Tree of knowledge of good and evil
From PhiloWiki
The tree of knowledge of good and evil
This is a speculative account ... replies needed.
While visiting the "Eden" of the Amazonian basin one becomes familiar with the indigenous use of "medicine plants." Of common use in certain areas is that of ayahuasca or yage. It is processed from a liana vine and other plant additives that are commonly taken as a bitter tea in a ceremonial setting typically with several people and a "shaman" administering it, most commonly in a dark as possible setting. Along with rather astounding "psychedelic" images and patterns which one "sees' over the course of several hours, as one becomes familiar with this phenomena one also has a benign sense of being "taught " by the plant medicine. If one approaches this with an openness there are often "answers" to ones questions of morality, i.e. what is the best action in ones life for various issues that arise. The native people there typically distinguish between the role of the "shaman" whose concern is with the psychic health of the village and that of the "sorcerer" who is typically seen as more self-centered, often exclusively out for just his own good. Sometimes these two roles are mixed and often there is conflict between shamans and sorcerers. The use of these plants have been traced back for at least 20,000 years through the discovery of artifacts used in their preparation. The question arising in the discussion of Genesis and the story of Adam and Eve and the "tree" is the possiblity that Moses, the supposed writer, was particularly familiar with a similar plant medicine, possibly in use in Egypt, since he was supposedly quite familiar with Egyptian and African priests and their practices. It has been known that they used a psychedelic plant in their ceremonial life, the Blue Lotus of the Nile. Recall in Homer's Odyssey the problem Ulysses had with his men in the land of the lotus eaters, serious addictions, as I remember. Was his account in Genesis a parable told to condemn this practice? Rather than going on an ad hoc basis to shamanic ceremonies to resolve intra-village and inter-tribal conflict by the use of a "teaching plant/tree", did he intend to rather replace this with a written code of behaviour? Some of this issue has been recently discussed in the controversies about the rise of the written languages, e.g. The Goddess and the Alphabet, and the patriarchies in the demise of the goddess religions. Another important aspect of the use of these "plant medicines" in line with the account in Genesis is that in many mythologies the serpent is a critical aspect of shamanic visions, even in areas where snakes are not part of the environment. Cf. Jeremy Narby's The Cosmic Serpent for background on this. There he describes the common vision of a serpent in the visions induced by these plants. The demonization of the serpent in the Old Testament is again possibly a warning by Moses against these practices. Later one recalls that the Greek god Pan was used as an image of the devil, possibly again as a warning against the use of plants in spiritual practice. Even the Norsemen in their mythology by one account demonized the old god Logi, associated with trees in the religion of the pre-celtic people, into their trickster half god Loki.
Mike Logghe 14:47, 20 Jan 2006 (PST)
