The following introduction is part of the optional Extension Work of this course. If you would prefer to engage with the shorter version, then just skip ahead to the first video below, Part 1 of 7. Each of the videos (visual only) are approximately 4 minutes.
Introduction
This series of seven visual vignettes (4 minutes each) and accompanying Extension Work modules have been designed with the intent of taking the seeker on a journey of self exploration and discovery with regards to the concepts of the Divine Life, our consciousness of that and of the role that correspondence takes in the relationship between the two.
The conceptual shifts that are required in order to think and feel correspondentially and to have an increased awareness of correspondential relationships, is something that arises from our work with the Word as a Text of revelation about the Divine. The ideas and truths that it presents to our conscious mind have the capacity to begin to reverse the false patterns of thinking that place externals as causal to our inner states of life. The Text challenges us by offering an alternative perspective, in proposing that it is in fact the outer world of effects that provide an opportunity to examine the interior world of causes. That by reflecting on the affections and belief structures that arise in our responses and reactions to the images projected before us in the world of person, space, time and matter, we might come to see how what is exterior corresponds to the world of what is interior. That is, that we might come to see how what is exterior communicates something about the nature of our relationship to the Divine Life and the constant presence of this as love and wisdom.
This course also explores how the essence of what is humanity and truly human is an image of this Divine form of love and wisdom, and of how the Text is the means by which we might have a relationship with this. It looks at how we, as finite beings, might have a sense of conjunction and union with what is infinite and Divine, and thus come to know personally what it means to be human. The Text provides a basis for understanding and recognising the quality of our thoughts and of the associated loves that sit behind these and of how then a sense of self is created from them. In this sense the Text, as the Word, is the Divine Human for us because it offers what is essential for the processes involved in the regeneration of the human mind.
Overview
Module 1: What the Finite Receives Is a Unique Version of The Divine Life
Module 2: The Two Modes of Thinking Regarding Cause and Effect
Module 3: The Word Can Open the Spiritual Mind and Invert Our Thinking
Module 4: The Text Is the Field in Which We Might First Practise Reading Correspondence
Module 5: The Divinity of the Text
Module 6: An image of God-Man, the Divine Human
Module 7: Real Appearances as the Correspondence of Consciousness
Each module introduces the key concepts and then offers reflective exercises in working with the vignettes and the accompanying passages from the doctrines for Spiritual Christianity. There is also a meditative and Work practice for each, with further exploratory material offered at the end of each module.
Questions for Reflection
After having now read through the introduction and what the course will involve:
- What are your thoughts?
- How are you feeling about working with the material?
- What are you excited about?
- What are you apprehensive about?
- What questions do you have?
Write your responses to these questions down as a start in journaling your work over this course.
