New Year Resolutions

I think one of the best gifts parents (and grandparents) can give their children is a belief in themselves and that they are ‘good enough’. So many problems arise for us all in later life if we are insecure inside, and somehow feel that we are not living up to a particular standard set before us by parents/teachers/society/or religion.

I have just enjoyed a particularly happy family Christmas. I was able to spend a lot of time with my five and a half year old grandson, Finn. He is a very secure little boy and actually does believe in himself and that he is good at things. I noticed that as he is starting from a belief that ‘he can’, it truly helps him to do it. This inner confidence has helped him leap ahead with his school work. He hasn’t yet learned the lesson of losing though. We had games of Snakes and Ladders when he expected he would always beat his granny, and tears when he didn’t. However he will learn and gain from the losing times (in games and in life, as we all do) but the golden inner core of confidence will carry him through.

In the December issue of Stella Polaris, Finn’s Mum (my daughter Sara) wrote about ‘A Perfect Christmas’ and New Year’s resolutions. She talked about how the making of resolutions (and the often inevitable breaking of them) can add to an existing feeling that somehow we are not as good as we should be, and always have to strive for greater achievement and perfection. To quote: ‘Reeling from the imperfections of Christmas we find there comes a new challenge. New Year. New Year—new start. New Year resolutions. All promoting the notion that we are not quite good enough. That if we just tried that little bit harder, we would be perfect! In many ways, this is wonderful. Like the seasons, our lives are renewed. We can always start afresh, always move on. I may climb the stairs slowly, but I am getting higher all the time! I love that encouraging thought. On the other hand, though, it is possible for us to take it a little too far. The other message that the New Year resolution gives us is that we are in constant need of improvement, that there is something wrong that we need to fix, all the time. White Eagle says: “Of what use is it to stand in a dark room and contemplate the darkness? No progress is made in that way; but if a lighted candle or lamp is brought into that room, it illumines and reveals all”.’

These last few days I have been contemplating all these things, and the feeling that there is something wrong with us which we have to fix, and our New Year resolutions will help us do this! Sara wrote about how resolutions can focus our thoughts on negative aspects of our lives rather than celebrating the positive and quoted White Eagle saying: ‘Perhaps you are unaware that whenever you think negatively, you are actually creating negative conditions for yourselves. To create positive good, you must always think positively…What you think today, you become tomorrow.’

So I have decided I shall do what Sara suggests and choose just one positive thought for my New Year resolution…I won’t tell you what it is, but end with Sara’s closing quote from White Eagle: ‘Be true to your innermost light, and you will create heaven and know complete happiness on earth.’

'What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd I would bring a lamb.'

These are the well known words in the last verse of the carol ’In the Bleak Midwinter’ by Christina Rossetti. This carol often forms a part of our Christmas Services in the White Eagle Lodge. As I write this we have just had our Christmas celebration in our London Lodge’s temporary home in the heart of London near Trafalgar Square. Many came to join Colum, Anna and myself as we led our Christmas Service and party. It was a poignant time in one way, as we all remembered our last Christmas Service in our home in St. Mary Abbot’s Place, but also it was joyous because we realised how true it is that our Lodge is not a building—it is a community of loving hearts, a ‘grail cup’ of spiritual light being earthed in London. 

Just after we had sung ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ (no organist, no pianist, just Anna and Colum leading all our happy singing) I gave a little spontaneous talk based on the final verse. I talked about how each one of us has a gift of the spirit to bring into our lives, our families, our communities. We are all different—shepherds care for lambs, artists create lovely pictures, musicians beautiful music, writers poems and stories that touch the heart, etc. Christmas is a time to remember and celebrate our unique gifts. The next line of the verse is, ‘If I were a wise man I would do my part’.  We are all much wiser than we think we are. True wisdom is not the same as intellectual knowledge. White Eagle encourages all his students to access the wisdom of the spirit which is within the jewel of the soul. We can do this through quiet prayer and meditation. We can do it through contemplation of the magical symbol of the Star, breathing into our everyday minds the wisdom that we have built into our souls through many, many lifetimes.

Then the final beautiful line is: ‘Yet what I can I give Him—give my heart’. The most important gift of all is the gift of love. Whatever our material circumstances, we can all give this gift to people around us. Even though we may not enjoy all the material trappings of Christmas as we know it in our world today, it is possible to put that in its place, and try to remember the gift of love which we can all give, no matter what our material circumstances. In giving love, we are led inwardly to that simple ‘stable’, or as White Eagle often says, ‘the cave of the heart’, where the light is re-born at Christmas time.

I wish you a very blessed and inspiring Christmas—a time to both give and receive the most valuable present of all—LOVE.

No Room At The Inn

Christmas is fast approaching and it is hard not to feel overwhelmed by the modern day materialistic trappings of this time of festivity. It seems to me as though the traditional Christmas story of the journey to Bethlehem with all its magical symbolism may become forgotten. The giving of gifts is certainly remembered but maybe not a lot else—except in primary schools’ nativity plays.

