What was this fruit, the eating of which brought Paradise to an end? Clearly, we are not speaking here of ordinary apples or pears. The image is undoubtedly intended as a metaphor--and a profound one at that, considering its centrality to the story. While for the most part we are postponing a consideration of the meaning of the Paradise myth until later in the book, in this case the mythic imagery fairly cries out for some preliminary deciphering.

In nearly all languages, the word fruit is used metaphorically to refer to the result of any creative process. Fruit is the ultimate product of the vegetative cycle of reproduction and growth upon which we depend for our survival, and so it is natural for people in every culture to speak of the end result of human labor, or of any constructive activity, as its fruit. Since all creative processes--from the growth of a tree or an embryo to the invention of a new technology--begin invisibly and end with a completed physical form, the image of fruit is metaphorically applicable to any finished product.

To eat is to take something into oneself and allow it to become a part of one's body. But there are analogous emotional, mental, and spiritual processes: we speak of devouring literature and of feasting on the sight of our beloved. Whatever fascinates us we incorporate mentally and emotionally into ourselves. The eating of the mythic fruit, then, was a fascination or union with the result, or end product, of creation, which is the manifest form of things.

Adam and Eve were stewards of the creative process, enjoined to tend and keep the Garden. The story implies that human beings were originally concerned with the entire process of creation rather than merely with its end products. The wise gardener--metaphoric or literal--cares for all phases of the creative cycles at hand. But when he becomes fascinated merely with the fruit, neglecting or distorting other parts of the process, the whole continuum is thrown out of balance. As we are discovering throughout the world today, the farmer who is interested only in increasing crop yield and who ignores the health of the soil will eventually drain the land of its ability to provide nourishing food.