The Rod of an Almond Tree in God's Master Plan- Part II
WATCH UNTO PRAYER REVIEW OF:
THE ROD OF AN ALMOND TREE IN GOD'S MASTER PLAN
by Peter A. Michas, Robert Vander Maten and Christie Michas (WinePress Publishing, 1997)This review was written to set the record straight regarding a review/recommendation of The Rod of an Almond Tree in God's Master Plan by Lynn D. Leslie which appeared in Jan/Feb 1998 issue of The Christian Conscience magazine and on the Messengers of Messiah website. Their review is no longer available but is reprinted here.
Peter Michas and Robert Vander Maten seek to make a case throughout the book that the Garden of Eden was located in the area which later became Jerusalem. From this premise, the authors propose that the Tree of Life was literally passed down through the generations via the Patriarchs as the Rod of Authority until David planted it and thousands of years later it became the cross upon which Jesus Christ died. This relic, the authors believe based on Rev. 22:2, will reappear as the Scepter of Authority in the New Jerusalem and bud as a sign of the Messiah's authority, as it once validated the authority of Aaron. Thus mankind will recognize the Messiah on the basis of a theory derived from the legends of unbelieving rabbis, conjecture and the Hebrew Roots reinterpretation of Scripture.
This review will consider various teachings of The Rod of an Almond Tree in God's Master Plan and compare them with identical teachings found in kabbalist and other occult sources. To his talmadim (students), Peter Michas protests that he is not a kabbalist. However, discerning Christians will evaluate the doctrine, rather than assertions, of a spiritual leader to determine his faithfulness to God's Word. The Lord Jesus Christ expressed this spiritual principle in Matthew 7:18: "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." Common sense applies the Duck Rule: "If it looks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck, and it walks like a duck...Chances are it's a duck even if you call it something else." If Peter Michas teaches the central doctrines of Jewish occultism, aka Kabbalism, then he is a Kabbalist.
Chabad Lubavich Hasidism
Primeval Light & Gematria
Duality: As Above, So Below
Jerusalem: Location of Garden of Eden
Oneness Doctrine: Unitarianism
Adam Kadmon: Feminine-Masculine God
Tree of Life vs. Cross
Rod of Authority: Relic of Tree of Life
Shekina: The Divine Feminine
Under the Mosaic Law
The Kabbalist Tree of Life
Universal Salvation
Jesus the Nazarene
The Ineffable Name of God
The Semitic New Testament
Doctrine of Atonement
Deity of Jesus Christ
Responsibility of Jews
CHABAD LUBAVICH HASIDIM
In the Preface of The Rod of an Almond Tree in God's Master Plan, Peter Michas discusses his early disenchantment with the New Testament in the Greek language and its translation into the English. To satisfy his curiosity about the true origins of the New Testament, Pastor Michas visited the local Chabad- Lubavich House, where he would receive an education in the Hebrew Roots of Christianity."I ended up going into a place call Chabbad House which was run by the Lubavich, the ultra-orthodox rabbis. This was the beginning of my education in the Hebraic roots of the Bible. As my knowledge of the Hebraic context of Scripture grew, my God was being revealed to me in ways that cannot even be explained. I realize that if God had not preserved the Jewish people and their books (including the Bible), most spiritual truth and surely all of the culture of Scripture would have been lost to traditions of men." (p. 19)For those who may be unfamiliar with this organization, Hebrew scholar Dr. Eliezer Segal of the University of Calgary, describes Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidism as a Kabbalist movement:"The name 'Chabad' is a Hebrew acronym for the expression 'Chokmah,' 'Binah" and 'Da'at' -- Wisdom, Intelligence and Knowledge. These Kabbalistic terms are central to the distinctive intellectual theology of the movement... The name Lubavitch refers to a town in Lithuania that was the centre of the movement for a brief period during the nineteenth century...Chabad Hasidism continued to be a major force among Russian and Lithuanian Jews from its inception..."The doctrines of the Lubavitch Movement are derived from the Kabbalah. The Encyclopedia of Religion states that the Kabbalah is currently studied in traditional Jewish institutions according the Lubavitch and Sephardic interpretations:"The dominant brand of Qabbalah in the modern Qabbalistic Yeshivot (traditional Jewish academies) is the Lurianic system. It is studied according to the interpretations offered by Mosheh Hayyim Luzzatto, by Eliyyahu ben Shelomoh Aalman, by Habad, the Lubavitch Hasidic Movement and by the Sefardic Qabbalists of the Beit El Academy in Jerusalem."The Watch Unto Prayer report on The Lubavich Movement is most instructive of the agenda of this Jewish sect, whose various rebbes were believed to be the promised Messiah, only to pass away to the dismay but not disillusionment of their devoted adherents. The most recent rebbe, the Rabbi Joseph Isaac Schneerson, moved in 1940 from Russia to America, where he expressed his determination to make the Lubavitch movement into an American religious movement.Chabad-Lubavitch is now an international movement with headquarters in New York. The American Friends of Chabad Lubavitch in Washington, D.C. coordinates activities for Chabad on Capital Hill, lobbies for Chabad causes, and runs study groups and social programs geared towards congressional staffers. In 1991, Chabad-Lubavitch in cooperation with President Bush established the observance of Education Day, USA "to return the world to the moral and ethical values contained in the Seven Noahide Laws."
