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Chapter 88
Beloved Jesus Christ - December 26, 1988

     The Lord's Christmas Address 1988

     May the eye of the vestal virgin Pallas Athena be upon you always. For it is the age of Christ Truth and those who have my Truth have universal Life everywhere present in God.

     Those who live for Truth, those whose auras bespeak the cosmic honor flame as a strength, as a pillar of fire, these move in the earth in the correctness of the Holy Christ Flame. These know that "as Above so below" the mirroring of the Great God Self within the soul must be accomplished.

     Such as these are not otherworldly but know that daily deeds and thoughts and acts and words are the building blocks of the etheric reality. And therefore they are not satisfied with mere ideation, with mere contemplation. Their satisfaction must be the laying of the stone, even the white cube of the City Foursquare. Lives must be lived here and now, truly in the geometry of God.

     Let us chisel anew the profile of your Christhood this night!

     As Kuthumi and I come in the office of [the] World Teachers, so we bear the Alpha, the Omega of the lifestream Maitreya. Therefore, thou Cosmic Christ, we thy Sons come bearing gifts of thy illumination flame to these thine own who gather and tarry to lay the chief cornerstone of the will of God that upon it and out from it there might spring forth illumination's golden flame as the spark that crosses the night sky and illumines a plane and a planet.

     We come also out of the East unto the West. For we too participate in the Temple of the Blue Lotus of Himalaya, in Maitreya's place and the place where all the Brothers of the Golden Robe are. It is for the increase of illumination's flame that the sons and daughters of Tibet are persecuted, brutalized and their community and their culture desecrated.

     Blessed hearts, these are a lifewave and an evolution sponsored by the Great White Brotherhood as ye are. Thus, to add to the burden of El Morya is the plight of such as these, for they have carried the golden thread even continuously by reincarnation since the hour of Sanat Kumara. Let it be known, then, that you do hold the balance for them and they have received a certain flame of joy. As you have celebrated my birth in the violet flame¹ so I have chosen to pass that flame by an arc to the very heart of those individuals whom Morya calls chelas and to whom the adepts bow, bowing before the Light of the heart and the perseverance.

     Pray for them, beloved, for in other times it is they who have held the balance for you and there is an inner tie and an inner connection. Let it be the golden thread of contact and let the golden lining be the interior garment that you wear, always remembering how my beloved Kuthumi, my Francis,² does love you.

     The tangible sign of our love may be our Messenger but it is also your beating heart, your pulsating flame. For your flames do show the sign that the Master does tend his own, does tend the garden of the heart. I, Jesus, come again as the gardener in disguise. I come also tending the flowers of Dhyani Buddhas.

     O how in my journey to the East I did exult in the path and the teachings of the heart! Blessed ones, I was taken up into etheric and physical retreats of the Great White Brotherhood and of unascended masters. And there I did receive out of the heart of Maitreya truly the instruction, the initiation, the soul-testing whereby I was indeed required to go and challenge the corrupt ones of the day who hid the Light of religion³ and did not give this blessed tie that binds the soul⁴ to Hierarchy.

     Blessed ones, I must perform deeds for the masters that I found in the East. Thus they sent me into the lairs [of the fallen ones], into the very dens of these who had all but put out the candle of self-knowledge unto those whom they considered beneath them and not even worthy of having the impartation of the flame.

     In this day and hour the Great White Brotherhood, even led by El Morya, the Chief of the Darjeeling Council, is determined to give every opportunity to those who desire it and who will make use of that opportunity once again to reestablish the thread of contact with the Hierarchy of Light.

     Thus, my beloved, not in mere instruction, not in the telling of the Word did I realize the fullness of that Christ of Maitreya with me, did I bring to fruition that which was begun and continued through numerous previous incarnations: I must go forth in confrontation. I must challenge. I must meet and sense even the armour and the shield of the dark ones and what it would take of my own sacred fire to part even the steel, as it were, of the mind-set of their fortresses gainst which the little people could not prevail.

     But in this hour it is they who are arrayed against the people of Maitreya East and West. And thus, this people must also know the initiations of the heart which I endured. [For] the heart is not strengthened except in action.

     Thus, the time does come when one knows surely that these fallen ones will lay every trap, will rant and rave - and they shall rage and they shall come. One will know it and one will thrust forward the sacred fire even to devour the hatred of the enemy before it descend.

     Blessed ones, going within to commune with the Master, even in the secret chamber of the heart with Gautama, is for the understanding of what must be taken up in the outer in the day-to-day existence. Thus, this training I received. And the knowledge of the five planes of the five Buddhas and the spheres surrounding the heart made of me a devotee forever of the heart of Maitreya.

     Thus, in the West my heart is spoken of as the Sacred Heart, and yet what I have realized and brought forth in my heart is something which you can do also. Your heart is the Sacred Heart, for God has made only sacred hearts, no other. The Threefold Flame of your heart is that sacredness. To be so felt and so acknowledged requires but the intensification of its dimension of that blazing sun of God-reality.

     It is only in measure of increments whereby you think of my heart as the Sacred Heart and your own in a state of becoming, but I unveil to you the Threefold Flame of the heart of your Holy Christ Self. I unveil to you the Threefold Flame in the heart of your I AM Presence. This is the Sacred Heart and in divine reality it is your own, your very own heart.

     Thus, the geometry of Truth which Pallas Athena would bring to you is the knowledge of the precipitation of these things [i.e., the Threefold Flame,] from the higher to the lower octave, that in the mirror of the soul the Great God Self might appear smiling in the foreverness of your being.

     O ye of the Sacred Heart, O ye are sacred hearts! To even move in the self-knowledge of the sacredness of Life is to magnetize quickly and powerfully even the Sacred Heart just above.

     Some have spoken to you of holiness, of the need for spirituality.⁵ I come with a simple lesson that you might increase both and that is, by the maintaining of the sense of the sacredness of your heart and the knowledge that when you so acknowledge that sacredness of your Holy Christ Self with you the heart must expand, it must increase.

     I, Jesus, come, then, speaking to you quietly as with the voice of the Buddha Gautama. As with the voice of Maitreya I come. For I come within in this hour rather than without. I speak to you from within your own heart that you might know that I, Jesus, your Brother, can and do choose to sanctify your hearts this night. And I ask you to seal that sanctification by your own affirmation, for I alone am not empowered by God to fully sanctify your heart. It is you who must participate [with me in this empowerment].

     I give to you, then, my beloved, the Alpha Thrust of the sanctification of the heart. I ask you to give to me the Omega Return of the sanctification of the heart. And this return, beloved, is a daily and hourly ritual that occurs from within. And because it occurs, there is likewise the sanctification of the works of your hands, your walk with me and [with] the heavenly hosts. There is a consecration in ritual, in the rhythm of life whereby all that you do is sanctified because it comes from your heart which you and I have so sanctified.

     My Power and Wisdom and Love to sanctify also comes from the works that the Father Maitreya, Gautama and I have worked together in my life on earth and beyond. This same Power, Wisdom and Love is yours whereby to sanctify [the heart] as the instrument of my work and the work of Maitreya and Gautama and Sanat Kumara. Through the hierarchical chain of being of this order of the Second Ray know, then, that you touch the heart of our Father in heaven even as the Divine Mother ensouling the earth does also reinforce your sanctification of the heart.

     Blessed ones, you are unique in that many do not have a labor that is sacred. Your labor being sacred in the furtherance of the Teachings of the Ascended Masters, your avocation of discipleship does thereby enable you to see quite easily that the works of your hands do beget the holiness unto the Lord⁶ unto millions.

     Therefore, from you to whom I have given this great opportunity to bear the Teaching to the world I do expect much.⁷ I do expect, then, that you shall entertain always the holiness of your physical and mental labors, of all that you do. And let the world know that aura of holiness not by word but by your sense of reverence for the flame within the heart of all whom you meet. They will sense that reverence when you speak, the form of your address and communication and caring and concern for physical completion of service.

     Let the golden halo of each one shine brightly. Let the sweetness of the inner walk with God, let your communion with me in that Eighth Ray chakra, as with Gautama and Maitreya there, be upon you as a holy oil and a radiance whereby you sense that the outer service is an extension of the inner temple work, the inner temple meditation, contemplation, garnering of the Light. For it is also, beloved, in the secret chamber of the heart that you affirm the Word and wax strong in the power of the spoken Word.

     The inner temple work for the establishment of these spheres is thine own now. And as you are taken to the etheric retreats of the Brotherhood, you who have passed through the steps of the seven rays do enter the inner court⁸ while new students newly entering, coming newly out of the physical body to the etheric while they sleep at night, do take the very first steps of the seven rays.

     Thus, there is the inner court. Knock. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. The knocking, beloved, is what you do each day to prove to the hierarch of the ray that you are indeed skipping no steps, seeking no side doors or byways, that you are determined to keep the flame of the ray each day of the week and in the fortnight you spend at these retreats of the Chohans.⁹

     There, beloved, as you pass beyond the outer coloration of the ray, entering the chamber that is central in these retreats, you then come into the unity and the oneness of the white light. And this white light is the sphere of transition to the five secret rays.

     In the unity of the seven, then, you come in to the Holy Spirit. And in the Holy Spirit that is the white fire, you seek and find the enlightenment of the Trinity. That enlightenment as the illumination flame of the Second Ray becomes the principal and central flame of your altar as you are communing for the Power, Wisdom and Love, for the initiation and the attainment of the five secret rays.

     Thus, beloved, as you read of my journey to the East, the chronicles thereof, you will understand that that which was recorded was that which was seen by men, that which was known by those devotees where I did take my rest and abide for lengths of time to study their ways, their scriptures, their language, their needs and their hearts.

