Reentering Eden

Reflection: #29

I sat sipping my wine, listening to jazz, and a thought appeared, seemingly out of nowhere and hence an inspired thought from the breath of life, and that thought was this:

The book of Genesis is an allegory for human psychological development. [1]

We are born innocent and with God, the universal consciousness, into the light of the world, after having been gestated in a “formless void” for nine months. At that point, our true selves walk with Him step-by-step in wondrous Eden, and we notice the sky and the earth for the first time, we notice animals, we notice other human beings. When innocently young, we have not yet separated ourselves from Him with any false self, fictional beliefs, trauma, or neurosis. And so we delight in the wonder of these things that we notice. And we see that they are good.

“Adam” and “Eve” the appear as our two basic forces, which, as our minds develop, create dualities. The fabled duality of man appears. We have Male and Female energy. Yin and Yang. Dark and Light. Order and Chaos. And, both being a part of us, delight in each other and in God. These two forces need one another, they need us, and we need them.

Then we begin learning of the world and its worldly ways, and thus appears “The Serpent”, the “ruler of this world” representing society and its rules, including misguided ones. As we continue to develop we learn the rules of society, we “consume” or “eat” these by internalizing this knowledge granted by “The Apple.”

As we learn learn what is accepted, we internalize society’s expectations. We begin to conceptualize what is accepted or "good." And what we should not do, "evil." And as we continue to further consume society’s ways, we eventually form our own rules, that allow us to survive, and we come to think of these rules as our "self."

As we develop our “self” we become known as having certain skills and talents, and we learn to identify with these groups, and skills. In other words, we develop an ego.

Knowing the rules is fine, for there probably isn’t another path. Knowing the rules is one thing, but actually becoming the rules and falsely thinking that we actually are our constructed and false “self” separates us from our true self, our soul. We start to mentally place our “self” above all, above God. And this distances us from the consciousness and thus, separating us from God, is our “sin” which literally means “without.”

Going without, our minds have now placed us in a position of being “cast out” of the garden, and cherubim and a flaming sword are placed at the entrance to Eden to guard the entrance. Our ego does not want us to return there and creates an obstacle course at the entrance. For, if we return to Eden, our ego will die. If by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of your body, you will live.

But the loving consciousness of God didn’t destroy Eden. It is still there, and while difficult, it is possible to find your way past the flaming sword, past the cherubim and, while retaining your knowledge of worldly ways, to re-enter the garden and once again innocently commune with God. You will live and sin will die.

This is what is known as Enlightenment.

Or, perhaps, I just had a little too much wine as I sat thinking these things.

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Footnotes:

1. I acknowledge that this is probably not an original thought, but I can’t recall having ever read it anywhere else so, as a public journal entry, a reflection, it is original to me.