Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:3

The Biblical Tabernacle is often viewed as a bizarre, unsophisticated structure designed simply to burden the wandering Israelites, and one that they were inexplicably bound to wherever they went. When, in fact, the Tabernacle was a portable dwelling place for the divine presence of God… “And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory.” Exodus 29:43.

It was also a place of atonement, repentance, and rebirth for the Israelites… “For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.” Leviticus 16:30. While at Mt. Sinai, Moses received instructions from God for the specifications of the tabernacle… “According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” Exodus 25:9.
.
The reason God’s instructions were so specific was because, due to the sin of Eve, the Israelites’ ancestral mother, the Tabernacle symbolized a replacement womb for rebirth.  The tabernacle was to always be located in the centre of the Israelite camp, and the twelve tribes of Israel would set up their tents around it according to tribe and directions for their placement.

The Ark of the Covenant was the first unit of construction for the tabernacle ordered by God at Mount Sinai. The Ark contained the tables of the covenant; Aaron’s rod; and the pot that had manna… “And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;” Hebrews 9:3–4.

The ark was to be built to God’s specifications and placed within the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle proper, Genesis 25:10–22. The mercy seat was situated atop of the ark, bordered by the two golden cherubim… “And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.” Hebrew 9:5.

The tabernacle itself was placed within the outer court of the tabernacle. There was one opening, or gate, in the outer court of the tabernacle; upon entering this gate one would see the court of the tabernacle where the Brazen Altar of Burnt Offerings and the Brazen Laver for washing were situated. Past the Brazen Laver was the entrance to the Holy Place of the tabernacle proper. Inside the Holy Place were the Candlestick, the Table of Shewbread, and the Altar of Incense. Through a veil, the Holy Place led to the Holy of Holies which housed the Ark of the Covenant. Only the priests were allowed to enter the Holy Place, and the High Priest alone had access to the Holy of Holies once a year on the Day of Atonement.

What these Symbols Represented

• Eve, the first woman created in God’s image to give birth to perfect beings was replaced by the tabernacle because of her sin. The outside wall replaced the outer limits of Eve’s body that had been created perfect in God’s image, but subsequently sinned. The linen would symbolize her outer garment, or covering… … “The length of the court shall be an hundred cubits, and the breadth fifty every where, and the height five cubits of fine twined linen, and their sockets of brass.” Exodus 27:18. 
• The Gate or entrance to the Outer Court of the tabernacle symbolized the vaginal opening ultimately leading to the womb: the tabernacle proper… “And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.” Exodus 27:16.
• The Outer Court of the Tabernacle where repentant Israelites were allowed to enter to offer sacrifices for their sins. This Court symbolized the vaginal area leading to the womb. Within the outer court was located the Brazen Altar where the sacrificial animal was slaughtered and the blood spilled. This act represented the breaking and bloodying of the vaginal mucous membrane (hymen) of a virgin… “And thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass.” Exodus 27:1–2.
• The Brazen Laver for cleansing the priests before they enter the Holy Place symbolized the mucous located in the vaginal area that cleanses the sperm as it approaches the womb… “Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein.” Exodus 30:18.
•  The Tabernacle Proper signified the actual womb of rebirth. The Entrance to the Holy Place in the tabernacle proper symbolized the cervix: the neck of the womb consisting of a narrow passage. The Holy Place symbolized the body of the uterus, considered, in medical fields to be inferior to the fundus, or dome, at the top of the uterus. Within the Holy Place, or court of the congregation, as it is often called, is located the candlestick, the altar of incense, and the table of showbread… “And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.” Exodus 26:33.
• The Holy of Holies containing the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat symbolized the fundus of the uterus, the dome top of the uterus which is considered superior to the body of the uterus. This is the area which expands during growth of the fetus… “And thou shalt put the mercy seat upon the ark of the testimony in the most holy place.” Exodus 26:34.
• The Cherubim with wings facing each other over the Mercy Seat symbolized the Fallopian Tubes. The finger-like projections of the Fallopian Tubes are called Fimbrae and collect the eggs from the ovaries… “And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.” Exodus 25:19.

If you are having trouble visualizing the comparisons of the Tabernacle to a womb, there are many images of the Tabernacle to be found on the Internet that can be compared to the image of a womb. I believe you will be surprised by the similarities. It might help to recall what Jesus said to Nicodemus when he questioned what Jesus meant when he spoke of being born again, John 3:1–12… “Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?” John 3:10.

In order for God’s chosen people to be saved from eternal death they were given sacrificial ordinances to observe within the Tabernacle. They would then be seen in God’s eyes as born again in the womb of rebirth, or made perfect again through repentance and the shedding of blood for sin. However, because man cannot be saved through the blood of animals, the ritual ordinances had to be continually repeated. … “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3.” Now we have Jesus as our Salvation and no longer need the rituals and ordinances for re-birth.

Related articles

• Exodus Chapter 25 (maryrubow.wordpress.com)
• Exodus 40 (sisterspray4me.com)
• Lucifer the ‘Covering Angel’ (thesalvationtimes.wordpress.com)
• Day 99: 1 Kings 8-9; Dedication of the Temple (orcministries.wordpress.com)
• The Tabernacle and Christ – Showbread (alreadyanswered.org)
• Hebrews 9…Old Covenant Ministry (simplyjuliana.com)
• The Tabernacle (faithfuldailyread.wordpress.com)
• Exodus 32:1-14 – Literary Background (exegetinginuganda.wordpress.com)

Earth Day – out of her womb we came…

In her womb we were conceived,
In her womb we formed,
In her womb we developed,
Gifted with life we were born.

Out of her womb we came,
Havoc we made of her home,
The womb should bare life,
But when we have no respect for living,
Will it be sucking the dead alone?

Walk softly on her belly,
Always careful of her perfect form,
Love her for all that she gives us,
Nourish her, respect her, take care of her,
Healthy new brothers and sisters to be born.

Into her womb we shall return…

inspired by Elizabeth I
1533-1603 (incest survivor)

with my womb
I honor you
for suffering
the mercurial egos
of dunderheaded men
who would only allow you
to be sexless

with my vagina
I reject the Cyclops
one-eyed monster
rearing it’s serpent head
in the direction
of self-satisfaction
stolen from your body
a barbarous thievery
curling itself
into the elusive salty cavern
that has no parallel

he claimed
the seaweed
pleasure
forced you
to give up the ghost
of being whole
loving
loved
and pleasured
as was your right

as young girls we heard
that virgin identity
was the only thing
that mattered
once our willowy youth
fell victim to the artillery
leveled at it
we were of
no more value

we became things
morphed into “non-virgins”
could no longer be
bought and sold
at a premium
our pearl beyond price
blasted
by a bilious
savage
appropriation
old women
who are not monarchs
less than worthless

my namesake
I mourn your sacrifice
I rage against
its affect on me
compassionately lay your
narrow choices to rest
in a grave marked
with lamentation
fare the well
now free to choose
an astral lover
worthy of you

Copyright © 2013 Sharon Elizabeth Elliott. All Rights Reserved.

English: The face of a black windup alarm clock (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Click-clock tick-tock tock-tock clock-crock
softly at first then with nightfall
your rhythm is ever more audible
you become even more insistent, awfully strident

plip-plop flip-flop clip-clop trick-clock

I can’t get you out of my ears
my hair my face my fears
buried in feathery pillows

pulsating bedside guardian
of my sleep
waiting to pounce in shock alarm
time and time as I lie
dreaming the deep warm folds of the morning in my mother’s squishy womb

you bring me, jarringly, to life

Millicent Danker

These Cellular Patterns Form Our Makeup, Our Thoughts, Our Feelings, and Our Way of Viewing the World: Biology As Metaphor and Mythology, Part Three — The Legitimacy of Cellular Memory

The Legitimacy of Cellular Memory

Despite what I have just said concerning the importance of an analysis of the biological metaphors of form — especially as they exist on the cellular level surrounding conception — as reflecting something of importance to us in a hermeneutic or heuristic sense, I want to at least put out a case for the legitimacy of cellular memory as something in its own right. That is, the rest of Part Two will be based on a comparison of Wilber’s spectrum of consciousness with the observable events and forms (the behaviors of the specific biological forms) as they are known to occur through the observational aspects of the science of biology. Still, the interpretation between the philosophical system and the biological form will be aided, supported, and fed by, among other things, the direct experience of memories of these states and forms, down even to the earliest, by myself and by the reports of such experiences by others.

