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Chapter 24
Beloved Magda and Jesus - June 13, 1982

     Now, my dearest hearts of light, Our LORD has sent me to deliver to you his message of Good Friday. For I AM the one, Magda, who acclaimed him "Rabboni" in the hour of his emergence from the tomb.¹

     Jesus has likened me and my experience, known to all, as the archetype of the soul of America, the collective soul of Israel, and of the descent of the seed of Light.

     The necessity for the purging of this soul is upon us, my beloved. And therefore, Our LORD sent me in my final incarnation from Canada in the north through a long route whereupon I finally arrived, as you have, in the City of the Angels to preach his Word and to be the instrument of his most Holy Spirit in the miracles and the healings he performed.

     My beloved, this era of my life that has passed, its very manifestation, was greatly opposed. People remember me as Aimee Semple McPherson. But, precious ones, those who saw me or believed in the works of God in my presence truly saw the One who sent me.²

     I knew myself then and now as his bride,³ as the soul merging with the inner Light. And so, this victory of the feminine ray is a sign that God has ordained this nation as the place of the victory of the soul. And the one out of whom he cast seven devils⁴ is the first to see him.

     This, beloved, becomes a precious treasure for those who sense themselves as sinners, though God himself has not decreed it. For they have so, so idolized the person of Jesus that no taint or mar could touch him. Having made him 'the God', they allowed me to remain the human, and therefore identifiable is their consciousness with my own.

     People today consider that they may have walked the path I walked and still have an opportunity to attain the resurrection. Thus, you see, the open door of my heart becomes a more plausible, understandable way! And yet by contrast, whether the figure of Magda or the figure of Aimee - by comparison to him, in their sight, they consider the doctrine laughable that I should have attained the resurrection from this very city and have been received by my LORD in the ritual of the ascension.⁵

     Thus, you realize that this messenger and you yourselves have been ridiculed for this teaching, since I have been cast in a somewhat suspected light - this accomplished by the detractors who feared not I, but the I AM THAT I AM which was with me.⁶

     If you read concerning my life and the challenges we faced here, you will understand that in some way he sent me to be your forerunner so that you could see what the victory should be.

     In those very days, some in America had the gift of the violet flame. Jesus gave me that gift by direct transfusion, you might say, so that it was in and assimilated by me without the prior understanding or knowledge of its use or affirmation.

     It was indeed the violet light, as the akashic records will prove, that flowed from his heart through mine for the healing miracles that took place. Yet I was in the tradition of the Church, for these were the sheep that must be reached. And Jesus desired to use me, in the fullest sense of the word, before the hour of my own ascension, that he might bear witness of the truth of God's life in me and of the opportunity of all souls to ascend - especially from the level of imperfection, the level of mutability, shall we say, which orthodoxy does not permit to be ascribed to him.

     Precious hearts, the message of Jesus this day is a message to the American woman and to the man who understands himself to be the manifestation of Light. It is a message to the soul of all nations, and it does indeed concern itself with the very present possibility of transmutation and of forgiveness of sin when there is repentance.

     It is a message of the Holy Spirit! It is a message of believability in the power of the Spirit to transcend the frail, the imperfect, the incomplete - and that to occur right where you are.

     Let us not allow the false measuring rod of that mortal consciousness to enter this congregation whereby you take measure of yourself, in the outer sense, and of everyone else and you consider that because you are so many inches high on the Path, it will take you so many miles and so many years to arrive at the point where you could be the instrument of the Holy Spirit! It is almost the sense "Well, we are growing up now. We are children. And when we are all grown up, then we will be able to be like Jesus, then we will be able to be like Mary."

     Dear hearts, believe in the Holy Spirit! Believe in the power of the Son of God to come down from the cross in this hour and to stand where you stand and to deliver the full fire of the body and the blood of his Presence for the healing of the whole world!

     Understand, when you place a limitation on your capacity to deliver light, you are limiting God and his ability to use your temple. In reality you are saying, "I do not want to be God's instrument in this moment, and so I will hold the concept of myself as not able."

