Thorn in his side
In Eden Woman is created by God from the side of Adam. She is on his side thereafter, as Right is Might, as it were. But it has nothing to do with dexter or sinister as the Romans would have it. The right side is the good side. Either side is good if it is good. It the either/or thinking that is associated with the Greek philosopher Aristotle (348 BC – 322 BC) that betrays us into `taking sides`. This is what occurs in Eden when the serpent offers the forbidden fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Gen: 3. 1-6) The fruit of the Tree of Life is wholly good, but the serpent wants to take Eve from the side of Adam, and therefore from God. So it produces Aristotelian logic, either choose good or evil. Before this juncture Eve is God and does not know herself from Adam who is with her in God.
The serpent represents adultery, that is, coming between Man and Woman. The Woman comes from the side of Man and the serpent is the one that has no spine and therefore has no side. The Woman is close to God and Man because they share a spine and she comes into visible being from the side of Man through God who is her Creator. It is a biblical mnemonic on the subject of the evil that `upon thy belly thou shalt go` (Gen: 3.14), as a recognition that the evil are spineless and treacherous.
It is a tradition that the serpent`s head is crushed by the foot of `the woman`s seed` (Gen: 3. 15), and traditionally Satan is represented as having hooves. It is British slang to call a homosexual an `iron`and the term comes from London`s Cockney Rhyming Slang in which `iron hoof` means `poof`, which is a further slang term for homosexual. The serpent in Eden prefigures homosexuals who seek to take the woman from the man`s side, not for sexual purposes, but simply to betray her. However, as it says in the Bible, `the wages of sin are death` (Rom: 6. 23). A gun is called a `side iron` in the USA because it represents that which would part Woman and Man by violent means - Satanically. This is why the serpent in Eden is depicted as evil, because it is.
The serpent in Eden is successful because it confuscates sidedness to suggest that one side is good while the other is evil. In fact the suggestion is that Adam is good and Eve is evil, from which all else springs. But it is the serpent that is evil, it represents `enmity between...[itself] and the woman`s seed`, which suggests that the serpents` seed shall have human form but not be human, something which biblical commentators do not emphasize enough. The evil are amongst us and they are not human, they are the evil enemies of God and they are homosexuals – as defined in Genesis as serpents who would take a woman in order not to have sexual relations with her but to destroy her.
The nature of homosexuality is important but not paramount. Essentially it is a sterile mode that does not produce or develop. Woman is an oasis in the desert. Homosexuality is the desert. She offers dates in her palms, as it were. Her years and her occasions. She connotes immortality in the oneness that is Woman and Man as One Creature in God that continues throughout all Eternity. That is God`s Promise, that the seed of Adam and Eve shall be as numberless as `the dust of the Earth` (Gen: 13. 16).
Because Adam and Eve are One Creature in God, so are their children. That is the immortality promised by God. The serpent represents `perpetual enmity between...[itself] and the woman`s seed`, that is, Satanical male homosexuals. Men are to be the evil enemies of God because they seek to betray Woman and her `seed`. The nomenclature is interesting because Woman does not have a penis and `seed` does not suggest `ovum`. What it does suggest is that Woman shall have a penis and that men shall hate her for making them redundant and revealing them to be evil. They shall prefer one another, as it were, and there shall be `enmity between...[them] and the woman`s seed`.
According to Gnostic thinking, the Holy Spirit corresponds to the Shekinah, which is the Glory of God. She appears in The Song of Songs: `Your hair falls in waves… winding down the slopes of Mount Gilead.` (Songs: 4.1). The Naas of the Naasenes, which sect preceded Christianity, is a serpent of Wisdom (John 3: 14) and this passage from The Song of Songs connotes the Wisdom that is the omniscience of God, which `moves in mysterious ways its wonders to perform`.1 The windings of a serpent of Wisdom, as it were, rather than that of the `father of lies`, which is the `sidewinder` in Eden: the Evil One who comes close to your woman in order to `wind you up` until you evince anger towards her. It is his intention to destroy your relationship with his evil attentions whereas it is the intention of the Shekinah to preserve your faithfulness to God. She does this by being the spirit of the `woman`s seed`, the immortal continuing presence of God in the generations of Man and Woman that is called the Paraclete in the New Testament and which is represented as being upon the Earth after Jesus` Crucifixion, Ressurection and Ascension (Acts 1: 9-11) to Heaven and God.
