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Love is a Promise, a Discipline, and a Lifestyle

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E-mail Carol at caroleparrish.office@yahoo.com
with a question and she will give you an answer with a esoteric perspective.

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ExCEPtional May 16

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Hello Everyone,

We had a wonderful weekend retreat. Here is a group of us celebrating Wesak. The weather was perfect and the company was excellent. Here are some pictures of Wesak at the Chapel.

Wesak 1 2012

Wesak 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have lots of exciting programs coming up and you are invited!

 

A Sophia Symposium ~ Celebrating the Divine Feminine Within

May 25-27, 2012     Sancta Sophia Seminary

Featured Presenters:

Sr. Maureen Fiedler, PhD—NPR host of “Interfaith Voices” and author of Breaking Through the Stained Glass Ceiling

Rev. Carol E. Parrish, PhD—mystic, teacher, founder of Sancta Sophia Seminary and author of Sophia Sutras

Rev. Dr. Susan C. Hamilton—Dean of Sancta Sophia Seminary and author of Seeking Sophia

Rev. Jann Aldredge-Clanton, PhD—minister, teacher, chaplain, and author of In Search of the Christ-Sophia and Praying with Christ-Sophia

Join us in the beautiful Ozark mountains for a weekend of relaxation and discovery in workshops with renowned women speakers, musicians, and teachers. Massage therapists, energy workers and intuitive readers will also be available for appointments at the Wellness Center on campus. Sophia’s Nest Bookstore and Gifts offers a variety of books and items to nurture your spiritual journey.

Additional workshop on May 25—1:30-4:30pm: Ellen Noble—“Yoga for Wholeness

View and share brochure

See Sophia Symposium schedule

Cost: $175 Plus meals & housing

To register, contact: registrar@sanctasophia.org or 800-386-7161

Sancta Sophia Seminary
11 Summit Ridge Drive
Tahlequah, OK 74464

For the kick-off, Sophia will be introduced as she has revealed herself over the centuries. We will see how she has been known to some while hidden to others, first appearing and then withdrawing, she is emerging in a long awaited Age as prophesied by Joachim of Flora. Join us and be pleasantly amazed.

Now, the time has come.


Next on my agenda is a week of “The Making of a Mystic”.

July 2-6  M-F 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Sancta Sophia Seminary   Making of a Mystic  

Carol Parrish accompanied by Jesse Garnee
 
 
A change of subjective boundaries leads to a momentary release of the limitations of the rational approach to daily life, allowing an inner movement in how we perceive, see and understand situations. This rearrangement lifts us beyond understanding and into a new love for which we are waiting. Christians are taught to love by Christ, but not so many really expand their heart and come to know what this truly means. Mysticism is the next step beyond sensitivity, whether we understand it or not. There is a process developing in each of us: Awakening-Illumination-and Enlightenment. Let us ponder the process together and see, if indeed, we can love with a new love.Cost: $275
To register: Call 800-386-7161 or Email Registrar.

Officially described as a preview of where life is taking many of its wondrous people. Few ever think of themselves as a Mystic-in-the-Making until they find themselves “seeing life from a different viewpoint”, the sensitivity they have carried and often veiled will reveal itself within and without. The love of silence, the inner world, the beauty needed and the dedication that awakens marks this one to belong to the inner reality. Are you a mystic-in-training? Do you want  to chart your route? Come and be amazed.


Shustah Meditation Symbols Week-end Shustah cards

July 14-16, 2012 

Enjoy a week-end of playful learning with Carol and Jesse as they share their years of experience using Shustah cards as a tool for intuitive development. Hidden truths, hints, creativity and great meanings are placed at the edge of our minds and revealed as the psyche awakens. Psychism is not the goal, but, full brain living is.

Sophia, our intuitive guide, waits for us to ready ourselves. Now is the time.

The Shustah cards were created to aid in establishing greater communications between one’s inner and outer perceptions.

Symbols have long been used to trigger intuitive awareness. The Shustah cards are particularly useful in working with others. Each symbol can be used for meditation and/or divination, answering questions and stimulating your perception.

Cost: $175.00 Shustah cards and books are included.  $145.00, If you have the Shustah cards and books, please bring them, there is no need to have new ones.

Call us at 918-453-0250 or write us at office@chapelofchristsophia.org to register for class.

!


Last but by no means least:

Everyone is invited to the Open House on July 3rd at 3:30 pm, Central Standard Time

Chapel of Christ Sophia

Sophia statue

914 Summit Ridge Court

Sparrow Hawk Village

 Blessings, Carol

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May We All Be May Flowers in This Lovely 1st Week of May!

May 1 is always my day to ponder the many things I am doing and to be grateful for the health and strength to do them.

I laid in bed, last night, thinking how important it was to me, to have each of you that pay attention to these ExCEPtional Letters and my classes with Conversation with Carol.

When I lived through my stroke I realized my work was not done or I would not have survived. Since that time many of you are a part of my recovery through your love, letters, prayers, encouragement…all have lifted me up in the best way that term can be used.

Ministry, to me, is administrating to those who ask of you. It is loving those that reach out or cross your path. It is not a degree or piece of paper. It is about expressing the passion of your heart in the variety of ways one can. I pray for my people, my country, my prayer list, and my family—both spiritual and physical. All of them do things I would rather they did not, but my job is to love them anyway and I try, O how I try!

An important change that is happening today is the movement from Religion to Spirituality. It is not that Religion in itself is wrong. I do not believe that but I believe too often religion is a fence and those within it do not dare to look over the fence. I think that Spirituality is unformed because we are yet in formation. Spirituality is forming itself through many avenues, mostly small groups that are safe and wherein one can easily share. It is not a spectator sport that we can sit in the pews and watch and catch it. We have to eat and digest the words, smells, pain, and share our realizations with others in this safe place and hear their pain and process and stir them together and see the underbelly of the concoction. We have to realize the pain there is in departing our fenced in back yard and go adventuring off somewhere…even if it just the corner to watch the world go by.

Mystics, spiritual questors, and seekers all are strange people. That is why religion separates us in lots of different clubs.

If we choose to reveal the goodness inside each of us and others see it, we could not have racism or sexism or religious superiority. Religion is afraid we will catch whatever it is that those strange other people are talking about. The religionists are the proper ones who obey the rules, or would have us think they do.

While the real spiritual ones believe in investigating to see if God (Father or Mother) will talk to us, will teach us something, will cause us to do something foolish through which we wake up or know more than we learned in Sunday School.

I think Sunday School is great if we learn to love, to accept others, to know something about Master Jesus and know there are commandments for good behavior. I think we should learn how Great God is and how God loves us and to heck with fear and hell and all the bad stuff. Kids do not need to be taught to fear the Creator, or other people or other ideas….they need the Love Stuff. I know I have had to love many an adult back to a healthy Self. We who are awakened have this as our assignment and we need to keep it up vigorously.

