It fills me with a sort of awe to imagine, in the primeval past, the gradual concrescence of individuality or “who-ness” out of the sea of collective consciousness of which our distant ancestors were crests and troughs. It is a condensation of self-consciousnesses from a solution of instinctual wisdom.
Do you think “Adam” refers to the first “who”? In other words, some people imagine that Genesis recounts the story of the biological progenitors of the human race. This has the unfortunate consequence of generating conflict with likely stories of descent from evolutionary biology. It seems, however, that they are talking about different things and the story of expulsion from the Garden of Eden is just this awakening to self-consciousness through the knowledge of good and evil. For other creatures, the moral question is foregone because decisions are predetermined by instinct, which is the general and impersonal wisdom of nature. For Man, by contrast, this capacity for decision, which is to say, “morality,” represents the existential crux of his soul. The friction wrought by the decision between perceived good and perceived evil can generate the spark that kindles the light of self-consciousness in the soul. The body and all inheritance from nature sustains this spark, and represents a sort of temple to his soul. Biology may tell us about the features and plausible origin of the temple but we need to consult Scripture to help us conceive of the reason for its creation.
When we “pluck the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge,” it is a picture of action that originates as unconscious impulse in the soul; an impulse that did not arise as a free and conscious decision. When Adam consents to Eve’s proposition, it is a picture of the spirit that consents to being led into temptation and thereby indentures itself to the mandates of it passions. This is consistent with how Christians have interpreted “Original Sin” in that it is said to be an inheritance from Adam and not from Eve. There is much more to this, because we can imagine that Eve represents the part of our souls that we “repress” or lose connection with in exchange for self-consciousness.
Most importantly, Mary in Bethlehem represents the counter-image of Eve in the Garden. The Ave Maria prayer has a line, originally found in Deuteronomy 28:4, “benedictus fructus ventris tui,” which is “blessed be the fruit of your womb.” The image of Mary receiving the fruit inwardly is a clear reversal of the image of Eve seizing the fruit from without. Eve’s action brought about the fall into duality while Mary’s passion gave birth to the one who resolves it. Eva is a mirror image of Ave.
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Thank you Max! what a beautiful reflection for a day like today, for a time like these times. I will reflect on it the rest of the day, specially striking to me is the relationship you bridge between Mary and Eve. Loved the icon! May be because english is not my first language *its Spanish( or it just might be pure ignorance but what do you mean by Who-ness? I know one ness or other ness...my brain is having a hard time tryin to imagine it...which might be good!
Have a nice, warmly lighted christmas eve..
Javiera