Neo-Babylonian Judaism: Approaching a Theology of Transcendence – discovering the Creator-Godhead Exists beyond ‘Time and Space’

Introduction

       Irrespective of religious affiliation, modern Bible readers appreciate that The Hebrew Bible centres around the One Lord God, and how He revealed His mysterious being to His people. It wasn’t until the people of Judah were forced into exile during the 6^th century BCE that priests proclaimed the Godhead’s higher metaphysical Being, or, to quote Ezekiel, “ the Glory of the Lord.” This was how God appeared in Ezekiel’s first faint vision. Let us call their new theological perspectives on the Divine Being of their Lord God – Transcendent Monotheism. As part of Transcendent Monotheism, the priests and people realized that their ancestors’ God was the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and his dwelling-place was Eternity. They believed that since God continued generating life on earth, there was still a divine possibility of restoring earth’s natural balance through prayer and worship.

Timeless Dimensions of the Eternally Existing Godhead – Far-Seeing beyond the predicaments of everyday earthly life

         As we see in the mid-6^th century BCE writings of the Second Isaiah, the Transcendent Godhead’s higher purpose for his people is often hidden from them. Specifically, our human anxieties and frailties obscure our understanding, and the result is texts like Second Isaiah, which are full of the unfathomable mystery of God’s perceived oversight of their hardships.

As quoted below (Isa 55:6-9), prayerful appeals to God are encouraged, especially ‘whenever he is near’ to overcome our fears and enhance our Godly understanding.    

         “ Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near… return to the Lord, that he may have mercy.. and to our God for he will abundantly pardon…’For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Ancient Visions of God, still alive today

    As we shall see, chronological indications are important to modern biblical scholars, whether Judaist or Christian. Major sections of the Hebrew Bible consist of histories of the people of Israel (descendants of the patriarch Jacob renamed ‘Israel’ by an angel), which went back to Moses and even further back to Abraham (ca. 2000 BCE). These scriptural records were put together by two sets of Judaist scholars: Deuteronomists in the 7^th-6^th centuries BCE, and then Priestly writers/editors, mid-6^th-mid-5^th centuries BCE (Babylonian exile). Surprisingly, the latter group recovered more archaic, patriarchal materials, perhaps legendary rather than entirely accurate historically. Yet, the One God who was first known to Abraham in Canaan, as the legacy of Sinai wanderings became known to Moses as YAHWEH, 2^nd millennium BCE. Then the Lord God began to shape them into becoming “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation” (Exodus 19:3-4, sourced in Yahwist and Elohist older traditions ).

        Deuteronomist historians did not anticipate the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem and deportations of Judahites in the 6^th century BCE. Deuteronomist pre-histories from Moses through to the era of kings may have largely fabricated Joshua’s numerous conquests in Canaan. Yet the Book of Joshua recorded an event which spoke to the enduring sanctification of the Land of Canaan – blessed by the Lord God, with the performance of worship of the Lord at Mount Ebal in Canaan (as instructed by Moses Deut. 27).   

         Here is some personal testimony to the above biblically memorable event, which I relate to a vision (Christmas 2004) while traveling through the West Bank on the road leading up to Palestinian Jenin. Somewhere along that road, empty of traffic, from the back of the taxi when I happened to look up,  amazingly – I saw, in faint outline, a Giant Hand with arm extend into the higher rockface of the mountain cliff – effectively dissolving the top of the mountain into brilliant light. Quite overcome, I had no insight into any meaning.

         Now, by applying some study to the approximate location of that mysterious vision of light up on the mountain top, I would like to suggest that ‘the Hand of God’ continues to imprint blessings upon the ‘Holy Land’ of Israel-Palestine. I found some confirmation as follows, starting with a quotation from Joshua 8:30-35, of the inclusiveness of God’s blessings.

 “Then Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, just as Moses had commanded … an altar of unhewn stones, no iron tool .. and they offered  on it burnt offerings … All Israel, alien as well as citizens,  stood on opposite sides of the ark in front of the Levitical priests carrying the ark of the covenant, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half in front of Mount Ebal … that they should bless the people of Israel…”     

   The Book of Deuteronomy (written 7^th century BCE) does not include others than the twelve tribes of Israel (Deut. 27). But Joshua’s text refers to “all Israel, alien as well as citizens.” those present for the ceremonial blessing upon the land. Does this not argue for the Lord God’s view of the ‘unitary character’ of these lands (modern Israel-Palestine), which, as in David’s time, continue to be inhabited by peoples of differing ethnicity, even of differing religious affiliations?

           The New Oxford Annotated Bibe (NOAB 2010: 332) in a footnote, identifies Ebal and Gerizim as two mountains that flank the pass of Shechem.in central Canaan.In Rasmussen’s Essential Atlas of the Bible (2013:36-37) he notes thatat Shechem, in Genesis 12:6-7, the patriarch Abraham (then Abram) built an altar and worshipped the Lord, receiving God’s promise to give him this land. And later, Jacob when travelling the same country heading north, in flight from his  brother, at Bethel dreamed in the night of angels ascending and descending a staircase to heaven (Gen. 28:12).  I looked up on the Internet the location of ‘Jacob’s Well,’ geography also associated with ancient Shechem in the West Bank, Palestine today, which was near the entrance to the pass between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. I recall that sometime before the above vision, I noticed in the distant fields a sign in Hebrew and English denoting ‘Jacob’s Well.’

        Another biblical geographic setting hallowed by the Lord God lies somewhere in the Sinai Desert. Returning to the Lord God of the Hebrew Scriptures, we find YHWH, speaking to Moses at the Burning Bush, “Holy Ground” in that desert land. The Lord God declared His Name using the Hebrew verb for ‘to be,’ which is curiously obscure in meaning. “I AM THAT I AM,” ehyeh asher ehyeh… translated by some into English as ‘God’s self-existence.’ ‘Judaist scholar Norman Gottwald (The Hebrew Bible 1985:211) sees the Divine Name, Yahweh enlarged in these passages, connecting further“with the Elohim of Abraham, Isaac and Joseph..”

           This One God, Who came to be thought of transcendent, eternal ‘Being,’ remains the foundation of the faith of Israelites/Jews, Christians and Muslims. Long after Moses, the One God known to both Moses and Abraham inspired ‘the Priestly Writer/s of the Exile,’ or ‘P’ as modern scholars’ refer to this unknown, neo-Babylonian Theologian. In Genesis1, P thought upon the Lord God as the Original Creator, the ‘Designer’ of the cosmos, sun, moon and stars, the earth and every living thing on it. Thus the Original Creator existed beyond all earthly time.

       Judahite deportees at Babylon (exiled from Jerusalem to Babylon from 586-539 BCE), especially the priesthood, couldn’t pursue daily temple observances. They must have looked up into the swirling skies, like the young priest Ezekiel, soon flown in the spirit to the Jerusalem Temple to see its coming fiery destructions. Ezekiel at Babylon still professed allegiance to an ancient ‘Zion Theology.’ This was the belief that God had dwelt especially in the Jerusalem Temple. But he learned from further heaven-sent visions that the Lord God, Whom he envisioned as “the Glory of the Lord,” was departing from Jerusalem to be with His people in Babylon. Nevertheless, as we shall see, Ezekiel stayed away as far as possible from ascribing human form to the Divine Apparition, describing the “appearance of the Glory of the Lord” in keeping faith with Ex. 33:22, the Lord warning Moses he could not see His ‘Face’ and live, which chapter Gottwald (1985:184) assigns to an old Elohist tradition.

The Priestly Writer’s Recovery of the Garden of Eden, Babylonian Context

         P retrieved the genealogy of Abraham and Sarah, writing in Genesis 11:27-31,“… who went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan.” They settled at Haran first, after fleeing the chaos of their native Ur.  The Lord guided Abraham through the Fertile Crescent to settle in the Land of Canaan. By going far back in historic times, Judaist scholars expanded not just their history as a people guided by God, but their conception of the Divine oversight of generations of lives. P incorporated into Genesis 15: 4-6, the famously symbolic vision from God to Abraham of the stars in the sky, representing his innumerable descendants

        As Judaist scholars at Babylon compiled their collections of disparate writings of the Hebrew Scriptures, they recovered the mythic tale of the Garden of Eden, Genesis 2-4. Modern scholars attribute this version, which represents its own literary creationist ideas, to a Yahwist historian of David and Solomon’s time. It builds on P’s Genesis 1 account of the Divine Creation, and could well have applied to the landscape of southern Mesopotamia, then a paradise of burgeoning growth. Abraham’s birth at Ur (ca. 2000 BCE) has helped anchor archeological understanding of Mesopotamian history. They see that the region was once lush with vegetation.  Fourth millennium Sumerians cultivated grain, orchards, and grasslands to raise livestock. The result was a fully-fledged Sumerian civilization that lasted from ca. 3,500 to 2000 BCE.

            Uncovering evidence of this civilization has been a goal of archeologists for years. There is extensive evidence of its ruined palaces, temples and ziggurats dedicated to specific deities. Modern scholars think that ca. the mid-fourth millennium BCE, geological changes occurred next to the Persian Gulf which enabled the growth of each different city-state sustained by productive agriculture. Sumerians originated in the far east; Woolley ( 1965:7-8) posits that they were likely incomers into the Delta “from the sea,” perhaps from as far away as the Valley of the Indus.  Under Sumerian governance, the region’s civilization accelerated. For instance, a pair of temples in one city were the focal point of agricultural dedication to the gods during autumn festivals. Then, ca. 2000 BCE, the city of Ur was overthrown by Semitic invaders from the north and west, and around 1800 BCE, Semitic Old Babylonia emerged as a regional power.    

           Geophysicist Lance Weaver (Internet paper ‘’Could the Ice Ages have been True Polar Wandering Events,’ Sept. 2020) reports that the growth of early Mesopotamian civilization, as well as in Egypt, was possible after the rapid deglaciations in the northern continents. Sometime roughly 13,000 years ago, the inception of milder and warmer conditions caused the melting of ice fields. Weaver attributes this to the northern geographic pole shifting northwards, and suggests it could have been triggered by an asteroid strike.

               With Weaver’s theory we might suppose the whole Fertile Crescent enjoyed something like the mid-latitude, climate zones of Europe with heavily forested landscapes. In this 21^st century, the 40° north parallel latitude runs through the Mediterranean Sea as it heads into regions like Israel-Palestine to the east, lands generally facing desertification, like Iraq, for instance. Along with global warming, many other parts further in eastern, southern and western continents suffer from overheating and drought or wildfires. Coastal areas suffer excessive flooding, and mountain glaciers send rivers of melt-water into flood plains.

Restorations? Oracular Prophecies from Post-Exilic Second Zechariah

The post-exilic Book of Zechariah features writing by an unknown prophet, Chapters 13-14 ascribed to the Second Zechariah. He delivered the Words of the Lord in phrases like, “The day of the Lord to come … so many unsettling geological changes, floods, .. warfare…plagues… panic… But survivors will still go up year after year to worship the “King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the festival of booths.” (Zech, 14:16). During the autumn festival of Booths, Jews lived in forest-huts for days, remembering ancestors’ sojourn in the desert of Sinai. In Zechariah 14:2-21, his prophecy of ‘restorations’ used simple motifs: “On that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, ‘Holy to the Lord’…. And every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the Lord of hosts…. For all the sacrifices of boiled flesh in every household.”

        In view of the antiquity of Ezekiel’s Zion Theology, at pilgrimage-festivals such as Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles (Booths), the Jews recited a prayer for the peace of Jerusalem taken from Psalm 122:6-9. They gathered from everywhere to approach the Temple as “the house of the Lord… where the thrones of judgment were set up …”  reciting this prayer.

                “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: May they prosper who love you. Peace be within your walls, and security within your towers. For the sake of my relatives and friends I will say, ‘Peace be within you. For the sake of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek your good.”

Jerusalem, as Jesus observed, was the City of the Great King (in view of its ethnic diversity?)

          “Do not swear, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King [David].” (Mt. 5:35)

     See the above phrasing of Jesus’ language taken from Psalm 110, “…[David’s] enemies made a footstool,” plus other lines, David “.. a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”  Matthew begins his gospel, 1:1-17. with Jesus’ genealogy, starting with Jesus, “son of David.” One wonders if Matthew, the gospeler rooted in Judaist traditions, was tempted to quote Jesus’ views on the social-political idealism of David’s kingdom. Both the books of Samuel and Kings describe cross-ethnic relationships under David and Solomon’s monarchies. Considering differing ethnicities that prevailed in David’s city, Jesus’ words may have anticipated the early Christian conversions throughout the broader region.  

         Modern scholars use the term ‘inter-textuality’ to compare an idea from one text with a similar idea in the literature preceding it. Within modern scholars’ studies of the Hebrew Scriptures, we find important themes recur, despite revisions to our understanding of texts and translations. On the founding of Jerusalem, which David devoted to YHWH’s cult, he took the Ark of the Covenant into the city so that Jerusalem was made holy- ‘The City of God’ – its historic sanctity implied by Jesus.

           Moreover, regarding Jerusalem, ‘Inter-textuality’ takes us back to the patriarch Abraham’s visit to the site then called ‘Salem.’ Melchizedek ruled Salem as priest-king, and offered hospitality to Abraham. (See the New Testament work, ‘Letter to the Hebrews’(5:5-6), by referring back to Psalm 110:4, he calls Jesus as “ a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” Within David’s kingdom, Jerusalem as the new centre of Israelite faith, was home to all indigenous inhabitants, Israelite or non-Israelite. Deuteronomist historians contemporaneous to the Judean King Josiah (late 7^th century BCE) bear this out.

            This isn’t surprising; King David was descended from a non-Israelite grandmother, Ruth. She was a Moabite who married into the tribe of Judah and kept her husband’s faith after his death, and famously followed her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Canaan. So it’s unlikely that David was perturbed by the intermingling of Israelites and non-Israelites in Jerusalem. When David became king over Jerusalem, his royal court involved relationships with various peoples. One story (unfortunately) tells that David sent the Hittite, Uriah, into the fore-front of the Israelite battle lines to his certain death. Then David took the widow Bathsheba to wife, and she became mother of David’s son, King Solomon. Later Deuteronomist historians criticized Solomon for going too far with marrying foreign wives/concubines and for building temples to their gods and worshiping in their temples. The Deuteronomists believed this was why the United Monarchy fell apart and became two separate kingdoms when Solomon died.  

         Notably, David appointed two state priests, Abiathar and Zadok, who, according to Gottwald (1965:321) “may have represented respectively the old Israelite and new Canaanite components of the territorial state of Israel.” Zadok is best known to the lay-person because of his prominence in an anthem written by Handel based on 1Kings: 34-45 and dedicated to a British king’s coronation. Interestingly, the exilic period Ezekiel was a Zadokite priest, although there is minimal discussion of this by historians.

   During the Babylonian Exile of the sixth century, ‘Priestly’ writers retrieved archaic accounts of their original ancestor Abraham. According to modern Mesopotamian archaeological historians, since Abraham came from Ur, he was likely of Sumerian ethnicity. Woolley notes (1965:6) “Judging by their physical type, they were of the Indo-European stock, in appearance not unlike the modern Arab, and were certainly well developed intellectually.” Abraham, Sarah and family may not have been ‘Semites’ like others: e.g. Canaanites, Assyrians and Babylonians.

Historicity of the Abrahamic Covenant: Jewish and Arab Descendants

         Genesis 16 says Abraham’s paternity passed on to the Arab peoples through Abraham’s mating with his wife Sarah’s hand-maiden, the Arab woman Hagar. Archaeologist Leonard Woolley explains it was Sumerian practice to substitute a servant-woman for a barren wife, enabling men to produce heirs. So, Ishmael, son of Hagar and Abraham, became an ancestor of modern-day Arab people. Whereas, Isaac, son of Sarah and Abraham, became the progenitor of Jewish descendants. An angel rescued Hagar and Ishmael perishing for lack of water in the Arabian desert; Abraham and Sarah were blessed with birth of Isaac by angels who appreciated their offering of hospitality. Jews and Arabs adhere to the Abraham Covenant regarding circumcision of male infants, and are fervent monotheists deriving from patriarchal times.

       With all of that in mind, the question arises as to why Judaist leaders, Ezra and Nehemiah, decried Judahites inter-marrying (as had been the case in David-Solomon’s time) with non-Jews? They didn’t just disapprove; They forbade it. Coming from Judahite exile in Babylonia, they were familiar with Abraham’s legendary origins in Mesopotamia, “born at Ur.” In other words, they realized Abraham was a Sumerian belonging to that ancient noble civilization. Did they wish to preserve the historicity of their Abrahamic ancestry sanctified by God and His angels?  

          Furthermore (according to archaeological assumptions ), Abraham would have been raised within the Lands of Sumer, a citizen of a theocratic state. Each city-state honoured the supremacy of their deity, e.g. the moon-god Nannar ruled the Third Dynasty of Ur.  This idea that the gods of the cosmos and nature ruled people’s lives was subsequently transposed onto Judaism. P’s writings in the Torah emphasize ‘the Sovereignty of their Lord God’ over their lives, and the emphasis remains across a variety of monotheist traditions today.  

      Melchizedek, king of Salem, gave Abraham the beautiful ancient Semitic name, El Elyon, meaning “God most High,” the deity worshipped at Salem. Sometimes, the later Hebrew writers attached ‘Elyon’ to speak of the ‘Most High’ – YHWH.  Abraham, through his trust in the higher guidance of God, was moving towards Monotheism, and away from the Sumerian practice of worshiping a pantheon of gods. Once Old Babylonia was established ca, 1800 BCE, a Semitic power in the region, they retained inheritance of most Sumerian institutions, including polytheism. Later neo-Assyrians, and then neo-Babylonians, branched out into astronomical studies, developing systematic astronomical record-keeping in view of their belief that stellar patterns and changes signalled divine messages or signs from the gods. Star-gazers constantly watched celestial changes, especially eclipse and recorded them for the emperor. For this reason, they developed their exacting calendrical methods of time-keeping.

Identifying authors of the Hebrew Scriptures with the modern Documentary Hypothesis

   The Documentary Hypothesis of modern scholars identifies four major authors of Scriptures:

         The Yahwist, ‘J,’ goes back to the United Monarchy, 1000 -9^th centuries BCE.

          The Elohist, ‘E,’ slightly later dating, 9^th century BCE.

         The Deuteronomist, ‘D,’ wrote (or edited) Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, up to the late 7^th century BCE (with some revisions, up to 561 BCE)

          The Priestly Writer/s of the Exile, ‘P,’ are credited with major contributions to Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers (four of the five Books of Moses), dates 550-450 BCE.

          Modern scholars compare language usage in Deuteronomy (the fifth Book of Moses) to the modeling of neo-Assyrian treaty obligations between ruler and vassals. They surmise that Deuteronomist Historians, ‘DH,’ compiled the histories that form ‘the Former Prophets:’ end-of life Moses, Joshua’s leadership, period of the judges through kings to the post-Samaria era. Earlier in the late 8^th century BCE, neo-Assyrians had captured Samaria, capital of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, which came to an end. During the 7^th century BCE, DH, perhaps refugees from the north, encouraged King Josiah in Judah to undertake religious reform, who responded by centralizing the cult at Jerusalem. When Josiah led an army up to Megiddo to recover some northern lands, he was shot in the eye by an arrow and died. Shortly afterwards, a neo-Babylonian army came to Jerusalem, in 586 BCE, they burned the Temple created by Solomon.

       The Torah works put together by the Priestly tradition at Babylon are extraordinarily rich with fruitful and inspirational depictions  – for, in keeping with Ezekiel’s term, “The Glory of the Lord” the Lord God was invisibly Present among them. YHWH-Elohim known to Moses still endured in the minds of the Judaist exiles. Thus P went back into the Israelite times in the Sinai, and then farther back to Abraham, the patriarch. In the end, going farther back in time, as we see in Genesis 1, P conceived of the Godhead in primordial time, envisioning the Creation of sun, moon, stars and all living creatures on earth, including humankind. This was P’s answer to the neo-Babylonian Epic… “when on high … a crudely fashioned mythic treatment of a divine-warrior Marduk splitting apart the body of a sea-monster to separate out heaven from the earth.

         P’s intellectual and spiritual journey took him up into eternal realms of the Lord God. It was as though he were viewing the Creation of life on earth by this Highest Divinity, dwelling in heavenly spheres beyond ‘human time’ in ‘Timelessness’ itself, attainable in moments of quieted consciousness when ‘Time’ seemingly stands still.  This Being, metaphysically Divine and invisible to human eyes, surpassed neo-Babylonian astronomers’ maps of changes observed in the sun, moon, planets and stars that they identified symbolically with deities.

Spiritual Inspirations: The Words of God for humanity found in Genesis 1:26-27

       P marvelled at the Divine Creation by the Lord God of all heaven and earth, which held at its heart, a metaphysical mystery for the human Spirit, and illuminated in Genesis 1:26. It was as if P over-heard the Voice of speaking; at one moment, God said to the assembled hosts of heaven regarding the newly created humankind,  “Let us make mankind in our image …So God created humankind in his image..” The New Oxford Annotated Bible  (2010:12), in a footnote observes, “Image, likeness is often interpreted to be a spiritual likeness between God and Humanity.” Another view is that the text builds on the king  with authority to rule; “This appearance equips humans for god-like rule over fish, birds and animals.” Nevertheless, in contrast, the NOAB editor on the Primeval History finds the theme of “Prevention of god-like immortality… or spreading of peoples (Gen. 10:1-11) as the divine preventing people gaining godlike power..”

  I think of P as the singular author of the masterpiece Genesis 1: 1-26, and as someone aspiring to commune with the Spirit of the Supremely Divine, Being of God. What’s more, he conceived that the Godhead gave humanity the potential for attaining, however rarely, the ‘over-sight’  to view earth with the same heavenly gaze as the Creator, if we can look past our earthy affairs.

Neo-Assyrian Inspirations: Divided Monarchy Period of Israel and Judah

         During the 7^th century BCE, Deuteronomists incorporated Joshua’s presumed conquests over most of Canaan; regarding Joshua 11:16-23, archaeologists specify perhaps Jericho, Ai and Hazor. Paradoxically, the Deuteronomists added into the Book of Judges several battles of Israelites with indigenous peoples and Transjordanian people, clearly not fully conquered by Joshua.  (Judges 6, Gideon questioned the Lord, why Midian, needed re-claiming.)  A quasi-astronomical theme appears in Joshua. After his army destroyed the soldiers of ‘five kings of the Amorites,’ including Jerusalem; then Joshua, 10:12, exulting over his victories, sang, “Sun, stand still at Gibeon and the Moon stop in the valley of Aijalon.. 10, 12…”  Did this poetic appeal to celestial bodies relate to Assyrian astronomers, pre-occupied with lunar eclipses interpreted as possible demise of a king?

         Deuteronomist historians could not forget the ruthless seizure of Samaria by neo-Assyrian commanders, Shalmaneser V and son, Sargon II. Perhaps DH began to assimilate ideas of neo-Assyrianism – driven towards systematic conquests of lands beyond their own geography. In the north Semitic region (Iraq today)  each conqueror built a new city to glorify his victorious gains. The king of the Northern Kingdom, Jehu (842-815 BCE) is depicted in a neo-Assyrian tablet kneeling in obeisance to the reigning emperor, vassal to Shalmaneser III.

Neo-Assyrian conqueror, Ashurnasirpal II, a ruthless killer, perhaps a landscape visionary

         At the beginning of Neo-Assyrian rise to power, Ashurnasirpal II (his dates are not far from Solomon) was notable. There is mention in the Hebrew Bible of  Ashurnasirpal II’s city, Nimrud (Nimrod), Kalhu in Assyrian. Nimrod is described as a mighty hunter before the Lord. Elsewhere, there is reference to Nimrod, as though using the neo-Assyrian conqueror’s biblical-name to people he encountered on his way to the Mediterranean Sea. At his city, Kalhu he built a wonderful palace and highly decorated temple, ostensibly to the sun and moon, but actually to Ashur, the deity he served. Far from being a celestial being, Ashur was a war god, considering Ashurnasirpal II’s predilection for warfare. Archeologists were shocked to find records of the people and livestock killed by Ashurnasirpal under the temple; these deaths were offerings by the king to his chosen and blood-thirsty deity.

      On the Internet, images are shown of ‘the Winged Genie of Assyria,’ with particular mention of  examples from Ashurnasirpal II and Sargon II. An angelic being bears a rather stern visage, in contrast with his wonderous beneficence to all nature. This figure wears great wings and it’s as though he gazes down on us. In one hand he carries a water bucket and in the other an acorn. Is he a kind of ‘tree-planter,’ emblematic of tall forests existing in lands of the Fertile Crescent?

Norman Gottwald on the Documentary Hypothesis: (J), €, (D) and (P)

     Scottish historian, Diarmaid MacCulloch (2009:63), reflects on the neo-Babylonian context that became an important influence on Judahites at Babylon. He supposes P writers would have been impressed by neo-Babylonian astronomical ideas.

           “Regarding the increasing volume of sacred writings added in this Second Temple period… for the exiled community in Babylon… it mat have been the fact that the scene of their exile was Babylon on the River Euphrates that led them to cherish the idea that the Patriarch Abram had come to their Promised Land from Ur, a city then near the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. They learned ancient tales, like the story well known throughout the Middle East about a great flood, and incorporated them into their own narrative of the ancient past. Jews still in Babylon picked up an interest in the long Babylonian tradition of observing and speculating on the stars and planets, and began contributing their own thoughts on the subject.”   [Emphasis mine.]

    It is worthwhile to rehash some of the Documentary Hypothesis, which Gottwald (The Hebrew Bible1985:137-141) sees as connecting the four different authors: J, E, D and P. He begins by acknowledging that “Historical-critical study has identified four major literary hands at work in the growth of the traditions…” pertaining to the ‘Law and the Former Prophets’ [the latter consisting of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings].

       The Yahwist (J, for German Jahwist) is the source for the Garden of Eden tale, dating to 960-930 BCE, and such J literary sources are found in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, and may also exist in Joshua and Judges. In David and Solomon’s time these writings may have constituted a national or Judean epic. It’s possible J was in government service, identified by his calling the God of Israel by the name YAHWEH.    

     The Elohist (E) wrote at the start of the divided monarchy, ca. 900-850 BCE, and he recounted stories of the patriarchs. E is sourced in Genesis, Exodus and Numbers, and perhaps Joshua (conquests) and Judges. E used the name Elohim for the God of Israel in the period before Moses, who received God’s Name as YAHWEH.  This author, E. lived in the northern kingdom of Israel, and likely had close connections to the circles of Elijah and Elisha.

      Gottwald thinks that Deuteronomist historians, he calls (DH) (or D, author of Deuteronomy), perhaps began in the north as early as E. As traditionalists, they impressed obedience to the covenant with YAHWEH on the people.  By the end of the northern kingdom in 722 BCE, sympathizers in Judah held onto to Deuteronomic traditions, encouraging King Josiah’s reforms. Once in Babylonian exile, D, or DH, began revising history again: Moses’ laws before his death, the conquest of Canaan, histories of the united and divided kingdoms, and ending in the exile, a date identified as 561 BCE (prior to P).

       Gottwald believes the Priestly writer (P, his dates 550-450 BCE) made a major contribution to the “national epic,” evident from Genesis through Numbers. P supplemented older traditions with materials that “underscore the institutional and ritual constitution of Israel as a religious community uniquely separated from all other peoples.” Likely Gottwald is thinking of Ex.19:3-4, when God told Moses his people would become “a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.”  Gottwald says, P wrote: “A well-ordered  account of creation [i.e. Genesis 1]… sabbath observance … instructions on the priesthood and sacrifices.”  Most of the last half of Exodus comes from P, and all of Leviticus, “to strengthen a Priestly tradition in late monarchic, exilic and postexilic Israel.”   

  Unlike MacCulloch, quoted above, who believes the astronomical context at Babylon stimulated P’s thoughts on celestial phenomena, as in Genesis 1, Gottwald does not credit neo-Babylonians’ perspective on the cosmic systems as particularly significant. In Ezekiel’s visions, Gottwald, reflecting probably on the winged cherubim sees this cosmology as related to “Assyro-Babylonian traditions.” (1985:487)

Missing from Gottwald’s socio-historic theory is ‘the Supernatural,’ as in Ezekiel I-II

            We read Ezekiel Chapter 1, lines 1-28, as his vision of the supernatural appearance of Divinity – as supra-cosmic imagery of greater radiance he called the Glory of the Lord. (See in Sinai times, “.. the Glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.. ”, Ex. 40:34, which Gottwald assigns to P). The representation of the Spiritual essence of the God of Israel is in keeping with Ezekiel’s ‘Zion Theology.’ Editor Stephen Cook in the NOAB (2010: 1159-1162) introduces Ezekiel’s prophetic writings as adopted by his school of followers “the Zadokites.” (See the previous reference by Gottwald to Zadok the state priest in David’s and Solomon’s kingdom, likely a Canaanite.) Cook says that the Zadokites controlled the Israelite high priesthood. Cook views the theology of ‘the Holiness School’ infusing Ezekiel’s writing. Ezekiel’s Holliness material can be found in the Pentateuch, and extends beyond the Priestly Writer/s Leviticus “ Holiness Code.’

         Ezekiel’s period of prophecy extended from 593-571 BCE. He was one of the early Judean elite deported to Babylon in 597 BCE,  and he remained passionately concerned for Jerusalem and its Temple. He foresaw its fiery destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, happened in 586 BCE. By his Zion Theology, he foresaw the temple’s reconstruction in his later chapters. We quote Cook,

               “There are clear indications of an originally written composition and intention to preserve the text…. To demonstrate the timeliness and veracity of Ezekiel’s oracles…. The preservation of the Holiness School material mark a breakthrough in the development of written scripture in Israel…”

         Furthermore, Cook points out that Ezekiel’s visionary prophecies anticipated writings such as Daniel 7-12 and the Book of Revelation.

           What do we see in Ezekiel’s Chapter 1, his vision, which, at first reading, was grounded strongly in cosmic imagery? There’s a storm cloud, great winds in the north, and flashing fire that could be lightening.  Some visionaries report that the electric energy from storms can evoke the appearances of otherworldly images and expressive, realistic and colourful figures that would otherwise be invisible to the human eye. Ezekiel records seeing “a vision of God,” over the Chebar river in Babylonia. He saw a bright cloud flashing fire reveal four winged creatures. Each symbolized a change in time, typically associated with the Babylonian calendar and seasons.

        As part of the winged cherubim and wheeled assemblage upholding the platform, above which stood Ezekiel’s “vision of God,”  each living creature (or cherubim) was given a differing face: a human, an eagle, lion and ox. Apparently two golden sphinxes, carved of olive-wood stood in the Holy of Holies of Solomon’s Temple, with their great wings cast over the Ark of the Covenant (1 Kings 8:21). Likely they were shaped as winged lion, maybe an ox, with humanized faces – Phoenician styled iconography introduced by Solomon’s artists and sculptors.

       Modern scholars assume that P inserted into Exodus 25:18 (credited to P by Gottwald) a description of two little gold-covered sphinxes attached to either end of the Ark of the Covenant. The thing is, with respect to the First Commandment’s denial of importance such to animal imagery, in Exodus 25, the Lord God was invisibly Present above the ‘mercy-seat’ between the wings of cherubim – dwelling in that emptiness as His ‘Oracular Presence.

       “There I will meet with you, and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the covenant, I will deliver to you all my commands for the Israelites.”

 Accordingly P may have taken from Ezekiel’s vision the corresponding sense that if the Lord God’s Glory was with them, even in Babylonia, it was in the invisible form of His Supernatural Being – above the cosmos. Summarizing Ezekiel 1:22-29 – 2:1-10. He describes the sublime image that he calls “the splendour …the appearance of the glory of the Lord.” He falls on his face but is told to stand up to receive his commission. He is to go to the people of Israel, who have become “a rebellious house.” A scroll unrolls or descends and bears the words, “lamentation, doom and woe.”  The glory of the Lord had been shown to Ezekiel in the faintly seen figure above the four creatures. He saw a crystalline dome, sky-like, resembling, “something like a throne, in appearance like sapphire, seated above the likeness of a throne – something like a human form.”

        John J. Collins notes (2014: 225) that the latest date in Ezekiel, 571-570 BCE, “is one of the features that relate the book of Ezekiel to the Priestly tradition.” Collins also observes that “the glory of the Lord … glory the symbol of the presence of God in Ezekiel was at pains to emphasize the transcendent, surpassing nature of this God, who cannot be perceived clearly by human eyes.” (2014:227).   

Ezekiel’s extraordinary visions of God’s Departure from Jerusalem for Babylon

     On the next occasions of Ezekiel’s visions of the Glory of the Lord, 9:3, 10:4, and 11:22-24 (as quoted below), he watched, while still in spirit, the Lord was carried by the cherubim away from Jerusalem, flying on to Babylon.

             “Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. And the glory of the Lord ascended from the middle of the city and stopped on the mountain east of the city. The spirit lifted me up in a vision by the spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision left me.”   

        The Presence of the Glory of the Lord with the exiles transformed and enlarged consciousness of space and time, especially priestly groups like Ezekiel’s Holiness School and P’s priestly cult. Judaist historians and scribes were induced, e.g. Ex. 3:6, the Lord God’s words to Moses regarding the God of the patriarchs to explore a deeper religious history back into pre-patriarchal times, Noah’s Flood, and the earth’s original creation.. MacCulloch observes:

          “There is little reference to the Patriarchs in the pronouncements of ‘later’ great prophets like Jeremiah, Hosea, or the first prophet known as Isaiah, whose prophetic words date from the 8^th and 7^th centuries BCE. It is as though these basic stories of Israel’s origins a thousand years before were largely missing from the consciousness of Jeremiah, Hosea and Isaiah, whereas references to the Patriarchs appear abundantly in the material which is of sixth-century or later date. The stories of the Patriarchs post-date [these prophets]… though stories embedded in Genesis are undoubtedly very ancient.” (MacCulloch 2009:51)                      

Sumerian Priestly Legacy passed on through succeeding Babylonian civilizations

        In The Sumerians (1965:192), Mesopotamian archaeologist, Leonard Woolley writes:

                 “The Jewish religion, as it owed not a little of its origins to the Sumerian, so also was throughout the period of the Kings and the Captivity brought into close contact with the Babylonian worship taken over from Sumer… and partly in opposition to it [the Jewish religion] attained higher growth….The laws of Moses were largely based on Sumerian codes … [see the laws of Hammurabi]… and so from the Sumerians the Hebrews derived the ideals of social life and justice …the modern world owes to this race [the Sumerians], rescued from complete oblivion.”     

         Talking about pre-Sumerian origins, Woolley’s chapter on ‘The Beginnings,’ (1965:3-4), he quotes from Genesis on the creation of the earth.  “Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let dry land appear, and it was so…. earth brought forth grass… herb yielding seed… tree yielding fruit …” Woolley describes how river deposits of soil/silt at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphrates, and other river systems, built up a barrier against salt water, sea surges, so that gradually the marshy waters near the Persian Gulf freshened, and then land appeared like little islands. The soil was extraordinarily fertile, and consequently, Sumerian settlers monitored the rise of floodwaters. This was especially important during the spring, when they held festivals to honour the gods of nature for the fruitful land.  

        In discussing the theocratic organization of ancient Sumer, Woolley illustrates how the Priestly Writer revived pre-Babylonian traditions that dated back to at least the third millennium BCE. Woolley (1965:129) writes,

              “Considering the priesthood … the Sumerian state was essentially theocratic. The god of the city was in reality its king; the human ruler, patesi, was simply his representative – ‘the tenant farmer’ of the god. The king was himself a priest …. deification of kings carried to conclusion the theory they ruled in the name of the god. ..the high priest of one of the larger temples was a person of political importance… Church and state were so intermingled that the State was a theocracy… “

         It’s possible that Gottwald rightly argues, some priestly cult existed in Israelite society before its exile. Nevertheless P is credited with writing all of Leviticus, and Chapters 17-26 of the Holiness Code became theologically fundamental to the development of later Judaism, particularly considering its post-exilic governance by the Persians’ appointment of high-priests as governors. Here is one quote of the Words of God, written by P into Leviticus 25:23, which has Sumerian language regarding the Godhead’s ownership of the lands. 

           “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. Throughout the land you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land.”[Emphasis mine]

  Another instance where P recorded the Lord’s instructions to insure agricultural abundance:  

“ You shall make for yourselves no idols and erect no carved images and pillar, and you shall not place figured stones in your land; for I am your Lord God. You shall keep my sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. If you follow my statues and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, ‘I will give you rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.” (Lev. 26:1-4)  

Post-Exilic Jerusalemites learn the Sovereignty of God over the lands;

    During 520 BCE, the Judahites return to a ruined Jerusalem, and find the lands largely uncultivated. A minor prophet, Haggai, taught them cautionary Words of the Lord God, recapitulating P’s Leviticus 26:1-4 above. Richard Hess, in his Presbyterian-oriented text on The Old Testament (2016:683-689), views the lines in Haggai, 1;5- 2-8, reveal “the theme of transformations.” In Hess’ words: “God asserts he controls all and will turn the world upside down… God can do great things with small resources that are obedient and dedicated. Holiness and cleanliness were important tenets of agricultural success since the popular belief was that disobedience led to crop failure. Haggai points out that once the people started rebuilding the Second Temple, its presence as the House of the Lord marked the restored fertility of the lands.

                                                    In Conclusion:

        P’s Transcendent Monotheism introduces the biblical-reader to the enhanced global perspective, as if that of the hosts of heaven in Genesis 1:26, inventively creating and re-creating generations of earthly existences. Let us pause here to remember the Winged Genie of Assyria, as ‘Tree-Planter iconography of the neo-Assyrian era. The image of some richly robed winged being – some angelic-like spirit –the nurturer of forests, trees and natural vegetation. It’s a comforting thought, particularly these days as the world struggles against wildfires, deforestation, animal endangerment, droughts, and frequent, unbearable heatwaves.

Bibliographic Sources

The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments, New Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition. NRSV. Catholic Bible Press, 1993.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version With the Apocrypha, An Ecumenical Study Bible. NOAB. Michael Coogan, Editor, Oxford University Press, 2010.

John J. Collins. A Sort Introduction to the Hebrew Bible and Deutero-Canonical Books, Second Edition,  Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014.

Norman Gottwald. The Hebrew Bible- A Socio-Literary Introduction, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985.

Richard Hess. The Old Testament, A Historical, Theological and Critical Introduction, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2016.  

Diarmaid MacCulloch. Christianity, The First Three Thousand Years, England: Penguin Books, 2009.

Carl Rasmussen, Essential Atlas of the Bible Zondervan, 2013 Leonard Woolley. The Sumerians, New York: W.W. Norton and Company, Inc, 1965.

Discovering Faith, Walking with the Spirit of Jesus through the Gospels

By Sandra Principe

Introduction: Can Higher Vision ameliorate our concerns regarding present-day calamities in the ‘Holy Land,’ Holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims?

      From October to December 2023, while writing this paper, my thoughts and feelings have gone to the desperation of the Palestinians suffering in Gaza. Unexpectedly, a vision came to me while meditating one day. The Lord showed me His Beneficence, if only at the moments of their dying into the hereafter. He showed me some magnificent tables that are being set out for them in Paradise. Beautiful table cloths in the brightest white covered these tables furnished with the finest dinner ware and glass sparkling. On one table, of interest to me, I saw the little dish I picked up somewhere in blue and white Dutch design. I wished that those suffering in Gaza from hunger and thirst (see Matthew 25), if not in reality, would find their desires for nurturance fulfilled in such a Paradise-Banquet. 

          Jesus spoke at one time of the need while in this life, to give aid to the needy, thus assured of the same beneficence in the next life. The Gospel of Luke, 16: 19-31, by the Greek Gentile gospeler, who had read the Greek Septuagint versions of the Hebrew Scriptures, tells the parable of Jesus entitled ‘The Rich man and Lazarus.’ Jesus assured his listeners that the poor man, hungry and dying at the city gate (unlike certain comfortable Jews enjoying rich foods in this life) was going to enjoy rich feasting when he would be gathered into Father Abraham’s Paradise.  In 1408, the Russian painter Andre Rublev, referring to this parable, painted a fresco of the Last Judgment on the walls of the Cathedral of the Dormition at Vladimir. According to Kostos Papaioannou (1965:95), what remains as a fresco fragment  shows Paradise with “…. the Good Thief bearing his cross, and the patriarch Abraham sitting beside Isaac and Jacob, a nestful of tiny souls in his bosom.”

       Like everyone else these days, I consider the woeful effects of the current warfare between Israel and Hamas. The latter have been deploying barrages of missiles into southern Israel, with few injuries reported, unlike the intense destruction caused by the ‘dumb bombs’ used by the IDF to reduce Gaza to rubble. While killing more than 20,000 Gazans, the IDF is starving many more Palestinian civilians, forcing hospitals to close down and U.N. truck aid cannot reach the displaced people for the incessant bombs raining down anywhere and everywhere.

      As to above reference to Father Abraham, we can assume that his Sumerian legacy of the noblest civility, of hospitality shown to the ‘strangers’ arriving at his tent who actually were angels, was passed down through innumerable ethnic descendants, Jews and Arabs, and then to Christian believers in the teachings of the Hebrew Scriptures. Yet, as I learned recently, the Spirit of the Heavenly Jesus, still alive in our world today, wishes to endow healing upon all applicants regardless of their religious affiliation, race or ethnicity.    

 Surprisingly, the Kingdom of Heaven may still be near…as in the site of Jesus’ Baptism

     It is of interest, particularly relevant to the views of modern scholars, that the Fourth Gospel of John is regarded as the testimony of the ‘Beloved Disciple, John.’ He was the leader of a distinctively different Jewish-Christian community, Galilean-based, and maybe at odds with the Jerusalem Christians. John the Baptist is given prominence in the Fourth Gospel, quoted, for instance, as testifying to what he personally saw happen at Jesus’ baptism (to which Paul refers in Galatians 1:15). In Jn. 1:15, ‘the Baptist related: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” The other three gospelers quote words spoken by “a voice from heaven,” saying “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17) Then a dove flew down from the heavens as peace fell upon that site, still blessed today.

        Once, years ago, my daughter, son-in-law, a Jordanian Palestinian, and their son, Karim born into the Muslim faith, spent an hour or so in the midst of winter (no tourists around) walking through the dried up reeds and tall grasses growing on the Jordanian side of the river. A Greek Orthodox church stood up on the hill, its baptismal fount standing nearby, for, this has always been believed to be the site of Jesus’ baptism. I sensed such a spirit of sweetness and grace bringing with it a state of peace. Back home in Toronto, my grandson, then three to four years old, started speaking to me about how he was “thinking about God all the time…” (as I recall his words). I hoped that Karim would learn more about God’s benevolent love and care for us, just as we had experienced this by the Jordan River – feeling God was with us that day.

           As I began thinking upon this paper, I went back to Genesis 1:26, wherein the Godhead-Creator spoke to the surrounding angels while implanting in the newly created humankind an instinctive communion with all the hosts of heaven. God conceived of human beings as “… created in our image…” Anyone of us possesses an interior consciousness that, once awakened, can only think about God. From the 1^st century CE onwards, while the Spirit of the Ascended Christ looked down from Heaven, more and more people heard about the Godhead of the Ages.

  Gospel guidance towards finding a country-home..  admiring Nature as God’s Creation

        Many years ago in the 1970’s, in meditation one night, I was back in a scene from my childhood on my grandmother’s farm. I could see the tall trees, sense the cooling breezes blowing through the branches of those trees… Then, my long-deceased grandmother, who had farmed in the Ottawa Valley, as had generations of the family before her, spoke to me (in thought-language) about how she loved me. When I was a girl, ca. 8 years old, she encouraged me to begin reading the old fashioned version of the King James’ Bible. A constant bible-reader throughout her life (Protestant Presbyterian), she told me to look up Mark, Ch. 11:20, which reads. “So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”  After I saw it repeated in Matthew 21:22, I liked this more simple phrasing, Jesus’ words: “Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive.” During this vision, my grandmother was reminding me of Mark which I interpreted as relating to a new home in the country forthcoming in my life.

