A sine wave
I’d like to discuss a matter that editor Mary raised a few days back and I acknowledge that her share has influenced me.
Many, many natural and spiritual things have been designed as metaphors to point to and indicate the nature of Divinity, the path home to God, etc.
I don’t refer to things and processes that humans have designed but to those that can be truly thought of as being natural.
Natural things and processes have been designed to burn into our minds imagery suggestive of the Trinity or of the process of enlightenment by which we realize it.
The Trinity is not reserved for Christianity. It’s known to all religions. Hinduism knows it as Brahman, Atman and Shakti. The Trinity is real and it’s our ongoing assignment to realize it. We could say that realizing it fully is the purpose of life.
I first saw the metaphoric nature of life after the vision experience I had on Feb. 13, 1987, when, in three days of bliss that followed it, I saw metaphors of Divinity everywhere. (1)
If I were to give an example of a natural process that reflects a divine process, I’d cite the human reproductive cycle. I maintain that it’s a metaphor for the Holy Father implanting the seed/soul (Atman, Christ) in the Divine Mother’s womb of matter, mater, Mother. The seed gestates (learns) and is born (upon full enlightenment) into the transcendental realm of the Father. Thus the human reproductive cycle mirrors the overall journey of life.
This is St. John of the Cross’s drawing of “The Ascent of Mt. Carmel”
Here’s a second example from a staged spiritual event. Moses went up the mountain to receive the law. The animals and the children of Israel could not go up past the base of the mountain. When he reached the top, he received the two tablets or Ten Commandments.
Moses represents the kundalini, as St. John of the Cross illustrated in his “Ascent of Mount Carmel” (right). The mount itself is the human body. When the kundalini reaches the base of the mount (the heart chakra), we experience the first enlightenment.
Past that point, the appetites (the animals) and the desires (the children of Israel) cannot go without impeding further stages of enlightenment.
The kundalini rises up to the top of the mount or crown chakra and there we receive “the law” or the knowledge of God. This Biblical journey burns an enlightenment motif into our minds.
What I’d like to do here is point to different metaphors that I believe are designed to illustrate an aspect of the Divine Mother. Let me call this the creation/preservation/transformation (CPT) metaphor.
The Nature of the Mother
The Divine Mother and Holy Father are one and share the greatest part in common. However, what differentiates them is that the Divine Mother is all movement and sound whereas the Father is still and silent. In one of her many aspects, the Mother is the universal creative vibration called Aum or Amen. (2)
As this universal creative force, the Divine Mother creates material things, preserves them for a while, and transforms them back into the nothingness of the Void. As many people know, Aum can be represented as a sine wave, composed of three phases:
- A or Akar is the creative phase or up-wave.
- U or Umkar is the preservative phase. It lies at the top of the sine wave.
- And M or Makar is the transformative phase or down-wave.
This is what the CPT metaphor points to.
Now let’s look at some related things or processes that are naturally designed to point to the Mother as the sine wave we call Aum.
The Breath
First let’s look at the breath as a metaphor pointing to the nature of the Divine Mother as Aum.
The breath is composed of the inbreath, pause and outbreath.
- The inbreath is creative. It draws in pranic energy. It points to Akar.
- The pause is preservative. It holds the energy in. It points to Umkar.
- The outbreath is evacuative. It lets the spent energy out. It points to Makar.
The mystical function (not the physical function) of the breath, I allege, reminds us of the nature of the Mother as Aum.
The Trimurthy
Here is a second metaphor, taken from Hinduism.
Many Hindus worship the three gods, Brahma, Vishna, and Shiva, which they call the Trimurthy.
- Brahma is creative.
- Vishnu is preservative
- Shiva is transformative.
Brahma points to Akar; Vishnu points to Umkar; and Shiva points to Makar.
The Trimurthy as well then, I maintain, points to the nature of the Mother (Aum) as the creator, preserver and transformer of life.
The Cosmic Forces or Gunas
Now hold that knowledge in the back of your mind for a moment and look at what Hindus call the gunas, or the three creative forces in the universe.
- The guna or cosmic force called rajas is creative.
- The guna called sattwa is preservative.
- The guna called thamas is transformative.
Are you beginning to see a pattern here?
I checked with the Divine Mother (Shakti) and Sri Shankara on An Hour with an Angel and asked them both to confirm that Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the same as the three gunas and both said, yes, they were.
First here is the Divine Mother acknowledging the relationship:
Steve Beckow: I have a question for you from our Hindu readers. They want to know if the gunas, the cosmic forces which are called rajas, sattwa, and thamas, are the same as the Trimurthy [Triad] of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
Divine Mother: Yes. We are the same as that triad.
SB: All right. And the Trimurthy of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva is a subset of the Universal Creative Vibration [Aum] that you are at your essence. Is that correct?
DM: That is correct. [The Trimurthy] is much the same as we have been speaking of. It is a way in which my beloved children can come to know me and to have that experience. It is formless, and yet it is form. It is a way of connection, and it is a way of understanding and entering into a higher vibration of being. So it helps the emergence into my energy.
SB: Sort of like stair steps?
DM: That is correct. (3)
Later I asked Sri Shankara:
Steve Beckow: What is the connection between what Hindus call Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, and the gunas or the cosmic forces of rajas, sattwa and tamas?
Sri Shankara: I can answer this very quickly. There are no differences. (4)
So the Trimurthy is a personification of the cosmic forces and the cosmic forces themselves are a subset of the Divine Mother. Thus, we could say that Aum is composed of Akar (Brahma, rajas), Umkar (Vishnu, sattwa) and Makar (Shiva, thamas). These are the three phases of the sine wave that the Mother, in one of her aspects, is.
So here are two metaphors in the Hindu religion that point to the nature of the Divine Mother.
I know this may seem a bit complicated and I apologize for that. But what I’m trying to illustrate here are that certain natural things and processes and the religious concepts based on them are designed to instill in us a knowledge of Divinity.
In this case, the breath, the Hindu pantheon called the Trimurthy, and the description of the cosmic forces each points us to a knowledge of the Divine Mother as the universal creative vibration we call Aum, composed of Akar, Umkar and Makar.
These natural processes and religious notions, as the Divine Mother acknowledged, are “a way in which my beloved children can come to know me and to have that experience” of enlightenment that accompanies an intimate knowledge of her nature.
Footnotes
(1) See “Ch. 13, epilogue,” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/16244-2/the-purpose-of-life-is-enlightenment/ch-13-epilogue/.
(2) for a fuller discussion, see “On the Nature of the Divine Mother or Holy Spirit” at https://goldenageofgaia.com/spiritual-essays/the-nature-of-the-divine-mother/on-the-nature-of-the-divine-mother-or-holy-spirit-2/.
(3) “The Divine Mother: Come to Me as I Come to You – Part 1/2,” Oct. 17, 2012, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2012/10/17/the-divine-mother-come-to-me-as-i-come-to-you-part-12/.
(4) “Sri Shankara: Everywhere You Look will be a Monsoon of Love,” June 26, 2013, at https://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/06/sri-shankara-everywhere-you-look-will-be-a-monsoon-of-love/.