Up to the end of 2025, the online edition of Share International magazine presents a selection of items from the printed edition. Each online edition includes a complete article by Benjamin Creme's Master. Most other articles reproduced here, covering a wide range of topics, are excerpts. The online edition usually also includes a selection of Questions and Answers, Readers' letters, and photographs of Signs of Maitreya's presence. From the beginning of 2026, the printed edition is no longer being produced, but the entire magazine is available on this website.
See the full table of contents of the printed edition at the foot of the page.
From the inception of Share International magazine, Benjamin Creme’s Master provided an article every month for nearly 35 years. These were intended to be published not only at the time they were written, but also whenever appropriate according to world circumstances.
The time is soon coming when men will realize that the most important problem facing this generation is the ecological imbalance which threatens vast areas of Earth. As you know, men are divided as to the extent of this problem but unless their attention is squarely fixed on this ecological dilemma, the future for many is under question.
Soon many groups will realize the extent of this danger and that, year by year, little separates them from disaster. The forces unleashed by global warming are now well beyond the control devices available to men.
Hearken, therefore, while there is still a little time. For the waters rise inexorably, and men gamble, blithely, with their future.
S.O.P. – Save Our Planet.
(Share International, November 2014)
These articles are by a senior member of the Hierarchy of Masters of Wisdom. His name, well-known in esoteric circles, is not yet being revealed. Benjamin Creme, a principal spokesman about the emergence of Maitreya, was in constant telepathic contact with this Master who dictated his articles to him.
In the course of an editorial discussion with Benjamin Creme on 25 July 2016, his Master was asked if He would give His view on the world crisis then. At the time Britain had voted to leave the European Union, war was still raging in Syria, Zika virus was taking its toll in Latin America and a number of terror attacks had taken place in European cities. We reproduce a few lines from His comment here. The call for the recognition of our essential Oneness and the need for change sounds even more urgent now nearly eight years later.
Turmoil is almost always the result of the change from one Cosmic state to another. Many people are still enmeshed in the old ways. Many people are too worried or too unaware to recognize the need for another way of acting and being. It is also a question of how humanity responds to the new energies. Most of the response is based on greed or fear. The wealthy have become independent and very greedy. They are afraid they will not be able to take advantage of everything on offer; they are also afraid of losing their wealth. Men have to realize that the world is One – One humanity. The rich, who manage the resources based on greed and competition, deny this truth at their peril.
After months of carnage, and moral courage clearly lacking in most of the world’s leaders, the hope generated by the simple act of resistance and protest has lifted the world’s collective spirit – among people of goodwill, that is. Students have claimed the space and speak truth to power; by their action and activism they have given new focus to the greatest moral challenge of our time.
Humanity has been ‘under test’ for the decades since we declared “Never again!” when the leaders of the time, people of courage and insight, drew up the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.
The question after WWII was: have we learned the lessons of the world wars? Would we, unthinkingly, allow ourselves to continue the ‘same old same old’ ways of living? Would we go on ignoring the suffering of others, with greed and separatism taken for granted and basically built into the economic and political system?
Now, about 80 years since then, the world has reached an equal level of crisis.
Benjamin Creme’s Master wrote in 2006: “Steadily, humanity moves forward to its Great Decision. Unbeknown to all but a few, men are being tested as never before in their long history on Earth.
Men now face the choice: to see the world as One and share, and know security and blessed Peace and happiness, or to witness the end of life on Earth.” (Benjamin Creme’s Master, from ‘Maitreya’s priorities’)
A quarter of a century into the new millennium and on the eve of the Masters’ conclave in 2025, we must, by taking action, choose for life and cooperation. If we want the glorious future that has been held out to us as being within our grasp we must live as if everything counts — because it does. What we do and how we are matters to the Whole. Now more than ever. As Benjamin Creme’s Master wrote in an article called ‘The Great Decision’: “Maitreya’s energy of love is impersonal; it stimulates everyone, those who long for peace and right relations, and those who love greed and competition, risking thereby a final war and total self-destruction. Thus the importance of the choice faced now by all.”
At every lecture he gave around the world, and virtually every day of his life, Benjamin Creme was asked numerous questions covering a vast range of topics. One complex answer, selected here, brings together modern and esoteric psychology.
Share International has a reserve of unpublished letters which were confirmed by Benjamin Creme and his Master to be genuine encounters with Masters, or with a ‘spokesperson’.
