(c) John, Rekesh 2004-2008. No part of this work may be copied or reproduced without the author's permission
4. Storm (Part 2)
“You’re right.” Aliyah paused for a moment, then continued. “But there are different types of clouds that bring rain. There are stratocumulus clouds that simply cover the sky, blot out the sun and shower rain. They are not menacing at all. Then there are the cumulonimbus or thunderclouds, which you see up there. Rain does not really require a thundercloud. It is, again, like our own love natures, like parental love, or love between couples. There is nourishment, but often there is also a lot more, as in a thundercloud. How many times have you had a fight with Peter in the name of love? You can see both stratocumulus and cumulonimbus clouds reflected in our lives.”
“All right. But earlier you were also saying that thunderclouds represented war?”
Aliyah thought about that for a moment.
“Well, they seem to represent our conflicts, which on large scales could be seen as war. The conflict could be internal, between couples, in a family, or in a larger arena. But if you think about it, wars have often led to dramatic, positive changes at the level of a culture or a nation, or even the earth. I mean they have created new growth, as historians can testify. And they have also destroyed things: flooded, sunk, washed them away, or whatever term you like to use.”
Emma was again silent.
Aliyah gazed up into the sky at the menacing cumulonimbus. Presently she asked,
“Emma, have you heard the name, Thor?”
“Isn’t he some kind of pagan god?”
“Yes. Thor, the Norse god of thunder. He is supposed to wield this great hammer. When he hurls it, the hammer causes thunder and lightning. Or so the mythology goes…”
“Think he’s still up there?” teased Emma.
“No, silly! But it is indeed a curious myth. Have you observed the shape of a cumulonimbus? I mean, a thundercloud? There is usually a huge, anvil-like shape on the top.” Aliyah pointed skyward.
“An anvil? On a thunder cloud?”
“Yes. The legend of Thor probably has a lot to do with it. An anvil is a blacksmith’s forging tool. You place a red-hot metal object on the anvil and then hit it hard with a hammer. There is a loud noise, and sparks fly. So if there is all this thunder and lightning, and you see a huge anvil in the sky…”
“There must be some god up there who must be using his hammer! That does make sense. Primitive man worshipped forces of nature, made gods out of them.”
“Thor is also portrayed as a god who is constantly at war. It does suit our analogy, doesn’t it?”
“I say it does,” acknowledged Emma, now straining hard to see the road ahead. The storm seemed to be growing worse. The roar of the winds and the rain and the claps of thunder were deafening. Did a war sound much different? she wondered. And what did the existence of such analogies mean? Then a thought struck her and her eyebrows furrowed.
“Aliyah, even if such correspondences can be true, why should they exist together at the same time? Perhaps the earth-wind-fire-water thingamajig, as you called it, does have some parallels with our lives. But that doesn’t mean that these parallels need to exist together at the same time, or even exist at all. But here we are, seeing your analogies side by side, as if one causes the other. You can’t really be saying that it is human nature that creates storm clouds, or vice versa. That’s too far-fetched.”
Aliyah understood what Emma was pointing to. She replied:
“I guess what it means is that either one causes the other, or there is a common, deeper principle at work behind both.”
“That is an outrageous suggestion if you ask me!” Emma frowned. “There is literally nothing physical or scientific in common between our natures and the storm, for example. So how can one cause the other? And forget your common principle!”
Aliyah was silent. How, indeed, could such analogies exist? Was it simply her imagination? Again she considered her assumptions. Earth, water, wind and fire, corresponding to body, emotions, mind and spirit. Other than exploring possible relationships between these two realms, perhaps she could explore relationships within the same realm and see how they correspond to the other realm? This sounded like a possible way to validate her postulates further.
What was the relationship between earth, water, wind and fire? For one, they represented solid, liquid, gaseous and plasma states of matter: the earth element being solid, water being liquid, air being gaseous, and fire being heat and light or plasma, such as in the sun. Again, she analyzed the correspondences. It seemed it was not sufficient to consider water as representing emotions. It had to be the liquid state itself that represented emotions. The liquid fossil fuels pointed to that. The mind then could be associated with the gaseous states, not just air. And the solid state represented the physical, such as the body. For an analogy, this made sense, since there were various types of liquids and gases, just as there were various types of emotions and thoughts. The plasma state or fire, then, represented the so-called spirit.
She mused on their interaction as she remembered her high school physics and the phase transitions of matter. The action of heat on solid matter first turned it into a liquid, then a gas, then finally into plasma such as in the sun. Here she found a parallel in physical evolution, for it started with the raw metabolism of physical sustenance such as in the bacteria and single-celled creatures, then became emotions or feelings such as pain, fear, happiness and aggression in animals, and then acquired a mind in higher animals, which reached its pinnacle in man. Similar to the solid, liquid and gaseous transitions, the physical, emotional and mental evolutionary transitions did occur on the earth. The next in the evolutionary progression seemed to be the unfolding of spirit, if that system of analogy were true. The evolutionary transitions, in some ways, corresponded to the phase transitions of matter, and were the result of major changes or leaps in the physiology of an organism. The fossil records on the earth did show dramatic changes in evolutionary development, which couldn’t really be explained well by theories of slow change or gradual progression. It seemed that her notions still appeared valid.
Emma was doubtful. “The next step in evolution is the spirit? This is beginning to sound like New Age stuff to me. I do agree that your observations have some grounding, but I do not agree that there can be a common principle behind them. That sounds totally out of this world. Next you will be telling me that God is sitting up there in the sky looking down at us.”
Did her theory postulate anything about God at all? The phase transitions of matter were accomplished by applying heat. The sun’s heat and light had been the primary causative factor in evolution, supplying the energy that drove physical evolution to what it is today, even providing mutations. The sun itself being in the plasma state corresponding to spirit, she wondered, did this mean that there was an analogous spiritual power source driving evolution through body, emotion and mind into the spirit?
Her eyes widened as she gazed at the setting sun. The earth’s origin was intimately connected with the sun, as she knew from astronomy, and all life was sustained by the sun. This was similar to the concept held about God by those of religious beliefs. And if her postulates were true, the sun had to be an analogue of God, if God did exist. Wasn’t that also true in the analogy of the solar system that came to her in a dream?
This was an amazing correlation. It struck Aliyah so hard that it took her breath away for a moment, but doubt and healthy skepticism returned quickly. Nevertheless she found herself asking,
“Emma, do you think there’s a real …” her voice trailed off.
“You mean Thor?” Emma smiled, turning to look at her friend.
Before Aliyah could reply, a big flash came from outside, lighting up the car, followed by a loud honk. Emma screamed and hit the brakes, turning the wheel furiously. The car screeched, swerved hard and exited the road, bumping up and down.
“Look out!” Aliyah yelled as the vehicle careened in semi-darkness towards a big boulder. Emma again swerved hard to the right and the Beetle came screeching to a halt. Then they heard a muffled crashing sound.