Fallen Masters (32 page)

“I was sent here for a purpose,” he said as he reached the center of the circle, addressing all the Elders but looking at no one in particular. He stood beside the Governor, feeling a great serenity through his entire being.

The Governor addressed the Council: “Wise men and women, angels and beings of this higher realm, I speak for you and in your voice as the elected leader. And in that role I have been empowered to speak the meanings that the Source has given to our minds. That One who created us and conceived of this world for our benefit and grace selected each of us to play a role in the earthly order and beyond—in this, the purely spiritual plane that opens to us after release from the physical limitations we once knew.”

“I am beginning to understand,” POTUS said.

“That is why you were chosen, not only because you achieved a unique status on Earth but also because your heart was tested and found worthy of true leadership and service.”

“I now know there is really no such thing as power on an individual basis. As the so-called leader of the free world and the mightiest military force in existence, even I could not do everything I wanted or implement changes that would improve people’s lives. I truly intended to do good and to institute reforms in government and international policy. At every turn I faced frustration by political forces beyond my control. And the harder I worked, the less I seemed to be able to accomplish.”

“That is the way of the realm on Earth. You confronted the Dark Energies every day of your life. It is true that you did not defeat them. But the crucial fact is, you never gave up the struggle against evil and injustice. If you had lived longer on that side, the result would not have been materially different.”

“Do you mean there is no hope for victory over evil on Earth?”

“Oh, there is always hope, as long as we remain close to the Creator of all that is good and tap into that infinite Source of power. Look around at this Council, and you will see many who never abandoned hope and constantly engaged in the eternal struggle.”

POTUS trained his vision on the faces of the spirits gathered in the Council of Elders. Many were, in fact familiar, from his own earthly life span in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and from the annals of history. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was one he could not help but recognize immediately—others such as the patriarch Joseph, son of Jacob; Pericles of ancient Athens; the philosopher Lao Tzu; and the French scientist Marie Curie he somehow recognized through instinct or unspoken knowledge. One figure stepped from among the others and walked with great dignity toward the President and the Governor.

The American leader studied the face—that is, the reflection of the earthly face that each of the entities in the assembly carried as a mark of his or her former existence on Earth—and did not recognize it. The male being manifested great strength, power beyond the merely physical. He had a dark complexion, and when he spoke, his voice held a surprising musical quality.

“My respected friend,” he began, addressing POTUS. “My birth name is Abu I-Hasan, but those who knew me during my lifetime called me Ziryab. That name means ‘blackbird.’ Perhaps you can allow me a few moments out of eternity, to visit with you.”

“But of course,” POTUS replied.

Ziryab was speaking in classical Arabic, but the now-deceased President of the United States absorbed and understood every word spoken to him, as, he assumed, did each member of the Council of Elders.
So this is how human beings were meant to communicate with and to relate to one another … across barriers of time, space, and language. Why is it only possible here and not on Earth?

POTUS thought of the story of the Tower of Babel. Men—humankind—had thought so well of their own powers that they chose to build a tower to heaven, without considering what greater power and spiritual foundation might underlie their earthly achievements. Well, that higher power (Creator, God, Allah, whomever he or she would turn out to be) had confounded the humans by screwing up their communications, making each speak a distinct language not understood by the others.… That was then. Is it so different now? he wondered.

“In my time, I was a slave, a musician, and a scholar. More important—in my time, I was a human being with a soul and aspirations to please Allah, the God of Abraham who revealed Himself to the righteous,” the remarkable figure said. He held up a lute, which POTUS had not noticed him carrying, and the entire Great Hall of the Elders was filled with an unreal, magical music that touched every soul within its reach. “Such music was the great love of my seventy years of life among men in Baghdad, Syria, Tunisia, Africa, and Spain. It was not the custom for one born a slave to see so much of the world, but God granted the privilege to me most generously. God is good, in all times and places.

