FESTIVALS IN THE BEYOND
Every Christmas and Easter, Silver Birch, with many other guides, attends a festival in the inner spheres of the spirit world. At these festivals, the guides exchange views on the work they have done and intend to do, and fresh power and inspiration are obtained to help them through the next phase of their work. At these festivals, too, counsel is taken with Jesus of Nazareth, who occupies an important position in the work of perfecting communication with the Other Side.
I WISH that you could see and hear the Nazarene and feel that great love as he encourages us in our missions, as he expresses his knowledge of all that has been done and urges us to go forward with new strength, with new hope, with new vision and with new purpose. He is not the Nazarene of the Churchesーexalted into a deified place—but a great spirit who strives still to serve through many instruments.
For a short time I am in the spheres where I lived for many years, to feel once again that vitalizing power of the spirit, so invigorating in its strength, so beautiful in all its fullness, making you realize what life is when you are able to experi-ence it in the higher realms of spirit. I speak with all humi-lity and with no pride at all ...
If all the beautiful paintings of the world, all the inspired visions and all the great artistry that you have ever heard of in your world of matter and all the deepest and greatest beauties of nature were all combined into one whole object it would be but a very pale reflection of life in the higher regions.
When the artist is filled with inspiration he realizes that it cannot be expressed with his few pigments, and he longs for the colours that could be blended to produce that richness that has been given to his soul. But there are none, for spiritual truth and beauty exceed material clothing.
How can I describe spiritual exaltation in words? How can I describe the joy of meeting beings who radiate the great liebt of the Great Spirit, who are full of wisdom and under-standing, mercy and tenderness, who know all before you convey it, who know your innermost thoughts, who see the workings of your mind, who know of your successes and failures?
You have not the words for these greater experiences of the soul. The past few months are reviewed, plans are made, our tasks are allotted to us. We are urged and encouraged and enthused and we return to strive to perform our allotted missions. With your help and the power that is ours, we strive to bring the children of the Great Spirit nearer to the Great Spirit than ever they were before.
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Questions and Answers:
WHEN you attend the festival in the spheres, do you leave earth geographically or in the sense of withdrawing into a different vibration?
When I leave, I am no longer concerned with the gravita-tional pull of earth or even its vibrations. I leave behind the astral body through which I manifest to you and resume in the spiritual body which is mineーwhich is, as it were, "cloaked down" while I talk to you here.
Some portion of my consciousness is left in the astral body, so as to prevent its disintegration, but I withdraw and register more and more of my inner consciousness. That is why I ask for as much time as I can get, for the more time that I can use to get freed from the vibrations of earth, the higher degree of consciousness can I register in the spiritual spheres which I desire to reach.
But I do not succeed in attaining to the consciousness I expressed before I came down to your world of matter. I cannot accomplish in a few days that which took years.
Great sacrifice must be involved in deliberately “cloaking down" the consciousness you knew.
That is so. That is the price I gladly pay to try to serve your world of matter.
It must be the biggest sacrifice of all.
Yes, it is, but there are so many who need so much that I rejoice to give up what I have.
If you could have radiant sunshineーnot the pale reflection that you know hereーand all the perfection of beauty that is expressed in all art, architecture, poetry, and music, and if you could have developed to the greatest degree the beauteous sights that nature could produce in its most harmonious con-ditions, and enjoy the congenial companionship of souls with similar tastes and pursuits, and then you were plunged into slime, surrounded by darkness and dreary miseryーthat is to some extent a comparison with what I have to give up. I say that not to aggrandize myself, for I cheerfully relinquish whatever I have earned if only I can help and serve and bring peace and comfort and hope and help to a few.
Silver Birch explains, in the following answers to questions, why the festivals in the spirit world are at the times of the corresponding festivals on earth:
WHY do you hold your festivals at Christmas and Easter? Have they any relation to the Nazarene?
We held these festivals before the Nazarene came into your world. They have nothing to do with the story in the Bible. One day you will understand that the world is ruled by rhythm, by cycles which are part of the law of progress. These cycles operate and make themselves felt in your world et certain times in the history of all races.
When I lived in your world there were two festivals which were regarded as important. The Christians took those festivals from us and you now call them Easter and Christmas. Those times had a significance to us, because it was then that we received the greatest communion from the Great White Spirit. You do not yet understand, very much, the influence of the sun. At these times, we held for many days what you call séances. We got at those festivals much inspiration.
So, when it again comes round to the times which all of us regarded as the most important in our lives, we gather together and celebrate those times with those who are our own. This started with the influence of the sun, but that was only a symbol. There is an influence from all life to other life, from all matter to other matter, and from all planets to other planets.
It is all based on natural law, for at Christmas is the birth of the sun. This time is chosen because all of us are associated with races whose religions were founded upon the laws of nature. To us, the festival of the birth of the sun was the greatest of all because it represented the beginning of a new era. It is the end of the cycle, and the new cycle begins.
Because these festivals were held in the world of matter, they are celebrated in the world of spirit. A spiritual meaning has now come out of them and, instead of celebrating the dawn of the new life, we now use it to withdraw from the world of matter to get new power of the spirit so that we can bring new light to your world.
For whom is the festival held?
It is largely for the Indians and for the guides who belong to the older races. All the Western world is new in com-parison with these races, and for those who dwell in the West our festival has no significance.
At Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of all life. It is the symbol of all the worlds rising to join in the prayers of all those who pray that your world shall be resurrected from misery, pain, sorrow, sadness and suffering, resurrected into its fuller life, into its real life, so that sadness and tears shall be abolished, so that misery and starvation shall be done away with, and that empty bellies may be filled.
Your world very much needs resurrection, but slowly the laws of the Great Spirit are beginning to operate as more and more of His children allow themselves to be used for His purpose and as the forces of materialism are being driven away.
I go back, with many others, to the spheres where I really belong, to taste for a very short while the joys of spirit life, such as you cannot understand in your limited expression, to see the faces of those we love, who are our teachers, to imbibe of their wisdom, to partake of their power, to hold counsel with the wisest of the wise, to learn how far we have pro-gressed, and where we have failed, to hear the plans that have been unfolded for the great fight that rages ceaselesslyーthe fight between good and evil.
We go to receive encouragement, to mix with those others who work near the planes of matter, and then to come back again so that, filled with the joy of service, we may co-operate with you all and bring the power of the spirit into your midst. I wish I could take you with me, to gaze on the faces of those who serve you, so that you could see the radiance of the light that illumines them, so that you might realize who are those whom the Great Spirit has given to be your guides. But you might only be afraid. It is better that you know us not by our names, but that you judge us by the work that we seek to do in your midst. But, most of all, I wish I could take you all to that vast council chamber, where we all meet to learn how we have fared amongst you.
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Questions and Answers:
WHY did you choose our Easter for the celebration in the spirit world?
We did not choose your Easter. You chose ours.
Was this festival celebrated all over the world at the same time?
To all our races it was celebrated at the same time. When your world began to make a religion of Christianity, it used the symbols of ancient times, because they were the foundations of all religion.
Do the other religions hold a festival in the spirit world at Easter, as well as the Indian communities?
The festival is celebrated throughout the spheres. Those who are Christians celebrate the arisen Nazarene. We who existed in the world of matter long before the Nazarene trod the earth carry into the world of spirit the symbol of our own religion, and make it an occasion for a great festival. At that festival we can learn the wisdom that has still to be revealed to us. We can sit at the feet of teachers greater than ourselves. We can share with others the knowledge that we have learned.