Once before I have pointed out that the written accounts of Creation must not be taken in an earthly sense.
The book of Genesis in the Bible also does not refer to this earth. Creation of the earth was simply the
natural consequence of the further evolution of the first Creation effected by the Creator Himself. It is
almost inconceivable how Bible scholars could have jumped to such an illogical and gap-producing
conclusion as that God should have created the gross material earth, directly after His own Perfection and
without any transition.
To get nearer to the truth of what actually happened, it is not necessary to change the “Word” of the
Scriptures. On the contrary, the description of Genesis represents this truth much more clearly than do all
of the false and incomplete assumptions. It is only the erroneous interpretations which have caused the
inability to understand on the part of so many people.
These people quite rightly sense the mistake that is made by the insistence on placing the Paradise
referred to in the Bible on this gross material earth, which is so far remote from the Divine. It is after all
not completely unknown that the Bible is primarily a spiritual book. It gives clarification about spiritual
events, man only being mentioned where he is directly related to explanations and illustrations of these
spiritual things.
Even the human intellect can understand, because it is natural, that the Bible description of Genesis
does not refer to the earth, which is so far away from the Creator. Hardly anybody will dare to dispute the
fact that this direct Creation of God, named first Creation, can only be looked for in His immediate
environment, since it was the first to emanate from Him, and thus must be in closer connection with Him.
No calm and clear thinker will expect that this first and actual Creation took place on this earth, of all
places, which is furthest removed from the Divine Sphere, and which only came into being in the further
course of evolution.
Thus there could be no question of a Paradise on earth. As expressly stated in Genesis, what God
created personally naturally remained directly connected with Him and had to be in His close vicinity
only. Quite understandable and natural is also the conclusion that all that was created in or emanated from
His immediate proximity must most nearly resemble the Creator’s own Perfection. And that alone is
Paradise, the Eternal Kingdom of God!
However, the idea that it is on the gross material earth must breed doubters. The thought of an
“expulsion” from the earthly Paradise, whereby those driven out would still have to remain on the same
earth, is so unsound, so evidently and grossly material in its concept, as to be almost grotesque. It is a
lifeless picture, bearing the stamp of a frantically constructed dogma which no sensible human being can
do anything with.
The less perfect a thing is the further removed it is from Perfection. Hence the spiritual beings that
were created out of Perfection cannot be the human beings on earth, but must have their place closest to
this Perfection, and must therefore be the most ideal of models for humanity. They are the eternal spiritual
beings who never descend into the World of Matter and therefore never become human beings. They are
radiant, ideal figures who attract like magnets and at the same time have a re-enforcing effect on all the
abilities of the human spirit-germs, and of the spirits who have subsequently attained to consciousness.
The Paradise mentioned in the Bible therefore must not be confused with the earth.
For a better understanding it is necessary once again to give a complete picture of all that exists in
order to make it easier for the seeker to find his way to the Eternal Kingdom of God, the Paradise where
his spirit has his origin.
Man must imagine Divinity as the absolutely highest above all. God Himself, as the starting point of
all that exists, as the Primordial Source of all Life, is in His absolute Perfection Unsubstantiate. At times
He takes on form by enveloping Himself in the cloak of the adjacent Divine Substantiality. Next to God
Himself in His very own Unsubstantiality follows this Sphere of Divine Substantiality. In this originate
the first beings to take definite form. To these belong in the first place the four Archangels, secondly and
thirdly a small number of Elders. These latter ones cannot enter into the Divine-Unsubstantiality; they are
however of great importance for the further evolution towards spiritual substantiality, in the same way as, later on, the conscious beings of the Animistic Sphere are of great importance for the development of
matter. Lucifer was sent from the Sphere of Divine Substantiality to be a direct support for Creation in its
automatic further evolution
The Son of God, however, issued from Divine Unsubstantiality as a part of It, and after fulfilling His
mission of help had to return to Divine Unsubstantiality and again become One with the Father. The Son
of Man also issues from Divine Unsubstantiality, directly from God. Through the connection with the
conscious spiritual substantiality, His severance made it imperative that He remain separate, yet directly
connected to the Divine Unsubstantiate, so that He may stand as the Eternal Mediator between God and
His Work. As Lucifer, who proceeded from the Sphere of Divine Substantiality, failed in his mission, it
became necessary to send in his place someone stronger who would fetter him and bring help to Creation.
For this reason the Son of Man, who was entrusted with this task, issued from Divine Unsubstantiality.
Adjoining the Sphere of Divine Substantiality is Paradise, the Eternal Kingdom of God. Closest to
Divine Substantiality there is first of all conscious spiritual substantiality, consisting of the created eternal
spiritual beings or spirits. These are the perfect, ideal models for all that human spirits, in their most
perfect development, can and should aspire to. Like magnets they draw up those who strive to ascend.
Through this automatic connection those who are seeking and those who strive to ascend often feel an
inexplicable longing, which gives rise to the urge to seek and strive upwards.
These are the spirits that were never born into the World of Matter, and were created as the first Pure
Spiritual beings by God Himself, the Primordial Source of all Being and all Life, thus being closest to His
perfection. They are the ones who are truly made after His Own Image! We must not ignore the explicit
statement in Genesis: after His Own Image. Here too this statement is not without significance for they
can only be after His Image, not after Himself, i.e., only after that in which He shows Himself, because
only pure Divinity Itself is Unsubstantiate.
In order to show Himself God must first clothe Himself in Divine Substantiality, as has already been
said above. However, even then He cannot be seen by those of spiritual substantiality, but only by those
of Divine Substantiality, and that only to a minor degree, because all that is purely Divine must in its
perfect purity and clarity blind all that is not Divine. Even those of Divine Substantiality cannot look
upon God’s Countenance! The difference between Divine Unsubstantiality and Divine Substantiality is
still far too great.
This Paradise of conscious spiritual substantiality contains at the same time unconscious spiritual
substantiality which holds the same fundamental components which make up conscious spiritual
substantiality, i.e., its germs. These germs hold life, and, following Divine Will, all life in the whole
Creation strives to develop, to develop towards consciousness. This is quite a natural and healthy process.
Consciousness, however, can emerge from unconsciousness only through experiencing, and this urge
towards further development through experiencing finally pushes such maturing or urging germs of
unconscious spiritual substantiality automatically off or out, over the boundary of the Sphere of Spiritual
Substantiality. Since this expulsion or ejection of a germ cannot take place in an upward direction, it must
necessarily proceed in the only way open to it, which is downwards.
And this is the natural expulsion from Paradise, from the Sphere of Spiritual Substantiality,
necessary to every spirit-germ striving to become conscious!
That in reality is the biblical meaning of the expulsion from Paradise. When it is said: In the sweat of
thy brow thou shalt eat thy bread, this is metaphorically quite correct. In other words, the turmoil of
experiencing makes it necessary to defend and fight for himself against the pressing influences of the
lower sphere into which it penetrates as a stranger.
This expulsion, ejection, or being driven out from Paradise is in no wise a punishment, but becomes
an absolutely natural and automatic necessity when the spirit-germ is nearing a certain stage of maturity
as a result of the urge to develop self-consciousness. It is the birth from the Sphere of Unconscious
Spiritual Substantiality into the Sphere of Animistic Substantiality, and later into the World of Matter for
the purpose of developing. It is progress, not retrogression!
Genesis describes quite correctly man’s feeling the desire to “cover his unclothedness” after the
conception of good and evil awakened within him, which was the slow development of self-
consciousness.

To be continued next week