The Breath That Speaks Worlds into Being

The cosmos was not built brick by brick. It was spoken. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," (John 1:1). Our world was sung into being. Breathed into motion.

Opening Reflection:
There is a thread that runs through all wisdom traditions, and that thread intersects with modern Quantum Physics: It is the belief that there is a force animating all life. This force moves unseen, yet it is felt and can be directed. It shapes reality; it carries the weight of creation in its breath; and it goes by many names-- 

The Yoruba of West Africa call it Àṣẹ—the divine power to make things happen and bring life into being. 

The Taoists call it Qi—the vital energy that flows through all things.

The Hindus and Buddhists call it Prana—the breath that sustains existence.

The ancient seers of India heard it as OM, the primordial sound, the hum of being.

The Quantum Physicist calls it Energy or The Field. 

The Jews call it by its Hebrew name, Ruach (רוּחַ), the breath and spirit. And in Genesis, it says, "the ruach of God hovered over the waters." In Hebrew, the original language of the Old Testament, this word is grammatically feminine.  

Arabs called it Ruh, a word used for spirit, wind, breath, and the breath of life from God. 

The Greeks knew it as Pneuma, the breath, spirit or wind. 

The Romans called it Spirit, a Latin word which means breath, wind, air, soul, or life-force.  

Christians recognized this animating force, translating Hebrew into Greek and later Latin. In the retelling, they personified it: they used the phrase Holy Pneuma, and although the word pneuma is gender neutral, English translations used the masculine gender to depict this force as a "He," the third person of the Holy Trinity. What was once a breath became a man. What was once a field of energy, became a throne.