     Blessed ones, if one spends seventeen years of one's life, all of one's nights out of the body studying in the temples of the Brotherhood of the Himalayas, I can assure you that much [much learning and soul-testing and sanctification] does accrue to the lifestream. And inasmuch as I had been in a continuity of purpose within those retreats for many thousands of years, I was able to bring back the most precious gift of all to the West, beloved. And yet I was allowed to bear it [only] as far as Palestine for that particular mission of three years.

     It is the flame of Maitreya that I bore, his actual flame, beloved. This I carried in my heart and this to me was the personification of Father, for the concept of Father and Guru are one. Thus you understand, "I and my Father are one,¹⁰ I and my Guru are one." And it is so this day, beloved. Thus, it did remain for my disciples and others to bring that flame of Maitreya to the West. And you have followed our Messengers to this place prepared for the flame of Maitreya.

     Of course, I had many journeyings beyond the hour recognized as that of the resurrection in that life and did appear here and there around the world to the peoples that were waiting for the coming of the sign of the avatar of Pisces.

     Blessed ones, the establishment of the Mystery School, therefore, at this retreat has been a profound completion and joy to my heart - and to see how you have gathered from ancient times, whether you knew me in my life in Palestine or in previous incarnations. You have followed my lead, my Presence, though at times you have not seen me nor even known if the guidance was mine, yet it was.

     We come so far West, therefore, beloved, that West becomes East again. And in the great gathering of those from all corners of the earth,¹¹ so the prophecy is also fulfilled of the coming of Maitreya¹² to all people. Each and every heart representing the nations and the peoples of this planet who then [does] take up the path of the Ascended Masters, which is Maitreya's way, does therefore take into the karmic evolution that enlightenment.

     Remember, then, that you have been taught to call for the cutting free of all those who [have] come down the ancestral tree of your background and [to] send [the call] into the very heart of those areas of the world that mark the points of your origin; [for there is where you must also send] the light and the teaching by dynamic decree, first and foremost, and if possible by the written and the spoken Word.

     Thus, it is an hour of fulfillment for us, for Maitreya and for you. As Saint Germain has emphasized the meditation upon the heart, the expansion of the heart, so it is leading to this moment, beloved, when I must tell you that the initiation of the Sacred Heart is yours to claim. You must confirm and ratify whatever heaven does give to you. You must sanctify. This, then, is the step required, as it was required of me.

     It is good that you should compare yourselves to me as Brother and Friend and not place so much distance between us in the sense that I am perfected and you are not. You must recognize that it is the quality of the inner man of the heart,¹³ it is the quality of the soul and the spirit and then the determination to bring all these to fruition in the physical octave that is the making of the Christed one.

     I desire you to be wed to Christ Truth this night and to receive Pallas Athena as my representative and spokesman to you for a time. For her momentum in Truth will cause you to desire Truth above all else - all compromise, all gray areas, all hidden dishonesties with self and others.

     Pallas Athena, boldly anchoring the Light of Truth within you to amplify, will bring to you the awareness of the precipitation by the emerald ray of the Divine Image of the All-Seeing Eye of God.

     Pallas Athena will teach you the precipitation of that cosmic cube, will enable you to be precise in your building and your preparedness and all things that must be completed as you complete the balancing of your physical karma.

     So long as you retain physical karma, beloved, and physical ties, the Law may require reincarnation. But if you fulfill the mandates of the Law in the physical octave, the astral plane and the mental, you will find that there will be less cause for you to descend into realms of density.

     Blessed ones, I speak to you of a Keeper of the Flame who did pass from the screen of life this Christmas morning. The circumstances surrounding this passing were [due to] an extreme out-of-alignment state. Thus, this individual, having not taken seriously the path of keeping the Flame, had not garnered the Light or the necessary self-discipline to keep out of harm's way. Thus it was entirely the fault of this individual that life was taken so suddenly from one so young.

     Though the call was made at this altar to the legions of Archangel Michael and Astrea by the Messenger for this individual to be taken to his lawful place in the octaves, that one could not rise above the level of purgatory for want of momentum in Light, for utter compromise of Truth of many lifetimes and a failure to take seriously the meaning of the pledge to be a Keeper of the Flame.¹⁴

     Thus, by the ultimate compromise one may lose one's opportunity to be in this plane. By not availing oneself of the path of discipleship and the decrees offered, one may not even be able to navigate out of the place where accident or sudden circumstance may take one from the screen of life. Thus, as the tree falls so it shall lie. And as this one passed, so he was at the moment the Messenger began her invocations. Thus, the angel of God did pronounce [that] this one could rise no higher than the "third level."¹⁵

     Let it be understood, beloved, that among this Community it is often the case that when one speaks of one as a Keeper of the Flame it does immediately connote someone who is a devotee, someone special. Indeed it should be but it is not always. Thus, merely to be a Keeper of the Flame, beloved, does not guarantee salvation, even as membership in a Christian church or responding to the altar call to be saved likewise guarantees nothing, nor do those who wear the cloth and call themselves ministers have any prior claim upon heaven. By words and acts and deeds alone, by initiation under the Hierarchy of Light is there won any victory at all.

     Those who do not, then, acknowledge the Christ of me as the Christ of Maitreya may not receive the kingdom of God, for it is the chain of Hierarchy, and not an isolated favorite son that conforms to a fabricated orthodoxy, that can win [the victory] for the individual. Just as the denial of my Mother, Mary, is the denial of my own seed and incarnation through her, so, beloved, to think that flesh and blood can reveal that Christ or be that Christ is an error that does not convey salvation.

     May you know, then, beloved, that a mere title, an acceptance or a sense of long affiliation with this movement will not [necessarily] afford the individual the momentum or the wings of Light to be at the right place in the time of transition.

     You may wonder that I should deliver this message at Christmas, but it is at this hour of the year when the cycles turn that there is a harvest of souls. And you can note this in the events that occur in the winter as each year there are a certain number of souls who take their leave from this octave, for their opportunity with the conclusion of the year does run out.

     Happy are ye, then, who have tarried in the God Flame, in the communion, in the oneness of our fellowship. May you understand, then, that an individual's demise by self-abuse is preordained by the individual. And by this individual's neglect of the Law and even the Teaching itself not a single Ascended Master by cosmic law could intercede.

     Blessed ones, this is a measure [of the Great Law] that must be told and it is a comfort to all. For you see, beloved, inherent in the message of the possibility of failure is the message of [the possibility of] victory. If it is possible to fail a test, then it is possible to pass a test. And it can be known by given acts - if these acts had not been taken and other positive momentum built - that by the individual's own word and own work his salvation could have been attained. This you must understand and no longer leave as a gray area, a nebulous area [the notion] that another, whether myself, the Messenger or any angel in heaven or any friend upon earth, can guarantee for you your individual, hard-won, gracious victory in the Light.

     Let the full weight of the recognition of the God Flame come upon you! Let the full weight of the Sacred Heart above you and the masterful Presence of Life, your own I AM Presence who is your True Self, come upon you in this hour as we seal the flame of Christmas 1988!

     And as we seal it in your heart you may know that giving birth to the Manchild where you are and bringing that Manchild to the full Godhood and stature of being ordained by the Father-Mother God is your calling, which is possible, which is preordained but which you yourself must ratify - and if you do not, beloved, there can be no intercession [of] another doing it for you.

     I give you this Teaching this night once again by way of exposing to you the lie that has crept into my Church, which is no longer my Church therefore. I give you this Teaching that you might leap with the joy of victory to know that as the victory is yours to claim it can be done. [You can give birth to the Divine Manchild because God has empowered you to do so by the sanctification of the heart!] God has sent you to do it and ordained you to do it and he has not sent me to do it for you in your stead, nor any other Master or friend. But you, beloved, contain in your being, as I did and as I do, all of the necessary ingredients to achieve the victory.

     As I speak to you, my angels of golden illumination's flame are peeling from you centuries of ignorance and of ignoring the inner law of being. The lie has saturated the lower ethers of the planet that somehow something, someone, some institution, some government outside of yourself will supply percentages of your identity, your life, your happiness, your needs.

     See how subtle is this lie because, beloved, it has invaded the plane of the five secret rays. This I tell you, beloved, so that you will understand what must be consumed, what must be burned off before the fullness of Mighty Cosmos' secret rays can manifest surrounding your heart. But, beloved, those secret rays do contain the power to consume all unlike themselves. Thus, rejoice that you have the call to Mighty Cosmos' secret rays.¹⁶

     I open another door of another chamber. And in this chamber, beloved, which is a grand hall, there is one in this hour who does take his ascension. This lifestream, beloved, knew the walk with God through the Keepers of the Flame Fraternity. This lifestream, beloved, in this hour and in this moment is entering the ceremony of the ascension. Serapis Bey, Saint Germain and Lanello are present, and as we take our leave of you we shall also be present.

     Blessed ones, one is taken in the victory of the ascension and another is left in purgatory where he shall experience his own sowings and come to grips with his own karma and receive the instruction that in so facing that karma at that level of the astral plane, in the flame of overcoming he too may transcend octaves and rise, but not shortly, beloved, not shortly. For this one had squandered the Light of the Threefold Flame long ago.

     Therefore, two scenes, each illustrative of choices made by the individuals and none others. In each case, beings of Light and Darkness assailed, supported, entered the life of the individual. In one instance, the individual did follow the lead of Light in obedient love and Christ Truth and illumination. In the other, by pride and rebellion, that one did follow and agree with the condemnation of the Light and the Lightbearers over many centuries.

     The outcome can be foreknown of your daily choices. You have but to look at them and to know that God has allowed a place to be prepared for every lifestream according to his choices. Therefore, in the astral plane are many compartments and gradations, moving from the physical to greater and greater darkness in the depths of the consciousness of the dark ones.

     So El Morya, the wise man, does say, "As you live, so you shall die." May you take this wisdom and understand that as you are in this life, so you shall be in the next. And the guarantor of your victory is you, beloved, you sanctified in all planes of being. Let the victory path be begun by you this night in earnest by your consideration of my word for your own sanctification of the heart.

