Christ.
Insofar as the Third Sacred School is concerned we have another name appearing frequently in the Book of Revelation, which is the Blueprint related to the Third Sacred School. The name there appearing is the Lamb. Now the Lamb is the name given to what specifically is experienced from the standpoint of spiritual expression. All of these names refer to the evidence of the Presence of the LORD, but more particularly with respect to specific levels of consciousness: physical, mental, and finally spiritual expression. The Lamb has seemed rather a peculiar symbol to many people; it has tended to be related more particularly to the sacrificial view of the Old Testament and what has later been assumed to apply to the New Testament. But if we look at this word “Lamb,” we perhaps think of a creature, a young sheep, which is presumably a rather gentle animal; it seems to be rather weak in many ways, and helpless. And this is an apt symbol in relationship to spiritual expression, because in the world that man has made the spiritual presence of man has been rather conspicuous by its absence; it's been overwhelmed by what one might well call material man.
This was rather accurately portrayed in the story of Cain and Abel. Cain was material man and Abel was Spiritual Man. Material man finds it rather easy, or has found it easy, to overrule Spiritual Man. Spiritual Man has seemingly been slain and material man has been dominant in the world. Here are the two basic possibilities with respect to man. Of course they should be one, when Spiritual Man is dominant; then material man is also present but under the dominion of Spiritual Man. The external manifestation of man is supposed to be the revelation of Spiritual Man. In the story of Cain and Abel, Cain brought his offering to the LORD out of the earth; in other words what he had built in an external sense. And this is what human beings have been engaged in: building a world, a material world which looks, in some of its aspects at least, rather magnificent.
We have a seemingly immense civilization, a very complicated structure, and this has in effect been offered to the LORD but has not been acceptable to the LORD; it isn't what is required at all. “And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.” Of course the countenance of man has certainly fallen; he is no longer revealing in his countenance, in the expression of his life, the beauty of Divine Being. He is only revealing what he has made of himself as material man, which he has not found to be very acceptable. It's always breaking down; it's always falling apart; it's always in trouble. This is the evidence of the fact that what has been built by Cain on earth has not been acceptable to the LORD; it just simply disintegrates, and it takes a very great deal of the sweat of the face to keep any semblance of order at all.
So material man has been dominant; Abel has apparently been slain. Spiritual Man has ceased to be a factor in the world that man has known; it has all been material, even from the standpoint of what he has thought of as spiritual, namely the religious pattern of things. This has all been material man, who has built something out of the earth which he thought would be good. He has built it physically speaking; he has built it intellectually speaking; he has built it religiously speaking. And all this vast affair that man has produced on earth has certainly not been acceptable to the LORD. And its unacceptability is proven constantly by the breakdown which occurs in the affairs of men.
Now, in the Book of Revelation, Spiritual Man is spoken of in terms of the Lamb, the “Lamb as it had been slain,” seemingly out of commission — material man in ascendency, dominant, and anything that began to appear of a truly spiritual nature was quickly eliminated. This of course was made evident in the outworking of events in the life of Jesus. Here was the evidence of the Presence of the LORD, the Christ, brought to focus — Spiritual Man beginning to appear at the mental level — and how quickly this was eliminated. We needn't go into the story in this regard; we are familiar with it; but we recognize that the evidence of the Presence of the LORD by reason of Jesus initiated the Second Sacred School, and in the initiation of this it was necessary to refocalize the truth of the First Sacred School. At a certain point in the unfoldment the Second Sacred School failed insofar as the world was concerned; human beings did not offer the required response. At that point it is said that Jesus wept over Jerusalem. And the opportunity of the Second Sacred School was lost to the children of men, just as surely as the opportunity of the First Sacred School had already been lost. So this man undertook to carry the cycle through into the Third Sacred School, and this was the focalization of the evidence of the Presence of the LORD as the Lamb.
