adminShingai Rukwata Ndoro Chiseling the Debris
IN the Sumerian “Epic of Gilgamesh” (written c. 2150-1400 BCE, www.aina.org/books/eog/eog.pdf), the following aspects are found: 1) humanoid Divine, Anu, who denied humanity of immortality; 2) food which confer immortality by consumption; and 3) humanity (Adapa) loses immortality because of disobedience by refusing to consume food.
Ea/Enki is the lord of the abyss of waters upon which the terrestrial world floated. He is the creator of humanity. Against Anu’s wishes, Ea had given Adapa the knowledge of powerful spells and incantations to overpower the Lesser Divinities in Eridu (an uncultivated land).
Anu (the lord of the sky) summons Adapa to his heavenly abode wanting to know where he has obtained this knowledge. Realizing Adapa has liberating knowledge, Anu resolves Adapa immortality for him to become a full-fledged divine by allowing him to consume the bread and water of life.
Adapa refused because Ea/Enki, whom he served on the earth, had warned him not to eat the “bread of death” or “drink the water of death” for he would surely die.
Anu exclaims of Adapa, “What was Ea about to give knowledge…to make him like one of us, and with such a name for wisdom? But now that he is here what else can we do? Fetch the bread of life and he shall eat it.”
When they brought him the bread of life he would not eat. When they brought him the bread and water of life he did not eat nor drink. Adapa, who is made of clay, is made to appear as a “model of men” and a human archetype.
The faculty of enlightened wisdom cannot be extinguished or destroyed but can be cut out off temporarily from humanity by bestial and base pleasures after falling into uncontrolled physical sensuality.
The allegorical story of Adam and Eve is informing us that one should act consciously. Consciousness is the disposition that gives us the ability to discern whether an action is right or wrong. Responsibility is taking ownership of the consequences of our words and actions. We need to discover our own agency and develop causative power.
We have to ‘labour’ through a continuous search of truth and the acquisition of liberating knowledge symbolised by eating of the “fruit” of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
With proper instruction and by one’s own patience, humility and industry, one can reconnect with what was lost. We lost consciousness and knowledge of who we are by forced ignorance.
Who are we? Every human being is an individualised bearer and vehicular expression of the impersonal life force or cosmic energy, theologically called the Divine (Genesis 1:27).
Human interiority is a seed or spark (light particle) of agency and causative power lost or weakened through forced ignorance and darkness (Genesis 2:17). We also need of a guide, symbolised by the great teachers of humanity (Genesis 3:4,5).
In the Sumerian annals of creation, House of Shimtî (Shi-im-tî meaning breath – wind – life: www.humanpast.net/files/birthofman.htm), mythical Adam and Eve (known then as Atâbba and Kâva, and jointly called the Adâma) were purpose-bred for kingship by En-ki (Osiris to ancient Egyptians) and his sister-wife Nîn-khursag (Isis to ancient Egyptians). This took place in a creation chamber and today this is called holy matrimony. The word matrimony comes from the word mother.
Adam and Eve were not historical persons, but were an adaptation by the Hebrews from the first of the mythical kingly succession of earlier civilisations of ancient Egypt and Sumeria. Nîn-khursag was called the Lady of the Embryo or the Lady of Life, and she was the surrogate mother for Atâbba and Kâva, who were created from human ova fertilised by the Lord Enki. ‘En’ means lord and ‘ki’ means earth/below that is Lord of the Earth.
It was because of Nîn-khursag’s title, Lady of Life, that Kâva was later given the same distinction by the Hebrews. Indeed, the name Kâva (Ava or Eve) was subsequently said to mean life. In Sumerian, the style Lady of Life was Nîn-tî (Nîn meaning lady, and tî meaning life). Another Sumerian word, ti (with the longer pronunciation- tee) meant rib – and it was by virtue of the Hebrews’ misunderstanding of the two words, tî and ti, that Eve became incorrectly associated with Adam’s rib.
The scriptures of all religions are all human records of virtues and vices, aspirational purposes and base sentiments, noble and foul morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbolism. The symbolism comes as names of people and places, numbers and measurements, precious stones, colours and narratives of fictitious events and relationships.
Such symbolism is not a localised history of individuals, nations or events, but rather the condition and development of humanity and physical laws. Sometimes, there are historical names, facts or geographical places by which to typify them, but for all that, intended to refer to the interior instead of the exterior progress of man – The Garden of Eden; or The Paradise Lost & Found by Victoria Claflin Woodhull (1890).
The mythical Eve (femininity) is not inferior to Adam (masculinity) as implied by religious literalism in orthodox Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Femininity (being) has liberating powers and is the awakener of masculinity (doing) – Ken Wilber, “Grace and Grit” (1991).
Without femininity, masculinity remains in deep sleep because of vanity, selfishness, ego and arrogance.
To be continued.
Resource
Mattfeld R Walter, 2006: Genesis’ “The Fall” of Man and its pre-biblical origins in Mesopotamian Myths: www.bibleorigins.net/adapaadam.html
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