Rumi: Four Streams

I have been pondering, for months, Rumi’s poem “Your First Eyes.” He speaks of four streams that run inside the lover’s soul-heart. I have been wondering what these spiritual currents might be.

A lover has four streams inside,
of water, wine, honey, and milk.
Find those in yourself, and pay no attention
what so-and-so says about such and such.
The rose does not care if someone calls it a thorn,
or a jazmine.
Rumi, “Your First Eyes”

To find those streams I have been looking inward with my “first eyes,” Rumi’s metaphor for spiritual vision.

But I have also been thinking of the rivers that have been important in my life and that may outwardly symbolize those inner streams; in other words, rivers that stand as sacraments of those spiritual streams.

I have a guess now at what the four streams are for me: soundness of heart, love, grace, and power.

And here I share some icons of those sacramental rivers.