Dictionary of all Scriptures & Myths

GENESIS 3

The Serpent's Deception
1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

SERPENT - A symbol of the inner forces of the relative existence, which appear and again disappear, by which the growth of the soul is accomplished. These forces are dual, and of the higher and lower natures. They act reciprocally although in opposition. The higher serpent is atma-buddhic, the lower serpent kama-manasic. The first is of the Wisdom-nature and the second of the Desire-nature, and each is active through the mind.

SERPENT MORE SUBTIL THAN ANY BEAST OF FIELD - A symbol of the desire-mind, which is more penetrative and captivating to the ego than any of the lower desires (beasts).

"The serpent in the Genesis story, which ever after crawled upon the ground, is the allegorical symbol of man's lower animal desires, which had only come to be recognized as lower when it was seen that they resisted the upward striving towards an ideal. The subtilty of the serpent in its conversation with Eve represents the struggle within man's mind, the wavering between his upward impulses and the insidious attractiveness of his downward tendencies. . . . Man was now in a position to choose deliberately in any given instance whether he would strive upwards, or obey the animal nature which pulled in the opposite direction." - A. H. M'NEILE, Expository Times, June 1906.

BEASTS, CLEAN - Symbolic of the superior emotions of the lower nature, that is, emotions in the astral course of production which are ready for transmutation.

FIELD - A symbol of the lower nature; the arena within which the soul's evolution takes place.

WOMAN - A symbol of the emotion-nature of the soul, which is to be transmuted from the astral to the buddhic state. The woman or feminine aspect of ourself also encompasses our spirit.

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of any tree in the garden ?"

Now the desire-mind (the serpent) is more insidious than any of the simple lower desires or appetites (the beasts), and thus is able to lead the emotion-nature astray from the higher intuitions, and to divert the vibrations of energy downward to the plane of the desires. And so the emotion-nature is drawn to the sense objects.

"And the woman said unto the serpent, Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat: but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."

And the emotion-nature surmises that of the sense-pleasures the soul may partake naturally as do animals, but of the fruit of experience, which is the moral nature, the soul cannot partake without incurring the death penalty, by entering upon the cycle of evolution which necessitates the repeated births and deaths of the forms which transitorily embody the soul.

"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil."

Then the desire-mind represents to the emotion-nature that death or extinction shall not supervene for such behavior; for the Divine nature knows that when the fruits of action are tasted, experience shall be acquired which will be the means by which Godhood will eventually be achieved through cleaving to the good, and shunning evil.

HERB (Food) - A symbol of Truth (the Real), which gradually takes the place of Illusion (the unreal). All creatures (fish and fowl, higher and lower thoughts) are sustained by food.

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat; and she gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat."

And so when the emotion-nature (woman) perceives the desirability of descending to the lower planes, and sees the beauty of the prospect, and recognizes that this course will be the means of enabling the soul to increase its knowledge, then attachment to the lower life is set up, and the results are communicated to the evolving mind (Adam), whereby the mind partakes of new experiences.

"And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked ; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons."

And then it is, both the emotions and the mind perceive their utter lack of "clothing” (concepts), their "nakedness” or ignorance, and they become aware of the necessity for further evolution. And their endeavors result in producing an external mental condition which conceals the inward growth of the soul. (Fig-leaves so applied are symbolic of secrecy.)

"The tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by which man fell, changed into the Tree of Life by which Satan perished; the fruit of disobedience becoming the fruit of the Tree that is in the midst of paradise: the garden whence the first Adam was driven forth replaced by the garden where the second Adam arose from the dead." - J. M. NEALE, Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. I. p. 139.


God Arraigns Adam and Eve
8And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. 9And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

15And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

“And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.”

And they (man-woman, mind-emotion) heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden (voice of the divine within their higher consciousness -conscience)

“in the cool of the day” – The first reference to temperature in the bible is used to distinguish good and evil. In the cool of the day indicates our first moving away from the Sun or divinity.
HEAT AND COLD - Symbols of the opposite conditions of relativity,-good and evil.
LIGHT (DAY) - The consciousness which perceives reality. Having eaten (become one with) the fruits of the lower nature (forbidden)our perception of the warm divinity is less (cool of the day). Things known to the conscious mind are said to be light and things known to the spirit are said to be dark to the conscious mind.

