Have you ever wondered what Paul was really referring to when he used the words “husband” and “wife” in Ephesians? How about “Christ” and “Church?” Paul says it is a great mystery! What if I told you Paul was speaking of consciousness itself? Sounds absurd, doesn’t it!? But if you dig deep enough, it becomes obvious. [Read more…] about The Mystery of the Husband, the Wife, and the Church
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Noah, the Ark, and Higher Consciousness
This week I want to address a story in the Bible that we all learned as children. It is the story of Noah and the ark. For those of us who haven’t studied much ancient history, this story appears—under different names with slightly different variations—in the history of cultures across multiple continents. So what’s the real meaning of this universal story? [Read more…] about Noah, the Ark, and Higher Consciousness
The Mystery of Gethsemane: Grasping the Importance of Meditation
In 1 Thessalonians 5:17 St. Paul teaches, “Pray constantly; and for all things give thanks to God, because this is what God expects you to do in Christ Jesus” (Jerusalem Bible). A simpler translation renders this verse as “Pray without ceasing.” Tertullian of Carthage instructs, “Of prayer, nothing at all has been prescribed, except clearly ‘to pray at every time and every place…’ why should we not understand that, with absolutely perfect indifference, we must pray?” This admonition — that we must work to achieve an omnipresent state of “perfectly indifferent” prayer, or in simpler words meditation — might come as a shock to contemporary Christians who, unfortunately, are increasingly distant from the original meditation tradition. Many Christians now associate meditation with non-Christian eastern traditions, but really, the prolonged “indifferent” Christian prayer that we ought to pray is not much different than oriental meditation. For the sake of ease, I will now be referring to this specific style of prayer as “meditation.”
When we are taught to “Pray without ceasing” St. Paul doesn’t mean you should spend all of your waking hours prostrated in prayer! Rather, he is talking about being in a constant state of thanksgiving, echoing the Psalmist in Psalm 105: “Give thanks to Yahweh, call his name aloud/proclaim his deeds to the peoples!/Sing to him, play to him/tell over all his marvels!/Glory in his holy name/let the hearts that seek Yahweh rejoice!” (Psalm 105:1-3). The easiest way to maintain this state of mind is to train the mind to be able to reach prolonged states of intense contemplation. Sitting down to devote an hour or even 30 minutes to God can help you to feel the Holy Spirit at that moment, but more importantly, you are cultivating your mind and attaining insights that you continue to carry with you. Spontaneous prayer arises out of having insight into the all-encompassing significance of prayer, an insight that is best taught experientially through cultivating various states of contemplation.
The key to meditation practice is found in an esoteric reading of the Bible and careful study of ancient wisdom traditions which, east or west, all testify to the power of deep contemplation. People sometimes oversimplify meditation to be just about “clearing your mind” or sitting down for a long time focusing on your breath. That is fine, but decontextualizing your meditation practice from religious teaching is unlikely to have as lasting an impression. Jesus said, “I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved” (Matthew 5:18). Esoterically, this verse means that awakening the Christ nature within requires the mastery of not just the higher mind, but also the lower mind. To awaken Christ mystically, you must first awaken Christ intellectually. In the spirit of “precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little” (Isaiah 28:13) let us proceed to look at the Bible in an esoteric way to uncover the teachings of attaining the Christ nature within.
Phillippians 2:6-8 reads “His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and become as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross.” Here we can see that death does not just mean physical death, but a deeper rift between Jesus’s godly nature and His descended condition, which is echoed in His cry of abandonment on the cross (“My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?”). This is not unique in the Bible; death usually signifies something deeper than just the end of mortal life. This is shown when Yahweh God tells Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree. Genesis 2:17 says, “The day you eat of it you shall most surely die.” Obviously, this didn’t refer to physical death, because when Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree they did not physically die. Like with Jesus’s Passion, death here signifies being abandoned by God. Jesus, being fully man as well as fully God, echoes our anguish in being separated from God, but through the mystery of His Incarnation, the hope of reconciliation manifests. Jesus’s prayer to His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane is a divine mystery through which Jesus’s Ascension back to His Father is foreshadowed even as He experiences the bitter pain of abandonment. And as we too have the hope of reconciliation with God, we too must follow His example and pray. Jesus told St. Margaret Mary Alacoque “I will make you partake of that sorrow unto death which it was My will to suffer in the Garden of Olives. United with Me in the humble prayer which I then offered to My Father.” Understanding the profound significance of this event, not only as part of Jesus’s redemptive passion which would provide for the remission of sins but also as a mystery in which we are called to partake in, let us examine the account of the garden of Gethsemane esoterically.
“After psalms had been sung they left for the Mount of Olives.” (Matthew 26:30) First, we must establish what the Mount of Olives signifies. The Mount of Olives, or the Garden of Gethsemane, like other gardens in the Bible, signifies purity and fruition. In Genesis we read, “Yahweh God took the man and settled him in the garden of Eden to cultivate and take care of it” (Genesis 2:15). The garden represents the plane of the mind that is fertile (“From the soil, Yahweh God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of Heaven” — Genesis 2:19) where virtues of the soul are brought forth. Singing psalms implicates the elevation of the self; through psalms, one acquires the spirit of thanksgiving proper to ascend to the Garden of Gethsemane.
“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Stay here while I pray.’ Then he took Peter and James and John with him” (Mark 14:32-33). Peter, James, and John are generally considered Jesus’s most favored of the disciples; this exact trio shows up several times throughout the Bible. They signify faith (Peter), the intellect (James), and love (John). Notably, these are the only disciples, and therefore the only qualities of the self, that are permitted to ascend to the Garden.
“When they reached the place he said to them, ‘Pray not to be put to the test’” (Luke 22:40). As Peter, James, and John represent faith, the intellect, and love, here Jesus is saying to treasure the virtues of faith, the intellect, and love, and to pray that they do not waver. As we will read, even these virtues are not infallible; however, preemptively rejecting them prevents us from transcending them. To the contrary of rejecting the virtues, Jesus tells the disciples, “My soul is sorrowful to the point of death. Wait here and keep awake with me” (Matthew 26:38).
“Then he withdrew from them, about a stone’s throw away, and knelt” (Luke 22:41). Here, the soul is still very near to the three virtues, only a stone’s throw away, but it has “withdrawn” from them, prepared to transcend.
“He threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, this hour might pass him by. ‘Abba (Father)!’ he said. ‘Everything is possible for you. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it’” (Mark 14:35-36). The “cup” in esoteric literature is traditionally understood to be a receptacle of wisdom; so the Pistis Sophia says “A higher power bringeth a Cup full of intuition and wisdom.” This verse is demonstrating the disconcerting quality of wisdom; our primal instinct flees wisdom, but the Christ nature turns over the instinctive self to God. The human aversion towards wisdom is well documented throughout theology, psychology, and history. The primordial human problem can be seen to be the human preference of illusions over reality; indeed, the comical lengths that each one of us will go to in order to maintain the illusion is inexplicable. The triumph over the instinct of delusion is fulfilled only in the elusive Garden.
“Then an angel appeared to him, coming from heaven to give him strength” (Luke 22:43). This verse demonstrates that despite the utter isolation experienced by Christ in the Garden, it is impossible for Him (or for us) to ever be completely severed from the Heavens above, and always the Father is with us sending His heavenly messengers to embolden us for the coming battle.
“He came back and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, ‘Simon, are you asleep? Had you not the strength to keep awake one hour? You should be awake, and praying not to be put to the test. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’” (Mark 14:37-38). Here we see the failure of the three virtues. Sleep signifies oblivion; this passage shows that the three virtues do not together contain all wisdom, but that the Christ nature transcends them. “Flesh” represents the lower nature of the self; spirit, as Gaskell put it, is the “formative aspect of the Divine outpouring.” In other words, the spirit is the receptacle in which God resides in us. When we are “put to the test,” for the Christ nature to rise within us the spirit must ultimately transcend the weaker virtues of the flesh.
“Again he went away and prayed, saying the same words…He came back a third time and said to them, ‘You can sleep on now and take your rest. It is all over. The hour has come’” (Mark 14:39;41). The number “three” represents completeness, as in the Holy Trinity and the Resurrection (Jesus arose from the dead on the third day). The number denotes that something transformative has transpired here. By saying “It is all over,” Jesus is foreshadowing His final victory on the Cross — “It is consummated” (John 19:30). The spirit has finally triumphed over the weaker aspects of the self, and the weaker self can “rest.” This calls back to Genesis 2:3; “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on that day he had rested after all his work of creating.” Of course, the word “day” does not refer to a 24 hour period but to the final stage that follows the creative period. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus has finished His anguished mystery, and His disciples, not destroyed but in a state of repose, are justly restored to the rest that has no end.
An esoteric reading of the Garden of Gethsemane provides us with a template wherein the Christ nature in us triumphs over the weaker flesh. Through understanding the significance of the Garden, may you feel driven to start a practice of contemplation so that you may experience this elusive mystery yourself.
Resurrecting Biblical Terms
In its esoteric sense, the risen Christ is an emblem – built upon many symbols in Biblical literature – of the supreme intelligence dwelling in the holy temple of man, or, more accurately, of the mind. It is the end goal of human consciousness so aptly expressed by the Apostle Paul who stated, “I travail in birth until Christ be formed IN you.” The same sentiment is expressed in John 4:2, which further states, “Christ must come in the flesh,” or the expression of Jesus in the Gospel of John 14:20 which states, “In that day you will realize [consciously perceive] that I am in my father, and you are in me, and I in you.” In the context of all these scriptural expressions, one can begin to grasp Luke 17:21: “The kingdom of God is [truly] within you.” As above, so below.
But what is this supreme intelligence, the risen Christ, in the MIND of man? I like to think of it as the supra-rational order of the Logos, which is an alchemical combination of two concepts: love, or unity, achieved through the wisdom of experience, wherein the spiritual law, or karma, is ever striving to bring to equilibrium between the knowledge of good and evil within man. Jesus is THE MASTER emblem of the mind which achieved this great feat in human form. For he fulfilled the law, and IN Christ Jesus, the schoolmaster, or law, achieved its end result. True liberty from that law is the mind’s destiny. Again, in its esoteric sense, this liberty is expressed through the mind that is no longer identified with, or trammeled by, the passions expressed in the lower mind through the bodies of man. As Paul states, and I paraphrase many of his thoughts…these members must be mortified if the mind is ever to be regenerated and escape the prison shackles of what he termed the “flesh.” For he also states, the mind of the flesh is death…” (Romans 8:6).
The journey is long and arduous. There are many mental giants to slay. In our greatest trials and adversities, the Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force. Not physical force, but mental force. This mental force is the control of thought and emotion, that contrary to our true nature, is usually governed by personal desire in the flesh…until the resurrection, or that which is the conqueror, the Self over the Not-Self. Christ over the flesh.
But this is a paradox. How can using our mental faculties help us achieve spiritual growth if it is Christ, the true redeemer, and not the efforts of man him or herself?
The paradox is easily resolved, and one finds that it is really no paradox at all when one understands how the MIND grows spiritually. The rest of this post will deal with that subject in detail using some of the Apostle Paul’s greatest teachings.
Let’s consider the supposed paradox further: no man can redeem him or herself as traditional church doctrine teaches, because it is only through the saving grace of Christ. But the esoteric doctrine of past ages taught that man must save himself through his or her own unrelenting effort. Who is right? I believe both are right, because the concept of Christ coming in the flesh is an inherent part of both paths – faith and works – expressed through mental energy. My scripture to support this idea is written:
“As a man THINKETH in his heart, so is he…” (Proverbs 23:7).
Let’s break this down a little further. Paul uses symbolism to express this process. When the symbols are understood correctly, I believe the paradox is resolved. The author of Peter states that Paul’s writings are hard to understand. The reason for this is that Paul is using language that is esoteric / symbolic, and his symbolism expresses a process of MIND and THOUGHT. The popular teaching of Paul which states that a woman must be silent in church and submit to her husband is not speaking in literal terms. Failure to understand the esoteric teachings of Paul has led to misogynism in traditional religious doctrine. But Paul had no such ideas in mind. Paul uses terms like husband and wife, or man and woman, to show a process of regeneration of THOUGHT, which is why so many Greek words are used to express the concepts of correct thought in his writings. Let’s break down the symbols.
Man means the intellectual side of the mind. A woman is the emotional side of the mind. Man (mind) and woman (emotion) come together to produce sons and daughters, or more thoughts and emotions. The firstborn sons which God demands that the Israelites (little developed mental qualities) dedicate to God simply means that our first thoughts in all life should be dedicated to spiritual pursuit. When this happens, then the daughters of men (mind) become the righteous woman, meaning a healthy balance between the intellect and emotion-nature within us. Isn’t this the true meaning of Paul’s words when he states that we are the bride to be prepared for the bridegroom which is Christ? When our thoughts are captivated by personal desire (the serpent seducing Eve), the daughter or emotion within man becomes the harlot. The harlot symbolically cheats the intellect within each individual through adultery. Did not Eve do the same? Did she not symbolically drag the intellect (Adam) into the depths of sin, or separation from spiritual life of the spirit of God. This is the true meaning of the story of Adam and Eve. Adam, or the intellect, was not deceived (1 Tim. 2:14), for by its very nature, pure intellect of a spiritual nature cannot be deceived. But when it becomes entangled with lower emotion, or personal desire, it is always deceived, because personal ambition is the very root and cause of God’s saying: Man’s heart (mind) is deceitful. Why? Because personal desire, when mired with thought, creates a separateness from God, which is missing the mark, or sin, the veil. This veil is what Paul means when he states now we see, or perceive mentally, through a glass darkly (1 Cor. 13:12). Consider that when the fallen angels (higher minds from heaven) came unto the daughters (or emotions) of men before Noah’s flood. What was the result? That the imagination, or THOUGHTS of man, was evil, or veiled from the truth!
