11/19/17
When you see the multiple layers in the Earth, what does it teach you? Does it remind you of all the other layers we can see in our world?
Let’s see...
There are multiple layers of the Earth and it’s atmosphere. There are layers in our hair and our skin.
There are multiple layers of emotional needs and layers of light. There are layers of writing a story and many many layers of meaning in literature.
With these reminders, I believe we can probably say things with multiple layers is really a part of our world; that there is a pattern of multiple-layered things in all Creation.
Just like we can see multiple layers of material in the physical world (both seen and unseen), multiple layers in our emotional needs and feelings and in human relationships, and multiple layers in the intellectual level of creating order and beauty, and even on spiritual levels, we can begin to apply our minds and hearts to understand there are multiple-layers of meaning in everything we learn.
In fact, our minds were created to do just that. The human brain is different from the animal brain. (And I state, that according to the Hebraic patterns, we were Created on a different day than the animals!) Our brains were created to be able to see and find symbolic meaning behind concrete objects, words, and relate to abstract ideas, not just things as they materially or literally are. We were created to find personal subjective meaning from the sometimes mundane concrete or literal as well. (And it’s okay! It doesn’t have to scare us because we see a meaning in an art piece and you don’t!) In other words, we were created for connection between what we see and experience and the lessons we take away from it, for good or bad. But that’s our choice and probably another topic for another day.
I believe it is the hope of many intuitive parents and leadership educators to help our children utilize the full multi-layered abilities of their minds to learn to think critically and read poetically. Even more importantly to help our children learn to become self-reliant in searching out Truth from error. These crucial skills, of seeing multiple-layers of meaning to see truth, to think critically and see poetically, are marks of a truly educated person.
As I think of one of most influential reasons my husband and I desire our children to learn the language of Creation, aka what I call Symbolic Hebrew, it is for this very point. Learning this symbolic language will drastically help our ourselves and our children increase in thinking critically and reading poetically, to search through the layers of the dump to find and discover truth, and to begin to see the multiple layers of meaning our Creator has provided in all Creation.
But How?
Unlike the English alphabet, with its single purpose letters, the Hebrew Aleph-beit letters each have more than 3 meanings behind them. Meaning, instead of just a sound they make for speaking a foreign tongue, they have a pictograph with its deep ancient cultural illustration & story, a numerical symbol used for arithmetic, a shape which I associated together, a set of words used to describe principles, a tone used for singing, House of Israel stories associated and the list goes on depending on which scholar you learn from and what they have personally connected with it.
So, what that means is, when we learn these multiple levels of meaning in a simple thing as the language of Creation, over time, we train our brain to use skills God created our brains to utilize, and we begin to apply our multi-level critical thinking abilities to learning everywhere. And my favorite part, we get an education made for man, not animals :)
For instance, when we read or hear a story, is there a single meaning in that story or are there usually multiple ways we can connect and apply that story to our life? Multiple ways is right! Literature is multi-layered. It would be absurd to claim there is only one way to see things. Stories are naturally poetic and contain multiple layers of meaning because they contain this language of Creation. When we are asking the right questions, which spark more thinking, we will see more. If they are true literature and classics, they naturally contain multiple meanings. Many for every reader. And it's completely subjective!
Now let's explore this thought when learning from the Bible. Are there only one way to see and connect with the truths there? No. But why is it we often hear a symbolic and poetic (Hebraic) story in scriptural text and so easily only see the literal level of meaning?
Or, when we see the news, articles, events, daily scenarios we experience and books we read? Are we asking ourselves the right questions to spark our minds to think critically and see things poetically, with our mind and heart so we are receiving the personal meaning that may be there for us? Or even to find truths our Creator is guiding us to discover? How about so we can take in the lessons to once and finally apply the truths we are in need of applying into our character? Most importantly, are we remembering and considering there may be another layer or meaning?
The very cool thing I have experienced as I have taught others to see critically, poetically and symbolically over the last 8 years, is that each and everyone can develop these skills with practice, encouragement and trusting the process. For us parent mentors, if we have a guide, it is even more effective and doesn’t take years and years to make a part of our abilities. But imagine if our children grew up in homes where they were guided to increase their "multiple-layer" seeing abilities, to not just see in a literal or material level, and became efficient in seeing multiple-layered meanings in all Creation. How would that be?
~ Katie Hansen
Concepts Mentioned:
