GENESIS... THE ORIGIN OF HUMANKIND - PART 5

EVE AWAKENS...


In the center of The Garden of Eden was a tree... and God told Adam and All the rest of humankind they were not to eat of this tree. The reason God gave was that IF, they ate from this tree they would have knowledge, knowledge of Good and Evil.

So for many years Adam toiled alone, tilling the fields within Eden, the Garden; his friends were the animals God gave to him, they were in his keep. They were not his partner either.

So one day, God causes a deep sleep to come upon Adam, and God performed surgery upon Adam, removing one of his rib bones, and creating the woman. When he awoke, he had a new companion, a woman,  he named her Eve.

CREDIT for Biblical Quotes: DEVOTIONS - THE OLD TESTAMENT ONLINE

Genesis 3

3Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that theLord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ 

2The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; 

3but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ 

4But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; 

5for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’

6So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 

7Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

They were both naked and unashamed of their nakedness.

My opinion, the serpent was a penis. Shocking, I imagine. The idea. I simply don't believe in serpents that speak. It was a metaphor, for Eve's sudden epiphany, at the center of The Garden.

Didn't God say, be fruitful and multiply in Genesis, Chapter One? 75,000 years ago this was humanity. Hominids becoming human. Adam somehow was selected to begin the reign of humankind in our world. But he wasn't alone.

Other men, other women, sought Adam....

 One was a woman named Lilith:

Lilith (1892) by John Collier in Southport Atkinson Art Gallery

It is said, "Lilith was Adam's first wife..." but since at the time humankind had no real self-awareness, no knowledge of good or evil, it is unlikely Adam knew he had a wife. At least there is no record that any ceremony had made them husband and wife.

That Eve ate the fruit from the tree God forbade humans to eat from, is in my opinion, something that was inevitable. It is my belief, that God knew, at some point in time, someone would partake of the fruit. It is also my believe that it wasn't so much a command by God not to eat of the fruit, but a warning.

Innocence is Bliss, as the saying goes, and Eve, for whatever reason, ate the forbidden fruit, and found that it was good..

Adam and Eve by Maarten van Heemskerck (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg).

When I was in my late teens, becoming an adult, I admit I was pretty ignorant. I believed others held the key to life, to the truth. I didn't question authority...  I had been taught conformity and lock-step. Among the truths I was led to believe, that drugs, like marijuana, were dangerous, a forbidden fruit. 

Hardly.

When I tasted it, the first time nothing happened. It was a couple years until the second time... god did I laugh, as did my two friends. I'd not laughed like that ever... that I could remember, and it was very good to laugh.

Yeah, laughter is deadly... especially when it opens one's mind to the impossible, that is possible.

I learned the truth, I became aware that day. Self-aware. Not a bad thing is it? 

At around age 40 I made an appointment with a minister at a Unitarian church in Portsmouth NH. I sat with him and discussed my belief that Eve had experienced was an awakening based upon the use of a psychotropic plant... however, he completely disagreed with my hypothesis. His reason - marijuana was an illicit drug, and the scriptures did not support the use of an illicit drug as being the crime Eve had committed.

Yet today, we know many people are made outcasts for the use of illicit drugs, that their lives are ruined by man-made laws that forbid such fruit. And we know some such fruits, especially those made by man, also destroy lives. Yet, I have seen cannabis grow as tall as a tree... and I have seen it is indeed a very beautiful tree, a plant; not the bad or grotesque plant others would command me to believe it is. I understand knowledge is power, and any power can be used for good, or evil.

GENESIS 3 concludes with the CURSE:

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 

9But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ 

10He said, ‘I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ 11He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’ 

12The man said, ‘The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.’ 13Then the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this that you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent tricked me, and I ate.’ 

14The Lord God said to the serpent,
‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.’
16To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.’
17And to the man he said, ‘Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree
about which I commanded you, “You shall not eat of it”, cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;
18 thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken;
you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’
20 The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all who live. 

21And the Lord God made garments of skins for the man and for his wife, and clothed them.
22 Then the Lord God said, ‘See, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever’— 

23therefore theLord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.
24He drove out the man; and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.

I am cursed... we are all cursed having gained self-awareness. It was not a crime, but rather our fate. Woman should be no more condemned than man, as it was our destiny to become self-aware. It was our destiny to discover the truth. What we make from our knowledge of good and evil, our knowledge of life, is ours to command, to bear, and to build upon. We can continue to condemn each other, hurt others because they may be different from ourself or what we believe is right or wrong, but we are all one. We are humankind. We are God's children. We were created in His Image.