That is what this special year is all about. Let us Love!!!

Blessings, Carol

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Easter Sunday…The Joy of Resurrection

 He is Risen

Join with me please in the Salutations to the Spirit of Easter and the beauty of the morn…The appropriate response is “ OM ”.

Salutations to the Lord Christ, Teacher of Angels, and Humanity. OM

Salutations to the Risen Christ, the forces of Resurrection, and New Life. OM

Salutations and Glory to God in the Highest, Christ be praised. OM

 

On this joyful day of remembrance we give thanks for Christ Jesus and rejoice in His Serving as our Wayshower. OM

May the Christ Within each of us reveal the Living Truth and our true Service. Om

May the stone of doubt be rolled away that we may know the Christ Consciousness more fully. OM

We celebrate the Joy of Resurrection this day. We invoke the Light, Love and Peace to our hearts and minds as we celebrate the achievements of Christ Jesus. OM

Amen. Amen. Amen.

 

Early Christians risked their lives to meet each other in secret. The code words were “He is Risen”. “Christ is Risen indeed” came the response. To those who loved Jesus these words were beyond joy. The words were astonishing. They were delighted with such relief they could only run to one another to tell the good news, “Jesus lives”.

In the ritual of the empty tomb, Christ Jesus, as the Wayshower, demonstrated to his followers the final and most difficult work to be accomplished on this physical earth. That work is the transmutation of matter into spirit. When this is learned, humanity will have gained mastery over sickness, age and death. The necessity of reincarnation will be over, the work here finished.

Easter devotions originally clearly taught “Immortality”; as we move further away from the immediate happenings of Jesus’ life, we move further away from stressing the necessity for us to awaken. We are to awaken within us the hope that the Christ Within brings, the fire within each of us, which waits for us to burn with the Living Fire.

To the consciousness of the Initiate, life and death are but different aspects of spirits’ progressive unfoldment. Life is lived first on one level and then on another. Each night’s rest on the physical is work and growth on the inner and each day’s activities are times of off-focus to the inner life. Our challenge is to link them successfully
together until our consciousness is fully aware of the interlocking relationship and we come to realize there is no separation. There is but one life to the Soul; reincarnation is the taking of a number of personalities through which to do the necessary learning.

Realizing this great truth, early Christians celebrated the burial ceremony as a glorious Rite. Life was the theme.  Leaves of Ivy and Laurel were placed in the casket and a text of the gospel lay upon the heart of the deceased. Palms and olive branches were carried by those attending and the procession was marked, not by mourning and lamenting but by glad hosannas. It is here, in the rite of Resurrection, that we find the rite of the Impersonal Life; born again to a higher life, higher understanding and a higher love.

palm fronds   

We are to become aware of the illusion of matter and the limitations of the personality life. The stone of separation has to be rolled aside within ourselves. The newly awakened consciousness is to be transformed by the light of the All Embracing Light within. Each one of us is to be transformed just as Saul was to be Paul and each of us is to quest for our mission to the world that the world in which we dwell will be transformed.

 

Today, as esoterists, we do not commemorate Easter just as a historical event but know that Christ’s sacrifice (making sacred) is an annual event.  Each year at Winter Solstice the Christ is born anew to the heart of the Earth and at Easter He is risen to ascend into the heavens on his journey to the Higher Planes. By autumn equinox his annual work is done in the higher world. Lord Christ once more turns toward the Earth to be born within the dense world gradually lifting it to a new and higher vibration in each annual cycle.   

Mystery of the ChristosAt the Crucifixion of Jesus, the Lord Christ, left the body in which He had functioned for a three-year ministry and transferred His Spirit into the planetary body to henceforth be its Regent. There is a profound significance in the words he spoke to his disciples after the Resurrection:  “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”, so says, Corinne Heline in Mystery of the Christos.

In the scriptures, especially in the gospels, we are told of the long wait of the people for the representative of the Living God, the Messiah, to come to them. After Matthew gives much genealogy, he calls the true name of Jesus to be Emmanuel, “God with us” and closes his writings with Jesus, the Christ, stating “Lo, I am with you always even to the end of the world”. 

 

Jesus is given to us as the holy archetypal pattern for an enlightened being—he continued to love, to teach, to laugh and to cry. He asked those who had “ears with which to hear and eyes with which to see” to model themselves to his message.

 open bible

The work of the Christ is to dispel illusion. Our lives are to be gradually moved from the chaos of the distorted astral realm into the beauty of the Soul. Any book of Wisdom can not be taken literally. It is meant to be “heard” at the level of the hearer and the n by being pondered, one grows into a new understanding. At each level, we are born again; at each level when we clear our illusions we shall be even more clear.

As we recall Jesus dying on the Cross between two thieves, we usually envision three crosses portrayed in some way. Let us look at this symbology for a new understanding. 

 

 

Three crosses
The crosses represent three levels of consciousness with which each of us have to contend.

1)     The one on the left, unrepentant is unconscious of anything except ones own desires. He is selfish.

2)    The one on the right, asks forgiveness in order to begin anew; aware of something greater, not yet clear but suspects something more.

3)    The Christ in the center (whose torture brings thunder, lightening, and earthquakes) represents the crucifixion of the lesser Self, “not my will but thine be done”.

All are stages of growth humanity must pass through on its way to Resurrection. During the last two thousand years and particularly the last 1500, the concept of the Christ has been deepening and enlarging. As the mental body expands for humanity, the capability to grasp mysteries gradually begins to become clearer.

Mystics agree that the Christ, as a universal reflection of the Divine Creator, was sensed by enlightened ones long before the birth of Jesus.  As Jesus said of this Christly nature, “Before Abraham, I am”. This indicates the universality of an eternal, of a powerful energy, a Consciousness of a very high frequency, interlocked with the Divine spirit of God.

The entire esoteric tradition testifies to this fact, that Jesus, a most remarkable son of God, was not the only one to represent divinity on earth. In fact, Jesus’ disciple, John, declared “we are all the sons of God.” These days we are learning to speak in terms of the Christ Consciousness and that all of us have the capacity to attain this blessed state of being.

Buddha 

Christianity has errored in wanting to put Christ Jesus, separate from the other great beings as a unique god to be worshipped and obeyed, ra the r than to encourage each to seek one’s own inner link with the divine majesty. Each is to unfold a holy awareness within us, opening us to a level of peace and tranquility in acquiescence to the divine life.

Easter Sunday is the festival of Resurrection, Renewal and New Life; it is the festival of the Risen Christ…, the Inaugurator of the Age of Enlightenment, the Aquarian Age, the age in which humanity is to come of age.

 

Matthew 28:verses 1-10 reminds us of the fear and grief of the disciples over the loss of their leader and then joy and rejoicing replaces this terror as Mary Madeline is told to go tell the disciples, “He is not here, He is Risen.”

