In the beginning Positive God joined to Negative God, and the Child of that union was Creation. We see Positive Man (male) joined to Negative Man (female), and the result of that union is the Creation of a Child. Man is a Three-Phase Being: namely, Physical, Mental and Spiritual Expression.
Impregnation of Negative Man by Positive Man results in a Physical Child. Impregnation of Positive Man by Negative Man results in a Mental Child. Impregnation of Positive Man by Negative Man simultaneous to impregnation of Negative Man by Positive Man results in the birth of physical matter into the spiritual world, and that is a Spiritual Expression Child. To produce a Spiritual Expression Child, both parents thereof must be both Father and Mother. This is that which is called Art. Art, in any manifestation, is a physical reflection of a Spiritual Expression Child.
That these truths might be made manifest to those who are worthy did you enter earth life. For this purpose did you come into the world, that you might show forth the secret things of God and prove that the Spiritual Phase of Being may be comprehended by man.
Take heed, therefore, unto these precepts, contemplate upon them, govern each thought, word and action thereby, and show forth to the world the results of an Understanding Heart:
O Man
take care that in all things you shelter, protect, uphold and appreciate the Flesh Child
which you fathered in the Woman who is the Mother thereof,
that she may feel that It, her Child, is safe in your care.
O Woman
take care that in all things you shelter, protect, uphold and appreciate the Idea Child
which you fathered in the Man who is the Mother thereof,
that he may feel that It, his Child, is safe in your care.
O Man-Woman
take care that in all things you shelter, protect, uphold and appreciate the Spiritual Expression Child
which you both fathered in the other as the Mother thereof,
that you both may feel that It, your mutual Child, is safe in the other's care.
Thus may the Inner Nature of you both express freely in Art, in Music, and in Love.
In these three Laws are the secrets by which every problem upon the face of the earth may be solved. Obedience thereto shall make of every Home a Heaven, of every Life a thing of Beauty, and of every day a Joy forever.
Do you ever wonder what is imaginary and what is real? Sometimes the line between seems indistinct in our awareness. Do you find that something which at one time may be sharply focused in consciousness, very real and immediate—at some other time may fade into fuzziness? I have been thinking about the word imagine. The adjective form, imaginary, carries the denotation of something unreal, fictitious, having no real existence, but the root of the word has some other interesting meanings. The verb “imagine” means “to form an idea of.” This is obviously related to thinking. “Image”, which has the same root as the word “imitate”, means “a reproduction.”
In the Bible it is said that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God: divine reproductions. Many people have a sense of indwelling divinity. To some it seems imaginary: “Oh, that couldn’t really be true, not of me anyway. Perhaps it was true of some great figures in history, great spiritual leaders maybe, but not me. And certainly not the fellow next door. He is no divine reproduction, let me tell you!” An image also suggests something projected, such as a movie projector projects an image on a screen. The projection is obviously a two-dimensional reproduction of a multidimensional scene, but it may provide us with an illustration of something. A projected image has fewer dimensions than the reality which it is a projection of. The screen on which a movie is shown is two-dimensional, while the real setting where the movie was filmed has more than three dimensions, but nevertheless the projected image conveys essences of the reality and provides a connection with the reality that it is an image of. Does that make the image imaginary, in the sense of being unreal or fictitious? In the case of the movie projection it’s pretty clear that it is not the reality itself; what is on the screen is but light images, color, shapes, etc. But what about us as human beings? It might stretch our imaginations, but could not our visible appearance be a living projection of divine spirit? Logically we might assume that because we are alive, there must be a source of life present which is animating this form. Or perhaps we could say that the visible form is a projection of the source of life. I think that way of putting things is equally accurate; it is another way of saying that we human beings are made “in the image and likeness of God.”
In his book “The Tree of Life”, Roger Cook comments about imagination:
“Henry Corbin has suggested that the word ‘imaginary’ might be replaced, when necessary, with the more affirmative word ‘imaginal,’ derived from the Latin word 'imaginalis.’ Corbin found it necessary to use this word when writing about the visionary experience of Islamic mystics. For these philosophers recognized a real plane of experiences which they called the ‘alam al-mithal,’the world of the image, or the ‘alam-i-malakut,’ the world of imagination. This they conceived as an intermediary realm, existing between, and interpenetrating with, the realms of intellect and sense perception. According to this schema, imagination … [acts] as a vital bridge between … spirit and matter. This structuring of experience has its roots in the extremely ancient mythological idea of the threefold structure of the cosmos, often expressed in the image of a tree. The Tree of Life, or Cosmic Tree, penetrates the three zones of heaven, earth and underworld, its branches penetrating the celestial world and its roots descending into the abyss. Like the Tree, imagination unites heaven and earth; it is ‘rooted’ both above and below. Uniting the luminous world of consciousness to the dark underworld of the unconscious, and drawing nourishment from both the heavenly-immaterial world of intelligible meaning and the earthly-material world of sensory perception, it creates the ‘magical’ intermediary world of images. It is this lively mediation between these … worlds that accounts for the multiplicity of symbolism: the fact that a single archetypal image, like the Tree, can produce throughout space and time such an abundant flowering and branching of images. Like the Tree, imagination is a source of endless regeneration. It is both old and young, and has its autumns and its springs: for if the senses become too heavy and attached to traditional forms, imagination deserts them. It discards old meanings, shatters fixed dogmas, and revives eternal truths, forever re-clothing them in the light of the new.”
