Many of us experience moments when it seems there is something more to the world than can be counted and measured; beyond the world of sense, beyond science, beyond everything we “know about.” Something looks back at us, something looks through us.
Those moments question you like Socrates, creating an awareness of things which up until then, you did not know you knew. -Sometimes what is created is clarity about what happened long ago. Sometimes you become aware of things you overlooked, happening now.
And sometimes there is a glimpse of a things which are not only delightful, but numinous; and these are strangest of all. It is like being transported back to the beginning of humankind, seeing in a way which led people long ago to invent gods and cosmic histories.
When a mountain rises above an alpine lake, creating a mysterious twin in the water below, the shimmering image leads you to look at the mountain, and then at the lake, and back, until you are not sure which is more real. The lake amplifies the remoteness of the mountain. But looking up from the lake, the mountain is not as solid as you thought. You are led to ask, ‘what does this mean?’
-But this is stranger still because rocks and water don’t have meanings; they are rocks and water. -How do certain places in time make you aware of what is hidden in your mind?
I don’t think anyone knows. Some places invite you into dark reveries where you may see only tangled threads, tragedies and broken things, but sometimes meanings are evoked which are beautiful and fugitive vanishing around a corner like a mysterious woman in a spy novel.
Which of the things intuited when you are gripped by wonder, delight or terror should you believe in?
Why not believe everything? It is not for me to say what God’s thoughts are like. I am too stupid for that. My task is to watch and learn.
What do I learn? I learn to be human. I think God is a street performer, showing up in unexpected places, performing wonders, then vanishing. This God says; ‘Where were you when the Leviathan was created? -You don’t know do you? Watch and learn.”