Considering some of the passages in the Book of Revelation, we may recall that there was the “Lamb as it had been slain,” who apparently was capable of opening the Seven Seals of the Book of Life. It had become obvious to John, in the experience that he was having, that no man could open that Book; no effort on the part of human beings could open the Seals and allow the Book of Life to be experienced by human beings on earth. The experience of the Book of Life by human beings on earth is the experience of MAN the Living Soul on earth, MAN restored to his true state; and there was no method by which human beings could achieve this. So John, when he considered the strivings of human beings, particularly with respect to his contemporaries at that time, wept that their efforts were in vain; they were achieving nothing, they were not getting the job done. And this became increasingly obvious as time went on, in the emergence of what was called Christianity.
First of all there was considerable tribulation involved, martyrdom and so on, a great deal of suffering and slaughter, leading into what were rightly called the Dark Ages. And then, when so-called Christianity emerged again, it was material man, wasn't it? — material man still trying to use the methods of material man to achieve what he thought should be achieved in the world. And he was going to use the methods of what he thought was Christianity, for a while. Later, of course, it turned into something else: the application of technology, scientific know-how, etc. But in any case it has seemed that the Lamb was slain. Insofar as what human beings thought Christianity to be, the Lamb was in heaven someplace; insofar as the earth was concerned He was slain. But nevertheless the only way by which the Seals of the Book of Life could be opened was by reason of the Lamb.
What was it that was achieved by the LORD through Jesus? [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-way-of-master.html] It was the movement victoriously in an individual, personal sense, in the creative cycle, through all the Sacred Schools, by which the restoration of man was made possible. He personally, in His own experience, opened the Seals of the Book of Life while He was on earth. The way was established. He moved victoriously, first of all in establishing a refocalization of the First Sacred School and then initiating the Second Sacred School. And w,hen the children of men rejected that, He in Himself initiated the Third Sacred School and continued from level to level until all Seven Sacred Schools had been included in His experience. The Seals were opened; as we have put it, the Tone was set.
Now insofar as the Third Sacred School is concerned the victory was established and has been present below the crust of Christianity to this very day. And we have seen it emerging through that crust of the Second Sacred School, the failure of the Second Sacred School at its weakest point, where the crust was not too crusty; in other words where the set, crystallized patterns of Christianity were not too strong. This plant, which had been in the earth for so long, germinated and began to grow into the experience on earth of the Third Sacred School; and that came through one individual in its initiation, in the person of the one who was known as Uranda. It is rather interesting, as he himself pointed out long ago, that his earthly name was Lloyd Arthur Meeker — L. A. M. — and his earthly title was Bishop — L. A. M. B. Here was the refocalization of both the First and Second Sacred Schools, but in the victory of the Third Sacred School through the Lamb, the apparently weak and helpless spiritual expression; this weak and helpless spiritual expression which had been, “as it had been slain,” apparently gone, and material man was still in the ascendency; material man was still dominating the affairs of the world. And to most people it seems that way yet. We have begun to know differently.
But we recognize that what we have experienced of spiritual expression is not experienced to get into a battle with material man; it is experienced in order to open the way to the restoration of Spiritual Man on earth. And Spiritual Man is true MAN, the Living Soul; material man is untrue man, the dying soul. The only way by which this restoration can occur is through the Lamb, through the Spiritual Expression Plane approach; for it is the Lamb who opens the Seals. Specifically the First, Second and Third Seals are opened by reason of the refocalization of the Third Sacred School within the consciousness of human beings on earth. Here it is.
Now each Sacred School is contained within the next higher: the First Sacred School is contained within the Second Sacred School, the Second within the Third, and the Third within the Fourth. The victorious spirit which was so vividly apparent on earth through the One called Jesus held the door open for the refocalization of the Third Sacred School, which has occurred in these present days, breaking surface once again; having been lost to the experience of human beings by reason of the failure of the disciples after our Master's ascension.
