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Imagine you’re an invisible observer the night Eve and Cano mated. Serapatatia and Eve had been privately discussing such a mating for five years, but she had always rejected the idea. On this night, Serapatatia brought the handsome Cano along to meet Eve hoping she would finally consent. This is how I imagined the scene unfolded in my novel: The Gardens of Eden – Life and Times of Adam and Eve:Chapter 19 – Eve and Cano
One frequent Garden guest, Serapatatia, became a close acquaintance of Adam and Eve. He was a highly effective Nodite leader of certain mainland tribes and had been successful in swinging several villages to Adam’s cause. It was welcome news when good news was scarce. This capable, deep-thinking man understood and whole-heartedly supported Adam and Eve’s mission.
So impressed with his leadership were they that Serapatatia was invited into their home on multiple occasions to discuss difficulties and possible solutions for the many-sided problems of their mission. He was made chairman of the tribal relations commission, which meant many more meetings with Adam and Eve. But, increasingly, the conferences were primarily between Eve and Serapatatia, Adam being away so often on urgent needs. He and Eve ardently shared, and often discussed a common wish: to help Adam achieve more and greater successes.
Every year it was harder to focus on the long view, to avoid thinking of convenient or quick shortcuts. For five years this topic of helping Adam, of achieving more success and hastening progress, was examined and reexamined by Eve and Serapatatia. On most occasions they debated solutions and remedies that fell within the prescribed bounds of Adamic missions, but they sometimes discussed other solutions.
Eventually their meetings became private, Eve not wanting to upset Adam with speculations and ideas that could violate their oath or exceed their mandate. But their talks always remained speculative. Lyla of that time knew about these meetings but not the details. Later, with the help of Eve, she made a record of how Eve and Serapatatia’s last meeting unfolded.
It was during the couple’s one-hundred-and-seventeenth year on Earth that Eve’s misstep occurred. One beautiful evening, when the Garden was well into its blooming season, Serapatatia brought an extraordinary young man to their private meeting.
After introducing Cano, Serapatatia said, “I hoped you would be pleased to meet this man who has done so much to advance your mission in his village. He shares our wish for the success of your and Adam’s mission. Since your arrival, he’s acted with wisdom and enthusiasm in spreading good will on the mainland.”
Cano was in his prime and indeed an exemplary physical specimen. To Eve’s trained eye, he was the best of humanity from the mainland. She had heard of but never met him. She knew Cano was the chief of his village and like Serapatatia, a staunch supporter of the Adamic mission and an able leader. When certain rebellious villagers were advocating war and removal of the “invading aliens,” he insisted it was much wiser and more advantageous if his people keep the peace. He persuaded his village elders that exchanging goods with the Garden, rather than hostilities, would redound to their prosperity, famously declaring that, “In war, only destruction, evil, and suffering win.”
Cano was aware that Eve and Serapatatia had discussed a variety of potential solutions to leverage the meager successes of the ordained plan. Even forbidden solutions were sometimes broached. Eve felt she must do something to help Adam. More and more often he expressed frustration over the slow pace of progress on almost every front. A hundred years had passed and the amalgamation with humanity was still thousands of years away. Again and again Adam confessed to Eve his failing efforts. He once said in near exasperation, “The original plan is insufficient for the size and number of our problems. The Earth may be ready for a biological uplift, but the foundation stones for fraternity and morality are all but absent. And languages are so diverse and incompatible as to confound the angels.” This statement and others like it troubled Eve, causing her to lean into impatience and think about quick solutions.
More than once Eve felt progress was in reverse. They both knew enemies of the mission were living and working in the Garden, and on the mainland. Those facts preyed on Eve’s mind as well. The midwayers informed Eve that their detractors often worked subversively, stirring resentment in individual Garden workers and certain mainland villages. There were repeated attempts to diminish even their modest gains. Fierce resistance and frustrating delays so often accompanied their endeavors, great and small.
Year after year of stubborn and unsolvable challenges exacted a heavy toll on the couple. Big problems were always followed by even greater ones. As the first century wore on even meager gains were gladly accepted and roundly welcomed. Gradually, however, discouragement set in, fortitude and enthusiasm waned, and the pair nearly lost their faith at one point. But when it came time to act, they did not falter. Quitting did not suit them.
