The Enlightened Re-enchantment of the World - Part Two

Perhaps you are here after experiencing part one in this series.

Perhaps you are seeking to learn more about the magical in history, whether in relation to the arts and/or popularity and/or sexuality and/or intoxication and/or wealth, or you may prefer learning more about the delightful in terms of the present, and possibly even the future.

With whom, if anyone, do you have something in common from your own point of view, and how do you know?

Perhaps you are not particularly interested in comparing people, even if you are one of those persons.

Perhaps you are not even interested in attempting to define the enchanting, the mysterious, the magical, or even the sacred.

Perhaps you view nothing as sacred in nature or culture or even within your own life and imagination and feelings.

Perhaps you prefer to imagine other worlds and otherworlds through books and other documents rather than through other cultural object, or even through nature.

Are you sure you are prepared for what is ahead?

What do you currently consider to be enchanting, and why?

 

 

Perhaps you regard initiation processes to be enchanting, at least if they are not cruel or otherwise unethical. 

Perhaps you regard incantations as enchanting.  Or perhaps you regard them as unethical.

 

 

Enlightenment does not destroy enchantment.

Corruption does.

Greed does.

Any other sort of selfishness or abuse destroys enchantment, too.

Enlightenment protects people from becoming disenchanted.

Fake enchantments are often used by abusers to lure their victims.

How do you tell the difference between a bribe and a genuine gift? 

How do you tell the difference between an unjust demand for payment and a fair exchange? 

Abusers give only to receive more than their fair share in return.  They do not genuinely express kindness, even though they may initially pretend to do so through hospitality and other perceived generosity.

Perhaps you mistakenly believe the enchantments and re-enchantments depend on the use or abuse of psychoactive substances.

While euphoria may be regarded as pleasant, regardless of the cause, it has nothing to do with enchantment or re-enchantment.  It is short-lived, unlike the truly enchanting.

What is your acquaintance with compassionate equanimity and enlightened creativity? 

What is your acquaintance with enlightened tutoring and enlightened mentoring?

What is your acquaintance with compassionate politics and enlightened democratic practices?

Please be aware that, as you are likely to be nothing more than an ordinary member of the public at present, you may not have access to this grimoire for very long.

How do you usually acquire the knowledge with which to interpret allegories?

What have been your acquaintance with personifications of concepts?

What do you know about the concept of katabasis?

What do you know about the concept of etiology?

What do you know about the concept of mimesis?

Perhaps you associate enchantment with orgasm.

Perhaps you associate enchantment with fertility.

Perhaps you associate enchantment with health.

Perhaps you associate enchantment with beauty.

Perhaps you associate enchantment with the triumph of good over evil.

Perhaps you associate enchantment with deus ex machina.

Perhaps you associate the myths, legends and sacred stories of some cultures as more enchanting than others.

Perhaps you regard perceptions of enchantment and re-enchantment as entirely subjective.

Perhaps you view some people's ideas about enchantment as quite silly or even quite vulgar.

How, for example, do you respond to cultural depictions of the phallus?

Perhaps you perceive enchantment to be associated with a purportedly elevated, literary language or an ancient language or a purportedly sacred language or exclusive terminology or unnecessary jargon rather than normal, ordinary, everyday, current, usual, vernacular languages.

Perhaps you associate enchantment with indigenous cultures and re-enchantment with a deepening acquaintance with those cultures. 

How do you usually think about human fertility, the fecundity of other species, various forms of infertility and the fertility of soil?

How do you usually think about ecology?

How do you usually think about overpopulation, the overuse of resources, the destruction of ecosystems and the unjust exploitation of people, other animals, plants, watercourses, soils, minerals and land?

Does the name Mary Reibey mean anything to you?

Does the name Edward Lear mean anything to you?

Does the name Florence Nightingale mean anything to you?

Does the name Dante Gabriel Rossetti mean anything to you?

Does the name Jules Massenet mean anything to you?

Does the name Gabriel Fauré mean anything to you?

Does the name Katharine Hepburn mean anything to you?

Does the name Dorothy Hodgkin mean anything to you?

Perhaps you have noticed that the eight aforementioned persons have quite a few things in common.

Perhaps you are more interested in learning about the Dionysian Mysteries.

Perhaps you are more interested in learning more about aniconism and iconoclasm.

Perhaps you are more interested in learning more about the Ramayana.

Perhaps you are more interested in learning about Medea.

Perhaps you are more interested in learning about the portrayal, misrepresentation and exploitation in the mass media.

What do you already know about the media and gender?

What do you know about disenchantment marketed as enchantment or re-enchantment?

Perhaps you are more interested in learning about Shakti.

How do you prefer to regard metaphysical reality, and why?

Perhaps you are more interested in learning about Pythagoreanism.

