A meditation on art and symbols

Now, I have just read the introduction to a book called "The Secret Zodiac" The hidden art in mediaval astrology by Fred Gettings, and was inspired by how well and clearly the author speaks that I feel I must paraphrase him.

First, a word about history. I find it of absolutely no surprise that so many people do not like history. As presented and know in it's current form, History is the dry restatement of facts about actual events that occurred in our past, with the focus being on the accuracy of the findings.
Now, I understand that it is excellent that we attempt to create an accurate record of history and civilizations, for the purpose of archiving, but, to anyone who's not a historian, history itself would seem to offer nothing than the opportunity to impress others at dinner parties, or avoid looking stupid.
For, we rarely look into what the people themselves felt, believed, and knew. We rarely attempt to put ourselves in their place and feel what they were feeling.

Personally, as much as I have liked music and occasionally literature, art never appealed to me. I always felt that I could look at it for one second, and understand it and register it in memory, and that there was little else. When we look at Art nowadays, the focus seems to be on literature about art, and memorizing what other people have interpreted the meanings of art.

Unfortunately, by doing this, we effectively ...kill... the symbolism itself. For example, in a dream, the symbol of a heart may have a different meaning to each person, ranging from dread to intrigue.
Art in the past was always mean to be experienced, to feel the art and escape into it like a dream. Nearly all pre-renassaince art had a specific spiritual purpose in mind. Art comes from the soul and is meant to be experienced by the soul, anything less is a demotion.

Furthermore, the form of Christianity which has fallen upon us has been complicit in the death of these symbols. For a very long time, any mention of the polytheistic gods, their stories, of astrology of occult symbols could have easily gotten you hung or burnt. Even this century, the idea that all the occult is satanic, has continued, and this fear has kept us from honestly interpreting them, for we feel that any association with them would necessitates the devil having an influence on us.
Now, the VERY recent rise of old pagan religions, has perhaps brought about the re-emergence of the origonal meanings, and maybe even a flicker of the powerful emotional charge they contained.
We as a society, may not live much longer until we begin to feed our own spirit; so exiled by schizophrenic, materialistic, modern society, that it's rebirth is all but assured.

A reflection on my purpose for writing

This post is about my purpose for why I write.
I have found, as many have, that writing allows one to help crystalize the ideas that they have. I've spent most of my life, reading, observing, "dreaming", trying to make sense of the deeper meanings of existence. With each new thing I learn, It becomes incorporated into me, somewhere in the back of my mind. Sometimes I have trouble recalling everything and putting it together, synthesizing it. I write in order to force me to put things into words, and again, try crystallizing them into my memory.
I kind of doubt anyone is actually reading these, and, if so, Likely, none of you know who I am. I sort of prefer it that way; sort of how I've always been.
I write, to make more direct meaning of the experiences of my life, perhaps. For now, I'm writing about what I learn from facts and philosophical observations, but, recognizing how everyone has deep conflicts, the resolving or understanding for which, is their purpose for living, perhaps if I find one valuable enough, I will write about it.

Perhaps my life purpose is even to discover that life is simply to be lived. I know that many others live their lives simply living, and their purpose is to ponder the deeper meanings.

Such is life's contradictions. Edison's ideas came from trial and error, and he brings us such quotes as "genius is 95% perspiration, 5% inspiration". Nikola Tesla, on the other hand, could design things in his brain and knew if it would work. Another example, newton saw life as a clock with everything in order and working, with set laws, with contrast to the fluidity of einstein's genious, and his famous love of imagination.

This, the complex nature of the human psyche, the awkwardness with which we move amongst eachother, and amongst our own psyche, must be quite a tale and experience for our souls to know, if all those who write about OBE's and Astral Travel, are indeed not charlatans.

As long as we live in the world we do today, where our earth's resources are being depleted quickly, and have such weapons, as to cause our current state precarious, I shall speculate as to whether we humans can rise above. Capitalism, and corporations, in their own way, are like human conciousness. Highly efficient, corporations depend on constant growth without which they cannot survive in their current state. Unfortunately earth's resources are limited.
Conciousness, as far as we use to learn, and get jobs, in many western societies, has come at the price of the unconcious, our dreams and symbols, and our connection to nature and god, without which, we will perhaps die, for in an existentialist belief there would be no reason to live.
Corporations will die if not sustainably connected to the earth. Humans will die if the conciousness and unconciousness is not united and our collective schizophrenia healed.

