Elohim: The Holy Spirit of God's Grace

Before we get into what Genesis actually reports happened "in the beginning," you need to know a few things. The first is that the original Old Testament was written in Biblical Hebrew. In the early to middle part of the Third Century BCE, the first five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were translated into Koine Greek by Jews living in the Ptolemaic Kingdom. Working from these early Hebrew and Greek versions (as well as the Latin Vulgate), a man named William Tyndale first translated the Old Testament into English around 1530. Because his original-source interpretations disagreed with the Vatican's sacrosanct "spin" on the Scriptures, Tyndale was tried, convicted, and executed (through strangulation and burning) as a heretic in 1536.

Tyndale's tragic fate isn't really the point, but it's an interesting piece of history, so I worked it in. What is the point? That when Tyndale translated the Book of Genesis, he replaced the PLURAL Hebrew word ELOHIM with the singular English word GOD.

Thus, the opening lines of Genesis originally read:

In the beginning Elohim created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of Elohim moved upon the face of the waters.

Tyndale's mistake was understandable, given that many Biblical scholars today, even Jewish ones, still WRONGLY believe Elohim to be an ancient name for God the Father. What Elohim actually means is Divine Grace. That Spirit of Elohim is, therefore, the Creative Force of Divine Will acting as God commanded to repair the perceived separation, rather than to Create (as it does in Heaven). Elohim's function is, in a nutshell, to dissolve the dream of separation over time without stepping too hard on the Sonship's "toes" of free will.

Okay, so ... is Elohim the Holy Spirit Jesus speaks of in the Bible and the Course? Based on my current understanding, what we conceive of as the Holy Spirit encompasses many ASPECTS and ATTRIBUTES of Divine Grace, but is not the Spirit of Elohim in and of itself. As Jesus explains in the Course, the Holy Spirit is our own Higher Self, guiding us back the way we came into the dream (and already exited in the Holy Instant). He or she is, therefore, the individual Soul-consciousness in each of us -- the fragment of the Christ Mind that's moving through the body's serial adventures within the "me-self" we  perceive ourselves to be in each dream-life. 

Before we move on, let me say that the traditional Christian concept of the Holy Trinity (as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is limiting to those seeking to master the atonement curriculum. And, because the Course borrows that construct, it, too, confines our understanding of how things really work. This is one reason Jesus tells us (in the epilogue to the Workbook for Students) that the Course is "a beginning, not an end."

To go "the rest of the way" to Knowledge, we must let the Holy Spirit (our own Soul-Self) expand our understanding of Higher Truth beyond the parameters of traditional Christian teachings. We expand our understanding by shedding, layer by layer, the deceptive "skin" of beliefs that no longer serve the goal of spiritual healing. Stated another way, we expand our understanding of Higher Truth by opening our minds to the possibility that what we presume to be "true" might be working against, rather than for, our deliverance.

We must, in other words, question EVERY belief we hold in the Light of Truth provided by our indwelling Holy Self, Soul, or Spirit.

Having said all that, let me now say this: The patriarchal Holy Trinity, as depicted in Christianity, doesn't exist -- on earth OR in Heaven -- because the Christian model erroneously intermingles the Triune Powers of Perfect Creation and the Triune Powers of At-one-ment.

The Triune Powers of Perfect Creation (the Holy Trinity in Heaven) are these:

1. God, the Father = Causal Creative Mind or Originating Source of Agape-Thought
2. God, the Son = Effect and Co-Generator of Agape-Thought
3. God, the Creative Force = Shared Will that extends Agape-Thought/Creation

The Triune Powers of Atonement (the Holy Trinity in the dream-realm) are these:

1. The Shared Will: The Creative Force directed by Father and Son to heal the separation
2. The Shared Word: The Christ Presence, empowered by the Father to redeem the Separated Ones
3. The Shared Light: The Holy Spirit as the truth-revealing Light and Life of the Father in the Son

A more abbreviated way to describe the Atonement Trinity would be this: 

1. God the Son as Father/Mother, the restorer of Shared Creative Will and Divine Law
2. God the Son as Christ/Redeemer, the restorer of Wholeness/Unity
3. God the Son as Holy Spirit/Illuminator, the restorer of right-minded understanding of Self, Truth, and Purpose

As Jesus states in the Course, the Father aspect of God never entered our dreaming minds. As he also explains, God projected the Holy Spirit into the dream through the Christ Mind. He further states that the Christ Mind knows and shares the Father's Will for the salvation of His Separated and, therefore, "blocked" Sons or Agape-extensions. Somewhere in the Course, Jesus also says that the Christ (Mind) is the highest Divine Authority in the dream-realm. Presumably, this is why Christ, rather than God or the Holy Spirit, is in charge of the Atonement (which he undertook to begin through the persona of Jesus of Nazareth). 

Okay, so ... just as in Heaven, these three-in-one aspects of the Christ Mind work together in our dreaming minds as one healing force Jesus refers to generically as the Holy Spirit.

Or, as expressed in Chapter 5 of the Course's Text:

The Holy Spirit is the only part of the Holy Trinity which is symbolic. He is referred to in the Bible as the Healer, the Comforter, and the Guide. He is also described as something "separate," apart from the Father and from the Son. I myself said, "If I go I will send you another comforter, and He will abide with you."  

That the Holy Spirit is the only part of the Holy Trinity "which is symbolic" tells us that He/She is the only part of the REAL Trinity working in the dream-realm, as an aspect of the Creative Force of Agape. The REAL God and Christ Minds are still in Heaven, co-creating in blissful partnership. What we understand to be the Presence of God and Christ in the dream are only manifestations of the Holy Spirit, Spirit of Grace, or Elohim. That Spirit, Jesus tells us, is the progenitor of everything OF GOD in the dream-realm -- EXCEPT the Eternal Light and Life of God in all body-clad lifeforms.

In Divine Reality, that Light and Life are shared by the single entity, being, Divine Idea, or Logos that IS Creation/Christ. In the dream, that indwelling Light and Life helps restore our memory of the shared ONENESS or WHOLENESS that makes Perfect Creation possible.  

Does that make sense? If not, maybe this will help: In the dream, the Holy Spirit isn't merely the third amorphous aspect of the Holy Trinity. As the "Spirit" or "Mind" of the Atonement, She plays all three roles as the "healing" aspect of the Divine Will shared eternally by the Father and Son. And, since we share God's Will at the unconscious level of our Souls, we agreed in advance to everything the Holy Spirit will both "do" and "undo" in the illusion of ego enthrallment.    

It might help to think of Grace as Agape with training-wheels. With the support of Grace, we relearn how to ride the big two-wheeler of Perfect Creation we fell off when we entered the Ego Mind's (Rotten) Egg of Guilt and Fear.

Or, as Jesus exhorts in Chapter 11 of the Course's Text:

Do the Holy Spirit's work, for you SHARE in His function. As your function in Heaven is creation, so your function on earth is healing. God shares His function with you in Heaven, and the Holy Spirit shares His with you on earth.

Isn't that more or less what I just said?

