Cain and Abel

This interpretation of the story of Cain and Abel partially references René Guénon’s The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times (1945). René Guénon (1886 – 1951) was a French intellectual and renowned metaphysician. In his book The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times, he discusses the cyclical conditions that have created the modern world through the lens of tradition and ancient wisdom.

In a process Guénon terms the “solidification of the world,” the world in the modern era or cycle becomes increasingly mechanized and quantified: “…it engenders therein a state of affairs in which everything is counted, recorded, and regulated…these interventions…have the effect of ensuring the most complete uniformity…between individuals…”.¹ During this cycle, there is an emphasis on material and Quantity (Substance) over Quality (Essence).

In the chapter titled Cain and Abel, Guénon symbolically interprets the Biblical story to denote the process of the solidification of the world. On the one hand there is Cain, the farmer, who represents the agricultural people. On the other hand there is Abel, the herder, who represents the nomadic people. The agricultural people are described as those who will eventually establish towns and cities as a logical extension of the sedentary nature of their occupation. As towns and cities grow and multiply, the sedentary way of life prevails, consuming more and more space, leaving nowhere on the earth for a nomadic lifestyle: “…within the sedentary life, the towns, representing something like the final degree of ‘fixation’, take on an overwhelming importance and tend more and more to absorb everything else”.² Thus, Cain slaying Abel symbolizes Quantity overtaking and consuming Quality toward the end of the cycle.

In my painting, the figure of Cain is associated with a series of cubes because the cube is a fixed form that represents stability and immobility. Abel is associated with a series of overlapping circles, because the circle is mobile, and denotes movement and change. Traditionally, the square or cube correlates to earth, material (quantity/substance), while the circle correlates to heaven, spirit (quality/essence).

In the pursuit and the acceptance of a specific notion of progress that the modern world embraces, what of the qualitative is sacrificed and what is the overall impact on humanity?

_{1 René Guénon, The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times trans. Lord Northbourne (Hillsdale NY: Sophia Perennis, 1945) 144.
2 Guénon, The Reign of Quantity, 145.}