Tag: Jonathan Dunne

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9. AIO

After the creation of the world (in the beginning, the letter A), we find ourselves in the era of the Fall, which centres around the ego, I. We have to take this line that separates us and open it, count down, perhaps just turn it around, so that we get O.

The correct progression of human life is that represented by the Greek alphabet, AIO (sometimes written AIW). The Greeks are known for their interest in philosophy and theology. Having made the progression from the A of creation to the I of the Fall – the period we find ourselves in – we have a choice: to count up (as the Latin alphabet does, AIZ) or to humble ourselves and count down, AIO.

Language favours the second option. We have seen the examples AM-I’m-om, no one and amen, mean, name-mine-nemo, omen. We go from the name of God in Exodus, AM, through personal importance and gain (I’m, mine) to calling on God again in the Holy Trinity (om) or on God the Father, no one (nemo in Latin).

In the Garden of Eden, between Adam and Eve, there was no competition. So, we have a draw. In today’s world with its competing egos, we set out to win. The vowel in these verbs has changed from A to I. But Christ comes with a different message. He encourages us to turn the other cheek, to lose our life for the sake of the other (in order to find it). So, he encourages us to lose:

draw-win-lose

Here again, we find the progression of the Greek alphabet, AIO (with a silent final e, very common in English, ignore the consonants).

We have seen that we are made to call on God. The first word the human apparatus is capable of producing is a combination of breath, h, and the first vowel to emerge from the throat, u: hu, which is Sanskrit for “invoke the gods” and the root of our word God. We are made to call on God. Similarly, if we turn away from the selfish demands of the ego, represented in English by a straight line, I, we make three symbols, A+O, which spell another name of God, Alpha and Omega. So, again, when we turn away from our selfish desires and embrace the other, we call on God.

In the Judgement of the Nations, Christ goes so far as to tell us that the other is God: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). If we remember that the Greek word for “God” is theos, we might see a close similarity between other and theos (step in the alphabet r-s). Language confirms what Christ is saying.

It is ironic, therefore, that after Adam and Eve have eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge in Genesis, chapter 3, it is God who calls to Adam, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9). Of course, he knows where Adam is, and he knows what has happened. But by asking this question, which is the question Adam should have been asking, he is somehow indicating to us what our approach should be.

Make the progression from A to I, and from call you have like (in reverse, addition of e). Like is what we do on Facebook. We indicate our preferences. It also gives kill, and there has been plenty of killing in the history of humankind.

Now, count down from I to O, and you get look, which is the message Christ is trying to get across in the New Testament, the importance of opening our spiritual eyes (our egos or Is) and bearing spiritual fruit. We have seen the relevance of this in the Parables of the Sower and the Tares. So, we have:

call-kill, like-look

And then there are the examples that relate to the animal kingdom. Let us start with swan – a white bird, and white is a symbol of purity. Progress towards the ego, and you get swine – pigs in the mire, we have dirtied God’s image by rolling in the mud (just as the prodigal son does in Luke 15, a metaphor for dissolute living). When we come to our senses and realize that the things of this world will not satisfy us for long, we set out to purify ourselves once more, to return to our father, as the prodigal son does, which is not a return to the way things were before (swan), but a movement onwards, to something new: snow. So, we have:

swan-swine-snow

And finally, what is that most ancient mammal if not a whale that continues to patrol our oceans, despite our best efforts to wipe it out? Make the progression from A to I, and you have while, an indication of time. Time started after the Fall, this is when Adam and Eve became mortal, when they were expelled from paradise. Time will end for us individually when we die (the past tense of I) and for the human race when Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead. Now, count down from I to O, and in a while you become whole again. Whole is a remarkable word, and we will see more of it. So, we have:

whale-while-whole

All are examples of the progression made in the Greek alphabet, where we count down from the ego, which is represented in English by the letter I, and turn to God, the eternal symbol O.

Jonathan Dunne

Heart of Language 9/15

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8. Om

The Fall – carnal knowledge – enabled us to have our own children, but it also brought about spiritual blindness, which is represented by the ego in English (I, a closed eye when rotated by ninety degrees). We must make the progression to O, an open eye, if we are to see the people and things around us.

In between the vowels a and i in the alphabet is the vowel e. The name of Adam’s partner in Genesis is Eve, “because she was the mother of all who live” (Gen 3:20).

Now there are two coincidences, and coincidences are indicators of truth. The first is the correlation between Eve and eye (v-y is a pair of letters that look alike, one is an extension of the other). The second is the way the words eye and I sound exactly the same.

