At this point, then, I want to introduce some new terminology to help get away from the idea that masculine equals men and femininity is a trait only particular to women. I will be using terms that Ken Wilber discussed in his book “Sex, Ecology, and Spirituality.” Instead of using the word ‘masculine’ I will replace it with the ‘Ego.’1 Lately, Ego has become symbolic for selfishness. Taken to an extreme it can lead to selfishness. Here, though, I want to show the positive side of Ego that is necessary for spiritual enlightenment. Ego has creativity, logic, and rationality as it key goals. Mature Egos value producing things, and introducing new ideas that can take the world to the next level. The Ego is usually future oriented, and if it had a slogan it would be “The sky’s the limit, anything is possible.” It was Ego rich people who discovered electricity, made medical advances, and today drive technology to new heights for a better, easier life. Having a strong Ego means that a person knows who they are and what their life mission is. They know what they are good at and what they need to work on. Bold Egos forge through their struggles and so they usually achieve their goals, regardless of what others think of them. There are many shining examples of people who have followed what they truly believed regardless of what culture or tradition has dictated. Jesus, of course, stands out in this category of people. Many others throughout history have also fought for important principals such as freedom, or against racism and slavery. Our national heroes such as Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King come to mind. These have been truly great men who saw beyond the current culture and helped to bring about a more peaceful, better future.
All of this, however, comes with drawbacks. Taken to the extreme the Ego will pursue its goals without regard for other people. The Ego desires be free at all costs, and it wrongly believes itself to be completely independent. To a certain degree the Ego is correct. Part of what makes us human is that we are individuals. That, however, is only half of the picture of our humanity. By itself, the Ego cannot solve all of humanities problems. It’s missing something. That something is the reality that our humanity is conditioned by two things, that we are both part and whole.2
To see this more clearly we need to go back to the basic building blocks of life. Science can help explain the bigger picture. The entire word is made up of atoms. Yet that is not the whole story the world is not just a soup bowl with millions of atoms floating around all by themselves. Instead some atoms join together to make molecules. Molecules in turn come together to make cells which then gather together to produce the organs in our body. The next level is the different parts of our body come together to make up a complete individual. Are we then just a collection of atoms? Is that all that we are? No! As a human being we are more than a sum of our parts. Something bigger and better than just atoms, molecules and organs put together. We have an individual consciousness that uses all these parts together to serve one united purpose. Humans, though whole, are also part of something bigger. The chain of life does not stop at just one human, it continues on past the individual human and moves out beyond it to the community, the state, the nation, the world. We are both whole and a part. Just like atoms are completely whole units by themselves, they are also part of something bigger. The Ego represents our complete wholeness as an individual human beings. This, though, is only part of the story of our humanity, we must remember that we are also part of the rest of the world.
This is where femininity comes into play. It has been women, closer to nature because their bodies are intimately connected to bringing forth new life, that have rallied around nature and community. For this reason femininity can be renamed ‘Eco,’ short for ecology. (also a term used in Ken Wilber’s book)3 Eco’s focus is mostly on community, but this does not mean it is not rational or logical. Only, its logic has led it to be invested in what it sees as something greater than itself--that is the web of all life. The focus for the Ego was a rational mind and how it could be used to create and build things. In contrast, Eco focuses on being part of the something bigger than itself. It looks not how to improve itself but how to improve the whole system, sometimes this means taking a passive back seat role. It is focused on interdependence of everyone and everything. It tries to be cooperative rather than be competitive. In essence, Eco looks at how it is part of a community and downplays the self.
Once again though, Eco has seen only half the picture. Becoming embedded in being only a part of the bigger picture can lead to problems. A person could run in circles all day to make everyone else happy, all the while draining their own Ego. In this case the Ego never has a chance to develop its own talents and bring its individual gifts to the world. This leads to depression and lack of self-esteem. It doesn’t work to be only a part of a bigger system because each human is also a whole person with their own ideas, feelings, and values.
If, as the conservative Christians preach, we should be either all masculine or all feminine then we have only given credence to half of our humanity. This leads to an unhappy, unbalanced and unfilled life. It is part of the reason why so many people are miserable. One cannot ignore half of their self and expect to be fully functioning. Gender roles do just that, they proclaim that we should deny ourselves either Eco or Ego. We do not have to travel far into the bible before we come across the idea of the gender roles. The famous story of Adam and Eve was designed with that intent in mind. Sadly, within this myth, the degradation of women goes even deeper than gender roles or women being placed under a man in the divine hierarchy. This story teaches that femininity is something to be feared as it was the woman who instigated original sin, and therefore she is the cause of the disastrous after effect--the fall of all humanity. Due to this women are seen as immoral, dangerous gateways to sin, this is the very reason that they must be put under a man’s authority to prevent further decay. Hence, the beginnings of femininity associated with submission. This is certainly not the hidden message of the story, but the main theme which climaxes with Eve’s punishment that she must be submissive to her husband.
