Chapter 2
MANIFEST
MAN
GENESIS 2
Charles Fillmore
Mysteries of Genesis
THE BOOK OF GENESIS
gives two accounts of the creation of
man, the first that of the creation by
Elohim and the second that of the
creation by Jehovah. A right
understanding of the processes the mind
uses in bringing forth its children
(ideas) enables us to perfect harmony
between these apparently conflicting
accounts. The first act of mind is the
formation of the idea, and the second
is the expression of that idea. Elohim
or God-Mind creates a spiritual man, in
whom are conceived to be present all
the attributes of his source. Next this
spiritual man, Jehovah God, God-Mind
indentified as I AM, forms man in
spiritual substance, in the "dust of
the ground."
The unfolding man is
God's man, or the divine idea of man in
process of construction. The various
ideas are being "clothed upon," that
is, made manifest. The manifest man is
an idea until the Elohim mind in its I
AM or Jehovah form begins its process
of expression. Then Jehovah God begins
to form or clothe the idea man in
substance, which process, described
symbolically in these Scriptures, has
been going on all down the
ages.
The manifest man is the
man we see, the man we behold with our
senses. Manifest man evolves or makes
manifest the ideas that exist eternally
in Being. The spiritual man is the man
we behold in our ideals.
"Ye are a temple of
God." Eventually the manifest man and
the ideal man merge into one, as Jesus
said: "I in them, and thou in me, that
they may be perfected into
one."
Many have caught sight
of the fact that the true body of
Christ is a state of consciousness in
man, but few have gone so far as to
realize that this body is a temple in
which the Christ holds religious
services at all times. "Know ye not
that ye are a temple of God and that
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you."
Under the direction of the Christ, a
new body is constructed by the thinking
faculty in man; the materials entering
into this superior structure are
spiritual substances, and the new
creation is the temple or body of
Spirit. It breathes an atmosphere and
is thrilled with a life energy more
real than that of the manifest man.
When a person has come into the
realization of his true Christ body, he
feels the stirring within him of this
body of the indwelling Spirit or
Christ. He knows what Paul meant when
he said: "There is a natural body,
there is also a spiritual body." "If
any man is in Christ, he is a new
creature: the old things are passed
away; behold, they are become
new."
Jehovah I AM breathes
the breath of life into Adam, who names
the animals (the elemental life forms
in which he exists) and becomes
cocreator with Jehovah God in bringing
forth his own perfection.
The image-and-likeness
man is God's idea of man, a man
spirtually conceived, in whom are
implanted the dominion and power
necessary to bring forth the perfection
of his Father, God-Mind. "Ye therefore
shall be perfect, as your heavenly
Father is perfect," said
Jesus.
Gen. 2:1-3. And the
heavens and the earth were
finished, and all the host of them.
And on the seventh day God finished
his work which he had made; and he
rested on the seventh day from all
his work which he had made. And God
blessed the seventh day, and
hallowed it; because that in it he
rested from all his work which God
had created and made.
The plans of Divine Mind
were finished although there was as yet
no outward manifestation. All is
finished first in consciousness and
mind then rests, in faith, from further
mental activity. This "rest" precedes
manifestation. The seventh day refers
to the mind's realization of
fulfillment, its resting in the
assurance that all that has been imaged
in it will come forth in
expression.
To hallow the seventh
day is to rest in the stillness, quiet,
and peace of the silence of Mind. "Be
still, and know that I am God." To
hallow means to keep holy. Holiness is
resting in the conviction that there is
no lack in the absolute law that is the
law of God. One creates first in mind
by idealizing the desired object and
then resting in the assurance that the
law of manifestation is being
fulfilled. God has finished creating
His universe, including man, and is
resting in His perfect idea. God rested
on the seventh day.
Our Sunday is a symbol
of the true Sabbath, a time when men
turn away from business and the
pleasures of the senses to seek a day
of quiet and holy rest. The great
Sabbath, the rest of God, is for all
who will enter it.
