Exile from Paradise

[related: Fall from Grace, Fall of Man]

A recurring religious and mythological motif in which humanity, or a representative figure, is expelled from a primordial state of perfect harmony (and, often nakedness) into a world marked by suffering, labor, mortality, representational language and fashionable clothing. Though Exile from Paradise trope is perhaps famously expressed in the Abrahamic Christian tradition through the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, the theme also appears across diverse spiritual systems, including:

In Zoroastrianism and related dualist cosmologies, the human condition is framed as a departure from an original oneness into a contested world of good and evil.
In Buddhism, this sentiment is echoed, with the recognition of existence as dukkha (suffering) as being separation from the Emptiness. The introduction of representational language often.
Gnostic texts reinterpret exile as the soul’s descent from divine fullness (pleroma) into the flawed material realm.
In Dogon cosmology, humanity’s exile from primordial harmony begins when the rebel Nommo, Ogo, disrupts Amma’s creation, breaking the balance between humans and the divine order.
Egyptian myth posits that the paradise of Ra’s reign on earth ends when humans rebel, leading the sun god to withdraw to the sky and leave humanity in a fallen, mortal state.
Pagan and shamanic traditions often describe exile in terms of displacement from a sacred landscape or mythic homeland, with ritual journeys enacting symbolic returns.
Modern techno-scholars the the presence (and eventual dominance) of artificial intelligence, or AI may constitute a further state of exile.
The ultimate “paradise lost” comes with Ragnarök from norse mythology, when the grandeur and glory of Valhalla experiences a total apocalypse.