William Wildblood was born in London and after several decades living in the West Country, India and France returned to the capital. He has been an antiques dealer, written for magazines and run guest houses but his main interest since his early 20s has been in spirituality and religion on which subject he has written several books, the first being Meeting the Masters and the most recent Earth is a School. He has a blog dealing with various spiritual topics where he puts up about 8 articles a month. He also contributed to the online site of Albion Awakening which discussed the esoteric and mystical aspects of the story of Britain. That came to a natural end but there was a book of the same title published in 2020 of its principal contents.
But really the most interesting thing about him is not him at all but something that happened to him which is the subject of Meeting the Masters and also discussed in Earth is a School. This was an encounter over a period of 20 years with a group of spiritual beings from the higher worlds who instructed him on the spiritual path through a medium. It was they who first introduced him to the idea that our planet exists not in and for itself but as a training ground for the soul.
Meeting the Masters is the story of the first two years of this experience when the contact was at its most intense. It includes verbatim advice and instructions from this group of teachers who would be analogous to members of the Communion of Saints in the Christian tradition or enlightened Masters in Hinduism or Buddhism. They incorporated elements of both but also went beyond either as you would expect of beings no longer restricted by earthly considerations. Their knowledge came directly from the source of spiritual light without being processed in any way as is usually the case. The book is subtitled A Spiritual Apprenticeship which is what this was but after 20 years the direct communication ceased though with the promise it would continue on the spiritual plane through the method of impression. This involves ideas transmitted to the higher mind which then have to be interpreted by the disciple so he is responsible for the end product which may lead to error but is also the only way in which we learn to become spiritually mature ourselves.
Earth is a School is the result of this process. The title comes directly from the Masters but the development of the idea is the author’s though in response to the impression mentioned. This method of writing is probably more widespread than we imagine as our teachers in the higher worlds are constantly trying to bring us further up though they are restricted in this by the laws of life which dictate that at this stage of our spiritual development we must work things out for ourselves, albeit with inspiration and guidance.
Why are we here in this world? It seems that many people nowadays think there is no reason. We just are here and that’s all there is to it. We should try to live as happy and fulfilled a life as possible and when we die, we cease to exist. Religious people would go further and say that we should follow the guidance of our religion and hope for an afterlife in heaven or paradise or maybe get reincarnated in a better position than we are now with the eventual aim of breaking the cycle of manifested existence and being reabsorbed into the All. It depends whether we are materialists or spiritual believers. The former would say life on Earth is for living as best you can, here and now. You have only one life so make it count. The latter in practical terms often don’t seem so very different though they theoretically have one eye on the next world.
There is another possibility. It requires seeing the human being in a different light from the one to which we are normally accustomed. For a start, it takes the pre-existence of the soul as a basic fact so you do not come into life when you are born. You are already a spiritual being and your pre-existing soul takes birth in the material world in a physical body for reasons to do with its own aims and goals not for the incarnate person’s development and fulfilment in material or worldly terms.
In this scenario the spiritual individuality, which is a created being, descends to the physical world to advance its evolution. It’s like a seed planted in the ground to germinate. The word descends is appropriate because the process is a falling away from the unity of the source into separation and limitation. At the same time, those two characteristics force the soul to develop in certain ways that would not be possible on its own natural level of oneness with the source where there is no conflict or challenge. The material environment provides both of these as we all know. Here we can truly become an individual self, obliged to rely on ourself and make our own way. The development of individuality is an essential requirement given that the evolutionary purpose referred to is to make fully conscious creative gods, true reflections of their divine source, out of unselfconscious spiritual babes, beings bathed in peace and bliss but purely passive.
Earth, by which I mean this physical world, is a school designed with a purpose. The purpose is to brings souls to maturity. If we were to remain pure discarnate spirits we would certainly never know pain or suffering but then again we would not know real love either for real love requires a solid sense of self which is something that can only develop in a world of separation, a material world in which spirit and matter have been sundered. Our task is to put them back together again, consciously reassemble them, and from this marriage of Heaven and Earth arises something new which is the god we mentioned earlier. This is a being that can wield the powers of creation in full consciousness.
I will add something more for those who might think that love can be known by souls that have not experienced the material world. Not really. These souls can know a kind of balmy bliss and communion which is like love but it is an infantile kind of love like the love of a baby at its mother’s breast. True, serious, deep-feeling love can only be known and expressed by souls who have been touched by sorrow. Suffering may be the bane of our earthly existence but it is also a great spiritual gift as it prises open the heart. We cannot suffer on the higher planes but through pain we can enter into the lives of our fellow souls more than we ever could if restricted to those planes. It is through suffering that we come to real love.
The soul is created by God, the supreme I AM of the universe, out of himself. It is created in his image so has its own I am quality. It is individual but to be a true, fully functioning individual it must co-create itself. Otherwise, it would remain in spiritual bliss but spiritual ignorance. This is what the school is all about. The experience of duality is necessary for the knowledge of oneness. It is separation that leads to completion. But this oneness does not mean simply returning to God or becoming God. The whole process is to make the One many which is a spiritual enrichment of the One, and the many remain themselves even when they have completed the journey, graduated, you might say, and returned to the source. Now they can add to creation.
In fact, this is something we can already do in a clumsy fashion though only the great artists do it to any real degree. And note that you can create with God or against him. Here is a lesson many, especially now in the 21st century, have yet to learn. God is truth. What is unaligned with God is untruth and therefore evil. That’s what evil is in the greater sense. Our task is to bring ourselves into harmony with the laws of creation and then we will find real fulfilment by working with them. The fact of individuality, which necessarily implies free will, means that things can go wrong. It would appear that things have gone wrong in recent times but it may be that, viewed with the eye of history, even the spiritual darkness into which we have fallen will bring some kind of future advancement. Perhaps we have to experience the consequences of wrong thinking to know how wrong it is. The scenario here sees souls coming to the Earth and being tested just as in a normal school. What is tested is the orientation of the heart. There is no choice on the higher planes to which the soul naturally belongs. What is, is. But down here there is a choice.
The world is very cleverly set up so that there is just enough evidence to convince those of the reality of God if they incline that way but not enough to persuade those who do not wish to believe. Here, and especially now in our day, you can follow whatever path you choose. Your heart is being examined. There is no coercion, no overwhelming evidence that would take away your free will. You show yourself for what you are. This might sound a little threatening but God is surely at least as compassionate as we are. Failure in life’s spiritual lessons may simply mean you have to repeat the course. Those who make the grade return to the higher worlds where, according to their spiritual station, they will be filled with the love and truth of God. Those who miss out on that proceed to worlds that reflect their current spiritual state which will no doubt provide them with new lessons to take them further on their journey.
