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This month I am writing in
more detail about how Charles
Fillmore related his twelve
powers of man to the body. I will
be doing this in connection with
a somewhat voluminous report on
Katherine Dedyna's interview
article on the Jewish mystical
teachings known as the Kabbalah
and also the Jewish Yoga system
called the Ophanim which appeared
in the Victoria Times Colonist
newspaper on January 24,
2005.
My first years at Unity School
were from August, 1937 through -
I think it was August, 1943 -
when I left to minister at Unity
Church of Truth in Toronto. I now
wish I had realized how important
it might become for me to know
all the things Mr. Fillmore read
and studied to help him to arrive
at his amazing grasp of the Bible
and other teachings from around
the world. I was told that he
read everything, looked into
everything, and made some choices
as to his own core of beliefs.
But when we look at the scope of
understanding and revelation that
manifested in this man who had a
3rd grade education, we realize
something very unusual took
place!
There is considerable
background that Mr. Fillmore
weaved into his 12 powers of man
idea which unites the mystical
teachings of East and West. The
material on the Kabbalah and
Ophanim will fill this in to a
great extent. Here, from
Nathaniel Lande's monumental
anthology of what the front cover
says is "A comprehensive overview
of today's life-changing
philosophies", is a reference to
another source:
"Kundalini Yoga: The
practice of Kundalini, known
as 'the hard way,' seeks to
expand psychic power; it
includes the techniques of
Raja and Hatha Yoga, with
breathing exercises designed
to awaken the powerful energy
of the reproductive system,
symbolized by a coiled serpent
at the base of the spine. The
aim is to draw this power up
through the higher chakras
(centers of power in the body)
in order to achieve
enlightenment...
"Both Tantra and Kundalini
employ the concept of seven
chaknas, or energy centers.
They are the Muladhara chakra,
at the base of the spine, the
Swadisthana chakra; in the
reproductive organs, the
Manipura chakra, at the navel,
the Anahara, or heart chakra,
the Vishuddhi chakra, in the
throat, the Ajna chakra, above
and between the eyebrows (also
known as the 'third eye'), and
the Sahasrara chakra, at the
crown of the head. Awakening
of this chakra, the
thousand-petaled lotus, is the
culmination of the rising
serpent power, the
Kundalini."
Mr. Fillmore locates the 12
powers as follows:
- Faith - Peter -
center of brain;
- Strength - Andrew
–loins:
- Discrimination or
Judgment - James, son of
Zebedee - pit of stomach;
- Love - John - back
of heart;
- Power - Philip -
root of tongue;
- Imagination-
Bartholomew - between the
eyes;
- Understanding -
Thomas - front brain;
- Will - Matthew -
center front brain;
- Order - James, son
of Alphaeus - navel;
- Zeal - Simon the
Cananaean back head,
medulla;
- Renunciation or
Elimination - Thaddaeus -
abdominal region;
- Life Conserver -
Judas - generative
function.
A simple explanation of
Charles Fillmore's theology is to
point out that he saw the Old and
New Testaments as together
revealing the mystery of the
development of the Christ, or Son
of God, consciousness,
culminating in the coming of
Jesus, who expressed the Christ
consciousness, hence is known as
Jesus Christ. The developmental
process, Mr. Fillmore believed,
is identified with 12 powers, or
God-qualities inherent in all
human beings, represented first
by the 12 sons of Jacob (Israel)
and then by the 12 disciples of
Jesus.
My frequent pieces on the 12
powers suggest that we may
develop the Christ or Jesus
Christ consciousness by calling
our 12 powers into action.
The newspaper article
reports:
"Not as strenuous as
Hatha Yoga, Ophanim
[Jewish Yoga] is based
on meditation and movement,
breath and visualization. It
connects body parts to the 10
root energies in the Tree of
Life," the 'template for
creation', central to
Kabbalah.
These root energies are
will, wisdom, understanding,
love, strength, compassion,
power, thanksgiving/survival,
passion and manifestation.
