Gerdean: Father God, Mother Spirit, we call upon You to come into our consciousness to help give us focus on our spirit life, our inner life, that part of us that is often overlooked in the hustle bustle of life. Help us dig deep down into the well where You reside within us. Let us tap into that Source of infinite supply, that creative Source.

Lest I become lost in that body of living water, let me just thank You, Father, for that boundless Source of peace and energy, that place where we can always go when life gets too hectic or too problematic, knowing You are there to catch us, strengthen us and provide good orderly direction as we return our focus on Your will.

If it be Your will, Father God, send us a teacher who will inspire us and lift us up into realms of divine companionship and infinite association, that we might enjoy being unfettered for awhile, and thank You for this realm into which we reach and the format that You have given us to do that. Thank you for all your gifts, Father God.

In Michael's name, amen.

ATHENA: I am Athena. I am a celestial artisan. I am not a stranger to you or this process. I have been active in accessing the mind of this T/R for many years. And while most of our work has been more private than this venue, I am attempting to encourage her to allow me to exercise my voice. I helped her write a book, or perhaps I should say she helped me write a book, and in the book we worked together to demonstrate many principles that bear notice.

I and we observe you all as you attempt to put into effect those lessons which you have been taught through the Melchizedek Teachers, that are now being attempted by the discussions of the co-creative design teams. This idea of working together is not new nor is it unique. The fellowship was instructed to develop societies from their long-standing reading groups, and these societies were to be comprised of those loyal students of the revelation who had learned to adjust to one another's peculiarities of personality and which in which each could bring to the forefront their particular gifts, their skills, ability, their character, their values, even their flavor such that each society had its own stamp, its own signature.

Similarly, when the Teacher Corps caught hold in your midst, there was an emphasis given to the Teacher Bases of operation. They became known as The Woods Cross Group, The Tallahassee Group, The Northern Colorado Group, et cetera, and there developed within those groups long-term, bonded friendships, which remain today and will continue throughout eternity because of the effort bonded by association in spirit.

And now this principle is being promulgated and practiced by those of you who have learned to be about the Father's business, either in exercising your own will to develop a working group in your neighborhood, or on-line with like-minded fellows, or in your communities, churches, places of employment or wherever the need arises for people to come together to work as a group, as compared to the practice long-standing of working as individuals.

I will bring into this mix the original twelve apostles as an example of how the character of each participant differed from the others. There were those who were well learned, educated and cultured, and there were those who were simple-minded or naïve. There were those who were hard-working physical laborers and there were politicians, speakers, even rabble rousers, and so there was an assortment of personalities that congregated around the Master and sought to learn more of his gospel, and teach it. Eventually they went their separate ways, but their experience of working together stayed with them as a part of their constitution.

The adaptation that is necessary to work with others who are not like you, is an important part of your learning. And this lesson needs be repeated through the mansion worlds and beyond, as you become well adapted to living and working with others. It is the unity of purpose that draws men together -- men and women of like mind. Not like-minded in ordinary daily business; everyone has their own preferences and prejudices. But when the goal is set forth, everyone can rally round the cry for victory, and differences can be set aside, in order to accomplish the work, the agreed-upon task. And so the real issue becomes one of defining the goal.

Now many times when you set out to establish a goal, the more aggressive minds will come up with the idea and the workers are expected then to heave-ho and follow through, some even picking up the pieces after the job is completed. And this works as long as everyone is fulfilling themselves in the process. The Alpheus twins, for example, had no problem doing what they did for the Master, even though it was not one of the tasks that was considered critical to their success. They were not effective speakers. They were not deep thinkers. But the work they did was critical to the camp. Someone who had more capacity having to do such work may feel resentful.

It is important that everyone finds their task, their level of functioning and functions there in joy. When we set out to create a new paradigm of civilization (which we are doing by these efforts, these repeated efforts to present and promote effective patterns of community), it is important that each person be respected for the task they take on for themselves. This volunteer army is the most effective. … More effective than the draft, because the soldiers work willingly. They work enthusiastically and they do what they do because they love doing what they do. They don't resent what they are doing because someone is forcing them to do something that they may not enjoy doing.

One of the things you learned through the Teacher Corps was "loving service" and that if what you were doing as loving service was not done willingly and lovingly then it didn't count. It was not loving service at all, it was fulfilling an obligation, which may be, of course, construed as a form of loving service, but the idea in loving service is to allow your heart to lead you into serving others, not your mind.

We are at the beginning now of a new dispensation, and we will be pursuing the course for the next millennia, and we will make progress toward the next phase of light and life. Even as civilizations arise and fall around you, you who are workers in the field for Christ will continue to practice these gifts of the spirit that will augment and enhance evolving man's approach to civilization. You will learn to depend upon the gifts of the divine spirit in practical matters.

