Whether conquering the unexplored, beating the competition, subduing nature, overpowering bad guys, conquering disease, converting “backward” peoples, having a war on drugs or winning at football, Western man makes war on everything. Competition is the Western way. The military modality of powerful leaders marshaling their forces into campaigns with battle plans and strategies, foot soldiers and heroes, andRead more
The Rise of Rational Thought
Begun by men of compassion and gentility like Erasmus, Manetti and Mirandola, Humanism was to suffer the fate of all movements as its initial inroads were corrupted and perverted by more radical elements. The intellectual discourse of the Humanists was replaced by empirical science. Men like Descartes, Malebranche, Bacon and Newton carried the flag of emerging scientific rationalityRead more
The Evolution of Faith
Once there was a mythical age when people worked the land, were close to each other and had a strong reverence for nature. They lived with and depended upon the plant and animal spirits. There was little separation between the outer world of form and the inner world of mythology. Life depended upon nature, and although the peopleRead more
The Principles of Hermeticism
Hermeticism, one of humankind’s oldest mystical traditions, has demonstrated a remarkable resiliency over thousands of years of continuous practice. Sometimes relegated to but a few monks in the desert, Hermeticism has also occasionally been swept into broader social acceptance. Residents in Harran, Turkey, the oldest known human city (13,500 B.C.), practiced Hermeticism and honored Hermes Trismegistus, the legendaryRead more
Hermeticism – A Short History
For thousands of years Hermeticism and Judaism coexisted in The Middle East. Hermeticism offered a mystical philosophy in contrast to Judaism’s more practical approach. Hermeticism had widespread acceptance at times but has generally remained a mystical tradition, practiced in remote locations by dedicated adherents. Although respected by Church theologians privately, Hermeticism has also often been seen asRead more