It is the state of mind
in which we rest from outer work, cease
daily occupation, and give ourselves up
to meditation or the study of things
spiritual. The Sabbath also symbolizes
an attitude of mind in which we relax
the outer consciousness, let go of all
thought about material things, about
the affairs of daily life, and enter
into the stillness of the consciousness
and begin to think of God and His law.
This Sabbath is kept any time we enter
into spiritual consciousness and rest
from thoughts about temporal things.
Then we let go of the external
observance of days, because every day
is a Sabbath on which we retire into
Spirit and worship God.
Gen. 2:4-8. These
are the generations of the heavens
and of the earth when they were
created, in the day that Jehovah
God made earth and heaven. And no
plant of the field was yet in the
earth, and no herb of the field had
yet sprung up; for Jehovah God had
not caused it to rain upon the
earth: and there was not a man to
till the ground; but there went up
a mist from the earth, and watered
the whole face of the ground. And
Jehovah God formed man of the dust
of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life;
and man became a living soul. And
Jehovah God planted a garden
eastward, in Eden; and there he put
the man whom he had formed.
Jehovah (I AM) in the
Hebrew is written Yahweh. Yah is the
masculine and weh the feminine. The
word is made up of masculine and
feminine elements and represents the
joining together of wisdom and love as
a procreating nucleus. This is the
Jehovah God who made the visible man,
the man of self-consciousness. God
manifest in substance is the Jesus
Christ man. Elohim, universal Mind,
creates, but Jehovah God forms. Being
is without beginning or ending.
Universal Mind imaged itself in all
that it created, and all its ideas are
contained in the divine-idea man, which
is Jehovah or the Christ. Jesus Christ
is that perfection made manifest in
man. Spiritual creating is ideation in
Truth. The ideas of Divine Mind are
contained potentially in substance, but
until these ideas are consciously
recognized by Jehovah God, the
divine-idea man, they are not wholly
manifest. All things exist as ideas,
but these ideas are manifested only as
spiritual man, becomes conscious of
them. The "rain" represents the descent
of potential ideas into substance.
Spiritual man, in whom all the ideas of
Divine Mind are imaged, is not yet
manifest in substance. "There was not a
man to till the ground."
The "face" represents
the outward aspect, while "ground"
stands for formed substance, the
product of related ideas. When man
begins to focus his mind on a purpose,
there appears at first to be a "mist"
or lack of clear understanding between
the earth consciousness and the
spiritual mind. But this "mist" has its
place in the divine economy, for it
"waters" or softens the divine
radiance.
"Dust" represents the
radiant earth or substance. When
spiritual man (I AM) enters into this
"dust of the ground" (substance) and
makes use of the God ideas inherent in
him, he brings forth the ideal body in
its elemental perfection. The real body
of man is not material but is of the
nature of the universal-dust body,
which is the divine-substance body.
Therefore the perfect
image-and-likeness man is perfect in
body as well as in mind. We should
remember that the first Adam was
perfect as an idea in his elemental
soul and body. "Howbeit that is not
first which is spiritual, but that
which is natural; then that which is
spiritual."
Spiritually, "nostrils"
represents openness to the inspirations
of mind. The "breath" is the inner life
flow that pulsates through the soul.
The breathing of the manifest man
corresponds to the inspiration of the
spiritual man. When any man is inspired
with high ideas, he breathes "into his
nostrils the breath of life." Spiritual
inspiration quickens man to the
awareness that he is a "living soul."
The soul is the sum total of
consciousness and its great goal is a
consciousness of eternal life. Through
his I AM or Jehovah God man enters into
his soul realm and rebreathes into it
the true ideas of Being until these
ideas quicken his consciousness to a
response that harmonizes it with the
underlying Christ principles. Man,
spiritually identified, is Jehovah God,
co-operating with Elohim God, divine
principle, developing a spiritual
being, the Christ man, to the
consciousness of his divinity. "I speak
not from myself: but the Father abiding
in me doeth his works."
