Secrets

A secret is something studiously concealed. A man who cannot keep his own secrets, will hardly keep the secrets of others. To tell our own secrets is often folly; to communicate those of others is treachery.Webster’s American Dictionary

A secret is something kept hidden from others or known only to oneself or to a few; secluded, retired; beyond ordinary comprehension, inscrutable, esoteric." A secret is also "a thing not discovered or not explained, a mystery; the key to the solution of something.The Oxford English Dictionary

Secrets conform to a law of doing, and sharing or holding a secret can be an initiation. What you hide, from yourself and the world, always betrays you at the most inopportune moment.







Edna Lister on Secrets

Nothing is hidden from those who have earned the right to know, who have stood under Light and lifted.—Edna Lister, January 19, 1935.


All your wriggling self-delusions, self-excuses, self-indulgences will not hide a single record.—Edna Lister, November 6, 1940.


If you hide something, the law hides something from you.—Edna Lister, July 3, 1941.


God searches out the hidden secrets of your heart to cause you to see and repent until you can overcome all soul taints.—Edna Lister, October 21, 1942.


Many hidden, small taints rise into the daylight where you can recognize them and burn them out. Watch it: Unprepared, unwary self-satisfaction will say, "This can’t belong to — or mean — me!"—Edna Lister, January 26, 1942.


You must work out spiritual debts, old thoughts and inner, hidden pictures of self-pity and self-worship.—Edna Lister, January 4, 1943.


Search your soul and the secret rooms in your heart to make sure that you do not entertain unawares some hidden guest from the past, which works against your cherished and renewed desire to become perfect and to have all your creations perfect.—Edna Lister, January 4, 1943.


When in your heart you deeply fear being wrong, you hide secrets that will betray you.—Edna Lister, October 26, 1944.


You do not like to look at the hidden self, which is exactly why you hide it so safely and securely, deep below the surface in the memory’s lowest bottom layer. When you say, I don’t understand, you are looking back and down into the self’s hidden darkness.—Edna Lister, November 1, 1944.


The little self, the subconscious mind that has come up through evolution, has hidden traits of animal life, all racial-consciousness and memories of past evil, hidden inclinations of the opposite of every virtue, which must come up and be sublimated again into the soul of God.—Edna Lister, November 1, 1944.


Every word, every choice has a hidden reason plus a conscious one.—Edna Lister, November 1, 1944.


One invisible, unknown, hidden particle of self left under the surface will erupt as a volcano, burning, searing and dissolving everything it touches.—Edna Lister, November 2, 1944.


You make true advance only by overcoming, only by mastering laws that will uncover all self’s hidden taints.—Edna Lister, November 2, 1944.


You do what is hidden in you; your every word gives you away, in your answers to lessons and reprimands.—Edna Lister, July 9, 1945.


Anything you hide — some act, thought, etc. — from the Light, attracts the debts of all others who hide things.—Edna Lister, July 11, 1945.


The most subtle and damnable of all hidden taints is the sudden devilish will to hide from the truth.—Edna Lister, July 14, 1945.


The subconscious is so faithful in building without deviation or conscious help; look into the subconscious grooves for the self that hides there.—Edna Lister, July 22, 1945.


Self desires to hide and cover up, but soul causes you to confess.—Edna Lister, July 22, 1945.


Your weakness, your greatest inhibition (hidden things) will become your greatest strength when you conquer it.—Edna Lister, July 22, 1945.


No will power you exert over your past can hide it, for Light is the place of revelation.—Edna Lister, July 23, 1945.


There is no small thing: Your smallest weakness is stronger than your greatest strength, for your smallest hidden weakness sends you to the bottom, while your greatest strength gains you only one step at a time.—Edna Lister, July 25, 1945.


Be on guard with law, to uncover each small, hidden weakness in your life, lest it sends you down from heights of consciousness that you may regain only through deep travail of soul.—Edna Lister, July 25, 1945.


Hide nothing ever! When you hide anything of the past within, you will fail to succeed.—Edna Lister, July 31, 1945.


The soul, who really wants to progress, will consciously chase out the hidden devils and stop going to sleep after it chases one; that soul will suffer travail of pain, grief and sorrow to no end in overcoming self, but will reach the sunlit Way of Glory, full vision, full hearing.—Edna Lister, June 20, 1947.


