That's why I set my hopes on peak oil. It is physically impossible that all the fossil fuel extraction will last forever.
Sometimes I want to remind people that ultimately, capitalism is not something otherworldy but a cultural and economic relation that is dependent on certain conditions, as you say, among them unlimited energy extraction. It will ultimately end, even without a heroic struggle, even without a globe-wide spiritual awakening because it is something that exists in this world and nothing of this world is eternal.
Oct 21, 2022·edited Oct 21, 2022Liked by Rhyd Wildermuth
I think there's a hole in this. I've been trying to put my finger on it, acknowledging my own biases as I do.
Maybe what you're doing here is constructing your own kind of political religion. I think the problem is in the notion that, for example, 'All the huntress goddesses became Dianas, and then there were no more huntress goddesses at all but just a one-god.'
That's a description of the creation of a monoculture from varying and diverse cultures. But it doesn't say anything about the reality at its heart - or otherwise. It sounds like a political claim from someone who wants to condemn empire and capitalism. I am happy to join you in that condemnation. But it doesn't seem to me to be the case that varying gods were channeled into a 'mono-God' for political reasons. It seems to me that people stopped believing in the varied gods and started believing in the creator god instead.
I'm not suggesting force and politics were not often involved. Of course. But I think the claim is not just political. I also think it's important to see that the 'gods' of the pagans and the 'God' of the Christians (and other 'monotheists') are not comparable, despite the common use of the confusing word. It's the difference between creator and created. The Christian God is 'everywhere present and fills all things' - created reality itself and is within it, alive amongst it, and total. That's a metaphysical claim. It's a huge metaphsyical shift that is happening as the world moves from 'pagan' to monotheist. It's by no means just a crude political manouevre. Some new sense is opening up. And the ultimate question is not political. Does 'the one' exist, and if so what we can we know about him/it? And how can we reforge our borken connection? That's a move from created to creator.
It's also worth saying that medieval Christendom, with its emphasis on the sinful nature of usury, held off the development of capitalism for many centuries, as did the eastern Orthodox world. It was the reformation which opened up the space for radical individualism. Something else we can blame the Americans for ;-)
I'm not sure I've explained myself very well. I'm not trying to be defensive, but as someone who has been both pagan and Christian, I can see a radically different worldview at the heart of things, and a different experience too, I think.
Hmmm, it’s difficult to parse the inner/outer journey between these two roads taken. I resonate with Rhys’ discussion of Dianna and her persistence thru the centuries as a force for connection and worship of the wild; also for the portrayal of the imperial domination of Rome to move the old god of the horse to horsemen. An example of the usurpation and co-opting paradigm that infinitely cloaks and obfuscates our truer natures as part and of the world. AND we, the totality of WE, are the Word made manifest. Is that not the paradox? Why must there be an either/or?
It is a beautiful essay here and one I relish from Rhys for his deep and discerning analysis of the historical origins. Particularly the contemporary cultural and societal citizenry of France who still express a collective sense of power in action that the rest of the West has wimped out on. I would ask Paul to consider his own neighborhood in Ireland and the persistence of dimensional beings beyond the human and the surrender in recognition of our limitations to any mental constructs defining reality as This or That. Jesus in and of himself seems to be a transcendent being here to teach and reconnect to eternal truths that had been again co-opted by the elites of his day.
However transcendence is by nature universal. To exclude or limit or define what other possible sources of light fall on the earth will not bring us toward cooperation, collaboration and the endeavor to turn away from these horrible conflicts and rape of our home and our family of life. A place in an ever growing number of beings yearns to find harmony and true relationship in concert with our home on this beautiful earth. We are in despair over continuous war and the for profit subjugation of life. We need not dwell on the particulars of our personal heartfelt beliefs. Rather dwell on manifesting the greater good for all, knowing we are not alone.
The boots, the boots! My eyes have been opened! But seriously how did I never notice this before ? I need to know more about bear and sheep (?) statue you pictured. I agree with Paul K. that the Roman habit of conflating Gods and Goddesses into to the classical archetype does not then have a necessary follow on as ‘one god’. This is a different thread that had been current for centuries (Plato, Zoroaster, Ankenaton etc).
I am late to this and cannot add much except perhaps to suggest an even longer reading list. Paul is partly to blame because a recent essay of his flagged up Jeremy Naydler. I had known of Jeremy for a while from a friend and correspondent but am now reading Naydler's 2018 'In the Shadow of the Machine'.
Such well sourced summaries from long careers of contemplation and scholarship are assuming for me the role of textbooks, a chance to save history for the future, and bridge the inevitable discontinuities as contemporary consciousness changes with society.
Its a number of years now but the formative years of Judaeo-Christian thought described by Geza Vermes ‘Christian Beginnings’ came at a time of a belated reassessment of my inevitably Christian heritage. Although with a vaguely Christian protestant background, I had not gone to Church as a child, so ours was a 'folk-version', which at times disputed the stuff we were obliged to participate in at school at the time. (I am going back into the 1950s in England.) I remember being somewhat shocked when I first met the Nicaean Creed when I was 17. Vermes is highly qualified to introduce the early Church thinkers leading to Niceae.
