THE GREATER WORLD CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH

THE ZODIAC MESSAGES

"LIFE AFTER DEATH"

An address given by the celestial messenger 'Zodiac', (the unnamed scribe of the Bible and a teacher in the Temple of Jerusalem at the time of Christ), at the Zodiac Circle on Saturday, 5th March, 1927.

1. "MOST gracious Saviour, to-night, as always, we place ourselves in Thy care; and we ask Thee to heal the wounds in heart and mind, to banish those memories which come between Thy children and this mighty work, to lift them up and to teach them how to lift others. O God our understanding Father, enlighten them as to the ways of the Spirit, and instruct them as to the privilege of this gracious gift.

2. "Let us, as Thy instruments, throw our thoughts over others who are in distress, whether of the mind or the body, and grant that those thoughts may reach them and give them courage to face the days to come.

3. "O grant that Thy little children who are serving Thee may pass on the good news to others, and show to all that the only 'life' is a life of service, doing Thy work, bringing consolation to those who walk in darkness, and demonstrating a little more of Thy love upon earth - Thy mighty love for Thy creation.

4. "Father, we thank Thee.

5. "MY CHILDREN, throwing out my love upon you all and gathering you close by the grace of God, so as planned by the Father, I would speak to you to-night on that which I name LIFE AFTER DEATH; but I can take you but a step or two because the physical mind, so bound, so restricted at this stage, can only grasp a fragment of the wonderful Promise held out to all by the Creator, held out to God's children by the Father Who will never let them go.

6. "Yet this evening there are points which I am instructed to touch upon, and these in the days to come I will enlarge, I will supplement, and so together we pass out of the material into the spiritual, out of the perishable into that which remains for aye.

7. "Children, physical death - the decay of that garment which you wear for a brief space - that comes to all, but to each one in a different way; and so you can gain but little from the experiences of others, for your body is like and yet unlike, your mind may be similar from the surface point of view but it is individual, you are separated by that which you name individuality.

8. "And so while I speak of 'experiences' I do not wish you to say: 'I shall see this', or 'I shall feel that'; for you will pass into those conditions which have been built up by your life on earth, built up by your thoughts and, still more, by your efforts, by that striving, by that endeavour to minister to the Divine within. Yet I must particularise because otherwise I cannot prepare your minds for that which lies in front; and if you are uninstructed how then can I say: Pass on the good news to others.

9. "Children, this body - charged with so much, it seems to some that might well be absent, hindering, thwarting, vexing - the physical body is sacred by the very pangs it imposes. You look round on those you love and you sigh because this one suffers and that one seems hard beset. But, were spiritual sight your own, so you would rejoice with the Spirit within over that ailing body, that tired, distressed and overstrained body, for you would know that it was acquiring something which the earth could not take away, something permanent in the Spirit, a fitting gift for the Master Himself.

10. "So I bring you back to that point when the real Self slips from that which to you, seems so vital to your being; and in many cases the sensation is as this: though the body may have had its stress, the Spirit has made full preparation, and those who are free minister on either side; so, with something like a sigh of relief, that which at one time meant so much is left behind, and gladness and a sense of lightness and freedom tells you that a difficult stage is o'er.

11. "But you will ask me: 'Is consciousness retained as the Spirit passes from the body?' And I answer that this depends entirely on the individual. If the Spirit within has in any measure gained its freedom, so then, as the body is discarded, that consciousness - Spirit consciousness - is enhanced a thousand-fold.

12. "But mark you this: there are countless thousands who keep the Divine within, in a bondage terrible to behold, and these when physical death takes place find themselves in another body - not flesh and blood, it is true - but in another body which has less power, less beauty, and greater bondage all round.

13. "These souls need much care; indeed they must be treated as the children in understanding that they are. The Spirit within, so imprisoned, seems to the onlooker without knowledge, as if it had no existence at all.

14. "During life on earth God was not recognised, and so, as they pass out into that built up by their thoughts and their desires, they find themselves no longer in a physical body, but bound to the earth in a sense you cannot understand. The material was all they craved, to the material they cleaved, and sometimes years elapse before we can create even a wish for higher things.