       An opportunity arose to purchase a little cottage, a renovated church-house (deconsecrated, I suppose) a few hours away from Toronto. The village congregation left it behind when they rebuilt the larger, nearby school-house to serve as St. Mark’s United Church – recall my grandmother’s choice of gospel reference. At the time I remembered some curious words of my grandmother: “…. In the springtime, you will be standing on your own land…” At the very moment of my first view of it from the road in the early spring, my decision was made to purchase it. Reflecting back I see that my grandmother, from her distant place in heaven, had been aware of my need, a city person, to be closer to Nature and of my spiritual plight at the time – a relative lack of faith.

         While I lived and worked in the city, that little church-house offered me a kind of Sunday-like experience in every season. It was like dwelling in the delights of nature: fields and gardens, mostly wild flowers, nearby farms with animals, wildlife abounding, overgrowing trees, and woodlands not afar off. A week or two in winter involved the bracing experience of its intense wintry cold lit up by the brightest sun. While spending leisure time there, I was inspired, like my beloved grandmother, to read the Bible. Along with those readings, I dipped into the collection of Buddhist works bequeathed by the place’s former owner and renovator, Zara, a Russian immigrant and survivor of the Second World War.

        Of necessity I sold my country-home to a friend, and bought an apartment in a co-op in west Toronto situated by a small cove on the shore of Lake Ontario. Then a co-owner of the lakeside property I delighted in studying Lake Ontario’s changing moods according to seasons. Its icing in winter could extend from the shore out into the lake; in autumn storms waves rolled against the seawall with the winds’ arousal of the white-capped waves. Birds sailed up and down in their seasons: swans, Canada geese, ducks during the spring and summer; and in winter little arctic birds formed a circle out on the waves. When it was necessary to sell my lakeshore home, and move back into city apartment living the dream-image of my former home in the country dwelled within me. It was the white-wooded little church and garden covered in wild daisies in late spring, the natural and spiritual beauty of my former ‘country home’ – as close to God as I could get. I never felt like the owner of the land I was living on: rather, I had seen myself as ‘the care-taker’ of this precious wilderness home, formerly a church – and in its entirety, the Godhead’s greater preserve.  

              In my older age,  the Spirit of Jesus appeared in a hospital setting…  

    A recent experience of Jesus’ response showed me that healing can come to anyone, anywhere in the world. I learned that Jesus is ready to respond to any appeal for help, even, as in my former case; a non-church-goer, I had needed my grandmother’s gospel guidance in learning to pray. Just this past week, October 4^th, 2023, while sitting in the narrow corridor of Toronto Western Hospital’s Eye Clinic I awaited the retinal surgeon’s assessment of my damaged eye. (Ever since 2014, I had needed eye injections with increasingly painful reactions). Accustomed to visiting the retinal surgeon every few months for an eye injection, patient that I was, I sat quietly for an hour or so in the crowded corridor awaiting his expert attention.

         Unexpectedly, in that confined and crowded hospital space, to my surprise – in the air before and above me – the Spirit of Jesus loomed – his ‘Spiritual Essence,’ that is. He did not appear as a human being; but I sensed a beautiful ‘lightness,’ the specialness of the “Grace of Jesus,” a sweetness of spirit (such as I recall experiencing next to the Jordan River).

         Jesus wanted to confide something important – upon which I was to reflect further.. In thought-language he said something about feeling free just to ask for his help or aid and that is all that is ever needed for us humans to do. I recall him mentioning that it is not just the Christian worthy who can gain his help, such as the Catholic saints or the Protestant Calvinist Elect. That      was something new for me to think upon.

         Having just completed a Certificate of Theological Studies, I had absorbed the Catholic Church’s religious teachings within St. Augustine’s Seminary for training of prospective priests (lay people can join academic classes). Catholic devout are encouraged to attend the priestly offering of the mass since it is their conviction the mass is especially sanctified by the Presence of Christ, the trans-substantiation of the sacramental bread and wine into his own body and blood. During local church services, whether attending Protestant Anglican observances of the communion or the mass of the Roman Catholic Church, I am aware of the fervency of prayer at moments of special communion with Christ when prayers are sung to extoll Christ the Redeemer, and the ‘Peace’ is shared by all.

       Now I needed to dwell upon the Spirit of Jesus, whose Essence had been present in the hospital corridor. He was leading me to view him as ‘the universal saviour’ – to whom anyone may pray. I began to think that Jesus will answer anyone’s prayer, regardless of their professed religious affiliation, or even lack of it, as is the case for many today.

      Jesus, the divine healer, was also a man, who understood human physical disabilities. Why else would he make his appearance in a hospital setting?  This past October, just after the Spirit of Jesus had spoken to me, on checking my right eye, the retinal surgeon declared it looked “perfect.” He was as happy as I that I didn’t need the usual injection, painful recovery in the extreme (at the cost to Ontario government of $1700.00 per injection). The surgeon said, ” whatever you are doing, it’s working.”  Praying of course!

     When I made a visit last summer to Epiphany and St. Mark, Parkdale, the Anglican Church where formerly I had been in attendance, I realized Christ’s healing was at work. I was surprised to see my name on the overhead screen listed among all those needing healing through the congregation’s prayers. Excitedly after the service I told them of my eye’s initial improvement, for even back in the July appointment with retinal surgeon, he had said the eye looked “fine,” no need for an injection. Together we rejoiced that the congregation’s petition on my behalf during Sunday services had started to achieve amazing results. Even at that time, I realized Christ’s healing was at work. 

A puzzling realization: Despite the unacceptable anti-Judaism in the Gospels, they ascend towards the Christological Theology highlighted in the Fourth Gospel

     When the Spirit of Jesus addressed me in the hospital corridor, he encouraged me to re-read the Christian Gospels.  Perhaps he understood I felt loath to do so. Having studied the Gospels closely in a course on the New Testament with St. Michael’s College (U. of T. winter 2022), I was still discomforted regarding the gospelers’ anti-Judaism, explicitly so in the Fourth Gospel of John. Dutifully, I returned to read parts of the gospels and consulted course hand-outs of today’s scholarly papers on the creation of the gospels.

      Scholarly views of the historic contexts for the writing of each gospel interested me, in keeping with papers I have written for this web-site, ‘Historical Visions,’ Since I had to deal with anti-Judaism in the Gospels, through this renewed reading, I found depths of meaning regarding the singular issue of anti-Judaism, in part somewhat differently expressed by the gospelers, more so in John and less evident in Luke, the Greek Gentile. The 1^st Century Jewish-Christians apparently were divided. One group was led by ‘James the Just,’ brother of Jesus, and often Peter was present there as an active member. That group, which formed after Pentecost, ca. 33 CE, continued to worship in the Jerusalem Temple up to ca. 66 CE, at which time, James was executed by the order of the High Priest of the Jerusalem Temple – which came to be destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE.

        Another community formed, based largely in the Galilee, and fell under the leadership of the ‘Beloved Disciple of Jesus, John,’ by name, whose testimony was set down as the Fourth Gospel of John. Considering its northerly location, that community had begun to missionize in the province of Samaria among the Samaritans, who were historically despised by the Jews. We find in John’s Gospel, Ch. 4:1-9, Jesus’ speaking to a Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, asking her for a drink. Her initial response was tentative, saying, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans .” Contemporary scholars speculate that when the followers of the Beloved Disciple were cast out of Jewish synagogues, they developed the most extreme antipathy towards “the Jews” as is evident in the Fourth Gospel. Was their expulsion because of  their close association with Samaritan converts?

      The Spirit of Jesus, seemingly, enkindled in my memory another set of spiritual ideas from Greek philosophy, ideas that progress spiritually towards the highest levels of human aspiration. I recalled Plato’s The Banquet, (otherwise called The Symposium), whereSocrates elucidated the teachings of the prophetess Diotima on the topic of ‘Love.’  She constructed her ideas according to the ladder motif. Initially, she responded to those attending the banquet who had extolled the earthly, even the sensual – as not the only form of Love. She moved on to consider the value of family-love and rearing of children; from there she took them up into participating in spheres of community and public service. But the highest form of human Love, Diotima said, lies in the aspiration to become “a friend of God.’

         Let us think of the Greek Gentiles living among the Jews in the diaspora; known as ‘God-Lovers’ who were attracted to attending the synagogues (wherein Paul found his first converts). Luke, the Greek Gentile gospeler, addressed his Gospel to someone named Theophilius, translatedmeaning, ‘friend of God,’ addressing the same-named person again in Acts 1:1…, whose name recalled Diotima’s ‘friend of God.’

                      Transitional Logic of Placing Mark as First in the Canon

           The Gospel of Mark by Holladay (2017) deals initially with the question of whether it is more likely that Mark’s was the first gospel to be written down, ca. 70 CE.  He relates that the earliest Christian theologians regarded Mark’s Gospel as a “secondary witness,” since they understood his gospelwas based on reminiscences by Peter, at Rome. Papias, early 2^nd century, described Mark as “the interpreter of Peter … who wrote accurately of all he recalled the Lord had said and did.” Whereas Matthew was regarded as an actual disciple, the tax collector, and was accorded first place in the New Testament canon. Halliday says, “Mark’s Gospel was considered a condensed, shorter version taken from Matthew.” Another aspect of Mark’s Gospel: Clement of Alexandre referred to “the Secret Gospel, according to Mark,” in that the figure of Jesus remains elusive and enigmatic throughout, especially as to his messianic identity. Who was Jesus? In Mark, we read only a hint of his resurrection to come:  9:9, Jesus told the disciples to tell no one of the transfiguration “… until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.”

      From the beginning of the 20^th century, according to Holladay, scholars have agreed that Mark’s did not follow Matthew’s, but was the earliest gospel. As Holladay says: “… because it could supply early, historically reliable traditions about Jesus, [though] it is now widely regarded as a heavily slanted theological account of Jesus.”  As we shall see, Mark’s abbreviated ending without the full resurrection theme was consistent with a Galilean community that looked forward towards the ultimate ‘Coming of the Son of Man’ in Daniel’s prophecy, 7:13-14.

       As to Diotima’s ladder motif, the Spirit of Jesus wanted me to see that there is a progression from one gospel to the next in terms of their developing themes. One looks for indications of how each gospeler chose to further explore an idea/question he picked up in his predecessor’s work, needing more explication. Scholars consider Mark’s Gospel ends in Chapter 16:1-8, with the empty tomb and the mysterious young man in a white robe saying to the women, “you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He is not here.” Such finality to Mark’s narrative suggested to Matthew (writing his gospel, 80-85 CE) to recover the disciples’ recollections of the post-crucifixion appearances of Jesus. Then, Matthew recorded Jesus last words to his disciples: “ Go forth and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in names of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” This line, Matthew 28:19, gave new inspiration to Luke.

      Luke (writing ca. 80-85 CE) was motivated to go far beyond Matthew’s narrative of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. He tacked onto his Gospel of Luke his writing of Acts of the Apostles, which in Chapter 1:6-11 opens with the ascension of the Spirit of Christ back to heaven, to which two angels (Mark’s one young man) were present. Then, in Chapter 2, Luke records the lengthy sermon of Peter who encouraged baptism among those present in Jerusalem at Pentecost – enthused by the arrival of the Holy Spirit, activating the Apostolic Age.

   John’s Gospel, dated 90-110, in Chapter 16:7-15 (perhaps an editorial insert)  has Jesus speak of “the Advocate”, or “the Spirit of truth,” to guide them into all the truth.. Let us assume that marginal communities in Samaria, Galilee, and up into Syria, became the focus of extra-Judaic missionizing by such Galilean Jewish-Christians, fully imbued with the Holy Spirit that graced the Beloved Disciple, John.

         John’s opening is written in the wondrous wisdom of salvation in Christ and the Holy Spirit. John says of Jesus, “… those who received him …were to become children of God… born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God..” Jn. 1:12-13. In this mystical language, recall Paul’s words, “ I live by the faith in the Son of God… Christ lives in me..” (Galatians 2:20) – not unlike Diotima’s highest goal of Love, become a “friend of God.”

Commentors in Antiquity as Early Christian views of the Gospels

      A paper by Arthur Patzia (1995:58-67) quotes from Papias in antiquity (dates 70-160 CE) on Mark’s and Matthew’s Gospels. Matthew’s Gospel, then given first place in the canon, was said to have been composed “in the Hebrew tongue,” then translated into the Greek version we now possess. Papias added that the names of Matthew and Mark “… guaranteed the trustworthiness of the oral tradition, now used to assure the faithfulness of the written documents.” 

         Another scholar,  W.R. Telford, in his Guide to Early Christianity and the Synoptic Gospels, (2002: ) discusses the debate on ‘the Synoptic Problem,’ (Synoptic means, ‘seeing together’), which raises for scholars questions as to specific sources for each of the gospels, when considering major similarities and/or minor differences in narratives. The ‘Q’ hypothesis (for German term Quelle) assumes that material for the three gospels emanated out of the continuity of oral traditions (implied in Papias above).  Telford (2002:112) gives priority to Mark’s Gospel, but argues that Luke and Matthew independently drew from Mark and from ‘Q.’ As context for the ‘Q’ hypothesis, Telford writes (2002:113):

          “Scholars think it [Q] was composed between 40 and 70 CE in Northern Galilee, reflecting convictions of conservative Jewish Christians with a commitment to the covenant, the law and the Jerusalem Temple … a strong eschatological emphasis on the return of Jesus as the apocalyptic Son of Man (see Daniel 7).”

 Telford observes regarding the above: “ it lacked ‘soteriology,’ lacked any “salvific significance in Jesus’ death.” So, let us consider the lack of resurrection narratives in Mark. Perhaps, as in the aforementioned Galilean community’s theology, not choosing to rely on any testimony of Jesus’ post-crucifixion appearances in Jerusalem, conservatively-minded, they reverted to Daniel’s prophecies that were integral with the whole body of the Hebrew Scriptures.

      Telford supposes that Matthew’s Gospel drew from oral traditions of the apostles’ reminiscing upon their encounters with the Spirit of Christ after his crucifixion and entombment. He thinks Matthew may have used ‘Q’ sources for these several instances of Jesus’ post-crucifixion appearances.     

          The Syria Christian Tatian studied at Rome with Justin Martyr. Tatian’s Diatessaron, meaning ‘through the four,’ was his attempt at showing “harmony” among the four gospels. He arranged all the gospel material by using the framework of the Gospel of John to draw together, as Patzia puts it (1995:64), “a continuous narrative of the life of Jesus.”  See the scaling up of the ladder motif taking us from the down-to-earth Mark, to Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus’ Hebrew ancestry, to Luke’s narrative of his miraculous nativity – up to John’s elevated spiritualism.

         Another paper, simply entitled ‘John’ (my copy lacks the name of the author and date), deals extensively with the Fourth Gospel’s denigration of “the Jews.” For example, John 8:41, 44, says of the Jews, they are not of Abraham; in Jesus’ words, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God… You are from your father the devil … there is no truth in him…” This author enlarges on this conflicted theological situation in his section on ‘The social Location of John and his intended readers’ (pages 100-108). This explanation accounts for the divisiveness that arose between Jewish Christians in the Jerusalem Temple, more especially a Judaist milieu, and the Beloved Disciple’s community could have been at odds with them over their missionizing to Samaritans.

       The unnamed author refers to Raymond Brown’s theory that the author of the Fourth Gospel was “John, the Beloved Disciple,” self-identified as such in Jn. 21:24, “John is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them and we know his testimony is true.” Scholars note the prominence of John the Baptist in this gospel, Chapters 6: 8, 15, containing the famous words, “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” re-stated daily in the mass. Perhaps the last chapter 21 was not completed by the Beloved Disciple, by then, he had died.

      Prior to John’s period of writing, Luke’s Gospel, 10:25-37, has the ‘Good Samaritan’ parable, decrying the unneighbourly Jewish priest’s disregard of the sick and dying man by the roadside. He walks away from giving any care to the languishing Samaritan. See the aforementioned  parable in Luke, 16:19-31. ’The Rich Man and Lazarus.’ John’s narrative of the ‘Samaritan woman at the well,’ can be understood as the reversal of centuries-long history of the Jews’ negative experiences with Samaritans.

       In 722 BCE, Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, Israel, was captured by neo-Assyrian conquerors and the northern population was taken away to distant places in the Mesopotamian east. In turn, Mesopotamians were transplanted onto those lands, where they intermarried with local Israelite farmers. Another point in time of negative relations between Judeans and Samaritans went back to the 5^th century BCE; Ezra and Nehemiah complained that the Samaritans were prejudicing the Persian governors against Jerusalemites trying to rebuild their city’s walls.

       The question arises: what else does the community context mean for the anti-Judaism in the Gospel of John? Let us assume, as the scholars suggest, that at an early stage in Apostolic times the Beloved Disciple’s community began to missionize in Samaria. The evidence, though slight, Acts 8:9-24, is that Peter of the Jerusalem Temple would have nothing to do with the Samaritans, seen in his rejection of the Samaritan magician, Simon Magus, already a convert to Christianity. But John’s Gospel, author and editors, were pleased to tell of Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well – affirming the Samaritans were accepted into the faith by Jesus himself.

      The major structural theme in Mark’s Gospel, Christ’s crucifixion, was written ca 70 CE, based upon his association with Peter at Rome, not long before the sainted Peter’s crucifixion. Given its dating ca. 70 CE, Mark enshrined at the heart of his Gospel the past sufferings of Jesus on the cross. Even before Emperor Nero instigated the Roman war against the Jews, 66-70 CE he was suspicious of the marginalized community of Christians living at Rome, accused them of having started the great fire that burned most of the city. By reputation, Latin texts tell of Nero as the torturer of many Christians, whether Jewish or Gentile Christians. He torched Christians at stake for a garden party’s entertainment.

             Misfortunes of the Jews arising out of The Jewish War against Rome

     One might suppose that the anti-Judaism pervading the gospels which were written after the Jewish War against Rome and which turned into antisemitism ever after, was shaped, in part, by the failed rebellion of Jews against Rome. Certainly Josephus, a deserter to the Romans, when writing towards the end of the 1^st century CE his work, The Jewish War (1980 edition)impresses the reader with his blaming the insurgents for the burning down of the sacred Jerusalem Temple.

      According to Josephus, in 66 CE, Emperor Nero instructed Vespasian, commander over all the legions in the region, to undertake the Judean nation’s subjugation, at all costs. Jewish historian, Josephus, detailed the whole course of the war beginning with its onset when he was governor and defender of the Galilee. When he saw his people’s military efforts had no chance against the overpowering Roman army, he surrendered to Vespasian. As he describes it, he was captured and taken before Vespasian. Indeed, when brought before the commander, he addressed him: “You, Vespasian, are Caesar and Emperor, you and your son here[Titus] (1980:212). Josephus was rewarded as a ‘sooth-sayer,’  became apologist for the Romans’ subjugation of the Jews, and was provided with comfortable accommodation at Rome to write his histories.

      When the Roman army laid siege to the city of the Jews, the Jewish temple was so admired by Gentile foreigners like the Romans that they had often gifted it with treasures. Vespasian built a great wall around Jerusalem, so as to gain their surrender. He successfully prevented the citizens’ intake of foodstuffs, etc. which reduced them to starvation. Josephus mentions that bodies of the dead were flung over the walls. Meanwhile the Roman soldiers ate well from supplies brought in from Syria.  In the center of the city Jewish insurgents such as Zealots and Idumeans of Herod’s tribal allegiance holed up in the temple; they snatched provisions at the altar laid in for the daily sacrifices to God. Josephus in ‘Horrors of the Siege…’ (1980:312-343) indicated it was the rebels who burned the Temple, distressing Titus and his army.

             “… no other city has ever endured such horrors, and no generation has fathered such wickedness. In the end they brought the whole Hebrew race into contempt in order to make their own impiety seem less outrageous in foreign eyes, and confessed the painful truth that they were slaves, the dregs of humanity, bastards, and outcasts of their nation. The overthrow of the city was their work, though they forced the unwilling Romans to be credited with a melancholy victory. … from the Upper City they watched the Temple burning.. they did not turn a hair, though many of the Romans were  moved to tears…(The Jewish War 1980 edition, page314)

       Josephus was probably more horrified at the rebels’ desecrations, particularly burning with fire the inner precincts of the Second Temple (modified and augmented by King Herod, the non-Jewish Idumean) than by the whole Roman assault on the whole city and inhabitants. He blamed the rebel insurgents for starting the fire within its interior in the hopeless task of defending the Temple against the Roman army invaders. Yet Josephus, by attacking the rebels for their destructive acts, ended up justifying the Roman army’s brutality towards Jerusalem civilians – resulting in the eradication of their national existence in their most sacred city.   

        A television documentary entitled Death in Britannica’ (PBS ) attested to the Romans using crucifixion from 300 BCE to 300 CE to execute slaves and rebels against the state, as exemplified in an archaeological relic from Roman Britain. One expert, referring to Josephus, stated that Titus crucified five hundred Jews a day outside the gates of Jerusalem.

      In contrast, consider the sympathetic treatment given to the Jews’ sufferings in that fateful uprising against Rome by the Marxist historian of the early 20^th century, Karl Kautsky, a German newspaper editor. In Foundations of Christianity (1953 edition, p. 349) Kautsky dealt with the survival of the longstanding unfair prejudice against the Jews (as evident early on in the Christian gospels). Kautsky compares the merciless treatment of the ancient Jews by the Roman army to the sufferings endured by Jesus, the Romans’ crucifixion of an entirely innocent person. He writes regarding the blaming of the chief priests and Pharisees in the Passion story that it resulted in “turning honest Roman soldiers into tools of Jewish trickery and baseness, opposing devilish rage to the noblest divine forgiveness..” According to Kautsky:  

          “ This tale, illuminated by the glorious light of divinity, ennobled by the confessor of a high mission, for many centuries aroused hatred and contempt for Jews… It would have been impossible for this conception of Judaism ever to gain currency if it had not arisen in a period of general hatred and persecution of the Jews… What was presented as the story of the Passion of the Lord Jesus Christ is nothing more than evidence of the suffering of the Jewish people..”

    The anti-Judaism which came to be written into the Christians gospels (post-Jewish War writings) reflected the disparagement of Jews, broadly speaking, that was in keeping with the severities of  their brutal treatment by the Romans after the war. They were killed, many taken to Rome as slaves, and Jerusalem was Romanized completely.

Beginnings of Monotheism:  Abraham discovers the Highest God of all at Salem in Canaan.

      Abraham, who stars in Genesis narratives and received blessings upon himself and his descendants from King Melchizedek of Salem (Jerusalem), was introduced into Luke’s parable as the Jewish patriarch who would welcome all (worthy) descendant souls into the realm of paradise. One thinks this was the way the Greek Gentile gospeler, Luke, read the Holy Scriptures (not in Hebrew but as the Septuagint in Greek) as he traced their whole history back to Abraham of cherished memory.  

     Abraham, who lived a long life, on departing from Sumer, went north to Harran Syria, and down into Canaan, populated by western Semitics. (See Late Bronze Age Ugaritic texts written in ancient Canaanite language similar to Hebrew.) There, in Canaan, at Salem, on what later became God’s holy mountain, Zion, which came to be known as the city of Jerusalem, Abraham was offered hospitality by its wonderful king, Melchizedek, meaning ‘sacred king’ in Hebrew. That Canaanite king provided Abraham with food and drink. Thus, at Salem, Genesis 14: 18-20, 22, Abraham encountered the One Holy God whom Melchisedek served. This Sumerian ancestor to the Jews (and Arabs) was thereby ready to abandon the polytheism of the Sumerians’ worship of nature and cosmic deities. The Name of the God of Salem, El Elyon, meaning ‘God Most High’ in Canaanite/Hebrew is found later in Psalm 78:35, as El Elyon.

         And in New Testament writings, The Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 7, refers to Jesus as “a priest of the order of Melchizedek.” One begins to think that Jesus’ teachings on hospitality were embedded in the theme of Genesis 14: 18-20, the great Canaanite king who offered food and drink to refresh Abraham, battle-weary from some skirmishes with others in the region.

           “And King Melchizedek of Salem brought out bread and wine, he was priest of God Most High [El Elyon]. He blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, maker of heaven and earth.”

Jesus, the wandering teacher of God, his Father’s great Beneficence, healed many wherever he went, but he went about the countryside penniless and dependent on charity. Jesus expanded on Melchizedek/Abraham’s magnificent generosity in Matthew 25: 31-26. “Whoever offers food, drink, clothing and consolation to the imprisoned, it is as though he does this for the likes of me.”   

  December 31, 2023:  Some Tentative Conclusions

  The ‘Jesus Apocalypses:’ Matthew 24, Mark 13: 1-37; and Luke 21:5-37 were written down during the era of the post-Jewish War against Rome, from ca. 70-85 CE. Jesus words in these texts may have been taken from an unknown manuscript, ‘the Sayings of Jesus,’ along with reminiscences of the apostles of his last words spoken during his Passion Week in Jerusalem. As in Mark, 13: 2, Jesus remarked upon the coming destruction of the Temple’s large stones and buildings, foreseeing that “[n]ot one stone will be left here on another, all will be thrown down.” In 70 CE, at the end of the war, Titus’ soldiers demolished the Temple completely, pulling down almost every last stone.

         The same vision is in Matthew 24:15-16 when Jesus referred to the prophet Daniel having fore-seen the disassembling of the sacred altar as in Daniel 12:11: “.. the burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that desolates is set up.” Thus, Jesus warned his followers that when they would see “… the desolating sacrilege standing in the holy place, as was spoken by the prophet Daniel … then those in Judea must flee to the mountains…” Many Jewish-Christians fled from Jerusalem before the outbreak of the war to northern Jordan, to a place called Pella, where archaeologists have found the ruins of a small church.

          Think further of the aforementioned conservatively-minded Galilean Christians in the north who awaited the ‘Coming of the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven to be presented to the Ancient One,’ for they hoped the Son of Man was going to inaugurate God’s True Kingdom: “an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away.”

      By the end of the 1^st century CE, the Apocalypse by John of Patmos, in large measure, projected far beyond Daniel’s prophecies. John was writing during the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96 CE) while he lived on the Greek island of Patmos, a refugee from his native Palestine. As John describes the glorious appearance of the heavenly Christ, he was standing in the golden lights, such as once lit up the earthly sanctuary. John’s vision is as follows:

           “… in the midst of the golden lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man … clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest … His head and his hair were white as white wool, his eyes were like a flame of fire … his face was like the sun shining with full force..” (Rev. 1:12-16).  

         The historical context for Daniel’s former visions, ca. 165 BCE, which were interpreted to him in places by an angel, highlighted the events that transpired when the Maccabean warriors rose up against their Syrian-Greek overlord, Antiochus Epiphanes. They rejoiced when they recovered and purified the Holy Temple in Jerusalem, which Antiochus had desecrated. The  history of that period of military conflicts was set down in the books of 1 and 2 Maccabees. In 2 Maccabees 5:1-4, a strange spectacle in the skies above Jerusalem seemed to describe angelic forces battling each other, as though fighting over the heads of the Jews who were rising up against foreign oppression and religious persecutions:

           “About this time Antiochus made his second invasion of Egypt. And it happened for almost forty days there appeared overall the city [Jerusalem] golden-clad cavalry charging through the air, in companies fully armed with lances and drawn swords,,,, attacks and counterattacks .. the flash of golden trappings, and armor of all kinds. Everyone prayed that the apparition might prove to have been a good omen.”

   Apparently Daniel envisioned in Chapter 7:9-12 ‘the Ancient One from his throne casting down fiery flames … the beast given over to be burned with fire .. the dominions of the rest of the beasts taken away.” Such imagery inspired an underground political movement sustained into the later 1^st century CE of Roman domination. Thus emerged the Zealots, for instance, of Josephus’ history, Galilean insurgents who provoked the onset of the Jewish War against Rome.  

      You can read this in the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 23 in its entirety. Jesus’ last words to the religious leadership in Jerusalem, castigating priests and scribes, were “whited sepulchres,” beautiful in appearance outwardly but “filled with dry bones.” He charged them: “you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all students… you have one instructor, the Messiah.” He ends his speech here by pointing out: “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves shall be exalted.”

       If Jesus the man were living today, he would say similar things to the current political leadership of Israel, a group of politicians strongly influenced by a minority of hard-right religionists who favor ridding the land of its millions of non-Jewish residents, the Palestinians basis for the warfare to eradicate the military wing of Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

         The afore-mentioned Syrian-Christian, Tatian, early 2^nd century CE, viewed the three gospels as leading up to John’s Fourth Gospel. In effect John’s writing, ca. 90-110 CE, summarizes what Jesus wanted his followers to understand as his ‘Messianic Legacy.’  As in John 14:1-7, Jesus hoped his followers would remain in communion with him. wi The Spirit of Jesus was going to be exalted far above any conceivable physical dimensions with his ascension to his Father’s Highest Kingdom. Jesus said to the disciples in the John passages: “Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house, there are many dwelling places [the term ‘mansions’ used in some translations].” The New Oxford Annotated Bible (2010:1906) cautions readers not to interpret Jesus’ language of ‘house‘ as an actual building, rather, as being in relationships dwelling within a household of heavenly beings. Jesus wanted them to understand he was bringing them, not to a place or a location, but into an eternal relationship with him that was entirely spiritual. He assured them that “if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”

        John, the Christian metaphysician, has Jesus speaking of the salvation of souls in the next world. The ancient philosopher, Socrates, described an initial realm he called ‘the upper earth under heaven,’ which presumably is the realm to which we appeal in the midst of earthly calamities. That realm, populated by wonderful spirits, angels, if you like, can generate miracles of growth to sustain earthly life in myriad ways. But, it was to Patmos that the Christ Spirit from Heaven gave more extensive revelations than are found in the three gospel apocalypses.

         From here on in, I write ‘under the inspiration of ‘the Spirit of Jesus.’  He conveyed something regarding the following way to understand the ‘Second Coming’ of the Christ Spirit.  It could be now—or could it be in the future? Suffice it so say that it will happen in greater measure when as many human individuals as possible are able to pose their prayers appropriately, though without necessarily expecting immediate results.  As in my own case, apparently it takes a modest humility, along with persistence, such I have described which were ongoing prayers by myself and others for some definitive healing and life changes. Then it can happen that one actually receives the blessings of the healing and teaching that the Spirit of Jesus can give. Unexpectedly and surprisingly, when it happens it takes a different form of reality, certainly a lightening of atmosphere – as though a lighted Presence has appeared in the air. Surely this ‘unimagined’ being, with no human form at all, is a divine kind of Being— able to bring about physical healing, as well as some insights into the Scriptures, as I have tried to present in this paper.      

Primary Sources:

The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version: Catholic Bible Press, Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995.

The New Oxford Annotated Bible, An Ecumenical Study Bible, Michael Coogan, Editor, Oxford University Press, 2010.

Terrence Donaldson, ‘Introduction’ in Jews And Anti-Judaism In The New Testament, Decision points and divergent interpretations, Baylor University Press, 2010:1-29.

Holladay, ‘The Gospel of Mark’ in Introduction to the new testament, ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017:153-189.

Josephus, The Jewish War, Translated with an Introduction by G.A. Williamson, Great Britain: Penguin Books, 1980 reprinting

Karl Kautsky, Foundations of Christianity, Translated by Henry Mins, New York: Russell and Russell, 1953.

Arthur Patzia, The Making of the New Testament, Apollos, 1995:58-67.

Kostos Papaioannou, Byzantine and Russian Painting, Translated by Janet Sondheimer, New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1965

W.R. Telford. The New Testament, a Short Introduction, A Guide to Early Christianity and the Synoptic Gospels. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2002:119-143.

RE-READING GENESIS I: Shamanist envisioning discovered in Ice Age Creativity bringing this forward to the present

Introduction by Sandra Principe

     When I first read Cave Art by Bruno David (2017), I was struck by his quotation from the memoir of the caver, Jean- Marie Cavet, who led the group that entered the Chauvet Cave in south-central France in December 1994:

         “Magnificent, translucent stalactites hung from the ceiling like angels’ hair … The artists’ souls and spirits surrounded us. We thought we could feel their presence, were disturbing them.”

        Because I had recently completed a certificate of theology, my instinct was to reread materials from my previous paleoanthropology courses. How could a focus on the paleolithic era of the last Ice Age, combined with my newly-acquired grasp of religious studies, help me engage ‘spiritually’ with our distant ancestors? More to the point, all that I had learned in religious studies did not help me to fathom the depths of our Homo sapiens beings (‘Wise-Man’ from the Latin for our species) I needed to deepen my understanding of the psychological sources of ‘Spiritual Vision’ –  the most prevalent type of religious thought among preliterate peoples – summarized in my theological studies as ‘Primal Religions.’ I couldn’t do full spiritual justice to our Ice Age predecessors until I answered the question: ‘What is at the heart of our Homo sapiens lineage’? I believe it is the indwelling instinct, even an innate (birth-given) need, to praise the Creator-Godhead, who exists outside space and time. That’s not a concept easily conveyed theologically, unless we recognize that, more often, when a vision from higher sources of wisdom activates one’s interior imagination, we can reach beyond given times and places.

            If we examine Philip Novak’s The World’s Wisdom (1994:355), we find some words of age-old shamanic wisdom attributed to Siberian Eskimos:

         “An old shaman, for his pupil, does the special element called ‘his lighting .. or enlightenment.’ When the young shaman experiences this it is as if the house he is in rises; he sees far ahead of him, through mountains, the earth is a great plain ….He sees things far away, can discover souls… concealed in strange lands or in the Land of the Dead.   

Part A. Ice Age Creativity:         

1.            Early Modern Human Artistry, long in the making

    Let’s return to the Chauvet Cave. In it, as many as 37,000 years ago, early European modern human artists and later on, other tribesmen, created art portraying marvelous Ice Age animals. They are astonishing for many reasons, but especially their over-powering physicality and remarkably expressive animation. I find it impossible not to look at them in books on Cave Art and wonder: Did those magnificent beasts look like the ‘gods of the lands’  to the artists who painted them? They were newly-arrived colonists from the Western parts of Asia (at which time Asia was not as extensively glaciated), and the animals depicted included huge and dangerous Ice Age herbivores, megafauna that were large-bodied and equipped with sharp horns like wooly rhinoceros, bison, aurochs and mammoths. They also featured predators, like cave lions, cave bears, leopards and the scavenging hyena.  

       While these galleries of early art are primarily of animals, a humanoid composite occurs once. Sketched next to a larger painting of several lions, male, female and a cub – chasing a bison – we see the lower part of a human figure . It has two legs, emphasizing the distinctive V-shaped vulva and womb, but it’s head is a bison’s. Jean Clottes says of this figure “[It is] a strange composition [sometimes called] …the Sorcerer” (Cave Art 2008:46-47). Brian Fagan (Cro-Magnon 2010:148) says this blend of femininity and black-horned bison is “reminiscent of ancient myths, a woman entertaining relationship with a god or supernatural spirit.” In my view, the vulnerability of these early people, surrounded by a super-abundance of Ice Age beasts, evoked equal but different vulnerability of the bison, which was preyed on by carnivores. Was this small sketch an appeal to helpful ‘spirit-figures’? Later I discovered such a prayerful idea was part of North American indigenous religious philosophy.

      Jean Clottes, until 2002, the leading investigator of Chauvet Cave, in Cave Art (2008), characterizes those painted Ice Age animals as constituting  “an imaginary museum,” and proposes the best way to interpret Ice Age artistry is through the shamanist traditions familiar to ancestors of indigenous people everywhere throughout the world.

          We know that ca. 60,000-50,000 years ago, when humans departed from Africa, some eventually arrived in Australia. There, they practiced, and continue to practice, shamanist traditions, drawing and painting iconic images on rocks to mark out sacred geographical places. Such artistic giftedness using ochre crayons or ground-up pieces began even earlier, with an archaic society living on the South African seashore (Bruno David, 2017:126). There, artists collected ochres and ground them into pastes to decorate everyday objects using geometric patterns and cross-hatching techniques; perhaps also painting these designs on an overhanging cliff shelter like at Blombos Cave. They went there ca.101, 000 years ago and began foraging for food in the seas, presumably attempting to escape the inland heat of the Last Interglacial, when the climate was more over-heated than today. An inventive people they fashioned many useful tools and lived on in Blombos Cave and nearby Klasies River Cave for thousands of years. Their society dissolved roughly 75,000 years ago, just as the climate entered a cooling period.

        The above date points to ca. 73, 500 years ago, when a super-volcanic explosion occurred on Mount Toba in Indonesia which devastated vast swaths of territories around the Indian Ocean and beyond, and which caused a volcanic winter lasting a thousand years. Fagan (2010:93-96) relates that Toba was “one of the greatest explosions of all time…the human cost was enormous … most, if not all of Homo sapiens populations of the Near East perished in the cold that brought famine… African populations declined to four-ten thousand females of reproductive age…”  

1. “Lionizing’ Symbolism in the thinking of Early European Modern Humans

       Going back to southwest Europe, after ca. 40,000 years ago, archeologists found caches of sculpted ivory and bone. This suggested an artistic culture that continued as people moved westward from Eurasia, particularly rich findings emerging along the Danube in southern Germany.  One of the most famous of these sculptures is ‘Lion-Man’ (Lowenmensch), which archeologists estimate is from 38,000 years ago, based on the age of the surrounding earth. His slim human body is topped by a lion’s head. It looks like a lion without a mane, and there’s some debate as to the lion’s gender.  But the body is evidently male, and its posture is relaxed, as if pausing to gaze outwards, perhaps admiring the surrounding alpine landscape.

         Because the climate 40,000 years was part of a warming phase in the Ice Age Cycle, (access internet to see Belgian astronomer Lutre’s graph showing earth’s axis tilt was farther from the north pole, effectively increasing solar radiations in the north), which benefited animals and early modern humans. One of the notable climatic exceptions was another major volcanic eruption; the Campanian in Naples Italy ca. 39,000 years ago. Westerly winds blew devastating ash clouds as far east as Eurasia at the Black Sea. Conversely, the mid-latitudes of southwestern Europe would have been spared its deleterious effects and enjoyed some respite from millennia of glaciers advancing in the north.

            The image of the lionized man endured when, a millennium or so later, artists perpetuated the leonine symbolism in the wider context of the Chauvet Cave. It’s most pronounced  in the Panel of Lions in the farthest chamber. Since Clottes points out that early Aurignacian humans seldom hunted and slew the giant Ice Age beasts with their light African weaponry, one must wonder if the sculptor of the Lion-Man wondered how or if he would ever become a lion hunter himself. It’s an interesting point, because his contemporaries, the Aurignacians, generally took down wild boar, deer, and smaller woodland game by casting spears from a distance. They would have more in common with the scavenging hyena than a pride of majestic lions.

          In the Danube region by the Alps, early human-focused archaeological sites yielded numerous, sculpted Venus figurines symbolic of fertility and reproduction. Sculptors carved plump, rounded bodies, with pronounced buttocks, stomachs, drooping breasts of the pregnant woman, not unlike the rotundity of Chauvet Cave artists’ portrayal of Ice Age animals. Ice Agers realized many animals in their regions were  fat-rich, and that that enabled them to survive severe cold. Since they, likewise needed that fat, it is unsurprising that these larger animals were admired even if rarely slain except by an opportunistic killing. Harcourt (2010: 157) comments on Cro-Magnon people living in the Danube Basin, “Adapt[ing] effortlessly to the ever-colder conditions … the first arctic-adapted cultures… essential survival was based on meats, fat and furs, needles and thread.”

      Early modern humans wore the furs and hides of these fat-rich animals, and invented the bone awl, a sewing needle, to help create well-fitted garments. Whereas, the hardy Neanderthals, who lived in colder climates, simply wore animal furs like blankets.  Elsewhere, I read that some of these early humans sheltered in underground caves to survive extreme cold, because they offered more stable temperatures than above-ground dwellings. However, these underground caves were popular with hibernating bears, so skill hunting was crucial at the times of their menacing appearances.

        Presumably, Chauvet Cave artists painted cave walls in warm weather, when bears were less of a threat. They used ochres like black manganese, red iron oxide, and yellow ochre in their work, which depicts plump and rounded animals. Clottes notes that the artist/s utilized cave wall topography, bosses and fissures suggestive of animal forms, imagining distinctive images of one animal or another emerging out of the wall. Consequently, they developed sculptural approaches similar to those used by the ivory and bone sculptors along the Danube.

            III.   Chauvet Cave Art, Shamanism – akin to North American Indigenous Shamanism

        The animal drawings and paintings covering the Chauvet Cave are primarily associated with the ‘Aurignacians’ and date to approximately 37- 29,000 years (Bruno David 2017: 31;37). Since its discovery in December 1994, modern visitors have been amazed and awestruck. Pablo Picasso, touring the cave, remarked, “We have invented nothing.” These days, the cave is closed, except to experts, and then only on certain days. This is due to humane contamination, which  affects the artwork and makes it harder to preserve. More later on Clottes’ theory that the Aurignacian artists behind these works likely engaged in Shamanist practices comparable to those practiced by modern indigenous people around the world.

        Thus I turned to peruse Lee Irwin’s article (1994) on North American Great Plains Indians, which contains shamanist-inspired visions collected by 19^th century anthropologists. Their piety, prayerful rites, sacrifices, visiting of sacred shrines, stemmed from the pursuit of ‘spirit beings’ that, while sometimes human-shaped, often took animal forms. These shamans extended their worship of the natural world to a Supreme Deity they called ‘Manitou.’ Algonquin for ‘Spirit’, Manitou is the great mysterious Being Who rules over  everything from humans to animals and weather. But sustaining these traditions was complicated in 19^th-century America since their territory was already overwhelmed by European colonialists. One visionary foresaw cattle ranches taking over their lands, replacing buffalo herds. Irwin (1994:29 ) summarizes their religious philosophy as follows:

   “….. most fundamental is its implicit, undivided wholeness… constituting the interactive relationships between many beings, visible and invisible, whose ‘homes’ are identified with particular ecological environments. The center of this wholeness is the earth, a living being … usually regarded as a life-giving female… Human beings, ‘the two-legged,’ live on the earth in shared relationships with other creatures, particularly grazing and herding animals… Other groups of beings exist within the earth and water … Yet another group of beings extend from earth up to the sky, the home of ‘the winged,’ and into the celestial: sun, moon and stars..”          

     A Sioux spokesperson described these celestial or cosmic beings as the ‘Thunder people’ who dwell in the clouds: “These Thunder people have large curved beaks resembling bison humps, their voices loud, and they do not open their eyes except when they make lightning… Their foes were giant snakes and the prehistoric water monsters…”  These mythopoetic ideas offered an effective way to contextualize outbreaks of storms for the Sioux. Irwin (1994:32) suggests that the Plains Indians fused the realms of animals and humans; their vision-quests frequently appealed to the spirit of an animal to pass on its unique qualities to the visionary.

         “While the Semitic religious tradition has posited divinity as synonymous with the ‘heavenly’ or ‘celestial’ realm, in Plains religious typology… the middle realm is the primary arena of religious manifestation… pervaded by the ‘four-legged animals who bestow gifts on the dreamer … …Any animal might metamorphose into a dream-spirit that appears as human but is a specific image of a particular animal power..”

          One visionary said an animal’s particular quality was  typified by its habitat. For instance, the elegance of the elk echoed that animal’s inherent harmony with the forest. So, a human keen to receive handsomeness to attract woman might appeal to the Elk-Spirit. Extrapolating this in regards to the ivory Lion-Man, we can infer its lionized head reflected early ambitions by the artist and his people to become fearless hunters in their new land. lands.

