Who Is Now Protected By the Light and By Spiritual Help in the Time of This Year's Christmas

THE WAY OF THE GRAIL – SUPPLEMENTARY TEXTS – December 19, 2022

Czech original: Kdo Je Nyní Chráněn Světlem a Duchovní Pomocí V Čase Letošních Vánoc · cesta-gralu.cz

Only there where soil rightly prepared for it is to be found may the Light now bring protection and help

Luminous protection approaches the man of earth solely through the pure threads of his livingly mobile inner attunement

Such is the Law working in Creation

Where there is in man a pure courage for an active life, there the Light always mediates strengthening and protection

With that everything needful has been said, and nothing more would need to be added to it

It is so simple that it is a great question why it is not something entirely self-evident

Yet men long for the certainty that it is precisely they, and often also those closest to them, who stand in the grace of the Light, and thus that all these too need help and protection so as to pass through everything that awaits them and that still lies before them calmly and gently, if it is at all possible, without great cares and without privation of any kind

Thus when men meet before the Christmas festival they wish one another much health, happiness and a peaceful living of the days to come

Peacefulness they wish for themselves and for all those whom they love and for whose path through life they are anxious

And the Light is to bring this peacefulness into their life as much as possible, constantly and from beginning to end

Such is men's notion of the working of the Light in helping men on their earthly path

On Earth it is generally taken for granted that when the Light works for a man it mediates to him above all a gentle and kindly life, that it smooths everything for him in advance, and that he then, from time to time, lets a flicker of a certain expression of thanks come alive within himself for the Light and for God for it all

That this, however, is only a wish of men which has formed itself into their expectation when they speak of the helping happening from the Light that bends down in protection towards man, no one wants to admit to himself

Therefore the concentration of most people also fastens upon this notion of a Light that helps in this manner, when they think of a prayer of supplication for protection and help

Men ask for help in humble prayer because they suppose that this very making small of themselves in prayers of supplication and of thanks is what the Light demands of men in order then to make their earthly life more agreeable and more comfortable

They suppose that joy reigns in heaven when men ask for help in the expectation that they will be helped in just this manner of a kindly smoothing of all their paths

That all the spiritual servants, therefore, rejoicing over human thanksgiving, strive for nothing else than that the man of earth be cared for in such a way that his life will be constantly irradiated by the sun and everything will turn only its pleasant side towards him

Thus, alas, is it expected by men

And at the time of Christmas, in a certain softness of attunement, much more expectation still is added to it

Just listen for once to the Christmas songs and carols

The pictures in the words of the songs speak of a little child in the manger, of the loving Mary and Joseph and also of angels who bend down to Bethlehem and bring mankind nothing but good tidings

A certain elevation is found in it when men are stirred with thanks that their life really does flow for some time within its usual bounds and brings no sudden shocks and no unpleasant changes

Many people rejoice greatly that their life unfolds in tranquillity and even regard it as a sign that they are going the right way to the Creator

At Christmas this feeling is then intensified by the nearness of members of the family, of friends and acquaintances, when in health and contentment they gather at a common table and together give themselves to a prayer of thanks for all those Divine gifts which are given them for a peaceful and successful family life

From the standpoint of earthly life this manner of existence, in the tranquil savouring of the flow of the days, is in the best of order

Therefore that mutual wish for a peaceful spending of the Christmas festival has become the custom

Yet at the same time there is often contained in this thanksgiving, in one single moment, a strange astonishment at how it is possible that everything still runs in the same peaceful courses, considering that the inner conscience of man knows very well of the necessity of a higher movement and liveliness in his intuitive perceiving, in his nobility of character and in his sincerity, if there is to be any talk of ascent and of spiritual ripening

Ripening demands living movement, and the spiritual spark in the depth of its intuitive perception knows this and calls out loudly about it to man's outer level of thought

It is precisely the conscience vibrating in the inner being that recognises quite clearly how great a part of the days of the year man passes through merely from inertia, in a learned superficiality, instead of in that so greatly needed, healing spiritual liveliness

The conscience perceives sharply and distinctly how the precious time that should be devoted to the higher meaning of existence is literally squandered upon all manner of secondary things

In that single moment of a vibration penetrating out of the depth of the inner being it is so evident that, in such experiences of an inward look at themselves, it not seldom leads many into a state of bitterness with themselves

In silence and apart from all men a strange sensation of guilt and also of shame sets in

