Tag Archives: The Rays of Initiation

With Gratitude And High Expectation

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With gratitude and high expectation

It is the season for the worldwide community of the New Message from God to observe the Steps Vigil. This is a 20-day period (May 26-June 14). In this period in 1989, Marshall Vian Summers received the book Steps to Knowledge. This took place in Albany, New York without any public attention. There are many posts in this space regarding the annual Steps Vigil, here, here and here.

With gratitude and high expectation

Many books have dedications where the author chooses to honor a particular person. Some book dedications are literature in and of themselves. Steps to Knowledge has a dedication as well. I have never gotten around to sharing it, but today seems like a good time.

Dedication

“This method is given to
all students of Knowledge in the world
with gratitude and high expectation
from your Spiritual Family.
Follow the instructions as they are given.
In this way, the power and efficacy of this work
will be revealed to you and, therefore,
Our gift to you will have been given.
It is with great excitement
that We bestow this upon you
and through you upon your world.”

Who are the students of Knowledge in the world? Like gold, they are where you find them. There are students of Steps to Knowledge in many countries, speaking many languages. We are following an invisible light. And yet, we are also choosing to take each step.

Who is my Spiritual Family? Steps to Knowledge speaks of it in a number of the 365 steps. Relationships I have reclaimed over a long time. A group of learners. Those who gave me a mission in the world.

Steps to Knowledge stresses the importance of following the steps as they are given in multiple steps. Sometimes I have looked at the directions and wondered, “I can do that? I must be able to if they are telling me to.”

With gratitude and high expectation. I feel the emotions expressed in this dedication. For me, it is as if it is known that Steps to Knowledge would make people more able to serve an emerging world.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

An Unseen Inner Work

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Bono and The Edge. An unseen inner workWhy don’t some people see what you see? Why don’t you see what other people see? There must be more to it than just someone telling someone something. It is as if there is an unseen inner work going on as well. The New Message from God speaks of this unseen inner work in the revelation “The Rays of Initiation,” received by Marshall Vian Summers in July of 2012.

An unseen inner work

The Angelic Assembly is looking for a particular kind of person. A kind of person who has undergone a certain ripening. Not everyone has undergone, or even desired, this ripening. It seems like a good idea to take Rainer Maria Rilke, and some other poets, as companions on this journey. Rilke draws a distinction:

They wanted to bloom
and to bloom is to be beautiful.
But we want to ripen,
and for that we open ourselves to darkness and travail.

How do the Angelic Orders find such a person? By the response to the spirit of the quest, and the readiness to respond to a greater purpose and a greater calling in life.

How does a person develop the readiness to respond to a greater purpose and a greater calling in life? They recognize there is more to life than satisfying the cravings of the animal soul. They are calling for something more permanent and essential to their true nature. As Rachel of old cried out to her husband Jacob “Give me children, or I’ll die!” (Genesis 30:1, New International Version), these people cry out “Give me the truth of my life, give me my real life, or I’ll die!”

What do the Angelic Hierarchies do when they find such a ripened person? They shine Great Rays. Great Rays of light and power. Great Rays which start reckoning and evaluation, many stages of initiation, a great turning point. Great Rays which are shined on the changeless part of a person, bypassing the intellect.

And what happens after that? It’s a long and winding road. Many changes, many reevaluations of things. I imagine that Jacob had an experience such as this during his night of wrestling. Rilke wrote of that night:

What is extraordinary and eternal does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestlers’ sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.

There is more that could be said about “The Rays of Initiation,” but I believe I have made a proper introduction of an unseen inner work.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Who If I Cried Out Would Hear Me?

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crying-out1 Who if I cried out would hear me?In the opening line of the Duino Elegies, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) cried out “Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the Angelic Orders?” In the next few lines, he confessed that the terror of his cry being heard outweighed the longing of his cry, saying “And so I hold myself back, and swallow the cry of a darkened sobbing.”

Who if I cried out would hear me?

But the very fact that Rilke was even able to contemplate such a thing showed that he had some of the frame of heart spoken of by the New Message from God revelation “The Rays of Initiation.”

Perhaps some introductions are in order. “The Rays of Initiation” is one of roughly 900 revelations received by Marshall Vian Summers from 1982 to the present. These revelations were recorded on audio, and transcribed shortly after they were received. This particular revelation was received in July of 2012. The audio for this revelation is available at the link.

While I have been actively engaged with the New Message from God since 2010, I freely admit that words like “rays” and “initiation” are not part of my native spiritual vocabulary. The references to the Great Rays in A Course in Miracles made a lovely whooshing sound as they went over my head in 1987. The parts I understood were challenging enough.

The spring of 2010 was a difficult time for me. About a year and a half before that, I was approved for Social Security disability due to Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. I received this designation relatively late in life, at the age of 51. I considered it the refutation of my life. I could see in my mind’s eye the word “LOSER” in large, black letters on my forehead and my right hand. I could see in my mind’s eye the U.S. Government designating me as the human equivalent of filler meat, pink slime. Who if I cried out would hear me? I didn’t cry out to anyone in particular. I cried out to whom it may concern, “What am I good for?” A voice in my mind’s ear answered “You’re good for finding Knowledge.” I knew what this meant because I had studied Steps to Knowledge shortly after it was received in 1989.

My original plan was to write a post unpacking the contents of “The Rays of Initiation.” Between December of 2013 and now, I have written three such posts unpacking the contents of an individual revelation. I will still do this, just not in this post.

Who, if I cried out, would hear me? I realize this may sound a bit presumptuous, but I dare to claim my cry was heard.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Доверять внутреннему руководству

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Доверять внутреннему руководству

Картинка “Исцеляющее присутствие” любезно представлена Брюсом Харманом

For English version click here.

