By Bro. Ben Williams
It is interesting to note that in Platonic Theology the lower worlds in which we live (that physical world stretched through four dimensions) reflect the higher worlds. Matter is the plane of this mirror, and in its mottled surface the image of the perfect is rendered imperfectly.
So it is that the natural world organizes itself according to spiritual necessities, or reasons, if you will. These reasons, or principles (what Plato might term Ideas) come into being as part of the divine hierarchy simply because they extend from each other. The one informs the other, and delimits the infinite in possibility. The analogy of the circle is a popular one: the dot becomes the circle, through the extension of the radius. And a radius is first a line, and a line first a point. You cannot, therefore, draw a circle until you have drawn the line, and you cannot draw the line until you have drawn the point. Thus the one informs the other. The point is the secret of the circle, and the circumference is its emanation.
In this chain of becoming, the former precedes the latter. But it also engenders it. This is a fitting analogy to describe how the worlds come into being, and how the natures are born. In this way the possible fills the heaven, radiating from the First, the Supreme Cause (as Plato might term it). And the natures come into being.
What are the natures? The natures are forms, but not bodies. They have been called Ideas and archetypes. Wills and gods. An example is the nature of charity. What is charity? In order to exist in the infinitude of the possible, radiating from the Supreme Cause (that eternal limitlessness that precedes all creation or beginning) charity must be bestowed. Yet how can God bestow to Himself? That which is already all requires nothing. Indeed, how can God give to Himself, when He is everywhere? Yet, in order to not be limited, that which we imperfectly call ‘God’ must allow space for charity to exist. Without charity, or hunger, or mercy or might, the infinite is not infinite. And if not infinite, it must therefore be limited. But God is illimitable. It is for this reason that the natures spring into being, and also that they are a plurality, even while the totality is always Unity.
Another way to look at this is the idea of motion. God is immoveable. Infinite in expression, if God were to move, where could He move to? God, therefore, is the mover.
The point of this is to illustrate how, from the observation of the natural world and human society (which often appears unnatural), we can come to know much about the higher worlds.
Here is an example. There are boundaries between worlds, just as there are boundaries between nations or territories marked by animals. Yet the infinite is unbounded. We can look at these boundaries like kingdoms, like gates between states of being. There are doors in the house, yet the rooms still comprise one house. These boundaries are necessary for the locus of the limited to be moved between states. So it is knowledge becomes possible. And, ultimately, so knowledge of the Divine can be shared among itself. To reveal its own majesty, the All is veiled in flesh.
But think of a human border, between countries. It is built up and delineated. Marked out in certainty. There is a slowing. A waiting. A checking and scrutinizing. Many are turned back. Others are approved, and crossover. Isn’t this like death, crossing the boundary between worlds? Enter into an unfamiliar kingdom and you might get robbed. You might lose your way. Animals mark their boundaries just as their bodies bound their being. The land of the tiger is in the tiger, and the tiger is in the land. They are not separate. Their natures belong to each other. The one is the other’s secret, the other the emanation. This is why an animal in a zoo is not the animal. It is a prisoner, and its nature is lost.
The idea of a dwelling is like the first day. And it is also like the seventh day, that day of rest. The road is like the week. A hotel is like a graveyard, or an oasis. A bird is like a good idea, it shines from it.
Everything we do, then, resonates through the natures. Displaying the True nature, that nature that informs the others (which is love) brings us closer to understanding Deity. Love is an endless giving. The more it gives, the greater it becomes. Deity is like the circle of circles, whose innermost center is at once it’s endless extremity. This is the tree of love, which is itself contained in the smallest seed at the end of its own branch. Love is a good way to think about Deity.
Therefore, be lovely. Set your captives free. Give endlessly. Pour forth an abundance of love and become like the Sun. For the beginning of God is the end of God. And this is best exemplified by Love.