Posts Tagged ‘The Unknown God’
Eve and Clothing
Ain Soph – The Unknown God
Chapter Twenty 28
F. J. Mayers
Genesis HI, v. 20: “And the man called his wife’s name Eve (“havah”), because she was the mother of all living.”
We said in Chapter XXII that the “helpmeet” needed by Adam must, among other things, be a “stepping-stone” to sex differentiation. As long as Adam remained a purely spiritual being, the spiritual prototype of “humanity,” he was, of course, bi-sexual, “male and female.” (Gen. I, v. 27.) The separation of “universal man” into individual “man” and “woman” takes place only when Adam enters the physical state. That occurs when, having “eaten of the tree” and discovered his ignorance and undone-ness, he seeks to hide himself from the eyes of God within the “substance,” “etz,” of the “garden,” i.e., by entering physical bodies.
In “Adam,” as Spiritual man, the “intelligent principle (Aish) and its complementary, the “volitive Faculty” (Aisha) were unseparated elements of one being. But in physical humanity, “Aish” becomes the male principle and “Aisha” the female. So, in the physical state, “Aish” becomes synonymous with “husband,” and “Aisha” with “wife” or “woman.
Thus the realisation of sex-differentiation on the physical plane was the means by which Adam became able to be “fruitful and multiply.” And as every human being owes his or her being to his or her mother, “Aisha” becomes the “mother” of all “being,” and Adam gives her the new name, “Eve,” “havah.” The name is derived directly from the verb “hoh” = “To be.” By changing the initial “h” into “ch” and making the “vav” as “O” into a consonant, the result is a word which denotes the “realisation” or “materialisation of being or beings.”
That is the meaning of verse 20 as simply as we can explain it.
(The reader will note again how invariably, whenever a “name” is given, in the Bible, to anyone or anything, it is always significantly descriptive. It is never merely an arbitrary appellative “label.”)
It would have been impossible, except in a purely metaphorical sense, to have spoken of “Aisha” having “children.” Her offspring were nothing but the realisations of the mental and spiritual purposes and desires of Adam. “Eve’s” children on the other hand, are “beings” of flesh and blood, creatures time and space. Aisha’s” activities were in the spiritual realm; “Eve’s” children were “mortals” – subject to change, transformation, transmutation, and the alternation of states of being which we call “death’ ‘-all which things are essential in their existences.
This verse has the appearance of being a preliminary introduction to the subjects to be treated of in Chapter IV and onwards. Many scholars think that it got misplaced, and should have followed verse 24. We do not agree with that view; the verse seems to us to be needed here to make the real meaning of verse 21 clear.
Genesis II, v. 21: “And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins and clothed them,”
This verse reads much like a continuation of Genesis III, V. 7, in which Aish and Aisha were said to have “sewed fig leaves together to make themselves aprons.” A reference to the explanation given of that verse would help us to understand what a very different matter this verse deals with. Verse 7 described what Aish and Aisha did for themselves-how they “covered” themselves with “confusion,” sorrow” and “trouble.” Verse 21 tells us of what God does for them.
The translators, having once got into their minds the idea that the narrative was concerned with two naked bodies that needed clothing, were, of course, obliged to “keep the tale moving” along the same lines. It would be difficult to explain or excuse their translation: “coats of skins,” in any other way. The word translated “coats,” “che-thanoth” (as it is “pointed) loses sight of the fact that the letter “ch” is simply the “assimilative participle” meaning “as,” “like,” “as it were.” The real word is the root “th-n” or “thanah”; this root expresses the idea of “adding substance” or “giving body” to anything. In the word “nathan” it denotes a “gift” or something imparted. “Thanah” means, literally, “bodylike forms,” “envelopes,” but we cannot fully determine its meaning here, apart from the word that follows, “or,” which they translated “skins.” This word means “shelter,” “protection,” “defence.” As a verb, it means “to watch,” “to guard,” “to defend”; “or,” for instance, denotes a “fortified town.” The word could, of course, be applied, as an adjective, to the “skin” of an animal because the “skin” is the animal’s protection against weather or cold; but one could just as well apply it to the “shell” of a tortoise, or to the “spikes” of a hedgehog; or to the “camouflaging” of animals or insects. In other words, ‘or” does not mean either “skin,” “shell,” “spikes” or “camouflage,” but simply the “purposes” that those things serve.
Another point we have to notice is that the word “or” denotes here, something which is to replace the “gan” or “garden” in which Adam is now unfitted to work as a spiritual being, and so must quit. We must remember that it was a sphere for “spiritual” activity, although it was organised in the sphere of “time and space.” It is plain, therefore, that what God was providing for “Adam” (that is, for all humanity) were suitable bodily forms for the exercise, the protection and the development of his “human” qualities, in the physical world.
We have already seen that the “Adam,” as the spiritual formative force in the animal realm, had developed animal bodies nearly approaching, in a general way, to what would be necessary for the habitation of primitive human beings. (The bodies of the anthropoid apes, for instance.) It would be fully in accord with scientific evidence to assume that such bodies were the first tabernacles for human souls. But that was only man’s physical beginning. And now a new phenomenon appears: bodies which continued to be animated by ape-souls retained their forms unchanged, so that, to all intents and purposes, the ape-body of to-day is the same as it was 50,000 years ago. Something very different took place in connection with bodies inhabited by “human” souls. Human bodies-ever since man began to occupy them-have never ceased to develop characteristics exactly corresponding with the development of his mind, soul and spirit. The more man thought, the larger his brain became; the more intellectual his thought became, the higher and the less receding became his forehead, the less brutal he became, the less projecting and massive became the lower jaw. The more “manly” he became, the more upright, well poised, and harmoniously balanced became his figure, until he reached the highest perfection of physical form and beauty. Then the development of purely spiritual qualities produced a corresponding development of “expression” and “beauty” which can hardly be called “physical”; that something, it is rather, which can make a face with little physical beauty more spiritually beautiful than the most perfect features and complexion.
