In the first three chapters of Genesis there is “movement from a fixed and unchanging world to a new [evolving] order.” Society doesn’t exist and there is no basis for judgment. Entering the scene is the snake, the trickster, a character with the capacity to transform situations and overturn the status quo.” We are dealing with archetypes. The woman is “the curious one, the seeker of knowledge and tester of limits. She risks the status quo to learn discernment so she can achieve wisdom. “She is no easy prey,” says Susan Niditch, Professor of Religion at Amherst. “She is a conscious actor choosing knowledge.” She is the story’s heroine, risking everything to acquire the one tool humanity needs for the evolution of consciousness—the ability to choose, to discern good from evil. She dares to consume the fruit of the divine. As the Mother of all life she takes that first step on the precipitous path of human development so that we might one day know and manifest the divinity at the core of our being.
Switching scenes we are in Czechoslovakia during the communist era. Catholic religious orders are banned, and most existing clergy are jailed, sent to labor camps, or forced into military service. Some are murdered. It is in this climate some church leaders decide to ordain a few remaining qualified individuals–including women–as priests. One of these, Ludmila Javorova, is ordained December 28, 1970 by the underground Czech Bishop Felix Davidek. (more…)