There are frequent references in The Rod of an Almond Tree to The Torah Anthology. For information on Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's anti-Christian writings and principle role in the mainstreaming of Jewish mysticism through translation and teaching of the Kabbalah, see To Embrace Hebrew Roots - Part VII . The Torah Anthology is introduced by Peter Michas in Chapter 1: The Light of the Messiah.
THE TORAH ANTHOLOGY: The Torah Anthology was written by Rabbi Yaakov Culi, one of the greatest Sephardic sages of his time, and first published in 1730... In 1967, Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan began an English translation which was completed by Rabbi Eliyahu Tonger after Rabbi Kaplan's death. (p. 37)The Sephardic Jews are descendants of the large Jewish community living in Spain and Portugal in the Middle Ages. These Jews had allied with the Moslem invaders and infiltrated the religious orders to subvert the Church/State government and to purvey their occult practices throughout Christendom. In 1492, Queen Isabella of Castile and King Ferdinand of Aragon forcibly expelled the Sephardic Jews, who have been credited with disseminating Cabalism in Europe.
PRIMEVAL LIGHT & GEMATRIA
The first chapter of The Rod of an Almond Tree suggests the term "Primeval Light" as the light which God commanded in Genesis 1:3,4. This, Peter Michas claims, is the light of "illumination" or "enlightenment." Quoting Gen. 1:3-5 he proceeds to interpret it metaphorically, when in fact there is no indication that the passage refers to anything but physical light.
"The light that was revealed on Day One of creation was completely unlike any other light in its brilliance and qualities. Rabbinic literature refers to it as the 'Primeval Light' and that it was spiritual in nature."The footnote to this quotation is: "Rabbi Michael Munk, The Wisdom of the Hebrew Alphabet, p. 174." Gematria is explained by Rabbi Munk on the web pages of Mirach: home of the practical kabbalist:The Hebrew Alphabet: The Hebrew alphabet, detailed below, consists of twenty-two letters. All of these letters are consonants. Vowels are indicated by small dots and marks surrounding the individual letters. Four of the letters have a different form when they fall at the end of the word. Each letter has a meaning and a numeric value associated with it. The letters are considered to be the building blocks of creation (see Sepher Yetzirah for more information on this subject).
The Sepher Yetzirah: The Sepher Yetzirah, or Book of Formation, is acknowledged as being one of the most important kabbalistic texts. Its brief note-like style has made it one of the most commented upon works in the field of kabbalah. The concepts contained within it detail the basic acts of creation through the use of the Hebrew letters. It is supposed to be the text which medieval kabbalists used to create a golem.The preference for spiritual over physical light is Gnostic thought, which maintains that matter is evil and the soul, which is embedded in matter, must be released from its bondage in order to ascend and be absorbed into the divine principle from which it originated. To arrive at this interpretation of Genesis 1:3-5, authors Michas and Vander Maten rejected the plain sense of Scripture, which is revealing the physical creation, and employing instead the ancient kabbalistic art of Gematria, which assigns numerical meaning to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to arrive at a desired interpretation:The Hebrew word, 'or', is translated 'light' in the above verses. The literal meaning of this word is 'illumination' or 'luminary.' Its root means 'to be, cause, or make luminous' and 'enlighten,' and may be used literally and/or metaphorically..." (pp. 42-3)
By study of the numerical equivalence of Hebrew words (gematria), the light of creation is shown to be related to the light of Torah. God's instruction according to the 613 commandments given in the first five books of the Bible. In John 1:1, Yeshua is referred to as the Word, the meaning of which is identical to Torah. Again this is a direct reference to Yeshua as the Light and the Word (Torah) of God.... (p. 43)Delving deeper into the Hebrew of Genesis 1:3, we find that there are two Hebrew words translated 'let there be light.' The word meaning 'light' has already been discussed. The other Hebrew word literally means 'let be.' The word 'there' does not appear in the original Hebrew but has been added for clarification. In fact, the Hebrew word that means 'let be' is a masculine form and therefore refers to 'him', rather than 'it.' Therefore, the Hebrew can validly be translated as 'Let Him be Light.' In this way, Messiah is revealed in the original Hebrew words! An expanded translation of Gen. 1:3-5, including its metaphorical meanings, is:
v. 3 And Elohim said, 'Let Him be Light [life, natural and spiritual; prosperity; honor; joy and all manner of happiness in this world and the next, encouragement; comfort; hope in adversity; the saving knowledge of Elohim and of the Messiah]' and He was Light.In Zoroastrianism, the religion of Babylonia, Primeval Light emanates from an incomprehensible "essence" which is the Persian concept of God, portrayed as the evil Demiurge:v. 4 And Elohim saw [the revelation of] the Light that [the knowledge and wisdom of it] was good. And Elohim separated the Light from the darkness [spiritual darkness, spiritual ignorance, spiritual discernment].
v. 5 And Elohim spoke, 'You will be the light' [Messiah; Word of God], until darkens [Lucifer; spiritual darkness] is defeated. And Elohim called the darkness a state of spiritual chaos and confusion. And [Lucifer] was the evening [the originator of spiritual darkness] when spiritual truth began to be obscured, and there also was the morning [the Word of God, Light, Truth] as light dawned [prosperity and happiness] the first age.