Eve took on Adam’s frustrations thereby compounding her own. In fact, the whole family shared their weariness and dissatisfaction. Their children longed for an end to Adam’s thorny problems and Eve’s growing loneliness. To their credit the Adamic children worked tirelessly for even small successes, for their parent’s sake, if not the mission’s.
More than a hundred years of missing their children and peers back on Jerusem fueled Eve’s feelings of helplessness and heightened her longings for advice. She prayed for patience, but patience was the first casualty. Eve had an unfortunate tendency to forget that any problem, any difficulty, standing athwart the divine will is solvable, that eventually the way of the Heavenly Father wins all contests, that goodness and righteousness always prevail in the end.
The most often discussed solution to several of Eve and Adam’s major difficulties was, in Serapatatia’s mind at least, only a slight deviation from the original plan. On this occasion, with Cano listening intently, Serapatatia said to Eve in complete sincerity and with deep concern, “Many times have we discussed ways of accelerating Adam’s progress and realizing more success. After talking these things over with Cano, he came to the same conclusion as you and me: Having an Adamic woman mate with a Nodite man, such as Cano, would produce a perfect liaison for Eden and the mainland. After training, he would become a great leader bringing the world to Eden, and in time, taking Eden’s culture out to the world.”
This was pleasing to Eve’s ears, especially now, having met Cano. She was impressed and intrigued by his bearing and proven leadership qualities, even more by his physique. As a highly skilled biologist Eve could recognize superior biology.
The schools of Eden taught that heredity is the foundation of character, that character has measurable and desirable spiritual potential. Eve well-knew this and, at that fraught moment, asked herself, ‘Is this beautiful young man the solution to Adam’s manifold difficulties?’ This Eve later confessed during a conversation with Lyla. Eve withheld nothing about the tragic affair after she regained perspective.
Cano joined Serapatatia in pressing Eve, moving in closer saying, “Such a child would surely have offspring loyal to our cause. And their children would, because of their nature, ensure faster progress inside and outside the Garden. They would become a line of strong leaders, ones who carry both human and Adamic heritage. Such leadership would fit perfectly with your original plan, as I understand it.”
Eve protested faintly, “On regular worlds, the Adam and Eve do not personally mate with the sons or daughters of men. And I cannot ask one of my daughters to. When I collect the fruit from the Tree of Life, the Garden’s angelic voice, Solonia, always reminds me not to combine good and evil.”
“What is regular about this world?” Serapatatia asked pointedly. “Even your own schools teach that the Earth is isolated, kept from the others like a sick animal. And are we not all sons and daughters of God? I must remind you that we are talking about doing good, not evil. Good intentions cannot produce bad fruit. And the voice in the garden must not know how very good your and Adam’s intentions are, or how big your problems are. The Garden’s plan is simply not working.”
Serapatatia plied Eve further, repeating and amplifying his and Cano’s persuasions. “It will be many lifetimes before your children and my children can be permitted to mate, according to the original plan. Until that far-off day, we will languish for the lack of real leaders. You need them now if this century is to be better than the last. Cano’s child will help attain what you and Adam so much desire, and have been unable to achieve by any meaningful measure.
“Forget not that such a child will have yet more children, a line of leaders who will support and achieve the Garden’s goals. By the end of your second century on Earth, you will have hundreds more able leaders at your command. And I hasten to remind you, the Garden’s mission is in danger of stalling, even failing.”
“Only upon reflection did I realize this alternate plan had been maturing in my mind until that day, when I met Cano,” Eve later told Lyla. “It seemed, at that moment, as though Cano was the answer to a long-held prayer.”
Not long after the default, Eve and Adam confessed to Lyla everything that led up to it, so that the hard lessons wrought from their error would be remembered for all time. The pair wanted humanity to know how such a far-reaching failure could come about under the rule of divinely appointed global administrators. The truth is that they were neither born perfect nor did they rule in perfection.
