Emmett Fox And Manly P Hall On Adam And Eve And The Garden Of Eden

[Music] welcome to the reality revolution i'm your host brian scott today we're going to talk about adam and eve i've received several emails to explore what are the meanings of adam and eve and to give interpretations and have found some interesting resources probably the best explanation of adam and eve is from emmett fox who does a terrific job of interpreting the bible check out my episode on the four horsemen of the apocalypse where he discusses that and you can also find on youtube some terrific explanations from emmett fox of things like the sermon on the mount he was a great author and i've also found some references to adam and eve from manly p hall but what really happened that's also something that we may never know there are some terrific authors and channelers that have tried to describe how humanity began so first of all i think the more important thing to discuss is what the adam and eve story means and why it's important emmett fox explains that the story of adam and eve in the garden of eden is the greatest parable in the bible it is supremely important because it explains the real nature of our life here on earth it tells us about ourselves and how we bring about the conditions in which we live it is the textbook on spiritual and psychological anatomy when you thoroughly understand the garden of eden's story you will understand human nature and when you understand human nature you will have dominion over it this parable is placed almost at the beginning of the bible because it is the foundation upon which the whole bible is built and all the rest of the bible to the end of revelation assumes an understanding of the garden of eden parable indeed there is only one bible section in front of it and that is the basic first chapter which gives the fundamentals of spiritual demonstration the bible is not primarily intended to teach history or biography or natural science it is intended to teach psychology and metaphysics it deals primarily with states of mind and the laws of mental activity and anything else is only incidental each of the principal characters in the bible represents a state of mind that any of us may experience and the events that happen to the various characters illustrate the consequences to us of entertaining such states of mind either good or bad some of the bible characters such as moses elijah and paul are historical figures they were real men who lived on earth and did the deeds attributed to them nonetheless they represent states of mind also and of course they outpictured different states of mind at different times as their lives unfolded other bible characters such as adam and eve the prodigal son the good samaritan or the scarlet woman are of course fictional and never had an actual existence but they express states of mind too and always in a remarkably simple and graphic manner now a state of mind cannot be viewed or pictured directly as can a material object it can only be described indirectly by a figure of speech an allegory or a parable but unfortunately thoughtless people have always tended to take the figure of speech or the allegory literally at its face value thus missing the real meaning because it lies hidden beneath the veil of isis comes to be worshipped while isis herself is forgotten another evil that follows from this course is that since many parables obviously cannot be literally true such people unable to accept the authenticity of the story proceed to reject the bible altogether as a collection of falsehoods this was the attitude of ingersoll in america brad law in england and many others the fundamentalist on the other hand does violence to his common sense in trying to make himself believe that these parables are literally true while at the bottom of his heart which is the place that matters he cannot really believe them and so a dangerous conflict is set up within his subconscious cannot take a pencil and draw a picture of fear for instance but you can draw a picture of a human being and depict terror on its countenance he cannot take a brush and paint remorse or envy or sensuality as such but you can take a pen and write about a great fire and about a soul suffering torment in the flames and then you will have an excellent description of the suffering brought about by these evils yet many people are certain to think that you mean an actual human body being burned in a physical fire you cannot picture a soul experiencing a sense of perfect peace and harmony but you can speak of an expert musician playing beautiful music upon a perfectly tuned harp and again many people will think that the redeemed soul is to spend eternity literally playing a harp justice is an abstract quality that cannot be drawn or sculptured but you can draw or sculpture a woman blindfolded and hold a balance in her hand and when you do that we all know that you mean justice so the bible uses this method to impart its teaching it uses outer concrete things to express inner subjective or abstract ideas as paul says these things are an allegory in the garden of eden's story many people seem to think that eve symbolizes woman as a sex and that adam somehow stands for man as a sex but this is absurd adam and eve represent one person they represent every man they represent you and me and every other man and woman on the globe they stand for the human being as we know him adam means the body and eve means the soul or human mind which consists of the intellect and the feeling nature in the bible woman always means the soul the story says that eve ate a certain fruit and that as a result of eating it she and adam were turned out of paradise and incurred all the pains and sorrows that human nature knows this is the great parable because it lays down the great law at one stroke the fact is that the body cannot experience anything that does not first appear in the mind and the mind cannot entertain any conviction without its effect appearing upon the body or embodiment so it is not by chance that the fatal fruit was first eaten by eve and not by adam body cannot do anything to the soul because the body is effect and not cause the body is a shadow cast by the mind and the shadow cannot do anything to affect the object by which it is cast at this point you should note carefully that the word body means the complete embodiment of the subject and includes not only his physical body but all his material surroundings of every kind the great law of human nature is that one's surroundings at any time are but the outer expressions or out picturings of his conscious and subconscious mind at the moment states of mind never result from outer conditions although of course they seem to do so until we analyze the situation thoroughly but it is always the outer picture which is produced by the mental state eve can bring trouble upon adam or she can present him with harmony but adam cannot do anything to eve unless the soul first eats the forbidden fruit of fear anger greed etc the embodiment will be harmonious and free but anything that the soul does consume or entertain must and will appear on the body this is the essential significance of the