On 8 December 2006, I was coming home from a friend’s birthday party in London. It was late and my friends had advised me to take a taxi, but, thinking it a bit extravagant, I decided to wait at the bus stop. However, the bus I wanted had stopped running for the night as it was very late, and I would need to get two separate buses to go just a short distance. As I waited, I saw a black taxi further down the road, stopping and starting as if waiting for somebody; it caught my attention. Then it approached the bus stop and I quickly decided to take a taxi after all.
We passed an outdoor Christmas tree shop and I pointed to it as there were so many trees. The taxi driver, who was black, quite small and elderly, with grey hair and glasses, and a strong West Indian accent, said: “Christmas comes so quickly”. He then said something like: “The thing that makes me sad about this time of year is all the commercialism, and thinking about the ‘have-nots’, especially the children. I see all these families getting into debt and starting the new year in debt.” As we drove, he continued, although it was hard to hear him and I had to lean forward and listen really carefully. He said he also really felt for the homeless at this time of year, and the elderly.
This was all very relevant to me as I had money worries, worsened by the approaching Christmas. I had also been considering volunteering with a homeless charity during the festive season, but had started to think I didn’t have enough time. After this encounter, I decided definitely to do the volunteering.
The taxi driver then said: “How can I eat, drink and be merry when there are all these homeless people going without? Am I making sense?” He continued: “I see families getting into such terrible debt. Being in debt is such a terrible thing.” Then, talking again about Christmas, he said: “If I love you and you love me, I can give you a cup of tea or coffee, and some conversation.” Adding something like none of the other stuff matters.
Then he looked me in the eyes through the mirror and said: “But do you know what I’d really hate to be? A rich man.” “Why?”, I asked. He said that he already felt so apart from the ‘have-nots’, so think how far apart he’d feel if he were rich. “We all have to share”, he said. “We can all help each other. For example, you help me make my living; I can help you get home!” Well, that made me feel better about the extravagance of getting a taxi! I would have liked to talk and talk, but we had reached my home. As I said goodbye, he said with such cheer and friendliness: “If I don’t see you before the New Year, have a really delightful Christmas!”
Was this taxi driver Maitreya?
We present a selection of quotations about the Sword of Cleavage. This selection is taken from Maitreya (Messages from Maitreya the Christ), Benjamin Creme’s Master (A Master Speaks Volume Two) and Benjamin Creme’s writings.
Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 appeals to humanity and inspires it towards unity — even in our time. Its fourth movement, Ode to Joy, has accompanied people all over the world in protests, and in their efforts for justice and freedom it has given them courage. … It was the first symphony in history to include a choir and several soloists. While still a student in Bonn, Beethoven decided to set the famous poem ‘To Joy’ (‘An die Freude’) to music. It was written in the summer of 1785 by the German poet and philosopher Friedrich Schiller. However, it was not until 1823 that Beethoven devoted himself fully to this work.
It was to be Beethoven’s last completed composition. He struggled with health problems throughout his life, which intensified as he grew older. Due to his hearing problems, Beethoven was completely isolated and alienated from everyone in the last years of his life. He died on 26 March 1827 at the age of 56.
Two hundred years have passed since the premiere in Vienna. Today, the Ninth is one of the most famous and impressive works of classical music in the world.
But what is so special about this symphony? Why is it so unforgettable and impressive to many? The American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein once described the Ninth Symphony as “endlessly satisfying, interesting and moving”. He said: “This music is not only infinitely durable, but perhaps the closest music has ever come to universality. … No composer has ever lived who speaks so directly to so many people, to young and old, educated and ignorant, amateur and professional, sophisticated, naïve … and to all these people of all classes, nationalities and racial backgrounds this music speaks a universality of thought, of human brotherhood, freedom and love.”
This unifying universality of values, which appeals to all people equally, led the Council of Europe to choose the main theme, Ode to Joy, as the European anthem in 1972, to be played “at all official European events” in future. The German conductor Herbert von Karajan was commissioned to arrange an instrumental version. In 1985, this was officially adopted by the European Community as the European Anthem. It is an expression of Europe’s unity in diversity and symbolizes the common values — freedom, peace and solidarity — of the member states.
During the 1956 and 1964 Olympic Games, the first verse of the last movement was used as the anthem for the teams of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic; later, other countries used it as their own national anthem with different lyrics. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this symphony took on a special significance for people from East and West in Germany. In 2001, Beethoven’s Ninth was the first musical work ever to be included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World register as a symbol of peace between all nations and peoples of the world. Many orchestras traditionally play this work on New Year’s Eve, underlining the symbolic power of this symphony. …
Beethoven could not have known at the time what effect his music would have and who would take possession of it. The anthem has been misused again and again over the years. For example, the Ninth was Hitler’s favorite symphony and was played on his birthdays. Beethoven would probably have been horrified that Hitler loved this piece. But he would also have been thrilled that people all over the world, from Germany to Japan, from Chile to China, sing the Hymn of Joy and that it works in so many languages. It has been used in movies and also used for advertising. And if you use “Ode to Joy” and “flash mob” as search terms you find endless examples of it, for instance on YouTube; for some reason it’s extremely popular in all kinds of flash mobs all over the world.
