Edgar Cayce and the Kabbalah. John Van Auken

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СКАЧАТЬ the next level, the breath of the glassblower is the third level, next is the expressed breath of the glassblower through the pipe that forms the glass and, finally, the breath inside the glass object is the last level of our being—it is as the breath inside our physical body, the glass object our physical body.

      Let’s begin at the physical level which we know so well and then move to the highest level of our being. The first three parts are the only ones involved with the physical body. These are (1) the Living Being (Nefesh), (2) the Soul Mind (Ruach), and (3) the Soul Being (Neshamah). The higher two levels, (4) the Spirit Mind (Chayah) and (5) the Spirit Being (Yechidah) do not reside in the body. Yes, there is a portion of each of us that has not touched this world or our physical body.

       The Living Being (Nefesh)

      Translating the Kabbalah term Nefesh is easy, but understanding its meaning in this context is tricky. It means “breath,” but as the glass-blower metaphor indicates, it is the breath inside form, inside the glass object, which is the body. Kabbalah considers this portion to be the “Living Being,” in the sense of a “breathing creature” encased in form. Notice that the form is not the creature; rather, the creature is inside the form. This portion was the second Creation, which occurred in Genesis 2, not the first one, which occurred in Genesis 1, in the image of God. Here is the passage related to this Creation: “And the Lord God made man from the dust of the earth, breathing into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) The word man in this passage is actually the Hebrew word adam, with a lowercased a, not the name Adam that is later used but the Hebrew word that means “beings” or “persons.” The word adam has the connotation of being reddish in color, resulting from the reddish flush of life-giving blood in this being. What is most disappointing is that in the biblical book of Numbers (considered to be the fourth book of Moses), the term adam is always translated as “persons” (Numbers 31:28, 30, 35, 40, 46), while the Hebrew word ish is used to mean “male” or “man” (Numbers 1:4 and throughout). But, in Genesis, adam is translated as “man” instead of “persons,” leaving us with a misconception that the first being was masculine.

      These beings were formed from the dust of the earth, and the breath of life was breathed into them. Here the translators use the masculine pronoun “him,” despite the fact that, at this point in the Creation (Genesis 2:7), the being contained both feminine and masculine qualities—it was androgynous! The separation of the gender qualities did not occur until later, in 2:21. The reason for the separation of the genders was that, in this new realm of duality (life and death, good and evil, night and day, yin and yang), where the heavenly oneness is now separated into individual bodies (one soul to a body), the beings were alone inside separate bodies, and they were lonely: “Then the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man [adam=beings] should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.’” (Genesis 2:18; RSV) But no helper that was fit for this level of being was found among all the creatures in this new dimension, so God took a portion from within the beings and made the companion.

      The man [beings] gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field; but the man [beings] had no one like himself as a help. And the Lord God cast a deep sleep upon the man [beings], and took a rib [tsela means a “side” of its whole nature, not just a rib] from him while he was sleeping, joining up the flesh again in its place. And from the rib [side] which the Lord God had taken from the man [beings] he made a woman [ishshah=female], and took her to the man [ish=male].

      Genesis 2:20–22

      Another important detail of this Creation is that there were actually two creations of the feminine. The first was Lilith and the second was Eve. Curiously, Edgar Cayce’s readings state that there were also two Edens. The first one was in Poseidia, Atlantis, the birthplace of Lilith, and the second was the biblical Eden between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in what is today modern Iraq, the birthplace of Eve. This idea of an initial companion that preceded Eve is found in the writings of many early Jewish writers. There are also ancient depictions of Lilith. See illustration 18. In Cayce’s chronology, the first Eden, with Lilith, occurred roughly a hundred thousand years before Eve’s Eden.

      We should note that when we properly translate the term adam as “persons,” even “humankind” as a whole, we find the answer to the age-old question of how Cain could have found a wife, when the previous passages give the impression that the earth only had Adam, Eve, and Abel for Cain to choose from! The term adam indicates that the Creator used the dust of the earth and the breath of life to create humankind, not just one person, and certainly not one male, from which a little rib was taken to create his companion.

      It is also important that we realize that humankind was created twice, once in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) and once from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). This is the origin of the idea that we have a dual nature: divine and human, godly and earthly, spirit and flesh, essence and form, energy and matter. Next, we must realize that we, as godlings, have been diminished further through the separation of the gender qualities that were originally combined, naturally one, in every soul. A male is projecting only half of his whole soul being, and a female, only half of hers.

      As we are now on the ascent of our soul journey through matter, it is natural that, for many years now, men have been struggling to get in touch with their feminine side and women have been struggling to get in touch with their masculine. It is only natural, because the soul self is both feminine and masculine.

      Let’s move on to the animal nature of this portion of our being. This fifth and lowest part of our being influences and is influenced by the bodily instincts, our animal nature, which contains all the base urges, cravings, and desires of bodily existence. But here also is our human nature, with its three-dimensional mind and personality, so shaped by our cultural and socioeconomic upbringing and genetic makeup. The animal and human nature compose our earthly Living Being. It is a thing apart from the heavenly, divine portions of our being.

      Even when not incarnate, the cravings and habit patterns of this portion possess us, like a ghost that still desires physical sensation. Remember, the creature is inside the body, not the body itself, so even after the death of the body, this aspect of our being continues to influence us.

      This “Living Being” is a dynamic that needs to be subdued, trained, and directed. Hinduism depicts this portion as a charioteer with the reins of the five stallions of the physical senses, which want to run wide and free! If the charioteer restrains self-seeking, self-gratifying impulses, then he or she opens the door to higher consciousness.

      This lowest portion of our being is symbolized in the biblical character of Cain, whose name in Hebrew means “acquired” (from the Hebrew verb qana and explained by Eve herself in Genesis 4:1, “I have acquired one with the help of the Lord.”). This is an acquired aspect of our total being. It is willful, self-centered, self-seeking, and not perfected, as reflected in Cain’s character. God says to this aspect of our being, as to Cain: “Sin is crouching at the door [of your heart and mind]; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7, italics mine) Sin, in Kabbalah, is imbalance and disharmony, most often caused by rebelliousness among the free-willed forces of life. When Cain rules, Abel (meaning “breath” in Hebrew but with the connotation of vapor, implying something transitory) is killed!

      Abel is replaced with Seth (in Hebrew, Sheth), this name implying a new appointment. Again, Eve explains her choice of the name: “God has appointed [shath, meaning “replaced”) me another offspring . . . ” (Genesis 4:25) Seth is the ancestor of Noah, whose generations repeople this part of the world after all the evil ones are cleansed by the Great Flood. Cain’s progeny has moved far from Eden to the Land of Nod, east of Eden, which is modern-day Afghanistan. Cain is buried south of Kabul, Afghanistan. СКАЧАТЬ