Foreword

THE BOOK OF GENESIS is the key to the Bible. In the New Testament it is quoted twenty-seven times literally and thirty-eight times substantially. It tells in a very few words how God first imaged man and the universe and then turned the development over to Jehovah, who has been in a process of manifestation for ages and aeons.

The "Five Books of Moses," of which Genesis is the first, have always been credited to Moses, but that he was the author seems doubtful in the face of the many stories of creation found in the legends and hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, Chaldea, and other nations that are almost identical with those of Genesis. It would thus seem that Moses edited the legends of the ages and compiled them into an allegorical history of creation.

As printed in English translations there is little to reconcile Genesis with creation as revealed by modern geology. It is said that Hugh Miller, the brilliant Scottish geologist, went insane in his efforts to reconcile Genesis with the geological record. However more accurate translations of the Hebrew show that the literal reading of the English is often not warranted by the original text. For example, the English Bible reads, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Fentons translation renders it thus: "By periods God created that which produced the Suns; then that which produced the Earth." When we realize that God is mind (Spirit-mind), we see that this latter rendition is correct. God creates the ideas that form the things. Here we have the key that unlocks not only the mysteries of Genesis but the whole Bible. God's creations are always spiritual. This includes the spiritual man, called Jehovah, through whom all things, including personal man, Adam, are brought into manifestation.

We ask our readers to dwell on this initial proposition until its truth is established in consciousness, because it is repeated over and over in both the Old and the New Testament. Jesus said, "I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works." Jesus was here referring both to His personality, the external I, and to the inner spiritual entity that He named the Father, in Genesis called Jehovah.

Hebrew words are composite; they contain a variety of meanings, to be determined by the context. For example the Hebrew word yom, translated "day" in the English Bible, means "to be hot"; that is, with reference to the heat of the day as compared with the cool of the night. The word yom was also used to represent a period of time, an age.

It will readily be seen that the translator had a rich field of ideas from which to choose and that he could make his text historical or symbolical according to his consciousness. If he thought the original story was a statement of facts his translation would be to that end. The Pharisees of Jesus' time were condemned by Him for teaching the letter of the Scriptures and neglecting the spirit. The same charge can be brought today against those who study the Bible as history rather than as parable and idealistic illustration of the spiritual unfoldment of man.

The Bible veils in its history the march of man from innocence and ignorance to a measure of sophistication and understanding. Over all hovers the divine idea of man, the perfect-man pattern, the Lord, who is a perpetual source of inspiration and power for every man. Those who seek to know this Lord and His manifestation, Jesus Christ, receive a certain spiritual quickening that opens the inner eye of the soul and they see beyond the land of shadows into the world of Spirit.

The truths in this book will be revealed to you through your own spiritual unfoldment. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned. The spiritual revelations that you seem to get from books and teachers already existed as submerged experiences in your own soul. The essential truths have been worked out in this or previous incarnations, and when you were reminded of the buried idea it blazed forth as a light from without. So all that you are or ever will be must come from your own spiritual achievements.

"Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."

Chapter I
Spiritual Man
Genesis 1

THE WORD genesis means "source" or "origin." It points to new birth and to the perfection of man in the regeneration. The law of generation is undoubtedly one of the mysteries in human consciousness. Men have probed with more or less success nearly every secret of nature, but of the origin of life they know comparatively nothing. In the matter of life we discover that the clues given us by our own experience point to intelligence as well as force. In other words, life falls short of its mission if it is not balanced by intelligence.

Man is constantly seeking to know the origin of both the universe and himself. But nearly all his research of a scientific nature has been on the material plane. As a rule, he has ascribed the beginning to matter, to atoms and cells, but much has eluded his grasp because their action is invisible to the eye of sense. Now we are beginning in the realm of mind a scientific search for the origin of all things. We say "scientific" because the discoveries that come from a right understanding of mind and its potentialities can be arranged in an orderly way and because they prove themselves by the application of their laws.

What is stated in the Book of Genesis in the form of allegory can be reduced to ideas, and these ideas can be worked out by the guidance of mental laws.

Thus a right understanding of mind, and especially of Divine Mind, is the one and only logical key to an understanding of the beginnings of man and the universe. In this book we have many symbols explained and their meaning interpreted, so that anyone who sets himself the task can understand and also apply to his own development the rules and laws by which ideas are related to one another and discover how they are incorporated into man's consciousness, thus giving him the key to the unfoldment of the primal ideas implanted in him from the beginning.

It is found that what is true in the creation of the universe (as allegorically stated in Genesis) is equally true in the unfoldment of man's mind and body, because man is the microcosmic copy of the "Grand Man" of the universe.

The Bible is the history of man. In its sixty-six books it describes in allegory, prophecy, epistle, parable, and poem, man's generation, degeneration, and regeneration. It has been preserved and prized beyond all other books because it teaches man how to develop the highest principle of his being, the spirit. As man is a threefold being, spirit, soul, and body, so the Bible is a trinity in unity. It is body as a book of history; soul as a teacher of morals; and spirit as a teacher of the mysteries of being.

