Elvish Braids: Implications of the”Re-enchantment” of the World (II)

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2 Responses

  1. Han Fei says:

    Thank you for this insightful and deeply intriguing presentation. I certainly consider many of the themes invoked to be worthy of most thorough and intense deliberation.

    Respectfully, I feel compelled to offer some constructive criticisms on this podcast’s conclusion.

    I’m sure that I’m not the only one among the listeners who might notice this, but what you described as this sinister metaphysical “thing-in-itself” intruding upon our para-modernity almost sounds identical to Warhammer 40k’s notion of the Warp. That is to say a metaphysical reality in which absolute cosmic evil and insanity are universal descriptors. The writers of the movie “Event Horizon” openly admitted that the setting and overall tone of their film were directly inspired by the fictional space fantasy universe created by Games Workshop, a British plastic toy and craft manufacturing company.

    Suffice to say, I know of no traditional concept of the “other-world” that threatens to dissolve the cognitive affirmation of reality as amenable to reason and regularity. In fact the older one goes back in time, the less blurred the outlines between malice and beneficence of what such a world must contain. In other words, I have no idea why you consider it traditional to conceive of a sinister metaphysical “below” as entirely distinct and separate from a benevolent “above”. It certainly has no basis, to my knowledge, in any traditional cosmology or ethnic folklore.

    From all that was revealed to us about hell, we can see it is a necessary fragment in a cosmology that presupposes the existence of moral law that governs such absolutes of good and evil. If we accept this, how can we believe that hell is in absolute opposition to God, on a cosmic level, in total opposition to the good?

    Moreover, hell is said to exist within certain clearly defined parameters and boundaries circumscribed by God. It is a place, created in His infinite justice, to house those who consciously and willfully, elected it to be their abode forevermore. By definition it can’t spill over, overlap or superimpose itself on the rest of reality, unless willed so by its Creator.

    To conceive of a metaphysical dimension in which an inchoate cosmic evil seems to exist on its own and intrude upon ordered being without due cause (like Sadako in the movie Ring) would imply that reason has no basis for existence, that morals have no grounds to be conceived, let alone willed. It would imply that God is powerless. That there are forces prior and above God. But if that was true, what then would be the basis of the True and the Good that He represents and makes known to all his creations? He would just be one senseless inconceivable Lovercraftian monstrosity among an infinite many. This is not a question to ponder, but an entirely meaningless thought, and like all such sentiments, the product of the modern scientific materialist mindset. You will not find such thoughts among any tribe or nation that existed. Not even the bloodthirsty Aztecs conceived of their divinities in this way (i.e. the warp of Warhammer).

    That being said this is not intended to be a conclusive refutation of your general gist. I wholeheartedly agree that the “scientific” positivist materialist view, which is a fallacy to begin with, is about to be shattered and this would be highly traumatic for many people and could potentially be superseded by even more sinister and fallacious world views. But in that case I view it as more of a problem with the way the common run of mankind thinks, as opposed to the injunction of any external “thing-in-itself” as such.

  2. Mihai says:

    I will try to offer a partial response to some of what you said.

    “Moreover, hell is said to exist within certain clearly defined parameters and boundaries circumscribed by God. It is a place, created in His infinite justice, to house those who consciously and willfully, elected it to be their abode forevermore.”

    Speaking from an Orthodox perspective, hell is not something created by God. It is the state to which a creature reduces itself when willfully departing from God. The result of an attempt of the creature to create for itself a space where God is not present and be independent from Him. That is not a possibility, as it would mean complete anihilation, but all creatures endowed with liberty are free to reject God and as a result deminish their own existence to a border state between existence and non-existence, which is hell. Hell is a sort of shadow-like existence. When you look at the shadow cast by a body, you understand this reality: it is just a shape, without any of its essential qualities.

    That being said, this confinment that you talk about is not exactly part of traditional understanding.
    True, we refer to Heaven above and hell underground. But there is also a way to refer to it which is two-dimensional: heaven at the center, hell at the perifery. Christ Himself refers to the “outer darkness”.
    The two are identical. The higher one is the closer to the center, the lower one is the closer to the perifery.

    However, it is a modern tendency to view reality as separated into neat-little segments, each in its own place. Traditional understanding views the world in unity.
    Thus, a spilling over of hell into our world happens when a single person or a group or even a whole civilization separates itself from God or adopts ideas and practices which lead to this result. Each time I give myself in to hatred I willfully subject myself to the demonic principality ruling over this passion so I literally become a gate of hell. The demonic principality can influence the world around and other persons through me. I diminish my own being and innerly become more and more peripheric. These things co-exist. At each given moment I have an opportunity to ascend to move closer to God or away from Him. This causes, in turn, qualitative changes in me, which are then passed to the world around.

    The same with other passions. Each act of lawlessness, each sin and especially each justifying of sin and making it the norm grants power over the world to rebelious spiritual entities.
    It is like a city or region, part of an empire, in which more and more citizens give credit to an usurper, who thus acquires more and more followers, until he is strong enough to cause a rebellion and enthrone himself as ruler of that realm.

    This does not mean that God is powerless.
    It is up to the Emperor when he will sent an imperial army to deal with the rebels, our job is to be part of the resistence, not colaborators or passive acquisces to the usurpers.

    “To conceive of a metaphysical dimension in which an inchoate cosmic evil seems to exist on its own and intrude upon ordered being without due cause (like Sadako in the movie Ring) would imply that reason has no basis for existence, that morals have no grounds to be conceived, let alone willed. ”

    What I said above and what Branko described in the podcast is not “without due cause”.
    People who dabble in the occult will get very unpleasent surprises when the abyss smiles back at them.
    This inflation of occult-themes in today’s entertainment industry is itself a result of this dark fascination spilling-over, this fascination being caused by the abandonment of the dull materialist and scientistic worldview, but an abandonment without repentence. In other words, people want the juice stuff of religion, without the unpleasent part.

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