Our Modern World

 

 

This month's Comment comes from the June 13 reading, p. 186

XIII

June 13,  Modernism

There is a belief by some that a very distinctive deterioration of Western thinking happened at the end of the Middle Ages and accelerated into the Industrial Age. Then things just got worse until the late 20th Century when people began to question the idea of institutional science and progress and took a renewed interest in the spiritual perspective.

Comment

In 2008 I wrote an essay* about modernism and its effect on our culture. It is still very appropriate today.  (Explainer is highlighted)

WHAT IS MODERNISM?

Without a doubt the most powerful political and social ideology of the past century is something few people have considered. A cluster of dogma has sprung up around the philosophy of positivism, the belief that nothing exists except that which can be measured. From this starting point we have witnessed the rise of positivist science, philosophical reductionism, consumerism and a cultural appendage; modernism. As the director of The Institute for Perennial Studies in the late 1980’s I found that we spent a lot of time researching and critiquing modernist systems as well as examining alternatives. If we learned anything from the experience it is that the negative effects of modernism are ubiquitous. As a belief system it infects all of our thinking. Allow me to share some of our findings regarding modernism and its attendant systems; positivism, an aggressive new materialism, and consumerism.

The first and most noticeable trait of any modernist system is its claim to be "new". Newness is unique to this belief system and is characterized by a cult like following of pundits and pollsters who are always trying to divine the latest trends and impulses for the purpose of forecasting. Newness is celebrated as a sacrament and is its own proof of superiority. The act of being "first" has become an obsession. Post-modernism, advanced modernism, progress, etc., have all laid claim to the mantle "new" at one time or another. Modernism consistently defines its enemies as "undemocratic". Whether it is Kropotkin and Lenin espousing various forms of scientific socialism as an escape from the Old (elitist) Order, the Northeastern establishment promoting corporate liberalism ("free trade") in the new cyberspace of Wall Street, or Coca-Cola selling the universal soft drink to the "new global marketplace", the underlying argument is always the same. We have the wave of the future at our disposal and if you don't get on the bandwagon you are resisting "democratic inevitability".

Permutations of modernism are always heralded by a shower of statistics and other mathematical gadgets. Proving that the tide is running in a certain direction with various empirical methods is an absolute necessity for the modernist. Reliance on measuring social trends is the foundation of political science and public relations.

Modernism eventually fall victim to its own poison. The idea that modernism is itself new is a fallacy. History is filled with secular prophets declaring a "new dawn" or a "new era". Not only in the Christian Bible but in the scriptures of all spiritual traditions there are admonitions against people relying too heavily on their own creations. Babylon fell while lusting after temporal rewards. Jesus reminded us that he was “the beginning and the end” saying that time as well as Creation is the domain of God and “newness” is that suspicious property of Man. The Prajna Paramitas warn the Buddhist not to trust the material world of ever changing “aggregates”.

The Sacred writings of antiquity are replete with similar caveats against newness turning instead to the eternal world within. Allied as it is with the materialist pantheon of science and positivism the present incarnation of modernism is particularly dangerous and pervasive but little changed from past manifestations.

In our research we came to the conclusion that modernism was not the leading edge of an evolutionary continuum rather it is a veneer. In the case of its present likeness the veneer is uniquely corrosive and seeks to dissolve, absorb, or ultimately erase everything that has come before it. Natural resources, indigenous cultures, traditional values, and even history itself is a target for the modernist. Yet, the real sadness is that society has bought into a fad and in the last analysis "new" is predictably ephemeral.

*https://dsreif.blogspot.com/2008/12/modernism.html

This month's Illustration

Marriage (June)

Often producing blooms every day enhancing its reputation for nurturing and regeneration the lily has a feminine or yin aspect. The Moon is also a ethereal feminine symbol traditionally associated with the goddess Selena. The Sun is usually a male symbol whose hard edged energy is soften and reflected in the glow of the Moon making this a grand celestial marriage.

"Marriage" can be purchased HERE  

All of our re-prints are available at: Art Reprints   

More like a mural in words than a book...

