Minor Essays

Post Romanticism and Gothic are a world view as well as being a genre of literature and generally rather dashed cool. Thus, as a break from the poems and stories, here are a few tiny essays from the Minor Essays chapter of a book called The Things We Need To Change About Our World, which I've been writing for the last few years. Those of you who are not overly familiar with metaphysics, Hermetic philosophy and Jungian psychology may wish to look at the essay found in the box at the top marked Essays which is something of an introduction.

On Fear of Death.

It seems likely that Christianity can be held largely to blame the fear of death in our society. The Christian sees life as being linear; one is born, dies, faces judgement, and then spends eternity in Heaven or Hell. The judgement is the first cause of fear, the Christian God asks more of people than they are naturally capable, and often seems contradictory in His demands, and His punishment is unimaginably harsh. The second problem lies in the linear model, which runs in conflicts with all else in nature (which, like the sun, moves in circles), and offers no second chances (with reincarnation, we have eternity to learn from our mistakes).

But Christianity has become a fringe faith. In the modern, western world, it has mostly been replaced by materialism and science, yet the fear of death remains. If anything it has grown stronger, so that the very thought of death is intolerable.

This may be a left over side effect, a fading shadow, of Christianity, and it seems likely that if Christianity had not preceded materialism, it would not be so stark. However, there is still much in modern materialism which breeds the fear of death.

Firstly, there is no life after death. No resurrection, no redemption, no second chance. This in itself is not pleasant, but it is not fearful, once we pass away, nothing matters.

The problem lies with the Ego. In modern society the Ego is king, it could even be said that the individual’s ego replaces God. The Self (or soul, which is immaterial) does not die, but the Ego (which is concerned only with the material) does. Therefore, the Ego is at war with the Self: the Ego breeds fear of death to further its own ends.

On Herd Animals and Pack Animals.

Our Society encourages us to be herd animals, weather it is as a nation under a government, or as a company under a boss, we are forced into the role of herd creatures. Very few people lead very many.

In school, children will (despite being put in the herds of classes, years and schools) form social groups of threes, fours or a few more. These groups of people left to their own devises and too young to be fully brainwashed by society, form groups closer to packs than herds. The same is true of ‘gangs’ in alternative sub cultures. The family unit of two parents, or one parent and another adult, with several children resembles the wolf pack with its @ Male and Female and their dependants. Often on nights out, I have observed that social groups normally consist of one couple and several addition members of the same sex.

The natural unit of humanity is the pack.

The herd is both against our nature and our interests. It serves only the ruling minority.      

On Justice.

The great philosophers tell us that justice exists, but on an abstract yet objective level. Not here in the material world, but in Kant’s Nominal World or Plato’s World of The Forms. If we want justice on Earth, and they tell us it is our moral duty to do so, we must attempt to bring it here.

To implement the Idea of Justice on Earth.

On The Creator.

God is often referred to as ‘The Creator’ by both orthodox Christians and Gnostics or Spiritualists.

One has to ask, what does a ‘Creator’ do.

A Creator creates- in both the past and the present tense.

God: The Creator is not the distant being which created the world in The Old Testament and then sat back and refused to intervene. If there is a Creator, it is a constant source of creation; the creation of all things, everywhere, forever.

In short: The Universe. Which is also the only thing which can be all powerful, all knowing, and everywhere.)

On the highest metaphysical level, the only thing which can be thought of as ‘the one true God’ is the universe itself.   

 Diogenes, by Waterhouse.

(Note the lamp at the great sceptic's feet, which he used 'in search of a good person'.)