The first chapter of Genesis describes the creation of the world and man. There we read the Elohim say: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness”[1]. Kabbalistic Bible scholars do not consider the words “our image” and “likeness” synonymous. They understand “likeness” (Hebrew, demut) as the visible and external aspect of man, while the word “image” (Hebrew, celem) is meant to refer to the inner, hidden and invisible world in us. In the human heart there is one particular atom, not of earth, called by the ancient initiates “the spark“, in which is hidden – as in a grain – the image of the heavenly man. This image is a luminous manifestation, it is free from any masks.
But before man liberates himself from masks, before he truly knows himself, he perceives also God through their prism. Man has his external, earthly and visible aspect, as well as internal – spiritual and hidden. This external, visible aspect is described according to the Pythagorean numerology by the consonants of his first names and surnames. The internal and invisible aspect, called the number of the soul, is to be described by the vowels. Vowels were not recorded in ancient kabbalistic scriptures because they were considered to refer to the invisible soul that could be known by animating the body and filling it with light.
Based on the day, month and year of our birth, the numerologist can draw up a graph for us called the diamond of life, from which he reads the quality of our life path, cycles, challenges and lessons that we have to master at different stages of our present life. The name “diamond of life” is not accidental. For this diagram, firstly, actually resembles a diamond, and secondly – it is a graphic and symbolic representation of a process whose ultimate goal is to transform us, as natural, earthly beings whose life is based on carbon compounds, into higher, pure and noble beings like a diamond – into divine beings. Interestingly, the word “diamond” comes from the ancient Greek word adamas and the Latin diamas. The Latin name of this stone literally means “you love the gods“, and the Greek adamas (indestructible, invincible) brings to mind the biblical Adam or Adam Kadmon, the original Adam, the first perfect man we know from the Kabbalistic teachings. Michael Laitman, a contemporary rabbi and promoter of Kabbalistic knowledge, in one of his books writes that the word Adam derives from the Aramaic word “dome“, which means “similar to the Creator”. He writes:
“Ancient wisdom says allegorically that all mankind was created as one being, meaning that in the beginning all humans were united together as one. And Nature relates to us as it does to one man. This collective image is called Adam, from the word ‘dome’, which in Old Babylonian Aramaic means ‘like the Creator’.
Originally created as one man, as a result of increasing selfishness, we gradually lost our sense of community and drifted apart, reaching in our sense of separation to the point of hatred.”
In the book “Elementary Philosophy of the modern Rosycross”[2], Jan van Rijckenborgh says about Adam as follows:
“The Bible presents the man as A.D.M. These three sounds were translated as “Adam”. They are respectively the terms for spirit, soul, and body; Kabbalistically, they are expressed with the number 1440, that is, 9:
A – Aleph: number 1, becoming, revelation, source from which everything comes: Spirit.
D – Daleth: the number 4 means “leveler” or “door”; a significant term for the activity of the soul.
M – Mem: the number 40, i.e. the one that ends, who fulfills, who performs: the bodily form.
Adam is therefore by no means a designation of a single man, but concerns humanity as a whole, namely in its manifestation of spirit, soul and body.
At the end of the Bible, the book of Revelation mentions 144,000 saved (number 9). It is about humanity again, but only about the exclusive part that will participate in salvation. It is not a group of exactly 144,000 beings, but that part of people who have undergone a process of renewal according to spirit, soul, and body, and have succeeded in doing so.”
This process of renewal is related to the mysterious riddle that the Sphinx was supposed to pose to travelers, harassing and murdering people in Thebes: “What is this animal endowed with a voice that walks on all fours in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three in the evening?” This puzzle was solved by Oedipus, who said that this animal is a human being, because being a toddler he moves on all fours, when he grows up – on two legs, and in old age he supports himself with a staff, so he has three legs. However, there is another, deeper solution to this riddle[3]. It is related to the Pythagorean analysis of the three numbers mentioned in the riddle: 4, 2 and 3, which when summed up give 9, the natural number of man and the lower worlds. The Four represents a man with an animal, primitive consciousness limited to the world of matter. The Two concerns a man endowed with an earthly intellect, whose light is mixed with darkness, therefore this man is in the grip of the dual world and perceives the world in a dual way. The Three, on the other hand, refers to a spiritual man who is initiated into the arcana of Opus Magnum, who, as a result of an alchemical transformation and profound self-knowledge, restored the microcosm – as a unity of spirit, soul and body – to its original perfection. He became Manas, a sage who can return to his lost spiritual homeland. Only when a man solves this mystery, the secret of the vibration three, will he discover the mystery of his existence. He will become free from his image, a neutral mirror (0) reflecting the Father’s- Mother’s, Abba’s- Ama’s (1, 2) Face. He will become His demut and celem.
[1] Genesis 1:26.
[2] Jan van Rijckenborgh, “Elementary Philosophy of the Modern Rosycross”, chapter 10.
[3] See: Manly P. Hall, “The Secret Teachings of All Ages”, chapter 6.
