“I am ashamed to write what I myself do night and day in this out-of-the-way place. For I have indeed left my life in the city… but I have not yet been able to leave myself behind…. For we carry our indwelling disorders about within us, and so are nowhere free from the same sort of disturbances. Consequently we have derived no great benefit from our present solitude.”

-St. Gregory of Nazianzus

Contemplation is the consummation of what it means for us to be made “Real” by love. This consummation includes all our jagged edges—everything about ourselves, published or unpublished, which we resent yet God seeks out as His own abode within us and among us. This gathers love and wound into one: love makes us Real and so do our wounds, indwelled by Love.

-An Ocean of Light Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation, Martin Laird, O.S.A.

You surround me

You indwell me

You’re beside me

Ever present always near

You’re the whisper

Calling my name gently

Credits: Color Me Project - Signature pose

melodyofourheart.wordpress.com/2015/08/12/you-surround-me/

Contemplation is the consummation of what it means for us to be made “Real” by love. This consummation includes all our jagged edges—everything about ourselves, published or unpublished, which we resent yet God seeks out as His own abode within us and among us. This gathers love and wound into one: love makes us Real and so do our wounds, indwelled by Love.

-An Ocean of Light Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation Martin Laird, O.S.A.

Here, I think, is a central Jewish insight, which Christian theology has too often obscured: God asks, God invites, God needs our participation in the indwelling drama of love. We encounter that same flash of incarnate presence in Etty Hillesum. The realization of God’s own hope for the worlds, what Jesus calls the reign of God, hinges on our inner receptiveness, our fiat, our participation…

… She smiles, for though they have bound her, she cannot be a prisoner. Not that she is strong, or clever, but simply that she does not understand imprisonment.

-Christopher Pramuk, At Play in Creation

/*******

This is the best definition of liturgy that I have read…the unbound source…a push from the heart…spilling outward…

-rc

Seeking an escape from time was foreign to the anticipatory faith of Abraham, Moses, the prophets, and Jesus. What their faith sought was not an escape from time but time’s fulfillment. Time, at least in prophetic faith, is not to be avoided but cherished as the necessary medium for the swelling of expectation.

Time is something to be indwelled, not sloughed off; and deep time is a fertile field for nurturing an ever-more-expansive anticipatory faith. The mystery of God, in this setting, is not to be explored primarily by returning to origins. Nor does the mystery of God need to be located up above, or hidden inside human subjectivity. These may be important portals to the experience of God, but as I have been proposing, we may look for God especially in the unfathomed depths of the hidden future to which the universe is now awakening. It is to the Absolute Future that we may still lift up our hearts.

-God after Einstein What’s Really Going On in the Universe? John F. Haught

[T]he soul of every person, no matter when he lived or what degree of holiness he acquired, whether he attained to the very heights of perfection or whether he was but entering upon the road of righteousness, whether an adult or an infant is united with God through grace, and entertains the Holy Spirit as his Guest. True, this union can be more or less perfect, it can admit of degrees which vary ad infinitum, but the mystical union is everywhere and always essentially the same.

-Barthelemy Froget, The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the Souls of the Just According to the Teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas (New York: Paulist Press, 1921), 118.

Christian mysticism, even if it can benefit from extraordinary insights, does not stray from faith. Authentic mysticism, as a unique phenomenon, is not different from the vision of faith (given from Revelation) but is this very same faith experienced with greater clarity and intensity. In the revealed texts (and especially in Paul and John) there is consistency between faith and mysticism. This is an invitation not to separate the life of faith and mystical experiences, because the two share the same root: the indwelling of the Holy Trinity in the deepest recesses of each member of the Body of Christ.

-Reflections on Chiara Lubich’s

Mystical Journey Foreword Peter Casarella Preface Piero Coda Edited and with an Introduction by Donald W. Mitchell

Which wonders indwell in this magic potion?

Welche Wunder wohnen diesem Tranke inne?

“These things, these things were here and but the beholder / Wánting.” Gerard looked at the landscape and venerated it, as though he were devoutly kneeling in church for the adoration of the Reserved Sacrament. The harvest was the Host. Gerard experienced a lifting, an elevation, almost a teleportation: “The heart rears wings bold and bolder / And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet.”44 The poet’s role was to be, as a pun, “the beholder / Wánting”: the necessary (“wanting”) observer to these divine things revealed within materiality, and also the observer who deeply desires (“wanting”) to see the God indwelling.

-A Heart Lost in Wonder The Life and Faith of Gerard Manley Hopkins, Catharine Randall

-Hopkins, “Hurrahing in Harvest,” ll. 5–6, 9, 11–12, 13–14, in MW, 134. (Poem Source)

Aah, yes…a truth, in understanding, that all encounters, held in light…a light swirling in around and through you…and my words failed thee and me.

-rc

Before God's face man receives his own true countenance. The visible features which make up the face of man are but the outward layer of the real face. Beneath these features are the inner form, the character, the informing spirit, and the indwelling soul. Often enough the face of man is but a mask. How this mask can spring into life we have occasion to observe when a man's face lights up in a conversation which interests him or in an encounter which moves him. It is as though his face, his real face, suddenly disclosed itself from within. These are natural things but they point to divine things. The face which matters before the sight of God, man does not possess in his own right; it is given to him by God. Only in speaking to Him do I become that self which He meant me to grow into when He created and redeemed me. Only in prayer does my real face unfold and assume its own true features.

-The Art of Praying The Principles and Methods of Christian Prayer Formerly entitled

Prayer in Practice, Romano Guardini

These encounters with the Trinity indwelling were so impressive that Teresa felt unable to describe the least of them. She would be given inner enlightenments, “secrets”, that would leave her marveling but unable to explain. The best she could do would be to say that next to this infused light “the sun’s brilliance seems to be something very blurred”. Along with this knowledge God bestowed “a delight so sublime as to be indescribable, for all the senses rejoice to such a high degree and in such sweetness that the delight cannot be exaggerated—so it’s better not to say any more”.

-THOMAS DUBAY, S.M., FIRE WITHIN St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel—on Prayer

Darul Quran, Kuala Kubu Bharu, Malaysia

The maturing contemplative is too poor to be concerned with spiritual progress. If there is a measure of spiritual progress, it will be found in the rib cage of failure: in our debilitating faults, our defeats, our wounds, our solidarity with those who are marginalized from every circle of meaning they belong to. This seems to be the way Divine Love works, to seek out and indwell where we hurt most. This is the obscure realization of receptive mind…

… The fruit of practice is compassion, born of the fragrant wound of solidarity with all that is. It has nothing to do with outcomes assessments. We cannot behold if we are trying to assess.

-An Ocean of Light Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation, Martin Laird, O.S.A.

Stuffed Christians!

(Charles Spurgeon, "Life's Ever-Springing Well") Play Audio! Download

"We are all Christians."

"Why, we belong to a Christian nation--are we not born Christians?"

"Surely we must be all right--we have always attended our parish church, is not that enough?"

"Our parents were always godly; we were born into the church, were we not? Did they not take us up in their arms when we were little, and make us members of Christ? What more do we lack?"

This is the common talk.

There is no Christian practice, there is no Christian habit--but what has been, or will be before long, imitated by people who have no vital godliness whatever.

A man may appear much like a Christian, and yet possess no vital godliness!

Walk through the British Museum, and you will see all the orders of animals standing in their various places, and exhibiting themselves with the utmost possible propriety. Every creature, whether bird, beast, or fish--remains in the particular glass case allotted to it. But you all know well enough that these are not the living creatures, but only the outward forms of them. Yet in what do they differ? Certainly in nothing which you could readily see, for the well-stuffed animal is precisely like what the living animal would have been. Yet you know well enough that there is a secret inward something lacking, which, when it has once departed, you cannot restore.

So in the churches of Christ, many professors are not living believers, but stuffed believers--stuffed Christians!

There is all the external of religion, everything that you could desire, and they behave with a great deal of propriety, too. They all keep their places, and there is no outward difference between them and the living, except upon that vital point: they lack spiritual life. This is the essential distinction--spiritual life is absent.

It is almost painful to watch little children when some little pet of theirs has died, how they can hardly realize the difference between death and life!

Your little boy's bird moped for awhile upon its perch, and at last dropped down in the cage. You remember how the little boy tried to set it up, and gave it seed, and filled its glass with water, and was quite surprised to think that birdie would not open his little eye upon his friend as it did before, and would not take its seed, nor drink its water!

Ah, you finally had to tell the poor boy that a mysterious something had gone from his little birdie, and would not come back again.

There is just such a spiritual difference between the mere professor, and the genuine Christian.

There is an invisible, but most real, indwelling of the Holy Spirit--the absence or the presence of which makes all the difference between the lost sinner and the saint.

John 6:63, "The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing!"

Summer was here, but the once

at least memory will serve us right

a day in a summer of no light

this can be seen, truly, in penance

for all we seek in a three-month spell

cast like a wintry shadow upon the hill

compelled to invisage clouds quadrille

so catalectic this Summer remains to indwell

upon our suspense, we've had but a taste

of the honourable Sun this blinkered year

these months being metephors insincere

only silence is true as it cannot be misplaced.

by anglia24

10h00: 15/07/2007

●●●●●●●●●●●●

© 2007anglia24

Feel the Self fade, feel the great life begin, 35

With Love re-rising in the cosmic morn.

The inward ardour yearns to the inmost goal;

The endless goal is one with the endless way;

From every gulf the tides of Being roll,

From every zenith burns the indwelling day; 40

And life in Life has drowned thee and soul in Soul;

And these are God, and thou thyself art they.

Frederick William Henry Myers, "A Cosmic Outlook" (l. 35-42). 1917.

Alternate title: "imbibe and indwell"

Bullhead City / Mohave County / Arizona

Asahi Takumar (Pentax) 135mm f/2.5 lens

CHM Perharidy-Fondation Ildys

Nikon F801S

50mm 1,8 AFD

Fuji 100 Acros

Scan Epson V370

Reproduction Interdite

Tous Droits Réservés

(C)

The maturing contemplative is too poor to be concerned with spiritual progress. If there is a measure of spiritual progress, it will be found in the rib cage of failure: in our debilitating faults, our defeats, our wounds, our solidarity with those who are marginalized from every circle of meaning they belong to. This seems to be the way Divine Love works, to seek out and indwell where we hurt most. This is the obscure realization of receptive mind.

-An Ocean of Light Contemplation, Transformation, and Liberation, Martin Laird, O.S.A.

The Crystal River flowing out to Lake Michigan through The Homestead Resort makes for a wonderful example to represent the imagery of Jesus' words regarding the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit for all those who believe on Him and receive Eternal Life by faith

This fabulous photograph is available at my online store in a wide variety of products. This link will take you there.

pixels.com/products/crystal-river-john-738-tom-clark-fram...

216d 10 - TAC_6124 - lr-ps-wm - green frame - John 7.38

In her breathtaking study, The Female Face of God at Auschwitz, Jewish theologian Melissa Raphael echoes many other scholars of religion and culture in the observation that our dominant images and conceptions of the divine powerfully shape the ways we see, judge, and relate to one another at every level of society. A bit more provocatively, Raphael joins other feminist theologians in arguing that patriarchal or male-centered images, discourses, and practices have sanctioned a great deal of injustice, misogyny, and violence in society, synagogue, and church, in no small part by obscuring the female face of God: God’s nurturing, indwelling Presence known in the Hebrew Bible as Wisdom, Shekinah, Sophia, or Spirit. Patriarchal forces have veiled the feminine divine “to the point of disappearance,” argues Raphael, perhaps nowhere more horrifically than in Auschwitz. Indeed, she suggests, it is not altogether surprising that traditional Jewish theology, with its own patriarchal imagination, could not imagine how the all-powerful God of Moses and the prophets would have been so utterly powerless, so impotent, in the face of Auschwitz.

-Hope Sings, So Beautiful Graced Encounters across the Color Line, Christopher Pramuk

/*********************

youtu.be/YVPQbJovdIQ

-Been to Kansas City in A Minor, Frank Zappa-Imaginary Diseases

(Gagea lutea, Wald-Gelbstern, Yellow Star-of-Bethlehem)

“That delicate forest flower,

With scented breath and look so like a smile,

Seems, as it issues from the shapeless mould,

An emanation of the indwelling Life,

A visible token of the upholding Love,

That are the soul of this great universe.”

(William Cullen Bryant)

Have a lovely weekend!

