Glynda-Lee Hoffmann

Seeing Genesis through the eyes of Qabalah

By Dan Barnett-Book Columnist

 

 

 

Chico author Glynda-Lee Hoffmann recounts her quest for self-knowledge in "The Genesis Code: Your Key To Unlocking Hidden Genius" ($12.95 in paperback from CreateSpace; also available in Amazon Kindle e-book format). Hers was a difficult childhood; "in my forties," she writes, looking back, "I underwent three years of therapy and finally realized that the punishment I endured from my parents and teachers most likely had nothing to do with me. ..."

Those experiences left her lonely, bereft of love; though, mysteriously, there were also moments (a Voice; a vision of being inside the mind of Jesus) that left her with a yearning for clarity — "Clarity is salvation."

 

She forgot these experiences (only to recover them later). Then, in her 20s, she was given a book by French author Carlo Suares, which used the Qabalah to interpret Genesis. She was hooked.

 

The Qabalah is an ancient mystical tradition that sees deep meaning in each Hebrew letter. The first, ALEPH, "is the undetectable pulse of life." The second, BAYT, "is the static container which forms a boundary or perimeter which contains life." ALEPH is inner, BAYT outer. Each word of Genesis is a kind of acronym embodying the qualities of its letters.

 

Creation in Genesis is an outer story, the past. But the garden is an inner story, the present, the story of self-awareness and the presence of light. "I can't call it God since that implies separation. I am God, so the God that saves me is the energy that is me. ... The Qabalah recognizes that life is the only truth that exists. Life, not God, is our source." For Hoffmann, this was the moment of clarity. Eden is "a portrayal of our inner awareness, our psychological and neurological world."

 

Adam, in this inner story, is the neocortex and Eve is "the frontal lobe" which evolutionarily "emerged last in the human brain, extracted from the tissue of the neocortex, yet expressing new qualities, possibilities, and opportunities for human awareness, vision, and perception." YHWH is inter intercommunication, "a process of inner awareness and outer experience, not a deity, not the Lord."

 

An author interview is scheduled for this Friday at 10 a.m. on Nancy's Bookshelf, on KCHO (Northstate Public Radio, 91.7 FM).

 

Dan Barnett teaches philosophy at Butte College.