Eve is taking us in the direction of the Fall (I), but I don’t see this as a bad thing. Without carnal knowledge, without a fall into bed, we could not have children. We had to make this progression in order for the world – and then heaven – to be comprised of our own creations. The alternative was for God to create a clone army, to keep on removing ribs from Adam in order to make more humans. God knew perfectly well what would happen in Genesis, chapter 3. But it was necessary for us to co-partake in creation – after all, we are divine creatures, we bear God’s name (AM is in ADAM). And there is no doubt that children give great joy and make life worth living.

So, the Fall made it possible for us to marry and have children. But with carnal knowledge came spiritual blindness. And this is something we don’t realize. We think when our eyes are opened shortly after birth, we can see. But our physical sight is extremely limited. We see things as objects. We label them. We move them about. We trade in them. We build lines around them (walls, fences) to protect them from others. This is not sight.

And this is why the ego, I, if we rotate the word by ninety degrees, represents a closed eye: —. This explains the correlation between eye and I. The ego is a closed eye, because it is spiritually blind. And we are in this life (apart from to have children) to open our spiritual eyes and to form the letter O. O is eternity. O is an open tunnel. O is a cry of recognition. O is a sigh of repentance. It represents restoration, redemption. Do you see how all these words begin with the prefix re-? It is a return – we are restored to ourselves – but it is a return with knowledge.

We have seen how this progression from the A of creation to the I of the Fall and the O of redemption can be discerned in the question words what, why and who (how).

Let us take the name of God in Exodus, AM, and apply the same progression. AM gives I’m (self-importance). We no longer call on God, we rely on our own resources (only to discover, later on, that they are limited). When we reach the end of our tether, we make the further progression from I’m (the ego gets to be pretty boring with its repetitiveness) to om, a mantra in Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism. But I don’t mean that. For me, om represents the Holy Trinity: O3 (three in One).

And if we apply the phonetic pair m-n and add final e (which is extremely common in English), we find that om gives no one. Amen-mean-name do the same – they pass through mine (acquisitiveness) to nemo (Latin for “no one”) and omen.

No one – O1 – is God the Father, as we will see in a later chapter. So, again we call on him, just as we did by being human (the first word the human apparatus is capable of pronouncing, a combination of breath and the first vowel to emerge from the throat, the root of our word God). Or by moving away from the line and producing three symbols, A+O, that spell another name of God, Alpha and Omega.

This progression, AIO (sometimes written AIW), is inherent in language. We will see more examples.

Jonathan Dunne

Heart of Language 8/15

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7. AM

A refers to creation. I refers to the Fall (or time). O is the symbol of recognition, repentance. This is the progression of human life, contained in the Greek alphabet: AIO. That is, the Greek alphabet counts down from the Fall (from I to O). The Latin alphabet used in English counts up (from I to Z).

The Greek alphabet makes the progression from A (which represents creation, “In the beginning…”) to I (which represents the Fall, or time) to O (a long o, called omega, the last letter). AIO. We tend to associate Greek culture with drama, philosophy and theology.

We tend to associate Latin culture with making laws and building roads. It’s the Latin alphabet that we use in English, 26 letters. But the Latin alphabet, which might be taken to convey rationalism, thinking, doesn’t make the same progression as the Greek one. It goes from A to I to Z. That is, it counts up: from 1 to 2.

It does exactly what we teach our children to do in school. To amass. To count up from the line that represents the ego, I, without taking into account the source, O (the eternal symbol that represents God). A fatal mistake. This contrast in styles, between a more humble East and a more hegemonic West, with its colonies and empires, is very telling.

Let us start by looking more closely at the A of creation. We have seen that the name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush in Exodus 3:14, perhaps the most important verse in the Old Testament, is AM. This name actually contains the letter A and also the Greek letter omega, w, turned upside down. In God is both the beginning and the end. He is the empty space on which we draw the timeline (there can be no time without eternity).

If we apply the phonetic pair m-n to AM, we get an. This is the indefinite article, the article we use to refer to countable nouns, nouns that can be counted. You can only count if you separate off, if you draw a line around, so God did this – but he didn’t create man in order to trade in him, which is the reason we draw lines around things (barrels, bottles, containers, any kind of packaging, for the purpose of trade). He drew a line around man in order to grant him free will, to make him separate (while, obviously, man’s life is contained in God, without whom he cannot breathe). This is the difference in intention between God and man: one gives freedom, the other thinks about profit.

