On Serpents, Trees, Fig Leaves and the Voice of God
It is very odd how our minds change as we go through life, and we hardly notice the change. My mind at eight years old was not at all like my mind at fourteen, and my mind at twenty-one was not like mind at forty-five. Now that I am a Septuagenarian my dreams have more and more drifted to the mystical side of things, and difficult passages of scripture begin taking on a different meaning than they did when I was middle aged.
I imagine that is the way it is supposed to be. All through scriptures, old sages and seers had a vastly different view of the world than the youngsters had. Perhaps it is a focus thing. We obey God when we are of child creating age by having children. When we are older, that begins to take on a lesser role in driving our lives, and scripture tends to support that view.
There is an old saw in rabbinic circles that goes: In the beginning, God created heaven and Earth. If you can understand that, the rest of scripture is easy.
The last few years I have spent meditating on the creation story, and I began seeing things in a different light. I would ponder something concerning them, and then I would take a nap, only to wake to a teaching voice explaining concepts that go beyond the simple meaning. The Pashat[1], as it is called by scholars. The Sod[2] leads you down a path where a tree is not a tree, a fruit is not a fruit, and a fig leaf is not a fig leaf. OK … sorry. As I said: going beyond the simple meaning.
As I sat down to write this, it occurred to me that to take you to that wonderful place simply cannot be done with words. It is a revealed thing and if you are not ready to begin that search, all the fine words in the world cannot convey that which is hidden to you, because it is … well … hidden.
Not that it matters. God entertains us with his mysteries but lays out the relationship with us in amazingly simple terms and concepts. But I so much want to share these little bat kols[3] and dreams with you even if they are only amusing to an old man. It really pains me that I cannot.
Many years ago, when I started this walk with Messiah, a wise sage with a permanently broken nose and who slept in the used trucks he sold told me that when I thought I had a divine revelation, if that vision did not get me to work Monday morning it was just my imagination and not God. OK … another one of those stories that if you were not there, you would not understand.
But it sure is nice when God opens his mind to you and you begin to really see the depth of feeling for his fallen creation. This was not the world he intended. This was not the life he intended for you. And you discover that the gift of ‘free will’ was not a gift at all, but a tragedy and the results of rebellion.
I may never know what a tree in the garden really was. At least not until I have a body that can stand in the presence of God. But I keep pondering.
[1] Pashat. Transliterated Hebrew word meaning simple. The simplest, most direct meaning of a word or passage.
[2] Sod. Transliterated Hebrew word meaning hidden. The mystical meaning of a word or passage
[3] Bat Kol. Transliterated Hebrew word meaning “daughter of the voice”. A voice from heaven
Rusty's Armory 
July 19, 2020 at 11:28 am
I wish you could share those, too, although they’d likely be lost on the likes of me.
The tale of your wise sage made me smile. I seem to remember something like that – was this back in your Shaman days?
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July 19, 2020 at 11:47 am
Dell was my guru in the aftermath of Ben the Brujo. It was a long trudge back to the real world of jobs, family and bill paying. I faltered a lot, so I didn’t get a top of the line Guru. 😉
I suspect that you could be led down the mystical path reasonably easy. You tend to prefer the more practical revelations. You call someone when they pop into your head. You take a cup of coffee to someone who is at their wits end. Minor miracles where God sits in the background …
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