We Who Wrestle With God: Perceptions of the Divine
We are now in January 2025 and this month I’m looking at psychology, starting with the latest book by Jordan B. Peterson, We Who Wrestle With God: Perceptions of the Divine. The accompanying cocktail is from another book, Cocktails with God by David Triemert, Act of God, which is 1 shot of 151 Rum, 1 shot of Dark Rum, 2 oz Orange Juice, 2 oz Pineapple Juice. So let’s do this.
I have been a fan of Dr. Peterson since his reaction to Cathy Newman led to this viral meme. I saw it, figured out who it was being interviewed, and immediately bought his book 12 Rules for Life…or as soon as it came out, I feel like it was released a bit after all the meme-ing started. Reviewed 12 More Rules for Life on this channel. And now, this book.
Now, Peterson, fortunately for all of us, has a YouTube channel that was quite popular before all of this went down. Fortunately, because it remains active and popular. You just know the google gods would have strangled the algorithm to his YouTube channel if it hadn’t already been making them money hand over fist. On his channel, one of his playlists is The Psychological Significance of the Biblical Stories, and a second playlist is Biblical Series: Exodus. And basically, We Who Wrestle With God is an expansion on the ideas in those series, both of which are outstanding. Along with his Maps of Meaning Series. He really is a fascinating lecturer.
Now, specifically, in We Who Wrestle With God, he is looking at the five books of the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, primarily concentrating on Genesis and Exodus. Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are a little more glossed over and basically combined in one chapter when he talks about the fallout of the Israelites long trek through the desert. The five books of the Torah are included in Christian holy doctrine in the Old Testament as The Pentateuch…Penta meaning five, Teuch from Teukhos meaning vessel or scroll. Then he ends with Jonah and the Whale. Which was interesting since Jonah, according to biblestudytools.com, is only a minor prophet. And because Dr. Peterson never half-asses anything, throughout are quotes from scripture…like ALL the books of the bible…that bolster and support the point he’s making.
That point being that the bible, as one of the foundational texts of Western Civilization, is being ever relegated to myth, and thus comfortably ignored by those of us living 2-5,000 years removed from the happenings there in.
Now, this is not to say that Peterson is saying these events actually truly happened and the bible is literal. He’s not saying that at all. He’s saying that collectively, we as a people used to understand the lessons contained therein. That these stories, have deeply important psychological implications, and cutting ourselves off from these stories IS having a profound impact on all of us, psychologically.
So lets start with Genesis…the very beginning. When God creates the heavens and the waters, day and night, all the animals, and of course Adam and Eve. Now, literalists argue on the ridiculousness of Adam and Eve, leaving the garden of Eden, and immediately after giving birth to two sons, Cain and Abel, those sons find more people and propagate the earth. Parables and fables are not literal. They’re meant to teach you something. So what do we learn from Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden?
We learn, or at least I learned, that reading through the creation of earth and sky, water, the creation of all the creatures and man and woman…tells the story of evolution. Think about it. The earth was what, a ball of gas first? Then slowly, life evolves. In the immediacy of living 2-5k years ago when these stories were first told, all of this is said to happen in a week. But really, to an all powerful god, a billion years can pass in the blink of an eye…or a single day.
Man and woman being born from the floodwaters, or in this case, created after the waters recede from the creation of firmament, is a very common global myth. According to World History Edu, quite a few beliefs come from being born after the flood.
And Peterson acknowledges the importance of other myths throughout, not just the Bible, citing Egyptian, Babylon, Mesopotamia, I think Sumeria, Tao, I think he mentions Zoraostrianism, definitely references Norse myths at various points in the book. All to bolster that the stories in the bible are universally human. It’s not about God, per se. It’s about aiming up, always up, lest you slide into the chaos of hell and dwell there forever.
Peterson discusses the importance of listening to the still small voice, your conscience. The reason the ten commandments are top ten are because of their overall importance to living a good life, rather than a life of remorse and regret. I learned that the third commandment, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain, does NOT mean, don’t swear. A little God Damnit never actually hurt anyone. It’s the fake Christians that have something to worry about. Those who claim to be living a biblical good life yet are only paying lip service to the word of God. THAT’s what taking his name in vain means. Who knew?! Not me.
Adam and Eve discusses the danger of feminine pride in being compassionate to the point of suicide…reminds me of Gad Saad’s upcoming book, Suicidal Empathy. Looking forward to that one. This comes about by Eve’s willingness to listen to the serpent. Don’t listen to those who mean you harm. It’s interesting that according to dictionary.com, serpent has TWO meanings: 1. A snake.
