Scary Stuff

Among other things, this webblog aspires to a DEED OF FAITH.

Now what I have in mind by faith here, is not the automatism of an uncritically accepted belief system, as occurs in fundamentalism. And such fundamentalism occurs in the New Age milieu of which I was a part, as it does in religion. Ideas are simply absorbed without consciousness and credulously professed.

No, what I have in mind by faith, is an act taken in a mind torn by contraries. And as the evolution of human consciousness progresses over the centuries, the mind becomes ever more capable of being so torn.

Speaking very personally, my mind over all my life has been torn by many contraries. Secular materialist belief systems have vied with New Age belief systems. And these have vied with esoteric Christian belief systems which have in turned vied with traditional Christian belief systems.

At the end of the day, I confess I have found no other answer with all of these raging contraries, than to try to be as conscious as I possibly can (writing out many pages of journals) and with the fruit of this reflection – consciously **decide**.

But it can be very scary to choose. The educated mind has so many contraries from which to select. The mind in fact can seem to produce an infinity of options. In the midst of all of these, the heart is whispering …

How to listen to heart and mind … and then - choose. This has been my problem, at least.

To return to the example of the Sacraments. I receive the Eucharist. Sometimes the after-effect is very subtle. Sometimes not. But still the mind chatters on. Are you sure it isn’t your imagination? Or yes, there is an effect, but are you sure the effect was not the product of assuming the attitude of intense attention and devotion? Or is the effect healthy? What of the esoteric Christian accusation that the liturgy has an effect, but its effect can be hypnotic? And etcetera. And etcetera. And etcetera.

Now even though the effect of the Eucharist alone can be subtle, I must say that that this is not so true in my experience, receiving both the Sacraments of Absolution and Communion in succession. There the effect for me is uniformly one of a distinct and beautiful wholesomeness coming into my psyche … often still palpable the next day.

Still the mind can chatter on. On and on and on. Now, perhaps a new epistemology will arise in our midst to challenge modernity’s marginalisation of the Sacred. But until then, as far as I can see - a deed of faith must be made. At least it must be made for such a one as myself. John Paul’s pontificate was marked by these words ‘Be not afraid!’ And I believe he said them, for ones such as myself who find faith SCARY …

Yes, it is scary to affirm the whisper of the heart. Even when that whisper has also been affirmed by centuries of experience of uncounted numbers of great and humble alike. In the all the mocking noise of the world, it is even scarier to affirm in public what one finds in one’s own depths – even after prolonged, intensive enquiry.

But I believe the public world needs such affirmative deeds of faith. Particularly in a world of ‘intelligentsia’, which not only strips Mystery from the ordinary world, but strips Mystery from the Church. A demythologising Church and world need deeds of faith … faith in the Mystery. For as far as I can see … as far as I can see … our dehumanising world needs the affirmation of Mystery more than ever.

Webblog resumes Monday after the Sabbath. Gloria tibi, Domine.

Grace on Tap

Grace on tap … three words for a profane image of a Sacred reality.

May I be forgiven for profaning the Mystery, if I indeed I do, by reporting how these three bizarre words first came to my mind. I report them because this profane formula had a peculiar value in helping me to see what was really going on in the heart of the Church.

They came to me years ago as I journeyed into Catholicism. As I realised why the ‘source and summit’ of the Catholic faith was not a set of beliefs to be heard in a Sunday sermon. But an experience of Grace.

As I realised why until the 1960’s, the Catholic Mass was celebrated in an incomprehensible language (Latin). And why the language of the Grace of the Sacrament was even more important, than the language of the belief. And why up to 400,000 priests across the planet still celebrate the Mass every day, after two millennia, even if not another soul is present beside the priest to receive the Grace.

As I realised, then, that what lay at the heart of the Catholic, Orthodox and High Anglican Churches was an understanding that we could go to receive Grace, a guaranteed flow of enlivening, strengthening, cleansing Grace, if we could just turn on the tap, turn on the tap by sincerely opening ourselves to the Mystery at the heart of the Mass.

And I add in Orthodoxy and Catholicism, the Mystery at the heart of Confession, receiving absolution from Christ *via* the priest.

