As a generalization philosophical preference tends to follow the predisposition of people as to whether they have a stronger soul versus a stronger spirit. For example, those with a stronger soul tend towards a sense of ‘oneness’ or transcendent union with nature. Where those with a stronger spirit lean for a more atomized view and control of the external world by Empiricism. The ‘one and the many’ dichotomy. The scriptures present a dualistic (material and immaterial) view of reality, so we need to maintain a balance as we are material and immaterial in our created form (spirit and soul and body). We might say that those with an imbalanced soul would lean towards Romanticism and those with an unchecked spirit lean towards Enlightenment doctrines. (See here for a brief encounter with those movements- about half way down.)
Tagging along with Romanticism and idealism are magical conceptions of reality and superstition. Bertrand Russell summarized Romanticism as fathered by French philosopher Rousseau (History of Western Philosophy pg.660) “The temper of the romantics is best studied in fiction. They liked what was strange: ghosts, ancient decayed castles, the last melancholy descendants of once-great families, practitioners of mesmerism and the occult sciences…” (pg.654) Many “soulish” Christians fail in their spiritual disciplines and bringing their thoughts under obedience (2 Cor.10:5, Phil.4:8) and begin thinking of Christianity in magical imagery, exercising themselves in fictitious ‘spiritual laws’ which are reported to govern nature. They frequently validate their errors by saying subjective things like ‘The Lord told me this’ or ‘The Spirit revealed this to me’. Also, Christians who are dominated by their own spirit can be Pharisaical on one hand or Sadducaic on the other (materialism- denying miracles, spirits etc.). This isn’t as simple a division as exists here, but for our present purposes we are focusing on a soulishly charged misunderstanding of things by many Christians, because it lends itself to magical thinking and the seeking of ecstatic experiences.
Occultists want to control power and manifest it at will. These heretics who’ve crept in, want to turn a relationship with God into a mechanistic control of power or ‘spiritual’ esoteric laws by their will. This is what occultists teach, how to manifest power by spiritual laws (e.g. your ‘sounds’). I won’t spend time here covering the Word Faith Heretics who teach faith is a ‘substance’ or energy that makes up everything (akin to Eliphas Levi's astral light- pg.168 of Storm's book below) and god used it create everything by visualization and positive confessing- just like we can do. Evidence documenting this is abundant online and in various books. (See criticism of Word Faith teachers like Kenyon, Hagin, Copeland, Capps, Cho, Hinn, etc. the list grows.) Magical thinking is the slow-moving tide that will eventually (and soon) swallow up our culture completely (enter Mystery Babylon). It is thus imperative that Christians understand and not be ignorant of Satan's devices. The tendency of magical thinking within a Christians life makes him focused on manipulating fictional ‘spirit laws’ to get something instead of communing with the Holy Ghost. I don’t say this as a cessationist, I believe we should “covet earnestly the best gifts” and “come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor.12:31, 1:7). I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all. (1 Cor.14:18) But the desire to control ‘spiritual laws’ and thus people is at the core of the Roman Church, with its magical priests and transubstantiation, images, apparitions and Mariolatry, communication with ‘dead saints’, and its ecumenical embrace of heretical religions. Pentecostal holiness was abandoned for Charismatic experiences which lead back to Rome.
What is interesting about occultism is its appeal to Enlightenment philosophers and Romantic philosophers. It can be pursued as a science and investigated along those lines, or it can be intuited as outside of logic and science and investigated in that manner. This universal appeal of the Occult (seen also in mysticism within religions) will be what swallows up the world into a universal world religion. Jason Josephson-Storm in his book The Myth of Disenchantment, documents the lingering beliefs in magic, occult and esoteric doctrines despite the Occidental scientific and technological revolution. Which shouldn’t surprise bible believers since witchcraft is an ever-present work of the flesh (Gal.5:19-21). Storm’s book is very informative and well
documents the justification for magical beliefs along Enlightenment and counter Enlightenment (Critical theory) philosophical lines. The investigation of ecstatic states and paranormal was very common during the spiritualist revival in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Many scientific thinkers were interested in investigating hauntings and mediums and had an affinity for the paranormal (e.g. Marie Curie- Myth pg.1-2 Interestingly Harry Houdini was a famous debunker of mediums.). Along with this research, the ’common religious experience’ or mystical state was believed to be the real root of all religions (Myth pg.162, 190,5). (We discussed Jung and the collective unconscious here.) Your mystics and occultists believe these altered states can and should be triggered and explored (as do your psychedelic- "psychonauts“). This will be the path to one single religion as the mystery of iniquity works in the world.