       While I watched online Werner Herzog’s film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), which explores the Chauvet Cave’s amazing Ice Age animals, what stood out to me most? I was struck by artists’ use of ‘whitening effects.’ These surrounded certain animals, often giving them an ‘energy field’ to emphasize their importance. One of the most striking examples featured a whitened pride of lions. To create the whitening effect, the artist first scraped the wall he wanted to draw on, exposing the underlying limestone.  The artist might use black manganese to outline an animal’s eye, carefully preserving the whited-out interior socket. Bruno David (2017:150) sees whitening as a device for demarcating the animal from surroundings while darker colors create shading, curvature and depth.

           It struck me that, as visionaries, Chauvet Cave artists wanted to suggest the celestial or cosmos, evoking cloud formations or the purity of a winter snowfall through a whitening technique. One striking example pf this in Great Plains Indians’ visions is the Lakota holy man, Black Elk, (1994:47).  He was a sky traveler who ascended the clouds to visit his ancestors.

          “Asd I lay in the tipi I could see through the tipi two men whom I saw before, coming with the clouds. They stood aways from me and stopped, saying: “Hurry up your grandfather is calling to you….” I followed these men up into the clouds and they showed me a vision of a bay horse standing there in the middle of the clouds.”

Writing about a different sky vision in 1918, John Fire described being “way up there with the birds… earth and stars moved below him..” (Irwin 1994:128). Fire was thus initiated into becoming a shaman.

                     IV.    Jean Clottes’ View of Chauvet Cave Art as Shamanist  

       In Herzog’s film, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, one investigator demonstrates how they identified an important artist. Experts discovered the handprint of a tall man whose little finger is visibly bent or crooked throughout the cave. His handprint appears near the entrance, and reappears on the Panel of the Lions at the back of the cave. Jean Clottes (2008:25)  interprets this artist’s handprint as intentional and indicative of his understanding of Aurignacian shamanism.

  “To venture underground was akin to moving between worlds, and this was done when the shaman went into trance for healing ceremonies. In this way, the shamans would encounter the spirits that lived inside the rocks and inhabited those mysterious, frightening places, contacting the gods through painting and engraving and gaining their good will or some of their power.”

   Clottes views Ice Age art as Shamanist,  both because of its endurance and the way its images and styles have since spread across the world. He writes (Cave Art 2008:24-25):

          “The hypothesis that best accounts for the facts is that Paleolithic people had a shamanic religion and created their art within its framework, as suggested by Mircea Eliade, historian of religion, and later David Lewis-Williams. Plausible for two reasons. The spread of shamanic religions across the north of the planet and most of the Americas, leads us to believe that shamanism is based on a very ancient set of beliefs brought to America by those who began settling the continent in the Upper Paleolithic …. Widespread from African bushmen to Arctic Innuit and Siberian tribes..”

    I wondered:Did the Creator-Godhead awaken the imaginative eyes of Aurignacian artists? If so, they are the first, as far as we know, to depict animal figures in their living animated splendor. The Chauvet Cave artists created a ‘sanctuary,’ infused with still living presences.

                    V.  Chauvet Cave Whitening Features – suggestively ‘celestial’

    Clottes also lists the animals portrayed throughout the Chauvet Cave (2008:40): There are forty horses, seventy-six mammoths, seventy-five felines, sixty-five rhinoceros, the odd stag, and several aurochs and bison. There is an owl engraved in red ochre at the cave entrance. It was carved on a rock that hangs upside-down. Notably, the artist first scraped the cave wall to give the owl a white background.  Nearby a red-painted bear shows head, shoulder and fore-body. The hindquarters of a rhino are also red; and another rhino has little structures at its ears like wings. A mammoth was painted over the figure of some feline, and a lion over the mammoth.  

        As mentioned, before beginning to draw or paint, the artist scraped the cave wall down to its limestone whiteness, and in the paintings found in interior galleries black manganese was often used to infill the animal’s body. But a single horse was entirely drawn in white by engraving its outlined figure in the rock wall. The Rhino Panel (2008:40-41) is lavishly decorated with lions, one reindeer and seventeen rhinos with partial whiteness in, as well as around them, suggesting they are illuminated by the whiteness.

       The large work called the Panel of Horses (2008:38), notably has two rhinos in fighting stance confronting each other. This panel’s focus on four horse heads (in black) is of interest artistically. Clottes calls it “A true masterpiece.” The four horse heads appear as a foursome, and opinion is divided about whether they represent a herd, or are the same horse in different stages of bending down to graze. In addition to the horses, the panel features twenty animals, stag, aurochs, two mammoth, lions and bison. They all appear behind the horses and seem to be drawn in a more distant perspective.  Did this scene suggest a landscape as represented by these beasts? It’s possible. Wild horses like to graze near to woodlands, where stags and reindeer live. Aurochs liked swampy summer meadows, and mammoth sought out pools enriching greenery.  

  VI.       Modern Scientists’ Views of Homo Sapiens as ‘cognitively’ superior to other Hominis                          

    In ca. 60,000-50,000 years ago, many modern humans migrated from Africa towards Asia. They travelled steadily southeast into Asia, until, eventually from Eurasia turned to exploring southwest Europe around 45,000-40,000 years ago, when Neanderthals still existed in the region. During those migrations, they coexisted with other hominis, and occasionally interbred with them. Four other hominid populations perished before the Last Glacial Maximum from 26,000-18,000 years ago. Nevertheless, at least two, Neanderthals and Denisovans, left genetic traces in almost all modern humans, except forAfrican people whose ancestors never left their homeland.

       By 37,000-29,000 years ago, the days of Chauvet Cave paintings, early European humans were surely intrigued by the distinctive breeds of Ice Age animals in the region. These were mostly grazers like the rhino, mammoth, bison and auroch. They differed from their African equivalents because they were ‘arctic-adapted.’ Despite this, as mentioned, the epoch from 40,000 to 30,000 years ago offered ‘an environmental optimum’ that suited humans and animals. It was the ensuing era, spanning 26,000 – 18,000 years ago, whose extreme cold wiped out other hominis in northern latitudes, with the exception of the Homo sapiens. They retained tiny amounts of Neanderthals and Denisovans genes. Eventually, early modern humans with genes of the latter two hominins, reached northern America, when small groups left the Siberian region towards end of Last Glacial Maximum. They brought with them significant cultural and Ice Age learning and arctic-adaptions, and dramatically changed life in the western hemisphere where until then only animals had flourished.  

          The brilliance of Charles Darwin’s observations of morphological changes, however slight, as adaptive to specific environments informs prehistorians’ studies of social and physical adaptions that enabled various hominis to live through the Ice Age. Darwin focused primarily on the beak differences between finches, but his discourse gave prehistorians a starting place for their discussions. Paleolithic experts commonly assume that early humans possessed superlative “cognitive skills,’ meaning they had language, unlike their Neanderthal contemporaries.

        So far as archeologists can deduce, Neanderthals  didn’t create art, or if they did, it never went further than using red ochre to color an occasional stone. They further stipulate that Neanderthals had minimal communication, because the surviving skeletons present under-developed vocal cords when compared to Homo sapiens. Language and artwork notwithstanding, their ability to survive the cold northern climates undoubtedly influenced their contemporaries, the more migratory modern humans. At times, Neanderthals retreated to southern climes such as the Mediterranean in cooler weather. Their last known archaeological site, dated 26,000 years ago, is in Gibraltar, where they engaged in marine foraging by the Mediterranean. This echoes the behavior of archaic African humans who lived on the shores of the Indian ocean.

          Early European humans communicated through the creation of art and imagery that stimulated ideas of spiritual communion or symbolical transformations, and especially as composites of humans and animals in relationships. Presumably Shamanist sensibilities were imbued with an inner knowledge of the ‘Spirit-World,’ an inheritance from African ancestors. Those early humans that reached Australia brought an inculcation in Shamanist traditions with them. Isolated for over 50,000 years, they developed a distinctive aboriginal religious culture that retained significant commonalities with  shamanist ideas practiced by other indigenous people. Can we surmise that Shamanist religious ideas that began as pictures and symbols, became the unique heritage common to modern humans found throughout the world up to today?

  Geneticists and prehistorians continue to trace differentiations among Ice Age hominins species (Darwin-wise). Homo erectus lived in Asia for over a million years ago, and left his last bone relics on Indonesian island 30,000 years ago. Another, Homo floresiensis, dates 100-50 K, survived on an Indonesian Island. They were pygmy-sized and their appearance was similar to their ancestor, Australopithecus, who lived 4 million years ago in Africa.  In a Siberian Cave, 50,000 year old Denisovan bones gave their name to the cave where they were found, but also passed on their genes to other early modern humans, some of which migrated to the Americas.

Part ‘B’, Bringing Shamanist Traditions forward to today, inherently the visionary faculty 

        VII.  Capacity for visionary experience may be common to humans and animals alike

         Let’s discuss the possibility of a common visionary experience in humans and animals. The idea that humans and animals can share a vision experience may have influenced North American Great Plains Indians’ understanding of spirit-beings that fuse the worlds of humans and animals, appearing sometimes as one or the other, and sometimes as both. It also reinforces the concept of the inter-relatedness of all beings between each other and the cosmos. But where do these visions come from?  Likely, they originate in another dimension of reality, which exists beyond ordinary consciousness. Today’s psychologists speak of ‘extra-sensory perceptions’ occurring in visionary experiences when individuals relax into meditative states that facilitate openness to the ‘Spirit.’

         Biblically, the outstanding example of an animal vision that outperforms that of the human, comes from Balaam and his Donkey (Numbers 22:21-39). Since the donkey could see an angel in their path, he repeatedly refused to walk through the apparition. When Balaam, a Trans-Jordanian, has his eyes opened by the Lord to realize the angel’s presence, he stops being frustrated with his disobedient donkey. He too could see the angel, and does what the donkey cannot. Balaam began to prophesy, relaying the angelic messenger’s words about the destiny of the Israelites. The angel conveyed higher truths quite beyond Balaam’s time or ethnic identity.

        In ancient Egyptian civilization, people often reverenced animals. They appear regularly in symbols and iconography. They even mummified animals considered sacred, like the Nile breed of crocodile. A television documentary, Treasures of Ancient Egypt,’ Part 1, ‘The Birth of Art,’ features an interview with Salim Ikram, an Egyptologist at the Cairo Museum, who explains the ancient Egyptians’ reverence for animals. The Ancient Egyptians believed animals “Knew what the gods were going to do…The animals speak a different language than humans…” They exhibit prescient behavior regarding weather changes, etc. such as the crocodile laying eggs before annual flood. To ancient Egyptians, the animals seemed closer to God than themselves.

        Regarding the above tale of Balaam and his donkey, reacting to the presence of an angel in their path, we may ask: how was it that it was an angel who delivered higher truth or wisdom as prophecy, beyond which thought-ideas neither animal nor man could have conceived?  This story was preserved in Numbers, part of the collection of the books of Moses, since it foretold an elevation of the Israelites, not so much as a powerin the region, but as wisdom from On High. It was in keeping with what the Lord God told Moses of His intention that Moses’ people become “a kingdom of priests and scribes’ – the keepers of God’s Holy Words.    

 VIII.  Otherworldly ‘Eternal Forms,’ contrasting with this Multi-formed Creation

          When I studied theology, I struggled with the Trinitarian doctrine formulated by early Greek Christians who  taught that the Triune Godhead of Father, Son and Holy Ghost was “One.” It wasn’t until I examined  the “Eternal Forms” of Plato and Socrates that it began to cohere. These Eternal Forms were considered distinct from any earthly forms,  and helped me makes sense of the early Christians’ philosophical paradigm. Socrates, in the Dialogue of Parmenides referred to “the many,” which universal term for earthly species was understood as multi-form and differentiated, quite distinguishing ‘the many’ from the singularity of the ‘One,’ elevated beyond all earthly forms; The One remains more perfect in the unchanging eternal realms. This was the first time  language effectively distinguished between these eternal forms and earthly species in their multitudes, human, animals and plant always changing (see Darwin’s ideas on evolution of the species). 

        From Wikipedia, I read that the Eternal Forms can be understood as ‘Visions.’ From this conception of the visionary mind we may we ask; Did the Chauvet Cave artist portray the animals of his times, replicating their size, power and dynamic liveliness through his visionary experiences?  Is this why the modern visitors of the painted cave sense “the presences of spirits/souls …” – a man in communion relationship with the animals by spiritual inspiration?

IX.       Distinguishing Higher Sourced Visions from the everyday, etheric level

       Can we think of the so-called ‘etheric’ level of consciousness as the realm of commonality of consciousness in animals and humans? Hypnogogic imagery, as described by psychologists, often involves waking dream-like imagery. Subjects access it while in relaxed a state, or lowered consciousness. They describe it as a feeling of sinking below consciousness and even alertness. I have experienced a version of this sensation, often after returning from the cottage. I find that scenes of the natural world flow back into my memory, highlighting scenes of especial beauty.  

       This is what I mean when I describe the ‘etheric level of consciousness’ as a rich source of mentally-formed imagery, neither dream image, nor realistically present . It exists only in the inner imagination. Every day I play relaxation tapes to help my mind empty itself. As I listen, I relax physically and mentally.  My awareness sinks into another level of consciousness. I am not asleep, but physically released from bodily sensations. In this state, I often sense changes in the weather, like rain drops beating against the window or a blue sky with fleecy white clouds. They flash briefly across my mind. Often, I see an arm/hand extending downwards, although it isn’t always the same hand/arm.

          Moving beyond these mundane, etheric, visions, there exist other, more potent versions akin to Plato’s conception of the “Eternal Forms.” These powerful visions can deeply affect the human mind. They emanate from a higher “Spiritual dimension” and grip one’s perceptions, such that one continues to dwell on the images after they pass. It is as though a Light shines down from on high, penetrating the mind like a Light-Beam that casts everything else out of mind. It suffuses the forefront of the mind with an energy of its own that blots out the physical. (Think of the Chauvet Cave artist trying to portray this by uncovering limestone whitening for important figures and their surrounding energy-field). As in Plato’s/Socrates’ conception, the visionary Eternal Form, is beautiful, often radiant in color. It vibrates the way film or television images do when they manifest on your screen. The image originates in a concentrated consciousness (in its singularity of pointedness), and encompasses a wide range of time and space. It may have a neon glow. This vision is not experienced as ‘earthly’ but seems like a ‘heavenly illumination.’

           A More Highly Sourced Vision on the West Bank Road in Israel, 2003

         In winter 2004, my daughter and I set out from Jerusalem to visit her American friend, who was teaching at the university in Jenin. As I relaxed in the back of the taxi, I saw its driver’s Christian Elioh (light), and in the distance I glimpsed a sign marking the biblical site of ‘Jacob’s Well’ in the empty lands to the west. The significance of this well comes from Genesis, which recounts Jacob’s dream of angels. He sees them ascending and descending from heaven, and he names the place where it happens ‘Bethel,’ or ‘Gateway to Heaven.’ I continued in my relaxed mental state as we drove along this empty road. Still in my relaxed state, I looked up at a high, eastern-facing cliff. I saw a giant hand reach down into the rocky cliff top and a blaze of light obliterated the stone itself. Dumfounded, I continued to meditate on this surprising apparitional event, but I never fully parsed its meaning. Evidently, it was a spiritual idea from on high with relevance to the present, and commemorated Jacob’s angelic dream-vision. But its specific meaning or significance remains elusive to me.

          As of summer 2023,  news reports say there are the beginnings of ongoing negotiations among key international leaders about the best way to relieve the longstanding Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Reports say these discussions are closed-door affairs, but from what I understand, Saudi Arabia, China and the U.S. are discussing how to persuade Israel to cease oppressing Palestinians. In return, Israel would gain acceptance throughout the Muslim Middle East.

       X. Descending into the Psychotherapeutic Depths, Stanislav Grof  

           Stanislav Grof’s Realms of the Human Unconscious, Observations from LSD Research  (1976) significantly impacted our current psychiatry, and especially today’s use of psychedelics to heal past trauma, persistent depression, and various other mental health difficulties. Grof outlines several stages of recovering past self-memories in his adult patients. He noted that LSD’s conscious-altering properties deepened these past memories and enabled a person to retrieve previously blocked or repressed memories that occurred from past traumas and family conflicts. Grof’s patients had to process these painful memories and unresolved issues before they could process the ‘Perinatal’ experience, or relive memories of their births. Grof believed doing this allowed the patient to simultaneously encounter the risk of death, especially if stuck in the birth canal, and that proximity to death solidified his patients’ will to live, especially once they remembered the moment of actual birth.

        So, for many patients of LSD therapy, they find it possible to explore realms beyond their present time and space. Grof’s discussion of ‘Transpersonal Experiences’ (listed !976:156-157), includes extrasensory perceptions and insights beyond space and time. After the perinatal stage, patients may return to their earlier memories of time in utero. They may even access the memories of themselves in a previous lifetime or access the memory of an ancestor. In other words, they aren’t bound by our chronological understanding of time, but can move through it fluidly, assisted by LSD. Some  patients experience the life of an animal, bird or reptile, and explore life as something other than human.  Many report encounters with Spirit Beings,  such as Christ or Virgil from Dante’s Divine Comedy, even if these figures are unfamiliar to the patient who witnesses them.

       Let me interpret the Aurignacian artist’s experiences before painting Ice Age bestiary in their amazingly naturalistic presences. It’s possible he had a traumatic and threatening encounter with a formidable beast, but survived.  Having survived, did he imagine he was saved by an unseen Being or power greater than the animal that attacked him? Greater even than the immensity of the mountain enclosing the cave? The religious understandings of the Plains Indians would suggest it was. Their conception of Manitou is of a being who rules over everything and holds life, death and destiny in his hands. The Aurignacian artist, rescued from death, could paint the awesome figures of Ice Age beasts – no longer afraid of them.

      Grof’s more secular, ‘spiritual philosophy,’ however, takes us back the 1950’s -1960’s, when post-WWII, secular Existentialism was a popular and prevalent cultural philosophy. See Jean-Paul Sartre in Paris who declared in one of his writings, “Nothingness is at the heart of one’s being…” A kind of despair had set into the collective consciousness after the massive brutalities of the Second World War, and especially the holocausts.  So, it’s unsurprising that Grof saw the ultimate Transpersonal realm as the ‘Void … Nothingness.’ It’s the epitome of a cosmic re-enacting of the ‘Perinatal’ experience as the human encounter with death.

          XI.          What Lies beyond this world, but the Light of Heaven ? 

       Stanislav Grof, along with his wife, Christina, in 1980, produced beyond death, a small book with illustrations from different faiths,  accompanied by texts that occasionally referenced Realms of the Human Unconscious (1976), particularly his patients’ post-perinatal visions often of divine things. But his 1980 book, referenced here, features a section on ‘Encounters with Beings of Light,’ and the realm of the absolute, what Grof called “The Void, the primordial nothingness pregnant with all existence.” He also references writing from the Chinese Tao: “At death, the Primary Clear Light is seen … has such overwhelming radiance and beauty that the unprepared turn away from it in terror.”  (See similarities with Plato’s Cave Myth.)

                               A little personal vision (summer 2023) 

       Recently, at the height of the Canadian wildfires, I woke repeatedly from a deep sleep and became aware of something mysterious. This awareness occurred over multiple nights, and seemed as if a film of light shone deep within my torso. When I disregarded my anxious thoughts and feelings, I realized this inner light that blossomed into awareness, sought to capture not just my attention but that of a ‘Greater Light.’ Leave it at that. 

       After further reflection on Grof’s observations on the human psyche’s descent into memories of birth, the womb, and the resultant transcendent experience, the following idea struck me. Grof, trained in Freudian psychoanalysis, in his psychotherapeutic guidance, guided the patient downwards through certain yogic centers or Chakras, as the patient recovered their past. With the release of ego control in the center of the stomach, consciousness enters the emotional/sexual chakra in the mid-abdomen associated with childhood trauma. Once patients enter the perinatal stage, the consciousness descends to the loins; This is the lowest chakra, and it’s associated with the instincts for physical survival.

        Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor teaches an important theological observation that when the “impulse to life is given up, the attachment to life itself, this releases compassion.” In Grof’s psychology, the adult who relives his fetal-self facing death in the birth canal is liberated, and becomes able to access other realms of consciousness – yet does this simply lead to the realm of absolute ‘Nothingness.’.    

       The realms of consciousness Grof categorizes as the Transpersonal, represented explorations of human and animal existence, are ultimately surmounted by the Absolute, the Void of existential nothingness. We must reverse Grof’s descent into unconscious memories and move upwards into the heart’s region. My question in the introduction: ‘What is in the heart of Homo sapiens? The heart chakra is a source of boundless depths of love, compassion and pursuit of greater spiritual contact, always aspiring to attain the Blessings of the Divine.  In Grof’s beyond death 1980, he reproduces an image from the tomb of Ramses VI. It shows the judgement of a deceased soul, who journeys with Horus to meet Osiris, who weighs and balances the heart of the human soul against the lightness of a feather. Why a feather? Possibly because Horus, as spirit-guide, is named for a falcon and that his mother Isis conceived him assisted by a bird-penis. While meditating on this, consider the echo of feather imagery in the Plains Indians’ religion, Black Elk wings his way upwards into the clouds.

              XII.  Repositories of a Great Spiritual Mystery – Valley of the Kings

       In The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, by Erik Hornung (1999), I read his translation of the important epic, The Amduat (What is in the Netherworld). The tale was told repeatedly in the tombs of the ancestral kings, and later by Karnack priests. Versions differ, and their texts vary in length and illustrations.  Broadly, this story is the story of the sun-god’s nightly journey into darkness. In the earliest versions, the sun-god is represented by a ram-headed hieroglyph that combines the words for ram and soul., Ba– souled, he is an earthly form that drops below the horizon at night. He sails on his solar boat through landscapes seen from the Nile River. He witnesses seasonal changes that range from the well-watered Nile riverbanks to floods and even to sandy deserts, riddled snakes and scorpions.

        The fact that the sun-god’s immersive journey through darkness encompasses such a variety of experiences suggest that night was a perpetual mystery to the Egyptians. One they sought to explain. Where did the sun go at night? Surely, a greater mystery is what lies on the other side of death? To them the next life began in the realm of Osiris. The Egyptians believed Osiris was once an earthly king. He was tragically slain and later resurrected by Isis. But the resurrection was temporary; Osiris chose to return to the netherworld to be the king of the dead.

             The Amduat  touches on the resurrection of the dead. It examines which of the newly deceased souls are most worthy of a reception in heaven, once the Highest Spirit of the Godhead arrives to over-light their utter despair.  One of the central incidents of The Amduat is the miraculous appearance of the ‘Midnight Sun.’ Exactly midway in the Sun-God’s nightly journey, it is pivotal to the revival of a deceased king’s spirit, and continues to play a prominent role in reviving many other souls after his resurrection. While traveling on the solar boat, the Ba-souled Sun-God himself lies dead in the arms of Osiris, deep in an abyss. It’s a place of utter darkness that reflects the state of the drowned souls surrounding him. Hornung’s translation makes mentions of former kings, sceptred and crowned, sit awaiting the newly deceased king’s resurrection to take place at the midnight hour. Moreover, illustrations feature Horus in the solar boat holding the mysterious eye, symbolized by a carnelian stone. As midnight strikes, the mysterious Light of supernatural origins awakens the god, still presumed dead in Osiris’ arms. (Hornung 1999: 34-39). In later versions of Amduat, the Sun-God is no longer ram-headed, but wears a red sun disk, like Akhenaten’s sun deity, the ‘Aten.’

        When I visited the Valley of the Kings in 2006, I was able to enter the tomb of Pharaoh Ramses IV. Rameses IV’s tomb wall has a few quotations from several different versions of the Amduat (Hornung 1999:30). The main chamber is colorful, and its radiance is overwhelming. The ceiling and walls shimmer with gold against a lovely blue background. Tutankhamun’s wondrous face mask, also featuring blue lapis and gold, echoes this celestial imagery and suggests the young king is beholding the glories of heaven after death. Towards the end, the Amduat says souls are gathered together from all corners of the world and are eventually swept into ‘The Great City,’ a place of heavenly brightness that dawns like the morning sun. 

Conclusion:    

          A Roman anti-Christian intellectual, Celsus critiqued the historical Jesus, suggesting Jesus learned healing and transformation while in Egypt. Centuries later, Christian monks from various orders and communities, sought to emulate Jesus’ life by performing works of charity. One example is that of a Syrian monk, who sat with the poor and homeless in his cloister. He forewent sleep, instead praying that the angels would guard the vulnerable through the night.  

       When Jesus comes again, it will be like the Amduat’s Miracle of the Midnight Sun over the Nile. He too will shine in the darkness and awaken slumbering souls to His perfect over-light of the supremely illuminated Eternal Form. The Christ Spirit will bring to humanity a spiritual consciousness, inducing our prayerful appeals to the Creator-Godhead to help us adapt more wisely to changing climate realities.

                                           Bibliography                            

1.Jean Clottes, Cave Art, New York and London: Phaidon Press, Ltd. 2008

2.Bruno David, Cave Art, London: Thomas and Hudson World of Art, 2017.

3.Brian Fagan. Cro-Magnon, How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans,

New York and London: Bloomsbury Press,  2010.

4.Stanislav Grof, M.D., Realms of the Human Unconscious, Observations from LSD Research,

New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1976.

5. Stanislav and Christina Grof, beyond death, The gates of consciousness, London: Thames and Hudson, 1980.  

6.Alexander Harcourt, Humankind, How Biology and Geography Shape Human Diversity,  

New York and London: Pegasus Books,2015.

7.Erik Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, Translated from the German by David Lorton, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1999.

8. Lee Irwin, The Dream Seekers, Native American Visionary Traditions of the Great Plains,

Normon and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.  

8. Philip Novak, The World’s Wisdom, Sacred Texts of the World’s Religions, Harper Collins Publishers, 1994  

9. Werner Herzog. Cave of Forgotten Dreams, film 2010, access online.    

      

Reaching for the Divine amidst the Religious Contradictions of the High Middle Ages into the Renaissance

September 2022. Sandra Principe

This past summer, I listened to a disc collection titled ‘How to Listen to and Understand Great Music,’ by the American musicologist Robert Greenberg. I repeatedly played his lectures on discs 3 and 4 on the transition from the Medieval to the Renaissance period. As I listened, I detected a significant change between the ending of the high Middle Ages and the beginnings of the Renaissance. In the later Middle Ages, music was ‘polyphonic.’ Multiple voices sang largely complementary melodies, with instrumental accompaniment that echoed earlier medieval Plain Chant. Greenberg believed these echoes of plainchant represented “the Hand of God” anchoring the whole work. 

By 1350, mid-14^th century, an amazingly beautiful work took music to a new level of polyphonic expressiveness – soprano and tenor simultaneously sing different poetic songs of Love – secularizing these heartfelt themes. These strangely differing tunes represented what musicologists call the fusion of ‘consonant and dissonant’ sounds. Greenberg explains that musical composition still hadn’t developed the harmonic scale. The harmonic blending of different tones came later, when 15^th-century composers were inspired to repurpose the ancient Greek philosopher, Pythagoras’s mathematical theory for their music.

I thought it would be interesting to use the mid-14^th century musical example to explore discords and disharmonies and their impact on that century of crises. Simultaneously, I aim to reflect on the High Middle Ages to see precedents for conflicts occurring in religious spheres.  Greenberg’s lecture on 14^th century emphasized the Great Schism, a religious crisis where the King of France moved the Papacy from Rome to Avignon. The exile of the Avignon popes lasted seventy-five years. There followed the Black Death in 1350. The plague killed millions, and as society grappled with it, the Hundred Years War, caused by peasant uprisings, broke out. Faith in the Church as a strong institution that could protect social solidarity ebbed. The elites turned to anticlerical cultural innovations. They eschewed Biblical truths that typified the Medieval era, instead favouring ancient beliefs from pre-Christian Greek philosophers like Pythagoras.  

         Today, secular state-governments do not offer comfort during present crises involving climate changes. Instead people view them as failing to protect the substance and vitality of the natural world.  We recognize humanity is at odds with the natural world, but haven’t found an equivalently harmonizing theory to Pythagoras to reconcile our existence with the rest of nature. We long for earthly deliverance that will save human and creaturely lives alike.     

       From my readings on the high Middle Ages, I saw that when the Church was at the height of its power, it could not deal humanely with people it considered heretics. The mid-12^th to 14^th-century Cathars, who were like ‘religious refugees from the East,’ and who we will discuss more fully later, are an excellent example.  When they infiltrated into the West, they became so popular that they threatened the dominance of the Church,  like ‘dissidents today. They had considerable influence in such regions as the south of France, where Cathar leaders and followers lived more self-regulated and upright lives than many prominent Christians.

       As we shall see, contemporaneous to the presence of the unorthodox Cathars was an increase in pious and mystically-minded women visionaries. Like the Cathars, they were regarded as suspicious and subversive. As the 14^th-century progressed, these women suffered persecution and executions in some cases. Simultaneously, by focusing on St. Thomas Aquinas of the 13^th century, we see that not all religious scholars disavowed the secular intellectual interest in ancient philosophy. Aquinas constructed his theological system based on the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. Despite his Aristotelian logic, even St Thomas couldn’t disregard Christian ‘Revelations.’ Ultimately, like women mystics of his generation, Aquinas encountered the Thought-voice of the Godhead. It effectively rendered his consciousness to the realization of his past ‘Unknowingness.’ Writing in the fifth century, the Greek theologian Pseudo-Dionysius recommended exploring this Unknowingness as the best way to reach towards God.

     In this paper I organize the differing sections by voices from antiquity, the Middle and the Modern Ages. I also explore themes I see repeating as in music; sometimes the voices agree, but more often they disagree with their contemporaries. The result is  discordant views, ‘dissonance’ in the musical sense. I heard Greenberg observe regarding the above mid-14^th century work, mentioned earlier, it was not like music written once harmonic scales were discovered in 15^th century. Instead, it has more in common with music of the 1940’s. Since that was a modern period of great crises and changes, I consulted the radical 20^th century philosopher and mystic, Simone Weil. Weil died in 1943 in the midst of WWII largely for her self-denying asceticism.

I.  Spiritual Challenges posed by the Cathars to the Roman Catholic Church

          In his comprehensive book, The Cathars, Sean Martinextends his title to call Catharism ‘The Most Successful Heresy Of The Middle Ages (2004). Catharism was a dualist, Gnostic religion of some antiquity that rejected this physical world as evil from the time of its creation. This fundamental belief must have acted like a cathartic force in believers’ psyches, compelling them to see heaven as their only salvation. Catharoi is Greek for ‘pure’ and Cathars hoped that by pursuing a ‘purer’ way of life they could enter heaven directly at death. Quasi-Christians, they believed that Christ and Mary never existed as physical humans, but dwelled on earth in the Spirit. Martin notes that like Docetist heretics, Cathars doctrinally thought that Jesus’ body was an “illusion.’ Consequently they did not believe He underwent crucifixion (Martin 2004:180).

       To the Cathars, human spirits were like the sexless spirits of angels, trapped in the material world. When death was imminent, their spiritual leader, a ‘Perfect,’ was called to perform their only rite, the consolamentum. The Perfect laid his hands on the dying in blessing to aid the spirit’s desired return to be with God.

        When, following their apparent expulsion from Christian Byzantium, Cathars first appeared in Western Europe in the mid-12^th century, they attracted the attention of the noted theologian, St. Bernard Clairvaux. When Bernard attempted to debate with some Cathar perfects,  their supporters drove Clairvaux away with hoots and boos. St. Bernard warned the Church authorities that the Cathars could be like “foxes in the vineyard.” Consequently, early in the 13^th century, the Pope authorized the Albigensian Crusade to eliminate religious heretics from the South of France. That military invasion was followed by interminable inquisitions; By the early 14^th century, Catharism came to an end. Simultaneously, as we saw, the Papacy itself relocated to Avignon, and a succession of popes remained there in a kind of ‘Babylonian Captivity,’ subordinate to the powerful French kings. 

        For more historical context on the dynamic contradictions in the religious lives of 13^th-century people, I refer you to my previous paper, ‘This 21^st Century, Cycling into New Religiosity.’ The East Indian Swami, Vivekananda, taught the Hindu conception that there were four different types of centuries re-cycling one ‘caste’ after another. He understood this to be the  changeover of class aspirations in history. Each new century brings in a class seeking to supersede the preceding class-hegemony, often attacking its existential base.

           Perpetuating the Swami’s beliefs, the 12^th century saw the importance of labour as Europe constructed its great Gothic cathedrals. Then, in the 13^th century, a theocratic century, according to the Swami, clerical power was enhanced.  Instead, the Cathars gained popular support with their implicit anti-clericalism and willingness to critique ecclesiastical corruption and dictatorial efforts to enforce sacramental participation. Contrary to the veneration of church sanctity, the Cathars gathered in people’s houses, fields and barns. Notably, Cathar popularity endured throughout the 13^th century despite the Pope’s Albigensian Crusade and ensuing Inquisitions.

        The 14^th century, saw kings in France, along with rulers in the Italian city-states, acquire inordinate powers, economically motivated. The Swami’s system assigns this era to Kings, and they attempted to disable the Church’s power and religious influence. With the incoming Renaissance, the elites celebrated the more secular concept of Humanism. Were they decrying the Church’s ‘inhumanity’ during the 13^th century’s persecutions of religious heretics?    

         In The Medieval World, Europe 1100-1350 (1961:219-220), Friedrich Heer describes how in the 12^th century, people loved the saints of the Church. He writes, “[They are] invoked as “ friends of God, advocates with power to heal, channels to the omnipotent majesty of God.” As for St. Francis of Assisi, Heer observes: Francis is much admired today for his love of all created things, but “how close he came to the surrounding flames [of the inquisition], which consumed some of his persecuted friends and brothers.” (1961:198-99).  Heer recounts the case of Armanno Pungilupo, who was venerated as a saint by the people; They buried him in the cathedral at Ferrara with an altar to honour him. In 1300, however, the Inquisition found Pungilupo to be a heresiarch, casting his images, altar and corpse into the flames.

II. Meister Eckhart, Dominican and mystically-minded Theologian, a Heretic

          Based on my understanding of mysticism, the insights of Meister Eckhart into mystical truths remain valuable. Kevin Madigan (2015:421) says:

             “Eckhart created a vocabulary for subsequent mystics to use. They used the words and categories of this God-intoxicated mystics and absorbed his writings, anxious to share his experience of mystical union with the divine.”

          Eckhart wrote in the vernacular, middle High German, and as a Dominican scholar familiar with Latin, he taught at the University of Paris in the early 14^th century. Around this time, he was tried by Franciscan inquisitors as a heretic. According to Madigan, quoting Eckhart directly in places, he explained how “the birth of God in the soul” occurs. The soul as a spiritual organ is capable of absorbing the divine light, for the indwelling soul has a locus where God and the human spirit commune. To my mind, he was re-phrasing the Negative Theology of the Greek theologian, the Pseudo-Dionysius, who suggested people should seek God in ‘the Divine Darkness.’ For Pseudo-Dionysius, assuming one’s own unknowingness of God was theologically preferable to endless liturgical recitations of the Divine Names of God, although he compared the sanctity of clerics to the angelic hierarchy. Eckhart emphasized that the human soul benefits best by achieving a “nothingness.” By emptying oneself, the spark of the soul “ignites”… this state of emptiness allows for the possibility that one can be formed into goodness – the Goodness that is God.” (Gen. 1:25, 30)

III.   Two Visionaries who gained Church Approval

         Consider the life-story of St. Thomas Aquinas. As a Dominican scholar and theologian, he wrote volumes of systematic theology during his lifetime. He searched through writings from Greek antiquity, especially Aristotle in translation from Arabic texts, and drew from Christian predecessors such as the fore-mentioned Dionysius’ Negative Theology. On September 8, 1274, towards the end of his life, while praying in the chapel, a mystical experience, a divine audition, overtook his being. From a crucifix on the wall, a thought-voice reached him – the Lord God addressed him. “You have written on me well. What reward do you seek?” … “Only yourself,” said St. Thomas. He laid down his pen, telling his confessor he could write no more. Nevertheless, Aquinas’ writings remain official doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and are still studied in Catholic seminaries today.

       Let me mention a German visionary and prophetess. The 12^th-century writings of St. Hildegard of Bingen contributed to the emergence of ‘German Mysticism’ that culminated in Eckhart. Bingen was a well-educated prioress of a Benedictine nunnery, and towards the end of her life, she recounted her visions to the monk Volmar, who recorded them into Latin. Hildegard had waited years before confiding to her priest-confessor of life-long visions and auditions. Consider that at mid-12^th century at Cologne, heretics were burned; once Hildegard found acceptance by the Church, she objected to these church-approved atrocities. Madigan quotes one of her visions:

            “It came to pass when I was 42 years old that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming … suddenly I understood the meaning of the exposition of the books.“ (2015:420)    

 Hildegard became known as ‘Sybl of the Rhine,’ for her writings containing what Madigan calls secular and religious “apocalyptic prophecies regarding future corruptions. ”

IV. Church Persecutions of Cathars rewarded French Kings with power and wealth

          Now, let’s examine the religious crises during high Middle Ages (13^th-14^th centuries) from the perspective of an important 20^th century French intellectual, Simone Weil. Writing in exile from France during World War II, she castigated the French kings and Roman Catholic Church of the high Middle Ages for exterminating heretics like the medieval Cathars. In practice, Weil, regarded herself a neo-Catharist, and she lived like an ascetic Cathar; her purity of life led to denying herself adequate nourishments because of others’ suffering.  She could have been a Cathar ‘Perfect’ in the Middle Ages when women and men qualified for such leadership.    

       Simone Weil saw Catharism as a “lost civilization” like pre-Roman antiquity. She believed it was a civil society was tolerant and moderate during the Middle Ages. As a Jewess drawn to Christ, she could not join the Church because of its history of persecutions; Nevertheless she attended Catholic mass faithfully while living as an exile in New York. Since Weil pointed to the intersecting aims of Church and French state in the later Middle Ages, it occurred to me that it was a foregone conclusion that the King of France would take the Roman Papacy under his wing. With the pope complicit, Philip IV dismantled the Templar Order of warrior monks, seized their wealth and burned their leaders.   

          I recalled from studying Church history that in the early centuries of Christianity, the Roman State persecuted Christians as “atheists” if they refused to participate in the imperial cults. The Roman authorities believed that sacrifices in the temples to their deities guaranteed  the state’s security and general prosperity. Ironically, medieval churchmen forgot the Roman persecution of its martyrs who were slaughtered for worshiping only Christ and began similarly to kill other kinds of Christians outside of the church.

         Guided by Hildegard’s expectations of future “corruptions” and Weil’s modern-day condemnation of the Medieval Church, I looked further at the Church’s persecutions of Cathars.. Did Hildegard know about the Cathars when they first appeared in Lowland  Europe in the mid-12^th century? They had migrated from the East, probably from Bulgaria for they were called ‘Bogomils.’ (This Slavic name meant ‘Dear to God”, or friends of God) . Evidence suggests they were expelled from Christian Byzantium for their radical ideas. All that horrific history of slaughtering Cathar heretics and others involved ‘holocausts’ was part of a larger and ongoing pattern of death-dealing, tying people such as declared heretics to funeral pyres and set afire to the cremations of thousands. It reached a terrible apotheosis during Weil’s lifetime as the Holocaust perpetrated against her fellow-Jews.

V. Renaissance beginnings in the 14^th Century – Appreciations of ‘Fleshly Beauty,’ (at odds with Cathar’s Approval of John 1:10-12)

              During the late 14^th century, the Italian elite delighted in recovering the culture of ancient Greek Humanism, secularizing Western arts and literature. Wealthy rulers of city-states, like the Medici bankers of Florence, patronized the arts, and sculptors like Michelangelo were inspired by Ancient Greek models of the human body. Botticelli’s ‘Aphrodite born out of the sea’ demonstrated an appreciation of the beauty of the human body. It embodied the Renaissance idealism of the birth of the new human. The Church relied upon the artistic creativity of those workers of great art, encouraging Biblical stories and themes even as it permitted the human body to be displayed in its full vigour of fleshly expressions. 

          But back in the 13^th century, the Cathars had denigrated the flesh in favour of the spirit, upholding the language of the Gospel of St. John.

     “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him … To all who received him,…he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or the will of the flesh or will of man, but of God…”(Jn 1:10, 12)         

Interestingly, new mystical cults approved by the popes in the high Middle Ages envisioned Mary and Christ ‘in the Spirit’ (a Cathar idea), blessing both churches and sacraments, as we see later. These Church-approved cults, essentially highly mystical, began as the visions of mystic women. Conclusion: the church must have been more influenced by Cathar strictness of spirituality than was given credit for.

VI. Plato’s ‘Symposium,’ Diotima’s Teaching on Becoming ‘the Friend of God’

        Contrary to the Italian Renaissance culture of admiring ‘fleshly beauty, Plato’s Symposium, written in late 4^th or early 5^th century, dramatized how Socrates learned about the elevation of the ‘Spirit of Love’ to the heights of the Divine.

          The priestess Diotima, whom Socrates called “his instructress in the art of love,” spoke of love as ‘Spirit.’ Diotima conveyed the lovely idea of the progress in the heart: beginning perhaps with marrying for the sake of having children, then wanting to serve the broader community in state or nation affairs. Beyond this, she revealed the illuminating idea of the unearthly ‘Beauty’ of the divine world – exemplified in one who wishes to become “a friend of God.” Initially she declared to Socrates her understanding of the Spirit of Love: “Love is neither mortal nor immortal but it is a mean between the two… He [Love] is a great spirit and like all spirits he is intermediate between the divine and the moral.” 206 Finally she extolled the highest idealism of ‘Beauty,’ as follows.

.  “But what if man had eyes to see the true beauty – the divine beauty?… pure and clear and unalloyed with the pollutions of mortality and all the colours and vanities of human life …. Remember how in that communion, beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will bring forth, not images of beauty, but of a reality … nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God… (Dialogues of Plato page 218).”

        Plato immortalized Socrates as truly ‘a friend of God.’ At the end of The Symposium, he narrated the conversionary experience of Alcibiades. This handsome young aristocrat had supposed that when he spent a night alone near the great philosopher, that Socrates would be inclined to have sex with him. But not so, for, Alcibiades said: “What temperance there is residing within “ – within Socrates, that is….

          “When I opened him, and looked within at his serious purpose, I saw in him divine and golden images of such fascinating beauty that I was ready to do in a moment whatever Socrates commanded… “ Later on, Alcibiades concluded: “For I have been bitten by a more than viper’s tooth; I have known in my soul, or in my heart, or in some other part, that worst of pangs … the pang of philosophy…”

Conclusion: Plato’s and Socrates’ ideal forms, available to the mind, gave birth to the higher realms of the ineffable – that which cannot be grasped hold of physically, though art, sculpture, literature and music may imitatively illustrate certain wonders that derive from Higher Realities.

VII.  Mystically-minded women visionaries of the high Middle Ages

       Often, once a woman like Hildegard revealed to her priest-confessor the rich treasures of her interior life,  a scholarly member of the clergy with knowledge of Latin would write up her experiences and record such mystical mysteries as her visions revealed. Here is an example from the modern theologian Von Balthasar’s review of the ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas (1989:391-392). Balthasar refers to the work, ‘The Flowing Light of the Godhead’ by Mechthild of Magdeburg (dates 1207-1294), and he interprets her visionary experience as follows:

                 “… the pure Christian experience of God as the endlessly flowing, inexhaustible fountain…. The flowing of God is for Mechthild both being in itself and out of itself, glory and humility, riches and poverty, for it is ‘the burning God in his longing’ who goes out of himself into the ‘God-alienated’ and awakens the longing of the soul…”  

While collaborating on writing testimonies of such illuminating, heavenly experiences, the woman visionary and the priest formed close friendships. Nevertheless, each continued to lead a chaste life in imitation of Christ Jesus. Like the Cathars, or the desert fathers in earlier Christian centuries, women mystics practiced strict fasting and with deprivations, and often suffered prolonged illnesses. When able, they offered charity to others, caring for the sick like lepers. Some communities sought support from religious orders like the Dominicans who, while scholarly, also did pastoral work among the masses. Unfortunately, later Dominicans and Franciscans helped the papacy hunt down heretics during the dreadful inquisitions.

