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Unity Church of Today SHARING THOUGHTS |
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"BE the change you wish to see in the world." Ghandi
THE PRAYER FOR PROTECTION The
Light of God surrounds me. The
Love of God enfolds me. The
Presence of God watches over me. The
Mind of God guides me. The
Life of God flows through me. The
Laws of God direct me. The
Power of God abides within me. The
Joy of God uplifts me. The
Strength of God renews me. The
Beauty of God inspires me. Wherever
I am, God is! This
full version, written by James Dillet Freeman, was contributed by Louise
Kelly
Article from Unity
Magazine: Dear
E.R.: Unity cofounder Charles
Fillmore decided on the symbol because he felt the winged globe represents
the divine spirit uplifting the whole world.
He saw the winged globe as an ancient symbol with great spiritual
significance, and of course, Mr. Fillmore was correct.
However, the actual Egyptian symbol on which Unity’s traditional
flying sphere is based was not a winged globe at all.
After all, the ancients almost unanimously believed the Earth was
flat. A brief study of
Egyptology shows that the figures from which the Unity symbol is drawn
were found in two forms. I
have seen both in carvings transplanted from the sands of Egypt to the
Louvre museum in Paris. First,
you often find the round portion has two antennae, insect feelers, if you
will. This is not a celestial
object at all but a mythological insect to represent the soul, called the
winged Ba. An Egyptology
website describes: “The Ba is what we might call someone’s
personality. It would leave
the body at the time of death” The
other form, without the feelers, is generally used by Unity; this also is
not the winged globe but a winged solar disk.
In actual Egyptian carvings, the symbol is often shown with coiled
cobras flanking the circular center.
This is a form that the god Horus
Behuderty (Horus of Edfu) takes in his battles with Seth.
The god Thoth used his magic to turn Horus into a sun-disk with
splendid outstretched wings. The
goddesses Nekhbet and Uazet in the form of uracus snakes (cobras) joined
him at his side.
However, the idea of a soul taking
flight to higher realms is certainly in harmony with both Unity’s
theology and the spirit of the Egyptian lore, even if the “immortal
souls” in the ancient world were thought to be limited to the wealthy
and powerful. Today we know
the wings of Spirit spread across not just this world, but all the worlds
in God’s great cosmos, wherever sentient beings may be contemplating
their religious symbols, as we did in the ancient world and continue to do
so today.
Thomas Shepherd |
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