The garden of Eden is about the separation of mind and emotion through Adam and Eve, which come into conflict with one another after the desire mind (the serpent) tempts the emotional side of the mind to eat (perceive) the knowledge of good and evil. Paul understood very well that the concept of Good and Evil meant in genesis relates to karma, for he states, let God not be mocked, for a man shall reap what he sows. But this law of karma, represented in the Torah, has a redeeming quality, which is why Paul calls all of the law, or Torah, spiritual. This is also the reason why he saw Christ, or the Logos, within the Old Testament working alongside the Israelite delivery. For Paul, the Isrealite delivery is the mind liberated from captivity in Egypt, which represents mental bondage. So how does this law of karma have a redeeming quality? Because as a man reaps what he sows, he slowly becomes self-aware, through experience, of that which causes life or death. It is truly a schoolmaster to show us that the mind, when captivated by desire, brings death (or separation / sin) from the unity of God. The Israelites, once in the wilderness, desired to go back to that mental prison in Egypt because they had “flesh” to eat. The mind likes to stay where it is comfortable, even if it is a prison, because ignorance can be temporarily quite comforting. But even in that temporary comfort, death is the end result, for all the wages of sin (separation from God) are death.
God states, my people perish for a lack of knowledge. Ignorance, in all aspects of life, leads to destruction. The constant cycle of life and death, or, more accurately, birth and rebirth, is the destiny of the mind that has not conqueurored its desire nature, which is more subtle than any beast (passion of the body) in the field (the mental arena of life). The risen Christ at the end of the long mental journey signifies the release of the mind in physical birth and rebirth, and being able to explore higher conscious realms with a new type of spiritual body that hasn’t lost its true identity in the flesh.
So when Paul uses terms like man and woman, he is expressing the process whereby the mind of man once again unites Adam and Eve, and the conflict between intelligence and emotion can be finally resolved.
Let’s use an easy analogy. All married couples go through mental and emotional turmoil after the honeymoon stage is over, and the different currents of thought and personal desires of each spouse begin to clash. Why do they clash? Because each is an individual with different personal desires, interests, passions, beliefs, etc. What originally brought them together, personal desire, eventually becomes the very thing that tears them apart. The married couple that grows to maturity and remains a happy healthy unit can only do so by each one sacrificing his or her own personal desires for the other. Such a sacrificial love of action from the mental efforts of both parties brings a certain intellectual and emotional balance to the divided unit. Paul uses the natural concept of marriage to show how the same process happens within the individual. The risen Christ can only arise in the flesh when personal desires have been checked. Not only checked, but conquered. This is the long and arduous battle within the mind (the crucifixion of Golgotha, the skull / mind) or church, of the human being. For the church is not the body itself, but an aspect of the mind which is free from personal desires and pulls of our limiting and transient personalities. Personalities are formed through a complex web of thoughts and emotions in response to the environment and one’s own innate essence built up from former lives. It is very real to our current limited reality, but also transient and corrupt in the grander scheme in the unfoldment of consciousness. The mind, the immortal thinker, is a sojourner (the prodigal Son) in this land we call the body, and the personality which is formed in each life from the mind’s interaction of being in the body, must be transcended if the mind is to be released from its prison. Hebrews 11:8-10 esoterically illustrates this process which is also the allegory of the prodigal son:
“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
The “tents” which are spoken of are the limited bodies which the immortal mind must endure its long process of adversity through, to learn and grow, and become self-consciously aware. This is why the original tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness was all called the “tent” of meeting for God and the people. The “city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God,” is all the mental faculties gathered together under the Christ, who sends the Holy Spirit, or wisdom, which transcends the limited nature of the bodies of man. When this is achieved, as Revelation states, “In him that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of my God (permanent mental foundation), and he shall go no more out…” (the cycle of birth and death, birth and rebirth).
Now let’s get into the nitty gritty of why Paul really tells us that a woman must be silent in the church. First off realize that the church is your higher mind, the immortal aspect of your soul. It has to be constructed of Christ, and little by little, our conscious essence is added to it in each life that you live whenever a thought reaches heaven because it is void of personal desire. It is the body (faculties of the mind) that the Christ is responsible for constructing as it permeates every aspect of our being, both body and soul. The disciples being centered around Jesus is representative of the 12 mental faculties being “gathered” together by Christ to be turned into apostles (mature mental faculties) at the next stage of spiritual and mental growth. Thus, spiritually speaking, we progress from Israelites, to disciples, to apostles. The Apostle Paul, that outside apostle who received direct revelation from the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, is symbolic of the bridge that births Christ within the mind of man.
Now Paul tells us that a woman must be silent in the church because it is our emotions of personal desire (the woman – think Eve that succumbed to desire) that distorts the intellectual and rational nature of man’s thinking process. The heart of man is deceitful above all else, because the emotional woman (within man, as the unready bride of Christ) is always speaking loudly and drowning out the ability for true intellectual discernment, or truth of the spirit. This is also the great harlot of scripture, and it must be silenced because it always distorts the truth through its own personal desires. So when one does as Jesus states, and goes into the prayer closet and shuts the door for spiritual guidance, all emotional thought governing the intellect must be silenced! But in this act of the focused mind, the seeming paradox arises. Even though it takes mental effort to silence the emotions, the intellect, in this act, is itself laying down it’s life (silencing desire) for the woman, which in turn allows the harlot to be transformed into the higher emotions of love and unity, or the righteous woman! In such a sacrificial act of the intellect, through faith AND works, the intellect stops being in conflict with its emotional side. It leads in love, which brings unity between the two.
This is why Adam states a man shall leave his mother and father (the parents of karma and the law) and cleave unto his wife to make them one flesh. This is also why Jesus stated that in the beginning (before the fall in the garden), God meant for man to be ONE FLESH.
Please don’t misunderstand. I am not dividing genders like the dead letter of the law would have us believe. Each man and woman has an intellect and emotional nature within them.
Those who think of a very mature married couple can see how this plays out on our physical plane of life, which REFLECTS a higher spiritual truth about the MIND. When a man leads in a LOVING way, not sacrificing his own intellectual convictions, the woman’s desire naturally is to her husband (Genesis 3:16). Most women respect an intelligent man that leads and governs his own life with self control, inwardly being a rock, but expressing this firmness outwardly in a gentle, kind, and loving manner. Again, in the esoteric aspect, we are speaking spiritually about the MIND. But even in it’s exoteric expression, one can see the truth in this concept in some instances.
The process of marriage counseling is another good analogy to grasp the esoteric concept of Paul’s thinking process. When the mind becomes focused inward, it becomes meditative, and then through this inward self reflection process self awareness can trace its emotional-thought patterns which cause reaction to situations based on desire or raw passion, leading to conflict. The marriage counselor of couples therapy serves as a mediator to get the other spouse to perceive mentally where their own fault lies so that they can change and allow the relationship to heal. But man, as an individual, must have his or her own mediator, the Christ within, which is a process of rationalization at first, that grows into an intuition of truth as the higher emotion of love and unity, or reconciliation, happens within the mind. Slowly but surely, when meditation is done correctly in the church, the mind can begin a healing process, whereby its own internal conflict can be exposed, and the limited personality comes out of the dark and into the light of Christ. In this mental process, of defeating mental giants in the land (the mind or soul), that the process of losing one’s own life (the limited personality) for the sake of Christ’s life, that Christ as the head of the church rises within the mind. Jesus stated, a man must lose his own life in order to gain life (Matthew 10:39). Man’s personality is simply a cut-off entity from the supreme wisdom of God. It is a false entity that is at enmity with God. It is the Cain within, as Cain represents the personality, but the process of going within enables the Abel within to offer correct sacrifice that is pleasing to God – and these are the aspirations towards a higher truth.
A few more thoughts. It has been said that the intellect without intuition is blind, but intuition without the intellect is empty. This is a crucial concept which the philosopher Immauel Kant reintroduced into an intellectual stream of society born of reason. I say “reintroduced,” because nothing is new under the sun, and it was a foundational tenant, though expressed in complicated esoteric terms, from ages past. But the point is this: both intellect and intuition must be brought together in union, each part of the whole united to function properly which brings the light of wisdom into the soul or mind. This is the function of Christ as head of the church. Christ is in the entire process, and becomes the resurrected Christ when that inner power and united faculties of the mind is risen back to paradise, or a state of heavenly union.
Just as Christ is an emblem of Divine Wisdom (a feminine function relating to intuition reaped from the womb / matrix / body / Christ IN flesh), the serpent in the Garden of Eden is also a divine emblem. And it can be properly understood esoterically only in its relation to the Logos in the grand unfoldment of its function. Jesus stated, “As Moses raised the serpent in the wilderness (the battleground of defeating mental giants), so must the son of man (mind) be lifted up” (John 3:14). The serpent caused the fall of mind, but allegorically it is really no fall. It illustrates the truth that the mind was no longer united with God because the desire of the flesh (the serpent mind which crawls on the ground, earth, lower soul) put the intellect and emotional nature in conflict with one another, resulting in the “lower mind” which is that which is operating through the body and its animal passions and desire nature. The higher mind, or the church, must be built. When one’s personal desires are sacrificed, the serpent mind can be “lifted,” or transformed / regenerated back up to its proper place. The esoteric interpretation of Mark 16:18 is the key: one of the signs that shall follow a believer is that he or she will “lift” up serpents. The original Greek word there implies a raising of the desire-mind to its original condition of purity before the fall. It is the serpent mind (or personal desires based on conflicting thought and emotion / personal desire) which is “cursed” to crawl on the ground. This means a mind operating in the body, or lower soul of man, where it is cursed to die because it is imprisoned by its captivating carnality. And now we can also truly understand the depth and meaning of Buddha’s second noble truth, which is the same as the Bible’s New Testament: “All suffering comes from personal selfish desire.”
The LOGOS of John chapter one I believe reveals this to us: the sacrificial Lamb that came down from heaven to oversee the rational order of creation by becoming involved in it, even in it’s separated and sinful condition. This is the real meaning of Jesus being sacrificed since the foundation of creation, and visiting the depths of hell, the body, or the grave, sheol. This is also the esoteric interpretation of that scripture in Acts which states that the body of Jesus did not endure corruption because he fulfilled the spiritual law which frees all bodies from corruption. Remember, that through the LOGOS everything was made in heaven and earth. What we see as evil or good, God sees differently. God made both evil and good it states in Isaiah. Evil is not some entity called the devil, but it is the tool God uses through karmic results to bring man to the knowledge of the Christ when he or she CHOOSES life. It is the same schoolmaster which God used to reveal to Job the truth of God’s nature. Before Job was tempted, he only knew God through the hearing of the ear, or lower mind knowledge. But after Satan is used, Job goes through the process of evil to come to a more full and complete knowledge of God by the end of the book. The three friends who accused him esoterically symbolize the three bodies of the lower mental, astral, and physical nature. When one understands this deep esoteric teaching, many of the seemingly contradictions of the dead letter of scripture will be cleared up for you. For the immortal thinker that you truly are is not the body, astral / emotional mind of desire, incubated in a physical body – Job’s three friends. But it is Job, the individuality itself! As is Noah and Daniel of scripture, which explains this one great spiritual revelation:
“Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it [physical life], they should deliver their own souls BY THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS, saith the LORD GOD” (Ezekiel 14:14). By understanding the esoteric nature of this scripture of Ezekiel, one may understand the entire Bible from beginning to end in the bigger picture, and the risen Christ within, which must be birthed within you through travail (the karma of spiritual law / TORAH). For you are the immortal thinker, the I AM THAT I AM, trapped in a physical, emotional, and lower analytical mind.
Blessings!
Prometheus: The Throne of the Higher Mind
Now that we have built up a broader understanding of the Logos, Adam and Eve, the serpent, Lucifer, and Satan in part one and two of this series, we can begin diving into the mythology of Prometheus. I want to begin by discussing some correlations of Prometheus with Genesis chapter one. In my opinion, the reason why many scholars dismiss the universal dimension in most myths and spiritual allegories is because they lack an understanding of metaphysics.
I want to preface the information below with an idea for you to ruminate upon:
Could it be that the entire purpose for individual existence is to make that which is potential into the actual? To make that which is abstract on the higher planes, concrete through the lower planes? What if our earthly existence, with its complex aggregation of sensation, emotion, and mentality, is for the soul purpose of building a spiritual temple, which at first is an abstract reality (on the higher planes of consciousness), but made concrete (on the higher planes) through the fruits of lower experience? The Apostle Paul did say, “First in the natural, and then in the spiritual.” In this way Jacob’s ladder is descended and then ascended, and the ultimate mystery of Christ and the Church demystified. Let us now jump into the details of our study on Prometheus. I apologize in advance for the repetition of scripture and statements from earlier parts of the series, but repetition can be the best teacher 🙂
Parental Origin of Prometheus
“In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
Esoterically, heaven and earth are universal symbols for spirit and matter, or positive energy and lifeless (motionless) form. In the beginning, this earth (matter / form), was void and empty, but as the spirit hovers over it (symbolizing impregnation), the union symbolically births motion, or the Son.
“And Elohim said, let there be light” (Genesis 1:3).
This metaphysical Son, the primordial light, becomes time and motion.
“In Him we move, live, and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
“In Him was life; and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4).
This light is the Son of Heaven and Earth, or the interplay of spirit and matter, thought and form. It is not natural light, although natural light is simply a physical reflection of it. This “light” is primordial consciousness, which spiritually evolves, eventually (and especially after the fall when man’s eyes “are opened”), as intelligence and the faint beginnings of freewill through mankind. This will be important to understand as it relates to Prometheus later, the bringer of divine fire from Heaven, just as Satan was kicked out of Heaven as lightning!
The important thing to note here is that the symbolic parents of this primordial light (heaven and earth / manifestation of the Logos), is the interplay between spirit and matter, and is stated in most ancient cosmogonies such as Genesis and the Prometheus myth.
Does Prometheus have the same progenitors? Yes! The very same “heaven” and “earth.” Prometheus was a Titan. The Titans were born from Uranus (Heaven), and Gaea (Earth). I don’t think the name Gaea needs any explanation. However, Uranus, sometimes Ouranus, was the primal Greek God of the sky, or Heaven. It can be argued etymologically that we can trace Uranus to mean, “the one standing on high,” and points to spirit, or divine thought.