God expressed Himself through this Primeval Light when He commanded the Light to be revealed. By his Word, God's knowledge, wisdom, and purpose for this world burst across the chaotic waters in a blinding revelation of God's glory...God gave this light as the knowledge of Himself...God's first words to the world contained the knowledge of Himself, the very essence of Himself, the Word of God. This was the light that shone so brilliantly on Day One. It was the gift of the Light of God, the Primeval Light that was revealed to a world which had been consumed in chaos and darkness." (pp. 44-45)
PERSIAN ZOROASTRIANISM AND RUSSIAN VANDALISMAgain, in Kabbalistic Magic, Primeval Light is found in an extrapolation of the Torah which teaches the ten emanations of the Sephirot and man's divine spark:For countless ages, the devotees of Mithra worshipped at his shrines, until Zarathustra, descending from heaven in the shape of a" Golden Star," transformed himself into a man, and began teaching a new doctrine. He sung the praises of the One but Triple god--the supreme Eternal, the incomprehensible essence "Zervana-Akerene," which emanating from itself "Primeval Light," the latter in its turn produced Ahura-Mazda. But this process required that the "Primeval One" should previously absorb in itself all the light from the fiery Mithra, and thus left the poor god despoiled of all his brightness. Losing his right of undivided supremacy, Mithra, in despair, and instigated by his Ahrimanian nature, annihilated himself for the time being, leaving Ahriman alone, to fight out his quarrel with Ormazd, the best way he could. Hence, the prevailing Duality in nature since that time until Mithra returns; for he promised to his faithful devotees to come back some day."
On How to Use the Mystical Interpretations of the
Jewish Holy Books in Adventure Role-Playing Games
"The physical universe itself is composed of four worlds, which are not planets, and correspond to the four stages of Creation. These stages are another aspect of the creation process and do not conflict with the six phases or "days" of Creation listed in the beginning of the Torah. The four worlds, and their related stages of creation, are: 1) Olam HaAtzilut (World of Emanation), which represents the archetypal ten emanations and the creation of primeval light; 2) Olam HaBeriah (World of Creation), which contains the Divine Throne and symbolizes the spiritual universe apart from God, and Man's divine "spark"; 3) Olam HaYetzirah (World of Formation), wherein reside the angels and men's souls, and symbolizes the concept within creation of individual existence (i.e., number, measure and form) as opposed to archetypes or ideas; and 4) Olam HaAsiyah (World of Activity) which is the material universe."Primeval light--the word primal also means primeval-- under the Kabbalah is referenced as "Primal God, the Ancient One"; the second veil in the Sephiroth is Ain soph---and ain soph aur = the limitless light; the whole ten Sephiroth represent the Heavenly Man, or Primordial Being. The gnosis presented by Peter is almost identical to the Manichean system of Gnosticism.Why does Peter Michas interpret the Hebrew word "or" as light since Strong's Concordance presents a majority of literal renderings?
215 -- owr - ore; a prim root, to be (cause make) luminous (lit. and metaphor): -X break of day, glorious, kindle, (be, give, show) light (-en,ened) set on fire, shine.The prominent leaders in the dissemination of Kabbalism today are preparing their followers for the opening of the Third Eye or the Primal Light of Gnostic illumination:
216 -- owr: ore; from 215; illumination or (concr) luminary (in every sense , including lightning, happiness,etc.) - bright, clear + day --light (-ing), morning sun.
217 -- uwr -- oor; form 215, flame, hence (in the plur) the East (as begin the region of light) -fire, light -- see 224.
224 -- uwryim, oo-reem; plur of 217; lights, Urim, the oracular brilliancy of the figures in the high-priests breastpplate-Urim
3974 ma'owr;... me'orah from 215, something lighted, i.e. an aperture; by impl., a crevice or hole of a serpent---denTHE LIGHT OF THE MESSIAHSee also: Hebrew Roots: Gematria & Numerology
Daniel Matt, THE ESSENTIAL KABBALAH, p. 90Rabbi Isaac said,
"The light created by God in the act of Creation
flared from one end of the universe to the other
and was hidden away,
reserved for the righteous in the world that is coming
as it is written:
'Light is sown for the righteous.'
Then the worlds will be fragrant, and all will be one.
but until the world that is coming arrives,
it is stored and hidden away."Zohar, The Book of Splendor Basic Readings from the Kabbalah selected and edited by Gershom Scholem, Schocken Books, New York Copyright 1949 renewed 1977
About the author "Gershom Scholem was professor of Jewish mysticism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem until his death in 1982. Among his many pathbreaking books are Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, On the Kabbalah and Its Symbolism, and On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead. "
Chapter on Genesis_ the Beginning---The First Light
Page 5 Refers to and quotes Gen.. 1:3 "... this is the primal light which God made. It is the light of the eye. It is the light God showed to Adam, and by means of it he was enabled to see from end to end of the world. This light God showed to David, and he, beholding it, sang forth his praise, saying, "Oh how abundant is Thy goodness, which Thou hast laid up for them that fear Thee." {Ps. 31:20}. This is the light through which God revealed to Moses the land of Israel from Gilead to Dan."
AS ABOVE, SO BELOW - OCCULT CONCEPT OF DUALITY
"As above, so below" is the esoteric philosophy which implies a correspondence between the forces of nature and the movement of the stars in the celestial realm. The ancient mystery religions viewed the cosmos as being bound together in perfect duality with the earth. The following occult sources explain the Hermetic principle of duality:
THE MESSAGE OF THE SPHINX, Graham Hancock and Robert Bauval, NY: Three Rivers Press, 1996, p. 132.
