1) Covenant - In the place of unity between the soul and God, a mutual understanding exists of the truth of the relationship between the two. This truth, and its destined unfoldment in the planes of matter, is what is meant by the Covenant between humanity and God. It is made by the soul because it is the soul's essential nature to understand the relationship of love, devotion, reverence and obedience that one offers to the Divine Creator. The soul offers these things not out of fear, but because it recognizes the higher authority of God within itself and as part of itself.

Simultaneously, the soul recognizes God's Divine intention to bless it with life, liberty, and happiness within all planes of existence, to the extent that the soul participates in the truth of its essential nature. To this extent, both the soul and the embodied self are capable of reaping the blessings of Divine life and consciousness, and of knowing that they are blessed. For human beings, this will involve an experience of life as abundant, rich, free, and limitless.

The Covenant is God's promise to bring the truth of Divine unity into manifestation, so that the soul within form can know itself to be one with the Creator of all, and can live a blessed life.

2) Recovery process - The process and program initially developed within Alcoholics Anonymous for the treatment of alcohol addiction. 'Recovery' as a structure, a program, and fellowship has come to embody hope and the promise of a new life for millions of souls, everywhere, since its inception in the first half of the twentieth century. It has brought to those addicted, the perspective of a spiritual foundation upon which to build a new way of life, including a new relationship with the self, others, and with God.

3) Higher self - Corresponds to the higher aspect of one's being which exists in unity with God.  The higher self is sometimes equated with the soul and sometimes with the Divine Presence or 'I Am Presence' within.  Here, it is used broadly to refer both to the soul that has chosen to take embodiment upon the earth, and to the Divine Presence which exists in the realm of pure Spirit.

4) Dark night of the soul - A spiritual expression and concept originally found in the sixteenth century writings of St. John of the Cross. In his view, the 'dark night' is of immense value to the soul, despite its inner pain and the sense of unknowing with which one travels through it. For the night that is 'dark' to the mind is light to the soul, purging it of all barriers within itself and bringing it closer to God.

5) Enabling - The unconscious support of addictive process in another through mechanisms within the self that involve denial or projection. Such support tends to have a restrictive effect on the capacity for growth of the one addicted, as well as on the one 'enabling'.

6) Sanctifying - Making an event, circumstance, or material object holy through its direct and intentional association with God. Sanctification of life brings all of life into the realm of Divine will and intention, and refers all of experience to its higher meaning.

To sanctify life also means to bring it into alignment with the Covenant (1), recognizing the true nature of mutual love and devotion between the soul and God.

7) Covenant, op.cit., (1).

8) Dark energy - Energies of light and darkness exist along a spectrum which contains, at the lowest end, physical energies such as light, sound, electricity, electromagnetic force, and at the higher end, forces that incorporate qualities of consciousness.

Higher energies have a higher frequency of vibration if we think of them in terms of wave function. They may also be described by qualities of feeling, perception, intention, and will. Thus, spiritual light incorporates within itself love, compassion, hope, and unity, while spiritual darkness incorporates within itself disruption, despair, anger, and a rejection of the Divine.

Energies manifest on all planes of existence. They are derived from consciousness and they give rise to both physical matter and to emotional expression. They are the building blocks of the universe within form.

9) Transmutation - A term referring to the inner alchemical process by which one's emotion or feeling state becomes illumined from within by spiritual light and as a result is capable of releasing its negative components. Transmutation is not brought about by an act of will, but by an act of Divine intention incorporated within the action of light itself. This action brings all beings into their higher aspects. Ultimately, it is what moves human consciousness from its embeddedness within physical matter into a truer perception of its spiritual nature.

While not initiated by human will, transmutation is influenced by the capacity of the human will to release its hold on negative elements of thought and feeling, in order to allow greater movement to take place.

10) Covenant, op.cit., (1)

11) Creation - Within every culture, there are stories of Creation - cosmologies which describe the origin of all things. Some of these are earth-centered, and some relate to a cosmic reality that gives rise to all forms of life, both physical and non-physical.

Within the Judaeo-Christian tradition, the story of Creation, though possessing some variations, is fundamentally reflected in its biblical origins, both Hebraic and Christian, which hold that God, before time began, chose to bequeath to the world not yet created, aspects of His own consciousness, in order to share the blessings of that consciousness. The motive for doing so remains the essential mystery behind the act of Creation, and yet sages and scholars alike have understood that this motive could not be that God lacked anything, because Divine consciousness is infinite and complete. Therefore, the motive had to do with something related to giving or sharing His completeness. It is in this way that human beings, and Christian theology in particular, have come to understand this original act of giving as an act of love.

12) Civilizations - Civilizations of the past have inhabited the earth in previous cycles of evolution, though their presence is lost in pre-recorded time. Nevertheless, the ones that many souls are familiar with through writings by those who have had some contact with the spiritual chronicle of the universe - the akashic record - are the civilizations of Atlantis and Lemuria. It is also true that some souls, because of the spiritual work they are here to do, have direct personal remembrances of life lived within those epochs.

Life in Lemuria was focused on nature and on emotional expression. The culture valued the expressive and intuitive over the rational and analytic, and cast a covering over those features of mind that would take it away from its primary orientation toward feeling.

By contrast, Atlantaean culture strove for the perfection of the mind, and as part of this striving, developed levels of mastery of matter and energy that have become lost to us today. In its celebration of its own advances, however, Atlantis became a civilization that increasingly separated itself from Divine order and the attitudes of humility and reverence appropriate to that order. It was for this reason that the culture could not sustain itself or continue in the direction that it had been going.

13) Covenant, op cit., (1)

14) Seed of truth - Recognition of its own deepest nature lives within a layer of the soul that it brings with it into incarnation. This imprint conveys to the human self a sense of direction and purpose. It defines longings and the strivings of the heart which seek to shape life in accordance with its own wishes.

What human beings in separated conscious believe about their own preferences is that they are simply part of being human. It is only after a degree of awakening takes place that one can see that each preference within the heart, in its pure form, has a Divine origin. To the extent that an individual becomes more capable of making conscious choices in life, to that extent can they begin to reflect the Divine pattern within the soul. First, however, awakening must take place so that the directives of the heart can touch the higher levels of meaning that any particular longing may have.

15) "a way we know not" - OT, Book of Isaiah, 42:16
   And I will bring the blind by a way [that] they knew not; I will lead them in paths [that] they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.

16) Superconscious - An aspect of mental process that takes place not in the mind, but in the higher intellect that is linked with universal mind. This higher intelligence is accessed in the course of spiritual development as greater mastery is achieved. It is the source of intuition and inspiration, and allows certain souls to become conscious of the Divine plan for themselves and for the earth.

17) "ask and ye shall receive" - NT - Matthew 7:7-8
   Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
   For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

18) Covenant, op cit., (1)

19) Group of people in sacred consciousness - To pursue communion with the Divine in any form, to strive to experience this inner relationship in the deepest place within - this is the nature of sacred consciousness. Though forms and expressions may differ, what ties all together is the seeking of relationship to the Source of life, to that which gives life its greatest meaning.

The sacred consciousness of light is an important aspect of this awareness, for it enables groups of people to align with the transformative power that is part of Creation itself, and to bring about changes in the self and in the world that would not otherwise be possible. Such changes are based on the integration of the higher dimensions of light with the properties of physical matter, and they permit consciousness within form to expand and become something greater than its present capacity.