Thinking About Your Divinity

The mind processing that which it cannot have.

Are you divine?

Do you recognize your divinity?

If you said "yes," how is it that you know?

If you said "no, I can't recognize it yet," it's ok. I love you. Maybe this post will help.

The part of you that asks the question cannot be the part of you that answers it. In truth, the mind and intellect can circle your divinity for a lifetime, and never see it. The thing that thinks about its divinity cannot recognize it.

Recognizing Your Divinity

Do you think about your divinity? Probably. You most likely reflect on the being that is you, your incarnation, your experiences. And maybe that reflection makes you feel like you recognize it. It puts everything into a perspective that could only be divine. Right?

But how do you know? How is your divinity recognized by you, and by others?

Notice the exercises the mind grasps in order to try and answer this question. First, it gathers evidence. Then, it compares the evidence. And finally, it builds its case for a yes or no answer. This is exactly why the tool that walks through the exercises cannot recognize its divinity. The mind is processing that which it cannot have. Divinity is not found in calculation, evidence, or comparison.

So if thinking is not the way, what is?

The Hero's Journey

You've heard these stories before. St. George and the dragon. King Arthur and Excalibur. The rising of the Phoenix. Yeshua.

St. George represents the overcoming of fear. He enters the dragon's lair and faces what he was afraid of most. He doesn't defeat it by understanding it. He defeats it by going in.

King Arthur lives an entire life without knowing his divine right. When the moment comes, he steps into it unwillingly. It could only have been him. Surrender comes first, and recognition follows.

The Phoenix rises in full embodiment from the ashes of the old. The old patterns, the old self, the ego. It doesn't reason its way out of the fire. It burns, and then it rises.

Yeshua lives a life of service, only to know the outcome, to have foreseen it, and to go anyway, in the name of love - transcending human nature.

All suffer. All overcome. All rise.

None of these figures think their way to it. They embody. They transcend the self.

Circumstance is a mirror. It reflects back what is ready to be seen. But a mirror only reveals. It cannot carry you across the void. Only free will can. 

Material Weight

The manifestation of divinity gets heavier before it gets lighter.

As it draws closer, it becomes more material. More dense. More dissonance, more friction, more of life pressing on you. This isn’t a sign you are headed in the wrong direction. It is a sign that you are getting close.

Look at the stories again. St. George had to enter a dark cave to find what he was meant to overcome. King Arthur had to lose the life he knew before he could enter the life he was meant to live. The Phoenix must die. And Yeshua had to meet the worst in humanity in order to represent what lies beyond it.

The heaviness has a purpose. It provides you clarity. Every point of dissonance shows you something specific that needs to be transcended. The weight is information. It is the message. It is the mirror at its loudest.

You may recognize this in an ordinary life. A season where everything you built seems to be coming apart. A loss that strips away a role that you believed was really you. A period of time where your old patterns get louder, right before they crumble. 

From the inside, it feels like life is falling apart. From the other side, it looks like the old self being shown to you in full, so that you can finally transcend it.

The mirror, your state of reflection, only shows you what needs to be transcended. But your divinity cannot be found in the reflection. It can only be found in the choice. The opportunity to recognize your divinity lives in the choice to transcend. It can be seen in the recognition of the material which you have moved beyond.

Realization

Your divinity is found in realized embodiment. It cannot be thought of or recognized by the intellect.

It is the return to the true self. The part of you that is beyond fear, that reaches surrender, that lets the old fall away, and does so willingly, so that the true self can rise. It is the return. The second coming. Not an event outside of you, but the coming back of what you actually are. Love manifested for this experience.

There is a painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel that shows the spark of God giving life to Adam. Two hands reach toward each other, fingers outstretched. The painting shows that the two fingers do not quite touch. There is a small gap between them.

That gap is what this post is about. It is where the mind lives, measuring the distance, thinking about the distance, wondering if it is wide or narrow. Embodiment is the moment the gap closes. The connection of the real you to the spark that is already within you.

Back to the Question

So, how do you know you are divine?

You don't. You don't think it, and you don't need anyone to confirm it. You only “know it” the way the Phoenix knows fire, the way Arthur knew the sword in his hand when pulled from the stone.

You know it by living through what it takes to become it.

If you can't recognize it yet, that is ok. You may be in the process, in the material weight of it, in the cave, in the ashes. 

You are just closing the gap.

© Jonathan Ashford. All rights reserved.

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