A Hike Through Hoosier National Forest

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Dylan (my son) and I went on an overnight hiking trip with our scouting troop this past weekend.  We arrived at the trailhead around 10:00 a.m. and hiked through Springs Valley Lake for around 3.2 miles.  There were many inclines and switchbacks along the way, and we all were carrying weighted down backpacks, of course.  We set up camp on a hill in the cedars and pines, where just when we got our tents pitched, the snow and sleet began to fall.  We ate spaghetti and meatballs m.r.e.s for dinner and hit the hay early.  The next morning, I was the first out of my tent.  Two inches had fallen overnight.  All was quiet.  I could see the lake below and the sky was still dark.  Then about a half an hour later, just as the sun came up, a flock of geese flew overhead, moving west to east.  The squawking and perfect formation was absolutely amazing.  We broke camp after eating our trail breakfasts and made it another 2 miles before arriving at our destination. to be picked up.  Again hilly terrain with switchbacks.  The picture above shows the dam that stretches the expanse of the lake we hiked over at trail's end.  The sun had come up, a wind was blowing east to west, and the water was absolutely glittering.  It was a time to reconnect both with Nature and my son and friends.  Wonderful.

The Essential Erasmus (Essentials) by Desiderius Erasmus

Handbook for the Militant Christian. Sounds off putting doesn't it? A call to arms to defeat some faceless infidel, a war cry to wage against the world? In a word, no.

In the last chapter, Erasmus makes no bones that we are to forgive those who harm us and love those who would do us ill. We should look to the Supreme Example, Christ, who died for a world that didn't accept Him, and in so doing gained the keys to the Kingdom. Revenge only deepens hurt and portends disaster, Erasmus lets us know on a more practical level. In seeking recompense for errors committed against us, we ironically only create more trouble for ourselves and not our 'enemy'.

In these words, I have not found a better voice that blends the best Pagan Wisdom with the Truth of the Revealed Word.

So who is the enemy? Earlier in the book, Erasmus lets us know it is the flesh. We have both an inner and outer man. The outer, connected to the world and all it's trappings, the possibilities of gluttony, drunkenness and lustful pursuits which only end in death, and that inner man, which is connected to things Spiritual, and Christ utmost. Clearly, as St. Paul stated, who is oft quoted here by the author, the flesh must be crucified. We must recognize another irony. That the more we deny the flesh, the more we flourish Spiritually.

Thoughts are given on how to flee temptation, where we are urged to reign in Vanity, Pride in order to live a simple, humble, Christian life.

Seneca wrote letters to a Stoic. Erasmus wrote this manual for a boy just being initiated into manhood.

What a resplendent re-capitulation of the Old World Wisdom during the Renaissance where the knowledges of Plato, Origen and Augustine could once again be remembered and carried forward to us here in the postmodern world.

A gem.

Ashera, Wife of Yahweh

Asherah, Wife of Yahweh

Psychology and Alchemy (Collected Works of C.G. Jung Vol.12) by Carl Gustav Jung

In the first half of this book, Jung uses the dream analysis of a mentally ill patient to draw conclusions based on what he calls universal archetypes. Jung flagrantly filters this person's dream symbolism through his own alchemical bias, where personally I could come up with all kinds of different interpretations that seemed to me just as valid. But I'm no Jung. So moving on. The flip side to the coin, for the first half, is you do get a nice exposure to the tenets of alchemy along with it's rich symbolism. It is up to the reader to decide if the trade off is worth it. Learning about alchemy, while doing so through what many may consider questionable means. There are two principles Jung brings out that I happen to agree with. The first is concerning the psyche. In the beginning of the book, Jung categorically states the psyche is ancient and pagan. The second principle I agree with deals with archetypes. Jung makes pains to say that just because he is focusing on the archetype, which he defines as an image, he is not denying an imprinter. So the door to objectivity is left at least slightyly ajar.

In the second half, Jung focuses on alchemy as a science that predated christianity, and that though it was pagan, it's motifs were certainly congruous with christian ideals. Parallels are drawn between the Virgin Mary and Prima Materia. Between a metal's blackening, whitening and sublimation to the philosopher's stone as the state of the christian soul through it's stages of redemption. In this section of the book, Jung characterizes the royal art as being objective and practical, but also subjective and spiritual. The author can't rid himself of the possibility that the earliest philosophers were projecting their unconsiousnesses into their art. He also brings out the gnostic feel of alchemy in that the art attempts to separate the pure spirit out of foul matter. Some readers may question his veracity as he states in one of his footnotes christianity actually was subsumed into gnosticism due to the presence of Simon Magus. This reader said 'what'? Also, alchemy is monadic in that the philosopher's stone comes out of one, becomes few, and is returned to one, now ennobled, higher state. Philosophically, monadism can lead to problems of it's own, and again, it is left to the reader's discrimination as to what to accept and reject.

