An address given by the Christ messenger Zodiac through the deep trance mediumship of Miss Winifred Moyes,
at the Zodiac Circle, 15 Nightingale Square, London, SW12, on Sunday, 22nd June, 1924.
"Thy grace is sufficient for us, O God. Thy grace is strong enough to override everything on the physical plane, and on Thy grace we lean, knowing that it is as a very Rock and that we are safe because Thou art in command.
"O Saviour Christ, lift up our hearts and minds. Once more we ask Thee to give us the great gift of discernment - to give indeed light in our darkness, so that seeing with the eyes of the spirit, we may be able to look beyond the present and, forgetting the past, to step forward into the Day that has no ending...
"O Christ, heal up those deep wounds of memory - close them over so that the shadows may be powerless to make them ache again. Grant that Thy children may have sufficient trust in Thee to make this possible - grant that Thy love may draw out from them love and renewed faith and certainty in Thy promises...
"...This evening, dear children, we meet together under a somewhat changed aspect, from your point of view, and from my own. And I want you tonight to try and blend your view point in a little more with mine. Companionship over everything is essential - it is dreary work going on alone, whatever path you may have chosen to follow.
"From your point of view things have not worked out quite as you anticipated. Yes, I admit that. You know it is my custom to face truth in all its aspects in a perfectly frank manner. Evasions and the Spirit have nothing in common, as you will find more and more as the days go on.
"Some of my children - perhaps I had better say all of them - have had heartaches over this and that, and at the present moment they are feeling rather as though the storms of life had buffeted them a little too freely, and they ask themselves, and me, as to the cause of it, and why the peace promised for so long is not their own possession.
"Well, my little ones, I will try and explain things to you but, in reality, there is no explanation to give. The fact of the matter is that nothing has gone wrong and nothing is changed. Everything is according to programme, and the pattern is being worked out exactly in the way God intended. You see, it is not easy for you to take that as a feasible or as an adequate explanation, yet a short time hence you will find that I was right and you were wrong - and you won't mind that at all.
"You are so often distracted by those quick moving pictures which are thrown on to the screen of your physical mind by the shadows. Again and again you forget that all the incidents, the catastrophes, and the minor and major tragedies, take place solely in your imagination. You are so absorbed in what the shadows present that you forget that you are, as it were, inside a building watching a mechanical contrivance and losing your own individuality in the one whose career and whose escapades you are watching. It is nothing more than that. Some of you know that it is quite easy to, as you say, 'lose yourself' in this way, and yet in a very short space of time you come out again into that pure, clear air which God provides for all His children in equality... The scene is quickly changed. The next distraction ere you reach your home, for the time being, blocks out those intense feelings which you have experienced in so vivid a manner.
"Cannot you see from this little illustration what has been happening? You have been shutting yourselves away into that dark and airless building of self-deception, and you have been listening to, and watching, something which has been put together by the shadows - put together even as the toy tragedies which are presented by those whose lives are entirely different, for the amusement of the passer-by...
"Well, my children, I am not going to scold you, and I am certainly not in a position to express surprise. Very few there are who, during their earthly experience, do not put themselves through this self-torture over and over again. I call it self-torture because it is a travesty of what is really happening, but do not read into that a lack of sympathy for those pangs of suffering which are part and parcel of the show.
"We who are free - yes, that is a glorious word and almost too much for some - but we who are free, we do not underestimate the wonderful advantage and privilege which is ours. We are free in this sense - that we can see now the mechanism of those actions of the shadows, and once having seen this, no amount of effort or of cleverness would ever make us believe in the reality of what they seek to represent.
"Again you get your parallel. Those who are in front of the stage are often amazed at the beauty of the scenery or at the terrible desolation which the same stage is able to depict in so realistic a manner. On the one hand they are full of admiration and, again, the impression of the horror-side lingers in their mind long after they have left the scene.
