Why blame it all on the apple?

Poor Eve, she is given a bad wrap for eating the forbidden fruit and then seducing Adam onto the path of ruin.

A foretaste, for the future Adam isn’t man enough to simply say no – and then he tries not only to blame Eve, but to blame god for making her.

Hmmm have things ever changed?

Since then it seems that female passions, and the delicious apple have had a bad rap.

But is it necessarily so?Why pick on the apple?

For a start no mention of Eve eating an apple is found in the Good Book.

It is the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and bad. Besides, the apple was unlikely to be found east of the Mediterranean.

So why is the apple such an enduring symbol of seduction?

Whatever your beliefs,  the Bible – and later cultural corruptions and adaption’s layered on to it , have laid a psychological foundation for men and women’s lives.

For good and bad ….

At Eve’s creation Adam recognizes she is an integral part of himself and called ish (woman) where as he is ish 9man) and for this reason a man and woman leave father and mother and become one flesh.

OK that sounds a bit like cute mythology to me – or perhaps a theological treatise… What’s that got to do with my love life?

Either way Adam and Eve seem to be given intellectual (and sexual?) awareness.

After Adam tries to pin the blame on Eve when, in fact, he didn’t have the guts to simply say ‘no’.

No wonder women today try to be more like men – if men wont act like men, then someone has too ….

Adam ties to even blame Godfor making her. He then names her H?avvah (Eve) because she was “the Mother of all Living” (Gen. 3:20),

Christianity refers to Eve as a warning to Christians (II Cor. 11:3), and stresses Adam’s precedence. It was Eve who was deceived so she should be submissive, bare foot and pregnant.

OK not quiet – I exaggerate:

It actually says women ought to be submissive and find their fulfillment in childbearing (I Tim. 2:11–15; I Cor.11:8–12). How those verses should  sometimes taken is open to debate.

In the Quran, the name Eve (Ar. H?aww?), is not given in the Quran – she is called the “spouse” in the account of her sin against Allah and for been influenced by Ibl?s or the Satan (7:18, 20:115).

How does this relate to the sexy apple of Eden?

Early Christian writers such as Justin and Irenaeus both contrast and compare Eve to Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Jewish mysticism takes the erotic poetry of Song of Songs as a symbol of G-d s love for the Jewish people.  The Christian apostle Paul speaks of the congregation as the bride of Christ.

“It was while Eve was still a virgin that the word of the devil crept in to erect an edifice of death. Likewise through a virgin the Word of God was introduced to set up a structure of life” wrote Tertulian in The Flesh of Christ (17:4).

“Thus what had been laid waste in ruin by this sex was by the same sex reestablished in salvation. Eve had believed the serpent; Mary believed Gabriel. That which the one destroyed by believing, the other, by believing, set straight”

This comparison is rejected by Protestants.

The New Testament does encourage being a eunuch for the sake of the Kingdom (Mt. 19. 10-12) with singleness for those devoted to religious service (1 cor 7:33, 34) it  clearly condemns as ‘hypocritical liars’ those who forbid marriage (1 Tim. 4:2, 3).

However, the increasingly patriarchal world that developed put the screws on women.

In 1987 Mary Hayter (The New Eve in Christ: The Use and Abuse of the bible in theDebate about women in the Church) argued that theabsense of women priests on Hebrew liturgy was to remain distinct from the fertility cults of other peoples.

A check of the ancient world may reveal a few intriguing hints about the apple.

But first let’s revisit the legendary history of Eve on Western thought.

When the Hebrew bible was first translated into Greek chavvah was called Z?? (life).

Was Eve originally a goddess who was demythologized by the biblical writer? Or do other belief systems hint at the same creation story in their own way, as some believers would have us believe?

Anyway, later Rabbis connected the name with Aramaic h?ewy? (serpent) since the serpent was her undoing and that she was her husband’s “serpent.” It was part of the plan, according to Kabbalah, to have man appreciate that he is happier when he returns to the creator .

Of course you can be a little more secular about this ….

Recent scholars point out that there was a Phoenician deity mentioned in a stela from Carthage called h?wt, probably Hawwat. Whether a serpent goddess we are not sure- it can only be guessed assuming Aramaic etymology.

Eve is said to have been made from Adams ??l? or side and in the Hebrew book of Job (18:12) the word is an epithet meaning wife. The word rib is not used in the Eden account..

However, the Sumerian Paradise Myth of Enki and Ninhursag, Enki has a pain in his rib so caused the goddess Nin-ti, or  “Lady of the Rib,” to be created from him.

The Sumerian logogram ti means both “rib” and “life,” states the Encyclopedia Judaica.

In the later Aggadah, a two-tiered, literal-allegorical treatise from the Aramaic word meaning tales or lore, Eve was created after Adams first wife, Lilith, left him. Of course, you don’t find that in the Bible.

The Aggadah claims she was made from the 13th rib.

“God chose not to create her from Adam’s head, lest she be swellheaded; nor from his eye, lest she be a flirt; nor from his ear, lest she be an eavesdropper; nor from his mouth, lest she be a gossip; nor from his heart, lest she be prone to jealousy; nor from his hand, lest she be thievish; nor from his foot, lest she be a gadabout (Gen. R. 18:2)” writes the Encyclopedia Judaica..

Either way Eve was a stunner (BB 58a) and Adam immediately embraced and kissed her and then runs into the famous poem about being bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.

Angels dance, beating their tumbrels and even guard the bridal chamber (P RE 12), claims the Aggadah tradition.

Is there any psychological lesson in all of this? Perhaps a theological secret hidden in the wording?

Perhaps ….

When Adam first named his wife Ishah ( ???? ), and himself Ish ( ,(???) there is an intriguing twist in the spelling.