Validation, by those in the ministry and in the laity, of the experiences of Abba Ammonas and the members of his monastic network concretized and centralized discernment, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the cultivation of received spiritual gifts in a way that extended baptismal belief in the hope and promise of new life in the resurrection. Because these spiritual fathers and mothers had experienced subsequent, postbaptismal, graces they attested to the continual presence of the Holy Spirit as teacher and as guide in the life of the individual Christian. In the midst of the clerical and doctrinal formalization of the late fourth century, these monks upheld the experience on which such formalization rested. 65 As a result, they lived a theology akin to what Vladimir Lossky defines as a trinitarian theology, “a theology of union, a mystical theology which appeals to experience, and which presupposes a continuous and progressive series of changes in created nature, a more and more intimate communion of the human person with the Holy Trinity.” 66 By legitimating Abba Ammonas’ witness as an experience of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Serapion of Thmuis honored the role of discernment and its manifestation in the life of the local church community. The evidence of these relations between the ministry of the bishop and the stewardship of the monk, with the gift and exercise of discernment at its core, would have contributed to the expansion of Christianity in late antiquity.

As Norman Russell writes: This development had theological repercussions. An intellectualist idea of faith came to be replaced by one that was more “institutionalized,” the emphasis shifting from knowing God through the contemplation of the timeless cosmic order to encountering him through his historical revelation in Jesus Christ. The new emphasis was accompanied by a suspicion of intellectuals, a focusing more on the shared experience of the community. The first abbas, with their teaching on self-knowledge and spiritual ascent hearkened back to an earlier world. From the episcopal point of view it was important that the abbas’ authority and prestige should be harnessed to the ecclesiastical needs of the new era and that whatever seemed incompatible with those needs should be eliminated.

-Useful servanthood: a study of spiritual formation in the writings of Abba Ammonas / Bernadette McNary-Zak;

It's Thanksgiving! Oliver and Koncedra Simmons have opened their home to family and friends for this happy occasion.

The call of duty assignments for the war have arrived and Airman First Class Derrick Simmons is reviewing their orders with bunkmate Army Sgt Vince Carter and Navy Aviation Fuel Handler Greg "Grape" Grapinksi. *

Carter: Wow, we're going to have to get back to the barracks quick.

Simmons: By the deployment schedule for our units, we can eat first.

Grape: It's startin' to feel like a last meal.

Carter: We'll hang in there. Tell us somethin' Derrick. You're always in the Good Book.

Simmons: In Joshua 1:9 God says, "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."

Carter: So, He's with us?

Simmons: The Lord Jesus says, "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." ** The condition of all of these promises is that we belong to Him. That we have repented, turned away from our lives as we knew them, and turned to Christ Jesus in belief that His work has accomplished all we need. That our sins will be forgiven through His work, that we will be given His righteousness, that our lives will be changed through His Spirit indwelling us, and that we will be secured in the eternal, unchanging saving love of God.

Grape: So, we gotta pray.

Simmons: No one can assure you of God's salvation but God. Seek Him if you're not right with Him or even if you're not sure. He is mighty to save and gracious to do so. He also gives this promise, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose." ***

Carter: Buddy, we better start praying now.

Christians can thank God for His sovereign care over them. God does not promise an absence of hardships, struggles or loss in this life. He promises to bring the Christian through those adversities and to deliver them into the perfection of His eternity to come. "For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison," **** "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. " *****

_________________________

Thanksgiving 2015:

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/23317265455/

Thanksgiving 2016:

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/31221411415/

Thanksgiving 2017:

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/38546781536/

Thanksgiving 2018:

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/44152794180/

Thanksgiving 2019:

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/49128237531/

* Follow the soldiers in the "Life in the Barracks" album, starting here:

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/30857312148/

** Matthew 8:20

*** Romans 8:28

**** 2 Corinthians 4:17

***** Romans 8:18

Truth and the desire for it must be a living force in us, an active energy, an indwelling reality, a part of the woof and warp of our being. (C.H. Spurgeon)

First of all , I give the glory back to God for giving us the break of the weather

from days of rain and rain and rain storms, then sun shines , wonderful , no rain at all

for the two days we booked with hubby on this walk. Praise God !

I was praying for this break of the rain , as this wouldn't be a pleasant walk

, neither I'll be motivated to photograph in the middle of outpouring rain.

Even my new lost woolly hat for this walk , I gave up finding it back

was found hung on a fence , no dirt , I had it on this walk :D- too windy

and cold on high elevation. I don't believe anymore in coincidences.

Everything I give back to the Lord. He is so good !

He looks after me :)

...and He will surely look after of those whose hearts

loved Him .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Romans 8:9

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit

of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is

none of his."

Clearly said here - if anyone has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of Christ.

When the Holy Spirit is in us, we knew it, just indwelling peace and happiness

and knowing you are of God . Having the Spirit

of God in us , are we to still to love and keep up of the ways of this world ?

God is purging people to remember Him.

In the scale of prolonged disaster in parts of the UK,

though how sad to see people in so much distress

blaming the government for the disasters --

C'mon people, in the first place why you bought your houses in

the flood plains. No wonder , ouch ! I hope people will remember God

in their midst of utter distress .

Living a lifestyle of comfort and success make most people ( not all )

forget God. Loving entertainments that don't glorify

God ; entertainments tolerant to the abominations God has declared ,

pushing all corrupting ideas of fornication, adultery, materialism, self

enhancement , hedonism etc. not the least going into churches that are largely

apostate and fallen .

There will be a time when the government can not anymore

take care of all great scale of disasters , neither secure safety of the entire

population in distress. Be ready people, it's coming . You like this

message or not, you've been warned. This is not only a warning of

the UK but all around the globe.

Freak accidental deaths happened too - you never know it will

be you next .

This is in reflection on the woman who died from heavy falling debris

straight down her car in London. Had she ever thought that morning when

she woke up , it will be her last day?

Most likely not . Is she saved in Christ ? As I watched the news, I

feel deeply saddened . Though I hope she was . Because if not,

then that was her last ...

People who believe there are so many ways to be

spiritually saved, and there's no absolutes -- you're wrong and very

deceived. No more debates / duel with philosophical ideas and arguments.

After all let God be the judge , and He will judge righteously !

Salvation in Christ has already been offered and given by grace to anyone

who believes and receive Him, where salvation is given freely .

Salvation is only for those who believe and everyone is given a choice.

Soon to come the days God will be separate

the righteous from the wicked.

Revelation 22 : 11

"He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy,

let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous

still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."

Let all who is wicked at heart remain wicked - full stop !

Let them that search for God , find Him and have Christ as their

protection and comfort ! Let God reveal His wonders to them

that seek Him.

I do believe we are in the time of the revelation. Revelation of

God's supernatural power, whilst also the great unveiling of

the evil ones, programmes and works of evil doers are disclosed. They

can not hide . Unveiling to us those who are not of God, and their wicked

evil ways to their shame and destruction yet to come .

==================================================

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

*The Terror Of The Lord By Excatholics ( YT )

My same reflection of the disasters in England

as I am an exCatholic too.

*God's Curse Falls On the USA By Franks Di Mora

I suppose this applies not just for the USA but for all nations

supporting the giving away for the Two Solution ( God's covenant land of Israel )

to the Palestinians . Read the Bible carefully asking God's guidance and you would

know what comes next when this happens. It will eventually happen

as it is spoken and declared it will . But make your mind ready for

the great disaster that come next when the finality happens.

*Distress of Nations - 50 Ft Waves - Nazi Space Aliens - Doomsday Clock - Bible Prophecy!

*The New World Evil Occult & Fashion Industry Exposed

*Selling Their Soul: The Luciferian Contract

Wanna get rich for the price of Hell ?

*Illuminati Whistleblower "They Worship lucifer"

*Hollywood's Satanic Slaves II [Part 1]

Endorsement of prepping by The Guardian

*Is it time to join the 'preppers'? How to survive the climate-change apocalypse

But I'll rather suggest be prepared spiritually in Christ Jesus.

EXPOSING the False prophets and advocates of ONE WORLD

FALSE religion leading many many people to hell !

*Ecumenism: Spiritual Whoredom (Documentary)

"While the Unbelievers got up in their hearts heat and cant - the heat and cant of ignorance,- Allah sent down His Sakina - tranquility (sakīnatahu) to his Messenger and to the Believers, and made them stick close to the command of self-restraint; and well were they entitled to it and worthy of it.

And Allah has full knowledge of all things."

(The Qur'an [48:26])

Sukaina is the Spirit of Tranquility, or Peace of Reassurance it's also a shortened form of the original word "Sakina" which is mentioned in the Quran as having descended upon the Islamic prophet Muhammad and the believers as they made an unarmed pilgrimage to Mecca, and were faced with an opposing military force of the Quraysh, with whom the Prophet struck the Treaty of Hudaybiyah.

"He it is Who sent down the sakina into the hearts of the believers that they might add faith unto their faith".

(The Qur'an [48:4])

The sakina is related to the Hebrew Shekhinah, the term for God’s presence in the world.

The root of the word is sa-ka-na which means "dwelled" or "remained in place".

This further supports the association with the Shekhinah as "indwelling".

Sufi writings, in expounding the inner peace of Sufi contemplation, which dwells in a sanctuary or in the heart, confirm the association with both Sakina and the Shekhinah.

Sufi reference to sa-ka-na as meaning both stillness and habitation adds to the identity with Shekhinah's indwelling nature.

Another Quranic association with the concord of dwellings in peace coincides with the attribution of the Shekhinah to matrimonial concord under the tent of Sarah:

"And God gave you your houses as a quiescent place (sakanan)." (The Qur'an [16:80])

This is a close-up of the bulb roof of the Chhota Imambara, also known as Hussainabad Imambara or the Palace of Lights, located in Lucknow, the city of the Nawabs in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Built by Muhammad Ali Shah, The third Nawab of Avadh in 1838, it was to serve as his own mausoleum.

This picture was selected to make the cover of "Dans la ville d'or et d'argent", a novel by Kenizé Mourad.

www.flickr.com/photos/designldg/7078787947/

Join the photographer at

www.facebook.com/laurent.goldstein.photography

© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.

Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).

The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.

Night designates the contemplation (theoria) of invisible things after the manner of Moses who entered into the darkness where God was, this God who makes of darkness his hiding place. 49 Surrounded by the divine night the soul seeks him who is hidden in darkness. She possesses indeed the love of him whom she seeks, but the Beloved escapes the grasp of her thoughts. . . . Therefore abandoning the search she recognizes him whom she desires by the very fact that his knowledge is beyond understanding. Thus she says, “Having left behind all created things and abandoned the aid of the understanding, by faith alone I have found my Beloved. And I will not let him go, holding him with the grip of faith, until he enters into my bedchamber.” The chamber is the heart, which is capable of the indwelling when it is restored to its primitive state.

-St. Gregory of Nyssa

The Indwelling One is our prosperity. We can water the seeds of peace in ourselves and others so it may prosper and flourish.

“O people of the Light, awaken to the knowledge that lives within you! Do you know your destiny- to be a light unto the worlds, a bearer of peace and harmony?”—Psalm 107

We are made, the scriptures of all religions assure us, in the image of God. Nothing can change our original goodness. Whatever mistakes we have made in the past, whatever problems we may have in the present, in every one of us the uncreated spark in the soul remains untouched, ever pure, ever perfect. Even if we try with all our might to douse or hide it, it is always ready to set our personality ablaze with light.”—Eknath Easwaran, p. 260, “Words to Live By”, Nilgiri Press

I heartily recommend, as a form of prayer, the Russian and Greek business where you get off somewhere quiet, remember what you may have known about hatha-yoga, breathe quietly and rhythmically with the diaphragm, holding your breath for a bit each time and letting it out easily: and while holding it, saying “in your heart” (aware of the place of your heart, as if the words were spoken in the very center of your being with all the sincerity you can muster): “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God have mercy on me a sinner.” Just keep saying this for a while, of course with faith, and the awareness of the indwelling, etc. It is a simple form of prayer, and fundamental, and the breathing part makes it easier to keep your mind on what you are doing. That’s about as far as I go with methods. After that, pray as the Spirit moves you, but of course I would say follow the Mass in a missal unless there is a good reason for doing something else, like floating suspended ten feet above the congregation.

I like the rosary, too. Because, though I am not very articulate about her, I am pretty much wound up in Our Lady, and have some Russian ideas about her too: that she is the most perfect expression of the mystery of the Wisdom of God. That is some way she is the Wisdom of God. (6.22.59 HGL 392)

-The Hidden Ground of Love: The Letters of Thomas Merton on Religious Experience and Social Concerns

Spakenburg, Visserijdagen

happy here.

floodplain of Cuyahoga River. Almost unedited (I brightened it -- haha).

this is me, although you can't see me. i suppose i should put on here something about the transitional nature of being, our back and forths of decisions, the indwelling nature of god, or the benefits of the cover drive. but it simply remains, this is me.

I want to invite you to the opening of the Sabra Art Gallery, which is showing some of my pictures too.

The new gallery of Kylie Sabra opens with images of

Shakti Adored

Nino Vichan

Lilia Artis and

WuWai Chun.

link to the destination

----------------------------------------

OPENING

----------------------------------------

SUNDAY MAY 17th

12.00noon slt (21:00 paris time)

at SABRA ART GALLERY

Music by Kylie Sabra and DJ Menion

----------------------------------------

Links and blog-posts:

----------------------------------------

WuWai Chun

link to the destination

Blog:

sabraesquedesigns.wordpress.com/2015/05/05/sabra-art-gall...

