Mortal existence might be likened to "chaos and old night." To unenlightened thought, good often seems without foundation and subject to destruction and decay, while evil seems to predominate in almost every facet of experience. In the Bible we read that "the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep."
The troubled thought of any mortal who has not yet awakened to the spiritual nature of God and His universe, only comes on ever blacker darkness by probing deeper into the material scene. It takes spiritual light to bring form and meaning to life. The above verse ends, "And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."Gen. 1:2; Indeed, God, Spirit, has to be seen as the source of true consciousness before meaning and purpose can save mortals from the chaotic darkness of materialism.
The steps of creation presented in the first chapter of Genesis can be understood as symbolic of the steps of unfoldment taking place in each individual human consciousness as it awakes to spiritual reality. Before the true picture of all life is viewed from this standpoint of perfection, two things must happen to prepare the unfolding thought for the new idea of perfection.