(Side note: for serious students, yes, I understand that Prometheus, in Hesiod’s account, is the son of the Titan Lapetus, and is therefore really a grandson of Uranus, but we don’t have time to discuss how this is really just a variation of the Christian equivalent of Archangels, or the different emanations of divine thought as the Logos further differentiated itself into matter).
So Prometheus, the son of a Titan, is the symbolic son of Heaven and Earth, just as the primordial light is the symbolic Son of heaven and earth in Genesis.
The gospel of John restates this exact same principle in the Greek language, as the Logos.
“…this light was the life (movement, thought, intelligence) of men.”
So the philosophical parent of light then is the union of spirit and matter. What does this have to do with Prometheus and the Biblical correlate?
In the most popularized versions of the Prometheus myth, Prometheus is actually the creator of man. But this must be understood correctly. It is not that Prometheus is the creator of mankind in the traditional sense, but rather that he comes down from above to give the divine fire, the immortal thinking principle to the animal body, therefore birthing the individualized principle, or the immortal thinker, in man. The divine fire he brings down is the spark of that life of the soul, which, although is divine wisdom itself, is expressed through the lower nature as intellect and reason.
How can we further correlate parallels to Genesis?
In the Prometheus myth Zeus punished Prometheus the same way God punishes Adam and Eve for listening to the serpent, which opened their eyes by way of reason and intelligence through the lower nature of the flesh. Prometheus is punished by being chained to a rock. This rock symbolizes the body of flesh, which Prometheus becomes chained to by an iron (dual mental nature) chain. The same concept is in Genesis when Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden with their newly made “coats of skin.” They are not chained to a rock, but the idea is the same, for:
“…cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life” (Gen 3: 17).
The idea is the man now has to eek his way through life in suffering and sorrow. The ground symbolizes the lower nature here, or the body, the coat of skin, with its physical nature, its passions, desires, and appetites for things of the flesh, which brings on that suffering.
These allegories are explaining, in spiritual terms, that the primordial light becomes encased / trapped in the body or in matter for a time, until the primordial light rises within the soul.
The Zohar states: “The soul and form when descending on Earth put on an earthly garment.” Prometheus’ being chained to a rock (matter, the body) represents this, as well as Adam and Eve being given a physical body and kicked out of Eden.
This primordial light then is truly the spark of self consciousness, which becomes more self conscious as it has a body to become cognitized through. Jesus stated the Father (the passive first Logos) is greater than I. In other words, Jesus is telling us that the “I,” that we feel as separate, is subservient to the impersonal Self, which is a unity. However, the great secret that the church has utterly failed to understand, is this: you don’t save the personal “I,” by a belief system, you transform the personal “I” into a unity, the true “church,” or the body that is being built up. Jesus shows us the way by his unwavering commitment of selflessness. He who loves his brethren Loves God.
Spirit manifests as consciousness IN matter. We can say then, metaphysically, that consciousness is that universal symbol of light made manifest by the interplay of what we call spirit and matter, heaven and earth, the father emanating as the son (the son being the face of God, or the expression of the unmanifested). It is the potential to become actual, the darkness (where God dwells) becomes the light, for the sole purpose of illuminating itself. Darkness (the fullness) illuminates itself, gradually, through cosmic and self conscious evolution. The all becomes limited, and the limited rejoins the all, but with the addition of the experience of limitation and self consciousness.
The other great mystery that I believe religion has properly failed to convey is that one only finds his true Self by taking his focus away from his transient personality, and by aspiring upwards to that which is responsible for the transient (or journeying) personality. The I Am conscious spark RETAINS its individuality, not as the limited personal self, but now as a unity, the greater SELF.
Through the first Adam, the primordial light expresses itself as earthy, or in it’s lower nature through the flesh, but becomes the second Adam, or the risen Christ, as the flesh is symbolically crucified. It is the same idea as this: the original serpent brings knowledge (tree of knowledge of good and evil), and therefore the process of birth and death, or the logos in its lower form in the tomb of a body, but Moses must raise the serpent on a pole (the cross), and then intelligence is lifted up and within the higher mind manifests as wisdom, which brings healing to the entire individual.
Prometheus: the Development of Mankind
Prometheus also brought man culture, art, and the making of metals with that divine fire. Metals in scripture symbolize different aspects of the logos manifesting different aspects of the mind. Iron for example represents mental thought. We have the same idea repeated in Genesis with Tubal Cain, which as the offspring of Cain’s line, who was the first man to be a worker of metals! This symbolizes the awakenment of the mental nature through thought and reason in its lower aspect. Iron signifies the mental nature expressed through the lower aspect of the dual soul, as Cain, the lower nature within us all, killed the spiritual Abel.
Prometheus and Reincarnation
Now let us see how some of the finer details of the Prometheus story reveal this process.
As part of his punishment for helping mankind, and while he is chained to a rock (the same punishment Adam and Eve received by becoming beings of flesh outside of Eden / Heaven / the higher mental plane), an eagle comes down everyday which eats Prometheus’ liver. The liver then regenerates every night and the eagle comes to eat it again, over and over, as long as Prometheus remains chained to the rock, or the body of matter. Isn’t it interesting that in esoteric philosophy the liver represents the lower nature, and that it is the only organ which can regenerate itself when it is taken care of and cleansed?!
And what does this all signify? Reincarnation over and over in a body until Christ rises within.
In Revelations we have Jesus Christ whose vesture (outer garment) is dipped in blood. This simply means that he took on life in the flesh and overcame. The fruits of his labor through obedience to the Father allowed his spiritual temple to be built on the higher planes, through the efforts of the personality which was involved in the body of flesh, symbolized by the vesture (his outer garment) dipped into blood. Remember, the Torah tells us that the “life is in the blood.” In other words, the fruits of our labor through the trials and tribulations on earth, as sojourners in the wilderness, yield up life on the higher planes when that life is well lived.
More Detail on the Eagle and Prometheus’ Liver
What is the real meaning of an Eagle eating Prometheus’ liver?
Gaskell states this about the Eagle:
“A symbol of the Holy Spirit, which flies, as it were, through the mind (air) from the higher nature (heaven) to the lower nature (earth) and soars aloft to the Self (sun).”
Why would the Holy Spirit eat the liver of Prometheus? To answer this, let’s look at our definition for Liver, also from Gaskell:
“A symbol of the lower nature (flesh), or the lower qualities of the personality.”
In these two definitions we can easily derive our answer. The Holy Spirit is the higher mind, which operates above the mental plane, above the powers of reasoning and intellect. The eagle then, or higher mind, comes down to devour (digest, eat of, take in) of the experiences of life (symbolized by the liver) over and over (reincarnation). The lower mind which disciplines the body, sensations, and emotions, intellectual activities, etc., to higher and noble causes, during its early sojourn or pilgrimage in each incarnation, “gives up” to the higher mind it’s experience, which is in turn transmitted, or transmuted, by the higher mind into concrete self consciousness on the higher planes of conscious expression. When life’s experiences on this physical plane are more concerned with the transient personality, and are a slave to the body, passions, emotions, and even lower intellect, the eagle, or higher mind receives nothing. The eagle then comes back everyday after every night (death and rebirth) to take back unto itself what it can. A wasted physical life caught up in the seven deadly sins does nothing for the higher mind, or eagle, which flies back to the sun (higher self). But a positive life, filled with love, the seeking of wisdom, and things which are good always has something to “yield up” to the higher mind after each life. In such a case, the spiritual temple is being built through each life on the higher planes, until, one day, the resurrection of the Christ (which was dead) happens within the body of flesh, and the higher mind can manifest its potential on the higher planes of consciousness.
And hopefully now you understand my paragraph way back at the beginning of this post 🙂
Prometheus gets Delivered
Now who is Prometheus? Prometheus symbolizes our true individuality, which is seated in the higher mind as a potential at first. Prometheus cannot be delivered from his chain to the rock or body until something happens allowing him to be free in Heaven again. The true individuality, the thinker, cannot be raised to Heaven, until it gains the proper fruits of experience. Although it furthers its self conscious expression from these fruits of experience, it needs to gain a certain level of awareness. This is the true reason why Plato attributed the meaning to the name of Prometheus as “forethought.” Pro (before) + manthano (intelligence) + eus (suffix) = forethought. The forethought, or divine mind (Logos), manifested itself on the lower planes to be raised to the higher. And herein lies the meaning again to this scripture:
“And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man which is in heaven” (John 3:13).
Jesus likened it to Moses who had to raise the serpent. Jesus stated that he must be raised in the same way. In other words, the serpent (desire mind) must be raised from its attachment to the personality through it’s desire towards gratifying the flesh, where it first recognized itself as a self-conscious entity. But it must be transformed, renewed, regenerated. In the Prometheus story, Prometheus is delivered by Hercules. Hercules symbolizes the pain and troubles of life which eventually uplift Prometheus back to his proper place. Interestingly, Zeus gives his blessing to Hercules to deliver Prometheus, even though he originally punishes him for it! Sometimes a picture represents a thousand words. Below is a picture of a bust of Heracles, that symbol of man’s strength who overcomes, taking hold of the serpent…
We don’t have time in this post to explore Hercules, the son of the Father (Zues) and his earthly mother (like Mary), but perhaps you can connect the dots here at least to the serpent of Genesis with more of the information presented so below.
Hesiod, the Greek poet who first speaks of Prometheus in the Theogony, stated that the outer man was the bond by which Zeus bound Prometheus.
Now we have to link this thought with the serpent of Genesis. The serpent gave man the gift of self consciousness. We know this because man’s eyes were opened, and he recognized himself as an identity.
This is scriptural proof that the LOGOS is the divine spark, or originator, of consciousness in men. In fact, as the scripture makes clear, not anything that was made (manifested) doesn’t contain this light. Everything was made by the LOGOS. We can conclude then that consciousness manifests in different grades through the complexity of which spirit unfolds as it impregnates matter.
We should also make an important note that the Church Father Augustine stated that God is the “Father of lights.”
So what does this have to do with the mythological story of Prometheus?
Prometheus was known as a trickster with high intelligence. He feels sorry for mankind and decides to steal fire from the Gods and bring it to Earth and give it to humanity to aid them in their evolutionary journey. But this fire is the fire of the Gods, stolen from their workshop. Men can now use this fire to produce metals. It must be remembered that this is a divine fire belonging only to the Gods, where apparently they had their own workshop to produce their own metals.
This should bring remembrance to the scripture, “Man has now become like one of us…”
What do Gods have for the use of a workshop to produce metals in? Are we talking about literal fire and metals?
No.
Metals are symbols for thought and the vehicle of thought. I apologize for repeating many concepts, statements, and scriptures in this series, but sometimes repetition is the best teacher 🙂
So why does Prometheus give this divine fire to mankind? What’s it really mean? It simply means that Prometheus is an allegory of the bringer of light, or intelligence and reason to mankind. He symbolically represents the LOGOS, just as Christ. Mankind can then produce the metals that they need with this divine fire, or conscious development from intelligence, to understanding, to wisdom (expressed in its highest form as universal love or ONENESS).
The Serpent, the Bringer of Knowledge to Adam and Eve
Consider the fact that the serpent, like Prometheus, is considered a trickster because of its cunning and wit. Another translation for the serpent being “more subtle” than any beast of the field is that it is more cunning than any beast of the field. But the fact is that the serpent brings knowledge to mankind. The Bible clearly states that the “eyes” (the lower nature in all its aspects) of Adam and Eve were “opened.” This means that mankind now developed a new faculty of the mind; mankind now knew the difference between good and evil, or he and she had the choice to choose between two opposing forces within his and her experience. For the first time in scripture, mankind has now become “as one of us,” or as an Elohim, meaning, mankind now had the ability of conscious choice, or the additional faculty of reasoning through the intellect.
The reason this new faculty brings spiritual death is because the mind no longer dwells on a plane of unity beyond the physical world, but now in the physical world (God clothed them with coats of skin, i.e., “flesh”), the mind is divided between thought and emotion, which is the war continually played out in the flesh which leads to corruption, or death. In other words, man, as a physical being, now has an intellect which provides for his or her survival in a world of opposites, or duality. The body dies because it is subject to reaping and sowing, karma. Thus the Eagle continually eats the liver of Prometheus, looking for the fruits of experience which it can take unto itself to further its spiritual temple on the higher planes as it metaphorically flies back to the sun (higher self).
The intelligence principle itself then leads to death, even though it is an additional faculty necessary to mankind’s development. So yes, the Serpent brings death, but also an illumination within the physical form. This illumination is thus: that mankind has developed the intellect to realize that there is a higher spiritual counterpart to his lower nature, which is the divine fire inside that needs to be set free from the physical body. This realization is first produced through the law (Moses and moral nature), but not complete, until the Christ, which not only fulfills the law completely, but supercedes it!
Back to our Riddle in Part One of this Series
I didn’t forget the riddle I posed to you back in the first post.
Can God create a rock that is even too heavy for he, himself, to lift?
The question itself is illogical, and the nature of the universe is always logical. There is a hint of this in the original meaning of the Logos. The question assumes that there is a personal God who creates things which exists in the limited world of duality. This is not the reality of things, just as sure as you can’t have a scientific theory that unifies all that we have thus learned about science from a material origin.
The unfolding power of the Logos develops through evolution in the world of duality or being. In theory, God emanates the idea of a rock that he cannot lift, then emanates the idea of something else that can. The real answer to this question then deals with the concept of unfolding potential into actuality through time (kronos). To pose the question at the beginning of this series as I did presents a fallacy in the concept of instantaneous manifestation. To come into being, something must go from infinite potentiality to limited manifestation, and back up again. When man first came about it could be said that it would be impossible for him to fly. But man then created a way through something other than himself to fly in, and therefore it can be said that he flies.
