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- For Eliade, trees symbolically represent timelessness, their lifespan is long, and they are
- representational of our hopes for immortality. They also act as a test for the hero of the myth
- being told, just as Adam and Eve were tested with the divine tree in the Garden of Eden.
- The tree and its test represents the sacred in the realm of the real, in that if you can pass the test,
- the sacred can bestow immortality. The symbology of the tree in \textit{Empire State of Mind}
- appears whenJay-Z raps: ``Don't bite the apple, Eve'''\footcite{Empire}. This Biblical
- reference to Eve's fall can also represent the city itself as temptation. New York is known as the
- Big Apple, and the materialism of the city can turn those innocents who move there into a materialistic
- devotees, tempted by the money, possessions and the potential for fame.
- This connection Jay-Z has made between the Bible myth of the Garden of Eden
- %and the first man and woman,
- also connects to another of Eliade's theories. He said that in all symbolic thinking, there are two
- main features. The first being that symbols and myths rarely exist in isolation, that they interconnect
- to other myths and symbols extending the sense of the sacred for the archaic people
- %, adding sacredness to the realm of everyday activities. Each time a symbol or
- %myth is interwoven with another, the sacred reaches out to another aspect of life.
- The second feature is that some symbols and myths are superior to others through their size.
- %If the original symbol was one size, than if a new myth is made of the symbol on a
- %grander scale is is revalorized and takes on a new hierophany.
- The perfect example of this is the World Trade Centre, twin towers. It was a symbol of the capitalism
- in New York, but with the tragedy of 9/11 it has been revalorized as something far more sacred.
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