Watching John Boorman's film Excalibur (1981) about once a year, as is my wont, I note the singular downward spiral inherent in the primitive Sacred. Boorman's version of the Arthurian legend has not even a trace of the original Christian tales, but is solely based on a Nietzschean motif of Eternal Return.Boorman's Merlin bids the king and knights remember their originary founding event (the destruction of their rivals and enemies). Lancelot catches his desire for Guenevere from Arthur. Morgana lusts after Merlin's spell of making as well as her half-brother's throne. And what was once built upon a transcendent sword, Excalibur, perishes in the mimetic swirling maelstrom of desire, lust, villainy, and mutual destruction.
So what? It appears for all the world that you and I are caught in the same maelstrom ourselves. The western mandarins of power, the United States of Can-Amer-Mexico and the E. U. -- those mavens of multiculturalism -- are following a steady but inevitable course of tearing down all the prohibitions that keep such sacrificial flames from spreading and setting fire to all that was good, true, and beautiful.
Meanwhile, our greatest numerical foe -- the Scimitar -- wants nothing so much as to aid by heaving bombs, planes, and Molotov cocktails into the crackling mess of the West. Why? Ostensibly to make way for Dar al-Islam. However ... that cannot happen, for Islam itself is in the midst of its own sacrificial preparation and downward spiral. Can you think of any single place where such "peace of Islam" can be viewed as exemplary? Pakistan? Indonesia?
The reasons given for its failure is, of course, Jews, Christians, and other infidel. But the truth is, Islam's falling into the same dry and ready-for-burning condition.
Our only hope is the hope engendered by the Gospel vouchsafed by the "one holy Catholic and apostolic Church" that recognizes, decodes, and provides the antidote for the satanic power which is the primitive Sacred. Can the Church avert the coming catastrophe we see coming toward us?
It can and will -- in a way that no mere parody, self-help, nationalistic entity may or can. Peter's Barque is still the Way, the Truth, and the Life -- the Body of Christ -- through the maelstrom. Cling to it, receive grace through the Blessed Sacraments, and practice the Two Great Commandments and the virtues in fealty as a knight to the One true Lord.
Do not trust in the vain promises of the false transcendence. Pro Christo et Ecclesia +
1 comment:
After reading your post for some reason the thought of "Merlin's spell" is intriguing to me.
It seems the battlegrounds are an inside-outside affair. In this post you bring up "our greatest numerical for -- the Scimitar" and then Mark, at Suicide of the West, brings up the self-imploding battlegrounds in his post Interesting New Book where he quotes from Philip Lawyer's new book, "The Faithful Departed": "Since most of them (the affluent young Catholics of the early 21st century) are not regularly practicing their faith, or supporting their faith, it would be unrealistic to expect today’s Catholics to identify with the teachings of their faith– especially when those teachings clash with the norms of popular culture. (Younger priests have been cautioned by their seminary instructors to avoid preaching about doctrine, particularly controversial doctrine, and so perhaps many Catholics do not even know what the Church teaches.) Sure enough, Catholics divorce and remarry, obtain abortions and sterilizations, use birth control and in vitro fertilization techniques, all at rates indistinguishable from those of their non-Catholic neighbors."
And Mark concludes his post with:
"In endorsing the book, Frank Keating, former Oklahoma governor and chair of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board, notes that 'Lawler places the blame squarely on the laps of the shepherds, the bishops who were more interested in their public image and meeting the mortgage payments, than the safety of souls.'”
"Certainly, Boston is and has been a bellwether for the Church in America. By studying how Catholic culture in Massachusetts collapsed, we may acquire insights that could help the cause of Catholic resistance in our future battles with aggressive secularism."
Somewhere in all of this it seems to me that we must all stand and be counted in the fold and to allow ourselves to be broken open so to hear the Word and be responsible our part in the reversal of the mimetic entanglements of the mob so as to be caught up in the loving self-donating mimetic desire of the One. We must engage our being, our desire, with the help of the Church and Tradition, on the Other, instead of the other, to hear and then to put into actions the Will of the Father for our lives and the world around us. Interestingly enough, Raymund Schwager starts his introduction out in his book, Banished From Eden with a challenge to look at responsibility instead of the accusation which usually leads a scapegoat.
Thank you for this post Ath.
Post a Comment