Religious symbolism of light and darkness is used to encode erotic value judgments for its significance in human existence. Light symbolizes purity and goodness while darkness represents sinful desires.
These moral values are often contradictory to each other, leading to tension between the light and dark aspects of people's lives. This tension is reflected in many religious traditions through stories that emphasize the importance of balance between the two forces.
The Bible tells of God creating both day and night, which correspond to light and darkness respectively. In the story of Genesis, God creates Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, where they can choose between eating from either the Tree of Life or the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. When Eve is tempted by the serpent to eat from the latter tree, she does so and brings darkness into her life. As a result, she becomes ashamed of her nakedness and covers herself with leaves, signifying how sexual awakening leads to shame. The Quran also discusses this idea when it says that "God is the Light of the heavens and the earth." This verse implies that God illuminates all things but also that there must be a balance between light and dark. In Hindu mythology, Shiva is the god who embodies both light and dark energy. He is associated with destruction but also creativity and fertility. In this way, he represents the dual nature of sex as something destructive yet necessary for new life.
Another example is found in Greek mythology, where Apollo is the god of light and Dionysus is the god of wine and celebration. Their respective symbols are the sun and moon, representing opposing forces within humanity. They represent the duality of sexual attraction, with Apollo being a masculine figure and Dionysus a feminine one. In Norse mythology, Loki is the trickster god who brings chaos and destruction but also creates new life through his union with the giantess Angrboda. Similarly, the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar embodies both love and warfare, which mirrors the tension between passionate desire and violence inherent in many relationships. These examples illustrate how religious symbolism of light and darkness encodes erotic value judgments by emphasizing the importance of balancing competing impulses within ourselves and our worldview.
How does religious symbolism of light and darkness encode erotic value judgments?
Light and darkness have always been used as symbols that represent opposing forces in religion. Light represents goodness, purity, and knowledge while darkness is associated with evil, sin, and ignorance. In some religions, these concepts are further developed into male and female gender roles where light is linked to masculinity and power, while darkness is connected to feminine fertility and sexual energy.