 3. Adam & Eve |
The Greek and Roman myth of the abduction of Proserpina is the same metaphor of the psychological downfall of a human being when it gets involved or "tempted" by physical existence.
One's spirit must learn to pass through the physical plane and not to be conquered by it, the soul or spirit must "subdue the earth" or overcome the temptation of it before it can move to higher planes of spiritual existence. As Jesus taught, this physical created "realm" is like a devil and a liar and tempts one who has lost or forgotten that the "kingdom of heaven with within".
Creation is known by many names, in a positive sense creation was called the offspring, reflection or son of God. Creation was also known as the female aspect of God, i.e., the divine mother because all things are born from it. In a negative sense creation was called SATAN, which means ADVERSARY in Hebrew, creation was also known as THE LIAR. Because creation is only a REFLECTION of God, The body of God, a secondary reality. The spirit or mind of God is the primary reality.
The brain and nervous system have become the new golden calf.
-Franklin Jones
The Adam and Eve shift of consciousness is still taking place in human history and is the downfall of humanity from an angelic natural condition with insight, intuition and true wisdom to a lesser and lower materialistic physical existence of survival using animal instincts.
The story of Pandora's Box is also the Greek version of the downfall of humanity
Only relying on the five senses caused the loss of spiritual enlightenment (Heaven).
The Garden of Eden is not an actual place on earth, it is a metaphor for God-union, SELF-REALIZATION.
In the Old Testament (Genesis 2 and 3) two trees are said to be in the middle of the garden of original paradise. These are "the tree of life" and "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil."
In the garden, Man was originally a unity, a single body. Then he was made into a pair, and the pair came into conflict. The male and the female came under the spell of the possibility for knowledge represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The female yielded to the viewpoint of the serpent in the garden, that the taboo, given by God, against eating the fruit of this tree was simply God's attempt to keep Man from becoming transformed into a Divine being. The male accepted the viewpoint of the serpent via the female, and thus Man (both male and female) was eventually separated from his original archetypal paradise by God. The male, the female, and the serpent were all punished for aspiration.
The viewpoint of the serpent appears to have been correct in a certain sense. Whatever the reason to be ascribed to God's viewpoint, God, in the Old Testament tales, is shown to be opposed to the acquisition by Man of the powers that are in the middle of the garden of paradise. At the end of chapter 3, the tree of life is also related to a Divine taboo. If Man were to eat of the fruit of the tree of life, he would not only possess knowledge of good and evil, but he would also become immortal. To prevent his immortalization, Man (the male and female pair) is separated from the garden by God, and an angelic guard is set at the gate to prevent Man from gaining access to the tree of life.
Thus, Man (mankind) is said to have been bound to the elemental world by God, to struggle and die, possessed of a moral and intellectual sense, but subject to mortality and gross limitations. He is superior only to the animals (who are only instinctive, elemental creatures) by virtue of the faculty of knowledge and the moral sense, the self-conscious or egoic heart, which is responsible for choices in all relations.
This account of original or archetypal existence and the fall into elemental or mortal bondage is, when coupled with the attainment or realization of eternal life (or immortality) by Jesus, the primary message of the Bible. It is an occult or archetypal message, related to the potential in every human individual.
