Know Your Culture

Monday, March 23, 2009 9:07 - 2 Comments

Deconstructing the Biblical “Fall of Man”: Insight into the Source of our Misery–Ancient and Modern pt 1

The Garden of Earthly Delights By Bosche It is very interesting to note how Adam and Eve resemble northern Europeans, Semitic people are darker skinned and have black hair.

Most of us have heard of, if not read about the legendary Garden of Eden, the mythical paradise on earth said to have existed prior to the “Fall of Man”.

The first “Book” of Semitic biblical mythology, Genesis, recounts the events which lead up to “the Fall”.

But before I get into my interpretation of the symbolism behind “the Fall and the Garden of Eden” I am going to say something about the branch of knowledge which enables me to do so.

Mythic Literacy

Anyone familiar with the study of mythology will know that all ancient writings and oral traditions make use of conjured images (symbols) to convey meaning and complex ideas.

Illustrations and pictures in books is a relatively new invention.

By conjured images I mean the word or words used to conjure a person, place, thing, event or process.

The printing press was invented about 500 years ago, but books and magazines as we know them, full of images, have only been around for the last 50 years. Writing was invented  around 5000 years ago. But reading and writing was the sole province of the priest and ruling class up until some time after the development of the printing press.

Oral story telling obliges us to use our imaginations and in order to bring stories to life conjured imagery was essential. When was the last time you visualized words? It was essential of story telling to be graphic. That is filled with words eliciting imagery .

The conjured image is often times intended to “stand in for” (symbolize) or represent something else or something more than the conjured image itself..[1] A picture really is worth a thousand words.

Literalism means mythic illiteracy or ignorance of the culture specific meanings of images, symbols and metaphor.

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