When Claire admonishes us to “look up to heaven,” she is not at all advocating a form of escapism from the world. Rather, she is encouraging us to take our cues for living not from secular sources, but from above, from heaven. Clare points us to the truth that there is a hierarchy of values, ethics, and virtues, and if we aspire to a good, happy, and fruitful life, we will orient ourselves according to heaven’s wisdom. For example, getting a good night’s sleep is valuable. However, if our children are sick in the middle of the night and need us to attend to them, sleeplessness in the service of love represents a higher value. Life itself is the primordial ground of all human values, the field wherein all other values manifest.
Clare’s use of the word “heaven” should not be understood as mere metaphor. It points to an actual reality. Heaven is a gravitational force field of truth, beauty, and goodness, born of the highest vibrations and energized by the purest expressions of love. It is the abode of saints and sages, those who have realized the highest arc of human evolution. As such, heaven is a sphere of transcendent consciousness that is perpetually reaching toward us. To the degree we align ourselves to heaven’s organizing intelligence, we allow heaven to divinize planet earth.
We live in a secular age that has lost sight of higher realities. Some enlightened experts believe that we no longer need heaven or revealed knowledge, often stating that the rational mind is enough to guide us onwards and upwards. Of course, rationality is a great gift, but far too often the rational mind is hijacked by greed and the dark desires of human will. For example, in America’s history very rational people justified enslaving other human beings. Slavery served their selfish desires, and their rational minds were mere tools of their selfishness. By contrast, the rational mind works best when it bows to a transcendental source. Whether we are talking about Hinduism, Judaism, or Christianity, the world’s authentic religions embody heaven’s wisdom. Who can deny the inherent wisdom of the Ten Commandments, or Yoga’s Yamas and Niyamas, or Jesus’ Beatitudes? When our rational minds yield to heaven’s supernal light, they are not obliterated. Rather, they become enlightened.
Divine Mother,
May your wisdom,
The wisdom of heaven,
Become my wisdom.
