THE FOUR MIGHTY ONES
âAnd a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.ââGenesis 2:10
âAnd every one had four faces:...ââEzekiel 10:14
âI see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.ââDaniel 3:25
âFour Mighty Ones are in every man.ââBlake
The âFour Mighty Onesâ constitute the selfhood of man, or God in man. There are âFour Mighty Onesâ in every man, but these âFour Mighty Onesâ are not four separate beings, separated one from the other as are the fingers of his hand. The âFour Mighty Onesâ are four different aspects of his mind, and differ from one another in function and character without being four separate selves inhabiting one manâs body.
The âFour Mighty Onesâ may be equated with the four Hebrew characters: (characters here) which form the four-lettered mystery-name of the Creative Power from and combining within itself the past, present and future forms of the verb âto be.â The Tetragrammaton is revered as the symbol of the Creative Power in manâI AMâthe creative four functions in man reaching forth to realize in actual material phenomena qualities latent in Itself.
We can best understand the âFour Mighty Onesâ by comparing them to the four most important characters in the production of a play.
âAll the worldâs a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts...ââAs You Like It: Act II, Scene VII
The producer, the author, the director and the actor are the four most important characters in the production of a play. In the drama of life, the producerâs function is to suggest the theme of a play. This he does in the form of a wish, such as, âI wish I were successfulâ; âI wish I could take a tripâ; âI wish I were married:, and so on. But to appear on the worldâs stage, these general themes must somehow be specified and worked out in detail. It is not enough to say, âI wish I were successfulâ that is too vague. Successful at what? However, the first âMighty Oneâ only suggests a theme.
The dramatization of the theme is left to the originality of the second âMight Oneâ, the author. In dramatizing the theme, the author writes only the last scene of the playâbut this scene he writes in detail. The scene must dramatize the wish fulfilled. He mentally constructs as life-like a scene as possible of what he would experience had he realized his wish. When the scene is clearly visualized, the authorâs work is done.
The third âMighty Oneâ in the production of lifeâs play is the director. The directorâs tasks are to see that the actor remains faithful to the script and to rehearse him over and over again until he is natural in the part. This function may be likened to a controlled and consciously directed attentionâan attention focused exclusively on the action which implies that the wish is already realized.
âThe form of the Fourth is like the Son of Godââhuman imagination, the actor. This fourth âMighty Oneâ performs within himself, in imagination, the pre-determined action which implies the fulfillment of the wish. This function does not visualize or observe the action. This function actually enacts the drama, and does it over and over again until it takes on the tones of reality. Without the dramatized vision of fulfilled desire, the theme remains a mere theme and sleeps forever in the vast chambers of unborn themes. Nor without the co-operant attention, obedient to the dramatized vision of fulfilled desire, will the vision perceived attain objective reality.
The âFour Mighty Onesâ are the four quarters of the human soul. The first is Jehovahâs King, who suggests the theme; the second is Jehovahâs servant, who faithfully works out the theme in a dramatic vision; the third is Jehovahâs man, who was attentive and obedient to the vision of fulfilled desire, who brings the wandering imagination back to the script âseventy times sevenâ. The âForm of the Fourthâ is Jehovah himself, who enacts the dramatized theme on the stage of the mind.
âLet this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:...ââPhilippians 2:5, 6
The drama of life is a joint effort of the four quarters of the human soul.
âAll that you behold, thoâ it appears without, it is within, in your imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow.ââBlake
All that we behold is a visual construction contrived to express a themeâa theme which has been dramatized, rehearsed and performed elsewhere. What we are witnessing on the stage of the world is an optical construction devised to express the themes which have been dramatized, rehearsed and performed in the imagination of men.
The âFour Mighty Onesâ constitute the Selfhood of man, or God in man: and all that man beholds, thoâ it appears without, are but shadows cast upon the screen of space-optical constructions contrived by Selfhood to inform him in regard to the themes which he has conceived, dramatized, rehearsed and performed within himself.
âThe creature was made subject unto vanityâ that he may become conscious of Selfhood and its functions, for with consciousness of Selfhood and its functions, he can act to a purpose; he can have a consciously self-determined history. Without consciousness, he acts unconsciously, and cries to an objective God to save him from his own creation.
âO Lord, how long shall I cry, and Thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto Thee of violence, and Thou wilt not save!ââHabakkuk 1:2
When man discovers that life is a play which he, himself, is consciously or unconsciously writing, he will cease from the blind, self-torture of executing judgment upon others. Instead, he will rewrite the play to conform to his ideal, for he will realize that all changes in the play must come from the co-operation of the âFour Mighty Onesâ within himself. They alone can alter the script and produce the change.
All the men and women in his world are merely players and are as helpless to change his play as are the players on the screen of the theatre to change the picture. The desired change must be conceived, dramatized, rehearsed and performed in the theatre of his mind. When the fourth function, the imagination, has completed its task of rehearsing the revised version of the play until it is natural,...