This week's post for the few of you who follow my personal thoughts and reflections on Faith (and the stories from the Old and New Testaments).
After we looked at Adam, Eve, the Serpent and the path out of Paradise last week, I want in this one to take on one of the most well-known passages that follows immediately after - the story of Cain and Abel - and try to lift it up from the 2nd-grade level your old religious education teacher left it at - and into where it actually belongs - as a mirror of Man's inner struggle, and a deep message about the soul's journey and choice.
I think especially my thoughts will resonate with those of you who have spent time on modern personal development in various forms. But read when you have time - and tell me what you think.
The story of Cain and Abel is not merely an account of the first murder in human history. It is an allegory of man's inner division. A kind of archetypal narrative about the lower and higher self, about ego and soul, about man's fall and path back to God.
Seen esoterically, Cain and Abel are two aspects in one consciousness - two brothers in one human being.
Cain represents the earthbound, the lower ego, which works in the earth, in the horizontal plane. Abel represents the spiritual, the upward-striving, the vertical - the shepherd, the inner intuition, the purer soul.
(Notice incidentally here again - the figure horizontal/vertical - a cross or a crucifix - which has recurred in many post texts.)
I assume you know the story of the two brothers reasonably well, so let us proceed directly to what matters - when both brothers bring an offering to God.
Cain brings the fruits from the earth - what he has cultivated and created with his hands.
Abel brings the firstborn of his sheep - blood sacrifice, life, instinct, devotion.
God accepts Abel's offering - but not Cain's. Why?
Cain's offering represents the material, the self-made, the mental and self-aware. It is anchored in the lower I - in will, achievement, control.
Abel's offering represents surrender, trust, the spontaneous and intuitive. It is not created by Man, but received. It carries the Rhythm and Order that points back toward the Divine.
The Letter to the Hebrews also sheds light on the difference between the two brothers' offerings. It says -
"By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain." (Heb 11:4)
So it is not solely the type of offering, but the heart's disposition, that makes the difference.
Abel gave in faith - in trust and surrender. He gave the first and best, because he was not bound by fear or the urge to secure himself. His action was carried by devotion.
Cain's offering lacked this dimension. Perhaps he gave out of duty. Perhaps he held something back. In any case it did not come from a heart that was entirely turned toward God.
In other and more modern words -
Cain's offering is the ego's work.
Abel's is the soul's gesture.
When Cain becomes angry over God's rejection, God says something along these lines to him -
"If you do well, will you not be lifted up? But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."
This is in my opinion one of the most profound lines in the entire Old Testament, which strikes me every single time.
For God does not speak to Cain as one condemned, but as one who has the possibility to lift himself. It is a speech to the choice we all have - Will we let ourselves be ruled by our lower instincts - or will we transcend them?
"Sin is crouching" - means that the lower nature is ALWAYS close. It requires no invitation. It wants us. It has us as soon as we are not attentive. BUT we are called to rule over it. Not by violence, but by vigilance, by inner work. This is everyone's life work - to rule over the lower through the light from the higher.
This Cain does not understand - on the contrary - so he kills his brother.
On the surface - an expression of jealousy.
But in the interior and what we are concerned with here - the lower extinguishes the higher. The ego denies and expels the soul.
When man loses connection to the sacred in himself - he kills "Abel".
Man is always in danger of doing this throughout life. When we only live in the intellect, in self-absorption, in outer reality - then we kill the inner calling.
When we deny intuition, when we sabotage our own higher impulses, when we close the heart and ignore the conscience - then we are "Cain"...
God asks Cain afterwards - "Where is your brother Abel?"
This is a question that still sounds in man's interior. For God naturally knows well what has happened - the question is directed toward Recognition.
This is the soul's judgment - and the question covers this and could instead read -
What have you done with the highest in yourself? Where is your light? Your conscience? Your innocence?
Cain answers - "Am I my brother's keeper?" - with arrogance and evasion.
And try yourself to notice in yourself and in others going forward, that this is how the ego always answers, when confronted with its apostasy.
God then says - "The earth shall no longer give you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer."
When the lower has killed the higher, man loses his inner fertility. Everything becomes empty. You can work, build, strive - but without the inner light, without "Abel", it becomes meaningless. You become a fugitive in your own soul.
Cain represents modern man without God - restless, goal-oriented, productive - but inwardly extinguished and without direction.
God does not however let Cain die. He instead places a mark on him, which protects him from vengeance.
It can seem strange, for does he not deserve punishment for his bestiality? He who has just murdered his brother!?
Try to see it symbolically, instead of as a simple story.
Even in the fall, even in the murder of the higher self, grace remains active. Man bears his guilt - but also bears God's mark.
It means.
You are still one God has known and will call back.
There is a way back - through remorse, conversion, and integration.
And as you may remember Cain did not die. His journey was not finished. He had children, built cities - but remained a fugitive. Which translates to - Only when man recognizes "Abel" in himself again - can he "return home" (to God).
What should have been sacrificed (the ego), killed what was sacred (the soul). And the redemption lies (for us all) in the reverse -
That the Ego sacrifices itself - for the Soul.
My friend Carl Jung would quite certainly say something along the lines of -
Cain and Abel live in you.
Every time you choose between the lower and the higher.
Every time you bring an "offering" - either from Ego or from Love.
Every time you kill something pure in yourself - or choose to let it live.
The way home begins in the moment you see clearly who is who - and choose to protect "Abel" - the quiet, pure in you.
That which listens.
That which loves.
That which knows.
When you do that - then God meets you. Again. And again. And again.
...
Good summer day - and evening - the weather here in North Jutland is simply pure Ibiza today! ❤️🔥🪽🔥
