Christi Carlson’s Lectures

Migrating to God

Christi Carlson, March 22, 2007, Cleveland, Ohio

  As I head north I see a patch of green on the horizon; what a blessed site as I exclaim “There it is; I’m almost there!” I huff and puff my way forward, gasping for breath that is rapidly becoming more labored. My body is feeling so tired as I have traveled non-stop for almost 500 miles. I must keep going; I have come so far. I must avoid any wind turbulence, even at this juncture or I could perish at sea. I cannot stop, it is only a little bit further and I will be home. As the green space grows bigger and bigger, I notice there are mostly buildings and structures and the resting spot appears to be someone’s backyard. I spot some lovely trumpet flowers on a fence and drop from the sky completely exhausted. Despite the modest conditions, the vine leaves will provide a safe place to rest and the trumpet flower will provide much needed nourishment for the next leg of this trip.
  This traveler is a Ruby-throated hummingbird, and it has just completed a 500-mile journey across the Gulf of Mexico from South America. It is headed to Ohio where it will find a mate and raise a family for the summer. The bird will make this same trip in reverse in September. The Ruby-throated Hummingbird weighs about the same as 2-1/2 paper clips. It would have doubled its weight for its migration journey. On this first day of spring, hummingbird sitings have already been reported in the southern United States. The precise guidance system involved in hummingbird migration is unknown, yet their fortitude and perseverance during migration is unwavering. They do not migrate in flocks as many other birds do, so they are going it alone. They may commit to different migratory paths, they may stop over in different places, they may become aggressive when looking for food; despite these challenges and hardships, they share a single migration strategy and have great fidelity to their migration routes.
  Every spring, birds migrate north and an arrival in our backyards of a Red-winged blackbird, Robin, or even a Grackle, announces that spring is around the corner. Even the buds on a tree and that of a flower have held on all winter, surviving the harshest of weather conditions, are waiting to reveal their beauty. Their most important task still lies ahead of them, the seeds will hopefully be germinated, the flowers pollinated, and the birds will mate and raise a family. These cycles continue every year.
  What is the limit of our endurance? What is our fortitude and perseverance on our path to God?
  The Via Christa glossary defines fortitude and perseverance as follows:
  Fortitude: is holding fast to your principles, which gives soul the power to exercise choice. Fortitude is an abstract principle, a law of being and of doing, a cardinal virtue and a Via Christa Degree under the principles of Power and energy.
  Perseverance: is constant persistence in a course of action, purpose, or state, steadfast pursuit of an aim, tenacious assiduity (as-i-doo-i-tee: constant effort, diligence, devoted attention.) Perseverance, a soul virtue and an initiatory degree, is continuance in a state of grace, leading finally to a state of glory. You may characterize your perseverance with dogged determination or deliberate joyousness; the former makes your task grimly onerous, the latter a pleasure. Your Ascension work must equal the Power moving through you, and you must back it with persistence, perseverance and a continuous soul-need to move higher, reach higher, understand more, comprehend more. All obstacles become a challenge for the initiate to practice steadfastness and perseverance. Persevere in standing under the Light, which will shine on your path to the goal
  Edna Lister gave a sermon on November 15, 1953 called “Wearing Your Armor” that I thought would be appropriate to read here:

In Closing:

Cycles

(From Edna Lister’s Life in a Nutshell)

  Spring announces itself with the greening of branch and opening of buds. Nature’s life looks up and pushes up to its capacity during the summer season of growth. Winter announces its campaign with turning leaves in autumn. Falling leaves foretell that nature’s life is sinking into a rest that simulates a little death.
  The compelling urge behind the seasons springs from the same life, and differs only in the direction it takes.
  You are a thinking, choosing, feeling, conscious being, and you may choose your direction, either up into greater increase or down into a rest that ends all growth. You need not wait for spring’s gentle urge to be up and doing, although you must follow the logic behind the seasons in pursuing your plans.
  You must plow, harrow, plant and cherish your ideas, if you are to create anything new. Yet your ideas can die from lack of nourishment.
  It’s so simple—you may contact the same Power that propels the seasons in their endless cycles, and you may appropriate as much life for your enterprises as does the tree for its growth. Yet you need not wait blindly for the fulfillment of your destiny.
  All you need is one flaming desire, one definite choice, added to enough persistence to hold your mind on one point long enough to win!

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The Whole Armor of God

Christi Carlson, October 7, 2010, Cleveland, Ohio. Ephesians 6:10-20

Six Ways to Protect Ourselves as We Ascend

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”–Ephesians 6:11-13.