     Well, if you are not "able," then you must be Cain! And, you see, Cain killed Abel.⁷ It is the Cain consciousness that kills the sense of ability within you! And to be carnally minded is death. You cannot be both. You must choose.

     And, in fact, the human ability is not even sufficient. You must go beyond both and seek the Son of promise. Seek the one called Seth, the archetype of Christ. Seek the one whose coming marked the era of men beginning to call on the name of the LORD.⁸ For this type, this Seth, is truly the manifest Word. In the presence of the Word, they could only call upon the name of that Word, I AM THAT I AM!

     Thus, when the worst of the human self is overcome by the best of the human self, when your Abel overcomes your Cain, you must not rest there. For the best of your human self is still not the instrument of the LORD - but the transcendent Self that you really are, the one who is the Doer.

     I AM calling in Jesus' name for an order of the sons and daughters of God to go forth in political, religious, educational action. I AM calling for a most stupendous covering of North America with the true teachings of my beloved concerning all social issues and crisis!

     To you to whom the Word is given and the great miracle of the Holy Spirit of the gift of knowledge and wisdom concerning these events, I speak. I speak to you, that you might understand what is the burden of the instrument, as the messenger, who must give you the keys and the understanding and the outline; and the necessity of preserving the instrument.

     When you are fed the teachings, you must go forth with them. This concerns women's revolution, the turning around of the Woman, the casting out of seven devils. This is the cleansing of each of the seven chakras. The soul of America - individual by individual, man and woman - must be purged by the light.

     Jesus has called me to walk with him with you, at your side. As you teach and preach and lecture and deliver this most stupendous light and message, I will be a witness at your side that the sinner can be saved - that the Saviour can come, cast out seven devils in that one, in one generation, and two thousand years later raise up that same one in the fullness of his power of healing and miracles!

     Thus, you will be able to teach: If he did it unto Magda, he can do it unto you. And you yourself can become the transparency for the Bridegroom - you, the one who becomes the instrument of the Teacher [on behalf of] the one to whom you speak, self-conceived as sinner. None can deny the reality. None must deny it!

     And I charge you to preach of my own reincarnation, as well as that of the messengers! Allow people to face the great dazzling reality of my Presence. Allow them to realize that a so-called modern woman, having passed through the decades of this century in Canada and in the United States, could actually be received in heaven and take the initiation of the ascension - that one who made mistakes, even in the final incarnation, can be forgiven and move on.

     Dear hearts, in a state of illumination and hope, you believe. But sometimes the underlying condemnation, the planetary consciousness of death that resists life, convinces you that you cannot break that mold of human habit!

     The messenger has lectured, at our request, on human habit.⁹ Where are the releases? The teaching is not in your hands. It is not being studied. It is one of the most important documents on life that you could have.

     I beg you - for I am in a position to beg you - to assist us in this publishing. For the answer to the questions of millions is not in the hands of the people but lies buried in the files, in transcripts, and in tape libraries.

     Surely, you who love Christ and appreciate the agony, not alone of his mission but of all the saints, can give some portion of your life to this task, that others might drink of the cup that you drink. It is almost as though not another morsel of teaching could be given, for that which is given would surely rot if it is not soon assimilated and consumed.

     It is spoken for the people today - not for a hundred years hence! And for the saving of the nations, it is needed. Civilization may be judged, but the nations can survive in the very midst of the judgment, if the light be there.

     The light cannot come except the reason and the reasoning mind, fastened to false logic and to the lie, be cut free by the statement of Truth and the logic of the Logos. Not by argument, not by loud voice or flourishing phrases or high-sounding words are the people convinced. The Holy Spirit power of conversion needs the matrix of Truth. That is why my beloved has said, "Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free."¹⁰

     The doctrine that Mary Magdalene could be the wife of Jesus¹¹ is laughable to many. Therefore, I must bear testimony that my soul, my heart, and the Presence of God with me is indeed the twin flame of Jesus, and that every soul whom God has made is created out of the white fire core of the Great Causal Body of Life. And the twain, holding the balance of Alpha and Omega and the Spirit and Matter spheres, have gone forth from the beginning to prove the victory of eternal Life.