You have something to offer in terms of family life because of your personal relationship with the Father and you will be able to represent this value by the way you involve yourself with your brothers and sisters. You will create tasks that groups of you can agree upon and once that task has been completed, you will dissolve and perhaps at another time later you will return to work together as is promised through the auspices of the social architects.

Sometimes you will get a group together that can't get it together, that stumbles all over itself in eagerness but cannot ever get on the same page. These are not lost. These experiences are learning experiences, not just for you but for us as well. Remember, it is an experimental world that you live on, and just as cooks will practice throwing different ingredients together to come up with a new recipe, so do we draw together unlikely associates in anticipation of the possibility of "chemistry." Sometimes these relationships virtually crackle with divine energy. Sometimes they "peter out" quickly. But some of them mellow into lifelong associations that quietly and steadfastly stoke the fires for others.

Learning to work together is a part of your education, and although you have all experienced some degree of working for God in your own right, eventually and in His time, you will find yourself in a position to work with others … 1, 2, 10, 20, 100 … and it will always serve you well to inquire -- if not of them then of yourself -- what is our goal? What is our mutual purpose? For if you are at cross-purposes, you will surely fail. And if you are united in purpose, you will surely succeed even though you may not agree, even though you may not even like one another. But this is indeed the direction in which we will be going: learning to work together, effectively, efficiently, even happily, as we pursue the course into this next era.

These principles of creating civilization (?) of the revelation when the rubber meets the road. Without spiritual resources, you will not be able to survive the challenges of the development of civilization, and so it is imperative that each of you eagerly embrace your own god consciousness and stay close to your Indweller and let your own Indweller lead you out into the arena where your fellows await the orchestration that will come about if and when you all do what you do harmoniously.

We return to the symphony. If you have your instrument and it is tuned up and ready to play, when the Master Conductor taps his baton and prompts you to begin, you will know how to proceed. You will know who you are and what you need to do. You will find your niche. You will hear your prompt. You will make your music as part of the great orchestration of advancement. Sometimes it will sound like a cacophony of noise, but a little practice, a little patience, a little effort and a little good humor will go a long way. And soon the choir will be invited to sing, "Hosanna! Hosanna."

I wanted to review one of these points of fact, not because they are so spiritually inspiring but because they feed your need to think about how you can do something for the Kingdom, literally do something in your material world for the men and women, old people and young people, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, as the Master admonished, and how you can do that in this day and age with today's needs, with today's politics, in today's world.

I will leave you with that one thought and hopefully I will be able to come back at another time and develop another thought on behalf of the advancing reality that we have come to bring. As I step away from the podium, I will ask a Teacher to come in to host the group. Thank you.

TOMAS: And I am Tomas. I will do the honors, as it were. I am faithful and dependable in this position as Teacher and work well with this receiver. Are there questions regarding this evenings discussion about teamwork or about projects? Or are there questions otherwise relating to your soul's needs? The floor is open to your involvement. [Silence] Well, perhaps then everyone has gone home.

Karo: Hello, Teacher Tomas.

TOMAS: Hello, Karo.

Karo: How are you doing today?

TOMAS: I am doing well, thank you.

Karo: I have a question. In the Local System Administration, subsection 6 talks about --

TOMAS: Again, please? Be more specific.

Karo: Section 6 of Paper 45 talks about Adamic Training of Ascendants.

TOMAS: Of ascending sons? Is that what you are talking about?

Karo: Yes. Something struck my attention there in that section, talking about human sex experience. It talks about human beings that are "sex deficient" and their sex deficiency will be able to be compensated in the social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual aspects of sexuality. And the key question I have, what can we say are the spiritual benefits or spiritual aspects of sex? When a man and a woman, for example, come together to have sex, what could be the spiritual benefits? I have some thoughts and ideas in my mind but I would love to hear a Teacher expand on these things because it is obvious from this paper that the human sexual experience is clearly not just physical. There are the "social, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual aspects of sex.

Actually my question is twofold. I'm more concerned at this point in time in the intellectual and spiritual aspects of man/woman sexual intercourse.

TOMAS: Well, let's go first to the spiritual aspects and I will send you directly to the Eastern practice of Kundalini, the idea that true intercourse is really a union of souls, with and between sentient beings. There is a union, a coming together between the two parties coupling that reaches into the ethers that transcends the mere act of coitus. The love that exists between lovers allows one to become lost in the bliss of this union, this very spiritual union. It is perhaps the closest humans can come to fusion in the mortal life, because you lose yourself completely in the other. That is a definite spiritual dimension, not to overlook the very important factor of wanting to please the other.

