Creation, Nature of the Soul, and Jesus

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Registered: 11-11-1999
Creation, Nature of the Soul, and Jesus
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Sat, 01-21-2006 - 11:48pm

I'm going to post a thesis on this subject, it will probably take most of the weekend, off and on. My sources will be, in no particular order, the Bible, the Christian theologian Origen, Plato, the Edgar Cayce Readings, the Paul Solomon Readings, and the Gnostic Gospels. Some will be cut and paste from readings, other web sites, and some will be my own thoughts.

I'm going to ask anyone who might have questions, comments or brickbats to save them till I'm done, I'll let you know when I am, since this will take a while and I'll have to do it as I get time (and maybe no one will even notice or care )

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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Registered: 11-11-1999
Sat, 01-21-2006 - 11:51pm

The Nature of the Soul

The biggest difference in what traditional Christianity believes to be the nature of the soul and a Platonist view of the soul is it's beginning and very nature. Traditional Christianity has always taught that God is in the business of creating souls, that souls are created at the moment of conception, and are created along with the body. The Platonist view, expanded on by Origen and later confirmed by both the Edgar Cayce and Paul Solomon readings, is that the soul was created at the dawn of time. Traditional Christianity also teaches that the soul is created from nothing, while the Platonist view is that the soul is created OF God, from God's soul. This view of the soul as having a spark of the divine explains God and Jesus' command to love our neighbor, because we all have a spark of the divine in us, it is impossible to love God and not love our neighbor, as our neighbor is created OF God, and has the Divine Spark as the very essence of being.

Origen was a church father who lived about 200 CE. He was martyred for the faith in 250 CE. His major thesis was very influential in the early church and was called "On First Principles." What follows in the next post will be a cut and paste of a synopsis of his work, and his explanation of the origin and destiny of the soul. This work was to be largely validated by both the Edgar Cayce and Paul Solomon readings, although the Council of Nicea banned it as heresy around 500 CE.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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Sat, 01-21-2006 - 11:55pm

On First Principles

Looking at the sequence of creation from its inception to its conclusion, one could summarize Origen's theological system as follows: Originally all beings existed as pure mind on an ideational or thought level. Humans, angels, and heavenly bodies lacked incarnate existence and had their being only as ideas. This is a very natural view for anyone like Origen who was trained in both Christian and Platonic thought. Since there is no account in the scriptures of what preceded creation, it seemed perfectly natural to Origen to appeal to Plato for his answers.

God, for the Platonist, is pure intelligence and all things were reconciled with God before creation - an assumption which scripture does not appear to contradict. Then as the process of the fall began, individual beings became weary of their union with God and chose to defect or grow cold in their divine ardor. As the mind became cool toward God, it made the first step down in its fall and became soul. The soul, now already once removed from its original state, continued with its defection to the point of taking on a body. This, as we know from Platonism, is indeed a degradation, for the highest type of manifestation is on the mental level and the lowest is on the physical.

Such an account of man's fall does not mean that Origen rejected Genesis. It only means that he was willing to allow for allegorical interpretation; thus Eden is not necessarily spatially located, but is a cosmic and metaphysical event wherein pure disincarnate idea became fettered to physical matter. What was essential for Christianity, as Origen perceived, is that the fall be voluntary and result in a degree of estrangement from God.

Where there is a fall, there must follow the drama of reconciliation. Love is one of God's qualities, as Origen himself acknowledged, and from this it follows that God will take an interest in the redemption of his creatures. For Origen, this means that after the drama of incarnation the soul assumes once again its identity as mind and recovers its ardor for God.

It was to hasten this evolution that in the fullness of time God sent the Christ. The Christ of Origen was the Incarnate Word (he was also the only being that did not grow cold toward God), and he came both as a mediator and as an incarnate image of God's goodness. By allowing the wisdom and light of God to shine in one's life through the inspiration of Christ, the individual soul could swiftly regain its ardor for God, leave behind the burden of the body, and regain complete reconciliation with God. In fact, said Origen, much to the outrage of his critics, the extent and power of God's love is so great that eventually all things will be restored to him, even Satan and his legions.

Since the soul's tenancy of any given body is but one of many episodes in its journey from God and back again, the doctrine of reincarnation is implicit. As for the resurrection of the body, Origen created a tempest of controversy by insisting that the physical body wastes away and returns to dust, while the resurrection takes on a spiritual or transformed body. This is of course handy for the reincarnationist, for it means that the resurrected body either can be the summation and climax of all the physical bodies that came before or indeed may bear no resemblance at all to the many physical bodies.

There will come a time when the great defection from God that initiated physical creation will come to an end. All things, both heavenly bodies and human souls, will be so pure and ardent in their love for God that physical existence will no longer be necessary. The entire cohesion of creation will come apart, for matter will be superfluous. Then, to cite one of Origen's favorite passages, all things will be made subject to God and God will be "all in all." ( 1 Cor. 15:28 ) This restoration of all things proposed by Origen gave offense in later centuries. It seemed quite sensible to Origen that anything that defects from God must eventually be brought back to him. As he triumphantly affirmed at the end of his "On First Principles," men are the "blood brothers" of God himself and cannot stay away forever.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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Sun, 01-22-2006 - 12:00am

Humanity's Origins and Future Part 1

The following is the origin and future of humanity as revealed by the Edgar Cayce readings and Tom Sugrue's excellent book "There is a River.":

People demand a beginning and a boundary, so in the beginning there was a sea of spirit, and it filled all space. It was static, content, aware of itself, a giant resting on the bosom of its thought, contemplating that which it was.