If we combine the name of God, AM, and the indefinite article, an, we get a man:

AM + an = a man

And the name of that man was Adam. Again, the letter A. But because he is God’s creation, made in his image, he also has the divine spark in him, which is why the letter omega, written o or w, is in his name when written with capital letters: ADAM. His name is a duplicate of God’s in Exodus, AM, using the two ways of writing a long o or omega.

If we read the name Adam in reverse, we find made (I have allowed the second vowel to shift slightly towards the front of the mouth). That is because we are made, not begotten. Only Christ is the Son of God, only he is begotten of the Father before all ages (outside the timeline).

In chapter 2 of Genesis, after the creation of man, God then creates the animals and birds, and asks Adam to name them. Do you see how name is man in reverse, with the addition of final e?

If we shuffle the letters of name, we find mean and amen. By naming the creatures, Adam gave them meaning, and he said amen to God’s will. So, man: name-mean-amen.

God asked Adam what he wanted to call them. What is the primordial question. What is this creature? What will you call it? But, in the Fall, we make the progression from A to I, and instead of what, we ask why. Why should I do this? Why should I believe you? Why signifies distrust (y is the semi-vowel that corresponds to i).

Now that we find ourselves in the time of the Fall (as soon as Adam and Eve are ejected from paradise, the clock starts ticking, this is why the Fall and the ego are represented by a line), we really only have one choice: to go forward. So, we do not attempt a return to paradise, to the world of childish ignorance. We have our knowledge and must use it.

We make the progression of the Greek alphabet, and turn why into who (or how, it’s the same answer). The biggest shift in someone’s thinking is when they make this change from why to who. Pilate, when he asked Christ, “What is truth?” (Jn 18:38), had not made this progression. He had to ask the one by whom all things were made (because he is the Word, and the world was spoken into being) not “What is truth?”, but “Who is truth?” And then Christ might have answered, “I am,” in which is contained the progression of human life: AIO (AIW).

AIO, or AIW (depending on which letter we use for omega, o or w), restores us to ourself. The crucial difference – and the reason we should not want to return to Eden (Garden of Eden spells danger of need) – is that now we have knowledge, knowledge we must put to good use.

Jonathan Dunne

Heart of Language 7/15

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6. Heart

When we see and hear – that is, when we acquire spiritual vision – a seed is planted in the earth of our heart. This is why see and hear, with the addition of the phonetic pair d-t, give seed and heart. We need our eyes and ears to be opened.

Seed is also the past tense of see – or it would be, if see was a regular verb. And the past tense of hear would be heart.

This is because the past tense in English, which is written -ed, is pronounced d or t, depending on whether the previous sound is voiced or not. If the previous sound is voiced, for example b, then the pronunciation of -ed is d (mobbed); if, however, the previous sound is voiceless, for example p, then the pronunciation of -ed is t (stopped). It is only if the previous sound is d or t that the sounds have to be separated by a vowel sound and the pronunciation is id (decided).

An inordinate amount of importance is placed on the ability to see and hear in the Gospels. Christ is always crying out, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” (Mt 11:15, Mk 4:9). In Matthew 13:16, he tells the disciples, “Blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” He is referring to spiritual vision, which unfortunately is not the kind of vision that is usually taught in schools, because in schools children are taught to label and count, to analyze, to think, to rely on reason, on effort (“work hard, and you’ll get good marks”), and this creates a certain distance between us and the things that surround us, leading to the idea that we can do something with them, such as deal, trade, buy and sell because they are somehow alien to us, external (we adopt the same attitude towards language).

It also encourages the idea that in order to achieve something in this life we must act (do something to something or someone else). If you teach a child to count up from 1 (never from 0), you are encouraging them to think in terms of profit and loss, quantity, what comes in and what goes out, you are encouraging them to trade in the things of this world, which is the whole basis of the dominant system, capitalism (counting up). You are not encouraging them to truly see the things of this world for what they are worth and to rejoice in them. This comes to us naturally, but in the hurly-burly of classrooms it is often extracted. A good example would be a friend of mine’s ability to draw. Before he attended school, he drew beautifully (several of his drawings were published in National Geographic Kids). Once he started attending school and went to art lessons, where he was taught the names of artists and encouraged to remember them, his drawing became analytical, predictable, uninspired. He had lost that innocency of vision that Christ wants us to reclaim because he began to analyze, to do the exercises that he was set, to put everything in boxes, to learn not in order to appreciate, but to pass exams (to achieve a certain mark).

