Analogue 24: Realms of Spiritual Sovereignty

 ANALOGUE 24

Realms of Spiritual Sovereignty

Among the animals there are those such as oxen and donkeys, as well as others, which are submissive to human beings, and there are those in the wild which are not. We feed ourselves and provide for both tame and wild animals by plowing the fields with those submissive to us. In the same way the first Realized Human Being makes use of the powers submissive to him to bring everything in existence under cultivation, and for this reason whatever there is, whether for good or ill, on the right-hand or on the left, exists. It is, however, the Sacred Spirit who shepherds each separate being and who commands both the submissive as well as the wild and lonely powers so that she is able to control and use their energies even beyond their own desires.

• Domestic and wild animals are an important division in the animal world and their differences are used in this analogue as metaphor.
• There are creatures which are under human control but a far larger domain of creatures exists outside the realm of human control. 
• This division becomes a description of divided labor among sacred beings along the vertical axis, in the realms of Spirit, and as a result of the work of Spirit. 
• A “realized human being” is a mature human being exercising spiritual sovereignty. This is one who has been raised by Wisdom as mother to become fully developed. Such a being is the end product of her work. 
• The intention and work of a mature and sovereign human being is, metaphorically, to bring everything under cultivation. This kind of human tends to the spiritual needs and growth of all other creatures. Such a one, in this way, “farms” the world.
• Everything left or right, good or ill, exists to serve this purpose—to be under cultivation and harvested as food for the good of all. 
• The definitions of duality continue to appear: good and ill, darkness and light, right and left. 
• The transcendent qualities and faculties of Sacred Spirit are far superior to that of the realized human being. Is this also a trajectory intended for human destiny?
• Sacred Spirit is a shepherd for all sentient beings. She appears to be guiding the evolutionary movement of all life including the wild and lonely powers, that is, the powers which are out of human control, even that of the realized human being. 

COMMENTARY

A Spiritual Topography

The larger topography that is the context for Philip’s Gospel shines through this analogue in interesting ways. Invited into this Gospel’s way of seeing, we are put in touch not only with the long pastoral history of the Semitic peoples of the Middle East but also with the deeper layers of all the relationships that the human species has with the Earth itself. The Earth’s wild substrate is both a literal as well as a spiritual foundation upon which we and our mother, the Sacred Spirit, have built. These mysterious connections and their evolution are still ongoing. We are in a living relationship with nature and Spirit whose secret interweavings are explored in this analogue. The natural order, humans, and Sacred Spirit are each playing their parts in one great whole as a meta-narrative. The vision of this Gospel is the opposite of a mechanistic view of the world and of the cosmos in which it resides. In addition, the text challenges the common view that Earth’s resources and creatures exist only to serve humankind. Everything here is part of a greater whole, and the Spirit is not only doing her work in, on and with the world, she is also raising up humanity to serve life on this planet (and in the worlds beyond it) in a similar way as beings who exercise a great sovereignty. This is the secret ecology which we have either forgotten (or perhaps never knew), forming the basis of a new eco-theology which is desperately needed in our day. 

Spiritual Powers at Work in Domains of the World

Like many of the analogues before it, this section of the Gospel is filled with multiple meanings and teaming with metaphors on many levels. Much of what is being said is perhaps extraordinarily new to us in the West and its scriptural traditions. Certainly it is far from what we are familiar with in the canonical Gospels. The reason for this difference may be that these metaphors, presented here as the direct teachings of Yeshua, were “secret” knowledge in Yeshua’s time. Due to their complexity, these particular teachings were perhaps spoken far from the public ear. They are clearly advanced teachings concerning the nature of spiritual reality and the intimate relationships between nature and spirit; they reveal a keen sense of the most secret power and labor of Sacred Spirit as she works her wisdom in the world. It takes a depth of experience and a certain degree of conscious development to understand these ancient sacred teachings. 

Here we have a glimpse into the truly extraordinary nature of spiritual power that not only exists in the wild and chaotic domains around us, but in the human species itself, and its purpose in being part of the natural order. Everything is intermixed and in relationship, not just on the physical level of ecological unity, but on the level of Spirit. Yeshua and Philip draw on illustrations and metaphors to explicate the nature of this work of Spirit, using the templates of both the natural world and the pastoral/agricultural world in which they and their listeners are embedded. The teachings in the canonical gospels (which are so typical of Yeshua’s form of instruction) show the same Semitic norms by using concrete examples to express spiritual realities. This is true as well across the writings of wisdom literature in the Middle East where familiar and common examples are used to express the complexities of lived and transcendent realities. 