Let's now turn to Grace. What Jesus says about this healing power at the start of Workbook Lesson 169 (By grace I live. By grace I am released) further affirms much of what I've just explained:

Grace is an aspect of the Love of God [Agape] which is most like the state prevailing in the unity of truth. It is the world's most lofty aspiration, for it leads beyond the world entirely. It is past learning yet the goal of learning, for grace cannot come until the mind prepares itself for true acceptance. Grace become inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received, an altar clean and holy for the gift.

Why did God use Grace instead of Agape to end the dream? Because, unlike the full force of Divine Will, Grace could end the dream without 1) revoking the free will of the Separated Ones, 2) scaring the bejesus out of the dreaming Souls, and 3) bringing a bunch of disruptive malcontents back into Heaven. Using Agape to end the dream would have had two other undesirable consequences. The first is that blasting Agape into our dreaming minds would have made perception/consciousness REAL and, therefore, ETERNAL. The second, which is related to the first, is that Agape's presence would have made Perfect Creation possible in partnership with the Ego Mind.

And God wasn't about to let ANY of those terrible things happen to His dearly beloved Creations.

Okay, so ... before I say more about the Spirit of Grace, let me clarify that before the Great Projection there was only one plane of mind. That plane was Superconsciousness, Omniscience, Knowledge, or “mind awake” -- the shared state of being experienced by everything inside the God-Mind Bubble. This is the only state of being/cognition that's REAL -- i.e., created and/or recognized by God.

When the Separated Ones projected the split-off part of their mind into the "dark void," they experienced "mind asleep," consciousness, or perception. Once this happened, it seemed as if there were two minds sharing thoughts with them, rather than just God's. Because their perception of reality was, in fact, upside-down, they also experienced the Ego's deceptive voice as their own inner-dialog. God's Voice, meanwhile, seemed to be an alien "other" or background noise threatening their safety and sanity.

This perception of God as "outside" or "other" is what philosophers and metaphysicians call "duality," "dualism," or "dualistic" perception. According to the two Ascended Masters who dictated Gary Renard's The Disappearance of the Universe, there are four degrees of dualism. Those degrees are, from most wrong-minded to most right-minded:

1) Dualism (we are separate from God -- if He exists -- and the material world, over which we have no control);

2) Semi-Non-Dualism (God is a concept, such as "love" or "mind," which we share at some level, but we are still separate from the material world, over which we have no control);

3) Non-Dualism (God is our Creator, and He gave us the world to reawaken us to our True Identity and Creative Will); 

4) Pure Non-Dualism (God created and encompasses All That Is, and we are part of that Great Inclusive and Expanding ALL).

Masters Pursah and Arten also told Renard (and us, through him) that these four stages of "dualism" comprise the rungs on the ladder back to Heaven. Personally, I find this confusing -- and I'm pretty smart -- so, for greater clarity and cohesion, I've linked these four stages of perceptual dualism to those mentioned in my earlier post about the life of Jesus. The correspondences are as follows:

Step 7: Pure Non-Dualism = God-Realization or "Resurrection (pre-Ascension)"
Step 6: Non-Dualism = Christ-Realization, True Perception, or "Transfiguration"
Step 5: Semi-Non-Dualism = Soul-Realization or "Baptism"
Steps 1 - 4: Dualism = Ego Identification or wandering in the desert, alone and Agape-starved

Congratulations. You now have a rough outline of the ladder or stairway back to Heaven.

Okay, so ... when the Separated Ones first bailed out of Heaven, they landed on Step 7, where their Souls remained in their natural States of Grace. As their perception of duality magnified, they "fell" to the Sixth Step, where they weren't altogether pure-minded, but they still correctly perceived themselves as fellow fragments of the Christ Mind. For a time, they also still created according to the Law of Love. When that semi-sane state of awareness further eroded, the Separated Souls dropped to the Fifth Step, where they (wrongly) perceived themselves as individual Souls or Selves, rather than (rightly) seeing they still belonged to the same Greater Soul or Self.

With each downward step, the thought vibrations emanating from the Separated Souls increasingly slowed. The slower their thoughts vibrated, the heavier/denser they became. Soon enough, they descended again -- this time into the "dark void” of miscreated nothingness. That void is (I'm relatively certain) what's known as the Cosmic or Auric Egg.

Just so we're clear, all seven steps or planes are housed within the little basket riding on the outer membrane of the God-Mind Bubble. God doesn't absorb us back into the Bubble until we reach the Seventh Plane -- the purified State of Grace we briefly experience after the Elohim powers complete the dualism-repairing at-one-ment process.

Compare what I've just explained to what Jesus says below (from Chapter 13):

When you have let all that obscured the truth in your most holy mind be undone for you and stand in grace before your Father, He will give Himself to you as He has always done. Giving Himself is all He knows, and so it is all knowledge. For what He knows not cannot be and therefore cannot be given. Ask not to be forgiven, for this has already been accomplished. Ask, rather, to learn how to FORGIVE and restore what always was to your unforgiving mind. Atonement becomes real and visible to them that USE it. On earth this is your only function, and you must learn that it is all you WANT to learn.

Okay, so ... correctly conceived, the seven planes of consciousness are ALL remedial or corrective steps on the return journey to Superconsciousness, Knowledge, Heaven, Spiritual Sanity, or Pure Non-Dualism. We descended into the lower sector or "Ego Egg" when our thought-vibrations slowed from fifth-level to fourth-level misperceiving or duality. When that happened, we could no longer hear God's Voice (the Agape vibration) or remember our reality as His Holy Creations.

Having forgotten our shared mind and origins, we began to insanely attack and kill our own thought-projections. Deciding at this point that something had to be done, God devised the Atonement Plan. Owing to the Alpha-to-Omega dynamic of God's Ideations, the dream actually ended right then -- in a gentle, grace-induced Holy Instant. Like Sleeping Beauty in the allegorical fairy tale, we all awoke in our Father's Heavenly Kingdom, where we'd always been, safe, sound, and healed of the mad desire to experience individuality or "specialness."

If this is NOT our current reality, it's because our Soul-Self exercised the free-will option of keeping part of our mind "asleep" in the dream-recording. That option isn't indefinite, however, because the dream already reached a happy conclusion in Timeless Eternity. Those who choose to remain in the dream are, therefore, simply living through the recorded memories of all that happened in the Holy Instant in which God healed the separation with our assent through the Divine Force of Grace.

Confusing, I know ... but bear with me, even if it seems like I'm over-explaining or repeating myself.

Okay, so ... to bring all this about, God projected Elohim into the dreaming part of the Christ Mind. As explained, that "spirit" is the Creative Force of Divine Will recalibrated to serve the functions of teaching, healing, or atonement/forgiveness (rather than Perfect Creation). To preserve the Sonship's free-will, the Spirit of Grace brought into the dream the Holy Will shared by Father and Son, rather than the Father's Absolute Will and Power. She then divided that shared will into two parts. The "active" part she "married" to the Christ aspect of her powers on the Sixth Plane. The passive part she "parked" in each Soul's lowest memory chamber, where it would "sleep" until awakened at the pre-selected moment in time. 

