Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

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Heith
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Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

Post by Heith »

I've finally managed to slowly start reading again. After a rather frantic period of poetry and prose, I have now started to read of the Renaissance era. It crossed my mind to discuss a little bit of different historical eras or events, and whether or not you see some times especially relevant to spiritual or occult development.

I've always been fascinated with the Renaissance period, and it's importance to the (artistic, and other) development of Europe. What started off in Italy and finally spread all over, changed not only the way art was made and appreciated, but also the way people thought and philosophized. It also changed the role of an artist completely; what was before, and even in the beginning of Renaissance considered to be a lowly craftsman, who got paid less than someone doing masonry, became much more appreciated and understood. And while it is true that the renaissance "gave the human body back" to people (due to the profound interest in the antique era), it also gave rise to all manner of things in a very vivifying, exquisite manner.

Whereas the middle ages were what I have now come to consider a mortification period in the harshness and severity of the Plague and famines, which of course also effected the arts with the whole, shall we say, danse macabre movement, and the somewhat rigid and undeveloped style of art, the renaissance was like a red, blooming flower of vitality and ingeniousity that suddenly opened and sent forth its heady nectar that spread everywhere. I won't even bother to list the artists that era gave rise to, because there is simply too many.

It was a fascinating period to me because it seems that everything was at the same time both worldly and lofty, noble and humble; the scenes depicted in art were numerous and even in paintings that are without a question, very spiritual in nature and meaning, some very ordinary things, such as a rural landscape, was in the background. This was a new thing in art. In the developing understanding of perspective, alongside it developed other arts which all seem relevant and meaningful, esoteric and deeply linked to each other. There's a sense of harmony that I find in this that I can't quite explain; the music, poetry, texts, everything! A wonderful little fencing manual which I have understands that swordfighting combines music and geometry, to adorn the great light of Mars.

The renaissance remains, at least to me, the greatest period in Europe. In it, art was meaningful and somehow sacred. It is the music and art of renaissance (and baroque) which console me and keep me hopeful for the development of human species, in this current time of ours whose spirit seems to me to be quite plainly, vain nihilism. I remain hopeful that this terrible time which tramples meaningfulness under its feet in the most hateful manner, can create a counter reaction so that from the ashes of our time, a phoenix may rise; some skilled Christ (because artists are the saviors) who will once again nurture the red flowers abloom.
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Benemal
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Re: Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

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Similar feelings here. Do you ever feel like you're in the wrong time and place, as if it was a punishment? I know that's a little pessimistic, but sometimes i can't avoid it. Reneissance and baroque are so cool, because that was civilization rising again after a thousand years. Though there was the islamic civilization in Spain and Byzantium was a kind of civilization too. I'm still even more interested in the old world, that was really different and magical. They had hot and cold running water on Crete four thousand years ago. We've had that about a hundred years. The great Celtic civilization, that ruled northern Europe, had unversities and paved roadnetwork, that covered lands, that now called France and Germany. Druids played the same kind of music, that became relatively popular, in the last decade. Psychedelic free-impro drone jams. Even though that was a long time ago, it was a re-emergence of civilization, because there were great civilizations, over ten thousand years ago, that were destroyed by a cataclysmic flood, that was caused by several comet impacts. There's almost nothing we can know about. They're existence is still very esoteric and it'll probably be a few years, until it's acknowledged in the mainstream. Garamants, Kush, Thracia, Cimmeria and Galatia era some of the forgotten civilizations, that I find it difficult to learn about. There are so many of them. Even Finland was civilized, over two thousand years ago when druids ruled and Finland was part of the Celtic empire.

Edit typo.
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Nefastos
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Re: Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

Post by Nefastos »

Heith wrote:It is the music and art of renaissance (and baroque) which console me and keep me hopeful for the development of human species...


Yes, that ebb & flow of cultural (what a plain word! Let's rather say, spiritual, or ensouled) ages of man is really interesting, and how the dark & lighter ages take turns also gives great hope in the time like ours.

Heith wrote:...in this current time of ours whose spirit seems to me to be quite plainly, vain nihilism.


Pretty much so, yes. But I think that our time of crisis is also a deeply impacting, "important historical or to spiritual development / occultism". I often recall what Obnoxion said (although I might herein mutilate his words a bit) how the occult synchretism seems to rise periodically, perhaps now as it did in the golden age of tantricism a thousand years ago, and in a Roman empire two thousand years ago; and how we once again seem to be in a similar age of synchretistic enlightenment. Even though the darkness is deep outside the temple.

Benemal wrote:Do you ever feel like you're in the wrong time and place, as if it was a punishment?


