TO THE GREAT SPIRIT
CHAPTER ONE
TO THE GREAT SPIRIT
At every gathering of his circle, Silver Birch has opened the proceedings with a prayer. These hundreds of invocations are all different: yet their theme has a constant similarity. Here is a typical prayer:
"OH Great White Spirit, throughout all ages, in visions, in trances and in dreams, seers have beheld glimpses of the supernal realms beyond earth and have come to realise something of Thy infinite majesty and Thy divine splendour. In fitful bursts of revelation they had proclaimed truths of the spirit, the eternal, inflexible, inexorable laws by which the whole of the universe is governed.
"Now we are engaged in the same task, striving to spread truth about Thee, to disabuse the minds of all Thy children of the many slanders on Thee. Thou hast been depicted with wrath, jealousy, vengeance and partisanship as the inevitable accompani-ments of Thy deity. We strive to picture Thee as Thou truly art, the infinite intelligence behind the natural law which rules with love, wisdom and beneficence.
"We draw attention to Thy divine attributes which are resident within human being, and we strive to teach them how to order their lives that Thy divinity may find its fullest expression. Thus shall they become aware of Thee, of themselves and of their loved ones and comrades in the higher realms who seek to use them as the instruments of Thy dispensation.
"We desire to draw all mankind together in bonds of love and fellowship, that they may co-operate more closely and purge their world of all the evils that are the outcome of selfishness, greed and avarice. In their place we would have a kingdom founded upon a knowledge of Thy laws, for when that is achieved man will live in peace, all the arts will flourish and love will abound everywhere, goodness, tolerance and sympathy will be expressed by all; many cancers which disfigure the world will
have been banished and light will reign everywhere.
"This is the prayer of Thy Indian servant who seeks to serve."