Storm shows the development of magic theories along scientific lines where laws of magic were investigated like natural laws would be; without the volition of a God (of course- Rom.1:28). Out of this revival of occultism emerged the bemoaning of the lost gods, lamenting the repressive moralizing of religion, the regret of the de-animating and dominating of nature by technology, and the glorifying of the unconscious, irrational realm. These seeds of rebellion developed quickly into a frontal assault on their real enemy- literal Christianity (and Judaism since prophetically Israel will turn to Christ and anti-Semitism will grow- Rom.11, Zech. 12:1-3,9, Lk.21:20-22). Atheist Bertrand Russell describes the soil for these seeds in the nature of men, in that religion and morality reinforce his self-interest for future security away from present satisfaction until this internal conflict becomes irksome and prudent restraints of social behavior become difficult to endure. Those who in this moment, throw them off acquire a new energy and sense of power from the cessation of inner conflict. While this revolt ends destructively, in the moment he experiences a godlike exaltation which can’t be experienced by “merely pedestrian virtue”. (pg.656)
It was Christianity and its Judaic roots that brought monotheism to the world and destroyed the polytheism of the pagan religions severing the connection to the natural world. Christian churches yoked people with rationality and self-control and modern theories of government and liberty. Christianity ushered in scientific ‘dominion of nature’, capitalism, private property, evangelizing the heathen and the patriarchal element to society. (All the things Karl Marx hated, along with the not so-favored 'brown races'. Oh, Hi Darwin!) In short, Christian rationality produced “alienation from the sacred maternal cosmos.” (pg.215)
An influential spokesman (Myth pg.215) arose during the occult revival who helped found modern thought which is driving the insanity behind our culture- Ludwig Klages (1872-1956). Storm gives us a colorful description of Klages magical philosophy as a Frankenstein monster; an aggregate of various thought (Myth pg.213-5, 225). Klages opposed the Enlightenment, rationality, technology, the Jews and civilization; but he liked the primitive man as did Rousseau. Russell again: “Rousseau’s savage- who was not the savage known to anthropologists- was a good husband and a kind father; he was destitute of greed, and had a religion of natural kindness.” Basing beliefs upon private feeling in the heart, Russell observes, shows 2 objections that can be applied. That there is no reason to believe such feelings are true; the other is that private beliefs say different things to different people. (pg.668) It doesn’t take long to see why they hate reason, when it is too consistent; it is too much of an obstacle to lust; and irksome. Voltaire replied to Rousseau regarding one of the essays: “I have received your new book against the human race... Never was such a cleverness used in the design of making us all stupid. One longs, in reading your book, to walk on all fours.” (Russell pg.663)
Klages’s core philosophical work was to diagnose the causes and consequences of the “disenchantment” of the West. (Myth pg.215) Without wading to deeply into his interesting ‘Mind and Soul’ teaching -inverting Hegel’s Geist, (pg.217-220) Klages thought prehistoric man was animistic, matriarchal and worshipped the Earth Mother. Primitive man experienced the soul of nature directly through primal ideas. (pg.232) Then mind (Geist) began seeping into nature and de-souling it. Then the domination of Christianity emerged as matricidal, de-animating nature as it was placed under scientific and rational laws; which laws, for him resided transcendentally in the human mind as Kant had insisted. Klages would not be bound by biblical heteronormative sexuality or any other norm; to him everything was flux. (Myth pg.219) He didn’t even like the law of identity! (pg.213) Which would follow deductively since absolute flux contradicts the unity that identity would demand. (It's funny how the law of identity can so routinely be recognized. Or maybe they approach it like Groucho, the other Marx: "Whatever it is, I'm against it.") We might identify here the law of contradiction. Logic notwithstanding, ‘one could forge a magical theory from the account of the world as interacting flux’. (pg.219) Surprising to him would be that his works can still be identified and understood in all this flux! Unfortunately for Klages, if universals didn’t identifiably exist, he could never have communicated his bad ideas. In Klages twist on Hegel, the en-minding of nature as absolute Spirit self-actualizing through reason, is a bad thing. As a matter of fact, Geist is a flat-out Demiurge! (pg.217) One must wonder how this understanding en-minded Klages’s grey matter? Was this the Demiurge encroaching into his own brain? Unbelievers love the laws of logic as long as no one insists they depend upon the omnipotent, omnipresent God of scripture. Klages solution to modernity was “a mystical orgy of matriarchal love intended to magically bring us back into communion with Mother Nature.” (pg.224) The war on fathers was well under way. This might help us understand Elijah’s ministry regarding the fathers and their children upon his return- Mal. 4:5-6, Lk. 1:17, Mt.17:10-11
Chapter 8: The Magical Foundations of Critical Theory (Storm’s book) begins with a quote from Klages. “Philosophical dialectic springs from the impulse to overcome conceptual thinking.” (pg.209) The heart of magical philosophy has uncanny resemblance to critical theory. (pg.215) Postmodernism is the “Romantic counter-Enlightenment.” Storm’s goal in the chapter is to “retrieve a version of critical theory” that is “a vehicle to deliver esoteric wisdom.” (pg.209) The critical theorist is like an alchemist burning or dissolving an object to reveal the living truth it embodied. (pg.235)
Storm documents Klages’s annoyance with the “domination of nature” leaving its fingerprints upon the Frankfurt School’s critical theory as well. (pg.220-1) The rejection of the belief that “reality is fundamentally mental” which both idealists and their rival materialists both presupposed, was the original meaning of logocentrism made famous later by Jacques Derrida. Both groups saw the universe as rationally intelligible. (pg.221) It was a “cult of reason” that dangerously believed in the power of rationality to master the world. This scorched earth view left nothing mysterious or incomprehensible; nothing magical was left on the horizon. So, we see the lust for relief from the oppressive unrepenting nature of objective reality leads to the retreat within the imagination where complete liberation is possible (1 Cor.13:11) and every imagination of the thoughts of the heart can be only evil continually. (Gen.6:5) Where magic can exist in the imagination and dreams, the most powerful resource in the occult universe. Thus, is the nature of Nihilism and the foundation of Critical theory or cultural Marxism.
