Eva’s apple

The following fictional interview offers a renewed perspective on the story of Eve and Adam who were said to have been banished from paradise. Now we get to hear Eve’s own story, and it’s about time, isn’t it?
Selfknowledge.today had the privilege of interviewing her while enjoying a glass of apple cider. 🙂

Interview with the primordial mother Eva

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Hello Mother Eve, how wonderful to speak with you!

Well, just call me Eva.

But aren’t you our primordial mother…? I can’t just…

Sure you can. I don’t only represent myself but many others as well.

Really? Is that so?

Certainly, many follow my path, often without realizing it.

Really? I honestly don’t get the impression that we all come from the Garden of Eden like you do.

Well, that’s indeed the case. I am the protagonist of an important parable, a fairy tale if you will, and in parables, there is often a lot of general wisdom to be found between the lines of the simple story. I, as Eva, represent something, as a metaphor, just as the earthly paradise represents something.

Could you please explain this to me? Because they say you were expelled from paradise. Is that also a metaphor?

In a certain sense, yes. I was in the Garden of Eden, with Adam, and in fact, ‘nothing happens’ there. It just is, no more. Perfectly flat, completely tensionless, completely monotonous without any form of flowing energy whatsoever. Everything there is eternal. The Garden of Eden gets its name not from a specific place, but from the indication ‘in the East’, which is a metaphor for where wisdom comes from. Even today, most wisdom can be found in the East. It’s the place of the rising sun, and the sun has always represented the True Light, including in us. In ‘the East’, our inner ‘Light’ rises. The Garden of Eden simply ‘is’… always and forever, represented as a garden, where growth and bloom are potentially present. This Garden of Eden (also translated as Land of Bliss) is the World of One, and from it springs a supreme ‘river’ as God’s first creation, which would later be named Akasha. The term ‘God’ naturally represents the Absolute Source from which everything springs.

So is the Garden of Eden a dreadfully boring place?

Well, if ‘boring’ as a judgment would exist in this simple paradise, then yes, you could call it boring. But I didn’t experience it that way. It was absolutely delightful, with no tension whatsoever. Always fully in the Now. Yet a deep desire arose within me, and in some way, I seemed ‘in search’. There was also an apple that kept drawing my attention and looked delicious. It hung from a tree that God said we should handle with care. The tree of unity (the trunk) to diversity (the countless branches) with the ‘fruit of discernment’ on it. I often sat on a branch to look at it, with Adam. That apple exerted a massive pull… the apple appealed to me.

Funny… but hadn’t God forbidden you to eat from it? I remember that much!

No, he hadn’t. God doesn’t actually forbid anything. It was a warning. God informed us of the significant consequences if we, as humans, would consciously consume that apple. And I intentionally say conscious apple…

Oh…? But I was taught that you couldn’t eat from it!

That’s not true. It’s because of the old church fathers who came up with ‘guilt and shame’ to exercise power over believers or subjects. They modified the texts of the old parables for their own purposes, rewrote, and even mutilated them. Remember, God doesn’t create anything without a purpose!

But there was also that snake, which deceitfully tempted you to eat that apple, right?

The same story, unfortunately. The snake was demonized. If you get to know the traditions of older cultures, you will see that in those cultures, the snake represents wisdom. The snake was known as a symbol of fertility and as a symbol for healing, transformation, and rebirth. Biting its own tail, forming an eternal circle, shedding its skin periodically, the snake stands for rejuvenation and eternal life, for life energy, and the creative force present in every human. Known by the name Muchalinda, it even became the protector of Buddha himself! Due to the snake’s dual nature, God sent him to me. ‘My’ snake thus had an important role to fulfill.

Tell me more!

When the snake approached me, he seemed to hypnotize me. I became lost in his intense eyes and felt a significant urge, as if he spoke to me with the words “take and eat this apple, it will grant you the Power of Discernment“. My desire grew stronger. I wanted to do something. Eventually, I let this guide me, took the step I had longed for, and took the bite I had craved for so long. The snake gave me the required courage, Adam didn’t.

So, the tree and the apple weren’t those ‘of good and evil’.

No, not at all, it was the ‘Tree of Discernment’ with the fruit of duality. I discovered this when I ate from it. Instantly, I experienced opposites: good and evil, light and dark, beautiful and ugly, hot and cold, man and woman, near and far, and thus everything that exists thanks to an apparent opposite or attracting opposites. That experience of space! That experience of time! It was magical! Such energy I felt all of a sudden! What currents. Adam suddenly appeared sexy to me, something I hadn’t felt before! Everything seemed to come to life. Everything vibrated, pulsed, and resonated; nothing was monotonous anymore! What forces! Everything around me grew and blossomed and had become a vast harmonic symphony. The harmony of the Universe with a big beating heart revealed itself to me!

But that sounds fantastic?!

