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p. 125
Qabbalistic Keys to
the Creation of Man
HENRIE STEPHEN, in A World
of Wonders, published in 1607, mentions a monk of St. Anthony who declared
that while in Jerusalem the patriarch of that city had shown him not only one
of the ribs of the Word made flesh and some rays from the Star of
Bethlehem, but also the snout of a seraph, a finger nail of a cherub, the
horns of Moses, and a casket containing the breath of Christ! To a people
believing implicitly in a seraph sufficiently tangible to have its proboscis
preserved, the more profound issues of Judaistic philosophy must necessarily
be incomprehensible. Nor is it difficult to imagine the reaction taking place
in the mind of some ancient sage should he hear that a cherub--which,
according to St. Augustine, signifies the Evangelists; according to Philo
Judæus, the outermost circumference of the entire heavens, and according to
several of the Church Fathers, the wisdom of God--had sprouted finger nails.
The hopeless confusion of divine principles with the allegorical figures
created to represent them to the limited faculties of the uninitiated has
resulted in the most atrocious misconceptions of spiritual truths. Concepts
well-nigh as preposterous as these, however, still stand as adamantine
barriers to a true understanding of Old and New Testament symbolism; for,
until man disentangles his reasoning powers from the web of venerated
absurdities in which his mind has lain ensnared for centuries, how can Truth
ever be discovered?
The Old Testament--especially
the Pentateuch--contains not only the traditional account of the creation of
the world and of man, but also, locked within it, the secrets of the Egyptian
initiators of the Moses concerning the genesis of the god-man (the
initiate) and the mystery of his rebirth through philosophy. While the
Lawgiver of Israel is known to have compiled several works other than those
generally attributed to him, the writings now commonly circulated as the
purported sixth and seventh books of Moses are in reality spurious treatises
on black magic foisted on the credulous during the Middle Ages. Out of the
hundreds of millions of pious and thoughtful students of Holy Writ, it is
almost inconceivable that but a mere handful have sensed the sublimity of the
esoteric teachings of Sod (the Jewish Mysteries of Adonai). Yet familiarity
with the three Qabbalistical processes termed Gematria, Notarikon,
and Temurah makes possible the discovery of many of the profoundest
truths of ancient Jewish superphysics.
By Gematria is meant not
only the exchange of letters for their numerical equivalents but also the
method of determining by an analysis of its measurements the mystic purpose
for which a building or other object was constructed. S. L. MacGregor-Mathers,
in The Kabbalah Unveiled, gives this example of the application of
Gematria: "Thus also the passage, Gen. xviii. 2 VHNH
SHLSHH, Vehenna Shalisha, 'And lo, three men,'
equals in numerical value 'ALV MIKAL GBRIAL VRPAL, Elo Mikhael Gabriel Ve-Raphael,'
These are Mikhael, Gabriel and Raphael; 'for each phrase = 701." Assuming the
sides of a scalene to be 11, 9, and 6 inches, a triangle of such dimensions
would then be an appropriate symbol of Jehovah, for the sum of its three sides
would be 26, the numerical value of the Hebrew word IHVH. Gematria also
includes the system of discovering the arcane meaning of a word by analyzing
the size and arrangement of the strokes employed in the formation of its
various letters. Gematria was employed by the Greeks as well as the Jews. The
books of the New Testament--particularly those attributed to St. John--contain
many examples of its use. Nicephorus Callistus declared the Gospel according
to St. John to have been discovered in a cavern under the Temple at Jerusalem,
the volume having been secreted "long anterior to the Christian æra." The
existence of interpolated material in the fourth Gospel substantiates the
belief that the work was originally written without any specific reference
to the man Jesus, the statements therein accredited to Him being
originally mystical discourses delivered by the personification of the
Universal Mind. The remaining Johannine writings--the Epistles and the
Apocalypse--are enshrouded by a similar veil of mystery.
By Notarikon each letter of a
word may become the initial character of a new word. Thus from BRASHITH, first
word in the book of Genesis, are extracted six words which mean that "in the
beginning the Elohim saw that Israel would accept the law." Mr.