So while this analysis does not stand on the absolute veracity of those experiences by myself or by others, still the analysis is certainly aided and helped by a belief in their legitimacy. I will say a few words about how memory can occur of such events, and more importantly, how that memory can be related to the foundations of our consciousness. A complete explanation (as I see it) of exactly this — e.g., of how sperm and egg and zygote experience can lead to fundamental mythological, philosophical, and basic assumptions on the world, the self, and reality — can be found in two other recent works of mine (1993c, 1993d).

For our purposes here, let me just say that there are two possibilities that immediately come to mind: (1) what one might call the “prior conditions” theory and (2) Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance and morphogenetic fields. Let us take them in turn.

The “Prior Conditions” Theory

What I am calling the “prior conditions” theory is simply that the end result of any learning process, at any point, contains within it, if somehow broken down, all the prior conditions that produced it. It is based on the simple idea that the upper stories of everything will be in some way related to its foundation, and, more exactly, that the actual and specific foundation of anything can be exactly determined by reversing or tracing back in turn each step of its progression or building up.

Thus, this proposition states that all the experience, all the learning that occurs, is based upon prior learning and that all that comes about is in some way founded or based on stages that preceded that stage. The way this is understood to occur is in somewhat the same way that in a computer program a later stage necessitates a prior stage or as in any formal operation or in any learning at all later learning builds necessarily on particular prior understandings.

For example, in the case of learning a language: The speaking of a language requires at one point that the various sounds were learned, which requires that further back pronunciation of the various letters that make up the sounds were learned. Therefore, even though one may not retain a memory of learning the sounds and the individual letters, those events are encapsulated within the end result. Those prior stages had to have been there, and in some way are part of the construction of the end development; so much so that breaking down the end result leads necessarily to the factors of which it is composed.

This can be demonstrated in the case of computer programs and of codes of various kinds. Either of them, given sufficient analytical power (as we can now harness with the help of computers) and sufficient time can be broken down into their original constituents and into their necessary pattern of development. This being true — and allowing, this one time only, the dispensation of leaning on a physicalist presumption — since brains are seen as comparable in many ways to remarkably powerful computers, would it be so bold to assert that it might be possible for them to come up with its exact original conditions out of the current resulting conditions?

The prior-conditions theory is at least one possibility, then, and it is consistent with current psychological understandings of learning, development, and related processes.

Furthermore, this sort of process is also demonstrated in the phenomenon in psychology called regression. In these instances people will revert to earlier and earlier states of being, exactly as they were originally built up. They will often wear the same sorts of clothes, get the same illnesses, have the same intonations in their speech, and so on.

We see thus that each later stage contains within it all earlier forms, in some way. And that this is not dependent simply on some psychological memory mechanism is demonstrated by the fact that we observe the same phenomenon at work in the physical world in the form of the building up of multistory skyscrapers as well as that of multistep computer programs.

So in understanding cellular memory in this sense it is simply a matter of extrapolating our understanding of psychological regression much farther back than we are used to and adding the notion that from each successive stage can be accurately deduced its prior stages in turn, that the later stages could not be exactly as they are save for that the earlier stages happened to be exactly as they are. So this is one way of understanding how this memory could be contained in the adult range of experiential possibilities and how it could be legitimate.

Morphogenetic Fields and Morphic Resonance

The other possible explanation, as I mentioned, is consistent with Rupert Sheldrake’s theory. It can be stated this way: That concerning Sheldrake’s morphogenetic fields, if things are done a particular way, they tend to be done that particular way in the future. He gives the example of ritual. A ritual is performed in the same way it has been for thousands of years, and there is a perceived potency in doing it that way in that there is somehow an accumulated power in each subsequent repetition of that act. He contends that somehow the field, the field of form, the morphogenetic field, is strengthened; the pattern is strengthened. Therefore when one re-enacts that pattern one is tapping into the field, via morphic resonance, that has been established.

Let us turn our attention now to thinking in terms of certain patterns that happen, for example, on the cellular level, to certain patterns that have been enacted for millennia. Keep in mind that Rupert Sheldrake’s theory is not just concerning human beings and their thoughts and actions but applies also to all of Nature and the entire Universe. So there are morphogenetic fields acting on plants, e.g., in the way that they produce the leaves of each individual plant. There is morphic resonance in all the patterns of Nature, even in the ways crystals develop. Thinking now in terms of the cellular level, human beings have been sperm and egg, have been fertilizing eggs for many millennia, have been sperm and eggs uniting the exact same way in conception for untold millennia.

In fact many mammals reproduce exactly this way also. So, all told, there is a rather strong habit built up, a rather strong pattern that is a field that is of this pattern that exists in the Universe because of the repetition of this pattern over and over again in the Universe. So all of the aspects of sperm and egg experience — for example the experience of the sperm, that is, the struggle of the sperm — has been enacted practically an infinite number of times, more than can be imagined. For this is a strong morphogenetic field in the Universe, a strong morphic pattern. The point of all this is that since we resonate with things that are similar to us, and since a sperm is of a human being, then we would resonate with this pattern as we would resonate with this pattern of the egg and its experience or pattern. Likewise we would resonate with the pattern of conception itself and all that is subsumed under that, and afterwards also.

And of course all of the development of the fertilized egg and the blastocyst — the embryo and the fetus and all that — is part of a morphic pattern that is very well established. For our species it has been continuing practically an infinite number of times, having been enacted and being currently enacted, so that our species would find that this pattern would form part of our makeup, resonating with those patterns, and would form our thinking processes and feeling processes, and would help to structure our way of viewing the world and all else.

Finally the theory of morphic resonance states that we resonate with things with which we are more alike than not alike. Since we are more like ourselves than anything else, it follows that we would resonate more with our particular experience as a sperm and egg, for example, with its unique events, than with the experiences of other humans, or of other mammals or other species for that matter … though those possibilities are not ruled out and in fact those kinds of events—trans-species sharing of experience of morphogenetic field—is actually reputed to occur at times (Grof 1976, 1980, 1985). At any rate, it is most likely we would resonate with and pick up on the field laid down by our own experience as such by our selves as an entity, as well as to a lesser extent resonating with and contacting the way it is done “in general,” or “traditionally,” by the species one belongs to. This also explains what in species other than our own is called instinct . It also makes understandable such remarkable patterns of behavior shared across generations, while genetic explanations, by contrast, appear rather preposterous.

Anyway, this is another way of looking at how these events at such an early level can actually influence the way we think, feel, and see the world, and how they can determine our basic assumptions about all of this.

Continue with Mythology Tells the Tale of Our Lives as Cells: “Whatever Happened to Us in the Amnestic Years … Is Projected Toward Cosmogony, Magic and Other Human Beings.”

Return to Cellular Memory’s Challenge to Materialism and Support for Panpsychism: The Body Arises from Consciousness, Not Vice-Versa, but There Is a Legitimacy to Heuristic Inquiry Into Form

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Morphogenetic Field: Sperm, Egg

Morphogenetic Field: Sperm Surrounding Egg

Morphogenetic Field: Conception

Morpogenetic Field: Fertilized Egg Multiplying, Zygote, Blastocyst

Continue with Mythology Tells the Tale of Our Lives as Cells: “Whatever Happened to Us in the Amnestic Years … Is Projected Toward Cosmogony, Magic and Other Human Beings.”

