Wisdom from above

"As above, so below"

~ Hermes Trismegistus, The Emerald Tablet, Tabula Smaragdina

The ancient legend of the wisdom purveyor of Aegypt and Greece, Hermes Trismegistus, was a legendary person, a teacher/priest combination of two ancient traditions, the Greek and the Egyptian. He is commonly known as the originator of the hermetic tradition. His teachings were thought to have been the beginning of the ancient wisdom/art of alchemy. His premise was that the Creator was One, or the Source of Being, and incidentally, was a predictor of the coming of Christ. He is said to have existed during the same time sequence/era as Moses, the great prophet of the Israelites. Legend records that he was the engineering wizard who designed and oversaw the construction work of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Fanciful stuff.

A book of modern day Hermeticism, "The Meditations on the Tarot", is a favorite of mine. The core wisdom of the ancients, in my opinion, do not dispute the scriptural accounts of the Judeo Christian tradition. In fact, the concept of arcanum--or an archetypal story describing a spiritual truth, is a concept originated in Hermeticism.

Jesus Christ's life and Incarnation, his wisdom teachings, his passion, his resurrection,taken all together--is an arcanum. His primary thought process: The Kingdom of God--encapsulates the wisdom he espoused.

Pastor James taught from Jesus' wisdom stream.

In the bible study class in which I am currently participating at Calvary, we are harvesting, gleaning and discussing the wisdom espoused in the Epistle of James the brother of Jesus and the Pastor of the church at Jerusalem, which was founded on the day of Pentecost.

James deals with the concept of "as above, so below", as he admonishes the new born followers or yokefellows of the Christ:

Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

It is interesting to contrast these two streams of thought/ the wisdom from above and the "wisdom" from below--or here on the earth. In preparation for the discussion this week, I put together a "table"...nothing like the Emerald Tablet, by any means(!), but a contrast of the two types of wisdom covered by James in his treatise.

"WISDOM FROM ABOVE"	The "SHADOW CHARACTERISTIC"
Trusting, Unselfish	Jealous, selfishly ambitious
Humble, soft spoken	Boasting
Truth telling	Untruthful
Angelic, a kingdom citizen	Earthly
Spiritual	Unspiritual
Christ-like, Godly	Demonic
Pure	Impure, tainted, spoiled, foul, corrupted
Peaceable	Warlike, disruptive, dissenting, conflicting
Gentle	Rough, difficult, rude, harsh, painful
Open to reason	Contentious, hard headed, unreasonable, obstructionist, skeptical
Full of mercy	Ruthless, unforgiving, unmerciful, hardhearted
Full of good fruits	Barren, dry, un-productive, discontented, unfruitful
Impartial	Partial, unjust, showing favoritism, cliquish, conceited, vane
Sincere	False, hypocritical, superficial, fake, cynical
Righteousness	Vulgar, irreverent, irreligious

As I think through these contrasting positions, or mindsets, I can relate to the ways I have behaved in my own life. Indeed, Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change."

May my "works" reflect the faithful wisdom from above and not the earthly "wisdom" by which I am surrounded!