The twelve powers

wil

wil

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It doesn't matter who you are or what you do you need assistance.

If you are a CEO you bring on accountants, HR people, project managers, marketing...

If a contractor you need those skilled in electrical, mechanical, framing, brick laying..

As we go thru life we gather companions that make us laugh, listen well, and have skills we wish to learn or strengthen.

In Unity we examine the disciples that Jesus gathered and what they brought to the table. We believe that like all relationships it was a trade...not just what they learned from him, but also what he learned from them...and how they helped quicken his understanding of the various traits he must master and overcome.

For me initially studying this was more of a thought exercise, a contemplation. Is it a belief set in stone? Not for me, yet I have gained insight on my reactions and understandings by studying and attempting to trick Filmore's assertions. Especially the most troubling....Judas represents Life? What?

https://www.unity.org/resources/twelve-powers/twelve-powers
 
Order is the power for September.

Each month Unity churches look at a different trait, a different power, and the opportunity to improve our skills, our understanding, our relationship with that power. One can explore the friends that seem to have control over it, that utilize the powers to their advantage in this life.

I look at.my relationship with Unity, their principles, their ideas, and ideals, more as an exploration of this world, understanding this life, gaining new perspectives of situations... I think actually in more of a secular way... My concern is not for the next life but for this one. Not for the future, but what I should do in the NOW.

https://www.unity.org/resources/twelve-powers/twelve-powers/12-powers-order
 
Zeal is the power for October.

I find it interesting who and where insight comes from if we are observant. Is it all made up in my mind, or is it reality?

Definitely raised some zeal as I considered that passage of Jesus calling an indigenous woman a dog...not because of the line...but as usual the contemplation of the line and what I got from contemplating it.

Was my conclusion right? For then? For now? For me? For you? When we get into something and feel.we grocked it our zealous nature pops wanting to share our revelation...but it is often only for us....as no one else has walked in our shoes. Despite what we feel or want...it wasn't for everyone, no elbowing others in our pew...

https://www.unity.org/resources/twelve-powers/twelve-powers/12-powers-zeal
 
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wil said:
Definitely raised some zeal as I considered that passage of Jesus calling an indigenous woman a dog...
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Not sure the essence of Matthew 15:22-29 is meant to portray Jesus as misogynist and racist, and generally unenlightened? I would regard such a reading as loaded and out-of-context of the meaning of the passage? Admittedly a difficult passage ...
 
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I personally see it is Jesus 'speaking to the gallery' of Israel, using the event to demonstrate the universality of his mission as Christ to all people? To those that surrender to Him in honest faith?
 
I think maybe the difference is I see it Jesus grew over the 30 years...

This is the basis for the twelve powers....gathering disciples to help him quicken...gain deeper understanding to each of.the powers. Much as we associate with friends who benefit our growth (or drag us down....choices)
 
Reverence for Jesus the good man cannot hurt. But Jesus the Christ is more, it goes far beyond the margins, imo

From earliest times in Rome the followers are called 'Christians' not 'Yeshuans' -- it was never a ' good man Jesus' cult?
 
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The application of the twelve powers on the disciples, and then that on Jesus, takes a fair bit of inventive licence, I might suggest ...
 
Thomas said:
The application of the twelve powers on the disciples, and then that on Jesus, takes a fair bit of inventive licence, I might suggest ...
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Quick offhand remark...Peter as faith, John as love...not so much....Judas as life takes some work...

Nature of the beast differentiation of sects/denominations. Surely you are aware there on non trinitarians that make the same claim.

It really does make some fun contemplation....seeing who travels with who...who Jesus calls first, who Jesus calls to be with him...for which tasks.
 
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No biggie, I was just intrigued as to where Fillmore got his definitions, that's all.

We generate narratives for sure, it's just what are the narratives based on, that's what I look for.
 
Thomas said:
No biggie, I was just intrigued as to where Fillmore got his definitions, that's all.

We generate narratives for sure, it's just what are the narratives based on, that's what I look for.
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absolutely! I was as well. Until I found many definitions aligned with those in the back of my dad's childhood KJV and then also aligned with baby naming books....and also with descriptions named in the bible "I name this child x because.... I name this well x because.... I name this land X because...

And after he and others did the research of finding what was already written they filled the gaps with what was received in prayer and contemplation.

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/5685609/metaphysical-bible-dictionary-unity-of-citrus-county
 
Unity's origins are interesting. Charles was science, fact, and skeptical. His wife was a believer in prayer and rolled into the new thought concepts brought out of transcendentalism (Thouro and Longfellow) as expanded by Quinby. She believed to be healed by prayer, Charles agreed to try as a scientific experiment.

