The Cain-Abel Story? Why It's Great One Earth Mythology

When storytellers first evolved the Cain and Abel story, they were grappling with a world undergoing the disruptive change that came with the evolution of settled agriculture. The new lifestyles, economy, and worldview that went with the settled agriculture way of living tore families and communities apart. Humans, during their previous nearly 200,000 years, had never before lived according to those ways, nor the ideas that went with them. The nomadic herders, hunters, and gatherers who declined the new agricultural ways were chagrined by how agriculture was changing the landscape as well as the people involved. Stories such as Cain and Abel grew up among them to express their feelings and describe what they saw happening. Multi Earthism was being born.

It was not until after 587 B.C., the year Jerusalem and the Temple were destroyed, that Cain and Abel became part of Genesis. At that point, the destructive effects of city-states and empires was added to the character of Cain along with the effects of settled agriculture that he already represented. Genesis, the book or origins, was compiled during that time while Jews were refugees exiled in Babylon and needed stories that countered the ones they heard the Babylonians telling about how their empire was established by the gods and governed by divine right.

This, of course, didn’t sit well with the Jews who’d been forcibly moved from Jerusalem and their homeland to the city of Babylon. Genesis was their answer. And with Cain and Abel they saw Babylon as Cain. Dominating centers of power like Babylon were the cities that grew out of settled agriculture as they saw it. So in Cain, the farmer who became the city-builder, they folded into one cultural myth what they had come to regard as two major negative developments in the human story. The story also served as a goad to the Hebrews to deepen their repentance of their own Cain-like behaviors that they’d been living during their national monarchies up until the Babylonians whipped them. 

The greatness of the myth of Cain and Abel to speak to many cultures across the millennia becomes apparent not only in Steinbeck’s East of Eden, but also in how eloquently they embody the Multi Earth and One Earth ways today.

Earth, the Whistleblower on Cain and Multi-Earthers

(This blog entry continues the Cain and Abel story from the previous entry.)

Like many a murderer, when Cain was confronted about the one he’d killed, he denied knowing where the dead person was. Ironically, the very ground which Cain tilled became the whistleblower on his actions. YHWH appealed to Cain, “Listen; your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground! And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it will no longer yield to you its strength; you will be a fugitive and a wanderer on Earth.” 

These were heavy words for Cain to hear, a greater punishment, he said, than he could bear. The soil, foundational to the life choices he’d made, would not yield at full strength for him.

But the consequences of his murder went much further.

• His relationship with YHWH would be less immediate and personal.
• He would be less settled on the land than he desired to be.
• He felt threatened by others — especially herders, hunters, and gatherers — fearful that they would want revenge. 

YHWH, not wanting to see reprisal for Abel’s murder, put a mark on Cain to send a clear signal that violence by herders and hunters against agriculturalists could not make things right – not for Abel, not for anyone. In this way, YHWH rejected the notion that one act of violence could be made right by committing another.

Despite this clear rejection of redemptive violence by YHWH, Multi Earthers continue to espouse it to this day. Military reprisals and war continue to be chosen as a primary way to end conflicts and bring peace. Cain, having received his divine mark, went away from the presence of YHWH and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.

I’d like to see your comments on two questions:

1. What is your experience of how Multi Earth ways repeatedly kill One Earthers and their practices?
2. In your experience how is Earth now whistleblowing Multi Earth’s denial of responsibility for murder of One practices?

The Multi Earth Worldview Asks, "Am I My Brother's Keeper?"

Here I go with my own redux of the ancient story of Cain and Abel. As John Steinbeck did in East of Eden, I too see the eloquence of this story in piercing the Multi Earth worldview and how it’s honesty can disarm the grip with which Multi Earth tentacles encircle us. You can read the original version in Genesis 4:1-16.

Abel and Cain were brothers who lived two sharply distinguished worldviews: Abel was a nomadic herder; his brother Cain was a farmer. Though these worldviews may not seem so different to city dwellers today, in the history of our species the move from nomadic herding, hunting, and gathering to settled and surplus farming was a major shift in paradigm.

In the story, Abel and Cain each brought an offering to YHWH, their deity, from their respective lifework. Abel brought some premium cuts of meat from his herd and Cain brought some of his produce. YHWH liked Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s — a clear approval of the nomadic, herding worldview and disapproval of the agricultural worldview.

Cain was not happy. He became angry and depressed. YHWH asked him why, assuring him he could be accepted if he did right, but warning him to be on his guard because evil desired to master him.

At this point Cain invited Abel to go out into the field. There, in the fields that Cain farmed, he killed his herder brother.

YHWH again approached Cain and asked where Abel was. Cain replied, “I do not know,” and added the words for which he’s best known, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 

What happens next? Stay tuned for the next entry in this blog!

"You Say It Yahweh and I'll Say It Mine"

I am about to retell the ancient, mythic Cain and Abel story, rather than assume that all of us know it. Knowing the story is essential to understanding Steinbeck’s East of Eden, because the entire novel is a contemporary rendition of it. Similarly, I connect with it as ancient wisdom that helps interpret Multi Earth’s baffling grip on us. But, before I retell the story, I want to say why the word “God” is often troublesome for me. 

