Welcome to Episode 24, “The Song of the Violet Flame,” featuring harpist, composer, and religious leader, Lotus Ray King, aka Edna Ballard (1886-1971). Raised in Chicago, Ballard got into metaphysical literature and harp playing as a teenager. With her husband Guy Ballard, or Godfre Ray King, they founded the “I AM” Movement and the St. Germain Foundation in 1932. Claiming to be messengers of invisible “ascended masters,” the Ballards earned over a million followers and significant wealth through their classes and mail order teachings. Lotus composed much of the music for the movement, often arranged for variations of harp, organ, celesta, chimes, choir, and orchestra. While enduring still today, the movement has also been indicted on fraud charges, which were overturned by the Supreme Court, and has been portrayed as a dangerous form of “psychic dictatorship.” Welcome to the Voice of the I AM…