1. Girding Your Loins

  The loins hold the sacrum, splenic and naval centers, all below the heart. Called “The Land of Egypt,” this is the body’s heaviest and most vulnerable part; it lies between the rib cage and the pelvis, which is why you veil it or cover it. No worldly entity can possess a person from the crown of the head, which is the soul’s mode of ingress and egress—even God cannot. How you exercise your God-given gift of free choice determines what can possess you at the naval should you leave it unprotected. Three sets of groin muscles hold the abdomen in place. To gird your loins with truth, your protection, breathe deeply to uplift the muscles, and become an ascending creator god walking earth in a godly way, as though you owned earth.
  Truth is related to “Egypt.” Why? The abdomen holds several organs that must work together in unity to protect truth: the gall bladder, liver, spleen, and the colon. The colon (lower intestine) represents pride. The gall bladder represents unity. The liver represents sincerity, and the spleen represents loyalty. The union of loyalty and sincerity together creates the protection provided by truth. Loyalty to principle is expresses honor. We honor God as personality but are loyal to God as principle.
  Your body sends every physical toxin to one of these organs for cleansing. Unity establishes harmony among them, but insincerity (liver), anger (spleen) or bitterness (gall bladder) upset them. You must be sincere, loyal, and have pride in your standing, but if arrogant pride eats you up, it brings colitis. You must protect the Land of Egypt from world vibrations and opinions.

2. The Breastplate of Righteousness

  The breastplate extends from the diaphragm (the muscle just below the lungs) to the collar bones (clavicles). It holds twelve jewels of Light, stones that represent the zodiacal signs and correspond to the tones of the chromatic scale (the twelve-tone scale). The breastplate’s lights brighten and radiate to meet the needs of all who come to you when you’re high in consciousness. The breastplate converts Light into physical harmony, like recharging a battery. When you consciously extend its influence to your throat center it protect you from idle words.
  Let’s think of the breastplate of righteousness as the “right-use-ness” of law in action to live by right use of law, day by day, up to our highest vision. It covers the heart center, from the shoulders to the solar plexus, which includes the body’s seat of timing, the heart, lungs, and stomach working in unison. This is also called the Promised Land. The breastplate attunes our timing until we express harmony. When you are consciously in the Light, this breastplate emits twelve rays of repulsion from the white Light of Christ to keep evil from you. Rays from the breastplate reveal the dangers on the path before you. Inner conflict prevents coordination of the function of stomach, heart and lungs. You must synchronize our heartbeat, respiration and rate of assimilation in the stomach or you may become ill. Others will poke you because these rays can offend those who are not conscious of their soul taints. They see the taints only in others, but these rays show them their own guilt. Most people go through life with a dull breastplate that doesn’t protect the Promised Land.
  The epigastric nerves control and coordinate the stomach, heart and lungs into righteousness, the right use of law. The lungs represent inspiration; the stomach represents assimilation of new ideas; the heart represents high courage in action. When you declare some person, situation or event good Light pours from the breastplate of righteousness. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,” for God has a direct line of Light to you. No matter what happens, stand quietly, and know that God’s hand is on that line.

3. Gospel of Peace on Your Feet
  “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”–Ephesians 6:15.

  The feet represent understanding and you must protect them with the soul virtues. “Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace” means you live by the great Law of Peace, to “Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him.” A peacemaker is a pacemaker, who gives, gives, gives understanding, compassion, graciousness, loveliness, tenderness, mercy, love and all other virtues and soul glories.
  To be shod means to wear your shoes! Peace and Patience are the offspring of Poise and Power. Poise is standing in harmony. Power fills you when you stand in the crown center, to beget Peace for your right foot and Patience for your left foot. The Master gives you magic sandals, like snowshoes, to clear your path through thorns and thickets.
  Peace is a preparation a combination of ingrediants. You cannot have peace without faith in God and loyalty to all power, love, compassion and joy. Feet symbolize understanding, which can only come when you coat them with this preparation. When you shod yourself with the preparation of peace, salvation grows where you have walked. When another treads on your footsteps, he can have his miracle of healing and his problem is solved.