     And it doth not yet appear what you shall be. But you know that when your Holy Christ Self shall appear to you, you shall be like him for you shall see him as he is¹⁷ - reflected in the mirror of your soul.

     I AM and I remain Jesus, your Brother, with you always when you call to me and when you maintain my vibration, which is the vibration of Maitreya. And a holy, holy night to all.

     This dictation by Jesus Christ was delivered by the Messenger of the Great White Brotherhood Elizabeth Clare Prophet during the Christmas Night service, December 26, 1988, 12:45-1:35 a.m. MST, at the Royal Teton Ranch, Park County, Montana. Available on 90-min. audiocassette B88158. [N.B. Bracketed material denotes words unspoken yet implicit in the dictation, added by the Messenger under Jesus' direction for clarity in the written word.] Throughout these notes PoW is the abbreviation for Pearls of Wisdom.

Bibliography

[1]

Volume 31, Number 13, footnote 3. Holding the balance of light in the earth means to gather the sacred fire around the coil of being and to expand it in the aura through prayers, decrees, mantras and meditation - holiness and harmony. This white light, as the energy of God, gains momentum through constancy of devotion, becoming the magnet and the vessel for the individual attainment and self-mastery of God self-realized. This Light is, then, more than the energy of God: it is the Higher Consciousness of God whereby one is becoming the integrated personality in God - the awareness of self in and as the embodiment of the Christ Self. This is achieved in the daily exercise of putting on the garment of the Lord until, by the light-emanation of the Word and Work of the Lord, the soul, tracing the ray back to the Source, is become that Source. In this capacity she is no longer a child of God but a mature Son of God - truly the Sun of the I AM THAT I AM in radiant manifestation. This is the alchemical marriage and the crystallization of the God Flame. It is, then, by becoming the full incarnation of the Light, or Christ consciousness, that one ultimately holds the balance in the earth of the light (energy of God) and the Light (his consciousness). Hence the distinction between the terms light and Light is that when lowercased, light refers to the energy of God magnetized by the soul through many lifetimes of weaving the Deathless Solar Body. When uppercased, Light denotes the Christ, the Word self-realized. In order for the Lightbearers - those who bear the Light of the Christ consciousness - to hold the balance of the light/Light in the earth they must be pursuing the parallel goals of invoking the "light," as the universal radiance and energy of God, and becoming the "Light," as the embodied Christ, by a disciplined path of discipleship under the Lord Jesus Christ and the Ascended Masters. The path of the Ascended Masters is essential to the achievement of both goals as they are called for in this dictation by the Great Divine Director. Only thus can the earth be saved.

[2]

Volume 31, Number 15, footnote 7. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897), French Carmelite nun, known as the Little Flower of Jesus. Born Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, January 2, 1873, in Alençon, France. At 14, Thérèse had such an ardent desire to enter the convent that on a pilgrimage to Rome with her father she boldly asked Pope Leo XIII during a public audience for his permission to enter the Carmel at age 15. He responded that she would enter "if God wills it." The next year her request was granted by the bishop of Bayeux and on April 9, 1888, she entered the Carmel at Lisieux where she took the name Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face. She became acting mistress of novices in 1893 and considered it her mission to teach souls her "little way," the way of "spiritual childhood, the way of trust and absolute self-surrender." Her path was a path of love, for, she wrote, "it is only love which makes us acceptable to God." Her favorite works were those of Saint John of the Cross, the Gospels and The Imitation of Christ. Thérèse developed tuberculosis and during the final months of her life she was racked with pain. She said that this was a time of great spiritual trials. Thérèse died September 30, 1897, at the age of 24. Undaunted in her love for Christ, her last words were, "My God, I love you!" Her autobiography, written at the direction of her prioress and published after her death as Story of a Soul: The Autobiography of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, became one of the most widely read spiritual books. Two of the statements for which Thérèse is most remembered are "I want to spend my heaven in doing good on earth" and "After my death I will let fall a shower of roses," for she foresaw that her activity after her death would be far reaching and her mission of "making others love God as I love him" would continue. Statues of the saint portray her carrying a bouquet of roses. Thérèse was canonized on May 17, 1925, less than 28 years after her death. In 1927 she was declared patroness of foreign missions and of all works for Russia. Her feast day is October 1. The Ascended Lady Master Thérèse of Lisieux also dictated through the Messenger Elizabeth Clare Prophet on October 25, 1981 (see "A Bird That Takes Flight," 1981 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 24, no. 44, pp. 447-52). Her life story is depicted in the 1986 film Thérèse.

[3]

Volume 31, Number 16, footnote 1. The sealing of the West Coast against cataclysm. On August 5, 1973, the Elohim of Purity delivered a dictation in Santa Barbara, California, announcing: "The fire of purity is released from the Elohim as the sealing action of this coast, the sealing at subterranean levels beneath the sea, beneath the land. And the light fills those areas where formerly darkness dwelled. And the light seals this coast for a time and a half a time that the flame of the Divine Mother might appear, that Wisdom might teach her children, that the renaissance of the true culture of the Divine Mother might come forth." On March 9, 1975, the Elohim of Peace, dictating in Los Angeles, said: "I anchor now electrodes beneath the Central Sun magnet, holding this city in fire again for a time and a time and half a time so that those who would be the law may prove the law." The Elohim also delivered a dispensation of the Lord Christ and the Four and Twenty Elders that the image and pattern of the soul of Jesus in the hour of the crucifixion and "as that soul was crying out in the Garden of Gethsemane in prayer, holding the balance for mankind," be sealed "as an electronic forcefield in the seat-of-the-soul chakra [Los Angeles is the seat-of-the-soul chakra of America], in the fiery heart at the etheric plane of the city of Los Angeles. And it is sealed this day in all who have prepared the heart chakra and the seat-of-the-soul chakra as the dwelling place of the Most High God. ... You are, then, sealed by an arc of light in the heart of the Elohim of Peace. And all who will take that arc and make of it the Ark of the Covenant will walk the earth with that sacred-fire thread, evermore one with the Elohim, evermore drawing the energies of the Elohim. So this is holding the balance against cataclysm. There can be no cataclysm as long as you are one in God, as long as mankind pledge to serve and work beneath his rod. ... So we prepare that this city might receive the greatest influx of light ... that can be afforded in this hour, the greatest light that has been anchored here since the time of Lemuria when all sang praise and hosanna to the Mother Flame." A week later, on March 16, 1975, the Elohim Hercules returned to Los Angeles and said: "We are determined to save this planet. We are determined that no energy coils will challenge the life that is God's love. We are determined to give our all. ... Watch how Terra is reborn in the sphere of the consciousness of Hercules and Amazonia. Watch, then, for the rumbling in the hills. Watch for the adjustment of the elements and elemental life. Watch and pray and be the focal point of balance. I AM the balance of the law for a point of energy you call Earth and I AM the balance of the law of commeasurement whereby you stand one foot upon earth, one foot in heaven." Cyclopea is announcing in this dictation that the purpose of the dispensation for the sealing of the West Coast has been fulfilled. He is letting the Lightbearers (who have held the balance as instruments of Elohim) know that the times and half a time given have expired, even as the mission of the Two Witnesses in Los Angeles which they have supported has been accomplished. See Spoken by Elohim (1978 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 21, nos. 8-10), pp. 40, 45, 46, 48, 54; also on cassette MTG7310 and on 4-audiocassette album The Seven Elohim in the Power of the Spoken Word, cassette B7636.

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Volume 31, Number 20, footnote 6. Preparedness. "Economic debacle is foreseen. Prepare. Setbacks will be sudden. Be not lulled by the heyday. ... Beloved ones, preparedness is the key" (Saint Germain, November 27, 1986, 1986 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 29, no. 75, pp. 647, 648). "Let those around the world hear me then. The hour is coming and now is when the preparation must be complete - the physical preparation, I say. For you are called to be physical and to remain so for the holding of the light in the earth. ... Prepare the place. And if in your preparing, as Saint Germain has said, world calamity is turned back, averted or mitigated, then you shall see a golden day of opportunity again. ... Beloved, the months are short. You must know and understand this. Prepare and be at peace. When you are prepared, let the pillars of flame rise from the heart of the earth to the heart of the Great Central Sun through the chakras of each one" (Mother Mary, May 11, 1987, 1987 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 30, no. 23, pp. 231-32, 236). "Blessed hearts, though my message is one of Victory, there is one line that I would leave with you and that is `Prepare for the worst.' Therefore, when ready and prepared, you can `Live for the best' and continue to roll back the tides of Darkness and go forth to rescue souls. Blessed ones, it is your hour and the hour of your God-mastery of the physical octave - of the mind and especially of the emotions. Therefore I leave to your discernment, beloved ones, what is the necessary preparation for the worst and, in fact, what might be the worst that may be coming upon this planetary body" (Saint Germain, July 4, 1987, 1987 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 30, no. 37, pp. 370-71). "Ere twenty-four months have passed, be it known to you that this nation must have the capacity to turn back any and all missiles, warheads incoming whether by intent or by accident. Where there is no defense you invite the bear into your own haven. ... With some preparation, all of which is known to the Department of Defense, this nation can permanently deter nuclear war. Let it be done, I say! ... Ere twenty-four months pass, beloved, there shall be a reckoning and a confrontation unless something is done" (El Morya, October 3, 1987, 1987 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 30, no. 54, pp. 474, 476, 480).