No, as in punishment. But I do have a constant feeling of living like in a prehistorical times. This sharp feeling of living in a world that is so crudely primitive that it is hard to even understand, let alone accept, has been with me always, and approximately three years ago or so it reached such a climax that I wouldn't have surprised at all had I seen some dinosaurs stomping in the streets.

Even as a kid, I have always felt quite dissociated, which takes many forms in how my mind experiences the outside (and the pool's shallower side of the inside) reality. But I think there's a bit more to it than that, and this new feeling of living in the past tells something about my own psyche &, I think, also of the outward situation. We are taking a dive to the more brutal & less nuanced ages right now, sadly. Or, let us hope it is like fishing from the deep waters, and our culture will help something important & forgotten to surface once again. Bringing to light some older Leviathan which, once it is seen in the new light, changes from horror to beauty & power, like a dragon defeated changes into treasures.

Time is a great jailor. Time also has different speeds according to the heaviness of thoughts we have. Just the last night I once again thought this interesting occult phenomenon of times divided, in a forming of a implosing time, when a planet is divided. I do not believe in linear time, but time as place, and I mean this literally. Beings fallen in the past are in our present and in theirs at the same time, because their time has slown down and at some point practically ceased to exist. In the same way, at the other pole, a nirvanee's time is eternity, upon & from which she acts. There is no time separate from our own, for in our vegetative bodies we carry, explicitly, the yearnings of the seemingly deceased. Living itself is a form of necromancy.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Benemal
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Re: Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

Post by Benemal »

In the near future, it will become common knowledge, that we're not only biological entities and that consciousness can exit the body etc. This could be the next big change, after internet. Also, things will be even more intangible. Some people will go insane and they wont know if they're having an astral experience, or if they're playing a videogame. Virtual illusion are becoming actual experiencess.
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Heith
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Re: Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

Post by Heith »

Benemal wrote:Do you ever feel like you're in the wrong time and place, as if it was a punishment?
I feel that I spend the majority of my time in a time which I find utterly bewildering. Yet I believe that it is myself who has brought me into this time and place, for a reason that I must either experience or accomplish something relevant to my soul's development, which can be done only here.
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Smaragd
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Re: Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

Post by Smaragd »

Heith wrote:...in this current time of ours whose spirit seems to me to be quite plainly, vain nihilism.
Though saddened, I'm glad to hear this coming from someone else, for I've raised this notion too oftenly amongst people I've worked creatively with, and nobody seems to understand or be bothered. Good and natural thing about this, is it drives artist, longing for holistic meaningful acts of making and creating, towards solace and the right sources in human structure to find the forms and angles that work and ”reconnect”, as I just read from a quote frater Omoksha had posted on the Poetry discussion.

Our time is about sacrifice. As the currents, I long for, are weak and not exposed to the large populations, the opportunities are scarce meaning motivations for the work are easy to keep clean, so to speak. With just a bit of kindling fire, the egoistic snares are easy to avoid, and from this perspective, it feels natural to just kneel and sacrifice all the available life force to the process. Carrying the flame for greater eras to rise. Ofcourse as we have our easy points, we also have our own special problems knitted in the fabric of our time.

What makes those currents in an era so strong, I imagine, is that information, and thus inspiration, is available and allowed to move, and the quality of information is good and clear. One doesn't have to dig the information from ancient black metal zines, or facebook feeds of disinformation, but the topics are proper to have over supper. These topics need to hide because it's not in fashion to speak of ethics, of morals or values; cast out because last time these things went out of hand (”Beings fallen in the past are in our present...”), and people need to take their distance. But that is just about playing ping pong, instead of stopping and using the human potential to look the truth in the eye.

Although I personally prize or rather nostalgize the thought of digging in to black metal zines to find sympathetic thoughts, I aknowledge such digging process in to the obscure also very easily distracts and builds rigid and niche forms obstructing the mind, as usually loads and loads of gooey ectoplasm have to be filtered from the texts to avoid unnecessary labyrinths be built inside ones own psyche. Coming close to the theosophic critique towards mediumism, where they pointed towards the undesired mixation of skandhas between the mediums and the contacted. Unclear, and gooey business, when clarity, and brightness might be adjectives for the Renaissance.

