Given In The Temple, by Eleanor L. Shumway, Guardian in Chief, August 18, 2013
We have just finished a very powerful Convention week. I watched with interest as we all responded to these high forces being poured in on us as we met in all kinds of social or spiritual configurations. There were times when, I am sure, it felt snarly, not spiritual. It can feel as if we were eating ten dark chocolate bars at once! However, now we have time to begin the digestion process, and to put into practice the charges we have been handed.
Convention gives us the focused opportunity to examine our motives, our ideals and aspirations. We need to question ourselves honestly and, without assigning blame anywhere, modify our course through life to more accurately express our aspirations. This is more important than we can imagine.
Our answers to, and our actions concerning, these questions are absolutely vital, not only for our own unfoldment, but for the future of the Temple on this plane. The Temple of The People and the Temple of Humanity are an absolute, a given in the grand scheme of the Universe. However, it is not an absolute that it will continue to exist here in Halcyon on the physical plane. The time of having “all the time in the world” to do the next thing is at an end. All humanity must take the next step into a higher consciousness. All of us were chosen and brought to The Temple of The People for the qualities we have developed in lifetimes past. But, once here, each of us must choose to do the necessary work to further develop and use those qualities. We must choose to actively eradicate the “disaffected, treacherous, inhuman elements” in our own consciousness. We may NOT choose to work on those things in any one else’s consciousness.
Our choices flow out from this Center into the consciousness of humanity. In developing individual and group consciousness in Temple gatherings we need to take a look at our choices. What do we choose to bring to each gathering, be it study class, meditation, healing service or Feast? Do we make that gathering a priority or does the thought of what we might “get (or not get) from it” deter us? Do we bring our very best to the gathering even if, at that moment, we cannot find any “best” at all in our consciousness? Are we courageous enough to bring all the things we think are weighing us down, and lay them on the altar asking for help? We might name them fatigue, depression, anger, impatience, or intellectual arrogance. Can we lay those things aside long enough to reach out in loving acceptance to every one present, or not present, there with us? We need to be present in order to interact with each other even if it is only silently as we help to build the group consciousness of the meeting, service, or social event. A smile, friendly eye contact, a hug, a quick clasp of hands, all serve as well as, or better than, words. As we do this, we will experience a wonderful inflow of healing energy and well being.
At Convention time each year a mighty note is struck in the Master’s Message that reverberates throughout our beings all year and in the years to come. Let us examine these words in more detail: Templars All: Many years ago as you count time I told you that the suggestions and thoughts, as well as the force given you through the annual messages from me are for the definite purpose of sustaining and guiding you during the coming year, and helping wherever possible to avoid repetitions of past mistakes. We ask ourselves, “Do we listen with our hearts or just our ears to the Love expressed by Him, to the Love which always available to us if we pay attention?” And how do we do this? He tells us quite clearly: This can only be done as you hold these words in your consciousness, as you use them as a guide or chart to draw upon in your efforts. Otherwise, why should time be wasted by Me in giving them to you, or by you in listening to a passing reading. Think about this. Have we ever thought the Master might consider interacting with us as a WASTE OF TIME? What is our responsibility in this picture?
When he goes on to say, It is well for you now to determine for yourselves how much of truth was conveyed to you, and whether you have profited in any way from it. It will also, as said before, prepare you for better reception of each new communication, He is emphatically saying, “Hey, folks! It is up to you to listen and focus if this is going to do you or Me any good.”
Why do we even have these yearly messages? What happens on the inner planes? And what do we have to do to use this energy effectively? He tells us clearly in these words: These yearly messages are the articulation of certain rates of vibration of high spiritual energies that have been stepped down to meet your needs. In years past, I spoke of the need of unified effort on your part when I told you unless each of you as a disciple is as one spoke among other spokes in a wheel, all running to a hub, and circumscribed by the rim of protection which the White Lodge can throw around such a living, geometrical figure, we could do nothing of any significance in the way of salvage or protection in the event of small or great catastrophes. Are there any among the Temple group who feel entitled to “salvage or protection” in a catastrophic situation just because the Master supposedly hangs around waiting to help us? We have a responsibility in this picture.
The Master uses the analogy of the wheel, spokes spreading out from the hub and surrounded by the rim of protection provided by the White Lodge. This is a powerful analogy of the Law of Centralization. We could speak at length of the laws of physics, as the energy is carried from the hub to the rim; the need for the spoke to carry its share of the weight with no spoke responsible for more than its share; the harmony and balance inherent in the wheel as all parts work together in accord with divine law.
I would like you to visualize this concept for a moment, seeing yourselves as spokes, sensing the flow of energy through you from the hub to the rim, always connected to the hub and each other, aware of the constituent parts of the organic whole.
Now I would have you consider the picture from the point of view of the hub. In the case of the Temple, the hub is the point of responsibility held in sacred trust by each Guardian in Chief in succession, whether past, present, or future. The energy of the Great White Lodge pours in through the hub, through each spoke, and connecting to the rim of protection provided by the White Lodge.
As the present Guardian in Chief, I am aware that all of you try to spare me, saying to yourself, “I won’t bother Eleanor with this, I will just go ahead and do (whatever it is) and save her. She is so tired, busy, cranky, or she doesn’t like me and this is such a small thing compared to what she is doing!” Remember There are no little things! Let me explain how this works on the inner planes, emphasizing that the whole key is consciously working together.