The archetype of the Piscean age was the Crucifixion and it has stood before every Christian path reminding us of the struggles to be met on the path of initiation. Easter Sunday reminds us that facing the challenges are worth it and that we, too, like Master Jesus, can triumph. 

The archetype of the Aquarian of the Aquarian Age is the Risen Christ. That which dwells within you and me, will rise up and take charge—our questions are about when? How? What self examination and what value adjustments each of us will have to make for the Christ Within to lead the life?  Our personality is frightened.

 

Master Jesus

The Holy Light of Christ is that Light of Oneness in which we stand at certain moments which allow the ego boundaries to dissolve and in the light we learn we can each say, “the Father/Mother and I are One.”

For each of us it is the Light that beckons us to live courageously, doing the Work each day as best we can, so that we use the boundaries that separate us wisely and yet transcend them at appropriate moments.

In Discipleship In the New Age, (Bailey Vol. l, pg 722) we read, “It is the fire of Love that He ( the Christ) will bring; it is the message of the purificatory fire which He will sound; He will not teach anent the waters of purification, as has hitherto been the symbolic imparted truth; He will impart the fire which burns and destroys all barriers in (hu)manity’s nature, all separating walls between individuals, between groups and between nations.”

Jesus, as the Christ, taught the water mysteries of love, nurturing and caring for others: Love God, our neighbors and Our Self. The Christ With, the hope of Glory, stirs the living fire of spirit that sanctifies our nature…making our lives sacred. It is rising up even today in humanity to claim its opportunity and we are to awaken.

We must come to know the Joy of Resurrection is to rejoice in that which lives (within and for each of us). It is the driving force of evolution, transformation, and restoration of the Divine Plan.

Jesus resurrectedEach persons of the Christ has to become, for his or her own Self, a witness of the Resurrection. The resurrection changed the course of the world once in the past and it will again through each of us. It dawns as a sunrise of Spirit Light, Love and Power and challenges the physical reality to be made new.

 

When we read the Gospels we are looking through a glass darkly getting a glimpse of the experiences as best they can be seen as told by a grief stricken group of disciples experiencing a cosmic, planetary event the y cannot truly understand.

Spiritual insight is necessary for anyone to perceive an awareness of the Christ. As I have said before, this awareness “cannot be taught, it has to be caught”. The Soul senses Truth and moves for the spiritual essence behind this life to find the greater Life and its Joy.

As people of the Christ we are not limited to the historical Christ, no matter how much we love Master Jesus, we are to go beyond to the Lord Christ that commits “not to leave us until the end”. Jesus, as the historical Christ, was to enable us to be disciples… not to copy him, but to have a role model, an elder brother, a teacher for the way. He is a starting point toward the Light of Resurrection, the Joy of Resurrection for all life in the dense world.

Let us on this Easter Dawn remember a Higher Consciousness is being revealed through each of us. It is the cause of rejoicing…Each of us is to proclaim, “I have found my way”. Easter represents the hope that is left when all hope is gone. It is the Everlasting hope that springs anew eternally.

The entire life of Master Jesus is to emphasize the time has come to shift our gaze—he said he would send another, the Holy Spirit. The awareness of the Disciples is to make a smooth transition—in the human mind from looking outside our self to the Presence Within.

dove of sophia
The Dove of Sophia

No longer is it appropriate to look outside. The entire operation is similar to a radar operator watching a plane take off with the naked eye and the n switching to radar, with this shift of consciousness, we shift from physical to ano the r dimension. After Jesus’s ascension we are in touch through our personal Spirituality.

As we find the Living Sprit of Truth, the artificial sophistication and false trappings of the outer falls away and humanity will be One with one another in a new way. We have heard the Good News! He is Risen and in the Joy of Resurrection, we are lifted as well.

 
I know this has been long today but what can I say? I have loved sharing with each of you and I hope you are much more awakened to the esoteric concepts than before.  

Happy Easter!  Jubilato DEO, Carol

Holy Saturday

 The Interval between Good Friday and Easter Dawn

  Holy Saturday Banner

In churches, Good Friday afternoon, after devotions are done and the public is gone, the stripping of the chapel begins. Lights are darkened; the altar is bare. Until noon Saturday there is little to no activity inthe chapel until cleaning begins and preparation for the Easter services is arranged.

This interval is a very mystical period about which little is said. This three day period correlates to the three day period prior to Christmas Mass. These hours are time of little conscious understanding and as such we need to focus on the mystical moments.

At the hour of our transition the most advanced of us pass into higher planes. In the lower worlds of the inner planes there is heaviness. Here exist those still heavy with the dust of the earth, along with those who refuse to believe in the continuation of life after death. Here is the lower astral or even what is called purgatory by some. It was in these dark areas that the Lord Christ spent the interval between the balance of Good Friday and Easter Dawn.

Remember that we exist as spirit and matter. When an individual is deceased these two separate with each its own way of continuing. Memory is a most important asset of both mind, as we think of it, and the higher mind of spirit consciousness. The cultivation and development of these frequencies have a foremost place in discipleship.

The mind is divided into segments by many wisdom traditions, usually into the subconscious, the conscious, and the super-conscious. Experiences of every-day life are associated with the conscious, memory of past life with the subconscious. New discoveries that lead to new awareness are related to the super-consciousness and its relationship to Cosmic Consciousness. We have little understanding yet of the levels of mind humanity really has.

Modern disciples are learning to bridge the consciousness (build the consciousness thread that is needed) so there is awareness between waking and sleep, life and death, present and past incarnations. The nightly review studied backward over the way the day unfolded helps us to master this bridge building.

During this interval from Good Friday to Easter dawn the inner plane teachings of the Master dealt with the beginning of the Path. He freed those held in restriction until they had assistance…this is what is meant by “setting all the captives free”.

Between the Resurrection and the Ascension His teachings were concerning the work upon the Path of Light when a new race shall have passed through the sublime experience of both the resurrected and ascension in daily living. The new Aquarian type of consciousness is believed to be referenced here. This is the meaning of “follow the man with the jug”.

When humanity has attained such a level of unfoldment, transition from earth life to another world will be a glorious and conscious adventure. The ego, alive and alert, will know no fear. In a state of exaltation, it will be able to pass joyously into the next and larger life. Such a one will join the chorus of Angels and Archangels in singing, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy Victory?

 Authors note: For more information on an Esoteric Understanding of Lent as well as both the Water and Fire Mysteries, consider Corinne Heline’s Mystery of the Christos. It has much more about the se mysteries than most sources.

We need to recognize the helpers of the Higher World and today is a good day to call them into our lives once again in a powerful way. Do the following devotion like a leader response segment but do both parts yourself. Prepare your altar or light your candle, incense the area, put on the consciousness of the pilgrim and begin. Say aloud:

  chorus of angels

 O lord Christ, Teacher of Angels and Humanity, look upon us this day with compassion as we journey to High Consciousness through the experiences of Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

Response:  Illuminate the world   (sang rather in a chanting like manner)

Generous Lord Christ, Receive us into your most compassionate Heart. Heal us from the illusion of separation and unfold within us your nature with its gift of Divine Love.