The Garden of Eden
represents a region of being in which
are provided all primal ideas for the
production of the beautiful. As
described in Genesis it represents
allegorically the elemental life and
intelligence placed at the disposal of
man, through which he is to evolve a
soul and body.
The Garden of Eden also
represents allegorically the elemental
forces named by scientists as composing
the invisible, etheric universe that
Jesus referred to as the "kingdom of
the heavens" and "Paradise." It also
comprehends the activity of those
forces in man's soul and body that,
when quickened and regenerated, make
him a master of all creation. "The
kingdom of God is within you." "East"
represents the within as "west"
represents the without. Jesus also
said, "Ye who have followed me, in the
regeneration when the Son of man shall
sit on the throne of his glory, ye also
shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging
the twelve tribes of Israel." In our
analysis of the Garden of Eden we
consider it as a concentration, in man,
of all the ideas of God concerned in
the process of unfolding man's soul and
body. When man is expressing the ideas
of Divine Mind, bringing forth the
qualities of Being in divine order, he
dwells in Eden, a state of bliss, in a
harmonious, productive consciousness
containing all possibilities of
growth.
Gen. 2:9. And out of
the ground made Jehovah God to grow
every tree that is pleasant to the
sight, and good for food; the tree
of life also in the midst of the
garden, and the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil.
"Ground" represents
formed substance: ideas of Truth of
which man is conscious. The "tree" is
the substance that connects mind and
body, earth and heaven, represented
physically by the nerves. The "tree
that is pleasant to the sight"
represents the pleasure derived from
ascending and descending currents of
life over the nerves. The substance of
spiritual thought is the "food" that is
good. The "tree of life also in the
midst of the garden" represents the
absolute-life principle established in
man's consciousness by Divine Mind, the
very center of his being. The roots of
the "tree of life" are centered in the
solar-plexus region, and they are
symbolized in the physical organism by
the nerves of that plexus.
The "tree of the
knowledge of good and evil" represents
the sympathetic nervous system whose
fruit is sensation. When man controls
his feelings and emotions his
sensations are harmonized and all his
functions are supplied with nerve
energy. But when man gives way to the
pleasure sensation he consumes or
"eats" of that energy and robs his body
of its essential nerve food. Thus
excessive sense pleasure and the pain
that follows are designated as "good
and evil."
Gen. 2:10-14. And a
river went out of Eden to water the
garden; and from thence it was
parted, and became four heads. The
name of the first is Pishon: that
is it which compasseth the whole
land of Havilah, where there is
gold; and the gold of that land is
good: there is bdellium and the
onyx stone. And the name of the
second river is Gihon: the same is
it that compasseth the whole land
of Cush. And the name of the third
river is Hiddekel: that is it which
goeth in front of Assyria. And the
fourth river is the
Euphrates.
"River" symbolizes the
activity of life in the trees or the
current of life in the organism
(garden). The "head" of the river
represents its directive
power.
The name Pishon is
variously defined as "fully diffused,"
"real existence," "perfect
substantiality," "being, carried to its
highest degree." Spiritually
interpreted, this definition is
descriptive of Spirit at work in man's
consciousness, Spirit diffusing its
ideas of intelligence and light into
man's soul. However this work of Spirit
is not confined to man's body or to the
earth but is everywhere present. It is
the activity of divine ideas in their
fullness.
The river Pishon is
described as encompassing "the whole
land of Havilah." Havilah represents
the struggle of elemental life, virtue
born of trial, travail, or suffering.
There is gold in this land and also
precious stones, which means that it is
the realm of reality. In other words,
we have locked up in our elemental body
all the treasures of Spirit. All the
precious things of life for which we
have been looking are in our body, and
it is through the inflow of this mighty
spiritual Pishon that these precious
ideas are released. But there is a
struggle or, as Jesus said,
"tribulation" between the spiritual and
the natural.
The name Gihon means
variously "formative movement," "a
bursting forth," "whirlpool," "rapid
stream." This river represents the
deific breath of God inspiring man and
at the same time purifying his blood in
the lungs. Job said that "there is a
spirit in man" and that "the breath of
the Almighty giveth them
understanding." The river Gihon
"compasseth the whole land of Cush."
