garden of the heart

We have a religion that declares the good go to heaven and the wicked go to hell. Christianity is a religion of the righteous mind. The mind creates polar extremes. The mind delineates and creates the objectification which makes the world come alive.

The name for the sacred cactus of the Andes, Huachuma, means no head. The idea is that with no head, you have no mind. The ideal state to be in with Huachuma is to turn off the mind, relax, and float downstream. When I have done such a thing, I have felt a cosmic love like no other. A state of bliss with a recognition to live within the heart with love for all is the only way to live. The experience is profound to the core, and I have wondered why when I am no longer in the medicine I can't return to this exquisite Garden of the divine feminine? I am being led in the direction of the path of the heart; to live my life in the way that Huachuma has shown me.

When you fully engage the mind with Huachuma, he takes you to heaven and then drops you into hell. It's quite the roller coaster ride, and hey, I always liked the amusement park, especially the newest ride ever summer which was undoubtedly another iteration of the roller coaster. Man, I fully rode the Huachuma ride. Sometimes I can be thick, and it's fortunate plant medicines have patience if there's a glimmer of hope in the patient. The course will be re-run until you get it. I started seeing what grandfather was showing me and then the last few times I have drank the medicine I understood. I still engage the mind, but I know when to shut it down and I see what the medicine is teaching me. I called the blog post about the understanding "Heaven or Hell." I figured it out.

Ayahuasca had a similar progression of showing me the darkness within which I kept stubbornly objectifying. She sent me on quests to slay the dragon, only to get an inkling I was that dragon. The repetition of darkness taught me courage and the warrior spirit has served me well. It was when I spent a few evenings with Magic Mushrooms that it became laughingly clear I was the very darkness I spent years in conflict with.

Early in the Book of Genesis, God tosses Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and places a cherubim with a flaming sword at the eastern entrance to the Garden. The two ate from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This tree activates the mind and creates a world of duality. The sword of the cherubim now guarding a return to Eden twirls in all directions, preventing access to the forbidden Tree of Life. It's quite the interesting puzzle. How do you get back into the Garden? Remember, the entrance is the eastern gate. The Israelites head east in search of returning to paradise. They find Jerusalem upon earth, but ultimately, the holy city causes more suffering. Though Jerusalem manifests the Garden, it becomes clear the location is not physical. What's the answer to the riddle? It's simple! You can't head east to return to an eastern gate. You have to go west. West is the left-hand path. It's the path of the heart. Walking westward to the eastern gate with no mind will allow full access back into the Garden. We build into our cultural language structures words that steer us towards the right-hand path, right? Are you righteous? The left-hand is sinister! Being a contrarian to the prevailing culture will help you immensely upon your journey.

I've created this world as the ultimate challenge. I have placed many obstacles in the path which will take me away from the heart. I clearly see the path of the heart and I know it is the way towards what it is I'm seeking. I intuit the number of souls who find the path are very few though it's really not all too difficult. We are wired to physically look for answers and thus we think the Garden of Eden, the Kingdom of Heaven, Nirvana, or whatever moniker you wish to give this place is a location of a reward you will be given if you are a good person in this lifetime. Instead, I discovered it's all here and now. The Garden is accessible through the heart. The path of the heart is obscured by the mind. Heading east to return home to a metaphorical Jerusalem will still trap you. The return will be futile via the glory of the right-hand path of the sun. The cherub with the twirling and flaming sword who guards the return to the Garden is sidestepped by entering the heart space, bypassing the cherubim mind, and taking the left-hand path back home.

fruit of the trees

The natural world is so fascinating and offers rich symbolism that can be integrated into the human spiritual journey. The opening chapters of the Book of Genesis in the Old Testament are full of such metaphors, specifically the four rivers that flow into and out of the Garden of Eden and the two well-known trees within the garden - the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Here are the passages from Genesis chapter 2 (King James Version):

8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.

The Garden of Eden is symbolizing the human heart and a place of innocence and love. The four rivers are representing the four valves that provide the heart with blood and in turn pumping the love juice back out. After creation has completed, the innocent Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden of Eden. Being pure of heart they partake in the delights of this paradise. They are instructed by God that they can eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life and live forever but are forewarned not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil lest they perish.

17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

Of course, as we all know, the serpent tempts Eve into eating an apple from this tree and now with her eyes opened she has Adam eat as well and lo and behold they don’t die. Genesis chapter 3:

3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

God comes around and realizes what they have done and they are booted out of the Garden of Eden.

