Enlightened afterthought hid herself within Adam. The first ruler wanted to take her from Adam’s side, but enlightened afterthought cannot be apprehended. While darkness pursued her, it did not apprehend her. The first ruler removed part of Adam’s power and created another figure in the form of a female, like the image of afterthought that had appeared to him. He put the part he had taken from the power of the human being into the female creature. It did not happen, however, the way Moses said: Adam’s rib. Adam saw the woman beside him. At once enlightened afterthought appeared and removed the veil that covered his mind. He sobered up from the drunkenness of darkness. He recognized his counterpart and said, This is now bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh. For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will join himself to his wife, and the two of them will become one flesh. For his partner will be sent to him, and he will leave his father and his mother. Our sister Sophia is the one who descended in an innocent manner to restore what she lacked. For this reason she was called life, that is, the mother of the living, by the forethought of the sovereignty of heaven and by the afterthought that appeared to Adam. Through her have the living tasted perfect knowledge. As for me, I appeared in the form of an eagle on the tree of knowledge, which is the afterthought of the pure enlightened forethought, that I might teach the human beings and awaken them from the depth of sleep. For the two of them were fallen and realized that they were naked. Afterthought appeared to them as light and awakened their minds.

The human being Adam was revealed through the bright shadow within. And Adam’s ability to think was greater than that of all the creators. When they looked up, they saw that Adam’s ability to think was greater, and they devised a plan with the whole throng of rulers and angels. They took fire, earth, and water, and combined them with the four fiery winds. They wrought them together and made a great commotion. The rulers brought Adam into the shadow of death so that they might produce a figure again, from earth, water, fire, and the spirit that comes from matter, that is, from the ignorance of darkness, and desire, and their own false spirit. This is the cave for remodeling the body that these criminals put on the human, the fetter of forgetfulness. Adam became a mortal being, the first to descend and the first to become estranged. The enlightened afterthought within Adam, however, would rejuvenate Adam’s mind. They put their tree of life in the middle of paradise. I shall teach you the secret of their life, the plan they devised together, the nature of their spirit: The root of their tree is bitter, its branches are death, its shadow is hatred, a trap is in its leaves, its blossom is bad ointment, its fruit is death, desire is its seed, it blossoms in darkness. The dwelling place of those who taste of it is the underworld, and darkness is their resting place. But the rulers lingered in front of what they call the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is the enlightened afterthought, so that Adam might not behold its fullness and recognize his shameful nakedness. But I was the one who induced them to eat. I said to the savior, Master, was it not the snake that instructed Adam to eat? The savior laughed and said, The snake instructed them to eat of the wickedness of sexual desire and destruction so that Adam might be of use to the snake. This is the one who knew Adam was disobedient because of the enlightened afterthought within Adam, which made Adam stronger of mind than the first ruler. The first ruler wanted to recover the power that he himself had passed on to Adam. So he brought deep sleep upon Adam. I said to the savior, What is this deep sleep? The savior said, It is not as Moses wrote and you heard. He said in his first book, He put Adam to sleep. Rather, this deep sleep was a loss of sense. Thus the first ruler said through the prophet, I shall make their minds sluggish, that they may neither understand nor discern.

(49) Now then when we consider the high Mysteries, the Spirit opens to us the Understanding, that this [before-mentioned] is the true Ground concerning Adam: For his original Spirit (viz. the Soul) that was the Worm, which was generated out of the eternal Will of God the Father, and in the Time of the Creation The Son of God. was by the Fiat (after the Manner of a Spirit) created out of that Place where the Father from Eternity generates his Heart, between the fourth and fifth Form in the Center of God, where the Light of God from Eternity discovers itself, and takes its Beginning, and therefore the Light of God came thus to help him, as a fair Virgin, and took the Soul to be her Bridegroom, and would adorn the Soul with her fair heavenly Crown, with the noble Virtue of the Pearl, and beautify it with her Garment.

(27) Now Immortal Man revealed aeons and powers and kingdoms and gave authority to everyone who appeared from him, to make whatever they desire until the days that are above chaos. For these consented with each other and revealed every magnificence, even from spirit, multitudinous lights that are glorious and without number. These received names in the beginning, that is, the first, the middle, the perfect; that is, the first aeon and the second and the third. The first was called 'Unity and Rest'. Since each one has its (own) name, the aeon was designated 'Assembly', from the great multitude that appeared in the multitudinous one. Therefore, when the multitude gathers and comes to a unity, they are called 'Assembly', from the Assembly that surpassed heaven. Therefore, the Assembly of the Eighth was revealed as androgynous and was named partly as male and partly as female. The male was called 'Assembly', the female, 'Life', that it might be shown that from a female came the life in all the aeons. Every name was received, starting from the beginning.

