Genesis 1: 6, 7 8, 9, 10

Genesis 1. 6. And God said,Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
              1. 7. And God made the firmament , and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
              1. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
             1.  9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
             1. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering  together of the waters called the Seas; and God saw that it was good.
I find this interesting architecture.  There’s a ‘firmament’ in the midst of the waters.  The firmament is called ‘Heaven”.  There are waters above and below the firmament.  Isn’t this unusual.  Dry land appears but the dry land isn’t the firmament and gathering together of the waters is the seas. But what of the water above the firmament.  What is this ‘water’ , this dynamic, above the heavens.  It’s a mystical conceptualization.  Heaven is a dividing place.  There’s been so often a flat earth with flat sky interpretation but that’s not what’s written in the Bible. There’s a distinctly different message here and a different cosmos than commonly taught in Sunday school. What is this firmament that is called Heaven.  And what are these ‘waters’ which are above and below and become apparently when gathered together both earth and seas.  Sounds very quantum physics to me.

The above is the King James Bible, an early interpretation when men were closer to the sacred and the world wasn’t digitalized and separate with fear so much today. The historical revisionism of the past assumes an ethnocentricity and states ‘we’re superior, they’re primitives’ but even the studies today, unbiased as such, show that the dark ages and medieval times were not nearly so ignorant or unhappy as the ‘modern’ mind would have.  I loved the “Cloud of Unknowing” from the medieval times.  But King James Bible is an interpretation and my study of hebrew shows it much deeper and more profound than ‘new’ language and scientific English known for it’s accounting capacity and recording capacity more than it’s poetic and illumination capacity. Old languages likes Hebrew, Sanskrit, Aramaic all served first and foremost the purpose of communication and less the purpose of empire which came later and ultimately science and banking which came even later.  Poetry, song, story telling and prophecy are early roles for the old language.  Much like the Old English of Chaucer which is not that very old at all but seems to a large degree untouched by the rigors of Francis Bacon. Modern theoretical physics and the psychology of the unconscious of Jung and Freud have more in common with the old than the high school or college scientific depiction or the language of law and accounting. They’re different.  Very different. Not necessarily superior or inferior but with a different purpose and a different meaning.
The NIV is the latest translation.  It’s definitely more ‘modern’ and very much less poetic than King James Version. It’s written by people more differentiated from their surroundings, more separate and apart than any one was in the time of King James.  Today we are atomized and alienated in a way which would have been inconceivable to earlier generations where kinship with family and community was the rule.

