GODS ABOVE AND BELOW

There's been a gap. Health problems. Had to move. Lost most of my library, Had to find some new hold ground. Of course all ground is holy, just different. 

I've posted this a couple of times. With all the arguments these days over who gets to claim the purity in religion title I guess I'll post it again. I'm rereading Renault after three year or so break. OK. Perhaps she was idealizing the past a bit. to be honest all we learned in public school about the ancient world was some politics and a touch of philosopy. Almost nothing of their religions. Except that it was ancient history and we were Christians now so it didn't matter. 

Well it did mattter. And as soon as the Christians got the upper hand they made damn sure they kept it. It took enturies and broke most of the ties between the worlds. The sense that this was holy ground. holy water. Holy sky. And it's killing us. 

A product of reading Joe Campbell, Mary Renault (especially the Prose Singer and Mask of Apollo) and watchig Mythos of PBS. Among other sources

games but it wasn't the only one.

Greek philosophy described an ultimate God/dess who had more than one face. And some of the Gods had more than one face as well. Poseiden was the God of the sea, but he was also known as Earth Shaker. There were various versions of Apollo, Athena, or Artemis and they all had festivals. Many of them lasted several days. Dionysus was not only the patron of the vine but of actors and the theater.

Many of the festivals were times when plays might be presented as part of a contest, sometimes not. And, in theory, actors were under the God’s protection so they could travel from city to city even if those cities were at war with each other. Of course you might find as the actor in Mask of Apollo early in his career. You might get to your next stop only to find that the men were away fighting, the women and kids were barricaded at home and the occupying troops were bivouacked in the theater using the scenery for the cook fires. Whoops, guess we don’t get paid for that trip.

 There was a rich spiritual life that has been either dismissed or barely acknowledged because what became our way was the right way. Period, end of discussion.

What was accomplished by setting a specific day as holy, by breaking the links to a changeable calendar that was tied to sun and earth? It undermined the authority of the astronomer/priests. One of their responsibilities was to keep track of the coming of the full moon for certain festivals of the goddess. Also theykept track of the orbit of the sun to signal the passing of one season to the next and the solstices and equinoxes that were the midseason festivals.  

By undercutting the authority of the astronomer/ priests it helped to reinforce the authority of the Mosaic priesthood. And it isolated the followers of the Mosaic Law from their neighbors. No shared festivals. No ties of guest friendship that allowed people to travel from town to town and be sure of some sort of welcome even if your co religionists didn’t live there.

Under the old calendar any day could be a holy day for somebody. If one day is set aside as holy what does that make of the other six days of days of the week? If only one group within a society is labeled holy because they were born into that “tribe” where does that leave the rest of us? If God lives up on a “holy” mountain, is the rest of the earth not holy?

I don’t think so. I believe that holy ground is right outside my door. And I also believe that if we listen the way we should, any one of us can hear the Song.