11. And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying.
12. And their brethren went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem (Chap. 37).
Shechem was the son of Hamor, slain by Simeon and Levi, but now we find he is a land. And Jacob sent Joseph into this land to find his brothers, but they had departed.
15. And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering (planetlike) in the field (of space): and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou?
16. And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks.
The earth in its sun stage with its flock of planets. When Apollo, the sun, was banished he fed the flocks of King
17. And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan.
These various places, Shechem, Dothan, and so forth, are but progressive stages in the descent towards matter, earth, which we are told, is but a “hole in the ether.” And when Joseph arrives his jealous brothers throw him into a hole, or pit—that “bottomless pit” of Revelation. This then is but the Old Testament version of Satan being thrown into the pit called Hell, Lucifer into the pit called Orcus, the Titans into Tartarus, and Mahasura into Honderah. And “they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him”; in other words, he became “naked” as were Adam, Noah, Ishtar, Innana, and all the other Creators.
Now according to the New Testament it was Joseph’s brothers who sold him “down the river,” but according to this chapter, King James version, it was first the Midianites and then the Ishmaelites. “Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver; and they brought Joseph into Egypt” (37:28). And verse 36 says, “And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s, and captain of the guard.” Yet in Acts 7:9 we read: “And the patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him.” And Genesis 45:4, where Joseph is speaking to his brothers, reads, “... I am Joseph your brother whom ye sold into Egypt.” Who then did sell Joseph, and why? The answer is given in 45:5: “Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.” And that is the key to the whole story.
These various versions seem to be among the many contradictions our “higher critics” search for: but no, for the Midi-anites, the Ishmaelites, and the God who was with them are all one— the planetary entity. The Ishmaelites were the descendants of Ishmael, son of Hagar the Egyptian, and the Midi-anites were the forces of the middle planes between spirit and matter. The ancient people of that name called themselves “Sons of the snake,” the genetic serpent. This it was that sold Joseph, down the stream of life, into Egypt, earth. The crime then was no more moral than that of Adam or Cain; it was to be. This selling of Joseph into slavery in Egypt is but the parallel of Noah forcing his son Ham into slavery to his brothers, particularly Shem or Chem, which also is Egypt.
And now that we may see the purely genetic nature of this process, the story of Joseph is interrupted here and that of Onan is presented, an editorial act no one can understand who does not know the Bible’s theme is Creation. Onan represents the genetic principle, hence the Creator. Now Judah, Onan’s father (anything is possible in mythology), commands him to go in and lie with his brother’s wife, to preserve the seed, which, from a moral standpoint, was contrary to Onan’s conscience. He therefore refused, but instead of commending him, “God slew him.” More strange justice: a moral God slays a man for following his moral conscience, and blesses thieves and murderers. You see, this Book is preposterous save as we interpret it. This God is the nonmoral genetic principle, here the planetary seed; and from its standpoint nothing matters but its own continuity, and nothing is wrong that is conducive to its purpose. This is the central fact that we must keep in mind if we would understand the subsequent atrocities of the Bible. The rest of Chapter 38 carries on the genetic process—Judah’s misconduct with his daughter-in-law who plays the harlot. Thus the chapter is a genetic prelude and key to Joseph in Egypt.
His story, in fact, begins in the same vein. He is sold to Potiphar, the guard, that is, the guardian law of matter; and the symbol of matter is woman. The Bible does not tell us her name, but it was Zuleika.1
7. And it came to pass after these things, that his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph; and she said, Lie with me.
12. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me: and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out (Chap. 39).
Joseph is virtuous Adam and Prometheus, and so he will have naught to do with sensuous matter, as yet. And yet how the inner contradicts the outer, for this is precisely what happens to Joseph. Since “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” the hussy has him thrown into that prison that is matter. Here he meets Pharaoh’s chief baker and butler, personifications of the earth’s substance and life’s sustenance. Both these dreamed strange dreams that only Joseph could interpret. Joseph’s brothers called him a dreamer and now we find him an interpreter of dreams, including Pharaoh’s. Now dreams imply sleep, and the prominence given here to sleep implies a sleepy place, Eden, “the land of Nod,” Noah’s garden, and so on. Here the Life Principle slept and dreamed.
