Perhaps the best place to start is “In the beginning…”, in the first chapter of the Bible, Genesis, the creation chapter. (For the sake of clarification, we are examining the Chapters in Genesis from Genesis 1:1-2:25, I have included most of the chapters that we are examining here to provide the reader with reference points to which I refer in this writing.)
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, 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 the evening and the morning were the first day. 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 the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven 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 bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the 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 the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made 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 the 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 the evening and the morning were the fourth day. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his 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 fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 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 fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” Genesis 1:1 –1:31
The first questions we might begin to ask ourselves is, “Why did God create anything or everything, the heavens and the earth, the creatures of the air and of the water and of the earth, then finally man and woman?” Was God lonely? Was God just He? What compelled the Divine Creator of the universe to create? Within the framework of these questions, we can begin to consider the larger question, “Who am I”?
All of the major world religions teach us is that God is Love. The obvious answer to the question then of why God created would seem to be that Love compelled the creation. The need to love and to be loved is so basic and fundamental to life that we may conclude that Divine Love is the reason that the universe and everything in it have been created. If to love and to be loved is the motivation of Creation, the motivation for all life upon earth and indeed beyond earth, then love must therefore exist at the heart of everything that exists in the entire universe. Because Love is God and God is Love, God created everything therefore everything must BE Love. Out of this great Love that God IS, He created “the heavens and the earth” before He created man knowing that man would need a platform upon which to live, grow and evolve. Moreover, God had a plan and that plan was to create Man. I do not mean to imply that God was sitting on His couch or the proverbial throne with his fist under His chin contemplating all of this like some anthropomorphic God, considering and weighing the benefits or the risks of creation. I surmise rather that it naturally flowed forth from God, a natural process of expansion, beginning with the Dot and exploding into the known and the unknown universe, out of Love.
“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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So 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 fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-1:28)
God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. The answer to one of the above questions is answered in Genesis 1:26, God was not alone in the sense that we commonly refer to or are aware of aloneness. At least not at this point in the creation. In Genesis 1:1 we might surmise that God was alone or “all one”. However, by the time we reach Genesis 1:3, billions of years may have passed. If the universe is about 10 billion years old, give or take, then we might consider each phase of the creation in billions of years making each day approximately 1.67 billion years, since God created everything in “6 days”. At the point at which the Divine Fiat goes forth, “Let there be light”, we can conclude that a division had begun. God began to divide the light from the darkness and the land from the sea etc and so on during the creation phase of His existence. (NOTE: Clearly God remains in the creation phase of His existence and the creation phase continues and does not end.) In the division stage of the creation, we might consider or meditate upon the possibility that this division that was and is taking place in the universe, was and is a natural unfoldment of God’s own Consciousness. By the time God gets around to creating man, He is God plural, indicated in the fiat “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. He created “them”, also plural after His own image, both male and female, indicating that God is both Male and Female and that They (Father/Mother) are One! “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last”. (Revelation 22:13) Some could argue that the “Persons” to whom God was speaking were the Son and the Holy Spirit”, whom are also contained within the Consciousness of God. This is the reason that I have included the scripture from Revelation. Here is the confirmation of the Father/Mother aspect of God’s Consciousness just as the Son and the Holy Spirit are aspects of God that exist within the Consciousness of God. The “Word” having been equated with the Son aspect. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) And the comforter having been equated with the Holy Spirit aspect. “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;” Jesus (John 14:16)
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended 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 sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD 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 the LORD 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 the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD 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 knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:1-2:9
In chapter two of Genesis we find another complex explanation of the creation of man and woman which is in some ways both literal and figurative. In Genesis 2:7 and 2:8 we find a distinction shows up in the creation of man. I think this is noteworthy because I believe it illustrates an important difference between the creation in the spirit phase and the creation in the matter phase. Also indicated in the phrase “there was not a man to till the ground.” If man had already been created in the “physical” sense as indicated in chapter one, then why is this statement made in chapter two? Additionally the first verse in chapter two gives us another seemingly confusing statement to analyze. “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” The heavens and the earth were finished on the sixth day, yet there was not a man to till the ground. The hosts of heaven and earth were finished, yet not finished. Of course the hosts of heaven are the angels, Archangels, the Elohim (plural of Hebrew Eloah, one of the names of God used in the Bible many times) as well as all other things existing in spirit in the Realms of the Heaven world. As above so below, everything God created, was created first in spirit, then in matter. I believe this is the explanation that makes the most sense. This truth is illustrated perfectly in the statement: “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew”.