I know, I know. Such thinking presents many problems and possible scenarios. And that’s my point. The self-conscious higher mind must be built up as a spiritual temple 🙂
So what is the meaning then of Prometheus as the throne of the higher mind? Prometheus ultimately symbolizes the causal body, which is the seat of the higher mind on the upper mental plane. It is an abstract potential. It must be built up through the fruits of experience, some of that through suffering, on the lower planes of existence (think of the experiences of Job). The higher mind has to have a way of cognitizing or realizing itself through the lower vehicles. But it only takes in that which is true, noble, and that which we call godly. Those experiences, which we have the choice to consciously engage in, is what builds the spiritual temple above (Ezekiel’s Temple, the future temple). Those experiences engaged in the opposite (the seven deadly sins), are essentially a wasted life, which cannot add to the higher mind because they remain energetically connected to the lower self, which is only but a transitory expression of consciousness itself. It must die, as all physical life does. The physical body at death does not disappear, but is recycled into other elements which then use that energy again for life. This is scientific! Why not then metaphysical? Reincarnation, for example? But any aspirations of the physical life that retain an energetic signature in higher form, must remain. This is the secret to what the ancients considered, “immortality.” It is not the idea that one’s physical body attains immortality, but that one’s mind and self consciousness does, while IN the body. And this is the meaning of that Gnostic scripture of the Gospel of Thomas which states:
“If they do not receive the resurrection while they yet live, when they die they will receive nothing.”
The modern Christian teachings actually teach the opposite, which states that if you believe the right thing, when you die, you will receive the resurrection. Wow. How backwards has this understanding become!
And the epistle of John corroborates this when it states that he who believes Jesus did not come in the FLESH is Antichrist. Meaning, that the Christ nature must be developed in the flesh! The life and story of Jesus is a metaphor for our life. “Greater is He that is IN you that is in the world.” The world signifying, the serpent nature of desire, that is cursed to the ground.
Blessings!
Genesis 1 Unveiled
Warning: heavy metaphysical content. Not sure how this will be taken, but my geeky metaphysical side had to come out:)
The purpose of this very lengthy post is to sequentially unveil Genesis chapter one, verse by verse. It is the foundation for the rest of the Bible, and therefore, critical to understanding any of it. It’s a major undertaking because a prerequisite knowledge of ancient metaphysical symbols and concepts are needed. I will arm you with the most important ones below.
Make no mistake: these symbols and concepts reveal the creation of the human soul. The focus of Genesis chapter one is not the literal universe, sky, or Earth, although they are indirectly included because the physical universe is contained in the human soul, and vice versa. Furthermore, the concepts found in Genesis chapter one explains the ancient axiom, “As above, so below.”
To clear up some possible confusion with regards to the metaphysical nature of Genesis, it is important to realize that almost every symbol in all of the verses is speaking to the blueprint of man’s HIGHER and Lower nature. The higher nature meaning, that aspect of the soul which is real, permanent, and true. The lower nature, meaning, that aspect of the soul which proceeds from the higher nature, but is subject to change, and therefore is impermanent. It is illusory because it is always changing. It is also that aspect of the soul which is subject to death. In the words of St. Paul, your lower nature is “corruptible,” while the higher nature is “incorruptible.”
Why am I calling Genesis chapter one a “blueprint” for the soul? Before a man builds a house, he has in his mind what it will look like. He has a blueprint. Genesis chapter one is that blueprint for the perfected human being, the archetypal man. Every chapter of the Bible after Genesis one explains the actual detail in the construction process where the potential (blueprint) becomes the actual (completed house / temple / church). And the construction of that house is YOU. A fundamental understanding of Genesis chapter one will unlock so much of the Bible that may have previously been confusing to you, as well as to help you to interpret the universal symbols throughout its other books, which were heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, which in turn was heavily influenced by far older and ancient metaphysical systems of knowledge.
Before delving into this ancient treasure-trove of metaphysical knowledge, we must view the blueprint of man’s soul from a bigger picture. There is an underlying universality in the symbols and allegories of most all sacred scriptures and myth. These symbols often exemplify individual aspects of the five planes of existence (or dimensions if you prefer). They are discussed in Gaskell’s great work, Dictionary of Scripture and Myth. You would do well to commit them to memory before proceeding with the content in this post. These five planes are, from top to bottom:
- Celestial plane – light (symbolized in ancient myth as the Sun)
- Spiritual plane – fire (symbolized in ancient myth as the sky)
- Mental plane – air (symbolized in ancient myth as the air between sky and water)
- Astral plane – water (symbolized in ancient myth as seas)
- Physical plane – earth (symbolized in ancient myth as earth, ground, dust, dry land)
In early Christian thought (such as St. Paul), the above philosophical groundwork would translate as :
- Son of God
- Holy Spirit
- Individuality (upper mental plane) and Personality (lower mental plane)
- The “natural man” containing the desire nature and lower emotions
- They physical temple which houses all of it
Understanding the creation of the human soul in Genesis chapter one (and the rest of the Bible) is dependent upon the metaphysical groundwork laid above. You should have noticed that the 3rd or middle plane is dual, consisting of the individuality (upper aspect) and the personality (lower aspect). We will address this when God creates the firmament, which divides the waters above and below. But you should understand at the onset that this demarcation is what separates the higher and lower self. This is also crucial to understanding the blueprint for man’s soul. To those who have an open mind, this philosophical blueprint will unveil some important truths; depending on what aspect of creation we are talking about in Genesis chapter one, one can look to five planes of existence above and immediately discover which aspect of the soul is being symbolized. For example, and as we’ll see, fowl of the air symbolize thoughts on the mental plane that soar upward towards spiritual enlightenment. Creeping crawling things symbolize the base desire-mind (in the lower nature), and correlate with the likes of greed and lust which keep consciousness grounded in the lower nature. I will use scriptures in other books of the Bible to corroborate these most basic truths of ancient metaphysical understanding.
The upper mental plane, the spiritual plane and the celestial plane contain the higher self, whereas the lower mental plane, astral plane, and physical plane contain the lower self, or personality. What does this mean? Let’s start at the bottom and work our way back up: our physical bodies are the earth and lower nature. However, our lower nature is comprised of the physical, astral, and lower mental bodies all operating on their respective planes / dimensions. To put it more succinctly, the physical body-temple houses the astral (emotional) nature, and the mental (thought) nature. The personality of man is a physical/sensation-emotional-thought experience. The higher nature of man’s soul consist of the upper mental plane (the “I am” you experience, individuality), the spiritual plane (higher emotions / love and intuition / wisdom), and the celestial plane (the permanent light / ray of the indwelling divine Christ). The “I am-ness” that you feel proceeding from the upper mental plane allows you to experience thoughts, emotions, and sensations through the lower nature and wisdom and love through the higher nature. The lower nature is contained within the higher nature, but the lower nature comprehends it not, at first.
Finally, it is vital to note that as the creation unfolds in Genesis chapter one, the lower and higher natures of the soul are latent with potential for self-realization of the divine within man’s soul. Christ is in every aspect of your being on every plane. Philosophically, you could say through your lower nature Christ is crucified, and through your higher nature Christ is resurrected. But the important thing to note is that Christ is at work on every plane of your existence. Many Christians get the mistaken notion that heaven is a place to look forward to when we die physically if we hold the right doctrines or beliefs. But the truth of the matter is that heaven is already within you. It is your job to go within and seek it. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is within you. It is a state of consciousness that is experienced in the NOW.
The truth of the matter is, the Bible doesn’t much deal with an afterlife. This isn’t to say there isn’t an afterlife. There most certainly is. But your state of consciousness now determines what the afterlife will be like, and whether or not you must return. And the Bible deals with life NOW. I will explain this more as we begin verse by verse in this foundational chapter of the Bible, corroborated by scriptures found in other Biblical books. Genesis one verses one through three will be the hardest to explain, and will take the most detail. So let’s jump in!
Genesis 1:1:
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”
The first mistake people often make in reading this verse is to consider the words “heaven” and “earth” as literally the globe we live on and the idea that heaven is a physical location out there somewhere. Divorce your mind of that idea. The kingdom of heaven is within you, and you are the earth. But what does this mean? Heaven and earth universally symbolize spirit and matter. The true you is a spirit having a material existence. “Heaven” and “earth” are simply terms to help the intellect grasp the unfoldment of the ONE abiding reality, which is neither spirit nor matter. In ancient philosophical terms, spirit is active while matter is receptive. Think of spirit as energy, and matter as lifeless form that is receptive to this energy. Matter is simply the vehicle of form, which is ultimately illusory because it is subject to change.The spirit side of God is masculine / male, while the feminine aspect of God is female / receptive. They are both eternal. Matter receives spirit, and life commences through a spirit-matter interaction, the first Logos (consciousness). Spirit must have a body / mother / matter / earth to experience through.
The symbol of the Christian cross conveys another way the intellect can grasp what is being taught through the spirit-matter dichotomy. Spirit, the vertical ray, is, in a philosophical sense, crucified on the horizontal ray of matter.
On a more personal note, you can think of spirit and matter as subject and object. Spirit is the subjective life living within the objective material. But it is the subjective which is reality, because the objective world of matter is always changing form. It is the Self dreaming, and that thing that we do every night is but a reflection of a higher spiritual truth. First the natural, then the spiritual.
In plain modern English, Genesis 1:1 means: God produced a reality for self-aware consciousness to manifest itself, which is fully explained in Genesis 1:3.
Genesis 1:2:
“And the earth (matter) was without form, and void: and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.”
Again, the phrase “without form” and “void” symbolizes inert, lifeless matter. You may picture matter as the body, or vehicle through which spirit energizes to life. That’s why the verse ends with the spirit of God moving upon the waters. Waters is simply representative of this lifeless matter, through which spirit has not yet intervened to give it life. In ancient philosophical terms, water is associated with the concept of chaos. Chaos being that which has no form yet, so it is chaotic. Chaos is simply an unorganized, formless, lifeless potential to become. That unorganized mass of potential becomes actual (the right hand of God / Christ), as God’s spirit begins to move over the waters, or chaos. The next verse will bring this to light!
Genesis 1:3:
“And God said, let there be light: and there was light.”
See, told ya! In verses one and two, the unmanifest, unconscious, and impersonal Absolute (God) has begun the process of it’s own self-realization. How does this self-realization of its potential become actual? Through his right hand (symbolizing power and potential becoming actual), which is also the New Testament concept of Christ. Light, God’s light, symbolizes the dawn of self awareness or individual human consciousness. This was in the philosophical mind of the writer of the Gospel of John when he states, “In him was life, and that life (individual consciousness) was the light of men.” It is the spark of individuality, which must be built up through the experiences on each plane of existence (expanding its sphere of realization), through the physical (senses, sensations), the emotional (feelings), the mental (thoughts), the spiritual (intellect allied with intuition, wisdom and love), and finally, the fullness of Christ where he becomes all in all, in us. And this act of light symbolizes the impersonal God becoming personal as a self-aware, conscious soul through mankind.
One of the secrets to understanding the ancient mystical realization of these symbols is that when spirit descends into matter, the ONE (that which is neither spirit nor matter / the absolute Father) becomes dual in nature, through the commencement of spirit and matter, and self-aware consciousness becomes possible. This self-aware individuality is the potential Christ within you, that must proceed through each aspect of your soul on all the planes of manifestation who becomes self-realized, or actualized. He makes known the Father, which is why he sits at the right hand of God, symbolizing power and actualizing the potentials of the soul. The combination of spirit / matter “allows” individual consciousness. In the beginning, the fullness of this consciousness is not yet realized, which is why the darkness (or unconscious) in the Gospel of John “knew it not.” In other words, mankind realizes not the indwelling Christ until Christ, the self aware spark, raises the lower nature to the higher through the power of the Holy Spirit, which is but a specific manifestation of the Christ. This is why Christ has to lift the lower nature first, and then from above (your higher nature) he symbolically sends the Holy Spirit down. It’s a two-way street. The Holy Spirit is not a separate being which the church has unknowingly promulgated through doctrine. The Holy Spirit is simply a function of that power which we deem Christ. Hopefully that will clear up many New Testament scriptures for you!
The fact that Christ was crucified since the foundation of the world is a philosophical way of stating that this conscious power involves itself (involution) in matter and commences all the way up (evolution) through each aspect of your soul, or plane of existence, from the lower nature to the higher. The marriage of your two natures is the divine marriage of the New Testament. Paul’s statement in Colossians 1:15-18 will help establish a vital truth in scripture about the divine sacrifice of Christ: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible…And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”
Christ signifies the divine sacrifice of spirit which robes itself in matter. Not just that which we call the material, physical world, but also the worlds of the astral and mental nature which are a reality we currently experience. He is the firstborn of it all. This limitation of spirit is the divine sacrifice crucified since of the foundation of the world, or soul of man. Paul directly tells you, as does the author of the Gospel of John, everything that I stated above: namely, Christ is in everything! That means every creature! You cannot say a prayer and accept Jesus into your heart to be saved. Christ was in you from the beginning, although many of us don’t comprehend Christ in us yet. As Paul states, Christ must be birthed within, through this idea of labor pains, meaning that it is a process of realization through experience. That experience is deeply personal, which makes the impersonal God personal. Impersonal and personal are but ideas, but the highest reality is that God is both, and neither. And thus consciousness is one big paradox.
Christ signifies the divine sacrifice of spirit which robes itself in matter. Not just that which we call the material, physical world, but also the worlds of the astral and mental nature which are a reality we currently experience. He is the firstborn of it all. This limitation of spirit is the divine sacrifice crucified since of the foundation of the world, or soul of man. Paul directly tells you, as does the author of the Gospel of John, everything that I stated above: namely, Christ is in everything! That means every creature! You cannot say a prayer and accept Jesus into your heart to be saved. Christ was in you from the beginning, although many of us don’t comprehend Christ in us yet. As Paul states, Christ must be birthed within, through this idea of labor pains, meaning that it is a process of realization through experience. That experience is deeply personal, which makes the impersonal God personal. Impersonal and personal are but ideas, but the highest reality is that God is both, and neither. And thus consciousness is one big paradox.
Summarizing Genesis 1:1-3 in Plain English
Let’s restate Genesis 1:1-3 into a more modern interpretation:
God began the process of creating man’s soul by spirit involving itself in matter, which resulted in the dawn of individuated consciousness. Notice how I say “dawn of,” because only the potential is there. Remember, in Genesis chapter one we are speaking about the blueprint of man’s soul in the mind of God. Yes, sort of like an idea. As we will see in a moment, this idea extends to the archetypal man, Adam (humankind), not one man.