HIDING FROM GOD - Symbolic of the mental emotion (male female)-nature paying no heed to conscience and aspiration.

NAKEDNESS (HIGHER ASPECT) - A symbol of purity, that is, freedom from the limitations and opinions (garments) of the lower nature.

NAKEDNESS (LOWER ASPECT) - A symbol of a state of ignorance, a lack of ideas and opinions (clothes). As all external states have analogous reference to internal states, this condition is emblematic of an empty state of soul.

And both the emotions and the mind perceive their utter nakedness or ignorance, that is, they recognize the necessity for further evolution. Fig leaves, so used, signify concealment of the inward growth of the Spirit.

SERPENT MORE SUBTIL THAN ANY BEAST OF FIELD - A symbol of the desire-mind, which is more penetrative and captivating to the ego than any of the lower desires (beasts).

“Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle” - And the Divine nature decides that the desire-mind (serpent) is indeed lower and grosser than the sub-human desires and instincts which preceded its evolution. It is doomed to remain on the lower planes, and it shall feed upon the sensations and forces which proceed from the lower nature long as it exists.

SEED - A symbol of the manifesting God, the source of all things.

SEEDS OF MEN, WOMEN AND CATTLE - Symbols of the archetypal forms of the vehicles of mind, emotion, and higher desires.

"Thither bring the seeds of all men, women, and cattle, which are the greatest and best and finest on this earth. - Venlidad, II.

The “seeds,” which are the ideal type-forms brought over from the previous cycle of manifestation,- the Lunar,-are now introduced on the terrene globe. These type-forms are on the mental, astral, and physical planes.

HEEL - A symbol of the lower nature of the human soul.

"And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall  bruise thy head, and thou (serpent) shalt bruise his heel."

And ethical distinction shall be drawn between the sense nature with its appetites and delights, and the higher emotion-nature; and through this distinction shall the struggle within the soul proceed. From this conflict between higher and lower, the result shall be that the lower mental (head) directivity of desire, or lower will, shall be crushed out by the Divine nature (Christ within) grown up in the soul, and this will lead to the dissipation of the lower part of the soul (heel).


The Punishment of Mankind
16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

18Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

19In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

20And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

CONCEPTION OF CHILDREN - Symbolic of the formation in the mind of new ideas and generalizations, produced by thought and emotion.

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee."

To the emotion-nature (woman) it is imparted that difficulty and distress shall attend the formulation of fresh ideas, and the realization of Divine wisdom. All the future evolution of the soul shall be through sorrow; and the ideas begotten of experience (i.e. through the functioning of the mind) shall be realized with pain. The emotion-nature shall be beholden to the mind (husband), that is, shall be subservient to knowledge: and intellect shall dominate the love- principle, or emotion-nature.

By conception' is signified all thought. By the sons whom she would bring forth in sorrow' are signified the truths which she would thus produce." - SWEDENBORG, Arcana Coelestia (Secrets of Heaven) to Genesis. iii. 16.

CURSE ON THE GROUND - A symbol of limitation of the activities of the lower nature by moral law, through suffering. Ground, Land, and Earth are symbols of the lower (carnal) mind.

"Because thou (Adam) hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life."

 And to the mind (Adam) the conscience directs that, since the emotion-nature (wife) has been apparently led astray, and the moral nature (tree) has been acquired, the lower nature shall become abhorrent, stage by stage, and it shall be a burden so long as evolution upon the lower planes proceeds.

"By the man hearkening to the voice of his wife' is signified the consenting of the man or 'rational principle'; and whereas the rational consented, it also averted or cursed itself, and on that account the whole external man was averted (from celestial life), which is signified by the 'ground being cursed for thy sake'; to eat thereof in great sorrow,' signifies that the state of his life would become miserable; and that this state would continue to the end of that Church." - SWEDENBORG, Arcana Coelestia to Genesis. iii. 17.

THORNS AND THISTLES - Symbolic of evils, sufferings, and sorrows.

"Thorns also and thistles shall it (ground) bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field."

Sins and sufferings shall proceed from the lower nature; and the lower mind (Adam) shall subsist through the produce of the sensation-nature and the affections.