Return to Cellular Memory’s Challenge to Materialism and Support for Panpsychism: The Body Arises from Consciousness, Not Vice-Versa, but There Is a Legitimacy to Heuristic Inquiry Into Form

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Verifiable Memory of Events That Occurred Prior to Brain or Body Prove the Existence of “Spirit”: Biology As Metaphor and Mythology, Part Two — The Epistemology Revealed by Cellular Memory

Biological Phases As Levels of Consciousness

My attempt here is to skeletonize a portion of such an overall endeavor to show how it can be done and what kinds of meanings can arise. I will relate stages in the ontogenetic development of the human body to the dualities (splittings) of consciousness that, according to Wilber (1977), create the spectrum of consciousness.

Specifically, I will correlate the patterns of change in both form and experience (feeling) that a human undergoes with levels of consciousness. I will do this beginning with the sperm and egg; through the fetal, newborn, child, and adolescent forms; to the adult. What I am saying is that the forms that characterize the biological history of each individual (as delineated by the science of biology) and the processes that characterize the psychological history of each individual (as reported to us in the psychological sciences of the new experiential growth modalities) reflect, and correlate with, the changes in consciousness that Wilber describes as creating the spectrum of consciousness.

The Charge of Reductionism

Is this reductionistic? Am I saying that our ontogenetic development creates or causes the spectrum of consciousness? No. I no more mean that ontogeny creates the spectrum than that ontogeny creates phylogeny … in that, as they say, “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.”

One might deduce, however, that since this ontogenetic development, that is, this human prenatal development, is prior (in time) to the spectrum of consciousness that we observe and study in the Now, a cause-and-effect relationship is the most likely connection. But I must respond that this assumes the primacy of the physical form (in its ontogenetic development) over consciousness. This presupposition is, of course, a cornerstone of the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm. Nevertheless, the very existence of consciousness or experience at the earliest levels I will be discussing (specifically, sperm, egg, zygote, and fetal) disputes the primacy-of-the-physical-universe postulate. To put it bluntly, consciousness can hardly be an epiphenomenon of brain activity if it exists when the brain does not.

Conversely, the body, brain, and cells cannot create the spectrum of consciousness for consciousness exists independent of them. The body reveals itself to arise from consciousness; it is the tip of the iceberg, which cannot be the foundation for the structures prior to or “below” or existing independently of it.

So the fact of memory and consciousness existing when the physical cells or the body cannot “create” them points inevitably to the primary reality/existence of something like Consciousness, Spirit, or Mind (or at least Energy) (see Adzema, 1985). Therefore, this type of impossible-to-have-existed-as-experience-or-to-be-existing-as-memory-according-to-the-N-C-paradigm experience can hardly be called the cause of the spectrum of consciousness. Indeed, something that cannot possibly exist within a paradigm can hardly be marshaled in to explain something within that paradigm.

However, if we accept the paradigm in which Consciousness, not form, is fundamentally real (which is exactly what we must do if we are going to look at evidence which supports, if not confirms, such a paradigm), and if we still want to accept the controversial concept of cause and effect, then the most we can really say is that prior experience of consciousness contributes to its later modifications. This perspective is certainly worthy of consideration.

The Legitimacy of Heuristic Inquiry Into Form

But were it true that prior experience causes the later modifications of Consciousness (or as Wilber terms it, “Mind”), that truth is congruent with an analysis such as this one that considers form as to its metaphorical heuristic value in understanding experience and existence (or Mind, Consciousness) as it is immediately apperceived in the only Reality of Now. As Wilber (1977) makes adequately clear, from the only Real perspective of Here and Nowness, Absolute Subjectivity, or Mind, all “past” events are nonreal (i.e., illusory) reflections of the Reality that is Now; they have no existence outside of this Now, so can hardly be called “causes” of Now.

From the perspective of Now, of Mind, of Absolute Subjectivity — which is the essence of the new paradigm — there is no cause and effect; there are only patterns of relationship existing Now. Hence these “prior” events are reflections of the immediate Reality, existing simultaneously in the Now as reflections, as metaphors. It is in this sense that they can be analyzed hermeneutically for their heuristic value in understanding the spectrum of consciousness as it arises this instant in the sole Eternal Moment.

The Legitimacy of Cellular Memory

Despite what I have just said concerning the importance of an analysis of the biological metaphors of form — especially as they exist on the cellular level surrounding conception — as reflecting something of importance to us in a hermeneutic or heuristic sense, I want to at least put out a case for the legitimacy of cellular memory as something in its own right. That is, the rest of Part Two will be based on a comparison of Wilber’s spectrum of consciousness with the observable events and forms (the behaviors of the specific biological forms) as they are known to occur through the observational aspects of the science of biology. Still, the interpretation between the philosophical system and the biological form will be aided, supported, and fed by, among other things, the direct experience of memories of these states and forms, down even to the earliest, by myself and by the reports of such experiences by others.

So while this analysis does not stand on the absolute veracity of those experiences by myself or by others, still the analysis is certainly aided and helped by a belief in their legitimacy. I will say a few words about how memory can occur of such events, and more importantly, how that memory can be related to the foundations of our consciousness. A complete explanation (as I see it) of exactly this — e.g., of how sperm and egg and zygote experience can lead to fundamental mythological, philosophical, and basic assumptions on the world, the self, and reality — can be found in two other recent works of mine (1993c, 1993d).

For our purposes here, let me just say that there are two possibilities that immediately come to mind: (1) what one might call the “prior conditions” theory and (2) Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance and morphogenetic fields. Let us take them in turn.

Continue with Morphogenetic Fields Theory Makes Genetics Obsolete and Unnecessary … and Cellular Memory Understandable: The Theories of Morphic Resonance and “Prior Conditions”

Return to Biology as Metaphor and Mythology, Part One: “The Map Is Not the Territory” and Biological Phases As Levels of Consciousness

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Continue with Morphogenetic Fields Theory Makes Genetics Obsolete and Unnecessary … and Cellular Memory Understandable: The Theories of Morphic Resonance and “Prior Conditions”

Return to Biology as Metaphor and Mythology, Part One: “The Map Is Not the Territory” and Biological Phases As Levels of Consciousness

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Social media has brought people close to each other, closer than is possible by any other entity. Following, liking and sharing people’s post can be fun, right? But when you literally start living to serve social media, now that, my friend, is when you become a live example of a ‘dead soul in a living body’.

That what appears to have made the world a smaller place have, in actuality, created a chasm whose depth knows no bounds. People are finding it difficult to socialize and it won’t take long before the act of conversing in person takes a commendable position in the list of things found most terrifying by the common public.
When a random user likes your post, that obnoxious sense of pride kicks in and you’re good to go. The more you are accepted by the internet community, the better you feel your day will be. *sigh*

I’m in no position to campaign against this notion; I hold no authority to challenge the suzerainty of your mind (oh..how I wish). But I really don’t understand how people consider spending time with anonymous groups to be a better pastime than the ones spent with their loved ones.
The internet has its own serving of dedicated sycophants which makes it almost impossible to pick out the actual admirers, let alone the worthy ones.

This is where people often lash out by stating that it is with their very own family members that they are connected through the internet; how can that be bad, right? Well, thanks to many website’s uniform layout and tidy little widgets, no matter how intense a person’s reaction to a post is, it is always presented in the same eerie fashion of similarity. No amount of virtual love can compensate for its realistic counterpart.

Exorcism in progress

Why do people prefer the internet then? One reason can be attributed to fact that people have had enough. They’ve had enough running behind their beloved ones, often being subject to the scary enough side effects of their hormone driven drama and mood swings. Everyone around them seems complex and even their actions don’t appear to differ from that notion. Nobody wants to get hurt, especially when the source of that pain comes from broken relationships. Yet, people constantly find…no, put themselves in such situations, trying in vain to scramble back to a peaceful, unperturbed existence.
What all the people, who find such practices tiring and meaningless, should understand is that this is what life is about. Besides, in what other way can life be lived to the fullest if there is no position of success to strive for.