WuWai donates her sale proceeds to

----- feed a smile ------

feed a smile is a NGO which supports children in Kenya.

learn more about feed a smile at: www.leben-lernen-kenia.org

----------------------------------------

Shakti Adored

link to the destination

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Nino Vichan

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Lilia Artis

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The "Somewhere in sl" picture series (or "The Adventures of WuWai in Second Life") is my guide and bookmark folder to wonderful, artful, curious or in other way remarkably sims of second life with travel guide WuWai Chun.

(More pictures of WuWai's adventures: Follow this link)

You can find more pictures (raw caps) with slurls to sl-destinations at my travel logue

in the photo section of my second life profile (my notebook and private destination guide):

my.secondlife.com/wuwai.chun

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Coefficient affinity

Situated in relation

Introduced extension

This article is about the Gnostic philosophical concept. For a description of the sewing term "fullness", see Pleat.

Pleroma (Greek πλήρωμα) generally refers to the totality of divine powers. The word means fullness from πληρόω ("I fill") comparable to πλήρης which means "full",[1] and is used in Christian theological contexts: both in Gnosticism generally, and by St. Paul the Apostle in Colossians 2:9 (the word is used 17 times in the NT).[2]

Pleroma is also used in the general Greek language and is used by the Greek Orthodox Church in this general form since the word appears in the book of Colossians.

Contents

1Christianity

1.1New Testament

1.2Gnosticism

1.2.1Diagram of the Pleroma

2Neoplatonism

3Carl Jung

4Gregory Bateson

5See also

6References

7Bibliography

Christianity[edit]

New Testament[edit]

The word itself is a relative term, capable of many shades of meaning, according to the subject with which it is joined and the antithesis to which it is contrasted. It denotes the result of the action of the verb pleroun; but pleroun is either

to fill up an empty thing (e.g. Matthew 13:48), or

to complete an incomplete thing (e.g. Matthew 5:17);

and the verbal substantive in -ma may express either

the objective accusative after the verb, 'the thing filled or completed,' or

the cognate accusative, 'the state of fulness or completion, the fulfilment, the full amount,' resulting from the action of the verb (Romans 11:12, 13:10, 15:29, 1 Corinthians 10:26).

It may emphasize totality in contrast to its constituent parts; or fulness in contrast to emptiness (kenoma); or completeness in contrast to incompleteness or deficiency (hysterema Colossians 1:24, 2 Corinthians 11:9, hettema Romans 11:12).

A further ambiguity arises when it is joined with a genitive, which may be either subjective or objective, the fulness which one thing gives to another, or that which it receives from another.

In its semi-technical application it is applied primarily to the perfection of God, the fulness of His Being, 'the aggregate of the Divine attributes, virtues, energies': this is used quite absolutely in Colossians 1:19 (oti en auto eudokesen pan to pleroma katoikesai), but further defined

as pan to pleroma tes theotetos, 'the whole completeness of the Divine nature,' in Colossians 2:9,

as pan to pleroma tou theou, 'the whole (moral) perfection which is characteristic of God,' in Ephesians 3:19.

Secondarily, this same pleroma is transferred to Christ; it was embodied permanently in Him at the Incarnation (Colossians 1:19); it still dwells permanently in His glorified Body, en auto katoikei somatikos (Colossians 2:9); it is tou pleromatos tou christou (Ephesians 4:13), the complete, moral, and intellectual perfection to which Christians aspire and with which they are filled (Ephesians 4:13, Colossians 2:10 este en auto pepleromenoi. Cf. John 1:16 oti ek tou pleromatos autou emeis pantes elabomen, where pleroma is the state of Him who is pleres charitos kai aletheias, John 1:14, cf. Luke 2:40 pleroumenon sophia). This indwelling emphasizes the completeness with which the Son represents the Father; it is the fulness of life which makes Him the representative, without other intermediary agencies, and ruler of the whole universe; and it is the fulness of moral and intellectual perfection which is communicable through Him to man; it is consistent with a gradual growth of human faculties (Luke 2:40), therefore with the phrase eauton ekenosen of Philippians 2:7, which is perhaps intended as a deliberate contrast to it. One further application of the phrase is made in (Ephesians 1:23, where it is used of the Church, to pleroma tou ta panta en pasin pleroumenou. Here the genitive is perhaps subjective—the fulness of Christ, His full embodiment, that fulness which He supplies to the Church—emphasizing the thoroughness with which the Church is the receptacle of His powers and represents Him on earth. The analogy of the other uses of the word with the genitive of the person (Ephesians 3:19, 4:13), and the stress throughout these books on Christians being filled by Christ (Ephesians 3:19, 4:13, 5:18, Colossians 1:9, 2:10, 4:12, John 1:16, 3:34), favours this view. But the genitive may be objective, 'the complement of Christ,' that which completes Him, which fills up by its activities the work which His withdrawal to heaven would have left undone, as the body completes the head. The analogy of the body, the stress laid on the action of the Church (Ephesians 3:10-21), St. Paul's language about himself in Colossians 1:24 (antanaplero ta hysteremata ton thlipseon tou christou), support this, and it is impossible to decide between the two. The former view has been most common since the thorough examination of the word by Fritzsche[3] and Lightfoot (Col.), and was taken by von Soden (Hand-Comm.). But the latter view, which was that of Origen and Chrysostom, has been strongly advocated by Pfleiderer,[4] and T. K. Abbott (International Critical Comm.).

Outside the NT the word occurs in Ignatius in a sense which is clearly influenced by the NT, and apparently in the meaning of the Divine fulness, as going forth and blessing and residing in the Church (Eph. Inscr. te eulogemen en megethei theou patros pleromati, and Trall. Inscr. en kai aspazomai en to pleromati, almost = en Christo).

Gnosticism[edit]

See also: Kenoma

In Gnosticism the use becomes yet more stereotyped and technical, though its applications are still very variable. The Gnostic writers appeal to the use in the NT (e.g. Iren I. iii. 4), and the word retains from it the sense of totality in contrast to the constituent parts; but the chief associations of pleroma in their systems are with Greek philosophy, and the main thought is that of a state of completeness in contrast to deficiency (hysterema, Iren. I. xvi. 3; Hippol. vi. 31), or of the fulness of real existence in contrast to the empty void and unreality of mere phenomena (kenoma, Iren. I. iv. 1). Thus in Cerinthus it expressed the fulness of the Divine Life out of which the Divine Christ descended upon the man Jesus at his baptism, and into which He returned (Iren. I. xxvi. 1, III. xi. 1, xvi. 1). In the Valentinian system it stands in antithesis to the essential incomprehensible Godhead, as 'the circle of the Divine attributes,' the various means by which God reveals Himself: it is the totality of the thirty aeons or emanations which proceed from God, but are separated alike from Him and from the material universe. It is at times almost localized, so that a thing is spoken of as 'within,' 'without,' 'above,' 'below' the Pleroma: more often it is the spirit-world, the archetypal ideal existing in the invisible heavens in contrast to the imperfect phenomenal manifestations of that ideal in the universe. Thus 'the whole Pleroma of the aeons' contributes each its own excellence to the historic Jesus, and He appears on earth 'as the perfect beauty and star of the Pleroma' (teleiotaton kallos kai astron tou pleromatos, Iren. I. xi. 6). Similarly it was used by writers as equivalent to the full completeness of perfect knowledge (Pistis Sophia, p. 15).

[Some] confess that the Father of all contains all things, and that there is nothing whatever outside of the Pleroma (for it is an absolute necessity that, [if there be anything outside of it,] it should be bounded and circumscribed by something greater than itself), and that they speak of what is without and what within in reference to knowledge and ignorance, and not with respect to local distance; but that, in the Pleroma, or in those things which are contained by the Father, the whole creation which we know to have been formed, having been made by the Demiurge, or by the angels, is contained by the unspeakable greatness, as the centre is in a circle, or as a spot is in a garment . . . .

— Iren. II. iv. 2

Again, each separate aeon is called a pleroma in contrast to its earthly imperfect counterpart, so that in this sense the plural can be used, pleromata (Iren. I. xiv. 2); and even each individual has his or her Pleroma or spiritual counterpart (to pleroma autes of the Samaritan woman,—Heracleon, ap. Origen, xiii. p. 205).

It thus expressed the various thoughts which we should express by the Godhead, the ideal, heaven; and it is probably owing to this ambiguity, as well as to its heretical associations, that the word dropped out of Christian theology. It is still used in its ordinary untechnical meaning, e.g. Theophylact speaks of the Trinity as pleroma tou theou; but no use so technical as that in Ignatius reappears.

Diagram of the Pleroma[edit]

Pleroma valentina.png

First the • (Point), the Monad, Bythus (the Deep), the unknown and unknowable Father. Then the Δ (Triangle), Bythus and the first emanated pair or Duad, Nous (Mind) and its syzygy Aletheia (Truth). Then the □ (Square), the dual Duad, Tetractys or Quaternary, two males ||, the Logos (Word) and Anthrôpos (Man), two females, their syzygies, = Zoê (Life) and Ekklesia (the Church or Assembly), Seven in all. The Triangle the Potentiality of Spirit, the Square the Potentiality of Matter; the Vertical Straight Line the Potency of Spirit, and the Horizontal the Potency of Matter. Next comes the Pentagram ⋆, the Pentad, the mysterious symbol of the Manasáputras or Sons of Wisdom, which together with their syzygies make 10, or the Decad; and last of all, the Hexalpha or interlaced Triangles ✡ the Hexad, which with their syzygies make 12, or the Dodecad. Such are the Contents of the Pleroma or Completion, the Ideas in the Divine Mind, 28 in all, for Bythus or the Father is not reckoned, as it is the Root of all. The two small circles within the Pleroma are the syzygy Christos-Pneuma (Christ and the Holy Spirit); these are after-emanations, and, as such, from one aspect, typify the descent of Spirit to inform and evolve Matter, which essentially proceeds from the same source; and from another, the descent or incarnation of the Kumâras or the Higher Egos of Humanity.

"What is the Pleroma?"

Answer: Pleroma is a Greek word that has to do with filling or being full, or completing or being complete. The word in various conjugations is common in the New Testament and is used in a variety of contexts. In Matthew 1:22 it is translated “to fulfill (prophecy),” and in Matthew 13:48 it is used to describe a full net of fish. In Acts 2:2 the sound of the rushing wind “filled” the house, and in Acts 2:28 Peter quotes David as being “full” of gladness. In non-biblical usage there are examples of pleroma being used of a “full” ship or even a “fully manned” ship. It is simply a normal Greek word without any inherent theological content.

The reason pleroma has become an issue is Paul’s use of it in Colossians 1:9 to speak of being “filled” with the knowledge of God’s will; in Colossians 1:25 to say that he is “fully” carrying out his ministry; in Colossians 2:10 to tell the believers they are “complete” in Christ; and in Colossians 4:17 to encourage someone to “complete” his ministry. These are all rather straightforward. In Colossians Paul uses the word pleroma two times in reference to Christ—each occurrence is a powerful statement of the deity of Christ. Colossians 1:19: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him”; and Colossians 2:9: “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form.”

The fact that Paul uses the word pleroma, which later became a prominent term in Gnostic theology, has led some to infer that Paul was a Gnostic and then, in turn, to try to interpret his writings, especially Colossians, in a Gnostic fashion.

In Gnostic writings, “the Pleroma” takes on a technical meaning. The Pleroma is that spiritual perfection that is in contrast to physical deficiency. (Gnostics believed that matter was evil.) In Gnosticism, the Pleroma descended upon Christ at His baptism and left Him at the crucifixion before His death. Gnostics also hope to be able to experience the Pleroma themselves as they progress in Gnostic teaching.

In the New Testament, the pleroma is the fullness of God, the complete set of divine attributes that were incarnated in Christ. Christ is fully God and fully man and will forever inhabit a glorified human body. He is the unique Son of God in this way. Although sons of God by faith will inherit a glorified body and are complete in Christ (as in Colossians 2:10) and indwelt by the Spirit of God, Christ is unique in His deity and sonship. In Gnosticism, “the Pleroma” is a spiritual fullness or perfection that descended upon Christ temporarily and can descend upon other human beings as well. The Pleroma will never be permanently attached to a physical body because matter is considered evil—only the spiritual is good. Therefore, the Gnostic understanding the Pleroma as it applies to both the uniqueness of Christ and the goodness of created matter is at odds with biblical teaching.

