Revisiting Eden

A couple of musings about the story of the Garden of Eden:

Growing Up

Adam and Eve were in an innocent state, children, unable to develop into adulthood. To do so they had to gain adult knowledge, that beyond the simple naming of things. This was the forbidden fruit of the tree, not an apple, not sex but the knowledge of good and evil actions and their consequences. I see life as a school in which we are challenged to learn to use our free will for compassion instead of selfishness. This requires making good and bad choices and experiencing the good and bad consequences. This is what separates and adult from a child. Becoming an adult requires some measure of rebellion, the breaking of a rule in order to see what happens, and then the experiencing of consequences. We learn from our mistakes. Forbidding the fruit wasn’t a cruel act, nor was the banishing, the inflicting of physical troubles, or permanent exile. This is what happens when you go from child to adult. You go through growing pains as your body and mind mature and some last until death. Once you cross the line from childhood you are on a one way journey and can never return.  Adam and Eve broke and rule willingly and became adults enabling the rest of us. It was necessary and natural.  There was no great sin for which we were all punished. There was adolescence and maturity. They made the first mistake that opened the whole of knowledge to us, not just its surface. Knowledge is power and a responsibility. We became more like god when we gained it. We are in the process of learning to use is wisely. We are still growing up.

The Serpent

First, the Bible says the serpent had legs. It lost them as a punishment, which is a good way for early people to explain why snakes have none, not a way to blame the snake. However, I was taught that Satan is locked in spiritual form having never been born and banned from ever being so. Thus all he can do is possess the bodies of those who have them, like a serpent with legs… a lizard, maybe a dinosaur, who knows. He used the creature to try and trick the kids into breaking into dad’s “stash” and it worked, just as dad had planned.  His trick sparked the development of Adam and Eve into maturity, with Eve leading the way, as girls typically do.  But really, no serpent was necessary. Satan, or Lucifer, could just whisper in their ears as he does with us all. He speaks to the demon within each of us, just as the Holy Ghost speaks to the angel. I was taught that angels and demons are just people, spirits yet to be born or barred from such. Some are those who have passed on from life. This includes Lucifer, the most beautiful, charming, and arrogant of us, as well as Jesus, the most compassionate and faithful. Angel just means messenger and demons are just those of us who failed the first universal test of faith and don’t get to be born. We voted to let Jesus lead us through the challenges of life to hopefully reach maturity rather than follow as obedient slaves to Lucifer. Lucifer seeks to take away our free will while the Father and the Son respect it. In trying to trick Adam and Eve into giving up that free will, he ended up setting it free. The serpent had no free will and was just a vessel, a tool. If there was one, beyond the metaphorical sense of Satan being a snake on the grass.