"These [Hermetic writings] express the philosophy 'as above, so below' and advocate the drawing down to earth of cosmic powers as an essential step in Mankind's quest for knowledge of the divine and immortality of the soul: 'And I, said Hermes, will make Mankind intelligent, I will confer wisdom on them, and make known to them the truth. I will never cease to benefit thereby the life of mortal men; and then will I benefit each one of them, when the force of nature working in them is in accord with the movement of the stars above...In The Rod of an Almond Tree, Peter Michas mentions two Adams:'All the world which lies below has been set in order and filled with contents by the things which are placed above; for the things below have not the power to set in order the world above. The weaker mysteries must yield to the stronger, and the system of things on high is stronger than the things below.' [Kore Kosmou (Excerpt XXIII-29) in Hermetica, op.cit. p. 473.]MYSTICISM: THE NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUSNESS, Evelyn Underhill, Oxford OneWorld Publications, 1994, p. 159."Quodsuperius Sicut Quod Inferius [As above, so below] - the first words of that Emerald Table which was once attributed to Hermes Trismegistus himself - is an axiom is an axiom which must be agreeable to all Platonists. It plays a great part in the theory of mysticism."
THE OCCULT CONSPIRACY, Michael Howard, Destiny Books, 1989, pp. 170-71.
"The mystical beliefs of the secret societies were, and indeed are, based on the Hermetic maxim 'As above - so below' which teaches that the natural world is a material reflection of the spiritual. It forms the esoteric basis for the Ancient Egyptian Mysteries, Gnosticism, Esoteric Christianity, the Cabbala, the Hermetic tradition, alchemy and societies such as the Templars, Freemasons and Rosicrucians."
"Adam was created as a whole being, complete in form and containing a balance of male-female and a balance of logic-emotion. Then God separated from Adam another Adam as a helpmate (Genesis 2:2-22; Genesis 5:2)." (p. 48)This is reminiscent of the concept of the Hasidic Adam in the physical realm whose spiritual counterpart Adam-Kadmon inhabited the celestial realm. The ENCYCLOPEDIA OF HASIDISM defines Primordial Man as physical Adam made in the image of the spiritual Adam, a concept which expresses the occult philosophy "as above, so below.""Primordial Man. The early mystics inferred from Genesis 1:26 - 'Let us make man in our image' - that the physical Adam was created on the pattern of a spiritual Adam that existed in the celestial world. (cf. also Ezekiel 1:26 - 'the likeness as the appearance of a man') This became part of the later mystical view of the cosmos in which everything on earth had its counterpart of the realm of the Godhead."Peter Michas further recommends to the reader that the reason for the Fall is explained as a lack of male/female unity:"Adam named her Eve and they were designed to work together as one complete being... Because Adam and Eve failed to act as a unit, they became vulnerable and succumbed to darkness and disobedience to God." (p. 48)Adam's sin was not in failing to act in unison with Eve, but for doing so in rebellion against God. However, the gnostic Gospel of Thomas has Jesus recommending a unification of the sexuality:"When you make the two one, when you make the inside like the outside, and the above like the below, then you will enter the kingdom of heaven."For a more detailed discussion of the gnostic concept the divine Masculine-Feminine or Androgyne, please refer to the Watch Unto Prayer report on Kabbalah Initiation.Again Peter Michas disregards the plain sense of Scripture, preferring the gnostic interpretation of the sages which applies the concept of occult correspondences to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden:
Rod of an Almond Tree - Chapter 2
"Mi-kedem may mean 'in the east' -- and it may mean 'prior to.' In respect of the last, our Sages have made the statement (Peshahim 54a): Seven things were created prior to the creation of the world... and Gan Eden [the Garden of Eden], since it says, Mi-kedem. The two meanings can be thought of as corresponding, respectively to a spatial reference direction and a temporal one (or rather: one that is independent of time, being that 'prior to the world' is tantamount, according to our current understanding, to: unrelated to temporal duration). Consistent with this ambiguity in meaning -- which is taken as implying that to both meanings must correspond aspects of reality -- is the statement: 'Just as God created a Gan Eden on earth... He created a Gan Eden on high'" [emphasis (italics) added (by Peter Michas)]Having compared Malbim's theory of the Garden of Eden to the Tabernacle and the city of Jerusalem which are patterned after heavenly realities, Peter Michas concludes that the Tree of Life was not originally planted in the literal Garden of Eden, but was a supernatural Tree with roots in the ethereal realm:"In the same way, therefore, this fascinating concept of a dual, patterned creation may apply to the Garden of Eden."
