Saturday, February 6, 2016

Confirmation

The following is from the appendix of the book "Thou Art That," by Joseph Campbell (edited by Eugene C. Kennedy). The excerpt is from an article by Eugene that appeared in the New York Times, Easter Sunday, 1979, entitled; "Earthrise--The Dawning of a New Spiritual Awareness."

Kennedy: If Heaven and Earth were divided, so too were the body and soul, nature and supernature, flesh and spirit. The universe was ordered in a hierarchical fashion and so too were the churches.

Campbell: This divided model allowed us to think that there was a spiritual order, separate or divided from our own experience. Think of how we spoke about things according to the old model. Everything was seen from earthbound eyes. The sun rose and set. Joshua stopped both the sun and moon to have time to finish a slaughter. With the moon walk, the religious myth that sustained these notions could no longer be held. With our view of earthrise, we could see that the earth and heavens were no longer divided but that the earth is in the heavens. There is no division and all the theological notions based on the distinction between the heavens and the earth collapse with that realization. There is unity in the universe and a unity in our experience. We can no longer look for a spiritual order outside of our own experience.

I have been suggesting this was the case for 3 and 1/2 years. (more than 340 posts) And though I'm reluctant name-dropping, I invoked Joseph Campbell because I feel a real sense of urgency. If you've been following the on-going political campaign(s) in America, perhaps you share my alarm. It is time to remember what you have forgotten. I can't teach you anything you don't already know, all I can do is help you remember. So remember!

Friday, February 5, 2016

En Garde

Religion is a system to defend us against the experience of God.

Carl Jung