Finding the Aesthetic of Sophia as a Response to
Terrorism and Counter Terrorism in the World
Thomas Bowman
Playing ping-pong with
Jonah, age 17, and Eliza, 11, is always new. Last nightÕs discovery came about
as I watched the ball closely even as the racquet I was holding was making
contact with the ball. And everything changed. Not only is there an increase in
concentration which allows more available time to address the ball with the
necessary spin, counter spin and velocity but something more critical also
occurs: the vagueness of my eyes that accompanies playing automatically is
inhibited by a wondrous attention that frees a receiving of the periphery,
opening from whence the organization of my response begins. ÒInhibitingÓ isnÕt
really the right word, for it implies effort and intention. It is more like
following the activity of an opening door that only occurs as the door closes.
ÒI am the door. The opening and closing.Ó ChristÕs statement of the third
miracle in the Gospel of John. This refers to ChristÕs perception of the mirror
opposite likeness occurring simultaneously and spontaneously. As is, ÒI am- the
door.Ó The simultaneousness of two opposite likenesses becomes a third
consciousness that is the field of Sophia, a necessary realm for the miraculous
to occur which coincides with its opposite likeness in the activity of
sacrifice.
A good place to begin
this understanding is with Rudolf SteinerÕs statement about the two kinds of
thinking. Dead thinking is the thinking old thoughts that have been thought
from the past. Living thinking is the thinking of new thoughts, perhaps from
the future. I donÕt know where the preferential value comes from. On the face
of it, the connotation of Òdead thinkingÓ would most likely be viewed as
inferior to Òliving thinkingÓ, and Òliving thinkingÓ considered superior to
Òdead thinkingÓ. This interpretation would be jumping to conclusions. For
sacrificing this understanding is going to be crucial for perceiving Sophia,
the anima mundi, interiorly.
This morning on
awakening I heard these words, ÒNothing in nature is symmetrical.Ó The
hearing of which moved me near to tears. One of the qualities of words at dawn,
for me, is they almost never makes any sense. Then they illuminate everything.
It seems to require backing in from the furthest periphery. If we examine this
phrase, Ònothing in nature is symmetricalÓ, some light can be born on this
matter of the twofold thinking of philosophical
Idealism.
ItÕs always a spontaneous leap, finding
the third way, seeing the word ÒnothingÓ from the point of view of the three.
If we look at the literal content of dead thinking the word nothing connotes
the absence of something, revealing the meaning of the phrase to state the
nonexistence of symmetry in nature. If we interpret the word ÒsymmetryÓ from
this nonexistent point of view the statement appears to be saying that there
are no mirrored patterns in nature. Since this statement could easily be proven
untrue by simply examining a single leaf, then one could conclude it was a
false statement. This is a fine example of both the content of dead thinking
and its implementation.
If we were to view the
same statement from the vantage point of living thinking, the emphasis would
shift from the content to its activity. The word ÒnothingÓ, no thing, is freed
to be unnamable, inconceivable, and unknowable, all qualities of the Divine.
This is to say, ÒThe spirit of God always manifests through the patterns of
nature.Ó
What is most
interesting is that both the dead and the living thinking are from the same
source and equally valued by it. It is preposterous and destructive to the
descending moral fabric of Sophia to attempt to be rid of one in favor of the
other for each are required for a fertile field to be in existence. For when
the content of nothing and the activity of nothing and symmetry as pattern and
symmetry as activity/ inactivity are all simultaneously and spontaneously co
creating a three fold thinking occurs. ÒWhen nature becomes truly alive the
spirit of God is stirring in her.Ó The symmetry of the two becoming one is what
creates the asymmetrical third, simultaneously and spontaneously.
What is the indication
that a field exists? Two images were presented. Firstly, a really
imperfect statement, Ònothing in nature is symmetrical.Ó This seemingly dead
statement required generous attention. And secondly, the living activity of the
near tear is a beginning of the feeling state of the interior world, one of
devotion. When the dead thinking and living thinking form a field, the two are
becoming one (two plus one = three) and a third mode of thinking arises. I
think this is what Robert Sardello and Cheryl Sanders mean when they speak of
heart thinking. The heart not only being the bodily receiver for the imaginal,
but also, the imaginal being in the heart field as both one and the same,
inseparably .The sacrifice of the two in opposition generates the inception of
the heartÕs consciousness.
This threefold
thinking is vital for experiencing Sophia as an external deity, the soul of the
world, and as an internal deity, a personal soulÕs drop of water being a part
of the sea and the simultaneousness of the two together are the entering and
generation of the interior of this field of Sophia. This simultaneousness is a
state of consciousness that is neither just humanly inspired nor solely
divinely inspired yet both presences are necessary for this imaginal field to
be created.
ÒWhen the two become
one Éthen you shall enter the Kingdom.Ó (#22, Gospel of Thomas) is not the dead
thinking of synergy which refers to the content of the physical and its
effects, for in synergy the two are literally one, i.e.: alcohol and sleeping
pills when mixed become a new potentiated compound where the original
alcohol and sleeping medication are no longer also apparent. So, there is no
three, only two fragments become a new one because there was no energetic field
to begin with, only a dissolved merging. This is the necessity of the
living activity of anger which is never reactive but crucial for the integrity
of vital boundaries to hold a field open. There is no threshold without two
equal, polar door sills. I think it was Pablo Neruda who said, ÒLove is about
equality, the more equal, the greater the love.Ó A poetic reference to this
living field and the hidden sacrifice that occurs between the two lines
yielding a third.
Sophia as the
invisible field of the soul of the world requires this threefold thinking of
the heart for like to become like. Mary is this living likeness through her
embodiment of Sophia becoming visible. The moment this occurs a divine spark is
ignited, illuminating a divine mystery. Within the field of Sophia the two
become one and a third is generating. On entering the interior of this field a
hidden and most precious unloved wound is experienced. Our greatest
imperfection of all our dead thinking, once sacrificed becomes cherished as the
unmanifested third within the field of Sophia and Mary manifesting as the black
Madonna. She most often occurs within nature as one of her primary
characteristics is her hiddenness. Maybe she is kind of shy; for she is the
feeling interior of the field of the imaginal Sophia. This being, the black
Madonna, serves as a mirror reflection for the human being to illumine our true
likeness that is organized outside in the world, Sophia, and made visible and
becoming vitalized in our bodies, Mary, and illumined from this interior,
generative third. This is the soulÕs theophany. The reason this heart
thinking is so critical is that itÕs the very means that the Black Madonna
enters the human consciousness just as it is human consciousness that attends
to her coming in to existence.
Her
blackness is not just her color but also the living blackening of divine mystery
reflecting an enfolding sorrow tinged with love. Not the sorrow for what is
missing but the sorrow for what only exists in the missing and is thereby
nearly infinite, yet not even close at the same time. A luminous echo of our
most precious, unloved wound, the near tear.
Thomas E. Bowman,
son of Ruth and Richard, father of Jonah and Eliza, husband of Julie,
practitioner of Classical 5 Element Acupuncture for 25 years and member of the
first Sacred Service class. Attempting to build and live in an energy efficient
home, in Freeport, Maine, all in preparation for the imaginal work of
ushering Sophia to the forefront of the world.