Genesis 1:4:
“And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”
And God saw the light (became conscious), and differentiated it from the unconscious state, darkness, which is symbolic of unmanifested consciousness as potential. Darkness in this sense is still chaos, which is simply the unmanifested potential of the Absolute father. The Psalmist states that God made darkness his secret place. Secret, in the sense that it is unconscious, unmanifested, unknown. However, the light makes itself known.
Genesis 1:5:
“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”
The “first day” philosophically unveils the great mystery of life. Life is consciousness. Consciousness is life. When I say consciousness, I am not speaking of thought. Consciousness is what allows thought to be attached to it. Raw, undefiled consciousness is the “I AM” presence God unveils to Moses, which in turn delivers Israel (the soul ripe for deliverance) from Egytpian bondage, which is a type of emotional-thought bondage to the senses and desires of this illusory nature, our lower nature.
Returning to Genesis 1:5, the listeralist makes the grave error of assuming these words actually mean a twenty-four hour period. The patristic father Origen once stated, “What intelligent person can imagine that there was a first day, then a second and third day, evening and morning, without the sun, the moon, and the stars, and a sky to put them in.” Obviously these spiritual symbols are not to be taken literally. Day and night are simply symbols for activity and non-activity, consciousness and unconsciousness. It is the process that mankind must endure until that light, being the life of man, is fully realized within the soul. Think of “day” and “night” as long periods of time through which the soul is incarnate and then it rests in between incarnations (reincarnation). This is the natural cycle which consciousness must go through to evolve. This natural process is seen even in our everyday lives. We wake and sleep each night. Nature hibernates and wakes. The tide ebbs and flows. These natural processes reflect a higher reality. “As above, so below!” The New Testament author clears this up for us when he states that a day is as a thousand years to the Lord. It just means that the process of developing the individuality is exactly that, a process, where consciousness goes through different stages of development, all the while building awareness and more deeply comprehending itself and its untapped potential. The first day is the blueprint for unveiling the mystery of consciousness and the life that abides therein.
Genesis 1:6:
“And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”
If you can grasp the symbolism of the firmament, you’ll begin to understand how consciousness works through the soul (according to ancient scripture). There are the waters above the firmament and the waters below the firmament. In one sense the firmament is a demarcation line: it divides the upper planes of reality from the lower planes of illusion, as reflected in the waters above and below. Water is one of those few scriptural symbols which is dual in nature. The higher waters symbolize that true reality, while the lower waters symbolize illusion and separateness from God. Remember my earlier assertion that when spirit descends into matter it becomes dual in consciousness, through spirit / matter? This duality is reflected through God’s creation of the firmament. Remember the mental plane in our universal symbols at the beginning of the post? How it is dual? The upper and lower mental plane? The firmament is this division, specifically the higher mental plane, i.e., heaven, or God’s holy sanctuary, the centre of the mind of God.
Don’t let this be confusing. Our consciousness is dual in the way that it acts through our higher and lower natures. The denser the matter, the more restricted consciousness becomes. Through the lower nature, it manifests on the lower mental, astral, and physical planes in the form of intellect, emotion, desire, passion, and the senses. Our consciousness, when trained and developed, has the ability to expand and operate heavenly, where intuition, which is the wisdom and love of God, begins to function. This is what Paul meant when he stated we must be transformed by the renewing of the mind. In the New Testament this gift is received through the holy spirit, where the natural mind (man) becomes the heavenly man, Christ. Remember, Genesis chapter one is the blueprint of man’s soul. This blueprint is in all the sacred scriptures in some form or another, from the Upanashiads of India to the ancient mystery religions of Egypt. Consider Job 37:18, which states, “Canst thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong as a molten mirror.” This idea of a mirror in the sky shows the reflective nature of the truth above and the illusory nature of that truth as a reflection in the earth below (our lower nature). Again, “as above, so below.” Job uses the term “sky” because it symbolizes the 3rd plane (mental plane) I showed at the beginning of this post. Specifically, the demarcation between the upper and lower planes of conscious reality. In 1 Cor. 13:12 Paul states, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known.” He is speaking to true wisdom, which is to know the depths of the Self. Reflecting this line of thought, William Kingsland once stated: “Real knowledge is identity, not external cognition.” What did he mean? External cognition discriminates, analyzes, and draws its conclusions through acceptance or rejection of certain ideas. Real knowledge transcends this process through intuition, which, when combined with the intellect, sees reality wholly different. It’s like the eagle that soars high above and gets the best view of it all. It sees the truth beyond the limitations of form in a physical world.
Speaking further on the firmament, Daniel 12:3 states, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.” The wisdom of God is found on the upper planes, within the firmament.
One more point which may clear up some potential confusion. Why all this talk of mental-emotional and astral bodies? The ancient mystics did not consider the physical organ we call the human brain as the origin of consciousness or even thoughts. The physical organ is simply a receiver and interpreter. For example, a thought abides on the mental plane, which is made up of a higher vibratory matter then what we term physical matter (atoms, etc). The physical brain receives and interprets the thought as it is stepped down to a denser vibration in the physical organ. However, as it is received in the denser matter of the physical organ, it is colored by the effect of denser matter, through sensations and electro-chemical processes. This is one reason why the physical organ cannot perceive reality as it is on the upper planes, unless one trains the conscious experience of the physical organ by going within and shutting out the senses. In a sense, one is using the pure light of consciousness to side-step the physical organ.
Let’s continue:
Genesis 1:8:
“And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”
We have already commented on this. The firmament is the demarcation line (symbolically of course) between the true reality of heaven and the illusory nature of reality below it, on all the planes below the upper mental plane.
Genesis 1:9:
“And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.”
Here is the blueprint for man’s physical, emotional, and mental nature. This is the Dry Land. The dry land is named earth because earth is man’s lower nature, that which is under the firmament, or heaven. Dry Land does not just reference the physical aspect of man. It symbolizes his emotional-thought self on all the lower planes of existence. The waters are his astral nature containing desire. I am repeating concepts so that the reader may integrate the information.
Genesis 1:10:
“And God called the dry land earth; and the gathering together of the waters (under the firmament) called he seas: and God saw that it was good.”
Seas, which symbolizes the lower emotional (astral) nature, is where our desires lie. You may have heard the term “sea of desires, or the “stormy sea of desires.” Isaiah 57:20 states, “The wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.” Isaiah is speaking to the astral or emotional desires and passions of man, which is often symbolized by the stormy sea in scripture. The astral nature is illusory and changing like a roaring sea because it is only a reflection of what is above. Jesus calms the stormy sea, because it is the light (higher consciousness) which illuminates the soul to man’s higher nature, whereby he gains control over the passions and desires of his wicked (or lower) self. God calls the creation of seas “good” because remember, it is the blueprint for man, meaning that our emotional natures are a reality which we must live with and have to develop to fully birth the Christ within. Mankind’s goal is to transform himself into a higher emotional state, but we must begin at the lower emotional nature. The Christ within us first awakes from his dormancy there. God calls this good here because the blueprint itself is not stormy, yet. But as man experiences life, it will certainly become stormy. It is not the emotional nature or sea itself that is wicked or negative. It is only negative when our higher natures are not in control and ruling the lower nature, which produces pain, confusion, and suffering. When the lower nature is ruled by the personality, the sea is stormy indeed. When the storm is calmed by the indwelling Christ, it becomes smooth and reflects the higher reality more accurately. Then we can say that the mind and thoughts have become captive to the higher nature.
Genesis 1:11:
“And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, after his kind. And God saw that it was good.”
Grass represents the first growth from the earth, the lower nature of man, which begins to break free of the soil (within his lower nature) and ascend upwards toward heaven. This is the primitive aspirations in the lower nature of man (the earth) seeking that which is the potential of his higher nature. Herb is another symbol for the primitive aspirations in the soul beginning through the senses, or lower conscious experience. After his kind just means through the natural law of development, i.e., how man progresses as the Christ light begins to shine brighter in him. Fruit Trees yielding their kind symbolizes the law of karma. Trees are symbolic of man himself, and the fruit that we can potentially yield in the lower and higher nature depending on how the soul grows and develops. This idea that everything on the earth yields its own kind after its kind as karma might seem strange to you, but as Gaskell states, the fruit tree bearing fruit and seed is a “symbol of the law of karma linking life with form, and the potencies within, which are ready to unfold.” This simply explains the potential within the blueprint of the soul. As experience in the earth happens, karma is active. As man begins to operate from his higher nature, karma can be altered through conscious activity.
Genesis 1:12-13:
Not much else needs to be said here, as it was summarized in the paragraph before. It is just a reiteration and the completion of the third day.
Genesis 1:14:
“And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and days, and for years.”
Here are more symbols that are universal in all ancient scriptures, and a brilliant way of explaining creation symbolically, and reflecting philosophically the axiom again, “As above, so below.” People have argued over the literal meaning of this verse for millenia. How can grass and trees grow without the sunlight that is finally created here? Obviously the sun and moon and stars are symbolic.
Let’s deal with the symbol of the sun first. Many people of today’s religious faith find it strange that an ancient culture like the Egyptians or Aztecs or ancient Hebrews and even Christians could have viewed the sun as a symbol for God, the higher self, or Christ, or the outpouring of the second Logos. First of all, using the sun as a symbol for something extraordinary is not worshipping the object itself. While all ancient scripture and myth eventually gets corrupted by the masses who begin to interpret such stories as literal, the original meaning and intent was only a symbol for the divine in man. The sun makes perfect sense as this symbol for divinity. Why? Because the sun is responsible for all life on earth. Without the sun’s light, physical life simply couldn’t exist. It is quite literally, the giver of all life as we know it. Its rays of light direct the growth in the earth. Sunlight literally stirs all growth within the earth as it shines upon it. The sun is the perfect symbol depicting how man’s lower nature (the earth) is directed and raised up by Christ, the sun / son. Malachi 4:2 literally states, “But for you who fear my name shall the sun (yes I spelled “sun” right) of righteousness rise with healing in its wings…”
Joshua commanded the sun to stand still at its zenith in the sky, symbolizing the higher self ruling over the lower nature, the moon (or personality), which also stood still. This story symbolizes the cessation of day and night, light and darkness, which are periods of activity and inactivity within the soul. The scripture states, be still and know that I am God. The same conclusion can be drawn from the Book of Revelation, where Revelation 21:23 states, “The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The lamb is its light.” In the stillness or cessation of our activity can be found within the soul that divine principle, fully realized in all the potential of Genesis 1:3, that light which has the potential to shine in the fullness of individuality of higher consciousness of the self. This is the light of Christ.
If the sun stands for Christ, the higher self in all of us, then the moon, “the lesser light,” is the personality of the natural man. The moon is also a perfect symbol, because it only shines because it reflects the light of the sun. Your personality has no light in and of itself. It is only a reflection of your permanent individuality, which is the great light. And since it is only a reflection of our higher nature, it is fleeting and it changes constantly, just as the moon waxes and wanes through different cycles. Ancient myth brilliantly describes how the personality is connected to the permanent individuality through each incarnation. But at death, the personality, who you think you are today, is gone. Solomon speaks to the death of the personality when he states, “The dead know nothing.” Here he means the death of the impermanent personality, not the permanent individuality, symbolized as the sun. This scripture alluding to the sun and moon as greater and lesser lights is a brilliant way to describe the dual nature of man: his true individuality, and his impermanent personality.
Genesis 1:15-19:
“And let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.”
The greater light, or the higher self, is to rule the day. This means that period of activity where we are growing consciously, or consciousness rooted in the higher self. The lesser light (moon) rules the night, that aspect of us where our lower nature and personality rules. This means that period of activity where consciousness from the lower self is in ignorance. It is a cyclic period of growth and retraction, both of which are necessary. We exercise a muscle, and the next day it is sore and hurts, and we rest it. The mind works the same way, and in the same way we slowly but progressively birth the Christ mind within the soul.
Genesis 1:20:
“And God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
The fowl that fly in the open firmament in heaven are aspirations towards the higher self. They fly in the heavens, God’s sanctuary, which is really another way of saying those aspirations within us that seek the higher self. Birds also fly in the air, i.e., thoughts which are in the mind (air). We are not talking about heaven as a literal sky, nor literal birds.
Genesis 1:21-23:
“And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and morning were the fifth day.”
The whale and the sea are one in the same. The lower nature experiencing life, which brings sorrow, pain, and suffering when it identifies itself with the lower desires and passions of our desire-mind rooted in the senses. Job 7:12 states, “Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?” Ezekiel 32:2 states, “Son of man…Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas…” Again, this is part of man’s soul blueprint. The winged fowl of the air are already what we explained: those thoughts which aspire towards the higher nature in man, as they fly heavenward. The great Greek philosopher Philo once stated, all the powers of God are winged…” He meant that any thought which was noble and rooted in wisdom or love comes from above.
Genesis 1:24-25:
“And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, and cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: And God saw that it was good.
The creeping things which crawls upon the earth are symbolic of our lower instincts, like greed or mischief, which the higher nature must have dominion over. Leviticus 11:44 states, “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify thyselves, and ye shall be holy: neither shall you defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Again, the law is spiritual, not literal. God states we are not to defile ourselves with creeping things because they are the base instincts of the lower nature. Keep in mind that fish with scales and cattle do not defile, and are clean to eat. Meaning, gaining knowledge through the intellect is okay, as well as having certain emotions (cattle). In fact, Jesus states to cast the net on the right side, which catches a full load of fish. This symbolizes the knowledge we gain through experience.
Genesis 1:26:
“And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Again, this act of dominion is emphasized. Nothing more needs to be said here, as we will deal with man being made in the image of God in verse twenty-seven below.
Genesis 1:27:
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
What does it mean to be created in the image of God, both male and female? We are not speaking of literal sexes. Rather, the male-female principle which is found in nature of the lower planes is a reflection of the higher nature found on the upper planes in a spiritual sense. Male / female signifies spirit-matter, love-wisdom, mind-emotion, and intellect-intuition. Being created male / female in the image of God is the higher nature ruling completely over the lower nature. This ONENESS becomes dual when Adam and Eve partake of the tree of knowledge and become physical beings outside of the Garden. The mind becomes split, dual, and the mind and emotions, even intellect and intuition, are separate.