Now this was more or less anticipated, because of their lack of understanding while He was still with them, let alone after He had left them. And of course there was a reversion into the material approach once again, the endeavor of human beings — no doubt with the best of intentions — to do what they thought was necessary, to build what they thought was necessary on earth, in the Name of the LORD, they thought. But it wasn't. Material methods, the methods of material man, were used. The product has been called Christianity. However, out of that has come the Third Sacred School, which is established in victory and which includes the victory refocalized for both the First and the Second Sacred Schools. It is interesting to note that within the scope of our present experience in the unfoldment of this Body there are those who have emerged out of Christianity, the Second Sacred School, and there are those who have emerged out of Judaism, the First Sacred School, or perhaps I should say out of the evidences of the failure of these two Sacred Schools. And the composition of our ministry is of this nature, rightly so. There is no judgment with respect to anyone in this regard. The composition of what is now taking form must primarily be of this nature; this is the way it should be. Let there be no doubt about this; let there be no judgment with respect to it. This is the way it is and we rejoice that it is so. We have the evidence of the victorious First Sacred School, the evidence of the victorious Second Sacred School, and, expanding this, we have the evidence of the victorious Third Sacred School. And the Third Sacred School includes within it the First and the Second.
However, we are not going to stop at the Third Sacred School. There is the Fourth. Now the Third Sacred School offers the evidence of the presence of the LORD under the name of the Lamb. This is the Spirit of God, isn't it, which has been seen as finding release and expression through human beings. It's coming a little closer, isn't it? The Spirit of Truth, which our Master said, while He was still on earth, “dwelleth with you, and shall be in you” — that is, a greater closeness than had been known while He Himself was present in physical form on earth. His presence, with His disciples and others at that time, was closer to those who were with Him than Shekinah had been to the children of Israel; so here was the evidence of the presence of the LORD coming closer. And it comes closer still in the Third Sacred School, from the standpoint of the Spirit of Truth — the Spirit of Truth which moves through the human beings concerned. However, it is seen as moving through in spiritual expression. Here is the opening of the Third Seal collectively speaking, but it still does not permit the experience of man the Living Soul. MAN, after all, was created on the Sixth Day, [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/not-from-i-love-you-lord-martin-cecil.html] and MAN does not appear on earth until that comes again in human experience. But the way is clear, the Seals have been opened; it is only a matter of participating in what is already established, growing, taking expanded form.
So here we begin to see that there is something appearing which relates to the Fourth Sacred School. The Lamb leads into the Fourth Sacred School. We might recall that the Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him an hundred and forty and four thousand. Of course those who look at that merely from the standpoint of the Third Sacred School tend still to see the Lamb as being something closely related to them; maybe He is finding expression through them, but somehow separate from them. Let the Spirit of God, let the Spirit of Truth, have its way with you! Who are you? Who are the yous [ewes]? It's not ewes that are needed; it's the Lamb!
We have used a word recently which relates to the evidence of the presence of the Lord as this applies to the Fourth Sacred School. The word Tone has been used, the Tone which sounds in the pure heart. The Spirit of Purification is the fourth of the seven spirits, and the heart relates to the fourth level of consciousness, the Fourth Dimensional Plane of Being, the plane which connects the Triune Earth with the Triune Heaven. We find ourselves there in time, times and half a time — three and a half. But the approach is through the Third Sacred School. The possibility of the purifying of the heart comes by reason of spiritual expression; not by the methods of men, not by anything that human beings might do to mortify the flesh, or to blank their minds, or to sink into some deep stupor of meditation. None of these things work; they are all a part of the experience of material man.
Spiritual expression is the one possibility that is left [greatcosmicstory.blogspot.com/the-third-and-last-call.html] by which contact may be made with the evidence of the Presence of the LORD, which is what restores, what renews, what saves in this sense — the Lamb. The Seals are open, and to the extent that there is space in the heart the Tone has been heard. And it is this Tone that needs to be expressed, and that is spiritual expression. And even though from the material viewpoint it seems like a weak and ineffective thing, this is the way that restoration occurs; this is the way by which the power of God is known in the affairs of men.
