Providence

Workshop 42

The purpose of reasoning is to produce manifestations. Manifestations, for the purposes of Integral Panendeism, are generically described as energy patterns. These energy patterns form as the temporal force (consciousness) of the Proleptic Urge interacts with a corresponding level of eternal power (essence) associated with the Unmoved Mover. The first manifestation has a very small amount of essence to work with but the entire span of the Primary Matrix for consciousness to cover. As the Proleptic Urge evolves towards Omega the amount of available essence increases while the span consciousness must cover decreases. It decreases because it no longer has to cover the expanse of the Primary Matrix, just the level of manifestation that has stabilized before it.

This may be hard to visualize so let me give you an example. A circus performer has an act where he attempts to reach a platform high overhead. He places a box on the ground and then opens the box to reveal a slightly smaller box inside which he carries up with him, after closing the previous box. After scaling the first box, he centers the next box on top of the larger box. He then opens that box to reveal a slightly smaller box for which he repeats the process until he is standing on the smallest of such boxes which allows him to access the platform. In this same pattern consciousness builds upon its predecessor without having to cover the whole of the Primary Matrix, which would be the floor the boxes rest on. For this reason, the Primary Matrix is often referred to as “the Ground of All Being”.

Any manifestation produces providence. Providence is a spiritual locality of influence (think “spiritual gravity””) created by any Propleptic Urge with relational qualities of span and depth tempered by Symmetry. Span is force and depth is power. In more traditional terminology, force is deterministic while power is free will. As the Proleptic Urge spirals towards Omega as unfolding waves of consciousness, it gains access to increasing depths of essence of the Unmoved Mover. This increased depth of power then is able to increase the complexities of the previous manifest structures. This interplay continually repeats itself much the same as waves breaking on the beach as the tide moves in, each time moving a little further inland.

A providence forms with a relatively stable manifestation. A providence whose force is greater than its power is said to be more fundamental. The basic structure of such a providence appears to change little if any and needs to be so if it is to sustain further manifestations. While it may appear as though it was always a determined manifestation it was not always necessarily so. At one point the prehensive reasoning of pre-consciousness and gross essence had to settle into a stable manifestation reacting to the tugs and pulls of the Symmetry. To recap, a wave of consciousness interacts with a parameter of being which then searches for an equilibrium influenced by the Symmetry producing a fairly stable manifestation of Reason. It may have occurred in fractions of a second or over eons of time, but such processes did and do occur at every level of development. Each successful (stable) manifestation then sets the stage for all further (possibly deeper) manifestations.

A providence whose power is greater than its force is said to be more divine. As the Proleptic Urge spirals towards Omega and away from Alpha, the eternal essences of the Unmoved Mover gain as the span of the necessary temporal manifestations decrease. Near Omega, the depth of the divine is as large as the Primary Matrix is at Alpha. Likewise, the amount of necessary manifestation to know this level is as small near Omega as The Unmoved Mover was at Alpha. Such a manifestation may exist as nothing more than a particular thought wave emanating from a more fundamental manifestation, such as a human brain. Needless to say, such a providence is very rare because the energy pattern that needs to be sustained to reach such heights gets more and more difficult to maintain. If we refer back to our circus performer, it would be analogous to the climber (the Proleptic Urge) attempting to maintain his balance as the size and structure makes the manifestation more unwieldy. If each of the preceding structures were not well balanced, then maintaining the integrity of the overall structure becomes more difficult as the climber must make constant adjustments to keep the whole thing from toppling over.