Analogue 33: The Craft of Vessels

 ANALOGUE 33

The Craft of the Vessels

Both vessels made out of glass as well as those made from clay come into being through fire. When glass vessels break they can be remade because they are formed by breath. When pottery breaks, however, it is destroyed, for it has been made without breath.

SYNOPSIS

• The analogy of the vessels and the metaphors of pottery and glass made with or without breath (Spirit).
• A simple metaphor with many implications concerning human beings.
• What happens to each depends on what is in the make-up of the human being—virtue and character are in play. What has been forged by fire into a human being? 
• Has it been created by “breath/spirit/anointing” or has it been created simply by water and fire? 
• Refinement and the actual substance of being. 
• This analogue may also have reference to the crucifixion of Yeshua. 

COMMENTARY

The Analogy of Craft

This is a simple metaphor using images from the craft of pottery making and glass blowing through breath and fire. The first craft of pottery is easier. It is created out of ordinary clay mixed with an abundance of water. Later, typically, it is refined by fire, becoming harden and vitrified. The second craft is more demanding in some respects because it is formed out of the fire and blown into being by the artisan. Each craft requires skill and precision, but in the end, the quality of the resulting vessel is different. Pottery is made for ordinary use. Glass, in the ancient world, was much rarer and was made for extraordinary uses. Analogically these metaphors apply to the nature of a human being and concern something we might think of today as qualitative refinement. 

Can humans be refined so that their qualities are changed? Metaphorically, can a human be pottery-like and then be spirit-blown: breathed through fire and turned into glass? Are there two kinds of spirit? Can qualitative changes be made by something that we might call the “breath of the divine?” Clearly the author has something like this in mind — and will return to this point later when discussing the sacraments (the mysteries, which are doorways into sacred inner chambers where secret work is going on). 

Divine Artistry and Agency

Divine artistry, craft and creation is being illustrated here by the arts and crafts practiced by humans on earth. The Creator may be unseen, but forms are appearing, fire is evident, and divine breath moves through the creation so that refinements occur. This connection may not be just that of Philip but of the Master of transformation, who both saw and understood these spiritual principles hidden in the hand-crafted materials around him. 

This could be another of the parables spoken by Yeshua in his typical mode of teaching. It is an illustration about what it takes to make radical changes in order to alter the quality of a human being, moving it from a lower to higher level. 

Visionaries see these changes coming in the world of the Great Age (beyond time as we know it), in which alterations are possible to things that looked fixed to us here. There is malleability and transformation which come through the agency of the divine Breath and fire. This agency initially involves the activity of water, but when you add the energy of fire and the breath of Spirit, the changes become even more radical, for the divine fiery Breath is acting and moving in ways that are often hidden or completely unknown to us. The author is using these metaphors to help us understand principles of Spirit that are often inaccessible to the human mind because they occur behind the scenes rather than in the open. We are meant to observe the inward signs of these realities—to listen, and to learn. 

Personal Application

By the time of the writing of this Gospel, Yeshua had himself been broken and remade—he had passed through the fiery trials of personal death and been resurrected (anastasis —standing up out of death). Perhaps he had even passed through the fires of hell. On the other side of his trial-by-fire, he had emerged so that who and what he actually (essentially) was (his inner qualities) were manifestly remade. He had withstood the test. His being was of such a quality that perhaps he could be compared to clear, transparent glass. Though broken, his being was not in shards, he was remade from and for eternity by the divine Breath. Perhaps this analogue is helping us see these connections in a very subtle way. More importantly, the analogue presents those passing through the fiery trials of earth with the deep existential question: What will their effects be upon us? Perhaps even more importantly, can the qualities of the Messiah be shared with us through the breath of Spirit, changing the quality of our own nature and being? 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. Have you ever worked with a craft that shapes or forms material in any of these ways? Have you made pottery? Have you watched glass being blown with great care and skill? Both are almost magical in the hands of a Master making such forms. What understanding about this metaphor emerges from your experience? 
2. One can imagine Earth as a workshop for the grand Art of human transformation where beings meant for sacred use (and of great value), are being formed. Looking at yourself, ask the question, for what am I being formed? How do you imagine your divine use? Imagine what living water and divine fire and breath do to you, perhaps unseen. What have you sensed about your own inner transformations?
3. Could these activities be outside the realm of personal knowing and in the dimensions of Spirit at the level of the heart, so that your senses and rational mind cannot comprehend all of this? How might this be detected?
4. How might divine Breath be active in your life now? How could fire? How might handcrafting and formation? What about the possibilities of transformation? 
5. Might you ever practice these same sacred arts in the lives of other humans, serving as the hands of the Master crafter? Imagine this during a period of meditation and journal your impressions and findings. 

Notes for Reference and further Study

1. Reference to handcrafted vessels is a common metaphor in wisdom teachings from the Middle East and elsewhere. Clay in the hands of the potter is a trope that is often used to speak of the formation of humankind in the divine hands. As the clay spins, it is being shaped not only by that force but by the divine pressure brought to bear upon it. This is an apt metaphor. The rest of the processes to make working vessels are also seen to be in stages of spiritual experience: drying, glazing, and firing, for example. Glass blowing is a much more technical craft requiring great expertise and so this advancement in the quality of a vessel (and its superior beauty) is used to express the divine “high art” brought to bear upon the human soul. Today, certain human beings are seen as objects d’art, highly prized for their physical beauty in contrast to the more ordinary human being. It might be easy, then, to accept the first metaphor of pottery, perhaps less so the second, as the destiny of the human soul. You might study something about these two crafts and draw even more insight from your search and study. They do not cancel each other out. They each represent some fundamental truth about the evolving nature of human beings. 
2. Fiery breath is a strong metaphor used within the tradition of Sufism and is introduced in the opening lines of Jalaluddin Rumi’s masterpiece, the Mathnawi. For Christians, such a metaphor begins at Pentecost, but it was also seen in the stories and legends of the Hebrew prophets, as well as in the Psalms. The metaphor also stretches back to Genesis where the same breath (sometimes accompanied by fire) is introduced as the creative breath of God. This is a shared metaphor across the Abrahamic faiths. You might want to collect these references and place them alongside this interesting description in the Gospel of Philip. To begin, here is the specific passage from Jalaluddin Rumi’s poetry referencing the fiery breath from his Song of the Reed:

It is Love's fire, not human breath, 

that makes music through the reed.

It is the fiery breath of love and nothing but the fire

flowing in and through—the same deep passion that ferments wine.

This reed-song-fire is a friend to those separated from the Friend--

O, there has never been such a poison, such a cure,

such a loving intimate.

Notes on the Translation

• The term ‘clay’ is actually pottery made of clay. 
• ‘Breath’ here, of course, refers to glass-blowing.