Tears spring forth, bearing witness to the unfulfilment of a life

In such moments many people inwardly feel how they still remain hanging with their conduct in the old ways, without sufficient will of their own to change anything in it, to lay aside even the smallest of all the burdens weighing upon the inner being, and thereby to move higher towards a true exaltedness of the spirit

The prayer of thanks and the plea to God for further help and protection in a continuing peacefulness thus takes on a strange aftertaste of contradiction in the awareness of one's own spiritual lukewarmness

Thanksgiving that things may go on in the flow of a life in whose outward peacefulness no one develops spiritually as he could and should stands in contradiction to what the inner being calls for, which longs for the movement that alone brings refreshment and progress forward

The voice in the inner being calls for life to be made at last into that great story of the glorious victory of all the virtues

The momentary elevation which a man felt before in his prayer of thanks must thus with many quickly vanish when in his inner intuitive perceiving he becomes aware that he is asking only for a further flow of peacefulness and of the humdrum in his own life and in that of all those close to him

That he is asking only for the maintaining of a continuing state of a certain emptiness of life in his earthly existence

In moments of a higher perceiving he feels it clearly, for it works like an intangible inner pressure calling him at last to move forward and thereby to free himself from endlessly constricting fetters

It is perceived so urgently, so strongly and with such a clear recognition of all that is to be changed in his ways of living

And it would be best if a man were to make full use of this moment of clearer awareness for his ascent through a resolute decision

He does indeed sense how he could change everything and thereby bring still more spiritual brightness and freshness into his life

In that would lie the progress for which many a one actually came to this Earth

It would also be quite easy, if only… if only a man did not once again hesitate in it, as he has already a thousand times before

For after a moment of hesitation other impressions at once flow in upon the man, and if he has not begun to carry out the change everything is quickly forgotten again

Everything is covered over by the customs of which the Christmas time of traditions is so full from morning until evening

This and that must still be managed in time, and the inner stirring is lost in the flow of Christmas visits and superficial chatter

So it is every year in this special Christmas time

With many people it goes thus throughout their whole life

Millions of people hesitate when, following the voice of their inner being, they are also to lay aside by deed this or that weakness, their wrongly learned traits or inclinations which make their spirit a permanent slave serving the body, or which perhaps also form the vain hoops constricting the soul

Man is thus a prisoner fettered within himself

Although he perceives how this devalues his inner being, he is not able to do anything about it

The spirit intuitively perceives it, but has not the will to gather the strength within itself to change its lukewarm habits bound to body and soul

Thus the power needed for a real transformation never germinates within him, although his inner being would long for such a thing

In the recurrence of the time of the Christmas festival many a spirit then feels it more strongly in the streams of the Love of God through its inner openness, and its inner being vibrates once again with the longing that, when asking for help and protection from the Light, it may at last also use all its spiritual gifts to make this world better, as its soul once prepared for itself before it incarnated on this Earth

But for all that, man for the most part remains always the same for whole years and in his greatest weaknesses and faults, and their laying aside advances hardly at all

He knows all this, and yet he does not change and does nothing resolutely enough for his becoming luminous and his ennoblement

All those things which he has perhaps already changed and therefore wishes to see as progress are in reality only trifles whose change was often, on top of everything, forced upon him either by a change in bodily health or by outward circumstances

He is therefore in danger that yet another precious time of Christmas will slip through his fingers, to take its place in the row of the years and decades already spiritually missed

So it is with many, indeed it concerns nine people out of ten and it is not otherwise

Although this condition is a lasting one with the majority, millions of people are indeed granted to live outwardly in peace, without great shocks

Despite an inner dividedness the outward circumstances still appear peaceful and almost surprisingly favourable to the man

It seems strange how the Laws of God manifest above the earthly life of man

So much so that it awakens in man crafty intellectual reflections that the Creator Himself and his Laws do not after all see so very well into the inner being of man, and that therefore everything may perhaps be otherwise than it is written and spoken when the Judgment of God is mentioned and the Judge in it, working above all else with piercing sharpness with his sword over every single human spirit

Not seldom are these thoughts born in many a man when he becomes aware of the great difference between all that is hidden from the world in his inner being and how favoured he actually is in his life compared with others

Proud intellectual people speak of their own success and also of the skills which are their own work

A more kindly man then speaks of an undeserved Divine grace and hopes that it will go on bringing into his life kindly conditions for the peacefulness and peace of himself and of those closest to him