I go to these Sacraments, trying to be sincerely attentive, sincerely willing to say ‘Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa’, for the pain I inflict every day of life, ‘through what I have done, and what I have failed to do …’ And I receive, how deeply do I receive …

Hope for the World

An anonymous Christian Hermeticist wrote:

'Let us resign ourselves therefore to the great work of contributing constructively to tradition – the spiritual, Christian, Hermetic, scientific tradition. Let us thoroughly immerse ourselves in it, let us study it, let us practice it, lastly, let us cultivate it ie. let us work not to overthrow, but in order to build. Let us range ourselves amongst the builders of humankind’s spiritual tradition – and let us try to contribute to it. May the Holy Scriptures be holy for us; may the Sacraments be sacraments for us; may the hierarchy of spiritual authority be the hierarchy of authority for us …'

- Meditations on the Tarot

A book which into the emptiness of my soul brought more light and heart and healing, than I can ever tell you.

A book which into the soulless of the world brings the profoundest measure of soul …

A book which into a dumbed-down world brings the most lucid of intelligence …

A book which into a dehumanising world brings the warmest of humanity …

A book which into the demythologised, secularised Church of the intelligentsia so-called, brings Mystery and Faith …

A book which in a modern worldthirst for esoteric mysteries, brings not New Age esotericism, but Christian esotericism of the highest order …

A book of which Hans urs von Balthasar, nominated as a Cardinal by His Holiness John Paul II, agreed to write a foreword in which he wrote the following words:

'A thinking, praying Christian of unmistakable purity reveals to us the symbols of Christian Hermeticism in its various levels of mysticism, gnosis and magic, taking in also … certain elements of astrology and alchemy [seeking] to lead meditatively into the deeper, all-embracing wisdom of the Catholic Mystery.'

Yes, my friends, in weariness today, I have written more an advert than an entry. An advert not devoid of substance I hope, but like all adverts, with an agenda. But a good one, I think, which involves speaking plainly about what gives me hope for the world. And which goes to the heart of what I will be further unfolding here. For this isn't simply a book ...

Free Will and Hell

I am gratified indeed for comments on my last post, which indicate the humility and seriousness with which some people at least, are willing to work with the teaching of a tradition formed by countless great minds.

In the New Age subculture I emerged from, it seemed frequently assumed that Christian tradition arose largely from a line of moral idiots. Though as I indicate, part of this problem derives from caricatures of Christianity arising in the secular countries of Protestant heritage, I regret everywhere the tendency of different cultures to write-off others’ values, without understanding them. I am certainly guilty of this myself. Mea maxima culpa. Christe Eleison.

I am grateful the head brings up free will. And of course, God overcoming free will would be no miracle at all – but the establishment of cosmic tyranny. However much mercy might seem to be involved.

Given that I am not a follower of Calvin or certain threads of Islam, how do I respond?

I return to Anonymous d’Outre Tomb, who wrote: ‘God rules the world by authority and not by force.’ The question is – is God’s love sufficient that that love will convince – not compel! – human beings to accept this love in their own free time?

I trust that if John Paul questioned whether human beings were in hell, he must not have negated free will, but been open to the rule of God’s love – not by **compelling** power, but by the **convincing** authority of love. God’s love being so great, that human beings would not be forced out of hell, but choose to leave it of their own volition.

Also relevant to this discussion is the issue of the moment of decision. According to commonly accepted teaching, the choice for perdition or salvation occurs at the end of this life. A damnation in which one continuously chooses to align with Milton’s Lucifer – proclaiming that it is ‘better to reign in hell than serve in heaven’ is very different from one in which a choice after 70 years **fixes** one’s fate for time everlasting.

My gratitude, warm and deep, goes out to all friends, known and unknown, participating in this with me.

A 1,000,000,000 x 1,000,000,000 years ... ?

I recall how, as a young man I joined with a good friend of mine in rejecting Christianity.Our reasons were diverse, but involved the proliferation of materialistic and literalistic ‘Christian’ concepts, which - as I hope to address in time - I now feel are especially prevalent in the secular countries of Protestant heritage. (And somewhat less strong elsewhere, where a more mysterious, less literal heritage - mainly Eastern Orthodox or Catholic - has prevailed).

Be that as it may, one phrase my friend used has remained etched in mind for two decades. He rejected the idea of eternal hell, inasmuch as it postulated that ‘a billion times a billion years’ would not even be the first instant of hell – hell that is, conceived of as an infinity of units of time.

