Lesson 3 - Genesis
9.18.2003
The "God" seen in the Garden of Eden story of Genesis is the Demi-Urge. We were being kept ignorant and subservient to him. As slaves, we were treated quite well, but we were still slaves. So why did the Demi-Urge put the Tree of Knowledge/Gnosis in the Garden? He had no choice. Nothing can exist without it. The Tree of Knowledge (ToK) is the Tree of Life as seen from what we consider the top. Therefore the Fruits of the ToK are the lower sepherioth/spheres (such as Malkuth, the "Kingdom" - the physical plane.) The Demi-Urge, knowing that it would eventually lead to our loss of ignorance, told us that we would have to taste death if we ate from that Tree (which was true.) Lucifer, the Light Bearer, came along and informed Eve that it would make her like the gods, knowing good and evil. This indicates that the gods themselves are not dualistic and know (have an experiential knowledge of) both good and evil.
Eve thought that the fruit did look pretty good and therefore decided of her own free will to accept the consequences and partake. Adam decided to partake as well. The Demi-Urge then created physical bodies ("animal skins") for them to inhabit and forced them to the most dense sphere on the Tree. In order to prevent them from reascending the Tree (now called the Tree of Life as viewed from the bottom) and regain their immortality (thereby freeing themselves from slavery,) the Demi-Urge and his band of Archons (Greek word for "Ruler") placed a Seraphim armed with a flaming sword at the entrance to Eden.
[I know this is getting weird. Keep in mind that this isn't exactly meant to be taken literally.]
I want to go back and talk about this partaking of the fruit. There is some stuff going on behind the surface here. For one thing, Lucifer enters Eden in the form of a serpent. The serpent is one of three symbols for Scorpio. The lowest is the scorpion and represents death and decay. The second is the serpent and represents the sexual (i.e. creative) force. The third and "highest" symbol is the eagle and represents the victory over and refinement of the lower two. The serpent is an obvious phallic symbol. A tree, especially a fruit bearing tree, is also an obvious phallic symbol. In addition, the verb "to know" is used in the book of Genesis to indicate sexual intercourse: "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived..." In common language, people will sometimes allude to this usage by saying something like, "He knew her in the biblical sense."
Therefore, the tree being called the "Tree of Knowledge" practically makes its relationship to the sexual force explicit. I touched on this in the first lesson. Here I will reveal the implication: Lucifer had sex with Eve. Eve then shared this "knowledge" with Adam (i.e. had sex with him.) Eve then gave birth to Cain and Abel. Cain, the first born, was Lucifer's child. Abel and then Seth were Adam's sons. This is why the Genesis story states clearly that Seth's birth was necessary for the specific purpose of replacing Abel. If Seth wasn't born, Adam would not have had a lineage.
We are ignorant of the true nature of the sexual force. In our ignorance, we misuse it. Through incarnation on this dense physical plane, our ignorance is gradually replaced by knowledge, understanding and eventually wisdom regarding the creative forces and therefore everything in existence (including ourselves.) This is climbing the Tree of Life and partaking of its fruit (which in this case are the "higher" spheres.) This process can also be described as the gradual unfoldment of consciousness and return to unity.
In the meantime, if you want to delve deeper into the topic of sex magick, listen to the following podcast I created on the subject:
Lessons: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 ...NEXT
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