Now before we can understand Pharaoh or his dream, we must know who Pharaoh was, or more correctly, is. According to popular belief the scriptural Pharaohs were three Egyptian kings, yet nowhere, save in the Bible, is there any account of these specific kings, particularly the cruel Pharaoh; this is slander. Neither is there any record of Joseph, Moses, or even the captivity. Yet according to the Hebrews, Moses practically destroyed Egypt. Were this literally true, some record should remain. Since there is none, this itself should make us suspect it is wholly Hebrew in origin, and mythical at that.
The etymology of the word “Pharaoh” is a matter of dispute. According to some authorities, the phara is a combination of the Egyptian definite article pba and Ra, the great sun god. Others assert it means “Son of the sun.” And what would this be save the earth itself, for the earth is a son of the sun, not as in science, a cast off, but as in our theory, a son of its own sun period. And so says Revelation. Still others say the name comes from the Egyptian words per-aa, meaning “great house,” and, of course, these assume this is Egypt’s royal house. But no, this “great house” is the Egyptian Beth-el, house of God, the earth itself. A hint of this is found in certain occult manuscripts which speak of “the seven souls of Pharaoh,” actually the sevenfold aura, planes and elements. Only as such can we understand this scriptural account of him.
And Pharaoh was asleep, and he dreamed a dream in which the number seven is used repeatedly. The heptads here, as elsewhere, refer to the seven planes and cycles in Evolution. All this the bare earth dreamed of while it slept, but only the genetic Joseph could interpret that dream. From Apocryphal sources we learn the reason for this: it is that Joseph dreamed the same dream as Pharaoh, and in that dream was told its meaning also. This is just a subtle way of saying Joseph and Pharaoh are one—consciousness and energy combined. That Joseph and God are also one is implied in 40:8. “And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? tell me them”—the dreams. Yes, the interpretation of the earth’s dream belongs to God, and Joseph does the interpreting.
For this great service Pharaoh made Joseph ruler over all Egypt and changed his name to Zaphnath-paaneah, which, since we are dealing with interpretations, means “nourisher of the world,” “governor of the place of life,” and who is that but the Creator? Pharaoh also gives Joseph a wife, Asenath. She is the Egyptian equivalent of the Assyrian Earth Mother, Ashtoreth, abhorred by the Hebrews. Well, they say if you hate or love a thing long enough it will come to you. Asenath was the daughter of the priest of On, and the priest of On is On, in mythology. And On was Egypt’s god at that time. This is the on in Aton, their religion. The Hebrews took this also; it is the on in Onan and also in Solomon. On is thus but another name for God, and his daughter is matter. This, the genetic wed in Egypt, earth; and from this union came two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim— forgetfulness and fruitfulness. The material earth forgot its spiritual source, for which it is rebuked in Revelation. Later it too becomes a source, hence fruitful.
And now Joseph is master of all Egypt; Pharaoh, addressing him, speaks thus: “. . . without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt.” From slave to ruler, and all because of Joseph’s superior virtue and intelligence. This formula is repeated many times in the Bible, and neither Jew nor Gentile realizes it is but racial conceit and historical deception.
In the fat years “Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left numbering; for it was without number.” But having read of Adam’s herbs and Noah’s grapes, we need not assume that this corn was real. It is symbolic and so is the famine. This is evident from 41:56: “And the famine was over all the face of the earth.” This is not ignorant geography but ancient cosmology. However there was plenty of historical background for this myth—the accounts of King Baba of El-Kah and King Zoser (2980 B.C.). Baba, millennia before the alleged time of Joseph, wrote thus: “I collected corn as a friend of the harvest-god. I was watchful in time of sowing. And when a famine arose, lasting many years, I distributed corn to the city each year of famine.” And Zoser: “I am very anxious on account of those who are in the palace. My heart is in great anxiety on account of misfortune, for in my time the Nile has not overflowed for a period of seven years. There is scarcely any produce of the field; herbage fails, eatables are wanting. Every man robs his neighbor. Men move with nowhere to go . . . The people of the court are at their wits’ end. The storehouses were built, but all that was in them has been consumed.”