Serapatatia and Cano continued putting forth their reasons for an immediate Adamic-human liaison. Eve hesitated; she needed to think. But she had been thinking about it for five years.
Then Serapatatia made bold and said plainly to Eve with great authority and conviction, “The time is right! And our intentions are good. Therefore we cannot do wrong.” And he was not in any manner insincere when he said to Eve, “If you or one of your daughters combine their seed with Cano’s and produce a great leader, it will be a great relief to Adam, and a tremendous stimulus to the progress of your mission… our mission!”
With so little apparent progress to report, and lately seeing so much discouragement and frustration in Adam, Eve was mightily swayed. The more she listened to Serapatatia and the strikingly handsome Cano, the more she was persuaded to act in that moment. Little by little the brilliance and logic of these two enthusiastic men, their forceful assertions and righteous emotions were combining to melt away what remained of her resistance.
Into the evening the discussion went on. Without wholly realizing it, Eve was becoming convinced beyond all doubt. Reason tried to assert itself, but in the rarefied atmosphere of this intense meeting her fondest wishes—to help Adam speed their mission and allow him to be home more often—finally caused her reason, as well as the admonitions from the Melchizedeks, and the Voice of the Garden, to be set aside. So convinced were they of the efficacy of this scheme that it didn’t take much more to tip the balance of Eve’s resistance, to do the unthinkable, to go astray of the divine plan.
Serapatatia did not hesitate to use promises and flattery. He pointed out again, “Since our intentions are good and you are a direct descendant of God, we cannot fail. It will take centuries for the original plan to show results. Our plan would create untold advantages, even during my lifetime. Behold, Cano! Have you, in all your years on Earth, seen a finer man in the whole land?!”
And once more Serapatatia reminded Eve of Adam’s meager accomplishments during more than a century, save for her and Adam’s personal progeny, which at that time, numbered only sixty-three. Having mated those sixty-three and set them about procreation, the Adamic household had at that time 1,647 members, only a fraction of the half-million pure-line descendants the mission specified before mating with humanity. Their first century on Earth had indeed been difficult. So little had gone according to their plans and hopes. And the second century wasn’t beginning any better.
And now, here was this easy solution that had the potential to solve most of Adam’s problems, or at least give him more time for rest and parenting their ever-growing family. Did her children not need their father?
Serapatatia and Cano wanted—all but demanded—that she regard their plan as an infallible panacea for Adam’s most vexing and intractable challenges. Cano simply could not believe their plan was flawed, or that such powerful feelings could be misleading. And were not their intentions good, even the best?
Adam, as usual, was busy elsewhere, ever beset with manifold woes. At that moment he was attempting to arbitrate a dispute between troublemakers working in Eden’s south and loyalist administrators from the north. Some of the protestors were advocating short-sighted changes in Adam and Eve’s plan. Some were even calling for Adam’s resignation as ruler of the Garden. It was taking all of Adam’s attention; he was completely unaware of this fateful meeting of his mate, Serapatatia, and Cano.
Eve looked the man in the eye, knowing she was fertile, and feeling intensely the call to procreate. Cano watched her face, then moved closer. She saw he was willing and able. Suddenly they embraced and garments were pulled aside. All too quickly the eager young man and the beguiled Eve had consummated the act.
But Eve’s mind reeled; she felt a disruption, a tearing away from spirit. She realized, though too late, this was a mistake. Seeing that Eve was immediately distraught, Cano and Serapatatia assured her, “We cannot be wrong, you will see.”
Cano told her, with Serapatatia nodding agreement, “If you bear my child, I will raise him or her as you and Adam wish.” They each took one of Eve’s hands and kissed them, then departed. She sat there alone, dazed and deep in thought.
In an instant, the planet’s celestial workers realized the gravity of Eve’s disobedience. Adam sensed trouble and mentally called out, “Where are you? What has happened?” No reply. It was as if Eve was hurt or absent, Adam later reported to Lyla.
He was deeply alarmed and quickly summoned a midwayer to transport him to Eve’s location. On finding her, the whole story spilled out. Adam fell to the ground, listening in shock, anguish, and disbelief.
