MihaElla 's Reviews > The Mill on the Floss

Once upon a time I read an article that said that romantic love was 'invented' around the years 1200 by the Troubadours–those persons dressed in puffy pants, walking around and playing lutes, singing about their lady love. By their songs they elevated the woman onto a pedestal and long ceaselessly for her–as a matter of fact– the whole point of chivalrous love being that it was never consummated – considering that the object of romantic love is not really a human being, it’s an idealized image, perhaps a fragmented memory belonging to a person we once knew – but, of course, it is not precisely known if from present life, past life or even future life...As then, as now – it was a sexist age –it was all about a man adoring a woman, and the point was to idealize the beloved but never come down to earth for love’s trials and tribulations.
On a deeper level, if a true search is done, we might be surprised to learn that – not the fact that romantic love didn’t exist before that time (hard to conceive of that, truly) – those people who invented it, were actually singing to God (a god, or a deity, or whatever had some supernatural powers), not a woman. I find this more fascinating and, in a way, quite normal. Times however perverted this sort of “love” and romantic love reached to be cover-up for a yearning that is spiritual, not necessarily a desire for a human person. The essence of romantic love is more about pinning – pointing towards something that’s actually not achievable on a physical plane. One is in pain longing for this ‘perfect person’ who doesn’t exist and can’t have. And, as ever, I find Kahlil Gibran’s quote resonating better, “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.” Having to deal with pain, not necessarily a suffering of the body, then something deep breaks your heart and then you get an opportunity – hopefully if it is not missed – to understand, and to develop compassion for yourself and others pain and suffering, struggles and battles. And then, as the cherry on top of the pie, love starts becoming available and let loose of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.
The first innocence is going to go, has to go. And it is good that it goes. IF it continues, one will not really be a ‘man = human’. Nature lives in the first innocence, only man is capable of losing it. In a way, it is a great dignity, it is a glory – as only man is capable of committing ‘sin’, no other animal can. Except for man, all the animals, birds and trees still exist in the Garden of Eden – they never left it actually. That’s why nature has such beauty, such peace, such silence. As it looks, to be satisfied with the first “innocence” is to remain unconscious. However, Life being hard and difficult – as so it has been propagated down the centuries - it is only by going wrong that consciousness arises. But, going wrong is not really going wrong, because only through it does the consciousness arise. All has to be lost. Well, symbolically to be lost it is always much better or preferred, rather than in a tangible sort of way. A flood, an over-flood however is really powerful. It can wash away everything and make it pure, crystal clear from the scratch – theoretically we can assume it, practically it is never so pure anymore, never a smooth surface, never a clear shinning layer…So, this is where Maggie is heading towards – she has to come to the point where all is lost, God is lost, heaven is lost – one cannot believe in paradise, and one cannot believe that innocence is possible. Only from that peak of frustration, anguish, anxiety is there a possibility of a one-hundred-and-eighty degree turn.
The first innocence is always with the child – as a matter of fact, you can always see happiness around him/her. The child is the first kind of hedonist – if there is a belief (certainly, it has one) – then there is eating, drinking and being merry, living the moment, no clouds yet – his sky is clear.
Growing up – the human goes into a chaos. The old cosmos, the old/first innocence simply falls into pieces; not even a trace is left. Maggie became interested in higher things, in knowing things. We may doubtless say she ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge, and she started becoming more conscious. She started trying to understand what this/her reality is, moving into knowing and suddenly the doors of the Garden are closed for her. Suddenly she finds herself outside the Garden, and she does not know where the way back is – well, at least for a transient period – she has to go farther and farther away.
But, even for an old-fashioned family, the vision of life is/can be far more complete- even if superficially it seems it is linear: unity, then complexity, then concentration, then direction. And the direction goes on and on, the arrow goes on for infinity, it never comes back. That is how the family story seems to go…this is logical but not natural. Nature, on the other hand, moves in a circle, seasons move in a circle, stars move in a circle, man’s life moves in a circle. Everything moves in a circle, not in a line. The circle is the way of the nature. This is well emphasized both at the beginning and the closing of the novel. The line does not exist in the nature. Euclid believed in line; non-Euclidean geometry says there is nothing like line in existence. The line also is part of a bigger circle, that’s all. Still, my suggestion is that evolution is spiral – neither linear nor circular. In this way both are joined together, the progress moves as if it is moving in a line, because it never comes to exactly the same point again.
Would there be a conclusion line, still? Yes, certainly. Would be more like saying ‘Don’t go on playing with your wound’. This continuous fingering of the wound will not allow it to heal. And who wants to look at a wound? That’s is to say – better to be happy, become a flower: bloom.
So, there seem to be three things that happened to Maggie: she is in the dark night of the soul, in a very unloving space – basically within herself. That is why she has to be, to feel, to exist in a loving space, but a loving space is anxiety creating: it is conflict, it is struggle, because then a real person enters into your life. And there is obviously clash and an overlapping of the boundaries; and all kinds of diplomacies, strategies to dominate, to possess enter. There is great war – it is the way things are. The loving ones start acting as intimate enemies. But, only out of that experience, does one grow further – one becomes independent. And, assumedly, now there is no need for love. One can live alone, and one can live alone as happily as one can live in relationship. On this level, there is no difference.
PS: Oh, Yes, yesterday it was a full moon in Aries. As per experts’ opinion this is a time to dedicate on themes of power, initiation, self-healing & rebirth. Mostly ‘death & rebirth’ and it is the power of re-generation: the power to choose again, and choose wisely, to change the form all together. Experts, again, say that ‘Death of form’ is a gift because it gives us the opportunity to change what has bound us and limited our growth, that is especially for those of us – mostly catalogued as free thinkers – we could be acting as magicians, alchemists and avatars. And then, we are given the opportunity to journey through a most transformational period of our soul's development. It can be dark and deep at times; but for a good reason (we cannot go ahead without it). It's high time to (re)discover what is hidden so that it can assist what we see in our surroundings. No more hiding, no more shrinking from our creative power. If it is blocked or lost in the chaos then it's time to reclaim it and own it. Magic is all around us - the frequency of change and the dark (feminine) gift of rebirth.
As for my part – I’ll use this beneficial aspect for a bit of (business) travelling to enjoy more of the sun and sea absorption, and hopefully, some of the fine sand – not just dry stones and rocks…It was high time! 😉