We rouse that sleeping "willingness" by requesting the intercession of the Holy Spirit or Christ powers (as we perceive them) in the mess we've made of our worldly lives. Rightly understood, both those powers are aspects of our own Higher Self in different stages of awakening.

Makes sense, right?

Actually, this all makes more sense in the Hindu model, if we can get around the hash of deific personifications the Ego Mind has made of that ancient and beautiful religion. For this very reason, we're going to explore Hinduism (and Yoga) in more depth in future posts. For now just know that Hinduism is not, in fact, a polytheistic religion. Like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, there is only ONE Supreme Creator in Hinduism. And, as the Course accurately teaches, that Supreme Creator is absent or outside the universe of maya created by Brahma, the Hindu equivalent of the Ego Mind. Also, as the Course and Hinduism both correctly teach, the objective reality the Supreme Creator would have us see is present even here, but hidden beneath the illusion manifested by Brahma. 

Okay, so ... what does the "active" part of the Shared Will do while waiting for its sleeping counterpart to awaken? The short answer is: It sings into the Inner-Instrument or Temple from the Sixth Plane of the Spiritual Triad. What it "sings" is the Cosmic Vibration of Grace, which Jesus calls the Song of Heaven in the Course. That "song" is both a magnetic Call to Awaken and a healing frequency or "tuning fork" for healing the mind.

As I understand it, that "tone" changes frequency as it travels downward through the Temple or Spiritual Body. As we retune our minds to these frequencies, we move back up the ladder. To rise or return to our Soul's natural State of Grace, we must think/vibrate at the same frequency as the Creative Force of Grace -- the highest thought-vibration possible in the dream of perception. We vibrate at that frequency when we reach the Seventh Plane (or vice-versa). Because that frequency is close to the Agape vibration, God can easily reach across the little gap between the two tones and "lift" our mostly-purified minds back into the Creation Bubble.

Awake in Heaven, we hear the ever-present Agape tone of Divine Will calling us to join together to create as God intended. Asleep on earth, we hear the ever-present Grace vibration calling us to join in forgiving our wrong-minded use of free will -- but only after we've "set the table" to receive this "gift" (i.e., have corrected our perception of the world and its purpose enough to open the inner "eyes" and "ears" of our Souls). 

To end the dream, Jesus tells us, every Soul must join its "voice" to that Heavenly Chorus. We join that Cosmic Choir, he also explains, simply by listening to the tone or echo in our minds. Because our minds are joined in the Christ-Self, we "give" and "receive" God's Saving Grace as we focus on the tone in meditation. This is, in fact, how we communicate with God and our own Creations in Heaven. On earth, listening to that tone is how we exchange the impersonal "Miracles of Grace" that heal us and others at the same time. Once we are healed, redeemed, or "enlightened," we return to the world periodically to perform specific miracles, as assigned by the Christ aspect of Elohim.   

Pretty cool, right?

That song of which I speak isn't completely foreign to Christianity. It is, in fact, referenced in the very popular hymn "Amazing Grace." In case you don't know the relevant lyrics, they are:

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

These lyrics are right on the money, because, as I've said, Grace (like Agape) is a vibrational frequency we HEAR with the "inner-ears" of our Souls. 

Throughout the Course, Jesus encourages us to turn inward and listen to the ever-present echo of God's Voice in the deep silence of meditation. From my experience, we don't really "get" what he's talking about until we reach what he calls "the branch in the road." As I currently understand things, that "branch" is the fork in the path via which we exit the Cosmic Egg. Stated more plainly, it is the crossroads between the material world the Ego Mind projects and the light-filled world of spirit we perceive through Christ's Vision. Once we reach this "fork," Jesus tells us, we can't go back. We can only choose between going forward (into the "upper waters" of mind) or staying where we are, thereby delaying or deferring our inevitable reawakening.

To go forward, we must "give up" the material world entirely. We must, in other words, break every chain binding us to the illusion of separation by foreswearing ALL the egoic ideas, beliefs, attractions, judgments, and attachments that block our awareness of what's Real and True -- not through SACRIFICE, but through the willing SURRENDER of all the Ego Mind's worthless God-blocking deceptions. As I'm learning rather painfully at present, those deceptions include ALL our guilt-sustaining judgments, interests, and ego-body relationships.

As I'm learning more joyfully at present, there's an ancient mantra we can chant to "prostrate" or "surrender" ourselves to the two-part "deity" known in Hinduism as Vasudeva. Vasudeva comprises both Vishnu and Krishna. Rightly perceived, Vishnu personifies the Atman, Soul, or Holy Spirit aspect of the Hindu Trimurti, while Krishna is an "avatar" or "state of being" experienced by Vishnu (the Soul-Self). As I understand it (and I'm no expert), Krishna represents the Soul in its Christ-Realized state of being, whereas Shiva personifies the Christ-as-Redeemer aspect of the Trimurti.

Known as Dvadasakshari, this powerful twelve-syllable mantra is said to burn away the maya that blocks the Soul's memories of Divine Reality. I've spelled out the mantra below, and linked it to Deva Premal's beautiful rendition of the Dvadasakshari on YouTube.

Om Namo Bhagavate Vāsudevāya

Okay, so ... having said all that, let me now say this: The Elohim of Genesis comprise the Spirit of Grace and her various Atonement Powers. How many are there? Most spiritual teachings identify seven "rays" or "graces," while others say there are eight, ten, or even twelve. In the Course, Jesus mentions the Great Rays several times, but never specifies their number.

After considerable study, prayer, and contemplation, I have come to believe there are FIVE actual Elohim powers: the Trinity aspects described above, as well as TWO "Great Rays." These two "rays" were dormant until Jesus completed his part in the Atonement Plan. These two powers, which we'll discuss later in the series, are in the Holy Spirit's "tool-box." Once we ask for His/Her help, these Great Rays work in partnership with the "passive" aspect of the Shared Will to guide our Souls back to the Sixth Plane of Consciousness (where Krishna calls to Vishnu with the song of his flute).

In future installments of my "Who or What is Elohim?" series, I'll discuss all of these powers in more detail. Up next, we'll explore what the Book of Genesis says the Elohim powers did "in the beginning" to change the purpose of the dream.

What is God? (Part 4)

God is the Spirit of Divine Will 

that actuates Perfect Creation

Are you enjoying my rather ambitious series explaining what God is (and is not)? I hope so, because compiling this information was no small undertaking -- and one I definitely could NOT have tackled alone. Up to this point in the series, we've established that God is 1) the Causal and Cognitive Creator of All That Is, 2) the invisible mind-bubble that houses Creation in harmonious Oneness, and 3) the Cause, Effect, and Creative Force of Agape -- the end-all, be-all of All That Is in Divine Reality. 

Along the way, we've also touched on the Law of Love, the Karmic Record, and the Ego Mind's God-blocking Dark Veil, Etheric Web, or Auric Shell. What I have yet to explain -- vis-à-vis God's various attributes -- is how Perfect Creation works.

