The Future is Now

“At the heart of every being lies creation’s dream of a principle that will one day give organic form to its fragmented treasures. God is unity” (Teilhard de Chardin).

In ancient Roman religion and myth, Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, and doorways. Representing the middle ground between both concrete and abstract dualities, such as life/death, past/future, beginning/end, or eternity/time, Janus is depicted with two faces, one facing one aspect of an apparent duality (i.e., the past) and one facing the other apparent duality (i.e., the future.) The month of January is named after him, a transition month that looks both ways, toward the previous year, and new year ahead.

Author Joseph Campbell, who studied ancient mythologies and comparative religion, understood mythology as a function of biology, and the energies that inform the body. According to Campbell, they are the same energies that inform life, and are usually in conflict with each other. That is, myths represent the many aspects of this conflict – meeting in conflict, resolving of conflict, and harmonizing conflict. So that the gods are personifications of the energies that inform life – the very energies that are building the trees, moving the animals, and waves on the ocean – and that inform and unfold all human growth and development. Thus, in Campbell’s view, the various energies that are in our bodies are personified by the gods and are alive and well in everybody’s life. So that deities are personifications of those energies, not facts, metaphors not concrete realities, windows transparent to transcendent (eternal) realities that lie beyond themselves accessible in consciousness via liminal space.

In the ancient Greek and Roman world, and modern western culture, discursive thought or dualistic thinking (separation consciousness) make most things appear contrary or divided, such as the separation between good/evil, light/darkness, matter/spirit, science/religion and other unreconciled polarities. These unreconciled polarities or opposites only appear binary to ordinary human perception. But they can be seen as they really exist in reconciled unity dwelling in liminal space (the kingdom of heaven on earth), and only via unitive consciousness. This kind of seeing converts “evil eye” perception to “single eye” (third eye) perception activated by a spiritual awakening that corrects the illusion of their duality (Matt. 6:22). The conversion to single eye seeing is radical and abrupt, like the difference between viewing a 3-D movie without the special lenses, to viewing the same movie after the lenses are worn, when everything on the screen now appears with vibrant depth and dimension. Such is unitive consciousness, often known as stereoscopic perception.

Spirituality is all about seeing, inclusivity, and reconciling apparent opposites via the “narrow way.” This is the strait gate/kingdom life that the gospels refer to, and that the spiritual Janus (Jesus) holds the keys to.

Contemplatives by nature are folk who regularly inhabit liminal space. As many of you know, the word liminal is derived from the Latin limen, meaning “threshold.” Characteristic of the Christ mind, or Christ consciousness, liminal space refers to that transitional space/place that occupies a position, Janus/Jesus-like, at both sides of a boundary, as between the visible and invisible worlds. It’s found by discovering the still-point, or middle path that reconciles their tensions; a path (inner locus) only the regenerated can experience firsthand and share. The result? True stereoscopic vision, which, much like binocular human vision, coordinates the 3-D (space-time) and 4-D (eternal) dimensions into one, rendering then seamlessly co-present to one another in clarity of perspective, spiritual discernment, futuristic vision, and/or nuptial bliss.

Truth be told, liminal space (and liminal or Christ consciousness), is the ONLY place where apparent contraries can be reconciled EVERY time, bar none.

A “tweener” suspended between two worlds, the soul (often hyphenated as spirit-soul) is to the spirit and body what the seashore is to land and water, a distinctive interface unto itself, or hybrid. As a living expression of both water and land, the shore is a place that celebrates their joyful union. Having its own ecology, it’s that renewing locale where swimmers playfully immerse, children build sandcastles, feet frolic barefoot in the sand, and amusement parks are built. Likewise, the spiritually awakened soul becomes aware of itself as a sanctuary (or temple) fashioned by the ongoing marriage of body and spirit. Such is why Scripture employs nuptial terms in reference to those who experience this mystical union, calling them the “bride of Christ.” There’s an intimacy implied by the metaphor, groom seeking (leaning into) bride, each becoming seamlessly co-present to the other in mystical union/communion, together “pregnant” with generativity and creativity of all kinds.

In terms of physics, we now know that everything and everyone consists of slowed-down light and sound waves that can be transformed into one another via the constant of light. Genesis 1 implies as much (“Let there be Light”) backed-up by Big Bang notions of creation, and modern science. In the communications world, this is what fiber optics are about. Their parallel in the created order reveals that everything is connected (entangled) with everything else via a field of universal sound and light waves.

