{"id":136,"date":"2013-06-17T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-17T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/b662bb97-b882-49e8-a3e7-eed7305e63b6"},"modified":"2013-06-17T05:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-06-17T05:00:00","slug":"playing-with-words-innocence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/?p=136","title":{"rendered":"Playing With Words: Innocence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Playing With Words<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Innocence<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

By<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Joseph Anthony<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n


\n<\/font><\/p>\n

What was your word,
\nJesus? Love?  Affection? Forgiveness?<\/o:p><\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

All your words were one
\nword: Wakeup!<\/o:p><\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

\n

–Antonio Machado<\/o:p><\/font><\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font>\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

I have been
\nfascinated by the concept (for lack of a better word) of innocence for quite a
\nnumber of years now (this blog is called, \u201cThe Wonder Child Blog,\u201d after
\nall).  Innocence means a lot of different
\nthings to a lot of different people. 
\nSome people believe once you \u201close\u201d it you can never get it back
\nagain.  Some believe we weren\u2019t born
\ninnocent; that there was only one–well two, if you count his mother–innocent
\nbeings to ever walk the planet.  Still others
\nbelieve innocence is a magical thing that we can grow back into no matter how
\nold we become or what happens to us. <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

What follows
\nare a few reflections on innocence.  Before
\nI share them however, it\u2019s best to begin at the beginning: with a little
\netymology. I will also use a few ideas about innocence from the 17th<\/sup>
\ncentury mystic, Emmanuel Swedenborg.  No
\nother philosopher or mystic had more to say on the subject of innocence as he
\ndid.  For Swedenborg, the entire cosmos
\nhinges on innocence, but more on that in a minute.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The word, innocent<\/i>, comes from the Latin and means
\n\u201cnot guilty, not harmful, and blameless (Online Etymology Dictionary<\/a>).\u201d Around
\n1200 it became associated with sin and evil, as in not-sinful and not evil
\n(ibid). And in the 1400\u2019s it began to mean \u201cpure.\u201d  Most interesting to me is that innocence is
\nrelated to the word \u201cnoxious,\u201d as in, \u201cnot<\/i>-noxious
\n(nocere) (ibid).\u201d  And of course, noxious<\/i>, means \u201churtful or poisonous.\u201d
\nLastly, the \u201cnocere,\u201d Latin roots are related to the Proto-Indo-European
\n\u201cnek-ro,\u201d which means, \u201cdeath,\u201d (necro<\/i>
\nis a Greek word for \u201cdead body\u201d) (ibid). 
\n<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Many people
\nwould say we are born innocent only to be corrupted by the world later on.  Interestingly, Swedenborg said that the
\ninnocence of infancy is only the beginning; that it\u2019s wonderful in itself; that
\nit\u2019s a picture of spiritual innocence, but that it\u2019s actually not complete
\ninnocence (Arcana Celestia).  According
\nto Swedenborg, innocence involves \u201cthe willingness to be led,\u201d and being in a
\nstate of love and wisdom (ibid).  It is
\nsomething we grow into.  This is why
\ncertain older folks are so delightfully child-like in their old age\u2014they have
\nfused the wisdom of their experiences with love, they are consciously innocent,
\none could say.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Swedenborg
\ntakes this all even further, and says that the Divine, the Creator of All, is<\/i> innocence (ibid).   It follows we couldn\u2019t live without this innocence.  We receive innocence as infants; it is
\nplanted within us; and this innocence remains within us forever, and, according
\nto Swedenborg, over time, becomes our \u201cliving soul (ibid).\u201d  Without innocence we couldn\u2019t grow spiritually
\nor discover heaven.  Heaven is, after all,
\nthe Divine itself, and thus we could say heaven is innocence itself. <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Keeping in
\nmind Swedenborg\u2019s ideas, let\u2019s go back to our etymology for a moment.  Some of us have things happen to us that are
\ntraumatic, abusive, tragic, devastating. 
\nSome of these experiences seemingly destroy our sense of wonder, love,
\nself-love, self-worth, our ability to trust, our ability to experience joy or
\npleasure, happiness or peace; some of us seemingly lose our sense of inner
\nfreedom and confidence; we perpetuate the abuse by living in addictions and
\nshame-based behaviors that swirl  around
\ndestructive and sick relationships for years. 
\nAll of this would seem to suggest that innocence can be destroyed,
\nharmed, or even killed.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t
\nbelieve this is so.  Such tragic
\nexperiences can cloud our \u201csense\u201d of innocence; but the Divine innocence within
\nus can never be harmed, killed, or taken away\u2014it\u2019s Divine.  We may feel we are light-years away from our
\ninnocence, but it is there.  Jesus said
\nin Matthew, \u201cIt is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these
\nlittle ones should perish.\u201d  In other words,
\nour innocence never dies.  We may die
\nphysically, emotionally, even mentally, but never spiritually\u2014our innocence
\nnever dies.  We may descend into personal
\nhells and deprivations and be unconscious spiritually, but our core, the very
\ncenter of our being\u2014no matter how clouded, covered, or hidden, is always
\nshining, always whole, always radiantly innocent.  <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

