The Shaping Place

The  Shaping  Place

John Gray  April 5, 1992  Glen Ivy, California

Do you ever wonder what is imaginary and what is real? Sometimes the line between seems indistinct in our awareness. Do you find that something which at one time may be sharply focused in consciousness, very real and immediate—at some other time may fade into fuzziness? I have been thinking about the word imagine. The adjective form, imaginary, carries the denotation of something unreal, fictitious, having no real existence, but the root of the word has some other interesting meanings. The verb “imagine” means “to form an idea of.” This is obviously related to thinking. “Image”, which has the same root as the word “imitate”, means “a reproduction.”

In the Bible it is said that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God: divine reproductions. Many people have a sense of indwelling divinity. To some it seems imaginary: “Oh, that couldn’t really be true, not of me anyway. Perhaps it was true of some great figures in history, great spiritual leaders maybe, but not me. And certainly not the fellow next door. He is no divine reproduction, let me tell you!” An image also suggests something projected, such as a movie projector projects an image on a screen. The projection is obviously a two-dimensional reproduction of a multidimensional scene, but it may provide us with an illustration of something. A projected image has fewer dimensions than the reality which it is a projection of. The screen on which a movie is shown is two-dimensional, while the real setting where the movie was filmed has more than three dimensions, but nevertheless the projected image conveys essences of the reality and provides a connection with the reality that it is an image of. Does that make the image imaginary, in the sense of being unreal or fictitious? In the case of the movie projection it’s pretty clear that it is not the reality itself; what is on the screen is but light images, color, shapes, etc. But what about us as human beings? It might stretch our imaginations, but could not our visible appearance be a living projection of divine spirit? Logically we might assume that because we are alive, there must be a source of life present which is animating this form. Or perhaps we could say that the visible form is a projection of the source of life. I think that way of putting things is equally accurate; it is another way of saying that we human beings are made “in the image and likeness of God.”

In his book “The Tree of Life”, Roger Cook comments about imagination:

“Henry Corbin has suggested that the word ‘imaginary’ might be replaced, when necessary, with the more affirmative word ‘imaginal,’ derived from the Latin word 'imaginalis.’ Corbin found it necessary to use this word when writing about the visionary experience of Islamic mystics. For these philosophers recognized a real plane of experiences which they called the ‘alam al-mithal,’ the world of the image, or the ‘alam-i-malakut,’ the world of imagination. This they conceived as an intermediary realm, existing between, and interpenetrating with, the realms of intellect and sense perception. According to this schema, imagination … [acts] as a vital bridge between … spirit and matter. This structuring of experience has its roots in the extremely ancient mythological idea of the threefold structure of the cosmos, often expressed in the image of a tree. The Tree of Life, or Cosmic Tree, penetrates the three zones of heaven, earth and underworld, its branches penetrating the celestial world and its roots descending into the abyss. Like the Tree, imagination unites heaven and earth; it is ‘rooted’ both above and below. Uniting the luminous world of consciousness to the dark underworld of the unconscious, and drawing nourishment from both the heavenly-immaterial world of intelligible meaning and the earthly-material world of sensory perception, it creates the ‘magical’ intermediary world of images. It is this lively mediation between these … worlds that accounts for the multiplicity of symbolism: the fact that a single archetypal image, like the Tree, can produce throughout space and time such an abundant flowering and branching of images. Like the Tree, imagination is a source of endless regeneration. It is both old and young, and has its autumns and its springs: for if the senses become too heavy and attached to traditional forms, imagination deserts them. It discards old meanings, shatters fixed dogmas, and revives eternal truths, forever re-clothing them in the light of the new.”

Imagination has something to do with the connection in consciousness between spirit and form. There is a connecting realm where projected images take form, where spirit is clothed. These words from the autobiography of Black Elk, a holy man of the Oglala Sioux, describe such a vision: “Then I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And while I stood there I saw more than I can tell and I understood more than I saw; for I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit, and the shape of all shapes as they must live together like one being. And I saw the sacred hoop of my people was one of the many hoops that made one circle, wide as daylight and as starlight, and in the center grew one mighty flowering tree to shelter all the children of one mother and one father. And I saw that it was holy.”

In the words of the song which the choir sang earlier [“Behold, The Tabernacle of God,” by William Harris, text from the Sarum Antiphon], “The temple of God is holy/which temple ye are.” Black Elk’s vision conveys his understanding of his own reality and spiritual origin, and of the realm of connection through which “the image and likeness of God” is projected. Black Elk’s words might remind us of some others from the Book of Revelation in the Bible: “And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was … the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.”

