Rumi the Sufi Part 1 - Theology of a Mystic - The Myth of You

I have always loved to read the poetry of Rumi. Although Rumi was Islamic, his message and theology bridges its way across many religions. Living in a day and age when speaking Christian theology would get you killed, Rumi had a way to weave the message of love and the message of Jesus into his words. Here are a few of my favorite poems with commentary. Feel free to fill in parts that I may have missed. There are always more perspectives to share.

Unfold your Own Myth

Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins? Who finds us here circling, bewildered like atoms?

---The answer to many of Rumi's questions are 'you / the self.' I have learned to read Rumi with understanding by his symbolism, which perfectly matches that of the biblical mystery. Here, he is hinting to the process of baptism into the world. The moment light begins is when you open your eyes for the first time in the morning, or at birth. The life then finds life circling (volution) about a center. Life circles a prescribed path, just as the celestial orbs do the same. As you will come to see in this series of threads, Rumi knows more than you can imagine on these topics.

Who comes to a spring thirsty and sees the moon reflected in it?


The waters of life well up from a spring that Rumi often calls the ocean of our source. Coming to life here in reality is coming to take a drink. The attraction of the moon is what you seen when you see your own reflection in the water. You can only see that reflection by the light of the sun, which is not seen at night. Notice how he moves from morning to night. When does the light begin? When it hits the horizon of your perception. Again, circling around a center reflects the cycles of life. Every verse ties into the whole.

Who like Jacob, blind with grief and age, smells the shirt of his lost son and can see again?

Here, we move from night to old age and death. Israel / Jacob had circled the wilderness in search of food during a famine. Food is most often a parallel to knowledge, which is what most seekers come to life to find. What did he find? His Son that had been lost. Although he was blind at old age, not able to see the morning's first light, he was able to sense his own son by his clothing, like seeing the moon in the reflection. As I said before, Rumi knew Jesus and who he represented. Just as Joseph was Jacob's son, so too the Son of God is what we find in this journey as blind men trying to see the light of morning at birth. We circle the wilderness looking for something that we lost.

Who lets a bucket down and brings up a flowing prophet?

This is one of my favorite verses in this poem. The bucket is you as you scoop out the living waters of life by involution (entering the circle of life / volution). What do you become by the end? The flowing prophet. Like the water, you drink from the spring that is eternal and never-ending. Go back now and read the verses again to see how they tie together.

Or, like Moses, goes for fire and finds what burns inside the sunrise?

When Moses approaches the burning bush, he finds the source of light as the one seeking the moment light begins. The thorn bush is not consumed. Moses is consumed eventually and dies. What was Moses seeking and what do we all seek if we are honest? Eternal light and an end to death. Until it is presented, our bucket is dipped into the water again and again. What are we seeking? The Son we had lost and the promised land beyond the river jordan.

It is at this moment that Rumi fills us in to what it means to live our own myth.

Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies and opens a door to the other world.

This verse is packed with information. Slipping into a house is what the Son of God does as the loaf of bread we all share. Avoiding enemies is just where he hides. What is the house in question? The human body / soul / spirit. We are the house for the ocean. As drops of dew, we are each an individuation of the ocean. When the sun rises, it evaporates the distills the water back again. This is a door to the to the other world, or the world to come. For all of us, the journey here is a journey to get somewhere else. Rumi knew the key to getting there.

Solomon cuts open a fish, and there is a gold ring.

Hidden in the circle, there is a mystery to the fish and the flower of life. Solomon means filled with knowledge. In Greek, the reversed letters of Solomon from Hebrew make Homer, or the basket for holding grain. What was in the basket Jesus held to feed the crowd? Fish and bread. Bread is made from the ears of grain. Ears are what you hear with, or how the ears open to the heart. In English, the word Ear become hear when a HEY is added. Hey means to behold. Adding a Tav to Hear you get HearT. Tav is the plowman's mark. Sin means missing the mark, or the word Chet. Hitting the mark is the point. Filling the Homer full is the key to gathering grain and catching fish. Move the Hey in HearT to the end and you have the literal soil, or eartH, the process to fill the bucket with water and seed to make bread.

Omar storms in to kill the Prophet and leaves with blessings.

The Story of Omar. Too much to add here.

Chase a deer and end up everywhere.

This verse is directly tied to the ring of Solomon. The deer is a Hart, or young stag. The young stag in Hebrew is the same word in German for heart and the same word in Latin for Cor. In Hebrew, cor is again the Homer, or basket to be filled. The Deer is representative of filling of a young mind. Chasing a deer sends you across the entire wilderness.

An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop.
Now there is a pearl.

Again, the dew is the single drop of water representing a human involution (baptism). Swallow one drop to develop the pearl. The word white in Hebrew also means circling, or what a horse does when it leaps for joy. Circling develops the white wool of the sheep. There are many more biblical illustrations, as in the white horse of salvation in the book of Revelation. The pearl is made from layers of muscle from the irritation of one single grain of sand. The same way a pearl develops is the same way we develop. Evolution. Volution means to circle around a center. E is Latin for 'out of' something. In other words, we emerge out of the volution, or involution. Baptism is involution and evolution, or rising from new life out of the water.

A vagrant wanders empty ruins.
Suddenly he is wealthy.

From the old ruins of a temple, what treasures were left behind? Gold, silver and possibly an inscription or symbol that is understood. Today, we scavenge the Mosaic created by Moses. Mos means bit, or piece of information (small unit). A mosaic is comprised of many small bits that make a larger picture. When the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, no stone was left unturned. We are picking up the pieces in this thread.

Don't miss the end of this poem. Continued in the next post....

Poetry from Rumi, the Big Red Book by Coleman Barks

But do not be satisfied with stories,
how things have gone with others.
Unfold your own myth,
without complicated explanations,
so everyone will understand the passage (as in both passage of time and the passage you write in time.),
We have opened you.

When he says you, this is the answer to both who you are and what you are. The one you seek. The one you come from.

Coming to the point, Rumi tells us to glean what we can from others, but never be satisfied with the chase. The other half of life is not the seeking we do, but the life we live and the relationships we build along the way. You are a creator, designed to create.

Start walking toward Shams, the teacher, the sun.
Your legs will get heavy and tired.
Then comes a moment of feeling the wings you have grown, lifting.

Shams is a character and center of Rumi’s existence. Too much to explain, but he is the other half of Rumi’s soul. Here and in other places, Shams is said to be the sun and light of Rumi’s own soul and light. He ends our poem as only Rumi can, by reminding us that the first light of the sun in the morning must fade eventually to the light we leave behind. Truth rises in a heart, like wings taking us back up from where we came. Seeds fill the basket and make Homer into Solomon.

The Myth of You

Great post. S&F

Your second post is very interesting, you say we are creators, what exactly do you mean by that? Do you mean it as we are THE creator, only from unique perspectives? Or in another way?

You do have a way with words when you keep it concise and to the point. You are very intelligent and no doubt a seeker, I hope you have found yourself brother.

a reply to: 3NL1GHT3N3D1

By creators, we take nothing and plant it in something. In that regard, we make things. When someone writes a book, it was not in existence until the letters formed words, then chapters, then a printed replica of the copied original. Each mind receiving the content then makes a new version of the original as a residual image. There are so many ways to see the same thing, but never in the form the author envisioned. This is because each mind is a unique reflection created as an individuation of the original. We are each books unfinished. We read and write our own myth.

More on the legend of Shams Tabrizi - Sun and Light to Rumi - Initiate:teacher.