Curses and Blessings

I dedicate this post to the current Gemini Full Moon, that no doubt inspired my urge to write today.


According to the Biblical story, God did not tell Eve personally to not eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, only Adam was told directly by God. (Genesis 2:15-18) Eve was privy to an embellished version, since she knew enough of it to talk to the serpent about consequences (Genesis 3:3-5), but what she said to the serpent was an embellishment on what we are told God said to Adam, adding "you must not touch it." Isn't that the way of it? Embellishments, there are so many of them in patriarchal religions. Extra consequences, when we have plenty enough of them without making up extras, why do that?

I have often mused over the Eden story. I am a woman. Paul said that Eve was the sinner, not Adam. That Eve brought the curse down on all our heads and that is why she needs to sit down, shut up, be pregnant. No forgiveness for the mistake of Eve, not for Eve, not for all women.... according to what we are told Paul said in 1 Timothy 2:12-14.

Of course, any woman with any self-respect is going to cringe at such a statement, and men too, I should hope! For centuries this mindset of Paul has been used to shape the structures of religious congregations and religious households and even entire societies. Second rate citizens, that is what women have been. Feminism got ahold of that injustice and shook the bugs out of it, bringing the outrageous nature of it into the light. Feminism swings the pendulum pretty far while striving for women's equality, and personally, sometimes I think the point gets kind of lost, but I am grateful for the clean slate that they have been attempting to offer my generation. "Do what you want, girls, we have cleared the path for you!" Why, thank you, thank you very much.

I was reading some thoughts of the Taoist, Osho, this morning. He was referring to the Adam and Eve story, linking it to the Mary and Jesus story. His thoughts were along the lines of "through woman the curse entered the world, and through woman the curse was broken." At first, I did not like what he was saying. After all, Adam gave Eve misinformation and she didn't receive consequences until Adam ate the fruit, so surely Eve is the one who was not at fault, but....

The other thing I have come to notice, thanks to the outrageous claims made by Paul of the Bible, is that Adam was created first, then Eve, so that makes him boss, according to Paul (1 Timothy 2:13). With that kind of math, everything created before Adam would be boss over Adam, no? What makes more sense and is also stated in the Genesis story, is that Adam was to be boss over all of creation, or so it gets translated by much of today's Christians. What I think it is really saying is that Adam is to be the caretaker, the nurturer, the nanny, the keeper, of all that was created before him, and the same for Eve. Although, Eve was especially given the task of caring for Adam, which, in the same respect could get misinterpreted as being the boss of Adam, and from the musing of some anthropologists, that is exactly what the world was like for thousands of years, matriarchal. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came to be known as some of the first famous Patriarchs. The stories have all been filtered through the subsequent ruling of patriarchs. Things are now beginning to come to light again, the true order of things, the symbiosis that is meant to be. Men are to care for all that is, and women are to care for mankind, causing much to overlap.

So, what does the Genesis story say to me now? It says that Eve invited Adam to do something that was not in his best spiritual interest and she knew it. The story of Mary, on the other hand, is a story of a mother's sacrificial love, supporting her beloved child through the hardest choices that any mother could have to face. Her son was tortured for the best interest of the spirituality of mankind. At least, that is what the stories say.

I can sort of see now why Catholics revere Mary so highly, but I don't see why that didn't translate into a better world. Why women continued to be treated badly because of Eve. Paul is the anti-Christ, in my opinion. The Christ is alive and well amongst those that understand the Christ-consciousness, and that enlightenment holds the key to understanding true salvation.

What are we being saved from? Curses, I suppose. What are curses? Imbalances. Who curses? I don't know for sure, maybe everyone that utters a negative statement or desire, but I do believe that the counter-curse is blessing. "Bless those that curse you." (Luke 6:28) That is the basis for being a Green Witch. Thank you, Jesus the Christ, who I believe was the first "Druid," the founder of the people of the faith, the Fae People...  Friend of the Faeries. Eventually the Quakers were also to be called the Friends, a people who began to experience the enlightenment of the Christ-consciousness in spite of the overwhelming religious dogma of their era.

I have noticed three out-of-season blooms in our yard this autumn. According to superstition they are cursed flowers, do not pick them, and especially do not bring them into your home, they say. I remember the curse breaker, "Bless those that curse you." I blessed the little things, after all, you shouldn't shoot the messenger. I am guessing that they are a sign of the polluted state of Gaia. We should certainly learn how to bless the cursed. Bless all that you come in contact with.


One more opinion regarding Paul of the Bible, he parroted. Much of what Paul writes is not original thought. What makes him a novelty is that he also includes some original thought amongst all the plagiarisms. He snags some amazing words from some amazing people and he gets credit for them. In other words, not everything attributed to Paul is crap. Like all really great liars, the trouble lies in a  small percentage of his propaganda, namely the order of things and the embellishments that go over and above what Christ taught. Christians tend to see Paul as a great clarifier, an additional blessing, because Christ and the many, many followers that he personally taught (1 John 1:1 'whom we have seen with our eyes, whom we have touched') weren't quite enough for us? (Sarcastic) Apparently, the simple instructions of Christ were too confusing for many... "Love? Seriously? There has got to be more," they waited and then, "Subjugation of women! Thank you, Paul, now we have something to work with!" Religion in general, I'm currently annoyed by it, but I do think there is much to learn from the past. Stories, they teach, but different people learn different things.

In the Old Testamant, the word that gets translated as prophet (nabi) means prophet/speaker. In the New Testament the word that gets translated as prophet (dikaios) means prophet/poet.


Translating according to Amy: (Words of the Christ from Matt. 10:40-42): Anyone who accepts you accepts me, and anyone who accepts me accepts the One who sent me. Whoever accepts a poetic-seer as a poet-seer receives a poet-seer's reward, and whoever accepts a divinely impartial man receives an divinely impartial man's reward, and whoever gives even a cup of water to a little one due to the example of learning from me shall surely be rewarded.



“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.” 
― Walt Whitman