SPIRIT MESSAGES CONCERNING
CHRISTIAN FESTIVALS
Received through the spiritual gift "the discerning of spirits" (1Cor. 12:10)Extracted from an address given by the Christ-messenger Zodiac through the deep trance mediumship of Miss Winifred Moyes, at the Co-operative Hall, York, under the auspices of the Christian Spiritualist Church, 12, Ogleforth, York, on Sunday, October I5th, 1944.
"Some of you associate the Spirit World with a cessation of effort; you are perhaps inclined to think that the beautiful things there are there by the Will of God, and man simply comes to enjoy. But I want to alter that attitude of mind, because Harvest in the Spirit World means so much to us.
Again, beloved, some of you, when you celebrate your Festivals upon the earth-plane, are inclined to think that it is something that appertains to the material world alone. There is Easter and Whitsuntide, and the Day you commemorate the coming of the Christ Child, and these times are special times for disembodied souls. Why is this? Because at those times there are always some who are trying to raise their thoughts to God, remembering their early teaching, perchance, or trying to contact with their loved ones in the World of Spirit.
As you take your daily way, do not join those who are out to forget these old customs or to push them aside because there are other things to distract, but recall that at these special times of the year greater power is given to disembodied souls to come closer to those in the body, to minister unto them, and to obtain a stronger hold upon their troubles and cares."
"Now, you in the earth plane have small wit of the nearness of us who seem to you so far away. Why, not a sparrow falls but your Heavenly Father knows and marks it. So all you do is open to us, and scanned with interest and much care, if perchance we may be able to throw into your worship, from time to time, some sprinkling of heavenly dew which shall tincture it and you with thoughts of Heaven.
Here, then, in this colony are zealously careful ministers who seek to weigh your Festivals on earth as they come round year by year; and these add their own offering to that of those who attend your worship to strengthen them in their helping of you as to that particular bent of mind which directs your thoughts and aspiration at the greater Festivals of your cycle.
This is not of my own special work, so that I do not speak expertly. But I know that all those ideas which with you do cluster about such as Christmas and Epiphany and Easter and Whit and the like are reinforced from such colonies as these.
Thus it is that you will note at such times an added fervour in the worshippers at their Shrines of grace, and much of it, I believe, is the result of streams of spiritual power directed from these schools, and flowing into the hearts of the congregations on earth, united in praise and worshipping of God. Zabdiel†."
Easter Day, 1875
"We have told you that we always celebrate anniversaries, and Easter is with us a festival as well as with you: though we celebrate it for other reasons, and with a higher knowledge. Easter is to us the Festival of Resurrection, but not of the body. To us it symbolises not Resurrection of matter, but Resurrection from matter, the Resurrection of Spirit: and not this alone, but Resurrection of Spirit from material beliefs and surroundings: the emancipation of the soul from the earthly and material, even as the spirit rises from the dead body with which it has done for ever.
You have learned that there is a spiritual significance in everything, even as there is a spirit underlying every material object. So the dogma that Christendom celebrates to-day is to us of special significance. Christians keep festival in memory of the rescue of their Master, the Lord Jesus, from the grasp of death: and though they erroneously believe that the material body was revived, they do in ignorance celebrate the great spiritual truth that there is no death. The festival to us is one of joy over the partial recognition of a truth divinely seen by men: and of still greater rejoicing over the mighty work consummated on this day. It is not that death was vanquished, as you say, but that man began dimly to see a vision of eternal life.
Guided by angel-influence, the Church that bears His name has gathered up the germs of truth that that life typified, though now, alas! long custom has familiarised men too much with the old ideas, and they have lost their chief power.
You know the Church of Christ is agreed in celebrating certain festivals in memory of events in the life of Jesus. They who, outside the Church, have refused to keep fast and festival are not wise. They cut themselves off from a portion of the truth. But the Christian Church keeps in memory of its Head, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Ascension, and Whitsuntide. Those are the landmarks in the Christ life, and each represents an event in His life with a hidden spiritual significance.
The Christmas Festival of the Birth of the Spirit on the plane of Incarnation typifies Love and Self-denial. The exalted spirit tabernacles in flesh, abnegates Self, animated by Love. It is to us the Festival of Self-denial.