Bernstein explained the reason for its great popularity: “In this time of world agony and hopelessness and helplessness, we love Beethoven’s music and we need it. As despairing as we may be, we cannot listen to this Ninth Symphony without emerging from it changed, enriched, encouraged.” …
In the end, Beethoven’s work is about the “struggle for peace”, says Leonard Bernstein: “For fulfillment of spirit; for serenity and the triumph of joy. He achieved it in his music. Somehow it must be possible for us to learn from his music by hearing it. No, not hearing it, but listening to it with all our power of attention and concentration. Then perhaps we can grow into something worthy of being called the human race.”
Marc-André Selosse is a microbiologist, ecologist and teacher. A professor at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris and at the universities of Gdansk, Poland and Kunming, China, his research focuses on the ecology and evolution of mutually beneficial relationships (symbiosis).
In his books L’origine du monde, La symbiose, and his YouTube videos, Selosse explains the role of soil, which is teeming with life involved in symbiosis, a form of cooperation; how humans mistreat it and how soil can worsen or help control climate change. The two previous articles focused on the role, composition of soil, and symbiosis. In conclusion, this third article looks at the impact of man on soil and the impact of soil on climate change.
Selosse describes the fundamental functions of soil life as: the creation of complexity and the functional and chemical diversity of living organisms over time; recycling, whereby any waste produced by a living organism is broken down and then used as a resource by others; and symbiosis between the different soil inhabitants, each providing a functionality that will help the other in a balanced exchange.
One centimeter every 100 years (or 1,000 years)
Agricultural soil is on average 1 meter deep. On average, 1 cm of soil is formed every century (or in 1,000 years depending on the situation)1; so it takes 10,000 to 100,000 years to form good agricultural soil. If it takes around 100 years to form 1 cm of soil in temperate regions, 1 year is enough to erode it entirely.
Until human intervention at the beginnings of agriculture in the Neolithic period 10,000 years ago, there was generally a balance between the process of soil creation and erosion, leading to stabilization of the soil layer. With agriculture, and particularly intensive agriculture, the soil erodes 10 to 100 times faster than normal, leading to the disappearance of the soil and virtual desertification in 100 to 1,000 years. In fact, the cities of Mediterranean civilizations, built on plains that were once fertile, now have very poor soils because they have been over-exploited.
Soil erosion is caused by a number of factors. These include a reduction in organic matter (the humus that binds soil particles together and prevents them from being carried away by water or wind), a reduction in soil life (bacteria that break down rocks and fungi that carry minerals to plant roots), and a lack of plant cover between harvests, where roots and stems can no longer hold the soil in place. Europe’s soils have lost half their organic matter since the 1950s. Among the many wounds inflicted on the soil by man are: ploughing, artificialization, salinization through irrigation, cultivation by burning, adding mineral fertilizers, pesticides and so on. …
The solutions
Selosse presents soil as a major player in climate change, a problem or a solution depending on how we manage it. He proposes a number of solutions to deal with the problem.
He points out that in 2015, at COP21, France launched the 4 by 1000 concept. Each year, the production of CO2 by humanity is equivalent to 4 thousandths of the carbon stock in the soil. If we store 4 per thousand of the carbon in the soil, we cancel out our contribution to the greenhouse effect.
The main area for action is in agricultural soils, which lack organic matter. Increasing their organic matter content would have a number of positive effects, including storing carbon, binding other soil components, retaining water and its minerals, reducing erosion and flooding, and enriching food.
Regenerative (or conservation) agriculture makes it possible to do all this. This type of farming places the soil at the root of the farming system, by putting organic matter and life back into the soil. We stop ploughing (to let the soil workers do their work), we nourish the soil with organic matter, we cover it with plants all year round (to protect it from erosion and nourish its diversity), and we sow with minimal soil disturbance. …
It is clear that climate change cannot be controlled without taking the soil into account.
(Sources: M.-A.Selosse L’origine du monde, and his YouTube videos)
Note:
1 The figures given in this article are orders of magnitude for soils in temperate climates. They can vary according to climate, location, soil type and country.