Black Elk’s and the disciple John’s descriptions are very much alike. Both are visions of reality expressed in word-images. As Cook said, imagination acts “as a vital bridge between … spirit and matter.” This bridge, or connection, is called heaven in the Bible, and is known to those of us who have been to Emissary spiritual education classes by the term pneumaplasm. Literally meaning “spirit-substance,” pneumaplasm vibrationally bridges spirit and form. The spiritual reality and its “image and likeness” in form are connected by the substance of heavenly imagination. In this century, particularly, scientific objectivity has been held in high esteem and more artistic, apparently subjective visions and understandings relegated to second place. Perhaps in more current times it is becoming apparent once again that we cannot see things as they really are while ignoring or rejecting what we cannot see! A great deal of what something actually is is not visible.

When you look at a person you see their physical form, their appearance. We say things like, “I like the way she has her hair today” or “Hmm, nice necktie.” We see superficial things about one another. But obviously what we see in this respect is but the barest representation of the person; there is so much more present. And most of what is present—by far the majority—is not visible. Some of it is apparent in other ways. It becomes apparent by the way a person acts and speaks and behaves. Those are some ways that we make visible and apparent to others what is invisibly present within us. Is that not “image-ination,” of a kind? We may reveal or project the image and likeness of God, of the divine, by the way we behave.

This connecting realm of spirit substance, the imaginal realm or heaven, provides the initial clothing for invisible spiritual impulse to make itself manifest. Our friend Rob Cass refers to this realm as the “shaping place”. I feel that is a beautiful description. From Source, spiritual impulses move through the pneumaplasmic substance or the imaginal realm, producing images and likenesses. These are living holographic projections, not just vacant impressions.

The word “dialogue” in its largest sense conveys something of this same idea, “dia” meaning “through” and “logue” from the Greek root “logos”, meaning “word.” Hence, “dialogue: the flow-through of the Word.” Dialogue describes the process by which the invisible is made visible. The awareness of this whole process is restored by attunement. Dialogue and attunement then can be seen as being very closely interlinked.

The Tree of Life extends from the celestial realms above, sinks its roots deep into the underworld, and stands proudly in the middle. It is a good symbol of continuity through several levels of creation. These are also reflected in us. The Tree of Life is present in each person: we have spreading branches in the high heavens and beyond, yet stand firmly on the earth, while simultaneously having connection into the underworld, both drawing and giving nourishment. Perhaps attunement might be seen as the means of restoring awareness of the Tree of Life and our understanding of the processes by which it manifests.

The Word flows as spiritual impulse from Source, from divine origin. When the medium is present—when the shaping place, when the imaginal realm, the pneumaplasmic connection is adequate—this flow-through occurs and creates. Our very presence in a physically visible sense is a revelation of this process constantly at work. What keeps people alive? There is something moving through us, and if that flow is interrupted then the form of manifestation drops away.

When we look at the larger world in which we live, we see many conditions, all humanly produced, which are unhealthy, violent, and also some which are beautiful—mostly evident through the realms of nature. I don’t think we would be interested in being here today, or in being here at all, if we were not concerned to make a difference by adding our own creative effect into the world at large. How can we effect creative change?—change that really is creative, not manipulative or more “good ideas” which produce innumerable unexpected effects. Attunement describes the answer; so does dialogue.

Am I talking about something imaginary, unreal, fictitious, having no real existence? Or is this experience of flow-through something that we each individually know and consequently know together? When we are in the flow we know. We understand because the flow activates our capacity to think, to know and to understand. Martin Exeter used to make reference now and then to a phenomenon he observed: people moved along with him and seemed to understand quite well what he was saying while they were present with him in a setting such as this, but then a short while later they might be scratching their heads, wondering—“I know that was insightful but I can’t recall now what it was.” Of course it is not a matter of memory but of staying in the flow. Staying in the flow ourselves we may always know what is moving from Source,

Following a time of collective dialogue in a setting such as we are in this morning, the flow keeps going. Each of us is responsible for staying in the flow all of the time. It is no less true now than it will be in a few minutes when I stop speaking. We are each responsible for continuing in the flow all of the time. To the extent that we do that, then our understanding, our sense of continuity, remains intact and our appreciation for the oneness of things remains intact. If we step out of the flow, immediately we start to doubt; we doubt our own experience. “I am not sure what is real.” From that doubtful starting point we can invent “reasons” to support that point of view. “Well, my experience must not be real because I don’t seem to be able to sustain moving in the flow very adequately on my own.” Doubt multiplies, and we can quickly get ourselves into a dark space where we not only doubt the validity of our own experience but we project that out and doubt other people. “Maybe all of this is make-believe; there is no divine source present, I might as well go out and get what I can while I can.” That is a sad succession of experience.

