Our Beautiful Temple in Maleny

I am writing this sitting in a most beautiful garden in Queensland, Australia. Glorious birds are singing - their songs sounding so different from English birds - the sun is shining, and it feels like heaven. I have been visiting for the twenty fifth Anniversary celebrations of the White Eagle Temple which is situated on a hillside near Maleny, just adjacent to where I am sitting now. There are lovely views from the Temple Meeting room down the valley, which we call Willomee. When Doris Commins found the land - she had the vision, (just as Grace Cooke had when she found New Lands) to search for land to create a country Retreat Centre, she named it Willomee after White Eagle’s home in the Andes many thousand years before when he was the chief Hah-Wah-Tah. (The fascinating story of this life time is recalled by Minesta, her name then, in her book `Memories of Reincarnation`.)

I want to tell you how wonderful the Temple is. Twenty five years on, I believe it gets lovelier year by year, and is truly a meeting place between earth and heaven - a Grail Cup filled with the Christ healing power. The angels are so close....nearer than breathing, closer than hands and feet......as we say in our Absent Healing services.

As part of our celebrations we have been remembering - and thanking - all the many friends, members and brothers, who have brought their love and light into the Temple over these twenty five years and made it what it is today. But most of all of course, thanking Doris and Alf Commins, for their amazing vision, courage and steadfastness, and their two daughters, Gay and Lyn for carrying on their work so wonderfully. 

As I was walking past the meeting room with Gay and Lyn to enter the Temple for the Celebration service on the actual day of the anniversary, I happened to look up at the beautiful portrait hanging there of dear Doris. She was smiling so vividly and seemed to step right out of the portrait and walk with us into the Temple in her ‘body of light’ - a truly happy moment for her, and all of us, and a proof that there is no separation between the two worlds in a beautiful Temple such as this.

Congratulations Gay and Lyn, Steve and all our dear brothers in Australasia. You have created a truly wonderful Grail Cup for White Eagle`s work.

Good Comes from Evil

‘Good cometh out of evil or ignorance.’

I came across these words in a teaching of White Eagle’s just the other day when the news was full of the aftermath of the terrible shooting on the holiday beach in Tunisia. How can good come from such an act of random violence I was thinking? On the face of it, it would seem that as well as the terrible pain and suffering for those caught up in it and their families, the repercussions would only inflame the anti-Islamic feeling in many people’s minds.

Then I read on, and White Eagle says: ‘Good will come but you must know this truth in your hearts and minds. Your thoughts must dwell upon it; your speech must express this divine truth. You must live in the Star, and however contrary the conditions of earth may be, never give way to pessimism, never in any situation.’ So I tried to do this and think of positive outcomes with more and more people realising that violence can never be the answer.

White Eagle goes on to say: ‘There is a great outpouring of the Christ Light, and this is particularly strong at the present time. This you will see in the events of the world. Do not be perturbed at any time by the attempts of the negative forces to stop the progress of the Light. Remember that where the Light is centred there is a stimulation of the negative forces, but the negative forces will be absorbed into the Light. Your task is to strengthen the divine power, the Christ power, within yourselves.’  So here we have clear guidance about how to react in the face of these awful things we see and read about in the media.

White Eagle concludes: ‘But do remember, “Thy will be done on earth”. God’s will is being done, but God moves in a mysterious way, and sometimes His face is hidden from you. Be children of peace and love and be channels to help mankind. Train yourselves daily to accept God’s wisdom and God’s love.’

Thank you White Eagle for your wise advice. I will try to remember it.

Our Beautiful Planet and the Power of Prayer

On Sunday—Summer Solstice day—around the world, White Eagle groups met to pray for our beautiful planet. We have designated the Sunday nearest the solstice as our worldwide ‘Earth Healing Day’. I believe that all prayer, all good thought, can have an effect, but the effect of many people praying together with one thought, one aim, is very powerful indeed.