However, whatever the religious beliefs, and whether the Christian Biblical Christmas story is thought of or not, I know that many people do become really concerned, particularly at this time of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, for the plight of homeless people. There is a feeling in many people’s hearts of wanting to give in some charitable way and this is a wonderful thing. In the UK we have recently experienced the annual ‘Children in Need’ appeal which has had very wide media coverage and raised millions of pounds. The money is put to good use in lots of heart-warming ways.

However, although those of us, like myself, who visit big cities (London for example) are sadly used to seeing homeless adults huddled in doorways and subways, it is still shocking to think of children in our ‘wealthy’ society living in terrible poverty. 

My colleague at New Lands, Jan, emailed me recently about a report issued by the charity for homeless ‘Shelter’.  She wrote: ‘The charity Shelter has just published analysed data related to more than 90,000 children in the UK who are without a permanent home. The charity’s chief executive, Campbell Robb, said the “heart-breaking” figures suggest the equivalent of three children in every school are homeless. The researchers were particularly disturbed to find that in June 2014 some 2,130 families in England alone were living in bed and breakfast hotels, almost double the figure for the same period in 2011when the figure was 1,210. Families in this position told the charity that they often felt unsafe, with children exposed to drug and alcohol abuse, fighting, swearing and racial language. Some said they had to live in one room, share kitchen and bathroom facilities with strangers, eat meals on the bed or on the floor. Others reported depression, panic attacks and their children bed wetting. One mother said, “my son became depressed for the first time in his life and my daughter even started self-harming”. Some told the charity of journeys of up to ninety minutes to school and a few failed to attend lessons altogether.

Jan went on to suggest that we can make a very real contribution in the White Eagle Healing and Brotherhood work. She wrote:‘It seems to me that these families need holding in our hearts, in the protective ray of the Great Healer and the love of the Great Mother. I do believe we have a spiritual responsibility not only as brothers but as caring human beings to be aware of such happenings especially as they are on the increase. The soul of the people of Britain does need to rise to overcome these distressing conditions. Thirty years ago I had the privilege of working with many homeless families. They all loved their children and tried to live decent lives, but were caught in a severe poverty trap. My heart feels the sadness that this situation still continues alongside extreme wealth.’

So from our deep caring we have the opportunity with White Eagle’s beautiful teaching and the inspiration of the Star to not only make material gifts if we can, but also to focus our prayers at this time on the tragedy of homelessness. 

I can't help but think of the Christmas story: that Jesus was born in a simple stable. The innkeeper had compassion in his heart and found a solution for Mary and Joseph’s homelessness. Let us pray that one day the magic of the Star will help manifest a warm and comforting home for every child, and let us work with the light to make it so!

Remembrance - A World Without Walls

On Sunday 9^th November—Remembrance Day—many people commemorated the centenary of the start of the first World War and here in London millions of people came to the Tower of London to see the ‘field’ of commemorative poppies laid in memory of all those who died in this particularly tragic war.

What has the world learned from this tragedy? What are the new generations learning we may ask? Last summer, as did so many other school children, my 15 year old granddaughter Daisy visited the battlefields. Afterwards she wrote ‘Thoughts from the Somme’ which was printed in our White Eagle magazine Stella Polaris. I quote a little here:

‘However , one experience that stands out in my memory of events is when we went to a graveyard in Flanders. It was huge; if you stood at the edge of it, the graves were reduced to cobblestones, a grey mass strewn with parties of schoolchildren holding clipboards amongst them. But amongst the grey mass were individuals, differences reconciled in death. German graves stood beside English, French, Canadian, Chinese and American. It was a joyous reminder that even though we may fight in life over petty differences, when the final note is played we all recognise ourselves in one another. This realisation is also shown in Michael Morpurgo’s novel ‘War Horses’. The horse, when trapped in wire, is freed by both German and English sides in a show that humanity is the same all over the world. Indeed, the stage production of that novel has its own cast and show in Germany. If we can learn anything from the First World War it is the importance of remembrance. Each new generation must be reminded that the terrible cost of human life anywhere is not worth small political gains or losses. This is particularly relevant now as angry words fly over the Ukraine crisis in a way that has been remarked upon by several to be reminiscent of the First World War. Once remembrance is learned, ingrained into the collective human mind, we will see the rose bloom on the cross. History may be filled with the taint of sorrow, but that is past. As a race we are adaptable; we can change the future.

A wonderful thought. We are adaptable. We can change. I believe our world is changing. 9^th November was also the 25^th Anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down. This happened not as a result of another war, but through peaceful revolution. To quote a media report:

‘On November 9^th 1989, the world watched in amazement as jubilant crowds gathered on both sides of the Berlin Wall around midnight to celebrate the opening of the border crossings between the eastern and western parts of the city. A peaceful revolution in East Germany had finally cracked this grim symbol of Cold War and political oppression. It signalled the beginning of the end of Germany’s post war division and national unity came less than a year later on October 3^rd 1990.

Just after reading this I opened a letter containing some inspirational writing. My correspondent wrote: ‘Build me a church without walls. There is no division in the mind of God.’ I love this statement: ‘There is no division in the mind of God.’ We human beings have created so many divisions—different countries, religions, feelings about right and wrong, etc. However, as Daisy wrote… when the final note is played, we all recognise ourselves in one another.