Creation stories are important for society, for they set the whole context about the meaning of life--understanding our beginnings can bring direction to our lives. Therefore, the story of Adam and Eve has not, and will not be overlooked and forgotten. Since this story has degraded women, society has followed its lead. Armed with the philosophy of Ego and Eco, it is time to take a fresh look at this famous story. Even though this story’s original intent is clearly sexist, I propose that we can re-exam it to bring a new understanding of our masculinity and femininity. Perhaps this may be my own feminist interpretation, but it is possible that the Holy Spirit was working through the author, not in his original sexist words, but in an allegorical way that leads us to the deeper, more spiritual meaning behind this creation story.
The first man’s name, Adam, in Hebrew means “human beings.” I propose that this man represents all humans, both men and women, as they are individuals, or in the terminology I have used before, Ego. So, in examining his beginnings we can get a glimpse into our own origin. The story begins with God creating this first man, Adam, out of dust and breathing life into him. These first words give us an abundant amount of information about our humanity. The first human was created out of dirt from the ground, meaning his foundational substance is part of the earth. The man, however, is more than just a walking dust ball, he was also given the breath of God, which is spirit. This means that all people are a mixture of earth and spirit.
The creation of Adam is different from the first creation story which proclaimed that God created humans as a pair, male and female. Here God created first a single human being, Adam. The emphasis in this second story is different from the first, instead of looking at the creation of humanity collectively, now the story zooms into one individual, or Ego. We do not get far in the story, though, before we are told that God decided that it was not good for Adam to be alone. This is the very first mention by God that something is “not good.” This is in direct contrast to the phrase that is repetitive in the first creation story, “God saw that it was good,” this is in reference to creation, including of course humanity. Here God proclaimed that the only thing that is “not good” is that there is only one human. Imagine being the only person on earth. There would be no one share your thoughts with, no one to hug, or to kiss. There would be no point to this lonely life. Here in the 2nd chapter of the bible, God is giving us a clue as to the meaning of life, that is, it is to be shared with other people. In essence, we were made to love each other. As discussed previously, we all are individuals with our own personalities and style, but we must live within a community.
This is where Eve comes into the picture. She represents community, humanity as a group, or in other words Eco. As with Adam, her name is symbolic, she is called the “Mother of all living.” This idea of the community represented by the feminine is used elsewhere in the Old Testament. There are feminine references about the city of Jerusalem. For example Jeremiah used this same kind of symbolism “Go shout this message to Jerusalem. This is what the Lord says: ‘I remember how eager you were to please me as a young bride long ago…”(Jer 2:2 NLT) Also Isaiah told the Israelites ” For the Lord has called you back from your grief—as though you were a young wife abandoned by her husband.”(Is 54:6 NLT) This idea of Israel as the bride of God, turns into the church as the bride of Christ. The collective is represented as a female in the Christian tradition. So God created Eve to be someone that Adam could share his life with. Recall Adam needed Eve, and God created her to be his “helper,” and this makes sense because this is the function of community. God created Eve as Adam’s helper not as a woman is suppose to help a man, but as a community is expected to help each other. Notice, she is fashioned from a part of him, as an individual is a part of the community. Meaning that every human is both an individual, but also a part of a community. It would make no sense that community comes before the individual. With this interpretation of Eve representing Eco and Adam symbolic of Ego, there is no God given hierarchy here of men over women.
The story continues and explains how the woman is tempted by the serpent and eventually succumbed to eating the forbidden fruit. She then turned to Adam and gave some to him as well. The outcome of that decision is the so called punishments. I don’t believe these are actually punishments, but more likely the consequences of sin. These things turn out to be a description of what everyday life was like for the Israelites. They were never to be a command for all time, but something to grow out of as humanity matured in consciousness. Notice that God never told Adam or Eve that they were cursed. Rather he spoke to Adam saying
“Since you have listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust and to dust you will return.(Gen. 3:17-19 NLT)
Here it appears that God is reprimanding Adam for listening to his wife. Once we understand that she is not a representative for all women, but community, this makes more sense. Adam haphazardly went along with the Eve’s request rather than following God’s directions. In essence we must get along with others, but it is God that must direct our lives, not peer pressure. Notice, here that God is speaking to the individual, or Ego, who will now have to struggle to survive. Also, every individual will eventually face death. Death and survival are both problems that every individual must deal with. The woman, on the other hand, was never told that she would die, only the man. Does this mean that women will never die? Of course not, women die all the time. So this punishment of death to the man and not the woman only makes sense if he represents our individuality.