After achieving positive results he continued his research and then began sharing it in a weekly interdenominational bible study class. His goal was to share and allow insights for other believers ... not take them away from.their churches. Yet over time those weeknight followers suggested he have his own Sunday services.
 
I'm always interested in origins.

It's a shame Fillmore's influences, wiki speaks of 'spiritualism', 'metaphysics' and 'eastern religion' but I can't find any details. Are they, anywhere, d'you know?

Apart from the anthropomorphism, which I've aired before, my big beef with 'New Thought' generally is 'prosperity theology' and its contemporary cousin 'wellness' – although I think this might point more to the American psyche than its European origins.

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I might splash out on this:
A Republic of Mind and Spirit: A Cultural History of American Metaphysical Religion by Catherine L. Albanese

Albanese traces roots from Antiquity to the New Age, touching Hermeticism, the Rosicrucians, Freemasonry, the Kabbala, Quakers, Boehme, the Family of Love, the Ephrata colony in Pennsylvania, H Cornelius Agrippa, Emmanuel Swedenborg, Universalism, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Andrew Jackson Davis, Spiritualists, Shakers, Mormons, mesmerism, electromagnetism, Christian Science, New Thought, Theosophy, Buddhism (the Henry Olcott version), Religious Science, Ralph Waldo Trine, the Unity movement, Norman Vincent Peale, Alice Bailey, Barbara Brennan ... not forgetting Africans brought as slaves, Native Americans et al.

A brief review on jstor answers the question I had:

What constitutes 'metaphysical religion'? (Or rather, what religion does not contain a metaphysical element, and why is it necessary to declare it?)

She specifies four principal themes, but first she indicates that by "metaphysics" is meant the opposite of what is normally understood in philosophical discourse.

Here, the metaphysical is actually an "anti-metaphysical ideology" (my emphasis again), a "preference for direct experience'' with one foot in the Enlightenment and the other in the democratisation of thinking in post-revolutionary America; the two are brought together in a "village-Enlightenment" that signifies a quintessentially "American" way of proceeding. Importantly for her, such metaphysical modes of thinking were never esoteric in the sense of being hidden or mysterious.

To summarise the four themes – no easy task as each is something of an agglomeration –
Mind is the first, in the sense of "consciousness and all that derives from and returns to it."

Second is the "cosmological theory of correspondence between worlds" (as voiced in antiquity) or correspondence in the sense of "human interaction with nature. The larger version of correspondence translates into a way of thinking she terms "mystical," the assertion that something larger (the Mind with a capital M) is replicated in the microcosm.

Third is the energy or action of the kind needed to perceive and experience the interconnectedness of things. This energy she calls ''magic."

The fourth involves salvific healing, understood as "standing in the free flow of spirit energy" that brings to an end all forms of alienation, including what in Christianity is described as sin.

Implicit and sometimes explicit in these four strands are a penchant for attributing divine-like capacities to the human self and a preference for vitalism – animated by (divine?) spirit, nature responds to humankind's powers of imagination.

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Which is all really interesting in the dialogue on religious experience.
 
A general critique I have of 'New Thought' in its American derivatives is 'prosperity theology' and its insidious secular cousin, 'wellness culture'.
 
I totally agree with much of your conjecture...and like I have said before...my comfortable place is listening to unity teachers and preachers...but just like the ones from elementary school....i don't believe all of what they do, BUT I find the places I have issues with tolerable. I find the people that attend the churches less hypocritical. I don't find the bigots, racists, nationalists, misogynists, and anti LGTBQIA+ folk that I find in other churches. Not that they don't exist, I am sure some of these tendencies exist in some of the folks....but the numbers are smaller, it is less vocal...and not preached from the pulpit. All that matters to me.

When I take the beliefnet quiz secular humanism, Theravada Buddhism, and Unitarian Universalist rank above New Thought...evidently I don't buy anything hook line and sinker!

Not having any belief in or concern for a hereafter....my goal in life is simply to work towards progress in reducing violence, increasing cooperation, reducing stress...making this life easier to exist in for those around me.

Meta physics....to me it is simply beyond.the page, beyond a literal understanding of the words....transferring every passage in the bible to thoughts which pertain to my life and a guide for me to grow more compassionate and caring... I still got plenty of work to get there...lol
 
wil said:
I totally agree with much of your conjecture...and like I have said before...my comfortable place is listening to unity teachers and preachers...but just like the ones from elementary school....i don't believe all of what they do, BUT I find the places I have issues with tolerable. I find the people that attend the churches less hypocritical. I don't find the bigots, racists, nationalists, misogynists, and anti LGTBQIA+ folk that I find in other churches. Not that they don't exist, I am sure some of these tendencies exist in some of the folks....but the numbers are smaller, it is less vocal...and not preached from the pulpit. All that matters to me.

