Principle of Creation Part 1.1

Everything has two aspects: an outer form and an internal quality. The outer form is visible and resembles the invisible internal quality. For example, a person's face can show their character and current emotions. When you look at someone's face, you can often tell what they are thinking and feeling because our face acts as a window into the soul. In this sense, the outer form resembles the invisible internal quality. This dual character of internal nature and external form can be observed in various aspects of life.

Take a road sign, for instance. You can see its shape and colour, but the meaning it conveys is invisible. Similarly, when I speak, my vocal cords vibrate the air, which then strikes your eardrums, converting it into sound that makes sense. The outer form of a word, such as 'word', is just white marks on a blue background if you cannot understand English. The meaning is invisible but conveys an idea. This concept is known in linguistics as the signified and the signifier.

When you take your car to a mechanic, you might think the work looks simple, but the skills and knowledge of the mechanic are invisible. You cannot see the expertise that makes them different from you. The same applies to a watch; its metal is organised in a particular way, creating a design that is not immediately visible. For example, carbon can be structured as a diamond or as coal. If someone presented you with a black piece of carbon, you would not be satisfied, even if it had the same atoms as a diamond. The difference lies in the internal structure and nature.

In many religious traditions, such as Christianity, baptism involves immersion in or sprinkling with water, symbolising the reception of grace. If an outsider were to analyse the tears of a person crying, they might conclude that the person is leaking water, missing the deeper emotional significance of sorrow or joy that the tears represent. This illustrates how many aspects of our reality are invisible, with the external form expressing an internal reality. Thus, everything has an internal nature and external form, including human beings, who possess a mind and soul that are invisible, while their body is the visible form.

The missing element here is the mention of subject partner and object partner. We haven't really dealt with that whole concept. You mentioned, for instance, masculinity and femininity, positivity and negativity, but it hasn't brought in the whole idea of initiator and response into the equation. That's a good point. I need to integrate that and put it in. It should be more like the relationship between the sperm and the egg. In terms of masculine and feminine, the ideal is that Oneness is not separate. As human beings, our understanding tends to separate things instead of seeing them as ideally unified. We can say that the feminine aspect is present, but if God is in complete harmony with the whole of internal nature, then this internal nature is also in complete harmony with the external world, which includes both masculine and feminine aspects.

We cannot really separate these concepts too much, but that is how we can understand them more easily. To comprehend things, we usually divide them up. Masculinity tends to be more about initiating, while femininity is more about responding. This is why we can say that God is, in a relative sense, like the subject, while the universe is the object. Thus, God can be seen as masculine, and the universe as feminine. This is why, within the biblical tradition, God is often regarded as masculine or referred to as 'Father'. This is largely due to the limitations of our language and the societal context of that time.

I understand God as both masculine and feminine, harmonised into Oneness. However, when we consider the relationship between God and the natural world, God is relatively more masculine compared to nature. This is why we have expressions like 'Mother Earth', which describe the Earth as a sort of mother. This perspective is also present in various religions. At the end of the day, words are inadequate to describe what God is like. Just because a term is used does not mean it fully encapsulates the essence of God; we are trying to use our limited language to simplify and understand the relationship between God and the universe.

This relationship can be likened to the dynamics of subject and object or masculine and feminine. When we think about masculinity and femininity, there are two aspects: personality and roles. The masculine role is often about initiation, while the masculine personality we typically experience is influenced by their gender. In this context, it is more about the roles than actual personality. So, we can see the universe as an image of God, and people are created in the image of God.