... i called my son from egypt...(Hosea 11.1)

The EXODUS  of the Israelites ('triumph with God ') from egyt with the 40-year hike to the promised land Kanaan is nowadays considered to be a scientifically controversial transmission, as a  rider can cross the desert of Sinai with a fast camel within one day. Also the date of the destruction of Jericho is not archaeologically traceable. A look at this text as an esoteric allegory gives another sense :

The inner path of the 22 steps begins in the  Exodus with the first experience of the "I AM THE I AM" (the higher Ego, U.Path step 2.2 : fire-cycle) of Moses ('' מֹשֶׁה '' '-' Mošeh ''), within the fire of higher self. The name of God, often according to Ex 3.14 EU (אֶהְיֶה אֲשֶר אֶהְיֶה ehyeh ăšer ehyeh) translated as "I am who I will be", according to the Septuagint "I am the one" (ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ ὤν egô eimi ho ôn), was used with great reverence by the Israelites.

The resistance of the Pharaoh und the 10 plagues describe the steps 3-12 of the Universal Doctrine.

The ninth plague with the three-day darkness symbolizes the dark 'Saturn - phase' of step 11 (comparable with the beginning of the sixth cycle in the Opus Magnum).

At step 12, the firstborn of the Israelites survived only because they had "smeared their doorposts with Lamb-blood" (columns similar to the columns Jachim and Boaz of the Hiram : 1 Kings 7:46). The tarotcard 12 shows the two 'posts' of this door.

After passing through the Red Sea and the death of the Egyptians, the death of the lower human self (13.3 water : ie, the body- near forces; U.Path step 13 - the Tarotcard 13 shows the 'death'), the path leads to Mount Sinai (U.Path step 14.2). A mountain stands symbolic for the emerging into the divine.

Here, a first culmination of the development is reached, the first big initiation and spiritual developement to the height of a cherub, the true rebith from 'water and spirit'.

Moses receives the tablet with the 10 commandments on the top of the mountain. Similar tables can also be found in Egyptian drawings. They contain not just some fundamental moral rules but symbolize a certain amount of spiritual development, which is connected with these rules. The "manna" also has a different meaning, which in the  final enlightenment of step 19 becomes a permanent "nectar" (or Soma).

After the return from Mount Sinai, Moses destroyed the Golden Calf, around which the Israelis danced. This golden calf is also a reference to the "Stone of the Wise First Order" (more under "Opus Magnum"). It corresponds to the end of step 14 (fire, akasha:gold, sun)

Moses and Aron lead the Israelites. The name of Aaron, who later survives Moses and then  leads the Israelites to Canaan, also means "the enlightened."

Then followes  the long path of step 15 throught the desert(15.4), the death of Moses (U.Path step 16)

The fall of the city of Jericho (a city is usually the symbol of a chakra) under  trumpet sounds (the 'Schem', logo or Shabda), which also indicates the stae of development.

A similar city Babylon falls (for the Svadisthana -Chakra) also in the 22-stage Apocalypse of John in chapter 18.

Finally the entry into the "promised land of Canaan ("that humbles and subdues", the subdued) of enlightenment (U.Path step 18.5)  In which milk and honey (like nectar and ambrosia or soma) flow

Sri Aurobindo also said that the enlightened have a constant sweet taste in the mouth.
In the Song of Solomon 4.11 is similar to read: 'Milk and honey are under your tongue'.

Thus the first part of the resume of  Moses, up to its walk into the desert, can be explained  as a symbolic description of the three involutionary human pre-steps.

Emanuel Swedenborg, too, had written about the deeper meaning of the first and second books of Moses (Exodus) and the loss of the correspondence science in the churches.         

The story of NOAH (Noach) in the Genesis has similarities with the epic of Gilgamesh, who also builds an ark, with Ziusudra ('Life of long days') as well as with the myth of the greek Deucalionic Flood, the flood of the Matsya - Purana and the Atraḫasis Epic.

However, there is a priestly version from Babylon and a Yahwist version here. The Jewish priestly version uses the name of God Elohim, and understands the flood not as rain but as a break-in of the chaos water from above and below.

God spoke to Noah ('Consolation, rest'): 'The end of all flesh has come before me.'
The earth is full of evil, and I will destroy them with the earth. (Tarot 7, U. Path 7)

The following journey of Noah with the ark  after the built of the arc and the rain (of step 7) corresponds here to the step 8 (Pranayama : purification of the Prana) .
Noah is allowed to take only one specimen of each species, ie. he must abandon his animal impulses to the archetype.

(According to the legend, only the unicorn refused to enter the ark.)

Noah and his sons are finally blessed by God. The appearance of the rainbow indicates the successful construction of the rainbow bridge (Anthakarana), ie. the Venus-phase of step 8.2, which in a different context is also known as a peacock tail or peacock tail.

