Warning: heavy metaphysical content. Not sure how this will be taken, but my geeky metaphysical side had to come out:)

The purpose of this very lengthy post is to sequentially unveil Genesis chapter one, verse by verse. It is the foundation for the rest of the Bible, and therefore, critical to understanding any of it. It’s a major undertaking because a prerequisite knowledge of ancient metaphysical symbols and concepts are needed. I will arm you with the most important ones below.  

Make no mistake: these symbols and concepts reveal the creation of the human soul. The focus of Genesis chapter one is not the literal universe, sky, or Earth, although they are indirectly included because the physical universe is contained in the human soul, and vice versa. Furthermore, the concepts found in Genesis chapter one explains the ancient axiom, “As above, so below.” 

To clear up some possible confusion with regards to the metaphysical nature of Genesis, it is important to realize that almost every symbol in all of the verses is speaking to the blueprint of man’s HIGHER and Lower nature. The higher nature meaning, that aspect of the soul which is real, permanent, and true. The lower nature, meaning, that aspect of the soul which proceeds from the higher nature, but is subject to change, and therefore is impermanent. It is illusory because it is always changing. It is also that aspect of the soul which is subject to death. In the words of St. Paul, your lower nature is “corruptible,” while the higher nature is “incorruptible.” 

Why am I calling Genesis chapter one a “blueprint” for the soul? Before a man builds a house, he has in his mind what it will look like. He has a blueprint. Genesis chapter one is that blueprint for the perfected human being, the archetypal man. Every chapter of the Bible after Genesis one explains the actual detail in the construction process where the potential (blueprint) becomes the actual (completed house / temple / church). And the construction of that house is YOU. A fundamental understanding of Genesis chapter one will unlock so much of the Bible that may have previously been confusing to you, as well as to help you to interpret the universal symbols throughout its other books, which were heavily influenced by Greek philosophy, which in turn was heavily influenced by far older and ancient metaphysical systems of knowledge. 

Before delving into this ancient treasure-trove of metaphysical knowledge, we must view the blueprint of man’s soul from a bigger picture. There is an underlying universality in the symbols and allegories of most all sacred scriptures and myth. These symbols often exemplify individual aspects of the five planes of existence (or dimensions if you prefer). They are discussed in Gaskell’s great work, Dictionary of Scripture and Myth. You would do well to commit them to memory before proceeding with the content in this post. These five planes are, from top to bottom: 

1. Celestial plane – light (symbolized in ancient myth as the Sun) 
2. Spiritual plane – fire (symbolized in ancient myth as the sky)
3. Mental plane – air (symbolized in ancient myth as the air between sky and water) 
4. Astral plane – water (symbolized in ancient myth as seas) 
5. Physical plane – earth (symbolized in ancient myth as earth, ground, dust, dry land)

In early Christian thought (such as St. Paul), the above philosophical groundwork would translate as : 

1. Son of God
2. Holy Spirit
3. Individuality (upper mental plane) and Personality (lower mental plane)
4. The “natural man” containing the desire nature and lower emotions
5. They physical temple which houses all of it

Understanding the creation of the human soul in Genesis chapter one (and the rest of the Bible) is dependent upon the metaphysical groundwork laid above. You should have noticed that the 3rd or middle plane is dual, consisting of the individuality (upper aspect) and the personality (lower aspect). We will address this when God creates the firmament, which divides the waters above and below. But you should understand at the onset that this demarcation is what separates the higher and lower self. This is also crucial to understanding the blueprint for man’s soul. To those who have an open mind, this philosophical blueprint will unveil some important truths; depending on what aspect of creation we are talking about in Genesis chapter one, one can look to five planes of existence above and immediately discover which aspect of the soul is being symbolized. For example, and as we’ll see, fowl of the air symbolize thoughts on the mental plane that soar upward towards spiritual enlightenment. Creeping crawling things symbolize the base desire-mind (in the lower nature), and correlate with the likes of greed and lust which keep consciousness grounded in the lower nature. I will use scriptures in other books of the Bible to corroborate these most basic truths of ancient metaphysical understanding. 

