Syntax

 

For most of our lives, we rarely wonder how language was formed. It's not until someone comes along and starts playing with word choices, phrases, or phonemic sounds that we begin to understand the strategic game that is language. For example, the word "syntax." As I was writing my page on Transmutation Mythology, I incorporated a phrase I'd never heard of before: Sin Tax. I'm sure you can easily see what led me to "syntax." But, do the two correlate?

When I wrote of the "sin tax" I referred to the sin offering of the Old Testament. As a redemptive confession, the sacrifice here was meant to purify us of any transgressions. A payment for our sin.

A tax, by definition, lays a burden upon and accuses all at once. It asks, "How much do you want to be worth?" For the one who asks the question (even if it may be the egoic 'I') has already determined your devaluation as if it was there from the beginning. A sin means to be without or withdrawn from God. In transgressing, we have come away from our perfection of divinity, bespoiling His creation. 

The problem with that (and why God finally revealed in the New Testament the consciousness progression of his covenant) places us into a position of never being able to reach the Garden of Eden's fully awakened state. Under the originally understood covenant, God seemed to place us into a position of having to achieve something we could no longer obtain after Adam and Eve's fall from grace. When they fell, they gave up their divinity. Full ascension, much less a purification into a sinless state, could not be had without God Himself being offered up for the sins of humanity, hence Christ. And, when we superimpose our syn- prefix, we find this definition following:

While sin is being without or resisting God, syn necessitates God's agreement and interdependent partnership. This begs the question, "Did the sin tax begin with a bifurcated polarization of language?" More than likely. Biblically, "Word" refers to much more than a mere construction of letters. 

John 1:1 states, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." Here, we are told three things:

1. The Word begins... everything. It kickstarts God's creation into being. 
2. The Word resides with God. It acts in confluence with Him as a conjoined union.
3. The Word not only acts in concert with and resides in God, it is God.

We could also call the Word, by this definition, the Holy Spirit. But, from a basic, human standpoint, Word refers to spoken or written language. As such it utilizes either breath or symbols, respectively. Breath equates to life, for without breath we would die. Symbols, at their core, are not technically a language for the mind to comprehend. Instead, they are for the heart to receive. From a human perspective, we are under limitations within our own languages(s) that restrict us from a more nuanced, descriptive understanding. In each instance that Word has been utilized in the Bible, it offers only the best expression for the context of its usage. In other passages, we find the Word being active, alive, God-breathed, a light, a command for obeyance, unceasing, required for life, right and true, pure, wise, and freeing.

If without the Word, by biblical definition, we then are led astray, dead of Spirit, living in darkness, on the wrong path, impure, unwise, and imprisoned by our body/mind/heart complex. We would be without the ability to expand beyond the five senses. What we see, hear, touch, taste, and smell identifies as absolute authority. Word becomes word, just a mere formation of letters, just as syn becomes sin.

As a play on words, syntax and sin tax somehow became paradoxical reflections of truth. As syntax, language formulates the Word. Sin tax, on the other hand, disrupts the Word, removing us from that confluent partnership with God. 

To be in conjunction with God then would recognize language (ie. the Word) as imperative in creating anything into the world. As John states, the beginning began according to the Word. So, how does one speak then, with God in partnership?

One thing Christ begins much of his statements with happens to be "I tell you the truth." To clarify though, who is the 'I' here? Not the you or me, surely, but God, the christed divinity. We can usually tell when we're speaking the truth. Anytime we're utilizing the "other" in our "truth," more than likely that's not our divinity's truth. Even the folkways of society don't always align with the Lord's truth. Our five senses are not always truth either. 2 Corinthians 5:7 states, "For we walk by faith, not by sight." We each have an internal guidance system that speaks loud and clear if we learn to listen to it. Sometimes, it's in the gut reaction, the waiting, the inspiration, and at other times it may be in the feeling of having a light turn on within. It varies from person to person.

The second thing about the Word, it commands. Not others, as in demands, rules over, or enslaves. Having command decrees and directs energy. It claims authority and authorship. As Florence Scovel Shinn states "Your word is your wand." Proverbs 13:3, along with so many other verses, remind us of this truth, "Those who guard their lips preserve their lives, but those who speak rashly will come to ruin." The Word (or word) creates and casts "spells" for manifestation. When we align thought + emotion, we create resonance but when we have Spirit, we are the resonance. When we aren't aligned in any way with our originating 'I' blueprint, we end up false-prophesying - speaking against the self and/or others to create division. 

Are we then in confluence or depreciation? Do we know the Word or act by befuddling our word?