Apr 08 2023 62 mins
What do we do with these Christian stories, myths, traditions, festivals, we who are now Apostate? We who are now Atheist, or "Nons"? We who are now Pagan, Animist, who renounce all religion, and practice a spirituality that is no Organised Religion at all? How do we deal with the damage it has done? How do we salvage that which is worthwhile in it? How do we come to terms with it, and still draw on this part of our culture, of our literature and art? How do we tell our children about it?
On reflection, on looking deeper, we can see how our Catholicism was not just imposed, but overlaid, as a thin veneer sometimes, was mixed and integrated and syncretised, with earlier beliefs and practices. The Deep Sacred, of certain places, certain rituals, certain seasonal practices, certain life-rites; in fact, this does not change that much. Only the superficial trappings shift: the Deep remains. Christianity did not simply usurp the place of what was before: it just became the mode of access to the Divine, to the Mysteries; the Mysteries did not go away; the Divine did not, in fact, change, only the Face of it that was turned to us.
And so, I approach the Idea, not just of the Passion Play, the Martyr's Death of Jesus Christ, its horrific violence, its valorisation of suffering; but also, finally, the Idea of the Resurrection. Something I had lost sight of.
And here, we approach it with Tolkien, who sees in it the very Type of the "Eucatastrophe": the sudden "turn", the glimpse of Joy so profound that our heart skips, that we are close to tears. And he sees this as the special, sacred power of Fairy Stories, of which the Story of the Incarnation of Jesus is the most powerful, the most sacred. It's a fascinating concept, which I came across in an essay by the excellent and hilarious writer and meme-wrangler JRR Jokien (who makes humorous Tolkien-related things all over the internet), at their SubStack, here https://jrrjokien.substack.com/p/what-easter-has-to-do-with-fairy
Tolkien's incredible, beautiful essay, both erudite and deeply human, deeply moving, can be found here : https://coolcalvary.files.wordpress.com/2018/10/on-fairy-stories1.pdf
It struck me that this meaning, this significance, of the Resurrection, was something that in my Apostasy, I had completely lost sight of, rejected: and yet, if one believes it, it is indeed one of the most powerful and magical events in human history. And might there not be a way for us, too, to still think of, think with this wildly strange and joyful, solemn Mystery, though we do not accept the Redemption it has been made to imply, the Bargain it has been made to represent?
And in order to explore that possibility, I turned to one of my favourite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and his utterly stunning poem, "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection". And here, I attempt to read and explicate it, and to read into it, the possible redemption, for us, the Apostate, the Pagan, the Witches, of the Mystery of the Resurrection of Jesus, the Man.
Find the poem here : https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44397/that-nature-is-a-heraclitean-fire-and-of-the-comfort-of-the-resurrection
THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ...
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING.
RESISTANCE.