Analogue 51

Analogue 51 

Creation Stories

Adam came into being from two virgins: the Spirit and the virgin Earth. The Anointed One, therefore, was also born of a virgin so that the stumbling, which occurred at the beginning, might be rectified.

There are two trees in paradise: the one produces beasts, and the other produces humankind. It was Adam who ate from the tree producing beasts and so he himself not only became bestial, but gave birth to the same. Because of this, human beings began to worship animals. It was in this way, also, that Adam took from the fruit of that tree and multiplied and distributed it, so by eating its fruit, humans gave birth to humans, and also began to worship other humans.

It was God, however, who created human beings, but it was humans who created their own gods. So this has been the way it is in this world; humans create their own gods and worship them. It would be far more fitting if the gods of their own creation worshiped humans instead!

SYNOPSIS

• An overview of the genesis of the human condition resulting in eventual devolution. 
• The original mistake and where it leads: eating from the wrong tree produces a different kind or quality of human being who then worships the wrong thing. 
• The original and virginal nature of humanity before the initial separation into the sexes. 
• Virgin is equivalent here to original purity.
• Dual virgins — sacred mothers of both heaven and earth. 
• The beginnings of the restoration are the uniting of heaven and earth which was lost. The restoration of humankind back to its origins and purity. 
• The devolution of humankind into a bestial or animal-like nature that loses consciousness and becomes instinctual, having  no self-control, instead of governed by higher awareness and the guidance of Spirit.
• Humans begin to worship (pay homage to) what is lower than themselves on the scale of being and consciousness. The forgo what is higher and worship themselves or lower than themselves. 

 Video recording on YouTube

COMMENTARY

Origin Stories

Sacred traditions in cultures around the world mythologize human beginnings and origins. The Bible, of course, begins with the Genesis account taking place in the Garden of Paradise where humans were brought into being with nascent abilities and handicaps, but also with potentialities necessary for future growth and maturation. According to the narratives, at that very beginning, a pathway led out of that garden into the existence that we know now. Ever since, we have been traversing temporal and spatial territory bearing the burden of the choices made long ago by our ancient ancestors. These decisions are bearing fruit at this very moment. 

This analogue points back to those origins seeking to understand and interpret them. It relates an ancient narrative which gives us an alternate interpretation of the old mythologies, or at least a variant of a traditional telling that is unfamiliar to us. From any of these perspectives, actions undertaken in the past have consequences in the present moment. This other narrative, however, veers off from the old stories of sin and redemption in consequential ways. This analogue (and the Gospel in which it appears) reexamines the old assumptions about the original losses suffered by humanity, and lays them not so much at the feet of sin, but describes instead a diminution of human consciousness and being as it devolves from its original state into lesser and lower states. As we descend from our original state, essential characteristics of our true nature are stripped away, leaving us vulnerable to all sorts of ills and conditions, the most profound of which is death. 

Devolution

The image of the Tree of Life has been a prominent feature of creation mythologies and used as a sacred symbol across the earth. It appears to be universal through the centuries as well, describing not only the origins of humankind but its evolution from root to trunk to branch to its high crown of flowers, fruit and leaves. In the Genesis story it stands as a central focus, symbolizing what became of humankind through the millennia that followed. Two trees are featured in the original biblical creation account, described in Genesis 2:9 and 3:22-24. They also appear later in the final book of the Christian scriptures, Revelation 22. Humankind was created in a Garden of Paradise and was given multiple pathways in its unfolding. The path taken made human beings vulnerable, not only to death, but to a diminution of consciousness. Humans could have gradually evolved towards greater and greater states of clarity and maturation perhaps. Instead, according to this narrative, they began to devolve downwards, into realms that replicated the lesser intelligences in the animal kingdoms. According to the Genesis account, when the first parents made their decision and were exiled from the original Garden, access to the Tree of Eternal Life was rescinded.  

We know from the original story of Genesis that Adam ate from one tree instead of another. Philip sees that in that act of eating, humans were transformed by the fruit itself (we have become what we eat, according to this telling). One tree created a condition in which humans were able to produce other humans. Another tree, however, had the effect of creating a human sub-species—human forms that are more amenable to animal-like characteristics, lower than their original nobility. So what is an “animal-like” human being? A characteristic feature of animals is that they are possessed of instincts over which they have little or no control. This is not the moral category of “sin,” but the sense that they have no true conscious freedom (self control). The controlling force of their actions is not a higher mind (a reflexive self or spirit), nor is it found in transcendent reality, but in urges and drives over which they have no real influence. Most animals live by their native instincts, and so it seems do many human beings as well. 

The Gospel of Philip asserts that what we see and experience today is a level of human consciousness much lower than its original design. The resulting devolution of human consciousness from its primordial state manifests in ways that are bestial—under no authority other than instinctual impulses. Along with its level of consciousness, the religious focus of humankind also changed. As a result, humans began to worship other humans as god and demi-gods. They also began to worship sub-human and beast-like creatures. Although the outer form of a human being may not have changed, according to this analogue its consciousness has been diminished and thus its focus of intent and patterns of behavior as well. Deeper still, this Gospel sees that other relationships have moved away from their original design. Humankind has become internally divided, the feminine has been split off from the masculine. Perhaps we could say that the masculine has lost touch with the feminine, which is perhaps a deeply insightful description of patriarchy. 