Imagination has something to do with the connection in consciousness between spirit and form. There is a connecting realm where projected images take form, where spirit is clothed. These words from the autobiography of Black Elk, a holy man of the Oglala Sioux, describe such a vision: “Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.”
In the words of the song which the choir sang earlier [“Behold, The Tabernacle of God,” by William Harris, text from the Sarum Antiphon], “The temple of God is holy/which temple ye are.” Black Elk’s vision conveys his understanding of his own reality and spiritual origin, and of the realm of connection through which “the image and likeness of God” is projected. Black Elk’s words might remind us of some others from the Book of Revelation in the Bible: “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was … the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”
Black Elk’s and the disciple John’s descriptions are very much alike. Both are visions of reality expressed in word-images. As Cook said, imagination acts “as a vital bridge between … spirit and matter.” This bridge, or connection, is called heaven in the Bible, and is known to those of us who have been to Emissary spiritual education classes by the term pneumaplasm. Literally meaning “spirit-substance,” pneumaplasm vibrationally bridges spirit and form. The spiritual reality and its “image and likeness” in form are connected by the substance of heavenly imagination. In this century, particularly, scientific objectivity has been held in high esteem and more artistic, apparently subjective visions and understandings relegated to second place. Perhaps in more current times it is becoming apparent once again that we cannot see things as they really are while ignoring or rejecting what we cannot see! A great deal of what something actually is is not visible.
When you look at a person you see their physical form, their appearance. We say things like, “I like the way she has her hair today” or “Hmm, nice necktie.” We see superficial things about one another. But obviously what we see in this respect is but the barest representation of the person; there is so much more present. And most of what is present—by far the majority—is not visible. Some of it is apparent in other ways. It becomes apparent by the way a person acts and speaks and behaves. Those are some ways that we make visible and apparent to others what is invisibly present within us. Is that not “image-ination,” of a kind? We may reveal or project the image and likeness of God, of the divine, by the way we behave.
This connecting realm of spirit substance, the imaginal realm or heaven, provides the initial clothing for invisible spiritual impulse to make itself manifest. Our friend Rob Cass refers to this realm as the “shaping place”. I feel that is a beautiful description. From Source, spiritual impulses move through the pneumaplasmic substance or the imaginal realm, producing images and likenesses. These are living holographic projections, not just vacant impressions.
The word “dialogue” in its largest sense conveys something of this same idea, “dia”meaning “through” and “logue”from the Greek root “logos”, meaning “word.” Hence, “dialogue: the flow-through of the Word.” Dialogue describes the process by which the invisible is made visible. The awareness of this whole process is restored by attunement. Dialogue and attunement then can be seen as being very closely interlinked.
The Tree of Life extends from the celestial realms above, sinks its roots deep into the underworld, and stands proudly in the middle. It is a good symbol of continuity through several levels of creation. These are also reflected in us. The Tree of Life is present in each person: we have spreading branches in the high heavens and beyond, yet stand firmly on the earth, while simultaneously having connection into the underworld, both drawing and giving nourishment. Perhaps attunement might be seen as the means of restoring awareness of the Tree of Life and our understanding of the processes by which it manifests.
The Word flows as spiritual impulse from Source, from divine origin. When the medium is present—when the shaping place, when the imaginal realm, the pneumaplasmic connection is adequate—this flow-through occurs and creates. Our very presence in a physically visible sense is a revelation of this process constantly at work. What keeps people alive? There is something moving through us, and if that flow is interrupted then the form of manifestation drops away.
When we look at the larger world in which we live, we see many conditions, all humanly produced, which are unhealthy, violent, and also some which are beautiful—mostly evident through the realms of nature. I don’t think we would be interested in being here today, or in being here at all, if we were not concerned to make a difference by adding our own creative effect into the world at large. How can we effect creative change?—change that really is creative, not manipulative or more “good ideas” which produce innumerable unexpected effects. Attunement describes the answer; so does dialogue.
Am I talking about something imaginary, unreal, fictitious, having no real existence? Or is this experience of flow-through something that we each individually know and consequently know together? When we are in the flow we know. We understand because the flow activates our capacity to think, to know and to understand. Martin Exeter used to make reference now and then to a phenomenon he observed: people moved along with him and seemed to understand quite well what he was saying while they were present with him in a setting such as this, but then a short while later they might be scratching their heads, wondering—“I know that was insightful but I can’t recall now what it was.” Of course it is not a matter of memory but of staying in the flow. Staying in the flow ourselves we may always know what is moving from Source,
Following a time of collective dialogue in a setting such as we are in this morning, the flow keeps going. Each of us is responsible for staying in the flow all of the time. It is no less true now than it will be in a few minutes when I stop speaking. We are each responsible for continuing in the flow all of the time. To the extent that we do that, then our understanding, our sense of continuity, remains intact and our appreciation for the oneness of things remains intact. If we step out of the flow, immediately we start to doubt; we doubt our own experience. “I am not sure what is real.” From that doubtful starting point we can invent “reasons” to support that point of view. “Well, my experience must not be real because I don’t seem to be able to sustain moving in the flow very adequately on my own.” Doubt multiplies, and we can quickly get ourselves into a dark space where we not only doubt the validity of our own experience but we project that out and doubt other people. “Maybe all of this is make-believe; there is no divine source present, I might as well go out and get what I can while I can.” That is a sad succession of experience.
