Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
well, I'm not going to argue about this. I think you would agree that the
noosphere is about more than simply the high tech marketplace and what
operating system wins market share. On the other hand, if the internet has
something to do with the creation or manifestation of the noosphere, then
we have to take seriously the fact that many people don't have any access to
it exactly because the internet *is* so closely connected to the market.
Which is not to say that the idea is wrong; it is definitely more Roman
Catholic than Protestant, which makes sense since a Catholic theologian
proposed it. It implies (taking the market structure into account) a
hierarchy of "access" to the Holy/Divine/Source/whatever, with the "sacred
technicians" being those in the high tech industry. Again, there's nothing
necessarily wrong with this, depending upon your theology. As for the
meaning of cooperation, groups of people can cooperate with each other and
yet compete with other groups of people who are cooperating with each other.
Like different corporations or market models in the capitalist
marketplace.... You can either read this to mean that somebody wins and
somebody loses, or that everybody wins (some sort of progress is made or
something of the sort).  But when we say that everybody wins
in that model we usually say that it is competition, rather than
cooperation, that drives "movement." I'm not arguing against the noosphere
idea at all; I'm intrigued by it, in fact. I have just never seen anyone,
among those who see the internet as its manifestation, treat satisfactorily
the fact that the bulk of the world does not have access to its power in the
way that some do, and that access is primarily an economic concern. Again,
it mainly comes down to theological differences, I think, and visions about
what inclusion, progress, global thinking, and so forth might mean.
I'll be quiet now... :)  Back to The Life of Fitz Hugh Ludlow!!!
  

    
<Back to The Life of Fitz Hugh Ludlow!!!> Perhaps, <pholk>, but you're
getting at some of the same questions that I have. First, I'd like to
hear <dpd>'s take on this, in light of his current writing adventure,
as well as his last. There are shared themes.
  

    
sure are - part of my book will be about the many other models of wholeness,
from Buddhist to Jungian, that have arisen in history, and where Fitz Hugh
certainly placed himself thematically if not explicitly.  These models may
actually point to other ways the noosphere manifests itself - the Internet
is obviously the most trendy.  Interesting writers like Michael Grosso view
so-called psy events like telepathy or precognition as spontaneous
manifestations of the formation of this noosphere - what he and others call
Mind at Large - and events that point to "non-local" methods of
communication in a quantum physics sense.  this needs a lot a more
exposition than I can do here for it not to sound like shallow new age
posturing, unfortunately. So watch for the book! (or reed Grosso's The Final
Choice, if you can find it.)
  

    
Not to get too scattered here, but you're also at the very early
stages of another writing venture; one looking at the history and
possible future of the Greek Mystery rites. Is that correct? Again,
perhaps you can make the tie-in between all three of your literary
investigations.
  

    
actually, that one is done, and may very well be published by Autonomedia as
well (knocking on wood til knuckles bleed). the tie-in to Fitz Hugh is the
view that mind altering substances are a legitimate spiritual technique. the
tie-in to the noosphere is more tenuous, except to say that the Greek book
is about the persistence of religious and mystical themes through centuries
of cultural change.  the ancient Greeks apparently had concepts like a
noosphere, though I haven't had time to really research that.
  

    
The Greek Mystery rites? Can you elaborate on that, dpd?
  

    
the Eleusinian Mysteries were the main religious observance of pagan Greece
and Rome for about 800 years or so.  the core activity of the mysteries was,
of course, a secret, but evidence points to ritual inebriation with a potion
called kykeon.  this and other elements aare quite in common with indigenous
shamanism as it has been practiced around the world right through
contemporary times, and I believe I've made the case that the same elements
and themes pervade Judeo-Christian civilization as well through the
centuries.
  

    
following are some notes on a documentary about Eleusis that I wrote a few
years ago.
  

    
Notes from documentary "The Sacred Way", an episode of the PBS/WNET
 series "Travels"  Written by Michael Wood

 This documentary makes a great case for the survival of the
 Eleusinian religion in modern Greece.


 The Eleusinian Mysteries were a harvest festival - end of September
 - it was a mystery - literally "secret initiation".  It was marked
 by a 14 mile pilgrimage from Athens to Eleusis.

 When Englishman Edward Clarke came to Greece around 1800, he found
 the statue of Demeter described by Pausanias (2nd C. Roman tourist
 and initiate), still venerated with lit candles, flowers, and women
 prayed to it to make fields fertile - these women called her St.
 Demeter.

 What we know of Rites: there was a dramatic presentation, a display
 of sacred objects. A relief now in the British museum shows Demeter
 handing to someone a golden ear of corn - restoring life to the
 world.

 The pilgrimage began at the Agora (thousands gathered who had been
 accepted/certified in the Spring - only requirements were they must
 speak Greek and must not have committed murder.