The capstone, of course, is the epilogue. Jung finally tips his hand that he is a modern through and through and relegates the art to a purely subjective level. He hints that it is the the breadth of the modern psyche that as Auguste Comte said, poses such endless need and endless danger to ourselves. And in this, the pieces all fall neatly into place.

The Struggle between the Cathars, the Templars, and the Church of Rome - Otto Rahn

I give this first English translation of Rahn's book only four stars as opposed to five due to it's beginning, 'Parcifal'. A long, convoluted histriography of English and French noblemen is given that in short, to me, is bordering on the incomprehensible.
The text moves along, though, to the Cathars at the turn of the thirteenth century in the south of France. The 'pure ones' profess God is Love, and a Spirit, and that the Heaven we long for is beyond the stars. Flesh is separated from Spirit in man, resulting in a radical dualism that did not sit well with the Holy Mother Church. Gnosticism is present in their worldview as they look at the Old Testament God as evil, the one who enclosed the pure souls of men in foul matter. There is too much misery in the world, at the turn of their century to accept an all god Creator, benevolent and all knowing. A little sophistication is required to explain the harsh realities of day to day life. And theirs is the longing. The longing for something 'other', something greater than flesh and blood and ultimately transcendent.
The Grail, a stone that fell from the sky, presumably this version being it was a jewel stone in the crown of Lucifer when he fell, is destined for the bowels of Mt. Tabor, home of the last Cathar castle in Montseg'ur.
Troubadors, steeped in Catharism and protectors of their near holy Minnes, are keepers of the oral tradition concerning the Grail. Specifically, Wolfram Von Eschenbach, in his version of Parcifal, is the real deal according to Rahn.
As in other Grail romances, the stone just appears, and is pre-christian. It's main miraculous power is to fill the serving bowls and goblets with food and wine.
The crusade spoken of in the title is the Catholic Church, and specifically Pope Innocent III, swearing to stamp out the hideous heresy fulminating in the south of France. Politically, Paris wants a unified France, and is the secular arm to the holy crusade against Catharism.
Much time is spent revealing the horrible methods of torture and killing in the name of stamping out the heresy. The Church certainly is not depicted as either 'Holy' or as a 'Mother', but rather a vehicle through which corrupt Popes realize their full capacity in obtaining every earthly power possible.
Heartbreaking.
Rahn's language, here translated, is lyrical and poetic in it's own right, highly reminiscent to me of Goethe with his Faust at times.
A very good read for those interested in history, mysticism, esotericism, or Gnosticism.

The Essential Titus Burckhardt: Reflections on Sacred Art, Faiths, and Civilizations (The Perennial Philosophy) by Titus Burckhardt

Titus Burckhardt, whether fixing his attention on the proper philosophy, or the proper architecture, or the proper occultism, brings a liberal yet formiddable intelligence to whichever of these works he sets his hand to.
Burckhardt, when laying out a sacred temple, would have it oriented north-south with one door leading in and one door leading out, ensuring it's earthly and squarely relationship to it's heavenly and circular origin. The language and ideas both sound archaic due to a radical loss of traditional forms and even degenerate customs to the point that what is old now sounds new. Burckhardt, I'm sure, would delight in such a circular manifestation of tradition. In a society where number has lost it's gender, where sacred art has lost it's object, and philosophy it's inner meaning, Burckhardt's plaintive sentences recall all of this and brings the perennial philosophy to bear in many of it's traditional manifestations. This philosophy, this perennialism is shown by virtue of man's loss of meaning when he attempts to abandon it, quite simply will not go away. Or will it?

The Golden Thread: The Ageless Wisdom of the Western Mystery Traditions by Joscelyn Godwin

In modern Western society, we take it for granted what is real lies outside ourselves and is objective, substantial. Highlighted by Plato, however, the 'Real' was subjective and consisted of ideas...the world then emanated from Mind. Living in Alice's Wonderland, us Westerns have lost grasp of this vital Truth and have spent centuries chasing various rabbits down various holes. Comical. Beginning with Orpheus, Godwin traces this perennial philosophy through such luminaries as Pythagoras and Plato, highlighting how each added their own nuances to the Idealistic Philosophy. A wonderful read for anyone seeking a good introduction to Platonic philosophy and before, as well as for those with more esoteric interests.

