Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

BEASTS OF THE EARTH

Symbolic of the desires of the lower nature, with the animal instincts and appetites (serpents).

"And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air; with all wherewith the ground teemeth, and all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered." - GENESIS. ix. 2.

And the lower nature of the soul is first to be subdued and disciplined by the fear and dread of consequences, which are to bring it eventually into subjection. Into the power of the indwelling Self are all things of the lower nature to be delivered.

"The fear and dread of you, etc.' Animal faculties now are not only restrained by the ark or cross, but reduced to submission: the man or reason governs them. The ox strong to labour, the strength in us formed to serve, is not henceforth to spend its energies without direction. The lion and the bear, fierce thoughts, must be still. . . . I know indeed that even after this, after man has passed the flood and is regenerate, lions may be loosed in judgment by the Lord the man in us may be slain, and the beast may be seen standing by the carcase; or, as in another case, the man may be blind, and the beast, which should be guided by the man, may see more than that inward man which was formed to govern it. All this may be through sin. Yet our calling as regenerate is to rule the beasts, not to be ruled by them." - A. JUKES, The Types of Genesis, p. 125.

"And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." - GENESIS iii. 14.

And the Divine nature decides that the desire-mind is indeed lower and grosser than the sub-human desires and instincts which preceded its evolution. It is doomed to remain on the lower planes, and it shall feed upon the sensations and forces which proceed from the lower nature long as it exists.

"Here the craft and subtlety of the Serpent was manifest, and the precious Image (of God) was corrupted, and became a Beast of all beasts; where-upon there are now so many and various properties in man ; as one a Fox, Wolf, Bear, Lion, Dog, Bull, Cat, Horse, Cock, Toad, Serpent, and in brief as many kinds of creatures as are upon the earth, so many and various properties likewise there are in the earthly man." - J. BEHMEN, Mysterium Magnum, p. 92.

See Also

ANIMALS
CATTLE
DUST
FALL
FISH
MAN (natural)
SACRIFICE
SERPENT (Subtil)