Story.Larry1

### Eve's Gift (version 1.0)

###

#### by Larry Glover

A little heresy is a dangerous thing, but a lot can be good for you!

One day
Once upon a time
A long long time ago
In a place not so far
And yet very very far far away
Two people lived in the Garden. They called it home, for they belonged there, talked with and listened to the creatures with whom they shared this sacred space. The man even gave names to each of the animals; they were on such familiar terms. And, like all the other creatures who walked or crawled about the Garden, this man and woman wore only their skin, for the climate was warm and comfortable, and they as yet possessed no shame of their nature. They were, in effect, one with their environment. They belonged, and were not separate from it.

Now this summation is allegorical and of course you recognize it as the Biblical Garden of Eden story. The way I learned to hear and interpret it was as 'history.' It reflected Truth to us in the manner that headlines and reporting in the newspaper reflected tangible 'events.' I now understand however, that this specificity of historicalizing not only obscures certain spiritual truths depicted in the story but also prevents us from perceiving the mythical Garden we are yet embedded within. It is Christ, in the Gospel According to Thomas, who says, "The kingdom of God is spread upon the earth and men do not see it." Fear is born of the experience of separation and it is fear which clouded my childhood perception and understanding of this story.

Religions of fear have, over time, turned upside down this ancient tale, a tale once intended to warn against following the path of externalized power and authority into the Wasteland, perhaps intended to warn against following Yahweh himself. Fundamentalists unwittingly use this tale, in the service of fear, to serve the very powers it was originally intended to warn against. Fear prevents them from seeing that we partake again and again of the Tree of Knowledge every day.

The Tree of Knowledge, they also fail to realize, imparts the knowledge of Good and of Evil because its fruit is both, both good and evil. How could it be otherwise? The fruits of every action are good and evil. For Coyote to live Rabbit must die, and for Rabbit to live Coyote must go hungry. Everything contains black and white, light and shadow. It takes two to dance this world into being, it takes the light and the dark.

Had Adam and Eve allowed themselves to eat of the Tree of Life, they would have perceived that Jehovah himself is born of the Tree of Knowledge, that he too is black and white, good and evil. He is the two faced god who is Satan also, his mirrored inseparable counterpart, his own dance partner, in the drama of the telling of this old fable.

To place the emphasis on the historicity of this fable is to hide just such spiritual truths as this that it was intended to inform us of. In the case of Eve and Serpent, contrary to the intention of the fundamentalist interpretation, this 'traditional' miss-interpretation actually leads one further into—the Wasteland.

I reference the Wasteland and Garden here not as places but as paths, or ways, of living. And the path back into the Garden requires another look at this story, and at the legacy of a Fundamentalist reading of it.

So the story goes that one-day Eve was talking with Serpent and he suggested she take a bite of fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.

"I can't do that," she said. "God told us not to! We cannot eat of that one, or of the Tree of Life; but we can eat of all the others. He said we would die if we ate of either of the forbidden ones."

"He's lying to you," Serpent hissed. "He's afraid you'll become like unto him, that you'll come to possess knowledge of the secret ways, and become like unto all the gods. I heard him say as much myself. He is afraid of you. Especially you, the female one, for the mystery of life, of creation, is strongest in you.

"Taste it," Serpent encouraged. "It won't hurt you. It is bitter, and it's sweet. At the same time. It is an exquisite taste of creation, of responsibility, of knowledge and of power. Its taste holds the power to name—to name right and wrong, good and evil, for yourself; for yourselves. Its power is to separate the world from itself; it can divide the world into this and that, into them and us. It can turn the world into an object for your manipulation, into what is useful and what is not. You will learn to see differently.

Now Eve did not really understand all this but the fruit was so temptingly tasty looking and its smell invitingly intoxicating she continued listening to Serpent just the same.

"Yahweh, El, Jehovah, Allah…. He is a recent arrival, yet but a youth of a god. He has yet to even settle on a name for himself. He is but a war god of the hills who wants everyone to bow before him, as if he alone were big enough to contain the mystery, as if one name alone could contain the mystery, as if one tribe alone were sufficient to fill the cosmos with truth and wonder. He would turn you into idolaters who believe the mystery is contained in a name and the Garden Path navigated by proscribed beliefs. He wants to keep you worshiping himself the way a child worships its mother. But it's not right. He is a jealous male in love with himself and will tolerate no consort. He is afraid of you, you humans. But you humans must grow up, too. Else, life will be stunted and not able to see and reflect upon itself. It is your destiny. Just take a little bite. It won't hurt. He'll never know if you don't tell. I sure won't tell….

Now Eve's curiosity was pricked and so was her desire. Her very humanity was awakening to the ambiguity and circumstance of her choice: To believe Serpent—and follow her inner longing and desire to taste of the fruit; or to follow the path Jehovah prescribed—and bow to his greatness alone, to his power and authority? He did say he was the creator of it all. He also seemed a bit queer, now that she allowed herself to consider the matter. And he did seem full of himself, jealous as he was of the other gods. Especially of the Goddess, whom Serpent was consort with. And she did possess the power of mystery too, after all; the power of birthing, of creating life ever anew, of shedding skin, like Serpent.