The student of history finds the Bible interesting if not wholly accurate; the faithful good man finds in it that which strengthens his righteousness, and the overcomer with Christ finds it to be the greatest of all books as a guide to his spiritual unfoldment. But it must be read in the spirit if the reader is to get the lesson it teaches. The key to its spiritual meaning is that back of every mentioned thing is an idea.

The Bible will be more readily understood if the fact is kept in mind that the words used have both an inner and an outer significance. Studied historically and intellectually, the external only is discerned and the living inner reality is overlooked. In these lessons we shall seek to understand and to reveal the within, and trace the lawful and orderly connection between the within and the without.

Genesis, historically considered, falls into three parts: first, the period from the creation to the Flood; secondly, the period from the Flood to the call of Abraham; and thirdly, the period from the call of Abraham to the death of Joseph.

The 1st chapter describes creation as accomplished in six days, and refers to a seventh day of rest. There is no reason to believe that these days were twenty-four hours in length. "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." They simply represent periods of development or degrees of mind unfoldment.

Numbers are used throughout the Bible in connection with faculties or ideas in Divine Mind. There are twelve divine faculties. They are symbolized in the Old Testament by the twelve sons of Jacob and in the New Testament by the twelve apostles of Jesus. All of these have a threefold character: first, as absolute ideas in Divine Mind; secondly, as thoughts, which are ideas in expression but not manifest; and thirdly, as manifestations of thoughts, which we call things. In man this threefold character is known as spirit, soul, and body. Therefore in studying man as the offspring of God it is necessary to distinguish between the faculties as they exist in the body. We find heaven to be the orderly arrangement of divine ideas within man's true being. Earth is the outer manifestation of those ideas, this manifestation being man's body.

In the 1st chapter of Genesis it is the great creative Mind that is at work. The record portrays just how divine ideas were brought into expression. As man must have an idea before he can bring an idea into manifestation, so it is with the creations of God. When a man builds a house he builds it first in his mind. He has the idea of a house, he completes the plan in his mind, and then he works it out in manifestation. Thus God created the universe. The 1st chapter of Genesis describes the ideal creation.

The 1st chapter shows two parts of the Trinity: mind, and idea in mind. In the 2d chapter we have the third part, manifestation. In this illustration all theological mystery about the Trinity is cleared away, for we see that it is simply mind, idea in mind, and manifestation of idea. Since man is the offspring of God, made in the image and likeness of Divine Mind, he must express himself under the laws of this great creative Mind. The law of manifestation for man is the law of thought. God ideates: man thinks. One is the completion of the other in mind.

The man that God created in His own image and likeness and pronounced good and very good is spiritual man. This man is the direct offspring of Divine Mind, God's idea of perfect man. This is the only-begotten Son, the Christ, the Lord God, the Jehovah, the I AM. In the 2d chapter this Jehovah or divine idea of perfect man forms the manifest man and calls his name Adam.

The whole of the 1st chapter is a supermental statement of the ideas on which evolution is based. Mind projects its ideas into universal substance, and evolution is the manifestation of the ideas thus projected. The whole Genesiac record is an allegory explaining just what takes place in the mind of each individual in his unfoldment from the idea to the manifest. God, the great universal Mind, brought forth an idea, a man, perfect like Himself, and that perfect man is potentially in every individual, working himself into manifestation in compliance with law.

Gen. 1:1-5. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day.

To understand the creation of the universe by God, we must know something of the character of God. Jesus said, "God is Spirit." The works of God, He said, were done in Him (Jesus) and through Him. "The Father abiding in me doeth his works." That God is an intelligent force always present and always active is the virtual conclusion of all philosophers, thus corroborating the statements of Jesus. God is eternally in His creation and never separate from it. Wherever there is evidence of creative action, there God is.

God is mind, and He created through His word or idea, and this is the universal creative vehicle. It is plainly stated in this 1st chapter of Genesis that "God said." Jesus corroborated this creative power of the word or idea again and again. He said that His words were so powerful that if we let them abide in us we might ask whatsoever we would and it should be done to us.

God is a mind force carrying forward creation under mental law. That law may be known to anyone who will follow the example of Jesus. Jesus said, "Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." This means that we should strive for the perfection that God is. We are the image and likeness of this great creative Mind, and being in a certain aspect of our mind just like it, we can through mental adjustment attain the same conscious unity that Jesus did.

God creates through the action of His mind, and all things rest on ideas. The idea back of the flower is beauty. The idea back of music is harmony. The idea back of day is light or the dispensation of intelligence.

This whole chapter is a statement of the creative ideas involved in the universe. It deals with involution. Evolution is the working out in manifestation of what mind has involved. Whatever mind commands to be brought forth will be brought forth by and through the law of evolution inherent in being. This applies to the great and the small. In mind there is but one.

The first step in creation is the awakening of man to spiritual consciousness, the dawning of light in his mind, his perception of Truth through the quickening of his spirit. Light is wisdom; and the first day's work is the calling of light or wisdom into expression. Light represents intelligence, and darkness represents undeveloped capacity. Symbolically these are "day" and "night."