In the spirit phase God creates Man and Woman in His own image or rather Their image. In the matter phase the breath of life is breathed into man who is taken from the dust of the ground and man becomes a living soul. “And the LORD 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 the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.” Man is then assigned to live in the “Garden of Eden”, arguably paradise in both the literal and figurative sense. In this phase of their existence the archetypal man both walks and talks with God in the paradise in which he lives. This refers to a very real state of consciousness that exists in man at this time. He is still in his perfected state, therefore he is able to commune with the Father/Mother God directly and does not need an intercessor. The archetypal first man Adam, having been given dominion over the earth begins to give names to the animals and is admonished to take care of the land, to eat of every tree, with the exception of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil”. While the Bible may seem contradictory on the points of the creation of man and woman, I think it is possible that some paragraphs or sentences may have gotten lost in translation as it were, so as to leave one wondering how we went from the first creation in chapter one to the next explanation of the creation in chapter two. But again, I believe it is because there is a distinct difference indicated in these two creation phases, one being the creation in spirit and the other being the creation in matter. However, the creation in spirit and matter phases seem to be present in both of these chapters. An example is present in chapter two wherein there is another allegorical explanation of the creation of Man and Woman in the creation of Eve. Eve is taken from Adams rib, she is flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones and she is called Woman because she is taken out of Man. (Genesis 2:20-2:23) It is therefore natural to conclude that the first creation of the Son of God in manifestation was the creation of the Son first in Spirit and then in Matter and that the word Son must represent both the Male and the Female aspects of this creation. With this in mind, I believe it would be appropriate to say that the Son and the Daughter were created in this phase, the spirit phase. The emphasis that I place here on the manifestation is to illustrate the point that the Son already exists in the beginning with God, as shown above, but that the manifestation of the Son of God has not yet occurred. That manifestation of the Sons and Daughters of God occurs after the creation of the archetypal Man and Woman, represented in Adam and Eve. And so we find that Adam and Eve are the first manifestation of the Son and the Daughter of God represented in the Bible.
Furthermore I would like to emphasize that the words Man and Woman are capitalized here, again illustrating that this Man and Woman are the original archetype and that the man and woman after the allegorical fall is in a lower estate than the first. The word Man and Woman are capitalized just as the word God is capitalized. This would seem to be an indication that this Man and this Woman are equal in some ways to God. They are Divine. They are actually God-man and God-woman, (“male and female created He them”). The illustration of Woman having been taken out of the rib of Man shows their equality, not the Woman’s subservience the way it is sometimes interpreted. Rather it shows that Man and Woman are one, in the same way in which our Father/Mother God are one when the Divine fiat is spoken, “Let us make man in our image…”. The Father aspect of God needs the Mother aspect in order to create, thus the need to cooperate in building life is present in the Divine Consciousness of our Father and Mother God. It follows then that both Man and Woman are equally relevant in their dominion over the earth.
The next distinction being made here is this; that the man and the woman in the Garden of Eden are individual souls who are living on the planet earth in a special place that God has created and that Adam and Eve represent the higher aspect of Man and Woman as they were in the beginning of the creation of Man and Woman. I think there is confusion in this for many of us on this point because we have been taught to believe for the most part that Adam and Eve were the first man and the first woman in a literal sense. If we adjust our thinking just a bit we might be able to conceive of the idea that Adam and Eve are allegorical representatives of Man and Woman in their highest estate which was and is the state of perfection. We find this perfection illustrated in the context of nakedness in which Adam and Eve exist in the beginning. This nakedness, does not refer to nudity or the lack of clothing. The nakedness is representative of the pure soul in its perfect state, which is spirit, having no need for physical garments or physical bodies. At this stage of existence they live in total perfection, experiencing perfect unity both with each other and with God. As long as they remain obedient to God their Father and Mother, there is no need to exist in any other state. Moreover, the requirement for obedience to God is actually the requirement for obedience to their own true nature, having been created in perfection and existing in perfection. It is not until the innocent souls of God’s Children are seduced by the serpent into eating of the “fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good evil” that they become separated both physically and spiritually from their natural estate and from the awareness of themselves as God-man and God-Woman, the manifestation of the Son and the Daughter of God.
Written by Peggy Napier October 24, 2009