After closely observing the way people live today, I won’t be surprised if the government promulgates the act of showing love or compassion to, at least, our family members. But then again, these are not feelings that can be forced out of people’s conscience; it has to come from deep within.
The level of detachment among the common public both shocks and saddens me. Let us hope not to be taken to a world where one is asked to pay rent to their own mother for staying nine whole months in her womb.

_Aravind Deepak
(The Unconditional Maverick)

That day was indeed a glorious day, because the angel announced the arrival of the Messiah, who was to be none other than Son of God Himself, Jesus, born into man, incarnate from His divinity and took up the mortal man’s body though without sin. But the greater is the joy and glory because of what Mary did on that day, for her faith and obedience to the Lord was so great and perfect, that through her humble acceptance of that great mission to bear Christ in herself, and through her humility, that the salvation of the world and all mankind was possible.

Without Mary’s full obedience and acceptance of her mission in delivering Christ into this world, the coming of the Messiah would not have happened. It is her attitude towards the vocation that God had placed in her, which earned her our praise and adoration, the first and greatest of all the saints in heaven, and none other than the mother of our Lord Himself, to whom our Lord would listen, just as at the wedding in Cana.

We all had deserved death since the beginning of time, since when our ancestors, from the time of Adam, succumbed to the temptations and the lies of the evil one, preferring worldly pleasures to God and His love, rebelling against His great kindness. Through this act of treason, we deserved death, but yet, our God, with His great love for us, was keen to show us His mercy, and throughout time, through countless prophets, He had made His intentions clear for all to see and listen, that He would send a deliverer, the Messiah, who would correct all things once again, and made the world into a perfection once again, cleansed from all the taints of evil.

So great was God’s love that He gave us His only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, that through Him, all of mankind and all creation have hope of a new life, an eternal life with God, and no longer be separated from the very God who loves us very much. To make all these possible, Christ would have to lower Himself, to be as men are, but unblemished, without the taints of sin. Pure as crystal and white as snow, and that is who Christ was. Because He was to give Himself up, not as mere burnt or sin offering and sacrifices, but as the true Lamb of God, our paschal lamb of sacrifice, whose purity and unblemished nature was the only one in all creation worthy of redeeming all of us from our unavoidable fate, that is death.

While the blood of goats and bulls was only able to cleanse sin temporarily, and that people would still die after those offerings, those cleansed by the Precious Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ would no longer experience death, that is eternal death. For through the offering of His Body and Blood, Christ had given each of us a new lease of life, a life that is filled with the glory and love of God. In baptism, that we received, either as a baby or as an adult, we received this new life. We were dead to our old life, and we shared in this death, the death of Christ on the cross, that we die to ourselves and our sins, and with the Risen Lord, we too are resurrected to begin a new life in God.

It is not easy to obey God’s commandment and will, especially in the case of what God had entrusted to Mary, and to no other person. For Mary was born without sin as well, immaculate, just as her Son is, because, to be the vessel through whom God would be incarnate as Man into this world, no vessel that is tainted with sin would be worthy. Mary’s obedience made her role in our faith ever greater, since her obedience became a great role model to all of us. She obeyed despite the difficulties, and the implications of her acceptance would have on her.

Remember that what happened after Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant. He wanted to divorce her, though with honour, so that she would not be treated as an adulterous woman, since she was a virgin, and yet with child. This was the implication that would happen to Mary, all the difficulties she had to endure, by accepting the will of God, to bear Christ in herself, that through her holy womb, Christ was brought forth as Jesus, her Son. Yet she obeyed without conditions, and submitted fully to the will of God, gladly embracing the role that she is to play in the history of salvation.

As we commemorate this great event, let us reflect this fact, and whether we too can be as courageous, faithful, and obedient as Mary was, in bravely and gladly answering the call of God, that all the great works of our Saviour would be possible. Can we begin today, to strive to be more like her, and to follow her example? We may not have to bear Christ and give birth to Him like Mary did, but in our own surroundings and in our own lives, we have our own missions and callings by God, and the things God had entrusted upon us.

Therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ, today, let us pray, that we would be able to follow after the example of Mary, the Mother of God, that we can also say yes, to our Lord, and accept His will, and the mission He had entrusted upon all of us with great humility and great joy. May God bless all of us, and make our faith stronger, that we will always live in the favour of God, filled with His love. Amen.

Is it a person?

The last thing we want to have to think about is the reality of abortion–the human beings whose lives are being taken in the name ofchoice, healthcare, and equality.

The abortion industry fights hard to keep women and society in general in the dark about the reality of abortion. They do not want women to see their babies on an ultrasound screen, because when one sees a beating heart, kicking legs, waving arms, thumb-sucking, and yawning, it tends to burst the bubble of denial.

Ur mom carried u in her womb for 9 months.
She felt sick 4 months with nausea.
She watched her feet swell & her skin
stretch & tear. She struggled 2 climb
stairs, she got breathless quick,…She
suffered many sleepless nights. She
then went through excruciating pain 2
bring u into this world.
Then, she became ur nurse, ur chef, ur
maid, ur chauffeur, ur biggest fan, ur
teacher, & ur best friend.
She’s struggled 4 u, cried over u,
hoped d best 4 u, & prayed 4 u.
Most of us take our mom 4 granted.
But there r people who have lost or
never even seen theirs.
If you have a loving Mother who did all
of this for you, you are very lucky,
never devalue her worth because one
day, you’ll wish you hadn’t!.
To my mother.
To every women who is a mother, and
to every other women who is going to
be one day…

Greetings, Faerie Queen of Witches

Ancient of Days, we bow before you.

From Above we come

bearing white banners.

Angels, djinn, daemons glide

down moonbeams dusted in starlight

draped in diamante gauze, sequined scarves,

star-studded feathers, a thousand rainbow hues.

Celestial voices raised,

we come singing silver notes of praise.

 From Below we come,

bearing black banners,

four-leggeds of myth and fable.

Noble-born, we walk in dignity

climbing the spiral path;

stone parts before us, chasms

close to bear our tread.  Spirits of ayahuasca,

divas of the garden, nymphs, dryads, Gaia’s

first-born come singing ebony notes of praise.

 From Between we come

bearing red banners,

daughters and sons of men,

Earth walkers, kissing cousins too-far

removed, claiming kinship now.

Our path unfurls steadily before us.

Milestones measure minutes, hours, days.

Our short impassioned lives flare like candles

against your dark mystery; still we come

singing crimson notes of praise.

Approaching your crossroad

we tremble, even the bravest

hides her eyes in awe…

terror washes over us

joy tumbles in its wake

notes meld, song rises.

Hail, Hecate!

Creatrix, Destroyer

Mother of magic, womb and tomb

stone and bone, green fire of life.

All hail!

Check out some original pro-life slogans.

I dread you the most

You fluid red ghost

Every month I greet you with camouflaged grief

At times you are long sometimes too brief

Every month I try

Though I often feel dry

You make me smell of deceased passion

Your deeper intent I yet cannot ration…

Tell me your secret and I will confide

I know I can feel you throbbing inside

By The Closet Poet

Inspired by NaPoWriMo’s Prompt for Day 17 – Greeting!

Biology Reflects Consciousness: Biological Changes Reflect Changes in Experience and Create the Spectrum of Consciousness

“The Stuff of the World Is Mind-Stuff”

We are living in stimulating and revolutionary times. For, even as we watch, the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm is collapsing in the ocean of the new physics, “matter” is being swept away by “wavicles,” and scientists are beginning to acknowledge what the poet-seers have always known: that physical reality is metaphor, that the external world and all of its components are subtle yet elaborate webs thrown upon the formless, meaningful forms created from no-thing-ness . . . that matter is metaphor for Consciousness — which is the only real stuff knowable about existence, in fact is the only stuff of the Universe.