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Volume 31, Number 29, footnote 7. Serapis Bey's fourteen-month cycles. On December 29, 1978, Serapis Bey, Chohan of the Fourth Ray, announced that a fourteen-month cycle of initiation in the white sphere of the Great Causal Body had been inaugurated at winter solstice, December 21, 1978. Serapis said, "The goal of this fourteen months is the passing through of your lifestream on the fourteen stations of the cross of the Woman and her seed. ... I announce to you, then, the dispensation and the means whereby you can increase the great white sphere of your individual causal body surrounding the Light of Alpha and of Omega." Since that time, every fourteen months has marked the initiation of another fourteen-month cycle through one of the bands of the causal body. On January 27, 1980, Serapis Bey told us that the testings of the fourteen stations of the cross which we undergo during the fourteen-month cycles are the "opportunity for you and your beloved twin flame to transmute an extraordinary momentum of personal and planetary karma." On February 28, 1987, Serapis Bey announced the inauguration of "fourteen months of planetary initiation in the first secret ray" as the first of "five [fourteen-month] rounds in the five secret rays." On January 2, 1988, Sanat Kumara addressed the challenges of initiation in the secret rays: "Blessed ones, the very forcefield and the aura of the sons of God can be in the earth the full power of the Great Central Sun Magnet. Therefore, I say unto you, invoke the Great Central Sun Magnet and know how serious and how complete are the fourteen-month dispensations of Serapis Bey. Each and every fourteen-month cycle, you are calling to the Great Central Sun for the amplification of one of the spheres of the causal body by the power of ascension's flame. ... Blessed ones, understand that this is for your ultimate protection, and we have explained to you that the initiations of the five secret rays, which have succeeded those of the seven, are most difficult. For here is the place of the violation of the heart" (1988 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 31, no. 4, p. 36). For more information on Serapis Bey's fourteen-month cycles and the secret-ray initiations, see Serapis Bey, October 28, 1984, "Initiation from the Emerald Sphere," and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, "Fourteen-Month Cycles of the Initiation of the Christed Ones through the Spheres of the Great Causal Body," 1984 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 27, no. 56, pp. 487-93, 495-510; Serapis Bey, December 28, 1985, "The Descent of the Mighty Blue Sphere," 1986 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 29, no. 15, pp. 125-27; Godfre, July 14, 1987, "Do Not Give Up the Ship!" 1987 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 30, no. 45, p. 424. See also Mighty Cosmos, April 8, 1973, "The Secret Rays Are Released to the Earth from the Heart of Alpha and Omega," and June 30, 1973, "The Starry Body of Man: A Talisman for the Secret Rays," 1973 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 16, nos. 22, 45, 46, pp. 95-98, 193-200; Mighty Cosmos, July 4, 1975, "The Secret Rays and the White-Fire Core: Let the Secret Rays Descend!" in The Great White Brotherhood in the Culture, History and Religion of America, pp. 145-48.

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Volume 31, Number 32, footnote 5. Soviet breakout of the ABM Treaty. The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty signed by the United States and the Soviet Union in 1972 prohibits either nation from deploying more than 100 missiles that could intercept incoming warheads - i.e., ABMs. Restrictions also were placed on the production, deployment and use of radars. The treaty was meant to enhance superpower stability by keeping each nation vulnerable to the attacking missiles of the other. Under the logic of the strategic doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), if both the U.S. and the USSR remained defenseless, peace would be maintained since it would be suicidal for either side to attack the other. But if one side had a ballistic missile defense and the other did not, under certain circumstances the side which was defended might launch a first strike or use its unilateral advantage to blackmail the other.

According to reports in the media, Air Force Intelligence recently concluded that the Soviet Union is in the process of mass-producing ABMs and radars and could have a nationwide ballistic missile defense system in operation as early as 1989. The Air Force reportedly made a formal intelligence finding of the breakout after U.S. signals intelligence observed the Soviets exchanging data between six of their ten large phased-array radars and after the Air Force Intelligence Service concluded that the Soviets' SH-08 very-high atmosphere ballistic missile interceptor and the supporting mobile "Flat Twin" and "Pawn Shop" radars are now in mass production.

These conclusions, leaked to the press late in February of 1988, caused a great deal of controversy. Air Force Secretary Edward Aldridge said the reports were "just flat wrong," although he acknowledged that the Soviets had been working on an ABM system for years. "They've got a massive program. But there is no evidence that would support the allegation that they're prepared to break out of the ABM Treaty," he said. One reason Aldridge may have said that the breakout story was just flat wrong is that it appeared in the press with inaccuracies. It was reportedly based on a briefing given to the CIA by chief of Air Force Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Schuyler Bissell. Later reports said that Bissell was merely giving a hypothetical scenario of what Soviet activities would be if they decided to break out. Other sources in the intelligence community do not regard the assertions as hypothetical. They say the individual components of the story are accurate although the framework in which they were reported was not.

It is difficult to determine whether or not the Soviets are currently mass-producing ABMs. One source in the intelligence community says that if they were, the U.S. would know, but "probably not immediately." One piece of evidence is that they have recently doubled the floor space at their Gomel plant, which produces ABM components. Since they already have 100 ABMs in place around Moscow, it is reasonable to conclude that the increased production capacity is associated with a breakout.

Joseph Douglass, Jr., a former official with the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, says the Soviets have been breaking out of the ABM Treaty gradually for years. "It is wrong to think in terms of a breakout," he says, "because that suggests that there will be a specific time when all of a sudden the Soviets will have a missile defense capability. Things are rarely black and white. The Soviets have been violating the ABM Treaty since the day it was signed. There is no indication that they ever had any intention of doing anything other than violating the treaty and continuing to work on their defensive capability. So it's not a breakout like all of a sudden they are going to `spring out.' It is the continuing evolution of [an anti-ballistic missile] system that goes on independent of any treaty."

Commenting on Secretary Aldridge's denial of a Soviet breakout, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., former deputy assistant secretary of defense for International Security Policy, said that "it is certainly the party line here in Washington that at most there are some worrisome developments but it doesn't amount to a breakout. But this is unfortunately a grey area and a lot of what we see and know is going on is entirely consistent with a breakout. ... I have concluded that they are actively breaking out based upon the evidence that's available to me."

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Volume 31, Number 33, footnote 3. Igor's vigil for Mother Russia. In a dictation given March 25, 1967, the Ascended Master Igor said that as a child growing up in Russia he saw his countrymen as "a vast evolution which seeks for liberty and yet creates bondage" and he prayed to God to help him understand this world "peopled with dark shapes and distortions." He received many visitations from Archangel Gabriel, who comforted him and promised, "I will guide thee throughout thy life and I will be to thee a friend. ... Thou shalt no longer be just as a peasant boy called Igor, but thou shalt be a son of the Most High God; for in thee God has generated a flame this day. ... God is no respecter of men's persons but in every age and time listens to the heart calls of the children of men. Know, then, that God hath heard thy call." When Igor became aware of the coming destruction of the czar and his family and realized that the "red dragon" would march across Russia, he spent hours in prayer imploring God to provide some measure of assistance. One evening "the beautiful Lady of Fátima" appeared to Igor and spoke of the terror of the red dragon. She said that only by a great struggle would mankind be able to turn back the oncoming darkness. Igor implored her assistance and offered his life if it would save his people. Then Mother Mary explained to him the karmic law; she said that the people by their misuse of free will had wrought this destruction and that only by seeking the things of the Spirit would they make the world free. As Igor recounts, "I accepted her love and her wisdom and my heart was comforted, but the terror burned on. Throughout my life as I sought to be a pilgrim in a strange country, I aspired to attain something higher that I might free men. By and by, through the solemn ritual of the sacred mantra of my devotion toward God and through my one-pointedness, it came to pass that I was finally made ready for the moment of my ascension." See the Unknown Master (Igor), in "The Drama of One Life Touched by God," in Mary the Mother on the Temple of Understanding (1972 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 15, no. 53, "The Radiant Word"), pp. 217-18. For other dictations by the Ascended Master Igor, see December 31, 1972, "The Forces of the Lord Shall Descend: Special Dispensations for the People of Russia and China," 1972 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 15, no. 53, pp. 215-16; and April 2, 1983, "The Miracle of the Holy Ghost," 1983 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 26, no. 34, pp. 319-24.

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Volume 31, Number 34, footnote 1. The Fifteenth Rosary. In her dictation "The Gift of a Mother's Heart: The Mystery of the Fifteenth Rosary," given March 19, 1980, at the conclusion of Summit University Winter Quarter, Mother Mary said that "the Fourteenth Rosary and all of the rosaries preceding it are preparatory initiations for the putting into the flame of the unbalanced karma, the misqualified energies of life, the unwanted substances, and all that is unreal. These rosaries are sacred keys to the initiations of Christhood whereby you, very presently and with haste, may balance fifty-one percent of your karma and remain in life the presence, lo, the living presence of your own blessed Christ Self. ... The mystery of the Fifteenth Rosary is the mystery of the surrender of that Christ that you become. It is not an automatic surrender, for some disciples may fulfill the fourteen stations and become that Christ and yet desire to possess that Christ, to be that Christ, to enjoy that Christhood and with it to yet pursue some of the private paths which indeed may increase attainment but may not increase the path of Christhood for others. Thus you see that when all other surrenders are in the valleys behind you and you stand on the mount of that transfiguration and you stand in the glory of Easter morn, you recognize that from the mount of transfiguration unto the mount of the Holy of Holies of the Resurrected Self there is a unique path to be walked. It is the surrender of that Christhood that you have attained." See Mother Mary, 1980 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 23, no. 27, pp. 165-69; Mother Mary, April 17, 1981, "The Offering of the Rose of Sharon: The Hour of the Mother's Crucifixion with Maitreya Attended by the Avatars Lord Jesus and Lord Gautama," 1981 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 24, no. 17, pp. 203-8; and Elizabeth Clare Prophet, "The Mutuality of Self-Transcendence in Mercy's Flame," Kuan Yin Opens the Door to the Golden Age, Book One (1982 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 25, Introduction), pp. 40-43.

