Where history has not preserved the record, the ascended masters have from time to time given us glimpses into the life of the Holy Family. One such story was dictated by Mother Mary to Mark Prophet in 1968:
“I recall one morning when beloved Jesus was yet a small lad that he came to me with a very hard piece of wood that he was trying to whittle. He desired that I should persuade Joseph to exchange it for a softer piece, one that would lend itself more easily to molding.
“I sat him on my knee, and I proceeded to explain to him that there was an ingrained quality that of old had been placed within trees making one to possess a harder quality and another a softer quality. I told him that the soft wood would easily mar and that, were he to use it, the little image that he sought to whittle would not endure the knocks and tumbles that might later come to it, whereas a carving made of hard wood would endure more substantially.
“I also told him that the wood enjoyed being shaped by his hands and that the only difference between the soft and the hard wood would be that of a greater use of patience on his part. He brushed back his hair, which had fallen across his eyes, and with great and quick gentleness, planted a kiss upon both of my cheeks. I noticed a trace of a tear in one eye as he dashed away to continue his work of shaping the hard wood.”[8]
Mother Mary has said that Saint Joseph “did father and nourish the Christ Child and therefore set the pace of the age of Pisces.... May all of you who are of the masculine ray in this life remember his example in all of his lifetimes and know that your stature in God can be modeled after this role model of one who dared to defend Woman, who dared to raise up that Manchild and stand as the protector not only of a family but of an entire area of a planet, until that one could fulfill his Christhood.”[9]
In the late third century, Saint Germain was embodied as Saint Alban, the first martyr of Britain. Alban lived in England during the persecution of Christians under the Roman emperor Diocletian. He was a pagan who had served in the Roman army and settled in the town of Verulamium, later renamed St. Albans. Alban hid a fugitive Christian priest named Amphibalus, who converted him. When soldiers came to search for him, Alban allowed the priest to escape and disguised himself in the cleric’s garb.
Once his deed was discovered, Alban was scourged and sentenced to death. Legend says that so great a multitude gathered to witness his execution that they could not pass over a narrow bridge that had to be crossed. Alban prayed and the river parted to give passage to the crowd, whereupon his appointed executioner was converted and begged to die in his place. The request was denied, and he was beheaded along with Alban.
Saint Germain worked from inner planes as the Master Teacher behind the Neoplatonists. He inspired the Greek philosopher Proclus (c. A.D. 410–485), the highly honored head of Plato’s Academy at Athens. Under the master’s tutelage, Proclus based his philosophy upon the principle that there is only one true Reality—the “One,” which is God, or the Godhead, the final goal of all life’s efforts.
Proclus’s writings extended to almost every department of learning, from philosophy and astronomy to mathematics and grammar. He acknowledged that his enlightenment and philosophy came from above, and he believed himself to be one through whom divine revelation reached mankind.
In the fifth century, Saint Germain was embodied as Merlin—alchemist, prophet and counselor at the court of King Arthur. In a land splintered by warring chieftains and riven by Saxon invaders, Merlin led Arthur through twelve battles (which were actually twelve initiations) to unite the kingdom of Britain. He worked side by side with the king to establish the sacred fellowship of the Round Table. Under the guidance of Merlin and Arthur, Camelot was a mystery school where the knights and ladies pursued the inner unfoldment of the mysteries of the Holy Grail and a path of personal Christhood.
In some traditions, Merlin is described as a godly sage who studied the stars and whose prophecies were recorded by seventy secretaries. The Prophecies of Merlin, which deals with events extending from Arthur’s time into the distant future, was popular in the Middle Ages.
Saint Germain was Roger Bacon (1220–1292), philosopher, Franciscan monk, educational reformer and experimental scientist. In an era in which either theology or logic or both dictated the parameters of science, he promoted the experimental method, declared his belief that the world was round, and castigated the scholars and scientists of his day for their narrow-mindedness. “True knowledge stems not from the authority of others, nor from a blind allegiance to antiquated dogmas,”[10] he said. Bacon eventually left his position as a lecturer at the University of Paris and entered the Franciscan Order of Friars Minor.
In his day Bacon was renowned for his exhaustive investigations into alchemy, optics, mathematics and languages. He is viewed as the forerunner of modern science and a prophet of modern technology. He predicted the hot-air balloon, a flying machine, spectacles, the telescope, the microscope, the elevator, and mechanically propelled ships and carriages, and wrote of them as if he had actually seen them.
His scientific and philosophical worldview, his bold attacks on the theologians of his day, and his study of alchemy and astrology led to charges of “heresies and novelties,” for which he was imprisoned for fourteen years by his fellow Franciscans. But to those who followed after him, Bacon was “doctor mirabilis” (“wonderful teacher”), an epithet by which he has been known through the centuries.
Saint Germain was also embodied as Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), discoverer of America. Over two centuries before Columbus sailed, Roger Bacon himself had set the stage for Columbus’ voyage to the New World when he stated in his Opus Majus that “the sea between the end of Spain on the west and the beginning of India on the east is navigable in a very few days if the wind is favorable.”[11] Although the statement was incorrect in that the land to the west of Spain was not India, it was instrumental in Columbus’ discovery. He quoted the passage in a 1498 letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and said that his 1492 voyage had been inspired in part by this visionary statement.