God tells man to have dominion over all creatures of the earth. Remember, the earth is us, and all the living things in the earth are within us. We must have dominion over the lower nature where all these creatures are symbolic of thought, emotion, sensation, desire, etc. Many Christians have taken this verse to mean we are to literally rule over all animals. Try to tell a polar bear, lion, great white shark, or whale what to do. You can’t. The only power you have over them is your intellect, which can make or build things to contain animals or kill them. But even animals are a part of the human soul, and your physical evolution upon this earth was dependent on them. American Indians understood this truth, and they called animals their brothers, for which they had great respect.
Genesis 1:28:
“And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
We have already gone over these symbols, except for fish in the sea. Fish relate to thoughts about opinions, knowledge, etc. But the key word here is subdue and dominion over. In other words, we will naturally become great whales, fish of the sea, creeping crawling things, cattle, and even birds of the sea, as all these things we will experience over the course of our lives. But, man, the higher nature of man, must subdue and rule over them. As we will see in a moment, that is how we are made in the image of God. When the higher nature is ruling over the lower nature, the male and female aspect of the soul become one, and the divine marriage talked about in the New Testament is complete.
Genesis 1:29-30:
“And God said, behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
This is an interesting verse. God states that all things are given the herb and fruit of the tree to eat, to be for meat, or food. Literalists have supposed this meant that all animals were once vegetarians. Don’t think so. Sharks never ate vegetables and fruit, neither of which can grow in the ocean. This verse is speaking to the process of how the soul grows. Eating and drinking in scripture are never literal eating and drinking. The process signifies what matures the soul, or evolves it by the higher nature. Food in the Bible means sustenance for the soul, not just the physical body. Think eating Christ’s flesh and drinking his blood. Green herbs are a symbol of the growth process within. Psalm 104:14 states, “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth…” Food is the knowledge and experience gained through the experience of life. It comes out of the earth because the lower nature of mankind is the earth. Our physical experience causes adversity, which God uses to cause aspirations of mankind to yearn for something higher, something better.
Genesis 1:31:
“And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”
In other words, the blueprint for man’s soul was finished. And in the beginning of Genesis chapter 2, we see that God rests. He symbolically rests because the blueprint for the temple (YOU) is complete. The creation story which comes next in Genesis 2 is not contradictory as many scholars have supposed. It is revealed differently because it is speaking to that which comes after the blueprint is complete. The construction of the actual temple is now in progress. It is no longer an idea in the mind of God, but rather that idea being actualized. This is why the order of the creation is changed, and man is created first. Because we are dealing with what happened in order to create the backdrop for what it erroneously termed “the fall of man.” It’s not so much a fall as it is a new experience for consciousness.
I hope you enjoyed this long post. I realize many will not because it is a little long and cumbersome. But hopefully it speaks to some, and hopefully it shed some new light on the most foundational chapter in the Bible which can unlock other parts of it.
From a more practical aspect, some of you may be wondering how does one live through the higher nature. As is a big theme in the blog, which even Raymond’s last contribution pointed out, meditation is such a way to begin the process. I won’t say more on that here as it can be found throughout the blog.
Blessings!
A Link Shared by Anny
I thought I’d post the link that Anny shared with me recently in an e-mail which I found very beneficial to those trying to further understand this idea of consciousness as the foundation of reality.
If you’re interested, pay attention to very pertinent and certain statements he makes about consciousness that can be missed if you’re not focused. I’m not saying he has the truth, because no man does. Truth is an experience, and you can only realize truth through personal experience. But some of his statements give great intellectual food for thought.
Anyone who has followed the blog since it’s inception, or at least for a few years, knows that meditation is one of the central themes on this blog. Why? Is it because I studied Eastern religions and assume they have truth? No! It is because in the Bible itself I see this central theme. Many have asked me how and why I see this? Every story from Adam and Eve to Christ and Paul in the New Testament is an allegory for how the soul exist in the physical body temple through the limited aspect of the brain. The original esoteric explanations in all Eastern scriptures collaborate this view. Meditation, centered prayer, deep contemplation or concentration, etc., is a tool to break down egoic structures that have formed in the lower personality during one’s life. It is a way of “renting the veil,” so to speak, and having a self-realization experience of what reality is. The ultimate experience of meditation goes far beyond health benefits, calmness, increased mental acuity, etc. These are worldly benefits, and while good and beneficial, one must persist to reap true spiritual benefits which go beyond the advertised or commercialized exercise of meditation. There are many different types of meditation, and no one can tell you the direct and one true way, because all of them deal with piercing the veil in some aspect, and certain individuals are ready for certain meditation exercises. That being said, I will add that there are advanced forms one can experience when one is ready, and it is a three-fold process, first and foremost developing the art of concentration. I leave my explanation there and those willing to dig deeper may benefit from exploring the specific types of Zen application.
Ideas such as reincarnation and Karma, though not directly stated in the Bible, are certainly details within this central theme. I chuckle to myself every time I mention Karma in a personal e-mail to someone discussing the Bible, or in direct discussion, and they say, but that’s not in the Bible. But the Bible says you reap what you sow. This is a plain Western definition of the Eastern concept of Karma. It doesn’t get any more plain.
Even the idea of the Christian devil has been so misconstrued from it’s original Biblical idea. Consider the fact that what Christians consider the Devil, IS THE VERY CATALYSIS or vehicle God used to allow Job to realize a blessing 100 fold. It’s the same in the story of Adam and Eve in the garden. The serpent is the catalysis for the next phase of the conscious experience.
All religious ideas will forever leave you with mental constructs within the lower ego that reinforce sin, or missing the mark. The mark of what? Sin is not an evil that needs punishment by an overlord, but rather a symbol of ignorance of the mystery of the conscious experience and spirit.
Here is the link. I hope you enjoy should you choose to watch it.
Resurrection: It’s not What Your Local Church Teaches
What is the Biblical resurrection? Sadly, there is much misinformation on the subject leading to wild claims. To get a glimpse of what the true resurrection is, I am going to use the Old Testament concepts from the story of Cain and Abel, and then link it back to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This chapter is greatly misunderstood by mainstream religion, so we’ll correct the fallacies and try to get a grip on what Paul meant.
Understanding the Biblical resurrection must come from a greater understanding of ourselves. The story of Cain and Abel fills in some important concepts for us.
The Symbolic Nature of Cain and Abel
Much of the esoteric nature of of the Bible is hard to interpret, but the story of Cain and Abel is relatively simple. The clues aren’t even hidden. They’re blatant! Let’s break it down.
The straightforward version: Adam and Eve conceive twin brothers. Cain comes first, then Abel. Cain is a tiller of the ground. Abel tends sheep. When the time comes, they both bring an offering to the Lord. For no apparent reason (at least not one revealed directly in the text), the Lord rejects Cain’s offering. But God accepts Abel’s offering of sheep. Is the Lord discriminatory against vegetables? Or maybe he just hates brussel sprouts and broccoli?
All joking aside, the key to understanding the deeper spiritual significance of the story is actually in their vocations. Cain was doomed from the beginning. Let’s see why…
Ancient adepts wrote this story to explain the very early stages of the One consciousness expressing itself through human kind. Adam and Eve being expelled from the garden symbolizes spirit expressing itself in duality on the lowest (physical) plane. Cain and Abel are two different paths the soul can take. One path aspires back towards unity with God (Abel), and the other (Cain), being unaware of this path back to unity, or even that there is unity, remains rooted in separateness, illusion, and the “I” feeling that consciousness experiences in duality on the physical plane. In many ways, the story of Cain and Abel represents the first metaphysical struggle between our lower and higher self.
Abel is that beginning aspiration which seeks to establish consciousness in the higher self through love and unity, while Cain is that which is rooted in the lower ego, and is only concerned with “I,” or “me.” As this very early stage of human consciousness, Cain always prevails over Abel.
Cain and the Ground
Cain is a tiller of the ground. The ground is a symbol of the lower nature within the soul. Think of the ground as the lowest point of involution of spirit, or the one consciousness, in physical matter. Cain is the personality and lower mind that fully functions at the beginning of incarnating into physicality.
God could never accept Cain’s offering, because his labor as a tiller of the ground symbolizes humans operating through the lower mind only. Paul tells us the carnal mind is at enmity with God. The carnal mind is not just sensations (physical), it is the entire personality comprised of mental, emotional, and physical consciousness at its lowest point of involution with the human (i.e., the ground).
Sidenote: For someone wanting to see the bigger picture, the line of Cain, metaphorically speaking, represents those living and staying in the lower ego. Adam and Eve’s next line, with Seth, represents mankind who aspires, through stages of consciousness, to transcend the lower ego experience and expands his or her awareness as symbolized in Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Elijah, and Christ.
The First Murder was Metaphysical
Of course in the narrative Cain gets very upset. God tells him sin (separation and illusion) is always before him, but if he does well (seeks the higher self through through virtues and love like Abel), he will be accepted. And of course Cain cannot do this. Remember what the Apostle Paul also states:
“Because the mind set on flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor can it be” (Romans 8:1).
“The mind set on flesh” is the carnal or lower nature. Again, Cain signifies one whose mind is set on flesh because he is a tiller of the ground.
You see! Poor Cain never had a chance! In fact, just understanding all this could make us predict would Cain would do next even if we hadn’t read the story. He kills Abel! The lower ego rejects love, always. Anytime we act from the lower aspect of ourselves, we act out of fear and survival. Keep in mind this isn’t literal. Cain never actually murdered a person. This whole fiasco is symbolic of the lower nature killing that aspect which seeks the higher nature / self. Why? Because it must in the early stages of consciousness evolution. It is always at enmity with God.
What about Abel? The sheep that Abel tends are symbolic of virtues. Christ said his sheep hear his voice. These are ever the virtues that the soul can become rooted in around the Christ nature, drawing the soul closer and closer back to unity with God. But in Cain, the lower nature kills that aspect of our soul which chooses to tend to the (sheep) virtues.
One more important point about Cain as a tiller of the ground: As Gaskell states, the lower nature must be sown and tilled to truly reap fruit. This long process of sowing, tilling, and reaping in the soul is what the soul’s sojourn on earth is all about. The soul that lives in ignorance, will need to be sown, tilled, and reaped over and over (karma and reincarnation) until that ego realizes it’s wretchedness and aspires towards something greater than it’s limited self.
Next, God banished Cain from his presence. Cain is banished to the Land of Nod. Nod represents the land where the personality is in total control of the soul, and is at the mercy of the desire-nature, rooted in total separateness of the true self. The personality is expressed through the physical, mental, and emotional consciousness rooted in this illusory separation. These aspects of us, thoughts, emotions and sensations (all three manifested in the physical temple) always begin the journey away from God’s presence in the land of Nod. At first, no man knows God, and the illusion of separateness through the ego is our Nod experience.
Cain’s Wife a Blatant Clue
Cain even gets a wife in Nod. Again, not a literal woman. The term “wife” is always symbolic of the emotion nature allied with the mind (man). This is what the personality is! This shows the template for the lower nature made up of thought and emotion exhibited through the physical body.
He is sent to the land of “Nod,” which is symbolic of being driven (or separate in illusion) from the presence of the Lord (higher self). Remember, the lower nature is at enmity with God and can never bring an offering (from the flesh) that would ever please God.
When Paul speaks of the carnal mind, or the mind of flesh, he is speaking of the lower nature in its entirety, which again, comprises the personality manifested through thoughts, emotions, and sensations within the physical temple. This is why Cain is allowed to get away with murder and begin a new journey with a mark to protect him. No matter how corrupt the lower nature is, it always has the chance (through many lives), to evolve through the experiences of adversity and suffering. Early humanity spent many incarnations doing this.
Abel doesn’t do much. But his symbolic meaning is the important part. Even in the beginning, the soul has aspirations towards something that is higher and greater than the limited ego rooted in the personality. For much of early humanity, it was just killed by our twin (within us) before it accomplished anything except the faintest of beginnings of a new consciousness experience.
The Template has been Set
Now we can begin to talk about Paul’s concept of resurrection. We understand from earlier Biblical stories (and not just Cain and Abel), that the lower nature, or the “I” feeling we all have, is comprised of a tri-part nature, or temple. Mind = thoughts, emotions, physical temple. All three make up the lower self. This is the grand illusion, and it is a very small and limited manifestation of who you really are.
The Apostle Paul understood this lower nature of man quite well. In fact, at times he seems completely annoyed by it. He states, that which I would do, I don’t. And that which I would not do, I do! It’s like the Abel in him is killed over and over and he admits it in frustration. But no worries. Paul also understands the power of the Christ within us, our hope of Glory, who is able to resurrect this lower self and cause a union of it with the higher self. And it is only the power of Christ manifested in our complete temple that can affect this transformation of the mind.
Yes! Christ is resurrected in a physical body, but it’s your physical body. One that is still alive. Not a body that’s already been literally put in the ground. He’s resurrected in your body! Most humans are past the Nod stage, but you still have to manifest an Abraham within you first that cuts covenant, or an agreement with God the higher self through faith. This is where the real journey begins. Abraham is the father of faith because he is symbolic of the divine nature becoming active in the soul by leaving his former land of the ego and traveling to a land that God will give to his seed. This is the Promised Land, and it is nothing like Nod. In fact, it is not a State of consciousness rooted only in the personality and lower ego, but a State of consciousness that receives the blessings of milk and honey (higher emotions – wisdom). Wisdom of what? Wisdom that comes from the intuition, the true reality, that is not separate from God. It is the spiritual food from above which transcends the human mind and intellect, and it is a remembering of where you came from before your descent (incarnation in matter).
