Walk in the Light

We may walk in the light, even through the darkness;
We may walk in the light, when we do not know
Where the turn of the road may take us or the starkness
Of the shadow-land through which we have to go.

We were born for the light, we are children of the morning;
And light is as much in our mind as on our eyes;
We carry it in our thought for the day's adorning;
On the darkest day the light can fill the skies.

So walk in the light, and have no fear of the turning;
Though there is no road that at last does not pass from view,
The light by which you find your way is burning
Not out in the sky.  You carry the light in you.

                                                                         by James Dillet Freeman

Buddhist Wheel

Watercolour by Margaret M Brownlow

Extract from The Sermon at Benares.

And the Buddha said:
The spokes of the wheel are the rules of pure conduct: justice is the uniformity of their length; wisdom is the tyre; modesty and thoughtfulness are the hub in which the immovable axle of truth is fixed.
He who recognizes the existence of suffering, its cause, its remedy and its cessation has fathomed the four noble truths.  He will walk in the right path.
Right views will be the torch to light his way.  Right aspirations will be his guide.  Right speech will be his dwelling-place on the road.  His gait will be straight, for it is right behaviour.  His refreshments will be the right way of earning his livelihood.  Right efforts will be his steps; right thoughts his breath; and right contemplation will give him the peace that follows in his footprints.

Taken from a 1915 translation.

The Hermetica

These are writings attributed to Hermes whose wisdom was considered to be so vast that it earned him the title of 'Trismegistus' meaning thrice great. He was an Egyptian sage who lived around 3000BC.
This philosophy influenced many great thinkers over the ages including the early Christians.
'In the Hermetica God utters a Word that calms the chaos of creation, this Word is even called 'The Son of God'.'  The 4th. century theologian St.Augustine wrote in 'Retractions'.

" That which is called the Christian religion existed among the ancients, and never did not exist, from the beginning of the human race until Christ came in the flesh, at which time the true religion which already existed began to be called Christianity."
                                          _____________________________

In Praise of Atum

In a place open to the sky, facing west at the hour of sunset or east at sunrise.  I pray that the Cosmos be flung open to me and that all nature may receive the sound of my psalms.
Open, great earth, and trees, silence your waving boughs, for I am about to sing the praise of the One and All.  Justice, praise the the just through me.  Goodness, praise the good through me.  Truth, praise the true through me. Selflessness, praise the All through me.
It is your words that through me sing your praises - for all comes from you and all returns to you.
Accept these pure offerings of speech from a heart and soul uplifted.  You of whom no words can tell, no tongue can speak, and only silence can declare.
I thank you with a brimming heart, for it is only by your grace that I see your light and come to know you.  I you whose name no man knows.  You whom we honour with the title 'Atum', because you are our master.  You whom we call 'Father', because you have shown in all your acts towards us the loving kindness and warm affection that a father feels.  No - your love is greater than a father's love, for you have given us the gifts of Mind and Speech and Knowledge.  Mind, so that we may approach you.  Speech, that we may call to you.  Knowledge, so that we may experience you - finding our salvation in your Light and becoming filled with bliss.
We can thank you only by learning to know your greatness.

Language is inadequate.  The gods sing a hymn of silence, and I am silently singing.

( Atum - one of the Ancient Egyptian names for the 'Supreme One-God'. )

St.Valentine's Day

As this is Saint Valentine's Day I couldn't let it pass without some input from my scrapbook on the subject of love.

We Live by Love

We live by love, and through the love we show
We carry, as it were, a candle-glow
About us up and down life's busy street.

We look for love in everyone we meet,
Enraptured if we find its smallest spark,
Not knowing we ourselves shine in the dark
And cast upon the earth a lovely bloom.

A single candle twinkling in the gloom-
One solitary beaming little star-
Can shed its golden nimbus far and far,

And each brave glimmer of our human love
Awakes on earth anew the splendour of
The love of God that is the lamp that lights
All fairest days and all starriest nights.

      By Elizabeth Landeweer

Marriage Blessing

This being our Wedding Anniversary I delved into the scrapbook for an appropriate quotation for the occasion and found the following which is titled 'Apache Marriage Blessing'.

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth for the other.
Now there is no more loneliness.
Now you are two persons but there is only one life before you.
May your days together be good and long upon the earth.

The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life

And Jesus led the Sons of Light to an ancient tree by the side of the river, and there he knelt at the place where the roots, gnarled and hoary with age, spread over the river edge.  And the Sons of Light knelt also, and they did touch with reverence the trunk of the ancient tree, for it was taught to them that the trees are the Brothers of the Sons of Men.  And their father is the same, the Heavenly Father, whose laws are written in the branches of the tree, and whose laws are engraved in the forehead of the Son of Man.

And Jesus reached out his hands to the tree, and said; "Behold, the Tree of Life, which stands in the middle of the Eternal Sea.  Look not only with the eyes of the body, but see with the eyes of the spirit the Tree of Life at a source of running streams; at a living spring in a land of drought.  See the eternal garden of wonders, and at it's centre the Tree of Life, mystery of mysteries, growing everlasting branches for eternal planting, to sink their roots into the stream of life from an eternal source.  See with the eyes of the spirit the angels of day and the angels of night which protect the fruits with flames of Eternal Light burning every way."

"See, oh Sons of Light, the branches of the Tree of Life reaching toward the kingdom of the Heavenly Father.  And see the roots of the Tree of Life descending into the bosom of the Earthly Mother.  And the Son of Man is raised to an eternal height and walks in the wonders of the plain; for only the Son of Man carries in his body the roots of the Tree of Life; the same roots that suckle from the bosom of the Earthly Mother; and only the Son of Man carries in his spirit the branches of the Tree of Life; the same branches that reach to the sky, even so to the kingdom of the Heavenly Father."

          Extracted from Book Four of the Essene Gospel of Peace

Tree of Life

Watercolour by Margaret M. Brownlow

The original painting was sold a few years ago but there is a full sized print, mounted and framed, on the wall adjacent to my easy-chair. The above picture does not do full justice to the jewel-like detail of the original.