Providence

Providence is Martinus’ name for divine guidance and care in existence. In its broadest sense, he describes Providence as a living being embracing all life with love. ^[1] In a more specialised sense, Providence is an organic unity of highly evolved spiritual beings who serve as the Godhead’s instruments in relation to unfinished beings. Providence does not abolish the consequences of a being’s actions, but guides evolution, provides help, and leads living beings towards universal love and the creation of the human being in God’s image. ^[2]

Providence as a living reality

Martinus’ analysis begins with the idea that matter is alive and that movement, creation and logic express consciousness. When the total effect of the energies surrounding a living being is considered, Martinus finds that they reveal sympathy and love rather than isolated, destructive forces. He therefore identifies Providence with a living, thinking being that embraces all living beings with culminating love. ^[3]

This understanding is closely connected with Martinus’ concept of the Godhead. Nature is regarded as the Godhead’s mentality expressed in forms that living beings can experience and study. Science and human creation draw their principles from Nature, while Nature itself manifests a wisdom greater than the knowledge of any individual human being. Life consequently becomes a personal correspondence between the living being and the Godhead: every situation, including encounters with friends, enemies, animals and the material world, can be understood as part of this communication. ^[4]

The word Providence can therefore have two closely related meanings in Martinus’ work. In the broadest sense, it refers to the all-embracing divine living being. In a more specialised sense, it refers to the elevated beings who function as the Godhead’s organs for guidance and contact with beings on less developed planes. ^[5] ^[6]

The spiritual unity called Providence

Martinus describes the more specialised Providence as an organic society of highly initiated beings on the spiritual plane. Their unity is not based on an institution, membership, written rules or contracts. They are united because they share the same divine will and the same completely developed understanding of right and wrong. Their solidarity rests on wisdom, intellect and universal love, and their perfected way of being has become an automatic talent. ^[7] ^[8]

These beings form what Martinus calls the “face of God” for unfinished terrestrial human beings. They are God’s organ for the exchange of consciousness and thought with humanity. The term Providence thus denotes a group of living beings whose consciousness is united with the divine will and who can serve as instruments of the Godhead’s action. ^[9]

Martinus also extends this guidance throughout the hierarchy of existence. Behind leaders and institutions, and ultimately behind individual human beings, animals, plants and crystals, he describes spiritual beings who watch over and inspire the development taking place on the physical plane. Inspiration may be entirely unconscious. ^[10]

Providence and the world plan

According to Martinus, human history is not governed by chance, even though its events may appear chaotic. Providence guides world redemption and world politics within the framework of humanity’s existing light and dark fate. It can therefore work through both peaceful and warlike historical conditions while directing the long-term movement towards a divine state. ^[11] ^[12]

Martinus states that the current situation is the most perfect one possible in relation to what has preceded it and what it is to lead towards. The divine world plan includes conditions whose significance is not immediately apparent to the individual. ^[13] ^[14]

Providence also works through the principle of world redemption. Spiritual influences and world redeemers guide beings from primitiveness towards intellectuality and humaneness. Religious teachings are adapted to the developmental stage of the people receiving them. ^[15] ^[16]

The emergence of the Providence concept

Martinus describes the first impression of Providence as emerging gradually through the animal’s experience of fear and suffering. Cries that were initially unconscious and instinctive become consciously released, and fear gives rise to a dawning religious feeling and a new side of mentality. He connects this development with the emergence of the terrestrial person as an embryo of the cosmic human being. ^[17] He also describes instinct as a remnant of an earlier cosmic consciousness through which beings sensed a Providence behind Nature. ^[18]

In early human religiousness, the idea of Providence was shaped by the struggle for survival. Martinus says that human beings initially imagined Providence in their own image, but as a superior being with the powers they themselves lacked. Sacrifices and ceremonies were used in the hope of receiving help against enemies. He presents this as an early, dark form of morality that, through the suffering it caused, gradually stimulated sympathy, compassion and self-sacrifice, preparing the transition towards a lighter morality. ^[19] ^[20]

Providence and fate

Providence does not simply remove dark fate. Martinus explains that the effects of actions are necessary experiences through which beings learn the consequences of their way of being. If all such effects could be cancelled immediately, the being would be deprived of the experiences needed to develop intelligence, sympathy and humaneness. Providence guides this development while allowing the effects to fulfil their function. ^[21] ^[22]

