Go Down To The Potter's House - Neville Goddard (11-24-1964) | Full Reading + Commentary

Neville Goddard 1964 lectures go down to the Potter's house November 24, 1964 tonight is like every night, really. The same story told over and over and over. The title is taken from the 18th chapter of the book of Jeremiah. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, arise and go down to the potter's house, and there I will let you hear my words. So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, and so he reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to do. Verse 1. Now, the word potter, by definition, is your own wonderful human imagination. That's the potter. So if I go down to the potter's house, I simply turn my interest within and wonder, what am I imagining that is going down to the potter's house? What am I imagining? So I hold myself, or I hold you, or some situation in my mind's eye, and it's not as I would like it to be, whatever that situation is. Excuse me. So I am making something that seemingly at the moment is spoiled, but I don't discard it. Excuse me. I reshape it into another state as it seemed good to me to do so. I am called upon to practice this wonderful art of reshaping images that are not as they ought to be based upon my desire for them. So I hear something of a friend, and it's not good. All right, I'm holding it. If I heard it in my mind's eye, I'm holding it. I am told not to accept it because reason dictates it, my senses allow it. But to reshape it into another vessel, as it seems good to me to do. Now, the entire chapter, the 18th chapter of the book of Jeremiah, is devoted to repentance. You know that means revision. And you also know that means a radical change of attitude. Repentance in action is revision. Repentance itself is a radical change of attitude towards life which would equal revision as you apply it. If I say that I will give evil to this nation and they repent, then I will repent of the evil that I intended. If, on the other hand, I say I will do good and they turn from their way into the evil way, I will repent of the good that I said I would do for them. Verse 10. So the whole thing is based upon change of mind, and the whole thing is based upon God. There is only God in this world, and God is your own wonderful Human imagination. That's God. So I go down to the potter's house, and the potter is imagination. It shapes, it fashions. One of the definitions is to determine to make a resolution. So you resolve to do this. You resolve to do this, that or the other. So at the moment when you resolve to do it, to be successful in this world, or to be something in this world, rather than what you are at the moment of your resolution, reason denies it, your senses deny it, but you resolve to do it. You are told to remain faithful to that resolution. Faithful. If you remain faithful to it, trusting in your imaginal act, though it were fact, then it will externalize itself in your world, within your world, if. If you remain faithful to the imaginal act. Now, that's what the story is telling us. Now let us turn to the eighth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel. It shows you what man does in this world. And so we are told. The voice came to Ezekiel. The word means God strengthens. And here he calls him Son of Man. The one title used of Jesus Christ, he always referred to himself only by the name Son of Man. So in the Book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel is called the Son of Man, Son of Man. And he takes him in spirit, for he never left physically. Ezekiel, if you read the story carefully, he never left Tel Ab, which means the top of the Mount of the Flood. He never left that area physically, but he's always transported in spirit, and transported in spirit into these areas that the Lord would show him. So he brought him to the court. As he brought him to the court, he said, son of man, look. And there, as I looked, I saw a hole in the wall. Then said he to him, son of man, dig. And as he and so he dug, and as he dug, he saw a door. Then said he to him, son of man, go in and see the vile abominations that they are doing here. As he went in on all the walls all around, he saw all the creeping or portrayed upon the walls, all the creeping things of the world, these violent abominations all around. And then he said to him, son of man, do you see what frightful abominations the elders of Israel are doing in the dark? Every one in his own room of pictures. And they say to themselves, the Lord does not see us. The Lord has forsaken the land. Verses 5 to 14 around on the walls. Well, where is this wall? He saw a hole, and the hole he dug. And the hole became a door that he could enter and see the elders of the house of Israel. Performing these abominations out of the things engraved upon the wall. They were all creeping things and horrible, monstrous things. All brute force. What does it mean to us? Well, it means this much. If there is one thing that man worships in this world, it is power. It is force. We speak of brute force. We speak of brute as force and force as brute force. Any man who falls victim to it falls below the level of man. He enters the brute world. Whether you be a politician, a religious leader, a social. Social leader, anyone who thinks of power, sheer brute force. It can be financial power, social power, political power. And they all are in their room. Well, what is this room? It's all here, right in your own wonderful skull. Those cave walls are right there. In