According to Harold Kaplan, Americans do not question the effects on the United States of the Reformation and the Enlightenment. But was the Enlightenment a democratic movement? Kaplan wrote:
“We do not question that the twin roots of American national history were the religious revolution, which broke the Catholic hegemony, and the secular Enlightenment, which finally broke the traditional political structures, monarchical and hierarchical, of Europe…” (p. 14)
((Harold Kaplan, Democratic Humanism and American Literature, University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London, 1972, p. 14))
Plato has ruled the world for 2500 years through his lasting influence on philosophy, politics, and religion. It’s time we paid attention to what he actually said. He is considered an authority on politics, even though in his lifetime, his writings were not compatible with the politics of his home country, Athens. Some of the worst attitudes of the modern world can be traced to him. He proposed a so-called link between societal ‘decay’ and race. He was also a misogynist. And yet he can’t be easily discarded. He is too much a part of us. Instead, I believe his influence has to be explored, discussed, and evaluated for its usefulness to contemporary society.
One of the reasons I supported Bernie Sanders for president was his support of family farms against the abuses of agribusiness. Agricultural policy and food security should be at the center of our plan for the future. This makes sense because we have a large and growing global population and dwindling resources.
I want to discuss an article in the February 2016 issue of Harper’s entitled The Trouble With Iowa. This article makes it clear that agricultural policy in the United States is not concerned with a quality life for farmers, promoting food security, or encouraging the responsible use of resources. We must find a way to end the abuses of agribusiness.
Accusations of leftist magic leveled by right-wing members of Congress led me to research the question of whether magic is really a leftist thing. I have always understood the political right’s connection to magic to be more of a thing, and it wasn’t hard to find evidence of this association. This is the story of Rosicrucians, Fallen Angels, and American politics.
Today people either look forward to the New Age or they fear it. Religious believers are probably the largest group of people who fear the age of Aquarius. They may not believe that an age has real influence on the world, but they fear New Age belief systems and alternative lifestyles.
Is it possible that Christianity doesn’t know what is unique about its own teachings? The Pontifical Council’s document on New Age implies that Christianity fears the New Age. However, Aquarius may be more compatible with Christianity than Pisces was. There’s no need to fear the New Age. The real problem is that the world is stuck in the Age of Pisces. The Council should have addressed that problem instead. Evidence of the world’s wrong turn can be found in the increasing influence of Hermeticism at a time when it should be fading away.
Hermeticism is not compatible with the Age of Aquarius. Siva/Hermes is associated with Hermeticism. Pisces was the age of Siva/Hermes. However, Saturn rules the Age of Aquarius. Saturn is the planet of Brahma. Brahma and Siva/Hermes have different characteristics and preside over different types of societies.
Brahma, Hindu God, Creator
Why Doesn’t the Pontifical Council Deal with These Things?
Perhaps the Pontifical Council doubted that an astronomical age has real effects in the world. If so, Christians are right and wrong at the same time. The New Age will have real effects in the world, but the Church is the remedy.
What does an Age of the World Mean to Jesus?
I don’t consider Brahma and Siva/Hermes to be gods, but I think they have a type of reality. Jesus seems to have known that two competing orders of justice confront the human race. They are the Justice of the Rupture and the Justice of the Whole. If that is the case, we need the Church (the Justice of the Rapture) to tell us how the human race is expected to exist in a cosmic order ruled by the Age of Aquarius (the Justice of the Whole).