"And yet what happens when you see how it has all been put together? The beauty of the foliage is shown to be but make-believe, the flowers are hideous travesties of God's handiwork, the fields, the sky - all this when under close inspection - seems crude and inferior to the critical mind of the looker-on.
"And then, of course, the same applies to the scenes of desolation and of horror. It is very trivial when viewed at close quarters - it is all pretending to be what it is not, and instead of dismay, laughter takes its place - ridicule has killed the power of fear.
"I will not labour the point too much, but I want you to let this little simile take a firm hold on your physical minds. I want you to remember that it is no exaggeration; on the contrary, it is but a poor illustration of what has been taking place. The shadows, at will, are able to create a counterfeit of beauty as well as a counterfeit of evil and disaster. Take it from whence it comes, and turn back to your God who has said: 'Follow Me into the Land of Promise!'
"You see, dear children, that in dilating on your point of view, unconsciously I have told you my own. I have told you that we who are in the Spirit are so certain of our Master. The trust is so complete because we have seen and we know. Don't forget, little ones, that you have not yet seen and yet are asked, in His Name, to believe. The contrast is great, as is evident to you all, and yet it should not be too hard to undertake. It is an undertaking - it is not merely saying to yourselves: 'I will believe and the trust is there', because at the back of your mind you know that that is not quite accurate. It always comes back to this: 'I wish I could believe and I want to look up to God as my Father!'... The second best - yes - but in some cases only because it was the second best shall hereafter the best itself be found your own possession.
"I find it increasingly difficult to carry you with me in thought regarding the enormous capacity of your Saviour for looking after the small things as well as the important ones in the lives of all His little children. It seems to the physical mind, so often, that the multitude upon the face of the earth precludes the possibility of God looking after His own and those, who as yet, do not realise that they belong to Him. To the finite mind it is indeed utterly inconceivable that it should be worked out in actual, literal fact - that not one sparrow falls to the ground which is not noted and cared for by our Lord.
"Here is a point which is not emphasised sufficiently. In the world there is much sacrifice of life one way and another, and as you all know, it often seems most needlessly, it is done to satisfy a whim of man, or is the result of his careless indifference, and people whose sympathies are quickly touched are horrified again and again at the needless massacre of the helpless, which have been entrusted to the care of the children of the earth.
"Well, my little ones, it is no use dwelling on this sad aspect of life because as yet there is still that savage instinct in mankind, which has to work itself out in this way. In time to come those who so acted will suffer, suffer intensely because they so blocked out the God within...
"But my point is this - it is the one which I said is so often overlooked: You are told in your Bible that no sparrow falls to the ground without the knowledge of its Creator (Matt. 10:29), but you are not told in the same definite way that not one bird or animal or even the tiniest insect that suffers, needlessly or necessarily, is not soothed and comforted by God.
" - 'Comforted' is a strange word to use to your minds, but it expresses my meaning exactly. The animal, as it dies in physical agony, is comforted by the Saviour. I want there to be no misunderstanding on this subject. You have been told already that every pang endured throughout creation is borne in three parts by God; and so it should not be an effort for you to understand that the tiniest animal killed - in play or intentionally - by a larger one, is soothed and comforted by Him who is the King of kings and the Lord of all.
"This is the contrast I want to leave on your minds tonight: That God is so mighty, so stupendously powerful, so unthinkably holy - yet only because He is all this, is He able to enter into the pangs and the lives of the most insignificant of His creation.
"Don't you see, my children, that it takes a big mind - a very big mind indeed - to understand in entirety, the workings of the most limited in this respect?
"There is a lot I could tell you on the scientific side but I must wait a little until my child has more confidence in herself. I am hampered by that lack of confidence in a way that none of you, really, have appreciated. In discussing questions which she considers are so entirely beyond her own mental range, unconsciously she hinders me a great deal by her dread of getting on to unfamiliar ground.
