Questions
A. How important is knowledge of reincarnation to understand the cause of world’s progress?
B. Are the different existences of the soul carried on the same planet?
C. Are there migrations of spirits among the various planets?
Text for reading
647. Moses obviously shared the most primitive beliefs about cosmology. Like everyone else at his time, he believed in the solidity of the heavenly canopy and the upper repositories for the waters. This idea is expressed without allegory or ambiguity in this passage (verses 6 ff.): “God said, ‘Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters to separate waters from waters. God made the firmament and he separated the waters that were beneath the firmament from those that were above the firmament.’”
648. According to one ancient belief, water was considered to be the principle, the primitive generative element; therefore, Moses was not speaking of the creation of the waters, which seemed to exist already. “Darkness covered the deep,” means the depths of space, which imagination vaguely portrayed as being occupied by the waters and existing in darkness prior to the creation of the light. That is why Moses says, “The Spirit of God hovered over the waters.” Since the earth was supposedly formed in the midst of the waters, it was necessary to isolate it; thus, it was believed that God made the firmament, the solid canopy that separated the waters above from those that were on the earth.
649. In order to understand certain parts of Genesis, it is indispensable to look at it from the point of view of the cosmological ideas of the time of which it is the reflection. Due to the progress of physics and astronomy, such a doctrine is not sustainable.[1]
650. Moses is more correct when he says that God formed the man from the clay of the earth.[2] In fact, Science shows us that the human body is composed of elements taken from inorganic matter, in other words, from the clay of the earth.
651. The woman formed from one of Adam’s ribs is an allegory that is obviously childish if taken literally, but is profound in meaning. Its purpose is to show that woman is of the same nature as man and is consequently his equal before God, and not a separate creature to be enslaved and treated like a pariah. Made from his very flesh, the image of equality is much more expressive than if she had been formed separately from the same clay; it intends to tell the man that she is his equal and not his slave, and that he must love her as part of himself.
652. For uneducated spirits who had no idea about general laws, and who were incapable of comprehending the whole and of conceiving of the infinite, this miraculous and instantaneous creation had something fantastic about it that struck their imagination. The picture of the universe taken from nothingness in only a few days by a single act of the creative will was for such spirits the most impressive sign of God’s power. What portrait of such power could be more sublime and poetic than those words, “God said, ‘Let there be light and there was light!”
653. Creating the universe through the slow and gradual fulfillment of the laws of nature, God would have seemed less great and less powerful. Something extraordinary was necessary beyond ordinary ways; otherwise, they would have said that God was no more skillful than humans. A scientific and rational theory about creation would have left them cold and indifferent.
654. Therefore, we do not reject the biblical Genesis; on the contrary, we study it as if we were studying the childhood history of cultures. It is an epopee rich in allegories whose hidden meaning must be searched for and which must be commented upon and explained in the light of reason and science. Having highlighted the poetic beauties and veiled teachings under the allegorical form, it is necessary to honestly point out its errors in the interest of religion itself. Religion will be more respected when such errors are no longer imposed on faith as truths, and God will seem greater and more powerful only when the divine name is not mixed with controversial facts.
655. Paradise lost[3] - According to the bible, God had planted a garden of delights. Then the Lord took the man and placed him in the paradise of delights in order for him to cultivate and tend it. God also gave him this order, and said to him, “You may eat from all the trees of paradise (Yahweh Elohim) ordered the man (hal haadam) by saying: From every tree in the garden (hagan) you may eat, but do not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for as soon as you eat from it you shall most certainly die. (And from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (oumehetz hadaat tob vara) you will not eat, for on the day on which you eat of it, you shall die.)
656. Seduced by the serpent — which, according to the account of Moses, the sliest of all animals — the companion of Adam ate the forbidden fruit and gave it to her husband, who also ate. Questioned by the Lord, Adam said, "The woman whom thou gavest to me presented the fruit of this tree and I ate it." The Lord asked the woman, "Why did you do that?" She replied, "The serpent deceived me and I ate that fruit."
657. Three consequences resulted from the couple's disobedience. The woman said the Lord: “I shall afflict you with many ills during your pregnancy; you shall give birth with pain; you shall be under the domination of your husband and he shall dominate you.” To Adam he said: “Because you listened to the voice of your wife and you ate of the fruit of the tree of which I forbade you to eat, the earth shall be cursed because of what you have done and only with much labor shall you take your food from it throughout your whole life. It shall produce thorns and briers and you shall eat the plants of the earth. And you shall eat your bread with the sweat of your face until you return to the earth from which you were taken, for you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The third consequence: the couple was expelled from the garden of delights.
658. Beneath a puerile and sometimes ridiculous imagery — if we stop at the form — an allegory often hides the greatest truths. At first sight, has there ever been a more absurd fable than that of Saturn, a god devouring stones that he took as being his sons? However, at the same time, there can be nothing more profoundly philosophical and true than this figure if we search for its moral meaning! Saturn is the personification of time; since all things are the work of time, he is the father of everything that exists; but everything is also destroyed with time.
659. Saturn devouring the stones is the symbol of destruction over time of the most lasting objects — his sons — since they were formed with time. And who escapes such destruction according to this same allegory? Jupiter, the symbol of higher intelligence, of the spiritual principle, which is indestructible. This image is so natural that, in modern language and without allusion to this ancient fable, it is said of a thing that has deteriorated over a stretch of time, that it has been devoured by time, gnawed and ravaged by it.
