The Holy Birthing 2014

On By ptero9In Being

This post is an updated version of a post from Christmas 2013:

What is it that is born, again and again – on Christmas day and in each new life, and in each moment of everyday? Perhaps it is symbolic of another ongoing kind of birth – the birth that brings renewal throughout our lifetime as we spiral our way into the mystery that is life.

I ask myself, what is it that is trying to be born now, in me, in you and in the world?

“He not busy being born is busy dying.” Bob Dylan

“The decision of the future falls to the soul, depends upon how the soul understands itself, upon its refusal or acceptance of a new birth.” Henry Corbin

But not only a new birth, not one time, but repeatedly throughout a lifetime and many lifetimes.

 
File:Matthijs Maris The Bride, or Novice taking the Veil, c 1887.jpg“Insofar as anything is perceived as determinate and comprehensible, to that degree it is a Veil of the divinity. And yet in truth all things are masks of the infinite, and their being is the gift of God. All things are organs by which God contemplates Himself and are not other than He. To overcome the Test of the Veil requires that we not become trapped in the literal face of any being, that we not idolize it but rather see in it a Face of God.” Tom Cheetham

“Masks of the infinite” because who can look into the face of divinity and live? For instance, how difficult is it to look intently into another’s eyes before looking away, or to ponder the depths of either the beauty or horror of this world, or to receive a full presence of true awe? Have you ever experienced a feeling so intense that it literally took your breath away? How difficult it can be to openly and fully receive something not yet known, seen or wordless without turning away and reaching into the safety of the known to identify it and name it. Ah, we say, that’s just…, or that is…which immediately removes the danger and fear of the unknown. “I know, I know,” we say, but do we?

“For if God is known and witnessed by an other than Himself, it is because there is such an Other. However, for there to be an Other, there must be this opacity, this darkness of a being that stops at itself, at the non-being of its pretensions, its ignorance, or even its devotions. If he claims to be an Other, he cannot look at God, as God can only be looked at by Himself.
God can only look at a world which is his own gaze, that is his own eyes which look at him from this world. This is why a world which wishes itself other (either by agnosticism or by piety) is not a world that God looks at. Literally, it is a world that God does not look at.
… [And] there must be a world that God does not look at so that Nietzsche’s tragic exclamation of the last century: God is dead can resound and spread in it. Uttered from the West and since then echoed in all consciousnesses, this cry is precisely what, for a Sufi, is experienced as the Supreme Test, the Test of the Veil , and, facing up to this Test, Sufism opens the way precisely for one who wishes to pass through it.” Henry Corbin

Nietzsche’s freedom is everyone’s freedom, on the one hand to err, ignore and discount the mysterium tremendum and awe of being alive by always knowing, and on the other to bring into expression new possibilities of the numinous. But, in order to pass through the test of the veil, Corbin says we must find our angel, a divine being that is a face of God. Without the accompaniment of the Angel, we feel abandoned, because we are without a guiding presence which creates a vertical connection, curing us of the blindness of literalism, and giving us the second sight to see, at least imaginally, the Face of God in all of creation.

“The paradox of monotheism is equally the paradox of individualism, for the Angel as a Face of God is linked to the soul of whom it is the Twin in a bond of love that is essential for the being of each. Nietzsche’s cry requires a world that God does not look at, a world without His Face, a world that is, without Angels. But in such a world the reality of the person begins to fade. For if God is dead, then so are we.” Henry Corbin

Not so much through belief, but through the experience of seeking that twin, our guide and angel, do we begin to know ourselves and others as persons, as masks of God.

“On the one hand there is the doubt of the intellect, of the philosopher, who, as Corbin says, demands rational proof for realities to which such proof cannot apply. For rational doubt assumes that human reason can cast its net over everything and extend its reach to capture even God. It is this hubris that drives much of modern culture. We are liberated from it if we can take to heart the words attributed to the nineteenth-century British scientist Lord J. B. S. Haldane: “The universe is not only stranger than we suppose, but stranger than we can suppose.” “ Tom Cheetham
I am waiting in a silent prayer
I am frightened by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone,
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now – Amy Grant

Christmas MorningPeace on earth, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Cheetham, Tom (2012-07-03). All the World an Icon: Henry Corbin and the Angelic Function of Beings (p. 220). North Atlantic Books. Kindle Edition.

