Intensive Six Month Course
Chisholme House
1975 –1976

WOMEN

Written by Layla Shamash

Part 1

The subject of this talk is the Insan Kamil 'The Perfect Human', but as a woman, not a man.
In this part of the series is a discussion of the phenomenon of women’s spirituality as it presents itself to us now.

The next two parts will deal with the mystical and metaphysical side and human side, taking examples of Perfect women.

The use of the term Insan Kamil does not imply gender; Insan in Arabic is simply a human being, either male or female. Often this subject is discussed and often we refer to this Reality as He and Him. But as we are also alluding to the Reality of Mohammed, the use of He is understandable, but what excuse do we have for calling God He and Him? Or for calling the Essence (Dhat and Ayn, in Arabic), He when these words are female in gender?

Of course, we all know that no gender is implied really, and that Insan Kamil as a reality, can equally refer to her as to him. Haqiqatu’l Haqaiq as words are again female in gender. We also think we are above all conditioning language and almost 4,000 years of tradition and culture, or are we?

'The Perfect Woman is to God what the eye pupil is the the eye.' Or, 'It was because and through the Perfect Woman creation was completed and accomplished.'

Do these statements jar in your ears? They certainly jar in my ears because I am not used to hearing she and her. With these examples it is not intended the female is used every time the male aspect is mentioned, not an impersonal ‘it’. This was just to show that in our language and tradition there is a built-in bias. A bias, however slight it might appear at times, it has left its’ mark on our psyche, both in men and women. Fortunately, the spirit in both man and woman is beyond such limitations, is untouched by any conditioning and is always free to seek the Truth.

We can all put ourselves in the position of a woman in the beginning of her search.
Most spiritual books she reads are written by men and mostly address themselves to men.
Most examples of mystical experiences related and their impact on human development, as with those of the saints and prophets, belong to men and are seen through the eyes of men.
But perhaps for a woman the highest contemplation of God is not in another woman but in a child or a complete man.
The examples of spiritual perfection which are given to her are mostly of men.
Mary is the exception.
What is she supposed to model herself on in her daily life? One wonders what are the wisdoms of Eve, Mary, Asya, Khadiya and Fatima? The last four are certainly considered to have reached completion. What is our seeker to do? Should she leave her half a dozen children and retreat in a cave or roam the desert searching for the Truth? Perhaps she is single and is not tied by any family ties, therefore free to become an ascetic or join a nunnery …. But is this the only way to completion for a woman?

The fact is there are relatively few women known to us whom we could use as expressions of Completion and Gnosis. The Bible is not always helpful in this matter either. Note the story of Maryam the Prophetess, sister of Moses and Aaron. She is dealt with in two sentences.

One is forced to come to either one of these two conclusions or even a combination of both:

1. Relatively few women found completion and had any real knowledge.
   or
2. Many women have reached the highest station but for some mysterious reason we do not know about them. They are somehow swallowed in oblivion. In both cases we want to know why.

We can start with the assumption that in fact there are fewer women who were and are complete. Is there some hidden factor inherent in woman’s essence which prevents her from recognising that very Essence? Somehow this involves a contradiction which can never be reconciled. Or are we saying that once woman recognises her essence it turns out to be somehow inferior to man’s essence?

The story of Adam and Eve in Genesis has been misunderstood over and over again. Take the example of the whole episode of the ‘Fall’ and the sin which went with it.

First Chapter of Genesis, Verse 26:

And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Before any mention of Eve and Adam, He created them men and women to be fruitful and multiply. How can there be a punishment for doing just that?
According to the Qabbalist’s interpretation of Genesis, taking the hidden meaning in the letters and their numbers, Eve did not disobey. Woman, Esha, is not expelled from Eden and she certainly did not spring from Adam’s rib or any other physical part of Adam. Some theologians have interwoven the most amazing stories around this. According to one strange school of thought, God took a long time deciding which part of Adam He should use in making woman. If He uses the head she might come out with too much pride. If He uses the arms she might steal or kill and so on. Finally God decided on a harmless part like a rib, the small short rib that is. However, women still came out with a twisted nature because Adam’s rib was twisted!