Response:  Illuminate the world

Great Creator, Father and Mother, we praise the Omnipotence of your creative powers and know we are blessed with your reflective nature.

Response:  Illuminate the world

Christ Sophia, we strive ever to gain wisdom and understanding. Through the gaining of High Consciousness, we learn to create goodness and beauty in your Name.

Response:  Illuminate the world

To the Wise and Holy, may we be endowed with compassion and renewed dedication; May we perceive that which is ours to do and be courageous enough to do It.

Response:  Illuminate the world

Source of Grace, may the great abundance provided for the well being of humanity, be in the hands of the forces of Light;  May love inspire right use of resources.

Response:  Illuminate the world

We invoke the Holy Ones, the Angels and the Saints to guide the v\evolution of the world. Open hearts and minds everywhere to a joy of life that enfolds all kingdoms.

Response:  Illuminate the world

We call upon the Hierarchy to awaken within each of us the attributes most needed for the unfolding of our part in the divine plan renewing our pledge to planetary service.

Response:  Illuminate the world

Great Mystery of Love, teach our hearts to bet in harmony with the Great Heart. May humanity discover its true nature is that of Love – Caring.

Response:  Illuminate the world

Great Mystery of Wisdom, hold before s the vastness of Divine mind. May the mind that is in Christ Jesus, shine likewise within the collective of human mind.

Response:  Illuminate the world

Great Mystery of Unity, pour upon us the blessings of the Holy Spirit as we create an even greater sense of Oneness with each of us and within our community.

Response:  Illuminate the world

May the forces of Resurrection and Renewal fill us with new vitality, healing and hope and may our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual natures respond.

Response:  Illuminate the world

May we remember the divine injunction, “You did not choose me but I chose you (John 15:16. May we rejoice that we have been chosen; we give thanks.

Response:  Illuminate the world. Amen. Amen. Amen.

 This is a special invocation that can be used at special times or events. Although it is long, it can be shortened or used as your heart requests.

Blessings for a holy Easter weekend, Carol

egg

 One day a poor peddler went to the marketplace to sell a basket of eggs. He came upon a crowd mocking a man who staggered with a heavy cross on which he was about to be crucified. The peddler ran to his aid, leaving the basket by the roadside. When he returned, he found the eggs transformed into exquisite designs of bright colors. The man was Christ; the peddler, Simon. And the eggs were to become the symbol of rebirth for all humankind.

Ukrainian Folk Tale

 

 

 

 

Good Friday

Christ is not unique to Christianity.  Esoterically, the sun is the Christ, the Son, the universal spiritual force which merges with a person doing the spiritual work once he has reached a certain spiritual level.  The lives of Osiris, Krishna, Mithras, Quetzalcoatl, as well as Jesus, contained the elements of betrayal, death and resurrection – which occurred at or was associated with the spring equinox.  Their lives portrayed the stages toward attainment of salvation (healing the division between God and humanity), enlightenment (every cell of our being filled with god-consciousness), self-realization (whatever it is called). This is sometimes called “ the Great Goal”.

Let us find a place….

Jesus on Cross
Each event connected with the life of Christ Jesus as given in the Gospels represents some definite step along the Path of Initiation. The ceremony regard Good Friday outlines the completion of Christed attainment.

The orthodox Christian world observes this day as a time of sorrowful vigil. The mystic Christian experiences this day as a rare spiritual achievement. He or she sees the crucifixion, as a means to a greater understanding to be gained as one realizes the agony of the spiritual path is ultimately lost in the supreme joy Holy Consciousness brings.

The beauty of Master Jesus in submitting to the Will of the Father blasts through the kingdoms of the Earth. The beauty of Eastertide is achieved by the repentant tears of awakening ones for their mistakes. These water the flowers and invoke the bird songs, so reports the mystic, Corinne Heline.

Our thoughts today are fixed on the challenges presented by the Fourth Initiation, the first part of which is crucifixion or the giving of one’s life for something worth all. Master Jesus as the Christ, made clear the way to a heart centered path was the step humanity needed to learn. The abuse and betrayal, as well as the crucifixion, made it clear humanity resisted the holy new principle. We are even now continuing to struggle to become the Vision the Christ offered. Love fulfills the Law.

The message of the Christ was clear. We are to love and to serve. The first step in God’s higher plan was to select a people and place for a Holy One who could offer himself. However; this divine server became both the leader and the messenger. The second step in the message of Good Friday is in the Resurrection; the adapt (fourth degree initiate) finishes his or her work here and need not return. They do not have to reincarnate but can assist humanity from the more subtle planes, unless they return of free will and with purpose. The Christ descended into “hell” or “hades” (we know this as the lower astral) and set the captives free.

Little understood, except in this context, Christ Jesus released those who had not fulfilled their work here but whom were waiting (in the afterworld) for the wisdom to be revealed to them so they could be received back into the cycle of Life that they had missed. The Master taught the restricted to come alive and released the non-awakened so they could advance to be free to fulfill their yet-to-done work of this world. Remember this is the bardo and there are those trapped in that domain for us to love and release.

Corinne Heline says “He gave humanity the demonstrable fact that death is but transition and will eventually have no part in (hu)man’s planetary experiences. Thus Christ Jesus proclaimed for the world in the resurrection two themes: Life is eternal and Love immortal.*
  *Mystery of the Christos Page 79
 stations of the cross
We are to be reminded of the Fourteen Stations of the Cross on Good Friday as many have walked them traditionally within the tradition of the Church—walking the Dolorosa, as it is called or walking the spiritual path along with Christ Jesus. There is great esoteric meaning in each of these stations for us as we grow and become increasingly aware of inner meanings. With the retracing of painful moments of our own journey on the path we can find many veiled similarities.

Principal obstacles of our own journey are represented in the trials before Annas, the mortal mind. The trial before Caiaphas represents the challenge ofworld ambition; and the trial before Pilate representing weaknesses and vacillation when asked to take a stand for truth and principle at the risk of endangering personal position or prestige in the eyes of the unenlightened.

The scourging represents the discomforts and sometimes pain that accompanies the birth or awakening of higher centers located along the spine as the fire makes its ascent. The Crown of Thorns specifically has relevance to the various areas of the head. With the ascent of spinal spirit fire, the cranial nerves are progressively sensitized, so says Corinne Heline, and is liken to a crown and ultimately radiates like a halo of light.

Jesus fell three times under the weight of the cross.
Jesus falling
His falls are representative of moral failures to which a frail humanity succumbs time and time again as it searches for the Light.

In the esoteric understanding of the early Church the disciples who journeyed on the way to Calvary did not meet the Master on the way but followed Him. This is the true interpretation since the Christed One Is the Supreme Wayshower for all. The Stations may seem to be a boring ritual to children and unawakened. With a deeper understanding Good Friday becomes a day of contemplation of our journey and that we are following in the footsteps of Christ Jesus.

