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Chapter 9 - The relationship of the columns to each other.The four columns make up a symmetrical structure. The two outer columns deal primarily with spiritual awareness and unfolding ideas, while their adjacent inner columns represent the respective manifested phenomena. The first column, for example, deals with man's awareness of himself as a spiritual idea of God. Here the focus is on the innermost concerns of individual being. This unfolding spiritual perception of oneself, then, must reflect itself in the adjacent inner column in individual actions towards society and the world. The flow between the columns that we see here is from the outside towards the center of the structure. This flow towards the center is well echoed in the function of the rivers. The outer column on the left side relates to "the love of the good and beautiful, and their immortality." This unfolding spiritual love (universal love) must reflect itself in "the rights of woman acknowledged morally, civilly, and socially." The resulting universal acknowledgement of mankind as spiritual idea comes to light metaphorically as the woman of the Apocalypse, clothed with the Sun. That's an appropriate reflection for such a profound reality, isn't it? The fourth column, as an outer column, is similar in nature to the first column, except its focus is not on individual spiritual perception, as in the first column. Instead it is focused on the essential nature of God,- on what God must necessarily recognize about Himself and His image in man and the divine reflection in spiritual ideas. The fourth column represents God's awareness of himself as Truth, Life, and Love, Principle, Soul, Mind, and Spirit. It represents God's awareness of reality, for God is reality. This awareness, in turn, finds its manifest in the adjacent inner column, the third column, where the focus is on healing the human scene in order to reflect the divine reality. That's how God must necessarily see 'Himself' or eternal Truth, as a universally uplifting, enriching, healing impetus. The adjacent inner column therefore deals with the divine image reflected in man and in countless individual expressions, but as seen from the standpoint of God, or Truth. What else can God see reflected in man, but "Divine Science understood and acknowledged?" It's as natural as the rain in Spring. Healing becomes a process in which mankind comes to represent consciously and understandingly God's essential perception of His nature and being expressed in the universe, including man. Healing therefore isn't a curative process, but an acknowledging process. It a scientific process of acknowledging the quality of God as "supreme." Thus, the flow from the right side of the pedagogical structure is once again from the outer side of the structure, from the "infinite," towards the center of it, towards its manifest, the manifest of God as "supreme." When Christ Jesus was struggling in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was yielding to what God saw in himself and reflected in man, the truth, the "supreme." With that the victory was assured which divine Mind has held forever as complete with a reflection that is inevitable. This flow towards the center reflects itself likewise in the defined function of the rivers. We find "Divine Science encompassing the universe and man..." from Euphrates in the fourth column, reflected as "Divine Science understood and acknowledged," in the third column. This is what God must perceive of His nature being reflected in man. Understanding and acknowledgement isn't some utopia to reach for. It is the reality of the divine idea held in Mind and reflected in man. It unfolds forever in Divine Science as an established reality. It exists, whether we close our eyes to it or not. Apparently the 'flow' between the columns has been be set up by Mary Baker Eddy to always proceed from the outer columns, the unmanifest, which deal with the divine nature, towards the inner columns, the manifest, which deal with the corresponding (necessary) manifestation of reality. In so doing, Mary Baker Eddy draws the focus to the center, which has not been defined as yet. Or has it? || - page index - || - chapter index - || - Exit - ||
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