readoldthings

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth.

On the Fifth Day, he created Man. Male and female created He them, in His Own Image created He them.

Or, after another way: the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. And later, the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

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Now, as we know, all visible and sensible things are shaped and governed by the invisible and eternal Ideas. In the Book of Genesis we learn of the creation of the Idea of Man. Now by the male is signified the Nous, and by the Female, the Psyche. By the image of God, the presence within Man of the Divine Monad.

The Man and the Woman are not two individuals, but one, the archetypal Human Being. Each person has within him Adam, and Eve, and the Image of God.

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Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.

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The serpent is the desiring part or appetite, and it now turns toward the material creation. This is why it is said that the tree is "good for food" and a "delight to the eyes." And the serpent which sheds its skin and goes through the Earth is the image of the life lived according to generation. Thus the soul turns toward its lower parts, the appetites, which border on materiality. It then draws after it the nous. Every part is now drawn into material creation. The Human Being, formerly altogether spiritual, now "makes itself an apron," which is to say, it clothes itself in a material body. Soon, God himself will create for them garments of skins. This completes the process of the descent into Matter.

And the fruit of the Tree will indeed make one wise. But that comes later.


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Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever”— therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

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It is said that, at this time, Sin and Death entered the world. In ancient writing and iconography these are proper nouns, names. It could as well be said that the Human Being, Adam-Eve, enters the World of Sin and Death. By sin is signified karma, actions which bind us to matter. By Death is signified death as we commonly understand it, but two other things. The first is Death Himself, or Hades. The second is the underworld over which Hades presides, which is also called Hades. In early Christian writings and to this day in the Eastern Church, "Hell" and "Hades" are distinct, and so are Death and Lucifer. Entering into the world of Sin, mankind is subject unto Hades, the ruler of the world of the Dead.

Here is the secret teaching, which was at the heart of the Mysteries of Eleusis:

We are all, already in the world of the Dead.

The descent into Hades is also the descent into the material body. The soil wherein the dead are buried is the Mineral Kingdom, the kingdom of raw matter, whose ruler is Death. When we depart our bodies at Death our spirits abide for a time as ghosts in the Underworld, and then return to material bodies, again and again and again. Soma is sema: The body itself is the tomb. This will go on until we can become free. But how? Let us return to our story.

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On Earth, ages pass, and many generations are begotten. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram, and Ram the father of Ammin′adab, and Ammin′adab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Bo′az by Rahab, and Bo′az the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king.
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In the genealogy is, perhaps, signified a literal genealogy, or perhaps not. Its inner meaning is the cycle of reincarnation. Abraham begins the process by assent to Divine Commandment. In his willingness to give Isaac to God is signified the turning of the soul toward spiritual things; in God's freeing of Isaac, the beginning of the end of subjection to the rule of Death. In the genealogy that follows we see the long cycle of reincarnation that continues from the beginning of a spiritual journey to its culmination. Abraham is Adam, or a participant in the Human Idea which is called Adam-Eve and sometimes, in Cabbalistic writings, Adam Cadmon.

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Mary is called: Immaculate Conception, Model for Christians, Virgin Pure, Mother of God, the New Eve.

By the New Eve we understand that Mary is Eve, and the complete Human Being is called Adam-Eve, and is also called Mary-Jesus. The journey from Adam-Eve to Mary-Jesus through the stories of kingship, exile, conquest and redemption found in the Old Testament is the archetype of the journey of the human soul. This is why she is "model for Christians." Turning toward matter, it descends into matter. Assenting to Divine Command, it begins its conquest of matter. Purified and divinized, it is born free of karma. It now "gives birth" to the Christ, which is to the Nous, the higher part of the spirit which is above soul. This is why she is called "virgin," because she signifies the soul which has turned its gaze away from the things of generation in the material creation and toward the eternal things of the noetic and divine realms.

As Mary is the New Eve, Jesus is the New Adam. As Eve is born of Adam's rib, Jesus is born of Mary's womb. Neither has a second parent. Eve is called "Wife of Adam" to signify that Adam-Eve represents the soul in its downward journey into materiality. But Jesus is called "Son of Mary" to signify that here the soul is on its upward journey, away from generation.

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Now Jesus is born. He is born in a manger, with animals; and this is also called a cave. By the cave is signified the material order, and his birth there signifies the beginning of the return journey from the material creation to the spiritual order. By the animals it is signified that the soul which descends into matter descends at least as far as the level of the beasts, though some say lower. In ancient times, it was said that animals could speak at midnight on Christmas; this is to signify that the noetic power is present in the animal creation as well, and the animals are also on the Journey of Return.

Later, Jesus, which is to say, the awakened Nous in the Human Being, will return to the Garden, which is now called Gethsemene. And he will ascend the Tree of Life, which is the Cross. Descending, he will break open the doors of Hades, which is to say, he will model and become the Journey of Return, so that all who follow after Him may no longer die. But that isn't for a little while yet.

We'll get back to the Stoics in a few days. For now, another ancient writer tells us,

What's the advice to be found here, you ask? I see at least one per verse:

Not all children are born entirely of the race of men-- and may it not be that in the birth of all children is seen the entrance into this physical world of a Power which is beyond the physical world? (If you have ever been present at the birth of a child, you may answer yes);

Don't humiliate other people in public, even if you think they've done you a great wrong-- attend to your own vices, not those of others; 

And pay attention to your dreams; often they may contain messages from the spiritual world. I would include daydreams in this as well, and remind you that you can enter into these on purpose. 

Merry Christmas.