Perhaps your interests are especially inclined towards numerology, sacred geometry, divine languages, the location of the divine presence, the cultural recognition of sacred natural spaces such as holy wells and constructed sacred spaces, the language of the birds, Earth mysteries, omens, luck, the golden ratio, the Golden Rule, the tetractys of the decad, the Trinity, folklore, legends, rituals, ceremonies, shrines, magical thinking, mysticism and/or mathematical beauty.

Or perhaps you have immense apathy towards such subjects.

You may not even wish to know more about Greek Magical Papyri or Jewish ones, and the historical destruction of so many possibly useful records.

You may not have any interest whatsoever in the history of sacred mysteries, sacred knowledge and the secularisation of knowledge and consecration and deconsecration processes.

Perhaps you have no interested in the sacred at all.

What do you know about historical beliefs concerning the highest possible human excellence and moral virtue.

How do you compare scientific knowledge of energy and non-scientific beliefs about non-empirical energies?

Do you know where you happen to be in a digital context?

Perhaps you are aware that this is a grimoire, but where is it situated?

And why are the numbers 8 and 12 currently important in this context?

How do you attempt to find keys, boats, wardrobes or passageways to otherworlds?

Perhaps you never do.

How do you compare the Greek underworld with the Hell described by Dante Alighieri?

How do you compare a story with a painting and a scholarly analysis?

What do you know about sacred fires?

What do you know about soil fertility?

What do you know about ritual purification?

What do you know about the connection between water and religion?

Are you an enchantress, a witch, a wizard and/or a seeker of wisdom?

Perhaps you are seeking to learn more about magical words and amazingly reliable incantations.

The enlightened re-enchantment of the world is not associated with irrational fears or silly escapism.  It is a healthy way of coping with rational, evidence-based fears.

What do you know about taboos?

What do you know about the connections between culture and menstruation?

What do you know about cultures practicing the seclusion of girls at puberty?

What do you know about traditions, and science, concerning puberty?

What do you know about traditions, and science, concerning menopause?

The enlightened re-enchantment of the world is necessary as the most reasonable way to overcome prejudices and other expressions of aggressive bias.

What do you know about antidotes?

What do you know about various forms of intolerance?

What do you know about the blaming of illnesses and crop failures on witchcraft?

Intolerant and otherwise biased people are usually unaware that other people are more open minded and tolerant, and informed, than themselves.

How do you assess your own mind, and your social experiences?

What do you know about superstitions about witches in earlier centuries in Scotland?

What do you know about patterns of violence against women and girls in many societies, and how to overcome that abuse?

What do you know about patterns of ethnic violence, including sectarianism, in many societies, and how to overcome that aggression? 

The next part of this series will be presented here before dawn, local time, on 12 July 2021.  What do you know about Ulster conflict associated with that day?

What do you know about the history of sectarianism in Australia?

There is nothing enchanting about any sort of aggression.

Mary Reibey arrived in Australia as a orphaned teenage convict from Lancashire in England.  She had been sentenced to seven years transportation, at the age of fourteen, having taken a horse, whilst dressed as a boy, to flee from the place where she worked as a servant.  It is quite likely she was escaping from an experience of abuse.  Her subsequent experiences of life in Australia were remarkably successful nevertheless.

Edward Lear was a much travelled artist and writer, yet he suffered from significant health problems throughout his life, including epilepsy.  He is mainly known today for his enchanting literary nonsense.  His patron was the Lancashire landowner, Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby.

Have you found enchantment in the world through travel and/or writing and/or painting and/or running a business and/or being a patron and/or attempting to improve a health system?

Florence Nightingale helped to improve the status of women involved in the healing arts, and the status of women more generally.  She wrote about medicine, hygiene, religion and mysticism.  She was also widely travelled.  Perhaps she would have been regarded as a witch in earlier centuries.

But what was traditional witchcraft, if such a concept can even be defined? 

And why is epilepsy still associated with witchcraft in some cultures?

And why are teenage girls, escaping from situations of violence, still so often treated as though they are criminals?

And why is supremacism still so common?

Why were the Three Witches in Macbeth regarded as sinister yet Prospero in The Tempest was not?

How do you compare Sycorax with Medea and Alcina and Circe and Armida and Morgan le Fay?

How have you been picturing witches in relation to the enlightened re-enchantment of the world?


 

If you are wondering which witch is most enlightened sort, what are you seeking to know on the subject, and why?

Dante Gabriel Rossetti sought to re-enchant the world through the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood he helped establish, and through his friendship with Mr and Mrs William Morris and many other influential persons.

The visual and literary works of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had a serious purpose, unlike the nonsense works of Edward Lear.  

How do you attempt to re-enchant the world if not by combining freedom and responsibility?