The name Cush means "firelike,"
"darkness," "impurity"; and the passage
refers to the blood-purifying process
of the breath. God is breathing His
breath through man's being, cleansing
the blood stream, and filling his whole
being with spiritual
inspiration.
The name Hiddekel means
"universal generative fluid," "rapid
stream," "rapid spiritual influx." The
river Hiddekel symbolizes the spiritual
nerve fluid that God is propelling
throughout man's whole being
continually, as the electromagnetic
center of every physically expressed
atom and cell, the very elixir of life.
This wonderful stream of nerve fluid
finds its way over all the many nerves
in man's body, giving him the
invigorating, steadying power of the
Holy Spirit.
Assyria represents the
psychic realm or the soul. The nerve
fluid, the most attenuated and volatile
fluid of the body, breaks into flares
at the ends of the nerves, giving rise
to various kinds of psychical and
mental action, forming character or
soul. The mind uses the nerve flares to
express its ideas.
The name of the fourth
river, Euphrates, means "fructifying"
or "that which is the fructifying
cause." Metaphysically it represents
the blood stream. The circulatory
system receives and distributes the
nutrients contained in the food we eat.
The blood stream is charged with the
food substance for bone, muscle, brain,
teeth, and hair. Every part of the
organism is supplied with substance
through this wonderful river
Euphrates.
Gen. 2:15-17. And
Jehovah God took the man, and put
him into the garden of Eden to
dress it and to keep it. And
Jehovah God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat: but of the
tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for
in the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die.
The Garden of Eden
symbolizes the omnipresent, unseen
realm out of which comes the visible
universe. Modern science has named it
the cosmic ether. It cannot be
described in human language, because it
transcends all the comparisons of
earth. Jesus said that the "mysteries"
of the kingdom were revealed to those
who were spiritually awake but to
others must be told in
parables.
The human body with its
psychical and spiritual attributes
comprises a miniature Garden of Eden,
and when man develops spiritual insight
and in thought, word, and act
voluntarily operates in accord with the
divine law, then rulership, authority,
and dominion become his in both mind
and body. "The kingdom of God is within
you."
Jehovah God, the active
representative of Divine Mind in man,
places man in the Garden of Eden to
"dress it and to keep it." Man dresses
and keeps this garden by developing, in
his consciousness, the original, pure
ideas imparted by Divine Mind. As man
establishes ideas of Truth he calls
into manifestation his spiritual body
imaged in substance by Divine
Mind.
"Tree" represents the
connecting link between the formed
substance (earth) and the formless
(heaven). To "eat" is to appropriate
the substance of ideas through thinking
about them. "Evil" represents error
thought combinations; that part of
consciousness which has lost sight of
true principles and through sensation
becomes enamored of the thing formed.
Form has its place in creation, but it
is subject to the creative idea that
begets it. The activity of an idea in
man's mind produces sensation. To
become involved in the sensation of an
idea to the exclusion of control is to
eat of the "tree of the knowledge of
good and evil" and die to all
consciousness of the original
idea.
Materiality as the
obverse of spirituality was set up when
man became involved in thoughts of the
external, in sensation, and lost sight
of the true creative idea. Because of
this, man gradually became separated
from the realm of divine ideas; in
other words, from God. Death is the
result of this separation from God.
Jesus restored the broken life current
between God and man and so became the
"Saviour" for those who follow
Him.
Gen. 2:18-25. And
Jehovah God said, It is not good
that the man should be alone; I
will make him a help mate for him.
And out of the ground Jehovah God
formed every beast of the field,
and every bird of the heavens; and
brought them unto the man to see
what he would call them: and
whatsoever the man called every
living creature, that was the name
thereof. And the man gave names to
all cattle, and to the birds of the
heavens, and to every beast of the
field; but for man there was not
found a help meet for him. And
Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to
fall upon the man, and he slept;
and he took one of his ribs, and
closed up the flesh instead
thereof: and the rib, which Jehovah
God had taken from the man, made he
a woman, and brought her unto the
man. And the man said, This is now
bone of my bones, and flesh of my
flesh: she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife: and they
shall be one flesh. And they were
both naked, the man and his wife,
and were not ashamed.
