Revelation 4:3 Meaning That Looked Like a Jasper Stone

The central self seated at the summit of the body shows itself as light broken into color, each stone a center glowing up the spine. Jasper is the clear crown light at the top, sardine the red root fire at the base, and the 2 ends of that ladder frame the one who sits between them. The rainbow ringing the throne is the full band of these energy centers seen at once as arcs of colored light, and at the heart the green emerald burns, the living midpoint of the spectrum.

The whole vision is the awakened body lit from base to crown, with the knowing self enthroned in the middle of its own risen lights.

Throne: the central self enthroned at the summit of the body, the seat of awareness the risen centers surround Jasper: the clear crown center at the top of the head, the highest of the lights Sardine stone: the red root center at the base of the spine, the lowest of the lights Emerald: the green heart center at the midpoint of the body, the living balance of the spectrum Rainbow: the full band of energy centers up the spine seen at once as a ring of colored light

Tajallī: God stepping into view

Tajallī is God showing himself in a form a creature can survive. Ibn Arabi taught that no such showing ever repeats, and no two people receive the same one. Anyone brought that close gets a sight already cut down to their size, which is the only reason the meeting can happen at all.

Tanzīh and tashbīh: Holding God past all likeness, and still speaking in likenesses

Tanzīh keeps God clear of every comparison, while tashbīh lets us speak of him through them. Ibn Arabi said whoever holds to one alone is seeing with one eye. Facing something past words, a person either falls silent or grabs the nearest thing to point with, and each move keeps the other honest.

God has seventy thousand veils of light and darkness: brightness itself hides

A saying of the Prophet counts those veils between us and God, and al-Ghazali built a book on it. Light conceals as surely as it shows, the way oncoming headlights leave you seeing nothing. Whatever cover remains at the height of a vision is what lets the one looking keep standing there.

The color of the water is the color of its cup: the receiver shapes what is received

Junayd put it that way. One light poured through different people comes out looking different each time, and the difference belongs to the cup. Two honest witnesses can describe the same sight in ways that barely match, and both are reporting it straight.

My mercy outruns my anger: mercy is the wider circle

God says this in a saying the Prophet passed on, and the Quran adds that mercy takes in everything. Sufis take the order seriously: whatever awe a person meets, mercy stands around the outside of it. Someone who has just been shown more power than they can hold is being told which of the two reaches further.