I am writing a modern mythology. It is vaguely cloaked in autobiography. My own existence, this time around, as a fractile set of forms, and relationship, swirling about a central message. As all good mythologies require, the end point is far more important than the origin part of the story. It is my belief that the beginning of the story is far less important than most people claim. I love the variety of native and Christian creation myths, but that alas, discussion about that will have to wait.
The new story ends, as all of ours do, with the Sun, finally passing into oblivion in its own way, engulfing "us" in a supernova. 'Til then, only love will get us by. Not to worry, after that much time we will evolve into creatures without a need for "body" as we know it. I have been there, like Vonnegut on Transfalmador or Taylor's Cay. The places of fiction... are lifeforms, taking up space, we just have not developed technological devices attuned to their resonant waves. Great scientists have theorized that there could be many more dimensions, but that idea is hard to grasp. to "see" this possibility in the world around us, think about how we get premonitions, deja vu' and feel our ancestors about us. Are these things not from a realm we just cannot quantify or measure yet? I claim the modern mythos as a birthright. If we are to survive, we must all realize that our fates are intimately intertwined. Many have known, but none as far as I have read or experienced have taken the time to delineate some of our fundamental "new" stories, the ones that bite, the ones that sting a little and the ones that have the power to help change us fundamentally. Stories of compassion, grace, being of help and relationship. Not that one might not find these stories in older creation myths or "holy books", but what I am talking about is a modern myth that conveys the elements and principles that both led to and those earlier lessons as well as teaching new ones that will help us solve our current crisis.
As far back as the Beatles, it was recognized that that the pop-music stars of our age were more popular than Jesus Christ. How we grow into our new mythology depends on how successfully we usher it in, how deftly we negotiate the new landscape. We all need to usher in the age of the water bearers and these stories will inevitably help keep our species afloat. In great tummult, having some sort of life preserver on is always prudent. Those at the helm of ships of state around the globe have turned a blind eye to the punitive, oppressive and exploitative ways of multi-national corporations, turning whole regions into slave states. can we not come together with one voice and say that it is wrong? The new myth involves holding up each of our inherent worth, out value and the realization that to harm one is to harm all finally begins to take root when, we share the myth amongst us all. As buckminster Fuller said so eloquently, "There are no passengers on Starship Earth, we are all crew."
The most rapidly growing segment of "religion" is called non-denominational or "spiritual, not religious". New myth must acknowledge our distrust of institutional religious and secular practice. We have seen organization after organization refuse to die when their approach becomes eclipsed by the truth of new awareness. There are still some living who remember doctors on tee vee who touted cigarettes as healthy. This new myth takes stock in what we know to be real, invests in our ability to solve pressing personal and societal difficulties and ultimately "unbinds the feet" of each individual. Rather than trying to smash each of our belief systems, our potential and perceptual apparatus into a cookie-cutter mold, the new mythology accepts that evolution is required if we are to meet challenges and invest our spirit in our lives in such ways as to adapt to our changing world.
As much as I wish the different creation stories were real, They are not. The function of shared myth is to assure that there is a basic understanding of the shared starting point and "rules" of our civilization. Today, it seems to splinter us and for that reason alone, we need to revise it or just create a new perspective that acknowledges that every flavor of religion is based on old-way thinking that keeps us from having meaningful discussions about now. Perhaps the strongest reason to subscribe to a new mythology is to accept the fact that the beginnings of the Universe, and human-kind it self are, perhaps less important than the inevitable end. If we are trying to save our children from bad dreams, it is still not a good reason to lie to them. If we want to be trusted, we have to remain trustworthy. The new myth is concerned with the future of human life on our planet. subscribers understand that it is time to stop lying to the adults as well. As I have been known to write about in the past, bigger is not always better...we have folk tales about that already. Just review the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Perhaps more truth resides in the pages of fantasy than we often allow. We have the story of King Midas to remind us that there are more precious things than money. The problem is that we see with our own eyes that the various "churches" cannot protect us from bad actors within their midst. When there begins to be more truth conveyed with folk tales than you can get from the pulpit, something needs to change.