Care of the Soul : A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life - Thomas Moore

Thomas Moore, influenced heavily by Carl Gustav Jung, and a contemporary of the archetypal psychology school that sprung from Jung's psychoanalytical movement, puts on quite a breathless show here with this wonderful book.

Moore's thesis is that the soul, as Jung said, should be considered polytheistic, answering to many different archetypes, rather than being One Big Thing cobbled together from the Many. The archetypes include the Father, the Mother, the Puer Aeterna (eternal child) complexes along with the Ego which in Moore's mind can remain perhaps more inflated than Jung ever would have allowed.

Just as Jung parted somewhat from Freud, the archetypal theory of Moore gives Jung many props, but differs from the Master on some key points, in my view.

To me, the most significant departure is made where Moore seems to allow an inflated Ego some free range for expansion...a 'homeopathic' approach in his words, where an Ego or even complex, once they are diagnosed as needing help, are given a little encouragement to grow even more or at least are acknowledged as including positive aspects for recovery, where Jung and his school would have acted in a more compensatory fashion and given the patient a healthy dose of humility in such cases of inflated Egos and complexes.

Another point early on Moore differs from Jung on is the possibility of wholeness. Where Jung sought Individuation, the process of uncovering complexes and developing them slowly over time into the Self along with the Ego, Moore rather seems to shoot for the middle while realizing Unity in this day and age might just be too heady a target to aim for. One is carefully urged on to acknowledge the various facets of the Self (the totality of the conscious and unconscious) rather than to strive for One Integrated Whole.

All that said, perhaps too technically, this book is aimed at the Conscious Thinking Ego, in my book..the myths described have little to nil to do with Jung's Collective or Personal Unconscious, but are geared toward helping realize things about ourselves that perhaps others can see in us quite easily. Where we may think we are a Savior, with just a little Imagination, Moore's Franca Lingua of the Soul, we can see we simply are helpful spirits and are here to provide for others.

Many case studies are provided alongside myths that speak to the Soul in all of us...Moore truly develops a broad ranged and even handed psychology that can be applied to just about anyone, I would think. Pragmatic without being staid, Moore proves to be a nuts and bolts Healer who is not afraid to get his hands dirty with the nastier things in all of us in order for recovery to begin.

Highly recommended, this!

Sacred Geometry: Deciphering the Code by Stephen Skinner

Tight, neat and succinct chapters throughout this book show that the ancients assumed the world was a Cosmos in the sense it was ordered and could be understood. Skinner begins with arithmetic, and Pythagorean number theory, highlighting the Lambda and it's relationship between the order of the planets and the notes on a stringed instrument. Skinner continues on through Geometry as it applies to the Universe, the World, the Landscape, and Man himself. Interestingly, for example, the Yard is a function of Time as well as Length, for example. Early Temples and other constructions are shown to have a relationship to either the Zodiac, the Earth, or Man, sometimes all three simultaneously! Sadly to my knowledge, we have lost the Art of Sacred Geometry for use in our Temples, but the Work has continued on in our mundane architecture, where Skinner presents modern day examples of these principles being applied by modern architects.

Don't let this one slip by if you've developed an interest in the subject!

The Cross and the Grail: Esoteric Christianity for the 21st Century - Robert Ellwood

Many books on this subject tend to condemn the flesh as evil, or at least as an impediment to Spirituality. In this book, however, Ellwood makes the case that in order to live a wholesome Christian life, one must include the flesh. Beyond that, the entire world and further cosmos must be seen as at least potentially charged with life, rather than dead and inert.

Ellwood covers much ground in such a short amount of space, I am tempted to call this the best book on esoteric Christianity I have read, in terms of efficiency. One looks at the size of the book and thinks it would be an easy, short read. However, if one has ears to hear, there is so much Wisdom here, one must slow down and take it all in by pacing oneself.

What I like the most about this book is that it doesn't eschew exoteric religion for the inner symbolic life of esotericism. Ellwood skillfully makes the case the two complement each other like colors in a spectrum of common Light. Though he spends little to nil time discussing the esotericism of other religions, Ellwood certainly has treated the subjects with respect.

Unabashedly Christian, Ellwood makes a curious point of showing other religions are largely cultural in character, mainly relating to a certain group or nation of people. Christianity, Ellwood cogently proves, is universal. The symbols are easily adapted by any race or culture.