garden of eden parable and we will now consider the details in logical order at some length every one of these details is extremely important and instructive each one of them gives us an important clue to our own nature but they are still secondary to the great central theme that this is a mental universe and that it is the mind that produces all phenomena i recommend that the reader carefully re-read the book of genesis chapters 2 and 3 beginning at chapter 2 verse 4 and using the authorized or king james version which is the one in general use it will be noticed that the first three verses of chapter 2 as printed in our bible really belongs to chapter 1 and are not part of the adam and eve parable the bible was not divided into chapters and verses until late in the christian era the original authors knew nothing of this arrangement but it is a very convenient one although in certain cases the divisions have not been made in the right place the first point that we have to note is the nature of the fruit that you've ate it is the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil genesis 2 17. note this very carefully what kind of tree is specified it is the tree of knowledge of good and evil and so the meaning is obviously allegorical no such tree grows literally on the earth this point proves beyond question that the story is an allegory and is meant to be taken as such there seems to be a popular belief that it was an apple that he ate but the bible knows nothing about this what she ate was the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil how people could ever have taken this wonderful allegory for historical fact it is hard to see but such has happened and all the orthodox theologies are founded upon a supposed fall of man supposedly caused by literally eating the fruit of an actual tree in an authentic geographic location at a definite date in the past yet the whole thing is clearly pure allegory like the story of the good samaritan or one of aesop's fables except that it teaches far greater and deeper lessons a very little thought will show that to create an adult human pair totally inexperienced though having no youth or childhood behind them and then punish them for a transgression the nature of which they could not possibly understand would not be intelligent and how much more unintelligent and unjust to meet out disabilities and punishments to their distant posterity for an event which took place centuries before they were born and for which they were in no way responsible the account says and the lord god commanded the man saying of every tree of garden thou mayest freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die genesis 2 16-17 this clearly means that if we indulge in the knowledge of both good and evil we will suffer that is to say if we entertain both good and evil thoughts trouble will come to us it does not say that this will happen if we eat fruit which is entirely evil which means holding thoughts that are entirely negative for no one in his sense would do that the trouble lies in the mixed fruit it is the mixture of good and evil in our thinking that brings about our downfall when people think evil the carnal mind always furnishes what seems to be a good reason for it when people criticize others when they entertain thoughts of resentment and condemnation when they fill their minds with thoughts of sickness lack and so forth they are very apt to invent seemingly good reasons for so doing and thereby deceive themselves thus eating mixed fruit the law is that we must not think evil under any circumstances or we will suffer the consequences man has free will to think good or evil and he constantly chooses to think evil and it is this evil thinking that is the fall of man thus the fall of man is going on all the time whenever we allow ourselves to think wrongly it is not an event in the past but a constant occurrence and it is to be overcome by training ourselves to think rightly at all times in the adam and eve story the male makes his appearance first because the human being is always aware of his body long before he discovers his soul this is true of mankind as a race and is also true of the individual in babyhood now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the lord god had made and he said unto the woman yea hath god said ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden and the woman said unto the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden god hath said ye shall not eat of it neither shall ye touch it lest ye die and the serpent said unto the woman ye shall not surely die genesis 3 1-4 the serpent represents the lower nature it stands for the carnal mind the carnal mind an expression which we owe to paul is the belief that we are separate from god whereas in reality we are one with him it is the belief that inner things are subservient to outer things instead of the reverse or that there is power in matter the mistaken belief is well called the fall of man for it is the cause of all of our problems and difficulties that belief is an extremely subtle one we all know only too well how easily it creeps into our thinking without our being aware of it we accept the jesus christ teaching we think we understand it and yet we constantly catch ourselves forgetting it at important times such errors therefore very well depicted as a serpent or snake which with its silent subtle movement strikes its victim without warning the world thinks that by analyzing evil studying it filling our minds with it we shall obtain power over it it says with the serpent for god doth know that in the day ye eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil of course the opposite is truth the only way to overcome evil is to refuse to touch it mentally or if we have already done so to unknow it the great parable goes on to say that when the couple had eaten this fruit they realized that they were naked and they were afraid as soon as we allow evil to obtain a hold on our minds fear grips us and we feel unprotected or naked in that sense and we look about for some material thing to save us whereas our only salvation is to know that evil is not real before eating the forbidden fruit adam and eve were not conscious of being unprotected or naked the parable goes on to explain that in the cool of the day they heard the voice of god challenging them this means that after the harm has been done then we have entertained negative thoughts and begun to suffer the consequences we have time to reflect and then we turn to god and wonder what he will think or do about it of course eve tempts adam and adam blames eve because we have seen nothing can happen to the body that does not first find itself in the soul you may say that something has happened to your body that you knew nothing about previously but there must have been a corresponding thought or mental equivalent in your mind or the thing itself could not have happened to you the explanation is that it was in the unconscious part of your mind and so you knew nothing about it but nevertheless it was there therefore the lord god sent him forth from the garden of eden to till the ground from once he was taken genesis 3 23 our