It is a wonderful thing when those in the public eye, those in high profile positions, take a stand and lead public thought in ways that can really make a difference. I think it is brilliant timing that Pope Francis’ encyclical on global warming and climate change has been released at this spiritually powerful time of the solstice., The Pope, as a spiritual leader of many millions of people, can indeed make a difference—he can lead many people in prayer for the well-being of our planet. He is doing this, but he is also calling on leaders in the world to change. He says ‘What would induce anyone at this stage to hold onto power only to be remembered for their inability to take action when it was urgent and necessary to do so?’

So here in our White Eagle community, I urge us all to hold in prayer and in the heart of the shining Star key public figures like Pope Francis, that their influence to bring about change and upliftment of our planet may be as effective as it possibly can be. Let us also hold the vision of a healthy, happy world with all people living in harmony with one another and with the animal kingdom and all nature.

On Sunday at the opening of our service in the New Lands Temple, I read Grace Cooke’s vision… a new day, a new world (published in the White Eagle book Earth Healer.  I share it with you here:

‘I had a strange vision. I saw a great golden sun in the heavens, and it seemed to shine down upon a city, and all the buildings in the city appeared to be made of ice. They seemed to flash all colours in the sunlight, and it all looked very hard and frozen. Then suddenly, when it was least expected, the whole thing collapsed—simply melted right away and there was a fresh new earth. There were men and women on the earth ploughing and sowing, and it was a lovely day. The birds were singing and there was a feeling of healthfulness and simplicity and cleanliness. A new day had begun with the promise of a new life.’

One of our books where White Eagle helps us hold on to the vision and work to bring balance

The Power of Anniversary Times - Remembering Our Loved Ones

I recently came across a teaching of White Eagle’s in which he talks of the power of anniversary times. We have just had our Anniversary Service in the Temple here at New Lands and I was very aware of a special blessing for everyone present. Also at this time, perhaps more than ever, I felt the interpenetration between the two worlds. The Temple is truly a ‘gateway into heaven’ which helps us feel the absolute reality of the inner world. The Temple was filled not only with angels of the light, but also so many now living in bodies of light who have worked in the Temple in this incarnation or in temples of the past.

One lady leaving the service told me how for her it was the anniversary of the passing of a loved one and the comfort of feeling their presence had touched her deeply. White Eagle says:‘The ancient Brothers never failed to hold their special group meetings and work their rituals on powerful anniversary dates. The date of birth or death is an important anniversary date in the life of every man, woman and child.’ In a way I think White Eagle is here encouraging us to remember our loved ones and their anniversary dates—whether it be their birthday into the physical world or their birthday into the heaven world. Think of your dear one with love and thankfulness for their life with you and they will indeed be able to cross the bridge and come to comfort and uplift your heart.

I am sometimes asked whether it is right to think of our loved ones in this way, or whether it holds them back. White Eagle assures us that it does not hold anyone back. It gives them great happiness to be able to help us experience the joy of inner communion and the realisation that life is eternal. Where there is love there need never be separation as he so often reminds us. So as we approach Father’s Day this Sunday it may be a time particularly for us all to remember our fathers and give thanks for their lives on earth and all they gave us. Or if we did not know our father or there is difficulty in remembering such a relationship, pray that this is a time and a day when new understanding may awaken in our hearts.

What is time? How can we live in the eternal now?

The other day I was watching a very moving film about the life of the amazing scientist Dr Stephen Hawking. When only still twenty-one years old and studying at Cambridge university, he was struck down with a crippling illness. He was told he had at the most two years to live, with ever increasing restriction and disability. The Academy award-winning film tells how even with terrible disability nothing deterred him as a physicist from his study of time, and the writing of his book: ‘The Theory of Everything’.

What is time? He knew it is an illusory concept. His life is a story of determination and not allowing a physical concept of time to defeat him.

