The Reenchantment of the World
An extremely odd book by Morris Berman, titled The Reenchantment of The World appeared in 1981. I have not found an earlier use of the term reenchantment while now, the term is everywhere - some examples:
Reenchantment of Everyday Life, Thomas Moore
Reenchantment of Art, Susan Gablik
Reenchantment of Nature, Alistair McGrath
Reenchantment without Supernaturalism, David Ray
Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos, Ervin Laszlo
and so on.
Obviously Berman had quite an impact. Berman was a historian of science, so a book by him about alchemy would not be unusual. What was very unusual was that Berman put forth the proposition that alchemy was a better paradigm than modern science for the spiritual health of the planet. He describes the alchemist as being involved in the process of his experimentation instead of being an external observer (i.e. Cartesian) and identifies the purpose of the alchemist to transform him or herself instead of determining better and better ways to utilize objects. Berman points out that alchemy, per se, was a product of its times and that we can't really go back. But he does describe a number of modern threads of thought that he believed were trending in the right direction - the two closest being R. D. Laing a Scottish psychiatrist who did not believe in mental illness and Gregory Bateson, one of the founders of modern anthropology and cybernetics as well as a close personal friend of Milton Erickson.
In 1983, a very interesting book by the psychologist Brian Bates appeared called the Way of the Wyrd. It traces the path of a monk attempting to understand the pagan enemy by learning the Anglo-Saxon herb lore and rituals and in the process discovering his own soul. From Brian Bates own web page is the following description -
"This unusual story documents the physical and spiritual journey of a young man into the vast forests of pagan Anglo-Saxon England - the historical setting of Middle-Earth. Through his experiences the book reveals the teaching of a remarkable Western path to psychological and spiritual liberation; a way of being in the world that challenges many of our current notions of mind, body and spirit."
Does this not seem somewhat similar to Morris Berman's line of reasoning?
Brian Bates was a close associate of R.D. Laing. Here is an interesting 1989 rememberance from a third party Theodore Itten,
Before he left for Zürich, Ronnie showed me his sketch for a new journal entitled Shaman: An Internationally Networked Institute for Shamanic Research and Therapy, asking my opinion. Ronnie was to be responsible for "Therapy," while Brian Bates would take care of "Research." Their stated purpose was: To offer integrated courses in European shamanic tradition, its history, themes, teachings. Implications of the shaman. s vision for emerging paradigms. Approaches to research and therapy inspired by the shamanic way of being. Advanced training courses in therapy and research. Then a "cheerio" and a Shaman's hug, as he and Marguerita entered the bus, which brought them safely to St. Gallen, where they took the train to Zürich."
Ok caersidi this is where Hawkwood comes in. In the acknowledgments to the UnderWorld Initiation (R.J. Stewart, is a note "To John and Caitlin Matthews for many helpful criticisms and comments, and to the Travellers who followed me into the UnderWorld during the conducted visualizations at Hawkwood in 1983." In earlier forms, the UnderWorld Initiation had circulated among individuals as a manuscript since the late 1970's, but, it was still a work in progress judging by this notation. Stewart's method can be regarded as a set of visonary experiences that ties the individual to the fate of the Earth and the fate of the UnderWorld, the space of faery and the ancestors and home to the Dark Goddess.
In 1984, Robin of Sherwood hits British television and soon arrives across the Atlantic. Robin is chosen by Herne the Hunter who seems sometimes man and sometimes god to free the people of Sherwood and in the process overcome his own demons. Slightly wiccan themed with Maid Marion as the priestess of Robin's band.
Also in 1984, Mythago Wood comes out. Originally a novella appearing in 1981 but without an ending. Robert Holdstock describes a family drawn into the Wood by their own (or other) self-created beings from the collective unconscious. It can be read a lot of ways. Jungians will see anima. Marian Green actual saw it as a set of useful exercises to contact the UnderWorld in her book A Witch Alone. The overall flow, however tracks with all that has gone before in the following way - the persons in Mythago Wood are involved in a giant, non-Cartesian, in vivo experiment. They are exploring a world that they are also creating as they go along and dealing for good or ill with the results of that exploration. I see, especially, a link with Way of the Wyrd as this seems to be, in some ways, the quest for the soul.
Somewhere in and around, Philip Carr-Gomm received a vision from the late Ross Nichols, last active chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) who had initiated P C-G into OBOD in 1970. According to Dr. Ronald Hutton, in Witches, Druids and King Arthur, Nichols told Philip to
"revive Druidry in a form which would address one of the main preoccupations of the age: the perceived need to reunite humans with the natural world and their own selves, healing the disorientation implicit for many in an urbanised and industrialised existence. In that moment Philip Carr-Gomm's professional and spiritual concerns fused as a commtment to continue Nichols life work with the end of helping people to achieve peace: with their own selves, each other and their planet."
Over the next four years Philip would work with John and Caitlin Matthews to create the OBOD distance learning course that I am currently persuing.
So caersidi, this sequence is the source of my fixation with 1983. These occurrences seem to be part of a skein of events that are still unfolding. I find the intersection of the mystics and psychologists to be the most puzzling. R. J. Stewart, who seems to know and get along quite well with Philip Carr-Gomm, nonetheless regularly castigates psychology in terms really echoing fellow Scot R. D. Laing's very similar criticisms. In the 1980's, New Age-ish psychologists were just coming off their NLP bender and were needing to a) ground that experience in some sort of spiritual reality and b) change the world since it was a lot more effective than changing individuals since the problem was systemic. While the former could be dealt with through Ericksonian methods, the latter required a larger vision. The nature of that vision and all the interrelationships continue to draw me like a moth to flame.
peace and health,
david
/|\
Reenchantment of Everyday Life, Thomas Moore
Reenchantment of Art, Susan Gablik
Reenchantment of Nature, Alistair McGrath
Reenchantment without Supernaturalism, David Ray
Science and the Reenchantment of the Cosmos, Ervin Laszlo
and so on.