Carlo Snares, the Qabbalist from Alexandria, the author of the book Song of Songs, has a completely different interpretation of Genesis. In the book Cipher of Genesis he presents an interesting Qabbalistic view which is worth mentioning: the whole interpretation is more complex than can be described here. I left out the letters and numbers from the commentary for the sake of simplicity.
Just the final meaning is given.

The root meaning of Adam in Hebrew contains the idea of Essence buried in Matter, matter which is capable of being transmuted in its cosmic form. In Genesis Adam is used as a generic term for humanity. It covers both the male and female aspects. For completion, we all have to become Adam.

In Genesis 1:27 it is said that Adam is created male and female. In Hebrew, male is Zakar and female is Neqivah. Zakar contains the idea of raw activity but without the essential capacity by which all possible possibles can come into existence. Neqivah contains the idea of the essence, but becoming active. Not until these male and female principles are consciously married in Adam can the human being become complete.

As normally interpreted, the Bible is taken to state that God says to Adam (and this is before there is any mention of the creation of woman) 'But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it'.
Tov, translated as ‘good’, has in its root meaning the idea of contained and fixed. Ra, translated as ‘evil’, has in its root meaning the idea of broken open and changing. Thus this tree has nothing to do with morality, but with the knowledge of the formation and transformation of the manifest order. So the real meaning is that humanity in its primeval state before the female principle is recognised as separate from the male, before transmutation from its animal state and before reintegration in a conscious union, cannot have this knowledge.

Next, as the story is generally interpreted, the Bible is taken to state that God made woman from Adam’s rib while Adam was asleep. In fact the root meaning for tsalah, translated as ‘rib’, is not ‘rib’ and the root meaning for tardamah translated as ‘sleep’ is not sleep. What Genesis is actually saying is that the Human, Adam, is immersed in Tardamah which means manifestation and that while unconsciously immersed, God caused Tsalah, which means the female element in dynamic movement, to separate from the male.

The name for this female element, when it has been separated, which is usually translated as woman, is Esha. Esha in its root meaning is ’living fire’. At this stage there is no mention of Eve (or Hheva in Hebrew). The name Esha is not changed to Hheva until after the so called expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Only now, after the creation of Esha, is humanity in a position to taste of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. It is through the mediation of the serpent that Esha is enabled to give the fruit to Adam without him having to die.

When in the Bible it is said that God questions woman about her so-called wicked deed, humanity’s original sin, she is said to have put the blame onto the serpent with the words, ‘The serpent beguiled me.' In Hebrew the words are: Ha nahash Ha shayiny. In its root meaning this can be understood as: ‘The earthly fire in me is transmuted to Heavenly fire.’ The Sheen in Ha nahash - the serpent, and in Ha shayiny, as well as in Esha, has the meaning of breath or spirit.

The breath of life, or the spirit, becomes free from its burial in matter, which is Adam, the moment that Adam, awaking from sleep, recognises Esha as the inner principle within. And recognising that living fire, gives her existence in union which is the tasting of the fruit of the tree of knowledge.

For this union to be consummated, the female element has to be consciously recognised; the inner is made manifest, the Animal is transmuted into the Complete human being. The so-called expulsion from the garden of Eden is more properly to be regarded as a birth from the shelter of the womb of unknowing into conscious evolution to complete humanity. How for the first time the Bible talks about man and woman as an archetypal pair, and the woman is named as Hheva. Esha, the female principle, is transformed into Hheva, the archetype of womanhood. Esha, the principle is still in the Garden of Eden. Hheva, or Eve, means life in existence.

In the third part of this series, Eve, as a principle, will be more fully Esha, Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Mary, who are all manifestations, symbolic personifications and representations of what women can learn to become.

Inadequate translations have prevented women from grasping the truth concerning themselves as stated in various chapters of the Bible.

I hope the above interpretation of Genesis has helped in shedding some light on the nature of the two polarities within the one. Furthermore, it shows that there is nothing lacking in woman, in her essence, in her nature and in her physical form.

We must go back to our first assumption that there are fewer women who have reached completion. If we cannot find an inherent inadequacy in her essence or nature, (her Essence being the same as man’s Essence), we must find an answer in religious and social conditioning which might make it more difficult for her. The above misinterpretation of Genesis is one. There are enough instances of evidence to show that, to put it mildly, the spiritual paths and religious dogmas of all major religions, including Buddhism, have not been particularly encouraging or concerned with women’s spirituality. The following are some examples taken from various religions.

