"Knowledge of good and evil."

General Discussion
#1

So I’m reading Helena Blavatsky’s book, Theoretical and Practical Occultism. Literally just started the first page. Not sure if any of you have read it or your opinions thereof, but what I thought was particularly interesting was the fact that she refers to practical occultism as the “Science of good and evil.”

(“While the study of theoretical Occultism is harmless, and may do good, practical Occultism, being the ‘Science of Good and Evil,’ is fraught with perils and pitfalls.”)

I know it’s probably not a big deal to you guys at all but I just can’t help but think of Adam and Eve from the bible and how they were not supposed to eat from the tree of “Knowledge of good and evil.” But that the serpent convinced Eve to eat the of the fruit so that she may be “just like god.”

Or maybe she just got that from the bible and that is why she calls it that…? Either way I still think it’s pretty cool.

And the story goes on to say that God kicked them out and told angles to guard the tree of everlasting life… “or they will become just like us.”
I think it’s funny how Christians never question that verse.

Anyways. This is literally just the first page and I’m already really excited about what I’m reading so… I don’t know. Maybe I just get excited about things too easy.

If you’ve read it let me know what you think.

So what was the tree of knowledge of good and evil to it’s full extent…? Magick?

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#2

You see, Lilith tried to liberate Eve by showing her the truth. But of course in Thebes bible everything is the woman’s fault and men were just the poor gullible victim.

I find it interesting how the trope has been flipped in modern day culture

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#3

Some draw parallels between the Tree of Knowledge of Good & Evil / Tree of Life and the Qliphoth/Sephiroth.

One can also look at it from the perspective that its mention in Genesis is an allegory for the evolution of humanity wherein we developed full self-awareness/consciousness which differentiated us from animals. In doing so, we gained knowledge (of language, concepts, ideas, morality, etcetera), but we also gained the knowledge that we will die eventually. This could be the “Fall”: not a literal expulsion from paradise, but rather our separation from the bliss of ignorance of our own mortality that is present in less intelligent species.

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#4

Interesting isn’t it.

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#5

Very sis, extremely :slight_smile:

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#6

Yes! @Nyxifer you so eloquently put all that I was thinking into words!

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#7

Now what or where the heck is the tree that’ll make us live forever is what I kinda wanna know. I just can’t believe that in all the entire Christian bible. The one time they made Jehova ever seem vulnerable is when they might have gotten everlasting life along with knowledge.

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#8

Just throwin’ some ideas around. :grin:

Another one, if you believe Terence Mckenna, is the Stoned Ape theory, which postulates that the forbidden fruit eaten by Adam and Eve (which is never explicitly named as an apple, by the way) was really the Psilocybe Cubensis mushroom, which is psychedelic in nature and whose ingestion could theoretically shock the development of self-awareness in early hominids.

#9

Hm I don’t know I’ve never given the idea of evolution much thought.
Gracious I have so much to think about…

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#10

It’s the inferior function of any MBTI type