It is in that continual development of all the constituents of his being, that man differs entirely from the animal kingdom. We do see developments, often very striking developments, in animals and also in plants, but they are always brought about by human activities, by training, scientific selection, and breeding; they are never brought about by “nature,” and another thing that is very significant is that these artificially-produced developments must be maintained by human activities. If the improved breeds of animals produced by the scientific breeder are turned loose to live in the purely natural conditions in which their ancestors lived; or if the choicest productions of the horticulturist are left to run wild, they gradually revert to the original state of their species-or die out altogether.
Man, on the contrary, possesses the power of continual self-transcendence. That is God’s special gift to him.
Now the above is exactly what is told us in this 21st verse. God-working, of course, through the natural processes He had brought into activity- “makes” for humanity “bodily forms,” “envelopes” and “environing conditions” in which man can continuously develop his ‘‘human’’ qualities, and give fuller expression to them. He “enfolds,” as the text explains, every human soul in forms, “and clothed appropriate bodily forms. The word translated “and clothed them,” is “va-ialebbish-em.” The root of the word is “bash.” We explained that root in connection with the word “bashar” in Gen. II, v. 21, where it was applied to the building up of the so-called “rib” taken from Adam into complete “bodily form and beauty.” (The word “bodily” in that case must obviously not be understood as meaning a material bodily form. It was applied to the “volitive faculty,” Aisha. Spiritual qualities have their own spiritual bodily forms. We speak, for instance, of minds as being “broad” or “narrow,” or “deep,” or “warped,” etc., and we describe thoughts as “ugly” or “beautiful.”)
It will be seen from the foregoing that the “clothing” of Adam and “his wife,” is God’s counter-measure to take away the “nakedness” which Adam became aware of after his first experiment in gaining “knowledge.” “Clothing” in Biblical language, even in passages which appear to have a clear literal meaning, very seldom really refers to the putting on of “clothes.” It will almost invariably be found to be a metaphorical expression for the’ putting on of some spiritual quality, whether it be the “sackcloth of humility” or the “white robe of righteousness,” or the “making wise” of the ignorant; or the covering of a bare hill with fruitful olive trees. Whenever “clothing” is mentioned, a spiritual meaning underlies it. It would be superfluous to say more or to quote examples, which are “legion.” God makes every human body the outward expression of the soul that inhabits it. In other words, He “clothes” the inner man-the true individual-with bodily form appropriate for his needs and expressive of his character. This applies on every moral or spiritual level; even without Shakespeare’s description, we could not conceive of the body of a “Caliban”* being less ugly and distorted than his soul ; and we know perfectly well what is meant, when we are told of the first Christian martyr, that “his face was, as it were, the face of an angel.”
Truly, if an “offended and angry” God “avenges” Himself by blessing the transgressor with such generous and thoughtful care and provision for his well-being, “His ways are not as our ways, or His Thoughts as our thoughts.” We cannot have known Him aright ; He has been all the time “Ain Soph” to us.
*By a curious coincidence (?) the Hebrew word “keleb” means a “dog” or a “bad, cruel man,” and even the final “an” of “Caliban” is equivalent to the Hebrew “on,’:’ which adds to the intensity of the wickedness suggested by the’ name. It would be interesting to know how Shakespeare obtained the name, as it so strongly suggests a Hebrew origin.
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Sword Which Turned Every Way
Ain Soph – The Unknown God
Chapter 29
F. J. Mayers
Genesis III, v, 22 to 24.
v. 22:“And the Lord God said, Behold the man is become as one of us to know 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:
v. 23:“Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
v, 24:“So He drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim and the soph to keep the way of the tree of Life.” (English A.V. and R.V.)
These three verses are somewhat difficult to deal with; there is a certain obscurity in the way they are written ; and the style is, perhaps intentionally, rather mysterious, as if the writer wished to avoid saying all that he had in his mind. The translators must have felt their task difficult, as they could not succeed in making their rendering of the passage either satisfactorily connected in itself or harmonious with the previous portion of the narrative.
The “Lord God” is, of course, “Ihoah Elohim”: the “Eternal” in His creative activities. “Elohim,” as the Unity of all the Divine manifesting attributes, speaks sometimes in His singular aspect and sometimes as a plurality. In this verse, “the Lord God said” is singular, but in the next sentence He says “The man is become as one of us,” thus indicating that man had become possessed of one of His own attributes–a moral sense.
One thing which strikes us at once as rather strange in the English Version is that Elohim appears to confirm’ exactly what “Na-hash” had said to “Aisha”: “ye shall be as Elohim.” Had Na-hash (the “serpent,” so generally considered synonymous with the “Father of Lies”) really been telling the simple truth after all? We think that impression arises from the faulty translation of the word “mimmennou,” literally “from us.” The preposition mi, or min, is always known as the “separative” or “extractive” particle. It is invariably translatable by “from” or “out of.” In every case it denotes the separation of something from something else, and in this case the doubling of the particle emphasises the idea of separation more strongly.
The translation: “one of us” conveys exactly the opposite idea. What Elohim really says is: “Behold the Adam has become as one separated from us in order to know good and evil.” The word “la-daath” means Iterate “in order to know” or “for the sake of knowing.” Read in that way, the verse connects up quite intelligibly with the rest of the narrative.
The remainder of verse 22: “and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and eat and live for ever,” while it is not incorrect literally, is awkwardly worded for leading up to the next, verse which begins with the word
The only mis-translation in the above quoted words is the expression “the tree of life.” The original says quite clearly: “tree of lives.” “Tree,” as we already know, should be translated “substance” or “growth”; and whenever the “Tree of Life” or “lives” is spoken of it is always plural (like the word “shamaim”- “heavens”); the reason for that will appear as we proceed.
