Past, Present and Future in Relation to Man

Meditation: Fifth prayer of the rosary, Glory Be. “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.” Amen

Man’s consciousness spans past, present and future in his life of body, soul and spirit. Our consciousness is not physical & therefore not subject to spatial limitations. Time travel pertaining to consciousness is not science fiction, but something that happens regularly. The very first impulse experienced by any of our greatest minds on a certain topic is an impulse from the future. These are the seeds which push humanity along its evolutionary process. Conversely, when individuals refuse to acknowledge the prompting of their soul life and advances of the spirit, we say they are “living in the past”. When our consciousness is attuned to our current experiences & energetic interchanges, we are “present”. Let’s take a closer look at our threefold experience as it relates to time.

In our bodily nature, we are the result of actions, decisions and experiences of previous lives. The DNA from our family gives us certain characteristics that are the result of their lives. Our consciousness has to work with the bodily makeup that has been organized for us. Our strengths, weaknessses, likes and dislikes live in these bodies from the beginning of our current incarnation. The things we do, say and feel are echoes crying out from past experiences. As far as we allow our consciousness to be bound by these bodily sheaths we are destined to live according to the past and its ensuing karma. That doesn’t mean our bodily nature is bad - we all have inherent gifts that have been passed on to us. It only becomes a hindrance when they limit our natural and healthy development.

Our soul life consists of the ever-changing experiences we have with out current environment. As we go about our lives we come into contact with countless sense impressions whether they be individuals, thought currents, images, locations, etc. Each time we interact with something outside of ourselves we allow a transaction to take place between our bodily nature and the world around us. These transactions create new impulses and connections not previously existing. The thinner the boundaries are between our existing bodily nature and the world around us, the more “present” we become and the more fluid our nature is as an organism. It is through these interchanges that we learn, better ourselves and begin to change the past and present as well as opening up channels to the future.

Our life of spirit is that which we aspire to in The Great Work. The world of Spirit is also known as the mental world. The impulses that compose it are made of the same material as thoughts. Thoughts we have not interacted with yet, archetypal in nature. Its content is that which exists outside of our sense interactions and experiences. When we interact with spirit, we are interacting with the future. The more “open” we are, the more the Spirit is able to reach our consciousness and use us as conduits. Our soul activity builds the bridge from the body to the Spirit.

The Holy Trinity gives us a macrocosmic perspective of the relaitionship between past, present and future. The Father - the foundation of the universe - could be symbolized by a point. The Son - the force or word of God active in creation - forms a line emanating from the first point, ending in a second point. The Holy Spirit is a third point which creates a path back to the first point, thereby completing a circuit. The prayer at the outset connects the Trinity with the threefold nature of time - past, present and future. We, as a microcosm only form a circuit when we are reconnected with the Spirit, through the workings of the soul, on the foundation of the body.

This “work” necessitates our involvement with the world around us because our lives are experiential in nature. Although we may feel comfortable with our present condition and worldview, how do we know what we don’t know? As the great author Mark Twain said: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”