Animal forms are contrasted in their domestic and wild states, as are the powers and the human skills that are able to work with and control them. Agriculture becomes a central metaphor and focus in this analogue. Farming activity and animal husbandry are used as spiritual metaphors by many agricultural peoples, perhaps particularly in the region of the world considered to be the cradle of modern civilization. In Mesopotamia and the Caucuses and the cultures in that part of the Oriental world to which this text belongs were the birthplaces of civilization based on farming, cultivation and animal husbandry.  

The Sovereignty of the Messiah

The author (and the teachings of Yeshua) appear to be creatively using a set of metaphors drawn from lived experience to explain the mysterious nature and abilities of the Anointed One whose Messianic character and consciousness became known as the first Realized Human Being. In some new way, the powers and potentialities of such a being were fully realized and publicly revealed on earth, indicating perhaps the future spiritual evolution of the whole human race in the development of a higher and higher form of sovereignty. Philip witnessed these abilities personally, observing Yeshua’s powers and how he used them to serve the world. Using the metaphors of domesticated animals working agricultural fields under the expert control of a successful farmer, Philip describes the work of Yeshua brought to full realization in himself and fruition in this world. Yeshua was powerful enough and expert enough to work with everything, just as good farmers do who use all the resources and conditions around them to raise crops and feed the world. He was an accomplished and wise farmer, gardener and husbandman, using the spiritual resources available to him, bringing many around him under masterful cultivation. He became sovereign and masterful in this way of being. Why? Was it simply so he could exercise control for the sake of power itself, or to show his unique mastery? No, the writer says, it was to provide food and nourishment for all, humankind and animals alike. His purpose was to feed and nurture the world. 

These characteristics and purposes illustrate what it means to be a fully realized human being who has reached self-mastery and full potentiality in the world as we know it. Yeshua was proficient along the horizontal axis not only because of the power of his will but also because he was in touch with the energies of Spirit. His sovereignty was complete. He was so skilled that he could work with opposites and contradictions that often elude the average human being. Through his example, we see that this work is nevertheless within the larger range of human experience and possibility. 

Spiritual Sovereignty in the Wilds

Though Yeshua was adroit and powerful in our world of duality, we are told that there is a region of wildness along the horizontal axis that is not fully under human control no matter how masterful we may be. We call this the wilderness, full of entities and animals that are not easily controlled, and perhaps are completely uncontrollable by humans. These entities are far larger than we are and are capable of limiting us in many respects. This wider realm of what we consider to be the wild creatures and uncontrollable forces of nature is not, however, outside the capabilities and control of the Sacred Spirit. 

Earlier in this Gospel we have heard about the extraordinary energies of the Sacred Spirit. She has access to every level and dimension of being along the vertical axis both ascending from and descending into the horizontal. As the feminine principle she exercises a higher sovereignty, mothering everything, both domestic and wild, along these axes and trajectories. She is proficient, using skillful means to nurture all beings, interacting with their native powers. In the end, nothing can block her intelligent energy and her masterful agency in the universe. She has her own goals and is working toward a destiny that is beyond our human understanding but woven into the grand design of divine Consciousness. So skilled is she that she is fully capable of using whatever desires drive the energies of lesser beings to turn them toward a new, different, and even higher purpose. Such are her capacities that nothing is outside her control: she is present to and works within both the wild and the domestic energies of the universe moving the evolution of the world toward a certain (but to us unknown) destiny. As such she is the moving force between Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. The scope and depth of this analogue is immense. The author is seeing not only the power and purpose of the first Realized Human Being but also what guides, stabilizes, and energizes this new form of human-becoming, bringing it to its full sovereign, potential. This is a grand vision which has largely been unknown in western theology. What is new to you in this telling of it? What do you find compelling, and what might you find disquieting or troubling? Journal your answers. 
2. Since mention of the first Realized Human Being is in reference to Yeshua, how might this change any of the ways you think about him or yourself?
3. How does this analogue characterize both Yeshua’s mission and his power to fulfill it?
4. Can you imagine yourself taking up duties in this same role in solidarity with him?
5. The pneumatology (theology of the Holy Spirit) of this analogue goes well beyond what we typically think of as the activities of the Sacred Spirit (perhaps understood only in the form of a dove). It pushes the boundaries of our theological thinking. How would you describe this perspective? How does thinking about Sacred Spirit in this way affect you?
6. If the wild (undomesticated) creatures are metaphors, to what do they refer? If this describes a form or part of humankind, how would you define it? If it points to everything in the natural order over which we have no real control, how might all of it be in touch with Spirit?
7. Why do you think the Sacred Spirit as a manifestation of the principles of the divine feminine is described so powerfully? What is She capable of doing and why does She do it?
8. Do you find yourself encouraged by this vision? Why or why not? How does it affect you? 
9. How might we begin to describe the destiny of both Christianity as a tradition and that of the whole world according to the insights of this Gospel?