This underlines the necessity to stay in the flow, to continue in the dialogue, to maintain attunement constantly. Let the shaping place—the secret place, the safe, holy place in ourselves—be active and substance-filled. Only then may what comes to consciousness, what we become aware of mentally and emotionally, be creations of the spiritual flow. They are indications of the sap of the Tree of Life bringing life to every part—permitting the bearing of fruits and the growing of leaves which are for the making whole of all creation.
The challenge of our day and every day is to maintain alignment in the flow. When and as we do, the world of our personal experience and the greater world beyond, if there is one, is re-created. The living Word flows through the shaping place, fashioning imaginal substance into reproductions of itself, of its own unlimited qualities. The world thus projected or created is one of infinite beauty and constant change. No change is mourned or grieved about because the source of everything is so known, so present. The passing away of what was is just as delightful and joyful as the emergence of the new. Those who consistently provide what Roger Cook referred to as “the lively mediation” between spirit and form live in heaven on earth. Can you imagine that?
In the account of creation contained in the Book of Genesis, the Tree of Life is referred to as being present in the midst of the Garden of Eden. In the biblical record, not until the visions of the disciple John appear in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, is reference again made to the Tree of Life. We are present and responsible now for being parts of the mechanism by which the Tree of Life, the continuum of divine presence in expression, is restored to full functionality in human experience. Perhaps all that is required to experience and participate in this restoration is to let our capability to really imagine simply come back into alignment with the primary flow. Then that which shapes what is imagined will be divine Source, and not something incomplete or somewhat disconnected.
The mechanism works in either case; the human projector projects the world we live in. This is the role of humankind made in the image and likeness of the Source of all. We reproduce in the world the images and likenesses of what is present in us. Where then may one point a finger of blame about conditions and experiences? The question is. How accurate, how complete is our own experience of attunement, of dialogue? For that experience to be full and complete, the pneumaplasmic material of the shaping place must be momentarily adequate in quality and quantity.
Let us honor what we know and not be conned into thinking that it is imaginary. Let us honor what we know with one another, and honor one another as evidences of the presence of the divine. If we see each other that way, then the quality of our interactions will be the finest possible. Aligned with the central flow of the Word, light-filled substance fills the imaginal realm and we are able to project the images and likenesses of the divine into the world.
Elsewhere in the Book of Genesis it is said that Adam “named” the living creations—animals and birds and plants, etc. If you have wondered about that at all, as I have, you have no doubt concluded too that it was not a matter of giving them Latin names to later appear in an encyclopedia! Adam’s “naming” suggests the role of humankind: to function in the shaping place, clothing spiritual impulse in light-substance and ensuring that the resulting material creation is formed accurately. We have this capability; we are creators; we are holy. Our external forms are temples, as referred to in the song at the beginning: the temples of God which are holy. In a time like this we relax our hearts and let our minds be focused; the flow-through of the Word is a reality and we know personal holiness. This is not imaginary; this is attunement.
Attunement is not something we just share now and then; it is rightly a constant experience. The world is in need of attunement: the restoration of the awareness of connectedness with all that is. In order for that need to be filled there must be human beings—you and me and lots of others who are letting the Word flow through, and who revere and sustain the shaping place, the realm of connection that makes this possible. It is not sustained because we are terribly careful; it is sustained because we love it and joy is flowing through us. That is what maintains holiness: joy springing from the source of joy. We permeate the world with joy, and the stuff of which the world is made leaps up happily and obediently to the impulse of spirit and takes shape accordingly. We are creators, endowed with this capability. Let us use it intelligently, gently, joyously and create the world anew.
When one views from the right distance a painting by an expert impressionist like Claude Monet, the image is luminous: not only is the form of the subject portrayed in an identifiable way but many layers of its meaning and inner qualities are made visible too. It looks alive; as much as the subject itself, one sees the light playing on and around it. Looking closely at a large Monet in a Paris museum last year, I was interested to find that in virtually every dab of paint on the canvas was just about every color imaginable. Yet from a little distance back the overall appearance was blended and unified. Can we keep a perspective, an overall impression that is accurate and alive, and deal in the details of life without losing that perspective? Some of the colors that are evident in every little dab may not seem to be the ones that fit. After all, here we are painting a tree and what has bright red got to do with it? Back off a little, and where the red fits is evident. All the colors, all the aspects of the divine, are required to create the image and likeness of divinity. Let’s continue together in the flow of life, the flow of spiritual current, the flow of joy, honoring the creative process and honoring one another, and watch the world spring to life in an unprecedented way. This is how it happens, this is how we do it, together.
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:
