Here is a teaching story from the Book of John:

After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 

Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 

In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 

For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 

And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 

When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 

The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 

Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 

And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked….

(John 5:1-9)

What is the power of the story? We do not hear that there was some great lightning bolt that proceeded from Jesus, bringing healing. Or any great effulgence of light. It seems from the story that Jesus was pointing to a self-help remedy that the man who was lame hadn’t been aware of. And in Jesus’ presence, the man saw that self-help remedy and took advantage of the power of choice available to him. It became a simple matter for him to turn the switch spiritually and become empowered.  

It is a teaching story that contains an allegory for the entire human journey and our own individual lives. How often we, like the man at the pool, are waiting for someone to help us. We are waiting for the angel to come and trouble the waters. We are waiting for an external factor to line up. Perhaps we may be waiting for God and the cycles of Creation to move on, waiting for a propitious date in the horoscope of life, not seeing the available self-help remedies.

The self-help remedies are initially invisible. They relate to the morphic field in which we exist. Creation is happening there in a way that pre-dates form. A new birth of some kind is conceived in that substance—perhaps a new home, a new project, an original watercolor, or a new relationship. Spiritual essence enters the morphic field and conceives a new cycle, a new possibility, a new birth, a new world. And yet who is aware of that conception and attentive to the processes of development taking place in this heavenly womb of our human experience?

Newborn babies need great care. And in the same way, when any new form emerges it deserves great care. More than that, the essence of what is yet to be born also deserves great care in the heavenly womb—the invisible layers of our human experience that hold the morphic field for what is to come—just as the embryo is cared for in its mother’s womb.

For spiritual regeneration to be at work in our lives, these invisible layers of human experience must be sanctified and cultivated. The heavenly womb has to be of such quality that it can hold the seeds of possibility that descend into it. That’s true for each of us personally. Even as the fetus evolves in the womb, there is something to develop in the heaven of Being until it’s time for it to take form. And so, those invisible dimensions must be of such a quality that the essence of new things can grow.

This is not just an individual matter. Yes, the mother is the one to hold the baby in her womb until the time of delivery. But ideally, both the mother and the father hold a field of love surrounding the unborn in an invisible, heavenly womb. For any group of people, the creativity that might emerge through them relies on the morphic field they share.

How do we generate these invisible layers of our experience? It all transpires in relationship. First of all, there is our relationship with the source of our own life and all creativity, which is the source of all Creation. Our opening of heart and mind to that source activates the generation of a morphic field for new Creation. We find out that the morphic field carries consciousness, and it responds to consciousness. We find the patterns of thought and feeling that link us to the creative power that generates the morphic field, and we realize that our thoughts and feelings are living in the morphic field. They are an intrinsic part of shaping and patterning it.

From this experience, we come to know that our own morphic field, and the field we share with others, are in dynamic relationship with Source. The field connects us to Source, carrying messages and power from Source into the field and, therefore, into our thoughts and feelings. God is no longer a distant entity but an ever-present reality with whom we are having a magnificent exchange of love and information that carries the pattern of Creation.

In this open exchange, we know a great hungering and thirsting for the essence of the Divine that comes into our morphic substance, seeing the preciousness and the beauty of it, glorying in it—loving it, wanting it—and then nurturing the heavenly essence of it as it grows and develops in our field.

This is reciprocity, a back-and-forth exchange that generates an invisible field of love and wisdom around a person. This reciprocity creates spiritual intimacy that includes an awareness of the closeness of Divinity and a real relationship with that reality.

This personal reciprocity with Source is necessary but insufficient for us to make the contribution to this world that is ours to make. Because nothing of great moment was ever brought to the world all alone. To truly give what we have to offer, it must become meaningful to others. There must be reciprocity among us as human beings. We have to discover that the morphic field we are part of is not only individual. We share it with others.

So what does the creative back and forth that generates our collective morphic field look like? What is this reciprocity we have to share that makes us meaningful to each other and the world?

If we are to be a collective Christ, bringing the Christ Spirit to the world, there has to be care and attention to the cycles of reciprocity among us—to the back and forth of the pulsations of Spirit and the tending and keeping of this heavenly womb space we share. There must be care for the specificity of what’s happening in that space and an awareness of our self-help remedies. Those are unique to each of us. But we all have them. These are the actions available to us to generate a rich morphic field, to allow the seeds of possibility to be planted in that field so that they may grow and be born into new forms in the culture in which we live.

I notice so often that people are waiting. They are waiting for the second coming of Jesus, or they are waiting for somebody else to do something. And then they are disappointed when that other person doesn’t do it. They are waiting for the government to act, waiting for a new election perhaps, waiting for the angel to trouble the waters, and the angel never comes. And meanwhile, the spiritual action that was available to the person isn’t seen. What is seen is all the limitations of the physical factors. We could probably all name them, some of them personal to us, some of them shared among us.

And where are the eyes that see the action that is available to us? A kind word, a word of appreciation, or the wisdom that we have to bring. The caring for the delicate essences that are present in another person, perhaps even through difficult times. Excitement over new possibilities arising in consciousness through another person or through oneself. The awareness of an emerging presence through a collective of people. The awareness of a new level of love coming into the collective heart. The awareness of new vision, unique insight, new wisdom appearing among our friends, perhaps not fully formed but now fostered by us.

I do not believe that any of us are here to be casual observers of Creation. I don’t believe we are here to be casual observers of what is emerging through someone else or through our collective field. Being an active participant in our own emergence, we become an active participant in a collective emergence, each one of us a pioneer, each one of us with our word to say, our vision to bring, an essence of love that nobody else could bring, and an essence of care. We begin to feel the spirit of the Great Mother that emerges through us in this womb space, empowered by Her great love, allowing the essence of Creation to grow and flourish. And we are stirred by the urge of the Father of All to seed the collective field with the essence of Creation and bring the power of new life into the space.

This is what is happening for us collectively, and it is what is happening within each one of us. Our choice is to rise and pick up our self-help remedies—those spiritual actions that are available to us, no longer discounting ourselves and the gifts that we have to bring into the spiritual commons, but bringing them powerfully, lovingly, confidently, lifting up our friends. Let us do that together.