Inner Cities of Refuge

Neville's Inner Vision

Within the realm of imagination, the Israelite cities are not distant borders but inner dispositions placed into the chambers of your mind. The slayer represents fear, guilt, or error breaking through your peace; the refuge is your awareness that remains unmoved by appearances. The assignment of cities to Gershonite families across Manasseh, Issachar, Asher, and Naphtali shows that order and mercy must be established in every department of consciousness, not in some external place. When you accept Joshua’s division, you acknowledge that your mind contains ordained places where judgment is tempered by mercy, where justice acts through steady attention rather than reaction. The living law is not in parchment but in the present imagining: you decide, here and now, what state you inhabit. By aligning your attention with the sense I am the refuge, you create a sanctuary immune to the charge of mistake. Imagination then becomes the city walls and gates, and feel-it-real assent seals them shut against chaos while drawing your entire being toward rightful action.