Edna Lister’s Lectures 1940

The Vows of Ascension
Edna Lister outline, January 7, 1940, Cleveland, OH, Matthew 5:25-26

  “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.”–Matthew 5:25-26.
  Every soul on earth is subject to seven great Vows of Ascension. Eventually, each soul must take them as part of the seven great Degrees of Initiation, the Neophyte, the Disciple, the Adept, the Master, the Priest, and the Christos.
  As a Neophyte, you vow to make your body a fitting dwelling place for your soul. As a Disciple you vow to surrender self completely to become the servant of all the Power of God. As an Adept, you vow to be selfless in your release of His Power.
  As a Mystic, you vow to keep your silence shining and golden. As a Master, you vow to be a master in all responsibility, responsible for everything and everyone about you. As a Priest, you vow to remain pure in heart, mind, and purpose. As a Christos, you vow to make your supreme vow of complete surrender of self. You need something to help you to hold to these vows, to keep them. You follow the Master, whose footsteps are always before you.
  The period from Christmas to Lent encompasses a whole lifetime of 33.5 years. That is why it is so difficult always to hold to your vows, especially during the sacrifices of Lent.
  “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.”–Matthew 5:25. This one verse covers all your problems with the self. The self is the adversary, soul is the judge, and Oversoul is the officer. Self casts you into prison. Soul lifts you into Light.
  Life’s highway is marked with many milestones, and each bears a record. What sort of year has passed? What sort of year lies ahead? This is your world. This is your life. What is your choice? What are your high goals? What is your high destiny?

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The Spine: The Tree of Life Coming soon.

Heavenly Manna
Edna Lister outline, July 8, 1940, Buffalo, NY, Luke 8:41-56

  “Behold, there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus’ feet, and besought him that he would come into his house: For he had one only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she lay a dying. But as he went the people thronged him. And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me? And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. While he yet spake, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue’s house, saying to him, Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. But when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole. And when he came into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept, and bewailed her: but he said, Weep not; she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again, and she arose straightway: and he commanded to give her meat. And her parents were astonished: but he charged them that they should tell no man what was done.”–Luke 8:41-56.
  The prefix, “en,” of ensample, means “in, upon, giving intensity.” The prefix “ex,” as in example, means “out.” An ensample signifies expression from within one’s own character; thus, an ensample is what one really is. If you set an example, you are self-conscious. When you are soul-conscious, you are an ensample.
  An example is an attitude on the outside, which is why people think and ask such questions as, “What will they think? How will this affect me? What will it get me?” An example is also a pose for gain, an attitude assumed to please another. Setting an example is an affectation meant to enhance the veneer of one’s reputation, so setting an example is what you are doing.
  You can hear intuition speak to you when you are open to God’s Light from above. Intuition told the woman with the issue of blood that she would be healed if she touched the Master. She was ready to crawl to him, since her friends could not take her to him because she was ritually unclean.
  How greatly do you want a miracle? Desire dictates the quality and quantity of your effort. Inspiration is breathing the Breath of Life, and when you do, it inspires you.
  Before the woman’s miracle, Jairus had beseeched the Master on his daughter’s behalf. Then Jairus’ servant came and told him, “Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master.” Jesus told him, “Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole.” When he reached Jairus’ house, he sent everyone from the child’s room because they were all potential disbelievers.
  You must decide whether you want mountains or molehills in life. When another is likely to interfere with your work for a miracle, evict him from your plan, or better yet, do not tell him what you plan in the first place.
  Open a new account with the Source of Life. If you deposit plenty of praise in your heavenly account above, you will receive blessings below, since you can withdraw what you deposit, freely. Stand on God’s principles and know His Truth.

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Seven Breaths in One
Edna Lister outline, July 23, 1940, Buffalo, NY

Coming soon.

