Sunday After Epiphany
Intent: Divine Guidance
"The Angel of the Divine Presence" by William Blake
On the Feast of the Epiphany and the Sunday after Epiphany, Our Holy Catholic and Apostolic Gnostic Church recognizes Divine Guidance as the intent of our celebration of the Holy Eucharist.
How do we receive Divine Guidance? There is no single answer. The experiences of the Divine working in and through our lives may come through an epiphany, a dream, or a waking vision. Divine Guidance may come to us directly, or through other human beings, and even spiritual emissaries and intermediaries. It can manifest through synchronicities in our lives, those meaningful "coincidences" that are more than magical thinking or superstition. Divine Guidance can come to us in a more subtle form, as a physical sensation, like a "gut feeling", or a thought that intrudes as different from our normal, rational thought processes.
Divine Guidance presumes a Divine will, that there is a purpose and intent, a meaning, to our lives. What is that will or purpose? For the Gnostic, the purpose is the reintegration of our Divine Natures into the Universal Will, and thus liberation from the infinite transmigration of souls into the tomb of flesh. This redemption of our souls, the gathering of fallen Divine sparks, is the ultimate goal for ourselves and for humanity.
Divine Guidance is an idea that can relieve a common affliction. It is not uncommon to encounter people who have deep regrets about decisions made in the past, and who are preoccupied with worry and distressed that the course of their lives was irreparably changed by their decisions. At times I have shared with them an excerpt from The Power of Myth with Joseph Campbell. Bill Moyers, interviewing Campbell, asks him "Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands?", Campbell replies:
"All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."
If there is "a kind of track...waiting for you", as Campbell put it, or if there is a purpose to our lives, and the Divine guides us to fulfill those purposes, then maybe we can diverge only so far off track, but not irredeemably. That's a comforting thought that alleviates real suffering and can allow one to let go of the past and focus on the future.
Of course, following Divine Guidance requires humility, relinquishing control, and believing that there is an intelligence or power greater than our own. I am reminded of this when a candidate in the initiatic degrees is blindfolded, and relies on a Guide to assist him on the symbolic journey. To take the metaphor one step further, at times the candidate may become less mindful that his Guide is beside him, and may even feel as if he is walking along on his own, but if he oversteps his mark or is about to collide with an obstacle, his Guide will set him back in place (sometimes gently, and at times with great urgency). In the end, regardless of these adjustments, the greater purpose of the rite will be accomplished.
Let us praise God and be grateful for Divine Guidance in the forms of Gnosis, delivered through His Most Blessed Son, the Christ, and through the Most Holy Sophia, and which manifests to us in its many forms. May we be ever conscious of the Divine Guidance in our lives, and dwell in the peace of Its presence.
How do we receive Divine Guidance? There is no single answer. The experiences of the Divine working in and through our lives may come through an epiphany, a dream, or a waking vision. Divine Guidance may come to us directly, or through other human beings, and even spiritual emissaries and intermediaries. It can manifest through synchronicities in our lives, those meaningful "coincidences" that are more than magical thinking or superstition. Divine Guidance can come to us in a more subtle form, as a physical sensation, like a "gut feeling", or a thought that intrudes as different from our normal, rational thought processes.
Divine Guidance presumes a Divine will, that there is a purpose and intent, a meaning, to our lives. What is that will or purpose? For the Gnostic, the purpose is the reintegration of our Divine Natures into the Universal Will, and thus liberation from the infinite transmigration of souls into the tomb of flesh. This redemption of our souls, the gathering of fallen Divine sparks, is the ultimate goal for ourselves and for humanity.
Divine Guidance is an idea that can relieve a common affliction. It is not uncommon to encounter people who have deep regrets about decisions made in the past, and who are preoccupied with worry and distressed that the course of their lives was irreparably changed by their decisions. At times I have shared with them an excerpt from The Power of Myth with Joseph Campbell. Bill Moyers, interviewing Campbell, asks him "Do you ever have the sense of... being helped by hidden hands?", Campbell replies:
"All the time. It is miraculous. I even have a superstition that has grown on me as a result of invisible hands coming all the time - namely, that if you do follow your bliss you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be."
If there is "a kind of track...waiting for you", as Campbell put it, or if there is a purpose to our lives, and the Divine guides us to fulfill those purposes, then maybe we can diverge only so far off track, but not irredeemably. That's a comforting thought that alleviates real suffering and can allow one to let go of the past and focus on the future.
Of course, following Divine Guidance requires humility, relinquishing control, and believing that there is an intelligence or power greater than our own. I am reminded of this when a candidate in the initiatic degrees is blindfolded, and relies on a Guide to assist him on the symbolic journey. To take the metaphor one step further, at times the candidate may become less mindful that his Guide is beside him, and may even feel as if he is walking along on his own, but if he oversteps his mark or is about to collide with an obstacle, his Guide will set him back in place (sometimes gently, and at times with great urgency). In the end, regardless of these adjustments, the greater purpose of the rite will be accomplished.
Let us praise God and be grateful for Divine Guidance in the forms of Gnosis, delivered through His Most Blessed Son, the Christ, and through the Most Holy Sophia, and which manifests to us in its many forms. May we be ever conscious of the Divine Guidance in our lives, and dwell in the peace of Its presence.