FORM, EGO, SELF AND IDENTITY – THE FIRST TIER
by Doug King
The initial awakening of spiritual consciousness appears at the Archaic level, which begins the Spiral. Archaic is the Spiral’s “in the beginning.” It is here that the Biblical Narrative begins, with the story of creation, of Adam and Eve.
We find creation in Genesis void and without form. We note here the following process of creation: Formlessness as unconsciousness, followed by Form as consciousness, followed by Formlessness as consciousness.
God began by separating the land from the water and the darkness from the light in order to use form as the context of human experience and understanding. God’s highest activity in creation relates to form regarding Adam. Adam also was void and without form in the sense of spiritual consciousness. Adam was unconscious or Archaic because his eyes had not been opened to the self or ego. Adam had no self identity. Why didn’t God just explain to Adam the nature of the divine All in All? Why didn’t God just explain Salvation and Eternal Life (not to mention quarks and quasars and Buckeye football)? It’s the same reason you can’t teach a newborn algebra (actually my school teacher friends would say incomprehension of algebra is not restricted to newborns!). Adam had to grow as all human life on the planet has grown—from first tier Archaic onward, toward a second tier awareness that would take generations to even be initiated. Adam represents the beginning of spiritual awareness. But this spiritual awareness was in the background. Adam’s place in the Narrative is to reveal the awareness of ego or self. As Eckhart Tolle states in his book A New Earth: “Ego is no more than this; identification with form, which primarily means thought forms.“ (page 22) The story of Adam emphasizes that his eyes were opened. This is to say Adam became aware. But of what? And how?
Let’s first define form. To have a recognizable (conscious) form, there must be boundaries that determine the form. So the form of a square has 4 equal boundaries enclosing a defined space. There could not be a form called “square” without the appropriate boundaries. Tolle notes that the self or ego primarily attaches to thought forms for its identity. This would be defined as an internal form, meaning all the thoughts one has regarding the numerous boundaries of their identity. Now, it is also true we have identity defined by external form as well. My height, or weight or gender would represent the external forms of my identity. But whether the form is external or internal it always defines the self. That is to say, it projects an identity that comes from my own self or ego. But form cannot be the realm of true identity.
We note here that an identity of spirit stands over against the self. An identity that is spirit based is without boundary as we will discuss in our following articles. While this may appear to create conflict in my own existence, the Narrative will help me see how the ego or self is actually necessary for my understanding of true spiritual identity. The question is, “Is my- self the source of identity or is the Above All God the source of my identity?”
Returning to Adam, form is at the heart of the story of the Fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Form relates to the world of externals – it was pleasant to the eyes – and it was also internal; Adam and Eve could be like God or therefore independent as a self-sufficient entity through the knowledge of good and evil. In this way, form was defined by the boundary of the external senses, as well as internal boundaries. It was the internal boundary of good and evil that brought about archaic consciousness of the self. Why did God command Adam to stay away from the knowledge of good and evil? Good and evil require a boundary. The Narrative will reference this boundary as a mark. To miss the mark is to violate the boundary. But what was the source of boundary?
There was no boundary until God gave the commandment, “thou shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” The internal boundary of awakening was the commandment. Without commandment, there is no boundary. With commandment, Adam could, and did, experience the knowledge of good and evil by his own self sourced actions or his own ego. Adam became conscious of crossing of the commandment boundary in such a way as to feel guilt, shame and fear for the first time. These emotions represent the core of archaic consciousness and they are the strongest emotions of every human self. It stands to reason then, that any discussion of good and evil, or righteousness versus unrighteousness, has the potential for some highly emotional results.
Adam had identified with the form of good and evil, which is to say, he awakened to identification with form. Adam had become aware of a self driven identity. This identity was part of an intended step for Adam and all humanity.
Let’s go through the process of form and consciousness one more time. We remember that before the commandment or boundary, Adam was unconscious of form. Adam then became conscious of form as identity. God would use Jesus to grow humanity’s spiritual consciousness into formlessness, but this time it would be formlessness as experienced consciously, which is to say, integral spiritual consciousness. In this way form still exists as our human experience BUT form is actually trans-formed as the context by which we live in the Spirit. Form is not identity but rather through our Spiritual identity we have dominion over form. It no longer rules our lives.
