Vol. 25 No. 68 - Beloved Lanello - December 24, 1982
Lanello’s Birthday Address
The Spirit of Christmas
My beloved, I enter the Spirit of the Christmastide in the very heart of the Great Central Sun in your behalf. I enter into the Spirit of the Christ in the act of being born and descending.
The Spirit of Christmas is a being of great, great light and Buddhic attainment. I come to announce, then, to you this Presence of the Almighty individed in the individuality of the God flame.
The one known as the Spirit of Christmas is therefore come to tell of the birth of Jesus Christ against the backdrop of nature’s darkest hour of the year. The announcement at winter solstice of his star appearing is a great drama of cosmos; and it is here to teach us that in the darkest night of man’s longing, there does appear the star of hope and the birth of the Saviour.
I enter the Spirit of Christmas so that you may understand that it is entirely possible for more than one son of God to participate in a holy office, to co-occupy the divine intent upon the twig that is bent, upon the very point, the focal point of a quartz crystal embracing a world of fiery intent. Dear hearts, I therefore come as the Spirit of Christmas, as you might anticipate the coming of the one known as Santa Claus.
Remember the heart of a child—your child, yourself—thinking about the coming of Santa and how he would enter the house, and how you would leave him cookies and milk and perhaps even a snack for the reindeer. Remember how, in fullest belief, because your parents had told you, you entered into that Spirit of Santa. And remember also the disappointment upon learning that Santa was not real.
But this is not true! Santa is real. And I am here to tell you that Santa Claus himself is the typical vessel of the Spirit of Christmas, the one who embodies this very Presence which I have entered.
It is wrong to tell children that Santa is not real. It is right to explain to them the Spirit of Christmas is indeed a person—a person made real in God, a person who is a cosmic being, who fills the hearts of the people with the anticipation of the greatest gift of all, the gift of personal Christhood.
Those things that bring delight to children—games and toys and things and rings in stockings—beloved hearts, originally the gifts given to the child of every heart were intended to enhance the child’s perception and realization of that Person of Christ. When you think about the gifts that are given these days, you realize that some gifts do assist the individual in a greater sense of identity, while others adorn the outer person and tend to create more maya of idolatry. And thus, attaching importance and attention to the outer self, the individual loses the great opportunity of this hour to truly enter into the heart of that cosmic being known as the Spirit of Christmas.
Therefore, beloved ones, understand that this Spirit embodies the collective consciousness of Christhood of the entire Spirit of the Great White Brotherhood—of all ascended beings and angels and masters, cosmic hosts of the Lord who are that Christ. Let us realize, then, that in all symbols there is reality; in archetypes there is the original pattern of the image made perfect out of Christ; and in Santa Claus himself is the lingering hope in all that the figure of the Cosmic Christ will come to bring the true joy, the joy of the heart filled with love.
I enter into this Spirit to bless many who have not yet contacted our word, our love, or our message. I know that you understand and can share with me in a certain sense of an increased desire, a fiery desire and intent to contact millions of souls who in truth have a propensity for the Light but need that special recipe, that special teaching and understanding, the visual aid, the uncovering of truth.
You know very well how the tastes of people the world around differ, and therefore the dishes from many nations have a very peculiar flavor—a peculiar way of eating. So the people of these countries, from all corners of the world, do have great differences of palate. Therefore, beloved, realize that, in the breaking of the bread of Life, one must develop a taste for a certain dish. And it is our desire to make tasteful the teaching of the violet flame and of all that we so cherish—all that is a part of our climbing of the highest mountain.
And therefore, because each step of the way, each new altitude, each new mark of heightened sense of God-awareness requires a new teaching, so the volumes of our work must be like rocks that set the path to the summit of each man’s being.
Each volume must say to the wayfarer: Thou canst not proceed further unless this stone become the living bread of Life within thee. Sitting on the rock and reading the Book of Life, thou shalt truly become the Rock and ascend once again, saying over and over again, “Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” <1>
Therefore, beloved, the desire to contact those is in my heart. It is my birthday wish <2> and call for dispensation to the heart of Alpha. I know that my own, each one of you, sense this great desiring that is in the heart of our Mother also. No thing is more important in the universe to our lifestreams than this breaking of the bread of Life, taking that bread and placing it in the open mouths of the birds that come to be fed.
Let the symbol of this Christmas be the World Mother, and the crown of a million stars be a giant nest where all of the birds of the universes may come and find their rest in that crown chakra of the Buddha and of the Mother.
O star-fire body of our appearing, year by year we bring the news of good cheer. Year by year we turn the page, that souls may view again a higher way and an inner understanding, a deeper sense of Selfhood.
We are most pleased, then, to announce our forthcoming publications, to present them to you during this holy week of celebrations. <3> We are most pleased at the effort and the striving. And we say to you, Think again. Think again in your heart: if you had not received that book, that teaching, if you could not study the Word, how would you know what it is or where to find it?
