Fourth-Day: Duality

[14] And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be signs to indicate seasons, and days, and years. [15] Let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth.” And it was so. [16] God made two great lights: the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars also. [17] Then God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, [18] to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness. Then God saw that it was good. [19] So the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

(Genesis 1:14-20 MEV‬)

This passage, sometimes, has been taken by critics as being a false account of the creation of the Celestial Body, the Sun, and Earth's Satellite, the Moon. The reason is that it gives us a narration that they were both created after Earth, which is outstandingly wrong, according to scientific theories and discoveries. I would 100% agree with it if we take the text literally and interpret the separation of time in days as the ones we live in. The account of God's Creation is not to only be taken from a literary perspective. We need to understand its symbols through a universal perspective. That means trying to comprehend its Spirit (Essence), its Truth (that comes through investigation, hence Science) added with the generated practicality of the Divine Love.

Days and Nights

Let's try to extract the Spirit of the Writing, which is the essence of the message we are analyzing. To understand it, first, we have to ask ourselves: What is its root? Not in an etymological way, but an ecumenical one.

Does it talk specifically about the Sun? More or less. Is it focused on the Moon, then? It could. What does the passage say? Does it talk about Day and Night for the first time? No. Where is it brought for the first time? Would that have a connection with another passage that we know? Well, let's look at the full source that we are studying.

The Creation and First Day: Light

[1] In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. [2] The earth was formless and void, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. [3] God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. [4] God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness. [5] God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.

(Genesis 1:1-5 MEV‬)

Well, this here already answers some questions. First: Light was already present before and thus separated from darkness. So this happened in two different “days” and at the same time. Which is pretty odd for our perception of time and mind-boggling. And it shows that Time for God runs differently. Second: Day and Night were already established. So, the Fourth Day is more like a mode of definition of its roles from Earth's point-of-view. Third: The tale of God's Creation in Genesis has to be read with a mindset that everything is being defined by the first time, instead of thinking that it was already set. For the Fourth Day, we are observing a continuation of the First Day, showing that the Sun and the Moon will rule over our comprehension of what Day and Night mean.

Principal for Creation: Paradox

In our second point of study in this ecumenical approach, we have to investigate the truthfulness of what is stated in the Fourth Day, although one thing needs to be clear, there is a purpose in our search for the Truth and it is in the Gospel of Jesus: “Know the Truth of God and the Truth of God will set you free” (John, 8:38). So, we are looking for a Truth that will set us free from what is holding us spiritually.

That can vary.

But we will try our best to find one that has a universal reach to also be under our approach. We already talked about one scientific view of the validity of this passage and presented our opinion. If we take that and expand to the notion that, according to science, the Big Bang was the first phenomenon of creation then we have the moment where Light appeared amid dark space, and thus things started to happen through time.

Let's think about what is being stated here. Two opposite sides of a principle. One is created, and two is defined. Here is a very common concept of duality, as we have light during the day there is also light during the night. The difference between both is that the light of the night is only a mere reflection of the light of the day, which is its main source. Sun and Moon, one governs the light and creates shadow, and the other governs the shadow and reflects light.

Going even further on this ecumenical approach and investigating where we can find the Truth of God that sets us free, it is easy to perceive a central idea among religions: Light and Darkness are two common paradoxical principles.

As rational human beings trying to extract logic from similarities, but sometimes having this logic obscured by our material and limited condition, we come up with representations that grasp God's reality, for instance, Yin-Yang. That's not to diminish this religious symbol, quite the contrary, it is the closest representation that we have of this paradoxical principle. The Tao Te Ching brings us the most well-thought content about our relationship with Paradox and how this is a bridge to our spiritual connection with the Divine, with God. This may sound strange in this study of the TaNaKh, but Genesis represents the moment of the entire Creation and thus embraces everything that was and is manifested in our World. It is an interesting discussion, certainly one that needs a whole episode on the Culture of the Spirit, which we will get into later on.

Bringing here this excerpt from Eliade’s book The Sacred and The Profane, we read:

It is impossible to overemphasize the paradox represented by every hierophany, even the most elementary. By manifesting the sacred, any object becomes something else, yet it continues to remain itself, for it continues to participate in its surrounding cosmic milieu. A sacred stone remains a stone; apparently (or, more precisely, from the profane point of view), nothing distinguishes it from all other stones. But for those to whom a stone reveals itself as sacred, its immediate reality is transmuted into a supernatural reality. In other words, for those who have a religious experience all nature is capable of revealing itself as cosmic sacrality. The cosmos in its entirety can become a hierophany.

As we reflect on God's creation, the idea of dual aspects of one core starts here and is applied to everything after. Our mindset and perception of the world start to be restrained by this as well, although we are always getting back to one. That is a Divine Law: One is inherently Two and Two is inevitably One.

As for the light, what would that be? We could define it as that which guides us. As living beings, it would apply to emotion and reason. Some are guided by their emotions and others are guided by their reason, but both can't survive separately. Their only solution is to work together in a balanced way. Light (Emotion and Reason) will guide us through day and night.

Life in Paradox

Now, we get to our last point on this ecumenical approach: Divine Love and how it can help us practice what we learn.

Brother Paiva Netto states that:

“Science (Brain, Mind), enlightened by Love (Religion, Fraternal Heart), elevates human beings to conquer Truth.”

The work that we have here is not on the perception of its existence but on its acceptance. It’s the norm of our lives to be in duality. Psychology already discusses that everyone has a dual life: the one you live and the one you desire to live. Every choice that we make will generate two results and it is from this that they grow in an exponential manner.

We only expect that they are made with the blessings of God and in accordance with His Will.

To finish I want to dedicate this other quote from Brother Paiva as well:

“Jesus is the Divine Liberator, who first frees us from ourselves, showing us the path of Celestial Light.”