You must not hide anything; a single secret self-hidden for even five minutes gives the subconscious power to control that long, and it grows. Meanwhile, you cover up against the Light, and don’t see, don’t understand or it didn’t click. You say, "I didn’t see that" or "I didn’t hear you." Those who are alert and aware do not let the subconscious control them at all. It’s a great battle, but is the Way of Ascension.—Edna Lister, July 25, 1947.


You cannot fool God, and everyone can see those points you pride yourself on hiding.—Edna Lister, August 17, 1947.


The only sink of iniquity is to hide from or excuse your real self-motives.—Edna Lister, December 13, 1947.


No one, high or low, upon earth can hide a whisper: In due season, it shall be known, for the power of love opens it.—Edna Lister, December 13, 1948.


Cyclically, Light will unveil all past and hidden thoughts, words or deeds before the world; only what you have erased from the page of life without a trace can remain covered from prying eyes.—Edna Lister, January 10, 1949.


You may not hide self-things under the Laws of the Crown, which are all responsibility.—Edna Lister, November 20, 1950.


To the one who has earned the right to know, nothing can be hidden.—Edna Lister, June 11, 1951.


Love is the secret of the creative fire, contained in the Mother Love principle and it must be hidden from the world. Only Mother love, hidden within the aroused creative fire, could make you love your enemies so much that you no longer consider them enemies.—Edna Lister, Secrets of the Hidden Mother, July 22, 1951.


Discretion: Do not put secrets or what you value into a sieve.—Edna Lister, November 7, 1951.


Search for hidden self within even your best motives; make certain no self-delusion remains to spread again in subtle ways.—Edna Lister, April 10, 1952.


Light does not make you critical; it only brings up your own hidden ruthlessness to show itself to the world as what it is.—Edna Lister, May 19, 1952.


If you try to put the load of obedience on top of hidden things in the subconscious, they come out in your speech, for the mouth speaks out of the meditation of the heart.—Edna Lister, Closed Prophecies, June 9, 1953.


Nothing is hidden from one who has earned the right to know: Knowing is the reward to one who plods.—Edna Lister, November 21, 1953.


You must become stark naked of soul, for until you can become soul-naked, with nothing left to hide or hide from, you can be of little use to God.—Edna Lister, December 2, 1953.


The greatest disobedience to the law on adultery is to hide the truth from yourself, or adulterate it with "little me."—Edna Lister, Now Is the High Time, December 6, 1953.


You may not hide things from yourself under self-delusion.—Edna Lister, July 20, 1956.


Once you are told of a law, you may not hide from it.—Edna Lister, December 17, 1956.


If you tell a secret to a person who leaks like a sieve, you tempt that weak one and you, the tempter, take the blame. Make a just appraisal and recognize their weaknesses in love. This is not judgement, but a just and loving appraisal to lift them into the Light of God. Then you do not burden them beyond their capacity, or expect them to do what they are unable to do.—Edna Lister, Soul Integration, December 8, 1957.


Hoist your under-the-surface fears and doubts, criticisms and condemnations into the Light and they become your greatest black pearls, your hidden riches.—Edna Lister, February 4, 1958.


Our Father has arranged it so that we each have our own individual Source, a "secret place" in which to expand and commune with Him.—Edna Lister, Come Ye Apart, April 20, 1958.


The Master may use you to say something for his own secret reason, which may not be apparent until years later.—Edna Lister, June 13, 1958.


Only your Father hears your innermost secrets.—Edna Lister, November 10, 1958.


Under law, like a copyright, the time of holding a confidence runs thin; when it is time for the world to know the information that you have been privy to, there can be no betrayal, just the passing on of needed knowledge. In a group, when the good of all demands a release of Power that they can release only under full knowledge of "why," then divulging the secret cannot be betrayal; this does not excuse idle gossip.—Edna Lister, May 14, 1959.


This is the law: A confidence given, when another demands secrecy, can be held secret only while the honor and the love of the one demanding the secrecy can last. When the love is used up in secrecy, it then becomes the world’s property exactly like a copyright.—Edna Lister, May 14, 1959.


Hidden mysteries are only given by mouth to ear.—Edna Lister, November 19, 1959.


Put your secrets in a good vessel, not one that leaks.—Edna Lister, July 12, 1960.


You leaven your body with what you think you hide from the soul.—Edna Lister, December 29, 1960.