The Circle of the Pleroma is bounded by a circumference emanated from Bythus (the Point), this is called the Horus (Boundary), Staurus (Stock, Stake, or Cross) and Metæcheus (Participator); it shuts off the Pleroma (or Completion) from the Hystêrema (the Inferiority or Incompletion), the larger from the smaller Circle, the Unmanifested from the Manifested. Within the Circle of the Hysterêma is the Square of primordial Matter, or Chaos, emanated by Sophia, called the Ektrôma (or Abortion). Above this is a Triangle, primordial Spirit, called the Common Fruit of the Pleroma, or Jesus, for to all below the Pleroma it appears as a unity. Notice how the Triangle and Square of the Hysterêma are a reflection of the Triangle and Square of the Pleroma. Finally, the plane of the paper, enclosing and penetrating all, is Sigê (Silence).

— G.R.S. Mead & H.P. Blavatsky (after Valentinus)[5]

Neoplatonism[edit]

In a neoplatonic manifestation of the concept, John M. Dillon in his "Pleroma and Noetic Cosmos: A Comparative Study" states that Gnosticism imported its concept of the ideal realm or pleroma from Plato's concept of the cosmos and Demiurge in Timaeus and of Philo's Noetic cosmos in contrast to the aesthetic cosmos. Dillon does this by contrasting the Noetic cosmos to passages from the Nag Hammadi, where the aeons are expressed as the thoughts of God. Dillon expresses the concept that pleroma is a Gnostic adaptation of Hellenic ideas, since before Philo there is no Jewish tradition that accepts that the material world or cosmos was based on an ideal world that exists as well.[6]

Carl Jung[edit]

Carl Jung used the word in his mystical 1916 unpublished work, Seven Sermons to the Dead, which was finally published in Answer to Job (1952), and later in an appendix to the second edition of Jung's autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962). According to Jung, pleroma is both "nothing and everything. It is quite fruitless to think about pleroma. Therein both thinking and being cease, since the eternal and infinite possess no qualities."

Gregory Bateson[edit]

In his work on the Ecology of Mind, Gregory Bateson adopts and extends Jung's distinction between Pleroma (the non-living world that is undifferentiated by subjectivity) and Creatura (the living world, subject to perceptual difference, distinction, and information). What Bateson calls the "myth of power" is the epistemologically false application to Creatura of an element of Pleroma (non-living, undifferentiated).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleroma

Kindness is the characteristic that led God to provide salvation for us.

"But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit" Titus 3:4-5

In His kindness, God gives us green pastures, quiet waters, and the restoration of our souls when we're weary.

"He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake." Psalm 23:2-3

When we exhibit the kindness of God, we are tender, benevolent, and useful to others. Every action, every word will have the flavor of grace in it as we reflect our Lord Jesus Christ. To maintain this attitude toward those we love is hard enough. To express kindness toward those who are against us requires the work of God.

"12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you." Colossians 3:12-13

That is why kindness is a fruit of the Spirit.

Goodness is virtue and holiness in action. As a fruit, that is, a beneficial result, of the Spirit of God indwelling the saved person, their life is characterized by deeds motivated by righteousness and a desire to be a blessing. It's a moral characteristic of a Spirit-filled person.

As others see our good works, they will praise our Father in heaven!

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

This Thanksgiving we can thank God for His gifts of kindness and goodness to us through Christ Jesus!

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23

__________________________

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

Were I to define a Christian

(Letters of John Newton)

Were I to define a Christian, or rather to describe him at large, I know of no text I would choose, sooner than Galatians 5:17, "The sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other—so that you do not do what you want."

A Christian has noble aims—which distinguish him from the bulk of mankind. His leading principles, motives, and desires—are all supernatural and divine. Could he do as he desires—there is not a angel before the Eternal Throne, that would excel him in holiness, love, and obedience! He would tread in the very footsteps of his Savior, fill up every moment of time in His service, and employ every breath in His praise!

This he would do—but, alas! he cannot! Against these spiritual desires, there is a contrary desire and working of a corrupt nature, which meets him at every turn! He has a beautiful copy set before him in the Scriptures—he is enamored with it, and though he does not expect to equal it, he writes carefully after it, and longs to attain to the nearest possible imitation. But indwelling sin and Satan continually jog his hand, and spoil his strokes!

Therefore, the most spiritual and gracious people confess themselves as vile and worthless! One eminent branch of our holiness, is a sense of shame and humiliation for those evils which are only known to ourselves, and to Him who searches our hearts!

In proportion as the Lord enables you to live more simply upon the blood, righteousness, and grace of the Mediator—you will possess a more stable peace. The nearer you are brought to Him—the more lively sense you will have of your vileness and worthlessness; and your continual need of Him. Thereby your admiration of His power, love, and compassion, will increase from year to year.

Think of a bright light pouring into a room from two large windows: it enters from different places but becomes one light.

-A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation by Martin Laird

When we look within, the “I” that looks is saturated by this Vastness; when we look without, this “I” is liberated of itself by its immersion in the very Vastness that indwells it (Jn 14:10; 17:22–23), much like the sponge that is immersed in the ocean depth that fills its every membrane.

-A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation by Martin Laird

Boredom serves both to signal and to facilitate this transition, this changing of the guard

-A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation by Martin Laird

The indwelling Creator Spirit grounds not only life’s regularities but also the novel occurrences that open up the status quo, igniting what is unexpected, interruptive, genuinely uncontrolled, and unimaginably possible.

-Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love by Elizabeth A. Johnson

“the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now” (Rom. 8.22), like a woman in childbirth straining toward the arrival of new life. We ourselves also groan, he continues, waiting for the redemption of our bodies (8.23). In the midst of this agony dwells the Spirit, interceding “with sighs too deep for words”

-Ask the Beasts: Darwin and the God of Love by Elizabeth A. Johnson

St. Gregory of Nazianzus, “I am ashamed to write what I myself do night and day in this out-of-the-way place. For I have indeed left my life in the city… but I have not yet been able to leave myself behind…. For we carry our indwelling disorders about within us, and so are nowhere free from the same sort of disturbances.

-A Sunlit Absence: Silence, Awareness, and Contemplation

Martin Laird

with scented breath and look so like a smile,

seems, as it issues from the shapeless mould,

an emanation of the indwelling life,

a visible token of the upholding love,

that are the soul of this great universe.

~w.c. bryant

When grace happens, Christ enters. Christ in you, the hope of glory! For many years, I missed this truth. I believed all the other prepositions: Christ for me, Christ with me, Christ ahead of me. But I never imagined that Christ was in me. I can’t blame my deficiency on Scripture. Paul refers to the indwelling of Christ 216 times. John mentions his presence 26.

No other religion or philosophy makes such a claim. No other movement implies the living presence of its founder in his followers. Muhammad does not indwell Muslims. Buddha does not inhabit Buddhists. Influence? Instruct? Yes. But occupy? No.

The mystery of Christianity is summarized in Colossians 1:27, “Christ is in you!” Little by little a new image emerges! All because of God’s Grace!

GRACE. Max Lucado

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btw..as we dont have autumn here, i was messing with the greens..to cheat. :-)

The humble Christian

(John Newton)

"By the grace of God, I am what I am!" 1 Corinthians 15:10

The humble Christian will not be easily angered — nor will he be dogmatic and judgmental.

He will be compassionate and tender towards the infirmities of his fellow-sinners; knowing, that, if there is any difference between himself and others — it is grace of God that has made it. He knows that he has the seeds of every evil in his own heart!

Also, under all trials and afflictions, the humble Christian will look to the hand of the Lord, and lay his mouth in the dust — acknowledging that he suffers much less than his iniquities have deserved.

A deep sense of indwelling sin is essential to humble living.

These are some of the advantages and good fruits which the Lord enables us to obtain from that bitter root, indwelling sin.

Where Do Mermaids Come From?

Where do mermaids come from? Mermaid legends are told all over the world. We hear of mermaids in Ireland, Scotland, England, Israel, India, Greece, Syria, China, and in Africa. How is it that so many different cultures across the world have their own mermaid legends? How is it that cultures far away from one another have similar tales of mermaids? Most people believe mermaids are mythical creatures fit for a kid’s imagination and nothing more. But legends come from somewhere. Truth lies behind every legend, including the legends of mermaids and where they come from. A new age concept tells us mermaid origins come from lost civilizations like Lemuria and Atlantis. Learn more below.

Edgar Cayce on Atlantis I

364-1

2. Atlantis as a continent is a legendary tale. Whether or not that which has been received through psychic sources has for its basis those few lines given by Plato, or the references made in Holy writ that the earth was divided, depends upon the trend of individual minds. Recently, however, the subject has taken on greater import, since some scientists have declared that such a continent was not only a reasonable and plausible matter, but from evidences being gradually gathered was a very probable condition.

3. As we recognize, there has been considerable given respecting such a lost continent by those channels such as the writer of Two Planets, or Atlantis - or Poseida and Lemuria - that has been published through some of the Theosophical literature. As to whether this information is true or not, depends upon the credence individuals give to this class of information.

4. Then, it has seemed well to many of this group, that those channels through which information may be obtained interest themselves in such an undertaking, as to gain through those channels such information that might be applicable in the lives or experiences of individuals interested in such.

5. From time to time, in and through the information obtained for some individuals in their life readings, has come that they, as an entity or individual, occupied some particular place, or performed some activity in some portion of that continent; or emigrated from the continent to some other portion of the earth's surface at the time, and began some particular development. These must have been a busy folk, for with their advent into other climes (as the information runs) they began to make many changes from the activities in that particular sphere in which they entered.

6. Then, if we are to accept such as being a fact or fiction, may truly depend upon what value to the human family knowledge concerning such a peoples would be in the affairs of individuals today. What contribution would information be to the minds of individuals, as to knowing or understanding the better or closer relations to the Creative Forces? Or, to put it another manner, what would information of that nature mean to my SOUL today?

7. Be it true that there IS the fact of reincarnation, and that souls that once occupied such an environ are entering the earth's sphere and inhabiting individuals in the present, is it any wonder that - if they made such alterations in the affairs of the earth in their day, as to bring destruction upon themselves - if they are entering now, they might make many changes in the affairs of peoples and individuals in the present? Are they, then, BEING born into the world? If so, what WERE their environs - and will those environs mean in a material world today?

364-3

1. EC: Yes, we have the subject and those conditions. As has been said, much data has been received from time to time through psychic forces as respecting conditions in or through the period, or ages, of this continent's existence. That the continent existed is being proven as a fact.

2. Then, what took place during the period, or periods, when it was being broken up? What became of the inhabitants? What was the character of their civilization? Are there any evidences of those, or any portion of, the inhabitants' escape? The POSITION of the continent, and the like, MUST be of interest to peoples in the present day, if either by inference that individuals are being born into the earth plane to develop in the present, or are people being guided in their spiritual interpretation of individuals' lives or developments BY the spirits of those who inhabited such a continent. In either case, if these be true, they ARE WIELDING - and are to wield - an influence upon the happenings of the present day world.

3. The position as the continent Atlantis occupied, is that as between the Gulf of Mexico on the one hand - and the Mediterranean upon the other. Evidences of this lost civilization are to be found in the Pyrenees and Morocco on the one hand, British Honduras, Yucatan and America upon the other. There are some protruding portions within this that must have at one time or another been a portion of this great continent. The British West Indies or the Bahamas, and a portion of same that may be seen in the present - if the geological survey would be made in some of these - especially, or notably, in Bimini and in the Gulf Stream through this vicinity, these may be even yet determined.

4. What, then, are the character of the peoples? To give any proper conception, may we follow the line of a group, or an individual line, through this continent's existence - and gain from same something of their character, their physiognomy, and their spiritual and physical development.

5. In the period, then - some hundred, some ninety-eight thousand years before the entry of Ram into India [See 364-3, Par. R2] - there lived in this land of Atlantis one Amilius [?], who had first NOTED that of the separations of the beings as inhabited that portion of the earth's sphere or plane of those peoples into male and female as separate entities, or individuals. As to their forms in the physical sense, these were much RATHER of the nature of THOUGHT FORMS, or able to push out OF THEMSELVES in that direction in which its development took shape in thought - much in the way and manner as the amoeba would in the waters of a stagnant bay, or lake, in the present. As these took form, by the gratifying of their own desire for that as builded or added to the material conditions, they became hardened or set - much in the form of the existent human body of the day, with that of color as partook of its surroundings much in the manner as the chameleon in the present. Hence coming into that form as the red, or the mixture peoples - or colors; known then later by the associations as the RED race. These, then, able to use IN their gradual development all the forces as were manifest in their individual surroundings, passing through those periods of developments as has been followed more closely in that of the yellow, the black, or the white races, in other portions of the world; yet with their immediate surroundings, with the facilities for the developments, these became much speedier in this particular portion of the globe than in others - and while the destruction of this continent and the peoples are far beyond any of that as has been kept as an absolute record, that record in the rocks still remains - as has that influence OF those peoples in that life of those peoples to whom those that did escape during the periods of destruction make or influence the lives of those peoples TO whom they came. As they MAY in the present, either through the direct influence of being regenerated, or re-incarnated into the earth, or through that of the MENTAL application on through the influences as may be had upon thought OF individuals or groups by speaking from that environ.

