« Eden for the 21st Century »

Eden has so many connotations, many in the past tense. Using the word may have more risks than promises. I decided to risk that it’s a useful, juicy symbol in this century for our efforts to keep Earth livable. That’s why I call the trilogy of books I’m writing, “Eden for the 21st Century.” The first book, Blinded by Progress, was indie published in 2013. The second book, From Egos to Eden, will be published later this year, 2016.

I’m not interested in some “return to Eden” motiff, but I do believe that we all have an archetypal Garden in us that can guide us to keep Earth livable in the 21st century. That Garden exists in our psyches, as archetypes do, below the surface of full consciousness. To describe an archetype’s power, Robert Moore, a Jungian psychoanalyst, explains that they we need to regard them as structures, energies, and potentials—all three.

So the images of our inner Garden provide structure for what Earth-size living looks like. Its structures are as diverse as the ecospheres of our planet. Its energies are life-driven and connect with the living energies of all life forms, microbes to mammals, plankton to whales. The potentials include a life community acting interdependently and with a complex consciousness that sutains life in its mysterious balance.

At the end of the first chapter in my forthcoming book, From Egos to Eden, I explain why I opted to take on the task of renarratting Eden in the opening chapter to the book. First, I am chagrined that Eden has been used inaccurately to foster MultiEarth views of human nature and egoistic thinking, the very paradigm it was intended to protest. Second, I believe that it has the power to energize our relocation into OneEarth views of human nature and Creation-centered consciousness.

Subsequent chapters in the book move us beyond the limited view of human nature expressed in the punchless versions of Eden. An Eden accurately told portrays us humans as a messy and creative mix of dark and bright, but quite capable of heroic journeys into the topographies of consciousness where OneEarth living is possible if not inevitable.

The further we move into such larger topographies of consciousness, the clearer we see that Eden’s mythic power is neutered in the MultiEarth consciousness. At the same time, we also become more able to retell Eden with the charged meanings and messages that its symbols have radiated since its inception. It’s a bit of a loop. When Eden regains its power, Eden helps us move into greater consciousness; and from the vantage point of greater consciousness, we see more clearly the difference between a lackluster Eden and a numinous one.

Once it regains its power in our consciousness, Eden becomes a prime exhibit and mover on how the abundant, creational order stirs imagination and innovation. Myths seeking to validate MultiEarth ways compare poorly to Eden. Only myths that protest MultiEarth civilization can inhabit the same field of power as Eden. 

I believe that our yearning for a sustainable Earth community of life can be realized, and that Eden’s storytellers hold their own among all the wonderful artists who provide countercultural images, songs, and myths imagining OneEarth ways. All of these contribute images and symbols that provide the mythic crunch to reverse climate change and to do our Great Work in the 21st century—a work we turn to in the next chapter.