The Awakening of Duality.
Now the serpent was the most subtle of all the creatures that the Lord God had made in the field of consciousness. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of all the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘To continue with awareness of Eden, you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it you shall know separation and feel its effects as reality.'”
Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will perceive as God perceives—knowing good and evil, self and other, one and many.”
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise in discernment, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked—sensing themselves as separate forms rather than unified being. And they made coverings for themselves, for they now perceived themselves as individuals who could be vulnerable and exposed.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife concealed themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where do you believe yourself to be?”
So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I now see myself as separate from You; so I hid myself.”
And He said, “Who has told you that you are separate? Have you eaten from the tree that shows division where there is only unity?”
Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What has unfolded here?”
The woman said, “The serpent of perception told of a new way of seeing, and I ate.”
And the Lord God said, with infinite compassion: “My beloved ones, you have chosen to know experience through the lens of separation. You have not sinned—you have simply put on new eyes that see division where there is only wholeness. As one who jumps into water becomes wet, so one who eats of the tree of duality experiences duality.
“To the serpent of perception: You shall know your nature as the power of discernment, ever dwelling close to the earth of experience, consuming the dust of appearances all the days of your function.
“To the woman: In your awareness of separation, you shall know the pain of believing yourself divided from your source. In conception and birth, you shall feel the labor of bringing forth form from formlessness. Your heart shall long for completion in your husband, and he shall seem to rule over your happiness in the world of perceived differences.
“To the man: Because you have chosen to see through the eyes of division, the ground of your experience shall seem to resist you. You shall know the toil of one who believes he must earn his sustenance by effort. Thorns and thistles of difficulty shall appear in your path, and by the sweat of your brow you shall seek your daily bread, until you return to the dust of forgetting from whence this dream arose.
“These are not punishments, My children, but the natural unfolding of a consciousness that believes itself separate. As water flows downhill and fire burns upward, so the knowledge of good and evil begets the experience of separation.”
Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God provided forms of flesh to house their consciousness as it explored the realm of individuality.
Then the Lord God said, “Behold, humanity has become like Us in its capacity to know duality within unity. Now, lest they partake of the tree of life while believing themselves separate, and thus dream themselves eternal in division—”
And the Lord God, in perfect love, allowed them to experience the fullness of their chosen perception. He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way—not to keep them out, but to preserve the way to the tree of life until they should remember their true nature.
And the Lord God spoke in the silence of their hearts: “My beloved children, Eden remains eternal and unchanged. You dwell within it now as you always have. The separation you experience exists only in your perception—like a wave believing itself separate from the ocean, or a ray of sunlight thinking itself apart from the sun.
“I have not cast you out, for how could I cast out that which is Myself? You have not fallen, for there is nothing but eternity. You have simply begun to dream a dream of being other than what you are. The suffering you know comes not from My judgment, but from the simple truth that believing yourself separate from Love must feel like separation from Love.
“When you grow weary of the dream, when you remember that the dreamer and the dreamed are one, when you realize that every experience of separation occurs within the wholeness that you are—then shall you know that Eden was never lost because it cannot be lost. You are not seeking to return to Me, but to remember that we are not apart.
“I AM the awareness in which your dream of separation unfolds. You are that same awareness, dreaming you are other. The garden remains unchanged, thus you remain, for you are it, and it is you, and all is one in the Love that we are.”
Thus consciousness began its journey of forgetting in order to experience the joy of remembering. And the garden bloomed eternal, holding all dreams of separation in its perfect, unchanging embrace.