Page 41 - Gnosis volume 2

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his evolution, to pass from the stage of growth to that of development; and it is only

one section of humanity that received this gift. The Bible tells us that there was a long

period of co-existence between the first human group and adamic humanity. It refers
11
then to a recessive process that took place in the latter, as a result of mixed marriages ,
12
considered by God as a great evil depravity which was destined to lead this mixed
humanity to the catastrophe of the Flood.
One must note that the first humanity, even having reached the term of its growth,

retained still, at that time, certain bestial traits: it did not possess the faculty of speech.

A reference is made to this in the Book of Genesis, when it is indicated that it was to

Adam, and not to the pre-adamic man, that God led all the species of fauna to be
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named . And Adam did, indeed, give names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and
14
to every beast of the field .
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Adam became a living soul as a result of the complementary impetus, given to him
by God. In the symbolic language of the Bible, this fact is expressed in the following
manner: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his

16
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul .
Here is the esoteric meaning of this metaphor: the man formed of the dust of the

ground very closely resembled his counterpart of the animal world: he was like the

anthropoids such as we know them today, even though the

11 Genesis, VI, 1-4.
12 Genesis, VI, 5.
13
Genesis, II, 19.
14 Genesis, II, 20.
15
Genesis, II, 7.
16
Genesis, ibid.