Back in 1991, I graduated college with a major in English Literature, and I read and wrote quite a bit of poetry. In particular, after college I got immensely interested in the poetry of T.S. Eliot—to this day, he is my favorite poet. In any case, in 1993 I wrote a long poem entitled The Seven Circles of Eternity’s Garden. As you will see, its style was clearly influenced by T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland and Four Quartets.
Now that I am 52, I read it and am absolutely astounded at how so much of what I learned over my last 25 years of study and graduate degrees in Biblical Studies was already embedded in the imagery and narrative I composed in that poem. To put in another way, through my creative endeavor in that poem, I was already seeing and contemplating some of the deepest biblical truths that I would only later learn intellectually and academically.
The Basic Concept of Seven Circles
The poem has seven parts:
Circle One: The Blood of Eden
Circle Two: Rome
Circle Three: Death by Water
Circle Four: The Olive Garden
Circle Five: The Sword and the Desert
Circle Six: The Tree of Souls
Circle Seven: The Circle of Eternity’s Garden
The basic concept of Seven Circles is to understand all of creation and human history in light of the cross of Christ. In the narrative of the Bible, we begin with creation and the Garden of Eden (“back then” in terms of the narrative). In this poem, once Adam sins, the sun begins to set in the west, and that means the Tree of Life casts a shadow, and that shadow is the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The fruit Adam ate—that knowledge of good and evil—leads to emptiness, despair, and death. And those things are what characterize human history, and each one of us, as Adam, must wander in exile in that wasteland desert of human history that dwells in the shadow of the knowledge of good and evil. Of course, salvation is not salvation from that desert of human history, but rather through the desert of human history.
So, we have been exiled from that Eden of childhood and childishness to travel in human history (characterized by Rome) with a growing knowledge of good and evil. Yet Rome (and this creation) runs down and is enslaved to death. And the way to “die” to that natural death is to “die” in the waters of baptism (Death by Water)—but it is not just a ceremony. It is a real death of our natural lives.
As we travel onwards in linear history from the time of Eden, we eventually come to another garden—the Olive Garden of Gethsemane, where Christ is arrested. And obviously, connected to this is another tree—the cross upon which he died. This “tree” upon which he is killed, though, is the true Tree of Life (although it isn’t perceived so at that time). Its roots extend down into the earth and extend throughout all of human history. Thus, the Tree of Life in Genesis 2 and the Tree of Life in Revelation 21-22 are both outgrowths of the Cross. Being contained by linear history, we see Genesis 1-2 as “the beginning” of creation and the Tree of Life and Revelation 21-22 as “the end/consummation” of creation and the Tree of Life. But from the eternal perspective, it is the Cross as the real Tree of Life that is the beginning of creation, and life extends out from it in concentric circles throughout human history.
In any case, moving on from the Olive Garden and the Cross in linear fashion, we come to the Sword and the Desert, Circle 5. But this really parallels the Death by Water of Circle 3, just in a different setting—learning to sacrifice and die to ourselves in order to journey through human history and find salvation. Then, with Circle 6 (The Tree of Souls) there is, at first, seeming despair, for we find we are still under the shadow of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But on this side of the Cross, what is eventually realized is that the reason why there is a shadow is because the sun is rising as we are making our way back to the Tree of Life of Revelation 21-22. It is then, when we look into the Tree that we come to the full knowledge of good and evil that allows us to be, not only creatures made in God’s image, but children who bear His likeness. Thus, we finally understand, as Irenaeus of Lyons said, that it is through suffering and death that we are transformed to being fully mature children of God in Christ.
Like I said before, it amazes me that in my creative contemplation and writing of Seven Circles, I tapped into the deeper biblical truths regarding creation, sin, death, and salvation, and how they are worked out throughout the course of human history. When I wrote this back in 1993, I didn’t know anything about Irenaeus, and I had not done any academic study of Biblical Studies.
The Basic Symbolism
In any case, over the next three posts, I’m going to share my own reading of my poem. I’ll also provide a PDF file of the poem, along with the very brief, section-by-section explanation of the poem I wrote back as a 23-year-old. In the poem, I have footnotes for the various books, poems, and songs I occasionally quote or allude to. Also, right here, I wanted to provide a very brief explanation of the symbolism in the poem.
- Trees: The Tree of Life, the Cross, and the Tree of Souls are really the same tree, with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil being the shadow of death that extends throughout human history.
- Shadows: Throughout the poem, shadows indicate death.
- Gardens: Eden, the Olive Garden of Gethsemane, and New Eden in the New Jerusalem all interconnect. Eden is childish innocence that we must leave if we ware ever to grow up. The Olive Garden of Gethsemane is the place of sacrifice and death of Christ, and we, if we are to fully mature in Christ, must identify with him in his sacrifice and death. The New Eden isn’t just a “going back” to that childhood Eden. It is the transformation of that original Eden into the full maturation of creation and our attaining of the likeness of God through the acquisition of knowledge of good and evil.