"Returning to the Garden, it is remarkable that rabbinic Sages accepted a concept of God transplanting the Tree of Life into the Garden of Eden...Malbin explains:
"'The term 'planting (netiyah) means, in the case of the trees, placing their seeds in the earth. Our sages explain that the seeds which God had implanted were like locust horns, by which they are telling us that the seed which were placed in the earth were very large. [As I have explained elsewhere, planting of large seeds can be described either by the term seeding (zriyah) or implanting (zmihah) reveals in this verse that the trees matured as soon as they were planted, within the hour sprouting leaves and producing ripe fruit. The verse also stresses that He made it to grow 'out of the ground' - which prompted our Sages to deduce that the planting had not been done in this soil of the garden but elsewhere. (Their declaration that the trees were implanted, can also be taken as saying that they were transplanted -- the word shitla meaning the latter, as well)]
"This concept of transplantation of the Tree of Life is highly significant, for it ties into another profound possibility: that even a branch from this tree could be successfully transplanted (Chap. 6)... (pp. 114-15)It is probable that Peter learned the concept of occult correspondences through the Hasidic Chabbad Lubavich, where he studied the Hebrew Roots of Christianity, as stated in the Preface of his book. Two Kabbalist websites cites references to the Heavenly Jerusalem linked to the earthly Jerusalem:The Zohar: The Book of RadianceCiting as references The Mountain of Moses by Larry Williams, The Midrash Says by Rabbi Weissman and The Torah Anthology by Rabbi Kaplan, Peter Michas speculates on the history and future of the miraculous branch from the Tree of Life:...I am reading Cracking The Bible Code by Dr. Jeffrey Satinover....a very, very interesting book...more so than Drosnin's. On page 10 he has the following quote from the Jewish Zohar which I find very curious....."For, as we have learnt, Jerusalem is the center of the earth and A HEAVENLY PLACE CALLED ZION IS ABOVE IT, and from this place it is blessed, and the two are indissolubly linked together"...Zohar, Vayikra 3.
Fulfilling the Torah of Moses in the Shekhinah and the Asherah
"Here is Jerusalem, and you should know why you came here.
Above Jerusalem, in heaven, there grows a tree,
and out of the roots of the tree flow three rivers,
and these rivers are Judaism, Christianity and Islam".
Grand Mufti Ja'abary of El-Aksa"At the time of Adam's expulsion from the Garden, God gave the rod to Adam. From Adam, the rod was passed down through the generations until it came into the possession of Moses. Interestingly, one story claims Moses' rod as having come from the Tree of Life."Tying these various bits of information together, a link to the story of Luz and its unique almond tree emerges. The conclusion drawn by the authors is that the rod of God was in actuality a branch from the Tree of Life, which was an almond tree!" (p.115)
"In Revelation 2:7, Yeshua states: 'To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.' This Scripture seems to indicate that at the time John recorded the Book of Revelation, the Tree of Life was in Heaven and continues to be until its reappearance in the New Jerusalem. Perhaps it was the source of the Tree of Life in the earthly Garden of Eden." (p. 177)
"Is it possible that a branch of this tree was preserved, for it is to be returned by the prophet Elijah to the Messiah when He returns to establish the Millennial Kingdom. Or perhaps another rod will come directly from the Tree of Life in Heaven." (p. 149)A New Age website that draws heavily on Kabbalism quotes a reference to the Hermetic axiom in the gnostic scriptures and presents the identical teaching on the return of the Tree of Life:The Return of the Tree of Life in the Apocalypse (Cook)According to this New Age website, the 12 Fruits of the Tree of Life, or sacraments which those who obey the commandments will be privileged to eat, are the psychoactive or hallucinogenic plants which will reconnect them with the celestial realm:
Revelation and the Return of the Tree of LifeIn the final culmination of the Bible in the last passage of Revelation, is an endearing passage which prophesies the return of the tree of life as the central throne of God, the source of immortal life and the healing of the nations in the new Jerusalem:
And [the angel] shewed me a pure river of water of life,
clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river,
was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits,
and yielded her fruit every month:
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse:
but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it.And this tree is to be the source to the blessed:
Blessed are they that do his commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life.The lunar monthly yielding of fruit reflects more closely the living sacrament than the annual fruits of flowering plants. The twelve sacred fruit are the other great spiritual sacraments of the tree. Around them extend to life-prolonging and anti-cancer properties of a diversity of plants.
This prophecy is of double significance in that it is heralded by an earlier Old Testament vision in Ezekiel 47. "Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward ... And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. ... And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. ... And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine".
It is further paralleled in the Essene prophesies of the priestly Messiah:
"And he shall open the gates of paradise, And shall remove the threatening
sword against Adam. And he shall give to the saints to eat from the tree of
life, And the spirit of holiness shall be on them."1: Papaver somniferum: The Poppy of the Holy MotherThe authors of HOLY BLOOD, HOLY GRAIL envision the soon establishment of a revived and redefined "Holy" Roman Empire, governed by the world's elite, based not upon religious tradition, but upon spiritualist foundations which is connected with and replicates the celestial kingdom of the cosmos:
2: Cannabis: The Sacred River of the Sadhu
3: The Sacred Mushroom: Teonanactl and the Lady of the Alder
4: The Vine of the Soul and the Hallucinogenic Snuffs
5: The Little Deer and the Keys to the Golden Gates
6: The Black Seed of the Aztecs and the Fires of St. Anthony
7: Tabernanthe iboga: The Spirit of the Ancestors
8: Erythroxylum coca: The White Goddess of the Conqueror
9: The Path of the Fly Agaric Shamans
10: The Devil's Witching Weeds
11: Alcohol: Inebriant of the Patriarchy
12: Tobacco: The Butt End of the Visionary Quest
13: The Herb of the Shepherdess The Goddess dozen"For the purposes of our inquiry the Hieron du Val d'Or proved relevant by virtue of its formulation of what M. Chaumeil calls and esoteric geo-politics and an ethnarchical world order. Translated into more mundane terms this entailed, in effect, the establishment of a new Holy Roman Empire in nineteenth-century Europe -- a revitalized and reconstituted Holy Roman Empire, a secular state that unified all peoples and rested ultimately on spiritualist, rather than social, political, or economic foundations. Unlike its predecessor, this new Holy Roman Empire would have been genuinely 'holy,' genuinely 'Roman,' and genuinely 'imperial' -- although the specific meaning of these terms would have differed crucially from the meaning accepted by tradition and convention. Such as state would have realized the centuries-old dream of a 'heavenly kingdom' on earth, a terrestrial replica or mirror image of the order, harmony, and hierarchy of the cosmos. It would have actualized the ancient Hermetic premise, 'As above, so below.' And it was not altogether Utopian or naive. On the contrary, it was at least remotely feasible in the context of late nineteenth century Europe." (p. 198)
JERUSALEM: NAVEL OF THE EARTH
The Rod of an Almond Tree rejects the standard belief that the Garden of Eden was located in Mesopotamia and attempts to prove that Jerusalem was the location with the four rivers of Genesis being streams flowing from under the Temple. The significance of this change of location can be understood from the reference which follows from David Talbott's book, The Saturn Myth:
Rod of An Almond Tree: Chapter 2
"Most scholars believe the Garden of Eden was located in Mesopotamia, where the ancient Babylonian civilization originated. Jewish legend lists the Land of Israel, Arabia or the center of Africa as possibilities...
