Spring Green

Spring has come late this year in the UK. At last our hedgerows are filled with primroses, celandines

and dandelions - flowers which bring back so many happy childhood memories for me of wandering along the pretty lanes around New Lands. 

There is something very special about spring green - that beautiful and delicate soft shade of the new young leaves as they burst forth in delighted appreciation of the long awaited warmer sun!

In our White Eagle absent (distant) healing work we use colours for treating different conditions, and White Eagle has given clear guidance about this. Spring green is a colour which is often used for cleansing and balancing. I like to imagine it bringing the cleansing energy of an April shower, which in turn brings new life. (The healing angels use the colours we visualise in exactly the right shade, subtly and gently facilitating the healing process).Then there is another spring colour which we liken to `the colour of bluebells`, with their gorgeous mix of blue and green. We are lucky to have many bluebells growing in the woodland area behind the New Lands Temple, a delight for any visitor walking around our Jubilee Walk. Walking among flowers and woodland is indeed a healing blessing in itself.

This is certainly a time for us here to say a big `thank you God` for the natural beauties of our world; a time to set aside the daily worries, the latest difficult news stories, and be thankful for the new life and new hope of springtime, and God`s many miracles.

I like to end these little pieces I write with some of White Eagle`s words. He has just prompted me to open our White Eagle book: `Healing the World`. It fell open at page 53, and his words: `Dwell on beauty. Do not dwell on what appears to be ugly. Whatsoever things are lovely, true and good, think on these things. Let your ideal be of spotless purity held in the love and wisdom of your Creator. Let your vision be of heaven.’

What does Easter mean to us today?

I am fortunate in that I have been able to travel to many countries in the past twenty or so years. My travels have taken me to areas where the main religions of our world at this present time are deeply established in the cultures of the local people. In Christian areas I have seen many statues in churches and wayside shrines, depicting an agonised looking Jesus, with crown of thorns, bleeding and hanging from a cross. I feel sad when I see these portrayals of the Easter story. In many ways, I am glad that in our UK society these days, Easter is a time most children look forward to with great enthusiasm because of their anticipated Easter egg hunts, school holiday and lots of fun and games. The story of the crucifixion, if heard at all, seems to have faded into insignificance, for many.

However, as adults, there is much which is truly relevant for our modern day lives, and the White Eagle teaching offers deeper understanding of the underlying symbolism of the story. There is a particularly interesting passage in the book`The Lightbringer`, which I quoted in the pre-Easter service I led in our Americas' Temple  a couple of weeks ago. It links with what White Eagle teaches about the Christ being the light within our own being, and how we can all encourage this light to arise (the true resurrection) and take control of our stressed and often fearful everyday self. Having talked about the story of Jesus stilling the storm-tossed sea, White Eagle goes on to say, `When the soul calls rightly, the Master hears. In you rises the power which causes you to be still, to be tranquil. Your Master takes over control of your boat - which is your soul - and you become calm. Do you now see the true meaning of Christ being the saviour of humankind? It is not the fact of a physical body being nailed to a wooden cross which saves humanity from its sins, but you yourself, when you rise (or go within) to that supreme place of consciousness where you contact the solar force: your solar self, the Christ. The Christ takes possession of all the vehicles and bodies. This is what salvation is - not the death of another human like yourselves hanging on a cross, although that too has a wonderful symbolism.` So that in The Living Word of St John White Eagle says:

'The Christ in you has to transmute and redeem you, then the lower self passes away and has power over you no longer. Jesus the Christ upon the cross demonstrated this cosmic truth to all the world. The crucifixion spells the surrender of the man/woman to God, the heavenly Father/Mother.'

White Eagle knows that to surrender at a time of great pain or distress is very hard to do, but I truly believe and have experienced for myself, that if we can make just a small effort to contact that Christ within, then the light, the love of Christ, can rise up and help us to find renewed strength and courage, and help even the physical body. Surrender then, is really about allowing another, greater part of ourselves to take over.

The Dunkirk Spirit

Recently the UK has been in the grip of what became named `The Beast from the East`, with bitterly cold East wind and arctic blizzards. During this time, a wonderful demonstration of human caring, thoughtfulness and kindness towards total strangers has emerged. It has been called `The Dunkirk spirit` in remembrance of that time in the Second World war when so many boatmen took their little vessels across the channel to save the stranded soldiers. 

