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of the feminine sex. In vindication of Eve philosophy claims that the allegory signifies
merely that man is tempted by his emotions to depart from the sure path of reason.

Many of the early Church Fathers sought to establish a direct relationship between Adam
and Christ, thereby obviously discounting the extremely sinful nature of man's common
ancestor, since it is quite certain that when St. Augustine likens Adam to Christ and Eve
to the church he does not intend to brand the latter institution as the direct cause of the
fall of man. For some inexplicable reason, however, religion has ever regarded
intellectualism--in fact every form of knowledge--as fatal to man's spiritual growth. The
Ignaratitine Friars are an outstanding example of this attitude.

In this ritualistic drama--possibly derived from the Egyptians--Adam, banished from the
Garden of Eden, represents man philosophically exiled from the sphere of Truth. Through
ignorance man falls; through wisdom he redeems himself. The Garden of Eden represents
the House of the Mysteries (see The Vision of Enoch) in the midst of which grew both the
Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Man, the banished Adam, seeks to pass from the outer court of the Sanctuary (the exterior
universe) into the sanctum sanctorum, but before him rises a vast creature armed with a
flashing sword that, moving slowly but continually, sweeps clear a wide circle, and
through this "Ring Pass Not" the Adamic man cannot break.

The cherubim address the seeker thus: "Man, thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.
Thou wert fashioned by the Builder of Forms; thou belongest to the sphere of form, and
the breath that was breathed into thy soul was the breath of form and like a flame it shall
flicker out. More than thou art thou canst not be. Thou art a denizen of the outer world
and it is forbidden thee to enter this inner place."

And the Adam replies: "Many times have I stood within this courtyard and begged
admission to my Father's house and thou hast refused it me and sent me back to wander
in darkness. True it is that I was fashioned out of the dirt and that my Maker could not
confer upon me the boon of immortality. But no more shalt thou send me away; for,
wandering in the darkness, I have discovered that the Almighty hath decreed my
salvation because He hath sent out of the most hidden Mystery His Only Begotten who
didst take upon Himself the world fashioned by the Demiurgus. Upon the elements of
that world was He crucified and from Him hath poured forth the blood of my salvation.
And God, entering into His creation, hath quickened it and established therein a road that
leadeth to Himself. While my Maker could not give me immortality, immortality was
inherent in the very dust of which I was composed, for before the world was fabricated
and before the Demiurgus became the Regent of Nature the Eternal Life had impressed
itself upon the face of Cosmos. This is its sign--the Cross. Do you now deny me entrance,
I who have at last learned the mystery of myself?"

And the voice replies: "He who is aware, IS! Behold!"