The Kingdom Within
What if the great spiritual journey humanity has projected outward is actually describing an inward transformation of consciousness?
What if “the Kingdom of God” is first the reign or sovereignty of the Divine rather than simply a location called Heaven?
What if the Kingdom Jesus spoke about isn’t somewhere we go?
What if it is something we discover?
When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom, he did not speak only of a distant place awaiting us after death. In the earliest Christian texts, the Kingdom draws near. It is received. It is entered. It is described as already present and yet unseen. And in one of Luke’s most provocative passages, Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is entos hymōn, words that have been translated both “within you” and “in your midst.”
The Gospel of Thomas pushes the image further. The Kingdom is described as both inside and outside us. The seeker is told to recognize what is already present. Elsewhere, entry into the Kingdom is connected symbolically with making what is divided whole.
Perhaps, then, the question is not simply Where is the Kingdom?
Perhaps the question is What prevents us from seeing it?
I have been studying without a religious lens for several years now, and I learned when you do that, you find out the words of Christ are so much more powerful and meaningful to our own consciousness.
Let me start by just showing you something straight from the sources themselves. The actual most authentic texts. The Greek wording preserved in early manuscripts, presented here in normalized form. This is worth slowing down for.
In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is asked when God’s kingdom comes, and answers:
“the Kingdom of God does not come μετὰ παρατηρήσεως (meta paratērēseōs), with observation/watchful observation.” Then:
You won’t say, “Here!” or “There!” because the Kingdom is entos hymōn
Luke 17:20–21: the crucial passage
The Greek text from the Codex Sinaiticus reads:
οὐδὲ ἐροῦσιν· Ἰδοὺ ὧδε ἤ· Ἐκεῖ· ἰδοὺ γὰρ ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ ἐντὸς ὑμῶν ἐστιν.
The critical words are:
ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦhē basileia tou theou= the kingdom/reign of God
and then:
ἐντὸς ὑμῶν ἐστινentos hymōn estin
Very literally:
entos = inside, within, on the inside/interior hymōn = of you / you, plural estin = is
So structurally we have “The kingdom of God is entos you.”
And entos is where the the magic happens once you realize the implications of the teachings. The Greek word βασιλεία, basileia, in its semantic range means: kingship, royal power, reign, rule, sovereignty, kingdom/realm.
In the Gospel of Thomas (3) Jesus said, “If those who lead you say to you, ‘See, the kingdom is in the sky,’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fish will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty.”
Now put that otgether with the Gospel of Thomas 22 says:
“make the inside like the outside and the outside like the inside.”
Mark 10:15 has Jesus saying that whoever does not receive (dexētai) the Kingdom of God like a child, will not enter (eiselthē) it. Codex Sinaiticus preserves that saying as well.
That combination is fascinating.
You can receive it.
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You can enter it.
It can draw near.
It can come upon you.
And it can be entos hymōn. (Inside you)
What kind of Kingdom behaves like this?
This is not talking about a place you go when you die. This is talking about something we acheive here and now while we are alive. This is a direct teaching of human consciousness. If the Kingdom is primarily imagined as a future destination, the seeker may spend a lifetime preparing to go somewhere rather than investigating what Jesus meant by a Kingdom that is already near, already active, and somehow intimately present.
Let us consider what a “Kingdom” actually is.
A kingdom contains… rulers, authorities, relationships, workers, resources, conflicts, laws, choices, destruction, renewal, judgment, wisdom, power, love, death, birth, temptation, celebration, scarcity and abundance.
Interestingly, Tarot an archetypal 78 card playing deck, contains all of that. It has an Emperor and Empress, Kings and Queens, Knights and Pages. It has Justice and Judgment. It has priests and teachers, lovers and hermits. It has towers falling, devils binding, stars guiding, suns illuminating, moons obscuring. And then the Minor Arcana brings the kingdom down into ordinary lived existence: mind, emotion, will and material embodiment.
This is where the House of Sophia and the Spiral Path of the Fool’s Journey all join as one in the Kingdom Within you/us.
The Spiral Path of Consciousness is literally a journey inward. The Journeyer enters as the Fool. The Fool in Tarot is not dumb, he is curious. He is an innocent seeker.
The archetypes become encounters or initiations.
The spiral carries the Journeyer progressively inward.
And what waits at the center?
Not a priest.
Not an institution.
Not somebody announcing what you’re required to believe.
The Kingdom Within.
And Sophia, Wisdom, is encountered there because the Journeyer has learned how to see.
The Kingdom Within cannot simply be taught, because wisdom cannot simply be transferred. It must be encountered. The path exists to give form to that encounter, to bring the inner world outward so that the seeker can walk through it, face it, wrestle with it, and ultimately recognize it as their own.
The Kingdom Within is not something we are given. It is something we become conscious of. Sophia is the wisdom that reveals it, and the Fool’s Journey is the archetypal path by which we learn to recognize what was within us all along.
Sophia = what is remembered.
The Fool’s Journey = how we awaken.
The Kingdom Within = where the awakening occurs.
Sophia Is Not a Woman.
Christ Is Not a Destination
The Kingdom Is Not a Place
The Path Must Be Walked
This is why the House of Sophia produces the path for the capacity to understand. Knowledge can be transferred. But Wisdom? That must be realized.
The House of Sophia gives physical form to the interior journey so that the seeker can remain with what is normally difficult to see. We do not tell you who you are. We create a path upon which you may remember. And once you know the way, you will never be lost again.
The House of Sophia is calling to you
Learn more https://theempress9.wixsite.com/house-of-sophia-inst
