Genesis 1:20 · World English Bible
Genesis 1:20 Meaning God Said
God said, “Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.”
What does Genesis 1:20 mean?
The waters bringing forth abundant life are the fluid depths of a person from which every living stirring first rises, the creative sea inside consciousness itself. Out of these depths come the moving creatures, the lower stirrings of vitality, and the fowl that fly above the earth, the higher thoughts that lift over the mind and move in the open space overhead.
From the Esoteric reading below.
Genesis 1:20 through 1 lens
The same verse, read by one tradition.
Esoteric
ESOTERIC
Esoteric
The waters bringing forth abundant life are the fluid depths of a person from which every living stirring first rises, the creative sea inside consciousness itself. Out of these depths come the moving creatures, the lower stirrings of vitality, and the fowl that fly above the earth, the higher thoughts that lift over the mind and move in the open space overhead. Earth here is the mind, the settled ground of ordinary awareness, and heaven is the vast field above it where the loftier faculties take flight.
Everything alive in a person, from the low restless stirrings to the soaring thoughts, wells up out of the inner waters and finds its level, some crawling along the mind and some rising into the open expanse above it.
Waters: the fluid inner depths from which all living stirrings rise. Fowl: the higher thoughts that lift above the mind and move in the open expanse. Earth: the mind, the settled ground of ordinary awareness. Heaven: the vast expanse above the mind where the higher faculties take flight.
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Live Genesis 1:20 today
- Sit for three minutes and watch what comes up without picking any of it up. Low restless urges, high clear thoughts, all of it rising from the same place in you.
- In your next real conversation, let the other person's talk go deeper than small talk and do not steer it back up. What rises from the depths is usually the part worth hearing.
- When a craving hits under stress, a snack, a scroll, a sharp reply, let it rise and watch it without acting. It came out of the water on its own and it will settle on its own.
Which of today's stirrings did I act on without ever seeing where it came from?
The same truth in other traditions
Hinduism · Upanishads
The teaching speaks of layers in a person, from the coarse body up through breath and mind to the subtle intelligence, all drawing from one life.
Zen
Thoughts are compared to birds crossing the sky. You cannot stop them from flying, but you need not follow each one out of sight.
Tao Te Ching 8
Water is praised because it takes the lowest place and nourishes everything. The depths are where the life comes from, not a flaw to climb out of.
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