Light penetrates egotism, self-satisfaction and points to any past hidden treachery. It is very dangerous to interfere with anyone’s self-satisfaction. This affects your family, sometimes against their wishes, against their desires.—Edna Lister, October 23, 1964.


Nothing is hidden to Light; the most fleeting thoughts, emotions and vague pictures push you back, sometimes many steps.—Edna Lister, March 21, 1965.


The self seeks to hide: All your difficulties arise from the self, seeking legitimate excuses for disobedience, which you cannot hide from universal law.—Edna Lister, June 10, 1965.


Initiation is required of those who wish to know inner and divine heavenly secrets.—Edna Lister, January 12, 1970.

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New Testament on Secrets

Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly. And when you pray, you shalt not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they shall be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows what things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner therefore pray: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly. I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you openly.—Matthew 6:1-18.


Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.—Matthew 10:26-27.


For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.—Mark 4:22.


For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.—Luke 8:17.


For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.—Luke 12:2-3.

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Old Testament on Secrets

The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.—Deuteronomy 29:29.


The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.—Psalm 25:14.


If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.—Psalm 44:20-21.


He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.—Psalm 91:1-2.


A talebearer reveals secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals the matter.—Proverbs 11:13.


He that goes about as a talebearer reveals secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flatters with his lips. —Proverbs 20:19.


God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.—Ecclesiastes 12:14.


I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.—Isaiah 45:3.

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Beware of murmuring, which is unprofitable; and refrain from backbiting: for no word is so secret that it shall go for nought: and the mouth that lies slays the soul.—Wisdom of Solomon 1:11.


The righteous children of good men did sacrifice secretly, and with one consent made a holy law, that the saints should be like partakers of the same good and evil.—Wisdom of Solomon 18:9.


At first, wisdom will walk with you by crooked ways, bring fear and dread upon you, and torment you with her discipline, until she may trust your soul, and try you by her laws. Then will she return you to the straight way, and comfort you, and shew you her secrets; if you go wrong, she will forsake you, and give you over to your own ruin.—Wisdom of Ben Sirach 4:17-19.


It is much better to reprove, than to be angry secretly: and he who confesses his fault shall be preserved from hurt.—Wisdom of Ben Sirach 20:2.


The Son spoke about His secret things, knowing that the Father is a being without evil. For that very reason, He [the Father] brought him forth in order to speak about the place, and (about) his resting-place, from which he had come forth, and to glorify the greatness of his name, and the sweetness of the Father.—The Gospel of Truth, Codex I, 3 and XII, 2.


The dark ones thought that it was by their own power and will that they were doing what they did, but the Holy Spirit in secret was accomplishing everything through them as it wished.—Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.


If some belong to the order of the priesthood, they will be able to go within the veil with the high priest. For this reason, the veil was not rent at the top only, since it would have been open only to those above; nor was it rent at the bottom only, since it would have been revealed only to those below. But it was rent from the top to bottom. Those above opened to us the things below, in order that we may go in to the secret of the truth. This truly is what is held in high regard, (and) what is strong! But we shall go in there by means of lowly types and forms of weakness. They are lowly indeed when compared with the perfect glory.—Gospel of Philip, Codex II, 3.

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Edna Miriam Lister
1884—1971
The original Christian Pioneering Mystic,
Platonist philosopher, American Idealist, Founder, Society of the Universal Living Christ, minister, teacher, author, wife, and mother.


Edna Lister


Etymology of secret: Latin secretus, from secernere, "to set aside": se-, "apart" + cernere, "to separate."


Secrets conform to a law of doing.

Sharing or holding a secret can be an initiation.


Quotes

Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.—John Dalberg-Acton, Lord Acton

We dance round in a ring and suppose,
but the secret sits in the middle and knows.—Robert Frost


References

Dalberg-Acton, John. "Letter 74, (23 January 1861)" Lord Acton and his Circle. Abbot Gasquet, ed. London: Burns and Oates, 1906, p. 166.

Frost, Robert. The Poems of Robert Frost. New York: The Modern Library, 1946, p. 422.

Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, 2024.

The Holy Bible. King James Version (KJV).

The Nag Hammadi Library. James M. Robinson, editor. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1981.

The Oxford English Dictionary: Compact Edition 2 volumes. Oxford University Press, 1971.


Related Topic

See Discretion