The upper mental plane, the spiritual plane and the celestial plane contain the higher self, whereas the lower mental plane, astral plane, and physical plane contain the lower self, or personality. What does this mean? Let’s start at the bottom and work our way back up: our physical bodies are the earth and lower nature. However, our lower nature is comprised of the physical, astral, and lower mental bodies all operating on their respective planes / dimensions. To put it more succinctly, the physical body-temple houses the astral (emotional) nature, and the mental (thought) nature. The personality of man is a physical/sensation-emotional-thought experience. The higher nature of man’s soul consist of the upper mental plane (the “I am” you experience, individuality), the spiritual plane (higher emotions / love and intuition / wisdom), and the celestial plane (the permanent light / ray of the indwelling divine Christ). The “I am-ness” that you feel proceeding from the upper mental plane allows you to experience thoughts, emotions, and sensations through the lower nature and wisdom and love through the higher nature. The lower nature is contained within the higher nature, but the lower nature comprehends it not, at first. 

Finally, it is vital to note that as the creation unfolds in Genesis chapter one, the lower and higher natures of the soul are latent with potential for self-realization of the divine within man’s soul. Christ is in every aspect of your being on every plane. Philosophically, you could say through your lower nature Christ is crucified, and through your higher nature Christ is resurrected. But the important thing to note is that Christ is at work on every plane of your existence. Many Christians get the mistaken notion that heaven is a place to look forward to when we die physically if we hold the right doctrines or beliefs. But the truth of the matter is that heaven is already within you. It is your job to go within and seek it. Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is within you. It is a state of consciousness that is experienced in the NOW. 

The truth of the matter is, the Bible doesn’t much deal with an afterlife. This isn’t to say there isn’t an afterlife. There most certainly is. But your state of consciousness now determines what the afterlife will be like, and whether or not you must return. And the Bible deals with life NOW. I will explain this more as we begin verse by verse in this foundational chapter of the Bible, corroborated by scriptures found in other Biblical books. Genesis one verses one through three will be the hardest to explain, and will take the most detail. So let’s jump in!

Genesis 1:1:

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

The first mistake people often make in reading this verse is to consider the words “heaven” and “earth” as literally the globe we live on and the idea that heaven is a physical location out there somewhere. Divorce your mind of that idea. The kingdom of heaven is within you, and you are the earth. But what does this mean? Heaven and earth universally symbolize spirit and matter. The true you is a spirit having a material existence. “Heaven” and “earth” are simply terms to help the intellect grasp the unfoldment of the ONE abiding reality, which is neither spirit nor matter. In ancient philosophical terms, spirit is active while matter is receptive. Think of spirit as energy, and matter as lifeless form that is receptive to this energy. Matter is simply the vehicle of form, which is ultimately illusory because it is subject to change.The spirit side of God is masculine / male, while the feminine aspect of God is female / receptive. They are both eternal. Matter receives spirit, and life commences through a spirit-matter interaction, the first Logos (consciousness). Spirit must have a body / mother / matter / earth to experience through. 

The symbol of the Christian cross conveys another way the intellect can grasp what is being taught through the spirit-matter dichotomy. Spirit, the vertical ray, is, in a philosophical sense, crucified on the horizontal ray of matter. 

On a more personal note, you can think of spirit and matter as subject and object. Spirit is the subjective life living within the objective material. But it is the subjective which is reality, because the objective world of matter is always changing form. It is the Self dreaming, and that thing that we do every night is but a reflection of a higher spiritual truth. First the natural, then the spiritual. 

In plain modern English, Genesis 1:1 means: God produced a reality for self-aware consciousness to manifest itself, which is fully explained in Genesis 1:3.

Genesis 1:2:

“And the earth (matter) 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.”

