The analogies and symbolism found in the Bible should not be considered as one-time historical events. They are being constantly recreated in our souls. If we think of Adam and Eve and what they represent, separating them from the distortions that human minds and human religions overlaid onto them, we can find the truth as it exists in them as well as in ourselves, right now.

As we said, all our difficulties, hardships and feelings of enslavement that accrue from Adam and Eve leaving paradise are related to our fear of pleasure, our fear of being naked—of being real. The myth of Adam and Eve also includes persuasion by a serpent. While the serpent has been given many symbols, in this case, it mainly connotes what we consider to be the animalistic life force. This is the pleasure force as it moves in man. And just as the snake is not really low, it is not low. It is only our vision that makes it seem so.

In addition to being a symbol of fertility, the serpent is also a symbol of wisdom. This life force that is said to be animalistic, low and blind has a tremendous wisdom of its own. It’s only the distorted life force that is blind and destructive. But in its original beauty, it has its own wisdom. Fertility here goes beyond reproduction. It’s also fertile in the deepest sense—in its creativity—representing the abundance of life with its multi-faceted possibilities.

The tree symbolizes the wrong kind of knowledge. It is intellectualization that separates us from the immediate experience of the moment, which can only happen when the mind, body and real divine spirit are integrated. When these aspects get fragmented, then knowledge gets separated from experience. In that case, the mind and the experience can be very different, as we all know. That mind is a Tree of Knowledge split off from the feelings and experience of the person.

It’s not that Adam and Eve were supposed to eat the fruit and be driven out. There’s no “supposed to” here. Each created being has free will—totally and completely. This isn’t really a reality that we can know in our heads. We have to have experienced, at least at times, what it feels like to be in the flow of this being-force to understand this. That’s what it means to be free, with no fences and no authority who expects anything of anyone.

Listen and learn more.

Bible Me This, Chapter 4: Myth | Adam & Eve