It then became the duty of Solonia, the “Voice of the Garden,” to censure them, to declare that Eve had violated the covenant with the Melchizedek overseers not to mate with humans until their family reached the specified number.
Solonia further reprimanded Eve: “Even before coming to Earth, it was my responsibility to warn you of the dangers of this assignment. And each time you partook of the fruit of the Tree of Life you were admonished not to mingle good with evil. Yet, today, you did. For all your training, and after the many warnings, the covenant has been broken, and the consequences are upon you, Adam, and this world.”
“What will happen to my beloved?” asked Adam.
Solonia replied solemnly, “It is all but certain that she has already been reduced in status to that of Earthly mortal. And already has she lost the ability to communicate from afar, because of the severed connection to that which confers immortality and other powers you once shared. Her body will eventually perish, but you will live on to complete the original mission.”
This filled Adam with an unbearable sadness, for he loved Eve with a superhuman affection. For a moment he pitied her, then imagined seeing her die. The thought of carrying on without her for tens of thousands of years was unacceptable. It was too much. He looked at Solonia, then at Eve, and an idea entered his mind. There was a way to equalize the error, another easy solution. He turned to walk away.
Instantly Eve realized his intent and cried out, “No, Adam!”
“My dear beautiful Eve, you shall not be mortal alone.” She followed him, knowing he was about to repeat her mistake and thus reduce himself to her status.
Adam turned to her, his heart heavy as stone, “Remain with Solonia.” She collapsed in tears as he slowly and determinedly walked away. Solonia came to Eve’s side, attempting to comfort and console this now sorrowful and guilt-ridden daughter of God.
Adam soon found the object of his intent, a granddaughter of the brilliant Nodite woman who, a century before, had welcomed the pair to the western college. Laotta had taken her grandmother’s name and followed her as dean of the college; she was visiting the Adamic estate that day. Adam had seen her land at the stable earlier, just as he was leaving for the day’s work. Laotta was there to meet with the head of the eastern school, to coordinate the curricula of east and west. Oftentimes she, her mother, and grandmother, had worked on education committees with both Eve and Adam.
As Adam approached this comely creature she noted a strange look on his face. In a few words, he explained that he wished to mate with her, in order that he might share Eve’s fate and become as she now is, a mortal.
There was hardly a woman anywhere who would not have wished to join with the magnificent Adam in procreation, under any circumstances. Likewise, every man would quickly accept an offer to mate with Eve. Cano felt himself the most fortunate person on the Earth at that unique moment. He had intercourse with a god, and she would likely deliver him a divinely endowed child.
Laotta knew of the plan not to mate with mortals. Adam told her that the original plan had failed and now needed adjustment. And during those times, multiple mating was common. Right away, Laotta agreed, and Adam’s fate became the same as Eve’s.
But Adam was terribly disappointed by Eve’s transgression, to the point of grief and anguish. “How could she, after our long training, and after so many warnings not to do this very thing, ignore it all and mate with Cano, and in secret? Why did she not discuss all this with me? Did I lead her to this by my constant discouragements and complaints?” He wasn’t angry; he loved Eve too much. At that moment all he could feel for Eve was sympathy. He pitied her as only genuine love can.
After mating with Laotta, Adam left. Eve knew not where. For thirty days he was absent, gone, out of touch. During this awful and dark time Eve fell into a hellish spiral of self-recrimination and lonely anguish. Clouds of guilt gathered and remained in her distraught mind. The pain of disloyalty rained down and the agony of failure flooded her being. Was Adam taken away for her error? Had he taken his own life? In her tormented state, the worst scenarios took root and repeated endlessly.
During those thirty days of Adam’s absence Eve was inconsolable, ever reiterating the same questions and pleas, “What have I done? How could I have done this? Where is Adam? Father God, please bring him back alive and safe.” She begged Solonia, and everyone else, “to find him before something dreadful happens.”
