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July-September, 2012

Divine Mother and Divine Father as Symbols for Transformation

by Rev. Dennis Gaither, M.D., O.M.C.

Symbols can be so helpful as bridges that can help us reach from the world of form we find ourselves in to the formlessness of our true Reality, but they can also become an obstacle when they become an end in themselves. Symbols can help us focus, help us quiet our inner chatter and remind us of the sacredness that is within us.

I have a meditation space in my bedroom; there is an altar there with a candle and picture of Jesus, one in which he looks out with very piercing eyes. There are times, especially when I am feeling some upset and needing to focus, that I find sitting before that image, meeting that gaze, to be very centering. Do I absolutely need this? No, certainly not. Is it helpful? Sometimes yes. Why is it helpful? I feel it reminds me of my intention to focus, come into presence, and deeply connect with the inner Teacher. Is there anything truly special about the picture, the altar, and the candle? Not really, but because of the intention with which I placed them there, they are helpful to me as bridges.

Recently after a very lively conversation about Divine Mother and Divine Father as both symbols and felt-sense presence, I asked for some guidance, some clarification, about the previous evening’s discussion. What follows is an offering based upon what I received in response.

Symbols always represent something beyond themselves — this is obvious. In using them it is important to always keep this in mind, as they can easily become idols that are “worshipped” in their own right. And yet the act of honoring what a symbol represents will reinforce that which is honored. Every symbol is filled with the meaning we give it, not less so if that meaning is given automatically based on past conditions or if in full consciousness of choice. The difference is that the less awareness there is about the nature of symbols, the more compulsory they will be in terms of the reactions they evoke.

All symbols carry dual meanings within this level of experience that we feel ourselves to be in now. It does not matter whether it is an object, a name, a word or grouping of words, or even an abstract idea. They are all icons for either the thought system of ego, of separation, or that of the Voice for Love. The symbol itself is within the ego’s framework, and initially will most readily point to that which maintains itself within that thought system. But every symbol can also be used for another purpose when our meaning for it is surrendered, and the Voice for Love is allowed to replace it with a new meaning. This is the process of forgiveness. Whenever we find a symbol to be disturbing or limiting, there is a gift of healing present as well. What disturbs is from within us. It takes great diligence and commitment to practice continually turning our own meanings over to that Inner Voice, but it is the most direct path that leads us beyond all symbols to our true Home in and of God.

Divine Father and Divine Mother are both symbols that may help or hinder. As symbols of male and female, they can reinforce the idea of separation along gender lines as that polarity forms the basis of our special relationships. We project upon them the fantasies and dreams of specialness, power, grandiosity and self-hatred that we carry within our own minds.

They can also be used by the Voice for Love to help us see and forgive our projections and thus heal our hidden self-hatred. As we begin to open our hearts to Love, either Divine Father or Divine Mother can be the portal through which we most readily allow in that experience. As we deepen along our Path, the polarity no longer serves us and the desire to seemingly turn from the one more familiar to the one less so for a time becomes a useful stepping-stone. We can use the love connection more readily appreciated with one to look at the resistance — which is always based in fear — we hold towards the other. Whatever the apparent form may be, it is a small gap of ego that is clung to out of fear of loss of self in the fathomless sea of God’s Love. It is the self afraid of Self. Its utter formlessness terrifies that which has become identified with form; yet as we begin to remember our True Nature, we cannot help but be drawn like a moth to that flame that will disintegrate all that we think we are.

If we allow ourselves to be guided through this process by Holy Spirit, what seems to be a violent disintegration by fire is but a gentle warming that allows us to shed layer upon layer of that which “protects” us from what we think is fearful, but is really what we most deeply desire. The path is not a rejection of anything that we or anyone else has made, but simply a turning toward that which we truly are and can never not be. Used in this way, the symbols we have made can become wonder-full devices that help us cross the obstacles we seem to encounter but that really we have made, and gently lay them aside when they no longer serve a purpose. And for that we are very grateful for the Divine Mother/Father for the help they lend us in opening our hearts to the Divine within us.

From A Course in Miracles:

We say “God is,” and then we cease to speak, for in that knowledge words are meaningless. There are no lips to speak them, and no part of mind sufficiently distinct to feel that it is now aware of something not itself. It has united with its Source. And like its Source Itself, it merely is. (W-pI.169.5:4-7)

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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