15. "Such as these, dear children, have their influence on those still inhabiting a body of flesh. Their thoughts, their desires do not pass away, and so it means that each one who has turned from his Maker is contributing a portion of temptation to those who remain.

16. "Therefore you see your work, and difficult work it must be, because such as these are many in number, and they still hold much that is hard to combat. Your work is that of the missionary, that of the restorer, that of the redeemer, in God's Name.

17. "When you feel adverse influences around, pray not for yourself but pray for these poor blind things who tempt you to fall. Only in this wise can they be resisted, only by sending out from yourself effort and the wish to save, can you be saved from failing your better self.

18. "And such as these, children in every sense of the word, such as these swarm round the soaring soul, not always with evil intent, but the one who strives represents to them a light in their terrible darkness; and very often, because of this, those of the Light seem tempted beyond endurance, and there is suffering on all sides.

19. "Then I would turn your thoughts to those who, in their humble way, have tried to keep God's laws, who have done their duty faithfully, yet have firmly fixed in the mind of the body that physical death means a long, long sleep until the 'Day of Judgement', until the 'Great Awakening' in the end. You all know many of these; and again I say that their passing out is according to themselves. If, during the earth life, they ruled out this and ruled out that, if they refused to consider the possibility of further light being thrown on that which is called 'death', then such as these sleep in very truth.

20. "Children, God has given us all the gift of free-will. When those on earth are positive that physical death is sleep, so, because the idea is firmly rooted in the mind, they take that idea with them and cement it into fact; fact, limited by the love of God.

21. "You can understand when I explain that those who passed on before - many years or centuries it may be - that these are perturbed at the thought that one they love, one perhaps they have sought to protect during the earth experience, you can understand that distress seizes the mind of such as these to think of the time which must be wasted, to think of the opportunities passing away during the sleep which holds them fast. And so these guardians, these guides, these helpers and instructors, they - by prayer, by much preparing before the Spirit is severed from the body - they in a measure can rectify the damage done by the individual concerned. And so, though some sleep for months and some for years, the time comes when the call of love awakens them and they see the miracle of God's Love at work.

22. "Then we pass on to those who, in degree, understand something of the Truth; and these, if they have put their holy desires into action, if they have worked as well as thought, if they have constructed instead of only building castles in the air, so such as these know not death, and death in any form cannot come nigh them; for lo! as the tired, weak body is laid aside, so they greet the unending Day and revelation opens to them as they progress. That is what 'death' means to the aspiring soul (St. John 8, 51; 11, 26); and indeed it has been the portion of thousands who have never heard of this Truth (Spirit Communion), of this mighty gift of a generous God. But such as these had a humble mind, a mind that did not bar this or refuse to credit that, a mind that, as the end drew near, just rested on the Father knowing that all would be well because of His Love and mercy.

23. "Such as these, though their physical understanding may have been limited, though there might have been none to instruct them as to the Life Beyond, such as these by their attitude of mind, by the blending of the physical will with the Divine, have released that which is Holy within, and once the body is discarded the Spirit communes with the Great Spirit and the unity is complete. This, little ones, is 'death'!

24. "Then I take you a step further on and I underline once more that each one goes to her or his own place; and, again, that that varies in beauty and in opportunity and in revelation according to the life on earth, according to the effort put forth.

25. "So, although you will meet each other in your rightful Home, yet each one will find that their conditions are different; you will meet those you love but, again, their conditions will be different.

26. "Some will be freer; some perchance still in a measure of bondage, but this great hope is held out for you and for them: Those with greater freedom will come to you and teach you how you can have that privilege yourself. And what will they say? Ah! little ones, you know it in your hearts. They will show you another who is more bound than yourself, and in helping the prisoner so your chains will fall from you never to be worn again.

27. "This spiritual law is worked out from the weakest to the strongest; but never forget that each one - all those countless millions - must draw their strength from God! Each healing thought, each time you hold out a helping hand, that comes from the Christ within, and Christ is God! The child who smiles and brings a flood of joy to the mother's heart, because that is love, so All-Love is demonstrated in the simple act.

28. "You pass out of conditions of twilight perchance of darkness, out of the sad memories, out of the heartaches, out of the weary minds and bodies, out of it all into life and power; and your life and power, for what is this gifted? Why! little ones, so that you may go to others and show them the way into real Life and real Power.

