Héva ~ In The Beginning...

Click On The Image For A Larger View

"Oh, I'm not ashamed. Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden, weren't they? It was when they'd sinned that they put on clothes."  ~ Gretchen Moll as Bettie Page in The Notorious Bettie Page

Her name is spelled chet, vav, heh in Hebrew. The root of her name is related to "life" and "breath": chet, yod, heh. Her name appears only 5 times in the book of Bereshit (Genesis). And despite what many Christians believe, she is actually the third wife of Adam (a name derived from the Hebrew word adham, meaning "of the clay".

Lilith, the first wife, refused to be subordinate to both the god who created her and the man she was created with. When she was ordered to obey, in typical Lilith style, she flashed her ass at both of them and fled The Garden, supposedly to consort with demons. 

It's not clear what happened to the second wife. What is known is that the god Yahweh formed her in the same fashion he had Adam and upon witnessing this formation of bone, muscle and tissue from the inside out, Adam was thoroughly disgusted and rejected her completely.

Tsk. Tsk. What to do, what to do? Well, as they say, the third time's the charm.

Or is it?

I guess it depends on your point of view. :)

Formed of either his side or his rib, the companion to Adam was created. Yahweh named her Chava. The English translation of her name is Héva, not Eve as she's commonly known. "Eve" was apparently a typo on the part of a select group of monk scribes when transcribing the Old Testament into English. Obviously, it was a typo that stuck.

Now, we all know the story of how Adam and Héva frolicked happily in the Garden of Eden and were allowed the run of the entire place save for one area - the Tree of Knowledge (Sounds a lot like the Bluebeard story, doesn't it? Here are the keys to every room in the house. You can go into each one and have a field day but don't use this one little key to this one little room... Such temptation for a thinking and curious female...).

Héva encouraged Adam to eat the fruit of that said tree. Some say she was lured and tricked and others believe she acted of her own free will after being enticed by the satan (quite simply, the Hebrew word for "adversary") in the form of a serpent. Whichever way it went down, in doing so, they realized they were naked and suddenly felt the foreign feeling of shame and sought to cover their nakedness. They also infuriated the hell out of Yahweh and as punishment for their disobedience (How dare they think for themselves?!), they were expelled from the Garden. Héva in particular was "cursed" with the onset of her menses and the pains of childbirth. Adam and all his progeny would be forced to toil upon the earth.

It always seemed to me that Adam really didn't catch much of the blame and that Héva's been catching shit for all their supposed woes from that time to this - as have women in general since we're all considered to be Daughters of Eve and thus sinful incarnates descended from this disobedient Mother of All Life. She has, according to some, the notable distinction of being the source of Original Sin. Oh, Eve... you little vixen, you! But Adam... his part in the whole deal always struck me as similar to that thing your mom was always saying when you went along with some disapproved of scheme your friends came up with when you were a kid: "I don't care what Johnny said! If Johnny told you to go jump off a cliff, would you do it?" Is Johnny more to blame for the trouble you found yourself in or are you for not thinking for yourself? Which is worse? If you ask me, at least Johnny had some imagination.

So, with that joyful little recap, why on earth would I choose Héva as my first image for this book? And is or was she even a goddess at all? Does she really warrant being included here?

I say yes, and I'll tell you why (you knew I was going to)...

The Gnostic Christians believed Adam and Héva represented two interconnected principles within every human. Adam represented consciousness and the soul while Héva, the spirit. Adam was believed to be the embodiment of the intellect whereas Héva represented the capacity for spiritual consciousness; the higher self. Both were created in the image of a higher power, thus it was believed that higher power must be comprised of both male and female energy. In the Gnostic creation myth, it is actually Héva who calls Adam to life because it is she who is the embodiment of the female creative energy. She represents the emotion or active principle that brings intellect into experience.