Try as I might, though my experience has changed, I cannot ditch my Christian roots. This book silently and respectfully echoes many of the Truths I have experienced. Give it a try. It may do the same for you.

Writing In The Sand: Jesus, Spirituality, and the Soul of the Gospels by Thomas Moore

The Kingdom. The thing Jesus seemingly preached the most, yet remains the elephant in the room for almost any Christian denomination. Metanoia, or a radical change of mind is the attitude of the Kingdom, and Agape the way. While we tend to focus on Heaven as remote both physically and in the temporal sense Jesus announced the Kingdom had arrived and was something available here and now, now that he had come. Again, the whole of the Law is to Love God and then yourself as your neighbor, simple maxims if acted out via the imperatives in this book and by extension the New Testament, results in no less than a radical shift in thinking.

Mr. Moore in places has an agenda. Who doesn't? Politics aside, the book is a much needed way station for the soul.

Aspects of the Masculine by Carl Gustav Jung

One thing about Dr. Jung. He doesn't take an impersonal, detached view of his subjects, rather it is obvious he has lived the experiences he puts the analytic lens to, and that with heart. This is perhaps the most personal and heart wrenching work I have read from Jung. He faces the psyche of the male with all the gusto of a matador facing a prize bull.

Although we like to consider ourselves unique, I don't think hardly any of us could argue with Jung's insights on masculinity. It turns out there are a limited number of psychological experiences we can encounter which manifest in yet again a limited number of archetypes. So, the masculine journey we find, follows most closely that journey of the supreme example of the Father, the Sun. The sun rises in the morning, reaches it's apex at high noon where it shines the most light, and makes it's way back down to the nebulous realm below the horizon. Symbolically, in life the male rises from the primordial unconscious, attains Ego after much striving, only to begin to lose libido as he approaches old age, again descending to the unconscious.

But we find Nature abhors a vacuum and this loss of libido is compensated by the Anima, or the feminine side all men possess. We in older age become softer, gentler and more creative, or else we stultify and become rigid, set in our ways as if those ways depend solely on us to carry them forward. Having attained the age of forty five, I can relate deeply to this book and the phases of life it brings to light. Not only in others do I see these psychological workings, but in myself as well.

Because of works like these, I consider Jung a pioneer. Not just in psychological knowledge does he excel, but in the prudential variety as well. One would do good to read closely books such as these and ponder their nuances and even echoes in one's life.

The Didascalicon of Hugh of Saint Victor: A Guide to the Arts by of Saint-Victor Hugh

Here, in Hugh of Saint Victor, we find philosophy comprises four parts: The theoretical, whose study is the divine, the practical, whose study is human ethics and morality, the mechanical, whose study is the relieving of human misery, and last the logical, whose study is the operation of Mind. Included in this writing is an exposition of medieval cosmology; where the empyrean and the infernum are discussed, the superlunary and sublunary are highlighted, and the anima mundi is but hinted at.

There is a difference between the intelligible and the intellectible and between study and discipline. There is a method and an order to studying the liberal arts, whose apprehension is to insure nothing less than perfection, if not strength.

I've not read a book that covers Everything with such Little. Here there is breadth and depth, the concrete and the abstract, the particular and the universal.

Confused with how to proceed in your studies? Let Hugh of Saint Victor point the way.

Synchronicity: Multiple Perspectives on Meaningful Coincidence by Lance Storm

Highlighting various scientists' views on Jung's principle of Synchronicity, this book is a wonderful addition to the smattering of volumes available on the subject. Most interesting to me are the essays that bring in the views of Wolfgang Pauli and others that explain various facets of Jung's psychology.

Along the way, we find that Synchronicity is meaningful coincidence that on the surface at least is not bound up in Nature...the laws of Cause and Effect. Again, Synchronicity is an event wherein an external occurrence lines up with an internal experience, almost always to an uncanny effect. In addition, these nodes of subjective meaning are shown to tap into Archetypal images...which are dynamic (both good and bad) as opposed to Platonic Ideas...which are static and Good alone.

Throughout the essays in this book, episodes set both clinically and naturally of Synchronicity are presented, where with the wide variety of experiencers, it is shown to most probably be a universal phenomenon.

The mind, in all it's complexity, seems to operate by it's own laws, where Nature and the external world seem to work within their separate realm, so the two seem never to meet. Our bias to Cause and Effect, or what lies outside, denies the rules the Mind seems to follow, which allows it to move forward and backward with ease...fluidly.