2. A wily, treacherous, or malicious person.
Biblically, the serpent is a metaphor for Satan. But I saw that second definition and immediately thought of Crowley from Good Omens, who goes from snake, to a wily, treacherous, or malicious person, thus encompassing both meanings of Serpent.
For his part, Adam immediately denies any culpability, even blaming God for his eating the apple…YOU gave me this woman. It’s your fault I ate this apple.
God does not accept this excuse, and boots both out of the Garden of Eden. And once out, they procreate, eventually giving birth to three children, but the first two are the next important story: Cain and Abel. Cain was the eldest, and Peterson breaks down the psychology of sibling rivalry, and how and why Cain’s sacrifices were rejected, while Abel’s were accepted, making him God’s favorite. Abel goes all in, does his absolute best, and gives the best to God. Cain…does not. He kind of half asses his work and his sacrifice. God even tells him this is why his sacrifice is rejected. And rather than taking the constructive criticism and doing better next time, Cain gets in his head that if he kills the competition, aka his brother Abel, God will accept him next time. This….does not work. And Cain in turn is cast out. Peterson follows that rabbit down the hole and explains how Cain founded Canaan.
God explains Babel, and the tower that was built there. It was odd because he’s discussing the Whore of Babylon as all that is negative feminine and my brain went to a single verse from Lokasenna, aka, The Flyting of Loki:
Loki spake:
30. "Be silent, Freyja! | for fully I know thee,
Sinless thou art not thyself;
Of the gods and elves | who are gathered here,
Each one as thy lover has lain."
Freyja spake:
31. "False is thy tongue, | and soon shalt thou find
That it sings thee an evil song;
The gods are wroth, | and the goddesses all,
And in grief shalt thou homeward go."
Loki spake:
32. "Be silent, Freyja! | thou foulest witch,
And steeped full sore in sin;
In the arms of thy brother | the bright gods caught thee
When Freyja her wind set free."
Much was made of this with the pagan community, that Loki was slut shaming Freyja. It’s of note that Snorri Sturluson maintains Freyja was faithful to her husband. Also of note is Freyja’s famous necklace, Brisingamen, was famously paid for by Freyja’s having sex with the dwarves who crafted it, selling herself for gold. So The Whore of Babylon reminded me of Freyja….I feel like there’s a parallel…and also, she’s not going to be too happy with me for drawing this conclusion.
Casual sex is addressed elsewhere in the book, during the Exodus breakdown, where some of the faithless Israelites lay with loose women. If I had to hazard a guess, the prohibition against casual sex has more to do with the spread of disease, and less to do with “slut shaming”. Although…ladies, serious question here. If you are so casual with yourself, why would you expect a man to treasure you? And I ask this as someone who has had her share of casual sex…and then caught the last chopper out of Nam when I lucked into my husband.
On the other side of the scale, Peterson does address Incels. Refer back to Cain…do better. And better again. Make yourself into a worthy partner by constantly aiming up. And up again.
This book was excellent. It gave me lots of food for thought. And refocused me for my next bit. After the presidents, I was going to look at world religions. I’m narrowing, or rather broadening that field, to global myths. Religions will certainly be included, since Peterson has outlined quite well for me what kind of lessons can be learned from foundational texts. Also…I was going to start with Genesis. I sort of feel like I can push out the bible for a bit now, since Peterson already did an outstanding job explaining what this all means psychologically.
While excellent, this book was absolutely fucking terrifying. Because my god. He never, not once ever, calls out any one person, thing, social movement…nothing. But if you watch the news, if you are on social media, if you talk to basically anyone…it’s obvious just how much trouble we as a society are in.
And I think that is exactly why he included Jonah, and the importance of speaking The Truth. Not your truth…you don’t have a monopoly on truth, and your truth could be a lie to yourself, to try and sell yourself as something you are not. And lying to yourself is the worst possible thing you can do. As Peterson says, hell is real, and it’s not what you think. It’s not burning in a cauldron of boiling pitch while devils prick your backside with pitchforks. It’s slavery under tyranny, tyranny you let happen by NOT speaking The Absolute Truth. By remaining silent because silence was easier than dissent.
It’s Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Che Guevara. It’s totalitarianism. Hell is being cut off from The God Source…whether that is the God of the Christians, or Yahweh, or Allah….Ahura Mazda from Zoroastrianism, or any of the Hindu caste. It’s…bad sex for badmouthing Freyja on a book review… Goddess of love and sexuality. Sorry Freyja. But the parallel was there.
