Effluvia From the Chaotic Mind of Sagaverus

I am reporting from a place which, at the time I am here, is called Nod. In your time and mine, it is somewhat near the town of Talishi in Iran, on the shore of the Caspian Sea. It is approximately midway between Tehran and Baki, Azerbaijan.

I traveled here, from the twenty-first century, to a time somewhen between 6,000 and 10,000 BC or BCE, as we reckon time. For all I know it could be 100,000 years ago. I got here by keying in a set of criteria and the time machine dropped me in this place.

I have journeyed here to find and interview two very old people and try to get first hand information about events which occurred in their youth. I will begin with the husband.

Me: Just for the record sir, and to make sure my readers know to whom I am speaking, will you please state your full name.

Him: I am called Adam.

Me: Is that your full name? I mean, do you have additional names besides Adam.

Adam: No.

Me: Can you tell me your approximate age ?

Adam: I have sort of lost track but I think it is about six hundred, give or take fifty or so. The calendar has not yet been invented so I must depend on memory of how many solstices and equinoxes have passed.

Me: I see. May I where you were born ?

Adam: I would if I could, but I wasn't.

Me: You wasn't. Wasn't what ?

Adam: I wasn't born.

Me: I don't understand that. Everyone who ever lied was born. How could you be here if you weren't ? Who were your parents ? Are they still living ? Must be extremely old if they are. I'd really like to ask them some questions too.

Adam: You don't understand. If you want to insist I have parents, then I will say to you that Earth is my mama and God is my papa. They both are alive and well today and for a very long time to come. In fact, Papa will always be.

Me: This is intriguing. You're saying you have no human parents ... no man and woman like yourselves who gave you birth ?

Adam: That is correct. I awakened fully formed and conscious. I had no memory of anything. But Papa came by some evenings and talked with me, educating me, and preparing me for a glorious life in the garden where He placed me.

[I Looked around. It didn't look much like a garden to me.]
Me: And you came awake here, more or less where we are now ?

Adam: Not at all. It was in Gan, to the west of here . f

[I later learned than Gan is an ancient name for a location we know as Edin, or the Garden of Eden, at the origin of four rivers.]
Me: So, how did you come to be living here in Nod ?

Adam: That is a long story. In a nutshell, we were kicked out of Gan.

Me: I've got time. I really want to hear your story, and of course, your wife's version.

Adam: Okay. Why not. I was living in Gan, taking care of the garden. The garden was filled with lush vegetation of many kinds. The fruit borne on the trees provided sustenance for me and all the animals who lived there.

The work was incredibly easy; nothing like what I do now. Mostly I just talked to the plants and told them what to do to be healthy and happy.

Same for the animals. I gave them all names so they would understand their differences. I found it odd that they seemed to pair off in twos. Papa told me they were mates for reproduction, to fill the Earth with life of every kind.

It was an idyllic life in every way, except one. I felt left out of the natural order. I did not have a mate. I could not reproduce.

I pestered Papa about this until finally He gave in and made a mate for me.

He told me how He would do it and put me in a deep sleep, what you might think of anesthetized. I know. You're wondering how I know about calendars and anesthetics. I was given a wealth of knowledge about everything that was and would come to be.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize the importance of this knowledge and that led to my expulsion. Actually, I have to admit that I didn't really believe everything He said.

So, as I was saying, He put me into a deep sleep. While I slept He removed a piece of one rib. It was painless, of course. Pain had not yet entered the world.

When I awoke, none the worse, there she was lying next to me. I named her Eve, as I expected she would become mother of humans. Together we were the first humans of our kind.

Me: If I may interrupt for clarification, what do you mean by 'of our kind' ?

Adam: Beyond the borders of Gan, like here in Nod for example, there were a variety of other mammals which appeared to be much like us. After we left, we came to know them and reproduced with them.