To set the stage, let's review my definition of Agape. As you may recall, I described this Divine Concept or Covenant of All-Inclusive LOVE as the essence, ethereal substance, or mental vibration of All That Is, Has Ever Been, or Will Ever Be (inside the God-Mind Bubble). Agape is, therefore, the Cause (Father), Effect (Son), and Creative Force (Actuating Spirit) through which Cause wills Effect into being. Stated another way, God is Agape, God's Creative Will is Agape, God's Creations are Agape, Christ's Creations are Agape, and the Creative Will those Creations (be they God's or Christ's) share with their Creator also is Agape.

If it helps clarify the concept, imagine the multi-generational process of Perfect Creation as ripples on a pond, extending outward from the center. In this simple metaphor, God is the pond, the ripples on the pond, and the force that caused the ripples to radiate outward in concentric circles. To set this eternal process in motion, God metaphorically spoke "the Word," as described in the preamble to the New Testament gospel of "John." In the King James version, John 1:1-4 reads as follows: 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Is this description accurate? Yes, more or less, if we correctly interpret the symbols. Stated without metaphor, God (the Supreme Causal Mind) spoke (activated the Creative Force) to bring the Word (the Divine Idea of the Sonship) into being.

Pretty clear, right? What isn't clear is who the "him" in John 1:2 - 4 is supposed to be. Is this "him" the Word or God? Most Christians believe "him" refers to the Word, the Son of God "made flesh" in the person of Jesus Christ. This all-too-common interpretation is, I believe, inaccurate on more than one level. First of all, the "him" to which John refers HAS to be God, the generative source or "creator" of all things, and without whom nothing real can be made. Second of all, "the Word" is the originating Divine Idea behind the whole Sonship or Christ Mind, not just Jesus.

In the Course, Jesus states this FACT emphatically. He is our brother in the Christ Mind, not the "only begotten Son of God." He also spells out that the Divine Idea or "Word" God willed into being was the Sonship. He further explains that the Divine Idea or abstract concept God willed into being as the Sonship was "My Son is as Perfect and Holy as my Self."  That idea, Jesus also tells us, is how God still KNOWS His ONE Holy Creation. God does not, in other words, recognize sin, guilt, fear, separation, or imperfection as a legitimate idea, let alone as an achievable state of being.

Got it? Good. 

Let's revisit John 1:1-4 with the word God inserted where I believe it belongs:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by God; and without God was not any thing made that was made. In God was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 

Makes more sense this way, doesn't it?

Okay, so ... now that we better understand the process of Perfect Creation, let's examine more closely the various components or "aspects" of Agape involved. As I see it, those "aspects" are these:

A) God = Causal Source of Agape (the Pond)

B) Creative Force = Divine Will of Agape (the force introduced to activate the rippling)

C) Creation I (Son of God) = Created Effect (the first set of ripples)

D) Creation II - Infinity (Grandson of God, etc.) = Created Effect of Christ (the subsequent ripples, ring by ring)

Okay, so ... the keys to Perfect Creation are A and B -- the Causal Source and Actuating Force of the ripples (C and D). The ripples, being the effects or products of A and B's inseparable union, can't make more ripples on their own. To keep the process going, the ripples must join the fixed union or partnership of the Source and and actuating Will of Agape. They must, in other words, SHARE their Father's Will to create ONLY the Divine Idea of Perfect Love. To take the metaphor one step farther, the ripples can't even BE what they are without the pond and the actuating force that brought them into being.

To help you visualize what I'm talking about, let's crack open the God-Mind Bubble. The layers we'd find within are remarkably similar to those seen in the cross-section of Planet Earth below. 

The correspondences are, I believe, as follows:

Inner Core = God + Creative Force of Divine Will

Outer Core = God's Creations (first generation)

Mantle = Christ's Creations (second generation)

Crust = God-Mind Membrane

As in my pond-ripple example, the rings of Creation extend outward, generationally, into timeless and spaceless infinity.

Or, as Jesus explains in the Course's "original" edition (not original dictations):

A co-creator with the Father must have a son. Yet must this son have been created like himself. A perfect being, all-encompassing and all-encompassed, nothing to add and nothing taken from -- not born of size nor weight nor time nor held to limits or uncertainties of any kind. Here do the means and end unite as one, nor does this one have any end at all. All this is true, and yet it has no meaning to anyone who still retains one unlearned lesson in his memory, one thought with purpose still uncertain, or one wish with a divided aim.

Does that help? I hope so, because this stuff is a bitch to understand, let alone explain.

When John says "without God was not any thing made that was made," he means that nothing real can be created without God's Creative Force of Divine Will. When John says "In God was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not," he's telling us that the only thing OF GOD in the Kingdom of Darkness is the Divine Spark of Eternal Life that is our Soul. When we perceive the world through the Ego Mind's dark lens, we can't "comprehend" that God-created Spark, Soul, or Christ-Self light-fragment in ourselves and others. To see that inner light or "face of Christ" in ourselves and our brothers, we have to strip away the Ego Mind's Dark Veil, layer by layer.

In the Course, Jesus tells us that God placed that Divine Spark or Christ-Self fragment at the center of what he calls the "Inner-Altar" or "God's Altar" within us. As I understand it, this metaphorical "altar" can be found on the uppermost/innermost plane of the "separated" or "dreaming" Christ Mind, which butts up against the God-Mind Bubble. As we advance through the Holy Spirit's at-one-ment, purification, undoing, forgiveness, or salvation process, we begin to see that "altar" through the inward-looking Spiritual Eye. The image below offers a rough idea of what we might see in meditation as we approach that Inner-Altar.

In the Dream of Darkness, that bright "spark" or "star" shining down from Heaven is the only created effect of Agape. As such, it is the source of our Eternal Life and Divinity -- the only part of us that's actually real or alive. It also is the only part of us that's recognized by and still connected to God.

Or, to quote Jesus:

There IS no life outside of Heaven. Where God Created life, there life must be. In any state apart from Heaven, life is illusion. At best, it seems like life; at worst, like death. Yet both are judgments on what is not life, equal in their inaccuracy and lack of meaning. Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusions stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. Illusions are but forms. Their content is never true.

John tries to tell us this but, like many things in the Bible, his message has been obscured by unilluminated interpreters. When luminously interpreted, John's gospel also imparts something else of vital importance. That something else is that neither God (A) nor the Creative Force of Agape (B) are present in the Dream of Separation.

Without these conjoined components of Perfect Creation, we can't create anything REAL or ETERNAL. With our puny, separate wills, we can only conjure fantasies that will break our hearts when they crumble into dust and blow away. Anything and everything we produce in partnership with the Ego Mind is, in fact, MISCREATION. It's all smoke and mirrors, my dreaming brother, and nothing more. The instant we wake up, the world and universe -- and everything they appear to contain -- will vanish into thin air.