По мере того, как я занимаюсь Шагами к Знанию, я учусь доверять внутреннему руководству. Шаг 22. Я окружен божественными учителями подтверждает эту мысль.

Шаг 22 гласит прямо: «Ты окружен божественными учителями. Они присутствуют, чтобы любить, поддерживать и направлять тебя».

Как мне свойственно, однако, я не могу писать об опыте своего занятия Шагами без упоминания своего сомнения и скептицизма.

В своих записях по этому шагу я написала:

«Сколько я себя помню, я всегда верила в присутствие ангелов, в то, что существует благосклонная сила, которая присматривает за мной, и даже надеялась, что есть у меня личный ангел-хранитель. Когда я медитирую, я могу себе представить эту силу, вызывать в воображении этих божественных учителей, даже почувствовать их любовь и поддержку. Но, увы, за этим почти сразу следует сомнение. А что если это просто мое предположение, может быть я всего лишь верю тому, чему я хочу верить (Шаг 5)?

Мой ум – удивительная вещь. Он может вызывать что угодно в воображении, но кто знает, правда ли это или нет?

Когда я занималась этим шагом, я заодно также читала ещё один текст Нового Послания, который называется «Лучи Пробуждения».

Этот духоносный текст начинается:

Сила и Присутствие наблюдает за тобой
И за всеми людьми мира
В ожидании тех, кто готов
В ожидании тех, кто готов пробуждаться
После долгого сна
Тщетных желаний и разочарования
Наблюдает за миром
В ожидании тех людей,
Которые ищут свободу.
А не просто внешнюю свободу
Но и внутреннюю свободу
В ожидании того момента
Когда человек будет готов.

Доверять внутреннему руководству

После того, как я прочитала этот текст, я дальше написала в своих записях:

“Сила и Присутствие – подразумевает ли это то внутреннее руководство, те божественные учителя? Я читаю и перечитываю Лучи Пробуждения. Первое, что пришло на ум – я не готова, я ещё сплю, я пока не пробудилась, я что-то пропустила, что-то жизненно важно. Это  было для меня момент смирения.

“Потом я подумала: Как же так? У меня ведь были моменты пробуждения в своей жизни. Не от отчаяния или разочарования, а скорее в связи с поиском чего-нибудь более существенного, более достоверного, более постоянного, более жизненно важного. В прошлом было именно так, до того как, я переехала в Россию… Теперь того, что я искала, существует в моей жизни. Получается, что я на самом деле пробудилась уже, окликнула тому внутреннему зову, который зовет к более значительному предназначению в этом мире, а теперь уже живу той жизнью, которая суждена для меня сейчас. Не так ли? Или я на самом деле что-то пропустила? Пропустила что-то жизненно важно?”

Нет, всё-таки нет. Сегодня я чувствую себя более уверена, меньше сомневаюсь. У меня ещё есть вопросы, но я учусь доверять внутреннему руководству.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.

Trusting My Inner Guidance

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Trusting my inner guidance

This beautiful painting called Healing Presence is brought to us courtesy of Bruce Harman at Harman Visions

In practicing Steps to Knowledge, I am trusting my inner guidance. This is confirmed in Step 22. I Am Surrounded By The Teachers Of God.

Step 22 states in no uncertain words:

You are surrounded by the teachers of God. They are here to love, support and direct you.

As always though, I cannot write about my experience and practice of Steps without mentioning my doubt and skepticism.

My notes for this Step say:

“As far back as I can remember, I have always believed in angels, in a benevolent power looking after me, and even hoped there might be a personal angel just for me. I can visualize this presence, these Teachers of God, when I meditate, and even feel their love and support, but unfortunately, even here, doubt creeps in. Am I not just believing what I want to believe (Step 5)?

“My mind is an amazing thing, I can convince myself of anything I want, but is this the Truth?”

Today I realize again that I have no trouble feeling the presence of these Teachers of God, I can even see them in my mind’s eye and feel their support. But I also ask the same question as Douglas, are they merely a mental construct?

When I did this Step, my attention was drawn to a New Message teaching called “The Rays of Initiation.” 

This is a very powerful text that begins:

The Power and the Presence watches over you
And all people in the world
Waiting for those
Who are ready
Waiting for those
Who are ready to awaken
From their deep sleep
Of desire and disappointment
Watching over the world
Waiting for those minds
That seek freedom.
Not just an outer freedom
But an inner freedom
Waiting for the moment
Of readiness
In the individual.

Trusting my inner guidance

My notes continue after reading this teaching:

“The Power and Presence – I am wondering if this is the same as the Teachers of God? I have been reading and rereading the Rays of Initiation. My first reaction was that I feel I am missing some vital point, I am not ready, I am still asleep, and this was a very humbling thing to feel.

“Then I wondered ‘How can this be?’ since I have had many ‘awakening’ experiences, although not born of despair and frustration, but rather from seeking for something more real, more authentic, more permanent and more essential – that has certainly been my experience in the past, until I moved to Russia . . . Now all those things I sought are present in my life. So I am wondering, did I respond to my greater calling, greater purpose back then, before I was conscious of all that is presented in the New Message? And now I am living my real life, the life I was destined to live at this time? Or am I indeed missing some vital point?

“I am thinking that it must be possible for people to respond to their greater calling unconsciously.”

Today I feel more certain, more confident. I still have questions, but I am trusting my inner guidance.

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Welcome to Mystery of Ascension! We are students and advocates of the the New Message from God. We are members of a worldwide community. We seek to assist the world in successfully navigating difficult times ahead. We seek to assist the world in successfully emerging into a greater community of intelligent life. You will also find some poetry. Find out more about us here. Contact us here.