The Gospel According To Mark

_{Copyright © Colin Hamer 1963, 2000}

At the beginning of the Acts of The Apostles Saint Luke refers back to an earlier work dealing with the things that Jesus did and taught. This book about the doings and teachings of Our Blessed Lord is St. Luke's Gospel. Each of the four Gospels is a record of the things that Jesus did and taught. Chapter One of the Acts gives us a definition of the term, “Gospel”.

When the Apostles came together to select someone who would fill the gap left in their ranks by the defection of Judas the Traitor, they insisted that the choice should be made from among those who had been close to the Master from the time of his being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan to the day of his triumphant Ascension into heaven. This enables us to have a sufficient grasp of the scope of the four Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels - Matthew, Mark and Luke - in particular.

The Gospel according to Saint Mark is, essentially, a record of the things that Jesus did and of the things which he taught from the time of the Baptism in the Jordan until the moment of his going up into heaven.

In designing his Gospel St. Mark arranges his material in such a way that the main picture is one about the things that Jesus taught, while his doings as our Saviour from the picture-frame. From verse 7 of Chapter 6 up to verse 37 of Chapter 13 this Evangelist describes the contents of the preaching of Christ.

The activity of Christ was in the main twofold - he redeemed us from sin and hell; he taught us the way to heaven. From Chapter 1 verse 1 till Chapter 6 verse 6 St. Mark tells us about the preaching of Jesus as an activity, not so much giving us the contents of it, but stressing the point that Jesus did preach, and preached a great deal. And then from Chapter 14 verse 1 till Chapter 16 verse 20 the Evangelist treats of the Redemptive Activity of Christ - his Passion and Death.

Like the other Gospels that of St. Mark is carefully written according to a definite plan. The Evangelist wants to tell us what Jesus did - he taught and he suffered, and also what he taught. This twofold aim has determined the main arrangement of his entire material. Closer examination will bring much more to light, and it will help us to read St. Mark with a fuller understanding of his purpose.

The first section of his Gospel (Mk 1:1-6:6) deals with the evangelical activity of our Divine Redeemer. St. Mark tells how it began (1:1-13), gives a general panorama of it (1:14-45), and then brings several particular aspects of it to our attention (2:1-6:6).

Its beginning depends on three important things: the work of St. John the Baptist (1:1-8), the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan (1:9-11), and the temptation of Jesus in the desert (1:12-13). If anyone wishes to help in the spreading of Christ's Kingdom, such a person must also face up to these three realities. he or she must undergo a change of heart or radical conversion, live her or his baptism, and resist the onslaughts of the devil.

The three main elements next brought out and emphasised by St. Mark in his effort to provide a clear general picture of Jesus as a preacher are also straightforward enough. First, although Jesus Christ only went fully into action as a preacher after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, his own programme and plan of campaign was identical in scope with John's (1:14-15). Second, just as St. John the Baptist was silenced, so would Christ too one day be silenced, and others must, therefore, be ready to take his place - hence, the vocation of Peter, Andrew, James and John (1:16-20). Third, Jesus preaches to everybody and he preaches everywhere. Since the Jews had no word in their language to express “everything”, they used instead pairs of words with reciprocally complementary meanings, e.g., “In the beginning G-d made heaven and Earth.”

To show that Jesus preached everywhere, Mark tells us that he preaced both in the city (1:21-39) and in the desert (1:40-45), that he entered both synagogues (1:21-28) and private houses (1:29-31), that as well as working among the crowds on the streets (1:32-34) he sometimes slipped away unnoticed and forbade his doings to be reported (1:35-45). And then, to complete this picture, the Evangelist notes that the seal of G-d's approval was placed on Jesus' preaching by means of his miracles: He cast out devils in the synagogue of Capharnaum (1:21-28); he cured Peter's mother-in-law of fever (1:29-31), he cured a man of leprosy (1:40-45), and he wrought many other wonders (1:32-34).

Having presented us with this general picture of the evangelical activity of Jesus, St. Mark tries to bring it home to us by dwelling on various particular aspects (2:1-6:6). After the customary manner of his day, he arranges his material under three heads - the person of the Preacher (2:1-3:6), his preaching (3:7-4:34), and the miracles he worked to back up his preaching (4:35-6:6).

The Preacher, Jesus Christ, is the Messiah, the mystical Spouse of the chosen people. Because he is present, his disciples cannot but rejoice. Fasting they leave to the Pharisees and the followers of John the Baptist. You cannot put new wine in old bottles (2:18-22).

This central fact that Jesus is the Messiah gives him a mission to the people and to those in authority. He is concerned that the people should stop worrying overmuch about legal purity and concentrate on cleanness of heart. He wants those in authority to realise that religious services and ministers are there to serve the needs of the people, not to batten on them. The Sabbath was made for us, not us for the Sabbath. St. Mark places these two important but subordinate points around his main one - leading up to it and flowing from it. In addition, to lend authority to the whole, he begins and finishes this particular section with a miracle.

Placed in sequence, then, one after another, we have: the cure of the bed-ridden man and the forgiveness of his sins (2:1-12), the meal with publicans and sinners in the house of Levi because the Messiah has come to win over the sinners (2:13-17), the statement by Jesus that he is the Bridegroom (2:18-22), the declaration that the Sabbath has been made for human beings, on the occasion of the disciples plucking the grains of wheat (2:23-28), and the curing of the man with a withered hand on the Sabbath (3:1-6), together with that very pointed question: Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, i.e., to act as Christ does? Or is it lawful only to do evil, like the Pharisees and Herodians, who are spending their Sabbath in plotting the death of Christ? To the modern reader, that seems obviously the order , but the movement is actually centrifugal - from the centre outwards. All depends on the point that Jesus is the Messiah, a Preacher quite out of the ordinary.

This point established, St. Mark considers the preaching of Jesus (3:7-4:34). First he considers the audience of Jesus (3:7-35) and then the reaction of Jesus himself (4:1-34).

The first point he makes about the audience is its size. Christ has a great influence, many follow him, and he picks out twelve as his closer hearers (3:7-19). The behaviour of this audience is mixed. It can be hostile (3:30-30), is sometimes so wild with enthusiasm as to be dangerous, and sometimes actually accuses Christ of being an agent of Satan. It can also be well disposed (3:31-35), so as to merit its being welcomed by Jesus as his mother or brother or sister.

The reaction of Jesus (4:1-34) is clearly designed to meet the situation. To the people he speaks only in parables, so that they will not understand, while to the apostles and disciples he discloses the inner meaning of these parables. We don't have any full record of the parables as first given to the people. The nearest we come to it is in the parable of the sower (4:1-9). St. Mark gives us the explanation of it immediately afterwards (4:13-20). He then gives us two more parables in a readily intelligible form - that of the maturing grain (4:26-29) and that of the mustard seed (4:30-32). These are immediately intelligible to us because their interpretative key has been supplied as well - “The kingdom of heaven is like…” Originally the people were given the parables without any accompanying key.

St. Mark provides us with the reason why Jesus only used parables (4:10-12. 33-34). He also indicates that the disciples' privileged position implies their corresponding duty to hear and heed G-d's Word (4:21-25).

In the following section of his Gospel the Evangelist brings out four aspects of the miracles of Our Lord: (1) They are signs of his divine power (4:35-41 the calming of the tempest); (2) they are works of great power (5:1-20 the devils cast out of the man of Gerasa and going into a whole herd of swine); (3) they are the response to faith in his audience (5:21-43 the raising of Jairus' daughter and the staunching of the flow of blood); (4) but they produce no impression where an attitude of disbelief prevails, and then Jesus doesn't even bother to work them (6:1-6 Jesus is driven out of Nazareth).

The second main section of this entire Gospel extends from verse 7 of Chapter 6 till verse 37 of Chapter 13, and presents to us the contents of the preaching of Christ. This is the main theme of the whole Gospel and, just as it is placed between two subsidiary sections, so it, in its own turn, is divided into three parts of which the second is the principal one. While 6:7-8:21 deals with the need for faith and wariness of the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees, 11:1-13:37 presents us with Christ speaking out in condemnation of those unworthy leaders of G-d's people and with his proclamation of his own kingship. 8:22-10:52 is dedicated to the main point, the fulcrum or pivot of the entire Christinan message - the Mystery of the Cross. It will be convenient to treat this central point first, and to begin in schematic form.

Before that, however, I shall present a scheme of the entire Gospel to sum up what has so far been said, and also to prepare the way for what has still to be said. Only after that shall I give a scheme of the central consideration of the Mystery of the Cross. Thirdly, I will continue with the rest of my exposition.

This beautifully constructed central section of the Gospel teaches us about the Mystery of the Cross, the hardest lessons Christians have to learn. Just as Jesus enlightens the two blind men he miraculously cures at the beginning and end of this section, so his teaching enlightens his followers on their way of life. Only against the background of the Cross can Christ's stand regarding, for instance, matrimony be fully understood. Again, joy in this world, the Transfiguration, is only there to help us carry the cross - perfect joy is reserved to a better life.

Christ's teaching regarding riches is given in three points: (1) 10:17-22 the episode of the rich young man; (2) 10:23-27 the danger of riches; (3) 10:28-31 the reward given to those who renounce riches.

6:7-8:21 deals with the need for Faith and for wariness regarding the leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees. Here again we find three main divisions and two interludes:

The final note on the blindness of the disciples prepares the ground for their subsequent illumination regarding the Mystery of the Cross and the real nature of the work of Christ in the Gospel's central section that we have already considered.

11:1-13:37 presents Christ speaking out in condemnation of the unworthy leaders of G-d's people, and also records his proclamation of his own kingship. There are five main sections:

The first of these (11:1-11) presents no difficulty, and describe's Christ's glorious entry into Jerusalem.

The second (11:12-25; verse 26 is probably a later addition to the text as we have it) considers the figure of Christ as a wonder-worker, driving home a point made from the very start of this Gospel and thereafter progressively and increasingly insisted on. Jesus' cursing of the fig-tree (11:12-14) is a symbol of what follows, viz., the purification of the temple (11:15-19). Only after making this clear does the Evangelist consider the fig-tree miracle in itself and mention Jesus' own comment about the omnipotence of Faith (11:20-25).

The third section (11:27-12:12) opens as Jesus, asked by what right he purifies the temple, questions the rulers of the people about the nature of John's baptism (11:27-33). After exposing in this way their temporising and shifty characters, he rejects their leadership in his story about the wicked vine-dressers (12:1-12).

