There have been many interesting essays you've written, Stanisław, on echad polygamy and your vision of it. For the first time I think I'm beginning to understand. This is an exciting time for those of us who want to experience what is obviously very different from the generally accepted type of polygamy practiced by Christians. There are still some concepts I'm finding tough to grasp, though, so maybe I can start by asking you this: are we trying to become like Adam was before Eve was created from him? - that's my first question. And my second, which is tied up to the first, is, did Eve actually 'exist' before she was divided from Adam?

The hard questions first, eh? [laughs] The answer to your first question is 'yes' and 'no'. In echad marriage we most certainly are trying to return to the unity that existed in the first Adam, or Adam-Eve. But we're not trying to become a single physical body. That is impossible, and that is not Yahweh's plan. The separation into two distinct individuals was a part of an irreversible development on one level, but most definitely a reversible development on another. Though I hesitate to use terms common to atheistic Darwinism (because we are absolutely not Darwinists), there is a sense in which the creation of Eve from Adam was a positive 'evolution' as well as being a negative 'devolution'. This singular event is actually the source of so many paradoxes in our understanding of life, and (as we shall see in a minute, I hope) the meaning of polygamy.

So what you're saying is that it was positive physically but negative spiritually?

[sighs] It isn't that simple - you see, oversimplifcation can lead to major misunderstandings. I can't answer that question because it's unanswerable. We are standing on the verge of revealing a great mystery about the creation, something not easily grasped. Indeed, one needs to have a certain spiritual vantage point in order to comprehend it. But I shall try in my clumsy way to explain. Please understand that any analogies I use will only be of limited value. They will illustrate certain aspects of what I am trying to convey, and not the whole. People have a tendency to take analogies too far and totally miss the point. Look at the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, in which they believe that the emblems of the Lord's supper are the literal body and blood of Christ - that's taking an analogy too far and ending up with a system of belief which is almost occultism. So let us tread warily.

I'm going to have to approach this from another angle, and I think to do that, I will need to answer your second question first ...

OK.

You asked whether Eve was 'conscious' as part of the first Adam, I think?

Yes.

Again, it is not a valid question, because Eve was Adam, and Adam was Eve. Their consciousness was so intimately intertwined that they were, to all intents and purposes, a single person. They were co-conscious.

Were they hermaphrodite, then?

No, no, not hermaphrodite (both male and female). We have a problem with words here - our language just can't handle these concepts. People follow this false logic: Adam, before Eve was made, was male. Eve, who was female, was made out of him, whilst Adam remained male. Therefore female is inferior to male.

It certainly seems that way ...

Thank you for using the operative word 'seems' because in a way that is what it is.

But he was male physically, wasn't he, with the male reproductive organs before Eve was created out of him? Doesn't that imply that 'male' is the dominant gender? It says in Genesis, "So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:27, NKJV). In other words, He created Adam male, then He created Adam and Eve male and female...

We are unfortunately getting entangled in semantics here and will end up going around in circles. Let's take a look at that passage of scripture again, which is unfortunately in English. The Hebrew reads: "So Elohim created Adam in His own image; in the image of Elohim He created him; male and female He created them."

Firstly, the word 'Adam' has three meanings: it can mean mankind as a whole, Adam before Eve was derived, and Adam after Eve was derived. Notice, however, that the uniplural word 'Elohim' is used here - a word we translate as 'God' but which always refers to all the Persons in the Godhead. When the Father specifically is spoken of, it is always Yahweh, or LORD in capital letters in the King James Version. Elohim created Adam in His uniplural image - the fact that "Him" is used here and not "Their" stresses in this context the unitary echad principle of oneness, and not the plural part. In other passages the plural is used ... can you read the verse before?

Sure. "Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion...'" (v.26).

OK, stop there - thank you. Notice that it is still God or Elohim speaking, but in this instance it is the plurality that is stressed - "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion..."

Fascinating...

The plural aspect is used elsewhere, when Elohim says, as He looked at the Tower of Babel, "Let US go down there and confuse their language..." (Genesis 11:7).

You see, our English language does not permit us to express in a single word 'I' and 'We' simultaneously. We aren't even programmed to think mentally that way. But this is what echad is about. And it's hard for people who have no experience of this mindframe to think, let alone communicate, in these terms. God (Elohim) is both One and Many. And so too is man. We are made in God's (Elohim's) image. We are exactly like Him.

Oh, I get it - there are seven Holy Spirits, and that is why polygamy is natural to us...

Natural to the carnal man, no, absolutely not. To the spiritual man (and by man, I mean both man and woman), absolutely yes. That is why the carnal man cannot understand the Godhead - and especially not Western man whose thinking is so linear and two-dimensional.

