A myth that seems especially relevant for today, with the pattern possibly being played out right before our eyes, is the story of Phaethon and his father the Sun God Apollo. Phaethon’s hubristic incompetence in insisting on controlling enormous forces of power far beyond his limitations (symbolically the chariot of the Sun), and then losing control, might explain several things we have been seeing over the last decade or so. And in the story the whole World burns, Goddess Gaia begs Zeus to stop it, who finally intervenes and hurls the thunderbolts at the boy.
Which Greek myth are you seeing being manifested today?
I hope that we can see the warnings that were left for us by the past! And I’m hopeful that we can enact some positive myths too; finding art and beauty as the “Golden Thread” that leads Theseus out of the labyrinth, for example.
Very true - great cue to start looking for the positive ones as well! A Golden Thread could in some sense be to find the golden wisdom and patterns of the past, that can inspire and guide us through a Rebirth. The Generative Power of Balance might be one place to look, among the Greek Myths!
I hope it is a phoenix. I can go down in an apocalypse of fire, never to rise again if humanity and our progeny at some point rise from the ashes and make things better.
I do have some fears of exponential tech, comfort, and stupidity having allowed incompetence to work far too long at what is now a massive acceleration. I’m conversely worried about a.) total or near total extermination, or b.) The technocratic state being able to offset its inefficiency, injustice, and ossification with less reliance on humans, and avoiding apocalypse, or immediately being the thing that rises, running some spectrum of Orwellian to Huxleyian totalitarianism.
I think for people to detach from the system enough to disempower it, and re-engage with real life/religion (instead of hoping to turn back 20-60 years on materialism in the hopes of nationalistic materialism and hollow religion), Apocalypse has to first be internalized and imagined in a participatory manner. And accepted as a process reality of various magnitudes that may not be escaped.
I think we might be at a juncture in time where history could go in very many different directions from here. But also; history is not a coherent thing planetwide. And it might be a good thing that there is a certain "de-globalization" happening, to avoid some of those (real) scenarios you're describing. At least some of the centers of civilizations on the planet do aim for some kind of happiness and prosperity for their own people in a wider sense. And to another point, if what some of what we're seeing in some parts of the world is private money forces controlling things for short-sighted and disfunctional ends, that could also quickly be turned on its head - and rather be organized for long term, constructive and virtuous ends. So I think (and hope) the "battle" is both on the people level, but also among those who can more directly enforce changes. Bit like the Medici or Della Scala families in the late Medieval Times, finding ambition in true philanthropic enterprises rather than selfish and petty self-aggrandizement, which in effect results in the opposite.
I can’t stop seeing the Native American creation myth McgilChrist uses in the beginning of Vol 2 of The Matter With Things. The creator god He Who Holds The Sky With Two Hands, and the desire to cast it all down of Flint. The idea that if we choose the wrong way too many times we will be cast to the fire is terrifying.
I already went on at length about McgilChrist and Cormac McCarthy, so I won’t rehash that, but it’s heavily invested in the epic tradition, particularly drawing from Paradise Lost and Moby Dick.
With Moby Dick I often see it intersecting with Jung’s Wotan essay in the part where Ahab is below decks doing a blood right with the Pagans. He then comes above deck and gives the Pagan communion of St. Elmo’s fire. The crew then invokes their Christian sense of duty to follow him, ignoring the primal pagan shadow side, rather than integrating it towards the higher good the way Dante, Corbin, Klaus Schwab, or William Blake were capable of, which requires its admittance. I see this as the issue of right wing positivism, that neoliberal materialism is intwined with, and left wing progressivism into post modernism are in a antagonistic feedback loop with.
Very interesting - I have to read up on Jung's essay! Also loving the reference to "He Who Holds The Sky With Two Hands", a very powerful frame for McGilchrist's work. And my sense is that the "Flint" force is struggling these days. It feels like a pivotal year on the planet - where things (and the hubris) are grinding to a halt, before a full burst/chaos of reshaping things. Thus the Phoenix idea!
I’ve been wondering if there’s something bit Oedipal happening in regards to the environment. So many traditional cosmologies have a Sky Father and Earth Mother as deities (comparable to Heaven and Earth, Yin Yang, etc.) If, as Nietzsche said, “God is dead and we have killed him,” the disregard for nature, reducing it to a tool of our controlling (Left Hemisphere) is reminiscent of usurping the Father’s throne and taking the Queen (without realizing that the Earth is our Mother.)
Deadalus and the Oracle after the Flood comes to mind: "Take the bones of your dead mother and throw them behind you". From the Earth, springs a new Age.
