Paul stated that the Law is spiritual. But what does that mean? Hopefully, this post will shed some light for those who have been confused about the veil that the natural mind often places between the Law and Christ, and how we can reconcile the two spiritually. 

In 2 Cor. 3:15, Paul mentions this veil. He states it was upon the hearts and minds of the Jews of his time. Paul’s main reasoning for this veil was that they lacked Christ, which could take the veil away. By this, Paul did not mean the literal-historical Christ religion has painted, but the Christ within, which consists of an inner revelation of truth revealed by the spirit. 

Esoteric literature teaches us that Moses and the Law are symbolic of the rational and ethical nature of man. But this can still be quite confusing. The confusion comes from our modern day understanding of ethics and morals, and what the original authors of the Biblical stories considered ethics and morals. Today, morals are standards of behavior that the individual or a society finds acceptable and not acceptable so that the social well-being of a community can be established. But the spiritual nature of the Torah deals with ethics and morals in quite a different light. The esoteric understanding of ethics and morals are those characteristics which either take us closer to our innate divine nature, or continue to veil that divine nature. So rather than see the Torah as a set of commands for the unique community of Yaweh first, we have to see the Torah as a spiritual law for the unique individual. When the inner man is sanctified, it will always benefit the outer community. But it is the inner man which is dealt with first, and the Torah first and foremost teaches us about our relationship with the divine – or lack thereof. 

Moses is the giver of the law. This law, Torah, from an outer perspective was the set of standards for the Israelites of what was acceptable and not acceptable before Yaweh. It seems like a stringent application of “do this” and “don’t do this” commandments. The problem is, St. Paul tells us the letter of the law (a literal reading) kills the spiritual intent. What he is truly saying is that the surface understanding alone brings no profit to the individual. The Law has a spiritual meaning to it that transcends the literal understanding of the commandments, and is the first step to reconciling the individual with God and man. 

It’s clear from Paul’s context that the law of Moses, from a spiritual perspective, is more about the conscience of the inner man rather than his experience with the outer world. In other words, his relationship to the Law is not about a set of rules, but rather a set of inner revelations about the workings of the body and soul, it’s true nature, the limitations of the personal ego, and its separateness from the Divine nature that the Law can reveal to us. The Torah can be, if we let it, our metaphysical teacher which reveals the deeper mysteries of our minds and hearts, just as Jesus did as the ultimate fulfillment and fullness of the Torah. 

The Esoteric Revelation of the Law

Let’s consider an Old Testament commandment from Leviticus which states the Israelite could not eat swine nor touch its carcass. What is the spiritual intent beneath the outer, literal command? I will suggest that it is more about what is filthy to the mind than to the body. Pigs naturally wallow in the mud, and therefore they symbolize the desire-mind which seeks its nourishment and gratification from the passions and desires of our lower animal nature. The outer command is do not eat swine. But the inner command means do not gratify the desire-mind, which is at enmity with God, or the divine nature within.

Interestingly, Paul tells us to eat whatever is put before us on the dinner table, unless it is offered to idols. But even then, this is for the conscience sake of the other person, meaning don’t do it if it reaffirms their belief in a superstition. (1 Cor 10:27-29) 

So when Paul states that a veil is upon those that are reading the Torah, he means they read the law carnally, or strictly literal, and therefore miss its inner revelation. The spiritual intent here is not that the pig or pork itself is off limits, but rather points to the discipline the mind needs to develop to prepare itself for the birth of the Christ within.

Furthermore, Jesus stated that the law was made for man, not man for the law. In other words, the spiritual intent of the Torah isn’t so much about what man cannot and can do, but rather what helps us reconnect with the divine nature within us. 

It is stated that Christ came to fulfill the law, not to end it. Again, what does this mean? We have a clear example which lines up with the explanation above about not eating pork. Jesus states it is not what goes into a person’s mouth that makes him unclean, but what comes out of his mouth because it is from the heart (and mind). Since Jesus is the fulfillment of the law, and that the entire Old Testament testifies of him as Paul states (the Christ nature within), then we can conclude that the laws are themselves symbolic of deeper inner revelations about the nature of the human conscious experience. This human conscious experience includes free will, which can choose the divine, or the natural.  

Here is the esoteric reason for the Law: man has two natures: the animal, or instinctual nature, and the Divine nature. Man first learns to control his animal nature through that which the Law (spiritually) represents, if he or she so chooses. Nevertheless, while everything is permissible to the human experience, not everything is profitable to the soul. 

So what do I mean when I say Moses symbolizes the moral nature of man? I do not mean moral as what is acceptable and not acceptable according to today’s societal standards (although there is certainly some correlation on a spiritual level). But I mean the nature within man which refuses to accept the mental and emotional bondage of Egypt. Again, Egypt is a Biblical symbol of mental bondage to the things of desire. So Moses and the Law is the revealer of that which is within man that comes to understand through experience that there is a higher spiritual principle to this thing we call life than simply the physical world we experience through the senses and the gratification thereof. 

