The ‘eye’ of wisdom in the desert sees the divine union of seer and seen, the single ‘eye’ that unites all into one light, one love, one glory. Here, the sound of silence deafens and dark nights dazzle. Here, where an abandoned miner’s cottage was re-inhabited on the edge of the inhabited world, an outlying ruin became a monastery, on the outer edge of an abandoned village, scattered squatter’s hovels from another age. Here, old stones became a dwelling for what was once called wisdom, but our time prefers to call a futile waste of time. Here, in this desert, time is timeless, a timely reminder that wisdom is not a waste but a fullness of time that lets glory open to glory in the midst. Here, in the desert of ineffable Godhead, futility is a timely reminder that wisdom is no-thing special, just a state, DOM, of seeing, WIS, that sees who sees, God seeing God in the midst where his Name, ‘I AM,’ is revelatory. Simple awareness is present awakening here, where a still small voice whispers a nameless Name, indistinguishable from deafening silence. Here, uncreated fire consumes not the bush but confusions that usurp God in the midst, unseating the devil from his chair. Here, the Stiperstones are thrones that welcome wisdom home and Gatten reverses the ancient curse of goats, bringing glory in from the cold. Old goat pastures bears hidden witness to a curse undone, releasing countless hells from hell. Here, silence sings, undoing the curse from within. Here, what our time calls a waste of time, wisdom calls glory, piercing the heart. Dwelling in the midst, wisdom opens a way of release, uncovering dazzling truth of uncreated light and sustaining timeless life, mystery of glory unveiled.
In the desert of Sinai, God revealed the Name ‘I AM,’ unveiling theophanies of glory in a Burning Bush saying, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ (Ex 3: 14). The Septuagint rendered this in Alexandrian Greek, ‘I AM HE WHO IS.’ Jesus unveiled ‘HE WHO IS,’ as ‘I AM,’ speaking in the first person, as in the ‘I AM’ saying without predicates, ‘Before Abraham was, I AM.’ (Jn 8: 58). Christ, in whom the Spirit abides, reveals the Logos of glory in the Name, ‘I AM,’ as way, truth and life.’ (Jn 14: 6). Desert wisdom abides in ‘He who is I AM,’ as way of truth and life. As Logos, he speaks all things into being in his saving Name. He restores primordial well-being when ‘I AM’ as way cures confusion and separation. He imparts eternal well-being when ‘I AM’ as truth releases constriction and obstruction. He opens light to glory when ‘I AM’ as life inverts vainglory’s inversion of glory by his grace.
In Christ, the Name is one, which means that In the Logos, ‘I’ and ‘AM’ are one,’ uncreated awareness never falls short of glory, which is uncreated presence. ‘I AM,’ in God, is knowing, knower and known, union co-inhering with communion in Holy Trinity. God is known through God, in God, unveiling ineffable Godhead beyond God in the desert. Wisdom discerns glory in directionless directness, the wisdom of pure awareness, inseparably conjoined with the glory of pure presence. Just as in ineffable Godhead, the Spirit abides directly in the Son, being without direction out and away, so in the Name, wisdom abides in glory directly, with the directionless directness of God. Glory does not stray from wisdom nor wisdom from glory because in ‘I AM,’ uncreated awareness never strays from uncreated presence, nor separates off into indirectness. Christ is direct in the Spirit, being one ‘I AM,’ as God, with God. Directionless in his unfolding from God, the Spirit is direct in his enfolding of all on return. Wisdom and glory are one in ‘I AM,’ uncreated awareness co-inhering with unrestricted presence in the midst. Revealing God, through God, in God, wisdom in glory unveils the Name as Holy Trinity.
Wisdom lets God be God without interference or obstruction, in the fertile desert of the awakened heart. The desert blooms as a holy sanctuary of the Name whenever present awareness releases external separation from glory into glory. The glory of the Name, in Holy Trinity, unfolds to enfold. God’s essential Godhead, being his inaccessible WHAT, is here in act as THAT, awareness ever present in his deifying energy of grace. As ‘I AM,’ wisdom indwells us all, God at centre as glory in our midst. As wisdom, by inversion, we are within Logos, awake to glory in God through God. ‘I AM,’ the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and returns through the Son, gathering all lost sheep back into the fold. Wisdom steps back when glory dazzles, the THAT of Godhead, transcending every WHAT, turning every WHAT into Godhead’s translucent THAT. The Church bears witness that Jesus is ‘I AM,’ overwhelming the powers that be as he breaks through. Transposing degenerate division into translucent difference, the anointed Christ turns confusion into communion and separation into union. As wisdom, the Logos overcomes outer darkness from within. As glory, the Spirit restores all as he proceeds from God, returning to God with all restored. ‘I AM’ is the heart’s ground of healing Godhead in the midst, communicating the Spirit’s union with the Logos. Unfolding from the Father, wisdom conjoins with glory, to enfold us. Wisdom reveals in glory that we are from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, returning in the Spirit, through the Son, to the Father. Wisdom embraces incompleteness, here, where goats once grazed and a monastery bears witness to completeness in the Name and wisdom dwells with glory in the silence of the night.