     Thus, in the great drama of our association you realize that as Jesus forgave me my sin, he was forgiving the feminine portion of himself which I am. And as I acclaimed him "Rabboni," I was acclaiming the masculine portion of myself, which is indeed the Spirit of the living God, as my Saviour, my Teacher, my Life.

     Thus, beloved, Jesus comes a little closer to the humanness of life, to the needs of each one's heart. And as he is closer to you as friend and brother, as you can understand him as my husband in the Spirit, you also may dare to conceive of yourself as the bride waiting for the marriage of the Christ. For in the fullness of the Cosmic Christ, he receives your soul unto himself as the bride of the Lamb, as it is taught.

     What is proven by one may be proven by all. As you become the bride of him as [he is] the Guru of the Piscean age, you may also conceive that your soul could be wed to your I AM Presence and, through that Presence, to your own twin flame. And you may also dare to consider your twin flame as the Cosmic Christ at inner levels.

     Thus, we exhibit the great archetype of beauty, of perfection of the Law. And the spiritual marriage is the truth of all reality, and there is no need to be concerned with the human affair or with conjecture. For the Reality and the Truth of eternal Life is the Rock upon which we stand.

     Now, then, to free the world from this mortal coil, from this round of self-inflicted punishment intensified by the fallen ones through their condemnation - this is the task of the stumpers who go forth with the message of Truth, contrasted by the message of the lie of the fallen ones and their activities.

     In this octave, the emerald ray of Truth, of the blessed teaching of the Word incarnate, actually is enhanced when it is juxtaposed by the wickedness, the lie, and the murderous intent of the fallen ones. And the need for that Truth becomes all the greater when the individual accepts his responsibility to do something about it.

     I am speaking to you today, in essence, in the garment that I wore in my final embodiment. For I desire you to know me and identify me with a person like yourself who had to move against evil forces and contend with the burden that comes upon the body through long years of service. I desire you to feel my vibration. There are many yet in embodiment who remember attending services that I held, not only in Los Angeles but as far away as Australia and around the world.

     Thus, believability is our reason for coming: Believability that in this very hour, Jesus - the Bridegroom of your soul - may also use you personally to deliver the same thrust, the same light, the same Holy Spirit.

     You may remember that he said, "You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you."¹² You may say to yourself, "But he has not yet chosen me." Perhaps he has, but you have not quite stood on your tippy-toes to identify with that person of you whom he has chosen, the higher self - not so much higher than the outer self, but the best of yourself as you now know yourself.

     You know that in your highest moments of attunement and of speaking the Word and of imparting love to friends, you have felt something more than yourself depart from you, be released from you as a mighty flow of Love. And you have stood back in wonder and watched how God has performed his miracle of love, animated the Word, and [you have] seen the light leap from your heart and sparkle in the eyes of one who formerly was crestfallen. Thus, for moments you have seen the work. Therefore, Believability!

     There is a believableness that you can become as I was. There is the sense "God can use me and I must be ready. I must be prepared. I must run to the Scripture and know every word. I must study the dictations and find out what lie is binding me to my former self - what almost subconscious or subliminal unfact, untruth is yet resting at some level of the mind, preventing me from being the best instrument."

     If you think God has not chosen you, you must have hope and faith and say, "If he hasn't chosen me today, surely he will choose me tomorrow! I will be more ready tomorrow than I am today!" And you can look at your watch and say, "It is nine a.m. I have a full day. I will work twenty-four hours and tomorrow at nine a.m. the Saviour may knock on the door and I will be ready!"

     Dear hearts, many of the saints have prepared many lifetimes in this state of the waiting bride. I myself thought of myself as the waiting bride all of my life. I thought somehow, in my outer mind, that I would only be the bride when he would come and receive me in the rapture and I would meet him in the air. Looking back, I realized that he entered my form and temple and accepted me as his bride. And therefore, I could represent him.