As the “hub” I get tremendous inner support from the Masters. When you come to me with something (big or small, it matters not), I use the energy supplied to me I to deal with it, without decreasing my own personal energy. I have choices, I can tell you to handle it, I can help you understand the problem by talking it out with you or handing you the hammer and nails, I can hand it off to someone else to take care of, or I can take your concern, problem, request, point of information or whatever and put it in the interior “in-basket” in which it needs to be filed. From my personal level, as well as my point as Guardian in Chief, I trust you to do the very best job you know how to do, whatever it is, physical, mental, moral, or spiritual.
To keep the forces flowing freely, keep the GinC in the information loop. This is a simple matter of everyday courtesy. It is easy to contact the GinC, and I want you to know that I honor all contacts. Call the office and make an appointment. Call the office and say, “Point of information: tell the GinC the following.” Leave a message on my cell phone, or drop me a note. I serve the master and you, free of personal curiosity or personal judgment, so that I may fulfill the divine law. The charge I face in my continuous evolution as Guardian in Chief is shifting from being a spoke, to holding a much clearer point as the hub. It is the beautiful balance of this wheel the Master speaks about.
We may say we are devoted to the Master and His teachings, and wouldn’t do anything to harm that, —even as we are chipping away at each other. He doesn’t have much tolerance for such attitudes in us. In His message to us, and in very plain words He points out the problem: You disarrange these lines by actions as seemingly simple as being angry at each other, by being unkind, arrogant, self-seeking, judgmental, or critical. Perhaps in your estimation these are small, physical plane actions, which matter little in your spiritual quest. How many times must I tell you THERE ARE NO LITTLE THINGS. He seems to be speaking, yet again, to our responsibility in the process.
One of the surest ways to fulfill this responsibility is to become in thought, word, and deed, an awakened disciple on the Path. This must happen before you attempt to awaken others. You tell Me you don’t have time, there are too many responsibilities that must be attended to first, or it is not convenient just now. This is not a matter of convenience or choice. It is a matter of turning everything you do, every minute of every day, into an act that offers faith, hope, and selflessness, be it scrubbing a floor, sharing food with a neighbor, or praying for harmlessness and the highest good for all. Remember, there is no going back to so-called old ways. You have made a irrevocable commitment to the Higher Law and your own soul. The only way to go is forward into glory or into the darkness of the Great Abyss, and even from there you will go forward in endless repetition of past mistakes until you learn to choose the path leading to the glory of self-conscious union with All That Is.
He strikes a clear note of Love and ucompromising expectation when he continues with: I have given you all the tools you will ever need. Those tools are simplicity itself. Again and yet again I tell you to listen within to the soft, clear note sounding and resounding in your hearts that speaks of empathy, love, understanding, compassion, charity, will, acceptance, and wisdom. This note is expressed in your hourly, daily lives through kindly thoughts and words, through forbearance, and through spontaneous acts of helping each other. We rely on you to open your hearts wide to this increasingly insistent note of Love, this message for which the world hungers.
Let me ask you: do you hear anything in these words that tells us to stand around and talk about it, trying to decide how we think it might all best be accomplished according to our own personal agendas? Do we begin to get the idea that there is a grand plan that is being beautifully administered despite our meddling with it, or is it still just an intellectual theory to us? What is our responsibility in this picture?
To me the most wonderful thing in this and all other worlds is that we would not be given these instructions if He did not trust us to carry out these instructions. He knows we won’t always succeed, but He trusts us and loves us enough to pick ourselves up and try again to refocus our ideals and our efforts. We must have done something right to earn the privilege to be here, loved and trusted by the Masters and our co-disciples on this path. We CAN do it!
You must become the very essence of the theme I have given you for this Convention gathering, that of Hope! When I say “For the love of the Christ that is in us all, let us turn our hearts to the Light and our footsteps in the direction of those ‘who have marked the signs of the times’ and been permitted to see the sheaf of Annunciation Lilies held in the hand of the Angel–the Progenitor of the Coming Race–and hear the words which bid them seek out the desolate and faint-hearted and give them a message of Hope,” I am telling each one of you that you are the one who must do this, and do it now. This is your responsibility, not someone else’s.
The beacon word I would leave with you is “SELF-RESPONSIBILITY.” May it illuminate your consciousness and thereby your actions for the coming years. Your Father/Brother Hilarion
We are greatly privileged to be living in this particular cycle of time, termed the Avataric Cycle. During this cycle the potentialities of all of us, the whole human family, are quickened by the heightened spiritual vibrations that pour in upon us ceaselessly. We must choose to feel them, see them, and use them. This all has to be translated into our daily activities on the physical plane in interactions with each other. My mother, Roberta Shumway, who mentored many Templars in her lifetime, often said, “Knowledge, put through the crucible of experience, becomes wisdom.”
There are times when all one wants is to escape from that crucible, yet our Temple teachings tell us that the soul of every person is its own savior in one respect, that of compelling its own obedience to law. Although that Law is neither comfortable nor convenient, when we take time to review the process, we find it gloriously nurturing and comforting beyond telling. The Master has armed us with a wealth of tools and teachings. In the paradoxical framework of this life we share as Templars, we must walk the talk and walk it together, yet apart. It is time to commit ourselves completely to the Christ within to live radiantly, enfolded in the divine protective Presence.
—Eleanor L Shumway