O now this year coming, be runners in the race. <4> Distribute our teaching far and wide, personally, physically—two-by-twoing, if you will, going door-to-door, if you will <5>—speaking the Word where you are moved, but always with the seed, as Johnny Appleseed. These seeds are the books themselves. And remember the pages of the Bible that he would leave with those seeds, planting seeds in the ground and the Word of God in the hearts of men. <6>
Dear ones, our seed of the teaching must be given. We have watched how one article in our magazine, one chapter in a book has turned around the mind of an individual most entrenched in a downward cycle.
The logic and the reason why truth is true must be given. Most people on earth are not willing to accept truth as an absolute without explanation. They are tired of autocrats and bureaucrats, and they do not believe that the God of truth sends mandates without explanation.
Well, dear hearts, the Person of Christ as Teacher is the one who gives the explanation. And therefore, in the giving of that explanation and the transfer of this mighty flame of illumination that is in your hand, realize, O realize, how the mind of man can instantaneously become the vessel of the mind of God! This is the miracle of the Incarnation—no longer a mystery but a miracle of the Advent.
My dear hearts, look at that flame. <7> It represents the illumination of our teaching. Soon the candle wax will be no more and the wick itself will be consumed. Before your very gaze, the lifetime of one candle is spent.
How many candle-worth is your life? And how can you become that candle? The candle is spent, but the flame must leap into your heart and you must become walking candles. I would see men as candles walking.
Beloved hearts, it is amusing to contemplate trees walking as men, men walking as trees. <8> Is it amusing to consider that the candle you bear could just as easily be the sacred fire of the Spirit of Christmas, and you could hold in your hand that Person of God and be seen as a cosmic being walking?
I hold in my hand the Spirit of Christmas. And then I decide to climb inside, to enter in, to be the candle of the Buddha in Winter, to be the Cosmic Christ. And it is a fond embrace, for the Cosmic Christ decides to live in me. There is a mutuality of desiring in this love of the higher evolution for the lesser. There is a running to meet heart to heart. When hearts become one and the fire intensifies, truly it is perfect love.
Enter now the Spirit of Christmas and be it. Be it every day of the year—blessings. Blessings full and not without cheer. Be the Spirit of Christmas, and see how much the Spirit of Christmas desires to be you. And realize, then, in all those years of looking forward to Santa’s coming, Santa has looked forward to coming to you, has desired to be one with you, has worshiped the light of the Christ in your heart, has sensed himself a servant gnome—the chief of gnomes—in the worship of the newborn Child.
Santa, then, comes as a servant of the Light and as a chela of the Christ who is the Manchild. Santa might be a modern version of three wise men coming to bear the gifts of old—wise elementals who realize, no matter what the outer manifestation, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ must be that each member of the elemental kingdom brings a gift to some child of God.
This is the ritual of the elementals, beloved hearts. It is an amazing ritual to see how these elementals come to the bedsides of children who wait with expectancy. They bring little gifts they make, little houses that they construct out of nutshells, gathering things from the forest and using amazing techniques to re-create Hansel and Gretel forms, shapes.
Tender hearts are the elementals. And of course, they are greeted by little children in their finer bodies with such joy. Truly, this is the joy of Christmas, when sweet children can freely interact with elementals, and elementals can know the true worship of Christ and the hope that they, too, may become that Christ.
The hope of elemental life remains this year—hope in you, beloved. And their hope for immortal life remains predicated upon your victory, your Godmastery, and your Christhood. <9>
Thus, Santa Claus is the great attention-getter of all elemental life each Christmas, coming therefore with that elfin wink and that twinkle of mirth to gather bouquets of attention from the children as they thereby channel the love of their hearts for the blessing of these servants of fire, air, water, and earth.
I summon, therefore, all elemental life to the heart of the Buddha and the Mother. I summon elemental life to the Inner Retreat for the building of a new day, and to Camelot to learn how they, too, may teach men the way.
Most blessed ones, let us increase and multiply the opportunity for Montessori education to the lightbearers of a planet. Let us not be discouraged, but let us strive anew. Let every student of our school realize that his own Christhood sets a standard and an example not only for the school and the community, but for all youth of the world. It is not a collective standard, though Christ be one in all. It is an individual standard that you keep by cherishing some very special gift of God, some very special virtue.
Set the standard on a line that you can draw and keep, beloved students of the light. Maintain a standard and become a candle that glows with a single virtue that is one of noncompromise, and you will soon become known for your sense of justice, for your love, for your integrity, for your friendship, for your striving for truth.
