(Based on the work of Peter Dawkins)
This is the basis for the Myth of Creation by which all of humanity lives and ultimately understands its own existence.
It seems there are 4 realms - Creation being a result of God’s wish to ‘know’ Itself (I have chosen a neutral gender here because I don’t think it is appropriate any longer to refer to God as either male or female) Basically God needed a mirror to reflect ITs image into. As to why God would need to do this is not actually clear (and probably never will be).
‘The ancient sages saw God before Creation as….totally incomprehensible’. They referred to it as ‘No-Being’ because ‘IT had no Being and was no Thing….the only way they could come to describe it was as the Eternal Infinite Darkness’. (9) This suggests to me that the ‘dark’ Void is the one that manifests first, or at least at some point in the evolution of consciousness. Which would then provide some purpose to suffering in the deep pits of depression and mental anguish. I suspect that the physical experience of the Void forces one to focus on bodily survival and doesn’t allow us time to reflect on this.
It seems that ‘Universal Radiance’ is/was made up of Eternity as the ‘Power of God (Omnipotence)’, Infinity as the ‘Love of God (Omnipresence)’ and the Darkness as the ‘Invisible Light or hidden Wisdom of God (Omniscience)’ which sounds a bit like the collective unconscious to me. (9) In their anthropomorphic manifestations this translates to the ‘Divine Father, Mother and Son’, which is the Trinity our culture is familiar with, mainly through our cultural connection to Christianity. (9) As I have recently come to realise, our tendency to anthropomorphise is necessary so that we can relate to these entities or realms from a human perspective. Just like God, we need a reflection we can recognise, so that we can see ourselves. As above, so below – because we mirror God in our presence and in our actions.
The Candle Analogy
Dawkins’ analogy of the candle is the clearest image I have come across to explain the different realms of existence in graphic form. He says that ‘In the lighted candle we have the three realms of Spirit, Soul and Body….’ (10) The ‘earthly matter of the body’ is the candle itself, the flame of the candle is the soul and Spirit is the aura or radiance of the flame. (10) In its radiance the flame reflects the Universal Radiance. An engagement with pysche is therefore essential if we are to see the Radiance.
Dawkins, P & Trevelyan, G 1980, The Pattern of Initiation in the Evolution of Human Consciousness (The Eleusinian and Dionysian Mysteries, The Great Instaurtion of Light, Symbols of the Ladder of Initiation
