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Daily Advice 12.21.20
Dec. 21st, 2020 12:07 pm I want to turn next to Seneca's De Ira (Of Anger), but first, today being a holy day, let's take a moment to turn to Iamblichus and learn something about the anger of the gods.
Responding to Porphyry's doubts about the pacifications of divine anger, Iamblichus writes,
In these times of disarray and confusion it's become less common, but as recently as a decade ago we used to hear a great deal about divine wrath from certain quarters. 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and so forth were frequently said to be punishments, levied upon the United States by a wrathful God.
Before the modern era, of course, divine anger was an even more common subject of discussion.
Today, advanced modern folks like you and me tend to recoil at the idea of divine wrath.
But should we?
One of the fruits of spiritual practice-- any sort of effective spiritual practice-- is quite simply that you come to know something about your God, and to be able to feel your God's presence and work in your life. ("Grace" is another name for this). 12 step people call this "conscious contact with God" and "being in a fit spiritual fit condition." And 12 step people are a good source of information on this topic since, while they were founded by Protestant Christians, they include members of every faith you care to name in their ranks. (One day I will write an essay on the 12 step tradition as a whole, analyzing it from an occult point of view; it's the most thoroughly Magian and thoroughly American of American spiritual traditions.)
Being in "a fit spiritual condition" is not just a set of words. It's a real condition of life in which you have some constant, background awareness of divine presence, which presence guides your actions in ways that are healthier, wiser and than they were before.
But be aware that God's anger, once roused, may indeed be pacified-- only by seeking Him once again. Most of the older religious traditions have some means for doing so, whether it's sacrificing a hecatomb of oxen (as the Greek soldiers do for Apollo at the beginning of the Iliad) or making a confession (found in both Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism, among other traditions).
If the astrologers are right-- and as an astrologer, I think they are-- today's Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn marks the beginning of a new era. Certainly a new and quite difficult era has unfolded around us over the last few years, whether one believes in astrology or no. It seems to me like a very good time to get right with our Gods.
Responding to Porphyry's doubts about the pacifications of divine anger, Iamblichus writes,
"The pacifications of anger" will become manifest, if we understand what the anger of the Gods is. This, therefore, is not, as it appears to be to some, a certain ancient and inveterate rage, but an abandonment of the beneficent care of the Gods, from which we turn ourselves away, withdrawing, as it were, from meridian light, hiding ourselves in darkness, and depriving ourselves of the beneficent gift of the Gods. Hence pacification is able to convert us to the participation of divinity and the providential care of the Gods, from which we were divulsed, and to band together, commensurately, participants and the participated natures.
In these times of disarray and confusion it's become less common, but as recently as a decade ago we used to hear a great deal about divine wrath from certain quarters. 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, and so forth were frequently said to be punishments, levied upon the United States by a wrathful God.
Before the modern era, of course, divine anger was an even more common subject of discussion.
Today, advanced modern folks like you and me tend to recoil at the idea of divine wrath.
But should we?
One of the fruits of spiritual practice-- any sort of effective spiritual practice-- is quite simply that you come to know something about your God, and to be able to feel your God's presence and work in your life. ("Grace" is another name for this). 12 step people call this "conscious contact with God" and "being in a fit spiritual fit condition." And 12 step people are a good source of information on this topic since, while they were founded by Protestant Christians, they include members of every faith you care to name in their ranks. (One day I will write an essay on the 12 step tradition as a whole, analyzing it from an occult point of view; it's the most thoroughly Magian and thoroughly American of American spiritual traditions.)
Being in "a fit spiritual condition" is not just a set of words. It's a real condition of life in which you have some constant, background awareness of divine presence, which presence guides your actions in ways that are healthier, wiser and than they were before.
Nor is the process of entering into a "fit spiritual condition" any secret. The process is the same as it was in Iamblichus's day, and it consists-- to turn again to the words of the 12 step programs-- of "seeking through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him [or Her, or It, or Them]." To prayer and meditation, we might add rite and ritual, offering, sacrifice, fasting and mortification, feasting and celebration.
There is one caution, though. It is one thing to wander blindly through life, ruled by passions and addictions. It is quite another to cease from wandering, to find divinity and divine peace, only to lose it through a return to old ways. Beware the wrath of God!But be aware that God's anger, once roused, may indeed be pacified-- only by seeking Him once again. Most of the older religious traditions have some means for doing so, whether it's sacrificing a hecatomb of oxen (as the Greek soldiers do for Apollo at the beginning of the Iliad) or making a confession (found in both Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism, among other traditions).
If the astrologers are right-- and as an astrologer, I think they are-- today's Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn marks the beginning of a new era. Certainly a new and quite difficult era has unfolded around us over the last few years, whether one believes in astrology or no. It seems to me like a very good time to get right with our Gods.
