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readoldthingsThe Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5, Verses 29-37 reads:
Strange Sayings
This section of the Sermon on the Mount contains a series of strange sayings. Many Christians, I think, like to ignore this part; others take the opportunity to pull Jesus's words out of context and take them as literally as possible. Let's see if we can't find a third way.
Two Horses, One Chariot
Jesus opens by telling us that if our eye offends us (literally, causes us scandal), then we ought to pluck it out, because it's better to go to Heaven with one eye than be tossed into Hell with two eyes. And the same goes for the hands-- it's better to go to Heaven as an amputee, than to go to Hell with two hands.
Now the meaning of this passage is this: The eye is the organ that sees; the hand is the organ that acts. At the most fundamental level, every being consists of three parts: the capacity to act, the capacity to perceive, and mere being itself. In the Platonic literature these three at their most basic constitute the primordial triad of Being, Life, and Intellect. The latter, remember, does not mean the thinking mind, which is a lower thing, but the nous, that highest part of the soul, sometimes called the eye of the soul, which directly perceives God and spiritual realities.
Now Heaven and Hell, as we have said, do not refer to after-death states, but to the totality of nonphysical reality that the soul experiences right now, and will continue to perceive once the material body is cast aside at death. Heaven is the reality of God and the celestial hierarchy, of Unity and Love, and of the creative powers which shape the cosmos. Hell is enslavement to the body's passions, to wrath and anger, and to everything which separates and isolates us; in the modern world, the term "addiction" broadly applied perfectly describes the state of the soul in Hell.
With that in mind, let's recall the image of the soul that we are given in Plato's Phaedrus:
The soul's capacity for perception can be turned toward the things of Heaven, or the things of Hell; the soul's capacity for action can be turned toward the things of Heaven or the things of Hell. Reality is fractal; both the Eye and the Hand has its light horse and its dark horse.
Remember, too, that Jesus in the Beatitudes has taught us to dwell in Heaven even as we sojourn on the Earth. Here he is giving us a reminder of this power, using the powerful imagery of amputation to burn it into our minds.
And What of Divorce?
From a magical perspective, marriage is not just a contract, and sexual union is not just a movement of bodies. Remember the discussion of occult anatomy from the last post. The total human person exists on the physical level of material bodies; the etheric level of vital energies; the astral level of passion, emotion, imagination and thought; and, ultimately, the intellectual level of noetic perception and the True Will and the spiritual level of pure being.
I think Jesus is also being practical here, following on his discussion of the practical effects of directing emotionally-charged thoughts at other people. Have you ever noticed that, over time, married people start to look like one another? And if you're married, you've probably had the experience of knowing what your partner is thinking or feeling, or if they're trying to get in touch with you, regardless of where they are. My wife and I frequently speak entire sentences simultaneously. The various features of married life, including sex, emotional love, and sharing a sleeping space, all serve to unite the married couple at the etheric and astral levels. Even fighting and arguing has this effect. The two members of a married couple literally cease to be separate bodies and, especially at the energetic levels, function as two nodes of a single unit. Simply removing yourself from the physical presence of the other partner doesn't destroy this bond-- though it can be destroyed. But if you have sex with a married person, you are also mingling your energies with their partner, as unpleasant as it might sound. And that's the real definition of adultery-- by committing adultery you are, in effect, raping the non-adulterous partner, by forcibly and secretly mingling their energies with someone else's.
This is also why it's not a good idea to date when you're "on the rebound"-- what this literally means is that your previous partner's astral and, probably, etheric energy is still part of your aura. It might feel good to replace their physical body with someone else's, but its energetic effects are similar to adultery. This isn't a moral prescription. It's just the way things are-- especially for the Initiate who has begun to awaken to awareness of realities above the merely physical. It's also why hookup culture, casual sex, and heartbreak generally are so destructive. And yes, these things are so common today as to be basically universal. I wonder if the gods have allowed us to reach this state of affairs just so we can remember how destructive it is, and return to a better way.
Remember that moral adjurations are descriptions of an ideal state and need to be understood on a mythic level. Divorce is an evil, but occasionally a necessary evil. In the ideal world, it would never happen; in this world, we sometimes have to make the least-worst choice.
Politics
Jesus is also carrying out a mild bit of social reform here, by protecting women from frivolous divorce. This is not at all trivial in a time when a woman is dependent on her husband to a degree that's hard to imagine today. Notice the way that he goes about his reforms: He doesn't destroy the old system, and he doesn't burn society to the ground to start over again from scratch. Instead, he preserves the existing order of things, but makes one small but very consequential change.