6. In the MANNER of living, in the manner of the moral, of the social, of the religious life of these peoples: There, classes existed much in the same order as existed among others; yet the like of the warlike INFLUENCE did NOT exist in the peoples - AS a people - as it did in the OTHER portions of the universe.

364-4

2. EC: Yes, we have the subject here, The Lost Continent of Atlantis.

3. As the peoples were a peaceful peoples, their developments took on rather that form - with the developing into the physical material bodies - of the fast development, or to the using of the elements about them to their own use; recognizing themselves to be a part OF that about them. Hence, as to the supplying of that as necessary to sustain physical life as known today, in apparel, or supplying of the bodily needs, these were supplied through the natural elements; and the DEVELOPMENTS came rather in the forms - as would be termed in the PRESENT day - of preparing for those things that would pertain to what would be termed the aerial age, or the electrical age, and supplying then the modes and manners of transposition of those materials about same that did not pertain to themselves bodily; for of themselves was transposed, rather by that ability lying within each to be transposed in thought as in body.

4. In these things, then, did Amilius [?] see the beginning of, and the abilities of, those of his own age, era, or period, not only able to build that as able to transpose or build up the elements about them but to transpose them bodily from one portion of the universe to the other, THROUGH the uses of not only those RECENTLY re-discovered gases, and those of the electrical and aeriatic formations - in the breaking up of the atomic forces to produce impelling force to those means and modes of transposition, or of travel, or of lifting large weights, or of changing the faces or forces of nature itself, but with these transpositions, with these changes that came in as personalities, we find these as the Sons of the Creative Force as manifest in their experience looking upon those changed forms, or the daughters of men, and there crept in those pollutions, of polluting themselves with those mixtures that brought contempt, hatred, bloodshed, and those that build for desires of self WITHOUT respects of OTHERS' freedom, others' wishes - and there began, then, in the latter portion of this period of development, that that brought about those of dissenting and divisions among the peoples in the lands. With the attempts of those still in power, through those lineages of the pure, that had kept themselves intact as of the abilities of forces as were manifest IN their activities, these BUILDED rather those things that ATTEMPTED to draw BACK those peoples; through first the various changes or seasons that came about, and in the latter portion of the experience of Amilius [?] was the first establishing of the altars upon which the sacrifices of the field and the forest, and those that were of that that SATISFIED the desires of the physical body, were builded.

5. Then, with the coming in or the raising up of Esai [?], with the change that had come about, began in that period when there were the invasions of this continent by those of the animal kingdoms, that brought about that meeting of the nations of the globe to PREPARE a way and manner of disposing of, else they be disposed of themselves by these forces. With this coming in, there came then the first of the destructive forces as could be set and then be meted out in its force or power. Hence that as is termed, or its first beginning of, EXPLOSIVES that might be carried about, came with this reign, or this period, when MAN - or MEN, then - began to cope with those of the beast form that OVERRAN the earth in many places. Then, with these destructive forces, we find the first turning of the altar fires into that of sacrifice of those that were taken in the various ways, and human sacrifice began. With this also came the first egress of peoples to that of the Pyrenees first, OF which later we find that peoples who enter into the black or the mixed peoples, in what later became the Egyptian dynasty. We also find that entering into Og, or those peoples that later became the beginning of the Inca, or Ohum [Aymara'?], that builded the walls across the mountains in this period, through those same usages of that as had been taken on by those peoples; and with the same, those that made for that in the other land, became first those of the mound dwellers, or peoples in that land. With the continued disregard of those that were keeping the pure race and the pure peoples, of those that were to bring all these laws as applicable to the Sons of God, man brought in the destructive forces as used for the peoples that were to be the rule, that combined with those natural resources of the gases, of the electrical forces, made in nature and natural form the first of the eruptions that awoke from the depth of the slow cooling earth, and that portion now near what would be termed the Sargasso Sea first went into the depths. With this there again came that egress of peoples that aided, or attempted to assume control, yet carrying with them ALL those forms of Amilius [?] that he gained through that as for signs, for seasons, for days, for years. Hence we find in those various portions of the world even in the present day, some form of that as WAS presented by those peoples in THAT great DEVELOPMENT in this, the Eden of the world.

6. In the latter portion of same we find as CITIES were builded more and more rare became those abilities to call upon rather the forces in nature to supply the needs for those of bodily adornment, or those of the needs to supply the replenishing of the wasting away of the physical being; or hunger arose, and with the determinations to set again in motion, we find there - then Ani [?] [See the name ANI mentioned on pp. 6, 57, 187 and 324 of the book, MYTHS & LEGENDS OF ANCIENT EGYPT, by Lewis Spence.] [GD's note: I put a question mark because I didn't know whether this was the correct spelling or not.], in those latter periods, ten thousand seven hundred (10,700) years before the Prince of Peace came - again was the bringing into forces that to TEMPT, as it were, nature - in its storehouse - of replenishing the things - that of the WASTING away in the mountains, then into the valleys, then into the sea itself, and the fast disintegration of the lands, as well as of the peoples - save those that had escaped into those distant lands.

7. How, then, may this be applicable to our present day understanding? As we see the effects as builded in that about the sacred fires, as through those of Hermes, those of Arart, those of the Aztec, those of Ohum [Aymara'?], each in their respective sphere CARRYING some portion of these blessings - when they are kept in accord and PURE with those through which the channels of the blessings, of the Creative Forces, may manifest. So, we find, when we apply the lessons in the day - would ye be true, keep that EVERY WHIT thou KNOWEST to do within thine own heart! Knowing, as ye USE that as is KNOWN, there is given the more and more light to know from whence ye came and whither ye go!

8. Ready for questions.

9. (Q) Please give a description of the earth's surface as it existed at the time of Atlantis' highest civilization, using the names of continents, oceans and sections of same as we know them today?

(A) As to the highest point of civilization, this would first have to be determined according to the standard as to which it would be judged - as to whether the highest point was when Amilius [?] ruled with those understandings, as the one that understood the variations, or whether they became man made, would depend upon whether we are viewing from a spiritual standpoint or upon that as a purely material or commercial standpoint; for the variations, as we find, extend over a period of some two hundred thousand years (200,000) - that is, as light years - as known in the present - and that there were MANY changes in the surface of what is now called the earth. In the first, or greater portion, we find that NOW known as the southern portions of South America and the Arctic or North Arctic regions, while those in what is NOW as Siberia - or that as of Hudson Bay - was rather in that region of the tropics, or that position now occupied by near what would be as the same LINE would run, of the southern Pacific, or central Pacific regions - and about the same way. Then we find, with this change that came first in that portion, when the first of those peoples used that as prepared FOR the changes in the earth, we stood near the same position as the earth occupies in the present - as to Capricorn, or the equator, or the poles. Then, with that portion, THEN the South Pacific, or Lemuria [?], began its disappearance - even before Atlantis, for the changes were brought about in the latter portion of that period, or what would be termed ten thousand seven hundred (10,700) light years, or earth years, or present setting of those, as set by Amilius [?] - or Adam.

364-5

2. EC: Yes, we have the information as given respecting the continent Atlantis. In the considerations that may be had concerning such information, many are the questions that must naturally arise in the minds of individuals who would consider same in any way or manner. However, will a very close check be kept upon those who evince an interest, these will be found to be those who occupy in the present some influence innate or manifested from their experience or sojourn under or in that environ. As has been given, this would be well to do; for to the analytical or to the research character of mind, there will be little that may escape the attention of such a mind - when spiritual or psychic, or occult, or those kindred subjects are approached - as to how quick there is the desire, that expression of "I know it, but don't know how to tell it, will be in that individual's or entity's feeling, and expression - when one may be obtained at all. They will immediately become the dreamer! Try this!

3. Ready for questions.

4. (Q) Explain the information given regarding Amilius [?], who first noted the separation of the peoples into male and female, as it relates to the story in the Bible of Adam and Eve, in the Garden of Eden giving the name of the symbols Adam, Eve, the apple, and the serpent.

(A) This would require a whole period of a lecture period for this alone; for, as is seen, that as is given is the presentation of a teacher of a peoples that separated for that definite purpose of keeping alive in the minds, the hearts, the SOUL minds of entities, that there may be seen their closer relationship to the divine influences of Creative Forces, that brought into being all that appertains to man's indwelling as man in the form of flesh in this material world. These are presented in symbols of that thought as held by those peoples from whom the physical recorder took those records as compiled, with that gained by himself in and through the entering into that state where the entity's soul mind drew upon the records that are made by the passing of time itself in a material world. As given, these are records not only of the nature as has been termed or called akashic records (that is, of a mental or soul record), but that in a more material nature as set down in stone, that was attempted to be done - HAS been attempted to be done throughout ALL time! WHY does man NOW set in stone those that are representatives of that desired to be kept in mind by those making records for future generations? There are many more materials more lasting, as is known to many.

In the records, then, as this: There are, as seen, the records made by the man in the mount, that this Amilius [?] - Adam, as given - first discerned that from himself, not of the beasts about him, could be drawn - WAS drawn - that which made for the propagation OF beings IN the flesh, that made for that companionship as seen by creation in the material worlds about same. The story, the tale (if chosen to be called such), is one and the same. The apple, as 'the apple of the eye', the desire of that companionship innate in that created, as innate in the Creator, that brought companionship into the creation itself. Get that one!

In this there comes, then, that which is set before that created - or having TAKEN ON that form, able of projecting itself in WHATEVER direction it chose to take, as given; able to make itself OF that environ, in color, in harmony, in WHATEVER source that makes for the spirit of that man would attempt to project in music, in art, in ANY form that may even be conceivable to the mind itself in what may be termed its most lucid moments, in its most esoteric moments, in its highest animation moments; for were He not the SON of the living God made manifest, that He might be the companion in a made world, in material manifested things, with the injunction to subdue all, BRING all in the material things under subjection - all UNDER subjection - by that ability to project itself IN its way? KNOWING itself, as given, to be a portion OF the whole, in, through, of, by the whole? In this desire, then, keep - as the injunction was - thine self separate: OF that seen, but NOT that seen. The apple, then, that desire for that which made for the associations that bring carnal-minded influences of that brought as sex influence, known in a material world, and the partaking of same is that which brought the influence in the lives of that in the symbol of the serpent, that made for that which creates the desire that may be only satisfied in gratification of carnal forces, as partake of the world and its influences about same - rather than of the spiritual emanations from which it has its source. Will control - inability of will control, if we may put it in common parlance.

364-6

1. GC: You will have before you the material and information given through this channel on the lost continent of Atlantis, a copy of which I hold in my hand. You will answer the questions which I will ask regarding this:

2. EC: Yes, we have the information as written here, as given. In following out that as just given, with these changes coming in the experience of Amilius [?] and I [Ai? Ay?], Adam and Eve, the knowledge of their position, or that as is known in the material world today as desires and physical bodily charms, the understanding of sex, sex relationships, came into the experience. With these came the natural fear of that as had been forbidden, that they know themselves to be a part of but not OF that as partook of EARTHLY, or the desires in the manner as were ABOUT them, in that as had been their heritage.

3. Were this turned to that period when this desire, then, becomes consecrated in that accomplished again in the virgin body of the mother of the SON of man, we see this is then crystallized into that, that even that of the flesh may be - with the proper concept, proper desire in all its purity - consecrated to the LIVING forces as manifest by the ability in that body so brought into being, as to make a way of escape for the ERRING man. Hence we have found throughout the ages, so oft the times when conception of truth became rampant with free-love, with the desecration of those things that brought to these in the beginning that of the KNOWLEDGE of their existence, as to that that may be termed - and betimes became - the MORAL, or morality OF a people. Yet this same feeling, this same exaltation that comes from association of kindred bodies - that have their lives consecrated in a purposefulness, that makes for the ability of retaining those of the essence of creation in every virile body - can be made to become the fires that light truth, love, hope, patience, peace, harmony; for they are EVER the key to those influences that fire the imaginations of those that are gifted in ANY form of depicting the high emotions of human experience, whether it be in the one or the other fields, and hence is judged by those that may not be able, or through desire submit themselves - as did Amilius [?] and I [?] to those ELEMENTS, through the forces in the life as about them.

7. (Q) How large was Atlantis during the time of Amilius?

(A) Comparison, that of Europe including Asia in Europe - not Asia, but Asia in Europe - see? This composed, as seen, in or after the first of the destructions, that which would be termed now - with the present position - the southernmost portion of same - islands as created by those of the first (as man would call) volcanic or eruptive forces brought into play in the destruction of same.

8. (Q) Was Atlantis one large continent, or a group of large islands?

