What’s in there for me: Something big – a solid answer for this much debated topic of humanity. It would be naive to take The myth of Creation as a historical record. In fact, the first stories of the Garden of Eden date to a much later date than the earthed bones of early hominids, Homo Habilis. I mean, we talk about some 2 million years of difference. So, at the time the Eden’s Story was born, our ancestors already had some sort of clothing. It was not Gucci obviously but they had already covered their private parts. In short, this story is not a historical record. It is not biography of Adam and Eve either. It is a symbolic illustration of how our psyche has experienced the process of evolution, namely, the birth and separation of the consciousness. It is the way how our unconscious translated the process of growing consciously different from the rest. And it is also the story of hope. Hope for what? Read the full post to find out.
Read the blog post “That wasn’t technically fire – what was it?” to learn more about the nature of the conscious and the symbols that illustrate the pain of being consciously different.
The full post starts here.
With arrival of Alessandro Michele, Gucci has become a Garden of mystery. Some interpretations are unnerving to me, I accept. Regardless, I love scrolling their Instagram feed full of mystical and historical references.
This is my first try of Gucci and I’ve chosen a widely known myth of Garden of Eden with “fashionable” touch of Ignasi Monreal.
Our First Parents? Dressed in Gucci Style or Nude?
The original version of this retouched artwork is visually somehow different from “conventionally accepted” image of Garden of Eden as it carries quite some touch of author’s own visions. But the storyline is similar. We are talking about origins of universe and emergence of our first parents.
It is amusing to learn the fact that the first stories of Garden of Eden date to a much later date than the earthed bones of early hominids, Homo Habilis. I mean we talk about some 2 million years of difference. In other words, talking chronographically, when Adam was kicked out of that Walled Garden of Eternity and landed on mortal Earth, this place had already been populated with his fellow species long, long time ago. I am sure, he didn’t feel lonely. By the way, I guess they already had some sort of clothing.
Life in Garden of Delights – Not as Stylish as Gucci’s
Let’s see before being kicked out how was his life. Adam was in Garden of Delights enjoying his lazy and solitary yet immortal life. At the center of this Garden there were two trees – the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Immortality. There were four rivers in the garden, flowing from inexhaustible sources in four directions to keep the world refreshed. He was bored, so God created his counterpart, Eve out of his rib.
The treacherous serpent curled around the Tree of Knowledge whispered about the marvelous forbidden fruit of the Tree to the woman. Obviously she gave in, because, she herself is a symbol of temptation (in the eyes of Adam). She even convinced Adam. They tried the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge and suddenly became aware of their differences and got ashamed. They got expelled from the Garden for eating that fruit. To make things worse, the God put two wrathful protectors in front of the gates so that they couldn’t sneak in.
I am writing another post about this lower relatedness aspect of woman as homage to the Gucci’s Great Hermaphrodite art work. Also a separate post about Snake. Stay tuned.
Absurdity All the Way
Although ridiculously absurd, this story runs along the texts of all of Abrahamic religions. Even uncontaminated cultures have their own versions with similar symbolism – precisely, the Tree and the Snake. How one can believe in this bizarre story and actually consider it as actual records of beginning of the universe while our facts are telling us a totally different story? Now one needs to ask this question – did really this place exist?
Answer from psychoanalysis is yes and no. No, because, there is no Paradise (walled enclosure) on an already well-explored Earth. Yes, because, it is our inner reality and this explains why such a weird absurdity has managed to gain so much fame. It is not a historical record of the origin of the universe. Yet it is how our psyche has experienced the process of evolution, namely, birth and separation of the consciousness. This story is manifestation of man’s longing for pre-conscious sense of totality in symbolic language of unconscious. But it is not only about longing, it also talks about hope.
Second Look at Symbols
Let’s get into translation. It turns out that it was the Knowledge, the Awareness that put us behind the protected doors. It was time for us to get out of that Garden. So that treacherous Snake – the symbol of “Eternal Wisdom” set up the “plan”.
At some point in evolution, we developed a capacity to judge everything in terms of good and bad which we perceive as fear and desire. In mythological language, our first parents “ate the fruit of knowledge” and became self-aware – the characteristic feature of consciousness. So it was the nature of our reasoning that closed those doors to our face.
Self-awareness was not the only revelation. Then it downed upon them that there is a thing called death while they are lustful creatures with desire to live. So fairy tales abound with stories about search of elixir of life and man’s desire to transcend mortality. Because, although we can’t taste that bliss any more, we haven’t lost the knowledge that there is a dimension of our nature that transcends mortality.
The Cost of Being Consciously Different
This differentiation of ourselves, development of consciousness has cost us to lose that “eternal, timeless completeness” – the period now babies experience from the moment of conception until early development of consciousness (does that explain why they are good at being happy?). Then for the rest of life try to experience it again.
Read the blog post “That wasn’t technically fire – what was it?” to learn more about the nature of the conscious and the symbols that illustrate the pain of being consciously different.
Religions are our cry for such transcendence – our hope to transcend this carnal world of duality to experience that “timeless delightful state”. Because it is when the “self-aware” consciousness will let go its petty “me and mine” game and will experience transcendence through self-sacrifice and submission to higher order. Enduring spirituality is where he hopes to experience these delights that are beyond duality of opposites – worries and desires, temptations and fears, light and dark.
Paradise… Where is it?
But not all is lost. That walled eternal land still resides inside each of us, in the depth of our dark psyche, protected by cultural ogres, fire breathing dragons, many-headed scary creatures, which we come across in myth and fairy tales. They are personifications of our worldly attachments and survival instincts. Remember, the God put two frightful monsters in front of the doors? We are talking of the same thing now. The way to return there is to defeat all these roaming instinctual forces and give back that “fruit”, which made us aware of ourselves and our surrounding. In other words, sacrifice our consciousness. Precisely, the way to immortality goes through Death, let it be physical death or symbolic death to our worldly attachments.
Only thru total renunciation of ego-oriented attachments the return is possible to that state of eternal bliss free of worries and temptations. But this time the experience is not that of a baby. It is that of a mature person in the form of immortality of spirit. Nothing carnal.
Related posts:
That wasn’t technically fire – what was it?
The Secret Story of Symbols”
The Unconscious – The Great Mother, The Conscious – Overconfident Kid
