Daily Meditation: Tuesday, November 30, 2004

‘And the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters’ - commentary

11/30/2004

It is said in the Book of Genesis: ‘In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters.' Why does it say ‘over face of the waters'? Because water represents the original cosmic matter which the spirit of God, the primordial fire, penetrated in order to impregnate it. Contrary to what is generally believed, earth is not the element that best expresses the properties and qualities of matter. It is water, whose qualities are receptivity, adaptability and malleability. Water thus symbolizes the raw material which received the fertilizing seeds of the Spirit. It is the matrix of life. Life emerged from water, thanks to the principle of fire, by which it was vivified. By itself, water, or matter, is inert; it is fire that infuses it with life.