(17) According to the Isarim, the secret doctrine of Israel taught the existence of four Adams, each dwelling in one of the four Qabbalistic worlds. The first, or heavenly, Adam dwelt alone in the Atziluthic sphere and within his nature existed all spiritual and material potentialities. The second Adam resided in the sphere of Briah. Like the first Adam, this being was androgynous and the tenth division of its body (its heel, Malchuth) corresponded to the church of Israel that shall bruise the serpent's head. The third Adam--likewise androgynous--was clothed in a body of light and abode in the sphere of Yetzirah. The fourth Adam was merely the third Adam after the fall into the sphere of Assiah, at which time the spiritual man took upon himself the animal shell or coat of skins. The fourth Adam was still considered as a single individual, though division had taken place within his nature and two shells or physical bodies existed, in one of which was incarnated the masculine and in the other the feminine potency. (For further details consult Isaac Myer.)

(11) But that we may, in a brief Sum, give the Reader to understand what our Knowledge and high Sense in the Light of Nature has highly apprehended, we therefore set it down thus, according to our Knowledge. Adam was the Image of God, according to the Similitude of God, which God (the holy Trinity in one only divine Substance) through the Virgin of his eternal Wisdom, in the Wisdom had [manifested or discovered, [or purposed,] in the eternal Element to have in the Room of the fallen Devil. For his Counsel (in the eternal Will) must stand; there should and must be a Throne and Princely Region in this Place, which should manifest the eternal Wonders.

(26) This interpretation somewhat clarifies the Qabbalistic assertion that in the first Adam were contained all the souls of the Israelites. (See Sod.) Though according to the Aurea Legenda Adam was buried with the three seeds of the Tree of Knowledge in his mouth, it should be borne in mind that apparently conflicting myths were often woven around a single individual. One of the profound mysteries of Qabbalism is that set forth in the Notarikon based upon the letters of the name Adam (ADM). These three letters form the initials of the names Adam, David, and the Messiah, and these three personalities were said to contain one soul. As this soul represents the World Soul of humanity, Adam signifies the involving soul, the Messiah the evolving soul, and David that condition of the soul termed epigenesis.

(19) First Begetter Father is called 'Adam of the Light.' And the kingdom of Son of Man is full of ineffable joy and unchanging jubilation, ever rejoicing in ineffable joy over their imperishable glory, which has never been heard nor has it been revealed to all the aeons that came to be and their worlds.

(31) Adam was in an angelical Form before the Sleep; but after the Sleep he had Flesh and Blood; and he was (in his Flesh) a Lump of Earth, and he saw from a threefold Spirit. With his Eyes he apprehended the Light of the Sun, and knew the first Image no more; although the four Elements had not yet fallen upon him, nor touched him; for he was yet in Innocence.

(38) "Now Immortal Man revealed aeons and powers and kingdoms, and gave authority to all who appear in him, that they might exercise their desires until the last things that are above chaos. For these consented with each other and revealed every magnificence, even from spirit, multitudinous lights that are glorious and without number. These were called in the beginning, that is, the first aeon and and . The first called 'Unity and Rest'. Each one has its (own) name; for the aeon was designated 'Assembly' from the great multitude that appeared: in one, a multitude revealed themselves. Now because the multitudes gather and come to a unity we call them 'Assembly of the Eighth.'It appeared as androgynous and was name partly as male and partly as female. The male is called 'Assembly', while the female is called 'Life', that it might be shown that from a female came the life for all the aeons. And every name was received, starting from the beginning.

(43) Here observe; Adam was created out of the Element, out of the Attracting of the Heart of God, which is the Will of the Father, and therein is the Virgin of the divine Virtue [or Power,] and the outward Regimen (which in the Kindling parted itself into four Parts) would fain have had the same [Virgin] in itself; that is, the Fierceness of the Devil would fain have dwelt in the Heart of God, and have domineered over it, and have opened a Center there, which the Fierceness without the Light cannot do; for every Center was generated and opened with the Kindling of the Light. Thus the Fierceness would fain be over the Meekness, and therefore has God caused the Sun to come forth, so that it has thus opened four Centers, viz. the going forth out of the Element.

