A HYPOTHESIS OF EVERYTHING pt 2: Riley’s Eden

In a YouTube conversation between Nicole Arbour and Jordan Peterson, Nicole asked Dr. Peterson, “who do you think is the most important character in Harry Potter?”

The answer wasn’t Harry, but Harry’s best friend, Hermione. Not only because she was at his side and saved his life and taught him valuable lessons, but because she represented the story’s motivation of the magical feminine. Even though Harry ended up with Ginny Weasley, Ron’s younger sister, the story teased romantic potential between Harry and Hermione, with fans secretly rooting for them to end up together.

Many myths and epics require the exaltation of the feminine. Such as the noble prince or valiant knight launching into the terrible unknown, fighting the dragon or wild beast to free the captured maiden. It is true love’s first kiss that vanquishes the evil curse so that happily ever after can happen even if the curse is simply a boring or pathetic life.

At the lowest resolution, the Bible is the epic of humanity’s meta-narrative. It is the story of the cosmic masculine in his passionate quest for the divine feminine – the yin to the yang.

The first few pages of the first book of Genesis reveals a perfect paradise, as do the final few pages of the last book of Revelation. The first few pages show a creator busily at work, building and preparing a context of something grand. The last few pages explain why. Everything had to be in place for the entrance of the bride. The entire book is a drama of unity, intimacy, entitlement, loss, shame, rejection, sorrow, suffering, effort, failure, trauma, humility, hope, sacrifice, redemption, and reunion. And the most important character in the book is the feminine.

My years of photography included a few weddings. Without a doubt, the one part of the wedding that I couldn’t re-create before or after was the magical moment of the bride’s entrance. I only had one chance to get it right. All of the witnesses stood in honor with their eyes fixed on the bride. The expression of wonder/happiness/anticipation on the groom’s face was priceless. I had many visual memories to capture with my camera in a short amount of time.

The months of wedding preparation and every dollar spent were for that one moment. The hall or church was decorated, and the celebration began. The ushers escorted the guests to their seats. The wedding party positioned themselves perfectly as rehearsed the night before. Everyone was in place. Flowers adorned the center walkway. The musicians waited for the cue from the wedding planner or priest. The majestic intro to the wedding march began as the guests stood to their feet. And then the bride entered and changed everything.

Jordan Peterson stated in an interview conversation. “I’m not an atheist anymore because I don’t look at the world that way anymore. I’m not a materialist anymore. I don’t think the world is made out of matter. I think it’s made out of WHAT matters. It’s made out of meaning. Look at it from the perspective of modern brain science. What we orient towards unconsciously, which means what captures our attention, is meaning, and it captures our attention before we know what it is. The brain acts as if the world is made out of information or made out of meaning.”

At a higher resolution, the Genesis story, its symbols, and allegories focus on what seems to matter most. This list reveals the gravity of the essential character and foreshadows why.

Genesis Chapter 1:

Beginnings matter. verse 1

God matters – the highest unnamable ideal. verse 1

Language matters. verse 3

Creating matters – in language coming from nothing and speaking into everything. verse 3

Opposites matter. verse 4

Separation matters. verse 4, 6, 7

Chronology matters. verse 5

Units of time matter. verse 5, 14

“Evening and morning” matters as symbols of the transformation from obscurity to clarity. verse 5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31

Acknowledgment of satisfaction matters. verse 9, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31

Hierarchy matters. verse 26

Humans matter. verse 26

Genders matter. verse 27

The image of God matters. verse 27

Responsibility matters. verse 29, 30

Genesis Chapter 2:

Resting matters. verse 2, 3

Coming from dust and returning to dust matters – everything is connected. verse 7, Chapter 3:19, 23

Paradise (Eden) matters. verse 8

Where you are in time and space matters. verse 8, 15

Boundaries matter. verse 16 Chapter 3:23-24

The groundwork of redemption matters – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. verse 17

Not being alone matters. verse 18

Animals of all kinds matter. verse 19

Names matter. verse 20

The feminine matters – as the goal of creation and top of the complexity and competency hierarchy as evident in bearing children and mate selection (foreshadowing of the bride in Revelation). In my opinion, bearing children and selecting mates reflects a higher degree of responsibility, elevating the feminine to the top of the value hierarchy. verse 22

Connection and unity matter. verse 24

Naked and unashamed matters. Identity exists in a technical sense, but its recognition is nonessential. There is an absolute and blissfully blind connection between the masculine and feminine. verse 25

The bride in Revelation is mentioned as the Holy City, symbolizing a collection of people assembled to embody the divine feminine. Thus, if the feminine characterization of mate selection is consistent from the beginning, the collection of bride-people are the ones that selected God as a matter of sovereign choice and not by force or coercion through fear.

The image of the creator using dust to form humans in Genesis 2 parallels the particles of humans forming the Bride in Revelation. And the unique creation event resulting in the human feminine, Eve, from a body part of the already created Adam, correctly shows that humans belong together. Adam and Eve were not detached iterations of creation from dust, foreshadowing the necessity of a connected future bride.