tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney) (06/08/85)
New Age Digest #7
Moderator: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K.ARPA
(uucp: seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim)
Tue Jan 29 23:03:05 EST 1985
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This Cycle:
Follow-up on Blue Equinox Material
Book Review: Last Chance For Peace (from USENET's net.religion)
Follow-up on Wiccan Book Reviews
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From: sequent!merlyn@decwrl.ARPA (Randal L. Schwartz)
Date: 23 Jan 1985 1154-PST (Wednesday)
Subject: Re: New Age Digest # 6
Excuse me if this sounds sacreligious (is that possible with Pagan
practice?), but I get most of my good stuff by asking questions.
The stuff from the Blue Equinox sounds a lot like the me-generation saying:
"Go with the flow".
How does it differ? Is it like the Tao?
The stuff about "will" being distinct from "want" is especially powerful
and magic. If it could be distinguished from simply "doing whatever your
reactions tell you to do", you could create some pretty magical people by
reading that text.
When I first read this, I got that people are being requested to discover
their own internal, pre-destined (gotta be careful with that word) purpose.
My experience in coaching people has led me to see that there's a bootstrap
step necessary. A person's purpose on this planet is to create, and the
first thing they create is a purpose. To have forgotten that is to be
awarded with the quality of a machine -- totally automatic and
predetermined... a collection of stimulus-response mechanisms.
Agreed, that people should be in touch with their own selected purpose in
life, but I suggest that more power comes out of realizing WHO SET THAT UP.
Question for the day: Who determines what's possible in your life?
Another way of saying this... what are you being, choosing, operating as,
that has the things in your life show up the way they do?
== A particularly personal and original observation from the thought-stream of
Randal L. Schwartz, esq. (merlyn@sequent.UUCP)
Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. (503)626-5700 (sequent = 1/quosine)
UUCP: { teneron,decwrl,nsc,ogcvax,pur-ee,rocks34,shell,
unisoft,vax135,verdix,islabs,lcc,pmr}!sequent!merlyn
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Date: Wed Jan 23 15:37:48 1985
From: ihnp4!drutx!bjb (BarnesBJ)
Newsgroups: net.religion
[Forwarded with permission from USENET's net.religion by the moderator.]
A BOOK REVIEW- LAST CHANCE FOR PEACE
BY: ARTHUR VANCE, EARTHVIEW PRESS
276 pgs. $9.95 (pbk) $12.95 (hcv)
P.O. BOX 11036,
Boulder, Colorado 80301
There are two overriding themes in this book -- a fresh, new look at
ourselves and a serious warning about the direction of the modern world.
The first part takes the reader on a tour around the world and into the
body for a close-up look at life and how we fit into it...and how it
fits into us. A liberal use of fascinating comparisons and analogies
illustrates that we humans, our nations and the myriad products we live
with, are every bit as natural as the living systems flourishing along
a coral reef or struggling to survive on an African savannah.
And "survival" is a key term here. "In order to survive as a species
during the next few, critical decades it is vital that we come to
understand the principals responsible for peace and conflict among our
terrestial peers," says the author.
For the general reader, the part on spirituality may be the most
intriguing because it is the most personal, exploring such realms as
the need for morality, a bond with infinity, and the benefits and
techniques of meditation.
For people with diversified interests ranging from endorphins and
viruses to the strengths and weaknesses of communism, the entire book
is a treasure chest of fresh ideas.
How about the vast majority of people hoping to see the nuclear threat
solved with arms talks? These readers might brace themselves while
reading the last part. Vance contends that arms talks do for world
peace what nasal spray does for pneumonia. They are "global
decongestants" which can provide small, short term relief at best.
According to Last Chance it is the incompatibilities that deserve our
attention -- bacteria vs. the body, or nation vs. nation -- not the
buildup of harmful substances. We need to treat causes, not symptoms,
if we hope to find an end to the threat of nuclear war. Think about it.
That last statement captures the desirable frame of mind for reading
this book by Vance. "Think about it." Many thought provoking concepts
are presented which need a lot of personal analysis. This is one of
those wonderful little books that can be set aside and reserved for
those quiet moments when the grey matter requests challenge and insight.
It is often said that nothing new ever comes along, but as you read
this book you begin to wonder if that's really true.
For example, most of us think of a nation as a lump of land defined by
the borders seen on maps. Vance erases these vague political borders
from around nations to reveal distinct living structures struggling to
carve a niche in the world. These massive life forms we call nations
consists of people and the products they use-- no more, no less-- just
as the body consists of cells and molecules. Nations are shown
consuming natural resources from the global ecosystem (just as a person
eats food). And, like all other powered by energy.
Finally, near the end of the book it becomes clear that the "new" ideas
in Last Chance are not really new at all; they have simply been
uncovered in the readers own mind, carefully removed from under a pile
of old, worn-out symbols -- flags, icons, money, political borders,
alphabets, dogmas, ideologies and other abstractions which have been
heaped on one by one over thousands of years of human development.
Last Chance For Peace presents a rather stark yet comfortable view of
our planet, our nations, or religions and ourselves.
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From: ihnp4!ihuxf!pjs1@seismo.ARPA
Date: 28 Jan 85 23:11:21 CST (Mon)
Subject: After reading Ellen's list some personal additions
A couple of additional books that I might have expected to be on Ellen's
reading list.
1) "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets", Barbara G. Walker,
Harper and Row.
This Huge book (1100 pages) by the same author as a Tarot book that Ellen
mentioned, is an attempt to expound alternative (primarily feminist) versions
about everything religious. It is well researched, but being a book of myths
its purpose is not historical accuracy but the putting forward of different
versions of our culture's most cherished beliefs, and by altering their
pseudo-historical foundations with what may be equally pseudo-historical
constructions change these beliefs.
As an example of the contents of this book, Walker's expositions on the
early saints especially St. Paul are wonderful. She argues quite nicely (at
least to some one relatively ignorant of the New Testament as myself), that
he may have castrated himself for religious reasons after his conversion.
St. Peter, she argues never existed at all except as a Christianization of
certain phallic cults (Calling a penis a "peter" or rock a is very ancient
pun) (The apostle Simon became St. Peter based on one line - "Upon this
rock I build my church". She claims was a 4th century interpolation to
support the primacy of the Papacy). If these stories are true, I don't
know, but they are a wonderful mythic antidote to all 2000 years of
Christian propaganda. I recommend this book highly as late night light
reading, pick an essay at random and read.
2) "Dreaming the Dark", Starhawk, Beacon Press
While the "Spiral Dance" is a book which expounds Neo-paganism
(specifically Witchcraft) as a coherent and highly moral personal
religion, this books deals with how such beliefs fit in with political
and social questions. How to change the world we live in and what might
want to change it to. If magic is "willed change" for an individual,
then this book addresses the question what happens when politics is
viewed as a magical ritual requiring and effecting many people.
Peter Silverman
ihnp4!ihuxf!pjs1
AT&T Bell Labs at Indian Hill
A question which I have wanted to ask a born again Christian,
"If you want me to be 'born again', who will be the mother"
P.S. A small correction
Rereading Ellen's second posting on books, I noticed that she did mention
"The Woman's Encyclopedia..." in her posting. Cursory reading on my part
of her article.
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-=-
Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University, Networking
ARPA: Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K uucp: seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim
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