“And God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God call the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.”
Considerations
- In Hebrew, firmament is a solid expanse that is masculine. It is interesting that Latin and Greek think of the firmament as a neuter object that separates the waters as a kind of dome. Hebrew relates the word to a hammering out of a metal — hence a giving of a shape to something, and this is the reason it is masculine. It makes boundaries and order.
- As for water, it is feminine in Latin, neuter in Greek, and masculine here in Hebrew. I would need to see how these words are used to see if there is a shift in meaning that thus links them more to the feminine or masculine. Eg. if Hebrew sees water in terms of cleansing from evil or just washing, maybe this is linked to something that the male would do for a ritual purification, hence the water rids the unwanted and protects one from that unwanted. Perhaps in Latin, it is feminine as being linked with washing something to clean it up and make it more attractive and fertile.
- Heaven in both Greek and Hebrew is masculine, though it seems to be neuter in Latin. Earth is feminine in contrast. We are closest to her, and life springs up from within her as a woman bears life from within her, hence earth is more feminine, motherly. Heaven has the lights of the sky that guide us, and give us direction, hence are expressed as masculine.
- The deep in turn is like the unformed feminine. In contrast to earth, earth is the formed feminine. We come from the earth. Men specifically are formed from the earth, and the woman later is made from the man. And because God breathed life into the man, he is also from heaven.
- In “seeing” the male and female in the world, these two become channels for self-knowledge as well. This or that has a masculine feature or trait. This or that has a feminine trait. And this teaches us about who we are as a man or as a woman. Thus naming things as masculine or feminine then help to form future generations as men and women.
- Salvation is the liberation of the fertility of creation by ordering it with the right finality, hence getting the right mediators of finality in place. It is a movement of light (finality) over unformed fertility (the deep, waters) bringing out formed fertility (earth). There seems to be a repeat in this unfolding in which days four to six are expansions on days one to three. It points to how the repetition of the principles of generativity (finality and fertility) expand into ever higher levels of creation.
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- Day One – Light that separates day and night
- Day two – Waters are separated by firmament
- Day three – Earth appears, plants grow
- Day four – Two lights are created
- Day Five – Water creatures and birds grow
- Day six – Earth gives rise to animals and man