And finally, some words of White Eagle’s which I read at our Remembrance Service at the New Lands Temple, I quoted these words from White Eagle’s teaching:

‘These conditions of war that come to the earth plane, although they are brought about by ignorance and stupidity, are turned to good effect. No-one is sacrificed in vain, and with war there comes a corresponding push forward in the evolution of humanity. All the time spiritual growth continues in you, and not only spiritual growth but mental growth. Better conditions of life are the result of past suffering. There is a little light inside you, a voice, an urge to unity and brotherhood. Follow it. It will lead you to a place of great beauty where your view is expanded.’

Divine Law Never Changes

I love the time when the Sun is in Libra because it brings with it the vibration of divine law and harmony. It brings a feeling of the beautiful order and balance of the heavenly life.

Here in the UK it is still autumn and this year we have had many beautiful sunny  and truly heavenly days. The turning leaves show us, though, that the season is moving on and the dark mornings and evenings of winter are approaching. In nature we see that life is always changing. We experience the changes in our physical bodies as we age and it is certain for us all that one day our bodies will die and we will make the transition from the physical world in to the heaven world.  This is part of both natural and divine law. Now as I write, the Sun has moved into Scorpio of course, and this brings with it the different energy, the feeling of greater closeness with the inner world as we move towards the Christian Festivals of All Saints and All Souls this coming weekend.

Our physical world is always changing but I found myself saying to a colleague the other day, ‘Divine law never changes’. This is a wonderful thing. It brings us stability and helps us trust in God, no matter what. At a service this week I read these beautiful words of White Eagle: ‘Nothing happens by chance and we would impress upon you the truth of the magnificent spiritual plan; and that in the organisation in our world all is ordered by divine law. You find it difficult to understand this when in your world it looks to you as though things are confused.  But we can tell you that when man apparently commits sin or breaks the spiritual law, the result of his foolishness is always put to good use by divine spiritual law. Thus God is always repairing, always healing the nations, always healing the peoples, and though it may seem to you certain things happen by chance. This is not so. You may say, how extraordinary such a thing happens—but it is not extraordinary. Everything works together according to the Divine Will. Always remember this and, having done your best with the material at your hand, surrender the rest to the Divine Love and perfect law of God. If you trust in God you will without fail find His love will flow through your whole life, and indeed all your affairs, and you will know peace of heart and peace of spirit.’

I do hope sharing these words with you today—I felt the inner prompting from White Eagle this morning to do this—will help you, no matter what challenges you  are facing in your life as you read this.

Our Call to Prayer

When I first heard the Islamic call to prayer on my first visit to Egypt many years ago now, it touched a very deep chord within my whole being. I believe I have had a number of past lives in Islamic cultures and I feel a close link with White Eagle in those times. One of the most obvious connections between White Eagle’s work and Islam is his own ‘call to prayer’ for us all at 3, 6, 9 and 12. Although in spirit we are told there is no time, in our earthly world we live with time. I find that to have a clear plan of when we can set aside time to remember God in our lives is very practical. It helps us bring a spiritual practice right into our daily lives. White Eagle calls us to prayer using the powerful symbol of a shining six-pointed Star. He tells us to see its rays touching the hearts and minds of people all over the world—at the hours of 3, 6, 9 and 12. Mohammed asks his followers to remember Allah—God—at the hours of sunrise, mid-day, mid-afternoon, sunset and evening.

With my deep heart love for Islam I am particularly sad to witness all the troubled times we are going through at this present time. Listening to a television news programme on Sunday about the murder of a U.K. taxi driver who was giving aid to refugees in Syria, I was heartened to hear one of our Christian Archbishops  saying that in spite of everything good might come from it. He said it could actually bring the local Christian and Muslim communities together, rather than separate them even more. What a wonderful, positive thought! Good to come out of tragedy.

White Eagle’s beautiful teaching also offers us all a way in which we can help foster deeper understanding between Christian and Muslim communities. There is so much beauty and wisdom in both religions and White Eagle’s teaching leads us to the deep inner truths in both. He also reminds us to  constantly hold in the heart of the Star all the conflicts in every country of the world, trying not to ‘take sides’ or make any judgements. Recently White Eagle has been giving me the image of the Star radiating a particularly beautiful soft pearl light. This pearl light contains all the healing colours of the spectrum and the Angels of the Star can use the exact tone and vibration  which is needed to heal every situation, however serious. The Pearl Ray has a special essence which touches both the heart and the mind. It helps heal deep seated pain in a unique way. It helps awaken the inner light in every sad and wounded heart.

In Healing the World White Eagle says:  ‘If you wish for good things in the world, if you wish to avoid war and conflict, try to learn to live peace and love and goodwill yourself and help others to do the same. Show the way by example and others will seek to find that something which you are manifesting in your life. Strengthen the spirit within you by daily attuning yourself to the world of light. Be tranquil, and know the peace of God and the joy of life, and you will be helping to raise the vibrations of all life and of the earth itself.’