Martinus: Livets Bog, vol. 5, sect. 1750

1750. The new sympathetic faculties, when developed so as to be in their pure form and to give rise to the associated cosmic clear-sightedness in the being, eliminate the entire purely marital talent from this being's consciousness. Such a being is actually "married" to nothing less than the whole of mankind. This in turn means that it is so sympathetically connected to all its fellow beings and other living beings that it would have pangs of conscience if it favoured or loved any beings at the expense of others. All living beings, with human beings in the lead and described collectively by the term "neighbour", are the new object of these beings' love. This object is in turn felt by those who are most advanced as a collected manifestation of life, as an indication of the invisible I of an almighty living being. This I, in conjunction with the above-mentioned manifestation of life, is in turn the very highest feeling of the source of the universe, the almighty Godhead, the eternal Father to whom one turns in all situations in one's living day-conscious experience and addresses and invokes by means of the phrase "Thou who art in heaven". It is this, the living being's evolution as a son of God, that is described in the story of the "prodigal son". His return to his father is the same as the individual's experience of "cosmic consciousness" and the ensuing waking day-conscious experience of, and union with, the Godhead. It is the same evolution as a son of God that is indicated in the description of the victory that the "seed of the woman", according to the Bible, should give rise to by "bruising the head of the serpent", which in turn means bruising the "animal" or selfish, and thereby neighbourly hostile, nature in one's own being. It is this annihilation of the "head of the serpent" or the "animal" principle that constitutes the gentle "seed of Abraham in which all the families of the earth shall be blessed". The "bruising of the serpent's head" is thus not a brutal process of violence or war. It is a peaceful process based on the neighbourly loving words that Abraham said to Lot: "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and your herdsmen; for we are brethren. Is not the whole land before you? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me. If thou will take the left hand, then I will go to the right, or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." It is the completion of this process – being able to "bruise the head of the serpent" with love – that is the fulfilment of the Godhead's great mission and will: "Let us make man in our image after our likeness." Is there any being that is or can be more in "God's image" than the human being that is liberated from all its selfish natures, its natures that are hostile towards other living beings and life-threatening for them? Does not such a being emanate light in all directions? Is it not such a being that is "one with the Father" and that constitutes "the way, the truth and the life"?