Wednesday, July 28, 2021

Creation is a Cauldron

The standard imagery usually attached to the first moments of biblical Creation seems to be mistaken.  I've usually encountered depictions of darkness or semi-darkness in which it is understood there are jagged rocks and heaving waves whipped by awesome winds.

This imagery, of course, relies on a vantage point somewhat above the waves.  This is a gross presumption, which puts our imagined observation in the place of the divine--the presence above the waves is no created atmosphere.  The space that a creature might visit above the waves is only constructed later, as the vault separates the waters of heaven from the waters of the earth--on the second day.

On the first day only the light is created, and all that light perfuses the rock and water arena that we are to take as a formless void.  The proper imagery is not a wild, dark seascape, but rather an all-encompassing realm of underwater volcanism.

The earth in the beginning of creation is a hellish lake of fire--an unimaginable cauldron.

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