In the fourth section (12:13-44) St. Mark first of all presents three questions and their answers, and then he clarifies three points of doctrine:

Finally, in the fifth of these sections (13:1-37) we have Our Blessed Lord's eschatological discourse, which is very simple in structure: (1) 13:1-2 Jesus prophesies the destruction of the temple; (2) 13:3-4 the disciples ask Christ to tell them when will be the destruction of the temple, and when the end of the world; (3) taking their questions in order, Jesus tells them (13:5-23) when the destruction of the temple will be, and (13:24-37) when the end of the world. As regards 13:5-23, the destruction of the temple, Jesus (a) 13:5-8 clarifies that it will be foreshadowed by certain signs such as wars, (b) 13:9-13 that it will also be preceded by persecutions and tribulations, and (c) 13:14-23 that it will actually take place in the manner he describes. By chiasmus, Jesus then passes in 13:24-37 to the Second Coming, (a) 13:24-27 describing it, (b) 13:28-32 guaranteeing that it really will take place, and (c) 13:33-37 emphasising the need for constant vigilance because it may happen any time!

• 14:1-52 Betrayal by Judas
• 14:53-15:41 Jesus King of Israel
• 15:42-16:20 Jesus Lord of the Universe

Creativity House:

The Rainbow C Y M B A L

Constellate Youthful Minds Beyond Ancient Limits

Interpreting Symbolically Earth's Significant PRESENT

Attunement, Education & Initiation:

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Note: The editor expresses his grateful thanks and deep appreciation to all those who have contributed in so many ways to the preparation of this Paper.

Liberation of Feeling and Opening of the Heart:

Importance is not in what we are, or have been, but what we would (could) be.

I need to be raw (w)rite now - I need to be somewhere special in the heart of nature for me to be nature in my heart, to fully open my senses to their creative potential

to laugh, to cry,

to live, to die.

In sharp contrast with Protagoras's claim in Ancient Greece that "man is the master of all experience, in regard to the phenomenality of what is real and the non-phenomenality of what is not real", moderns often seem enslaved, experiencing the world and themselves quite passively, precisely as Karl Marx complained. No longer experiencing themselves as the acting agents they instinctively long to be within the world, women and men now find themselves alienated, strangers inhabiting a cold, complex tangle of objects.

Walter Pater, in his study of art and poetry in The Renaissance (pp. 233 ss.), suggested that the purpose of this life is "not the fruit of experience, but experience itself. How shall we pass most swiftly from point to point, and be present always at the focus where the greatest number of vital forces unite in their purest energy? To burn always with this hard gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life. While all melts under our feet, we may well catch at any exquisite passion, or any contribution to knowledge that seems by a lifted horizon to set the spirit free for a moment, or any stirrings of the senses, strange dyes, strange colours, and curious odours, or work of the artist's hands, or the face of one's friend."

Men and women do wish to fulfil themselves in experience, but before they can involve themselves fully in their experience, they must learn how to set their spirits free, at least for a moment. This brings us back to the problem of alienation in contemporary society. The problem of social de-alienation is that of finding some institution capable of governing, serving, defending, teaching, entertaining, curing, and creating and sustaining symbols of integration great enough to overcome the disintegrative forces of fear and weakness. We do not need fresh ideas merely, but an appropriate application of practical force. This is neither more nor less than art. Art is the communication of society.

The chief characteristic of the modern world is not the rapid change going on all around us; it is the radical mutation in our concept of what it means to be human. Women and men can feel themselves now as developing beings, creating themselves by transforming the world into their shared living-space as humans. They can accept themselves in freedom as an upthrow of their own individual here and now, without an antecedent universe, since each makes her or his own history, without a language or a culture even, because each individual is in quest of these in the matrix of their here and now applications, and not otherwise.

Perhaps women and men still have a programme, but the individual has no memory, no fixed horizon, no plan, no clear aim. More precisely, man's biological memory in both the male and female of the species is not completely programmed, and needs to be complemented by a language, either a verbal language, a body language, or some other sort of language. Any language is true provided it works. The obvious snag about our present verbal languages is that, from the standpoint of our intellectual expertise, we have made ourselves extremely diversified and sophisticated, and we use our sense in complex and highly disciplined ways - yet, on the other hand, at the level of sensory satisfaction, we still depend on a physiological character, sensory capacitors and basic behaviour patterns evolved in a sparsely populated world, and we can easily feel overwhelmed, if we are subjected to too many stimuli, or required to enter into over-complex sensory interactions.

I find the human being standing in a situation of world-openness between the restlessness of disorder and the chthonic expectancy of creative chaos. Outside the individual, if we prescind and abstract from everything that women and men collectively have developed, this ambiguity appears to be all-pervading. Cultural and social order has its immediate origin within women and men in their historicity. Just as a cinema-projector throws an image onto an otherwise blank screen, so women and men in their individual and collective consciousness project stability, dimensions, colours, meanings and values, and so bring a world into being. The human being is, therefore, quite literally, the light of the world. The difference, not only between order and disorder, but - and this is of quintessential importance - between the sterility of disorder and the secret vitality of chaos results in this way from a psychological projection which, like all things human, is the hard-won fruit of a very long evolution.

The basic need is clearly that of living in an understandable universe. Unless this need is met, not even the most selfish thought is possible. Creativity means much more to humans than economics. By externalising their creative projects, not just in clay modelling and other plastic arts, but in everything they say and do, human beings emphatically proclaim that all reality is meaningful, call upon the whole Cosmos to signify for them the validity of their human experience, construct the world as their own symbolic universe.

At home deep within our Heart we can, both together and alone, discover an inner Art of Free Imagination. This is the essence of Human Nature in us, the Eternal Beauty of the Self-Renewing Source of Inspiration, the True Ark of the Covenant, the Inner Voice of all the Muses, and a Fountain of Living Waters.

Such is the potential we all share. This is the essence of creativity, wich makes each among us the special person we so passionately hunger to become.

In the discovery of this vital connection to the Creative Within (the artless Art) is the Key to realisation. Connection with this Sources evokes forces older than history, energising the very foundation of the psyche itself, beyond any specific archetypes.

The ancient mystery schools offer a rich reservoir of practical wisdom to assist the unfolding of this creative potential within. Today, too, the sound of one hand clapping - Cymbal of Creative Imagination is still needed to nurture a renaissance of thought and feeling, a reopening of the Way, to liberate spirit, mind and senses.

Tomorrow's children will demand of us this birth-right. Yet this form of education is a heritage which our society has in recent times increasingly neglected. Hence, the crises in human relations, the arts and international order now challenging us, and spurring us on to fresh and nobler efforts.

Only a new empowering of the human being, a liberation of the riches of the spirit, a more generous opening of the heart to love of natural beauty and true freedom can bring about this urgently needed resurgence.

Charity - to encourage and support children in their chosen inspiration. Children with us to receive love and special education - their work being, in their own growth, simultaneously to nurture the growth of others in preparation for their life as adults. School - to provide these studies. Orphanage

At Home in Creativity House:

• “Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this to all the exiles deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses, settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce; marry and have sons and daughters; choose wives for your sons, and find husbands for your daughters so that these can bear sons and daughters in their turn; you must increase there and not decrease. Work for the good of the city to which I have exiled you; pray to Yahweh on its behalf, since on its welfare yours depends. For Yahweh Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Do not be deceived by the prophets who are with you or by your diviners; do not listen to the dreams you have, since they prophesy lies to you in my name. I have not sent them, Yahweh declares. For Yahweh says this: When the seventy years granted to Babylon are over, I shall intervene on your behalf and fulfil my favourable promise to you by bringing you back to this place. Yes, I know what plans I have in mind for you, Yahweh declares, plans for peace, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. When you call to me and come and pray to me, I shall listen to you. When you search for me, you will find me; when you search wholeheartedly for me, I shall let you find me. (Yahweh declares, I shall restore your fortunes and gather you in from all the nations and wherever I have driven you, Yahweh declares. I shall bring you back to the place from which I exiled you).”

^{Jr 29: 4-14, New Jerusalem Bible (London: DLT, 1985)}

The Greek word ‘histor’ (= one who holds knowledge) is related to another Greek word ‘histos’ (= loom, or cloth), and Homer frequently praised the Wisdom of one famous woman weaver, Penelope. He also attributed to Circe “a great imperishable web, such as is the handiwork of goddesses, finely-woven and beautiful, and glorious.”

The word ‘church’ derives from Old English ‘cirice’ or ‘circe’, which is cognate with Circe. A dialectal form of Circe (also found in Greek) was ‘Kirke’. The Dutch word for ‘church’ (kerk), the German ‘Kirche’ and the Scots ‘kirk’ all come from the Old Saxon ‘kirika’, another word cognate with Kirke or Circe, and so equally evocative of the universal Mystery around.

The Breviary of St. John Apostle & Evangelist is a mediæval manuscript work that has sometimes been attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74), being included with his writings On Prayer and the Contemplative Life, and the following medi(t)ation on the Church, which is taken from it, appears to be an extract from Chapter 5 of St. Augustine's Tractatus CXXIV On The Psalms:

• “The Church, then, knows of two kinds of life divinely set before Her, and commended to Her - In the one we walk by faith, in the other by sight. The one is the pilgrimage of time, the other is the mansion of eternity. The one is a life of toil, the other of repose. In the one we are on the way, in the other in Our Father's Home. The one is spent in the toil of action, the other in the reward of contemplation. The one turneth away from evil and doeth good, the other hath no evil from which to turn away, but rather a great Good which it enjoys. The one is in conflict with the foe, the other reigns - conscious there is no foe. The one is strong in adversity, the other knows of no adversity. The one bridles the lusts of the flesh, the other is given up to the joys of the Spirit. The one is anxious to overcome, the other is tranquil in the peace of victory. The one is helped in temptations, the other, without temptation, rejoices in its Helper. The one succours the needy, the other dwells where none are needy. The one condones the sins of others, that thereby its own sins may be condoned, the other suffers naught that it can pardon, nor does aught that calls for pardon. The one is afflicted in sufferings, lest it should be uplifted in good things, the other is steeped in such fulness of grace as to be free from all evil, that so, without temptation to pride, it may cling to the Supreme Good. The one discerns between good and evil, the other sees naught save that which is good. The one, therefore, is good - yet still in miseries, the other is better - and in Blessedness.”

Nevertheless, although originally intended to be used to encourage a sense of solidarity, shared humanity, kinship, good fellowship and family-belonging, the word “Church” and, similarly, the words “Lodge”, “Mosque”, “Synagogue”, “Gurdwara” and “Temple” are, in today's world, all too often associated, like the “Mafia”, with various undesirable forms of group-rivalry, unfriendly competition, death-dealing hatred and hard-hearted intolerance.

