The Thirteenth Disciple

I met the author again after many years at our Cascadia conference in British Columbia at the end of September. There, he told the gripping story of how he came to write this profound account of the ministry of Jesus based on accessing memories through the eyes of his brother Thomas, who looked after him on his travels. Over a period of months, he was able to access vivid far memories that really conjure up the landscape and ambiance of that era. In that sense, the narrative is strong and carries conviction, especially at a spiritual level of the inner teachings given to Jesus's closest disciples. One key is what author calls the cycle of gratitude and love, where each feeds on the other; this is put in context with an account of experiential exercises readers can also try for themselves. The message is one of love: 'love is everything. Without love there is no life. Life comes from love. From dust we all came, with the breath of God to make us live. To dust we return, and the spirit of God that is in us returns to God, taking only love. All the love that we have become is what we take back to God.' (p. 17) Our task is therefore to become love. We need to breathe in love and see with love.

Another important teaching is the balance of opposites, embodied in the masculine and feminine principles. The She within God creates a vortex of love like an open chalice, in the centre of which is a place of peace and silence. The He creates a corresponding vortex of love as a tall cone, and we have to bring together the chalice from below and the cone from above so that they can flow through each other. This is the return to oneness. The reader is steeped in this powerful atmosphere embodied in and emanating from the book and is drawn into this transformative process, especially by means of the exercises. At the evocation of the Last Supper, the new covenant is God bringing heaven to earth through each of us as love. The narrative explains that Judas was given the awful task of guiding the soldiers to where Jesus was to be found in order that he could be captured peacefully - a rather different slant, as is the physical interpretation of the resurrection. Some idea of the spiritual power of the book can be gleaned from the following exercise: one person says to the other: 'within you I see only love, and I see that you are that love. Know in your heart that this is so. Open your heart and accept this truth.' The other person responds: 'I see the beauty that is me. I see that I am love, and I love myself as God loves me, completely.' This is a deeply nourishing and empowering message.