The Jahwist or Yahwist is one of the most widely recognized sources of the Torah, the Jewish Holy Book. It is so named because of its characteristic use of the word Yahweh. It dates to around 597-529 BCE. In the Jahwist's account of creation, the first man is called Adam because he is taken from the adamah. What is adamah? Interesting question...let's digress a bit and come back to it.
I recently ordered Barbara Walker's Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, after reading an excerpt online. From her book, "Indians of South America said all mankind was made of 'moon blood' in the beginning. The same idea prevailed in ancient Mesopotamia, where the Great Goddess Ninhursag made mankind out of clay and infused with her "blood of life." Under her alternate name of Mammetun or Aruru the Great, the Potter, she taught women to form clay dolls and smear them with menstrual blood as a conception-charm, a piece of magic that underlay the name of Adam, from the feminine adamah, meaning "bloody clay," though scholars more delicately translated it "red earth."
Adamah - clay infused with the blood of life
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