Beautiful Butterflies

One of the delights of living in the countryside during this spring and summer time of lockdown has

been the greater abundance in nature.

I have noticed many more happy birds singing and building their nests, more bees happily buzzing, but most of all I have been thrilled to see so many more butterflies around.

One of my favourite television programmes is BBC1's Countryfile, and a few weeks ago there was a delightful feature about a young woman who is a butterfly expert and it showed her looking at the abundant butterflies with her children in the fields near where she lives. She was pointing out their exquisite beauty and infinite variety. It made me want to look even more closely at every butterfly I see and marvel at the wonder of God`s creation.

White Eagle tells us (in Spiritual Unfoldment Volume 2), `There is nothing haphazard in creation, all is perfection - perfect rhythm, perfect form, exactness in every detail. Think for a moment of the beauty of the colour and texture of the butterfly`s wings and reflect that, in order to see its full beauty, you need to look through a miscrosope and to focus a clearer, more powerful light upon it ... look for beauty in your everyday life. Do not take things for granted.`

I think this is another important lockdown lesson - not to take things for granted, and take greater care of what we have in our beautiful world, and of our loved ones too (as I wrote last time).  

Something else which butterflies can teach us is to value the moment and live in the `now`. We need to give our full attention to what is right in front of our eyes (e.g. the exquisite beauty of a peacock, red admiral or orange tip butterflies` wings!) instead of allowing the busy everyday mind to wander on to other thoughts. Nothing lasts for ever, this is one of the facts of life.  Butterflies teach us this. Their little lives are short. Our lives are short in the perspective of eternity, and every moment is an opportunity which may not come again -  to give someone we love our time, our full attention, our happy smile,  some words of comfort and encouragement. Receiving simple little gifts like this can change our days and bring the sunshine out from behind the clouds!

Lockdown Lessons

As lockdown restrictions gradually start to ease, I think many of us are reflecting on lessons being learned during this time. I was reading recently an article about Lorraine Kelly, UK TVs presenter of `Good Morning Britain` and she was saying, `It`s taught me that I don`t need lots of stuff, but I really miss my parents...and I miss seeing my pals in the village for a cup to tea!` I think it has been a time which has brought a unique opportunity to understand more clearly what really does matter in life. People are much more important than things. 

For me, it has also brought a much greater appreciation and thankfulness for our modern day technology which enables us to keep in touch with family and friends,  even though physically far apart. I am not someone who has taken readily to computers and the internet, (being of the generation that `missed out` on learning these forms of communication when we were young), but I am now experiencing more fully than ever before the wonders of Zoom and WhatsApp. It is great to be able to communicate with my White Eagle friends and family all around the world - not just speaking, but `seeing` too. But I don`t think any technology can ever replace the joy of actually being physically present with someone you love. (Even though, with the help of White Eagle`s teaching, I am learning more and more about the reality of being with people I love who have passed on.)

So, maybe, one important lockdown lesson is indeed placing greater value on time with loved ones, and making sure that when the restrictions end we don`t fill our lives too full again with other things, and make time to be with loved ones. I remember when my dear Dad suddenly passed on I wished I had done this. It is a great comfort to me to know that I now spend time with him in his heavenly garden, and I often feel him around. (The cheerful robin singing in the garden has always been one of those signs that here he is). But now I know for sure that having time for loved ones, is far more important than things!

Reflecting along these lines, I found comfort as I read these words (on a rainbow theme!) in White Eagle`s little book, THE SOURCE OF ALL OUR STRENGTH:

`A sorrow can be like a rainy day with sunlight shining through. And sun through rain creates a rainbow. So it is with human life. Look to the sunlight of God knowing that your Father-Mother will send you nothing but good, that your loved ones are in God`s care, and that God`s love for them is greater than your own!`

Comforting Routines

These are difficult times. In some ways, as our weeks of lockdown continue I think it is getting more challenging. Although there is some relief now in the necessary restrictions for our wellbeing, even the most optimistic among us may be feeling a little weary with it all, and concerns about what will happen in the future, and will we ever be able to travel freely again? creep in.

Whilst doing my best to live in the Eternal Now, I have been thinking about the comfort of the regular routines of our daily lives, and how helpful it is to have these, and even more so when working from home. Children feel comforted and secure when there is a daily pattern in their lives, which is only different in holiday times and for most of us adults this is probably the same.

