"God
created man in the image of himself,
In
the image of God he created him,"
Male
and female he created them.
-Genesis
1:27 of The Bible
Image by Leonardo Da Vinci
Today
Nature appears to be in the midst of a rape that has lasted for several
centuries. Who, though, is really being raped? Meditate for a moment on the term Nature. It actually has two meanings. It is a reference to the Earth and her
ecosystems (which gives you the food you eat and the air you breathe) as well
as referring to the Essence of a thing, animal or person. Thus you might say that it's not in your
Nature to get into arguments regarding religion or politics.
Sensuous
dances such as the belly dance metaphorically speak to this unveiling of Nature
as Essence. The Dance of the 7 veils serves the surface
conditioned world we think as real to unveil the true Nature of ourselves and
everything else. Nature clothed hides our
Nature as Essence and one's true Nature is not separate from the Divine Nature. The Divine Nature is not the conditioned
character you think you are, nor the character that is described by personality
tests. We are speaking to your deepest
Nature, the Nature beyond all thought. Could
your Nature be one with Nature's Nature?
The 7
layers of clothing on a belly dancer speak to the layers of creation (e.g., the
7 days of Genesis) after which Truth or the Divine Essence is beheld. Why is Nature identified as feminine? It is because there is not a person reading
this that did not come out of a woman's body and whose body is not an egg that
was sparked into becoming millions of cells by his father's sperm. We are eggs morphed into human beings. Yet, I would say that even though you were
conceived via intercourse, there is a level at which you are virgin born and
can become a virgin Mother to Christ, the incarnate Sophia (Wisdom) of God.
To
understand this, let's take a different look at the Virgin Birth. Marie ultimately means Ocean (e.g., marine,
marina). If we take this definition of
Mary and compare it to the Old Testament version of Creation, then we have a
mirroring of old and new testaments.
Just as the Spirit (Ruach, feminine and identified with Wisdom or Hockmah
Binah in Judiasm and Sophia in Greek) moved across the face of the Water and
gave birth to the Word in Genesis, the Word made flesh was conceived and born
of Marie in the New. In Genesis, this
birth is reflected in the series of "Let there be-- statements through which
the world divides exponentially until we have me writing, you reading, and the
infinite variety of life that is around us.
The Spirit
that came upon Mary in the New Testament is simply a repeat of Genesis 1. As such, John 1:14 of the New Testament, which
states the Word is made flesh, is a statement describing this moment of
creation. Hence this Earth and the universe we are
grounded in are the "Word made flesh."
Going deeper, the whole slew of "Let there be" statements in Genesis could
be seen as primordial vibrations which gives form to all of matter within the
Eternal Now (i.e., timelessness).
Indeed, as the Hindu Ramakrishna realized, creation is not in times past
but is eternally now. His thoughts are reflected
by author Lex Hixon's interpretation (p.204):
"More
than creator and creation,
Mother is pure Creativity
Beyond any notion of duality
Universe and God
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