          The Christocentric theme evoked passionate feelings among pious women for Jesus’ human sufferings; They reverenced the Lord’s wounds, and particularly his ‘holy blood.’ Note that, unlike the Cathars, who denied Christ’s crucifixion, the pious women mystics revered Christ’s physical sufferings. In many ways this reverence anticipated the sufferings of millions in the mid-14^th century who died of the plague.

            In the Middle Ages mythology grew up around the container known as the Holy Grail, which held the preserved Christ’s blood. Wikipedia notes people infused it with the mythic and miraculous power to provide eternal youth and an infinite abundance of sustenance. In the literary romances of those times,  as in the 13^th century German Parsifal, and the English tales of the Knights of King Arthur, the knight constantly sought for the Holy Grail. Unlike adulterous Lancelot, the chaste Galahad succeeded in finding the Grail.

         Flemish Beguine, Hadewijch of Antwerp, who died 1260, wrote poetry in old Flemish vernacular. She imagined the soul, not like the ‘Bride’ allegorized in the Song of Songs, but as a fearless knight riding alone, hungered and thirsty, jousting and dueling at times, “her own elaborate and literary framework for the achievement of divine love.” (Madigan 2015: 424-5)

VIII. Prejudicial views of women, the question of erotic forms in ‘bodily-mysticism’

          Heer (1961:322) writes that St. Thomas Aquinas’ ethical system pertained only to men, quoting the philosopher as having said, ‘Men have to make use of a necessary object, woman, needed to preserve the species or to provide food and drink.”

       Grace Jantzen critiques the Christian schools of philosophy and theology that prevailed in the 13^th century, which excluded women from the church hierarchy. In ‘Power, Gender and Christian Mysticism’ (1995), she takes up the philosophy of the Pseudo-Dionysius, whose writings considerably influenced St. Thomas and other medieval theologians. From her readings of Dionysius, she argues he constructed an ideal model for the hierarchical structure of the church, consisting of bishops, priests and deacons (all male) and based on angelology. In The Celestial Hierarchy,Dionysius listed various angelic beings such as thrones, cherubim, seraphim, archangels, principalities, which he divided into three main groups. She quotes Dionysius’ thoughts upon the degrees of sanctity accorded priestly roles, as follows.

     “The holy sacraments bring about purification, illumination and perfection. The deacons form the order which purifies. The priests constitute the order which gives illumination. And the hierarchs, living in conformity with God, make up the order which perfects …. Our hierarchy is harmoniously divided into orders in accordance with divine revelation…  the same sequence as the hierarchies in heaven.”( Jantzen1995:98)

           Elsewhere in her paper Jantzen refers to Aristotle’s prejudiced view of women. Writing about Aristotle’s views on biology, she says, “Women were misbegotten males, and were inferior both intellectually and morally.” (1995:107).  In the Middle Ages it was believed that women lacked capacity for reason or understanding abstractions in logical argument.  But, how could human priests imitate angels? Jesus spoke of souls in the next life as neither male nor female, but like the genderless angels in heaven.

         Jantzen notes two channels of higher thought in the Middle Ages, an intellectual mysticism influenced by Dionysius, and “an affective strand,” non-Dionysian, incorporating a strong element of love, especially of Christ. But only men engaged in both. She proposes to look later at the ‘affective strand,’“a study of female alternatives, the highly charged erotic and bodily-based mysticism which males from that time to this often found disturbing and threatening..” (I do not have copies of Jantzen’s selection of such cases.)

      As an example of bodily-mysticism, Wikipedia notes that Hildegard of Bingen wrote erotic-like adoration of the Virgin Mary, but here, as quoted, she used metaphors from nature. “Your flesh has known delight; like the grasslands touched by dew and immersed in its freshness. So it was with you, O mother of all joy.” 

IX.  Modern Depth Psychology: Born Again through Bodily-Mysticism

        I think of the visionary women of the high Middle Ages as ‘bodily-minded’ in their imaginative experiences, because they were grasping for some inkling of Christ’s own Resurrection in the Spirit.

         Recently, while recovering from the painful ordeal of cataract surgery, I had as authentic a visionary experience as I have known. It seemed to me that I (now an aging person) underwent the experience of a newborn; intense emotions arose within me that produced an exquisitely ‘sensuous experience.’ Dwelling in some over-lighted space I felt myself eagerly reaching out to touch parts of my mother’s body. I was in a state of Love for her who had given me birth. I loved her totally! I delighted in this new experience of being alive!  But most vividly, physically, now I could reach out and touch with my own fingers parts of the upper body of this person who had given me birth. Where did this kind of experience come from? Suggestively, I returned to the writings of Stanislav Grof about altered states of consciousness whose ideas I had been exposed to when working in the psychiatric field.

       Stanislav Grof, a Freudian trained psychoanalyst-psychiatrist, experimented in the 1960’s with supporting his patients through LSD-induced changes in consciousness. In his book, Realms of Human Unconscious (1976), he leads the reader to the ultimate stage that gives rise to the ‘Transpersonal,’ other realms of the spirit – once the adult-patient completed the ‘Perinatal Stage’ of re-living birth. Regarding ‘dual Unity” (178-179), he entitles this, “Ego Transcendence in Interpersonal Relationships and the Experience of Dual Unity.” He writes, “Typical of this category are the symbiotic union between mother and child ….dual unity accompanied by profound feelings of love and of the sacredness of the relationship.” (1976:178-179)

          He describes a variety of Transpersonal categories, for instance, “Experiences of Encounters with Various Deities,” visions of gods the patient could identify, but sometimes others unknown to them culturally. Grof writes that subjects who encountered these blissful deities felt powerful emotional reactions he characterizes as “ecstatic rapture and divine bliss.”(Grof 1976:199-200) Consequently, we have a psychiatrist who experimented with LSD induced hallucinatory experiences and was able to authenticate details reported by the visionary experience, confirming that parapsychological explorations can be marvellously healing and liberating of the psyche and the spirit.

We might suppose the Medieval Cathars were not able to complete the ‘Perinatal Stage’ and reach beyond confronting their mortality. As Grof says, the person feels stuck inside the birth canal and unable to get out; It generates a no-exit feeling that one is going to die in this place.

             Cathars voluntarily adapted to severe restrictions in life, especially Perfects who adopted lived with utmost simplicity, often working as weavers. They rigorously observed other dietary restrictions, and avoided consuming dairy and meat which they associated with animal sexual reproduction. Perfects practiced chasteness and never married. Cathar ‘believers,’ could marry but led ascetic lives. The third grouping, the ‘listeners,’ attended gatherings to learn more about Cathar teachings. When interrogated during inquisitions, they never swore allegiance to the Church, believing ‘swearing’ by heaven, earth, or oaths’ was forbidden by Jesus in Matthew 5:35. They accepted condemnation by church and state and went to their executions with impressive dignity and without expecting rescue.

        During the Albigensian Crusade against Cathars in Languedoc, crusaders  participated eagerly in the campaign. Many hoped to receive papal indulgences, or absolution of their sins, for killing these religious heretics. Crusaders indiscriminately slew Cathars and Catholics. One commander reportedly said, “God will know his own.” It is no wonder that the Cathars, expelled initially from Christian Byzantium, had nowhere to go once the Roman Catholic Church made them religious scapegoats. Like the early Christian martyrs, they could only go to their death (no-exit finality in the Perinatal experience).

X.  Church Theological Inventiveness: Philosophy to the Rescue

        The Church persevered during the high Middle Ages, aiming to develop philosophical exactitude that would justify theological mysteries with logic. Diarmaid MacCulloch in Christianity, The First Three Thousand Years (2009:393-395) outlines the Catholic Church’s approval of the doctrine of Mary’s assumption into heaven at her death (like Elijah and Jesus). In the mid-12^th century, a German nun, Elizabeth of Schonau, had a vision of Mary’s physical being taken up to heaven. The account was recorded by her clerical brother and read widely. As popular belief it became the cult of the Assumption of Mary, and served that era of church-building, Notre Dame of Paris the leading architectural creation. MacCulloch explains, if a church possessed no saintly relics, by dedicating the building to Our Lady this brought blessings and graces.

         Yet what of the doctrine of Mary’s own ‘Immaculate Conception’? The 11^th-century Gregorian reform, saw the papacy embrace the doctrine, believing it strengthened the church’s efforts to impose celibacy on priests and monks. But MacCulloch observes this doctrine of “ever-Virgin Mary’ was problematic for the Catholic Church, at least as it related to the Cathar dualist belief that Mary existed only in Spirit-form. The Catholics argued that God could sanctify created and fleshly things, as much as things of the Spirit.

        MacCulloch (2009:406) explains how later discussions at Pope Innocent III’s Fourth Lateran Council of bishops, attempts were made to resolve such contradictions involving Mary’s physical and spiritual sanctity. They also sought to affirm the ‘Transubstantiation’ of the Eucharistic bread and wine, officially decreeing consecration rendered them divine substances.

           Drawing from Aristotelean definitions (as used by St. Thomas Aquinas), they considered the distinctions between ‘Substance’ and ‘Accident.’  In the example of a sheep, when it dies, its substance is released, but accidents remain, e.g. its size, woolliness, etc. as MacCulloch writes:

                 “So it is with transformation from bread into wine into the divine body and blood. Breadness and wineness have gone in substance, but something more, by divine providence, has happened: divine corporal substance has replaced them. Accidents of breadness and wineness remain … mere accidents.” (2009:406)   

Significantly, early in the 13^th century, a Belgian nun, Juliana received a vision of Christ. He wanted her to establish a new feast focused on the Eucharist. Dominicans subscribed to the substance of Juliana’s vision, and in 1264, Pope Urban IV announced the feast of Corpus Christ ‘the body of Christ’ – a feast still observed on the Thursday closest to the Last Supper. (MacCulloch, 2009:407).  

XI. Balthasar on St. Thomas Aquinas’ Philosophical Theology

         Balthasar reflects upon St. Thomas’ continuing importance in The Glory of the Lord, A Theological Aesthetics (1989:393-407). Reading Balthasar’s thoughts, I understood better how St. Thomas’s philosophically-developed theology reached upwards to the highest definitions he could give to speaking of the Godhead, Who is so far above us.

         Balthasar emphasizes that to St. Thomas, the human has to realize that the Godhead is essentially unknowable, “the Wholly Other.” This idea derived from the 5^th century, CE, mystical thought of the Pseudo-Dionysius who conceived of the ‘negative’ view of the Godhead. Logically God is the final cause,  and theology needs to keep on reiterating that, in this respect, the Godhead is essentially and absolutely unknowable.

          Here we find Balthasar’s elucidation of the language of St Thomas in formulating Metaphysical Truths about the Godhead – so far as any human could ever conceive of Divine Reality in relation to ourselves. St. Thomas confines the idea of ‘being,’ to us humans, which is not what can be said of God.

         “Thomas sees esse [is, as in Yahweh’s “I Am.”] as the perfection of all reality… supreme ‘likeness of goodness,’ and so God can no longer be regarded as the being of things, except that he is their exemplary and final cause… In a radical way God is placed over and above all cosmic being …. The Wholly Other.  We can know that God is, but not what he is …. our knowledge is surpassed and negated in a greater and definitive unknowing … The more he is recognized to be remote from everything that emerges as effects … he is known through negation. …”

          Balthasar (1989:394) quotes from St. Thomas below, regarding the enlightenment of the mind in contemplating God’s Higher Light. We think that, intuitively St. Thomas anticipated his vision of God at last, in 1274 in the chapel :

         “In this progress of knowledge the human mind is usually most helped if its natural intelligence is strengthened by a new light: the light of faith and the gift of wisdom and understanding, by which the mind is elevated above itself in contemplation, in so far as it recognizes that God lies above and beyond everything that it can know by nature. One may say it is reflected back on itself through the superior light, here quoting Gen. 32:31, ‘When the eye of the soul turns towards God, it is thrown back by the lightning flash of the Infinite.”

Talking about the sanctity of Creation, Balthasar further says:  (1989:399-400).

St. Thomas took from Boethius (dates) the notion that God in his absolute beauty conceived the world’s beauty in his mind…. God as the sun of goodness sends out rays of light in the creation of the world, quoting the Psalmist, ‘When thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good things’…. When God’s hand was opened with the key of love, creatures came forth.”

This language inspired me to remember a personal vision that suggested God’s Graces pour down upon us, even if we do not know clearly in our own minds what this is all about.

XII. Seeing God’s Hand over the Great Amazon

        In the winter of 1986, I was a passenger on a cruise ship sailing south from the Caribbean to Belem, Brazil, at the mouth of the Amazon River. We sailed in this great white, ocean-going ship through the magnificent Amazonian waters towards Manaos, in the Amazon Basin.

      One evening, where the river opened up to a broad vista, I took out a gift I had brought to offer to this wonder of nature. It was some holy water from the Fatima shrine in Portugal. When the other passengers were at supper, I went onto the deck, and flung the few drops of the Fatima water into the Amazon. Suddenly, the sky filled with images of rows and rows of people standing together. At the time I wondered if they were the spirits of many who had drowned in the Amazon. Perhaps the holy water from Fatima woke them. Later, I thought they looked like the ‘Orans’ depicted in early Christian art, ‘the praying ones.’ They stared at me with great concentration, as though to prepare me for what was to happen next.

        Then, the vaulted crown of the sky ignited. A celestial vision  emerged. It was a gigantic Hand extending a giant chalice towards me. (Was it like the communion cup in the Anglican Church’s Eucharist?) These images dissipated as a rainbow filled the sky.

           What that vision meant in its totality, I still do not know. I suppose that when a Divine Presence appears it does so in the language of symbols with which we recognize, even if we can’t interpret them.

         In the end, what else do I think about these things? Firstly, knowingly or unknowingly, we are all in God’s hands, and most often the heavenly beings communicate with cosmic symbols. Secondly, as for Eckhart’s thought that the soul is concealed in a spiritual organ that occasionally ignites, I ask; What could one’s own soul be pushing us to know if not what Eckhart calls the “Goodness, that is of God?” Whenever we humans appreciate the wonders of nature, we cannot help but remember that this Divine Creation comes from God. For God declared, at the very beginnings, His own thought that His newly created world was “Good.” (Gen. 1:25, 30)

Bibliographic Sources

Realm of Metaphysics In Antiquity, Translated by McNeil, Louth, Saward, Williams and Davies. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1989.

Stanislav Grof, M.D., Realms of The Human Unconscious, Observations from LSD Research, New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., Inc, 1976.

Friedrich Heer, The Medieval World, Europe 1100-1350, Translated from the German by Janet Sondheimer, New York: A Mentor Book from New American Library, 1961.

Grace Jantzen, Power, ‘Dionysius and the hierarchy of mysticism,’ Gender and Christian Mysticism, Cambridge University Press, 1995: 94-109.

Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity, The First Three Thousand Years, New York: Penguin Books, 2009.

Kevin Madigan, Medieval Christianity, A New History. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015.

Sean Martin, The Cathars, The Most Successful Heresy of the Middle Ages, New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2004.

David McLellan, Utopian Pessimist, The Life and Thought of Simone Weil, New York, London, Toronto, Poseidon  Press,1990

Plato (d. 347 BCE), Dialogues of Plato: Symposium, The Pocket Library edition..  

A Radical Theological Perspective on Present Calamities: How are we to Preserve the Earthly Creation?

Sandra Principe, June 20 2022

As I watched the news on television of the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine during this past winter into spring of 2022, I related the awful themes of this invasion to ideas I studied in a course on ‘Reading the Old Testament.’ Are we living through an ‘Apocalypse’? — a ‘Judgment’ such as the Biblical prophets warned could come about if the faithful failed to respect God’s laws and commandments? What do these terms really mean today? The fact is, the present realities of weather disturbances, economic hardships and media-consumed scenes of warfare are conditions leading many to fall back on prayers such as the ancient Hebrew Psalms, “Lord have mercy on us.”  I think of Orthodox monks in the historic monasteries in Kyiv, endlessly reciting the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, son of the Living God, have mercy on us, sinners.” Have their prayers thus far shielded Kyiv from further Russian military penetration? Nevertheless, I ask of those pious Christians a difficult question: what is more important today than people’s personal or national salvation? Surely it is the current climate crisis that is based on human actions which  have exposed creaturely life to risks of extinction. Our collective sins as humanity now condemn us.

Now in June 2022, I see Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as intended not only to reconstruct borders but to exploit its utility as ‘the Bread-Basket’ of the world, of exceeding value to Russia’s state security interests. His actions reflect how we humans disregard the Greater Sovereignty of God over all this earthly creation. We recklessly intrude into Nature’s domains without realizing that these domains’ invisible protective guardian-spirits may object to any of our harmful activities. Nature may turn against us. Our main recourse, as ever, is to adopt ancient Hebrew Biblical practices which are prayer and honouring as far as possible God’s surpassing Wisdom regarding the orderliness He has created for all of creaturely life to thrive and grow.  

During pre-Christmas Advent, while preparing for the course, I read three Old Testament books, namely the Book of Joel, Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth, and the Book of Daniel. Each text spoke to me of our general ignorance of God’s Sovereignty over the Creation. The first two booksare dated to the post-exilic period of the Judahites’ return to Jerusalem (5^th-4^th centuries BCE), and Daniel to the 2^nd century BCE. In Joel’s time, the Judahites were poor, few in number, and defenceless against neighbours’ invasions: Joel associated those invasions metaphorically with locust infestations and crop destructions. Let me quote a few passages from the Book of Joel, as hesounded the alarm to his fellows—

      “Blow the trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm on my holy mountain… for the day of the Lord is coming … a day of darkness and gloom… of clouds and thick darkness…. a great and powerful army comes… Fire devours in front of them and behind a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness…” (Joel 2:1-3)

“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Let the priests, the ministers of God, weep, say, ‘Spare your people, O Lord.’ (Joel 2: 15-17)

In response to these entreaties, the Lord said at last: ‘I am sending you grain, wine and oil, and you will be satisfied” (Joel 2:18-19). Then, more words from the Lord as though He were envisioning a more wonderful land yet to come: “In that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, the hills flow with milk, and all the streams of Judah shall flow with water; a fountain shall come forth from the House of the Lord…” (Joel 3: 18).

In Middle Eastern cities now situated within desert expanses of sand, stone and rocky outcrops, people delight in well-irrigated pleasure gardens, bursting with flowers. These appear like nostalgic expressions recalling the former Fertile Crescent of biblical days.

The post-exilic Ecclesiastes or Qoheleth (from the Hebrew Qahal for ‘gathering, acquiring wisdom, wealth, pleasures etc.) is a term that Northrop Frye (1981:123) associates with “the author”  who is “the teacher or preacher [as Luther’s calls him].”  As a philosophically-minded  thinker, Qoheleth contemplated King Solomon’s life (10^th century BCE) in view of that ancient king’s reputation for Wisdom. The king recalled how he sought to do what was good for mortals; he built houses and planted vineyards, made gardens and parks, a forest of trees well-watered, farms, etc (Qoh. 2:3-7). But towards the end of his life, as Qoheleth tells it, Solomon dwelt on the emptiness and futility of life, the “Vanity of vanities”: all the wealth he had gathered and even the splendour of the Temple he had built, were just Hebel, the Hebrew word for “chasing after the wind.” In other texts, 1 Kings 4 and 11, true wisdom came to Solomon regarding his break with the Mosaic Covenant. At the time of the Temple’s dedication, in 1 King 4:6-9, the Lord warned Solomon that if he were to “go after other gods…. Then, I will cut off Israel from the land I have given them…”  Later, in 1 Kings 11: 1-8, the Lord is angry with Solomon for having built temples to honour the gods of his foreign wives. He had transgressed the First Commandment, “No other gods before me.” Thus, at his death, Solomon’s kingdom was divided into two, one part being Judah, to his son, Rehoboam, which is merely one-tenth the size of today’s Greater Israel to the north.

The 13^th century Franciscan mystic, St. Bonaventure, musing upon Qoheleth, discerned this book’s three principles: ‘material existence is understood as under the cosmos,’ and the pursuit of ‘abstract knowledge’ relevant to these earthly circumstances are two principles which, taken together, are secondary to the principle of the surpassing wisdom of God. This third principle in St Bonaventure’s view of Qoheleth is the Word of God that is eternal, unchanging and complete. In the king’s words, written by Qoheleth: “I know that whatever God does endures forever, nothing can be added, nor taken away; God has done this, so that all should stand in awe of him” (Qoh. 3:14). These words of wisdom in the post-exilic prophets led me to consider how we may approach today’s crises.

Do we really stand in awe of God today? We seek humanly created answers to the disasters we face, and fruitlessly it seems. The Covid pandemic and its evolving variants continue to overwhelm us, impacting our economy with supply shortages that have led to price increases in gas/oil along with food. Food insecurity in most places threatens famine and starvation amongst the poorest. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has been destroying cities and industry; now Ukrainian food, and specifically wheat shipments to the world’s hungry, are blockaded by the Russian navy in the Black Sea. Western economic embargoes on trade and finances are like weapons of war thrown at the East. It is hard not to see a correlation between these events and the revelations in John of Patmos’ Chs.14-15 of the seven plagues poured out by angels onto the earth.

Professor Irwin, who taught the course on ‘Reading the Old Testament’ (offered through Knox Presbyterian College, U. of T.) explained important distinctions between ‘Prophecy’ and forms of the ‘Apocalyptic’ in the bible.  Prophecy (such as 1 Kings, chapters 4 and 11) was uttered whenever the people were straying from covenantal agreements with the God. From the shorter term perspective, the prophet warned of a judgment unless the people returned to such practices of the faith as in Leviticus 26:2 “… keep God’s sabbaths and reverence His sanctuary.”  In contrast, the ‘Apocalyptic’ in biblical writing was more universal in scope and usually longer term in perspective. It was meant to offer hope and salvation, though fulfillment might not happen until some distant time (See Joel 3:18 above, the Lord’s ‘Dream-Vision). Whereas prophetic texts were explicit about the debilitating effects of breaking a commandment, an Apocalypse invariably ended on a positive outcome.

Professor Irwin points out that in apocalyptic writing the author/visionary returns to earlier biblical symbolism, illustrated in two exceptional end-visions. In Ezekiel 47, an angel showed Ezekiel a vision of the water flowing down from a new temple to form a river lined with a great number of trees. This idyllic landscape was written somewhat differently in John of Patmos’ Revelation, 22:1-2. An angel showed John a river ‘bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb… on either side of the river, the tree of life with twelve fruits and leaves for the healing of the nations…” These biblical visions remind me of a personal journey I made with friends back in the 1970’s to a veritable Garden of Eden-like place in the wilderness far away from human inhabitation. Some aspects of the lessons I learned in that journeying have guided me in my thinking for years.

A Little Tale from the late-1970’s 

Two friends and I embarked on an adventure into a very remote, uninhabited river landscape, somewhere in a northern uninhabited region of Canada. To get there, my friend and I traveled many miles by car, mostly through hours of driving rains. When we arrived at our friend’s rented cottage in the woods, our friend ran out to greet us with great warmth and delight. As she ran up the muddy, wet slope towards us, she fell and suffered a serious injury; her shoulder was dislocated. My friend, a natural healer, gently twisted the shoulder back into place. Our injured friend kept repeating: “I was pushed.” At the time we doubted this could have been the cause of her slipping on the muddy hillside. In restrospect, it was the first sign of some angry spiritual force in the region.

Later we took a canoe out onto the river, me sitting in the back, relaxed and enjoying the greenery along the river bank. We must have travelled for more than an hour and all the while saw no sign of any human inhabitation. At a certain moment, something took possession of my mind, as though my forehead felt only darkness… I couldn’t think. Mentally, I struggled to say what I remembered of the Lord’s Prayer, and the darkness lifted, yielding to those words of the Lord. It felt like a demon-force had temporarily overwhelmed my consciousness.

Eventually the lengthy river opened into the loveliest scene we three ever could imagine. We were mothers, accustomed to reading fairy tales to children about the beauties of nature. This was as idyllic as a fairy tale: a little lake, or a pond, of quiet placid waters encircled by flowering plants and bushes. Then we saw a mother duck proudly leading her little ones through the waters, entirely unafraid of our presence. But we did not stay long in case this seeming ‘mirage of nature’s tranquil beauty’ should be disturbed in any way.

That night, at first, I couldn’t sleep. Then, once again, some alien spirit came. This time, it lifted my perceptions up to survey the surrounding forests. Like ‘voice-thoughts,’ the spirit/s spoke of the river as once having been inhabited by an ancient indigenous people, canoeing up and down the river inter-acting with others amongst scattered villages. But they left; they disappeared somehow. (Later I heard about the pre-Columbian red-paint people living around coastlines of the Atlantic.) But the spirit/s wanted me to understand that I, who already had started archaeology courses, must never reveal the location of this river, where archaeologists might eagerly begin to dig for ancient sites. [cp1] I must never reveal, in any way, the remote location of this secret preserve they were guarding on behalf of all its wild things. Having promised to do so, I was allowed to go to sleep contentedly. To this day, I have never spoken of that unusual experience. Even though I share it now, I will never reveal where it is.  

      Looking at the present adversities through memories of this journey,  I see our responsibility to address all the causes of the destructive impacts of cosmic forces. Very likely, as I surmised from my wilderness trip, these are stirred up by the protective spirits of nature. The fact is, flora and fauna of every species are suffering because of us. Their guardian-spirits can no longer bear our destructive incursions into their remaining territorial jurisdictions. These spirits are furious with us for how much damage we are inflicting on the whole realm of Nature.

In Ancient Hebrew times, people’s relations with nature was expressed through their understanding of God’s Word. It is as if the bible shows that God continued to brood over this world, having done so since the Divine Creation in Genesis Ch.1. On this brooding, we may see an analogy to Qoheleth’s reflection on Solomon not long before his death (12:3-7). In this context, the king is wondering what happens to the soul at death:

          “ … in the day when guards of the house tremble, strong men bent, women cease grinding because they are few, and those who look through the windows see dimly, doors on the street are shut, daughters of song are brought low, the grasshopper drags itself along, because all must go to eternity … the silver cord is snapped, golden bowl broken, wheel broken at the cistern, and the dust returns to the earth, and the breath returns to God who gave it.”

Often during my course on ‘Reading the Old Testament, I leafed through von Balthasar’s Glory of the Lord for his eloquent thoughts on particular writings. Regarding the above passage in Qoheleth, Balthasar wrote (1991: 142),

       “The breath of unreality blows towards death, and the portrayal of the approach of death, with a great becalming of the movements and sounds of life, is surely the climax of the Book of Qoheleth and one of the summits of the whole Bible.”

          Similarly, The New Oxford Annotated Bible (footnoted 2010: 948) reads Qoheleth Chapter 12, as follows: “… with poetic exaggeration, the author depicts the end of human life in terms of the end of the world… the language of the darkening sky is reminiscent of prophetic eschatology…” (See lines quoted from Joel above, ‘the Day of the Lord, of Darkness’.)

Can we see in the Qoheleth’s description of Solomon’s thoughts upon end of times, depicted in the mortality of the body, a comment on our present day? I cannot help but see parallels between Solomon’s reflections on physical mortality and what we have been enduring during Covid-19 lockdowns and closures. Many have faced sickness and death through the virus transmitted from close contact with those testing positive. Can we see Covid as another example of Nature’s fury with mankind? To be specific, the virus was transferred to humans by the bat community living in a cave into which some Chinese miners intruded. 

Alongside the conditions of plagues of disease, there is the ongoing plague of the climate crisis. For example, an extreme heat wave last summer in BC caused the death of hundreds of people and the spreading of wild fires through forests. Human life was the greatest concern to us, secondary to the scortched earth. For the spirit of the wild, life will continue and the scorched earth will heal. This reminds me of what the Lord said to Isaiah (6:13): if a tenth remain, and even if burned again, like an oak that is cut down, the stump remains, still “The holy seed is its stump.”  Interpretations of this brief passage has been many and even contradictory. For our part, in our climate crisis times, we may see a correlation between the stump and the burnt down forstest, as the ‘holy seed.’ Let us allow our burned-out forests time and space to regrow. The regrowth will be at less risk of wildfires for the eventual day that global warming is limited.

This passage about the stump is found in the fore-mentioned Isaiah 6:1-13. He describes a vision of the magnificent Holy Presence in the Temple: “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple.” Winged seraphs flew about in the air, calling out: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” They took a coal from the altar fire to touch the mouth of Isaiah, purifying him for his prophetic voice. In answer to Isaiah’s question, “How long, O lord, must he keep on uttering prophecy to his people, which they never seem to comprehend?” (Isa 6:11-13), Von Balthasar gives [cp2] a radical interpretation:

            “Until cities lie waste and without inhabitant … and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land…A hardening of the heart, therefore, with a ‘time limit;’ a mission to dismantle until there is a great emptiness – the wilderness of Hosea – which is the only place in which the glory of the Lord can arise … The aim laid down at the outset is of decisive importance for the many discourses about judgment … the prophet is to humble everything that rises up in rebellion and exalts itself, until the sublimity of God becomes evident through his act of judgment , and glory emerges as salvation disguised in ‘terrors of majesty.” (Balthasar 1991:248-249)

  What does Balthasar’s extremely radical language, “terrors of majesty,’ say to us today? Perhaps the message is to look beyond human concerns, to include the concerns of all living things that exist under the Sovereignty of God. It is notable that we are less preoccupied with threats to nature’s survival than with human casualties in warfare and outbreaks of domestic terrorism. As the Covid 19 pandemic has confirmed, we are more concerned with the deaths caused by the virus than we are with the bats being disturbed by humans in their cave habitat.   

          Reading Qoheleth, Chapter 12 through events of this early 21^st century, I see it describing humanity’s need to save wild-life forms and their wilderness habitats. We must expect people to abandon some locales and allow them to [cp3] be taken over by wild-life ecologies and vegetative over-growth, for otherwise, nature, like ‘the blossoming almond tree’ in Qoheleth (12:5) will keep on dying. Let us require people living in remote landscapes to remove to urban areas, build vertical greenhouses for food in cities, and in cities, convert concrete or asphalt landscape into parks and gardens. Most importantly, we must stop degrading environments by drilling for oil/gas, quarrying for minerals, interfering with river courses, clear-cutting and burning for agriculture, and depositing wastes into lands and seas.             

           The Book of Daniel is about judgment upon the nations, especially upon kings. This is particularly relevant today since world leaders who act as kings of their nations have been known to take questionable action. Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine may be an example.

Chapter 7 of Daniel portrays the Godhead, enthroned on high (referring back to Isaiah of Jerusalem), having judged a succession of bestial-like kingdoms. The fourth kingdom of iron that was judged and was surely meant to depict Rome, shows its metal melting in the fire streaming down from the Ancient Deity on his Throne. The Book of Daniel also has a beautiful concept of the eternal existence of the Godhead, an image that may be traced far back to primordial times. This image is of the Ancient One on His Higher Throne resembling the West Semitic, grey-bearded El, the Hebrews’ El Shaddai (God Almighty), the Godhead Whom [cp4] Abraham came to know. Moreover, the ‘Son of Man on the clouds of heaven’ recalls the ancient Canaanite storm god, Baal, Son of El. Baal was depicted riding on the clouds and winds, lightning springing forth.

The author of the Book of Daniel chose Daniel as his name, likely in reference to the “Daniel” mentioned in connection with Noah’s flood, Ezekiel 14:14. The text dates his work back to  6^th century Babylonia. It was as though that Judahite in exile in his ancestors’ land wanted to declare that an authority greater than the Babylonian king existed: “Look, we worship the powerful Lord God of ancestors such as Abraham, whose birthplace lay in the city of Ur (ancient Mesopotamia).” At the end of the book, chapter 12, the author revives Abraham’s vision of the night sky full of the stars of his descendants.

I see Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine as equivalent to a scourge such as alarmed Joel when he claimed a ‘day of darkness and gloom … the arrival of a great and powerful army…’ Joel inter-related a military threat with a natural disaster like a locust infestation. Can we look upon Putin’s invasion as an ill-conceived, punishing ‘judgment’ on the Ukrainians for aspiring to join the West for growth and commerce, struggling to make the break with Russia complete. Putin is known to have voiced his view of the West as “immoral.” And now, the Russian military is laying waste (a biblical term) to the industrial heartland of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine.  

Putin’s military invasion of the Ukraine has raised many questions about Putin’s wisdom. What are the other impulses motivating his actions? I would suggest he is driven by religious concerns. Vladimir Putin was baptised as an infant within the Russian Orthodox Church, in secrecy it seems. The fact is, he has remained faithful to this Orthodox leadership, bringing flowers on occasions to Patriarch Kiril. Kyiv is a location dear to his heart, as it is to all Russians, though especially to Ukrainians for it is the capital of their newly independent nation.

A thousand years ago, in 988 CE, Prince Vladimir of Kyev endorsed Greek Orthodoxy for all ‘the people of Rus’ ( I refer to MacCulloch’s Christianity, The First Three Thousand Years, 2009:508-509). Prince Vladimir felt obliged to the Greek Emperor Basil for enabling him to marry a Byzantine princess, and to please her he began the construction of churches and cathedrals in Kyev, a feature of the city today. In Vladimir’s time, his two sons, Boris and Gleb, were slain by a half-brother who wanted the throne. The Orthodox Church declared Vladimir’s sons saints: since they had offered no resistance to being killed, they prevented more bloodshed: “Their suffering was both entirely innocent and inspired by compassion and non-violence,” says MacCulloch. In the 13^th century, the Moscow school of artists painted images of these saints into an icon, which went back to this form of sanctifying esteemed human figures in the theology of St. John Damascene.

St. John Damascene, who died 749 CE at Mar Saba Monastery near Jerusalem, otherwise known as St. John of Damascus, was an Arab Christian who upheld the worship of holy icons, including of ‘saintly’ human figures. His views were in opposition to the iconoclasm of the Byzantine emperor, who could not persecute John because he enjoyed very close relations with the Umayyad Sultan at Damascus (ironically, a Muslim ruler imbued with Islamic iconoclasm). MacCulloch explains (2009:448), the worship of God for John was adoration, Latreia, whichhe distinguished from Proskynesis, the veneration of icons of created beings. St. John drew from Aristotelian logicin arguing that icons inspired “relative worship,’ not the same thing as idolatry (see Helms Saints Alive 1987:237-240).

St. John Damascene taught about the soul’s judgment in the immediate afterlife, which he drew from some legendary words ascribed to the Virgin Mary. After he became a monk at Mar Saba, his abbot had a dream, as he told to John: “I saw the Blessed Virgin Mary and she told me to allow you to write as many books and poems as you like.” St. John took this permission very seriously. He had heard that just before she died, Mary anticipated she would have to address the terrors of the ‘tollhouses’ in her afterlife. His teachings were as follows: during the first two days after the soul departs from the body, it visits familiar places on earth. Then, on the third day and for days thereafter, the soul encounters ‘the prince of darkness in the air,” demon forces that challenge the soul over whatever troubled circumstances are left over from life. To the extent the soul already has resolved those situations of testing, they will be better able to emerge victorious during these trials. St John Damascene said that on the 9^th day the person would receive a glimpse of paradise, which could turn out to be his ultimate destiny, or consignment to hell. Though good spirits like angels would come to the aid of the soul throughout these trials. Was St. John thinking upon Jesus’ temptations in the desert?  

Can we not see the Damascene doctrine of judgment as a paradigm on our present circumstances? Judgment is a living thing among us as living beings. Even if a person does not subscribe to the Word of God in the Bible, conscience awakens each to actions that are wrong. Today, for example, we as individuals and humanity as a whole need to take responsibility for the climate crisis.

Still, we wonder: is Putin preparing for his eventual death, hoping to avoid the torture described by Damascene teachings of not having done the right thing when alive? To him, the right thing is to return Ukraine to its former Russian borders. I propose that, consciously or not, Putin is following Damascene teachings in his invasion of the Ukraine. He is convinced that he needs to correct problems so as to avoid the struggle in his immediate afterlife, believing that the Ukraine’s independence is a problem.

Russia invaded the Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Their current battle plan is to dominate the Donbas region to Crimea and to secure control of shipping along the eastern coast of Ukraine, having captured the port of Mariupol and, if possible, next Odessa on the Black Sea.  A background issue to Western sanctions of Russia’s oil/gas sales to the EU must be under consideration by Russian state security interests.

Russia’s oil/gas industry is already imperilled in some places because of regional environmental crises. These oil/gas sites are a perfect example of human encroachment on all living organisms. Russian geologists have been reporting in scientific journals on recent discoveries in Arctic Circle, Siberia, of huge circular holes, craters reaching deep down into the earth. The BBC website, ‘The Mystery of Siberian Exploding Craters’ attributes phenomena to permafrost melt, methane erupting out of underground pools, flaming above the ground before exploding surrounding earth, ice and rock. Oil/gas drilling in sites on the Yamal Peninsula are not far away from volcanic eruptions in the Gakkel Ridge under the Arctic Ocean. This would suggest the drilling could make the region more unstable than volcanic regions already are. Alongside this geological crisis is the impact of Oil/gas on the atmosphere: it emits greenhouse gases, such as methane, a gas which causes the most potent flares to leap upwards. No wonder Siberian temperatures in summer are reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and wildfires keep breaking out on these peat lands. The whole Siberian north is on fire!

Why does Russia look to occupy parts of its near-west neighbour, the Ukraine, so that it alienates its relations with the European Union? Ukraine is one of the richest countries agriculturally in the world, equal to Russia’s fertile plains. Russian state security officials likely foresee they will need access to Ukraine’s grain harvests to feed their own people, or to stave off starvation  Currently Ukrainian wheat harvests (planted last autumn) are not being shipped out by boats from Black Sea ports because the Russian navy blockades these ports. To further hamper export, the Russian military bombards cities along the coasts of Ukraine. The objective likely is to keep wheat in the region. Russian authorities recognize in the threat  of world famine a concern for their citizens. Russia’s well-being is more important than world famine; staving off starvation within its borders is a greater concern than economic losses from Western embargoes on gas/oil exports. Russia is trying to adapt to the environmental distresses they can see on the horizon, and part of that iinvolves taking back the Ukraine.

Putin has been heralded as a saviour by his followers. That way of seeing him is in keeping with the theological elucidation by John of Damascus that the image of a highly esteemed ruler may be venerated like an icon. What if Putin has it all wrong? What if he is not the saviour of his people, but merely the king of another “Roman” empire, as per Daniel’s vision? Putin rules an iron kingdom using the might of military strength and weapons of war to secure his invasion. And, as per Daniel’s vision, there is a power greater than mankind, one which Putin cannot see for his Damascene inspiration. He must be unaware of the spiritual forces that prevail in diverse environments and hold power over the cosmic elements. As I know from personal experience, those forces, so terrible today, are subject only to the Word of God.  

From days of old, humans encountered invisible spirits. St. John Damascene describes demon-spirits attacking the soul on entering the after-life. Then there is Jesus in the wilderness of Judea, Matthew 4:1-11, who resists the accusing spirits.  A kind of devil-spirit tempted Jesus’ miracle-working powers. Calling Jesus “the Son of God,’ the devil invited Jesus to command stones to be turned into bread for his hunger. Or, he could, as Son of God, take the chance to throw himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple, fore-seeing the angels would bear him up? Taken to a mountain top by the spirit, Jesus saw all the kingdoms of the earth spread out in their splendour and faced the temptation: would he worship the devil in order to gain such power?  Jesus resisted the devil’s temptations by quoting the Words of the Lord from the Bible, time and time again. Centuries later, St Anthony, faced with the same dilemma in the Sinai desert, followed Jesus example by using scripture to protect himself.

Putin may be seen as having accepted the temptation to achieve greatness as his historic legacy. He is caught by a force that he does not see and in that sense, fails the test that St. Anthony passed. 

Just as there are spirits out to do evil, there are spirits intent on protecting nature. It is my conviction that the Spirits of the Forests are determined to safeguard as far as possible whatever isolated wildernesses exist. Clearly, they are capable of targeting selected geographical centres of human inhabitation. With their knowledge of the dynamics of cosmic forces, they are able to trigger or augment disastrous occurrences such as forest fires, dam bursts, storm winds and the seas overflowing onto lands. The spirits know how to maximize natural or humanly caused disasters, signalling that their concern for environments is primary.

Not a divinity or a saint, but a human, I felt the need to resort to the familiar words of the Lord’s Prayer when overcome by a spiritual darkness cast upon my consciousness. This was an alien ‘spirit/s’ and not to be mistaken with evil. They attacked me because, unknowingly, I was intruding into a landscape they regarded as sacred. Earthly Creation is in need of protection from humans, and my experience is an example of that guardianship. I think of St. Bonaventure’s view of Qoheleth’s wisdom, that ‘material existence is under the cosmos’ which applies universally to all spirits, good, evil, or alien Others, as in the case of nature. But above everything is the Creator Lord’s eternal ‘Word’ found in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Why give attention to St. John Damascene’s fearsome theology of the expectation of severe judgment in the immediate afterlife? For one thing, it serves as a paradigm to encourage our efforts to avoid even more catastrophic environmental disasters (worse than the horrors we see inflicted on the Ukraine’s incredibly rich and fertile lands). Let me go back to St. Bonaventure, to some thoughts related by Ilia Delio (2001:99-114) on St. Bonaventure’s writing of The Soul’s Journey Into God. Bonaventure started out: “Here begins the reflection of the poor man in the desert,” the poor man – Francis. Delio writes that really this applies to “every person who is radically dependent on God.” Poverty is not simply a lack of money or things, it is being aware that one is utterly dependent on God because all good things come from His Goodness. However, let us not adopt Francis’ retreat into the wilderness (like St. Anthony), as a model for today. Let us leave all the wilderness places to the natural life existing under the care of their respective spirit-guardians!

Does the World’s future lie with China, considering its capacity to undertake necessarily new, technological transformations?

by Sandra Principe, January 2022

Prologue:

      As a devout Christian (who respects all other religions, especially indigenous people’s environmental reverence), because I feel it is presently necessary, I pray, as we all do, to the Lord God to save us. Individually and collectively, no matter how hard we might try to remediate the problems we face, our endeavours need to be strengthened by appealing to the mightiness of Higher Power. At times, I recite lines from ‘The Litany of Peace’ which introduces the Greek Orthodox Church service of prayers spoken mainly by the priest and deacon, and echoed by the people in their liturgical responses. Here are some lines of the opening prayer uttered by the deacon (taken from the website: ‘The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostum’),

         “In peace, let us pray to the Lord. For the peace from above and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord. For the peace of the whole world, for the stability of the holy churches of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord….. For our country, for the president, and for all in public service, let us pray to the Lord. For this city, and for every city and land, and for the faithful who live in them, let us pray to the Lord. For favourable weather, for an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times, let us pray to the Lord. For those who travel by land, sea, and air, for the sick, the suffering, the captives and for their salvation, let us pray to the Lord. For our deliverance from all affliction, wrath, danger, and necessity, let us pray to the Lord. Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and protect us, O God, by your grace….”