The Restoration of Balances

Interestingly what this says concerning the feminine principle introduces another understanding that lies at the heart of duality, and perhaps new to our theological categories. The virgin Spirit (transcendent in the heavens) exists, and its mirror is the virgin earth—the earth perceived in a pure, virginal, and feminine way. Humankind came forth from their combined forces—the mother figures both above and below. We are the progeny of of these two feminine principles which are fundamentally one. When the Anointed One experienced union inside the Bridal Chamber, these balances were restored in him and the separate entities that had been split apart at our human beginnings were united. The Anointed One experienced the re-union of the virgin nature of his own being sourced in the earth with the celestial nature of his origins sourced in the heavens. These two virginal natures were once again united inside of him. This extraordinary way of seeing appears to be aligned with a strand of Jewish wisdom tradition related to first temple mystical teaching and practice that was available to Yeshua in his own time.  

When the Anointed One experienced union inside the Bridal Chamber, these balances were restored in him and the separate entities that had been split apart at our human beginnings were united.

According to this Gospel, the original path chosen by our ancestors took the form of a fateful ingestion which resulted in the diminution of the human being and consciousness. Although we continue to produce after our own. kind, unfortunately all our progeny have the same proclivities and characteristics resulting from that separation. All human beings now live with the same loss of transcendence and higher awareness as have all the rest throughout history. Worse, humans began to worship what was even lower in form and consciousness than themselves—idols that humans made, subhuman species that became the object of their devotion. This Gospel makes the ironic statement that the reverse should have been true. Instead of the worship of idols of their own making, it would have been far better that the idols humans had made should have turned and worshiped their human creators. 

The final point in this analogue is this: humankind must come to understand its origins, the Source of creation, and the virginal natures in both heaven and earth from which it has come. Human beings need a new focus of worship—a complete reorientation toward the higher, transcendent levels of consciousness far above the lower levels that are normal in our day. Clearly we need a renewed relationship with the Mother-earth that gave birth to us, and with the celestial Mother who reigns from the heavens. Further reflection on these creation stories and images lie ahead in the text (Analogue 55). 

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

1. The Gospel of Philip speaks of our human origins in relationship to two mothers, the twin “virgins” of the divine feminine in her heavenly and her earthly forms. It is an extraordinary way of seeing human beginnings. Obviously this has to do not only with the creation of the physical body (related to Mother Earth) but with the spiritual form of humanity (related to the virgin in the heavens). This symbolic language is ancient. How does it strike you? How do you see yourself related to the divine feminine in these ways?  
2. Rather than focusing on the issue of an original act of disobedience and moral decay, Philip speaks of an early decision taking humanity on a path of decline toward lower and lower levels of consciousness. The results changed humanity’s focus and set the stage for later religious practices. What are your thoughts about this explanatory shift? If the root difficulty of the human condition is not about original sin (as an act of disobedience) but about changes in consciousness affected by the kind of fruit that was devoured, what can be done now? It appears that some kind of ontological change is also possible, affecting human consciousness. 
3. God creates humans, humans create idols as their gods, which they then worship. We think of idol worship as an ancient practice that humanity has left far behind, but is that true? We have movie-stars for “idols” and human fans worship them. The cult of personality is especially strong in politics. We make gods out of many things. Look carefully at our culture and society at this moment and name the prominent idols that contemporary humans worship. 

NOTES FOR FURTHER STUDY 

AND REFERENCE

1. Because we wake up every morning from sleep we think that we are in a steady state of wakeful consciousness. According to the great sapiential traditions, however, this is an illusion. Many forms and levels of consciousness exist that we can know or grow into. This is true for human society as a whole. Modern versions of this have to do with such theories as Spiral Dynamics which discovered that social consciousness grows in ways similar to an individual’s physical and mental development. This is best understood perhaps as a kind of spiraling expansion that, in human consciousness, grows away from its more primitive and ego-centered states to include states of consciousness which extend beyond the ego and its horizontal orientation. With kardial awareness, consciousness can grow along the vertical axis as well. Consciousness is malleable, alive, and dynamic. It need not stay static or inhabit only one level. It can move along both axes according to ancient tradition in the manner of a spiral: Helikos Tropon. 
2. Creation stories are universal and vary widely according to the historical context of  their own cultural evolution. Inevitably they give rise to religious expressions which reflect particular values. It is clear that the story of original sin and disobedience found it’s way into the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis, which has had a profound effect on theological thought in the West. This is especially true for the theology defined by St. Augustine that was based on the writing of the Apostle Paul. You might want to explore another genesis narrative that is of interest but perhaps unknown to you and see what their founding creation myths were about and how they affected the subsequent development of that society and culture.

Notes on the Translation

• The word for beasts and animals are the same in the original.
• In the second paragraph the sentence that begins, “It was in this way, also, that Adam took...” is unclear in the original text because there are gaps in the original manuscripts. This rendering makes sense in the context, but may not accurately reflect the original Coptic text.