     The fullest union, of course, comes in the hour of the ascension. But you can claim all the light you can contain on earth and be no longer the waiting bride but the bride incarnate if you only will let go of the sense of limitation.

     How much I love each one of you who come to this holy city to be a part of the continuation of his Word. I know that all have come following our Mother, for she has followed the call of Jesus to be here these years, knowing well the jeopardy of this particular geography, yet tarrying here - tarrying until the call should come to come up higher, moving on to higher ground.

     Does that have a familiar sound and ring: " ... moving on to higher ground"?¹³ You who are grounded on the Rock know very well that when it comes to building the house, it cannot be built on sand but it must be built on the rock.

     Therefore, there are reasons and purposes. And in this city is truly the calling of the LORD - and going forth from this city, as you have.¹⁴ But the work is not finished yet. The work demands acceleration. It demands, blessed hearts, a determination of a greater magnet of light in your heart to consume the greater darkness that has also arrayed itself here, almost with a vengeance against my own mission!

     And the remnant of those who follow in my church¹⁵ - they have not received the wine in new bottles but they have poured that Spirit into old bottles and therefore they could not contain it. The bottles have broken. And you find that some among them do not know the difference between the spirits and the Holy Spirit. They do not understand the mystery of the Holy Spirit. And in their desiring and their ambition to have that Holy Spirit before His call, they have taken into themselves impostors, lying spirits, psychic entities, dangerous to the true Path.

     There is no room for me to enter in to my own church. There was no room for Jesus to be received in the synagogue¹⁶ except by the little people.

     Thus, you may know our grateful hearts that we may come here and not be mocked and ridiculed, that you have an appreciation of Life, that you dare to equate yourselves with us and our mission - you dare to follow in our footsteps, not as idolaters but truly in the realization that there is a mission that you must take. And you can go hand-in-hand with your own twin flame in Spirit, trusting the hand of the Christ of your counterpart and removing the longing for the mere flesh-and-blood contact when that is not available, when your own beloved is ascended.

     Let us spiritualize all aspects of our lives and let the Spirit make these aspects physical. He who is closest to God has a most abundant physical manifestation as testimony of that oneness.

     Seek the Spirit first and last and always.

     And for this moment of renunciation on the cross with Jesus, will you not now with me surrender all desire to serve him in a specific way - your own way? Will you feel yourselves released for this moment from projects and planning?

     Let go and allow God to do what he wishes to do through you.

     Do you have a checklist of things you desire to accomplish before you take your leave of this planet? Give it to me, dear. I would put it in his heart, in the sacred fire, and I would give back to you his plan.

     Jesus desires to work through you. And according to the will of the Father, to which he is obedient, he would tell you, hour by hour every day, what is that will. You may have perfectly beautiful plans and projects akin and aligned with the divine will in certain portions, but perhaps their timing is out of sequence so that when you ought to be doing one thing you are caught doing another.

     Be relieved of the burden of figuring out what to do, but cherish oneness with your Mighty I AM Presence, with Jesus and Saint Germain and all of the saints, and know that you will be used in a much grander way than even you could conceive of.

     This is an important exercise when you are in the very heart of hearts of the Lord Christ. When you let go within his heart, it allows his light to pour through you and sweep from you those well-meaning plans that simply are not appropriate.

     It is not a question of goodness or badness, or rightness or wrongness. But there is one important thing to do in each hour and day, and you need to be free to do it. And when you have too many lists and too many projects, sometimes you don't have time to hear the LORD. You shut the windows of your cell in case another assignment comes and you say, "I already have so many assignments. I cannot receive another."

     This is a great release. As you kneel before the cross on Good Friday and contemplate the one fastened to it, know the sense of relief. Know the sense of the relief of the initiation itself.

     Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.

     Now let the spirit be slain on the cross, even though the suddenness causes the soul to cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"¹⁷

     Release thyself and know that in the hour of thy crucifixion, not 'thou' but 'I' - the "I AM" - does perform the work of the saving of the world. Release the sense of self totally, even the sense of the God Self. And allow the God Self to hold the immaculate concept of yourself.