Again, the phrase “without form” and “void” symbolizes inert, lifeless matter. You may picture matter as the body, or vehicle through which spirit energizes to life. That’s why the verse ends with the spirit of God moving upon the waters. Waters is simply representative of this lifeless matter, through which spirit has not yet intervened to give it life. In ancient philosophical terms, water is associated with the concept of chaos. Chaos being that which has no form yet, so it is chaotic. Chaos is simply an unorganized, formless, lifeless potential to become. That unorganized mass of potential becomes actual (the right hand of God / Christ), as God’s spirit begins to move over the waters, or chaos. The next verse will bring this to light!

Genesis 1:3:

“And God said, let there be light: and there was light.”

See, told ya! In verses one and two, the unmanifest, unconscious, and impersonal Absolute (God) has begun the process of it’s own self-realization. How does this self-realization of its potential become actual? Through his right hand (symbolizing power and potential becoming actual), which is also the New Testament concept of Christ. Light, God’s light, symbolizes the dawn of self awareness or individual human consciousness. This was in the philosophical mind of the writer of the Gospel of John when he states, “In him was life, and that life (individual consciousness) was the light of men.” It is the spark of individuality, which must be built up through the experiences on each plane of existence (expanding its sphere of realization), through the physical (senses, sensations), the emotional (feelings), the mental (thoughts), the spiritual (intellect allied with intuition, wisdom and love), and finally, the fullness of Christ where he becomes all in all, in us. And this act of light symbolizes the impersonal God becoming personal as a self-aware, conscious soul through mankind.

One of the secrets to understanding the ancient mystical realization of these symbols is that when spirit descends into matter, the ONE (that which is neither spirit nor matter / the absolute Father) becomes dual in nature, through the commencement of spirit and matter, and self-aware consciousness becomes possible. This self-aware individuality is the potential Christ within you, that must proceed through each aspect of your soul on all the planes of manifestation who becomes self-realized, or actualized. He makes known the Father, which is why he sits at the right hand of God, symbolizing power and actualizing the potentials of the soul. The combination of spirit / matter “allows” individual consciousness. In the beginning, the fullness of this consciousness is not yet realized, which is why the darkness (or unconscious) in the Gospel of John “knew it not.” In other words, mankind realizes not the indwelling Christ until Christ, the self aware spark, raises the lower nature to the higher through the power of the Holy Spirit, which is but a specific manifestation of the Christ. This is why Christ has to lift the lower nature first, and then from above (your higher nature) he symbolically sends the Holy Spirit down. It’s a two-way street. The Holy Spirit is not a separate being which the church has unknowingly promulgated through doctrine. The Holy Spirit is simply a function of that power which we deem Christ. Hopefully that will clear up many New Testament scriptures for you!

The fact that Christ was crucified since the foundation of the world is a philosophical way of stating that this conscious power involves itself (involution) in matter and commences all the way up (evolution) through each aspect of your soul, or plane of existence, from the lower nature to the higher. The marriage of your two natures is the divine marriage of the New Testament. Paul’s statement in Colossians 1:15-18 will help establish a vital truth in scripture about the divine sacrifice of Christ: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible…And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.”