Those who are involved with material man scoff when they look at Spiritual Man, or what they think that Spiritual Man is. “There shall be scoffers in the last days.” Well there always have been. But the scoffing rings rather hollow in the last day because the spiritual expression emerges. It seems rather innocent, and the quality of that spiritual expression is guileless; it is seemingly meek and lowly; it's not trying to assert itself; it's not trying to dominate anyone. Well from the material man viewpoint, what's the use of that? What's the value of that? It's not going to achieve anything. You have to get out there and do something! You have to get into a battle with somebody; you have to tear down the evil. What is evil? Virtually everything that anyone looks at, but always in the other fellow! This Watergate thing is typical of the vile attitude that human beings have, and they think they're so righteous about it. It's rotten all the way through. Of course most people see the rottenness “over there,” and they have found a convenient scapegoat in the person of Richard Nixon. Well he is a material man just the same as everybody else, but why judge him as though he were the only material man on earth? How ridiculous! Anything to cover up the True Tone, anything to maintain the ascendency of material man. Oh so good he is, in his own eyes, so self-righteous — Cain, the slayer of Abel, the slayer of Spiritual Man.
But we have discovered that Spiritual Man is not quite so ineffective as material man would have us believe. We begin to find that spiritual expression gets something done, in spite of material man. In spite of all the things that human beings do the victory emerges, because the way is open, the way is open for it. It is no longer, as it has seemed to human beings — it never really was that way, but as it has seemed to them — a matter of human effort. It is a matter of spiritual expression, just that. And that is acceptable to the LORD because it is His expression. And as the heart is purified the greater release of that spirit comes; the evidence of the Presence of the LORD. It comes as the sound of a Mighty Trumpet, a trumpet sound which drives material man crazy. And we see that craziness multiplying on every hand, the insanity becoming more and more obvious. Why? Because of spiritual expression, because of the increased sound of the trumpet. And that increased sound of the trumpet raises up those who yield to that sound rather than contend with it. And so it is that we are concerned to know the nature of that sound, the quality of it, letting that sound as it really is find expression in our own living, that the victory may be known with absolute assurance as we move from level to level in the cycles of restoration, resurrection.
I am most thankful that we have had the opportunity of sharing this meditation this morning here in this Chapel on Sunrise Ranch and also where those other blessed ones are gathered in oneness of spirit in Portland, Oregon. As we begin to sense real agreement we know that whatsoever is asked will be done. But what is asked? Just the fulfilment of the victory, that is all. Not that “my” problems shall be solved, that “my” diseases should be cured, that “my” affairs should be set in an order that is pleasing to me. No, none of these things, because we find ourselves coming again into a new experience of identity, which is the first awareness that we have in any true sense of the reality of our own being. And this occurs on the Fourth Day, by reason of the Fourth Sacred School—the final realization of true identity, final in the sense of the untrue one disappearing, but only a beginning in the greater experience of the true identity, which is not finally complete until the Seventh Day of Creation.
So we would let it unfold, abiding in agreement, knowing the victory every step of the way because we are not looking for something in a personal sense. We share the larger vision which sees the whole, and we know that we only have meaning in the whole, our identity is only a true identity when it is in His Name, when it is an aspect, a differentiated aspect, of the LORD, giving evidence of His Presence.
Our most gracious LORD, how deeply thankful we are for the victory which was established by Thee so long ago and which is now emerging into the collective experience of human beings as they yield in the creative cycles to what is moving now. We thank Thee for the evidence of Thy Presence, no longer something separate from us but known increasingly by reason of the expression of Thy Spirit in our momentary living. And this brings with it an awareness of new being, an awareness of abiding in Thee; no longer separate from Thee, no longer trying to find Thee, but allowing the expression of what Thou art to express individually and collectively in the achievement of Thy creative purposes on earth. So is it in this moment. So shall it ever be in each ever-present moment of eternity, to Thy Glory, in the Shekinah, in the Christ, in the Lamb, in the True Tone of Thy Eternal Being. Aum-en.