29. "Thus we go on, and the beauty of your little earth, of the Spring which is hurrying upon you, that is as a pale reflection of all the beauty stored by the individual for future use, brought into being by the things that went so hard, set into permanency by the passing away of that which once meant so much, harvested by your Father. Yes, each dull grey day represents the brightness which never fades.

30. "And again I ask you to ask yourself: 'Why should this brightness be for me?' And the answer comes: Think of the thousands in twilight or utter darkness, bound by their weakness and as yet unwilling for another to set them free. But you, little ones of my heart, you have got your direction from the Master Himself; and because He passed from the Cross into those conditions too terrible for you to understand, and ministered to the tortured (1 Peter 3:18-20; 4:6), so, when that full sense comes to you of your powers to redeem, so you will take your brightness, your joy, your many gifts, and use them as the Crucified used them, use them as the Saviour, the Redeemer, the Consoler has taught us how to do. And as you strive with others, so your own brightness increases; and as the bound find within themselves a little strength, so you have created a measure of light for them and doubled your own.

31. "Thus we go on and thus we do God's work, whether in the body or free from the body, and all we are and all we hope to be is for one thing and one thing alone - to be better instruments, purer vessels for God's use; to contribute our little to the spiritualising of humanity as a whole; for we are one though we are many, we are the children of God divided only by conditions; but the strong step over the divisions and go to the weak, and the weak in turn gain strength to rise.... And, again, I say this goes on forever!

32. "Therefore, my children, in thinking of Life after Death prepare yourselves to do that which the Divine within longs to do; for the real you is of God, has the same purpose, the same holy desires, aye! is so much of Him that anything antagonised from Him is torture indeed.

33. "So, in thinking of the by and by, remember that though you pass into that which you have built up by the earth life, yet there is the miracle of God's Love to be taken into account; and the miracle of God's Love transforms the little into the great, the imperfect into something which represents beauty itself. And so, as you take and as you progress, humility falls upon you, for you see how mighty is the Mind of God, how unlimited His generosity, how perfect is His Love.

34. "This evening you have seen the power of God in this little room; you have been shown that to the faithful so the All-Faithful gives and gives again. If the thought approaches as to why the gift should be here, why you can come evening by evening and bring to yourselves that outward demonstration of the Holy Spirit at work, then, little ones, I say that by what your lives have held and by your holy desires so you have done your part in building the bridge, and in making it not only possible, but safe, to meet those you love on the threshold of the Spirit, to take from them and to give back to them in turn.

35. "This life, so limited it seems, can be unlimited as you aspire. The mind of the body, apparently blind to the things of the Spirit, that mind by stages can be so trained that the dividing line between the real you and the physical you can be swept aside and the light of revelation be yours.

36. "But the purchase price is effort and effort again. Keep your hand on the plough and allow nothing to turn you from that straight furrow which you have commenced. When doubts assail you, when the destroyers seek to come between you and your trust, then though your heart may ache and your mind may shrink from the task in front, go on! - do the next thing and all will be well. Meet in this little room and find love and healing, ah! and that which you cannot grasp, but the Spirit within rejoices in its good gifts, and the Father waits to give and give again.

37. "In the Name of the All-Compassionate I bless you with peace; in the Name of the Great Heart I gather you all in, aye, into their rightful place; in the Name of our Father and Mother God I bless you with staying power, with the strength to go on; and as I speak so, little ones, the joy which no earthly experience can destroy is being built up around you, and it shall never, never be taken away.

38. "Remember, oh! remember the call which has come and, in turn, be redeemers of others, by the strength and through the love of the Sacred One, of the God Who rules us all.

39. "And now I will go. Let all distress pass from you; hold close to Love for the Beloved is here in very truth.

40. "Goodnight, my children."

GIFT

Instead of having to connect to the Internet to read the wonderfully revealing Zodiac Messages on this site, it is possible to have them on your computer. A setup file installs the Messages in a folder of your choice, and can be given as a gift simply by clicking HERE. Then a message can be read at anytime giving immense inspiration, guidance, reassurance and spiritual renewal.

Other highly recommended reading...

“Life Beyond The Veil”
“Paul and Albert”
“Spiritual Realms”
“The Ministry of Angels”