Genesis 1. 6. And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water."
              1. 7. So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.
              1. 8. God called the vault “sky”. And there was evening and there was morning, the second day.
              1. 9. And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered in one place, and let dry land appear.” And it was so.
             1. 10 God called the dry ground “land”, and the gathered waters he called ’seas’. And God saw that it was good.
Isn’t this amazing. The ‘firmament’ becomes a ‘vault’. The waters are still above and below the ‘vault’ and the gathering of water still produces ‘land’ and ’seas’ but the ‘heavens’ now becomes ’sky.’  Frankly I don’t like the idea of the ’sky’ being a ‘vault’ or that even the translation by the moderns is close to that of the ancients likely captured better as ‘heavens’.  But this does show the significance of translation and interpretation.
In the Bible a hebrew world for Heavens and a Hebrew word for Sky might well be interchanged but here a ‘vault’ and a ‘firmament’ seem distinctly different so one wonders if the translators even had the same text. A Jewish Scholar might sort this out. The interpretation and translations of the Bible get complicated by which ‘folio’ or ‘book’ and which bit of which book is used.
But it’s a mystery isn’t it.  A really deeply moving mystery which one must get is some kind of mystical and intuitive conceptualization of the beginning of the world handed down by oral traditions for thousands of years and then written and re written and translated and interpreted for thousands more.  Yet most people think they ‘know’ Genesis.  I do or did but keep returning to ponder, what is this water that is above and below ‘heaven’ or even ‘sky’.  That sure does sound like Plank and Einstein.  The emptiness of outer space isn’t empty but here on earth there is a ‘gathering’ a greater density of the fabric of the universe, the space between the stars and this ‘gathering’ can be land or sea.  But what is this ‘vault’ , this ‘firmament’ and what is ‘heaven’.  I really don’t think it’s just sky. Even a ‘vault’ is a thing that holds something. I would say more than ‘sky’.  A vault is a receptacle for ‘souls’ perhaps or another enclosed space. For what purpose.
When I look at Hebrew translation for Heavens I found a marvellous article in Spectrum, “Then Genesis Account: Six Hebrew Words Make all the Difference. Brian Bull and Fritz Guy, ‘Translating Backwards,” in God, Sky and Land: Genesis 1 as the Ancient Hebrews Heard It.
The Hebrew word ‘shemayim’ may mean: heaven, sky, visible heavens, heaven as realm of the stars.  It was thought that in 1530 the physics of the sky was a dome with stars and sun moving back and forth across it.  Today we think of universe, and sometimes heavens is translated in modern times as ‘cosmos’ or ‘universe’ concepts unknown by Tyndale and unknown in 1530 and likely supposedly unknown at the time of the biblical writing.  I ‘m not so sure of the later but the modern translation chose ‘sky’ as a limited ‘choice.
raquia, the hebrew word means “extended solid surface, vault of heaven supporting waters above, firmament, dome, vault.
Aha, there is this agreement here
I won’t get into the other 4 words but this ‘vault’ and ‘firmament’ seems satisfactorily explained in a limited ‘architectural’ way but there’s still no clarity around this ‘water’ idea.  There’s also persisting ‘ethnocentricity’ which suggest we know physics and creation better than the ‘intuitive’ or ‘ancients’. Interestingly much of modern science has ‘confirmed’ the ‘insights’ of the ancients. This was seen when MRI’s and CTScans and Functional MRI”s supported to a large extent the insights that psychoanalysts had gained. They simply weren’t wholly ‘new’ ideas but rather built on the ‘observations’ and the ‘meditations’ of the people of before.
When I look for Biblical translations of the meaning of ‘waters’ I find that Genesis is said to use it in the idea of it’s two forms, one of the oceans, a symbol of death and the other as conventional water, a symbol of life.  Water to a dessert people is ‘life giving’.  There is life above and below the ‘vault’ so again there’s this image of heaven separating two ‘worlds’.
We pass to the other side in death. Our pets meet us at ‘rainbow bridge’.  Death be not proud. The Christian idea of this world is that of a kindergarten. Kierkegaard described this life as ‘suffering to death’.  People have thought of this life as the real purgatory and the future life of heaven or hell.  Heavens are this other place of life creating waters or the place between.  The Tibetans describe a ‘bardo’ or passing through place between reincarnations while the Hebrew describes
Strongs concordance describes the word as stemming from the Hebrew “mayim’ meaning water or waters, masculine noun.  Interesting this symbol of life and death or simply of life should be ‘masculine’ in the Hebrew which tends to be patriarchal.  Matriarchal society predates the later patriarchal society and then the patriarchal predates the matriarch.  They’re rather cyclic that way.  But translations then occur in the midst of cycles and understandings are influenced by the fashion of the day and perception of the day. Later they are interpreted through the lens of the listener or reader.
The Hebrew ‘Shamayim” was one part of the Hebrew three part cosmology, the others being ‘berets’ , the earth and ‘sheol’ the underworld.  Sheol is the ‘underworld’ where both righteous and unrighteous go and is mostly described as rather colourless.  However Isaiah describes it as the name of a ruler of the underworld which may be something different and the Elohim can save one from the Sheol. Sheol is feminine which takes us back to the patriarchy of Hebrew.  But was this Sheol a creation of the earlier matriarchal times or later patriarchal times.  One ‘descends’ in death whereas in the new testament Jesus ‘ascends’ to heaven.  The Christian believes more in ‘ascent’ to heaven in general whereas as the Jew definitely descends.

It’s seems like nit picking but when I look on the internet I’m delighted to see others also ‘struggle’ with the ‘conceptualization’ which is a form of advanced meditation practice especially in the ‘mindfulness’ traditions. It’s contemplative and together old men gather to simply consider these points and together’ experience’ the meaning of ‘where two or more are gathered there too shall I’.




           

