Married, Father, United
Third Annotation.
The third: As in all the following Spiritual Exercises, we use acts of the intellect in reasoning, and acts of the will in movements of the feelings: let us remark that, in the acts of the will, when we are speaking vocally or mentally with God our Lord, or with His Saints, greater reverence is required on our part than when we are using the intellect in understanding.
Second Annotation.
The second is that the person who gives to another the way and order in which to meditate or contemplate, ought to relate faithfully the events of such Contemplation or Meditation, going over the Points with only a short or summary development.
For, if the person who is making the Contemplation, takes the true groundwork of the narrative, and, discussing and considering for himself, finds something which makes the events a little clearer or brings them a little more home to him —
whether this comes through his own reasoning, or because his intellect is enlightened by the Divine power —
he will get more spiritual relish and fruit, than if he who is giving the Exercises had much explained and amplified the meaning of the events
.
For it is not knowing much, but realising and relishing things interiorly, that contents and satisfies the soul.
ANNOTATIONS
TO GIVE SOME UNDERSTANDING OF THE SPIRITUAL EXERCISES WHICH FOLLOW, AND TO ENABLE HIM WHO IS TO GIVE AND HIM WHO IS TO RECEIVE THEM TO HELP THEMSELVES
First Annotation. The first Annotation is that by this name of Spiritual Exercises is meant every way of examining one’s conscience, of meditating, of contemplating, of praying vocally and mentally, and of performing other spiritual actions, as will be said later. For as strolling, walking and running are bodily exercises, so every way of preparing and disposing the soul to rid itself of all the disordered tendencies, and, after it is rid, to seek and find the Divine Will as to the management of one’s life for the salvation of the soul, is called a Spiritual Exercise.
sense of bounty and fertility.
rebuild, renew, nurture and nourish.
love, fertility and warmth
love, beauty and female strength.
protector, nurturer, teacher, lover, and friend
Nansen said: “Mind is not Buddha. Learning is not the path.”
At night the dead came back again and amidst complaining said: “One more thing we must know, because we had forgotten to discuss it: teach us concerning man!”
—Man is a portal through which one enters from the outer world of the gods, demons and souls, into the inner world, from the greater world into the smaller world. Small and insignificant is man; one leaves him soon behind, and thus one enters once more into infinite space, into the microcosm, into the inner eternity.
In immeasurable distance there glimmers a solitary star on the highest point of heaven. This is the only god of this lonely one. This is his world, his Pleroma, his divinity.
In this world, man is Abraxas, who gives birth to and devours his own world.
The star is man’s God and goal.
It is his guiding divinity; in it man finds repose.
To it goes the long journey of the soul after death; in it shine all things which otherwise might keep man from the greater world with the brilliance of a great light.
To this One, man ought to pray.
Such a prayer increases the light of the star.
Such a prayer builds a bridge over death.
It increases the light of the microcosm; when the outer world grows cold, this star still shines.
There is nothing that can separate man from his own God, if man can only turn his gaze away from the fiery spectacle of Abraxas.
Man here, God there.
Weakness and insignificance here, eternal creative power there.
Here is but darkness and damp cold.
There all is sunshine.
Upon hearing this the dead fell silent, and they rose up like smoke rises over the fire of the shepherd, who guards his flock by night.
The demon of sexuality comes to our soul like a serpent. It is half a human soul and is called thought-desire.
The serpent is an earthly soul, half demonic, a spirit, and related to the spirits of the dead. Like the spirits of the dead, the serpent also enters various terrestrial objects. The serpent also induces fear of itself in the hearts of men, and enkindles desire in the same. The serpent is of a generally feminine character and seeks forever the company of the dead. It is associated with the dead who are earthbound, who have not found the way by which to cross over to the state of solitude. The serpent is a whore and she consorts with the devil and with evil spirits; she is a tyrant and a tormenting spirit, always tempting people to keep the worst kind of company.
The serpent descends into the deep and with her cunning she either paralyzes or stimulates the phallic demon. The serpent brings up from the deep the very cunning thoughts of the earthly one, thoughts that crawl through all openings and become saturated with desire. Although the serpent does not want to be, she is nevertheless useful to us. The serpent eludes our grasp, we pursue her and she shows us the way, which, with our limited human wit, we could not find.—The dead looked up with contempt and said: “Cease to speak to us about gods, demons and souls. We have known all of this in essence for a long time.”
David Given Schwarm 
