The Throne

I am sorry to report that we lost Shareen Ewing this week. She passed away peacefully on Tuesday. Shareen is deeply loved by many of us.

Shareen lived a life of service. From my perspective, she was here in 1975 when I first visited Sunrise Ranch. And every time I’ve come back and all the time I’ve been here, she has been a constant. Many of us would say she embodied the spirit of Sunrise Ranch.

Shareen edited this Pulse of Spirit for the past 20 years and more. Every week, I would submit the draft of this weekly article to her and receive her expert suggestions. Prior to that, Shareen edited the publications of Emissaries of Divine Light for many years.

Recently, I was with other men, sharing at a deep level what goes on for us. And it was interesting how, for each of us, an essential part of our growth and development was a cracking open of the heart and a coming to know for ourselves the divine feminine.

She Is the New Day

Like the tinkling of fairy bells

in the rarified air 

of the heaven of Being,

a New Day declares its dawning

For those with ears to hear.

Above the grief,

beyond the tumult,

and past the myopic sight of human eyes,

she arrives—the Queen of Heaven and Earth,

her golden hair flowing,

her sacred breath bestowing

the gift of life to a human heart now glowing.

She is the New Day,

and she is here,

her appearance heralding the end

of the broken,

the ignorant,

and the separate.

The never-ending struggle is over.

Our Queen is here.

Awake, O heart!

Witness now with eyes divine!

See the New Day. 

Behold her in all her glory

so that we may be about the simple tasks

that welcome her to a world rejoicing.

Beauty has returned.

It might seem contradictory that a man comes to know himself as a man in that way. But I believe that that is an essential part of the path to a man fully knowing himself. Up to that point, there can be quite a sense of isolation, and with that comes a butting of heads with other men. Any men willing to cop to having had that experience at times?

Where there is a cracking open of the heart, there is an ascending flame known in a man’s experience. That flame brings connection upward, putting a man in touch with the unity of all things—the knowledge that all things are part of One Being, and that while he is an individual, he finds his individuality in his oneness. Out of that oneness there can be the embodiment of the distinctive nature of that man and the positive expression of his masculinity.

It is uncommon in the world in which we live that a man comes to walk that road fully. It is the road to maturity for him. And while I’m speaking about men, women walk a similar path, though I can’t report on that path from firsthand experience. So I’ll leave it to women to name that path for themselves out of their own experience. But I can speak to my own path as a man and my observation of other men.

This is relevant in this country. Did you know that we are in the middle of a full-blown crisis for young men in America? It’s not coming. It’s here—a full-blown crisis.

Men are four times more likely to die by suicide than women. Only 42% of the people graduating from college are men. 25% of young men report being lonely a lot. Two-thirds of young men report no one knows them well. 75% of young men are single—not just unmarried but without any partner. Unemployment among men has almost doubled.

So, we are in the middle of a full-blown crisis, and the trends are not good. In this culture, some are looking for a solution.

Recently assassinated Republican political activist Charlie Kirk seemed to offer an answer to this crisis. He presented a version of masculinity that emphasized strength, leadership, purpose, and agency. He did so on the conservative end of the political spectrum. And still, what he brought ended up being an encouragement to young men, and they flocked to him because he instilled a feeling of empowerment.

Of course, that is on the existing political and cultural spectrum, and we have the polarities in that spectrum from conservative to progressive. There is a ding-dong battle going back and forth between the two polarities with ultimately no solution.

On the progressive end of the spectrum, over most of my lifetime, we have had feminism on the rise. With that phenomenon, there has also been a teaching of toxic masculinity. What a wonderful message to encourage the spirit of a young man! Tell him that his masculinity is toxic. Of course, it probably does not go quite like that. It is more like “it could be toxic.” But still, for a young man, there might not be a lot of distinction between those two messages.

