In quiet times of contemplation these days I've found my mind ruminating on the subject of Natural Law. It seems as though something is calling on me to understand it. Or, as if erosion of some of the denser parts of my mind is slowly revealing a form by which to have a greater understanding of it. I've had the same budding ideas for a while and I'm now feeling compelled to just share them to invite people to discuss.
To start, the necessary context to understand these thoughts by is explained in our page on Natural Law. We are not speaking of a sense of justice but about immutable rules that govern all of creation.
I have a seemingly never-ending desire to break things down into simpler patterns for better understanding and Natural Law has been in the spotlight of my mind for a while now. My thoughts could generally be described in the realms of Hermetic philosophies. So, they may sound like them, and if I don't give credit where credit is due it's because I haven't studied enough to know. I will use The Kybalion as a reference though because it lays a lot of the groundwork upon which to understand my perspective as well. There are many sources out there that also make good points of the Kybalion not being a hermetic text (1, 2) for those interested.
The Kybalion identifies Seven Hermetic Principles upon which all Hermetic philosophy is based and I am feeling inspired to share my thoughts on one of them which I find very important today and that is "the principle of cause and effect". Cause and effect has been standing out to me lately as the most beneficial lens through which to look at Natural Law at this point in time. If we can recognize patterns of cause and effect it also would completely explain some of the other principles as understood in the Kybalion. Take "the principle of polarity" for example. What causes polarity? What is the 'code' in the universe that defines polarity? If we understood the way that some 'cause' results in the 'effect' of polarity wouldn't we be able to grasp the greater patterns woven into this creation?
But, 'cause and effect', really? That's way too vague and simple - how can we start to try to make an explanation out of that?
That is a good question my inner devil's advocate - thank you for asking!
As humans and especially in our scientific method we want to be very precise in understanding cause and effect. Something should be repeatable every time or else it will never qualify as a scientific law. But also in our experience there are endless nuances which prevent us from ever really 'properly' using our own scientific method. Each second there are thousands of stellar alignments, factors of environment and time that we can never reproduce exactly again. So we are always compromising on some things and accepting greater patterns while knowing there are nuances to situations from which we can still learn more. Let's not delve into cause and effect from the rigid scientific method standpoint but instead as a greater idea so we can try to see how cause and effect can influence our experience.
Another premise for this thought experiment is that God, the creator, or writer of the code of The Law, is not an omniscient God. It does not know the minutia of The Law as it unfolds over the realm of the manifest. God has to insert a 'part' of itself into the manifest to have the true experience and 'knowing' of all that it has created. And we are expressions of that God.
In the ever-expanding desire to know oneself we make reference of the causes and effects of things and this is how The Law manifests in our experience. The more we observe, integrate, and understand the causes and effects enough to ascertain greater cohesive patterns in the way The Law manifests, the closer we as an individuated consciousness comes to God. As God we are not truly affected by the temporary happenings in this reality. But as the individuated consciousness our experience is in this layer of manifestation of The Law playing the game of cause and effect.
As we start to understand the causes and effects we may start to make decisions that result in abundance, joy, love, prospering and flourishing, while avoiding those that result in suffering. When we are aware enough that our recognition of the patterns of cause and effect makes us act for the maximum benefit of all sentient beings then we say that we are acting in alignment with The Will of The Divine, because we assume that The Will of The Divine is for the maximum benefit of all sentient beings.
And to return to a simple understanding we can take a page out of the book of Eastern philosophies on cause and effect, or karma - maybe with a new-age twist. And with that the general idea is you get what you give. But there are millions of nuances in there when it comes to what you give such as intentions, to whom you are giving, and further context surrounding this that make it 'interesting'. Understanding the nuances gives us a greater insight into how our actions can result in a future that is enjoyable. And with that, understanding cause and effect can become a beautiful dance of making decisions out of love that you know will bring joy to all of creation.