We should note that when we properly translate the term adam as “persons,” even “humankind” as a whole, we find the answer to the age-old question of how Cain could have found a wife, when the previous passages give the impression that the earth only had Adam, Eve, and Abel for Cain to choose from! The term adam indicates that the Creator used the dust of the earth and the breath of life to create humankind, not just one person, and certainly not one male, from which a little rib was taken to create his companion.
It is also important that we realize that humankind was created twice, once in the image of God (Genesis 1:26) and once from the dust of the earth (Genesis 2:7). This is the origin of the idea that we have a dual nature: divine and human, godly and earthly, spirit and flesh, essence and form, energy and matter. Next, we must realize that we, as godlings, have been diminished further through the separation of the gender qualities that were originally combined, naturally one, in every soul. A male is projecting only half of his whole soul being, and a female, only half of hers.
As we are now on the ascent of our soul journey through matter, it is natural that, for many years now, men have been struggling to get in touch with their feminine side and women have been struggling to get in touch with their masculine. It is only natural, because the soul self is both feminine and masculine.
Let’s move on to the animal nature of this portion of our being. This fifth and lowest part of our being influences and is influenced by the bodily instincts, our animal nature, which contains all the base urges, cravings, and desires of bodily existence. But here also is our human nature, with its three-dimensional mind and personality, so shaped by our cultural and socioeconomic upbringing and genetic makeup. The animal and human nature compose our earthly Living Being. It is a thing apart from the heavenly, divine portions of our being.
Even when not incarnate, the cravings and habit patterns of this portion possess us, like a ghost that still desires physical sensation. Remember, the creature is inside the body, not the body itself, so even after the death of the body, this aspect of our being continues to influence us.
This “Living Being” is a dynamic that needs to be subdued, trained, and directed. Hinduism depicts this portion as a charioteer with the reins of the five stallions of the physical senses, which want to run wide and free! If the charioteer restrains self-seeking, self-gratifying impulses, then he or she opens the door to higher consciousness.
This lowest portion of our being is symbolized in the biblical character of Cain, whose name in Hebrew means “acquired” (from the Hebrew verb qana and explained by Eve herself in Genesis 4:1, “I have acquired one with the help of the Lord.”). This is an acquired aspect of our total being. It is willful, self-centered, self-seeking, and not perfected, as reflected in Cain’s character. God says to this aspect of our being, as to Cain: “Sin is crouching at the door [of your heart and mind]; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” (Genesis 4:7, italics mine) Sin, in Kabbalah, is imbalance and disharmony, most often caused by rebelliousness among the free-willed forces of life. When Cain rules, Abel (meaning “breath” in Hebrew but with the connotation of vapor, implying something transitory) is killed!
Abel is replaced with Seth (in Hebrew, Sheth), this name implying a new appointment. Again, Eve explains her choice of the name: “God has appointed [shath, meaning “replaced”) me another offspring . . . ” (Genesis 4:25) Seth is the ancestor of Noah, whose generations repeople this part of the world after all the evil ones are cleansed by the Great Flood. Cain’s progeny has moved far from Eden to the Land of Nod, east of Eden, which is modern-day Afghanistan. Cain is buried south of Kabul, Afghanistan. Isn’t it interesting that we find ourselves back in the lands of Nod (Afghanistan) and Eden (Iraq), and struggling over the Holy City of Jerusalem? Yet these involvements indicate that we are on our return path whence we came.
This acquired outer self has become so dominant that we assume it to be our whole being—who we feel we are—the rest of our being having fallen into our unconsciousness.
Edgar Cayce often addressed the issue of our outer, earthly self. In the following record, a young man asked Cayce how he might receive guidance from higher forces while in the body.
Q: How can [this] body become aware of the higher forces in himself as a guidance?
A: Seeing it, close self—mind, eyes, ears—to the outside world; recognizing as a fact that, “If I would know, if I would be, if I would comprehend, I must open my inner self—not the outer self—to those influences.” And then the awareness flows in.
EC 257–170
Here is another of Cayce’s comments on this aspect of our being:
Let the light that shines without be lighted by that light which is created from within, making the activities of the inner self and the outer self in accord.
EC 262–40; italics mine
Since this is such a physical level of our being, the incarnate portion, it is also important to consider the body’s effect on our being. Cayce was very much aware of this, and as a holistic health resource, he (named “the father of holistic medicine” by the American Holistic Medical Association) often associated bodily conditions with feelings of separation between the outer self and the inner self. Here’s one example:
The sympathetic system has been under such strains that all along those centers where there are particular centralization between the cerebrospinal and sympathetic system, makes for those of heaviness to the body, depressions in the feelings, as of far away feelings, as separations at times between the outer self and the inner self . . . as if the heart and lungs were too full for the body, heaviness in the lower portion of the torso, the feet feel as if they would drag, stretchy feelings through the lower portion of the limbs themselves. These are rather indications than causes. These are reflexes from an overtaxed mental and physical being, with improper nourishment or sustenance coming from the blood supply to bring buoyancy to the whole physical being; the brain feeling at times dull, as if unable to think farther on, as if it would stop. This all from the sympathetic system, and needs rather that of the resuscitation of elements in the physical being as would bring to the body those of renewed energies that would supply the whole system.”
EC 4393–1
Our outer being, this Living Being, is very much affected by the body’s condition and its physical surroundings. The mental portion inside the body needs the body to be properly assimilating nutrients and eliminating toxins that build up. Our outer being also needs to turn within to find the true light, love, and life. However, the inner path is often perplexing to the outer self. The inner path does not fit within the three-dimensional model of life. Let’s consider this further.
To help us grasp the odd, inner way to enlightenment and spiritual breakthrough, Cayce recommended reading Tertium Organum by Ouspensky. Among other things in this text, Ouspensky explains that a dimensional breakthrough requires an altered state of consciousness, because the next dimension does not exist in the present dimension. For example, imagine a one-dimensional being searching for the second dimension. This being may run back and forth on its single plane of existence and not find the second plane. The second dimension is perpendicular to its entire reality. It is totally alien to its current plane of existence. To clarify, imagine the first dimension as a single line —. The second dimension would be a perpendicular line to that line