MacGregor-Mathers also gives six additional examples of Notarikon formed from
the above word by Solomon Meir Ben Moses, a mediæval Qabbalist. From the
famous acrostic ascribed to the Erythræan Sibyl, St. Augustine derived the
word ΙΧΘΥΣ, which by Notarikon was expanded into the phrase, "Jesus Christ,
Son of God, Savior." By another use of Notarikon, directly the reverse of the
first, the initial, last, or middle letters of the words of a sentence may be
joined together to form a new word or words. For example, the name Amen, ἁμήν,
maybe extracted from ארנימלרנאטז, "the Lord is the faithful King." Because
they had embodied these cryptic devices in their sacred writings, the ancient
priests admonished their disciples never to translate, edit, or rewrite the
contents of the sacred books. .
Under the general heading of
Temurah several systems may be grouped and explained in which various
letters are substituted for other letters according to prearranged tables or
certain mathematical arrangements of letters, regular or irregular. Thus the
alphabet may be broken into two equal parts and written in horizontal lines so
that the letters of the lower row can be exchanged for those of the upper row,
or vice versa. By this procedure the letters of the word Kuzu may be
exchanged for those of IHVH, the Tetragrammaton. In another form of
Temurah the letters are merely rearranged., שתיה is the stone which is found
in the center of the world, from which point the earth spread out on all
sides.
THE VISION OF EZEKIEL.
From The "Bear" Bible.
This plate, which is from the first
Protestant Bible published in Spanish, shows the Mercavah, or chariot
of Jehovah, which appeared to Ezekiel by the river Chebar. The prophet beheld
four strange creatures (E), each having four heads, four wings, and brazen
hoofs like those of a calf. And there were four wheels (F) filled with eyes.
Where the cherubim went the wheels went also. The space between the cherubim
and the wheels was filled with coals of fire. Upon the top of the chariot was
a throne, upon which sat the likeness of a man (H). Ezekiel fell upon his
knees when he beheld the Mercavah surrounded by a whirlwind of clouds and
flames (A, B, C). A hand (K) reached out from the clouds and the prophet was
ordered to eat of a scroll which the hand held forth.
According to the mystics, the wheels
supporting the throne of God represent the orbits of the planets, and the
entire solar system is properly the Mercavah, or chariot of God. One of the
divisions of the Qabbalah--that dealing with the arts and sciences of those
planes which are under the heavens--is called the Mercavah. In the Zohar it is
written that the celestial throne or Ezekiel's vision signifies the
traditional law; the appearance of a man sitting upon the throne represents
the written law, Philo Judæus in describing the cherubim upon the Ark of the
Covenant declares that the figures are an intimation of the revolutions of the
whole heavens, one of the cherubim representing the outer circumference and
the other the inner sphere. Facing each other, they represent the two
hemispheres of the world. The flaming sword of the cherubim of Genesis is the
central motion and agitation of the heavenly bodies. In all probability it
also represents the solar ray.
p. 126
[paragraph
continues] When broken in two the stone is שת יה, which
means "the placing of God."(See Pekudei Rakov, 71, 72.) Again, Temurah
may consist of a simple anagram, as in the English word live, which
reversed becomes evil. The various systems of Temurah are among the
most complicated and profound devices of the ancient Rabbins.
Among theological scholars
there is a growing conviction that the hitherto accepted translations of the
Scriptural writings do not adequately express the spirit of the original
documents.
"After the first copy of the
Book of God," writes H. P. Blavatsky, "has been edited and launched on the
world by Hilkiah, this copy disappears, and Ezra has to make a new Bible,
which Judas Maccabeus finishes; * * * when it was copied from the horned
letters into square letters, it was corrupted beyond recognition; * * * the
Masorah completed the work of destruction; finally, we have a text, not 900
years old, abounding with omissions, interpolations, and premeditated
perversions." (See Isis Unveiled.)