Thereby everything in this matter is also generally regarded as settled

Foolish men

All these have no inkling at all of how the Laws of Creation really work and of how out of the smallest vibration of their inner being and of their thoughts there unwind the threads which must one day encircle them, in order to be lived out to the very last particle

The time which is given to man as a period of a certain kindliness is a gift for the spirit, that it may be permitted of itself to awaken in the joy of thanks over the favourableness of the time thus granted it from the Light

The spirit is to use it precisely for the greatest upsurge in the time when the stars give it support and grant it kindliness in earthly things

None of them has any inkling of how manifoldly better it would be if all this were changed and adjusted with them here on Earth, where there is always a manifoldly greater possibility of the symbolic loosening of all the threads of fate, because the earthly body acts as a protective mantle for the innermost battles of soul and spirit that are being fought for their own rescue and also for the ascent upwards to the Light

It could be the most precious fulfilment of a life if the spirit were, in joyful thanksgiving, to put itself fully into all the moments which it is permitted to experience

Earthly conditions could be the best gift for it for a great spiritual ascent, which will show itself only after the laying aside of the covering of the earthly body, when only then the ethereal body will bring it to the place to which it was able to climb through its ascent during its earthly life

The place which it is given to enter after its earthly end is the yield of the liveliness and mobility which it made its own during the time of its path of life on Earth

But alas, a peaceful flow here on Earth leads for the most part only to the lulling of spiritual wakefulness, and in the end brings rigidity and inertia in most of the repeated habits which a man sets up for himself in life

Time on Earth, led in a peaceful manner, leads for the most part only to the sleep of the spirit

The result in the beyond then shows the truth about how matters stand with the spirit

And the spirit recognises this from time to time already in the time of its earthly life, and therefore in the inner being of so many a one it calls through conscience for a resolute deed

It is a contradiction which appears in the intimation that a peaceful flow is indeed outwardly agreeable, but is at the same time a great danger of a dulling in all that is important and that is to be experienced in the highest degree of intuitive liveliness

Yet it sounds as though only in an inner echo, precisely in the thoughts in which from time to time the resonance of the inward call in man fights its way through

And the contradiction just mentioned, which from time to time happens to almost everyone, is the resonance of the inner voice of conscience

Thus in that moment the spirit is fighting for its existence, without man in his outer covering of the body being able to become aware of anything more serious in it

The spirit struggles and fights through the coverings of the soul for its further existence, and outwardly there comes to man only that strange awareness which wonders how it is possible that, while many unlovely thoughts about others are still held within him, the volition for the most diverse desires and also thoughts calling into question God Himself and the Will of God here in the materialities, he is nevertheless granted to live constantly in peace although he is not finished in his maturity

But this very becoming aware of one's own worth and also unworth is a struggle taking place in the inner being, out of which, however, only faint vibrations of conscience sound outwardly, bearing witness to how very lukewarmly and inertly man still acts and thinks outwardly

It is precisely the intuitive perception that in that moment calls for a higher striving, but outwardly there arises from it for man a contradiction of which he becomes aware in how the outward circumstances are still gracious towards him, as against how he perceives what reciprocal working would have to set in for him if the blow of the sword demanding purity and sincerity in his thinking were really to fall upon him

Thus many people carry within themselves a contradiction between the inward and the outward

It lasts so long that it has become for them a ground for peace of mind, and in their later years it no longer even leads them to misgivings

This peace, however, is only apparent, because the judgment of his further existence really takes place in that very human inner being, out of which only here and there it is possible to perceive the voice of conscience calling to the thinking and thereby urgently and despairingly telling the brain that the outward peace is only evilly misleading compared with what is happening to the spirit

Outward peace is thus a great curse for hosts of earthmen

Outward peace in the repeated flow of events in life leads man for the most part only to superficiality and inertia instead of leading ever more to a fervent thanks and thereby to the experiencing of all the little things as the most precious consciousness of the Graciousness of God, which arches above the earthly path of man

Thus for many a one the path of outward peace is still granted, so that in this very peacefulness he himself may show himself strong enough to be able, despite this outward smoothness of life, to set himself in motion within towards the highest spiritual life and mobility of intuitive perceiving

Thus for all those who in this year's Christmas time ask for help and protection from the Light the fulfilment of this plea will come quite otherwise than they expect

Yes, help and protection will come to them, but for their spiritual inner being, and not for the body and the earthly conditions to which they cling so greatly

In their fulfilment help and protection will come as a living movement which bursts into their life

