Symbolism Calls Us Deeper

“Truly, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

-John 3:5

As Yeshua spoke with Nicodemus they traversed really deep intellectual concepts involving the manner of Water and Spirit. Yeshua sited an ebb and flow existing at the core of life He knew Nicodemus was sensing. He knew of the Pharisee’s connection to water. He understood what sort of electric pulse filled the spiritual seeker as they performed rituals of water cleansing. He saw the thirst in the Pharisee and met him in a language Nicodemus could understand.

(See, human souls pour into being in the physical world in a similar fashion to God’s pouring into existence. Christ knew what Nicodemus was really asking when he said-

How can a man be born when he is old?

– So he responded in kind by offering a parable.)

What sort of parables were used with Nicodemus? Notice that each time the word flesh is used a lower case ‘F’ is at the start of the word. Following that pattern one realizes that this is not so with spirit. Christ states, ‘that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit.’ This is no small detail. Any time we see a word that has a commonplace understanding capitalized in the Bible we can almost guarantee that it ties into the mystery of God.

Flesh is the lowest level of being. To live from the flesh and for the flesh is to be controlled by what the Apostle Paul called the carnal mind- the mind that is dominated by selfishness. It’s the mind that is “self-focused and self-seeking running on self-will.” The carnal mind is devoid of the ability to surrender wholeheartedly to God as it has no awareness outside of its basic needs.

Just to make sure Nicodemus really understood what Spirit is Christ expands on it by saying ‘The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.’

Greek is a fantastic language for the depth of understanding in Spirit that’s being conveyed by Christ. In the Greek language the word for wind and spirit is actually one and the same. Pneuma (πνεῦμα‎‎) has a basic meaning of ‘air in motion’, or ‘breath’ as something necessary to life. Digest that last part a minute; something necessary to life.

Think about our modern understanding of the term consciousness. The Oxford dictionary defines consciousness as ‘the fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.’ How are we able to observe life?

Oddly enough, the Koine Greek- the specific dialect of Greek used in the New Testament- defines pneuma as ‘the rational spirit, the power by which the human being feels, thinks, and decides.’

So, when Christ speaks on the wind and states ‘you do not know where it is coming from and where it is going; so is everyone who has been born of the Spirit,’ what is he really saying? We are aware of living and somehow remain completely unaware of the source of life within us.

Of course we all know that we are sentient beings fully capable of intelligent thought and reflection. However, none of us can accurately describe where our consciousness comes from or how it relates to life. Neither scientific or religious authorities have been able to fully answer the questions of life or our conscious awareness of it with any real accuracy. It’s one of those driving questions humankind has pondered since the dawn of our awareness. As a result our souls continue to thirst.

In the story of Nicodemus we find an archetype for one who is willing to empty themselves out of all they identify with to receive Divine truth. It’s Nicodemus’s willingness to pour out the creatures and clear away the ego blocking that Divine light of Christ that resonates with us. It reminds us, no matter how developed our intellectual prowess is we must eventually clear our minds and open our hearts if we want to perceive the Kingdom.

Our natural states of being, the ones we are born into, aren’t occupied with all of the thoughts and emotions we cling to as we age. We come in pure and empty of all creatures. As we progress through life and grow all of that changes but it’s not how we’re born. This is what being born again- from above, of the first or beginning, new nature- represents to us; a regeneration that restores our spiritual perception.

Anōthen- come from the first

‘Unless one is regenerated with the understanding we are begotten from the beginning we cannot, and absolutely will not, perceive through spiritual sight and see the Kingdom of God.’

Tell me this. If we completely took all of our concepts of God off the table and removed all of the names and ideas we have about God. Excommunicated all of our titling, our Buddhist, our Kabbalist, our Witch, our Priest; then we all came forward again to talk about how awesome it is to be. Tell me. Would we be divided?

Thus is the nature of Babel. The worlds cultures can come together but we can’t get it in sync because we’re building that tower together. You can’t hear me and I can’t hear you. Since both of us are right neither one lets on to the fact that we’re wrong.

We saw polarity being the lesson behind existence. Two principles on opposite ends of the spectrum were vibrating so one could know the other and yet we missed it. We saw water as this passive agent that had spirit hovering over it and yet the Wisdom wasn’t in sync. How did this happen?

How do you connect Water with Spirit and recognize the depth of Yeshua’s teachings?

We’ll talk about the connection between the Fourth Gospel and the Creation Epoch next time we get together. For now, take this food for thought with you and ask yourself:

How am I born from the beginning?

Advertisement