The church has represented this story in a way that implies Eve's subservience to Adam, and that she was responsibile for the Fall of Mankind. Women have suffered plenty because of this! But on the contrary, Adam needed Eve's aptitude for integration and intuitive wisdom to perceive the real meaning of his situation; the rationale and logic of the intellect would not be enough. Adam needs to have his eyes opened and it is the woman who provides him with this opportunity. Therefore it was permissible for Eve to eat the apple of knowledge that was forbidden to Adam - this was Eve's dowry. It wasn't a negative action to eat the apple, it was a gift to humankind of its inner awareness, its spirituality. Apparently even the symbols 'good' and 'evil' were interpreted in the Bible opposite to their original Hebraic meaning.
Hoffmann goes on to explain how each of the characters in Genesis represents an archetype of the human personality, so that the story is symbolic of the struggles and conflicts we face within ourselves daily, as people have all through history.
It is easy, as I did previously, to dismiss the Genesis material as manipulative, patriarchist propaganda. Taken at face value that is how it has been used. It took Hoffmann's profound knowledge of the Quabalah and its original Hebraic language to unlock the real meaning, and that is brilliantly laid bare in this book.
But it's not a heady, intellectual read - it's easy to follow and insight follows insight as Hoffmann shines the light of her scholarship on the original text and its wide implications. The book can open our minds in a way that perhaps the original authors of Genesis intended but which has gone unrecognized until now.
? Reveals why Eve was allowed to eat the apple of knowledge forbidden to Adam.
? Uses mythological imagery to reveal the working processes of awareness in the human brain.
? Combines ancient Qabalic techniques and modern scientific brain research to show how Genesis is an operating manual for creating wholeness in the psyche.
Adam exists within all our psyches, as does Eve. While Adam represents the masculine component of consciousness--pure intellect--Eve represents the functions of the brain's frontal lobes, the feminine intuitive integrator of the four-level human brain. If we wish to be whole, we must develop and integrate the feminine with the masculine. Using her lifelong study of the Qabalah and the secret meanings of the Hebrew alphabet, Glynda-Lee Hoffmann shows how the Garden of Eden story is actually an instruction manual that explains transcendence as a biological imperative.
Hoffmann reveals why it was permissible for Eve to eat the apple of knowledge that was forbidden to Adam. Eve's desire for integration, clarity, and transcendence--for wisdom--is a goal Adam is biologically incapable of pursuing without her. Though written as mythology, Genesis contains remarkable scientific and psychological correlations that can help an individual integrate the masculine and feminine sides of the psyche and thereby translate potential into actuality.