The Peace Dove
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like unto fire, and it sat upon each of them. (Acts 2:2-3)
THE DOVE IS A SYMBOL of the Holy Spirit in Christian iconography. It’s also a symbol of peace. Pentecost is celebrated on the seventh Sunday, or 50 days, after Easter. (The word pente meaning 5 and kosta meaning 10 times.) Tomorrow, June 8th, is “Pentecost Sunday.” I write about this historical event in my book SACRED ANATOMY ~ Temple of the Living God, in which I share some of my thoughts and insights into this rather ecstatic experience the disciples of Jesus had just after their Lord and Master had ascended back to His Father in Heaven. They were gathered in an upper room in the city of Jerusalem where they were instructed to tarry until the Holy Spirit had fully come.
A couple of things stand out to me in this story that have significant bearing on the process of transformation and ascension occurring with these faithful followers of Jesus. This primary condition is described by the phrase, “with one accord in one place.” (Acts 2:1)
These very close friends of Jesus were in agreement in one thing: their powerful love for this One with whom they had just spent three-and-a-half incredible years in what must have been a whirlwind experience that had utterly turned their worlds upside down—or perhaps more accurately, had turnedthem right side up! Undoubtedly they had a difficult time making sense out of the events that had just occurred, leading to the untimely end of life on earth for this beautiful man whom they called “Master,” leaving them with an overwhelming sense of great loss and confusion. All they had left to turn to were each other and the powerful love they were still sharing for the Master in their hearts, as well as the fresh memories of their experiences with him. Everything changed so abruptly and so tragically with his crucifixion, and again, later, so ecstatically with his resurrection and subsequent ascension into heaven. What could they make of it all? Of even greater import to us today, what would be made of it over the ensuing years and centuries? Well, for one thing, Christianity would emerge from it all as a religious movement that would fill much of the world with a belief system unparalleled in recorded history. But what actually took place in that upper room with these men and women?
Their hearts were “in one place,” the place of utter love for their Beloved Lord and abandon to his will for them, and their minds “with one accord,” singularly focused in this One — as well as, without doubt, in what they were going to do now that He was gone. He had instructed them to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit had fully come.
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like unto fire, and it sat upon each of them. (Acts 2:2-3)
The ascending flame of love became visible to them as they themselves were in the process of transformation and transmutation in their own consciousness, which was being lifted up to a higher vibratory level to be with this One whose love had drawn them together into a place of accord, just as he had said earlier on it would be: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” (John 12:32). They experienced attunement (at-one-ment) with the life vibration—the shem in the Aramaic, which is translated into English as the name of their Lord and Master, the Christ–Radiance, and the subsequent release of his love through themselves. And immediately they were in that place he had once told them about when he said, “I go to prepare a place for you…so that where I am ye may be also.” (John 14:3) They were “in the spirit on the Lord’s day” — in phase and in tune with the life vibration of the Lord of Love. The transformation he was experiencing that had taken him all the way through seven levels of being into complete union with his Father in the highest Heaven, impacted not only his personal physical form but apparently theirs as well.
The notable thing here is that he was on earth with them at the time he said this, indicating clearly that the kingdom of heaven is to be known and experienced here on earth where we now live and not in some imagined hereafter. This lends meaning to words he had just spoken prior to these: “In my father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so I would have told you.” As we considered earlier on, there is vastly more to the multidimensional context of life and of our makeup than we can observe with our outer senses alone….
FAILURE TO TARRY
….Another thing that stands out in this story relates to what happened to the apostles and hundreds of their followers after this Pentecost. The apostles went out from the upper room — which symbolically relates to a higher state of consciousness — where they had been instructed by the Master to “tarry in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued [clothed] with power from on high.”(Luke 24:49) — and they began to dissipate the collective spiritual substance they had been generating over the years with Jesus and, more currently, within the crucible of their gathering in the upper room. This gathering itself, although likely affected by fear of what might become of them after seeing what had become of their Master, was nonetheless a crucible for change in themselves, for transformation in their consciousness and subsequent transmutation in their physical forms. Physical evidence of this process was appearing in the form of radical and bazar changes that had apparently come over them, even in their manner of speaking. As the story goes, they began speaking “in tongues” so that even those of different dialects were able to understand what they were saying. So astounding was this phenomenon that the people were confounded. They were, for a time, experiencing spiritual communion and communication above the level of human language.
Reading through the account of all this in the book, “Acts of The Apostles,” one can readily see the release of the power that had been building up in this crucible through them. All sorts of healings and extraordinary events took place, both with the apostles and among the people, who were “filled with fear” (awe) at what they were seeing and experiencing. One apostle was reportedly seen in two different locations at the same time. So something of a transformation was occurring in their consciousness resulting in transmutation of their physical forms.
But it was all short-lived as the power, mishandled, gradually went out from them and eventually dissipated altogether. The story ends in utter chaos and tragedy for all of them, and for hundreds of their disciples as well, as they were scattered abroad and many were ultimately put to death by the Romans — except, notably, for John the Beloved who was exiled to the isle called Patmos, where he wrote his Book of Revelation (aka the Apocalypse), the last book of the New Testament, which laid out in mystical language “the things which thou hath seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” (Rev. 1:19) From my own personal experience, one needs to be in an elevated place in one’s consciousness to even begin to “see” — with spiritual eyes — what the Spirit of Truth is saying and conveying in and through the words of this sacred scripture.
I’ll close this blog post with an invitation to visit my friend David Barnes’s recent post of June 1, 2025 on his Great Cosmic Story blog entitled “The Lamb,” a service given by Martin Cecil on May 12, 1974. This is a classic presentation of the history of the three “Sacred Schools,” leading up to the fourth currently cycling in the Creative Process of restoration of God’s Presence on Earth in and through the Body of Man, the “Temple of the Living God.” In my view, this presentation is a great teaching for those seeking an overview of the sacred history of humanity’s sojourn on Earth — of what’s really been unfolding in the history of Man.
I will continue sharing from my book in my next post. Until then,
Be love. Be loved.
Anthony ~ Email: tpal70@gmail.com
For a review of my book SACRED ANATOMY and to obtain your personal copy, go to Amazon Books and place your order.



















