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Genesis 6:20 · World English Bible

Genesis 6:20 Meaning Of the Birds After Their Kind

Of the birds after their kind, of the livestock after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every sort will come to you, to keep them alive.

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What does Genesis 6:20 mean?

The fowl, the cattle, and the creeping thing are the 3 tiers of force within a person: birds are the airy thoughts flying through the head, cattle the settled bodily powers of the middle, creeping things the low instincts moving along the ground of the flesh. The number 2 is the pairing of every force with its opposite, each inner power held as a balanced pair so it can be carried through the flood.

From the Esoteric reading below.

Genesis 6:20 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

ESOTERIC

Esoteric

The fowl, the cattle, and the creeping thing are the 3 tiers of force within a person: birds are the airy thoughts flying through the head, cattle the settled bodily powers of the middle, creeping things the low instincts moving along the ground of the flesh. The number 2 is the pairing of every force with its opposite, each inner power held as a balanced pair so it can be carried through the flood.

Within a person every energy from the highest thought to the lowest instinct is gathered in its pair and sealed into the ark of the enduring self. Nothing true in the body is lost; each power is kept whole, opposite by opposite.

Fowls: the airy thoughts and mental energies that fly through the region of the head Cattle: the settled bodily powers and vital forces of the middle nature Creeping thing: the low instincts and appetites that move along the ground of the flesh

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Esoteric lens

Live Genesis 6:20 today

  1. When a craving shows up, the snack, the scroll, the urge to text someone at midnight, say hello to it instead of fighting or obeying it. Ask what it actually wants, then choose.
  2. With your family at dinner, let the ordinary body stuff count. Who is tired, who is hungry, who needs to be outside for ten minutes. Most arguments are low floors talking.
  3. Under pressure, take the whole of yourself in with you. Fed, steady on your feet, and clear in the head, because the sharp mind alone will not carry the meeting.

Which part of me have I been calling the enemy when it was just asking for something?

The same truth in other traditions

Hinduism · Katha Upanishad

The senses are horses, the mind the reins, the self the one who holds them. None of the horses are thrown out, all of them are harnessed.

Stoicism · Marcus Aurelius

You are mind, breath, and flesh together. Give each its due, govern them as one, and despise none of the three.

Sufism · Rumi

Every appetite is a messenger from somewhere. Do not kill the messenger, hear it and then decide where the caravan goes.

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