This does not mean that a being suffering under difficult conditions is abandoned. Providence continually watches over it and gives help wherever this is possible within the laws of fate. Martinus allows that exceptional healing or other extraordinary assistance may occur, but only where the relevant fate can be released through another suitable circumstance. ^[23]

The individual nevertheless remains responsible for its own conduct. Martinus’ account of fate holds that a being’s actions return to their originator as experience. He presents this return as part of the divine universe’s just structure, while Providence guides the being through its development. ^[24] ^[25] ^[26]

Prayer as contact with Providence

Prayer is the conscious form of contact between the living being and Providence. Martinus describes prayer as a means of receiving strength, inspiration and courage, especially when the individual feels isolated or unable to obtain help from its physical surroundings. He states that a sincere appeal is never overlooked, because Providence can receive it through telepathic contact with spiritual beings. ^[27]

These spiritual beings are described as guardian angels and as special sensory tools of Providence. They can help beings on the physical plane when ordinary physical communication is insufficient. Martinus says that Providence may answer prayer immediately and directly, in a way described as a miracle. ^[28] He also states that miraculous assistance is exceptional and operates within the conditions of fate. ^[29]

Prayer is not an instrument for obtaining every personal wish. Martinus rejects the idea that prayer can function as an “Aladdin’s lamp” or undo conditions that have already been set in motion. Physical suffering may remain despite prayer, because the experience can be necessary for the development of consciousness. ^[30]

The decisive question is whether the prayer is selfish or in harmony with the divine will. A prayer that seeks special favour at the expense of other beings cannot be granted. In contrast, prayer in the spirit of unselfishness—summarised in the words “thy will be done”—is aligned with what Martinus calls the spirit of Jesus and with all-love. ^[31] ^[32]

For this reason the mature purpose of prayer is not merely to ask for particular outcomes. It becomes a “living daily conversation” with the Godhead, through which the individual gradually learns to recognise and practise the divine will. Prayer can develop moral guidance, inspiration and the desire to become a blessing to other living beings. ^[33] ^[34]

Providence in everyday life

Martinus applies the concept of Providence to both extraordinary and ordinary forms of help. Providence is said to inspire art, literature, music and science, and to work through political and social development. It also inspires hospitals, ambulance services, welfare work and other forms of organised humaneness. ^[35]

Martinus also describes suffering and prayer through the relationship between a macrobeing and its microbeings. Physical pain is interpreted as a transferred message from the microbeings of the organism to their macrobeing, while prayer and the Godhead are presented as corresponding realities in the larger relationship between living beings. ^[36]

The same principle is present in the individual’s daily experiences. In Martinus’ account, life itself is the direct speech of Providence: daily events, with their pleasant and unpleasant aspects, can be understood as a correspondence elicited by Providence. This gives the individual material for reflection and for the formation of a future happier fate. ^[37]

Providence is the continuing divine relationship through which living beings receive experience, guidance and help. Martinus connects this guidance with the transformation of the unfinished human being towards intellectuality, humaneness and universal love, and with the creation of the human being in God’s image. ^[38] ^[39]

References

[1] Livets Bog 2, section 487

[2] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[3] Livets Bog 2, section 487

[4] Livets Bog 2, section 488

[5] Livets Bog 2, section 487

[6] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 21.16

[7] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[8] Article 1807

[9] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[10] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 21.16

[11] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[12] Article 1807

[13] Article 1807

[14] Livets Bog 2, section 609

[15] The Eternal World Picture 1, section 2.2

[16] The Eternal World Picture 4, section 37.3

[17] Livets Bog 1, section 173

[18] Kosmisk bevidsthed, section 1.3 (*)

[19] Livets Bog 1, section 174

[20] The Eternal World Picture 4, section 37.3

[21] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[22] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.2 (*)

[23] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[24] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 32.14

[25] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 19.17

[26] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[27] Livets Bog 3, section 756

[28] Livets Bog 3, section 756

[29] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[30] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.2 (*)

[31] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.2 (*)

[32] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.8 (*)

[33] Bønnens mysterium, section 1.8 (*)

[34] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[35] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

[36] Livets Bog 2, section 596

[37] The Eternal World Picture 4, section 43.2

[38] The Eternal World Picture 2, section 24.6

[39] The Eternal World Picture 3, section 33.74

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