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, 12th October, 1924.
"Understanding Father, we come into Thy Presence once more with faith, with hope and with the assurance that Thou wilt send down the necessary strength - will so knit together the ties between the physical and spiritual worlds that it may be possible to do what Thou hast ordained shall be done this evening - and that we, conscious of having lent ourselves to this most holy work, shall be invigorated not only with physical strength but with that far more powerful strength of the Spirit.
"O God, prepare our hearts and minds still more. Grant that we may instinctively attune ourselves to the highest, and that we may forsake for ever those calls of attraction which the shadows use in order to delay Thy children...
"And then, O Father, we thank Thee with full hearts for the care which Thou hast extended to us, for the quietness of spirit, and for the determination to go on in spite of everything. We thank Thee too that, in a measure, burdens have been lightened, and we know that as we thank Thee, in the future we shall see Thy Love extended again and again until we are caught up into that perfect harmony which only unity with Thy laws and with Thy great plan can bring to anyone, either on the earth plane or in the realms beyond.
"O Christ, give us of Thy patience, of Thy great, great patience with which Thou meetest all the thoughts of mankind - Thy great patience and understanding of limitations, of blindness, of hardness of heart - give us patience with others, and extend still more Thy magnificent patience to us so that we, certain and secure on all sides, may go on with unfaltering steps, with hope in our hearts and with faith to guide us all the way. Amen...
"...Good evening, my children, and I hope tonight we are going to finish up on a little brighter note than last week. I want you to understand that these tests must be given, and must be accepted with as much willingness as is possible. It seems strange to you that the test should be applied when the physical condition is at its lowest, and I am quite willing to grant that this is a perfectly reasonable attitude to take up.
"Still, you can follow me when I say that as the test had to come, had to be faced, and had to be triumphed over - it would have been absurd to have attempted it if the conditions had been sufficiently favourable to have done away with the test. You see, dear children, it is no use fencing these things. You must realise - indeed I cannot rest until that realisation is your own - you must realise that the very word 'test' implies a strain - it implies a strain even to the breaking point - but because God is in command of this little company, never shall the breaking point be reached, because at that stage the Shepherd steps in, and gathering His little flock into the safety of His Arms, bids them forget.
"I want you to apply this, if you can, to the details of your daily life - to those important happenings which have a way of going wrong in spite of your best endeavours. I do wish that each time you could sufficiently detach yourselves from these incidents to say: 'It is but a test and I will take it in the right way'.
"Of course, being human and to a certain extent at the mercy of the nervous system, it is not easy even to try and adopt this attitude, far less attain it. But again I remind you that this also is part of the test itself, and moreover, Christ is there to steady you - not there criticising your feeble efforts as so many think - but there in a truly helpful, father-like, understanding way, just as you yourself would watch a child with a hand ready, yet unseen by the little one, to catch it as it falls.
"You see, dear children, that when I translate things from the earth way into the spiritual way, it all seems comparatively clear and easy to follow out, and you shall find yet that this is not a delusion - that by keeping close to the Great Spirit, the strength will come, and you shall know within yourselves that it is easy to accomplish for love of Him.
"And now having made that clear - and I like to clear up things as soon as I can after the experience has been weathered, although it seems to you that you could name several incidents during the time when we have been together in this loving companionship, that you could put your finger on this and on that which still requires a feasible explanation. Well, dear children, try and trust me just a little longer and believe what your leader states, without any qualification whatever, that he longs to give the necessary explanation as soon after each test as possible.
"Now, tonight I am going to speak of a cheerful subject, one which I think will leave an impression on your minds that things are not so bad as they seemed, that the sunshine outside was not only outside, but a little has trickled in and will remain your own possession.
"There are many in the world today who have thought deep, sad thoughts on the subject of: 'Waiting'.
"In that word is summed up far more than any of you can grasp at this stage, but I am going to draw the veil aside a little and give you a bird's eye view of the inner meaning - God's meaning - in regard to 'Waiting'.
"Go back over your lives - and there are few, dear children, who are not in the same position - go back and you will find that the most vivid impressions left upon your physical memory are concerned with waiting - waiting for welcome news; waiting for reassurance of material things; waiting for the word of love which should come after an estrangement; waiting for your ship to come in - that beautiful ship of the Spirit that carries the priceless merchandise of happiness - and you wait and wait.
