The Truth Behind the Serpent in The Garden of Eden
The stories we tell ourselves matter. They matter so much that 95% of our actions are based on our subconscious stories. The quality of these stories deeply impacts the quality of our being and life. However, the sad truth is that most of us are often unconscious of the negative and untrue stories we carry within us. Many of these stories are inherited from our ancestors and come from unhealthy cultural values, personal wounds and traumas, and internalized beliefs.
The stories we tell matter, including the creation story that a culture is birthed from, as the values, teachings and morals are passed on from one generation to the next.
So, what happens to a people when their creation story states that the Earth is cursed because of them? What happens to a people when their creation story says that men shall eternally suffer because of the original woman? What happens to a people when their creation story says women are subject to men, and their dreams and longings don’t matter?
Well, we don’t have to look too far.
We see an Earth that is suffering at the hands of its people.
We see angry and violent men in positions of power and as leaders around the world.
We see women disconnected from the natural cycles and wisdom of their own bodies.
We see women who can’t access their dreams and longings, but instead use their energy to uphold a system that was never designed for them in the first place.
So, how did we get here? Because the stories we tell matter! And we are the grandchildren who have inherited a wounded creation story. However, when we look a little closer at the truth of this story, we can begin to tell ourselves a new story and ultimately heal.
Our culture has been birthed from the creation story of Adam and Eve, the first people made by the hands of God. God first made Adam out of dirt and breathed the breath of life into him. God told Adam that he was to be the caretaker of the sacred Garden of Eden and that Adam could eat from any tree, except that of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam cared for the garden and abided by God’s rules, but quickly became lonely and longed for a companion. When Adam was sleeping, God made a woman out of one of Adam’s ribs, and when he awoke, Adam named her Eve. And we all know what happens next. Even though Eve was told not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge, she did. She was lured by a serpent, her temptation got the best of her, and she ate the fruit! She then offers the fruit to Adam, which he eats. God is furious and because of Eve, humanity is cursed for all of eternity, and women are forever seen as seductive temptresses who cannot be trusted!
This is one way to read and interpret the story of Adam and Eve. However, there is also another way to read and interpret this story.
The tree of knowledge contained access to wisdom that would give whoever ate it the same wisdom as God. This would give one the ability to access their own divinity and create from a place of good or evil, also known as free will. Eve chose to eat the fruit to access her own divinity and wisdom within her.
Long before the creation story of Adam and Eve, the serpent was connected to the wisdom of the Great Goddess and the life, death, and rebirth cycles. These life, death, rebirth cycles are natural to creation and are mirrored in the seasons of the Earth and the cycles of menstruation. Up until this point, though, the Garden of Eden and Eve’s body had been trapped in a constant state of summering and ovulation, respectively. Therefore, we can interpret the serpent in the story as the wisdom keeper of this ancient knowledge of creation and a guide to reclaim these natural cycles. The serpent is guiding Eve to connect back to the wisdom of her creative lifeforce energy within the natural cycles of her body. The serpent can be seen as Eve’s own intuition, guiding her to reclaim her birthright.
In the creation story we have inherited, a jealous God scorned and punished Eve. However, I say that as humanity, we can thank her. In eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge, she gave us access to understand who and what we truly are, cyclical beings that are not separate from, but connected to the cyclical nature of the Earth. In honouring our cyclical nature, we can birth creation, like God. Eve wasn’t trying to seduce Adam into evil, but rather provide him access to the wisdom that she had just received. By eating the fruit, she claimed her divinity as a gift for all of humanity. However, rather than accessing this divinity, she is immediately cursed by God. As a result, we have been living and operating under this curse. A curse which has left us suffering and separate from the Earth and our own power.
God cursed enmity between Eve and the serpent and claimed that it would last for all future generations. In other words, God cursed Eve and all future women to be disconnected from the teachings of the Great Goddess and their intuition.
So, what is the new creation story that we can tell ourselves?
