Many great ideas coming out - what, then, the triumph of good or evil? If we are to believe the traditionalists, and for the most part I do, then evil is in the ascendancy and will reach a climax towards the end of this "age." But it shall not destroy all, cannot, because beyond the dichotomy of good and evil is Truth, all-union, divine love. So our civilization might perish, but evil will not triumph. Little comfort for us now, though. We can only strive to pull out evil by the roots in ourselves and let the new vines grow. This is something the Bible might have said, too.
Of the Bible, and of Christmas; forced myself to go to Christmas mass even though I had been the weekend before - small hardship, but, as I have said, something in me fights these weekly trips. I believe it is the young teenager in me - but of little importance. I go and am usually glad because I learn something each time. This time, it was crowded, as it always is for Christmas, and we were left to sit in the Crying Room, where people with small children are encouraged to go. Instead, one small child sitting out in the main hall started a fit that was an absolute explosion of fury. The poor father rushed her into the Crying Room, but finding us there, had to find some other empty place - I think he went to the parking lot. 10 or 15 minutes later he returned with her, she bright and happy and skipping as if the world had not been ending for her just a few minutes before.
I can draw parallels to her and the Ages of Man, but will resist at the moment. Instead, another surprise awaited me, as it usually does amidst my initial boredom. After the Gospel, when the sacraments are prepared, we of the Catholic persuasion are supposed to kneel in penitential supplication. It was about then that it became apparent to me that this mass was different; we weren't supposed to be sorrowful and shamed, but happy! It was the birth of God on Earth, the beginning of another age where the attainment of Heaven - of God - had been made possible through simple faith for the average Joe and Jane. It was hard to shake my penitential mode, I tell you. Such it is that my religion draws on guilt and sorrow. But what of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism? Aren't we all seen, ultimately, as fools in a fools paradise (or hell)? The world of Maya, of illusion, leela, the playthings of God, we, all of us children, those "who know not what they do." ?
Back to Ages - what age fell apart so that a new one could begin after Christ? This is an historical thing, so perhaps it is fitting that it first happened to an historical people, the Romans. It might also be fitting that towards the end of that Age, what we live in now, all the traditional cultures and beliefs have either been shattered or convulsively altered, including that of Medieval Christendom. The traditionalists say that we are beyond the Age of Revelation - what waits for us, then, with the dissolution of this? What waits in what some have called the Age of Aquarius? People such as Tielhard de Chardin believe we will grow, as the organisms of the world have grown - that we will reach another stage of development, just as nature continues to reach for higher degrees of complexity in life. But if this is not the case? Is it a wheel we are on, and we are at the end of a larger cycle than we might think - at the end of technological civilization? Is what awaits the few of us who survive the end of this cycle the world of our ancient ancestors of 20 millennium ago? As I recalled in my travelogue, Dream Weaver, when we as children were introduced to the visions of the 1960's youth culture, it was the vision of primitive tribalism(in the best way -as in "primary") that called to us most. Is this it, then? No Star Trek, but rather the ancient hunter's trek? I don't know. And at this time in my life, I am not sure which I would prefer.
Of the Bible, and of Christmas; forced myself to go to Christmas mass even though I had been the weekend before - small hardship, but, as I have said, something in me fights these weekly trips. I believe it is the young teenager in me - but of little importance. I go and am usually glad because I learn something each time. This time, it was crowded, as it always is for Christmas, and we were left to sit in the Crying Room, where people with small children are encouraged to go. Instead, one small child sitting out in the main hall started a fit that was an absolute explosion of fury. The poor father rushed her into the Crying Room, but finding us there, had to find some other empty place - I think he went to the parking lot. 10 or 15 minutes later he returned with her, she bright and happy and skipping as if the world had not been ending for her just a few minutes before.
I can draw parallels to her and the Ages of Man, but will resist at the moment. Instead, another surprise awaited me, as it usually does amidst my initial boredom. After the Gospel, when the sacraments are prepared, we of the Catholic persuasion are supposed to kneel in penitential supplication. It was about then that it became apparent to me that this mass was different; we weren't supposed to be sorrowful and shamed, but happy! It was the birth of God on Earth, the beginning of another age where the attainment of Heaven - of God - had been made possible through simple faith for the average Joe and Jane. It was hard to shake my penitential mode, I tell you. Such it is that my religion draws on guilt and sorrow. But what of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism? Aren't we all seen, ultimately, as fools in a fools paradise (or hell)? The world of Maya, of illusion, leela, the playthings of God, we, all of us children, those "who know not what they do." ?
Back to Ages - what age fell apart so that a new one could begin after Christ? This is an historical thing, so perhaps it is fitting that it first happened to an historical people, the Romans. It might also be fitting that towards the end of that Age, what we live in now, all the traditional cultures and beliefs have either been shattered or convulsively altered, including that of Medieval Christendom. The traditionalists say that we are beyond the Age of Revelation - what waits for us, then, with the dissolution of this? What waits in what some have called the Age of Aquarius? People such as Tielhard de Chardin believe we will grow, as the organisms of the world have grown - that we will reach another stage of development, just as nature continues to reach for higher degrees of complexity in life. But if this is not the case? Is it a wheel we are on, and we are at the end of a larger cycle than we might think - at the end of technological civilization? Is what awaits the few of us who survive the end of this cycle the world of our ancient ancestors of 20 millennium ago? As I recalled in my travelogue, Dream Weaver, when we as children were introduced to the visions of the 1960's youth culture, it was the vision of primitive tribalism(in the best way -as in "primary") that called to us most. Is this it, then? No Star Trek, but rather the ancient hunter's trek? I don't know. And at this time in my life, I am not sure which I would prefer.
RSS Feed