Yes, in many ways we seem to live in a very sad and suffering world, with much cruelty in evidence. And yet, actually, within the majority of human beings, I truly believe, there is a wonderful inner radiance of brotherly love and light. It is naturally there, as the Aquarian energy arises in so many hearts and minds, quite irrespective of any religious belief. Our inner work with the Star encourages the awakening of every human heart and mind to the light, and we have had a wonderful example recently of how this is happening.

Our UK news has been full of amazing stories:

*The business man who paid a hotel to take in fifteen homeless people out of the bitter cold.

*The Rochdale volunteer who opened up the local community centre, took tea to stranded motorists on the motorway, (climbing up the steep embankment!) and subsequently provided over two hundred hot meals, and makeshift beds for the night.

*The doctors and nurses who walked miles in the snow to get on duty in their hospitals.

*The farmers (and others) who worked ceaselessly with their four wheel drive vehicles to try to clear roads and take care workers to their elderly housebound patients.

*And even the guy who had lots of bananas in his lorry and walked up and down the lines of stranded cars giving them away.

Human kindness and thoughtfulness, sacrifice and love are there in abundance. Let us keep hope in our hearts, that a new era of growth in kindness truly is dawning.

In SEEKING SERENITY White Eagle says: `Trust and have courage. The tests you are called on to undergo have their bright side, and the cloud has not just a silver lining but even a golden one.`

A Call to be a Channel for the Light

`Never doubt the power of God to work through you; to think you are no good is to doubt God`s power.`

I began my New Year talk in the New Lands Temple with this, one of my favourite sayings of White Eagle. Probably everyone reading this believes in the power of positive thought and light, and that clear `channels for the light` truly can make a difference. The problem I think is that we do not believe in ourselves. We may have been programmed since childhood to think/feel we are not very clever or good at anything, and that it is not good to think highly of ourselves. But, unfortunately, this very `belief system` can get in the way of the effectiveness of our efforts to `send out the light`.

When thinking about what I was going to say in the the Temple, White Eagle reminded me that one of the most important things I had to do was encourage everyone that their individual effort really did matter and could truly `make a difference`!

I went on to offer a simple formula of six key qualities for would be `lightworkers`, all beginning with the letter `C`  and thus easy to remember :

CONFIDENCE ........that you can make a difference

COMMITMENT.......the need to keep on keeping on

COURAGE.......to stay positive, even if things seems negative

CLEAR.........trying not to allow the fog of negative thought in the media to cloud your efforts

CREATIVE......think of ONE positive thing you can do to really help in a practical way 

CALM...........Try to stay peaceful and positive, even if everyone around is worried or fearful

Also, of course, never forgetting the power and magic of the Star, filled with God`s love and light, ever shining on our world and into people`s hearts.

I ended my talk with more words of White Eagle`s from Spiritual Unfoldment Vol 2,  chapter IV on the Angels of Light and Darkness, where he gives us the wonderful reassurance: 

`God does not allow the universe to slip out of His-Her hands. Nothing can happen outside the will of God.`

Hold to your Dreams

I think we probably all hope that a new year will bring good things into our lives, and feel hopeful, perhaps, that the new energy will somehow change things for the better. It is the traditional time for making our New Year resolutions and, maybe a new start or new endeavour in difficult ongoing situations. However, here in the Northern Hemisphere, the long dark nights, and cold, wet weather can dampen the most optimistic of us all!

I am fortunate because my natural tendency is to always look on the bright side, but even for someone who has been called (by those close to me!) `relentlessly optimistic` it can be difficult at this time of year to feel the spiritual sun shining through the dark clouds and the `down energy` which often persists in the media.

Contemplating ways to encourage my optimism and feel the light shining from behind the clouds on a particularly gloomy January morning, I found myself taking out White Eagle`s book `The Lightbringer` from my bookshelf, and it opened itself at page 64, at the passage entitled `Hold to Your Dreams`!

White Eagle tells us: 

`Many grumblers think that the golden age is just a dream. Dreams - as we in spirit very well know, so we can speak from experience - actually create external conditions. "Where there is no vision the people perish". So hold to your dreams and keep on keeping on. You will always be hearing from us "keep on keeping on". So many cannot do this. They go to sleep by the wayside. They get discouraged. They turn back. But the soul who perseveres and keeps on keeping on reaches the goal of spiritual liberation.`

I hope these words will inspire you, on dark days, when it feels tempting to sink down into pessimism, or give up on your new intentions. White Eagle reminds us that the light IS shining, (even if seemingly obscured by many clouds), and it truly can change anything......if it is God`s Will and in God`s good time.