Now the anonymous Catholic author of Meditations of the Tarot rejects such a notion as ‘absurd, because time does not exist in eternity.’ Whatever the precise nature of the meaning of eternal hell however, the fact is that both Catholicism and Protestantism have been dominated by the idea of endless time, according to which ‘a billion times a billion years’ would not even equate to the first nanosecond of one’s eternal agony.

This undoubtedly serves to render the Christian God as a monstrous tyrant to many sensitive souls. As an uncle of mine once said: “I refuse to believe in a God less merciful than I am”.

Nonetheless, the problem of hell is a serious one for Christians. The teaching around it goes back to the Gospels, and its nature has been attested to by the profound reflection of countless mystics, visionaries, theologians and hermeticists ever since. I have come to believe it is to the glory of the traditional Church (Orthodox and Catholic) that she does not abandon overnight the thought of her greatest thinkers and mystics.

In light of all of this, the great John Paul could hardly be traditional and renounce previous work on this serious problem. However it appears he may have made a statement that could yet prove to have **epochal** repercussions in the history of Christianity. It appears, I say, because there is some controversy over the exact wording that he used. Nonetheless this is the wording in the English text:

'Eternal damnation remains a real possibility, but we are not granted, without special divine revelation, the knowledge of ***whether*** or which human beings are effectively involved in it (Emphasis mine).'

Thus while preserving the teaching of the tradition, John Paul perhaps called into question, whether human beings are necessarily involved at all in eternal hell. We need, as I say, to know more about John Paul’s late thinking on this point. For it must be said that it at least stands in tension to other statements he made.

At the same time, it echoes a chorus of traditional thinkers – both Orthodox and Catholic - that John Paul evidently respected, who repudiated an everlasting hell. I have in mind here Origen, John Henry Newman, Bulgakov, Berdyaev and Hans urs von Balthasar, to cite only the well known names.

As much as these thinkers have earned deep respect within the Christian world, nothing could compare in significance to their thinking being integrated and expressed by the Pope, particularly a Pope so revered as the late Holy Father, that he is already deservedly known as John Paul the Great.

Whatever the case, it remains certain, as I reported yesterday, that John Paul has decisively disentangled salvation from belief. The event of Christ transcends all systems of belief and as John Paul says, works through all the great faiths. This is not to say however, that beliefs are irrelevant and that the Christian faith has not, to its immeasurable credit, preserved the faith in the cosmos-transfiguring Mystery of Calvary over two millennia …

I report these things, for several reasons. Among them is the fact that many sensitive people cannot accept the Church, even though they feel the call of Christ. I hope at very least, that they may not feel they would be alone in the bosom of the traditional Church, but be joined by great thinkers, even in the highest reaches of that Church. Profound things are indeed at work in this Church. Be of good cheer!

(Hermetic) Reasons to be Cheerful

I will be returning to the theme of the (unwitting) colluding of the New Age culture with secularist materialism.

In the meantime, I am aware of many painful images in this webblog so far, and thought there was call for cheer.

Now, something that brings deep and great cheer to my soul are certain recent developments in Catholicism. Developments, which contrary to the myths surrounding that much vilified spiritual giant, John Paul II, have not been negated since Vatican II – but radically extended.

I have in mind, for example, these words from him who is already and will be increasingly called John Paul the Great:

‘Normally, it will be in the sincere practice of what is good in their own religious traditions and by following the dictates of their own conscience, that the members of other religions respond positively to God’s invitation and receive salvation in Jesus Christ, even while they do not recognise or acknowledge him as their saviour.’

Now here John Paul defends the Glory at the heart of the Church – the Glory that transformed the cosmos on Calvary, since which time, that Glory has become the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

At the same time, the head of 60% of global Christianity, decisively sheds the usual interpretation of Extra Ecclesiam Nullus Sallus (‘Outside the Church, there is no salvation’) by arguing that the **normal** way for non-Christians is through their own religion. And in my view, this is more decisive than anything said by Vatican II.

This is also consistent with John Paul renouncing ecclesiastical intimidation in other striking ways as well. For example, his ideal of a Church that only ‘PROPOSES’ - and ‘IMPOSES NOTHING’ (Emphasis in original).

Americans of a certain generation sometimes say: ‘Only Nixon could go to China.’ They mean that only such a staunch conservative as Nixon could have credibility in America, for not 'selling out' to Communism.

In a similar way, perhaps only such a staunchly and beautifully traditional Catholic pontiff as the great John Paul could **consolidate** and extend such radical ideas of Vatican II. Preserving the tradition – but extending freedom. In a way that will last … how long? Forever, perhaps.

