In Our Image: Genesis 1:26-27. The Divine Pattern of Division and Manifestation

Genesis 1:26–3:24 through the Framework of Neville Goddard

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..."
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."
— Genesis 1:26–27

Neville Goddard taught that scripture is not a record of history, but a psychological unfolding—a symbolic blueprint of how imagination, the true creative power of God, becomes conscious in us. Within this framework, Genesis is not a physical origin story, but the map of the human soul's descent into manifestation and eventual return to awareness.

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1. Spirit on the Waters: Consciousness Meets the Subconscious
"The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."
— Genesis 1:2

This isn't about geography; it’s about psychology. According to Neville, the "Spirit of God" represents conscious awareness—the "I AM"—moving over the unformed subconscious, symbolised by "the waters." This is the first polarity: awareness beginning to distinguish itself from the formless depths of potential.

This is the first act of divine division: a recognition of the two sides of the creative process—conscious awareness and subconscious potential. The division isn't conflict—it’s function.

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2. Let There Be Light: The Awakening of Perception
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."
— Genesis 1:3

Neville emphasised the creative act of imagining. God "says," and it is so. This is the first outward expression of inner awareness. Light represents understanding, or consciousness becoming aware of itself. The "division of light from darkness" that follows marks the dawn of selective focus—choosing one state over another.

This process continues with a series of symbolic separations:

• Waters above and below the firmament (Genesis 1:6–7) – the higher and lower aspects of the subconscious.

• Dry land from the waters (Genesis 1:9) – the solidification of form from fluid imagination.

• Sun, moon, and stars (Genesis 1:14–18) – the emergence of cycles, timing, and rhythm in the world of appearances.

Each act of creation is a further refinement of awareness into structure. What was once formless becomes orderly through imagination.

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3. The Prototype of Man: Duality in the Divine Image
"Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…"
"Male and female created he them."
— Genesis 1:26–27

To be made in God’s image is to have the power to imagine, feel, assume, and therefore create. And yet, it is not a singular “man” that is made, but: "male and female created he them."

In Neville Goddard’s interpretation, “man” symbolises the self-concept—not a biological figure, but who one assumes oneself to be, who one is conscious of being. This identity—the accepted inner state—is the operative centre of experience. Thus, to “create man” is to establish an assumed state of consciousness capable of expression through imagination.

This is symbolic duality—not about gender, but function:

• The male represents conscious direction—the thinker, the chooser, the assumptive mind.

• The female symbolises the subconscious—the receptive, fertile, emotional dimension that brings assumptions into form.

This duality is within each individual. The conscious impresses; the subconscious expresses.

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4. From Image to Formation: Genesis 2 and the Grounding of Consciousness

Genesis 2 deepens the narrative—not a second creation, but a symbolic zoom-in on the earlier division:

• Adam is "formed of the dust" (Genesis 2:7) – manifest consciousness, grounded in the sensory world.

• The breath of life is breathed into him – awareness of 'I AM' is bestowed.

• A garden is planted – an inner world of possibility.

• The animals are named – an act of assigning identity, or choosing states.

A deep sleep falls upon Adam – this is crucial:

"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam…"
— Genesis 2:21

Neville often said that man is still in that deep sleep—the sleep of forgetting his creative source. In that sleep, the symbolic feminine (Eve) is drawn from him—not as another, but as his own subconscious projection.

"This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh…"
— Genesis 2:23

What begins as "male and female" in Genesis 1 becomes perceived separation in Genesis 2. The split is not physical but psychological—the conscious mind forgetting its unity with the subconscious and thus seeing its own power as "other."

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5. Eating the Fruit: The Projection of Identity into the Outer World
"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food... she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."
— Genesis 3:6

This moment is not about disobedience, but about the externalisation of identity. Neville would interpret this as the point where man becomes fully immersed in the world of appearances.

The fruit, from the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," symbolises duality taken as reality. By eating it, consciousness and subconscious together consent to the illusion that the outer world is separate from imagination. This is the acceptance of duality as objective truth—rather than recognising all experience as symbolic of inner states.

This is the moment the inner eye closes, and the outer senses take over.

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6. The Expulsion: Further Division, Not Punishment
"Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden..."
— Genesis 3:23

The so-called expulsion is not punishment, but projection. Now fully identified with the physical world, man begins the journey of external experience—of sowing and reaping, of suffering and joy, all based on inner assumptions.

The flaming sword that guards the way back to Eden (Genesis 3:24) is not a block but a symbol of the purifying trials of awakening—the very challenges that provoke us to remember: I create by imagining.

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Final Thought
What began in Genesis 1 as creative division ends in Genesis 3 as self-imposed exile from inner authority. Yet, this too is part of the pattern Neville outlined: descent, forgetfulness, awakening, and return.

The eating of the fruit is not original sin—it is original separation. It is imagination becoming so immersed in its own projection that it forgets its authorship. And the entire Bible that follows is the story of awakening from this sleep—of remembering the unity behind the divided forms, and reclaiming the creative power of I AM.

"I and my Father are one."