The word God in this instance stands for Elohim, which is God in His capacity as creative power, including within Himself all the potentalities of being. The "beginning" indicates the first concept of Divine Mind. "Created" means ideated. The "heavens" is the realm of ideas, and the "earth" represents ideas in expression. Heaven is the idea and earth the mental picture. A comparison is found in the activity of our own mind: we have an idea and then think out a plan before we bring it forth.

Ferrar Fenton, the well-known student of Hebrew and Greek, says that the first verse should read: "By periods God created that which produced the Suns; then that which produced the Earth. But the Earth was unorganized and empty; and darkness covered its convulsed surface; but the breath of God vibrated over its fluid face." From this we are to understand that God created not the earth as it appears but that which produced the earth. Elohim, Spirit, creates the spiritual idea, which is afterward made manifest through Jehovah God.

The earthly thought was not yet clear. Harmony of form had not yet come into expression. "The deep" represents the capacity of the earth idea to bring forth. "The face of the deep" represents its intelligence. Understanding has not yet come into expression, and there is no apparent action. "The Spirit of God" or divine intelligence moved upon "the face of the waters." "Waters" here represents unexpressed capacities, the mental element out of which all is produced. Man is conscious of unexpressed capacities within himself, but only as he moves upon mind substance with intelligence are his inherent spiritual qualities molded into forms. "Light" is intelligence, a spiritual quality. It corresponds to understanding and should precede all activity. At the beginning of any of our creating we should declare for light. Our declarations of Truth are instantly fulfilled in Spirit.

James says in his Epistle, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights." The Evangelist John speaks of "the true light . . . which lighteth every man, coming into the world."

All that emanates from God is good. In the process of bringing forth our ideas we need a certain degree of understanding in order properly to regulate our thoughts. The light must be divided from the darkness, as in Divine Mind the light was separated from the darkness.

"Day" represents the state of mind in which intelligence dominates. "Night" represents the realm of thoughts that are not yet illuminated by the Spirit of God.

Gen. 1:6-8. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.

The second step in creation is the development of faith or the "firmament." The "waters" represent the unestablished elements of the mind.

The second day's creation is the second movement of Divine Mind. The central idea in this day's creation is the establishment of a firmament in the "midst of the waters" dividing the "waters from the waters." "Waters" represent unexpressed possibilities in mind. There must be a "firm" starting point or foundation established. This foundation or "firmament" is faith "moving upon" the unformed capacities of Spirit consciousness. The divine Logos--God as creative power--gives forth the edict "Let there be a firmament." The first step or "day" in creation involves "light" or understanding, and the second step, faith in the knowing quality of mind.

The word is instantly fulfilled in Spirit. "And God made the firmament." This does not refer to the visible realm of forms but to the mental image in Divine Mind, which deals only with ideas. In every mental state we have an "above" and a "below." Above the firmament are the unexpressed capacities ("waters") of the conscious mind resting in faith in Divine Mind. Below the firmament are the unexpressed capacities ("waters") of the subconscious mind.

The word "Heaven" is capitalized in this passage because it relates directly to Divine Mind. Faith ("firmament") established in consciousness is a state of perfect harmony, therefore "Heaven." Another degree of mind unfoldment has been attained. "And there was evening and there was morning, a second day." "Evening" represents completion, and the "morning" following represents activity of ideas.

Gen. 1:9-13. And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, herbs yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, wherein is the seed thereof, after their kind: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day.

The third step in creation is the beginning of the formative activity of the mind called imagination. This gathers "the waters . . . together unto one place" so that the "dry land" appears. Then the imagination begins a great multiplication of forms and shapes in the mind.

The first day's creation reveals the light or inspiration of Spirit. The second day establishes faith in our possibilities to bring forth the invisible. The third day's creation or third movement of Divine Mind pictures the activity of ideas in mind. This is called expression. The formative power of mind is the imagination, whose work is here represented by the dry land. There is much unformed thought in mind ("the heavens") that must be separated from the formed.

In this proclamation "earth" is the mental image of formed thought and does not refer to the manifest world. God is Divine Mind and deals directly with ideas. "Seas" represents the unformed state of mind. We say that a man is "at sea" when he is in doubt in his mental processes. In other words he has not established his thoughts in line with the principle involved. The sea is capable of production, but must come under the dominion of the imagination.

Divine Mind images its ideas definitely and in every detail. The idea precedes the fulfillment. "Let there be" represents the perfect confidence necessary to demonstration.

Ideas are productive and bring forth after their kind. They express themselves under the law of divine imagery. The seed is within the thought and is reproduced through thought activity until thought habits are formed. Thoughts become fixed in the earth or formed consciousness. In Divine Mind all is good.

Again a definite degree of mind unfoldment has been attained. Man, in forming his world, goes through the same mental process, working under divine law. Jesus said, "The seed is the word of God."

Gen. 1:14-19. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made the two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.

The fourth step in creation is the development of the "two great lights," the will and the understanding, or the sun (the spiritual I AM) and the moon (the intellect). These are but reflectors of the true light; for God had said, "Let there be light: and there was light"--before the sun and the moon were created.