Physicist and astronomer, Arthur Stanley Eddington (1928) phrased it: “The stuff of the world is mind-stuff.” More recently, University of Minnesota physicist Roger S. Jones (1982) unveiled a position which he calls an “idealistic reevaluation of the physical world” (p. ix). He writes

I reject the myth of reality as external to the human mind, and I acknowledge consciousness as the source of the cosmos. It is mind that we see reflected in matter. Physical science is a metaphor with which the scientist, like the poet, creates and extends meaning and values in the quest for understanding and purpose. (1982, p. ix)

Even more recently, anthropologist Armand Labbe (1991) summed it up at a Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness conference saying, “Ultimately our physics . . . is going to demonstrate that essentially there is no such thing as matter. All there is, is mind and motion.”

Granted, this is an extreme position, a strict Idealist stance. But it is the only truly supportable one, in light of what we know from the new physics. That would be enough in itself to cause us to reflect on it. But this perspective is also supported, even demonstrated, by the discoveries of the “new psychology” as well. More about that later.

It is ironic that it would be the most “materialistic” and “hardest” of the sciences that would be leading the charge against the primacy-of-the-physical-world postulate (and, unfortunately, leaving the rest of the sciences — both social as well as natural sciences — behind). The discoveries from quantum physics, though some of them almost a hundred years old now, are, only with difficulty, being assimilated into the other sciences. For the most part, they are largely ignored; science going along ‘as if’ . . . that is, as if the Newtonian-Cartesian paradigm were still viable, as if the physical world was really “objective” reality, as if the mind could validly be considered an epiphenomenon of brain activity. So the old paradigm holds sway despite its inadequacy.

This is understandable, however. For truly acknowledging these newer perspectives requires a reformulation of theoretical positions, a rethinking of the Universe in much the same way that astronomical theories needed to be reformulated after the Copernican revolution. What we do not need are theories that disfigure themselves in trying to incorporate some (not all) of the new information and new perspectives in the way of the convoluted theories of the pre-Copernican astronomers who refused to accept the newer paradigm postulations.

This book, to the contrary, consistently presents a new-paradigm perspective.

In doing so it includes a rethinking of some theoretical constructions associated with Ken Wilber who, from this analysis, appears as inconsistent as pre-Copernican astronomers in devolving his theories.

The Import and Consequences of the Primacy-of-Consciousness Postulate

It may also be argued that the new-paradigm primacy of consciousness is irrelevant to much of what is done in normal science. Whatever the truth of that, it must be acknowledged that theoretical positions that ignore the very foundations upon which they are based—that is, the subjectivity of the observer—are going to be weaker for that. Yet, acknowledging even that, one could argue that there is no clear idea of how to go about applying these new perspectives. How could they be used? How could they be relevant? What implications might they have?

It is in answer to these questions that I offer the following analysis of how these perspectives could be used in the understanding of child development. I propose a devolutional model—one that is rooted in Wilber’s (1977) “spectrum of consciousness” theory. It is based also in the findings of new-paradigm experiential psychotherapies—that is, those that place primacy upon experience over concept, “territory” over “map,” and percept over object.

The implications of this approach, I hope to show, are for no less than the validity of the current direction of child-caring, the effectiveness of mainstream psychiatric approaches, and the direction of psychological and spiritual growth. It is my belief that such implications will not be considered to be irrelevant or unimportant; and I will deal with them at length in Part Three.

Biology As Metaphor

At any rate, the knowable premise of the new science is that our physical world is a construction (of consciousness); that it can be metaphor, only, of the unknowable That Which Is; that, therefore, matter is metaphor. It follows that the sciences, which study this reflection of the unknowable Real, provide metaphors about metaphors.

Moving in the Air Without Support

Schopenhauer saw it much the same way. His understanding of “ideas” is very close to what I am saying about science being composed of metaphors about metaphors. Gardiner (1966) explains this viewpoint of Schopenhauer:

Schopenhauer distinguished a further class of ideas, namely, what he termed “ideas of Reflection,” or sometimes “ideas of ideas” (Vorstellungen von Vorstellungen). It is in terms of these that we think about and communicate the contents of our phenomenal experience. In other words, they are the general concepts by virtue of which we can classify phenomena according to common features that are of interest or importance to us, forming thereby a conceptual structure or system which may be said to mirror or copy the empirical world. The function of this system is essentially a practical one; it provides a means of memorizing, and generalizing from, our observations of how things behave under varying conditions, and hence of putting to use what we learn from experience. Schopenhauer insisted, moreover, that this system cannot legitimately be separated from the foundation of empirical reality upon which it is based, and he claimed that concepts and abstract notions that cannot be traced back to experience are comparable to bank notes “issued by a firm which has nothing but other paper obligations to back it with.” Consequently, metaphysical theories that pretend to offer an account of the world purely a priori, and that in doing so employ terms or propositions not susceptible to empirical interpretation, are empty of cognitive content; they “move in the air without support.” (p. 327)

In modern terms, “the map is not the territory” — the scientific construct is not the same as the experiential/ empirical reality of existence; and the farther they are removed from each other, the more unsubstantial becomes the construct — ultimately collapsing of its own weight.

Analyzing Scientific Dream-Weaving

Nonetheless, these metaphors — despite the threat of their moving “in the air without support” and cognizant of their practical value; these metaphors — because of the fact of their being for the empirical world a reflection or “mirror,” which we then call “physical facts,” “objective reality,” or “scientific truths”; these metaphors can be analyzed in the same way that dream symbols are analyzed, that is, to uncover their deeper meanings.

Furthermore, this uncovering means essentially that we can discern their meanings for ourselves; “deeper meaning” being that understanding that relates the symbol to ourselves and that gives us understanding of our inner and outer actions and guidance for such behavior. In this way we can relate these “ideas about ideas,” these scientific truths, back to our empirical, experiential, subjective reality . . . back to the base that they were originally the reflections and mirrors of. Thus we can come full circle, looking at ourselves from both inside as well as outside of ourselves and approaching, to the degree that a person can, a fuller understanding of ourselves and the world with which we are inseparable.

Specifically, then, for our purposes here, in looking at the biological sciences’ metaphors of the human body — especially as concerns its structure, function, and ontogenetic and phylogenetic developments — we can discern and analyze an “underlying” meaning — a reflection of the Real, or of what Wilber (1977) calls Mind.

It is especially heuristic to analyze body for, as it has been said, body is concretized mind. This is not to mean concretized Mind—in Wilber’s sense—but concretized ego (in the sense of the separate self, in the sense of mind as used by Satya Sai Baba and other teachers who say that, ultimately, mind must be destroyed). Therefore, in contemplating the metaphors of the biological understanding of body, we can discern patterns and derive meanings concerning the separate self—its evolution, relationship to the whole, patterns of activity, stages of development, essence, and its experience of itself.

Biological Phases As Levels of Consciousness

My attempt here is to skeletonize a portion of such an overall endeavor to show how it can be done and what kinds of meanings can arise. I will relate stages in the ontogenetic development of the human body to the dualities (splittings) of consciousness that, according to Wilber (1977), create the spectrum of consciousness.

Specifically, I will correlate the patterns of change in both form and experience (feeling) that a human undergoes with levels of consciousness. I will do this beginning with the sperm and egg; through the fetal, newborn, child, and adolescent forms; to the adult. What I am saying is that the forms that characterize the biological history of each individual (as delineated by the science of biology) and the processes that characterize the psychological history of each individual (as reported to us in the psychological sciences of the new experiential growth modalities) reflect, and correlate with, the changes in consciousness that Wilber describes as creating the spectrum of consciousness.