"For the body becomes liable to a curse, since it has for its husbandman an intellect (Adam) unchastened and unsound. And its fruit is nothing useful, but only thorns and thistles, sorrow and fear, and other vices which every thought strikes down and, as it were, pierces the intellect with its darts." - PHILO, Works, Yonge, Vol. IV. p. 309.

     "Each man is the soil in which the hereditary Adam-seed produces thorn and thistle, and the hereditary God-seed produces grape and fig. The two growths in the same individual strive for the mastery, and from the deep contrast between them emerges the perfected life of the child of God." - BASIL WILBER-FORCE, Problems, p. 81.

SWEAT OF THE FACE - A symbol of falsity and illusion, -the inverted reflection of truth.

"In the sweat of thy face shalt thou (Adam) eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."

Through gropings of ignorance,—the effort generated of the truth-nature (face), reflected as falsity and illusion (sweat),—shall goodness (bread) be appropriated, until evolution upon the lower planes ends. For the lower mind (Adam) is but the culminating product of the lower evolution. It is as dust which passes away, and it shall not ascend.

EVE, WIFE OF ADAM - A symbol of the emotion-nature (Eve) united to the mental-nature (Adam) of the lower mind.

"And the man called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living."

And the mind recognizes the life-principle within the soul to be the emotion-nature, for it is the originator or former of all qualities that subsist, that is, of all qualities that have in them the germ of the higher life.

GERMS, OR SEEDS - A symbol of the monads of Life and of Form, which proceed forth primordially into manifestation.

“Germs infinite in number, in no way like each other; for none of the other things at all resembles the one the other." - Anaxagoras, FAIRBANKS, 4.

Prior to manifestation, the differentiated possibilities of life (monadic) were not apparent. Within the spiritual essence lay the monads,- the centers of the archetypal qualities and forms of all things in infinite diversity, for no one form of the One Life may resemble another, since that Life is infinite.


The Expulsion from Paradise
21Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

22And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as 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 for ever: 23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24So 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.

SKINS AS CLOTHING - Symbolic of the mental, astral, or physical sheaths of the soul.

"And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife coats of skins, and clothed them."
And the Divine Law caused the mental and astral bodies to be formed for the soul. It is not until the expulsion from paradise that humans become mortal beings of flesh.

ADAMAS (LOWER ASPECT) - A symbol of the lower self as ruler of the soul's lower qualities.

“And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as 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 for ever: therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken."

And now the Love-forceful aspect of the Logos, realizing that the mind (man) is able to recognize the distinction between each of the many states of relativity; and that of the relative condition there will be begotten the pairs of opposites; directs that the descent into physical matter be accomplished, lest without the mind undergoing the experiential life beneath, absolute existence should again be claimed. So the mind is directed towards the lower plane activities whereof its own nature has been builded, and is required to develop and discipline its faculties and emotions.

"The true and fundamental selfhood of every human soul, best and worst, is the very life of God himself, though differentiated from the whole, and made over, as it were, in part at least, into the soul's own keeping. Therefore, you, the real you, deep down beneath the ignorant, suffering, sinful you, are eternal. You, the outer you, the mortal man, are of yesterday, and will be gone to-morrow; you, the spiritual you, the deathless you, are of that in which time is not, and will enter by and by upon the fullness of your glorious heritage in the living God." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., God's Life in Man.

TREE OF LIFE - A symbol of the Divine Life which spreads through the universe and soul, and produces all forms and activities on the planes of manifestation.

EATING - A symbol of the acquisition of knowledge as sustenance for the mind, by means of sensation and experience. Also, in a higher sense, the reception of spiritual food which is Wisdom, Truth, and Love

GROUND: EARTH - A symbol of the lower nature of the soul, which requires tilling ' and "sowing to produce good "fruit."

“Therefore the Lord God sent him (Adam) forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.”

So the mind having ceased to be influenced from the buddhic plane (Eden) is directed by the Supreme law towards the lower plane activities whereof its own nature has been built up.

CHERUBIM AND SERAPHIM - Symbols of transcendental keepers of the buddhic plane: that is, Divine laws applicable to the higher nature but not to the lower, and which, therefore, cut off the lower consciousness from the higher.

"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden the Cherubim, and the flame of a sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

See Also

Related Information

GENESIS 1
GENESIS 2
GENESIS 3
GENESIS 4
GENESIS 5
GENESIS 6