Sidenote: In the deepest level of spiritual understanding, there is a law which even transcends what we reap and sow (the Biblical definition of karma), but it will not be found within the confines of natural understanding nor action. And in the deepest respect for such a trandenscental experience, I am in no position to teach or advise in it. That is a journey you must travel for yourself 🙂

We must journey through the wilderness, the arena of life, and learn to control the lower nature. Every story about the Israelite journeying through the desert is about this constant battle and struggle between the higher and lower nature. The story of the Israelites is timeless, because it is our story, the story of every human being in all walks of life. 

Moses

The author/s of the Torah skillfully illustrate Moses’s symbolic nature. While in Egypt, the land of desire, Moses killed an Egyptian. Are we to focus on the literal act, or is there a deeper spiritual message? Did Moses murder a person, or is the act symbolic of murdering the lust and gratification of carnality? In the literal story, Moses would be a murderer, an affront to our divine nature and the community of humanity at large. But in its deeper esoteric sense, I tell you that Moses would not have been worthy to lead God’s people (in the myth) had he not first killed an Egyptian. I hope you get my drift. The Torah has a deep sense of irony. Through a surface-literal reading only, God uses and favors most the murderers, harlots, and idolterors. (Moses, King David, Rahab, and Solomon, and if you count the New Testament, Paul). But this makes no sense to the natural man who sees things black and white, literal-only. The Torah is like a dark, empty cave to the natural mind. But to a spiritually-minded person, one who goes deeper within the text, it is like a land of treasure, revealing the secrets to man’s soul and psychological workings. It reveals not only the sacredness of the body-temple, but the divine construction of it through the physical, emotional, and mental network that embodies consciousness and self-awareness. 

More on the Significance of Moses  

While it is true that Moses is symbolic of something we would refer to as ethical, we must always go deeper. The natural mind can develop ethics. Throughout human history the ethical nature has evolved through the use of the intellect. Different societies have evolved through conquest, revolutions, etc. The intellect can rationalize that certain actions can develop social well-being by looking at its past failures and successes. And this is why societies have laws, and some nations develop laws with more freedom than others. But the Law of Moses transcends even this in its mystical application. And since the law is the forerunner to the more perfect law of love, which to the Jews is the indwelling messiah where the law is written on the heart according to Jeremiah, and to the Christians the Christ within according to Paul, the idea is one in the same. Which is why Christ could tell the Pharisee, in the Torah you think you have eternal life, but they are that which speak of ME (the eternal outpouring of the 2nd Logos made flesh). Jesus of the New Testament is the embodiment of the Old Testament messiah, and the early church fathers simply got bogged down in semantics, like arguing over Christ’s nature because of a literal reading. 

Moses as the lawgiver then represents this: when the law is read spiritually, through the intellectual study of metaphysics and allegorical interpretation according to spiritual wisdom, it leads one to an intuitive understanding that there is a great spiritual realm above the physical world which we have the opportunity of discovering through the Christ within. And that is the reason why the law and Moses had to come first. It is a motif of the natural spiritual development of man. First comes animal nature, then the slow development of the moral nature, and then the greater spiritual nature of the divine. 

Why Couldn’t Moses Enter the Promised Land

Which brings us to an important question: what’s up with Moses not being allowed to enter the Promised Land? What does it mean that he struck the rock instead of speaking to it, and why did God give out such a harsh punishment because of it? 

Just as the Torah must have this Moses figure kill the Egyptian symbolically, so must the Torah show us that Moses could not enter the Promised Land. Moses does not enter because it would violate the deeper spiritual interpretation and symbolism of the text! He is that ethical and rational nature which seeks to discipline the soul so that it can begin to aspire to the higher spiritual nature within man. But symbolically, it is Joshua and Caleb only which can enter. Moses symbolizes the necessity of obedience to a higher standard, but Joshua and Caleb represent that standard in the form of faith. 

In a sense, Moses represents not the outward appearance of certain laws and regulations, but a spiritual obedience, the kind of obedience which disciplines the mind and emotions, and refuses to let the desire-mind be the ruler of the soul. When one reaches this stage, it doesn’t mean that he or she can automatically enter what the Promised Land symbolizes. It just means that he or she is the scriptural and spiritual definition of an Israelite, which is one who is on the way, chosen and set apart, but still has much adversity (giants) to overcome. 

Moses had already struck the rock previously to get water (truth). But the second time God commanded him to speak to the rock to get water, and he strikes it again, and a second time! In this act of disobedience Moses fails to symbolize access to the higher self, which can never be attained by the intellect. This act is the epitome of how far the intellect takes us. The symbolism of striking the rock again to get truth (water from the rock) represents the limitations of the intellect to receive the truth within, which only the Christ nature can provide. This provision comes in the form of the intellect being aided by the higher emotions in form of intuition and love. This is a process which must be developed.

In the overall arching theme of the Exodus and subsequent journey, we have to remember that it is the struggle of consciousness manifested in the flesh / physical body / personal ego. The metaphysical wisdom of the story relates more with psychology than religion teaches. 

But there is one finality I am remembered of, especially after a conversation with my friend Paul (the natural Paul who lives near me and is interested in the same spiritual subjects). It is really about the union of the lower and higher nature, the divine union. But this is another subject for another time, and how this ties together. Blessings.