There is a Cosmic Story in which we all have a part. It is a story of people coming together and creating a space that becomes a portal for the Infinite to come in. Recently, I shared a reading from Martin Cecil that told part of the Cosmic Story. He entitled it “The Continuing Incarnation of the Archangel.” He proposed that the birth of Jesus, while a beautiful thing of itself, was much more than a single event. He likened it to the initial cell in the womb that becomes a baby and is born into the world. He was suggesting that Jesus was one cell of a body to grow and develop and to fill the earth. Initially, it was a body of disciples. Potentially, it is all of humanity. Martin was saying that from that initial birth, the Christ body has been alive up to this day, alive and growing within the larger body of humanity.
In our human body, there are so many different glands and organs, cells and tissues, and they all have unique functions and characteristics. But they all have our own DNA. And likewise for us as human beings in the body of humanity. We are all so unique. We all perform different functions and bring different essences into the world. And yet, just as every cell in our individual body has our DNA, we are each imprinted with the spiritual DNA of the Christ. That’s the Cosmic Story in which we have the opportunity to participate.
Many people are living a very different story. It is a story of wanting. The person’s life isn’t oriented around becoming a portal for the Infinite. Their story is of attempting to obtain something that would give them enjoyment and meaning. That is the story of wanting. Of course there is another part to the story of wanting, which is the story of not getting and not having. That goes to stories of envy and jealousy, and an obsession with what other people have. And then it even goes to wishing they didn’t have it, because maybe if they didn’t have it you wouldn’t feel so bad about not having it yourself. Envy and jealousy can also make you want to take it from them. There are so many stories of wanting that people tell themselves about their life. If we are taken up with the wanting story, the Cosmic Story is forgotten.
At our Sunday morning service at Sunrise Ranch, Melissa Jacobs and Lana Roach danced an original hula, choreographed by Keahi Ewa. As I watched, I thought, Now, there is something to be wanted. The exquisiteness of it, the lusciousness, even the femininity of it and the exquisite beauty through feminine form!
We might try to possess that beauty. But we can’t really. It evades our grasp. Where did it go? But on the basis of gratitude and appreciation, there it is. We get to behold it, we get to partake of it, we get to know it for ourselves and even in ourselves. It ennobles us. We enter a state of honor—the honor of life itself; an honor that is spoiled if we try to grasp that beauty.
Here is a distinction that needs to be made. There is the urge inside us that loves and appreciates the beautiful. This is the urge for the fulfillment of life, for the enjoyment of life, and all the things that are beautiful. That urge is great. And yet we know that something goes so wrong in a human life if we try to obtain our self-determined version of what the fulfillment of that want would be; when we try to grasp it and take it out of the Cosmic Story. In so doing, we take ourselves out of the Cosmic Story into the wanting story. And the wanting story leads to the not-having story. In the Cosmic Story, we realize that all things come that should come in their own time and in their own way. We trust the Cosmic Story.
The story of Job is another telling of the Cosmic Story. It is the story of a man who seemingly had it all and who seemingly lost it all. But Job didn’t give way to a story of wanting what he didn’t have. He faced the losses in his life with equanimity, keeping his spiritual centering. I’m sure that, at some level, he wanted the things that he had lost. But he knew enough to stay centered and to trust the Cosmic Story. In the end, what he had was returned, and more.
In the process of all that, Job is given an examination. I see the examination of Job as something that was relevant to the whole story. It is the secret of how it all came around right in his own experience. Here is part of that examination:
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?
Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
(Job: 38:31–36)
In Colorado, where I live, it’s easy to see Orion and Pleiades in the night sky most nights. The Pleiades constellation is a feminine image, otherwise known as the Seven Sisters. It is thought to bring feminine vibrational factors to our world. Orion clearly symbolizes masculine essence.
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?
Can you take your desire for what is sweet—what is beautiful and lovely—without wanting it in a way that takes you off your spiritual centering? Can you appreciate and enjoy it without wanting it in a way that compels you to go after it, leaving empty the place where you belong in the Cosmic Story—wanting it in a way that disables your spiritual power and takes you out of your rightful place?
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades?
It doesn’t say to eradicate sweet influences from your life. It doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be there. But can you bind them, meaning that you let them be present in yourself and in your world in their rightful place, without taking you off your center?
The verse continues this way:
Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion?
Orion is symbolic of the masculine spiritual factors for us all. It is symbolic of the positive spiritual power—the power of Love—that is meant to come through us into the world. That power is bound up in a person who wants—who is off-center and out of the Cosmic Story. Can you loose those bands? And we note that this part of the question comes right after the questioning of whether Job can bind the sweet influences. It implies that one will be bound and the other free. Which will it be?
There are all kinds of things that are portrayed in the next verses that come after that.
Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season?
Mazzaroth has to do with times and seasons in concert with the solar system. It has to do with being a creator. When the sweet influences of the Pleiades are bound in us, and the bands of Orion are freed, it is easy and natural to bring forth Mazzaroth—to be a creator, to allow things to unfold in their season, and to allow what is wonderful and beautiful to find its place, which it can’t if we are chasing after it.
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?
For me, ordinances is a funny word. I think of littering and jaywalking. Obviously, something bigger is being said here.
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven?
Those ordinances are the spiritual imperative of the present moment, which contains the unfolding design of Being; what must be and what should be, in the unfolding pattern of life. The ordinances of heaven are the unfolding pattern of life itself.
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth?
Can you tune in to what is meant to be, and then let it happen? Chasing after the sweet influences of Pleiades makes us weak. It makes us spiritually disabled and incapable of setting the ordinances of heaven in the earth. We are not even in the story. We are in the wanting story. By this one simple act of allowing ourselves to be spiritually centered, and because of that, loosing of the bands on our own spiritual expression, we inherit the capacity as a creator, as a part of the Cosmic Story.
Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee?
Of course, we think of rain and perhaps this verse has that physical implication. But water has another implication as well—the flow of Love to the heart, true Love that comes from on high. Can you receive that?
Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds…?
Lift up your voice to the clouds: Come, be here in this world. Rain down on me, rain down on us.
Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go and say unto thee, Here we are?
Can we light up the world? Do we command the power of Light within us? Do we bring Light to a situation? A spiritually centered person has that to bring.
Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
A very simple thing, easily available when the sweet influences of Pleiades are bound and the bands of Orion are loosed. We become wise. And as for Job, the world comes around right in the times and the seasons of the Cosmic Story.
If we are to be a person who binds the sweet influences, we must be a person who trusts that Cosmic Story. Trust it. Love it. Be grateful for it, and celebrate it. Sometimes it seems like there is a wonderful fulfillment that has transpired; sometimes it is like the hard days were for Job. Whatever happened, Job didn’t relinquish his centering. His face was always turned to what he loved, who he loved, and what he was committed to. Let us be Job.
As we finish 2019, we’d probably each characterize our year differently. For some it might have been like the story of Job; others, maybe something else. Whatever it is for you, let’s allow this year to come around right and to reach its right fulfillment. Let’s play our part in the Cosmic Story. Coming together, we have the opportunity to open a portal for the Infinite to enter the world.