Stage One: Bliss by Brian Swichkow

In the first stage of the birth process, uterine bliss, covers the months before the fetus has begun to push up against the limits of the uterus. She lives in a warm, rhythmic, rocking environment where her needs are automatically met, effortlessly. All she does is exist and grow, physically and mentally. The psychological state corresponding to Stage One is one of complete security, complacency, and a feeling of no limits. The world offers endless room for growth.

In the mythic realm, Stage One is represented by the Garden of Eden, where every need is effortlessly met, and in the Golden Age of ancient legend, when people still lived in the bosom of Nature and knew not struggle and strife. “The earth herself, without compulsion, untouched by hoe or plowshare, of herself gave all things needful.”[4] In terms of humanity and the earth, Stage One was the hunter-gatherer stage. Although life had its occasional tragedies and pain (just as the fetus is sometimes subject to disturbances in the womb) the overall environment was bounteous and nurturing. We were few and the world large. We had not yet begun to test the limits of the environment, or to see the world as limited. This attitude, that there is unlimited room to grow, can be found in the Biblical injunction, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Out of habit and inertia, this attitude is still with us today even though it is driving us toward catastrophe.

~ AfterCharles Eisenstein, The Ascent of Humanity