But we also have the question of number in
relation to the divine (or divinities). Is there just one God, or
several gods - or as in some theologies, sort-of-both-at-once? One of
the Hebrew names for God, Elohim, has the grammatical form
(and sometimes role) of a plural, but is considered semantically
singular when used to refer to the Hebrew God (it is also apparently
used to refer to plural gods in other pantheons, confusingly). So,
for those of us for whom ‘the Divine’ is a nebulous, wilfully or
reluctantly undefined thing, what is its number?
For me, it is in some ways the reverse of the
Hebrew Elohim, but not
exactly. It is a singular word, and I treat it entirely grammatically
as a singular, and yet that singular something
that I refer to may or may not be singular in essence. Sometimes I
think of the Divine as a collection of entities – when I consider
it as a collection of archetypes, it is certainly many, and when I
consider it the gestalt of the divine essence in each of us it is
one-and-many at the same time.
So, when I speak
of the Divine, do not be fooled into thinking it means I conceive of
it as a definitely singular entity. Maybe it is, or maybe it isn’t
– or more true to the way I experience it, it is both singular and
plural at the same time. Just there’s no easy way to do that
grammatically, at least in English, so I go with singular by default.
To me, the Divine is many and not many, but if I try to make that
clear every time I refer to it, it would be confusing and lead to
excessive verbosity. As I tend to excessive verbosity anyway, it’s
best that I not do anything to exacerbate it.
Within the limits
of language and practicality, it’s the best I can do.
Written July 2019