(A) Would it not be well to read just that given? Why confuse in the questionings? As has been given, what would be considered one large continent, until the first eruptions brought those changes - from what would now, with the present position of the earth in its rotation, or movements about its sun, through space, about Arcturus, about the Pleiades, that of a whole or one continent. Then with the breaking up, producing more of the nature of large islands, with the intervening canals or ravines, gulfs, bays or streams, as came from the various ELEMENTAL forces that were set in motion by this CHARGING - as it were - OF the forces that were collected as the basis for those elements that would produce destructive forces, as might be placed in various quarters or gathering places of those beasts, or the periods when the larger animals roved the earth - WITH that period of man's indwelling. Let it be remembered, or not confused, that the EARTH was peopled by ANIMALS before peopled by man! First that of a mass, which there arose the mist, and then the rising of same with light breaking OVER that as it SETTLED itself, as a companion of those in the universe, as it began its NATURAL (or now natural) rotations, with the varied effects UPON the various portions of same, as it slowly - and is slowly - receding or gathering closer to the sun, from which it receives its impetus for the awakening of the elements that give life itself, by radiation of like elements from that which it receives from the sun. Hence that of one type, that has been through the ages, of mind - that gives the SUN as the father OF light in the earth. Elements have their attraction and detraction, or those of ANIMOSITY and those of gathering together. This we see throughout all of the kingdoms, as may be termed, whether we speak of the heavenly hosts or of those of the stars, or of the planets, or of the various forces within any or all of same, they have their attraction or detraction. The attraction increases that as gives an impulse, that that becomes the aid, the stimuli, or an impulse to create. Hence, as may be seen - or may be brought to man's own - that of attraction one for another gives that STIMULI, that IMPULSE, to be the criterion of, or the gratification of, those influences in the experience of individuals or entities. To smother same oft becomes deteriorations for each other, as may come about in any form, way or manner. Accidents happen in creation, as well as in individuals' lives! Peculiar statement here, but - true!

9. (Q) What were the principal islands called at the time of the final destruction?

(A) Poseidia and Aryan [?], and Og [?].

10. (Q) Describe one of the ships of the air that was used during the highest period of mechanical development in Atlantis.

(A) Much of the nature, in the EARLIER portion, as would be were the hide of MANY of the pachyderm, or elephants, many into the CONTAINERS for the gases that were used as both lifting and for the impelling of the crafts about the various portions of the continent, and even abroad. These, as may be seen, took on those abilities not only to pass through that called air, or that heavier, but through that of water - when they received the impetus from the NECESSITIES of the peoples in that particular period, for the safety of self. The shape and form, then, in the earlier portion, depended upon which or what skins were used for the containers. The metals that were used as the braces, these were the COMBINATIONS then of what is NOW a lost art - the TEMPERED brass, the temperament of that as becomes between aluminum (as now called) and that of uranium, with those of the fluxes that are from those of the COMBINED elements of the iron, that is carbonized with those of other fluxes - see? These made for lightness of structure, non-conductor OR conductors of the electrical forces - that were used for the IMPELLING of same, rather than the gases - which were used as the lifting. See? For that as in the NATURE'S forces may be turned into even the forces OF that that makes life, as given, from the sun rays to those elements that make for, or find CORRESPONDING reaction in their APPLICATION of same, or reflection of same, TO the rays itself - or a different or changed form of storage of FORCE, as called electrical in the present.

11. We are through for the present.

364-7

3. (Q) How is the legend of Lilith connected with the period of Amilius?

(A) In the beginning, as was outlined, there was presented that that became as the Sons of God, in that male and female were as one, with those abilities for those changes as were able or capable of being brought about. In the changes that came from those THINGS, as were of the projections of the abilities of those entities to project, this as a being came as the companion; and when there was that turning to the within, through the sources of creation, as to make for the helpmeet of that as created by the first cause, or of the Creative Forces that brought into being that as was made, THEN - from out of self - was brought that as was to be the helpmeet, NOT just companion of the body. Hence the legend of the associations of the body during that period before there was brought into being the last of the creations, which was not of that that was NOT made, but the first of that that WAS made, and a helpmeet to the body, that there might be no change in the relationship of the SONS of God WITH those relationships of the sons and daughters of men.

In this then, also comes that as is held by many who have reached especially to that understanding of how NECESSARY, then, becomes the PROPER mating of those souls that may be the ANSWERS one to another of that that may bring, through that association, that companionship, into being that that may be the more helpful, more sustaining, more the well- ROUNDED life or experience of those that are a PORTION one of another. Do not misinterpret, but knowing that all are OF one - yet there are those divisions that make for a CLOSER union, when there are the proper relationships brought about. As an illustration, in this:

In the material world we find there is in the mineral kingdom those elements that are of the nature as to form a closer union one with another, and make as for compounds as make for elements that act more in unison with, or against, other forms of activity in the experience in the earth's environ, or the earth's force, as makes for those active forces in the ELEMENTS that are ABOUT the earth. Such as we may find in those that make for the active forces in that of uranium, and that of ultramarine, and these make then for an element that becomes the more active force as with the abilities for the rates of emanation as may be thrown off from same. So, as illustrated in the union, then, of - in the PHYSICAL compounds - that as may vibrate, or make for emanations in the activities of their mental and spiritual, and material, or physical forces, as may make for a GREATER activity in this earth environ. Then, there may be seen that as is in an elemental, or compound, that makes for that as is seen in the material experience as to become an antipathy for other elements that are as equally necessary in the experience of man's environ as in the combination of gases as may produce whenever combined that called water, and its antipathy for the elements in combustion is easily seen or known in man's experience.

So in those unions of that in the elemental forces of creative energies that take on the form of man, either in that of man or woman, with its NATURAL or ELEMENTAL, see? ELEMENTAL forces of its vibration, with the union of two that vibrate or respond to those vibrations in self, create for that ideal that becomes as that, in that created, in the form - as is known as radium, with its fast emittal vibrations, that brings for active forces, principles, that makes for such atomic forces within the active principles of all nature in its active force as to be one of the elemental bases from which life in its essence, as an active principle in a material world, has its sources, give off that which is EVER good - unless abused, see? So in that may there be basis for THOSE forces, as HAS been, as IS sought, thought, or ATTAINED BY those who have, through the abilities of the vibrations, to make for a continued force in self as to meet, know, see, feel, understand, those sources from which such begets that of its kind, or as those that become as an antipathy for another, or as makes for those that makes for the variations in the tempering of the various elements, compounds, or the like; so, as is seen, THESE - then - the BASIS for those things as has been given here, there, in their various ways and manners, as to the companion of, and COMPANIONS of, that that first able - through its projection of itself and its abilities in the creation - to bring about that that was either of its OWN making, or creation, or that given in the beginning to BE the force THROUGH which there might BE that that would bring ever blessings, good, right, and love, in even the physical or material world. See?

4. (Q) How long did it take for the division into male and female?

(A) That depends upon which, or what branch or LINE is considered. When there was brought into being that as of the projection of that created BY that created, this took a period of evolutionary - or, as would be in the present year, fourscore and six year. That as brought into being as was of the creating OF that that became a portion of, OF that that was already created by the CREATOR, THAT brought into being as WERE those of the forces of nature itself. God said, "Let there be light" and there WAS light! God said, "Let there be life" and there WAS life!

5. (Q) Were the thought forms that were able to push themselves out of themselves inhabited by souls, or were they of the animal kingdom?

(A) That as created by that CREATED, of the animal kingdom. That created as by the Creator, with the soul.

6. (Q) What was meant by the Sons of the Highest in Atlantis and the second coming of souls to the earth, as mentioned in a life reading given thru this channel? [See 2802-1 on 5/18/25.]

(A) In this period or age, as was seen - There is fault of words here to PROJECT that as actually OCCURS in the FORMATIONS of that as comes about! There was, with the WILL of that as came into being through the correct channels, of that as created by the Creator, that of the CONTINUING of the souls in its projection and projection - see? while in that as was OF the offspring, of that as pushed itself INTO form to SATISFY, GRATIFY, that of the desire of that known as carnal forces of the SENSES, of those created, there continued to be the war one with another, and there were then - FROM the other SOURCES (worlds) the continuing entering of those that WOULD make for the keeping of the balance, as of the first purpose of the Creative Forces, as it magnifies itself in that given sphere of activity, of that that had been GIVEN the ABILITY to CREATE with its OWN activity - see? and hence the second, or the CONTINUED entering of souls into that known as the earth's plane during this period, for that activity as was brought about. Let's REMEMBER that as was given, in the second, third from Adam, or fourth, or from Amilius, there was "In that day did they CALL UPON the NAME of the Lord" - is right! and ever, when the elements that make for littleness, uncleanness, are crucified in the body, the SPIRIT of the Lord, of God, is present! When these are overbalanced, so that the body (physical), the mental man, the imagination of its heart, is evil, or his purpose is evil, then is that war continuing - as from the beginning. Just the continued warring of those things within self as from the beginning; for with these changes as brought SIN into the world, with same came the FRUITS of same, or the seed as of sin, which we see in the material world as those things that corrupt good ground, those that corrupt the elements that are of the compounds of those of the first causes, or elementals, and pests are seen - and the like, see? So does it follow throughout all creative forces, that the fruits of that as is active brings that seed that makes for the corrupting of, or the clearing of, in the activative forces of, that BEING acted upon.

7. (Q) What was meant by "As in the first Adam sin entered, so in the last Adam all shall be made alive?"

(A) Adam's entry into the world in the beginning, then, must become the savior OF the world, as it was committed to his care, "Be thou fruitful, multiply, and SUBDUE the earth!" Hence Amilius, Adam, the first Adam, the last Adam, becomes - then - that that is GIVEN the POWER OVER the earth, and - as in each soul the first to be conquered is self - then ALL THINGS, conditions and elements, are subject unto that self!

That a universal law, as may be seen in that as may be demonstrated either in gases that destroy one another by becoming elements of the same, or that in the mineral or the animal kingdom as may be found that destroy, or BECOME one WITH the other. Hence, as Adam given - the SON of God - so he MUST become that that would be able to take the world, the earth, back to that source from which it came, and ALL POWER is given in his keeping in the earth, that he has overcome; self, death, hell and the grave even, become subservient unto Him THROUGH the conquering of self in that made flesh; for, as in the beginning was the word, the Word WAS with God, the Word WAS God, the same was IN the beginning. The Word came and dwelt among men, the offspring of self in a material world, and the Word OVERCAME the world - and hence the world BECOMES, then, as the servant of that that overcame the world!

8. (Q) Please give the important re-incarnations of Adam in the world's history.

(A) In the beginning as Amilius, as Adam, as Melchizedek, as Zend [?], as Ur [?] [Enoch? GD's note: Perhaps Ur was prehistory person [364-9, Par. 3-A] who established Ur of the Chaldees? I don't think he was mentioned anywhere else in the readings as an incarnation of Jesus.], as Asaph [?] [Songs of Asaph? See Ps. 81:5 indicating that Joseph and Asaph were one and the same?], as Jesus [Jeshua] - Joseph - Jesus. [See 364-9, Par. 3-A.]

Then, as that coming into the world in the second coming - for He will come again and receive His own, who have prepared themselves through that belief in Him and acting in that manner; for the SPIRIT is abroad, and the time draws near, and there will be the reckoning of those even as in the first so in the last, and the last shall be first; for there is that Spirit abroad - He standeth near. He that hath eyes to see, let him see. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear that music of the coming of the Lord of this vineyard, and art THOU ready to give account of that THOU hast done with thine opportunity in the earth as the Sons of God, as the heirs and joint heirs of glory WITH the Son? Then make thine paths straight, for there must come an answering for that THOU hast done with thine Lord! He will not tarry, for having overcome He shall appear even AS the Lord AND Master. Not as one born, but as one that returneth to His own, for He will walk and talk with men of every clime, and those that are faithful and just in their reckoning shall be caught up with Him to rule and to do JUDGEMENT for a thousand years!

9. (Q) Describe some of the mental abilities that were developed by the Atlanteans at the time of their greatest spiritual development.

(A) Impossible to describe achievements physical in their spiritual development. The use of MATERIAL conditions and spiritual attributes in a material world would, and do, become that as are the miracles of the Son in the material world; for even as with Him in - and as He walked, whether in Galilee, in Egypt, in India, in France, in England, or America - there WERE those periods when the activities of the physical were as was what would be termed the everyday life of the SONS of God in the Atlantean or Eden experience; for as those brought the various changes from the highest of the SPIRITUAL development to the highest of the mental, then of the MATERIAL or physical developments, then the fall - see?

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Edgar Cayce on Atlantis II

364-10

1. GC: You will have before you the information given through this channel on the lost continent of Atlantis. You will please continue with this information, and answer the questions which I will ask regarding same.

2. EC: Yes. In understanding, then, in the present terminology, occult science, or psychic science - as seen, this was the natural or nature's activity in that experience, and not termed a science - any more than would be the desire for food by a new born babe. Rather the natural consequence. This explanation may of necessity take on some forms that may possibly be confusing at times, but illustrations may be made through the various types of occult science, or psychic manifestations, that may clarify for the student something of the various types of psychic manifestations in the present, as well as that that was natural in this period.