The drawback about such alternative words as “paradise” and “heaven” is that they unhelpfully direct attention and concern away from our actual here and now situation. “Heaven” comes from the same root as the verb “to heave”. Heaven is that which is “heaved up” above the Earth, or the mundane. True Prayer is that Voice of the Holy Spirit within our heart which affords us both the power and the leverage we need to Rise Up from our fallen state of disability, disease and disorder, and to attune our being with the Cosmic Harmonies of that Higher-Frequency-Plane yet Ever-Present Life of Order, Ease and Ability, where, as The Book of Common Prayer has it: “with Angels and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we - notice the present tense - laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and Earth are full of thy glory: Glory be to thee, O Lord most High. Amen.”

Aristotle assures us that “the true nature of a thing is that which it becomes, after the process of its development is completed.” Our true nature as the People of G-d, therefore, is, I believe, that we find outlined for us in Chapter XXI of Revelation. To the redeemed in Glory that happy condition is, indeed, in the present tense now, and the more effectively we open the heart of our mind to that Perfection which, from all eternity, is Our Father's Present Will for us, too, the sooner will its effective Presence begin to shine in us and from us. “May your kingdom appear. May your will be accomplished on Earth as it is accomplished in heaven” (Mt 6:10). Sursum corda - Lift up your hearts!

Although the history of the last two thousand years is not without its positive and redeeming features, it offers superabundant evidence that members of religious institutions, such as ‘the Church’ “to the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral, or social life, must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of G-d and religion” (GS, no. 19).

For present purposes the new name “Creativity House” has, therefore, been preferred to “Utopia”, “Paradise”, “Kingdom of Heaven” and “New Jerusalem”, in order to emphasise that we are, each and all of us, both individually and collectively building our own Future.

Integrating our Rainbow Programs into Nature's Rainbow Programme

• “Then I saw another powerful angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in cloud, with a rainbow over his head; his face was like the sun, and his legs were pillars of fire. In his hand he had a small scroll, unrolled; he put his right foot in the sea and his left foot on the land and he shouted so loud, it was like a lion roaring. At this, the seven claps of thunder made themselves heard and when the seven thunderclaps had sounded, I was preparing to write, when I heard a voice from heaven say to me, ‘Keep the words of the seven thunderclaps secret and do not write them down’ ”

^{Rv 10: 1-4.}

The wonderful concluding chapter of G. K. Chesterton's novel, The Man Who Was Thursday, marvellously helps us to appreciate more deeply and extensively than otherwise we might, how we are all, each in our own uniquely and distinctive ways, Called to Grow instinctively and increasingly as Individuals in authentic Love of the Beauty & Boundless Mistery I+N Variety of the Rainbow Programme, in which Nature's old and new self-generating Programs are cunningly interwoven with those we originate ourselves, so that, together, they build up the fabric of what I have called the Neith Network. The rational development and implementation of various particular Rainbow Programs is, of course, excellent, when it takes place in the Service of Love, but no Degree of Mastery of any Rainbow Program can substitute for the Free Love it ought to help us to express, and from which no detail of any Program should ever be permitted to distract our primordial attention.

• “ ‘And this’, God said, ‘is the sign of the covenant which I now make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all ages to come: I now set my bow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the Earth. When the bow is in the clouds I shall see it and call to mind the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on Earth, that is, all living things’ ”

^{Gn 9: 12-13.16.}

Many evidences suggest, and assiduous, individual meditation-mediation confirms that the following is now the core-program operating within, and establishing the key-note or fundamental harmonic resonance for the whole of the Neith-Network throughout the Cosmos:

• PRESENT FOCUS - Life itself: Being, receptive listening, accepting chaos naturally ('chaos' is not disorder), making a creative response.
• PRIORITY PURPOSE - Individual Growth in Freedom: initial dynamic conditions crucial, process functionally self-justifying, willingness to start afresh.
• ORGANIZATION - Mysteriously effective: rhythmic with quantum-leaps, unconscious synchronicities, morphogenetic resonance, left- & right-brain modes of consciousness both balanced and valued, feeling of kinship and a sense of fun, reciprocal nourishment and support, local “Openings” and specialist “Clusters” and “Nodes”.
• CHARACTERISTICS - Community of mutual trust: individual strengths appreciated, open, relaxed, energetic, shared leadership, keeping everything as simple as possible, celebrations in Gratitude-&-Praise.
• INTERFACE WITH ENVIRONMENT - Mathematically precise to the Nth degree: globally, locally, in each person's Heart.

Neith is not just a funny way of writing Nth! This Ancient Egyptian local goddess of Saïs is, like Inanna (the Sumerian goddess of Love and War), a warlike divinity - witness her bow and arrows. She blessed hunters' weapons, and these would be set round coffins in ancient times to invoke her protection. She wears the red crown of Lower Egypt since the Delta was the centre for her cult; Suchos, the crocodile god, was her son. In the New Kingdom, as the gods' mother who bore Ra, Neith is a primeval goddess, neither female nor male in any restrictive sense, being the first to create the seeds of gods and men, presumably by parthenogenesis - a possible link with both the Christian Virgin Mary and the Sumerian god, Enki's half-sister and laboratory assistant in the creation of Man (c. 298,000 B.C.), Ninharsag; Athene may well be a variation of the same name. The Pyramid Texts have Neith with Isis, Nephthys and Selket, watching over the funeral bier of Osiris. She is a patroness of weaving, so all the wrappings, bandages and shrouds on a mummy evoke her divine power, symbolised by a weaver's shuttle.

As Children of Neith and Friends of Creativity House, we acknowledge our own need, as individuals walking in the footsteps of Gautama Buddha, and as family-communities modelled on that of Jesus, Mary and Joseph of Nazareth, to root out, each in our own way and as best we may, the weeds of the waste land, since only thus may we hope ever to make planet Earth indeed a Garden of Love and Wisdom where the Rose can ramble freely and the Lily burgeon, unhindered by dividing fences of rejection, distrust and over-specialisation.

The dismantling of all such fences will require the creation and implementation of radically renewed philosophical, artistic and scientific vision. Since the challenge is great and time pressing, it is important to discern how each of us can best contribute to this vital project. This importance consists, in a word, not in what we now appear to be, nor in what we have been hitherto, but in what we may grow to be by reconnecting with our Primordial, Originary Source. Thus, our future is not a fixed goal, but a world vibrant with the natural intelligence of a living human heart at home, and in harmony with the resonant rhythms of a Music that is truly Cosmic. Within all the following are centres for creative inspiration in their respective fields, each designed conceptually for its own theme, i.e., a theme to inspire dance, music, etc:

Just IS

• “Wisdom is complete willingness to be the plaything of chance circumstances.” - LAO-TSE
• “The world is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering.” - THE TAO
• “The modern world with its strange, new and probably transient belief in ‘progress’, tends to give much credit to ‘originality’ even to the point of doubting whether anything else is quite sincere. It wants a new contribution to thought, and in its grotesque individualism supposes that every man who truly expresses his own relation to the world, will say something different from what anyone else would say.” - WILLIAM TEMPLE
• “Two tendencies govern human choice and effort, the search after quantity and the search after quality.... Inclinations are never compulsions - but the condition of independence is submission to the immortal consciousness.... What we may choose to share are gestures.” - ISHA SCHWALLER DE LUBICZ
• “The great events of world history are at bottom profoundly unimportant. In the last analysis the essential thing is the life of the individual.” - CARL GUSTAV JUNG
• “Conversion has nothing in common with any exterior and contingent change which arises simply from the ‘moral’ domain. Contrary to what is usually considered a ‘conversion’, there is nothing in it which implies superiority in itself of one tradition over another, but simply what one might call reasons of spiritual convenience, which again is something quite other than an individual preference.” - RENÉ GUÉNON quoted by ROBIN WATERFIELD
• “If you are going to evolve in your spiritual uniqueness and individuality of expression, it is essential to become aware of the sharp differences between people (and influences) who nourish and encourage it, and those who seek to limit or even destroy it. It is necessary to discern clearly between good and evil as it affects your own identity. Evil is anything which makes you feel guilty about having a self, that seeks to destroy your individuality, or imposes the belief that the meaning of your individuality consists in giving it up to another person or deity or abstract image, such as 'the people' or 'society'. Anything or anyone that denies, explicitly or by implication, the meaning of every person's uniqueness and spiritual potential is evil. On the contrary, everything and everyone that encourages it, reveals it, helps it to grow and evolve towards the Light of greater understanding and awareness is good.” - JOAN D'ARCY COOPER
• “Just as thoughtless remarks can lead people into error, so also ill-advised silence can leave people in their error, when they could have been shown where they were wrong.” - St. GREGORY THE GREAT
• “Not everything is caused by ourselves. There are accidents and we are vulnerable to other people's actions and states of mind. We are intimately connected with one another, and the healing of everyone's body, mind, and inner being is very much our own concern. ‘Innocent people’ and children do suffer through the weaknesses of others and through forms of distortion and violence which our societies express or allow. It is important to understand this, for it is a fact that we are all inter-related, and the only real answer to suffering which is inflicted on the ‘innocent’ lies in the ultimate spiritual growth of everyone.... For most people on earth, knowledge about ‘eternal life’ or spiritual growth through continuous life- expressions does not form part of their mind-structure when they come into physical bodies. They do not bring with them minds which are structured to accept the existence of more than one life - even though they have in fact already experienced numberless forms of life over a vast period of time. Each form of life has constituted for them the only life, either end of which fades into shadowy existence. In between existences, so to speak, in these shadowy wings, there is a fading out of memory so that each 'on-stage' call appears like an original 'first night'. (This applies to both Western and Eastern people, for even those born into cultures that use such terms as karma or reincarnation to explain life do not find ready access to their own personal memory-traces).... There have been many physical forms into which individual men have incarnated, commencing with the earliest forms of proto-man. These forms represent more primitive stages in man's etheric or spiritual evolution. Man never incarnated in the physical form of plant or animal life. As men evolved spiritually, so the physical forms of mankind progressed as vehicles for his physical manifestation.... Since the middle of the nineteenth century, however, an ever-increasing number of people have entered physical bodies that were not suited to their stage of evolution, or into societies whose conditions were inimical to any real learning experience or growth of being - or entered without adequate spiritual preparation themselves for their once-only life on Earth.” - JOAN D'ARCY COOPER
• “The reality a person thinks he sees is in fact the mind he inhabits; recognising this fact, let each person take responsibility for his mind by questioning every form it contains.” - JOAN D'ARCY COOPER
• “Ask for something, and you will be given it; look for something, and you will find it; knock, and the door will be opened to you. And indeed, everyone that asks receives; everyone that looks finds; he who knocks will have the door opened to him.” - JESUS OF NAZARETH

Truth

Note: This previously unpublished, only privately circulated, and now slightly revised Paper was originally completed at the New Moon on the Feasts of Pope St. Callistus & St. Teresa of Avila, Thursday-Friday, 15 October 1993, but notes 59 and 60 were added on the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, Tuesday, 9 November 1993.