"Yes, we see this very clearly, and to those who thought that they waited alone, then tonight I dissipate that notion once and for all. No one on earth has ever been through the experience of waiting alone, and never, never will. The mere fact that anxiety presses, immediately brings into your circle the Messengers of God, and could you but see it you would know that they did not come empty-handed - they came with the gifts of the Spirit, and all around was beauty being built up to steady you against the following disappointment.
"And now you know why it is that people say: 'I'd rather hear the worst - it is the suspense I cannot bear!' When they have heard the worst, then do those gifts brought to them - some from very distant spheres indeed - then do they make a showing, and so curiously enough, when the so-called 'blow' has fallen, the victim feels lighter-hearted than before.
"I said 'curiously' because I was trying to look at things from your point of view and not from ours. It is as simple as A.B.C. to us - the preparation, the bulwarks of protection have been built up by those in the Spirit, and thus when evil has done its part, peace comes instead of added distress.
"Well, dear children, we have got a little way from the happy aspect - and yet could I show you that brighter side, if I did not assure you first that I understand all the ins and outs of the sorrow-pains of waiting? When we grow older, pangs of waiting are less severe. To the young they are very bitter indeed; time seems so long and the knife cuts very deep.
"With the young then, we have greater sympathy still because they so little understand what is going on underneath. They sail their little craft on shallow waters, and so instead of foundering in the ocean of suffering, they find that in a surprisingly short time they feel the bottom, and lo, all that is submerged is just a tiny part of them. No lifeboat is needed there - and for this we thank God for His understanding Love and His protection of those who, as yet, are young in experience...
"Then you get the Law of Compensation. Later on in life, perchance, big troubles come, and then indeed the lifeboat of hope is needed urgently to save and to restore. But did I not say that age brings patience, that the pangs of waiting are lessened as the days go on? And so you see again how everything is thought of and provided against; and because the waters in this instance may be deep and dangerous, so is the help at hand, and, ere they sink, Christ - using us or sometimes preferring to do it direct Himself - Christ steps to their side and all is well.
"When you are old - as the world calls age - then to those who have thought and tried to gather in something of the wisdom which abounds on every side, a glimmering comes of the Divine purpose running right through. And instead of regarding waiting as a penance, rather do they take it as a reprieve - and why? Because they know that by waiting, they are working out much which otherwise would remain, and so even as a reprieve they regard the waiting for God to take them home, to release them from the pains of the body, from the infirmities of old age, the weariness and the lack of companionship - because so many have gone on before - they take it all as a further extension of God's grace so that when they indeed come home they may find that, as far as they were able, their little bit of the pattern has been worked in with care.
"My children, when you come home you will think just the same as I do, but with this difference: You will understand yourselves and your attitude towards physical life far less than I do. Now this perhaps may sound strange to you. It would seem that remembrance, being so keen, you would be enabled by the memory of pain to understand why this went so hard and that. But no, still you retain to a large extent the limitations of physical thinking, and because you are incapable of getting things in their right perspective, you will condemn freely and without mercy that other self who, it seems to you, did so badly.
"That comes to all, both the so-called good as well as those who seldom put up a fight, but on those who wished to love God best the whip falls hardest. Yet again you want to know how it is that I, who certainly wish to love God with all my being, how I can take a lenient view of things.
"My answer is: Only by the result of much experience, of watching the inward thoughts of strugglers upon the earth plane, of being with them in their loneliness and chill, and of living through the pains of the body over and over again; but not in sorrow - in joy, because I see, as well as feel, that in so doing both of us are a little nearer to Christ, our Master and our King.
"There is, dear children, not one pang, not one half thought, half wish - good, bad or indifferent - that I do not understand; and when I say 'I understand', it means that I am able to look at things from the angle at which you see them at the time - but the great difference is this: That you see your tiny angle only, whereas I, seeing it precisely as you do - and I emphasise this most emphatically - can also see the beauty, the plan, the working out, and the happiness which lies in front.