Then it moved. It withdrew into itself, until all space was empty, and that which had filled it was shining from its center, a restless mind. This was the individuality of the spirit; this was what it discovered itself to be when it awakened; this was God.

God desired to self-expression, and desired companionship. Therefore, God projected the cosmos and souls. The cosmos was built with the tools which humans calls music, arithmetic, and geometry; harmony, system, and balance. The building blocks were all of the same material, which humans calls the life essence. It was a power sent out from God, which by changing the length of its wave and the rate of its vibration became a pattern of differing forms, substance, and movement. This created the law of diversity which supplied endless designs for the pattern. God played on this law of diversity as a person plays on a piano, producing melodies and arranging them in a symphony.

Each design carried within it, inherently, the plan of its evolution, which was to be accomplished by movement, growth, or as humans calls it, change. This corresponds to the sound of a note struck on a piano. The sounds of several notes unite to make a chord; chords in turn become phrases; phrases become melodies; melodies intermingle and move back and forth, across and between and around each other, to make a symphony. The music ends as it began, leaving emptiness, but between the beginning and the finish there has been glorious beauty and a great experience.

(The terms "light", "heat," and "electricity" with regard to the cosmos are of no use in this type of discussion, since they are effects observed three-dimensionally through the physical senses. The physical senses do not operate in the same manner in other dimensions, such as in the spirit world. At death, the sun might be to the surviving individuality an idea, an influence, or even an angel.)

Everything moved, changed, and assumed its design in various states of form and substance. Activity was begun and maintained by the law of attraction and repulsion: positive and negative, attracting each other and repelling themselves, maintained the form and action of all things.

All this was a part of God, an expression of God's thought. Mind was the force which propelled and perpetuated it: mind did everything God imagined; everything that came into being was an aspect, a posture, of mind.

Souls were created for companionship with God. The pattern used was that of God's very Being: spirit, mind, individuality; cause, action, effect. First there had been spirit; then there had been the action which withdrew spirit into itself; then there had been the resulting individuality of God.

In building the soul there was spirit, with its knowledge of identity with God; there was the active principle of mind; and there was the ability to experience the activity of mind separately from God.

Thus a new individual, issuing from and dependent upon God, but aware of an existence apart from God, came into being. To the new individual there was given, necessarily, the power to choose and direct its own activity; without free will it would remain a part of the individuality of God. Mind, issuing as a force from God, would naturally fulfill God's thoughts, unless directed otherwise. The power to do this - to direct otherwise the force of mind - is what humans calls his free will. The record of free will is the soul. The soul began with the first expression which free will made of its power, through the force of mind. The first thought which it generated of itself, the first diversion of mind force from its normal path, was the beginning of the soul.

The nucleus of the soul was in balance, positive and negative force in equal power, producing harmonious activity: the positive initiating, impregnating, thrusting forward; the negative receiving, nourishing, ejecting. The steps of this action were the stages of thought: perception, reflection, opinion.

Thus the soul consisted of two states of consciousness: that of the spirit, bearing a knowledge of its identity with God, and that of the new individual, bearing a knowledge of everything it experienced.

The plan for the soul was a cycle of experience, unlimited in scope and duration, in which the new individual would come to know creation in all its aspects, at the discretion of will. The cycle would be completed when the desire of will was no longer different from the thought of God. The consciousness of the new individual would then merge with its spiritual consciousness of identity with God, and the soul would return to its source as the companion it was intended to be.

In this state the soul would retain its consciousness of separate individuality and would be aware that of its own free will it now acted as a part of God, not diverting mind force because it was in agreement with the action toward which this force was directed. Until this state was reached the soul would not be a companion in the true sense of the word.

The idea that a return to God means a loss of individuality is paradoxical, since God is aware of everything that happens and must therefore be aware of the consciousness of each individual. Thus the return of the soul is the return of the image to that which imagined it, and the consciousness of an individual - its record, written in mind - could not be destroyed without destroying part of God. When a soul returns to God it becomes aware of itself not only as a part of God, but as a part of every other soul, and everything.

What is lost is the ego - the desire to do other than the will of God. When the soul returns to God the ego is voluntarily relinquished; this is the symbology behind the crucifixion of Christ.

The plan for the soul included experience of all creation, but it did not necessarily mean identification with a participation in all forms and substance. Nor did it mean interference in creation by souls. It did not mean that they were to spin their own little worlds, twisting and bending laws to make images of their dreams.

But these things could happen. The soul was the greatest thing that was made; it had free will. Once free will was given, God did nothing to curb it; however it acted, it had to act within God's reality; by whatever route, the soul had to return to God.

The fact that man's body is a speck of dust on a small planet leads to the illusion that humans are a small creation. The measure of the soul is the limitless activity of mind and the grandeur of imagination.

At first there was little difference between the consciousness of the new individual and its consciousness of identity with God. Free will merely watched the flow of mind, somewhat as humanity watches his fancy disport in daydreams, marveling at its power and versatility. Then it began to exercise itself, imitating and paralleling what mind was doing. Gradually it acquired experience, becoming a complementary rather than an imitative force. It helped to extend, modify, and regulate creation.