LABELS VERSUS SYMBOLS
Once the self was awakened in Adam, the idea of “label” came into being with regard to identity. God had already used labels to describe the external form of night or day or the forms of ocean, land and sky. All form requires a label to describe it as an entity.
On the other hand, that which is formless cannot be labeled. It has no boundary to define its parameters. For example, consider the idea of the presence of God. Presence has no beginning and no end. It cannot be placed under the microscope. Presence has no boundaries. The Narrative can only use symbol to point toward the idea of presence. In short, it cannot be grasped. One can grow in the understanding of presence, but that growth has no place of terminal existence. It is infinite. In that sense, all that is of God and Spirit is without boundary, and can only be sought through symbol but never grasped or labeled as a fixed form.
The opening of Adam’s eyes was with regard to knowing good and evil. To label something or someone as good or evil is to fix a form, within which, good is or evil is. To do this requires our self sourced judgment as to boundaries either honored or violated. This is nothing less than the self attempting to define the mark or boundary through the knowledge of good and evil. We will see in our section below on the Traditional level of the spiral, Israel was placed under the Law by God to amplify the futility of defining boundaries regarding the form of good or the form of evil. When left to the self, there can be no agreement among humans regarding what the boundaries are, or what the definition of the mark is, or under what conditions these marks or boundaries are either honored or violated. This is true even if the boundary or mark is a commandment directly from God!
But why did Adam have to experience death?
We will explore this together in the next section!
The Process of Sin and Death
Just as Integral Theology views the Spiral as movement from first tier spiritual consciousness to second tier, so also, it moves from form to the form-less. It is what missionary and mystic Norman Grubb called “a changing of the gods” – from ego-as-source to God-as-source. Adam had to become aware of self or ego as humanity’s beginning step of first tier thinking.
Paul taught, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all people, because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) The elements of Adam’s story lead to his eye-opening experience and revealed the process of sin and death entering the consciousness of humanity and becoming the ultimate boundary of first tier experience. Let’s track the process as it unfolded in archaic Adam.
1. God, as source, issued a commandment. God is the true source of all first and second tier activity because both tiers were necessary to His purposes. Adam was the source of free will as experienced through the self or ego. By free will, Adam crossed the boundary or missed the mark defined by the commandment.
2. The commandment was in relation to the knowledge of good and evil. Good and Evil represent boundary-driven thinking that is impossible to properly grasp through ego or self. Only God can grasp the depths of meaning regarding good or evil; left to our ego’s judgmental devices, “good and evil” become distorted weapons that defend a distorted identity. Paul taught in Romans 9:11 that God chose Jacob instead of Esau while the boys were still in the womb, before they “had done anything good or evil.” God and only God can create (activity) apart from boundary and form.
3. The commandment required a decision (free will) on the part of Adam as whether to obey or disobey it. Free will had to be experienced through first tier consciousness in order to have understanding of free will in its highest, second tier, state of being. Adam’s first tier consciousness was boundary based because God intended it to be. God gave the commandment.
4. Adam, for the first time, exercised his ego or self as source to make a decision regarding his coveted identity meaning the perceived identity available (within his grasp).
5. Adam had no context for ego or self versus Spirit and therefore could only exercise his free will within the first tier world where ego must be source. This was Adam’s Archaic stage of development.
6. The commandment created the necessary result of Adam grasping for the knowledge of good and evil as the enhancement of his identity. This is the core meaning of coveting. Paul ties the commandment, “thou shall not covet,” to the overall principle of Law in Romans 7. The Law, as commandment or boundary based, was responsible for sin “increasing” because it was the increasing of Adam’s boundary-driven, ego-sourced, consciousness that sought identity through external and internal form.
7. Adam was forced to process consciousness via commandment which required the self-sourced mind. “For the creation (through Adam) was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself (all in Adam) will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 20:21).
