As we come to understand the four paths better and learn to live them in our lives, we gain the ability to apply them to the mythic tales that have been handed down to us in Scripture. For example, in the life of Abraham and Sarah, we see Abraham builds four altars during his life: one in Shechem, one in Bethel, another in Hebron, and the last one in Moriah. When we look at how the four altars relate to his life we see how they correspond to the four paths, since each altar marks a particular phase in Father Abraham's life. Shechem is related to the path of the Via Positiva, Bethel to the Via Negativa, Hebron or Mamre to the path of the Via Creativa, and the massive events that happened at Mount Moriah to the Via Transformativa. That last one also has a special meaning, as does the one at Bethel, but we'll talk about those more in a minute. # Right Relationship with Scripture As we come to see how the four paths are illuminated in this story, we are doing two things: 1. We learn from the lore and the tradition handed down to us. 2. We apply a layer of interpretation over the text. It’s crucial to remember that simply reading these texts alone won’t yield wisdom. Throughout this book, I’ve been quoting Scripture and explaining my interpretation of the phrases present. I’ll do that a few more times. That is how we interact with these stories, with these texts, because there are layers of interpretation that we have to go through, though that is often misunderstood. To progress, we need to develop right relationship with the Scripture and the traditions. One, there's the complication of language. The book of Genesis was not written in English. For the vast majority of us, we are going to have to have it interpreted into our native language. Even Hebrew speakers, to truly understand the language that the Scripture were written in, have to have it translated into modern Hebrew so that the text is easily comprehended for them. That alters the text. Maybe not much, but it changes the relationship to the words, it changes the rhythm of the language, and also covers up some of the grammatical differences between the original language and the language that we are studying the text in. Then, the text itself does not speak for itself. There are many meanings that we could add or subtract from these stories. For example, the first altar that we're going to talk about is the one that Abraham built at Shechem. This is when Adonai promises Abraham and his descendants the land where his feet fall. There are many ways to look at this story. If we are approaching this as somebody who's wanting to emulate Abraham and learn how we can claim territory in our own lives, then this is a powerful, positive story that shows us how we can claim various parts and aspects of our own lives. But, there's another way that we could read this text, and that is for the colonization that the story calls for that we later see coming into fruition in the book of Joshua, which details acts of genocide and carnage against the native peoples of Canaan, and justifies them as being the will of this same god. Neither of these readings is more correct than the others. The story itself is meant to inspire people and to tell them the story of the patriarch Abraham. The meanings we derive from it are our own work. Once we start realizing that any time we have gleaned any meaning from any of these texts, it is through this interpretive process, and understand that this is all that any of our traditions have ever done, we gain wisdom. It is a form of self-deceit to believe that we are hearing the word of God directly from this text. We always have to interpret that word, and in that interpretation, there could be human error. If we are not leaving room for human error to be in our reading of the text, what we are actually saying is that the people in institutions that interpret that text with us, helping to understand that text, are infallible. We know no one alive on this earth is infallible. No one in the world that was or is to come will be infallible either. We can all make mistakes. We can all make misreadings. We can all err in justice and compassion. Thus, any traditional reading of the text has to be submitted to this process, where we open ourselves up to the possibility of the text having been misread or misinterpreted, or simply utilized by a person or a culture to justify their own interests and cultural understandings at the time. This is a truly liberating experience, and allows us to reinterpret the text in each successive generation to continue to find meaning in these stories that have sustained our people for so long. The Apostle Paul tells us that we have been grafted onto the tree of Abraham as Christians. So it is not a problem for me as a Christopagan to claim Abraham as my father. And so I look at these stories with a sense of love and respect, but also care for how they have been misused in previous generations. So now that we've discussed biblical interpretation and how meaning is actually derived from the text, let's look at the first altar and see what we can learn from it. # Altar of Promise and Praise > Genesis 12:1-7 > Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Leave your country, and your relatives, and your father’s house, and go to the land that I will show you. > I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. > I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who treates you with contempt. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you.” > So Abram went, as Yahweh had told him. Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. > Abram took Sarai his wife, Lot his brother’s son, all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go into the land of Canaan. They entered into the land of Canaan. > Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time, Canaanites were in the land. > Yahweh appeared to Abram and said, “I will give this land to your offspring.” He built an altar there to Yahweh, who had appeared to him. I like to call this first altar the altar of promise and praise. Here we have Abraham being called by God to go out, to leave his home and everything that he's known, and travel to a foreign land that God will give him and his descendants. Abraham's response is to go. This must have been a terrifying experience. I know that the book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham is such an example of faith, and it is possible to read that into the text, but no matter how much faith you have, picking up everything and moving so far away has to be terrifying. I know from my own experience when I moved cross-country from Maryland to California, even though we were sure it was the right thing for us to do, there was still fear. We were going to be in a new state, with a new culture, with people that we did not know, having to make new friends and connections out there, far away from everything and the life that we had built. We have to imagine that Abraham and Sarah are feeling that at this moment. Yet, just like when Adonai called to Abraham and he said, "I am here." Abraham picks up his life and travels. When he gets to Shechem, to the great oak of Moreh, there, he builds an altar. This place that he arrives at, I feel, has a very special meaning, because the word Moreh means "teacher." It is this place that he builds the altar, at the foot of the "oak of the great teacher." He is called by God. Adonai appeared to Abraham and told him that he will give this land to him and his offspring. It is in this land that the promises are offered. Abraham responds to this with this altar. He is accepting the promises. This to me is so Via Positiva. He has seen the bounty. He has heard the word of God. He has gone out in faith, tasted, and seen. There he builds an altar, an act of worship in this land, filled with gratitude, awe, a blessing from him, and a place to receive blessings. This kind of gratitude altar is something that I think we all need to have in our lives. In our house, we have a gratitude and abundance altar, where we often will make little offerings, say prayers, and light candles. It is always there to remind us of the work that we have to do and the blessings that we have received. This scene of Abraham building the altar shows us how we too can use such an altar to show our gratitude, awe, and blessing because here he is rooting himself at the foot of the oak of the teacher. I know I'm making a lot out of that, but there's something to this phrasing that strikes me so deep inside. It's possibly because the pagan part of my Christopagan practice is Druidry, and we have a special connection to the oaks. In fact, the word druid means "oak knower." Maybe that's why I see this connection to the oak as the teacher so prominently. Oaks grant wisdom. They teach us how to live rooted deep into the soils that nourish us and how to endure wind, fire, and other disturbances that come our way. It is here at the foot of this oak of the teacher that he builds this altar of gratitude, this altar of promise and praise. He recognizes that the land itself is a gift. Now, as I mentioned previously, there is a lot that we could say here about colonization and colonizers, but that's not the focus this time. There are many times we are offered something, and we need to see this simple act of gratitude as a model for how we can receive graciously. We enter this mystery, the mystery of the Via Positiva, knowing that all of the things that are in our life are still in our life, and that the kingdom is here. One of the core themes of the Via Positiva is that we're not waiting for the end times. The end times have come. The kingdom, the kin-dom as I like to call it, of God is spread out throughout the world. As Jesus said, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them (Matthew 18:20)." "... God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation; neither will they say, ‘Look, here!’ or, ‘Look, there!’ for behold, God’s Kingdom is within you. (Luke 17:20-21)” In taking the time to make an altar like this we are materializing, embodying this belief. We are making tangible this idea that could just live within our heads but we are physicalizing it in a way that is harder for us to ignore because there it is right in front of us. This is the altar; this is the place where we remember; where we know that the goodness of life is here. This is the place that we go to again and again and again, that wellspring that nourishes us and helps us to live in that awe, that wonder, reminding us to reclaim the art of savoring our lives and to speak the word of God as much as listen for it. That word is always being spoken from the stones, from the wind, from the crackling fire, from the animals that we encounter throughout our lives and the other people that inhabit it. Learning to hear, respond to, and speak the life-giving word of God is so central to our practice of Creation Spirituality that making an altar to it in our lives ensures we remember it regularly and is a blessing for us. This altar is about praise and thanksgiving. It is not about conquest. It is not about taking. Abraham then goes to walk through the land. It's not till later that his descendants