Prof. Crawford Howell Toy of
Harvard notes: "Manuscripts were copied and recopied by scribes who not only
sometimes made errors in letters and words, but permitted themselves to
introduce new material into the text, or to combine in one manuscript, without
mark of division, writings composed by different men; instances of these sorts
of procedure are found especially in Micah and Jeremiah, and the groups of
prophecies which go under the names of Isaiah and Zachariah." (See Judaism
and Christianity.)
Does the mutilated condition of
the Holy Bible--in part accidental--represent none the less a definite effort
to confuse the uninitiated reader and thus better conceal the secrets of the
Jewish Tannaim? Never has the Christian world been in possession of
those hidden scrolls which contain the secret doctrine of Israel, and if the
Qabbalists were correct in their assumption that the lost books of the Mosaic
Mysteries have been woven into the fabric of the Torah, then the Scriptures
are veritably books within books. In rabbinical circles the opinion is
prevalent that Christendom never has understood the Old Testament and probably
never will. In fact, the feeling exists--in some quarters, at least--that the
Old Testament is the exclusive possession of the Jewish faith; also that
Christianity, after its unrelenting persecution of the Jew, takes unwarranted
liberties when it includes strictly Jewish writings in its sacred canon. But,
as noted by one rabbi, if Christianity must use the Jewish Scriptures,
it should at least strive to do so with some degree of intelligence!
In the opening chapter of
Genesis it is stated that after creating light and separating it from
darkness, the seven Elohim divided the waters which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firmament. Having thus established the
inferior universe in perfect accord with the esoteric teachings of the Hindu,
Egyptian, and Greek Mysteries, the Elohim next turned their attention to the
production of flora and fauna and lastly man. "And God said, Let us make man
in our image, after our likeness. * * * So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female
created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, * * *."
Consider in thoughtful silence
the startling use of pronouns in the above extract from "the most perfect
example of English literature." When the plural and androgynous Hebrew word
Elohim was translated into the singular and sexless word God, the
opening chapters of Genesis were rendered comparatively meaningless. It may
have been feared that had the word been correctly translated as "the male and
female creative agencies," the Christians would have been justly accused of
worshiping a plurality of gods in the face of their repeated claims to
monotheism! The plural form of the pronouns us and our reveals
unmistakably, however, the pantheistic nature of Divinity. Further, the
androgynous constitution of the Elohim (God) is disclosed in the next verse,
where he (referring to God) is said to have created man in his
own image, male and female; or, more properly, as the division
of the sexes had not yet taken place, male-female. This is a deathblow
to the time-honored concept that God is a masculine potency as portrayed by
Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Elohim then order these
androgynous beings to be fruitful. Note that neither the masculine nor
the feminine principle as yet existed in a separate state! And, lastly, note
the word "replenish." The prefix re denotes "back to an original
or former state or position," or "repetition or restoration." (See
Webster's International Dictionary, 1926.) This definite reference to a
humanity existing prior to the "creation of man" described in Genesis must be
evident to the most casual reader of Scripture.
An examination of Bible
dictionaries, encyclopedias, and commentaries discloses the plural form of the
word Elohim to be beyond the comprehension of their respected authors
and editors. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge
thus sums up the controversy over the plural form of the word Elohim: "Does it
now or did it originally signify plurality of divine being?" A Dictionary of
the Bible, edited by James Hastings, contains the following conclusion, which
echoes the sentiments of more critical etymologists of the Bible: "The use of
the plur. Elohim is also difficult to explain." Dr. Havernick considers the
plural form Elohim to signify the abundance and super-richness existing in the
Divine Being. His statement, which appears in The Popular and Critical
Bible Encyclopædia, is representative of the efforts made to circumvent
this extremely damaging word. The International Standard Bible Dictionary
considers the explanations offered by modern theologians--of which Dr.
Havernick's is a fair example--to be too ingenious to have been conceived by
the early Hebrews and maintains that the word represents the survival of a
polytheistic stage of Semitic thought. The Jewish Encyclopedia supports
the latter assumption with the following concise statement: "As far as
epigraphic material, traditions, and folk-lore throw light on the question,
the Semites are shown to be of polytheistic leanings."