Now picked a devotion that has special meaning for you, it may have come to mind for yourself today as you studied and retraced your steps on the Path.

Give compassion to another, forgive and release someone from your judgment. Become One with those you little understand and remember we are to be One with all others through Light and Love. Ask yourself, has Lent deepened that within you?

Be blessed this Good Friday.   With love, Carol

Maundy Thursday

Maundy or Holy Thursday is remembered annually we commemorate the gathering of Jesus and his disciples for the Last Supper.

We contemplate this event remembering disciples are not perfect people; they are beings-in-process. We remember Judas who sold Jesus’ safety for a few coins. Our brother Peter denied knowing Him. Our brothers James and John argued about who would be the greatest in heaven.

We fall into the same mistakes. We deny knowing better when we leave our faith at the church door and live our lives according to our own desires. We push Christ Jesus away from the center of our lives when we struggle to keep ourselves and our fragile egos at the center of our attention. Forgive us our weak and sad excuses, and help us to become what we are to be.

When Jesus entered the upper room to eat the Passover meal He was aware a dark fate awaited him. Note: the term denotes he and the disciples are in a higher state of consciousness. We are lifted into an altered state of consciousness as we receive Communion. We are lifted by thought to a more holy state of mind. This happens when we recall the meaning and reality of the blessed Communion Meal. Here,in this higher state,we receive the sacred food and the reality of the Spiritual Forces. 

Here, on this night, powerful forces were against Him ready to take his life, even as we live in a world of negativity and duality. Beside Him that night were the disciples arguing among themselves as they took their place at the table. Jesus sensed impending betrayal. He still “fed his sheep” the new covenant of his teachings.

 

Jesus took bread and gave it to his disciples. “Take this”, He said “this is my body,” He then took the cup and gave it to them. “This is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, to be poured out in behalf of many”.

 Jesus praying russian

That night, He gave himself up, in love, to his Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. As a part of His initiatory path, He delivered himself into the arms of His enemies and surrendered to Higher Will. Master Jesus gave himself, unhesitatingly, to the Great Test.

 

Maundy Thursday focuses on the last hours before Christ was betrayed and arrested. It delivers two special concepts. First with the rite of washing the feet of the disciples, Christ Jesus is establishing a new and different social order.

 

The foot washing, an ancient ceremony, is remembered with this special occasion. It has a very practical purpose. The people in the Middle East wore sandals and of course, their feet got dusty and dirty. So,when they arrived as guests in someone’s home, it was the custom for servants to wash the feet of guests.

But here, we find Jesus, the Master, taking on this menial task—an act which was certainly against the social code of the day, as is made clear with Simon Peter’s hesitancy to allow Jesus to wash his feet. But in the foot-washing, Jesus demonstrates the qualities we need to build in ourselves, to go forth in a new way. Feet represent “walking the path” and Jesus shows us we must practice humility and tolerance and our motivation must be pure.

The second concept is Communion and the commandment to be one with each other, called the new covenant. His disciples had been vying for position of power. Each looked ahead to the time when the Kingdom of the Master would be established and each one wanting a position of importance. They were already striving for self importance within their own little Community.

communion

But the Master showed them that the Greater always serves the Lesser. He told them no servant is greater than the master and no apostle greater than the one who sent him or her. He showed them that in order to be one with each other they must serve each
other, just as He served them. Just as He washed them, they were to do the same. We are to remember the Creator serves us each day of our lives, often with little or no remembrance.

Foot washing has an important symbolic meaning. It is a cleansing of that hidden urge within each of us: our motivation. It is rich symbology to show us how to walk our path. On this evening Master Jesus also gives to His disciples the Eucharist or Holy Communion to help all realize we are to be a source of love and light, power and beauty and to become One with the Creator and for each other.

Communion is to help us focus on the Inner Christ and let be fed, nourished, and transformed by the holy food from the Christ who guides us from the inner planes. Master Jesus gave this holy meal special significance by telling us the bread He shared with the disciples was His Heart Center, the buddhi,as it is called. He held his heart center in his hands, passing the flame of his love, the fire of his heart (the fervor) to each disciple.

The wine the Master shared represented His spiritual Will, the Life force, the blood of his dynamic Will. As the disciples drank the wine, it too nourished them. They could then express their will through the opened heart. The Master shared his blood, his DNA, through the spiritual ritual he gave to his disciples although there is little understanding of this. As we frequently receive Compassion and Unconditional love begin to flow. We then receive the blessing of the Christ energy; it is to sustain us as we grow spiritual and serve our Soul purpose. It is our Sacred Food.

The language of body and blood fulfilled the mystery of the Savior King… the divine heritage passes through the DNA. We become the people of Christ,made in the image and likeness, identifying with the Master within us.

There is a teaching called Spiritual Cannibalism. The concept teaches each student devours the teacher as he or she is being taught. The teacher is to nourish and to love the student or not accept them. And to the degree the student opens themselves to the teacher they can receive. The student takes all the teacher has to give. They feed us of their own personal spirituality. This is a prevalent teaching of the East.

A good book by the name Spiritual Cannibalism is available, in the US, by a guru named Swami Rudrananda. It helps us understand the appreciation and love the Eats has for it’s teachers and their efforts. This established the spiritual lineage concept referred to in the esoteric reality.

When we take communion at the most simple level, it is remembrance bread and purely sentimental. If we see it as transformative, it is alchemy. If understood as a mystery, it can be all we allow it to be. It can bring us an entirely new grasp of the depth of Last Supper and we see how it has continued sustained devotees or even martyrs in our rich heritage.

The mystery of Holy Thursday is how to bring our Will in harmony with Higher Will.

 We pray:

 Lead us, O Lord, from darkness to Light,

                              from the unreal to the Real,

                              from death to Immortality,

                              from chaos to Beauty. Amen.

 

Blessings, Carol

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The Full Moon of Aries is the Real Easter

 

 NASA Moon Pic

The dynamic impetus of Aries creates new beginnings and excites humanity as a new cycle of life urges humanity forward in its search. Springtime, sexuality and the desires of the instinctual nature rush like a power surge through all of life—from plants to animals to humanity. Aries elicits new activity. Spring arrives.

 

The Aries full moon is celebrated by esoterists as Easter, the festival of the risen Christ— the original Easter was a moveable date like Christmas. Both Eastern and Western Christian churches used the same date until the Church split into Roman and Byzantine in 1054A.D. Since then, the western church celebrates Easter on the first Sunday following the first full moon on or after the equinox. The Eastern Church insists that to be biblically accurate, Easter Sunday must follow Passover.