come back as conquerors, having forgotten the relationship there. Abraham makes treaties with the people that are there. He lives with the people there. He lives in right relationship in justice, in thanksgiving. He argues on their behalf with God. Here, we see this model in this story of that right relationship that we are called to of living in the sheer joys of the Via Positiva so that we will ever be filled with its grace. # Altar of Intimacy and Returning > Genesis 12:8 > He left from there to go to the mountain on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to Yahweh and called on Yahweh’s name. > Genesis 13:3-4 > He went on his journeys from the South even to Bethel, to the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, > to the place of the altar, which he had made there at the first. There Abram called on Yahweh’s name. I call the second altar the altar of intimacy and returning. For me, it is dedicated to the Via Negativa. Here we see Father Abraham building this altar near Bethel, between Bethel and Ai. This is the first place that we actually see it remarked that he called on the name of the Lord. It's also unique in that it's the only one of the four altars that we see Abraham returning to later after his, for simplicity's sake, let's call it misadventures in Egypt, where he forsook his wife and had to get her back. This altar was built between Bethel and Ai. Now, Bethel means "the house of God", and Ai means "the heap of ruins." This gives us a good sense of where this altar is. It's between ruin and presence. And if that's not an appropriate description of the liminal space that is the Via Negativa, I don't know what is. This is a place where he returned to set things right, to hopefully make repair with his wife over the things that had happened to them in Egypt. It is also the place where Jacob would later wrestle with God. These are aspects of the Via Negativa. It is a place of repentance, of turning around, of returning, and of wrestling with God. We don’t talk enough about grappling with the Divine, about allowing ourselves to have internal debates about things that seem unjust. This could involve the cosmos, our life circumstances, something that happened to a loved one, or even to a complete stranger. Often, this is perceived as a lack of faith when we observe patriarchs engaging in such activities. We witness them not only wrestling with God but also arguing with God, which is a unique form of faith that we find in dark places like the Via Negativa. Sometimes we learn that we need to let go and let be, but sometimes this arguing, this wrestling that we do with the Divine, is the spark, the catalyst, the conception of what will later be born in the Via Creativa. If we don't let ourselves have these times of wrestling, where we question why things happened, how they happened, and our role in them, if we don't allow ourselves to have these times of just wrestling with the Divine, all too often we prevent ourselves from having that conceptive moment. That moment where we can realize and give form to what is necessary to bring healing in the next path. Yes, sometimes faith is just sitting down and being with and resting with the circumstances that we have been given. And yes, that is a very real part of the Via Negativa, but sometimes there's a soul-searching, not just a dark night of the soul where we don't feel like we're being heard or answered, but a true soul-searching where we have to ask ourselves, could we have done something different? Should we do something different? How does this affect our lives going forward? What does this mean for us now that this has happened? That profound experience, which is emptying, is what people miss when they neglect this aspect of the Via Negativa. It is emptying; it is pouring ourselves out, sometimes in grief, keening like Brigid at the loss of her son. Sometimes it's just having that night where you shout at the darkness, "why?" But when we allow it to be a cathartic pouring forth from within us, it is a divine emptying. We are pouring ourselves out, our emotions, our feelings; we are emptying ourselves down to the pit of our soul to find the peace and the light that will carry us forward. Here we find the alchemical needs from the Via Positiva that will give rise to what is next. We do not have an altar in our house dedicated to this because we carry it within us. This is an altar that we find deep in our own heart, where we feel that sting of sacrifice, that pain of loss, that empty hollowness most strongly. This is where we as temples of the Most High have that altar within us where we feel so deeply the pains of our lives and the pains of the world, returning again and again to this place. Sometimes in silent contemplation. Sometimes in rage. Because it is here that we experience the silence, the surrender, the unknowing. We know loss here. In Abraham's life, after he builds this altar, he experiences time in the wilderness. Famine enters his life, and he has to grow into the dark and dare the darkness. He called on the name of the Lord in this place. He experienced that deep, unsettling place where our clarity fades. But when we allow ourselves to sit with it, intimacy deepens. When we hold each other in our tears at the foot of this altar, bonds are formed that are beyond words. This is a place for deepening and for growth. We return to this altar not because of a series of regressions or backsliding but because each time we get to draw deeper and deeper from the well of peace, of wisdom, of understanding that is here. God's presence is not confined solely