Mural 5: Our Cultural Metaphors as a Continuum of Evolving Moral Order

Validation #3: From Matriarchy to Messianism

Response: Greece's Oedipus, outwitting and dominating the Sphinx monster and marrying his mother represents Partiarchy's Greek snake man rising to power over women.	Defense: The moral ascendance of men over women is reflected in the sacredness of snakes, flying dragons, and feathered serpents, gradually identified with the worship of the sun and the single male god.	Compromise:Christianity's virgin mother and self-sacrificial child, Islam's crescent and star, reflect the shift of power balance from Judaism's father-son Covenant to Messianism's mother-infant spiritual alternative.
Stress: The Mexican eagle immobilizing and devouring a snake represents Matriarchy's omnipotent mother intimidating her weak partners and children.	Anxiety: Women return to power through Hinduism's moral discovery of cooperation. Six-armed Siva as the cooperative man stepping on a child-like self. His own sexuality is cancelled and irrelevant.	Reversal: The comeback of women as seductive Eve reducing Adam to a charmed snake backfired on women. It evoked the father-son alliance; a monotheistic male dominated moral order.
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