8. Adam’s grasping for the knowledge of good and evil resulted in the eye-opening experience of his ego or self as a separate being or entity, rather than one with God as his source of identity.
9. The definition of sin is this:
Sin is the Ego-as-Source attempting to grasp through Form (external or internal) an enhanced (coveted) identity.
Therefore, sin cannot produce a real (true) result determining identity because it requires a boundary or mark that produces form and form is only the appearance of reality not reality itself.
10. Sin then produced death. “For in the day you eat of it you will surely die.” Death is the dualism of egoic consciousness understanding identity as separate from the All in All. Ego is identified by form and form in the Narrative is finite, the corruptible; it always ends, and it ends in death. Commandment was a system of bondage (flesh) that “ministered” to death (separation from Above All as source) by requiring (via the Law) humanity to use the Ego or Self as source for Godly identity (righteousness).
In summary: The knowledge of good and evil can only be experienced through commandment. Commandment requires self-sourced obedience or self-sourced disobedience. Good and evil then become boundaries for identity. Any boundary-driven identity is form, and form is flesh in the Biblical story. Our upcoming discussion on Israel and religion will draw this out more fully to show the impossibility of true identity coming through commandment or form. God is the source of commandment, which then made humanity self-conscious of bondage, wherein their self or ego became the source of commandment keeping! This is the first tier purpose and context for growing humanity. Finally, from exhausting commandment-driven, form-sourced, egoic judgment of good and evil, we collapse and then relax into grateful recognition that the ultimate source is God.
THE NECESSARY CONTEXT OF ADAM AS FIRST TIER
Genesis 3:22,23 records, “Then the Lord God said, See the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever-therefore, the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.” Adam and Eve had to be removed from the garden because they were like God knowing good and evil. They were removed so they could not eat of the tree of life and live. We make the following observations concerning the Narrative’s meaning here. Adam came to know good and evil. This was both cognitive and experiential for knowing must be both. Those of us that are parents understand this. We have all had people who have no children share their advice on how we should raise ours based on their cognitive understanding of what a parent should do. However, if they have no experience of parenting, we soon see their cognitive understanding is limited. Adam’s cognitive and experiential knowledge of good and evil brought him to be like God, but Adam was not God. God was the greater who removed Adam the lesser. Adam had only begun the cognitive and experiential process regarding the knowledge of good and evil. Let’s now consider a critical point of context and process in relation to Spiral Dynamics.
Spiral Dynamics shows the necessity of moving from Archaic (Adam) to Tribal then Warrior then Traditional. You cannot move from Archaic directly, without context, into Integral Spiritual Consciousness (second tier). This is why Adam had to be removed from the garden and why he could not eat from the tree of life. The tree of life MUST be accompanied with all first tier levels of contextual experience in order to be CONSCIOUS of the meaning of second tier life. Adam was like God in that he had a limited first tier consciousness or understanding of the knowledge of good and evil. But, Adam’s knowledge was through his ego or self and that knowledge became a boundary between himself and God. More context was needed for all humanity to understand that good and evil could not be understood or grasped! (as a source of finding or earning life)This means that good and evil would always be within the confines of the ego or the flesh or first tier. Good and evil consciousness would find fullness in the Traditional level with Israel. For this reason Adam had to be removed in order for the Narrative to tell the story of God’s next activity in Tribal and so forth.
The tree of life will appear at the end of the Narrative when its power is manifested on the basis of a complete experience by humanity or, in other words, when the spiral dynamics of God’s above all activity had grown the creation through all first tier levels into the realms of second tier (spiritual) consciousness.
Adam begins humanity’s journey. He provides an essential layer of development in that his context allows the story to move forward up the spiral from the Archaic to the Tribal. Just as Spiral Dynamics points out humanity’s core archaic feelings, emotions and needs, so also the Biblical Narrative develops the Archaic level of Adam with regard to his understanding of God. The deepest level of our consciousness through Adam is fear. Fear will be at the heart of all first tier egoic thinking.(See Heb. 2:15) Adam also felt ashamed and wanted to hide. The first tier consciousness of humanity has just begun to awaken.