I call the Holy Spirit who guides me, Holly. Holly is a more subtle emanation of the divine than the Christ. The Christ has personhood and an incarnation full of stories and actions to carry His message of love to our waking minds. The Holy Spirit, like all the angels, has only the substance of flame and light, not the incarnational weight of a human being.

Yet the Holy Spirit is the Comforter which Christ left with us to speak to each of us until the end of the age. Each person’s Spirit speaks to him in his own unique language and is oriented to his unique needs.

To me Holly is as substantial as the Christ. I earned that familiarity with her. I awoke to the call of my yearning spirit for the Comforter in my 30s. I sought her and she immediately responded to me. The key here is that you must seek her. And when she comes, you need to listen and respond. She will not come to you unasked.

I knew Christ first, even as a toddling baby. Holly came to me only as I became ready to be an actor on the spiritual stage, not only asking for comfort but being ready to respond to the promptings of spirit in my everyday life.

At the time I met her I was working on my techniques of tuning my physical, bodily instrument, as a channel, before making contact with the spirit world, and of challenging any spirit which would come to me during such sessions of working.

I would work through the tuning and challenging process each morning after my husband and I finished our Morning Offering, preparing myself and then calling my personal guidance, the Holy Spirit. For about three years I connected with Holly in this manner, asking her for a thought for the day. She talked quite a bit about her nature during these short readings. Here is an example of how she characterizes herself:

“I am the principle of Jesus the Christ that speaks to the world this day. I greet you in love, peace and joy; the full consciousness that is divine love.”

She is saying that she is an essence or energy which contains the vibration of unconditional love; the full consciousness of the Christ. Bucke called this energy Cosmic Consciousness. As a mystical Christian I prefer the term “Christ-consciousness.”

Holly goes on:

“Each of you has this same divine love, this same voice, this same inspiration and this same consciousness. This principle that speaks through this instrument is the immanent Creator. And each may open the heart and limber the ears inwardly to listen to that consciousness which is the Father.”

This voice which guides so well and loves so truly is a voice never heard by the mind of humankind. It is a voice which speaks in silence to the heart. The heart has its own, very valid, way of thinking. Instead of logic and analysis, its characteristics are synthesis and direct insight and intuition. Holly is truly a “still, small voice” which nevertheless packs a wallop.

The Q’uo group, an extraterrestrial entity which is my usual source for channeling, says this about the Holy Spirit:

“Your guidance system, whether you characterize it, as this instrument does, in the Christian term of Holy Spirit or whether you characterize it in other ways, is, nevertheless, a part of the interwoven consciousness of Creator and created. You are never without your guidance system.

“A key concept to remember when thinking of your guidance is not what form or shape it takes, but what its essence is. The essence of that spirit that companions you throughout an incarnation is unconditional love, absolute support, unending compassion, and a clarity of understanding that takes in the full sweep of the octave of densities within which you now enjoy consciousness.”

The “full sweep of the densities” refers to the fact that from the Q’uo’s point of view, the guidance of the Holy Spirit comes to us from our future self. In the Q’uo’s way of thinking, that essence which is our guidance is our higher self; that is, our self in mid-sixth density. At that stage in our spiritual evolution, we are beginning to lose interest in who we have been and are starting to turn towards our ultimate reunion with the Creator. As a last gift to ourselves in third density, where we now live on planet Earth, the self creates the higher self as a resource for us, available upon request.

To me, this in no way disturbs my Christian faith. As a mystic I see the unity of all things. The Holy Spirit is the higher self. The two systems of religion and philosophy talk of the same essence and the same resource. They are talking about Holly.

In my daily life, I have simply skipped all the theory and made friends with this divine essence. I start out each day, before I rise from my bed, praying, “Holly, help!” I do not know what the day will bring, but I know I need her guidance!

Here is Holly again with some advice for us all:

“Value this [resource of the Holy Spirit] within yourself. Honor, treasure and use it. Then you may move through your day and through your life in a blessed and purposive path, a joy to others and a growing joy to the self, lost, at last, in the Father and in love.”

To value this voice, give yourself some silence within each day to sit within the tabernacle of your own heart and listen to her. Find the time to touch in to this guidance system which awaits your call and you shall find yourself inspired and lifted up into that state of mind where you can rest back into your day, confident and sure that the Spirit goes before you to prepare your way.

I open my arms and embrace your spirit. As Holly says often at the end of these conversations with me, “We leave you in love and peace, now and ever. Amen.” May you find yourself in the company of your very own flame of the Holy Spirit! May it energize you in faith, hope and love today.