Índice Geral das Seções Índice da Seção Atual Índice da Obra Anterior: V - Sobre a Interpretação das Escrituras Seguinte: VII - Sobre a Queda
Nº. VI
CONCERNING THE MOSAIC COSMOGONY (2)
THE opening chapters of Genesis have, in some of their applications, a reference to the Mysteries. The following are some of their manifold meanings.
In the first chapter (and beginning
of the second) is related the creation of human nature in its two divisions,
intellect and intuition, body and soul, man and woman, each creation occurring
by development or evolution out of lower forms, through the successive
incarnations of the individual.
In the second chapter (beginning at
verse 4) is described humanity (or Adam), male and female, in a state of mere
intellectualism or external reason, and before the advent of revelation or
religious perception. Here the allegory refers to the race and to the individual
alike, and treats of man as sense and soul, priest and prophet, world and
church.
The Tree of Life is the Central Will
or Divine Life, the God, that is, whether of the universe or of the individual.
And the Tree of Knowledge is experience which comes of
trespass,
or a descent from the region of spirit to that of matter. It is thus Maya, or
illusion; and the serpent, or tempter, is the impulse by yielding to which the
inward reality of Being is abandoned for the outward
appearance, and idolatry is committed through the preference of the symbol to
the verity, of the form to the substance. The phrase “coats of skin” implies a
deeper descent into materiality, and the consequent need of multiplied penances
and transmigrations.
The Tree of Life signifies also the
secret of regeneration, or final transmutation into pure spirit, and the
consequent attainment of eternal life, which can come only when all the
necessary processes have been performed, and the soul – Eve – is once more pure
and free, when she becomes “Mary.”
In the Mysteries the Adam of the
second chapter signifies also the ordinary earth-man, devoid of spiritual
perception or consciousness, and unable, therefore, at all to comprehend the
mysteries. And Eve signifies the seer and prophet, who, being illuminated in
soul and taught of the Spirit, has in his keeping the knowledge of things
sacred, but is on no account to divulge that knowledge to the outer world of
mankind at large. Springing from the heart of humanity, when its outer sense and
reason and passions are laid in sleep, or mystic trance, Eve is the Sibyl, or
“Mother,” who has the sacred tree in charge, but may not communicate of it. But
being tempted by the prospect of sensuous reward, she yields to the serpent of
matter – or astral impulses – and communicates the Mysteries to the vulgar, and
thereby loses her supremacy over men, and from being their mistress and ruler,
becomes their slave, while the prophets, her offspring, are persecuted and
slain, so that all her revelations and proper ministrations are made in pain and
sorrow and labour. For it is characteristic of the vulgar, that they reverence
only what is unfamiliar and mysterious to them.
The Four Rivers springing from one
source are the four elements which enter into the composition alike of the whole
and the part, the universe, the planet, the individual, and the single
(physiological) cell. Together they constitute the fourfold being. Pison, which surrounds and encloses the earth or mineral
zone, and contains the materials of wealth and fame, is the body, or material
region. Gihon, the river which runs through the land
of burning, denotes the Vale of Gehenna or purgatorial
region, and is the “fiery body,” the magnetic belt between the body and the
soul. Hiddekel, the river with the double symbol of
Two Languages, is that which leads back to the ancient time and place of the
soul’s “innocence.” For, being representative of the soul, it occupies the
soul’s place between the material and the spiritual part. The last is called the
planet, a man, or a cell. For the cell is
the type of the kosmos.
Now the signification of the Rivers
of Eden is fourfold, denoting: First, the four generations of the soul’s
evolution, individually and collectively.
Secondly, the four stages of the
soul’s initiation and perfectionment.
Thirdly, the four
interpretations of Scripture.
Fourthly, the four
elemental spheres of nature in which the soul has its generation and education.
Footnotes
(15:1) Meaning, “the beginning of the World
in the Church: of worldliness or materiality, that is, in the interpretation of
things spiritual” (Life of Anna Kingsford, vol.
I, p. 261). S.H.H.
(15:2)
Índice Geral das Seções Índice da Seção Atual Índice da Obra Anterior: V - Sobre a Interpretação das Escrituras Seguinte: VII - Sobre a Queda