I have been pondering and studying meditation, imagination, the Law of Assumption and the Promise lately, and in my Bible reading this morning, I read this section from Deuteronomy. It’s a little long, so feel free to skip down to the explanation.
These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which the Lord God of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall destroy their altars, break their sacred pillars, and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things.
“But you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses, out of all your tribes, to put His name for His dwelling place; and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, your vowed offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
“You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes—for as yet you have not come to the rest and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. But when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety, then there will be the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. There you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes, the heave offerings of your hand, and all your choice offerings which you vow to the Lord. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levite who is within your gates, since he has no portion nor inheritance with you. Take heed to yourself that you do not offer your burnt offerings in every place that you see; but in the place which the Lord chooses, in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I command you.
“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within all your gates, whatever your heart desires, according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He has given you; the unclean and the clean may eat of it, of the gazelle and the deer alike.”
Deut. 12:1-15
In the Hermetica, there’s a line which made me stop reading for a while, just to ponder it. “Everything that is, is double.” Most explanations of the line explain it as meaning that every word has a double meaning, which I think is true, although I think there’s more to it than that. But, this meaning applies us in good stead when reading the Bible, so let’s stick with it for now.
Neville says that the Bible is not literal, but an analogy. I suspect, but don’t know for sure, that both are more or less correct, and we’re looking at a double that the Hermetica refers to. Regardless, taking these verses as an analogy and considering the art of meditation, we must dispossess and destroy every idea that tries to interrupt your focused imagination times. Destroy them completely, because those interruptions are trying to distract you from the purpose of your imagination.
Instead, (and remember, you are I AM, and I AM God), focus on what you choose to meditate on. Give this all your attention, your tithes, and your time. And you shall rejoice to see all that you have put your mind to and that which you have been blessed with.
There are two parts to Neville’s teachings, the Law of Assumption and the Promise. The law is every man imagining what he wishes…”every man doing what is right in his own eyes.” But, when you “come into the rest and inheritance that the Lord is giving you,” when you’ve received that which you need and rejoice in that which you have, “when you cross over the Jordan and dwell in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies round about, so that you dwell in safety,” then you will rejoice and turn your focus to the Promise.
But, even when your focus is on the Promise, you may still use the Law of Assumption for whatever your heart desires. Even those who have no desire to study the Promise (the unclean) may enjoy the results of the Law of Assumption.
“And now,” as Neville says at the end of his lectures, “we come to the silence.”
