Beyond Literalism: How Alchemy, Magic, Psychology, and Secret Orders All Derive from Biblical Symbolism

Many people read the Bible as a historical account or a moral code. But beneath its surface lies a rich symbolic structure that has inspired not only religions, but also secret societies, magical systems, alchemical traditions, and psychological frameworks. Most of these systems place another framework on top of the Bible—drawing from it but filtering it through esoteric lenses. Neville Goddard, however, revealed that the Bible is already a complete symbolic text in itself, unified by the key of imagination. By shifting the perspective of God from an external figure to the reader's own imagination, he showed that any part of scripture—when read imaginatively—unfolds the same inner principles of creation, transformation, and spiritual evolution.

---

The Bible as a Symbolic Blueprint

The thread connecting these systems is this: they read the Bible symbolically, not literally.

• Adam represents the fragmented soul.

• Moses symbolises the awakened will.

• Jesus becomes the realised self or perfected imagination.

These interpretations gave birth to alternative paths—many of which were forced underground or called “occult” simply because they approached scripture differently.

---

1. Alchemy: Turning the Fall into Gold

Spiritual alchemists didn’t just aim to transmute lead into gold. They saw the biblical fall as the soul’s descent into matter—and sought to reverse it.

• The Garden of Eden symbolised original unity.

• The Philosopher’s Stone was Christ-consciousness (though many avoided that label).

• The Great Work mirrored the resurrection: the return to wholeness.

Christian alchemists like Jacob Boehme and Isaac Newton studied both the Bible and alchemical texts, seeing no contradiction between the two.

---

2. Witchcraft: Hidden Wisdom, Not Heresy

Though often called “pagan,” much of Western witchcraft is deeply interwoven with biblical imagery and structure—particularly in its more ceremonial and folk forms.

• Psalms are used as spells in traditions like Hoodoo, where King David is invoked as a spiritual authority.

• Grimoires such as The Sixth and Seventh Books of Moses claim to reveal magical secrets hidden in the Pentateuch.

• The Witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28) is a scriptural figure—one of the Bible’s own mediums—later reinterpreted by occultists as proof of ancient spiritual knowledge.

So while witchcraft may wear a pagan face, many of its inner workings derive directly from biblical archetypes and texts.

---

3. Secret Societies: Building Solomon’s Temple Within

Esoteric orders have long mined the Bible for meaning. Among the most well-known:

• Freemasonry draws its allegories from Solomon’s Temple, using the biblical figure of Hiram Abiff as a Christ-like martyr for the inner builder.

• The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn mapped the Bible onto systems like the Kabbalah, the Tarot, and angelic hierarchies.

• The Rosicrucians saw Christ as the archetype of internal rebirth, not simply a historical saviour.

In each case, the Bible is not a barrier to magic—it’s its foundation.

---

4. Rider-Waite Tarot: Christian Mysticism in Arcane Form

The Rider-Waite Tarot deck (1909) is one of the most well-known tools in the Western esoteric tradition—and it’s loaded with biblical symbolism:

• The High Priestess sits between Jachin and Boaz, the pillars from Solomon’s Temple.

• The Judgement card shows resurrection imagery taken directly from the Book of Revelation.

• The Devil, Lovers, and Hierophant cards reference Christian themes of temptation, moral duality, and spiritual authority.

Created by Arthur Edward Waite, a devout Christian mystic, the deck was designed to encode biblical and Kabbalistic teachings, not to undermine them.

---

5. Carl Jung: Depth Psychology Meets Scripture

Perhaps no modern figure bridges psychology and biblical symbolism as gracefully as Carl Jung.

• He read Job as a psychological document: man confronting the unknown face of God.

• He interpreted Christ as the archetype of the Self.

• His work on alchemy and individuation drew directly from the Book of Revelation, Genesis, and Paul’s epistles.

Jung’s lifelong assertion: the Bible is the psyche’s dream-book—and its symbols are eternally alive within us.

---

6. Other Systems Rooted in Biblical Symbolism

Tradition / System	Biblical Roots or Influence
Kabbalah (Jewish Mysticism)	Tree of Life derived from Genesis and Ezekiel
Christian Gnosticism	Jesus as the revealer of inner divine knowledge (gnosis)
New Thought	Reinterprets Gospels and Proverbs as instructions in mental causation
Anthroposophy (Steiner)	Revelation and the Gospels as esoteric guides to spiritual evolution
Hoodoo / Rootwork	Psalms and Bible verses used directly in ritual
The Book of Enoch	Source for angelic hierarchies, linked with Genesis 6
Biblical Numerology & Gematria	Hebrew letters and numbers decode divine patterns
Mystical Christianity	Focuses on Christ as an inward, mystical experience (St John of the Cross, Meister Eckhart)

---

7. Additional People and Groups Derived from the Bible

Below is a brief list of other notable individuals and movements whose work sprang from symbolic engagement with the Bible:

• Emanuel Swedenborg – Interpreted heaven, hell, and the Bible as states of consciousness.

• Manly P. Hall – Wrote extensively on the Bible’s esoteric roots in The Secret Teachings of All Ages.

• Thomas Vaughan – Alchemist who viewed biblical allegory as the key to spiritual alchemy.

• Eliphas Levi – Occultist who drew on the Bible in constructing magical theory.

• G.I. Gurdjieff – Interpreted scripture as a psychological map to higher consciousness.

• The Essenes – Ancient Jewish sect whose apocalyptic writings (like the Dead Sea Scrolls) prefigure New Testament themes.

• Theosophical Society – Interpreted Christ as an evolved soul and used biblical symbology in cosmology.

• Madame Blavatsky – Reframed biblical stories in the context of Eastern mysticism and occult philosophy.

• Neville Goddard – Taught that all Bible stories are psychological dramas played out in the imagination.

---

Conclusion: One Book, Infinite Interpretations

For too long, literalism has obscured the Bible’s true power—not as history, but as symbolic scripture. From the potions of alchemists to the visualisation methods of modern mystics, nearly every “alternative” tradition shares a common root: the Bible as a symbolic guide to inner transformation.