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Volume 31, Number 36, footnote 7. Worship of angels forbidden by the Roman Church. The Roman Catholic Church has repeatedly banned the worship of angels not named in its officially approved scriptures. The Synod of Laodicea in a.d. 343 decreed that only the names of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael could be used in prayers and forbade Catholics to worship angels privately outside their churches. The worship of angels not named in scripture was again banned by a Roman synod convoked under Pope Zachary in 745 and by Church councils in the ninth and fifteenth centuries. In 1950 Pope Pius XII in his encyclical Human Genesis reaffirmed that Catholics were only allowed to use the names of Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. In 1964 when Vatican II revised the liturgy of the mass, it eliminated Pope Leo XIII's prayer to Archangel Michael, which had been said at the end of each mass since 1886, because it did not refer to the Eucharist or the communion of Christ with his disciples. The premise that the early Christians were "worshiping" angels was an assumption; praying to the Archangels by way of calling for their intercession in time of crisis is not worshiping angels; it is allowing them to perform their lawful role on behalf of the issue of God for which they were created by God. Bowing to the Light within the manifestation of God, angelic or human, is the acknowledgment of the God Flame within, not a deification of the creation or offspring of the one God whom we worship. Under the pretext that Christians were "worshiping" angels, Church councils have kept Christians from pronouncing the names of the Archangels, which embody the power of God on the ray on which they serve (e.g., Archangel Uriel embodies the power of God on the Sixth Ray, Jophiel on the Second, Chamuel on the Third, Zadkiel on the Seventh and Uzziel on the Eighth); thereby the people have been deprived of the intercessory power of the Seven Archangels who can assist them in realizing the Universal Christ on the paths of the Seven Rays and in fighting the battle of Armageddon. In truth, the church hierarchies feared that by invoking the Archangels the people would gain power and illumination and, being endued by the Holy Ghost, would see through the usurpers of Christ's true doctrine - that each individual is free to engage in the communion of saints in heaven and on earth and to receive God's emissaries and the angelic hosts at his command as did the biblical personages of old. For men of ecclesiastical posture to use their sacred offices and trust to deny the people's lawful communion, by the Holy Ghost, with the Lord Jesus Christ and his hosts is not only antiscriptural but it doth offend our conscience and cause us to violate the admonishment of Hebrews 13:2: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" and Ps. 91:11: "He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways."

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Volume 31, Number 37, footnote 5. Universities of the Spirit. On January 1, 1986, Gautama Buddha announced that he and the Lords of Karma had granted the petition of the Lords of the Seven Rays to open universities of the Spirit in their etheric retreats for tens of thousands of students to pursue the path of self-mastery on the seven rays. Traveling in their finer bodies (the etheric sheath) during sleep, students spend 14 days at Darjeeling for training on the First Ray under El Morya, alternating with 14 days at the Royal Teton Retreat for training on the Seventh Ray under Saint Germain until they have successfully passed certain levels of accomplishment in the use of the First and Seventh Rays. Then they may go on to receive training under the Lords of the Second, Third, Sixth, Fourth and Fifth Rays in that order: Lord Lanto and Confucius at the Royal Teton (2nd), Paul the Venetian at the Goddess of Liberty's Temple of the Sun over Manhattan (3rd), Nada at the retreat of Jesus in Saudi Arabia (6th), Serapis Bey at the Ascension Temple, Luxor (4th), and Hilarion at the retreat of Pallas Athena in Crete (5th). It is the desire of the Great White Brotherhood that through the courses given and the tests passed in meeting the challenges of everyday life as well as through second and third levels of instruction, students will quickly make outer contact with Summit University and attend its halls of learning at the Inner Retreat. On December 28, 1986, the God Meru encouraged us to follow the path of the Lords of the Seven Rays by choosing to embody the Presence and Light of each Chohan (i.e., Lord) and then the Maha Chohan (the Great Lord who is over the Lords of the Seven Rays, the representative of the Holy Spirit who delivers the initiations of the Third Person of the Trinity to the evolutions of planet earth) in 14-day cycles starting January 1, 1987, while attending their universities of the Spirit. On December 31, 1986, El Morya spoke of the chelas spending "14 weeks" with him. Thus the chelas shall pursue 7 cycles of 2 weeks in each of the Chohans' retreats and that of the Maha Chohan. Those who follow this discipline starting January 1, 1987, will conclude their `Odyssey' through the 14 weeks of initiations with each Ascended Master on George Washington's Birthday, February 22, 1989 - a most propitious hour in the turning of planetary cycles when all chelas should be spiritually and physically prepared for earth changes in the decade of the 1990s. See 1986 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 29 no. 21, pp. 178-81, 689-90, 698; 1987 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 30 no. 28 Table, "Fourteen-Day Cycle at the Universities of the Spirit," p. 286.

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Volume 31, Number 40, footnote 14. The Messenger returned from her Lisbon stump and pilgrimage to Fátima with an Immaculate Heart statue of Mother Mary, gift of European Keepers of the Flame, which now stands on the altar in King Arthur's Court at the Royal Teton Ranch. The 4-foot-8-inch statue shows the Blessed Mother dressed in a simple white robe and veil trimmed with gold, her arms outstretched. Her ruby heart, with flames leaping from the top of it, is displayed inside a circle of thorns. Upon her head is a gold filigree crown, a rosary is draped over her right hand (her left hand is outstretched with palm upward), and she is wearing a necklace from which hangs a gold sphere at waist level (a focus of the world). The lighted globe of the world has been placed at her feet and an arrangement of greens provides the backdrop for the statue, which is positioned to the left of the altar in front of Jesus' picture. Personal devotion at the Inner Retreat to the Blessed Mother is self-evident, moving and profound. This statue represents Mother Mary's second Fátima apparition in which she revealed that Jesus wished to spread in the world devotion to her Immaculate Heart. Lucia, one of the three children to whom Mother Mary appeared, later wrote of the second apparition in her memoirs: "In front of the palm of Our Lady's right hand was a heart encircled by thorns which pierced it. We understood that this was the Immaculate Heart of Mary, outraged by the sins of humanity and seeking reparation." Upon the unveiling of the statue at King Arthur's Court, the Messenger explained that the Blessed Mother's flaming heart represents the Path of the Ruby Ray and the "Immaculate Heart by which we consecrate Russia and all nations of the earth, the Immaculate Heart in which we trust. And in the parlance of the Darjeeling Council, it is the Diamond Heart. ... Finding this statue was finding the focus of our Christmas Day dictations," which speak of the necessity of becoming a member of the Order of the Diamond Heart for the saving of America (see Mother Mary and Jesus, 1987 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 30 no. 83, pp. 629-49).

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Volume 31, Number 42, footnote 8. Ignorant animal magnetism is a state of mental density violating or blocking the Mind of Christ (the Higher Mental Body) from expressing through the lower mental body. As charted on the Cosmic Clock this human creation of the carnal (fleshly) mind is a perversion of the mental discipline, intelligence and God Control developed under the hierarchy of Aries on the 3 o'clock line; of the inner alignment with the divine blueprint and plan and the self-determination and God Obedience developed under the hierarchy of Taurus on the 4 o'clock line; and of the soul-awareness, self-knowledge, discernment, discrimination and God Wisdom developed under the hierarchy of Gemini on the 5 o'clock line. The absence of these qualities and the presence of their perversions is noted in states of mind characterized by a lack of God-centeredness, Christ-poise and integrity, or integration with the Holy Spirit. The typical forms are conceit, deceit, arrogance, spiritual pride and the self-importance of the lower ego, all of which eclipse the Sun of the Divine Ego or Higher Consciousness (3 o'clock); disobedience, human stubbornness and willfulness, and defiance against God and his laws, all of which sustain the out-of-alignment state known as dukkha, the root cause being inordinate desire, the net effect being human suffering (4 o'clock); envy, jealousy, self-ignorance, ineffective communication, nervous tension, scatterbrained, chaotic, disorganized, confused and robotic behavior patterns which distort the polarity of Alpha and Omega, the Gemini twin flames, and disorient the soul's centeredness in the Great Central Sun Magnet (5 o'clock). In sum, ignorant animal magnetism is a mental sloth and a lethargy which causes accidents and the breakdown of vehicles, machinery and equipment, among other things, because the individual is not focused in the right mindfulness of the higher Christic intelligence. Through the violet flame and a conscientious self-discipline, obedience to the precepts of the Path and a deep devotion to God and the gurus, one can transmute that which opposes the realization of the Christ Mind through the mental body, the heart, the soul, and the chakras.

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Volume 31, Number 44, footnote 7. Inbreath and outbreath. In Hindu cosmology, the universe is continually evolving through periodic cycles of creation and dissolution. Creation is said to occur during the outbreath of the God of Creation, Brahma; dissolution occurs during his inbreath. Every world creation evolves through the four yugas, or ages, which are the smallest units in the Hindu cosmic cycle. These four ages are Satya or Krita, Treta, Dvapara, and Kali; the first age begins in perfection and each succeeding one decreases in length and increases in its degradations. The combined duration of all four ages is said to be 4,320,000 years. (For a different calculation of the duration of the yugas, see Swami Sri Yukteswar, The Holy Science, 7th ed. [Los Angeles: Self-Realization Fellowship, 1972], pp. x-xxiii.) According to one tradition, the cycle of four yugas, known as a mahayuga, is repeated 1,000 times, thereby forming a larger cycle, or kalpa, which constitutes a complete cosmic cycle from the origination to the destruction of a world system. A kalpa is one day in the life of Brahma. It is during the day of Brahma that the manifest world evolves. Each day is followed by the night of Brahma during which all matter in the universe is absorbed into the Universal Spirit. This period of destruction, or involution, is called a pralaya. Matter is again formed after this cycle, continuing to evolve during each day of Brahma and to dissolve during his night. Brahma's lifetime is conceived as being 100 cosmic years, a vast length of time calculated as 311,040,000,000,000 solar years, the largest of the cosmic cycles. At the conclusion of Brahma's lifetime there is the "Great Dissolution," or mahapralaya, the period of the destruction of the entire universe. Continuing in the pattern of the cycles, after a period of rest Brahma is reborn and the cycles of creation begin again. The Hindu scripture Yoga-Vasishtha, which presents a different view of the cyclical nature of the universe, teaches that the cycles of involution and evolution are ongoing; different systems of worlds may be at different stages in these cycles simultaneously and there is never a point when all creation ceases for a time, as in the Great Dissolution.