Certain souls became bemused with their own power and began to experiment with it. They mingled with the dust of the stars and the winds of the spheres, feeling them, becoming part of them. One result of this was an unbalancing of the positive-negative force, by accentuating one or the other; to feel things demanded the negative force; to express through things, and direct and manage them, required the positive force. Another result was the gradual weakening of the link between the two states of consciousness - that of the spirit and that of the individual. The individual became more concerned with, and aware of, it's own creations than God's. This was the fall in spirit, or the revolt of the angels as described in the Bible.

To move into a portion of creation and become part of it, a soul had to assume a new, or third aspect of consciousness - a method of experiencing that portion of creation and translating it into the basic substance of mind by means of thought. Humanity refers to this aspect of awareness as the "conscious mind." It is the device by which he experiences earth: the physical body, the five senses, the glandular and nervous systems. In other worlds, in other systems, the device differed. Only the range and variation of man's own thoughts can give an idea of the number of these other worlds and systems and the aspects of divine mind which they represent.

When a soul took on the consciousness of a portion of creation it separated itself temporarily from the consciousness of its own individuality, and became even further removed from the consciousness of its spirit. Thus, instead of helping to direct the flow of creation and contributing to it, it found itself in the stream, drifting along with it. The farther it went from the shore, the more it succumbed to the pull of the current and the more difficult was the task of getting back to land.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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Registered: 11-11-1999
Sun, 01-22-2006 - 12:04am

Humanity's Origins and Future Part 2

Each of the systems of stars and planets represented, in this manner, a temptation to the souls. Each had its plan, and moved toward it through the activity of a constant stream of mind. When a soul leaped into the stream (by immersing itself in the system through which the stream was flowing) it had the force of the current to contend with, and its free will was hampered. It was very easy, under these circumstances, to drift with the current.

Each solar system also represented an opportunity for development, advancement, and growth toward the ideal of complete companionship with God - the position of co-creator in the vast system of universal mind.

Our solar system attracted souls, and since each system is a single expression, with its planets as integral parts, the earth came into the path of souls.

The planets of the solar system represent the dimensions of consciousness of that system - its consciousness as a whole. There are nine dimensions to the consciousness of our solar system. The earth represents the third dimension.

The earth was an expression of divine mind with its own laws, its own plan, its own evolution. Souls, longing to feel the beauty of the seas, the winds, the forest, the flowers, mixed with them and expressed themselves through them. They also mingled with the animals, and made, in imitation of them, thought forms: they played at creating; they imitated God. But it was a playing, an imitating, that interfered with what had already been set in motion, and thus the stream of mind carrying out the plan for earth gradually drew souls into its current. They had to go along with it, in the bodies they had themselves created.

This entanglement of souls in what humanity calls matter was a probability from the beginning, but God did not know when it would happen until the souls, of their own choice, had caused it to happen.

Of the souls which God created - and God created all souls in the beginning; none has been made since - only a comparative few have come into the experience of our solar system, though many have gone through or are going through a similar entanglement in other solar systems.

A way of escape for the souls which were entangled in matter was prepared. A form was chosen to be a vehicle for the soul on earth, and the way was made for souls to enter earth and experience it as part of their cycle. Of the forms already existing on earth, one of the anthropoid apes most nearly approached the necessary pattern. Souls descended on these apes - hovering above and about them rather than inhabiting them - and influenced them to move toward a different goal from the simple one they had been pursuing. They came down out of the trees, built fires, made tools, lived in communities, and began to communicate with each other. Swiftly, even as humanity measures time, they lost their animal look, shed bodily hair, and took on refinements of manner and habit.

All this was done by the souls, working through glands, until the body of the ape was an objectification - three dimensional - of the soul that hovered above it. Then the soul descended into the body and earth had a new inhabitant: man.

Humanity appeared as a consciousness within an animal, a consciousness which was felt on the earth in five different places at the same time, as the five races. When the soul first incarnated into flesh, this began the first incarnation of the divine consciousness into an animal. Cayce referred to this divine consciousness as the "Christ Consciousness" and the evolved human that resulted was the human referred to in the Bible as "Adam".

The problem was to overcome the attractions of the earth to the extent that the soul would be as free in the body as out of it. Only when the body was no longer a hindrance to the free express of the soul would the cycle of earth be finished.

In a smaller field this was the drama of free will and creation. In a still smaller field each atom of the physical body, being a world in itself, is a drama of free will and creation. The soul put life into each atom, and each atom is a reflection in flesh of the soul's pattern.

Humans became aware, with the advent of consciousness, that sex meant something more to them than to the animals. It was the door by which new souls entered the earth, a door unnecessary elsewhere in the solar system. It was the only means the trapped souls had of getting out of their predicament - through the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. They represented the ideal vehicle for the soul on earth.

The plan for the earth cycle of souls was a series of incarnations, interlarded with periods of dwelling in other dimensions of consciousness in the solar system - the planets, until every thought and every action of the physical body, with its five senses and conscious mind, was in accord with the plan originally laid out for the soul. When the body was no longer a hindrance to the free expression of the soul - when the conscious mind had merged with the subconscious, and the atomic structure of the body could be controlled so that the soul was as free in it as out of it - the earth cycle was finished and the soul could go on to new adventures. This conquest of the physical body could not be attained until there was perfection in the other dimensions of consciousness in the solar system, for these made up, with the earth, the total expression of the sun and its planets. Whichever state of consciousness the soul assumed became the focal point of activity. The other states of consciousness receded to the position of urges and influences.

