One Way or the Other - Part Two
Either with Water or With Fire, or With Both and With God (Earth and Air can wait, but we shall see...)
Sauron & Melkor represent the inner Fire of Creation, when it fails to serve, and desires to rule. Jesus explicitly rebuked Peter for rebuking him, (for offering to wash feet). If I do not wash your feet, Peter, you have no part in me. Or, put in the sacred language of Latin (since we live in a disenchanted age):
Mandatum novum do vobis ut diligatis invicem sicut dilexi vos.
A new commandment I give to you…The Christ explains the mystery of the Sacred Fire: it will not be for “lording it up” as is the Gentile way. Rather, each of the elements finds its perfection in service. As Lao Tze says of water -
“The supreme goodness is like water.
It benefits all things without contention.
In dwelling, it stays grounded.
In being, it flows to depths.
In expression, it is honest.
In confrontation, it stays gentle.
In governance, it does not control.
In action, it aligns to timing.
It is content with its nature and therefore cannot be faulted.”
Or again,
'I have heard from my teacher that, where there are ingenious contrivances, there are sure to be subtle doings; and that, where there are subtle doings, there is sure to be a scheming mind. But, when there is a scheming mind in the breast, its pure simplicity is impaired. When this pure simplicity is impaired, the spirit becomes unsettled, and the unsettled spirit is not the proper residence of the Dao. It is not that I do not know (the contrivance which you mention), but I should be ashamed to use it.' Source
Here is how Treebeard put it, in regard to Saruman:
'I think that I now understand what he is up to. He is plotting to become a Power. He has a mind of metal and wheels; and he does not care for growing things, except as far as they serve him for the moment. And now it is clear that he is a black traitor.
Here is how the Bible puts it!
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; 11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
How do we become equal with God? For we are given two choices - seize the secret Fir straight away, or be burned on a Cross with it. The first is the path of Sauron/Melkor, instinctively seeking to avoid the Cross, hating what is “small”, & instantiating the libido dominandi in the will. The second seems to be the end of our Life, the end of it all, but leads to divinization and the attainment of our destined state.
The second is spiritual combat, against the old self, & it is “ugly”, yet leads to Beauty. This is the Fairy Tale, & the True Myth. The path of Sauron is beautiful at first (is not self exaltation exhilarating?), yet ends poorly. The path of righteousness is hard at first, but leads to Life, & More: he who finds Truth, Beauty, & Goodness, finds “more”.
13Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. 14But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. 15This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. 16For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. 17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. James 3:13-18
Is Crucifixion really what it seems?
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; - 2 Cor. 4:17
It is not just in the Afterlife that we see the glory of the Lord. It is here, in seed form, when you are crucified with God in Christ. Every human by virtue of their incarnation is “trapped” on this path - will we carry it through? Or make a futile monster of ourself? Is it so hard to have enough Faith, to have just a little Faith? Even a particle of it will transform the soul.
Weight of Glory Sermon - CS Lewis
Is not Treebeard “crucified” when he beholds the desolation of Saruman? To watch the Power of the Prince of this world triumph, while refusing the temptation to reject the Cross (and Foot-Washing!), is Crucifixion. All the good characters undergo it, either actively or passively, or both, in their own way, as the “World” of Melkor perishes. The Third Age ends. A part of us, or what we think was us, ends with it.
God merely calls us, to be our actual self. In the face of annihilation, for example, Treebeard takes the time to study, know, & care for the young hobbits, for whom he develops his natural affection for small, growing things, feeding them Ent draughts and swapping tales. Is it so hard, then, to remain…ourself…in the face of certain Death and great Evil? Is this such a hard thing to resolve? Not to despair? To embrace our own seed kernel, & fall into the ground to die, to become a Tree of Righteousness, and live to see one’s own, individual, unique Victory? Is it so hard, to get right with God? We are not so sure, for example, that this “small thing” is not real Justice.
By getting right, we come to understand Evil, in a way that Evil can never understand Good. Gandalf knows Sauron, and Treebeard Saruman, but not the other way round. It is Intellectus that governs the world, & is God. More precisely, it is God-made-manifest, the manifested part of God that forms the part of the world at the top of the rising Pyramid, which permeates the whole, and pulls it back towards the unmanifested Essence of God. It is the Logos above, and below, and in between, most manifest at its highest, but thereby peculiarly manifested at its lowest, by contrast with the fallen Fallen World. It seems to us that Sauron is strongest, because in the Fallen World, things are upside down. Yet even what is upside down, can be turned upside down! Man is lethargic - we can Doubt our Doubts (emotionally), and we can embrace our Doubts and carry them boldly forward into the dark (intellectually): if we do both together, the two eyes of the soul are drawn together, to see with whole and holy vision. What happens then, is revealed, not just in the Book of Books, or the writings of the mystics, but the story of one’s own Life.