"Now, dear children, I want you first of all to take from this comfort in the thought of your companionship over waiting, and then, as we have despatched the added pang of solitude, to look a little deeper and a little higher and to see with the eyes of the spirit the wonderful weaving in, in regard to the garment of the spirit, that 'waiting' is able to bring into being. You have all heard something about the garments of the spirit, how they are created by each individual out of effort, out of that purification which is going on imperceptibly to you, but definitely - and in some cases with God-given swiftness - all the time.
"Now, you know that upon earth people look very different according to their attire, and many times you have exclaimed over the transformation that beautiful clothing has upon the physical features of the one concerned. My children, that is a crude illustration but it must do for now. Is it not cheering to think that instead of providing for your spirit a garment that is only just a little better than the one you are wearing now - isn't it cheering to think that by a little extra concentration, added care, and perhaps the pangs which go with these things until they are rightly understood, that you can, by patience, provide for yourself loveliness indeed? It seems to me - and you would agree at once if I could show you just a faint reflection of the glory of the spirit within - if you could have this reflection for one second thrown on your mind, you would say indeed that the outer covering must be as beautiful as you can possibly make it.
"Lovely things need loveliness, even if they are shut in and apparently hidden. You could not, any of you, take an object of beauty and drape it with rags. At once the unsuitability of such a covering would offend you through and through. 'No!' you would say: 'The best I can procure!' And so just in the same way, I explain to you that those periods of waiting, when it seems to you that greyness is within and without - that those periods are weaving together a garment as beautiful as can be imagined, according to your development, and that later on that garment is going to be worn by the spirit within.
"Everywhere, however far you go or however close you may look into the mundane details of daily life, there you will find that with the thing itself the meaning runs side by side - that nothing happens that is not two-fold, that has not its physical and spiritual significance. And so, of necessity, the question of the Hand of God resting heavily on this one and on that, falls to the ground - it is absurd on the face of it.
"What is happening is simplicity itself. Certain souls there are, determined to make full use of the opportunity provided, have set themselves the task of weaving a garment worthy of the glory within or, indeed, as nearly worthy as their powers permit. And thus it is that the sorrowful, the seemingly forsaken, are blessed indeed.
"They are those who, hereafter, will prove the successes; and the failures will be those who, viewing them with pitying contempt, took what the world had to offer, and - to their anguish when realisation comes - find that instead of a garment of beauty and of power indeed they are fettered in mail, and until the soul within can release itself from its entombment, so must they suffer and so must they work until they have found sufficient strength to emerge from the gloom of the prison of self into the brightness of service to others.
"My children, you will gather from these few words, that instead of time being wasted by 'waiting', it is used to its fullest extent. You will realise from now that hindrances, setbacks, disappointments - why, they are providing just those golden threads which will be needed for the garment which you will don with so much joy and freedom in the days to come.
"And remember that you were told before that those who wish to love and serve the Master are able to put on, ere physical life is ended, those beautiful garments of the spirit which, even to your limited vision, are reflected by the bodily presence. Have you not said that there are certain ones who, though still in the body, are able to reflect the brightness of the Spirit? These, dear children - as I have said - are wearing, during the physical stages, the garment of the spirit, which can be seen by those who have spiritual sight and spiritual understanding.
"The impression I want to leave on your minds is entirely one of happiness and of reassurance, and in saying this I am not inferring that waiting is to be your portion now and for always - it is against common-sense. You know from your own experience that, in the lives of all, waiting is changed to something of a concrete character. Sometimes it is, perhaps, of a darker hue - but you have been told that winter is over for ever.
"And I underline this tonight, because of the fact that the winter-time of the earth is approaching, and its darkness and its discomforts have a way of penetrating into the innermost corners of the physical mind, laying waste the flowers that you have tried to place therein. Summer is over and has left disappointment in its train from many points of view. You think this has been the case, and the prospect is not any too inviting when looked at from the physical aspect.
"But I have told you, dear children - and I never speak idly as you know - I have told you that the spring of your experience will lead on to summer but never to winter again. And I want you to take this in its literal sense - not to say: 'Zodiac was talking of the Spirit alone'; but to accept it as I have said - in every sense there could be - physically, mentally and spiritually: Winter shall not come again, because in your hearts and minds you have found the will and the determination to follow the guidance of the Spirit, and to do the next thing.