In more practical terms I fully agree, maybe finding several approaches at once to rebalance the brain, in order to rein in the excesses of the Left Brain. It might be a "secular" Saving Grace - and also a part of the bigger cycle.
I hope that we can see the warnings that were left for us by the past! And I’m hopeful that we can enact some positive myths too; finding art and beauty as the “Golden Thread” that leads Theseus out of the labyrinth, for example.
Very true - great cue to start looking for the positive ones as well! A Golden Thread could in some sense be to find the golden wisdom and patterns of the past, that can inspire and guide us through a Rebirth. The Generative Power of Balance might be one place to look, among the Greek Myths!
I hope it is a phoenix. I can go down in an apocalypse of fire, never to rise again if humanity and our progeny at some point rise from the ashes and make things better.
I do have some fears of exponential tech, comfort, and stupidity having allowed incompetence to work far too long at what is now a massive acceleration. I’m conversely worried about a.) total or near total extermination, or b.) The technocratic state being able to offset its inefficiency, injustice, and ossification with less reliance on humans, and avoiding apocalypse, or immediately being the thing that rises, running some spectrum of Orwellian to Huxleyian totalitarianism.
I think for people to detach from the system enough to disempower it, and re-engage with real life/religion (instead of hoping to turn back 20-60 years on materialism in the hopes of nationalistic materialism and hollow religion), Apocalypse has to first be internalized and imagined in a participatory manner. And accepted as a process reality of various magnitudes that may not be escaped.
I think we might be at a juncture in time where history could go in very many different directions from here. But also; history is not a coherent thing planetwide. And it might be a good thing that there is a certain "de-globalization" happening, to avoid some of those (real) scenarios you're describing. At least some of the centers of civilizations on the planet do aim for some kind of happiness and prosperity for their own people in a wider sense. And to another point, if what some of what we're seeing in some parts of the world is private money forces controlling things for short-sighted and disfunctional ends, that could also quickly be turned on its head - and rather be organized for long term, constructive and virtuous ends. So I think (and hope) the "battle" is both on the people level, but also among those who can more directly enforce changes. Bit like the Medici or Della Scala families in the late Medieval Times, finding ambition in true philanthropic enterprises rather than selfish and petty self-aggrandizement, which in effect results in the opposite.
I see so many at different times…
I can’t stop seeing the Native American creation myth McgilChrist uses in the beginning of Vol 2 of The Matter With Things. The creator god He Who Holds The Sky With Two Hands, and the desire to cast it all down of Flint. The idea that if we choose the wrong way too many times we will be cast to the fire is terrifying.
I already went on at length about McgilChrist and Cormac McCarthy, so I won’t rehash that, but it’s heavily invested in the epic tradition, particularly drawing from Paradise Lost and Moby Dick.
With Moby Dick I often see it intersecting with Jung’s Wotan essay in the part where Ahab is below decks doing a blood right with the Pagans. He then comes above deck and gives the Pagan communion of St. Elmo’s fire. The crew then invokes their Christian sense of duty to follow him, ignoring the primal pagan shadow side, rather than integrating it towards the higher good the way Dante, Corbin, Klaus Schwab, or William Blake were capable of, which requires its admittance. I see this as the issue of right wing positivism, that neoliberal materialism is intwined with, and left wing progressivism into post modernism are in a antagonistic feedback loop with.
Very interesting - I have to read up on Jung's essay! Also loving the reference to "He Who Holds The Sky With Two Hands", a very powerful frame for McGilchrist's work. And my sense is that the "Flint" force is struggling these days. It feels like a pivotal year on the planet - where things (and the hubris) are grinding to a halt, before a full burst/chaos of reshaping things. Thus the Phoenix idea!
I’ve been wondering if there’s something bit Oedipal happening in regards to the environment. So many traditional cosmologies have a Sky Father and Earth Mother as deities (comparable to Heaven and Earth, Yin Yang, etc.) If, as Nietzsche said, “God is dead and we have killed him,” the disregard for nature, reducing it to a tool of our controlling (Left Hemisphere) is reminiscent of usurping the Father’s throne and taking the Queen (without realizing that the Earth is our Mother.)
Deadalus and the Oracle after the Flood comes to mind: "Take the bones of your dead mother and throw them behind you". From the Earth, springs a new Age.
In more practical terms I fully agree, maybe finding several approaches at once to rebalance the brain, in order to rein in the excesses of the Left Brain. It might be a "secular" Saving Grace - and also a part of the bigger cycle.