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| The Garden of Eden by Lucas Cranach |
G is for Garden of Eden.
Well, here we are again, back at Religion. It always amazes me how connected sex and religion are.
The good ol' Garden of Eden is back in the cultural spotlight with Darren Arenofsky's film Noah, which imbues Noah with the desire to take the world back to the perfection of Eden. For Noah, this means no humans, only animals, and through the course of the film, Noah has to find a way to feel compassion for human creatures. However, the Garden of Eden is firmly established as the image of idealistic perfection.
And yet, despite the burden of sensuality weighing over the Apple, as we first saw at the start of this A - Z adventure, The Garden is a symbol of eroticism in itself. For starters Adam and Eve are naked. Then you have the name itself: Eden in Aramaic means "Fruitful" or "well watered", or in the Hebrew interpretation, "Pleasure". This is The Garden of Pleasure.
Adam was originally in the garden alone, however, when he expressed loneliness, he was provided with his help mate, Eve. If you look into the literal translations of "Adam", you will notice the word used to describe the original creature is "human" and it changes when Eve is moulded from the rib. It is much more likely that what the text really said, was the creature was a "human" and god put it into a deep sleep and split it in two, creating a male and a female, two parts of the same whole. Of course it has been convenient for the church to retain the idea that male was first, female second, but this is not consistent with the ancient text.
Given this information, it is most likely that sex was involved between Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, (probably plenty of it) and it was monogamous sex. In the true, original tale, sex is a RE-joining, back to an original.
Due to the implied safety and comfort of the Garden of Eden, it is supposed that Eve and Adam together experienced the ideal sexual congress, without knowledge of anything ugly to taint or alter their passion.
It doesn't matter if you are religious or not, the metaphor, mythology or history of the Garden of Eden is primarily one of the very first humans enjoying their sensuality without any external interference.