The "firmament of heaven" is the consciousness of Truth that has been formulated and established. In the second day's creation a firmament was established in heaven (realm of divine ideas). This firmament divides the day (illumined consciousness) from the night (unillumined consciousness). Through faith the "lights" are established; that is, understanding begins to unfold. The "signs," "seasons," and "days and years" represent different stages of unfoldment. We gain understanding by degrees.

The "earth" represents the more external processes through which an idea passes, and corresponds to the activity of an idea in mind. In man the "earth" is the body consciousness, which in its real nature is a harmonious expression of ideas established in faith-substance. "And it was so"; that is, an idea from divine consciousness is instantly fulfilled.

The "greater light," in mind, is understanding and the "lesser light" is the will. The greater light rules "the day," that realm of consciousness which has been illumined by Spirit. The lesser light rules "the night," that is, the will; which has no illumination ("light" or "day") but whose office is to execute the demands of understanding. The will does not reason, but in its harmonious relation acts easily and naturally upon the inspiration of Spirit. Divine will expresses itself as the I AM in man.

The "stars" represent man's perceptive faculties, including his ability to perceive weight, size, color, sound, and the like. Through concentrating any of the faculties ("stars") at its focalizing point one may come into an understanding of its action.

Divine Mind first images the idea, then perceives its fulfillment. Man, acting in co-operation with Divine Mind, places himself under this same creative law and thus brings his ideas into manifestation.

The idea is the directing and controlling power. Every idea has a specific function to perform. When our ideas are constructive and harmonious we see that they are good and realize that their power to rule is dominant in consciousness.

"Evening" stands for the fulfillment of an idea and marks another "day" or step or degree of unfoldment in consciousness.

Again referring to Fenton's translation of the 1st chapter of Genesis, "By periods God created that which produced the solar systems; then that which produced the earth," we see that God did not create the worlds directly; He created that which produced or evolved them. Then God said, "Let there be light." The Hebrew word for light is owr, meaning "luminosity" either literally or metaphysically. On the fourth day God said, "Let reflectors appear in the expanse of the heavens." Then God made two large "luminaries." The Hebrew word here used to express light is maowr, "a luminous body." The author of Genesis made a distinction between the source of light and how it was to be bodily manifested. But both were concepts in Divine Mind.

Our modern dynamos produce luminosity out of the ether equal to sunlight. The earth whirling on its axis generates electricity. Modern scientists are accepting analogy then, holding that bodies in motion generate energy that under certain conditions becomes luminous, and the conclusion is that the primal force that produces light existed before its manifestation through matter. This conclusion is in harmony with the symbolic story of creation as found in Genesis.

Modern critics have questioned the accuracy of Scripture on these points. Robert Ingersoll in his book "Some Mistakes of Moses" calls attention to the creation of light before the sources of light, the sun and the stars, were created, as evidence of the ignorance and inaccuracy of Moses. But scientific research and study of the original Hebrew reveals their harmony.

Gen. 1:20-23. And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature that moveth, wherewith the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.

The fifth step in creation is the bringing forth of sensation and discrimination. The "creatures" are thoughts. The "birds . . . in the open firmament of heaven" are ideas approaching spiritual understanding.

"Water" represents the unformed substance of life, always present as a fecundating element in which ideas ("living creatures") increase and multiply, just as the earth produces a crop when sown with seed. The "birds" represent the liberated thoughts or ideas of mind (heavens).

In connection with the body, "water" represents the fluids of the organism. The "sea-monsters" are life ideas that swarm in these fluids. Here is pictured Divine Mind creating the original body idea, as imaged in the 20th verse. In the 2d chapter of Genesis we shall read of the manifestation of this idea. Idea, expression, and manifestation are the steps involved in bringing anything forth under divine law. The stamp of good is placed upon divine ideas and their activity in substance.

In the fifth day's creation ideas of discrimination and judgment are developed. The fishes and fowls represent ideas of life working in mind, but they must be properly related to the unformed (seas) and the formed (earth) worlds of mind. When an individual is well balanced in mind and body, there is an equalizing force flowing in the consciousness, and harmony is in evidence.

Another orderly degree of mind unfoldment is fulfilled. Another step in spiritual growth is worked out in consciousness when the individual enters into the quickening of his judgment and seeks to conform his ideas to those of Divine Mind.

Gen. 1:24-31. And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind: and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its kind: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for food: and to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for food: and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

The sixth step in creation is the bringing forth of ideas after their kind. When man approaches the creative level in his thought, he is getting close to God in his consciousness, and then the realization that he is the very image and likeness of his Creator dawns on him. This is the consciousness in man of Christ.

On the sixth day of creation ideas of life are set into activity. "Cattle" represent ideas of strength established in substance. "Creeping things" represent ideas of life that are more subtle in their expression, approaching closer to the realm of sense. They are the micro-organisms. The "beasts" stand for the free energies of life that relate themselves to sensation. Divine ideas are always instantly set into activity: "and it was so."

Underlying all these ideas related to sensation, which in their original purity are simply ideas of life functioning in substance, is the divine idea of life. When life is expressed in divine order it is pronounced good. What is termed "sense consciousness" in man is not to be condemned but lifted up to its rightful place.

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth may in him have eternal life." When the ideas of life are properly related to love and wisdom, man will find in them eternal satisfaction instead of sense pleasure.

