in light of the current oil spill in Santa Barbara...

Thanks for posting the reminder about Craig's article here, Linda. I saw this a few months ago but had forgotten it. Craig's gift for seeing the depth in contemporary events is profound. This is a must-read, now more than ever. I'm taking the liberty of posting a few paragraphs here, in case anyone is on the fence about clicking the link...

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Excerpt from "A Brief Mythology of Petroleum"

by Craig Chalquist

Oil has also raised a modernized mythology of the subterranean smoking and flaming to the planet surface. Our current state of global crisis looks to a mythological eye like the Underworld is eradicating the upperworld.

Most people with a basic psychological education know about what Freud named the "repetition compulsion": the human tendency to repeat old patterns even when they disrupt and sadden rather than satisfy. Anyone capable of some degree of self-reflection quickly discovers similarities between friends, bosses, relationship partners with whom we repeat typical situations over and over until we realize what we need from these recurrences. Jung referred to the largely unconscious woundings that drive the compulsion to repeat as "complexes."

What goes unnoticed, especially in cultures frozen in an adolescent belief in the delusion of a wholly self-made life free of limitations, is that similar patterns of recurrence play out collectively, in the world at large. At that level the vehicle is not the personal complex, it’s a collective structure: myth, the cultural repository of typical situations relived.

It isn’t difficult to see this in religion’s recycling of familiar motifs: the Redeemer who will save us, whether Horus, Jesus, Buddha, or the latest wise man who will explain it all to us; the heaven, kingdom, or new age at the end of time or just around the corner; the ancient dream of leaving the body behind to rise as pure spirit; the hungry god who must be fed with sacrifices. Such motifs do not remain within religion, however. The new Redeemer appears today as the sought-after bringer of a new method, workshop, or philosophy: sought after by those who fail to recognize their uncritical devotion as religious. The Golden Age shines again in every new program of reform, whether religious, financial, or political (“Pledge to America”). Atheists or not, scientists working feverishly on the “transhumanist” project to upload consciousness into cyberspace unknowingly strive to update the Ascension into heaven. (Read more)

Replies

Randy Westfall May 22, 2015 at 6:09am

Thanks Linda for posting Craig's article, which was incredible. I can see the motifs of the underworld all over the oil industry now, thanks to his insight.
Bonnie Bright May 22, 2015 at 5:25am

Thanks for posting the reminder about Craig's article here, Linda. I saw this a few months ago but had forgotten it. Craig's gift for seeing the depth in contemporary events is profound. This is a must-read, now more than ever. I'm taking the liberty of posting a few paragraphs here, in case anyone is on the fence about clicking the link...

* * * * *

Excerpt from "A Brief Mythology of Petroleum"

by Craig Chalquist

Oil has also raised a modernized mythology of the subterranean smoking and flaming to the planet surface. Our current state of global crisis looks to a mythological eye like the Underworld is eradicating the upperworld.

Most people with a basic psychological education know about what Freud named the "repetition compulsion": the human tendency to repeat old patterns even when they disrupt and sadden rather than satisfy. Anyone capable of some degree of self-reflection quickly discovers similarities between friends, bosses, relationship partners with whom we repeat typical situations over and over until we realize what we need from these recurrences. Jung referred to the largely unconscious woundings that drive the compulsion to repeat as "complexes."

What goes unnoticed, especially in cultures frozen in an adolescent belief in the delusion of a wholly self-made life free of limitations, is that similar patterns of recurrence play out collectively, in the world at large. At that level the vehicle is not the personal complex, it’s a collective structure: myth, the cultural repository of typical situations relived.

It isn’t difficult to see this in religion’s recycling of familiar motifs: the Redeemer who will save us, whether Horus, Jesus, Buddha, or the latest wise man who will explain it all to us; the heaven, kingdom, or new age at the end of time or just around the corner; the ancient dream of leaving the body behind to rise as pure spirit; the hungry god who must be fed with sacrifices. Such motifs do not remain within religion, however. The new Redeemer appears today as the sought-after bringer of a new method, workshop, or philosophy: sought after by those who fail to recognize their uncritical devotion as religious. The Golden Age shines again in every new program of reform, whether religious, financial, or political (“Pledge to America”). Atheists or not, scientists working feverishly on the “transhumanist” project to upload consciousness into cyberspace unknowingly strive to update the Ascension into heaven. (Read more)
Linda AK Thompson, PhD May 22, 2015 at 4:47am

Good morning Linda - such a mess for such a lovely place which I visited once, got to walk on the beach, marvel at the vegetation - amazing plants and homes! So much beauty in natural nature. Thank you for sharing this well done, poignant article. Peace + Love Linda

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