The Dream: The Quest of the Natural Man
The other night I had a disturbing dream. It was a reminder of the frustration experienced when operating out of the duality of an unrenewed mind.
An unknown companion and I, after being upstairs, found ourselves in a dark basement, beside a double bed. Over the bed was a "ceiling," a barrier with an extremely well hidden trap door. I was sure off it. Several times I had seen a caretaker climb up onto the bed and somehow go up through this trap door. I tried to follow, but every time I climbed up onto the bed, reaching up to the trap door to pull it open, filthy grime and dirt would fall on the bed. And the dark passage way eluded me.
Frustrated, I apologized to my companion for dirtying the bed. Politely, she told me not to worry. She had already made plans to get new pillow covers. And she headed off another way. This seemed odd for I had no intension of sleeping in such a filthy bed. I became obsessed with this hidden passage way back upstairs. I even thought of moving the bed, and tearing down and ripping open the ceiling, but if I moved the bed how would I reach the ceiling? Was I trapped in the basement?
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Unenlightened, man lies in what seems like a dark place, a body of death. Like a dark basement, hell and the grave are hidden underground in this dark watery earth. Like an outer darkness, with the appearance of an inner death, this body can sometimes seem like a “whitewashed tomb” full of dead men's bones, Matthew 8:12, Matthew 23:27, Romans 7:24.
But there is a way of escape. Liberation is not the coming out of one realm into another, but a realization that the middle wall of partition has been torn asunder. If we ask the rhetorical question, "Is Christ divided?" We may realize that he is not the divider. Rather, He is the all, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 1 Corinthians 1:13, Colossians 3:11, Thomas 72.
When there is no division and separation between the above and below, the inner and the outer,the male and the female, and the right and the left then liberation is an amalgamation of the two, and a re-creation. It is not a choice between two dichotomies. This is not the replacing of the old with the new. But rather it is the consummation of the old by the new. The old passes away, is destroyed, and is consumed and transformed into a new creation. All things are made new, Thomas 7.
Some spiritual mysteries can be seen mirrored in the natural realm. However, when the secret and hidden realities are seen only by comparing, and combining and joining together spiritual with spiritual, they are not readily discerned by the natural man, 1 Corinthians 2:13.
Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 1 Corinthians 15:51.
The life of Christ is our story. “The sun was darkened, but the veil of the temple was rent in the midst,” Again, “The veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose,” Luke 23:45, Matthew 27:51-52.
The Vision:
When knowledge (gnosis) is pleasant unto your soul, you will experience a death, the sun will be darkened, and you will behold only a corpse, and the veil of the temple will be rent in twain, and the earth will quake, and the rocks will be rent, and the grave will open, and there will be a bright light, and the body of a saint, a holy one which slept shall arise and shine, a reunited Perfect Man, clothed in an armor of light, conquering all with the love of a bridegroom, Luke 23:45, Matthew 27:51-52, Thomas 2, 56, 77, 24.
The bridal chamber is the holy of holies hidden within the veil, where two become one, Hebrews 6:19,9:3, Philip, Hebrew 10:20.
Love conquers all, and it never fails. There is a marriage in the hidden place that expands through all creation. This is a great mystery hidden with Christ in God. In Paul’s message this marriage happens in every level of reality.
Though not explicitly explained in Paul’s letters, the mythology of Christ and Sophia seems to have formed the underlying foundation for much of his thought. In the mythology, Christ is the Bridegroom and Sophia (or Wisdom) is the Bride. Recognizing Sophia as the personification of Wisdom clarifies much of Paul’s mystery teaching. Christ gives us light revealing the hidden things of darkness. Arising with enlightened eyes we behold instead a joining together within the bridal chamber. The dichotomies and divisions are reunited. There is nothing hidden that shall not be made manifest.
God commands the light to shine out of darkness, and enlightened we behold two become One, creating the ONE new man, who is become a living spirit. This is the new and a living way. This is our liberation.
When we make the two into one, when the male and the female, and the inner and the outer are joined together you enter the kingdom. This bridal chamber is where two become one. Through marriage, we are made complete.
What is this marriage in the secret place? “Behold, thou desirest Truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know Wisdom. "Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly with all Sophia (Wisdom),” Colossians 3:16 NASB, Psalms 51:6, Hebrews 6:19, 9:3, Philip, Hebrew 10:20.
“Behold I show you a great mystery.”
See the whole article:
The Bridal Chamber
See the whole article:
The Bridal Chamber
