Thy way is in the sea
And thy path in the great waters
And thy footsteps are not known.
-Psalm 77
The sea is the kingdom of Leviathan, the universe of chaos and decay--of a primitive and terrifying homogeneity. It is a "unity" which is pre-existent, and it denies selfhood. The path of the LORD does not skirt gingerly around chaos and darkness, but cuts straight through it, as when the LORD divided the Red Sea for Moses and his followers. Division was produced by inscribing a line into chaotic endlessness and portioning it into two areas--creating a boundary.
The creation of the world was a process of repeated divisions, or breakings, of primal chaos. The elemental and original face of the deep (or face of the waters) was repeatedly shattered to produce our world of boundaries. The original Face of God was shattered into infinite shards. Our world is based upon the tension between chthonian pandemonium and the divisional order of creation. Neither is sufficient in itself. The road to eternal Life leads us on a march through chaos and death.
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