I understand the inclination to distance oneself from “moderns.” I have experienced the impulse countless times, yet indulging in it inevitably felt insincere and hollow, primarily because I know that I am ineluctably modern, too.
Those who affix the modern label as a magical line of demarcation separating themselves from the masses are essentially deluding themselves with the misguided belief that they somehow possess a pre-modern form of consciousness locked in an otherwise modern world.
As comforting as the delusion may seem, it remains a delusion and must be acknowledged as such before any genuine and honest spiritual work can start.
To begin with, no person alive today is personally privy to the consciousnesses of previous eras. Individuals can explore earlier modes of consciousness, predominantly through secondary sources; however, the fire that produced such work has long since cooled, and the sources themselves are now congealed, solidified objects. Although we may sense the spark of creativity in secondary sources, we cannot and will never experience the creative flame that birthed them.
Furthermore, no person alive today could function effectively within the milieu of a previous era regardless of how well they think they could. I refer here to internal rather than external considerations. Like it or not, the way past people understood and interacted with God, the world, and each other was immeasurably different from how we understand and interact with God, the world, and each other.
Changing our externals would not resurrect the past because there would be nothing authentic or whole about it. On the contrary, the entire endeavor would quickly degenerate into a tragedy before dissolving into a farce.
The only way out of the modern era is to work forward through it and emerge on the other side, entailing that we should embrace ourselves as moderns and “take ownership” of our current mode of consciousness.
I am not implying that people should throw in the towel and surrender to the disoriented and off-course masses, but they should be a little more honest about who they are and the time and place they occupy.
There is a reason why you incarnated as a modern, and that reason has absolutely nothing to do with spending your life wishing you had been born a few centuries earlier or how wonderful it would be if a "few centuries earlier" suddenly manifested today.
Those who affix the modern label as a magical line of demarcation separating themselves from the masses are essentially deluding themselves with the misguided belief that they somehow possess a pre-modern form of consciousness locked in an otherwise modern world.
As comforting as the delusion may seem, it remains a delusion and must be acknowledged as such before any genuine and honest spiritual work can start.
To begin with, no person alive today is personally privy to the consciousnesses of previous eras. Individuals can explore earlier modes of consciousness, predominantly through secondary sources; however, the fire that produced such work has long since cooled, and the sources themselves are now congealed, solidified objects. Although we may sense the spark of creativity in secondary sources, we cannot and will never experience the creative flame that birthed them.
Furthermore, no person alive today could function effectively within the milieu of a previous era regardless of how well they think they could. I refer here to internal rather than external considerations. Like it or not, the way past people understood and interacted with God, the world, and each other was immeasurably different from how we understand and interact with God, the world, and each other.
Changing our externals would not resurrect the past because there would be nothing authentic or whole about it. On the contrary, the entire endeavor would quickly degenerate into a tragedy before dissolving into a farce.
The only way out of the modern era is to work forward through it and emerge on the other side, entailing that we should embrace ourselves as moderns and “take ownership” of our current mode of consciousness.
I am not implying that people should throw in the towel and surrender to the disoriented and off-course masses, but they should be a little more honest about who they are and the time and place they occupy.
There is a reason why you incarnated as a modern, and that reason has absolutely nothing to do with spending your life wishing you had been born a few centuries earlier or how wonderful it would be if a "few centuries earlier" suddenly manifested today.
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