The state of man's consciousness has produced the state of the world around him. As long as the state of man's consciousness is conditioned by the world around him he cannot but participate in a process of disintegration. The world around man is the effect of the state present in his consciousness. When the state of man's consciousness is an expression of absolute cause, then the world around him will reflect that fact. These basic principles to which I have given form in words should be familiar to you, but you need to be so soaked in the water of truth that you find it impossible to dry out.
As long as human beings seek the answer in the world around them polarity has been reversed and the result is nothing. This search has continued in the attitudes of human beings all down through the ages: somehow the answer can be extracted from the environment, it is supposed. If it cannot be found in the immediate environment then we need to look further, and further, and further. But if we look far enough, finally it is anticipated that the answer must be found. But the answer is not in the realm of effects. The answer is contained in cause.
I would like to meditate upon these matters this evening so that we may share something more vividly as to the true state of affairs. As a starting point, I have a letter here of response received a little while ago from Ted Black: “The eternal quest of human beings to discover in the environment the reason for their existence is parabled in the medieval legend of the quest for the holy grail. Knights in shining armor (spaceships?) set off into the wilderness, sword in hand, to search for the grail, supposedly the cup from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper. However, this form of the legend is merely superficial Christianization of a very ancient ritual theme in which sword and cup are the basic sexual symbols. The picture is of the folly of man, the sword seeking the cup—man in subjection to that over which he is supposed to have dominion. When the sword is wielded rightly, the cup returns willingly to its rightful place. The head, or point, is anointed with oil (the positive expression of love in action) and the cup runs over (the visible fulfilment of the negative in true response). Nevertheless, the value is not in the contents of the grail but in the action of the sword, not in the effects but in the cause.”
I am particularly interested in the sword-cup metaphor. The sword represents the positive causative aspect of being and the cup the negative creative aspect of being. We have the same story portrayed through Adam and Eve. In man's upside-down world the sword is supposed to seek the cup. Here we have the representation of man, who is supposed to be the sword in the hand of God, trying to find the answer in the creation round about, seeking his fulfilment in the world around him. This is the cup being sought by the sword—the male chasing the female: man's eternal quest for the fulfilment that he thinks he is going to find in the world around him. Is it not the concept of the vast majority of human beings that somehow or other in the relationship between male and female fulfilment will be found? So it is sought that way, but it is never found that way. Obviously there is a right relationship between male and female; there is a right relationship between the sword and the cup.
In the story of Adam and Eve, Adam was created first apparently. The cause comes before the effect. Adam may symbolize the state of Divine consciousness which is the cause of the effects which appear in the world round about. The physical form of man is an effect caused by the Divine state of consciousness present, within which is what we call the Divine Design and the means of control. This is obviously so, if we observe the physical body of man, as long as life remains. There is a design to it, and there is a method of control which causes it to be operative. Eve represents the physical form, the effect. The physical form, by reason of the presence of Divine consciousness, develops a capacity of consciousness. This capacity includes what we call the senses, so that there may be an awareness of the world around. The body-consciousness in this sense permits the world around to be observed; it permits the effects produced by absolute cause to be seen. This opens the door to what has come to be known as the fall, because, observing the results of absolute cause round about, the feeling nature may be attracted to the effects which are so seen. They are desirable apparently, and therefore may become motivating factors in what the individual does. He acts to obtain the desirable result. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was much to be desired to make one wise. It was pleasing to the eyes.