What I've explained so far raises some important questions. The first is: Why are God and the Creative Force absent from the dream-dimension? The answer is: Because we wanted to experience what it would be like not to always share everything with everything. We wanted to be "special," in other words, instead of the same as everything else in Creation. When God refused to indulge this insane "whim," we bailed out of Heaven -- by splitting part of the Christ Mind away from the God Mind. In so doing, we manifested the realm of perception -- the little basket hanging under the God-Mind Bubble in another dimension. In that dimension, our understanding of reality is completely upside-down.

Another question we might ask is: How did we exclude God and His Creative Spirit from the split-off dream-dimension? The short answer is: When we asked the Ego Mind to manifest a sphere of mind in which we could perceive ourselves as separate, our new creative partner wove the silken threads of fear into a web to block God's transmissions of Agape. That web didn't only block God and His Creative Will; it also trapped us in the dream-realm it manifested OUTSIDE the God-Mind Bubble. Once we were caught, it wound those same threads around our Soul-memories to bind us within its Agape-starved Dark Kingdom.

In the Course, Jesus tells us that Agape and fear, being antithetical to each other, can't co-exist in the same sphere of mind. He also tells us fear isn't real because God didn't create it. Fear does NOT, therefore, exist within the God-Mind Bubble.

Stated another way, we can't experience fear in the Sphere of Superconsciousness or Knowledge we share with God. We can only experience fear in the split-off Sphere of Consciousness we projected part of our mind into to hide from God in shame and guilt. As the product of the unreal ideas (fear and separation), the Sphere of Consciousness doesn't actually exist. It's only a dream or alternate-reality we keep in place as long as we value anything it appears to offer more than the Truth about what and where we really are. Stated another way, the dream won't dissolve until we choose the priceless virtues of right-minded creating over the worthless vices of wrong-minded miscreating.

Okay, so ... another big question we might ask is this one: If God is All-Powerful, couldn't He just throw a lightning bolt through the Ego's Web of Fear and blow the whole dream-world to smithereens? The answer is: He could, but 1) God doesn't throw lightning bolts because we're inside His Mind and 2) having given us free will, He won't do anything to override or revoke it (within reason). Thus, we have to choose to end the dream of our own accord. We are not, however, on our own in this regard. After the dream went south, God sent the Holy Spirit into the Sphere of Consciousness to help us choose right.

In future posts, I'll describe how the Holy Spirit helps us "see the Light." For now, let's jump back to the gospel of John. To comprehend the preamble's full meaning vis-à-vis God's creative powers, we must know a few facts of history. The first of these FACTS is that the four gospels chosen for the New Testament were written accounts of oral narratives of what Jesus did and said. These four gospels were originally written in Greek, the common language of trade and higher learning in Judea in the time of Jesus.

The second FACT is that the surviving disciples of Jesus, all of whom spoke Aramaic, were the original sources of these narratives. The third FACT is that the early followers of Jesus were hunted down, stoned to death, crucified, beheaded, burnt alive, and fed to lions, among other atrocities. To escape persecution, torture, and death, they met in secret and shared their stories orally for at least a century before these narratives were written down. Except for the gospels composed by the disciples themselves (including John, James, Mary, Philip, and Thomas) these passed-down narratives were recorded by various unknown scribes in several languages, including Aramaic, Coptic, Greek, and Hebrew. 

The fourth FACT is that the gospels written by the surviving disciples were not only excluded from the New Testament canon, they also were condemned as heretical by the men who chose the four New Testament gospels. The author of "John" is NOT, therefore, John, the alleged "beloved disciple" of Jesus -- but the men who commissioned that gospel to promote their own ends wanted people to believe it was.

What's my point? I have three, actually, which are: 1) More than a century passed before the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written down; 2) Those four gospels were recorded in Greek, rather than the original spoken Aramaic; and 3) The men who chose those four gospels OVER the writings of the surviving disciples did so because these four best told the story of Jesus the way they wanted it told.

As we move forward, I'll explain the history in more detail. For now, just know that the New Testament canon was chosen by men with ego-motivated agendas. Some of their primary aims were to 1) dictate what Jesus was and taught, 2) unite and institutionalize the various "Christian" sects under a flagship "catholic" church whose authority couldn't be questioned by anyone claiming to have direct illumination from the Holy Spirit.

To achieve their aims, the leaders of the "catholic" movement condemned as heretical anyone promoting conflicting interpretations of what Jesus was and/or taught, as well as anyone claiming to have received contradictory "inner-knowing" from the Holy Spirit. To fuel the fire of their condemnation, these "catholic" leaders attached to both these groups the loaded label "gnostic," a word THEY made synonymous with "heretic" or "blasphemer." Stripped of this contrived negative "frame," the word "gnostic" simply means "inner-knowing." 

Let's pause here for a moment, because I want to point out that the New Testament and the Course say pretty much the same things when both are interpreted correctly. The Course does, however, present a more thorough and modern explanation of the process and requirements of salvation than does the New Testament. As stated earlier, this is because the men who selected the New Testament canon wanted the last word on what Jesus was, taught, and did. Because they were virulently anti-illumination and anti-gnostic (inner-knowing), they excluded the teachings about accessing the Holy Spirit directly and seeking the Kingdom of Heaven within our minds.

Jesus DID, in fact, teach these truths and techniques during his earthly life. How do I know this? Because the gospels of Thomas, Mary, Philip, John, and James (among others) say as much. Not only were the gospels of these five Apostles of Christ destroyed by the "catholic" authorities, their legitimate authors were also systematically and mendaciously discredited as heretics, imposters, and/or hypocrites. To slur Mary -- who was both the "beloved" disciple and wedded wife of Jesus -- one of the early Popes went so far as to identify her as the demon-possessed prostitute "saved" by Jesus in Luke 8:1-3. That this mischaracterization of Mary the Magdala (NOT Mary Magdalene) was a slanderous fallacy wasn't openly acknowledged by the Vatican until very recently.

Had these and other equally illuminating so-called "gnostic" gospels not been found in the Jordan Desert in 1945, the world would never know of their existence.

Despite all this, I still consider the Holy Bible (when accurately interpreted) to be a credible source of Higher Truth. Not the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth, perhaps, but certainly credible enough to warrant deep and careful study. Like the Course (as Jesus makes clear), the New Testament is a beginning, not an end. To go "the rest of the way" (to Transfiguration and Ascension), we have to switch the radio-receiver in our hearts and heads from the Ego Mind's blaring, chaotic, and fear-mongering channel to the Holy Spirit's quiet, ordered, and love-mongering one.

(Is it just me, or does it also strike you as strange that the word "mongering" is only ever linked with a negative word like "fear" or "rumor"? The word mongering simply means "the act or practice of promoting, spreading, or trading in a specified thing." So, what do you say to joining me in doing a whole lot more love-mongering in the world?)

Okay, so ... the point I'm trying to make is this: To dismiss the Course, the Bible, or any sacred text or teaching as wrong, inferior, heathen, or blasphemous is, therefore, a narrow-minded (ego-inspired) judgment rather than an open-minded (spirit-inspired) assessment. All such teachings serve a purpose in God's Great Awakening Plan, and ALL -- including the Course and the Bible -- have fallen prey to the dirty tricks the Ego Mind uses to block out Higher Truth. Some of those sneaky tactics are literal and fearful interpretation, inaccurate translation, agenda-driven redaction, "form-over-content" ritualization, and charlatanism, both deliberate and well-intentioned.