The Time Machine? I guess we would find it difficult to comprehend what was actually happening if we could go back in any literal sense. I respect the difficulty of historical perspective witnessed in the work of Naydler and Vermes, when almost literally they stub real scholarly toes on the Antikythera Mechanism or the Dead Sea Scrolls. Naydler’s book is wonderfully illustrated, and I likewise much appreciate the illustrations in this current essay by Rhyd.
Thanks
PS I first encountered the 19thC romantic ‘Celtic’ Yeats in an old book of his early poems picked up at a junk shop when I was 18. It contained ‘The Wandering of Oisin’, an unlikely conversation between St Patrick and Oisin, but strong stuff.
Very interesting essay! Reading of the pantheons of gods from cultures such as Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Egypt (my understanding is simple and basic), it seems like they're often parallel - same gods with different names (or very close). I know I've listed empires which perhaps pulled all the local gods into their pantheon (I really have no idea). I'm curious as to your thoughts on this.
Reading history doesn't present a very kind view of many polytheistic cultures. The fear, the tribal conflict, etc. Now, much of that may be modern bias of course. However, I am curious if you have done a serious examination of these early cultures (or, do we have enough of a record to even do so?) to establish that there were indeed peaceful peoples who just always ended up being swallowed up by empire/local warlords. Or perhaps, there has always been a mixture of peaceful people and those who create conflict and pain - whether based on the rules of their gods or at the behest of their empire.
This is a bit of a tangent, but I am curious - my impression from your piece is that we would all be wise to embrace our local gods and return to an earlier simpler form of living, with a local and peaceful devotion to these more peaceful gods.
This post, Rhyd. It makes me feel honored to have been given my name, which I didn't like as a child, and which is one of the Greek names for Artemis, in her moon goddess form. Didn't get exactly till now how she was a goddess of the Wild. The description of how Euro & American "leftists" serve the oppressive class expresses clearly my concerns. Whenever I see UK creatives who claim to be "pagan," and they parrot all the official multibillion dollar PR firm narratives of the neoliberal ruling class, I feel so sad. Part of them honors the Old Ways but other parts buy into the US Democratic Party vision of how we should all live. Many are heading to Mastodon, because Twitter is supposedly contaminated now (the only true leftist journalists I know are still on Twitter).
Oh!! Oh!!! So much in here that resonates, disturbs, and enlivens. Also you made me laugh. Christians in funny clothes.
That's why I set my hopes on peak oil. It is physically impossible that all the fossil fuel extraction will last forever.
Sometimes I want to remind people that ultimately, capitalism is not something otherworldy but a cultural and economic relation that is dependent on certain conditions, as you say, among them unlimited energy extraction. It will ultimately end, even without a heroic struggle, even without a globe-wide spiritual awakening because it is something that exists in this world and nothing of this world is eternal.
I think there's a hole in this. I've been trying to put my finger on it, acknowledging my own biases as I do.
Maybe what you're doing here is constructing your own kind of political religion. I think the problem is in the notion that, for example, 'All the huntress goddesses became Dianas, and then there were no more huntress goddesses at all but just a one-god.'
That's a description of the creation of a monoculture from varying and diverse cultures. But it doesn't say anything about the reality at its heart - or otherwise. It sounds like a political claim from someone who wants to condemn empire and capitalism. I am happy to join you in that condemnation. But it doesn't seem to me to be the case that varying gods were channeled into a 'mono-God' for political reasons. It seems to me that people stopped believing in the varied gods and started believing in the creator god instead.
I'm not suggesting force and politics were not often involved. Of course. But I think the claim is not just political. I also think it's important to see that the 'gods' of the pagans and the 'God' of the Christians (and other 'monotheists') are not comparable, despite the common use of the confusing word. It's the difference between creator and created. The Christian God is 'everywhere present and fills all things' - created reality itself and is within it, alive amongst it, and total. That's a metaphysical claim. It's a huge metaphsyical shift that is happening as the world moves from 'pagan' to monotheist. It's by no means just a crude political manouevre. Some new sense is opening up. And the ultimate question is not political. Does 'the one' exist, and if so what we can we know about him/it? And how can we reforge our borken connection? That's a move from created to creator.
It's also worth saying that medieval Christendom, with its emphasis on the sinful nature of usury, held off the development of capitalism for many centuries, as did the eastern Orthodox world. It was the reformation which opened up the space for radical individualism. Something else we can blame the Americans for ;-)
I'm not sure I've explained myself very well. I'm not trying to be defensive, but as someone who has been both pagan and Christian, I can see a radically different worldview at the heart of things, and a different experience too, I think.
