METAPHYSICAL BIBLE INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
This is a series of lectures given by Mr. Edward Rabel, member of the faculty of S.M.R.S.
Fall semester 1975 - 2nd. Yr. Class. Lecture given on October 14, 1975
Topic: 36
Gen. 23:, pp. 138-141 of transcript.
Death of Sarah
Now in Chapter 23. These incidents in themselves are not important, but since it is an archetype bible symbol I bring it up here. Sarah was 127 years old. What a great age to reach 12 - 7, get it, and these were the years of the life of Sarah, and then Sarah dies, and then Abraham buries Sarah in the cave at Machpelah. The word Machpelah means double cave, evenly divided, and metaphysically the definition given is subconscious body substance. Now that is not correct. It is only partially correct. This is not the whole definition of what is meant by Machpelah. It would also have to be unconscious soul memories. It would have to be both things, subconscious body substance and then unconscious soul memories. Please remember folks when we say unconscious soul memory we do not mean memory is out of defunct existence. We only mean that memory is only stored on the unconscious level of unconscious level of consciousness and for very good reasons.
Now the death of every important character of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, does not mean the death of a person, nor does it mean the cessation of the quality that person symbolizes. Each bible character symbolizes some important development in the consciousness awareness of the wholeness of our spiritual nature (wholeness - consciousness).
You see your consciousness does not develop, but your awareness develops within consciousness. Your consciousness is one. Each character does not represent an addition to consciousness, but an addition to the development of our awareness within consciousness. You see there is only one consciousness and that consciousness is whole, complete, total, but we are facets of awareness and that is what is growing and developing - greater awareness of the true consciousness which is Christ, Spirit, Son of God.
All these characters simply represent the bringing forth of new factors in the overall developing of total awareness.
When any of these specific factors come to the end of a certain form of their development in us then they are no longer needed as things that are in the foreground of our consciousness. Like Sarah, and any of the other important characters, each has his time and place to become the thing in the foreground in our effort for conscious development. When this cycle of development for that particular form is fulfilled then that particular character or factor then becomes buried in the cave of Machpelah in us. It doesn't mean it leaves us and goes out of us but becomes imbedded within us and rather than remaining in existence as an isolated factor we are working on it blends into the whole background and fabric of both unconscious soul memory which is the root of our character by the way and subconscious body substance which is the root of our present personality.
Now I'll say again the factors which are now embedded in the unconscious soul memory part of us are the roots of our character at this moment while the factors buried in the soul conscious body level of the cave of Machpelah are the roots of our current personality. Now which of the two can be changed? BOTH. OK. Each character is then buried which symbolizes the implanting or the building of that particular quality into the whole fabric and background of our nature.
STUDENT. I don't understand how our character can change. I can understand how our personality can change but I can't imagine how - I have one character - and I want you to explain the difference.
ED. No, you're right. You don't have one character which labels you but a sum total of your predominant characteristics; we call a person's character and these can be shifted and changed, and spiritualized and forgotten. I can say Carolyn is a cheerful character and now Carolyn is categorized, but Carolyn has many characteristics that are cheerful but she also has many characteristics that are melancholy characteristics. She is a blend. All of the dominant characteristics in her subconscious memory greatly influence what emerges and we just call her predominant type of character. There are also mysteries in this which we won't go into now, but I'll just tantalize you. So called astrology, Zodiac sign reading enters unconscious soul memory symbolized as influence from planetary influence and date of birth and so forth. That's not all "crap". There is a vein of ancient Truth that runs through all that just as valid as what runs through Lessons in Truth and Jesus Christ Heals.
STUDENT. How did you reach that conclusion? I agree to that conclusion but I am interested in how you reached it.
ED. Oh, I can't tell you how I reached it. It's just something that grows on you as you get older and dumber and the dumber you get the less resistant you get to other and very wonderful people's opinions. Others have dedicated themselves and you learn not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
OK, now then these characters are buried it simply means that for the time being they are not taking up the foreground of our activity and thinking and have now become the background of that which makes me what I am. Not metaphysically now but just a bit of common sense. What is it that makes me the kind of person I am now and making me look the way I look now. If it is not that which has gone into unconscious soul memory and subconscious body substance then what could it be? See.
It's what we teach. It's what Cady, Shanklin, Fillmore taught - not quite in those words, but remember folks that a lot of our great pioneer Truth book writers weren't into metaphysical Bible interpretation. They were saying many of the same things but they could not connect it to Bible symbolism. They were saying many of the same things but not in just this way. It is only very recently that any organization, any religious group has made metaphysical Bible interpretation one of its top ranked subjects and so I may be saying a thing based on Bible interpretation while Dr. Cady and Fillmore may have said a thing based on metaphysical logic and intuitive revelation, but we are all saying the same thing, and students recognize when one is off the track and contradicts some of the classic teachings.
If I ever do it and you catch it, you stop me fast because I am not doing it intentionally. Now even though the succeeding characters are not specified as being buried in the cave of Machpelah, the precedent (archetype) is established here in Sarah's burial.
Now there is one more point that I want to make here before we resume. In the part of the Bible that we have just reached, the sequence as presented in the narrative does not necessarily correspond to the sequence in which persons develop and unfold. Up until now it has been pretty much that way - that is in creation which is the creating of the creative Spirit - the creative principle implanted in us and then formed as spiritual man and in Adam and Eve and in the Garden of Eden and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
And by the way folks, "God says all that He had made and it was good." God had made the tree of knowledge of good and evil. In the beginning in the original creation that tree was there in Eden. God made Eden and that tree was put in Eden as God made it and God saw all that He had made and it was good. Good and evil add up to good - if the polarities are kept together then good and evil will add up to good.
So don't be disturbed if in following the Bible narrative the sequence of it as it is printed in the Bible does not correspond to the sequence of soul development in individuals. For instance, the next two characters we are going to take up will be Jacob and Esau, and that who follows in the sequence of the narrative, but that does not mean that in a person the factors representing Jacob and Esau will necessarily follow that of Isaac. Perhaps your sequence was altogether different and that doesn't matter. The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary does not say it only happens in this sequence - it is only saying - this also can happen and then that can happen and then this etc., but not necessarily in this sequence.
It's like you were looking at a whole picture and you point out for a student different things about the picture which makes up for its whole greatness.
Transcribed by Margaret Garvin on February 23, 2015.