When God turned his attention to Eve he merely spoke to her saying, “I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth.”(Gen 3:16 NLT) This is not a curse from God, this again is simply an explanation of the simple fact that it is women who become pregnant and give birth. The actual pain and risk of childbirth has been reduced through the advent of medical science. Then come the tortuous words for women, “And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you” (Gen 3:16 NLT) Because of our separation from God, we also feel a real separation from each other as well. During ancient times, this was especially true between the sexes as they appeared to have different roles in life. This idea of battling for superiority is a real consequence of sin.
This is usually considered the end of the story. If this was really all of the story then it would leave us with a horrible, empty feeling of hopelessness. God punished us and sent us out into the cold, cruel world. The most significant part of the entire story is too often overlooked. The final passage of this story can be obscure and so its meaning can easily get lost.
“Behold, the man is become one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.(Gen 3:22-24 KJV)
The most significant part of the entire story is contained not in the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil which led to being cast out from the garden, but in the other tree in the garden, the Tree of Life. This tree is symbolic of the real connection between all of humanity and God. If we consider the branches of this tree to represent people, then they all come together to meet at the trunk, we all look to God as our foundation, our roots that we all have in common since God is the creator of all of humanity. At the same time the branches grow upward and reach into the sky, meaning we are all moving toward the heavens, our eternal home with God. This tree is in paradise as a sign of our omega, where humanity is going to end up. Our immortality is assured, but that does not mean that we can sit lazily around and wait for it to happen to us. It still must be earned. Every day we must live and work toward the goal of immortality. This is not something that is easy, because if it was it would be worthless. As most parents know, if you give your child everything then they appreciate nothing.
In the above passage God is talking specifically about “the man” as if he has already dismissed Eve from his memory. This is not a sexist God forgetting all about the woman and only concerning himself with “the man.” In this case it is symbolic that he is talking about the man, because the information is specifically for every individual, not necessarily to the community as a whole. It is every individuals job to find the Tree of Life. Yet, in the verse it seems as if God does not want Adam to obtain the tree, why would God say, “Lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life.” I cannot believe that God has ended all opportunity for eternal life for humans before we ever got a chance to start the human race. Instead, I understand the problem to be one of timing. God was not ready for Adam to take from the Tree of Life yet because he had not yet experienced human life. Since Adam represents each of us individually, then his journey becomes our journey. God sent Adam out from the security of the garden so that he could begin the excursion of life in this world.
God, though, did not send us out of the garden and walk away from us. No, the final part of the above passage shows how God has given us help in finding the Tree of Life.
“And he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”
After sending the first couple on their way, God placed a flaming sword to keep the way back to the garden, and the Tree of Life. The flaming sword is none other than the Holy Spirit and her words found in the bible. She is the gift that makes this journey possible. Let’s consider this, first, realize that the sword is flaming and fire has always been associated with the Holy Spirit. Remember at Pentecost tongues of fire came over the apostles. The sword, which turned every way, is another reference to the movement of the spirit. For further proof look at what St. Paul tells us in Ephesians, “Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God” Right here in the first book of the bible Christians are informed that Holy Spirit will guide us back to the Tree of Life.
With this interpretation of Adam of Eve story, the sexist, gender roles of this story disappear. They are replaced with God presenting to men and women two roles to perform in life. In fact, both of these the self (ego) and the community (eco) is exactly what defines our humanity. The Tree of Life is actually symbolic of these two aspects of human life. The tree represents all of humanity as interconnected as one large community, but we can still look at each individual branch and see the fruit that it produces. What connects the whole tree together of course is the trunk and the roots which we have mentioned is symbolic of God as the foundation that we all rest in. To gain the Tree of Life, we must, with the aid of the Holy Spirit balance out our Eco and Ego to be competent, loving human beings.
Bibliography
1. Wilber, Ken. Sex, Ecology, Spirituality. Boston: Shambhala, 2000. P. 456-466
2. Ibid., p. 48-49
3. Ibid., p. 467-477
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