GUEST POST: words from occasional commenter "JD":
When I glanced at the piece by Andrew O'Hehir [linked in Tuesday's post this week] the thing that leapt out at me was this -
"America is experiencing a health crisis on an enormous scale — a crisis that is simultaneously physical, psychological and spiritual and is hardly ever understood in holistic terms."That is more or less a summary of what John Michell wrote in "The New View Over Atlantis" where he spoke about how the first and all subsequent European immigrants destroyed or ignored the sacred places of the Native Americans without learning any of the 'secrets' of the land -
"The catastrophic results of the North Americans' failure to inherit the geomantic lore of their predecesors is now becoming apparent in the endemic restlessness and unease of the present inhabitants and in the approach of sterility to both land and livestock through the application of naive agricultural theories, together with the disregard on the part of politicians, generals and industrialists for the living, and therefore vulnerable, nature of the country they inhabit."
The result was and still is that same psychological and spiritual dis-ease which O'Hehir speaks about. It will never be healed until there is an acknowledgement by the Powers That Be of their disastrous error.
The idea of the land being sacred is very old and deep rooted all over the world. From ancient Greece via the various Holy Wells in Britain and Ireland up to and including the location of the burial place of Crazy Horse which the Lakota Sioux, to this day, will not reveal to anyone.
Sacred spaces and places are very real.
(In South America the invaders did what Christian missionaries had always done; they built their churches on those sacred spaces and co-opted the local traditions and forms of worship into a new blend of Christianity effectively taking possession of the old religion)
Alan Watts said the same thing years ago, this is a nation dedicated to the destruction of life.
Hillary or Trump: what a dismal prospect for the future! Is it too late to hand the country back to the Crown and apologise for the mess you have made? (Says he with tongue stuck firmly in cheek)
14 comments:
I think any nation that has gone full-tilt, first-world or industrialized has tossed Gaia into the bonfire...capitalism and religion have been accelerants. I read Norman Cantor's "In the Wake of the Plague" several years ago and he dedicated several chapters to the origin, which he attributed to population density and clearing of European land for the purpose of agriculture and animal husbandry. Historically, we hold the change from hunter-gatherer to agricultural as the dawning of civilization, but that probably marked the beginning of the end...from participants within nature to believing we were separate and able to control portions of nature.
But, back to religion, when the good-book declares humans as special agents of gawd having power over nature, and animals are for our domination, we succumb to our own myopic conceit. Self-anointed, aggrandized party crashers typically run afoul and are ejected from the merriment.
I'd rather we eject ourselves early, so as to leave a little something, but we seem to be taking this all the way. From the extant, scientific information available on global warming, we have inexorably exercised the rope of "For Whom the Bell Tolls".
"No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee." John Donne
Living in Canada for most of my life, and given my observation of the gross waste of energy required to survive the extremes of its climate in pursuit of a first world 'lifestyle', I have, myself, agreed with the intelligence best expressed by Midnight Oil in their song, 'Beds are Burning': A fact's a fact, it belongs to them, let's give it back. This, of course, is a nonsense if for no other reason than where are all of us settlers and immigrants to go back to. Discussion of the contemporary trope of the New Noble Savage aka aboriginal is too complex a topic to delve into here; suffice it to say that homo sapiens behaves true to form throughout history and around the globe.
I, personally, have never come across more piquant food for thought about the nomad vs the pastoralist ways of life than 'The Songlines' by the late, lamented Bruce Chatwin. (Born a nomad myself - Jupiter cj Uranus 10th Cancer, Sagg on the 3rd - I have laid my bones to rest in more places than I can any longer recall. I have also enjoyed the privilege of travels abroad back when the world was young and I wasn't quite as mindful of my carbon footprint.)
I'm with mike about 'eject[ing] ourselves early' - and there are many others now considering just how to accomplish it, eg.:
http://www.foundershousepublishing.com/2015/03/new-release-collapse-now-and-avoid-rush.html
IMO it is everywhere to be seen that Man is dedicated to the Cult of Death. Of course, the planet will survive his self-extinction but it profoundly saddens me that it seems likely he will have destroyed the homeostasis of the Gaia and its capacity to sustain the myriad of wondrous life forms with which we presently 'share' her largesse.
I agree with JD and with mike's comment on this.
Britain also has suffered similar dis-ease in its much longer history. British Empire and attendant unpleasant messing with native populations, the Industrial Revolution, etc. all caused symptoms of dis-ease, though not as easily noticed by all and sundry as the USA's dis-ease is now. That's due, in great part, to the internet, social media and TV, none of which were around when Britain, and several other European empire-makers were doing their thing.
I guess it was all an inevitability, humans being humans. The dis-ease has gone on in ways large and small from the time the first ape-like individual began to think - and, more importantly, to plot and plan. :-/
Sabina - Your link to John Michael Greer's book led me to his blog of Druid magic. I suppose in many ways we all practice magic without consideration. The modern world we inhabit is replete with technology that someone from 200 years past could only describe as magical. It's unfortunate that the foundation or goal of our modern technology is founded upon capitalism and greed, with access dependent on wealth. And we have huge fears, which seem to have magically produced the very individuals that the collective find politically appealing, enabling our projection.
The magic factor reminds me of biodynamic farming, originated by Rudolph Steiner, which is very popular in Europe and has made inroads here in N America. His techniques employ "magic" that defies explanation. A very small addition of ground quartz crystals into water, stirred in a particular fashion, and applied to crops...bull horns filled with manure, overwintered, then minute amounts applied to crops, etc.