 

Here we greet a mystery of the forthcoming ages. Full Moons are respected is a special way. We recall the ancient teaching about the mystery of the Solar Lord. The Cosmic Christ is the Solar Lord. Here we learn of the teachings of the Sun/Son of God in a mystery teaching. The physical sun is the radiant body of the true Son of God, the Cosmic Christ. The Soul in each of us is the inner man and it is to become a reflection of the Light of Christ just as Jesus did. Christ Jesus serves the Greater Christ, the Holy Consciousness. This is the origin of manifesting the love-wisdom of the Creator and confusion exists because of language, using the word Christ in so many different ways.

 

ariesThe Full Moon of Aries is the Easter Celebration of the Lord Christ; the Easter Sunday celebrates the Festival of Christ Jesus and his life and effort on the Path of Initiation. On this Sunday, we recognize the Life of Jesus, the Historical Christ of our time and how he served God, the Father and became Christed. Easter is the celebration of the Fire Mysteries and the Light made manifest in the Christian tradition

 

You may have heard of the Three Major Festivals of the year.

1.) The Festival of Easter, 2.) The Festival of Wesak, and 3.) The Festival of Humanity. Each one has a special emphasis; each one to be honored. Their importance in the future will be profound and is already beginning. In this way not only would an underlying unity between all faiths be attained, but a bro the rhood-sisterhood be recognized as a fact which not only would affirm our oneness of origin, of goal and of life be recognized but that which would be evoked would change all aspects of human living, would condition our civilization, change our mode of life, and make the spiritual world a dominant reality in the human consciousness. *

 

The Festival of Easter is the festival of the risen, living Christ, the Head of the Spiritual Hierarchy, the Inaugurator of the Kingdom of God and the Expression of the love of God. On this day, the spiritual Hierarchy which He guides and directs, will be universally recognized, humanity’s relation to it emphasized and the nature of God’s Love registered. Everywhere people will invoke that love, with its power to produce resurrection and spiritual livingness. This Festival is determined always by the date of the first Full Moon of spring. The eyes and thoughts of all will be fixed on life, not death; Good Friday will no longer be a factor in the life of the churches. Easter will be the great Western festival.

            *Christ the Avatar of Sacrificial Love by Torkom Saraydarian

 

It is for this that humanity awaits; it is the goal of all spirituality. The churches must gain insight to this greater work, if indeed; humanity is to gain the qualities and characteristics of Christ Jesus. Thus the formation of the New World and its emphasis on Love will be built.

 

In growing understanding of the Fiery Mysteries we see the Full Moon Celebration of the Real Easter and the date of Good Friday occasionally come together from time to time. They represent the Path of Initiation that leads humanity to the fiery love of God, the Father. In a similar way, the Water Mysteries of Advent and Christmas lead us to the tender love of God, Mother Wisdom, Sophia. Thus, each ye,ar the annual cycle builds for us whether conscious of it or not, the masculine and the feminine energies with humanity and each of us.

 

Let us have a special dedication this day of Importance:

 

Let us remember, we are to Live bravely;

To make nothing more important than to be about Our Father and Our Mother’s business, known as our Soul’s Purpose;

To live for something greater than our personality desires;

To find our part in the Higher Plan and to bring it into manifestation;

We are to be good stewards of all that we are given.

 

We are to live, understanding the sacrifices made by Holy Ones before us. We are to accept the Wisdom they provide that we might be more than we have ever been before. We are to discover and become the Christ Within, the Hope of Glory. We are to move from Good Friday to Easter Morning by walking the path of initiation.

 Master Jesus 

Repeat aloud please:

 

The Christ Spirit is the true source of wisdom and spiritual power. Through the Christ Spirit I AM resurrected into a greater consciousness of the true source of health and wholeness. The Christ Spirit is the true source of all prosperity. I AM resurrected into a greater awareness of God’s abundant substance. The Christ Spirit Within me is my pattern for perfection and successful living. The energy of the Living Christ abounds and I am renewed. Amen.

 

 

 

True Easter Blessings, Carol

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Jesus Palm Sunday

 Palm Sunday

 In our mind we can picture Jesus’ Triumphant Entry into Jerusalem. The people recognize the Jesus for his devotion to God, the Father and the teachings Jesus delivered as the way to fulfill our obligation to the Higher World.

Jesus teaches Love fulfills the Law and models the path for the Piscean age and the sixth ray of devotion. Once, when in India, I saw such a demonstration of love for Babaji and I alwas think of it at Palm Sunday.

 Today as in the past, the very heart of Lent is working on our relationship with the Higher World. We begin with self-examination and inner healing holding our intent, reconciliation of the inner and the outer as a great goal. We renew our commitment to grow spiritually through love, prayer, reflection, perseverance and positive ways to keep our heart in harmony with the Great Heart.

Each of us is challenged to go beyond our physical duties in this time of transition from age to age and ask ourselves if the message given by Christ Jesus 2000 years ago still has value. And as we do so, we must determine how best to honor these principles. How do we operate from our wisest self as we move into a new age and align these teachings and the new ones we are getting from Spirit. The teachings of each Age build on the previous one. We continue to grow by Opening the Heart and awakening to other High Principles. In the new period ahead we will gain more understanding and be less fanatical in our approach. Religion will become spirituality for many and not be the force it is today.

Christ Jesus told the world He would be with us always. By believing The Christ or Holy Consciousness is ever present in the Spiritual Reality and accepting he is in touch with His Disciples through the spiritual realms, we realize many are already serving to construct the Plan that they receive. This is not imaginary but being done as each engages his or her human skills and makes spiritual contact. It is rather like a dot-by-number plan from the Higher World that is coming into place. We may or may not be aware of it.

Persons aligned to the plan are to serve without disturbing other workers or other pieces of the Plan, knowing each is important. Co-workers do not have to like each other; they love and serve the higher purpose and in that manner they strive together to do the higher will.

On Palm Sunday we honor Master Jesus for the unique service he rendered. This is the story of the fourth initiation and it requires we give our life for something and it may mean living for a principle, not physically dying, but the giving of our life is the key. celtic

Symbols of the Lenten messages most often used are the cross which is not truly a Christian symbol but has been used for centuries to remind us we must bring the duality of spirit and matter together. The reality is heart and mind must come together before the higher mind can be gained. The message of Love as given by Christ Jesus to humanity is to live and work from the heart center. Thus, the Christ is identified with the Christian tradition and Love.

A mandala of three circles is often used as well reminding us the first circle is the crown of thorns with which Jesus was crowned. This speaks of the pain of breaking through from the limited consciousness to the unlimited. The second circle is a laurel wreath acknowledging “the peace that passes understanding” as one becomes One with the Source of Life. Third is a Lotus blooming…shining radiantly for all to see is the Thousand Petal Lotus of High Consciousness that is the mark of the Path of Initiation.

These three steps stand like steps one, two and three before us. We are to be renewed again and again, as all nature does. Each stage provides us experience and information, then from information to knowledge and then we advance from knowledge to Wisdom.

