Analogue 19: The Philippian Trinity

Analogue 19: The Philippian Trinity

The names “Father” and “Son” are single words, and “Sacred Spirit” is, of course, double. The Father and the Son exist everywhere, in transcendence above and in space-time below, in what is visible or manifest, and what is invisible and unmanifest. The Sacred Spirit, however, becomes visible when descending towards the material plane, and invisible when ascending towards transcendent realities.

• The metaphysics and dynamics of the Philippian Trinity. 
• The One and the many, the manifest and unmanifest, being and non-being.
• Dynamics of the vertical axis and the power of the Sacred Spirit.
• What is visible or invisible to human knowing.
• The invisible behind the veil of the visible. 
• Based upon the numeration of the names—a simple Gematria or numerology

 

COMMENTARY

The Nature and Source of Reality

In the nature of Ultimate Reality, as understood in traditional wisdom and as stated by this Gospel, there is that which is expressed or manifest in a tangible form and there is what is unexpressed or unmanifest, existing perhaps only in the realm of Ideas or beyond ideas themselves. There are realities which can be perceived by human beings, and there are others which are outside sensory perception: the unseen Realities. Also, there are realms of transcendence beyond physical existence, and there is that which is imminently present to us in the physical world available either to our affective awareness or to our senses. However, a reductionistic viewpoint that prevails in modern society says that only what can be detected by the rational mind or by our senses in this world (or alternatively, what the sciences are able to verify empirically) are said to be real. Therefore anything that is said to be transcendent to these, because they cannot be verified by the senses or empirically by science, must be unreal. The ancients, however, understood that reality was much broader than this. For them, reality was many-layered and multi-dimensional. 

In this text, the terms “Father” and “Son” are Semitic metaphors for the more abstract terms “Source” and “Manifestation”. The activity between and which connects them is the energy of the Sacred Spirit which can be detected depending on the direction of its flow. This Trinity of Father, Son and Sacred Spirit is woven across the totality of being; they exist both as principles and as “persons.” They are the supreme Intelligences which can be known by other intelligences across the cosmos; they are present everywhere and always potentially available.

The Activities of Spirit

The complexity of the dynamics of Spirit lies in her ascending and descending activities which are understood metaphorically to be dual and active along the vertical axis. Like a magnetic or electrical pole where the meridians or currents run, She draws the energies of heaven downwards and also sends them spiraling upwards. In this analog, this dual action is seemingly found in the symbolism assigned to the double-word compound of her name. Such symbolism represents an interesting numerology that many ancients (and some today) practiced that is called gematria—where letters and words carry special symbolic significance pointing to deeper meanings and mysteries. This is perhaps why the analog beings by mentioning the assignment of single and double words, though the original intention is not not entirely clear. 

What the Sacred Spirit brings down from Transcendence becomes visible and thus becomes more real to us. What ascends seems to disappear from our sight and we assume incorrectly that it is less real. These are only perceptions and reflect the illusory nature of things made visible or invisible in our dimension of being. What is manifest on the physical plane are the detectable objects and energies that come from the realm of the Unmanifest where the fullness of everything is sourced. We unfortunately treat what is “in being” in our world as the most real and important and mistakenly think that they originate here. The truth is that their origins are in the world of Spirit, the realm of Transcendence, which holds all possible forms and potentialities, even if not their essential reality. The metaphysical realizations about the true nature of things (and their reversal to our limited perceptions) is made clear in this analogue and have deep significance for us personally as well as for our understanding of Perennial Wisdom as a source and guide for the sacred journey we make into and through all dimensions.  