"There is so much I long to say but I too am anxious that the garment shall be as lovely as possible and so I refrain, just dropping here and there words of definite hope and cheer, and leaving the rest to God, who, in the most wonderful way, is going to turn sadness into joy, waiting into achievement, and hope into certainty and living faith.
"And now I must go..."
(After others had spoken, Zodiac returned and continued)
"...Now, my children, I think we have done enough tonight. I want you, in going over this evening, to remember that there was very little of a direct, personal character, although, of course, all we teach is personal - directly so - but, in the main, we have been training you to teach others, and by extending your own comprehension, to make it possible to widen the understanding of others a little more as well.
"I want you to try, with persistency, to gather in the underlying note of the messages you receive at this stage, and I want you to see in them the builders' materials as well as the effort put forth by the builders. You will want them all later on - not one sentence will not justify its existence at one time or another - and although to you it may seem that we give the messages most suitable at the moment, yet I would remind you of what I have said before: That away back in the past the plans were laid down, and we, as it were, are only following and putting into action what was thought out with so much carefulness and precision before you knew of our existence.
"This then, as well as what you have heard, should ring out that glad note of joy; there should be a sense of achievement, of being used - unconsciously though it may be - for turning that preconceived pattern into actual fact.
"I have said, my children, that happiness was in the air - it is in this room tonight in such a gladsome way that I think it should be possible to make it your own and to keep it within as an honoured guest for a little while. I have to say that - because these honoured guests of the Spirit are so soon crowded out by the friends of the world, and you too sorrow over their loss and yet feel unable to keep them in their rightful place.
"There is a lesson in this - as in everything that happens - and it is all summed up in this: God's way and the way of the world. If you can be sure, even for a little while, of the circle of love which surrounds you, then happiness is fettered close to your side, and the strongest enemy cannot break the cord that binds. If, however, the trials of daily life suggest to you that the circle is incomplete, immediately - it is cause and effect - a gap is there in the sense that by your thoughts you have invited that which is totally opposed to the honoured guest, and one has to make room for the other...
"My last words are these - to remind you that you are toilers in life's garden, and when I use the word 'life' in this sense, I am speaking of the life of the Spirit. You are toilers in life's garden, and the mere fact that it is a garden and not a wilderness should give you courage and hope.
"There are few who chafe against creating beauty - the grumbling comes because so many think they are either doing that which doesn't matter or are creating ugliness itself. But those who are in their right environment, who are able, by putting forth the necessary effort to bring into being objects that please and satisfy, they are, as a rule, the contented people of the world; and so it should not be hard for you to be happy in your toil, the toil which is the substance of all the outward toil which you undertake. You are working in the garden of the Spirit - and the beauties there, both of bloom and of design, far, far exceed anything that the most skilled could provide with nature upon the earth.
"So, little ones, casting aside thoughts of weariness, of wondering when it will end, turn back to your task refreshed, and know that you are toilers in the garden of the Spirit; and the tools that you use, if they are the right ones, come from God direct. Using these, the weariness will go, the sense of failure too will disappear - and in place of these will come the enthusiasm of the creator of beautiful things. And you know that as you work, so the Master of the Garden passes His approval, gives guidance, puts thoughts into your minds for improvements - and yet all the time gives you the praise as if you alone were responsible for the result.
"It is a wonderful thought to dwell upon, and all the more wonderful, because of its truth. Therefore I can leave you tonight safe in the Tender Arms of Peace, of Joy, of Understanding, and the blessing of this evening shall dwell upon you because God has lent His power in a way truly marvellous to behold. Generous as ever, tender past all belief, our Father God has gathered us in tonight and allowed us to get a glimpse of the greater, wider life that lies not only beyond but on either side of the physical, only waiting to be discovered by the individual and to be entered into as a right.
"God grant that the light of comprehension may illumine all, may banish darkness and misunderstanding, and draw His little children, both inside and outside the Fold, into the shelter so freely offered - we ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.
"Goodnight, my little ones..."
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)