INTRODUCTION

In Chapter Three of his encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor,²⁹ which he signed on the Feast of the Transfiguration, 6 August 1993, and which was published on 5 October, Pope John-Paul II strongly reaffirmed his 1986 declaration to an International Congress of Moral Theologians that “only the freedom which submits to the Truth leads the human person to his true good.”

Many non-Christians welcome such an attitude of personal commitment to the demands of Truth, no matter where this may be found. Indeed, it was precisely on these grounds that in 1988 Baroness Warnock praised Father Norman Ford's highly controversial study When did I begin? - Conception of the human individual in history, philosophy and science.²⁵

The encyclical, however, as the Roman Catholic Archbishops and Bishops of England and Wales have already made clear, "is not all about sex,"⁹and, according to Cardinal Hume,³⁵ it is not intended to back up Humanae Vitae.⁴⁶

The Pope makes this clear in the Introduction, where he recommends the new Catechism of the Catholic Church¹³ as containing “a complete and systematic exposition of Christian moral teaching.” A 1975 Declaration on Certain Questions concerning Sexual Ethics, issued by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith⁴⁸ may also be consulted.

Despite its being addressed to the Bishops of the Catholic Church, Veritatis Splendor has been officially and authoritatively presented by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as an expression of the Pope's “concern for man... and the great problems of mankind today.”³⁴ Undoubtedly a remarkable document⁶⁰, which deserves to be read several times and very carefully studied, this encyclical has already aroused widespread interest, and is likely to be discussed in detail for some considerable time.

The Tablet for 9 October contains several extremely helpful related articles,^31-35 as well as an excellent 7-page abridged version³⁰ of the very much longer official English translation of the encyclical, but readers of this latter will sometimes need to remember that the document before them is not in all respects a reliable guide to the Pope's meaning as expressed in the original Latin. Should 'malum', for instance, be taken to mean 'evil', or 'wrong', or 'bad'? There is, as Cardinal Hume has indicated,³⁵ no easy answer to this question, but feminists concerned with issues of gender-discriminatory language may rest assured that, although the male chauvenist undertones of Cardinal Ratzinger's and the Pope's expressed concern for 'man' are peculiarities of English usage their translators might have done much better to avoid, they are quite clearly absent from both the Italian and Latin sources.

My own principal criticism of the encyclical is that, notwithstanding the Pope's assurance in Chapter Two that “the Church's magisterium does not intend to impose upon the faithful any particular theological system, still less a philosophical one,” the document is here and there so worded that - in clear contradiction to its author's avowed intentions in writing it - “the inescapable claims of truth disappear, yielding their place to a criterion of sincerity, authenticity and [of Roman Catholics] 'being at peace with [themselves],' so much so that [the methodology underpinning its composition is likely to come across to many, indeed, perhaps to a majority of his readers as expressive of] a radically subjectivistic [because narrowly and institutionally 'Catholic'] conception of moral judgment,” so that - again in clear contradiction to the Pope's intention - the rights of Truth itself are neglected, and we are offered instead a particular statement of the writer's “own truth, different from the truth of others.”

This criticism, if justified (Today (1 November 2004) I apologise to His Holiness if, unlike myself, he was already understanding "beginning" in Gen 1:1 in the kaioritic sense discussed at www.bhsu.edu/artssciences/asfaculty/dsalomon/nyssa/meta.html", especially in the context of 2 Cor 3:18.), cannot safely be ignored, since, as Pope St. Gregory the Great long ago observed: “Just as thoughtless remarks can lead people into error, so also ill-advised silence can leave people in their error, when they could have been shown where they were wrong.”⁵⁶

A former director of the Vatican library, Cardinal Alfons Stickler was recently reported⁵⁴ as saying that the state of the Church today is even worse than it was during the Arian heresy of the fourth century, and as adding that “these days bishops” - to whom the Pope's encyclical is addressed - “do not take their jobs seriously”; in France, for example, many “do not act as they should, and are easily influenced.”

Whether or not that complaint is justified, “the world,” as The Tao puts it, “is ruled by letting things take their course. It cannot be ruled by interfering.”⁵⁶

That is why I agree with Carl Gustav Jung that “the great events of world history are at bottom profoundly unimportant, in the last analysis the essential thing is the life of the individual.”⁵⁶

As the late Joan D'Arcy Cooper untiringly emphasised in all her writings:^15-21 “If you are going to evolve in your spiritual uniqueness and individuality of expression, it is essential to become aware of the sharp differences between people (and influences) who nourish and encourage it, and those who seek to limit or even destroy it. It is necessary to discern clearly between good and evil as it affects your own identity. Evil is anything which makes you feel guilty about having a self, that seeks to destroy your individuality, or imposes the belief that the meaning of your individuality consists in giving it up to another person or deity or abstract image, such as 'the people' or 'society'. Anything or anyone that denies, explicitly or by implication, the meaning of every person's uniqueness and spiritual potential is evil. On the contrary, everything that encourages it, reveals it, helps it to grow and evolve towards the Light of greater understanding and awareness is good.”

This should not be wrongly understood. Joan would certainly have agreed with Archbishop William Temple: “The modern world with its strange, new and probably transient belief in 'progress', tends to give much credit to 'originality' even to the point of doubting whether anything else is quite sincere. It wants a new contribution to thought, and in its grotesque individualism supposes that every man who truly expresses his own relation to the world, will say something different from what anyone else would say.”⁵⁶

Another quotation from Joan Cooper may help to clarify her thought: “Not everything is caused by ourselves. There are accidents and we are vulnerable to other people's actions and states of mind. We are intimately connected with one another, and the healing of everyone's body, mind, and inner being is very much our own concern. 'Innocent people' and children do suffer through the weaknesses of others and through forms of distortion and violence which our societies express or allow. It is important to understand this, for it is a fact that we are all inter-related, and the only real answer to suffering which is inflicted on the 'innocent' lies in the ultimate spiritual growth of everyone.”

Since I agree with John-Paul II that “no one can escape from the fundamental questions: What must I do? How do I distinguish good from evil?” and that “the answer is only possible thanks to the splendour of the truth which shines forth deep within the human spirit,” why do I feel myself so much ill at ease with the current curial style of writing that characterises his encyclical?

1. THE IDENTITY OF THE G-D OF GENESIS IS INSUFFICIENTLY CLARIFIED.

Veritatis Splendor opens with the assertion that “the splendour of truth shines forth in all the works of the Creator and, in a special way, in man, created in the image and likeness of G-d (cf. Gn1:26).”

Even if few bishops find anything to alarm or even surprise them in that statement, no writer with the resources of today's papacy at his disposal is entitled to pass over in silence the painstakingly researched and conscientiously presented arguments of Zecharia Sitchin about the creation of man and the nature and identity of the 'G-d' or 'gods' of the Old Testament.^49-53 The first of these lavishly illustrated and closely argued five volumes was published as long ago as 1976, the first four have all been translated into various languages and also made available in Braille, and the very title of the most recent^†, Genesis Revisited - Is Modern Science catching up with Ancient Knowledge? clearly announces its relevance to the very matters the Pope is referring to.

Sitchin was raised in Palestine, and understands both modern and ancient Hebrew, together with other Semitic and European languages, and he is one of the relatively few scholars to combine familiarity with Sumerian with knowledge of Old Testament and Near Eastern history and archaeology.

Thirty years of research have convinced him that modern man is both the result of evolution as Darwin suggested, and a creature resulting directly from divine intervention as Genesis teaches. But in what sense?

The Sun came into existence about five billion years ago. About forty million years later the rest of the then solar system came into being, including a no longer existing planet called Tiamat. Then, about four billion years ago Nibiru/Marduk introduced itself into the system from the outside, and thereby brought about a very considerable re-arrangement, so that Tiamat split into Earth, Moon and the Asteroid Belt (the Firmament, Heaven, or Waters Above of Genesis), while Nibiru/Marduk became a planet with a 3,600-years orbit.

Sitchin reviews the subsequent history of life on Earth, and sees it as conforming both to the most recent findings of modern science and to the ancient Sumerian texts from which that of Genesis principally derives. Notwithstanding the prior existence of Plesiadapsis, Aegyptopithecus, Proconsul, Australophithecus, Advanced Australo-pithecus, Homo habilis, Homo erectus, and other primates, apes, and hominids, evolution alone did not give rise to the existence of Homo sapiens sapiens, the modern man of today.

In 443,000 B.C., as Sitchin interprets the relevant data, a group of Anunnaki/Nefilim led by the 'god' Anu's son Enki arrived on Earth by space-ship from Nibiru/Marduk and established Eridu, Earth Station 1, in Mesopotamia at the north-west of the Persian Gulf.

When the ice sheets receded, and the climate in the Near East improved about 15,000 years later in Earth years (but scarcely more than 4 years' later in terms of Marduk's 3600-year solar-orbit), Enki moved inland, and established Larsa in about 413,000 B.C.

A world-wide interglacial period began about 400,000 years ago. Enki's brother Enlil came down to Earth at about this time, and established Nippur as Mission Control Centre. Meanwhile, Enki opened sea-routes between the Persian gulf and southern Africa, where the Nefilim began gold-mining operations, apparently because the very survival of the 'gods' on their own home planet Marduk depended on the use of this metal to make good certain deficiencies in the there and then prevailing atmosphere. Ecological problems, in other words, are nothing new!

So, in about 358,000 B.C. the Nefilim also established Bad-Tibira to smelt and refine gold and other metals, including silver and copper, and built other cities, including their Space-Port Sippar.

Unsurprisingly, those 'gods' or Nefilim who were detailed to work underground in the mines eventually decided that conditions were intolerable. That, Sitchin explains, is why, three hundred thousand years ago, after a strike-mutiny by Nefilim miners, Enki and the 'goddess' Ninhursag created (as both of the related summary accounts in Genesis confirm) first a male, and then both male and female non-reproductive versions of Homo sapiens by implanting into selected Nefilim females ova previously extracted from Earth-born ape-women and genetically manipulated by fertilisation with male Nefilim (and in that sense 'divine') semen, possibly in combination with blood and, perhaps, copper-irradiated red earth.