When I take the beliefnet quiz secular humanism, Theravada Buddhism, and Unitarian Universalist rank above New Thought...evidently I don't buy anything hook line and sinker!

Not having any belief in or concern for a hereafter....my goal in life is simply to work towards progress in reducing violence, increasing cooperation, reducing stress...making this life easier to exist in for those around me.

Meta physics....to me it is simply beyond.the page, beyond a literal understanding of the words....transferring every passage in the bible to thoughts which pertain to my life and a guide for me to grow more compassionate and caring... I still got plenty of work to get there...lol
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Thank you.

Christ bought (brings) spiritual nourishment, especially to the poor and needy.

The fact Christ's life and teaching can be interpreted on so many (virtually all) levels demonstrates the universal power of Christ. Imo

The bread of life ...
 
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I Ching 27
Providing Nourishment (for what is right)

"Heaven and earth provide nourishment for all beings. The holy man provides nourishment for men of worth and thus reaches the whole people"
 
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Metaphysical meaning of Christ (mbd) Christ, christ (from Gk.) anointed; the anointed; the Messiah.

A name, or title, applied to Jesus of Nazareth (Matt. 16:16; Acts 17:3). Jehovah of the Old Testament is the I AM, or Christ of God invisible; the Messiah is the promise of the visible manifestation of that I AM or Christ, and Jesus Christ is the fulfillment in man of that original spiritual I AM, or Jehovah.

Meta. Christ is the divine-idea man. Jesus is the name that represents an individual expression of the Christ idea. Jesus Christ is the form of the name that is commonly applied to the man of Galilee who demonstrated perfection. Christ Jesus is the idea that is being expressed by men as the result of their faith in and understanding of Truth.

Christ is the only begotten Son of God, or the one complete idea of perfect man in Divine Mind. He is the embodiment of all divine ideas, such as intelligence, life, love, substance, and strength. In the architect's mind there may be one masterpiece, but that masterpiece is the sum of all the beautiful ideas that have come to his mind. This Christ, or perfect-man idea existing eternally in Divine Mind, is the true, spiritual, higher self of every individual. Each of us has within him the Christ, just as Jesus had, and we must look within to recognize and realize our sonship, our divine origin and birth, even as He did. By continually unifying ourselves with the Highest by our thoughts and words, we too shall become sons of God, manifest.

The cosmic man, or grand man of the universe, often referred to by religious mystics, is the Christ, and the Christ is the higher self of man. Thus a seemingly great mystery is reduced to simple numbers. We do not realize the nearness of this cosmic man, because we have not found our real selves. Jesus Christ educated His followers to discern the real man. He taught that there is a power in man that gives him authority over the things of the world. This principle is the higher self, the spiritual man, the Christ. If we would succeed we must bring forth the principle; it gives dominion and mastery.

Spiritual perception reveals to us that we are not persons, but factors in the cosmic mind. Reveal yourself to yourself by affirming, "I am the Christ, son of the living God." Look at yourself not as flesh and blood, but as Spirit. Jesus Christ affirmed His true self and the Father acknowledged Him. The reason for the limited comprehension and power of the ordinary man is found in the fact that he sees the world about him as under material law, and agreeing with it he makes himself part of it.

Christ is the cosmic man, the grand man of the universe, demonstrated, developed, brought out, in every man.

The birth of Christ in man is the bringing to consciousness of the spiritual idea of man the Christ of God--through the quickening power of the word of Truth. It is the beginning in the inner realms of consciousness of a higher set of faculties that, when grown to full stature, save the whole man from ignorance and sin. It is a growth in man as tangible to those who reach certain stages as is that of the child to the mother. In its beginnings it is a mere quickening flutter, under the stomach, accompanied often by unusual sensitiveness in the emotional nature. We do not in the first stages of this process understand it, and sometimes are moved to put it away from us. This is the spiritual significance of the statement that Joseph was merely "betrothed" to Mary, yet she was "great with child." The soul is heavily charged with divine life, and so full that it cannot express itself intelligently, because no union has yet taken place between it and the understanding (Joseph).

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Preceding Entry: chosen people
Following Entry: church
 
Yes but people, writers, religions, talkers, thinkers etc, applying their own margins to what 'Christ' is supposed to mean, or allowed to be --- does not confine the Christ within their margins?
 
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