THE GREATER WORLD CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALIST CHURCH

THE ZODIAC MESSAGES

"MEMORY HERE AND HEREAFTER"

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 Sutton, Surrey, on Sunday, 25th February, 1945

1. "MOST understanding Father, we meet together with the desire to learn something more of that great and glorious Truth which Thou hast entrusted to man; and we pray that our hearts and minds may be cleansed of all those things which appertain to the earth; for only as Spirits can we contact with that which is of Thee.

2. "Help us, Christ, to be more worthy of our sonship and our daughtership; grant that we may be able to step free from the entanglements of doubt, and inspired by the desire to serve, we may arise and do the next thing - that next thing which Thou hast provided and which Thou asks of all Thy children for Love's sake.

3. "O teach us how the future is influenced by the present, grant that the seemingly tangible things may not erect barriers between us and those which are permanent - that we may be willing to relinquish the lesser for the sake of the greater, for the sake of that which shall never pass away. O God, accept our service, and bind us more closely to Thee in faith and in understanding. Amen.

4. "My children, the months pass and the years are gathered into the yesterday of time, and some of you, in thinking of the strain and stress, the fears and the anxieties, instinctively turn to God and thank Him for the measure of protection you have received; and because you are grateful, and because you are determined to hold fast to that which is good, you are a sign to others of progression.

5. "There are many who complain and these souls, because they have not been rightly taught, have their effect upon the brightness that might appertain upon the physical plane. And those who are discerning are conscious of these depressing influences; and those who are not instinctively courageous are overcome by them and much is lost on either side; and, what is more important, there is a weakness left in the physical conditions which may have a far-reaching effect upon the yet unborn.

6. "But I have been sent into your presence to speak to you upon a subject that really includes your fate in this world and in those conditions to come, yet that which I have said is part of it, for it is only the foolish who would try to separate the strands of life, only the ignorant who would divide the physical from the spiritual, for Life indeed represents a glorious whole. So I come to you today to speak to you on that which I name Memory Here And Hereafter.

7. "I want you in the first instance to consider the organ which you name the mind, yes, and to face the fact that even the scientists know very little of the real functions of the physical organ. Something is known and that something is of help to humanity. The doctors have given many years of their lives to try to understand the curious working of the human mind. They dissect that which you name the brain and they find out something, but not much, which helps them to bring alleviation for those complaints which, so far as they know, are centred in that organ.

8. "But when you are free from the flesh you will be shown a totally different aspect of the mind of man, and although you will not ignore the effect of physical life, you will also take into consideration something which is still more subtle the vibrations in which man lives and has his being, the influence of the unseen and that wonderful life which is so potent in what is called space or ether - the aura which surrounds this physical plane. Yes, my children, I must take you a little way on mental lines before I extricate you from its toils and lead you to those things which really matter - man's destiny, man's link with God.

9. "In the mind of man there is that which is known as memory or remembrance, and should an accident occur and the brain be damaged, then the effect is shown at once on memory; sometimes no memory remains, sometimes it is like a flickering light showing signs of activity before it finally dies out like a used candle.

10. "You have your institutions crammed with the so-called insane, and those institutions will be essential until man recognises Divine Law; for quite apart from the mental trouble caused by accidents, you know that the vast majority of the insane example the abuse of free-will by those who lived before them.

11. "And so, my children, we are brought up to that very unpleasant word to human ears - sin. There may be some who refuse to consider that there is sin in the world; they prefer to name it as weakness or lack of evolution, but it comes back to that which is mentioned in the Holy Book - sin - the abuse of free-will, the determination by certain souls to work out their own career.

12. "Over the past there have been millions to abuse the body, not thinking that in time it would have an effect upon the mind and health, and certainly not taking into consideration the penalty to be exacted after physical death.

13. "These facts are common knowledge, but you today are being taught to penetrate beneath the surface of things, and it is useless for man to speak of the sins of those who have passed out of these conditions over the generations, and to ignore what is going on today. As you know, there are infants born into this plane of experience who are blind, who are deaf and dumb; and at last man has awakened to the fact that this is not the work of an unkind fate or God's ignoring of the needs of man; it is the direct result of the consequences of sin.

