Day 4. Keep going. The river is continuing to broaden.

1. Day 4. • Keep going. • The river is continuing to broaden.

2. Apex goes out through “diamond” cut in stars.

3. 7 stages and the number 7 • 7th Heaven • “Scripture is saturated with the number seven.”

4. Moving from the bottom to the center: the seven stages.

5. The seventh seal • “God rested on the 7th day” • “…which caused the same word to be used for both the number 7 and an oath;” • Jesus‘ 7 utterances from the cross • God rested on the 7th day • Paul lists 7 gifts • Forgiveness 70 x 7

6. I read this definition long after I had come up with this symbol. Very exciting. • “Mandalas… usually appear in situations of psychic confusion and perplexity. The archetype thereby constellated represents a pattern of order which, like a psychological “view-finder” marked with a cross or circle divided into four, is superimposed on the psychic chaos so that each content falls into place and the weltering confusion is held together by the protective circle…”

7. Not only that, but…

8. …my wife pointed out to me that the refracted light of the stars form “crosses” of light!!

9. The photograph of the stars is an enlarged image taken by the Hubble telescope.

10. “It is the psychic primal night which is the same today as it has been for countless millions of years. The longing for light is the longing for consciousness.” - Memories, Dreams and Reflections, C.G. Jung pg. 269

11. The third sentence in the entire Bible. • “And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light. ” – Genesis 1:3

12. Orthodox Christianity: Ancient symbol of the cross in the middle of the circle.

13. An ancient symbol with a twist. Universalism’s symbol:Christianity as one archetypal path-structure.

14. This excerpt is from a pamphlet distributed by the New Massachusetts Universalist Convention: “Designed in 1946.” “The circle, a traditional symbol of infinity because it has no beginning or end, represents the universe. The empty space at the center…

15. …represents the mystery at the heart of the universe that people call “God”. The cross represents Christianity, out of which Universalism grew,…

16. …and which is the path toward God that most religious people in North America are brought up to follow;…

17. …but it is placed off-center, to leave room for other points of view and to acknowledge the validity of other paths toward God.”

18. Another ancient symbol: Ourousboros

20. “It (the ourousboros) can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished.” -Wikipedia entry

21. Partial ourousboros surroundsentire art-symbol structure.

22. The art-symbol’s off-center position in relation to the ourousboros is the same as the cross’ to its circle.

23. How about this? • An excerpt from: • Dr. Omed's Tent Show Revival Article: Very Good Bones "In fact, the ouroboros is all surface, finite but unbounded. The serpent swallows its own tail because it is its own Klein bottle.”

24. A Klein bottle If someone wanted to create an image of an ourousboros as Klein bottle, I would love to include it. I might be able to pay you but probably not very much.

25. A whole ‘nother topic.The background lattice work,

26. …as “consciousness” on some kind of grid requiring quantum…

27. “leaps”.

28. Talking about energy is making me hungry. • Lunch time.

29. Back on the river. • This is no ordinary river.

30. As indicated earlier in the trip, here is how I came to a meaningful resolution for myself regarding the third tier ofTrinity Falls. • This resolution occurred through two primary insights:

31. The first… • The following quotation, and ones like it were instrumental in beginning to shift how I perceived what lay behind me and ahead of me.

32. “In the Jesus myth the Father sacrifices his Son on the cross. If taken literally, this is a grotesque notion. In the context of the whole Christian myth cycle, however, we can understand this motif as an archetypal event…

33. “…The Father (Mystery) sacrifices his Son (Consciousness) through crucifixion/ dismemberment, so that we (the many seeds of Consciousness) can experience life…  …Our existence as individuals is bought at the price of the Christ's crucifixion. Our deaths as separate individuals through the realization of Gnosis are his resurrection…

34. …Christ is crucified on the Cross of Light that divides the pleroma and the kenoma - the one essence and the multiplicity of appearances.” - Jesus and the Lost Goddess, Freke and Gandy pg. 155

35. “One-ness” as one mirror/hologram gets “broken” and…

36. ”… the pieces (you and I), become separate and conscious.”

37. The “body of Christ” is dis-membered, and must be “re-membered”.

38. The second… • I was in church one Sunday and heard this opening sentence to a Native American myth: • “I don’t know if it happened this way or not but I know that it is true.” • That sentence really made an impression on me. But at the time I wasn’t exactly sure why.

39. It wasn’t until some time later, and after lots and lots of pained and sometimes frantic paddling, it seemed that that phrase described the Christ story.

40. The idea of Christ and the Christ story: • “I don’t know if it happened this way or not but I know that it is true.” • Now that is a mind-bender.

41. Christ as psychological fact. • “Psyche-logical” (i.e., logical to the psyche).

42. My experience was that as I made that observation, I felt a palpable sense of relief. The raft began to move beyond the currents and counter currents of academic proofs and counter proofs. Long-standing arguments which seemed truly un-resolvable. • I felt freed from the maelstrom which I thought could never be escaped.

43. I realize these “solutions” may seem overly intellectual but the emotional struggle was very present and that perspective is covered in more detail in a separate essay.

44. Time for dinner. • This is a lot of work. • No ordinary river indeed.

45. After dinner I packed the raft and paddled into the night.

46. I have avoided talking about the Bible because I have rarely discussed the Bible with anyone with a substantially different viewpoint from my own, that hasn’t turned into an argument or been ultimately very unsatisfying for both parties. • But this presentation cannot be complete or valid without at least addressing it.

47. Unfortunately, I must concede that my knowledge of the Bible is woefully inadequate and that much of how I perceive it has been gleaned from the interpretations of others.

48. Basically Jung’s approach has been the most influential. • Jung took the Bible, Christian doctrine and its symbols very seriously. • Although simplistic, I think this is a generally accurate condensation of Jung’s perspective. He saw the Bible as Western civilization’s imperfect, collective, written, grappling over time with the God idea or God image.

49. Therefore it seems that somewhere between: • Historically verifiable • Every word the infallibly recorded words of God …or not. …or complete nonsense…

50. …contained within its pages is something which points towards that which is deeply true about humanity, our deepest essence and our movement towards conscious awareness of our connection to the one source.