So, the consciousness of man, instead of remaining the consciousness of Divine Being on earth, began to absorb from the realm of effects. The desirable things round about began to be the controlling element in experience, brought about by the fact that the body has sense-consciousness. As this occurred, Eve offered the fruit to Adam, so that man's capacity for Divine consciousness began to be filled with the state simply of what was conveyed through sense-consciousness. So the experience of Divine consciousness, true consciousness, was lost. Adam fell too. Now it is fortunate that it worked out on this gradual basis and it did not involve the immediate obliteration of the body, because thereby opportunity was extended, for a period of time at least, for the individual to return to the Divine state of consciousness. We are well aware of the fact that human beings generally didn't take advantage of that opportunity, and in that sense we are inheritors of their failure. But every generation has failed. Polarity was reversed. Sense-consciousness dominated. Divine consciousness was almost completely obscured. We are witness to the fact that it has not been completely obscured. We have a certain sense of something above and beyond what is considered to be the normal state of human experience. This human condition is a state that is way subnormal. But most people seem to accept it, and even though there may be some nudging from within themselves, they do their best to pay no attention to it, so that they may, if possible, be successful in the sense world.
Success in the sense world is measured by what one can obtain out of it, how much one can get—presuming that the more one gets the more one is likely to find the answer—because it is imagined that the answer comes out of the world around us. Therefore if we can gain the whole world we'll have, presumably, the whole answer. And so this quest is continued from generation to generation, but nobody ever found the answer. The very compulsion, Divine compulsion, in human beings has been used to keep human beings from finding the answer. It is said that hope springs eternal in the human breast. So he is eternally hopeful that he can find the answer in his environment, where it isn't, whereas the fact of that hope indicates that the answer is at hand, if he would only look where it is. If he has been looking where it isn't for all these thousands of years, it is surely about time that someone woke up to the necessity of looking where it is. We have found ourselves to be nudged in this direction.
The sword does not seek the cup. When the sword is returned to the hand of the one who rightly wields it, the cup returns to the sword. The creation was made by God and belongs to God. The link of man's Divine consciousness has been missing in this world, so the creation in this world has thereby been separated from God. The creation returns easily and naturally to God when the link is once again in place. Man tries to wield the sword and he is sure that the grail, or the cup, is somewhere to be found in the environment. But it is always being protected by the dragon. He has to slay the dragon to get to the cup, he thinks, and he has been busy slaying dragons for ages. But there was always another dragon behind the dragon—never the cup, never the answer, never the fulfilment.
The sword belongs in the hand of Divine Being; man belongs in the right hand of God. What was it Jesus Christ was supposed to have done? He went and sat down at the right hand of God. The consciousness of Divine Being on earth belongs in the right hand of God. This is the symbol of the sword which represents the positive or male aspect of Divine Being. It isn't an instrument of destruction in the hand of God. It is an instrument of destruction in the hand of fallen man. Perhaps we can see this destructiveness now in what is called the population explosion. In the hand of God man is the only begotten Son of God on earth; he is the creative instrument on earth. The cup returns to the left hand of God when the sword is in the right hand of God, for here we see the representation of what we have called the creative triangle. There are positive and negative points at either corner of the base and there is the supreme positive at the apex.
The natural union of the sword and the cup occurs when the consciousness of man once again becomes the consciousness of God on earth. The consciousness of God on earth is a specific differentiation of the consciousness of God as this relates to the overall pattern of the cosmic scheme of things. The sword is in the right hand of God and the cup comes into the left. It is returned to the pattern of the Divine Design to function in balanced union with the sword. That is what has been called the restoration, or the salvation, of the world. Not just the salvation of man, but the salvation of the world for which man carries divine responsibility. All this symbolism has been present in the consciousness of man for ages past. The application of the sword and the cup to the Christian theme is merely making use of something that was present in the consciousness of man long, long before our Master was on earth. The symbols have been known, misused, and the truth consequently lost to the consciousness of man. Of course the truth can't be lost in fact. It's always been present, but unknown to man. God has been a mystery to man, just as man has also been a mystery to God.
