Temptation of Man

Adam sits in a contemplative, downward-looking pose on a rocky outcrop while a standing Eve, shown from a rear three-quarter view, reaches out to offer him the fruit. Between them stands the massive trunk of the Tree of Knowledge, where a serpent with a human face hands a second fruit to Eve. The foreground features oversized gourds and pumpkins, while a turkey and a cat sit in the lower right corner, symbolizing pride and lust.

In the Western esoteric tradition, the Fall represents the descent of the divine spark or the 'Anthropos' into the material world and the realm of generation. This moment is central to Hermetic and Alchemical philosophy as the 'separation' that the Great Work seeks to rectify through the reunification of opposites.