This road is about travel however it is not a straight line Interstate Highway where you can get somewhere very fast but not see anything interesting. Nope. The Other Road is an elliptical narrative like driving a country road with many twists, turns, side trips, and roadside attractions of hidden knowledge, ancient wisdom, and magic. It will build your spirit one daily stop at a time.

You can purchase the book at:

You can purchase my book, The Other Road Ahead, by clicking HERE

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Numbers

 

 

This month's Comment comes from the May 14 reading, p. 155

May  14--- Numbers

If we can start by saying that symbolically the beginning comes from the number one which represents unity. Then the number two opens up diversity where conflict can happen but also the possibility of sharing. With the number three comes resolution or one plus two results in three which is unique but has the attributes of its parts. If we can think about numbers for something other than counting a new understanding of our world will begin.

XII

Comment

The use of numbers is so ancient that no one really knows where or when the practice started but it is nearly impossible to imagine a world without numbers. However, the majority of us are only familiar with numbers in their counting function. Many people have studied numbers as an expression of human behavior¹ or to predict events. In the Torah (the Old Testament) there is a Book of Numbers which has extensive numerical references which some say have hidden meanings². Elsewhere in many ancient writings there mystical or occult references to specific numbers. Learning about the various interpretations of numbers is a interesting and rewarding pursuit which will expand our understanding³.

¹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gematria

²https://numerologynation.com/numerology/

³https://dsreif.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-sacred-art-of-numbers.html

The illustration for May is Grail

Inspired by ancient Rosicrucian symbolism this chalice combines the trinity of Sun, Moon, and Earth into a magical unity of knowledge and wisdom that informed Late Medieval Europe. It was used as a teaching tool to help people understand their place in the universe.

It is available in our store CLICK HERE

More like a mural in words than a book...

This road is about travel however it is not a straight line Interstate Highway where you can get somewhere very fast but not see anything interesting. Nope. The Other Road is an elliptical narrative like driving a country road with many twists, turns, side trips, and roadside attractions of hidden knowledge, ancient wisdom, and magic. It will build your spirit one daily stop at a time.

You can purchase the book at:

You can purchase my book, The Other Road Ahead, by clicking HERE

Many of you have been enjoying Perennis blog for years since the print version ceased to exist.  After over a decade we continue to post on this blog as time permits. 

I have added a Donorbox link to this blog.  Please consider contributing a monthly donation to keep this work going.  Or just a one-time sum will be appreciated. You can contribute anonymously if you like.   

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Angels

 

Cosmos

 

This is a reading from my book The Other Road Ahead, p.389

December 24                         Angels

There are seasons in each person which are ignored by our modern worldview. At one time it was thought that each hour was ruled by a different angel. The extent of angelic influence was controlled by other celestial aspects, the phase of the Moon for instance. We could analyze our actions through a cosmic lens which helped us find our place in the universe and overlook mundane squabbles.

Comment

There was a time in Western Civilization when we were not ruled by the mechanical ticking of the clock or flashing digital numbers that are everywhere around us telling us what time it is. Instead the day was divided into periods that were each presided over by a different angel. This is a notion that seems to us to be both unfamiliar and complicated if not a little far-out.

Yet in the Middle Ages it made perfect sense. This is explained very well by the people at the Network for Grateful Living*: "What is an ‘hour’? Is it nothing more than a unit of time composed of 60 minutes? Is it measured by numbers or by impressions, feelings, moods? Like the seasons of the year, the seasons of the day differ by the way we experience them. Each hour we encounter has a character and a presence infinitely richer and more complex than clock time. As a messenger from another dimension — an angel perhaps — an hour has its own unique significance."

Each hour has its own unique signature in our life. If we can train ourselves to understand that every hour is a blessing then we are on the path of The Other Road Ahead.

*https://gratefulness.org/brother-david/angel-of-the-hour/

The following is the description of the December illustration in the book The Other Road Ahead, that are placed on the back of the re-prints.

Cosmos (December)

This delightful drawing reminds us of a late Medieval belief represented by the seven planets of our consciousness. Each planet represented a different stage of the unconscious mind and together they formed a map of our world and the universe we live in. The Earth represented the material world and the orbiting spheres symbolized among other aspects wisdom, desire, conflict, and judgment.

