Light, B'reshit, Mattith, Kings

Let’s imagine. There’s a solid spec of light , radiating all colors with gold, glowing silver as if wet, compact like a stone of iron, with more chlorophyll than worlds of fern, with a vibration beyond the speed of light, beyond the speed of anything, with more love than a kind word. It doesn’t look like this. It is this. Then, the spec re-creates itself in its own image (as a reflection) and immediately, given the high vibration of both lights, the latter is embraced into the former. This happens again. And again. These lights (yes, they) keep recreating themselves, and embracing the creations. They become one and then (with creation and birth) they return to they only (upon embracing creation) to become one again. The process continues eternally and the original spec of light no longer must be active in the creating or the embracing. In fact, it is at the core, still and silent.

All of this is God and happening at once. We, as humans, are being created, creating and being embraced into the divine at the same moment. During creation, there’s a necessary discernment between creator and created and one becomes many. During the embracing, many becomes one. However, I also think that the original light, that solid spec, is so deep within the amorphous whole that it no longer is directly active. In other words, I think that the deepest part of God has a vibration so sacred, powerful and pure it is protected and purified by the outer layers being embraced and created. There’s no doubt that this energy is dangerous for the newly created and newly embraced and yet it is also the ultimate. All of God is attracted to this center, this mystery, this spec of light.

I’m going to look at Bereshith (1:26). God says “Let us make man with our image and likeness.” Us refers to the images and likenesses that have already been made. Because creation is the focus, discernment between creator and created (before as well as after humanity) is necessary. It is all God. I think that’s important. In fact, to emphasize this, we continue on to Bereshith (1-27) “God thus created man with His image.” We’re back to the singular (to His) now to emphasize that the discernement involved in creating only leads to embracing.

If you think about it, the acts of creating and embracing are themselves two radiant lights (yes, action is light) and part of the creative process is the constant shifting for that perfect fit. One interpretation of the first line of Bereshith emphasizes that God’s creation is a reflection of Him, of everything He is eternally. If we see then that God (in other words this great spec of light that has rebirthed itself trillions of times) is now to manifest Himself in the form of this universe, humans included, then there must be a way to reflect this constant shift. And we also must accept, that if the very dynamic and mysterious core of God is silent, not directly involved with the shifting, and radiant in its power, than we, all of us, all animate and non-animate beings and things, have that mysterious core within us, a light that merges all of the creating and embracing, that connects all before and after us, that creates a focus so clean and clear that we see that the shifting, the creating and embracing is really at a peripheral level, one that we must experience to pierce.

You can see this level as the entry way or the exit, as the fence, the guard, the fire that purifies and transforms us. In Bereshith (1-27) God then “created Him, male and female, He created them.” We’ve gone from plural to singular (from us to His image) and now we go from singular (Him) to plural (male and female) and to the conjoining of all into one word, them. If you look closely you have a run on sentence which signifies urgency and power. It’s all happening so fast and the creative and embracing energies are inter lapping and inter shifting so quickly that we get in-between states (think of inbetween states of meditation). We get one act of embracing that is also creating and vice verse. We get a unification of two beings into one word. The meaning here is that there’s a concurrent pulling apart and a coming together, all necessary for God to create His reflection and to protect the sacred center.

I see concentric circles here, but they are an inversion of the circles described by Jonathon Omerman in his article The Great Transition, and they are certainly micro-circles. I like his chart but (and this is just my opinion) I tend to see the shifting energies of creation and embracing as outer layers, not inner. I see that tiny spec at the center. There it is, the finest oil of God and the universe, the sediment, the answer to divine alchemy, the exquisite beauty, the exquisite voice.

I think if we look at Elija’s experience we can understand this concept better. Once again, it’s not only an idea of concentric circles, but of entry, exit, protection and purification. Elija was on the mountain and he saw a great wind. He thought that was God. He thought the earthquake was God and then the fire. God finallyshowed Himself in the exquisite voice. In the mistaking of the wind, the earthquake and the fire for God, we know that there must be light in all three. And now I have to say that I can not just call the very center God. If we do that, we are rejecting all of the millions of rebirths that happened before the manifestation of this universe (the us and them in Torah) and we are saying that parts of us are God and parts are not. What I believe is that His creative force is like wave after wave of light, ring after ring of fire, all radiating out from the center, and none as powerful as that center.

To continue, if the wind is words, the earthquake is emotions and the fire is passion then we can see the two concentric circles that are closest to the center. Both are made of fire. On the outside, we have the ecstatic passion from words, our intellect, our scholarly pursuits, all explanation (including this paper), including the lines in Torah. Closer to the center we get the ecstatic passion around our feelings for God and each other, not necessarily the sexual energy. We get the clinging to joy and feelings, both positive and negative. Finally, and in my opinion closest to the center, we get the white space and what some people call “the experience”. So, the fire connects words to emotions to the center but they are not the center, just the way in and the way out, just what purifies and protects. Is there a danger in mistaking the shifting lights of creation and embracing, those fires, for the original divine? Absolutely. People get lost in them, obsess with them, become them, lose their God, lose humility, destroy each other, and then use the fire for explanation and validation. Maybe this is the lesson in Elija’s experience.

This brings us to Mattoth. We walk the line in Mattoth with the killing of the Midianite widows (Mattoth 31-15). In short, they can not make it through the fire without putting the shifting circles off balance and threatening the very nature and quality of the sacred. We must protect ourselves from them. However, if we were lost in our words or in our emotions, then we could convince ourselves of the need to cut them off. The fact that the order comes from the center (when God speaks, I trust it’s from the center) clarifies the extreme action, however painful.

In Mattoth as well we see how to purify metal (Mattoth 31-22). We must put it over the fire if it had been used over fire before. Metal is at the constant center and I see the two fires as the shifting lights of creation and embracing. I see the fires once again forming circles around the metal symbolizing not only the entry (however dangerous) to God’s center, but the fact that the fires keep Him pure and clean. I see that the metal is solid and still like an exquisite voice. And I see that the fires can represent everything, the shifting earthly lights, constantly re-merging with the divine, the forces of creation and embracing, the forces of unification and separation, the He and the us, the white space and the lines. Even the white space (which I see as the experience) is the fire of an ever re-creating God, a fire that resides so close to the sacred that we can easily confuse the two.

Yes, the sacred rests silent and protected, not only by the fires, but by the shifting lights, the constant conflict/connection/shifting among them, among intellect and emotions, man and woman, light and darkness, science and religion. And may we all, as we shift as well, as we experience rebirth and transformation, as we separate and re-embrace with the whole, may we never lose our humility on the journey. May we never mistake the fires or the shift of light for the center. May we value all as a way to the center. May we love not only the divine but ourselves as a reflection of it, and may we see clearly the radiance that emanates so that we never lose sight or focus. Yes, may our steps always be careful but strong, our beauty always spark with clarity, our vision become more silver and our wings more golden as we get closer and closer to the warm strong radiance of the divine.