Adam and Eve
I recently watched an interesting discussion entitled, ‘The Science of Adam and Eve’. The link is here if you’d like to take a listen. It’s a different analysis on the Genesis story that adds a great deal of insight into the relations between men and women.
I like the psychological approach that Dr. Jordan Peterson and Matthieu Pageau take. I was inspired to elaborate on this and include an additional viewpoint I have recently found compelling concerning the woman as beneficial adversary and the ideal helpmate:
“A good woman studies her husband, she doesn’t irritate him, she doesn’t criticize him. What a real woman does is she keeps asking him questions. She tries to find out what his dream is, what his vision is, what his desires are. Her call is to study him and keep asking questions – why? – because you want to get his vision. A woman from the beginning is a helper and you can’t help somebody who you don’t know their assignment. Though your husband is not the ideal man, you are supposed to help him become that.”
That’s Myles Munroe’s revelation of the text. It goes well with MP’s more mysterious (philosophical?) take: “Women throw men puzzles to work out, and then she watches him solve them.”
Notice that Munroe said, ‘her call is to study him, get his vision, get his dream…’ this is where so much goes wrong, in my opinion. Women are tempted to usurp the man’s seat of authority, and he’s persuaded to give it to her. When this happens, I believe it impedes his ability to subdue his environment in the garden and peace is lost.
Furthermore, it is the man who cultivates, while the woman nourishes.
The Man is the Cultivator of Everything in the Garden
The woman’s questions break up the fallow ground to begin the work of cultivation. Now the man also cultivates the woman to bring forth the ideal (potential) he sees in her. Either he has the patience for this process or nothing will ever grow. However, it’s imperative she in-turn submits to this process, or again nothing will grow and both will become frustrated (back to that seat of authority conundrum, I would say). And the woman doesn’t have the answers…that’s why she’s asking him the questions (or should be).
And isn’t it interesting that it is the man from whom the woman was ‘birthed’ first. I truly love this. From out of one man came all of creation – not from the woman! God produced the mysterious, puzzling creature from the man’s side, who would in turn produce for him, more of him. Ha, men:) ‘More of me please!’
The Man as Father
“The female came from the male, so he automatically is the source of the female. Men didn’t come from women so the head of the woman is the man and Christ is the head of the man. So everybody is ‘Abba’ by whomever sourced them. Abba means sustainer, which means whatever came out of you, you must sustain. A real woman is not looking for a husband or a lover; she’s looking for where she came from. She’s looking for a father.”
Munroe again. [Greatest Power Of Woman: Myles Munroe On How Female Strength Transforms The World]
And this is where the archetype of the father figure comes into play. This might also be a key to the dream I shared a few weeks ago. It’s going to take me a good while to uncover all the symbolism in that three part narrative story.
Have an enlightening week, all you beautiful cultivators and beneficial adversaries~