Many years ago, and perhaps forever into the future, people will speak of a new age dawning. Let us hope that this time we can find our way, in whatever we want to call this "new age". Not with the feeble lanterns of the past, not with the flickering flames of ancient texts, but with the blindingly bright clarity of up to the minute information about what is working around us and what has fallen into disuse, what has been corrupted and poses a threat to us and to what has become inconsequential. Once observed and described for the very first time, it can take time for new awareness to develop. that is to be expected, but those who need to be pulled kicking and screaming into the future will just have to take their lumps. Good parents do not coddle and the people throwing a tantrum today are most often the spoiled brats of old way thinking that bred privilege and propagated power and control. We have new eyes and new lights with which to examine our world. The undeniable truths are that there is no free lunch, there is no away. We must learn to get along on Spaceship Earth, or perish. I wanted, at first to have my own "version" of a well-known "holy book", but certainly do not want to do a derivative work loosely associated with such a text. One that has been used for centuries to subjugate, divide, exploit and conquer cultures worldwide. This would be like trying to soothe someone with a garotte. Our collective wounds have to be understood before they can be healed and one thing that helps to grow beyond our current difficulties is to refine a treatise on desperation and fear. We need to give them their rightful place on the scrap heap of history and finally understand the power of nature to give us tools for our own salvation.
It is a wrong-headed story that we all believe in that needs to be scrutinized. If it is a dog-eat dog world, why then would the ages pass down to us DNA that creates us as helpful, compassionate and trusting? If bigger is always better, why then were the banks too big to fail? If rich men around the world decide that we need austerity, is it for their sake or ours that they make us live with less? If the old ways were working so well, why in the world did we need to protect pedophile priests from prosecution? Why can I not eat a fish that swims in the waters around my house without fearing for my own health? Why are there millions of tons of toxic compounds being released into the atmosphere? Money and power are tolos that we can either pick up or put down as a civilization depending on whether they serve our purposes. The billionaire plutocrats like being at the helm best, but there is no reason that the rest of us have to let them stay there. In order to see through some of the lies that have been perpetrated upon humanity, we occasionally have to have more light or better discernment to better see what it is that we are looking at. Occasionally, we have to change position and perspective. The new myth is completely up front in saying that we need a variety of views to determine what, in fact, we are looking at. Our future depends on change. Specific changes lead to specific results. For the most part, we know what these are and no matter how much money the rich and powerful spend telling us that they have our best interests in mind, we all need to realize, in their myth, their rightful place is to wield their power over us and to continue the exploitation that they hold holy.
If you want to know more, donate what you can to help fund this treatise, I will be in touch. Be the first to order your digi-copy. Paypal account: tnsaladino42@hotmail.com If you just want to help fund change, or create it locally, try ECO-Tours.
The new story ends, as all of ours do, with the Sun, finally passing into oblivion in its own way, engulfing "us" in a supernova. 'Til then, only love will get us by. Not to worry, after that much time we will evolve into creatures without a need for "body" as we know it. I have been there, like Vonnegut on Transfalmador or Taylor's Cay. The places of fiction... are lifeforms, taking up space, we just have not developed technological devices attuned to their resonant waves. Great scientists have theorized that there could be many more dimensions, but that idea is hard to grasp. to "see" this possibility in the world around us, think about how we get premonitions, deja vu' and feel our ancestors about us. Are these things not from a realm we just cannot quantify or measure yet? I claim the modern mythos as a birthright. If we are to survive, we must all realize that our fates are intimately intertwined. Many have known, but none as far as I have read or experienced have taken the time to delineate some of our fundamental "new" stories, the ones that bite, the ones that sting a little and the ones that have the power to help change us fundamentally. Stories of compassion, grace, being of help and relationship. Not that one might not find these stories in older creation myths or "holy books", but what I am talking about is a modern myth that conveys the elements and principles that both led to and those earlier lessons as well as teaching new ones that will help us solve our current crisis.
As far back as the Beatles, it was recognized that that the pop-music stars of our age were more popular than Jesus Christ. How we grow into our new mythology depends on how successfully we usher it in, how deftly we negotiate the new landscape. We all need to usher in the age of the water bearers and these stories will inevitably help keep our species afloat. In great tummult, having some sort of life preserver on is always prudent. Those at the helm of ships of state around the globe have turned a blind eye to the punitive, oppressive and exploitative ways of multi-national corporations, turning whole regions into slave states. can we not come together with one voice and say that it is wrong? The new myth involves holding up each of our inherent worth, out value and the realization that to harm one is to harm all finally begins to take root when, we share the myth amongst us all. As buckminster Fuller said so eloquently, "There are no passengers on Starship Earth, we are all crew."