As some comments already pointed towards, every era has it's importance to spiritual development, other times in history just carry the fruit out of the flower. The apple I ate today, a potential symbol for our liminal phase, was coated with thick wax, coloured deep red and dull green.
"Would to God that all the Lord's people were Prophets”, Numbers 11:29 as echoed by William Blake
obnoxion
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Re: Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

Post by obnoxion »

Nefastos wrote:I often recall what Obnoxion said (although I might herein mutilate his words a bit) how the occult synchretism seems to rise periodically, perhaps now as it did in the golden age of tantricism a thousand years ago, and in a Roman empire two thousand years ago; and how we once again seem to be in a similar age of synchretistic enlightenment. Even though the darkness is deep outside the temple.
That's what I've said. I am especially interested in the golden age of tantricism, that roughly coincides with the Indian Medieval Age, starting from the demise of the Guptas in the 6th century a.d. and ending with coming of the Muslim conqueroros after the 11th century. But although I rank the importance of some of the Tantras as higher achievements than the moon flight, the age itself was in many ways a terrible time to be alive. As Ronald M. Davidson sums it up in his "Indian Espteric Buddhism - A Social History of the Tantric Movement", it was a tme of "Prayers in the Palace, Swords in the Temple", and thus almost an exact opposite of our program. It was a time of military opportunism, and much of the synchretism seems to have been violent appropriations among the competeing creeds. Conversions of kings sometimes ment a mass murder of his former religious allies.
Smaragd wrote:Though saddened, I'm glad to hear this coming from someone else, for I've raised this notion too oftenly amongst people I've worked creatively with, and nobody seems to understand or be bothered. Good and natural thing about this, is it drives artist, longing for holistic meaningful acts of making and creating, towards solace and the right sources in human structure to find the forms and angles that work and ”reconnect”, as I just read from a quote frater Omoksha had posted on the Poetry discussion.

Our time is about sacrifice. As the currents, I long for, are weak and not exposed to the large populations, the opportunities are scarce meaning motivations for the work are easy to keep clean, so to speak. With just a bit of kindling fire, the egoistic snares are easy to avoid, and from this perspective, it feels natural to just kneel and sacrifice all the available life force to the process. Carrying the flame for greater eras to rise. Ofcourse as we have our easy points, we also have our own special problems knitted in the fabric of our time.

What makes those currents in an era so strong, I imagine, is that information, and thus inspiration, is available and allowed to move, and the quality of information is good and clear. One doesn't have to dig the information from ancient black metal zines, or facebook feeds of disinformation, but the topics are proper to have over supper. These topics need to hide because it's not in fashion to speak of ethics, of morals or values; cast out because last time these things went out of hand (”Beings fallen in the past are in our present...”), and people need to take their distance. But that is just about playing ping pong, instead of stopping and using the human potential to look the truth in the eye.
You really knew how to put it, fra Smaragd. According to the Tanras themselves, we are actually living the golden age of tantra. Precicely beacause the world is spiritualy so jaded, even meager practice can lead to amazing fruits. Like you, I too think that the BM-scene in its "fin de siecle"-phase, coinciding as it did with an explosive increase of rare information and teachings, and establishing of new ways of contacting like-minded people all over the world, would correspondto to some decree with the cemetery synchretism of the tantric age a thousand years before. Obviously it has been a minority who has been able and interested to shovel the bat shit for the wish-fulfilling gems, but I think that those who did, found a genuine secret of happiness - that is, a way to make the Cow of Dharma stand on one leg without falling down.
Nefastos wrote: I do not believe in linear time, but time as place, and I mean this literally.

I belive in the fundamental subjectivity of consciousness, which, I think, is pretty much the same thing. Ones inner states determine so critically ones outer circumstances, that a quest for objectivity seems absurd. Such a quest must always be severely limited, as so much has to be left outside of it. And an objectivity within a segment is a subjective state.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
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Benemal
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Re: Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

Post by Benemal »

I think my Bull of Dharma is legless and standing on his dick, which is like a snake. Seriously though, I've been thinking of doing paintings of Kali, as a way to make sense of this one legged age. That's actually my dharma probably.
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Nefastos
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Re: Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

Post by Nefastos »

Benemal wrote:Seriously though, I've been thinking of doing paintings of Kali, as a way to make sense of this one legged age. That's actually my dharma probably.


I understand that you are not that much into tradition, but in case you want to know the old Agamic demands of how to depict Kali, let me know & I can send you the descriptions from Rao's voluminous "Elements of Hindu Iconocraphy". I guess you might also take it as a practice how to divert all of them, in case the Left Hand Path of the Serpent Phallus thus beckons?
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Benemal
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Re: Important historical eras to spiritual development / occultism

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The giant snake snake resides in my asshole, as you probably guessed. Using it for devotional artwork would be good for me, I think. Otherwise it's my adversary. Yeah I think some art should be accurate also, so please send me material. This time I will try not to just forget the whole thing in a week, which has been happening repeatedly.
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