One of the major features of the modern era, from which we are currently emerging, is linearity. This is propped up by the “myth of progress” wherein all history moves towards the future through Greek conceptions of time – telos (purpose) and chronos (linear time) – expressed though our systemising of natural time via clocks. In this idea, accuracy and efficiency have become of utmost importance, because of our capitalist belief that “time is money”.
And these manifestations of modernity are not limited to the dominant economic model either, communism (especially the Soviet type) had an implicit faith in the ability of this “progress” to transform society, based in scientific materialism, atheistic humanism and Hegelian philosophical optimism.
In the previous post, it was established that a duality exists between sacred and profane time. I’d like to suggest that progress is a manifestation of the profane, for it does away with the importance and significance of other modes of being, in the pursuit of gain, and underpinned by the hedonistic rationale of “eat, drink, for tomorrow we die”.
These modes of being include as we have seen, the sacred. In this, we hold a truly sustainable view that all our doings in this life have eternal implications. Crucially, all aspects of this current life (not just the life to come) have sacred potential. This potential is unlocked not by empirical evidence, nor rational prowess, but by faith. And faith, contrary to its modern perversion, does not equate to certainty, but involves interplay between certainty and doubt.
I’d like to introduce a further modality that has been paved over by modern linearity, and that is the significance of repetitive, as opposed to linear, time. This is expressed as agricultural or natural seasons, social ritual, or the cosmological insight into the nature of matter as vibration.
Seasons were the initial way that man structured the world. As civilisation began to encroach, other calendars became superimposed upon nature, from Roman times forward, to the present day where our lives are more ordered by digital clocks than by sun or moon.
Socially, feasts of harvest marked the year. Within the religious sphere the influence of these feasts waned as liturgical calendars gained pre-eminence. In a secularised society, links to religious as well as natural cycles have been all but lost. (See In Search of a Calendar)
But another feature of the postmodern era is the rediscovery by science of new ways of understanding the cosmos. One current view is string theory which sees all matter to made up of vibrating strings. If this is true, then all life as we know it is based upon loops and repetition. But we have lost the significance of this because of our love affair with the deterministic and the linear. As this disintegrates, we are reminded that the goal of life is not progress, but rather balance.
Before I conclude, this is not a call to dismiss the line, or the over-elevate the loop. The line also gives us the narrative – the story, which has also fallen prey to the modernity, specifically to the “cult of the fact”. Stories are linear, to be sure, but the sorts of stories that will restore us to a truer humanity are open-ended, and entered into via faith and imagination.
To put the discussion in context, we are here talking about “pattern based worship”. While I have a few specific applications of this idea in mind, I do want to acknowledge the resurgence of ancient liturgy in our religious lives. Old forms are being rediscovered, many which until this time have only existed in monastic environments, which are given to repetition and daily cycles.
In summary, there is an underlying shift away from modern linear expressions to a new apprehension of natural season, ancient ritual, a cosmology of vibration, and a “looped” concept of life.
Gavin Marshall said
Interesting topic..
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Much of ritual is re-aligning ourselves with these rhythms, which are also in us, and are us. Campbell said “The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe” (I know I keep quoting the guy – but this one fits so nicely
I wrote something a little while back which you might enjoy: http://mysticdrum.blogspot.com/2009/04/ode-to-rhythm-of-life.html
With regard to ‘the cult of the fact’ and stories. How do you see this relating to history, specifically the historicity of Christ. The modern church, specifically evangelical fundamentalism (or fundamentalist evangelicalism) has been quite obsessive about this. Much of the ‘worship’ has been on focusing on an ‘event’. And certainly much of the meaning is taken from the belief that this actually happened some time in ‘history’…
Nic Paton said
Gavin
Thanks for the comment. I do think that much of the “solution” lies in matching our heartbeat to that of the universe. Keep the Campbell quotes flowing.
You ask about the historicity of Jesus. Although I share your critique of “modernist fact obsession” I don’t see this as the only expression of christian spirituality. By and large, the worship I see is attempting to connect with a presence, not an event.
However, the event remains crucial especially as it tethers us – incarnationally – to the spacetime continumum, which I see as a prerequisite for “christian” spiritual growth. To make a symbol of everything, and reject the significance of historical events, is not incarnational spirituality as I understand it.
