Page 351 - The_secret_teachings_of_all_ages_Neat

God) is said to have created man in his own image, male and female; or, more properly,
as the division of the sexes had not yet taken place, male-female. This is a deathblow to
the time-honored concept that God is a masculine potency as portrayed by Michelangelo
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Elohim then order these androgynous beings to
be fruitful. Note that neither the masculine nor the feminine principle as yet existed in a
separate state! And, lastly, note the word "replenish." The prefix re denotes "back to an
original or former state or position," or "repetition or restoration." (See Webster's
International Dictionary, 1926.) This definite reference to a humanity existing prior to
the "creation of man" described in Genesis must be evident to the most casual reader of
Scripture.

An examination of Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, and commentaries discloses the
plural form of the word Elohim to be beyond the comprehension of their respected
authors and editors. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge thus
sums up the controversy over the plural form of the word Elohim: "Does it now or did it
originally signify plurality of divine being?" A Dictionary of the Bible, edited by James
Hastings, contains the following conclusion, which echoes the sentiments of more critical
etymologists of the Bible: "The use of the plur. Elohim is also difficult to explain." Dr.
Havernick considers the plural form Elohim to signify the abundance and super-richness
existing in the Divine Being. His statement, which appears in The Popular and Critical
Bible Encyclopædia, is representative of the efforts made to circumvent this extremely
damaging word. The International Standard Bible Dictionary considers the explanations
offered by modern theologians--of which Dr. Havernick's is a fair example--to be too
ingenious to have been conceived by the early Hebrews and maintains that the word
represents the survival of a polytheistic stage of Semitic thought. The Jewish
Encyclopedia supports the latter assumption with the following concise statement: "As
far as epigraphic material, traditions, and folk-lore throw light on the question, the
Semites are shown to be of polytheistic leanings."

Various schools of philosophy, both Jewish and Gentile, have offered explanations
erudite and otherwise of the identity of Adam. In this primordial man the Neo-Platonists
recognized the Platonic Idea of humanity--the archetype or pattern of the genus homo.
Philo Judæus considered Adam to represent the human mind, which could understand
(and hence give names to) the creatures about it, but could not comprehend (and hence
left nameless) the mystery of its own nature. Adam was also likened to the Pythagorean
monad which by virtue of its state of perfect unity could dwell in the Edenic sphere.
When through a process akin to fission the monad became the duad--the proper symbol
of discord and delusion--the creature thus formed was exiled from its celestial home.
Thus the twofold man was driven from the Paradise belonging to the undivided creation
and cherubim and a flaming sword were placed on guard at the gates of the Causal
World. Consequently, only after the reestablishment of unity within himself can man
regain his primal spiritual state.

According to the Isarim, the secret doctrine of Israel taught the existence of four Adams,
each dwelling in one of the four Qabbalistic worlds. The first, or heavenly, Adam dwelt
alone in the Atziluthic sphere and within his nature existed all spiritual and material