Pacem in Terris

When I started this webblog last week, I was naïve.

I had no idea how much **work** it would entail. Thus, in consistency with professing the tradition I cherish and seek to uphold, I am going to ‘remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy’.

Having created the expectation of leaving an entry today, however, I wonder if the following observation is not inappropriate.

In the early 1990’s in Britain, the Conservative government legalised shops opening on Sunday. Before that, Sunday was a day of peace in Britain. At the time, committed to the New Age movement as I was, I had not the slightest **religious** concern about this legislation.

Nonetheless, I still considered it to be one of the worst horrors ever perpetrated by that long Tory government of 1979-1997. And many horrors indeed were perpetrated by Margaret Thatcher and her heir. My concerns, as I say, were not for religion, but because I knew this peace was important for the Soul of the British nation.

Now that I am Christian, I give thanks to God that in many European countries, at least, the **tradition** is maintained and a palpable peace remains present on Sunday.

After this my friends, the webblog will continue six days a week, Monday to Saturday. Peace be with you. (Especially to those of you who may be **compelled** to work this day).

Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis.

No Concepts, Please!

Some years ago, I met a radiant young woman. I stress that – she struck me as someone with rare capacities for kindness and psychological acuity and sensitivity.

She had recently returned from Findhorn – perhaps the world’s leading New Age community. And not that long before, I had converted to Catholicism, though once I had been an enthusiastic part of Findhorn.

Our conversation turned to the differences between Catholicism and holistic or New Age spirituality.

In frustration, she turned to me and said: "But why do you have to NAME everything?' Meaning: why do I have to have **names** for matters of the Spirit? In my case, names such as Christ, Trinity, Incarnation, Body and Blood …

This conversation remains engraved in my mind. Because after two decades in the holistic movement, it seems to go straight to the core of what the holistic message is all about.

At the very core of Holism, then, is a suspicion of names – that is clear concepts – for religious reality. A large motive for this is a search for unity. I exaggerate only somewhat, I think, if I suggest it amounts to something like this: So long as we have no concepts, we can all agree on everything!

I need to be precise. What is at issue here is not abandoning clear concepts about **material** reality. Mathematical concepts, for example – about which we can all agree. These obviously remain in place in the holistic vision.

No, what this genuine young woman advocated was abandoning names, clear concepts for **spiritual** reality. And in my experience, an underlying pretext to her thought and that of many others in the holistic movement, goes rather like this:

"Religious concepts are dangerous. The source of so much war and persecution. We don’t need to NAME anything. Because spirituality is primarily an experience that is **felt**, it doesn’t need to have names. If we don’t have concepts for all this stuff, we can just get along."

Yes, something like this at least, underlies a great deal of holistic thinking.

I have come to believe this is a dangerous idea.

Because we think in concepts. And to renounce concepts is to renounce thinking. Or at very least, it is to think in a vague, unconscious way. Because we can never really renounce concepts. We can only render them fuzzy and deprived of consciousness.

Moreover, I have come to feel that the New Age agenda to stop clearly naming spiritual reality, plays into the same agenda of secularism. Because secularism is also predicated on emphasising material reality to the exclusion of religious concepts. In secularism, spiritual concepts have no value beyond the private realm of the individual.

The result, I would argue, is a private-isation of spirituality that makes spirituality less and less effective in the social and cultural realm. And material concepts gain ever more credence and power.

BUT – my Findhorn friend is right. Religious concepts belong to a process that also includes religious intolerance, hate, cruelty and destruction. My Findhorn friend joins with millions of sincere, good people who long to see the end of hate. And in this goodness, lies much of the appeal of the New Age idea.

Catholics (and those faithful to other religions) need to see the goodness underlying the New Age dream – while thoroughly rejecting this dream.

Because, as I say, the renunciation of spiritual concepts is ultimately impossible. And as I will try to explain, the only way forward that I see, is to embrace such concepts in as clear and conscious and loving a way as possible.

Secularism and the New Age

‘The opposite of one great truth, may well be another great truth’ –
Neils Bohr, staring into a quantum universe, where the Newtonian Realm of Facts had broken down irretrievably …

Friends, in these posts, I have tried to weave a thread of paradox and contradiction. Because it is only through *holding* the opposites, rather than *abandoning* them or *flattening* them, that we can be truly open.

