Holy water Font
“In his own poetic style, the French Jesuit Teilhard de Chardin liked to meditate on the Eucharist as the first fruits of the new creation. In an essay called The Monstrance he describes how, kneeling in prayer, he had a sensation that the Host was beginning to grow until at last, through its mysterious expansion, "the whole world had become incandescent, had itself become like a single giant Host". Although it would probably be incorrect to imagine that the universe will eventually be transubstantiated, Teilhard correctly identified the connection between the Eucharist and the final glorification of the cosmos.” - Cardinal Dulles
“Our century is probably more religious than any other. How could it fail to be, with such problems to be solved? The only trouble is that it has not yet found a God it can adore.” - Tielhard de Chardin
From the Christian perspective, the mountain of the Lord will grow until it covers the earth, as waters, the sea. The modern world has “grown” and “covered”, but lacked a knowledge of what the meaning of such, might be. It cannot explain even itself, cannot answer for it’s own glories, even at its highest summit.
If Science (for us) has desacralized the supernatural, making it entirely natural, then re-enchantment would work (or percolate) in the opposite direction, turning that which is purely and only “Natural”, into that which was miraculous. This paradox puts a person in a rather odd position.
Perhaps King Aragon felt a bit of this, when Gandalf insists he goes up with him, into the mountains of Gondor, the snow fields of the upper slopes, for no particular reason, that spring.
'The Tree in the Court of the Fountain is still withered and barren. When shall I see a sign that it will ever be otherwise?' 'Turn your face from the green world, and look where all seems barren and cold!' said Gandalf. Then Aragorn turned, and there was a stony slope behind him running down from the skirts of the snow; and as he looked he was aware that alone there in the waste a growing thing stood. And he climbed to it, and saw that out of the very edge of the snow there sprang a sapling tree no more than three foot high. Already it had put forth young leaves long and shapely, dark above and silver beneath, and upon its slender crown it bore one small cluster of flowers whose white petals shone like the sunlit snow. Then Aragorn cried: 'Yé! utúvienyes! I have found it! Lo! here is a scion of the Eldest of Trees! But how comes it here? For it is not itself yet seven years old.' And Gandalf coming looked at it, and said: 'Verily this is a sapling of the line of Nimloth the fair; and that was a seedling of Galathilion, and that a fruit of Telperion of many names, Eldest of Trees. Who shall say how it comes here in the appointed hour? But this is an ancient hallow, and ere the kings failed or the Tree withered in the court, a fruit must have been set here. For it is said that, though the fruit of the Tree comes seldom to ripeness, yet the life within may then lie sleeping through many long years, and none can foretell the time in which it will awake. Remember this. For if ever a fruit ripens, it should be planted, lest the line die out of the world. Here it has lain, hidden on the mountain, even as the race of Elendil lay hidden in the wastes of the North. Yet the line of Nimloth is older far than your line, King Elessar.' Then Aragorn laid his hand gently to the sapling, and lo! it seemed to hold only lightly to the earth, and it was removed without hurt; and Aragorn bore it back to the Citadel. Then the withered tree was uprooted, but with reverence; and they did not burn it, but laid it to rest in the silence of Rath Dínen. And Aragorn planted the new tree in the court by the fountain, and swiftly and gladly it began to grow; and when the month of June entered in it was laden with blossom. Link
The Return of the King, LoTR Book 6, Ch 5, The Steward and the King
Re-enchantment would put the person in the odd position of looking, in the ordinary, for the ordinary, precisely as extraordinary, but not obviously so, since all is extraordinary. Like Aragorn finding (as if by fiat or miracle) a seedling of the dead White Tree. Magic is not strange, it does not stand out, in a magical world. Miracles do not stand out, in a miraculous cosmos. Except when they do, since all worlds “stand out”, or exist.
Ordinary mind.
Chao-chou asked Nan-ch'uan "What is the Tao?"
Nan-ch'uan said "Ordinary mind is the Tao."
Chao-chou asked "Should I try to direct myself toward it?"
Nan-ch'uan said "If you try to direct yourself you betray your own practice."
Chao-chou asked "How can I know the tao if I don't direct myself?"
Nan-ch'uan said "The tao is not subject to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion. Not knowing is blankness. If you truly reach the genuine tao you will find it is vast and boundless as outer space. How can this be discussed at the level of affirmation and negation?"
With these words Chao-chou had sudden realization
Goethe could not conceal, or barely, from himself or his readers, his sense of natural magic in Wahlverwandschaften (Elective Affinities). I don’t recommend Walter Benjamin, in general, but he is spot on about Goethe. He cites Goethe’s own words:
He believed that he perceived something in nature (whether living or lifeless, animate or inanimate) that manifested itself only in contradictions and therefore could not be expressed in any concept, much less in any word. It was not divine, for it seemed irrational; not human, for it had no intelligence; not diabolical, for it was beneficent; and not angelic, for it often betrayed malice. It was like chance, for it lacked continuity, and like Providence, for it suggested context. Everything that limits us seemed penetrable by it, and it appeared to do as it pleased with the elements necessary to our existence, to contract time and expand space. It seemed only to accept the impossible and scornfully to reject the possible. - This essence, which appeared to inflitrate all the others, separating and combining them, I called ‘daemonic,’ after the example of the ancients and others who had perceived something similar. I tried to save myself from this fearful thing.
The power of Art…
Goethe had discovered, without special training or even Faith, through his art alone, the invisible world, which groans for redemption. It prods and claws at man, at the lowest level, forcing him upward towards God, for it shares our fate. It has threatened, seduced, begged, nagged, hinted, and inspired man, since the dawn of Time.
