In this video, we explore the metaphor of the circle as expressed in A Course In Miracles, including The Circle of Atonement. This conversation was facilitated by Bruce Rawles as part of the School For A Course In Miracles (SFACIM) curriculum hosted by Lyn Corona and Tim Wise.
Dualistic circle geometry is all we can portray with physical symbols; any manifestation of the idea of a perfect, infinite circle is necessarily finite when constrained to a non-abstract form. Yet even in this surreal world of guilt, individuality, space, and time, the geometry of the circle gives us clues: the proportion of a circle’s circumference to its diameter is pi – a number that is both irrational and transcendental. Meditation on these properties can remind us that any specific form is limited and limiting.
(From “Theory of forms” (wikipedia) “Plato explains how we are always many steps away from the idea or Form. The idea of a perfect circle can have us defining, speaking, writing, and drawing about particular circles that are always steps away from the actual being. The perfect circle, partly represented by a curved line, and a precise definition, cannot be drawn. Even the ratio of pi is an irrational number, that only partly helps to fully describe the perfect circle. The idea of the perfect circle is discovered, not invented.”
(From the GeometryCode.com Introduction: “The Circle The circle is a two-dimensional shadow of the sphere which is regarded throughout cultural history as an icon of the ineffable oneness; the indivisible fulfillment of the Universe. All other symbols and geometries reflect various aspects of the profound and consummate perfection of the circle, sphere and other higher dimensional forms of these we might imagine. The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, Pi, is the original transcendental and irrational number. (Pi equals about 3.1415926535…) It cannot be expressed in terms of the ratio of two whole numbers, or in the language of sacred symbolism, the essence of the circle exists in a dimension that transcends the linear rationality that it contains. Our holistic perspectives, feelings and intuitions encompass the finite elements of the ideas that are within them, yet have a greater wisdom than can be expressed by those ideas alone.”
The ego abuses the symbol of the circle for it’s dualistic, divisive purpose to divide the (seemingly innocent) “lambs” from the (guilty) “goats” in our mind, resulting in everyone being guilty, since minds are joined and ideas don’t leave their source. Any attempt at dividing innocence makes all the apparently separate parts guilty of the (impossible) crime of separating what is eternally One and indivisible.
From page 62 of The Geometry Code: Universal Symbolic Mirrors of Natural Laws Within Us; Friendly Reminders of Inclusion to Forgive the Dreamer of Separation by Bruce Rawles:
The Wikipedia definition of scapegoat is “Scapegoating is the practice of singling out one child, employee, member of a group of peers, ethnic or religious group, or country for unmerited negative treatment or blame.”
The biblical story of the scapegoat offers a very helpful clue. It employs the symbol of the circle as a mnemonic for practicing inclusion or exclusion. In historic accounts, the guilt (sins) of the community were projected onto a goat, which was then banished to the realms outside the inner flock – peripheral to the circle of what we’re willing to accept or allow in our minds. Everything within the circle is OK (innocent as lambs), and if you’re outside, tough luck, goat! The problem is that the very premise that divides wholeness into parts is flawed, and even the ‘good’ that remains begins to be suspect because of the inherent lack of trust. The circle closes in and eventually strangles the dualistic split mind into oblivion; it becomes a singularity and winks out; but not without a lot of grief and struggle!
The circular symbolism is evident in ego’s insane defenses attempting to exclude what remains in the split mind, yet seems to have been projected “out there” in the material world. Ego attempts in vain to “protect” what appears to be inner from what appears to be outer – beyond our imagined boundaries, as in a fortress, castle keep or citadel. I looked up the word citadel and there are 2 instances of citadel in ACIM; here is one of them:
“There is no stone in all the ego’s embattled citadel that is more heavily defended than the idea that sin is real; the natural expression of what the Son of God has made himself to be, and what he is.” (ACIM, T-19.II.7:1)
In the Course, there are 35 instances of the word “encompass.” A compass is a geometer’s classic tool for drawing a circle, which on the level of form always defines an inner and an outer, a we and a they, an us and a them. We need Holy Spirit’s vision to imagine an infinite circle that embraces or encompasses All to transcend the dualistic symbols of this limited and limiting world concept or self concept. Here’s one of the more famous examples from the very beginning of the text:
“The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.” (ACIM, T-in.1:8)
Another quintessential example of the Course’s use of the word “circle” ( among the aforementioned 28 instances of the word “circle” in ACIM) is from The Little Garden (ACIM, T-18.VIII):
“The body cannot know. ²And while you limit your awareness to its tiny senses, you will not see the grandeur that surrounds you. ³God cannot come into a body, nor can you join Him there. ⁴Limits on love will always seem to shut Him out, and keep you apart from Him. ⁵The body is a tiny fence around a little part of a glorious and complete idea. ⁶It draws a circle, infinitely small, around a very little segment of Heaven, splintered from the whole, proclaiming that within it is your kingdom, where God can enter not.” (ACIM, T-18.VIII.2:1-6)
There are 28 instances of the word “circle” in ACIM. The first 9 of them are in the “Circle of Atonement.”
Here are the first 3 paragraphs of the “Circle of Atonement” section in chapter 14 of ACIM’s text:
“1. The only part of your mind that has reality is the part that links you still with God.²Would you have all of it transformed into a radiant message of God’s Love, to share with all the lonely ones who have denied Him?³God makes this possible.⁴Would you deny His yearning to be known?⁵You yearn for Him, as He for you.⁶This is forever changeless.⁷Accept, then, the immutable.⁸Leave the world of death behind, and return quietly to Heaven.⁹There is nothing of value here, and everything of value there.¹⁰Listen to the Holy Spirit, and to God through Him.¹¹He speaks of you to you.¹²There is no guilt in you, for God is blessed in His Son as the Son is blessed in Him.
2. Everyone has a special part to play in the Atonement, but the message given to each one is always the same; God’s Son is guiltless.²Each one teaches the message differently, and learns it differently.³Yet until he teaches it and learns it, he will suffer the pain of dim awareness that his true function remains unfulfilled in him.⁴The burden of guilt is heavy, but God would not have you bound by it.⁵His plan for your awaking is as perfect as yours is fallible.⁶You know not what you do, but He Who knows is with you.⁷His gentleness is yours, and all the love you share with God He holds in trust for you.⁸He would teach you nothing except how to be happy.
3. Blessed Son of a wholly blessing Father, joy was created for you.²Who can condemn whom God has blessed?³There is nothing in the Mind of God that does not share His shining innocence.⁴Creation is the natural extension of perfect purity.⁵Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial of guilt in all its forms.⁶To accuse is not to understand.⁷The happy learners of the Atonement become the teachers of the innocence that is the right of all that God created. ⁸Deny them not what is their due, for you will not withhold it from them alone.” (ACIM, T-14.V.1:1–3:8)
The Forgotten Song (ACIM, T-21.I) is a favorite section for many Course students:
“Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches as you look into a great and shining circle. ²And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. ³The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it is no longer contained at all. ⁴The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity forever shining and with no break or limit anywhere. ⁵Within it everything is joined in perfect continuity. ⁶Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside, for there is nowhere that this light is not.” (ACIM, T-21.I.8:1-6)
(This YouTube video recording was made on May 26, 2024.)
I just noticed that I misspelled condemnation as “condemntion” in my background graphic; oh well, this will serve as a forgiveness exercise to not condemn myself for forgetting to check my grammar and spelling!