- Water: It can mean with death or life, depending on the context. Indeed, sometimes both—baptism is a death that leads to the waters of life.
- Blood: It represents life itself. The blood of Eden is spilled within the shadow of the knowledge of good and evil in the realm of Rome. It is offered as a sacrifice for sins in the Olive Garden, and thus the blood of Christ nourishes and recreates the old creation, transforming it into the new creation.
- Bones/Dust/Desert: They all represent humanity in our fallenness, as slaves to death.
- Voice/Word/Sound: Ultimately, a reference to God and His creative work through Christ.
- Fire: At times it references lust and destructive passion. Other times it represents purification.
- The Sword/The Wind: The Holy Spirit.
- Sunlight: God’s life and salvation. Truth. Heaven and the Kingdom of God.
- Fruit: Sometimes it references desire and passion, other times it represents life.
- Circles: Eternity
- Cities/City Streets/Garbage/The Moon: Sinfulness and human history.
- Ears/Eyes: The searching for truth and salvation.
- The Eagle/Dark Madonna: Rome and the sinfulness of a sex-crazed society
- The Rat: Judas Iscariot (and ourselves as well)
- The Snake: Satan
- The Cat/The Lion/The Lamb: Christ
- Birds: Either destructive birds of prey or the Holy Spirit
- The White Rose: The eternal union…of the Trinity, of God and Man, salvation
A Brief Summary of Circle 1: The Blood of Eden
In part 1 of “The Blood of Eden,” we find a distant memory of the innocence of childhood, for the Garden of Eden represents humanity in its naïve, natural state of childhood. There is innocence, and a sense of union with God, but already none of us can remember it clearly. The memory is distant. By the time we come to a knowledge of good and evil, we find we are already exiled from that garden, and we can’t get back. In this respect, that “memory” (when perceived within the limitations of linear time) is “back there.” But, as the poem eventually shows, that “memory back then” is also a foreshadowing and “looking ahead” to a future salvation of a transformed humanity, from being naïve, childish creatures in God’s image, to fully mature children of God in Christ, not only in His image, but also according to His likeness.
In part 2, there is the memory of that “past union” of Eden, where God’s Voice was not only heard, but understood. But there is also the memory of partaking of the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now, instead of hearing and comprehending God’s voice, we hear and following the serpent’s hiss. And we now realize that the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil is the shadow of the Tree of Life, and shadows have no lasting substance. We experience emptiness, shadows, and death within history.
In part 3, there is the figure of an “old man in a dry month”—humanity within the history of this natural created order. He cannot get back to Eden and he sees in the distance the cities of Rome and the darkness of human history. In that sense, we are like Cain, banished to wander in the cities we build, but always living in that fear of death.
A Brief Summary of Circle 2: Rome
Everything in Circle 2 is comprised of various scenes that represent the sad reality of human history. In part 1, there is Rome, boastful and arrogant in the city that has been built, but with a gnawing realization that all of it amounts to blind men trapped within the walls they build enslaved to the night. Their prayer is a blasphemous version of the Lord’s Prayer.
The first scene in part 2 is of a homeless veteran talking about the rising social anarchy in society. It is inspired by a scene in the movie The Fisher King, in which Tom Waits plays a homeless veteran talking to Jack Lucas, played by Jeff Bridges. The second scene in part 2 is of an abused woman recalling the sexual abuse she suffered as a child at the hands of her father. The third scene in part 2 is of the corrupted, politically motivated church (the primary image being of the “Religious Right” and “Moral Majority” strain of Evangelicalism). The fourth scene in part 2 follows a young man in his quest for “love.” Of course, since he has no hope for true love, he is simply looking for sexual encounters and thrills in the red-light district. It leaves him feeling every more hollow and empty.
Part 3 depicts the corruption of both city and church within Rome. The church altar itself is desecrated by the serpent through the corruption of both prophets and priests. Simply put, the city is filled with corruption, death, and defilement. The only choice for survival is to leave the city, but what is outside the city is a devouring lion. The figure of Bramachari comes from Thomas Merton’s autobiography, The Seven-Storey Mountain. Bramachari was an Indian (from India) who significantly impacted Merton early on in his spiritual journey.
I actually wrote the last section of part 3 a year before I wrote this poem, while I was in Israel with Volunteers for Israel, where I worked on an Israeli medical supply base for three weeks. One night on the base, I noticed this flickering light and how it flickered on the various buildings and other things on the base. It made me think about how in this world, where everything ultimately dies, even our attempts to bring healing (i.e. the medical base) still only are transient. They don’t last. Hence, this scene really is a commentary of the reality of human society.