"Biodynamic agriculture is a form of alternative agriculture very similar to organic farming, but which includes various esoteric concepts drawn from the ideas of Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925). Initially developed in the 1920s, it was the first of the organic agriculture movements. It treats soil fertility, plant growth, and livestock care as ecologically interrelated tasks, emphasizing spiritual and mystical perspectives."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodynamic_agriculture
The new physics provides the concept that our minds potentially create our reality and our thoughts provide our future. Perhaps it isn't relevant whether magic is real or not, but simply a tool for creative endeavor. Scientifically, homeopathic quantities of quartz or special manure should make no difference, yet studies indicate they do. The dis-ease of JD's essay could simply be misdirected magic.
Sabina ~ Thank you for your thoughts on this. :-)
I wonder if, had technology, industry and scientific discoveries proceeded at a much slower rate than has happened, perhaps man, for all his faults, might have grown more circumspect, more...I dunno...spiritual, philosophical. We, as a species, have simply outstripped our common sense, due to being too clever by half, I guess.
mike - Your remarks remind me of Findhorn. I lived briefly close by a biodynamic farm on Vancouver Island years ago. I am not a druid follower and know nothing of the particulars of Mr Greer's practices, but I do read his other blog weekly - aside from his occasional fictional scifi entries - and highly recommend it and the comments section.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.ca/
Yes, as I mentioned in an earlier response a few days back, I too believe we imagine ourselves into futures of our own devising, which is why I consider it a great pity that the arbiters of such visions are anointed by powers such as the military-industrial complex and Hollywood; which is to say, these visions proceed from the fermenting minds of testosterone-flooded young men between 14 and 35.
Yes, folks, no worries about Climate Change, we'll all just board this spaceship to Mars....
About this spiritual malaise, any markers for it in the Sibley chart anyone?
Sabina ~ Re spiritual malaise markers in the US Sibley Chart - I'm not well-versed in how to find spirituality in a chart, but suspect that Vedic astrologers are better at it than western astrologers. Here's a link to one blog post by a vedic astrologer writing about the USA chart and 2016 - no mention of spirituality as such, but a certain darkness does seem to pervade:
http://www.livingskillfully.com/2016-predictions-for-usa-rahu-major-period
Thanks, but Yikes! I forget that Rahu is what we term a malefic.
The late - and much missed - Steve Nelson also wrote of the longer cycles -
http://gaiaastrology.com/
Sabina - "... Pluto, as it completes its transit through Capricorn, will also return to its own natal place: in other words, the United States is experiencing its Pluto return. This suggests the completion of a great cycle, and a cementing of the fundamental values on which the Constitution is built. There may also be a serious reappraisal of issues concerned with the environment, as Capricorn is an earthy sign, and the use or abuse of natural resources may become a cause for not only profound concern but also profound change and a more enlightened attitude. The enormous resources available to the United States are reflected by Pluto in the 2nd house of the national chart, and it is possible that these will be approached with greater respect and care than ever before.
Whether or not you favour these changes personally, it would seem that a time has arrived when there is a great new opportunity to affirm the values and ideals of the original founding of the nation, applicable not only to government and to foreign relations, but also to the land itself and the resources inherent in it."
Liz Greene, 2005
From "JD"
Looking at your John Michael Greer reference I could see that he is hanging on the coat tails of others. Ernst Shumacher wrote two books in the seventies which overshadow any of Greer's opinions. "Small Is Beautiful" is well known but less well known is the much more profound analysis "Guide For The Perplexed" Both of these are essential reading.
And Terence McKenna explains (scientifically) how we got here and what is happening now and where all this is leading-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdaCTcC4RXo
Scientists who say everything is meaningless and the Gaia worshiping idea that the world would be better off without people in it are both wrong. The universe revolves around homo sapiens, we are the reason why the universe came into being.
McKenna says it with the quip that we are the apple of the universe's eye and that thesis is expounded upon in this book-
http://www.paragonhouse.com/One-Cosmos-under-God-The-Unification-of-Matter-Life-Mind-and-Spirit.html
In spite of all the gloom that is around us it is worth remembering the words of Paramahansa Yogananda - the world will come to an end when all people are 100% good or all people are 100% evil. At such point the universe will no longer have a reason to exist.
Be of good cheer - the best is yet to come! :)
JD - Yes, humans are so ultimately conceited that we think the universe was created as our very own playground. I prefer Einstein's view:
“A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.” Albert Einstein
I've no particular belief in astrology or Druidism, but I'm convinced that man will be the architect of his own destruction. Man's ability to destroy that which is sacred to others he considers inferior is almost rooted in his genes. It is, I believe, a combination: fear of those he has conquered, coupled with the need to demonstrate and consolidate his power over the vanquished. The actions of early American colonists in destroying Native American sacred sites is merely one example of countless. It presently rears its ugliness in the Middle East as the followers of Baghdadi destroy ancient Shia and Christian sites, in the vain hope that by destroying their sacred places they can destroy those who hold them dear.
Man's inability to grasp the concept of a finite planet or the fact he's co-existing with in excess of seven billion of his own kind (and rising exponentially), or his inability to accept his effect on the planet's climate, or his failure to comprehend the destructiveness of his allegiance to the capitalistic religion of maintaining 'growing economies' at all costs, and, above all, his inability to grasp that his survival requires cooperation with all his fellow beings, not the violent confrontation with which the world is plagued today and has always been, these are the seeds of his undoing. The seeds were sown when he first came down from the trees. They've germinated, taken root, and have over eons spread their tendrils across the globe. Today, they are finally bearing their poisonous fruit.
Mike - Einstein had a great mind. I think, were he alive today, he might change his view of the human species.
RJ Adams ~ Many thanks for your contribution to the conversation, RJ! Very well put it is too. :-)
RJ Adams - I think Einstein had our number:
"“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.” Albert Einstein
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