We begin to see the truth of these things relative to ourselves, that we may be soaked in the water of truth thoroughly, that there may be a constant consciousness of one's own responsibility in the position of cause. That responsibility relates to the quality and the nature of one's own state of consciousness. The quality and nature of one's own state of consciousness will be dependent upon whether one is governed by emotional reactions and responses to the environment, to the world around one, or whether the government is of God. The government is of God when the feeling nature is open, yielded, to the quality of Divine consciousness. When Divine consciousness is supreme in one's attitude then the sword again begins to be returned to the hand of God. There certainly is no more looking for the answer in the world around.
I am a part of your world. Are you looking for the answer from me? If you are, you will not find it. You yourself are the answer. If you don't know that, you'll never know the answer. Human beings have recognized that Jesus was the answer, but has that provided the answer for anyone else? Not as long as they were looking to Him, because if they were looking to Him they were looking into their environment, where the answer isn't. The answer is experienced when the Divine state of consciousness is experienced, when you, at the center of your world, are permitting the sword to be wielded by the hand of God. You are not seeking the cup. If you are the sword in the hand of God the cup seeks you.
We find this distorted pattern in the function of men and women in the world. Men are supposed to chase the women, and the women enter into the game by extending lures of various kinds, and this nonsensical pattern of destructiveness has been dominant in the consciousness of human beings all down through the ages, dominating the consciousness of man. A man is going to find his fulfilment in a woman; a woman is going to find her fulfilment in a man. It isn't so! The answer is not in the environment. We have had those within the scope of our ministry, many who have never seen this. They have always been on the prowl, so to speak, anticipating that some sort of fulfilment is going to come out of their environment. What blindness. What stupidity. What have we been considering all these years? And still human beings go on blindly in their old ruts. Oh yes, it's nice to have spiritual ideas, but when it comes down to practical doing, “Well my fulfilment, I know where that is!” Do you? I trust you are beginning to remember where it is. It is in cause. As long as the serpent in the tree can persuade men and women to run after each other he has the world bound in the pit. The physical bodies of the male and the female are a part of the creation, they are a part of the effect. In and of themselves they are not causes of anything. They cannot cause fulfilment to appear for anyone. When fulfilment has been found in cause, then the effects will reflect that fulfilment, but that is an entirely different thing, because those concerned are not trying to get the fulfilment out of the environment from somebody else.
Man was created to be the sword in the hand of God on earth. The rest of creation is the cup. There is a proper union between man and his world. Man only has a true world when he is the sword in the hand of God. Then there may be a right union between man and his world, and the world will reflect the Divine nature of man. Amongst the elements that reflect that Divine nature are rightly the bodies, the physical forms, of men and women—just as a reflection, just as a result of a cause. The cause is the experience of the state of Divine consciousness. When that state of consciousness is experienced the results of it appear. But they do not appear because they are felt to be essential and therefore have to be arbitrarily produced somehow. They appear simply because they are inevitable when absolute cause is in effect.
The first great commandment is valid, but not really taken seriously, even by most Emissaries. They assume that they are able to judge good and evil. It is only possible to eat of that forbidden tree when there is a failure to love God, because loving God places man back into the hand of God, and he has no rights on his own. He is in the right hand of God. When the positive expression of true cause is on earth, because the Divine consciousness has been accepted, the cup returns. It is natural for creation to be one with the Creator when man does not keep Creator and creation apart.
What beautiful symbols have been provided for us in so many ways! Do you ever pay any heed to these symbols? Do you ever think on these things? Do you ever allow your consciousness to be filled with the truth of them? Or do you go along day by day without thought? Do you let the water be poured over you, or do you put up an umbrella so that you don't get wet? What abundance is present with us, all around us—it's been here all the time if we would look at it. And we have the keys, don't we? We have the keys to unlock all these doors. But nobody can do it but the person himself.
“Look no further, I am the answer.” That applies to you. If you are not the answer, you don't know the answer and you can never find it, never! If your world is to change to be a reflection of the divine state, it will change only because of you, because your consciousness allows absolute cause to be in action in the world where you are. That makes you, on that basis, of supreme importance. There is no one more important than you in your world when you take that responsibility. It is not what anyone else is going to do out there, it is what one does oneself that is the answer. How about being the answer!
