Believing that the church of their day was hopelessly corrupted by material success, Kingsford and Maitland set out "to restore and rehabilitate the Truth, by divesting it of all the many limitations, degenerations, perversions, and distortions to which throughout the ages it has been subjected; and by explaining the real meaning of the formulas and symbols which thus far have served rather to conceal than to reveal." By comparing and contrasting the great world religions, Kingsford and Maitland hoped to arrive at a "scientific" understanding of truth: the principles which the great religions of the world have in common are the "eternal truths." Their interpretation of the Christian Bible and their Christianity is inspired by a fascinating mixture of traditional Christianity, the Jewish Kabbalah, Hinduism, Islam, astrology, ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman religions, classical Greek and Roman philosophy, and modern scientific ideas.

      They interpret the Bible on four allegorical levels, each reflecting one of the 4-fold natures of man: "the material body, the fluidic perisoul or astral body, the soul or individual, and the spirit, or divine Father and life of his system". The four interpretations of "mystical Scripture" include "the natural, the intellectual, the ethical, and the spiritual." Selvidge calls these four natures the Physical and Social, the Rational and Philosophical, the Psychic and Personal (Ethical), and the Spiritual and Creative (Cosmic). Actually, there are closer to 8 interpretations of the creation story since some allegorical levels have more than one interpretation and because we must include the concluding interpretation which is a synthesis of the earlier interpretations in light of the Book of Revelations. Kingsford and Maitland introduce many new ideas into the interpretation of Genesis.

      Since they interpret the creation story in so many ways, a large portion of The Perfect Way is devoted to interpreting Genesis. Foreshadowing contemporary commentaries, Kingsford and Maitland begin their discussion of Genesis by noting that it was not written by Moses as tradition would have it, but rather was the work of a much later editor, "Ezra or Esdras". Further, his work was later edited by the Pharisees. Hence, "the knowledge" in it did not come direct from God as is often claimed. Further, the "Myth of the Fall" was not a Hebrew original: rather, the story was a well-known Egyptian story which can still be found on the walls of many ancient monuments.

1: Physical Nature

      Here, Adam represents the bodily or sensuous nature in man; woman, the psychic and spiritual nature; and an helper, an overseeing guide. Isha, the first name given to woman, is the "generative substance, or feminine principle, of humanity" and Eve, the name of woman after fall, is life which is represented by a serpent. As soul, Eve has 2 aspects: earthly (tempter) and heavenly (Divine Wisdom, Sophia).

      Eve, the Soul, is taken from the sleeping man's side because the Soul can only be revealed when it transcends the consciousness of the body. When Adam, physical man, is "asleep, passive, unassertive," the Soul is "made manifest," the Soul guides, rules, and commands.

      In the original "unfallen," sinless condition, Adam (physical nature) is ruled by Eve (the soul). After the fall, humanity becomes cursed and the order of dominance is inverted: physical nature (Adam) dominates the soul (Eve); man is ruled by his physical nature, not his soul. "And the curse will be removed and paradise regained, and the second Sabbath of the Golden Age achieved, only when this "woman" is again inverted with her rightful supremacy."

2 - Rational / Philosophic Nature

      Once again, Adam represents the body, the physical person and Eve represents the soul. Now, however, the Divine Voice is the Spirit. The serpent represents the "astral element or lower reason," an "intermediary between soul and body," and is "concerned with the things of time and matter only," and interprets physical sensations of the body. Here, the serpent (reason) conquers Eve (the soul) and "every victory of the spiritual man is bought with anguish." God's curse, enmity between woman and serpent, is reflected in the continuing antagonism between soul and reason. In one of the many interjections, Kingsford and Maitland maintain that after the fall, man was no longer content with "the tree-fruits and the herb-grains" provided freely by nature and became a flesh-eating predator. And until men stop being "shedders of blood" and "flesh-eaters," paradise will not be regained.

      In an alternate explanation, man represents the mind or rational intellect and woman represents affection or heart. The Tree of Knowledge represents illusion, the Tree of Life represents Divine Gnosis or interior knowledge, and the serpent represents the will of the body. The sin which brought ruin on mankind is idolatry. During the fall, affection was seduced by illusion. Man's curse, intellect's curse, is to know that in the fall he lost the ability to distinguish "Substance from Reality."

3- Ethical - Psychic Nature:

      In actuality, there are 2 interpretations in this category: one regarding the Church and the other regarding the individual. In the first interpretation, man again represents human reason and woman represents faith or religious conscience. The serpent is again our lower nature. The Tree of Knowledge is the worldly kingdom while the Tree of Life is the heavenly kingdom. Before the fall, religious conscience ruled or guided reason. During the fall, religious conscience listened to voice of lower nature (her desires, ambitions, vanities, falsehoods). Religious conscience did not fall alone, but she seduced reason, "leading him into false paths, betraying and deluding him at every turn;" faith became superstition.

      Alternately, woman represents the church. Just as woman fell, so the church has fallen: just as Eve seduced and betrayed Adam, the church has become "the betrayer and the enemy of man."

4- Spiritual - Creative Nature:

      The spiritual-creative interpretation is an extremely convoluted argument which is designed to show that the myth of the fall is an "obscure allusion" to "the Lapse of heavenly beings from their first happy estate into sub-celestial spheres, and their final redemption by means of penance done through incarnation in the flesh."

      Synthesis of 4 previous allegorical interpretations in terms of the imagery in Revelations:

      Kingsford and Maitland attempt to show the unity of the biblical scripture by synthesizing a single interpretation of the first and last books of the Bible, Genesis and Revelations, respectively. Their last interpretation is a hopeful, joyous, optimistic story. As with other exegetes, they view Adam as an androgynous creation, as a man/woman. Yet Adam (physical humanity) is not complete until Eve (the soul) added. Because of the "soul's inclination to sense things," the soul turns its attention away from God and to physical/earthly things, becoming enslaved to material things - that is the meaning of the fall. God's curse, enmity between woman and serpent, represents humankind's constant rebellion against materialism, i.e. the soul trying to reassert itself over the body, over physical things. Woman, the soul, which was the cause of the fall, shall one day, when returned to her rightful place, be the cause of the redemption of the world. And so ends the grand cycle of generation, degeneration, and regeneration.

Reference:

      Anna Bonus Kingsford and Edward Maitland, The Perfect Way, 1890

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