Adam and Eve Or maybe a masterclass in gaslighting.
A creation myth from the Abrahamic religions. As like most of those stories it follows a hetero-sexual , monogamist slant with a big dose of Misogyny. You know the woman is the temptress and encourages the fall... blah blah blah.
Although, maybe an avenue to reappropriating this story from misogyny is recognising that evil/ temptation is signified by the snake (doesn't take too much imagination to see this as an image of male fertility). As Freud says 'sometimes a snake is just a snake...most the time it's a giant penis'. If I have misquoted, I don't apologise.
The snake could easily be construed as the motivation system of the eroticised male mind. The snake (male mind) sneakily encourages the female to take steps that later the whole world decry as examples of her evil ways as a temptress. The male pretends he never had anything to do with the process, it wasn't me, it was the snake (projection of his desires- freeing him from the guilt of having such desires). A potent example of gaslighting.
I have traditionally thought about the fall, from the perspective of myself losing my innocence. This is how I read many interpretations, we as humans were pure and now we are filled with sin, cast out from the garden and having to find our own way.
Sure a great simplification but I am trying to fast forward to an alternative I had driving down some innocuous road on a Tuesday afternoon.
What if Adam and Eve were not the metaphor for my fall from grace but the articulation of how I increasingly read intent into other's actions, who then fall from my grace. My increasing articulation of others, rips them from the garden of eden (in my eyes- of being beautiful and innocent) and places them in a barren world of persecution- 'how dare you do that'.
Let's explore. In the calm light of day, when I have had enough sleep, am feeling energised, am not overly pressured with an impossible to achieve 'to do' list, when people around me have been kind/ supportive, you know, those times that rarely if ever are actually achieved. In these fantasy moments of having it all together, I can look at my child, a baby, and see its innocence. I don't attribute blame and malicious intent to any of its actions, as they fart, blow spit bubbles, little fists throw objects in my direction.
But
When I am exhausted in the middle of night with a screaming child. My mind easily moves to anger and desperation "just shut up, why are you doing this to me, why are you making my life hell'. The actions of the child are now perceived as personal, my injection of intent into the baby's mind has the effect of ripping them out of the garden of eden and damming them.
A human response at being at the end of our tether.
This response becomes harder to keep distance from as the child grows.