belief in the reality of evil and limitation is the cause of all our troubles it is the cause of sickness it is the cause of quarrels and inharmony it is the cause of poverty for when we know the truth of being instead of only believing it we shall not have to toil and drudge for a living but our thought will be creative and we shall demonstrate what we need in the meantime because eve has eaten the forbidden fruit because the race believes in limitation we have to toil for a living the earth has to be tilled with labor and when the crops come up they seem to be subject to all kinds of pests and other dangers in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread genesis 3 19 unto the woman he said i will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee as a result of the fall the belief in limitation the soul produces new ideas with much labor and trouble artistic creations and new inventions come to the race slowly and with difficulty the egyptians could have had the telephone the romans could have had the automobile if only they had known how for nature was as ready to furnish them in those days as now even a century from today mankind will enjoy many blessings that we have to go without because we have not yet discovered or invented them the real spiritual man can have anything he needs at any moment by speaking the creative word so he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life genesis 3 24 eating the forbidden fruit believing in limitation is the fall of man and by it we are driven out of paradise and must remain outside until the false belief is relinquished the law of harmony prevents the holder of a false belief from getting into paradise no matter from what direction he may try for instance as long as you believe that your body is material and limited and therefore subject to sickness and accident you cannot have perfect health when you know that your true body is spiritual and eternal perfect health will come adam and eve represent the human being as we know him this is not the real spiritual man who is perfect and eternal but the person that we know here on this plane now what is the human being what is your human personality for instance it is your sincere opinion about yourself or to put it philosophically it is your concept of yourself that and nothing more you are what you really believe yourself to be you experience what you really believe in all there is to any phenomenon is our belief in it there is no difference between the thing and the thought of the thing we often hear it said that thoughts are things but the actual truth is that things are thoughts from this it follows that when you unthink a thing it disappears the world you live in is the world of your own beliefs you created it by thinking it and you can destroy it any moment by unthinking it this is the meaning of the startling statement thus thou art and unto dust thou shalt return genesis 3 19 again i would impress upon the reader not to forget the subconscious mind the subconscious mind usually called in medical books the unconscious is that part of your mentality of which you are not aware you may be unaware that you have been holding a certain thought or certain belief and yet it may be in your subconscious and if so it will affect your life in spite of the fact that you did not consciously know of its existence you probably picked it up in childhood the importance of prayer lies in the fact that prayer and prayer alone can and does redeem and re-educate the subconscious human belief is a temporary thing always changing falling into dust your real spiritual self understands your temporary human self only believes understanding is of truth and is therefore permanent it is the firmament of genesis 1 6. the first chapter of genesis deals with the spiritual man and eternal truth this section the second and third chapters deals with man as we know him or think we know him for the time being and i will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shall bruise his heel the enmity between human soul and the serpent is easily understood and here is a prophecy that mankind will ultimately overcome limitation and fear that it shall bruise the head of the serpent meanwhile until this happens the serpent will continue to give man a good deal of trouble the heel refers to whatever is the most vulnerable spot this may be a love of money a tendency to criticism and condemnation it may be sensuality or anything else the heel has always been a symbol of man's weak spot for it is the place where he contacts the ground the heel of achilles naturally comes to mind in this connection and see also jacob's dying prophecy concerning dan when the bible speaks of the lord or as it does in the section of the lord god it means your concept or idea of god and not necessarily god as he really is for instance we are told elsewhere that the lord hardened pharaoh's heart this means that pharaoh's own mistaken idea of god hardened his heart not that the true god did this we are sadly aware how often throughout christian history the name of god has been invoked by particularly sincere people to justify religious persecution again it was their false concept of god that led them to do these cruel things and not of course the true god himself when the true god is meant the bible uses simply the word god or the elohim and of course the words of life and truth and love are aspects of god john said god is love and jesus said i am the way the truth and the life in the adam and eve parable we find the term lord god employed and so we are dealing with man's concept of god which is the god he worships and therefore the god which governs his life it was pharaoh's idea of god a despotic oriental sultan like himself which hardened his heart in the dialogue between lord god and adam and eve it is man's own consciousness that carries on a dialogue with itself in exploring and analyzing the events that have happened who is there who has not carried on such a debate with himself such an argument between the higher and lower nature in weighing the pros and cons of a particular temptation or a particular problem unto adam also and to his wife did the lord god make coats of skins and clothed them genesis 3 21 adam and eve having accepted the belief in limitation as a real thing to be grappled with proceed to make themselves coats of skins thus endeavoring to correct one limitation belief with another limitation belief and so getting deeper into confusion and the lord god said behold the man is become as one of us to know god and evil and know lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever genesis 3 22 they finally reach a condition of discouragement and doubt when they feel there is no way out that what cannot be cured must be endured and that sin sickness old age and death are inevitable this belief shuts them away from the tree of life otherwise they would have put forth their hands they would have treated and overcome their negative thoughts and taken of the fruit of the tree of life eaten and lived forever the tree of life is the understanding that we are one with god and that our true selves are spiritual and eternal such understanding is