# Chain: Knowing Your Own Soul > *The soul is the part of yourself you know least, and coming to know it is the route to God* **The argument it traces:** Mankind reveres and nurtures the mind and neglects the soul → so the soul lies cloistered, and the mind's own account of who you are is distorted → the path you forge to your own soul is the same path you forge to God → and this self-knowledge is prior to prayer, service and any effort to change the world → so knowing your soul and knowing God are one movement, not two **3** messages · **7** supporting · main statement not yet chosen --- ## Foundation ### 2016-02-15 - [[2016-02-15 Forge That Path to Your Souls and Thereby to God|Forge That Path to Your Souls and Thereby to God]] The one message that states the gap, the claim and the measure together. The gap: "it is not easy for you to know your souls - a powerful and subtle Gift from God that brings you life. For you know your minds so well, this well-trodden place which you value and nurture and revere." The claim, which is also the title and the excerpt: "you must forge that path to your souls, for in doing so you forge a path to God." The measure, and the thing that makes this an argument rather than an exhortation, is the mind itself: "We urge you to know your souls, to know them well, to know them every bit as well as your minds." What the mind obstructs is specifically self-knowledge, "the mind's interpretation of God's creation and of who you are and why you are and where you are going." Mechanism: "Continue, my beloveds, in your prayers for the Father's Love... this is the key to opening the door to the soul." The message argues two things and keeps both roles: the [[Chains/Mind Vs Soul|Mind Vs Soul]] Elaboration below stands unchanged. ## Elaboration ### 2016-12-05 - [[2016-12-05 Be Scientists of the Soul|Be Scientists of the Soul]] The soul treated as a field of study, with the neglect stated at the scale of a civilization. "There are millions of books, filled with millions of facts, mankind has spent unfathomable hours researching the world... but the soul has been pitifully neglected. And you, my brothers and sisters, are scientists of the soul, it is your job, your opportunity to research the development of the soul, your own soul and all the souls who are with you in this greater effort." She names the method, "through your prayers and efforts and contemplations and meditations," and the place the study is done, "explore them from within yourselves, within your soul consciousness and to feed this exploration through your prayers for the Father's Love." She also says what the knowing is for once it is gathered: the "delicate wisps of truth" are woven "into something strong and viable" and then "you will be able to clearly translate this knowledge through your minds to others," with the hope, "maybe someday you will write a book that details these things." ### 2018-11-29 - [[2018-11-29 The Power of Prayer|The Power of Prayer]] Extends the Foundation in two directions it does not reach. Makes the knowing a prerequisite for action rather than a route to God only: "you cannot know what it is to pray until you know your own heart and know your own soul in relationship with your Creator", with the failure state named, "otherwise, you just cast your intentions to the wind, neither heard by God nor will it bring any satisfaction to that deep part of yourselves." The phrase "in relationship with your Creator" supplies the bridge the Foundation asserts without building: the soul is not known first and God second, because the soul is known as a thing already in relation to God. Extends it outward as well: "to be an agent of change in the world one must change within to carry a deep love and compassion for humanity. In this way, you will understand the Will of God." --- ## Also touches on this *These messages restate or echo the idea rather than carry it forward, so they sit alongside the thread rather than in it.* - **2015-08-17** [[2015-08-17 Seek out Your True Purpose|Seek out Your True Purpose]] (witness) - The exclusive form, "knowing your souls you are able to know God. As God puts within you His Essence, your soul is empowered with knowledge and wisdom... There is no other sure way to do this, my beloveds. There is no other way to at-onement with God." Held at witness rather than member under the scope test: the claim is a clause inside a message arguing purpose. - **2016-03-29** [[2016-03-29 The Gift of Life|The Gift of Life]] (witness) - The value claim, "To know your souls, to know who you truly are is the greatest of gifts to yourself," stated inside a message about the gift of life and identity rather than argued. - **2016-09-16** [[2016-09-16 Will You Walk with God|Will You Walk with God?]] (witness) - The knowing listed as a requirement inside a commission, "to truly know your souls, to truly know God's soul", set among the other things the ministry asks: shed what is not in harmony, pray without fail, stay receptive to guidance, and expect none of it to unfold without effort. The thread's members argue that self-knowledge is the route to God; this places it inside a list of duties without arguing it, so it is held at witness. - **2016-10-16** [[2016-10-16 The Opening of Your Soul Perceptions|The Opening of Your Soul Perceptions]] (sighting) - The message's subject is the difference between the awareness of the mind and the awareness of the soul, which is [[Chains/Mind Vs Soul|Mind Vs Soul]], and it does not make the soul an object of knowledge or treat self-knowledge as the route to God. Recorded so the assessment is not made twice, since the vocabulary is close enough to invite it. - **2016-11-27** [[2016-11-27 The Value of Knowing Your Souls|The Value of Knowing Your Souls]] (witness) - Titles the thread's claim and adds the shared frame, that knowing your souls is what a circle gathers to do and helps one another do: "This is your focus; this is why you come together. To help one another in this great effort, to rise above the conditions of this world, the conditions of your mind and truly come to know your souls." - **2016-12-05** [[2016-12-05 Dance in the Light of God's Love|Dance in the Light of God's Love]] (sighting) - The growing up named as coming to know oneself, "you are beginning to recognize your own beautiful selves," with "you are beautiful each one, beautiful." Asserted, with no account of how the self is come to know. - **2016-12-07** [[2016-12-07 Be Fully with God in Your Prayers|Be Fully with God in Your Prayers]] (considered and set aside) - "The unfoldment of your true selves begins, my beloveds, and you get glimpses and visions, feelings and impressions, vague understandings, and intense moments of revelation," with the instruction not to press, "it is not for you to press the issue of what will come to your consciousness." A true self emerging, which the roster's fences keep out of the thread, not knowing as the route to God.