May 16th 1971
Through love and in love and through the power of love we draw close. Mary, we have walked together over the long distance of ages, and this is not the first time that you have reached old age upon the Earth plane, But, this is the first incarnation which on drawing to its close, you really know, through the human conscious mind, of life after death.
And we rejoice, because this is the first incarnation upon the Earth (and you have been here many times before) this is the first time you have really looked forward to the so-called end, and to leaving your physical body, and you are happy in the thought that you will meet and co-operate with those who love you and understand you in the future life.
But as you know, if a man seeks for the treasures of the deep, then the deeper he goes into the dark waters and the more pressure will he feel above him. And it is so with physical life. When you have gone, as you have, deeper and deeper into the search, the pressure above you and around you seems heavier to bear the nearer you get to your so-called oyster. To that thing which holds within itself the pearl of great and limitless price.
And so we want to bring you words of comfort and to cheer you on your way. Because the very fact that you want to come hither to where we are waiting for you, means that you have lived a rich and full life. And that you have learned to accept the natural change of death. You do not dread of it or fear it, for you are not ignorant concerning those things which will follow on. Many times you have been to Earth before, and made a vow before you came that the Spirit was so real and so strong within you, and your knowledge was so complete, that you would definitely remember the power of the Spirit within yourself during the incarnation. But always with almost all people that come to the Earth, then the things of the flesh begin to materialise, and there are so many things to do, this world of the physical, of the human, begins to take control. And in this case we can only watch and wait.
And then when you come over to us again, you remember and you know, that we remind you that you forgot. But this time, this time is a time of rejoicing. For in spite of everything, in spite of all that the world has given you, material possessions, even the God that most people worship upon the Earth plane- money, the queen of the Earth, has not led you away from the search and from the seeking.
And Mary, this was the greatest test, and you have passed. And you are feeling the pressure of the so-called waters above you, because you are drawing nearer and nearer to that oyster which encloses your very own pearl. You have made the stone your own through the acceptance and your overcoming, And you know of the pearl. There have been times when you have been able through sheer circumstances of life, you have used these experiences time and time again, Mary, to open the oyster a little way and to glimpse this pearl. And you have been comforted, reassured, and you have turned again to face the world and all the things within it which could have led you away and made you once again forget.
And we are at peace, we are at peace with you, and at last, this time, you can go on and on and on. We are grateful. And we know that deep in your heart that you are grateful too. And we kneel in Spirit with you and thank God and the Universal power of love that at last, together, we have found the way.
And I would have you remember this, that I myself, after many, many incarnation, just like you, found at last that although I was in a human body, with the ordinary consciousness of the body, I remembered what I had come to find in the darkness of the Earth vibrations. And then at last, when I had no need to come again, and again, I was allowed to seek that one for whom I had searched through the ages. But until this very time I was not Spiritually qualified to walk with you and to guard and guide you.
This transcript records something rare in this collection: a promise finally kept, after "many, many incarnations" of forgetting it. The vow made before each Earth life — to remember, consciously, the reality of the Spirit while still in the flesh — had failed every previous time, "the things of the flesh begin to materialise... this world of the physical begins to take control," a pattern of forgetting the guide could only "watch and wait" through, life after life. This time, it held.
The specific test named is money — "the queen of the Earth," the god most people worship without noticing they do — and the transcript is plain that this, not some more dramatic trial, was "the greatest test." Passing it wasn't the absence of temptation but repeated, deliberate return: using hard circumstance, again and again, "to open the oyster a little way and to glimpse this pearl," and each time turning back to face the world rather than being led away by it for good.
Its most personal disclosure comes last: the guide reveals their own long search followed exactly the same pattern — incarnation after incarnation, forgetting and returning, until finally remembering enough, in one life, to be freed from having to come again, and only then becoming "Spiritually qualified" to walk beside the very soul now completing the same journey. The relationship, on this account, isn't simply teacher and pupil but two who once walked an identical road, now meeting at the place where one has just arrived and the other arrived long before.