This idea of effort being rewarded is very dangerous, because it leads to the notion that we must always be doing something, and that implies doing something to something, not just letting it be. I have a neighbour who is always cutting down trees and bushes. This morning, another bush had disappeared. I noticed its absence. He obviously feels the need to be busy, but I can’t quite understand why he doesn’t leave them alone. After all, trees provide food, warmth, oxygen, shade, and homes (somewhere to hide) for the sparrows and great tits that populate the local area.

And what do we see with? Our eyes (addition of y). What do we use to hear? The ear (addition of h). So, we have: eyes-see-seed and ear-hear-heart, with the addition of the phonetic pair d-t in the final word of each triplet. This is because in order for the spiritual seed to take root in the earth of our heart, and to effect a change, we must be able to see/hear the message. Otherwise, the words will fall on deaf ears. This is the message of the Parable of the Sower that precedes the passage in Matthew I quoted earlier.

In the first of the Parables of the Kingdom that follow this passage, the Parable of the Tares, there is one who sows good seed in the field of the world – Christ himself – and the enemy (the devil) who comes at night to sow weeds among the wheat. “The good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one” (Mt 13:38). Weed and wheat are, of course, connected (phonetic pair d-t, addition of h). They are planted in the same field until the time of the harvest, when an angel will come to glean – language here is predicting the future, it is telling us what will happen, just as, in the case of creation, it tells us how the world came into being.

And isn’t it interesting that, of the two, weed and wheat, it is only the second that has ears? It is also, ironically, only the second that leads to true wealth (addition of l) – which is not having more of something, but seeing the wonder in people and things, without the need to possess or exploit them.

Jonathan Dunne

Heart of Language 6/15

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5. Seed

The life cycle is reflected in language; all the words connected with creation, fertility, reproduction, have aer (air) in them, the same aer that forms the basis of speech.

In order to grow and bear fruit, a seed must be planted in the earth. Yes, but how is this process reflected in language?

A seed must be planted in the ground in order to bear fruit. It must be buried. That is, it must disintegrate (not remain whole) in order to give rise to new life. This is surely a metaphor for our own resurrection.

So, a seed dies, and that is why the two words are connected in reverse if we interchange the front vowels e and i. We cannot bring forth new life except by being put in the ground (our ego, that is). We become dead to our selfish demands. And out of that deadness comes a new, unrestricted potential.

Alternatively, we can add the letter l to seed and get sleep (by rotating the letters d and p). Seeds have been known to sleep in the ground for hundreds of years before sprouting and giving forth new life. In the ancient world, early Christians referred to burial sites not as “graves”, but as “resting places”, because the people buried there were not dead, but asleep.

The seed dies and puts forth first a root and then a shoot. Do you see how these words are connected – seed with root (phonetic pair d-t, step in the alphabet r-s), root with shoot (step in the alphabet r-s, addition of h)?

A shoot appears above ground (reminding us of the seed’s existence), and as it does so, it closely resembles a tooth (step in the alphabet s-t) emerging from the gum. Language is often graphic like this.

As the root divides into two (too, addition of r), so the shoot divides into three and becomes a tree (addition of h). It cannot become a tree except by dividing, by putting out branches, as cells divide in the human body. This division, paradoxically, leads to increase.

One is three, as in the case of the Holy Trinity. The tree harnesses the power of the sun (Son) through each leaf (phonetic pair l-r, pair of letters that look alike f-t). It produces a flower, which wilts, giving way to a fruit (froot) with the seed in it. And the whole process begins anew.

So, we have: seed (dies/sleep)-root (two)-shoot (tooth)-tree (three)-leaf-fruit (root), all perfectly reproduced by language.

It is the earth that enables this, and perhaps it is time we notice the presence of air (written aer in Latin and Greek) in so many words that have to do with creation, fertility, reproduction: aer-earth-water-breath, bread, breast (all three sources of nourishment that share the same first four letters with the phonetic pair d-t, addition of h/s)-create-father.

They all have aer in them, just as language is impossible without breath (we add voice to our breath to form the vowels; we obstruct our breath, with or without voice, to form the consonants). This again provides a link between the physical world (we cannot live without breathing) and language (aer is in many words connected with creation).

And by taking a step in the alphabet, r-s, as we did with God-ego (d-e) and father-gather (f-g), we find aer in sea (imagine a sea without aer in it, it would be dead).

This brings us back to the account of creation in the Book of Genesis. On day three, the earth was created (spoken into being), together with the sea, plants yielding seed and the fruit tree.

