"The
watchwords of the battle, written in characters which have remained
legible thought human history, read: 'Rome vs. Israel, Israel vs Rome.'
No battle has ever been more momentous that this one. ...Has the
victory so far been gained by the Romans or by the Jews? ...Rome,
without a doubt, has capitulated. It is true that during the
Renaissance men witnessed a strange and splendid awakening of the
classical ideal; like one buried alive, Rome stirred under the weight
of a new Judaic Rome that looked like an ecumenical synagogue and was
called the Church. But presently Israel triumphed once again, thanks to
the plebeian rancor of the German and English Reformation, together
with its natural corollary, the restoration of the Church- which also
meant the restoration of ancient Rome to the quiet of the tomb.But presently Israel triumphed once again, thanks to the plebeian
rancor of the German and English Reformation, together with its natural
corollary, the restoration of the Church- which also meant the
restoration of ancient Rome to the quiet of the tomb. In an even more
decisive sense did Israel triumph over the classical ideal through the
French Revolution."
"Was it all over then? Had that greatest
conflict of ideals been shelved for good? Or had it only been
indefinitely adjourned? might not the smoldering fire start up again
one day, all the more terrible because longer and more secretly
nourished."
Nietzsche, Geneology of Morals.
>From the 'medical vision' of the
Third Reich and Whilhelm Reichs 'biological revolution', to the
constitution of the city state of Israel and the archaic rivival of Terence McKenna: have we yielded the
fruit of the wisdom this privalige of our historical perspective, once taken up and entertained, bears
us?
How would we bring Nietzsche comments, on the war between Rome and Israel, up to date- specifically in the light of the experience of Nazi Germany and its concomitant the
establishment of the state of Israel, onto the edge of the 21st,
specifically the western frontiers confrontation with the middle-east?
If we see in Nazi Germany an Archaic Revival, would we say that it was
Rome that was being revived or rather Israel- what was intended and
what was bought about? Can we not rather see in the experience of Nazi
Germany a more complex historical situation, and wonder at its
structuration?
An archaeological and astrological perspective upon the history not
just of revolutionary war fare but spiritual struggles is ours to
entertain- let us take it up.
Archaeological revival.. Jewish Arcaheology: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/spiritofthings/stories/2008/2365885.htm
An
observation: the jews have been without a homeland since the romans
laid the third temple of Jersalem to waste nearly 2000 years ago; on
the ruins of this site, the fabled mound, in the Hebrew tradition, upon
which God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and upon which
the first temple, some 3000 years ago, was built to house the Ark of
the Covenanet, the stone tablets of Mosaic Law, the Muslims built their
first temple (where it was said Mohammad ascended to Heaven)- namely,
the Dome on the Rock.
At first, I thought that the constitution
of the nation state of Israel was, in effect, the rebuilding of the third temple
(the first temple was sacked by Babylon in about 586 bc but was
rebuilt, on the same site, about 50 years later, only to be sacked again by
the Romans in 70ad: perhaps the single most indicative event in the early history of christianity)- I thought this was the significance we were to
accord, as a historical act, the foundation of the 'secular' nation state
of Israel, but then I realised that the temple still stands to be
raised... Of course, for Islam, the Dome on the Rock IS the third
temple.
The history of an archaic revival, an archaeology of spiritual struggles...
If we recognise the commonality of the Jewish, christian, and islamic
spiritual traditions, which sees the latter trace the roots of their
geneaological trees back to the seed of the former, then we are prepared to see how
they can seem to slip and slide into each other and change place with
respects to each another in their mutual adjustments with one another.
I have taken seriously the idea that Existentialism can no longer
ignore Structuralism and have tried to ground ontology in the empirical
mechanicsm of history, to assert a historical ontology of objectivized
psychological structures, in the form of a kind of allegory which draws
its elemets from exemplary historical figures (i.e., those of Israel
and Babylon loom large in the imaginative landscapes of the Western European World.
...some historical configurations sketched out with the dream logic in
which they take shape and discover their meanings not to an ahistorical
subject, but to a being of spirit which understands only the archeology
of fire.
But my logic has been a bit too stilted here by my attempt to preserve
its polyvalience, and effort not to reduce to a mono-logical
description the complexity and subtlty of the dream logic I see at work
in all these spiritual things.
I said that an
understanding of the historicity of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic
religions prepares us to see a strange pecularility in their mutually
adjusted relations with one another; a deeper structure, namely, the
conflict and mutual dependency of Israel (christianity, Islam) and
Babylon (Egypt, Rome). This, I believe, is what lies at the heart of
their historicity, at the heart of the mystery of the cross, for
exemplary instance, the praxis and locus of the historical being of
christianity.