The heart corresponds with
beauty and compassion, the
right arm with the outpouring
of love, the right leg with
the capacity to go on no
matter what; and the left
thigh our capability to
receive even the worst.
Ophanim combines these 10
root energies with the 22
letters in the Hebrew alphabet
to create 32 paths of
wisdom.
There's nothing
intrinsically Jewish in these
root energies; these are
universally applicable
forces.
The letters themselves are
connected to different body
parts. Aleph, or A, works with
the cardiovascular system and
brings a healthy flow to the
heart and lungs.
According to Ophanim,
humans are created in the
'image of God', and each
Hebrew letter posture
represents a certain way for
the Divine Energy to circulate
through the centres. The
result is inner and outer
harmony."
The interview is with Rabbi
Itzchak Marmorstein, a student of
Rabbi David EI Harar, the
Sephardic Kabbalist who brought
Ophanim from Jerusalem to the
West, and the second interviewee
is Professor Kitty Hoffman of the
University of Victoria. Here are
some significant quotes:
The rabbi says,
"Kabbalah is not a religion,
but a means to a deeper
dimension of the oneness of
everything” And another,
“Kabbalah teaches about
the power of the good and the
power to do good. It allows me
to understand the deep
structure of reality I'm
living."
Similar words occur in what
Professor Hoffman says-when she
is asked to encapsulate
Kabbalah's mysticism in a
sentence or two. Laughing, she
says, “It's kind of like
asking Einstein to say one thing
that would represent the deep
structure of the universe.
Kabbalah is not only a religious
and mystical knowledge, it's also
a whole cosmology, a whole
understanding of the universe,
the meaning of life. It's the
deepest and most complex layer of
Jewish knowledge.”
The professor also uses these
lovely words: “each of us
has a holy spark and the divine
light within, and our task in
this world is to recognize that
spark in ourselves and others and
to redeem the world in which we
live. And Kabbalah is a pathway
to that level of
knowledge.”
The surprise I had in reading
the interview was this paragraph:
"Hoffman [the professor]
believes the soul will come back
in new bodies as long as it has
work to do. The rabbi believes
that rebirth can occur without
dieing. He says, 'It's much more
about enhancing and enriching our
experience in this life rather
than other lives.'"
The Bible stories of Enoch and
Elijah are the background for the
rabbi's belief, of course, but I
was not aware that Jews had any
acceptance of reincarnation. (We
all need to read more, don't we,
to educate and inform
ourselves!)
Mr. Fillmore (and I too) would
say it pretty much the way the
rabbi did. Unity people
(especially professionals in the
movement) tend to believe in
reincarnation without endeavoring
to hypothesize too much about the
mysteries of how the eternal soul
expresses in what may indeed be a
universe with many dimensions.
Whatever "the future may hold for
us, what we do in and with this
present time period has important
significance surely.
Now for what hopefully may
turn out to be a relatively brief
recap:
Why are there the 7 chakra
belief system, the Ophanim 10
root energies joined with the 22
letters of the Hebrew alphabet,
and Mr. Fillmore's 12 powers
system making use of the 12 sons
of Jacob (Israel) and Jesus' 12
disciples? What is this all
about?
All of this is based on
humankind's ubiquitous intuition
that we are spiritual beings
placed in this human dimension
with the opportunity (and the
obligation?) to bring our
spiritual potential (seen as
qualities or attributes revealing
the nature of God) into
expression and manifestation.
I don't believe I have shared
with my website readers the story
of the representative of a church
group who came to our church in
San Gabriel, California with the
thought of renting some space. He
and I met outside our building,
and he said to me, "Just what is
this Unity religion, what do you
believe?" And I immediately
answered, "Well, one of our main
beliefs is that God is within
us." And his unbelievable retort
was, "How did He get in
there?"
All these systems we are
discussing are an attempt to shed
some light on how He gets out -
into expression.
And, like Forrest Gump, that's
all I'm going to say about
that!
Perhaps this is actually a
good place to leave this with
you!
Don
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