All reflected in the words we speak.

Jonathan Dunne

Heart of Language 5/15

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4. Earth

Our bodies mimic the physical environment – our heart is the earth, our soul the soil, where spiritual seeds can be planted.

Father also contains earth. And heart.

In Genesis 1:9-13, we read that the earth was created on day three, together with the sea, seed and tree (words with which it is connected).

We have seen that the vowels emerge from the throat, where language originates, in a different order from that in the alphabet. The back vowels are u and o, the central vowel is a, and the front vowels are e and i; u and i are close vowels, o and e are mid vowels, while a is an open vowel (this is why a doctor asks you to pronounce this vowel when she wants to look down your throat, because it is the most open vowel there is). So the vowels as they proceed from the throat form an inverted pyramid, according to where in the mouth they are produced:

u                                             i

o                      e

a

Now, vowels are fluid. I have already explained that they equate to water (water forms in the mouth when you hold one for long enough). This is why a vowel can be said to flow (phonetic pair f-v, addition of e). Languages like Arabic and Hebrew don’t even write them down, they only list the consonants. This means it is fairly easy to change a vowel in a word connection, especially if they are pronounced next to each other, such as a and e.

If we maintain the digraph th, then we can see that earth in reverse gives three, the day on which it was created. It also happens to be the third planet in order of increasing distance from the sun. And, in Christian theology, it was created by the Trinity (God in three persons) – the Father (the origin of breath, from whom the Holy Spirit proceeds), the Son (Christ the Word, begotten of the Father) and the Holy Spirit (breath or wind, pneuma in Greek, the basis of all speech). So we can understand why the number three might be so important for earth.

While a seed is planted in the earth in order for it to grow, a spiritual seed has to be planted in another kind of earth – our heart. This is why the two words are connected. It is not enough for us to hear a spiritual message, we have to take the message on board, to let it into our hearts, where the seed of an idea can grow and bear fruit.

We might then remember the layer of something that surrounds the earth like a shell or a circumference: soil. We cannot place the seed on a rock or among thorns if we want it to grow. We must place it in the soil.

Again, when it is a question of a spiritual seed, there is another kind of soil where we must plant it – our soul. This is where the spiritual seed will bear fruit.

So, earth-heart, soil-soul (containing the close vowels, u and i).

Language is drawing a comparison between the physical environment and our own bodies, in which the heart takes precedence (and where the soul is perhaps a layer around it, as soil is a layer around the earth).

Jonathan Dunne

Heart of Language 4/15

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3. Human

The elements of speech – breath, water and flesh – are the same elements that are present in the act of creation in the Book of Genesis. The world was spoken into being, which means that we, and the world around us, are a form of language.

Language is made up of three elements: breath, water and flesh.

The first element is breath. Breath forms the basis of all speech. Without breath, you are dead. Breath is represented by the letter h, a letter that is dropped in colloquial speech and silent in some languages, but for me the most important letter in the alphabet:

h   (breath)

The second element is water. This is when we add voice to our breath and form the vowels. Hold a vowel sound for long enough, and water will collect in your mouth. The vowels are listed in the alphabet in the following order: a-e-i-o-u. But this is misleading because the vowel sounds are formed, from the back of the mouth (where language originates), in a different order:

u-o-a-e-i   (water)

Since breath on its own doesn’t make a word (it only expresses exasperation), the first word that the human apparatus is capable of producing is the combination of breath, h, and the first vowel sound to emerge from the throat, u: hu. You might think this is unremarkable, but, as we have seen, hu is Sanskrit for “invoke the gods” and the root of our word God.

So the first utterance we can make by our very nature is to call on God, just as when we move away from the ego and produce the symbols A+O, we say another name of God, Alpha and Omega. While the science of etymology stipulates that human derives from the Latin word for “man”, homo, I would suggest that really it is a combination of hu and man. We are spiritual beings.

The third element of language is flesh. We obstruct the passage of breath with our lips or tongue (our flesh) and produce the consonants, which can be voiced or voiceless. The consonants are divided into phonetic pairs according to where they are produced in the mouth. There are seven simple pairs:

b-p   d-t   f-v   g-k   l-r   m-n   s-z   (flesh)

We see all these elements – breath, water and flesh – in chapters 1 and 2 of the Book of Genesis. Take, for example, Genesis 1:1-2:

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

I would suggest that this passage in Genesis is really a description of speech. Or the creation of man in Genesis 2:6-7:

But a stream would rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground – then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.