The Availability of New Technologies to Counteract Climate Changes

           Let me start by referencing my preceding paper[SP1] [SP2] , ‘Are We Heading To A Post Apocalyptic Era?’ (October 29, 2021). In that paper, I focused on current scientific and technological solutions to reduce global warming. If implemented on industrial scales, some of the practical ideas of technologists to eradicate carbons might save our disaster-ridden planet and lower global temperatures. I believe that a Higher Power can also help to do so. Inspired by what I envisioned as the technological work of angels, similarly engaged on the other side of this earthly reality, I interpreted the words spoken to me at the time:  “Holiness comes from the other side,” according to my conviction that Heaven wishes to support our scientific and technological endeavours.

      Regarding the eradication of carbons, I saw a BBC documentary hosted by David Attenborough, ‘Climate Change- The Facts’ (December 2021) showing, for example, a massively big carbon collector built in Iceland for capturing carbon particulates – the black soot that blankets the earth as a a major component of greenhouse gases. Conceivably, China as a coal-burning nation could use such technical methods to deal with its hundreds of coal-fired electrical plants. But besides the fact that China contributes ca 30 % of carbon emissions, why focus upon China in particular? Though still in transition industrially, China has historically demonstrated the capacity to make major changes. Early in the 20^th century China faced political chaos stemming from the collapse of its former imperial order of dynastic rule. Previously, in the 19^th century, the Chinese suffered humiliating defeat by British naval power intent on supporting the opium trade. Then, beginning in the mid-20^th century, China began to lift its people out of poverty. Its largely agrarian population, then ca 550 millions, has since expanded to a billion and a half predominantly skilled modern workers. The rest of the nations would applaud China if it chose to contribute to reducing global warming and its increasingly harmful effects.

            As we look at different aspects of how China arrived at its present economic productivity, we will reflect on the Western history of the mistreatment of  19^th century China during the Opium Wars, for which we should apologize. Moreover, we must overcome commonly expressed prejudices against China because of Covid-19. Do we not tend to blame China for the current plague? This is not a new phenomenon, considering all that came to pass in previous world history.

During today’s Covid-Plague we remember equivalent pandemics, coupled with atrocities committed during European colonisations

         In our innermost hearts and minds, many of us in North America and Western Europe, as well as in Australia and New Zealand, regret our shared history of European colonisations and exploitations of people across the earth. Recall the Atlantic slave trade that imported Africans into the New World for enforced labour in the sugar plantations.  Here in Canada, we mourn alongside First Nations’ people, the discoveries of the unmarked graves of their children, who died in residential schools. It is said that among three children who entered these schools, one survived. The children’s vulnerability to common illnesses was not appropriately medically serviced. The residential schools, operated by churches, were set up back in the 19^th century for the cultural assimilation of indigenous children, ostensibly into the work force. Similarly, Australia’s government now seeks ways to protect Aboriginal survivors whose ancestors arrived there during the Ice Age.

     As we educate ourselves on the harmful impacts of European colonisations in the Americas, we learn that, in those earlier centuries, explorers, settlers, and missionaries imported new diseases that slew millions of native peoples. They lacked the genetic immunity to withstand the ordinary diseases carried by the incoming Europeans. Those illnesses, often respiratory afflictions like colds and flus, were fatal for the Indigenous people. Whole villages, clans and tribes disappeared. More serious biological scourges like smallpox took its toll of indigenous lives, as it did among settlers traveling on the crowded ships across the Atlantic.   

       What do we know of the origins of the current corona-virus that has killed more than 5 million people worldwide? Did its inception take place in China as supposed? On television recently, a BBC documentary ‘Origins: Hunting the Source of Covid-19’ (Dec. 2021), reported that some years ago, coal-minors in China encountered bats in an underground mine; six became critically ill and three died. Chinese medical scientists in Wuhan in north-central China studied the pathogen obtained from the stricken minors to understand how to counteract its genetic make-up. In the process, did they inadvertently create a genetically modified and extremely contagious corona-virus, Covid-19 that we know today? Could Covid-19 accidentally have escaped from that laboratory into Wuhan’s surrounding human population?

           Another so far unanswered question: Did this corona-virus, typically found among bats, pass into some other animal as an intermediary before being transmitted to humans? The Wet Market of exotic animals for sale in Wuhan was thoroughly examined and closed down, but with no pertinent findings of any animal-held Covid-19. Scientists at the World Health Organization could not agree on how COVID-19 entered Wuhan and spread around the world.

       Mutating further, new Covid-19 variants have arisen in other parts of the world that can, to some degree, overcome the vaccines designed to combat Covid-19. I found Niall Ferguson’s notes on the history of previous pandemics in Doom, The Politics of Catastrophe’ (May 2021) interesting. In medieval times, bubonic plagues exhibited variants by their differing symptoms, apparently mutating along the routes they took as they travelled from place to place. Ferguson says that initially, it took longer for a plague to move through Central Asia than it did to penetrate Europe from Mediterranean trading centers. Thereafter, bubonic plague, known in the 14^th century as the Black Death, spread rapidly across Europe. Ferguson also notes that when the Mongol horsed armies, first led by Genghis Khan, who himself died of bubonic plague in 1380, were rampaging through Asia, they must have spread such scourges wherever they went.

        In later centuries, another Mongol army came to dominate China. Out of Manchuria to the north of China, a Manchu war leader drove his cavalry of armed horsemen down into China and overthrew the Chinese Ming Dynasty between 1600-1650. The new rulers known as ‘the Manchus’ held imperial authority over all the Chinese (the Han, making up 90 % of the population), up until 1911 when the last Manchu emperor was forced to abdicate. In his film biography, The Last Emperor (1987), we see Puyi as a young boy, then a divinity titled ‘Son of Heaven, who eventually disappeared into the life of a commoner.   

       Early in 2020, Chinese authorities sealed off the city of Wuhan for several weeks to halt the first outbreak of Covid-19, effectively bringing that episode of contagion under control through draconian restrictions. Currently, with the Omicron variant breaking out in Xi’an near Beijing, similarly stringent controls were introduced over that city. The government understandably anticipated the forthcoming Chinese Lunar Year and travel back to home-cities and villages, as well as the Winter Olympics and took necessary precautions to ensure peoples’ safety.

          With these thoughts, spanning centuries, in mind, I picked up at the Public Library the latest historic novel, China, The Novel (May 2021)by Edward Rutherfurd.

19^th Century Opium Wars of the West with China

            A great national disaster affected China back in the mi-19^th century when the country was forcibly opened to trading with Western interests – especially the British merchants who were attempting to impose opium on the Chinese people. They saw these people as a lucrative and ever-expanding market for that dreadful addictive drug. Peasants, workers, business people and members of the nobility succumbed to its temptation. China’s imperial administration, led by the Manchu Dynasty, was unable to cope with mounting pressures from the British merchants, who were backed up by British naval power.  China was humiliated and defeated by the British ships that blasted their way into the continent in order to support the trading activities. Apparently letters sent from the Emperor’s officials failed to reach the eyes of reigning Queen Victoria who, if she knew, must have been willing to see the British navy support their merchants selling opium to Chinese traders, considered outlaws and criminals by the Chinese authorities.

          At one stage British warships, iron-sided for defensive strength, made their way from the coasts up through rivers. They struck walls and buildings of cities and towns, violently blasting apart any stone fortresses along the way, all quite unable to withstand the powerful explosive ordinances with which the British ships were equipped. The Chinese military organized their response with trained musketeers, who used old-fashioned slow-loading guns, and who were supposedly bolstered by Manchu-trained archers. These attacks were easily repulsed by the iron-sided warships, the like of which the Chinese had never seen before. The country was defeated and compelled to pay substantial indemnity. China’s Treasury took years to recover. The British government used that money to compensate British opium traders for the opium supplies the Chinese officials had previously destroyed.

      Edward Rutherfurd’s China, The Novel, my source for this information, describes the ‘Triangular Trade’ as follows. British trading ships would bring opium grown in Colonial India and Burma to the open seas near coastal China. There, the opium was unloaded onto the boats of the Chinese smugglers. The smugglers purchased the opium from the British with silver currency, which the British spent on tea and other valuable commodities. Over time, tea from China became highly desired in England, and increasingly important to trade with the East.

      Hong Kong, an island off the Chinese coast, was appropriated by the British traders for its natural harbour. British families and other colonial traders settled there. Hong Kong was eventually surrendered to China in 1997 with the understanding that the ‘One State, Two Systems’ government model would affect it. Now its future prospects are lessened for these inhabitants who formerly enjoyed freer conditions under British administration.

Climate Changes that impacted China’s land masses during the Ice Ages,
relevance today

       During the last Ice Age, ice sheets kilometres high covered northern parts of North America and Western Europe. In contrast, the vast continent of Asia lay dry and mostly unglaciated, except for the Himalayas. Jet Streams, blowing from the west towards the east (in keeping with the spin of the earth) brought ocean-bred storm systems with heavy precipitation into the western continents. By the time they reached Asia, Jet Streams held no more such precipitation.

           Today, we see disastrous storm systems emanating from the Pacific and inflicting costly damage on coastal lands in the west of North America. Likewise, Atlantic storms assault western Europe. Southern parts of Asia suffer from monsoon extremes like cyclones or typhoons, though northern latitudes like Beijing are less affected. However, in July 2021, the inland province of Henan in north-central China suffered torrential downpours and flooding. Meteorologists explained this as the result of Typhoon ‘In-Fa,’ from hundreds of miles east, which caused excessive rainfall in China’s mid-latitude interior, where there was warming under subtropical high pressure conditions. Meteorologists predict that more storm systems originating from the seas, like hurricanes, will travel up into northerly mid-latitudes, as global warming increases.

        During the Ice Ages, especially during periods of extremely low global temperatures, glaciated ice sheets covered most of North America and Western Europe. While global temperatures remained at around freezing levels, continued snowfall built up layers of compressed ice. These layers never melted completely during the summer months because of the prevailing lower global temperatures. Most of the Asian continent received little in the way of rain or snow. Southern China remained dry, open grassland or woodland. Russia as far as Siberia in the east was treeless and bare tundra. Loess soils and dust covered the ground wherever the winds from the west swept through that Asian geography. The loess soils on the plains in north-central China served as fertile agricultural soils, once irrigated.

          Orbital factors contributed to major epochs of increased glaciation in northern parts of the continental west, particularly when the earth’s axis shifted to a more vertical position in relation to the north pole. As this happened, less sunlight and warmth reached northern latitudes.  It was only some 10,000 years ago that ice sheets began effectively receding over glaciated regions in North America and Western Europe. The earth’s axis was swinging downwards towards a greater angled distance from the north pole, inducing extraordinary landscape re-formations. The melt of ice in this inter-glacial period carved out great river systems, pooling lakes, streams and water-falls, suppling a wealth of fresh waters to lands emerging out of glaciation.

China’s Geographic Advantages Today

     China  is well-provided with geo-physical advantages, as shown below. However, certain areas lack cultivatable lands, which requires its intensive agriculture in select regions.

To the far west of China, mainly in Tibet, the Himalayas stand as great protective walls of uplifted rock and ice against foreign invasions. To the northeast lie semi-arid regions like Mongolia and the Gobi Desert. The map of China’s agricultural regions (as depicted online by Waterloo University) shows that only its eastern half, is suitable for growing food crops.

1.  Descending from the heights of the Himalayas through foothills, lower-lying basins and plains extending to China’s eastern coasts, are two great rivers. The Yellow River begins in Tibet and flows through lands and plains until it reaches the northeastern locale of Beijing.  To the south, the Yangtze also starts in Tibet and flows eastward, then takes a southerly downturn, before curving up towards Shanghai on the coast. China also has an extensive network of other rivers and tributaries.
2. Over the centuries, Chinese engineering raised up and has had to maintain great embankments to contain the Yellow River for whenever it happens to go into spring flood. The Grand Canal (Jing-Hang Grand Canal) constructed as a waterway for the transport of goods from the north, connects the northern Yellow River with the Yangtze in the south. Its oldest sections date back to the 5^th century BCE. It was expanded in the 6^th-7^th centuries CE.  The Three Gorge Dam and its recently constructed powerplant on the Yangtze has added greatly to China’s hydro-electric power. Still, hydro-electric power has to be supplemented by fossil fuels. Cultivatable land surfaces, including slopes of foothills where tea is grown in the southwest, were historically developed by peasants organized into collectivised villages-until the advent of Communism in the 20^th century.
3. A great advantage geo-physically is that China possesses rich stores of mineral wealth, like rare-earths, zinc, lead, iron, magnesium, tin, etc., that are so far relatively under-developed. It has oil and gas reserves, but still imports these fuels from Russia and elsewhere. Its coal-mining has been central to industrial development, which it augments by importing coal from Australia. There are numerous small powerplants throughout the country that meet local consumption needs.  Large-scale coal-fired plants empower steel manufacture. The current president, Xi Jinping, ordered local coal-fired plants providing electricity to residents in cities like Beijing to reduce amounts the amount of coal they use – since the price of coal was skyrocketing. Also, at times Beijing is enveloped in smog, and such unhealthy and unbreathable air would not be acceptable to visitors during the forthcoming Winter Olympics.   

        Surveying this immensely wealthy country from the air, we would see field upon field of greenery being cultivated for food. Some areas remain lessened woodlands, but still provide habitats for wildlife like panda bears. Other areas flower beautifully in the springtime; I saw on television all nature flowering as the consequence of the recent Covid lockdowns in Wuhan.

        In contrast, one sees on television of the American west and mid-west, images of fields lying bare in drought, soils parched and deprived of rainfall. California’s fruit belt suffers diminishing river waters. In summer months (and now even in winter in Colorado), lands catch fire, irrespective of being plains, woodlands or scrub-brush. One sees other scenes of neighbourhoods in cities and towns flattened by tornados. Terrible storms come from the south, and encompass several states, sometimes reaching into the mid-latitude north of Illinois. Settled areas near the coastal United States are repeatedly subjected to ocean-bred storms, like powerful hurricanes that cause torrential downpours and flooding. In western Europe an Atlantic stomr drenched houses and buildings with rain and mudslides

          In southern China, where they grow rice, I suppose they wait for the fields to be flooded, such as takes place in other countries in southeast Asia where rice is grown in watery meadows. In this respect, southeastern Asians must value the seasonal abundance of water.     

Twentieth Century Industrialization in China (Sourced mainly in Wikipedia):
Lessons Learned from the Nineteenth, Malthus or Marx?

     In the mid-20^th century, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Tse-Tung (dates 1897-1976), a Marxist-Leninist, massively transformed the nation. He began by pulling people out of their age-old agrarian mode of subsistence into the modern world of industry,‘ The Great Leap Forward’ emphasized heavy industry such as steel and iron manufacture. Land Reform in 1962 saw the peasantry re-structured; Mao campaigned against landlords and farm owners, taking away their ownership of land and property and turning it over to the people. Communally organized village farms were expanded into huge state-farms. Later, with Mao’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ (1966), he attacked the intelligentsia, closing down schools and universities and sending intellectuals to labour on the farms. Previously under the Manchu Dynasty, passing the state examinations led to official positions among the nobility. That elite class system was obliterated under Mao. A new hierarchy was created through membership in the Communist Party and its governance. Massive political-economic transformations, to be sure!

         After Mao died in 1976, a new kind of leader took power, Deng Xiaoping. He had spent time in France as a youth, as a foreign student who worked in a local factory. Though associated with the leadership of Mao, he suffered persecution as a ‘rightist’ during the Cultural Revolution. But he eventually regained a high status in the Party. When he rose to power as China’s president, Deng promoted capitalist-style enterprises and opened up trading and investment relations with the West. At one point, as China’s official leader, Deng visited the United States. Deng re-instituted the traditional state examinations to qualify for higher education.

         Seeing that China’s population under Mao had risen from 550 millions in 1949 to 900 millions in 1976, Deng instituted the ‘One Child per family’ policy. Success was limited, and the  population has now grown to ca. 1.4 billions.  In recent years the government relented to allow as many as three children per family. On BBC television news, however, interviews with locals revealed people could not afford more than one child because of the costs of education, health and housing. Lately, XI Jinping is attempting to equalize the distribution of wealth by cracking down on billionaires and rich tech companies, “to pursue common prosperity again” (The Guardian, August 2021), likely to redistribute access to essentials like healthcare and education.

        Regarding China’s enormous population growth, especially under Mao, we look back to      the late-18^th century when an English cleric, Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus, published his economic views in 1798 in ‘An Essay on the Principle of Population.’ Today, some economists refer to the relevance of his ideas today, especially his prediction that population growth could outgrow food production, and strip away natural resources. In the mid-19^th century, Marx saw that industrialists encouraged population growth to expand worker numbers since the ‘surplus-value’ from their labour benefitted industry owners. Marx pointed out in Capital that so many factory-workers, including child-labourers, died at an early age from their way of life that factory owners always needed to replenish their numbers.

       In Mao’s time, China’s population went from 550 millions to 900 millions. It now almost reaches 1.5 billion. This is in keeping with Malthus’ view that in times of plenty, population will increase until other conditions, such as environmental degradations, cause populations to decrease. One wonders: was Mao allowing such tremendous population growth to take place to effectively industrialize the economy?  In Malthusian terms today, reportedly, the world’s population has shrunk due to the pandemic and economic dislocations.

Epilogue            

       If China (Russia and other nations producing coal, oil and gas) fail to reduce or eliminate fossil fuels, what are we to do in our disaster-prone West? Technological solutions that can eradicate carbons in the atmospheres, along with other technologies that are carbon-neutral, could go a long way towards dealing  globally with all environmental problems.

     The other solution, which our faith leaders have inadequately pursued, is surely worth trying. All of us must turn to the greater power of the Godhead to induce dramatic changes in our ways of life. This starts, as the Old Testament prophets teach us, with putting God first in our thinking.            

               Putting together two Old Testament books, Haggai and Joel (and Zechariah’s angelic visions) of the early Persian period, we read that when Judahites returned to their homeland from Babylonian Exile, they were in a vulnerable situation. They faced food scarcity because of drought and famine, and seemingly a locust plague.  The two prophets, from whom I quote here, spoke to the people of the need to appeal to the Lord God in their prayers to help them.

         Joel called out, “Blow the trumpet in Zion… ,” as though this were Rosh Ha-Shanah, the Day of Atonement for their sins, which Jews customarily observed at harvest time.Joel wrote of signs of natural threats, darkness and gloom, as if from wildfires such as those in familiar scenes today – lands on fire, forcing evacuations.Joel wrote in a tone of alarm and desperation:

            “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near – a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness spread upon the mountains a great and powerful army comes [metaphorically the advance of locusts]…..Fire devours in front of them, and behind a flame burns. Before them the land is like the garden of Eden, but after them a desolate wilderness, and nothing escapes them.”  (Joel 2:2-3                                                                                             

            In the days of their governor, Zerubbabel, last of the Davidic line of earlier kings, along with the Joshua the High Priest at his side (likely ca 525 BCE), Haggai spoke to his people through the words of the Lord God. These two leaders were rebuilding the temple at Jerusalem that the Babylonians had destroyed. Haggai assured the people that in endeavouring to rebuild the temple, their effort would incite a response from God. He would greatly bless their struggles to bring life back to the land, planting and reaping again. Thus Joel writes in the Voice of the Lord God as He tenderly addressed the languishing lands;

               “Do not fear, O soil; be glad and rejoice, for the Lord has done great things! Do not fear, you animals of the field, for the pastures of the wilderness are green; the tree bears its fruit, the fig tree and vine give their full yield.” (Joel 2:21-22)

         The prophetic writings of Joel and Haggai, their theological perspective in particular, is difficult for us to understand today. For example, Haggai 2: 15-19, has the Lord saying that before a stone was laid for the temple, “ I struck you and all the products of your toil with blight and mildew and hail; yet you did not return to the Lord.” But, consider, the Lord God said subsequently, from the day the temple foundation was laid, the vine, fig tree, pomegranate and olive tree were thereafter blessed with abundant yields.         

      As for the final, eschatological passages in Joel, 2, 30 -3,15 these are mostly written in prose, but David Petersen believes they likely were poetic in form (The New Oxford Annotated Bible, 2010:1275). Joel’s prophecies conveyed, among other things, “A judgment on the nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat” (Joel 3:1-11). Then, in Joel 3:14-15, he cried out: “Multitudes, multitude, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.  For the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.” Joel’s Chapter 3 must have had something to do with the Biblical custom of a prophet casting curses on Israel’s neighbours, who had mistreated the people of Judah and disrespected Zion, God’s Holy Mountain.

         Petersen (2010:1275) says of Joel: “The book has a distinctive theological position.” He observes that Joel thought (like Haggai 2:15-19 above) that God was “The ultimate cause of the disaster,” Here Petersen refers to Joel 2:19, “The Lord became jealous for his land and had pity on his people, declaring he was sending grain, wine and oil…’  Petersen concludes:

 “The prophet offers no reason for the deity’s action. Hence it is not clear that the crisis should be conceived as judgment for the people’s misdeeds. Nonetheless, the book affirms that Israel’s God is sovereign…”

               Returning to the Old Testament prophets Joel and Haggai in the context of present-day cosmic disorders, let us see these disasters not as simply ‘judgment’ because of people’s wrongdoing. Instead, let us think upon God’s compassionate regard for the lands and His desire to see their return to bountiful growth, as described in Haggai and Joel. Moreover, let us examine our deepest feelings. Let us think that Nature itself, at times, needs to express its extreme urgencies. It does this now by amplifying the intensity of the natural elements as expressing their extraordinary distress. Now, we humans yearn for Nature’s relief, as though we see the earth is sickening and groaning with its pains. If only the Godhead would intervene – but surely the Lord God is waiting for us to call upon his Infinite Mercy and Grace.

              Let us go back and re-read a few lines from the Greek Orthodox prayers, its Litany of Peace, recited for generations by those devout Christians, evocatively Old Testament theology.

           “In peace, let us pray to the Lord.

        For favourable weather, for an abundance of the fruits of the earth, and for peaceful times, let us pray to the Lord. For all those who travel by land, sea and air, for the sick, the suffering, the captives and for their salvation, let us pray to the Lord. For our deliverance from all affliction, wrath, danger, and necessity, let us pray to the Lord.

Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and protect us, O God, by your grace …     

---

 [SP1]Leave it alone

 [SP2]

Are We Heading To The Post Apocalyptic Era?

“Holiness comes from the other side” was said to me in my recent vision

By Sandra Principe, October 29th 2021

In early October 2021, Pope Francis gathered leaders from every faith at the Vatican. All agreed to sign a petition to the world’s powers to do everything to alleviate the increasing effects of climate change. They looked ahead to the United Nations conference on climate change, hosted by the U.K. at the end of October. Stirred by daily news reports of extreme and destructive weather in different parts of the world, I too am preoccupied with these matters. However, some very hopeful messages regarding ways of improving environments came to me from a place I call “the other side of earthly reality.” I was deeply impressed by a series of images of technical solutions to our problems in a vision granted to me in August of this year.  Afterwards, I was seized with wonderment. Could it really be that there were angelic workers foreseeing ways to counteract the greenhouse gases?   

          Inspired by such imaginative possibilities, I decided to research scientists’ current ideas on what might ] limit, if not eradicate, the build up of carbon emissions. I found that concerning greenhouses gasses, carbon dioxide comprises some 60 % of pollutants. Moreover, as I read climatologists’ writings, I discovered that these emissions impact the whole planet.

           Here is where global carbon emissions stand at present. Of the fossil fuels which generate carbon emissions, coal is considered the most detrimental to our environment. China is responsible for approximately 30% of the world’s carbon emissions, and the U.S. about half that amount. India adds to the issue by quarrying coal for energy. This September, the president of China, Xi Jinping, spoke at the United Nations, saying his country would not set up any new coal-powered plants outside of China. This may not be enough to reduce China’s carbon emissions by the necessary amount. Later, on September 30^th, the BBC reported that cities in China were undergoing temporary black-outs due to Xi’s instructions to local power plants to reduce consumption of coal.

            This is because as China emerges from a COVID-19 economy, the price of coal has skyrocketed. There is a similar problem in the West, where leaders of developed economies want to move away from their COVID-19 restrictions and boost economic growth. But where China’s supplies have increased in price, England simply doesn’t have those supplies. It faces a petrol shortage, and many gas stations are empty of petroleum. Britain attributes the problem to insufficient truck-drivers bringing gas supplies into the country. Perhaps this general problem says a lot about people’s reluctance to return to the labour market during an ongoing pandemic.

          We understand how difficult it will be for systems to increase their reliance on greener energy for a greener, fossil-free economy. But, as Pope Francis exhorts in his encyclical, ‘Care for the Creation,’ we must finds ways to bring this world back into balance with Nature. We must be ready to replace fossil fuels, stop cutting down our forests and mining heating supplies from peatlands or face a planet that burns with global warming.

          As mentioned, the imagery in my visions suggested that angelic scientists and technologists are working on technical applications that could be developed on earth to counteract excessive carbons. Their ideas are similar to what I subsequently read in scientific literature. In my visions, which I relate below, it seemed that their imagined technologies are best interpreted as “thought-ideas.” As such, they are not unlike the prototypes put forth in current scientific literature, enterprising but still preliminary and speculative.

Blueprint for Idealized Forms as the Higher World Envisions

           Currently, we cherish this wonderful world, despite the peril it faces today. This recalled to me the teachings of the ancient Greek philosophers, Plato and Socrates (5^th-4^th centuries BCE), who presumed that in the realms of the Spirits, there exist ‘ideal forms’ which are similar but superior to those on earth.  In the words of Socrates in Plato’s Dialogue of Phaedo, he spoke of a more perfect, earthly environment, healthful and pure, which he called “the upper earth under heaven” since he anticipated seeing this place following his imminent death (Phaedo 1950: 149-155). Socrates extolled the ideal reality of that place as follows:

     “In this fair region everything that grows – trees, and flowers, and fruits – are in a like degree fairer than any here; there are hills with stones fairer in colour than emeralds, jaspers and other gems, all the stones are like our precious stones…. The reason is that they are pure, and not like our precious stones, infected or corroded by corrupt briny elements… which breed foulness and disease both in earth and stones, as well as animals and plants… They are the jewels of the upper earth, which also shines with gold and silver… a sight to gladden the beholder’s eye…. (excerpted from 149-150)

     Socrates spoke of how people live longer there, with no disease. He supposed their senses were sustained in greater perfection by air, “that is purer than water or other than air.” There, they live a blessed life among the gods.

     “They have temples and sacred places in which the gods really dwell, and they hear their voices and receive their answers.. and hold converse with them; they see the sun, moon and stars as they truly are, and their blessedness is of a piece with this…” (150-151)

        Socrates was about to take the hemlock poison and die. In accepting this judgment on himself by his fellow Athenians, he endowed Athenian democracy, despite its flaws and imperfections, with an enduring value. In the midst of his farewell speech, he wondered what might be his fate in the upper worlds? Here he revealed feelings for the sufferings of humans, though it occurred to him that those who lived “holiness of life …. are released from this earthly prison, and go to their pure home which is above, and dwell in the purer earth….” (Phaedo 154-155). While speaking his farewell, he envisioned what he would see in the upper earth, which he perceived as a “much fairer” place, full of beauties and wonders.

         In Mahayana Buddhism (1^st-2^nd centuries CE), a cult arose as the invocation of the Lord of the Pure Land of Infinite Light, the Buddha, Amitabba, who has other names in Chinese and Japanese. If a dying person called upon this Lord, he could be reborn in a wonderful world, “rich in a great variety of flowers and fruits, adorned with jewel trees, which are frequented by flocks of various birds with sweet voices. Even the winds are pervaded with perfumes, which, on touching the beings in that world, bring them happiness as great as that of the monk who attains cessation of suffering.” (Novak, The World’s Wisdom,1994:84-85)

        Let us look at Judeo-Christian traditions on earthly-heavenly matters, particularly, Daniel, Ch. 7 (quoted by Jesus in Matthew 24:30). Daniel’s epic poetry is dynamically alive as the Hebrew prophet’s vision of the powers of Heaven that rule the earth.  He saw the grandeur of the Godhead called the ‘Ancient of Days.’ In age-old metaphor, Daniel describes His hair is like pure wool, and His clothing as white as snow – like the clouds – of such importance to people in the Ancient Near East. From His Great Throne of fiery flames streams of fire pour down on earth, hot enough to melt iron. Yet the promise is made to Daniel, 7:13-14, that when ‘the Son of Man Comes on the Clouds of Heaven,’ to him the Godhead will grant an everlasting kingdom on earth that will never pass away. This figurative imagery suggested the bountifulness of the rain-filled clouds which usually arrived in early Autumn to drench the thirsty, dried-up soil.  Today, in some parts of the world, including the Middle East, the summertime sun bakes the soil and rocky landscapes solid, and all life longs for the autumnal cloudbursts of rain. In other places, lands and cities are drowned in the hurricane forces of storm winds driving clouds so full of water vapours it seems as though the sea is pouring its waters upon the land.

         Climate Science has been predicting increases in such adverse weather extremes

         According to Joseph Romm (Climate Change 2016:21), “A key pollutant that drives global warming is black carbon.” Black carbon, he says, is the “soot” that comes from transportation and wildfires. Since black carbon is light-absorbing, it enhances the heating effects of the solar radiation absorbed by snow and ice in places like the Arctic, Greenland and Antarctic.  Moreover, when carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid, and acidifies marine environments (2016:17). Romm explains that the acidified waters in the oceans produce less of the chemical compound DMS. This important oceanic element is integral to the formations of the storm clouds that absorb evaporated sea water. Additionally, the acidification of some regions of the ocean is damaging coral reefs that serve as nurseries for various fish and sea creatures.  

       Another climatologist, Robert Henson (Guide to Climate Change 2019: 460), says experts recommend that croplands revert to grassland, along with the practice of ‘no-till-agriculture’ since ploughing unearths the carbons of dead vegetable matter in the soil. These practices would save water and avoid reduce farmers’ use of fossil fuels.  

         The greatest amounts of carbons are released from power plants, such as the afore-mentioned coal-fired plants in China and India. They’re also released by  power plants that generate energy by burning other fossil fuels, like oil and gas. Likewise, industries that make steel and cement operate on energy derived from fossil fuels. Vehicles like cars also add carbon to the atmosphere since 90% of them burn petroleum. Romm (2016:229) provides further history behind this. Early in the 19^th century, the first cars ran on electricity. By 1900, one third of U.S. cars were still electric. But the discovery of underground oil fields in the U.S. inspired the creation of the internal combustion engine, which consumes oil/gas for fuel.

         It shocked to me to realize that Romm, who was writing in 2016, and Henson in 2019, had projected adverse weather events to come, events which are now happening! This past summer, 2021, wildfires broke out across western America and Canada, escalating the destruction beyond what usually happens seasonally. These forests now stand in drought-ridden lands in the midst of dried up masses of ground cover, fueling future fires. Moreover, those regions are subjected to such abnormally high summer temperatures that during the heat waves in the province of British Columbia, several hundred people died.             

           In coastal regions of the southern U.S., hurricane storms ad the end-of-August produced torrential downpours and powerful winds that flattened, for instance, a giant electrical transformer in Louisiana. The region was stricken for weeks on end by power outages. This meant no relief from air conditioning during high heat and humidity. After Hurricane Ida fell upon the U.S. Gulf region, it moved on a north-easterly trajectory until its torrential rain resulted in flash floods and even tornados for New York and New Jersey. A day or two before Ida hit New England, the area’s daily temperatures averaged approximately 68 or 71 degrees Fahrenheit. What this told me is well known to meteorologists; Storm systems move hot air towards regions in cooler temperatures, from high-pressure to low-pressure conditions.  

           Similarly, earlier this summer in western Europe, Belgium and Germany were in lower, moderate temperatures when overwhelmed by excessive downpours, floods and landslides. The television news showed that Eastern Europe, on the other hand, escaped the powerful rain storms since their temperatures remained fairly high.

          Climatologists insist that such extreme weather events result from high concentrations of carbon dioxides and greenhouse gasses in our environments. They say there are no other geophysical causes, like increased volcanism or a brighter sun (Henson 2019:10). They see that current weather extremes are largely caused by the excessive carbons in our environments; our earth, seas and air are all super-saturated with carbon emissions and cannot absorb more greenhouse gases.

Technical Solutions of a Visionary Nature, from above

I would like to tell you of what I saw, in a vision from August 2021. The vision showed me a set of technical solutions to dealing with carbon emissions, which I presume are like ‘thought-ideas’ among angelic scientists and engineers in the place I call ‘the other side of this earthly reality.’ This place is similar to Socrates’ ‘upper earth under heaven.’     

      One day, in August 2021, the following sights appeared to me. As I relaxed with an audiotape, I envisioned myself lying on the grass next to our Lake Ontario, looking up into the sky. Hovering over me, I saw the Great White-Winged One with whom previously I had journeyed to various places. Larger than any bird, his spread of wings seems to merge with the fleecy clouds up above. He urged me, without speaking, to come with him. Together, we flew through boundless clouded and blue skies.

         At one point he paused in flight. A brilliant circle of the whitest light I have seen issued from his body and held my attention. In that moment my perceptions opened up to the other side. A thought-voice fell upon my mind, saying: “Holiness comes from the other side.”  I realized I was being told to look upon the things I would see, and surprisingly, they were recognizably earth-like in design.

         I found myself standing in a place lit up by brilliant sunlight. It was a broad platform next to a monumentally-sized, curving wall built of little reddish-orange bricks, all neatly fitted together. I could only see one part of that curving wall. Nevertheless that part was windowless and imposing. This gigantic wall stood next to waters of deep blue with waves that swelled gently.

          One could say the landscape I envisaged surpassed an ordinary Lake Ontario landscape in. This place on the other side bore the sense of timelessness; though earth-like, it was more real than ever my imagination could engender. Was something being ‘realized’ or ‘manifested’ in the solid edifice I saw? Was it a kind of scientific institute wherein angelic agents were working on instruments to reduce the excessive greenhouse gasses in our environment? As my vision proceeded, two major technological applications featured prominently.  First, I saw apparatuses presumably designed to transform carbon dioxides into less harmful, but still useful bi-products. The second technology involved new methods for transporting commodities without relying so heavily on cars and trucks. 

       While still standing on the outdoor platform, I clearly saw a kind of suction machine with a hose attached to it. It looked like a rectangular-shaped, domestic vacuum cleaner.  (Later we will look at nascent prototypes of fan systems constructed like the domestic vacuum cleaner, using giant fans to pull carbon particulates out of the air.) Next, I saw a long pipe or cylinder of shining, copper-tinged metal. It seemed to be cooking something. Was it for refining carbon dioxide particulates in other ways? (Later we examine electro-chemical methods of sub-atomic nano technologies that separate the carbon in carbon dioxide from other elements.)       

        A powerful torch light appeared up in the air, which seemed to project far away into a distant place. I believed it directed my attention to the South China Seas, where the Chinese have constructed man-made islands. I wondered: could Chinese scientists be experimenting there with methods of reducing the concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere? (When, later, I read of algae platforms to be constructed on man-made islands, I recalled this part of my vision.)  In the future, we may see algae plantations in the seas, which through photosynthesis, could help rid the atmosphere of the high levels of greenhouse gasses we currently experience. 

      The next image I envisaged through the torch light emphasized refashioning of our urban environments. Dangling down in the air, in a place designated in the vision as Japan, I saw a string of little metal clasps or hooks such as might form chains. I understood that these metal clasps were made of a metal stronger than any other. I could see small, light, electrically powered aircrafts, pilotless like drones. With these extraordinarily strong chains they could airlift materials over short distances to markets and stores. These robot-like aircrafts, furnished with such elegant and beautifully fashioned armatures (like arms and hands) could replace some of the petroleum-based, heavy trucks.

Down-to-Earth Considerations of Energy Alternatives to Fossil Fuels

        Romm’s chapter on ‘The Role of Clean Energy’ (2016:193-250) includes his expert views on problematic aspects of each energy alternative. In this respect, science and technology have not yet arrived at ‘complete’ or ‘total’ solutions. It’s insufficient to promote one model without considering its impacts on existing infrastructure, or that the new system will require new, supplementary structures at incredible costs.  

         President Bided announced in August 2021 his plans to exert control over all forms of petroleum-based vehicles that release polluting carbon emissions. By 2030, his administration expects to see 50% of passenger cars converted into electric vehicles that use batteries charged by a grid of stations to be set up across the country. Even hydrogen fuel cells are under consideration. But Romm (2016:238-240) points out that hydrogen as a source of energy can be dangerous. When it leaks the fuel is odorless, invisible, and highly flammable. Can sufficient electricity be generated from low-carbon sources to sustain this major switch away from petroleum? No one is certain. Even these electric batteries will be supplemented by gas in case the vehicles runs low on charge.

       Romm considers wind and solar energy as emitting the least amount of carbon. But it’s not always geographically possible. For example, Germany’s model of solar powering residences is less effective there than in sunnier, more desert climates. Nuclear generation does not release carbons, but has obvious and dangerous risks of reactive leakage. Romm says that ever since Chernobyl and Fukushima, few nuclear power plants have opened.

In my region, hydro-electric power has been generated for approximately one hundred years at Niagara Falls. But its hydropower produces less energy than the Pickering nuclear-powered station on Lake Ontario. Elsewhere, hydropower involved building dams, which deformed river courses and pose a flooding risk. Indeed, in drought-ridden areas, the reservoir behind the dam is empty.

        Robert Henson (2019:424-425), discusses carbon capture and storage, sometimes called sequestration. The initial push for CCS by certain coal-powered plants has slowed due to the complexities of refining carbon yields, which requires tremendous amounts of energy. The aim to sequester 90% of captured carbon dioxide either underground or in the sea has been unacceptable to environmentalists, however, because it necessitates the subsequent dumping of carbons into oceans. This causes acidification problems. Two Norwegian gas plants injected tons of carbon dioxide into aquifers under the North Sea. In other cases, carbon was injected into depleted oil wells as storage sites.  In power plants, technologies are proposed to obtain either post-combustion or pre-combustion management of carbons. Post-combustion uses chemical methods to remove any carbon dioxide emitted by the power plant. Pre-combustion involves gasification; the carbon dioxide is separated, and hydrogen, a bi-product, becomes available as a carbon-free energy source. Henson, like Romm, lists as renewables: wind, solar, hydro, tidal, geothermal, biomass and nuclear.

          Romm also sees that power plants have difficulty disposing of carbons. He mentions, for instance, that offers of carbon for sale failed to attract buyers.  He sees biofuels like corn-ethanol, which is added to gas, as repurposing cropland that could be producing food (2016:215). One thinks today of the extensive droughts in U.S. agricultural lands, and elsewhere, which are seriously afflicting farming and the ranching of livestock.

         Romm ( 2016:12;15) speaks of the presence of carbons in ‘parts per million,’ or ‘ppm.’ Today’s carbons record values in excess of 400 ppm, where historically they hovered around 280-300 ppm. The last time the geological record shows such high ppm  as 400+ was 800,000 years ago. Even during the last interglacial era, 115,000 years ago, despite sea levels and land temperatures higher than those today, ppm was less. Henson (2019: 276-277) summarizes the orbital factors that forced hyper-thermal conditions during that inter-glacial, 100,000 years ago. The earth’s more elliptical orbit drew it closest towards the sun. Also, at that time, northern latitudes were bathed in sunlight and heat because the axis of the earth was bent down at its greatest distance from the north pole.

Meteorology, an Advancing Science, especially during Global Warming

          Two climate scientists, Mark Serreze (2018), who focuses on the changing Arctic, and Tim Woollings (2020), an expert on the global reaches of major wind systems, each deliver important observations about our climate’s future. 

        Serreze’s work is titled, Brave New Arctic, The Untold Story of the Melting North. For decades ,he carefully documented the variability of Arctic weather. He and his colleagues werefascinated by the Arctic Oscillation or ‘AO’ patterning that showed contrasting high or low pressured conditions throughout the north. If, for instance, the central Arctic region was high-pressure, fair weather, the adjoining Pacific and Atlantic regions would experience stormy and cooler conditions associated with low-pressure. Notwithstanding this pattern of variability, in 2007, the data revealed substantial amounts of hot air coming into the Arctic from the south. Serreze writes, “Hence a lot of ice melted.” In our current context, he says definitively, “The long suspected culprit behind the warming – us – has been fully revealed. “ (2018:186). He further observed that the steady loss of sea ice might be linked to “An unusually big pulse of ocean heat coming into the Arctic from the Pacific through the Bering Strait, related to strong winds in that region” (2018:194).

       The Arctic Oscillation is controlled, according to Serreze, by whatever is going on in the upper stratosphere, which in the north, starts five miles above the earth (6-8 miles at mid-latitudes). There is the circumpolar stratospheric vortex, which sends winds from west to east around the north pole. Any change in the stratospheric vortex controls the switch into whichever phase of AO is active in the Arctic regions. Serreze notes that the highest stratospheric levels of ozone absorb ultra-violet solar radiations coming towards the earth. Is this pertinent to reports of the expanding hole in the ozone over Antarctica? Below the stratosphere lies the troposphere, where winds also blow from west to east, but also meander north and south. Consequently, the winds known as Jet Streams are much wavier than upper circumpolar winds. The waviness of the Jet Streams, as Serreze describes another distinctive weather phenomenon, is because typically they break up into individual ‘whorls’ known as ‘cyclones’ for cold fronts, as opposed to ‘anti-cyclones’ referring to warm fronts. (2018:182-183).

          Some meteorologists have suggested that the North American Jet Stream sometimes overreaches its 60 degree N. latitude, extending into the Arctic Circle. The recent deep freeze imposed on most parts of North America in recent winters may be due to the Jet Stream weakening and allowing Arctic cold to descend into mid-latitudes.

          Tim Woollings (2020) shows a map inside his book-cover of the major Jet Stream that covers North America. It looks like a rollercoaster as it spreads across various elevations of land and sea.  It starts in the Pacific, climbs over the Rocky Mountains, slopes down towards the interior Great Lakes, and then curves upwards to the northeast and crosses the Atlantic, heading towards Europe. According to Woollings, the four Jet Streams, north and south of equator represent the “domain of active weather.” Now the Jets are undergoing latitudinal changes. He predicts that subtropical zones, e.g. relevant to Jets at 30 degrees north and south of the equator, will become even more prone to desert and drought. Mid-latitude wet-zones like Western Europe will get wetter. Woollings calls this the “Wet getting wetter rule.”   

          Woollings pays particular attention to weather ‘blockages’  that dominate a particular latitude for a long period of time. The high-temperature anti-cyclonic seen in western North America this past summer is an example of such a blockage. When the Jet encounters conditions on the ground, be it anti-cyclonic or cyclonic, it slides around them and becomes even wavier.  Supposedly, these latitudinal shifts, which the Jet Streams experience as a result of extreme ground-level events, contribute to more climate derangements.

       Romm (2016:42-43) speaks of the severe, long-lasting drought in California as unprecedented; “The reduction in precipitation is the worst on record in past thousand years.” He refers to its “blocking patterns” which, he says, climate change creates whenever weather patterns become stuck or blocked by high-pressure systems. The abnormally high temperature conditions then dry out the soil. Romm tells us (2016:90-91) that 90% of the heat from global warming ends up in the oceans, and primarily in the surface waters, which weaken as carbon sinks. As mentioned, Romm also describes the effects of carbon acidification of the oceans. These warmed up, acidified waters generate less of the chemical compound that seeds the formation of rain-clouds.     

Amazon Rainforests imperilled by drought – also the Boreal Forests to the North

       Reportedly, the Amazon Basin of rainforest is suffering serious drought, especially in the north. Trade Winds, as depicted in Woollings’ map (2020:13), located close to the surface of the seas, are well known to generations of sailors of the Atlantic. Two Trade Winds blow towards Amazonian coastlines, one from the tip of South Africa, which is below the equator. The other Trade Wind starts from the northern-western coast of Africa, and deflects right over the Atlantic towards the Amazon. Both Trade winds ordinarily come from the east and bring seasonal rainstorms to the mouth of the Amazon River. But, where the Amazon now experiences drought, the BBC shows scenes of dead trees in the Amazon.

