One beginning that many of us consider metaphor, is the Garden of Eden.  Look at the first creations in Genesis – they are polarities!  Heaven and earth, night and day, man and woman. If we think about the forbidden fruit, what knowledge does it offer?  The knowledge of polarities! Good and evil are polarities! Adam and Eve see they are different – that they represent the polarities of male and female!  And awareness of the polarities brings suffering. 

Another beginning is the beginning of life. This year I experienced the insightful and inspiring work of Jaap van der Waal M.D, PhD on the mysteries of the human embryo. Jaap was sharing the picture of the beginning of life – from conception to the fourth week.  It was a presentation of polarities.  Each and every one of us begins life in the dynamic tension between essential polarities.  As Jaap wrote to me “…the theme in embryonic development is polarization, in a nearly infinite process. Everywhere and always.” Human life begins in polarity.

There is a scientifically recognized polarity that reflects a metaphor from Genesis. It is the polarity of the two hemispheres of the brain, the right and the left.  The right brain is the physical home of imagination and intuition – the heavens of human consciousness.  The left brain is the physical home of analysis and measurement – the earth of human consciousness.  In between the two hemispheres is the corpus callosum which facilitates communication between the two poles of human consciousness.

For each of us, the soul life, the sense of self, and the path of inner development revolves around and evolves through our relationships to polarities.  We orient our inner lives through attractions and repulsions to opposing poles.  We long for one pole and resist the other.  Or struggle with connecting to both. 

Socially and politically we make choices between the poles of conservatism and liberalism. We take sides.  Yet more and more voices are crying out for a unifying center that can meet the needs and desires of both poles. Is that possible?

Being human is being bi-polar. But being human is also about the  possibility of being balanced and centered while relating to both poles.

Polarities are everywhere. Yet, I don’t know where we can find a true education in the meaning and effect polarities have on our thoughts, our feelings and our actions.  Where in our academic and religious educations do we find insights that wake us up to the mysterious and profound forces of polarity? 

In the mood of Inner Christmas, let’s wonder with the innocence of Nativity at 12 polarities and find the wisdom of self-knowledge – in beginning to see how we live in polarities and polarities live in us - in Epiphany. 

How do these twelve polarities live in your soul?  How do you see them living in the souls of others? How does awareness of your changing relationship to polarities lead you to freedom and compassion?