Excerpt From "The Beckoning Light"

Introduction

For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Matthew 13:17

It would be presumptuous of this writer, indeed, to even think that I could bring to the printed page the answers to questions asked by humankind since time began. Presumptuous, that is, unless I was blessed with the privilege of hearing the answers from an archangel. Archangel Gabriel, to be exact. He is the announcer of the ages, by his own definition.

At the beginning of the Age of Pisces, Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary. In the Gospel according to Luke (1:31) we find: Fear not, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call him JESUS. It would be centuries before Isaiah’s prophesy came true, but it did, with the next turning of the ages.

From the Old Testament, we find that twice Jesus’ birth had been prophesied by Isaiah (9:6): For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 7:14: Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Gabriel went to Joseph, probably to be sure that Joseph would accept Mary’s conception, and said, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. Matthew 1:20-21

I boldly state here that Archangel Gabriel came to us to teach us – not something new, not to become a “Gabriel follower”, or to bring a new religion. He came to wake us up. Gabriel said he came to remind us of what we already know, but have forgotten. He reminded us that we need awakening because we have slept for thousands of years. He told us that the Garden of Eden is an allegory, not an actual story. He reminded us that as Adam slept (Gen. 2:21) he never, throughout the remainder of the Bible, woke up.

Humanity, in effect, fell asleep to its own divinity. Gabriel came to awaken us to our holy selves, for we are made as part of God, not merely in His Image. We are as much a part of God as the clay is part of the ceramic bowl.

The reader may choose to discount Gabriel’s teachings, and you may be correct, if I told you that I alone heard his words, or if I told you I saw the archangel in a night vision or a trance. If I told you that I was high on drugs, such as alcohol, you would probably question their validity. However, I was awake, sober, and alert, with all senses functioning, and a sound mind. I was sitting in a large room with dozens of other people – seekers, like myself. Also, it was not a singular event. Gabriel came many times over a period of twelve years. He was the only archangel to come to earth to teach, but he told us that eleven other master teachers also came, to various places on Earth, about the same time – the turning of the ages from Pisces to Aquarius – with the same message. One of the master teachers was Ramtha, who came through J.Z. Knight, in California.

Many, many topics were taught to us by Archangel Gabriel. The focus of this book is the process of devolution and evolution, for we have devolved away from God (in our consciousness) to this alien world we call Earth. In thus explaining our devolution and what we must do to evolve back to God, consciously, Gabriel in effect discounted Darwin’s theory.

Of course it is easy to accept Darwin’s theory when we see that the human form and the organs of the apes are so similar to our own. Darwin himself said there was a missing link. There is no link to be missed, for Darwin’s theory remains a theory. If we accept the idea that we are physical beings only, Darwin makes much sense. However, Gabriel made it clear that we are children of God and God created us from Himself, and God is Love. Therefore we are love, loved and loveable.

In the beginning, we did, in fact, live in an Eden. It was the Spirit World of God, without beginning or end. We lived in spirit form there. We had no physical form, we communicated by thought instead of words. We loved one another and we all loved God, our Creator. Heaven was, and still is, our natural habitat. God gave us free choice across the board (angels have free choice only in the realm of good). God gave us imagination. We used our free choice and imagination to begin a journey downward, away from God’s sweet Realm of peace, love, joy and abundance. The vibration of spirit is the highest vibration in existence.

We decided, at some point, to create something other than the perfection in which we existed, and began a journey through several planes of existence, slowing constantly the vibrational rate, until we came to the lowest plane of vibration, physical form. The other planes of existence through which we devolved include the mental plane and the astral plane. Physical form is the lowest possible vibration. We are at the nadir point of vibration. We have no place to go but UP! Is this so difficult to accept, given the negativity that prevails on earth at this time? All negative thoughts come from the ego of humankind, not the Mind of God. Love is not negative. Lusts may lead to negative behavior, but love that is eternal is not negative in any way. It is the unconditional love; the agape love described by Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 13.

This book begins with the origin of the spirit of us, not the body of us. God is the Creator of our spirit selves. The physical body is birthed by our physical parents. However, we choose the shape and design of it before we come to earth. Our subtle bodies – mental and astral - are of our own design, also. Spirit permeates all the bodies. The ego and the personality are our very own. The soul of us is the memory bank of every experience we ever had on earth – throughout all our lifetimes here.