And God said to Noah, that this is the sign of the covenant that he has established
between him and all flesh on earth. The sons of Noah, that went out of the box, are these:
Japheth, Sem and Ham. But Ham is the father of Canaan. Esoterically, these can be interpreted as Ida, Pingala and Sushumna, who expand their strength after the Pranayama stage. Noah is now growing a vine, which is intended to indicate the growth of the soul. He gets drunk and falls asleep (U. Path 9.2: Dark Saturn phase, which causes his his soul vestments to fall off - similar to the 'fall' of Adam and Eve -, i.e. his soul forces.).
He is raised by Ham, i.e. through the higher etheric power ...

In the first  Petrine letter, the christian initiate Peter therefore compares the salvation of Noah across the water with baptism (John) 'Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."

(The fall of the Biblical Tower of Babel describes the step 16 - in comparison, the tarot card 16 also delivers the image of the lightning in the tower.)

A well-known story is also the story of king Solomons master-builder Hiram (Hebrew Hiram or Hirom, 1 Kings 5: 15-32, Greek H(e)iram or Churam), who built the solomonic Temple with the columns Jachim and Boaz (see Tarotcard 12), into which the Divine (Jehovah) later moves. The slightly different version of the freemasons refers however to Hiram Abif.

Salomon (Hebrew: שְׁלֹמֹה) was the second son of his deceased father King David.

1 Kings 3 : 1  Solomon made an alliance with pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter. He brought her to the city of David until he finished building his palace and the temple of the Lord, and the wall around Jerusalem.(begin of U.Path 8)

² The people, however, were still sacrificing at the high places, because a temple had not yet been built for the Name of the Lord. (Allegory: The Kabbalist still has no Samadhi with access to the Scheme as a fortified castle or house on the mountain.)

³Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the instructions given him by his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. ⁴The king went to Gibeon to offer sacrifices, for that was the most important high place, and Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.

Gibeon was a mighty city and a later priestl-city and the most important hill.  The later fire sacrifice altar was also in front of the temple.

1 Kings 4 : ⁷  Solomon had twelve district governors over all Israel(Yisra'el),, who supplied provisions for the king and the royal household. Each one had to provide supplies for one month in the year. ⁸ These are their names: Ben-Hur—in the hill country of Ephraim...

1 Könige 5  : ⁹And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore. ¹⁰ And Solomon's wisdom excelled the wisdom of all the children of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt.

¹¹ For he was wiser than all men: than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Heman, and Calcol, and Darda, the sons of Mahol; and his fame was in all the nations round about. ¹² And he spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand and five. ¹³ And he spoke of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; he spoke also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes. ¹⁴ And there came of all peoples to hear the wisdom of Solomon, from all kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.

² And Solomon sent to Hiram, saying, 3 Thou knowest how that David my father could not build an house unto the name of the Lord his God for the wars which were about him on every side, until the Lord put them under the soles of his feet.

The Bronze Pillars

¹⁵ He cast two bronze pillars, each 27 feet high and 18 feet in circumference. ¹⁶ He also made two capitals of cast bronze to set on top of the pillars; 7½ feet was the height of the first capital, and 7½ feet was also the height of the second capital. ¹⁷ The capitals on top of the pillars had gratings of latticework, wreaths made of chainwork—seven for the first capital and seven for the second.

'He made the pillars with two encircling rows of pomegranates on the one grating to cover the capital on top; he did the same for the second capital. ¹⁹ And the capitals on top of the pillars in the portico were shaped like lilies, six feet high. ²⁰ The capitals on the two pillars were also immediately above the rounded surface next to the grating, and two hundred pomegranates were in rows encircling each capital. ²¹ He set up the pillars at the portico of the sanctuary: he set up the right pillar and named it Jachin; then he set up the left pillar and named it Boaz. ²² The tops of the pillars were shaped like lilies. Then the work of the pillars was completed.

The copper also refers to the Venus phase of step 12, the fire and iron to the next Mars phase - similar to step 10)

The entrance of the Solomonian temple was preceded by a fifteen-meter-deep entrance hall with two bronze pillars, Jachin and Boas (firmness and strength), without a constructive function, flanking the entrance, which was, as in ancient times, in the east.

The sanctum was in the west.

The interior consisted of an anteroom, the hallow with the golden candlesticks and the gold plated showbread-table and the  incense-altar, as well of a square backroom of 20 cubits in length behind it, the most holy with the ark of the covenant and two big cherubim.

The underlying symbolism was the trial path up to the two columns (U.Path 12)

The anteroom included steps 13 and 14.

This was followed by the long cyclical path of the sacred up to step 17, and then the step 18 with the inauguration coffin. The Tarotcard 18  shows the two columns which have now grown to 2 fixed towers.

Step 19 was not possible from the point of view of ancient Kabbalists because of a unity with the En-Soph or with Jehovah, similar to Islamic view with Allah.

This esoteric Freemasonry, to which also alchemists like Basilius Valentinus belonged, also referred to this old testament story.  The two columns have their counterpart in the currents of Ida and Pingala in yoga, which develop into two pillars.

The GENESIS  [3] also contains allegories :

"God" - as Elohim or Elauhim or Eloihim - is here the force that leads the process to step 16 (similar to 'Moses').

At first, God separates light and darkness (which is reminiscent of hindu - MAYA -'in man') - at step 2.