"It is well sometimes that this feeling should be there. There have been instruments who have rather recklessly thrown themselves across bridges which they had not first seen were sufficiently secure, and much damage was done to the cause they loved as well as to their own progress. You see you have to find the happy medium in all things - and I am not complaining in any sense of this most natural nervousness in regard to the unknown, I shall work through in my own way, and because of the waiting, the results will be far better than if we had pushed on regardless of temperament or of pitfalls...
"There is tonight, my children, a far greater radiance here than you could imagine, and although it seemed to you in starting that sadness had crept rather close, I should like to say that even that was only another trick of the enemy, and that in this room brightness is reflected from the Realms of the Spirit - and brightness and sadness have nothing at all in common.
"There is a little warning I must give you all, in addition to the one I have already got in, in regard to the physical mind. The warning is this: that you must not allow that physical mind of yours to lay down hard and fast rules as to how the promises are going to be worked out. I emphasise this to Dorrie especially, because I am most anxious that she should not hamper me by allowing herself to be driven by what we will call that rather frisky pony of her physical mind. I speak to you all on this but sometimes it is better to mention one by name...
"My children, tonight I feel I would like to linger a little amongst you. It is not a formal evening like some of those we have when strangers - you call them strangers - are present. Tonight it is rather in the nature of a little chat - just as the responsible ones of a regiment meet together to discuss the day's, or the night's affairs. They don't meet always with elation. Warfare does not bring out that feeling very often, but if the day has been a trying one, when they meet there is always that feeling which counts a lot - the day has been got through with as little damage as possible, and with trust and confidence in each other they gather together to talk over, not only what has been, but to discuss the next move and the best thing to be done on the morrow.
"During those times of trial, great friendships are made. The real man is shown; the courtesy of the heart - or the lack of it - is there for all to see; the manners of the world are laid aside for there is stern work to do and no time can be wasted on non-essentials.
"Shall we say tonight that we meet together in this spirit, knowing each other well - wonderfully well - and with renewed friendship and trust in our hearts. For the time being, I will take the position of the General - the one who leads, the one who wants to direct his little party into security as soon as possible.
"But you will understand me when I say that retreat in no way represents security, but rather presents the greatest danger of all. At the first hint that one side is giving, the enemy gets renewed pluck and doubles his resources, and so as a General who feels his responsibility, I come and talk with you this evening, and I tell you to dig yourselves in. That phrase is very familiar to you now; it implies at once that there is no giving up of the advantage once secured - secured by so much effort, patience and suffering.
"Again and again in physical life, you get your illustrations of what is going on in the Spirit. Those spiritual battles are very wearing indeed. It is even as with the man in the trenches, all he knows is this - that the enemy is facing him, waiting to take advantage of his lack of watchfulness, of his absence from the post of duty - and the two are ruled out at once as quite impossible... He is densely ignorant, and over and over again he exclaims to himself: 'If only I know what was going on, how much easier it would be!'
"Yes, we understand that that is an added disadvantage which has to be grappled with, and yet it is the man's own safeguard. With the finite mind, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. For instance, if I told how the position stood at this moment, you would - quite unconsciously - do all sorts of destructive things, which I should have to reconstruct again, and it would not be an easy matter.
"You see, the physical mind is able only to take in, we will say, a certain amount of rough outline, but the rough outline is not the part that really counts. It is that mass of intricate detail, which lies inside the clear outline - and it is a very delicate thing to meddle with. It has been constructed by the greatest Mind of all, which finds no difficulty in thinking of a million things at once - a million, million things at once.
"You see, little ones, it is better so - it is better that you should hand over your lives into the care of the One who understands everything, who is not distracted by this or by that, Who is concentrating on the one thing - the greatest thing of all - the raising up of humanity and the freedom of the individual soul from self.
"It is better far to leave these things to the Infinite Mind because you know that the Infinite Mind represents Infinite Love as well. It should not be hard - not too hard - for you have been trained thus far to lay your lives before Him and to say with your heart and your minds: 'Do with me what Thou wilt; in Thy Hands I am safe from all adversity!'
