beyond the bigger picture Darwinism

Watching PBS online last night (Secrets of the Dead) about Michelangelo. All very much memory management -- a gentler, kinder, form of inquisition-- claiming (basically) Michelangelo as a a closet Protestant, that "by faith alone is salvation" and none of those sacraments or good works for him, thank you. Once again it's that modern tendency of stuffing something into a bin that simply didn't exist at the time, certainly not in the way it "exists" now. No faith? Sacraments were defined as the "outward sign of faith". Faith is essential to make any spell work (Alohomora!) and corruption simply corruption (No worry. Into the fiery hole, you scum! Back on the wheel!). And what is faith? A life shaping verb: what you act on. The gods you worship are the gods you deserve.

So -- minds that make sensuality look like spirituality? Of course and vice versa -- remembering that the great magnum opus IS the great magnum opus: stuffing souls (sentience, consciousness) into bodies (Sit up, clay!). Dancing really is a fine religion.

"...The ultimate fate of every dogma is that it gradually becomes
soulless. Life wants to create new forms, and therefore, when a dogma
loses its vitality, it must perforce activate the archetype that has
always helped man to express the mystery of the soul....the psychic
archetype .... take form and become accessible to understanding....But
the supremely important motive power which is needed .... and which
sets the archetypal possibilities in motion at a given historical
moment, cannot be explained in terms of archetype itself. Only
experience can establish which archetype has become operative, but one
can never predict that it must enter into manifestation. ..."
(CGJung, Collected Works, Vol. 14, p. 347, par. 488)

Or, as Mike Dickman once said

The Mass is not a parody of the Magnum Opus. The Mass is an exact manifestation of the Magnum Opus. Most Parisian Catholics have no idea of what they're about. They're Sunday Christians only. Many French people today are fascinated with all things esoteric. But it's only an intellectual fascination. Alchemical wisdom can not be understood intellectually but only experienced...or -better put- Alchemical wisdom can only be understood intellectually IF experienced.

I am by birth half mortal, half divine...

And Culianu:

Magic is not about disorder. On the contrary, it reestablishes a peaceful coexistence between the conscious and unconscious when coexistence is under attack. ~Ioan Couliano

And I dare say that's also the function of art.

And here's the kicker. "Peaceful coexistence" = Equilibrium. And that means no movement, no change, no gradients, no life. No dance. No Eros. No Mojo. So... embrace the tension. Live your story. In the end, equilibrium. And behind it all always, equilibrium. It just that just now, you're still moving through your own story.



UNFOLD YOUR OWN MYTH

Who gets up early to discover the moment light begins?
Who finds us here circling, bewildered, like atoms?
Who comes to a spring thirsty and sees the moon reflected in it?
Who, like Jacob blind with grief and age, smells the shirt of his lost
son and can see again?
Who lets a bucket down and brings up a flowing prophet?
Or like Moses goes for fire and finds what burns inside the sunrise?
Jesus slips into a house to escape enemies, and opens a door to the other world.
Solomon cuts open a fish, and there’s a gold ring.
Omar storms in to kill the prophet and leaves with blessings.
Chase a deer and end up everywhere!
An oyster opens his mouth to swallow one drop.
Now there’s a pearl.
A vagrant wanders empty ruins. Suddenly he’s wealthy.
But don’t be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others.
Unfold your own myth, without complicated explanation,
so everyone will understand the passage:

We have opened you.

Start walking toward Shams.
Your legs will get heavy and tired.
Then comes a moment of feeling the wings you’ve grown,

lifting.

~RUMI