to the light but here in the ruins, in the wasteland, in the deep darkness. It is here that we find and we encounter God. When we feel that sense of exile or uncertainty. Also it is here that we are reminded that we are not alone. We have to be willing to open ourselves up and empty ourselves out. Returning is an act of holiness, a sign of faith, and a strength, not a weakness. The more we embrace the Via Negativa, the more intimacy and connection we will have to each other and to the Divine. # Altar of the Walk of Faith > Genesis 13:17-18 > "Arise, walk through the land in its length and in its width; for I will give it to you.” > Abram moved his tent, and came and lived by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to Yahweh. The next altar that Abraham built was at the foot of the oaks of Mamre, the oaks of vision. Here we see an echo with the first altar also at the foot of the oaks, but this one is different. Whereas the first altar was built at a time when he was being called into his life and given his promises, this altar is built at a time when he is starting to settle down, at a time where he is choosing peace over conflict and ending his wanderings, where he's setting his life up. I call this altar the altar of the walk of faith. Here we see a renewal of that promise that was made to him before he built the first altar that the land would belong to him and his descendants. The echo between the oaks is not something that is missed by me. We see here this connection that we talked about before to rootedness, to being in one place. Hebron, where this altar is built, would later be known as Abraham's ancestral home and also his burial site. We know from later scripture that there was a temple here that would later be closed down in the kingly reforms of Josiah. Unlike before, in the first two altars, Abraham isn't passing through this region. It isn't a stop on the way to blessing or a return from hardship. Here he is settling down, grasping for that better land where he can create peace and trust in the promises of those around him. I call this the altar of the walk of faith because this is where Abraham begins his life of co-creation with God. He has gone on his journey, he has walked the land, he has had his misfortunes in Egypt. Here he is settling down to start his family and to begin building a life for himself and for them. This altar symbolizes an ongoing creative work that he is living through faith. This is not a one-time decision. It is a continuation from the first two. Just like the Via Creativa is a continuation of the first two paths. It is born through their union. It is here that Abraham will be visited by three strangers and it is here that Sarah will laugh and the second promise is given. The first promise in the altar that we visited before was of the blessing of the land and the connection to it. Here, new life is promised. A new birth that will not only give him descendants but will change his and his wife's name forever. In our own lives, at this altar, we experience this new birth in us. As we embrace our creativity, we embrace our birthing of those images that are within us into this world. This is where imagination is allowed to shape our lives and to make something new. It is an altar that we visit as often as we can and probably not as often as we should because here we learn one of the great secrets: faith is not about promise or surrender but about a creative, generative life where we weave choices, relationships, and community together into something powerful, true, and new. Every time we return to this place, every time that we visit our own altar of the Via Creativa, our space dedicated to this connection, we are reminded of all that has come before us and all that is yet to come. There are many ways to do this in our own lives. We have an altar that we offer to our ancestors and to our guides. It is a gift to see it in our lives and remember those who have come before us: our ancestors of blood, milk, and land. Our ancestors of blood are our hereditary lineage that got us where we are today. Our ancestors of milk are those who nourished us, whether we are related to them or not. They have fed us and given us strength to carry on our journey. Our ancestors of land are the ones who lived here before us. It is our duty to honor them to the best of our ability, because they shaped the ground that we walk on. In these connections, a creativity is born in us. A great imagination arises in our minds where we are able to foresee our own futures. Not necessarily as a form of prophecy or precognition, but in that wondrous and powerful creativity that gives us the gift of hope and encourages us to go about our work in building this life. I use the word work a lot because I feel that it describes what we do, but we could call this, like my pastors growing up did, our walk. That is, after all, what we are called to do: - to set our roots down somewhere - to build a life in right relationship with nature and with all the people there. - to build a better world to come. - to embrace those foundational creative acts deserving commemoration. It is a reminder that all of this is something we should be doing always. I say, quite often, we as a species are forgetful, because we as a species are forgetful. Something good can happen to us and ten seconds later something bad happens to us, and we completely forget the good thing, because we have a bias to remember negative things that happen to us. Part of the first altar is to ever remind ourselves of the good things. That's why we don't build a physical altar in