"Given this understanding, Mesopotamian may be discarded in favor of the Promised Land, the most highly qualified and promising candidate for the location of the Garden of Eden. The account in Genesis 2:10-14 gives specific information regarding four rivers in the Land of Eden... Therefore we should look for four separate rivers which share a common headwater source somewhere within Eden...
"Given the conventional interpretation of Genesis 2:10, a river that divides into four separate rivers has never been discovered. Perhaps with the insight gained by the above discussion, we will have an open mind to evaluating new possibilities... As stated above, it is plausible that underground waterways were involved...Interestingly, Genesis 2:6 (NIV) makes reference to underground streams providing water to the surface:
vi 6 "But streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground."
"The authors have chosen the NIV translation of this passage because it more accurately translates (Hebrew word) as "streams." Other translations have used the word "mist" but the Hebrew word is more closely related to the word for "stream" than mist.
At this point, the authors would like to propose the hypothesis that the missing Pishon and Gihon rivers are not lost at all but are instead currently flowing underground! Moreover there is even evidence that these rivers have been underground or partially underground since the beginning, but shared the same headwater source as the Tigris and Euphrates...
"Therefore the existence of an underground river beneath Jerusalem is indicated. It has also been verified that a spring, called the Gihon Spring, is located beneath Jerusalem as it was in Old Testament times. Moreover, the only Biblical references for the name 'Gihon' are in reference to the spring in Jerusalem and the Gihon River in the Garden of Eden. If the Gihon River does flow beneath Jerusalem and provides the source for the spring by the same name, does the Bible provide any clues to link Jerusalem and the original Garden of Eden?
"The answer is found in...Ezekiel 28:13-14...'You [Lucifer]...were in Eden, the garden of God...You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I [God] placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God...'
"The 'holy mountain of God' is a direct reference to Mount Moriah in Jerusalem! Today, Mount Moriah forms the platform for the Temple Mount. God selected Mount Moriah as the site of his Temple... Therefore, the Bible clearly connects Jerusalem to the site of the original Garden of Eden, where God fellowshipped with Adam and Eve. In this regard, it is interesting that according to Jewish legend, Adam was created from the dust of Mount Moriah.
THE SATURN MYTH, David N. Talbott, Doubleday and Co., Inc., Garden City, NY, 1980, p. 136.
"This quality of the central sun persists in Hebrew and Muslim imagery of Adam, the Heaven-Man. The Nassenes esteemed as the "rock" and "cornerstone." Writes Jung: "The Stone is indeed of supreme importance, because it fulfills the function of Adam-Kadmon as the 'capital stone', from which all the upper and lower hosts in the work of creation are brought into being.'
"The theosophic Zohar declares, 'The world did not come into being until God took a certain stone which is called the foundation stone, and cast it into the abyss so that it held fast there, and from it the world was planted. This is the central point of the universe, and on this point stands the Holy of Holies'."Patai summarizes the tradition: in the middle of the Temple and constituting the floor of the Holy of Holies, was huge native rock which was adorned by Jewish legend with all the peculiar features of Ompholos, a Navel of the Earth. This rock, called in Hebrew Ebhen Shet Iyyah, the Stone of Foundation, was the first solid [i.e., stable, stationary] thing created and was placed by God amidst the as yet boundless fluid of the primeval waters. Legend has it that just as the body of an embryo is built up in its mother's womb from the navel, so God built up the earth concentrically around this Stone...
'Hebrew and Muslim tradition locate the foundation stone in the paradise of Eden. The Arabic term for the stone is es-Sakra - 'the Rock'. Thus the Mosque of Omar - known as Kubbat es-Sakra, "Dome of the Rock" - bears on its western facade the inscription: ""The Rock of the Temple - from the Garden of Eden."
"The legends relate that the Foundation Stone conceals beneath it all the world's waters and winds... A Muslim text states that 'all rivers and clouds and vapors and winds come from under the Holy Rock in Jerusalem.' This can only mean that the four rivers of Eden which water 'the whole earth', have their origin in, or under, the Foundation Stone."
