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Behold, the Bridegroom cometh! I AM that Bridegroom and I am impatient for my wife, the soul of each of you. You are the bride. And thus, I can tarry no longer in your preparations.1
Thus, I call you now. (So, my beloved, be seated.)
In this hour of the sacred fire of God descending upon you, know, then, that you are duly prepared, though preparations will continue in the ongoing saga of your self-transformation.
Beloved, I have taught you to seek the bonding to my heart. Now I say, consider this deeply. Consider this and be willing to pay the price. For I would walk with you. I would comfort you. I would heal you by impelling the seraphic hosts to come to you. I would rejuvenate you and bring you to the level where you can sustain resurrection's flame in your body.
Understand the meaning of the crucifixion. This initiation prepares you to walk the earth in resurrection's flame until the hour of your victory. This is as life should be, for you should have as your goal the translation of the blueprint of Adam Kadmon2 to your etheric body whereby, no longer mortal, ye shall have immortality; for ye shall be lively stones,3 lively atoms and molecules in the Body of God.
Move on, beloved. Move on! Move on. Shed your tears of joy and your tears of self-pity. Shed them! Have done with them and move on. Yes, move on, blessed hearts. You have known the surfeiting in earth's pleasures. Move on and be the pillar of fire in the earth.
I echo the message of Justinius. I call you because you are ready and these things are possible. Thus I come, and this does mark the turning of the way, preparing for this summer's courses at Summit University.4 Yes, we will have courses in the Holy Spirit! And you will know the presence of the Messenger. For I will uphold her and I will speak to you and I will tell you that the disciplines of holding the line of Light are great.
But ye are able! Ye are as able as my disciples, some of whom took the ascension at the conclusion of that life, others of whom have tarried to this hour. Yes, beloved, you have more gifts of the Spirit,5 more knowledge of the mysteries than I imparted even to the twelve and those outside the twelve.
Thus, many I have sent to this century - you and this Messenger and many others. For the conclusion of this century is the hour when my disciples must drink the full cup of the dispensation of the age of Pisces.
You must carry that cup as a Communion cup. You must share it with devotees and say to them, as I said, "Drink ye all of it!"6 Yes, all of it. Drink it. Assimilate it. Purge yourself by the fire of my Blood and my Body of the sins recorded in the very cells of your blood and your body.
Yes, beloved, it is an hour when there is a great turning of souls in answer to the call of the Spirit. And the mighty captain Lord Maitreya does impel us to move with him and move beyond the shallows. O my blessed hearts, do take this hour as one of great opportunity and momentum, with the winds of the Holy Spirit in your sails!
I speak to you, then, this day on the congruency of your soul with the geometry of your Holy Christ Self. To want to be that Christ in the earth, you have to also want not to be that old human self. And wanting is not enough. You must get that Christhood! You must get that power of the blueprint of your Christhood and that empowerment! You must not let those to whom you are sympathetically or wrongly tied deter you from the steps that you must take.
After all, is this not freedom of religion in America?
Or do we not have freedom of religion in America?
Only you can decide to let another impede you on your path of freedom. God has guaranteed it. The Founding Fathers have guaranteed it. But some do not accept it yet. Therefore, when the law is challenged, I say, embody the law! Outpicture the law! Defend the law! And so it shall be unto you as your defense.
I have guaranteed you that freedom of religion. Saint Germain has guaranteed it. Almighty God has guaranteed it. Your Holy Christ Self has guaranteed it.
Therefore, do not allow so-called loved ones to limit your capacity to breathe in the fires of the Holy Spirit, to be empowered by it and to practice your faith as you see fit. Give your love. Perform your duties. Be caring of those who are close to you. But draw the line when they require that the Spirit of God in you must be stifled, must be muzzled, must be held back because they simply do not want you to ascend the mountain of God.
Yes, beloved, these things must be dealt with here or hereafter or you will reembody. You will reembody not because your soul was not worthy to attain union with God, but because you simply decided not to take the next initiation of your path. This initiation involves overcoming what we refer to as "family mesmerism," wherein the human family takes precedence over the family of God and the presence of that holy family throughout the earth to which you are joined.
Blessed ones, you can fulfill all of your duties in life and yet not compromise your soul! You have only to state the levels of your commitment and to say to those close to you: "This is where I stand. I will care for you, I will love you, but I will not reduce the Light in my aura that makes you uncomfortable! You will have to rise to that Light or remain uncomfortable."
