I am sure you've heard of this Biblical story -- and if not, I'll help you remember with Genesis 19:30-36. This is the story of how Lot slept with his two daughters to help them conceive both his children and his grandchildren -- all at once.
30 And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
31 And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth:
32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
33 And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father, and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
34 And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
35 And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose and lay with him, and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose.
36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
Now, the current Christian community can tell you what this means literally; however, that is not why I am here. I am not a Christian. I do not believe in the accuracy of the words in this book. The Bible was never designed by a sky daddy to be taken as his word; it was written by men for their own agenda. Yet, that does not mean there are not figurative, spiritual interpretations to gain from these stories.
And this story kept me up at night. I've been recently writing a ton in my journals to erase the mindset that I was given as a child. We are all given a programmed mindset that we can either die with or purge to create our own belief systems to subscribe to. This story has popped into my mind a few hundred times this summer and I began to wonder what it could mean figuratively. How do fathers commit incest with their children -- figuratively?
I believe it has to do with when a father passes down his beliefs to his children and they do not awaken to their own internal compass of what is inside their best interest. These beliefs will be then taught to the children of the daughters as if they were the grandfather's own. The generation continues and does not awaken to themselves. They just do as they were told; they just do what they were raised to do -- they just want to make their parents proud.
As children, our parents are our Gods. They bestow us with our world-view. They teach us how to interpret the data being sent to us through our five senses. And as children, our job is to wake up to our own mission that is hidden inside of us -- to follow our own path and create our own children. Our mission in life is not to impregnate our offspring with the sperm of the generation before us. It's about progress, not regression. It is about taking down our parents as the Gods of our lives and to become our own -- God. To become a god of our own lives is the goal of the adult. We are to craft our own world view apart from how we were once taught.
It also reminds me of this verse that Jesus said in Luke 14:26 "If any man come to Me and hate not his father and mother, and wife and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple."
It reminds me of a quote by Emerson in his essay on self-reliance, "I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, Whim. I hope it is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in explanation."
As adults, we are to follow out our own genius that lives inside of us rather than honor what our parents fears, insecurities, and path they paved for us to walk. Our goal as adults is to walk our own path and help humanity progress. Adult women are not to have their father's children, and adult men are not to become their fathers. We are to own ourselves and to walk alone along the narrow path of internal validation.
Lot and His Daughters, by Joachim Wtewael, 1630 (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin)
Lot and His Daughters, by Hendrick de Somer, c. 1645
Merry Christmas? Or happy winter solstice, rather.
