CONTINUATION OF CREATION
Before proceeding with this lesson, it will be well to briefly review the leading points of the first lesson, in order to keep the continuity of creation. Genesis means the beginning of things, and these are orderly in their continuity, because they are according to Law. Is Creation chaos or cosmos? It is cosmos, and as such is systematic and orderly, produced and governed by the unvarying Law of Cause and Effect. Genesis in Hebrew means “In the Beginning” referring to Principles, and these are impersonal. Then let us consider everything in this chapter from this view-point. We need to comprehend that it covers all of the creation of God’s - Man which we know is our God-Being. Genesis being an allegory, we must look for a deeper meaning than appears on the surface. We re-iterate that the phrase “In the Beginning” does not refer to time, but to origin. It does not mean when the world began to be, but refers to First Cause which always involves its Effect. Then, “In that Beginning” which is God is all there is of creation, hence creation is now, always was and ever will be. What Creation is in Itself is as fixed, and unchanging, as its Cause. We understand God to be impersonal Principle, Spiritual Life, Love, Substance, Intelligence, Mind, and we must adapt ourselves to It. It will not conform to us, because of what we are in Being. It is already adapted. to us, just as Cause and Its Effect are forever at one.
God as First Cause, with its perpetual motion, must express, or “put forth” what is involved in its own nature. Could First Cause have prevented this expressing or putting forth? No. No more than the flame can help burning and giving light, for its “putting forth” is an order compelled by its own nature.
THE UNIT. The Unity is one Whole, but has many parts. In itself, it is always the same, but within it, is variety. To understand the nature of the unit is to see the variety in it. When we comprehend it, we can enumerate the variety in it, in an orderly manner. It is not enough to see that man is the Image of God. We must also consider what Man is, as this Image. Now if we find that God is Spiritual Life, Love, Substance, Intelligence, Mind, we readily see that man as its expression must be Spiritual Life, Love. Substance and Intelligence, conscious being which is the logical effect of such a Cause. If God is one Whole, man must also be one Whole, as the Unity of Expression, but in him are his parts or fractions. The first days work is Light or the “Power to Know”. This is a faculty and to it belongs the power to gain knowledge, and is therefore not the actual knowledge to be gained. That is yet to come. There must be product from product. As the “Power to Know” it is Intuition, and is the nearest to Mind, being the work of the first day. In the New Testament it is Mary who is always overshadowed by the “Most High.” The second days work, which is another expression of Mind, and a fraction of man, is the “Power to understand” and this is a faculty through which understanding is to come. We all possess the power to understand, but it may not yet be active, and until it is quickened, we might as well be without it, for it is not the more possession of a faculty that counts, but the conscious, intelligent use of it. So, “with all thy getting, get understanding.” “The Lord is my Infinite Understanding.” “Wisdom comes through understanding.” Balzac.
TruthUnity note: See Basic Course, lesson two. The author is saying that humanity, created on the 6th day, encapsulates in it’s being all lesser natures of what was created in previous days. That is to say that we not only evolved from lower order primates, but also from all forms of life. This insight has much to say about how we view our human nature and also our “dominion” over creation.
The third days work, in the order of enumeration (and that is what we are dealing with in this chapter) is the appearing of that which is hidden. We are, what we are, by virtue of our relation to God, as First Cause. There is no choice in the matter. We are perfect. We are living, loving, substantial, Intelligent, but this must be made manifest. Then manifestation as “a day” “brings forth” grass, herb, tree, each of which is an expression or effect and these are spiritual verities from the beginning, and “comes forth” as the Spirit of God moves or acts. The Spirit of God, is the “God said” which precedes all that proceeds from First Cause. These are the natural consequences of the activity of Mind. Through the continuation of the God-action, we have two “Great Lights” the greater Light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and these are in the firmament, not outside of it. They are to give light upon the earth. What is the firmament? The Heaven. What is the earth? The soul. These two great Lights are set in the firmament, for a purpose. What is that purpose? It is to give light upon the soul. Everything in Creation has its purpose, and that is to reveal God through manifestation. Manifestation is the visibility of that which always was and these two “Great Lights” are channels through which manifestation is to come. We call those two “Lights” Intellect and Spiritual Perception. Which is the greater of these two? Spiritual perception, but in our ignorance have made Intellect the King. It must be dethroned and give place to the greater faculty. Which faculty rules the day? Spiritual Perception. Which faculty rules the night? Intellect. In the darkness of ignorance, Intellect always rules, but there is the greater Light that brings us revelation. What is Day? Open vision. “I see” says the blind man. Intellect never gives us the true light. As a faculty, it is a good servant, but if not made to serve, it becomes a tyrannical master. Spiritual Perception perceives, discerns, grasps an idea, while Intellect explains or clothes the idea with words. Both these faculties are good, but must not be divorced, for it is through their united action that true greatness is achieved.
