This is a season of celebrating the Light in each of us.

We celebrate the Season of Light by lighting our individual candles, the birth or rebirth of our own Light of Life, our Light of perfect love, which is the Source and Resource within us.

Today, we will look at the 12 Powers, The 12 Fundamental Aspects of our Divine Nature that we all have awakened within us to some degree.  And we will light a candle for each Power.  You will be given an opportunity to come forward and light your own candle from the Power or Powers that resonate with you.  The Power that you are drawn to.  The Power that you wish to work with through the New Year.

1 Faith – dark blue, Faith is that quality in us which enables us to look past appearances of lack, limitation, or difficulty. It allows us to take hold of the divine idea and believe in it even though we do not see any evidence of it except in our mind. Through faith we know with an inner knowing the Truth that has not yet expressed in our manifest world.

Faith is more than mere belief. It is the very substance of that which is believed. Faith working in spiritual substance accomplishes all things. This is the faith that cooperates with creative law. When it is exercised deep in spiritual consciousness, it finds its abode. Here it works under divine law, without variation. It brings results that are seemingly miraculous

2 Strength – light green, The strength discussed here is not physical strength alone, but mental and spiritual strength. All strength originates in Spirit; and the thought and the word spiritually expressed bring the manifestation.  The Power of Strength is not force, manipulation or defensiveness; it is spiritual courage and confidence. Nonresistance is the highest expression of strength; it does not mean non-action, but is an effective, calm, single-minded, Divine Mind-centered attitude of mind.

3 Wisdom, Discernment, Judgment –  yellow, Spiritual discernment is the inner voice through whose expression we come into larger realization of ourselves. It is the faculty by which we appraise, evaluate and discern in order to make correct decisions. “Wisdom includes judgment, discernment, intuition, and all the departments of mind that come under the head of knowing.” Judgment, discernment and wisdom are our ability to maintain enlightened objectivity about our life and our world. Judgment is a faculty of the mind that can be exercised in two ways—from sense perception or spiritual understanding. If its action be based on sense perception its conclusions are fallible and often condemnatory; if based on spiritual understanding, they are safe.

4 Love – pink, is the power that joins and binds together the universe and everything in it. Love is a harmonizing, constructive power. When it is made active in consciousness, it conserves substance and reconstructs, rebuilds, and restores everyone and his or her world. Spiritual Love is the total, unconditional acceptance of everyone and everything. Love is patient, kind, humble, courteous, unselfish, good-tempered, guileless and sincere.

Divine love is impersonal; it loves for the sake of loving. It is not concerned with what or who it loves, nor with a return of love. Like the sun, its joy is in the shining forth of its nature. … Love is an inner quality that sees good everywhere and in everybody. It insists that all is good, and by refusing to see anything but good it causes that quality finally to appear in the uppermost in itself, and in all things. … Love is the great harmonizer and healer”

Whatever we are focusing on or attracting ourselves to, we are “loving.”

5 Power – purple, Power, we must understand, is not an end in itself, not a goal to be sought. Rather, it is simply a means that enables us to attain the end of bringing forth God ideas on earth. It is not to be used for selfish gain or satisfaction of the personal ego, but for the forward spiritual movement of the whole. It is to be exercised not for the purpose of controlling others, but for the purpose of taking dominion over our own thoughts and feelings in order to come into a greater God awareness

6 Imagination – light blue, Imagination is our conceiving, picturing and conceptualizing faculty. It is the formative power of mind that shapes thoughts into mental images, which have color, variety and dimension. The highest use of Imagination is to shape thoughts into images that most fully reflect the nature of the original Divine Idea.  Imagination gives form to the formless.

7 Understanding – gold, That in us which comprehends is understanding; it knows and comprehends [compares] in wisdom. Its comparisons are not made in the realm of form, but in the realm of ideas. It knows how to accomplish things. Spiritual discernment reveals that knowledge and intelligence are auxiliary to understanding. Understanding: the ability to know, perceive, comprehend

There are two ways of getting understanding. One is by following the guidance of Spirit that dwells within, and the other is to go blindly ahead and learn by hard experience. Spiritual understanding is the ability of the mind to apprehend and realize the laws of thought and the relation of ideas one to another

8 Will – silver, The will is the executive faculty of the mind, The will moves to action all the other faculties of the mind.  The perfect person is produced by rounding out the will and joining it to the understanding. This means that the will is being instructed how to act for the best. Do not act until you know how to act. ‘Look before you leap.’ This does not imply that one should be inactive or indefinite, waiting for understanding, as do many persons who are afraid to act because they may possibly do the wrong thing; it means that understanding will be quickened and the will strengthened by the confidence that comes as a result of knowledge

9 Order – dark green, Order is the faculty by which we establish harmony, balance, right adjustment, and right sequence in our lives. Order in the Mind of God is an idea of harmonious progress, evolution. Order in humankind is humankind’s ability to perceive and cooperate with the law of growth. To develop divine order in our life, we must learn to cooperate with spiritual law.  Divine Order (mind, idea, manifestation) is a Universal Law. Each one of us is always using it to manifest everything. Each person determines how it will be used. When used in accordance with Spiritual Principle, good results. When used out of alignment with Spiritual Principle, we miss the mark (sin) and error results. Authentic

10 Zeal – orange, Zeal is the great universal force that impels humankind to spring forward in a field of endeavor and accomplish the seemingly miraculous. To be without zeal is to be without the zest of living. It is the Faculty of enthusiasm, intensity, and exuberance. It provides our inner urge to progress; our motivation to achieve. The highest expression of Zeal is an unflagging, fervent interest in knowing, speaking, and doing good. Understanding and Wisdom help to temper Zeal so that its enthusiasm and intensity are directed to grow spiritually and express the Christ Nature.

11 Renunciation –russet, Renunciation is a letting go of old thoughts in order that new thoughts may find place in consciousness. A healthy state of mind is attained when the thinker willingly lets go of the old thoughts and takes on the new. Thoughts are things; they occupy space in the mental field. A healthy state of mind is attained and continued when the thinker willingly lets go of the old thoughts and takes on the new, by which we release false beliefs and accomplish a mental cleansing. Elimination enables us to surrender to our inner Spirit any thought that is not for our highest good so that transformation and purification of consciousness can take place.

12 Life – red, Life is the energy that propels all forms to action. It is the faculty of movement, vitality, wholeness and creativity, and is indiscriminant and requires direction. When it is directed from sense consciousness, it degenerates into a seeking to satisfy the senses. When the Faculties of Wisdom, Understanding, and Judgment direct it, it enhances one’s spiritual life.