Peace at Heart – A White Eagle Teaching

A085 Sunday Address 6th April 1941 St Mary Abbots Place, London Sunday Service for Palm Sunday

The text of this address is as issued in a printed leaflet after it was given, apart from correction of errors Text: printed version, from a leaflet. The address was also published in the May 1941 Angelus with the heading ‘Palm Sunday – an Interpretation’. From that script has been added to this record the very short paragraph beginning ‘After the disciples had been thus blessed’. Context: a Palm Sunday service at St Mary Abbots Place, despite the unusual allusion to ‘this church’ at the beginning. The date is from the heading citing Palm Sunday 1941. White Eagle spoke a week later on Easter Sunday – doubtless with everyone joyful that services had recommenced. We know from the text that the hymn prior to White Eagle speaking was ‘The King of Love’. The reading for the service was, according to the address itself, Matthew 21 : 18-22, the cursing of the fig tree (there are also allusions to vv. 28-32, the parable of the Two Sons). General notes: this is one of the very earliest addresses given in St Mary Abbots Place. As in the communion service on 8 th September previous White Eagle alludes to the crucifixion as the moment when ‘the soul-body’ of Christ ‘was broken’ and compares it to the story of Osiris. White Eagle interestingly points out that the life of Christ is intended as something to help humanity distinguish between what is real and what is unreal. References: see Context; the Last Supper is variously described in all four canonical Gospels (Matthew 26 : 17–30, Mark 14 : 12–26, Luke 22 : 7–39 and John 13 : 1–17 : 26), but the phrase ‘Take and eat’ is from Matthew 26 : 26. The man bearing the water pot is mentioned in Luke 22 : 10 and Mark 14 : 13. The story of Jesus walking on the water is in Matthew, 14 : 22-33. Balaam’s ass is referred to in Numbers, chapter 20. The parable of the Two Sons is in Matthew, 21 : 28-32, so in verses immediately after the reading for this night.

White Eagle’s Address: The words which you have just sung and which are still resounding in this Church are the truest that have ever been uttered … ‘the King of Love my shepherd is’. If every heart tonight can respond to them in spirit and in truth, then we shall be happy, for we shall know you have found that deep eternal peace, which is beyond all worldly understanding. Those who trouble to seek, to knock and to ask, will share the eternal and tender love that God’s ministry and disciples bring to humanity. Each human soul has a guide which loves and gently leads it along the path of life. But there are so many souls shrouded in darkness, in the opaqueness of materialism; many who are intolerant, overbearing, who seek only for their own power and the gratification of their own lower natures. These people are brought eventually to mental torture and physical suffering, loneliness and unhappiness, because they have veiled their eyes, and are so unable to see the guardian angel which God has provided to lead them safely through the walk of life. These preliminary remarks will seem irrelevant to our subject. But all the writings, the saying and acts of our Lord are intended to teach us the difference between reality and unreality; or to reveal the true spiritual life on the one hand, and on the other the snares and delusions of the materialistic life, even if that life wears the garb of religion. Our Lord intended to uncover the spiritual eyes of man, so that he could see truth from the innermost of his being, and find no content by merely going to church, listening to sermons and reading books written by others. Nor will any state religion satisfy. Our Master’s teaching was directed to the heart of man, but at the same time all His teachings were strictly scientific, for they were based upon spiritual and cosmic law. Cosmic law has neither bounds nor bonds, and this is what mankind has to learn in this New Age. Indeed, man is already beginning to learn as he sees the result of days of national prayer. Even the so-called unbelievers take note that the thoughts and prayers of the people affect events on the material plane, a demonstration of cosmic law before the very eyes of man. This is only the beginning of so-called wonders which will come to pass. But first, humanity has to be stirred to its very depths. Neither veneer nor sham must corrupt the heart of truth in man, nor enshroud the Christ: for Christ is King of Life, and He will yet be recognised, crowned and proclaimed King of Kings. Christ, the Christ only is the Saviour. Not the Man, Jesus, but the Christ of the Cosmos, the Christ whose soul-body was broken, so that a share of the heart of Christ might find birth in the hearts of men. This is a truth not yet understood by many. Yet the same teaching is to be found in Egyptian mythology. Are we not told that the body of Osiris was cut up into many parts and scattered? … whither, no one knows. In the Christian symbolism the soul of Christ was broken into pieces when He brake bread [sic] at the Last Supper and distributed the fragments among the disciples, saying, ‘This is My body; take and eat’. The interpretation we have learnt is that the soul-body of Christ was thus distributed among men – not the disciples only, be it noted, and only through partaking of the Psyche, or soul-body, strengthened in order that it may tread the true path of emancipation and redemption. The teachings of our Master contain truths which all men will want to know. Some are still too lazy to trouble, others too full of their own intellectual importance; others are as little children, trusting, and they ask, they seek, and they reject nothing. Being simple at heart, they bear great love towards their Father-Mother God; such love that God blesses these simple ones. In troublous days such as these, God gives complete confidence in his Fatherhood. Demonstration after demonstration proves that there is nothing to fear in life nor yet in death … for there is no death; it is an illusion.