Thus, despite prevailing ice-age conditions, Homo sapiens flourished in western Asia and North Africa about 285,000 years ago. However, being hybrids, the females of this new species remained, like mares, unable to reproduce and bear children. A more serious inconvenience, from the gods-or-Nefilim's point of view, was their lack of longevity. For 'gods' reckoning their own life-span in years each of which equalled in length 3600 Earth-years, even Methuselah's life of 969 years (cfr. Gn 5:27) was scarcely more than a breath in the wind.

Accordingly, about 250,000 years ago, and largely at the instigation of Enki (who in some sense doubles both as the more benevolent of the Elohim and as the Serpent of the Genesis account), the Nefilim bestowed on Homo sapiens the potential for sexual self-reproduction, while withholding the gift of, at least by human reckoning, seeming immortality.

This new Homo sapiens sapiens (modern man) spread to other continents. Recent comparisons of the placentas from women of different races and geographical backgrounds indicate they all descend from a single mitochondrial female ancestor (the Eve of the Bible?) who lived in Africa between 300,000 and 180,000 years ago.

Sitchin's books are rich in fascinating details about these and subsequent developments, but I need not explore them here. Specialists in the relevant disciplines are, of course, unlikely to agree with all his conclusions, nor would he wish them to. Truth is seldom arrived at without difficulty and,I suggest, H.S. Bellamy's^2-8 and Iman Wilkens'⁵⁷ writings are far from being the only other serious studies of these and closely related matters which need very carefully to be taken into account.

As Donald Nicholl says, “almost every day new horizons are being disclosed to human awareness, whether in space research or bioethics or ecology or in nuclear apocalypse, that throw into quite different light everything in the past as well as in the present.”³³

Although I personally accept as a clear enough statement of the infallible teaching of the Church's ordinary magisterium Pope Paul VI's requirement in Humanae Vitae (§ 11)⁴⁶ - and which is reiterated in the new Catechism of the Catholic Church¹³ (§ 2366) - that “any use whatever of marriage must retain its natural potential to procreate human life,” the Pope's teaching still needs to be wisely interpreted, and I can see no good reason for agreeing with his much wider claim (§ 13) that “man does not have unlimited dominion over his body in general.” Freeman Dyson's Infinite in all directions,²³ although weak and already outdated in many of its conclusions, is one well presented argument in favour of the opposite viewpoint.

Like Nicholl I am familiar with “the dictum lectio benevolentior: when in doubt about how to interpret some statement always choose the more benevolent reading.” Indeed, this is a maxim which my native temperament, family upbringing and subsequent education and life-experience have strongly inclined me to erect into a cardinal principle of social communication - but while there are many contexts in which we may quite harmlessly endorse both Pope Paul's rather sweeping claim and the opening sentence of the present Pope's encyclical, the present instance is not one of them.

Even if the 'God' or 'gods' (Elohim) Genesis portrays as creating Adam in his or their own 'image and likeness' were acting under some sort of Divine Inspiration or special Creative Impulse, as many theologians would most likely agree with me must have been the case, it is by no means obvious that if genetic manipulation and in vitro fertilisation were morally permissible options for space-travellers from Marduk wishing to foster and nurture the development of human life on Earth, it would be in any way less than honourable for us to emulate their broadly successful example.

I realise, of course, that Enki's and Ninhursag's joint endeavours were, according to the surviving evidence, not in all respects entirely successful, and that their plans in this regard were strongly opposed by Anu's senior representative on Earth, his son Enlil, from the outset. There are undoubtedly several surviving anomalies in the 100,000 elements or so that go to make up our DNA genetic blue-print, and it cannot be ruled out that such anomalies are at the root of many, if not all of our shortcomings and failures as humans - in other words, that it was Enki and Ninhursag, our creators, rather than Adam and Eve who actually committed the Original Sin from which the Church wishes to save us.

According to Bernard Lonergan “among primitives the spheres of the sacred and the profane interpenetrate, without benefit of distinction or separation, and so those who in secular matters are most religious, in the sphere of religion are most prone to idolatry. The Hebrews themselves were no less inclined to idolatry than were other races; the difference was that their tendency to idolatry was held in check by the inspired teaching of the prophets, proclaimed with vehemence and constantly reiterated.”⁴³

Such idolatry is, therefore, I respectfully suggest, in today's world a sin to which Church leaders are likely to be especially prone, so that their grass-roots fellow members of the human family are now more than ever obliged to prophesy against their teachings when necessary.

The intellectual patterning of experience which Lonergan so much admired and propagated³⁸ is, as he himself increasingly grew to appreciate,⁴² frequently an obstacle to appropriate pastoral communication between the magisterium and ordinary Christians. In other words, 'distinction' and 'separation' are not always the 'benefit' that Lonergan appeared to maintain they were in the short passage above quoted from a translation of one of his Latin theological works.

Indeed, footnote 3 on page 6 of his book, The Way to Nicea actually says: “The meaning of this interpenetration of the sacred and profane emerges more clearly when we reflect that the symbolic mentality does not apprehend things as separate and self-contained, as 'nothing but...', but rather as containing always some further meaning and as revealing and communicating a transcendent reality.”

Although he then rather complacently adds that “questions about the origin of all things, about G-d, about the meaning of human life - questions that are raised and answered explicitly by the educated - are handled quite differently by the uneducated, by primitives and by children, who, without benefit of any special conceptual apparatus, raise such questions only by wondering and answer them only by understanding,” the results of Sitchin's research are not my only motive for insisting that the 'primordial' is often the very reverse of 'primitive', and that a 'mythical patterning of consciousness' is frequently and by far preferable to any aridly intellectual or academic form of presentation.

There is abundant evidence in Lonergan's writings,^38-43 and there is much about the writings both of the present Pope and of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales that indicates their growing awareness of the importance of this point, but it nevertheless needs to be reiterated and emphasised.

Fifty years have now elapsed since Pope Pius XII urged Catholic biblical scholars diligently to study ancient languages, and honestly to interpret the Scriptures in the light of their own particular historical and social context and of any other available archaeological, philological or otherwise relevant data.⁴⁷

This, of course, is precisely what studies like those undertaken by Bellamy, Sitchin and Wilkens enable us to do somewhat less imperfectly than in the past. However, although The New Jerusalem Bible⁵⁵ has many merits, and sets out “to take account of linguistic, archaeological and theological advances”, no reader who is truly awake can today remain satisfied with the sort of translation, commentary and notes which are there provided. Scholars need no reminder about this, but ordinary readers desperately need to be made aware of the true state of affairs.

This, I am suggesting, is something that most sermons, most pastoral letters written by Roman Catholic bishops, and most papal encyclicals still lamentably fail anywhere near sufficiently to take appropriately into account. Someone needs to say - the buck stops here!

Harold Knight's The Hebrew Prophetic Consciousness³⁶ is still an excellent preliminary guide to anybody wishing to understand the holistic outlook, or better 'onlook' ²⁴ of the early leaders of mankind, and I continue to regard Lonergan's paper “On G-d and Secondary Causes”³⁹ as among the best available explanations of why, as I stated in Mirror of Justice,²⁸ “the immediate and universal causality of G-d need not (and since Jesus has chosen to entrust universal sovereignty to Mary, in practice never does) exclude the operation of secondary causes of various kinds.”

Although many Christians may hitherto have failed to realise this, the traditional teaching that G-d (in the theological sense of that term) is the primary and immediate creator of each and every individual human soul does not in any way exclude his using secondary causes as instruments in the production of his effects, just as my choosing to write these words myself does not exclude my deciding to use an ink-jet printer in conjunction with a desk-top computer so to do! This point can never be sufficiently emphasised, and it deserves to be meditated upon and pondered in depth.

Interpersonal communication is tremendously important,²² but much more important is each individual person's own living appropriation of objective Truth, as the present Pope, like Thomas Aquinas,¹ Franz Brentano,¹¹ Joan Cooper,¹⁶ Bernard Lonergan,³⁸ and Cardinal Newman⁴⁵ have helped me to realise and appreciate; a valuable lesson, I submit, and one which, like the other members of the human family, John-Paul II and his curial advisers still need to learn better than they so far appear to have managed to do. I heartily recommend David Michael Levin's The Listening Self³⁷ to all those among them able to read and understand English.

2. COURTESY OF EXPRESSION OFTEN RESULTS IN UNHELPFUL VAGUENESS.

The Pope opens Chapter One of Veritatis Splendor by recalling the story of the rich young man that occurs in Chapter Nineteen of St. Matthew's Gospel. The theme underlying this story is, John-Paul claims, “ultimately an appeal to the absolute Good which attracts us and beckons us; it is the echo of a call from G-d who is the origin and goal of man's life.”

That, I suspect, is why Donald Nicholl³³ interprets laying a wreath on the site of Mahatma Gandhi's samadhi in 1986 as symbolising the Polish Pope's acknowledgment of the fact that non-Christians are sanctified by the practice of their own religion, in other words, do not necessarily stand in need of 'conversion' in any institutional sense.

For, as Robin Waterfield reports,⁵⁶ René Guénon's celebrated and even, in many eyes, notorious conversion from Christianity to Islam was neither an expression of cynical opportunism nor the outcome of institutional disloyalty. As Guénon himself put it: “Conversion has nothing in common with any exterior and contingent change which arises simply from the 'moral' domain. Contrary to what is usually considered a 'conversion', there is nothing in it which implies superiority in itself of one tradition over another, but simply what one might call reasons of spiritual convenience, which again is something quite other than an individual preference.”

Guénon's remark calls for meditation, and instead of discussing it further, I propose briefly to relate its significance to that of the already available French text of the Catechism of the Catholic Church - Catéchisme de l'Église Catholique in which by far the most important feature is the distinction between 'tradition' and 'Tradition'.⁵⁹

But to revert to the Holy Father's own claim above mentioned - one way of justifying that claim is to refer to what many Christian theologians have identified as man's natural desire for the beatific vision. Thus, in section five of Chapter Five of Verbum - Word and Idea in Aquinas⁴⁰ Lonergan writes: “Nor was understanding as the ideal of scientific theology unknown to Aquinas whose principles, method, and doctrine the Church bids us follow. To ask quid sit is to ask: Why? To know quid sit is to know the cause - above all, the formal cause in the only manner that causes are known, by understanding. Hence to ask quid sit Deus expresses a natural desire; but to know quid sit Deus defines a supernatural end. For knowing quid sit Deus is understanding G-d. That understanding cannot result from any finite species but only inasmuch as G-d himself slips into and mysteriously actuates a finite intellect. But potency that no creature can actuate is obediential and its act, by definition, is supernatural. Short of this supernatural vision of G-d, we can know quid sit Deus only by analogy. But such analogical knowing moves on two levels. By the natural light of reason we argue from pure perfections to the pure act. In the subalternated science of theology we operate in virtue of ipsum intelligere, under the direction of divine revelation, without grasping the divine essence, yet truly understanding the relations of properties flowing from the essence, both from the connection between the mysteries and from the analogy of nature. Thus, the ideal of theology as science is the subalternated and so limited, analogical and so imperfect understanding of quid sit Deus which, though incomparable with the vision of G-d, far surpasses what can be grasped by the unaided light of natural reason.”

