Not By Bread Alone
Although the human spirit is eternal and cannot be killed or harmed by anything or anyone, our souls can at times be so suppressed and unloved that they almost perish. It is not for nothing that the Jesus legend in St. Matthew 4:1-4 and St. Luke 4:1-4 both contain the identical warning – maybe for special emphasis: ‘Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and the Spirit carried him away into the wilderness for forty days, so that he might be tempted by the adversary. He did not eat anything in those days. When they were over, at last he became hungry. And the adversary said to him: ‘If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread.’ Jesus answered: ‘It is not by bread alone that man can live, but by every word of God.’
The above words belong to a dialogue between Jesus and Satan, also known as the Tempter or the Devil. I see the legend of the whole life and times of the Master Jesus as a metaphor for humankind’s spirit self during its many sojourns through the wilderness of the Earth plane. Satan is a symbolism for the untamed desire nature of the earthly self, psychology calls this part ‘the id’. This part of our nature seeks to dominate at all costs and is in never ending pursuit of gratifying its own selfish wants.
The evolutionary pathway of our whole race demands from us, individually and collectively, complete mastery of the Earth plane. To achieve this, it is of the greatest importance that we become familiar with all parts of our nature, so that we can take charge of them and learn how to master and control them. This applies in particular to the desires and impulses of our lower earthly self – a formidable task if ever there was one. To get started, it’s crucial to become aware that we all contain a force that at times is quite capable of behaving like a wild creature on the loose, reacting to the slightest irritations by biting, kicking and thrashing in all directions.
Getting hold of and training this part of our nature is up to us, until in the end it turns into a docile work and saddle creature who willingly toils for us instead of against, the way it frequently did in the past. For as long as this force remains uncontrolled and left to its own devices it all too happily goes on the rampage and manages to create havoc for us in our lives. Each has to teach their own inner beast how to act like an amenable and enjoyable companion, so that it can eventually carry us – and our whole world with us – forwards and upwards into experiencing increasingly higher dimensions of life.
To return to Jesus and the wilderness, just for a moment, what about the number forty? The ancients considered figure to be a sacred one. This is how it found its way into some of the legends of our world, for example the ones of the Lord Buddha and the Master Jesus. The former, so we are told, meditated for forty days and nights and the latter spent the same amount of time in the wilderness.
Both the above quotes draw our attention to the fact, for extra emphasis twice over, to the most urgent factors for the survival of the human spirit and its soul during life in physicality. More important than anything else for the survival of the rigours and hardships that are an inevitable part of the winters of our earthly education is keeping in touch with our true home and our Creator, our Highest Self. To see us through the traumatic experiences that have to be endured, we are meant to draw on its support and strength. As through disuse any muscle, spiritual and physical alike, atrophies and loses its usefulness, clearly bread of the heavenly kind is of even greater significance than the earthly variety during our sojourns on this planet.
If we focus too much on the material plane and eventually get stuck there, our soul is in danger of dying from mal-nutrition. Souls can and do perish when their requirements are neglected for too long and they are denied access to the nourishment it draws from spiritual wisdom and truths that come from the source of our being. It makes no difference in what this may present itself or whatever belief system someone may follow. Any spirit whose soul has died, from its next lifetime onwards, has no option but to start from scratch and set about building itself a new soul.
The awareness that our thoughts and beliefs create our reality is useful here. Bearing in mind that even the worst offender has as much good in them as the greatest saint, it’s not hard to believe in them and their potential goodness. By never giving up hope that one day it will begin to surface and show, it is possible to help those who reveal their need for it through their behaviour. Let’s face it, the best relationships, i.e. the ones that help us grow in wisdom, tolerance and understanding of human nature, are by no means the ones that bring us together with people who already realise the importance of watching their words and actions carefully.
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The above is a chapter from ‘Astrology As A Lifehelp In Relationship Healing’.
If it has whetted your appetite to read more, please follow the link below:
‘Astrology As A Lifehelp In Relationship Healing’