ONENESS DOCTRINE - UNITARIANISM
Peter Michas and Robert Vander Maten reject the doctrine of the Trinity:
Rod of An Almond Tree: Chapter 14
"The unity of Yeshua HaMashiach with God the Father and the Holy Spirit has never been clearly understood from the doctrine of the Trinity..." (pp. 255-56)"To understand the true relationship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, it is essential to preserve the concept of oneness..." (p. 256)
"The aspect of the Father may be simply understood as the Will of God. The aspect of the Son may be understood as the Word of God. The aspect of the Spirit of the Holy One may be understood as the Power of God..." (p.257)
"To say God is three 'persons' opens the door to misunderstanding God. God is Spirit and cannot be reduced to the concept of a person..." (p. 257)
"The Spirit of the Holy One is the very essence of the power of God the Father and not some separate entity." (p. 257)
Holy Spirit = Ruach or Holy Breath
"The Holy Spirit (Ruach HaKodesh) wrote God's commandments on stone tablets." (p. 229)Messengers of Messiah is part of the Messiah Friends Network, whose Statement of Faith mentions neither the deity of Jesus Christ nor the Holy Spirit as a Person, but as the breath of God:YHVH is the One true God; He is our God. Yeshua (Jesus of Nazareth) is the Messiah of Israel, revealed as YHVH in the flesh. His death is the valid permanent sacrifice for sin, and His resurrection is the promise of eternal life, for all who trust Him. The scriptures are authored by the Breath of God through human agency. YHVH indwells those who obey Him with His Holy Breath (Ruach HaKodesh). All who trust YHVH as Avraham did, obeying His Voice (His Messiah), they are the offspring of Avraham by covenant. Those who are the righteous redeemed show themselves to be obedient to Torah with love in all their living, bringing glory to YHVH. The only true Torah (Teaching) of the Most High is that which is written in the Holy Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation.The Oneness Doctrine teaches that New Testament Jesus is the Old Testament Father:Herbert W. Armstrong of the Worldwide Church of God taught: "...like the 'Oneness' people, that the Jehovah or Yahvah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New. With several exceptions, the YHVH of the Old Testament is the Father who created everything through His Son, however." [WCG VS. COG (7th day)]
Peter Michas teaches: "To understand the true relationship of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, it is essential to preserve the concept of oneness . . . In the Old Testament Hebrew, the Tetragrammaton (YHVH) is translated LORD and refers to Yeshua. Therefore, 'the Lord your God' is a reference to 'YHVH/LORD your Elohim.' This shows that YHVH is a oneness with the plurality of Elohim." ( p. 256, 259)
ADAM KADMON / FEMININE-MASCULINE GOD
Peter Michas teaching on THE ROLE OF WOMEN states that, because the human race had its origin in Adam, the Christian's identity is rooted in Adam. This teaching negates the doctrine of the new birth in the New Testament which states, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (II Cor. 5:17)
"It is crucial that we understand our roots, for we can only fully grasp the significance of our identity through Adam. The goal of this writing is to pique the reader's curiosity to the point where he/she will desire to search the scriptures for God's Truth on these and all biblical principals.According to The Rod of an Almond Tree in God's Master Plan, Adam was androgynous:Because the human race had its origin in Adam, discovering who Adam is will lead us to a better understanding of who we are. To accomplish this, one must become acquainted with Hebrew culture and language because understanding a teaching comes from understanding the perspective and language of the person(s) teaching."
"Adam was created as a whole being, complete in form containing a balance of male-female and a balance of logic-emotion. then God separated from Adam another Adam as a helpmate (Genesis 2:2-22; Genesis 5:2). Adam named her Eve and they were designed to work together as one complete being...Because Adam and Eve failed to act as a unit, they became vulnerable and succumbed to darkness and disobedience to God." (p. 48)Jacob Boehme reintroduced the concept of the androgynous Adam who was divided into sexes through the fall:Mircea Eliade, ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RELIGION, Vol. I, NY: Simon & Schuster MacMillan, 1995, p. 279.See also: Hebrew Roots: Kabbalah Initiation"The Judeo-Christian myth and theology of the androgyny of the primal man were successfully reinterpreted and revalorized by Jakob Boehme (1575-1624). For this great mystic and theosophist, Adam's sleep represents the first fall: Adam separated himself from the divine world and 'imagined himself' immersed in nature, by which act he lowered himself and became earthly. The appearance of the sexes is a direct consequence of this first fall...Another fundamental idea of Boehme, Gichtel, and other theosophists was that Sophia, the divine virgin, was originally part of the primal man. When he attempted to dominate her, the virgin separated herself from him."
THE SECRET DOCTRINE, Vol. II, H.P. Blavatsky, p. 234.
"'...28, 29, 31. Stand in awe of him and sin not; speak his name with trembling...For Satan is the magistrate of the Justice of God [Karma]: he beareth the balance and the sword.... For to him are committed Weight and Measure and Number.'
"Compare the last sentence with what the Rabbi, who explains the Kabala to Prince al-Khazari in the Book of that name, says, and it will be found that the Weight and Measure and Nubmer are, in Sepher Yetzirah, the attributes of the Sephiroth (the three Sephrim, or figures, ciphers), covering the whole collective number of 10; and that the Sephiroth are the collective Adam-Kadmon, the 'Heavenly Man' or the Logos. Thus Satan and the Anointed were identified in ancient thought. Therefore,
"'33. Satan is the Minister of God, Lord of the seven mansions of Hades..."