What I mean by 'our kind' is that we possessed the indwelling spirit given to us by Papa. Creatures born of the Earth are quickened, made alive that is, by a spirit which pervades all creation. We, Eve and I, were given also a spirit which came from Papa. Sort of a piece of His being.

This, in a way, is the source of all our trouble and grief. Among the wonderful trees in the garden were two special ones call Life nd Knowledge. I did not name them as I did all the others. Papa named them before I came to be.

The Life tree bore a fruit which nourished our bodies and our spirits. As long as we ate from it, we could not die. The Knowledge tree on the other hand, was verboten. Papa said if we ate the fruit of it, we would die. It was perplexing because He freely gave us all the knowledge we could ever use, yet denied us access to that from the Knowledge tree.

So one day Eve comes up to me, you should have seen her; she most beautiful, and said "Here husband. Take a bit of this."

I instantly recognized it as the golden fruit of the Knowledge tree. I shuddered. On close examination, I saw it already had a bite out it. I asked her, "Did you eat of the tree which Papa has forbidden us to so do ? You will die", I said. Had I thought it through, I would have turned away and allowed her to die. Then I could ask Papa for another mate who would be more obedient.

But I didn't think it through. It looked delicious. In her eyes I could see something I had not before seen. She looked very wise and knowing. It was as if she held a secret; one which I felt I needed to know. I was beguiled.

Along with her was one of the magnificent serpent creatures. It was smiling and nodding affirmatively, encouraging me to listen to Eve.

So I took a bite.

This fruit was delicious beyond your imagination. There was nothing I had eaten that even came close to the taste. It was absolutely thrilling. In my mouth it fairly melted with flavors of mango and orange, honey and pineapple, and had the aroma of gardenia and honeysuckle in it.

All was well and good until dusk approached. Suddenly, we both were coughing and hacking and retching, but the fruit would not come up. It was in us to stay.

The inside of my mouth began to taste acrid. The fruit had left a hideous aftertaste.

In a matter of hours, our bodies had changed. Fine hairs began appearing on our arms and legs, on my chest, and on both of us where our thighs joined our torsos.

Then, incredibly, I watched Eve writhe in torment as some change occurred in her anatomy. Blood poured out from between her legs. While this stunning scenario played out, I experienced pain for the first time. An appendage grew out of my body between my legs. To my great astonishment, I had become an animal.

The serpent, still hanging around, said, "You better not let your Papa see what you've done. Now you are naked like all the animals . He won't be happy."

What an understatement. I knew it was right. We decided to make ourselves scarce and hid in the bushes so when He came to visit He would not see us. I figured, after He left we could come out and resume our normal joyous lives.

But it didn't work out that way, as you must know, else you wouldn't have bothered to travel here.

It was dark when He came. I supposed He couldn't see us in the dense foliage where we hid. He called out, "Adam, where are you ?" He had never before done that. He always knew just where we were.

I hoped He would just go away, but He didn't. In that moment, I knew that He knew. The jig was up. No point trying to hide. We held some leafy plants in front to cover the new animal parts and came out of the bushes.

We came out and I told him I was afraid because I was naked. I don't know why I said that, but I was repeating what the serpent said. Papa said,

“Who told you that you were naked?
Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?“

I said, "The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it." That was the simple truth. Eve brought it to me and I ate it. The rest is history.

[I turned to Eve, who had been silent and patient throughout, only occasionally nodding her head in agreement. Looking at this woman, several hundreds of years old, wrapped in dirty animal skins, I could not envision her the way Adam had described her.]

Me: Eve. Is that the way you remember it ?

Eve: Yes; as far it went. After Adam blamed me, Papa asked me,

"What is this you have done?"

I said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Which was true. Meanwhile, the serpent was lounging about, smirking, letting Papa know it had got the best of Him by deceiving me. Then, we were astounded to hear Papa say to the serpent,

"Because you have done this,
Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."

With that pronouncement, the serpent stopped smirking. His legs shriveled up and disappeared. His magnificent wings fell to the ground and his skin turned to something like leather. It was awful to see how his glory vanished. He fell to the ground and slithered away on his belly to somewhere I know not.

But Papa wasn't done yet. To me He said,

"I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

I didn't even know what bearing a child meant. The enormity of these changes in our lives would not be apparent until later, after we came to Nod and dwelt among the creatures here. Life has been hard, very hard, and yet we still cling to it.

Papa dealt an even greater blow to Adam. To him He said,

"Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, &146You must not eat from it,

Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken; for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

Then Papa commanded an animal to shed its fur. From it He made coverings for us to cover our nakedness. Finally, He told us to leave His garden and never come back, lest we would eat from the Life tree and live forever.

I thought we might drop dead at any moment, but as you see, we did not. We may have been better off if death was instantaneous rather than put off until the end of however many years we will yet live.

We left, of course. We had no choice. We planned to go back every so often and eat from the Life tree as well as other succulent fruits. We've found it extremely difficult to grow our own food outside the garden. The first time we tried to enter the garden we were stopped by a giant being with a flaming sword. We fled in terror.

From time to time we have crossed the hills just to have a look at what we traded for a single bite of ultimately bitter fruit. The garden is no longer there. The land has been covered by sand. Nothing lives there but scorpions and desert vipers. The only remnant of His spirit is in us and our children.

I bore Adam many sons and daughters. The pain of bearing them was like nothing compared to the pain of losing our second son, murdered by his own brother. He ran away when Papa confronted him. So we lost not one, but two children to evil

I could not imagine the consequences of listening to the serpent instead of believing what Papa told us. I expect it is the same in your time, no ?

Me: Sadly, you are very much correct. So, what will you do now ?

Adam: Live out our fleshly lives in regret and sorrow, hoping for restoration.

Me: You mean return to the garden ?

Adam: No. The garden is lost forever. I mean restoration of our relationship with Papa. To be forgiven. To become the spirit beings He intended for us to be; not the animals we have become. We call to Him. We send up burnt offerings to show our repentance. But, alas, we do not know what sacrifice is acceptable to Him.

We had a grandson, Enoch, who knew and loved Papa, and walked in His ways. Papa came and took him away with Him to His own abode. We have hope that someday He will come for us, when we can live as spirit beings without these animal bodies. We want desperately to be restored to innocence. Who wouldn't? Only a fool who believes life in the flesh is satisfying enough. We know better. We have been there and threw it away. There really is nothing more to say. Thank you for coming. Goodbye.

I shouted after them as they trudged away toward whatever destiny awaited them, but they did not turn back.

As you can imagine, I have many unanswered questions. I plan to research them, either here, or when I return to my time. Some of the things I wonder about are these:

How kong was Adam asleep during the making of Eve?

Was it long enough for God's agent to extract a bone scraping, clone it, manipulate the DNA, and produce another human of a different sex?

Was the serpent the one of its kind in the garden?

Did other animals speak?

How did Adam and Eve communicate? Were they minted with speech and language or did it develop over time?

What did Papa look like to them?

Did they actually see Him manifest as a being visible to their physical eyes? Or did they have some mode of perception which enables mental vision without the aid of our ocular sense? Spiritual eyes?

Did they even have physical bodies like ours, or were they different, genderless, what?

What on earth did they interbreed with to become the human race as we know it?

I'm sure more questions will arise as I pursue my quest for final answers, but for now I'm certain of this: the Spirit of God has been passed down through our hybrid species, and is resident in every member. But, clearly, it is not in control of our physical beings. The Earth spirit which animates all living things is running the show and working to hide from us the knowledge of Life. We well know about good and evil. The last bite they took in the garden has left its aftertaste in all of us; poisoning our ability to know how to access the Life tree.

This is why, as I and many believe, Papa has sent a new Adam, who was fully knowing and obedient, to remove the barrier to fellowship between us and Him.

Sagaverus,
April 2011
©2011WH