Various schools of philosophy,
both Jewish and Gentile, have offered explanations erudite and otherwise of
the identity of Adam. In this primordial man the Neo-Platonists recognized the
Platonic Idea of humanity--the archetype or pattern of the genus
homo. Philo Judæus considered Adam to represent the human mind, which
could understand (and hence give names to) the creatures about it, but could
not comprehend (and hence left nameless) the mystery of its own nature. Adam
was also likened to the Pythagorean monad which by virtue of its state
of perfect unity could dwell in the Edenic sphere. When through a process akin
to fission the monad became the duad--the proper symbol of discord and
delusion--the creature thus formed was exiled from its celestial home. Thus
the twofold man was driven from the Paradise belonging to the undivided
creation and cherubim and a flaming sword were placed on guard at the gates of
the Causal World. Consequently, only after the reestablishment of unity within
himself can man regain his primal spiritual state.
According to the Isarim, the
secret doctrine of Israel taught the existence of four Adams, each dwelling in
one of the four Qabbalistic worlds. The first, or heavenly, Adam dwelt alone
in the Atziluthic sphere and within his nature existed all spiritual and
material potentialities. The second Adam resided in the sphere of Briah. Like
the first Adam, this being was androgynous and the tenth division of its body
(its heel, Malchuth) corresponded to the church of Israel that shall
bruise the serpent's head. The third Adam--likewise androgynous--was clothed
in a body of light and abode in the sphere of Yetzirah. The fourth Adam was
merely the third Adam after the fall into the sphere of Assiah, at
which time the spiritual man took upon himself the animal shell or coat of
skins. The fourth Adam was still considered as a single individual, though
division had taken place within his nature and two shells or physical bodies
existed, in one of which was incarnated the masculine and in the other the
feminine potency. (For further details consult Isaac Myer.)
The universal nature of Adam is
revealed in the various accounts concerning the substances of which he was
formed. It was originally ordained that the "dirt" to be used in fashioning
him was to be derived from the seven worlds. As these planes, however, refused
to give of their substances, the Creator wrenched from them by force the
elements to be employed in the Adamic constitution. St. Augustine discovered a
Notarikon in the name of Adam. He showed that the four letters, A-D-A-M, are
the first letters of the four words Anatole Dysis Arktos Mesembria, the
Greek names for the four corners of the world. The same author also sees in
Adam a prototype of Christ, for he writes: "Adam sleeps that Eve may be
formed: Christ dies, that the Church may be formed. While Adam sleeps, Eve is
formed from his side. When Christ is dead, His side is smitten with a spear,
that there flow forth sacraments to form the church. * * * Adam himself was
the figure of Him that was to come."
In his recent work, Judaism,
George Foote Moore thus describes the proportions of the Adamic man: "He was a
huge mass that filled the whole world to all the points of the compass. The
dust of which his body was formed was gathered from every part of the world,
or from the site of the future altar. Of greater interest is the notion that
man was created androgynous, because it is probably a bit of foreign lore
adapted to the first pair in Genesis. R. Samuel bar Nahman (third century),
said, when God created Adam, He created him facing both ways (דיו פרעופים);
then He sawed him in two and made two backs, one for each figure.
The Zohar holds the concept of
two Adams: the first a divine being who, stepping forth from the highest
original darkness, created the second, or earthly, Adam in His own image. The
higher, or celestial, man was the Causal sphere With its divine potencies and
potentialities considered as a gigantic personality; its members, according to
the Gnostics, being the basic elements of existence. This Adam may have been
symbolized as facing both ways to signify that with one face it looked upon
the proximate Cause of itself and with the other face looked upon the vast sea
of Cosmos into which it was to be immersed.
Philosophically, Adam may be
regarded as representative of the full spiritual nature of man--androgynous
and nor subject to decay.
p. 127
[paragraph
continues] Of this fuller nature the mortal man has
little comprehension. Just as spirit contains matter within itself and is both
the source and ultimate of the state denominated matter, so Eve
represents the lower, or mortal, portion that is taken out of, or has temporal
existence in the greater and fuller spiritual creation. Being
representative of the inferior part of the individual, Eve is the temptress
who, conspiring with the serpent of mortal knowledge, caused Adam to sink into
a trancelike condition in which he was unconscious of his own higher Self.