But to develop your observation further -- let us go back to the original Adam. To avoid confusion, I shall call Adam before Eve was made from him, Proto-Adam, or first Adam. Now the Proto-Adam was male, as you observed. Male is both male and female, which is why genetically he is XY, X being the female sex chromosome, and Y being the male one. The Y-chromosome is dominant and the X-recessive, which is why whenever Y is found with X, you always have a male. There is no such thing as YY.

So male is always male and female, and female is always female. But why?

Elohim (God) originally consisted of only one Being, Yahweh, the Most High El (God). Not the Yahweh who exists today, but like Adam, the Proto-Yahweh. He created Hochmah, a single female Deity, also known as Sophia in the Greek, which we translate biblically as "Wisdom". Not created in the sense of being made from scratch, but derived, for Hochmah still remained Yahweh, and both were, are are, Elohim - the uniplural God.

So there was only one Holy Spirit at first, and not seven??

Absolutely.

But where did the other six come from?

How do you think?

[long pause] I don't know. The Bible says nothing of this.

Well, actually it does, in Proverbs: "Wisdom has built her house, She has hewn out her seven pillars" (Proverbs 9:1, NKJV).

Now please note this well - because this is another echad or uniplural concept - because Hochmah is not a single entity - it is a FEMININE PLURAL NOUN which is used with a feminine singular verb, just as Elohim is a masculine plural noun used with masculine singular verbs. The original Hochmah or Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) was uniplural but in an exclusively female sense!

Wow!

Do you see what we are being told here?

That she divided herself????

Exactly! Hochmah has built her "house". Now the word "house" is a Hebrew word, bayit (or beit/beth as in Bethlehem), which doesn't just mean a building. As we know, "house" is commonly used throughout the Bible to mean 'family'. It can also mean 'temple'. Simply stated, the original Hochmah or the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) divided herself into seven different persons, and yet remained one. She is still echad - The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is One and Many at the same time.

This is incredible! Amazing! But what does it mean, and why do that in the first place?

We see this principle reflected on a much lower level in the physical creation. Biologists call it parthenogenesis, where female reproduces female. It happens in many plants. It does not involve fertilisation of any kind. But we must be careful of this analogy, as I warned you earlier - because parthenogenesis produces exact copies, and the seven Holy Spirits are not remotely identical. Were they to be human beings, then they would correspond to the most diverse personality types you can imagine.

I'm still struggling to grasp this ... but are you saying plurality is a kind of illusion? Does this mean the monogamy is the final result?

[laughs] Yes, and no.

[frowns] I had a feeling you were going to say that...

The only reality is ultimately spirit. Yahweh causes multiplication on other planes of existence like the physical in order to multiply love. The reality of Elohim (God) is always one. Tell me truthfully, when you have experienced Elohim (God), have you been aware of which aspect of Him - the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit - was operating on you?

Truthfully, no, I haven't. But I know people who pray to all three.

Well, they are in error. Yah'shua (Jesus) told us to pray to the Father alone through the Son. The Father is the head of Christ, as Christ is head of Adam, as Adam is head of Eve. And yet what is the goal? It is that all be one (echad).

Praying to the Father through the Son leaves the Holy Spirit out, though.

Does it? The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is the Comforter. The Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) is actually the bridge between heaven and earth. The man is not without the woman, and the Father is not without the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). They are all one. The divisions we see 'down here' just aren't seen 'up there'. Their focus is different. We tend to see the parts, They see the whole, because They are whole. And the reason we tend to do this is because we are INTERNALLY FRAGMENTED.

Our tendency to see in multiples - as male and female - instead of the whole, is a spiritual sickness caused by the Fall. Adam and Eve were so much one in Eden that they weren't even conscious of their nakedness. But after the Fall all that changed. And the reason that changed was because of a catastrophic inner spiritual reorganisation.

And yet, if what you say is right, there will always be 'male' and 'female', and there will always be more females to male.

Yes, that is true. When Hochmah divided Herself, it was not under compulsion, but was entirely natural. She spontaneously reproduced herself, remembering, however, that She never was an entirely singular Being in the first place, but Seven-in-One.

This is taking time to sink in. I still don't get it.

I understand. These are deep things. So let me return to our passage in Proverbs and ask you this question: why is the word "pillar" used? What does it mean that the uniplural Hochmah "has hewn out her seven pillars"?

[laughs] I wish I knew, but I guess you're going to tell me anyway!

I will try but can't promise you'll understand. You see, Hebrew isn't like Englush at all. People read ther word "pillar" and that's all they can see - a column or a post. But this isn't how the Hebrew language operates. We are supposed to look back down a chain of meanings which is encompassed by a single word. Many people criticise Hebrew because it has such a tiny vocabulary compared to our own. But that is its strength, not its weakness. Unlike English, which is a bastard language consisting of many other languages (hence its bizzare grammar and pronunciation), Hebrew is a divinely revealed tongue. One word conveys multiple meanings. It was designed to be used in connection with the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) whose purpose in the language is to integrate the language into a series of hierarchical meanings.