Gavin Marshall said
actually – ignore the last part – you answer it in your post “Stories are linear, to be sure, but the sorts of stories that will restore us to a truer humanity are open-ended, and entered into via faith and imagination”
What’s interesting in a number of ‘pagan’ traditions is the re-enacting of these stories/myths, so it moves from an intellectual understanding to an experiential knowing. Not so much referring to a historical event or fact, but rather experiencing the symbol beyond time – where you become it – the bread and the wine, the body and blood – the ancient ritual of sacrifice, which is all about the rhythms of life. The plant giving it’s life to the deer, which gives it’s life to the human, who dies and out of the buried body comes new life – and so on.. the death and resurrection show (Rogan Taylor)
Nic Paton said
Gavin you sound positively Catholic! That’s trans-substantiation to a tee.
But I acknowledge that most traditions have kept this re-enactment and ritualising alive, and the abberation appears to be that which is tainted by modernism.
The patterns you refer to here are “big” ones (from teh human POV) – life and death itself, not only the existance of the loop inside our lives or perceptions.
I think drumming as ritual serves an important role in connecting us with all rhythm, from the behavior of particles to the behavior of galaxies, and especially thiose rhythms on a human scale – sun, season and moon for a start.
Gavin Marshall said
hehe – you got me there
The patterns in life are fractal(s) – so the life and death ‘duality’ can be seen in all of them. Most rituals are around this – life consuming life, death bringing forth life and so the rituals are aligning ourselves with these – death and life being the continuous cycle – the sun dying and coming to life again, the cycles of the seasons, the moon going through it’s cycle, affecting the tides and the menstrual cycle and so on. And each day we wake and go to sleep – also a pattern of being born and dying. So the ultimate sacrifice is about putting ourselves on the alter and identifying with the whole continuous process. The death of ego and an identifying with the whole, and then being reborn and integrating that experience – on earth as it is in heaven, as above so below, or as within so without. It allows us to experience that there is no above or below or within or without, but we are all of this.
Yes – drumming is awesome in this regard – active participation in the rhythm, getting to that space where each beat is both being given birth by the previous, and creating the next. Where the drummer is both creating the rhythm, as well as the rhythm directing the drummer. And then there is the space in between that defines each stroke, or is it the stroke that defines the space between… hmm
There’s an interesting exercise that we do in Tai Chi sometimes where you place your hand or finger against the hand of someone else. One person leads and the other follows, the hand moves all over the place and the body follows, but the hands are never to come apart. Then you switch and the other leads, and then switch again – until you get to a point where no-one is leading or following but it somehow has a life of it’s own…
Nic Paton said
Well now fractals come right into this don’t they? The idea that as we go closer so the pattern continues unfolding, and that something contains within itself its own image/model. I’m still trying to explain it to myself here … fades .. out .. al .. t
Gavin Marshall said
Now we’re talking
http://cosmobranche.free.fr/images/YinYangOurobouros.jpg
Don Rogers said
Ah, yes…The Rhythm of Life! Dr. David Hawkins touches on this subject in several of his books. I see it, I feel it, and now hope to one day fully understand it. Very interesting topic.
Gavin Marshall said
Don – i doubt that anyone will ever fully understand it, it’s far too complex – patterns built upon patterns of patterns and so on. And the very act of thinking about it or trying to understand adds to it and changes it in some way – because we are part of it, and are it. The best we can do is to fully take part in the dance and be in awe of the beauty of it all, and perhaps that is the essence of what we call worship
Don Rogers said
Well said Gavin….But, that’s what makes the journey interesting.
Peter Veysie said
Heh Nic – this is so close to 4 dimensional non – linear faith which is what I think will be the bridge as we move into the future of conversation and embracing of each other. So good to hear you talk about it. I am doing my PhD on this stuff. I sent you SOUT Project link to Len Sweet who is my spervisor. I know he is going to dig it. Pete Veysie
Steve said
Have you read any of the workd of Marshal McLuhan
rite words in rote order
printing a ditto device
a ditto device
a ditto device
a ditto device
a ditto device
a ditto device
a ditto device
a ditto device
a ditto device
PS, thanks for the record. I’ll need to listen to it some more before attempting a review.