I’ve been browsing through The White Goddess by Robert Graves, which someone sent me to read. I can’t say I like the arcane work—much of it’s nonsense—but it does stimulate thought. It gives a different way of viewing the world.
I’m intrigued by Graves’s poetic way of thinking. I’ve looking through objects to see the reality behind or beneath. Of his “seeing” words in the air before him. Though he doesn’t call it that, I call it having visions.
I’ve been trying to tune into ideas myself, new and old—though one doesn’t try to do it, but allows it to happen.
I’m living a fairly Spartan lifestyle right now in barren Detroit. A mundane job. Frigid temperatures. No TV. A dead phone. An el cheapo netbook which only sporadically hooks into a network. Minimizing the world’s electronic assault, on the 19th floor of an old building, I read. Especially late at night.
In the very early morning, when awaking, the brain is alive to thoughts and speculations.
My main speculation is this: That we’ve become not an athiestic post-Christian culture, but a pagan one. The evidence is everywhere around us, in the culture itself.
Robert Graves makes it plain that paganism never left Western civilization. It’s always been present, waiting under the surface to re-emerge.
Many of us remain Christian, despite the omnipresent culture. Others of us worship different gods. (Paganism allows, almost requires, a multiplicity of gods.)
I’ve identified three main alternate gods displacing the Judeo-Christian Jehovah (leaving Islamic Allah for the moment out of the discussion). The three gods exist subliminally in the minds of their adherents, in large part controlling them. The three gods are:
A.) The Machine.
B.) The Goddess.
C.) Satan.
The truth is that those who most believe themselves untouched by faith and religion are most immersed in it. I’ll explain this, likely in an ebook—which will conclude with a provocative speculation about “Dueling Goddesses.” Or am I merely having fun with Graves’s ideas?
What’s the future of America? Of our culture and ourselves?
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(In the meantime, read my ebook novel The Tower, which plays many of these themes.)
2 comments:
My mom likes that book.
1) The Machine
2) The Goddess
3) Satan
Are any of these 'gods' life-affirming? Going pagan might not be all bad... especially since Christianity errs on the side of a death cult. ;) Same for Judaism, Islam btw.
Death and rebirth was Christianity's message. According to Graves, Christianity is a pagan twist on Judaism, with death and rebirth matching the cycles of nature. He sees the appeal of the Mary and Jesus story as akin to pagan mother/son myths.
Graves take on the history of religion is nothing if not fascinating.
History tells me the need to believe is embedded in our DNA. We can't NOT believe in a higher power, which many intellectuals today transfer to the state. Big Daddy or Big Nanny.
Of the founders of the three monotheist religions, Jesus to me is the most fascinating.
We don't know much about Moses except that he looked like Charlton Heston. :-)
Mohammed was a warrior.
But Jesus? A very complex guy.
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I may do a couple more blog posts on this topic.
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