     The onset of annual rainfalls and rainforest flooding started when plant leaves released their stores of water vapour into the atmosphere at the end of the dry season. This process is called “evapotranspiration.” NASA Observatory (May 2007) explains, ‘The Amazon’s Seasonal Secret;’ that at the end of the dry season leaves of vegetation release water vapour, which is called ‘evapotranspiration.’ Then, as the moister ascends into the air, there is a seasonal change in wind directions. Consequently, easterly Trade Winds from the Atlantic deliver ample rainfalls into the Amazon.  But now, according to NASA, ‘Drought-Stressed Forests Fueled Amazon Fires’ (Nov. 2019), from NASA’s space station, they see that when they measure degrees of water-stressing amongst the Amazon’s forests, the results show that the tallest trees in the canopy have died, resulting in a loss of leaves and available water vapour. When overly-heated, those forests do not release water vapor, but conserve it, and are vulnerable to fires as we saw in August, 2019. NASA blames human land clearing and deforestation in the Amazon for the rainforest no longer serving as a carbon sink.

        Perhaps a broader cause of the Amazon’s drought is that the seas to the east, which are over-heated and probably overly-acidified, no longer stimulate the Trade Winds to drive seasonal rainclouds towards the Amazon. Is there less low to high pressure contrasts between the ocean and the land as a result of global warming? Thus air masses are reluctant to move.

       Recently, the region of Central Canada experienced episodes of heavy rain, thunder and lightening during the warmer seasons of spring, summer and early autumn. There are harbingers of a coming rainfall. For instance, tree leaves are turning back. Whenever I see the leaves of different deciduous trees turned back, I expect a rainfall within a few days. Invariably that is what happens. Unfortunately, in the Amazon, much of the bountiful rainforest has died, and lacking renewed flooding, not only is nothing growing, but what is still growing can no longer call up the Trade Winds to bring seasonal rain.

        Our boreal (sub-Arctic) forests, which stretch from Canada to Alaska, as well as Scandinavia over to Russia and Siberia, constitute the northern equivalent to the vast Amazonian rainforest. We think of a variety of coniferous species: white and black spruce and jack pine. Growing in their midst are various deciduous varieties of  balsam poplar and the white-limbed birch. Wildfires throughout these forests are clearly adding to atmospheric carbons because of the black soot the fires generate. It floats around in the winds and ultimately, ascends into the atmosphere. Romm notes (2016:85-86)  that boreal forests rest on permafrost and peatlands, as in Siberia which is prone to peat fires. These peatlands release enormous amounts of carbon dioxide whenever they burn. He quotes “mega-fire expert, Guillermo Rein” on the global impact of wildfires: “Smouldering peat fires already are the largest fires on Earth in terms of their carbon footprint.

          How can we begin to counteract the effects of greenhouse gasses, and especially carbon dioxide on our planet to reduce global warming and preserve our seas, lands and air? How can we help people inhabiting places afflicted with exceedingly high summer temperatures like the western North America and the Amazon region during this era of global warming? And how are we to save our precious stores of forests, boreal and southern rainforest, which participate in the seasonal rainfalls that irrigate all vegetal growth?

Extracting Carbons from the Environments

        Developed nations like China, the U.S. and the European Union are keenly interested in an Icelandic collaboration with the Swiss Company ‘Climeworks’ to lower carbon emissions. Featured on the BBC television news in September 2021, and reported earlier in February on the website, ‘Iceland is Sucking Carbon Dioxide from air and turning it into Rock,’ is the description of eight shipping containers, each equipped with powerful fans for suctioning carbon dioxide particles out of the air. The carbons collected are pushed through special filters and the resulting material is driven deep underground into layers of rock. Since Iceland sits atop volcanoes, volcanic energies enable this project to derive thermal energy-power from the ground. On the above-mentioned website, they observe that despite the expense of setting up such projects for carbon extraction, the resultant move towards protecting world-wide strands of forest makes it a worthwhile endeavour.

According to recent science, there are other ideas for refining carbon dioxide through electro-chemical processes. The hope is that these will yield renewable energy bi-products.  Such promising enterprises need to be conducted on an industrial scale if we are to successfully meet the demand of our age and get rid of some of the excessive carbons. I selected three articles  from the internet touching on a variety of engineering solutions for further reading.         

      ScienceDaily (Aug. 2021 on the Internet): ‘Transforming carbon dioxide into industrial fuels,’ is an article by Haotian Wang of Harvard, and others (first published back in November 2018), which begins. “Imagine a day…  when gases from power plants and industry will be fed into reactors that can chemically transform carbon dioxide and other greenhouses gasses into industrial fuels that emit only oxygen.” Their proposed method involves using a small amount of water vapor into which carbon dioxide is pumped; then this system uses “ion exchange membranes to move the ions around.” They report they have been able to absorb single nickel atoms (positively charged) in ‘carbon black nanoparticles,’ the material selected for carbon dioxide reduction. This system entails the eventual production of carbon monoxide, though they acknowledge, “Carbon monoxide is not a particularly high value chemical product.” But the third author in this collection, Ramya Vishwanath, refers to the usefulness of carbon monoxide in the manufacture of certain acids needed in tanning and poultry industries.

       A website entitled: ‘Renewable Carbon Dioxide recycling and synthetic fuel production in a marine environment’ (first published in Feb. 2019) is by a group of Swiss authors and their Norwegian colleagues, with the Laboratory for Advanced Analytical Technologies. They refer to a site in Iceland where methanol is being produced by the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide. Methanol, commonly known as ‘rubbing alcohol,’ is similar to ethanol which is already added to gasoline fuel. Their concept involves the production of hydrogen out of carbon dioxide extracted from seawater “on clusters of artificial, marine-based photovoltaic (PV)- powered solar methanol islands.” First, they desalinate seawater. The research here refers to Israel’s industrial plants. Mention is also made of a U.S Naval Research Laboratory developing ion-exchange membranes to extract carbon dioxide using electro-chemical acidification and desalinated water, in order to produce a hydrogen fuel cell. The Swiss and Norwegian authors envision that by the year 2050, PV (photovoltaic) technology will have developed PV modules that can be spaced out on floating islands. The electrical output of such installations would match electrolytic cells at varying levels of solar radiation. They are hoping to establish the solar methanol islands by as early as 2025. In the first, early years, these islands capacity would be approximately 270 islands and would help limit further carbon dioxide emissions.

        In his article on ‘Recycling and Reusing Carbon Dioxide: A Solution to Global Warming,’ Vishwanath writes of recycling carbon dioxide into less harmful energy bi-products. For instance, in his section entitled ‘Electrolytic Conversion of Carbon Dioxide,’ he sees that when reducing carbon dioxide there are two useful end products. When processing the carbon to create hydrogen, it forms ‘methane’ which can be further refined to generate heat and electricity, and then it becomes a renewable energy source. The other useful end-product in the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is ‘carbon monoxide.’ In his section, ‘Transcritical Carbon Dioxide,’ he discusses the potential benefits of the liquification of carbon dioxide. When carbons are captured as flue-waste from heavy industries such as iron, steel, petrochemical and cement-making, subjecting them to high pressure liquifies them. This liquified form of carbon dioxide is now considered “harmless” and can serve as refrigerants in many different settings, food-processing, supermarkets, skating rinks, etc. Its unique value in this regard is that it can replace chlorofluorocarbons that are harmful to the ozone level in the upper atmosphere.         

         In  discussing ‘Carbon Dioxide to Biomass by Using Algae,’ Vishwanath sees this form of carbon capture and storage (CCS) as “ A particularly interesting and valuable concept of Bio-CCS.” Certainly, it looks more favourable for the environment than does storing carbons in underground geological formations or dumping them into the oceans. As he wrote earlier in his article,

             “Many researchers believe that the reason for the rise of carbon dioxide in atmosphere is that there is nowhere left for the carbon dioxide to go. The Earth is provided with several natural carbon sinks (like the oceans and plants) that may be growing saturated.”  

 Now let’s look at what Vishwanath says regarding the use of algae to produce carbon dioxide during photosynthesis. When the process of stimulating algae growth combines with ’bioreactors,’ “the algae is 400 times more efficient than a tree at eliminating excess carbon dioxide.” The ‘photobioreactors’ he speaks of, use “light sources,” presumably adequate sunlight, and in the process the algae consume dioxide and light to manufacture biomass. The latter bi-product can become valuable sources of energy as biofuels, which he says are non-hazardless and biodegradable. In other words, they are substitutes for fossil fuels. To illustrate his point he uses and example where microalgae cultivated in photobioreactors helped revive some oyster reefs in Maine.

           In her critique of industrialism and capitalism which have wreaked so much environmental devastation, Naomi Klein (On Fire ..2019:104-109) includes “rogue geo-engineering ideas.” For example, an entrepreneur, Russ George, dumped 120 tons of iron dust into the ocean to create an algae bloom for capturing carbons. But “Ocean fertilization could trigger dead zones and toxic tides,” she writes. And Intellectual Ventures, which Bill Gates sponsors, proposes sending up sun-blocking sulfur dioxide particles into the skies.

 “If we start tinkering with the earth’s thermostat, turning our oceans murky green to soak up carbons and bleaching the skies hazy white to deflect the sun, we take our influence to a new level….     [eg] this could put India’s annual monsoon in jeopardy.”

      Are there other natural, harmless forces we can harness for electrical power besides wind, sun, hydro, tidal and thermal?  Japan’s space agency thinks there could be. It’s currently speculating about sending a solar-paneled satellite into the stratosphere to wirelessly beam down powerful energies to a power station on earth, potentially delivering electricity to 300,000 homes.                      

Some Conclusions

            Technological examples from the other side of this reality reinforce experimental ideas of our own about how to transition into a greener economy.  Among these is the compelling need to develop more installations for suctioning carbon out of the atmosphere. We could reduce the need to keep excavating fossil fuels by reusing and recycling carbon effectively. Also, instead of injecting carbon materials underground or into the sea, our aim should be to convert them into new renewable energy sources.  We also need new inventive technologies to transform our transportation industry, beyond electrification. The photosynthesis principle is well served by algae ponds set up in islands in the oceans, so long as these are self-enclosed. Their biomass end-products can serve as fuels, saving us from further deforestation of the planet.

           There was once a fairyland of a garden at the northernmost point of Scotland. This was Findhorn, where people like me learned to commune with the devas who oversee plants, and others to speak with the animals (as I was privileged to do on rare occasions). The dream today of some protestors in London is to “rewild” all the Royal estates. Since the Royal Family is the largest landowner in the country, these estates are the obvious place to start realising that dream. People want to see these large preserves turned over to the animals and the wildlife desperately in need of natural habitats. Many of us in North America would like to see wildernesses returned to their natural states, and the forests to re-grow. In China President Xi recently announced the government’s donation of a huge sum of money to support all forms of wildlife. The implication puts a hopeful end to the wet-markets selling wild creatures that might carry communicable viruses.

      When Jesus lived on this earth in the luscious scenery of Galilee with its orchards, the Jordan River ran through the central valley and was was much wider than is the little stream today. Jesus walked everywhere through those landscapes, at his ease, relaxing and appreciating what people could learn from Nature. As he said (Mat. 6:28):

   “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them….. Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”

         During these pandemic seasons of spring and summer in Ontario, we saw Nature re-bounding because of reduced transportation and economic activities. Even today, in this cooling autumn, greenery is everywhere. Flowers and bushes sprung up in people’s front yards, and empty lots are filled with wildflowers. In these fortunate cyclonic weather conditions we enjoyed cooler temperatures and adequate rainfalls.

        Let us envision for every place possible in the world that Nature be given the chance to work on de-carbonizing our environments by the principle of photosynthesis since vegetation loves to consume carbons. Let us encourage all kinds of gardening be it in rooftops on tall buildings, vertical greenhouse farms in cities, in backyard vegetable patches, flourishing parks and more wildernesses everywhere for wild vegetation and creatures of the wild. Let us help realise the dream of those London protesters. Rewild our cities, our earth, and help save our planet.     

        Not only humanity as a whole, but the world, needs to find the inner strength and moral integrity to thoroughly and completely reorganize our way of life.  We now know from Science that the earth cannot sustain the ever-increasing indicators of global warming  our overconsumption of greenhouse gases has caused. We have to re-organize our ways of living socially, and that means reducing the economic engines. This is particularly true of the financial sector, which has long-enabled the over-production of goods for a consumerist society.  But, hardship and adversities lie ahead for the next generation unless we turn away from the old economic ways of sustaining individual and familial livelihoods. We need to scale down many things, as we have done throughout the pandemic. At the same time, the people advancing science and technology are forging ahead, debating alternatives to fossil fuels and how remediate the worst effects of climate changes.

          I believe my heavenly-like visions are approving the efforts made by scientists and technologists, through their current envisioning of idealized forms, such as are comparable to ideas that come from the “Holiness that lies on the other side of this earthly reality.”                      

Sources on Climate Changes

Robert Henson, The Thinking Person’s Guide to Climate Change, Boston, Mass: American Meteorological Society, 2019.

Naomi Klein, On Fire, The Burning Case for a Green New Deal, Alfred A. Knopf, Canada, 2019.

Philip Novak, The World’s Wisdom, Sacred Texts of the World’s Religions, HarperCollins Publishers, 1994

Plato, Phaedo in Dialogues of Plato, Jowett Translation, Edited with Introduction by J.D. Caplan, The Pocket Library, New York, 1950:63-160.

 Joseph Romm, Climate Change, What Everyone Needs to Know, Oxford University Press, 2016

 Mark Serreze, Brave New Arctic, The Untold Story of the Melting North, Princeton and Oxford: The Princeton University Press, 2018.

Tim Woollings, Jet Stream, A Journey through our Changing Climate, Oxford University Press, 2020.

Main Internet References

NASA Observatory, ‘The Amazon’s Seasonal Secret,’ May 2007.

NASA, ‘Drought-Stressed Forests Fueled Amazon Fires,’ Nov. 2019.    

Haotian Wang et, al, ‘Transforming carbon dioxide into industrial fuels,’ ScienceDaily,Nov. 8, 2018.

Bruce Patterson et.al, Laboratory for Advanced Technologies, Swiss Federal Laboratories, ‘Renewable Carbon Dioxide, recycling and synthetic fuel production in a marine environment,’ first published Feb. 22, 2019.

Ramya Vishwanath, University of Delhi, ‘Recycling and Reusing Carbon Dioxide: A Solution to Global Warming,’ in Intersect, Vol. 14 No.1 2020

A New ‘Age of the Holy Spirit’ is Hopefully Dawning – by Sandra Principe, August 9, 2021

Introduction: Vision of a Figure Symbolic of the Holy Spirit

     In the chapel of St. Michael’s Boys School in my neighbourhood, back in September 1994, the following memorable vision happened. As I came to understand later, the appearance was that of the Holy Spirit and prophetic in more ways than one.    

              One Tuesday evening in early September 1994, during the holy Feast of Rosh Ha-Shanah, [1] I was in attendance, as usual, at the weekly devotions held in St. Michael’s Boys’ School by Father Faye, a priest of the Basilian order of teaching priests. At that time, this Toronto ‘cenacle of prayer’ was part of the worldwide ‘Marian Movement of Priests,’ and Father Faye had attracted a loyal following of regular attendants, including myself, an Anglican whom he welcomed into his group.

           That particular evening, fatigued from my long day’s work at the hospital and preoccupied with the supper I had missed, I was tempted to leave early. But I felt I had to remain since I arrived late and had to take a seat at the front of the congregation. After an hour of physical and mental restlessness, I began to relax. By the time the communion began, I was simply sitting there, casting casual glances around as I tried not to stare too directly at the priest’s activities over the altar.

            There suddenly appeared over the altar scene, a figure from another dimension. It was high above the priest, who shifted between reading the words of the liturgy and ceremonially uncovering and preparing the cup and the vessel holding the sacred wafers.

          This human-like figure was so tall that he reached the ceiling. He stood with his hands at his waist, the skirts of his long, dark robe of sapphire-blue descending in folds over our heads. In my astonishment, I could not help gazing in wonderment at his presence among us. Who could this heavenly being be?

            Then I saw this blue-robed figure fashioning something with his hands. His fingers were busily making something. There emerged from his hands the splendour of many elongated beams of light. At first, these light beams looked as if they bent over at odd and different angles. Then, I saw that it was an umbrella-like construction that reached out over the whole congregation. I understood that each light beam extended, one into the heart of each person. [2]  Everyone in the congregation received a spiritual blessing that evening, even if they did not partake of the Eucharist.   

In September 1994, I could not name the awe-inspiring figure I saw in the chapel. Though a Being of the Spirit, he looked like a person standing high over the altar as the priest performed the Eucharist. I kept hoping to see, and sometimes faintly saw, his renewed appearance in other churches. Recently, I became aware of him appearing to me individually during this Covid-era while I watch the performance of the Eucharist online. I felt his presence especially during the Sunday morning service from the Anglo-Catholic Church, St. Thomas’s.

            Using symbolic interpretations, he directed me to explore his identity further. I did this by examining readings of the 4^th century theologians St. Basil the Great and his brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, each of whom wrote a treatises On the Holy Spirit. At that time of their writing, the Holy Spirit was affirmed by the Nicene-Constantinople Creed in 381 CE as the Third Person of the Holy Trinity – a distinctive Divinity in his own right. More on these theological affirmations later.

            As I suggest in this paper, and because of various visions, I recently came to believe that, during this Covid-time, we are entering another ‘New Age of the Pentecostal-like Spirit.’ Light-beams from Spirit-realms are descending towards us. This is happening universally and includes more than the small Christian group featured in my chapel vision. The Holy Spirit is among us in new ways, not limited to the closed-down churches. In little semblances of visions, I have seen spiritual entities pouring vitalizing energy into the heads of school children while they sleep. (I do not know if these spirit-soul helpers of goodwill and extraordinary intelligence come from the deceased or the living.)  The bright, creative minds of the youngest generation must contend with necessary changes we must make to save this earthly Creation. The Lord God may be sending these new spiritual inspirations through such unseen agencies because He hopes to shape us into a new planetary people. This recalls what the Lord God said to Moses that he wanted the Israelites to become a Holy People, a new ‘Kingdom of Priests.’

        As I reflect deeply, I wonder – where have we gone wrong up to today? I want to affirm that God is truly with us today. I feel deeply consoled whenever I think upon the Words of the Lord to the ancient prophet Hosea.

            “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son… It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them…. My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger … for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst..” (Hosea, Ch. 11)

           Reading Kevin Madigan’s Medieval Christianity (2015:249-150), I was struck by the profound thoughtfulness of Joachim of Fiore, a 12^th century monk, writing about Judaic-Christian biblical history. He conceived of the Old Testament writings as the Age of the Father; with time that age gave rise to the Age of the Son,  which “reach[ed] fruition in Christ.” To Joachim, the fullness of the Age of the Holy Spirit arrived in the 6^th century.

           Joachim saw the first age lasting from Adam through Old Testament history, including the building of the Hebrew nation, peopled with priests. Its theme was that of ‘the married.’ One sees this theme highlighted in the beautiful Song of Songs, King Solomon’s Wedding Song. It celebrated the love of two young people anticipating their marriage through metaphors of growth and nature in spring. However, the Song of Songs does not mention the challenges faced by Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden. Christian theologians allegorized the Song of Songs. The chaste girl became the prospective ‘Bride’ of Christ, giving herself to the Church as a nun. To them, this is symbolic of the purity of the innermost ‘Soul,’ which is thought of as ‘She.’

       Joachim associated the Age of the Son with priests and also scribes, one thinks. He saw this began during the reign of 7^th century King Josiah of Judea. Josiah became angry when told of the discovery of a long-lost scroll – The Book of Moses.  [3] Consequently, Judean scribes, editors and historians began compiling and revising all the writings that constitute the Torah. As mentioned, Joachim saw that the whole Age of the Son “reach fruition” in Christ. Later Christian scholars read and interpreted the Hebrew Scriptures, where they found Christ’s incarnation fulfilled ancient promises of the ‘Word of God.’ This was the new salvation offered by Christ to both Jews and Gentiles.   

         To Joachim, the age of The Holy Spirit was also The Age of the Monk. He believed it took shape in the 6^th century when St. Benedict established a monastery governed by his rules. The monks, who were not all priests, dedicated their lives to God. In retreating from the world to engage in prayer and work, they felt enfolded by the monastery. Usually, these monasteries were remotely located in a rural or wilderness landscape. [4]

         During my university studies on the early Christian centuries, we students examined radicalizing ideas of Pseudo-Dionysius, who wrote in the 6^th century. This Greek Christian mystic recommended the via negative, away of approaching God by entering what became known as the Darkness of ‘the Cloud of Unknowing.’ The exercise recalled the courage of Moses ascending the fiery mountain in Sinai. Dionysius preferred this apophatic method of searching for God to the endless recitations of the Divine Praise, predominant in liturgy and churches. (I have no idea if Joachim was acquainted with Dionysius’ writings.) [5]

             Joachim thought that the Age of the Holy Spirit would be realized by new ‘spiritual men,’ “contemplatives and preachers” (Madigan (2015:249). Madigan also reports that Joachim thought he could foresee when the Age of the Holy Spirit/Monk would end. Of it, Joachim wrote, “This could be the end of the world.”   I had much to contemplate because by 1240, “Franciscans in very high places read Joachim with profound fascination.” They became “zealous for the practice of absolute poverty by the rule of St. Francis” (Madigan 2015:250). Such idealism is much at odds with our economic philosophies today. 

          During today’s pandemic, we are re-living the afflictions and impoverishments of the 6^th century, which witnessed Apocalyptic-scale volcanic upheavals, weather disturbances, famine, starvation and plague. (‘Justinian’s plague’ was blamed on the entry of the Eastern Emperor’s army into the West. ) St. Gregory the Great described disasters of the late- 6^th century. Rome became depopulated, in large part due to the aggressions of incoming Gothic barbarians. Additionally, dislocations caused by warfare and armies on the move spread plagues. (This happened again in the early 20^th century during the 1918 outbreak of Spanish Flu.)

          Beginning in the Dark Age and lasting into Medieval times, monasteries, abbeys and convents enabled people to survive in an orderly and harmonious fashion. Monks tilled the soil of newly-cleared woodlands and created self-sustaining communities away from congested, urban settings. They offered hospitality to travellers and healthcare to the sick and infirm. Their herbal gardens were a rich source of natural remedies.  One sees in those holistic institutions a model of the wealth-sharing we read about in Acts 2, a lifestyle adopted by the Jewish-Christians after Pentecost. “All who believed were together and held all things in common….. distributing from the sale of possessions proceeds to any in need” (Acts 2:44-47)

             Today we are rethinking how our institutions have been organized along industrial production lines, where economic enrichment benefits the rich more than the poor. In the 19^th century, farmers came from the field to work in factories. Monasteries closed down, and land clearances drove out the peasantry in favour of sheep enclosures. People who migrated into the cities to find factory work faced severe poverty, under-nourishment and early death from hard work, illnesses and crowded housing. Industrialists have consistently domesticated people for the workforce (like the slave plantations in the New World), as though they were herding animals. The industrialized Western economies promoted hiring immigrants to keep labour costs and wages as low as possible.

       But increasingly, our awareness of issues such as the cultural genocide experienced by native people challenges this system. This is where I paused to think upon how our economically enriching institutions detrimentally affected native people, their culture, beliefs and environment. Here in Canada, First Nations people struggle to preserve and protect the basic ecological welfare of all life proximate to them, from lakes and rivers, forests and rocky wildernesses. They revere these things as sacred, like Genesis’ idea of the “Goodness” of the Creation.

           Here is one example of industrializing and assimilating native peoples into the workforce. In the late-19^th century, the first Canadian Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, sent one of his bureaucrats to the United States to study an industrial school that trained Native Americans for the workforce. MacDonald took this model and used it to build Canada’s residential schools. First Nations children were taken and segregated from their families, tribes and lands for ten years of their lives to “take the Indian out of the Indian.’ Those children suffered death, malnutrition, and every kind of abuse. They lost their identities because the schools renamed them, as well as their language. It was cultural genocide.

       Marx and Engels wrote a tract in 1846 on the progression from communal to state-feudal-private ownership of the means of production. Their description of the first form, of tribal ownership, corresponds with the practices of First Nations people today. People lived, say Marx and Engels by hunting and fishing, rearing beasts or agriculture. This model pre-supposes “a great mass of uncultivated stretches of land.” [6]  The tribal lifestyle still has its attractions for those seeking to live harmoniously in respect for the Natural World, God’s wonderful Creation.

       During this pandemic time, many of our lives have become like those of the Medieval monks, with our movements and social contacts severely limited. We live in seclusion, unable to travel beyond set boundaries, and we rely on other, essential workers for the necessities of life. Our economies have shrunk; many turn to the charitable offerings of others. Concerned governments deliver pay-outs to the needy and unemployed. Most of us use technology to stay electronically and socially connected. We attend virtual services online because religious institutions are closed but without the benefit of the sacraments. All over the world, young students and children are educated from home and through computers.

         But even now heavenly agents are being sent by God, and the meaningfulness of this  ‘spiritualizing’ invigorates the imaginations and hopes of the young, diversely so, as I suppose.

                     Biblical instances of heavenly salvation at times of great peril

       The following section illustrates I think, that throughout Judeo-Christian history, in times of crisis, the Lord God intervenes and brings salvation.

         The foundations of the Old Testament rest upon tales of the Lord God’s deliverance of the Hebrew people. The earliest from the Patriarchal Age (Joachim’s Age of the Fathers) began with Abraham. He and his family were guided away from their homeland in Ur, Mesopotamia, when the civilizing order of the ancient Sumerians was undergoing collapse (ca 2000 BCE). Abraham settled in the land of Canaan, where he had first encountered the righteous king, Melchizedek, [7] who offered him hospitality at ‘Salem.’ This is the ancient site of Jerusalem that would become King David’s Zion, God’s Holy City.

       Later, the Israelites, children of Israel (the new name the angel gave Jacob), relocated to Egypt because of a famine. There, they were eventually enslaved. The Lord God proudly declaimed in different parts of Exodus, as in the First Commandment, Exodus 20:2, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.” They never forgot this deliverance.  And, in time, the tribes of Israel re-established themselves in Canaan.

       But by the 6^th century, the Babylonians were about to destroy Jerusalem. Its temple would be burned to the ground. The young priest Ezekiel (an exemplar of Joachim’s Age of the Son, the priests) recorded prophetic visions of coming troubles in a distant Jerusalem. To Ezekiel, already a Judean exile in Babylonia, God sent some spectacular visions. [8]  While “in the spirit,” Ezekiel visited the city of Jerusalem, and one incident captured the terror and the horror its people were facing. He saw, “the man clothed in linen with a writing case in his hand, to whom the Lord said: “ Go through the city, through Jerusalem. And put a mark upon the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it… “ (Ezekiel 9:4).

        The meaning of the marking of the righteous’ foreheads, which is the Hebrew term Tau or taw,  was revived among 1^st century Judeo-Christians. Franciscan archaeologist, FR. Bellarmino Bagatti ( 2004) explicates the ‘Taw’ symbol or sign from Ezekiel 9:4. As Bagatti records the above, God said  “Kill and exterminate but do not touch those with a tau on the forehead..” (2004: 38). Judaeo-Christians thought of the Tau as the “cross of Jesus’ (2004:139). They developed the custom of  “signing oneself as a sacred rite, making the sign of the cross, and wearing the cross as a necklace..” Bagatti notes (2004:147), they transformed the Tau into their “salvific cross,” its meaning lost to the Jews, who once used it to anoint priests.

             Jesus’ words, quoted in the Gospel ‘Apocalypses,’ as in Matthew Ch. 24, warned his followers to escape when they saw the sign of the ‘desolating sacrilege’ (presumably a reference to Daniel 9). Bagatti refers to a more specific warning from Jesus, mentioned in the writings of the 3^rd century church historian Eusebius of Palestine. Eusebius wrote:

              “The Christians of the Jerusalem community, through a prediction revealed to notable people of this church, had received a warning to emigrate from there before the outbreak of the war [Jewish War against Rome, 66-70 CE] and to go to a region in the Perea called Pella [north Jordan today]” (Bagatti, 2004:7).   

           Bagatti describes the considerable influence that Judaeo-Christians had as linguistic sources for Christian Gentiles reading Hebrew Scriptures, authors like Origen, for example (2004:82). Eusebius, an authority on Origen, said: “Origen learned the Hebrew tongue.” Bagatti notes that Origen’s Hebrew teacher, a Judeo-Christian, suggested that, “The two seraphim described in Isaiah 6:3, who called out ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God of hosts,’ should be understood of Jesus and the Holy Spirit….” This idea, however, suggested the subordination of Jesus and the Holy Spirit to the enthroned Godhead. In the ensuing centuries, there was much theological debate over the relationship of Christ the Son to the Father, and in that debate, many disregarded the Holy Spirit as a member of the Holy Trinity.

More Interpretations by ‘Symbolic Theology

      As in dream analysis, deciphering meanings may take one into the vision’s different spheres of references.  Ultimately, I realized the visionary figure in 1994 had been conveying some Trinitarian traditions, truths, prophetic and otherwise. Later I realized that the vision in the chapel had anticipated September 11, 2001. Then I began to reflect upon what we now understand to be seemingly unreconcilable contradictions in our age.  

      Regarding September 11, 2001, anyone could interpret the symbolism of that destructive event through the lens of Revelation, 13:11-18. It was an attack by airplanes on the Twin Towers of New York. The motivation of Bin Laden’s Islamic extremists was to wreak destruction on the city, which was to them symbolical of vice and financial corruption. They were casting blame for these ‘Harlotries’ (as in Revelation) on the American West because it relied on the oil-riches of Saudi Arabia, another regime they perceived as corrupted by wealth. Fiery explosions resulted in smoke-filled skies and great towers crumbling into dust and rubble. It was world-changing. Of course, it was mere ‘symbolic destruction’ because the Americans rebuilt the trade complex. But that singular event instigated a war with the Middle East that is still ongoing.

           In contrast to the ideologically-driven jihadists filled with anger – the intensity of fire their symbolic expression – the figure in my vision in the chapel in 1994 looked like Isaiah’s vision of a figure so huge and lofty that “the hem of his robe train filled the temple” (Isa. 6:1).  I too, saw a gigantic Presence, though mostly the folds of his dark blue robe flowing down from the heights of the chapel. A glimpse of his countenance showed him as delicate, refined and noble. It reminded me of Andre Rublev’s portrayal of the three angels that visited Abraham’s and Sarah’s tent to bless them with a son. In my vision, the Great Being, who dispersed beams of light upon everyone present, was not angelically-winged.

            Perhaps his symbolic lack of wings served to distinguish him from the angels. Indeed, in Luke 1:26-35, the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary, the forthcoming conception of her holy child, and Luke writes that this would happen “by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit.” That particular identity was not clear at that time.   

     There were other symbolic features of my visions I continue to wonder about. Why does St. Thomas’s online service evoke the presence of the one I think of as the Holy Spirit?  What is it about the liturgy of this Anglo-Catholic Church that attracted the interest of this wonderful High Dignity? Then I recalled how delighted I was in this church’s program of hymns printed in the service bulletins, which I took home with me. Often, for special feast days, hymns were selected that dated back to Medieval Times and even the Patristic centuries.[9] Contemplating St. Thomas’s faithful preservation of antique hymns, suddenly I thought, “Let me look into the 4^th century ,when the Nicene Creed incorporated the Trinitarian affirmation of the Holy Spirit as the Third Person of the  Holy Trinity.’ That is how the Holy Spirit wants to be thought of!

        In his commentary on the intellectual strivings of the 4^th century Cappadocian theologian, St. Gregory of Nyssa, Copleston, the Jesuit historian (1962:30) explains Nyssa’s ideas on ‘Symbolic Theology.’

          “Nyssa, within a Christ-centric framework, thought that man’s mind is fitted to know sensible objects, and contemplating these objects can know something of God and his attributes. Thus, Copleston says, ‘symbolic theology’ is partly equivalent to natural theology in the modern sense. But these objects of knowledge are not fully real, they are illusions, except as symbols of hands  immaterial reality … that reality towards which man is spiritually drawn.”

       In pre-Nicene times, Clement and Origen of Alexandria, we will look at next, largely ignored Trinitarian emphasis on the equal Divinity of the Holy Spirit to the Father and the Son.

Pre-Nicene Theologians: Clement (150-219) and Origen (185-253)

          Copleston (1962:40) writes of “The two most famous names, Clement and Origen of the Catechetical School of Alexandria, as constructing “a non-heretical ‘gnosis,’ a Christian theologico-philosophical system.” And in his history of the church, Chadwick (1993:37) mentions that non-Christian Gnosticism was prevalent in Egypt. He refers to groups founded by the Egyptian Basilides and the Platonist, Valentinus of Rome, who viewed Christ, not as physically embodied but as pure spirit. In other words, His physical appearance was an illusion.  “Their Gnostic attitude to matter was that it is alien to the supreme God … Thus, they rejected “any genuine incarnation…” 

      What was there of Christian Gnosticism in Clement’s writing on, for instance, the First Created Angels? According to Bogdan Bucur’s paper on ‘the Angelomorphic Spirit’ (2008), he discovered passages in Clement’s notes that idealized these Seven Angels before the Throne of God. He believed these passages were influenced by Patmos’ Revelation, where the angels are equated with Zechariah’s ‘Seven eyes of the Lord..’ Bucur observes that in the second century ‘The Holy Spirit’ was a general term for the whole angelic hierarchy. I quote from Bucur on Clement’s writings (2008:179), as follows.

            “In some of his texts (eg. Excerpta, 10-11:27; Ecologue 51-52:56) Clement furnishes a detailed description of the hierarchical structure of the spiritual universe. This celestial ‘hierarchy’ features, in descending order, the Face,* the seven first created angels, the archangels, finally the angels. The orienting principle of the hierarchy is ‘the Face of God, ‘ which Clement, like other Christian writers, identifies as the Logos, the Son…..Clement equates the seven proitocists with ‘the seven eyes of the Lord’ (Zechariah 3”9 and Rev. 5:6)…. They function as ‘high priests’ of the archangels, just as the archangels are ‘high priests’ of the angels… and so forth (Excerpta 27:2).

       Origen, dating into the mid-3^rd century, as mentioned by Bagatti, engaged in scholarly studies of the Hebrew Scriptures. He had been impressed by his teacher’s interpretation of Isaiah 6:3. This stated that the two seraphim corresponded to Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Thus, a certain subordinationism crept into this interpretation of Isaiah’s two angels as pre-existent heavenly beings, who constantly adored the Godhead. I found in Chadwick (1993:104-105), that in Origen’s writing in On First Principles, he developed an allegorical treatment of the creation of the original Souls, as spirit- beings in the primordial Paradise, before they ever took on earthly incarnations. Origen supposed that most heavenly souls grew ‘cool’ to constantly adoring and praising God. The Soul of Jesus was an exception. In response to this growing coolness, the Godhead sent Souls down to earth to inhabit physical bodies. An educational experience for souls, which were still of a spiritual nature, and constantly yearn to return to God in Paradise.

      Origen conceived of souls, originally pre-existing in spiritual form as something like angels. This persisted even when they began to inhabit the earthly world. Does this pertain to any ideas today?

        Of relevance to our new Age of the Holy Spirit and its manifestations, I would like to mention the shamanist traditions in primal religions.  In a course on world religions at the University of Toronto, we learned about the aboriginal shaman’s retrieval of ‘lost souls.’ The shaman, via his spirit-soul, explores different geographies, depths of the waters, far-flung ‘spaces’ (limbos?), where some lost soul feels isolated and cut off from the living. Today’s First Nations shamans must be hard at work making contact with the souls of the children of residential schools, who were thrown into unmarked graves and forgotten. But I am sure the Godhead-Creator of all souls would not leave them unattended if they are still in spiritual distress.    

St. Gregory of Nyssa, His Neoplatonist Metaphysics

       St Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, came from Caesarea in Cappadocia (now Turkey). He was born ca. 335 and died in 395 CE.  According to Copleston (1962:45-51), “Nyssa’s intention was to render the mystery more intelligible by the application of dialectic, not to ‘rationalize’ the mystery in the sense of departing from dogmatic orthodoxy.” Copleston (1962:47) writes that to Nyssa, “The word ‘God’ refers primarily to the divine essence, which is one, and only secondarily to the divine Persons, who are three…” Similarly, regarding Nyssa’s ‘Platonism,’ as Copleston puts it, in Nyssa’s writing, De hominis opificio, he distinguished the heavenly, ideal man from the earthly man. He believed the ideal human being existed only in the divine idea, neither male nor female. Copleston writes of Nyssa’s ‘universals’ (in the Platonist sense),  “The human being of experience is an expression of the ideal and is sexually determined … The ideal being, as it were, is ‘splintered’ or partially expressed in many single individuals.” As interpreted by Copleston, this theory outlines individual creatures proceeding from creation, or Divine Logos. The theory was adopted by the 9^th century philosopher John Scotus Eriugena (discussed later), who translated De hominis opificio.

          Copleston argues that God’s ideal man is realized eschatologically. Copleston says Nyssa’s concept of the Soul is not confined to any part of the body. The Soul is “A created essence, intellectual, with organic and sensitive body, power of giving life and perceiving sensible objects while instruments endure.” (1962:48) Even so, the Soul, spiritual and incorporeal, differs from the physical body that is composed of corporeal qualities like colour and quantity. Copleston writes that according to the Christian doctrine of Soul, Nyssa said it has “Likeness to God, as the work of Grace, man’s free co-operation, image implanted in Soul at baptism….”  (1962:50)

              Eschatologically, what of the Soul’s realization of communion with God?  Recall Copleston described Nyssa’s ideas in terms of ‘symbolic theology.’ Just as in Oriental mysticism, Nyssa asserted sensible things are not real but an illusion. They are simply symbols that manifest the higher, immaterial Reality. Thus (Copleston 1962:50), when the Soul begins to feel tension over this recognition, the individual may feel some despair, which is the birth of mysticism. The Soul, meanwhile, drawn by God, leaves the natural behind. Without being able to see God, the individual enters into darkness or the so-called ‘Cloud of Unknowing.’ As the Soul advances in these struggles, it may experience ‘Ecstasy,’ which Nyssa thought of as the work of the Divine Logos or Christ. The advance of one such Soul brings grace and blessing to others. To understand this, it helps to think of a saint, like Theresa of Avila, who attained union with God in the Seventh Mansion, beautifully conveyed in her inspiring writings about her interior life.

‘On the Holy Spirit’ by Basil and Nyssa

           ‘On the Holy Spirit’ is the title of each treatise written by St. Basil the Great (2011) and his younger brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa (2021), whom I call ‘Nyssa’ to distinguish him from St. Gregory of Nazianzus. Their writings on the Holy Spirit impressed me because of the strength of their respective battles, Basil against the ‘Spirit-fighters,’ Pneumatomachians in Greek, and Nyssa against the Macedonians. The latter denied the deification of the Holy Spirit, saying the Holy Spirit is not part of the higher world; “It is disconnected from the Creative Force.” To the Macedonians, the Holy Spirit was simply “A divine energy diffused through the universe…not a distinct person like the Father and the Son” (2021:2). They divided the Uncreated Realms of the Godhead from this Created Realm, and with the latter they ranked the Holy Spirit.

        Basil, in his treatise On the Holy Spirit (2011:68), writes glowingly of the Holy Spirit, as if glorifying how meaningful is his inspiring view of Divinity to us:

            “Through the Holy Spirit comes the restoration to paradise, the ascent to the kingdom of heaven, the return to adopted sonship, the freedom to call God our Father, and to become a companion of the grace of Christ, to be called a child of light, to participate in his eternal glory, and generally, to have all fullness of blessing in this age and the age to come.”

       As mentioned, in the 2^nd century, they tended to conceive of the angelic hierarchy as ‘the Holy Spirit’ in general, not of the Holy Spirit as a distinct personage. In Origen’s view (Isaiah 6:3), the Holy Spirit was a ‘seraphim’ or an angelic being. Basil partially corrects these views, observing that, “The mentioning of the angels is not like that of the Spirit; the Spirit is received as the Lord of life, while the angels are received as helpers of fellow slaves and faithful witnesses to the truth” (2011:60). He thought of the angels according to Ps. 103:4, ‘He makes his spirits and his ministers’ flames of fire..’ Whereas, Basil writes of angels:

             “On account of this they have place and become visible, appearing to those who are worthy in the form of bodies proper to them. Still, holiness is extrinsic to their substance and brings perfection to them through the communion of the Spirit.”  ((2011:72)

        In Chapters 1-9 and 26-to the end, Basil dismisses Christians quibbling over prepositional usages for glorifying the Trinity, quoting varied language usage by St. Paul. In Chapter 3 (2011:31), he opined ‘That the logic-chopping of words is from pagan wisdom,’ e.g.’ from whom,’ or ‘through whom,’ or ‘by whom.’

       So I asked myself: why did Basil need to eliminate grammatical/linguistic criteria for understanding the divine nature of the Trinity? One thinks Basil did not want Christians to focus simply on the correctness of particular ‘words’ employed in liturgical recitations, irrespective of the sources. This may have been an implied criticism of liturgical conventions, such as those demonstrated in the priestly orders of Joachim’s Age of the Son. But here is a hint of a philosophical movement towards the Age of the Holy Spirit, towards the more contemplative mode of experiencing the Divine.

           I think Basil was encouraging Christians to reach into ‘wordlessness,’ which is a consciousness that has its understanding at another level of ‘thought,’ not necessarily verbal. Already, he was providing an opening to the Pseudo-Dionysius, who argued that the Divine Names recited in praise of God are insufficient for the person who seeks a greater knowledge of God.

       Briefly, during this Covid-era, I asked myself: why this interest in the Holy Spirit as the Third Person of the Trinity? What does his inclusion in and characterisation as the Third Person of the Holy Trinity mean for us today? Consulting course notes from ‘The ‘Mystery of the Trinity,’ I found Professor Graham’s discussion of the Greater Doxology, “Glory be to the Father through the Son in the Holy Spirit.” He says this language stresses the order of divine persons as Father who sends the Son and breathes forth the Holy Spirit in their missions.”

         As an analogy, the above seems intended to compare the infusion of sacramental graces with the life-giving air/oxygen we breathe as long as we live. Today, are we not in the grip of a terrible corona-virus, whose primary symptom is impaired breathing? People who contract the virus gasp for breath. This, in turn, reminds us of George Floyd’s death. He died as he gradually lost the ability to breathe.

My personal experience during the past several months of this pandemic was that I often felt short of breath. When asked, others complained of a similar experience. Was it just our anxiety that we might have Covid-19, though testing negative would deny this? Was it an empathic way of sharing with others their suffering with this terrible ailment? Whatever caused it, the physical effects of breathlessness were real. In my case, at one moment, I said to myself at the inner level: so long as the Holy Spirit is with me at times, then why am I worried? This quieted my mind/spirit and alleviated any fearfulness of getting sick and dying.

             Once I had read Nyssa’s On the Holy Spirit several times, I grasped that his conception of Divinity most decidedly argued for the inclusion of the Holy Spirit as the Third member of the Trinity. Nyssa was intent on raising our thoughts to the Uncreated realm that lies so far above us. He conceived of the relatedness of the ‘Uncreated Divine’ to the ‘Created” world in which we live through his idea of a “totality.” Philosophically, Nyssa was moving Christian metaphysical thought into ‘Transcendent Realities,’ which would have appealed to contemplatives in Joachim’s Age of the Holy Spirit. He strove, by the thrust of his intellectual courage, which he projected with metaphysical thought, to fathom the unfathomable Higher Realities. He reached for the ‘Metaphysically Transcendent’ by his use of the “dialectic.” This is Copleston’s term for Nyssa’s way of thinking. It was a leap into the ‘Unknown,’ a process that went beyond mere belief and verbal affirmations.

