This story from Judges offers an insight Samson’s journey. The awakening self engaging with the outer world, confronting obstacles, and learning to guard the emotional ground where manifestation takes root.
At the same time, it reveals a failure of the Genesis 2:24 principal—the difficulty of fully achieving the sacred union of “one flesh” between assumption and imagination, as outer interference disrupts and betrays that unity.
Samson goes down to Timnah
Samson (the awakened creative self) “goes down” — meaning he descends from a purely inner state into engagement with the outer world of facts and appearances.
He sees a Philistine woman (Philistine = the state of mind still ruled by the senses).
The “woman” symbolises the emotional, receptive side of consciousness. Choosing a Philistine woman shows that the awakened mind is about to engage emotionally with something still tied to sense reasoning — perhaps a desire that, on the surface, looks “impossible” according to facts.
Now Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah, of the daughters of the Philistines; get her now for me for my wife.
(Judges 14:1)
The Lion and the Honey
On the way, Samson meets a young lion roaring at him (the sudden appearance of fear or a threatening fact).
He kills it (persists in imagination, refusing to accept the fact as final).
Later, he finds honey in its carcass (sweet satisfaction born from conquering the challenge).
This is the core principle: the obstacle (lion) becomes the source of fulfilment (honey). The problem contains its own sweetness if met with inner conviction.
And the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent the lion as a kid might be rent.
(Judges 14:6)
The Riddle
At the wedding feast (celebration of inner union from a new assumption), Samson poses his riddle, that echoes the principle of the seed in itself:
"Out of the eater came something to eat,
Out of the strong came something sweet."
The Philistines (outer reasoning) can’t solve it because the logic of imagination is hidden from them.
The sense-bound mind cannot understand how an unwanted fact could become the very womb of its solution.
And Samson said unto them, Let me now put a riddle unto you: if you can certainly declare it me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty sheets and thirty changes of garments.
(Judges 14:12)
The Philistines Use the Wife
Unable to solve the riddle, the Philistines threaten Samson’s wife and her family. She weeps and presses Samson for the answer until he tells her.
She passes the secret on to them.
The outer world always tries to get to your secret by influencing your feeling state (wife). If you allow your emotions to be swayed by fear, pity, or pressure, the integrity of your inner assumption is breached.
And the women wept before him, and said, Entice your husband, that he may declare unto us the riddle.
(Judges 14:16)
Ploughing with the Heifer
When they reveal the answer, Samson says:
“If you had not ploughed with my heifer, you would not have solved my riddle.”
In symbolism:
Heifer = the feeling nature, the fertile ground of manifestation.
Ploughing = impressing that ground with an idea.
The Philistines couldn’t understand the principle — they had to manipulate the emotional side of Samson’s being to gain access to his inner secret.
If you had not ploughed with my heifer, you had not found out my riddle.
(Judges 14:18)
The Aftermath
Samson’s reaction is to leave in anger — breaking the outer union and withdrawing from that Philistine association.
Once you see the outer world has tampered with your emotional ground, the only way to restore creative control is to withdraw attention from that disturbed field and return to self-directed feeling.
And Samson was very wroth, and went away, and smote the men hip and thigh with a great slaughter.
(Judges 14:19)
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