Francis O'Joseph

We live in a strange world, and I envision a future where people will compare the present times to the Dark Ages.

But the deeper the night, the closer the dawn, they say. And I believe that too. How could I not, after reading Rupert Sheldrake's books?

Even though the scientific community, interestingly, doesn't seem to give Sheldrake due credit, it is indisputable that his method does indeed meet the tenets of science—along with being so fascinating and essential to would-be human beings like myself!
After reading The Presence of the Past and The Science Delusion, and watching many of his speeches on YouTube, I feel compelled to say that his teachings should be imparted in all educational institutions, from kindergarten to university. The world would be a much better place to be in, and our lives full of purpose.

What strikes me most from Science and Spiritual Practices is to learn how ironic it is that the scientific discoveries and the overall “progress” of the last few centuries, whose prominent actors have taken for granted that the spiritual plane is nothing but a fabrication of the human brain—whether done consciously or not—now seem to take us a step “back”, to admit that perhaps our ancestors, with their primitive beliefs and habits, were not that wrong after all.


If I could sum up this book in a sentence, it would be with the following recommendation:

“If you don't want to become a spiritual person because your materialist upbringing insists there's nothing but unconscious matter in this purposeless machine-like universe, then do it because scientific studies say it's good for your health.”


A few quotes from the book;

“As soon as we stop taking almost everything for granted, we begin to realise that we can be grateful for almost everything.”

“Materialism is not solely a philosophical theory. Below the surface, it is an unconscious cult of the Great Mother.”

“The ideology of progress is an all-pervasive, modern orthodoxy. But in traditional societies, there was no such ideology. The present repeated the past.”

“All traditions have sacred sounds that are repeated as meditations to rescue us from our exile in the delusion of past and future, from our endless loop of regrets and dreads and bring us back into the now.” ~Jill Purce.

“Atheism is a purifying fire. It burns up religious hypocrisy, corruption, laziness and pretension. But its scorched-earth policy can leave many people spiritually hungry, thirsty and isolated.”

“Militant atheism should come with a health warning.”

“And if a person desires to delve into Torah but cannot find anyone to teach him, and out of his love for Torah he pores over her and stammers in her ignorantly, every single word ascends and the blessed Holy One delights in each one, receiving it and planting it around that stream.”
~Rabbi Ḥiyya. (Page 34)

“Come and see: Not without reason is he warned in a dream—but in order that he may plead for mercy. Woe to one who is neither warned nor informed in a dream, for he is called evil!”
~Rabbi Yitsḥak. (Page 188)

“Woe to the person who says Torah intended to present a mere story and ordinary words! For if so, we could compose a Torah right now with ordinary words, and more laudable than all of them.”
~Rabbi Shim'on. (Page 518)

(I'm reviewing Hermetica, Volume 1. Walter Scott's translation.)

Wow! I can't believe there are so few reviews of this book. I wonder whether I should take it as a disgrace or an honour. Probably both.

To begin, after reading the Hermetica, you will never EVER remain indifferent when someone will casually tell you about something being “hermetically” sealed. Your mind will suddenly leap into a realm of eternal wisdom. Be warned.
For those who, like me, love delving into ancient sacred texts—especially, but not limited to, Abrahamic Scriptures—the Hermetica is a must-read.
Did you know, for instance, that it is generally assumed that the prophet Idris referred to in the Quran as patient and trustworthy is none other than Hermes Trismegistus, and the Sabians his followers?

“Indeed, the believers, Jews, Christians, and Sabians—whoever truly believes in God and the Last Day and does good will have their reward with their Lord. And there will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve.” Quran 2:62.

Hermetica

Hermetica

Hermetica

Hermetica

“O Egypt, Egypt, of thy religion nothing will remain but an empty tale, which thine own children in time to come will not believe; nothing will be left but graven words, and only the stones will tell of thy piety. And in that day men will be weary of life, and they will cease to think the universe worthy of reverent wonder and of worship. And so religion, the greatest of all blessings [...] will be threatened with destruction; men will think it a burden, and will come to scorn it.”

“There [in the House of Knowledge] none is drunken, but all are sober, and they look up and see with the heart Him whose will it is that with the heart alone He should be seen. For He cannot be known by hearing, nor made known by speech; nor can He be seen with bodily eyes.”

“Philosophy is nothing else than striving through constant contemplation and saintly piety to attain to knowledge of God; but there will be many who will make philosophy hard to understand, and corrupt it with manifold speculations.”