"You too can learn to shed your skin," Serpent said, as if reading her thoughts.

In that historicalized moment Eve uttered the phrase that echoes to us from across the ages. "What the hell," she said, "I'll just have a little bite." And she did.

It was delightful and anguishing beyond description, at the same time, just like Serpent said it would be: bitter-sweet. But she could not really tell of any other effects. Yet.

So she tempted Adam. Just like Serpent tempted her. Used all the same lines of reasoning. And Adam too, of course, possessed a curiosity. A longing. A yearning to discover the new. To explore the forbidden. It was built into him. And he too had a delightful and anguishing taste of the fruit.

It was not long after that, when Adam and Eve were together considering whether to taste of the Tree of Life, if they ought to risk it, as Serpent said they should, when God saw they had noticed that they had no fur, nor feathers, nor scales, nor shell on. Yes! They were awakening to their uniqueness in the mystery.

We can't have this, Jehovah said to the mysterious others of the Bible's book of Genesis. "If they eat of the Tree of Life, they'll become like unto us!" So God confronted them with his anger. "You! You there! You've been eating of the Tree of Knowledge, haven't you. It was an accusation; not a question. "Well," Adam whimpered, as the story goes, "She made me do it." He blamed Eve as cause of his misbehavior and did not get laid again for how long the Bible does not say. Jehovah also did not buy Adam's line of accusatory contrition and he put a curse on the both of them.

"Adam, you're gonna have to plow the fields and work by the sweat of your brow for food. And Eve, your going to know pain in childbirth.

Now, I invite you to notice something at this juncture of the story.

Notice that God cursed them for their 'humanity.' For their innate curiosity, their desire, their longing to explore the unknown, and the forbidden. And ever since that fateful day, the peoples of Jehovah's tribe have been afraid of their-selves, ashamed of their nakedness, untrusting of their desires, their curiosities, their longings, and their passions. Their selves after all, betrayed them, as it were, to Jehovah.

It was he who shamed them for their new knowledge, for the budding awareness of their uniqueness, for their new…nakedness. It was he who clothed them with leaves, who told them they were wretched and incomplete beings without him, without leaves to hide the shame of separation their new powers of knowledge gave them. He confirmed this separation and told them they were unlike all their neighbors, the ones with feathers or fur or scales or shell. "You are naked even of bark or of leaf…," the Superior One derisively told them. This prepared they minds to accept the virus that would ensure his domination of their lineage, "…and so you are superior to them."

They believed Jehovah and that was their downfall. In that choice, in that submission, that self-abandonment, lay an essential denial of their own experience, and so of their own emotion, their knowing, their belonging in and of and to the earth and the great mystery from which she herself is born. Yes, they abandoned and so betrayed themselves, in deference to power and authority, intimidated as they were by Jehovah. For if they had but tasted of the Tree of Life, as Serpent urged, awakening within them would have been the antidote to The Tree of Knowledge, the crucial awareness that balances the knowledge of duality.

Eating of the Tree of Life would have awakened their consciousness to an experience of the grand unity, the great oneness, underlying and interpenetrating all that is, in which they were embodied. That is the gift of the Tree of Life. Connectedness. Belonging. Wholeness. Relatedness to all that is. It is the experience of Oneness. It is the deep recognition that we are but privileged nodes of being, uniquely carrying the pleasures, sorrows and responsibilities of our gifts for self-reflection, for self-awareness, for all our relations on the planet.

The gift of the two fruits, together, would have seeded in Adam and Eve and their progeny not only an awareness of their specialness but also the awareness that we live and exist by the grace of community, interdependently. They would have seen that respect for their neighbors, and for themselves, is the path of the Garden. Together, the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life can inform us how to live in harmony with ourselves and with all our relations.

Now in this sad and ancient tale of man's fall from grace and of our separation from the harmony of the Garden is hidden the Good News: That is that the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, and the Tree of Life, live yet inside each of us. Awaiting to be claimed is our birthright-of-belonging at home in the universe, our place at life's fire as a Self-appreciative member of the community of the mystery.

We can now honor that good news by giving Thanks-to-Eve for her eating first of the Tree of Knowledge. Now let us also make Whole (Holy) the heresy of her gift of humanity to us, and eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life, too. It is daily nourishment from this tree that allows us to perceive our life as a journey through a wondrous Garden.

In that Garden
in a place not so far
and yet very very far far away…
Walk toward the light of the Sun
and the darkness of your Shadow
will follow you
wherever you go.
Put the light of the Sun behind you
and you will follow
the darkness of your Shadow
wherever it goes.
Find the middle way
where light and shadow serve and advise as One
where the inhale, exhale, and the space between
are an eternal whole
and you shall come to see
the Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth
and men can see
if we but chose
to eat
of the other tree.

Welcome Home.