            In On the Holy Spirit, by Nyssa, the following lines opened my mind to his metaphysical contemplations on the totality of the Uncreated to the Created. Nyssa was not influenced by Anaxagorus’ idea of the evolution of the primitive human mind through nourishment from nature. However, this recalled the Spirit- fighters ranking the Holy Spirit with Creation. Nyssa’s words, printed below, spoke to the totality of things as the whole Creation of heaven and earth..

             Creation entirely, in all its visible and spiritual extent, is the finished work of Divine power …  we should be justified in calling all Nature which came into existence by a creation a movement of Will, an impulse of Design, a transmission of Power, beginning from the Father, advancing through the Son, and completed in the Holy Spirit.” (2021:22)

         One of the great visualizing ideas of the Cappadocians was the iconography of the Three Persons of the Trinity forming three intersecting circles of light. In On the Holy Spirit, (2021:37-38), Nyssa expressed this idea in a way that conveyed the “Glory” of each One Glorifying the others.  He writes: “Now the Spirit does glorify the Father and the Son…” Then, quoting John 17:4, he recalls Jesus saying to the Father, “I have glorified Thee.” Later, Jesus says, “Glorify thou me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” [i.e. Christ was the pre-existent Son, an argument against the Arians]. The Divine Voice answers, “I have both glorified, and will glorify again.” You see [says Nyssa] the revolving circle of the glory moving from Like to Like….” Nyssa concludes: “Faith completes the circle, and glorifies the Son by means of the Spirit … “, having already referred to “the majesty of the Spirit glorifying the Son.”  

          Nyssa argued for the significance of the Holy Spirit because it was “The Spirit of God” that gave clear testimony to the Son. We look to Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, the Voice from Heaven declaring: “This is my Son, the Beloved… the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him … “ (Matt. 2:16-17). Nyssa asked the Spirit-fighters, “How can you confess the Son except by the Holy Spirit?

John Scotus Eriugena on the ‘Totality’ of the ‘Universe.’

           The great theme of Nyssa on the ‘entirety’ of Heaven and earth was taken up by John Scotus Eiugena (ca. 800-877 CE). Drawing The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, D. Moran (2003), I see that he is regarded as “The most significant intellectual of the early monastic period … the outstanding philosopher of the Carolingian era…” Educated in Greek Christian Neoplatonist writings such as Nyssa, Basil and the Pseudo-Dionysius, he went to teach in the Palatine School attached to the court of King Charles the Bald. At the request of the king, Eriugena translated the Greek writings of Dionisius into Latin a. He worked on other translations, including Nyssa’s De hominis opifico, and was acquainted with Plato’s Timaeus.

       Bertrand Russell (1945:400-407) describes Eriugena as “A Neoplatonist, an accomplished Greek scholar… He was “the most astonishing person of the ninth century; he would have been less surprising if he had lived in the fifth or fifteenth century.” Copleston sees him as the first systematic thinker, a precursor to Hegel as a philosopher in Idealist traditions. Returning to the Stanford Encyclopedia account of Eriugena’s philosophy, they say that Eriugena tried to relate cosmology to the Godhead. He wrote, “The highest principle – the immovable self-identified one … Who engendered all things and retrieves all things back into itself as the first principle.” Eriugena tried to make sense of divine revelation in Scripture, through reason and aided by the rules of the Dialectic. Russell says of Eriugena On the Division of Nature, that “Nature is not only what is, but also what is not” (1945:404). In this sense, we see that dialectically, in Eriugena’s system, all these spheres are woven together. There is no suggestion of contradiction. He devised a complex scheme to show the dialectic’s internal relations within this system. He conceived of physiologia, Latin for ‘Nature,’ in bringing together the total Universe of Being and Non-Being. The latter phrasing enabled him to distinguish Spirit from inert material forms, which he equated with non-being.

           Nature, he divided into four ‘Species.’ The First is the Godhead (the Uncreated Divine), that which Creates and is not Created. Secondly, there is the Species assigned to the Primordial Causes that are akin to Plato’s Higher Forms or Nyssa’s prototypes. This Second category of Nature is That which is Created (by the First) and does itself Create.  In the Platonic sense, the original archetypes give rise to pluralisms, such as those in the Third Realm (our earthly beings). Note there is a dialectical relationship between the Second and Third Divisions in Nature.  Thirdly, our realm of the Division of Nature is that which is Created and does not Create– these come into being as ‘temporal effects.’

         The Fourth Division is that of ‘non-being, neither Created nor Creating…. representing perishability.’ Here there is a dialectical linkage with the First Principle, for the Godhead is involved in ‘retrieving’ all things back into itself.        

          What is it that endures beyond the breath of life and animates the body with vitality? Is it the indwelling soul?

In Nyssa’s On the Soul and the Resurrection (2016 in English), he converses with his older sister Macrina, whom he visits after the death of their brother Basil. To his sorrow, she is at death’s door. He calls her “Teacher.” In their discourse on attaining this higher wisdom, she is like Socrates’ wise teacher, Diotima, in Plato’s Symposium. In Nyssa’s recording of his conversation with Macrina, he mentions *that the Soul is like a ‘prototype’ of the ‘image’ implanted in the human being. Here we think of Eriugena’s category for humankind, ‘the created,’ which uses the Soul to connect with the higher realm of divinely generated archetypes or prototypes.

           On reading Macrina’s speech on ‘seeing Beauty’ in the images coming from the divine world, it occurred to me that the Soul, while indwelling the physical body, may be the organ of spiritual vision, a source of dream-like imagery, able to convey prophetic meaning. As quoted below from Macrina, the Soul’s faculty of critical thought is its ‘god-like part.’ She says (2016:34):

            “ The speculative and critical faculty is the property of the soul’s godlike part; by these we grasp the Deity also… The Deity is in its substance very Beautiful; and to the Deity the soul will in its state of purity have affinity, and will embrace it as like itself. Whenever this happens, then, there will be no longer need of the impulse of Desire to lead the way to the Beautiful… “

         There are realms of exquisite Beauty lying above this world.  On any occasion when the Soul is ‘seeing,’ it may also receive prophecy, as in Isaiah, Ch. 6. Several lines of prophecy are attached to his vision. The Lord God spoke to him of apocalyptic scenes: “Cities lie waste without inhabitants … The land desolate … Vast is the emptiness of the land..” But the Lord finishes up with a beautiful idea. If the oak forest undergoes burning again and again, and the tree reduced to its stump, The Holy Seed is its stump. (Isa. 6:13). Is this a metaphor able to describe the spiritual holiness of the Indwelling Soul?

      Or was that the Providence of the Lord God, fore-seeing that from the ‘Seed’ of King David’s royal lineage, there would be born to Mary of the tribe of Judah – the holy child, a Son of God – Jesus Christ?

     In On the Soul and the Resurrection (2016:27), Macrina restates Nyssa’s idea of the Godhead as the Entirety of things (encompassing Eriugena’s First and fourth Categories):

    “Firstly, on the soul’s existing in our bodies in this present life, though different from them;  and secondly, that the Divine being… though distinctly something other than visible and material substances, nevertheless pervades each one amongst all existences, and by this penetration of the whole keeps the world in a state of being; so … we need not think the soul, either is out of existence, when she passes from the world of forms to the Unseen….”

        Central to this paper is my vision in 1994 of the exquisite beauty of the figure of the Holy Spirit. Ever after, I sought to understand better how humans could aspire to the Divine. It occurred to me that if our interior soul is a spiritual being, this may be an answer to what lies ahead of us, in this world, and after the death of the physical body, when we enter the greater realm of “the Unseen.”

Bibliographic Sources

The Holy Bible, New Revised Standard Version: Catholic Edition, Catholic Bible Press, 1993.

Fr. Bellarmino Bagatti, O.F.M. The Church from the Circumcision, History and Archaeology of the Judaeo-Christians, English Translation by Fr. Eugene Hoade, O.F.M., Jerusalem: Franciscan Printing Press, 1971 edition, reprinted 2004.

Bogdan Bucur, ‘Hierarchy, Prophecy, and the Angelomorphic Spirit: A Contribution to the Study of the Book of Revelation’s Wirkungsgeschichte, JBL.127, no. 1(2008), pages 173-194.

Henry Chadwick, The Early Church, Penguin Books, Published 1967, Revised Edition 1993.  

Frederick Copleston, S.J. A History of Philosophy, Vol. 2, Mediaeval Philosophy, Augustine to Bonaventure, Garden City, New York: Image Books,  first published 1950, 1962 edition,

Fr. Stefano Gobbi, To The Priests, Our Lady’s Beloved Sons, Printed in the U.S.A. by The Marian Movement Of Priests, 18^th Edition of Mary’s Messages to Fr. Gobbi,1972- 1997

Donald Graham, Lectures on The Mystery of the Trinity, St. Augustine’s Seminary, University of Toronto, Winter Term: January to March 2019.  

Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, Greenwood, S.C. the Attic Press, Inc. First Published 1957, Reprinted 1973

Kevin Madigan, Medieval Christianity, A New History, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2015.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, ‘Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook,’ (written 1845-46) in Anthropological Theory, An Introductory History edited by Jon McGee and Richard Warms, Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000, pages 53-66.

Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1945, 16^th printing, ‘John the Scot,’ pp. 400-407

St. Basil the Great, On the Holy Spirit, Translated and Introduced by Stephen Hildebrand, Yonkers, N.Y., St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2011

St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Holy Spirit, Monee, IL.USA, April 2021

St. Gregory Of Nyssa, On The Soul And The Resurrection, Aeterna Press, 2016,

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[1] The Jewish Festival of the Trumpets, Rosh Ha-Shanah, when the Shofar is sounded in the temple, according to Encyclopedia of Judaism, “is intended to arouse the people to penance and to open the gates of heaven to prayer and mercy.”

[2] On an internet site I saw the same iconography of the Holy Spirit, imagined as at Pentecost as an umbrella design of light beams reached down into the assembly of apostles.

[3] In 2 Kings chapters 22-23, it tells of how the king sent his secretary to the High Priest in the temple to oversee the counting of the treasury. The High Priest at that time found a book – then when it was taken to the king, and he heard from this “book of the law,” “the book of the covenant,” he was in a state of wrath, for they had not been obeying these words from the time of Moses.

[4] Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, Ch. IX, on ‘Ecclesiastical Reform in the Eleventh Century,’ saw reforms of the priesthood because “they had fallen into bad ways… simony and concubinage.” The reforms involved foundations of new monastic orders, very strict, eg the Camaldolese by the ascetic hermit, Romuald.   (1945:407-411).

[5][5] Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, Ch. Two: ‘The Divine Darkness’ is devoted to Pseudo-Dionysius’ Concerning Mystical Theology sees this text was “inspired by the Holy Spirit.” His “… apophaticism constitutes the fundamental characteristic of the whole theological tradition of the Eastern Church.” ( 1973:23-26).

[6] Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in ‘Feuerbach: Opposition of the Materialist and Idealist Outlook,’ point out that the division of labour in the first form of tribal ownership was patriarchal, family chieftains ruling over the tribe slaves below. There was inherent slavery in the patriarchal structure of the family, of course.  Then, with state ownership, several tribes uniting, by conquests they imposed slavery, as in the slave-societies of biblical timers, particularly in the Roman Empire. Anthropology Theory (2000:56-57.)

[7] Encyclopaedia Britannica website says Melchizedek’s name was ancient Canaanite, meaning ‘My King is ‘Sedek’ .. God’s Name, or My King is Righteousness.’

[8] Ezekiel 1:26-28 saw a glorious figure, seated above the sapphire throne “something that seemed like a human form”… fire all around … splendour – “the appearance of the glory of the Lord,” who was departing the Jerusalem Temple to remain with the Jews during their exile. It was a marvelous spiritual gift to the despairing young priest Ezekiel far away from his native Jerusalem.

[9] A few examples of antique ‘hymns in English translated from the Latin: Aquinas ‘The Heavenly Word proceeding forth,’13^th century; ‘Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,’ 9^th century; ‘ The royal Banners forward go,’ 530-609;  ‘Not a thought of earthly things,’ Greek liturgy of St. James, ca. 5^th century; ‘Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands, Syrian 4^th century; ‘The Eternal Gifts of Christ the King,’ St. Ambrose 340-397.

Reading Exodus together with Freud’s Moses and Monotheism – Biblical Sources of the ‘Apocalyptic’

While self-isolating this December as a result of the pandemic, I immersed myself in reading the Book of Exodus, as well as Sigmund Freud’s Moses and Monotheism. [i]

          The experiences of Moses and the Israelites in Exodus probably transpired during their forty years in the deserts east of Egypt.  First, there was the liberation of the Israelite slaves from the  Egyptians through the shifting of waters in the Red Sea Rift. These shifts could have been caused by a tsunami, which would create a temporary tidal recess followed by the surge of drowning waves that ultimately overwhelmed the Egyptians. There followed encounters with volcanoes and earthquakes, causing the Israelites to undergo more life-altering changes. This happened in the vicinity of the Red Sea Rift. They survived those calamitous threats because the Lord God gave them hope and His assurance of deliverance from ‘Apocalyptic’ events in order to awaken them to call upon Him in their distress.

       Sigmund Freud was not a historian in the strict sense; neither was he a philosopher of religion nor a theologian. In Moses and Monotheism, he did what he did best; he dug into the dark areas of the unconscious where others dared not tread. Working in the field of psychiatry for many years, I learned to pay attention to any ideas put forth by Freud, whose insights penetrated emotional depths. In this work, for instance, he explores the conflicted relationship between the Israelites and their religious teacher, Moses.

        Freud lived in Holocaust times, but regarded himself as a non-believing Jew. He was much influenced by Ernst Sellin (1922) who had suggested that the Israelites actually killed Moses. Sellin finds evidence for this awful crime against the founding father of Judaism in passages from Numbers (Ch. 25) and Hosea (5:1). Freud and Sellin speculated what happened afterwards, suggesting the Israelites embraced the volcano god of the Midianites, who were distantly descended from Abraham. These people inhabited an area of the Red Sea Rift that has always been subject to volcanoes and earthquakes. Freud viewed the Midianite volcano god as the terrifying “demon Jahve,” who purportedly won the Israelites over by promising to help them conquer the Land of Canaan.  More on all these speculations later.

       A Christian raised on the Holy Bible, I tried to make sense of these radical speculations. Some, such as areas of potential volcanic activity, required research. I believe there is religious understanding to be gained from the spiritual transformations undergone by  Israelites when confronted with the terrifying spectacle of a fiery mountain consumed by smoke. Going forward, it is worth remembering that, as taught by the Lord God through Moses, spiritual values override earthly preoccupations.

          Freud, however, believed that Moses’ teachings could be ascribed to Pharaoh Akhenaten (1350 B.C.E.), whom he idealized as the first monotheist. Akhenaten, though, was disgraced and considered a religious heretic by the Egyptian priesthood because he had abandoned the tradition of polytheism. With the foregoing contradictions in mind, I tried to follow Freud’s line of questioning about Exodus. Freud dug as deep as he could into the dark, interior conflicts that challenged human psyches in those days; I tried to dig deeper still. Today, we continue to dwell in much ‘darkness,’ especially in our reluctance to acknowledge apocalyptic-type, climatic threats.

     To Freud, Moses was an Egyptian nobleman intent on adapting Akhenaten’s Aton-religion.  Nevertheless, he saw that the positive teachings of the original Mosaic religion remained “a dormant tradition,” and a powerful influence on the spiritual life of the Jewish people (1955:87). He ventured to suggest the Mosaic God ‘Enabled the people of Israel to surmount all their hardships and to survive until our time.’ (1955:62).  The Godhead of Moses, was to Freud, a humanitarian god of great compassion, inclusive of all people. Seemingly this idealized godhead was at odds with the terrible circumstances through which Freud was forced to live during his last stage of life. He was driven out of his homeland by the arrival of the Nazis in Austria. The Fuhrer was determined to ‘purify’ the Nordic races by totally eradicating all Jews. In his time of adversity, Freud found consolation in the following spiritual conception of Moses’ Godhead.

             “To one part of the people the Egyptian Moses had given another and more spiritual conception of God, a single God who embraces the whole world, one as all-loving as he was all-powerful, who, averse to ceremonial and magic, set humanity as its highest aim a life of truth and justice. “ (Freud, 1955:41)   

           As for the Godhead known to Moses, biblical scholars commonly refer to Him as Yahweh. This comes from Exodus Ch.3. One day Moses led the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law “Beyond the wilderness … to Horeb the mountain of God”; and in that place “The angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of bush…” Moses was surprised to see the bush was not consumed in the fire (Ex. 3:1-3). As Moses talked with a God he could not see, he asked to know God’s name, and God said: “I AM WHO I AM.” (Ex. 3:14).  Judaist scholar Amihai Gottwald (1989: 211) explains this divine name derives from the Hebrew words spoken by the Lord God: “ehyeh asher ehyeh.” Specifically, he connects ‘ehyeh’ with the name Yahweh. [ii]  Israeli archaeologist, Amihai Mazar (1992:366), points to an Egyptian text that identified the land of the Shasu (or Habiru), sometimes called the land of ‘Yahu,’ by the Egyptians. Mazar says this is, “Possibly a distortion of the God of Israel.” [iii]  Yet another variant on the antiquity of the name of the Lord God known as Yahweh to Moses.

        As mentioned, Freud saw Moses as a native Egyptian, though he observed that, by tradition, Moses was born into the Levite tribe. Presumably, after Moses fled Pharaoh’s anger to live among the Midianites, he assimilated aspects of their culture. He spent 20 years among these descendants of Abraham, having married Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, a priest of the Midianite volcano god. In Exodus 3:6 and again in Ex. 6:2, the Lord God spoke of Himself to Moses as being the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (and of the Midianites). But, in my understanding of Yahweh’s declaration: “ I AM WHO I AM,” these words (in their English translation) affirmed to Moses the Reality of His Existence. Is it not fitting that the Lord God manifested His supra-physical superiority to the more primitive fire-god of the Midianites through the burning bush that did not burn?   

           In due course, I shall analyse the texts for their specificity regarding Moses’ ascents to the Holy Mountain. I concur with Freud that one (or more) volcanically active holy mountain must have been located in the Red Sea Rift.  I suppose the Israelites’ encounters with such volcanism would have been powerfully transforming, challenging their faith and trust in God’s deliverance. This great theme, central to Exodus, remained integral to the biblical themes belief of the Israelites’ descendants in their writings on the ‘Apocalyptic.’ Hebrew prophets, great temple visionaries, whenever they introduced fiery elements into their prophetic writings, they revived the memory of the Godhead’s higher “Glory of Light,” which had been experienced by the Israelites even within the inferno of the holy mountain enveloped in smoke and flames.

         The radical psychiatrist, Stanislav Grof, writing in the 1980’s, says that in dealing with psychotherapeutic eliciting of traumatic memories, clinicians find the following:

            “Memories of serious physical trauma, such as episodes of near drowning, injuries, accidents, operations, and diseases, appear to be of greater importance than those of psychological traumas emphasized by contemporary psychology and psychiatry.” (1985:37). [iv]

Israelite prophets, drawing upon archaic memories of traumatizing events such as in Exodus, remained mindful of catastrophic possibilities in the world of nature. Reviewers of Freud’s Moses and Monotheism see it as dealing with his own life-threatening difficulties. At Freud’s advanced age, he was forced to leave Austria because of the Nazis’ determination to rid Europe of Jews. At that time, dying of cancer. Freud faced considerable physical threat and adversity. No wonder he dwelled upon the Midianites’ demon god, Jahve.   

        Gottwald establishes religious linkage between the Israelites and the Midianites of the Red Sea Rift region (1989:195). He points to the archaeological discovery of a tent-shrine in an ancient Egyptian copper mine near the Gulf of Eilat, the location of ancient Midia. It looks like the tent of meeting described in Numbers 21:8-9. Gottwald observes that some take this as support for the Midianite origins of Yahwism, but he writes: “ Of course, the opposite explanation is not impossible, namely, that Moses introduced Yahwism to the Midianites.”

         As mentioned, Freud thought deeply about Ernest Sellin’s as yet untranslated earlier German writings. While not a biblical scholar, Sellin, an archaeologist, thought that certain Old Testament passages implied  that Moses had been killed by one of the Israelites, in keeping with a belief born of longstanding oral tradition. [v] In Numbers Ch. 25, it tells that Phineas, grandson of Aaron, killed another Israelite, Zimri, because the latter had brought a Midianite woman into the Israelite community. Sellin argued that Zimri was a “stand-in” for Moses. Moses was the one who married Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, priest of the Midianite fire-god. I believe Sellin’s weak argument over-interprets, given the paucity of other facts.  

         As suggested, Israelite experiences of volcanic Midia lay deep and dimly remembered in the collective unconscious (in the Jungian sense) of their descendants To Freud (1955:39), the volcano-god Jahve was a threatening demon,in his words: “He is an uncanny, bloodthirsty demon who walks by night and shuns the light of day.”   Biblical scholars find it strange that Ezekiel (6^th century B.C.E.) in cursing the King of Tyre, wrote of his origins in Eden (southern Iraq). Nightmarishly, Ezekiel conflated that West Semitic ancestry, similar to Israelites, with features of the fiery landscape where the Israelites once lived among the Midianites.

                   “You were in Eden, the garden of God, every precious stone was your covering ….With an anointed cherub as guardian I placed you, you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked among the stones of fire….So I brought out fire from within you; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth….” (Ezekiel 28:13-14, 18)

           To Freud, the heroic and purely Egyptian figure of Moses must have been a member of the household of some reigning pharaoh. Did Moses live during, or shortly after, the reign of Akhenaten (1350-1333 BCE)? Formerly Amenhotep IV, the pharaoh changed his name to conform with his new Aton-religion. Freud wrote (1939:26)  that the Aton symbol of the solar disc had once been represented by “a small pyramid and a falcon.” Then Freud noted that Akhenaten’s “almost rationalist” symbol  represented what he said was, “a round disk from which emanated rays of light terminating in human hands.” ( Freud 1955:26) 

            I refer those of you who have read my previous writings on this site to the vision of Christmas, 2004. You might agree with its conceptual resemblance to Akhenaten’s depiction of a Divinity extending blessings into the light. In this vision I saw a golden light falling into a small space over a hilltop in the West Bank, Israel, where it dissolved into a rocky outcrop. Then I saw a giant hand/arm reach down into that hard rock, transforming it into a brilliant light energy.

           While writing Moses and Monotheism, Freud struck out in another direction, for towards the end of how life circumstances had “radically changed.” (1955:69-71). Previously he lived under the protection of the Catholic Church and feared to publicise ideas he now recorded. Sadly, he remarked that when the Nazis invaded Austria, the Catholic Church showed itself as “a broken reed,” unable to afford protection to Jews. Safe in London, he wrote:“ I find the kindliest welcome in beautiful, free generous England … I live now relieved from oppression and happy that I can speak and write .. I dare to make public the last part of my essay.” (1955:70).

       Freud embarked upon his psychoanalytic analysis (1955: 111-112) of the Christian Holy Communion as follows. The believer “Incorporates the flesh and blood of the Redeemer,” but he hastened to add they did this, “in its tender and adoring sense, not aggressive.” He linked this sacramental feast to the original primal crime of ‘the murder of the Father by the Sons.’ The feasting which followed, though meant to propitiate the progenitor-deity ultimately dethroned the original Godhead. Freud believed that, “The Mosaic religion was a Father religion, Christianity became a son religion.” He wrote:

           “The Christian religion did not keep to the lofty heights of spirituality to which the Jewish religion had soared… It [Christianity] was not inaccessible to the penetrations of superstitions, magical and mystical elements, which provided a great hindrance to the spiritual development of the two following millennia.” (1955:112)

            I disagree with Freud’s dismissing of the “mystical elements” in Christianity, or in any compelling experience of the sacred, such as experienced by his ancestors in Exodus. The more I read about Moses’ holy mountain ascents, the more I saw that Freud and Sellin were probably right to assign some of these locations to Midia rather than Sinai. But I also came to believe that in the mystical sense, Moses became a holy man of God; his spiritual transfiguration was attained through his acceptance of the challenges of ascending a mountain – that might have been spitting out rocks, shooting up flames and itself encircled in clouds of smoke.

         To later Christians, Moses’ earlier transfiguration, as well as Elijah’s, were both recalled in the gospel writings. The disciples of Jesus witnessed all three men: Jesus, Moses and Elijah, sitting together on Mount Tabor in Galilee. “Jesus was transfigured, his face shone like the sun his clothes became dazzling white.” (Matt. 17:2 and 5) This evokes Moses on his descent from the Holy Mountain (Ch. 34). A further echo occurred when the disciples saw all three covered in a cloud of glory. “While he [Jesus] was speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them…” Greek Orthodox theologians made the Spiritual Transfiguration on Tabor the center of their faith. In their mystical traditions, Moses was equal to any saint in the Christian Church. 

           As the Lord God said to Moses, His purpose was to make of them “A holy nation and a kingdom of priests.” To do this they had to move away from their Canaanite-cultured traditions, exemplified in the archaic language of the ‘Song of Praise to the Lord,’  attributed to Moses and found in Ex. 15:1-18. Supposedly it was written after their escape from Egypt, which meant that was before Moses received the God’s commandments. (Ex. 20:1-17 In particular it predated the Second Commandment, which prohibited the rendering of God’s image in nature.

         The excerpt quoted below from this Song of Praise shows a poeticized anthropomorphic Godhead, overpowering humans with the waves of the sea.

            “Pharaoh’s chariots and army he cast into the sea; his picked officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone … in the greatness of your majesty you overthrew your adversaries … At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea..” (Ex. 15:4-5 and 7-8)

            The Israelites were learning not to be afraid of the strength of the forces of nature, as long as the Lord God was with them. The extraordinary powers of the sea, thus stirred upwards, could have been due to a tsunami created by undersea quakes in the unstable Red Sea Rift.

         Let us compare Moses’ Song of Praise to other contemporary Canaanite writings in the ancient Kingdom of Ugarit, 1400-1200 B.C.E. (Gottwald, 1989:66-67). In the Syrian coastal site, Ras Shamra,  in 1929, archaeologists discovered these early Canaanite writings, closely related to early Hebrew. Their poetically-styled epics dramatized a discourse among the gods, and were  expressive of the admiration aroused in humans by the power and dynamism of earthly elements. The Epic of Ba’al, quoted below, explores the effect of the Eastern Mediterranean storms at sea. The Ba’al texts are taken from Helmer Ringgren (1973: 147-148). [vi]      

             Ba’al, the Canaanite storm god, “He who rides on the clouds,’ and his sister Anath, warrior goddess, each battled with and defeated the “Sea,” or Yamm in the Canaanite-Hebrew. Anath declares;  “Verily I have smitten Yamm … I have defeated the dragon.. “ Another oft-quoted passage from the Epic of Ba’al  has the god of death/drought, Mot (Canaanite-Hebrew) addressing him as follows:

              “When you crushed Lotan, the swift serpent, and made an end of the coiled serpent, the tyrant with seven heads, the heavens drooped and hung loose like the belt on your clothes (see here is Baal, the rain-bringer amassing his storm clouds); and I (Mot) was consumed like blood-red funeral meats and died. Truly you [Baal] shall climb down into the mouth of Mot the son of god, into the miry throat of the hero, the beloved of El [El is the father of the gods who sits on his mountain throne, called ‘great and wise, and his grey hairs instruct him’).”

            Canaanite poetic metaphors persisted among later Hebrew prophets, in an effort to show the superiority of the God of Israel. Isaiah wrote: “On that day the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea” (Isa.27:1), i.e. Canaanites’ storms at sea. 

           Returning to Moses and Monotheism,  Freud observes as part of his exploration of the demon-god Jahve that while the Sinai mountains are not volcanic, there are sporadically active volcanoes along the western border of Arabia. One of these mountains was probably Sinai-Horeb, Jahve’s abode as referenced in Exodus. (1955:39). Of course, the Israelites wandered widely across the eastern deserts. In Chapter 18, prior to any holy mountain episode, Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came out to meet with Moses and the Israelites. Then they were “In the wilderness where Moses was encamped at the mountain of God” (Ex. 18:5). Jethro gave Moses detailed advice for organizing the social aspects of the community.

             As mentioned, Jethro’s native Midia lay in the vicinity of north-west Arabia near the Gulf of Aqaba in Jordanand Eilat in Israel, which open into the Red Sea Rift. David Rothery (2015: 31-32) ascribes two volcanoes to this area. In his map several more volcanoes run down the western lands of Arabia next to the Red Sea Rift. This is a fault line reaching deep into the earth; the waters here also run deep. It is not only subject to volcanic eruptions but also to earthquakes. Rothery says that this rift in the earth’s surface is both because the crust is thinner, and because two or three tectonic plates in the Red Sea Rift region rub against each other, pulling the land masses apart. Eventually, when land ceases to obstruct it, the ocean water will pour forth and create another ocean here.[vii]

          By referencing Rothery’s map, we see that Freud rightly pointed out that Exodus’ description of a mountain with flames, plumes of smoke, and rumbling earthquakes is strong evidence for Moses’ holy mountain belonging to the volcanic region of the Red Sea Rift.

         After Moses’ and the Israelites encountered Jethro, he returned “to his own country”  (Ch.18:27). Exodus 19:1-2, indicated the timing for the first holy mountain ascent. It was three months after the Israelites had departed Egypt and around the time of the new moon. In this context they were in the wilderness of Sinai, supposedly at Mount Horeb; no mention was made of the mountain as on fire, or shuddering with interior quakes. The Lord God called Moses to ascend. While there he obtained the following messages for his people.

             “Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob, and tell the Israelites: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession of all the peoples. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation..” (Ex. 19:3-6)

           The next text does describe a mountain on fire, and terribly frightening to the Israelites:  

             “Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.”

Moses went up on the mountain where the Lord God  said he was to warn the people not to go, “Set limits around the mountain to keep it holy.” (Ex. 19:23). This mountain, holy to God, held exceptional importance because it was here Moses received the Ten Commandments. Although the text designates Sinai as the place of reception, the reality is surely that this mountain lay near the Red Sea Rift. The powerful volcanic imagery lent an evocative backdrop to the scenario, as the quaking echoed trumpet calls heralding the Ten Commandments, Ex. 20:1-17. Thereafter:

         “When all the witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid and trembled and stood at a distance …. Moses said to the people, ‘Do not be afraid for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so you do not sin…” (Ex. 20:18-20)

         At the end, it says, “ The people stood at a distance, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.” (Ex 20:21). This later verse, lifted out of its Old Testament context, attracted the Greek Christian mystic, the Pseudo-Dionysius (5^th-6^th century CE.). To Dionysius, Moses faced the great challenge of ascending and entering an unknown place of ‘darkness.’

           In Exodus 24:, quoted below, Moses reached up into the domain of sanctity. The Lord God was Present not just to Moses but to some of his fellow elders of Israel. The Glory of the Lord was revealed not in a tent or temple, but on this mountainous rock. This evokes of Freud’s comments on the heights of spirituality to which the ancient Jewish religion soared. (This episode was meaningful to the later prophet Ezekiel, see Ezekiel 1:26, for his vision of a higher “throne in appearance like sapphire.” )

                 “ Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and elders, went up [the holy mountain], and they saw the God of Israel. Under his feet there was something like pavement of sapphire stone like the heaven for clearness…. [Moses left the others to wait for him] … Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it for six days. On the seventh day… the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire in the sight of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and was on the mountain for forty days and nights.” (Ex. 24:9-18)

         Exodus 34:  Moses spent forty days and nights on the mountain, writing the covenant with God that would become the ten commandments on tablets. On his return to the people:

            “Moses came down from Mount Sinai… the two tablets of the covenant in his hand… Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. When Aaron and all the Israelites saw Moses, the skin of his face was shining, and they were afraid to come near him…” (Ex. 34:29-30).

        So bright was Moses’ countenance that he covered his face with a veil, although the people had already witnessed his spiritual transfiguration by the Lord God.

        Freud noted a key difference between the early Jewish religion and the Egyptians; the Egyptians ascribed “popularity” to “The death-god Osiris, the ruler of that other world, whereas the Jewish religion denied any possibility of an existence in the after-life. Freud acknowledged “The belief in a life beyond can well be reconciled with a monotheistic religion.” (1955:28). In his consideration of Akhenaten’s solar monotheism, he quotes from Akhenaten’s hymn to the Aton-god: “Thou only God, there is no other God than thee.” (1955: 24.) Another quote, a spiritual idea of the Aton: “He [Akhenaten] worshipped the sun not as a material object, but as a symbol of a divine being whose energy was manifested in his rays.” (1955:23)

               We now possess previously hidden translations of Ancient Egyptian tomb writings about the mysteries of the other-world. These writings went back a century or more before Akhenaten, to the reign of Pharaoh-Queen Hatshepsut (1450 BCE). The texts, as recorded in kings’ tombs narrated, both in writing and pictures, the sun god’s nocturnal journeying through Osiris’ realm. In What is in the Netherworld (exploring the Amduat) by Erik Hornung (1999:27-41) recounts how, as the sun god lay dying in the arms of Osiris, he was astonishingly resurrected and revitalised at midnight. Also revived was the soul of the newly deceased king traveling on the solar barque with the sun god. Horus, son of Osiris, sitting in the boat with them, assisted in the resurrection by protecting the healing eye, which would help ignite the transformative light. Below is an excerpt taken from the Amduat. [viii]

          “As ba [meaning soul], Re and Osiris united at the deepest point in the nocturnal journey…. At this critical juncture the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt are envisioned with symbols of sceptres, crowns and uraei….to be present at the resurrection of the deceased pharaoh…other gods of the earth and waters are present… At about midnight, the sun shines anew…”

         The epic goes on to detail the enormously great difficulties that were overcome by the spiritual travellers. Only at the end, with other gods and goddesses helping, were many worthy souls collected and taken to a higher realm of abundant Light, signifying the radiance of a celestial dawn. This tale of the sun god’s nocturnal journey was created by the Egyptian priests and scribes to reassure kings of their existence in the Light-world beyond death. 

          Great pharaohs of the 19^th dynasty (post-Akhenaten), Seti I and Ramesses II, went to Abydos, the legendary burial place of Osiris, where they built the Osireion complex of chapels and memorial temples. Today these walls and ceilings are admired for their exquisite astronomical depictions of the sun-moon relationship and constellations. Human-figured numerical counts of night-sky phenomena replicated Senenmut’s calendar, first seen in Hatshepsut’s reign in 15^th century BCE. The Ramesses listed all preceding pharaohs by their names, omitting Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and General Haremhab, who assumed power when the lineage of the former two royal pharaohs ended.

           As we saw in Freud’s discussion of  Judeo-Christian relationships, Freud accused Christianity of having “dethroned the Father.” In view of the Exodus texts quoted above, and preserved in Christianity, this was perhaps unfair.  The passage of centuries and changes in liturgical language have resulted in Christians often referencing ‘God the Father Almighty,’ in keeping with Exodus 3 and 6, where God said He was the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  As far back as Genesis, we find a progression of ‘Holiness’ from Abraham to Jacob’s vision of angels, followed by a further leap to Moses in Exodus, who ascended the holy mountain and  spoke with the Lord God ‘face to face.’

       Jacob saw a ladder or staircase which linked earth to heaven, traversed by human-like angelic beings. Unlike Moses, Jacob did not ascend the ladder to union with the Godhead. But Jacob wrestled with an angel of God and received the new name ‘Israel,’ which means ‘wrestled with God,’ as a result. Thus Jacob/Israel became the ‘father of the twelve sons of Israel.’ Their descendants were the Israelites in Egypt, seeking return to Canaan. In contrast, Jacob journeyed away from his family in Canaan and sought a wife in Harran in Syria.  When he lay his head down on a stone in a field to sleep, a vision overcame him in the place he named Bethel, or,Gateway to Heaven.  This vision, ‘Jacob’s Ladder,’ envisioned that angels ascend to and descend from a higher realm as beings linking heaven and earth.

           When Jacob’s grandfather, Abraham, looked into the star-filled sky – the realm of eternity – the Lord said these innumerable lights represented his numberless descendants, Jews, Christians and Muslims among them. Similarly, starlit skies were painted in pharaohs’ tombs, along with the Amduat tale of kings and deceased souls attaining resurrection into heavenly light; all ideas, Christians took still further.

        Greek Orthodox theologians took the Transfiguration of Jesus before Elijah and Moses on Mount Tabor very seriously. Building on the envisioning of the cloud of glory covering all three figures, Greek theologians developed radical ideas about human potential for union with God. They viewed it as equivalent to a form of human “deification.” In The Divine Darkness (1973: 23-43) [ix] Vladmir Lossky draws on the ideas of  the 6^th Century theologian Pseudo-Dionysius. Lossky writes that spiritual transformation involves “ A new condition, a progress, a series of changes, a transition from the created to the uncreated…. Being deified in this union with the uncreated … Here union means deification..” (1973:38).

          As mentioned, Lossky refers to ‘Dionysius the Areopagite,’ once believed a disciple of Paul but whose work was later ascribed to ‘Pseudo-Dionysius’ (6^th-5^th century C.E,).  Dionysius influenced Greek Orthodox mysticism in profound ways. Most importantly, he suggested (1973:25) that approaching knowledge of the Godhead by entering into ‘the Divine Darkness’ is superior to positive affirmations of the Godhead’s greatness. In Lossky’s words:

               “Now God is above all that exists. In order to approach Him it is necessary to deny all that is inferior to Him … It is by unknowing that one may know Him who is above every possible object of knowledge. For even as light….  renders darkness invisible; even so the knowledge of created things, and especially excess of knowledge, destroys the ignorance which is the only way by which one can attain to God in Himself. “ (1973:25)          

           At this point,  let us refer to Elijah’s  8^th Century discovery about the ‘uncreated’ nature of  the Godhead’s Being. Here was the conclusion to the Lord God’s Exodus teaching that the people should not be afraid to encounter the elements in an uproar. In 1 Kings:11-13, the Lord God showed Elijah that He was not in the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire but in “the sound of sheer silence.”  Then Elijah drew his cloak around him at Mount Horeb in Sinai and stood in the mouth of the cave, contemplating, one imagines, the dark night spread out around him.

        Lossky goes on to discuss Dionysius’ view of Moses; his ascent of Mount Sinai to meet with God started with self-purification. Moses may have heard the notes of the trumpet, lights flashing, but then, he separated from the many and the chosen priests. ‘Even here… he did not contemplate God … but the place where he is.’ Lossky writes:  “ I think this means that the highest and most divine of the things which are seen and understood are a kind of hypothetical account of what is subject to Him who is over all.”

             One of the early Church Fathers, St. Gregory of Nyssa pointed out that every concept relative to God is a simulacrum, a false likeness, an idol. (1973:33). In St Gregory’s Life of Moses, he views Moses’ ascent of Mount Sinai as representing in Lossky’s words, the move           “Towards the “darkness of incomprehensibility…the way of contemplation … superior to Moses’ first meeting with God when He appeared to him in the burning bush.” (35)        

           Another Church Father, St. Gregory of Nazianzen (1973:36), made comparisons with other Old Testament traditions. He wrote that he was allegorically running to lay hold on God, up into mount, the clouds. Lossky quotes St. Gregory’s words here:

              “As far as I could learn,” he said, “not that abiding within the first veil … and hidden by the Cherubim,,, but – “the majesty, or as holy David calls it, the glory, which is manifested  amongst creatures….. As to the divine essence it is the Holy of Holies which remains hid even from the Seraphim.”

        One thinks St. Gregory of Nazianzen alluded to the veiling of Moses’ shining countenance after his encounter the Lord God in Chapter 34.   

          This Christmas Eve, 2020, while listening to scriptures read during the virtual midnight service held by Epiphany-St. Mark, I was struck by a reading from Isaiah, 9:2-7. Was this relevant to Exodus or not? These lines, quoted below, mention “Midian.” Did the war-like Midianite fire-god, Jahve, enter into this oracle that Isaiah gave to King Ahaz? The Oxford annotated edition, NRSV, interprets the mention of “Midian” as a reference to Gideon, the Judge, who led the Israelites in an attack on Midianites. Isaiah recalled the disunited era of the Judges before the monarchy founding by Saul, David and Solomon.

            “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light … ….You have multiplied the nation, increased its joy, For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, you have broken as on the day of Midian …. Boots of tramping warriors, garments rolled in blood shall be burned as fuel for the fire…” (Isa. 9: 2-5 summarized)

         The above led into Isaiah’s prophecy of a “Child to be born… Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace… upholding the throne of David.. “ (Isa. 9:6-7).          Sadly, the Kingdom of Judah ruled by the Davidic line of kings came to an end in the early 6^th century B.C.E. (See Isaiah of Jerusalem’s Words from the Lord God, Isa. 6: 13, “Even if a tenth part remain in it, it [the city] will be burned again…” ) To Christians, Isaiah’s words to King Ahaz were prophetic of Christ, “the Prince of Peace,” yet to come.

          Then, listen to what another prophet, the Second Isaiah, believed would come about through His “chosen servant,” meaning ‘Israel’ to the Jews, and Christ’s Coming to the Christians. These ideas have been retained as the messianic hope of a deliverance of the nations.

          “Here is my servant, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations… a bruised reed he will not break [Freud’s characterized of the weak Catholic Church reaction to Nazism] ….I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind. “ (Isaiah 42:1; 6-7)

         The messianic conception of deliverance outlined in the words “A light to the nations, to open the eyes of the blind,” was a monumental task laid upon Hebrew prophets such as Daniel. Gottwald, a Judaist scholar, places the Book of Daniel in the ‘genre of the apocalyptic’ (1989:590-592). It was written in 165 B.C.E, when Antiochus IV Epiphanes defiled the Jerusalem Temple. Jews rejected his Hellenizing attempts, such as placing a statue of Zeus inside the temple and a statue of himself at the foot of this altar, acts which contravened the Second Commandment given to Moses. Led by the Maccabee family they drove away Greek forces. This story is commemorated by the annual Festival of Light as observed by Jews every December.  

        In my understanding, Daniel, Ch. 7:1-14 represented the prophet’s vision of  “Light to the nations… to open our eyes.” This begins with characterizing the political forces at work in the world, emblemizing its kings as animals. Then it highlight great cosmic perils as a form of judgment. Daniel saw the idolatrous imagery of kings as animal-like powers, and here we recall Ba’alist-Canaanite imagery. The name of ‘Daniel,’ reaches back through time; Gottwald refers to Ezekiel, 14:14, who combined the names, “Noah, Daniel and Job.” Gottwald (1989:590-592) also mentions the ‘Daniel’ featured in a Canaanite myth (Ugaritic). Daniel saw three kingdoms, identified by their animal symbols sink beneath the waves one after another: “I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea…” (Dan. 7:2).

             The significance of Daniel, 7:9-10, was his sight of “the Ancient of Days” and His execution of a final judgment upon the nations. In the poeticized language of nature, this prophetic vision forecast certain conditions our age! (Jesus’ Apocalypse, Mark 13:24-27, prophesied that people would see “the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory;” in this context Jesus referred back to Daniel 7:13-14.)

        Daniel described the figure of the “Ancient One” on his throne, who is portrayed with white hair and clothes, reviving ancient Canaanite El. In Canaanite myth, grey-bearded El dwelled on a remote mountain, with two streams at the foot. Daniel’s vision speaks to us of the turbulent chaos in our world today; it foreshadows the  melting ice caps and thawing of permafrost in the Arctic caused by global warming as increased heat and sunlight affect these ice-covered regions.

