Julian Rose, Contributor
Of all the deceptions pulled on humanity over the ages, The Original Sin is probably the most devastating. Yet hugely successful from the perspective of the perpetrators.
Almost everywhere the doctrine of Christianity forged its zealous mission to convert the masses, so the Original Sin accompanied it. Imposing the rationale of guilt on untold millions whose open minds no doubt thought they were receiving a message of emancipation and light.
Not so my friends, you were in fact receiving a message just about as dark as darkness gets!
The extraordinary power of a message, properly formed, packaged and publicized, is something we have all come to learn a lot about in recent decades. ‘The medium is the message’ declared Marshall McLuhan back in 1964. And that edict could easily pass for the moment the first biblical texts let it be known that a man called Adam and a woman called Eve got the whole human race off to a very bad start … from which it appears to have never recovered.
However the reason it got off to a bad start and has still failed to fully recover, cannot be pinned on any fault of Adam and Eve, as we shall see, but lies squarely at the feet of a masterful plot to falsify what is actually a potent story of human emancipation and growing inner conviction.
This ‘human race’ to which the biblical text refers, was set on its way by a starting pistol fired by someone who didn’t want anyone participating in this race to actually win. He or she or it, only wanted losers; and that’s pretty much what they got.
See what I mean by successful?
The story goes like this: there were just two human beings on this planet at the moment the starting pistol was fired. There was a beautiful garden as well, and in that beautiful garden were these two humans: a man called Adam and woman called Eve, and there was also an apple tree (in full fruit) and a serpent.
In this ensuing myth, God makes it clear to Adam that he can do whatever he likes in this garden except “eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge.” But, well, being human, and having been given ‘free will’ by divine rite, he doesn’t really see the logic in this command from above. The serpent seems in accord with him in this, and somehow or other tempts Eve into plucking this big juicy apple and taking a bite before then offering it to Adam.
“And he did eat thereof. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.” They were, we are informed “ashamed.” Both on account of taking a forbidden action and of being revealed unto themselves as ‘naked’.
It is around this infamous ‘eating of the fruit’ – an action most of us would likely have taken out of simple curiosity – that millennia of Christian shame and guilt have their inception.
Here is where a pervasive irrational suffering concerning our natural physical condition has its origins. Where our ‘private parts’ became privatized. Where the natural pleasures of physical intimacy were turned to guilt: unless of course the so-called ‘Church of God’ authorized such acts via formal marriage in the Christian place of worship.
A great plethora of ‘thou shalt not’s’ were soon pinned onto what was essentially Adam and Eve’s courageous original act of ‘civil disobedience’: the refusal to be cowed by a seemingly higher authority.
Yes, by looking deeper into this infamous story, we see that Adam and his accomplice Eve did something pretty special in this Garden of Eden. Their action, when viewed in a manner freed from the typical conditioned response, looks very much like a ‘giant step forward for mankind’. Something which Neil Armstrong was told to say while getting out of a papier-mache lunar capsule constructed and filmed in Pinewood studios, London in 1969.
But the mythical Adam was not faking it, as Armstrong was on behalf of those who worship a god named ‘technology’. He and his mythical Eve conspired to start a great ball rolling down the ages which would, one day, lead to man acquiring real knowledge, real independence and real self-awareness. Except, of course, that this was the last thing that the manipulators of this story wanted.
On further examining the symbolism of this tale, one can recognize that eating the apple of the Tree of Knowledge opened the eyes of this man and woman to the fact that they were adequately equipped to take their destinies into their own hands and forge their own path in life. A path which would reveal to them that they were not just subjects to be ordered around according to the will of their master, but were blessed with a unique gift: the ability to think and act creatively and rationally. Even to reflect on their own condition and existence. And, equally contrary to the classic interpretation, it was indeed their Creator himself who wished this to be so.
For this Creator felt the pain of loneliness – and longed to have company in the great quest of life. But in order to have this company, his Adam and Eve had to pass the first great test: that of defying false authority and daring to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Only then could they start on the road of becoming ‘strivers with God’ and companions to the supreme; blazing that unchartered course whose direction only becomes known through embracing the insecurity of the creative process. Taking that momentous ‘leap in the dark’ which is the mother of all great quests. All great adventures.
