Revolving and Circling Around: Metaphors of Spiritual Relations

Do Thou bless, O Lord my God, the Primal Point, through Whom the point of creation hath been made to revolve in both the visible and invisible worlds, Whom Thou hast designated as the One whereunto should return whatsoever must return unto Thee, and as the Revealer of whatsoever may be manifested by Thee.

(Bahá’u’lláh, Prayers and Meditations by Bahá’u’lláh: 299)

The visible and invisible worlds are counterparts, and much of what we know of the invisible is through its visible outer pictures.  The Bab is that manifest Primal Point around Whom revolves the point of creation in both the visible and invisible worlds, what Baha’u’llah names “the contingent and placeless worlds.” (The Kitab-i-Aqdas: 175)  Further, His station in this world as the point, or mid-most heart, of creation revolves around His station of divine Manifestation as the Primal Point from which is generated all created things, since the material comes forth from and revolves around the spiritual.

All things, the Master tells us, are created in pairs.  This has more than one meaning.  One meaning, of course, is like the pair, woman and man, which form a polarity called humanity.  This polarity of equals, these twin centers, has complementary characteristics which form an unity that progress into greater manifest complexity.  That is, pulsations of energy moving in waves of increasing frequency and power between the poles act reciprocally to unfold latent qualities, to transform potentiality into actuality. 

But there is also the metaphorical polarity of unequals, of superior and inferior.  This polarity also forms a double center, but one center is dominant.  In this context, we perceive that the two poles of the Eternal and the contingent, the spiritual and the material, require and mutually illuminate and define each other in consciousness.  These two meanings together (i.e. equals and superior/inferior) are the glorious structure of “active force” and “recipient”, and “these two are the same yet they are different”—twin poles of a single structure, but in that of unequals one pole comes forth from the other.

The Bahá’i Writings often employ the phrases “circle round” or “revolving” to indicate the relation of authority, especially spiritual authority. For example, the Bab, extolling the greatness and primacy of Baha’u’llah’s Revelation to all others, states: “Beg ye of Him the wondrous tokens of His favour that He may graciously reveal for you whatever He willeth and desireth, inasmuch as on that Day all the revelations of divine bounty shall circle around the Seat of His glory and emanate from His presence, could ye but understand it.”(Selections from the Writings of the Bab:164) Baha’u’llah speaking of the Bab states: “Know then that all thou hast heard and witnessed that Daystar of Truth, the Primal Point, ascribe to Himself from the designations of former times is only on account of the weakness of men and the scheme of the world of creation. Otherwise, all names and attributes revolve round His Essence and circle about the threshold of His sanctuary. For He it is Who traineth all names, revealeth all attributes, conferreth life upon all beings, proclaimeth the divine verses, and arrayeth the heavenly signs.”(Gems of Divine Mysteries: 65-66)  Shoghi Effendi puts the same relation in another context, calling: “The principle of the Oneness of Mankind the pivot round which all the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh revolve.” (The World Order of Bahá’u’lláh: 42)

Spiritually, the invisible center is always the highest point, as when Baha’u’llah describes the Bab as: “This Point is the focal centre of the circle of Names and marketh the culmination of the manifestations of Letters in the world of creation.” (Tablets of Baha'u'llah: 101)  The center stands as the essence. All things come forth from it into manifestation and all things return to it in the sense of building higher levels of being on the plane of manifestation, the world of existence, whose center is the visible Manifestation of God.  Essence and existence are, again, twin poles with energies flowing between them, and existence emanating from and circling around essence. When considering the images of circling around and revolving, we should be careful not to focus only on the image of the circle, but also on the circling movement.  And since there are dual centers in every polarity, even that between unequals, and the Manifestation and His followers form such a polarity, revolving means not in a perfect circle, but in an ellipse, as the planets revolve in ellipses around the sun. 