“What I saw and experienced moved me to apply all my powers and talents, which I learned from many masters, to help improve conditions for fellow men and women in those distant lands. This I did, to the best of my abilities, and lived in many glittering capitals and many a hovel. I slept in soft beds and along hard roadsides in the desert. Something moved me to expend the energies I was given to serve others who had not my gifts. That
something
is what motivates and sustains us today. That
something
is Allah, God, Creator, Way. God wishes us to share at our maximum level with the other creatures we encounter in our travels.

“Not all will travel to faraway cities. Some of us remain in one place our entire lives. But you and I—and most in this chamber of the Elders—saw many faces in our lifetimes. Those faces are now turned to you. What will you say to them? What will you do to relieve their suffering and that of their children?”

The powerful message washed over the President like a tsunami, sweeping all other thoughts aside and leaving him staggered.

He had never before heard of Ziryab, who had lived from 789 to 857 and had been revered and applauded by all who knew him from Spain to Mesopotamia, in royal courts and caravans of poor travelers. But the spiritual and cultural achievements of this one man of humble birth all became known to POTUS in this moment, opening his mind to a previously dark period in human history.

Why had I never read about this man? What are the true depths of my ignorance?

Murmurs arose from among the Council, and Ziryab stepped back among the others with a courteous bow to the newcomer and the Governor. With a smile, the Governor said simply, “So it is with the Source—all things are possible in goodness. Revelation is all around us, if we are open to receive the word that is spoken in many tongues and understood by all.”

POTUS had been fairly conscientious in going to church and understanding his religious faith as a younger man, but upon becoming President, he had begun to see such matters in a much different light. He had prayed more often and with greater purpose than ever before in his life. His wife had noticed the difference and appreciated it. She encouraged him to pray and sometimes joined him in the evening before bed in quiet, private moments.

As he listened to the words of Ziryab and the Governor, he could suddenly and quite clearly remember every prayer he had ever uttered and every Bible passage he had ever read or heard proclaimed at whatever church service he had attended. Remarkable. This transformation was opening him up not unlike a flower responding to rain or sunlight.

“So I have been directly called, as have all who are present, for a distinct purpose,” said Marcus.

“Yes,” the Governor of the Elders said.

“As have all the members of this Council? It is no accident that any are here.”

“There are no accidents in the movements of the Source. There are accidents and mistakes in the realm of the humans and in the flailings of the Dark Energies. That does not mean we are perfect—not by any means.”

Another figure appeared in Marcus’s vision, a strange and ugly figure in sharp contrast to the handsome, vigorous form that had spoken a moment before. This one moved with a slouch, holding his hands crossed in front of him.

The President reacted with disgust at the sight: It was Adolf Hitler, the definition of evil.

CHAPTER

59

“What is this!” POTUS exclaimed. “Who is this man?”

“It is what you know it is,” the Governor answered.

The loathsome figure said nothing but gazed at the President with a bottomless sadness and despair in his black eyes. POTUS could conceive of nothing more repellent or out of place.

POTUS shouted, or conceived and projected the words as loudly as he could to express the outrage he felt over seeing Hitler here. Hitler started toward him, and POTUS raised his hand and pointed at him. “Don’t you even come close to me, you perverted piece of shit!”

At that moment, everyone in the Hall of Governing Wisdom turned to look at the new arrival as if he were a child in church who had dropped the F-bomb. The Governor of the Council of Elders addressed this outburst interacting directly with POTUS for the first time, chastising POTUS for making a judgment.

“You are new here, so we will allow your indiscretion, brother. All of the people who are in this room are here for a purpose. In the physical world they played a role, acted as a character, and in some cases were inspired by the Dark Forces. But in the Divine Light of the Source, the Universal Oneness that we are all a part of, there is no judgment, only justness. The man you see as the iconic ambassador of evil is no more that monster here than you are in one of your past incarnations. The longer you are here, the less you will judge and react to things in your earthly frame of reference, and the more you will learn to view things with a loving heart and soul.”

