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Twelve Powers of Man
Chapter 5
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[Twelve Powers of Man]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
Regenerating Love
WE CANNOT get a right understanding of the relation that
the manifest bears to the unmanifest, until we set clearly
before ourselves the character of original Being. So long
as we think of God in terms of personality, just so long
shall we fail to understand the relation existing between
man and God.
Then let us dismiss the thought that God is a man, or even
a man exalted far above human characteristics. So long as
the concept of a man-God exists in consciousness, there
will be lack of room for the true concept, which is that
God is First Cause, the Principle from which flow all
manifestations. To understand the complex conditions under
which the human family exists, we must analyze Being and
its creative processes.
Inherent in the Mind of Being are twelve fundamental ideas,
which in action appear as primal creative forces. It is
possible for man to ally himself with and to use these
original forces, and thereby co-operate with the creative
law, but in order to do this he must detach himself from
the forces and enter into the consciousness of the idea
lying back of them.
In Scripture the primal ideas in the Mind of Being are
called the "sons of God." That the masculine
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"son" is intended to include both masculine and feminine is
borne out by the context, and, in fact, the whole history
of the race. Being itself must be masculine and feminine,
in order to make man in its image and likeness, "male and
female."
Analyzing these divine ideas, or sons of God, we find that
they manifest characteristics that we readily identify as
masculine or feminine. For example, life is a son of God,
while love is a daughter of God. Intelligence is a son of
God, and imagination is a daughter of God. The evidence
that sex exists in the vegetable and animal worlds is so
clear that it is never questioned, but we have not so
clearly discerned that ideas are also male and female. The
union of the masculine and feminine forces in man is most
potent in the affectional nature, and that these forces
should endure and never be separated by external causes was
laid down as a law by Jesus. He said, as recorded in Mark
10:6-9:
From the beginning of the creation, Male and female made he
them. For this cause shall a man leave his father and
mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall
become one flesh; so that they are no more two, but one
flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let no man
put asunder.
We should clearly understand that each of the various
ideas, or sons and daughters of God, has identity and in
creation is striving with divine might to bring forth its
inherent attributes. It is to these ideas, or sons and
daughters, that Being, or Elohim, says: "Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26).
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Spiritual man is the sum total of the attributes or perfect
ideas of Being, identified and individualized. This man is
the "only begotten" of Elohim. Jehovah, or I AM THAT I AM,
is the name of this divine man. He was manifest as the
higher self of Jesus, and in the Scriptures is called the
Christ. Jesus named Him the "Father in me"; in the book of
Matthew, He called Him "Father" more than forty times.
Christ is our Father; through Him, Elohim or original Being
brings forth all human beings. It was Jehovah, or I AM,
that formed Adam out of the dust of the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life. Breathing is the
symbol of inspiration. Jesus breathed upon His disciples,
and said to them: "Receive ye the Holy Spirit."
Three primal forces of Being are manifest in the simplest
protoplastic cell. Science says that every atom has
substance, life, and intelligence. This corresponds with
the symbolical creative process of Jehovah, as described in
Genesis 2:7. The "dust of the ground" is substance;
"breathed" refers to the impartation of intelligence; and
the "living soul" is the quickening life. These three
constitute the trinity of the natural world, in which the
body of man is cast. When one understands the creative
processes to be the working of the various principles of
Being in the development of man, many inexplicable
situations are cleared up. God cannot bring forth without
law and order. To produce a man, there must be a
combination of forces that at some stages of soul evolution
may seem to work
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against one another; but when one understands that the
great creative Mind brings forth under law, reconciliation
and consistency are found where in-harmony and
contradiction seemed dominant.
Of all the daughters of God, love is undoubtedly the most
beautiful, enticing, and fascinating. She is by nature
exceedingly timid and modest, but when roused she is bold
and fearless in the extreme. Mother love is as strong as
life and will make every sacrifice to protect offspring.
This whole-hearted, self-sacrificing aspect of love
indicates a spirit deeper and stronger than the animal or
the human, and we are forced to admit that it is divine.
For this reason mother love is exalted to first place in
our analysis of the great passion. But mothers should take
heed lest they incorporate human selfishness into the
divine love that is expressed in and through them.
The most popular expression of love in the world is the
love between men and women. Here also love is
misunderstood, and for that reason she has been forced to
act in ways that are unnatural to her. She has also been
compelled to do things that are abhorrent to her, yet under
the compelling power of man's will she could not do
otherwise. Right here is a crying need for a purer judgment
of love and her right adjustment in the most sacred
relation existing between men and women. Love is from God,
and it is given to man in its virgin purity. It is the pure
essence of Being that binds together the whole human
family. Without love we should lose contact
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with out mother earth, and, losing that, we should fly off
into space and be lost in the star dust of unborn worlds.
"Gravity" is mortal man's name for love. By the invisible
arms of love we are held tight to earth's prolific bosom,
and there we find the sweetest home in all the universe.
All love of home is founded on man's innate love for this
planet. When John Howard Payne wrote "Home, Sweet Home," he
was inspired by mother love to sing of the only abiding
place of this race--our dear mother earth.
