Following is an extract from Sunlight New Age Journal Issue No. 10, Summer 1999:
CELEBRATION!
On 5th January 1999 it was party time. Friends and subscribers of Sunlight gathered at Columbia Hotel, London to celebrate the second anniversary of the founding of Genie Quest Publishing, the business set up to produce Sunlight journal as well as other publishing ventures.
On the agenda for the evening was the cutting of a huge birthday cake in the shape of a champagne bottle, toasts in sparkling Elderflower wine and speeches. The cake, food and drinks were all donations and contributions by grateful friends. Even a photographer donated his free services to capture the spirit of the evening.
“Peace – the missing link”, was the subject of the speech by the editor of Sunlight, Marie Norlén-Smith. Herewith an extract:
INSPIRATION is a wonderful thing! It can come out of no-where and when we least expect it.
Some years ago I was walking to work one sunny Friday morning in late June. I had just celebrated my birthday which happens to fall on the Summer Solstice on 21st June. The day had been spent with friends in Avebury around the ancient stone circles. It had been a glorious day, full of sunshine. Mervyn and I had stayed to watch the sunset before heading back to London. I was full of joy and that warm feeling of a day well spent.
So this morning, a few days later, I was thinking about the new friends I had made. We had exchanged addresses and ideas. Someone had handed out a piece of paper with an extract from the famous Nelson Mandela inaugural speech when he was made President of South Africa. He said:
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves ‘who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do … And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
As I was pondering on all this, I suddenly thought: “Why not start a newssheet or bulletin to circulate amongst us? We were thirteen in our group to be precise, an interesting number! Yes, I thought, I am going to start a circular letter to send to these people.
My friend Gail from Cardiff had been the brain child behind our gathering in Avebury. It was mainly her contacts from all over the country who had met up. So I gave her a call to get some feedback. “Oh yes,” she said, “I have at least another two hundred addresses I can give you!” She was right behind me on this project. “Two hundred people”, I thought. “That is enough to give me stage fright. It certainly was not my idea to ‘go big’. Within a few days a list of two hundred addresses landed on my doorstep! Thanks Gail, you really put me in the deep end…”.
Sunlight was born! The first issue came out in July 1995. In my exuberation I wrote: “Welcome to ‘Sunlight’, the New Age journal aimed at all those wonderful people who are seeking to fulfill their Divine purpose in life and are now coming into their own. There is a need for us all to express our joy at ‘coming out of ignorance and darkness and entering the all-knowing light’ and then sharing the experience with others.”
Two years ago I decided to give up my job and work full-time as a writer and publisher. I set up my own business with the help of Mervyn, my husband, who runs a printing business.
There is a saying that ‘life is what happens while you are making other plans’. This was certainly true in my case. Instead of writing my own books which I have been looking forward to, one thing after another happened which stopped me from doing this. Then a manuscript landed on my desk which was a Heaven-sent as far as I was concerned. A diary of a young Bosnian mother. It is always easier to promote someone else’s work than one’s own! From a rough translation into English I wrote her story in my own words what it was like to be in the eye of the storm with no way out. A good exercise for me.
My friend Elizabeth, who is here tonight and whose birthday it is today, is an excellent proof reader and spent hours checking my grammar and punctuation, etc. Together with Edin Suljic, brother of the author, we put the book together. ‘The Cry of Bosnia’ was successfully launched last summer in the presence of Martin Bell, the MP and former BBC war correspondent, the Ambassador from the Bosnian Embassy, and other dignitaries and media representatives. Edin featured for half an hour on BBC radio, reading extracts from the book and talking about his former country, Yugoslavia, and several newspapers and magazines featured the book.
We are now working on our next book: “Visages from the Wasteland” which is another war story from Bosnia, to be published soon. So the publishing side is going well.
But what about Sunlight? Will it continue? Another reason for starting this journal and which I have not mentioned yet, was to help spread the Cosmic Teachings for the New Age by my own Master, Dr George King. In each issue I had hoped to include a ‘Cosmic Window’ where I introduced an aspect of my Master’s teachings.
Over thirty years ago, in my youth, I came across a Western Master of Yoga in my search for ‘the meaning of life’. I was already in London, after leaving my native country Sweden, and worked as a secretary while pursuing my ambition as a freelance journalist. This was the late 1960s when London was swinging and Flower Power was rife. I used to travel at the back of my friend’s scooter to various meetings with Indian gurus, mystics and such like until one day, a girl in my office started to talk about Dr George King.
I had a book on my desk about Indian philosophy when she blurted out in front of the whole office, well, at least the whole typing pool where we worked: “Did you know that the Star of Bethlehem was a space craft and that the Master Jesus came from Venus?” Well, that’s a question for you! How many people would know that? The other girls just giggled and thought her mad. But something made me curious. What made her say that? The following evening I attended a lecture by this man called Dr George King. It was a tape-recorded lecture given in a basement hall in Fulham. This lecture changed my life!
Thirty years later I am still there, at this centre in Fulham, spending my spare time in voluntary work. I have not regretted a minute during this time. Unfortunately Dr George King passed on eighteen months ago but I feel it is more important than ever to keep his memory alive. He was a unique and outstanding man who believed in hard work, practicality and the manipulation of world Karma through SERVICE. His path was KARMA YOGA.
This is what I would really like to talk about tonight although I don’t want to end up giving a long lecture. So many people talk about PEACE. We all have our own concept and idea of PEACE. As long as everyone agrees with us there will be peace. Isn’t that right? But if they disagree, what then?
The missing link to real peace in the world as far as I see it is called SERVICE, (an extract was read from the book “The Nine Freedoms”, an Aetherius Society publication).
“SERVICE is the Jewel in the Rock of Attainment” is the motto of The Aetherius Society.
Dr George King also had his own motto which he kept repeating. What will save us on this planet, he used to say, is: ‘UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER TO GOD’. This is the way he lived, and died.
With these words I leave you to investigate further the Cosmic Teachings of The Aetherius Society.
The future of Sunlight, the New Age journal, I surrender to God because ‘life is what happens while we are busy making other plans’.
Thank you!
Marie Norlén-Smith
Founder, Sunlight Network
5th January 1999
Additional information: The Aetherius Society, please visit www.aetherius.org
