Divine Consciousness: Part 1 of 7

This series of seven, short vignettes has been designed with the intent of taking the participant on a journey of exploration and discovery, with regards to the concept of Divine Consciousness. The images, questions and quotes from the Heavenly Doctrines are offered as forms to ignite thoughts and perceptions, in relation to the participant’s own personal experiences. Thus, they are by no means exhaustive of the topic, which is in itself is infinite in how it may be expressed and made manifest.

Feel free to pause the video as needed, when you wish to spend more time with the images.

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 7270(4) … that there is only one substance which is substance, and that all other things are formations thence; and that in the formations that one only substance reigns, not only as form, but also as non-form, as in its origin. Unless this were so, a thing formed could not possibly subsist and act. ​

​Divine Love and Wisdom(Ager) 77​ … that the Divine apart from space is in all space, and apart from time is in all time. Moreover, there are spaces greater and greatest, and lesser and least; and since spaces and times, as said above, make one, it is the same with times. In these the Divine is the same, because the Divine is not varying and changeable, as everything is which belongs to nature, but is unvarying and unchangeable, consequently the same everywhere and always.​

Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) 75 … Now, because intervals of time-which are properties of nature in its own world-are nothing but states in the spiritual world, states which appear progressive there because angels and spirits are finite, it can be seen that in God states are not progressive, because He is infinite, and because the infinite elements in Him are one, in accordance with the points we demonstrated above in nos. 17-22.  ​From this it follows that the Divine is present through all time independently of time.  ​

Arcana Coelestia (Potts) 4206  … That such various things of the Lord are represented, is not because various things are in the Lord, but because His Divine is variously received by men. This is like the life in man, which flows in and acts upon the various sensory and motive organs of the body, and upon the various members and viscera, and everywhere presents variety. For the eye sees in one way, the ear hears in another, the tongue perceives in another; so the arms and hands move in one way, and the loins and the feet in a different way; the lungs act in one way and the heart in another; the liver in one way and the stomach in another, and so on; but nevertheless it is one life which actuates them all so variously, not because the life itself acts in different ways, but because it is differently received; for the form of each organ is that according to which the action is determined.​

​​Divine Love and Wisdom (Ager) 4​… the Lord, who is the God of the universe, is uncreate and infinite, whereas man and angel are created and finite. And because the Lord is uncreate and infinite, He is Being [Esse] itself, which is called “Jehovah,” and Life itself, or Life in itself. From the uncreate, the infinite, Being itself and Life itself, no one can be created immediately, because the Divine is one and indivisible; but their creation must be out of things created and finited, and so formed that the Divine can be in them. Because men and angels are such, they are recipients of life. Consequently, if any man suffers himself to be so far misled as to think that he is not a recipient of life but is Life, he cannot be withheld from the thought that he is God. ​

​True Christian Religion (Ager) 18 ​… Let us first consider the Divine Esse, and afterwards the Divine essence. In appearance the two are one and the same; but esse is more universal than essence; for essence implies esse, and is derived from esse. The Esse of God (or the Divine Esse) it is impossible to define, because it transcends every idea of human thought, since this can take in only what is created and finite, and not what is uncreate and infinite, and therefore not the Divine Esse. The Divine Esse is Esse itself, from which all things are, and which must be in all things in order that they may have being. ​

Arcana Coelestia  (Potts) 5110(3)​… nevertheless, when we consider that everything in the Lord is Divine, and that the Divine is above all thought, and  altogether incomprehensible even to the angels,  consequently if we then abstract that which is comprehensible, there  remains being and coming-forth itself, which is the celestial itself and the spiritual itself, that is, good itself and truth itself. ​

True Christian Religion (Ager) 25(3) … They said still further, that the Divine Esse, which is in itself God, is the Same; not the Same simply, but infinitely, that is, the Same from eternity to eternity; the Same every where and the Same with everyone and in everyone; and that all variableness and change are in the recipient, caused by the state of the recipient. ​

That the Divine Esse which is God in Himself is the Itself, they illustrated thus: God is the Itself because He is love itself and wisdom itself, that is, He is good itself and truth itself, and therefore life itself. Unless these in God were love and wisdom itself and were good and truth itself and therefore life itself, they would not be anything in heaven and in the world, because there would be nothing in them related to the Itself. Every quality is what it is from the fact that there is an Itself in which it originates, and to which it must be related in order to be what it is. This Itself, which is the Divine Esse, is not in place; but it is present with and in those who are in place in accordance with their reception of it, since place, or progress from place to place, cannot be predicated of love and wisdom nor of good and truth, nor of life therefrom, which are Itself in God, and are even God Himself. On this rests His omnipotence. So the Lord says that He is in the midst of them, and that He is in them and they in Him. ​\

​Arcana Coelestia  (Potts) 6876(2)​… The angels themselves, who so far excel men in wisdom, cannot think otherwise of the Divine, for they see the Lord in the Divine Human; they know that an angel, with whom all things are finite, can have no idea whatever of the Infinite, except by what is like the finite.​
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Click here to read Divine Consciousness: Part 2 of 7

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Ruth Duckworth
2 years ago

Wow thanks Sarah. You have done an amazing presentation of the ideas in these very deep passages. You have condensed them into something I can use and think about.

Sarah Walker
Sarah Walker
Reply to  Ruth Duckworth
2 years ago

That’s lovely to hear it speaks to you :-).