When the great patriarch Jacob was foretelling the destiny of his sons, he declared that his son Dan would be "a serpent by the way, an adder in the path." Gen. 49:17. For years I simply saw the serpent and the adder as a single symbol signifying "animal magnetism," according to the metaphysical interpretation of Dan in the Glossary of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy. See Science and Health, p. 583 . Yet the serpent and the adder are really two very different perceptions of the way evil appears to operate: "by the way," as a subtle, even hidden assailant by the wayside; and "in the path," declaring itself to be an overt obstruction right in the path in front of us. This second presentation of evil would seem to symbolize all of evil's visible forms, all of the manifestations of suppositional, elemental mortal mind called "matter," which would invert the manifestation of the divine Mind, God, and claim to block the eternal unfoldment of Mind and idea.
While it is important to recognize the particular forms of blockage assumed by the "adder in the path," it is more important to realize first that all claims of obstruction are specific denials of the fundamental nature of spiritual reality to unfold in an orderly way and without interruption. In fact, obstruction specifically denies the Holy Ghost as defined in the textbook: "Divine Science; the development of eternal Life, Truth, and Love." Ibid., p. 588. But in order to discern and demonstrate the unstoppable motion of being, we must acknowledge spiritual identity as the sole reality of man, on earth as in heaven.
As a matter of fact, the belief that mind, substance, and life can be in matter—the belief that man is, or ever has been, a material personality with a private ego—constitutes the entire delusion and common denominator of blockage, or separation, from good, God. Mrs. Eddy writes in her Miscellaneous Writings: "What is it that seems a stone between us and the resurrection morning?