Wisdom and love are the two qualities of Being that, communing together, declare, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." This is the mental image of man that in Truth we call the Christ. The Christ man has dominion over every idea emanating from Divine Mind.

The creation described in these six days or six "steps" or stages of God-Mind is wholly spiritual and should not be confounded with the manifestation that is described in the succeeding chapters. God is mind, and all His works are created in mind as perfect ideas.

This statement of man's creation, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," has always been a puzzle to people who read the Scriptures literally. The apparent man is so at variance with the description that they cannot reconcile them. Theologians began first to admit that the Garden of Eden story was an allegory, and now they are including the whole of Genesis.

But this is more than an allegory; it is a description of the ideal creation. In their calculations engineers often use mathematical symbols, like the letters x, y, and z, to represent quantities not yet given precise determination but carried along for development at the proper time. Involved in these symbols are ideas that are to be brought out in their proper order and made visible when the engineer's plans are objectified. So man plans in his mind that which he proposes to build. First the idea, then the visible. This is the process through which all creation passes. God makes all things in His mind first, which is involution; then they are made into form and shape, and this is evolution.

In some such way then we can think of man as represented by an x in God's plan or calculations. God is carrying man along in His mind as an ideal quantity, the image-and-likeness man of His creation, and His divine plan is dependent for its success on the manifestation by man of this idea. The divine plan is furthered by the constant idealism that keeps man moving forward to higher and higher achievements. The image-and-likeness man pours into "mankind" a perpetual stream of ideas that the individual man arranges as thoughts and forms as substance and life. While this evolutionary process is going on there seem to be two men, one ideal and spiritual and the other intellectual and material, which are united at the consummation, the ideal man, Christ.

When the mind attains an understanding of certain creative facts, of man's creative powers, it has established a directive, intelligent center that harmonizes these two men (ideal and spiritual vs. intellectual and material). This directive center may be named the I AM. It is something more than the human I. Yet when this human I has made union with the image-and-likeness I, the true I AM comes into action, and this is the Christ Jesus, the Son of God, evolved and made visible in creation according to divine law.

God ideated two universal planes of consciousness, "the heavens and the earth." One is the realm of pure ideas, the other of thought forms. God does not create the visible universe directly, as a man makes a concrete pavement, but He creates the ideas that are used by His intelligent "image and likeness" to make the universe. Thus God's creations are always spiritual. Man's creations are both material and spiritual, according to his understanding.

Mental activity in Divine Mind represents two phases: first, conception of the idea; and secondly, expression of the idea. In every idea conceived in mind there is first the quickening spirit of life, followed by the increase of the idea in substance. Wisdom is the "male" or expressive side of Being, while love is the "female" or receptive side of Being. Wisdom is the father quality of God and love is the mother quality. In every idea there exist these two qualities of mind, which unite in order to increase and bring forth under divine law.

Divine Mind blessed the union of wisdom and love and pronounced on them the increase of Spirit. When wisdom and love are unified in the individual consciousness, man is a master of ideas and brings forth under the original creative law.

"Seed" represents fundamental ideas having within themselves reproductive capacity. Every idea is a seed that, sown in the substance of mind, becomes the real food on which man is nourished. Man has access to the seed ideas of Divine Mind, and through prayer and meditation he quickens and appropriates the substance of those ideas, which were originally planted in his I AM by the parent mind.

Provision is made for the sustenance of all the ideas emanating from Divine Mind. The primitive forms of life are fed on "herbs"; they have a sustaining force that is food to them, even as the appropriation of divine ideas is food to man.

Divine Mind, being All-Good itself, sees only its own creation as good. As man co-operates more fully with Divine Mind, imaging only that which is good, he too beholds his production with the "single" eye, sees them only as good. The sixth step in creation is the concentration, in man, of all the ideas of Divine Mind. Man is given authority and dominion over all ideas. Thus is completed another step in mind unfoldment.

In the six mental steps or "mind movements," called days, Elohim God creates the spiritual universe and spiritual man. He then rests. He has created the ideas or patterns of the formed universe that is to follow.

In the next chapter we shall find Jehovah God executing what Elohim God created or ideated. In the Hebrew the name Jehovah means "I am." We identify Jehovah as the I AM, the spiritual man, the image and likeness of Elohim God. But Jehovah, spiritual man, must be made manifest, so He forms a man called Adam.

Chapter II
Manifest Man
Genesis 2

THE BOOK OF GENESIS gives two accounts of the creation of man, the first that of the creation by Elohim and the second that of the creation by Jehovah. A right understanding of the processes the mind uses in bringing forth its children (ideas) enables us to perfect harmony between these apparently conflicting accounts. The first act of mind is the formation of the idea, and the second is the expression of that idea. Elohim or God-Mind creates a spiritual man, in whom are conceived to be present all the attributes of his source. Next this spiritual man, Jehovah God, God-Mind indentified as I AM, forms man in spiritual substance, in the "dust of the ground."