The race of humanity was fostered by a soul which had completed its experience of creation and returned to God, becoming a companion to Him and a co-creator. This is the soul human known as the "Christ", or the "anointed one" as described in the Bible. Adam, the first incarnation of the Christ Consciousness in flesh, was the first incarnation of the divine consciousness. Jesus, the final incarnation of that same soul, was the first human to fully manifest the Christ Consciousness in the flesh.

The Christ soul was interested in the plight of its brother souls trapped in earth, and after supervising the influx of human souls into flesh, the Christ soul took form itself, from time to time, to act as a leader for the people.

Though at first the souls but lightly inhabited bodies and remembered their identities, gradually, life after life, they descended into earthiness, into less mentality, less consciousness of the mind force. They remembered their true selves only in dreams, in stories and fables handed down from one generation to another. Religion came into being: a ritual of longing for lost memories. The arts were born: music, numbers, and geometry. These were brought to earth by the incoming souls; gradually their heavenly source was forgotten, and they had to be written down, learned, and taught to each new generation.

Finally humans were left with a conscious mind definitely separated from his own individuality. Humans now call this individuality the subconscious mind; awareness of the physical world is the conscious mind. The subconscious mind influenced the conscious mind - gave it, in fact, its stature, breath, and quality. It became the body under the "suit of clothes." Only in sleep was it disrobed.

With his conscious mind humans reasoned (for all mind, left to itself, will work out the plans of God). Humans built up theories for what they felt - but no longer knew - to be true. Philosophy and theology resulted. Humans began to look around and discover, in the earth, secrets which they carried within themselves but could no longer reach with consciousness. The result was science.

The plan of humanity went into action. Downward humanity went from heavenly knowledge to mystical dreams, revealed religions, philosophy and theology, until the bottom was reached and humanity only believed what they could see and feel and prove in terms of their conscious minds. Then they began to fight their way upward, using the only tools they had left: suffering, patience, faith, and the power of mind.

The Christ soul helped humanity. As the Biblical characters named Adam, Enoch, and Melchizedek, the Christ soul took on flesh, to teach and lead. Enoch and Melchizedek experienced neither birth nor death. The Christ soul realized after these assumptions of human flesh that it was necessary to set a pattern for humanity, to show them the way back to God. The Christ soul assumed this task and was born of a woman, beginning voluntarily a new individuality, a new soul record; though behind this new individuality shone the pure Christ soul. But once born as a human, the separation of consciousness from subconsciousness occurred and the Christ soul began his pilgrimage. The Christ soul's last incarnation was as the humble carpenter from Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus, triumphant over death and the body, became the way, laying down the ego of the will, accepting the crucifixion, and returning to God. He is the pattern to follow. The perfect life lead as Jesus and his subsequent unjust murder, reversed the negative karma that came from his first incarnation as Adam.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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Sun, 01-22-2006 - 12:07am

Humanity's Origins and Future Part 3

Humanity is at all times the total of what they have been and done, what they have fought and defended, what they have hated and loved. In the three dimensional consciousness of earth every atom of the human body is a reflection of the soul - a crystallization of their individuality. Their emotional and nervous structures, their mental abilities, their aptitudes, their aversions and preferences, their fears, their follies, their ambitions, their character, are the sum of what they have done with their free will since it was given. So every personality - the earthly cloak of an individuality - is different from every other personality.

This has been true from the beginning. The first independent thought of each soul was a little different from the first independent thought of every other soul.

So people are different in their likes and dislikes, in their desires and dreams. The law of karma - which is the law of cause and effect - likewise makes them different in their joys and sorrows, in their handicaps, their strengths, their weaknesses, their virtues and vices, their appreciation of beauty, and their comprehension of truth. Transgression incurred in the flesh must be met in the flesh: earth's natural law, not humanity or God, demands an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

The same law applies to groups of people, as they act together. There is karma for families, for tribes, for races, for nations. When the souls who committed a war die and are born again into the physical world, a war will be committed upon that nation. Only when defeat is endured by a nation with humility and understanding, only when victory is dispensed by a nation with justice and mercy, will the karma of war be lifted from them.

Every person's life is shaped to some extent by karma: their own, that of their associates and loved ones, that of their nation and race, and that of the world itself. But these, singly or together, are not greater than free will. It is what the person does about these influences and urges, how they react to them, that makes a difference in their soul development. Because of karma some things are more probable than others, but so long as there is free will anything is possible.

Thus free will and predestination coexist in a person. Their past experiences limit them in probability, and incline them in certain directions, but free will can always "draw the sword from the stone."

No soul takes on flesh without a general plan for the experience ahead. The personality expressed through the body is one of many which the individuality might have assumed. Its job is to work on one or several phases of the karma of the individuality. No task is undertaken which is too much for the personality to which it is assigned - or which chooses it. Some souls choose their own entrances and set their own tasks; others, having made too many mistakes and having become dangerously subject to earthly appetites, are sent back by law, at a time and under circumstances best suited to help them. The task is seldom perfectly fulfilled, and sometimes it is badly neglected.