(97) Now when the Devil had lost twice, then he came at last, with his last powerful Temptation, as he did also to Adam, he would give him the whole World, if he would fall down and worship him. The Business with Adam also was about this World, he would draw this World to him, and so be like God with it, that as God had drawn this World to him, manifest his great Wonders therewith, so the Soul in Adam thought [with itself,] thou art the Similitude of God, thou wilt do so too, and so thou shalt be like God; but thereby he went forth from God into the Spirit of this World. Now therefore the second Adam must hold out the Standing of the first Adam, whereby it was tempted [or tried,] whether the Soul would continue in the new holy heavenly Man, and live in the Barmhertzigkeit, [the

(22) [paragraph continues] Of this fuller nature the mortal man has little comprehension. Just as spirit contains matter within itself and is both the source and ultimate of the state denominated matter, so Eve represents the lower, or mortal, portion that is taken out of, or has temporal existence in the greater and fuller spiritual creation. Being representative of the inferior part of the individual, Eve is the temptress who, conspiring with the serpent of mortal knowledge, caused Adam to sink into a trancelike condition in which he was unconscious of his own higher Self. When Adam seemingly awoke, he actually sank into sleep, for he no longer was in the spirit but in the body; division having taken place within him, the true Adam rested in Paradise while his lesser part incarnated in a material organism (Eve) and wandered in the darkness of mortal existence.

(23) And that is the hidden birth or geniture in nature, which no man by his own reason, wit or capacity can comprehend; but the soul of that man alone who stands in the light of God comprehends it, and no other. The Second Birth or Geniture in Nature, are the seven Spirits of Nature.

The authorities came up to their Adam. When they saw his female partner speaking with him, they became very excited and enamored of her. They said to one another, “Come, let us sow our seed in her,” and they pursued her. And she laughed at them for their foolishness and blindness. In their clutches she became a tree and left before them her shadowy reflection resembling herself, and they defiled it foully. And they defiled the seal of her voice, so that by the form they had modeled, together with their own image, they made themselves liable to condemnation. Then the female spiritual presence came in the form of the snake, the instructor, and it taught them, saying, “What did he say to you? Was it, ‘From every tree in the garden shall you eat, but from the tree of recognizing evil and good do not eat’?” The woman of flesh said, “Not only did he say ‘Don’t eat,’ but even ‘Don’t touch it. For the day you eat from it, you will surely die.’” The snake, the instructor, said, “It is not the case that you will surely die, for out of jealousy he said this to you. Rather, your eyes will open and you will be like gods, recognizing evil and good.” And the female instructing power was taken away from the snake, and she left it behind, merely a thing of the earth. And the woman of flesh took from the tree and ate, and she gave to her husband as well as herself, and those beings, who possessed only a soul, ate. And their imperfection became apparent in their lack of knowledge. They recognized that they were naked of the spiritual, and they took fig leaves and bound them around themselves. Then the chief ruler came, and he said, “Adam, where are you?”—for he did not understand what had happened. Adam said, “I heard your voice and was afraid because I was naked, and I hid.” The ruler said, “Why did you hide, unless it is because you have eaten from the tree from which alone I commanded you not to eat? You have eaten!” Adam said, “The woman you gave me gave me fruit and I ate.” And the arrogant ruler cursed the woman. The woman said, “The snake led me astray and I ate.” They turned to the snake and cursed its shadowy reflection, so it was powerless, and they did not comprehend that it was a form they themselves had modeled. From that day, the snake came to be under the curse of the authorities. Until the perfect human was to come, that curse fell on the snake. They turned to their Adam and took him and expelled him from the garden along with his wife, for they have no blessing, since they too are under the curse. Moreover, they threw human beings into great distraction and into a life of toil, so that their human beings might be occupied by worldly affairs and might not have the opportunity of being devoted to the holy spirit.

(47) Adam stood forty Days in an angelical Image before his Sleep, and there was neither Day nor Night in him, also no Time; though indeed he was not (as an Angel) a mere Spirit; for his Body was out of the Element, which is no understanding Spirit, but [is] the Attraction [Concretion or Congelation] in the Will of God, or the Limbus, which stands before God, wherein the (Chaste Virgin, the divine Wisdom dwells, which discovered and created the Image out of the Element by the Fiat.

When Yaldabaoth realized that the humans had withdrawn from him, he cursed his earth. He found the woman as she was preparing herself for her husband. He was master over her. And he did not know the mystery that had come into being through the sacred plan. The two of them were afraid to denounce Yaldabaoth. He displayed to his angels the ignorance within him. He threw the humans out of paradise and cloaked them in thick darkness. The first ruler saw the young woman standing next to Adam and noticed that the enlightened afterthought of life had appeared in her. Yet Yaldabaoth was full of ignorance. So when the forethought of all realized this, she dispatched emissaries, and they stole life out of Eve. The first ruler defiled Eve and produced in her two sons, a first and a second: Elohim and Yahweh. Elohim has the face of a bear, Yahweh has the face of a cat. One is just, the other is unjust. He placed Yahweh over fire and wind, he placed Elohim over water and earth. He called them by the names Cain and Abel, with a view to deceive. To this day sexual intercourse has persisted because of the first ruler. He planted sexual desire in the woman who belongs to Adam. Through intercourse the first ruler produced duplicate bodies, and he blew some of his false spirit into them. He placed these two rulers over the elements so that they might rule over the cave. When Adam came to know the counterpart of his own foreknowledge, he produced a son like the human child. He called him Seth, after the manner of the heavenly race in the eternal realms. Similarly, the mother sent down her spirit, which is like her and is a copy of what is in the realm of fullness, for she was going to prepare a dwelling place for the eternal realms that would come down. The human beings were made to drink water of forgetfulness by the first ruler, so that they might not know where they had come from. For a time the seed remained and helped so that when the spirit descends from the holy realms, it may raise up the seed and heal what it lacks, that the entire realm of fullness may be holy and lack nothing.

This is the reason why incorruptibility looked down into the region, so that, by the father’s will, she might bring all into union with the light. The rulers laid plans and said, “Come, let us create a human that will be soil from the earth.” They modeled their creature as one wholly of the earth. The rulers have bodies that are both female and male, and faces that are the faces of beasts. They took some soil from the earth and modeled their man, after their body and after the image of god that had appeared to them in the waters. They said, “Come, let us lay hold of it by means of the form that we have modeled, so that it may see its male partner and we may seize it with the form that we have modeled,” not understanding the partner of god, because of their powerlessness. And he breathed into his face, and the man came to have a soul and remained on the ground many days. But they could not make him rise because of their powerlessness. Like storm winds they persisted in blowing, that they might try to capture that image which had appeared to them in the waters. And they did not know the identity of its power. Now, all these events came to pass by the will of the father of all. Afterward the spirit saw the man of soul on the ground. The spirit came forth from the adamantine land. It descended and came to dwell in him, and that man became a living soul. And the spirit called his name Adam, since he was found moving upon the ground. A voice came forth from incorruptibility for the assistance of Adam. The rulers gathered together all the animals of the earth and all the birds of heaven and brought them in to Adam to see what Adam would call them, that he might give a name to each of the birds and all the beasts. The rulers took Adam and put him in the garden, that he might cultivate it and keep watch over it. They issued a command to him, saying, “From every tree in the garden shall you eat, but from the tree of knowledge of good and evil don’t eat, nor touch it. For the day you eat from it you will surely die.” They said this to him, but they did not understand what they said. Rather, by the father’s will, they said this in such a way that he might in fact eat, and that Adam might not regard them as would a man of an exclusively material nature. The rulers took counsel with one another and said, “Come, let us cause a deep sleep to fall on Adam.” And he slept. Now, the deep sleep that they caused to fall on him, and he slept, is ignorance. They opened his side, which was like a living woman. And they built up his side with some flesh in place of her, and Adam came to be only with soul. The woman of spirit came to him and spoke with him, saying, “Rise, Adam.” And when he saw her, he said, “It is you who have given me life. You will be called ‘mother of the living.’ For she is my mother. She is the physician, and the woman, and she has given birth.”

All the angels and demons worked together until they fashioned the psychical body. But for a long time their creation did not stir or move at all. When the mother wanted to take back the power she had relinquished to the first ruler, she prayed to the most merciful mother-father of all. With a sacred command the mother-father sent five luminaries down to the place of the angels of the first ruler. They advised him so that they might recover the mother’s power. They said to Yaldabaoth, Breathe some of your spirit into the face of Adam, and then the body will arise. He breathed his spirit into Adam. The spirit is the power of his mother, but he did not realize this, because he lives in ignorance. The mother’s power went out of Yaldabaoth and into the psychical body that had been made to be like the one who is from the beginning. The body moved and became powerful. And it was enlightened. At once the rest of the powers became jealous. Although Adam had come into being through all of them, and they had given their power to this human, Adam was more intelligent than the creators and the first ruler. When they realized that Adam was enlightened, and could think more clearly than they, and was stripped of evil, they took and threw Adam into the lowest part of the whole material realm. The blessed, benevolent, merciful mother-father had compassion for the mother’s power that had been removed from the first ruler. The rulers might be able to overpower the psychical, perceptible body once again. So with its benevolent spirit and great mercy the mother-father sent a helper to Adam, an enlightened afterthought who is from the mother-father and who was called life. She helped the whole creature, laboring with it, restoring it to its fullness, teaching it about the descent of the seed, teaching it about the way of ascent, which is the way of descent. Enlightened afterthought was hidden within Adam so that the rulers might not recognize her, but that afterthought might be able to restore what the mother lacked.

(35) And thus you may well believe, that all whatsoever happened in the Fall of Adam, whereby Adam is fallen, the same was the second Adam fain to bear upon his Shoulders, for ohe was fallen into the Anger of God; and now if that must be allayed and reconciled, then the second Adam must set himself therein, and yield his outward Body with all Essences therein; and he must go through Death, into Hell, into the Anger of the Father, and reconcile it with his Love; and so himself must undergo that hard Condition, wherein we must have been in Eternity.