My Relationship with God today

My God is everything and nothing.  I believe in a Creator who made the heavens and the earth.  There was no Creator and building blocks.  So today there is just God stuff. The Bible says I am made in the 'image' of God.  Genesis 1:27 "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."
"Image" to me is the 'imagination' of God. Dr. Carl Ridd taught me this in my first theological class at University of Winnipeg, "Literature of the Bible."  I never forgot that insight.
I am by nature God stuff and God dream.  It's good to remember in a hierarchal world where authorities are forever belittling, humiliating and dominating you to secure their own position and priviledge. In the eyes of God we are equal because there is no less and no more than God.
Science tells me that E=MC2.  Energy and matter are one, matter just slow energy in reality.  My sense of the duality of self is that of thought which is like energy and body which is like matter.  I believe that duality is a product of my mind which divides the indivisible.  I am a spiritual being living in a material world.
I further believe that I am like the orobunga (?spelling - the snake eatings it's tail).  The story goes that God being lonely divided itself creating the first duality.  In this God who knows himself as God is half and God who doesn't know himself as God is half.  So the journey is from God unknowing to Knowing God.  This is spiritual evolution.  There is no need for this 'progress'.  Indeed much of our sense of the spirituality is 'arbitrary' and based on the learning of childhood and culture.
What I know further is only this time for yesterday is gone and mere memory while tomorrow is yet to come.  All divisions are intrinsic or arbitrary.
I live in this flow.  God is a good word for the stream in which I'm becoming more aware of my liquidity one might say.  There are countless images of the transformation of self.
When I studied chemistry in the lab I enjoyed the process of changing solid to liguid to vapour and back again. I like that rain becomes cloud becomes rain.
It gives me hope for my own transformation.  I feel mostly forgetful of Godness.  I live in a secular limitted gravity dominated world with expectation of death among those who insist that everything is heavy and there is but death and taxes.
What I want is to soar free, levitate and dream manifestations.  My friend wants to pray a person alive or restore their lost limbs. I confess I'd settle for the capacity to manifest a porche. I am amused at my own materialism and the fear that underlies all such consumerism.  Trungpa, the great Buddist spiritual teacher describes the modern westerner as a 'spiritual consumer'.  I would hope that I could be more.
In the Christian sense this is 'disciple ship'.  The essence of 'black magic' versus the 'white magic' of Wiccans is that the 'ego' of the dark megalomaniac master is trying to make things go their way whereas the white witches work with the forces of creation and are trying to 'right' matters in the best interest of others. The Christian message, I think, goes even further.  Jesus was the  'servant king'. A great parable and image from the Bible is of God Incarnate washing the feet of his human disciples.
Bob Dylan sings that great spiritual song, "You've got to serve someone, maybe the devil or it may be the Lord, but you have to serve someone."
Dr. Willi Gutowski in his recent ebook at Amazon, called Living Life, says that we are all listening to a spiritual radio and have to learn to keep ourselves tuned to the God channel.
In the meantime I muddle along.
God is a kind of central office parental relational thing.  I pray and talk with God and thank God and try to remember God and life is better. It seems that way. Certainly there is extensive research to support the benefits of spiritual life.  Less pain, less fear, better mental and physical health and all statistically significant.
I am always asking for guidance. I think there's a better way.  I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe God became human and resurrected. That like chemistry is a message about my nature and my eventual return to Godstuff.  Death then is a passage.  But it may be a loss of ego.   I believe also the Bible is a Holy Book that can guide me on this journey in life.  Days also go better when I consult this regularly.  I've read it cover to cover several times but daily make a point of reading some passage and reflecting on it.  I learned this as a child and lost it sometime as an adult. I was glad to return to the practice.  There's no 'resting on one's laurels' in the spiritual life. I have to take care of my spiritual health on a daily basis just as I do my physical and dental health.  If I don't I'm that fat old  man with poor teeth talking about his last football game in high school.
The Yogi sings "I am the bubble , make me the sea'. In Hinduism there's much talk of the separation of self from the whole and the isolation of the ego. Hindu's don't see Jesus as the son of God but see him as an enlightened one as with Buddha.  His teachings are ranked high in India along with their own home grown truth.  Jews recognise Jesus as one of their own but don't see him as the messiah. He's ranked as best as a great prophet.  I loved studying at Regent College where despite the ecumenicalism of the day I heard it very distinctly taught , "The Jews are wrong" when it comes to Jesus.  No doubt in a Jewish school they same the same thing about Christians.  It's easy to forget that Moslems have been influenced by Judaism and Christianity.  The 'twist' they take on Christianity is 'wrong' in my mind but I think the Suffis have alot in common with the mystical traditions in Christianity. The great Catholic monk, Thomas Merton who studied with the Buddhists saw the similiarities.
Ecumenicalism is searching for similiarities. The fact is Adolf Hitler and Mother Theresa were 99.9% similiar according to DNA and genetic mapping. There is difference in the detail.  So while one must keep an open mind, hopefully it won't be so open that one's brains fall out.
The Christian mystic longs to  experience God more fully.  There's that sense of 'grokking God' which was Heinlein's word for the mystical ineffable union.  The Medieval called this also the 'cloud of unknowing'. I have a connection but it's often vague whereas sometimes it's crystal clear and absolute. I don't know why or what makes for the maintenance of that state of knowing the sacred so directly so that it 'works' all the time.  I have to be present, that's for sure. There's much that can be done.  Certainly prayer and meditation, reading spiritual works, studying the Holy Bible, sharing in spiritual practices, becoming a regular attender and follower of a spiritual tradition. It's too easy for one to consider spirituality as a 'smorgasbord' which may be fine at first but as one progresses in their spiritual life there is room for greater selection.

Personally,   I'm too often too mundane for my own liking.

So God fill me with your awareness. Guide me today and always. Thy will be done.