The Enlightened Re-enchantment of the World - Part One

The first Age of Enlightenment was often criticised by the self-interested preservers of long outdated traditions.  They failed to acknowledge that the secular can often be imaginative and fun, ethical and empathic, insightful and reasonable.

Enlightenment had, and continues to have, much to offer humanity, by transcending the competitiveness and cruelty within existing power structures, offering updated knowledge and newer, more effective ways to address longstanding societal problems, and the associated suffering.

There was nothing new about the disenchantment so often claimed to be caused by modernity.  The disenchantment of earlier centuries had been silenced, hidden from history, and thereby ignored and forgotten.

Enchantment and enlightenment are both meant to release individuals from the cruel bonds of unjust expectations.  They both, therefore, provide the basis of real liberty.

While liberty has long been thought to enlighten the world, rather than enchant or re-enchant it, liberty does not, in fact, enlighten the world at all.  It merely provides the opportunity for enlightenment to occur.

Enlightenment and enchantment actually provide humanity with liberty.

Do you sometimes mistake cause for effect and effect for cause?

Do you regard the enlightened re-enchantment of the world as the only antidote to corruption, cruelty and incivility?

The truly rational does not devalue anything.  It merely re-evaluates outdated values and replaces them with updated, evidence-based ones.

The purpose of the rational is to disentangle muddled thinking and replace it with clarity.  That is certainly not the same as imposing disenchantment on human minds.

Mistaking the philosophical aspects of the rational with the political aspects of coerced is, however, common.  

Bureaucracies always coerce even when the politics within them is claimed to be rational.  

That is why rationalisation is a political term.  It is expressive of oppression through coercion, in much the same way as the domineering power structures of earlier times.

Why is bullying still so prevalent?

Why are women still rudely described as witches when they merely attempt to hold the overly powerful to account?

What have been your experiences of bureaucratic practices and the purported rationalisation of political decision-making?

All rationalisation is oppressive, whether in politics, economics or in other social contexts.  It is certainly not about being more reasonable.  It is about claiming decisions are reasonable when they are nothing of the sort.

Distortions of the truth are always political when they aim to coerce compliance with selfish demands and/or bureaucratic ones. 

Most sales and marketing practices are based on unjust distortions of the truth.  Most political campaigning is based on unjust distortions of the truth.

But how do you decide whether a distortion of the truth is just or unjust.

How do you tell when appropriate distortions of the truth are necessary?

How do you learn about the enlightened re-enchantment of the world through art?

Learning the truth about something personally interesting can be excitingly wonderful.  It deepens knowledge and can even re-enchant the world.  It can especially help individuals reinterpret their experiences, their surroundings, possibilities and opportunities in the light of newly acquired, factual information.

Bureaucracies, on the other hand, disenchant.  They shatter hopes.  They suppress curiosity, enthusiasm and empathy.  They are structured for robots, not people.

How have you been reflecting upon your experiences here?

 

• This is a Grimoire
• Picturing Witches
• Which Witch?
• Good Witches

 

How have you sought the enlightened re-enchantment of the world through science?  

Enlightened re-enchantment is associated with the consistent expression of truly humane, secularised values, through good reasoning, respect for the truth, respect for evidence, respect for human rights, respect for nature, and through a healthy imagination.

Regardless of whether people are meant to provide bureaucratic 'services' as a condition of employment or they are simply the seekers of assistance, the humanity within humans is suppressed through the objectification of rationalisation.

The quantification of human experience dehumanises, but so does the unjust expression of ideology, the unjust expression of dogma, and the unjust expression of social status.

Any realistic and appropriately responsible, comparative assessment of religious values will reveal that some of those values are commonly and widely held as reasonable and moral by religious people and non-religious people alike.  The shared values are therefore not essentially religious at all but philosophical and possibly universal.

What is your acquaintance with value theory?

What is your acquaintance with moral universalism?

Claims associated with possessing a higher or lower social status are often connected to the possession of power over various types of capital, whether social, economic or cultural or otherwise.

Yet social status itself is a political concept.  It is used to empower and disempower.  It is used by the powerful to coerce the powerless.  It is used to sell products, and even to sell dreams.  It is used to sell prestige through the deception often possible through blind faith, false hope and the trust expressed by the gullible.

What have been your experiences of economic rationalisation?

What have been your experiences of psychological rationalisation, in yourself and in other people? 

How did various bureaucratic, economic and psychological expressions of rationalisation, in various situations, by various organisations and individuals, influence your experiences of childhood?

How did you experience comfort during your childhood, both physically and psychologically?

How did you experience a sense of joy, wonder and/or adventure during your childhood?

How have you experienced comfort, joy, wonder and/or adventure since that time, and what has prevented you from doing so?

What caused you to feel anxious in childhood?

What has caused you to feel anxious since that time?

Enchantment has much to do with feelings of comfort, joy, wonder and adventure.  When those feelings are lost, therefore, how can they be regained?

 

• The Wonderful Witches of Australia
• Witchery and Trickery
• Never Forget Hecate

 

Far too many attempts to re-enchant life are false promises and possibly even dangerous ones.  

There are many, many exploitative practices claiming to be rewarding ones.

How, then, is it possible to find a safe and certain way towards enlightened re-enchantment?

You may have heard of secular religion and secular spirituality, yet these are not necessarily suitable routes to a re-enchanted world.  Such concepts can be interpreted in a wide variety of ways, some of which are not at all healthy.

How do you define the meaning of religion?

How do you define the meaning of spirituality?

How do you define the meaning of enchant and enchantment?

How do you define chant and chanting?

How do you define wonder and a sense of wonder?

How do you define the delightful?

Perhaps you regard the delightful as difficult to define, or even impossible to define.

How do you define the sublime?

How do you define the numinous?

What do you know about the curse of knowledge?

What do you know about empathy gaps?

You may be required to acquire a beginner's mind before beginning the process of enlightened re-enchantment.

Perhaps you already possess suitable openness to experience.

How have you attempted to encourage appropriate openness in political, economic and psychological terms, in various situations, particularly in the service of liberty, enlightenment and enchantment?

 

• Learning the Truth about Witches
• The Ghost of Queen Adelaide
• The Civility Journalism Circle
• Floating Like a Real Witch

 

How eager are you to experience part two in this series, and why?

How do you already distinguish between your ego and your soul?

How do you already distinguish between the ordinary and the extraordinary?

How do you already distinguish between illusory magic and real magic?

How do you attempt to overcome your preconceptions about any subject or situation? 

In the Adelaidezone, the 12 May 2021 is only just beginning.  It is not yet dawn.

Part two in this series will begin before dawn of 12 June 2021, local time.