there. Everything that you behold, everything that you behold, though it appears without it, is within in your own wonderful human imagination, of which this world of mortality is but a shadow. Blake, Jerusalem plate 71. So, from this combination of these brutes, these creeping strange things engraved upon the mind, man makes patterns and externalizes these things in his world. Then what is this little hole spoken of? If I read a simple little statement in Scripture, son of man, look. And behold, I looked and I saw a hole in the wall. Now you know. Excuse me. Now, you would think of a hole in the wall and it would be like a. And it would be like I take a little hole through that wall there. But don't take anything in Scripture for granted. Look it up in your concordance, because you and I are living in a different age. Go back 2000 years to find out what the inspired prophet meant when he wrote a word which is now translated as hole. H, O L, E. Well, to us, a hole could be a hole in the sock, it could be a hole in the piano. But does it really mean that? So go back and take a sentence and look it up. And what does the word hole mean in the concordance? The crevice of a serpent, the cell of a prison. That's what it means. It means the crevice of a serpent. Just imagine the crevice of a serpent and the cell of a prison. That's what it means. Now, the 42nd chapter of Isaiah. And they were all trapped in holes and hidden in prisons. Verse 22, the 14th chapter of the first book of Samuel. Behold, Hebrews are coming out of holes in which they have hid themselves. Verse 11. And you ask all these strange questions. What is this thing? Hebrews are coming out of holes in which they hid themselves. And all of us have been trapped in holes and Hidden in cells. Well, I know from my own personal experience what this fantastic mystery is all about, and I share it with you. Here, in man's own wonderful skull, the whole drama is taking place. This is the rock out of which something was taken. And then God himself. This is the sepulcher in which God was buried, the rock, hewn stone in which he was buried. And with him all things are there. Now, why is it the crevice of a serpent? Why, you mean out of here? This is a hole somewhere, and he digs it and he can enter it. And he's called Son of Man, and it's called a door. Well, who made the. Who made the statement, I am the door? He said, I am the door. Anyone who attempts to come in by any other way is a thief and a robber. I am the door. John 10:7. So he is the Son of Man who could enter and see what is taking place in this fabulous world within man. You and I not knowing because we say, the Lord does not see us. He has forsaken the land. So I think that if I stand here and I don't talk. I'm just thinking that no one knows what's going on because it's all alone. I haven't articulated it. I haven't expressed it. So I sit in the silence, and I think no one sees it. Certainly God doesn't see it, because I do not know who God is. So I think I'm all alone. And I can take from this imagery those vile, horrible things. And I can take all the creeping things and these abominable beasts, and from these horrible concepts I hold of man, I can fashion what I want and delight myself. And no one sees it. So I think. So he said, son of man, do you see what the elders of the House of Israel are doing in the dark? Well, who are the elders of the House of Israel? We are. Exclamation point. We are the fathers, all of us. We are the fathers who fell asleep, fell asleep in this tomb, this sepulcher called the Skull of Man. And in this, we are creating the most horrible, monstrous things that we externalize in the world of shadows. And we think the reality is there and the origin of it all, the origin of it all is here, all within us. What we are doing now, you can test it. I ask you to test it. Take someone you think is out there, a friend who lives 3,000 miles away. Maybe he's in New York City. And you. And you have. Excuse me. And you've heard from him, and things are not Going well. And you will think he is 3,000 miles away. All right. I ask you now to test the actual origin of all phenomena in your mind's eye. Bring him and hear him tell you the most fantastic story about his good fortune. Bring it right there, his success. And believe in the reality of that imaginal act. Trust God, for God is doing it. Begin to prove who you really are. Wait for comment. Excuse me. And wait for confirmation. Seemingly coming from there. The origin is here. All within your own wonderful human imagination. That's where God is. And so you take your friend seemingly out there. You bring him into your mind's eye. Represent him to yourself as the man that you would like him to be. Hear him tell you all the lovely things that you want to hear. And believe in the reality of what you imagined that you have heard. And wait for confirmation. Excuse me. And wait for confirmation. Seemingly coming from without. The garment from without. Because a seed falls into the ground, and it has an interval of time between being sown in the earth and reaping in this world. So every little thing has its own appointed hour, as we're told. I. Excuse me. As we are told. The vision, your vision now has its own appointed hour. Ripens. It ripens. It will flower. If it be long, then wait, for it will sure. For it is sure, and it will not be late. That's from the second chapter of Habakkuk, verse 3. Every vision in this world, if you don't disturb it, it has its own appointed hour. So that's your vision of one who seemingly can't make the grade in this world. He's unemployed. He can't make any money. He can't get beyond the eight ball, as it were. And you simply represent him to yourself as you want to see him, see him clearly in your mind's eye. And then one day, this fabulous mystery will unfold within you. And I looked. And behold, the Hebrews were coming out of the holes where they had hidden themselves. Oh, what a fantastic story that is. All of a sudden, one day, unexpectedly, and a surprise beyond your wildest dreams, you are torn in two. Suddenly you find yourself looking at molten gold. And you know it is yourself. And you fuse with it. And like a serpent, you go up, right into that hole. The Son of Man must be lifted up. