My Mother made me my own Jesus
and if you send her a ball of wool she'll knit you one too
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The article title is intentionally facetious. The article that follows is not.
Awhile ago I posted the gist of the following article as a reply to Gideon MacLeish's thread 'Who is my Saviour?' Oddly, he took it as an attack upon his beliefs and deleted the post. Since I've no wish to waste the effort that went into that original reply I've decided to publish the sense of it in an independent article, if not in exactly the same words in the same order.
Gideon asked a straightforward question - Who is my saviour? And proceeded to answer it in traditional Christian terms (which you may read for yourself by following the link at the end of this article).
I proposed a rather different answer to that question: I said that Gideon is his own saviour, his own Jesus, just as I am mine.
How is that possible?
To begin with it's necessary to understand that the word 'Jesus' is not a personal name. It's a title, in the same way that the word 'Christ' is not a family name but a title meaning 'anointed one'. In order to understand the title 'Jesus' one must understand something of Hebrew, and the role of the Name of God in Hebrew Mysticism.
The fundamental and absolute Name of God, which is the Being of God and the Power of God, uttered within the universe at the moment of its creation and so accessible to (if not intelligible to) you and I, is formed from four letters. These letters are Yud, Heh (superior), Vahv, and Heh (inferior) The word so formed, Yud Heh Vahv Heh (or YHVH), is referred to as the Tetragrammaton (four letter word).
No believing Jew will in any way attempt to make use of this word but instead refers to the God of Israel as Adonai, or 'My Lord'.
In Hebrew as it originally developed there were no vowels, nor signs to indicate vowels. As Hebrew took on written form, signs for vowels were added as lines and points written above, within, and around each letter. In order to ensure that no one foolishly attempted to pronounce this ineffable Name, the vowel signs for the word 'Adonai' were placed around the four holy letters. Attempting to pronounce the Tetragrammoton produces either 'Yahveh', 'Yahweh', 'Yehovah', or 'Jehovah'. All these words result from ignorance of Hebrew and are, essentially, meaningless.
The fundamental meanings of the word YHVH derive from the meaning of its component letters - it is in essence an acronym (or, more correctly, a notarikon). The Yud represents archetypal masculinity while the Heh (superior) represents archetypal femininity. Vahv represents physical masculinity while the Heh (inferior) represents physical femininity. The four letters in combination signify that the Divine is the union of all opposites, physical and spiritual, as well as that point of unity from which all plurality, spiritual and physical, takes its source.
What proceeds from the Tetragrammaton is the Pentagrammaton (five letter word).
The Hebrew letter Shin, which is written to appear as three small flames bursting out of a fuel source, represents the Holy Spirit, the Ruach Elohim. It is known also as 'Chi', 'Ki', 'Prana', 'Kundalini', 'Mana', 'Manitou', and by many other names. The Pentagrammaton is produced by placing the letter Shin at the center of the Tetragrammaton, Yud Heh Shin Vahv Heh (YHSVH), creating a symbol which represents the union of divine masculinity and femininity with physical masculinity and femininity through the incorporation of the Holy Spirit.
Anyone who would be saviour to himself or others must be able to unite the Divine with the physical, overcome all opposites within himself, and at the same time maintain that tension in unity which is the source of all poetry and prophecy. It is this act of overcoming and submission which is designated by the term 'Jesus'. If you pronounce the Pentagrammaton in Hebrew it becomes 'Yeh-ha-shu-ah' which is usually translated as 'Joshua'. In the Greek of the New Testament it became 'Yay-su', which in English became 'Jesus'.
As I said at the beginning the name 'Jesus' is not a name. It is a title - the title of one who in himself experiences this process of overcoming and submission. Any one may become a Jesus and, in order to be saved, a man must become a Jesus, to himself and to others.
There can be no vicarious atonement, no self-sacrificial offering of oneself for others, because each of us is free and therefore each of us must accept and atone for our own failures both to overcome the world and to submit to the Spirit of the Divine as it manifests itself in the world.
The man 'Jesus of Nazareth' was indeed a son of God, as I am, and a son of man, as I am - but he did not die for me, nor for anyone who may read this. He died for his faith and as an example of overcoming in submission, and insofar as he set that example he opened a way for others to overcome and submit also.
Properly understood, that example frees all who follow it from the tyrrany of dogma and the over-weening arrogance of all those who presume to prescribe a path to enlightenment for others.
