THE FORBIDDEN TREE of Fruit of Knowledge of Good and Evil

THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT WAS KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD MATTER AND EVIL MATTER

            In the allegory about the Lord God Jehovah, Adam man, the serpent, and the woman, who was falsely identified by mortal mind to be Eve, there is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. What is this tree really all about? What is the knowledge that one gains after mentally digesting its poisonous fruit? We are told that this fruit is good and evil so the knowledge must be good and evil. But does this really explain it to us? Some might think good refers to God (Spirit) in this instance (which is what I have thought for quite some time) and some might say evil is the devil (a fallen angel). It certainly sounds like the good fruit is the knowledge of Spirit and the evil fruit is the knowledge of matter.  And I still believe this is correct, however, it is not the pure knowledge of good (God) that the fruit represents.  I feel that it is a false belief that man entertains about good (God, Spirit) and evil (error) coexisting in matter where Spirit is the slave of matter, or where matter seems to reign over Spirit, good.  This forbidden fruit (thought) brought into Adam man’s consciousness the false practice and false beliefs of spiritualism.  And it is this spiritualism, the belief that Spirit and Soul can reside within matter and be controlled by matter that leads us into the belief that matter is both pleasurable (good) and painful (evil).  A section of a book by Bicknell Young makes it clear that the knowledge of good fruit is the belief that matter as being good and pleasurable while the knowledge of evil fruit is the belief that matter is evil and painful. For sure, the knowledge of good as being matter falls way short of the Third Degree’s spiritual understanding!