So you're telling me it isn't "pillars" at all?

I'm telling you that it's pillars and more. Now bear with me. This word we translate as "pillar" is from the Hebrew 'ammuwd which can mean one of two things - either a COLUMN or a PLATFORM.

But the verb here is "hew", isn't it, implying to carve? So it must be a pillar since you don't carve platforms!

Yes, that's right. The primary meaning is a pillar, or a support, which of course describes the primary rôle of female principle. The woman is actually holding the family up - she is, in many respects, its backbone.

Now, as you may probably know already, this passage in Proverbs has been interpreted in various ways. And that is a secondary meaning of 'ammuwd, namely, a platform. Thus there are seven platforms or stories, as in floors. Pillars, as you know, are also used as representations of people in the Bible, and quite frequently, again underlining the fact that the singular Hochmah is actually seven persons.

Do you think it's possible that Eve was a uniplural person like Hochmah?

If she was, the Bible makes no mention of this. Her name in Hebrew - Havah, Havvah or Chavvah - is interesting, though, for it means 'life-giver'. This, of course, ties in with the concept of the Holy Breath which I discussed in a recent article (The Metaphysics of Echad Polygamy). The breath is what symbolically gives life, and just as mothers give life to their children, so the Heavenly Mother - Hochmah - gives life to human beings at creation (Adam) and when believers are born again (baptism of Spirit).

Now the Aramaic chava means to 'show' or 'reveal' - the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) reveals Christ to the children of men when they are humble and contrite, just as wives in general reveal their husbands. Paul says:

"...by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 3:3-5, NKJV).

"For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of Elohim (God)" (Romans 8:19, NKJV)

Wherever the word "reveal" or "revelation" is used in Hebrew or Aramaic, the clear implication is always that the female Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) lies behind the process.

There is a synergy here between husbands/sons of Elohim (God) and Yahweh/Christ, and between wives/daughters of Elohim (God) and the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). The sons of men on their own cannot be revealed - and cannot therefore properly reveal the true identity of the Father or Son, until their wives have revealed them through the Holy Spirit. Thus those men who are living the counterfeit 'modalistic' or 'multiple-monogamy' way can never reveal or be revealed! They are quite simply operating out of the wrong pattern.

I think I understand that ... yes.

Now this word chavah in Hebrew means, in an even wider sense, 'to live' or 'to be alive'. It means to 'declare' or 'show' the ultimate purpose and moving principle of Yahweh, our Father. The Father has chosen the female principle to reveal the male, for without the female, the male remains hidden - unknown and unknowable.

Are you saying that God can ultimately be known?

[smiles] I think so - yes, I do. For echad polygamy has opened so many doors of understanding to me that it has become a veritable flood. It never seems to end. And the key has without a doubt been the revelation of female principle to me. And it is a revelation that has helped my wives understand their true and glorious position in Creation - not as second-class citizens in the Kingdom of Heaven (in spite of the rhetoric in modalistic circles) but as the revelators.

So Elohim (God), I believe, can be known, but only as we live and exist as He does in our plane, and that means echad marriage. But to live this way literally means a complete rewiring of your brain, a complete rejection of traditional ways of thinking. It means allowing, over time, Yahweh to rework us. It doesn't happen overnight - there is no way it can without causing a complete breakdown. As such, therefore, it does require tremendous patience, unreserved committment and loyalty, and a very clear set of spiritual and practical goals. We must be prepared to wait, as long as Abraham and Sarah waited for Isaac, for results, if necessary.

This is not something that can be forced?

Impossible. The more you force, the quicker you will descend into darkness. Your average person, who has a lukewarm comittment to the Gospel, will never understand. It must remain a mystery to him. Indeed, I remember a polygamist man writing and telling me some years ago that he hadn't a clue what I was talking about. He belongs now to one of the modalistic polygamy circles.

So what you're saying is that echad marriage, whether monogamy or polygamy, is really the only way to become truly 'alive' in the Spirit?

Yes. Any other way operates out of a lunar concept of reflected instead of direct sunlight. Mostly people go to others to learn about polygamy or any other principle. They become their gurus. To be sure, we have to start that way - we must all become pupils to human teachers first of all. But the whole point of echad is that you enter the mystery yourself and fulfil the prophecy made through Jeremiah that you no longer need to be taught by other men or women (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:11). But it isn't instantaneous - far from it!

Which is why, I guess, we call this 'New Covenant Polygamy' as well?

