The Nature is Satan's Church - my perspective

I found this aspect of the movie especially interesting because I myself spent a lot of time meditating on the same question for more than a year before watching this film. The psychology of grief part not so much and even though it's perhaps the central theme of the movie I can't share any original insight into it. But the entire part of the film dealing with the question of nature is something that hits close to home so let me share my perspective.

First of all, I must say that when it comes to cinematography, I've never seen a film doing better job of portraying the ambient of a remote forest. From showing both the beauty and the horror of wilderness, memorable elements like the foxhole, the tree with a character, to little things like using some sort of fisheye lenses to create distortion in the picture very similar to what person experiences after spending a lot of time in the wilderness. All of this makes me believe Lars Von Trier himself spent some time in the wilderness himself.

Now to clear up some symbology of this movie - what does the forest represent as a symbol? It's our subconscious. Any dream interpreter will tell you that. The fact that The Nature is a feminine principle doesn't need a whole lot of explaining - The Mother Nature, Gaia, the fertile soil inseminated by the masculine principle from heaven. The wild, chaotic ("Chaos reigns!") as opposed to orderly of the Heavens above.
But how is the place called in the movie? Eden. A name that doesn't quite bring many negative associations. A heavenly garden. But after the death of their son, it's Her greatest fear. She sees only the bad, the evil in it. The young bird falling down from its nest into an anthill only to get picked up by a bird of prey seconds later. Then we also have acorns constantly falling, something that is really a stretch to see in the negative light, considering it's just a plant's way of reproduction and acorns are objects of no awareness. But we know what it all reminds Her of and that brings me back to the forest as a subconscious. Her's is obviously a mess and she only sees that which reflects her own state of mind. A Rorschach test in a way.
Her husband on the other hand refuses this negative outlook and at first tries to enjoy the beauty of Eden. But even He slowly realizes the nature's darker side beginning with the deer he interrupts while giving birth and the wounded fox.

If the forest of Eden is a representation of characters' subconscious minds, can it be said that the nature and the subconscious are ultimately evil? Well I think Lars didn't call it "Eden" for no reason. "The Nature is Satan's Church" is an extremist medieval christian perspective that followed after the death of native pagan religions which mostly propagated unity and balance. In medieval Europe we suddenly have this shift towards the orderly, the masculine, the heavenly while the natural, everything to do with subconscious, the esoteric, magic is being demonized. She, in her studies of that time period was heavily influenced by this way of thinking and no wonder it prevailed during her time of crisis. If nature is all evil, and from her perspective it was, then it follows that medieval philosophy is right in its hatred of the natural and the feminine. The character of Her is self-hating and that's why she embraces this philosophy.

In a way, much of this movie is actually about the balance between the feminine and the masculine, or rather the two polar opposites which can be manifested as other pairs of extremes. Spending time in the wilderness is what finally made me understand why the nature is universally described as feminine. My perspective is that nature is much like a woman, or rather not "a" woman, but "the" woman, the mother nature, the ultimate strong woman and one must be a strong man to conquer it, or merely survive it. That's what brings me to the case of imbalance in the relationship of Antichrist. The entire time, She needed Him to get through a time of crisis, but He was never really there. He was completely detached on purpose, trying to be her therapist and playing stupid games instead of being her man. And that was clearly the problem even before the tragedy, as She explains, He was always detached and distant. After the tragedy he didn't show a bit of emotion except at the funeral which might have been only for show as far as we know. The entire movie is Her trying to wake Him up and he only comes to his senses when it's far too late. Only after she completely loses her mind and starts stabbing Him with scissors is when He reacts by killing Her. From one extreme to another.
But at least in the end it seems that He learns to accept and live with his previously repressed emotions shown by the 3 beggars following him and His face giving a sense that he finally gets it.