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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
is only that of presenting perceptions, which it spins out of the raw material of sensations furnished by the mind (manas). Hence, the word 'woman,' from the Saxon wif man (wif in Saxon, and weib in German, from weben, to weave), signifies the one who weaves, and is, therefore, fully symbolical of the faculty of intellect. Manas, also, never comes directly in contact with the self, but influences it through the intellect; hence, in the allegory of the fall, Eve is first tempted by the serpent, and then, in her turn, tempts the ego. The compiler of the Pentateuch, struck with the more intimate connection between the ego and the intellect than is represented by the relation subsisting between a child and its governess, likened it to that of husband and wife. The ego depends on the intellect as a husband depends on his wife in household matters, and the latter studies its wants and comforts, and clings to it as a woman does to her husband.
With this necessary prelude we may now proceed to elucidate the nature of the awful curse pronounced by God on the transgressors. Adam, being accused of disobedience by the still small voice of intuition, at once throws the blame on the woman, i.e., the intellect ; and she, in her turn, points to the serpent as the cause of "error and temptation. The anger of the Lord flashes first of all against the manas (serpent), and the terrible curse is uttered : "Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” Hence, manas' goes on its belly,' z.e., lives and moves in dust, or, in other words, is confined to the phenomenal, hence, chained to matter. The food of manas is vibrations
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