The Cup Within: Imaginative Judgment

Neville's Inner Vision

Take Jeremiah's vision as a map of your own mind. The LORD's wine cup is not a weapon outside you but the instrument of your inner command. When you take it, you acknowledge that every scene your outer world presents is an echo of a belief you have assumed. The nations to whom you send this cup are the countless facets of your life - relationships, finances, health, moods - that answer to your inner dispositions. If you drink in fear, you will see them moved and mad by the sword of your own anxious thoughts. If you choose to drink from a different cup - one filled with rightful order and faith - the same scenes begin to rearrange themselves, not by coercion but by the natural music of a revised consciousness. The sword, in Neville's sense, is the cleaving of false identifications, the decisive act of letting go of a belief that no longer serves. This is inner judgment and mercy together: judge the thought, revise the feeling, and let your I AM awaken to a new harmony.