Right. And this point I have made too in other essays, namely, that the Old Covenant didn't all disappear at the Cross - the salvational pointers did, but the spiritual reality takes time. Many Christians/Messianics are still operating out of Old Covenant modes or ways of being and behaving. As Paul said:

"He says, 'A new covenant,' He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away" (Hebrews 8:13, NKJV)

Note how the Old Covenant "is becoming" obsolete, not "has become". It is in the process. Spiritual realisitions take time, often centuries, sometimes millennia. The work of the cross was accomplished in a single period of a few days, and at the point of resurrection, was finally and totally completed. But the actual reality and power of it percolates down to us in proportion to our receptivity, willingness to be obedient, and faith.

That is one reason we have seven Holy Spirits. Each has Her allotted task to assist struggling believers to become overcomers in the seven areas that afflict us all outlined in the Book of Revelation. That is why the world was created in 7 days and not instantaneously in one day. There are unfoldings we must understand, so that we can understand how the Most High unfolds His work and how He reveals Himself to us progressively.

I'm struggling with the questions - what is a man? what is a woman? And why is female many and man one?

To begin with, in order to understand this, you have to accept that the way Yahweh has ordered our cosmos is done not because He is anti-female (which of course He isn't) but because He is love. Furthermore, you also have to understand that male and female is a sacred synergy and must be viewed as one. The fact that we have separate genders and indentities must not cause us to lay emphasis in the wrong place. Polygamy is not an issue in itself - you can't dissect it and understand it in isolation. Polygamy is part of a much bigger picture. I know it may sound crass or trite to say this, but it is a fact that women have a seven-fold advantage of finding salvation and eternal life over men, because Yahweh created THEM with this advantage. Men are severely disadvantaged. This reality may not appear real at this moment in time for women who find themselves struggling in a polygamous relationship, but if she meditates on this sufficiently, and for long enough, she may come to understand that there is a perfect justice and love in the way Yahweh has set things up. But I am not saying that this is the only grounds for being 'happy' with the seeming 'injustice' of seven women having to share one man. If peace in polygamy for the women were simply a matter of salvational realities, it would never become satisfying spiritually moment for moment.

So how can she find satisfaction?

By having a husband who is truly trying to be like Christ, and by entering into the spirit of echad. It is a reality all of its own. Here the focus is not on the branches of the tree of life but on the TRUNK itself. In the vine-tree parable, Christ is the vine and we are the branches. I'm sure none of us resent Him that place of honour because of what He did for us. And yet He treats us as one of the family. We are not inferior when we become one. Subject, yes, but not inferior. He treats us like friends, not servants. Likewise a true man - and not the counterfeits - will be appreciated and loved, and his headship voluntarily and joyfully conceeded, because of what he had to go through - and his continuing responsibilities as head - in order to win against the seven-fold odds stacked against him. He remains the permanent covering, the shield against the darts of the enemy. He becomes their proxy defender when the wives are in him, just as Christ is our shield when we are in Him.

We can never have everything. Even 'Proto-Yahweh' realised that when He went about expanding the Godhead and building the Cosmos. For this is the only way that love can multiply. Without the gender polarity of male and female, there would be no movement, just statis.

What is the ultimate goal in echad polygamous marriage, Stan?

To have that oneness, peace and joy that is the reality and glory of the Godhead. It means actually entering the realm of the Godhead itself. It means to understand the relationship between Father, Son and Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) first of all, not through intellectual propositions, but through actual experience.

And how far do you think that you and your wives have actually come in realising that?

We have come a long way but still have a long, long way to go. There is no doubt that some have crossed that veil and know what echad is, because they have touched it with invisible hands and have been touched by it themselves in their souls. Seeing that it is real, and not some etherial fantasy, is the first and most important thing - knowing that jealosy and strife can be overcome and realising that the mathematics of how many wives a man should have means nothing at all so long as they are the wives that Yahweh has given him. Understanding that, inspite of the 'mathematical paradox', this is actually the better way to be once you have made a conscious effort to overcome the carnal nature through the atonement of Christ and seen the 'I' supplanted by the 'We'. To see that it can, and does, happen in a joyful way, without loss of supposed 'freedoms' - that it is an exchange of one set of lesser freedoms for another set of superior ones - is a great liberation.

But I do have to say this - and especially to those who are contemplating this lifestyle ... and especially the men: if you haven't been called into this way of life, you will be utterly fried by it, and do untold damage to your wife or wives. If you have been called into it, then nothing less than total, complete and all-encompassing sacrifice will be required of you. It may require that you have to totally relearn everything you previously thought was true. It will certainly require a complete change in your habits and tastes - in your thinking processes, in the way you feel, in the way you relate to others. I'm talking of a complete transformation from a caterpillar to a butterfly (see The New Olive Leaf for an explanation of this). If you're truly willing to do this, then maybe you have been called into polygamy. If not, run away from polygamy, and run fast.

Author: SBSK