not mere intellectual doctrine for it actually heals the body and ultimately regenerates it jesus came to teach us about the tree of life and how to eat of its fruit and thus overcome the fall of man he said seek ye first the kingdom of god and all things shall be added unto you and he said the kingdom of god is within you in the bible the word within signifies thought as distinct from the outer world of things and a river went out of eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted and became into four heads the name of the first is paisan that is which compasseth the whole land of havilah where there is gold and the gold of that land is good there is bdellium and theonic stone and the name of the second river is gihon the same is it that composite the whole land of ethiopia and the name of the third river is hiddekel that is it which goeth toward the east of assyria and the fourth river is euphrates genesis 2 10-14 in connection with the parable of adam and eve we are told of a remarkable river that had its source in eden but on flowing out of the garden divided itself into four branches this is a profound expression of the nature of man man is one a spiritual being the expression of god perfect and eternal but owing to his belief in limitation he seems for the time being to be divided into four parts and this division only appears after the river leaves eden we shall become very familiar with these four divisions as the bible goes on they are spoken of as the four horsemen of the apocalypse as the four beasts around the throne in the same book of revelation and are mentioned in other parts of the bible there is no need to discuss them in detail here and it will suffice to say that the river paisan stands for man's spiritual nature the white horse the land of havilah where there is gold is spiritual consciousness gold always stands for truth that the power of god is present everywhere man often thinks there is power and safety and money or material so-called security he worships the golden calf making a god of money and thereby confusing the symbol with the truth that lies behind it all religious movements have been in danger of mistaking the symbols of god for god himself and thus drifting into unconscious idolatry the gold of havilah is good that is to say it is the recognition of god himself as the only power and this recognition is the one thing that can never fail us pyson in a special sense stands for god as life and bdellium and theonic stone represent truth and love the spiritual consciousness being essentially composed of life truth and love paisan is a reference to the river indus which for the people of the bible lay far to the east and the east we know means inspiration and the presence of god the river gigon represents the feeling nature or the red horse it is a reference to the nile and to egypt which later became the land of bondage ethiopia was adjacent to ancient egypt and many people do in practice bring about most of their troubles or bondage through being unable to control the emotional nature the river hit a kell stands for the intellect or the black horse it is a reference to the tigris and goes toward assyria which means will power and we know that pure intellect has nothing but willpower with which to express itself and that willpower always fails us in the end the fourth river euphrates here stands for the body or matter of the pale horse it is remarkable fact that the euphrates has constantly shifted its course even during historical times several different beds of the euphrates formed during the last 2000 years have been traced out by geologists the instability of matter is known to every student of metaphysics and is implied in this reference notice that inside the garden of eden the river is one and that it is only after leaving paradise that it divides into four branches when man regains his realization of his oneness with god only his spiritual consciousness will remain the lesser things having disappeared and out of the ground the lord god formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air and brought them unto adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever adam called every living creature that was the name thereof genesis 2 19. we noted in the bible the name of anything means its nature or character and here we see that adam's own beliefs and convictions led him to stamp each animal with a certain nature or opinion and that having done so the animal bore that character so far as he was concerned we are affected not by the real nature of things but by what we think is their real nature what you have to live with is not really people and things in themselves but your idea of people and things as we have said in technical language your own concept is what you see you do not know the real jones all that you know is your idea of jones which may or may not be fairly correct this is equally true of things we know for instance that some people delight in very cold weather it makes them feel well and happy whereas others feel ill when the temperature is too low and are mentally paralyzed by it also it should be carefully noticed that nothing can affect us unless it gets into our mentalities a european in the middle of africa is not injured by a local superstition that almost kills a native with fear because the white man does not happen to believe in it of course the white man has many superstitions of his own by which he is duly punished and the african who has never heard of them is immune this is the meaning of the saying in metaphysics that if you keep a thought out of your mentality it cannot affect you but as usual you must remember that it can be in your subconscious mind without you knowing it we have all received many negative suggestions in our childhood from well-meaning people who said that we must avoid drafts or we cannot digest a certain dish or that our lungs were very delicate and so forth it is also true that good thoughts such as thoughts of divine love of health and of success cannot affect us if we keep them out of our mentalities and so we ought to build in such thoughts industriously by daily prayer and meditation sickness cannot affect you if your mentality contains a strong belief in health and if you do not have such a belief all the diets and exercises in the world cannot make you well or keep you alive if someone hates you it cannot have the slightest effect upon you as long as it is hatred and not yours but if there is a hatred in your heart that can do you unlimited harm according to its intensity if you have what we call a prosperity consciousness you cannot experience poverty no matter what happens in the outer world all the supply you need will come from somewhere and if you have a poverty consciousness prosperity will not stay with you no matter what happens it is notorious that people who gain large sums of money through gambling whether by winning a sweepstake or through having broken the bank in a casino lose their winnings before long and do not get any happiness or permanent good from them in the end we always express our consciousness and the only way to improve things is to make the consciousness better and the lord god