Desert Typology
Symbols have a powerful influence on our subconscious. This is why the use of metaphors and analogies creates a stronger memory. The imagery dwells in the subconscious and comes to fruition in our conscious minds. Subsequently, more parts of the brain are accessed for understanding visual language. The Old Testament Prophets, Jesus, and the Prophet Muhammad all used various types of imagery and stories to layer their teachings with deeper meaning. There are archetypes that recur again and again that seems to lie dormant in civilization’s deeper layers of consciousness until the symbol is needed to awaken us from the darkness of ignorance and inaction. The word “archetype” originates from The Greek as “archein” which means “original or old,” and “type” means “pattern or model.” The overall meaning is an original pattern of which all other similar concepts are derived or modeled. Carl Gustuv Jung believed our psyches have universal symbolic constructs in the collective unconscious of people all over the world. He believes the “archetype” represents human motifs of our experience as we evolved.
Walter Bruggemann, writing in The Prophetic Imagination, believes imagery and symbols is significant in the way the Prophets have imparted their wisdom, knowledge, and warnings from God. He goes on to state that any Prophet that arises in the contemporary world will need to access the same archaic visual language to have an impact on the deeper intuitive layers of our consciousness. The more important spiritual truths need to be intuited, and are not found in the literal, surface understanding of any of the People of the Book’s scriptures.
A good example of a universal archetype is the symbol of the rainbow. Young children will draw rainbows repeatedly, and then as they mature into pre-pubescent (ages 11–13) will begin drawing rainbows with a path or road leading to the rainbow. Sometimes the sun is on the horizon and the rainbow is placed over the sun. Rainbows represent hope, or new life, while the path or road is a representation from our psyche that has to do with a journey or setting goals. Obviously, the transition period between childhood and adolescence is the development of new understanding relating to the importance of having goals.
The typology of the desert is prevalent in the Torah, the New Testament and the Quran. All three of these religions arose out of the Middle East much of which has a desert climate. The importance of water cannot be understated in the wilderness areas of the Middle East. Water equates to life and flourishment. Karen Armstrong states in Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths, that the “Near East desert was associated with death and primeval chaos.” “Mot,” the ancient Syrian God of the desert, was also the god of the Abyss and represented the dark void of death and mortality. She explains that Yahweh took the Israelites from slavery in Egypt which was a flourishing environment at the time, out into the “howling wilderness of the desert.” Additionally, she called it the “plumb line of emptiness.” However, the presence of God, or the “Shekhinah” presence in the Ark of the Covenant was always with the Israelites guiding them, and forcing them to depend on God alone.
This physical typology points towards the spiritual reality of lack of spiritual truth and wisdom represented by the desert or wilderness, towards the process of spiritual maturation via the full submission to Allah and dependence upon Him alone represented by the “journey”. Once full submission is spiritually accomplished the believer is brought into the “Promised Land” (another significant archetype), signifying spiritual maturity, represented by flowing rivers, and abundant life giving green growth.
I once wrote I have rivers running through my soul — rivers are an important archetype for me personally, and now Allah has placed a transformed flourishing desert into my psyche as well. I can’t get away from this symbol- I am finding it in books I read, and it is forming in my dream life. In Karen Armstrong’s book on Jerusalem, I recently read: “Isaiah promised that the desert would burst into flower and become a new Eden” (chapter on the development of Islam). In the beautiful imagery of Isaiah 35:
The desert and the dry land will
rejoice;
the desert will celebrate and
blossom. Like crocuses,
it will burst into bloom,
and rejoice with gladness and
shouts of joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given
to it,
the splendor of Carmel and
Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
the splendor of our God. (1–2)
Then the eyes of the blind will be
opened,
and the ears of the deaf
unblocked;
then the lame will leap like deer,
and the tongues of the speechless
people will sing for joy.
Yes, the waters will gush forth in the wilderness,
and streams will run through
the desert,
the burning sands will become a
pool,
and the thirsty ground fountains
of water.
In the haunts of jackals there will
be a verdant resting place with
reeds and rushes. (5–7)
Many of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in the Qur’an speak of paradise as flowing rivers, and beautiful green gardens — again a similar imagery of spiritual flourishing. The imagery of eyes seeing, ears hearing, the lame leaping, and speechless speaking, is a description of the some of the much later healings of the long awaited for Messiah(pbuh), but also represents the growth of spiritual life. The role of the Prophet is not just to warn of doom and gloom if people don’t turn from their evil ways back to Allah, but to remind them using symbolic language of the intuitive beauty of a spiritual life that is in abundant flourishing. When I read this passage from Isaiah, not only do I get goose bumps, but it causes me to be filled with joy and cry. I recognize the Love, Goodness and Mercy of Allah in the promise of everlasting goodness, and the beauty of spiritual transformation. This personally gives me hope in a world where evil seems to be significantly increasing. In this darkness, it gives us hope — hope for a new life in Allah, hope for our civilization, hope for a dry desert wilderness that only Allah can cause to flourish and grow. I can’t even write this without having joy and tears. Allah is so good he doesn’t want any of us to languish in the death trap of a waterless desert wilderness. But, for our own good, as He did with the Israelites, He will send us there, languishing and in pain, until we deeply understand our need for Him- just like in the painting above. For until we understand everything we need lies in Him, and our lives are to be lived for Him, through Him, and by Him, our world will be a spiritual desert.
“It is a constant struggle against chaos, even today. Humans, by use of technology use any means possible to take control over chaos. Bigger, more powerful weapons, and stronger fortifications.” ~Karen Armstrong
