Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
Androgyny has more than one meaning. It may refer to the anatomical coexistence of two sorts of sex organs in the same body; or else to the allegory of a form of spiritual perfection. In other cases, it is related to the explicit coexistence of male and female qualities in the same entity. From a study of the various expressions used in the Hebrew of the Bible to evoke the dual nature of the first human, an attempt is made here to show how this theme has been treated in certain theosophico-theurgical schools of Kabbalah, and more particularly with regard to the question of equality between men and women in Jewish tradition.
This study is part of a book in preparation, dealing with the status of the Feminine in Kabbalistic literature.