When Adam seemingly awoke, he actually sank into sleep, for he no longer was
in the spirit but in the body; division having taken place within him, the
true Adam rested in Paradise while his lesser part incarnated in a material
organism (Eve) and wandered in the darkness of mortal existence.
The followers of Mohammed
apparently sensed more accurately than the uninitiated of other sects the true
mystic import of Paradise, for they realized that prior to his fall the
dwelling place of man was not in a physical garden in any particular part of
the earth but rather in a higher sphere (the angelic world) watered by four
mystical streams of life. After his banishment from Paradise, Adam alighted on
the Island of Ceylon, and this spot is sacred to certain Hindu sects who
recognize the old Island of Lanka--once presumably connected with the mainland
by a bridge--as the actual site of the Garden of Eden from which the human
race migrated. According to the Arabian Nights (Sir Richard Burton's
translation), Adam's footprint may still be seen on the top of a Ceylonese
mountain. In the Islamic legends, Adam was later reunited with his wife and
after his death his body was brought to Jerusalem subsequent to the Flood for
burial by Melchizedek. (See the Koran.)
The word ADM signifies a
species or race and only for lack of proper understanding has Adam been
considered as an individual. As the Macrocosm, Adam is the gigantic Androgyne,
even the Demiurgus; as the Microcosm, he is the chief production of the
Demiurgus and within the nature of the Microcosm the Demiurgus established all
the qualities and powers which He Himself possessed. The Demiurgus, however,
did not possess immortality and, therefore, could not bestow it upon Adam.
According to legend, the Demiurgus strove to keep man from learning the
incompleteness of his Maker. The Adamic man consequently partook of the
qualities and characteristics of the angels who were the ministers of the
Demiurgus. It was affirmed by the Gnostic Christians that the redemption of
humanity was assured through the descent of Nous (Universal Mind), who was a
great spiritual being superior to the Demiurgus and who, entering into the
constitution of man, conferred conscious immortality upon the Demiurgic
fabrications.
That phallic symbolism occupies
an important place in early Jewish mysticism is indisputable. Hargrave
Jennings sees in the figure of Adam a type of the lingam of Shiva, which was a
stone representative of the creative power of the World Generator. "In
Gregorie's works * * *," writes Jennings, "is a passage to the effect that
'Noah daily prayed in the Ark before the Body of Adam,' i.e., before
the Phallus--Adam being the primitive Phallus, great procreator of the human
race. 'It may possibly seem strange,' he says, 'that this orison should be
daily said before the body of Adam,' but 'it is a most confessed tradition
among the eastern men that Adam was commanded by God that his dead body should
be kept above ground till a fullness of time should come to commit it
פדככאלאועto the middle of the earth by a priest of the Most High God.'
This means Mount Moriah, the Meru of India. 'This body of Adam was embalmed
and transmitted from father to son, till at last it was delivered up by Lamech
into the hands of Noah.'" (See Phallicism.)
This interpretation somewhat
clarifies the Qabbalistic assertion that in the first Adam were contained all
the souls of the Israelites. (See Sod.) Though according to the
Aurea Legenda Adam was buried with the three seeds of the Tree of
Knowledge in his mouth, it should be borne in mind that apparently conflicting
myths were often woven around a single individual. One of the profound
mysteries of Qabbalism is that set forth in the Notarikon based upon the
letters of the name Adam (ADM). These three letters form the initials of the
names Adam, David, and the Messiah, and these three
personalities were said to contain one soul. As this soul represents the World
Soul of humanity, Adam signifies the involving soul, the Messiah the evolving
soul, and David that condition of the soul termed epigenesis.
In common with certain
philosophic institutions of Asia, the Jewish Mysteries contained a strange
doctrine concerning the shadows of the Gods. Gazing down into the
Abyss, the Elohim beheld their own shadows and from these shadows patterned
the inferior creation. "In the dramatic representation of the creation of man
in the Mysteries," writes the anonymous Master of Balliol College, "the Aleim
[Elohim] were represented by men who, when sculpturing the form of an Adamite
being, of a man, traced the outline of it on their own shadow, or modelled it
on their own shadow traced on the wall. This is how the art of drawing
originated in Egypt, and the hieroglyphic figures carved on the Egyptian
monuments have so little relief that they still resemble a shadow."