Christ signifies the divine sacrifice of spirit which robes itself in matter. Not just that which we call the material, physical world, but also the worlds of the astral and mental nature which are a reality we currently experience. He is the firstborn of it all. This limitation of spirit is the divine sacrifice crucified since of the foundation of the world, or soul of man. Paul directly tells you, as does the author of the Gospel of John, everything that I stated above: namely, Christ is in everything! That means every creature! You cannot say a prayer and accept Jesus into your heart to be saved. Christ was in you from the beginning, although many of us don’t comprehend Christ in us yet. As Paul states, Christ must be birthed within, through this idea of labor pains, meaning that it is a process of realization through experience. That experience is deeply personal, which makes the impersonal God personal. Impersonal and personal are but ideas, but the highest reality is that God is both, and neither. And thus consciousness is one big paradox.
Christ signifies the divine sacrifice of spirit which robes itself in matter. Not just that which we call the material, physical world, but also the worlds of the astral and mental nature which are a reality we currently experience. He is the firstborn of it all. This limitation of spirit is the divine sacrifice crucified since of the foundation of the world, or soul of man. Paul directly tells you, as does the author of the Gospel of John, everything that I stated above: namely, Christ is in everything! That means every creature! You cannot say a prayer and accept Jesus into your heart to be saved. Christ was in you from the beginning, although many of us don’t comprehend Christ in us yet. As Paul states, Christ must be birthed within, through this idea of labor pains, meaning that it is a process of realization through experience. That experience is deeply personal, which makes the impersonal God personal. Impersonal and personal are but ideas, but the highest reality is that God is both, and neither. And thus consciousness is one big paradox.

Summarizing Genesis 1:1-3 in Plain English

Let’s restate Genesis 1:1-3 into a more modern interpretation: 

God began the process of creating man’s soul by spirit involving itself in matter, which resulted in the dawn of individuated consciousness. Notice how I say “dawn of,” because only the potential is there. Remember, in Genesis chapter one we are speaking about the blueprint of man’s soul in the mind of God. Yes, sort of like an idea. As we will see in a moment, this idea extends to the archetypal man, Adam (humankind), not one man. 

Genesis 1:4:

“And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

And God saw the light (became conscious), and differentiated it from the unconscious state, darkness, which is symbolic of unmanifested consciousness as potential. Darkness in this sense is still chaos, which is simply the unmanifested potential of the Absolute father. The Psalmist states that God made darkness his secret place. Secret, in the sense that it is unconscious, unmanifested, unknown. However, the light makes itself known. 

Genesis 1:5:

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.”

The “first day” philosophically unveils the great mystery of life. Life is consciousness. Consciousness is life. When I say consciousness, I am not speaking of thought. Consciousness is what allows thought to be attached to it. Raw, undefiled consciousness is the “I AM” presence God unveils to Moses, which in turn delivers Israel (the soul ripe for deliverance) from Egytpian bondage, which is a type of emotional-thought bondage to the senses and desires of this illusory nature, our lower nature. 

Returning to Genesis 1:5, the listeralist makes the grave error of assuming these words actually mean a twenty-four hour period. The patristic father Origen once stated, “What intelligent person can imagine that there was a first day, then a second and third day, evening and morning, without the sun, the moon, and the stars, and a sky to put them in.” Obviously these spiritual symbols are not to be taken literally. Day and night are simply symbols for activity and non-activity, consciousness and unconsciousness. It is the process that mankind must endure until that light, being the life of man, is fully realized within the soul. Think of “day” and “night” as long periods of time through which the soul is incarnate and then it rests in between incarnations (reincarnation). This is the natural cycle which consciousness must go through to evolve. This natural process is seen even in our everyday lives. We wake and sleep each night. Nature hibernates and wakes. The tide ebbs and flows. These natural processes reflect a higher reality. “As above, so below!” The New Testament author clears this up for us when he states that a day is as a thousand years to the Lord. It just means that the process of developing the individuality is exactly that, a process, where consciousness goes through different stages of development, all the while building awareness and more deeply comprehending itself and its untapped potential. The first day is the blueprint for unveiling the mystery of consciousness and the life that abides therein.

Genesis 1:6:

“And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.”

If you can grasp the symbolism of the firmament, you’ll begin to understand how consciousness works through the soul (according to ancient scripture). There are the waters above the firmament and the waters below the firmament. In one sense the firmament is a demarcation line: it divides the upper planes of reality from the lower planes of illusion, as reflected in the waters above and below. Water is one of those few scriptural symbols which is dual in nature. The higher waters symbolize that true reality, while the lower waters symbolize illusion and separateness from God. Remember my earlier assertion that when spirit descends into matter it becomes dual in consciousness, through spirit / matter? This duality is reflected through God’s creation of the firmament. Remember the mental plane in our universal symbols at the beginning of the post? How it is dual? The upper and lower mental plane? The firmament is this division, specifically the higher mental plane, i.e., heaven, or God’s holy sanctuary, the centre of the mind of God. 

