A God Who Looks Like Me by Merlin Stone

Excerpts from Chapter Ten – Unraveling the Myth of Adam and Eve

My Mind Had Extraordinary Powers

The continual appearance of the serpent with the Goddess, in association with prophecy and divine revelation, raises the question of the purpose and meaning of its repeated presence.

… Much like mescaline (a product of the peyote cactus) or psilocybin (found in certain types of mushrooms) both used as sacraments in some North American [Indigenous] religions, the chemical makeup of certain types of snake venom, may have caused a person, especially someone in the expectant frame of mind, to feel in touch with the very forces of existence and a sensation of perceiving the events and meaning of the past, present and future with great clarity and comprehension.

The Flesh and Fluid of the Goddess

But the serpent is not the only link between the story of Adam and Eve and the worship of the Goddess. Another most important symbol in the story is that of the tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil, from which hung the forbidden fruit.

…The Goddess Hathor of Egypt, revered both as the Eye of Wisdom and the Serpent Lady, was also known by another title – the Lady of the Sycamore. This tree was known as the Living Body of Hathor on Earth. To eat of its fruit was to eat of the flesh and fluid of the Goddess.

…The sacred symbolism of this coffin tree of Hathor makes it likely that this was the tree repeatedly referred to in the Bible as the Asherah. Ezekiel spoke harshly of the ‘idolators’ in the temple at Jerusalem passing around the sacred branch of a tree, as if it were a great sin.

Picture of King Hezekiah and an Asherah pole.

A Levite Account of Creation – Theology or Politics?

From that time on they were to labor for their livelihood, a most severe warning to any woman who might still have been tempted to defy the Levite Yahweh. For hadn’t it been just such a woman, listening to the advice of the serpent, eating the forbidden fruit, suggesting that men try it too and join her in sexual consciousness, who had once caused the downfall and misery of all humankind.