     There is a time for doing, for self-reliance and responsibility. There is a time to be strong and bold and determined and purposed in Christ. And there is time to be re-created in the white fire core of eternal Being. There is a time to sense one's nothingness and even one's noninvolvement with all outer spheres and senses.

     This is the hour of our Mother's entering in to the initiation of the five secret rays, according to the sign of the cosmic clock. This, the hour and the number of the seven, infers a completion. Actually, it is the beginning of the eighth ray. Going in, then, to the white fire core of being, you have a sense of the sacred fire, even under that hierarchy called Leo - the fire of the heart burning.¹⁸

     In this moment of meditation with me, sense yourself in the fiery heart of Jesus where John has bidden you for this class¹⁹ - John, my beloved brother in light.

     Now sense the garden of Jesus' heart as the fiery heart burning and the utter relief of knowing that God can consume all that hinders what he has intended for you to be.

     Remain now in the fiery heart burning until the resurrection morn, until Sunday and then Sunday evening, when you will go back to the place of your service and out into the seven rays again.

     O children of the heart of Jesus, children of the heart of the blessed Child Jesus, how good it is to be together in the flame, the pulsating flame of the heart.

     _________________________________________________

     Receive my own as I have received you. Feel the power of my Presence - and discern who I AM, speaking to you now out of the heart of the flame and out of the heart of Magda.

     I can also speak through her heart, that you might perceive the Mother nature of Christ. Truly, in the oneness that you feel and sense of this great love, you understand that the whole world is included in our love. Yet, for so many this visualization of our wholeness cannot be accepted because it does not agree with the orthodox view of my life.

     Take me down from the cross where they have left me, an idol of their fancy and their false belief that suits their waywardness and their desire to be free of me!

     "Begone!" they say. "We will not have you, Jesus, as you are. We will only have you as we create you, that we might be gods over you and lead the people in our image of you. Begone! Begone, Jesus and your messenger! We will not acknowledge her - in the last decades nor in these. We will not acknowledge anyone who does not come to fit the mold of our idol."

     One and all, they have denied me. They accept me in no form except their own, and their own can only magnetize the false Christs and the false prophets and the discarnates that come. Therefore, they are deceived and the blind followers of the blind leaders who will their blindness, that they might not be required to enter in to the findingness, the true finding of my reality.

     I speak to you from the cross, as I will speak to you in the morn of my resurrection. For I desire that you should hear my voice as in the hour of the crucifixion and that you should feel the love of my heart pulsing for you and know that my life then and now is given that you might live with me, here in the world and in the next, as I AM.

     I AM the Resurrection and the Life!

     I AM the Deliverer unto you of eternal Life!

     And if you will believe upon that Resurrection and that Life imparted to you by Almighty God through this Christ, you shall not experience death - not in the final sense but only as transition out of the socket of mortality into the new day of a reality that has always been.

     My beloved, whosoever liveth and believeth on the Principle of Life, as "I AM" and as you are, shall never die. Believest thou this?²⁰ ["Yes."]

     Then go forth, following this conference. For I have a mighty work indeed for you to perform - that the Father and the Son would perform through you - and I with you, together with my beloved, Magda.

     Out of the flame of the heart I speak. Into the flame of your heart I come. For you have called. You have said, "Come quickly, LORD." Therefore, I come.

     Unto you who will receive it, I seal you forever, one with my heart, that you might never be alone or know that aloneness that is the sense of absence or separation.

     I receive you as my own. I receive you as one.

     Always know that your purest heart of hearts - your heart of Christ, which is your real heart - is individually sealed in mine!

     Accept it. Be my own. Be free! And go forth to deliver all of my children.

     We are one.

     _________________________________________________

     NOTE: This dictation by Magda and Jesus was delivered to the Messenger Elizabeth Clare Prophet April 9, 1982, during the Easter Conclave at Camelot; cassettes B8226, B8227. Prior to this dictation, the messenger read Luke 7:36-8:3.