Who is your saviour? You are.
Who is my saviour?
I am.
Link
Awhile ago I posted the gist of the following article as a reply to Gideon MacLeish's thread 'Who is my Saviour?' Oddly, he took it as an attack upon his beliefs and deleted the post. Since I've no wish to waste the effort that went into that original reply I've decided to publish the sense of it in an independent article, if not in exactly the same words in the same order.
Gideon asked a straightforward question - Who is my saviour? And proceeded to answer it in traditional Christian terms (which you may read for yourself by following the link at the end of this article).
I proposed a rather different answer to that question: I said that Gideon is his own saviour, his own Jesus, just as I am mine.
How is that possible?
To begin with it's necessary to understand that the word 'Jesus' is not a personal name. It's a title, in the same way that the word 'Christ' is not a family name but a title meaning 'anointed one'. In order to understand the title 'Jesus' one must understand something of Hebrew, and the role of the Name of God in Hebrew Mysticism.
The fundamental and absolute Name of God, which is the Being of God and the Power of God, uttered within the universe at the moment of its creation and so accessible to (if not intelligible to) you and I, is formed from four letters. These letters are Yud, Heh (superior), Vahv, and Heh (inferior) The word so formed, Yud Heh Vahv Heh (or YHVH), is referred to as the Tetragrammaton (four letter word).
No believing Jew will in any way attempt to make use of this word but instead refers to the God of Israel as Adonai, or 'My Lord'.
In Hebrew as it originally developed there were no vowels, nor signs to indicate vowels. As Hebrew took on written form, signs for vowels were added as lines and points written above, within, and around each letter. In order to ensure that no one foolishly attempted to pronounce this ineffable Name, the vowel signs for the word 'Adonai' were placed around the four holy letters. Attempting to pronounce the Tetragrammoton produces either 'Yahveh', 'Yahweh', 'Yehovah', or 'Jehovah'. All these words result from ignorance of Hebrew and are, essentially, meaningless.
The fundamental meanings of the word YHVH derive from the meaning of its component letters - it is in essence an acronym (or, more correctly, a notarikon). The Yud represents archetypal masculinity while the Heh (superior) represents archetypal femininity. Vahv represents physical masculinity while the Heh (inferior) represents physical femininity. The four letters in combination signify that the Divine is the union of all opposites, physical and spiritual, as well as that point of unity from which all plurality, spiritual and physical, takes its source.
What proceeds from the Tetragrammaton is the Pentagrammaton (five letter word).
The Hebrew letter Shin, which is written to appear as three small flames bursting out of a fuel source, represents the Holy Spirit, the Ruach Elohim. It is known also as 'Chi', 'Ki', 'Prana', 'Kundalini', 'Mana', 'Manitou', and by many other names. The Pentagrammaton is produced by placing the letter Shin at the center of the Tetragrammaton, Yud Heh Shin Vahv Heh (YHSVH), creating a symbol which represents the union of divine masculinity and femininity with physical masculinity and femininity through the incorporation of the Holy Spirit.
Anyone who would be saviour to himself or others must be able to unite the Divine with the physical, overcome all opposites within himself, and at the same time maintain that tension in unity which is the source of all poetry and prophecy. It is this act of overcoming and submission which is designated by the term 'Jesus'. If you pronounce the Pentagrammaton in Hebrew it becomes 'Yeh-ha-shu-ah' which is usually translated as 'Joshua'. In the Greek of the New Testament it became 'Yay-su', which in English became 'Jesus'.
As I said at the beginning the name 'Jesus' is not a name. It is a title - the title of one who in himself experiences this process of overcoming and submission. Any one may become a Jesus and, in order to be saved, a man must become a Jesus, to himself and to others.
There can be no vicarious atonement, no self-sacrificial offering of oneself for others, because each of us is free and therefore each of us must accept and atone for our own failures both to overcome the world and to submit to the Spirit of the Divine as it manifests itself in the world.
The man 'Jesus of Nazareth' was indeed a son of God, as I am, and a son of man, as I am - but he did not die for me, nor for anyone who may read this. He died for his faith and as an example of overcoming in submission, and insofar as he set that example he opened a way for others to overcome and submit also.
Properly understood, that example frees all who follow it from the tyrrany of dogma and the over-weening arrogance of all those who presume to prescribe a path to enlightenment for others.
Who is your saviour? You are.
Who is my saviour?
I am.
Link