The astral plane is the plane we live on, in our astral body, between incarnations on earth. While on the astral plane, with our free choice and imagination, we plan our lives on our next ‘visit’ to Earth. From our perspective on the astral plane we know the lessons we need to learn. We often say and firmly believe; that ‘we can’t choose our parents, but we can choose our friends.’ this is untrue. We choose all those who will interact with us on earth, whatever their relationship to us. Each is in our experience to teach us a lesson. We may learn it or we may not learn it. We have free choice. The next time on the astral plane we will see which lessons we learned and which ones we did not learn. Then we design another lifetime. Part of our form while on earth is the energy centers, or chakras, which are consonant with the endocrine glands and learning about them we can learn about ourselves.

Earth is the only planet where the beliefs in sickness and death still prevail. As long as we see ourselves as only a physical form we will accept the idea that the body has a mind of its own and we suffer physical and emotional pain at random, without reason or cause. We plan our own lives and make for ourselves a heaven or hell on earth, by choosing the illness, the “accident”, the circumstance that will present a lesson to us. We are totally responsible for our lives, those people with whom we interact and all experiences we have. Would a God of Love bring us pain, suffering, and injury?

Throughout the ages humans have sought to know the future.

Divination is as old as humans. From Genesis to Revelation Scripture mentions several kinds of divination. The recent book entitled A Course in Miracles came to earth from Jesus the Christ through a dedicated channel. Disbelief in channeling bars communication with the spirit world. That is another choice we have. Time and space are figments of our imagination. In the spirit world there is no need for either.

In the Bible, Jesus told us: He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father (John 14:12) Before Jesus was born he experienced many lifetimes. Current authors write of them. Gabriel explained in detail some of them. Jesus was not Adam, as this writer thought. Adam was a fictitious person. Gabriel told us that Jesus had many previous incarnations, as we have, but he described only the lives of Jesus in which a significant shift in consciousness was made. Just prior to his incarnation as Jesus, he was Buddha. When one reads the teachings of Buddha, the similarity is clear. He had also lived as Hermes and others. Jesus the Christ came as an example for us. He was the way-shower for his spiritual siblings, all humanity. He proclaimed it often in the Bible.

The Going Home section contains information we can apply to our lives as we seek to return unto God, our Source. This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. More significantly, it is the Age of Spirituality. The word ‘spirituality’ comes from ‘spirit,’ which means ‘breath of life.’ God gives us the breath of life. This is the age in which humanity is ready for the symbolic meanings in Scripture. The Bible is symbolic from first to last. In Jesus’ time the symbolism was not understood. But Jesus knew one day we would be capable of comprehending the deeper meaning of his words. Today we find A Course in Miracles requires our deeper thought. It is not an easy read. But Gabriel pointed out that it will stand beside the Bible in importance, in centuries to come. Why would it not, when it was brought to us by our elder brother, the Master Teacher himself? In The Course he often quotes his own words from Scripture and explains them.

Prayer is talking to God and Meditation is listening to God. They are examples of communication. There are people on earth now who have communicated with animals, plants, and even water. There is an oneness to all life. Finally, from recent books, there is a description of the other side – the astral plane – to where we will adjourn upon our ‘death’ on Earth. The environment has been described as well as the houses, and the activities available to us on that lovely plane.

In the text, ACIM refers to A Course in Miracles.

It is the author’s hope that the reader will see the needless cycle of the karmic ride and how we can get off it and return to God and Heaven, our natural habitat; our one true home.

Gabriel’s farewell message, December 2, 1999, included:

“Beloveds, in my twelve years of your time upon the earth, the one true lesson that I desire greatly for you to know is how beautiful you are and how meaningful your life is . . . the greatest heroes of the world are the simple, everyday people who live their lives trusting God and knowing the goodness that is in them.”

Rev. Ellen Douglas is an ordained Metaphysical minister who was privileged to hear the teachings of Archangel Gabriel for twelve years, as he visited a small group of seekers in the Albany,NY area. She realized her use of the teachings - besides incorporating them into her own life - was to pass them on in her books.

The above Introduction is from her sixth book, "The Beckoning Light". It is available from her at llndouglas731@gmail.com, for $12 including postage.

Rev. Ellen Douglas, 164 Sackett Rd., Apt. 904, Avon,NY 14414