"And now I must go. I cannot shut the others out any longer. Try and help my child as much as you can. The pace has been almost too great of late, and there has been damage done to the happiness side which is considerable, even from our point of view. It is easier to knock down than to build up, but in time to come we are going to keep those bricks of joy together by that holdfast which only certainty in God's Love can provide..."
(Others then spoke...)
DR. HUGHES...
"...I've come tonight to say that I have obeyed orders... It is Hughes...
"Mrs. Moyes, you will remember that it has been said that many a true word is spoken in jest. Well, this time it was jest and love and truth all combined. The little girl that I am linked with said that she expected me to come and would be seriously annoyed if I stayed away...
"I wonder if you upon earth can understand just a little of what such peremptory orders mean to us? By you it is said with a laugh and a half apology, because you are talking to those in the Spirit, and you don't know whether it is quite the right thing or quite right way in which to speak to them, but such calls go to our very heart.
"Don't let the shadows make barriers by putting anything in between. If we had known each other better in life, isn't it just the way in which she would have talked to me then: The playful ordering that a child gives to a loving father who is only too anxious to obey? I do wish you to get this quite right. Had it not been for that insistence in her mind that I should come, right from the beginning - after the surprise of my first message - had it not been for that insistence in her heart and mind, I should have been ruled out of these circles for ever.
"Tonight, now that I am here, I want to give you a little help if I can, over some of the things in life which cause a lot of trouble to us when we are in the body...
"You have got to remember that the body is, at one and the same time, the greatest asset that you could have and the greatest interceptor that it is possible to imagine... I won't add: 'The greatest nuisance', which I am sure at least one of you will endorse, but I mention it because I shouldn't like you to think that we don't understand that too.
"The physical body, you must remember, is a great asset not only because it allows us to hurry on our spiritual development, but also because it is the greatest antidote for pain that could be thought of by the compassionate Mind of the Father. You have got your ideas rather mixed up on this point. It seems to you that pain and the body are inseparable, but without the body - in order to bring about the same development which our physical existence allows - the anguish endured would be considerably greater both in depth and in length of time, if carried on in the Spirit.
"I am afraid I have not made that any too clear, and yet it is even as this: In the old days, as you know, pain had to be borne without any anaesthesia at all, but today there are many kinds of anaesthetics which are able to deaden the sensation of pain without robbing the patient of consciousness. That's the position exactly in which the body stands - it acts as a pain-killer, but not to the degree that it blocks out your individuality altogether.
"I mention this because to those who study or think about the Life Beyond, it seems impossible for them to remember that being out of the body does not necessarily mean the great happiness conjured up. I don't want to distress you in any way. Of course, the happiness on our Side is stupendous in its generosity, but it is not so for those who have not suffered. And I am bound to say that were it not for the physical stages, in order to produce the progress which is so precious to us all - that not only would it take longer but, the antidote of the body being removed, the suffering of necessity would be intensely greater.
"You do know already about the sensitiveness of feeling - the extraordinary vibrations - with which the spiritual body is charged and attracts. There is not one pang that comes to those with whom we are in sympathy, that is not immediately registered in us. Their pain and their sad thoughts are sent out upon those vibrations which pierce right through the spiritual realms, and it is impossible for anyone on this side to so entrench themselves that they can escape contacting with the direct current of that which concerns their loved ones on earth.
"I put it in that way because I want you to understand that even if we desired to get beyond the range of these vibrations, we should be powerless to do so. As a matter of fact it would, of course, be the greatest torture to allow the smallest thing to intervene between us and that connecting cord which links us to those upon earth...
"You see, from these few bald words, that the body cannot be despised as a protector. It is not easy to take in that view - but it is so; and I should like you to give it your attention a little more. Of course, you long to be with us, just as we long for you to be free as well, but there is that great consideration to be taken into account. If you came here now, just as you are, you would find happiness altogether inconceivable to yourselves, and in order to produce the spiritual progress which I see will be accomplished before your earthly race is run, your sufferings would be immeasurably greater and extended over a period, too long for me to express in words.