Choice of incarnation is usually made at conception, when the channel for expression is opened by the parents. A pattern is made by the mingling of the soul pattern of the parents. This sets up certain conditions of karma. A soul whose own karma approximates these conditions will be attracted by the opportunity presented. Since the pattern will not be exactly their own, they must consider taking on some of the karma of their parents.

Things other than pattern concern the soul in its selection of a body: coming situations in history, former associations with the parents, the incarnation, at about the same time, of souls it wishes to be with and with whom it has problems to work out. In some cases the parents are the whole cause of a soul's return - the child will be devoted to them and remain close to them until their death. In other cases the parents are used as a means to an end - the child will leave home early and be about its business.

The soul may occupy the body as early as six months before birth, or as late as a month after birth, though in the latter case it has been hovering over the body since birth, deciding whether or not to occupy it. Once the decision is made and the occupation completed, the separation between the conscious mind and subconscious mind takes place between the new personality and the soul, and the earthly record of the child begins. The fact that a baby is born dead does not mean that it was refused as a vehicle for a soul. Just the opposite is true: the opportunity is taken away from the soul due to natural forces and no occupation of that body was possible.

The personality is a highlighted portion of the individuality, experiencing three dimensional consciousness. The rest of the individuality remains in shadow, giving tone to the personality; urges, appreciations, tastes, avocations, and what is loosely termed "charm" - the background to which intuition responds.

The personality is shaped by three or four incarnations, the portions of the earthly experience on which the individuality wants to work. The emotions and talents of the person reflect these incarnations. The dreams, visions, meditations - the deep, closely guarded self-consciousness of the personality is the pattern of experience among the other states of consciousness within the solar system. The intellect is, roughly speaking, from the stars: it is the mind force of the soul, conditioned by its previous experience in creation outside the solar system, and dimmed or brightened by its recent experiences within the solar system.

Thus a personality is only an aspect of an individuality. A soul, deciding to experience earth again, might assume any of several personalities, each of which would express a portion of itself. As a soul approaches completion of the solar cycle the personality becomes more many-sided, expressing greater portions of the individuality. This is because each incarnation has less adverse karma, requiring less attention. Finally the personality is a complete expression of the individuality, and the cycle is completed.

As an individuality succumbs to earthiness, abandoning intellect for emotion and emotion for sensuality, it becomes more and more one-sided.

The incarnations which influence the personality reflect their patterns in the person's life. Sometimes they intermingle: a child's parents may re-create the environment of one experience, while his playmates will re-create the environment of another. Sometimes the influences work in periods: home and childhood may re-create the conditions of one incarnation, school and college those of another, marriage those of a third, and a career those of a fourth. Usually the people and the problems of the incarnations have interlocking relationships, so that the pattern of the personality's experience is a rational development, and the problems are presented to them as they are prepared to meet them. Because the incarnations only reflect their problems (their blessings as well as their handicaps), usually the karma of more than one can be undertaken in a single life; if the life is successful, considerable progress is made toward freedom from the flesh.

When a life is finished the personality vanishes. Its pattern is absorbed into the individuality. Its record is retained, but it becomes a part of the individuality, which at all times is the sum total of what it has been: all it has thought, all it has experienced; all it has eaten, drunk, and felt through the ages.

Here is an example of how extremes may meet. Both the atheist and the religionist seem to be right. The atheist says the personality does not survive after death; the religionist says the soul is judged after death and returns to its Creator. Substituting personality for soul, both are expressing a truth. The personality is judged, returns to its creator - the individuality - and is absorbed, giving up its own independent existence.

The general plan for perfecting the individuality in its experience of this solar system then proceeds. Another state of consciousness is assumed, as a trial or as a means of reinforcing the character of a future personality.

So the problems of individualities, the problems of groups, the problems of races and nations, are worked upon time and again until, by free will, they are solved, and the souls go on to other worlds, other solar systems, other universes.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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Registered: 11-11-1999
Sun, 01-22-2006 - 12:13am

Sox on Duality and the Sexes

The initial fall, the initial sin of souls, was an experimentation in duality. Our natural state is to be in complete love and unification with God. The fall came about through our efforts to know love weighed against the counterpoint of it's opposite, fear. This is the analogy in Genesis of the Tree of Good and Evil that man is instructed not to eat from, or duality. Man's desire to know and fascination with duality led to the fall. Man desired to know love/fear good/evil light/darkness. In knowing fear as a counterpoint to love, fear became incorporated into man's soul and very identity. Through our free will we actually become our thoughts, attitudes and emotions. Thus in knowing fear we incorporated fear into our very being and this separated us from God, who is Perfect Love and thus doesn't know fear.

As part of this experimentation in duality we also split into the sexes. For some this meant a tendency to identify or incarnate as one particular sex, sometimes, as a product of our free will and our ability to be co-creators with God, souls actually split into two genders. Neither gender is superior to the other, rather both teach the appropriate lessons we need to learn. As a side note the Cayce readings often described homosexual tendencies as being the result of a soul who, having incarnated numerous times as one sex, suddenly crossing over to incarnate as the opposite sex, but still having strong romantic feelings for the sex it now found itself part of, because of it's attractions to it in the past as the opposite sex. However, sometimes there are karmic reasons for homosexual tendencies, too.