Our school is built of many stones, and our aspiration is more than just a gingerbread cottage. We would build the pyramid of the new age, and we would build the temple of man. [13-second pause]
I pause, so that your heart may speak to me [7-second pause] and so that you may put before me the utmost question, the one of greatest import that sits upon your heart—a desiring to know, a desiring to solve and resolve a problem.
Now I make myself manifold, and if you will have me, I would enter the Spirit of Christmas who is your very own beloved Christ Self.
Now, did you ever think that the Beloved—the beloved Christ Self is the person of Santa himself? Now you see him as the Christ, now you see him as the archetype of elemental life, and now you go to the very kernel of his heart and know him as the smiling Cosmic Christ, the smiling Maitreya, the smiling Gautama. Now after all, doesn’t Santa remind you of the Buddha in Winter?
We must become together the Great Giver of Life! We must enter into that givingness and realize that though our path is one of a striving to set aside that Inner Retreat and preserve the teaching, we are in fact giving our alms to the poor and helping those very ones in America who are without home or heat or food and yet are being helped by their neighbors and friends. And yet, though they are fed in body, these same ones still have a longing in spirit—a loneliness and a hunger that cannot be assuaged with physical food.
There are those whose calling it is to meet the immediate physical needs of those in want. And of course, you must always do this when you are face-to-face with those in need. But though the call be great, and even as a temptation you would go forth to sell all you have and divide it among the poor, even as Jesus taught, <10> you must have a higher understanding of selling all you have for the sake of providing for the poor in spirit <11> who must, must have the Inner Retreat and the teaching and the place prepared.
Come into the union of the community of light. I send forth the call to those who have never considered before this precept of the Lord: Go and sell all that thou hast, and then secure the pearl of great price. <12>
This teaching on the selling and the giving to the poor and on the selling and the purchase of the pearl of great price go hand-in-hand with the Buddhic path of nonattachment. Following the Guru and the Path means that all that one has, as the bubble of the aura, now joins the bubbles of auras of the hundreds and the thousands, making one great bubble of light, one great canopy for the poor in spirit.
Consider, then, how you may enter in and become a part of the mystical body of God by the very same requirements that I gave to my own—which Jesus gave to his own, and Moses before him, and Zarathustra and Gautama—that entering into the circle, that swimming into the sea of life, the drop entering the ocean.
There is the necessity of identification of the self with community and with the land. There is the necessity for some to reconsider their positioning in life. Therefore, let us enter the Central Sun.
I told you that I was entering the Spirit of Christmas in the Central Sun. I AM here and I AM there. I have set the forcefield of my being as a mirror here in this heart and upon this altar, and I have set my being in the Central Sun, therefore creating the oscillation of light waves and a stronger image and a magnified image. Thus, I AM in the Great Central Sun. Enter, then, by the mirror image which is reflected in my Electronic Presence here at this altar.
So, beloved, by my mirror image, set forth scientifically according to the same principles applied on earth, I have brought the Central Sun to this place. And you have entered, for the mirror image is the same, the one. Yet, in that mirror, the intensity can be turned down with a dial of consciousness. Thus, by example I would teach you that your soul is a mirror in itself, and you also can bring to earth (and to the earth of the Inner Retreat) the mirror image of the Central Sun and of Alpha and Omega and of the Great Throne Room and the Temple Beautiful.
As you are abiding now for a time with me in this great forcefield of light, I impart to you the vision, once again, of the chohans of the Inner Retreat, your place within it—the vision of “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” In the Central Sun you see the vision and the actuality of God’s kingdom. Standing in the Great Central Sun, you look down upon this point in space, and you see your soul as a mirror on earth. And you, in your causal body and I AM Presence, send to that soul the image of Self.
Now realize how important is the angle of the mirror of the soul, which is concave—as a flower petal cupped to receive and reflect the light. Imagine, then, if this gentle, curved soul and mirror would be tipped just slightly at an angle away from the Great Central Sun; it would become cold and dark and not reflect the fullness of the light or the vision of the kingdom. This is what happens when you take your attention off of the I AM Presence and Almighty God. There is not the direct mirror image on earth of what there could be.
“Well,” you say, “Lanello, I have many things to think about. I cannot simply think about the sun all day.” Well, beloved ones, there is an inner technique for this God-mastery, which I learned and practiced in my final incarnation.
In the back of your mind, in the recesses and the folds of the curtain, in the backdrop of that area of your being where you outplay the day’s role, there is that sense of awareness. You can feel it now in your spine. You can feel it in the energy which rises. There is an inner, an interior and an anterior sense of the Great Central Sun.
You have contemplated the sun and beloved Alpha and our Father so long that you retain the image and the inner direction, and you do not depart from it even in all of your service and all the busyness of life. And therefore, there is a constancy of the eye within you that is a part of all sons and daughters of God as they go about the business of our Father in heaven and our Mother on earth.