caused the deep sleep to fall upon adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof and the rib which the lord god had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man and adam said this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man genesis 2 21-23 and adam called his wife's name eve because she was the mother of all living genesis 3 20 a deep sleep fell upon adam and there is no mention in the bible of his having reawakened and indeed our material lives are very little more than a dream of limitation fear and separation from god awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and christ shall give thee light it is very interesting and significant to note that the word woman really means one with or a part of man and emphasizes the fact that body and mind are one that in fact the body is only the embodiment or out picturing of the mind many philosophers have spoken of the body as a garment which the soul assumes or a vehicle in which it travels or as a vessel which contains it as a vase may contain water but these similes are totally false the body is no garment or independent vessel it is the true picture of the soul or mentality the body if you like is a shadow cast by the mind copying it in every detail adam feels intuitively that he and the woman are one and he calls her eve because she is the mother of all that is the mind is the sole creator therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh genesis 2 24 in the bible one's parents usually mean one's own past because it is the common belief that our conditions today are caused by past events and that in this sense yesterday is the parent of today when jesus told the man not to go back to bury his father he was not of course suggesting that the duties and decencies of life should be neglected he meant that the man was to stop thinking that he was limited by past mistakes the man in question was probably burdened by some remorse or resentment concerning his past and was keeping himself out of the kingdom in consequence the lesson here is that the only thought we have to deal with is the present one and that if we'd heal that we shall experience harmony for yesterday has no power over today unless we think it has today's experience is caused only by today's thoughts and beliefs and not by the thoughts or by the events or conditions of yesterday appearance is not withstanding you are positively not in bondage to yesterday any bondage today can only come from today's bondage thoughts change today's thoughts and today's conditions must change to correspond for adam and eve are one just as adam represents the human being which is deceived by the serpent so jesus represents the christ power which is the understanding of truth that ultimately sets adam free when we suffer from a false belief it is the recognition of the truth that liberates us if you supposed yourself to be suffering from a serious malady you would experience all the fear and worry that could arise from such a condition but then if someone in whose judgment you had confidence say a physician of standing told you that you were mistaken that you did not have any such complaint all your fear and worry would immediately go note the physician would not have cured the malady he could not because he did not have it but he healed you of a false belief the christ truth does this but now is christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept for since by man came death but man came also the resurrection of the dead for as in adam all die even so in christ shall all be made alive but every man in his own order christ the firstfruits afterward they that are christ at his coming then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom of god even the father when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death you now understand that you are not a physical body but a mentality and as such you have certain beliefs and a certain amount of understanding and that what you do is to outpicture the net results of all these beliefs and that understanding such out picturing constitutes your body your outer environment and in fact all your experience as time goes on your mentality improves or declines according to the way you think and the outer picture of your life changes in accordance with it only prayer the christ power can change things for the better because nothing else really changes you as long as you remain the person that you are you must have the same sort of life that you have now but as soon as you change you have become a different person and so your conditions must change too this is being born again this is raising up of the christ's power and if christ not be risen then is all our activity vain but when the christ power is raised up it gradually overcomes all obstacles putting down all rule and all authority and all power of the separation belief finally when the last shed of limitation belief has gone death will be overcome too and you will be a pillar in the temple of god and need to go out no more adam and eve drove themselves out of paradise through accepting fear and doubt but christ reopens the eastern gate and restores them manly p hall the great theosophist in his book how to understand your bible has a section on adam and eve that i thought might be a good contribution to our discussion manly p hall states the story of adam and eve as given in the opening chapters of genesis has been considered as an allegorical exposition of the cosmic processes which resulted in the differentiation of the human species it is important to realize that the secret doctrine was concealed in the bible must be discovered with the aid of certain keys each of the myths fables and symbolic figures has at least seven complete and distinct interpretations in other words to open the door that is unveil the secret the key must be turned seven times in the lock in the ancient mystery rituals the key was an important emblem of discovery or enlightenment neophytes received symbolic keys as part of their investors in the mithraic rites candidates were taken through seven doors which they unlocked and in the egyptian mystery of the resurrection of the soul the aspirant was brought to the gates of fulfillment and was interrogated by the keeper of the gates it may seem strange that one story or account may have several meanings but such is the working of the kabbalah in the original hebrew there were numerical and letter ciphers to aid in the decoding of the hidden information translation and editing have destroyed these older kabbalistic patterns and it is now necessary to have recourse to the fascinating field of comparative religion in order to unlock the biblical secrets as an example adam is first of all species or kind meaning a particular generation a adam is also a symbol of adonai the creating lord adam is also ares the first sign of the zodiac adam is the incarnating ego the father of the multitudes adam is the human principle perpetuated forever in the seed adam is again protagonist the ideal of archetypal patterns plato's idea or logos adam is the universe whose body nature is and god the soul adam is the first race of humanity and by analogy the first sub-race