But Adam didn’t wish to be found. He took flight to the foothills of the coastal mountains in the west, roaming aimlessly, sorting out feelings and the now inevitable consequences of his intentional error. Meanwhile their children were suffering. It was difficult seeing their beloved mother in such distress and not being able to do anything to relieve it. They tried to comfort their stricken mother during their father’s absence. Some feared Adam might not return, no one knew. Each day without him, not knowing his physical or emotional state, was all but unendurable for poor Eve.
Finally, Adam’s reason, balance, and wisdom gained the upper hand and he returned to Eve and his disconsolate family. On seeing her beloved, alive and healthy, Eve was beside herself with tears of mixed joy and sorrow. Adam felt her emotional fatigue and exasperation. Now those feelings could begin to be replaced with hope. He took her in his arms and they wept. The children surrounded their wounded parents, also shedding tears. Solonia looked on in bereavement, for she knew that, not only had the Adamic family been severely traumatized, their magnificent Garden home was almost surely doomed.
When Adam finally returned, after this terrible time of crushing uncertainty and self-blame, Eve rejoiced like never before or never after. Her gratitude on seeing Adam’s face, his forgiving face, was immeasurable. But she and her children were emotionally scarred by this affair. Their trauma was never fully forgotten, though forgiveness of both parents was gladly and freely given by all of Adam and Eve’s offspring.
Right after Adam went away in defeat and retreat, the Garden residents heard the story of Eve’s mating, and immediately blamed Cano. They whipped themselves into a fanatical fervor over the matter. Without Adam’s leadership to cool their anger or contain their resentment, war was declared on Cano’s village. The enraged Garden workers marched to the mainland and took the life of every man, woman, and child, and burned the village to charcoal.
Cano, the father of Cain yet-to-be, was killed in the raid. But Serapatatia was still wandering the Garden, lamenting his part in all this, suffering unbearable fear and all-consuming regret. He wanted to see Eve, but realized that would only create more trouble. The day after Eve and Cano’s liaison, saddened and guilty, Serapatatia perished. Upon realizing what his ill-conceived plan had wrought—hearing the Garden workers blame Cano and knowing they would shed blood in retribution—this man of good intentions fell into a hopeless depression. He went to the river, filled his garments with stones, waded in, and threw himself into its depth.
Soon after Eve and Adam erred, it was Solonia’s duty to recall the Melchizedek Receivers. She predicted the Receivers would confirm her opinion, that the pair would be reduced to mortal status. That they would die when their bodies wore out, and then be resurrected on a mansion world, as would an ascending mortal. They knew however, their lives on Earth would likely be several times that of an average human. All awaited the judgment from on high to know for certain Adam and Eve’s disposition and fate.The Gardens of Eden – Life and Times of Adam and Eve, is now available in English, Spanish, French, German, and Audible: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1707553653/
***
Other Urantia based books by Richard E. Warren include:
Resurrection Hall – A Mansion World Odyssey, a story about our next life is available in print, and ebook formats, also in Spanish, French, and German.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071G238STThe Melchizedek Mission – Salvaging Truth, unveils the mystery of the second most important person in Urantia’s history, Machiventa Melchizedek.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MY7Y68P/Battlefield Guardians – Angels in Vietnam, is a story of a soldier who receives revelations from the angels during the night season.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07HNLF165/The First Humans – Andon and Fonta, is available in ebook and audio versions. The audio version is free to Audible, Spotify, and Itune members.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08JBDW7PS/Midwayers – The Planet’s Permanent Citizens: https://www.facebook.com/groups/879625762862581
Coming soon: The Planetary Prince and Van the Steadfast: https://www.facebook.com/groups/635119267130954
***All novels and translations can be found on one page in print, ebook, and audio versions: https://www.amazon.com/Richard-E-Warren/e/B07SF8DC3C
Print books are also available at CosmicCreations: https://cosmiccreations.biz/collections/educational
The Urantia Book is a free download, in 24 languages: http://www.urantia.org
.Richard E Warren
A good read indeed, Rick.
Thanks Alain. And thanks even more for translating the story into French. It’s soo important that the true story of Eve and Adam’s error (eventually) become known to all.
Link to: Les Jardins d’Eden: La vie et l’epoque d’Adam et Eve: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08N9X8Z2Y/
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Richard E Warren
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