our homes to the second one. Here in this third one, we need that reminding again: we are empowered and we have that power of generative creativity within us so we can go out and make things better. It may take time, effort, and energy, but those changes can come. We see that in our history: change is inevitable, yet we can put our voice in to help to determine what manner of change we will experience. How will life be different after that change? That is the true power of the Via Creativa. # Altar of the God who Provides (HaShem Yireh) > Genesis 22:1, 2, 9, 14 > After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” > > He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.” > > They came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built the altar there, and laid the wood in order, bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar, on the wood. > > Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Will Provide. As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain, it will be provided.” The fourth altar is hard to talk about. We can talk about it in its context in the story. We can discuss its context in culture, yet it's still hard to talk about. Abraham is called to sacrifice his own son on an altar to God in a place that he will later call Adonai Yireh, the God who provides. There are a lot of ways to talk about the binding of Isaac, and many different layers of theological importance have been put on this story over time. While I am not negating any of them, there is one that I have felt in my own life that gives this altar particular context to me. Abraham has a dream. He has a vision. He has a particular thing that he wants to accomplish in this world. He feels like he has a calling. He believes he has been called, not only to establish this nation but to then sacrifice his son to the One who called him to do this. I cannot help but have a certain strange empathy for him. Now, I've never been called or felt that I had a call to sacrifice a person for any reason. I have had these moments of doubt where everything felt stacked against me, where everything felt like all I have left to do is to sacrifice either who I am, or what my dreams are, or some part of my own integrity in order to get through this: moments of sheer desperation. While I can't see in the story that Abraham is in one of these places, there's something about this story that resonates in me at those points. While that might sound like an experience of the Via Negativa, I've learned over time that this is a point in the Via Transformativa, when we have to make hard decisions. Now, the hard decision is not whether or not we sacrifice people, because there is never any justification for violence to get what we want. Anyone who believes that God has called them to violence is not listening to the voice of God. No exceptions. The Spirit that calls to us is one that calls us to build, to create, to make, to participate in right relationship with this world. I don't believe that Abraham believed that his son would be taken away from him, but I can see the fear in him. There have been many times, whether it's because of a lost job or some other instance, where we felt that rug got pulled out from underneath us. We get that feeling of, "Lord, I did everything that I thought I was supposed to do, and yet I'm here, in this place now." Sometimes we feel that after an election, sometimes we feel that after the loss of a job. Sometimes with a diagnosis. "I did all of the things that I needed to do, that I thought I was supposed to do, and yet I find myself here." In the Via Negativa, we would just sit with that and we would empty ourselves up, yet in the Via Transformativa, we're always watching and we're listening. Abraham doesn't sacrifice his son, but instead, a ram that got its horns caught in the bushes. That was there because God provided. See, I have a very special relationship to this story because one of the first songs my great-grandmother ever taught me to sing was that wonderful hymn, "Jehovah Jireh." I remember singing that song with her and feeling that providing grace in my life. There have been many times in my life where I have prayed and sang that song, because when we are about the work of the Via Transformativa, that's where we need the belief in the God who provides most. This is the altar that we build in our hearts and in our homes that reminds us that we can do what we need to do. On our altar, we have an icon of St. George, of the Blessed Mother and her Immaculate Heart, of St. Martha, of the Holy Family, and of St. Julian. We also have all seven of the archangels there. Why? Because this is the place of action. We are going out to bring justice, to bring hope, to bring celebration, and to bring right relationship. It's in those activities that we are most likely to experience this sensation of loss and fear. This is where we need to believe in Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. It's in this place that we have to remember that the Holy One intervenes in our lives. I see this story as a story of intervention. The world that Abraham lives in that we're told about in the Scripture is one where people are commonly told to sacrifice their children. Remember how we always interpret the word of God through our own understanding and culture? Abraham did that here. He was told to offer his son and a burnt offering, and he assumed his son was the burn offering. That is what the others cultures did. He misinterpreted the voice of God, as so many of us do all too often. God's reaction is like, “Look, I thought you knew