Hughes DePayne
10-30-2008, 04:19 PM
I listened to the the two episodes from earlier this month, "Was Jesus a Mushroom?", with Jan Irvin; and - while it was the mushroom angle that drew me in, I admit - it was the mythological corollaries and congruences between christianity and those traditions-formerly-known-as-pagan described by Mr. Irvin that most interested me. These ideas - wholly - were first brought to my own attention 30 years ago, when I discovered a hardbound book dating from the 20's in my Dad's esoteric library. It's reassuring to know that folks like Mr. Irvin have been working over recent years to achieve a more complete concrescence of these memes within the public consciousness - since I've pretty much just been getting high :D
That book was _Pagan and Christian Creeds_ (1922) by Edward Carpenter, the English poet, philosopher and gay activist. His solar/zodiacal story is - IMO - the most succinctly expressed treatment of the subject published during that rarefied period in transformative consciousness spanning the turn of the last century - and explaining (for me, at least) why christmas *is*; or easter; or why the times we all now live in are often termed the Age of Aquarius; why most christian clergy are celibate; and many other associated linkages. I recommend at least Chapter III, for anyone interested, or who needs a crash refresher course on the subject.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/pcc/pcc04.htm
I believe the same sort of diagrams and explanations were briefly alluded to - if not shown? - as part the "Pharmacratic Inquisition" - and Mr. Irvin mentions, during the EE interview that there were many late 19th/early-20th century people writing about this solar aspect, as it were. So I realize it's, like, "known"...but I owe Edward Carpenter a mention, just for the influence he had - in *comparative religious terms only* - on my own young formative consciousness.
Carpenter's insightful exchanges between 1891-1894 with Dr. R.M. Bucke - author of _Cosmic Consciousness_ , private physician and friend of Walt Whitman's, and medical superintendent at the Asylum for the Insane in London, Ontario - bear a look, too.
Great interview/episodes!
That book was _Pagan and Christian Creeds_ (1922) by Edward Carpenter, the English poet, philosopher and gay activist. His solar/zodiacal story is - IMO - the most succinctly expressed treatment of the subject published during that rarefied period in transformative consciousness spanning the turn of the last century - and explaining (for me, at least) why christmas *is*; or easter; or why the times we all now live in are often termed the Age of Aquarius; why most christian clergy are celibate; and many other associated linkages. I recommend at least Chapter III, for anyone interested, or who needs a crash refresher course on the subject.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/pcc/pcc04.htm
I believe the same sort of diagrams and explanations were briefly alluded to - if not shown? - as part the "Pharmacratic Inquisition" - and Mr. Irvin mentions, during the EE interview that there were many late 19th/early-20th century people writing about this solar aspect, as it were. So I realize it's, like, "known"...but I owe Edward Carpenter a mention, just for the influence he had - in *comparative religious terms only* - on my own young formative consciousness.
Carpenter's insightful exchanges between 1891-1894 with Dr. R.M. Bucke - author of _Cosmic Consciousness_ , private physician and friend of Walt Whitman's, and medical superintendent at the Asylum for the Insane in London, Ontario - bear a look, too.
Great interview/episodes!