"By engaging with the myths of our own cultural and personal heritage, we can tap into the power of the collective unconscious and unlock our full potential for growth and transformation. Myths serve as a bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind, providing a lens through which to view our deepest fears, desires, and motivations. By exploring the timeless tales of our cultural and personal heritage, we can gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and our place in the world.”
—Jean Houston

Image: Mímisbrunnr by Emil Doepler

Note: Discovering mythologies from diverse cultures opens up great opportunities for personal growth and expansion. Yet, there is a tendency particularly among Europeans, to fetishise other cultures while neglecting their own ancestral inheritance. To realise one's full potential, it is imperative to drink deeply from one's own well, this is not just a metaphor but also literally true considering the mystical attributes of water, such as its ability to retain and store memories.

“Inside every Christian is a Jew.”
―Pope Francis, source.

Notes: The truth about Christianity's connection to Judaism is often overlooked or outright denied by Christains. Despite having a foundational part of their worldview, metaphysics, and perceptual framework shaped by this intrinsic Jewish heritage, many Christians are ignorant of this association and believe Christianity to be somehow of exclusively European descent. However, the New Testament, which Christians hold as being divinely inspired, asserts that they are the spiritual heirs of Yahweh's covenant with Israel, as depicted in Paul's metaphor in Romans 11:16-24, where they are portrayed as the freshly grafted branch onto the trunk of Israel. Some may attempt to argue that the Pope is somehow not Catholic, to which I would inquire, does a bear defecate in the forest? The answer is obvious, and so is the connection between Christianity and Judaism.

Image: In His Keeping by Younsung Kim

“All goddesses are Shakti, in that the gods with whom they are associated can be made manifest only through the goddesses’ creative energies. Goddesses are therefore, by definition, creators. This concept is illustrated, for instance, in the popular depiction of Kali, Shiva’s wife, dancing upon the passive, reclining form of her husband.”
― David Leeming, The Goddess

Image: Adya Kali by Vrindavan Das

Note: From ancient Vedic and Indus Valley cultures, the goddess and god have symbolised complementary and intertwined aspects of the cosmic order, such as the unconscious and conscious, instinct and intellect, matter and spirit, and body and soul. Vishnu, as one of the three Hindu gods of the Trimurti, is seen as the great preserver of balance in the universe, embodying Brahman, the Absolute. According to the beliefs of the Vaishnavas, Vishnu sends avatars of himself to the world when the cosmic balance is disturbed, in order to restore dharma (natural order).

”The Gaia hypothesis is not just a theory, but a way of seeing the world, of listening to the Earth and of understanding the interconnections between all living things. It encourages us to view the Earth as a single, interconnected system, and to listen to the signals it sends us about its health and well-being.”
— James Lovelock

Notes: The English independent scientist and environmentalist James Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis proposed the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s, which conceptualises Earth as a sentient self-regulating system. Named after the Greek earth goddess, the hypothesis challenges a materialistic reductionist view and advocates for a shift in consciousness towards a holistic understanding of the planet. Through the lens of the Gaia hypothesis, we come to see the Earth as a sacred entity, deserving of our reverence and care as the true source of all life and prosperity.

Image: Unity by Helena Nelson Reed

“The people of Middle-earth, whether Celts, Anglo-Saxons or Norse, all had a view of nature which we would call enchanted. They ascribed to the natural world a palpable energy called life-force. Also they felt that the environment was imbued with spirit in a way that could be manifested. Their world was inhabited by elves, and other supernatural presences associated with water, wells, plants and the heavenly galaxies.”
― Brian Bates, The Real Middle Earth, Magic and Mysteries in the Dark Age

Image: Swans by Alan Lee

For the ancient Greeks Gaia was the Mother Goddess, Mother of All.

The important difference between a scientific and a mythological view here, is that we must really feel that Gaia is alive-a great, mysterious, animate being. We must understand that Gaia has purpose and that all the evolution that has happened up to this point is about something.

There are pre-industrial peoples who for millennia have had this insight of the living Earth very similar to Gaia Theory. For them the forest is totally alive.

Dr. S.Harding

“All people of the world, when left in their indigenous, native state, hold an animistic polytheist worldview. That definition should be expanded, however, to include ancestor veneration. The reverence of ancestors is, arguably, the very earliest form of religion and it goes hand in hand with animism. In an animistic worldview, it is believed that spirits dwell all around us in nature. Indeed, we view ourselves as within the natural paradigm instead of above it or outside of it. Animists believe that not only do animals have a spirit, but elements, inanimate objects, and even naturally occurring phenomena have spirits attached to them. Therefore, within this worldview, when our loved ones pass from physical life, their spirits continue to dwell among us and can intercede in our lives.”
― Carolyn Emerick, Cultural Mythos & the Return of the Ethnikos