In the ritualism of the early
Jewish Mysteries the pageantry of creation was enacted, the various actors
impersonating the Creative Agencies. The red dirt from which the Adamic
man was fashioned may signify fire, particularly since Adam is related to the
Yod, or fire flame, which is the first letter of the sacred name
Jehovah. In John ii. 20 it is written that the Temple was forty and six
years in the building, a statement in which St. Augustine sees a secret and
sacred Gematria; for, according to the Greek philosophy of numbers, the
numerical value of the name Adam is 46. Adam thus becomes the type of
the Temple, for the House of God-like primitive man--was a microcosm or
epitome of the universe.
In the Mysteries, Adam is
accredited with having the peculiar power of spiritual generation. Instead of
reproducing his kind by the physical generative processes, he caused to issue
from himself--or, more correctly, to be reflected upon substance--a shadow of
NOAH AND HIS ZODIACAL ARK.
From Myer's Qabbalah.
The early Church Father--notably
Tertullian, Firmilian, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and St. Chrysostom--recognized
in the ark a type or symbol of the Holy Catholic Church. Bede the Venerable,
declared that Noah in all things typified Christ as Noah alone of his
generation was just, so Christ alone was without sin. With Christ there was a
sevenfold spirit of grace: with Noah seven righteous Persons. Noah by water
and wood saved his own family Christ by baptism and the cross saves
Christians. The ark was built of wood that did not decay. the church is
composed of men who will live forever, for this ark means the church which
floats upon the waves of the world.
The diagram shown above is also
reproduced in The Rosicrucians, by Hargrave Jennings. This author adds
to the original diagram appearing in Antiquitatum Judaicarum Libri IX the
signs of the zodiac, placing Aries at the head and continuing in sequential
order to Leo, which occupies the fifth cross section of the ark. Jennings
assigns the panel containing the door to the undivided constellation of
Virgo-Libra-Scorpio (which is continued into the first subdivision of the
second section) and the remaining four cress sections to the constellations of
Sagittarius to Pisces inclusive. A study of the plate discloses the ark to be
divided into eleven main sections, and along the base and roof of each section
are shown three subdivisions, thus making in all the sacred number 33.
Occupying the position corresponding to the generative system of the human
body will also be noted the cross upon the door of the central section. Two
openings are shown in the ark: one--the main door representing the orifice
through which the animal lives descend into physical existence; the other a
small window proximate to the crown of the head through which the spirit gains
liberty according to the ancient rites.
"When the androgenic Scorpio-Virgo was
separated and the Balance or Harmony made from Scorpio, and placed between
Scorpio, i.e., male, and Virgo, i.e., female, then appeared the 32
constellations or signs, as we now have them. The ark is three stories high
(perhaps to symbolize Heaven, Man, Earth). In the figure of the Man, notice
the parting of the hair in the middle of the forehead and the arrangement of
the beard, whiskers, moustache and the hair, on the back of the neck and
shoulders." (See The Qabbalah by Isaac Myer.)
p. 128
himself. This shadow he then
ensouled and it became a living creature. These shadows, however, remain only
as long as the original figure of which they are the reflections endures, for
with the removal of the original the host of likenesses vanish with it. Herein
is the key to the allegorical creation of Eve out of the side of Adam; for
Adam, representative of the idea or pattern, is reflected into the
material universe as a multitude of ensouled images which collectively are
designated Eve. According to another theory, the division of the sexes
took place in the archetypal sphere; hence the shadows in the lower world were
divided into two classes consistent with the orders established in the
Archetype. In the apparently incomprehensible attraction of one sex for the
other Plato recognized a cosmic urge toward reunion of the severed halves of
this archetypal Being.