What's all this got to do with the preamble to the New Testament gospel of "John"? I'm glad you asked, because the answer is: The real meaning was lost in translation. When the oral Jesus-narratives were written down in Greek, the Aramaic word Milta was changed to Logos. Why? Because there is no Greek word that conveys the full scope of Milta's meaning. Around 1,500 years later, when the New Testament was translated into English, Logos was changed to "the Word" because there is no English equivalent for Logos.

Let's now explore the subtle-yet-illuminating differences in meaning between these three terms. "Word" just means, more or less, "a name humankind has attached to the physical form of an idea." Logos, meanwhile, cuts away a layer by referring directly to the idea. Logos also communicates that the idea to which it refers is Divine, rather than a product of human intelligence. Milta also translates, more or less, as "Divine Thought or Idea," but the Aramaic word also captures the way God's Mind works. Unlike Logos, Milta encapsulates the whole Alpha-to-Omega gamut of the Divine Idea referenced.

Because the God Mind operates inside the ever-repeating now-moment of Superconscious Eternity, the Creative Force of Perfect Love doesn't just bring a Divine Idea into being the moment God thinks "So Be It" or "Let My Will be done."

Yes, well ... it does and it doesn't.

In actuality, the Creative Force plays out everything that Divine Idea will do and become the same now-moment God divines the idea into being. This is, in fact, how God creates and also why His Creations can neither usurp His Supreme Creative Will and Laws nor change their True Identities or destinies in the slightest way. Stated another way, the perfect completion of the Sonship was a done-deal the Holy Instant God first said "So Be It."

This is partly what the Burning Bush meant when it said to Moses, "I Am that I Am." Dialed back to the original Hebrew, "I Am that I Am" means, more or less,  "I Am what always was, what is now, and what will be again." What Milta expresses also is partly what the author of Ecclesiastes meant when he or she wrote: "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun."

I say "partly"  in both instances because the Old Testament bush and scribe also meant that the dream of earthly existence is both already over and never happened ... but let's table that mind-bending Truth until another time.

The point I'm trying to make NOW is that "the Word" wasn't an actual word because God doesn't communicate in words. God thinks and communicates abstractly, as do (according to Jesus) the Souls He created. More specifically, God communicates directly (telepathically) with His Thought-Creations through "concept-packets."

Being ONE with everything, God also has a one-track mind; meaning He only ever thinks, communicates, and creates ONE all-encompassing and ever-extending "concept packet." That "concept packet" expresses Perfect Love in all its Divine Attributes, which include glory, joy, peace, comfort, devotion, mercy, abundance, generosity, goodness, loving kindness, fraternity, charity, sharing, eternal being, and grace (among others).

Unfortunately, by substituting "Word" for Logos, the men who translated the New Testament into English perpetuated the FALLACY that God looks, speaks, and behaves like a human being. In actuality, our Heavenly Father has NOTHING in common with our ego-authored self-concepts -- our humanness, in other words. Despite what the Bible appears to say, God did NOT create "man" in His physical likeness. God, being CAUSAL SUPERCONSCIOUS MIND, is invisible, and so are His Creations.

What God created in His own likeness (meaning "of a like quality," according to Jesus) is the Divine Idea or Sonship that IS Creation. That Sonship is God's clone or twin in every respect but one. Being the Causeless Cause, the God Mind existed before the Christ Mind, which the God Mind ideated into existence by extending the Creative Force of Perfect Love. The God Mind is, therefore, the CAUSE of the Christ Mind, while the Christ Mind is the EFFECT of the God Mind.

This may seem like a minor distinction, but it's actually of vital importance. Why? Because, as Jesus explains in the Course (and John explains at the start of his gospel), nothing real can be created without the Force of Divine Will through which God and His Creations expand the Divine Idea, "concept-packet," "pond" or "bubble" of Perfect Love that GOD IS.

In the Course, Jesus says something else of monumental importance pertaining to the relationship between creative mind and thought. What does he say? That ideas can't leave their source. Part of his meaning is this: Being God's Divine Idea, we're still safe at home in the God Mind, only dreaming we're in exile on Planet Earth. And if nothing we do in God-excluding dreams can have any real effects, then nothing we do on Planet Earth can change anything in Creation.

Let's take this idea one step further: If nothing we do changes anything REAL, God has no reason to get mad or punish us when we screw up in our dream-lives. Not that anger, wrath, judgment, sin, punishment, or damnation are Divine Attributes. They are, in fact, unreal opposites invented by the Ego Mind to fool us into agreeing to live in its God-less "desert." The Great Deceiver also uses our BELIEF in these unreal opposites to 1) keep its love-blocking Web of Fear strong in our minds and 2) use the anger, guilt, and condemnation we project onto others to both punish our dream-selves and chain our Souls to the Karmic Wheel of Rebirth.

What we THINK in the dream can't create anything real, but our ego-generated thoughts can and DO generate their like at the level of form. As explained, this is because the Divine Law of Love dictates that we receive (at the level of effect/form) what we give (at the level of mind/will). And Divine Law still governs how thought manifests, even in the Kingdom of Darkness. It is, however, our belief in sin, guilt, and karma that chains us to the Ego Mind's Wheel of Rebirth. To liberate our Souls, we need only forgive ourselves and others for wrongly believing in these dream-imprisoning deceptions.

Is this a tall order? Hell, yes. Can it be achieved? Not until we fully accept that the world we perceive is a dream in which nothing real actually happens. Because our acceptance of this FACT is the key to the karma-busting practice of True Forgiveness, we must strive with every fiber of our being to 1) see the world as the thought-projection it actually is and 2) correct the wrong-minded thoughts and beliefs blocking our memories of God and Heaven.

My job is to help you achieve both objectives, so keep reading.

Epiphanies, great and small

 

Heaven Itself is reached by empty hands and open minds,which come with nothing
to find everything and claim it as their own.

—Jesus Christ, A Course in Miracles

When A Course in Miracles first came to me, through an undeniable act of Spirit, I remember thinking two things. The first was that the teachings DEFINITELY came from Jesus Christ -- not Helen Schucman, the clinical psychologist who scribed this "metaphysical masterpiece." In no way could an ordinary human-being have conceived the perception-reversing pedagogy this extraordinary book presents. My second thought was that the elevated mindset the Course promotes seemed nearly impossible to apply on a daily basis.

These many years later, I’m not yet enlightened, but I do feel the presence of Christ burning in my heart, I can hear the ever-present echo of God’s Saving Grace in my head, and I absolutely perceive the world and its purpose very differently than I did before starting the Course back in 1997.

My point is this: The Course delivers what it promises if we interpret the teachings correctly and do our part in the ego-undoing process. We must read and reflect on the mind-bending concepts presented in the Text; we must do the daily lessons that enable us to apply those ideas; and we must strive to see the world not as our egos would have it be, but as the Soul-liberating learning-simulator it actually is.