This is not a political blog and it's never going to be but I'd like to suggest that Jesus's method here is worth emulating. It's easy to use our imagination to come up with a perfect society and to use our reason to justify to ourselves why it ought to exist. In practice, human reason is far more limited than we realize, and the material world cannot be made to conform to the visions of our imagination. Nature defeats us. The existing order of things, as awful as it may be, has one advantage over every imagined utopia-- it exists. We know that it works, even if it works badly, by the mere fact that it exists. And, existing, it necessarily possesses a kind of life. If we wish to change it, then, we ought to treat it as a living thing. And how do living things change? Gradually, step by step, an increment at a time. To attempt to reform society by "revolution," in which society is effectively destroyed and replaced by an invention, is equivalent to attempting to perform medicine by killing your patient and replacing him with a robot.
Why Not Swear?
Finally, Jesus tells us not to swear oaths.
This passage is confusing unless one realizes the following-- in the ancient world, to "swear an oath" meant to invoke the god named Oath and ask him to come down and witness your promise and then to torment you if you break it. Hesiod says the following about Oath's genesis in the Theogony:
By letting our Yes mean Yes, and our No, mean No, without the need to summon divine witness, we effectively become divine ourselves. Or, to say it another way, one who has followed the path of the Beatitudes and who now dwells at once in both worlds only needs to say Yes or No; his will is as adamant and his word is as the very gods-- or more.
29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:
35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
30 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.
31 It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne:
35 Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
37 But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Strange Sayings
This section of the Sermon on the Mount contains a series of strange sayings. Many Christians, I think, like to ignore this part; others take the opportunity to pull Jesus's words out of context and take them as literally as possible. Let's see if we can't find a third way.
Two Horses, One Chariot
Jesus opens by telling us that if our eye offends us (literally, causes us scandal), then we ought to pluck it out, because it's better to go to Heaven with one eye than be tossed into Hell with two eyes. And the same goes for the hands-- it's better to go to Heaven as an amputee, than to go to Hell with two hands.
Now the meaning of this passage is this: The eye is the organ that sees; the hand is the organ that acts. At the most fundamental level, every being consists of three parts: the capacity to act, the capacity to perceive, and mere being itself. In the Platonic literature these three at their most basic constitute the primordial triad of Being, Life, and Intellect. The latter, remember, does not mean the thinking mind, which is a lower thing, but the nous, that highest part of the soul, sometimes called the eye of the soul, which directly perceives God and spiritual realities.
Now Heaven and Hell, as we have said, do not refer to after-death states, but to the totality of nonphysical reality that the soul experiences right now, and will continue to perceive once the material body is cast aside at death. Heaven is the reality of God and the celestial hierarchy, of Unity and Love, and of the creative powers which shape the cosmos. Hell is enslavement to the body's passions, to wrath and anger, and to everything which separates and isolates us; in the modern world, the term "addiction" broadly applied perfectly describes the state of the soul in Hell.
With that in mind, let's recall the image of the soul that we are given in Plato's Phaedrus:
Of the nature of the soul, though her true form be ever a theme of large and more than mortal discourse, let me speak briefly, and in a figure. And let the figure be composite-a pair of winged horses and a charioteer. Now the winged horses and the charioteers of the gods are all of them noble and of noble descent, but those of other races are mixed; the human charioteer drives his in a pair; and one of them is noble and of noble breed, and the other is ignoble and of ignoble breed; and the driving of them of necessity gives a great deal of trouble to him.
The soul's capacity for perception can be turned toward the things of Heaven, or the things of Hell; the soul's capacity for action can be turned toward the things of Heaven or the things of Hell. Reality is fractal; both the Eye and the Hand has its light horse and its dark horse.
Remember, too, that Jesus in the Beatitudes has taught us to dwell in Heaven even as we sojourn on the Earth. Here he is giving us a reminder of this power, using the powerful imagery of amputation to burn it into our minds.
And What of Divorce?
From a magical perspective, marriage is not just a contract, and sexual union is not just a movement of bodies. Remember the discussion of occult anatomy from the last post. The total human person exists on the physical level of material bodies; the etheric level of vital energies; the astral level of passion, emotion, imagination and thought; and, ultimately, the intellectual level of noetic perception and the True Will and the spiritual level of pure being.
