Father  and  Mother  of  Light

John Gray   December 1, 1991

Zeven Rivieren, South Africa

"Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts

Heaven and earth are full of thy glory

Glory be to thee O Lord most high

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord

Hosanna in the highest, Hosanna in the highest!"

These beautiful words just sung by Ros Ovenstone and Madeleine Newman may evoke a sense of the sacred. Inspired and inspiring music touches people's hearts and draws out a sense, a feeling, of the Divine. We enjoy this touching and near‑experience of something through listening, through singing or playing music. It is often overlooked, however, that if music can evoke the Divine in us, then the Divine must be there to be evoked. There is that essence that may be appropriately described as holy, sacred, present in us; it is the core of our Being. The very Source of Life itself is Holy, is Sacred. Now and then we touch a little of that essence and we experience awe and wonder, something majestic, usually attributing the experience to the circumstance or to some other person, not remembering that it is our own expression, always, which produces our experience. If anything can evoke a Divine experience then the Divine is already there in us to be evoked.

At the core of ourselves there is vastness awaiting expression. We feel this as a sense of potential, of possibility, and at times we experience some of it actually emerging. We see its beauty and its creative effect. Divine identity is present to be experienced; it is available, we might even say anxious, looking for every opportunity, any little crack in the human psyche, to come out through. As we are willing to be still in ourselves—at home, at rest—our often stiff exteriors can relax and out from inside, from a limitless well, comes peace. Does it take something external to evoke that? It is our very natures. The expression of that nature fulfills and satisfies the deepest longings of our hearts. We find ourselves useful, worthy and creative in consequence.

Generally the experience of worthiness and value and creativity is sought after externally. "If I could only do this, change that, then I'd be more fulfilled, more satisfied." We've all tried that approach. Does it work for long? Does it work at all? At times circumstances seem to conspire to corner us where we cannot retreat and force us to face the limitations of our own mental and emotional states. These can be very valuable experiences, leaving us without excuses. There's nowhere to go but to come out, and in doing so we find ourselves not cornered at all, but free. As the experience of ourselves as Sacred Beings deepens—this restoration of our consciousness of the Creator—we find our understanding of the Way the process of creation works is restored also—the Creative Process describes our own emergence. Knowing that experience to whatever extent, we can see, appreciate and respect the Creative Process as it emerges through others and through everything.

In records, scriptures, philosophies we have various accounts of the process of creation. I have two favorites. Perhaps you have your own. To me there's none simpler nor more concise than that attributed to Lao Tzu, a Chinese philosopher from several centuries B.C., often thought of as the father of T'aoism. In just a few words a very great deal is expressed:

The Way gives birth to the One.

The One gives birth to the Two.

The Two gives birth to the Three,

and 10,000 things are born.

The Way, or the T'ao, is limitless Source; and the One, the Origin, is the evidence of that Source. This is where identity rightly springs from. But through our human consciousness, our minds and hearts, we know the nature of ourselves, the Way, the T'ao, only as our minds and hearts are utilized to let this nature flow through—a River of Life expressed. In the outflow, our own inner nature is revealed in consciousness.

I know of no other way of self‑experience.

We cannot quietly contemplate something that is other than ourselves and anticipate that we will understand what it is. It is only as that Source, the nature of that Origin, flows through us that we discover that it is us. We know ourselves, and it is simplicity. It is as simple as one, two, three. "The Way gives birth to the One, the One gives birth to the Two, the Two gives birth to the Three, and 10,000 things are born." Ten thousand, in the Chinese ideogram, represents everything—all things. Here is a description of a creative process, whether it is of our own emergence or of life's emergence in any manner.

This Taoist account correlates beautifully with my other favorite articulation of the creation story, which is contained in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. It is also of ancient origin, no doubt pre‑dating the religions and schools of thought with which it is often associated. "In the beginning" there were pre‑existing conditions—described this way: "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep." The deep—something not yet formed; without vibration, we might say—awaiting, present, not yet active. "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Here is another component, an active component, moving "upon the face of the waters." The One is the evidence of God, the Creator, and the First Appearance of the Two is described in Genesis as "the face of the waters" and "the Spirit of God."

And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Out of the interaction of the Two emerge a third, a Three is born, described here as light. There is reference to this too in another place in the Bible, in the Book of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... All things (10,000 at least!) were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men."

Let there be light.

The offspring of the interaction of Father and Mother God is Light.

Uranda, the founder of the Emissary program, spoke at times of our invisible Heavenly Parents and that we are the Only Begotten Sons or Daughters of our Heavenly Parents.