14. "So we bring in that wonderful gift of memory. And I want to sympathise with those who complain that their memory is not the useful tool that they desire.

15. "Ill-health affects the mind and, still more, unhappiness. There is no corrosive acid which goes so deep as to live in conditions of direct disharmony, to look at those who once loved you and to see nothing but coldness in their eyes, criticism, disillusionment, boredom; and these wounds caused to sensitive souls take time to eradicate when the body is no more.

16. "But with those so bound that they cannot enter into the feelings of the sensitive, their remembrance of what has occurred lasts infinitely longer. It is not God's punishment, it is not that any in the Spirit World would not relieve them of their burdens; it is the fact that memory, being part of a man's spiritual equipment, cannot be interfered with by any soul, not even by God, for God has given unto man free-will, and what the Father bestows He does not take away.

17. "As you think over your own lives now and recall with joy the sweet memories of yesterday, when you were young, when life seemed to you as something beautiful and good, when the sun shone because you were loved - as you think over those sweet memories I want to draw your thought on to something still more important, for remember this: those days of delight are scarcely represented in the same guise when you are free from the flesh.

18. "You were inexperienced then, and a little selfish, too; and when with greater knowledge you look back, you are not entirely pleased over your attitude in those earlier years. Love, which was meant to cleanse and release, perchance made you self-centred, forgetful of others, determined to snatch what was your heart's desire.

19. "You see, even as I speak, things appear less bright. As time went on and care knocked upon the door of your home and refused to go away, the sunshine seemed dimmed; the wild winds of physical life surged around the citadel which you called your own, and you grew very tired of the struggle, tired of resisting unseen enemies who came and had to be reckoned with, although at first you tried to ignore their presence. The body suffered, and the mind suffered, too, and many a man and woman has cried out: 'Oh, to forget!' They are caught up in some labyrinth of evil, so it seems to them, their strength has gone, their faith has faded and God seems far away.

20. "Many of you know all about these sensations of apprehension, or fear for the future, and the utter weariness of that which you name the Spirit. But when you are free from the flesh and you look back upon those experiences, they will be shown to you as something charged with the Light of God. No longer were you content with childish things, you had grown to manhood or womanhood. Time was slipping by and the Spirit within you - so anxious to make use of the wonderful opportunity provided by life upon the physical plane - ignored the thoughts and desires of the physical mind and piled up the burdens and held them fast. But you did not understand, and so there was grieving, and life, which once was so sweet, was never the same again.

21. "Remember, my children, that God cannot learn our lessons for us; remember, also, that if your life upon the physical plane represented no struggle, then you could count this experience almost as dead loss.

22. "In that little word memory there is much included. You but see, as it were, the outer leaves of the bud; there is no fragrance, no beauty of colour and no sign of the imperishable life within. But how different is memory presented to those who are free.

23. "Then you may ask me: 'Why is it that we do not remember our lives in other worlds? Why is it that we do not remember more than a fragment of what takes place during the sleep state?' There are some who claim that they return into a physical body many times. I will not go into that point because it is easily understood how the difficulty arises, for man knows naught about memory nor that which you regard as the subconscious mind, and it is impossible for the finite mind not to become confused.

24. "Why is it that you do not remember your many lives since creation in the far, far past in other bodies and in other worlds? Is it not common sense to accept the fact that the mind of the body, in comparison with the real mind of the Spirit, is as a drop in a wide ocean? It would be impossible in that drop to force the myriad of experiences which you have taken on willingly, so far as the real self is concerned, in those other lives; and in a measure this law applies equally to the sleep state.

25. "Do not confuse your dreams and that which you regard as visions, with the real life of the sleep state which is all important to you as the children of God. That which you recall or bring back, it is as a flash of light or of darkness. But you have been busy while the body has been resting, busy in your own way, which means, again, that God does not interfere with free-will.

26. "You have been drawn into that condition where you would be at home, and in this there lies a grave responsibility.