The original Eden of the human family was planted by God on
earth, and it is still here. Its prototype is within the
human soul, but we have not entered it, because we have not
understood the relation that love bears to the original
substance of Being, out of which all things are formed.
It is no great task to tell of the higher aspects of love,
but who will champion love submerged in human consciousness
and smothered with selfishness? You say: "This is not love,
but passion and lust." But we should remember that we have
laid down, as a foundation principle, that God is love,
and, as there is but one God, there can be but one love.
This being true, we must find place in the creative law for
every manifestation, regardless of its apparent
contradictions of the righteousness of First Cause.
Love is submerged or cast down to sense consciousness
between men and women in the marriage relation, and great
misery floods the world in
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consequence. This marriage should be a perpetual feast of
love, and so it would be if the laws of love were observed.
Courtship is usually the most joyous experience that comes
to men and women, because love is kept free from lust.
If the laws of conjugality were better understood, the
bliss of courtship would continue throughout all the years
of married life and divorces would be unknown. It is a fact
well known to psychologists that the majority of
estrangements between husbands and wives result from the
breaking of sex law. This sin that ends in feebleness and
final disintegration of the physical organism is
symbolically pictured in the so-called fall of man, in the
early chapters of Genesis. Adam and Eve represent the
innocent and uneducated powers of the masculine and
feminine in every individual. The serpent symbolizes
sensation, which combines with life and substance in all
living organisms. The desire for pleasure, and for a
seemingly short and easy way to get wisdom, tempts the
feminine, and she eats, or appropriates. The masculine also
eats. In the "cool of the day" (after the heat of passion
has cooled off) they both find that they are naked. They
have had pleasure with pleasure as the only object, which
is contrary to the law of Being. All things should be done
with a purpose, with pleasure as a concomitant only.
Pleasure lends zest to all action, but it should never be
exalted to the high place in consciousness.
Sex indulgence for mere pleasure is an eating or
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appropriating of the pure substance that pervades the whole
nervous system, which is appropriately compared to a tree.
This excess of pleasure is sooner or later followed by
equal reaction, which is destructive, and the body cries
out in pain. The pleasure we call "good," and the pain we
call "evil." Here, in a nutshell, is an explanation of
eating of the tree of the "knowledge of good and evil."
When the substance in the organism is conserved and
retained, the nerves are charged with a spiritual energy,
which runs like lightning through an organism filled with
the virgin substance of the soul. When in the ignorance of
sensation men and women deplete their substance, the rose
of the cheek and the sparkle of the eye fade away. Then the
kiss and the touch that were once so satisfying become cold
and lifeless.
In the conservation of this pure substance of life is
hidden the secret of body rejuvenation, physical
resurrection, and the final perpetuation of the whole
organism in its transmuted purity. (John saw Jesus in this
state of purity, as described in Revelation 1:12-16.) No
man can in his own might attain this exalted estate, but
through the love of God, demonstrated by Jesus, it is
attainable by everyone. "For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on
him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Regeneration is not possible without love. As through the
union of the male and female elements the new body of the
infant is brought forth, so
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through the joining of the creative forces of Spirit by
souls attuned in love the new body in Christ is speedily
formed. The work can be done through individual effort, and
there must always be continuous constructive action between
the masculine and feminine faculties of soul and body; but
the anointing with the precious love of the divine feminine
is necessary to the great demonstration. The woman who
anointed the head and feet of Jesus "loved much," and Jesus
said that which she did would be remembered wherever the
Gospel should be preached in the whole world. This
symbolical representation of pouring into the masculine the
pure love of the feminine is a guide for all women. All
over the world the submerged love of the feminine is crying
for release from the sensual dominance of the masculine.
The remedy is: Anoint man's head (will) and his feet
(understanding) with the Christ love, and he will be
purified and satisfied. Not a word need be spoken to bring
about the change. If in quietness and confidence the
presence and the power of divine love are affirmed, the law
will be fulfilled.
Love submerged in sense still retains the remembrance of
her virginity, and repels and resists the onslaughts of
lust. Some of the most terrible ills are brought upon the
body by the misuse of love. This is not the way of freedom;
through a steady and firm holding to the one Presence and
one Power will the son of man be lifted up, as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness.
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Wisdom and love combined are symbolically described in
Scripture as the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the
world" (A.V.). But now men and women are studying the laws
of Being, and in some degree are striving to observe them
in the marriage relation. Instead of submerging love in
lust, the children of light retain their virgin purity and
go hand in hand toward the dawn of a new order, in which
there will be a bringing forth of the multitude of waiting
souls in a way which is now hidden, but which will be
revealed when love is lifted up.
Call it not love, for love to heaven is fled
Since sweating lust on earth usurp'd his name;
Under whose simple semblance he hath fed
Upon fresh beauty, blotting it with blame;
Which the hot tyrant stains and soon bereaves,
As caterpillars do the tender leaves.
Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But lust's effect is tempest after sun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done;
Love surfeits not, lust like a glutton dies;
Love is all truth, lust full of forged lies.
--Shakespeare
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[Twelve Powers of Man]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
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