of each of the following races adam is the son and also in the story of the garden of eden the typical neophyte seeking initiation into the mysteries this one symbol indeed plays many parts the first man becomes the figure of all first things of the sciences he has mathematics of forms of knowledge he is pure wisdom of religion he is the esoteric tradition itself it is also important to remember that nearly every personality described or discussed in the bible is primarily a symbol not a historical individual it is a great mistake to believe that there is great spiritual virtue in the perpetuation of history or the worship of ancestors the virtue lies not in the accepting of the sacred writings but in the discovery and application of the ever-living truth secretly hidden in the scriptural books of the world the creation of adam is described in genesis 2 7 the creating power formed man of the dust in the kabbalah this man is called adam kadman or the species formed of the red earth the meaning of the red earth in this sense is most obscure but certainly it has no reference to physical soil side note this could reference mars in a cosmic sense the universe is fashioned of a fiery nebula and the whirling fire mist from which the cosmos was formed is the red earth the ancient writings in describing the generations of the physical bodies of the animal and human kingdoms declare these vestments coats of skins to have been exuded from the auras or super physical bodies of a divine race which dwelt in space the earth's outer atmosphere this teaching requires considerable explanation man consists of three parts or natures the first is the divine principle a spiritual substance identical with the spirit and space the second is sidereal nature sometimes called the soul and constitutes a super physical body the luminous chaton the garments of glory aurora the third is the subliminary nature of the objective body with its several systems muscular arterial glandular etc mana spirit dwells in the substance of the one or undivided from the divine principle in the bible this state of identity with the supreme is expressed by the statement abiding in abraham's bosom this has the same meaning as the samadhi or nirvana of eastern metaphysicians at the beginning of the day of manifestation the great cycle of time figured in genesis as the seven days of the formations the innumerable natures of living things emerge from the original unity and god becomes the gods whereas the kabbalah expressed it the multitudes emerge from the simple unities [Music] the emergence of the gods is their descent into the state of individualized living things the primordial sparks robed themselves in the luminous chatons or super physical bodies the gods are therefore described as spheres of light and of this order of beings is man himself inwardly a divine nature participating in the supreme effulgency this is explained in the bible by the placing of spiritual humanity adam and eve in the paradise cycle sphere called eden here souls dwelt garmented only in light and truth the auras as yet unidentified by contamination with physical matter the records of this ancient time are preserved in the mythologies of all classic civilizations it is beautifully described in the gnostic hymn of the robe of glory wherein the eden state is represented as the homeland of fatherland which all exiled humanity is seeking this is the key the mystery of eden is easily unlocked eden and the angel of the flaming sword the adamic being is given dominion over the garden always a symbol of the astral world what levi the transcendentalist calls the astral or magical light the same illusion to the garden occurs in the story of parsifal here klingsor attempts to delude the knights of the grail by creating a magical garden filled with enchantments of the senses and some of the ancient books the universe is called a garden and the planets and suns are flowers blossoming in space with adam the human life wave abided also the seeds and germs of the several other kingdoms in genesis 2 19 the creating power fashions the animal kingdom the intellect of adam named that is examined and understood all the creations the next important allegory relates to the creation of eve the female or negative principle to understand this we must realize that the original adamic man that is the spirit in its luminous vestments was in itself androgynous according to the ancient jewish legends adam was formed with two faces and two bodies united back to back that is with two natures each facing in opposite directions in the authorized version the creating power is said to cause a deep state of sleep to descend upon adam and from his side eve was created genesis 2 21-23 eve is the etheric principle called by plato the principle of generation this is exuded out of the auric body in the same way that the hard shell of a snail is exuded from the soft substances of its body the etheric vehicle or the feminine principle as it is referred to in ancient times is described in genesis as being the tempter lack of true understanding as to the meaning of the temptation and the fall led christian theologians to regard all female kind as the embodiment of temptation and corruption in fact the old story to the effect that with adam's fall we send us all is one of the most ludicrous errors of theology nowhere is it more evident in scriptural writings that the letter of the law killeth than in this particular instance in fact the whole christian theory of redemption and the estate of christ and the concepts of orthodox theologians depend upon the literal and benighted misunderstanding of the ancient chaldean myth long regarded not only as history but as scripture the third chapter of genesis opens with the description of the serpent and contains the account of the temptation and fall of the first man the old jewish mysteries declare the serpent to be a symbol of samael the archangel of mars and the master of the astral light in the scriptural writings serpents are frequently used to represent currents or waves of force moving in space the midgard snake of the nordic eddus and the ophic serpent twined about the egg of the year are both symbols of the zodiac and the serpentine course of the sun the erect serpent of egypt and the hooded naga of india and cambodia signify the spinal fire in man the winged serpents of gobi and the taoist dragons of china represent both the psychic forces of the soul and the initiates or sky men the indians of the southwest of america have serpent symbols of similar significance and the quetzalcoatl or feathered snake of central america is a symbol of the initiate or high priest the druid priests of britain and gaul called themselves serpents and these two are the snakes that saint patrick is said to have driven from ireland the reader of the bible should be acquainted with these records for it is only depth of scholarship and breadth of understanding that can interpret correctly the serpent symbols in genesis the astral light over which samael has dominion is the sphere of imagination and desire in the kabbalah it appears that samael is the adversary yet in the authorized version there is no