This, then, is the assignment: to so build the momentum of attention upon the sun of God as the I AM Presence, the Christ Self, the crown chakra, and the all-seeing eye, as well as your heart, that it becomes the automatic flow and current of your being even when you are diverting some of that flow to outer activity in the Matter spheres. This is something to be done and a great safeguard against extreme pitfalls and descents into areas of life that are very dark.
Some have a yo-yo consciousness. Some seesaw up and down to great heights of light and new lows of darkness. This can be overcome by centering in the very center of that point instead of centering oneself on the surface or the extremities.
Now, my beloved, you are absorbing the patterns of the kingdom come, and specifically our Father’s kingdom as his design pertains to your area of life and service. There is a magnification by the great Spirit of Christmas of the area of your divine plan in this great mandala that represents the kingdom of God. And now there is a circle of light from your own God Presence that is amplifying that area on the map, as it were, of God’s kingdom, so that you can see, very specifically and particularly, what it is that you must accomplish, the way in which you must walk, and how you can achieve the inner kingdom.
Let the beloved of God lay upon the altar their life, their attachments, their possessions, and strive to enter in and become the One. The One is the fullness of the manifestation—the Inner Retreat, the base of our pyramid, the focal point of light.
God has a great magnifying glass, and through that glass he is sending a beam of light, a literal square of fire upon that land. And do you know, beloved, that the lens of that magnifying glass is your own causal body and the one causal body of all of the Spirit of the Great White Brotherhood.
This concentration is for a purpose. The portion of the kingdom amplified for you is sealed in the secret chamber of your heart; the inner man of the heart <13> is its custodian, and the map of that kingdom is also there. Square by square, the sons of God fill in the blanks.
As you bring your abundance to the Inner Retreat, so the abundant life will be multiplied for the very ones who hunger and thirst today. That they may be filled tomorrow is our prayer. For we recognize a process: that, though we would give them to drink today, it will take until tomorrow to deliver the cup, the seed, the book, the magazine.
Prepare, then, to enter in. Prepare to enter the Inner Retreat as you have entered the Central Sun in this hour. And prepare to have the vision perpetual of the beaming of the light that is seen as the square which is the base of your pyramid on that very land.
I have shown this square of light upon that land and that Heart to our messenger for many, many days. It is a vision that must be burned in consciousness, because when you see that blazing light of the square, it becomes the point toward which you gravitate—the Lodestone itself.
I AM your Father, Lanello. I seal you with the kiss of the crowning rose.
Return in consciousness to this sanctuary. Enter the vessel, enter the mirror of the soul, and redefine your goal.
I bless you, out of the heart of Bonaventure, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and in the name of the Blessed Virgin, Mary.
God be with you, as you reflect his glory.
Messenger’s Comments and Prayer:
Will you think now of this vessel of the soul, like a shallow bowl. And will you think of it as the cradle—the soul as the cradle to receive the Christ. And will you see the divine Child laying in the crèche that your soul has become, and realize that in this great event, the kingdom of God is come into manifestation on earth....
Won’t you join hands in prayer with those who are nearest you.
Beloved Alpha, our Father, it is the prayer of this family and community of light that there be healing in our midst—healing, that we might be the more perfect vessel day by day.
I call for the healing of the minds, hearts, souls, chakras—etheric, mental, emotional, and physical bodies of this community of light-bearers worldwide. Heal the schism and the breach especially caused by harmful chemicals and drugs, radioactive fallout, and all harmful elements of the environment as well as the astral plane. Purge them. Pass through thy light, O God.
O Christmas Child descending, let shafts of light from thy heart pass through us now and make us whole. We decree it by the great power of Lanello upon us, by his mighty Electronic Presence, by the great Spirit of the Christ Mass.
Lord God Almighty, now let our being and our soul be not only the vessel and the reflector, but be the One—the one heart united now with the Electronic Presence of the Buddha, of Sanat Kumara, of this true Spirit of Christmas in the gnomes, in the Christ, and in our own Christ Self.
In the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the Mother, Amen.
This dictation by Lanello was delivered through the Messenger Elizabeth Clare Prophet on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1982, at Camelot. Prior to this dictation, the messenger delivered a sermon on Luke 11:29-54, “Our Message of the Sign of Jonas.” Dictation and sermon published on 16-cassette album The Buddhas in Winter (A83002), or available separately: cassette B83002.
1. Pss. 61:2.
8. Mark 8:24.
10.. Matt. 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 12:33; 18:22.
11.. Matt. 5:3.
13. Eph. 3:16, 17; I Pet. 3:4.
Copyright © 2014 Summit Publications, Inc. All rights reserved.
Pearls of Wisdom®, the Pearls of Wisdom® masthead, Keepers of the Flame®, The Summit Lighthouse®, The Summit Lighthouse® logo and Church Universal and Triumphant are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. All rights to their use are reserved.