(The narrative does not say to whom, if anyone, Elohim speaks.” We must assume that it simply expresses in words the thoughts in His mind.) When Adam was warned that his descent into physical existence would inevitably involve him in the “mortality” which is inherent in the very nature of all that is physical, nothing was said of the existence of any “tree” or substance,” or “essence” of life, by the “eating” of which one might become immune from mortality and “live for ever.” This is the first suggestion of any such thing, and now it is mentioned as something which must be kept out of the reach of Adam at all costs. Now, why was Elohim so concerned that Adam should not take hold of the essence of life and “eat and live for ever”? The answer is really very simple :-To allow man to become “undying,” as a physical being, would mean to doom man’s spiritual nature to be buried for ever in an earthly prison; never again could he be re-born into the freedom and life of Spirit. His primal ignorance would beget errors, and errors would beget errors. All material knowledge he might gain would be distorted by error and only serve to increase his scope for error. Error would grow into “sin.” His life would be an incessant and hopeless struggle against himself and warfare against all others. Sin would beget sin and its burden would grow ever more intolerable. He would long for the death that brought peace-even the peace of extinction-to all other creatures, if death was for him impossible. Surely Dante, in the most terrible pictures of his “Inferno” vision, never conceived anything worse than would have been the fate of man universal if he had been permitted to deprive himself of the last hope of the despairing, the “smoothing hand” of Death. Instead of a “tree of lives” with its roots deep down in the “Eternity before time,” “kedem,” and its head ever rising towards “olom,” the “Eternity” that will be when time ends, the whole course of human existence would have been unending spiritual death.
Here again, what has so long been looked upon as part of the “curse” or “punishment” laid upon “Adam,” proves to be a provision for his ultimate salvation; a provision for preserving the “Way” to Eternal life, to the only life that can possibly be Eternal. We look in vain in the narrative for any wrathful, vindictive God putting a curse on mankind, throughout the ages, because of the “sin” of a “first” parent. We find instead a God caring for and planning for the eternal good and happiness of His children. And we have not told all the story yet.
Verse 23: “Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground (the “Adamah”) from whence he was taken.”
Adam, now physical human being, could no longer work spiritually in the life of Nature, so he has to begin work upon himself ; he has to “till the ground” of his own being, to develop the spiritual “Adamic elements” of which he was constituted.
Note particularly that he was not sent out of any “plaisance” or “paradise” of idleness to “dig the earth,” to become a “slave of the soil.” It was not “earth”: but the spiritual “ground,” “Adamah,” that he was to “work” in, “laabod.” He was to “work”-the most honourable thing in the world, at the task of making himself, by Divine help, really and truly “man.”
Verse 24: “So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden, the Cherubim and the flame of –a sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.” (English R.V.)
It is really extraordinarily strange that the translators should so consistently choose words to translate the Hebrew text, which just miss a meaning in harmony with a true idea of the nature of God, and which give instead a suggestion of something sinister. There are two or three examples in this verse. The word which they translate “drove out” is “igaresh.” It means “to remove,” to “put at a distance,” but there is no suggestion in it of chasing out a criminal with a whip of scorpions. The only explanation one can give of that unfortunate tendency of the translators is that it must have been the outward reflection from a very primitive idea of God at the back of their minds.
But we will pass on to the really important subject of the verse: the Cherubim and their purpose. Who or what were they? The verse we are now considering is the first mention we have of them, and it gives us no information about them. The writer clearly assumes that his readers would fully understand what they were, so the name must have suggested something familiar to those for whom his book was written.
The next time we find the name mentioned is in Exodus XXV, 18-20. There we gather that the cherubs referred to were two symbolic images which were to be constructed on the so-called “Mercy-seat” which covered the “Ark” for the Tabernacle, like a lid. They were to be beaten up out of sheet gold with which the seat, like the whole of the “Ark,” was to be covered inside and outside. We judge that they must have been animal figures of some kind, and probably, in heraldic language, “couchants.” All we are told about them is that they had faces which were to “look one towards another,” and that each one was to have two wings, which were to be stretched upward and arched over the seat, so that the tips of the wings of the one Cherub touched the tips of those of the other one. They were apparently not very large figures.
Then in I Kings VI, 23-30, we are told of some other Cherubim which were also symbolic images. These were large figures, some fifteen feet high. All we are told of them is that they were to be put in a large square room and so placed that they faced the entrance, while their wings, extended sideways, were to touch one another in the middle, and the walls on each side. Evidently they were “Guardians.”
The first real description of Cherubim is given in Ezekiel 1, 4-25, the account of the wonderful symbolic “vision” of Ezekiel. But in this case they were certainly not “images,” in a material sense. We are told that they were “the likeness of four living creatures”; they had “the likeness of a man”; every one had four faces and every one had four wings”; “their feet were straight . . . and like a calf’s foot”; they had “hands of a man under their wings on their four sides”; “their wings joined (touched) one another”; “they went straight forward.” “As for the likeness of their faces: they four had the face of a man, and the face of a ]ion . . . and the face of an ox . . . and also the face of an eagle.” “And they went every one straight forward; whither the spirit was to go they went.” “The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.” Then the symbology of the vision changes the “living creatures” into “wheels” and a “wheel within a wheel . . . for the Spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.”
Then we are told that there was “the likeness of the ‘firmament’ upon the heads of the living creatures And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings ………… as the voice of the Almighty-as the voice of speech.”
In that account the writer does not use the name “Cherubim” – it is always “living creatures”. But in chapter X of the same book, there is a repetition of the same vision, in which the word “Cherubim” is constantly used. In this account there is a further detail: “And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about.”