Bibliography

[14]

Volume 25, Number 24, footnote 5. Aimee Semple McPherson. Born Aimee Kennedy, October 9, 1890, near Ingersoll, Ontario, Canada, to devout Methodists. At age 4, she could recite Bible stories as others her age recited nursery rhymes. Aimee remembers Sunday school as the most exciting event of childhood. In 1907, she attended a prayer meeting conducted by Irish evangelist Robert Semple. This was a turning point in her life. She wrote: "Suddenly, in the midst of his sermon the evangelist closed his eyes and with radiant face began to speak in a language that was not his own. To me this Spirit-prompted utterance was like the voice of God thundering into my soul." While caught in a blizzard at the home of a family who conducted the local prayer meetings, Aimee beseeched God to fill her with his "promised Spirit of power." After a week of fervent prayer, she received answer. "Ripples, waves, billows, oceans, cloudbursts of blessing" flooded her being. A few weeks later, Robert Semple proposed to Aimee and she accepted. They were married on August 12, 1908. Robert was soon called to preach in London, Ontario. In 1910, the couple went to Chicago. Six weeks later, they returned to Canada and set sail from St. Johns, New Brunswick, to bring the gospel to China. En route to the Orient, Aimee preached her first sermon in London, England. Robert died from dysentery on August 19, 1910, shortly after arriving in China, leaving Aimee pregnant and without financial support. Following the birth of daughter, Roberta Star, Aimee went to New York to join her mother, who worked as solicitor for the Salvation Army, and later to Chicago. There, on February 28, 1912, she married Harold McPherson, under the stipulation that if at any time she should receive the call to resume active ministry, she must obey God first of all. Later Aimee accepted an offer to work for the Salvation Army in New York to supplement their family income. "Dutifully I walked the beat between Columbus Circle and the Battery" until right before her son, Rolf, was born. During this time, Aimee remembers, "a voice kept hammering at the doorway of my heart" to "preach the Word!" Following the birth of her son, Aimee underwent a serious operation. She knew her choice was of either "going into the grave or out into the field with the gospel." When she chose the latter, she was healed by Jesus and determined to preach. One night at 11 o'clock, she called for a taxi, packed her belongings, gathered her children under her arms, and left for her parents' farm in Canada. She wired her husband: "I have tried to walk your way and failed. Won't you come now and walk my way? I am sure we will be happy." He joined her for a time but then returned to the business world, later divorcing her and remarrying. Aimee began preaching in tents and churches in Canada and the United States along the Atlantic seaboard. In 1916, while conducting a revival meeting in New York, Aimee prayed for and God through her healed Louise Messnick, a young woman severely crippled by rheumatoid arthritis. In the winter of 1916-17, she carried her ministry to the South and began to edit her monthly magazine, Bridal Call. In July 1917, a nationwide camp meeting in Philadelphia was disrupted by a group of young men who stood around the edges of the tent and mocked anyone who spoke, sang, or prayed. Aimee describes the event: "As I praised the Lord, I seemed to see a lot of demons with outspread, batlike wings, each of which was interlocked with that of his neighbor, surrounding the tabernacle. But every time I cried 'Praise the Lord!' I noted that the demonic forces took a step backward until finally back, back, back, they disappeared amid the trees. But now that I had once begun it was difficult to stop, so I continued shouting, 'Glory to Jesus! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!' Suddenly I noticed that from the place where the powers of darkness had been lost to view a great square of white-robed angels were advancing with outspread wings, each of which likewise was interlocked with that of his neighbor. Bless the Lord! With each 'Praise the Lord,' the angels took a step forward. On, on, on they came until they entirely surrounded the outer edges of my canvas cathedral. Startled, I opened my eyes and looked about me. The young men who had been our tormentors were still there, but now they stood as quiet as mice. ..." In 1918, Aimee's daughter became severely ill and she prayed to Jesus to spare her life. In answer to the prayer, Jesus spoke to her, saying, "Fear not. Your little one shall live and not die. Moreover, I will give you a home in California." Aimee journeyed to California with her two children, her mother, and stenographer, conducting