God and Creation

^^^ Open picture in a separate tab to reference for this post^^^

Religious reference is all over Burnt Norton and the rest of the poem as well. It's fairly easy to open up a page, scan it, then point to several. However, the context ("context seems to be my theme tonight") in which we view these is somewhat more complex. I chose this image from the Sistine chapel because I feel it encompasses two very important points.

First, examine the fingers nearly touching. These are the two points which Eliot hounds us with artistically while trying to get us to focus upon the space in between. One represents man, one represents god, yet without either we cannot understand the act of creation etc. Creation is exactly what Eliot is talking about when he says that time past makes time present and time future. The past and the future are making the present; we have nothing at all to do with creating the present. We have everything to do with experiencing it. This separation between experience and creation is something Eliot utilizes in the next point I make.

Second, look at the picture and determine who is trying to touch the other. Is man trying to touch god? Is god trying to touch man? Are they both trying to touch each other? Look at the angle of the wrists. To me, it seems fairly clear that god is reaching towards Adam with more vigor (note the lines in the fabric and hair) than Adam is trying to make towards reaching god (casual position of elbows and reclining away). Now, we know for Eliot's imagery experience and creation are exclusive. Everything in the passage with religious reference removes experience. "At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless" should be more than clear enough to argue this sufficiently. So here's a little more of how Eliot removes experience from creation. "at the still point, there the dance is, / But neither arrest nor movement." "Neither ascent nor decline. Except for the point, the still point, / There would be no dance, and there is only the dance." This is the epiphanic moment in which the creation of the epiphany exists. Everything else fades away leaving leaving us incapable of experiencing anything because our entire consciousness is on lock down from an overload of experience. Now look at Michelangelo's painting again. Does Adam look like he's drowning in epiphany from touching the space between himself and god? I think so. It's in the eyes. I think he's drowning in experience and that's why he looks in a state of such total relaxation, incapable of experiencing anything else.

This space between the fingers, this is where there is the dance, and where there is no dance, but where there is only the dance. This exists in the space between any two points yet we rarely posses the observational and deductive skill to recognize it.