There is a certain danger inherent in the project of Re-enchanting the World. It has to be done, that much is clear: a Disenchanted World is simply under another, worse spell: of dis-enchantment, moribundity, decay & death. Of permanent stagnation. Ever see a stagnant pond? Where even cottonmouths couldn’t live? Do we really want to be Woke Puritans, or augmented Transhumans, forever, and ever and ever? Did we really wish that Pan died, and was not resurrected? And yet, as one sees Goethe paint in his “art” (religion+philosophy+science), There Be Dragons, when one crosses that Rubicon, and goes in quest of the Grail.
He returned no answer to the first calls; but at the third he replied, Here ! here! I am the man. Then the voice said aloud to him, When you are arrived at Palodes, take care to make it known that the great God Pan is dead. Epitherses told us, this voice did much astonish all that heard it, and caused much arguing whether this voice was to be obeyed or slighted. Thamus, for his part, was resolved, if the wind permitted, to sail by the place without saying a word; but if the wind ceased and there ensued a calm, to speak and cry out as loud as he was able what he was enjoined. Being come to Palodes, there was no wind stirring, and the sea was as smooth as glass. Whereupon Thamus standing on the deck, with his face towards the land, uttered with a loud voice his message, saying, The great Pan is dead. He had no sooner said this, but they heard a dreadful noise, not only of one, but of several, who, to their thinking, groaned and lamented with a kind of astonishment. And there being many persons in the ship, an account of this [p. 24] was soon spread over Rome, which made Tiberius the Emperor send for Thamus; and he seemed to give such heed to what he told him, that he earnestly enquired who this Pan was; and the learned men about him gave in their judgments, that it was the son of Mercury by Penelope. There were some then in the company who declared they had heard old Aemilianus say as much.
Philosophy (Ancient World) gave way to the Age of Faith (Middle Ages). This fell before the Era of Science, which is ending the Modern World: The Great God Science is Dead! Panopticon is Dead. The Age of Art is coming. It is the Resurrection of all Three, in the Fourth. This is Re-enchantment. Who, other than Carl Jung, is ready for it?
Science says, of itself, not even God can sink us. Yet it cannot do the one thing necessary, which is to resacralize the demythologized world. Hence, it will be superseded.
How? Tolkien gives us, not a manual or directions, but indications of a method, or a Form.
Aragorn finds the sapling, and this young tender tree in the cold snow, carries the magic, the hopes, the cares, and the wonder of the new world. One could say of it, as of Aragorn (or Gandalf or Frodo), “They are the gate, and the guardian of the gate”. They are the Symbolon, or Key. Idols cannot be constructed, in a world that is not saturated with the mediating presence of God. Idols prove the existence of mediators and God, sin proves the existence of the primordial state. Sacramental theology, all apologies to the Baptists in the midst of us, is a real thing.
In speaking of the connection between creation and Baptism Schmemann states, “Christ came not to replace ‘natural’ matter with some ‘supernatural’ and sacred matter, but to restore it and to fulfill it as the means of communion with God.” The creation is such that it is not a hindrance to God’s action or revelation of Himself. The problem in the world and ourselves is not our creatureliness, limitation, or finitude but sin. Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck expresses the same idea: “Grace serves, not to take up humans into a supernatural order, but to free them from sin. Grace is opposed not to nature, only to sin.”[14]
“Rain symbolizes mercy and sunlight charity, but rain and sunlight are better than mercy and charity. Otherwise they would degrade the things they symbolize.” - Gene Wolfe
This is why Saint James could say,
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. - James 2:18
The spark and kernel or essence of God, in all creatures, and in the unity of all creatures, will out. It will manifest. Are we coming with it? Willing, even, to take the lead, if we can? Or will the Fates drag us?
ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt
Source - Ithilien was the Gate and the Guardian of the Gate, the downpayment and hope of what was to come, as well as the ruins of what was.
Faramir - Gate, & Guardian of the Gate (talking to other “gates” or Icons of God)
There are tears in things. This has not changed, and will not change, until God wipes all tears away, at the end of time. Here is the Japanese equivalent, of sensing this same thing - Mono no aware.
"Sunt hic etiam sua praemia laudi;
sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
Solve metus; feret haec aliquam tibi fama salutem."
"Here, too, the praiseworthy has its rewards;
there are tears for things and mortal things touch the mind.
Release your fear; this fame will bring you some safety."
Virgil, Aeneid, 1.461 ff.
From the madness of Nebuchadnezzar…
To the restoration of the primordial state in the soul…
In our modern world, everything is getting more fake, even the honey. That’s so we can let go of it, more easily.
This is our Time. Christians, are going “backward” - they are getting more Real. When this happens, no one can say where the Magic, which seeps back in, will stop.
Last week, I left out an important quote which should have been included, from this book…
Millinerd explored the quote here, and here it is.
Paradox... is not dialectical. Paradox is the simultaneous assertion (not the reconciliation) of opposites. Because of the paradox not just of Christ's incarnation (God in the human) but also of divine creation (God's presence in all that is infinitely distant from him), matter was that which both threatened and offered salvation. It threatened salvation because it was that which changed. But it was also the place of salvation, and it manifested this exactly through the capacity for change implanted in it. When wood or wafer bled, matter showed itself as transcending, exactly by expressing, its own materiality. It manifested enduring life (continuity, existence) in death (discontinuity, rupture, change). Miraculous matter was simultaneously - hence paradoxically - the changeable stuff of not-God and the locus of a God revealed (34-35)
What if the opposites were asserted, reconciled, but reconciled so as not to destroy the originals, but to perfect them?
Isn’t this the meaning of, Grace perfects, but does not destroy, Nature?
Horizontverschmelzung - Fusion of Horizons.
Isn’t this the “Road to the West”, which Tolkien claimed, even now, was still open?