Cosmos can be purchased with this  LINK

All of our re-prints are available at: Art Reprints  

This road is about travel however it is not a straight line Interstate Highway where you can get somewhere very fast but not see anything interesting. Nope. The Other Road is an elliptical narrative like driving a country road with many twists, turns, side trips, and roadside attractions of hidden knowledge, ancient wisdom, and magic. It will build your spirit one daily stop at a time.

You can purchase my book, The Other Road Ahead, by clicking HERE

Many of you have been enjoying Perennis blog for years since the print version ceased to exist.  After over a decade we continue to post on this blog as time permits. 

I have added a Donorbox link to this blog.  Please consider contributing a monthly donation to keep this work going.  Or just a one-time sum will be appreciated. You can contribute anonymously if you like.   

   Make a Donation

The Self Replicating Christ

The following is a thread that involves an article I posted last year and (to me) a new perception I gained from material in the Pistis Sophia. The thread details an organic processes of sharing which seem to touch on classic theosophy and Gnostic ideas expressed by Stephan A Hoeller and ends up with a new understanding. The original post, Divine Embryo, was a product of research, inspiration, and an ephemeral extrasensory prescience which seems to track me and manifest itself at its own pleasure.       DS Reif-ed

Carl Klemaier (CK) brought up the idea that we are seeing another picture that is the turning of a grand paradigm which is occurring over the centuries transferring power back to God.

8/19

DSR: I updated TheDivine Embryo, and posted the update on August 19 with the following citation from GRS Mead, "Summary of the Contents of the So-called Pistis Sophia Treatis", p 461, under the margin note, "Of His Own Incarnation" {1}

"Into Mary, His mother, also He had implanted a power higher than them all, 'the body which I bore Of His own Incarnation in the height,' and also another power instead of the soul, and so Jesus was born. It was He Himself who had watched over the birth of His disciples, so that no soul of the world-rulers should be found in them, but one of a higher nature."

This is a description of Christ implanting the embryo of Jesus into Mary Theotokos.

CK: Isn't this a further comment on what you wrote a year or so on the virgin birth idea?

DSR: Yes. It is all quite remarkable. I posted an update on that very article https://dsreif.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-divine-embryo.html

It has the citation, link etc.

This is a concept at the very edge of popular comprehension. The Gnostics have something called an autogene {2} or "Christ the Autogenes" from the Apocryphon of John {3} but the idea of implanting an embryo of your similitude must have predicates?...Vedas? Buddhism? Egyptian mythos?

CK: The Tibetan's have this seed of the Buddha within each person call the sugaata {4},  I think. But what you are indicating is more of an avatar idea.

Sri Aurobindo talked about the super mental coming down in this age. You might look into him.

DSR: Following your advice I read what I could find from Aurobindo re avatars. Very interesting focusing on the role of avatars but little about the creation of avatars. Unfortunately resources are thin online so there might be more if I was near an Aurobindo research group.

If I am reading GRS Mead correctly then the process of creating the Christos by the Christos opens a dimension of reality obliterating our concept of time/space. This is in a way confirmed by Aurobindo’s ideas for the role the avatars play in our world.

8/21

CK: So perhaps you read that the main Aurobindo teaching was opening or bringing down the high power supermental so is was more accessible to humanity. Sat Shree and his teacher Atmananda both teach under that idea. Atmananda spent time in the Aurobindo ashram in the 1980s. I was told that his cousin was the head or high up in running one of the centers perhaps in northern India. I was told that Atmananda was told to go meditate in caves on Shiva mountain in Tiruvanamali where I was and there he had big openings and lived on the streets for a year in altered states. In his book he talks about the difference between sat gurus, emanations, and incarnations [or avatars]. All can awaken but the avatars like Krishna come to reestablish the dharma or Truth when evil is in ascension.{5}

Sat Shree has been using the term "the crack in the universe " to refer to a higher state. Of course that would mean a crack in time and space. Jesus was that crack and established a different moral foundation than what had existed based on pure power equal good, i.e., all the empires based on that.

So is that what your describing?

