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SCRIPTURES
Chapter 1
Seeking the heart of God – Living the gracious life – Areta and The One (the Emzahdeah)
– An introduction to Heaven and Hodos Alea – In the beginning (singularity) – A-Z
particles – The beginnings of life and creation – The streams of intelligence –
The symmetry of God – Innocent spirit children must live the mortal life – The power
of love
1 By what means shall I write of things eternal? How shall I make known to you the mysteries which come from God? For in me did The One and Areta together make known the birth of Heaven’s glory, causing that I should see with my eyes and hear with my ears, and touch with my hands the beginning of Hodos Alea.
2 What words, therefore, shall I place herein which would give rise in you of that far more nobler self which did leap forth from the soul of God? For words alone prove pale and weak, being in their nature as thin and passing shadows which would but lead us home again.
3 For the things which flow from God are greater than all your dreams together, proving themselves beyond the imaginings of prideful men; for things unseen do the learned mock, and in constant sophistries would they make to appear as foolish, the things of greatest worth.
4 Guard well, therefore, your soul within through faith and steadfast yearning; for the things which are real do come from God, while yet the things of this world are made dim and quickly passing.
5 If then you would take to your heart the things which come from God, then gird yourself with faith and hope; having your soul fixed on things eternal, and in your mind prove steadfast and most determined.
6 For such wonders as God would give into your keeping would lesser men steal away, to cast in heaps of smoking ruin the sum of all your dreaming, speaking well deceitful words which would rob you of that greater portion.
7 Seek not, therefore, the counsel of unbelievers, neither stand you in the midst of prideful men, nor walk you side by side with those who would mock and make ridicule the things which come from God.
8 For such as these are without root or place, being themselves most uncertain and ever doubtful, being cast about within the mind and ever drifting, going from one opinion unto the next, being themselves lost and filled with shadows.
9 But seek you only the heart of God and in their counsel stand most resolved and fully knowing. For what good is the sum of all your strength if you have not faith besides; and of what value is all your learning if you know not the soul within, or the place from which you come?
10 Open wide, therefore, the doors of your heart, and I will speak; make ready the ear and mind together, and I will pour into the very soul of you the things which come from God; and if you shall believe with all your heart, nothing doubting, then shall there be born within you some inward calm filled with knowing, causing that there should be in all your words and deeds that gentle goodness filled with grace.
11 For if you would live your life in joy and light, then is grace most fully needful; for in that inward grace are all hardships made most endurable, to make as still and fully calm the soul within, even in the midst of troubles.
12 Know then that if you would live the gracious life, then be you strong and firmly fixed in holding to the things of God; for that inward grace of which you seek is first born of all your faith, being itself sustained through such hopes as do live most constantly within you;
13 Causing that there should be found in you a place of refuge within the soul where adversity is given no place or power to make as dark the joy within; neither can any doubt rush in unawares to trouble the heart and soul together.
14 Be you, therefore, most attentive and fully knowing: For grace is made that outward showing of an inner calm; and if it should be that you are possessed of it, then shall the troubles and perplexities of life fall harmlessly round about you, causing that there should flow from out of the depths of you a kindly word and a gentle deed, to make as still in every man and every woman the storms which rage about.
15 Gird then your heart and mind, and be you eager in seeking out the greater portion; for now would I reveal to you the things which no man or woman knows, having come from the soul of God.
16 For The One and Areta did cleave together midst love and fiery passions, spilling into each the other a fullness of affection filled with yearning and desire, proving to each through kiss and gentle touch the depths of their devotion;
17 Declaring to each their sweet surrender, being called itself the Emzahdeah; for in their love did they yield to each the fullness of the heart and soul;
18 To bring as gifts before the altar a kind regard whereby they might fulfill the desires of each the other with love exceeding, being themselves without limitations or boundaries.
19 For together were they as one God, being united through the Oneness of their souls; for in this Emzahdeah did each surrender the demands of the self, to find in the loving of each other the only thing worthy of desiring or fully needed;
20 Causing that The One should speak to his Beloved, saying: “Come, my Love, and let us be as God together, both male and female, most strongly bound in love and true devotion; for in you alone am I complete, even as you do find completeness in me.
