https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=O_1paNnpMvE
So let me share one more image. So this is the one that I used for the symbolism of the burning bush article on the symbolic world blog. And it just really fascinates me because you have the Theotokos as the burning bush on Mount Sinai and Moses at different stages in his Exodus story. And so it’s like it’s really it’s again, it’s like for a modern linear time thinker, it’s like so confusing because you have Moses, three Moses’s at different stages of his story within the Exodus numbers Deuteronomy storyline. And then you have the mother of God in, you know, the Gospels times, right, and then she’s on Mount Sinai during Moses in. So it’s like, oh my goodness, like, what’s happening here. Yeah, there’s even more than that that’s going on, by the way that maybe you don’t that you won’t realize but there’s also a cave. Did you see the cave. Oh yeah, little cave next to Moses. And so that’s also part of bringing a lot of this stuff together, you could say and it’s important also in this version that they show the sheep and the and the waters that are down there below as well. And so that this image is, is a very, it’s a very powerful because it’s trying to bring together the different elements of the mountain. It is again like a very much a cosmic image which is showing us you trying to the basic pattern of reality, using the story Moses to do so. And then showing you different aspects of what’s going on. So, you know, the three, you can see the three, the three moments of Moses one is, he is seeing the vision of the burning bush. The other is he’s removing his sandals. And then the third is he’s receiving the law from God. So those like you said those moments are not at all at the same time. And Moses sees the burning bush before, you know, like before Exodus three, you know, before he goes to Egypt and then, you know, has brings the people outside out of Egypt and so you think what is the relationship between the two and you could say that there, There’s a lot of repetition of these different instances of trying to tell you what this is about. But just showing you like how at the different moments, these are the same types of things that are going on so you can understand what is ultimately happening. And that’s why, and then the image of the Mother of God herself with in the burning bush is kind of the combination of what is going on. So you have the Mother of God as the mountain, you could say, the Mother of God as the throne, the Mother of God as the bush that doesn’t burn the support, all of that. And then you have the revelation which happens in the midst of that. So you have Christ which is revealing the logos in the Mother, just like Christ was born in the dark cave, which is honestly why I think the cave is there. It’s to refer to the Nativity actually. And that like revelation is ultimately so what do you need for you to access that revelation, you need to remove your garments of skin, you need to remove your sandals, you need and her there at the top, she’s also the altar in the church, she’s also the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle. All of these images are coming together into one, she is, she is the pattern of the Tabernacle. She is the space in which the glory of God descends. She is the holiest place in the church as well. So, this image is all bringing that all together. And that is where the law comes from. So, on the top of the mountain, Moses receives the law and then brings it down to the bottom of the mountain. And so, he removes his sandals to go up the mountain, he comes back on the mountain with a veil on his face. So, he puts on a veil to go up, he puts on a veil to come down. And though this is these are the different levels of veils in the temple, they’re the different embodiments of the law, but they’re also ultimately something like the very body of Christ. And they’re all the saints, all the, St. Gregory of Nyssa when he talks about the pillar, the pattern of the Tabernacle that Moses gets in his insight, in his vision, he says the pillars in the Tabernacle are the saints and the different elements of the Tabernacle are people. Like he’s saying ultimately what they are is they’re people. Like, of course, in the small instantiation you see in Israel, they’re object, but ultimately they are the very body of Christ. So, you can understand all of that being kind of brought together into one image where it’s there to, it is like we were talking about, something like a little, in trying to initiate you into the language of angels, we’ll be able to see across the Bible from the Old Testament into the church. As how all of these are connected together and manifesting the pattern of the incarnation from the time of Moses. Yeah, and it seems like it’s more like a telos of understanding time teleologically. Whereas, if you just think of it like as a hero’s journey of one thing leading to the next, very linear. Not to say that the hero’s journey as a plot outline doesn’t have its utility, or it’s effective, or it has its place, but this is just a different way to me of being able to present reality in a way that’s not really concerned with linear sequence, and that just fascinates me. It’s concerned to a certain extent, like it’s not completely, it won’t show, it’s not fully wild, like you wouldn’t have, it still has a certain frame, and that frame can slip and refer, but it still holds to a certain extent. So, like you wouldn’t, how can I say this, you wouldn’t have, let’s say, the mountain