Returning to the Bible story of Palm Sunday we note that Jesus sent three of his disciples before him to make ready at the inn. Strange again … the feast of remembrance took place in an inn, not in some palace. But the upper chamber of the inn was chosen, not the ground floor – an important point. He said to His disciples; “Go into the village, and there follow the man bearing the water pot.” Throughout the Gospels many references are made to water: to Jesus walking on the water, to Jesus stilling the storm. Many miracles concern the water. Peter walked towards Him on the water; but when the disciple lost faith he began to sink, and the Master raised him and told him to fear not. Water had ever an important place in the teachings of Jesus. Now, water symbolises the soul, the psyche, of man. When Jesus stilled the storm at sea, He demonstrated that the Master Christ within man must master the turbulent emotions of the soul. And when He walked on the water it was to demonstrate this Mastership or control of the psyche or the soul.

You have heard of souls in torment – this is perfectly true, when the soul-body is the prey of the many emotions, fears and angers such as prevail in the lower stratas of the astral plane or the soul world; but when the Master Christ is in control of the soul, fears and angers vanish, and all sickness, which is dis-ease, or lack of ease, is no more. The teachings of Jesus Christ were concerned with what is known as the Piscean Age, the age of soul growth, the soul development of man. Thus Jesus made ready for the New Age into which the world is now passing, the Aquarian Age, a fact clearly demonstrated in the gospels of Matthew and Luke, wherein our Lord told his disciples to follow the man bearing the pitcher of water. Any astrological student will recognise the man bearing the pitcher of water as symbolic of the Sign of Aquarius. The disciples, then, were to follow the man of Aquarius, of the Age which was to come. They were to seek accommodation in the inn – a place of humility – not on the ground floor, which represent the lower, or the material, reasoning mind, but in the Upper Room, the higher consciousness in man, for the great initiation. In the upper chamber alone will man be able to hold holy communion, there alone can he eat the bread, partake of the soul-body of Christ; there alone drink of the wine, the blood, the life-force of Christ. After the disciples had been thus blessed they were to witness other things which would produce a great effect upon their outer selves (or superficial lives) and their innermost. The colt, the ass, upon which Jesus rode into Jerusalem, again symbolises the soul of man. You remember Balaam and his ass? The ‘ass’ symbolised the soul of Balaam which spoke aloud to him. Did not our Master also ride upon the ass, being Master and in control of His soul – do you not understand? Was He not led to the city of Jerusalem? Here all the people cheered and flung down palm branches before Him. They gave Him all their approbation. This again is a test; the teacher or prophet received the applause and flattery of the crowd. Some become over-arrogant, prideful. But those who are ready to face the subsequent crucifixion go forward untouched, unaffected by praise. Have we not often told you to ‘take no notice of people’s praise; take no notice of people’s blame’? A true Son of God is unaffected, untouched by the world’s approbation or condemnation, for the soul who has partaken of Holy Communion knows that as certainly as the world shouts its praises, it will tomorrow take and crucify.

The whole of Christ’s birth and ministry is a demonstration to all men of the experiences which every soul must undergo on its way to salvation. Christ showed the way, Christ Himself suffered, and only by His suffering could humanity as a whole be raised up and restored to the divine life. For man had descended into fleshly life, into matter, in order that he could learn of the truth of life; and through the indescribable love of the divine Son, or the Light of the World, can man be raised up again to the Light. Palm Sunday has a special significance at this juncture of the world’s history; for present events are going to demonstrate again that it is not the shouting and approbation and victories, not the domination of the material soul of humanity that will endure; but that Christ’s spirit is even now being made manifest in the hearts of the common people, of those being daily crucified, of those who have been already crucified – this will endure. Yesterday or today, the vaunting by the materialists and the conquerors … the crucifixion of the rest of humanity. Tomorrow, the resurrection of Christ! In today’s reading (Matthew xxi. 18-22) reference was made to the Cursing of the Fig Tree by Jesus. Many have asked, why did Jesus lay a curse on an innocent tree? Because the fig tree was showing much foliage and promise, but bore no fruit. Are there not men and religions who are likewise showy, but who have no fruit to offer? What was the response of Jesus Christ? He condemned such a tree as he condemned such people. Those who offer no fruit to the hungry are not worthy of their existence. Moreover, He was demonstrating to the initiates who were His disciples, that by faith in God He could say, ‘begone’, and the fig tree would wither; say to the mountain, ‘be razed’, and the mountain would be removed. He followed this demonstration up by saying to His disciples, ‘Whatever ye shall ask in My name, in spirit and in truth and in utmost faith, shall be given unto you’. And finally, he told the Parable of the Two Sons … the son who was real; and the son who was unreal. The son who did not go to church or profess religion because it was the thing to do, but because he had experienced a change of heart and wanted to go for the very love of worship and service. He compared this man with the other son who said, “Yes, I will go,” but to whom religion and worship meant nothing. There are two kinds of people – those who know and love in spirit and in truth; and those who do not know and cannot know the realities of the true life of God and the Son of God. We have placed before you truth as it has been revealed to us. To those who have already received this inner truth, may our words, spoken to you as our brother or sister, strengthen your faith and your resolve. May those who have not heard these truths before receive light. The love of God passeth all understanding, and it will never fail to lead you out of darkness into light, out of chaos into law and peace.

A blessing: Gracious spirit of Light and Truth may we be ever receptive to Thy wisdom, so that we may tread the path of truth, sincerity and reality, evermore. Amen. The search matches with either words and phrases, which appear in the text, or the following ‘key’ words and phrases, which are similar in meaning to those in the document: material world, razor’s edge, karma, peace of the world, difference between religion and spirit.