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Stages of Light, Visible and Invisible
Edna Lister transcript, Victor Collord, scribe, September 21, 1940, Buffalo, NY

  The visible spectrum of light and radiant heat so fascinated the ancient Greeks, who realized that light traveled in straight lines, that they were among the first to study light’s reflective and refractive properties. Light has always lured man to higher more abstract thinking and greater inventiveness. We need two kinds of light: physical light to dispel the darkness of night and metaphysical Light to illuminate the darkness of ignorance.
  Lightning and static electricity were the forms of electric light that inspired man to produce ignition (by fiery spark) and electric lights. Man's every invention has sprung from his observations of God's perfection and economy in creation. We imitate what we can see and then imagine how to produce some copy of it.
  Man called the first colored light he saw the “rainbow,” which is an arc of prismatic colors formed by the refraction of light rays by drops of rain. God named the rainbow as the sign of His first covenant with man seven times in the verses of Genesis 9:9-17. The electromagnetic spectrum—the portion of it that man can measure—begins with slow radio waves ranging through microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, X-rays, and gamma rays at the high-frequency end. These frequencies and wavelengths have no known limits. The invisible light of the Sun is contained within the visible sunlight we can perceive as radiant light and heat, in particular the extremes of infrared and ultraviolet (but not visible) light. Man has progressed through many stages in the study of light, from the sludge of earth to the skies of heaven.
  A rushlight (“a light made from a stripped, dried rush dipped repeatedly in tallow”) is a tiny torch made from the dried pith of a rush plant soaked in tallow or grease; the wick is not separate from the fuel. Varieties of the rush family grow worldwide in wetlands and swampy terrain.
  A torch (Latin torquere “to twist”) is just a stick with some combustible substance, such as tar or pitch, at one end, and is used as a light source or to set something else on fire. The torch was named for its medieval form of twisted tow (e.g. flax) dipped in wax. Torches are still used in ritual processions and religious events. The torch is a ancient symbol of hope and spiritual illumination—in fact, our Statue of Liberty is named “Liberty Enlightening the World” with her lifted torch.
  A candle (Latin candela “a light, torch, candle made of tallow or wax,” from candere “to shine”) is a wick embedded in a carrier of wax or tallow to provide light. Man has also used candles to keep time.
  The oil lamp (Greek lampas “a torch, light,” from lampein “to shine”) works like a candle but is the container for some liquid fuel. A woven wick (e.g. cotton or sisal) rests coiled in a container of oil, and is lit at the upper end, burning the oil that is drawn up the wick. Fuel oils have included nuts (e.g. almonds) and seeds (e.g. olive, flax), and animal fats (e.g. butter, tallow, whale blubber).
  Gas lighting produced light by combustion of some gas (e.g. coal or natural), either directly by the flame, or indirectly with a gas mantle or a limelight (calcium light); the gas is the heat source for the incandescence of the gas mantle or lime.
  Electric lighting 1 became a reality in the late 19th Century. The incandescent bulb produces light by by passing electric current through a wire filament (e.g. carbon or tungsten) heating it to produce light; later came gas-discharge lamps, which produce light by means of an electric arc through a gas.
  All these preceding forms of light are man-created imitations of the original Creative Fiat: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”–Genesis 1:1-5, Mechon Mamre Masoretic.
  The Shekinah (Hebrew: שְׁכִינָה “dwelling”) denotes the radiance (glory) of the presence of God, such as a pillar of fire, the burning bush, or the cloud that rested on Mount Sinai when the Law was given. The Shekhinah is a presence said by Jewish mystics to be seated at the right hand of God.
  Nothing could exist without Light because everything is formed of the Light Supernal and Divine that came into existence when God said, “Let there be Light.” Nothing on earth could live or grow without the presence of some wavelenth of light, visible or invisible, from the planet’s core to a blind fish (with eyes) in a cave. Like an iceberg, 1 most of God’s Light is invisible.

1 Electric lighting: The most modern versions—fluorescent and LED lamps—produce light by a flow of electrons across a band gap in a semiconductor.

2 The largest iceberg in recorded history, shaped like a giant ironing board, 105 miles long by 15.5 miles wide (80 times larger than Manhattan), calved from Antarctica in 2021.

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Living Waters
Edna Lister outline, December 15, 1940, Buffalo, NY

  “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”–John 4:10-14.
  “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”–John 7:38.
  Oversoul is always waiting, watching and working while you, the embodied soul, put the bridle on self and give the reins to God.
  Will is the bellows you use to fan the spark of your desire into a mighty flame.
  Doing transcends the limitations of the physical life and the body until you reach the state of being contained with the “mind of Christ,” the Christed consciousness.
  If your heart is closed to the “living waters” of which our Lord spoke, you produce dry husks, not vibrant creations. Love softens the hardness of disbelief, intellect and paralyzed vitality.
  A pessimist’s glass is always half-empty, but an optimist’s glass is forever half-full.

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