Accounts of the first crosses of light, following Benjamin Creme’s statement that Maitreya would begin a series of manifestations in light in different parts of the world.

Some weeks ago Benjamin Creme’s Master told him that Maitreya would soon begin a series of manifestations in light in different parts of the world. Signs of the cross would appear miraculously.

On 26 May we received information from Patricia Pitchon’s contact close to Maitreya that Maitreya has manifested the sign of the Cross in light on the window of a house in Louisiana, USA. This sign was seen by thousands of people who crowded round the house. Many people there have understood as a consequence of this experience that the Christ can be ‘reached ’ through this Cross.

At the time of writing 12 such manifestations have occurred in the Los Angeles area. Tara Center co-worker Mona LaVine was a witness to some of these appearances.

Last weekend,” the Pasadena Star News (Southern California) reported on 27 May , “residents reported seeing a cross shining through a bathroom of an apartment in El Monte.” This was, the paper pointed out, the second cross sighting in El Monte in a week. “More than 3,500 people saw the cross... On Thursday, El Monte police barricaded the street to prevent congestion from cars. People started arriving at 10 am; by 9 pm hundreds remained outside the home. They were allowed inside the front gates in small groups and directed to the proper spot for a look. The lighted cross was the same as the first — shining brightly from a bathroom window”.

After reading this article in the Pasadena Star News Mona LaVine, a founder and Board member of Tara Center in Los Angeles, decided to go and see the phenomenon for herself. Tara Center is a non-profit organization in Los Angeles that co-ordinates the American tours of Benjamin Creme and publishes and makes available information on the Reappearance of the Christ. The site of the first of these recent crosses of light, an apartment in El Monte, was occupied by a young mother of three children, Margaret Romero.

The cross in the window was first noticed on Friday 20 May, she said, by her husband as he walked across the driveway towards their front door. What he and the people who have since flocked to the apartment saw, LaVine saw too: “A cross of a pale golden light — and simply beautiful”. It seemed not to be on the window itself but some distance back from the window, like a hologram. “We were outside, and at first we observed it from about 20 feet away. As we walked away from the window the cross seemed to expand; as we came closer it seemed to get smaller, though if you stand right next to the window and look inside, the cross seems to be inside the room and looks much larger — maybe four by three feet...

It is an even-armed cross. The vertical line spreads outwards at each end, and there are two small shafts of light emerging from the vertical line above and below the center of the cross, pointing towards the ends. The horizontal line is about double the width of the vertical line and slightly shorter in length. Like the vertical line, it also spreads wider at the ends. A diamond shape connects the cross a few inches from the ends”.

Margaret Romero explained that the cross appears on her bathroom window when she turns on the bare light bulb above the bathroom sink. When the light is out, the cross disappears. “From inside the bathroom itself,” said LaVine, “the cross can’t be seen at all: you have to be outside, looking in, to see it.” “The window,” she continued, “is about five feet away from the sink, above the bathtub/shower area. Margaret told us that two glass companies have come out to check the window. One man, who had worked with glass windows for 30 years, told her he had never seen anything like it and could not explain it”.

Ms Romero has changed the light bulb several times. Mona LaVine: “She even had the glass replaced by a neighbor’s window, but the cross keeps shining. She told me that when water is poured over the window the cross becomes very much smaller and the lines become sharper. She demonstrated this right before my eyes. The lighted cross suddenly reduced to about one third its size and its outline was much more clearly defined”.

There have been some changes in the lives of the Romero family since the cross appeared. “At first,” Margaret Romero admitted, “I was really anxious and nervous about it. But since then hundreds of people have come to see it and I can see that it has brought them closer to Christ. Now I believe it is a good sign. I feel happy that it is here.” Romero has found, she says, a degree of patience she never had before, and when asked if she had any regrets she answered, “I have no regrets about it. I believe it is a blessing”. A neighbor agreed: “I think it is some kind of miracle from God because I have been suffering for a long time and now all the pain in my body is gone.”

According to Ms Romero, there are now 12 crosses around the Los Angeles area. In addition to the two others in El Monte, she said, there are more in Baldwin Park, Montebello, La Puente and East Los Angeles — most of which are Spanish-speaking communities.

LaVine next visited the other two sites in El Monte. “The second house was about five minutes away. There the identical cross was in the window, the only difference being that at the top of the cross there seemed to be a brilliant sphere of light. As I had done with Margaret Romero I shared my story of the reappearance of the Christ with one of the onlookers, and said He is here for all people, regardless of their religion or their lack of faith. ‘Of course,’ she replied, ‘In the Bible it refers to one shepherd, one flock’ ” .

At the third house, the image was virtually the same as at the other two: evenarmed crosses connected by a diamond. “The resident said her priest thought it was God trying to tell us something”. Commented LaVine: “I thought so too.”

From the July/August 1988 issue of Share International