Continue with Cellular Memory’s Challenge to Materialism and Support for Panpsychism: The Body Arises from Consciousness, Not Vice-Versa, but There Is a Legitimacy to Heuristic Inquiry Into Form

Return to Tribes and Wonder Versus Civilization and Suffering: More Nestling Up With the Implicate Order, Or Before and After the Western Fall (Split)

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Whilst I was at uni studying Theatre Arts, in my final year I exposed my experience with rape using the form of Performance Art. This is an initial response during my concept process, taken from my portfolio.

I used to always get these images – even more so during my severe times of OCD which were set in motion because of the rape – of me hacking away at my womb; I didn’t deserve to have one. The rapist had taken away my right to have children. I believed that somehow I was made to be a part of him and he had stolen a part of me.

Disgusting.

The Spirituality of Being

The journey toward wholeness and our identity as spiritual beings, is a journey of self-discovery in the context of a belief in some kind of Higher Power.  Our search for meaning and purpose in life can be couched in religious terms, but is not limited to, nor necessarily defined as religious in nature.  The desire to make a difference in the world around us is an essential element in the spiritual journey.

Practical visionaries find effective ways to solve problems today and make their dreams useful to people with real challenges. Essentially, it’s about transcending duality and bringing together opposites. It’s about coherence between what you say you believe, what you embody and what you do.*

The word Being is often used as an alternative name for God, as in Supreme Being.  Individual words not only carry certain connotations, but can be associated with distracting images all too often.  The word God carries a lot of baggage and is almost automatically associated with Michelangelo’s God of the Sistine Chapel; ie, a magnificent human being writ large. Other traditions refer to God as Principle or First Cause, both of which can be seen as a bit dry and academic.

The word being, in common usage, can be used as noun or verb, describing a human being or the condition of being alive. Which suggests that there is a world of difference between being and Being.  Yet, in Acts 17 we read:

…for in Him we live and move and have our being,

which implies that we have our being within Being.  Or we could say that:

You are primarily a spiritual being, the expression of God’s perfection, the receptacle of His love; and when you think and act in the consciousness of perfection and love, you cannot help being open to the influx of God’s love and to the fulfillment of His divine purpose.**

No matter what we say to the contrary about being one with God, we act as if there were being and then Being.  Two separate and distinct states of being.  If we use the analogy of a woman with a child in her womb, in one sense, the two are and will be one being until the new born leaves the womb.  Her life force circulates through the child, maintaining and supporting the new life even as it begins to develop and grow. Legally, though, the fetus is a separate, living being.

If we compare this analogy to the womb of creation, to God, then while we are clearly not the whole of God, God is the whole of us.  We literally live and move and have our being in God.  As a child of God, we are giving birth to new life, to new ideas and to new possibilities with every breath we breathe.

Think of Being as an aggregation of ideas with potential creative capacity but governed in its creative process by unalterable laws.**

So the spirituality of Being is an all inclusive oneness with all that is, without separation, without beginning or ending–the fullness of being.

Rev. Claudia Naylor

Practical Visionary, by McLauglin*

Jesus Christ Heals, by Fillmore**

I shot an amazing art film with my sister Mia for the artist Yana Toyber, posing as two babies in the womb. The film premiered in Art Basel Miami 2012. We spent a magical night shooting in an amazing swimming pool in the Hamptons. The full exhibition “Double Visions” will be coming out in New York later 2013.

Guess which one is which?

Isaiah 46:9 -11 You are God, and there is no other; You are God, and there is none like You.  You make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come.  You say: Your purpose will stand, and You will do all that You please. 

It’s You God that causes me to fulfil Your purpose, what You have said, that You will bring about, what You have planned, that You will do.

Isaiah 48:3 For You foretold the former things long ago, Your mouth announced them and You made them known; then suddenly You acted, and they came to pass.

Isaiah 55:11 It is the same with Your word.  You send it out…and it will always accomplish what You want it to.

1 Corinthians 2:7-9 Your wisdom God is a mystery, a wisdom that has been hidden and You my God destined for our glory before time began. . . . As it is written:  ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived, what You God have prepared for those who love You.

Isaiah 55:8 Your ways are far beyond anything I can imagine.

Ephesians 2:10, Psalm 139:16 I can do the good things You planned for me long ago when Your eyes saw my unformed body.   All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Jeremiah 1:4-5 Before You formed me in the womb You knew me, before I was born You set me apart; You appointed me as a prophet to the nations.

Jeremiah 29:11 For You know the plans You have for me, plans to prosper me and not to harm me, plans to give me hope and a future.

Eph. 4:1 Heb. 12:1, I Thess. 5:19 I choose to run with endurance the race You God have set out before me, that I may lead a life worthy of my calling and not bring sorrow to You Holy Spirit by the way I live. I will not put out the Spirit’s fire.

Luke 5:10-11 Luke 5:27-28 I choose not to be afraid, from now on I’ll be fishing for people therefore I choose to get up, leave everything and follow You Lord Jesus as a disciple.

James 1:3-4 I choose faith understanding that when my faith is tested, my endurance has a chance to grow.   Allowing it to grow is when my endurance is fully developed, I become strong in character and ready for anything.

Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against You LORD.

Matthew 6:9-13 Our Heavenly Father, Holy is Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those that sin against us, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil for Yours is the Kingdom, the power and the glory forever and forever Amen

With all my love

Most of us have no idea why we were born. We spend our lives in search of purpose. We are on the race track of life; the course of the world and all we do is spin our wheels going around in a circle having the same fears, doing the same routine things, having the same worries and living in a rut of existence. God wants us to enter each day with anticipation which can only be done when you begin to know the heart of God. Each day is a gift from God and contains a moment God has been planning to express his purpose for creating you; a moment that he has planned since before time began to express his grace and mercy through you.

Guinness: Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism and directed lived out as a response to his summons and service.  God’s calling is the key to igniting a passion for the deepest growth and highest heroism in life.

Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT):For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah’s call: Jeremiah 1:4-10 (NLT): The Lord gave me this message:⁵ “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”⁶ “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!”⁷ The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. ⁸ And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” ⁹ Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said , “Look, I have put my words in your mouth!¹⁰ Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant.”

Psalm 139:15-18 (NLT): You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.¹⁶ You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.¹⁷ How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! ¹⁸ I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me!

God called us before we were formed in our mother’s womb. He thinks about us constantly with thousands and thousands of thoughts about His love for us and His purpose for our lives. Don’t we want to follow His plans as the master blueprint of our lives? Don’t we want to fulfill His purpose for our lives? How amazing the plan must be? How spectacular must that purpose be that was conceived in the heart of God and sounded out from the heavens before the foundations of the world!!

Acts 13:38:  For David, remember, after he had served God’s purpose in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his ancestors.

We were born for THIS time and have a specific purpose to fulfill and complete in our generation. Are we serving God’s purposes for our generation or our own?

Guinness: Answering the call is the way to fund and fulfill the central purpose of your life.

Augustine: You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.

Take heart. He is calling you. Listen to His divine summons! He is the only one that is the Guide, the Leader, the Voice that calls us into union with Him and His plans, His designs and His calling for our lives.

Guinness: We are FIRST not primarily called to do something or go somewhere; we are called to Someone. The key to answering the call is to be devoted to no one and to nothing above God.

Be absolutely His first.

We are going to examine many verses in Scripture concerning our calling as God speaks to our hearts with His words, disclosing to us the many facets and details of our Christian calling.

Romans 1:1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God,

When Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisee, religiously following all the rules and regulations and persecuting the church, He was missing God’s true calling. Paul was called to be an apostle.

Romans 1:6,7 (NASB)  among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ;⁷ to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are the called of Jesus Christ. What a privilege! Look how Simon, Andrew, James and John responded to the call.

Mark 1:16-20Passing alongside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁷ And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” ¹⁸ And immediately they left their nets and followed him. ¹⁹ And going on a little farther, he saw James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were in their boat mending the nets. ²⁰ And immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him.