Synchronicity links mind and matter through subjective meaning, and seems to show there is at least an occasional rhyme and reason to the interplay of the two.

Interesting indeed.

Lisa Gerrard - The Silver Tree - Music Review

I have been a Lisa Gerrard fan since her Dead Can Dance days. What I have appreciated most about her is the way she uses her voice as an instrument. Atop spare, sweeping electronic orchestration, Lisa's distinct and obviously strictly trained voice and breathing truly take on a dimension of their own. And that is where this music takes you. To another dimension. In the opening track, InExile, Lisa attains what I've never heard from her before. A dusky, sonorous timbre that will set the tone for the rest of the album. On the way home listening to this in the car c.d. player, 'cinematic' came to mind, and I see here from other reviews this is a valid label for this disc. I even checked the insert when I got home, thinking 'The Silver Tree' may have been a movie I missed.

This is not a lively c.d. It is slow and unfolding, spiraling in places. Perfect music to listen to intently as there is more to this than meets the ear at first.

Haunting.

gum trees and bananas - a poem

grandfather kept bananas
in his closet
because, doctors told him
they cured sadness

out in the yard
the gum trees produced
spiky balls one could throw at another
without doing any real damage

bibles were kept in wine boxes
the wardrobe held a smart suit
my grandmother, not drunk
would sit me on her lap
and pop my knuckles and laugh
(the real cure to sadness)

the t.v. had ears on top
that were strong enough to televise
a moon shot.

there was a darkness
even in summer in the house
outside beneath the great elm
where ghosts would appear
in the broad daylight
locust shells would dot the ground
hollow death beds for insects
in the summer heat

once I stood on the beach
with my grandfather
the ocean big and blue with whitecaps
the waves crashed to our toes
he was in Bermudas and had a tan
his face deeply wrinkled
I thought he was bigger than the sea.

though boyhood dreams
turned to the world of men
and stories were whispered
that destroyed a man,
I found I still loved that man from
so long ago beneath the broad elm tree.

On Art and Life (Penguin Great Ideas) by John Ruskin

Nietzsche said that with the death of the sacred, Beauty would continue, albeit accidentally.

Mr. John Ruskin, however, set his sights on an earlier age, developing six principles that could be applied to gothic beauty, and in so doing, in my eyes, set down the principles for Beauty in general.

The principles are: Rudeness, Changefulness, Naturalness, Grotesqueness, Rigidity and Redundancy.

In our post-industrial age, perhaps the most telling is the first, Rudeness. Mr. Ruskin defines Rudeness as the introduction of originality into a work at the expense of a polished, finished product. What, you may ask? That's not how I do it at work! Me either brother, but it's nice to know why nothing I produce is beautiful.

Which leads me to my next point concerning this little gem of a book. These principles can be applied, in my view, to Beauty in general, not just gothic. And it provides an interesting point of view with which to look at life. Suddenly, many of the 'best things' in life truly are free.

I had no real education in aesthetics before reading this book, and have now delved deeper into the subject because of it.

Maybe you will too.

Boundaries of the Soul by June Singer

Having read Carl Jung now for the past twenty years, and having given his psychology much thought over this amount of time, it should come as no surprise I still turn to introductory material to help broaden and refresh my understanding of this analytical genius.

I read June Singer first back in the eighties. It was a little book called 'Seeing Through the Visible World' and was a nice rumination on Jung and his relationship to the gnostics.

In this great book, though, Singer proves to be expansive, well read and well experienced in Jungian philosophy and psychology.

Singer proves, chapter by chapter, her deep grasp of the material and provides wonderful clinical examples of this particular brand of psychology at work.

If nothing else, in seeking Wholeness, the crux of Jung's psychology, there is a dynamism and tension of opposites because Jung does not arrive at Platonic Forms that are static and good, but rather Archetypes, which are dynamic and therefore hold out the promise in polarity of both good and evil. His is an honest and sobering psychology and philosophy, a bareknuckled approach to the realities of life that sometimes borders on a Religion, what with Jung having become the prophet and harbinger of the modern subjective view to reality.

Singer begins in this work with complexes, continues on through archetypes, the persona, the shadow, individuation and culminates in the reality of death and dying. But she does so with an extreme intelligence on the subjects that makes the material available and most, relevant, for a new generation of discoverers.

While I have read other Jungian analysts such as Jaffe and Edinger, Singer takes the cake with this one, in my humble opinion!

A landmark!