Have you ever wondered where the Life in you comes from? If we attempt to look at it in strictly physical terms the life that is in us appears to come from nowhere. We're not plugged in someplace with a long extension cord! To our consciousness the only way we can conceive of Source is somewhere else—separate—which somehow we're plugged into invisibly. That is the usual human view, if there is a view at all: Source, God, is definitely somewhere else—not here. But the fact that we are alive, the fact that a sense of the Divine may be evoked, inspired in us, is counter‑evidence to that usual conviction.

The emergence of Light is the result of unseen interaction between the male and female aspects of the T'ao. It is said a little later in this Book of Genesis that human beings were (and are) created in the image and likeness of God, male and female. If indeed we are made in the image and likeness of God, then God is male and female. Both aspects are present, revealed in an external way in the physical forms we have, male or female, and also in an internal sense in all of us, because whether we are men or women there are both male and female qualities present in all of us. Obviously if one is a woman the feminine is somewhat dominant and if one is a man the masculine is somewhat dominant, but a very wide range of qualities are present in all of us, qualities of both.

The Word, Logos, as it appears in the Book of John, and the T'ao are synonymous. Both indicate evidence of the origin—of, in biblical terms, God Almighty. The One is both the symbol and the evidence of the T'ao.

Out of the One the Two are born. In the Genesis description they are the Spirit of God and "the face of the waters," and the interaction between the Two brings the birth of Light, which is Three. And "light is the light of men." The origin of the Light is in Us. Our minds are dimensional creations, having virtually no capability to directly comprehend the Dimensionless except through symbol. We cannot consciously grasp the Undimensional.

We can know and respect that the creative process begins visibly at the Point of Light emergence but originates behind the Point of emergence. The Point of emergence is where, in dimensional terms, the Creative Process starts, and it begins with the emergence of Light: a Point of Light. Now think of the night sky: a field of darkness with innumerable points of light we call stars. Our scientific belief system tells us that stars are great balls of burning gases. Our Sun is one of those. I remember being rather worried when, as a school boy, I heard that the sun was a big ball of burning gases and that eventually it would burn out. I felt relieved when I learned it wasn't going to happen the next month!

What we can observe of a star is the evidence of unbelievably immense energy emerging into the dimensional realm. Try as we might, I don't think we can wrap our finite, dimensional minds around that. We can appreciate the wonder of it. The same experience is occurring in ourselves. Source is present, and we know ourselves as we emerge into dimensional Presence. We seem to come out of nowhere. I recall a story I heard as a boy at scout camp. The story, attributed to Native Americans, is a description of what happens at night: the Great Spirit draws a blanket over the sky; and here and there, in the blanket, are little holes. Behind the blanket the Great Light shines. Where the light comes through the little holes are stars. All my schooling made me want to scorn such a primitive view of things and yet for some reason the Story has stayed with me all these years. I think there is more truth to it than not; it's just as valid a description of the undimensional as anything anyone else has come up with!

So here we are: emergent points of Light. And as we emerge from that cross‑over point into the dimensional state, the process of creation unfolds. We experience our own emergence. There is, I suppose we could say, God on the left and creation on the right. Creation, including our own visible exteriors, is the Creator manifesting him‑ or herself. This is why when we hear or play inspiring music the very nature of the sound vibrations touch what is of the Divine in us. Human beings have known this for a very long time, yet it is a mystery. Why is music so moving? What does it remind us of?

In the Genesis account, heaven and earth are the Two which put in an appearance. We have both these components to our own makeup. Perhaps heaven, less visible, less tangible, could be described as the place of pattern, where the Pattern is, and the earth is the material. As any seamstress knows, if you have a pattern and material you can produce a garment. Our garments of flesh are produced in the same way. The Pattern is invisible, the material is of the earth. The Pattern is of heaven. This bespeaks the male and female components in us, just in the words themselves: Pattern/"pater." Material/"mater." "Pater" and "mater" are the Latin words for father and mother. We are constantly, in the present moment, being made in the image and likeness of God. In T'aoist terms, the heaven, pattern, "pater," is yang; and the earth, the material, is yin.

It has been interesting to note in this account in the Book of Genesis the apparent correlation between "the deep" upon which the spirit of God moves, and the sea—the deep. Perhaps we could think of it as the Deep of Space. But it says the face of the waters: the deep, the sea, which in Latin is "mare." Here is unformed virgin substance, without vibration. Mother substance, virgin "mater," virgin Mary: an interesting correlation. The Virgin Mary is the mother of God in some Christian views. We may see the truth of that—not as a person but as the quality of Feminine Essence from which the things of God take form and are born. And this is an aspect of our own Holy presence. The Spirit of God as described in Genesis is invisible—the activating force. 

