More Original Sin

More Original Sin

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die."

Nowhere in the book of Genesis does it state that the fruit if the Tree of Knowledge is an apple. It is merely described as a fruit. Yet the apple has become such a common image associated with the story.

One has to ask, what made it such a common image? Did it come from all of those medieval paintings? And if so, where did these artists get this idea from? The apple has always figured prominently in Greek mythology. Although not red, the apples in Greek stories are golden. In one story, it is Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love who claims one of the golden apples. Keeping in mind the Goddess of Love and that a red apple symbolizes sexual desire, could the red apple of the Tree of Knowledge represent blood, or menstruation as well? Red is a passionate color, often associated with love or sex.

And what is this business of realizing one is suddenly naked?

“And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”

This line suggests that prior to the serpents help (“But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”), Adam and Eve were completely unaware of their own nakedness. Unaware that differences existed in their form and thereby unaware of the duality of the world.

“Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.”

This is the pivotal moment of seeing duality in everything. I have observed my daughter who being so young, is like Adam and Eve prior to this eye-opening event. A child is incapable of judgement and is unaware of their own nakedness. I have seen my daughter stumble out of the bathroom into a room full of people still pulling up her pants. Nowhere is there a sign of embarrassment or self-consciousness, or thankfully, no sign of guilt. Now at the age of five, her mind is beginning to question and assuredly will shortly begin acting a little more “modestly” around people.


Surely in her mind and in the mind of all children, comes a point when they begin to see and wonder at why adults are always covered up, even if it is only to answer the phone in a bath towel. Something clicks. The begin to know. To know that there is something different between adults and children. Between man and woman. This is the beginning of a long quest toward understanding. And from there, perhaps a few years further down the road, they begin to realize that not only are girl and boy parts are different, they have to wonder what are these parts for?



Much like our Adam and Eve. In Eden they were children. The saw no differences. And considering they were given the command to “go forth and multiply”, surely they began to wonder, as children do, what purpose do these different parts have? Perhaps the voice of the snake is our own inner voice. Not a voice of temptation, but a voice of wisdom and experience. The voice of growth (for does not the snake shed its skin in order to grow?).



To be aware of one’s own nakedness is to be aware of one’s own self. To be aware of one’s own sex and the purpose of sex. The sewing of fig leaves together to cover these vital parts is a physical representation of the sudden understanding of the physical world’s duality. The snake is also a symbol of fertility and so it stands to reason that Eve, the symbol of life, would be the first to partake of this fruit. How long have we pulled her down and stoned her for the downfall of mankind? She is the hero, the one who offered man the chance to partake in life. And Adam is a hero in his own right for having the courage to accept this quest. The world's first knight.

By removing Eden out of a geographical area and into the realm of metaphor one can see the beginning of understanding the workings of nakedness and sexual desire. What eventually follows is the realization that if birth can occur, so than must its dual counterpart, its “better half” - death. If female exists, so must male. This is why we are all “condemned to die”. This is not a judgement or a sentence, but a logical progression of life.

Often I turn to the wisdom of my daughter. When she was perhaps three years old we were watching (for the nth time) Disney’s The Little Mermaid. During the climax of the film the sea-witch, Ursula, is impaled by a derelict ship, thrust by the very whirlpool she began. She sinks to the bottom of the sea and presumably to her death. At this point my daughter turned to me and said: “Where’s the octopus-lady?” (meaning Ursula).

This questions was one of those pivotal moments for me, a realization. Here, in this simple question, is the perfected innocence of childhood (before eating the apple, still walking with God in the garden as an equal). At this age my daughter was incapable of judgement and condemnation. She made no distinction between Good (Ariel and Eric) or Evil (Ursula). The sea-witch was simply another character who went somewhere else. Forget the fact that she had just spent the entire movie trying to kill our hero’s, had been plotting Neptune’s downfall because of her own bruised ego. All my daughter saw was that this character was at one point there and the next gone. To her beautiful mind there was no difference, no designation between Ariel and Ursula. No judgement on Good and Evil. In that moment, my daughter was equal to God.

Clearly this is the beginning of the process of understanding death. Prior to the question, death did not exist in her mind. And the point of this “original sin” is that we are all born into learning this.

Joseph Campbell has a wonderful interpretation of these events. Both woman and snake are symbols of new life. The woman is the giver of life, which is Eve’s very purpose. Similarly, the snake sheds it’s skin (sheds the old ways) and is born again with a fresh new skin, still soft. Both woman and snake are symbols of rebirth, of cycles. Campbell further explains that this is why the Moon is always given female attributes because of its different phases. The moon, like the snake, is a symbol of something shedding as it is continually reborn. By contrast the Sun is given male attributes (no coincidence that Jesus is the Son of God). The Sun, or the Son, is the light.

So both figures, woman and snake are hero’s. They free themselves of this static state, this limited life of so-called perfection in the garden, into a life of duality. Original sin is not God’s punishment. It is life’s requirement.

Original Sin

ORIGINAL SIN

It is said that we are all born into original sin because of the Fall of Adam and Eve. It is because of this incident that we are all sinners and subsequently require a Savior. Not just any Savior, but Jesus
Christ. No other will do. No substitutions, exchanges or refunds. Void where prohibited, not available in all areas, all sales are final and some restrictions apply (well not some, but endless restrictions).

Even as a child I thought how utterly and completely hopeless this was. How stupid and sad. That is, if the story of Genesis is to be taken literally.

Eden is described as a place where all needs are met. Not even the lion needs to hunt for food. This suggests to me that Eden is in fact the realm of the spirit or the soul. A soul does not need food or shelter. The soul can’t possibly require any physical needs. One might say that this heaven is perfection. A world without lack or desire.

Adam and Eve are banished from Eden by eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. The Tree of Free Will might be more accurate a title. Being banished is no more than the soul taking bodily form. With a body, we now have needs and desires. Having a body suddenly requires self-preservation (which is the purpose of pain). And what better way is this represented then by our own Ego? Being born into original sin is completely natural. It is being born into physical form. A physical form that requires an ego to survive. It is not a punishment, nor a banishment, merely a separation of pure soul (energy) into physical form.

One must realize that the ego is not evil, but necessary. The trick is to not be a slave to the ego, nor a slave to the spirit. The two must be balanced in order to achieve Eden (or perfection, without desire, balance). Is it not said that the first rule of Heaven is Order? It has also been said that “a house divided cannot stand.”

Living a completely ego-centered life would be one of excess and complete self-gratification. On the other side, living a completely spiritual life would be relatively short as you would starve to death. A balance or union is required of both. The body is the tool, the physical expression of the soul. After all what is inspiration without a pen? And what is a pen, without inspiration?

Kahlil Gibran says it this way:

“Though I travel with the light, I am not the light
and though I am a lute fastened with strings, I am not the lute player.”

Once Adam and Eve were banished (born?) Eden was closed and protected by a flaming sword. I find it very interesting that Jesus is supposed to return brandishing a flaming sword. In mythology, the sword is used to vanquish the dragon which symbolizes the ego. That is to say, the dragon desires the very things that it has no use for. The very things that don’t bring happiness. For example, dragons are depicted as stealing away virgins, and hoarding mountains of gold. It has no use for either of these things, yet its desires always get the better of it. This is what keeps us from “heaven” or from bliss, being a slave to our body. The only way to enter back in, is to cut our ego down, by shedding the very things that keep us trapped.

And what caused the original separation? Who knows for certain. But I can say this. The memory of eating steak simply does not compare to the actual experience of eating steak So perhaps, the snake is the true hero of the Genesis story, the one who showed us this great gift of free will and the ability to experience that steak again.