Man must have avenues
through which to express himself. These
avenues are the "help meet" designed by
Jehovah God. Man represents wisdom. It
is not good for wisdom to act alone; it
must be joined with love if harmony is
to be brought forth. Both the soul and
the body are helpmeets to man (spirit),
avenues through which he expresses the
ideas of Mind.
It is on the soul or
substance side of consciousness that
ideas are "identified," that is,
"named." Whatever we recognize a thing
to be, that it becomes to us because of
the naming power vested in man
(wisdom). "Every beast of the field"
and the "cattle" represent ideas of
strength, power, vitality, and life.
These ideas must be recognized by the I
AM before they can be formed. "The
birds of the heavens" represent free
thoughts and the interchange between
the subconscious and the conscious
activities of mind. Man has power to
name all ideas that are presented to
his conscious mind, whether they come
from within or without.
Wisdom, the masculine
phase of man, needs a helpmeet or
balance. Love in the soul (woman) has
not yet been developed and established
in substance.
A limited concept of
Jehovah God caused a deep sleep
(mesmeric state) to fall on the man
(Adam). Nowhere in Scripture is there
any record to show that Adam was ever
fully awakened; and he (man) is still
partly in this dreamlike state of
consciousness. In this state he creates
a world of his own and peoples it with
ideas corresponding to his own
sleep-benumbed
consciousness.
Paul said, "As in Adam
all die [fall asleep, lose spiritual
consciousness], so also in Christ shall
all be made alive [awaken from coma or
lethargy into the awareness of Spirit
life]."
Awakening cannot be
associated with dying. The idea that
man awakens to spiritual or any kind of
consciousness immediately after
"death," whether in heaven, hell,
purgatory, or elsewhere, is opposed to
Truth. His awakening must take place
here, during the time of "life," at
least while he is partially awake and
before he sinks into that deeper sleep
or coma that we call death.
The Scripture admonishes
us: "Awake, thou that sleepest, and
arise from the dead [the mortal dream
of life], and Christ [Truth] shall
shine upon thee." David, sensing this,
said, "I shall be satisfied, when I
awake, with beholding thy
form."
The soul is here coming
into the positive development of divine
love (the woman). Love is the passive
quality of mind and must become active
through man's volition, before it can
be brought forth; and man must enter
into the passive side of Being and
cease from outer mental activity. This
state is symbolized by "deep sleep";
the outer consciousness is quiet,
allowing the spiritual to express
itself fully.
Man evolves, attains
consciousness in mind and body, as he
becomes aware of the divine ideas
implanted in his being. In this chapter
Adam "names"--calls to consciousness in
life's activities--the beasts of the
field and the birds of the heavens
(animal and intellectual realms). Then
in moments of meditation, when the
outer mind is still, he makes contact
with the subconscious.
The Hebrew word from
which "rib" is translated means "curved
surface," not specifically one of
Adam's ribs; rather, the curves of
beauty innate in Adam. The development
of Eve is a refining process that helps
man to bring forth his divine feminine
nature. The rib or bone that became
woman is symbolical of the very
substantial character of the love that
she represents.
Adam is the objective
and Eve the subjective in primal man,
both in the same body. As man evolves
Eve becomes objective. "This is now
bone of my bones, and flesh of my
flesh: she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of
Man."
If the ego or will that
is man has adhered to the guiding light
of Spiritual faithfully and has carried
out in its work the plans that are
ideated in wisdom, it has created a
harmonious consciousness. The original
Adam in Eden is symbolical of such a
consciousness.
The "deep sleep" into
which the intellect is plunged when
true love is experienced still prevails
in human relations. Love is the great
mystery of life. The spiritually wise
see love as the force that enfolds with
mathematical precision the galaxies in
space as well as the tiniest atom.
Science names it gravity.
