Genesis, Chapter 4—Without the soul the body is a machine, with but little sensation and no progress.
📝🚨 PRE-NOTES 🚨📝
I admit ignorance. I don't know the when, the why or the how. I just make it fun & simple for myself, and apply it.
I don't know what I am talking about, but it knows me.
Language seems to becoming more fluid.
All blogging comes from a bottomless knowing, a softening remembrance.
'Growing up' in a stressful protestant church environment, my family and their friends seemed to take the bible 100% literally, their own interpretations changing at whim, to suit their needs. Which was really confusing. It 'made me' resent this book, and communities, for most of my life.
As my grip of this particular limiting self-story and other retrotensions loosen, information shifts, memories continue to change and evolve. My mind and body open, showing me someone new with a completely different history & future.
I am allegedly here, acting as mortal, who is observing themselves struggling in intermittent ecstasy, with the word God, and "God's Word". \
It is Good, and an ancient distraction?
I am enjoying my little full circle mortal adventure. I will read this entire bible. It will read me.
Love, in reverence,
— The Administrator.
Theme: Brotherwound, murder, offering..... etc....
Symbols: brother, sheep, fruit... etc...
Sources Consulted: Charles Fillmore — Metaphysical Bible Dictionary
Mood: Serene
Highlights
KJV:
• Gen. 4:16
"And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden."
• Gen. 4:26
"...and he called his name Enos:"
Metaphysical Bible Dictionary:
• Metaphysical meaning of Cain
Cain, cain (Heb.; more properly Kain) --possession; acquisition; centralization; draws to itself; to its own center; selfishness; sharp; cutting; a lance. Among some of the ancient authorities, Cain represents the genius of evil. That which Cain symbolizes is not all bad, however, since all ideas of rulership are derived from the idea of centralized power. The benevolent or the malevolent aspects of the name Cain are determined from that upon which the centering is directed.
Meta. Cain means possession, acquisition, centralization, that which draws to itself, selfishness. Cain refers directly to that part of the human consciousness which strives to acquire and possess. He was a tiller of the soil, which places him in the earthly domain. In Hindu metaphysics he would be called the physical body. Paul would call him the flesh.
The killing, by the body-selfishness, of all human sympathy and love is represented by Cain's slaying of Abel. When the body demands possession of all the resources of mind and soul, and reduces existence to mere material living, it has slain Abel, and his blood, or life, continually cries from the earthly consciousness to the Lord for expression.
When the selfishness of the body has killed the finer impulses of the soul and has reduced to material existence all the higher aspirations, there is no longer pleasure in living. Without the soul the body is a machine, with but little sensation and no progress. Cain thus tills the ground, but it yields him no strength.
The body feels its degradation, and those who get into this degenerate condition are usually miserable. Cain's punishment is great, and he fears the vengeance of the other faculties, which condemn the body for its impotency. But the Lord, or divine law, has fixed a limit to this and we are warned not to destroy the body, no matter how great its sins. The sign that was appointed for Cain to keep him from being slain is the consciousness of his divine origin. No matter how deep in transgression the body may be, it still bears the stamp of God and should never be killed.
• Metaphysical meaning of Abel
Abel, a'-bel (in Hebrew, heh-bel)--breath or vanity; transitoriness; a breath; vapor.
Second son of Adam and Eve, killed by his brother Cain (Gen. 4:2-8).
Meta. Abel means breath, which places him in the air, or the mental realm. He represents not the spiritual mind but the mind that controls the animal functions--he was a sheep raiser. The mental is more closely related to the spiritual consciousness than the physical (Cain) is, and its offerings are more acceptable to Spirit than are those of the physical. In Hindu metaphysics, Abel would be termed the animal soul. Paul would call him the creature.
• Metaphysical meaning of offering
offerings.
Meta. The burnt offerings of bullocks and sheep on the altar (I Kings 3:4; II Chron. 30:24) represent the transmutation of the physical forces to the next higher plane of action. This is a process of body refinement to be accomplished by those who follow Jesus in the regeneration.
• Metaphysical meaning of Nod
Nod, nod (Heb.)--staggering with fear; agitated with apprehension; raving with fright; wandering with uncertainty; agitated flight; banishment; exile.
The land on the east of Eden, or in front of Eden, where Cain went out from the presence of Jehovah and dwelt, after he had killed Abel (Gen. 4:16).
Meta. After any positive action of the mind there is always an apparent negative reaction. The "land of Nod," as we know it today, is the condition called sleep. Thus Nod, meaning agitated flight, wandering with uncertainty, suggests the seemingly unguided activity of man's subconscious phase of mind during periods of sleep, or relaxation, or apparently negative reactions. The fundamental idea in Nod is that of uncertainty of mind, bewilderment.
• Metaphysical meaning of Adah
Adah, a'-dah (Heb.)--beauty; comeliness; adornment; ornament; pleasure.
a Wife of Lamech; Lamech was fifth in descent from Cain (Gen. 4:19). b A wife of Esau's (Gen. 36:2).