However, the biblical text upon which we were all raised, tells us something very different. It tells us that Adam and Eve were ‘cast out’ of this Garden of Eden due to their unforgivable and sinful act of disobedience. Disobedience to God himself, no less. Which caused them to be ‘ashamed’: both of their nakedness and their disobedience.
We are told by the church, which sees itself as the spokesperson of this biblical story, that thanks to Adam and Eve, we all carry ‘the shame’ to this very day. That we must pay the price of this ‘original sin’ and be humbled by the magnitude of this human error. An error of such supposed gravity that it became known as ‘The Fall’ .
In this translation of the stories surrounding certain key events of prehistory, man ‘falls’ before he has even begun to walk – and everything that follows is tainted by this supposedly tragic error of human judgment* ( see the link at the end for further reading).
What does this Nakedness really symbolize?
It is the moment when we realize that everything we thought was one thing actually turns out to be another. A lot of stuff drops off us in that instant. We become naked, because the old clothes don’t fit any more and the new clothes have to be woven from fresh wool. It is the dawn of true knowledge. Knowledge that makes us aware that there exists a divine state – and also a corruption of that state. That, at any one time, both exist. And that we must choose our course in life based on this knowledge.
The Garden of Eden is representative of a state of essentially ‘passive’ potential. An as yet unignited and unmoving potential. What was needed was a spark to set the whole thing off. And that spark came when Eve, who was in subconscious communication with the serpent, reached up and plucked that ruddy round apple and took a bite out of it. It was she who broke the ‘obeisance to authority’ taboo.
How about The Serpent’s role in this drama?
The serpent is the anima of a rising energy. The Kundalini serpent, entwined around the spine (trunk) of the tree of knowledge. Get it?
When the serpent spoke to Eve, it was ‘the word’. “In the beginning was The Word”. However this word was not an actual word, but a vibration. An impulse. Energy directed from within. And this energy said to Eve “Do It”. And she did. Her action bears the hallmark of the first stirrings of a divine mission: the stirring into movement of that which is fecund – yet unable to act.
The female divine force it was – which enabled Adam and Eve to ‘come awake’ and find that they were no longer just innocent hippies frolicking in the cozy garden of the unconscious; unchallenged and unaware of the greater reality of existence. It is a prerogative of ‘attaining the knowledge of good and evil’ to then set off on that path of greater knowledge, no matter what!
And what about The Tree?
The tree itself is a powerful symbol of growth. For it outwardly expresses the manifestation of a condition essential for man’s own evolution: the putting down of roots and the spreading out and up of trunk and branches – as a ‘simultaneous act’. An act transmutable to we humans, almost literally:
starting at the navel, where the umbilical cord has nourished us is the womb, and moving simultaneously down and up from here.
It has the great quality of annulling the ‘either’ ‘or’ option, which is the hallmark of much of our dark side formal education. Real human development, in body mind and spirit, is both a tap root into the deep and a crown reaching into the beyond. In equal measure. Always both – never just one or the other.
So the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden is indeed just that: a tree of knowledge. It is not “the forbidden tree” as is commonly taught in the Christian church.
So why did the church choose to promote this forbidden factor?
Because this ‘knowledge’ is capable of exposing the tyranny that lies at heart of human slavery. A knowledge that must not be allowed out for fear of its repercussions on the control system which was already in place, and to which the church was – and remains to this day – an accomplice. The command ‘not to eat’ of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge did not come from God, but from some other force implacably set against all that is divine.
As the story tells us: “around its trunk a serpent is entwined.” From ancient times this serpent has been recognized as a source of special energy. Particularly, as said earlier, in the descriptions of the Kundalini practice of Tantra Yoga. It is the rising energy which illuminates, one by one, the seven chakras of the human body by moving up the spinal column – just as the serpent is moving up the trunk of the Tree of knowledge – awakening (in this case) the succulent glory of the famous apple. A bite out of which moved Adam and Eve into a certain ‘state of awareness’.
The serpent and the tree are thus powerful symbols – and tools of human enlightenment.
And The Garden?
I have already alluded to the notion that the garden is a place – or a condition – which remains untainted. In this it is a symbol of our childhood. A time when we were not yet conscious of historical karma and therefore able to freely explore all that which becomes manifest, within and without.