Notes for further Reference and Study

1. What made human beings turn from being hunter-gatherers to becoming agriculturalists and pastoral herders of domestic flocks and farmers in the fields of the earth? We do not have a definitive answer, but clearly humankind did (for the most part) make this shift. Perhaps this is a primeval expression of our true nature related to our place of origin, our homeland in the Garden of Paradise. In that mysterious domain outside of space and time, we were also shepherding and tending an order of reality. When we lost or left the homeland and entered into our exile or present existence here, we carried that memory with us and perhaps even the design of that earlier activity which was built into our very nature. We appear to be designed to tend and cultivate the elements around us wherever we are. Perhaps the creative forces from the Cosmos-of-Being who nurtured and tended our reality built these very same realities into us becoming very own nature. When Spring comes on earth, we are often drawn to fulfill those urges by planting and gardening in some way. We also have drawn around us a menagerie of domesticated animals and pets to which we are devoted. All of this may be a part of our original psycho-spiritual DNA. 

1. It is clear from this analogue that Philip perceives the transcendent qualities and faculties of Sacred Spirit to be superior to that of the first Realized Human Being. If the qualities of the divine feminine (as expressed through the three Marys) are at work here, then as “Mother” Sacred Spirit exercises authority over the child who is nurtured into becoming that Being. Through childhood the mothering principle is at work to manage the forces which are outside the child’s growing skills, until in adolescence or early adulthood when other abilities may emerge into existence. In the human world, the child, as offspring, may come to possess all the skills of the parent. Could this text be pointing toward this very evolutionary outcome as the trajectory and ultimate goal of human destiny? This possibility appears in full manifestation at the very end of this Gospel text. The development of the fully Realized Human Being described here may only be preparation for that ultimate maturation and manifestation of humankind. In his sojourn on earth, Yeshua manifested that first level of realization. As powerful as that might have been, it was not the final form of his destiny which came after the boundaries of death and resurrection were transcended. This indicates a staged evolutionary track.

1. Each natural form, element or creature described in this analogue seems to have its own native or natural sphere of influence, its own field of sovereignty. These fields often overlap, and various energies and powers may either be in conflict or come into some kind of balance. Learning some limited form of command, control, and the use of energies in each of these domains is how we work in the various “fields” of the world where various powers hold sway. Each thing, creature, person, realm, or region is in some respect an energetic field which may not be entirely under the creature’s own control so that the Spirit is able to use it for purposes other than their own main desires.

1. Human beings imagine that every domain and field on earth is somehow theirs to command and control, but this is not the case, nor apparently should it be. The wilds should be left  free of human control, treated as a sacred domain under the higher authority of Spirit. A forest, a jungle, an ocean, a river, a mountain range is sacred in just this way. Humans do best in relationship to these domains when they honor them not as objects of exploitation and resources to be used for our species’ benefit but as wild energetic fields that have their own authority and sovereignty, since they are in relationship to something that is, perhaps, to us entirely unseen and therefore unknown—the realm of Sacred Spirit. Many writers, ecologists, poets and naturists have explored these extraordinary dimensions, discovering the secret ways of the wilds and the hidden relationships they each may have to the realm of Spirit. See, for example, the writings of Wendell Berry, Gary Snyder, Sallie McFague, Mary Oliver, Denise Levertov, Gregory Bateson, and Pattiann Rogers (among countless others) to learn more.

Notes for the Translation

 

1. It appears that the first Realized Human Being here refers to the Anointed One who has reached a form of maturity ahead of the rest of us.
2. The sentence which says that the first Realized Human Being uses submissive powers to “plow” things into existence is faithful to the literal wording used in the original text.