Now I don’t expect you, dear reader, to follow any religious homily …..

I ask you to look at it with an agnostic reserve … see if there is any message in it for you…

The Genesis account spells the names with the addition of the letter yod to his name and the letter he to

Hers.

Why? Yod-He form part of the unpronounced Divine Name. The Aggadah suggests  that as long as they walked in a godly path, the Divine Name (Yod-He) would protect them.

But….

Go astray and the sacred name is withdrawn, leaving only the word esh ( meaning fire which would consume them both.

I don’t know what you think of this story. A jealous Samael (Satan), using  a serpent to mislead Eve, or  another tradition that claims the serpent had his eye on her for himself (Sot.9b; Shab. 196a) – it has inspired great art and literature.

Immediately on sinning, claims the Aggadah, she sees the Angel of Death and expects imminent execution.

Determined to Adam can’t take another wife after her death she  gets him to eat too. (P RE 13).

So is Eve a tempter leading us to death? Much like a death dealing skeleton holding an apple.

But what about the apple?

Since the dawn of time, the apple was a symbol of ecstasy, fertility, abundance and love.

Gaia gave apples to Hera as symbol of long love and union when Hera married Zeus. Dionysus, creator of the apple, used it to woo Aphrodite.

“In Athens newlyweds divided and ate an apple when they entered the bridal chamber. Sending or tossing apples was a part of courtship. The Old Norse goddess Iduna guarded apples that brought eternal youth to whoever ate them. In the Celtic religion the apple was the symbol of knowledge handed down from ancestors” says the Dictionary of Symbolism.

“Wild crab-apples were gathered in ancient times, and full-sized varieties were already found in Central Europe in the Neolithic era.”

Split apart the apple resembles a vulva which can itself be symbolized  by the vesica pisces.

Called the mandorla (Italian for almond) by the church it was the symbol in Gothic art that bridged heaven and earth.  Mary and the Jesus child are depicted in it.

It is also the scalloped shell symbol of Aphrodite, among other legends.

Conjuring images of the vulva, it signified feminine love & beauty.

In some sacred geometric traditions, it is the womb of creation.

In Hinduism, the Sanskrit word Yoni means “source or origin of life”.

According to The Encyclopedia of Religion the word also has a wider meaning in both profane and spiritual contexts, including “spring, fountain, place of rest, repository, receptacle, seat, abode, home, lair, nest, stable”. It is also etymologically derived from the root yuj—like yoga and yogini—meaning, “to join, unite, fasten, or harness.”

Used by John Demartini, It is also a symbol of unity and a metaphor for successful relationships..

Imagine tow circles side by side. Like two lovers separated and in opposition, when we highlight difference we develop resentment.

When the circles are completely over lapping, one eclipsing the other, one circle loses identity. The same happens when a relationship is  infatuated.

Unity in diversity  achieved at the point of intersection when we remain separate but connected by agreement.

The point of intersection – or vesica pisces – depicted that resembles the opened apple.

Ok that a  nice metaphor but let’s be real …

In the Middle Ages “visual embodiments of the ideal women described in love poetry and romances, with their long blonde hair, fair complexions, swelling bellies, and high, apple-like breasts.”

According to Freud, the apple, is the primary symbol for breasts, especially when there are two. Jung said they are the symbol of life, an ancient fertility symbol. The golden apple for instance was a symbol of immortality.

Figs, quince or pomegranates have been linked to fertility – and the Tree in the garden of Eden. pears, apples, figs, and peaches (and eggs) have been linked to the female womb, even interchangeable for femininity..

However, the Latin church also noted the similarity of the Latin words for “apple” (malus, malum) and for “bad, evil, sin” (malum).

Hidden behind the enticing sweetness of the apple is the enticement of sin.

“Paintings of Christ’s birth show him reaching out for an apple, symbolically taking the sins of the world upon himself; apples on a European Christmas tree suggest that Christ’s birth makes possible a return to the state of innocence that preceded the Fall”claims the Dictionary of Symbolism.

Yet “in baroque art the skeleton of death often is holding an apple: the price of original sin is death.”

The apple is both symbol of life and sin.

But then, so is the vagina. The vulva, symbolized by the mandorla is linked to Mary and Jesus and to the gates of hell..

“A folio leaf from a fourteenth-century Flemish Book of Hours  includes a phrase from the text of the Psalms, “I said in the midst of my days I shall go to the gates of Hell,” as well as an image in the bas-de-page of a man being led to bed by a woman” writes Matha Easton in “Was It Good For You, Too?” Medieval Erotic Art and Its Audiences.”

“The “hell mouth” is both the entrance to the bedchamber and to the body of the woman herself, the woman as the gates of hell an analogy made by writers from Tertullian to Boccaccio.

“But here the gates of hell do not seem particularly threatening, the man seemingly a willing participant in his damnation” she wrote.

Later the Cathar inspired ideas of Courtly love idealized – almost deified  an ideal love that transcended the bedroom.

This “true love” was not the ordinary human love between husband and wife but rather the worship of a feminine saviour, a mediator between God and man, who waited in the sky to welcome the “pure”  with a holy kiss and lead him or her into the Realm of Light” claimed Robert Johnson in We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love.

Johnson argues that psychologically the modern era began in the 12th century and in allegorizing and deifying love, the chivalrous tradition of knights in shining armour made love even harder to attain.

“That revolution finally matured into what we call romanticism. The Western men began to look on woman as the embodiment of all what is pure, sacred and whole, woman became the symbol of a anima, ‘My Lady Soul’” wrote Johnson.

Perhaps women have been laid low by an impossible idealization of being either Whores or God’s Police.

It’s time to realize that we are made sexual beings and enjoy it.

Celebrate the apple of love and our apple breasts and be fully human.

Image: sin_apple_by_depression666