Priests Driven from the First Temple

The first Jerusalem temple, Solomon's temple, was considered the Garden of Eden. "Adam was created to be the high priest, but he ate from the forbidden tree and so lost access to the Wisdom of the Tree of Life. Adam returning to Eden and to the Tree of Life meant the original priesthood returning to the true temple." - "Restoring Solomon's Temple" by Margaret Barker

When Asherah was removed from the first temple, the priests went into exile. The Tree of Life and Her attendant priests and priesthood were removed.

It's fascinating to me that the fall from the Garden meant leaving the Tree of Life, and therefore forfeiting access to the highest priesthood power. Wisdom, the Tree of Life, stayed in the garden temple but humankind was forced to leave. Here on Earth however, we have the reversal: we create Eden/temple spaces, but because of our continued refusal/ignorance of Wisdom, our Mother Tree is missing from the Holy of Holies of our Eden/temple space. Jesus promised His faithful followers that they would once again have access to the Tree of Life (Revelation 2:7; 22:14).