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Listen "Cultivating a sense of the Life Group as Collective Human Form (2 mins)"
Episode Synopsis
The Life Group as a Human Form or Collective Person
The human form is the Divine form, and is that which comes into being as the only possible expression of the Lord’s life within those He is creating. This means that on the largest or smallest scale of creation all is organised or strives towards a more complete and thereby perfect, human form.
In Heaven and Hell 73 it’s explained that
“Heaven in its whole complex resembles one man, as does any one society in heaven. From the sequence of reasons there set forth, it follows that this is equally true of each angel. As heaven is man in the greatest form, and a society of heaven in a less form, so is an angel in the least form. For, in the most perfect form such as that of heaven is, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole”
Although we can relate to being supported by the Text at the level of our personal work, the idea that we are part of a collective human being that takes form as we meet together can be rather abstract, and difficult to grasp. The descriptions of heaven as a Grand Human composed of countless societies, with each society being a fully functioning human form composed of individual angels, provides an illustration of how the group can be, and of our function and use in it. This requires a perceptual shift where our sense of person expands from being limited to a single individual to incorporate many individuals functioning as one, in support of a common use. Expanding our sense of what actually constitutes a human being is important to contemplate and asks where our sense of self sits in relation to that.
Logopraxis group life is concerned to provide an environment that leads us towards an ever-deepening sense of the Lord in our collective midst, as the Word. The more conscious we are of working - not only for ourselves, but for others in the group, and for the group as a whole - the deeper will become our sense of spiritual community; and the spiritual literacy skills and methods discussed throughout the Workbook are very much part of this shift in environment.
The Lord is looking to be present in our midst, and He is present when the things of the Word are made the basis for our being together. The collective human that forms when a Life Group meets together is brought into being as we share our direct experience of the Word working in our lives; forming a sacred space where the Word can be known as the Lord.
“By the Lord’s name is meant the Word, for the Lord is the Word”
(Arcana Coelestia 5502; John 1:1)
In the very act of meeting, what we bring from our experience of the Word’s operation in our life becomes a live conjoining presence, creating connections:
Between individuals in the group
Between the group and the spiritual world
Between the group and the Lord
It is this lived experience of the Word, when shared with others, that serves as the soul or life of the group. It’s what connects each to the other.
Arcana Colestia 7359 Spirits from thence came to me, and applied themselves to my left temple, and there breathed on me with their speech, but I did not understand it. It was soft in its flow, nor do I remember ever to have perceived a softer, it being like the softest aura. It breathed first upon the left temple, and the left ear from above; and the breathing extended thence to the left eye, and by little and little to the right, and then flowed downward, especially from the left eye, to the lips; and when it was at the lips, it entered through the mouth, and by a way within the mouth, in fact by the Eustachian tube, into the brain. When the breathing came thither, I then understood their speech, and it was given me to talk with them. While they were talking with me I observed that my lips moved, and my tongue also a little, because of the correspondence of interior speech with exterior. Exterior speech is that of articulate sound falling toward the external...
The human form is the Divine form, and is that which comes into being as the only possible expression of the Lord’s life within those He is creating. This means that on the largest or smallest scale of creation all is organised or strives towards a more complete and thereby perfect, human form.
In Heaven and Hell 73 it’s explained that
“Heaven in its whole complex resembles one man, as does any one society in heaven. From the sequence of reasons there set forth, it follows that this is equally true of each angel. As heaven is man in the greatest form, and a society of heaven in a less form, so is an angel in the least form. For, in the most perfect form such as that of heaven is, there is a likeness of the whole in the part and of the part in the whole”
Although we can relate to being supported by the Text at the level of our personal work, the idea that we are part of a collective human being that takes form as we meet together can be rather abstract, and difficult to grasp. The descriptions of heaven as a Grand Human composed of countless societies, with each society being a fully functioning human form composed of individual angels, provides an illustration of how the group can be, and of our function and use in it. This requires a perceptual shift where our sense of person expands from being limited to a single individual to incorporate many individuals functioning as one, in support of a common use. Expanding our sense of what actually constitutes a human being is important to contemplate and asks where our sense of self sits in relation to that.
Logopraxis group life is concerned to provide an environment that leads us towards an ever-deepening sense of the Lord in our collective midst, as the Word. The more conscious we are of working - not only for ourselves, but for others in the group, and for the group as a whole - the deeper will become our sense of spiritual community; and the spiritual literacy skills and methods discussed throughout the Workbook are very much part of this shift in environment.
The Lord is looking to be present in our midst, and He is present when the things of the Word are made the basis for our being together. The collective human that forms when a Life Group meets together is brought into being as we share our direct experience of the Word working in our lives; forming a sacred space where the Word can be known as the Lord.
“By the Lord’s name is meant the Word, for the Lord is the Word”
(Arcana Coelestia 5502; John 1:1)
In the very act of meeting, what we bring from our experience of the Word’s operation in our life becomes a live conjoining presence, creating connections:
Between individuals in the group
Between the group and the spiritual world
Between the group and the Lord
It is this lived experience of the Word, when shared with others, that serves as the soul or life of the group. It’s what connects each to the other.
Arcana Colestia 7359 Spirits from thence came to me, and applied themselves to my left temple, and there breathed on me with their speech, but I did not understand it. It was soft in its flow, nor do I remember ever to have perceived a softer, it being like the softest aura. It breathed first upon the left temple, and the left ear from above; and the breathing extended thence to the left eye, and by little and little to the right, and then flowed downward, especially from the left eye, to the lips; and when it was at the lips, it entered through the mouth, and by a way within the mouth, in fact by the Eustachian tube, into the brain. When the breathing came thither, I then understood their speech, and it was given me to talk with them. While they were talking with me I observed that my lips moved, and my tongue also a little, because of the correspondence of interior speech with exterior. Exterior speech is that of articulate sound falling toward the external...
In God we trust