Heaven is Fulfilment: Chapter 13

JOURNEY TO THE STARS

“Now we are going on a long journey,” said our angel-guide. He put an arm around each of us, holding us to his sides and began to soar upward above the garden. By the way he held us we realised we were to travel on ‘angel’s power,’ and Janet asked: “Are we to travel again in the Higher Void?” Yes. Are you pleased? Oh, so pleased The vast grandeur of the spheres was enough to please anyone,” I commented. “Which one is it to be?”

“If I told you its true name, you would hear nothing, for it is too high for you. However, men call it the Sphere of Dreams.”

“How intriguing!” Janet cried. “Do tell us about it.”

We had been cleaving upward so rapidly that we had long ago left the paved walks and gardens behind us. The Higher Void began to enfold us in its first twilight. I sighed with content.

“All men have dreams,” our teacher began. “Some of them are mere whims of the surface mind, but others spring from the hidden depths of the secret heart as pure water gushes out of the soil. It is these dreams, these cherished visions which are fulfilled in the Sphere to which we go.”

“Are dreams and visions the same?” I asked.

“In a way they are. As you know, within each soul dwells the Divine Spark, and man constantly seeks to reach it, once he awakes to his great destiny. Sometimes, by stilling his mental faculties for a moment, he comes very near to the adorable Mystery within. Entranced, he seeks to understand it, to clothe it in something he can treasure, something he can visualise in his mind. He may clothe the Mystery in the lovely body of a young child, and in an ecstasy may say, ‘I have seen the Infant Jesus’ His longing desires, you see, have inspired his search within, and when for an instant of time he drew near to the Presence, they clothed the treasure according to his heart’s dream. So you see, the ‘dream’ is the seeking, and the ‘Vision’ is the finding.” “Are visions, then, something unreal? “Janet asked.

“What is reality?” replied our teacher. “Men say ‘This is real; this is unreal,’ but should they not reverse sometimes their verdict? Truly the vision is real, in that the life within the form is the Divinity within. The form may change, as the desire of man’s heart changes, but the Life remains.”

“Suppose a mother proposes to take her child on a visit. She wants her host to see the boy at his best. Carefully, she selects some clothes and begins to put them on him, first one suit and then another, pausing to observe the effect. Now when she clothes him in her final choice, she does not say ‘He is my son. It was not my son in those other clothes, but an illusion.’ Of course she knows her child, however he is clothed. Thus it is with visions which spring from the depths of a devout soul. The Life is he same; it is but clothed in dreams.”

“How lovely that is,” Janet breathed, and I added: “Sometimes we have wondered, when people have had a great devotion to the Holy Childhood, how it could be. It has seemed strange, when long long since, He was grown to Manhood, died, and ascended to the Father.”

“You thought it lacked reality,” our angel said. “How men of earth pride themselves on ‘being practical,’ and knowing what is real and what is unreal As they grow, they learn that He alone is the true Reality.”

During this conversation, we had been speeding forward all the time. The twilight had deepened into night, and the vast splendour lay around us. On every side stars flashed in their velvet setting, some far away, others seeming to be near. Now and then a chariot of angels sped by, bearing some Great One to a height beyond our knowing. Once a planet hung poised within our range of vision, looking like a spinning ball just out of reach, but our angel soon dispelled that idea.

“It is one of the greatest of all,” he explained. “If you had begun to travel toward it when you first left earth, before even you entered the Hall of Reception of Heaven’s realm, you would not have reached it yet.” He smiled at our astonishment.

Presently he told us to look up, and we saw a tiny point of mellow light shining. “That is our destination.”