Don’t let this be confusing. Our consciousness is dual in the way that it acts through our higher and lower natures. The denser the matter, the more restricted consciousness becomes. Through the lower nature, it manifests on the lower mental, astral, and physical planes in the form of intellect, emotion, desire, passion, and the senses. Our consciousness, when trained and developed, has the ability to expand and operate heavenly, where intuition, which is the wisdom and love of God, begins to function. This is what Paul meant when he stated we must be transformed by the renewing of the mind. In the New Testament this gift is received through the holy spirit, where the natural mind (man) becomes the heavenly man, Christ. Remember, Genesis chapter one is the blueprint of man’s soul. This blueprint is in all the sacred scriptures in some form or another, from the Upanashiads of India to the ancient mystery religions of Egypt. Consider Job 37:18, which states, “Canst thou with him spread out the sky, which is strong as a molten mirror.” This idea of a mirror in the sky shows the reflective nature of the truth above and the illusory nature of that truth as a reflection in the earth below (our lower nature). Again, “as above, so below.” Job uses the term “sky” because it symbolizes the 3rd plane (mental plane) I showed at the beginning of this post. Specifically, the demarcation between the upper and lower planes of conscious reality. In 1 Cor. 13:12 Paul states, “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known.” He is speaking to true wisdom, which is to know the depths of the Self. Reflecting this line of thought, William Kingsland once stated: “Real knowledge is identity, not external cognition.” What did he mean? External cognition discriminates, analyzes, and draws its conclusions through acceptance or rejection of certain ideas. Real knowledge transcends this process through intuition, which, when combined with the intellect, sees reality wholly different. It’s like the eagle that soars high above and gets the best view of it all. It sees the truth beyond the limitations of form in a physical world.  

Speaking further on the firmament, Daniel 12:3 states, “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament.” The wisdom of God is found on the upper planes, within the firmament. 

One more point which may clear up some potential confusion. Why all this talk of mental-emotional and astral bodies? The ancient mystics did not consider the physical organ we call the human brain as the origin of consciousness or even thoughts. The physical organ is simply a receiver and interpreter. For example, a thought abides on the mental plane, which is made up of a higher vibratory matter then what we term physical matter (atoms, etc). The physical brain receives and interprets the thought as it is stepped down to a denser vibration in the physical organ. However, as it is received in the denser matter of the physical organ, it is colored by the effect of denser matter, through sensations and electro-chemical processes. This is one reason why the physical organ cannot perceive reality as it is on the upper planes, unless one trains the conscious experience of the physical organ by going within and shutting out the senses. In a sense, one is using the pure light of consciousness to side-step the physical organ. 

Let’s continue:

Genesis 1:8:

“And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

We have already commented on this. The firmament is the demarcation line (symbolically of course) between the true reality of heaven and the illusory nature of reality below it, on all the planes below the upper mental plane.

Genesis 1:9: 

“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.”

Here is the blueprint for man’s physical, emotional, and mental nature. This is the Dry Land. The dry land is named earth because earth is man’s lower nature, that which is under the firmament, or heaven. Dry Land does not just reference the physical aspect of man. It symbolizes his emotional-thought self on all the lower planes of existence. The waters are his astral nature containing desire. I am repeating concepts so that the reader may integrate the information. 

Genesis 1:10:

“And God called the dry land earth; and the gathering together of the waters (under the firmament) called he seas: and God saw that it was good.”

