Complementarity: After the Image and Likeness

I want to make you understand that material progress and spiritual progress are two very different things, and that only if material progress goes hand in hand with spirituality can any real progress come about, and the Most Great Peace reign in the world

(Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks:107-108)

There are two sorts of complementary forms, those on the same plane of being and those on different planes of being: those that share a nature and those of different natures, yet, in this second case, one is made after the image and likeness of the other, so there is what is called structural symmetry. 

Same plane of being complements are a polarity of equality.  This is shown in such metaphors as the two wings of a bird, the woman and man complement that gives full expression to humanity, the polar structure of two manifesting one because they share the same nature.  This equality of manifesting the same nature enables the pair not to divide into a dichotomy, a contradiction or a division, but to be complements, unless one is wrongly thought to be superior to the other.  When this wrongheaded elevation of one pole over the other occurs we call it prejudice and discrimination.

But the structural correspondence, symmetry or homology between pairs on different levels of being is a harder idea to grasp.  For, ontologically, (i.e. as states of being) the first of the pair is superior to the second, yet they are connected by the principle “made in the image and likeness.”

Such complements are as the reality and its image in the mirror, or the Kingdoms of Revelation and Creation--and remember, creation is as a mirror (see, for example, The Secret of Divine Civilization p. 1).  But, though complements on different planes of being are not equals, "likeness" binds them together.  They are in relationship of ordinate and subordinate, and these can individually move in opposite directions which lead to different ends, as ‘Abdu’l-Baha states above about spiritual and material progress.  This can happen because the higher is autonomous while the lower is only semi-autonomous, like a federalist political structure,

Spiritually, the subordinate process is, by comparison, the empty form of reality, which means it is pure potential, as the mirror is pure potential for reflecting until an object is placed before it and its potential for reflection becomes actualized.  Hence, another way of saying structural correspondence is to say “a reflection of.”   Here is where it gets tricky.  In visual imagery, complementarity is the object and its mirror image appearing together, remembering that the image and likeness in the mirror is both a reverse polarity of the reality—left in the reality is right in the mirror—and is a likeness in reduced dimensions—three dimensional reality appearing as two dimensional reflection.  This same image in literature has an interesting meaning and effect.  Northrop Frye states: “Disappearing into one’s own mirror image, or entering into a world of reversed or reduced dimensions is a central symbol of descent.” (The Secular Scripture:108)    

Now if there is to be communication and development, a transformational logic must hold between complements on different levels of being.  All complements need to be mediated.  Complements on the same plane exist within a shared medium, as men and women share a common humanity.  Complements on different planes communicate through a shared medium that is on a level different from both, as the world of the Manifestation exists between that of God and humanity.  He is the mediator, and after Him His Message mediates.  But the mediator is also the source of advance for the lower and smaller reality, for the mediator brings new energy and new pattern from the higher reality to the lower one.

Thus the lower reality comes out of a higher one: i.e. is made after it in the order of creation.  The reality of the lower is the image and likeness of the higher, but not of the same nature.  But being made in the image and likeness of the higher, means, too, that a part of the higher exists in the lower—this higher aspect being its true reality or essence—and this higher aspect is the cause of the development of the lower: its heart and mid-most point out from which pours energy and unfolding pattern.  This principle is behind the oft quoted nugget: “Man is in the world, but not of it.”

The Biblical statement in the Book of Genesis is that man was created “in the image and after the likeness” (Genesis 1:26) of God, but not after His nature.  The image and likeness of God is His Manifestation, so humans are created after the Manifestation—again in His image and likeness but not in His nature.  The same relation holds between man and the rest of creation.  I mean that creation is made in the image and likeness of the human reality.  ‘Abdu’l-Baha explains: “God has created man after His own image and likeness. He has endowed him with a mighty power which is capable of discovering the mysteries of phenomena...This is the foundation of the world of humanity; this is the image and likeness of God; this is the reality of man; otherwise, he is an animal. Verily, God has created the animal in the image and likeness of man, for though man outwardly is human, yet in nature he possesses animal tendencies.” (The Promulgation of Universal Peace:262)  Even more generally: “As preordained by the Fountainhead of Creation, the temple of the world hath been fashioned after the image and likeness of the human body. In fact each mirroreth forth the image of the other, wert thou but to observe with discerning eyes. By this is meant that even as the human body in this world which is outwardly composed of different limbs and organs, is in reality a closely integrated, coherent entity, similarly the structure of the physical world is like unto a single being whose limbs and members are inseparably linked together.” (Compilations, Huququ'llah #61)

The soul and the body are also connected, but they are of different natures, so the higher one, the soul, cannot be fully in the other, the body.  But their union is reflected in language.  When we look at our own photograph we say: “That’s me!”  But of course it is only a reflection of our body.  In language this kind of union of natures is called a Hendiadys.  Hendiadys is a figure of speech: a linguistic structure used for emphasis by a substitution of a conjunction for a subordination.  English names for hendiadys include “two for one”.  Its reverse, "one through two", is also true.   For example: “The hot wind moved across the desert” changes into the hendiadys: “The heat and the wind moved across the desert.”  The basic idea is to use two words linked by a conjunction to express a single complex idea. The second term is as the adjective of the first, but in their linguistic union it is lifted into co-equality as noun, so that the whole complex idea may be visible. 

But, because the two natures of humanity are essentially different and have their own goals, then, via the metaphor of reversal, the complementary union of the soul and the body can change into a contradiction, and the natures can move in morally opposite directions.  The Master explains that every individual “has the animal side as well as the angelic side, and the aim of an educator is to so train human souls that their angelic aspect may overcome their animal side. Then if the divine power in man, which is his essential perfection, overcomes the satanic power, which is absolute imperfection, he becomes the most excellent among the creatures; but if the satanic power overcomes the divine power, he becomes the lowest of the creatures. That is why he is the end of imperfection and the beginning of perfection. Not in any other of the species in the world of existence is there such a difference, contrast, contradiction and opposition as in the species of man.” (Some Answered Questions: 235)

The relations of complementary forms have various states and expressions.  They form a polarity of equals if they share the same nature, as men and women do of a common humanity.  They have the relation of image to reality, as in the mirror image reflecting the reality placed before it.  But the image and the reality while forming a polarity do so by reversing the poles, left in the object is right in the mirror.  This reversal when reflected in the complements of unequals is a metaphor for the moral opposition of material and spiritual that is felt within the human being, who is nonetheless made in the image and after the likeness of the Manifestation but not after His nature, though sharing His qualities. His being and Message are the source of human development.  Similarly, the animal is made in the image of the human being, but lacking the power of rational thought is different in nature from the human being, though sharing with man all the sensory perfections. Humans are the source of nature's development--e.g. from wilderness to garden.  Finally, the physical world in its totality is made in the image and likeness of the human body.  More in the next post.

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