Rossetti was more interested in painting representations of idealised beauty in mythology than the horrendous truth of history.

What do you know about Lilith?

How do you prefer to encounter nature, and myth, and science, and experience the beautiful?

Jules Massenet composed many operas, only a few of which have been regularly performed in recent decades.  Yet his works contain much beautiful music.

Perhaps you regard courtesans and/or mistresses as witches.

Do you have double standards? 

Perhaps you regard a fairy godmother as a witch.

What do you know about Massenet's interpretation in the 1890s?

Do you associate operatic experiences with the enlightened re-enchantment of the world?

Perhaps you have been experiencing the global Mozarty Party.

Perhaps you have been learning about political pleasantness.

Perhaps you associate notable moments with the enlightened re-enchantment of the world.

Perhaps you associate good patrons with fairy godmothers and good witches.

But why are there usually also wicked characters?

Perhaps you have been experiencing Civility Today.

Perhaps you have been learning about enlightened patronage.

What sort of patron are you?  

How do your patronages support the enlightened re-enchantment of of the world? 

Whether you have a reputation as a patron or not, how do you attempt to re-enchant the world through your creative practices?

Perhaps you associate good patrons with fairy godmothers and (other) good witches.

How do you usually assess social influence, cultural impact and political power?

How do you usually assess repertoires?

How do you usually assess your own cultural identity and its origins?
 
Gabriel Fauré remains a more influential composer than Massenet, or the composers associated with 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz, and even Mozart.  Although Mozart is undoubtedly still the most popular composer, Fauré helped to invent a new form of musical expression, reshaping older styles with newer elements. 

You may be familiar with Fauré's Pavane in F-sharp minor, Opus 50 of 1887.  The work is dedicated to his patron, Countess Greffulhe.

As a dance, and as music, the pavane is noted for its elegance, at least if performed gracefully, in suitable attire. 

Have you ever danced a pavane or watched other people doing so?
 
Have you ever walked formally in a ceremony, using the hesitation step? 
 
Have you ever studied changing societal attitudes towards the elegant, the beautiful, the graceful and the suitable?
 
Do you know much about psychological adaption?

Do you know much about genetic evolution?

Do you know much about cultural evolution?

Perhaps enlightened re-enchantment does not arise from the conflict between the good and the wicked but from an acquaintance with the unusually interesting though not necessarily popular, especially in terms of popular culture.
 
How often have intelligent, self-confident, charismatic women been regarded as wicked witches or otherwise unpleasant, particularly if financially independent, free thinking or otherwise financially, socially and/or intellectually comfortable?
 
While fantasy films tend to be associated with popular culture, fantasy itself has long been associated with high culture as well as folklore and various subcultures, but for differing reasons.
 
What do you consider those reasons to be?
 
But is fantasy associated with countercultures or are those radical expressions of cultural contrast and opposition more associated with embracing reality, through authenticity?

Enlightened re-enchantment of the world does not deny reality, it embraces it by transforming understandings of it.

Are you familiar with the term 'box office poison'?
 
Are you aware of the difference between churning out content and creating art?

Katharine Hepburn had a long yet somewhat turbulent and unusual career as a university-educated stage and screen actress.  She played many pioneering roles in which self-confident female characters behaved unlike most other women.  She had similar self-confidence in real life.

Yet female self-confidence is often opposed by misogynists, particularly when female persons are well-educated, highly intelligent, assertive, energetic and ambitious.

Displaying similar characteristics as high status male persons has often been regarded as unfeminine.  Yet who decides what is feminine or masculine behaviour, and why?

Whose social commentary is regarded as authoritative, and by whom, and why? 

How do you compare the narratives of speculative fiction and real life? 

How do you compare the believable and the unbelievable, and from whose point of view?

How do you interpret the cultural aspects of 1939 and 1940 in various parts of the world?

How do you interpret the cultural aspects of 2019 and 2020 in various parts of the world?

How do you compare the presentation of a narrative as a play with the presentation of the same or a similar narrative as a film?

You may be aware that popularity and unpopularity are contextual, though some entertaining stories stand the test of time through their subtle sophistication.

But what, if anything, does the enlightened re-enchantment of the world have to do with sympathy and, for that matter, empathy?

And how does enlightened re-enchantment help to overcome the evils associated with overly powerful influences such as, Machiavellian media owners, corrupt governments, the greedy rich, mindless consumerism and hypocritical expressions of virtue, and love, and importance?

What is your acquaintance with News Crap and its predecessors? 

Why is 'progress' often used as a political word rather than a scientific one?

How, if at all, do you usually study crafts?

How do you determine the real moral and aesthetic values expressed within groups and organisations and societies and how do you compare those values with the stated, official values?

How, if at all, do you usually study science and the narratives associated with it? 

How, if at all, do you usually study politics and the narratives associate with it?