It’s a place in which one remains, as in the case of the plant and animal kingdoms, in a state of instinctive response to divine energies, with as yet little or no involvement of individual will.
But that is not man and woman’s lot in life. Nor is it why our creator made manifest a state of ‘conscious awareness’, a state associated with the use of the higher mind.
In order to activate this higher mind Adam and Eve could not remain forever in their childhood garden, but needed to ‘eat from the tree of knowledge’ thus recognizing the actual challenge that lay ahead. The challenge of moving from unconscious sub-awareness to conscious full awareness. From childhood to adulthood. A long and winding road indeed! But a road in which each step carries with it a fuller understanding of our greater role in the divine plan.
This is the ‘road of genius’ that British 18th century poet William Blake referred to when he wrote: “The straight road is a road of ‘progress’, but the crooked road is the road of genius.”
And the Divine Plan itself?
Ah, we are not really privy to the full architecture of the divine plan. For it is a ‘state of being’ and as such cannot really be described, only attained, through the lasting application of true intent.
However, I believe we can recognize that, put very simply, our Creator remembered his own coming into movement from that which lacked movement; and he wished to celebrate this, ‘his birthday’. The day movement was born.
But one cannot celebrate a birthday without the presence of other empathizing beings with whom to share the joyous occasion. So ‘in the beginning’ this creator was most fortunate in being visited by a complementary, yet opposite and deeply receptive energy. This great coming together of opposite
yet deeply complimentary energies was of huge significance – because out of it emerged a state which we call ‘equilibrium’, movement. Something which is going somewhere – with a sense of purpose. No longer just a becalmed state of fecundity.
Movement owes its origins to a female energy. In Indian mythology this feminine force is called Shakti, the female principle of God. God, whose omnipotence expresses the consummated marriage of the creative and receptive principles, is thus dual in nature. Both male and female; female and male. And everything in this universe is an expression of this duality. Everything that comes to life, comes to life through the friction made manifest by this hugely potent and divine love affair. A love affair between the two energetic components of a primordial and primal duality. The ever present Yin and Yang of existence.
And what we call sexuality is actuality ‘sex-duality’ – the consummated act of divine union which gave birth and made manifest what we call Life. And perhaps most wonderful and mysterious of all is that an omnipresent and omnipotent force called Love infused and nourished this great primordial act of union which we ourselves are an expression of. One might even say that this Love preceded the one we call the Creator … but that is another story in our deep and unfathomable past!
For now it is enough to recognize that Adam and Eve, the Garden, the Tree and the Serpent, were all critical elements in kick-starting the evolution of mankind – and indeed all sentient life forms. We can now most clearly state that ‘The Original Sin’ was precisely the opposite of a sin – it was the birth of man as a free agent in pursuing the divine intuitive message which leads us (back) to our Creator. But this time as responsible realized beings – as microcosmic Gods in our own right.
Then the Creator will greatly rejoice at the results of this divine union and will welcome us to the “Great Celebration” which cannot happen until the moment of our participation, as equals, in his Godliness. An event keenly anticipated by sowers of truth – and greatly feared by spreaders of the lie.
All the confusions surrounding sexuality and sexual relations stem from this distortion called the Original Sin. Our sexuality, far from being something to be ashamed of, is that which connects us directly with Divine. It was – I repeat once again – due to that glorious consummation between two poles of irresistible mutual attraction – male and female – that this Universe came to life. That ‘life’ which forms the birth place of our very own cosmic essence.
Only something expressing an extreme position of alienation to this joyous truth would wish to lay such a sinister and divisive trap for mankind. A trap which, by proclaiming the celebration of our sexuality ‘a sin’, epitomizes the state of reversed truth which still remains central to the workings of our strangled Western societies.
What that force is which is so adept at twisting truth into its opposite is another story for another article.
For now, let us take pleasure in having put the divine plan right back on track. On having reconnected to the roots of our true nature and found that, far from being ashamed we are proud to go forward in full knowledge of our innate divinity.
Let us rejoice in the fact that this innocuous debacle known as The Original Sin has been properly exposed as a deeply divisive myth whose time is well and truly up. May it finally crumble to dust under the iridescent rays of a rising Aquarian sun!
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