Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

Understanding Biblical Symbolism


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ADONIS OR TAMMUZ

A symbol of the Higher Self, the incarnate God born in the soul. Adonis was conceived of the Divine Father, and born of Myrrha-the purified lower nature. But before the birth, Myrrha was changed into a tree, the " Tree of Life " from which alone, as the Divine Ray from the Supreme, the Self may be born. The lower love nature (Aphrodite) concealed the Holy Babe in the soul (chest) and entrusted it to the emotion -nature (Persephone) which being allied with the desire -nature (Hades) is detained in the " underworld," or lower nature, subject to the developing process of transitory form lives. The incarnate God is therefore bound by the Divine (Zeus) law of the reincarnating cycle, and has to pass through short periods of earth life or physical existence, with intermediate periods of astral and mental existence of longer duration. The death of Adonis through being wounded by a boar, signifies the release of the soul from the underworld. The soul being perfected, the last thrust of evil (the boar) causes, as it were, the rise of the consciousness from the lower life to the higher.

"Now the Assyrians call this [mystery of soul-growth] Adonis (or Endymion). And whenever it is called Adonis, it is Aphrodite who is in love with and desires Soul so-called. And Aphrodite is Genesis according to them. But when Persephone (that is Kore), is in love with Adonis, Soul becomes subject to Death, separated from Aphrodite (that is from Genesis)."- HIPPOLYTUS, Philosophumena, Bk. V. Ch. 2.

The birth and evolution of the Higher Self in the human soul is this "mystery of soul-growth." When the lower love nature (Aphrodite) aspires towards the incoming Self, the Self responds to the lower attractiveness for growth and production (Genesis). But when the emotion-nature (Persephone) is allied with the Self, the Soul or Self is drawn down to the lower planes and is obscured and imprisoned in mortal bodies, unable to grow and produce of its own nature until it is again allied with buddhi.

 

See Also

APHRODITE
BOAR
HADES
PERSEPHONE
PERSEUS
TAMMUZ
VENUS
ZEUS, SON OF CRONUS