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THE WORSHIP OF ISHI.
In Hosea ii. 16 we find this remarkable statement:--"And it shall
be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me Ishi, and
shalt no more call Me Baali"; and with this we may couple the
statement in Isaiah lxii. 4:--"Thou shalt be called Hephzibah,
and thy land Beulah; for the Lord delighteth in thee, and thy
land shall be married."
In both these passages we find a change of name; and since a name
stands for something which corresponds to it, and in truth only
amounts to a succinct description, the fact indicated in these
texts is a change of condition answering to the change of name.
Now the change from Baali to Ishi indicates an important
alteration in the relation between the Divine Being and the
worshipper; but since the Divine Being cannot change, the altered
relation must result from a change in the stand-point of the
worshipper: and this can only come from a new mode of looking at
the Divine, that is, from a new order of thought regarding it.
Baali means Lord, and Ishi means husband, and so the change in
relation is that of a female slave who is liberated and married
to her former master. We could not have a more perfect analogy.
Relatively to the Universal Spirit the individual soul is
esoterically feminine, as I have pointed out in "Bible Mystery
and Bible Meaning," because its function is that of the receptive
and formative.
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