I do not intend here to attempt any detailed analysis of this difficult and important passage, but I would like to draw the reader's attention to two contrasting uses of the term 'natural'. Man's 'light of reason' is said to be 'natural' in the sense that it naturally seeks and sometimes naturally arrives at an understanding of finite creatures, but man's underlying desire to understand, his tendency to persistently ask: 'Why?' is also called 'natural' even though the very possibility of such a desire's ever being adequately naturally satisfied is specifically and quite explicitly excluded.

It is my conviction that when, both in Veritatis Splendor and in the new Catechism of the Catholic Church (and when I first wrote this paper I had only had the opportunity of reading this in French), reference is made to 'natural law', the word 'natural' is being used in a similarly complex sense, and that insufficient effort has been devoted to explaining to readers of these documents precisely what is at stake.

Viewed from this angle, the Pope's approval of a plurality of theologies and philosophies within the Church turns out to be not so much a way of acknowledging a legitimate pluralism, as rather a device which excuses the Roman authorities (though only, of course, whenever they find such a procedure convenient) from properly addressing themselves to the actual details of the very matters they claim to be helping us to understand!

In Chapter Two of the encyclical, for instance, it is very clearly implied that when “the individual conscience is accorded the status of a supreme tribunal of moral judgment which hands down categorical and infallible decisions about good and evil”, then “to the affirmation that one has a duty to follow one's conscience is unduly added the affirmation that one's moral judgment is true merely by the fact that it has its origin in the conscience.” This, however, is by no means necessarily the case and, following in the steps of Aquinas, Newman, Lonergan and others, I accurately summarised one incontrovertibly orthodox expression of a traditional contrary position several years ago in Voice In The Darkness²⁷... but only in my final Chapter because, and here's the rub, all communication is translation, and accuracy of self-expression is well nigh impossible.

The Druids wisely prohibited the writing down of their essential teachings. The great St. Augustine of Hippo clearly had hold of the wrong end of the stick both about the inner realities of the Manichæan faith he had once professed to accept, and about the teachings of Pelagius. The 250,000 books on philosophy, theology and related disciplines in Heythrop College library add to this problem at least as much as they contribute towards solving it. While, for instance, Timothy McDermott's new anthology of Selected Philosophical Writings by Thomas Aquinas¹ is certainly a most welcome addition to the literature, its acceptance of 'existence' as a translation of St. Thomas's 'esse' strikes me as systematically and seriously misleading. Indeed, were I to venture a linguistic proposal anent the Immanence-Transcendence and creature-Creator relationships, I would say: “G-d Is. Man is not. Man ex-sists. G-d in-sists.”

Aquinas himself understood the relationship between the human person and its Maker in the Beatific Vision as analogous to that between man's physical body and his immortal soul, and whenever a human being is in a state of grace such a link with G-d is developing. This link is not any sort of bi-polar relationship between subject and object; it is a mysterious, but nonetheless increasingly actual mutual compresence by intentional (using 'intentional' in its Thomist, not in its contemporary ordinary-language sense) identity of each one with the only One.

The Bible attributes many if not all of our linguistic difficulties to the Nefilim's decision to destroy a particularly large Tower, probably an international communications centre we had managed to erect in Babylon, but prior to that mankind actually did enjoy the use of one common language and mode of speech.

Zecharia Sitchin, whose important writings I earlier introduced,^49-53 believes this primordial human tongue may have been Sumerian. Since, in Sumerian, the word for 'word' also means something rather like 'Rocket', 'Space-Craft', or 'UFO', not only does this give an entirely new complexion to everything the Bible states and celebrates about the power and majesty of the 'word' of 'god' - it also invites, perhaps even demands a more Buddhist, more Yogic, more meditative and, therefore, less crassly material interpretation of what Sitichin and, indeed, modern scientists generally purport to be telling us about the material world around us.

To quote Joan Cooper again: “The reality a person thinks he sees is in fact the mind he inhabits; recognising this fact, let each person take responsibility for his mind by questioning every form it contains.” St. Augustine himself could not have expressed it better (“I questioned, I interrogated my soul”).

Sitchin also mentions that the root meaning of the Sumerian, and therefore of the Hebrew word usually translated as 'wisdom' is, in fact 'mining', so that Sophia, the 'goddess' of Wisdom acquired that title originally because of her adroitness and skill in assisting Enki in his achievements in the Underworld, i.e., in the southern hemisphere (but in this theological context we do well to remember that, as St. Paul has taught us, everything we see now is, as it were, in a dark glass, an ænigma).

Thus, Sitchin's interpretation of the related ancient source documents does not exactly support the Pope's attempt to explain the divine command to man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil as meaning that “the power to decide what is good and what is evil does not belong to man, but to G-d alone.” All such dichotomies are even more foreign to the minds of the Old Testament writers than they are to Aquinas-inspired contemporary practitioners of transcendental method. But permit me to introduce a more topical example.

In the new Catechism of the Catholic Church which, as we have already noticed, John-Paul II regards as “a complete and systematic exposition of Christian moral teaching”, it is stated (§§ 2211. 2290-91) that the civil community is obliged to guarantee the family's right to medical care, to a healthy atmosphere, to protection against dangerous drugs; that the virtue of temperance inclines one to avoid all forms of excess, including any abuse of alcohol, tobacco or medicines; that the use of drugs inflicts serious damage on human health and life; that, strictly therapeutic indications aside, habitual use of drugs is a serious fault; that the clandestine production of and commerce in drugs are scandalous carryings-on; and that they constitute seriously illicit forms of incitement to serious offences against the moral law.

It is also necessary to add at once, particularly since the English text of this catechism is not yet publicly available, that the work has been designed to be read and studied not piecemeal, but as an integrated whole, that it is meant to be interpreted within the framework of the whole historical Catholic tradition it expresses and out of which it has grown, and that it was primarily written not for the immediate use of ordinary members of the Church, but for the benefit of catechetical writers who would in due course, and in the light of their own knowledge of the culture of that specific group of Christians they were seeking directly to address, write various sorts of local or national catechisms....

In other words, although all the so far available versions of the new Catechism are selling like hot cakes (thanks be to G-d!) don't blame its authors, if most readers fail to understand what it is really and truly not only attempting, but (and we have the Pope's own word for it) actually managing to say!

I don't disagree with the Pope, but I do have a few questions:

What is the worst form of drug-abuse? Teenagers having fun getting high on adulterated low-strength Ecstasy and LSD tablets? Tobacco companies making a commercial profit by selling a product officially acknowledged to be seriously damaging to health? Psychiatrists and medical practitioners routinely prescribing Valium and worse to render their stress-overloaded patients even less free truly to know and take into account their own interior moral, immoral or amoral state of being-in-the-world?

Too much in both the Catechism and the encyclical smacks of kow-towing to the Establishment. No reason to be hostile to other Churches, to the State, the United Nations, Scientists, Universities, etc. But if the Pope does not give a lead in emulating Jesus's own preferential option for the poor and abandoned, the downtrodden and oppressed, the suffering and rejected, who now will?

The tree of evangelisation, the Tree of Life never has and never will grow from the top downwards, but only from the roots up. If there are deficiencies in Veritatis Splendor, the fault lies not in John-Paul's way of writing it, but in my lack of skill in reading it - the buck stops now.

3. JOAN COOPER SHOWS THE WAY

“The mind of every person on Earth may be thought of as potentially a seven-storey house, every level of which opens out into a different sphere of existence in the etheric world. It may also be thought of as a house having fourteen possible rooms which a person may inhabit. These fourteen compartments open out into the seven 'upper' and into the seven 'lower' etheric spheres or forms of life. Man's mind consists of fourteen kinds of mental state which open out onto fourteen kinds of place. As a state of mind reflects outwards and creates place, so a person becomes enclosed in a world of his own making.

On the highest level a man's mind will reflect all that exists in the etheric universe; for a man to reach this level, he must will to know and experience all things as they are.”¹⁶

The seventh etheric levels reveals by crystalline reflection the objective reality of all thirteen lower levels.

The sixth etheric level accommodates those seeking to serve non-personal Truth in the practical context of life.

The fifth etheric level brings together those whose spiritual journey expresses the desire for At-Onement with God, Mystical Union, Samadhi.

The fourth etheric level manifests non-personal concern for the true nature and potential present in others.

The third etheric level is characterised by the desire to serve others' real needs.

The second etheric level is where the desire for self-expression develops into creative self-expression and self-expression for others' benefit.

The first etheric level is any sort of Summerland, Paradise or Garden of Eden where the desire for physical and etheric possessions is satisfied.

The first level of distortion is a state in which one's will is ensnared by its identification with one particular negative personal emotion, e.g., fear or resentment.

The second level of distortion is where one is also withdrawn from much in one's own world, in order to express some negative emotion.

The third level of distortion is where one creates objective distortion in order to validate for oneself one's own negative state of mind.

The fourth level of distortion is where individuals, whether alone or in collusion with others, indulge their obessive and all-encompassing ego-centricity, not excluding self-violation and violent forms of self-mutilation.

The fifth level of distortion is characterised by the violent exercise of power in order to impose one's own world on others.

The sixth level of distortion is characterised by the frequently schizophrenic will to force Light to submit to Darkness.

The seventh level of distortion is a zone whose inhabitants may reflect Light brilliantly, while themselves inhabiting total Darkness, deaf even to the voice of their own conscience, and very much in need of the gift of Peace.

esus of Nazareth speaks: “Ask for something, and you will be given it; look for something, and you will find it; knock, and the door will be opened to you. And indeed, everyone that asks receives; everyone that looks finds; he who knocks will have the door opened to him” (Mt 7:7-8).