Seas, which symbolizes the lower emotional (astral) nature, is where our desires lie. You may have heard the term “sea of desires, or the “stormy sea of desires.” Isaiah 57:20 states, “The wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.” Isaiah is speaking to the astral or emotional desires and passions of man, which is often symbolized by the stormy sea in scripture. The astral nature is illusory and changing like a roaring sea because it is only a reflection of what is above. Jesus calms the stormy sea, because it is the light (higher consciousness) which illuminates the soul to man’s higher nature, whereby he gains control over the passions and desires of his wicked (or lower) self. God calls the creation of seas “good” because remember, it is the blueprint for man, meaning that our emotional natures are a reality which we must live with and have to develop to fully birth the Christ within. Mankind’s goal is to transform himself into a higher emotional state, but we must begin at the lower emotional nature. The Christ within us first awakes from his dormancy there. God calls this good here because the blueprint itself is not stormy, yet. But as man experiences life, it will certainly become stormy. It is not the emotional nature or sea itself that is wicked or negative. It is only negative when our higher natures are not in control and ruling the lower nature, which produces pain, confusion, and suffering. When the lower nature is ruled by the personality, the sea is stormy indeed. When the storm is calmed by the indwelling Christ, it becomes smooth and reflects the higher reality more accurately. Then we can say that the mind and thoughts have become captive to the higher nature. 

Genesis 1:11:

“And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, after his kind. And God saw that it was good.”

Grass represents the first growth from the earth, the lower nature of man, which begins to break free of the soil (within his lower nature) and ascend upwards toward heaven. This is the primitive aspirations in the lower nature of man (the earth) seeking that which is the potential of his higher nature. Herb is another symbol for the primitive aspirations in the soul beginning through the senses, or lower conscious experience. After his kind just means through the natural law of development, i.e., how man progresses as the Christ light begins to shine brighter in him. Fruit Trees yielding their kind symbolizes the law of karma. Trees are symbolic of man himself, and the fruit that we can potentially yield in the lower and higher nature depending on how the soul grows and develops. This idea that everything on the earth yields its own kind after its kind as karma might seem strange to you, but as Gaskell states, the fruit tree bearing fruit and seed is a “symbol of the law of karma linking life with form, and the potencies within, which are ready to unfold.” This simply explains the potential within the blueprint of the soul. As experience in the earth happens, karma is active. As man begins to operate from his higher nature, karma can be altered through conscious activity. 

Genesis 1:12-13:

Not much else needs to be said here, as it was summarized in the paragraph before. It is just a reiteration and the completion of the third day. 

Genesis 1:14: 

“And God said, let there be lights in the firmament of heaven to divide the day from the night: and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and days, and for years.”

Here are more symbols that are universal in all ancient scriptures, and a brilliant way of explaining creation symbolically, and reflecting philosophically the axiom again, “As above, so below.” People have argued over the literal meaning of this verse for millenia. How can grass and trees grow without the sunlight that is finally created here? Obviously the sun and moon and stars are symbolic. 

Let’s deal with the symbol of the sun first. Many people of today’s religious faith find it strange that an ancient culture like the Egyptians or Aztecs or ancient Hebrews and even Christians could have viewed the sun as a symbol for God, the higher self, or Christ, or the outpouring of the second Logos. First of all, using the sun as a symbol for something extraordinary is not worshipping the object itself. While all ancient scripture and myth eventually gets corrupted by the masses who begin to interpret such stories as literal, the original meaning and intent was only a symbol for the divine in man. The sun makes perfect sense as this symbol for divinity. Why? Because the sun is responsible for all life on earth. Without the sun’s light, physical life simply couldn’t exist. It is quite literally, the giver of all life as we know it. Its rays of light direct the growth in the earth. Sunlight literally stirs all growth within the earth as it shines upon it. The sun is the perfect symbol depicting how man’s lower nature (the earth) is directed and raised up by Christ, the sun / son. Malachi 4:2 literally states, “But for you who fear my name shall the sun (yes I spelled “sun” right) of righteousness rise with healing in its wings…”

