12 - The Training of Spirit Guides
My beloved brothers and
sisters, I see by your auras that many of you are expecting me to
tell you how we learn to become guides and teachers, how we learn to
become ministering spirits. Beloved ones, firstly it would be good
that you understand the difference in the works undertaken by the
groups of spirits who come to serve and help, for to my knowledge
you think all spirits who come to help in your mediumship are
guiding spirits. But I would say that there is only one guide given
to each medium and each aspiring soul, and this guide is the one who
goes before to prepare the pathway of individual spiritual
progression. This guide is the one who looks ever into the future,
preparing conditions which are still to come, manipulating the great
laws of cause and effect so that the beloved may meet the conditions
and lessons and people who will advance the development within the
inner soul of the person, deepening the understanding and increasing
their spirituality.
So I would
say, The guide, the personal guide, is but seldom seen; seldom does
he make himself known unto earth’s children. Only in times of
crisis when a particular work has to be accomplished does the bright
and shining guide manifest to the one whom he or she is guiding.
Sometimes this guide is called ‘the guardian angel’, sometimes ‘the
watcher in the spheres’. This guide is not always at hand in
earth’s conditions but works from a spiritual state through into the
deeper and heavier conditions of the earth, leading forward in
humility and love the one entrusted into his care. This one is a
guide in the full and beautiful meaning of the word.
These whom
you think of as guiding spirits we call ‘the ministering spirits’,
and every medium and aspiring soul is surrounded by a group of
ministering ones. These minister to the needs of the medium in
their care, sometimes giving them psychic strength or blending into
their aura a vibration of peace and power as it may be needed,
sometimes even standing so close to the medium that it may seem that
the medium and ministering spirit have indeed become one.
In this
great ministry of spirit there are many more needs than you on earth
will understand. It is our joy to give what we can to those of the
earth, for we know that by the giving of ourselves to those who are
in need we make possible the furtherance of our own progression.
In addition
to these ministering spirits there are others whom you also call
guides; these are the teachers and controllers of the mediumship of
the individual. You call us guides, but we call ourselves teachers
and healers, spirits who have a particular task or work to do in the
earthly world.
It is about
the teachers and healers and the spirits who entrance their mediums
that I will speak, for I know that it is these of whom you think
when you speak of guides. But change your words, beloveds, think of
us not as guides but as the ministering and teaching and healing
spirits - then your understanding will be more full and correct.
It is not
always known to you in your earthly bodies that ere we may enter
into this ministry of mediumship we have to undertake a long and
arduous time of preparation, by means of which we continue in our
ministry unto earth’s children. Many spirits try to come into
harmony with the mediums of earth but, because they have not gained
a sufficiency of strength, they lose contact with the medium and do
not continue in their ministry because in their training they did
not learn how to grow strong.
The first
lesson we have to learn is to strengthen our power of persistence,
for you are living in a state in which the powers of thought and
emotion are very, very strong. When we first try to come through
the atmosphere which surrounds your earthly world it is like trying
to swim through a sea in which strong and deep currents are flowing
to and fro. If we are not strong in our power of persistence and
strength of will, we become swept into these strong currents of
thought which are flowing from the minds of many people in the
world. There are great currents of thought which are the thoughts
of nations and there are currents of thought which are created by
prejudice in the minds of groups of persons.
An
inexperienced spirit, entering into a medium’s aura and becoming
aware of these many changing currents of thought, may find himself
or herself drawn into such a stream that he will begin to say and
think that which is habitual to the thinkers of earth and not that
which is of himself.
Before we
begin our ministry we have to learn how to strengthen our will and
hold one image of thought, one idea within our consciousness, so
strongly and clearly that the concerted efforts of other groups
trying to divert our mind from that upon which we are thinking will
be fruitless. We must learn to be so strong that the thoughts of
others will not divert us from that which we wish to think. If a
group of spirits here in the school of learning can so impinge upon
our own mind, how shall we be able to hold our thoughts when we
enter into the harsher and harder conditions of the earth? So
within the spirit schools, concentration becomes the core of the
lesson. When we seek to train and develop younger spirits, those of
lesser experience who wish to come back into the earthly world to
render a particular service, we have to teach them how to develop
concentration.
