CL 135 - the tree of life & the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

CL 135

"A tree symbolizes a person;

and its fruit, goodness of life. 

The tree of life therefore symbolizes

a person living from God,

or God living in the person. 

And because love and wisdom

and charity and faith

or good and truth

constitute the life of God in a person,

the tree of life symbolizes these qualities,

from which a person has eternal life. 

[2]    "The tree of the knowledge of good and evil

symbolizes a person believing

that he lives on his own and not from God,

thus that the love and wisdom,

charity and faith,

or good and truth in the person

are his and not God's -

believing this because he thinks and wills,

and speaks and acts,

in all likeness and appearance as if on his own. 

Because a person with this belief

comes into the persuasion

that God has introduced Himself

or infused His Divinity into him,

therefore the serpent said:

. . . God knows that in the day you eat

(of the fruit of the tree)

your eyes will be opened,

and you will be like God,

knowing good and evil. 

(Genesis 3:5)

[3]    "Eating from the two trees

symbolizes acquisition and assimilation. 

Eating from the tree of life

symbolizes acquisition of eternal life,

and eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

symbolizes acquisition of damnation. 

Therefore Adam and his wife were both cursed

along with the serpent. 

The serpent means the devil in respect to

self-love and pride in its own intelligence. 

This love takes possession of the tree,

and people who are caught up in pride

as a result of that love

are the trees it possesses.

"People fall into an enormous error, therefore,

who believe that Adam was wise and did good

from his own nature,

and that this was his state of integrity,

when Adam himself

was cursed for precisely that belief. 

For this is what is symbolized by his eating

from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

That was why he then fell from his state of integrity,

which he had had as a result of his believing

that he was wise and did good from God

and not from himself,

for that is what is meant by his eating

from the tree of life.

"The Lord alone, when He was in the world,

was wise of Himself and did good of Himself,

because the Divine itself was in Him

and was His from birth. 

Consequently He also became

Redeemer and Savior by His own power."