Wisdom and glory unite in the Holy of Holies, transcending the binary duality of male and female in paradise, which unites heaven and earth in the created, intelligible dance, which unites in turn with the uncreated energies of God. It was Saint Maximus who spelt out these five dimensions of union in Christ in the seventh century, although John 1, 1 John 1, Ephesians 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1 referred to them long before. Conversely, wisdom and glory are uncreated energies that unite with the invisible creation which unites heaven and earth in paradise, uniting our gendered, human world as God’s translucent union of male and female. The conjunction of wisdom and glory in five dimensions is a sacred dance of grace given and received that co-inheres in paradise, then heaven, then the invisible heaven of heavens, as uncreated wisdom and glory embrace all dimensions of their dance. Wisdom is bridegroom to bridal glory just as she is bridal receptivity to his active glory, releasing gender into hallowing androgyny. Solomon’s Song of Songs flows freely through all five dimensions, as do the Odes of Solomon that could have been the Psalms of the New Testament or the Song of Songs of Christ and his Beloved, the Church. The dance of wisdom and glory is a Song of Songs that transmits all the mysteries of glory as mysteries of wisdom. There is no end to the glory of the kiss of peace in the Bridal embrace of the gaze of wisdom.
When glory is the bride, wisdom answers as the groom, but when wisdom is bride, glory is groom, raising gender from earth to heaven and from the visible to the invisible, tracing the visible back to the invisible in the revelation of uncreated glory. Christ and the Spirit originate this uncreated play, handing it down from uncreated to created realms, and from heaven to earth in many creative ways. Wisdom and glory refuse to be pinned down because they freely partake in Christ’s spontaneous communion with the Spirit. The divine play of wisdom and glory engenders many ineffable mysteries that communicate beyond the binary dualisms of fixated thinking. The reason prophecy embraces translucent, poetic imagery rather than analytical philosophy is that love of wisdom transcends rational notions of philosophy, preferring poetic lyrical expression to logical syllogisms. Glory turns wisdom round into the Spirit’s songs of the Name, opening the heart way beyond the conceptual grasp of the rational mind. Awareness of wisdom in the Spirit weds presence of glory in Christ, conjoined together in the Father’s heart, uniting wisdom and glory in ineffable, uncreated creativity.
We do not yet know what we shall be when the Spirit joins us in Christ to the Father’s unlimited capacity for liberating joy. Wisdom opens minds to what the Spirit in the heart sees, generating new forms of life and freedom. Wisdom generates glory, inviting insight to follow the unveilings of the Great Dance. New ways of transcending gender begin to open more widely, although what these have to do with wisdom is not yet clear. Perhaps they do not depend on conscious wisdom at all but dance wisdom’s dance nonetheless. Maybe it is for younger generations to live them, then awaken to the wisdom inspiring them in their own time and in their own way. The clarity belongs to uncreated light rather than to the mind’s created capacity for clarification. Wisdom discerns when glory leaps over obstacles into the Great Dance. The mind catches up later when it has begun to make sense of the dance. Wisdom is glorious when glory is in love with wisdom, discovering together wherever the reciprocal movement of the Great Dance leads. We cannot yet know how we shall transcend ourselves when the Great Dance of wisdom and glory raises us, through Christ, into the Spirit’s ineffable capacity to open heavenly realms of uncreated creativity.