Intellect must be made subservient, otherwise we will again have Cain slaying Abel. Instead, let us have David slaying Goliath. Then these two Great Lights are the fourth days work. These are the fourth result of the action of Mind to Expression, and are more fractions of Man the Whole or unit of expression. Those are not the natural sun and moon, nor does the Bible say so. God made the stars also. What are these “lesser lights”? Reason, logic, discrimination, power to select, judgment or what to select, analysis, calculation, all of which are fixed in the firmament to give light upon the earth. Our lesser faculties are fixed stars in the firmament of understanding in our real Being. These faculties are God’s channel for coming into visibility. Through them is brought to light the hidden beauty of the abstract realm. The next step of the unfolding of Mind to Expression is the “fifth’s days work”. The “moving creatures” that hath Life, the fowl that may fly, — where? In the open firmament of the Heaven. What is heaven? Our real, true being, the spiritual expression of divine Principle. What is here meant by fowls? Winged thoughts that may either soar, or grovel in the dust of man’s materiality. Creatures are natures which we, through lack of knowledge, have perverted the use of. The lion and tiger are in us, as natures, and serve a wise purpose when wisely used. We need the courage represented by the one, and the strength typified by the other, but we must use them both aright, and not pervert these God-derived attributes. God created great whales. These represent modern science, such as Astronomy, Mathematics, Music, etc. We have a wide variety of things, not faculties. Birds, beasts, creeping things in great variety. These differ from each other, but as fractions in the Whole, alike as such.
The Unit Man is one Whole, but in Him are his fractions, each of which is an effect of Mind, and must be mental because God is Mind, Grass, herb and tree are living things, not what you see when you look out upon visible creation. They are the changeless, eternal, spiritual verities that emanate from the One Mind, and are back of the objects corresponding to them in the outer. These faculties and things give us two scales, an ascending and descending scale. Living things reveal that aspect of God which is Life, — Faculties reveal that aspect of God which is Mind. All these are in Man who is the sum of his parts. Not one of them is man. They are fractions in him as fractions are in the unit. Can a fraction even or ever become a unit? No. Can the unit ever become one of its own fractions? No. Will ½ remain ½. Then a dog is not a fourfooted man or a tree is not a rooted man. Each fraction retains its own integrity forever. The ape nature in us enables us to copy or imitate. It is one of the fractions in the spiritual whole which is Generic Man, and so with all the animal natures which are good servants, but poor masters. They are all good in their place which is subservient to the Lord of Creation.
In this first chapter of Genesis, we have outlined one of the oldest of occult symbols, namely the tri-angle. We read “And God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” and so, God made man. How? This way, “day by day,” as shown by the conjunction “and” which holds creation together in one unbroken continuity or orderly sequence from the Beginning. The conjunction “And” appears 87 times in this chapter. First in this sequence is “The Power to Know”, then “The Power to Understand” - each an expression, or effect of Mind, but man is more. He is the wholeness or sum of all expressions, hence, all are in Him. He is the sixth days work. In the 6th is the value of the 5th, and in the 5th is the value of the 4th, and in the 4th is the value of the 3rd, and in the 3rd is the value of the 2nd, and in the 2nd is the value of the 1st. Now where does all this take place? In Man. So God created Man and the variety in Him is infinite Calculus. The 6th is the last days work of the CREATED. Man is the unit of expression. Evolution is the unveiling of the Created. Man is not the product of evolution, but precedes it. It is the uncovering of man’s nature, the making of it known.
TruthUnity note: “Evolution is the unveiling of the Created.” The metaphysician is as concerned about understanding the unveiling of human destiny as about the atonement for sin.
If God always was, man must always have been. Then man is not a visible object in space, made of tha dust of the ground. His nature depends upon and partakes fully of the God-nature, for he is one with his Source in nature, essence, and purpose. Is it not necessary and satisfying to know how man is created? To know that he is not of the earth, earthy, but is of and from the eternal Substance Mind? Jesus said, “I know whence I came, and whither I go” and so may each one of us come into this same consciousness through Self-Understanding. We shall never rightly know God until we recognize God’s handiwork; the Heaven (which is our real Being) declares the glory of God, and the firmament “shows forth,” God’s handiwork, and all is mental, not material. Man is spiritual, perfect Life, Love, Substance and Intelligence and all that is in him is the same.TruthUnity note: “all is mental, not material” By this statement the writer displays a close agreement of Mary Baker Eddy’s belief that there is no life in matter.
