A human life inevitably has voids. There are realities that might be present one day but are not now. There can be things we wish for but do not have. Even under the best of circumstances, life is a process, and the fulfillment of that process does not show up all at once.
The Creation Story in Genesis describes it this way:
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
—Genesis 1:2
There was no evil entity who created the void pictured in the story. It was a natural part of Creation, as it is in a human life. But as human beings, we have a way of compounding the issue. Experiencing the voids and the dark spaces in our lives, we can decide that they should not be there, and someone or something is to blame. We can choose to blame another person, a group of people, a government, or a political party. We can blame our own past, or what someone else did or did not do to us. We can even blame ourselves.
Life depends on the ability of a person to live with a void in their life and let it be filled creatively without resorting to blaming someone or something else for it. Perhaps you have been in a situation where this came up with another person, where this ability was obviously lacking, where the lacking was plain as day. And the other person began to curse the darkness and blame the void on another person or on you. Or you might notice yourself caught in that kind of pattern. If you really see it, you probably feel the futility of life on that basis.
This is the stuff out of which the human world is made. There are material lacks. Those are obvious enough—hunger, poverty, disease, and more. Behind them, there are spiritual lacks—a lack of care, kindness, truthfulness, love, and more.
Within every human being, there are cosmic forces that could fill those spiritual lacks. There is the Fire of Love, the Light of Truth, and the strength of Life. There is a Divine Presence that is the source of those cosmic forces, and there is the great heart of the Creator. These cosmic realities fill the spiritual lacks when we access them and let them flow out to our brothers and sisters.
As the spiritual lacks are filled, the material lacks can begin to fill in. But is that what happens, generally speaking? All too often, the person is too busy cursing the darkness and blaming it on others to find the cosmic forces within themselves and let them out. And with that experience comes fear—fear of the darkness, fear of the void, fear of the lack.
In the Book of Revelation, John presents a remedy to this condition. Turn. Look away from a fixation on what is not there, and look to the source from which spiritual lacks are filled. In the first chapter of the book, John describes his own turning and what he heard and saw when he did. The rest of the book completes the description.
In symbolic terms, John portrays the pattern of human consciousness as an instrument for cosmic powers and the action of those cosmic powers in human experience. In Chapter 21, he describes the human consciousness as a holy city, laid out in four directions:
On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.
—Revelation 21:3
So there are twelve gates, each with an angel at the gate. John goes on to make it clear that he is using symbolism to illuminate something profound. There are twelve gates with twelve angels. Each gate is named after one of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel. Every gate was a pearl, the foundation of the walls between them had the names of the twelve apostles, and the whole city was in the shape of a square made of gold, as if it were transparent glass.
This is all relevant to the pattern of human experience. As a living temple for the cosmic powers of Creation, what is the composition of the human capacity? Body, mind, and spirit, and the human heart has the magical ability to connect these three other dimensions of a human being to the cosmic forces that animate them: the strength of Life, the Light of Truth, and the Fire of Love. Here are the four quadrants of human experience, which are the four directions of the holy city—east, north, south, and west—with the cosmic forces within them. Jesus’ teaching of the first commandment speaks of the way by which they are connected—by love. Could there be a clearer instruction on how this happens?
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength.
—Mark 12:30
So often, the Christian formula for leading a creative life falls so far short. If having feelings of love for God or for Jesus is as far as it goes, the person has not allowed their own human experience to be fully activated. The gates of the holy city of consciousness are not being opened. For those gates to be opened, all four quarters of the human experience have to respond to the cosmic forces within us. We have to hear the call of those forces and allow them to work through us and move us. Then the Light of Truth moves our mind. The Fire of Love moves our heart. The strength of Life powers the body. We become a living, human expression of these forces. They become interactive within ourselves and between us.
This is a daring way to live. It is what takes the unformed formed substance that composes the voids in the human world and brings it alive as the holy city. Or not. Or a person fixates on what seems to be missing and finds someone or something to blame for it.
I choose to live in the holy city. I choose to live as a holy city.