The Greek word for call is kaleo. Wuest Kaleo’s) distinctive use in the New Testament is to call a person for a definite purpose. Hence, it is synonymous with to select or choose. It refers to the act of calling someone so that he may hear, come, and do that which is incumbent upon him. It thus is a word that becomes a technical term for special relationships. In secular Greek it was used of a summons in the law courts. It denotes in the NT a call from God or in God’s Name, a call to participate in the revelation of grace. Paul’s use of the word in general suggests that he thought of those only as called who obeyed the divine summons. Of a rejected call he never speaks. The word grace is in the locative of sphere. God called the Galatians in the sphere of grace.

William Barclay gives us some excellent background on kaleo noting that in Classical Greek there were 4 main uses all of which help one understand the NT uses…

(1)  (Kaleo) is the regular verb for ‘calling’ a person or a place by a name. So in Mt 1.21, 23, 25, Jesus is ‘called‘ by the name ‘Jesus’. In Mt 5.9-note the peacemakers are ‘called‘ the sons or God. In Mt 23.7 the scribes love to be ‘called‘ Rabbi. This is the commonest of all the uses of (kaleo).

(2) (Kaleo) is the regular verb for ‘summoning’ or ‘calling’ a person. It may be that the person is ‘summoned’ to an office and an honour. Paul is ‘called’ to be an apostle (kletos) (Ro 1.1-note; 1Co 1.1). It may be that the person is ‘summoned’ to be given a task. In Mt. 25.14 the servants are ‘called’ to take over the estate when the master is away (cp. Lk 19.13). It may be that the person is summoned to be given a reward for his work and to give an account of it (Mt 20.8). Kaleo is regularly used for summoning a person to an office, a task, a responsibility, a reward. and an account.

(3) (Kaleo) is the regular verb for ‘inviting a person to a meal or a banquet or into a house as a guest’. So much so is this the case that the past participle passive ho keklemenos and the adjective ho kletos can both by them-selves mean ‘the guest’ (for this use in the Septuagint cp. 1Ki 1.41). So kaleo is the word used for ‘inviting’ the guests to the wedding feast (Mt 22.3). It is used of Simon the Pharisee ‘inviting’ Jesus to a meal in his house (Lk 7.39). It is the word that Luke uses of the humble and the conceited guests who are ‘bidden’ to a feast (Lk 14.8). It is the word that is used of those who are ‘called’ to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Re 19.9-note). Kaleo is the regular word which is used for a hospitable invitation.

(4) (Kaleo) is the regular word for ‘summoning into the law-courts’. It is the word that is used for ‘citing’ a witness or a defendant to appear before a judge. In the NT it is so used of Peter and John being brought before the Sanhedrin (Acts 4.18); and of Paul being summoned before Felix to face his Jewish prosecutors (Acts 24.2). It is the word which is used when a man is summoned to stand his trial and to give account.

(1) The Christian is a man who hears the summons of God. Now the very essence of a summons is that it is either a challenge or an appeal. A man can either accept it or reject it; he can heed it or disregard it; he can listen to it or be deaf to it. The very word lays upon us the tremendous responsibility of answering—or not answering—the voice of God.

(2) The Christian life is a summons to duty. Always the Christian is summoned to a task. God is always offering the Christian man a task to do. In Cicero’s Republic (1.20, 33) Laelius is asked : ‘What then do you think we ought to teach the people we have to educate?’ And the answer is : ‘We ought to teach those arts which will make us of use to the state.’ The call of God is a call to the Christian to be of use in this world.

(3) The call of God is a call to privilege. (Kaleo) and klesis are intimately associated with the invitation to a feast, a banquet, the welcome to a table and a home. The call of God to the Christian is the call to come and to enjoy his fellowship, his hospitality, the joy and the fullness of being a guest of God.

(4) The call of God is a call to judgment. Equally (kaleo) and klesis are intimately associated with being cited to appear before a judge and a court. The Christian life is not going nowhere; it is going to the judgment seat of God. And if a man disregards the call of God, if he is deaf to the summons to duty, if he is heedless to the invitation of God, there comes the final call, the call which will call him to account. (Barclay, William: New Testament Words:. Westminster John Know Press, 1964)

 The Calling: God gives us a name, God gives a position and function in the Body of Christ, God invites us to intimacy like sharing a meal with him and allowing Him to be the permanent resident of our heart and God will summon us to the bema, the judgment seat of Christ.

Romans 8:28-31:And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. ²⁹ For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. ³⁰ Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.³¹ What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

We are called according to His purpose not our own and we are called to be conformed to the image of His Son. 

Chambers: If we are in fellowship and oneness with God and recognize that He is taking us into His purposes, then we will no longer strive to find out what His purposes are. As we grow in the Christian life, it becomes simpler to us, because we are less inclined to say, “I wonder why God allowed this or that?” And we begin to see that the compelling purpose of God lies behind everything in life, and that God is divinely shaping us into oneness with that purpose. A Christian is someone who trusts in the knowledge and the wisdom of God, not in his own abilities. If we have a purpose of our own, it destroys the simplicity and the calm, relaxed pace which should be characteristic of the children of God.

I Corinthians 1:23-31 (ESV): ²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, ²⁴ but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. ²⁵ For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.²⁶ For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷ But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸ God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹ so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰ And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, ³¹ so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

I Corinthians 1:9: ⁹ God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

I Corinthians 7:17-24   But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one, so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches. ¹⁸ Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. ¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters. ²⁰ Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. ²¹ Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you can be made free, rather use it. ²² For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord’s freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ’s slave. ²³ You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. ²⁴ Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called.

I Corinthians 12:18 (Amplified):  But as it is, God has placed and arranged the limbs and organs in the body, each [particular one] of them, just as He wished and saw fit and with the best adaptation.

Each one was has a specific wonderful function in the Body of Christ that God has arranged and placed by His will and desire. 

Colossians 3:15 (ESV): And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

Galatians 1:6:  I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Galatians 1:11-16:  For I want you to know, brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known by me is not man’s gospel [a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standard]. ¹² For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but [it came to me] through a [direct] revelation [given] by Jesus Christ (the Messiah).¹³ You have heard of my earlier career and former manner of life in the Jewish religion (Judaism), how I persecuted and abused the church of God furiously and extensively, and [with fanatical zeal did my best] to make havoc of it and destroy it.¹⁴ And [you have heard how] I outstripped many of the men of my own generation among the people of my race in [my advancement in study and observance of the laws of] Judaism, so extremely enthusiastic and zealous I was for the traditions of my ancestors.¹⁵ But when He, Who had chosen and set me apart [even] before I was born and had called me by His grace (His undeserved favor and blessing), saw fit and was pleased¹⁶ To reveal (unveil, disclose) His Son within me so that I might proclaim Him among the Gentiles (the non-Jewish world) as the glad tidings (Gospel), immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood [did not consult or counsel with any frail human being or communicate with anyone].

Galatians 5:13: You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.

We have been called to liberty and to be freed from anything that holds us in bondage.

Luke 11:11-13And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. ¹² When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” ¹³ And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God.

Ephesians 4:1-7 (ESV)  I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, ² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, ³ eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. ⁷ But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.:

F B Meyer writes that…

The simplest words are the deepest. Take, for example, the word call. It is constantly on our lips. The shepherd’s call to his sheep, the herdsman’s on the hills, the mother’s to her child. And God appropriates it in his dealings with men. He calls them. From the throne of his glory He speaks to every soul of man once, twice, many times; as when He said “Samuel, Samuel,” or “Saul, Saul.” In some solemn hour of decision, in a moment of awful crisis, by human voice or written word, or by the pleading and remonstrance of conscience, God’s voice may be heard calling men to Himself, to Heaven, and to a saintly life. On that call the apostle bases his argument for holiness. Act worthily of the love which summoned you, and of the goal to which you have been called. Stand still and ask yourself before you speak, or act, or decide–Is this worthy of that great ideal which God has conceived for me, when He called me from the rest of men to be his priest, his saint, his son? If not, eschew (avoid habitually especially on moral or practical grounds) it! (F. B. Meyer. Ephesians – A Devotional Commentary)

In a manner worthy (axios from axios = having the weight of another) means weighing as much as, of like value, worth as much. “Literally, “bringing up the other beam of the scales” suggests that there must be a balance between one’s profession and one’s practice. So Paul provides a criterion by which possible courses of action can be weighed. Christians will always seek to do what is most in keeping with their “calling.” By definition this is a calling they have received, not one they have acquired by self-effort. Those who share such a divine call constitute the church (ekklesia), the “called-out company” of those who are in Christ.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary).