In the story of what led up to the birth of Jesus it is presumed that there was no physical father involved, at least in Christian lore. And again one might see a valid basis for the belief. The Spirit of God, the impregnating force—that which evokes, inspires and draws forth out of the Mother Substance—is itself invisible. And yet what is born is visible. What is born is Light: Christ. Kristos, from the Greek, suggests Light. This is what is born—not just on one occasion twenty centuries ago but this emergence is occurring in every moment in each of us. We are each the constant outflowing offspring of the interaction of the parental factors—Father and Mother God. The process continues to unfold beyond the point of the visible too. The 10,000 things—everything else—emerge: The created world, the created universe emerge out of the interaction of the divine male and female principles in us and among us.

Sexuality is of great interest to human beings. Sex is generally acknowledged as a field in which the highest experience may be known and also the depths of darkness. Consider innocence. Through a guileless consciousness the yang and yin of God may creatively emerge, interact and create. If the mechanism—which is our body, mind and heart—for that expression is itself disturbed, distorted, discolored, then these powerful interactive forces emerge disturbed and distorted and produce an image and likeness of that state. We then have disorder, a state of chaos. Obviously a lot of this is evident in the human world of present‑day experience—both the collective one of which we are aware through the news media, and the inner world of personal experience which we are aware of in more immediate ways. The nature of our internal state has everything to do with our creativity. The very essence of the Divine is Sexual. In us and among us these factors interplay. What do we create?

I sense that there is a correlation between inspired and inspiring music and clear sexual current;

they emerge from the same origin.

Early in this century Albert Einstein, thought of by many as the premiere scientist of the present era, formulated the relationship between energy and matter. Energy and matter: pattern and material, heaven and earth. E=MC squared. We all learned the formula; it describes the relationship between energy and matter as two components of one thing. The C in the E=MC squared formula represents the speed of Light. Isn't it interesting that Light is the factor in common between energy and matter and that the nature of relationship is describable or definable in terms of Light? Metaphysicians for a long time have suggested that the light of one level is the material of another higher level. Interesting idea—and also one that we cannot get our dimensional consciousness around. The Light, or what we experience as light, is the material of which we think the undimensional is composed.

We have relatedness to all that is. There is continuity out of the undimensional into the dimensional. There is continuity of the Creative Process from its Point of Origination as the emergence of Light through to the creation of all things. All things are imbued with Light, and light is not only the Life of men but the Life of everything. It is the "stuff" of God. We don't need to try to comprehend it. We need only to express it to know our relationship in and with it. And we can see this Light shining in the eyes of a friend. It likewise may remind us, as inspired music might, of the Divine. May there be Arcs of Light joining us: arcs of creativity, rainbows of differentiation. Out of that constant interaction are born things of beauty, things of God, the Divine, the "10,000 things," limitless creation.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts

Heaven and earth are full of thy glory

Heaven and earth are full of Light. Is this our experience? Do we see the world we live in and, more importantly, do we see one another in this Light? We certainly may. Doing so, we find that our human foibles and internal missing links don't matter so much. They may be there, but what of them? Human beings, made in the image and likeness of God, are here to create, to give birth to a world of Light. To say this is not to suggest that there isn't darkness also—there certainly is. There are day and night. There are cycles and changes, all part of the Creative Process itself. Remember that it is as easy as One, Two, Three. Let's not unnecessarily complicate our lives by attempting to fill apparent voids and needs in ourselves or one another while ignoring the Creative Process. Filling voids and needs is not something one can do first in order to then be in position to participate in the Creative Process. It's the other way around: Healing, infilling, resolution, all come through alignment in and with the source from which the Creative Process springs.

We are intimately related to each other at the very core of our beings. We are not only the Point of Light that appears out of nowhere—a personal Star, or Sun—but all that lies back of that as well—the limitlessness behind that blanket. That is us too. That is my Source and your Source. That is who I am.

The emergence of light makes music, celestial music, the Music of the Spheres. It comes apparently out of nowhere through our minds and hearts, lighting the world, lighting the way in and around us. When we look outside on a beautiful day like today we see sunlight playing on the leaves of the trees. The Light Essence of the forms of creation are joyously one with Source. The physical world itself constantly tells us this, if we are listening. It doesn't take a poet or a musician or an artist to sense it. We all have hearts. We all have perceptive capabilities.

We are Light. Playing interactive roles together, male and female, we produce a Garden of Light, a world of beauty. This is the purpose for our presence. It is why we come into the world. This is what human beings are for. Inspirational music or inspirational words remind us of it, but what is inspired is already there to be evoked. Let it be touched and evoked. Let it come on out and not deny that it is you, yourself. I am present, we may each say. "I am present, I am Light." There is holiness and sacredness and the created world around us says, "Hosanna in the highest."

How good to participate in this process together. How fulfilling and satisfying—indeed thrilling—that there are people like you and many others to whom these things matter most.

© Emissaries of Divine Light