The Epiphany, the Festival of the manifestation of this new light to the world, it is to us the Festival of Spiritual Enlightenment: the shining of the True Light that lighteth everyone that is born into the world: not the carrying of it to men, but the uplifting of the Light so that they who can see may come to it.
The Fast of Lent typifies to us the struggles of Truth with darkness. It is the Wrestling with the Adversaries. The recurring season shadows forth a constantly recurring struggle. It is the Fast of Conflict: of wrestling with evil: of the endeavour to overcome the world.
Good Friday typifies to us the consummation of the struggle, the end that awaits all such conflicts in your world—Death: but Death in Life. It is the Festival of Triumphant Self-sacrifice: the realisation and consummation of the Christ life. It is to us no Fast, but a Festival of Triumphant Love.
Easter, the Festival of the Resurrection, typifies to us the perfected life, the risen life, the glorified life. It is the Festival of Spirit, conquering and to conquer: of the risen life, enfranchised and set free.
Whitsuntide, which Christendom associates with the baptism of the Spirit, is to us a Festival of great import. It typifies the outpouring of a large measure of spiritual truth on those who have accepted the Christ life. It is the Festival which is the complement of Good Friday. As human ignorance slays the truth that it cannot receive: so, as a consequence, from the higher realm of spirit comes a blessing on those who have embraced what the world has crucified. It is the Festival of the outpoured Spirit, of increased grace, of richer truth.
Ascension, lastly, is the Festival of the completed life, of the return of the Spirit to its home, of the final sundering from matter. It is the end as Christmas was the beginning: not of life but of earth life: not the end of existence but of that span consecrated by love and self-denial to mankind. It is the Festival of the completed work.
These are the spiritual ideas which underlie the Festivals of your Church. †Imperator."
Easter Day, 1876
"The whole course of the typical life of the Pattern Man is emblematic of the progressive development of the life begun on earth, completed in heaven (so to use your terms), born of self-denial, and culminating in spiritual ascension. In the Christ life, as in a story, man may read the tale of the progress of spirit from incarnation to enfranchisement. Thirty years and more of angelic preparation fitted the Christ for His mission: three short years sufficed to discharge so much of it as man could bear. So man’s spirit in its development progresses through the course covered by the Festivals of the Christian Church, from the birth of self-denial to the festival of the completed life. Born in self-denial, progressing through self-sacrifice, developed by perpetual struggles with the adversaries (the antagonistic principles which must be conquered in daily life, in self, and in the foes), it dies at length to the external, and rises on its Easter morn from the grave of matter, and lives henceforth, baptized by the outpoured spirit of Pentecost, a new and risen life, till it ascends to the place prepared for it by the tendency of its earth life.
This is spirit’s progress, and it may be said to be a process of regeneration, shortly typified by crucifixion and resurrection. The old man dies, the new man rises from his grave. The old man, with his lusts, is crucified; the new man is raised up to live a spiritual and holy life. It is regeneration of spirit that is the culmination of bodily life, and the process is crucifixion of self, a daily death, as Paul was wont to say. In the life of spiritual progress there should be no stagnation, no paralysis. It should be a growth and a daily adaptation of knowledge; a mortification of the earthly and sensual, and a corresponding development of the spiritual and heavenly. In other words, it is a growth in grace and in knowledge of the Christ; the purest type of human life presented to your imitation. It is a clearing away of the material, and a development of the spiritual—a purging as by fire, the fire of a consuming zeal; of a lifelong struggle with self, and all that self includes; of an ever-widening grasp of Divine truth.
By no other means can spirit be purified. The furnace is one of self-sacrifice: the process the same for all. Only in some souls, wherein the Divine flame burns more brightly, the process is rapid and concentrated; while in duller natures the fires smoulder, and vast cycles of purgation are required. Blessed are they who can crush out the earthly, and welcome the fiery trial which shall purge away the dross. To such, progress is rapid and purification sure. †Imperator."
(Section XXXII) "Study the life of Jesus and be wise. †Imperator."