In the
schools of spirit we create a scene which may be very similar to
those which you see in the earthly world where you have great rooms
to which the artists come, men and women who desire to shape and
mould marble and stone into the image which they hold within their
minds. In spirit we have such a place but here the trainee spirits
have to mould the atmosphere to out-picture into the living element
of spiritual matter the image which they hold within their mind.
In this
school you may see a spirit trying to fashion the thought of a
winging and singing bird: if the imagery of thought is imperfect,
the thinker may devise the shape of a bird but it will not be able
to fly until the imagery of thought is so sustained and perfect that
the bird is shaped in the beauty of its formation. Or you may
behold another spirit trying to develop the power of persistence and
concentration to such a degree that he may evolve a musical bell
from which he later hopes to bring forth little ringing sounds
through his ministry and the mediumship of earth’s children; but
unless his concentration in the imagery of the bell he wishes to
create is perfect, the bell itself will be imperfect.
The first
lesson of training for spirit ministry is to strengthen the will, to
sharpen the power of perfect concentration and then, through the
perfection of the concentrated will, to mould the spiritual
atmosphere into a living image of what has been thought. I say to
you, When we come into earth’s atmosphere and seek to control the
minds of our mediums or transmit ideas to their spiritual vision, we
have to do this by visualising and out-picturing the images of
thought which will convey to the medium that which we desire.
In your
clairvoyant vision, mediums such as yourselves may not see a spirit
who once lived in Egypt but the thought which that Egyptian spirit
is transmitting unto you, and his perfected thought may come in the
picture of a pyramid or in symbols which relate to the temple of
ancient time. When you behold these out-pictured symbols you will
know in your inward mind: ‘Here is a visitor from Egypt.’ Your
thought will go out like a gentle tendril seeking to make contact
with the spirit who has out-pictured to you the symbol of his
presence.
Always I
would say to you, The first communication which we are able to
impart to earth’s children comes in this out-picturing of the
thoughts which we have within our mind, for here in spirit we
communicate by thought and it is in this way that we communicate
with you who dwell upon the earthly plane.
Not all
spirits were of Egypt and not all will show the Egyptian symbols.
There are many holy men and women who lived within the sphere of
Christian teaching and are ready to come swiftly into earth’s
atmosphere by reason of their dedicated lives and the purification
they gained through prayer. These who led the monastic existence
have strengthened their will in the earthly life, they have trained
their minds to visualise, to think and pray. Coming to the closure
of their earthly life they pass into the schools in which such
spirits are trained that they may go quickly back again to earth.
These may show to their mediums the out-picturing of their thought
in their remembrance of the Christian symbol of the cross, or the
windows and architecture which became so familiar to them during the
time they led a life of prayer enclosed within their convents and
monasteries. Seeing such an out-picturing, the glowing colours of a
religious window or the out-pictured cross, you will say: ‘This is
a symbol which says to my mind that here is the presence of one who
was a monk.’ And from your mind a gentle seeking thought goes out,
and through that thought such a spirit may be drawn closer to you.
Beloved
ones, when such ministering and communicating spirits have gained a
link of unity and harmony with you, they return to the school of
spirit and share the knowledge they have gained in their first
contact with mediums such as yourselves.
But some
spirits come with gleaming tears of sorrow in their heart, some come
back into the schools with their garments grey and soiled with
despair, and some spirits return from the beginning of their
ministry with garments torn and wounds in their hands. When they
come so, we take them to the quiet, beautiful place of cleansing and
renewal that we may teach them again the lesson of how to enter into
earth’s conditions wearing the seamless garment of such beautiful
love that they cannot be harmed or hurt by the lack of love and
harshness of thought which is within the mind and being of their
mediums, for some have been hurt by the sudden harsh swords of
sceptical thought which pierce towards them from the medium whom
they have tried to love and help.