Again, all three elements of language are present, which would suggest that the world was literally spoken into being. This would explain the proximity between space and speak (the letter c, a redundant letter in English, can be pronounced k or s), and also the presence in world of word and lord (the reiterative verse “And God said”).

What is also remarkable is the word these three elements have in common: father. We have seen the phonetic pair f-v, but v is also connected to b and w (think of languages such as modern Greek, Spanish, Latin and German), so through the intermediary of v, I can make the connection f-b/w.

In this way, we see that breath and father have the same letters, water is in father with the addition of h, and flesh is in father with the addition of a (phonetic pair l-r, step in the alphabet s-t).

Father contains speech.

Jonathan Dunne

Heart of Language 3/15

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2. And

The different ways of moving away from the line that represents the ego in English (I), and how the three shapes that result spell a name of God – and a conjunction.

The ego in English is a line: I. It separates us from one another. It has a beginning and an end, like time (a word that is closely related to line, we cross out the l and apply the phonetic pair m-n).

How do we move away from the line that is represented in English by the pronoun I? I can see three ways to do this.

The first is to make reference to a third point, to bring God into the conversation, as if when crossing a river we remember the source of that river in the mountain. From a line, I, we make a triangle, Δ, which closely resembles the letter A (a triangle on stilts):

A

The second is to delete the ego, to draw a line through it (to deny oneself). We have seen that this makes a cross, †, which is also a plus-sign, + (the meaning of losing your life in order to find it):

+

The third is to treat the ego as a number, 1, and instead of counting up, as we teach our children, which has no end, we count down to 0. Again, we make reference to God (0 is an eternal symbol, it has no beginning or end) – we remember him:

O

The three symbols that result when we move away from the line are A+O. These three symbols spell the name of God Alpha and Omega, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. That is, when we turn away from the ego’s selfish demands and seek to do good, we necessarily call on God – there is no other way to do this.

And what’s curious is that this name of God, Alpha and Omega, is contained in the middle conjunction, and, if we write it with capital letters:

A ’N’ O (AND)

The reverse of and is DNA. We might say that it is in our DNA to do this. All human life is about understanding that the pursuit of our own desires, to the exclusion of others, will lead ultimately to dissatisfaction. It is when we embrace the other – not simply seek our own ends – that our life acquires meaning.

So, and, that little word that crops up so much in conversation, is like an instruction to turn away from the ego and to embrace the other, their needs, their points of view. It is a plus (our life is enriched), as the word itself indicates.

Jonathan Dunne

Heart of Language 2/15

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1. God

How the spiritual meaning of words can bring them close together, and how removing the ego, a line in English (I), from a word can lead to salvation.

The word GOD, when written with capital letters, closely resembles three zeros (000). This is because God is Father, Son and Spirit, three persons in One.

It is curious that the words God and good are so similar, you would think that they share a common root. And yet their etymological roots are quite different: God derives from the Sanskrit hu, meaning “invoke the gods”, and good derives from the Gothic goþs, meaning “bring together, unite”. Their roots are different, but God is good – the words can’t help revealing this.

If God is good, then the devil is evil. Again, you might think that these two words share a common root, but they don’t. The word devil derives from the Greek diabolos, “accuser, slanderer”, while evil is from the Gothic ubils. Their meaning has brought them close.

If we remember that, in the study of phonetics, one pair of consonants pronounced in the same part of the mouth is l-r, and another is f-v, we will see that quite easily devil gives differ. All I have to do is change two of the consonants according to where in the mouth the sounds are produced. If I take a step in the alphabet – from f to g – father gives gather. This would seem to confirm what we saw just now about God being good (goþs – “bring together, unite”). The devil would separate us, make us disagree. The Father would unite us, make us one in him.

Take an earlier step in the alphabet – from d to e – and God gives ego (represented in English by the letter/line I). These are really the two masters we can choose to serve in this life: God (to love him and to love our neighbour) or the ego (to follow our own desires, even at the expense of others).

One makes us a slave to our passions: the ego. The other sets us free. In effect, what he does is save us, and we can see that when we remove the ego, I, from slave (what the ego turns us into), we get save.

In Matthew 6:24, we read that we cannot serve God and wealth (or Mammon). Another word for “wealth” is gold. Again, we see that when we remove the ego, I, from a word, it takes us in the right direction.

The ego in English, I, closely resembles a line. It separates us. It also resembles the number 1, the number we use to start counting. Three zeros make GOD. What happens when we put together three egos, three Is? We become ill.

Jonathan Dunne

Heart of Language 1/15

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