4. Faith, Your Shield of Light

  “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.”–Ephesians 6:16.
  Use the shield of faith to protect your spiritual clarity, for you push against 14.7 pounds per square inch of air pressure with every step you take. Unconquerable faith, a shield of Light, goes on your left arm, the spiritual side, swinging it from side to side, to meet all resistance, while you remember, “What is that to thee? Follow me.” You can conquer only through your soul’s burning desire spontaneously welling up. If you use force once to meet resistance, you must use it again and again. Recognize negativity only to lift, without being judgmental.
  You hold the shield of faith with the left hand, which signifies faith protecting the spiritual side. Faith then provides a thousand-fold more protection than the right hand, and the worldly right hand is free for action. The right hand of execution says, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” Up goes the shield of faith, which is the substance of Light, to provide protection from self and others, especially from idle word creations.
  The shield of Light-as-faith covers you from the ankles up, and when you think “shield” it instantly consumes the wicked darts. The shield of faith, which is the fire that consumes, and our Father uses it to release Light as atomic energy through us. Love is pure Light as faith when it operates as consuming fire and the Mother’s blue ray. The Son’s red ray rules faith when it operates as Power to energize action. The Father’s answer to a question posed “in full faith, believing” comes to you on His yellow ray of wisdom. Faith as white Light contains ALL color rays.
  The shield of faith is God in action through you. Faith is the substance of things not seen, a combination of love, wisdom and joy when faith is engaged, its currents completes the circuit and causes an explosion of Light, thereby giving you protection.

5. The Helmet of Salvation

  “And take the helmet of salvation.”–Ephesians 6:17.
  You have 22 lotus centers in your head. Five stems, like those of a maidenhair fern arise from the pineal and pituitary glands to create it. They sprout from our “growing pains,” the agonies we experience when we surrender self.
  The Helmet of Salvation is pure Light, sometimes in the form of a halo-like aura, a covering for your head. It signifies sovereignty and the personal kingdom that you rule. It protects the golden bowl and crown lotus, the thousand-petaled lotus at ends of the cranial nerves, which you earn by completing a thousand days of burnt offerings. Only the Power of the living God and the vibration of faith can enter the helmet of salvation.
  The head is your golden bowl. You can live without your arms or legs, but not without your head or heart. The helmet of salvation protects your thoughts, the “high place” of the mysteries, and God bestows your credits as intuition and illumination when you love Him and magnify His Name.
  The law here is to “Abstain from all appearance of evil,” which includes avoiding idle words that would cause you to break your vows. No one asks you to call the garbage another spews good, but to gather and get rid of it by lifting it. You call the other fellow “good,” and that his mess is good to lift.
  Whirling Light extends through the golden bowl, the head, to protect the pineal and pituitary. Light motivates the I AM Oversoul superconscious mind and it adds soul substance.

6. The Sword of Spirit

  “And take sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”–Ephesians 6:17.
  The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. It is the sword of love supreme, for love fulfills the law. Thus, it is divine Love and Wisdom balanced. You hold the two-edged sword of truth in your right hand.
  First, love your neighbor as you love yourself, which is living in the graciousness, loveliness, tenderness, mercy and compassion that bring the freedom of the Almighty. Then only can you love your enemy as you love yourself. Finally, the brilliance of the sword of love you hold is so great that you can’t see or even consider darkness since you’ve entered the dimension of love and Light that transcends time and space. Love moves through your ears, eyes, and your very being to pay the greatest dividends.
  The tongue is a two-edged sword that you wield through your voice (“she cut me like a knife”), which is why you may not permit idle words. The tone of your voice is important. Your words can flatter but your tone can offend. Words release the vibration of God. Tone is more offensive than words because it comes from the subconscious and vibrates your real feeling.
  In reality, we only need to take steps 1 and 6, girding our loins and picking up our sword of Light for the rest of the armor to fall in place. We can only move up into that timeless, spaceless place in the eternal now of God’s timing.
  The sword of Spirit is edged in wisdom and love, and its handle is selflessness. When you have lifted enough, released enough power, joy and love, the miracle is in your hand. This requires perseverance, which the dictionary defines as the steadfast, tenacious pursuit of a goal. We define perseverance as maintaining a state of grace until it becomes a state of glory, which describes living in our higher creative center (head), and opening our lotus centers. We can persevere, stand and pray as we grasp our sword in selfless joy.
  To stand, to withstand, requires that you understand. Girding your loins with truth creates a circle of Light around you. Truth always stands the test of time. Anything that is not truth will fall of its own weight.

  The Breastplate of Righteousness metaphysically represents the right use of Inspiration. The Gospel of Peace, with which you shod your feet, is understanding. A gospel is infallibly true.
  The Shield of Faith provides protection for all the “cities,” the vital centers in the Land of Egypt and the Promised Land.
  The Helmet of Salvation covers your head, provides protection to the soul, which must be “save” from the lower, outer influences. Salvation, we can construe, includes being saved from our own selfish desires, thinking and imagination.
  The Sword of Spirit, which is the Word of God, is double-edged with Love and Wisdom. The words emblazoned on the Sword of the Spirit are: “LET THERE BE LIGHT!”
  Since the whole armor consists of Truth, Righteousness, Peace, Faith and Spirit, it must be composed of Light!

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