Exactly what is to be inferred
by the division of the sexes as symbolically described in Genesis is a
much-debated question. That man was primarily androgynous is quite universally
conceded and it is a reasonable presumption that he will ultimately regain
this bisexual state. As to the manner in which this will be accomplished two
opinions are advanced. One school of thought affirms that the human soul was
actually divided into two parts (male and female) and that man remains an
unperfected creature until these parts are reunited through the emotion which
man calls love. From this concept has grown the much-abused doctrine of
"soul mates" who must quest through the ages until the complementary part of
each severed soul is discovered. The modern concept of marriage is to a
certain degree founded upon this ideal.
According to the other school,
the so-called division of the sexes resulted from suppression of one pole of
the androgynous being in order that the vital energies manifesting through it
might be diverted to development of the rational faculties. From this point of
view man is still actually androgynous and spiritually complete, but in the
material world the feminine part of man's nature and the masculine part of
woman's nature are quiescent. Through spiritual unfoldment and knowledge
imparted by the Mysteries, however, the latent element in each nature is
gradually brought into activity and ultimately the human being thus regains
sexual equilibrium. By this theory woman is elevated from the position of
being man's errant part to one of complete equality. From this point of view,
marriage is regarded as a companionship in which two complete individualities
manifesting opposite polarities are brought into association that each may
thereby awaken the qualities latent in the other and thus assist in the
attainment of individual completeness. The first theory may be said to regard
marriage as an end; the second as a means to an end. The deeper schools of
philosophy have leaned toward the latter as more adequately acknowledging the
infinite potentialities of divine completeness in both aspects of creation.
The Christian Church is
fundamentally opposed to the theory of marriage, claiming that the highest
degree of spirituality is achievable only by those preserving the virginal
state. This concept seemingly originated among certain sects of the early
Gnostic Christians, who taught that to propagate the human species was to
increase and perpetuate the power of the Demiurgus; for the lower world was
looked upon as an evil fabrication created to ensnare the souls of all born
into it--hence it was a crime to assist in bringing souls to earth. When,
therefore, the unfortunate father or mother shall stand before the Final
Tribunal, all their offspring will also appear and accuse them of being the
cause of those miseries attendant upon physical existence. This view is
strengthened by the allegory of Adam and Eve, whose sin through which humanity
has been brought low is universally admitted to have been concerned with the
mystery of generation. Mankind, owing to Father Adam its physical existence,
regards its progenitor as the primary cause of its misery; and in the judgment
Day, rising up as a mighty progeny, will accuse its common paternal ancestor.
Those Gnostic sects maintaining
a more rational attitude on the subject declared the very existence of the
lower worlds to signify that the Supreme Creator had a definite purpose in
their creation; to doubt his judgment was, therefore, a grievous error. The
church, however, seemingly arrogated to itself the astonishing prerogative of
correcting God in this respect, for wherever possible it continued to impose
celibacy, a practice resulting in an alarming number of neurotics. In the
Mysteries, celibacy is reserved for those who have reached a certain degree of
spiritual unfoldment. When advocated for the mass of unenlightened humanity,
however, it becomes a dangerous heresy, fatal alike to both religion and
philosophy. As Christendom in its fanaticism has blamed every individual Jew
for the crucifixion of Jesus, so with equal consistency it has maligned every
member of the feminine sex. In vindication of Eve philosophy claims that the
allegory signifies merely that man is tempted by his emotions to depart from
the sure path of reason.
Many of the early Church
Fathers sought to establish a direct relationship between Adam and Christ,
thereby obviously discounting the extremely sinful nature of man's common
ancestor, since it is quite certain that when St. Augustine likens Adam to
Christ and Eve to the church he does not intend to brand the latter
institution as the direct cause of the fall of man. For some inexplicable
reason, however, religion has ever regarded intellectualism--in fact every
form of knowledge--as fatal to man's spiritual growth. The Ignaratitine Friars
are an outstanding example of this attitude.
In this ritualistic
drama--possibly derived from the Egyptians--Adam, banished from the Garden of
Eden, represents man philosophically exiled from the sphere of Truth. Through
ignorance man falls; through wisdom he redeems himself. The Garden of Eden
represents the House of the Mysteries (see The Vision of Enoch) in the
midst of which grew both the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil.