27. "But I am here to try to expand your consciousness in regard to the wonderful tool of memory, which is an essential part of the Spirit's equipment, and there is one fact which I want to underline: you may not remember all that you have done or even anything that you have dome in the sleep state. Your mind may be entirely blank in regard to those other lives in other worlds; but your character is as a map showing what has taken place, showing how you have struggled or how you forgot to struggle, showing that part of your real self which gained breathing space, and those other parts which were suffocated because you wanted this and desired that.

28. "As you look back at your friends and consider their attitude of mind, at once you have in rough outline what has taken place in the Unseen and the Unknown concerning their own particular portion of life. You know that there are those naming themselves Christians who are still captive to vanity and to selfishness in many forms; you know that the call of material ambition is hearkened unto by them, although it has been forced upon their consciousness that the only wise course to take is the road that leads to God; and material ambition finds no place in God's great Home of Love and Light and Peace.

29. "So you see, children, it is useless for any one to call himself or herself by a name, and when you are free from the body all these terms will seem to you as very trivial, for you will be known for what you are. The petty deceptions of the human mind, the childishness, the desire for admiration, all these things will be plainly indicated in the aura, for they are there.

30. "But I want to comfort you. Those many attributes which you have never really prized - the instinct for sympathy, the love of other forms of life, the sense of companionship with a tree, the welcoming of the dawn, the catching of a brief message from the wild waves, all these things when you are free will be shown in different rays of light in that which you call the aura; and in the degree that you have fostered your kinship with all creation, so you will be able to pass into other conditions without having to be led there, using the power of another.

31. "Then we come to that which you name the subconscious mind, and I have tried to impress upon those who would listen, that the subconscious mind is merely as a corridor between the mind of the body and the mind of the Spirit; and sometimes it is so lumbered with material things that there is no passage at all, and the one concerned finds that the door of the real mind is not opened during the physical state.

32. "Oh, I want you to come down to fundamentals, to realise that all the thought of this physical plane - the scientific theories, the admiration given to the experts - all these things will be seen in a totally different proportion when you are free. You will find then that the wiseacres no longer appear as wise, that many who had the power and the authority upon the earth plane seem to be in classes for the young; yes, if they abused their power, if they forgot their neighbour.

33. "The mind of man even in this stage was meant by God to be a most precious tool, not because the mind might be extraordinarily clever or a great mental education came within the province of the one concerned. No, but the mind of the ordinary average man who could not in any sense of the word be called intellectual, can represent a marvellous tool to bring unto him his heart's and his Spirit's desire when he is free.

34. "It is all laid down in the Holy Book, and when there is a faithful soul endeavouring to live by the Christ Law, although he may be despised by many around him, although he may not be a success from the world's point of view, such a one passes out demonstrating not only the character of his physical life, but of his past lives, and with indications of the glorious life that is then unfolding before him.

35. "For remember that the mind of the body is laid aside with the flesh; the one thing that remains is memory, for good or for ill, for strength or for bondage.

36. "You see, children, while I speak on these mental lines I am but leading out of the wood of physical thinking on to the high road of spiritual achievement. What will your memories be? Will they be the kind that are useful after physical death, or will they be something that with all your being you will pray to forget?

37. "It is difficult to forget when we are not on earth, for the body acts as a drug. It is not as with you on this plane; you go to your books to look up facts, to find there the accumulation of earthly knowledge. In the World of Spirit your life is in the conditions itself, but now as a picture; it is a reality, it is not as a scroll which can be conveniently rolled up and cast aside.

38. "If I bring to some a sense of depression then I would part the veil and show you the glory of Divine Life. For are there not many here who have suffered, many who have been disappointed, many who have had to lay their earthly hopes aside because circumstances were too strong? Are there not many here who have prayed for the sick and have given unto them service, many who send their thoughts to the tortured ones in other countries, many who shrink with a deep, deep sympathy as they read of all that these have gone through, unprotected so it seems even by God Himself? Are there not some of you who delight to co-operate with Nature? Are there not some of you who love little children and would guide them on to the safe highway? Then, my little ones, I say that you have no need to fear memory, it will be as a great restorer - not merely as a compensation - it is something that brings back in enhanced beauty and power what you thought had slipped away into the deep pit of the past never to be found again.

