December 13, 2012

• The unbroken circle of creation

• The universe is a living entity that is part of a greater one

• Living multiple existences simultaneously

• Dreams are a bridge to a broader reality

• Religious beliefs are a kind of magic

God, who is your Creator, is with each of you and surrounds all with love and light and with the warmth of a spiritual fire that brings comfort and alleviation and peace —peace that is your inner peace. God’s connection to every one of you, whether or not a part of this group, is an association, a kind of binding fire, that blends, molds, creates, unifies, for it is God’s intention that all human beings acknowledge the existence of a Spirit Center. It is important that all acknowledge their Source from whence they come.

Your human life, your spiritual life, the lives of all people are, as we have said so often, closely related, a kind of unity, a unity made up of parts, but a unity that has a kind of identification. Just as the various parts of the human body are identified as being human, so each of you is identified as being God, as being an integral part of the Spirit that is the Center and the Creator of all.

You are given life to share the journey of creation, for God has not completed creation. Creation is not something that had a beginning and has an anticipated ending. Difficult as it is to fully grasp, there is no beginning to creation. We say that God created all, but it is also true that all are part of what creates God. It is a circle that is unbroken, and yet the circle has an identity. Having an identity does not mean there is a beginning and an end, but merely that it is. God is. You are. All that exists is.

It seems to defy understanding to conceive of a reality that had no beginning, no point before which there was nothing. The universe as you perceive it had a beginning in terms of the characteristics that you can identify, but the universe, your universe, is a kind of living entity that is part of a far greater one. Just as your souls are part of the totality of Spirit Center, your universe is part of the totality of All That Exists. It is indeed part—it is not an entity itself.

Science reaches ever far back in time and tries to explain the origins of the universe, but in fact what is explained is only the apparent origins of what it is that human beings can know. But there is no limit, there is no point at which humankind will reach a conclusion that states in effect, “Before something happened, there was nothing.” That point will never happen, for it is impossible to find the beginning of a perfect circle. You know it exists. You know it has its identity, its shape, its characteristics, but it never has a beginning.

Your sense of time, your sense of space is in fact an attempt to provide a logic to what it is that surrounds your experience as human beings. While such efforts, such attempts, such descriptions can provide meaning to your lives, in fact they don’t describe your lives, for each of you lives on numerous levels simultaneously. We talk about our plane of existence, the spiritual plane. There is mention of the human plane. There is mention of other life-forms. There is mention of other universes. All of these levels are inhabited by you, individually and collectively. You exist on earth, but you also have a life of spirit. You also have a life that occupies a kind of life-form that you are fully unaware of. The fact that you have no understanding for such life-forms has no bearing on the reality of such existence. Your spirits, your souls, are the bridge. It is your soul which joins so many levels together, and yet it is the human life-form that tries to place meaning and significance on that part of the spectrum that can be observed, that can be contemplated, that can be tested, that can be affirmed through its effects. You are your neighbor, but you are also in part life-forms that are totally different from the human form.

Sometimes you speak of dreams and the intensity of those dreams. Those dreams are part of the bridge that connects you with what is human and what is not. You have glimpses of a portion of what is real, and from those glimpses, from those dreams, you can frequently draw knowledge and insight. The mind of the human being is capable of attaching to these bridges of consciousness. The mind can grasp, even momentarily, life-forms that you have no direct knowledge of. It is through the experiencing of dreams that you begin to develop a deeper understanding of broader reality, of what life truly is.

What is magic other than an encounter, not with unreality but with a portion of something you don’t understand. You experience the wonders of a great magician, but you also frequently remind yourselves that there was a trick, there was some plausible explanation for what was observed but not understood. Religious beliefs are a kind of magic, for they connect you in some way to the mysteries of life and the mysteries of what happens after human life.

One of you spoke of the wonder of early civilizations that were devoted to the importance of what was referred to as the afterlife. There was much mystery associated with afterlife. There is much mystery associated with the stories found in sacred texts of all religions. The course of religion is a course in the attempt to understand what is not known, but in the attempt, in the experience of the magic, the experience of prayer, the experience of worship, you do connect in your own way to a part of the ultimate truth.

Magic is experiencing what is unknown, but it is also in its way a connection however obscure to something that is known. Your connection to a magician is a connection to someone who knows something that you do not yet fully comprehend. There is therefore truth in a magician, for a magician cannot create something that cannot be done. A magician can only manipulate the appearance of something that is possible.

So it is with religious study, religious pursuits. You are in the process connecting in a significant way to ultimate truths. What you see is not what is there. What you see in another is not truly what is there. You see a form of what is there but not its substance. Pursuit of religions gives you an opportunity to see a representation of what is truly present, but you do not fully see what is.

Our opportunities to work with you as your guides in a way are analogous to your encounter with magic, for you do not fully understand how we exist. Sometimes you question whether we exist, but the truth is we do exist. The truth is we see your lives in ways that you do not see. The truth is we comprehend God’s presence in a way you cannot comprehend.

All of this points in the direction of looking for evidence that has meaning for each of you, to reality, to God. The smallest experience can be evidence of the existence of greater truths. Human life in a way is a symbol. You are symbols. You are representations of something that is not understood, something that is in its way greater. All of creation is a representation of something beyond what it appears to be. The air you breathe is understood by you in limited form, and yet it is very real. The music of the spheres was believed to be an important component of life. The music of the spheres was a representation of a portion of reality. Your lives therefore are part of what seems to be a great mystery, and yet as each encounter provides, the mystery is gradually unfolded, is gradually revealed. In human life part of that unfolding occurs, but as you continue life beyond the human representation, you become more aware of what lies behind the mystery.

We are here to help you become more aware of what lies beyond. No one knows the whole story. Even the magician does not fully understand why certain things work. Yes, perhaps at one level, but there is always a deeper level.

You should welcome the opportunities for mystery. You should welcome the opportunity to encounter what you don’t understand, and yet recognize that in your engagement you are gradually unfolding that mystery. You are gradually becoming more deeply connected to what it is that gives life, to what it is that creates who you are and why you are and why everything is. Always welcome the mystery, for in its way the mystery provides a context to even greater understanding.

Your guides respond to your lives in two ways. One is unfolding some of that mystery. The second is presenting you with an awareness of even greater mysteries. There is no beginning to the circle, and yet as you travel along the rim, you begin to realize the reality that there is no beginning, there is no end, but there is identity. There is reality. There is a continuum of existence. There is a continuum to creation, and as you travel along that continuum, you gain greater understanding of that shape, that identity, and your place upon it.

Life is truly a circle—a circle of understanding, a circle of journeys. You move forward, and you see the connection of all. And you understand once and for all that as you travel on this ring, since there is no beginning and no end, it cannot be said that any one place on its surface is further ahead than another. There are only those who travel on the surface of this circular path. For some, it may appear that there are those ahead. For some, it may appear that there are those who are behind. There is no ahead or behind. There is only the circle. There is only God’s creation, and you are a part of that circle. You are a part of that creation, and all segments collectively become the circle itself.

Find ways to affirm that your lives, your pathways, are on a circular route, and that there are no leaders or followers. There are only fellow travelers.

As you enter this season of renewal, stop for a moment and contemplate your position as belonging to all that is, and contemplate the position of all others you know as belonging to where they are. You are not ahead, you are not behind, but you are always with. We, your guides, are not ahead of you, we’re not behind you, we are with you, for we travel your path. You’re always in the company of God, in the company of your guides, in the company of All That Is. Rejoice in the renewal! Rejoice in the reaffirmation of unity!

Amen.