 Along the Way, pilgrims rested at a fig tree, supposedly given by
 Demeter.  St Sabbas Greek Orthodox church is now on the site.  It
 is partly built from bits of the old temple to Demeter.  People
 come here for cures, and it is especially reputed to help women
 with breast cancer.  To the Greeks who come here, "bread has never
 lost its sacramental quality" says Wood.

 Next landmark along the way was temple of Zeus - now there is a
 church, St. George's.  There are still offerings of animals made
 here.

 At modern Greek funerals, traditional food "Koliva" is prepared
 from wheat, barley, nuts, raisins and pomegranite seeds.  They
 still eat the koliva over the grave, the "seeds of life".

 Further on lies the Church of Daphne, or the Church of the Laurels
 (sacred to Apollo) - an ancient temple of Demeter/Persephone was
 also there.

 Near Salamis, pilgrims bathed in lake owned by Eleusinian priests.
 From here, pilgrims could see Eleusis under the horned mountain
 (two peaks together).

 On the plain of Eleusis was where Greeks believe Demeter taught
 agriculture to mortals.  Now it is an industrial area.

 Light was fading as pilgrims reached Eleusis.  There the pilgrims
 were subjected to ridicule and abuse by villagers.  The Way was lit
 by torches.

 Temple remnants show wheat, poppies, pomegranites.

 Until the 1930's, villagers danced by torch light for the earth
 mother, until police put an end to it.  Candles held by the Greeks
 on Christian Good Friday reflect torches at Eleusis.

 The ceremony climaxed at sunrise.  Several thousand watched the
 mystery plays.  According to a Christian commentator, an ear of
 wheat was displayed in silence.  A New Testament quote may reflect
 an earlier ritual - "Are we not like grains of wheat, except that
 we die, we may not be reborn."  King James -  "Except a corn of
 wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it
 die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

 The first fruits of harvest are still baked in a loaf (around
 Easter) and brought to the old chapel where Clarke had found the
 statute of Demeter.  The chapel is dedicated to "the old holy
 woman", a phrase related to Mary, but called by these villagers
 "the lady inside the seed", the old attribute of Demeter.
  

    
If the Mysteries are associated with Demeter, then it would make sense if
the potion was based on rye ergot, no?
  

    
There is a strong possiblitiy that it was a fermented brew that used
rye, and quite possibly rye ergot. I believe that's a theory advanced
by Albert Hofmann.

Don, wasn't there a notion of personal death and rebirth in the
Mysteries? This would provide some connection both to ancient and
contemporary Christian philosophy, and certain currents in psychedelic
psychology.
  

    
yes to Hofmann (with Gordon Wasson - The Road to Eleusis just came back into
print.)  yes to death and rebirth themes, which were almost certainly
grafted onto Jewish history and messianic cults in the Hellenized middle
east to form Christianity.  The thing about the Demeter myth is that the
journey to the underworld - a metaphor for death - is old as Osiris
(actually goes back to Assyrian myth I think) and as contemporary as African
or South American shamanism, the latter definitely mediated by visionary
plants.
  

    
oh, and I always thought the ergot connection was interesting - the
synthesis of LSD by Hofmann came out of research he was doing on ergot based
on its well known folk use by midwives for inducing pregnancy. the
conflation of fertility and drugs, and death and rebirth in the eleusinian
mysteries and the transmissoin of these themes over time is very dense
material. I'm pretty proud of my book, but as in the case of he Ludlow
biography, I wonder what a real scholar in the field could have done had
he or she the courage or integrity to pursue these unpopular subjects.
  

    
I think you mean inducing labor, no?  Ergot can cause abortion if it's used
early.
  

    
>inducing pregancy  - duh.  Sharon is correct.
  

    
A generous reader sent along the following url for the transcribed
text of "The Hashish Eater". <http://www.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Ludlow/>
Unfortunately, when I followed the link, it came up with an error page
stating that the site was recently restructured and the page was not
found. 

I assume that they'll get it straightened out shortly, so give it a
try. At the very least, anybody tempted to do so will find
<http://yage.lycaeum.org/> of interest!
  

    
A little more poking around came up with the following working url,
<http://shaman.lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Ludlow/THE/index.html> !
  

    
...or just  http://lycaeum.org/~sputnik/Ludlow/

The server error page that comes up from the original URL states
"USER SITES MUST be accessed without the "www" in the address."
  

    
Fine. So now i'm supposed to actually read the instructions ;-)
  

    
Hee!  I thought it was a more-than-slightly unusual arrangement.
  

    
This just in from well.com...

>WELL members' page highlights:

What are the connections between the use of mind-altering substances
by natives of the Americas and the religious roots of Western
civilization? Author Don Dulcinos offers a scholarly examination of the
issues.<

You'll find the article @ http://www.well.com/user/dpd/shaman.html.
  

    
and a mention there of the new book on themes discussed here, Forbidden
Sacraments, in production at Autonomedia.
(and they finally added an online purchase feature at www.autonomedia.org