Oversoul (1841)
A Reflection on Unity and Divinity
RWE’s "The Oversoul" is one of the seminal works of Transcendentalism, a philosophical and spiritual movement emphasizing realization of the Divine Presence in every aspect of existence - including us! Published in 1841, the essay explores ideas about the nature of humanity, the soul, and its connection to a universal spiritual essence—ONE.
At the heart is the concept of a shared, universal spirit that transcends individual identities. The Oversoul is an eternal, Omnipresent force that unites all living beings, connecting us to the Divine. It is the Source of wisdom, love, power, morality, and Truth, existing beyond both physical and temporal realms.
Individuals can access the Oversoul introspectively during meditation, and outwardly through a deep reverence to nature. By quieting the distractions of the material world, and attuning within to Source, people can experience the Divine directly. Thus, the Oversoul is not confined to any one person, but is shared by all, making every individual an expression of ONE.
Below, you’ll find my “renewed” edition. I brought this present again as I seek to explore and express those same ideas again, in another form today. My ultimate discovery: ONE blood truly rolls through us all!
The Oversoul - Renewed (2024)
Man is a stream
whose source is hidden;
our being descending into us
from we know not whence.
We live in succession, in division,
in parts, in particles.
Meantime, within man,
is the soul of the whole;
the wise silence,
the universal beauty,
to which every part and particle
is equally related;
the eternal ONE.
The soul circumscribes all things.
It contradicts all experience.
It abolishes time and space.
We see the world piece by piece—
as the sun, moon, animal, and tree;
but the whole of which these
are shining parts,
is the soul.
Things now esteemed fixed shall,
one by one, detach themselves
like ripe fruit from our experience and fall.
The wind shall blow them none knows whither.
The landscape, figures, Boston and London,
are facts as fugitive as any institution past,
or any whiff of mist or smoke;
so is society, and
so is the world.
The soul looketh steadily forward,
creating a world before her,
leaving worlds behind.
She has no dates, nor rites,
nor persons, nor specialties, nor men.
The soul knows only the soul;
the web of events is the flowing robe
in which she is clothed.
Those who are capable of humility,
of justice, of love, of aspiration,
stand already on a platform
that commands sciences and arts,
speech and poetry, action and grace.
The soul ascending to worship
the great God is plain and true.
He wants not for admiration.
Rather, he dwells in the hour
that is now here,
in the earnest experience
of the common day.
When we break our god of tradition,
and cease our god of rhetoric,
then may God fire the heart
with His Presence.
Ineffable is the union
of man and God
in every act of the soul.
The simplest person,
who in his integrity
worships God,
becomes God.
O, believe, as thou livest,
that every sound spoken over the world,
which thou ought to hear,
will vibrate on thine ear!
The things for thee gravitate to thee.
You are running to seek your friend.
Let your feet run, but your mind need not.
Every proverb, book, and byword
that belongs to thee for comfort,
shall come home through
open or winding passages.
Every friend whom the great,
tender heart in thee craveth,
shall lock thee in his embrace.
The heart in thee is the heart of all;
not a valve, nor wall, nor intersection
is there anywhere in nature;
one blood rolls uninterruptedly—
in endless circulation—through us all;
as the water of the globe is one sea,
and truly seen, its tide is ONE.