Thursday 14 January 2016

Letter from a Mother in Heaven

Expanding on :
http://www.jrganymede.com/2016/01/09/mother-in-heaven-is-feminism-delaying-the-fullness-of-this-doctrine/
And complementary to:
http://charltonteaching.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/letter-from-your-heavenly-father-part.html
I have the following intuitions, which could and probably should be regarded as something like a fantasy fiction rather than theology.
**


My Dear Child,

I feel a need to write this letter because I am grieved at the misery and despair of so many of my children in their earthly lives - your loneliness and isolation. My hope is that knowing a little more about me, and learning of the love I always have for you, will help you through the adolescent trials of mortality, and inspire you to make the choice to return as adults to dwell again in Heaven.

It may be helpful for you to know something of the history of the long and loving relationship between us, on the one hand; and, on the other hand, to know the reason why you hear so little about me during your mortal existence - why we encourage you to speak directly with God your Father, and to think much on your Brother Christ, but not - as a rule - to focus your attention on me.

Your Heavenly Father and I are the original co-creators and rulers of creation - but we have different areas of responsibility. Briefly, your Father is more concerned with 'creation' and I with 'generation'.

Your Father made the universe, and - with him - your Brother Jesus made the earth and then gave you the possibility of resurrection to eternal life. You may wonder what I was doing all this time? The simplest answer is that my special responsibility was with you spirit children, during the long ages of your pre-mortal sojourn in Heaven.

As you know, I am your spiritual mother - it was through my divine parturition that you transformed from being merely unaware primordial 'intelligences' to persons; but at first you were 'spiritual babies' and only gradually became more mature as pre-mortal spirits.

Somewhat like an earthly mother, it was my particular job to nurture and care for you during pre-mortal life, when you were developing and growing as spirit children.

Clearly some of you have hazy memories of the blissfulness of that time, the era when you were new-born or young and dependent child spirits - when you were barely self-aware, knew little of the past or future, but lived in a an eternal joyous present, a surrounding atmosphere of sustaining love.

You and I may never again experience the un-self-conscious bliss of that time of early spiritual childhood - and that is bittersweet for me, as it is for you.

But it is our plan and hope that you will grow beyond that to develop towards becoming like your Brother Jesus Christ - who lives and works with your Father and I; in other words, that you will become independent, self-aware god-children who will - from your achieved freedom, power and autonomy - choose to return and dwell with us as divine friends, participating in the great and endless work of loving creation.

And ultimately, that you may eventually have spirit children of your own - so that we all may dwell together as a loving extended and ever-growing family.

So, as pre-mortal spirits you lived constantly in my presence for many ages; but you grew, and developed, and eventually you decided to venture into mortal life and join the plan of salvation: of mortality and resurrection.

Then you made the brave step: you voluntarily left behind the reality of that atmosphere of sustaining love, and your left behind your continuous awareness of me. This was necessary in order for you to experience and develop your own independent selves, something which was not possible in the conditions of pre-mortal life.

My deepest hope is that you will pass through the painful isolation of spiritual adolescence during your mortal life on earth; and be resurrected to spiritual adulthood. That is my wish - that you will separate from me, in order to return - but to freely choosing to return.

I know that mortal life is not always as anticipated, and some of you - having tasted the isolation of autonomy - want nothing more than to return to the un-self-conscious bliss of our pre-mortal child life together. Since I cannot, and would not wish to, coerce you - but only to move forward step-by-step with your full consent and willingness - and it is your choice, you can return to your former state and remain in that situation until such a time as you are ready and willing to move on.

Otherwise, it may assist your time of learning by experience to know that although we are currently separated; I am lovingly concerned with you every moment and every step of your life. In a thousand invisible ways that you can scarcely imagine, I help you - nearly always without drawing your attention to the fact. I am aware of, and consoled by, your prayers and meditations to the Father and Son.

Be assured: I rejoice in your happiness and spiritual progress, I feel your sufferings, and I am most deeply worried by your hostility and rejection and the resulting despair.

And I yearn for nothing more than your safe return as mature, grown-up sons and daughters.


With all my love,
Your Mother in Heaven

9 comments:

David said...

