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Divine Orders

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    Divine Orders

    DIVINE ORDERS

    Thales, one of the early Greek philosophers, observed that "all things are full of gods," i.e., often overlapping ordered unions of consciousness serving large visions where participation varies according to both agreement with the common defining purpose and the details of its implementation. To a greater or lesser degree, any participant in such a union acts in accord with its purposes and characteristics, expressing its existential, experiential basis, i.e., that which draws beings to participate in it in the first place. The basis of such unions is invariably love and justice though there are significant variations in the amount of emphasis on the one or the other element. The links defining such unions are affective and understanding them presupposes an appreciation of the shared nature of experience: we all here together, sharing reality, and our affective experience consequently reflects our position relative to the whole.
    There is a good deal of material describing the mechanisms involved in these processes in Homer and other ancient Greek sources. This same sense is prominent in the Greek plays of the Athenian tradition. Everyone is faced with the task of dealing with both their emotions and their intellect. It is perhaps symptomatic of this age that we have a difficult time integrating the two and that part of the difficulty comes out of a fear of the basic drives that make us up. Until we can unbury and understand the primitive forces that at least partially define us, we will be the slaves of their denial. It is in Greece that Western Civilization has its most eloquent link with its tribal origins. It was in Greece that their burial in confusion and contradiction was most clearly observed and that we should begin our search for a resolution to our own dilemma, mayhap to still the death cry of our link with the emotional wisdom of our primitive heritage.
    I, the mind of the past, to be driven
    under the ground
    out cast, like dirt.

    Like any consistent grouping, these "orders" or unions (something along the lines of professional organizations in their basic nature in that there is a degree of mutual selection involved in becoming a doctor or whatever as well) develop organizational structures based on their objectives: the great purpose being served calls up participants and there is inherent order reflected in the agreement of any given perspective within the union with its essential character. These organizations tend to be subliminal and rather corporate in structure. Results often compete with essentials in defining leadership patterns and there is a great deal of pain involved in sorting out purposes and praxis. As a result, many unions develop active and passive leadership structures or godheads, with the former being more pragmatic and less closely linked to the essential nature of the union and the latter being more deeply founded in the substance defining it and worried about its purity.
    A godly order is necessarily an open sense, though guaranteeing its essence often involves protective structuring to shield the expression of its
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