8/23

DSR: Yes. Your comments helped me make distinctions in these phenomena. GRS Mead admits that the translations are difficult with the originals being lost or stolen or destroyed by the Imperial Roman Church years ago. However he is adamant that his work retains the sense and essence of the original ideas due to his wide studies of the period and context. I am comfortable with that and the translation is bolstered by the Apocryphon of John.

I arrived at a similar conclusion through study and inspiration likely informed by the ewige wellenlanger all of which comports to what is in the Pistis Sophia, which I had not studied until very recently. To me that is another credibility point; evidently these thought-forms are out there in the collective ether. So with the following as you said:

'Sat Shree has been using the term "the crack in the universe " to refer to a higher state. Of course that would mean a crack in time and space."

That "crack" may be a split in the Horos or limit between the Pluroma and our material region according to Valentinus. {6}

That part of the picture is rather clear. Integrating this into a weltanschauung (or worldview) will be a challenge.

CK: Yes I love "Worldviews" weltanschauung I remember from years ago.

I suppose what I've been doing over the years is doing cross translating from one to the other. They are like maps. Some older with distortion other with too much detail. Some assert one truth topography for example while others prefer population density. One prefers scientific language, the other theological.

Someone like Sat Shree mixes them all up. You have the gunas in one paragraph and compensating structures in the next. Feeling into the body to find your trauma mixed with talk about the knower and the known. The Bhagavad Gita meets cognitive psychology and trauma therapy. So the people I involved with him have some experiences, some very big like the one you listened to by Anoop.

So I'm interested in how you are going to choose which languages to use.

8/24

DSR: At first I was overwhelmed to read the comments from the Pistis Sophia that related to the material I published about the Virgin Birth. Inserting the concept that it was Lord Christ who "engineered" the embryo implanted into Mary Theotokas was foreign and even grotesque to my sensibilities. I had not integrated the weltanschauung from the Apocryphon of John which now seems clear.

However, as I have allowed the idea sink in and considered it as much as I could and the whole concept began to make sense to me and finally it almost seems to be an unavoidable conclusion.

If it was God who was the architect of the plan and the Christos is a primary aspect of God then of course He was part of the process towards his own autogenic birth. Perhaps this is not the assumption that is most appealing for our limited ability to comprehend but if it is part of that Divine Will streaming here from the dwellings of God and who am I to require the constructs of human reason as a qualification to understanding His actions.

8/27

CK: I think this is significant to our discussions. I was reading a commentary on the Gita by the man I sent you the information about Sat Krishna Prem. {7} He talks about the axial age theology being different from the previous fertility earth orientation. The ancient religious impulse in humanity, pagan, Vedic even Hebrew was about founding God in the world. The emphasis was on fertility and gaining favor and power.

With the new impulse the incarnation force is about opening to a higher vision [nivritti] interpreted as ascent in the Upanishads, Buddhism and Christendom, are getting beyond the pull of the earthly desires.

Perhaps the present incarnation force is empowered both to birth humanity and the incarnation force. This was a prophecy of Jesus, John 14:12, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."

8/29

DSR: It seems that the receptive aspect (female principle or yin energy) could give back what it has accumulated and processed. The old gods of strength and power are supplanted by emanations from the principles which have been nurturing their energy for millennia.

This would correspond with the ascension of the Gnostic view of Lord Christ and the spiritual twin Lady Sophia. The yin energy was suppressed for years by the Imperial Roman church in favor of conquest and control. This may be the time of emergence where one spiritual form will not overshadow another but rather will at long last find a harmony in our understanding of the autogenic Christ who transcends all opposites.

Notes:

1 https://sacred-texts.com/gno/fff/fff66.htm

2 autogene- self-replicating

3 http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/apocjn-davies.html

4 Sugaata-Chinese "Tathāgata's storehouse" or Tibetan "embryonic essence"

5 The modern Gnostic and theosophical philosopher Steven Hoeller has a similar teaching in a lecture entitled, "The Rosy Cross" https://thegnosticsociety.org/lectures/gnostic-mythic-reality-5/

6 http://valentinianism.com/

7 https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/2754

The book by Sri Krishna Prem (d.1965),  "The Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita", can be found here https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Bhagavad-Gita-Krishna-Prem/dp/0140035729

Illustration: DSR, 2021

You can purchase my book, The Other Road Ahead, by clicking HERE

Many of you have been enjoying Perennis blog for years since the print version ceased to exist.  After over a decade we continue to post on this blog as time permits. 