When you put it like *that* Bruce, it all makes perfect sense. It is your letters from Heavenly Father (and now mother) based on William Arkle's insights that I find resonate with me most powerfully and I experience a conviction of a deeper underlying truth. I have made an important decision in the last few days. That decision has been to live more boldly in faith and trust the promptings of my divine nature. I will no longer destructively indulge that which I have formerly done and will build, develop and construct my inner true self and spiritual wisdom, rather than diminish or impoverish it with mental detritus. The question 'What is my motivation in doing x, y or z? or for questioning x, y or z, seems to be a more reliable way of proceeding to undercut self - deceptions or distractions and stay on course. One day I am determined I will return to heavenly father and mother as an adult and I hope they will be proud of me when I do so. I miss them and at times in mortal life their distant memory can seem illusionary but at life's most powerful moments, despite the vicissitudes of mortal existence, in the charity and loving virtue of other souls, I can powerfully feel a yearning to outgrow my adolescence and achieve spiritual maturity. There is no one else who can do this for me, except me. It's time to get on with it as well as I can. The inspiration of heavenly parents and a heavenly family of deceased loved ones, ancestors and other spirit friends is a motivator that lacks any parallel I can think of. It is my deepest wish to join in such a family again after my earthly trials have ended.

Misanthropist said...

I don't know how well the doctrine of Mother in Heaven will spread among contemporary Christians. It seems the problem (for Christians in incorporating this doctrine) is that people will sooner go straight to New Age spirituality and polytheism, that offers an array of male and female deities to choose from.

Although I have embraced a lot of New Age type spiritual beliefs in more recent years, I am somewhat conflicted. I feel that New Age spirituality is closer to reflecting the truth of the spiritual and metaphysical reality of the universe, yet it is utterly ineffective as an organising principle for the vast bulk of the human population at its current level of development and given the demands of life on this planet.

Bruce Charlton said...

@M - This post is not intended as a medium for mass Christian conversion, but is written from a personal perspective as one who fully accepts the truth of Mormonism (including the spiritual leadership of its General Authorities) but who is *not* a member of the CJCLDS.

You would need to read the links (and their links) to discover the meaning of Mother in Heaven among Mormons. An impression could be gained in about 15 minutes, but it would probably take a couple of hours of investigation to avoid misunderstandings - which you may or may not consider worth your time.

For the past couple of years, my personal theology has also included insights I have derived from William Arkle and from reflecting on his work. That is where the above ideas are 'coming from' and I recognize that the perspective is unusual - perhaps unique - in some of its specific details.

Bruce B. said...

Obviously there’s lot so differences but Catholics have a “mother in heaven” too. So maybe Catholics and Mormons intuit the need for the same thing?

Bruce Charlton said...

@BB - I think the basic intuition may indeed be the same. Historically, Mary mother of God played an extremely important role in both Eastern and Western Catholicism - the official interpretation was that Mary was venerated as a Saint, not worshipped as a god, but that may not have been how it felt to the common people.

Bruce B. said...

I’m not a good source of information on Catholicism but I’d guess that Mary-worship or quasi-worship done in ignorance (of formal Catholic dogma) was not a mortal sin.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for writing this. An understanding of the Heavenly Mother this lucid is uncommon.

Mother in Heaven is a precious and treasured aspect of our faith and it is moving to see her love honored in this letter.

I think being open to the reality of the Heavenly Mother is an important thing for every Christian to consider. It is an authentic Christian doctrine older than even Marian veneration, going all the way back to the First Temple period of Israel's history when the Divine Parents were enshrined beside their son Jehovah in the Holy of Holies. Mormons didn't invent the concept and no one should be afraid of embracing the light they have to offer on this subject.

- Carter Craft

Odin's Raven said...

Are there any more revelations from Fatima?

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

Carter, I assume the "Divine Parents" you mention being enshrined beside Yahweh in the temple are El and Asherah. This is true, but it is misleading to present this as an "authentic doctrine" of First Temple Israelite religion. Asherah (mistranslated as "grove" in the King James Version) was installed in the temple by Manasseh (2 Kings 21) and removed by Josiah (2 Kings 23), and the biblical writer clearly considers Josiah to have been in the right. Manasseh's introduction of "groves" into the temple is portrayed as a grave evil, making him worse than the idolatrous Canaanites.