Oct 8, 2016
Lucille Cedercrans
A while back on the Blavatsky Bailey Roerich group there was an interesting discussion on the writings of Lucille Cedercrans. The debate was basically on whether she was a true representative of the masters, on par with Alice A. Bailey or HPB. There was also some discussion about the truth of her various doctrines.
Cedercrans was one of the few esoteric teachers of which I had little knowledge. I knew of her and had read a few of her quotes but didn’t know enough to comment intelligently on her writings.
However, my interest was aroused so I ordered her complete writings and have now read them all. Now I will proceed to make a few comments.
First let me say a few things for my readers who are not familiar with her. In 1948 Lucille was a tired housewife with only an eighth grade education, raising five kids, and sat back in her rocking chair to relax. Suddenly she felt a presence and sensed many strange concepts flowing through her mind. Then she registered these words:
“This is the new phase of your life, something you have created for yourself from the past. You have a choice to continue this process, learn the full meaning of life, and become a teacher of this wisdom. This would benefit many people, far beyond family and friends. It is important for humanity.”
This entity identified himself as Master Rakoczi, often referred to as Master R in esoteric books. Though he was the main entity giving out the teachings Lucille also said she received from Masters DK, KH, M, HI, Serapis Bey, and John.
She says that she had never read the Bailey books and the voice told her not to read any books by her or about theosophy until after she started her work. Throughout her life she claimed to have never read a Bailey book from cover to cover.
If this is true then it is a testimony that she did receive from a higher source than her own imagination because her writings demonstrate a very good knowledge of the Bailey writings.
Shortly after her initial experience she became a conscious channel and started a group in Boise, Idaho of all places – my home town. After laboring there for two years she moved on to various parts of the country, finally settling in Colorado.
After decades of work she was struck with rheumatoid arthritis in 1972 which crippled her causing her to live in great pain until her death in 1984. Through these last painful years she continued to work to the best of her ability.
Lucille is one of many claiming to speak for the masters. The question is whether or not her claim is credible. Unlike many, I felt she deserved a serious look. Let us try and examine her impartially.
Is She the Real Thing?
Let us examine the pros and cons of Lucille Cedercrans to see how she measures up.
- Was she a conscious or unconscious channeler?
In this instance she passes the test as she says she was in a conscious state when she received the writings. I cannot find any record of her receiving teachings as an unconscious medium. Lucille says she received the impressions in her conscious mind and then wrote them down in her own words. This is similar to what Alice A. Bailey did after she adjusted to the mind of DK.
His is an important point because DK tells us this:
“Methods of communication on the astral level, such as the ouija board, the planchette pencil, automatic writing, the direct voice and statements made by the temporarily obsessed medium are not utilized as a rule by chelas, though the direct voice has had its use at times. The higher mental methods are more advanced and surer—even if rarer.”
A Treatise on White Magic, Pg 177
The “temporarily obsessed medium” would be the trance medium who channels information and when awakened has no memory of what has transpired. These are usually instances where “direct voice” is used though some mediums will speak in a direct voice while maintaining consciousness.
As DK says there have been instances where direct voice has been used, but this is a lower order and generally not used by the masters.
- Are the teachings merely a restatement of those already given out?
Many channelers and teachers claiming higher contact give out nothing substantially new but restate teachings of others in their own words. The Masters follow the Law of Economy and tend to not repeat what has already been given out except in cases where clarification is necessary.
Cedercrans has been accused of copying Alice A. Bailey because she does use much of the same terminology as well as the direction of the teachings, but when reading her works it becomes obvious that she went beyond merely reading the works of others and then placing them in her own words. She does give out teachings I have not seen before and gives a new slant on some older teachings.
It is too bad that there is no way to prove Lucille’s claim that she had no knowledge of Bailey’s work when she started her own and never in her life read a Bailey book all the way through, for whoever was the true originator of the teachings did indeed have a significant knowledge of Bailey’s teachings.
Anyway, her writings do present some new light on a number of subjects and go beyond just being a restatement of what is already readily available.
- Is the Source credible?
She said her source was a presence “accompanied by warmth, peacefulness, calmness and a bright, vibrant, luminous light. Spaciousness. Joy. Ever-present Love. Freedom. Understanding.”
Such a positive expression is a good sign that her source was on the side of light, though it does not reach the level of proof.
She identified her main Source as the Master Rakoczi, though numerous other masters gave her teachings. Among them are DK, KH, M, HI, Serapis Bey, and John.
This raises a red flag as the Masters are extremely busy people and it would not be necessary for them to line up as presenters when one could do the job as was the case with Alice A. Bailey.
Whenever I see a teacher claiming to channel a half dozen or so masters I immediately doubt their authenticity, though I do check out all claims I come across just in case.
- The quality of the material.