There is nothing else in the Old Testament that adds anything to the above description; but turning to the New Testament, in the “Book of the Revelation,” Chapter IV, there is an account of another vision, somewhat different in detail, but clearly dealing with the same spiritual material.
Verse 2: a throne set in heaven and One sat on the throne.”
Verse 6:”. . . before the Throne a sea of glass. . . and round about the Throne … four beasts full of eyes before and behind.” Verse 7: “And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.” Verse 8: “And the four beasts had each of them six wings . . . full of eyes within and they rest not day and night.”
It is quite useless to attempt to bring visions like the above into any literal coherence. They are just grand and impressive clairvoyant impressions of vast facts in the spiritual realms. The symbolic significance of every detail is quite easy to interpret. It matters little how the symbolic pictures change and interchange with one another, some new aspect of an idea finds expression in every change. The essential point is that underneath every detail that comes into consciousness, there is spiritual fact.
In the passages we have quoted, we have seen that the name “Cherubim” has been applied in two ways. Firstly, it denoted a symbolic image,” but it was not of the nature of an “idol.” There is no suggestion in the Bible of idolatrous worship being paid to “Cherubim,” and their images were amongst the furnishings prescribed for the Tabernacle in the Wilderness and for the Temple in Jerusalem. In that respect it seems to have been quite an exception; most other symbolic images soon degenerated into “idols,” We gather from the available information that the Cherub” image, in its general conception, was a crouching animal body, with a human face and eagle’s wings. The body was most frequently either that of a bull or a lion. The “winged bulls” of the Assyrian Temples, when they had human faces were certainly “cherubs,” although incomplete.
Secondly, when we come to the visions of Ezekiel and St. John we see at once that, while they are still “symbols,” the Cherubim are conceived as “living creatures,” “beasts.” (We have found both words used almost indistinguishably in some of our earlier studies.) But we see also that these “living creatures” have the attributes of great Cosmic “Life forces.” We find them holding a most important position among the “Angelic powers.” We also notice that in all references to Cherubim we find certain elements, either singly, or in various combinations, and these elements are always the same: the lion, the bull, “the human face, the eagle’s wings; and we may add: the number “four.”*
We mentioned earlier in this chapter that the probable reason why the author of Genesis did not think it necessary’ to give any explanation of the Cherubim, when he first mentions them, was that the name and the idea were familiar to the people for whom he was writing. As the arguments and evidence in favour of the traditional Mosaic authorship of “Genesis” appear to the present writer very much stronger and better founded than those against it, he accepts provisionally the traditional statement.
Accepting that. it follows that “Genesis” was written within forty years of Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt, as he did not live to enter Canaan with them. During those forty years the Israelites had been nomads of the desert, out of touch with any but wandering desert tribes. They saw nothing of the temples and religious symbolism of the great nations to the north and east. The only recollections they would have would be of what they had seen in Egypt, where they had been for some four centuries. Therefore, if they were familiar with the idea of the “Cherubim,” they must have got the idea in Egypt. Now, what was there in Egypt from which they could have obtained the idea? The answer is obvious: Cherub-like figures were very common indeed in Egypt, sometimes a long avenue leading up to a great temple was guarded by rows of them on either side. Most of these, however, were not true “Cherubs,” they were usually merely crouching anima]s. But no people could be long in Egypt without hearing of, or seeing, one Sphinx which was a “Cherub” in every respect: the Great Sphinx of Gizeh; the greatest, most perfect, and most ancient of all. As regards size, it is probably the largest symbolic
4Kalisch’s Commentary (p. 480) on “Exodus” contains some interesting notes on the Cherubim.
figure ever made, roughly 100 feet long by 70 feet high. As age in an inscription on a stele of the time of the fourth dynasty (about 2,900 BC), discovered by Mariette, the Sphinx is spoken of as a monument which was accidentally discovered during some excavations for the reigning Pharaoh, buried -under the sands of the desert. It had been buried and forgotten for long generations. Not even a legend of its existence remained. It is more than probable that when it was originally made, the waters of the Mediterranean lapped the feet of the huge rock from which it was carved, all the land -forming the delta of the Nile having been washed down and -deposited by the river since that time.
The Great Sphinx is described as having “a human head springing from the body of a bull with the feet of a lion, and the wings of an eagle folded back upon its flanks.”-Ed Schure’.
“Le front d’homme du Sphinx parle d’intelligence, Ses mamelles d’amour, ses ongles, de combats,
Ses ailes sont la Foi, le Reve, l’Esperance,
Et ses flancs de taureau le travail ici-bas!”
“Si tu sais travailler, croire, aimer, te defendre, Si par de vils besoins tu n’es pas enchaine
Si ton coeur sait vouloir et ton esprit comprendre, Roi de Thebes, salut! te voila’ couronne!”!”
From “Le Sphinx,” by Eliphas Levi.
There we have exactly the elements of the “living creatures” in the – vision of Ezekiel. These coincidences are certainly not accidental; they all point back to one common source whence the idea of the Cherubim arose; and if we turn back to Chapter X, we shall see at once what that source was: the four “elements” of the Cherubim are the four “Fixed” signs of the Zodiac. This gives us the clue to the whole idea; and the farther we follow up this clue the more clearly we shall see that we are in possession of a complete explanation of every detail given us in any of the accounts of the Cherubim. The Great Sphinx of Gizeh was a symbol of the Zodiacal forces.
In,, Chapter X we considered the “Maoroth” only as signs. We indicated very briefly the way in which the
Zodiac symbolised and foreshadowed, in a broad, general way’, the whole course of human history, so far as we have any evidence to check the facts.