I am going to try to illustrate. These last posts have suggested dark images of secularism and the New Age culture. But different images are simultaneously possible:

Secularism, which won great rights for humankind, often in spite of, rather than because of the Church. Secularism which hastened to the aid of women, enslaved minorities, those *persecuted* for religion and other orientations. Let us not forget that in a less secular age, homosexuals went to PRISON. To take but a single example, we can feel the horror of Oscar Wilde, sentenced to two years hard labour at Reading Gaol, and who died three years after his release, age 46, his health and standing in the world destroyed.

And secularism, in whose desacralised womb, our soulless, capitalistic world has been formed, with increasingly soulless results: utilitarianism, political correctness, banal mediocrity. Soulless architecture. Soulless rote learning for our children. Soulless universities, focussed ever more on technological and business proficiency, and dumbed-down, not in science, but in the *humanities*. Soulless, manipulative brainwashing, labelled ‘harmless’ advertising. And so much else besides …

Oh, what are you Mystery of Secularism? Filled with contradiction and paradox, you who *abandoned* the opposites, who abandoned the Sacred, to defend the glory of human freedom, and tragically established and entrenched so much else besides freedom … Is your end result more openness or less?

And then there is the Mystery of the New Age culture, in whose womb, I spent nearly two decades.

The New Age culture in which humbling and beautiful psychological sensitivity, sincerity and idealism can definitely be found, as well open-ness to the world of the spirit beyond materialism.

But at what expense? In my own experience at least, at the expense of many riches, intellectual, cultural, artistic, riches of tradition and the wider world. And beyond these all, the riches of His Body and Blood. sensitising me ever more to the human condition …

Yes, my pain-streaked verdict on the New Age now, is that great riches become abandoned or flattened. As I shall try to address in the following days, the holistic movement is predicated – consciously or not - on a negation of tradition, that is not really so ‘holistic’ or open at all. Even though its intentions are frequently noble indeed. Far more noble than many see. And here is a source for tears.

When I go into the depth of my heart, I can also sense the tears inasmuch as - as far as I can see - the noble intentions of the Mystery of Secularism and the Mystery of the New Age walk hand in hand, together a long way, a very long way of the journey.

And I join with thinkers as diverse as Rudolf Steiner and John Paul the Great in saying: something else is needed.

Snapshots

In blazing love and compassion for the world, Anonymous d’Outre Tomb, wrote:

‘John who submitted himself voluntarily to Peter as leader or prince of the apostles did not become his successor after his death, although he outlived Peter by many years. John [is] not called upon to succeed Peter…

Hermeticism, the living Hermetic tradition guards … the life and communal soul of religion, science and art. [Hermeticists] do not have any privilege in any of these domains; saints, true scientists and artists of genius are their superiors.

But they live for the mystery of the communal heart, which beats within all religions, all philosophies, all arts and sciences – past, present and future. And inspired by the example of John the beloved disciple, they do not pretend, and never will pretend, to play a directing role in religion, science, art, in social or political life, but they are constantly attentive so as not to miss any occasion to **serve** religion, philosophy, science, art, the social and political life of humanity … (Meditations on the Tarot).’

To GUARD and to SERVE, and thus not to succumb to the currents of destruction of tradition manifest in the New Age culture, secularism, ‘political correctness’ and so on …

This lies at the heart of what this webblog is about.

It is something that will be unpacked piece by piece in the time to come.

But in this format, designed to be read off a computer screen in our increasingly stressed and soulless pace of life, it is not something that I will be able to draw together, as I might in a book (which, in fact, I am working on). It is rather a series of 'snapshots', which if, you have the time and interest, you can try to link together with me …

That said, however, I recently sent a **long** letter-article to friends, clarifying what this webblog concerns. If anyone out there is interested, I am happy to e-mail an edited version of it.

This long piece letter addresses many themes this webblog will unfold. Matters as diverse as the loss of soul in the world, the failure I have come to see in New Age spirituality, secularism and capitalism, the nature of modern evil, and the hope to be found in the Sacramental Church. It draws on authors as diverse as Allan and William Bloom, Rudolf Steiner, John Paul II, Robert Sardello, and the Catholic author of the words quoted above.

It is also told through my own personal journey from the New Age community of Findhorn in Scotland to the Church of Rome. My e-mail is in my profile above for any who wish to receive a more coherent sense of what this project is about.

Snapshots will resume tomorrow.

