Book of Revelation: Son Of Man

Alchemy and Kabbalah are the two great sciences that the initiate needs to understand in order to walk on the path, in order to return back to Eden. These two sciences of Alchemy and Kabbalah are symbolized in the book of Genesis. Alchemy is symbolized as the tree of knowledge, which is in Hebrew called Daath. The Kabbalah is symbolized in the book of Genesis as the tree of life. These two trees represent the science or the precise wisdom, the precise knowledge, that one needs in order to know God and to achieve freedom from suffering.

Gnosis is a Greek word which means knowledge. Gnosis encompasses the knowledge of the two trees, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and bad.

The books of Genesis and Revelation are the vehicles of that knowledge. They are an encoding of that wisdom. When we examine the book of Revelation, we have to bear in mind that were studying something that is deeply symbolic, and we cannot take it simply at the literal level. As was explained in the previous lecture, when we look at the seven churches that are mentioned by the writer John, he says seven churches in Asia, but we know that when you study Kabbalah you understand that it is not Asia that is written there, it is עשיה Assiah, which is the physical world, the kingdom. And those seven churches are symbolic of seven magnetic centers that exist in the physical body and in the other internal bodies that we have. In the same way, the other symbols and names and words of the book of Revelation are symbolic. They indicate to us the precise means to come to the knowledge that the book is indicating. Alchemy and Kabbalah form the foundation for the initiate. They provide the ground upon which the path can be realized. So this ground is the fundamental understanding that every initiate needs in order to work in the right way.

Kabbalah or the tree of life is more or less a map; it is a symbol. This tree encodes in its structure a map that demonstrates both how the consciousness works and how nature works. And for the initiate, for the student, for the aspirant to really come to know directly the knowledge that is contained in the book of Revelation, that person must understand the tree of life, because the book of Revelation is in itself expressing the knowledge of the tree of life. So if you do not have a good understanding of how the tree works, of how Kabbalah works, you can never understand the book of Revelation, likewise the book of Genesis, or for that matter, the rest of the Bible. This symbol encodes that knowledge.

The tree presents Gnosis in a visual form, which then indicates structures and relationships. Those relationships and structures exist within our own psyche. They are within us. They demonstrate how our own psychological systems function. So it is necessary for the initiate to understand that structure.

When we look in the book of Revelation and we study this text, we see that the language is very dream-like. The language is very poetic. It has a kind of structure, a kind of tone, which makes it different from the rest of the Bible. This is due to the language from which it was written. Revelation, like the book of Genesis, is an expression of the kabbalistic language or root knowledge. The tone and language within which the book is written demonstrates that it contains something more than simply the printed word. When we read for example, “I turned I saw seven standing lamps of gold and among the lamps one like a Son of Man robed down to his feet with a golden girdle around his breast.” To take that literally leaves the reader very dissatisfied. This is because on the literal level one cannot access the real content of the book. To just imagine some radiant person is not enough.

The book of Revelation is a sacred book precisely because it demonstrates and communicates a science, something practical, not merely something to be believed. And that is really the nature of Gnosis or Daath. It is something practical, something that we have to utilize.

Unfortunately, most readers of the Bible and the book of Revelation fail to grasp that, because they do not have the keys. We study Gnosis, the tree of life, and we study Alchemy in order to grasp those keys and use them to unlock the symbols that are contained in this book.

To unlock the symbols, we have to understand something about the Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life
Imagine, visualize, one sphere, one circle, and place upon that sphere the name Malkuth; this is a Hebrew word that means “the kingdom.” This single sphere is a symbol like an algebraic symbol or mathematical symbol, which represents many things. But in the case of what we are going to look at in this lecture, we will say that this circle represents our physical body. It represents us as a person. So you, seated inside of a physical vehicle, are symbolized by this circle of Malkuth. That circle rests or hangs from a triangle, and that triangle has a sphere at each point. So now we have in our imagination a single sphere hanging by itself, above which is a triangle pointed downwards. And that triangle symbolizes a deeper part of our selves. It symbolizes our psyche, aspects of our own psychological structure.

So if we have this physical body which is symbolized by Malkuth, we have within ourselves energy, which is that first sphere closest to Malkuth at the bottom of the downward hanging triangle, that sphere is called Yesod, which means the foundation. The top two spheres at either end of the triangle are Hod on the left and the one on the right is called Netzach.

Yesod, or the lowest sphere of these three above Malkuth, represents the energy that we have and this is often called the vital body or the etheric body. This is the energy that gives life or gives force to the physical body that we have. So in a certain sense you can say within that sphere of Malkuth, which is by itself, we have Yesod, but symbolically we show it above and separate from Malkuth.

After Yesod, the next sphere is Hod. Hod is related to our astral energy or emotional energy. And to the right of it is Netzach, which is related to the mind, to the intellect, to thought. In Sanskrit, Netzach is called Manas. This is inferior manas and is related to the mind that we have.

Above this triangle is another downward pointed triangle. The lowest point of that triangle has another sphere and this one is called Tiphereth. This one is superior manas in Sanskrit. Manas is a term which means mind, or intellect, more literally. But it is not intellect in the way we normally think of it. In Netzach, we have a kind of mind that is more concrete, it is more rational, and in Tiphereth we have a kind of mind that is more intuitive or abstract. So you can see that as we move further away from Malkuth were dealing with more and more subtle forms of psyche. More and more subtle forms of energy.