Joshua commanded the sun to stand still at its zenith in the sky, symbolizing the higher self ruling over the lower nature, the moon (or personality), which also stood still. This story symbolizes the cessation of day and night, light and darkness, which are periods of activity and inactivity within the soul. The scripture states, be still and know that I am God. The same conclusion can be drawn from the Book of Revelation, where Revelation 21:23 states, “The city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God illuminated it. The lamb is its light.” In the stillness or cessation of our activity can be found within the soul that divine principle, fully realized in all the potential of Genesis 1:3, that light which has the potential to shine in the fullness of individuality of higher consciousness of the self. This is the light of Christ.  

If the sun stands for Christ, the higher self in all of us, then the moon, “the lesser light,” is the personality of the natural man. The moon is also a perfect symbol, because it only shines because it reflects the light of the sun. Your personality has no light in and of itself. It is only a reflection of your permanent individuality, which is the great light. And since it is only a reflection of our higher nature, it is fleeting and it changes constantly, just as the moon waxes and wanes through different cycles. Ancient myth brilliantly describes how the personality is connected to the permanent individuality through each incarnation. But at death, the personality, who you think you are today, is gone. Solomon speaks to the death of the personality when he states, “The dead know nothing.” Here he means the death of the impermanent personality, not the permanent individuality, symbolized as the sun. This scripture alluding to the sun and moon as greater and lesser lights is a brilliant way to describe the dual nature of man: his true individuality, and his impermanent personality. 

Genesis 1:15-19:

“And let them be for lights in the firmament of 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 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.”

The greater light, or the higher self, is to rule the day. This means that period of activity where we are growing consciously, or consciousness rooted in the higher self. The lesser light (moon) rules the night, that aspect of us where our lower nature and personality rules. This means that period of activity where consciousness from the lower self is in ignorance. It is a cyclic period of growth and retraction, both of which are necessary. We exercise a muscle, and the next day it is sore and hurts, and we rest it. The mind works the same way, and in the same way we slowly but progressively birth the Christ mind within the soul.  

Genesis 1:20:

“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. 

The fowl that fly in the open firmament in heaven are aspirations towards the higher self. They fly in the heavens, God’s sanctuary, which is really another way of saying those aspirations within us that seek the higher self. Birds also fly in the air, i.e., thoughts which are in the mind (air). We are not talking about heaven as a literal sky, nor literal birds. 

Genesis 1:21-23:

“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 the fowl multiply in the earth. And the evening and morning were the fifth day.”

The whale and the sea are one in the same. The lower nature experiencing life, which brings sorrow, pain, and suffering when it identifies itself with the lower desires and passions of our desire-mind rooted in the senses. Job 7:12 states, “Am I a sea, or a whale, that thou settest a watch over me?” Ezekiel 32:2 states, “Son of man…Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas…” Again, this is part of man’s soul blueprint. The winged fowl of the air are already what we explained: those thoughts which aspire towards the higher nature in man, as they fly heavenward. The great Greek philosopher Philo once stated, all the powers of God are winged…” He meant that any thought which was noble and rooted in wisdom or love comes from above. 

Genesis 1:24-25:

“And God said, let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, and 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 everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: And God saw that it was good. 

The creeping things which crawls upon the earth are symbolic of our lower instincts, like greed or mischief, which the higher nature must have dominion over. Leviticus 11:44 states, “For I am the Lord your God: ye shall therefore sanctify thyselves, and ye shall be holy: neither shall you defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Again, the law is spiritual, not literal. God states we are not to defile ourselves with creeping things because they are the base instincts of the lower nature. Keep in mind that fish with scales and cattle do not defile, and are clean to eat. Meaning, gaining knowledge through the intellect is okay, as well as having certain emotions (cattle). In fact, Jesus states to cast the net on the right side, which catches a full load of fish. This symbolizes the knowledge we gain through experience. 

Genesis 1:26:

“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. 