I may sound glum, but In fact I am highly optimistic that we will live in society that is harmonious for our minds, and where nature is integrated tightly with society, in fact, my cousin has had recurring dreams of such a society for nearly his entire life.

But, I also believe that our psyches may face a collective "dark night of the soul" before we get to that, and perhaps we should all begin to excersize our free will and fight our remaining demons.
And we need to recognize that there are deeper things than ourselves; yet each is a part of all and is capable of effecting it.

I'l do what I can, and those who believe in the spiritual nature of life as do I, need to connect. "Science" itself remains resoundly atheist although perhaps even a majority of scientists believe in some higher meaning of life.

Peace and truth to each of you

Jung...

A few days ago, on a sort of whim, I have been having the desire to acquire knowledges of various kinds, first, the history channel's show on the dark ages, greeks has interested me, which perhaps brought back something that was always on the edge of my conciousness but never thoroughly explored, mythology, and how it relates to astrology, and the deep meanings of either.
So, on a whim I checked out a book on Norse Mythology, and a book on Jungian psychology, which I had always considered one of the most logical approaches of the unconciousness I'd ever seen, and has influenced me deeply, many being revisted many times, each time my understanding helping me more with it.
Now I'm up late and night having read a bit on Jung, and hoping to not forget a few things I've read. The first, being about anima/animus. The idea is that males have an anima in them, representing all the parts of them that are repressed, and different. An introvert's anima is extroverted, a prude's anima is deviant, ect. It represents all of the parts of that we wish to be, that perhaps we need to develop. It is the opposite of us, whose purposes are often revealed to us through our dreams.
The other, newer Idea I've had is how it relates of Jung's archetypes, a concept I always had trouble with, but now I understand it a bit better. One may think of ants, creatures who's parents did not teach them the ways of being an ant, or a bee, who is able to tell other bees the location of flowers through a complex dance. These things are instinctual, not taught.
Humans, having perhaps developed from apes, clearly has many deeper instincts, as related to survival. One may then think of the development of "conciousness", that ability to be aware of oneself, to think, to recognize onself as a seperate entity, as the first divorcing of the basic instincts to survive. One who grows crops and raises animals no longer needs to listen to or feel nature as the animals do, or seek move away from a storm if one has a sturdy dwelling.
Now, one should then think of mythology. For a long time, when christians persecuted the pagan religions, one who worshiped the gods was simply worshiping false Idols, or the devil. No body considered that the gods had any deeper meaning beyond that. In fact, the followers of the pagan religions could scarcely tell you that this story symbolized rebirth, or destruction of evil, or anything like that. People, lacking such a rational perspective, perhaps did'nt need an interpretation in order for them to intuitively understand the meanings behind them.
Jung writes of two stories. One, of a little girl who draws a complex series of dreams that are very old, obscure, and with deep meanings. Another, of a tribe who each morning spit on their hands and hold them out to the sun.
The girl did not come up with the stories on her own, they must have sprang from somewhere. The tribe, when asked of the meaning behind their rituals, could not answer. Yung felt it obvious that each morning they offered a piece of their soul to god.
It appears the man has practiced such deeply symbolic myths long before he could rationalize them, Indeed perhaps rational thought hampers their creation.
I think, that perhaps modern humanity is coming upon this realization...
1. First let me point to the growing acceptance that there can be no single "correct" religion, in the sense that followers of all other religions are doomed to hell,
2. That religion and mythology itself, such a primitive and powerful driver of all of humanity and it's unconcious symbols, is far from worthless.

The result of these forces are varied and many. First, there is a return to many pagan religions, with Wicca a growing and powerful force. Similarly, there has started to again be a few followers of the roman and greek gods, who hold ceremonies once again in the parthenon, and some people also are returning to the old norse gods. Rennasance writers also took to looking at these ancient myths as a source of inspiration; indeed the deepest and most ancient struggles of mankind would be the source for all writing that moves us with emotion.

One must wonder, indeed, if the overpowering conciousness we've developed, supressing our unconcious, and often the messages of our dreams, will ever come to an apex, that our unconcious, completely overwhelmed and marginalized, will leave our concious self with no nature, no source of life or energy for which to sustain ourselves with.

