NEVILLE GODDARD, YOUR FAITH IS YOUR FORTUNE, CH 14 CIRCUMCISION

Let me now perform the spiritual operation on you, the reader. This act is performed on the eighth day after birth, not because this day has any special significance or in any way differs from other days, but it is performed on this eighth day because eight is the figure which has neither beginning nor end. Furthermore, the ancients symbolized the eighth numeral or letter as an enclosure or veil within and behind which lay buried the mystery of creation. Thus, the secret of the operation on the eighth day is in keeping with the nature of the act, which act is to reveal the eternal head of creation, that changeless something in which all things begin and end and yet which remains its eternal self when all things cease to be. This mysterious something is your awareness of being.

At this moment you are aware of being, but you are also aware of being someone. This someone is the veil that hides the being you really are. You are first conscious of being, then you are conscious of being man. After the veil of man is placed upon your faceless self, you become conscious of being a member of a certain race, nation, family, creed etc.

The veil to be lifted in spiritual circumcision is the veil of man. But before this can be done, you must cut away the adhesions of race, nation, family and so on. „In Christ there is neither Greek nor Jew, bond nor free, male nor female” [„…a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all”, Colossians 3:11]. „You must leave father, mother, brother and follow me” [„If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple”, Luke 14:26] . To accomplish this you stop identifying yourself with these divisions by becoming indifferent to such claims. Indifference is the knife that severs. Feeling is the tie that binds. When you can look upon man as one grand brotherhood without distinction of race or creed, then you will know that you have severed these adhesions. With these ties cut, all that now separates you from your true being is your belief that you are man.