When we come to the “Cherubim” as pictured by Ezekiel, we have a “revelation” of quite a new and surprising aspect of the whole matter. A “Cherub” is to him no mere symbol or figure; it is a “living” creature. (The word “creature” means, of course, anything created.) He conceives it as a “Zodiacal Angel”; the spirit within the sign. We might think of it as a “great Cosmic Life force”; Ezekiel sees it as a living, active, ,serving “Angel of God.” (The word “Angel” signifies representative,’’ “messenger,” ‘‘ambassador,’’ ‘‘delegate’’; anyone receiving and exercising power or authority from a higher source. (As the same word- “melek” is also the word for
“king,” it gives us the ancient conception of human kingship.)
Half a century ago, to the “scientific mind,” the idea of distant planets, suns and constellations having anything whatever to do with human affairs would have been laughed to scorn. A certain amount of purely physical influence, the workings of the “attraction of gravitation,” the influence of moon and sun on the tides, and extra-terrestrial activity of that kind were admitted-they were simply physical matters, they came within the limits of the measurable and calculable-beyond that, science admitted nothing. But within recent years even physicists have had to take some long steps into regions of which they had never before dreamed. They now know something of light-waves, invisible to human eyes, but none the less conveyancers of “life” and energy. They have learned something of “Cosmic Rays,” which are neither of light, nor sound, nor gravitation. They have found a new universe in invisible realms ; realms as immaterial as thought and imagination. Gradually and grudgingly, and only under pressure of positive evidence, thought is becoming recognised as something more than an operation of the brain, as a “real thing, a spiritual substance” whose limits of action are not physical.
Telepathy is recognised as a “fact,” if it is not as yet under control at will. When a “witch” or wizard” cast “spells,” or an Indian fakir made himself insensible to physical pain by suggestion, such things were “absurd superstitions”; to-day, scientific hypnotists are doing the same thing constantly.
Science can no longer shut out or ignore the spiritual world entirely. What was “magic or “miracle” a few centuries ago is now seen to be within the province of “natural laws.” On what ground, therefore, can it be argued that, although physical forces may play from the stars in the physical Zodiac upon the physical earth, spiritual forces cannot do the same? That they do so, in fact, has been known well for thousands of generations, but because Science has not yet discovered the “why and wherefore” of the fact by its own particular methods, scientists have denied the fact. Well, Science is still very young, and youth is rather prone to over-assess its know ledge (and laugh at itself when it grows older). However, all we are concerned with here is to try to bring to light the real Teachings of an old Book which has been little understood in some ways. Whether those teachings agree or disagree with our preconceived ideas, is quite another matter-and of little importance to the purpose of this book. We may find the Ancient Wisdom is still wise; or we may prefer to continue to think it foolishness.
But let us examine briefly how the “Cherubim” of the Ezekiel vision harmonise with the description of the Zodiac. Firstly, the “four faces”: these are the “likeness” of man, lion, ox, and eagle. These are the original symbols of the four “fixed” signs of the Zodiac. If the “Circle” of the Zodiac is divided into quadrants by two diameters at right-angles, these signs will stand, as it were, at the four ends of the arms of a cross. We notice next that each of the signs is attributed to one of the four primal “elements” into which all the ancient philosophies resolved everything in the Universe: “fire,” “air,” water,” “earth.” Those names are, of course, themselves merely “symbolic.” “Fire,” for instance, stands for “spirit,” “energy,” “force,” “motive” of every conceivable form, etc.
(We need not repeat what was explained in Chapter X.) As the complete Zodiac consists of twelve signs, three signs belong to each “element”; one of the three is called a “cardinal” sign; one “fixed”; the other “mutable.” These three signs of one “element” form an equilateral triangle. So if we consider the fixed sign as the dominant one of each triplet, and make it the apex of the triangle, the side lines of the triangle would run, one on the right and other on the left to the other two signs of the Triplicity.
In that way the whole twelve signs spring from the four and complete the circle, so “touching” one another. The whole scheme is based on “interlaced equilateral triangles” symbolic of the triune nature of the universe, and of the nature of “Man,” and of the inter-working and inter-dependence of all life and movement.
The conception of the Cherubim as “wheels” obviously arises from the wheeling motion of all the “heavenly bodies”; the orbits of all the planets (and probably of all the stars), and the apparent motion of the whole Zodiac as seen from the earth.
The words: “there was -the likeness of the “firmament” upon the heads of the living creatures” could hardly be applied to anything but the Zodiacal constellations poised in the vault of the heavens. The signs face every way, and all touch and move together, yet we are told “they went every one straight forward; whither the Spirit was to go they went.” That word “went” in the original is simply “halach”-literally “walked”; but neither “walked” nor “went” is at all suitable to translate it by here. It means that the spiritual forces of every sign flowed out directly in every direction-like light from the sun.
The account began by saying: “they (the Cherubim) had the likeness of a man.” That simply means that the “earthy” sign, the bull, ox, or calf, represented the physical body of man; the lion represented the animal passions of man; the man’s face represented the human qualities of mind and intelligence; while the eagle’s wings represent the spiritual aspirations of man his means of attaining to heavenly and eternal “Life.”*
‘The reference to the Cherubim and wheels being “full of eyes round about” is a very graphic way, of expressing the universal “perceptions” and “consciousness’ of the Divine spirit flowing through the Zodiac and permeating the whole universe -(a greater “cloud of witnesses” than even St. Paul had in mind).
The above notes are a mere “touch and go” with a subject that would need many books to deal with at all adequately. We merely wish to suggest in a general way what the Cherubim idea was, and leave our readers to think it out more fully for themselves.
The “forces” working throughout the universe, as the writer of “Genesis” conceived them, are “Living” forces. The “Cherubim” are the Lords of life ; of all Cosmic movements, all growth, development and progress. They shape the whole evolution of human life on earth, and the course of every individual human existence.