The writings of DK through Alice A. Bailey are the gold standard of Ancient Wisdom and the writings of Cedercrans are not as profound. That does not disqualify the writings though as she tells us they are in her own words and her weaknesses could affect the quality. However, of more concern are the writings that are supposed to be channeled from DK himself. They do not sound like DK and sound much more astral than his writings through Bailey. Astute DK students will surely see the difference.
It would have been impressive if her DK had presented something new from the Old Commentary. All the quotes from that ancient book are very profound and it would be difficult for any writer to merely use his imagination to create script comparable to it.
On the positive side, even though they may not meet the quality of the gold standard, they do reach a quality that exceeds any trance channeled material I have read – maybe with the exception of the original Seth material through Jane Roberts. It is also a higher quality than 90% of the material out there that claims to be from the masters.
- What is the degree of wisdom presented?
The masters are called “Masters of Wisdom” for a reason. Their words are words of wisdom, sound reasoning and common sense. Therefore, if a writing is going to make a claim as being from the Hierarchy a high degree of wisdom should be prevalent.
So, how does Cedercrans stack up in this area?
If we give the DK writings a rating of a 10, I would give Cedercrans a 7. That is not bad though as I would give the average channeled material a 1 or 2.
- Do the writings expand on true principles and laws, or do they merely try and razzle-dazzle with data?
Unfortunately, many readers do not register the difference. Data presented with fancy new-agey words cannot be proven and speak to the astral body rather than the soul.
These are easy to come up with. For instance, I could write something provocative like this:
“Hidden on the far side of the moon lurks a huge mother ship from the Arcturus system. They are standing by awaiting the time of crisis to take the enlightened to the fifth dimension.”
Teachings such as this contain no wisdom, but only data that cannot be verified by the average seeker – but may speak to the emotional body of some.
On the other hand, the writings of DK expand on many principles and laws. One of my favorite is the Law of Correspondences which he often cites. Anyone who has read through his books has his mind expanded concerning the principles behind this law.
The advantage of dealing with true principles is that they are easy to register with the soul for the seeker. Reason also has to be involved which speaks to the positive power of the mind. In addition it takes a fairly enlightened mind to expand on principles in any meaningful way – something beyond the consciousness of many new age writers and channelers.
The bottom line is that the seeker is much less likely to be misled when presented with true principles, than with wild data.
So, how does Cedercrans measure up here? Though she does present quite a bit of data she is one of the few who does expand on some true principles; so this keeps her in the game, so to speak.
- What was the impact and result of her work?
One of the tests of the validity of a work is whether it continues to grow after the death of the initiator. For instance, Jesus only had 120 followers at his resurrection, but now there are billions.
Cedercrans’ work seemed to be quite alive and growing while she was alive but group activity and attention paid to her writings seemed to diminish after her death. There didn’t seem to be a cohesive enough plan put forward to maintain a life of its own as happened with Bailey, Blavatsky, Roerich and numerous other founders.
The writings seemed to present the idea that by now the group work she initiated would be changing the world, but alas, that never happened.
She also said this in 1956:
“Within the next 10 years, three from the Hierarchy will incarnate in physical bodies to join in the effort to manifest the Plan within the body of consciousness. They will be recognized and known by all members of humanity because of their work which shall begin from childhood.”
There is no evidence that three masters, known to all, incarnated and worked to manifest the plan as she presented it.
On the other hand she made this impressive prophecy back in the 1950s:
“That government (USSR) may come to an end much sooner than anyone expects, and this could be as a result of, or a part of, the working out of the configuration.”
Her body of work, which is much less than Alice A. Bailey, apparently turned out to be quite short of what was originally envisioned. She planned on covering material that never was written down.
Taking all this into consideration what is my conclusion? Here it is.
I believe Lucille Cedercrans produced material of a quality and knowledge that was beyond her normal ability and that she did have some help from that original “Presence” that visited her.
I think that presence was manifested through her own soul in an attempt to create a work that would benefit humankind. Her soul, or Higher Self, could indeed tune in to the minds of members of the Hierarchy and filter down some of their thinking to her. In that process, because of human error, (and a soul that is not yet perfect) the information could be very valuable, but contain some errors and distortions.
With Cedercrans, as with all writings, even the scriptures and DK, the seeker must run the teachings by his own soul to avoid deception.
I enjoyed reading her writings and benefitted from them. To give the reader an idea of the quality I am including a few quotes in a separate link. To go to them click HERE.
Copyright by J J Dewey
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J.J., have just read your assessment of Lucille’s work, and would like to congratulate you on the astuteness of your observations and conclusions. Very well done.
Blessings,
Glen Knape, Managing Editor
Wisdom Impressions Publishers, LLC
J.J., have just read your assessment of Lucille’s work, and would like to congratulate you on the astuteness of your observations and conclusions. Very well done.
Blessings,
Glen Knape, Managing Editor
Wiadom Impressions Publishers, LLC