21 Let us, therefore, be fully bound midst all our love and life together, being ourselves that endless fount from which all good things must flow, causing that we should draw from the depths of all our love this Heaven which we would make.
22 For all I am give I to thee, to be for you that truest Love which dwells within your dreams, to place in you a song to sing; for in the bosom of forever shall I love you always, to see in you the sum of my desiring.”
23 And Areta did fairly swoon in the arms of her Beloved; and she spoke with tender words into his ear, saying: “Yes, my Love, let us be forever one, to draw from our many passions the foundations of Heaven’s glory.
24 For in this kingdom which we shall make, will all good things come alive, to stand itself supreme forever, being ever attended by life and love, grace and beauty, hope and joy, even worlds without end.
25 Let us then begin anew to create for ourselves this heavenly place; for such powers as I possess shall I share most joyfully with you, my Love; for in the world of the First Power did you strive continually and with faith to bring forth the fullness of my design.
26 Be you, therefore, willing to stand as equal beside me, being one in me and I in you, to build in each a fullness of the other, causing that in all things together shall we most equally share in the building of this happy kingdom which we shall call Heaven.
27 For in power and grace shall we prove equal to each other, to draw from our souls together the foundations of some greater glory filled with light and endless joy, being dressed within and without by a holy communion.
28 Let us determine through careful counsel the way which we should go; for here beside this living stream shall we most sweetly ponder, to fashion from our heart’s desire a multitude of loving children.
29 These shall we fashion through the loving of our souls within the golden stream; for the stream of which your spirit is fashioned is made of an absolute and living substance, being themselves most separately knowing in the ways of life, being intelligent in purpose and design.
30 And in the loving of you within the flowing light did I fashion for your soul a spirit body like my own; and in like manner shall we fashion from our souls together the beginning of our seed.
31 These shall we cause to follow straightly in our path, to become through some eternal progression even like unto ourselves; and this path to exaltation shall we call Hodos Alea.
32 For in small and careful stages shall our children most surely grow, adding through needful measures one glory upon another, even till they should receive a fullness, to become themselves as Heavenly Fathers and Heavenly Mothers in holiness and joy forever, being attended themselves by a deep and knowing wisdom.
33 How say you then: Shall we begin to make for us this happy kingdom? For we are both of equal power, being made as one forever in love exceeding.” Thus spoke Areta to her Beloved.
34 And The One answered her, saying: “Then, my Love, let us begin, for I am fully ready. Only tell me from whence this stream of intelligence is made to come; for I would know the fullness of your mysteries. Of what is it made? How came it to be? And by what strange and unseen powers is it able to fashion the body of my spirit?”
35 And hearing this, Areta smiled and kissing The One upon the lips, she spoke, saying: “Then come, my Love, and I will tell you, keeping nothing back.
36 For in the beginning was there nothing fashioned or made, and in all of space was there nothing found save a great and dreadful emptiness, causing that before the dawn of all creation should all things be strongly bound within the confines of singularity.
37 For all matter, all powers and forces, all dominions and principalities did exist within the cosmic seed, which seed I did gather from out of the depths of Eidos, though the Eidos knew it not; for of me he had no knowledge.
38 Now in the vastness of my soul did I contain the seeds of life, which seeds were themselves the smallest of particles, being designated by me the A-Z particles of life.
39 Which living particles do contain the designs, purposes and breath of all my soul, being itself the source of that evolution which would bring forth the foundations of all living things, perchance to make for me a living and knowing soul which would unite with me in Oneness, being together both male and female in love forever.
40 Now in that moment when the seed did burst, I did cast myself forth throughout the outward movement of matter, space and time; for I had no form as you see now, but was myself contained in each and separate particle of life, causing that I should establish in every moving sector of the cosmos, the beginning of life and creation together.
41 For in the light was I most deeply hidden, moving throughout the A-Z particles of my greater self, ever seeking that place where I might bring forth the foundations of some greater life, being myself, in each and separate particle, most fully awake and deeply knowing;
42 Ever communing within my soul in seeking my designs, being throughout the vastness of my greater self beyond the dictates of space and time, possessing in my inward nature dimensions of my own.