God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere. - Allain of Lille
An old, old teaching, renewed and affirmed by even higher vows, the vow of the Incarnation and Resurrection, the Atonement, the Second Creation, greater than the First, if that is possible.
When the two circles become as one (the two Fish are united, blessed in sacrament), the Circle is made complete, in God’s way, for out of the womb of the Vesica Piscis is born Christ.
Our ancient forebears tried to draw this for us. Aquarius comes after Pisces.
Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord. 12For as the woman is of the man, even so is the man also by the woman; but all things of God. I Corinthians 11:11-12
We are close, now, to the answer of what the Secret Fire might be -
There are two wills — the one within the fire, the other within the light.37 Fire and light — are basic symbols for Boehme. “Denn die Finsterniss hat kalt Feuer, so lange bis es die Angst erreicht, dann entzuendet sich’s in Hitze” {“For the darkness possesses a cold fire, to the extent of attaining anguish, then it sparks itself forth into heat”}.38 The fire — is the origin of everything, without fire there would be nothing, only the Ungrund would be: “und waere Alles ein Nichts und Ungrund ohne Feuer” {“And without the fire all would be a Nothing and the Ungrund”}.39 The passage over from non-being to being is accomplished through the blazing up of fire from out of freedom. Within eternity there is the primeval will of the Ungrund, which is outside of nature and prior to nature. Fichte and Hegel, Schopenhauer and Hartmann proceeded from this point, although they de-Christianised Boehme.
One can see why it was said of Melkor and Sauron, that the light in their eyes was a fire that burned and withered, but was deadly cold. You can serve this light of the Creator, or you can try to make it serve you (what you call “you”, at first). The first choice leads to Life Eternal. The second does not, until it is broken. What Fate after that, we do not know, for it passes beyond the bounds, though it must return to God. We suspect, that, in the end, Sauron and Melkor repent, and take up their alloted task as janitors in the kingdom of God, but who can say?
Sauron and Melkor have the Secret Fire - but they do not allow it to consummate them - this is what consumes them, burning away their vaunted power, and handing it to hobbits and late-comers. Still, there is something left, or they could not be punished.
The old basic riddle still puzzles Man. It bedazzles and stuns his intellect.
Corruptio Optima Pessimi. - Aristotle (the Noblest natures corrupted, are the worst)
The will can either cooperate with God, or resist Him: in this, determines the outcome - but burn with the fire of God, we have, do, and shall. It is our secret Will, and our own Secret Fire. There is no denying it.
What is man, but light sparkles in the aether of Deity (Thomas Carlyle)? The seed of a Star? A fallen Star has to learn the humility of becoming a humble jewel hidden in the earth, like Coriakin. He learns humility by ruling the Dufflepuds.
He welcomes Aslan graciously and submits willingly to the long penance of bringing the Duffers to wisdom.
The Truth is all around us - Fish don’t see the water in which they swim, but some Fish, can learn to see, and this never “stops”, because God is infinite. Aquarius comes to pour new water and wine on the Fish of the Piscean Age. It is high time to Get On Board. Get rid of those fake Rainbow flags and see the real Rainbow over the Flood.
It is not the 1960s that reveals the New Age of Aquarius (which is not really “New”), but JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, and Co. Or, if you don’t like them, take your pick of “your cup of tea”. There is a lot out there. There is the rising Russian constellation of Soloviev-Bulgakov-Berdyaev-Florensky (H/T C. Salvo at Gornahoor). There are the Catholic ressourcement writers, like Ur von Balthasar. I prefer the Anglo-Catholic Inklings, but that is a preference, not a divine Rule. There are most certainly “Others” just as there is certainly “More”.
But “judge of yourself”. The Kingdom of Heaven is already here. We just lean on the writings as a crutch, until we are whole. Still, a crutch is pretty handy, when you are lame, and looking to be healed.
Happy Summer!
(we will be taking a break for a bit)