me. Apparently, you don’t. Go to the mountains and offer a burnt offering. I’ll provide it for you. Here it is. Offer it. Surrender and have daily faith that you can overcome the ultimate test in your life. Accept intervention when it comes.” Is that strictly in the text? No, but is isn't negated in the text either. We don't know what God said to Abraham, only his interpretation of it. Certainty is not clarity, and it is often the enemy of faith and right relationship. He was certain, and wrong. When he achieved clarity, he did the right thing. This altar, this event takes place on Mount Moriah, which is where the temple would later be built. This is a place of transformation, a place of forgiveness, a place of renewal. This is the wellspring from which those blessings that the prophets look for are collected and dispersed to the rest of the world. This is the altar of crisis and recreation. It is here that we encounter the path of justice, compassion, and new life, full on in all of its pain and glory as we push on to make that better world. That world that we long to see. This is the place in our lives, in our homes, and in our world. This is the ground from which we go out to do justice. As the prophet said, "He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8)?" At this altar, we remember and dedicate ourselves to doing all three. # Praxis So how do we get these stories out of our minds and out of our scriptures, and into our homes? I would encourage you to build either one altar or many altars. We have quite a few altars throughout our house. It is a practice we truly love to participate in. Now an altar is any space that you set aside for sacred use. So this could be part of a bookshelf. One of our altars is on top of the refrigerator. Wherever you have space that you're willing to dedicate to sacred purposes, that can be your altar space. By dedicate, I mean you're not putting your keys and wallet there when you get off from work, unless maybe as part of your prosperity altar, you're putting them there so that you can get the prosperity when you go out. See, symbolically, that would still work. These four altars that we just discussed, I talked about three practical ways already that you can build them in your home. You don't have to build three. If you're just starting out, build one. Maybe if you want to get yourself something special, go and get yourself a Lazy Susan and divide it into four parts and put something in each quarter that reminds you of that path: the Via Positiva, Via Negativa, Via Creativa, and Via Transformativa. Whatever that is, because I can't tell you what to put into that altar, and neither can anyone else. It needs to be something that means something to you. As I said when I was talking about the Via Transformativa, we have a St. George and the Dragon on my altar. Now, the reasons I have a devotion to St. George and the Dragon is specific to me. It goes back to me and my experiences, my reading his story in the Golden Legend for the first time, and how I reacted to his story from the Golden Legend. It is a personal thing. Any other connections that St. George might have are meaningless to me. It is a very personal thing. My in-laws bought me the icon when they were traveling because they knew of my connection to St. George, and I happily placed it on my altar where it belongs. I see the story of St. George and the Dragon as ridding people from the dangers that could harm them, especially those that bring about injustice. When you actually read the story as it's told in the Golden Legend, St. George gives us a rule to follow that is all about bringing justice and right relationship to a place. And so that, to me, is what the dragon represents and why it has to be slain. It is that injustice. That's my reason. It doesn't have to be yours. You don't have to have that. You may not have a devotion to St. Julian or St. Martha. In fact, I have many devotions to many saints and many guides and many spirits. That's how my faith and practice works. What's important is that it means something to you. It could be any emblem that to you when you look at it, you instinctively think Via Positiva, Via Negativa, Via Creativa, or Via Transformativa. Whatever brings these thoughts up to you should be there. Altars are places of memory and remembrance. They are places of reminders that help us to stay on the path by looking at them and remembering the work that we are to do. They are there to give us strength and courage. They are there to empower us and also to show our devotions. So if you do work with any god, guide, or saint, it is appropriate to have them on your altar, but don't have them there just because you feel like you should. Altars should never be a place of obligation, especially when you practice a faith that is entirely dedicated to liberation, like Christianity is. So make yourself at least one altar, and meditate there. Pray there. Maybe light a candle or incense there safely. Always practice fire safety. Make offerings there if you feel called to do it. There's something powerful that happens when you enter into this relationship with the spirits and with the world, because once the offering has been made, it will eventually be offered to the earth. In doing this, you'll bring these stories and these ideas into your physical space. By doing that, they become more a part of your life. | < [[12- The Four Callings]] < | \|- [[00- Creation's Paths\|Table of Contents]] -\| | > [[14- The Four Ministries]] > | | ----------------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------: | ------------------------------: |