Welcome to the fourth
weekly guest post
at A Night's Dream of Books,
on the tour for The Door Is Open,
sponsored by
Innovative Online Book Tours!!
Dr. Andrew Cort
Andrew Cort
Paperback, 186 pages
CreateSpace
May 19, 2012
Genre: Religion, Mythology, Spirituality
This is the fourth of several weekly guest posts by Dr. Cort, who is an authority on religion and spirituality, as well as mythology, politics, history, science, education, and healing. He has written several books on these topics. His most recent one, The Door Is Open, deals with the fascinating topic of the steps to spiritual awakening, as presented in world scriptures and mythologies. Please join me in welcoming Dr. Cort to A NIGHT'S DREAM OF BOOKS!
I hope you will find Dr. Cort's fourth post to be as fascinating as I did!
A NEW LOOK AT
ADAM & EVE: Part 2 – “The Fall”
“When
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
Notice here that Adam’s behavior in this story is completely passive. Throughout the scene, he is silent. The Serpent and Eve have their discussion, she decides to eat the fruit, she gives some to Adam, and he eats it too. That's all it says! The story doesn’t say that Eve tempted Adam, and nothing in the narration or in his silence suggests that she did. There’s no indication he’s reluctant to eat the fruit, that his better judgment is overwhelmed by Eve's treachery, or even that he thinks about it at all. He says nothing and he takes no initiative. It’s merely a passive act of acquiescence.
Socrates will later describe the human soul as composed of three parts – the Thoughts of the Mind, the Emotions of the Heart, and the Needs and Appetites of the Body. He shows us that these parts are in a state of total chaos and disorder. To ‘perfect’ one’s soul means that each of these parts must perform its own proper task in a well-ordered harmony with the others.
In the story of Eden, which is a parable of our inner life and the need to evolve and perfect our soul, Adam represents the Mind, Eve represents the Heart, and the Serpent represents the Body. (This is typical ancient mythological symbolism: males = mind, females = heart, animals = body). In their proper alignment, the Mind should be the Active principle that governs the soul. The Body should be the Passive principle which supports the efforts of the Mind. And the Heart should be the Reconciling principle that protects and nurtures the soul under the guidance of the Mind. But what happened in the Garden of Eden is that the appropriate ‘order’ became inverted. The serpent (the Body) interfered, took the active lead, and persuaded Eve (the Heart) to go along with its wishes. Adam (the Mind), silent and oblivious, passively joined in.
This was the real ‘sin’ that occurred in the Garden of Eden, and that recurs in each one of us. This is the ‘Original’ (in the sense of ‘fundamental’) sin – the sin of an inverted soul. It takes very little imagination to see that this allegory provides a complete and accurate description of our contemporary life – the pop culture, the greed, the obscenity. The Body’s appetites are completely in charge of what we do, the Heart’s emotions fawn over these cravings, and the Mind (at least in the sense of genuine Wisdom) sits back silently and lets it all continue. ‘Original Sin’ is not “something an evil woman did a long time ago”. Quite the contrary, we are all committing this sin right now. It is high time we stopped blaming ‘Eve’.
When God returns to the Garden of Eden, his instructions are really quite simple. If the soul wants to evolve, the Serpent must crawl on its belly – in other words, the Body must be Passive and focus on the Earth. Adam must “earn his bread through the sweat of his face” – in other words, the Mind (the "face") must make active efforts ("sweat") and take control. And Eve must “obey” her husband.
But this last statement should never have been twisted into a sexist command about social and marital relations. It’s an inner symbol which simply means that the Heart (in all of us) must be obedient to the intelligence of the Mind, not the cravings of the Body.
Notice here that Adam’s behavior in this story is completely passive. Throughout the scene, he is silent. The Serpent and Eve have their discussion, she decides to eat the fruit, she gives some to Adam, and he eats it too. That's all it says! The story doesn’t say that Eve tempted Adam, and nothing in the narration or in his silence suggests that she did. There’s no indication he’s reluctant to eat the fruit, that his better judgment is overwhelmed by Eve's treachery, or even that he thinks about it at all. He says nothing and he takes no initiative. It’s merely a passive act of acquiescence.
Socrates will later describe the human soul as composed of three parts – the Thoughts of the Mind, the Emotions of the Heart, and the Needs and Appetites of the Body. He shows us that these parts are in a state of total chaos and disorder. To ‘perfect’ one’s soul means that each of these parts must perform its own proper task in a well-ordered harmony with the others.
In the story of Eden, which is a parable of our inner life and the need to evolve and perfect our soul, Adam represents the Mind, Eve represents the Heart, and the Serpent represents the Body. (This is typical ancient mythological symbolism: males = mind, females = heart, animals = body). In their proper alignment, the Mind should be the Active principle that governs the soul. The Body should be the Passive principle which supports the efforts of the Mind. And the Heart should be the Reconciling principle that protects and nurtures the soul under the guidance of the Mind. But what happened in the Garden of Eden is that the appropriate ‘order’ became inverted. The serpent (the Body) interfered, took the active lead, and persuaded Eve (the Heart) to go along with its wishes. Adam (the Mind), silent and oblivious, passively joined in.
This was the real ‘sin’ that occurred in the Garden of Eden, and that recurs in each one of us. This is the ‘Original’ (in the sense of ‘fundamental’) sin – the sin of an inverted soul. It takes very little imagination to see that this allegory provides a complete and accurate description of our contemporary life – the pop culture, the greed, the obscenity. The Body’s appetites are completely in charge of what we do, the Heart’s emotions fawn over these cravings, and the Mind (at least in the sense of genuine Wisdom) sits back silently and lets it all continue. ‘Original Sin’ is not “something an evil woman did a long time ago”. Quite the contrary, we are all committing this sin right now. It is high time we stopped blaming ‘Eve’.
When God returns to the Garden of Eden, his instructions are really quite simple. If the soul wants to evolve, the Serpent must crawl on its belly – in other words, the Body must be Passive and focus on the Earth. Adam must “earn his bread through the sweat of his face” – in other words, the Mind (the "face") must make active efforts ("sweat") and take control. And Eve must “obey” her husband.
But this last statement should never have been twisted into a sexist command about social and marital relations. It’s an inner symbol which simply means that the Heart (in all of us) must be obedient to the intelligence of the Mind, not the cravings of the Body.
Author Bio
Andrew Cort is an expert on the inner message of Spiritual Awakening that is always ready to be found in the wonderful stories of the Bible and Greek Mythology. To receive several FREE GIFTS from Dr. Cort (a copy of Chapter One, ‘Making the Decision’, from his new book, THE DOOR IS OPEN; a copy of his article on RECONCILING SCIENCE AND RELIGION; and a complete version of the Bible’s erotic masterpiece, SONG OF SONGS , adapted as a Poetic Dialogue to be read out loud by lovers; as well as a subscription to his SPIRITUAL GROWTH NEWSLETTER) click here http://www.andrewcort.com/Gifts . You can also learn more on his blog, Spirituality and Religion.
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Thank you for hosting Andrew today.
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ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! Thanks for commenting!! : )
I really like this commentary. The point about the story of the Apple not really saying what sexist interpretations imply that is says is good one.
ReplyDeleteThe concept that interpretation that this story is about the interaction of the mind, body and soul and how it all relates to Aristotle's thinking is fascinating and rings true to me. I also like the idea of finding connections among these belief systems.