TREE OF LIFE VS. THE CROSS
According to The Rod of An Almond Tree, Chapter 7, Jesus did not die on the Cross, but on the Tree of Life:
"The Greek word xulou (or xulon) is translated 'tree' in each of the above passages. This Greek word refers to a living tree, not a Roman cross. Even as Yeshua was going to His crucifixion, He made a direct reference to this act being carried out 'when the tree is green' (Luke 23:31, NIV). The descriptive Greek word means 'full of sap'; such a tree is clearly living.
"One may then ask: What about the 'cross' that Simon had to carry for Yeshua to the crucifixion site? In actuality this beam was not a Roman cross but rather a crossbar that was nailed to the crucifixion tree. It was to this plank of wood that Yeshua was nailed at the wrists...
"Another Greek word, stauros, appears in certain passages where it has been translated 'cross.' Its primary meaning is 'upright pole' or 'stake.' However, it can also refer to a crossbar. (p. 143)
"It is also a matter of historical record that before 326 C.E., the cross did not exist as a Christian symbol, but was derived from paganism." (p. 145)Through redefining "cross" to mean "crossbar," the doctrine of the Cross is undermined and may be reinterpreted to mean the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, which is the means of attaining to immortality via the path of initiation. The Sephirot of the Kabbalah is called the Tree of Life. The following excerpts from occult sources shed much light on the esoteric meaning of the Tree of Life:A DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS, J.E. Cirlot, NY: Barnes & Nobles, 1971, 1995, p. 69. "Cross"
"...the Cross is...an inversion of the Tree of Paradise. Hence, the cross is often represented in medieval allegory as a Y-shaped tree...like the Tree of Life, the cross stands for the world-axis. Placed in the midst of the mystic centre of the cosmos, it becomes the bridge or ladder by means of which the soul may reach to God."A review of Madeleine L'Engle by Claris Van Kuiken, Battle To Destroy Truth: Unveiling A Trail Of Deception ( 1996) states:THE PENGUIN DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS, Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, Penguin Books, 1996, p. 1028.
"DeLubac regards the cross, standing on a mountain in the centre of the world, as wholly renewing the ancient symbol of the Cosmic or World Tree. In any case, Christian iconography provides constant examples of the leafy cross, or Tree Cross, where the gap between the upper branches reveals the symbolism of the fork and its graphic representation of the letter Y, or Oneness and Duality. At the extreme limit, by metonymy, Christ himself the World Tree, the World Axis, the ladder, a comparison which Origin makes explicit."
SHAMBHALA, Victoria LePage, Wheaton IL, Quest Books, Theosophical Pub. House., 1996, p. 155.
"[The Christmas Tree] was once called the Tree of Life, or the World Tree. Uniting the dimensions of heaven, earth and the underworld, it was the cosmic axis at the center of the world, the Axis Mundey, through which the eternal energies of creation poured continuously into time. The greenness of the Tree of Life...is...the sign of promise of life eternally renewed... Similarly, the silver star on the top of the Christmas tree, the one the magi saw, is as a mythic image of the polestar of world axis and the bright star of Inanna, Aphrodite and Venus, accompanying all the divine births all over the Near East."
THE PENGUIN DICTIONARY OF SYMBOLS, Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, Penguin Books, 1996, p. 1031.
"The Tree of Life may originally have been regarded as an image of the Primordial Hermaphrodite, but on the level of the phenomenal world the trunk rising to the skies, a symbol of preeminently solar strength and power, is really the phallus, the archetypal image of the Father."
"The Quest magazine,...is a publication of The Theosophical Society. This society is based on a highly developed system of occultism derived from mystery religions and Hindu philosophy....Because of my research, I knew that The Quest was an occult magazine and obtained a copy. Inside the front cover it read: "Ancient Wisdom for a New Age." Books such as "The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, The Goddess Reawakening, The Tarot, Shamanism, The Wholeness Principle, The Kabbala, are encouraged reading.""In TRUTH AND REVELATION, Berdyaev promotes the concept of transcendental man, the "Adam Kadmon of the Kabbalah." He states that 'Truth is revealed in various ways in accordance with degrees of consciousness' and that the 'supra-consciousness corresponds to transcendental man' (Geoffrey Bles Ltd., London, W.C., 1953, pp. 17,27). In the Kabbala (the occult books of Jewish mysticism), the aim of humankind is to realize union with the Divine. Symbolizing this union is a diagram called the Tree of Life which depicts ten different levels or spheres of spiritual reality in man and the cosmos. These ten stages are called Sephirot (emanations of God" (Drury, Nevill, Dictionary of Mysticism, Rev. ed., Avery Publishing Group Inc., Garden City Park, New York, 1992, p. 3).
In the Kabbala, we find the New Age concept of androgyne (also taught in witchcraft and Eastern religion as shown in the first part of this article). Adam Kadmon is both male and female. The right side of the Tree of Life is female; the left is male....The purpose of the Tree of Life is to show 'the descent of the divine into the material world, and the path by which people can ascend to the divine while still in the flesh.' It is through contemplation and meditation (techniques similar to Eastern yoga disciplines, that the Kabbalist ascends the Tree of Life to attain 'enlightenment' or godhood (Guiley, Rosemary Ellen, Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical and Paranormal Experience, pp. 307 -308)."
The Rod of an Almond Tree in God's Master Plan- Part II The Hebrew Roots Movement