According to the Hebrew myth, all countries of the earth came into Egypt for food and the smart boy Joseph fed them. He also taught the Egyptians, thousands of years older than his race, how to deal with famines. If this be history, one wonders how they ever got along without him.
And now, having prospered, Joseph did what Joseph always does—sends for his tribe, and they came flocking into Egypt, Jacob along with them.
6. And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed . . . (planetary seed, that is).
27. . . . all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were three score and ten (70 or 7, the number of Creation) (Chap. 46).
In all religious philosophies the Trinity is something above and beyond us and our world, but we have said that it comes down and becomes matter.2 And now, oddly enough, the Bible says the same thing, for Jacob, the third person and summation of the others, comes down into Egypt, which is earth. And for those who refuse to identify the rascally Jacob with God, the fourth verse tells us God came also.
4. I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again . . . (Evolution).
“The beings on earth say that God is in heaven, but the angels in heaven say that God is on earth.” The Zohar.
Right but not specific: “God is on earth” in the forms on earth, but he is also in the earth as its vast potential. Thus God is more beneath our feet than above our heads.
Were we to make a diagram of this long descent from Abram in primordial light called Ur, to Jacob and Joseph in primeval darkness called Egypt, we would find it strangely similar to our own, and if we include the female aspect, very much like that of the Greek.
Again, How the mighty have fallen! The creative process has reached dense matter and Jacob, spirit, is about to die. Realizing this he calls the earth’s two qualities, forgetfulness and fruitfulness, to his side to bless them. As the first is the elder, Joseph guides him to Jacob’s right hand, but Jacob, unlike Isaac, outwits him. Aware of the earth’s future, he blesses the younger, fruitfulness; in other words, the earth will be fruitful and triumph over its death and forgetfulness.
Jacob then gathers his twelve sons about him to tell them “that which shall befall you in the last days”—of Creation. And here we come to another mystery—the meaning and destiny of the twelve tribes of Israel. As this is a Creation myth, the “tribes” are but part of it. There were not twelve tribes of Jews, nor were ten of them lost. These twelve sons of Jacob are the twelve Elohim, and one with the twelve Titans and the twelve creative aspects of the zodiac. All occultists, past and present, identify them with the latter, but the priestly redactors confused the allusions to them to conceal their true meaning. Judah, “the lion of the tribe,” is obvious; this is Leo, the sun, of which it was said, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” The gathering of the elements from space; we called the sun a gatherer and transformer of the elements; we also said these are “the chosen people.” The phrase “until Shiloh come” is also a mystery, but here we can see at least what it is not—the Christ of religion. The sun shall reign until complete materialization comes. Benjamin, “son of the right hand,” is the first stage in Evolution. Dan is the third, Scorpio, “a serpent (desire) by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that the rider (Sagittarius, man) shall fall backward” morally to the animal. The rest are as you see them. Jacob’s inclusion of Manasseh and Ephraim in his own family is an occult addition to the zodiac making fourteen in all, seven down and seven up.
After the death of Jacob, Joseph takes his place, that is, he represents the Creative Principle in toto, not just a projection thereof. Therefore all the prophecies and blessings Jacob heaps upon him are of and for the earth, not Jewry. Jacob also foretells that Joseph will someday return to the house of his fathers, Bethlehem, the planetary source. And we said that the earth returns to the Absolute.
Prior to their going down to Egypt, God promised his “chosen” he would bring them up again. If this be Jewish history, one is justified in asking why God sent them down in the first place. The only result was four hundred years of slavery. The answer lies in Joseph’s words: “for God did send me before you to preserve life.” He could have said to produce life; this is the next step in the process, namely, Evolution.
1 According to Robert Graves, the story of Joseph and Zuleika was taken from the Egyptian “Tale of Two Brothers.”
2 These people were immigrants, and oddly enough the Hebrew word for immigrants, yordinty means descenders.