johnwatkinsblog

Category: The Soul’s Perilous Journey

  • Chapter Six: Mirabile Dictu

    When we pursue and inquiry beyond a certain depth we step out of the field of psychological categories and enter the sphere of the ultimate mysteries of life. Bruno Schulz The modern Western worldview assumes the natural world and human life are in principle fully comprehensible through the lens of a secular scientific-materialist paradigm. However,…

  • Chapter Five: Distant Longing

    It is the infinite for which we hunger, and we ride gladly on every little wave that promises to bear us towards it. – Havelock Ellis Modern Westerners typically experience themselves as isolated, self-contained units of consciousness disconnected from other human beings and life itself. An intuitive sense our true self is infinitely greater than…

  • Chapter Four: Deeper Voice

    If we can wake up now, if we can move out of our slumber and attachment to a worldview that is both boring us and destroying the planet, there is much beauty that awaits. – Matthew Fox Belief in the inherently sacred nature of existence is one of humankind’s ancient and enduring notions. Western culture’s…

  • Chapter Three: Wandering About

    There is nothing worse for men than wandering. – Loren Eiseley Despite its unprecedented wealth and affluence the modern West is blighted by epidemic levels of mental illness, loneliness, social disconnectedness, identity diffusion, and meaninglessness. Marked by rampant consumerism and addiction, a burgeoning culture of narcissism continues to undermine once-venerated social norms and hasten erosion of…

  • Chapter Two: Cloud of Unknowing

    The idea that culture is an adventure of the human spirit, to be carried on in fellowship for the good of our souls, vanishes from sight. – Theodore Roszak In 1887 iconoclastic German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche issued an ominous warning: “Our knowledge will take its revenge on us, just as ignorance extracted its revenge during the…

  • Chapter One: Paradise Lost

    “What joins all these – in the book as in life – is the roaring current of change, a current so powerful today that it overturns institutions, shifts our values, and shrivels our roots.” – Alvin Toffler “We come from God and we are in exile.” – Jan van Ruysbroeck Modern human identity and awareness has…

  • The Soul’s Perilous Journey: Introduction

    Taught to generations of schoolchildren and still regularly performed, William Shakespeare’s plays are widely regarded as high points of Western culture. Lauded for their dramatic artistry and linguistic charm, key to the enduring popularity of these iconic works is their unrivalled ability to encapsulate, in words of matchless eloquence, essential truths about human character and…

  • The Soul’s Perilous Journey: Table of Contents

    EXILE: (1) Paradise Lost Evolution of the Modern Self; Cosmic Displacement; Islands of Consciousness in a Clockwork Universe; Descent of Man; The Most Wounding Blow; Cogs in the Machine; Veil of Perception; World of Shadows; Disenchantment; Physics Envy; Losing Consciousness; A Kind of Aimless Weather. (2) Cloud of Unknowing Splendid Isolation; Valley of Humiliation; Straying…

  • The Soul’s Perilous Journey: Title Page

    “This is not a journey for the feet; the feet bring us only from land to land; nor need you think of coach or ship to carry you away; all this order of things you must set aside and refuse to see: you must close the eyes and call instead upon another vision which is…