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1 Kings 11:1 · World English Bible

1 Kings 11:1 Meaning Now King Solomon Loved Many Foreign Women

Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;

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What does 1 Kings 11:1 mean?

Solomon is the wisdom-mind at its height, yet even that crown turns outward and binds itself to foreign desires. The strange women are the alien affections, the pulls of the senses that belong to lower nature rather than to the awakened self.

From the Esoteric reading below.

1 Kings 11:1 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

ESOTERIC

Esoteric

Solomon is the wisdom-mind at its height, yet even that crown turns outward and binds itself to foreign desires. The strange women are the alien affections, the pulls of the senses that belong to lower nature rather than to the awakened self. Each nation names a region of the flesh: the daughter of Pharaoh ties wisdom back to the bondage it once escaped in Egypt, the body under compulsion. When the ruling intelligence loves what lies outside itself, it is slowly drawn down into the ground those affections rise from.

Solomon: the wisdom-mind at its peak, the crowned intelligence that can still be turned outward Strange women: the alien affections and sense-desires belonging to the lower nature Daughter of Pharaoh: the pull back toward Egypt, the body under bondage and compulsion the self once left

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Esoteric lens

Live 1 Kings 11:1 today

  1. Pick one app you reach for without deciding to, and move it off your home screen today. Let your hand find nothing there and sit with that small blank second.
  2. When a group chat pulls you in with something you only half care about, read it and put the phone down without replying. Not everything that wants your attention has earned it.
  3. In a stressful hour, watch the first thing you reach for: snack, scroll, a quick complaint to someone. Pause five seconds before you take it, and ask whether it is actually what you need.

What have you been giving your attention to lately that you never actually chose?

The same truth in other traditions

Bhagavad Gita 2

When the senses are allowed to wander toward whatever attracts them, they carry the understanding off with them, the way wind carries a boat off course.

Buddhism · Dhammapada

Craving grows like a vine in a person who lives carelessly, and he leaps from wanting to wanting the way a monkey swings for fruit.

Stoicism · Epictetus

Whatever you tie your longing to becomes your owner. Set your heart on things outside your control and you have handed someone else the keys.

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