Image: Celestite by Louis Dyer

“Max Weber, in his famous 1904 book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, gave a startling name to one of the realities of modern life: “the disenchantment of the world.” Weber was a sociologist who studied the impact of industrial society on human thought. Before scientific materialism seized the imagination of Western culture, he pointed out, people saw the world around them as a place full of magic, where trees and stones could speak, birds traced out the shape of the future in their flight, and those who knew the secret could sense and shape the flow of enchantment in the world around them. This living, breathing, magical world was one of the first casualties of the Industrial Revolution. As materialist beliefs spread, magic trickled out of the world, transforming it—at least in most people’s minds—into a mass of lifeless matter.”
― John Michael Greer, The Druid Magic Handbook: Ritual Magic Rooted in the Living Earth

Image: The Soul of the Soulless City by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson

“We seem to live in a world of concurrent tools and systems. Every natural thing seems to have an artificial, often digital equivalent; mimicry. To match the human brain we have a computer’s processor and memory. For herbal medicines we have drugs. For community we have smartphones and ‘social media’. For wood we have plastic. For courting we have ‘Tinder’. For sex we have porn. For legs and horses we have cars and bikes. For live entertainment, recorded music and video. Instead of rivers we have motorways.”
― Dan Capp (The Fyrgen), Novel Vs. Counterfeit Technologies

Note: Following Dave Martel's discourse on the Mechanurge, Heiðrūn delves into this topic delivering astute observations on the man-machine dichotomy. She illuminates the distinction between benevolent and malevolent technology, and advises on the ways in which we can preserve the natural balance amidst the unrelenting advance of the mechanized world. Listen Here.

Find out more about Heiðrūn's work at: freefolk.org

Image: The Pact by Anyma

The Mystery of the Grail: Industrial Society and the Disenchantment of the Earth

In the language of medieval romance, the Grail legend speaks of a truth that transcends time and space speaking directly to the deepest longings of the human heart.

The Grail legend emerged at a time when industrial society was just beginning to take shape, and it is no coincidence that this tale of spiritual quest and redemption came to the fore at a time when materialism threatened to engulf the world. Many modern scholars and researchers have been drawn to the Grail legend as they like others before have recognised that industrial society and its consequences have been a disaster for the human races.

American scholar and countercultural historian Theodore Roszak in his work, Where the Wasteland Ends, critiques the artificial environment created by the urban-industrial revolution, and the type of politics and consciousness that have emerged as a result. If it weren’t for industrial society it simply wouldn’t be possible for the absurdist ideologies that consistently defy the natural order to emerge and take hold within the public consciousness. A meaningful connection with the natural world would be the antidote to such a sickness.

In Wolfram's Parzival, the Grail Castle lies in the Wasteland, which is called la Terre Gaste. This serves as a striking symbol of the modern Western culture's self-absorbed narcissism, dead-end culture and toxic ideologies, which have led to the extensive destruction of the natural world. It is worth noting that the Wasteland of the 12th Century differed considerably from what we confront today, both internally and externally. However, the artificial nature of the environment especially for those within the ruling class at the time certainly has correspondence with our current plight, with the artificial inorganic quality of existence inducing a sickness throughout the land.

Today, as we confront new challenges and threats to our collective well-being, the Grail legend still continues to speak to us in profound and meaningful ways. It reminds us of the importance of the natural world, spiritual connection and the need for community. The Grail mystery invites us to strip back the veil imposed upon us and re-enchant the wastelands with life, magic and wonder once again.

"The best thing for being sad,” replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, “is to learn something. That is the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting.”
― T.H White, The Once and Future King

Image: King Arthur and Excalibur by N. C. Wyeth

“It is a mistake to suppose that all men, or at least all Englishmen, want to be free. On the contrary, if freedom entails responsibility, many of them want none of it. They would happily exchange their liberty for a modest (if illusory) security.”
― Theodore Dalrymple, Life at the Bottom: The Worldview That Makes the Underclass

Image: Alone by Anon

“The narrative illusion introduces a ‘mind virus’, which is a syntactical contagion that spreads through communicative vectors and colonises the cognitive biases of the targeted individual’s psychology, thus transforming the mental processes of that target.”
― James Scott

Notes: Throughout history, numerous thinkers have made astute observations about reality and the human condition that are strikingly similar to the conclusions reached by the Gnostics over 2000 years ago. The idea of a "narrative illusion" that spreads like a virus through communication, altering the mental processes of those affected strongly resembles the ‘archontic infection’ identified by the Gnostics. The Gnostics however went one step further and identified the source of these ‘illusions’ and their terrestrial proxies which is why their movement and writings were extirpated from the historical record.

