After the expulsion from the Garden Of Eden, the first city was built shortly after.
Most ppl think cities are a modern concept, but they are one of the oldest social technologies known. Cities may very well be the first complex machine. It may seem odd to call cities machines, but l use that term in lieu of calling them organisms. To call them machines gives us ego reassurance. It makes them seem like our creations. To call them organisms gives the implication that they are some kind of telos, or higher organizing principle, that pulls us into it. I think both are true.
A clear sign that cities are some kind of organism is seen in how the conciousness of the citizens operate. For example, historically the personal identity of a citizen was tied to the function they served in the the structure. People were parts of an apparatus. They were the living embodiment of a function (a machine is a function nested in 3D space).
Many of us are living artifacts of this since we still bear their names. Names like Shoemaker, Smith, Ward, Cooper, etc. are all names which encapsulate this sentiment perfectly. Your name was your job / function. It’s the same way we identify parts of a car (spark plug, starter, and so on). In the “occult” they would call this culmination of parts an egregore. The Jungian collective unconscious would be considered one of these.
This concept seems ridiculous to many ppl, but it is embedded in our society in a real way. This can be seen in the way that the government treats companies as individual entities with rights. If you break the law, in court you will see the title of your case is “(your name) V.S. (the state of_____)”.
If you can understand this concept, then “spirituality” is less woo woo and more inter-dimensional. Where ever there is organization there is a collective whole that remains invisible to us. This applies to anthills, behives, forests, cities, the planet itself, and the universe. Our situation is something like us being inside the body of a higher dimensional factor, or being. It’s the same way that you enter the “body” of McDonald’s when you go to buy a hamburger even though McDonald’s is a global business entity.
I found it interesting that in scripture God judges people, but cities and kingdoms are judged far more often. I could go on and on about this, but I’d rather talk about it with you all.