That is all that I wanted to allow to emerge here. But of course, and if your reading this
hopefully you realise it, I am just using this opportunity I have
created for myself of elaborating a kind of address, a way of talking,
which the act of begining to speak without the institution of an
established disipline burdens the speaker with the task of formulating
in a new langauage he risks, and fleshing out what I only hinted at and
gestured towards. But really all I want to leave you with is such a
suggestion.
I think that we can see played out in the battleground of the middle
east a kind of reproduction in mininture of a wider conflict, in a
highly symbolic way: there is a jew, a christian and a muslim inside
each one of us- we are witnessing a kind of psycho-historical melodrama
played out in an exteriority..
But I would not lay too fine a
point on stressing that, but want only to suggest a broader and much
deeper significance for this conflict than it suggests at first sight..
Rome Vs Israel was for Nietsche the form which the human
condition assumed for us moderns without history, a psycho-historical
situation which subsists in the soil of our souls which are like stones
formed over mellenia and which record an archaeology..
Perhaps to go 'beyond good and evil' is really to get over Rome vs Israel and Israel vs Rome...
I
dont want to give the impression that the whole of human history, at
least occidental, can be subsumed under the auspices of this struggle,
although there is a sense in which it is frozen into this form, but
place the mystery of being at its origin and destination, in which it
is forged like so many episodes of love, for even this form is
incoprated in a living process which sees its eternity as a transient
human truth. Its only around the fire of the sacred hearth that such
dreams as these take shape, so to return to it, I want to finish by
saying that much more than the rapaciousness of men do I see our fates
as guided by mysterious forces which are beyond good and evil, and the
recognition of whose divinity does not condemn us to our knees at the
threshold of there other-wordly origination, enthroned forever beyond
reach of mind or hand and out of control, to suffer them inspite of
ourselves, but to take them into the heart of our consideration which
bears us in our understanding..
Although the western world has in its myths about itself and its overcoming banished religion to the dark recesses of the past, religion seems to face its progress squarely as it reasserts itself form the future..
Just some notes hedging towards a conversation we have not yet had but which is now becoming possible for us to begin entering into..
Make Yahoo!7 your homepage and win a trip to the Quiksilver Pro. Find out more
watchwords of the battle, written in characters which have remained
legible thought human history, read: 'Rome vs. Israel, Israel vs Rome.'
No battle has ever been more momentous that this one. ...Has the
victory so far been gained by the Romans or by the Jews? ...Rome,
without a doubt, has capitulated. It is true that during the
Renaissance men witnessed a strange and splendid awakening of the
classical ideal; like one buried alive, Rome stirred under the weight
of a new Judaic Rome that looked like an ecumenical synagogue and was
called the Church. But presently Israel triumphed once again, thanks to
the plebeian rancor of the German and English Reformation, together
with its natural corollary, the restoration of the Church- which also
meant the restoration of ancient Rome to the quiet of the tomb.But presently Israel triumphed once again, thanks to the plebeian
rancor of the German and English Reformation, together with its natural
corollary, the restoration of the Church- which also meant the
restoration of ancient Rome to the quiet of the tomb. In an even more
decisive sense did Israel triumph over the classical ideal through the
French Revolution."
"Was it all over then? Had that greatest
conflict of ideals been shelved for good? Or had it only been
indefinitely adjourned? might not the smoldering fire start up again
one day, all the more terrible because longer and more secretly
nourished."
Nietzsche, Geneology of Morals.
>From the 'medical vision' of the
Third Reich and Whilhelm Reichs 'biological revolution', to the
constitution of the city state of Israel and the archaic rivival of Terence McKenna: have we yielded the
fruit of the wisdom this privalige of our historical perspective, once taken up and entertained, bears
us?
How would we bring Nietzsche comments, on the war between Rome and Israel, up to date- specifically in the light of the experience of Nazi Germany and its concomitant the
establishment of the state of Israel, onto the edge of the 21st,
specifically the western frontiers confrontation with the middle-east?
If we see in Nazi Germany an Archaic Revival, would we say that it was
Rome that was being revived or rather Israel- what was intended and
what was bought about? Can we not rather see in the experience of Nazi
Germany a more complex historical situation, and wonder at its
structuration?
An archaeological and astrological perspective upon the history not
just of revolutionary war fare but spiritual struggles is ours to
entertain- let us take it up.
