Myrtle, As I Have Come to Know Her

As I re-read my initial post, I realize I had a pretty good handle on Myrtle’s theology, how it developed (the simplified version), and how it was expressed.  After these many weeks of research and analysis, my perception of her theology has shifted in a number of ways.

As “the Mother of Unity”, and as the “heart” versus Charles’ “head”, I had viewed Myrtle as this warm and loving soul, oozing with compassion and the desire to heal the world. She was tender and yielding, accepting and sympathetic.  These may, indeed, have been some of the attributes of our co-founder of Unity at times. Yet, reading and studying her letters and lectures at more depth and attempting to set aside my previous lenses, I can see much more of Myrtle’s strength and her direct, unyielding responses to communications she received. Myrtle possessed a deep passion for the Truth’s she had come to know; the One Power and Presence, God the Good, Omnipotent, Everywhere Present; the Power of Prayer and Healing.

Myrtle’s responses to requests for guidance not only focused on personal responsibility, as my original post had noted, but that responsibility was primarily to move ever closer to the Christ Consciousness within, to seek guidance there, to act from that space, and to allow the Christ Mind to express through us. Those expressions would be ones of being ~ being a loving parent, and wife, and neighbor. Through these individual shifts, Race Consciousness would be affected and the world would ultimately benefit. Myrtle taught resistance, in a sense  - resist Race Consciousness beliefs and persist in the Truths each person had come to know. Do not accept a medical diagnosis just because the professional is a medical doctor, after all, they don't know everything! Trust in the divine, intuitive guidance within. The body knows what it needs to do, so praise and give attention to the body so it can properly heal. (these are paraphrases)  Trust in God; Healer, Renewer, Teacher, Guide.

Myrtle taught balance, something else of which I was not aware. Pray, yes, then allow the prayer to take affect. Do not be overly anxious about the outcome. Trust. Release. In a sense, let God be God. Do the work, yes, and then allow the space for Spirit to express. Allow the human to step aside so the inner divine can have its way. There is a peace-fullness within the words and beliefs of Myrtle Fillmore.

And then there were the even more radical aspects of Myrtle’s theology that I had not been familiar with such as Regeneration, involving not only the spiritual, but the physical as well. I had not been aware of how pivotal this belief was to Myrtle and my own comfort - or discomfort - with the aspects of regeneration were tested. After all, this was Myrtle’s theology we were looking at, not how-well-does-what-I-discover-fit-for-me.

Myrtle’s theology is much clearer to me at the end of this portion of my studies and I look forward to future discoveries, more open to what I may find versus that which I just want to have personally affirmed.