Eliphas Levi, Lover of Humanity

This I love:

`We will not speak of the criticism of Voltaire. That great mind was dominated by an ardent love of truth and justice, but he lacked that rectitude of heart, which the intelligence of faith gives.

Voltaire could not admit faith, because he did not know how to love. The spirit of charity did not reveal itself to that soul which had no tenderness, and he bitterly criticized the hearth of which he did not feel the warmth, and the lamp of which he did not see the light.

If religion were such as he saw it, he would have been a thousand times right to attack it, and one would be obliged to fall on one's knees before the heroism of his courage.

Voltaire would be the Messiah of good sense, the Hercules destructor of fanaticism. ... But he laughed too much to understand Him who said: "Happy are they who weep," and the philosophy of laughter will never have anything in common with the religion of tears.'

ELIPHAS LEVI -

Ordained a Catholic deacon in Paris in 1835, later author of The Dogma and Ritual of Transcendental Magic in 1855-56, later penitent and lover of Christ, who not only knew that Christ established the **way** of tears in the world of the serpent, but who knew that Christ was in his Church …

Now Eliphas Levi could be considered one of the founding fathers of the New Age movement, arguably writing the first popular books on esotericism. (He came before Blavatsky and clearly influenced her).

However all of the above serves to clarify why, although Levi encouraged Hermeticism, he could never join with the inner dynamics that go alongside so much, if not all of the New Age: the dismissal of the old to make way for the new.

Even though, with the immense and radiant heart that he had, and a mind filled with profound paradox and contradiction, he clearly saw, felt and acknowledged Voltaire’s ‘ardent love of truth and justice’, he knew, he knew, I say that destruction was not the way …

Oh Eliphas Levi, dear friend, my heart goes ever out to you …

Just the Facts, Ma'am

When I was a teenager in America, an evangelical Christian friend tried to convert me. He assured me that heaven would be made of gold. A city **literally** made of gold …

I pressed him. What would we be living in? Golden houses. What would we travel in? Golden cars. Everything gold. I wonder if he would have said the cars ran on liquid gold …?

Such things put me off Christianity for twenty years. Most of which I spent devoted to the New Age movement.

After my wife converted to Catholic Christianity, my mother-in-law asked her, if this meant that she now believed in creationism! …?!!

Creationism, in which “seven days” can mean **nothing other** than “seven 24 hour periods”.

My friends, I invite you to pause a moment, and feel the immense **tragedy** that all the above represents …

Now, it is true that 2+2 means **nothing other** than 4. It is a mathematical fact. And nothing can **contradict** that.

There is a Realm of Facts, where **nothing other** than the fact is meant. Here in this realm, contradictions cannot be valid. But Christianity is nothing, if it is not rooted in a Realm of Profound Truth, that transcends the Realm of simple Facts.

But this Realm of Truth beyond facts, has now become confused with facts. For example, this is not only evident in fundamentalist Protestantism - but at the opposite end of the spectrum from my evangelical friend, where lies the great liberal Protestant, Bultmann, who said that Christianity must demythologise or die.

Bultmann wrote: “The New Testament … invites criticism because some of its representations are … **contradictory** … representing Jesus as born of a virgin **contradicts** the idea of his pre-existence. So, too, does faith in creation **contradict** the notion of the world rulers … and the view of the law as given by God **contradicts** the view that it comes from the angels (Emphasis mine).”

Again, transcendent truth is confused with the Realm of Facts- which rightly permits no contradiction. Bultmann cannot seem to see that contradictions no longer carry the same weight in the Realm of Profundity. And it is only in the Realm of Facts, that contradictions have such importance.

This was however, clearly understood, by that pioneer of quantum physics, Neils Bohr who said: ‘The opposite of a fact is surely a falsehood. But the opposite of one great truth may well be another great truth.’

That is to say, in the world of facts, contradictions must be avoided. But in the profound world, different conclusions are both possible and necessary.

My friends, the TRAGEDY of the world lies in the reduction of profundity to simply facts. Facts alone.

It is a tragedy that allows a travesty of Christianity to take hold of the popular imagination. Particularly I think, in the secular countries of Protestant heritage wherein, for example, my mother-in-law grew up. Yes, though I am prepared to be corrected, I believe this literalism is especially marked in both evangelical and liberal Protestantism. And I believe genuinely it is not so marked in that other 70% of global Christianity, that is Eastern Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

But the tragedy of reduction of Truth to literal facts alone, is found everywhere these days, working out in increasing sclerosis and calcification of the world.