I have added a Donorbox link to this blog.  Please consider contributing a monthly donation to keep this work going.  Or just a one-time sum will be appreciated. You can contribute anonymously if you like.   

   Make a Donation

Nomadic Book

Much of the book, “The Other Road Ahead”, was written while traveling between the art festivals where we made our livelihood. This is one of the nomadic studios I used to write and edit in. 

You can purchase the book HERE

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The Crystal Tomb

The Crystal Tomb of the Ozarks

There is a remarkable shrine to the Resurrection* located in the Missouri Ozarks. Situated 15 miles south of Interstate 44 at Lebanon, Missouri on MO 5 and 7 miles north from the little village of Grove Springs at the intersection of Highway J and 5. There you will find a small parking lot in front of an interesting structure.

Constructed out of native rocks using a very old Ozark building style, this small building replicates the empty grave of the rock-cut tomb where the earthly body of Christ was laid after the Crucifixion. At the entrance there is a steel archway over the approach to the tomb that states, “Rejoice the tomb is empty: Jesus will return to reign forever” the words cut into the steel.

The tomb is very professionally crafted out of rocks that are indigenous to this part of the Ozark Mountains. The builders have chosen each rock carefully so that they fit snugly to form the walls. What is truly miraculous is the number of sparkling jewel-like crystals that are in the rocks. Large and small quartz crystals and amethyst embedded in geodes festoon the rock face adding a curious aurora of energy that accompanies the burial chamber. These autochthonic crystals were obviously selected purposely to bring a glorious presence to this place.

It is a wondrous work of art and devotion built by the local people in an act of unselfish love that shares their Faith with everyone.

*https://dsreif.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-sign.html

David S Reif

Good Friday, MMXX AD

----------------

Many of you have been enjoying Perennis blog for years since the print version cease to exist. After over a decade we continue to post on this blog as time permits. I still go to work everyday as an artist squeaking out a living with my wife creating things to sell. It is no easier today than ever.

I have added a Donorbox link to this blog. Please consider contributing a monthly donation to keep this work going. Or just a one-time sum will be appreciated. You can contribute anonymously if you like.

Donate

Europe Reconsiders Jacob Boehme

"Strasbourg Inspiration" 

There are some very interesting development regarding Jacob Boehme coming from Europe. Below is an excerpt from an article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine about the recent interest in Boehme. For my part I am not so interested in the clinical recitations of the various new finding from antique book shelves. Rather it is the effect after nearly 400 years since the death of the venerable Mr. Boehme that his spirit continues to exert on people. It is the quantum mysterium which captures my reverence.

In den Osten kommt das Licht [To the East Comes the Light]

Von REINER SCHWEINFURTH (International Jacob Boehme Society)

Frankfurter Allgemeine 19Aug2019

“...In addition, the first biographer of Boehme, his confidant Abraham von Franckenberg(1593-1652), published his life report here for the first time. Now a text comparison possible with the saved handwritten manuscripts, which were preserved by the upper class in Silesia. The unrefined edition is accompanied by margin notes from the editors, whoseevaluation promises previously unknown information.

All contributions to the conference in Gotha confirmed the growing international interest in Jacob Boehme the “Philosophicus Teutonicus”. Around the research center led by Martin Mulsow
the Boehme expert Lucinda Martin has created a network. In the Research library at Gotha are about 10, 000 manuscript records, many from the seventeenth century, not yet cataloged.

One of the attractions of exploring Bohemia is the discovery of the far-reaching, often subversive
ties that were already formed during his lifetime, then after his death in 1624, throughout Protestant Europe. His manuscripts were a precious commodity and many trustees profited. The pious and irrational diction of his writings remains a nuisance to positivistic-materialistic minds. Until
today.But after secularization, at least in this country, no one need fear, to be put in prison for spreading Bohemian ideas, for centuries this was different...”

