Whisperings Out of the Dust....

I have a series planned in my head on the carnal/natural/spiritual man. A comparison of...pondering about....musing over. I've read some stuff, saved some stuff, thought about some stuff. Eventually it may come to fruition.

Hmmmmm....a series planned. Whenever I talk about writing "a series" the term hoity-toity comes to mind. Seriously and truthfully, I have an unknown number of series popping around in my head at any given time. I've devised a way to keep track of them....a somewhat meticulous, detailed multi-step process in keeping with those anal retentive tendencies I seem to have.

But, more often than not, deciding what to write about on any given day is a process akin to picking the winning numbers in the lottery. Whatever ball (idea) I happen to grab is what I write about.

So anyway...I think Preston Eby nails it as far as a Biblical description of the carnal man.....or as Eckhart would refer to it...the egoic mind. The following excerpt from Eby's The Heavens Declare Series...Number 18:

In Genesis 3: 1 we read, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" The word serpent in our language comes from the Latin "serpo" meaning "to creep," but the Hebrew term has no relation to the form or motion of any external attribute of a serpent The word used here for serpent is the Hebrew word NACHASH which is a primitive root meaning "to hiss or whisper." It, furthermore, means "to search or scrutinize closely, to find out by experiment, to practice divination, augury, incantation or enchantment." According to Webster incantation means "the chanting of special words or a formula in magic spells or rites," Incantation may speak in addition of hypnotism. The Serpent, then, is a HISSER, a WHISPERER, a DIVINER, an EXPERIMENTER, an ENCHANTER, a MAGICIAN, and a HYPNOTIST! And, I might add, so is the carnal mind!

The old adage, If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it probably IS a duck fits here. To my way of thinking

carnal mind = egoic mind

Same as, either or. Many of the things Tolle points out about the ego and its tricky ways are mirrored in Eby's studies. I like the way Eby brings out the nuances of the words in the original languages of scripture. Layer upon layer of truth has been buried in the Bible. Those who take it literally miss the whole point!!! Whether they be atheists who use the literal interpretation to "disprove" the Bible's authenticity or fundamentalists who defend its inerrancy to the point of downright silliness...they are both great examples of the egoic/carnal mind at work.

So anyway, he goes on to say:

In Isaiah 8: 19 the Holy Spirit has recorded for our learning a most significant exhortation. "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? For the living to the dead?" The same inspired prophet penned a prophecy concerning Jerusalem under the prophetic term "Ariel," saying, "Thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be. . . out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust" (Isa. 29: 4). Here we read of spirits that "peep and mutter," which speak "out of the ground" and "whisper out of the dust." Is this not reminiscent of the Serpent in Eden, the hisser and whisperer, calling to Eve and speaking hypnotically from the dust realm?

Whisperings out of the dust — there is something sinister in the thought, but beyond the evil that is suggested, there is also the thought of subtle suggestion — a whispered temptation — something so subtle one could wonder from whence it comes, a word so low and so whispered as to be almost imperceptible —or is it a thought, a desire, a command from an inner nature These whisperings ARISE FROM THE DUST OF THE CARNAL MIND, OUT OF THE GROUND OF THE ADAM NATURE where lies the Serpent! It is significant to note that "the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made" (Gen. 3: 1). The contrast is drawn between theGarden and the field Adam lived and walked in the Garden, and his responsibility was to "dress and keep it." Garden is from the Hebrew GAN, meaning a fenced or protected area. It was, furthermore, cultivated and tended. Field is from the Hebrew SADEH, indicating that which is spread out; flat land; wild farm or wilderness. The field where the Serpent dwelt was an unfenced and uncultivated area. This field bespeaks of the mind of the flesh — the unbroken, unharnessed, unbridled, untended, unplowed, unprocessed, undisciplined, unprotected sphere from whence the Serpent "whispered out of the dust" — the subtle voice whispering enticingly from the unexplored wild lands of the FLESH! This whisper, this tantalizing hiss is communicated through the thoughts, reasoning, desires, passions, plans, hopes, fantasies and cravings of the CARNAL MIND! In the first age of Adam's creation, God used the Serpent to reveal what lay dormant, undiscovered and uncultivated within man's innermost being — a CUNNING NATURE — EGO — SELFHOOD independent of God. If by the grace of God you can see the truth of this, you will then plainly discern in all the propensities of the carnal mind the CREEPING, SLITHERING, WHISPERING, DIVINING, ENCHANTING, HYPNOTIZING SERPENT OF EDEN!

More on this...tomorrow.....