Emmanuel in Conversation with the Great Mystics
Part 2 – Before Creation: The Greatest Question Ever Asked
There is one question that has echoed through the minds of mystics, philosophers, prophets, and seekers for thousands of years.
It is a question so profound that many religious systems never attempt to answer it.
What was God doing before creation?
Not after creation.
Not during creation.
But before the first star ignited.
Before space stretched across the heavens.
Before time began measuring moments.
Before angels.
Before humanity.
Before the universe itself.
If there was no creation...
What was there?
Perhaps an even greater question follows naturally.
Who was God before there was anything to create?
Most religions begin their story with creation itself.
"In the beginning..."
But that statement already assumes something existed before the beginning.
It assumes God already was.
Yet what does that actually mean?
This is where Emmanuel invites us to travel farther than most theological systems dare to go.
He asks us to look beyond Genesis itself.
Not to reject Scripture, but to explore the mystery that Scripture points toward.
Creation becomes only one chapter in a much larger story.
It is not the beginning of God.
It is the beginning of our universe.
There is a profound difference.
Many people unknowingly imagine God sitting alone for an eternity before deciding one day to create a universe.
But immediately another question appears.
If God is perfect, why would a perfect Being suddenly decide to create?
Did something change?
Did God become lonely?
Did God suddenly need companionship?
If God is complete, nothing could be added to make Him more complete.
Therefore creation cannot exist because God lacked something.
This realization changes everything.
Creation begins to appear, not as a solution to Divine loneliness, but as an expression of Divine fullness.
Love naturally gives.
Wisdom naturally creates.
Goodness naturally shares itself.
Perhaps creation is simply what Infinite Love does.
Swedenborg described God as Infinite Love united with Infinite Wisdom.
Those two qualities are never separated.
Love desires to give.
Wisdom provides the means.
Creation becomes the natural expression of both.
God creates because Divine Love endlessly seeks to communicate itself.
Creation is generosity.
Not necessity.
Thomas H. Burgoyne approaches the same mystery from another direction.
Instead of beginning with theology, he begins with universal law.
Throughout The Light of Egypt, Burgoyne repeatedly teaches that visible creation reflects invisible principles.
The stars are symbols.
Nature is symbolic.
Human beings are symbolic.
Everything visible points toward an unseen reality.
Creation therefore becomes a living language.
The universe is not merely made of matter.
It is composed of symbols revealing spiritual truth.
Walter Russell offers another remarkable perspective.
For Russell, God is absolute stillness.
Motion belongs to creation.
Stillness belongs to the Creator.
From Divine stillness comes rhythmic balanced interchange.
Universes appear.
Universes disappear.
Creation unfolds like waves upon an infinite ocean.
Yet the ocean itself remains unchanged.
The waves move.
The ocean remains.
Likewise creation changes constantly while God remains eternally complete.
Carl Jung rarely attempted to define God through theology.
Instead he examined humanity's experience of the Divine.
He noticed that symbols of creation appear everywhere.
Dreams.
Religions.
Ancient myths.
Alchemy.
Sacred geometry.
Every civilization tells stories about beginnings.
Why?
Because the human psyche itself longs to understand its origin.
Perhaps creation stories tell us as much about ourselves as they do about God.
Joel Goldsmith shifts our attention inward.
He reminds us that creation is not merely something that happened billions of years ago.
Creation continues now.
Every moment becomes an opportunity for Divine Life to express itself through human consciousness.
God is not absent from creation.
God is present within it.
The Kingdom is discovered inwardly before it is recognized outwardly.
The universe is not simply something we observe.
It is something we participate in.
Each of these voices contributes another piece of the puzzle.
One speaks of Love.
Another of Wisdom.
Another of universal law.
Another of symbols.
Another of consciousness.
Another of Divine Presence.
Different languages.
Different traditions.
Yet each attempts to answer the same eternal question.
Why does anything exist?
Perhaps the greatest lesson these teachers share is humility.
The deeper one travels into the mystery of God, the more difficult absolute certainty becomes.
The greatest mystics often become the most humble.
Not because they know less.
But because they realize how vast Reality truly is.
Every answer opens another question.
Every discovery reveals another horizon.
Every symbol points toward something even greater than itself.
Perhaps that is why sacred writings so often employ poetry instead of mathematics.
Symbols instead of definitions.
Parables instead of formulas.
The Infinite cannot be imprisoned inside human language.
Language can only point.
It cannot contain.
Maybe that is why every genuine seeker eventually discovers that silence itself becomes one of the greatest teachers.
Not empty silence.
Living silence.
The silence from which every star was born.
The silence from which every soul emerged.
The silence that existed before the first word was spoken.
Perhaps creation itself is God's first conversation with the universe.
And perhaps every sincere search for truth is humanity's attempt to answer.
As this series continues, we will move from the question of creation itself into another mystery that has puzzled seekers for centuries.
What is the difference between spirit and soul?
Are they different?
Are they the same?
Or are they two aspects of one Divine reality expressed through human existence?
That question will lead us into one of the most fascinating conversations shared by Emmanuel, Swedenborg, Burgoyne, Jung, Russell, Goldsmith, and many of the world's greatest mystical thinkers.