explanation for the existence of the tempting serpent none why the all's wise creator should have placed it in the garden to corrupt this noblesse work of god man the key to the riddle lies in the metaphysics of the persians which in turn was derived from the most ancient religious mysteries of both the near east and the far east it is explained that good and evil so-called are but aspects of or the qualities of the one principle for example creation brings into manifestation the innumerable hosts of lives which lie sleeping in the infinite in this respect creation is release or expression and therefore good but creation also infers certain limits and boundaries being placed upon space thus the very world which is man's sphere of opportunity is also his living tomb and in a sense therefore evil or adverse to the luminous inner self that must dwell so long in the fetters of matter every action therefore of the creating power is described as bringing into manifestation not only a good but an evil spirit or angel in the third chapter of genesis the adversary is samael the serpent and like mistoffelees it is a spirit of negation part of the power that still works for good while ever scheming ill in the formula of pythagoras unity alone is perfect wisdom for whatever there is division desire is born desire is only possible under a concept of diversity for possession is one of the first of illusions desire leads to an innumerable ray of other evils and itself rooted in ignorance which in turn is man's inability to perceive the sovereign oneness of all things there are two trees growing in the garden of eden one is the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the other is the tree of life the symbolism of the tree requires brief explanation the world tree is the earth's axis in nearly all ancient mythologies trees are also symbols of evolution and unfoldment because all life tree-like emerges from one root and seed and extends itself into a diversity of manifestation the kabbalistic tree of the sephiroths with its ten symbols is based upon the tree of life in the midst of eden the tree is also the symbol of racial development and even now all forms of evolution are diagrammed in the form of a tree so also our genealogical systems the tree becomes the symbol of continuity special trees have particular symbolism as the pine tree of atis which has become the modern christmas tree the cedars of lebanon was a title bestowed upon an order of ancient priests according to one derivation the word druid means tree and the dryads were the tree spirits of the classical greeks all these interpretations are significant but there is another more imminent in its inferences there are two great systems in the body of man the tree of life which is the arterial with its roots in the heart and the tree of knowledge of good and evil i.e the nervous system which has its roots in the brain these two trees are physical manifestations of a complicated network of branching energy currents in medieval art it was customary to represent the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the form of an apple tree significantly this fruit has been concerned with two important episodes in the history of man in the apple that eve ate and the apple that fell on newton's head these two apples have changed the course of history the older mystical writings show not an apple but a pomegranate and the greek statues of corn persephone frequently depict these fertility goddesses holding pomegranates this fruit has also had a place in the rituals of the illusion mysteries and seems to be the original of the cheltean apple madame blavatsky in isis unveiled showed that the third chapter of genesis was part of an ancient mystery ritual representing the drama of initiation into the higher grades of the esoteric school in the kabbalah adam is described as attending a school of the angels in heaven it was in this celestial academy that the first men received the keys to that secret doctrine which has descended through an unbroken hierarchy of initiated priests since the first dawning of human consciousness the angel raphael visited adam and eve in the garden and discoursed with them concerning the mysteries of the soul according to madame bolovatsky the disobedience of adam and the eating of the forbidden fruit represented an effort to secure the esoteric wisdom without being properly and duly initiated in other words it was a violation of the laws of the mystery schools an attempt to storm the gates of heaven for this violation primitive humanity was exiled from the spiritual state and the symbolic fall occurred by another interpretation equally significant the serpent tempter represents the intellectual principle this is evident from the words of jesus in the new testament be ye wise as serpents the intellectual principle leads to the experience of conscious self-responsibility this is exile from the eudenic garden of innocence spiritual infancy the evolving intellect a primitive man brought with it a gradual extroversion from an inward contemplation of spiritual principles man came to recognize an external life slowly the inner senses were dimmed and their perceptive powers correspondingly strengthened the result is man's present state in which he has little if any inward life and is entirely over conscious of the significance of outward circumstances the inner life is the paradoxical or eudenic state the outer life is the relapsed or fallen state the resurrection promised by the messianic dispensation is the restoring of the inner life the conquest of the external or sensory sphere all this is clearly shown in the teachings of buddha and is essentially part of the dicta of plato the creating power in its aspect of the law of nature now pronounces a curse upon the disobedient mortals they are doomed to the cycle of birth and death they are no longer supported and sustained by the inward light but must struggle to survive in a universe of doubts and fears ixion is bound to his wheel and the cycle of necessity has gained dominion over the divine spark the hosts of adamic souls in genesis 3 21 it is described at the creating power fashion for adam and eve coats of skin these are physical bodies the moral vestments of immortal life man's memory of his heavenly state is obscured by the world of matter and he has cast forth from the abode of peace at the gate of eden the creating power placed cherubims and a flaming sword to guard the sacred garden the adam and his progeny might not return to it again philo judeas declared the cherubims to represent clouds or obscurations which conceal eden from the profane these clouds are the ignorance benignness or perversions of the unredeemed which must forever obscure sacred things manly p all also makes another interesting comment because people always notice that adam lived to be 930 years stating that much has been made by biblical students of the extraordinary length of life attributed to the patriarchs in chapter 5 verse 5 adam's age is given 930 years and verse 27 methuselah is recorded as living 969 years it should be understood that these numbers are kabbalistic they refer not to the span of individuals but the duration