Obviously Berman had quite an impact. Berman was a historian of science, so a book by him about alchemy would not be unusual. What was very unusual was that Berman put forth the proposition that alchemy was a better paradigm than modern science for the spiritual health of the planet. He describes the alchemist as being involved in the process of his experimentation instead of being an external observer (i.e. Cartesian) and identifies the purpose of the alchemist to transform him or herself instead of determining better and better ways to utilize objects. Berman points out that alchemy, per se, was a product of its times and that we can't really go back. But he does describe a number of modern threads of thought that he believed were trending in the right direction - the two closest being R. D. Laing a Scottish psychiatrist who did not believe in mental illness and Gregory Bateson, one of the founders of modern anthropology and cybernetics as well as a close personal friend of Milton Erickson.
In 1983, a very interesting book by the psychologist Brian Bates appeared called the Way of the Wyrd. It traces the path of a monk attempting to understand the pagan enemy by learning the Anglo-Saxon herb lore and rituals and in the process discovering his own soul. From Brian Bates own web page is the following description -
"This unusual story documents the physical and spiritual journey of a young man into the vast forests of pagan Anglo-Saxon England - the historical setting of Middle-Earth. Through his experiences the book reveals the teaching of a remarkable Western path to psychological and spiritual liberation; a way of being in the world that challenges many of our current notions of mind, body and spirit."
Does this not seem somewhat similar to Morris Berman's line of reasoning?
Brian Bates was a close associate of R.D. Laing. Here is an interesting 1989 rememberance from a third party Theodore Itten,
Before he left for Zürich, Ronnie showed me his sketch for a new journal entitled Shaman: An Internationally Networked Institute for Shamanic Research and Therapy, asking my opinion. Ronnie was to be responsible for "Therapy," while Brian Bates would take care of "Research." Their stated purpose was: To offer integrated courses in European shamanic tradition, its history, themes, teachings. Implications of the shaman. s vision for emerging paradigms. Approaches to research and therapy inspired by the shamanic way of being. Advanced training courses in therapy and research. Then a "cheerio" and a Shaman's hug, as he and Marguerita entered the bus, which brought them safely to St. Gallen, where they took the train to Zürich."
Ok caersidi this is where Hawkwood comes in. In the acknowledgments to the UnderWorld Initiation (R.J. Stewart, is a note "To John and Caitlin Matthews for many helpful criticisms and comments, and to the Travellers who followed me into the UnderWorld during the conducted visualizations at Hawkwood in 1983." In earlier forms, the UnderWorld Initiation had circulated among individuals as a manuscript since the late 1970's, but, it was still a work in progress judging by this notation. Stewart's method can be regarded as a set of visonary experiences that ties the individual to the fate of the Earth and the fate of the UnderWorld, the space of faery and the ancestors and home to the Dark Goddess.
In 1984, Robin of Sherwood hits British television and soon arrives across the Atlantic. Robin is chosen by Herne the Hunter who seems sometimes man and sometimes god to free the people of Sherwood and in the process overcome his own demons. Slightly wiccan themed with Maid Marion as the priestess of Robin's band.
Also in 1984, Mythago Wood comes out. Originally a novella appearing in 1981 but without an ending. Robert Holdstock describes a family drawn into the Wood by their own (or other) self-created beings from the collective unconscious. It can be read a lot of ways. Jungians will see anima. Marian Green actual saw it as a set of useful exercises to contact the UnderWorld in her book A Witch Alone. The overall flow, however tracks with all that has gone before in the following way - the persons in Mythago Wood are involved in a giant, non-Cartesian, in vivo experiment. They are exploring a world that they are also creating as they go along and dealing for good or ill with the results of that exploration. I see, especially, a link with Way of the Wyrd as this seems to be, in some ways, the quest for the soul.
Somewhere in and around, Philip Carr-Gomm received a vision from the late Ross Nichols, last active chief of the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD) who had initiated P C-G into OBOD in 1970. According to Dr. Ronald Hutton, in Witches, Druids and King Arthur, Nichols told Philip to
"revive Druidry in a form which would address one of the main preoccupations of the age: the perceived need to reunite humans with the natural world and their own selves, healing the disorientation implicit for many in an urbanised and industrialised existence. In that moment Philip Carr-Gomm's professional and spiritual concerns fused as a commtment to continue Nichols life work with the end of helping people to achieve peace: with their own selves, each other and their planet."
Over the next four years Philip would work with John and Caitlin Matthews to create the OBOD distance learning course that I am currently persuing.
So caersidi, this sequence is the source of my fixation with 1983. These occurrences seem to be part of a skein of events that are still unfolding. I find the intersection of the mystics and psychologists to be the most puzzling. R. J. Stewart, who seems to know and get along quite well with Philip Carr-Gomm, nonetheless regularly castigates psychology in terms really echoing fellow Scot R. D. Laing's very similar criticisms. In the 1980's, New Age-ish psychologists were just coming off their NLP bender and were needing to a) ground that experience in some sort of spiritual reality and b) change the world since it was a lot more effective than changing individuals since the problem was systemic. While the former could be dealt with through Ericksonian methods, the latter required a larger vision. The nature of that vision and all the interrelationships continue to draw me like a moth to flame.
peace and health,
david
/|\