Number GroupsThese fruits are the five senses, which can be used or abused. For
example, the sense of taste is a blessing, which helps us enjoy wholesome
food for our nourishment. But it becomes perverted through overindul-
gence and gluttony.
The serpent on the tree has several meanings. Some say it is the ser-
pent of wisdom. Others say it is the devil who entices. The least-known
aspect is that it symbolizes electricity, the male positive force in nature.
Because electricity moves in a serpentine motion when it passes between
the poles of a spark gap, it was called “The Great Snake,” symbolized by
the serpent. Since electricity is a universal force that can be used for
either constructive or destructive purposes, the serpent was an emblem
of both good and evil. The apple represents the knowledge of the procre-
ative process (The Secret Teachings of All Ages, LXXXVIII). An apple
cut in half crosswise reveals a perfect five-pointed star, one point for each
of the five physical senses and the star itself representing man and his
extremities.
It is through misuse of the wholesome fruits of the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil that all ills befall the world. God does not cause illness,
disease, and destruction. We do that ourselves when we partake of the
evil side of the fruit.
So the Duad represents the beginning of the knowledge of good and
evil, error and truth, and all contrasts of nature: night and day, cold and
heat, wet and dry, as well as male and female. Pythagoras taught that
every man was placed between vice and virtue and would eventually have
to choose between the two.
The number 2 consists of the straight base line which is good, and the
twisted line which is evil. If man follows the twisted path and is burdened
by his evil doings, at death he must face the misery he created in one of
two mansions of the lower realms: Tartarus, where he suffers for eternity,
or Elysium, where amends can be made for an eventual return to Heaven
(The Pythagorean Triangle, 71).
In the Pythagorean Tetractys, the Duad is the first of the second two
points near the top.
In the Tree of the Sephiroth it is Chochma, the Father whose at-
tribute is Wisdom. Chochma could come from the original Monad, Kether,
only by reflection. It is the Divine Intellectual power to generate thought.
Wisdom contains the entire zodiac, each sign being dual.
Chochma is above and to the left of Adam Kadmon’s left shoulder.
Whereas the original Monad is androgynous, Chochma is the potency of
positive, vital, outpouring energy.