Blessed ones, it is time to take courage, to take the fire of the heart and apply it to every challenge - thus to take a stand! You need withhold nothing from another, but you must by all means not compromise your spiritual path. For then you will not receive the next initiation and the next. And that is why you will reembody - not because you were not able to meet the challenges of your full attainment and victory but because you simply decided not to do so.
These are decisions that are subtle. Examine yourselves. Bring your decisions to the fore of consciousness. Decide whether you will slink away and deny me or whether you will also be persecuted and crucified. And then seek the way of the path of persecution, of crucifixion and understand how you walk that path and how it is a strengthening path and how without that strengthening you will not be prepared for the Devil, who will come to tempt you, nor will you be prepared to deal with your own dweller-on-the-threshold.
This is not the time to be wishy-washy. This is not the time to indulge in unclear thinking or to bypass those issues that must be resolved. I say, resolve the issues of your household, but do not forsake your Bridegroom. This is my message to you.
If you are to receive the full fire of seraphim in increments as it comes to you according to the cycles of Serapis Bey, then I say to you, you must be able to rise higher in the cosmic peerage and in the geometry of being until you literally disappear into the presence of your Holy Christ Self and none can see the difference between that Christ Self, that Christhood, and your own living soul. For you are my bride. You are the bride of the Christ Self. You are the bride in the Holy of holies, beloved. And thereby you conquer. And your sorrow shall be turned into joy,7 for you shall have abandoned all self-pity.
Now let us turn and look at all that is possible to those who have no compromise, who have no preferences for their own humanity, for their own human sensuality and indulgence in the carnal-mindedness of this world. Unto them all things are possible. And I say it and I mean it and I have demonstrated it to you! I have shown it to you in many who have been healed in their own homes at various places in the earth by shafts of Light directed from this altar.
The Great White Brotherhood is a brooding Spirit and the brooding Spirit is of the LORD God. And that Spirit will not pass you by when you are ready for it and you keep your lamps, i.e., your chakras, spinning and you do not squander the energy of those chakras because another impels you to do so.
Yes, beloved, you have the authority to dictate the terms of your life, your acquaintances, your bonding to this soul and that soul and the next soul. Only you can decide your destiny! It is carved in the etheric octave. It is held in the Great Causal Body of the Great Divine Director! And you who really want to know your destiny and fulfill it will do your novenas to the Great Divine Director,8 and you will no longer put up with your own human creation or another's that stands in the way of the full blessings of the Godhead dwelling in you bodily.
So the Godhead did dwell in me bodily.9
It can dwell in you bodily: it is your decision.
Take care, take care, take care of the weaknesses. And despite all aggravation, all human nonsense from those with whom you share this Path, rise above those weaknesses. Rise above them! Cast them into the fire! And be vigilant, be watchful! For the Devil, the proud spirit, he does lie in wait to catch you in those weak moments.
No longer, beloved! No longer! This is the hour when the Great White Brotherhood has declared that Church Universal and Triumphant, our teachings, our messages, our books shall cover the earth. We have determined that the hour for the reward of the prophets and the saints has come.10
Now the question is: Will you accept your reward by entering into the higher echelons of your own spiritual being? Will you accept that, anchor it and be the pillars of fire in the earth?
For without your manifestation in the physical octave, beloved, we will not have the instruments to carry out the plan that the Darjeeling Council, the God and Goddess Meru and the Four and Twenty Elders have ratified. Alpha and Omega have said: "This is the time when this message must be preached to all nations. This is the time! This is the accepted time of that salvation."11
I say, listen to the God within you. Listen to the fire that is released. It is as though you were horses at a racetrack and the gun had fired and you were ready to race and to win.
Now, beloved, raise up your hands as you stand up and give your praises to God and accept the alchemy of the physical victory of this Church and all Lightbearers of the earth!
[Congregation stands and offers praises to God.]
I see runners coming up from the rear, from the ranks of the devotees that are seemingly the least worthy. These are runners in the race running for the prize.12 They have heard the call. They know the fields are white to the harvest.13 They are running, running to stay up with the chelas of the Great White Brotherhood to make the great message plain.
Yes, beloved, you yourselves may have to run to catch up to those who are the new and lively spirits, who are childlike and yet have profound maturity from past ages.
This is the time to unleash the Word. This is the time to bear witness to the story of your life, to your victory and to all possibilities that are open to you under the tutelage of the Great White Brotherhood. This is the time to translate the teachings of past ages to the New Age, the teachings of the world's major religions. This is the time to bring all forward into the New Age of Padma Sambhava, of Saint Germain and Jesus Christ, into the New Age of all those who are the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
It is now or never, beloved. Take this opportunity and know that with the receipt of this ascension fire this day, you are indeed empowered to the level of your surrender unto God.