The Secular World is Equally, or maybe more, Mistaken
How is it possible that the secular world’s expectations of the New Age are wrong? Maybe the secular world doesn’t understand the importance of the Planet Saturn in myth and religion. At the beginning of the Age of Pisces, Siva/Hermes claimed Saturn for himself because it was central to the religious system that legitimated his rule. However, Saturn is not his Planet. Saturn is Brahma’s planet. Brahma will rule over the Age of Aquarius. This means she will reign over the cosmic order. (Edward Moor called Brahma ‘she’.) ((Edward Moor F.R.S., The Hindu Pantheon, T. Bensley, Bolt-Court, Fleet Street, 1810))</p>
Madame Blavatsky was Wrong
The significance of the planet Saturn was either not understood by Helena Blavatsky, founder of the Theosophical Society, or it was deliberately obscured. The result is that the Theosophists did not usher us in to the new age. They saddled us with a hashed-over version of Saivism. The entire effort was a waste of time because the coming age does not belong to Siva/Hermes. Madame Blavatsky was wrong.
Blavatsky’s writings contributed to the racism of the Nazi Party. They were also influential in modern physics. Her determination to rehabilitate Lucifer/Siva as the god of the New Age turned him into the patron of the Bomb. This association is problematic, in spite of the fact that the age of Lucifer/Siva is over.
It’s true that one of Siva’s names is The Destroyer, but Siva’s destruction is not annihilation. It is the destruction wrought by time. The Bomb on the other hand, is all about annihilation.
What will the New Age Look Like?
Christianity fears the New Age. However it seems to me that the Age of Aquarius is not in conflict with Christianity any more than Pisces was. Aquarius might even be more compatible with Christianity. New Age believers, on the other hand, believe it is opposed to the Church. The Church seems to have been confused with an age of the world.
Don’t Fear the New Age
Section 6 of the Pontifical Council’s document says, there is a choice to be made between Aquarius and Christ. I agree. It can be argued that there is an attempt to oppose Christ to Aquarius. Interpretations of Aquarius may have led to the current belief that the ancient separation of male and female will no longer be in force. Some say humans ‘should be systematically called to take on an androgynous form of life. This will allow the two sides of the brain to be used in harmony at the right time. This is one instance where the Church is seen as opposition to the new age. The phrase, ‘should be systematically called’ might explain the motive and exuberance behind the transgender movement.
Conclusion
New Age movements have been celebrating the coming of Aquarius. However, Aquarius doesn’t look so promising at this time. I’m sure believers didn’t expect it to begin with an environmental and economic crisis. That’s one of the risks of making predictions. The New Age movements seem to be obeying their own erroneous interpretation of the cosmic order. In this way, they’ve turned it into dogma. Does an age of the world need humans to implement it? I don’t think so. Maybe the secular world is the one that lacks faith in the power and nature of the ages. They think Aquarius will be their age and they prefer to face it without the Church. But the planets are indifferent to human thriving.
Christianity fears the New Age. Or maybe the Christians merely fear the human interpretation of it.
See Also: the Shechinah, divine attribute of kingship
Some people were surprised by Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’. However, the Catholic Church is the most obvious entity in European history to take up the cause of the environment. The progressive movement shares Pope Francis’s concern. We should make ourselves familiar with this document, discuss it, and build on it.
I recently said that the words of those who criticize Laudato Si’ have no substance. Now I’ll try to be more specific. Laudato Si’ is a rebuke of current practices, including agribusiness, but it is not the only dissenting voice. In this post, agribusiness meets reality.
My concerns about the environment are based on an undeniable fact. Regardless of whether we manage to slow the birthrate, the human population will reach 9 billion people by 2050. The world has never had this many people before. Since we can’t see the future we have to plan according to the facts we do have. If our goal is to support the projected number of people, our first priority should be food and water. However, current policy-makers are oblivious to this goal.
Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions Roland de Vaux
The Bible is not reliable for ethnographic information. This is especially true in regard to nomads’ and city dwellers’ institutions and worldview. Sheep-breeding tribes who are beginning to settle down were formerly camel-breeders who had begun to raise cattle so they are not comparable to the people of ancient Israel . However, the nomadic Arabs were closely related to the Israelites and are comparable in patterns of life and institutions. For this reason, the knowledge of pre-Islamic, modern and contemporary Arab life can help in understanding the primitive organization of Israel. Biblical parallels strengthen this comparison.