Buddhism

The highest incarnation is to be incarnated as a male. A woman cannot, in her lifetime, reach the summit unless she reincarnates as a man.

Judaism

A woman’s good deeds and sins fall upon the head of her father. If she is sinful, he is blamed by God, and if she is good, he is praised. After she marries, the husband takes over the blames and praise. She does not count in this transaction; she has no responsibility in this matter. Every Jewish male, if he is to follow the Torah, must pray every morning and give thanks to God for not having been created as a woman.

Christianity

No one who is created of a woman is without sin. Except Jesus and John the Baptist. Let women learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. Adam was not deceived but the woman, being deceived, was in the transgression. Timothy.

Islam

This following statement in the Quran introduces new reformed laws regarding men and women in marriage and divorce. The new reformed laws give rights to women which they did not have in the past, but it preserves for the man one degree above them.

And they - women - have rights similar to those - of men - over them in kindness and men are a degree above them. Allah is Mighty, Wise.
Sura al Bazaar.

This degree is taken to refer to Eve being created from Adam’s rib. Before the Prophet, it was customary in certain tribes to kill baby girls in case they brought shame and dishonour to the family or tribe. The Prophet introduced a law to forbid this custom. Islam, being the most recent, is also the most encouraging in the development of spiritual awakening in women.

Why are there so many distortions? One can fill an entire book on the subject. The rational reason for such irrationality is that mankind is afraid of the Truth. It is not until men and women recognise the hidden nature of the female principle, that humanity can collectively take the next step in its evolution.
Another way of putting it: in every instance where the transformation of woman is described or taught, will never be truly understood until the transformation has become a reality, alive and active in humanity.

The lack of recognition may make it more difficult for woman, but not enough to explain why there appear to be so few of them. Just as conditioning has not prevented women here in Chisholme wanting to know. After all, women are very much present here, both in quality and number, so in the past the same conditioning or even worse did not completely discourage any woman from seeking the Truth.

Women’s spirituality is neither weak nor dormant. The strength of any spiritual awakening, be it in man or woman, cannot be easily conquered. It is like a spring. The water has to join the ocean.

The other assumption we must examine is that in fact there are many, numerous women who have come to completion and knowledge but somehow little is known of them.

Some factors seem to be present: There is something about woman’s spirituality which is more hidden and inward than that of a man, therefore those women who knew kept silent, especially if they had to adhere to their social position. The saying of God about His saints whom he keeps under His slippers and no one knowing about them, seems to be very relevant in this context. For example, when Rabia, the saintly woman, was asked why no woman has said Ana-l-Haqq, she answered in such a way to show that just because no woman will ever shout in public Ana-l-Haqq it does not mean that women have not reached this station and even surpassed it.

Asya the wife of Pharaoh knew about Moses right in the beginning, but did not voice it. There are other factors which go together with silence. We can call them inclinations. One such inclination is the quality of humility, by no means exclusive to women; Mary, the only woman who later became universally accepted as being complete, embodies this quality perfectly. During her life she lived in complete humility, almost unnoticed.

It is not so difficult for a woman to completely transcend form and be immersed in the transcendent reality, but as an expression of God, she also can give birth to a child who is a product of the love affair, both Divine and Human. Once that child is born, her complete transcendence is anchored in immanence again. Her expression of love and knowledge is devoted to that child, her immediate environment and circle of friends. This tended to be so in the past. Women like Rabia who never married because of not wanting to divert her vision from her Beloved, became more vocal among a wide circle of mystics of her time. In the East, often saintly women come into their own after the growth of their children into adulthood. It seems their expression of love and devotion is focused on this aspect of reality, and when that is accomplished, a unification of transcendence and immanence is reached. This does not have to be the case for every woman saint; Rabia, Christian mystics like St. Teresa and others are examples of those who did not have the attachments of the world or its form. This will be discussed in the later part of this series.

Today, more than ever before, the true nature of completion in women can be expressed in love, beauty and complete humility.

However, we must not forget that man and woman are two aspects of One Reality, and it is the One Reality which both seek.