Turbulence (2)

Sure enough, it wasn't long after the Japan earthquake and tsunami that voices started coming out of the woodwork declaring that the hand of God had dealt us this timely reminder of our wicked ways. The end of the world is nigh, therefore repent and be saved ...

What relief it must be for many, then, that mathematical evidence in at least nine (presumably the most civilised and educated) nations, strongly indicates that religion is hurtling towards extinction. These findings were reported to the Physics and Society Forum of the American Physical Society.  'Physics', as we know, in spite of having an Uncertainty Principle at its very heart, is commonly seen as the sole dispenser of truth in the modern materialist world. 'Dynamical systems theory' doesn't have quite the same ring to it -- as an eminent Oxford scholar once pointed out, to say you are a mathematician or statistician at a dinner party is a real conversation killer.

But leaving aside the question of nature as the mirror of divine wrath, there is a long tradition of belief -- and not only esoteric -- in humanity as participant in the work of creation. Creation is a troublesome word, though, and along with scaremongering notions such as 'design' and 'purpose' can drive happily logical and well balanced followers of Richard Dawkins into seizures of anxiety. So let's leave these provocative terms aside and turn to the idea of 'intention' which surely will not upset anyone. After all, we get up every morning with intentions, wait on the platform intending to catch the train with its driver who intends to stop for us today, as he or she did yesterday and the day before, and equally will tomorrow -- we hope.

Yes, hope and intention are inseparably bound up together. It's hope that gives meaning to our intentions. Our very hope for a better world prompts us to act with the intention of working towards a better world. As Gary Lachman points out in his new book, the Hermetic tradition, as opposed to the Gnostic tradition, sought to bring higher knowledge into the world as creative work. In this  tradition, as also in the Christian notion of 'stewardship', both our personal and our collective actions are carried out in a spirit of optimism that such a 'better world' can exist and that we can somehow participate in making it a reality.

This is the true message of the chaos and devastation in Japan: that we can still, in Kipling's words, though surrounded by a world in ruins, 'stoop and build it up with outworn tools'.

CJM