Even though spiritual teachers tell us that time is an illusion, and does not exist in the spirit world in the way we know it on earth, we are living in a physical world and our bodies have physical routines - times to wake up, times to sleep, times to eat etc. I love the fact that White Eagle has given us a routine, a daily ritual if you like, for our spiritual service, which somehow brings the two worlds together. At 3,6,9 and 12 he advises us to pause for a few moments, and be in the consiousness of the light, doing our best to send it out into the world in positive Star thoughts. With more time in the quietness of my home, this routine has become even more significant, and, yes, a comforting part of my life.

In a beautiful teaching I have been reading recently he says 'Everything you do daily is a form of ritual, even to the simple things like clothing your body, washing and dressing, eating, going to work....You can make ritual in your life so perfect, so harmonious, that you are creating yourself as a channel for the light of the Christ spirit, so that you are drawing into your aura angelic beings who will serve through you. They will also serve you. This is why it is good and wise to live calmly and tranquilly.'

Heavenly Birthdays

I am writing this on a very special birthday day - 9th June. This was the birthday of Grace Cooke, Minesta, the founder of the White Eagle work. It is also the day of the dedication of our first Temple on the hilltop at New Lands, and the day chosen for remembrance for those who have dedicated their lives to the White Eagle path of brotherhood and healing service.

White Eagle tells us that birthdays are days of special power when we have the opportunity to `tune in` to help flowing to us from helpers in spirit  - loved ones, who have passed through the Heavenly Gateway and our own guides.

When we pass on, that day is our 'birth' day into the heavenly life. I had a lovely experience I would like to share at the time of my own mother`s passing. As I sat at her bedside, I became aware of my grandmother (Minesta) standing there waiting to receive my mother.  A most beautiful angel (the Angel of Death/Birth) seemed to take from her still body the form of a little baby, wrapped in a shawl of soft healing colours, and handed it to Minesta. She walked away into the sunlit heavenly communion garden, cradling the newborn child. 

Time is different in the heaven world, and I am sure my mum became an adult quite quickly, but that moment of the 'birth' day into the new heavenly life is always blessed by the enfolding love of a dear one already in that world of light. I hope this will comfort you if you are mourning the death of your loved one, or perhaps anxious about your own passing. To  quote again, as I did in my `Gateways to Heaven` blog, in his LITTLE BOOK OF COMFORT FOR THE BEREAVED, White Eagle reminds us,`No one journeys from the earth to the world of spirit without meeting with a loving welcome, because every living soul has some loved one in the world of spirit.`

(My meditation on 'Gateways to Heaven' is now up on U Tube. White Eagle`s LITTLE BOOK OF COMFORT FOR THE BEREAVED of which we only have a small number left, and A GUIDE FOR LIVING WITH DEATH AND DYING can be ordered direct by emailing enquiries@whiteagle.org)

Gateways to Heaven

There is a lot in the news at the moment about illness and people dying, and this is distressing and can bring to the surface our own thoughts of death and also the fear of loss of those we love. Of course, at some time or another the moment of our passing will come, and that of our friends and family too. Indeed, one of the challenges of old age is the reality of death in the not too far distant future.

One of the many blessings of the White Eagle teaching is the knowledge it brings of the reality of the heaven world and the continuation of life after death of the physical body. It also helps us feel the continued presence of those we love, even when they have passed through the transition of so called death. I had the privilege of helping with the compilation of White Eagle's LITTLE BOOK OF COMFORT FOR THE BEREAVED and I have been looking at it again recently - the teaching is so practical and helpful. He says:

'When as it does to everyone in due course, the time comes for you to lay aside your own physical body, or to see a loved one withdraw from theirs, don`t concentrate your thoughts on the physical body. It disintegrates and goes the way ordained for it by Mother Earth, by Mother Nature....Just above the still form of the one who has passed on, you will see the gates opening....you will see the spirit of your loved one freed to a world of heavenly beauty.'

There are places on earth which I think of as 'gateways to heaven'...places where it is particularly easy to feel how thin the veil is between earth and heaven. The place where our physical Temple at New Lands was built is of these, and our new Temple will be on the same spot. 

I think also, that many of us discover our own special place, sometimes near where we live, which can become a gateway. I am lucky to live near a beautiful downland walk beside the sea, which leads to a hilltop monument. Here it feels possible to just walk through the gateway into heaven and feel my loved ones all around. It really is true - it is true for all of us - we live on in greater freedom in, as White Eagle says, 'a world of heavenly beauty'. 

I do hope these thoughts will bring you personal comfort, and as you read of the suffering of those losing loved ones. Also in the same book White Eagle assures us: 'Remember that there is always someone who loves them waiting in the spirit world for those who pass on. No-one journeys from the earth to the world of spirit without meeting with a loving welcome, because every living soul has some loved one in the world of spirit.'