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Archetypes In The Garden Of Eden

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It is noteworthy that this story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is the foundation of the religion with the largest number of followers worldwide. Why does it continue to resonate with so many people even today? The reason is that this utopia contains archetypes that reflect the collective unconscious that is found across all cultures. This is the result of universal themes in this story about humanity’s needs and desires that we still see occurring in our society today. The story of Genesis contains three archetypal characteristics that illustrate these patterns that still demonstrate humanity’s needs.
To begin with, one archetype found in Genesis is opposing forces and duality. In the days of creation there were opposites such as: Night and Day, Land and Sea, Heaven and Earth (Genesis 1:1-7) and Male and Female (Genesis 1:27). These examples show balance in our world. Another type of duality we see in our world today is Good vs. Evil. While there are …show more content…

In Genesis, the test that Adam and Eve faced was the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. God told them not to eat the fruit in Genesis 2:17: “but as for the tree of knowledge of good and bad, you must not eat of it”. They didn’t obey God and they ate the fruit anyway, so God punished them for failing the test. In our society today we still have tests/, laws, and boundaries to keep people in check. If we didn’t have these tests, we wouldn’t know our limits. Then we wouldn’t have anything to keep ourselves from overstepping our boundaries.
It is clear that these three examples of archetypes in Genesis illustrate the presence of universal themes found in Genesis chapters 1-3 that are still relevant in our society today. They reflect common conflicts and/or quests that humanity still deals with. The reason it resonates well with many people is because it reflects the same things that many people deal with currently, even though the story is thousands of years

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