Years ago I was reading Kudzu, a comic strip by Pulitzer Prize winning Doug Marlotte. The strip was about a Southern preacher, Rev. Will B. Dunn. He was in the pulpit talking about names for God. After giving many names, he finally came to Yahweh. But he wasn’t certain how to pronounce it. So after trying several ways, he summed it all up by saying, “You say it Yahweh and I’ll say it mine.”

When I refer to the deity prominent in the scriptures of Jews and Christians, including the Cain and Abel story, I often use the four consonants YHWH, the way the Hebrew bible writes the name. I dislike how the word “God” has become associated with countless activities and ideas alien, even opposite, to how I experience God. Rather than try to redeem the word or assume readers know what I mean and don’t mean by it, I will mostly use YHWH. You can pronounce it “Yahweh.” Even though we can not be certain of which vowels actually belong with the four consonants, “Yahweh” is most common. 

“God” is used throughout Multi Earth speech; YHWH does not fit with it. YHWH connects most especially with Creation, Edenic, and One Earth ways. YHWH’s revelatory moments happen most especially in nature and wilderness, rather than industrial or urban centers. They can, of course, happen anywhere YHWH chooses. I apologize to any readers for whom using a word from another language may be off-putting. I invite readers simply to say “YHWH” quietly and hear how breathy it is. As such, it reminds me that “breath” is an excellent name for the mystery of the divine. 

Let me know in a comment what names for the Sacred, for the Divine Presence, or God, work best for you.

Steinbeck Makes Us Aware of Our Multi Earth Ways

Just thinking about his book title, East of Eden, it strikes me that Steinbeck grasped the contrast between the worldview that is Eden and the one that is not. The one that is outside of Eden. Each worldview has stories to tell and Steinbeck took on the task of telling a story of life when we live in the worldview of non-Eden — or, in the parlance of this blog, when we live in the world as Multi Earthers. He recognized that we, like Cain, live in non-Eden. That may not surprise us given that most of have learned the Eden story as something ancient anyway. But this blog takes a different view. On up the road I’ll say how, I believe, we can live in Eden today.

As is true for us all in general, my life lives out of a complex of stories I’ve identified with. Some I’m conscious of, some I’m not. The stories I’m least conscious of likely impact me all the more for my lack of awareness of them. For example, being born in the U.S., I had been shaped by the Multi Earth story for many years before becoming conscious of it. That story continues to shape Multi Earth living so successfully because many Multi Earthers remain unconscious of the plot being played out through their lifestyle choices. But Steinbeck was deeply aware of it and recognized that the story of Cain told briefly the macro-story we are living. His novel expresses the depth of meaning he saw in both the biblical story and the contemporary expression of it in the U.S.

What comments can you add to how John Steinbeck shows Multi Earth ways that ain’t pretty? But also how he pushes and prods the edges of human capacities to believe we could live a completely different, life-giving paradigm?

Enlisting John Steinbeck in the Cause of the One Earth Project

As promised in the previous blog entry, we’re now heading into a bend in the road toward a greater understanding of why Multi Earth living mesmerizes us and holds onto us even when our best rational judgment says, “Stop now. Cast aside Multi Earth ways and leap into One Earth’s commonsense!” It’s time to meet up with myth — especially myth’s great ability to describe the truth and power of the paradigm in which we live. To help us see how myth works, I bring John Steinbeck into this blog.

When novelist Steinbeck concluded East of Eden in 1952, he considered it his magnum opus, his greatest work. Within a month it was a bestseller. By 1955, it had been adapted for a movie starring James Dean. The story has had staying power in popular culture. ABC produced a miniseries in 1981, and an all new movie produced by Universal Studies will bring the story anew to audiences in 2012.

From the first time that I heard of Steinbeck’s book, I loved the title. Because I was steeped in biblical stories from the moment I left the womb, I recognized that the title came from the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. The story follows immediately upon the story of Eden and the eviction of Eve and Adam from the garden. But why, I wondered, did Steinbeck choose it? I’ve subsequently learned that Steinbeck drew his inspiration from this biblical story and felt deeply challenged by it. Growing up in Salinas, California, and the rich agricultural fields of the Salinas Valley, Cain, the farmer, resonated with him.

East of Eden unfolds mostly in the Salinas Valley, dealing with themes of jealousy, love, depravity, capacities for self-destruction and greatness, and most of all, guilt and freedom. All have parallels in the Cain and Abel scenario. While he was writing, Steinbeck tried a number of titles for his work, but none satisfied him. Then, when he again read Genesis 4:16, which says, “Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden,” he was delighted at how well the last three words nailed the description of life in his book. He had his title.

Though Steinbeck never called the paradigm he described in East of Eden the Multi Earth paradigm, and never used One Earth to name the paradigm that he hoped we humans would choose, his story describes precisely such a choice.