The symmetry of creation

My interpretation of the creation account in Genesis has undergone significant changes in recent years. It’s intriguing how approaching the same text from a different perspective can lead to entirely different experiences. Many would likely recognize my viewpoint from a decade ago: Genesis as a detailed narrative of how the earth was formed, revealed by a God seemingly unconcerned with aligning it with modern scientific understanding, leaving that task to modern readers like myself.

Now, I have little interest in speculating about the length of the creation days or the place of dinosaurs within it. I believe such discussions miss the essence of the text. The creation account wasn’t primarily crafted for 21st-century Westerners, though understanding it could benefit us more than we might think. I don’t claim to possess the ‘true’ understanding of the creation account, as that notion sets up a false dichotomy. Instead, delving into its ancient context has been enlightening, shifting my focus from the ‘what’ and ‘how’ to the ‘why.’ I believe it holds profound meaning that I’m only beginning to comprehend, presented in a poetic fashion with beautiful imagery that is often obscured by our modern fixation on historical and scientific accuracy.

Order and separation

This post is not meant to be a comprehensive treatise on the creation account. I just want to highlight one particular aspect that I have reflected on lately. According to Aristotle, “the chief forms of beauty are order and symmetry” (Aristotle, Metaphysica). Perhaps this is one of the reasons why I find the creation account beautiful. The creation account is a very orderly account, divided into distinct days. Each day is characterized by a separation or opposites. Forgive me for including all these images but I think that the AI generated images really manage to capture the beauty of the creation account.

Day 1: Light and darkness

Day 2: Waters below and waters above

Day 3: Water and dry land

Day 4: Day/sun and night/moon and stars.

Day 5: Fish in the sea and fowls in the air

Day 6: Man and woman (alternatively: man and beast).

It is no coincidence that Lehi delves into the topic of creation shortly after imparting the profound truth to his son Jacob about the necessity of an opposition in all things (see 2 Nephi 2). In connection to order and separation, I also think it is worth mentioning that the Hebrew concept of “separation” is rooted in the word qadosh. It is typically translated into “holy” in English, but it literally means “set apart” and carries the sense of being separated unto the Lord. As Lehi articulates:

For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so, my firstborn in the wilderness, righteousness could not be brought to pass, neither wickedness, neither holiness nor misery, neither good nor bad. Wherefore, all things must needs be a compound in one;

2 Nephi 2:11

Holiness (“setting apart”) cannot exist when things are a compound in one. The creation account illustrates that principle which is carried over to our daily lives. We can only be holy by separating from the wicked.

And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things;

Alma 5:57

This is only one of many illustrations of how the principles of creation apply to our lives.

Symmetry

There is much more to be said about the creation account and a lot has been written already in other blog posts. But I wanted to have a closer look at the profound symmetry of the creation account. Organizing it into a 2×3 grid reveals intriguing patterns:

There is a lot to unpack here. Let’s start with the columns. The “heaven” column to the left is also the “light” column. It concerns the celestial sphere and what happens in heaven. Both the first and fourth days deal with light and darkness, day and night. The “earth” column to the right focuses on matters of the earth. On the second day, the earth was covered in water, but on the third day, dry land emerged, setting the stage for the creation of land animals and humans on the sixth day. These two columns to the left and right systematically detail the creation of ‘heaven and earth,’ as stated in Genesis 1:1. What about the middle column, then? It appears to combine the two, as if to show that there is both a separation and a connection between heaven and earth. It deals with the waters below and the waters above, the fish in the sea and the fowls in the air.

Exploring the two rows is even more interesting. The first row always represents a preparatory stage that is fulfilled in the second. There is a transition from the singular to the plural. We will go through this for each of the three columns to see that it is invariably the case. The first day marks the creation of light. Light is not specified or manifest beyond its mere appearance at creation. It is just the general concept of light as opposed to darkness. But on the fourth day the single source of light is manifest in several distinct bodies of light. D&C 88 comes to mind:

7 Which truth shineth. This is the light of Christ. As also he is in the sun, and the light of the sun, and the power thereof by which it was made.
8 As also he is in the moon, and is the light of the moon, and the power thereof by which it was made;
9 As also the light of the stars, and the power thereof by which they were made;

D&C 88

Next we turn to the “heaven and earth” column. The waters below and above are separated. The ancient Jewish understanding was that heaven was a dome above the earth where water was locked in and sometimes opened (“the windows of heaven”) to give rain. Again, if we read this through a modern lens focusing on historical and scientific accuracy, we miss the point. The separation of these two waters and the distinction between heaven and earth sets the stage for the fifth day of creation when the waters and air are “filled” with fish and fowls, respectively. Again, there is a transition within that column from an initial single concept with a potential that is only realized when moving down to the second row where it is being populated.

The rightmost column, the “earth” column, reveals the same pattern. Dry land is separated from the sea on the third day and prepared to bring forth vegetation and plants with seeds after its own kind. This sets the stage for the sixth day of creation where beast and man can multiply and have every herb and fruit of the trees for food (see Genesis 1:29-30).

Again, I think that the creation account reveals a pattern that can apply to our lives. We are created in the image and likeness of God and can be creators in our own lives by applying these principles. We need to both separate and connect heaven and earth in a proper and balanced way. Our actions and movement towards a goal and purpose must consist of the correct idea and solid groundwork preceding the plurality of manifestation and fulfillment. These are major themes to ponder.

Even so, in this post we have only scratched the surface of the creation account. It is truly remarkable how much depth and complexity such a concise text holds. I believe it is the inherent nature of its symbolic and poetic language that allows it to convey far more than a literal interpretation can capture.