3. There is, as has been oft given, quite a difference - and much differentiation should be made - in mysticism and psychic, or occult science as termed today.

4. From that which has been given, it is seen that individuals in the beginning were more of thought forms than individual entities with personalities as seen in the present, and their projections into the realms of fields of thought that pertain to a developing or evolving world of matter, with the varied presentations about same, of the expressions or attributes in the various things about the entity or individual, or body, through which such science - as termed now, or such phenomena as would be termed - became manifest. Hence we find occult or psychic science, as would be called at the present, was rather the natural state of man in the beginning. Very much as (in illustration) when a baby, or babe, is born into the world and its appetite is first satisfied, and it lies sleeping. Of what is its dreams? That it expects to be, or that it has been? Of what are thoughts? That which is to be, or that which has been, or that which is? Now remember we are speaking - these were thought forms, and we are finding again the illustrations of same!

5. When the mental body (Now revert back to what you are calling science) - when the mental body, or mind, has had training, or has gone through a course of operations in certain directions, such individuals are called so-and-so minded; as one of an inventive turn, and trained; one of a statistician turn, and trained; one of a theologian turn, and trained; one of philosophical turn, and trained. Of what does the mind build? We have turned, then, to that that has become very material, for the mind constantly trained makes for itself MENTAL pictures, or makes for that as is reasoned with from its own present dimensional viewpoints - but the babe, from whence its reasoning? from whence its dream? From that that has been taken in, or that that has been its experience from whence it came? Oft has it been said, and rightly, with a babe's smile 'Dreaming of angels', and close in touch with them - but what has PRODUCED that dream? The contact with that upon which IT has fed! Don't forget our premise now from which we are reasoning! and we will find that we will have the premise from which those individuals, or the entities, reasoned within the beginning in this land. (We are speaking of Atlanteans, when they became as thought forces.) From whence did THEY reason? From the Creative Forces from which they had received their impetus, but acted upon by the thought FORMS as were in MATERIAL forms about them, and given that power (will) to be one WITH that from what it sprang or was given its impetus, or force, yet with the ability to USE that in the way that seemed, or seemeth, good or well, or pleasing, unto itself. Hence we find in this particular moulding or mouldive stage, that in which there was the greater development of, and use of, that as is termed or called psychic and occult forces, or science - in the present terminology, or age.

6. Illustrating, then, that as to how this was used by those entities, those beings, in the formative stage of their experience or sojourn among that as had been created in all of its splendor to supply every want or desire that might be called forth by that being, with all of its attributes physical, mental AND SPIRITUAL at hand; for, as has been given, even unto the four hundred thousandth generation from the first creation was it prepared for man's indwelling. As we today (turn to today), we find there the developments of those resources. How long have they remained? Since the beginning! How long has man been able to use them for his undoing, or his pleasure, or for his regeneration? Since the knowledge of some source has awakened within its psychic force, or source, of the apparatus, or the form that it takes, either in a physical or mental (for remember, Mind is the Builder - and it moves along those channels through which, and by which, it may bring into existence in whatever dimension or sphere from which it is reasoning, or reasoning toward - see) - and as these may be illustrated in the present:

7. When there is a manifestation of a psychic force, or an occult action, or phenomena, or activity in, upon, of or for, an individual, there is then the rolling back, as it were, or a portion of the physical consciousness - or that mental trained individual consciousness - has been rolled aside, or rolled back, and there is then a visioning - To what? That as from the beginning, a projection OF that form that assumed its position or condition in the earth as from the beginning, and with those so endowed with that as may be called an insight into psychic sources there may be visioned about a body its astral (if chosen to be termed), rather its THOUGHT body, as is projected FROM same in such a state; especially so when there is the induction, or the inducing of, an unconsciousness of the normal brain, or normal mental body. Submerged - into what? Into the unconscious, or subconscious. Sub, in THIS instance, meaning BELOW - not above normal; below - SUBJECTED to the higher consciousness, or to the higher thought, that has been builded - just as sure as has a physical body been builded, from what?

That as has been given from its first nucleus as passed through in its experience. Then there may be visioned by such a body, as may be called with the second sight, or with a vision, that accompanying thought body of such an one, manifesting in much the way and manner as individuals in the Atlantean period of psychic and occult development brought about in their experience. Through such projections there came about that first necessity of the division of the body, to conform to those necessities of that as seen in its own mental vision as builded (MENTAL now - Don't confuse these terms, or else you will become VERY confused in what is being given!).

8. The mental vision by its action upon what body is being builded? On the mental body of the individual in a material world, out of Spirit, out of the ability to have all the attributes of the spiritual or unseen forces - but MATERIALIZED forces, as is necessary from the mental body in a material world MENTALLY trained to, or in, certain directions, or given directions, or following the natural bent of its threefold or threeply body, as is seen in every individual or every entity. As these projected themselves, then we find these DEVELOPMENTS were in this portion of the development in the Atlantean period. How were these used? In much as were from the beginning. Remember there was ever the instruction to those peoples that were to hold to that that would bring for the spiritual forces, rather than the abuses of the abilities - as those with familiar spirits, as those that spoke to or partook of the divinations of those that had passed from the earth's plane, or those that partook of the animal magnetism - that came from the universal consciousness of animal matter as passed into its experience, in its interchange through those periods of integration and disintegration - and the spirit forces possessing those that would lay themselves open to such conditions, for these are as real as physical bodies if the attunements of the entity are such that it may vision them! and they are about you always, sure! These, then, are entities - sure; whether animal or those endowed with the soul - until they pass through those changes - as there ever has been, see? Also there are those that ever make for those channels in the psychic and occult (we are speaking of, through which man - as it reached that stage, or that position that it became farther and farther from its natural sources, through the same CHARACTER of channel may it communicate with that from which it is a portion of, or the Creative Forces), and hence the terminology arose as 'Good Spirits' and 'Bad Spirits'; for there are those that partake of the earth, or of the carnal forces, rather than of those forces that are of the spiritual or CREATIVE. Those that are destruction are of the Earth. Those that are constructive, then, are the good - or the divine and the devilish, bringing for those developments in their various phases. Hence the greater development of that called occult, or psychic forces, during the Atlantean period - and the use of same, and the abuse of same - was during its first thousand years, as we would call light years; not the light of the star, but the sun goes down and the sun goes down - years. That brought about those cycles, or those changes. Hence we have that which has been given through many of the sources of information, or the channels for individuals - and in those, these, the entity - as a voice upon waters, or as the wind that moved among the reeds and harkened, or again as when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God beheld the coming of man into his own, through the various realms as were brought by the magnifying of, or the deteriorating of, the use of those forces and powers as manifested themselves in a MATERIAL area, or those that partook of carnal to the gratification of that that brought about its continual HARDENING and less ability to harken back through that from WHICH it came, and partaking more and more OF that upon which it became an eater of; or, as is seen even in the material forces in the present: We find those that partake of certain elements, unless these become very well balanced WITH all SOURCES - Of what? That of which there were the first causes, or nature, or natural, or God's sources or forces are. Hence ELEMENTS - not rudiments; elements - as are termed in the terminology of the student of the anatomical, physiological, psychological forces within a body - GERMS! Sure they are germs! for each are as atoms of power - From what? That source from which it has drawn its essence upon what it feeds. Is one feeding, then, its soul? or is one feeding its body? or is one feeding that interbetween (its mental body) to its own undoing, or to those foolishnesses of the simple things of life? Being able, then, to partake OF the physical but not a part of same - but more and more feeding upon those sources from which it emanates itself, or of the SPIRITUAL life, so that the physical body, the mental body, are attuned TO its soul forces, or its soul source, its Creator, its Maker, in such a way and manner, as it develops.

9. What, then, IS psychic force? What IS occult science? A developing of the abilities within each individual that has not lost its sonship, or its relation to its Creator, to live upon - or demonstrate more and more through phenomena of whatever nature from which it takes its source, for that individual activity of that entity itself through the stages of development through which it has passed, and giving of its life source that there may be brought INTO being that which gives more knowledge of the source FROM which the entity ESSENCE (Isn't a good word, but signifies that intended to be expressed; not elements, not rudiments, but ESSENCE of the entity itself, ITS spirit and soul - its spirit being its portion of the Creator, its soul that of its entity itself, making itself individual, separate entity, that may be one WITH the Creative Force from which it comes - or which it is! of which it is made up, in its atomic forces, or in its very essence itself!) emanates; and the more this may be manifest, the greater becomes the occult force.

10. To what uses, then, did these people in this particular period give their efforts, and in what directions were they active? As many almost as there were individuals! for, as we find from the records as are made, to some there was given the power to become the sons of God; others were workers in brass, in iron, in silver, in gold; others were made in music, and the instruments of music. These, then, we find in the world today (Today, now - we are reasoning from today). Those that are especially gifted in art - in its various forms; and a real artist (as the world looks at it) isn't very much fit for anything else! yet it is - What? An expression of its concept OF that from WHICH it, that entity, sprang - through the various stages of its evolution (if you choose to call it such) in a material world, or that which it fed its soul or its mental being for its development through its varied experiences IN a material world. These, then, are but manifestations (occult forces) in individuals who are called geniuses, or gifted in certain directions.

11. These, then, are the manners in which the ENTITIES, those BEINGS, those SOULS, in the beginning partook of, or developed. Some brought about monstrosities, as those of its (that entity's) association by its projection with its association with beasts of various characters. Hence those of the Styx, satyr, and the like; those of the sea, or mermaid; those of the unicorn, and those of the various forms - these projections of what? The abilities in the PHYCHIC forces (psychic meaning, then, of the mental AND the soul - doesn't necessarily mean the body, until it's enabled to be brought INTO being in whatever form it may make its manifestation - which may never be in a material world, or take form in a three-dimensional plane as the earth is; it may remain in a fourth-dimensional - which is an idea! Best definition that ever may be given of fourth-dimension is an idea! Where will it project? Anywhere! Where does it arise from? Who knows! Where will it end? Who can tell! It is all inclusive! It has both length, breadth, height and depth - is without beginning and is without ending! Dependent upon that which it may feed for its sustenance, or it may pass into that much as a thought or an idea. Now this isn't ideal that's said! It's idea! see?)

12. In the use of these, then, in this material plane - of these forces - brought about those that made for all MANNERS of the various forms that are used in the material world today. MANY of them to a much higher development. As those that sought forms of minerals - and being able to be that the mineral was, hence much more capable - in the psychic or occult force, or power - to classify, or make same in its own classifications. Who classified them? They were from the beginning! They are themselves! They were those necessities as were IN the beginning from an ALL WISE Creator! for remember these came, as did that as was to be the keeper of same! The husbandman of the vineyard! Each entity, each individual - today, has its own vineyard to keep, to dress - For who? Its Maker, from whence it came! What is to be the report in thine own life with those abilities, those forces, as may be manifest in self - through its calling upon, through what? How does prayer reach the throne of mercy or grace, or that from which it emanates? From itself! Through that of CRUCIFYING, NULLIFYING, the carnal mind and opening the mental in such a manner that the Spirit of truth may flow in its psychic sense, or occult force, into the very being, that you may be one with that from which you came! Be thou faithful unto that committed into thy keeping! Life ITSELF is precious! For why? It is of the Maker itself! That IS the beginning! The psychic forces, the attunements, the developments, going TO that! As did many in that experience. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not for God took him. As was many of those in those first years, in this land, this experience.

13. These in the present, then, do not justly call it science; rather being close to nature. Listen at the birds. Watch the blush of the rose. Listen at the life rising in the tree. These serve their Maker - Through what? That psychic force, that IS Life itself, in their respective sphere - that were put for the service of man. Learn thine lesson, O Man, from that about thee!

364-11

1. GC: You will have before you the information given through this channel on the lost continent of Atlantis. You will continue with this information, and will answer the questions which I will ask regarding this:

2. EC: Yes. As to why, then, each individual must be, and is, the keeper of his own vineyard? For there is, as from the beginning, in each entity that - of the Father, or the First Cause - that enables one to make manifest even in the material world through the attributes OF the First Cause, that makes for the manifestation OF that power, or force, in a material world. As to what one does WITH same is an action of the will that entity himself, or herself.