660. In reality, all pagan mythology is nothing more than a huge allegorical picture of the various good and evil facets of humankind. For whoever searches for the spirit in it, it is a complete course in the highest philosophy, as is also the case with our modern fables. Absurdity would be to take the form as being the substance.
661. The same applies to Genesis, where it is necessary to see great moral truths beneath material figures, which, if taken literally, would be as absurd as if, regarding our own fables, we were to take literally the scenes and dialogs attributed to animals.
662. Adam is the personification of humankind; his wrong individualizes the weakness of human beings, where the material instincts that they are unable to resist predominate.[6] The tree — as in the tree of life — is the symbol of spiritual life; like the tree of knowledge, it is the consciousness of good and evil that humans acquire in order to develop their intelligence and free will, and by means of which they choose between the two. It signals the point at which the human soul ceases to be guided solely by the instincts, takes possession of its freedom and incurs responsibility for its acts.
663. The fruit of the tree is the symbol of the material objects of human desire; it is the allegory of greed and ambition; in a single picture it sums up the reasons for the inducement to evil; eating it is to yield temptation. It grows in the middle of the garden of delights to show that seduction is at the center of pleasure and to remind us that, if humans give preponderance to material pleasures, they are kept bound to the earth and far from their spiritual destiny.[7]
664. The death with which Adam is threatened if he transgresses the prohibition is a warning of the inevitable physical and moral consequences resulting from violating the divine laws that God has engraved on his conscience. It is quite obvious that the subject here is not bodily death, because after his wrong, Adam continued to live for a long time; rather, it refers to spiritual death, or in other words, the loss of the assets that result from moral advancement, a loss that is symbolized in his expulsion from the garden of delights.
[1] As much as this belief is in error, it is no less a fact that it is still passed on to our children as a sacred truth. It is not without trembling that educators dare to risk a timid interpretation. How can one hope to avoid making unbelievers later on? – Auth.
[2] The Hebrew term haadam, man, from which Adam is derived, and the term haadama, earth, have the same root – Auth.
[3] Some verses are followed by the literal translation of the Hebrew text, which renders the original thought more faithful. The allegorical meaning is thus more clearly emphasized – Auth.
[4] Paradise from the Latin paradisus, derived from the Greek paradeisos, garden, orchard, place planted with trees. The Hebrew term used in Genesis is hagan, which has the same meaning – Auth.
[5] From the Hebrew cherub, keroub, ox, charab, cultivator; angels of the second choir of the first hierarchy, who were represented with four wings, four faces and ox feet. – Auth.
[6] It is well known nowadays that the Hebrew word haadam is not a proper name, but means humans in general — humankind — which destroys any structure erected upon the personage of Adam – Auth.”
[7] Nowhere in the text is the fruit specified as an apple; this word is to be found only in puerile versions. The term in the Hebrew text is peri, which has the same meanings as in French, without specifying the species, and could be taken in the material, moral or allegorical sense, both per se and figuratively. Among the Israelites there was no obligatory interpretation; when a word had many meanings, each person could understand it as he or she wished, provided that the interpretation was not contrary to proper grammar. The term peri was translated into Latin as malum, which could mean an apple or any other kind of fruit. It derives from the Greek melon, the participle of the verb melo: to interest, to take care of, to attract – Auth.
Answer Key
A. How important is knowledge of reincarnation to understand the cause of world’s progress?
Its importance is very large, since the principle of reincarnation is a necessary consequence of the law of progress. Without reincarnation, how can one explain the difference between the present societal state and that of the times of barbarism? If souls are created at the same time as the bodies, those being born today are as new and primitive as those who lived thousands of years ago. Adding the fact that that there would be no connection or necessary relationship between the two groups and they would be completely independent from each other, why then are souls today better endowed by God than those who of their predecessors? Why do they possess greater understanding? Why do they possess finer instincts and gentler customs? Why do they have an intuition of certain matters without having learned them? This dilemma is a challenge if we are led to believe that God creates souls of different qualities according to times and places, a proposition irreconcilable with the idea of a supreme justice.
On the contrary, if we say that the souls of today have already lived in remote times; which were possibly barbaric as the centuries they were in the world, but who progressed; that for each new existence they bring with them what they acquired in previous lives; and that, therefore, the souls of civilized times are not souls created more perfect, but rather, souls that have been perfecting themselves over time, then you will have the only plausible explanation for the cause of social progress. (Genesis, Chap. XI, item 33)
B. Are the different existences of the soul carried on the same planet?
No. The Spirit remains in the same world, until it has acquired the sum of knowledge and the degree of perfection that such world renders possible. Then it leaves the world of which nothing else can acquire, reincarnating in a more advanced world. Such is the principle. (Genesis, Chap. XI, item 34)
C. Are there migrations of spirits among the various planets?
Yes. The migration that takes place among the incarnate and discarnate of the same planet also takes place between worlds, whether individually under normal conditions or by masses under special circumstances. Hence, there are collective emigrations and immigrations from one world to another. This results in introducing entirely new members into the population of a globe. New races of spirits come to mix in with present ones, thereby forming new races of humans. Now since spirits never lose what they have acquired they bring with them their intelligence and the intuition of the knowledge they possess. Consequently, they imprint their particular character on the corporeal race they have come to animate. For this, they do not need new bodies to be created specially for their use; since corporeal species already exists, they find bodies fully ready to receive them. They are therefore simply new inhabitants. In coming to the earth, they at first compose part of its spirit population, and later they incarnate like the rest. (Genesis, Chap. XI, items 35 and 37)