Unlike a circle, which has only one center, ellipses have two centering points, which are referred to as foci.  They are resonant, but one focus is stronger.  In celestial mechanics, orbital resonance occurs when two orbiting bodies exert a regular, periodic gravitational influence on each other, usually due to their orbital periods being related by a ratio of two small integers. Orbital resonances greatly enhance the mutual gravitational influence of the bodies.  The relations of physical things revolving around a center provide metaphors of spiritual relations of believing souls to the Manifestation of God.  In the following paragraphs, if you substitute soul for planet and Manifestation for sun you’ll see what I mean.    

For our solar system the supreme center, the sun, is the superior, while the planets, each being their own center, orbit around it as the other foci.  We say that the planet circles around the sun, but actually, as we all know, the orbit is something of a squashed circle.  It is an ellipse, with the smaller focus both pivoting around itself and revolving around the pivot of the dominant center. An elliptical orbit of any size causes the distance of the planet from the sun to vary continuously. Thus, for every planet there will be one time when it is closest to the sun and another time when it is farthest from the sun. The planet orbits the sun iteratively but chaotically, i.e. no orbit traverses exactly the same path as any other orbit.

Kepler showed that the velocity of a planet, in the course of its orbit, would both speed up and slow down.  This is another metaphor of our relation with the Manifestation, the Sun of Reality, around which circle the souls of the believers.  ‘Abdu’l-Bahá states the relation perfectly: “Know thou that the distinguished Individual of every age is endowed according to the perfections of His age. That Individual who in past ages was set above His fellows was gifted according to the virtues of His time. But in this age of splendours, this era of God, the pre-eminent Personage, the luminous Orb, the chosen Individual will shine out with such perfections and such power as ultimately to dazzle the minds of every community and group. And since such a Personage is superior to all others in spiritual perfections and heavenly attainments, and is indeed the focal centre of divine blessings and the pivot of the circle of light, He will encompass all others, and there is no doubt whatsoever that He will shine out with such power as to gather every soul into His sheltering shade.

When ye consider this matter with care, it will become apparent that this is according to a universal law, which one can find at work in all things: the whole attracteth the part, and in the circle, the centre is the pivot of the compasses. Ponder thou upon the Spirit: because He was the focal centre of spiritual power, the wellspring of divine bounties….” (Selections from the Writings of Abdu’l-Baha: 62

The Manifestation of God is the central spiritual Orb of the universe around which all things, especially human souls, orbit.  This spiritual focus is countered in Itself by a smaller point of creation, the human soul of the Manifestation, like a planet orbiting its sun.  As the leading quote states, the Báb is the Primal Point, through Whom the point of creation hath been made to revolve.

Similarly, the Guardian explains: “For, just as in the realm of the spirit, the reality of the Báb has been hailed by the Author of the Bahá'í Revelation as "The Point round Whom the realities of the Prophets and Messengers revolve," so, on this visible plane, His sacred remains constitute the heart and center of what may be regarded as nine concentric circles, paralleling thereby, and adding further emphasis to the central position accorded by the Founder of our Faith to One "from Whom God hath caused to proceed the knowledge of all that was and shall be," "the Primal Point from which have been generated all created things." (Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith: 95)

The double-pivot of spirit and matter, of Revelation and creation, each with its own center, enables movement and consciousness.  Of course each center is also circling around itself, spinning on its own axis, as this is the source of its radiant influence. As T.S. Eliot wrote in Burnt Norton:

At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;

Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is.

The center point of creation is, first, the body of the Manifestation, and then the center of His Covenant.  For human souls and life the center of creation is the Sun of Reality, the power holding all together in harmonious interaction.

The Master explicates, comparing the relation of the Covenant with creation to the human spirit and the human body: “All these interactions therefore are connected with that all-embracing power which is their pivot, their centre, their source and their motive power.

For instance, as we have observed, co-operation among the constituent parts of the human body is clearly established, and these parts and members render services unto all the component parts of the body. For instance, the hand, the foot, the eye, the ear, the mind, the imagination all help the various parts and members of the human body, but all these interactions are linked by an unseen, all-embracing power, that causeth these interactions to be produced with perfect regularity. This is the inner faculty of man, that is his spirit and his mind, both of which are invisible.” (Abdu'l-Baha, Tablet to August Forel: 22-23)