The Twelve Powers of Man, by Charles Fillmore, [1930], at sacred-texts.com
The Twelve Powers of Man, by Charles Fillmore, [1930], at sacred-texts.com
THE EGO, the free I, the imperishable and unchangeable essence of Spirit, which man is, chooses every state of consciousness and every condition in which it functions. It does not create the basic substances that enter into these mental structures, for these substances have been provided from the beginning, but it gives form and character to them in consciousness, as men build houses of lumber, stone, or whatever material they may choose in the manifest.
These mental states are all constructed under the dynamic power of the great universal impulse that lies back of all action--enthusiasm or zeal. Zeal is the mighty force that incites the winds, the tides, the storms; it urges the planet on its course, and spurs the ant to great exertion. To be without zeal is to be without the zest of living. Zeal and enthusiasm incite to glorious achievement in every aim and ideal that the mind conceives. Zeal is the impulse to go forward, the urge behind all things. Without zeal stagnation, inertia, death would prevail throughout the universe. The man without zeal is like an engine without steam or an electric motor without a current. Energy is zeal in motion, and energy is the forerunner of every effect.
If you desire a thing, you set in motion the machinery of the universe to gain possession of it, but you must be zealous in the pursuit in order to attain the object of your desire. Desire goes before every act of your life, hence it is good. It is the very essence of good; it is God Himself in a phase of life. When they called Jesus good, He said: "Why callest thou me good? none is good save one, even God." So the universal desire for achievement, giving its mighty impulse to all things, is divinely good. Divine enthusiasm is no respecter of persons or things. It makes no distinctions. It moves to new forms of expression even that which appears corrupt. It tints the cheek of the innocent babe, gleams from the eye of the treacherous savage, and lights in purity the face of the saint.
Some have named this universal life impulse God, and have left the impression that it is all of God and that all the attributes of God-Mind are therefore involved as a conscious entity in every situation where life is manifest. In this they lack discrimination. God's Spirit goes forth in mighty streams of life, love, substance, and intelligence. Each of these attributes is conscious only of the principle involved in it and in the work that it has to do. Though it is man's mission to combine these inexhaustible potentialities under divine law, man is free to do as he wills. But the divine law cannot be broken, and it holds man responsible for the result of his labors. Man cannot corrupt the inherent purity of any of God's attributes, but he can unwisely combine them
in states of consciousness that bring dissatisfaction and incompleteness to him. It is his privilege to learn the harmonious relations of all the chords of life and to arrange them on the staff of existence with such masterly art that no discord can be detected. Then life becomes to him a song of joy, and he absolutely knows that in its ultimate all is good.
Never repress the impulse, the force, the zeal welling up within you. Commune with it in spirit and praise it for its great energy and efficiency in action. At the same time analyze and direct its course. As zeal alone, it is without intelligence or discretion as to results. As Jesus taught His disciples and combined their various talents, so every man must grow in wisdom and zeal. You are not to repress but to guide the spirit of enthusiasm, which in co-operation with wisdom will bring you happiness and satisfaction.
Zeal is the affirmative impulse of existence; its command is "Go forward!" Through this impulse man forms many states of consciousness that he ultimately tires of. They may have served a good purpose in their day in the grand scheme of creation, but as man catches sight of higher things zeal urges him forward to their attainment.
Let your zeal be tempered with wisdom. "The zeal of thy house hath eaten me up" means that the zeal faculty has become so active intellectually that it has consumed the vitality and left nothing for spiritual growth. One may even become so zealous for the spread of Truth as to bring on nervous prostration.
"Take time to be holy." Turn a portion of your zeal to do God's will to the establishing of His kingdom within you. Do not put all your enthusiasm into teaching, preaching, healing, and helping others; help yourself. Many enthusiastic spiritual workers have let their zeal to demonstrate Truth to others rob them of the power to demonstrate Truth for themselves. Do not let your zeal run away with your judgment. Some persons get so fired with zeal when they first tackle a job that they quickly grow tired, and eventually get "fired" from every job that they tackle.
Watch the first pull of a giant locomotive; note how it slowly but steadily moves forward, almost by inches at first but gradually increasing, until its mile-long train swiftly disappears in the distance.
Man is a dynamo of pent-up power, but he needs judgment in its use. Even love (John), the "greatest thing in the world," is linked in the twelve-power integration of Jesus with James (judgment). Jesus called these two brothers "Sons of thunder," comparing the effect of their combined power to the tremendous vibrations set up by unrestrained electrical energy. Judgment says to Love, "Look before you leap." Do not let unselfish zeal and enthusiasm for the loved one run away with your judgment. Remember that these two are brothers and that you should sit on the throne of your I AM dominion, with love on the right hand and judgment on the left, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. In these symbols we see portrayed the poise and mastery of regenerated
man, directing and disciplining all his thought-people in wisdom and in love.
