Why can Atlantis not be discovered? Because it is hidden and it is in the north, NOT in the west.
The Hebrew word tsaphon is usually translated north; this indicates a meaning in a spatial sense. However, the same word tsaphon can also have a meaning in the category of time. Then tsaphon is translated as midnight.
The north and the midnight; they belong together. The north, place where the sun doesn’t shine. Midnight, the hour when the sun does not show itself.
The word root tsaphon means: to hide, to keep hidden. So tsaphon also means: the hidden place. The north: the place where man is hidden from the light and where the light is hidden from man ….. But, the north is also: the hidden time, the time after midnight, when the light is hidden in the nightly darkness, the hour in which man is withdrawn from the light and in which the light is withdrawn from man.
So this vision makes it clear: evil opens from the north, or from midnight. It is good to pay special attention to the verb used here: to open. It indicates here the image of gates being unlocked. The gates of evil are opening. Will they ever close again?
* The gates of Midnight open
“A boiling kettle, its face is from the face of the North”.
Jer. 1:13 (literally) Or, “From the face of Midnight”.
André Neher notes:
the faces of Midnight are innumerable. But all the faces of the Dark are alike, after all, they all have the same origin: they arise from the shadow. And they all have the same goal: they are out to chase away the light. And a man never knows in advance what face the evil will show: is it plague, is it famine, or is it the sword? Is it horror or is it dead? Is it one of the kingdoms of the north, cruel and barbaric? Is it all of this together, or is it something completely different? Maybe a mask, behind which the face of the Dark hides? Jeremiah saw how suddenly, once for all, the gates of Midnight opened. He saw it at the beginning of his calling. He saw a boiling kettle, and the face (appearance) of that kettle reflected the face of the North. That cauldron – another prophet, Ezekiel, will explain what the picture means. With Jeremiah it remains partly hidden, but that cauldron is Jerusalem. The inhabitants of the city feel safe. To them, the cauldron was a symbol of security, a shelter, a safe place, just like the meat pot, which people, hungry in the desert, dreamed of. But this smoking pot is no longer illuminated by the sun in Jeremiah’s vision, but the shadow of Midnight falls upon it. Suddenly the twinkling, twinkling walls of Jerusalem are darkened by the Night as the gates of Midnight open. All the kingdoms of the Night set their thrones at the gates and before the walls of the city. “For, behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the LORD, and they shall come, and set every man his seat in the gates of Jerusalem, and upon all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah.” Jer. 1:15
* All the kingdoms of the Night = Neith
Jeremiah sees the gates of Midnight open. But he does not see that they will close again. Its entire existence will remain covered under this threat. This impenetrable cloud will always hang above his head. Where others will live in the sunshine or by the light of the stars, there Jeremiah will tremble in mist and darkness. When he is awake, he will be terrified by the shadow of death that veils the heavens, the heavens, which are beautiful azure to the consciousness of others. When he is asleep, he will be haunted by terrifying nightmares, while others enjoy a refreshing sleep. The pain will be in his heart, while people around him are enjoying life cheerfully and confidently, carefree and lighthearted. There is nothing wrong, is there? Jeremiah, why so gloomy? Find the sunny side. But deep down there is his conscience, like a source of unrest, like a gloomy lighthouse of dark light, shedding rays with an impenetrable shadow.
Midnight. It is also the hour that people will suddenly find themselves in. Suddenly Jeremiah and his people will come to that hour. Suddenly, Midnight is no longer just a place on the horizon, but it is the HOUR, the hour that knocks at people’s doors. Midnight knocks at the door of human existence. And the clock strikes twelve!
* The twenty-fifth hour
But Midnight is a special hour.
It is the “Border Hour”. The hour of the ultimate limit, the ultimate hour. The inescapable end of the day. The hour that hides what comes next.
The midday sun (noon) illuminates the day in both directions. The midday high is the zenith; the highlight. From there, the light radiates to two sides. It could be said that it radiates over two slopes: the slope of the morning and the slope of the afternoon. The hours before noon and the hours after noon. Or, if we want to place the image in space: when the sun is at its highest, it illuminates both slopes of the land: the front of the mountain and the back. The shadow of midnight (noon) darkens the night with its two shutters. The shutters are closing. And who knows whether another hatch will open again? Who will say whether there will be another dawn after the night? Who knows if Midnight hides a dawn or if it means the prelude to an eternal night? Who knows whether the next hour will be the first hour of a new day or “the twenty-fifth hour” of a luminosity lost forever? What comes after midnight? Will it be 1:00 am or will it be 25:00? Has the shine gone forever? Midnight is the hour of the vacuum, the tragic hesitation between past and future. Between a past that does not come back and a future that is unimaginable. A past that turned upside down and a future that it is not known whether it will come.
* A bridge over the abyss
It is precisely at this point that biblical prophecy is born. The prophetic word is the step over the abyss. The prophet strides across the gorge to the other side of the chaos. The prophet sees the yawning abyss of Nothingness. His bridge is the Light.
The “Light of the Seed”.
For Hosea it meant: Light that germinates, because he saw how the seed fell into the earth, went down, but also how the seed suddenly rose to life. For Ezekiel the meaning was: Light of the resurrection, when the withered dead bones take on flesh again and breath again, receive spirit again. His own wife, Ezekiel’s wife, died in chapter 24 of his book. Would she not be among those who rise in chapter 37? Perhaps. In any case, Ezekiel can hope.
* Between a lost past and an impossible future
But Jeremiah? Jeremiah has sown, and he has stood by the field, and he has seen the seed fall. But he will see no more. He sees how it disappears into the earth and there is decomposed. But he will not see the moment of the harvest. God has forbidden Jeremiah to marry (Jer. 16: 1). Sons and daughters have therefore also been denied him. How, then, can he be a resurrection to people who have never lived? How will Jeremiah – like Edmond Fleg – be able to write “To my grandson who will never be born?” Jeremiah never received a pledge of hope. He is in the absolute vacuum between a lost past and an impossible future. And yet … Yet Jeremiah passes Midnight. He passes the Midnight limit.