The Path of Initiation needs better understanding and perhaps we need reminding of the Greater Plan. The major difference between Atlantean times and today is that those past candidates were unconscious. They were put to sleep or tested in the inner worlds behind sleep with no awareness of their inner life or that ones could know in the outer. In the past, candidates were dependent upon one with spiritual sight, their Shaman, to tell them what happened, how near they were to a goal and what to do it to achieve it.

 emotions

Today’s candidates are encouraged to know with their developed mind and senses. These have well developed mental bodies. They can perceive for themselves their direction once they are guided through the glamours and illusions. Even when the astral body was in development, the astral plane (desires, glamours) was a trap and for this reason disciples were and are warned about the distortions that happen in this tricky place, particularly about the lure of the psychic senses. The teachers knew this was a dangerous passage and likely to draw one off the path to the higher reality.

Today’s candidates are warned likewise about the dangers of the intellect which can be likened as illusion…that draw one off the path of Wisdom into the worship of intellect. The teacher and teachings are to help us face the dangers with the student to bring them past this point.

buddha
The Lord Buddha
anchored the principle of Wisdom knowing that the astral nature of the people had to have a mental component to tame it. For this reason, the teachings of “right action”were given. He delivered The Four Noble Truths and the Eight-Fold Path and is remembered with love and great appreciation for that service by all Wisdom Teachings.

 Jesus
Christ Jesus knew that those in whom the emotional and the mental nature was partially developed could not go any further until they opened the heart center and brought down the inner knowing of higher reality. So the principle of Love fulfills the Law is offered to those who would take a next step on the path of initiation.

Today’s greatest challenge is a lack of Love; a love great enough to perceive the difference between self and selfishness, love and emotion, ego and personality, By becoming a soul-infused personality one is cleaned of most glamours. We must be reminded that the Lord Christ (High Consciousness- not Master Jesus) promises protection to those who call in His name for protection from the forces of distortion, glamour and illusion. Each has character flaws of which we are to rid ourselves. This is the rescue from darkness the Lord promised.

Lucifer was called the Angel of Light because he held the lights for those who followed him into the denser world. The challenge was that in the Light those who came into the material world would experience the good and the pain, the joy and the ecstasy. This duality would not be the same for each but conditions with many challenges. Within this duality the teachings would be revealed and be offered to awaken the travelers to higher truth. They would see and begin to engage with the false world of desire and illusion, astral and material, and have to then free the mselves.

 Lucifer sometimes just an angel of Light…Lucifer means light…

evolution involution awakening

So Lucifer, the name means Light, leads humanity into (our) powers of choice, free will, thereby providing opportunities to overcome the lower tendencies, and of mastering the lower worlds. In such a way humanity was to become all that it could be. Remember, made in the image and likeness of the Elohim. Think about involution led by Lucifer and evolution led by the Christ. In this way we see and can understand humanity’s path easier.

Mary Magdalene and red eggPalm Sunday has lots of additional symbology within it…We can think of eggs as symbol of fertility as are bunnies. We can remember the red egg story of Mary Magdalene and Caesar; we can recall the statement told and retold of Jesus calling out, “oh, how thou does honor me” from the cross and that women stayed with Jesus because death is one of the feminine mysteries. 

Palm Sunday leads us deep into mysteries and we will see that this week as we explore Holy Week. We approach this special time with new fervor realizing that we in due time will give our life for something we deem of such value…perhaps we can not see it now but as we walk our path we discover deep fervor growing within.

We look forward of the true Esoteric Easter as it is practiced quietly; then Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Outer Easter Sunday…yes, we experience the fiery mysteries and we see we are like a candle-in- the -making. First a string is dipped into the wax. Then pulled out and dried, then dipped again and again and each time a bit more of the reality of the inner clings to us. We become more a candle, a Light, in the outer world.

Now we look ahead for building a glorious Holy Week. We will have the real Easter on Full Moon or Aries (which is a movable date that occurs close at hand), Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the interval between Good Friday and Easter Morn and then the beautiful Celebration of the Risen Christ. Plan ahead this is a full week that comes.

Blessings, Carol

 

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CEP and Jesse Redbud

 Sophia, Holy Spirit of Wisdom: a Study in Esoteric Christianity

April 16 – 21, 2012

Sancta Sophia Seminary

Join Carol and Jesse on campus for a six day study of all three volumes of Carol’s course on Esoteric Christianity.              

 “We explore treasurers hidden right before our very eyes.This is the first time I’ve offered an intensive class of all three lessons and it will be a joy to deepen your understanding of the inner life”.  Carol E. Parrish

Esoteric Christianity is the Christ Mystery revealed, not intellectual but simple. Christ Jesus loved the ‘little ones” and prepared a Way for them. Esoteric Christianity is the inner awareness needed for the walking of the Christ path and how to develop a new consciousness. Christ is Love and Sophia is Wisdom. We learn of the Christ Path as a great goal for each of us. We learn the hidden practices necessary to grasp Sophia: the Holy Spirit of Wisdom.

Sophia, Mother Wisdom, then joins with the Christ in carrying us across the burning ground to the higher world. Jakob Boehme, the well known Christian Mystic, first coined the words Christ-Sophia to reveal the path of balance to dedicated inner workers. While our path is to be wise, it is really about balancing the wisdom of heart and mind. Don’t forget “mysteries” is but a code word for the veiled higher/hidden teachings.

In these lessons, to be read prior to class time, we will study the various sets of material as we advance into the practices necessary to becoming a wise Son or Daughter of the Master who marked the Christian Way . Remember the Perennial Wisdom opens all doors to the Path of the Hero. If you know one system you can grasp all.

In embracing training in the way of Master Jesus, the Wayshower, we are first introduced to the wide and easily available traditional path. When ready we come to higher ground and harder to perceive material, we select our practices and learn to listen both outwardly and inwardly.

This adds depth to our transformation and in time the Soul begins to lead each of us one by one. Meaningful methods are going to be shared as we review materials many have read; few have comprehended.

If you have read these required courses previously you will delight in learning to read between the lines. We shall attempt this by spending two days on each set of lessons. We will experience both a view of the door to the inner life for which we have searched.

Carol and Jesse will be available for more private work  after this week, you  may want to make arrangements to stay over  or  stay in touch with Carol as we continually travel through the traditional, metaphysical, esoteric, and then to the Sophianic.

Registration is due by April 6. Reading of all three lesson sets is prerequisite. Contact Sancta Sophia Seminary 918.456.1109 to register. Course Cost is $300.00.
Each set of lessons is $75.00 in loose leaf form and available at Sophia’s Nest Bookstore 918.431.1872.


 Conversations with Carol
Tele-Class   April 25 – May 30

 

telephone

Our popular series of tele-classes continue in April with session 10 beginning April 25. Each Wednesday at 7:00 pm CST. join Rev. Carol as she discusses a different topic. We always take time for questions and answers. We provide you with lots of references and extras to enrich the experience. The class is $50.00 and includes all six lessons.

