In the Old Testament, the eldest son of Adam and Eve. He slew his brother Abel due to his jealousy about the acceptance by the Lord of the offering of Abel over that of Cain.

Helena P. BLAVATSKY, in The Secret Doctrine, regards the story of Cain and Abel as a symbol of the Third Root-Race where there was a separation of the male and female. The murder of Abel is not killing but blood-letting during marriage. Abel was a female, not a male. Adam represents the first race, while Adam and Eve symbolized the second root race.

“The sexless Race was their [Elohim’s] first production, a modification of and from themselves, the pure spiritual existences; and this was Adam solus. Thence came the second Race: Adam-Eve or Jod-Heva, inactive androgynes; and finally the Third, or the “SeparatingHermaphrodite,” Cain and Abel, who produce the Fourth, Seth-Enos, etc” (SD II:134).

V.H.C.

© Copyright by the Theosophical Publishing House, Manila