A Solomon Source reading......

"Concerning a twin soul, sometimes called a soul mate, we would describe it in this manner. In the early manifestation of souls in this plane, androgynous souls often split into two beings of opposite gender. These often became twin souls with an affinity for one another, and a tendency to look after one another in soul growth, evolution, and development. However, it should not be thought that a twin soul is meant to be a life mate or a soul mate, in this sense, as it is commonly used."--- Reading 9411, 8/14/91

"We will comment for just one moment about the remark that we made concerning your soul mate. It is to say that the two of you, when you entered into this earth in the first time, were twins. Even better it may be said that before you were twins, you were one soul coming out of the Light of Glory. And as the energy began to turn in those wheels which allow spirit to express in matter, those sparks then began to turn one against the other, providing two vortices of energy for the expression of one soul, and you were then male and female, twins."--- Reading 9124, 11/4/86

Curiously, both the Cayce and Solomon readings seldom mentioned that twin souls were husband and wife. Most often twin souls were described in one of 2 ways.

1). One of the twin souls had incarnated while the other stayed on the inner planes, both to assist the soul here and so that both could learn from the experiences of the incarnate soul.

Two Solomon Readings...

"Rather each soul completes self, not by joining again with the soul mate, but by joining with Source and becoming whole in self. Though twin souls can often choose to influence and assist one another in that soul development to the advantage of both. So your soul mate is about you in this time as a guiding presence, an influence, an assistance, and help."

"However, this soul is not meant to be born to you as a child in this time, although that could have happened....that would not have been best for either soul. Thus, at the time of reentry into this plane an agreement was made between these two souls to maintain a relationship in which both could grow from the experience of the incarnated soul mate, whose records we examine now. Both could benefit from the experience and learn"

2). However many times the readings did describe twin souls as souls who were in father/child, mother/child, or brother/sister relationships.

Most marriages were seen as having a specific goal, usually karmic, to fulfill, and spouses were most often described as life partners.

A Solomon Reading....

"The term soul mate is not so appropriate here in the relationship. Life partner would be a better term. The soul mates for each of you is in the inter-between, or the beyond, and would be best known through the Higher Self.

You even came in this time considering that the joining together with a life mate might hamper your freedom to accomplish all that you came to accomplish in this time. Yet it need not be so. You must only remember that you and the helpmate must be totally committed to that you must do in building the Word and carrying the Message."--- Reading 9325 8/16/90

2 Solomon Source Readings....

"Question: What can I know of any soul mate? Is he present on this plane? Can I benefit from knowing him, or have I known him?

Answer: The feeling of a need for the soul mate is the feeling of incompleteness within the self. And that soul mate is on the inner plane, and is ever in communication with you, and is often identified as the higher self, or the highest that is of me. This is thy soul mate.

That that you have found on this plane and is attracted to, and felt a response to as if a soul mate in this lifetime, was rather one who was so close in the past, and was the life mate. It is one to whom you had been married, and still carry a love and an empathy, a feeling of closeness, yet not the soul mate in the greater sense."--- Reading 0341, 4/25/74

"It is to say that the two of you, when you entered into this earth in the first time, were twins. Even better it may be said that before you were twins, you were one soul coming out of the Light of Glory. And as the energy began to turn in those wheels which allow spirit to express in matter, those sparks then began to turn one against the other, providing two vortices of energy for the expression of one soul, and you were then male and female, twins.

You’ve returned often for the purpose of assisting one another, feeling comfortable with one another. You’ve returned in several different relationships, and so it is comfortable for you to feel the depth of the heart inspiration for one another. The challenge, now, is to have that security in your relationship with your life partner, a warmth and a depth very nearly equal to that you have had with your twin, with your soul mate.

It is important in your marriage, in this time, to become so clear about your commitment to the marriage that it would cause him to feel secure, not wondering, not suspicious, not jealous. Do not discuss such fears, but hold them in your consciousness to be so ridiculous and to not give it attention, not to give it a moment’s discussion. Make your relationship so secure that these thoughts and concerns are cast aside.

While the two of you did not enter as soul mates, you have entered this particular life as life mates. That is just as important as the soul mate for your expression and life purpose in this incarnation."--- Reading 9124, 11/4/86

Finally-this division into male and female is an artificial one and will end at some point. God, as a Perfect Being, incorporates the characteristics of both sexes. Thus in the Garden God says "The man has now become like us, knowing good and evil". God incorporates this duality and thus is both male and female.

Matthew Chapter 22:

23That same day the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to him with a question. 24"Teacher," they said, "Moses told us that if a man dies without having children, his brother must marry the widow and have children for him. 25Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died, and since he had no children, he left his wife to his brother. 26The same thing happened to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. 27Finally, the woman died. 28Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?"
29Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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Registered: 11-11-1999
Sun, 01-22-2006 - 12:19am

Duality of the Creation

So we actually become our thoughts, attitudes and emotions. They are incorporated into our very being. Just as our thoughts attitudes and emotions corrupted the creation. Forces of nature such as the law of the jungle are creations of man, creations we introduced in playing with the creation. We upset the balance of what God had created and also became trapped in it. As we began to incarnate to experience the forces of nature, the sexuality of the animals, we became enslaved to these forces, they corrupted us, and the passions and pleasures of the material world separated us from God and our true home as co-creators with Him.

