Going Home

Going Home

It must have been a pretty scary thing for Adam and Eve to be cast out of the Garden of Eden. In the garden they had everything they needed – they didn’t even know there was such a thing as “need.” Or want, either. What is there to want when everything possible is present?

This is not even about physical stuff so much. Genesis lets us know that in the Garden of Eden there were fruit-bearing trees everywhere, animals to talk with and so forth. But the biggest deal was that the Garden itself supplied everything on all levels. It was the womb of humanity.

The expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden can be seen as an analogy for the human birth experience. After this God says, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:19).

Sounds like a great welcome into earthly life, right? Get to work, and bust your ass until you die . . . which you definitely will.

The child within us replicates the trauma of Adam and Eve, finding itself suddenly in an environment where it feels vulnerable and has to do things to survive – or at least thinks it does. That is the message of this world, after all. The world is tyrant and we are its slaves, existing for one reason only – to benefit its continuation as a penal colony.

Many metaphors for this dilemma are contained in classic children’s stories and fairy tales. Consider “The Wizard of Oz.” Finding herself in a strange land with strange inhabitants, Dorothy sets off on a journey to the Emerald City, initiating a quest to find the powerful authority figure that will know what to do about her life. The Wizard of Oz will tell her how to go home.


The authority figure looks big, but is in fact no more powerful than Dorothy. She is forced to realize this by solving her own problems with the wicked witch. But the big lesson comes at the end - learning she can fulfill her own dream.


Dorothy discovers that she ALWAYS had the power to return home (represented by her ruby slippers) – and just didn’t know it.

The story about the world being a prison and veil of tears is true – until we realize it isn’t. And the story that we are cast out of Eden and can't find our way back is true – until we realize it isn’t.

The power to go back home is with us now and has always been. What quests and trials are necessary to discover this?

That is the question each person has to answer on their own.