I think Jesus is also being practical here, following on his discussion of the practical effects of directing emotionally-charged thoughts at other people. Have you ever noticed that, over time, married people start to look like one another? And if you're married, you've probably had the experience of knowing what your partner is thinking or feeling, or if they're trying to get in touch with you, regardless of where they are. My wife and I frequently speak entire sentences simultaneously. The various features of married life, including sex, emotional love, and sharing a sleeping space, all serve to unite the married couple at the etheric and astral levels. Even fighting and arguing has this effect. The two members of a married couple literally cease to be separate bodies and, especially at the energetic levels, function as two nodes of a single unit. Simply removing yourself from the physical presence of the other partner doesn't destroy this bond-- though it can be destroyed. But if you have sex with a married person, you are also mingling your energies with their partner, as unpleasant as it might sound. And that's the real definition of adultery-- by committing adultery you are, in effect, raping the non-adulterous partner, by forcibly and secretly mingling their energies with someone else's.
This is also why it's not a good idea to date when you're "on the rebound"-- what this literally means is that your previous partner's astral and, probably, etheric energy is still part of your aura. It might feel good to replace their physical body with someone else's, but its energetic effects are similar to adultery. This isn't a moral prescription. It's just the way things are-- especially for the Initiate who has begun to awaken to awareness of realities above the merely physical. It's also why hookup culture, casual sex, and heartbreak generally are so destructive. And yes, these things are so common today as to be basically universal. I wonder if the gods have allowed us to reach this state of affairs just so we can remember how destructive it is, and return to a better way.
Remember that moral adjurations are descriptions of an ideal state and need to be understood on a mythic level. Divorce is an evil, but occasionally a necessary evil. In the ideal world, it would never happen; in this world, we sometimes have to make the least-worst choice.
Politics
Jesus is also carrying out a mild bit of social reform here, by protecting women from frivolous divorce. This is not at all trivial in a time when a woman is dependent on her husband to a degree that's hard to imagine today. Notice the way that he goes about his reforms: He doesn't destroy the old system, and he doesn't burn society to the ground to start over again from scratch. Instead, he preserves the existing order of things, but makes one small but very consequential change.
This is not a political blog and it's never going to be but I'd like to suggest that Jesus's method here is worth emulating. It's easy to use our imagination to come up with a perfect society and to use our reason to justify to ourselves why it ought to exist. In practice, human reason is far more limited than we realize, and the material world cannot be made to conform to the visions of our imagination. Nature defeats us. The existing order of things, as awful as it may be, has one advantage over every imagined utopia-- it exists. We know that it works, even if it works badly, by the mere fact that it exists. And, existing, it necessarily possesses a kind of life. If we wish to change it, then, we ought to treat it as a living thing. And how do living things change? Gradually, step by step, an increment at a time. To attempt to reform society by "revolution," in which society is effectively destroyed and replaced by an invention, is equivalent to attempting to perform medicine by killing your patient and replacing him with a robot.
Why Not Swear?
Finally, Jesus tells us not to swear oaths.
This passage is confusing unless one realizes the following-- in the ancient world, to "swear an oath" meant to invoke the god named Oath and ask him to come down and witness your promise and then to torment you if you break it. Hesiod says the following about Oath's genesis in the Theogony:
But abhorred Strife bare painful Toil and Forgetfulness and Famine and tearful Sorrows, Fightings also, Battles, Murders, Manslaughters, Quarrels, Lying Words, Disputes, Lawlessness and Ruin, all of one nature, and Oath who most troubles men upon earth when anyone wilfully swears a false oath.
Yes, all of the beings named are actual gods. One thing you realize reading ancient literature is that their world was, from a modern perspective, somehow inside-out. Natural phenomena are living beings and are gods-- and so are those social phenomena, and mental and emotional phenomena that we encounter but believe to be internal to ourselves. And so Oath is a god, one who forces us to keep our covenants; and notice that he is the son of Strife, and ultimately in the lineage of Night. Even the gods afollowed this procedure-- rather than Oath, the spirit of the River Styx held the gods to their covenants, and if they broke them, it effectively placed them in prison for a time. So deathless Styx came first to Olympus with her children through the wit of her dear father. And Zeus honoured her, and gave her very great gifts, for her he appointed to be the great oath of the gods, and her children to live with him always.
By letting our Yes mean Yes, and our No, mean No, without the need to summon divine witness, we effectively become divine ourselves. Or, to say it another way, one who has followed the path of the Beatitudes and who now dwells at once in both worlds only needs to say Yes or No; his will is as adamant and his word is as the very gods-- or more.
