A learned Western Kabalist, Mr. S. L. MacGregor Mathers, whose reasoning and conclusions will be the more above suspicion since he is untrained in Eastern Philosophy and unacquainted with its Secret Teachings, writes on the first verse of _Genesis_ in an unpublished essay:
_Berashith Bara_ Elohim—“In the beginning the Elohim created!” Who are these Elohim of _Genesis_?
_Va‐Yivra Elohim Ath Ha‐Adam Be‐Tzalmo, Be‐Tzelem Elohim Bara Otho, Zakhar Vingebah Bara Otham_—“And the Elohim created the Adam in Their own Image, in the Image of the Elohim created They them, Male and Female created They them!” Who are they, the Elohim? The ordinary English translation of the _Bible_ renders the word Elohim by “God:” it translates a _plural_ noun by a _singular_ one. The only excuse brought forward for this is the somewhat lame one that the word is certainly plural, but is not to be used in a plural sense: that it is “a plural denoting excellence.” But this is only an assumption whose value may be justly gauged by _Genesis_ i. 26, translated in the orthodox Biblical version thus: “And God [Elohim] said, ‘Let us make man in our own image, after our likeness.’ ” Here is a distinct admission of the fact that “Elohim” is _not_ a “plural of excellence,” but a plural noun denoting more than one being.(387)
What, then, is the proper translation of “Elohim,” and to whom is it referable? “Elohim” is not only a plural, but a _feminine plural_! And yet the translators of the _Bible_ have rendered it by a _masculine singular_! Elohim is the plural of the feminine noun El‐h, for the final letter, ‐h, marks the gender. It, however, instead of forming the plural in ‐oth, takes the usual termination of the masculine plural, which is ‐im.
Although in the great majority of cases the nouns of both genders take the terminations appropriated to them respectively, there are yet many masculines which form the plural in ‐oth, as well as feminine which form it in ‐im while some nouns of each gender take alternately both. It must be observed, however, that the termination of the plural does not affect its gender, which remains the same as in the singular....
To find the real meaning of the symbolism involved in this word Elohim we must go to that key of Jewish Esoteric Doctrine, the little‐known and less‐understood _Kabalah_. There we shall find that this word represents two united masculine and feminine Potencies, co‐equal and co‐eternal, conjoined in everlasting union for the maintenance of the Universe—the great Father and Mother of Nature, into whom the Eternal One conforms himself before the Universe can subsist. For the teaching of the _Kabalah_ is that before the Deity conformed himself thus—_i.e._ as male and female—the Worlds of the Universe could not subsist; or in the words of _Genesis_, that “the earth was formless and void.” Thus, then, is the conformation of the Elohim, the end of the Formless and the Void and the Darkness, for only after that conformation can the _Ruach Elohim_—the “Spirit of the Elohim”—vibrate upon the countenance of the Waters. But this is a very small part of the information which the Initiate can derive from the _Kabalah_ concerning this word _Elohim_.