Where the story begins...

In this excerpt from The ABBA Tradition, we look at the early days of Genesis.

ABBA’s story begins when Adam and Eve were sent down from the upper Worlds, out of the Garden of Eden, the World of Formation, into the World of Physicality, the World of physical birth, life and death.

Prior to the expulsion Adam and Eve could talk and walk directly with God. After the expulsion they were separated from God. Their mistakes, their disobedience, their sins, made a separation between them and God.

Tradition says that, after their expulsion, Adam and Eve forgot much about the upper three Worlds and, in particular, they forgot the way back. But the Holy One took what Adam and Eve forgot and wrote it in a book called the Book of Raziel, the Book of the Secrets of God, guarded by the Archangel Raziel. So nothing was lost.

The line of descent from Adam and Eve continues for seven generations without direct contact with the Holy One. These seven generations are those of Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalelel, Jared and then Enoch. Genesis tells us that Enoch lived 365 years, a year of years.^[1] The first six patriarchs died but Genesis does not say that Enoch died. Rather Enoch walked with God and was no more. Tradition tells us that this means that Enoch ascended to the upper Worlds, Paradise and Heaven, and received the teaching that had been preserved in the Book of Raziel. The name Enoch means ‘Initiated’ and this story tells us that there is a way to walk once again with God. This way is the way of return and it begins at the beginning, with Initiation, with Enoch.

Whether there were others who walked with God in those days, as did Enoch, we are not told. Rather we are told that most men turned toward evil and not toward God. So God sent water, a Flood to cleanse the Earth, saving only righteous Noah and his family. Not knowing the correct way to return to the Holy One, after the flood mankind sought to ascend to Heaven using physical means, by building the Tower of Babel. This attempt to use physical means to reach a spiritual goal was, and is, a mistake for Heaven is not a physical location but a spiritual reality. The temptation and attempt to use physical means to force our way into higher Worlds won’t work. It mistakes the purpose of life on Earth and is a recurring theme in the story of the four Worlds.^[2]

The purpose of life on Earth is to make the Worlds below reflect the Worlds above. Trying to return to God prematurely defeats that purpose. Lest we waste our lives in trying to do so, God has scattered us over all the Earth and confused the language of the whole world.

---

^[1]. Gen. 5:24.

^[2]. This mistake did not end with the Tower of Babel. See Matt. 11:12 “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.”