Even doctors are beginning to take notice of the emotional contests that take place between love and wisdom in our nervous system. Some of them say that indigestion may be caused by the disturbance that our emotions cause in the delicate nerve aggregations at the solar plexus, and that permanent stomach troubles may result. Metaphysicians have always taught that the contending vibrations or "thunder" between love and wisdom cause not only acute but chronic diseases of stomach and heart.
Heart says, "I love," and Wisdom says, "But you can't have what you love"; contention follows, and night and day the nerves are pounded by the warring emotions.
Love disappointed may lower the vitality to the vanishing point, while some physical disease is blamed.
Innumerable combinations of thoughts and their attendant emotions are constantly sending their vibrations or "thundering" to various parts of the body through the nerve cables that lead out from the many ganglionic centers.
Jesus had two apostles named Simon, but they represent different talents or faculties of man's mind. Simon Peter represents receptivity from above, and Simon the Cananaean represents receptivity from below. Simon means "hearing" and Canaan means "zeal." The Canaanites dwelt in the lowlands, so we know that the faculty designated by Simon the
Cananaean has its origin in the body consciousness.
But the receptivity to, and the zeal for, the truth that were manifested by Simon the Cananaean were lifting him to spiritual consciousness. This is symbolized in Acts 1:13, where it is written, "And when they were come in, they went up into the upper chamber, where they were abiding." Among them is mentioned "Simon the Zealot."
To grow spiritually we should always be careful to exercise our zeal in spiritual ways, since Christians are apt to fall into commercial ways in carrying forward the Lord's work. We should remember that Jesus said, "God is spirit: and they that worship him must worship in spirit and truth." When Jesus cast the money-changers out of the Temple His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for thy house shall eat me up." In this act Jesus was casting the commercial bargaining thoughts out of His body temple. This is explained in the context, John 2:18. The Jews said, "What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up . . . But he spake of the temple of his body."
Whatever takes place in the world about us has its counterpart in some thought process in our body.
Every invention of man is a duplication of some activity in the human body. The explosion of gasoline in an automobile cylinder is copied from the explosion of nerve substance in the cell centers of the body. The nerve fluid is conducted to a nerve
chamber, corresponding to an automobile combustion chamber, where it is electrified and the energy liberated. In the human body spiritual zeal, that is, enthusiasm, electrifies the nerve substance, which breaks forth into energy.
Thoughts build nerve and brain centers that serve as distributors of the vital substance manufactured in the body. The vitamins in the food that we eat are stored up by the body chemistry and liberated in thought and action.
Every thought and emanation of mind liberates some of this stored substance. We, the controlling intelligence, with our conscious mind direct these processes in a manner quite similar to that employed by the driver of an automobile.
An automobile driver should be familiar with the mechanism of his car. But in the great majority of cases the driver knows merely enough to perform a few mechanical motions, and the car does the rest.
So the mass of humans know but little about the delicate mind-and-body interaction. They perform a few necessary superficial acts, call in the doctor when anything goes wrong, and in the end dump the old "boat" at the junk pile.
Extraordinary zeal in the accomplishment of some ideal develops what is called genius. Jesus of Nazareth was undoubtedly the greatest genius that this earth has ever developed. He is not usually named among the geniuses of the earth, because He was a genius of such transcendental character that He is classed with the gods. He did manifest the mind of
God as no other has ever done, yet He was a man, and herein lies His genius:
In His humanity He developed extraordinary ability in spiritual wisdom, love, and power. There have been men who have told us about God, but none who have demonstrated the wisdom and power of God as Jesus did. His zeal in doing the will of God made Him a spiritual genius in human form.
Like others who manifest original genius, Jesus got His genius from within. He was not known to have been taught in the theological schools of His day, yet He exhibited a mental acumen and understanding of religion that astonished His associates. They exclaimed in effect, "Where did this man get wisdom, never having studied."
Genius is the accumulated zeal of the individual in some chosen field of life action. The idea that God has arbitrarily endowed some persons with abilities superior to others is not good logic, and makes God a partisan. God has no favorites, notwithstanding the fact that the Scriptures sometimes so interpret Him. "God is no respecter of persons." "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," is the ideal or spiritual man, the Messiah, the Christ man, who is the pattern given to every man to follow.