In Christian tradition there is the Naas and the Nous, which is the Spirit of God: `In the beginning was the word and the word was God.` (John 1: 1) The Bible is the Word of God, and Jesus is represented in Revelation as coming a second time as the Sword of God who `rules the nations with an iron scepter` (Rev: 2.27). In other words, Logos is Sword and Word but the Holy Spirit, often thought of as Logos, is missing. She is the Shekinah, the Glory of God as female principle, which is the complement of Logos as Word, that is, Eros or love relationships and relatedness towards Woman.
Longinus pierced the side of Christ at the Crucifixion with a spear. (John 19: 34) Because Jesus is called the second Adam, we may assume that the centurion is looking for the second Eve, that is, he represents the serpent seeking to rob Christ of the Woman that belongs by his side, the Shekinah as Holy Spirit, that is. The betrayer of Woman is a spineless coward, a snake that crawls in the sand of sterile homosexuality when there is an oasis of womanliness to nurture and develop. Longinus waits until Christ is helpless before cutting open his side with his spear. It is not a Sword either, which is relevant. Why, then, is the spear known throughout the Christian Age as the Spear of Destiny? Because it is not the Sword, Logos as Word, but the Spear of God, that is, the Holy Spirit or Shekinah as Nous and Naas or Logos and Eros as complements.
In the United States of America they speak of `life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness`, which is a `blue bird` in American tradition. It appears in Song of the South (1946) which is about the suffering of Americans in slavery. Pursuit of the `blue bird ` therefore represents the American Dream, which is Manifest Destiny, that is, the immortality of `the woman`s seed`, which is the Glory of God, the Shekinah.
However, people can be made to accept anything if they have the `blue bird of happiness`. They are always happy, so their possession of it can be a curse. This is what was meant by Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) and the terrorists on 9/11, and Hitler (1889-1945) and Brezhnev (1906-1982) before them. The USA is happy in the American Dream, which progresses innocently if unthreatened and, because God is Almighty, America is as mighty as she believes. However, true innocence is progress without the anticipation of being threatened and the requirements of defensive/offensive capability. So the Taliban terrorist attack on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York on 9/11 2000 was a threat to the American Dream of progress through innocence.
Another bird is the robin which, according to legend, perceiving the crown of thorns placed upon the head of Christ by the Romans as a part of their torturing of him, and its attempts to remove it pierced its breast from which its descedants have received a permanent blood red stain thereupon.
The Legend Of The First Robin
One day, long ago, a little bird in Jerusalem saw a large crowd gathered around a Man carrying a heavy wooden cross. On the Man's head was a crown made from a thorn branch. The thorns were long and sharp. The little bird saw that the thorns were hurting the Man. It wanted to help Him, so it flew down and took the longest, sharpest thorn in its tiny beak.The bird tugged and pulled until the thorn snapped from the branch. Then a strange thing happened. A drop of blood fell onto the bird's breast, staining it bright red. The stain never went away.And so today the robin proudly wears a red breast, because it helped a Man named Jesus.2
The Shekinah or Holy Spirit is symbolized by the dove, and the blue bird of happiness is a jay; so what is the robin? A fighter who is notoriously territorial and so the robin is a symbol of that which is prepared to fight for God and even receive wounds in order to receive the Holy Spirit, the Shekinah, and immortality in God.
Christ is, essentially, all of these; man without woman; the Spear of Destiny; the Armies of God; and the Shekinah as the bride of Man and Woman as One Creature in Eternity, together with all of their myriads of descendants who are also the One Same Creature in God (though they are all individuals). In English there is an idiom: to be a `thorn` in someone`s `side` is to prevent someone from achieving success. The robin was pierced by a thorn in its breast while attempting to remove the crown of thorns placed on the head of Christ, so the crown represents the crowning Glory of God that has to be fought for, the Shekinah. That is why the spear of Longinus means `the spirit that shall be Long in us`, and the spear represents the Spears of God needed to exterminate the evil enemies of God that are those who would torture us as sadists and explain that it is Christ-like to be sad instead of living the American Dream of `life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness` for the immortal Glory of God which is Our Destiny:
`I`m Miss American Dream since I was seventeen.` Britney Spears
1 Cowper, William `Light Shining Out Of Darkness` in Olney Hymns, 1779.
2 Robin, https://www.mamarocks.com/first_robin.htm