It is thus a tragedy that Hermeticists must work every day to address.

It's the Epistemology, Stupid

There is a very fine book by James Kunstler, called Home from Nowhere. It’s about the destruction of the soul of the American built environment. That is, it’s about how virtually every American town and city tends towards losing its distinct identity, its sense of being a special place in its own right. Instead of existing as sites marked by soul, these places become increasingly monotonous and uniform – much like everywhere else. Soul is sacrificed to convenience, commercial instincts, utilitarianism, functionalism …

Now I repeat, this is a fine book by a fine writer, full of conscience and humanity. But to my mind, Kunstler’s penetrating analysis lacks a certain historical depth. Thus, when Kunstler ponders the reasons for modern soulless development, he looks only to post WWII developments!

I was astonished.

But then I’ve spent the last quarter of my life, analysing the loss of soul everywhere in modernity. Not just architecture, but throughout all areas of society.

And one conclusion seems inescapable to me. The new epistemology, initiated by Descartes, continued through Kant, Locke, Hume, and countless others has profoundly shaped all areas of our culture.

Epistemology which not only asks the question: ‘How do we know what we know?’ but also determines: ‘What do we take SERIOUSLY?’

For example: do we take *seriously* only the proven functionality of empirical data, or are we willing to take *seriously* that which can never be proven empirically? Put more simply, this question often amounts to: What do we take seriously, quantities or quality? Proven, functioning quantities or quality that requires not *proof*, but *faith*.

What reigns now, is functionalism and utilitarianism. Nearly everywhere we look, there is less faith in that which cannot be reduced to quantities. The same tendency is evident in all fields, not only architecture and economics, but psychology and even theology.

Which is why, as noble as it is, Kunstler’s analysis of soulless architecture is incomplete without Descartes’ progeny.

And which is why, in my headline, I drew attention to Bill Clinton’s (in)famous dictum, which represented yet another step in reducing the values of the Democrats to the 'bottom line' - quality to quantity.

The question is: how do we resurrect soul - in a society that cannot take soul seriously, because soul cannot be quantified or proven?

Now John Paul II said 'Be not afraid!'

Why I think this is relevant to this train of thought is something I hope to unpack - in time. But it involves faith, not in the sense of religious literalism or fundamentalism - but something very different.

What Happens ...?

What happens …

When life's most profound and important matters … matters we variously name as beauty, morality, love, mystery and the Sacred …

Are no longer treated as such by the culture around us? Because they cannot be *empirically proven* and established as having anything beyond relative, subjective or private value?

What happens …

When, because of this, from the moment of our first breath, we are born into a world that only admits as uncontestably true, that which functions, that which has utilitarian value, that which submits to statistics and the ‘bottom line’?

What happens ...

When, because of this, we live In a world, where the most toxic substances are ‘innocent till proven guilty’. Such that it took decades before we had amassed sufficient evidence to *empirically prove* that nicotine was dangerous. And we began to take countermeasures? To say nothing of countless other toxins – physical, psychological and spiritual – for which little or no *empirical proof* will ever come?

What happens …

When, because of this, we live In a world where children are bombarded from their earliest days by ‘harmless advertising’, though manufactured for the specific intent of turning people into mechanical, Pavlovian automatons? And few raise any word in protest, because after all, you can’t *empirically prove* that such brainwashing is harmful to the human spirit?

What happens …

When we human beings are profoundly effected, not only by what we consciously assimilate, but what we unconsciously absorb? And the culture proclaims the triumph of the utilitarian over beauty, depth and Mystery in a myriad of ways?

To take a single example, even the architecture the modern American child will absorb from her earliest days, proclaims the utilitarian, the functional, the uniform and monotonous. The rooms of the baby’s house will be formed by rigid, lifeless, 90 degree angles, as will all the surrounding streets and buildings …

What happens …

When so much, so very, very, very much of all we absorb throughout our lives is predicated (consciously or not) on functionality, epistemological uncertainty, and a concomitant vacuum that allows rapacious mercantilists – and I don’t mean simply the nicotine merchants – to conquer our minds and hearts, and the minds and hearts of our children?

What happens …

That is, when so very, very, very much of the culture we absorb is not SACRAMENTAL?

These are questions that arise in the mind of this Hermetic Catholic.

They are questions that will be daily explored throughout this blog.

Agnus Dei

Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.