The Original Vilified Woman: Eve

God created Adam in the Garden of Eden, and from his rib created his companion Eve. By doing so, God separated the feminine and masculine sides of the psyche.

Separating from the anima (feminine) is a necessary step on the path to individuation. When we are too attached to the anima, we may lose our sense of self by becoming passive. It’s important to reckon with the anima: to create some distance from our emotions in order to become self aware and responsible for our own emotional regulation.

The serpent entwines itself around the body of Eve; it whispers in her ear, enticing her to eat the forbidden fruit. Walter Crane (1845-1915)

Eve is the original vilified woman because she ‘lets the snake trick her.’ She is subsequently blamed for the fall of man and the ejection from the Garden of Eden. The consesus is that she is weak and stupid for doing so.

John Milton, a poet in the 1600s, states in Paradise Lost that Eve eats the fruit in order to be equal to Adam. Milton paints Eve to be conniving and jealous, as she knew that eating the fruit was a sin and “pushed” Adam into doing it anyway. For context, the poem was written only decades after the Witchcraft Act of 1604 which defined witchcraft as a crime punishable by death. Not a great time for women.

Over time, the Garden of Eden story in the book of Genesis has deformed and bloated with contempt for Eve and her ‘stupidity.’

The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966)

In case you don’t know it or need reminding, here’s the general gist:

• God creates a perfect paradise called the Garden of Eden.

• God makes Adam from the dust of the earth and creates Eve from his rib.

• God commands Adam and Eve to not eat fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.

• A serpent (only known as the “cunningest of creatures”) enters the garden and tempts Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, telling her it will give her knowledge and wisdom.

• Eve eats the fruit and shares it with Adam.

• They become aware of their nakedness and sew fig leaves together to cover themselves.

• God realises they have disobeyed him and he casts them out of the Garden of Eden. The world becomes a diffcult place to live.
  

In the original text, it is never explicitly stated that the serpent IS Satan. This idea is just a theory placed on the story. Adam is physically present when Eve eats the fruit and doesn’t tell her not to. He also willingly eats the fruit. When God confronts Adam about eating the fruit, he blames Eve, basically saying “she made me do it.” It is entirely possible that the original sin was having the audacity to lie to God in the first place. They are banished from the Garden for their disobedience and are punished by having to live in reality.

The Rebuke of Adam and Eve (by Domenichino, 1626)

The act of eating fruit in myth represents acquiring knowledge or understanding. Persephone must return to the underworld after eating the pomegranate seeds. Snow White literally goes unconscious after eating a poisoned apple. 

A serpent “lingers in mystery” as they wait in tall grasses, dark waters or under rocks. The coiled up serpent of Kundalini is the cosmic energy that lives in the base of the spine. A snake represents the darkness of the psyche, the unknown and “chaos in an otherwise orderly garden.” (6)

Transactions of the Zoological Society of London

The serpent tells Eve that the fruit will make her wiser. Eve decides to eat the fruit in order to “have access to her higher being.” (5) By doing so, she sacrifices “passive comfort and obedience for greater consciousness.” (3) After eating the fruit, both Eve and Adam recognise their nakedness: their vulnerability, mortality and their potential for suffering.

To eat the fruit is “necessary for our evolution.” Yahweh, the Jewish legend, says the Tree of Life can be found through clearing a path. Clearing a path to our tree is overcoming obstacles, such as greed, anger, lust or addictions. We make difficult choices and face our shadow. We must repeatedly choose the temptation of the serpent. By doing so, “we recover our lost wholeness by tasting the fruits of consciousness” (including suffering and pain) to the fullest. (3)

The conversation between snake the darkness of the psyche (snake) with the feminine (Eve) is no coincidence. It is feminine energy that is drawn to the unknown, the mystery. The feminine in us feels compelled to answer the call of the wild.

After eating the fruit, Adam and Eve also learn to delay gratification over consuming. (“If I don’t do this now, I can have this later.”) At one point in time, humanities propensity for hedomism was necessary for survival. Now it’s quite the opposite.

To be conscious is to not give in to our lower instincts or our ego.

The Garden of Eden with the Fall of Man or The Earthly Paradise with the Fall of Adam and Eve by Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel (1615)

Eckhart Tolle believes the golden age or Garden of Eden was a memory of a time when humanity had not yet developed the thinking mind. When they were present in their surroundings, connected to the cycle of life and the natural elements. This is called awareness. It is still within us, accessible at any moment. (Yes, this moment. Right now.)

We can still enter the Garden of Eden: it is the awareness behind the thinking

mind.

Considering this, Eve eating the fruit seems a lot braver than it’s made out to be. To be concious is to accept that there will be suffering. We can choose the succulent depths of our nature and make connections based on authenticity. We accept things as they are and let go of our attachments. We don’t have to pretend to see paradise in everything, yet we also know paradise is within us. All we have to do is do nothing at all.

“Were it not for the leaping and twinkling of the soul, man would rot away in his greatest passion, idleness.” - Carl Jung.

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