Despite the bad rap snakes have received as a result of this story, once upon a time in many of the cultures that predate both the Hebrew and Christian religions, serpents represented the power of regeneration and spiritual renewal. In the Hindi religion the snake still represents Kundalini, the energies aligned with the spine that relate to the process of creation (and if you understand the Chakra system, you know what this process is all about and how valid this perception is). The snake also symbolizes aspects of our own human nature. By shedding our own skins - our egos - in favor of things of a more spiritual nature, it is possible to feel more attuned with the All That Is and embrace our true divine selves. But snakes also represent the cycles of life - birth, life, repose, death, renewal - in an endless cycle. Do you really think it's any accident the serpent was there in that tree, encouraging Héva to consider the options? I think not.

And then there's that tree - the Tree of Knowledge - and its fruit. Héva, not being the mindless autobot many seem to expect she was supposed to be in order to remain in the "Ignorance is Bliss" state of the Garden, did a very daring and independent thing - she exercised her freedom and made a choice. By eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge she opted to know, to understand... but without experience, knowledge cannot be complete and true wisdom and insight can never be gained.

So, where was she going to gain this life experience? Not in the Garden, that's for sure. The only possible way for her, as well as Adam, to become their most actualized selves was to eat that forbidden fruit and set literally everything into motion. In the garden there would have been no time, no birth, no death - thus no life (think Interview With The Vampire, please... eternal life really isn't all it's cracked up to be despite what some might like to tell you). And as is mentioned, Héva's very name means "LIFE"... and Yahweh gave her that name! The only way she could realize her true potential was to eat that fruit... and I think he wanted her to.

But was she a goddess? Well, evidence supports the idea that many earlier goddess worshiping cultures, such as in Babylon, Sumer and Anatolia (What? Wait! Anat-olia? Anat? A geographical region named after another goddess featured in this book? Hmmm... interesting!), property and family names passed through the matrilineal line and not through men. In these cultures women held equal status in positions of authority and politics. They were also revered spiritual leaders. However, with the suppression of goddess worship by the invading Levites, their Hebrew deity, Yahweh, supplanted the revered Mother Goddess. Equality was not an aspect of this conquering culture. From the Levite perspective, Héva had to be "born" of man.

In ancient goddess cultures, sacred mystery rites were conducted at temples where the goddess was worshipped. Creation, through the eyes of those who embraced the goddess, was not a one time event. It was an ongoing, continual and dynamic process that revered and celebrated the never-ending cycle of birth, life, repose, death and renewal. Sexuality was an intrinsic aspect of that creation process. It was a sacred calling to be a priestess in devotion to the Great Goddess and one of the duties was to make love in accordance with sacred rituals within the temples. With the coming of the Levites, however, these rituals were replaced by a new philosophy and religion that deemed sexuality as sinful and shameful (so who is really responsible for Original Sin here, hmmm?). The only desirable and worthy women were those who remained virgins until married. 

Thus, the archetype of Héva cast in the role of the sexual temptress of man was created in story form with religious weight as a warning to all Hebrew men to stay away from those naughty free lovin' temple women. If they succumbed to the temptation it would imply they had accepted worship of a female god... and that, of course, was contrary to their cultural beliefs. Don't get me wrong here though... I'm not passing judgment on the Levites. We're all entitled to our own beliefs and values, after all. I'm just citing history the way it went down.

Yet, by their very own creation story, they symbolically cast Héva as a representative of the Great Goddess. Their own god named her "Mother of All Life". And Héva, herself, demonstrated by her actions that she was a strong, thinking, spirited and fearless woman who was more than willing to embrace her own destiny and all the ups and downs that went along with her choice to do so. Maligned throughout history or not, she is one of the very few women even mentioned in the canonical Bible and much, for better or worse, is attributed to her; this woman who is only mentioned by name a mere 5 times. Some may revile her. Some may revere her. One thing's for sure though - she will always be remembered and will never be forgotten. If these things alone are not the attributes of a goddess... well, then I don't know what is.

And that's why I chose her as the first goddess for this book.