Just after watching this film, by chance, I came across these words of White Eagle :

‘Do not count time. You all make the mistake of thinking in years instead of eternity. Live daily in the eternal now, and daily, whatever your need, seek the higher mind, the mind of Christ, and all the petty things of human life will dissolve just like mists with the sun pouring through them.’

In company with many wise teachers, White Eagle advises us to live in ‘the eternal now’, but it is very hard to do this. Our brains and thoughts have a habit of running here and there - thoughts of the past, worries about the future, this and that and the other, constantly affecting every part of our being, so that even if we are sitting still, there is racing-around going on inside. We have internal lists of things we have to do, wish we could do, or want to change. I think one of the challenges of the age in which we now live is to find peace in the midst of it all.

How can we do this? I don’t think the answer is to ignore time and worldly commitments, as part of the reason we chose to come back into physical incarnation is to learn to deal with physical conditions, not run away from them.

We know (according to what White Eagle tells us, and probably feel it intuitively anyway), that time is quite different in the heavenly life - it is very much a concept of the material world - that is why it is of such interest to scientists. It is such an elusive subject which is hard to ‘get hold of’. Although White Eagle tells us to live in ‘the eternal now’, he is also practical and understanding about how it actually is living in a physical body, so he has given us a structure for our spiritual practice (just as Mohammed did with his call to prayer at sunrise, midday, mid- afternoon, sunset and evening). White Eagle asks us to remember God and our work of sending out the light at 3,6,9 and 12. So in one way we are told to live in time, yet in another way, realise that time is not real - just a concept of the material world.

One way I have found I can live with greater peace and harmony in my life (as I am naturally someone who is very conscious of time, and never wanting to be late!) is to accept the way things are, in as peaceful a way as I can. I do my best within the seeming restrictions of earthly time, but I really do try to live as White Eagle says ‘in the mind of Christ’, within ‘the eternal now’. Actually I think this is one of the blessings of getting older! It is certainly a bit easier for me now I am in my sixties, than it was in my thirties! I also find using affirmations (and of course Star-breathing), really helpful, no matter what the outer problem is.

White Eagle tells us that ‘All the petty things of human life will dissolve just like the mists with the sun pouring through them.’ Yes. They do. I affirm: ‘I am filled with God`s light and peace...I am at peace with all life. I live in the eternal now.’ Try it!   

Let there be Light!

'God said, "Let there be Light", not "Let there be potatoes".' I loved this remark made by our visiting speaker, Grethe Fremming, the leader of White Eagle's work in Denmark. She was talking about the importance of keeping focused in our positive thoughts, and not getting so caught up in the busy thoughts of everyday life that we forget what our purpose in incarnation is! We are beings of light. We have been created by God to radiate light. The time is now to stand forth, stand firm in our affirmation of the light and play our part in lifting the thought atmosphere of the world into positive, uplifting ways of living.
Here in the UK, two events have been happening almost simultaneously-a general election and the commemoration of seventy years since VE day a d the end of the Second World War in Europe. During the run-up to the election the thought atmosphere around this country must have been very busy indeed! So many conflicting ideas, thoughts and emotions whirling around. Then thoughts of war and suffering, winning and losing, bring up mixed emotions for so many people.
I believe that at times like this we have a special opportunity to be strong, steady, clear channels for the light. 'Let there be light.' Let there be peace of mind and heart too. Let us hold steady in our thoughts the image of the shining six-pointed star, radiating it's light into the thought atmosphere of the whole world, uplifting every mind and heart. Best not to have any too set opinions in our own minds, just fill our thoughts with love and light and belief in positive outcomes according to God's perfect plan. As White Eagle says, quoted on the back cover of his book 'Practising Peace': 'The light of the spirit can shine from your heart, from your whole body. The heart centre can be like a lighted torch on a dark night, and can cast a beam into darkened highways. This is the very light of the universe, the true light of God, the dynamic force which can perform miracles.'