This underlines the necessity to stay in the flow, to continue in the dialogue, to maintain attunement constantly. Let the shaping place—the secret place, the safe, holy place in ourselves—be active and substance-filled. Only then may what comes to consciousness, what we become aware of mentally and emotionally, be creations of the spiritual flow. They are indications of the sap of the Tree of Life bringing life to every part—permitting the bearing of fruits and the growing of leaves which are for the making whole of all creation.

The challenge of our day and every day is to maintain alignment in the flow. When and as we do, the world of our personal experience and the greater world beyond, if there is one, is re-created. The living Word flows through the shaping place, fashioning imaginal substance into reproductions of itself, of its own unlimited qualities. The world thus projected or created is one of infinite beauty and constant change. No change is mourned or grieved about because the source of everything is so known, so present. The passing away of what was is just as delightful and joyful as the emergence of the new. Those who consistently provide what Roger Cook referred to as “the lively mediation” between spirit and form live in heaven on earth. Can you imagine that?

In the account of creation contained in the Book of Genesis, the Tree of Life is referred to as being present in the midst of the Garden of Eden. In the biblical record, not until the visions of the disciple John appear in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, is reference again made to the Tree of Life. We are present and responsible now for being parts of the mechanism by which the Tree of Life, the continuum of divine presence in expression, is restored to full functionality in human experience. Perhaps all that is required to experience and participate in this restoration is to let our capability to really imagine simply come back into alignment with the primary flow. Then that which shapes what is imagined will be divine Source, and not something incomplete or somewhat disconnected.

The mechanism works in either case; the human projector projects the world we live in. This is the role of humankind made in the image and likeness of the Source of all. We reproduce in the world the images and likenesses of what is present in us. Where then may one point a finger of blame about conditions and experiences? The question is. How accurate, how complete is our own experience of attunement, of dialogue? For that experience to be full and complete, the pneumaplasmic material of the shaping place must be momentarily adequate in quality and quantity.

Let us honor what we know and not be conned into thinking that it is imaginary. Let us honor what we know with one another, and honor one another as evidences of the presence of the divine. If we see each other that way, then the quality of our interactions will be the finest possible. Aligned with the central flow of the Word, light-filled substance fills the imaginal realm and we are able to project the images and likenesses of the divine into the world.

Elsewhere in the Book of Genesis it is said that Adam “named” the living creations—animals and birds and plants, etc. If you have wondered about that at all, as I have, you have no doubt concluded too that it was not a matter of giving them Latin names to later appear in an encyclopedia! Adam’s “naming” suggests the role of humankind: to function in the shaping place, clothing spiritual impulse in light-substance and ensuring that the resulting material creation is formed accurately. We have this capability; we are creators; we are holy. Our external forms are temples, as referred to in the song at the beginning: the temples of God which are holy. In a time like this we relax our hearts and let our minds be focused; the flow-through of the Word is a reality and we know personal holiness. This is not imaginary; this is attunement.

Attunement is not something we just share now and then; it is rightly a constant experience. The world is in need of attunement: the restoration of the awareness of connectedness with all that is. In order for that need to be filled there must be human beings—you and me and lots of others who are letting the Word flow through, and who revere and sustain the shaping place, the realm of connection that makes this possible. It is not sustained because we are terribly careful; it is sustained because we love it and joy is flowing through us. That is what maintains holiness: joy springing from the source of joy. We permeate the world with joy, and the stuff of which the world is made leaps up happily and obediently to the impulse of spirit and takes shape accordingly. We are creators, endowed with this capability. Let us use it intelligently, gently, joyously and create the world anew.

When one views from the right distance a painting by an expert impressionist like Claude Monet, the image is luminous: not only is the form of the subject portrayed in an identifiable way but many layers of its meaning and inner qualities are made visible too. It looks alive; as much as the subject itself, one sees the light playing on and around it. Looking closely at a large Monet in a Paris museum last year, I was interested to find that in virtually every dab of paint on the canvas was just about every color imaginable. Yet from a little distance back the overall appearance was blended and unified. Can we keep a perspective, an overall impression that is accurate and alive, and deal in the details of life without losing that perspective? Some of the colors that are evident in every little dab may not seem to be the ones that fit. After all, here we are painting a tree and what has bright red got to do with it? Back off a little, and where the red fits is evident. All the colors, all the aspects of the divine, are required to create the image and likeness of divinity. Let’s continue together in the flow of life, the flow of spiritual current, the flow of joy, honoring the creative process and honoring one another, and watch the world spring to life in an unprecedented way. This is how it happens, this is how we do it, together.