1. St. Thomas Aquinas, Selected Philosophical Writings, Oxford University Press, 1993.

2-8. HANS SCHINDLER BELLAMY, The Book of Revelation is History; Moons, Myths and Man - a reinterpretation; Built before the Flood - the problem of the Tiahuanaco ruins; In the Beginning G-d - a new scientific vindication of the cosmogonic myths in the Book of Genesis; The Atlantis Myth; A Life-History of our Earth - based on the geological application of Hörbiger's theory, and, with Peter Allan: The Calendar of Tiahuanaco - a disquisition on the time-measuring system of the oldest civilization in the world; The Great Idol of Tiahuanaco - an interpretation of the glyphs carved on its surface, Faber & Faber, 1936-1959.

9-10. Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, “Pastoral Message from the Archbishops and Bishops of England and Wales to the Catholic Priests and People of their dioceses, to be read at all Masses on the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 3 October 1993.” For a recent and helpful clarification of the outlook and attitude underlying the bishops' message cfr. “Shepherds and pilgrims - The bishops' reflections” in The Tablet Volume 247 No. 7991, 2 October 1993, pp. 1277-8.

11. Franz Brentano, The True and the Evident, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966.

12. Catechism of Catholic Doctrine, revised edition, CTS, 1971.

13. Catéchisme de l'Église Catholique, Mame/Plon, Paris, 1992; Catechism of the Catholic Church, Geoffrey Chapman, 1994.

14. Codex Iuris Canonici, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1983; Code of Canon Law, Collins, 1984.

15-21. Joan D'Arcy Cooper, Culbone - A Spiritual History, Georjan Studio, 1977; The Door Within, Wincanton Litho, 1979; The Ancient Teaching of Yoga and the Spiritual Evolution of Man, Research Publishing Co., London, 1979; Corner Stones of the Spiritual World, printed by Hammetts of Taunton, 1981; Guided Meditation and the Teaching of Jesus, Element Books, 1982. Joan Cooper's previously unpublished papers “Imbalance in Society” and “A Service of Meditation” are also recommended.

22. H. D. Duncan, Communication and Social Order, Oxford University Press, 1962.

23. Freeman Dyson, Infinite in all directions, Penguin Books, 1990.

24. Donald D. Evans, The Logic of Self-Involvement, SCM Press, London, 1965.

25. Norman M. Ford, When did I begin? - Conception of the human individual in history, philosophy and science, Cambridge University Press, 1988.

26-28. Colin Hamer, “One Man's Quest - Bernard Lonergan's Achievement” in Catholic Education Today, July/August 1971; Voice In The Darkness, United Writers, Zennor, 1978; Chapter Six of the privately circulated: Mirror of Justice - Abstracts from a Library, a sequence of essays in honour of the Nuptial Theology of the Sovereign Lady Mary Most Holy Help of Christians by Divine Conception Mother of G-d and Virgin Queen of All That Is, non-commercial pre-publication edition, Creativity House, 1992.

29-35. Pope John-Paul II, Veritatis Splendor - Encyclical Letter addressed by the Supreme Pontiff to all the Bishops of the Catholic Church regarding certain fundamental questions of the Church's moral teaching, CTS, London, 1993. An abridged version of this translation from the Latin original was published in The Tablet Volume 247 No. 7992, 9 October 1993, pp. 1312-8, together with several related pieces, viz.: 31. Editorial, “The Pope rides out to battle”, p.1283; 32. Peter Hebblethwaite, “Timeless ethics”, pp. 1286-8; 33. Donald Nicholl, “Wrestling with truth”, pp.1291-2; 34. report from Rome, “The Pope's letter on the decisive theme of the present day”, p. 1307; 35. home news, “Encyclical not intended to back up Humanae Vitae, says Cardinal”, pp. 1309-10.

36. Harold Knight, The Hebrew Prophetic Consciousness, Lutterworth Press, 1947.

37. David Michael Levin, The Listening Self - Personal Growth, Social Change and the Closure of Metaphysics, Routledge, 1989.

38-43. Bernard J. F. Lonergan, Insight - A Study of Human Understanding, revised students' edition, Longman, 1958; Collection; Verbum - Word and Idea in Aquinas; Grace and Freedom; Method in Theology; The Way to Nicea, Darton, Longman & Todd, 1967, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1982.

44. Herbert McCabe, The Teachings of the Catholic Church - A New Catechism of Christian Doctrine, CTS, London, 1985.

45. John H. Newman, A Grammar of Assent, Longmans, 1892.

46. Pope Paul VI, Humanae Vitae, CTS, 1968.

47. Pope Pius XII, Divino Afflante Spiritu, CTS, 1943.

48. Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration on Certain Questions concerning Sexual Ethics, CTS, 1975.

49-53. Zecharia Sitchin, The Earth Chronicles: Vol. 1 - The 12th Planet; Vol. 2 - The Stairway to Heaven; Vol. 3 - The Wars of Gods and Men; Vol. 4 - The Lost Realms; Genesis Revisited - Is Modern Science catching up with Ancient Knowledge, Bear & Co., Santa Fe, 1991-1992.… 53† Sitchin has also written The Earth Chronicles: Vol. 5 - When Time Began; Bear & Co., 1993; Vol 6 - The Cosmic Code, and also Divine Encounters, Avon Books, New York, 1998 &1996. By restoring its initial aleph to Gn 1:1 he clarifies G-d's creation of the Elohim.

54. Alfons-M. Stickler, “On bishops” - interview with the right-wing German Catholic Pur-Magazin quoted in The Tablet, 4 September 1993, p. 1142.

55. H. Wansbrough, General Editor, The New Jerusalem Bible, Standard Edition, Darton, Longman & Todd, 1985.

56. Robin Waterfield, René Guénon and the Future of the West - The Life and Writings of a 20th-century metaphysician, Aquarian Press, 1987.

57. Iman Wilkens, Where Troy once stood, Rider, 1990.

58. The Tablet, 9 October 1993, already cited, also contains (pp. 1300-01) Margaret Hebblethwaite's favourable review of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza's Discipleship of Equals (SCM Press, 1993). In terms of Fiorenza's “Cartography of Struggle” (pp. 1-12), as a Nuptial Theologian I distance my-self perceptibly from Matthew Fox's Creation spirituality and share as a Child of G-d in the reconstructivist feminism of the author's own Basileia. Like Hans Urs Von Balthasar (who knew nothing of Joan Cooper, and very little about Ancient Egypt), I am also a great admirer of the posthumously and anonymously recently published Secrets of the Tarot - A Journey into Christian Hermeticism (Amity House - Element Books, 1991).

59. Although the expression “traditionally” features in § 74 of Splendor Veritatis, with “traditional” in §§ 47, 55, 69, 70, 75 and twice in § 4, “traditions” in § 94 only, but “tradition” in §§ 4, 24, 27, 36, 54, 76, 80, 102 as well as twice in § 70, the quite distinct and much more authoritative term “Tradition” is, it is important to notice, used no more than ten times in all, viz., in §§ 5, 37, 49, 109 and 6 times in § 27.…

60. John-Paul II's in several ways excellent but imperfectly integrated encyclical draws its inspiration from the Gospel, but its theology is “Thomistic” (p.68) rather than Thomist. Seeking to relate each person's “grave moral obligation to seek the truth” (p.55) to a “primordial vocation” (p.131) inviting a “primordial act of faith” (p.98), and convinced that thanks to the “presence of the Holy Spirit” (p.16) who “leads to all truth” (p.32), those open to receive it may, indeed, hope to do so in “purity and integrity” (p.169), since “all truth is in the New Testament” (p.26), the Pope notes that “Jesus's conversation continues in every period of history” (p.40). “Jesus is the living, personal summation of perfect freedom” (p.134). Only by following Him may we all in “different ways” (p.71) expressive of the One Way learn what life “ultimately means” (p.16).

Integrity I+N Truth

THE ACADEMY FOR THE CULTIVATION OF THE NATURAL ARTS

The purpose of this already flourishing, but deliberately unobtrusive Academy is not to replace or compete with the work of other bodies, but to act as a revitalising leaven for the good of all. Individual courses in Communications are available upon request. The following is the current syllabus for a fairly typical related short course -

PRIORITIES IN PERSONAL GROWTH

• 1. Growth in both individuals and communities may be rapid, but is never hurried.
• 2. Vetera novis augere et perficere (Pope Leo XIII) - Without a proper understanding and true acceptance of our individual and collective past, present freedom to participate in the creation of a better future is greatly impeded.
• 3. Scientists need to learn that science is not an alternative to, but simply a particular form of myth; historians need to appreciate that mythic consciousness is more, not less veridical than historical-critical consciousness.
• 4. Discernment normally calls for the exercise of acquired or infused contemplation.

EXETER CENTRE 113

• Persons wishing to make a private Retreat and other visitors are welcome at Creativity House, 9 Oxford Street, EXETER by prior arrangement, and a map with directions about how to get there by private or public transport is freely available while stocks last.

FRIENDS OF CREATIVITY HOUSE

• Children are naturally free to participate in all activities of Creativity House, and in all those aspects of the work of the Neith Network for which they sense themselves to be ready. Circles of Friends of Creativity House established in various places encourage young persons to find a space in which to grow and do their own thing together. Adults may attend Circle meetings when so invited.

INTERNATIONAL FACULTY OF CREATIVE HEALING

• This Faculty assists Individuals increasingly to accept responsibility for their own being and to act accordingly. Attunement is the keynote and chaos studies are encouraged. Further details are made available as and when appropriate.

CLASSES AND SEMINARS

• The shape and contents of any course of study are best negotiated between 'teacher' and 'student' and since we are all in some sense disciples of each other what follows is no more than a preliminary syllabus:

• 1. Reading and conversation - the personal journal, helpful books, the Book of Nature, lessons from history.
• 2. The human good - skills, feelings, values, beliefs, progress and decline.
• 3. Patterns of experience - biological, aesthetic, intellectual, dramatic, individual.
• 4. Interpersonal relationships - dependency, pairing, fight-flight, holistics.
• 5. Meaning as intersubjective - artistry, symbolism, language, bodying.
• 6. Meditation as mediation - the harvesting of experience.

• 1. History of Western Philosophy, Ancient, Mediæval, Modern & Contemporary - British & Continental.
• 2. Eastern Philosophy, Western Pre-philosophic values, the Esoteric Tradition.
• 3. Semantics, Semiotics and philosophic vertigo.
• 4. Studying Philosophy or Learning to Philosophise?
• 5. Knowing, Objectivity and Reality - the Quest for a Starting-Point.