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. This short paragraph contains many theological and metaphysical principles which are consistent across the various streams of Perennial Wisdom. This Gospel does not simply make a theological statement about the existence of a tri-unity in the Godhead but speaks about the principles of Source, manifestation, and the activities between them. Draw a diagram that might illustrate and help you to better understand these principles. The vertical activity of Sacred Spirit is being highlighted here. Perhaps use the dynamics of that idea to make the truth of this analogue even clearer. 
2. How might this understanding be different from the theological teachings concerning the Trinity as taught in the West? Is this expressing a different form of Trinity from the one that is accepted theologically?
3. Why do you think there is a distinction based on numbers being made concerning how the Sacred Spirit is distinguished from the Father and the Son? How would your describe this difference?
4. Are any of these numbers or numerical combinations significant to you? What is their symbolic meaning? (See Note A below for suggestions about learning principles of Gematria.)
5. Remember that the Sacred Spirit is the feminine principle whereas the Father and the Son represent the masculine principle. How might this analogue inform our understanding of these principles?
6. Have you ever experienced the Sacred Spirit descending? Did something seem to be becoming manifest? 
7. Have you ever been aware of the Spirit’s activity of ascent? Did something seem to be disappearing?

Notes for further Reference and Study

1. Though it is typically expressed in a more occult-like manner, traditional Gematria is called numerology today and practiced in such diverse fields as Jungian or depth psychology as well as in the more popular expressions of divination. However, it is clear that the universe follows mathematical laws and formulations of number and vibration which we are exploring closely today in contemporary physics. The ancients (Pythagorus, for example) established this as a kind of geography of the Spirit. In the modern world, Nicola Tesla took numerology to a new level as an important part of his own discoveries and inventions. You might want to do an online exploration of the subjects of Gematria, numerology, Pythagorus, Jungian symbolism, and the more contemporary work of Nicola Tesla. A text that explores the significance of numbers mathematically and symbolically is A Beginner's Guide to Constructing the Universe: Mathematical Archetypes of Nature, Art, and Science by Michael S. Schneider (1995).
2. Interestingly, the discussion concerning what is seen and unseen (discussed here as Manifest and Unmanifest reality) is echoed in the contemporary scientific theories of David Bohm. In his discussion of the nature of the cosmos he postulates two great domains which he calls the “implicate” and “explicate” orders of reality. The explicate is what we see and know while the implicate is what is implied by the explicit and mathematically necessary for them to have any substance whatsoever. This understanding parallels the way traditional metaphysics has talked about the nature of existence throughout the ages.
3. These concepts are normally used in what we can call Traditional Metaphysics which has expressions in every sacred tradition, though they are known by different names. Less and less attention has been paid to this terminology in modern philosophical thought, though it is interesting that these notions are creeping back into parlance due to breakthroughs in modern cosmology and astrophysics. Good resources to help explicate these ideas for the contemporary reader are Alan Watt’s Supreme Identity (1972) and Frithjof Schuon’s A Survey of Metaphysics and Esoterism (2003),
4. Typically we treat Being and what is in-being as the most worthy or real things. Suppose, however, that what we might call non-Being (because it is not in-being) contains all and everything and is in fact the divine Source. That Source chooses, through the activities of the Sacred Spirit, to activate into being all creatures and entities, bringing them into manifestation. As an interesting illustration of this, consider the art of cooking. Chefs have ideas for cooking and recipes in their heads. In fact the worldwide creative possibilities for cooking “exist” as a great and seemingly endless fullness, but then out of that fullness a chef chooses, executes, and creates a meal in the realm of being and puts it on the table to be enjoyed. However, if you want the full treasury of culinary possibilities, or a chef’s secrets, their creative ideas, and even their technical skills, these are available only in a higher realm of consciousness. not at the immediate table at which you sit, or they may be encoded somewhere in texts of culinary wisdom called recipe books.

Notes for the Translation

1. “Sacred Spirit” translates the phrase “the Spirit the holy”.
2. “Space-time” and “the material plane” translate the word “earth” in Coptic referring to the realm of matter in space and time where humans currently dwell.
3. “Visible/manifest” and “invisible/unmanifest” are each single words In Coptic which could be translated also as “revealed” and “hidden”.
4. The terms “descending” and “ascending” are implied in the use of the term “in the direction of.”