Archaeological revival.. Jewish Arcaheology: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/spiritofthings/stories/2008/2365885.htm
An
observation: the jews have been without a homeland since the romans
laid the third temple of Jersalem to waste nearly 2000 years ago; on
the ruins of this site, the fabled mound, in the Hebrew tradition, upon
which God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, and upon which
the first temple, some 3000 years ago, was built to house the Ark of
the Covenanet, the stone tablets of Mosaic Law, the Muslims built their
first temple (where it was said Mohammad ascended to Heaven)- namely,
the Dome on the Rock.
At first, I thought that the constitution
of the nation state of Israel was, in effect, the rebuilding of the third temple
(the first temple was sacked by Babylon in about 586 bc but was
rebuilt, on the same site, about 50 years later, only to be sacked again by
the Romans in 70ad: perhaps the single most indicative event in the early history of christianity)- I thought this was the significance we were to
accord, as a historical act, the foundation of the 'secular' nation state
of Israel, but then I realised that the temple still stands to be
raised... Of course, for Islam, the Dome on the Rock IS the third
temple.
The history of an archaic revival, an archaeology of spiritual struggles...
If we recognise the commonality of the Jewish, christian, and islamic
spiritual traditions, which sees the latter trace the roots of their
geneaological trees back to the seed of the former, then we are prepared to see how
they can seem to slip and slide into each other and change place with
respects to each another in their mutual adjustments with one another.
I have taken seriously the idea that Existentialism can no longer
ignore Structuralism and have tried to ground ontology in the empirical
mechanicsm of history, to assert a historical ontology of objectivized
psychological structures, in the form of a kind of allegory which draws
its elemets from exemplary historical figures (i.e., those of Israel
and Babylon loom large in the imaginative landscapes of the Western European World.
...some historical configurations sketched out with the dream logic in
which they take shape and discover their meanings not to an ahistorical
subject, but to a being of spirit which understands only the archeology
of fire.
But my logic has been a bit too stilted here by my attempt to preserve
its polyvalience, and effort not to reduce to a mono-logical
description the complexity and subtlty of the dream logic I see at work
in all these spiritual things.
I said that an
understanding of the historicity of Jewish, Christian, and Islamic
religions prepares us to see a strange pecularility in their mutually
adjusted relations with one another; a deeper structure, namely, the
conflict and mutual dependency of Israel (christianity, Islam) and
Babylon (Egypt, Rome). This, I believe, is what lies at the heart of
their historicity, at the heart of the mystery of the cross, for
exemplary instance, the praxis and locus of the historical being of
christianity.
That is all that I wanted to allow to emerge here. But of course, and if your reading this
hopefully you realise it, I am just using this opportunity I have
created for myself of elaborating a kind of address, a way of talking,
which the act of begining to speak without the institution of an
established disipline burdens the speaker with the task of formulating
in a new langauage he risks, and fleshing out what I only hinted at and
gestured towards. But really all I want to leave you with is such a
suggestion.
I think that we can see played out in the battleground of the middle
east a kind of reproduction in mininture of a wider conflict, in a
highly symbolic way: there is a jew, a christian and a muslim inside
each one of us- we are witnessing a kind of psycho-historical melodrama
played out in an exteriority..
But I would not lay too fine a
point on stressing that, but want only to suggest a broader and much
deeper significance for this conflict than it suggests at first sight..
Rome Vs Israel was for Nietsche the form which the human
condition assumed for us moderns without history, a psycho-historical
situation which subsists in the soil of our souls which are like stones
formed over mellenia and which record an archaeology..
Perhaps to go 'beyond good and evil' is really to get over Rome vs Israel and Israel vs Rome...
I
dont want to give the impression that the whole of human history, at
least occidental, can be subsumed under the auspices of this struggle,
although there is a sense in which it is frozen into this form, but
place the mystery of being at its origin and destination, in which it
is forged like so many episodes of love, for even this form is
incoprated in a living process which sees its eternity as a transient
human truth. Its only around the fire of the sacred hearth that such
dreams as these take shape, so to return to it, I want to finish by
saying that much more than the rapaciousness of men do I see our fates
as guided by mysterious forces which are beyond good and evil, and the
recognition of whose divinity does not condemn us to our knees at the
threshold of there other-wordly origination, enthroned forever beyond
reach of mind or hand and out of control, to suffer them inspite of
ourselves, but to take them into the heart of our consideration which
bears us in our understanding..
Although the western world has in its myths about itself and its overcoming banished religion to the dark recesses of the past, religion seems to face its progress squarely as it reasserts itself form the future..
Just some notes hedging towards a conversation we have not yet had but which is now becoming possible for us to begin entering into..
Make Yahoo!7 your homepage and win a trip to the Quiksilver Pro. Find out more