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. John 3:14. And you find yourself, just like a serpent, moving through that hole right into heaven. A redeemed being, completely redeemed. The word Is redeem or deliver in Scripture. When I read the word deliver, look it up in your concordance. What does it mean? A flux of blood. A flux of blood saved by the blood of God. You are severed in two from the top of your head to the base of your spine. And there you stop and stare at the parted body like a cleft tree. At the base of the spine is molten gold. It's the blood of God. But you know it is yourself. Knowing it yourself, you fuse with it. The word flux of blood also has the definition fusing. Look it up in your concordance. So you fuse with it as your very being. And then like this slippery being, up you go right through that hole. And that hole is nothing more than you are told in your concordance. A cleft. The cleft of the serpent. Can you imagine that? The cleft of the serpent, the cell of a prison. Man is imprisoned in his skull. Everyone in this world is imprisoned in this rock. And the word rock in scripture, if you look it up in your concordance, is to encase, to confine. So man is completely confined within himself in his skull. And the moment will come when suddenly these things will happen to you. And you will simply find yourself as this wonderful being, glimmering being, moving up into an entirely different new world. Then you go back and you ask, well, who is this serpent of the third chapter of Genesis? Who is he? What is this serpent who said to me, I would not die? You were told you would die? Yes. You were told that you would die? Yes. But really, in the end, you would not really die. And you ask, what is this serpent? Then you read it to cause to fall. And the word yod, hey, vow. Heh. It's primitive meaning was to cause to fall, or to cause to blow, or to cause the wind to blow. So who made us fall? Then you go into the book of Romans, and God consigned all men to disobedience that he may have mercy upon all. 1132. Well, if the serpent caused us to disobey and God caused all men to disobey that he may have mercy upon all, who is the serpent? And therefore, who is that serpent that now goes up through the hole? For the hole is the crevice of a serpent. And you go up, just like a serpent, into a fiery manner, right through that hole into your skull. So you think about it and you dwell upon it until it happens to you. May I tell you? Come, let us go down to the potter's house. So I will go down to the potter's house. And there I see him working at his wheel. And the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter's hand, but he reworked it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to do so. Before this thing happens to you as it has happened to me, then let us go to the potter's house and prove this law. Is this really true? All right. I will take someone now in my world and imagine that he is exactly as I want him to be. So if he is not as he should be now, then it's spoiled in my mind's eye. I'm not going to throw him away. I will not discard him as a friend. No one ought to be discarded. Bring him back into my mind's eye and then simply reshape him and see him as I would like him to be. And then believe in the reality of what I've seen, for I have imagined. And wait. For all things have their own appointed hour. Wait for it and see it externalized within my world. Now, we are told in the Book of Numbers that if there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision, and I will speak with him in a dream. Two, six. Well, this morning's mail brought a letter, special delivery from a lady who is here tonight. These are revelations, and you listen to them carefully. She gave two. She said, I found myself in a very small room, very sparsely furnished. I was greatly disappointed, for I was looking for a man and he wasn't there. Suddenly the room began to fill with pearls. The vase, the table, all things began to fill with pearls. Luscious, lovely, shimmering pearls. Then a voice said to me, you formerly had false pearls, and then you had cultured pearls. Man made pearls, and now you have the real pearl. He will find you. You don't have to search anymore. You've been looking for him, and you had your false pearls and cultured pearls. Now he will find you because you have found the real pearl, the true pearl. That just reminds me of a very good friend named Earl, who we used to call the pearl. And he had a very good heart, very, very kind soul and wonderful heart. We used to call him Earl the Pearl, one of the names. The other ones weren't so kind as kids do. Another person who just left the party, also a very, very much a heart of a lion. All of us knew each other through playing baseball and growing up. And at the.