16 thoughts on “The Holy Birthing 2014”

  1. theburningheart

    In our existence on localized consciousness our Human manifestation, duality it’s what we perceive, and therefore the many, through mystical experiences we may if not totally tear the veil, we can peak, or better yet, experience a state of Union, it could be brief, or prolonged, but very likely finite, until final liberation, hopefully in death, we may all reach that state…
    Very nice post Debra. 😊❤

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  2. I am drawn to an interesting parallel here, Debra, to a notion contained in A Course in Miracles, which is that God literally does not see that which is made falsely. To “make” in the Course, (as opposed to “creating”, which is always a flowing alignment with all that is) is to try and assert a version of reality that is irreconcilable with nature of all that is. The quote I have noted below, differences of vocabulary distilled down to their essence, carries more or less the same thought: “This is why a world which wishes itself other (either by agnosticism or by piety) is not a world that God looks at.”

    Living in this realm that God does not see, facing this Test of the Veil, I resonated also with the idea that, “in order to pass through the test of the veil, Corbin says we must find our angel, a divine being that is a face of God.” My one question for you is about the angel that we discover, who brokers the vertical connection and snaps us free of our literalism. Does Corbin see that angel as alive within us? Where do we seek for this guide and companion?

    Wishing you a holy season of rebirth in this New Year, Debra!

    Michael

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    1. Dear Michael,

      Thanks for your thoughtful reply and especially for your questions.

      Without speaking for Corbin, I would say that any form of intentional practice that aims at revealing the nature of all that is leads one to graduated levels of understanding. Far be it for me to speak of ultimates as if from where I sit all has been revealed! Tom Cheetham speaks of a faith in love and some form of Divine being that is required for any revelation to occur. The test of the veil then is to practice as if there is something to be revealed and then hunger for it while accepting that the Holy presence will be revealed through a state of unknowing, or an openness where willfulness is set aside. Otherwise:

      “At times it happens that in less than a heartbeat the center of Creation shifts from God to the human soul. The limitless plenitude of a sacred world collapses to the confines of a finite and darkened mind. But the contraction is unstable, and the void is soon compensated by a mad expansion of the human will.

      Cheetham, Tom (2012-07-03). All the World an Icon: Henry Corbin and the Angelic Function of Beings (p. 216). North Atlantic Books. Kindle Edition.

      I often ponder what makes me free of literalism (when I am of course!). Perhaps one must have experienced something profoundly important through a metaphorical way of understanding, not only through words, but through some life changing experienced. I think that certain changes can be so profound as to awaken us to the very idea that there are various levels and angles at which to view things, yes? To resist any variation is truly a contraction, and I suspect that we humans can sometimes demand an exactitude, call it truth and be done with the tension that comes from holding on or juggling opposing views. For myself, when I have found myself venturing into a state of literalism over a particular idea, belief or preference, while initially the tension of choosing and holding more than one view subsides, but gradually returns. Then a mode of defense seems to take over where one must spend a lot of energy denying any validity to contrary opinions.

      My understanding of Corbin is that he most definitely sees the angels as intermediary beings in the metaphysical sense, inhabiting a realm between the physical and the absolute unknowable God.

      Likewise, I hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday and blessings for 2015!

      Love,
      Debra

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  3. nicciattfield

    I like the idea of being born and re-born, as ideas shift and transform and we see new things….I’ve been thinking a lot about the “God is dead’ statement, and the inevitability of this statement when people became so distant from cosmos and so creation. Where is God? Cast out into heaven and unobtainable? And the loss of connection would be an abandonment. It is no wonder the existential theorists had to search for meaning all over again…I wonder if we are coming a circle back again, and therefore a rebirth? Such a lovely post, Debra. I hope you had a lovely holiday?

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    1. Great thoughts Nicci! Yes, full circle, around and around we go.

      The holiday was great. Five days off from work spent mostly reading, playing music with a little house work thrown in for good measure. I hope you and your family had a lovely holiday.
      xxx
      Debra

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  7. An ongoing kind of birth. I like that, Debra. It’s what I feel and appreciate. Thank you for all of your wonderfully thought-provoking posts. Wishing you abundant peace, joy and love at Christmas and throughout your rebirthing.

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    1. Thanks so much Hariod! Likewise, I wish you much peace and love for the holidays and the coming year.

      I very much appreciate the time spent and the passion you have for dialoguing with me. You have enriched my life and thinking with your presence in my life. Strange, isn’t it, that we can create such bonding without having any flesh and blood presence.

      Here’s to contentedness!

      Love,
      Debra

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