Plural Relationships

Wednesday, December 12, 2001 1:26 AM

Jerdana asks about the desirability of multiple amorous relationships, which undoubtedly would include polygamy.

I have written some on this in the past and will repost it below. If this does not give you the answer you are seeking please as further questions.

Sometimes I will miss answering some of your questions. If I do and it is important to you ask again. Anyone else with insight into questions asked is always welcome to jump in and respond.



Flawed Disciples

Larry asks about Joseph Smith and the doctrine of polygamy. In many ways he seemed like such an enlightened man yet the practice of plural wives seems to be a step backward to many.

So what is the answer? Was he inspired of God in this odd teaching? Was he led by his own desires or is there something more than this on the table?

The truth is that the initiates of most major religions, organizations and groups are working for the cause of Light. They are given a certain amount of inspiration and revelation but are not given all the details. The details are usually filled in by the disciple who is working directly with humanity and tunes in to the need of the time and place. Even if a disciple is working directly for the Brotherhood of Light and receives revelations periodically, when the disciple makes a mistake he is usually not corrected.

The Brotherhood has learned painful lessons on their own plane about the dangers of assisting too much and with rare exceptions they will give the disciple the basic vision to materialize the next step in the Plan and Will of God and then let him or her proceed. The disciple is then only corrected if he honestly seeks further instruction and correction.

As it is, even disciples who are relatively successful usually make their share of mistakes. A lot of it has to do with tapping into thoughtforms created by mistakes from past disciples and teachers, or a distortion of such teachings which are absorbed by the group or race as a whole.

H. P. Blavatsky was a good example of this. While it is true that she had contact with the Brotherhood and performed a great service for them and there were a number of legitimate signs and wonders demonstrated, there were not enough to go around in her opinion. Therefore she yielded to the temptation to help people's faith along a bit.

She wrote most of the Mahatma letters herself and arranged to have them mysteriously delivered to A. P. Sinnett who believed and proclaimed them as materialized letters from the Masters.

She learned about regular magic tricks in her early travels and used her skill in magic to give people signs that she had supernatural powers when the Masters seemed to be ignoring her.

She preached purity of diet and the benefits of vegetarianism yet regularly ate meat herself and smoked up to 200 cigarettes a day. Failing to take better care of her body as she knew disciples were supposed to do, took at least 30 years off her life and her last ten years were lived in great physical distress with failing kidneys.

Through all this, the Masters did not correct her but gave her what was necessary for the time and hoped for the best.

As it turned out, despite her shortcomings she lived up to expectations in bringing the hidden teachings from the East and introducing them to the West. Without her great contribution, many of us would not be talking about spiritual philosophy on the level that we do.

Joseph Smith was another flawed servant, yet one who also made great contributions and laid seed teachings which are yet to bear fruit.

He received a revelation on the Molecular Relationship, but was unable to understand it in its fullness because the knowledge of the relationship of atoms and molecules was not available to him in that age. He had to put together the details of the divine order with the knowledge which was in his brain at the time.

He called his various glimpses of the Molecular Order by several names such as the "holy order of the Priesthood," the New and Everlasting Covenant of Marriage and Celestial Marriage.

As he was putting together the pieces, he searched the scriptures and found that the patriarchs of the Bible had multiple wives. Because he saw that some molecular relationships could have multiple partners of the opposite polarity, this Biblical doctrine of plural marriage seemed to fit the pattern.

He began to create various molecular relationships and most of them were puritanical until his relationship with his wife went extremely sour and he fell in love with Elisa Snow. He did have a sexual relationship with her and she became pregnant with his child which was lost when his wife Emma, in a rage, pushed Elisa down the stairs.

He did not dare divorce his wife because of the damage it would do to the church, but his love for Elisa did cause him to write a revelation that would eventually make plural marriage an official doctrine of the church. At the end of this revelation it was written that more would be given on this subject at a future date. In other words, he did not yet have the full picture but was proceeding with what he understood at the time.

So is plural marriage itself right or wrong?

There is nothing wrong with any relationship if pursued harmlessly by free will but where plural marriage in the Mormon Church went astray was that it was promoted as the will of God and many entered into it against their will because they were told that this was God's decree.

The principle to work toward in all relationships is the balancing of energies and with multiple partners the energies of all are usually thrown off balance. The greatest balance is achieved by a one to one relationship when we are talking about anything involving sex.

During Joseph's life there were many marriages of men to multiple female partners as well as females to multiple males and men to multiple males and few of these involved sex. After his death, the concept of the molecules was lost and simple plural marriage on the physical level became the general interpretation of "celestial marriage." Joseph realized that many of his teachings would be distorted and wrote some of the most important ones on metal plates of his own making and buried them just before his death. These plates will be discovered or revealed when the time is right.

Joseph died prematurely before completing his mission, but laid a foundation which will yet bare much fruit. The present day Mormon Church and break-offs will have to undergo a spiritual resurgence before they can be a part of that plan.


John
1. Plural Marriage. Joseph is said to have received revelation on this matter as early as 1830, and it is well documented that he began the practice shortly thereafter, accumulating many plural wives before he died. However -- he also kept the matter very "hush-hush" (it wasn't revealed to the body of the church until 1852). Why? Was it fear of persecution ... or something more? Joseph has been quoted as saying that he was deceived (about this revelation), and that he could see that it should be stopped at once -- that unless it was, the church would be forced to leave the country (which was pretty much the case by the 1880's). What is your read on this whole thing?

JJ
It is interesting that many who were called prophets made the claim that God told them to practice plural marriage, from Abraham to David, Solomon and later Mohammed and finally Joseph Smith and Brigham Young.

It is interesting that Djwahl Khul stated that the Master Jesus overshadowed Mohammed and Joseph also claimed to receive revelation from him.

There is a time and place for everything and it is possible that some teachers in history have been told to take plural wives to prepare bodies for an enlightened seed, yet in each case average people joined in the practice and overall the progeny of polygamists are no more children of light than the so-called nonbelievers. I sought an answer on this principle and I'll relate it to you to run by your soul.

Both the beginning and the end of plural marriage in the Mormon Church were not correct. Joseph picked up through revelation the basic principles of the Molecular Relationship. Unfortunately they did not even know what molecules and atoms were in those days and he organized it according to the thoughtform of the time and called it "the New and Everlasting Order of Marriage." Through the encouragement of Brigham Young and others he incorporated plural relationships into the order, which thing he began to regret near the end of his life, especially the physical side.

Brigham Young, after the death of Joseph, went ahead full steam with the principle, having 27 wives for himself and encouraging it among the brethren.

As you know the U.S. government became morally outraged by the practice and made laws against it and began to jail and persecute the leadership of the church. In 1890 the leadership under Wilford Woodruff gave into the pressure and not only discontinued it but outlawed it among the members.

After this the persecution ceased and the church has had a fairly easy coast in growth since that time.

What was wrong with discontinuing it if it was a mistake to begin with?

Because they did it for the wrong reason. The government attempted to take away their constitutional right to practice their religion and they yielded to it. They had an opportunity to stand it for freedom of thought and religion and that would have helped to establish a greater foothold for freedom than we have today.

It should have been discontinued because of a higher clarifying revelation rather than government pressure.

Yielding a principle they believed in to government pressure caused a loss of light among the leadership and from that point on the church began to lose the little light they had on many principles.

Unfortunately most spiritual organizations go through something like this.

Copyright 2001 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved