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Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden
In the previous article I explained how the translation of Hebrew has eliminated the importance of the female and male aspects of ‘God’.
In the Judaic scriptures, care had been taken to ensure that the male and female aspects were not superior or inferior to each other and are, although ‘different’, equal to each other as two important forces necessary for ‘creation’.
The name of ‘God’ in Genesis in the first account is Elohim. ‘Eloh’ is a feminine singular. ‘IM’ is a masculine plural. Combine them together and you have a very clear manner of describing a hermaphrodite deity.
The Elohim can be compared with the now probably more familiar concept of the Asian ‘Yin and Yang’.
There will of course be philosophies and studies that argue against this concept.
But... if you study these arguments in detail, you’ll note that these trains of thought often leave out other important aspects for contemplation.
Such as the change of name used for God in the second account of Genesis.
The ‘Elohim’ changes into ‘Yahweh’ (YHVH). The God name changes throughout the Judaic scriptures which suggests that ‘God’ also evolves.
Today, Genesis the first account and the second account are still mainly seen as two accounts describing the same process of creation.
It would become rather interesting if these accounts are considered as two separate events.
Let’s not forget that in Genesis the second account, ‘Adam’ was placed in the Garden of Eden. This clearly signifies a different place away from the planet we know as ‘Earth’. It was only later that ‘Adam and Eve’ were thrown out and had to live amongst the ‘common’ folk.
In the first account of Genesis 1:1-2:3, the Elohim creates ‘its "image" and "likeness".
* (Again, note that this is a free translation, as already explained Hebrew makes a distinct difference between male and female words. Western translations have taken the liberty to translate that ‘God’ created man in his image and likeness. This sentence therefore, without further knowledge becomes a contradiction. Some versions have changed it to read ‘man and woman’ in his likeness).
Contemplate that, if the hermaphrodite called Elohim created its likeness, then this deity created another hermaphrodite.
Let’s have a look at the ‘translated’ version of the second account of Genesis 2:4-25:
Yahweh forms man from the dust of the ground. Yahweh causes the man to sleep, and takes a rib, and forms a woman. The man names her "Woman", "for from man has this been taken.
First of all, note that the name for ‘God’ has changed into Yahweh. Why? And why is the creation story in the second account in some of its parts different from the first account?
The God name must have changed for a reason.
It most likely identifies the interaction between the Elohim and its ‘clone’.
The combination of these two ‘deities’ has been re-named Yahweh. The name Yahweh is also known as the ‘Tetragrammaton’. These are the four Hebrew letters Yod He Vav He. The name of ‘God’.
Now visualize Elohim opposite its’ mirror image. You’ll find here what you can call the ‘four pillars of creation’.
These four pillars are named ‘Yahweh’ (Hebr. YHVH). Negative aspects are opposing the Positive aspects of each other. Here is a symbolic description of the need for polarity in a stabilised manner to create a conduit of energy/forces b
Yin Yang
etween the male and female components. I’ll elaborate on this subject in a later article. For now, I’ll give the statement that these four forces combined were necessary for material manifestation.
Again I’ll quote from Crowley:
‘We find that before the Deity conformed Himself thus –i.e., as male and female-that the worlds of the Universe could not subsist, or, in the worlds of Genesis, “The Earth was formless and void”
Again let’s go back to Hebrew versus English. The word for ‘man’ in Hebrew is ‘ish’ and the word for ‘woman’ is ‘ishah’. The added ‘ah’ makes the word female.
Earth or Ground however in Hebrew is the word ‘Adamah’. Note the feminine addition of ‘ah’?
Now, Yahweh forms from the dust of the ground (Adamah), the image of itself, Adam. (Adamah minus the 'ah).
As already explained earlier, remember that the Hebrew word for man is ‘ish’. Therefore in Genesis the translation for the Hebrew word ‘Adam’ cannot represent ‘man’. In this account you could perceive that ‘Adam’ represents the ‘essence’ taken from Earth (Adamah) to form a ‘body’.
This body is in the likeness of ‘Yahweh’ a double ‘hermaphrodite’?
It is only in the second account of Genesis, Male and Female essences were further separated from each other to create ‘ish’(man) and ‘ishah’ (woman).
For clarity, I’ll summarise:
Elohim (two-fold) creates its image in the first account and combined becomes Yahweh (four-fold).
Yahweh creates its image. (Note: Yahweh is twice the Elohim).
Yahweh separates this ‘clone’ called ‘Adamah’.
Yahweh takes away male aspects and female aspects of ‘Adamah’ to create ‘Adam’.
However, how much of the male and female aspects have been taken?
To contemplate this question, I’ll use a biological fact as an example. We know that a woman has two chromosomes ‘X-X’ and a man has two chromosomes ‘X-Y’. So, just for the purpose of ‘speculation’, the scriptures continue the use of the female word ‘Adamah’ to describe ‘Earth’ (or ‘mother’ Earth).
Thus, in order to create ‘Adam’, Yahweh must have taken out all or at least most of the male aspects and a smaller quantity of the female aspect of the original ‘Adamah’.
Yahweh takes from Adam some, but not all of its female aspects. After this ‘separation’, Yahweh created man (ish) and woman (ishah).
The balance between the male and female energies in both accounts have been kept in equilibrium and is symbolised by the careful consideration with the use of language.
In other words, from the feminine essence has been derived a predominantly masculine form and from this masculine form, essence has been taken to form a predominantly feminine counterpart. One would not have come into existence without the essence of the other.
Although in the scriptures careful consideration had been taken to maintain a balance between male and female forces. It is the scriptures about the fall from Eden that has created the cause for man to feel superior over woman.
Again it is the interpretation based on information provided by later scriptures that the woman was being perceived as being influenced by ‘evil’. When the book of creation was written down, there was no knowledge about the ‘devil’ or ‘evil’ in the context used in later centuries.
I’ll hope to bring some light on this part of Genesis in the next article.
Golden Flower
Golden Flower : Yin and Yang : Yahweh : Elohim : Genesis :
Golden Flower : Yin and Yang : Yahweh : Elohim : Genesis :
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