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Volume 31, Number 49, footnote 5. Political and economic border problems. Nationalist and anti-American tendencies in the Canadian electorate, many of whom consider the United States a threatening political and economic giant, plus America's increased protectionism have slowed progress on a long-pending, free-trade agreement. On Jan. 2, 1988, U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed a free-trade treaty which in effect creates the world's largest free-trade zone. This agreement still requires the approval of both the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament; if ratified it will go into effect Jan. 1, 1989. Months of negotiations created this accord designed to stimulate economic activity in both countries by eliminating tariffs and nontariff barriers in North America before the year 2000. The agreement in part proposes to eliminate all tariffs on cross-border trade within 10 years in a new Free Trade Area (FTA); restrict Canada's power to screen foreign investment only to direct takeovers of Canadian companies with assets of more than $150 million (Canadian) rather than the present threshold of $5 million; remove restrictions on the operations of U.S. banks in Canada and lift the limits on U.S. ownership of Canadian financial institutions; establish a common energy market in petroleum, gas, uranium and hydroelectricity; and remove barriers against computer services. To date Congressional committees have approved legislation that allows enactment of the U.S.-Canada free-trade agreement; Congress is expected to vote on the issue this summer. In addition to free-trade discussions, negotiations have been conducted on a Canadian claim to the Northwest Passage. Canada had long claimed this Arctic passage which connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The U.S. considers it to be international waters and cites historic usage. A Jan. 1988 agreement between the two countries acknowledged Washington's rejection of Canada's ownership claim but requires Canadian permission for U.S. passage through the waterway. A dispute also exists over a portion of the Alaskan boundary described in an 1825 treaty as running up to the "frozen sea." The border in question runs from the 141st meridian either due north or northeast into the Beaufort Sea. At stake is an area of immense significance because of oil reserves. Another point of concern to Canadians is America's contribution to acid-rain pollution - a by-product from the combustion of fossil fuels from industry and automobiles. The Canadians are pressing for a 50 percent reduction of acid-rain emissions in both countries.

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Volume 31, Number 50, footnote 1. Reactions to the Statue of Liberty. During the July 1986 celebration marking the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty, foreign press correspondents criticized Americans for "commercialism" and extravagance surrounding the ceremonies. On July 5, 1986, the Los Angeles Times reported: "`When America does something, they do it so big,' said Jean-Francois Bizalion, correspondent for Le Matin in France. `The statue has been around for 100 years. It's like all of a sudden they have discovered the statue. It's like America has only one monument. It's too much.' ... `This is either the biggest patriotic expression in American history or the biggest panoply of sleazy exploitation: Take your pick,' said Dermot Purgavie, who writes a column from the United States for the London Daily Mail. ... In the Soviet Union, the Communist Party daily Pravda charged that weekend celebrations belie the true meaning of liberty in America - `the liberty to sell and be sold and the power of the dollar in a place where money is boss.' Describing the statue's physical position in New York Harbor somewhat incorrectly, Pravda contended that she stands with `the huge and powerful buildings of banks, corporations and insurance companies at her back."' In her July 5, 1986 dictation, the Goddess of Liberty said that these comments were "the envy by these nations concealed in criticism" of the "abundant momentum of joy and spirit and energy and life" of Americans and that they were "a complete misreading of the free enterprise spirit. They have not read the vibration of the Spirit of America." See 1986 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 29 no. 65, pp. 569-70. On Atlantis, the Goddess of Liberty's Temple of the Sun was located on the site of present-day Manhattan Island. With the sinking of that continent and the destruction of this physical focus, her retreat was established on the etheric octave. See Saint Germain On Alchemy, glossary, s.v. "Goddess of Liberty," "Retreats"; Lords of the Seven Rays, Book One, pp. 131-33.

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Volume 31, Number 62, footnote 3. Judgment of the Watchers (fallen angels) pronounced through Enoch. "The Lord said to me: Enoch, scribe of righteousness, go tell the Watchers of heaven, who have deserted the lofty sky, and their holy everlasting station, who have been polluted with women. And have done as the sons of men do, by taking to themselves wives, and who have been greatly corrupted on the earth; that on the earth they shall never obtain peace and remission of sin. For they shall not rejoice in their offspring; they shall behold the slaughter of their beloved; shall lament for the destruction of their sons; and shall petition for ever; but shall not obtain mercy and peace. ... I spoke to them all together; and they all became terrified, and trembled; beseeching me to write for them a memorial of supplication, that they might obtain forgiveness; and that I might make the memorial of their prayer ascend up before the God of heaven. ... Then I wrote a memorial of their prayer and supplication, for their spirits, for everything which they had done, and for the subject of their entreaty, that they might obtain remission and rest. ... I fell down and saw a vision of punishment, that I might relate it to the sons of heaven, and reprove them. ... I have written your petition; and in my vision it has been shown me, that what you request will not be granted you as long as the world endures. Judgment has been passed upon you: your request will not be granted you. From this time forward, never shall you ascend into heaven; He has said, that on the earth He will bind you, as long as the world endures. But before these things you shall behold the destruction of your beloved sons; you shall not possess them, but they shall fall before you by the sword. Neither shall you entreat for them, nor for yourselves; but you shall weep and supplicate in silence." I Enoch 12:5-7; 13:4-7, 9; 14:2-7. See Forbidden Mysteries of Enoch: The Untold Story of Men and Angels, containing all the Enoch texts, including the Book of Enoch and the Book of the Secrets of Enoch, with exegesis and exposé by Elizabeth Clare Prophet.

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Volume 31, Number 65, footnote 8. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," John 1:1. This verse parallels the Hindu teachings on the cosmic Principle and Person of Vac (pronounced Vwahk; meaning literally speech, word, voice, talk, or language) as recorded in the Vedas, the earliest scriptures of Hinduism, probably composed c. 1500-1000 b.c. The Hindu text Taittirya Brahmaa (Brahmaas are commentaries on the Vedas) says that "the Word, imperishable, is the Firstborn of Truth, mother of the Veda and hub of immortality." Vac is called "the mother" of the Vedas because it is believed that Brahma revealed them through her power. The Taya Maha Brahmaa teaches, "This, [in the beginning], was only the Lord of the universe. His Word was with him. This Word was his second. He contemplated. He said, `I will deliver this Word so that she will produce and bring into being all this world"' (XX, 14, 2). Scholar John Woodroffe (pen name, Arthur Avalon) quotes John 1:1 and says: "These are the very words of Veda. Prajapatir vai idam ast: In the beginning was Brahman. Tasya vag dvitya ast; with whom was Vak or the Word (She is spoken of as second to Him because She is first potentially in, and then as Shakti issues from Him); Vag vai paramam Brahma; and the word is Brahman. Vak is thus a Shakti or Power of the Brahman. ... This Shakti which was in Him is at the creation with Him, and evolves into the form of the Universe whilst still remaining what It is - the Supreme Shakti" who is "one with Brahman" (The Garland of Letters [Pondicherry, India: Ganesh & Co., n.d.], pp. 4-5).

Hindu texts refer to Vac as the wife or consort of the Creator "who contains within herself all worlds." Sarasvati, the consort of Brahma and goddess of language, speech, wisdom and art, is identified with Vac in the Mahabharata and later Hindu tradition. Quoting the Brahmaas, author Raimundo Panikkar writes that Vac "is truly `the womb of the universe.' For `by that Word of his, by that self, he created all this, whatever there is."' Panikkar also notes that "Vac was before all creation, preexisting before any being came to be. ... Vac is the life-giving principle within all beings. ... She has a feminine characteristic of complementarity, a mediatorial role, and a certain feminine docility and obedience. She needs always to be uttered, by men, by Gods, or by the Creator himself. ...[The Vedic Word] is ultimately as important as Brahman and, in a way that has to be properly understood, it is Brahman itself" (The Vedic Experience Mantramañjari [Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977], pp. 106, 96, 107, 89).

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Volume 31, Number 67, footnote 17. Turbulence in the Mideast. On July 3, 1988, at 12:54 a.m. (MDT), 13 hours prior to Gautama Buddha's dictation, the crew of the Navy cruiser the USS Vincennes, mistaking an Iranian Airbus jetliner for an Iranian F-14 fighter jet, shot down the aircraft over the Persian Gulf, killing all 290 people on board. The downing occurred while the Vincennes and other American Navy vessels were engaged in a sea battle with Iranian gunboats, during which the Vincennes sank two of the boats. According to the initial explanations of the Vincennes' captain, Will C. Rogers III, the ship's radar detected the aircraft departing from Iran's civilian-military airport at Bandar Abbas. The plane was reportedly flying outside the civilian air corridor at an unusually low altitude, descending towards the Vincennes. The aircraft was also believed to be emitting both civilian and military identification radio signals. When the aircraft failed to respond to multiple warnings or to change its course, Rogers concluded that the plane was on a retaliatory mission and ordered the launching of two surface-to-air missiles in order to bring the plane down. Following the incident there was speculation that the ship's highly sophisticated Aegis air-defense system had malfunctioned.

While President Reagan called the incident "a tragedy," he said it was an "understandable accident" because Rogers had believed his ship was under attack. Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati called the incident a "barbaric massacre" and Iranian president Ali Khamenei threatened to avenge the civilian deaths. Fearing Iranian reprisals, U.S. forces were reportedly placed on heightened alert throughout the July 4 holiday period.