8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

What happened? The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil gives them the ability to “see” and through this discernment the world comes alive as they objectify their surroundings. The knowledge opens up the dualistic world and with unity now smashed they can no longer stay in the Garden as it is only for the pure of heart. The esoteric teaching being that the path of knowledge will take you away from the path of the heart. The path of knowledge will also lead you towards eventually discovering your divinity as God reveals, "the man is become as one of us.” And herein lies the rub. In order to discover who you are requires one to eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and then transmute that knowledge into understanding and then wisdom. The clock starts ticking on your mortality and the one called God keeps you away from the Tree of Life, which in turn gives the game some urgency to figure it out. As far as I can tell, once you walk the path of knowledge to its conclusion and realize who you are, you give it up and walk the path of the heart back to the Garden of Eden. If you read the Old Testament in its entirety you do sense this undercurrent where the Israelites are heading east trying to get back to the Garden, albeit prematurely. Jerusalem is the Garden and eventually they make it back, though they haven’t given up the worldly knowledge path. The Israelites constantly foul the garden with their worldly activities, leading to calamity after calamity. Jerusalem is constantly destroyed and the inhabitants scattered.

In the New Testament Gospel of Matthew chapter 18, Jesus says that in order to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven one must become like a child again:

2 And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

3 And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Now that I have shown you the path of knowledge and the path of the heart it is fairly easy to see what Jesus meant with this statement. Knowledge will lead to one objectifying and treating everyone as separate. The innocent child is still connected to the mother and sees a harmonious world of love and play. The path to knowledge leads to suffering. Jesus is showing us jaded adults the way back to the Garden of Eden which is now called the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is externalized as the new Jerusalem coming down from the heavens in the Book of Revelation. In the Gospel of Luke chapter 17, Jesus reveals the true location of the kingdom:

20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

As known to the sages of antiquity, the answers to all you seek are found within with the caveat that you have to exhaust the external search before coming back to the doorstep of self and realizing you are everything. If you want a world of innocence and love it starts and ends with you.

I know readers don’t come here for my hot takes on scripture or bible commentary. There’re plenty of places on the internet to go for instruction however I do offer a unique perspective on the stories and how they resonate with my path and what I have experienced. So, let’s get straight to it. I’ve been involved with plant medicines for almost 9 years and the undercurrent throughout this journey has been the two trees as found in Genesis. Continuously, I have been shown the solution to the suffering in this world is love. It doesn’t matter what the problem is or how insurmountable it is; love is the answer. However, being stubborn, I needed to know. I wanted the knowledge of just who it is I am and what this existence is all about. So, I had to leave the Garden of the Goddess, objectify the other, see myself in everyone, and figure out the game before becoming so aghast at the suffering that the only path to take had to be the path of the heart back to unity; hopefully having imbued the many with some of that love in my travels.

My consciousness exploration has from the beginning involved Goddess and God. I found her first and she wanted to take me away and bathe me in love. My mission into form had other ideas and I had to keep exploring. She gave me her cloak of protection and off I went into the dragon’s lair in order to retrieve the pearl of knowledge I was seeking. The dragon I encountered is God, my erstwhile shadow, though I didn’t realize this knowledge at the time. Instead, I was just scared silly. God was honest with me. He told me he was God and told me to get lost. The knowledge I was seeking was off-limits. It’s a great game I set up for myself that in the end will lead back to the heart. Search long enough and you’ll see it; the path of the heart is joyful and the antidote to the immense suffering.

The dragon is a masterful teacher. Well, he's the shit man. His teaching methods are unique and extreme with the potential to lay waste to you. Courage and bravery are not bestowed upon someone without going through the fire. In other words, you will be tested to see if you do have what it takes. You will experience failure and doubts and the subsequent adversity will ignite the flame of transformation or conversely you will run away and perish. The pearl awaits the intrepid hero and the path back home is thus revealed.

All I have experienced because of eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil has shown me though I objectify the other in order to make the universe come alive, all is indeed self. This includes God and Goddess. It’s all me. I see my extremes and get so lost in the separation I lose sight of home. Fear takes over and I go into survival mode. I struggle to find my way back not even knowing what I’m looking for. Eventually, I see what it is I’m looking for in others and they are the catalyst to this feeling of love that stirs within a memory of something so much greater. The path of the heart is lit up and I come back home.

What a great adventure.