Paul’s Resurrection is Purely Metaphysical
By this point in the article, you’ve already guessed it. Paul’s Resurrection is only metaphysical. The physical body will die. Your personality is fleeting. The labels and memories that make up who you are as the personality in this life, in the earthly vessel, will pass away. But the “who” you think you are now through labels and memory is really but a very tiny and limited aspect of your higher self. Paul knew this fact. He never ever spoke about a resurrection where literal physical bodies (along with all the thoughts and emotions and memories) would be put all back together from the grave. All his writings are spiritual in nature. Paul states flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Paul also taught that Christ must be fully resurrected within the individual which is this great process and the completion of the renewing of the mind of man. Not just a transformation of the lower mind, but a union of lower mind with the spiritual mind and higher self. When Christ is all in all within the individual, the higher spiritual mind and emotions are in unity, being ruled by the higher self or Christ within. This is why Jesus also taught seek ye first the kingdom of God, which is within you. Paul’s vision of Christ on the road to Damascus indicates this realization. Paul speaks of this in Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 15: 3-8
“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received; how that Christ died for us according to the scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he arose again the third day according to the scriptures; And that he was seen of cephas, then of the twelve.”
Let’s break down some more symbols here. Cephas, or Peter, signifies the natural man, or the ego. The natural man must first perceive that there is a spiritual truth higher than himself. This is the first step, and it is why Paul writes esoterically, mentioning Cephas first. Cephas is the little rock that God’s kingdom is first built upon.
The twelve are the disciples, which are symbolic of the soul qualities which have completed an initiation into the Christ-soul. Even Jesus went up to Jerusalem at twelve years of age for the feast (Luke 2:42). There are twelve signs of the Zodiac, twelves tribes, twelve disciples, and twelve apostles. All indicate the same. Now let’s continue quoting 1 Corinthians:
“After that he was seen of five hundred brethern at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James, then all the Apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also.”
What 500 signifies is too complicated to go into here, and would take another post about the book of Ezekiel to explain (maybe another day). But James is a symbol for the mind and enlightenment.
According to Gaskell: James is “…the mental edifice of the human being, that is, the mentality or instrument of the mind, which is built up by the soul-qualities through aspiration and enlightenment.”
Are we beginning to see a pattern here? Paul’s revelation of the Christ begins with the natural man, progresses through the soul qualities, goes through the state of James, and then to himself.
Notice how Paul then states Christ was seen of him also. Paul’s statement here indicates that Christ appeared to everyone in the same way. How did Christ appear to Paul? Again, read the road to Damascus. It wasn’t Jesus in a physical body that appeared to him. It was a bright light on the road to Damascus, indicating an experience within consciousness. Paul’s risen Christ is always metaphysical in nature. Paul never speaks of a virgin birth, the miracles of Jesus, his early life, etc. Why? This was not important to Paul. Only the resurrected Christ is, which is the power within you. When Paul mentions Jesus as the son of David, he is still speaking allegorically.
Finally, Paul follows James as the last (and in many ways the greatest) apostle to see the resurrected Christ because Paul is symbolic of the mind being transformed by the Christ. His boasting in the New Testament has nothing to do with being the greatest Apostle. He’s simply the mind which has realized the Christ, and still has to correct the natural man (Peter) through life. Paul gives a sharp rebuke to Peter in Galatians. This rebuke is not between two people. The rebuke is about the natural man (Peter) still wanting to be in charge of the soul rather than the Christ, and getting mixed up from time to time!
Final Thoughts on the Resurrection and what it is that is resurrected
I am going to quote Gaskell on the resurrection:
“A symbol of the rising of the Higher Self from the potential to the actual in the minds of humanity: also the rising of the indwelling or incarnate Self from the lower nature ot the higher at the end of the cycle. In relation to the egos, the resurrection signifies the rising of the cosnciousess from the lower mind to the higher in the causal-body at the cycle’s end…”
For beginners, don’t let the language confuse you. The Christ seed is sown by the word. In the beginning, it is only a potential and has not been actualized yet. But the word is not actually the Bible. The word is Christ itself, this power within you that must germinate to bear fruit. I have a great respect of my Christian heritage, even my first church, because it gave me an appreciation for the allegories meant to awaken something already within me. But I realized after many years that my church leaders were more interested in doctrine and doing “good deeds” to follow Christ. But this is not his message. Good deeds are great, but often have very little to do with the transforming of the mind that Paul spoke of. Doctrine and religion still seek Christ through the personality and lower mind, which although can do much good, it is still not the direct realization of Christ within you. The causal body that Gaskell speaks of is a the body of the spiritual ego (not to be confused with the lower mind and ego). The aspects of the personality are attached to it, and come forth from it, but the higher mind, the Christ mind, is established in the causal body, and is not dissolved with death like the personality. The resurrection symbolizes the raising of this lower mind to come into union with the higher mind at some point in human consciousness. Every human life has the potential to express Christ consciousness through the physical body. Those who actualize it are those sheep that hear and follow Christ’s voice – the wisdom gleaned from above by seeking the inner kingdom within each individual, and the higher virtues received through the wisdom-love nature that the higher self contains. More of this to come in future posts.
So what is the resurrection? Let’s simplify it like this: the infinite, limitless POTENTIAL of the self cannot express itself (become actualized) in the physical temple, unless…
The self transcends the mind, beyond the physical, emotional, and thinking machine that it is, while still in the physical temple. When this Transcendence takes place, this awakening, this enlightenment, this realization of itself, then the “I-ness” of the self is retained within the physical temple, while on earth, and the self is thus resurrected. And the union, the Divine marriage, of the lower and higher self is consummated. This is the immortality spoken about in the Bible. This immortality does not mean of the physical body, but of bringing awareness of the self, through direct realization, into death, where the individual remains aware and does not fall alseep (go into complete unconsciousness until the next birth).
Blessings.
The Esoteric Importance of Genesis 1:3
Genesis 1:3 is the cornerstone for the Biblical creation account. Especially when trying to decipher the story of Adam and Eve, and all that follows. In this post we’re going to take a look at why, and then some additional info for you to ponder, all in a very short, concise page.
First let’s review the verse.
“And God said let there be light, and there was light.”
Most people assume this is speaking of literal light. Why? Because in Genesis 1:5 God called the light day and separated it from the night, which makes the first morning and evening. This is a mistake. It cannot mean literal light. Simply put, a day and a night is caused from the light of the sun shining on earth as earth spins on its axis. So if you’re going to read Genesis literally, you also have to concede that the Bible states the stars, including our sun, was not created until the fourth day! A literal reading then makes the Bible seem totally backwards to what we observe in nature and our physical reality. Is it really backwards? Not at all.
So what is the light of Genesis 3:1?
Multiple scriptures in the Bible symbolize light as wisdom, truth, and knowledge. But what does that mean? These are all subjective terms, as these things mean different things to different people. But what the light in Genesis 1:3 really means is really not so subjective.
In a nutshell, the light symbolizes the emergence of consciousness. Self-awareness. The self with awareness, or, that feeling of “I”-ness. This conscious experience is the result of the conjoining of spirit and matter. The heavens above symbolize spirit, and the earth below symbolizes matter. As Einstein called the historical distinct notions of space and time space-time, so should we think of the emergence for the potential of consciousness as spirit-matter, and both are eternal.
This potential of emerging consciousness is realized as Adam and Eve partake of the fruit and their eyes are opened to sin, or more aptly put, to themselves!
The story is psychologically and physiologically poignant when released from the strong grip of religion, dogmatism, and doctrine.
That light that was the light of men in the Gospel of John also refers to consciousness, albeit in its evolved state through Christ.
Carl Jung alluded to the fact that ALL creation myths of the ancients were about the emergence of consciousness. Would it be so different with the Bible!?
Genesis is actually more scientific than we give it credit for in our modern society, but that’s only because literal interpretations make its scientific aspects seem ridiculous. And why shouldn’t they? We know that stars came before planets, for all the elements, including the carbon atoms that make up you, and the oxygen you breath, are the remnants of cataclysmic stellar events like supernovas from the death of hypergiant stars. Did the ancients know THAT? Well, probably not. But they understood that even spirit, the potential for endless possibilities, needs a body (matter) to operate through. Matter provides reference points for spirit to play within and get to know itself and all its potential. My language suggests that one came before the other, but in reality this is not so either, for spirit and matter are both two sides of the same coin. Like space-time J
God’s light is the potential for different conscious states. Biblically speaking, God’s light is the generator of the self being fully realized consciously, through his son Jesus Christ. But even this cannot be understood literally. As Paul stated, it is a spiritually discerned matter.
One more point to make:
The earth without form and being void (another cryptic psychological state) is the unconscious state of the self before the conscious experience. It is the state of Adam before there was Eve, as she was in him. But there was no awareness in consciousness yet.
More in depth explanations to come in my book with the working title, The Bible Simplified. Though I cannot promise a release date yet as any writer knows there are countless edits to go through and always more ideas and writing as the writer is truly never happy with his or her work J
I give it another year, possibly. Just because I am so busy. But I promise a very intriguing and revolutionary read that will be worth it once it’s finished.
Blessings.
Is Suffering Really Necessary?
The title of this post was a question put to Eckhart Tolle some years ago. His reply:
“Suffering is necessary until we discover that it is not.”
As suffering seems to be a subject that is coming into the news daily, it may be a good idea to find out what Eckhart means by his reply. Suffering also seems to be the major reason why so many people stopped believing in God after the Second World War, because they could not find answers to the questions and statement: ‘Why does God allow this to happen? Why does God not do anything to stop this? Surely this must mean that there is no God.’ [Read more…] about Is Suffering Really Necessary?
Original Sin: It is not what your Forefathers Taught
What’s the real meaning behind of the concept of original sin? And why is it assumed that Adam and Eve are the first human beings to blame for bringing sin into the world?
This is a rather silly notion that many have blindly swallowed because they do not think deeply enough about the book they are reading.
The true meaning of sin is to miss the mark. And it has nothing to do with the physical actions. Original sin is a beautiful concept explaining the reason that you seem alienated from God as you dwell in a physical body.
When Paul stated that the wages of sin are death, he was speaking spiritually. We can see this is true from the story of Adam and Eve. God told them that they would die upon partaking of the tree of knowledge. But the author of Genesis was speaking spiritually, not physically. They died spiritually, but were given physical life.
All physical things eventually die, and physical things died for millions of years before man came onto the scene. The actions of man did not originally bring death into the world. Death of the physical body is part of the cyclical state of nature.
In fact, it would be more correct to say that in the case of the story of Adam and Eve, partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil gave them physical life. They were removed from paradise (consciously) and placed into the physical world we know today. It is a world full of thorns and thistles and physical suffering, even though it is also a place of physical beauty. The symbolism and metaphor is strikingly obvious when we stop to think about it.
The Adam and Eve story was a brilliant attempt by the authors of Genesis to explain why we are separated from what we term “God.” Spirit, or Ruach, is simply an ancient term somewhat analogous to consciousness today. It is likened unto wind, which cannot be seen but has force. Consciousness is the spark of life, but it must have a body to experience through, to learn through, and to grow through. Adam and Even are metaphorical representations of mankind’s beginnings into a physical experience. Even the term Adam means humanity, and it is not the name of one man.
Eden is not a physical location either, but a state of consciousness. Consciousness allows the creation of the lower self and ego (the “I”) when it is active in a physical body. It becomes more complex and diversifies as it evolves through the physical bodies it operates through. The story of Adam and Eve explains this process through the language and culture of ancient times. Mankind’s fall from paradise is really the story of consciousness playing in a physical world.
Where Original Sin Comes In
Original sin is simply the state of ignorance man now finds himself in. It is his ignorance of spiritual things. And this is what the Apostle Paul was speaking of. The wages of sin leads to death because as man is ignorant of his true nature, he is spiritually dead. Paul taught that faith in Jesus Christ (even without works) was the answer to this dilemma. Have you ever wondered why some argue whether Paul really believed in faith without works? They are arguing over something that isn’t even an issue. Since Paul is speaking completely spiritually, physical acts aren’t even in the equation. They are therefore wasting their time and debating about a religious idea that was born from Paul’s hard-to-understand writings.
So what is it that Paul means exactly when he states that Jesus Christ is the answer to our spiritual death problem? Is he stating that belief in one man’s act on the cross who was really God makes us become spiritually alive?
Well, yes and no. If it were possible to have a conversation with Paul today about his meaning, he would probably chuckle at how the ideas in religion have evolved over these past thousand years. For Paul, Jesus Christ was the symbol for spiritual truth and life. For Paul, Jesus Christ was the escape from spiritual ignorance. But not just because you believed in the actions of a man that was really God, but because you believed that Jesus Christ was the symbol for the truth of your true spiritual nature. The act of Jesus Christ and the cross is the grand metaphorical theme of your redemption.
You see, when Paul was penning his letters, the Gospels hadn’t even been written yet. When he spoke to Timothy about scriptures being the only inspired word of God, he was speaking of the Old Testament. And Paul made it crystal clear that the symbol of Jesus Christ, as a type and metaphor, was prevalent throughout the inspired writings of the Old Testament. Paul never mentions the virgin birth or lineage of Jesus because he wasn’t concerned with such things. He was concerned with the Jesus Christ nature that is birthed within man as his spiritual ignorance is overcome with the knowledge and understanding of God, that is within man’s true spiritual nature.
If you want to retain the idea that you must believe that a literal human who was God died on a cross for your sin, there’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you understand the deeper meaning of the Gospel’s Jesus as well. You see, a belief in something is simply an idea you hold with conviction, and a belief can never open the eyes of your spiritual ignorance to you. That can only happen if what Jesus Christ represents is actually birthed inside of you, as Paul advocates. Even Jesus himself stated that you must go within yourself, to your true spiritual nature, to see the Kingdom of God. Religious people look to religion and belief systems to save them, but they retain their ignorance of spiritual things unless they go within themselves, to an aspect of you that is much greater than the limited physical body and personality that you operate through now. Your physical body is fearfully and wonderfully made, but the spiritual aspect of you is so much more wonderful that when Paul went within himself (to the third heaven), he stated that he could not even talk about what he experienced, because it would not make sense to our conscious “I” operating in this limiting physical world.
It would seem today that many religious people cannot understand even the basics of Paul’s writings, which was also true with the church back then. This is not to speak badly of anyone, because we are all immersed in a religiously minded culture that is responsible for us reading Paul’s text, and the entire Bible, with blinders on. Our religious biases (most of us have them to a certain extent), cloud every verse and line we read until we learn to read the Bible with spiritual eyes instead of physical ones.