Because we were created OF God, from His soul, we all have a Spark of the Divine in us. This Spark longs for reunification with it's Source. No matter how far we travel from God, this Spark of the Divine continues to call us home. This is why man, even at his lowest point of sin and corruption, can still turn around to seek unification with his source. This also answers the question, "Are some people born evil?" We are all born, or incarnate, with the Spark of the Divine as part of our being, so in that sense the answer is "No". However, some incarnate here with such an overload of negativity and karma that it would seem that the opposite is true. However, God has not willed that any soul should perish, and so we are all given the opportunity to return to Him by mastering this Cause and Effect world.

In keeping with the duality that is the mind of God, the creation has it's own duality. It not only functioned as the vehicle which we used to separate ourselves from God, it now serves as a symbolic example of our separation from God, our incarnation here and separation from our spiritual nature is a very real example of the separation from God that took place because of the fall. This is a very living example of this.

Our task is return to our natural state of pure love for God and to overcome our enslavement to the material world. We must meet both the karma we have accumulated through our incarnations here and the passions of the material world that hold us enslaved here.

As we travel through our incarnations here we accumulate karma, two kinds of karma. Because we have and continue to violate the laws of God, by rights we should be subjected to the justice that a Perfect Being would demand for this violation, we should be destroyed, cut off, permanently from our Source. As God's laws of justice are perfect, we are also responsible for the accumulation of karma against our fellow souls that our lives here produce.

We are incapable of satisfying the karmic justice that God would demand of us for violating His law. However God took pity on us, as did His First begotten Soul. He assumed the karmic debt we owe God for us. He is the Christ.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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Registered: 11-11-1999
Sun, 01-22-2006 - 12:23am

Cayce On Jesus

In the beginning God "moved." God from the beginning could be called multiple, for "in the beginning was the Word, the Word was God, the Word was with God." As God moved, souls - portions of Himself - came into being according to the Cayce readings. Therefore, there was a "time" when souls, as separate consciousness from God, were not separate. This includes all souls, both living and dead, and all were created in the beginning. All souls preexisted, having their origin in God the Father, but all existed in a spiritual realm prior to coming into the world. The origins of sin, according to Cayce, lay in souls seeking expression of themselves outside of the plan or the way in which God had expressed.

Jesus the Christ, according to the Cayce readings, is the central instrument of God to make it possible for all souls to fulfill the original purpose of their creation. Cayce affirms the Godhead to be three dimensional, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, when viewed from the level of earth consciousness, which itself is a "three dimensional plane in one." The Godhead in Its multiplicity can be perceived as more complex than three dimensional when viewed from the perspective of higher levels of consciousness. Nevertheless, the Christ, whether one speaks of the Godhead as three dimensional or multidimensional, is seen as an essential part of the Godhead. Indeed, Cayce says the body of Christ is the Father, the mind of Christ is the Son, and the Spirit of Christ is the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, who became the Christ, the full manifestation of the divine consciousness in flesh, also known as the Messiah, was also a human - specifically, a soul created with other souls in the beginning and, like them, a part of God's Universal Consciousness. This is not to say that the Christ Consciousness is a created being. In the Cayce readings, the Christ Consciousness is integrally being one with God. The union of the Christ Consciousness and the human Jesus constituted, according to the readings, a unique divine-human unity, although this relationship is properly the ultimate goal of all entities and is spiritually possible for all. Cayce affirms that there seemed to be two wills - divine and human - in Jesus Christ. Cayce flat out states that Jesus was also the first Adam of the book of Genesis.

It is well known that the apostle Paul wrote of Adam as "a type of the one who was to come" (Rom 5:14) and drew between Adam and Christ a parallel that was also a contrast: "The first human Adam became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit." (1 Cor 15:45). Christ is thus seen as the last Adam, the "one man" who by his obedience undoes the results of the disobedience of the first (Rom 5:12-21). Jesus Christ recapitulated the stages of Adam's fall, but in reverse order and quality. It is understandable how shocking this statement of Cayce's is to most fundamental Christians, that Jesus whom they have always believed to be sinless had been not only guilty of sin, but the very person who has been traditionally regarded as the author of sin on the human level. However, Cayce in no way states that Jesus as the Christ was guilty of any sin of any kind. At that stage of His personal and cosmic development His obedience was flawless, His relationship with God perfect. In Cayce's words: "the perfect relationship to the Creative Forces or God, the Father - which the human Jesus attained when He gave of Himself to the world, that through Him, by and in Him, each entity might come to know the true relationship with the Father."

The Cayce readings, however, go on to speak of the singular appropriateness of Adam finally emerging as Jesus, the man, to become the Savior of the world, the Christ. It must also be noted that sin did not begin with Adam, according to Cayce, but it had its origins in spiritual realms before even the creation of the earth. We can therefore assume that this was Adam's redemptive intent all along, that is, to be Savior of the world.

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-1999
Sun, 01-22-2006 - 12:26am

Solomon On Jesus

"Christ came that these might be released into that higher order of primates, which had been evolved. That these soul entities might inhabit the flesh forms that were the higher of the primates, and in doing so, might walk the Earth with an intelligent mind. What we now refer to as the conscious mind was given then.