Image: The Running Man by Ralph Brillhart

"Nothing in this world operates the way you think it does. Banks do not loan money, governments are not empowered to protect you, the police department is not there to serve you, institutions of higher learning, colleges and educational institutes, are not there to educate you. The entire superstructure of civilisation in the Western world is a combination of brilliantly put together and planned, well-planned, schemes to direct the minds of the people in such a way as to serve their masters."
― Jordan Maxwell

Image: Rat Race by Steve Cutts

“To be disconnected from your ancestors is to become a dried leaf that blows aimlessly in the wind, easily shaken, easily programmed. Come back to your roots, come back to your ancient path and the tree of knowledge created by the ancestors, that the globalists have fought so hard to take from us. The old Gods never went away, and they are rising.” 
― Fiona Ædgar, Road to Algiz

Image: Protection by Brian Froud

Notes: If you would like to learn more about Fiona’s work check out her Astrology channel here and new Pagan channel here. View more of her writings and various services including heathen astrology here.

"Reclaim your mind and get it out of the hands of the cultural engineers who want to turn you into a half-baked moron consuming all this trash that's being manufactured out of the bones of a dying world."
― Terence McKenna

Image: Terence by Nicholas Rosenfeld

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Image: A Pilgrimage to San Isidro by Francisco Goya

“For more than 99 percent of human history, the world was enchanted and man saw himself as an integral part of it. The complete reversal of this perception in a mere four hundred years or so has destroyed the continuity of the human experience and the integrity of the human psyche. It has very nearly wrecked the planet as well. The only hope, or so it seems to me, lies in a reenchantment of the world.”
― Morris Berman, The Reenchantment of the World

Image: Psyche Entering Cupid’s Garden by John William Waterhouse

"Fishing, with the arid plain behind me,
Shall I at least put my lands in order?"
―T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land, Part Five: What the Thunder Said, Line 424

Image: The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Mystery of the Grail: T.S Elliot’s Modern Waste Land

The symbolic flexibility of the Grail has never been more apparent than in the tumultuous landscape of the 20th century. It reflects the major concerns of a Western world grappling with the scars of industrialisation, war, and the decline of religion. Among the themes most resonant with the Grail in this era was the concept of the wasteland. In the aftermath of the First World War, a new wasteland emerged, forged by the industrialised scale slaughter of Europeans.

The Grail legend played a pivotal role in T.S. Eliot's poetic masterpiece, The Waste Land, revised and edited by the legendary Ezra Pound. Many regard this work, penned in 1922, as one of the most significant poems of the 20th century. Eliot's work can be seen in a sense as a poetic manifestation of Oswald Spengler’s influential treatise, "Decline of the West” which was also published in 1922. However, Eliot’s vision is characterized by a somewhat less pessimistic and fatalistic outlook with the suggestion of the possibility of halting or even reversing decline.

Eliot’s notes on the poem reveal his debt to Jessie Weston's From Ritual to Romance, a work that explores ancient fertility and vegetation rites, particularly as they relate to the Grail stories.

The poem is less concerned with the Grail itself and instead hones in on the lack of spirituality and sacred qualities in contemporary society. Eliot focuses on an exploration of the character of the wounded Fisher King and his realm, now laid to waste in the aftermath of his injury, which has rendered both himself and his kingdom infertile. The Fisher King is transported by Eliot from a medieval kingdom and placed amidst the barren, urban wasteland of London, fishing in a canal behind a gas house. Through this character study, Eliot highlights the broader social and cultural malaise of the contemporary world, where materialism and scientific rationalism have supplanted religious faith and traditional values.

Eliot paints a harrowing picture of a questing knight journeying to the Grail chapel through a waterless desert landscape, suffering from thirst and fatigue. Upon finding the ruined chapel, a storm breaks, and the flash of lightning ushers in the life-renewing force of rain. This allusion to the return of water echoes the revival of the Fisher King's lands. In the final portion of the poem, however, the King appears to suffer from a kind of powerless inertia, musing:

"Fishing, with the arid plain behind me,
Shall I at least put my lands in order?"

Eliot, a professed Conservative and Royalist, lamented the collapse of the traditional, hierarchical and classical social order that characterized post-First World War Europe. Eliot channels the despair and sense of chaotic disorder that dominated at that time infusing the work with a deep sense of anxiety and hopelessness. The increasingly secular society of the early 20th century was becoming more sterile, vacuous, and culturally arid. Sexual relationships are portrayed as empty and meaningless, serving as symbols of this spiritual drought.

However, despite its bleak outlook The Waste Land does offer a rare glimmer of hope in its final section. In this concluding section, Eliot employs a language that speaks to the possibility of a spiritual awakening and the hope of redemption. He attempts to fuse together the insights of the East and the West in a manner that transcends the boundaries of dogma and doctrine, creating a space for the possibility of an emergence of a more comprehensive and holistic worldview.

“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable.”
― H.L. Mencken, A Mencken Chrestomathy, 1949

Image: The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David