In neurobiological terms, there’s a network of ganglia spread across the top of the neocortex (gray matter), ironically like a crown of thorns. Along with claustrum neurons, these ganglia act much like antennae, allowing the brain to upload and download information directly to and from subcortical and cortical structures and cosmic electromagnetic fields of light, acting much like the Internet. Christ is that cosmic light, or “Light of the World,” organically encompassing (incarnating) everything at every scale of creation, and in every conceivable way – animal, mineral, vegetable, and human, and on planes intellectual, physical, and/or spiritual. As above, so below, on earth as it is in heaven. There is only one power, but many apps. Such a cosmic awareness led Teilhard de Chardin to conclude that the entire population of the earth, past, present, and future, consists essentially of only ONE person, Christ, another name for everything who appears in countless forms and guises. Teilhard might have added .  .  . “and who exists in only ONE tense, the ‘eternal now’ (I AM) everywhere co-present in the field of space-time appearing in sequential or evolutionary fashion. At the last, all masks will be off, revealing only Christ Omega as divine producer, director, and actor played out on a tragi-comic, holographic global stage, broadcast from a pre-existent liminal studio.

“I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I, the Lord, do all these things” (Isa. 45:6,7).

Centuries later, Shakespeare, would validate same in his plays, and true to the bard, with numerous liminal insights.

There is no future tense in liminal space (the kingdom), and no such thing as time, only the “eternal now.” Hence, divinity/evolution only appear to come from the future, manifesting in space-time as evolved (enlightened) innovations, inventions, perspectives, and forms — in their day and “time.” To illustrate, the harvest already exists in the seed, as a motion picture already exists on a reel, ready to unfold and reveal its pre-existent contents in sequential frames. The end and beginning, Alpha and Omega, already exist in the seed, and in the movie’s scripted “DNA.” Likewise, all information, invention, innovation, creativity, and evolutionary fulfillments once realized, or to be realized in human consciousness and/or form, already reside in the Universal Mind of God. More accurately, they exist suspended in liminal space as packets of stored information ripe for “harvesting,” at the ready to reveal their contents. Liminality awaits like-minded humans attuned and receptive to the higher resonant frequency vibes available for downloading. The same light that fires up the equations of physicists, kindles the inspirational flame in all great artists, leaders, poets, innovators, scientists, mystics, inventors, and lovers of mankind — past, present, and future. For again, there is no time (tense) in the liminal world, just as there is no aging, infirmity, death, or limitations of any kind.

Jesus was divinity incarnate. Incarnate means the pre-existent Word of God was embodied in him dwelling in space-time from discarnate (liminal) space that he oft referred to as “the kingdom of heaven,” an intermediate locale in but not of “this world.” He presented as the Son of God in close personal union with his Father whose words he spoke when preaching and teaching. Likewise, in him we can only effectively speak, act, and spend in good works what we have earned and gleaned in contemplation from liminal (discarnate) space. Such is how, to those liminally attuned to the (pre-existent) foreknowledge of God, the future can be, and is, now.

Eye has not seen, nor ear heard all that liminality has to offer – in real time, right now!

This the means and method whereby divinity leans into us from the future, inviting perspectives today from what lies ahead in novel ideas, thoughts, and forms that already exist unrealized, awaiting their material realization in the space-time interface, as a movie might on the silver screen. Like freshly baked bread, or brewed coffee, divinity always creatively refreshes itself as the newest thing. So inspired, and with a foot in both worlds, believers are light beings (avatars) and light workers given cosmic gifts, tasks, and visions to further evolve the species and world, mainly via tuning-in and listening. Good (God) things come to those who first listen, then speak, write, or act. Those so disposed, declared Jesus, would do even greater things that he in the power of his Spirit.

The eco-spirituality of Teilhard (synthesis) and Thomas Berry (the New Universe Story) envision a new science of humanity based on the physics of Spirit, one reconciling empirical and religious views of the cosmos, enlarging Christ to cosmic (organic) proportions. Teilhard often spoke of a “greater Christ” and “a better Christianity,” having once asked a colleague, “Can you tell me who at last can give us the meta-Christianity we are all waiting for?” Being rhetorical, the question went unanswered. And some seven decades after his passing, remains unanswered still. What are we waiting for? The time is at hand, and the future embeds in it awaiting discovery. It’s high time for a comprehensive, liminally inspired post-modern cosmotheology.

This mythical cosmology and its corollaries already exist in liminal space, low-hanging fruit ripe for the universal picking, ingestion, and metabolizing. All that’s needed are liminal laborers. And the single most important ability required to do so is – avail-ability. Ability wise, what was sufficient for a few unheralded fishermen millennia ago, is also sufficient for us.

Of note, Jesus-like, the mythical god of transitions, Janus, is also portrayed as holding a key in his right hand that creates openings between boundaries into safe harbors beyond confusing and conflicting opposites, the gateway to unitive consciousness where all things are One. So much for ancient mythologies, and their transcendental (liminal) referents in the field of space-time.

“Very truly, I tell you. I am the gate for the sheep” (John 10:7).

Come join me in discovering this vast storehouse of liminal treasures and unitive perspectives in ways ancient Greek, Roman, and western cultures and their metaphoric (false) “gods,” each one a projected split or division within the human psyche, could only dream of realizing in consciousness. Are you ready?

Plug in your inner modem and router (ganglia and claustrum neurons), where spirit-soul and brain meet, tune-in to the higher liminal frequencies, and come follow me, at .  .  . joemasterleo.com

Blessed new year, everyone.

Joe Masterleo