RE classes? What denomination are you Tzeentch?

I went to a Catholic school, but when I was old enough to make a firm decision for myself I went atheist (although I had major doubts from like the age of 5)

Angels are divine. They have (/are) divine souls.
Animals are mundane. They have (/are) lower souls.
Men are in the middle and have both a conscience (aka divine soul) and ego (aka lower 'animal' soul).

The passage has two qualifiers: 'in His Image' and 'after His likeness', refering to the fact that every man has the potential (Image) to create himself through choosing goodness (likeness).

Hang on, so I'm a hybrid of angelic and animal? Where is the devil in us?

INXS said it best.

The Devil inside, the Devil inside
Every single one of us, the Devil inside.

Inside of us we have a natural inclination towards evil that exists somewhere between the divine and animal souls in our spirits. This evil inclination is one face of the satan.

ok, there's actually 5 levels of the soul, split into three: Unifying Point (Yechidah), Living Essence (Chayah) and Divine Soul (Neshama) are collectively refered to as the Neshama. Then we have Spirit (Ruach) and Animal Soul (Nefesh). The good and evil inclinations exist at the level of Spirit and don't exist in angels or animals.

You're just making stuff up now.


Socratic question to self: How is that any different than any religion?

Answer: Good point, self; it isn't.


Carry on, then.

I think I'd better say it right away: I'm a Lutheran Christian, so I don't think I agree with some of the above posts. But then again, this isn't the way to do that with this thread. I'm guessing that a bit of Tzeentch's post on the angels either comes from the Apocrypha or Catholic writings. I'm no expert on angels and demons, but there's a good deal in there that I haven't seen truly distinctly mentioned in the Bible. The Cherubim, Seraphim, and the angels who are apparently like wheels seem to be pretty good from my memory though. So I was just clarifying I'm speaking for myself and that anyone else's posts aren't exactly part of my progression unless I directly mention them.

That is correct. They were lead by the devil to doubt God and eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The devil made them question God's command and his motive behind it to not eat of the tree. The devil (taking a rough guess that this is the one that means deceiver) suggested that it would make them like God, knowing good and evil. They certainly learned of evil that day...

Thepeasant, what religion are you? You may have mentioned it before, but I am very pressed for time and can't read the 20+ pages.

I R Jewish.

v'ken, ani m'daber ivrit.

Also, using the qualifiers of 'perfect' for Adam and Eve is problematic for several reasons...

source, to prove I'm not 'making things up'...

"The spiritual center of the heart, the emotive component of the psyche, is the aspect of the soul called Ruach. The ruach is the spiritual energy that animates a person's body to move. It also comprises one's entire emotional make-up. A person's emotional make-up essentially consists of the noble and ignoble character traits, which drive him in either a positive direction (the yetzer tov, one's good inclination), or in a negative one (the yetzer hara, one's evil inclination). Furthermore, the emotive component of the psyche takes direction according to our individual interpretation of reality, and it has full access to the all-powerful mental faculty of imagination."
- Ezra Jacobs, Coming Full Circle pg.51

Also worthwhile to note that the satan has three faces: the angel of death who takes souls, the accuser who tattle-tales to G-d and the yetzer hara. Also that the yetzer hara has two aspects: the internal 'natural' one found in all people that is described above and the external spiritual force that guides our lives into crappy situations to see how we wriggle out.