December 06, 2005
Borromean Rings
On Italy's northern border, about 50 miles north of Milan, sits Italy's second largest lake, called Lago Maggiore. The lake is a long and narrow finger that stretches so far north as to reach into Switzerland. About the place of the bottom joint of the finger is a bulge in the lake to the west. Within that bulge lay three small islands, called Isola Bella, Isola Madre, and Isola Superiore. These three islands have been owned for many generations by the Borromeo family. Throughout Italy's history that wealthy family has played a part in Italy's commerce and religion. On the small island, Isola Bella, the Borromean family built a beautiful palace with extensive gardens. The gardens and palace have been carefully designed and decorated. And both contain variations of a common theme throughout, an symbol found on the family crest called the Borromean Rings. Notice those rings in the small blue portion of the crest just behind the horse toward the bottom. Throughout the estate these rings occur in the design of the flower gardens and in the inlaid wooden floors.
Imagine the rings for a moment without looking too closely at them. Try to picture in your mind three separate rings, none of them interlocking like a chain. But image at the same time those three rings being completely interlocked among the three. Now look at the rings on the right, and you will witness exactly that. At first glance it may appear that some of the rings interlock. But no. These interlocking rings would be impossible to construct using planar (flat) rings. They must be constructed with bendable material or in two dimensions. (I have made some with cardboard.) Similar patterns were created by the Vikings, the French, the Africans, and the Japanese. And learned men have found this same idea in other areas of study like mathematics, geometry, physics, chemistry, and even psychology.
Individually, the rings would remain completely separate from each other. In interlocking pairs, the rings lose their individual identity. But when the three combine as one, they become inseperable and create a new reality greater than what each ring would be alone or in pairs. Break any one ring, and the whole creation falls apart. Such a wonderful picture showing the relationship of threeness and unity.
I don't demonstrate this unique design merely to find an illustration of Trinity as an abstract idea. Let’s think for a moment about the Trinity. In the Father, we have the most transcendent of the three persons. No one has seen Him at any time. Those who did hear His voice were stricken with fear and awe. On the other hand, we have the Son, Jesus. He lived right here on this earth. John, one of His own disciples, testifies that though He existed from the beginning, He is one “whom we have heard, whom we have seen with our eyes, whom we looked upon and have touched with our hands” (1 John 1:1). Thus, we have two, shall we say, extremes: One who is completely spirit, who has always lived in heaven; and One who is human, who sneezed, who had body odor, who felt pain, who cried tears and sweat blood.
At times men have been tempted to see two different Gods completely because of these (and other) seemingly opposing and irreconcilable views of God. But we know that such is not the case. Rather, Jesus is the exact representation of God the Father. And the Spirit is present to guarantee the exact correspondence between the Father and the Son. He is the bond of love that moves back and forth between the two. Without the Spirit, we indeed have two gods, two irreconcilable opposites. The Spirit is the binding arbiter who completes the Trinity. But as God cannot need anything outside of Himself and as He is totally complete within Himself, so the Spirit must Himself be fully God. He is not merely a force that interlocks two rings. He is the third ring. Thus, by not being interlocked with any other ring, each one maintains His full and individual identity. But because there are three rings, the identity of each one is inseparable from the other two. There must be three, no more, no less.
Posted by jhyink at 08:19 PM | Comments (1)
December 05, 2005
Modern Astrology
"Life is a phenomenon. Its production is due to the influence of the dynamics of the cosmos on a passive subject. It lives due to dynamics, each oscillation of organic pulsation is coordinated with the cosmic heart in a grandiose whole of nebulas, stars, the sun and the planet."
Alexander Chizhevsky (1897-1964), the author of the preceding words, spent years of his life building a case that extra-terrestrial influences (especially sun spots) correspond greatly to periods of scientific discovery, rare historical events (like influenza pandemics), and a revolutionary mentality (resulting in political upheavals, revolts, and civil wars). He is the father of a science called heliobiology, which one author says "verifies that the angular position of the moon and planets does affect the electromagnetic and cosmic radiation which impact with the earth, and in turn these field fluctuations affect many biological processes." Studies that have ocurred in this area of science find that times of cultural advances in the ancient Western civilizations correspond to those same times in the Eastern civilizations. I find it interesting that so many beliefs held by "superstitious" Medieval men are now being "verified" by "modern science." It seems that their Christian foundation compensated greatly for their lack of modern instruments of science.
It is also interesting to note that these findings of modern science give us another perspective from which to understand the relationship between the motions of the heavens and the activites of earth. The account of the maji, which we read during the advent season, has always facinated me. Certainly, those men knew divine revelation, which had reached those eastern civilizations from the exilic Jews. But they combined their understanding of that revelation with their correct interpretations of the heavens to guide them to the One who was born King of the Jews. The heavens are a pattern for the earth because they are an image of the highest heaven, God's abode. Thus, we must take the truths we understand from the heavens and impress them on the earth. And we must recognize that God's world is not composed merely of unrelated and atomized individualities. But all truth and all reality are connected to everything else.
Confused rambling, sure, but much food for thought and study.
Posted by jhyink at 09:26 PM | Comments (0)