Just for the moment let’s ignore the contradiction in the truth claim ‘there is no absolute truth’ and pretend like relativism is viable perspective. Since in Critical theory everything is flux any attempt to identify an object apart from its changing background is by definition the altering of it. Like trying to understand fish in their living element by pulling them ashore with a net. You cannot possibly know ‘fish-ness’ by removing them from their element. Or studying a butterfly that is dead and pinned to a board; the animating nature of the butterfly has been removed, it has been de-souled. You can’t understand reality by segmenting a slice of it and applying some narrative to it- this is indistinguishable from fiction. If you look at a single frame of a video you can’t understand it apart from the video. So, you must experience nature in the moment as a flowing river, not artificially isolate an object and project some story onto it. Since there is no objective truth in reality, there are only narratives supplied by minds and projected onto the flux. (I guess like seeing meaning everywhere and pathologizing the mechanisms that establish relevance; except that’s a lot like schizophrenia.) And the course of history is just a series of ruptures; a string of unrelated moments. So, teachers of history are just supplying metanarratives where none exist. Even worse, all discussions and interpretations of pretty much everything, are understood by Post-modernists as power struggles of competing narratives
projected onto the world, like laser tag. Following Nietzsche there is only ‘will to power’; following Marx there is ‘class struggle’.
This is kind of a bummer because now all relationships are power and domination struggles. Relationships are just violent interactions now; all of them. Parents and children, husband and wife, male and female, boss and employee, basically any speaker to any hearer; all are power relations and violent. Imposing one will upon another, all discussions are acts of violence by a perpetrator upon a victim. When someone is trying to persuade you of the truth of their worldview, this is seen as basically them trying to shackle you with chains and enslave you. Clearly this must be resisted as immoral (if there were such a thing as morality)! But not with reason and debate only (ahh yes- Antifa, I remember). Violence must be met with violence. Now, people are no longer individuals with value and worth and God given rights. Hardly! That narrative was proven wrong when Darwin proved the bible was wrong. Well, I mean not actually proven since there isn’t such a thing as proof and evidence, remember? Proof to them is like a marksman claiming ‘I hit the target’. And when asked what the target was, he declares ‘Where I hit!’ So inflicting violence upon individual people is the same thing as resisting an idea from a class trying to dominate you. That is not a person with a different opinion exercising freedom of speech, it is an attack of a class in the power struggle. Needless to say, this view becomes an impediment to civility as the thuggish behavior all last year demonstrated. And which will continue because the postmodern thought is identifiably the same. The end (domination of the enemy class) justifies the means (lie, steal, cheat, cancel culture, re-education facilities, or any ‘final solution’ that may arise).
And finally, the future Global reset facing us. Since Christianity has corrupted the world with capitalism and ruined our relationship with Mother Earth with all that patriarchal science and technology and mathematics, we have to rein this in with a good dose of economic planning (Corporate Socialism). There is no debate because the real legit science is settled by the consensus of state selected scientists. The only way to bridle the environmentally destructive passions that greedy capitalism unleashes is spring board off the Covid crisis and not let it go to waste. So, plan on restricting certain sectors of the economy and fostering other sectors based on the environment (i.e. Fascist economics). Surely, we can all agree to give up liberty to save the planet. Let’s not consider taking a less tyrannical approach and abolishing the Central banks of the world and slow the capitalist's expansion dramatically because this is never an option, oddly.
Anyway ladies and gentleman we have the groundwork laid, the walls are up and the building is nearing completion for a world bank, government and religious system. Let’s all welcome the magical new world.
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