"You see, in saying this, I am not contradicting the fact that great happiness would now be yours, but the mere fact that it was yours would only make you all the more anxious to climb and to get nearer to the Saviour - who bought us with so great a price.
"Then, in regard to the body being a deceiver or interceptor: You have heard already this evening a lot about that, and I only want to say one thing more, and that is that although the body seems to mislead you, yet it is not the hindrance that you so often imagine - it does not really stand between you and God... Even those physical conditions which, apparently, erect such insurmountable barriers - they don't really do anything but this: Because of your need, the Good Shepherd gathers you into His arms, and because you are so hampered in the upward climb He gives in an unlimited way, which is only possible because of your unconsciousness of the perils which surround you...
"I am afraid I have done rather badly over this but it is all true though crudely put. The body is at one and the same time your greatest asset and your greatest hindrance, from your own point of view, but when you come here you will find, as I did, that the asset and the hindrance were one, and it was only what seemed to be and not what was really the case..."
MISS BROOKS...
"...Yes, it's Teresa. I am so different tonight - it is simply wonderful coming like this. You remember last time and that wretched time before - and then there was the working out. It was sad work for this reason - that I knew it could have been avoided. I am sure you can sympathise with me over this. When a thing is what you call 'inevitable' - well, you put up with it; but when you see that you yourself have done a foolish thing and one that you didn't mean to do, it is dreary work going back making up for the unwatchful moment.
"But tonight once more the slate is clean, and I've come because I think, perhaps, I can help you all, for the reason that I did have rather a rough time myself...
"I want to speak particularly to Dorrie and Margaret and Winnie, because so often I see in their lives the reflection of what I felt a hundred, hundred times.
"Well, I want to say tonight that that tired feeling - that sense of being caught up on a wheel and sent round and round without any hope of cessation - it is a terrible feeling when upon earth but, do you know, when I came over here, I saw the spiritual counterpart of those wretched, dreary days - the getting up in the morning, the slogging all day, and then the going back at night to nothing and sometimes disappointment and disharmony as well. I used to think that those days would be written on my heart for ever, and so they are, but oh, in just the opposite way to what I imagined...
"I was telling you about the spiritual counterpart, but it is not easy to find words which will convey anything to your physical minds. It is so often the dreary tasks that produce the best over here. You've heard that so often that it has become a truism, but I particularly want to emphasise tonight that that sense of weariness and of oppression is not there in your lives except for one purpose, and that is to give you stamina - spiritual stamina.
"Now, when I was going through the same thing myself, if anyone had told me that, I should have said: 'But it has the opposite effect - it has killed whatever spirituality there was in me'. You see, I do understand, and I know how you feel, Dorrie, and how you feel, Margaret, and often I am in Fleet Street with Winnie, living the old days over again. But oh, how differently I see things now. Don't worry if you cannot see them as I want you to see them, but do try and take in something of the comfort of the thought that because you cannot understand it is not worse for you, but better - better because it went harder, and you felt as though you were blindfolded and being driven on to what you couldn't see.
"Do you know, Mrs. Moyes, if I had my time over again, I should be a teacher. I was always fond of children, and I see now that had I been a teacher I could have produced much more from the years I spent on earth than I did by the work I took up. Of course, it was all according to plan, but it is so often the case when people come here and see things as they are, they know at once then what would have brought out the best in them. It only means, of course, that they take up the work directly they have found their feet and got used to the conditions on this side. I've got a huge class - it is like my ambition, isn't it, the wholesale mind, as Ethel would have said - but already I have found out that in trying to explain things - even the things of the earth - to the young makes me understand them so much better myself. We are learning together, really - it is only that I am called the teacher. When you think of me, will you remember that part of my time is spent with hordes of children. They are mostly children who are going through their earthly experiences, and they gather together in the sleep state in order to get a little change. We do wonders, really, during the hours of sleep, and the children clamour to come again.
