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Great Self

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Great Self

Great Self is a term used by Edward Carpenter to refer to what, on the LP, we call Spiritual Ego, Highest Self, Self (with a capital "S), Resident Monadic Consciousness, or even the entire Fabric of Consciousness.

Syncretic Terms

Notes

According to Carpenter, The Great Self can be millions of selves

The great Self of the universe may differentiate itself into countless selves or ‘aspects’—and this may be a condition of more perfect self-knowledge—knowledge—yet each self or aspect may still be the whole and commensurate with the whole....The fact is conceivable that the Self may become countless selves. The great Self is omnipresent in Space and Time; but if it appear or express itself at any one point of space and time (say as the ego of a single cell), then at once and in that moment it has determined an aspect of itself; and the ego in that cell is already an individual having within itself the potentiality of the whole, yet different from every other possible individual of the universe.[1]

When Carpenter suggests the Great Self can be millions of selves, he refers to the Fabric of Consciousness. When he suggests it is in each of us, he refers to Spiritual Ego, Highest Self, Resident Monadic Consciousness, etc.

In the following quote, Carpenter clearly has the Fabric of Consciousness in mind.

With a kind of inexorable logic, from infinitely various beginnings, from infinitely various sides, the Great Self sums itself up to form a vast affiliation of selves—a Celestial City of equals and lovers.[2]

Footnotes

  1. Carpenter, Edward. The Art of Creation: Essays on the Self and Its Powers. Ravenio Books. Kindle Edition.
  2. Carpenter, Edward. The Art of Creation: Essays on the Self and Its Powers . Ravenio Books. Kindle Edition.