I AM Jesus in the Sacred Heart. I place the imprint of my Sacred Heart over the heart of your Holy Christ Self. Henceforth acknowledge me absolutely one with your Holy Christ Self, for there is no difference. For the Christ is the Christ is the Christ is one - one Universal Christ in manifestation. Yes, beloved, become that one united. It is not very far from you.
I AM sealing you in this hour. For this my delivery and this my announcement is what is most needful to you in this moment.
Peace be with you! Peace is far from many in the earth. Let the peace of Peace and Aloha and all legions of the Sixth Ray be with you and upon you. And when you see war and warring in the news, send shafts of fire of peace. Send legions of peace! Send legions of peace. Yes, I have decreed it.
I walk with you. Henceforth I call all to be my disciples who have the level of commitment and desiring equal to and greater than that of the original twelve. I shall walk and talk with you and not leave you. For you know that my presence is strong anywhere you call me.
I AM Jesus, your Brother, your Friend.
And if you will, receive me as your Saviour.
Let us all kneel in prayer before we receive Communion, served by Jesus, so that we can make our hearts' commitment to him as he and Justinius have spoken.
[Congregation gives personal prayers.]
Let us welcome Lord Shiva and Parvati by singing to them. We will receive Holy Communion from Jesus following this final dictation of our Easter Retreat. You are welcome to stand for Lord Shiva and put your hearts and souls into his joyous dance.
Let us sing one more bhajan and we will have our dictation.
This dictation by Jesus Christ was delivered by the Messenger of the Great White Brotherhood, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, on Easter Sunday, April 3, 1994, during the five-day Easter Retreat 1994, held at the Royal Teton Ranch, Park County, Montana. [N.B. This dictation was edited for print by the Messenger under Jesus' direction.] Throughout these notes PoW is the abbreviation for Pearls of Wisdom.
O Love of God, immortal Love,
Enfold all in thy ray;
Send compassion from above
To raise them all today!
In the fullness of thy power,
Shed thy glorious beams
Upon the earth and all thereon
Where life in shadow seems!
Let the Light of God blaze forth
To cut men free from pain;
Raise them up and clothe them, God,
With thy mighty I AM name!
Decree 7.09A in Prayers, Meditations and Dynamic Decrees for the Coming Revolution in Higher Consciousness, Section I.
Freedom of Religion in America
Threatened by Bigotry and Fanaticism
As you know, for the last nine years I have been preparing and performing a play on the life of Frederick Douglass, based directly upon his autobiographies, letters and speeches. Many of you have seen this presentation in several of its formats, and your response to it and your support of it have been the main strengths that have allowed this Douglass project to materialize and go forward. I hope that I have made my gratitude to you clearly understood, because no one knows better than I do just how dependent upon others I have been in making this project happen.
I have frequently thought when performing in front of an audience that that group of people were not just watching one man on a stage but in fact were seeing in action the results of hundreds of silent minds, hearts and hands united in the background.
Most if not all of you know that a number of years ago I made the decision to leave New York and Los Angeles, where I had been living and working, in order to move to Montana and live in a community that was spiritually oriented to a life focused around the beliefs of the church I had become a member of. The name of that church is Church Universal and Triumphant.
All of you are also aware, I believe, that on February 18 of this year Bill Moyers, a man held in great respect by the media today, presented a portion of my presentation on Frederick Douglass on his program, Bill Moyers' Journal. The response that I have received from that program has been gratifying. You may not know, however, that eleven days later, NBC broadcast a program called "Ancient Prophecies," which included a six-minute clip on my church and its spiritual leader, Elizabeth Clare Prophet. This clip showed how one group of people in this country - the members of my church - are dealing with the dangers that are so apparent in the world today and which have been the subject of prophecies for centuries.
These dangers have included the potential for war, economic debacle and other kinds of devastation that could impact our civilization. The clip also included a brief appearance by myself, speaking in support of a person providing himself with an underground shelter and food and water that would allow him to survive in such emergencies. The twelve to fifteen seconds that I was on camera included a caption that stated my name, Fred Morsell, and that I was a "church ministerial student." This caption was correct because it is my hope to become, at the conclusion of a four-year course of study, an ordained minister of Church Universal and Triumphant.