I can’t tell you how often I try to impress this upon my fellow Course students - and how stubbornly they resist doing the work that will free them from the pain and suffering caused by their own wrong-minded thinking. They’re miserable, poor Souls, yet they persist in choosing hell over Heaven day after day. When I grow frustrated with their Truth-blocking obstinance, the Holy Spirit gently reminds me that my earthly ministry is NOT OF ME.

I am only HIS messenger.

The same is true of this blog. I’m not writing all this to make money or attract devotees. My only desire is to be truly helpful to those, like myself, who seek Spiritual Truth through A Course in Miracles. Whether my readers are three or 3,000 in number makes no difference to me. Many or few, they are parts of my Self – the Higher, Christ-Self I am and always have been in Divine Reality.

Launching THE HOLY MEETING PLACE on the Feast of the Epiphany wasn’t accidental – nor was it strictly my idea. When guided (in meditation) to launch the blog on this date, I knew that January 6 marked the arrival of the three Wise Men in Bethlehem. I also knew the event was symbolic, rather than historical, as are most things in the Holy Bible. What does the Adoration of the Magi represent? News of the Savior's birth reaching the "gentile" or non-Jewish peoples of "the Orient," the vast region comprising India, Arabia, and the Far East.

Through subsequent research I learned that the Feast of the Epiphany is observed on a different date in regions still using the Julian calendar. Christian churches in these eastern regions celebrate Epiphany on January 19, which just happens to be my body-birthday.

Happy accident or a carefully orchestrated part of God’s Great and Perfect Plan? The answer is ALWAYS the latter, as Jesus attests in the Course.

Noteworthily, the later Feast Day commemorates the baptism of Jesus, rather than the arrival of the Three Kings in Bethlehem. Why is this noteworthy? Before I answer that, let me explain that the word "epiphany" predominately means "the revelation or incarnation of God in the world." In Christianity, the word is mainly applied to the incarnation or manifestation of God in the world as the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Western Christians, believing Jesus was God-incarnate from birth, celebrate the Epiphany when the news of that presumed incarnation spread to the "gentiles" in India, Arabia, and the Far East. Eastern Christians, conversely, believe Jesus attained, realized, or remembered his inner-divinity (i.e., embodied only the Christ-Self) through the ritual purification of baptism.

In actuality, Jesus first wholly embodied the Pure State of Grace that IS Christ Consciousness not at birth or through baptism, but at the event described in Mark 9:2-13, Matthew 17:1-13, and Luke 9:28-36. He experienced this TRANSFIGURATION from Son of Man (lower-self body-ego identification) to Son of God (Higher-Self Christ-Spirit identification) AFTER and as a desirable effect of his forty-day ordeal in the "desert" or "wilderness." As explained in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus was repeatedly harassed by Satan during an extended period of isolation and fasting. During that time, according to the Epistle of the Hebrews, the Evil One tempted Jesus "in every way that we are, except without sin."

We'll discuss the accuracy of that statement another time. For now, just know that Satan departed in defeat only after Jesus resisted EVERY offered temptation. Shortly thereafter, Jesus went into the mountains, where he experienced what Christians RIGHTLY understand to be, "the revelation of the eternal glory of the second person of the Trinity" (as per Britannica.com).

In case you don't know, the second "person" -- or, more accurately, ASPECT -- of the Holy Trinity is the Son of God, Sonship, or Christ Mind. Having been reborn as the Son of God (through Transfiguration or Christ-Realization), Jesus returned to Galilee to begin his three-year ministry in the world.

As I said, almost everything in the Bible is symbolic or allegorical, rather than literal or historical. This is, in fact, true of all scriptural texts, including the Course (despite what one prominent ACIM teacher would have us believe). When it comes to sacred texts, "literal" is code for "unilluminated." The deeper meaning of these teachings is revealed by the Holy Spirit through illumination. Without the luminosity ONLY God's Spirit can provide, we can NOT interpret the Higher Truths these texts impart with any degree of accuracy.

Unfortunately, many unilluminated teachers, preachers, and self-proclaimed "authorities" have tried to tell us what these stories mean down the ages -- and erroneously believe they've succeeded. All they've really succeeded in doing is twisting the Higher Truths these texts contain into contradictory and fear-inducing hogwash that obscures rather than clarifies their meaning.

Having been gifted with scriptural illumination, I will shed much-needed light on the teachings of Jesus Christ, as presented in the Course, the New Testament, and other scriptural texts. In this post, I will de-code the two allegories mentioned above: the Last Temptation and the Transfiguration. Let's start with the story of the Last Temptation, in which Jesus goes alone into a "desert" or "wilderness," where he passes forty trying days fasting and resisting Satan's many temptations.

Okay, so ... did Jesus really do this? Probably, but that's not the point. The point is that he was acting out a script for the rest of us to follow. That script was written by the Holy Spirit, to show us the way out of the Dream of Separation.

As in most allegories, the elements in the story of the Last Temptation have deeper symbolic meaning than a literal reading can reveal. Jesus isn't Jesus-the-man exclusively, for example; his character in the story represents the Soul or Son of God WE ALL ARE in Divine Reality. Likewise, the "desert" or "wilderness" isn't a specific physical locale; the "desert" or "wilderness" in the story symbolizes the illusion of physical existence we only THINK is real. That illusion takes place in the imaginary "world" we PERCEIVE through our lower-mind bodily senses. 

That Jesus was alone during his ordeal in this metaphorical "desert" speaks to the isolation, loneliness, alienation, and abandonment we experience in the dreamscape variously known as the Kingdom of Darkness (Christianity), Brahmanda (Hinduism), and Samsara Maya (Buddhism). That Jesus fasted to the point of starvation while in this emblematic "wilderness" denotes the terrible hunger and/or thirst our Souls feel in the barren wasteland of nothingness this Godless hallucination actually is.

Contrary to popular belief, God did NOT create the illusory Kingdom of Darkness, Cosmic Egg, or Sea of Samsara. Nor, for that matter, did our Father in Heaven make the bodies through which we experience the illusion of physical existence. All visible matter is woven from the fibers of FEAR, a dense thought-substance we produced eons ago to block our memories of God, Heaven, and our True Identities. Fear, Jesus tells us in the Course, is the UNREAL opposite of God's Perfect Love. As such, he also explains, fear "literally starves the Soul by denying its daily bread."

The Soul's "daily bread" isn't made from yeast and flour; it's the "manna" that flows from Heaven into our minds in blessed streams of God's Saving Grace. Elsewhere in the synoptic gospels, Jesus describes these Soul-sustaining streams as the "living water" that alleviates our thirst for ALL worldly temptations.

In the Course, Jesus uses the dreamscape-as-desert metaphor several times. In one especially pointed reference, he says, "A desert is a desert is a desert. You can do anything you want in it, but cannot change it from what it is. It still lacks water, which is why it is a desert. The thing to do with a desert is to leave."

