Condemned to Exist
The pagan metaphysics behind our post-modern fury.
Nature, Mr. walnut, is something we are put on earth to overcome.
-Katherine Hepburn
There is a deep hatred swelling in society.
Self-hatred, racial hatred, political partisanship- all devolving into primal roaring chaos. We are seeing a rise in suicide rates, radicalization, and tribalization throughout the modern world. What is at the core of this trend? A view of reality itself as evil.
To understand the modern underpinnings of this anti-reality view, we need to look at metaphysics.
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that explores the nature of being, existence, and reality itself. Consciously or not, the human mind must attain a view of reality. If one does not actively formalize their view- they will absorb their metaphysical understanding through sense experience, through their parents throw away insights, the ruminations of educators, and the subtle shadow of bias suffused in their cultural context. I believe that the rise of hatred is rooted in a deeply flawed view of reality that has been brewing in our progressive faux-science culture. Post enlightenment society, after supposedly shaking off the shackles of religion- has fallen into a view that is roughly akin, strangely, to a pagan view of reality. A sort of secularized religion: New Age ideology. An explanation of the New Age version of metaphysics will help elucidate a view of the world which has flourished since the 1970s but which is the formulation of a number of older esoteric traditions that grew out of the eighteenth century occultism. To understand the New Age paradigm, let’s look at a symbol of its contemporary, paganism, which shares its metaphysics, infused in a symbol you might have seen before. The pentagram.
The pentagram symbol has origins tracing back to ancient Sumerian culture- but we will analyze the modern Wiccan logogram which is used to depict the elements that compose reality. Wiccan metaphysics. The pinnacle of the pentagram represents spirit — the animating force or spark of life. The remaining points of the star represent air, water, earth, and fire. These are the material elements of the human being and of the universe itself. In the standard depiction of the pentagram- spirit dominates the material elements. This is the “white” magic version- the good version of the pentagram, and indicates the triumph of intellect above the base animal and perceptual world. The orientation of the perfect human being. In the “black” magic version- the evil pentagram, earthly matter enslaves the spirit.
The Prison of Reality
The good and evil orientations are rooted in ancient traditions — and is mirrored in the Greek dualism of reality in which matter is evil and spirit is good. This dualism is core to the New Age view of the human spirit. In this view of the universe, our spiritual energies were once untainted, traversing the open oceans of infinity pure in divine knowledge before the creation of the physical universe entrapped us in a physical prison- the material. The dirt and decay of a mortal world.
The creator god praised in Judeo-Christian ideology is viewed as a vain, unthinking fool who in his half-hazard tossing together of the material world- accidentally infused humanity with the divine spark of life. Man is thus trapped in the flesh of his body, the flesh of the world, and because matter itself is evil- man is to resent the creator god as his source of struggle and death. Creation was a mistake- a cruel trick perpetrated upon him without his consent.
The imprisoned human spirit’s sole goal is to fan the flames of his internal divinity until it consumes his physical form and releases him from that rotting cell. Escape is the only goal. There is no call for atonement with the creator in New Age ideology- indeed, the goal is to throw off the evil of this encumbering god. A god which deserves only spite.
In the New Age ideology the story of the Garden of Eden is transformed. Rather than the great tempter, the serpent is transformed into the enlightened harold of spiritual enlightenment which through Eve, shares heavenly wisdom to Adam. That self-realization and transformation will return him to his enlightened form- to become a god, he must unchain from the material world.
This is the modern narrative. That the complete sway of our whims, our mind’s desire is to be embraced- and that human plight is due to not fulfilling the ultimate human potential- to return to the original, pure state of enlightened spirit.
In New Age ideology- the worship of the Goddess, the Mother Earth- is a common theme. Why? The duality in this paganism extends to the sexes. Male is matter. Matter is evil. Female is spirit. Spirit is good. The vain god who formed the material world is male. Tyrannical and cruel — forcing the human spirit to face hardship and fight to survive, only to ultimately die. The spiritual guide, the force that reveals the path to salvation and a return to purity, that is female. The true god is a pure female energy standing against the false and jealous god- from which, she is to liberate us.
Thus, the path to New Age enlightenment is a path that embraces goddess worship — the future is female. So to speak.
However, the unique feature of New Age belief — which suffuses itself deepest throughout our modern culture, is the clear disdain for reality itself. In casting matter as evil — and encouraging a narrative of resentment for the facts of nature, we radicalize people to despise the world. But the cruel extension of this view of reality isn’t just resentment for the world alone.
Post-Modernism
Combined with the post-modern view of identity, this becomes a resentment for ourselves. As we are dismantled into identities that are tied directly to our physical and unchosen characteristics, we are chained to the material fate of our bodies. All of the limitations that define us — our height, sight, sex, propensity for ailments, allergies, disease and genetic cage. These are the random manifestation of the vain, creator god who condemns us to suffer arbitrarily for the sin of existing.
The rising unrest in our world — increasing tribalization and destruction of our cultural and social fabric — these are the release valve of resentment for this physical prison. The terrible trick we have perpetrated on ourselves is to avoid our responsibility to obtain self-knowledge of our metaphysical world-view, whether groomed to be ignorant or not, we have accepted an unchosen mental model. Ironically, the one thing that should be the most important part of our individual identity, critically accepted ideas on ourselves and the world, has been stripped from us with a primal view of identity which ascribes accepted ideas and behaviors to us based on our physical configuration— and thus, when combined with New Age metaphysics, we are radicalized to hate.
Metaphysical Inversion
What can we do to stem the rise of hate? The solution is a metaphysical revolution. The source of our resentment is the flawed premise that our entitlement, the divine inheritance we have been denied, is an unattainable spiritual realm where we were once gods. This, I think, is akin to the Eden demanded by the Orphan archetype in the psychological framework posed by Dr. Carol S. Pearson. We resent the world because it does not live up to our demands.
The metaphysical truth is that reality is not our prison. And it is more than just an amoral fact- it is what allows us to persist and achieve the good. It is, in fact, our greatest privilege. Without the matter which binds us, and the fundamental physics of this world which set into motion the chemical and biological processes which led to our very ability to realize consciousness and contemplate our place in existence, we wouldn’t be, at all. The material world is our rightful place- it is our realm — and it is our responsibility to respect and embrace this opportunity. To accept the truth of existence and from there, figure out the proper way to act in such a world. We are beings who attained consciousness well before we could explain it- and in our ignorance, cried out against the world we didn’t understand. And we still struggle — victim not to the world, but to the illogical explanations that helped us find meaning in a world in which we consigned ourselves to suffering and death- because we had no choice.
But as we progress, we attain new power over the material world. Our choices expand. And though we have yet to conquer every challenge set upon us- there is always hope to improve our world, to reform it to better suit our lives. We can let out a primal scream, lashing out at the imperfect station we inherit, or we can accept that the struggle we have is an incalculably rare chance, and act together in love. We must realize the alternative of nothingness is the true nightmare that we have been lifted out of- that the false dichotomy of us and our material and spiritual world is a lie that stifles us- pits us against each other in rage- and binds us in our mind. It is thus the spirit that chains us.
And matter which frees us.
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