Topics for this session are:

The Seed Atom: The seed atom holds the secret of progress and of trials. Here rests the creative energy for each new body when the time comes for reincarnation. What are you putting into storage? energy rests and waits for the future to come again into each plane. Do you realize you are more than today and more than imaged?

Entering The Aquarian Age: Entering the Aquarian Age has long been referred to as the Great Opportunity for which humanity stands poised. Scripture says”follow the man with the jug.” Can we create the high point of which humanity has waited? Are you ready to be one of the needed ones by actively bringing about transformation for more than yourself?

The Dark Madonna: She is loved and praised by many, especially in the European cultures. Who is she? What do we know about this holy one? How can we gain a new understanding in this time?

The Initiations: They are like steps of growth. Do we need to know where we stand? Does knowing help? What does initiation mean in different systems? If it means to begin again, how many times do we re-commit and shift levels of understanding?

The Esoteric Meaning of Music: with guest speaker, Rev. Roberta Wilkes
There is a power in tone and harmony that is little understood. This interesting study from an esoteric perspective doubles our appreciation. Rev. Wilkes has studied and composed  music for years and will give us her wonderful perspective on this exciting area.

How to Keep Yourself Growing: How to keep growing when out of class? Here are guidelines for us to keep in touch with both the matter nature and the world of spirit when we find ourselves alone. is this an opportunity to see how committed we really are?

We hope you will consider taking this class with Carol and her guests. Register with Sue VanDyke, Registrar at 1.918.456.1109

For more information: personalassistant@sanctasophia.org

 

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Fifth Sunday of Lent

 

istock stepping stonesMore than half way through Lent now we realize how much or how little effort we have invested in our process of deepening our inner work.

Our seed thought for the week is Spiritual Maturity …A Renewed Commitment to building a High Consciousness…cycles allow us to try and try again.

 

In these weeks of Lent we have taken time to look at our own shadow, our pain, our restlessness and our fears. We have been preparing ourselves to be ready to participate in the Great Work…realizing our Soul Purpose. This is the sincere effort we must make to walk the Path of Initiation.

Lent reminds us now is the time to take the Grace and Love of Christmas, the tender water mysteries, and use them to become the courageous, bold, and dedicated Soul we truly are to pass through darkness to the Light of Easter. We are moving from unconscious to conscious.

 We are clearing ourselves of old restrictions. While we may have focused on our imperfections, we have found ways to express our goodness, kindness, love and hope with others. In spite of our apparent imperfections we can be supportive of others; we have spent Lent being who we are in the better sense of the term, not in denial but in refinement..

To find the true Self we remove layer after layer of wrappings. The onion has long been used as a symbol of our journey inward. Here we review the true process of our humanness whether or not we want to look at our Self Inflicted Nonsense, sometimes called Sin. We look at the experiences of the non-self and see how it has brought us into pain and teaching us certain lessons so we can become wise.

When we remember the statement “remember ye are Gods” we face doubt and fear. Are we to be great? Of course. We are to be all that we can be. We are to take the talents and gifts we have, which we may think minute, and share them, thus they grow.

Otherwise the Creator has invested his or her creativity in us and we fall short. susan boyle gift

We acknowledge we have bits and pieces to share, qualities that others need: supportive shoulders upon to weep, hands to lighten burdens, words to console. We can do for others what others have done for us.

We begin time and time again; it is true. Each cycle or each stage of life has its way of allowing us to rework the past. Image yourself as a garden and each spring brings you the opportunity to till the soil and prepare yourself for the year ahead and whatever it brings.  This is how the path is walked; it is not prepared only once but the layering of years of learning. Each year is richer because you as the soil is more rich.

Life allows us to repeat until we learn the lessons. Sometimes we meet well our challenge; sometimes we don’t. No one knows which way wins the battle. Our great lessons of defeat and apparent failure may provide the resolve the soil seeks, as we strive for strengths that refine of our character. We are meant to be tempted. Temptation is the exoteric word for acknowledging the power of maya, glam angel or devilour, and illusion. As we choose to free ourselves from the unconscious at Lent we make a bit more effort to be conscious.

Sin is violation of your own code as well as separation from the higher world; it brings restriction and defensiveness to over come even as it also facilitates learning. Our non-self pulls us into difficulties to teach us. As children we may have resented Lent for having to give up something. Now we know we have choice: we can give up or add a new practice.

Disciplines come in both additions and subtractions. Today we reaffirm our readiness to reveal the strength of the inner nature with renewed dedication.

Sacrifice is not an appeasement of the gods or our God, but a burning away of our reluctance to let go of false values and to make our life sacred. There are three great steps to be taken.

·        We must face beginning again and again. This is the probationary path as we become a candidate for initiation. Here we receive exposure and opportunities to see the perfections and imperfections of ourselves and o the rs. We recognize the weaknesses of the human nature and its beauty…made in the image and likeness of the divine.

·        We reach pledged discipleship with its many levels. Awareness is consciously gained. Decisions are made to speed up our evolution. We embrace discipline as refinement. Intuition is sought to build our receiver set in order to have a link with the higher world even while we walk in this one. Now we can perceive living our life as a translation of higher life as best we can grasp it through the medium of ourselves. For this reason if no o the r, we do not ridicule the manner in which another disciple lives their daily life for it is their tapestry of heavenly word.

·        We become an adept who accepts responsibility for stepping down higher ideas and bringing spiritual concepts into humanity’s reach. This is called manifestation. Adapts become the co-workers of the Masters as they have proven themselves sufficiently purified to possess awareness of Love Wisdom and to share it with others. Their work is little understood and they are limited in how they are allowed to share. They are masters at living the little understood; they teach by example, by stepping down ideas, and by radiance.

As we seek to remove the veil of our false self we realize how little of what we have belongs to us. Most is on loan from the higher world in order to see how we will use and share the gifts. The multi-faceted veil that limits the light of the higher world is reinforced by the following:

release·        We are held hostage by fear, doubt and despair. We share a collective Dweller called the humanity condition, also known as Original Sin.

·        The trick of wanting the holy to be rational is a way to attempt to be the god rather than recognizing the power of the Higher. The mystery of the higher world is irrational to this limiting perspective.

·        Clinging to our own past ideas is a way to refusing to mature into our potential. An open mind is required to become our new possibility. False identities—nationalism, sexism, and materialism—restrict.

We are awakening to our new identity as we evolve. We come to understand perception, freedom from negativity and the benefits of forgiveness and right relationships. There are great goals held before us to achieve. We are working to bring the forces of fire and water toge ther within our being. As we do so we are the spiritual warrior that seeks Spiritual Maturity.

 For our closing today:

beautiful garden

    We give thanks for the reminder in the midst of

    daily life that we walk in the footsteps of the Masters.

    We remember that hidden in the midst of the human

    Experience is a meaning and a way little understood

    and often missed. Lead us, O Lord, to the door of the

    Inner Self and High Consciousness.

 

We rejoice. Amen.