Meta. A phase of the human soul, or love nature. Love, even in the limited, personal consciousness and expression, has its pleasing aspect (pleasure). Expression of it adorns one with a certain beauty of character and a grace and comeliness that are lacking in persons who are wanting in love (ornament, beauty).
• Metaphysical meaning of Ziliah
Ziliah, zil'–lah (Heb.)--deep; darkness; gloom; shadow; screened; veiled; protected.
A wife of Lamech who was descended from Cain. She was the mother of Tubal–Cain and of his sister Naamah (Gen. 4 :19).
Meta. A very great or dense obscurity of thought, regarding his true spiritual nature and capabilities, that exists in the soul of the individual who is still living wholly in the outer or sense consciousness (deep, darkness, / gloom, shadow, wife of Lamech, of the line of Cain). Lack of true and clear understanding, at this phase of unfoldment, is a protection to the individual (protected) in that it shields or screens him (screened) //from experiences that he is not yet able to meet, yet would have to face were it possible for the full light of Truth to enter his consciousness at this time. (See ZALMONAH for a more detailed explanation of this line of thought.)
• Metaphysical meaning of Naamah Naamah, na'-a-mah (Heb.)--comity; concord; amity; social unity; sweet; pleasant; grace; delight.
a Daughter of Lamech and Zillah, and sister of Tubal cain (Gen. 4:22). b An Ammonitess, wife of Solomon and mother of Rehoboam (I Kings 14:21). c A city in the lowland of Judah (Josh. 15:41).
Meta. The animal soul in pleasing, harmonious relationship with the youthful idea, even though this consciousness of strength and youth here is of the outer man (Lamech, father of the one Naamah, was descended from Cain, who represents the outer or the body; the other woman named Naamah was an Ammonitess, Ammonites referring to carnal thoughts). The lowland city of Judah named Naaman signifies a group of thoughts in the subconsciousness that are pleasant and agreeable, unifying, but need lifting to higher and more spiritual realization and expression; hence they have passed into the possession of Judah (prayer and praise). The central idea in Naamah is unity, the principle of unity as coming into activity.
Woah okay that explains a lot. Thanks, Charles 🩷🎀
Insights:
• Gosh, does this chapter ever jump around so hurriedly. Calm down and give me some more context! No wonder everyone is so confused here.
• At first glance, I don't see why LORD God had to disrespect Cain's offering. Seems narrowminded. Doesn't seem very 'omni' to me.
• Like Abel, I also identify as a vapour 🌫️.
• I don't know. I am curious as to what Eve, Adah, Zillah and Naamah were wearing when all of this was going down. How did they wear their hair?
Questions:
• Love the name "Enos". What does it mean?
• Metaphysical meaning of Enosh Enosh (A.V., Enos), e'-nosh (Heb.)--mutable being; transient man; corporeal man; mortal man; suffering man; miserable man.
Son of Seth and grandson of Adam (Gen. 4:26).
Meta. The outer, or body consciousness, in its limited, material, corruptible concept of the organism. See SETH inconjunction with this name; the two must be studied together in order to get the full significance of this one.
Ok, cool. Here is Seth then:
• Metaphysical meaning of Seth
Seth, seth (Heb.)--settled; determined; founded; set; placed; disposed; constituted; substituted; compensation.
Son of Adam and Eve, who "called his name Seth: For, said she, God hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel; for Cain slew him" (Gen. 4:25).
Meta. The root idea of this name is that of a surrounding sympathetic movement that envelops a thing and defines its limits, places it, founds it, disposes of it. Some mystics have seen in the name Seth a law of destiny, that which predetermines a thing and settles its order.
While man is in a sense a creature of free will, yet in a larger sense he is a son of God, made in the image and likeness of God, and is destined to express and demonstrate spiritual perfection. There is in all the universe, including man, a balancing power of good, of perfection, which causes a readjustment, a healing, to set in after every transgression of the law, every wandering away from that which is wholesome and true. We find this set forth very clearly in Bible history and symbology. Man seems ever to have wandered away to the limit; then a great reaction has set in, and he has been led back to a saner level. Thus he evolves, grows; and finally he shall come into a full consciousness of his perfect good. His growth into Christlikeness is accelerated greatly as he comes into a knowledge of the Truth that makes free, and thinks and acts consciously, voluntarily, in harmony with it.
"And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh. Then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah" (Gen. 4:26). Enosh means a miserable man, mortal man; it is when man comes to the end of his personal resources and sees the nothingness of all his efforts in the outer, apart from Spirit, that he begins to look for a higher power to express in his life--he calls upon the name of Jehovah. It is the activity of the awakening spiritual ideals within him (Seth) that causes him first to realize the futility of his human efforts to better himself, and then to recognize the one Source of all true uplift and good.
Love it, j'adore 🩷