So what do
\nwe do if we feel our sense of innocence is lost? What do we do if we feel we are
\nin a state of unconsciousness spirituality; if we\u2019re living a life of learned
\nhelplessness, lost in addictions and fear, rage, and sickness?<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

We need to
\nwake up.  Something must rouse us awake:
\na tragedy, an illness, a mentor, a moment of complete hopelessness and darkness;
\nsomething must rouse us into consciousness, into a moment of clarity, a moment
\nof realization. We might also wake up in a moment of profound bliss and
\ncreativity\u2014this does happen although it isn\u2019t talked about as much.  But just as we wake up from a deep sleep by a
\nsudden and loud noise, or a dream that\u2019s too intense, we wake from our sickness
\nby something \u201cloud\u201d happening to or around us, by our lives becoming so corrupt
\nwe must wake up or die.  Leaving aside
\nfor the moment how we wake up, or that the painful events are often caused by
\nour own destructive behaviors when we\u2019re in such states, the main thing is we
\nneed to wake up.  And just as we wake
\nfrom our physical sleep by outside forces we need outside forces to help us
\nwake spiritually\u2014mentors and friends who know and truly care for us; who can
\nsee the way ahead when we cannot yet do so for ourselves.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

This need
\nfor awakening magnifies the reality that innocence is ultimately
\nindestructible.  For without the spark of
\ninnocence within us, we could not recognize the moment of clarity or the deeds
\nor words from our mentor that rouse us from our stupor.  We wake up because innocence recognizes
\ninnocence, and a fire is born.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

And just as
\ninfants wake up and begin stretching, we need to begin stretching upon
\nexperiencing our spiritual awakening.  We
\nneed to exercise our mental discipline, our wills, our ability to follow
\ndirections and be led by others.  As this
\nhappens, our desire to engage in destructive behaviors falls away little by
\nlittle (or all at once); we begin to see that there are things we\u2019ve done in this
\nworld that we need to try to fix, mend, seek forgiveness for.  And the more we live in, and from, a state of
\nforgiveness, for ourselves and for the world, our innocence grows and our sense
\nof guiltiness lessons and the more we are able to be led by love\u2014love from
\nwithin and love from without. The more we become right with ourselves and
\ncontinue making things right in the world, the more innocence, from wisdom and
\nlove, blossoms.  The seeds are always
\nthere within us, just as the Divine is always there present in every living
\nthing, and the Divine, as we\u2019ve said, is<\/i>
\ninnocence.  So then, the answer as to how
\nto be reborn into conscious innocence is what it is for just about everything
\nelse: Wake up.<\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/font>\"\"<\/p>\n

Donate to the Wonder Child Blog today.  Thank you.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n\"\"
\n<\/form>\n

 <\/font><\/p>\n

Copyright Joseph Anthony of the Wonder Child Blog<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Playing With Words Innocence By Joseph Anthony What was your word, Jesus? Love?  Affection? Forgiveness? All your words were one word: Wakeup! –Antonio Machado     I have been fascinated by the concept (for lack of a better word) of innocence for quite a number of years now (this blog is called, \u201cThe Wonder Child […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewonderchildblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}