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Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
A Course In Miracles
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Editor's special note:
The term “Sonship” will be troubling to some. “Why not a Daughtership? Why the sexual chauvinism? Does not God also love his daughters?”
The answer is, yes, of course, by all means. And I would like to explain the apparent favoritism. Let us remind ourselves that the Course is written in “mashal” style. Few comments can be taken at face value. We have to go deeper.
An explanation here could be lengthy, and so I would direct you to the “God” page and the articles concerning “Made In The Image” for a more complete discussion. However, the essential answer becomes this:
A great many key terms in the Course are “tips of icebergs” referencing biblical concepts. “Sonship,” as the Course uses the word, must be viewed in light of the Genesis creation story. Let us keep in mind, too, that the following is highly metaphorical, and not to be taken literally, in that, there were no historical individuals named Adam and Eve. These are just teaching devices.
Nevertheless, the Hebrew of Genesis informs us that Adam who named the animals was “the Adam”; that is, there is a definite article in the Hebrew. In other words, when Adam appears in the story, he’s “the Adam,” meaning, not a person with a first name of Adam, but “the representative man,” or “the representative of humankind.” In fact, the Adam is not a male at all. This creature is androgynous, neither male nor female but a gender-composite entity.
Recall, too, that the Genesis text itself asserts that God created man as male and female. This is stated twice in Genesis; that is, both the man and the woman constituted “the Adam.” Adam, as we commonly think of him, that is, Adam-male, did not come into being, as per the story, and as indicated in the Hebrew, until Eve was taken from his side, at which point, at the same moment, we now had Adam-male and Adam-female.
And so, when the Course speaks of “the Sonship,” it does so in primordial terms of “the Adam.” The “Sonship” includes both genders of God’s likeness, the “Sonship-males” and the “Sonship-females.” “Sonship,” as per the Hebrew text, which the Course loves to reference, is a non-sexed term; strange as that seems to us. And this is why the ancient Spirit Guides speak of "Mother-Father God."
Postscript: In similar vein, when the Course uses the term "brother" in reference to "the Sonship," it, too, must be viewed as a non-gendered word.
As we "come alive" and throw off the chains of the ego's spiritual darkness, we, male and female, together, enter "the Sonship," as we begin to manifest our godlike potential; we placard to all the arrival of "the representatives of a higher order of Adam," a new creation, God's original intention and plan for all of us; and Paul spoke of this, as well.
U.S. Andersen: “All about me I perceive the manifold forms of the Divine, and I perceive Him dwelling in each. There are no different selves in the universe, but one Self only, one sense of being, one awareness, one I, which is always and eternally God. When I love another, it is God I love. When I perceive in each form the Presence that inhabits all forms, then I know the Divine and in that knowledge I love all and my love is complete. No longer do I rail against loneliness, for God is within me. No path is too solitary, no way too deserted that I may not take it with the joy and knowledge of the companionship and comfort of the Divine. He guides my every step.”
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You cannot understand yourself alone. This is because you have no meaning apart from your rightful place in the Sonship. This is your life, your eternity, and your Self.
Editor’s note: Aristotle said that in order to understand something, we have to know its purpose. This is Jesus’ point here. We were made – “made in the image” – to become fully functional and mature sons and daughters of God. When we align ourselves with this truth, we feel a sense of well-being, but to do otherwise poisons our spirit.
You must learn to see them as they are, and understand that they belong to God as you do
You can learn to improve your perceptions, and become a better and better learner. This will bring you into closer and closer accord with the Sonship; but the Sonship is a perfect creation and perfection is not a matter of degree.
… the defense of [the] Atonement [is] your real protection [because it opens your eyes to the riches of the soul] … as you become more and more secure [with the need to defend the egoic self diminishing] you assume your natural talent of protecting others, knowing yourself as both a brother and a Son.
Editor’s note: Attention here is drawn to our innate proclivity, our destiny, toward service-mindedness, protecting and aiding the disadvantaged. This is what the Family of God does, and this is what a mature son or daughter of God does, and it’s how we’ll be living our eternal lives.
God has only one Son. If all his creations are his Sons, every one must be an integral part of the whole Sonship. The Sonship in its Oneness transcends the sum of its parts... Any part of the Sonship can believe in ... incompleteness if he so chooses... The correction of this error is the Atonement. Editor's note: The metaphor of Sonship as singularity, that "God has only one Son," is meant to signify, it appears to me, the underlying unity and connectedness of all God's children. We're given a clue to this meaning with perceptions of "incompleteness" as "error." The Atonement is the answer because as we "go within" we sense a bondedness with all.
Your gratitude to your brother is the only gift I want... to know your brother is to know God. If you are grateful to your brother, you are grateful to God for what he created.
As you come closer to a brother, you approach me... [the Atonement] cannot be undertaken successfully by those who disengage themselves from the Sonship, because they are disengaging themselves from me. God will come to you only as you will give Him to your brothers.
In learning to escape from illusions, your debt to your brother is something you must never forget. It is the same debt that you owe to me. Whenever you act egotistically towards another, you are throwing away the graciousness of your indebtedness... as you learn how much you are indebted to the whole Sonship, which includes me, you come ... close to knowledge [as you escape illusion]
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one of the most beautiful passages in the entire Course:
How can you who are so holy suffer? All your past, except its beauty, is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. I have saved all of your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt. They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal. You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself. You go with my blessing and for my blessing. Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it. We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. His quiet children are His Blessed Sons. The Thoughts of God are with you.
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