an ash grey sky

As they were looking on, so we too gaze on his wounds as he hangs. We see his blood as he dies. We see the price offered by the redeemer, touch the scars of his resurrection. He bows his head, as if to kiss you. His heart is made bare open, as it were, in love to you. His arms are extended that he may embrace you. His whole body is displayed for your redemption. Ponder how great these things are. Let all this be rightly weighed in your mind: as he was once fixed to the cross in every part of his body for you, so he may now be fixed in every part of your soul. 

– Jillian Parks, from “God is Mocked”

Adam—his job is to name the animals. So what does Eve do? She listens to the animals. That's one way to see it. So why is she talking to the snake? This is a question nobody asks themselves, which is interesting. People sometimes say, "Wait, why is this snake talking in the story?" Because that's obviously an anomaly—I mean, snakes don't talk, right? So why is the snake talking? But the real question they should be asking themselves is: how can Eve understand the snake? How does Eve know how to understand what the snake is saying?

Because that's what Eve has. Adam has the ability to name the animals—"So, this is what you are. This is what you are." And it's a general way to symbolize the general idea of assigning meaning to things, or imposing meaning upon things. And what Eve does is the opposite. She mediates with the Earth—that means with matter that has no meaning, or that has not been given meaning. And also with things that Adam has named but that are not satisfied with the meaning Adam has given. So we can actually think that's what the snake is up to, a little bit, in the story. It represents—basically, we can say Eve is mediating the perspective of the earth, or of nature.

So actually, this story is really, really deep. I mean, it represents—basically—the right wing and the left wing, if you look at it on a bigger scale, at a political scale. Adam is the traditional perspective. He represents: "We have tradition, we have the past, we have our insights from the past, and we order things according to that." So that's what Adam is doing. Eve really represents the left wing. She represents, "I'm going to listen to nature. And if it doesn't agree with what Adam is doing, I'm going to try to mediate that." So the ecological movement represents, basically, what Eve is doing. It represents the feminine aspect, as described in the story.

So it's about—maybe the snake is not happy with the name that Adam gave the snake. You see what I'm saying? But it's just a general symbol for any thing that you can impose meaning upon, that can then turn around and say, "No, I disagree."

I’m just testing this out. I’ve never used Tumblr before. I’m just browsing and wondering if I ought to move to this place from where I’m at now on the Fediverse. It does seem very cute here.