39. "You who love, you who desire to progress, think of your memories when the physical mind is no more. And if you find there are some who claim to be leading a spiritual life who oft forget what spirituality means, then argue with them for their own sakes, give out the warning before it is too late, for when the body is no more they must remember that which they did knowing what the did, for ignorance can be no excuse for such as these.

40. "Your memories today may be of the sad kind. The war years have pressed hardly upon you, and you ask yourselves whether you can ever be really happy again.

41. "Oh, the foolishness of such a question. Happiness, real happiness, is not of the physical at all. The material world is far too course to hold this Divine treasure. Although you realise it now, you have been working for real happiness, suffering for it, too, paying a heavy price; but when your eyes are opened all those things that took their toll will seem so trivial, so little exacted for the wages you have received.

42. "Yes, there are many who desire to aspire to better things. Sometimes they are disappointed in their churches, in their leaders; sometimes there are those who would indeed criticise Christ Himself because there are those who do not live up to His wonderful teachings. I want you to realise that these things seem to be but a poor excuse when real knowledge is made your own.

43. "Am I my brother's keeper? Only in degree. And is your neighbour your keeper? Again, only in degree. You are a child of God, you are a separate personality, and for you there comes individual choice, and there is no one around you, in the body or free from the body, who can interfere with your choice if you desire to exert your rights.

44. "So you see, dear children, that if you allow disappointment over so-called Christians or so-called religious people to stem you on the path of progression, then you must face the truth when you are free; and, what is more important, you will see the conditions around you, how when you should have been strong you were inclined to be weak; how subtle arguments presented themselves that you should turn from the hard, straight path, for there was something that said within: "God does not mean me to be unhappy; I have a right to live as other men live!" You did not understand that your Spirit was trying to dominate the mind of the body, to drive you where the physical mind would not go, and the darkness was but seeming. Once the courage had come to step forward towards the unpleasant duty, then the ministering angels banished the darkness; and although the happiness of this physical plane might not be your own, there was something better - peace within, the linking up of the Divine, your holy gift, with the Giver of all good things.

45. "Time is fleeting, I have but outlined the great truth I would pass on. I must return to it again and again, seeking to force upon the mind of man - "Memory, or Remembrance, Here and Hereafter."

46. "Be of good cheer, you who have found the hill so steep, you who have contended with the pains of the body, you who have shouldered many, many burdens, be of good cheer! Your memories shall be sweet, and what is more important still, you shall find around you your spiritual equipment, and no force shall stem upon the path that leads to the heights, when as your right you can claim sonship or daughtership with the Most High.

47. "So I bless you, bless you with the will to take these few thoughts and to follow them into wisdom, to go through the house of your mind and your heart and to see that all those things which will represent an encumbrance in the Life to come, are despatched now. Some of you may say: "But I pray to be better; I want to be better and yet I fall!" My children, pray on, let not your heart be troubled! As you resist those enemy influences and as you desire to have a clean heart and a clean mind, so you shall see that the dirt stuck to the outside alone; within there was purity, within there was true love, within there was the desire to be a servant of the Christ and to do His Will.

48. "I bless the workers and I say unto them, in conjunction with their own guides: there is much ground that still can be covered. The garden can be extended, the good seeds can be sown more rapidly as earnest workers come forward. And if each one does his or her very best, how sweet will be their memories; what a wonderful power they will take with them into the World of Spirit, and what a blessing will be given unto them by the One Who loves them best, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

49. "In His Name I commend you to God's most loving care, and I entreat you all to make a vow that Spirit Communion shall never leave sad memories behind - memories that are material, memories that desecrate holy communion, which is by the Will and through the Grace of God.

50. "Peace be with you all, and when sleep holds you this night many of us will meet again. Farewell, farewell!"

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”