congregamus

[congregamus]

I don't remember writing this, but it's in my journal on this day last year, so I apparently wrote it. It's worth considering, for those interested.

[Modern] Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism have a common ancestor in Yahwism, which Judaism traces questionably back to Abraham — not that Abraham was not henotheistic, but that the object of his worship had any relationship with Yahweh is conjecture at best. Perhaps the earliest space that we can say with certainty is shared by those two traditions is found in the Court of David and the Temple of Solomon, which reaches back to the composition certainly of the books of Samuel. Christians make no pretense about honoring Torah, or keeping the law, but they do give lip service to the sacred history of the Jewish People, and the J- and E-strands of the Pentateuch certainly existed in a form (or forms) that would be recognizable to people who are now familiar with the sacred anthology.  David was a problem. Jesus was a problem that has been “washed clean” even by his own "redemptive sacrifice," unfortunately. But it stands, at least in the popular imagination. Both David and Jesus were probably a little God-drunk, and to be abundantly clear: any kind of God-drunk is world-altering; the wrong kind of God-drunk (cf. RETVRN) is potentially world-destroying.

[congregamus]

Well, I guess I’m going to see Wicked this morning.

[congregamus]

Yesterday the interim boss was expressing interest in hoping to travel to other planets after death (which is really cool for a priest to be willing to discuss so yay!). I'm never any fun, so I immediately pivot to the planets as analogs for energy constellations both inside and outside the body, but which, in their inward correspondence, can be visited safely, now. ("I spend most of my time on Mercury, avoid Mars at all cost..." "What about Saturn?" "What on EARTH do you think we're doing here. Our work is the merger of Saturn and the Sun."

It wasn't exactly a wet blanket, but I only realize now that he wanted to talk about space like school kids ("Yeah! Did you know Uranus has rings, too!"), and I was typically myself and utterly serious about these matters.

He asked me point blankly, "What do you think happens when we die?", to which I responded honestly:

Well, first of all, before I say what I'm about to say, I have to qualify it by saying that death is a fact. I know this, but I'm going to talk about death like it's is a metaphor, which it also is. So, most people, myself included, prefer to locate "God" relationally to interiority. For those of us who engage spiritually, I think that it's appropriate to say that at a certain point, the interiority takes over, and eventually, that self-actuates necessarily with a change of medium. Death comes to us when we are ready to face God without language or the need to translate the experience at all.

It wouldn't have helped that particular conversation, but perhaps just among us chickens, this addendum will be of use. For last night, when Death and I were talking, I said, in a shock of recognition: "You are the self-same Moon! Soon enough, at the time appointed, I will prefer you to solar-logos."

[congregamus]

Weaken public fascism however you can and fearlessly root it out in all its forms from inside yourself

[congregamus]

[congregamus]

I have decided to pronounce the name of my new anxiety med like she’s part of the Hellenistic pantheon (Busiprone/Βυσιπρόνη).

[congregamus]

I didn’t leave work until 9, didn’t get home until 10, and didn’t get to sleep until after midnight and have to be back at 9 AM this morning.

[congregamus]

everyone hate my loquacious swag. its always "why did you make this sentence so long" and "why do you use so many commas and em dashes" and never "how did you come up with run on sentence" or "writing that run on sentence looked fun"

[congregamus]

I think it's worth noting that the "Shema" (Deut. 6:4) as translated by JPS can be read not necessarily a statement of monotheism ("The LORD is our God, the LORD alone."), rather instead as henotheism. It is, however, as often as not, rendered monotheistic in casual, practical repetition, "The LORD is our God, the Lord is One."

Obviously, both readings are valid, relevant, etc, and there are valid and relevant reasons to prefer one over the other.

Technically speaking, since I am spiritually non-monogamous, I lean away from the translation that reads, "...the LORD alone." However, I would be dishonest if I did not admit that I tend to reduce my experience via abstract thought to the lowest possible denominator, which, via the habit of western philosophy (which is what I know) regularly becomes the "thesis/antithesis/synthesis" solution which Hegel never really gave us, but which regularly gets implemented casually, and which reduces to unity.

However, since it's probably not appropriate even to call me a theist (at least not in the traditional sense), I certainly don't think that it's appropriate to call me a monotheist. I do, however, think the idea of Unity is very, very beautiful. But unity also has a dark power (cf. fascism) that we ought to take very seriously. Which is all (I suppose) to say that in terms of theory, I try to reduce to unity, but in practice, I very much appreciate pluralism and don't need to reduce to 1/1.

[congregamus]

This week is Deuteronomy in Education for Ministry (EfM). I take the practice of study very seriously, but I cannot regularly give the source text the same treatment. Our paradigms are so removed from each other that I cannot "enjoin" myself to much of it, no matter how much Moses threatens and begs.

But I did read it. I'm not terribly concerned with remembering much of it, but I did read it.

[congregamus]

Daletra Jones is coming over tonight. I'll make shrimp fajitas so that Salon Ioannes can happen downstairs. It will be one of those evenings that could have happened exactly as it will happen this evening under much more stressful circumstances in 2020, or '21. A little temporal bleed-through.

It will be a very domestic/hausfrau kind of evening, which, to my surprise, is my favorite kind now, especially with these folks. However much longer we're granted them, I will cherish them all.

[congregamus]

Clarification: playlist Includes more recent entries in the catalogue than post-WWII. It's a vibe, not a strict definition.

The description for it in my archive is as follows:

In the spirit of seasons past, here is another holiday playlist. This one is called CHRISTMASTIME — RAT PACK, and is described on TIDAL as "Seasonal Nostalgia for a world that never even existed" though perhaps it did inside the controlled space of CBS studios, and yet lives on in the opium-dream of the consumerist space that is the post-Thanksgiving large department store

[congregamus]

I'm beginning to think that I should identify as a 'system'?

[congregamus]

Just staring this one. Pro-tip for newbies: the way you can tell someone actually understands (as much as we can understand about) the Holy Spirit is their verbalized relationship with seeming-chaos. (I haven’t read enough of this one yet to say where the author stands.)

The Holy Spirit cannot be systematized, and anyone who tries to do so should not be given a teaching platform (IMO, as always).

[congregamus]

The new Rx for anxiety feels a little bit like gentle sativa dissociation? Could be much worse.

[congregamus]

Re: networks, I am vulnerable to extinction because I insist on a difficult idiolect: a code adjacent to the most commonly used version that isn't even that much fun to implement, save poetically, but which further endangers the same by being worthless logistically.

The nation-state seems to be finished. Long live your zip code. Good luck to us all re: extended networks.