3. As to occult or psychic science, as called, then - it is, as we have found through some manifestations, that these forces are first recognized in or by the individual. Hence, as has been seen, in the beginning these were the natural expressions of an entity. As there developed more of the individual association with material conditions, and they partook of same in such a manner as to become wholly or in part a portion OF same, farther - or more hidden, more unseen - has become occult or psychic manifestations. First there were the occasional harking back. Later by dream. Again we find individuals raised in certain sections for specific purposes. As the cycle has gone about, time and again has there arisen in the earth those that MANIFESTED these forces in a more magnificent, more beneficent, way and manner. And, as has been given, again the time draws near when there shall be seen and known among men, in many places, the manifestations of such forces in the material world; for "As ye have seen him go, so will He return again." Be thou faithful unto those words He has given while yet with you. Hence it behooves every individual to take cognizance of that force that may manifest in their material lives, even in this material age; for those that become ashamed for His sake - for THAT sake - of that that may manifest (which is as the Spirit's manner of activity) through those many channels that are open to those who will look up, lift up - and these, we find, are often in the lowliest of places and circumstances. Why? Since these are forces of the Most High, since these supplied - as of old - those secular things in abundance, and were supplied the needs not only of the physical being but of the mental and spiritual also, contributing to those forces as made for the gratification also of that builded in a material world, does it become any wonder that he that shall be abased and remains true shall wear the Crown of Life? Does it become unreasonable, then, that ye are being chastised for that which has been builded within the material forces of the body itself, that must be tried so as by fire? for the chaff must be burned out! Even as with the use of those sources of information, the abilities to become a portion of those elements that were the creative forces OF the compounds or elements within the universal forces, at that period brought about those forces that made for destruction of the land itself, in the attempt to draw that as was in man then back TO the knowledge; and these brought about those destructive forces (that are known today) in gases, with that called the death ray [See 364-11, Par. R2], that brought from the bowels of the earth itself - when turned into the sources of supply - those destructions to portions of the land. Man has ever (even as then) when in distress, either mental, spiritual OR physical, sought to know his association, his connection, with the divine forces that brought the worlds into being. As these are sought, so does the promise hold true - or that given man from the beginning, "Will ye be my children, I will be thy God!" "Ye turn your face from me, my face is turned from thee", and those things ye have builded in thine own endeavor to make manifest thine own powers bring those certain destructions in the lives of individuals in the present, even as in those first experiences with the use of those powers that are so tabu by the worldly-wise, that are looked upon as old men's tales and women's fables; yet in the strength of such forces do WORLDS come into being!

4. THIS is what psychic force, and so called occult science, DID mean, HAS meant, DOES mean in the world today.

5. Ready for questions.

6. (Q) Describe in more detail the causes and effects of the destruction of the part of Atlantis now the Sargasso sea.

(A) As there were those individuals that attempted to bring again to the mind of man more of those forces that are manifest by the closer association of the mental and spiritual, or the soul forces that were more and more as individual and personal forms in the world, the use of the these elements - as for the building up, or the passage of individuals through space - brought the uses of the gases then (in the existent forces), and the individuals being able to become the elements, and elementals themselves, added to that used in the form of what is at present known as the raising of the powers from the sun itself, to the ray that makes for disintegration of the atom, in the gaseous forces formed, and brought about the destruction in that portion of the land now presented, or represented, or called, Sargasso sea.

7. (Q) What was the date of the first destruction, estimating in our present day system of counting time in years B.C.?

(A) Seven thousand five hundred (7,500) years before the final destruction, which came as has been given.

8. (Q) Please give a few details regarding the physiognomy, habits, customs and costumes of the people of Atlantis during the period just before this first destruction.

(A) These, as we find, will require their being separated in the gradual development of the body and its physiognomy as it came into being in the various portions of that land, as well as to those that would separate themselves from those peoples where there were the indwelling of peoples, or man - as man, in the various areas of the land, or what we call world.

In the matter of form, as we find, first there were those as projections from that about the animal kingdom; for the THOUGHT bodies gradually took form, and the various COMBINATIONS (as may be called) of the various forces that called or classified themselves as gods, or rulers over - whether herds, or fowls, or fishes, etc. - in PART that kingdom and part of that as gradually evolved into a physiognomy much in the form of the present day may (were one chosen of those that were, or are, the nearest representative of the race of peoples that existed in this first period as the first destructions came about). These took on MANY sizes as to stature, from that as may be called the midget to the giants - for there were giants in the earth in those days, men as tall as (what would be termed today) ten to twelve feet in stature, and in proportion - well proportioned throughout. The ones that became the most USEFUL were those as would be classified (or called in the present) as the IDEAL stature, that was of both male and female (as those separations had been begun); and the most ideal (as would be called) was Adam, who was in that period when he (Adam) appeared as five in one - See?

In this the physiognomy was that of a full head, with an extra EYE - as it were - in those portions that became what is known as the EYE. In the beginning these appeared in WHATEVER portion was desired by the body for its use!

As for the dress, those in the beginning were (and the Lord made for them coats) of the skins of the animals.

Because it is Mense Mariae, the Month of Mary, here is a little reflection on our Lady from Chapter 33 of Merton's Book, New Seeds of Contemplation. Emphasis in bold and my comments in Italic

***

All that has been written about the Virgin Mother of God proves to me that hers is the most hidden of sanctities. What people find to say about her sometimes tells us more about their own selves than it does about Our Lady. For since God has revealed very little to us about her, men who know nothing of who and what she was tend to reveal themselves when they try to add something to what God has told us about her. (Pot, meet kettle. Kettle, meet pot.)

And the things we do know about her only make the true character and quality of her sanctity seem more hidden. We believe that hers was the perfect sanctity outside the sanctity of Christ her Son, Who is God.But the sanctity of God is only darkness to our minds. (Borrowed from St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II, Chapter 3, Verse 1.) Yet the sanctity of the Blessed Virgin is in way more hidden than the sanctity of God: because He has at least told us something about Himself that is objectively valid when it is put into human language. But about Our Lady He has told us only a few important things-- and even then we cannot grasp the fullness of what they mean. For all He has told us about her soul amounts to this: that it was absolutely full of the most perfect, created holiness. But what that means in detail we have no sure way of knowing. Therefore, the other certain thing we know about her is that her sanctity is most hidden. (A true contemplative, Merton approaches our Lady from an apophatic perspective. We come to know her by what she is not.)

And yet I can find her if I too become hidden in God where she is hidden. To share her humility and hiddenness and poverty, her concealment and solitude is the best way to know her: but to know her is thus to find wisdom. Qui me inveniet vitam et hauret salutem a Domino. (From Prov 8:35 - He that shall find me, shall find life, and shall have salvation from the Lord. Here, he picks up the Eastern tradition of the Theotokos as "Οδηγήτρια" Hodegitria-- She who shows the way.)

In the actual living human person who is the Virgin Mother of God are all the poverty and all the wisdom of all the saints. (All, All, All-- Toda, toda, toda. His train of thought reveals his sanjuanist sensibilities) It all came to them through her and is in her. The sanctity of all the saints is a participation in her sanctity, because in the order He has established, God wills that all graces come to men through Mary. (This is just the beginning, see where Merton takes this)

That is why to love her and to know her is to discover the true meaning of everything and to have access to all wisdom. Without her, the knowledge of Christ is only speculation. But in her, it becomes experience (Mystagogy!) because all the humility and poverty, without which Christ cannot be known, were given to her. Her sanctity is the silence in which alone Christ can be heard, and the voice of God becomes an experience to us through her contemplation.

The emptiness and interior solitude and peace without which we cannot be filled with God were given by Him to Mary in order that she might receive Him into the world by offering Him the hospitality of a being that was perfectly pure, perfectly silent, perfectly at rest, perfectly at peace and centered in utter humility. If we ever manage to empty ourselves of the noise of the world and of our own passions, it is because she has been sent close to us by God and given us a share in her sanctity and her hiddenness.

Mary alone, of all the saints, is in everything incomparable. She has the sanctity of them all and yet resembles none of them. And still we can talk of being like her. This likeness to her is not only something to desire-- it is one human quality most worthy of our desire: but the reason for that is that she, of all creatures, most perfectly recovered the likeness to God that God willed to find, in varying degrees, in us all. (Here, Merton picks up the notion of "recapitulation" articulated by Sts. Irenaeus and Athanasius: In Christ, we regain what we had lost in Adam, namely existence according to God's image and likeness. Merton argues that in Mary, this is perfectly achieved.)

It is necessary, no doubt, to talk about her privileges as if they were something that could be made comprehensible in human language and could be measures by some human standard. It is most fitting to talk about her as a Queen and to act as if you knew what it meant to say she has a throne above all the angels. But this should not make anyone forget that her highest privilege is her poverty and her greatest glory is that she is most hidden,(Here it comes...) and the source of all her power is that she is as nothing in the presence of Christ, of God. (Toda, toda, toda... nada! She is all-holy for holiness in its perfected totality is achieved in her precisely for her nothingness. How sanjuanist!)

This is often forgotten by Catholics themselves and therefore is not surprising that those who are not Catholic often have a completely wrong conception of Catholic devotion to the Mother of God.(Very true!) They imagine, and sometimes we can understand their reasons for doing so, that Catholics treat the Blessed Virgin as an almost divine being in her own right, as if she had some glory, some power, some majesty of her own that placed her on a level with Christ Himself. They regard the Assumption of Mary into heaven as a kind of apotheosis and her Queenship as a strict divinization. Hence, her place in the Redemption would seem to be equal to that of her Son. (This isn't just from non-Catholics. There are those in the Church that argue that to call her 'Mediatrix of Grace' is to put her on par with her Son.) But this is all completely contrary to the true mind of the Catholic Church.(Sentire cum Ecclesiae-think with the mind of the Church) It forgets that Mary's chief glory is in her nothingness, in the fact of being the "Handmaid of the Lord," as one who in becoming the Mother of God acted simply in loving submission to His command, in the pure obedience of faith. She is blessed not because of some mythical pseudo-divine prerogative but in all her human and womanly limitations (?!) as "one who has believed." It is the faith and fidelity of this humble Handmaid "full of grace" that enables her to be the perfect instrument of God and nothing else but His instrument. The work that was done in her was purely the work of God. "He that is mighty hath done great things in me." The glory of Mary is purely and simply the glory of God in her, and she, like anyone else, can say that she has nothing that she has not received from Him through Christ.

As a matter of fact, this is precisely her greatest glory: that having nothing of her own, retaining nothing of a 'self' that could glory in anything for her own sake, she placed no obstacle to the mercy of God and in no way resisted His love and His will. Hence, she received more from Him than any other saint. He was able to accomplish His will perfectly in her and His liberty was in no way hindered or turned from its purpose by the presence of an egotistical self in Mary. She was and is in the highest sense a person precisely because, being "immaculate," she was free from every taint of selfishness that might obscure God's light in her being. (Here again, Merton borrows from St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mt Carmel, Book II, Chapter 5, Verse 6)-- a mirror, when totally cleaned, disappears and all one sees is the light that shines through. ) She was then a freedom that obeyed Him perfectly and in this obedience found the fulfillment of perfect love.

MY THOUGHTS...

Here, Merton contemplates our Lady through the mystical theology of St. John of the Cross. The central dynamic is that of an incoming God who fills empty spaces. Merton asserts that in Mary, this is 'perfectly' achieved in such a paradigmatic way that to receive God through our emptiness is to participate in the perfectly contemplative emptiness of our Lady. Thus, Merton can say that "in the order He has established, God wills that all graces come to men through Mary." All through Mary! I would suggest that the keyword for Merton is not Mary but rather is the "ALL"-"TODA," which in sanjuanist theology carries much weight as it is the word used by the mystical doctor to refer to the fullness of God indwelling in the soul.

To better understand this, take a read at St. John's understanding of "theosis" -- "A ray of sunlight shining on a smudgy window is unable to illumine that window completely and transform it into its own light. It could do this if the window were cleaned and polished. The less the film and stain are wiped away, the less the window will be illumined; and the cleaner the window is, the brighter will be its illumination. The extent of illumination is not dependent on the ray of sunlight but on the window. If the window is totally clean and pure, the sunlight will so transform and illumine it that to all appearances the window will be identical with the ray of sunlight and shine just as the sun's ray. Although obviously the nature of the window is distinct from that of the sun's ray (even if the two seem identical), we can assert that the window is the ray or light of the sun by participation. The soul on which the divine light of God's being is ever shining, or better, in which it is ever dwelling by nature, is like this window, as we have affirmed." (Ascent of Mt. Carmel, Book II, Chapter 5, Verse 6)

For Merton, Mary becomes that window 'totally clean and pure,' so transformed that when one sees her, she, in a sense, disappears, and all one sees is 'the divine light of God's being is ever shining.' Thus, for Merton, Marian polemic, though understandable, carries no weight at all. Mary does not stand on her own and bear no glory on her own. All that she is is oriented towards God's work of salvation in Christ His Son and as the fully redeemed one, stands before us as the Icon of One who is in every sense, "Full of Grace." Truly she is 'THE WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN.'

Each human possesses an indwelling fragment of the Universal Soul.

The message of the Vedas is that each of us must find our own path to a life lived to the fullest, for only by making the most of ourselves can we repay to Nature the debt we owe Her for giving us life. The universe needs you to add your mite to the vast collective tapestry we call human civilisation. You can make your fullest contribution to life only when you are healthy and leathy alone enables you to enjoy life to the fullest in return.

Christians keep looking for the return of Jesus.

While they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up,

behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,

Who said, “Men of Galilee,

why do you stand gazing up into heaven?

This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven,

will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

Acts 1: 10-11

Instead of enjoying the presence of God though the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.