(NUMINOSITY AND UNITY)[17th April 1987]

[Redbook3:202-204][19870417:1845](NUMINOSITY AND UNITY)[17th April 1987]

19870417.1845

Over the last six days or so I have been reading C.H. Dodd's 'The Authority of the Bible'*. He explains the term “numinous” in terms suggestive of the transcendence** rather than the immanence of God. I am struck by the fact that I have not (so far as I remember) mentioned it in my account of personal development. I think that the reason is that as an experience, the experience of the Numinous happened (and happens) very frequently, at various levels of refinement. It may well be that it is an essential “opener” of the mind to the possibility of the Other, including God. I doubt, however, whether it defines God as specifically as does the Sense of Underlying Unity*** – at least by implication –which tends to come (in my experience) long after the first experience of the Numinous.

I would hazard a guess that the experience of the Numinous represents perception of a quality of God in terms of the Separation****: often attaching itself to specific items such as Mountains, Storms, Rituals, Music (I accidentally switched on# to the last 25 minutes of the 1981(?) Bayreuth 'Parsifal') and even ideas of a very specific nature, and tending to produce physical as well as mental effects (e.g. skin-tingling); whereas the experience of the Sense of Underlying Unity represents perception of a quality of God #*in the Separation but in terms of the Unity of God#**. If this is correct, the second (i.e. immanent#***) experience could be expected to come later than the first,#**** as a further step in preparing the Individual for the Circles.

The sense of the Numinous reveals the Other but does not define it further: proceeding no further, one might well lead oneself into an interest in (for example) animism, worship of (spirits in) the items giving rise to the sense (e.g. Mountains##), or witchcraft: in other words one might continue to 'worship' the Numinous within the Separation, which is why such a sense could rise to evil cults (Evil being defined, in [2], as a degree of separation from God##* (not just any degree, I think)). The Sense of Underlying Unity points one firmly in the direction of the Unity and Go(o)dness of God; it is difficult to conceive of it as having any quality of Evil about it (which is certainly not the case with the sense of the Numinous).

*[C.H. Dodd, 'The Authority of the Bible' (1928)]

**{(e.g. [[Redbook3:215-216][19870430:2210](ANOTHER RELAPSE [continued])[25th April 1987]]p.216)}

***([[Redbook3:129][19870405:1057m](BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE{1}[continued(13)])[5th April 1987](f?)]p.129.)

{[[Redbook3:59][19870329:1210h](DEVELOPMENT [continued(5)])[29^th March 1987]](p.59)}

****[i.e.] Transcendence. <[87]0418>

#(i.e.[the radio,] just before writing this.) <[87]0418[?]>

#*{^?}

#**[i.e.] Immanence. <[87]0418>

#***[(inserted)] <[87]0418>

#****(!)

##{(& Mountaineering – 'because its there'?)}

##*cf.VI.

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