• 1. From Plato, Freud, Jung and Sheldon to Alpha-A…
• 2. The dialectic interplay of Subject and Object in interpersonal transactions.
• 3. Introducing a glossary of special technical terms.
• 4. The Astrologer-Extrovert and the Alchemist-Introvert compared and contrasted.
• 5. Eight innately different human Character Types.
• 6. Parent-induced modulations in Character-Type-structure: thirty-two distinct Types.
• 7. Achievement, Affability, Application and Attunement in relation to Character Type.
• 8. Art and Science, Narcissism and Sex-Appeal, Sadism and Masochism, Cooperation and Spirituality compared and contrasted.
• 9. A few well known individual examples.
• 10. Patterns of working relationships between persons of radically differing Character Type.

THE NEITH NETWORK RESOURCE

If Luciano Canfora is correct, the so called Library of Alexandria, over which so much ink has been spilled, was merely a bookshelf (cf. The Vanished Library, Vintage 1991). Today's Apostolic Library in Vatican City houses 700,000 printed volumes, 65,000 manuscript volumes, 100,000 maps and engravings, and 100,000 autograph items. However, although the modern storerooms in the Vatican Secret Archive contain 30 miles of shelves occupied by archive material, the term “secret” in the official title is a relic of the times when secret archives were those of the sovereign, which were private in the sense that they were meant only to be used for state or government, in other words, public purposes! Nowadays, most of the Vatican archives are open for consultation by scholars and students.

New York Public Libraries currently accommodate 19,000,000 volumes. In London, Heythrop College Library, which specialises in philosophy, theology and related disciplines, has 250,000 books, and the Warburg Institute possesses an excellent collection of more esoteric works.

Initial selection is a matter for each individual, and Colin Hamer's much more modest, home-based, multi-disciplinary bibliographical resource, which at the end of 1993 comprised approximately 3,500 titles, is kept under continuous review [for the current list cf books.htm ] in a quest for a maximum of brevity combined with genuine value as a complement to, never as a substitute for the almost innumerable of resources nowadays avaliable. The following eight reading-lists have been separately extracted from the data-base, and illustrate a few of its possibilities at the time when they were compiled:

• (1) 590 titles re. biblical studies, Buddhism, catechetics, communications, comparative religion, death and near-death experiences, divinity, ecumenism, epistemology, existentialism, homiletics, Islam, linguistic analysis, liturgy, logical positivism, metaphysics, methodology, patristics, phenomenology, philosophy of science, prayer, scientology, semiotics, transcendental method.
• (2) 263 titles re. alchemy, angels, astrology, dowsing, elementals, esoteric knowledge, Freemasonry, gematria, gnosis, hermetic studies, hierarchy, initiation, magic, mediation, mysticism, numerology, occult arts, ouija, psychic powers, Qabalah, ritual, Rosicrucians, shamanism, sorcery, symbols, tarot, theosophy, Tradition, transcendence, theurgy.
• (3) 159 titles re. acupuncture, Bach remedies, belly dancing, bioenergetics, breathing, chakras, colours, crystals, diet, do-in, healing, herbs, massage, music, psionic medicine, reflexology, relaxation, rolfing, shiatsu, structural integration, T'ai-chi, tantra, yoga.
• (4) 136 titles re. analytical psychotherapy, character analysis, clinical theology, conjoint family therapy, counselling, depth psychology, dreams and day-dreams, encounter, enneagram, Est, face reading, Gestalt, graphology, neuro-linguistic programming, personal magnetism, primal scream, psychedelics, psycoanalysis, psycho-drama, psychosynthesis, rebirthing, Silva mind control, transactional analysis. (
• 5) a representative selection of 128 titles from across the entire range and especially recommended.
• (6) 497 titles re. Agharta, ancient Egypt, archaeology, Atlantis, black virgins, cathars, celtic christianity, church history, Count de Saint-Germain, Dead Sea scrolls, druids, fairies, feng-shui, folk-lore, Francis Bacon, geology, ghosts, Glastonbury, hermeneutics, history, holy grail, holy shroud, inquisition, king Arthur, legends, Lemuria, ley-lines, life in the underworld, maya, mythology, Nostradamus, origin of man, prehistory, pyramids, Robin Hood, sacred geometry, saints, Stonehenge, Sumeria, Templars, Tiahuanaco, witchcraft.
• (7) 67 titles re. computing, mathematics, languages, reading, study-skills, well-being, and writing.
• 8) 162 titles re. the mysteries of sacred sexuality.

“REINCARNATION” AND THE MYSTERY OF INIQUITY

• [Note: This further contribution to the discussion of John-Paul II's Splendor Veritatis was originally completed on the Full Moon of Monday, 29 November 1993, Vigil of the Feast of St. Andrew. It was first revised on the Memoria of Pope St. Damasus I, Saturday, 11 December 1993, and has now been again slightly modified to take more recent information into account.]

In The Tablet for 27 November 1993 (pp.1550-52) Canon Oliver O'Donovan, an Anglican Evangelical and Regius Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology in the University of Oxford, welcomed Pope John-Paul II's 'one answer' in Veritatis Splendor to all the main moral questions of today as 'an evangelical proclamation', which is 'true, forceful and to the point', but felt he had weakened his case by speaking out of 'a species of Christian idealism'.

I believe that John-Paul II is no more an idealist than Plato was a Platonist or St. Thomas Aquinas a Thomistic theologian, but I claimed in Truth (15 October 1993) that the Pope's encyclical “is here and there so worded that - in clear contradiction to its author's avowed intentions in writing it - 'the inescapable claims of truth disappear, yielding their place to a criterion of sincerity, authenticity and [of Roman Catholics] being at peace with [themselves], so much so that [the methodology underpinning its composition is likely to come across to many, indeed, perhaps to a majority of his readers as expressive of] a radically subjectivistic [because narrowly and institutionally Catholic] conception of moral judgment,' so that - again in clear contradiction to the Pope's intention - the rights of Truth itself are neglected, and we are offered instead a particular statement of the writer's 'own truth, different from the truth of others'.” Today (1 November 2004) I apologise to His Holiness if, unlike myself, he was already understanding "beginning" in Gen 1:1 in the kaioritic sense discussed at www.bhsu.edu/artssciences/asfaculty/dsalomon/nyssa/meta.html", especially in the context of 2 Cor 3:18.

While Canon O'Donovan considers that many Protestants will find the third chapter of the encyclical, 'with its patristic sense of crisis, much closer to them than the bland Thomistic approach to cultural synthesis which used to be the hallmark of Vatican statements,' I found myself “ill at ease with the current curial style of writing that characterises” the document.

In a note I appended to Truth on 9 November, I further commented that this “in several ways excellent but imperfectly integrated encyclical draws its inspiration from the Gospel, but its theology is 'Thomistic' (p.68) rather than Thomist.”

Canon O'Donovan's well balanced survey of the encyclical takes into account that 'a public document... does not have infinite space for exposition', and neither does Truth. In attributing to Zecharia Sitchin the thesis that Enki and Ninharsag “created (as both of the related summary accounts in Genesis confirm) first a male, and then both male and female non-reproductive versions of Homo sapiens” in about 358,000 B.C., “by implanting into selected Nefilim females ova previously extracted from Earth-born ape-women and genetically manipulated by fertilisation with male Nefilim (and in that sense 'divine') semen, possibly in combination with blood and, perhaps, copper-irradiated red earth,” I was implying that 360,000 years ago was 358,000 B.C., but this, of course, is not necessarily true. If it were, the planet Nibiru-Marduk (which has a 3,600-years orbit) would not be due to visit our part of the Solar system again for another 1,400 years but, in the light of recent ice-core research done in Antarctica and Greenland (where evidence in the Dye-3 ice-core seems to support the theory of a major geologic event's, with which volcanicity was associated, including, e.g., the Minoan eruption of Santorini/Thera in Greece, having occurred on Earth in about 1,645 B.C.^*), it seems likely that this epoch-making event occurred again in its more benign or 'feathered' form (passing closest to that portion of the Sun furthest away from Earth) as recently as 1955, and will, therefore, not be again repeated until 5,555 A.D. or thereabouts.

G. Cope Schellhorn's When Men are Gods (Horus House Press, Madison, Wisconsin, 1991) provides what is in several ways a helpful overview of the problem, but fails to address the related theological questions in any detail. However, when Joan D'Arcy Cooper's teaching re. reincarnation is placed in relationship both with Zecharia Sitchin's interpretation of still extant Sumerian and Babylonian evidence and with Roberto Assagioli's Jung-inspired theory of sub-personalities, it may, I venture to suggest, throw a little further light on the temptation of Jesus of Nazareth by the Devil (cf. Mt 4:1-11).

If Anu's favourite son, Enki, symbolised by the serpent, was acknowledged as the god of wisdom and mining because of his association with the search for gold in the Underworld of Southern Africa, and if he and his half-sister, Ninharsag, goddess of births, created us in a way that resulted in our also inheriting the less desirable results of their highly original sin, Enki being, by all accounts, not only (like his more law-abiding half-brother, Enlil) a god, but also the prototypical Devil, perhaps theologians ought now, in a Thomist spirit of universalis dubitatio de veritate, carefully to consider the hypothesis that Jesus of Nazareth, G-d incarnate, was also, in his human nature, the reincarnation of Enki, and that the Virgin Mary was similarly the Immaculate reincarnation of Ninharsag who, indeed, also seems to be the same Individual as the goddess known to the Ancient Egyptians as Neith, and to the Greeks as Athene.

This is, of course, a very large question, and one which I am not competent to answer at present. Properly to raise it at all is difficult enough, and while readers of this note are requested to read it in the light both of Truth and of my Mirror of Justice - Mary is the Inspiration I+N Nuptial Theology, as well as of the Bible's clear statement (Gn 1:1 with its intial aleph restored, and Ps 82:6-7) that Yahweh created all the Elohim, I trust they will not be too surprised that I have not raised it explicitly until now.

______________________

^* Schellhorn dates not only the Santorini eruption, but also the Greater Exodus of the Hebrews out of Egypt in 1645 B.C. (op.cit., p.179). If we accept his suggested coincidence of these two events, but date them, as Sitchin is inclined to date the Exodus in 1433 B.C. (cf. The Lost Realms, p.153), my hypothetical 1955 date must, of course, be replaced by 2147 A.D, and David M. Rohl's useful A Test of Time: The Bible - From Myth to History (Century 1995) increases our uncertainty of c. ±200 years for many dates around 1000 B.C.

- Shalom & Welcome! -

Researching the traditions I+N Tradition and Tradition in all traditions

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