The unfolding man is God's man, or the divine idea of man in process of construction. The various ideas are being "clothed upon," that is, made manifest. The manifest man is an idea until the Elohim mind in its I AM or Jehovah form begins its process of expression. Then Jehovah God begins to form or clothe the idea man in substance, which process, described symbolically in these Scriptures, has been going on all down the ages.

The manifest man is the man we see, the man we behold with our senses. Manifest man evolves or makes manifest the ideas that exist eternally in Being. The spiritual man is the man we behold in our ideals.

"Ye are a temple of God." Eventually the manifest man and the ideal man merge into one, as Jesus said: "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one."

Many have caught sight of the fact that the true body of Christ is a state of consciousness in man, but few have gone so far as to realize that this body is a temple in which the Christ holds religious services at all times. "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." Under the direction of the Christ, a new body is constructed by the thinking faculty in man; the materials entering into this superior structure are spiritual substances, and the new creation is the temple or body of Spirit. It breathes an atmosphere and is thrilled with a life energy more real than that of the manifest man. When a person has come into the realization of his true Christ body, he feels the stirring within him of this body of the indwelling Spirit or Christ. He knows what Paul meant when he said: "There is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new."

Jehovah I AM breathes the breath of life into Adam, who names the animals (the elemental life forms in which he exists) and becomes cocreator with Jehovah God in bringing forth his own perfection.

The image-and-likeness man is God's idea of man, a man spirtually conceived, in whom are implanted the dominion and power necessary to bring forth the perfection of his Father, God-Mind. "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect," said Jesus.

Gen. 2:1-3. And the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it he rested from all his work which God had created and made.

The plans of Divine Mind were finished although there was as yet no outward manifestation. All is finished first in consciousness and mind then rests, in faith, from further mental activity. This "rest" precedes manifestation. The seventh day refers to the mind's realization of fulfillment, its resting in the assurance that all that has been imaged in it will come forth in expression.

To hallow the seventh day is to rest in the stillness, quiet, and peace of the silence of Mind. "Be still, and know that I am God." To hallow means to keep holy. Holiness is resting in the conviction that there is no lack in the absolute law that is the law of God. One creates first in mind by idealizing the desired object and then resting in the assurance that the law of manifestation is being fulfilled. God has finished creating His universe, including man, and is resting in His perfect idea. God rested on the seventh day.

Our Sunday is a symbol of the true Sabbath, a time when men turn away from business and the pleasures of the senses to seek a day of quiet and holy rest. The great Sabbath, the rest of God, is for all who will enter it.

It is the state of mind in which we rest from outer work, cease daily occupation, and give ourselves up to meditation or the study of things spiritual. The Sabbath also symbolizes an attitude of mind in which we relax the outer consciousness, let go of all thought about material things, about the affairs of daily life, and enter into the stillness of the consciousness and begin to think of God and His law. This Sabbath is kept any time we enter into spiritual consciousness and rest from thoughts about temporal things. Then we let go of the external observance of days, because every day is a Sabbath on which we retire into Spirit and worship God.

Gen. 2:4-8. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Jehovah God made earth and heaven. And no plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Jehovah God had not caused it to rain upon the earth: and there was not a man to till the ground; but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Jehovah (I AM) in the Hebrew is written Yahweh. Yah is the masculine and weh the feminine. The word is made up of masculine and feminine elements and represents the joining together of wisdom and love as a procreating nucleus. This is the Jehovah God who made the visible man, the man of self-consciousness. God manifest in substance is the Jesus Christ man. Elohim, universal Mind, creates, but Jehovah God forms. Being is without beginning or ending. Universal Mind imaged itself in all that it created, and all its ideas are contained in the divine-idea man, which is Jehovah or the Christ. Jesus Christ is that perfection made manifest in man. Spiritual creating is ideation in Truth. The ideas of Divine Mind are contained potentially in substance, but until these ideas are consciously recognized by Jehovah God, the divine-idea man, they are not wholly manifest. All things exist as ideas, but these ideas are manifested only as spiritual man, becomes conscious of them. The "rain" represents the descent of potential ideas into substance. Spiritual man, in whom all the ideas of Divine Mind are imaged, is not yet manifest in substance. "There was not a man to till the ground."

The "face" represents the outward aspect, while "ground" stands for formed substance, the product of related ideas. When man begins to focus his mind on a purpose, there appears at first to be a "mist" or lack of clear understanding between the earth consciousness and the spiritual mind. But this "mist" has its place in the divine economy, for it "waters" or softens the divine radiance.

"Dust" represents the radiant earth or substance. When spiritual man (I AM) enters into this "dust of the ground" (substance) and makes use of the God ideas inherent in him, he brings forth the ideal body in its elemental perfection. The real body of man is not material but is of the nature of the universal-dust body, which is the divine-substance body. Therefore the perfect image-and-likeness man is perfect in body as well as in mind. We should remember that the first Adam was perfect as an idea in his elemental soul and body. "Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual."

