Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning on her beloved?
Under the apple tree I awakened you. — Song of Solomon 8:5
The Bible opens with a garden and later gives us a love song. Eden shows us imagination when it is at ease. Song of Solomon shows us how to experience that ease again through feeling.
Eden: Imagination Without Resistance
Eden in Genesis is not a place on earth. It represents the state in which imagination accepts without questioning — before doubt, fear, and external appearances were allowed to control how we think. This misalignment is the bible's definition of sin.
To leave Eden is to dwell in undesirable assumption, and to give more authority to what is seen than to what is felt within. It is to look at circumstances rather than living from the wish fulfilled.
“And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden…” — Genesis 3:8
This “walking” is the movement of awareness — imagination still active, even when forgotten.
Song of Solomon: Feeling the End
“Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” — Genesis 2:24
Song of Solomon uses love and marriage to describe the emotional side of assumption. The Shulamite first searches outwardly for fulfilment. Only later does she realise the beloved has always been within her awareness.
“I found him whom my soul loves: I held him, and would not let him go.” — Song of Solomon 3:4
This is assumption: the inner confidence of having it now. No reaching. No longing. Just holding to the feeling.
The union in this book is not two people but a single experience — desire and fulfilment joined in imagination.
“His banner over me was love.” — Song of Solomon 2:4
Love here means accepting that your desire is already yours. It is the tone, mood, and pleasure of the fulfilled state.
The Garden Within: Conscious Feeling
While Eden was natural, Song of Solomon teaches us to choose this inner ease deliberately.
Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. — Song of Solomon 4:16
This is imagination becoming alive through emotion. The “spices” are the sensations of already-being — the peace, the satisfaction, the relief of “it is done.”
You enjoy the end before the outer world reflects it.
David: The Result of Acceptance
David means “beloved,” the same idea expressed throughout Song of Solomon. David represents the personification of the new assumption of self — the fulfilled desire born from your acceptance.
This is the real point: the inner man and the fulfilled state are not separate. The outer result calls you its source.
Conclusion
Eden and Song of Solomon both show imagination as the true centre of life. Eden reveals imagination free of resistance. Song of Solomon teaches us how to return there by feeling the end.
The garden is within you. The beloved is your fulfilled state. And it is found by feeling its truth now.