There is this ding-dong battle that goes on between progressivism and conservatism, or between feminism and a vision of masculinity that tends to revert to something out of the past, which most of us can’t buy into. What is the answer? It is a turning, and it is a cracking open to an empowering reality in the depth of a man’s soul. It is a cracking open to the very source of a man’s being and the source of a man’s power and creativity. It is an activation of the responsive, feminine dynamic within a man that brings a heart response to a reality greater than himself as a human being.

That goes right off the scale of progressivism or conservatism. It is something else altogether. It relates to the road we are all walking as men and women and the necessity for us all to tune in to something higher than the immediate human experience.

I should add that these days we have AI, which has an impact on the human psyche, and focusing on men, it has a message for the male psyche: You’re not smart enough to figure this out, and you’ve led us into the ditch. We’re going to have to get AI to come in here and save the day. Not really an empowering message for the male psyche. I’m not saying we ought to tweak AI to coddle the male psyche. I’m just pointing out that there are forces at play that impact the psyche of men, and women too.

I’m going to refer to a biblical passage that is relevant to a man’s journey in life, and in fact to all people. This Bible passage could be seen as conservative. I’m going back to something. But what I want to go back to is something revolutionary, even for today. It is from the apostle John. For those who aren’t familiar with him, he was one of the twelve disciples, and the one closest to Jesus. He was the only disciple at the foot of the cross.

After Jesus left, John ministered to the early Christian communities in Asia Minor, which is present-day Turkey. Initially, he ministered with the apostle, Peter. But John is thought to have lived until he was about 90 years old, and for much of that time he was without Peter.

After a lifetime of ministry, he was exiled to the Isle of Patmos, which is a Greek island, even though it is off the coast of modern-day Turkey. It was there that John wrote the Book of Revelation. The tone of it is quite different than his gospel, which is a telling of the story of Jesus’ ministry. It is the work of a mature, experienced man with a profound message to leave to humankind.

Part of Revelation is couched as a message to seven early Christian churches in Asia Minor. The Greek word translated as church was ekklesia, which was an assembly of citizens. The early Christians adopted this word for their communities.

The churches named were symbolic. And they were real communities with which John was familiar. The message I want to quote from is to the church of the Laodiceans. Laodicea was in what is now southwestern Turkey. It was known for great wealth and banking. Having no water immediately available, they brought water in through stone aqueducts from Hierapolis, which was a hot water spring six miles away. The water was lukewarm when it arrived in Laodicea and could made people retch if they drank it.

The Book of Revelation is rich with fantastic poetry. It is filled with stinging messages and apocalyptic imagery. It is not hard to imagine that John, who had been close to Jesus and then spent a lifetime bringing Jesus’ message to the world, was passionate about leaving a visionary spiritual message for humankind. It is evident from the text that, as it is said in baseball, he was swinging for the fences.

This translation is from the King James Version, with one exception. I replaced the word repent in the King James. Repentance refers to self-punishment. That was not what was written. The original text was mostly likely in Greek, and repent is clearly an inaccurate translation of the original Greek word, which was a form of the word metanoia, which means to experience a change of consciousness. Here, I am using words that mirror the Greek: let your heart and mind change.

And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and let your heart and mind change.

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Revelation 3:14-22

Zing! So much of this is so wonderful. And you either love the sting of it or not. I love the sting.

I want to start with the ending first. What is the throne he is referring to? A throne is a seat of power and authority. Is that ever an issue for men? Who’s going sit on the seat of power? And notice what’s being said. It is remarkable when you really look at the clear symbolism of it. This isn’t an opportunity to sit on my right hand, or on my left hand. This isn’t an opportunity to sit before or behind.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

What is being said? There is one throne. That is not how it looks to the immature man, or the immature woman. There’s your throne, my throne, and your throne’s bigger than my throne, or My throne’s higher than your throne. There are all these independent centers of power. Who will win? Or if I am especially magnanimous, How are we going to work together?