Spiritually, "nostrils" represents openness to the inspirations of mind. The "breath" is the inner life flow that pulsates through the soul. The breathing of the manifest man corresponds to the inspiration of the spiritual man. When any man is inspired with high ideas, he breathes "into his nostrils the breath of life." Spiritual inspiration quickens man to the awareness that he is a "living soul." The soul is the sum total of consciousness and its great goal is a consciousness of eternal life. Through his I AM or Jehovah God man enters into his soul realm and rebreathes into it the true ideas of Being until these ideas quicken his consciousness to a response that harmonizes it with the underlying Christ principles. Man, spiritually identified, is Jehovah God, co-operating with Elohim God, divine principle, developing a spiritual being, the Christ man, to the consciousness of his divinity. "I speak not from myself: but the Father abiding in me doeth his works."

The Garden of Eden represents a region of being in which are provided all primal ideas for the production of the beautiful. As described in Genesis it represents allegorically the elemental life and intelligence placed at the disposal of man, through which he is to evolve a soul and body.

The Garden of Eden also represents allegorically the elemental forces named by scientists as composing the invisible, etheric universe that Jesus referred to as the "kingdom of the heavens" and "Paradise." It also comprehends the activity of those forces in man's soul and body that, when quickened and regenerated, make him a master of all creation. "The kingdom of God is within you." "East" represents the within as "west" represents the without. Jesus also said, "Ye who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." In our analysis of the Garden of Eden we consider it as a concentration, in man, of all the ideas of God concerned in the process of unfolding man's soul and body. When man is expressing the ideas of Divine Mind, bringing forth the qualities of Being in divine order, he dwells in Eden, a state of bliss, in a harmonious, productive consciousness containing all possibilities of growth.

Gen. 2:9. And out of the ground made Jehovah God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

"Ground" represents formed substance: ideas of Truth of which man is conscious. The "tree" is the substance that connects mind and body, earth and heaven, represented physically by the nerves. The "tree that is pleasant to the sight" represents the pleasure derived from ascending and descending currents of life over the nerves. The substance of spiritual thought is the "food" that is good. The "tree of life also in the midst of the garden" represents the absolute-life principle established in man's consciousness by Divine Mind, the very center of his being. The roots of the "tree of life" are centered in the solar-plexus region, and they are symbolized in the physical organism by the nerves of that plexus.

The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" represents the sympathetic nervous system whose fruit is sensation. When man controls his feelings and emotions his sensations are harmonized and all his functions are supplied with nerve energy. But when man gives way to the pleasure sensation he consumes or "eats" of that energy and robs his body of its essential nerve food. Thus excessive sense pleasure and the pain that follows are designated as "good and evil."

Gen. 2:10-14. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pishon: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth in front of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

"River" symbolizes the activity of life in the trees or the current of life in the organism (garden). The "head" of the river represents its directive power.

The name Pishon is variously defined as "fully diffused," "real existence," "perfect substantiality," "being, carried to its highest degree." Spiritually interpreted, this definition is descriptive of Spirit at work in man's consciousness, Spirit diffusing its ideas of intelligence and light into man's soul. However this work of Spirit is not confined to man's body or to the earth but is everywhere present. It is the activity of divine ideas in their fullness.

The river Pishon is described as encompassing "the whole land of Havilah." Havilah represents the struggle of elemental life, virtue born of trial, travail, or suffering. There is gold in this land and also precious stones, which means that it is the realm of reality. In other words, we have locked up in our elemental body all the treasures of Spirit. All the precious things of life for which we have been looking are in our body, and it is through the inflow of this mighty spiritual Pishon that these precious ideas are released. But there is a struggle or, as Jesus said, "tribulation" between the spiritual and the natural.

The name Gihon means variously "formative movement," "a bursting forth," "whirlpool," "rapid stream." This river represents the deific breath of God inspiring man and at the same time purifying his blood in the lungs. Job said that "there is a spirit in man" and that "the breath of the Almighty giveth them understanding." The river Gihon "compasseth the whole land of Cush." The name Cush means "firelike," "darkness," "impurity"; and the passage refers to the blood-purifying process of the breath. God is breathing His breath through man's being, cleansing the blood stream, and filling his whole being with spiritual inspiration.

The name Hiddekel means "universal generative fluid," "rapid stream," "rapid spiritual influx." The river Hiddekel symbolizes the spiritual nerve fluid that God is propelling throughout man's whole being continually, as the electromagnetic center of every physically expressed atom and cell, the very elixir of life. This wonderful stream of nerve fluid finds its way over all the many nerves in man's body, giving him the invigorating, steadying power of the Holy Spirit.

Assyria represents the psychic realm or the soul. The nerve fluid, the most attenuated and volatile fluid of the body, breaks into flares at the ends of the nerves, giving rise to various kinds of psychical and mental action, forming character or soul. The mind uses the nerve flares to express its ideas.

The name of the fourth river, Euphrates, means "fructifying" or "that which is the fructifying cause." Metaphysically it represents the blood stream. The circulatory system receives and distributes the nutrients contained in the food we eat. The blood stream is charged with the food substance for bone, muscle, brain, teeth, and hair. Every part of the organism is supplied with substance through this wonderful river Euphrates.

Gen. 2:15-17. And Jehovah God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the 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.

The Garden of Eden symbolizes the omnipresent, unseen realm out of which comes the visible universe. Modern science has named it the cosmic ether. It cannot be described in human language, because it transcends all the comparisons of earth. Jesus said that the "mysteries" of the kingdom were revealed to those who were spiritually awake but to others must be told in parables.