             “… thrones were set in place, and an Ancient One took his throne, his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames, and its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued ….” (Dan. 7:9-10)      

         At the top of the world, as I recently learned from internet sites, in the Arctic ocean basin at 85 degrees north lies the Gakkel Ridge that extends some 1800 km from north of Greenland as far as Siberia. Scientists noticed evidence of fresh volcanism and earthquakes happening under these ice-covered seas in 1999-2000.  One website develops the concept that there has been crustal rebounding, uplifting of land and the building of new crust by volcanic eruptions, new displacements created in this Arctic region – consequences of deglaciations that began some 10,000 years ago, or so. [x] The Gakkel Ridge is a crack in the thinner crust of the earth (something like the Red Sea Rift), lying within the boundary between two tectonic plates, the North American and the Eurasian. It has been propelling heated mantle material upwards as giant plumes of methane (though not on fire at the bottom of these deep cold seas). The Gakkel Ridge uprisings are regarded as super-volcanic awakenings.

           Some believe the activation of volcanoes and earthquakes in the Gakkel Ridge is “the smoking gun” accounting for polar ice melt in recent decades. Temperature exchanges of ocean currents waters, cycling from the south into north, play a role. In southerly regions, over-heated waters strengthen the intensity of hurricanes attacking coastal lands. But perhaps the Gakkel Ridge events are themselves affected by global warming that reduces ice cover in the Arctic seas.

        During this pandemic, with the collapse of economies and the leadership of nations in disarray, I wondered: what is this age all about? Then I woke up. I heard Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations speaking. I quote Gutteres, as recorded by Ibrahim Thiaw:‘The State of the Planet is broken..’ (Dec. 2, 2020).

           “Humanity is waging war on Nature … This is suicidal, Nature always strikes back, already doing so with growing force and fury… Biodiversity is collapsing… One million species are at risk of extinction ..  Ecosystems are disappearing before our eyes. Desert are spreading. Wetlands are being lost…”  

        Gutteres, as far as I know, made no mention of the current pandemic caused by human intrusion into the habitation of coronavirus-bearing bats.

        When I read the last pages of Freud’s Moses and Monotheism, an unexpected a memory based on his earlier theorizing in Totem and Taboo, seized me. As quoted below, Freud on totems evokes our thoughts upon the most primeval times.

            “ the horde, previously ruled by the father, was followed by totemistic brother clan… Instead of the father [whom they had killed[, a certain animal declared the totem; it stood for the ancestor and protecting spirits, and no one was allowed to hurt or kill it… Once a year, a feast for this revered totem … the solemn repetition of the father-murder … in which religion had its beginnings.” (Freud 1965:168)

      In December 2007, while touring Egypt I visited the Cairo Museum, attracted to its display of Tutankhamun’s tomb goods. I noticed a sign announcing a special exhibition of animal mummies. While there, something overcame my consciousness. I fled the interior  to sit on the curb outside to collect my senses. I was in an emotional torment, not my own – it was something foisted on me. The spirits of those mummified creatures briefly siezed my mind to communicate something of their creaturely sufferings, inchoate and wordless, entirely overwhelming.

            Later, I looked on the internet to know more about those ancient Egyptian animal mummies. They were “holy creatures,” and considered “holy offerings to the gods.” They were seemingly all wild creatures; baboons, falcon or ibis-type birds, crocodiles, fish, mongoose, shrew-like creatures, scarabs and cats.  (See website: ‘Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt,’ January 2018.).

             As I sat outside the Cairo Museum my thoughts went, then inexplicably, to Totemic traditions among our Canadian First Nations.  I recollected the tall totem poles exhibited in our museums, carved out of the tallest trees in the forests by the ancestors of the First Nations. Each totem pole features stacked images of their history represented by the emblems of clan identities and former leaders. As I recently learned in a course on Primal religions, the First Nations regard the creatures of the wild as their “relatives, sisters and brothers.”

          Returning to Freud’s discussion in Moses and Monotheism on the thematic import and reverence for other creatures in Primal Religions, Freud dug into archaic religious feelings. These were often powerful reservoirs of guilty feelings not commonly acknowledged.  I venture that Christ, called the ‘Lamb of God,’ because of his words at his Last Supper, must have hoped people would find ways to rise above inhuman sins, especially our sins against other creatures.

           My temporary identification with the mummified creatures caused me to feel their understandable concern and fear for the extinction of many breeds. I could not dismiss this meaningful theme of our age. Is it  yet another issue of our inhumanity to the Divine Creation? Today it is central to animal advocates horrified by the extent our thoughtless human activities has damaged and diminished habitats across the earth.

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[i] Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism, Translated from the German by Katherine Jones,  New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, first published in 1939, this edition 1955.

[ii] Norman Gottwald,  The Hebrew Bible -A Socio-Literary Introduction. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1989 edition. 

Doubleday, 1992 edition: 366.

[iv] Stanislav Grof. Beyond the Brain, Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy, Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1985.

[v] Risto Olavin Nurmela. Web-site entitled: ‘Moses: Freud’s Ultimate Project,’ November 9, 2020, summary of Sellin’s views of Moses’ slain by Israelites.

[vi] Helmer Ringgren. Religions of the Ancient Near East. Translated by John Sturdy. Philadelphia: The Westminister Press:1973.

[vii] David Rothery.  Volcanoes, Earthquakes and Tsunamis, A Complete Introduction,  London: Hodder and Stroughton Ltd. 2015: 31-32.

[viii][viii] Erik Hornung. The Amduat,’ in  The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Translated from the German by David Lorton, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press. 1999 edition. Pp 27-41

[ix] Valadimir Lossky, ‘The Divine Darkness” in  The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 23-41Greenwood, S.C.: the Attic Press Inc. 1973 edition, pp 23-41.

[x] A. Kumar and L.S. Singh. ‘Is Isostatic Rebound in Slow-Spreading Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean due to Climate Change?’

Visiting the Great Lord of the Heavens – up in the night sky and descending to view our apocalyptic times seen with the ‘Solar Eye’

By: Sandra Principe

18/10/2020

Prologue    

      Years ago, as I travelled to new places, I asked myself to try and see these places as though I were seeing them with ‘the Eyes of God’. Was I then thinking of the memorable Genesis 1:25? After bringing forth the cosmos and every kind of living creature, excepting humankind, it said, “And God saw that it was good.” Later, after forming humankind ‘in His image,’ it again says, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”  (Gen. 1:31) To me, this earth and all its inhabitants remain the work of God’s ongoing Divine Creation.     

         Now I would like to introduce a vision from Christmas 2004 ; I saw ‘the Hand of God’ over a hillside in central Israel while driving through the West Bank.  Our taxi driver, with whom we had made contact at the Damascus Gate, offered to drive us the half-day’s journey to the northern Palestinian city of Jenin. As we drove, I noticed a sign indicating the location of ‘Jacob’s Well’, off to the west, over uninhabited little hills covered in scrub brush.  I wondered if this was anywhere near the biblical Bethel, which Jacob called, the “House of God, Gate of Heaven” (Gen. 28:17). In other words, could this be where he dreamed of angels ascending a ladder up to heaven?  Further on, I happened to look up at a high cliff on the east side of this road. I clearly saw a giant Hand reach down into the rocky outcrop at the top, and the mass of rocky stone disappear into that golden light. It was an awesome sight of supra-natural power!  

     Until recently, I have never been able to interpret that vision’s meaning. I have since learned, through courses in mystical theology, that streams of supra-natural light come down from the heavens and, although invisible to physical eyes, occasionally irradiate parts of the earth. Greek Orthodox theologian, St. Gregory Palamas, whose writings we look at later, attested to these ‘Divine Uncreated Energies.’ He wrote in the mid-14^th century at the height of the Black Death. Let us hope that similar radiations of divine origins are casting their light on our equivalent age of  pandemic ‘darkness.’ 

           To understand these divine radiations, however, takes time. I begin by recounting ideas from literature on divine interventions, which seem relevant to my mysterious vision on the road to Jenin. The first of these is the concept of the sacred ‘Solar Eye,’ with which the ancients believed humans could be endowed. This is best illustrated in the ancient Egyptian text, ‘The Amduat,’ or ‘What is in the Netherworld,’ as translated by Erik Hornung, which we later look at closely.  In the text, Horus, god of the bright sky and son of Osiris, accompanies the sun god on the solar barque  as it travels by night through the shady realm of Osiris, ruler of the underworld. “In the middle of the darkly hour,” as Hornung puts it, “Horace and Sokar look after the solar Eye, protecting and renewing it, while at the end we are afforded an unexpected and consoling glimpse of the morning sky.” (Hornung, 1999:37). In the same text, the god of wisdom, Thoth is also present in the sun god’s barque. Thoth heals this precious solar Eye, which will ignite the sun and make it shine miraculously at midnight! The Amduat  also tells of the sun god gathering the dead to convey them to a heavenly world that shines like the sunrise. But we will discuss this more fully later. 

           Another ancient Egyptian  text narrates the sacred drama of Horus acquiring the ‘Carnelian Stone’ from the storm god, Seth.  The stone is symbolic of the solar Eye. A. C. Bouquet, writing in Sacred Books of the World (1959:58), tells us that, “no doubt caused by lightning,” Horus was blinded by the storm god in connection as part of a traditional rain-making cult. 

             As to how I learned to ascend through the upper skies into the heavens –  the star-filled, night sky, and down to earth again – I had to first learn to see, as best I could with my inner, ‘seeing eye.’ I began by engaging in daily relaxation exercises during this period of self-isolation. In the process, I discovered that modern relaxation techniques are similar to age-old methods of breath control, such as yogic teachings  from the Upanishad era in ancient India. I applied my efforts to this systematic method of breath control, so as to release body and mind from ordinary restraints. 

           To better understand this story, when I claim to go up into higher earthly spaces, which transition into more sacred realms, I was guided by a wondrous messenger from the spirit-world. I first became acquainted with an ancient archetype –  a great white-feathered, winged Bird – hovering overhead in the sanctuary of my Anglican Church on the Day of Pentecost.  It subsequently appeared in my inner imagination during this Covid-19 period of  relaxation exercises. It was as though he were calling me to fly with him to wherever he wanted to guide me.

            Somewhere up in the night sky among the stars, I discovered to my astonishment that a Great Spiritual Being dwells. It was then I recalled from a course in Ancient Astronomy that, in the 3^rd millennium BCE, Egyptian architects built the Great Pyramids at Giza so that they pointed towards the vault of the heavens. Once the king’s body was buried therein, his spirit was could project upwards towards the eternal realm of the gods. This seemed not unlike my upward spiritual trajectory, guided by the great bird.

          Thus, somewhere up in the night sky dotted with tiny lights, I happened upon the Great Being (invisible to my inner, seeing eye), Who entered into a form of thought-communion with me. For clarity of writing I have assumed He is male-gendered, although this is questionable. He said I was not the first to find my way to His realm. Many others have been there before me.  His later communications suggested that His ‘Light-Energy,’ which I saw faintly, formed a massive circular body of dazzling golden light. His immaterial body is a Divine Force that whirls about in space, giving off streams of light, some of which flows downwards as far as earth. 

         According to St. Gregory Palamas, there are  ‘Divine Uncreated Energies’ that descend from the Source, the Godhead of Whom they spoke as ‘Uncreated Essence.’ He is utterly unknowable to us, remote and transcendent. Yet, He is at the center of all existence, heavenly and earthly, and His power is greater than our laws of physics. As for His Name, the One with Whom I spoke said that He had no name we could conceive of. He said to call Him any name; I like to think of Him as ‘The Great Lord of the Heavens.’

        I have also been musing ever since this conversation with the Great Lord, about the following idea, which is difficult to articulate. As His Being spins about, His invisible body rotates so that streams of light are pulled round and round in a swirling fashion. (Much like the galaxies seen by today’s astronomers.) On rare occasions, when these radiations stream down from the heavens, they become perceptible to humans, but fleeting and mysteriously, so that they seem to come and go. The unpredictability of the Divine Light has perplexed mystics such as such as St. Symeon the New Theologian for ages. He is quoted in Vladimir Lossky’s The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (1973:226);

                “I often saw the Light -says St. Symeon the New Theologian – ‘sometimes it appeared to me within me, when my soul possessed peace and silence; sometimes it only appeared afar off, and even hid itself altogether. … Then I suffered an immense sorrow … began to weep, and witnessed to my detachment from everything, to an absolute humility and obedience, the Light reappeared like the sun which chases away the thick clouds and which gradually discloses itself, and brings joyfulness…” 

            St. Symeon’s observation of the Light, which is sometimes present and otherwise hidden, is part of my visionary experiences, especially with respect to hypnogogic-like dream-images. These can flash into my mind and any scenes, symbols, or fragmentary images, can seem clearer and more striking than anything seen in reality. They glow in jewel-like colours from within, and their meaning is elusive in the moment. I consider such experiences part of my mystical explorations. As Lossky remarks, “In a certain sense all theology is mystical, inasmuch as it shows forth the divine mystery .” (1973:7)

         I will now return to earth, to tell you another truth regarding my imagined use for sources of cosmic energy. After I had traversed (in vision, that is) upper earth spaces and reached the ionosphere, I began to read about the physics of ‘ionization effects.’ I was thinking of the application of negative ionization to treat depression. Scientists suppose the higher ionosphere is primarily composed of negative ions endowed with super-charged electrons, which favourably affect our spirits. This directly contrasts the effect of positive ions, which adversely affect us. Scientists believe that this is because the charge produced by negative ions is directed by lightning into the earth. Whereas, positive ions are generated from earthly crustal layers, such as rock, and tend to weigh and drag us down physically as well as emotionally. There are geographical locations that possess a higher negative ion count than others. And because negative ionization is a medical treatment for SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), people tend to seek recreation in places rich in negative ions: mountaintops, forests, beaches, shorelines, waterfalls and even in the air after thunderstorms. These settings are also conducive to visionary experiences.

                                            Christian Trinitarian Metaphysics

          Christians in attendance at mass or communion feel blessed by the Holy Spirit, which bears the Trinitarian impulse of Father and Son come down to earth. The Trinitarian power of the Holy Spirit can dissolve the hardness of human sin, heartache and suffering, particularly the interpersonal contradictions that plague our lives and psyches. (See my above tale of seeing the Hand of God dissolve the outcrop of rock on the hillside.)  The writers of the Hebrew Scriptures thought of the Divinity in Whom they believe as occasionally present, as for instance, “For I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath” (Hosea 11:9. ).  But it did not follow that anyone had or could see Him. In fact, they often said that only Moses had ever seen the Lord God “face to face,” as on Sinai. 

          Though none have fully seen His unimaginable Glory, some Christians claim to have experienced ‘Divine Uncreated Energies’ emanating from His ‘Uncreated Essence.’  In medieval times, Greek Orthodox monks, practitioners of Hesychasm, a practice of contemplative prayer, received impressions of these Divine Energies. Some radical mystics even abandoned the Holy Sacraments to seek out the spiritual benefits of these wondrous lights. 

In The Triads,  St Gregory includes a paper ‘In Defence of the Holy Hesychasts,’ writing on behalf of monks dedicated to constant recitation of the Jesus Prayer, along with meditations induced through breath control.  He suggested they ultimately experienced something approaching Christ Jesus’ own ‘Divinization.’ The Eastern Orthodox Church remains deeply impressed by the gospel accounts of the ‘Transfiguration of Christ Jesus’ on Mount Tabor.’ To them, it speaks to our human potential to become inwardly enlightened,  a state monks strive for in their prayer-life and spiritual meditations. Notably, Mount Tabor is, by virtue of being a mountaintop, one of the aforementioned locals high in negative ions.

          The Divinization of the human person is found in Vladimir Lossky’s The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church.  Lossky tells of the holiness of St. Seraphim (an 18^th century Russian saint).This conversation with a disciple took place in a forest setting on a winter morning, as summarized below (!973:227-229).

         “ The disciple asked, ‘How can I be firmly assured that I am in the Spirit of God…His true manifestation?’…The saint replied, ‘We are both together, son, in the Spirit of God… why lookest thou not on me?’… ‘I cannot look, Father, because lightning flashes from your eyes; your face is brighter than the sun and my eyes ache in pain’… Then the saint whispered to him, ‘… you have seen that I did not make the sign of the cross, only in my heart I prayed mentally tp the Lord God… vouchsafe to see with my bodily eyes that descent of Thy Spirit … when thou are pleased to appear in the light of thy marvellous glory.’… Then, the disciple saw around the figure of St. Seraphim…. “a blinding light spreading several yards around and throwing a sparkling radiance across the snow blanket and into the snowflakes…”

             Orthodox Christians justified such amazing holiness by reflecting on Christ’s Transfiguration on Mount Tabor. The Gospel of Luke, 9:28-35, reports that Jesus took Peter, John and James with him when he went up that mountain to pray. From further down the mountain, the disciples saw that, as Jesus was praying, “The appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzlingly white.” As he talked with the Old Testament prophets, Moses and Elijah, all three “appeared in glory.”  

           Some Trinitarian theologians point to the “over-shadowing cloud” during Jesus’ Transfiguration as the Holy Spirit, the Third Person of the Trinity (its presence presaging Pentecost). I wonder if the disciples envisioned Christ and his holy companions covered in that ‘Cloud of Glory,’ as well as perceiving the dazzling white shine of His face and cloths. 

                  To St Bonaventure, ‘Seraphic Doctor’ of the Middle Ages, the inner eye that sees things above was ‘the Third Eye.’ This ‘Triple Eye’ was a composite of three different ways of ‘seeing.’ It was created in the Garden of Eden, or, “the original Paradise.” According to Bonaventure, the ‘eye of the flesh’ sees the outer world, while the ‘eye of reason’ sees things with the inner mind. But the third eye, that of contemplation, was meant “to see things above”. Ilio Delio, in introducing St. Bonaventure’s writing of The Soul’s Journey to God, says that “Bonaventure describes Creation as a theophany, a manifestation of God. Creation signifies the overflowing goodness of God in the myriad life-forms of creation.”  To St, Bonaventure all are enveloped within the ‘Triple-Eye.’

                 Pre-Judaic and pre-Christian Themes in ancient Religious Thought

         When I wrote a brief paper on Hinduism, I discovered ancient wisdom in a text attributed to a Vedic era priest-seer, 3000 years ago. I quote from Rajendra Pandeya’s  article ‘The Vision of the Vedic Seer,” in particular, his English translation from the Sanskrit the story of a Vedic seer who envisioned a Radiant Being emerging out of the void (seeGen. 1:2-3 above).

              “…. out of the primeval void… out of the waters…. arose the radiant presence … of the sacrificer… the imminent God.” Then Pandeya records the ancient Vedic priest’s idea of the transcending mystery, that opposites, which customarily distinguish our earthly thinking., saying “… there are none of the oppositions such as arise in the creation – existence and non-existence, death, immortality, earth, sky, day, night … (1989:11-12).”

          In Philip Novak’s collection of Hindu literature, he introduces another Vedic Era text, speaking of “this lengthy creation hymn,” entitled ‘Creation as Cosmic Sacrifice’ in English. At that time, a few thousand years ago, they believed the world’s origins were borne out of a divine being’s self-sacrifice. (1995:7-8) 

        Thetheme of great sacrifice by godly beings appears in a pre-Columbian Aztec myth, which I summarize from David Carrasco’s account in The Aztecs.  Carrasco recounts what Aztec elders related to the Spanish historian, Friar Bernardino de Sahagun in the 1550s. The myth  revolves around the mystery of the pyramid complex the Aztecs knew as Teotihuacan, meaning City of the Gods. The elders believed that the previous cosmic age had ended in darkness, until fifty-two years later, there being no sun, the gods congregated around a hearth of burning fire. Each of the gods sacrificed himself to the fire, so as to bring the sun to life again. They said that when the sun was reborn on the eastern horizon it wobbled about in the sky. Then, the Aztecs said, the sun ascended through the heavens and even descended into the underworld. This draws on an Egyptian belief briefly outlined earlier in discussing The Amduat.  In their myth, the Aztecs  measured those 52 years of darkness according to the sun-moon pattern inspired by the earlier, Mayan calendar, but integrated it with their idea that an interval of darkness before Divine intervention brought their cosmic age into being. The idea of the Divine would have been more mysterious to them than the material remains of the wonderful abandoned pyramid city.

       Recently, the previously unknown Egyptian royal tomb texts have been of great interest to Christians. Among these is the aforementioned Amduat , translated by Erik  Hornung (Hornung, 1999:27-53). The basic narrative went back to Queen-Pharaoh Hatshepsut (1479-1458 BCE). She commissioned the work for the tomb of her beloved father, Tuthmosis 1. Versions of this tale continued to be recorded in pharaohs’ tombs through to the 11th century BCE.  These were secret writings, reserved for the pharaoh, whose body would lie in a sarcophagus underneath walls that recorded this spellbinding tale. The purpose of the Amduat served to bind the soul-spirit of the newly deceased pharaoh to the sun god, who retired at night to the realm of Osiris, ruler of the underworld, and judge of souls. The sun god was depicted as ‘ram-headed,’ because the hieroglyph for ram was also used for the ‘ba-soul’ –  the identity of the sun god while traveling in the underworld of Osiris. Here was a linkage between that supreme god and the souls of deceased humans.

             At the beginning of their twelve hour journey the sun god and king traveled in pleasant lands abounding in grain fields, full of peasants holding up sheaves of grain. Then they entered the desolate land of Sokar, where snakes and reptiles proliferated. Because there was drought, the boat had to be towed in places. Underneath this landscape lay the Lake of Fire.

             Quoting from Hornung: In this part of the journey they encounter fiery threat; but, as the scene changes, poetically, “… the barque turns into a serpent whose fiery breath pierces a pathway through the impenetrable gloom, ” in Hornung’s words.  Deeper than this desolate place, Hornung describes the … “Lake of Fire indicated as a place of punishment.”

       At midnight, the sun god lay like a corpse in the arms of Osiris, in the primordial waters deep in darkness. Souls of previous kings, with crowns and sceptres, awaited the resurrection of the sun god and the newly deceased pharaoh. The sun god was brought back to life by a miracle; in the middle of the night sunshine shone forth from above!  

           Was this ancient Egyptians literary mysticism intended to teach pharaohs that a Great Miraculous Being has his ‘Dwelling Place’ somewhere up in the darkness of the starry night sky? Towards the end of the Amduat, the souls of the blessed dead are gathered into an eternal Kingdom of Light, the rebirth of their souls as wonderful as the rising of the sun in the morning. The following text from Hornung describes the resurrection of “all the blessed dead;”

              “At about midnight, the sun shines anew,” writes Hornung, although in subsequent hours monsters lie ahead trying to stop the light from continuing to shine.. By the eleventh hour, judgment takes place upon the enemies of the sun god…”Goddesses sit upon fire-breathing serpents, which fires incinerate these enemies in “flame-filled pts.” However, all the blessed dead are gathered up and carried within the body of a huge serpent: finally, “They emerge from the serpent’s mouth as new born babies at the hour of sunrise…”

      Horus is depicted in relics as a falcon-headed bird, wearing the double crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, but is otherwise human-bodied. It seems likely this was more than conic representation of a clannish emblem descended from the original conquerors of the north known as ‘the Sons of Horus’ and dating back to the 3^rd millennium BCE. They used this strange hybrid imagery to convey that the human-bodied Horus, had ‘vision.’ He was endowed with the “solar Eye’ –such as belongs to a high-flying bird. A sacred Bird!

        The current BBC documentary, The Silk Road, hosted by British historian, Dr. Sam Willis, visits different sites linked to the historic trading routes frequented by merchants in South Asia. On September 7, 2020, Dr. Willis took the viewers to ancient Persepolis in southern Iran. Now in ruins, its main archeological features are the tall, standing columns that once framed the buildings of this great city. Displayed on a wall is the image of a white bird with outstretched wings and a tiny human head. Dr. Willis associated this bird-man with the Zoroastrian religion, the Divinity called Ahura Mazda, meaning ‘Wise Lord.’    Zoroaster (dated 1500-1000 BCE) was encouraged by this higher being to spread certain high-minded teachings. Dr. Willis said, “People were to pray to the “invisible” Ahura Mazda in the direction of the night.”

         This ancient religion, Zoroastrianism, envisioned ‘the Apocalyptic,’ time of the end.  There are several BBC websites that explore how Zoroastrianism shaped apocalyptic thought in Judaism and Christianity. Zoroaster preached of the battle between good and evil, of an ultimate Judgment Day  when rivers of fire would run throughout the earth; the bad would perish, but to the good, the fire would feel like ‘warm milk.’ 

Dr. Willis next visited Yazd, a city in modern Iran. He was privileged to enter one of their Zoroastrian fire temples, where we again saw the iconic bird. The priest piled logs on the “eternal” fire that had been burning for the last 1500 years. Dr. Willis explained that the fire was symbolic of the light they knew in the darkness of night,  like the night sky wherein Ahura Mazda was believed to dwell. 

         I recognized the mythic bird shown in the documentary, both as sculpted on the wall in ancient Persepolis, and in the fire temple at Yazd. It was the same mysterious great-winged and white-feathered bird I first saw at communion on the Day of Pentecost, June 2019. At first it looked like a white mantle enveloping the whole sanctuary ceiling. It made me think of the First Nations’ Great White Manitou, a leading deity associated with wind stirring up the waters. Then I saw it was a gigantic bird, hovering above our head and its presence was reminiscent of he Dove at Jesus’ baptism.

          After reading the BBC websites on the Zoroastrian Apocalyptic and realising the connection to Ahura Mazda’s bird, I had to rethink this wonderful bird’s appearance in a sacred Christian context. When it began reappearing to my inner sight during my relaxation exercises I knew I had been right to re-examine its importance. This mythic Great Winged One was calling to me, guiding me into the skies and heavens, up into the dark night sky of the ‘Great Lord God of the Heaven.’ Its purpose, in part, was to show me earthly locales from a higher perspective; indeed, some scenes implicitly revealed environmental concerns – the ‘Apocalyptic’ in today’s world.

       There was more wisdom for me to ponder regarding the sacred in certain earth-places we visited. For instance, we saw a little-inhabited, sub-Arctic region encased in snow and ice in colder months. While we awaited His direction from up in the night sky, He started to speak of a place which He said was “Precious to me.” How important that place must be! He directed us to fly down to the most easterly point of continental land in North America, just to look around. I thought it must be somewhere along the coast of Labrador, Canada. 

           Later, I looked up ‘Battle Harbour,’ Labrador. Now it is mostly a summer fishing village, but Battle Harbour used to be a thriving hub of the cod industry. Today it attracts some tourists because of its varied geological formations and marine fossils. So, what can one say of this place that is dear to the Cosmic Creator? We must have been looking upon something resembling Genesis 1. The landscape I saw in my vision featured hard, grey, rocky hills, devoid of vegetation. There were little coves with narrow beaches leading into the deep Arctic waters, likely filled with whales and seals, though fewer than there once was.

           Similarities of mystical teachings and mediational approaches to the Godhead     

      As background to Philip Novak’s English translation of the Sanskrit text entitled ‘Svetesvatara Upanishad,’  he reports that this writing laid early foundations for fundamental Hindu teachings regarding the cycle of death and rebirth. This is due to our “Ignorance of the divine ground for all life (Brahman).” Novak says they taught people to “Realize one’s inner spiritual nature, the Universal Self or Atman, which is none other than Brahman.” Bellow are instructions for the beginner (Novak 1995:9);

             “With upright body, head and neck lead the mind and its powers into thy heart [similarly practiced by today by Eastern Christian monks, transposing mind down into the heart];and the OM of Brahman will then be thy boat with which to cross the rivers of fear… 

            And when the body is in silent steadiness, breathe rhythmically through the nostrils with a peaceful ebbing and flowing of breath. The chariot of mind is drawn by wild horses, and these wild horses have to be tamed.

            Find a quiet retreat for the practice of Yoga, sheltered from the wind, level and clean, free from rubbish, smoldering fires, and ugliness, and where the sound of waters and the beauty of the place help thought and contemplation ….

           The first fruits of the practice of Yoga are: health, little waste matter, and a clear complexion; lightness of the body, a pleasant scent, and a sweet voice; and an absence of greedy desires.

            Even as a mirror of gold, covered by dust, when cleaned well shines again in full splendour, when a man has seen the Truth of the Spirit he is one with him, the aim of his life is fulfilled and he is ever beyond sorrow….. Then the soul of man becomes a lamp by which he finds the Truth of Brahman. Then he sees God, pure, never-discarded any preconceptions born, ever-lasting; and when he sees God he is free from all bondage…” (Novak 1995:18-19)       

     The following passage from St. Gregory’s The Triads explains the unique method of the Hesychast monks’ meditational practice for overcoming mental and intellectual distractions.

         “Certain masters recommend to control the movement inwards and outwards of the breath, and to hold it back a little; in this way, they will be able to control the mind together with the breath – until such time as they have made progress, with the aid of God, have restrained the intellect  from becoming distracted by what surrounds it, have purified it and truly become capable of leading it to a ‘unified recollection.’    

        St. Gregory often referred to “St. Denys, the Areopagite,” his name for the 5^th-6^th century writer modern scholars call “the Pseudo-Dionysius.” Dionysius’ philosophical pursuit of the Godhead was rooted in what came to be called the ‘Divine Darkness.’ As we see in Dionysius’ ‘The Mystical Theology,’  he held up Moses as our exemplar, one who bravely scaled the mountain in Sinai when it was quaking and burning with fire and smoke. Dionysius wrote that the person must  “Plunge into the darkness” to  the place where, “as scripture proclaims, [Ex. 20:21 and 19], dwells the One who is above all things…”    

Dionysius further says:

       “…. the good cause of all is both eloquent and taciturn, indeed wordless… has neither word nor act of understanding, since it is on a plane above all this … to pass beyond the summit of holy ascent… leave behind every divine light, every voice, every word of heaven…. Moses first submitted to purification, departed from others .. Then,,, he sees the many lights, pure and with rays streaming abundantly…”[like St. Gregory’s Divine Uncreated Energies?]….When Moses pushes ahead to the summit of divine ascents… he does not meet God himself, but contemplates … where he dwells… The highest and holiest of the things perceived with the eye of the body or the mind are but the rational which presupposes all that lies below the Transcendent One… Moses plunges into the truly mysterious darkness of unknowing… renouncing all that the mind may conceive….” (1987:136-137) 

       Vladimir Lossky in his chapter on ‘The Divine Darkness’  (The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church)is faithful to Dionysius’ advocacy of ‘the apophatic,’ or negative, approach to the Godhead.  Lossky reiterates Dionysius’ recommendation that the seeker start by acknowledging a total ignorance of the Highest Being (1973:25):

         ” All knowledge has as its object that which is. Now God is beyond all that exists. In order to approach Him it is necessary to deny all that is inferior to Him.. all that which is. If in seeing God one can know what one sees, then one has not seen God in Himself but something intelligible… inferior to Him. Proceeding by negations one ascends from the inferior degrees… to the highest … setting aside all that can be known, in order to draw near to the Unknown in the darkness of absolute ignorance…. the knowledge of created things… destroys the ignorance which is the only way to attain to God in Himself…”

     Below, Lossky reaffirms Dionysius’ ‘negative way of approaching the Godhead, as follows (1973:26-27):

          “One must scale the most sublime heights of sanctity leaving behind all the divine luminaries, all the heavenly sounds and words …. only thus one may penetrate to the darkness wherein He who is beyond all created things makes his dwelling..” (here Lossky refers to Dionysius ‘Mystical Theology’).”  

     In Lossky’s chapter on ‘The Divine Names,’ he views the Divine Names, with which we eulogize the Godhead, as inadequate to describe His unknowability and transcendence. 

   “In his treatise of ‘The Divine Names,’ in examining the name of the One, which can be applied to God, he shows its insufficiency and compares it with another and most ‘sublime name – that of the Trinity, which teaches us that God is neither one nor many but that He transcends this antimony, being unknowable in what He is…” (1973:31) 

      Let us reread what the ancient Vedic priest-seer wrote of what he understood of the highest level of consciousness: “There are none of the oppositions such as arise in the creation … existence and non-existence, death, immortality, earth, day, night ….” Such a divine mystery!

          Below, Lossky attempts to clarify the distinction between the ‘Uncreated Energies’ and the ‘Uncreated ‘Essence,’  though this language is difficult to fathom. Just how is there a relationship between the divine energies and existence – all that which is not God? (Lossky 1973:67-90).

          “For the energies do not produce the created world processions of the essence of God; if they did, either the world would be as infinite and eternal as God Himself … The divine energies are not the relationship of God to created being, but they do enter into relationship with that which is not God, and draw the world into existence by the will of God.  (1973:89)

       Do the Divine Lights reveal features of an original state or existence, even something of  original ‘glorification’ (e.g. St. Gregory’ ‘Divinization’ of earthly being)?  Does this suggest that my vision on the road to Jenin –  the Hand of God immersing the cliffside in Golden Light – was the effect of the Divine Energies?  

            In my visionary understanding of some Californian professors, they are interested in the thermal conductivity of rocks. For millions of years, the exposed surfaces of rock have absorbed the heat and light of the sun. When the Hand of God was laid upon the hilltop in the West Bank, was it a renewal of the Creator’s spiritual blessing upon this bit of earth, as in the time of the Divine Creation that God thought was “so Good”?   

                        Ascending up into the Blue, and beyond into the Heavens            

          Recall the lines, which I requote below from the aforementioned Upanishad text, which well describe the inherent pleasantness of the setting in which I found myself, when relaxing deeply. 

              “Find a quiet retreat for the practice of Yoga, sheltered from the wind, level and clean, free from rubbish, fires and ugliness, and where the sound of waters and the beauty of the place help thought and contemplation…”

       Once sufficiently relaxed, I found myself back in familiar surroundings, such as the back yard of an apartment where I had lived next to Lake Ontario. At the back of this apartment building is a stone seawall that holds back splashing waves, if the water isn’t too rough. Many hours were spent sitting at the picnic table next to the lake birdwatching for Canada geese, swans, ducks, gulls, even an occasional loon.

   As my visionary self stood motionless on the lawn, I began to gaze up until somehow, we reached the ionosphere. Immediately, I was in that blue emptiness, floating amidst a scattering of white clouds.  Yes, the Great Winged One was with me, flying us higher and higher until the clouds were far below us. We kept ascending. Once we saw a metallic installation, all angular construction and jutting wings. We inadvertently bumped into it and a burst of electricity flashed at us. Later, I learned about the communications satellites sent up into the ionosphere where solar and cosmic radiations flow into our upper earth-space. (Is it possible that the concentration of cosmic energies at this stage thrusts us up towards more sacred zones?  This is a theoretical question for which I have no definite answer, except by this stage I have confidence we can reach beyond the rim of the earth.) 

         The Great Winged One and I have since made daily journeys into upper-earth spaces through varying sky-zones. Sometimes we encounter dense masses of grey cloud that obstruct vertical flight. They are penetrable, but we must fly blind to get through them. At other times, we fly above some thin, misty cloud layers, and enter a zone of wonderful radiance. It is blue, almost green-blue sky, glittering as though infused with tiny particles of light. It is tempting to stay in such an atmosphere of beauty and uplifting brightness. But ascending higher, as we must do, more often than not, we become enveloped in a deep-blue energy. This is the jewel-like colour of sapphire, lapis, or the sacred indigo. I think this must be the rim of blue that surrounds this planet when seen from space. This zone of dark, rich blue merges into the upper darkness of the night sky. The stars fill the sky in vast, uncountable numbers; there are too many to see with the naked, or even the ‘solar eye’. Floundering about in that vastness of space, I become aware of myself as a mere speck of nothingness, enveloped in Dionysius’ divine darkness.

                              The Wonder of the Place where the Great Lord dwells

         Up in the night sky, I wonder if the Lord God belongs among these Heavens. Then some thought-forms fall into my mind, sensing His Presence, His Warmth, a Being of Absolute Goodness. As for His Wisdom, which the scriptures and theologians praise, all I can attest to is what the Great Winged One and I saw on each occasion that we visited some earthly locale He directed us to. He wanted us to fly down to earth and experience whatever that place revealed.

        Our descent was more rapid than was our ascent, and at times I glimpsed a streaming lights trailing behind us. Perhaps the Great Lord of the Heavens wanted these ‘Divine Energies’ implanted in the place where we landed. While I have some geographical knowledge of place-names, I have since looked up possible local references on the internet, and have incorporated these into the scenes described below.  

                              Descension Experiences, back on earth but in vision

        Our first visit was to the New York area. Once I even flew over New York city, looking down on neighbourhoods nestled in greenery, the many waterways traversing the landscape.  Following that spiritual visitation, I looked up its geography on the Internet. I found the region formed an estuary flowing towards the Atlantic. I suppose that my initial impression shaped how we saw it in my vision.

      We arrived in a forested place with no signs of a cityscape, no tall towers, no roads, bridges, traffic or people. We did see a native person sitting on a beach, pensively looking out at the  ocean. Otherwise, we toured these forests; they were dark green at first, but later, lightened from dense leafy thickets to a lightened and irradiated green colour. It was as though the trees themselves were enjoying springtime growth, like living creatures basking in the temperate sunshine.  

            We then went to California, on the Pacific coast. Our first visit was to Los Angeles, where we saw city streets largely empty of people and vehicles. I now perceive this to be a reference to the Covid-19 lockdown, although I failed to anticipate the timing of it. Our next visit was to California in general, and at first, was terribly shocking. We landed in the midst of a wildfire, flames shooting up into smoke-filled air – a terrifying spectacle! That visit was just before wildfire outbreaks took over the whole west coast.

           I was directed from above to seek out significant cultural developments in this progressive area of America. I remembered seeing  the façade of an UCLA building on television, so I walked into that building. I saw two professors discussing something I could partially hear. One professor mentioned ‘bitumens,’ and heat measurements. (I have since learned that the term ‘bitumens’ refers to thermal conductivity of rocks.) These academics planned to map temperature variations on a large scale basis. They were especially concerned with global warming as a result of longstanding drought and wildfire destruction on the west coast. 

         In another part of the university, I found the engineering department. Here professors and students were building a gigantic machine. They were attempting to capture more data from high in the ionosphere, because of its importance to radiocommunications and G.P.S. 

I believe we next visited a Silicon Valley setting, where a group of computer scientists were excitedly discussing how to refine and enhance the visual imagery conveyed by virtual communications.       

             We headed into the countryside, to an agricultural setting where people spoke of building canopies over the fields, with covers that could be opened or closed as weather necessitated. From there we went to the forests. Initially, I experienced a vision of a little stream overhung by leafy branches, and water birds collecting there. It was a dreamlike vision of an idyllic scene!  We went briefly through the Red Tree forest, marvelling at the tall, aged trees that had survived this modern world. I sensed that the ‘Divine Energies,’ wanted to bless the efforts of forest managers to save old trees and introduce sturdier, new varieties that would withstand increasing droughts.

          Somewhere along the Gulf Coast of the southern American states, we skimmed a stretch of highway, beside which we saw the ‘remains’ of American economic activity. These were abandoned buildings, factories awaiting demolition, and strip malls. It was all commercial scenery. This late in the summer, hurricanes form in the Atlantic and sweep through those places bordering the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes and tropical storms hit the southern states with torrential downpours, and strong winds and surge of waves onto the beaches. One imagines the storms are washing the coasts, pointing to ill-judged locations for residences and work places.

          Another seaside place we visited was Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean. During our visit, we saw a lovely sandy white beach backed by inland greenery. It looked pristine. Soon afterwards, however, the news reported despair at the same beaches succumbing to an oil spill – an environmental disaster!

         Another place we were directed was to Chicoutimi. This is the name of both the town and one of its two rivers east of the St. Lawrence in the Saguenay region of Quebec. We looked at the Chicoutimi River as its waters rushed through wooded landscape. It was not then, but has been known to flood. A great waterfall at this river’s end provides hydraulic power. During that visit, two images flashed into my mind; the first of a beautiful little girl with long black hair, a native child full of health and life, followed by a sad-looking native man. He walked the road listlessly, as though he didn’t know where he was going. A later visit to Quebec took us to the northeast, the Gaspe, where we went into a forest to look at logging activities amidst its wealth of standing timber. 

        We went far to the northwest, to visit ‘the Beaufort Sea’  in the western part of the Arctic Ocean, off the coasts of Canada and the U.S.  We ranged over its deep, dark, cold and blue waters , which are still a nature preserve for marine creatures and animals. Once we saw, a giant whale with dark blue and white colouring come splashing out of these waters. It looked like the Orca that have reportedly migrated to Arctic waters since the loss of their more native habitats. The whale we saw beneath us opened its huge mouth wide, as if it was smiling at us. I like to think it sensed the Divine Energies that followed us from on high. I have since learned that there are colonies of Beluga whales in the Beaufort Sea and multitudes of Bow-heads, preyed on by Orca.

       We returned to the American Pacific Coast, concerned like everyone about the terrible wild fires raging across the country. We flew over the Pacific searching for moisture-laden clouds, which could save homes and communities. It was impossible to find any storm clouds from the Pacific heading eastwards. Later, reading on the internet, I learned that in late summer, the high land temperatures in the West Coast block the ocean storms from coming to relieve drought and annual wildfires. 

       There is one more visitation to tell you about. We went to Jerusalem, a place I have visited before. There, I went up to the ‘Temple Mount” sometimes called the ‘the al-Haram al-Sharif’. So, what did I see there?  First I must tell you briefly about The Dome of the Rock. It was built in the 8^th century, its architecture borrowed from the Roman Emperor, Justinian’s Holy Sepulchre. The Dome is capped in glittering gold, the gift of the Jordanian King, Hussain. In my vision of Jerusalem, as I looked at this historic, the whole building dissolved into Golden Light, much to my amazement. Divine Energies from the Lod God of the Heavens on high streamed from it. 

           As I think on our human connectivity to the Great Lord God of all, I take to heart the thoughts of the Swiss Trinitarian theologian, Gilles Emery. Paraphrasing a few of his thoughts: we call the Great Lord God “Good,” and the creatures of this Divine Creation “Good,” as in Genesis 1. But we humans and all other earthly creatures are not at the same level of the Godhead. This is because, as Emery writes, 

“God is the transcendent source of the goodness of creatures. God is his very goodness by essence, while creatures are good inasmuch as they participate in the goodness of God, in a radically limited mode.”   

References

 A.C. Bouquet, ‘ Hymn to the Sun -god’ in Sacred Books of the World, A Companion Source-Book to Comparative Religion,  Penguin Books, first published 1914, reprinted 1959. 

 Sandra Principe, ‘Everyday Experiences of the Trinity: Communing with Heavenly Beings, the Spirit of Christ and the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, on web-site ‘Historical Visions,’ July 2019.

 Vladimir Lossky,  The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, Cambridge and London England: James Clarke and Co. Ltd. First published 1957, reprinted 1973.

 St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads, Edited With An Introduction By John Meyendorf, Translation by Nicholas Gendle, New York, Toronto: Paulist Press, 1983. 

 Ilio Delio, Simply Bonaventure, An Introduction to His Life, Thought and Writings,  New City Press 2001:101.

 Rajendra Pandeya, ‘The Vision of the Vedic Seer, in Hindu Spirituality 1989:11-12)

 Philip Novak, ‘Creation as Cosmic Sacrifice: The Myth of Divine Self-Immolation and Its Sanction of the Caste System,’  The World’s Wisdom, Sacred Texts of the World’s Religions, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, (1995:7). 

 David Carrasco. The Aztecs, A Very Short Introduction,  Oxford University Press, 2012: 25-27)

 Pseudo-Dionysius,  ‘The Mystical Theology,’ The Complete Works, ‘ Translated by Colm Luibheid, New York: Paulist Press, 135-137

 Gilles Emery, O.P. The Trinity, An Introduction to Catholic Doctrine on the Triune God,  Translated by Matthew Levering, Washington, D.C: The Catholic University of America Press, 2011:95.