But you can detour all this religious thinking by just taking Jesus’ advice. Go within yourself and learn what the kingdom of God is truly about. That’s where the real knowledge of Jesus resides. The entire Bible explains this process perfectly, if only we could see what the spirituality of it, or the metaphor and symbolism of it, is all about. Even the scientist and hard skeptic could then appreciate the Bible for what it really is, instead of what religion tries to make it be.
Blessings!
Man’s Relationship to God: Book Excerpt from Chapter One
I am going to start putting up some posts with excerpts from my book, The Bible Simplified (a working Title). I cannot promise a completion date, but I finished a good portion of the book this summer. Since the summer is over and I am back at work full-time, and I am going to be putting most of my after-work hours into the completion of the book, I have decided to provide sneak previews by posting excerpts every now and then on the blog. Sometimes these excerpts may not seem like complete posts because they are just that—excerpts of the book. But at least this way my readers will still see blog posts from time to time and it will give you an idea of what I am working on which will be released on the blog when I am finished. [Read more…] about Man’s Relationship to God: Book Excerpt from Chapter One
What if the purpose of Creation is the Evolution of God?
In a previous article of May 6th, Joshua asked the question: What is God to you?
When pondering this question I was suddenly reminded of the orthodox view that God is omniscient and Almighty, and that His Word should be taken absolutely literally and adhered to. During my childhood that did not trouble me at all as I have known since my birth that God is a God of Love. I even experienced that myself during a Near Death Experience. And I grew up in a love-oriented church so there was nothing to worry about.
Things changed however when during my teens I became aware of the fact that other people in other churches saw God as a Jealous God, who threatened with hell and damnation when you did not conform to His laws. And I also became aware of the Holocaust. How could such a thing have happened in a civilized society which at the time could still be considered Christian? Many people began leaving their church (or synagogue) because of the question: Where was God when all this happened? Why did He not do anything to prevent this? This must surely mean that God does not exist.
These questions were not my questions, however. I started wondering: What went wrong with the teaching of the church? Not God caused the Holocaust but people who often belonged to Christian churches. And many churches (not all) remained silent while it was all happening. Something must have gone seriously wrong with the teaching of the churches because how else could something like this have happened? How else could all these other atrocities have happened to both Jews and black people, and to the native peoples in so many countries, ever since conquering Christians arrived there? And all that during so many centuries, almost from the moment Christianity was recognized as a religion, and made into the ruling one by the Roman emperor Constantine. And how else could Christians belonging to different churches have started to even murder each other as well? Each claiming the one and only truth for themselves?
No, something must have gone seriously wrong with the teachings of the churches that appeared to be motivated more by the love of power than by the love of God. And that even started messing with the Bible texts themselves sometimes, especially those of the New Testament, in order to make them supportive of their teachings. The parts and pieces of the old biblical manuscripts that had been found had been ‘corrected’ and changed many times over before being copied again and so on and the differences between them are enormous. And also translations show many differences, caused either by interpretation or manipulation. I have mentioned this subject many times already in my comments on this blog and quite a few books were written about this subject over time.
[Of course there is another side to Christianity as well, a very positive side, but that is not the subject of discussion here.]
All this was a reason for me to undertake an independent search, not founded on the interpretations of any theologian or bible scholar. My discovery of the possibility of a symbolic Bible interpretation was of course a great help, as was the knowledge I gained from an interpretation based on Hebrew numerology but most of all from the insights I received when in a state of a meditative focus on a subject.
The mutual communication between writers and readers on this blog proved to be a great help as well. It made it possible to develop a kind of model of a cycle of spiritual development. A cycle of a descent/involution – into the world of matter – and ascension that I had discovered in the Bible stories. That brought the concept of consciousness and awareness to my attention. I am afraid I used these terms rather loosely to begin with, feeling they are important but …. What the bleep is Consciousness? as somebody asked me once. I couldn’t – and still cannot – describe it as I do not really have words for what is for me a wordless knowing. Still, I intuitively knew that these were the right words, but for what?
My model also includes the concept of energy, as waves vibrating on different levels, frequencies, patterns and what have you. I never remember the details as I am no scientist and the essence of things is what is important to me. I had been aware of the importance of the concept of energy already since the nineties of the last century. Everything is energy, including matter, which, as science finally has proven, does not even exist. No matter how deep you go into ‘matter’, everything proves to be a largely empty space with only a few very small ‘balls’ of matter in it. These however also prove to be an empty space with only a few very small ‘balls’ of matter in it, and so on, never mind how far down the line you explore. Neither do time or space exist in Reality, which was a conclusion reached by Albert Einstein, if I am not mistaken.
So what is this world if nothing is real? Buddhists call it Maya, illusion, and Hindus call it Leela, a game. It is also called a virtual reality or a dream. And this dream I recognized from Genesis, where God puts Adam, who until then had been androgynous, both male and female, into a deep sleep in order to separate the male and female sides of Man from each other. No, gentlemen, the woman did NOT arrive later on the scene than the man! The famous rib of Adam is the Hebrew word ‘tsela’, which also means side. And I am pretty sure that that is the right translation here. Nowhere it is said that they woke up after that. Mankind is still largely asleep though some of us are beginning to wake up now.
This dream is the ‘tardema’ that I have already mentioned very often in my articles and it is not a kind of anaesthesia for an operation but the beginning of a cycle of descent and ascension, of gradually descending into ever lower vibratory frequencies, with at the lowest part a stay in the so-called world of matter, and then a rising up again into ever higher frequencies and a return to the world of our origin. With conscious awareness this time.
Our life on earth is a journey in a world that is not real but a virtual reality in which nothing but our losing or gaining of conscious awareness is real. This may also be the answer to the question: Why does not God interfere? God does not interfere because this virtual reality is nothing but a game, or a school as it has also been called. For how could we possibly gain conscious awareness without getting to know the opposites of duality and without going through all the experiences of this world? How would we know the importance of Light if we had never experienced darkness? God does not interfere because in Reality nothing bad will ever happen to us. On the contrary, we will only gain wisdom from the lessons of this school, but we do have to do our homework!
*****
Looking at it from this point of view makes it easier to understand why we have to undertake this journey. It appears that to begin with we, mankind, departed from a world of High Consciousness but without much if any Awareness. I have heard this foundation of All-that-Is described as: the Zero-point Field of Infinite Potential. And also as a Field of Undifferentiated Consciousness, meaning that it is a oneness that is the same all over, without the possibility of becoming aware of anything at all because there is nothing in it to become aware of.
If this is the starting point of All-that-Is, so to speak, and God IS All-that-Is, then this means that this Zero-point Field of Infinite Potential might be another Name for God. A Name that is different from all the anthropomorphic terms and concepts that we are used to. And that we may still use as long as we remain aware of the fact that there is no One Name or concept that we can define God by. When we are right in our assumption that this term Zero-point Field of Infinite Potential is another Name for God, and in our assumption that God is Love, then Love must be the nature of this Field. And if we assume that Consciousness is another Name for God (which for one scientist was the criterion in order to be able to believe in God), then this field is Consciousness as well. However, to begin with without any Awareness of it. So something has to happen in order to gain this Awareness and this might be, in short, the starting point of a process of creation during which we as mankind finally enter this game of a virtual reality.
It has been said that we are divine sparks, sparks of the Fire that is God, another Name. We, not only humans but everything from quanta to universes and beyond, are all parts of God, points of focus of God, physical or non-physical, who each have our own role to play in this game of gaining Conscious Awareness. Even the physical ones are not really physical of course but only temporarily put on a body suit as it were by descending into the world of matter. The Dutch word for body, lichaam, comes actually from the Gothic word lic hamo, which means something like coat of flesh so people seem to have been aware of this already at the time.
God creates a game of duality and polarity in which all of us, as fractal parts of Him/Her/It (which means we potentially possess all of Its powers) each have our own part to play. We humans put on a blindfold before starting the game; this blindfold is the physical body which Adam and Eve, as mankind, receive by entering into the world of matter, by descending into ever lower frequencies of ever denser energy. In how far this implication of blindness also applies to other life forms in our ‘material’ world goes beyond the scope of this article, not to mention my understanding.
The physical body is ‘or’ in Hebrew, with a numerical value of 70-6-200. This word can also be read as ‘iver’, which means blind, as the number six, the character Vav, can be read both as the vowel o and as the consonant v. This means that we, mankind, are leaving the world of oneness and blindly enter a world of duality and matter in which we will have to come to terms with the conditions of duality. None of this is real but we are not aware of that anymore because this blindness means that our eyes are now closed to oneness but they have been opened to the possibilities of duality. We have also been given a whole toolkit full of tools to help us to discover this world, including time, space and matter, the ego with a full range emotions, karma and reincarnation, which in themselves are not real but will enable us to gradually gain Conscious Awareness by playing this game of duality for all it is worth until we reach the intended goal.
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In a comment I once gave a more extensive description of the game as I see it, which I now quote with some slight alterations and additions:
“I see this world as an illusion, or a dream (‘tardema’). It has also been called a game and indeed it can be compared to a computer game in which all possible choices are already there as potential realities. As such we each will create a different world on the basis of the choices we make and our perspective on whatever this world then presents to us as a result of that choice. When we use a so-called bad experience for instance to help others in similar circumstances the result will be different from when we remain angry and bitter about it.
When we enter the game, we leave our real identity behind and everything we know. We put on a blindfold. In this condition we now have to choose which choice of the first array of choices we want to make into a reality for us and then experience the consequences of that choice. Next we will be presented with a new array of choices and so on. Until game over. After the game we re-examine the choices we made and we may or may not see where it might have been better to make other choices. So we start a new game and proceed on the basis of our conclusions.
That is what the idea of karma and reincarnation is about, I think. You can roughly interpret that in two ways as well as the game is a game of duality: 1) karma is guilt which you have incurred in your previous life or game and in the next one you are punished for it, or 2) karma = action. On the basis of what you have learned from the previous life you decide what you can improve this time. Or descend further if you do not. And so on. It is all a matter of choice. There is no real guilt but only an increase or decrease of conscious awareness that has been lost or gained by our choices.
Since we are only playing a game and there is no real guilt involved, there is no need for salvation. There is just a game which helps us gain conscious awareness, which IS real. And as we get stuck sometimes, as I invariably do, we need all the help we can get in order to reach the final level of the game and bring it to a successful end.
And that help is available. We only have to call the Help desk.
And when we get really stuck and cannot bring this game to an end on our own anymore, Someone is sent to us to explain the rules of the game again very clearly and to play a round of the game with us in order to show how it is done. After that we will be able to continue the game on our own again, with some help from the Help desk from time to time.
Of course it is clear that time, space and matter, and karma and reincarnation, are only tools to help us play the game as none of it exists in reality. But as long as we are still living within the reality of this game, and we cannot possibly grasp the Absolute Reality yet, these concepts are good tools to work with.”
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This model roughly describes the journey through this world of virtual reality but does not yet show the result of this journey. For the world we return to is of course no longer a world of undifferentiated consciousness, a world of an undifferentiated oneness, but I have come to believe that this World has been changing right along with us! It has become a World of Conscious Awareness, and of Love and Unity in diversity. We humans have travelled different roads, and often been at odds with each other, but finally we will all arrive at the same goal. Entering the city of the New Jerusalem through 12 different gates, each ‘tribe’ passing through its own gate, as someone once remarked in a comment.
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There is however still another factor I did not consider yet but which became obvious in an article + video of which I may have shared a link already:
https://documentarystorm.com/the-simulation-hypothesis/
In this video there is an interesting discussion about this virtual reality, which was explained with an extensive variant of the double slit experiment, in which the presence of a Watcher was all important. And that may be the same here as well. This might also prove to be the answer to another point that was debated in the comments on this blog: ”Is God within or outside His creation?”
I looked at this subject from the viewpoint of God as All-that-Is. As such God had to be inside his creation. However when we look at God as the Father who watched the progress of his sons in my article about The Other Son, then the Father can be seen as outside his creation. His creation then being the virtual world. So He is inside All-that-is but at the same time outside the dream as the Watcher of the virtual world, who has to watch it from the outside. And the Watcher is absolutely essential in order to enable us to have all the experiences we need to bring our journey to a successful end, for if no one is watching, then our world ceases to exist. This also was shown by science.
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We, as the divine sparks of God, are the representatives of God in this virtual world. We are entangled aspects of His being that experience all there is to experience in this world in order to gain Conscious Awareness. As in Reality we are not separated from God, nor from each other, but an integral part of God, and God is All-that-Is, then Who is making this journey through this world of discovery? Is it not God Itself, the Watcher who keeps the game going. but who by doing so also simultaneously experiences everything all parts of his creation experience. And who in this dream world is embodied by us as so-called individual gods with a blindfold, who to begin with stumble blindly into this world of ever lower vibratory frequencies and open our eyes to the world of duality, but then gradually find our feet and start rising up again, gaining Conscious Awareness in the process. All this changes the Field of Infinite Potential but without any Awareness into a Realm of Unconditional Love and Unity in diversity, which is Consciously Aware of Itself and of all that led to this gaining of Conscious Awareness. And in which the divine sparks have been reabsorbed by the Fire they came from and never left in Reality. Where all levels of consciousness finally flow together through the process of Time that is No-time, and Place that is No-Place and all diverse forms of creation that have evolved into One Formless Consciousness with Full Awareness.
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So, seen from this perspective, could it be that maybe God was NOT yet Omniscient and Almighty from the very beginning but slowly gaining Conscious Awareness by this process of sending parts, sparks, of Itself into a virtual reality of time and place in order to safely experience everything there is to experience through them, and to evolve into the Omniscient and Almighty God in this way? Within the timeless No-Space of the Point, which is the translation of the Hebrew word Reshit with which it all began in Genesis 1:1: Bereshit bara Elohim et ha shamayim we et ha arets, which can also be interpreted as: With a point God created heaven and earth.
And may we not see this process then as the Evolution of God, and as the purpose of Creation? From God to God through different phases of being God? within All that is – has been – and always will be One after all?