Staves Of The Inner Altar

Neville's Inner Vision

Here the altar is your life, and the staves are states of consciousness by which you carry worship. Shittim wood represents humble, ordinary awareness; brass overlay signifies the purification that comes when you bring your daily thought into alignment with the divine. The rings are the openings through which your imagination runs; the two staves on either side declare that your practice is portable—no temple is needed beyond your inner attention. When you accept that the altar is carried by these inner motions, you stop seeking God in distant places and begin to feel God as I AM in you. Your job, your troubles, your desire to know holiness—these are carried by the imagination that sees them as possibilities within the one life. The presence of God is not a place but a disposition you sustain; purity and integrity are kept by your choice to keep the altar within your own inner arch, not separated from you by dogma or habit. Practically, you revise any belief that you are unworthy; you imagine the altar already lifted and carried by your thoughts, and you feel it real.