43 For I would have you know, Beloved, that from the beginning were the A-Z particles fully knowing, each particle of my soul communing with every other particle which moved throughout the immensity of space, being each themselves filled with strong desires to seek my own fulfillment;
44 Being myself ever hopeful that in this place or that place there might arise some pleasing form which I might desire; causing that I should fashion for myself a living form which would prove itself desirable and filled with wonder.
45 And by and by, in the passing of the aeons did I see through the particles of my greater self, which as trailing threads of light did pierce the distant darkness, revealing to me the world of the First Power; and drawing near I beheld the beauty of women, perceiving in them the very beginnings of grace and beauty and life exceeding.
46 Thus did I desire for myself the form of the woman, and seeing that in the world of the First Power all women were cruelly bound in pain and servitude, I resolved to place among them the hope of all my soul;
47 To become myself as one of them, fashioning from star dust and tender yearnings, the tabernacle of a woman wherein I might place a portion of my greater self, being content to bear such sorrows as would save the sum of all mankind.
48 And the rest, my Love, you fully know. Yet in the day of my passing, when you were left alone to fulfill the whole of all my dreams, even then did I withdraw into the cosmos having myself a great desire;
49 Calling from out of the Deep, the sum of my greater self, and there gathered into one place even all the A-Z particles of my soul; and there was laid each upon the other, one great strand of living light, causing that there should be created this bright and golden stream which you see.
50 Then did I enter into this stream of living intelligence, being filled with a pure and holy love; and there did I fashion for the soul of my mortal life, a tabernacle of everlasting spirit, which spirit you now see.
51 And stepping out of the streams of intelligence, I turned myself again unto the world of the First Power, and seeing that you were in need of some great soul to love, I fashioned again a mortal body; and as the woman Yoshibeth, I came again into mortal life whereby we might love each the other midst gentle breath and fiery passion.
52 Now are we, my good and tender Love, made equal in place and power; for when we entered the stream together, being held together by love’s embrace, the stream of intelligence did likewise flow through your soul and my spirit together.
53 Thus was there fashioned of these living particles a spirit tabernacle of your own, being itself most fully male and deeply knowing, being in your every part most equal to my own, to be in love most strongly bound, I in you and you in me.
54 Yet was there a greater wonder fully made; for in the dawn of all creation were the particles of this living stream made fully but my own, possessing in each and separate particle both my mind and desires together, being beyond the dictates of space and time, being in myself beyond immortal, but eternal always and filled with wonder.
55 But now look you forth and fully see: For even these living particles contain now the fullness of your mind and deepest yearnings, to be bound throughout eternity with my own, causing that we should prove ourselves as truly equal in all things together.
56 Now, my Love, is it fully certain that we should bring forth spirit children; yet shall these spirit children, both male and female, prove themselves innocent, having within themselves no knowledge or understanding concerning the greater issues of eternity.
57 For such spirit children as we shall cause to leap from out of the midst of all our loving while in this stream, being together most strongly bound, even they shall have no soul of deeper knowing; for only in the living of the mortal life is the soul most surely fashioned.
58 Let us, therefore, in the making of Heaven, create also some mortal world where all our children might be tested, to make for themselves in the mortal life a soul most like our own, having in themselves a knowledge of the greater and lesser portion, causing that they should choose for themselves how much like us they would become, to be ever guided by holiness and love and wisdom forever.
59 For there is one power only which would cause that in this stream of intelligence, spirit children should leap forth, being found only in such love as a man might bear for a woman, and the woman might bear for the man.
60 For love is greater than fire and steel; greater than hate and fear together, being itself more deeply moving than rushing winds and roaring thunder; for look you forth and see this cosmos which I did make and in my heart perceive most fully;
61 That all these things which move and glow throughout the immensity of space, all the swirling galaxies, all suns and moons and starry night, the countless worlds filled with life, even this did I bring forth from an aching need filled with love.”
62 Thus did Areta speak in answer to her Beloved, and The One spoke, saying: “Then Beloved, let us begin with thoughtful measures to make for ourselves a heavenly place, and there most sweetly dwell forever.”
4TH ENDOWMENT 1
