Thursday 31 January 2019

Pagan Mythology and Rites: What do they mean?

Posted by Survive the Jive at 16:57
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1 comment:

Unknown said...

I am glad you're bringing this up. It's unfortunate, but even in heathenry modernity is strong. National identity is, of course, important, but the function of myth is to 1) express metaphysics and 2) to create a community which is informed by those metaphysics. The order of dependency is top down. This is the exact opposite of romantic nationalism which seems to gives primacy to the 'folk soul'. This narrow (almost chauvinistic) focus robs the movement of so much of the ancient wisdom. For example, I've met heathens who treat Nietzsche like a prophet (presumably because he was German), but have never even considered Plato or Plotinus (actual practitioners of the Old Religion). It's this lack of a metaphysical focus that opens the door to materialism. Anyway, you get the idea, so thanks.

Also, this video reminded me of one of my favorite passages from the Corpus Hermeticum.

Tat - ‘...if you consider it, O King, there are bodiless things in bodies.’
King - ‘Of what kind?’, asked the king.
T - ‘Do the bodies which are reflected in mirrors not seem unembodied to you?’
K - ‘Certainly, Tat, what good thinking,’ said the king.
T - ‘Are there not other bodiless things, for example forms which, although bodiless, appear in bodies; not only bodies with souls but those without?’
K - ‘You do speak well, Tat.’
T - ‘Thus the bodiless are reflected in bodies, and the bodies in the bodiless, that is to say, the physical world is reflected in the mental, and the mental in the physical. That is why you should worship the statues, because they contain the forms of the mind of the cosmos.’
Then the king, rising from his seat, said: “The time has come for me, prophet, to look after my guests; we shall speak about the gods tomorrow.’

12 February 2019 at 03:39

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