The Divine Metaphor

Stories Hidden in Plain Sight

True believers take things so seriously. So seriously it hurts.

There are many amazing books of wisdom. The Bible is one of them.

When viewed through the lens of the Divine Metaphor, the Creation Story takes on a whole new meaning.

Adopt what you first learned — that Adam and Eve were created. Everything was created by God’s words, and those words are Good. It’s not exclusive to Christianity that there is deep magic in words — names — the act of creation by creating a label for something. I recall a radio program discussing the experience of a person born without language, who learned language at an adult age. Their description of what it was like before language — the darkness and forgetfulness — rang true to the power of creating a label. If you see an object and you don’t know what it is or what to call it, you forget it. If you can put a name to it, it lodges itself in your memory forever. The act of name is a secondary act of creation.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The answer is right there, but so many people focus on that fact that God gave an edict — Do Not Eat This Fruit — rather than the name of the tree. What is it that the Serpent said? Eat this fruit, your eyes will be opened, and you will be Like God?

The hidden narrative is right there in the story to see, and so few see it. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

The narrative where the Serpent is the hero, and God is the enemy. Where God — the ultimate metaphorical authority — wants to keep you down. Wants you to not be like Him. Her. Whatever. It’s an M. Night Shyamalan film, with such a twist at the end. This whole time we thought god was God, but in fact, he was the Enemy, and the Serpent was shooting straight. There are certainly consequences to our actions, but when you wake up, and grow up, you need to act. Make a choice.

We have a choice. To bury our heads in the sand and not eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree.

Or, we eat from the tree. We wake up. We deal with the consequences.

Everyone has eaten from the tree. You have, too. Now that you have the knowledge, do you continue on ignoring what you have learned? Do you make a choice — a hard choice. A brutal choice. At times an impossible choice.

It’s right in front of us. Why won’t we see it?