Walk is on one side and calling on the other side of the “scales”.

Paul is saying in essence, I implore you to let your walk be balanced by your calling. He is exhorting them to demonstrate a balance between their profession and their practice.

I Thessalonians 2:10-12 (ESV):  You are witnesses, and God also, how holy and righteous and blameless was our conduct toward you believers.¹² we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

We live holy, righteous and blameless lives because God has called us into His own kingdom and glory.

I Thessalonians 4:7,8 (NIV):  For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. ⁸ Therefore, anyone who rejects this instruction does not reject a human being but God, the very God who gives you his Holy Spirit.

God did not call us to live impure lives; God did not call us to live in sin; God did not call us to have a love affair with the world. God called us to holiness in every aspect of our lives from our thoughts, our words and our actions.

II Thessalonians 2:13,14 But we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, ¹⁴ to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

What a privilege to be called to obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ! This is our calling!

I Timothy 6:11.12 (Phillips):   But you, the man of God, keep clear of such things. Set your heart not on riches, but on goodness, Christ-likeness, faith, love, patience and humility. Fight the worthwhile battle of the faith, keep your grip on that life eternal to which you have been called, and to which you boldly professed your loyalty before many witnesses.

We have called to eternal life and eternity must be our focus daily as we live our lives.

I Timothy 1:9 (KJV):   Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Our calling is a holy calling that is according to God’s grace and God’s purpose that He gave us in Christ before the world began.

Hebrews 11:8-10It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. ⁹ And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. ¹⁰ Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God.

Study the call of God on Abraham’s life and how HE followed God’s call as the father of those who believe. He did not doubt God’s promise concerning His calling.

Hebrews 11:24-27(Amplified):[Aroused] by faith Moses, when he had grown to maturity and become great, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,²⁵ Because he preferred to share the oppression [suffer the hardships] and bear the shame of the people of God rather than to have the fleeting enjoyment of a sinful life.²⁶ He considered the contempt and abuse and shame [borne for] the Christ (the Messiah Who was to come) to be greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for he looked forward and away to the reward (recompense).²⁷ [Motivated] by faith he left Egypt behind him, being unawed and undismayed by the wrath of the king; for he never flinched but held staunchly to his purpose and endured steadfastly as one who gazed on Him Who is invisible.

Moses’ calling is one of the most amazing and powerful sections of Scripture. He forsook the pleasures of sin and the treasures of Egypt to fulfill God’s calling.

I Peter 1:14-16 (AMP):[Live] as children of obedience [to God]; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires [that governed you] in your former ignorance [when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel].¹⁵ But as the One Who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living.¹⁶ For it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy.

1 Peter 2:9-11 (AMP): ⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, [God’s] own purchased, special people, that you may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.¹⁰ Once you were not a people [at all], but now you are God’s people; once you were unpitied, but now you are pitied and have received mercy.¹¹ Beloved, I implore you as aliens and strangers and exiles [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges (the evil desires, the passions of the flesh, your lower nature) that wage war against the soul.

We have been called from darkness to God’s marvelous light as God’s purchased, special people.

I Peter 2:21 (ESV): For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

We have been called to follow in Christ’s steps upon the earth as His amabasadors.

I Peter 5:10,11 (NASB): After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you. ¹¹ To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.

II Peter 1:3,4 (ESV):His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to  his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

I John 3:1,2 (NIV): See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

At the heart of our calling is that God has birthed us in Christ and we are now His beloved sons and daughters. This is the ultimate love that is the foundation of our calling.

Jude 1:1 (ESV): Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ:

Romans 11:32 (ESV): For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Amplified: For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]

God’s calling is irrevocable meaning that God does not change His mind.

Look at the beauty of God’s call to Israel:

Isaiah 41:4,8-13 (ESV): Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the last; I am he.⁸ But you, Israel, my servant,
Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend;⁹ you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”;¹⁰ fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.¹¹ Behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded; those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.¹² You shall seek those who contend with you, but you shall not find them; those who war against you shall be as nothing at all. ¹³ For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not,I am the one who helps you.”

God does not abandon us in our calling. He is there to help us, strengthen us, and hold us by our right hand. He wars against those who obstruct our calling.

Philippians 3:14 (NLT): I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

We run the race of our calling as a spiritual athlete to receive the heavenly prize and rewards.

I Thessalonians 1:11,12 (AMP):With this in view we constantly pray for you, that our God may deem and count you worthy of [your] calling and [His] every gracious purpose of goodness, and with power may complete in [your] every particular work of faith (faith which is that ^[b]leaning of the whole human personality on God in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness).¹² Thus may the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified and become more glorious through and in you, and may you [also be glorified] in Him according to the grace (favor and blessing) of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).

II Peter 1:5-11For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, ⁶ and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, ⁷ and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. ⁸ For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. ¹⁰ Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. ¹¹ For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

To exercise diligence in our calling and fulfill it, we must exercise faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection and love. We will never fall short in our calling if we diligently practice these qualities in our walk with God and each other. God has called us to His divine plans and purposes and nothing is more exciting in life than bringing to full fruition the purpose, the plan and the design God has for our lives.

The greatest tragedy in life is when we turn our backs on God’s design, calling  and purpose for our lives. This tragedy hurts the heart of God for He knows what could have been. The story that never came to pass; the beautiful masterpiece that was left in the box. The awesome calling that faded away. He has written a beautiful story for our life, but when we pick up the pen and try to write the book ourselves, everything falls apart and crumbles before our eyes. Pray to God. Talk to God. Ask God to show you day by day His design and function and purpose for you on this earth. Pray to God that you fulfill every jot and tittle of it. It is glorious. It is immense. It is adventurous. It is the best. This purpose always has at its fabric that you have a heart of service to God and others. It begins with salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ and the new birth. No one can accomplish their destiny without the Lord Jesus Christ. God is with you every step of the way and He will help you, strengthen you and guide you into fulfilling His purpose He has for you in your generation. Don’t ever waste your potential, your purpose and your design on things, paths, ways that God never intended for you. Be all that you can be for God. Every cell in your body was designed for you to fulfill your purpose that God knew about before time began. Let God make your life count and ring as a gem of God’s glory throughout the halls of eternity forever . Every moment counts; every day counts; every week counts; every year counts, but we live with God one day at a time.

Or the other option: Could I kill my human animal?

Well, maybe when it’s old and it can’t take care of me and I stop looking forward to or even dread the next day and can’t see anything ever changing for the better and there’s the pain and the drugs to lessen the pain. But we all perk up when there’s a great news story to suffer through.

Is having a roof and food and clothing and a useful way to spend my time enough?
Is adventure always available?

What is the only tomorrow that I’ll not experience? Is it I’ll never experience the first tomorrow because tomorrow never comes, or is it the tomorrow after I die?

Is it that I’m a text and the universe is my context, or is it that I am a context for the rest of the universe or both? And I take up no actual space!

What is a thinking machine’s thinking?
Does the thinking not exist until it’s finally recorded somehow?
Is it that we don’t exist until we are recorded somewhere?
Is it yes and no?

Can one relax when dodging viewpoints?
What is it like being undocumented?