Water and Rock

My friend, Carolina, stood on a beautiful rock on the shores of Hawaii as she gazed out to the sea.  "Who am I?" she asked herself, "What is my part in this life as a woman?"  She noticed the gorgeous rock beneath her feet.  It was solid and firm, she felt safe there.  She listened to the waves cascade over the shore.  There was something beautiful, something Divine about this relationship between the ocean and the rocks.  What was it?  A feeling of pure light washed over her and she could see now.  The thought came to her as clear as day, "Carolina, the ocean is a symbol of woman and the rock a symbol of man."

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I listened to my friend share this experience with us yesterday evening with a group of several other women and some leaders from United Families International.  She then shared the first few minutes of this video with us and said it was after that revelation that came to her that she happened upon this clip.  It was a confirmation of what she had already felt in her heart.

 I love what Dr. Peter Kreeft says;

 "We're sitting on one of the most masculine things in the world, a rock.  And we're looking at one of the most feminine things in the world, the sea.  And they're deeply satisfying together.  We can't quite analyze why we find that satisfaction, that peace, and that sense of rightness.  The Iroquoi have a word for it: the word is "Orenda".  It means the spiritual power that the Great Spirit put into physical things to attract us.  They said it's especially in the sea, and the stars, and trees.  We can't live in the stars, we can't live in the sea, we don't live in trees.  Why do we love them? Why do we want to be in the presence of them? It's the orenda there!  It fits our spirit.  It's like we're iron filings and that's the magnet... and we're home." 

I've been so impressed by this concept that I haven't been able to stop thinking about it.

Water = Feminine Archetype & Rock = Masculine Achetype.

 It is amazing how this is before our eyes in everything that is beautiful in our sphere. We cannot exist without one or the other. And when men and women work together in a harmonious way, "it is glorious and beautiful!" Just think of all the creations that are magnified in their brilliance and awe when this "masculine and feminine" attain symbiosis: beautiful sculptures in caves and caverns above and beneath the ocean, geodes, crystals, land formations, geysers, waterfalls, white flowing streams and the rocks that give them shape and form.... the list goes on forever.  Plants, animals, people, and all living things are formed out of earth and water.  

I opened my scriptures to Moses where the creation of the earth is described.  There is one other element I discovered that makes this glorious relationship possible.  It surrounds both water and land, we cannot see it but without it there would be no life.  It is the "firmament" or atmosphere.  God calls it "heaven." Moses 2:6-10  This makes perfect sense because a celestial relationship must have the element of Heaven, of God, interwoven into and surrounding everything in its structure to make it eternal and perpetually in creation.

All of this is a witness to me of how amazing God is.  Literally, from the very beginning, our Father in Heaven has been trying to teach us something about our roles as men and women and how powerful we can become and what we can create when we work with full unity of heart, soul, and mind.  We are not meant to be alone just as an earth with only ocean or a planet made of only rock could never reach it's full potential of sustaining and giving life.  

I read this just the day before I heard Carolina tell her story.  But since then, it too has taken on new meaning to me:

  

“President Lorenzo Snow, the fifth President of the Church, said this to the Relief Society Sisters of the Church: 'You have ever been found at the side of the Priesthood, ready to strengthen their hands and to do your part in helping to advance the interests of the kingdom of God; and as you have shared in these labors, so you will most certainly share in the triumph of the work and in the exaltation and glory which the Lord will give to His faithful children.' As women participate in Relief Society, they serve as valiant disciples of Jesus Christ in the work of salvation. Like the women in the ancient Church, they work alongside men who hold the priesthood to increase faith and personal righteousness, strengthen families and homes, and seek out and help those in need” 
(Daughters in My Kingdom, page 7)."

In the two greatest most influential and Divine organizations, the family and the Church, we can see that men and women are meant to work together, along side each other, each one bringing out the best in the other.  It's awesome to think that the evidence of this has been around from the very beginning.

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I will never look at water, rock, or the atmosphere the same. Now I can see so much more on earth that which was and always has been in heaven.

Now, I will gaze at the beauties of creation that surround me in a new light.  Now I will always see "man" and "woman" and my heart will rejoice in the Divine relationship we share! "It is glorious and beautiful!!"