We could make up an entirely new creation story. However, this does not deal with the fact that we carry the wounds of this story within our bodies. We need to go to the root of this story in order to heal.
The new story that we can tell ourselves is that we come from an original, intuitive and wise woman who was punished for claiming her creative birthright and for listening to her own intuition. We come from a woman who wanted to reclaim her divinity and help her companion do the same. In turn, she was told her dreams, longing, and pleasures didn’t matter and that all she created would be birthed in pain. When we tell ourselves THIS story, we know that we women are INTUITIVE and WISE. We can also better understand why it is so challenging for us to listen to our intuition and access our dreams and pleasures. When we tell ourselves this story, we can better understand why we have come from generations of women who have been beaten, burned, and hanged for trying to listen to the wisdom and teachings of their own bodies. When Eve ate the fruit, I believe she knew that one day her grandchildren would access the wisdom that entered into her womb. I believe we are those grandchildren.
The Dalai Lama says that, “The world will be saved by Western women.” However, I don’t believe this is by Western women who see themselves as liberated because they can climb the corporate ladder and wear what they like and intern, be the role models to empower women of the south and the east. Rather, this is Western women RECLAIMING the wholeness of who they are, accessed within the cycles of their own wombs and bodies.
Our ascension begins with our descent into our own bodies.
For those of us who menstruate, we have the sacred codes of creation within our wombs. We can begin to uncover the wisdom of each season within us and follow its sacred guidance. These seasons cycle through us, teaching us when to plant, sprout, bloom, wilt and regenerate. It is through honouring these seasons within us that we transform our loss and grief into love. For the seasons of wilting, shedding and releasing become the compost for the seasons of gestating and blooming. When we honour these cycles within us, we naturally begin to honour them within the Earth. When we heal, the Earth heals along with us.
Do you see through the veil of the stories we have inherited from Christianity, the patriarchy and capitalism? We, as women in the West, have been made to think that we are free because we are given equal rights to men in a system designed for and built by men. These are more stories that we are told! We then feel sad and think there is something wrong with us because we are depressed, anxious and depleted and feel FAR FROM FREE. We are made to think we are free because there are endless growth opportunities. However, we are not MEN! Our bodies, our brains and our cycles are different! Equal rights to men in a system that was never designed for us in the first place isn’t where we find our TRUE freedom. We find true freedom and healing in returning to our own bodies. We do not need endless growth, but cyclical regeneration.
As the granddaughters of Eve, we have been conditioned not to trust ourselves. We have been taught to distrust our intuition and fear our own longings, dreams and pleasures. Our anxiety, depression, control, and perfectionism aren’t who we are, they are symptoms of our lack of access to who we are. We have been forced to cut off parts of ourselves in order to try and fit and feel safe. However, we can never feel safe if we aren’t allowed to inhabit and embody the fullness of who we are. When we take the time to connect to our cycles and access the parts of ourselves that are turned off, rigid and tight, we find beneath them the sacred parts of ourselves that want to be reclaimed. When we reclaim these parts of ourselves, we access our creativity, our longings and our dreams. We undo the curse of God and find that our divinity is our birthright!
I want to tell you that it is safe now for you to return to your own body and the wisdom of your womb. You do not need to look outside of yourself for answers, for the wisdom lies within. Don’t reach up, but root down, deep into your own womb. The descent inwards isn’t easy for we find all the parts of ourselves that have been denied, suppressed and abandoned. We find the wounds of our lineage, our culture and our own. However, when we allow ourselves the time to feel our fears, deep longings, rage, grief and sadness, beneath them we find access to our passions, creativity, dreams and pleasures. For beneath the venom that has been injected into us, is our own sacred medicine.
When we make the descent, we ascend.
For when we heal, we can help others heal, and the Earth will heal along with us.
It is in this journey home to our wombs that we access the wisdom from the fruit that Eve ate. We learn that we can create from a place of good. We access our true power, we remember that we are divinity itself, and no man or God can ever take this from us.
Amen to that!
With devotion,
Laurel
(Translator of the Earth)