02 August 2021

Faces of God - Part 2

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“The Bible presents the man as A.D.M. These three

sounds were translated as "Adam". They are
respectively the terms for spirit, soul, and body;
kabbalistically, they are expressed with the number
1440, that is, 9.” – Jan van Rijckenborgh

Text: Emilia Wróblewska-Ćwiek Image: Sergei Tokmakov via Pixabay CCO

Go to Part 1

The first chapter of Genesis describes the creation of the world and man. There we
read the Elohim say: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness”[1].
Kabbalistic Bible scholars do not consider the words "our image" and "likeness"
synonymous. They understand "likeness" (Hebrew, demut) as the visible and external
aspect of man, while the word "image" (Hebrew, celem) is meant to refer to the inner,
hidden and invisible world in us. In the human heart there is one particular atom, not
of earth, called by the ancient initiates "the spark", in which is hidden - as in a grain -
the image of the heavenly man. This image is a luminous manifestation, it is free from
any masks.

But before man liberates himself from masks, before he truly knows himself, he
perceives also God through their prism. Man has his external, earthly and visible
aspect, as well as internal - spiritual and hidden. This external, visible aspect is
described according to the Pythagorean numerology by the consonants of his first
names and surnames. The internal and invisible aspect, called the number of the soul,
is to be described by the vowels. Vowels were not recorded in ancient kabbalistic
scriptures because they were considered to refer to the invisible soul that could be
known by animating the body and filling it with light.

Based on the day, month and year of our birth, the numerologist can draw up a graph
for us called the diamond of life, from which he reads the quality of our life path,
cycles, challenges and lessons that we have to master at different stages of our
present life. The name "diamond of life" is not accidental. For this diagram, firstly,
actually resembles a diamond, and secondly - it is a graphic and symbolic
representation of a process whose ultimate goal is to transform us, as natural, earthly
beings whose life is based on carbon compounds, into higher, pure and noble beings
like a diamond - into divine beings. Interestingly, the word "diamond" comes from the
ancient Greek word adamas and the Latin diamas. The Latin name of this stone
literally means "you love the gods", and the Greek adamas (indestructible, invincible)
brings to mind the biblical Adam or Adam Kadmon, the original Adam, the first perfect
man we know from the Kabbalistic teachings. Michael Laitman, a contemporary rabbi
and promoter of Kabbalistic knowledge, in one of his books writes that the word Adam
derives from the Aramaic word "dome", which means "similar to the Creator". He
writes:

“Ancient wisdom says allegorically that all mankind was created as one being,
meaning that in the beginning all humans were united together as one. And Nature
relates to us as it does to one man. This collective image is called Adam, from the
word ‘dome’, which in Old Babylonian Aramaic means ‘like the Creator’.

Originally created as one man, as a result of increasing selfishness, we gradually lost

our sense of community and drifted apart, reaching in our sense of separation to the
point of hatred."

In the book "Elementary Philosophy of the modern Rosycross"[2], Jan van

Rijckenborgh says about Adam as follows:

“The Bible presents the man as A.D.M. These three sounds were translated as "Adam".
They are respectively the terms for spirit, soul, and body; Kabbalistically, they are
expressed with the number 1440, that is, 9:

A - Aleph: number 1, becoming, revelation, source from which everything comes: Spirit.

D - Daleth: the number 4 means "leveler" or "door"; a significant term for the activity
of the soul.

M - Mem: the number 40, i.e. the one that ends, who fulfills, who performs: the bodily
form.

Adam is therefore by no means a designation of a single man, but concerns humanity

as a whole, namely in its manifestation of spirit, soul and body.

At the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation mentions 144,000 saved (number 9). It
is about humanity again, but only about the exclusive part that will participate in
salvation. It is not a group of exactly 144,000 beings, but that part of people who have
undergone a process of renewal according to spirit, soul, and body, and have
succeeded in doing so.”

This process of renewal is related to the mysterious riddle that the Sphinx was
supposed to pose to travelers, harassing and murdering people in Thebes: "What is
this animal endowed with a voice that walks on all fours in the morning, on two legs at
noon, and on three in the evening?" This puzzle was solved by Oedipus, who said that
this animal is a human being, because being a toddler he moves on all fours, when he
grows up - on two legs, and in old age he supports himself with a staff, so he has three
legs. However, there is another, deeper solution to this riddle[3]. It is related to the
Pythagorean analysis of the three numbers mentioned in the riddle: 4, 2 and 3, which
when summed up give 9, the natural number of man and the lower worlds. The Four
represents a man with an animal, primitive consciousness limited to the world of
matter. The Two concerns a man endowed with an earthly intellect, whose light is
mixed with darkness, therefore this man is in the grip of the dual world and perceives
the world in a dual way. The Three, on the other hand, refers to a spiritual man who is
initiated into the arcana of Opus Magnum, who, as a result of an alchemical
transformation and profound self-knowledge, restored the microcosm - as a unity of
spirit, soul and body - to its original perfection. He became Manas, a sage who can
return to his lost spiritual homeland. Only when a man solves this mystery, the secret
of the vibration three, will he discover the mystery of his existence. He will become
free from his image, a neutral mirror (0) reflecting the Father’s- Mother’s, Abba’s-
Ama’s (1, 2) Face. He will become His demut and celem.

[1] Genesis 1:26.

[2] Jan van Rijckenborgh, “Elementary Philosophy of the Modern Rosycross”, chapter
10.

[3] See: Manly P. Hall, “The Secret Teachings of All Ages”, chapter 6.