"I AM Paul the Venetian. I paint on canvas on the ethers. I etch in crystal, I sculpt, I mold the clay. I fashion all things physical and many substances not known to you in the higher octaves. To what purpose? To the purpose of showing forth an evermore revealing and exquisite image of the Christ—the Christ appearing in children, in people from every walk of life.

"I remember when Norman Rockwell came to me at inner levels to study in my etheric retreat. And I remember as I counseled him to show the Christ in the American people, in everyday scenes of humor, humility, wonder, togetherness, heroism. And all these have been treasured, remembered, and valued highly because something of the spirit of the Christ image that is become an image of America came through his work.

"A unique artist, one devoted to the inherent qualities and identity of the individual. As his perception of the Christ was, so was his painting the capturing of unique moments. You might examine that work to find in each painting what is the glimmer, however great or faint, of some aspect of the individual reaching for the Higher Self.

"Is it any wonder that we deplore the chaotic and abstract art that has no point of unity? It also portrays a certain barrenness and absence of that point of Light in the individual. One can see anarchy by an absence of dimension—an absence of harmony or focalization in modern art.

"Modern art enters the subconscious; accordingly, whether or not the artist is influenced by marijuana or other substances, art portrayed in fabric design, wall coverings, clothing style becomes a matrix capable or incapable of carrying some measure of Christly proportion. When the people's art and sense of art flounders, then the images of Christ recede.

"It is rare to find a work of art that is come from the etheric octave in this period. Understand it is also rare to find the higher consciousness of the etheric octaves."

"Because love is the highest attribute of God, because perfect love can never be defiled or penetrated or destroyed or perverted—this love remains the ultimate challenger of the fallen ones and the ultimate destroyer of their infamy in the Person of the Holy Spirit.

"Thus, of all initiates and adepts who have risen from this planetary system under the Lord Sanat Kumara, it is Gautama Buddha who holds the preeminence of the love fire. And therefore, he is the one at the point of the nexus of all light gainst which the hordes of hell and the anti-Light direct their opposition. Every devotee of the Buddha and of the Cosmic Christ and of the avatars whose issue streams forth through his heart must also face this energy that opposes the perfect peace of perfect love.

"We come, then, defenders of love and leaders of the archangels and the many angelic bands serving with us in the very victorious flame of divine love. We come fully aware that the maintenance of love, day by day, involves a striving, an ultimate striving—a compelling of the soul to strive to manifest the greatest essence of the interior Light, even the nectar of the Lord Buddha.

" . . . This love of which we would speak is the love of excellence. So you have inscribed the word of Casimir Poseidon: 'Learn to love to do well, and you shall!'

"We speak of that love, then, that descends and is perforce the active principle that is able to crystallize the ideations of the mind of God, the desires of God, into action—action that is an intense release of the sacred fire of the heart. Let me tell you something about perfect love. It is not only opportunity to endow Matter and material creation with the Holy Spirit!

"It is the love of perfecting the art, the skill, the profession, the study. It is the love to do all things well because God is thereby glorified.

" . . . Understand, then, that the path of excellence is being lost in the world at a most rapid pace. In the trades, in the arts, in merchandising and manufacturing, the profit motive has replaced the love of excellence and even service for the love of humanity.

" . . . May your understanding of perfect love, may your raising up of the ruby-ray pyramid within your soul, be for the healing of the absence of perfect love within the economy. May you take measure, then, of the levels of opposition to love manifest as perfect harmony in your feelings,
in your mind, in your heart and soul and desire body—and in the excellence of your perfect precipitation!"

Considered a modest, retiring man, not given to grand gestures, Norman Rockwell impressed himself on America's collective imagination by his stubborn adherence to the old values. His ability to relate these values to the events and circumstances of a rapidly changing world made him a special person—both hero and friend—to millions of his compatriots.

Norman's ability to "get the point across" in one picture, and his flair for painstaking detail made him a favorite of the advertising industry. He was also commissioned to illustrate over 40 books including the ever popular Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

His annual contributions for the Boy Scout calendars (1925-1976), was only slightly overshadowed by his most popular of calendar works—the "Four Seasons" illustrations for Brown & Bigelow were published for 17 years beginning in 1947 and reproduced in various styles and sizes since 1964.

Illustrations for booklets, catalogs, posters (particularly movie promotions), sheet music, stamps, playing cards, and murals (including Yankee Doodle Dandy, completed in 1936 for the Nassau Inn in Princeton, New Jersey) rounded out Rockwell's oeuvre as an illustrator. In his later years, Rockwell began receiving more attention as a painter when he chose more serious subjects such as the series on racism for Look magazine.

Christopher Finch, author and art curator, had this to say: "Norman Rockwell created a world that, because of its traditional elements, seems familiar to all of us, yet is recognizably his and his alone. He is an American original who left his mark not by effecting radical change but rather by giving old subjects his own, inimitable inflection. His career has been an ode to the ordinary, a triumph of common sense and understatement."

Rockwell made no secret of his lifetime preference for countrified realism . . . "Things happen in the country, but you don't see them. In the city you are constantly confronted by unpleasantness. I find it sordid and unsettling." His time spent in the country was a great influence on his idyllic approach to storytelling on canvas. From 1953 until his death in 1978, Norman lived at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where there is a museum devoted to him.

Although Norman Rockwell was always at odds with contemporary notions of what an artist should be, he chose to paint life as he wanted to see it. His themes and unique style have passed the test of time making him the best known of all American artists.