The most rapidly growing segment of "religion" is called non-denominational or "spiritual, not religious". New myth must acknowledge our distrust of institutional religious and secular practice. We have seen organization after organization refuse to die when their approach becomes eclipsed by the truth of new awareness. There are still some living who remember doctors on tee vee who touted cigarettes as healthy. This new myth takes stock in what we know to be real, invests in our ability to solve pressing personal and societal difficulties and ultimately "unbinds the feet" of each individual. Rather than trying to smash each of our belief systems, our potential and perceptual apparatus into a cookie-cutter mold, the new mythology accepts that evolution is required if we are to meet challenges and invest our spirit in our lives in such ways as to adapt to our changing world.
As much as I wish the different creation stories were real, They are not. The function of shared myth is to assure that there is a basic understanding of the shared starting point and "rules" of our civilization. Today, it seems to splinter us and for that reason alone, we need to revise it or just create a new perspective that acknowledges that every flavor of religion is based on old-way thinking that keeps us from having meaningful discussions about now. Perhaps the strongest reason to subscribe to a new mythology is to accept the fact that the beginnings of the Universe, and human-kind it self are, perhaps less important than the inevitable end. If we are trying to save our children from bad dreams, it is still not a good reason to lie to them. If we want to be trusted, we have to remain trustworthy. The new myth is concerned with the future of human life on our planet. subscribers understand that it is time to stop lying to the adults as well. As I have been known to write about in the past, bigger is not always better...we have folk tales about that already. Just review the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. Perhaps more truth resides in the pages of fantasy than we often allow. We have the story of King Midas to remind us that there are more precious things than money. The problem is that we see with our own eyes that the various "churches" cannot protect us from bad actors within their midst. When there begins to be more truth conveyed with folk tales than you can get from the pulpit, something needs to change.
Many years ago, and perhaps forever into the future, people will speak of a new age dawning. Let us hope that this time we can find our way, in whatever we want to call this "new age". Not with the feeble lanterns of the past, not with the flickering flames of ancient texts, but with the blindingly bright clarity of up to the minute information about what is working around us and what has fallen into disuse, what has been corrupted and poses a threat to us and to what has become inconsequential. Once observed and described for the very first time, it can take time for new awareness to develop. that is to be expected, but those who need to be pulled kicking and screaming into the future will just have to take their lumps. Good parents do not coddle and the people throwing a tantrum today are most often the spoiled brats of old way thinking that bred privilege and propagated power and control. We have new eyes and new lights with which to examine our world. The undeniable truths are that there is no free lunch, there is no away. We must learn to get along on Spaceship Earth, or perish. I wanted, at first to have my own "version" of a well-known "holy book", but certainly do not want to do a derivative work loosely associated with such a text. One that has been used for centuries to subjugate, divide, exploit and conquer cultures worldwide. This would be like trying to soothe someone with a garotte. Our collective wounds have to be understood before they can be healed and one thing that helps to grow beyond our current difficulties is to refine a treatise on desperation and fear. We need to give them their rightful place on the scrap heap of history and finally understand the power of nature to give us tools for our own salvation.
It is a wrong-headed story that we all believe in that needs to be scrutinized. If it is a dog-eat dog world, why then would the ages pass down to us DNA that creates us as helpful, compassionate and trusting? If bigger is always better, why then were the banks too big to fail? If rich men around the world decide that we need austerity, is it for their sake or ours that they make us live with less? If the old ways were working so well, why in the world did we need to protect pedophile priests from prosecution? Why can I not eat a fish that swims in the waters around my house without fearing for my own health? Why are there millions of tons of toxic compounds being released into the atmosphere? Money and power are tolos that we can either pick up or put down as a civilization depending on whether they serve our purposes. The billionaire plutocrats like being at the helm best, but there is no reason that the rest of us have to let them stay there. In order to see through some of the lies that have been perpetrated upon humanity, we occasionally have to have more light or better discernment to better see what it is that we are looking at. Occasionally, we have to change position and perspective. The new myth is completely up front in saying that we need a variety of views to determine what, in fact, we are looking at. Our future depends on change. Specific changes lead to specific results. For the most part, we know what these are and no matter how much money the rich and powerful spend telling us that they have our best interests in mind, we all need to realize, in their myth, their rightful place is to wield their power over us and to continue the exploitation that they hold holy.
If you want to know more, donate what you can to help fund this treatise, I will be in touch. Be the first to order your digi-copy. Paypal account: tnsaladino42@hotmail.com If you just want to help fund change, or create it locally, try ECO-Tours.
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