The glorious provision of all things necessary is present with us, but how blindly we tend to pass these things by as though somehow or other the answer is going to drop into our laps from someplace else. Oh no, never from someplace else! just in the expression of oneself on the basis of the experience of the true, Divine state of consciousness, a consciousness which is uninvolved, uncontrolled by the world around. The way is so wide open. I thank God for you and others who begin to recognize the nature of that way. So there it is!
Man was created to be the sword in the hand of God on earth
At one time or another all of you have played hard to get! It is useless to chase people, because immediately you do that you have reversed polarity. The person who is being chased is in control. The expression is sometimes used, “Oh, he led me a merry chase.” Why be led that way? The only true sharing that is possible is on the basis of the working of the Law. The sword must be present in the hand of God. Insofar as the creation—other than man—is concerned there is no problem; but man has the ability to resist God, and has exercised this ability very extensively, become expert at it. He does it by ignoring God and being attracted to the things in his environment, and he is led around by the nose by such things. He is a slave to his world. We have the opportunity of providing the sword, the cause; and with things hotting up the way they are, people are being forced to choose. Of course the choice hasn't been very clear as yet, because the sword hasn't been very clear on earth.
When the sword is clear—the flaming sword which turns every way, keeping the way of the tree of life—then those who begin to see it, because it's clearly there, are close to the edge of the Garden, so to speak, close to the Gate, and it is there that the choice is going to be made. As long as people are way back in the bush somewhere, they can't see the sword, they don't know what's going on, and they can't make any intelligent choice. But when the sword becomes visible, then all who are in its vicinity are forced to make a choice. They are either going to accept the state of the cup or they are going to try to wield a sword in opposition to the sword, and there is no future in that. So the ground begins to be cleared on this basis. But it only begins to be cleared as there is the sword there, and the sword isn't there until those concerned have accepted the responsibility for themselves.
I have often posed the question: What would you do if you were the only one left of all those who have an understanding of the things which we understand, the only one left on earth? Would you be true to that in that situation? Or would you say, “Oh well, it's not worth it now”? Why wait for that situation to appear? It's a lot easier now. There's something else that I drew attention to recently: There is no moment when it is easier to do what is needful than now. It is never going to be any easier.
So when the sword is in evidence it is there because there are those who are the sword for themselves, and we find that we all fit into what might be called the overall sword, so to speak. We have placement in that. I have a position to fill. You also have positions to fill in various ways. We all do in this sense. We still have the responsibility of being the sword in that position, whatever it may be, and that means that one has accepted and maintained and is experiencing the true state of consciousness.
You can't experience the true state of consciousness if you are emotionally involved in the things that are going on in your environment. It's impossible. And you will be emotionally involved in the things in your environment as long as all those things mean so much to you, as long as your love is there, as long as those things look so important to you. This is one of the hallmarks of people who come for help, that all the things in their environment look so important, so vast—so insuperable the difficulties are. They're not! They only look that way to the individual because he loves those things so much. When we begin to love being right in our own consciousness, so that what is present in our consciousness is true to the Divine Design—we love the nature of God, the quality of God; this means more to us, is bigger than anything else—then all these other things, what happened to them? We give life to our world, and if it's a distorted world, we maintain it by our life force poured into it. When we give ourselves back to God, then the life force is withdrawn from all that and down it goes. That's a terrifying experience for some people sometimes: “My world is falling apart!” Praise the Lord! At last! You can't hold it together anymore. But the Lord holds His world together. That's not going to fall apart. It may have been obscured by this other world and it may look like an appalling thing to see this other world tumbling down—it's the one that you were observing—but when it's tumbled down, the Divine World is still there. It didn't fall. Isn't this the greatest undertaking in which anyone could be engaged?
