In the beginning there was a serpent.....
Looking at the Stories We Tell
It’s true. In the beginning there was a serpent. Where does your mind go when you read that title? Well, if you’re someone like me, it’s probably Genesis 3 from a collection of writings known as the bible. The name “serpent” doesn’t exactly direct me to the approximately 3,000 differing species of serpent extant on the globe. It takes me to one serpent.iN.a.gArDen. That’s the power of story. It’s also the power of symbol and metaphor. The body of a simple snake is turned into a major iconography for the first sighting of Satan himself. I live in the United States and if the United States is anything, it still shines a bright religious face in the stories it tells. The thing is, serpents are, at least in part, symbolic of everything wrong with the world. You know - evil.[1] The main religion here is Christianity and it does not, in general, have this massively favorable opinion of snakes in many of its stories that I know.
But there is a problem here - for me. I suspect that how we carve out symbolism using animals tells us a lot about how we see ourselves as a species but also how we see other life. When I think of acts like dehumanization, what I notice is the definition on one hand, but how it happens on the other. I’m not about to make claims that my experiences are universal to everyone, but dehumanization has usually meant some kind of association with an animal. You know, another being that isn’t human. When I see and experience this [either by watching or having it done to me] the benchmark is on the superiority of being human in the first place. To be less human, is to be an animal. It’s universally spoken with contempt and disdain. It travels along the crusty edge of separation, and means one being must be elevated over another in order for it all to work.[2]
In a nutshell, humans dehumanize because the way they view other beings in the natural world. Humans can dehumanize because to do so means associating a human as non-human. And the reality is - for the record - this is a delusion. Humans are humans. Humans are not superior. Talk about the height of pride. No matter what another human does, that being does so as a human being. We do not commit actions as a dog, pig, horse, rabbit, cockroach, or any other named species a human wishes to insert in the gap between us and them [nature]. There is no escaping it. And if humans in the Western Hemisphere had some connection with the fact that we are also a species, an animal [by way of categories that probably mean less than we realize], we behave in ways that are similar and dissimilar to other beings on this planet. Another reality is - humans do behave without reason, only because reason, as weirdly as it can be defined, is prized. Animals are seen as beings without reason - hence part of the characterization and slur. Either way- it’s to be less than human and more like that less than being over there that isn’t human - irrational, illogical, driven by instinct or passions, and probably female.
I have trouble with this on multiple levels.
One of those trouble spots for me involves humans distancing themselves from their own actions and behaviors by comparing actual human behavior to non-human behavior to create human behavior that is ideological defined as being human. Whew. That was a lot. Do you get me? It cloaks the fact that humans can be violent, cruel, greedy, or completely irrational and illogical and driven by their “animal passions.” Ov vey. Because the mind and logic and reason are places of purity that protects us from the death shroud of emotion. It’s nonsense. All behavior humans are capable of is human behavior and married to being in a specific species. If I behave badly, I’m not a dog. If I’m fertile, I’m not a rabbit. I’m a human on every level. We simply are not as distinct from other beings as ego would have us believe being wrapped in the imaginary clouds of superiority and Umwelten. We are not a humble creature at this stage of so called “civilization.” It’s showing - everywhere - and we’ve thought our way there. So much for “reason” making us human - whatever the hell that actually means.
In the beginning, there was a cat.
Titled: Magic Paint. Unfinished Version. 2024 a_joy
My story doesn’t really begin with a serpent. It began with a cat. It began with a cat and a dream dictionary. At the time, I was getting into the study of my own dreams from a supernatural stand point. You know, as communication from God. I was in a Christian stream.[3] I was given a book written by a fellow named Ira Milligan. The book was an updated edition. It was slender. It was mainly dictionary with two introduction chapters to proffer up the biblical foundation for dreams themselves, as well as Mr. Milligan’s ideas, notions, and theology about symbolism and interpretation. It was a national bestseller.
I did things with that book I shouldn’t have like trust it.
