There is a divine strain
in the Kabbalah signifying a divine sonship of God. We can find current studies on this secret doctrine in G. Sholem's
posthumous book, On the Mystical Shape of the God head (1997), and also in Lenora Leet's
book, The Secret Doctrine of the Kabbalah (1999).
Leet states:” The Son symbol is ... the central salvic belief of the Jewish esoteric tradition from its beginnings [in]
the temple culture of the ancient priesthood."(p. 25)
The older part of the Hebrew Testament
is rife in God's desiring the first-born. For instance: “Israel is my first born."(Exod. 4:22-23) "Sanctify
unto me all the first born...among the children of Israel both of man and of beast: it is mine."(Exod. 13:2) Moreover,
in the ancient, patriarchal Hebrew culture, the first-born male was the most prized possession - hence the most sanctified.
In fact the story of Abraham's
attempted sacrifice of his own son may have commemorated the end of actual human sacrifice among the Hebrew tribes.
(To this day there still exists a Jewish custom of the parents donating money as a symbolic substitute for
offering their first born son.)
During the later temple periods,
animal sacrifices alone were considered sufficient appeasement. Therein the priests were sanctified
through the eating of the sacrificed animal.
After the final temple period,
circumcision was considered the prime sacrifice to God. For here one's lower animal nature was symbolically cut off,
while dedicating one's spirit to God as sanctified son. Hence the Talmud states: "Blessed are they who are the sons
of God" (Kiddushin 61a)
Although Judaism conventionally sanctified
rebirth of their nation, the esoteric strain secretly sanctified rebirth of the individual. The Merkabah stated the
divine person above the throne in the Book of Ezekiel, and the Son of Man in the Books of Enoch and Daniel, signified the
prophets' higher, sanctified self, as a "son of God", now twice born.
The highest symbolic interpretation
reveals Ezekiel's four emanations and seven heavens to the throne as the prophet's internal journey to the Godhead.
So like the primordial shaman, Ezkiel's altered states revealed secret truths to initiates who were to become priests
or holy persons.
Finally the Zohar reveals an esoteric reading of the Sh'ma:"Hear O Israel,
YHVH Elohaynu [and] YHVH [are] one." signifying both immanence and transcendence, female and male are merged
as one. So blessed also are the daughters of God. Once merged in mystic union there is neither male nor female,
only one's new self twice born to achieve higher being.
Christianity, the offshoot of Judaism, made
the esoteric concept of personal rebirth public. (John 3:3-6; Gal. 4:29; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 3:9) The
highest inspirational catalyst for rebirth here is the story of God's reversing the sacrifice and giving his own first-born
son as a sacrifice to humankind so all can be saved. Thereby all can also be priests by partaking of the sacrifice
themselves in the holy supper or Eucharist.
Here circumcision was replaced with baptism, derived
from the Jewish Baptist cult, but now manifest as symbolically sacrificing the old self and resurrecting as a new
self into higher being. "Many of us were baptized into his death. And just as he was raised - even we
shall be raised into new life. Knowing your old self was sacrificed ... you should no longer be a slave to
sin." (Rom. 6:3-6)
Then the secret meaning of the Sh'ma was also made
public in Galtians 3:28: "For the many of you who were baptized into the Divine: there is no longer slave nor free,
male nor female.... And if you are now all one, you are all Abraham's heirs according to the promise."
A final occult dictum states: as it is below so is
it above, as within so without. Not only does God as Lawgiver bestow all cosmic
laws but also bestowed the commandments on this earth. Not only did God's Spirit move across the deep producing
new creation in the cosmos but the Spirit also can ascend from within to give revitalized consciousnes to
the devout ones. Not only do the the faithful believe in heavernly resurrection but
also in personal rebirth on this earth. For all of nature is resurrection -- on earth as it is in the
heavens...
We, though infiniteisma, are all a homologous part of
cosmic law, energy and new creation, and thereby can also become enlightened, vitalized, and reborn as sons and daughters
of the Godhead by tapping into such archetype symbols as these.
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