Some who
come in the grey garments of despair have been drawn into the earth
conditions by a lack of understanding in the developing medium, they
have been sucked into a whirlpool of materialistic thought, impure
desires and unhealthy appetites and have not been able to control
their medium or impart ideas of holiness and joy. Those who come
with tears of sorrow in their eyes and their heart are ones who have
undertaken a mission but realise it is of such magnitude that they
are only beating upon the door of earth’s harsh vibrations, they
feel they have undertaken something which is too great for their
fulfilment. So we take them to the place of healing and teach them
again the lesson of love.
We take
them into the sphere which is known as the ‘Christ Sphere’ that they
may inbreathe love, pure love, in its tenderness and strength; and
as they inbreathe this atmosphere of pure love they slowly form for
themselves a garment which is encircling and completely protective.
Clothed in love they enter again into earth conditions and once more
come into a unity with their mediums. Because of the outflow of
love from their hearts, their hands and minds, they are slowly able
to soften the harshness of mind of the people of earth, slowly
enabling their chosen medium to uplift and transmute the harmful
desires of the lower self, the harshness of scepticism and coldness
of selfishness. Slowly but surely the medium becomes infused with
the tenderness of spirit, and the spirit may continue in his or her
ministry to the earth wearing the seamless garment of beautiful
love.
When such a
spirit has gained the necessary control and contact with the mind
and being of the medium, then other spirits can begin to join
themselves in unity unto this particular ministering soul. The
teaching spirits, the healing and loving spirits will begin to blend
themselves with this first strong controlling spirit, that with and
through that one the great work of mediumship may begin to unfold;
healing and beauty and cleansing may begin to unfold and outflow
through such a medium to bless and heal, to soften and warm the
conditions and hearts of the people of earth.
There are
many other things I could tell you, beloved ones, but such things
would be difficult for the understanding of your minds so I give you
just these pictures of spirits preparing themselves for earth’s
ministry.
We come to
the cessation of our time of communing and talking with you through
the brain and voice and being of this medium. I would that you knew
with what joy we come; I would that you knew the joy with which we
behold the slender flames of your thoughts lightening the atmosphere
of this room. As I spoke to you of the spirits who know sorrow and
become wounded by their contact with earth’s mediums, there arose
from the heart of many of you the pure flame of dedication and
love.
Beloved
ones, remember that scepticism is like a cold wind which blows from
your mind and moves like a gale within the atmosphere of earth, but
love is like a warmth which comes forth from your soul and makes
easy the work of spirit. Selfish desire is like a grey hard coil
which encircles the spiritual being and hampers the work of spirit,
and materialistic desires and thoughts enfold earth’s children in a
tenuous armour which again makes difficult the work of those spirits
who would bring their influence to you.
Remember
that prayer is a purification of the inward being. As you pray unto
the God who you call your Father, the Master Creator of the nights
and days, as you lift up your thought in prayer unto this great
creative spirit, so is your own spiritual being warmed and purified
- it is as if steps of light are built by your continuing endeavour
in prayer.
Pray often
and love much, beloved ones. Pray often and love much, you who
would be mediums: pray often and love very greatly, you who are
mediums. Prayer becomes your armour and love becomes your cloak,
and when you are cloaked in love and armoured in prayer you make
easy and light the work of those whom you call the keepers of the
door, the guardians of your soul. We would wish to see these great
steps of prayer rising and rising in steps of light, ladders of
radiance, stairways of prayer rising from earth unto the very
highest places of the spirit. For we are able to come downward on
such ladders of light with healing and beauty, with teaching, with
joy, with peace and love unto all earth’s children.
Most surely
do I say to you, Where such ladders of prayer are raised there is no
soul on earth who is a lost soul, no soul on earth who cannot be
helped and redeemed; for ministering spirits come on those ladders
of light and through you, their mediums, they uplift, heal,
strengthen and touch with radiance these of earth who so sadly need
the blessing of the great Christ love, the light and peace of the
spirit.
I bless you
all and bring this ladder of light which we have created in
quietness of thought this eventide. Oh Thou Great Spirit, send
forth Thy ministering ones with such power and blessing, such
healing and such love to these who are here that they may build
their own shining ladders of prayer in the very place in which they
live, and may their altars of prayer shine and gleam with the light
of Your blessing and the mystic radiance of holy love.
Peace,
peace and peace be here.
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