of Sinai with Moses receiving the law and the burning bush, and then have an image of the New Jerusalem, then it would be too much, it would be too big. Although the symbolism would not be inappropriate, it would actually be quite appropriate. But so that, so it’s not complete, it’s not completely shattered time, but it helps you see how, you know, that instances of time can be brought together towards the telos the way that you’re saying, and that you can experience that and you can see it, even in the manner in which we construct So doing it in space makes you see how the different elements in the frame story are actually moving towards the telos, if you bring them together and you show them geometrically as related to each other, or you show some things below, some things above, some things to the side, you can help people see how that’s what’s going on in the story too. Right, the story is doing that. When Moses, there’s a reason why Moses goes up the mountain to encounter the burning bush and then goes up the mountain to receive the law, it’s like that’s actually there in the story. You might not see it because you forgot and you’re now you’re too much in this part of the story. But when I bring it together, then I can show you. That’s so cool. You can do it differently too, like Sanephra in the Syrian does it in his poetry in ways that are just astounding, where like in a little stanza, he’ll in within one sentence like you know just one phrase, he’ll join two images and then two other images and by the time you finish the stanza you’ve gone from Genesis to Revelation, and it’s all been brought together into one image. Wow, yeah. And I think about just like, practically the Christian life is so informed by the future. You know it’s like eschatological it’s like the things that we do in the present are shaped by or expressed by things that have happened in the past, older stories. But then our aim is the future it’s the second arrival of Christ, and what that will bring and the age to come. And so it’s like we’re preparing we’re doing things within the context of the future, while expressing things even with past stories so it’s just interesting how even in the the scriptures it talks about the way it talks about say Passover. Right, it’s like, remember when we were in Egypt. It’s like, okay, you mean, when those people are family members were in Egypt it’s like no remember when we were, and it’s like, it’s like okay so we’re remembering the past. And we’re also somehow remembering the future. Yeah. Yeah, for sure but it’s also important to understand that it’s not the future in a general sense. That is, it is the future in the sense in which the future will will accumulate all the, so it’s like you’re in. It’s it’s someone like you’re you’re on the path towards something. And then you you know that you built on these things that you’re moving. But then because you’re moving in a direction you know that the finality of that gathering will happen at the end. Right, so you’re gathering elements into a story while you’re in the story, but because you know you’re moving in a direction. You also know that that will continue to gather until you reach the telos of the thing you’re part of. And so, that’s what eschatology is, that is, the future is not just any future, it is the future in which the totality of the elements will be brought together into their telos. And we know that that happened because we, it happens all the time. Right. It’s like you, you’re doing anything you’re doing. It’s like you, I don’t know you decide to go to the store. Well, but you know before you know you’re going to the store you know you’re going to get things you know you’re going to come back. And so but you know that that the finality of how that’s all going to come together will only manifest once you’ve finished, once you’ve come back from the store and put the groceries on the table. And so you so but you can see it as you’re going towards the store, you can get you can all you can sense it you can you know if you don’t know totally what’s going to happen but you can kind of, it’s coming together as you’re experiencing it. And that’s what eschatology is but for a cosmic, a cosmic scale. Yeah, like how it’s not. He says like we can see dimly. It’s like we can imagine or see even dimly the future I guess you could say or. But then we’ll see clearly, you know one day. And that’s fractally true. It’s like, you know, you’ve got the basketball, you’re going up for a layup, I mean you can see dimly, what’s going to happen. But you, as you’re doing it as you’re coming up for the layup, you can kind of. You can perceive it like as a vague thing that you’re moving into, and you know it’s right and you know it’s, it’s good, it’s happening. And then once it’s finished, then it’s like, boom, it all has come together, and now you’ve seen it. You’ve seen it in its totality. Right. And then you have this, you know, and so it’s like it’s it’s like that for all things we all we always experience the world that way. And what St. Paul is saying is basically there’s a, there’s a giant version of that. There’s a giant version in which this movement we’re more we’re moving towards it. We can see it. We can kind of know that that’s what we need to move towards. We can see dimly the forms taking shape as we’re, as we’re coming into them, but that we know because we’ve seen it and we’ve experienced it nonstop that at some, in some point, all of this is going to come together. And we’re going to see the whole thing for in its clarity.