By Manly P. Hall – Under the appellations of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is concealed the the-tree-of-lifegreat arcanum of antiquity–the mystery of equilibrium.

The Tree of Life represents the spiritual point of balance–the secret of immortality.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, as its name implies, represents polarity, or unbalance–the secret of mortality.

The Qabbalists reveal this by assigning the central column of their Sephirothic diagram to the Tree of Life and the two side branches to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Unbalanced forces perish in the void,” declares the secret work, and all is made known.

The apple represents the knowledge of the procreative processes, by the awakening of which the material universe was established.

The allegory of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a cosmic myth, revealing the methods of universal and individual establishment.

The literal story, accepted for so many centuries by an unthinking world, is preposterous, but the creative mystery of which it is the symbol is one of Nature’s profoundest verities.

The Ophites (serpent worshipers) revered the Edenic snake because it was the cause of individual existence.

Though humanity is still wandering in a world of good and evil, it will ultimately attain completion and eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life growing in the midst of the illusionary garden of worldly things.

Thus the Tree of Life is also the appointed symbol of the Mysteries, and by partaking of its fruit man attains immortality.

SOURCE: Manly P. Hall / The Secret Teachings of all Ages

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