Oaks of Pethach

Pronunciation: OHKS uv puh-THAK

Also Called

Ayil — the name of the two oaks themselves (Seth 2:23). When Yaatsekawd gave each thing in creation its definition, the oaks asked him, “Who are we,” and he said, “You are Ayil / the strength of God,” and the Lord entered them with His strong presence (Seth 4:111–112). The Handbook notes that the Hebrew word ayil means both “strong” and “oak tree” (Handbook, p. 27). In the newer spelling they are the oaks of Pethak.

The True Gate of Eden

Eastward from the headwaters of the Euphrates, opposite the mountain called Mahujah, stands the hill called Pethach. Midway up it grow two mighty oaks, standing like pillars on either side of the gate of Eden — the very portal the first parents passed through from the natural world into the temporal world. Looking back, they saw Eden behind them; the land they entered is called Moladeth, “the land of the nativity of all temporal man” (Seth 1:6–8). Enoch saw them leave Eden toward evening on the last day of the year, going between the oaks, with one oak on the south and one on the north (Seth 7:44–45).

Who Followed Them Out

“From this hill and from between these oaks followed with them / out of Eden / the one they called the Lamb of God” — and so they called the Son of God Motsah the Lamb (Seth 1:9). The Lord told Ezekiel, “I came through the oaks of Pethak to dwell with man” (Moses 14:110). The Eerkodeshoi, bewildered when sin entered, followed the first parents “out of Eden into the temporal world through the oaks of Pethach” (Grandmothers 1:50); as the Eerkodeshiy say, “we followed them with trepidation / out between the oaks of Pethak / going into the unknown,” with an immovable love for them (Melchizedek 7:147). The Handbook explains that because their visions, creation and the Lord followed them through the oaks, they and all their righteous children could be restored to Eden again (Handbook, pp. 474–476).

Two Pillars

The footnote to the first vision of the oaks reads: “I believe the long standing idea of religions having two pillars at an entrance originated with these oaks” (Seth 1:7, note 2). In vision Moses was led by the Lord toward a light and recognized the oaks of Pethak, and “we literally had passed between the oaks of Pethak.” He wrote: “this portal is deeply embedded into human memory / and that is why so often there are two columns / at the entry way of buildings in the temporal world” (Moses 1:17–19).

Their Guardians

Ayil is guarded by the great Ayal — a large antelope with two strong, straight horns — and its female, the Ayallah. Enoch himself was called “Ayallach” by the Watchers of Heaven because of his kinship with the guardians of these oaks; through that kinship he would establish a city of holiness and make the way back to Eden known (Seth 2:23, 2:54). The katsar, the trump used only to summon the Eerkodeshiy, is made from the horns of the ayallah, “the guardian of the oaks of Pethak at the western gateway into Eden” (Melchizedek 12:45). A stone box given to Iona bore a carved ayallah head with its two horns standing up, and “all knew they were the guardians of the oaks of Pethach” (Grandmothers 6:37).

Yaatsekawd’s Grief

It was here, lying between the oaks of the gate of Eden, that Yaatsekawd grieved before the Lord, weary of his own life, longing for his righteous children to be able to return to Eden. It was from this grief that the Lord sent Cavah to the land of Anach to protect the pregnant Baraka and deliver the infant Enoch (Seth 1:90–92).

Abarah Sees Eden

Little Abarah begged his grandfather Yaatsekawd to take him to the oaks of Pethach to see the western gateway to Eden. When they beheld the oaks, “the eyes of Abarah were opened / and he saw Eden,” and Yaatsekawd saw it too — not just between the sentinel oaks but everywhere he looked. He fell on his knees and wept, and thanked Anokeesed that it was still there. “The purity of heart of this little son / and his faith / caused me to see a view of Eden which I have longed for.” From that day Yaatsekawd could see and feel Eden when his heart was full (Grandmothers 7:5–11). Abarah later tied two bundles of reeds together as they grew, “and they were his oaks of Pethach / And he would go there to pray” (Grandmothers 7:13).

The Keeper of the Gateway

Shayiree had been to the oaks many times and had made the gateway to Eden known to others, “And some think of him as the Keeper of the Gateway to Eden.” When Lamech asked, “Do some return from the oaks of Pethach,” Shayiree replied, “Some have been disappointed when they arrived there / And they go their way” (Grandmothers 12:18–19). After seeing the tablet Shem carved, Iona longed to see her mother again, and the record tells of the day “that Iona beheld her mother Awkhoo at the oaks of Pethak” (Melchizedek 9:200).

The Return to Eden

“All of the holy ways of righteousness in these seven generations / are the exact manner of behavior / that open the portal and pathway between the oaks of Pethach / to enter once again into Eden” (Bedal 9:18). When the seventh generation was complete, Yaatsekawd and Cavah, very old, set out walking toward the oaks. Mahujah and the skilled hunters who followed them found that their tracks “went between the oaks of Pethach / and their tracks were seen no more.” At first light Anokeesed was waiting, “leaning up against the northernmost oak”; He handed Cavah a yellow rose, they called Him Father, took His hands, “and they walked up the hill and out of sight.” It was the first day of the year (Bedal 13:13–23). For this reason the first day of the year falls on the fourth day of the week, “because on that day of the week / Yaatsekawd and Cavah passed through the oaks of Pethach / to return to Eden” (Bedal 13:63).

The Lord promised that if the righteous do all He asks, the Eerkodeshiy will begin to transform back into Eden “and enter to return between the oaks of Pethak / before the righteous do / to minister from there” (Moses 17:79).

On the Repentance Tablet

On the Repentance Tablet, a narrow bar across the middle is the veil between the natural world of Eden and the temporal world, and the consciousness symbol at either end of it represents the Oaks of Pethach, “which are the gateway to Eden. Yaatsekawd and Cavah passed between when they left Eden and when they returned” (Handbook, p. 474).

A Namesake in Israel

The mountain in Israel called Hermon by the wicked and Pethach by the righteous was named after this original western gate of Eden; the ancient Israelites called Pethach “Mount Zion” (Seth 1:7, note 1).

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