There is one throne. You are either sitting on that throne or you are not sitting on that throne. There’s one authority, one God, one Creator. Apparently, there was someone who knew that for himself and was sharing that opportunity.

Sit with me on the one throne. That’s what it looks like among mature man. We are together sitting on one throne, and it is not yours or mine. It is the throne of the Creator, of the Father. We’re sitting on that throne, with that authority and that power—not some worldly throne.

I stand at the door and knock. Spirit’s always knocking. It is knocking for anyone, even though we might not hear the knock. If we are in the Spirit, sitting on the one throne, we are doing the knocking. Hello, I’m here. Sup. Commune.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. John is telling us that his message is out of love. The sting is from love. And why is there a sting? The short answer is, because we are thick as human beings. There has to be a sting, or people will just keep following their default pattern. There has to be some kind of disruptive power. And the Spirit is disruptive. It messes with our regularly scheduled program. When we know Spirit for ourselves, we are disruptive. If you know that for yourself, I say, Welcome to the club!

There is the matter of people thinking they are rich and that they have need of nothing. And then it says, Thou art wretched. Wretched is a word we don’t use much today. We tend to think of it in an accusing way, as if what is being said is You are an awful person. But the origin of the word wretched refers to someone who is exiled and therefore without a home.

Without the blessing that comes from the source of all life, we are miserable, poor, blind, and naked. We are bereft of what we rightly inherit and know as a human being. And as long as we think we have it all, not admitting our own spiritual poverty, then we are not going to be very open to receive what is ours to receive.

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire,

Gold is a symbol of love and the substance of love in human experience. The substance of love that is tried in the fire—that persists and sustains in the fire—is in fact generated by the fire. We walk into the fire, and then we become one with it. We know that fire of love and the substance of love we have bought for ourselves. We are then living in the substance of love. If you won’t walk into the fire with your heart open, you won’t have the gold.

…and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear…

White raiment is the light that glows. It’s the Spirit of Truth moving through a person who shines with that light. Such a person brings the illumination of life itself into the world.

…and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

See reality. See other people. See the pattern of life all around you, and especially the pattern of life in other people.

Most human beings see the faults in the people around them—their shortcomings and dysfunctional ways of being. That does not take great insight. You can catch that on the news every day. You hear it from people every day. This is a greater sight that has the ability to see past the shortcomings and dysfunction to behold what is underneath all that in the human experience. It is the enlightened vision that sees the pattern of Creation that is within all human beings.

Leaving aside the Laodiceans’ lukewarm water from the aqueduct, what is John’s reference to the cold, the hot, and lukewarm? Here, John is speaking of a person’s spiritual passion and openness to the Source of Creation within themselves.

Being cold is turning away from the creative Source. Being hot is the experience of a heart on fire—passion, and a zeal that brings openness to what is higher than you are as a human being. A person who is hot is experiencing metanoia. Lukewarm is take it or leave it—not enough interest to bring a person home. A person who is lukewarm does not have enough passion to experience a full metanoia, not enough to allow them to experience all the rest of what John writes about in this message: the substance of love, white raiment, spiritual communion, and true authority.

This is the critical issue for men, and for women too. The outer circumstances cannot solve these issues for the young men of today, nor can they prevent a young man from fulfilling John’s prophecy for himself. The world cannot stop a young man from coming into his own experience of the substance of love and communion, and his own natural authority as a Creator Being.

Just as for women, this experience does not come to a man because he strives for it. It comes because a man surrenders to the truth of Being in love, passion, and zeal. It is our praise of what’s higher than we are that introduces us to the reality of our Being. It is our adoration and cherishing of the beauty of what’s higher than we are that ultimately makes someone powerful. That is what allows a person to sit upon the throne.

Above the grief,

beyond the tumult,

and past the myopic sight of human eyes,

she arrives—the Queen of Heaven and Earth,

her golden hair flowing,

her sacred breath bestowing

the gift of life to a human heart now glowing.

She is the New Day,

and she is here.