Turning

Looking through the Metaphysical Bible dictionary for a reference to Advent (there is none) I find the word Adoraim: a Hebrew word meaning mounds or dwellings; double mounds; double strength; double honor; strength of the sea. This is one of the cities of Judah that Rehoboam fortified (2 Chron 11:9). Adoraim was close to Hebron, symbolically the seat of conscious thought. The idea conveyed by the meaning of Adoraim is double-mindedness. "Rehoboam represents that in man's consciousness which exalts the senses. . . ."

Thus, the strength of this state of consciousness is as the strength of the sea: It is unstable and shifting.

Looking around, we notice that individuals of all kinds have invested a great deal of time and energy into fortifying their state of mind as did Rehoboam. These fortifications are almost entirely based upon sensory and material perceptions. Feelings of insecurity drive a lot of the building of these fortifications, and we see the evidence all around us.

The light of the Christmas star is, at this moment, merely the glimmering of an idea. There are yet many days to the celebration of the birth of Christ Consciousness, and in these days a great raising up of "double mounds" of fear may come — along with a sense that the world we have known is undergoing an inexorable and inescapable transformation: the erasure of what we have known and the emergence of who knows what.

Our task in these days is to prepare the way. In the dark of confusion, insecurity, even fear, we can begin to turn our minds inward — away from sensory impressions — to the glimmering of something transcendent.