of families clans and blood records also in the jewish system of metaphysics each of these numbers is symbolic of certain hebrew letters these letters form words according to the ancient hieroglyphical system attributed to moses proper decipherment of these symbolic ages reveal the astronomical and cosmological import of the patriarchs and their lives realizing that adam is not an individual but the human life wave it follows that his children and their children under the 10th generation are the branching and forkings of the racial tree also the differentiation of the cyclical currents by which the life of man and the life of the world are sustained this explanation solves much problems as a rise in genesis 4 17 where the wife of cain is mentioned yet the scriptural accounts infer that at the time cain and abel were the only progeny of adam supposedly the only man in the world also in the same verse cain builds a city which he names after his son one man could scarcely build a city nor could the abode of one man be termed a city but when we realize that cain is a race we then understand that the story of cain's wanderings is an account of racial migration so this gives you an understanding of how to interpret the biblical story of adam and eve and the garden of eden we can all ponder what really happened and how humanity was seated on this earth and we can get a better idea of that if you read the secret doctrine if you read your unvolunkizadec if you read the law of one and all of that material is very powerful to actually get the real idea of what happened i refer you to the ancient secret of the flower of life ginvalo makes a deck claims to have an explanation of how humans were seated also check out my episode who were the wingmakers perhaps we came from the anunnaki i also recommend matthias distefano's wonderful explanation as he accesses the akashic record for a more detailed view of our beginnings don't look to the story of adam and eve as to how we began it's not how it began of course i love the movie good omens and the story of the adam and eve and it's all very fun but within this story is a parable that's very powerful about humanity and that is what emmett fox is talking about so take what you will of these biblical interpretations is it important not necessarily but if you are someone that has engrossed yourself in the biblical view that the adam and eve story is real i ask you to read it again and reconsider it with the information that we've given you there's some other books that you can read i recommend mildred man and thomas trowards interpretations of the bible i have met very close friends family members ex-girlfriends that believe that this is a real story and as emmett fox explains you're doing violence because there's a part of your subconscious that knows it's not real and then it creates this disunity within yourself you know the adam and eve story is not real if you believe that it's real and there have been many who have believed it's real that have used the story of adam and eve to subjugate women that have felt deep deep guilt because of the original sin of man that is not what this story is talking about so this episode may not be important for many of you but for some of you who have taken the biblical readings so specifically and have taken this world view that women are evil that we are all evil that we fell from man go back and reread the bible and understand that it's a parable understand the historical aspects of where it came from there's a lot more to it than what you think in any case i enjoy these discussions and excursions into the true meanings of biblical verses and every once now i like to explore them with you hopefully that helps you to understand and take what i say with a grain of salt if you still believe that it's real then go ahead if that causes some disharmony within you go ahead and believe what you want i'm only giving you what i have found and what i believe to be a more accurate interpretation of this section of the bible the bible is very powerful and i have definitely spent a long time in my life completely disregarding it throwing it in the garbage but there is a lot more to it it is a fantastic book on metaphysical teaching that has deep deep lessons that we can all learn and when you understand that all the characters are states then you get a better understanding of yourself because the bible really is a biography of yourself we all came perhaps from a perfect state before we became human beings a perfect state of source being with god that's the garden of eden and once we came here we had to separate from that garden and it caused great our agony we were no longer in the garden of eden we had knowledge of good and evil and we have gone through this process of understanding our thoughts and our soul so please put in the comments what your interpretation of the story of adam and eve is and please provide any other further interpretations they're all fantastic and i just thought i would contribute to what is going on from these two authors so i really appreciate you hanging out with me for the last hour and exploring these issues and wish you the very best in your further spiritual journey in any case all episodes of the reality revolution can be found at the realityrevolution.com and welcome to the reality revolution you

Channel: Brian Scott

Views: 21,424

Rating: 4.9037538 out of 5

Keywords: garden of eden, adam and eve, biblical stories, tree of knowledge, adam and eve story, adam & eve, adam and eve bible story, adam and eve documentary, garden of eden location, adam & eve in the garden, manly p hall adam and eve, manly p hall genesis, emmet fox adam and eve, emmet fox genesis, new thought, were adam and eve real?, what do adam and eve mean?, brian scott bible, brian scott, reality revolution, emmet fox and manly p hall on adam and eve and the garden of eden

Id: HdqGi275TOM

Length: 63min 8sec (3788 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 01 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/chiefexecutiveprime]

Who was Adam and Eve? Did they exist, is there a basis in truth. What is the true origin story of humanity? THE story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is the greatest parable in the Bible. It is supremely important because it explains the real nature of our life here on earth. It tells us about ourselves and how we bring about the conditions in which we live. It is the textbook on spiritual and psychological anatomy. When you thoroughly understand the Garden of Eden story you will understand human nature, and when you understand human nature, you will have dominion over it. This parable is placed almost at the beginning of the Bible because it is the foundation upon which the whole of the Bible is built; and all the rest of the Bible, to the end of Revelation, assumes an understanding of the Garden of Eden parable. Indeed, there is only one Bible section in front of it, and that is the basic first chapter which gives the fundamentals of spiritual demonstration. The Bible is not primarily intended to teach history, or biography, or natural science. It is intended to teach psychology and metaphysics.