If Birth Were a Temple

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:19

I have been pondering for some time now the symbolism of the temple and birth.  In fact, I had been trying to write an essay for the book on this topic last year but I struggled with the depth of the symbolism and how to present it.   In the book, the essays “The Two Veils” and “Birth in Remembrance of Him” have thoughts related to this topic. Part of the reason I abandoned the essay was that there was a lot of crossover with those two essays.  However, I thought I would still share a portion of my thoughts on this topic as I studied to write it.

My mother gave me the book The Hidden Christ by James L. Ferrell.  In his book, on pages 97 through 109, he presents some beautiful insights about the way ancient temples were constructed and the significance and symbolism of the the details by which this was done. I put together a table comparing the symbols and their significance to us.

 

Elements of Ancient Temples/Tabernacles	Parallel Elements of Spiritual Deliverance/Priesthood (Ferrell 103-104)	Parallel Elements of Physical Birth/Motherhood/Womanhood
Outer Courtyard	The world	Leaving behind maidenhood
The altar	Sacrifice of a broken heart and contrite spirit	Sacrifices made to give life.  (See this blog post for thoughts on that.)
The brazen sea	Baptism	Born of water. Coming forth of the amniotic fluid also called the bag of waters
The Holy Place	The straight and narrow path (2 Ne. 31:17-18)	The straight and narrow birth canal
The candlestick/lamp stand	The Gift of the Holy Ghost	The gift of the light of Christ at birth. (See this blog post for more thoughts on this.)
The table of showbread with bread and jars for drink offerings	The Sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood	Shedding of blood in order to give life (menstruation).  Giving of body to form life and the shedding blood in giving birth. Blood and water combined to form breastmilk to nourish babies.
The altar if incense, which lifted incense heavenward	Sacred ordinances culminating in the holy order of prayer	Sacred sacraments of intercourse, conception, and pregnancy, culminating in birth (all of which take place within the woman).
The veil, with embroidered cherubim	The veil separating us from the Lord’s presence, through which only the sanctified can pass.	The first veil through which we pass at birth leaving the Lord’s presence.
The Holy of Holies	Eternal life in the celestial kingdom	Mortal life necessary to achieve eternal life in celestial kingdom
The mercy seat and ark of the covenant, with stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments	The throne of God in the middle of kings and queens, priests and priestesses	The giving of mortal life is a crowning event in becoming queens and priestesses. (Where giving physical life is not an option, there are many ways to participate in giving life.) Giving mortal life is a preparation for eternal life and exaltation.

 

Notice that in the second column, most of the elements depend  mostly upon the priesthood while in the third column the elements depend mostly upon women exercising the power of God.  It is also obvious that the two are interdependent. One without the other cannot be enlarged upon.  I welcome some help here too.  I know that my thoughts are incomplete and maybe you have something you could add.

I leave you with this poem “If Birth Were a Temple” that Talk Birth shared a few months ago:

 

If birth were a temple

my body is religion, and this small form

twisting out of me,

is

prayer

my cries

reach birth’s vaulted

ceilings,

arching like my back over holy

waters,

crystal clear salt of amniotic

my womb–a blessing bowl

releases

her treasure.

–Nane Ariadne Jordan

This beautiful poem came from an anthology of prayers and readings called Talking to Goddess, edited by D’vorah Grenn.