* * *

I want to point out a few items in Mr Schweinfurth’s insightful essay“The pious and irrational diction of his writings remains a nuisance to positivistic/materialistic minds.” This is a very interesting sentence. Allowing for the translation and the cultural difference between the American and German audience the use of the term “...pious and irrational diction...” may be off putting to some as it may seem condescending. I don’t think it is meant that way. I believe this is the way European scholars viewed spiritual philosophy in the recent past where anything “religious” or Christian is often regarded as quaint or intellectually suspect. I think Mr Schweinfurth is attempting to bridge a generational gap here. When writing for an audience who is still mired in European anti-Christian thought where condescension is baked into the cake, Mr. Schweinfurth skillfully sidesteps existing bias but continues to move forward.

Who could blame Europeans for holding rather negative views about Christianity after centuries of war often blamed on religion when economic and territorial motives were the real causes. Between the often oppressive legacy of Roman Catholicism and the neo-Marxist pretensions espoused by John Barth (and others) it is little wonder that religious philosophy is suspected of duplicity. Boehme offers an escape from the doctrines of the past.

It is important to point out that Mr. Schweinfurth continues by emphasizing that “...positivistic-materialistic minds...” may find Boehme difficult due to the “nuisance” of troublesome abstract ideas involved in his writings and advanced concepts often out of reach to the modernist worldview. I believe Mr Schweinfurth is walking a narrow line while making an important point about Boehme at the same time not opening himself up to partisan criticism. Mr. Schweinfurth offers us this extraordinary thought “...no one need fear, to be put in prison for spreading Bohemian ideas...”. Except in a clinical (or secular) environment whenever controversial spiritual ideas are discussed there seems to be an underlying element of fear just beyond peripheral vision.
DSR

Winter Solstice 2019

(original text)

Hinzu kommt, dass der erste Biograph Böhmes, sein Vertrauter Abraham von Franckenberg

(1593 bis 1652), hier zum ersten Mal seinen Lebensbericht publizierte. Nun ist ein

Textabgleich möglich mit den gesicherten handgeschriebenen Manuskripten, die in der

erweckungswilligen Oberschicht Schlesiens kursierten, gesammelt und teilweise bearbeitet

wurden. Die Karnal-Ausgabe ist mit Marginalien der Herausgeber versehen, deren

Auswertung bisher unbekannte Informationen verspricht.

Alle Beiträge der Tagung in Gotha bestätigten das international wachsende Interesse am

Philosophicus Teutonicus. Rund um das von Martin Mulsow geleitete Forschungszentrum

hat die Böhme-Kennerin Lucinda Martin ein Netzwerk gesponnen. In der

Forschungsbibliothek Gotha sind etwa 10 000 Handschriftensätze, viele aus dem siebzehnten

Jahrhundert, noch gar nicht katalogisiert.

Ein Reiz der Erforschung Böhmes besteht im Aufspüren der weitreichenden, oft subversiv

geknüpften Verbindungen, die sich schon zu seinen Lebzeiten, dann nach seinem Tod 1624,

im ganzen protestantischen Europa nachweisen lassen. Die Manuskripte waren eine kostbare

Ware, von deren Verkauf mancher Treuhänder profitierte. Die fromme und irrationale

Diktion seiner Schriften bleibt für positivistisch-materialistische Gemüter ein Ärgernis. Bis

heute. Doch nach der Säkularisierung muss wenigstens hierzulande niemand mehr fürchten,

wegen Verbreitung Böhmischer Gedanken ins Gefängnis gesteckt zu werden. Über

Jahrhunderte war dies anders.

The entire text is here: https://www.faz.net/-in4-9q0o1

Many of you have been enjoying Perennis blog for years since the print version cease to exist. After over a decade we continue to post on this blog as time permits. I still go to work everyday as an artist squeaking out a living with my wife creating things to sell. It is no easier today than ever .

I have added a Donorbox link to this blog. Please consider contributing a monthly donation to keep this work going. Or just a one-time sum will be appreciated. You can contribute anonymously if you like.

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