The Serpent Appears

[Ms Tercy Lonan]

THE SERPENT APPEARS
“Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the
field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto
the woman: ‘Indeed, God has said, ‘You shall not eat of
any tree of the garden.’’ And the woman said unto the
serpent: ‘Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may
eat; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God has said: ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall
you touch it, lest you die.’’ And the serpent said unto the
woman: ‘You shall not surely die; for God knows that in
the day you eat thereof, your eyes shall open, and you shall
be as God, knowing good and evil.’”


What exactly happened here? I trust that you, the
reader, are beginning to “feel out” your thoughts and
desires, and perceive this story differently, reading it with
your inner vision.
Clearly, the “serpent” is your egoistic desire, your nature.
(The “serpent” is the fourth and final phase of the ego.)
Later, we will talk about how we cannot work with the
serpent until we are strong enough to overcome this final
phase of the ego, called Lev HaEven (the stony heart). It’s
with good reason that it’s called “stony.” Only the Creator
can overcome it, and that is what happens once we complete
our correction. The process is finalized by the Creator.
You may ask how the serpent ended up in the Garden of
Eden? Well, if no one is using the serpent for evil purposes,
he exists on the same level as everything else the Creator
has made, in its true, primordial form as God’s creation.
If he doesn’t use his desires for the sake of reception,
his egoism is unrevealed, and in such a state he may be
wherever he likes.
You would be right to ask, “What is the reason that the
serpent (our ego) revealed itself?” Why didn’t it just go on
living in the Garden of Eden, without leading man to sin?
The answer is that man would then remain on the level
of an angel, “infertile,” while the goal is for him to become
human! This is why the serpent (ego) reveals itself. It is
precisely what man needs to rise from the level of the Garden
of Eden to the Creator’s level, and of his own volition.
Why, then, does the serpent go through Eve? Eve is
that concealed ego that already exists in Adam (the desire
to bestow). Eve is the bridge that links Adam to the real,
powerful ego (man’s nature, as ego can only be connected through ego). So when the time comes to execute this

connection, the serpent appears before Eve: “And he said
unto the woman: ‘Indeed, God has said, ‘You shall not eat
of any tree of the garden.’’”
Because Eve is the egoistic part of Adam (the quality
of bestowal), she resists the serpent because she wishes to
keep Adam pure, an angel, so she can stay with him in
the Garden.
“And the woman said unto the serpent: ‘Of the fruit of
the trees of the garden we may eat; but of the fruit of the
tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said: ‘You
shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’’”
However, according to the Creator’s plan, Adam must
become truly human, and grow from the state of Katnut
(infancy) he is in, to the state of Gadlut (adulthood). He will
achieve this after finally demonstrating his ego to the full
extent, but using it exclusively to benefit others, for the sake
of the Creator. This is why the true ego insists: “And the
serpent said unto the woman: ‘Ye shall not surely die; for
God knows that in the day you eat thereof, your eyes shall
open, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil.’”
In other words, our “serpent” insists that this is the only
way to actualize a true act of bestowal toward the Creator.
That is, carrying out a true act of bestowal toward the
Creator involves attaching the whole egoism, and achieving
the goal of Creation, namely equivalence with the Creator,
all in one go. (The serpent didn’t lie. He was speaking from
the end goal when this will happen one way or the other. He
had only the best intentions.)


The Eve in man thinks that he really will be able to deal
with his ego. He feels confident and doesn’t doubt for a
second that he will not stumble off the spiritual path.
This is how every beginner feels. Remember when you
first discovered the spiritual truths? At that moment you
were absolutely certain that from this point on you would
aspire only toward the spiritual world, and will never again
return to primitive corporeal desires. You thought you’d
be able to “explain” to your ego all the advantages of the
spiritual path.
Then, you suddenly became overburdened with tangible
problems, like an opportunity to make lots of money, or a
career promotion that required twelve hours of work daily.
These material benefits gave you a momentary, but very
tangible result, like money, respect, and possibilities for
further growth, and you completely forgot that just yesterday
you felt as if the Creator would reveal Himself to you any
moment now, and place you in His “Garden of Eden.” You
forgot all about it and fell back into your corporeal desires.
But the record of that blissful feeling of spiritual heights
you experienced remains in you, and this is more important
than anything else.
That is what the current chapter of the Pentateuch speaks
of. It describes what happens when Eve (the egoistic desire
that’s not connected to the spiritual, to Adam) joins forces
with the serpent (the primordial, earthly egoism) and heeds
his words: “And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the
tree was to be desired to make one wise…”
In other words, you thought this action would bring you
to the goal, that it was “good for food,” just as the serpent
claimed.


That is when the strongest egoistic desire enters you—your
Adam, your most ardent desire to attain the spiritual state.
This causes the “breaking of your Adam,” the pure spiritual
desire, and this is “the fall of man” (Adam).
“…she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to
her husband with her, and he ate.” You were certain you’d
prevail, that you would do it for the sake of advancing
spiritually. That was your sincere intention. The Adam
in you “eats,” meaning attaches to himself egoism he has
never used before. Naturally, he did not prevail; he began to
use the pleasure for himself. “The eyes of them both were
opened, and they knew that they were naked.”
Indeed, they discovered the Light of Love, the Creator’s
Light that surrounded them all that time. “And the eyes of
them both were opened,” but then they also saw each other
in that Light, and realized that they were absolutely opposite
to Him. The Light (Creator) is pure, absolute bestowal,
whereas they are thoroughly egoistic (“and they knew that
they were naked”).
They understood that they were egoists and couldn’t
be like Him, having felt their corruption, their disparity
from the Creator on the one hand, and their individuality,
uniqueness and ability to achieve correction on the other
hand. You could say this was the first manifestation of
man’s “I.” Until that moment, he existed in the general
Light, fully devout to the Creator, when suddenly his “eyes
were opened”: There is my “I,” there is my ego. If only he
knew the full breadth of the ascents and descents that this
great discovery would bring to every individual and all of
humanity in the future!