Hmmm, it’s difficult to parse the inner/outer journey between these two roads taken. I resonate with Rhys’ discussion of Dianna and her persistence thru the centuries as a force for connection and worship of the wild; also for the portrayal of the imperial domination of Rome to move the old god of the horse to horsemen. An example of the usurpation and co-opting paradigm that infinitely cloaks and obfuscates our truer natures as part and of the world. AND we, the totality of WE, are the Word made manifest. Is that not the paradox? Why must there be an either/or?
It is a beautiful essay here and one I relish from Rhys for his deep and discerning analysis of the historical origins. Particularly the contemporary cultural and societal citizenry of France who still express a collective sense of power in action that the rest of the West has wimped out on. I would ask Paul to consider his own neighborhood in Ireland and the persistence of dimensional beings beyond the human and the surrender in recognition of our limitations to any mental constructs defining reality as This or That. Jesus in and of himself seems to be a transcendent being here to teach and reconnect to eternal truths that had been again co-opted by the elites of his day.
However transcendence is by nature universal. To exclude or limit or define what other possible sources of light fall on the earth will not bring us toward cooperation, collaboration and the endeavor to turn away from these horrible conflicts and rape of our home and our family of life. A place in an ever growing number of beings yearns to find harmony and true relationship in concert with our home on this beautiful earth. We are in despair over continuous war and the for profit subjugation of life. We need not dwell on the particulars of our personal heartfelt beliefs. Rather dwell on manifesting the greater good for all, knowing we are not alone.
The boots, the boots! My eyes have been opened! But seriously how did I never notice this before ? I need to know more about bear and sheep (?) statue you pictured. I agree with Paul K. that the Roman habit of conflating Gods and Goddesses into to the classical archetype does not then have a necessary follow on as ‘one god’. This is a different thread that had been current for centuries (Plato, Zoroaster, Ankenaton etc).
I am late to this and cannot add much except perhaps to suggest an even longer reading list. Paul is partly to blame because a recent essay of his flagged up Jeremy Naydler. I had known of Jeremy for a while from a friend and correspondent but am now reading Naydler's 2018 'In the Shadow of the Machine'.
Such well sourced summaries from long careers of contemplation and scholarship are assuming for me the role of textbooks, a chance to save history for the future, and bridge the inevitable discontinuities as contemporary consciousness changes with society.
Its a number of years now but the formative years of Judaeo-Christian thought described by Geza Vermes ‘Christian Beginnings’ came at a time of a belated reassessment of my inevitably Christian heritage. Although with a vaguely Christian protestant background, I had not gone to Church as a child, so ours was a 'folk-version', which at times disputed the stuff we were obliged to participate in at school at the time. (I am going back into the 1950s in England.) I remember being somewhat shocked when I first met the Nicaean Creed when I was 17. Vermes is highly qualified to introduce the early Church thinkers leading to Niceae.
The Time Machine? I guess we would find it difficult to comprehend what was actually happening if we could go back in any literal sense. I respect the difficulty of historical perspective witnessed in the work of Naydler and Vermes, when almost literally they stub real scholarly toes on the Antikythera Mechanism or the Dead Sea Scrolls. Naydler’s book is wonderfully illustrated, and I likewise much appreciate the illustrations in this current essay by Rhyd.
Thanks
PS I first encountered the 19thC romantic ‘Celtic’ Yeats in an old book of his early poems picked up at a junk shop when I was 18. It contained ‘The Wandering of Oisin’, an unlikely conversation between St Patrick and Oisin, but strong stuff.
Very interesting essay! Reading of the pantheons of gods from cultures such as Babylon, Greece, Rome, and Egypt (my understanding is simple and basic), it seems like they're often parallel - same gods with different names (or very close). I know I've listed empires which perhaps pulled all the local gods into their pantheon (I really have no idea). I'm curious as to your thoughts on this.
Reading history doesn't present a very kind view of many polytheistic cultures. The fear, the tribal conflict, etc. Now, much of that may be modern bias of course. However, I am curious if you have done a serious examination of these early cultures (or, do we have enough of a record to even do so?) to establish that there were indeed peaceful peoples who just always ended up being swallowed up by empire/local warlords. Or perhaps, there has always been a mixture of peaceful people and those who create conflict and pain - whether based on the rules of their gods or at the behest of their empire.
This is a bit of a tangent, but I am curious - my impression from your piece is that we would all be wise to embrace our local gods and return to an earlier simpler form of living, with a local and peaceful devotion to these more peaceful gods.
This post, Rhyd. It makes me feel honored to have been given my name, which I didn't like as a child, and which is one of the Greek names for Artemis, in her moon goddess form. Didn't get exactly till now how she was a goddess of the Wild. The description of how Euro & American "leftists" serve the oppressive class expresses clearly my concerns. Whenever I see UK creatives who claim to be "pagan," and they parrot all the official multibillion dollar PR firm narratives of the neoliberal ruling class, I feel so sad. Part of them honors the Old Ways but other parts buy into the US Democratic Party vision of how we should all live. Many are heading to Mastodon, because Twitter is supposedly contaminated now (the only true leftist journalists I know are still on Twitter).