However, we see on every hand evidences of pronounced diversity in human character, and, looking at life superficially, we think that God has given advantages in mind, body, and affairs to some men that He has not given to others.
But what we see with the eye of flesh is only the physical manifestation of man. Spirit and mind must be taken into consideration and become factors in our reasoning before we can know a man and properly estimate the whole man.
The body represents but one third of man's being. Man is spirit, soul, and body. The spirit is that in man which says I AM, and has existed from eternity. Spirit is potential man--soul is demonstrated man. Soul is man's memory, conscious and subconscious. We have carried along in our subconscious mind the memory of every experience that we have had since we began to think and act for ourselves. The soul is the mind, and the mind is the man.
The race to which we belong on this planet began thinking and acting in self-consciousness many millions of years ago. God alone knows the exact age of every man. Jesus said, "The very hairs of your head are all numbered."
Every experience, every achievement, every failure, and every success is remembered and stored up in the subconscious mind. A new soul is not created with every physical birth. A physical birth simply means that a soul is taking on another body. Every man inhabiting this earth and the psychic realms immediately surrounding it has gone through this process of dying and being reincarnated many times. You who read these lines have had experience as a thinking, free-acting soul for millions of years, instead of the score or three score that mortal man usually counts. Emerson said, "Be not deceived by
dimples and curls; that child is a thousand years old."
Then the question arises, "Do we always get the fruit of our earthly acts in some future earthly life?" Certainly, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Here in this earth is the place of harvest. When a man relinquishes his hold on brain and nervous system, he gives up the only avenue through which he can adequately express himself.
So death is the great enemy to be overcome, as taught in Scripture. Death came into the world through Adamic ignorance, and it must go out through Christ understanding.
Genius is the breaking forth of the accumulated achievements of a man in that field of activity for which he has been very zealous in many incarnations. Mozart at the age of four played the organ without instruction. Where did he get such marvelous musical ability? A history of his soul would show that he had cultivated music for ages, carrying from one incarnation to another his zeal for the harmony of sound, until he became the very soul of music.
The genius of Shakespeare was the accumulated experience of a man who had been poet and philosopher since the "morning stars sang together."
Let no man think that he can retire from living. Do not shirk the responsibilities of life. You have made them and you can unmake them. A way of escape has been provided for every one of us. That way is to overcome mistakes by incorporating into mind and heart the attributes of the Christ Mind.
"Travail until Christ be formed in you."
Simon the Zealot has his center or throne of dominion in the body at the base of the brain, named by physiology the medulla oblongata.
Let us think of man as a king having twelve sons or princes, who execute his will. Each of these princes has a throne, or brain and nerve center, from which he issues his orders and distributes his goods.
Jesus illustrated this in Matthew 19:28: "Verily I say unto you, that ye who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel."
Simon the Zealot from his throne at the medulla imparts especial energy to the ears, eyes, nose, mouth, and sensory nervous system. When man enters into the understanding of his dominion, power, and directive ability in Christ, he educates his disciples, or sons, and shows them how to execute the law established in divine principle for man.
We all are kings in Christ. But with Him we must realize that "my kingdom is not of this world." Our dominion is over our own thoughts, emotions, and passions.
Our disciples will do what we tell them and continue to do it after they have been sufficiently instructed and assisted in the use of the Word.
Remember that mind rules in both the within and the without, the visible and the invisible, the high and the low.
To help Simon the Zealot do his work, center
your attention for a moment at the base of your brain and quietly affirm that infinite energy and intelligence are pouring forth in zeal--enthusiasm. Then follow in imagination a set of motor nerves that lead out from the medulla to the eyes, affirming all the time the presence and power of energy and intelligence now manifesting in your eyes.
For the ears affirm energy and intelligence, adding, "Be you open."
For the nose affirm energy and intelligence, adding, "The purity of Spirit infolds you."
For the mouth carry the life current to the root of the tongue, with the thought of freedom.
At the root of the tongue is situated the throne of another disciple, Philip. When you carry the zeal current from its medulla center and connect it with the throne of Philip, a mighty vibration is set up that affects the whole sympathetic nervous system. In this treatment you will strengthen your voice, revitalize your teeth, and indirectly impart energy to your digestion.
It was at Cana of Galilee, the nerve center in the throat, that Jesus turned water into wine. Metaphysically this miracle is accomplished when we in spirit realize that the union (wedding) of the fluid life of the body with the spiritual life at this power center makes a new element, symbolized by wine.
When the chemistry of the body and the dynamics of the mind are united, a third element is brought forth, and man feels that, "in Christ, he is a new creature."