Wounds as Inner Prophecy

Neville's Inner Vision

In this Zechariah fragment, the outer label of prophet is stripped away and the man cloaks himself in the ordinary vocation of husbandman. In Neville's idiom, the true prophet is not a distant oracle but a state of consciousness—the I AM that tends a field within. The 'I am no prophet' is a surrender to conditioned roles; the line about keeping cattle from youth points to early training and social habit, the forms by which the soul learned to survive in the world. The ‘wounds in thine hands’ do not prove a failure of prophecy but signal the soul’s deep imprint—the betrayals and prunings that have tempered perception. These wounds arise not from external enemies but from the inner house of friends—the beliefs, associations, and expectations that shape your sense of self. By reinterpreting the wounds as marks of growth, you acknowledge that every trial has equipped you to tend your inner kingdom. When you assume the feeling of your most true vocation—awareness itself—you discover you have never left your post as prophet; you simply shifted the field you cultivate.