It is not man, but the Cherubim who decide the day and hour of any human conception, or birth or death. They are the spiritual forces of multiplication and increase, the builders of our lives, and the governors of our destinies.
*The reader will have noticed that the Cherubim images had only two wings The Cherubim or “living creatures” of Ezekiel’s vision had four wings each. The “beasts” of St. John’s vision had six wings each; so had the “Seraphim” in Isaiah’s vision. (The Seraphim were “angels” of a different class from the Cherubim; they were “fire” angels; their purpose ‘was to consume evil, to “purify” and to “refine.”). The number of the wings was symbolic of the “work” or purpose of the “angels” they are attributed to. The number “four” was used to denote “formation,” “building up,” “realising.” “Six” was the number of “harmony” and “perfection,” etc. The work of the Cherubim was to “organise,” “shape” and- “build up” the lives, purposes and destinies of men and nations. But here is the greatest mystery-although they hold our destinies in their hands, they never bring about those destinies by making “puppets” or us, or by destroying our freewill On the contrary, they make our Free Will the very tool through which to work out our salvation.
Back to Chapters List – Forward to Chapter 30
Guarding the Way of the Tree of Life
Ain Soph – The Unknown God
Chapter 30
By F. J. Mayers
We may now, perhaps, begin to understand what is meant by the “Cherubim” “keeping” or “guarding” the “way” of the “Tree of Lives.”
The whole life of the human race is conceived of as one great tree-like “growth.” The individual lives of human beings on earth are, as it were, the “leaves” of that “tree.” “Man,” while on earth, lives in an earthly, physical body, but that body is not the “Man”; it is only the “coat of skin” (Chapter XXVII). When the leaves of a tree have finished their season’s work, they fall and die; their substance disintegrates and is absorbed into the substance of the soil but the life of the tree continues. Very similar is the case with man; when he comes to the end of an earthly life, his physical body dies and returns to the earthly elements of which it was formed, but the “man” himself-the “Soul”–was not formed from earthly, but from spiritual elements; it does not dissolve away, but returns to the realm of spirit whence it was taken. And when it returns to that realm it does not become lost, as a little stream is lost in the ocean, or a wisp of vapour in the air, because during its life in a physical body, the “Soul” has become the nucleus of an individuality: the spiritual centre of a permanent living “being,” capable of continuing development. It does not develop far in its earliest experiences on earth; and for a long time its progress is very slow, and full of imperfections and errors resulting from the complete ignorance in which it commences its “human” evolution. We explained in earlier chapters why the injunction to “be fruitful and multiply” made the physical plane of being necessary. The development 9f full “self-consciousness in humanity is only possible in physical conditions; it has required thousands of ages to bring about, and the process is far from completed yet.
As a man does not attain full “human” stature until he has attained full self-consciousness and becomes a fully responsible moral being, it is perfectly obvious that if a soul could only enter into physical existence once, countless millions must have lived and died without ever reaching maturity as “human” beings at all. They have been little more than the snowflake on the river: “A moment white-then melts for ever.” But God did not destine the “sons of Adam” to be snowflakes lost in a river, so He appointed the “Way of the Tree of Lives” for the development of human souls through a series of lives, alternately in the physical and spiritual realms.
Western religious teachers, basing their opinions on some expressions of St. Paul, such as: “It is given unto men once to die, and after that the judgement,” have almost unanimously -rejected any doctrine of “Reincarnation,” and have stated that nothing of the kind is taught in the Bible.
All the present writer is concerned with is to explain what -he finds in the book of Moses. If any of his readers should be inclined to think that the teachings of Moses and St. Paul cannot be harmonised, he merely asks them to reserve judgement for the time being. St. Paul was not unacquainted with the writings of Moses, and as he was a pupil of one of the greatest of Hebrew teachers, he probably know them inside as well as outside.
When we go a little farther with the teachings of Moses it may help to an understanding of the quotation from St. Paul, and we may be able to see that the two great teachers are far from being in such contradiction as they, at first glance, appear to be. In any case, what we gather from the task assigned to the “Cherubim” in the Mosaic narrative, clearly involves the idea of Reincarnation.
In this connection we may, in passing, call attention to another passage which is not included in the section of “Genesis,” which it was proposed to deal with in this book: In Genesis IV, verse 19, there is a statement, in the usual symbolic presentation, which is really very striking, although no commentator, as far as the present writer is aware, ever appears to have noticed its significance. Yet it only needed a translation of the (mis-called) “proper names” to make its meaning clear. The verse reads: “and Lamech took unto him two wives; the name of one was Adah and the name of the other Zillah.” “Lamech”* means the “chain” or “sequence” of human existences. “Adah” means the “visible,” “apparent,” “evident”; as the initial letter of the “name” is the “material sign” “ayin,” it applies to life in the physical realm. “Zillah” means the “hidden,” “obscured,” “withdrawn,” or “unseen.” Adah represents human life manifested in physical, earthly conditions; Zillah represents lives withdrawn from earth and passing a period in the “Great Unseen”-the realm of Spirit.
The Cherubim bring about, and plan, the courses of these alternating lives. To us, their work appears to be “fate” or “chance”; it is in reality the perfect working and inter-working of great spiritual “laws”; these “laws” are conceived of, not as mere “forces,” but as the activities of “living, conscious intelligences,” or as the “Divine Intelligence” working through a myriad of Angelic Agents. These “intelligences” are the “Cherubim.” They see everything that happens in every life; take stock of every situation, and do everything that is possible short of violating human Free-will, to save man from error anci wwng-:loing-and their results; to bring some good out of all evil ; and to guide the evolution of humanity steadily towards its predestined goal.
*The root “mech” denotes much the same idea as our word “mesh”-the “meshes” of a net.