Again, this act of dominion is emphasized. Nothing more needs to be said here, as we will deal with man being made in the image of God in verse twenty-seven below. 

Genesis 1:27:

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

What does it mean to be created in the image of God, both male and female? We are not speaking of literal sexes. Rather, the male-female principle which is found in nature of the lower planes is a reflection of the higher nature found on the upper planes in a spiritual sense. Male / female signifies spirit-matter, love-wisdom, mind-emotion, and intellect-intuition. Being created male / female in the image of God is the higher nature ruling completely over the lower nature. This ONENESS becomes dual when Adam and Eve partake of the tree of knowledge and become physical beings outside of the Garden. The mind becomes split, dual, and the mind and emotions, even intellect and intuition, are separate. 

God tells man to have dominion over all creatures of the earth. Remember, the earth is us, and all the living things in the earth are within us. We must have dominion over the lower nature where all these creatures are symbolic of thought, emotion, sensation, desire, etc. Many Christians have taken this verse to mean we are to literally rule over all animals. Try to tell a polar bear, lion, great white shark, or whale what to do. You can’t. The only power you have over them is your intellect, which can make or build things to contain animals or kill them. But even animals are a part of the human soul, and your physical evolution upon this earth was dependent on them. American Indians understood this truth, and they called animals their brothers, for which they had great respect. 

Genesis 1:28:

“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.”

We have already gone over these symbols, except for fish in the sea. Fish relate to thoughts about opinions, knowledge, etc. But the key word here is subdue and dominion over. In other words, we will naturally become great whales, fish of the sea, creeping crawling things, cattle, and even birds of the sea, as all these things we will experience over the course of our lives. But, man, the higher nature of man, must subdue and rule over them. As we will see in a moment, that is how we are made in the image of God. When the higher nature is ruling over the lower nature, the male and female aspect of the soul become one, and the divine marriage talked about in the New Testament is complete. 

Genesis 1:29-30:

“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 everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so. 

This is an interesting verse. God states that all things are given the herb and fruit of the tree to eat, to be for meat, or food. Literalists have supposed this meant that all animals were once vegetarians. Don’t think so. Sharks never ate vegetables and fruit, neither of which can grow in the ocean. This verse is speaking to the process of how the soul grows. Eating and drinking in scripture are never literal eating and drinking. The process signifies what matures the soul, or evolves it by the higher nature. Food in the Bible means sustenance for the soul, not just the physical body. Think eating Christ’s flesh and drinking his blood. Green herbs are a symbol of the growth process within. Psalm 104:14 states, “He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth…” Food is the knowledge and experience gained through the experience of life. It comes out of the earth because the lower nature of mankind is the earth. Our physical experience causes adversity, which God uses to cause aspirations of mankind to yearn for something higher, something better. 

Genesis 1:31:

“And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.”

In other words, the blueprint for man’s soul was finished. And in the beginning of Genesis chapter 2, we see that God rests. He symbolically rests because the blueprint for the temple (YOU) is complete. The creation story which comes next in Genesis 2 is not contradictory as many scholars have supposed. It is revealed differently because it is speaking to that which comes after the blueprint is complete. The construction of the actual temple is now in progress. It is no longer an idea in the mind of God, but rather that idea being actualized. This is why the order of the creation is changed, and man is created first. Because we are dealing with what happened in order to create the backdrop for what it erroneously termed “the fall of man.” It’s not so much a fall as it is a new experience for consciousness. 

I hope you enjoyed this long post. I realize many will not because it is a little long and cumbersome. But hopefully it speaks to some, and hopefully it shed some new light on the most foundational chapter in the Bible which can unlock other parts of it.

From a more practical aspect, some of you may be wondering how does one live through the higher nature. As is a big theme in the blog, which even Raymond’s last contribution pointed out, meditation is such a way to begin the process. I won’t say more on that here as it can be found throughout the blog.

Blessings!