Session 18 Overview: The work of having what can serve the spiritual life extracted out of person, place and time is a difficult process, and our sense of self will experience states of obscurity as what is real and what is an appearance moves in and out of our vision (8 mins)

And Jehovah said unto Aaron, Go to meet Moses, into the wilderness. And he went and met him in the mountain of God, and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of Jehovah, wherewith He had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. And Moses went, and Aaron, and gathered together all the elders of the sons of Israel; and Aaron spoke all the words which Jehovah had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs before the eyes of the people. And the people believed; and they heard that Jehovah had visited the sons of Israel, and that He had seen their affliction, and they bent themselves, and bowed themselves down.

Exodus 4:27-31

Arcana Coelestia 7052: “And Jehovah said unto Aaron,” signifies the truth of doctrine, and perception therein from the Divine; “Go to meet Moses,” signifies that it should be conjoined with the truth proceeding immediately from the Divine; “into the wilderness,” signifies where previously it is not so; “and he went, and met him in the mountain of God,” signifies conjunction in the good of love therein; “and kissed him,” signifies the affection of conjunction; “and Moses told Aaron all the words of Jehovah,” signifies the influx of the truth proceeding immediately from the Divine of the Lord into the truth which proceeds mediately, and instruction in the details of doctrine; “wherewith He had sent him,” signifies which proceed; “and all the signs which He had commanded him,” signifies enlightenment and from this at the same time confirmation; “and Moses went, and Aaron,” signifies the life of the conjunction of both; “and gathered together all the elders of the sons of Israel,” signifies the chief things of wisdom pertaining to the spiritual church; “and Aaron spoke all the words which Jehovah had spoken unto Moses,” signifies doctrine thence from the Divine; “and did the signs before the eyes of the people,” signifies confirmation to apprehension; “and the people believed, and they heard,” signifies faith and hope; “that Jehovah had visited the sons of Israel,” signifies that those who are of the spiritual church would be liberated and saved by the coming of the Lord; “and that He had seen their affliction,” signifies after temptations so great; “and they bent themselves and bowed themselves down,” signifies humiliation.

Obscurity serves the process in leading us forward

7075. At another time I also spoke with them about the same thing, and because I knew that they spoke with the men of their earth, I asked how they instruct its inhabitants. They said that they do not instruct them how the matter stands, but still they instill some perception of it, in order that the desire to know may thereby be fed, and may increase, which desire would perish if they answered all questions. They added that they present opposites for the additional reason that the truth may afterward the better appear; for all truth appears relatively to its opposites.

The literal text is still needed but to be held in its  proper order

7070. As the spirits from Mercury bear relation in the Grand Man to the memory of things abstracted from what is material (see n. 6808), therefore when anyone speaks with them about earthly, bodily, and merely worldly things, they are quite unwilling to hear; and when forced to hear about them they at once change them into other things, and for the most part into contrary ones, in order to escape from them.

7077. As the spirits of Mercury are of this character, and moreover abound in knowledges, they are in a kind of conceit (see n. 6813), supposing that they know so many things that it is scarcely possible to know more. But they have been told by the spirits of our earth that they do not know many things, but only a few, and that the things which they do not know are relatively infinite; and that the things which they do not know relatively to those which they do know are like the waters of the greatest ocean as compared with those of a tiny spring. In order that they might know that such is the case it was granted that a certain angelic spirit should speak with them, and should tell them in general what they do know and what they do not know; and that there are infinite things which they do not know; and also that to eternity they cannot know even the generals of things. He spoke by means of angelic ideas much more readily than they, and as he disclosed what they know, and what they do not know, they were struck with amazement. I afterward saw another angel speaking with them, who appeared at some elevation to the right; he enumerated very many things which they do not know; and afterward spoke with them by means of changes of state, which they said they do not understand. He then told them that every change of state contains infinite things, and so also does every least thing of it.

[2] When they heard this, as they had been in conceit on account of knowledges, they began to humble themselves. The humiliation was represented by the sinking of their roll downward, for that company then appeared like a roll, in front toward the left at a distance, in the plane of the region below the navel; but the roll appeared as it were hollowed out in the middle, and elevated at the sides; a reciprocal movement was also observed therein. They were also told what this signified, namely, what they were thinking in their humiliation, and that they who appeared elevated at the sides were not as yet in any humiliation. And I saw that the roll was separated, and that they who were not in humiliation were relegated toward their own globe; the rest remaining. As the spirits of the planet Mercury shun the spirits of our earth, on account of the material things in which the latter are, and as they had asked whether such can become angels (n. 6929), they now received the reply, that the angel who had spoken with them was from this earth.

Third Round posts are short audio clips taken from Round 3 comments offered in the online Logopraxis Life Group meetings. The aim is to keep the focus on understanding the Text in terms of its application to the inner life along with reinforcing any key LP principles that have been highlighted in the exchanges.

 

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Janna King
Janna King
9 days ago

Beautiful. And it strikes me that there is an application inherent in the lessons of the spirits of Mercury that applies directly to both working and reporting on our tasks in Logo Praxis groups as well: our tasks are to be worked in our time and space lives and relationships and decisions. I think there is sometimes a misunderstanding that we need to remove time and space entirely from the process, which leaves us spinning our wheels in theory and ideas rather than getting down to business and shunning actual behaviors and attitudes. When reporting our submissions to the group,… Read more »

Sarah Walker
Reply to  Janna King
8 days ago

Yes – it does seem to be part of the process that when truth is developing for us, that we swing from one end of the pendulum length to the other a little more wildly – a little more to each extreme. So we might start out with a very strict application of removal of the externals of p,p,t & s whilst we grapple to make sense of the internals – but then need to come back to the externals again with what has been worked with. We see this with the Text too – when we come back to… Read more »

David Millar
Admin
Reply to  Janna King
7 days ago

The removal of person place time and space is more a removal of them from the centre of our way of viewing things rather than their complete removal altogether which, at this level of life isn’t possible. They are ultimates that serve as the first rung on the ladder for want of a better metaphor, without them nothing is possible. Their removal from the centre to the circumference is an incremental process through which the natural is ordered so that what is lower serves rather than rules. I think the misunderstanding in some cases might be the result of a… Read more »