POTUS reacted immediately, and involuntarily from the earthly perspective that still clung to him. “That is the biggest crock of bullshit I have ever heard, and believe me, with twenty years in the army and seven years in Washington, I have heard my share. That monster was responsible for one of the greatest genocides in the history of mankind! How could you—?”

In the middle of his rant, POTUS suddenly discovered that Hitler was no longer there. Neither was the Governor nor the Council nor even the Hall of Governing Wisdom. IRA had instantly phased or transitioned them to another place.

“I see that we are in another place,” POTUS said. “Are we in another time as well?”

“What is time?” Abraham Lincoln asked. “It is merely a device to keep everything from happening all at once. The best thing about the future is that it doesn’t all happen at once.”

POTUS started to respond to Lincoln, but he was gone as quickly as he had appeared.

“You don’t understand,” IRA said.

“Apparently I don’t. Not if someone like Hitler can be here. Who else is here? Stalin? Attila the Hun? Jeffrey Dahmer?”

“Hitler’s soul is in transition,” IRA explained. “He needs to feel, and to experience the pain and suffering of the people’s lives he destroyed in the name of his plan.”

“His plan?

“Well, it is a plan more of Ego than God. The Council needs Hitler to see and understand the process of spiritual evolution in a much larger perspective.”

“How do you do that?” POTUS asked.

“I’m not a member of the Council,” IRA said. “But the way it works is that everyone has to do something called a Life Review, where they unpack their last life.”

“I see.”

“I’m not sure that you do see, but I will try to explain it to you. Hitler has to take full responsibility for the actions of his soul while he was alive. He can’t just cross over to the kingdom of God and stand in that light and yell out, ‘I am sorry’ and all is forgiven. All may be forgiven here, but all is certainly not forgotten. He lives in an eternal state of pain for all the countless lives he took, and he must now serve the greater good in a way he never did on Earth.”

“It damn sure isn’t forgotten,” POTUS said. “It will be remembered on Earth for one million years, if the Earth is around that long.”

“Mr. President, sir, do you understand now?” IRA asked, showing the patience of a first grade teacher teaching someone how to read.

“I do. I got it,” POTUS replied.

POTUS said that he understood, but now he was actually trying to work it out in his mind. He could understand the level of pain and grief and suffering that one family feels, but to multiply that by the millions of lives that Hitler was responsible for ending, then that pain had to be enormous.

As he was considering this, he suddenly found himself back in the Governing Hall of Wisdom, though whether he returned of his own volition, or was brought back by IRA he didn’t know.

Hitler was still there, but he no longer even looked like Hitler to him. Now he looked like a soul in torment. Earlier, POTUS had recognized him as he was, so he could reconnect with his earthly historical perspective and human judgment. Only in this way, could he grow.

“He has no voice here,” the Governor went on. “At his death he made a choice not to join the Dark Forces for whom he had worked throughout his earthly life. His power died with him, and it will take an eternity for him to regain his voice, if he ever does, and to be accepted in the company of the good, if he ever is. His presence at this Council is the ultimate caution to any who would presume to act in a way contrary to the will of the Source.”

The President, who had now received more knowledge and revelation than he could possibly absorb, stared at the apparition of Hitler even as he heard the strange words spoken by the Governor. “So he, too, is here for a greater purpose. But the pure evil he unleashed upon so many innocent people during his lifetime … How can that ever be forgiven, even by a loving Creator? Is there no limit to the evil that the Source can tolerate?”

“There is no question of toleration. Every small act that opposes the good and every global act of darkness that destroys men, women, and children on the planet Earth is abhorrent to the divine. Yes, great evil must be punished on a grand scale, more than a little lie or bad act. Look at him and you will see the price that can be—and must be—paid. There is a divine scale in Heaven. It has less to do with the so-called wrath of God and more a system of checks and balances.”