Their memory” is a great, universal Cosmic memory in which is stored the eternal record of everything that has happened in the Universe since time began. Every civilisation, every religion, every nation, every family, every individual, has its record-ever instantly accessible, and ever growing with every passing moment.*
The Cherubim cannot keep man’s judgement from error. but they can provide him with help and opportunity to grow wiser. They cannot prevent man’s Will from “sinning,” but they can lead him into the path of repentance and amendment. Man is free to desire, and to Will. He is only partially free to act, but when he can and does act, every act becomes the “Cause” – of a perfectly corresponding and strictly relevant “result.” The result is inevitable. It may be, and most often is, something very different from what the doer of the act hoped and expected. The “desire” out of which the act arose may have been a very foolish one-it may have been formed in ignorance of important considerations; or it may have arisen from illogical thinking. Its intention may have been good or bad, worthy or unworthy, wise or unwise but it is the act itself to which the direct, inevitable results will be exactly related. When anything is “done” the doer has no control over the results. Gunpowder will explode if a match be applied to it whether the application of the match was intentional or purely accidental.
The question of moral responsibility for an act, of guilt or innocence, of merit or blame-worthiness, is quite separate from that of the direct “results” which follow it. Of course, in one sense, “desire” and “intention” are “acts,” but until they are acted upon they are internal and in the power of their creator, they can be modified or abandoned at will; they have an effect inwardly according to their nature, but do not extend into the outer world, producing results affecting others. How often, when face to face with something resulting from some thoughtless, careless word or deed of ours, we have cause to repent bitterly of it. We would do anything to undo what we have done, but often there is, in this life, no possibility even to make any amends for it.
*See Chapter IX, pages 49 and 50.
All that there is of “good” in us earnestly desires an opportunity to atone for the evil we have done; this feeling is instant and spontaneous especially in the case of a wrong or harm done -to anyone we love. We can never forgive ourselves for it, nor can we forget it; it becomes a fixed sorrow in our souls which we can do nothing to heal. But the Cherubim can, and will, in due time arrange the matter.
Now, take a case of a different kind: suppose we have done something of a malicious, vindictive, or revengeful nature. In this case we do not instantly and spontaneously regret the deed- we may even feel an evil satisfaction in it-for a time. In the first case, the “latent good” (which really exists in everyone) awoke in us of itself, we were already on the true “Way of lives” in our regret and our desire to make atonement; the Cherubim only had to prepare the opportunity. In the second case, the “latent good” has to be awakened; we have to be made to regret our angry, vengeful feelings, and then to be led to desire forgiveness and some means of reparation, and 59 be brought back into the true “Way of lives” in which alone “justice” can be done and the soul find peace. To do all that is the work of the Cherubim. They continually work to help the “souls” of men to help themselves to make due reparation for their transgressions of the “perfect law of Love,”-whether voluntary or involuntary, and so to further continually the development of every soul in the right direction.
They work continually to that end throughout our lives on earth; but as mentioned above, there is always much that cannot be put right in this present life and yet can only be straightened out in a “physical” life and in contact with the same individuals who have been harmed. In those cases the soul during its stay in the Spirit world has to be “prepared” for re-entry into earth life at a suitable time and in suitable -conditions. No soul can escape the direct results of its deeds; regrets and repentance cannot remove them; but by the work of the Cherubim, all that we needs must suffer for evildoing becomes purely “remedial,” and a means of our rising to higher and nobler life, and finally to eternal life. Paradoxical as it may seem, “error” and “sin” are the stepping-stones to “wisdom” and “goodness.”
The whole subject is so infinitely complex that it is impossible to give more than a general hint of the nature of the work of the Cherubim, and many readers, no doubt, will read what we have said with much scepticism; but anyone with awakened spiritual perception can find demonstration of its truth in his own life. He will see how everything in his life, even to the smallest details, is over-ruled by some conscious, purposeful and yet unseen- spiritual powers; how
There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew-them how we will, and yet it is always done without in any way interfering with the exercise of our Free Will. The Cherubim guide and influence us, but never make “puppets” of us. Their purpose is solely to make us wise, morally responsible beings; they do not destroy our Will, nor take away our Freedom. Without freedom of Will we could not love, and it is Love that is the “fulfilment” of the Law; and that harmonises our Wills with the Will of God. God knows that no “punishment” of man for his errors or misdeeds can bring Him the love of men. Love cannot be compelled, but He can “win” it, “draw” it from us, and He can lead ‘is to see and to experience in our lives the Love that is manifest in all His dealings with us, and the Wisdom and Beauty that permeates everything that He wills.
When once we understand this third chapter of Genesis aright, we see that it does not contain one single word about the “sin” of Adam that brought the “wrath of God” on all mankind-even on “children,” as we have been taught by the Churches. The word sin is never even mentioned. The so-called “expulsion” from Eden and the “barring” of the Way to the tree of Life prove to be the only possible means by which man can ever attain to Eternal Life.
This universal misunderstanding and distortion of the Truth is perhaps the greatest of all obstacles ever put in the way of man “knowing” and “loving” God. There is enough “good” latent in the soul of man to revolt against the teaching that “we are all by nature born in sin and the children of wrath”-the moment it fully realises the implications of the doctrine.
Jesus taught something very different: “of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.” When the world is shown truly what God is- “Infinite Love and Wisdom,” the hearts of men will instinctively turn to Him. Till then He remains the “Unknown God.”
There was a time in the evolution of the human soul when Fear-fear of God’s “anger”; fear of “death”; fear of “judgement”; fear of “eternal torment”;-(like the cane in the hand of a schoolmaster) may have been the most effective means of keeping the unruly in check; they may have kept up “church attendance” and at least an outward observance of the Church’s laws; but “fear” in any form never led anyone to “love” God. In the verse “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” the word “fear” really means “reverence for.
