S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 3 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 7 1 3 Thomas Crowther the watery darkness of the omniversal Potential which lies beyond Eden, I imagine this as the only place in the garden where the laws of this universe can be bent and where perfection can be challenged. And it is here, with Eve standing beneath its branches, that I imagine her story beginning. But I don’t want to present Eve as the simplistic woman tempted into eating the tree’s fruit by the devil, as is suggested in Genesis. There is no snake, no lucifer in this version. In fact, there is no source of temptation outside the mind of Eve herself. That mind is an intelligent and enquiring one too. But it is also not quite as we would know it. Formed from the elements of the garden itself, Eve is not human per se, at least not yet. Though like us, she is a sentient being, I also imagine her as someone who is intimately connected to all other elements of creation, unlike us. This is possible in Eden because here, creations – that is, those possibilities which have emerged from the omniversal Potential – are not distinctly separated from one another, for this is a false impression of our own universe, as I shall discuss below. Instead, each and every element in Eden is connected to the rest and their experiences shared. This union allows all the different elements of the garden, such as the Tree of Life, to also be constituents of Eve herself, meaning Eve is Eden and Eden is Eve – they are embodiments of one another. The Tree of knowledge of Good and Evil however, though sharing a union with Eve, also extends beyond Eden, and so is at the same time also connected to all the uncreated possibilities (i.e. “signatures”) of the omniversal Potential beyond. Now, though the Tree of Life permits immortality in a limited, albeit Utopian universe, Eve realises that its counterpart is of far greater significance because it allows all other possibilities (i.e. possibilities currently impossible in Eden) to be created. This is part of a certain type of liberty I imagine Eve reaching for in the garden; a liberty of perpetual, eternal and unbounded creation which is also in union with herself. This is what I define as “omniversal liberty” (Crowther 2014); a somewhat unimaginable condition where every possible creation actually becomes possible, and with the Tree of knowledge acting as a bridge for Eve; a doorway to other understandings, to other possibilities and to other creations. knowing that she is connected to the rest of Eden, Eve understands that if she were to eat from this tree, possibilities previously in the omniversal Potential would be able to flood into creation through her. But what she neglects to comprehend is that these created possibilities would not be those selected by any divine creator, and as such, would include elements which had hitherto been excluded from the original design of the universe. The tree’s forbidden fruit, with their blackened and crumpled skins, hint at these excluded possibilities, and I imagine Eve gathering the courage required so that she can stretch out her hand to grasp one. She does of course, and bringing the fruit to her lips, she sinks her teeth into its skin. But instead of omniversal liberty (where all worlds, all cultures, and all visions become possible), Eve is immediately presented with time, with its deadly inclination for linear decay. I thus imagine Eve clutching at her chest as her heart takes its first beat. Falling to the ground, newly created mortality crashes down upon her, and it takes mere seconds for her flawless skin to blemish, and for the golden glint of divinity, which moments ago shimmered across her eyes, to fade and dull. Her once ubiquitous mind is then imprisoned to the body and is opened up to all the limitations which result from this confinement. With her connection to the Tree of life now severed, she begins to comprehend what humanity will mean to her; that from now on, she will be a subject to all the indescribable terrors (and pleasures) that the term ‘mortality’ only tentatively implies. And as Eden fades away around her, it reveals an entirely new universe behind it – the wilderness of our own. 3 The Universal Design In opening a doorway onto the omniversal Potential, Eve had intended to create a universe where possibilities, previously only “signatures”, are able to continually flood into creation. But breaking the protection and equilibrium of Eden’s “perfect” state (granted by the Tree of Life) had unforeseen consequences. Emerging from the omniversal Potential, each new creation now had the capacity to create, dominate, eliminate, and prevent the existence of others, meaning all creations make countless others redundant. This ability is what I define
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MzgxMzI=