The final investigative report on the incident released August 19 countered the initial accounts given by the crew. The report said that the Iranian aircraft was actually climbing steadily inside the civilian air corridor and transmitting a civilian identification signal. The investigation board concluded that the Aegis system had worked properly but radar operators under the stress of combat had misinterpreted the data on the radar screens and had relayed faulty information to Captain Rogers. Adm. William J. Crowe, Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicated in a briefing on the report that factors contributing to the tragedy included the Airbus's nonresponse to repeated warnings and Iran's negligence in allowing the airliner to enter the zone of the sea battle which was taking place at the time. Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci accepted the board's recommendation that no disciplinary action be taken against Captain Rogers or the crew.

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Volume 31, Number 67, footnote 18. Astrological indicators of the potential for war in the near future can be seen in a number of current and approaching astrological configurations. The Ascended Masters teach that through Divine Intervention and calls to the violet flame in the science of the spoken Word, the negative conditions foretold in astrology and other prophecies can be mitigated and in some cases entirely averted before they become physical.

Conjunctions, squares and oppositions of Saturn and Uranus have coincided with the major wars of this century, including World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. These two planets formed a conjunction in the late degrees of Sagittarius on February 13 and June 26, 1988, and will do so again on October 18, indicating the likelihood of a major war. After the Saturn-Uranus conjunction of February 13, 1988, at 29 Sagittarius, Saturn and Uranus formed a nearly exact conjunction at 0 Capricorn on February 15. Saturn and Capricorn (the sign Saturn rules) act to precipitate and crystallize. Therefore, the influences of war signified by the Saturn-Uranus conjunction in Sagittarius tend to be more concrete and physically expressed when these planets are in Capricorn. Uranus and Saturn retrograded (proceeded in apparent backward motion) into Sagittarius on May 27 and June 10, 1988, respectively; in the last two months of 1988 these two planets will reenter Capricorn in close conjunction with each other - Saturn on November 12, 1988, and Uranus on December 2, 1988.

Of even greater importance, on February 22-23, 1988, Saturn and Uranus formed a nearly exact conjunction at 0 Capricorn with Mars at 0 Capricorn and Neptune more loosely associated with these three planets at 9 Capricorn. Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunctions are extremely rare. This conjunction joined by Mars marks the formal starting point of upheaval on the planet which could bring a number of profound changes, including war. On February 22, 1988, the Maha Chohan said that the conjunction of Mars, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in Capricorn represents "the deliverance of the Holy Spirit's initiations to a planet. ... This [astrological] configuration is the testing of the four lower bodies of a planet and a people" (1988 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 31 no. 29, p. 225).

In addition, transiting Pluto will cross the Soviet Union's Sun at 14 Scorpio in opposition to the U.S. natal Sun at 10 Taurus between 1989-1990. This presents a mortal and warlike challenge to both nations and will activate planets in the U.S. and Soviet charts and form volatile combinations capable of producing war. These may be triggered by transits of Mars, which make conjunctions, squares or oppositions to the transit of Pluto close to the Soviet Sun at 14 Scorpio. One such transit, although by no means the only one, will occur on November 27, 1989, when transiting Mars and Pluto form an exact conjunction at 15 Scorpio - only a degree away from the Soviet Union's Sun at 14 Scorpio and opposed to the U.S. Sun at 10 Taurus.

Sunspot indicators of the potential for war. There is also a relationship between the 11-year sunspot cycle and wars. Major wars tend to follow the peak of the sunspot cycle, although they occasionally precede it. The number of sunspots is rising and is expected to reach its peak late in 1989 or early in 1990. The cycle is rising towards the projected maximum number of sunspots faster than has been recorded since sunspot cycles have been charted beginning in the mid-1800s. It is too early to tell whether this will result in the most powerful cycle on record, but preliminary data suggests that could be the case. The sunspot maximum will be likely to combine with and amplify the other astrological cycles of war.

For an in-depth analysis of astrological portents for war, economic turmoil and earth changes, see Elizabeth Clare Prophet's February 13, 1988 lecture, "Saint Germain On Prophecy from 1988 through the 1990s - The Astrology of World Karma," on 2 videocassettes, 3 hr. 50 min., GP88019; 3 audiocassettes, 3 hr. 51 min., A88024.

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Volume 31, Number 68, footnote 10. On December 8, 1987, President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty, eliminating all ground-launched nuclear missiles with ranges between 300 and 3,400 miles. This treaty does not call for the destruction of the warheads themselves, just the missiles that would carry them. It was ratified overwhelmingly by the U.S. Senate on May 27, 1988, in time for Reagan and Gorbachev to exchange treaty ratification documents on June 1 at their summit meeting in Moscow. In this accord the United States agreed to eliminate all medium-range nuclear missiles which are deployed in European NATO countries for the defense of Europe, namely the Pershing IA (in storage), the Pershing II, and ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs). The U.S. also agreed to eliminate conventionally armed GLCMs on the grounds that the Soviets say they cannot tell nuclear armed cruise missiles apart from conventionally armed cruise missiles. This abolishes a highly accurate, long-range theater weapon necessary for the non-nuclear defense of Europe. (See Frank J. Gaffney, "The INF Treaty and Its Shadows over the START Negotiations," Strategic Review, Spring 1988.) The first missiles covered by the INF Treaty have already been destroyed and the process will continue over a period of three years. Additionally, the West German government agreed to eliminate 72 Pershing IAs that it has already deployed after the Soviet and U.S. weapons are destroyed. Some leading defense experts say the removal of U.S. nuclear missiles from Europe weakens NATO by disposing of the only weapons which could directly threaten and swiftly strike Soviet territory and therefore restrain Soviet aggression. The INF Treaty removes NATO's primary means of theater-based deterrence short of resorting to a general nuclear war. It puts NATO quantitatively, and in some cases qualitatively, at a disadvantage to Warsaw Pact conventional armaments; NATO forces are greatly outnumbered by Warsaw Pact forces, which include three times as many tanks and artillery and twice as many aircraft. NATO especially lacks the ability to withstand the Soviets' capacity to execute a blitzkrieg-like attack.

Discussions between delegations from the United States and the Soviet Union on START (Strategic Arms Reduction Talks), a broader arms control agreement than the INF Treaty, began on June 29, 1982. The aim of these negotiations is to cut all strategic weapons by 50 percent. During the December 1987 summit in Washington, D.C., President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev agreed to the goal of reducing their long-range strategic nuclear stockpiles to 6,000 warheads and 1,600 delivery systems each. Within the 6,000 warhead total, a sublimit would be required of 4,900 warheads on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

The general rules for counting warheads that were agreed upon at the summit contain loopholes for counting weapons. Political restraint in the United States would hold us to the agreement. However, in a paper on the breakout and verification implications of the START agreement, the Defense Policy Panel of the House Armed Services Committee stated that for Moscow "the purported START limit of 6,000 weapons is an illusion. In addition to the limit of 6,000 weapons, the Soviets could `legally' - and are likely to - deploy another nearly 3,000 weapons and could `legally' have available nearly 11,000 additional weapons that are a source for a sudden breakout from START. And, according to [a] rough yardstick of potential cheating, there could be an additional force of as many as 4,300 more weapons available to the Soviet attack planner." The report suggests that these potential loopholes could make available more than 18,000 uncounted nuclear devices, which gives Moscow the capacity to break out from the START treaty before the U.S. could catch up to the Soviets' numerical advantage. Even if the Soviets don't cheat, given the types of existing U.S. and Soviet weapons systems and the proposed START limits, the U.S. will be left with fewer nuclear weapons platforms for the Soviets to target. This would give the Soviets a significant advantage and increase the likelihood that they would exploit that advantage by launching a first strike. (See Defense Policy Panel of the House Armed Services Committee, Breakout, Verification and Force Structure: Dealing with the Full Implications of START, 100th Cong., 1st sess., 1988; James L. George, "The 'Two-Track' Dilemma in the START Negotiations," Strategic Review, Winter 1988.)

[21]

Volume 31, Number 72, footnote 2. Sandinista/Contra cease-fire agreement. Just prior to the release of Save the World with Violet Flame! by Saint Germain 1 audiocassette in early March 1988, the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan Contras had reached a critical point in their seven-year-old war against the Soviet-backed Sandinista government. Prospects of renewed U.S. military aid for the Contras looked bleak; nonmilitary supplies from the U.S. were also running out and on March 3, 1988, Congress defeated a $30.8 million nonlethal aid package, making the Contras' continued survival tenuous. In mid-March some 2,000 Sandinista troops stormed into Honduras in pursuit of the Contras and came close to capturing a main supply depot that stocked nearly half of the Contras' remaining supply of weapons and ammunition. In response, the United States dispatched 3,500 troops to Honduras' Palmerola Air Base on March 17; by the following week the U.S. presence, together with Honduran bombing strikes against Sandinista positions along the Nicaragua-Honduras border, defused the conflict (see 1988 Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 31 no. 42, p. 339 n. 4).

On March 21, during the Keepers' 33-day vigil with Save the World 1, the Contras and the Sandinistas in an abrupt turnaround began their first face-to-face cease-fire negotiations. It was an event that astonished White House officials. All fighting halted during the three-day peace talks held in the Nicaraguan town of Sapoá, three miles from the Costa Rican border. The negotiations appeared to falter the first day when the Nicaraguan government rejected Contra demands to link a cease-fire agreement with the democratization of Nicaragua. But the mood unexpectedly softened and the Sandinistas agreed to discuss political issues. The talks concluded on March 23 with a cease-fire accord, which commenced April 1. The Sandinistas pledged not to punish or persecute returning exiles for their political-military acts and agreed to release some 3,300 political prisoners. They also promised "unrestricted freedom of expression" and participation in municipal and national elections for all citizens. The Contras agreed to recognize Sandinista rule, to move into designated cease-fire zones in Nicaragua, to accept only humanitarian aid delivered through neutral agencies, and to disarm once a final accord was signed. Both sides also agreed to continue negotiations on April 6 toward a definitive cease-fire. In order to sustain the Contras during the cease-fire, Congress overwhelmingly approved a new $48 million nonlethal aid package. House Speaker James C. Wright, Jr., promised not to block any future consideration of military aid should the peace talks collapse.

