Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 15, 4/4 by Estelle Roberts
It is not to be expected that we can achieve perfection within the span of one lifetime. After death we go to the astral plane, in which there are many worlds of consciousness. After a period we incarnate once again on this earth, or some other inter-penetrating world, for the further progress of our souls. Eventually, and who can say how long this may take, we reach a state of evolution at which further reincarnation is no longer necessary and we pass on to higher realms of spiritual existence.
In all his addresses Red Cloud quotes freely from the Bible, sometimes changes the words of an accepted version to bring to them a different and more illuminating meaning. The words, “Lead us not into temptations,” as they occur in the Lord’s Prayer, for instance, Red Cloud will never accept. The significance of these words has many times been debated by theologians,
but Red Cloud is unhesitating in his judgement. “How can that which is Perfection lead into temptation?” he asks. “God does not lead you there, for that part of you which is God does not know temptation. Only the carnal mind knows temptation and, too often, submits to it. Therefore, when you pray to God, say rather: “Leave us not when in temptation.”
The power of love to cast out hatred has been a recurring theme in Red Cloud’s trance addresses. To overcome hatred in ourselves we must try to see in others only that part of them which is God or good. And when our enemies seem to destroy us we must stand firm in the knowledge that good in the end must triumph over evil.
“God is there for all who have the eyes to see Him.” These are the words with which Red Cloud began one of his inspirational lectures, and I don’t think I can do better than to quote the words with which this lecture ended:
“You know, my children, in this day of life, the greatest aspect that you find within the jewel of your being is to see with far-seeing eyes the beauty of God’s kingdom. See it in the simple flower, its folding petals, its colours rare. In the heart of that small blossom, seeking peace, God will be found.
“Stand upon the hilltop and watch the setting sun, and in your heart be calm. Watch the blending of the colours as they fall behind the hills, and in that quiet stillness, God will be. Stand among the yellow of the buttercups in the open fields when the dew lies upon the grass.
Watch the bird rise with a flutter of wings, its throat trembling in the beauty of its note. It is there God will be found. In the laughter of a child when it runs to its mother’s side; there, too, will God be found.
“May I always find within your world the beauty of God and the wisdom of His kingdom expressed in the one simple word – Love.”