Among the many people who saw this clip were several persons from the city of Gastonia, North Carolina, where I appeared last year in November performing my school version of "Presenting Mr. Frederick Douglass" for several of the schools. A contract that had been negotiated by my agent for a return appearance there in September of this year was cancelled because there was fear that my association with a "New Age" religion - thought by many uninformed persons to be a "cult" - would bring pressure on the local schoolboard, who might be accused by Christian fundamentalists and extreme right-wingers in the area of "bringing a cult member to teach the young children of Gastonia."
The word cult is a word that connotes fear; it reminds one of a circumstance in which someone has no freedom of choice. The media tell us that a member of a "cult" has been brainwashed; a member of a "cult" is programmed to do whatever is the will of a fanatical, ego-centered, unfeeling, selfish leader who has no qualms about making his or her followers do whatever is necessary to make that leader comfortable and happy.
When we hear the word cult today, images of Jim Jones and his Jonestown massacre, David Koresh and his group in Waco, Texas, are conjured up. In its most virulent meaning, "cult leader" would include the likes of Adolph Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. If such people as these had only been figures in a story, it would have been bad enough. That they actually lived, and that we know the devastation and cruelty they created and sustained, makes the use of the word cult a dangerous one when applied in an ill-informed manner.
For years Elizabeth Clare Prophet, her husband Edward L. Francis, the various spokesmen for the church, and the average, everyday member of the church have all been working hard to set the record straight about who we are and for what we stand. In addition to press releases, we have, all of us - to a man and to a woman - adopted the most effective means available to us by which this negative image can be corrected: namely, to simply and with no fanfare, live as the embodiment of the golden rule - live, in other words, as Jesus Christ and all of the saints who ever lived on this planet have lived.
Because of the fact that NBC is airing the program "Ancient Prophecies" once again on April 10 nationwide, and because of the press that I have received both personally and as a result of my work on Frederick Douglass, there is a sense that other organizations and schools will follow in the wake of the Gastonia, North Carolina School System.
I have thought about this situation for several weeks now and, because I know that some of my friends, family and associates are concerned about my affiliation with a "New Age" religion that the media have conveniently, but incorrectly and unfortunately, decided to call a "cult," I feel it is necessary to make the following statement concerning my faith and my beliefs so that my position is clear and that, hopefully, you who know me will recognize that I am still basically the same man I have always been.
I know that I can only be true to myself first, just as you must be true to yourself first. It is what this country gives us the opportunity to be. If America cannot be strong for this freedom to believe as one desires to believe, to truly be who one desires to be, then we are on shaky ground indeed. Freedom of religion is what brought the pilgrims to America in the first place; every other freedom we enjoy is based upon that freedom first.
What I am asking for in this letter is a confirmation from you, if you will, that my work on Mr. Frederick Douglass has value today for young people of all ages, despite my religious beliefs, which you may or may not agree with. I do not believe that I can live a life of any less integrity than I have been preaching in this play. As far as I am concerned, truth is truth, no matter how one cuts it. You either stand up for what is right or you had better keep your mouth shut.
I have been a Keeper of the Flame since April 1984, and I have been a member of Church Universal and Triumphant since July 8, 1985. Some of you know that I grew up in a warm, loving, supportive family. I was never forced to go to church or to buy into any belief system. Very early in life, both my mother and my father gave me the sense that whatever I wanted to do, as long as it did not hurt anyone or anything, was fine and they would support me, which they did.
I recall that once many years ago as a high school student at Midwood High School in Brooklyn, New York, I believed that I had been "saved" by Billy Graham. I joined a small Christian fundamentalist church near my home. As I recall, I was the only black member of that congregation. One Saturday evening, I participated in a rally held by that church in the middle of Jewish Flatbush - the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Church Avenue in Brooklyn - passing out tracts and exhorting people passing by to come to Jesus. My parents did not laugh or rebuke me for doing this, but they let me do it because they knew it was something that I wanted to do.
One day a few months later, when the emotional excitement of that way of life had left me and I had dropped my involvement with that church, I asked my father why he and Mom had not tried to dissuade me. His answer was typical of the attitude I grew up knowing and seeing practiced by my parents: "We knew that you would one day realize what was happening because we trusted that you would not forget the way you were brought up."
The way I was brought up by John and Marjorie Morsell was to treat people fairly and honestly. Have I been, sometimes, less than fair and honest in my dealings with people? Yes. The human condition does not yet include perfection as an attribute. However, the lessons that my parents taught me have not left me, and I know that I have not forgotten the way I was brought up.