All too strongly there now hovers above the lives of those who once offered themselves for the service of the Light the legacy of the path of prince Siddhartha, who only through a shock and a fall was able to awaken and to become more enlightened on the way to the fulfilment of his service

They will evidently soon have to enter upon this path, because in it lies the greatest help of the Light

The path of awakening, which comes like a storm to shatter the heavy structures of thought of a servant who has hitherto been peacefully slumbering

Whoever now asks for help and protection from the Light is in reality calling to himself for a storm and for the fresh breath of a new happening into his earthly life

That is the present Christmas gift of the spiritual kind for those who ask for help

It is a different kind of help from what men expect

It is the true help directed towards the awakening and the strengthening of the spirit

Instead of the expected continuing peacefulness it brings the highest movement in the form of a storm

Yet the storm will shatter only that which hinders the inner unfolding of the abilities of the spirit slumbering in the inner being, which are to come into use for the Light as the fulfilment of an ancient promise

Where liveliness in man is readily at hand in every moment, there the influx of the Light will bring precisely a great strengthening and reinforcement

Storm and destruction will set in only there where the spirit has not yet found within itself sufficient strength for the outward mastering of its thoughts and of its body

There the Buddha's path of a decisive turn in the life of a man will set in

In a single moment much will change, and what was hitherto part of a habitual life will, as at the wave of the invisible hand of fate, become the past

And yet man should give thanks, for thereby the contradiction which dwelt in his inner being and in his thoughts will quickly vanish

The struggle of the spirit will become real also in the earthly dimension of existence

But it will be only for his benefit if it is received and used fully in the recognition of the Divine greatness which in all-wisdom guides the spirit and gives it for its path only that which truly profits it spiritually

This may also be designated as the real protection from the Light for the human spirit

With every man the Light follows his steps leading all the way to the spiritual home

The luminous helpers see a single goal, the most valuable for a human spirit that there can be for him, and that is the attaining of the heights of Paradise

What is to be found on this path is only a means for the learning and the ripening of the spiritual spark, so that on the way, through experiencing, it may grow strong into a flame

Whether it be a shock, pain, loss, sickness or death, all this is often the only possible helping means of the spiritual helpers for the awakening and the progress of the spirit

And against this the pleas of men for the help and protection of the Light strain upwards to heaven in the longing that it may bring earthly peacefulness and comfort in the first place

Wishes directed towards peacefulness and comfort on the earthly path

Thus towards that which is the greatest enemy of the human spirit on its path, which is to be filled with the highest liveliness

Does no one then see it

That which men wish for as a tranquil life provided with all agreeable conditions is regarded by men as the best manifestation of help from the Light

Although in man's inner being the spirit itself, longing for movement and change, resists it, outwardly the call is for peacefulness and for a living quite free of shocks, which however through its emptiness of content leads both body and spirit to destruction

In the end it may be precisely the sudden loosening from the body that becomes the shock which leads to awakening and thereby also to movement

This, however, on condition that the spirit is able to overcome the inclinations of the soul, since it did not succeed in mastering the body for the fulfilment of the inner will of its conscience

But there are many possibilities which can lead to a long and happy existence on this Earth

The condition for it is a liveliness experienced in each single moment of the present

Towards this, therefore, are to be directed the wishes of those who now ask for protection and help from the Light for themselves and for their fellow men

The blessing which then comes is to be fully used in joyful creating and in co-operation with other people

Only thus will the power granted from the Light at this Christmas festival be transformed into a blessing which even in earthly things takes the form of a path on which everything prospers

But where the spirit needs strengthening in order to be set in motion, there that path of the awakening of Siddhartha will draw near

Thus in this too man is to be grateful, for it is guided from the Light as an intensified strengthening towards the awakening and the becoming luminous of the spirit, even to the degree of enlightenment

Greatly blessed can this year's Christmas be in its spiritual significance, for upon the plea for help and protection it will bring the most fitting thing, that which the spirit really needs for its advance higher

It is to be received gratefully as the true gift of the Light, which only helps and strengthens on the way to the spiritual heights

This too is the most precious gift that many a one can receive, for it will bring a rescue of the spiritual kind

Let there therefore sound at this year's Christmas among living spiritual people the mutual greeting – “O you whom I love and hold in esteem, I wish you and all your fellow men a beautiful spending of the Christmas festival. May there come to us, in the liveliness of the happening, an awakening of a still deeper intuitive receptivity for all that awaits us on the way to the spiritual heights!”

“May more of the Light of God enter into the homes of all men!”