Excellent post! I completely agree. We need the inclusive life-affirming Christianity that Jesus preached, not the Church of rites and regulations. Exploring the ancient roots of our religions and mythology is the way forward.
Puritanism has a tortured record of deciphering just exactly where Biblical authority arises from. Many thorny contradictions create job security for the clergy.
I organized a splendid Maypole celebration in the late seventies - pictures here https://chadwickarchive.org/saratoga-photo-collection/. Scroll down to see. It’s fun, it’s beautiful screw whatever meaning you think it may have, fun and beauty are more than sufficient reason to do something, that’s enough meaning and purpose for me!
Apr 22·edited Apr 22Liked by The Druid Stares Back
I always thought that whoever wrote those passages in Exodus and Leviticus, with the excruciatingly detailed instructions on how exactly God would like His tabernacle made, must have had severe OCD. The puritan rules you cited made me think of that; the psychology of it seems connected.
Also, I continue to hold that the one true religion is poetry, and that the one false religion is ideology: so much depends on the existential *how* and not the propositional "what". The "what" does matter, but it should grow organically out of the right "how".
Thanks so much for this post! Since reading it, I've been reflecting that the dominant culture seems sometimes to be seeking to impose a sort of secular Puritanism. And that this secular Puritanism may be even more destructive than the Christian variety, because it lacks the potentially modulating influence of the gospel.
One thing I'm wondering about: Bonhoeffer says, in Life Together, that "spiritual love does not desire but rather serves." I'm wondering whether Bonhoeffer's statement is fully reconcilable with what you say about God and nature.
Apr 23·edited Apr 23Liked by The Druid Stares Back
I love the Lorenna McKennit song! I danced to it in my one beam of sunlight that would return mid February and lasted a whole 10 minutes only to disappear behind the mountain when I lived in Telegraph Creek. That moment was always so deeply sacred. Coming out of such utter darkness. A winter of twilight. And like all things do, the long summer days increased so much up North that the night was beaten and battered and ran with its tail between its legs. And we ate supper at 10 pm with the sun shining brightly, slept with a sun brightly shining and by the end of it we longed for the night again. And when the night came we longed for the sunshine. I began to understand the deeper reason we had seasons. To everything there is a season.
Not sure if you are familiar with Capercaillie but this album also played on those long nights in Telegraph Creek while we all curled up with our kerosene lamps and a favourite book. A trip to the outhouse meant a chance to dance with the Aurora Borealis and on a full moon we could see as if it were daylight, but it wasn’t, it was dark. Very dark.
This was like receiving the biggest gulp of fresh air after being held down- drowning beneath the ‘current’ bankrupt, beige, blancmange of the chattering, clattering ‘Christian Churls’. (Apart from their insistence in covering every edifice with garish ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ or ‘Sprinklers’ as you Americans say.
Folk, Faerie, Pagan, Catholic, yes! Let’s return home, dancing all the way!
More of this please Michael, MUCH more. A series, a book perhaps?
I'm a computer programmer who is trying to find a way to destroy the ring and live from the land. Wish me luck.
Excellent post! I completely agree. We need the inclusive life-affirming Christianity that Jesus preached, not the Church of rites and regulations. Exploring the ancient roots of our religions and mythology is the way forward.
Puritanism has a tortured record of deciphering just exactly where Biblical authority arises from. Many thorny contradictions create job security for the clergy.
I organized a splendid Maypole celebration in the late seventies - pictures here https://chadwickarchive.org/saratoga-photo-collection/. Scroll down to see. It’s fun, it’s beautiful screw whatever meaning you think it may have, fun and beauty are more than sufficient reason to do something, that’s enough meaning and purpose for me!
I always thought that whoever wrote those passages in Exodus and Leviticus, with the excruciatingly detailed instructions on how exactly God would like His tabernacle made, must have had severe OCD. The puritan rules you cited made me think of that; the psychology of it seems connected.
Also, I continue to hold that the one true religion is poetry, and that the one false religion is ideology: so much depends on the existential *how* and not the propositional "what". The "what" does matter, but it should grow organically out of the right "how".
Huzzah for St George, huzzah for Maypoles, huzzah for creation!
Ha, amazing -- I loved this. Glory to the One whom WCW AKA Bill Williams called "shrouded Earth-father / flickering green watching"!
Thanks so much for this post! Since reading it, I've been reflecting that the dominant culture seems sometimes to be seeking to impose a sort of secular Puritanism. And that this secular Puritanism may be even more destructive than the Christian variety, because it lacks the potentially modulating influence of the gospel.
One thing I'm wondering about: Bonhoeffer says, in Life Together, that "spiritual love does not desire but rather serves." I'm wondering whether Bonhoeffer's statement is fully reconcilable with what you say about God and nature.
Many thanks again.
Lovely, thank you!
I love the Lorenna McKennit song! I danced to it in my one beam of sunlight that would return mid February and lasted a whole 10 minutes only to disappear behind the mountain when I lived in Telegraph Creek. That moment was always so deeply sacred. Coming out of such utter darkness. A winter of twilight. And like all things do, the long summer days increased so much up North that the night was beaten and battered and ran with its tail between its legs. And we ate supper at 10 pm with the sun shining brightly, slept with a sun brightly shining and by the end of it we longed for the night again. And when the night came we longed for the sunshine. I began to understand the deeper reason we had seasons. To everything there is a season.
https://open.spotify.com/album/7JvoRYqppEFdDkZvVRKktq?si=qSLrTt5DRNa4NuKXPrE6Jg
Not sure if you are familiar with Capercaillie but this album also played on those long nights in Telegraph Creek while we all curled up with our kerosene lamps and a favourite book. A trip to the outhouse meant a chance to dance with the Aurora Borealis and on a full moon we could see as if it were daylight, but it wasn’t, it was dark. Very dark.
This was like receiving the biggest gulp of fresh air after being held down- drowning beneath the ‘current’ bankrupt, beige, blancmange of the chattering, clattering ‘Christian Churls’. (Apart from their insistence in covering every edifice with garish ‘Hundreds and Thousands’ or ‘Sprinklers’ as you Americans say.
Folk, Faerie, Pagan, Catholic, yes! Let’s return home, dancing all the way!
More of this please Michael, MUCH more. A series, a book perhaps?
And then, let's talk about Orthodoxy:
https://substack.com/@stevenberger/note/c-55567831?r=1nm0v2
Some rather potent symbolism in the fact that this year St George's Day falls directly after the 300th birthday of Immanuel Kant.