Reinterpreting Original Sin

Up until a few years ago I did not really understand the story of Adam and Eve and "The Fall." I just assumed that it was supposed to be taken literally since it seemed that most people did. Such a literal interpretation was always a major stumbling block for me, however, especially when I was growing up. I kept wondering how on earth anyone could take Christianity seriously with such a story. I mean, really, our world of suffering was caused when the first humans disobeyed God and ate an fruit? And this transgression deserved the severe punishment of experiencing suffering, pain, loss, loneliness, and death? How much more ridiculous could the story be? I was amazed that Christianity had lasted at all, let alone for 2000 years.

It wasn't until I read books like The New Man, by Maurice Nicoll, and A Course in Miracles, that my eyes were opened to the deeper, esoteric meaning of the Bible. It was another one of those "Ah ha!" moments when something that had been formerly hidden from me was now revealed. The Bible (and no doubt virtually all sacred texts, as well as some literature and poetry) offers multiple layers of meaning, with the literal meaning being only the most basic level.

Here is a significant quote from Search for the Meaning of Life by Willigis Jager, revealing a deeper understanding of "original sin":

All religions know about the imperfect condition of humanity. Many speak of a "fall," of "original sin." But original sin is not a fall from a higher state of consciousness into a more imperfect state. Rather, it is the emergence from a "prepersonal heaven," an awakening from the dullness of the preconscious into an ego-experience, a shift out of the state of instinct into the knowledge of good and evil, as the Scripture says. This was a great step forward in evolution, but it also brought with it the whole burden that is bound up with this ego-experience, namely, the experience of sickness, suffering, guilt, loneliness, and death.

Thus the so-called "fall" did not bring mortality, but the knowledge of mortality and the mutability of all things. Previously, humans had been living the life of flowers and animals. Hence the real sin is not eating from the tree of knowledge - that is only an image - but that in the process of becoming an ego the person gets separated from God. "They were naked," Scripture tells us. That has nothing to do with clothes; it implies that they were thrown out into the loneliness of the ego. The expulsion from paradise is stepping out into the personal condition without this experience of oneness with God. Original sin is not guilt in the real sense of the word, as we have long realized. It is a fact resulting from the development of consciousness.

I think this starts to put "The Fall" story in a whole new light. Instead of seeing ourselves as "guilty sinners" being punished by an angry father-figure type God, we can come to realize that we (humanity and ultimately every living on non-living thing in the universe - since all is ultimately one with God) have chosen to be in this world, on purpose, in order to experience "the knowledge of good and evil." We have chosen to experience duality and all of the good and bad that goes with it. We are here to find and experience wisdom and knowledge. We didn't want to stay stuck in the stasis of the Garden of Eden, where time did not exist and where we 'lived' in oneness with God. So we are here in the world to experience a journey and learn something from it. Like the Prodigal Son or the son of the king in the Gnostic Hymn of the Pearl, we have left the comfort and safety of our home (i.e. our oneness with God) in order to go on a journey of growth and evolution. We are divine beings clothed in bodies in a world buffeted by time and the processes that spring from duality: birth/death, male/female, good/evil, etc. Thus there is nothing to feel guilty for. We are here for a purpose, which, I believe, must ultimately return us to our source, God; yet we will have learned something along our journey (hopefully) that will make the return to God, as in the story of the Prodigal Son, all the more sweeter and beautiful.

Perhaps the notion of guilt and sin came about, as A Course in Miracles suggests, because a part of us feels guilty for being separated from God. Like the Prodigal Son we have left home and have become scared to face the Father. We're not sure how He's going to react. We imagine the worst, which translates into feelings of guilt, loneliness and separation. If we could only realize that these feelings are really a product of our ego, our attachment to the world and to our individual separate identities. As Jager writes, "One day we shall realize that God always was 'walking in the garden' with us, that we never were separated from him. Even if we don't know it now, we will experience it. Paradise lies before us. Hence we Christians call it the 'New Jerusalem.' It is the experience of oneness with God."

In my next post I will go into detail regarding the symbolism of "The Fall" story. I think you will be amazed at the deeper levels of meaning represented by the serpent, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as well as the nature of time and the five senses.