Every good story must start from the beginning. This one starts with a garden and a newborn baby. The newborn is in a pure state of consciousness: No knowledge of self, let alone knowledge of good and bad. For a second, the baby just is in the womb. However, in the seconds, the baby slowly realizes there are others in its world now. There is a caretaker who is holding it, feeding it from its own self, and who is strangely familiar. The baby’s thinking therefore shifts from ‘the only one in existence’ (God) to two in existence (Adam and Eve). The baby starts to grow, and so does its sense of self. It goes from the baby and others to the-baby and family members, the-baby and friends, the-baby’s ethnicity-group and other-ethnicities, the-baby’s-race and other-races, and humanity at large. It’s a simple story until the serpent pops up.
Now, serpents were ancient symbols of immortality, life, and rejuvenation.
As is the case of the ouroboros: the unborn and undying serpent that eats its own tail.
In many cultures, they were used to represent divine feminine energy. Evidence of this can be traced to ancient temples, cave walls, and figurines. The divine feminine was either portrayed holding up snakes, with a snake in her belly, or with a woman’s head and a snake’s body. A snake is reborn and breaks out of confining energy by shedding its skin without dying: A representation of the womb’s ability to bleed without being wounded, and to break just to birth life. In Egypt, the serpent was known as Wadjet. In Venezuela, she was the rainbow snake Puana. In Dahomey, she was the rainbow snake Aido Hwedo. For the Igbo, she was the water goddess Mami Wata. The list could go on and on, and our conclusion would be:
The divine feminine was the serpent in the garden.
There she was. In a pure state of consciousness: No knowledge of self, let alone knowledge of good and bad. And then, guided by her own deepest inner wisdom, she takes the apple and gives birth to self-awareness. Only, self-awareness wasn’t what she thought it would be. We all know how it feels to want something, to get it, and then to realize it wasn’t what you needed…
