Punishment in Hades Everyone ends up in Hades eventually. For most who go there, the Greek Underworld is a gray and timeless place where nothing much happens. The dead have existence of a sort, though they feel little and appear to care about even less. It doesn’t sound joyful, but I suppose it’s not miserable. Some places in the Underworld, however, are. They have been set aside for those who especially irritate the Olympian gods. Take Ixion, king of the Lapith people. He has spent this part of eternity tied to a burning wheel. It seems fitting, in a way, for he killed his father-in-law by pushing him onto a…
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Every Day, a Little Death
Life’s Fragility When we’re young, we rarely think about dying, but there are times in everyone’s life when the shadow of mortality looms over us. Perhaps we almost ski off a mountain or barely survive a car crash. A friend our age might get sick and die. For a moment, we are shocked into remembering: Oh, yes, our bodies are fragile. Anything could happen. Soon enough, though, we dismiss that worry, for who can continually walk along that fence? We must jump off, run around on solid ground, raise chickens, repair engines, fight tyranny. There is so much to do, to see, to say, to dream. We haven’t time to…
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Who Are We When Memory Is Gone?
Memory Creates Us Memory is a fluid and unpredictable thing. It changes as we age. Not only do our stories evolve, but we may think about them more or less often, depending on our stage in life. When I was young, I hardly thought about past experiences, except when I rehashed them during therapy, transforming them into something soft that would not keep me up at night. Now my past looms, filling a larger proportion of my possible lifespan, so my history has become more important. In the morning before I rise or during the dark hours of the night, I sometimes think back to childhood and trace the strands…
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Lucifer and the Problem of Evil
The Story of Lucifer In the beginning, God created the angels, and none was more beloved to Him than Lucifer. He was Venus, that morning star that shone brighter than any other. He was the light bringer, and the light he shed made everything beautiful. God was most pleased with his creation. But children grow up. Vassals long for power and property of their own. So it was with this shining star, though he was a favorite. Maybe the problem was that God had favorites at all. The golden child can be most cruel. Charismatic, intelligent, successful, but also lustful, devious, manipulative, and most importantly, full of pride, Lucifer wanted…
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The Promise of Psilocybin
A Community Journey Using psychedelics for spiritual enlightenment and emotional healing has a long history among human beings. The practice is tied to rituals designed to open our hearts to the whole, to bind our souls to the holy. Cultures of old understood that we and the earth are one. We are not something set apart, not the pinnacle of some creative scheme devised by a humanoid deity. Along with the whale, the cockroach, the rose, the coronavirus, the sea anemone, the many kinds of mosquitoes, we are one of life’s creatures. Together, we are bound, flying through this universe that is sacred and eternally old. When our minds open…
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What Is the Nature of Love?
Asking the Question Today we ask what love is. Given how many people have tried to analyze the sensation, action, and essence of love, I suspect this attempt will leave us with more questions than answers, but we humans have always asked unanswerable questions. Why stop now? So what is love? There’s the welling up of tenderness in a mother’s chest when she gazes upon her child, the sensation of hormones that surge through a lover’s bloodstream, the unconditional regard of friends for one another, the reverent respect of student for teacher. But there’s also the adoring gaze of a hound for its human companion, the geese who spend their…
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Monsters and the Heroes Who Face Them
Seeing Ourselves in Myths It’s hard to know how an ancient culture viewed its myths. There are indications that the Greeks believed in their gods as much as did any group of people. They worshiped them and sacrificed to them because they hoped these powerful beings might bless them and their loved ones. The stories told about these gods, however, were something else. In Christianity, Biblical literalism is a recent phenomenon, arising in Europe and America in the 18th century, according to the French writer, Dennis Diderot, [1] and the 19th and 20th centuries, according to Marcus Borg. [2] Ancient Hebrews and first-century Christians understood that their religious stories were…
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On Being Human
Being Human as Being Set Apart What does it mean to be human? Although a few individuals are born with limitations or predilections or capacities different from the bell curve’s norm, people throughout the world share certain traits. We all have a consciousness that recognizes our selfhood, bodies that experience pain and pleasure, and minds with the capacity to notice, to interpret, and to draw conclusions. Most of us long for intimate connection and supportive community. At times, our emotions get the better of us, especially when our instinct to survive is threatened, and all of us can feel threatened by the most benign thing if it touches on our…
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Universal Consciousness
Serendipity As part of my duties as a hospital chaplain, I say prayers with the pre-surgery patients who request it. One day, I was on the prep unit, visiting someone, when I saw another man being prepped. There was nothing special about him, but somehow I felt he would want a prayer. Still, he hadn’t asked for one, so I returned to my office. It wasn’t long before his name appeared in my inbasket for a visit. Returning to his bedside, I introduced myself. He was friendly, enough, but he didn’t seem to know why I was there. “Did you ask for a chaplain?” I asked him. He said he…
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As Above, So Below
In the Image of God No one can describe the ultimate. We lack words for that experience of eternity, vastness, that state and place and existence that is both embodied and a disembodied. Whatever this essence is that we think of as the divine, it exists beyond seeing and hearing. It is like a knowing without thought. In other words, God is awesome, magnificent, and terrifying, and it is utterly foreign. No account of this holy being, whether whispered in private conversations or written down in books, comes close to revealing its essence. For this endeavor, language is futile. So is painting, music, dance, and even fairy tale. Not that…