We leave the desert, he tells us in the synoptic gospels, by drinking the mind-purifying "waters" of God's Saving Grace. He does not, however, specify WHERE we find this Holy Water or HOW we drink it. That's because his instructions were removed by unenlightened men who sought to replace the Holy Spirit as God's messenger of Higher Truth in the dreamscape.

In the Course, Jesus DOES disclose the WHERE and HOW. The WHERE is within us and the HOW is listening in deep silence. Why, then, does nobody teaching the Course in the world today (insofar as I'm aware) say as much? The answer is: Because most (if not all) of them are still chasing mirages in the desert at some level. 

We'll talk more about the WHERE and HOW in future posts. For now, let's return to the Last Temptation. In the story, Satan offers Jesus some rocks and says, "Hey, if you're so powerful, turn these stones into bread to sate your hunger." By refusing to perform this little "trick," Jesus is sending us a message. What does he want us to learn? That the Soul he represents in the story can't nourish itself with anything Satan made. To understand the message, we also must understand that Satan -- NOT God -- made the dream-world of time, space, and matter. It was also Satan, and NOT God, who made our bodies and everything we seek to make them more beautiful, wealthy, powerful, healthy, popular, happy, or comfortable.

The story of the Last Temptation also conveys the Great Truth that to leave the desert of earthly existence, we must reject ALL the temptations, false idols, and/or Anti-Christs Satan uses to spin "cocoons of fear" around our Higher Minds. To break free of these amnesic "sleeping sacks," we must remember that we are and always have been God's free-flying butterflies -- not the Great Deceiver's earth-bound caterpillars.

To escape our perceptual pupas, we must empty our hands of possessions, our hearts of grievances, and our minds of every idea the Devil would have us believe and defend. As long as we still desire EVEN ONE of the Evil One's sticky threads of deception, we will remain his web-bound prey.

Let's now turn to the Transfiguration narrative, which is similarly allegorical. In parenthetical shorthand, the story's actual meaning is this: After defeating Satan (the Ego Mind) in the desert (the lower levels of consciousness), Jesus (the Soul) will go into the mountains (of Higher Consciousness), which it will climb until it is purified enough to experience "Transfiguration."

Okay, so ... why am I telling you all of this? The short answer is: Because it matters. I hinted at this earlier, but now I'm going to drive the point home: Everything Jesus did on earth symbolized the journey we all must take to return to God, Heaven, Knowledge, Omniscience, Superconsciousness, or Spiritual Sanity (choose your preferred term). More than just instructive allegories, the events recorded in the synoptic gospels are the milestones the Holy Spirit set in place, through the life of Jesus Christ, to mark the path we all must follow out of the metaphoric "desert" or "wilderness."

Those milestones are inside us, not "out there" in the physical world. Hindus, Buddhists, and other metaphysical teachers call these internal markers "chakras." In the Course, Jesus refers to them as the Lamps of Heaven or Lamps of God. Using these "lamps," he tells us, the Great Rays light our way back up the metaphorical ladder we climbed down into deeper and denser levels of the illusion of physical existence.

The rungs of that ladder represent the levels of consciousness, perception, or Self-awareness our Souls dropped down over time. To reawaken to or remember who, what, and where we really are (and always have been), we must climb back up those "rungs" in the same order we descended them.

We must, in other words, RETRACE the steps we took, downward and outward, into the "desert" or lower levels of consciousness after the Fall from Grace, Detour into Fear, Great Projection, or Exodus from Eden (again, choose your preferred term).

The ladder I've just described is the same one famously seen by Jacob, in the dream described in the Book of Genesis. Rightly interpreted, our reincarnating Souls are the angels the Biblical patriarch saw moving up and down the rungs (as pictured below).

Understanding the steps, their correct order, and what they actually signify is, therefore, crucial to anyone sincerely seeking to master A Course in Miracles. Ditto for anyone striving to attain enlightenment through another form of the Holy Spirit's at-one-ment curriculum. While there are SEVEN steps in total, the New Testament only describes the higher three: Baptism, Transfiguration, and Ascension. Translated into broader metaphysical terms, the higher three stages of awakening are these:

Fifth Step: Baptism = Self-Realization
Sixth Step: Transfiguration = Christ-Realization
Seventh Step: Ascension = God-Realization

When Jesus says, "Follow me," this is what he means. To return to God, Heaven, Knowledge, Omniscience, Superconsciousness, or Spiritual Sanity, we need to follow the trail he blazed 2,300 years ago. To follow that gentle path, we must strive every hour to empty our hands, hearts, and heads of the Evil One's temptations, unholy opposites, misguided teachings, wrong-minded values, and false beliefs. At the same time, we must strive to open our hearts and minds to the Higher Truths God would have us learn, cherish, and teach. We can't undertake this perception-reversing journey on our own, Jesus tells us. To return to Christ Consciousness, we must step back and allow the Holy Spirit -- our inner guru -- to show us the way to go.

That being the case, we must be clear about 1) what the Holy Spirit is, 2) how God's Spirit speaks to us, 3) what to listen for, 4) what to do (or not do) to hear His Voice, and 5) how His Voice peels away Satan's sticky threads of deception -- not only from our own minds, but also from all the minds connected to ours in the Golden Circle of Creation. Once again, none of the books or blogs I've read about the Course explains any of this accurately (if at all). At best, the authors of these books and blogs offer very limited or elementary explanations of the teachings. At worst, they profess to understand what they do NOT, thereby misleading their readers and followers.

Or, to quote what Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas: "If a blind man leads a blind man, both will fall into a hole." 

I don't mean to be critical or sanctimonious. I'm simply calling it as I see it. To escape the "desert" of pain and suffering, we have to stop chasing mirages and drink ONLY the Living Water of God's Saving Grace. We drink that metaphorical "living water" by going inward in meditation and listening for the ever-present echo of God's Saving Grace. We DO NOT do it by "enjoying" the world's offerings, asking our followers for money or positive reviews, moving to Hawaii or the Himalayas, or by preaching political activism.

The image on the Ace of Cups in the Rider-Waite Tarot beautifully depicts the purifying streams of God's Grace flowing from the Higher Mind "waters" of Christ Consciousness into the polluted lower-mind waters of Ego Consciousness. The symbolism employed in this particular deck is highly illuminating. I will, therefore, discuss the useful symbols on various cards from time to time as we move forward. Like everything else in the Valley of Death this world really is, Tarot cards can be used for the Ego Mind's purposes or for the Holy Spirit's. Also like everything else in the arid wasteland of existence, only the Holy Spirit's interpretations are truly helpful to those seeking enlightenment.

Okay, phew. Let's stop here for today, because I've thrown a lot of information at you and I'm still just clearing my throat. If your head is swimming, don't worry, because I'll explain all of these ideas -- and may more besides -- in greater detail as we move forward.

Up next, I'm going to answer the BIG question "What is God?" in a multi-part series. So, keep reading or, better yet, subscribe or follow THE HOLY MEETING PLACE you don't miss any new illuminations.