« And when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil
that I had to draw aside to see
the serpent eat its tail. "
It is in memory of this mystery that LC sings in « By the Rivers Dark »
Hi Magy,
we are on a very similar page as to how we read this work of Leonard's.
I follow on from your ideas with these thoughts below.
Thanks for singing along
"...and when we fell together all our flesh was like a veil that I had to draw aside...";
and what do we see when the veil is drawn?
or, more accurately, when the veil is drawn aside...where are we viewing from?
These lines of Leonard's take me to Eden's first Tree, the forbidden fruit. And more importantly those lines make me look for that other Tree in the garden. ???
(That first, fleshy-forbidden-fruit-tree is all
Mortal.)
The other tree is all
Eternal.
When the veil (of ignorance) is drawn aside...the view changes.
and what are we ignorant of?
ignorant of our ability to
see from an everlasting position once we have climbed the other tree, the eternal Tree which allows us to view things, like this little life, from an everlasting angle.
The metaphoric "fall" then, in my very biased opinion, is the fall from this "position" and "when we fell together" as the song says, into unity, we saw the serpent eat it's tail (symbol of viewing eternity) ....we saw from that eternal position.
The Problem of The Fall:
Re-focusing on the first tree only
obscures our view of (and from) that other (eternal) tree.
The "veil" obscures the eternal view of life.
So tree 1 focus' on the good and bad of fleshy-mortal things, and, it isa very absorbing view too!
And tree 2 focus' on and from another perspective, the eternal.
And that "veil" symbolizes our obscured way of viewing those divinely bigger and better things, so to speak.
Our ignorance, as the Buddha might say, is the ignorance of the 2nd Tree's existence.
The veil obscures the view and causes doubt; and Reason (Shaitan/Satan) argues even that veil out of existence; let alone the eternal, everlasting view beyond the "veil".
As the story goes:
"...eat there-of and you shall surely die.." or at least your belief in the possibility of viewing beyond the veil goes out the "window" and dies a death of denial.
...and we are taught to fall; we are taught to...
draw the veil between the two trees of Eden; the two ways of being , mortal or immortal...but which direction do you draw?
open?
shut?
...lost or found...
That is what I get out of Leonard's beautifully torturous melancholic songs ...his "wounded Dawns" and broken hallelujahs.
...
thanks for the magic, Magi
MatbellybuttongazerJ