These entities were given this opportunity to live a life on this plane, on the earthly material plane, in such a manner that they might regain God consciousness and realize that their soul entity, that which they are, is God, that once again they might identify with God. And in bringing their soul entity back to that level, their thought patterns, their actions, these things might be purified through life on this plane. They would be given that chance to raise themselves back to the level of God, and thus once again become one with God, and know those joys, those pleasures that were theirs before the beginning of the world.

You have asked, then, if all these were once Sons of God, and in what special way is Jesus, the one who became Christ, especially the Son of God, or known as His First Begotten. We would see that the Christ, as were all souls, was in the beginning with God before creation, and during creation, and through creation, and nothing was created without Him. This entity, the Christ, was sent specially to Earth as a higher form, as closer to God, as the one chosen by God to be His First Begotten in fleshly form. Therefore, we would see that He entered the Earth in higher plane.

Now how can it be that the Christ, that one who was perfect, could have sinned in the garden? We would see it in this manner: As one who entered on this plane a fleshly body, yet still was God. There was not the possibility for sin, for this was foreign to God. But because it was the purpose of this man Jesus entering this plane in order that all others might be given that chance for redemption, Jesus had to lose the God identity which was part of His nature and become identified with man. Hence, the analogy of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and the reason for He and His soul mate partaking thereof. We would thus find that the one who tempted Him was another entity like we are, but one who had fallen. Christ partook of this fruit that He might be complete man. This, then, was the purpose of God, the knowledge of God, that the first Adam might make it possible that in the last Adam all might be redeemed.

Then to further answer your question, there were with Christ, through His direction, the other Sons of God that came and materialized in the world, at that time, in five different places.

In five different nations simultaneously the Earth was inhabited. Hence, the five different races on the five different continents. Now these were children of God. These had not lowered themselves. They came here that those who were so earthbound might be released.

Now this you will find in your own Scripture if you read it carefully. All of this, then, might be realized through those words you have recorded in your Bible. There we find, that from the beginning, that those Sons of God, who still were on the plane with God, were given charge by God of protecting those entities that had fallen.

We would find it, then, that even in this day, there still are those charged on this plane with aiding and seeking to help those of you who would raise yourselves back to this plane through growth through spiritual growth, through evolvement, through cleansing the body and the soul; come back to be one with God.

You ask, then, does God speak through us? Consider all those things that have been told you before. Does God not live in the heart of this channel? Does God speak, then, through us? We would say to you, no. Understand this, we speak to you through God. This being understood then, all knowledge is of God. This Source is of God. This Source comes through you, through God to you, and comes blessed of God."

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-11-1999
Sun, 01-22-2006 - 12:30am

Sox on Jesus

So in reviewing this, the first clarification to make is that this plane of existence is not our true home. Our true home is in the spiritual realms. Our time spent here is a degradation of our true nature, for we were created to be companions and co-creators with God.

What is sin? On it's basic level sin is anything that separates us from God. Cayce in his readings always said "Mind is the Builder. Knowledge not lived becomes sin". Our mission is to grow in wisdom and knowledge of God, to once more become companions and co-creators with Him.

So to answer the question, if Jesus came as Adam, did He sin, this is again one of those questions steeped in duality.

Since we are not supposed to be here, as incarnating here is sin, because it separates us from God, both in the symbolic sense of being on this three dimensional plane instead of the spiritual planes, as well as literally being separated from God, than this plane is sin in itself. It also presents the opportunity for sin in the choices we can make. As the Bible says, " all are sinners, there is none without sin." So in that sense, by incarnating here, Jesus allowed sin to enter the world by incarnating here as Adam.

However, Jesus is incapable of sin. In incarnating here, Jesus was doing the will of God, as it was God's desire that we be allowed to incarnate here in order to free ourselves from our entrapment here and separation from Him. So in that sense Jesus was fulfilling the will of God in perfect obedience to God by beginning the cycles of incarnation here. And thus He is without sin.

Because we DO violate God's law here, God's Perfect Justice would demand that we be cut off from Him, that we would suffer the consequences of our actions. Jesus, our Elder Brother, as Cayce's readings called Him, took on our karma in relation to God through His death on the cross.

A Solomon Reading....

"And there is a message as He has instructed that should be given, for you were there on that day when that instrument was used to pierce His side. And it comes, even in this time, in this day, shall it be revealed that you should understand those spiritual laws governing it.

That it should be such, that there was gathered upon His shoulder and about Him, that He absorbed, that He took in, as He described it Himself, all the sin of the world. Those vibrations of sinfulness were called to come in and surround Him. And in that moment that there was taken the spear and put into His side, His soul was all released. And those vibrations even of Hell, as might be described, were given to that sword."

And so the karma we accumulate vis-a-vie God has been assumed for us by Jesus. The karma we accumulate through our sin against each other is the reason we return. Karma means remembrance, and we return to learn how we have affected each other. And again we have choice, we can either learn this through karma or have it forgiven through service to each other.

And so we incarnate here to grow in knowledge of God and to escape the entrapment that this plane of existence and materiality and the material world holds on us, our enslavement to the 3 dimensional world. As an Edgar Cayce reading said..

"From what may anyone be saved? Only from themselves! That is, their individual hell. They dig it with their own desires." - Edgar Cayce

One of Cayce's favorite expression in readings to troubled souls was "You are meeting self".

dablacksox


Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.

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