I have nothing against Ira Milligan, but I love cats more than I love his dictionary. I was also starting a journey into digital arting. My subjects were various animals, particularly cats. His dictionary entry about cats was highly problematic for cats, for women, and for me. I did, in this time period, also have his complete guide which not only had the same dictionary [more or less], it had a whopping number of descriptive chapters that provided a rather comprehensive set of ideas, beliefs, and theology about dreams and how Mr. Milligan interpreted and understood the bible. Wowza. It was from his animal chapter that I was able to glean more information on the cat entry and the exceptionally sexist bible citation involved. While it wasn’t much more information, my heart rate definitely started to increase as I took issue with more and more of the symbol methods derived from the dictionary.
It got me flinking.[4] Which is usually dangerous.
It was here that I discovered what I call “magic paint.” Magic paint for me is how our culture, our stories, our perceptions are shaped by our environment. Then everything is reinforced in a type of circular reasoning. Perceptions can be shaped by embodied experience, but they are also shaped by the cultural norms we float in which then shape and usually reinforce preexisting perceptions and stories. It’s hard to get out of because the incentive is to stay in the stories. Usually fear and punishment are the methods by which stories - the status quo - remain “tradition.” It doesn’t matter how much it might hurt the animals or humans in question. Poor fruit is rationalized into streams of purity and just try harder and fixing others. I know. Believe me - I know this in my body and mind - that circular set of stories. If you’re a USian, you do too.
This was the beginning of my journey of recapturing symbols and stories - MY magic paint.
I realized I could co-create another reality by changing the stories I was listening too, but also writing my own. This is complicated, but I’m doing it here - live. And for me, in this hour, I am using Mr. Milligan’s dream dictionary to undo and make known, the spaces of water that are not life producing spaces for all beings on the planet. It’s not to pick on Mr. Milligan. It’s just that my journey began with him and a cat. My values include life-flourishing for all. And yes, I realize we all eat other beings. Still. Here I am holding a dream dictionary written by a charismatic Christian whose view of the natural world is exceptionally good at creating cognitive dissonance. I think that would be a great name for a dog. I’m embracing cognitive dissonance - my furry friend.
This means capturing language. I’ve started to realize how English as a language shapes reality. But I also am seeing how symbol as its own language shapes reality in a picture sort of way. It’s those mental representations. It’s those schemas. I want both to change so I have questions. And here is where I’m asking them, rambling about them, and making new ones. And it matters because I paint dreams which are usually symbolic. It matters to me how those symbols work since they are living out here among us.
I start here for the stories we tell.
Notations/Citations:
[1] Did you know there is a real possibility that this story [Genesis 3] is pursuing imagery and symbolism used in older religions than Yahwism? Yeah, there is scholarship out there that talks about how the serpent and the whole Genesis bits and bobs are really about the destruction of the goddess whose symbols include - you guessed it - serpents. I am currently investigating this aspect.
[2] I know this can work in positive ways too. Positive aspects of another life is incorporated as encouragement or some aspect to exemplify. The bible, once again, admonishes for Christians to be wise as serpents and as innocent as doves [ See Mathew 10.16]. Believe it or not, all of this bothers me. It represents a sort of useful ambivalence. Tell me, how the hell are doves “innocent”? Have you ever checked out the definition of innocent? And yes, other translations use the word “harmless.” I know. That’s part of my point. Even the word “harmless” begs the question. Exactly who are they harmful or harmless too? Apparently, humans perceive them as harmless so we can use them as some kind of ideal? In what way? Is this a symbolically imposed meaning or literally behavior in some capacity on the part of the dove? Well, obviously both. Wolves aren’t harmless, now are they? I’m wagering one’s feelings about wolves will also involve interaction. Pastoral herders probably don’t like animals that prey on their herds and no doubt will use them as metaphors for evil. Does that actually make them evil? See what I mean? How we perceive and interact with nature creates creative activity in our stories, pictures, language, and admonishments. Some doves are quite aggressive by the way. Just sayin.
[3] There are streams of Christianity. This one was a third wave charismatic variety with all the bells and whistles of knotty woo woo of a Jewish-turned-Christian variety with demons, miracles, and prophets and all kinds of fun glim and glam.
[4 Flinking is here.