Wanting to be of service, wanting to pleasure the other, is a giving, loving even spiritual thing/attitude. When you compare that to the brute who simply takes a woman, drags her by the hair, rapes her, beats her, discards her as if she were a piece of meat for his carnal enjoyment, is by contrast degrading and offensive. And so there is a range of experience possible in the human animal in terms of its sexual nature. It is not limited to sex itself. It is reflected in social consciousness, and in intellectual realms as well because, well, look at the crass humor of many of your "dirty jokes" as compared to the suggestibility of bliss that can be found in, for example, the Psalms. Are you aware of the erotic nature of the scripture in the Psalms?

Karo: Do you mean the Song of Solomon?

TOMAS: Yes. The Song of Solomon. Thank you for that clarification. So the intellectual difference provides a full range, as does the social. There are generations of cultures that stifle their sexual nature and others that flaunt it -- some innocently, some not so innocently. Your culture is filled with sexual innuendo. It is virtually impossible to escape it. Whether people are aware of it not, whether they respond to it or transcend it remains a personal matter, but it is definitely a part of your existence here.

Those of you who don't notice, who may be deficient in hormonal stimuli, will miss out on the range of possibilities given to the mortal races to exercise this quality of human sexuality. And while it may be made up in some ways, it will never be able to be revisited once you have left your mortal bodies behind. This is not to say you should all run right out and experience as much as you can, no. But it does serve to remind you that it is a gift and it is precious just as are the senses of sight and smell and taste and so on. It is certainly one of the driving forces and supreme pleasures of the human experience, but there will be a new range of experiences awaiting you on Mansonia that you will enjoy as much and more, even though they are of a different nature.

You may not there be able to sit down and have a cup of coffee with a friend, but you will still be able to sit with a friend and have refreshment. You see the point. Does this help you understand?

Karo: Yes, thank you very much! You've really shed a lot of light into it all. I appreciate that. And Athena was talking about groups and something came to mind while you were speaking. In groups, you know how people will sit around face to face?

TOMAS: Yes.

Karo: Sometimes there is sexual chemistry between people in the group.

TOMAS: Yes.

Karo: I would like you to comment on some ideas and suggestions and words of wisdom that people can bring into their lives to create some balance so that they do not interfere with the working of the group because of their sexual desires or sexual longings toward other participants in the group.

TOMAS: You are talking about a cultural matter here and it depends on what culture you are talking about. There are cultures that would not tolerate sexual innuendo in a social setting and yet there are some that will and do and would feel bereft without it. There are some situations where the undercurrent of sex attraction between participants is very distracting and sometimes its very appropriate, and so it depends upon the group and why they are gathered

It depends on the nature of the individuals involved. You will find the younger people - those people who are in the thick of their procreating season - more overt than those who have passed that period. Sometimes it is charming to observe a young couple twittering and giggling, falling in love, and sometimes it is a nuisance and a distraction, so it depends a great deal on the group and what it is meeting for, what its expectations are, what its tolerance levels are.

If you remember that sex is a normal part of being a human being and to be expected and even encouraged at certain phases of life, it can become part of the social tapestry without difficulty. If, however, it is stifled and repressed too much, it will leak out in other ways, perhaps not so healthy ways. Different races have different appetites. Different times of the lunar cycle, or the menstrual cycle, different foods and drink and states of health and holiday all contribute to the sexual factor. It's just a part of life.

Are you talking about a business meeting or a church meeting or how is that you find it worthy of bringing it to our attention.

Karo: Yes, basically I am talking about a religious meeting, where people a meeting of minds to advance the cause of the gospel. That's the group I had in mind.

TOMAS: Well, if you are talking about a group of worshippers who are gathered together for the purpose of worship, then that is what you would want to expect of all the participants, even those who were feeling frisky or lusty. But if people are being asked to worship against their will, then that is the kind of thing that can be expected. It goes back to that loving service thing again, loving service. If it is not done willingly, then it is best it not be done.

There is that time that comes upon a mortal, however, when he wants to worship and would value the experience of worshipping with others and would prefer not to be distracted by the carnal aspects of mortal existence and yet short of turning them out, it is hard to say what should be done, but shaming people for being human is certainly not the solution. Suggesting they comport themselves appropriate to the occasion or leave - if done and said lovingly is a possibility - but it depends upon the participants. There are those who, when they seek to worship will worship regardless of what is going on around them. And so we would ask you to question the motives of all concerned.

It is difficult to say, and I don't want to pass judgment on any situation without far better understanding of the characters and the configuration and the culture, but perhaps these words have given you some food for thought

Karo: Yes, indeed. Exactly. Thank you. I appreciate it.

TOMAS: We began our session about an hour ago. I am preparing to close down the circuit for this evening but I will pause to see if there is one other matter that you would like to address while we are here gathered. [Pause]

I will then call our meeting to a close with thanks to you who have come by to spend this time with me and Athena, indeed with your heavenly helpers who seek to assist you in directing your minds toward those things which you would like to know and develop as a part of your budding morontial reality.

Peace be upon you until we meet again. Amen and farewell.