“I deem it impossible that he who is the maker of the universe in all its greatness, the Father or Maker of all things, can be named by a single name, though it be made up of so many others; I hold that he is nameless, or rather, that all names are names of him. For he in his unity is all things; so that we must either call all things by his name, or call him by names of all things.”

Here's a Q&A for those who would like to know more about Memloots - The Exposition.

What genre is it?

‘Philo, I can see that you're shaken to the core, but believe me, it's all real; not fairy tales, speculative fiction, fantasy, or the like. All these phenomena have existed on the Petrichor for numberless eras...' -Sonder

Is it Young Adult?

What's the pacing like?

Influences

Is it part of a series?

Just WOW.

“These are the forgeries of jealousy.
And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
By pavèd fountain, or by rushy brook,
Or in the beachèd margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturbed our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have sucked up from the sea
Contagious fogs, which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents.
The ox hath therefore stretched his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attained a beard.
The fold stands empty in the drownèd field,
And crows are fatted with the murrain flock.
The nine-men's-morris is filled up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable.
The human mortals want their winter here.
No night is now with hymn or carol blessed.
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound.
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazèd world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which.
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension.
We are their parents and original.”

~Titania (Act II, Scene 1)

As with Fingerprints of the Gods and Supernatural, which are among my all-time favourite books, Graham Hancock has managed once again to arouse awe and wonder at the mysteries of our past.
Yet, I won't dwell on the reasons that make this such a great book since there are already so many reviews that do that quite thoroughly, and I advise the reader to take a look at them. Instead, I'd like to focus on an aspect that Graham doesn't seem to have taken into consideration—which hasn't prevented me from leaving five well-warned stars.

From the old myths and legends about these magicians—or sages—of the Gods mentioned throughout the book, it seems to be taken for granted that they were benign beings who brought civilization to mankind, save them from their primitive state, and taught them arts, sciences and agriculture. The catastrophes that occurred afterwards, especially the one Graham focuses on which occurred during the Younger Dryas, were only the punishment for having strayed from the right path.
Now, considering what has been going on in the world lately, with all these billionaire “philanthropists” and NGOs claiming to be saving us from climate change, diseases, poverty, etc, but whose real intentions have become rather suspicious—to say the least—my point is, Are we sure that these magicians of the Gods were nothing but a very ancient version of Bill Gates?
According to Graham, the magicians may have built their megaliths to warn us of a future impact, yet later on he admits that if another cataclysm occurred today the only people who could survive it would be the few tribes of hunter-gatherers remained, since they would know how to fend for themselves in the wild without the technologies of the “civilised” man.

I admit that the mystery behind the construction of the well-known huge megalithic structures is indeed quite fascinating, especially because it makes us wonder how their creators, who are supposed to have been little more than savages, could have built them.
But my point is, why bother in the first place if the only peoples who could make it through would be the pigmies and the like? Why do we always have to take for granted that the ability to build huge structures and know sciences is a sign of superiority, as opposed to living a humble life connected to mother nature, as “primitive” hunter-gatherers do? Isn't that actually even more technological?

It's also interesting to note that the prophet Enoch, as mentioned in Magicians, criticizes the Nephilims for teaching mankind evil arts, such as eye make-up. Graham belittles Enoch as a rather bigot shaman who didn't want to adapt to the more advanced way of the so-called “giants”, whom he thinks were simply more technologically advanced people rather than fantastic beings. But could Enoch have been right after all?

We also have another couple of significant episodes from the Bible—these ones not mentioned in Magicians—that makes me wonder whether the technology of agriculture was actually a good thing at all.
The first is in Genesis 3:19 where God basically curses mankind with agriculture after Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit (He says to them, “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread”).
The second is when God favours the offering of an animal from Abel rather than some plants from Cain. This might suggest that God preferred humans to be hunter-gatherers rather than farmers.

I'm not claiming that the magicians were bad, mind you. These are just random thoughts that popped into my mind while reading this book, and I don't have a clear opinion on all this myself. But perhaps we should consider this avenue as well.

Some interesting quotes...

“What child won't want a little dinosaur as a pet? A little patented animal for their own. InGen will sell millions of them. And InGen will engineer them so that these pet dinosaurs can only eat InGen pet food...“

“The idea of living creatures being numbered like software, being subject to updates and revisions, troubled Grant. He could not exactly say why—it was too new a thought—but he was instinctively uneasy about it. They were, after all, living creatures.”

“Scientists are actually preoccupied with accomplishment. So they are focused on whether they can do something. They never stop to ask if they should do something. They conveniently define such considerations as pointless. If they don't do it, someone else will. Discovery, they believe, is inevitable. So they just try to do it first.”