Revelations of Divine Love · 85 of 127 · tr. Grace Warrack
Chapter LVI-a
"God is nearer to us than our own soul" "We can never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul" And thus I saw full surely that it is readier to us to come to the knowing of God than to know our own Soul.
For our Soul is so deep-grounded in God, and so endlessly treasured, that we may not come to the knowing thereof till we have first knowing of God, which is the Maker, to whom it is oned.
But, notwithstanding, I saw that we have, for fulness, to desire wisely and truly to know our own Soul: whereby we are learned to seek it where it is, and that is, in God.
And thus by gracious leading of the Holy Ghost, we should know them both in one: whether we be stirred to know God or our Soul, both [these stirrings] are good and true.
God is nearer to us than our own Soul: for He is [the] Ground in whom our Soul standeth, and He is [the] Mean that keepeth the Substance and the Sense-nature together so that they shall never dispart.
For our soul sitteth in God in very rest, and our soul standeth in God in very strength, and our Soul is kindly rooted in God in endless love: and therefore if we will have knowledge of our Soul, and communing and dalliance therewith, it behoveth to seek unto our Lord God in whom it is enclosed.
(And of this enclosement I saw and understood more in the Sixteenth Shewing, as I shall tell.) And as anent our Substance and our Sense-part, both together may rightly be called our Soul: and that is because of the oneing that they have in God.
The worshipful City that our Lord Jesus sitteth in is our Sense-soul, in which He is enclosed: and our Kindly Substance is enclosed in Jesus with the blessed Soul of Christ sitting in rest in the Godhead.
And I saw full surely that it behoveth needs to be that we should be in longing and in penance unto the time that we be led so deep into God that we verily and truly know our own Soul.
And truly I saw that into this high deepness our good Lord Himself leadeth us in the same love that He made us, and in the same love that He bought us by Mercy and Grace through virtue of His blessed Passion.
And notwithstanding all this, we may never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul.
For until the time that our Soul is in its full powers we cannot be all fully holy: and that is [until the time] that our Sense-soul by the virtue of Christ's Passion be brought up to the Substance, with all the profits of our tribulation that our Lord shall make us to get by Mercy and Grace.
I had, in part, [experience of the] Touching [of God in the soul], and it is grounded in Nature.
That is to say, our Reason is grounded in God, which is Substantial Naturehood.
[Out] of this Substantial Naturehood Mercy and Grace springeth and spreadeth into us, working all things in fulfilling of our joy: these are our Ground in which we have our Increase and our Fulfilling.
These be three properties in one Goodness: and where one worketh, all work in the things which be now belonging to us.
God willeth that we understand [this], desiring with all our heart to have knowing of them more and more unto the time that we be fulfilled: for fully to know them is nought else but endless joy and bliss that we shall have in Heaven, which God willeth should be begun here in knowing of His love.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Gnosis Direct Knowledgesoteriology
Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone.
The passage prioritizes 'knowing' and 'understanding' of God and the soul through direct spiritual experience ('I saw full surely') over mere faith or ritual.
All passages →Kingdom Withinanthropology
The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation.
The text locates the 'worshipful City' of Jesus and the 'Sense-soul' within the individual, asserting that the divine realm is enclosed inside the human person.
All passages →Living Godtheology
The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality.
God is described as an active 'Ground' and 'Mean' who keeps the soul together, leads it with love, and engages in 'communing and dalliance,' portraying a dynamic personal presence.
All passages →Mystical Unionsoteriology
The merging of the individual soul or self with the divine, transcending personal identity.
The text repeatedly describes the soul as 'deep-grounded,' 'oned,' and 'enclosed' in God, emphasizing a state of profound merging and indwelling.
All passages →Paradox As Teachingethics
Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight.
The text presents the paradoxical tension that one must know God to know the soul, yet cannot fully know God until one knows the soul, using this circularity to point to their unity.
All passages →Self Knowledgesoteriology
The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology.
The passage explicitly states that one cannot fully know God until one clearly knows their own soul, making self-knowledge the central soteriological prerequisite.
All passages →Unity Of Beingtheology
The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim.
The text asserts that the soul and God are 'oned' and that the soul is 'deep-grounded in God,' suggesting a fundamental non-dual reality where the human essence is rooted in the divine.
All passages →Related passages · 9 parallels
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 19 (part 1)
“The Secret Doctrine by H.
P.
Blavatsky -- Vol.
1 [[Vol.
1, Page]] 325 THE IMPARTIALITY OF SCIENTIFIC DENIALS.
[[This page continued from previous section ]] § III.
PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT.
"As it would seem irrational…”
Shared concept: Unity Of Being — The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Human Body in Symbolism-j
“When humanity has completed its physical evolution, the empty shell of materiality left behind will be used by other life waves as steppingstones to their own liberation.
The trend of man's evolutionary growth is ever toward his own essent…”
Shared concept: Self Knowledge — The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology. (derived)
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 3 (part 7)
“Herbert Spencer has of late so far modified his Agnosticism, as to assert that the nature of the "First Cause,"* which the Occultist more logically derives from the "Causeless Cause," the "Eternal," and the "Unknowable," may be essentially…”
Shared concept: Unity Of Being — The doctrine that all existence is ultimately one substance or one divine reality; non-duality as a theological claim. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 489
“Section 11 11. Similarly any one, unable to see himself, but possessed by that God, has but to bring that divine- within before his consciousness and at once he sees an image of himself, himself lifted to a better beauty: now let him ignore…”
Shared concept: Kingdom Within — The claim that the divine realm is present inside the individual, accessible without external mediation. (derived)
neoplatonism|Select Works of Plotinus|Select Works, Section 417
“Section 1 1. What can it be that has brought the souls to forget the father, God, and, though members of the Divine and entirely of that world, to ignore at once themselves and It? The evil that has overtaken them has its source in self-wil…”
Shared concept: Self Knowledge — The recognition of one's own true divine nature as the primary path to liberation; 'know thyself' as soteriology. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XX
“Omitting, therefore, these things, we may reasonably adduce a second cause, assigned by you, of the above mentioned particulars: viz. “ that the soul says and imagines these things, and that they are the passions of it, excited from small i…”
Shared concept: Gnosis Direct Knowledge — Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Mysteries and Their Emissaries-a
“DID that divine knowledge which constituted the supreme possession of the pagan priestcrafts survive the destruction of their temples?
Is it yet accessible to mankind, or does it lie buried beneath the rubbish of ages, entombed within the…”
Shared concept: Gnosis Direct Knowledge — Salvation through direct experiential knowledge of the divine nature, not through faith, ritual, or moral works alone. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XIX
“But neither does the cause [of the energies] of more excellent natures subsist as a certain middle instrument, nor does he who invokes operate through him who prophesies; for to assert these things is impious. And it is much more true to sa…”
Shared concept: Living God — The divine conceived as active, present, and dynamic—not an abstract principle but a personal responsive reality. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite)|Page 6 (part 1)
“PART I THE LITERATURE OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC Click to view THE SERPENT OF THE GARDEN OF THE HESPERIDES.
From a Greek Vase Painting.
CHAPTER I The antiquity of Magical Rituals § 1.
The Importance of Ceremonial Magic THE ordinary fields of ps…”
Shared concept: Paradox As Teaching — Using apparent contradiction, reversal, or riddle to destabilise ordinary understanding and induce insight. (derived)