"I find that that affectionate side of me, Mrs. Moyes, has got all the scope it needs now, and although I've got a terrible lot to learn, yet it seems to me that it is only a question, in so many ways, of readjustment rather than re-learning. I find that my father did so much to prepare my mind before I passed over, that it was only like going back over the pages to refresh one's memory...
"Goodbye for just a little while. I shall not have to wait so long next time because, you see, I have learnt my lesson properly. Everything is happiness itself, not only for me but for you all - happiness itself. Oh, if you could only see it - if you could only see it..."
(Zodiac returned and continued...)
"...Well, my children, I am sure you will agree with me when I say that once more we have despatched the bogey-man over the border, and please let us keep him there in future.
"I don't want you to think that I was unduly sad tonight. It is not my wish to leave that impression with you. I could not be happy while my children were grieving, but it was only that which made me seem sad at all. Directly they are a little happier then I am happier too. So you see there is a lot of responsibility placed upon you and upon us all. If I seem sad then instantly I give your own sadness a deeper tone, and when my little ones are unhappy, then unhappiness finds expression in my heart in a way which I am glad it would be impossible for you to understand.
"So tonight we close this evening on the lines of perfect understanding, perfect unity, and not only with the promise of happiness to come but with happiness in our midst. Yes, it is so in very truth, and when I said the Dawn had come, I did not mean that the day which was hurrying on in its steps was going to be subject to an eclipse of the sun.
"That's how you have taken it, but that's not my idea of day, and certainly is directly opposed to God's Perfect Day.
"You see, dear children, in the physical world these things happen occasionally: The sun shines out boldly and with confidence, but slowly and surely a dense body moves between you and your fount of light, or so it seems to you, and a strange, unnatural darkness descends upon the day. Yes, we all know a lot about those eclipses during our earthly life. It is one of the favourite moves of the shadows because it is a direct blow at the Sun of God's Love which is there to shine upon His little children in unrestricted power and glory.
"The circumstances of life, the attacks upon the strength of the body - all is used for the one important purpose - to bring about the unnatural darkness and to prove that day is night instead.
"When you think things over with your loved - and certainly your most loving companion - it all seems very simple, even if there is rather a terrible note of memory which runs alongside of it. It is only when you are facing the facts alone that you lose your sense of proportion, and even as the ignorant on earth today think that the blotting out of the sun for a short space of time heralds the end of the world, so do you, my little ones, think that the passing shadow means goodbye to happiness for ever so far as physical life is concerned.
"I want you to remember that the day will break, and the shadows fly away at any moment, when you can find within yourself that real earnest desire to contact with your Maker. It is not easy, but even the first trying brings you into better conditions at once. Later on, instinctively you will turn to Christ as the most natural thing to do when the first tiny shade overcasts the sun which is shining on your lives now and always.
"Remember - try to remember next time, that these experiences are nothing more than an eclipse of the sun, which means that for a tiny period out of the long existence of your spirit - for this speck of time - something has forced itself between you and your Creator, and lo, even as you recognise the fact, the shade will pass and it will be day again - day with its blue skies, its many beauties, its safety, and its companionship. It is the day-time of the spirit, and as that spirit grows, so more and more will it be able to lengthen that daytime until at last night will be no more...
"Into God's perfect day - which means perfect understanding, perfect unity, and perfect Love, for ever and for ever.
"God bless you all and keep you in the brightness of His Face... Amen."
Download Nine Volumes of Zodiac Messages (book-form PDFs)
Download nine printable PDF books of Zodiac Messages containing unaltered
chronologically-ordered scripts from the Zodiac Circle before the first public appearance
(New Revelation, 1923-1928)
Download an executable file of every Zodiac Message on this website to read on a computer
(ranging from 1923-1957)