By the end of April, after almost a month of negotiations, a final accord between the Contras and the Sandinistas still had not been reached. Thousands of Contra soldiers began crossing into Honduras in order to receive food, clothing and medicine supplied by the United States. When talks ended without an agreement on June 9, the Contra leadership had become divided by internal power struggles; the Sandinistas, increasingly repressive toward their critics and political opponents, had many times over repudiated their commitment to bring democratic reforms to Nicaragua. Insight magazine (10 October 1988) reported that the Permanent Commission on Human Rights, an organization which documents charges made against the Sandinistas, said "in a recent report that new political prisoners were being taken at an `alarming rate.' ... The commission estimates that the government is holding at least 8,000 such prisoners of conscience." The commission's director said that the Sandinistas have apparently been using the cease-fire period to identify Contra-sympathizers, to force political opponents into the army, and to increase bombing in rural areas and relocate peasants into militarized "cooperatives." In September Sandinista representatives and Contra leaders met in Gautemala City for the first time in three months as a preliminary step to resuming peace negotiations. To date, the March truce is still in effect but both sides remain keenly divided on ways to end the civil war.

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Volume 31, Number 72, footnote 3. The Dark Cycle began on April 23, 1969, and marked the beginning of the cycle of the intensification of the return of karma. In this period of transition from the Piscean to the Aquarian age, the Great Law requires that the evolutions of planet earth deal directly with the momentums of personal and planetary karma set aside for centuries by the grace of God through his Sons incarnate (i.e., Jesus Christ and other avatars). In the face of the same propensity for darkness prevalent before the Flood, when "the wickedness of man was great in the earth" and "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gen. 6:5), the Lords of Karma decreed this action in order to deter an even greater abuse of Life's opportunity and to forestall that cataclysm which may be the ultimate consequence of the rising tide of world sin. On August 20, 1969, the Messengers explained that "the coming of the Dark Cycle simply means that the hand of mercy that for centuries has stood between mankind and their own dark deeds has been withdrawn. The law of God will bring swift and compelling judgment to those who have thought they could flaunt the law." Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Gal. 6:7)

Charting the Dark Cycle on the Cosmic Clock, we place April 23, 1969, in Capricorn on the 12 o'clock line. Progressing it one line each year moving clockwise places the current Dark Cycle on the 7 o'clock line in Leo from April 23, 1988, to April 23, 1989. During this year mankind will be dealing with karmic initiations under the hierarchy of Leo: insensitivity to life, ingratitude and inappreciation of the Great God in all his manifold expression, thoughtlessness, spiritual blindness, emotional density and retardation and all misuses of the flame of God's love. See Kuthumi On Selfhood (1969 Pearls of Wisdom), vol. 12, pp. xi-xii; no. 3, p. 10; no. 7, p. 30; pp. 246-54, 263-66.

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Volume 31, Number 72, footnote 10. The 19th All-Union Communist Party Conference, the first since 1941, took place in the Kremlin's Palace of Congresses in Moscow from June 28 to July 1, 1988. The four-day event attended by 4,991 Communist Party delegates was marked by an unprecedented display of open debate on General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's program of perestroika (restructuring) and the political future of the Soviet Union. Soviet citizens and foreigners alike found the freedom of speech astonishing. The proceedings were broadcast on nightly television summaries to the Soviet Union and other nations, with one Moscow resident reportedly commenting, "I am hearing things on television that weeks ago I would never have whispered over the telephone." While some spoke out in support of perestroika, there was also frequent criticism that Gorbachev's reform program has produced few tangible results for Soviet citizens. One delegate, a metalworker, said, "Where is perestroika when the supply of goods in shops is as poor as ever?"

Following the comments made by the delegates, Gorbachev held a series of votes and won conference approval for virtually all of his proposals to restructure the government. In six resolutions that may take several years to fully implement, the conference endorsed perestroika, the expansion of glasnost (Gorbachev's policy of openness), political reorganization, the establishment of legal protections for citizens, greater autonomy for Soviet regions, and the streamlining of the bureaucracy. Some of the most important measures endorsed would create a new national legislature called the Congress of People's Deputies as well as a smaller parliament to handle day-to-day legislative business; would strengthen popularly elected local councils and reduce the vast power of the Communist Party (to which only 7 percent of the population belongs); and would empower the now chiefly ceremonial post of president with the authority to set domestic and foreign policies. The unspoken yet widely assumed implication was that the office of president would be filled by Gorbachev himself. Some Soviets reportedly noted that Gorbachev's current role as general secretary of the Communist Party combined with an expanded office of president would give him greater formal authority than Joseph Stalin had possessed.

On September 30, 1988, in a hastily called meeting of the 300-member Central Committee (the Soviet Union's policy-making body), Gorbachev moved to implement the conference mandate by dramatically reorganizing the 20-member Politburo (the highest body of the Communist Party), thereby strengthening his position as party leader. Three veteran members from the Brezhnev era were dismissed; two members, Yegor K. Ligachev (generally perceived as the second most powerful man in the Kremlin) and Viktor M. Chebrikov (head of the KGB intelligence and security agency), both of whom were critical of the pace of Gorbachev's reforms, were shifted into positions that are likely to diminish their political influence; and four new members, all Gorbachev supporters, were appointed. President Andrei A. Gromyko, a Politburo member, as well as Anatoly F. Dobrynin, former ambassador to the United States and Central Committee secretary, were both retired. On the next day, October 1, Gorbachev consolidated his leadership by assuming the vacated presidency, which is expected to be assigned its broad new powers sometime next year, and appointed Vladimir A. Kryuchkov as new KGB chief. These developments were executed with little explanation as to why the sudden upheavals were taking place. The open debates and expressions of glasnost which characterized the summer conference were nonexistent.

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Volume 31, Number 80, footnote 14. The dark night of the soul is the test of the soul's encounter with the return of personal karma, which, if she has not kept her lamps (chakras) trimmed with Light (Matt. 25:1-13), may eclipse the Light (Christ consciousness) of the soul and therefore its discipleship under the Son of God. It precedes the Dark Night of the Spirit, the supreme test of Christhood, when the soul is, as it were, cut off from the I AM Presence and must survive solely on the Light (Christ consciousness) garnered in the heart, while holding the balance for planetary karma.

The sixteenth-century mystic Saint John of the Cross described these initiations in his work "The Dark Night": "This night ... causes two kinds of darkness or purgation in spiritual persons according to the two parts of the soul, the sensory and the spiritual. Hence the one night or purgation will be sensory, by which the senses are purged and accommodated to the spirit; and the other night or purgation will be spiritual, by which the spirit is purged and denuded as well as accommodated and prepared for union with God through love." Saint John writes of the initiation of the Dark Night of the Spirit: "Since the divine extreme strikes in order to renew the soul and divinize it (by stripping it of the habitual affections and properties of the old man to which it is strongly united, attached, and conformed), it so disentangles and dissolves the spiritual substance - absorbing it in a profound darkness - that the soul at the sight of its miseries feels that it is melting away and being undone by a cruel spiritual death; it feels as if it were swallowed by a beast and being digested in the dark belly, and it suffers an anguish comparable to Jonas's when in the belly of the whale. [Jon. 2:1-3] It is fitting that the soul be in this sepulcher of dark death in order that it attain the spiritual resurrection for which it hopes." The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, trans. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez (Washington, D.C.: ICS Publications, 1979), pp. 311, 337.

For the Messengers' teachings on the dark night, including readings and commentary on the writings of Saint John of the Cross, see Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Living Flame of Love, 8-audiocassette album, 12-1/2 hrs., A85044; "The Dark Night of the Soul," on two 60-min. audiocassettes, MTG7412, MTF7413. See also Archangel Gabriel, Mysteries of the Holy Grail, pp. 173, 368-69.

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Volume 31, Number 88, footnote 14. At 4:17 a.m. Christmas morning a 26-year-old Keeper of the Flame (Lesson 7) who had been drinking on Christmas Eve passed from the screen of life when his car slid out of control and overturned. He was on the way to get chicken with a companion when he veered off the roadway. He was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident. His companion was injured but reported in satisfactory condition. According to police alcohol was a factor but it was not determined if he was legally intoxicated.

On Christmas Eve, the Keeper reportedly announced that he was taking down his altar and wasn't going to decree anymore. He and several friends went to a bar and returned home after midnight. When he and his friend left to get some chicken, the victim told another who had wanted to go along, "This ride isn't for you."

When the Messenger heard of the accident on Christmas morning and offered invocations on behalf of this lifestream, he was still at the scene of the accident, disoriented, unaware that the crystal cord was broken and his opportunity for incarnation in this round had been terminated tragically by his own actions. Only 12 hours earlier the Messenger had written in her December 24 letter to Keepers of the Flame Lesson 8 and above in good standing, "As I offer prayers for those who pass from the screen of life each week, whether they are of our Community or of the world body, I see so clearly how the persistent, relentless use of the violet flame has saved any number of souls from the necessity of tarrying in the astral plane (purgatory or worse) to balance their karma made at that vibratory level while on earth. Those who have not received this gift of Saint Germain's `miracle pouch' or those who have it and do not `hurl it' into the earth and into their electronic belts are the very ones who have no wind in their sails to buoy them up into etheric octaves and the retreats of the Great White Brotherhood and the Holy City when the hour of transition comes."

Footnotes: