Symbols

2 Garden of Eden

Blavatsky's Ebionites relate all symbology of the Pentateuch to the Tetractys, also known as the Sephirot.

Recursion is what God does, so Adam created as the image of God means that human individuality is Virtual Recursion. Eve is taken from Adam's rib which puns with shadow in Hebrew and is his helpmate, which makes her the Virtual Recursion of the Virtual Recursion. Virtual Recursion of Virtual Recursion is what drives Recusion which means that the choice of Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a Recusive choice of all of humanity for the immediate good of humanity.

And speaking of trees. The Tetractys being the underlying pattern of existence means that it is the pattern of the world. And so the garden is an expression of the Tetractys. It's physical location was at the Euphrates Tigris delta. Four rivers extending from the garden, two of which were no more than streams. This may be why the Mandaeans chose to live there.

Recursion has ten major aspects which may be called trunks or stems. These ten aspects have twelve further aspects which may be called branches, which have eighteen aspects (six of the branches are dual) which can be called twigs. Thus the Tetractys is a sort of Banyan tree as well as an alphabet of eighteen consonants and ten vowels, only twenty two letters of which may be used in writing.

Two of the major trunks or trees are the White and Black. Black is Causality and Life and Illusion. White is Structure and Truth.

As plants, Black is the vine which gives wine which gives liveliness and then folly. White is grass which gives bread which requires knowledge to make through its several processes and being insufficient of itself to support life, brings death.

If Eve/Adam had chosen Black then White, wine then bread, the result would have been Black - immortality and insanity and then the White truth would have cured the insanity and the death would have been prevented by the already existing immortality.

Going the other way, White then Black, bread then wine. White first meaning to be knowing and mortal. If Eve/Adam had been allowed to drink the Black, the immortality would have cured the mortality and insanity would have overwhelmed the knowledge which would have resulted in humanity being immortal and crazy. Some of us suspect they may have taken just a sip. Not enough to be immortal, merely long lived. Not enough to be insane, just lacking sense.

As trees and animals, the stand-in for the Vine is the Olive (which produces oil which supports life and fire) with the Tortoise as the animal and the Dove as the bird. The stand-in for the Grass is the Fig (which can be made into bread) and the Serpent as the animal and the Raven as the bird.