revivals and working on her magazine as she went. She settled in Los Angeles, but continued to travel to other parts of the United States to preach. In 1919, prior to a sermon in Baltimore, Maryland, Jesus spoke to her about her ministry: "When you lay your hands on them, I will lay my hands on yours. And all the time you are standing there, I will be standing right back of you. And when you speak the Word, I will send the power of the Holy Ghost. You are simply the mouthpiece of the telephone. You are the key on the typewriter. You are only a mouth through which the Holy Ghost can speak." In Oakland, California, July 1922, Aimee presented a sermon "The Vision of Ezekiel" and received the inspiration from Jesus to call his message "the Foursquare Gospel" of Jesus the Saviour, Jesus the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit, Jesus the Healer, and Jesus the Coming King. On January 1, 1923, she opened the Angelus Temple in Los Angeles, her international headquarters. There she preached to thousands, sometimes in a costume designed to express the theme of her sermon. (For the sermon "God's Law" she dressed in a police uniform.) From 1923-26, Aimee stayed close to the Angelus Temple. She opened her 24-hour-a-day Prayer Tower, LIFE (Lighthouse of International Foursquare Evangelism) Bible College, and her radio station KFSG (Kall Four Square Gospel). On May 18, 1926, at the height of her career, Sister Aimee disappeared from a Pacific Coast beach. Thousands searched for her, suspecting that she had drowned; several gave their lives trying to recover her body. Thirty-two days later she reappeared in the Mexican border town of Agua Prieta where she recounted the story of her kidnapping. She told how she was approached on the beach by two strangers who asked her to pray for their sick baby. When she reached their car, she was asked to get in, then forcibly pushed inside and taken to a house, later to a desert shack. Aimee escaped and set out across the desert until she reached the border. Los Angeles district attorney Asa Keyes launched a full-scale investigation into charges of conspiracy between Aimee and her mother, misappropriating church funds by staging a phony kidnapping. Newspapers spread rumors whispered by eyewitnesses, who testified that they had seen Aimee with the married operator of her radio station, Kenneth Ormiston, during the five weeks she was missing. Keyes was ready to begin criminal proceedings. But publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst intervened on Aimee's behalf, and charges were dropped. Aimee recalls: "Though unbelievable and wildly inconsistent, so persistent were these stories ... that some people who did not know me or know my life could not be blamed for believing this absurd, paper-selling propaganda." In 1927, following her vindication, she once again devoted her life to preaching. A brief marriage to David Hutton ended in divorce in 1933. On September 27, 1944, she was found unconscious in her hotel room in Oakland and died a few hours later. Following her death, her son, Rolf, succeeded her as church leader. By the late sixties, Foursquare membership grew to nearly 90,000. During her entire ministry, Aimee lived in anticipation that Jesus would come and receive her as his waiting bride. The theme of her preaching was always "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." See Aimee: Life Story of Aimee Semple McPherson (Los Angeles: Foursquare Publications, 1979); This Is That (Los Angeles: Echo Park Evangelistic Assoc., 1923).

[15]

Volume 25, Number 24, footnote 18. The 7 o'clock line on the cosmic clock is the point of transition from the seven 'outer' rays (12 through 6 o'clock lines) to the five 'secret' rays (7 through 11 o'clock lines). Initiations of the secret rays, beginning on the 7 o'clock line under the hierarchy of Leo, are a refinement of the senses of the soul. "The secret rays promote an action of detail," Mighty Cosmos explains, "the final sculpturing of the mind and consciousness in the perfect image of the Christ. The secret rays are like the refiner's fire. They purge, they purify" (June 30, 1973). Symbolically and actually, the initiations of the five secret rays take the soul into the white fire core of being, into the very nucleus of life, into the secret chamber of the heart where the individual stands face-to-face with the inner Guru, the beloved Christ Self, and receives the soul testings that precede the alchemical union with the Christ Self - the marriage of the bride (soul who becomes the Lamb's wife). The initiations of the five secret rays are described by Saint John of the Cross as the dark night of the soul and the dark night of the spirit, in his work "The Dark Night."

Footnotes: