[ Setting: The redwood forest culminating at an ocean overlook. Raining at beginning of the conversation but becoming sunnier toward the end.]
PETRA: It’s raining!
ALLEGENTIA: Yes it is. As I said earlier I would construct an environment suitable for the person I am speaking with. Each person holds in their mind some images I can choose from. Nonetheless that same mind holds certain attitudes which affects the environment as well. Water is the universal solvent, it softens all stone. Would you like an umbrella?
PETRA: Of course I would! Now, I was a person of high importance with wealth and prestige. You will tell me how to secure a comparable position of privilege when we arrive.
ALLEGENTIA: You will be given the exact position you deserve. You do not yet know how big the universe is. There is much more to learn. If we allowed you to settle for the low level of privilege you think you have a right to, we would be leaving you in the gutter compared to the status you will someday merit with continued effort. Your status will always reflect your true nature.
There are always greater and lesser levels of accomplishment in your first life and you will be granted the opportunity to begin again from where you really left off. I can see both qualitative and quantitative values in each soul and I have seen millions of souls. We will help you see yourself as you really are and help you acquire the qualities you need. You will need to get acquainted with the quality of honest humility fairly soon. With your cooperation our job will be made easier.
You will find we angels respect your free will and will encourage your personal development and advancement. You will find our counsel to be fair and accurate. We can envisage the glorious person you can become.
PETRA: Well then, how do I get back what I have lost? I was on my way to securing a new holding in my corporate empire when it all came to a sudden stop with that wretched heart attack.
ALLEGENTIA: One of your first lessons will be to sort out what you think you have lost and what cannot be lost.
Your future growth is built upon courageous, independent, cosmic thinking. But do not define independent as selfish. Your soul shows you did sometimes take others into consideration while you were on your personal quest for self-aggrandizement. Since you know a little bit about family and service this would be a good place for you to start. You are accustomed to controlling people, but concern for the welfare of your fellow citizens would be a more enlightened attitude to adopt.
PETRA: I do not understand what you are trying to tell me. Will my wealth, or at least my power, be returned?
ALLEGENTIA: Death has ripped you away from your known parameters. You are about to enter a new realm with a new body, a new society, new systems of behavior, new freedoms, and a greater need for self-mastery. I cannot say what you will do but I can recommend you work within a smaller frame until you can see your desires in perspective and control them. Then, when you are willing to work for a higher purpose and the greater good, you will allow yourself to establish an exalted cosmic goal. At that time a richer service motive will replace your self-serving profit motive.
The Father knows your needs as well as those of others. Angels are his agents who match up these needs. We always have your best interest at heart, and if you require some tough love it will be faithfully given to you.
PETRA: My father already gave me enough tough love. He built the business and I had to prove to him I was worthy to take over before he gave me any responsibility.
ALLEGENTIA: What values did he teach you?
PETRA: Hard work, tenacity, the skill to see the bigger picture, and always family first – I’m sure there were others but those were the main ones. His respect was even harder to earn.
ALLEGENTIA: And I see in your soul your striving to gain his approval did pay off. I can see some gratitude, I’ll surmise, from the modicum of respect he finally did give you. But you also possess many other fine qualities and they are still here with you. You can use them to move toward true progress.
PETRA: But, I fought tooth and nail to keep the position and power I accumulated. I feel like a fool now for taking so much time and energy to try to keep what I could not hold.
ALLEGENTIA: So many higher ideals are born from the pursuit of limited and lower goals. You now have an important key to wisdom. The search for power can become a self-blinding, self-imposed trap to avoid doing what is right and necessary. Now you will be better prepared to look to a higher, more noble, ideal. Each individual must pass through many stages of attainment, but do not make the mistake of trying to jump over any of the necessary, intermediate steps. You already know how to keep your eye on the prize. That skill will help you as you move on. Learn now to give yourself a break. You will later have a good laugh when you are able to see the humor in your shortsighted ambitions.
PETRA: Humor was never one of my strong suits. But it must be true that the most powerful people are given some special treatment.
ALLEGENTIA: Humans who seek power tend to exempt themselves from the need to acquire any other qualities; or, I should say, from what they consider to be extraneous qualities. Selfish, powerful people often think they need not wash the cup they just drank from. They see themselves above such modesty behavior.
The greed for control is like a planetoid with a core of high gravity attracting only asteroids of kindred likeness. The only qualities they see as worth pursuing are those useful in the acquisition, execution, and maintenance of their influence. These so-called hard qualities include decisiveness, force, motivation, strength, desire, planning, focus, and the like. These are all fine and needed qualities, and I see you have them in abundance, but the people who acquire them exclusively blind themselves to the need for any other values. You can, if you are willing, now learn about compassion, gentleness, kindness, and yes, humor. It may be a difficult transition to progress from selfishness to selflessness but when you do you will be able to move beyond selflessness to encompass generosity. You will work on the ability to see others as having values of their own. With the addition of these balancing qualities you will be on your way to becoming a more well-rounded individual. Only with a full complement of values will your path be fully lit.
PETRA: How long will this take?
ALLEGENTIA: You will remain on the Progress Worlds for as long as it takes to become the loving person you can be. Personal power will be a result, but not a goal, of your growth. Those who do decide to continue the process of growth are those who come to a new realization: each new challenge is worthwhile. All of us have to move from where we are. If this means we have to make transitional concessions, so be it.
PETRA: I am willing. I never shied away from what was needed to be done. Yet I can see your point, to a degree. I probably do have to give some time to the other things you mentioned. As a matter of fact I was anticipating, wrongly as it turned out, that I would not have to fight so hard to keep what I had earned. I do hope my children learn how to handle what I have left them with a different attitude. I was less ruthless than my father and I tried to teach my kids how to be more sophisticated, and perhaps even a little kinder, and still get the job done.
So if I do it your way I cannot lose?
ALLEGENTIA: Nothing of genuine value is ever lost. So your task, of course, is to acquire these permanent value-gems. You will not have to forgo pleasure and happiness, and sooner or later you will not associate your real personal value with your possessions.
The impetus to be more than we are – to grow – is fundamental in every soul. It was given as a gift to move personalities from their current condition toward the best they can become. Those who use the driving gift to gain only power are distorting its true purpose.
Look at the place of power you thought you held while you were alive compared to what you feel of yourself now. Soon you will see people (not to mention angels) with a great deal of real power, yet they will carry it with grace, modesty, and dignity. And they have learned to use it without ever abusing it. You will be truly impressed.
PETRA: Then I do not have to start over on the other side? I want to be great again.
ALLEGENTIA: Your native planet is behind you but you possess the qualitative ideals you acquired along the way. Now is a good time to reflect on what efforts you will make to gain real wealth – true value.
PETRA: I guess you are telling me there is hope and a way to move forward.
ALLEGENTIA: There is no doubt you successfully met your lower human needs for self-maintenance, self-perpetuation, and pleasure, but I can see you mixed in some higher motivations to garner some measure of safety and security for yourself and your family. Your desire to nurture your children and to teach them some kindhearted consideration was beneficial. Now you will learn to socialize your ambition. Do not grieve for the loss of physical life or physical wealth. Rejoice in your efforts, those of true value are still with you. You can use your old talents to continue your growth. You have many new tasks ahead of you.
You will someday learn the simple truth to the equation: to be great is to be good.
PETRA: You keep going on about ‘growth’ as if it’s some special thing. I always measured my growth by how much power, property, and money I had. What exactly do you mean by growth?
ALLEGENTIA: Growth is authentic progress. Real growth is first the recognition of, and then the appreciation of, and finally the acquisition of true values; all of them, not just a select few. Genuine and balanced growth cannot be attained without a full complement of harmonious qualities. Make them your goal; be loyal to them. Then you will be on a path of real accomplishment. As you progress you will be able to grasp the greater meaning and the potential depth of positive reality. You will be perfecting yourself to your full potential. Focused, productive effort is the heavenly pursuit you will join in enthusiastically, not only because it will add to your self-actualization, but more and more because you will see how self-forgetful, loving-service operates as the mechanism of cosmic consciousness.
PETRA: I will give what you’ve said some thought, if only because it is not raining anymore.
ALLEGENTIA: You see you do have a sense of humor.