The Trinity
By Jules Doinel
“All men, who have any degree of right feeling, at the beginning of every enterprise, whether small or great, always call upon God. And we, too, who are going to discourse of the nature of the universe, how created or how existing without creation, if we be not altogether out of our wits, must invoke the aid of Gods and Goddesses and pray that our words may be acceptable to them and consistent with themselves and by consequence satisfying to us.”
- The Timaeus, Plato
I will start by defining the Trinity by a tri-unity, meaning a unity composed of three terms forming a new unity: a ternary.
The Ternary is a completed cycle which includes three times. It is symbolized by the number Three which contain One+Two and by the triangle which contains three angles each composed of three points.
If I use these symbols it is because they allow us to capture what man by definition can’t understand in entirety. They are the most powerful tools which the human being possesses to approach the deepest of mysteries. Each of these tools has its analogical model which should not be adapted to another tool.
Here I take the triangle which is the first geometrical figure which we can draw other than the circle which forms all figures since I assimilate it to the point. By analogy, I deduce that the ternary is the first cycle completed by divine manifestation.
To represent God, I therefore use the mathematical unity or the point in geometry. I deduce that One consists of all the numbers, and that the point contains all the (geometrical) figures. By analogy, God is One, the Original First Principle containing all things in its power (in potentiality).
Time consists of succeeding instants whereas eternity contains all instants. But here also appears a limitation which is the impossibility of representing something outside of time. This is the problem: we must think about the undefinable in relationship to what is known to us. God is in relation to is manifestation (emanation) what time is to eternity. Everything is there. It is the modality of his exteriorisation which changes in relations to ontological steps.
The first manifestation (emanation) of God is the Verb (the Word).
How do we get from the One to the Two? By adding One.
How to we pass from a point to the angle? By superimposing an infinity of points.
This is not of much help in understanding how the Father becomes the Son. I prefer thinking of it as a passage from the Similiar, (that is) from the Immutable to the Other (the not similar), to Movement. Everything is One, it contains all things, it is infinite at rest, and it is by opposition that this rest becomes movement, that the One becomes Two. The Verb, symbolised by the Two, is the power of infinite life and action from which everything will flow.
But the second term (principle) for the Divine Ternary is opposition to the One, it is an open cycle necessitating a fixed receptacle to actualise itself.
This receptacle is the Holy Spirit, which reconciles the fire of oppositions. Why do I use this term fire? Because I think it perfectly symbolises the power of that state of Oneness at the beginning which by confronting itself permits life to be. It is important to underline that the immutability of the One is not a passive state, but on the contrary an active state “par excellence.” When two terms (principles) oppose themselves an intermediary unity is created. This intermediary unity is the divine Ternary completed by the Holy Spirit. I think it contains in it the passing from the act of creation in power, for it is the receptacle which concentrates in it two powers infinitely opposed: that of the Father and of the Son which gives a state of equilibrium which is apt to structure a new cycle distinct from the first ternary. The Kabbalah represents this well by: Yod - Heh - Vav – Heh: the divine Tetragrammaton represented by a Ternary opening itself on another by the second Heh. This plan has its origins in the power of Universal Life, of the Verb which saw its power focalised by the Holy Spirit.
“All men, who have any degree of right feeling, at the beginning of every enterprise, whether small or great, always call upon God. And we, too, who are going to discourse of the nature of the universe, how created or how existing without creation, if we be not altogether out of our wits, must invoke the aid of Gods and Goddesses and pray that our words may be acceptable to them and consistent with themselves and by consequence satisfying to us.”
- The Timaeus, Plato
I will start by defining the Trinity by a tri-unity, meaning a unity composed of three terms forming a new unity: a ternary.
The Ternary is a completed cycle which includes three times. It is symbolized by the number Three which contain One+Two and by the triangle which contains three angles each composed of three points.
If I use these symbols it is because they allow us to capture what man by definition can’t understand in entirety. They are the most powerful tools which the human being possesses to approach the deepest of mysteries. Each of these tools has its analogical model which should not be adapted to another tool.
Here I take the triangle which is the first geometrical figure which we can draw other than the circle which forms all figures since I assimilate it to the point. By analogy, I deduce that the ternary is the first cycle completed by divine manifestation.
To represent God, I therefore use the mathematical unity or the point in geometry. I deduce that One consists of all the numbers, and that the point contains all the (geometrical) figures. By analogy, God is One, the Original First Principle containing all things in its power (in potentiality).
Time consists of succeeding instants whereas eternity contains all instants. But here also appears a limitation which is the impossibility of representing something outside of time. This is the problem: we must think about the undefinable in relationship to what is known to us. God is in relation to is manifestation (emanation) what time is to eternity. Everything is there. It is the modality of his exteriorisation which changes in relations to ontological steps.
The first manifestation (emanation) of God is the Verb (the Word).
How do we get from the One to the Two? By adding One.
How to we pass from a point to the angle? By superimposing an infinity of points.
This is not of much help in understanding how the Father becomes the Son. I prefer thinking of it as a passage from the Similiar, (that is) from the Immutable to the Other (the not similar), to Movement. Everything is One, it contains all things, it is infinite at rest, and it is by opposition that this rest becomes movement, that the One becomes Two. The Verb, symbolised by the Two, is the power of infinite life and action from which everything will flow.
But the second term (principle) for the Divine Ternary is opposition to the One, it is an open cycle necessitating a fixed receptacle to actualise itself.
This receptacle is the Holy Spirit, which reconciles the fire of oppositions. Why do I use this term fire? Because I think it perfectly symbolises the power of that state of Oneness at the beginning which by confronting itself permits life to be. It is important to underline that the immutability of the One is not a passive state, but on the contrary an active state “par excellence.” When two terms (principles) oppose themselves an intermediary unity is created. This intermediary unity is the divine Ternary completed by the Holy Spirit. I think it contains in it the passing from the act of creation in power, for it is the receptacle which concentrates in it two powers infinitely opposed: that of the Father and of the Son which gives a state of equilibrium which is apt to structure a new cycle distinct from the first ternary. The Kabbalah represents this well by: Yod - Heh - Vav – Heh: the divine Tetragrammaton represented by a Ternary opening itself on another by the second Heh. This plan has its origins in the power of Universal Life, of the Verb which saw its power focalised by the Holy Spirit.