Chapter XI: Joseph a Type of the Christ

Chapter XI: Joseph a Type of the Christ

Page 293

MAN, AN IDEA in Divine Mind, is manifested in various states of consciousness. These appear outwardly as personalities and take form as bodies. In describing states of consciousness the Bible uses the personality in a representative sense, with the meaning of the name as a key to the state of being explained.

The meaning of the name Joseph is "whom Jehovah will add to." He represents the "increasing" faculty of the mind, that state of consciousness in which we increase in all phases of our character. This is especially true of substance; for Joseph as imagination molds mind substance in the realm of forms. He had a coat of many colors; his dreams were always of forms and shapes--the sheaves of wheat, the stars and moon. An interpreter of dreams, the phenomenal was his field of action. This formative power is characteristic of the imagination, and among the twelve primal faculties of mind we find that this faculty of the imagination is represented by Joseph.

The Joseph faculty is the dreamer of dreams and the seer of visions, which are expressed always in forms and symbols. If you are a vivid dreamer and can correctly interpret your own dreams, you may know that you are developing your Joseph faculty. However, it is one thing to dream and quite another to interpret dreams correctly. All people dream more or less, but few can interpret dreams. Visions come under the same head, for dreams are not necessarily the sole concomitant of sleep.