"God's speech" and the "serpent" in the "Garden of Eden"
1175. "Adam" and "Eve" – who were as yet free of the killing principle or the drastic methods of life of the animal principle – were thus confronted in the "Garden of Eden" with their innate "instinct" from a previous spiral, which means, the remains of their cosmic consciousness inherited from this previous spiral, or a faculty to unconsciously manifest the fulfilment of the law of existence applicable to their step. This faculty, inherent in them as habitual consciousness, to live in contact with life without pain and suffering was for them "God's speech". The animal forms of life promoted by the killing principle ahead of them in the spiral were thus the "serpent" or the model for their future development. The term "serpent" covers the very first, feeble principle of world redemption. The "serpent" prevailed over "Adam" and "Eve". And it was intended that the "serpent" should prevail. The principle of the "serpent" personified in a terrestrial human-like being became, as already mentioned in Section 975, terrestrial mankind's first "world redeemer". The "serpent" was thus in reality an expression of God's guiding and controlling hand, a tool for the being's incipient transformation into what would one day be "God's image", which means, a being that knew not merely the difference between "good" and "evil" but was also at the same time a being who had a complete ability to be an absolutely sovereign ruler over these forces and not an oppressed, naive and ignorant slave of them, as is still largely the case with the terrestrial human being.
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