The human body with its psychical and spiritual attributes comprises a miniature Garden of Eden, and when man develops spiritual insight and in thought, word, and act voluntarily operates in accord with the divine law, then rulership, authority, and dominion become his in both mind and body. "The kingdom of God is within you."

Jehovah God, the active representative of Divine Mind in man, places man in the Garden of Eden to "dress it and to keep it." Man dresses and keeps this garden by developing, in his consciousness, the original, pure ideas imparted by Divine Mind. As man establishes ideas of Truth he calls into manifestation his spiritual body imaged in substance by Divine Mind.

"Tree" represents the connecting link between the formed substance (earth) and the formless (heaven). To "eat" is to appropriate the substance of ideas through thinking about them. "Evil" represents error thought combinations; that part of consciousness which has lost sight of true principles and through sensation becomes enamored of the thing formed. Form has its place in creation, but it is subject to the creative idea that begets it. The activity of an idea in man's mind produces sensation. To become involved in the sensation of an idea to the exclusion of control is to eat of the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" and die to all consciousness of the original idea.

Materiality as the obverse of spirituality was set up when man became involved in thoughts of the external, in sensation, and lost sight of the true creative idea. Because of this, man gradually became separated from the realm of divine ideas; in other words, from God. Death is the result of this separation from God. Jesus restored the broken life current between God and man and so became the "Saviour" for those who follow Him.

Gen. 2:18-25. And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help mate for him. And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every beast of the field, and every bird of the heavens; and brought them unto the man to see what he would call them: and whatsoever the man called every living creature, that was the name thereof. And the man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every beast of the field; but for man there was not found a help meet for him. And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And the man 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. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Man must have avenues through which to express himself. These avenues are the "help meet" designed by Jehovah God. Man represents wisdom. It is not good for wisdom to act alone; it must be joined with love if harmony is to be brought forth. Both the soul and the body are helpmeets to man (spirit), avenues through which he expresses the ideas of Mind.

It is on the soul or substance side of consciousness that ideas are "identified," that is, "named." Whatever we recognize a thing to be, that it becomes to us because of the naming power vested in man (wisdom). "Every beast of the field" and the "cattle" represent ideas of strength, power, vitality, and life. These ideas must be recognized by the I AM before they can be formed. "The birds of the heavens" represent free thoughts and the interchange between the subconscious and the conscious activities of mind. Man has power to name all ideas that are presented to his conscious mind, whether they come from within or without.

Wisdom, the masculine phase of man, needs a helpmeet or balance. Love in the soul (woman) has not yet been developed and established in substance.

A limited concept of Jehovah God caused a deep sleep (mesmeric state) to fall on the man (Adam). Nowhere in Scripture is there any record to show that Adam was ever fully awakened; and he (man) is still partly in this dreamlike state of consciousness. In this state he creates a world of his own and peoples it with ideas corresponding to his own sleep-benumbed consciousness.

Paul said, "As in Adam all die [fall asleep, lose spiritual consciousness], so also in Christ shall all be made alive [awaken from coma or lethargy into the awareness of Spirit life]."

Awakening cannot be associated with dying. The idea that man awakens to spiritual or any kind of consciousness immediately after "death," whether in heaven, hell, purgatory, or elsewhere, is opposed to Truth. His awakening must take place here, during the time of "life," at least while he is partially awake and before he sinks into that deeper sleep or coma that we call death.

The Scripture admonishes us: "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead [the mortal dream of life], and Christ [Truth] shall shine upon thee." David, sensing this, said, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with beholding thy form."

The soul is here coming into the positive development of divine love (the woman). Love is the passive quality of mind and must become active through man's volition, before it can be brought forth; and man must enter into the passive side of Being and cease from outer mental activity. This state is symbolized by "deep sleep"; the outer consciousness is quiet, allowing the spiritual to express itself fully.

Man evolves, attains consciousness in mind and body, as he becomes aware of the divine ideas implanted in his being. In this chapter Adam "names"--calls to consciousness in life's activities--the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens (animal and intellectual realms). Then in moments of meditation, when the outer mind is still, he makes contact with the subconscious.

The Hebrew word from which "rib" is translated means "curved surface," not specifically one of Adam's ribs; rather, the curves of beauty innate in Adam. The development of Eve is a refining process that helps man to bring forth his divine feminine nature. The rib or bone that became woman is symbolical of the very substantial character of the love that she represents.

Adam is the objective and Eve the subjective in primal man, both in the same body. As man evolves Eve becomes objective. "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

If the ego or will that is man has adhered to the guiding light of Spiritual faithfully and has carried out in its work the plans that are ideated in wisdom, it has created a harmonious consciousness. The original Adam in Eden is symbolical of such a consciousness.

The "deep sleep" into which the intellect is plunged when true love is experienced still prevails in human relations. Love is the great mystery of life. The spiritually wise see love as the force that enfolds with mathematical precision the galaxies in space as well as the tiniest atom. Science names it gravity.

"Mysteries of Genesis" by Charles Fillmore

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