Man, the banished Adam, seeks
to pass from the outer court of the Sanctuary (the exterior universe) into the
sanctum sanctorum, but before him rises a vast creature armed with a flashing
sword that, moving slowly but continually, sweeps clear a wide circle, and
through this "Ring Pass Not" the Adamic man cannot break.
The cherubim address the seeker
thus: "Man, thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return. Thou wert fashioned
by the Builder of Forms; thou belongest to the sphere of form, and the breath
that was breathed into thy soul was the breath of form and like a flame it
shall flicker out. More than thou art thou canst not be. Thou art a denizen of
the outer world and it is forbidden thee to enter this inner place."
And the Adam replies: "Many
times have I stood within this courtyard and begged admission to my Father's
house and thou hast refused it me and sent me back to wander in darkness. True
it is that I was fashioned out of the dirt and that my Maker could not confer
upon me the boon of immortality. But no more shalt thou send me away; for,
wandering in the darkness, I have discovered that the Almighty hath decreed my
salvation because He hath sent out of the most hidden Mystery His Only
Begotten who didst take upon Himself the world fashioned by the Demiurgus.
Upon the elements of that world was He crucified and from Him hath poured
forth the blood of my salvation. And God, entering into His creation, hath
quickened it and established therein a road that leadeth to Himself. While my
Maker could not give me immortality, immortality was inherent in the very dust
of which I was composed, for before the world was fabricated and before the
Demiurgus became the Regent of Nature the Eternal Life had impressed itself
upon the face of Cosmos. This is its sign--the Cross. Do you now deny
me entrance, I who have at last learned the mystery of myself?"
And the voice replies: "He who
is aware, IS! Behold!"
Gazing about him, Adam finds
himself in a radiant place, in the midst of which stands a tree with flashing
jewels for fruit and entwined about its trunk a flaming, winged serpent
crowned with a diadem of stars. It was the voice of the serpent that had
spoken.
"Who art thou?" demands the
Adam.
"I," the serpent answers, "am
Satan who was stoned; I am the Adversary--the Lord who is against you, the one
who pleads for your destruction before the Eternal Tribunal. I was your enemy
upon the day that you were formed; I have led you into temptation; I have
delivered you into the hands of evil; I have maligned you; I have striven ever
to achieve your undoing. I am the guardian of the Tree of Knowledge and I have
sworn that none whom I can lead astray shall partake of its fruits."
The Adam replies: "For
uncounted ages have I been thy servant. In my ignorance I listened to thy
words and they led me into paths of sorrow. Thou hast placed in my mind dreams
of power, and when I struggled to realize those dreams they brought me naught
but pain. Thou hast sowed in me the seeds of desire, and when I lusted after
the things of the flesh agony was my only recompense. Thou hast sent me false
prophets and false reasoning, and when I strove to grasp the magnitude of
Truth I found thy laws were false and only dismay rewarded my strivings. I am
done with thee forever, O artful Spirit! I have tired of thy world of
illusions. No longer will I labor in thy vineyards of iniquity. Get thee
behind me, rempter, and the host of thy temptations. There is no happiness, no
peace, no good, no future in the doctrines of selfishness, hate, and passion
preached by thee. All these things do I cast aside. Renounced is thy rule
forever!"
And the serpent makes answer:
"Behold, O Adam, the nature of thy Adversary!" The serpent disappears in a
blinding sunburst of radiance and in its place stands an angel resplendent in
shining, golden garments with great scarlet wings that spread from one corner
of the heavens to the other. Dismayed and awestruck, the Adam falls before the
divine creature.
"I am the Lord who is against
thee and thus accomplishes thy salvation, " continues the voice. "Thou hast
hated me, but through the ages yet to be thou shalt bless me, for I have led
thee our of the sphere of the Demiurgus; I have turned thee against the
illusion of worldliness; I have weaned thee of desire; I have awakened in thy
soul the immortality of which I myself partake. Follow me, O Adam, for I am
the Way, the Life, and the Truth!"
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