Indeed it appears as if the tree of knowledge which humans have bit from, our conciousness, is starting to overwhelm our roots and intuition.

Or, maybe the tree of life remains as strong, and remains dormant, ready to propel us, with the tree of knowledge, to a greater plane, where the unconcious, and the newly developed consciousness, can coexist, and therefore allow us to direct lifeforce with form, an ability currently only known by the masters of old.

On Religion...

I believe that the study of what effects the popularity of types of religion in general is a fascinating topic that countless. Europe has seen a sharp decline in church attendance that has been going on for decades; many say that it is because Europe has become a very "liberal" (As in open) society, the result of which causes one to break down and question every truth until no universal truths remain. It's same process by which Descartes questioned every truth until he arrived upon what he considered the only indisputable one, "I think therefore I am".
Some blame most certainly can go to the Church itself, whose hypocrisies are much more evident now with the lense of history, especially in Europe where many countries had an official religion until recently.

Meanwhile, in China, a resurgence of religion has suprised many leaders who imposed atheism for so long. A new rise in free speech, becoming increasingly difficult for China to combat, is threatening the old ways.

It's this new skepticism that has caused the embrace of the new journalism of subjectivity, blogging. Each subculture regards the media as incompatible with their views. Certainly the "One size fits all" media of old is no longer suitable. The Descartean essence of blogging is pitting people against eachother at increasingly fundamental levels; religious vs. nonreligious, and of course, the essential and vitrolic hate that conservates have for liberals, and vice versa.

The progression of history, of course, started with at first only knowledge of oneself, and larger social structures developed, the small town being the one which has dominated through most of history. Later, nationalism and colonialism, ending with WWI, led people to identfy strongly with their host nation.
The internet has led to a new and unique progression; Identifying oneself with The World. Fundamentally, we are all human. A deep-seated feeling that many people share is the feeling that as humans, we all share the same pain, that of our seperation from god.
The growth in and existentialic atheism is a recognition of that shared feeling of pain and abandonment.
The decline of religion in liberal countries is a recognition that people of all countries can acess god, and that being born without access to a particular religion due to geographic location does not doom one to hell.

Therefore, we have a rise in agnosticism, or a belief in the soul and a spiritual nature of humans, but not neccesarily of any particular religion, or, of a relatively inclusive religion.

The very fundamentalist religions, particularly Islam, see the internet and openess, rightly, as a very deep threat to their culture and way of life. Iran's leader recently shut off broadband internet access for the entire country. It's clear that Iran has been becoming more moderate, and although America's Imperialistic intentions have temporarily radicalized the Middle East, (And vice versa) These trends are doomed to eventual reversal, knowledge spreads and urges itself to be free.
Worldwide, the rich grow richer and the poor poorer, and public distrust grows. Despite their divergant views of the changes they'd like to make to basic ways in which we govern ourself, the desire for change remains.

My politics...

My political views are as such: I am a vehement supporter of gun rights, I even believe that perhaps automatic weapons should be legal, albeit with registration. I am against Illegal Immigration, I'm against abortion although ensure of what the Fed's role in this matter should be. Overall I feel that the government's role in moral Issues should be limited, and even more limited when it comes to privacy issues.

I also strongly share Libertarian's belief for the importance of the belief of the independence of Local governments. Local governments are always more effiencient and more accountable to the people than the Federal Government; perhaps even more important, strengthening them satisfies the sense of community that feeds our deep social yearnings than seperate humans from other animals with more lone penchants. Just as well, should the Fed ever fall into trouble; with the increasing likelihood seen with the current debt and trade defecit; such social structures make it possible for a community to rise again from ruin.

What seperates me from Libertarians, however, is that I believe that sometimes Corporations need to be regulated in order to ensure that the rights of the people are ultimately protected. The trend now, is that an increasing amount of information on private citizens is easily available. One such example is the "Gay America Megafile", a file containing intimate personal information on all known gays in the united states.

In total free market; as Libertarians suggest; Government Tyranny is replaced by tyranny of corporations. What makes this worse is that Corporations are not responsible to voters; only shareholders, and the only thing shareholders are interested in is profit. By making an investor's only the initial investment liable for loss; a corporation essentially is granted more rights than personhood, by with motivation only to profit.

I identify myself most with the current Green Party, philosophies, although I recognize they're unlikly to get elected unless we switch to a proportional representation system.