El stands for 'God', and Elohim is actually a plural. (Landone speaks in 'Spiritual responsiveness of the body' of seven Elohim forces that God used in creation.)

God creates the plants  before the creation of the sun ! At the fifth day he creates the animals and man :  ²⁷ And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.

On the sixth day, ELOHIM creates the Adam ('' man '') according to his own image - as man and woman. "(step 6) The word 'Adam' means  red earth, and  ădāmāh" means arable ground. The tarotcard 6 shows a similar polarity.

⁷Then God rested (like the ruler with chariot animals on Tarotcard 7). ³ And God blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which God in creating had made.

Then the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. Then He placed the man whom He had formed in a garden that he planted "eastward in Eden".

After that he creates Eva ('the animated'- animated from Prana, step 8.2 - esoteric : Venusphase ) from Adam's rib of his right side.

⁸ And the LORD God planted a garden eastward, in Eden. The "garden of God", not called Eden, is mentioned in Genesis 13:10, and the "trees of the garden" are mentioned in Ezekiel 31.  "And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2:9)

The temptation  by the serpent follows at step 9, which corresponds to the slight awakening of the  purified fiery Kundalini snake of yoga. The tarotcard 9 similarly shows the eremite with a (snake) rod and the snake.

Then the so-called "expulsion" takes place. The Tarotcard 10 shows similarly the united forces and above the guard with the sword, the angel before the paradise.

This is followed by the birth of Cain (step 11) and then foolows the birth of Abel (breath, whiff - step 12), who stand for the two known columns (as on tarotcard 12).

At step 13 the spirit-man KAIN kills the higher nature-man ABEL(Gen 4,1–16 LUT): Atfer this Kain goes the path of the stranger on earth - with the sign on the forehead (step 14).
He then has many offsprings (step 15, 2nd initiation).

God places up two cherubimes who guard the way to the Tree of Life (step 10), the guardians of the Threshold, which the Seeker has to self-realize in order to enter Paradise.

Genesis 3:24 : So He drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the garden of Eden the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way to the tree of life. 

 Also the 'Ark of the Covenan'(Tiberian ʾĀrôn Habbərîṯ) in the Mishkane was decorated with two cherubim statues, according to instruction of YHWH.

Even Jakob Bohme wrote in his 'Mysterium Magnum' (Explanation of the First Book of Moses) about the secret significance of Genesis: "The formation of Eve is the greatest mystery, for one must fully understand the birth of nature and human origin If you want to see the reason.
For she is the half Adam, not taken from Adam's flesh, but from his essence, from the female part. She's Adam's Matrix. "

Boehme understands  under the 'Mysterium Magnum' the chaos, on which light and darkness have flowed and revealed as the foundation of heaven and hells from eternity '(Clavis, 21.22)

'The right and true faith is the living real power of God. His burning fire is the fire-flaming love of God, which breaks out and does the work ... '(Apologia contra Gregorium Richter, 46)

'Although flesh and blood can not grasp the divine essence, but the spirit when it is enlightened and lit by God (Aurora, Dawn, 1:1).

Another deeply veiled story is the way of Avram (אַבְרָם‎) and his wife Sarai (שָׂרַי‎) to Abraham.

Avram ('father of many') is a son begotten by Terach ('wild goat, station'), a son of Nahor, at the age of 70 years.  Terah goes from Ur in Chaldea to Haran and takes Avram, Lot and Sarai with him and dies there later.

On the orders of Yahweh, Avram then went to Canaan at the age of 75 with Lot and Sarai.

After   separation of the nepheus Lot ('Kiesel', U.Path 6), the refined vital essence component, who draws into the Jordan Valley near Sodom and Gomorra (Lot also survives their later destruction by two angels), Avram still lives farther in the country Kanaan (אָרָםהָם).

He first gets a son  Ishmael ('Yahweh hears', ie, step 10, Genesis 16: 3) from Sara's slave Hagar ('Escape, Emigration').

Thirteen years later, when Abram was ninety-nine years of age, God declared Abram's new name: "Abraham" – "a father of many nations"(Gen. 17.5)

First after this Abraham receives his son Isaak ('Laughter'), whom he tries to sacrifice in the land of Moria ('Yahweh is my teacher') on a mountain ('YHWH') on  Yahwehs order.

Ishmael is at the last moment saved by Yahweh and replaced by a ram - sacrifice (of the 'lower nature') (:1st big  initiation).

Yahweh had promised that he would bless Sara (i) and that she would bear Avram a son within a year.  Furthermore, Yahweh promises that from her will emerge peoples and kings (2nd initiation). From Ishmael he would make a nation [5].

The expulsion of Hagar's son Ishmael and the retreive by Yahweh correspond to the second and third pace of stage 15.

So the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by Yahweh refers to step 16 and further.

• Hidden Wisdom in the Holy Bible, Vol. 1-3 (Theosophical Heritage Classics) , 1994, Geoffrey Hodson, ISBN-10: 0835606902
• Understanding Genesis - A. K. Hoffmann
• The Bible as a book collection
• Hebrew-English a Bible
• Re'em - the other Unicorn
• A. A. Bailey to the I am the I am (automatic google translation)