It was! And I also discovered the consequence in this newly discovered world: everything is finite. Everything comes and goes. Everything has two sides. Everything could turn into its opposite. I was overwhelmed by the size of the universe, its duration, and scope, and especially the incredible amount of diversity I found in it. All those shapes, all those colors, all those sounds, all those beings. It was overwhelmingly beautiful in manifested forms! But in everything I saw and experienced, I no longer constantly felt unity as I had before. I felt polarity. There were moments when everything around me seemed to be in unity, in a sort of cosmic collaboration or balance, but that would slip away just as quickly. After eating that apple, I could watch myself; I had gained self-reflection, as if there were two Evas, one watching and one being watched. And sometimes I suddenly felt very small, even scared, as if I could lose something… And I had never felt that before…

Is that why this has always been talked about in such a negative way?

Yes. Because in earthly existence everything is finite, even life itself, humans started to think of themselves as small and finite. Death made its entrance. And if there’s one thing humans became deeply afraid of, it’s death. They felt increasingly smaller, temporary, and vulnerable as an individual and started to chase after everything in their short life to compensate for this feeling, to feel grand once more.

But is there something wrong with that?

Well, in a way, yes indeed, because even I myself, as the first human who left paradise, soon felt my acquired insights fading, as if veils were drawing over them. As clouds obscured the sun, I saw all my ancient knowledge, but also my newly acquired knowledge, being covered. I lost it! Previously in paradise, I didn’t have a choice, no free will. Not even when I ate the apple. Now it seemed like I suddenly did have free will! I suddenly had a choice. Either this or that… either now or later… entirely new to me! I suddenly felt empowered to decide what to do, what to think, what to aspire to, what I would want. I imagined having acquired some sort of power to do or refrain from doing things, and because of this, I lost contact with my former self and became internally divided. I now found myself not only in the World of Two, that of duality, but also became its slave: the world of acquiring and losing, of experiencing and undergoing, of knowing and forgetting, of living and dying. Mostly, I was out of Now, and my will turned out to no longer be free. So, well…

What do you mean by “so, well”…?

I forgot my real self… My Self! My heavenly origin, I forgot and became a physical and temporary human, with possibilities and impossibilities, with the tendency to have to chase after everything. I could love… but also hate… This is how I came to be ignorant of my origin, with an unknown destiny…
It wasn’t God who drove me out of paradise; I left paradise myself! By familiarizing myself with the World of Two, and drowning in it. God had warned me about this. And this could only mean one thing: I would have to rediscover my paradise. I would have to realize the World of One again within myself, by transcending all the oppositions that had arisen within me. Return to my Source, my origin.

That doesn’t sound like an easy task.

Indeed. If I wanted to follow that river back to the Source, I would have to be willing to swim against the current. That’s just the way it is with rivers. Those who just let themselves drift with the current move further away from the source. So, I would have to make a real effort to lead myself back to the unity of the Source. Against the stream of habits and division, which naturally arises in the dual World of Two.

Oh my…

Now you will understand that this applies to all beings in this creation: for me ‘and many others.’ Do you understand?

I’m amazed… Why wasn’t THIS told to us? Why always the frightening stories and misinterpretations? Misinformation… fake news!

Well, as I told you, the powers that be had an interest in it. But there’s another reason, and that is that the veils of unconsciousness that began to obscure the great Light within us are the reason humans not only lost their true nature but also all the knowledge that is behind ‘good and evil,’ behind that World of Two: the knowledge of One, through which they could find it again. Due to this lack of knowledge, humans began to misinterpret these ancient parables. They, the human (and by that, I mean both male and female), let themselves be easily tempted to take the path of least resistance, in that aforementioned river of duality, away from the Source, and came to see this drifting away as the only possible path. This way, humans forgot their own destiny. The craving for wealth and happiness, which is still present in their paradisiacal genes, is now focused on temporary matters, on earthly treasures, and on misguided beliefs: mindsets. And there’s no lasting happiness to be found in that. The realization of their true Nature has become alien to them. This is how the so-called fall from grace occurred, which basically means that it’s a real pity that humans lost themselves the moment they, in a certain sense, awakened to an earthly existence.

Is that the meaning of ‘fall from grace’ and ‘original sin’?

Well… people who die do inherit. Ignorance is passed from one person to another. Jesus knew this. It’s said that he died for our sins, but I see it differently: he showed what it’s like to be a True Human, who internally, within himself, became one and realized the paradise within himself, which he, in the language of that time, called the Kingdom of God. He lived in Truth and showed how humans can shed their ignorance, division, and unconsciousness, like a snake sheds its skin, and what it’s like to never negotiate with oneself in this process. Do you know the expression ‘Kill your darlings’? Those are the things that are hardest to leave behind. We also suffer from long-ingrained inner ‘dragons’. About that, Saint George, as a ‘specialist’, can tell you much more. But Lord Ganesha can do that too, as he supports us on our journey to freedom.

Then I’ll also ask them for an interview!

Very wise. He can explain it very well! And what he says seems simple but isn’t. It means: swimming against the stream of what you’re used to. It means not going along with what you’re always inclined to: forgetting our Source, avoiding the inner Work that you need to do on the way back to becoming One. It means stopping the unconscious pursuit of earthly treasures and goals by remembering your true Nature and, from there, doing only what is necessary.

Thank you so much, Eva, I’ve truly gained some wisdom!

I’m glad to hear that. Then our conversation truly had meaning.

© Michiel Koperdraat