How, if at all, do you usually study the relationship between science, politics and the arts?

How, if at all, do you usually identify, and respond to, the resilient and the vulnerable? 

How, if at all, do you usually identify, and respond to, abundance and scarcity?

What do you know about the history of natural history art? 

How, if at all, do you prefer to address educational inequality, health inequality, gender inequality, geographical inequality and various other injustices associated with prejudice and corruption?

How do you compare an ethical value with an economic value, and an aesthetic one?

What do you know about the psychology of morals?

How do you assess the morals apparently shared within social groups?

How do you assess the value of animals?

How do you assess the value of time in relation to learning, including learning about yourself?

How do you assess the value of time in relation to teaching, including teaching yourself?

You may associate worth with esteem and respect.

You may associate morals with the use of reason and conscience to judge appropriateness.

Do you consider your ability to explore the meaning of knowledge to be useful to you, and possibly also to other people?

Do you consider your acquisition of knowledge to be a privilege, a pleasure and/or a right?

How, if at all, do you usually identify and interpret patterns and structures?

Dorothy Hodgkin was a pioneer in the study of chemical patterns and structures, particularly those associated with biological macromolecules.  You may be aware of her work regarding the biomolecular structure of steroids, penicillin, vitamin B12 and insulin.  

Unlike many women in science, Dorothy Hodgkin contributions were highly respected.  She was awarded a Nobel Prize for her work on X-ray crystallography, and she received many other forms of social recognition for her scientific discoveries.  

Yet she was well aware that the recognition of achievements is not the same as overcoming disadvantages.  She strongly opposed the structural basis of social inequality and the injustices associated with it, as did her husband.  He came from a family with a prominent Quaker heritage.

Growing up, Dorothy Hodgkin had little in common with Dorothy Gale.  Her parents were John Winter Crowfoot and Grace Mary 'Molly' Crowfoot née Hood. 
 
Yet Dorothy Hodgkin and Dorothy Gale and Katharine Hepburn and Florence Nightingale and Mary Reibey were renowned for their resourcefulness.  They were highly determined to succeed in reaching their goals in the face of many obstacles.

How do you attempt to use knowledge to solve problems?

How do you identify and define the problems worthy of your attention?

How do you assess what is worthy of your attention, and what is not, and when?

How do you assess who is worthy of your attention, and who is not, and when?

How do you prefer to address social inequality, economic inequality, skewed average wages, income inequality, wealth inequality and suchlike matters, locally and globally?

How do you know whether or not you have biased opinions on any of those subjects?

How do you prefer to address all the most disastrous physical and psychological aspects of climate change, including those relating to reductions in the world's honey bees and honey supply? 

If you are a patron of science or religion or education or music or digital doorways or the provision of keys of any type, why are you such a patron?

If you tend to vote for hideously corrupt politicians, why do you do so unless knowingly or unknowingly wishing to cause immense suffering to billions of people and other forms of life?

How do you usually distinguish between science and non-science?

How do you usually distinguish between the natural and non-natural?

How do you usually distinguish between the observable and the unobservable? 

How do you prefer to identify and communicate reality?

Historians claim to provide factual narratives of the past.

Scientists claim to provide factual evidence of the workings of nature, including human nature.

What do you provide, and how?

How are you involved in shaping the future, and why? 

What do you know about the history of art in various parts of the world?

What do you know about the history of ceramics in various parts of the world?

What do you know about the history of mythology in various parts of the world, and the ongoing influence of its narratives?

What do you know about the history of music in various parts of the world? 

What do you know about the history of technology in various parts of the world?

What do you know about the history of textiles in various parts of the world?

What do you know about the political use of oral and written narratives throughout history, and how have you acquired that information?  

How do you attempt to understand the earlier popularity of particular a narrative?

Assessing the quality of any past, present or future experience is often subjective.

Assessing the quality of a natural or cultural object or feeling or activity or objective is also often subjective.

Yet objective assessments of quality are also important.

What, in your view, are the essential features of a quality community? 

How carefully do you attempt to distinguish between subjectivity and objectivity?

Do you find it easier to do so through the sciences or through the arts?

Do you find it easier to understand and address mental health problems through the sciences or through the arts?

Are you willing to admit that technology is an imperfect way to address problems, especially in the absence of reasonable points of view? 

Are you well-informed about sociological classifications of religious movements and media classifications of celebrities and the infamous?

Do you think enlightened re-enchantment is the only suitable antidote to the cruelty and incompetence preventing psychological trauma from being healed?

Do you associate enlightened re-enchantment with healing the inner spirit and the natural world through morality and science rather than by concerning yourself with opinions about spirit worlds, otherworlds and afterlives?

You may wish to return to the magical library to experience this grimoire on 12 July 2021.

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