There were, of course, even in those days many souls who did really love God, but it was because they had found some-thing which had blotted out the thought of fear and its phantoms.
In the XV and XVI centuries, maturing rational self-consciousness revolted against the Absolute Authority of the Church, and the suppression of private judgement in matters of religion. The result was the “Reformation,” which marked a definite upward step in the evolution of humanity. (This does not mean that, while something very important was gained, nothing was lost. Something certainly was lost.)
Today, at least in the nominally Christian countries, and where thought is most free, another step is being taken: During the last century an entirely new idea of “justice” has -developed, both as an abstract principle, and in all its social -applications. We have an excellent example of it in the fact that the national conscience demanded a “fair trial” even for the inhuman monsters of the German concentration camps.
If God’s justice and His dealings with men are pictured–as they too often are-as being below the standard of the ideals of decent-minded ordinary people, God Himself is criticised and
) rejected. If God is so rejected, the fault lies with “blind leaders -of the blind.”
It is a sign that the development of moral consciousness in the ordinary man is proceeding more swiftly than it is in organised religions. The probable reason is that leaders of the Churches do not feel “free” to modify or discard any traditional teachings. The present writer hopes that his attempt to shed a little new light on the first three chapters of Genesis may provide some suggestions for overcoming their difficulties.
Before closing this chapter we must not omit to explain some of the principal words in the verse we have been considering. We ought, perhaps, to have done this at the beginning of the chapter, but the significance of the explanations will be much more evident after what has been said.
English R.V. Genesis III, v. 24: “drove out,” “va-igaresh.” This word means to “put outside,” “to bring forth,” “to put -forth” in the sense of a tree “putting forth” shoots and blossoms.”
“Placed,” “va-ishehen,” means literally “and- he caused to dwell,” or “abide,” or “be stationed,” or “established,” etc. It is in the “causative” form.
“At the east,” “mi-kedem.” This word was fully explained in our notes to Gen. II, v. 8 (see Chapter XVIII) -it means “from eternity” (“from the eternity that was before time began”).
“Cherubim” is the plural of “Cherub.” The initial letter is the “assimilative” sign, “ch.” It denotes “similarity,” “likeness,” “as,” “as it were.” It may be considered here as exactly equivalent to the expression Ezekiel uses in his description of his vision: “the likeness of.” The real root of the word is – “rb,” “rab,” “rub,” etc. It conveys a number of ideas, several
of which are combined in the word “Cherubim.” It denotes “multiplication,” “augmentation,” “increase,” “greatness,” “multitude,” “a great number,” “abundance,” “great man,” “teacher,” etc.
This will be seen from the following examples:-
“arubbah,” “the visible heavens” (Gen. VII, v. 11).
“arba,” a “giant.”
“arbaa” = “four.”
“räb,” “became numerous.”
“rab,” “much,” “many,” “abundant,” “great,” etc.
“rob,” “multitude,” “abundance.”
“rebäbah,” “ten thousand,” “myriad.”
“räbah,” “became many,” “multiplied,” “was great,”
“powerful,” “extended,” “great,” etc.
“räbaa,” “four-sided,” “fourfold.”
The same root is in the Persian word “Rubaiyat” “Quatrains” (Omar Khayyam)- “four-line verses.” The reader will have no difficulty in seeing how completely the above meanings agree with our account of the “Cherubim: “the “visible heavens”: their “fourfold” nature; the “myriad” stars in the Zodiac; the idea of their governance, teaching and guidance; their greatness, extent and power, etc., etc.
Then we have the mention of “the flame of a sword.” “Flame” is “lahat,” it denotes something which “flashes out” or “gleams.”
“Sword,” “chereb.” This word is certainly used for a “sword,” but there is much more significance in it than that. The reader will see at once that it is only a slight variation from the word “cherub.” It denotes the “activity,” the out-going forces of the Cherubim. The “cheth” which takes the place of “caph” (as we have explained in other places), differs from the sign of “Life,” “h,” in that it does not denote “Life” in itself as an abstract “principle,” but “Life” being expressed outwardly in “effort,” “energy, or “influence.” That explanation at once brings the word into logical and significant relationship with the whole passage. A “sword” of fire with no one to handle it, is rather a meaningless conception, but the “continual activity of the Cherubic forces in all directions” is intelligible.
“Which turned every way,” “ha-mithehapphecheth.” This is the verb “haphoch,” “to turn.” It is, grammatically, used as a “present” (or continuing) participle, in the “reflexive” and feminine form. The definite article is prefixed to it to add force to its significance. It means “whirling ceaselessly on itself”; a “never-ceasing activity extending in every direction.”
– “To keep,” “li-shmör,” “for guarding,” or “protecting.” That is: “in order to bring about wise and intelligent relationships” in the working together of human lives. The word is the same as that used in Gen. II, v. 15: “and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to ‘keep’ it.” See Chapter XX, page 142.
“The Way,” “eth-lerech.” The composition of the word -the sign of “abundance” preceding the root, “rach,” which -denotes the “stretching out” or extension of anything, makes it -suggest it here the idea of “all the paths, or ‘every path’ of life.”
The ultimate purpose of the Cherubim is that men shall become entirely free and independent beings, in the “likeness” of God, masters of their own souls, and the controllers of their own lives. They can only fulfil that purpose when they have attained a high degree of initial development, and have harmonised their Wills with the Divine Will. In the meantime, the Cherubim do for men what they cannot do for themselves; they give them the guidance, assistance and discipline which they need at every stage of their development, and without which they would involve themselves in failure after failure -and an ever-increasing entanglement of error. At the same -time they encourage all men’s upward strivings, and “pari passu” with his progress they withdraw their control, as far as is consistent with “keeping safe” the “Way of the Tree of Lives” for one and all.