In the summer of 1972, I experienced a small spiritual moment at Lake Morey in Vermont. That experience began what, for me, became a twelve-year quest, or spiritual journey, in which I found that I did believe that there was a God but I also found out that I did not consciously know any way to reach Him or Her or It. Friends of mine in the theatre - fellow actors - and I would talk about spiritual things occasionally. Theatre (all art, for that matter) is a spiritual rather than a material or even existential process. I was led to buy books on different spiritual subjects and on people who had been spiritually oriented.
As I read and studied, I came to the conclusion that most of the religions of the world were worshipping the same God. What I could not understand was why there needed to be so many different religions. It has only been recently that I have discovered that there are as many different ways of worshipping God as there are people in the world. Part of His Greatness lies in the fact that despite the many ways of worshipping Him, he is still only One.
In 1984, I learned about The Summit Lighthouse, located at that time in Los Angeles, California. I sought it out; I was not approached by anyone else to contact this organization. The effort was entirely my own. To this day, anyone who wants to learn about The Summit Lighthouse or Church Universal and Triumphant must make the initial effort himself.
From that moment, February 14, 1984, I discovered what I had been searching for for twelve years: namely, an organization, a group of people, a spiritual leader of true integrity, honesty, compassion and strength - a teacher of great capacity - with teachings and a way of life that coincided with my needs of the hour. The teachings synthesized the mystical traditions of the world's major religions, and they were just what I had been looking for.
Primarily, they confirmed what my reading had brought me to believe: that God has placed a portion of himself within my physical body and that I can take that portion and use it with wisdom and love to perform with my life what will bring to other people that same wisdom and love and uplift - to keep up the good fight until the victory is at hand.
Concurrently, I also discovered that concepts that I had talked about with my friends but which I had not understood, specifically karma and reincarnation, were not things to be feared but were, in fact, examples of God's love and opportunity that he has provided to his children. I discovered that here was a faith and a religion that made intellectual as well as emotional sense for me. This was the gift from God that I cannot overestimate, and for which I will always be grateful.
When my church was subject to slanderous statements and my spiritual leader, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, essentially vilified by a press less interested in facts than in selling papers and television time, I was pained, as were all of my fellow church members. Prejudice and discrimination are ugly experiences. But, as I have sometimes said to fellow black members of my church, "Perhaps there has been some value in being black in America. At least, we are used to prejudice and we know that it can be borne and that it can be overcome." Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, and my dad, John Morsell, to name just a few, proved that in spades, as we used to say.
I once asked my father why he worked so hard at an organization like the NAACP - as imperfect as it was - where for nineteen years he was the associate executive director. His reply to me was that he hated prejudice. He said, "I hate it, I just hate it." The emotion with which he said that was very uncharacteristic of my father - a man of great emotional control. That told me just how deep was his commitment to ending prejudice and giving access and opportunity to everyone.
Frederick Douglass says in his speech "The Lesson of the Hour," which I performed on Bill Moyers' Journal, that a people too spiritless to take a stand for their rights when they know their rights are being violated are not worthy to be defended and are not worthy to defend anything else.
I have been proud to follow the dictates of my own heart, as my father and my mother guided me to do, in nearly every aspect of my life. Words are not adequate for me to express my satisfaction in finding a pathway home to God through a church that will soon be a major religious way of life, offering choices that some citizens in a world of turmoil may yet find valuable.
Finally, let me state, unequivocally, that I am proud to call Elizabeth Clare Prophet, our spiritual leader, my Guru and my friend because her example and her loving discipline keep me and so many others on the path to ultimate reunion with the hearts of Jesus Christ and Gautama Buddha.
I apologize for the length of this statement and for the fact that I have not made it as personal to each one of you as I wish I could. Please accept these words as coming no less from my heart to your heart. Understand, and make no mistake about it, in my performances and in my teaching I am NOT proselytizing for my church or my way of life. What I do with Mr. Frederick Douglass is not part of my religious beliefs. Frederick Douglass stands as a man on his own; he does not need Fred Morsell.
Nevertheless, I am who I am and I am what I am. A friend of mine said recently to me after the NBC program on March 1, "Fred, you will never again be able to separate yourself from this church." I have no desire to do so. But I do ask that I be given the same courtesy and respect for my beliefs that I champion for every soul in this country and on this planet.
I know of no other way to fulfill the old admonition that religious and nonreligious people have been giving for nearly two thousand years: "Don't tell me that you are a Christian. Let me see it in the way you live. Then I'll be able to know the truth about which you speak."
Editor's note: After NBC first aired "Ancient Prophecies," Fred sent this letter to several friends and business acquaintances to counter the adverse reactions to his affiliation with our Church. Thus far, the response he has received has been quite positive and supportive, affirming his right to follow the religion of his choice.