Creative Forces Throughout History

Breaking the Spell (Chapter One)

One

Creative Forces Throughout History

Humanity has always been inextricably bound up within the laws of the Earth. There was a time too, long ago in human history, when the human ‘being’ (and the part it played) was viewed as relating to all the laws and activities of the cosmos. This knowledge was taught in the ancient ‘mystery’ schools where the teachers of the past explained the cosmic aspect of the soul. These centers were the forerunner to our schools/universities today; yet their teachers were like artists/ priests combined. Socrates and Plato admitted their initiation in the Mysteries of Eleusis; yet the Eleusinian mysteries were not alone in their role. Mystery schools like hidden fires burned brightly under the canopy of the ancient world: the Orphic Mysteries; the Phrygian Mysteries; the Chaldean and Assyrian Mysteries; the Mysteries of Mithras and Samothrace. Centers of inner wisdom spread from Persia, Babylonia, Greece, and Rome. Yet it seems these were only the seedlings for the parent tree was the Egyptian Mystery School of Isis, a center of esoteric learning that provided nourishment for the inner world of humankind. Or for those who had eyes to see, and ears to hear.

Knowledge was sown into cultural ‘carriers’ (forms of transmission) such that it would be handed down through myths and legends that are nowadays scattered and yet sadly little under- stood. The inspired minds of people in the past were occupied more with creative pictures of the world/ cosmos and the power to ‘communicate’ with these conscious, living processes. To lose sight of these relations was to become ‘distracted’ by worldly things, with the ‘fallen world’ of materiality. It was the purpose of such occult activities to keep alive in the collective memory the spark of ‘divine connection’, or source of the spirit. Such mysteries were sought through the strengthening of deep intuition and refined perceptions.

Deep intuition is sometimes referred to as human imagination (the capacity to manifest rather than to fantasize!). The word imagination contains ‘magi’, the Latin plural of ‘magus’ (ancient Greek ‘magos’) which translates into the English ‘magian’. Magian survives in the abbreviated form today as magic (and as ‘magie’, the German word for magic). True ‘imagination’ is part of the sphere of magic. The words of the ancient past held more power; today words are rarely recognized in their connection to occult meanings and the ability to manifest energetic connections. The use of words today is more to manipulate the position of the speaker rather than to elevate.

Thus, the imagination of the aspirant for inner learning was disciplined, trained, and developed. The simplest of exercises was likely to include reviewing each day at its end, to enhance the memory and to ‘fix’ the experiences and senses of the day. The review would begin backwards and end at the moment of awakening. Such ways were used to stimulate and enhance inner activity; to develop more intensively the forces which radiate through the individual.

These ‘creative forces’ helped to bind the individual to the larger cosmos as well as to earthly life. Physical relations were not forgotten for they had to be attended to in order to maintain life. Yet a more balanced proportion was maintained between the material (outer) and the inner worlds. Each had its place within the realm of the other. The essence of each gave life force to the other and thus a reciprocal maintenance was established. This reciprocity also played a role in the earthly laws of evolution by producing a channel (humankind) as a vessel for the channeling of creative, evolutionary energies. Such evolutionary laws operate throughout history and are the deeper laws that penetrate all appearances. These are the forces that have operated behind the rise and fall of consecutive societies and civilizations. Great waves of creative, imaginative thought have served as the seeds of many great cultural formations. These seeds have been planted and sown by the creative interventions of conscious forces. The human race has been operating under these laws at all times.

All great interventions of conscious renewal have been part of the ongoing process of human, cultural, and spiritual evolution. True revolutions are not those of physical violence but of radical shifts in perceptions, knowledge, and ultimately the individual and collective consciousness.

Works of art and architecture, edifices of text and textures, have been utilized as tools to educate and prepare humanity for its continued evolution. Such tools function to restructure the world for us, to create an altogether different form of under-standing beyond that of the material realm. Ultimately, we can develop a completely different view of the world if we are able to continually transform our cognitive systems. This tells us we are required to shift our perceptual paradigms in line with intensifying evolutionary energies. Whereas in the past the individual would trust in the senses of their interior life, we now largely lie in neglect of the function of inner knowledge and intuition.

Yet operative events have occurred throughout world history with the intention of seeding higher functioning into human consciousness. These events have taken the form of artistic movements; scientific innovations; faith movements; cultural/social revolutions; architecture; fraternities; myths and legends; sporting fixtures, and more. All such operations have served to impact upon the consciousness of humankind, and in a way that prepares the human mind for periods of development and change. One such operation in recent human history can be said to include the early Christian monastic culture which created centers for knowledge storing and transmission. This then developed into the era of the European cathedral building, which resulted in the Abbey Church of Cluny, Chartres, Rheims, Mont St. Michel, and the guilds of the cathedral builders. This movement was also closely tied to the Crusades and the subsequent rise of chivalric guilds. Following on from this operative period was the emergence of the Renaissance in Florence circa 1450. This artistic and cultural ‘happening’ was populated by such notable figures as Medici, da Vinci, and other intelligentsia. This influence spread to Cambridge, Oxford, and many other places that subsequently became centers of learning and education.

The second half of the previous millennium was populated with many significant cultural events, including the Reformation, the French Revolution, and various other faith-based and political/state revolutions. Within these many seemingly random occurrences lay the components that acted as the ‘technologies’ for developing human consciousness. It can be said that the last thousand years of our human history, in particular, has seen the rapid expansion of humankind’s information field, and thus increased social- cultural development. It is speculated that the increasing mutation in the collective consciousness of humankind is in line with certain evolutionary necessities. Within this development lie the catalysts for stimulating perceptual capacities that have largely lain dormant within the majority of humankind.

Preparation has been necessary through a succession of events that overall form a pattern of mutually reinforcing stimuli aimed at raising humanity’s psychic density. Involved here is the expansion of intellect, psychological awareness, development of social exchange, humanitarianism, empathy, and creative capacities. These advances have also sought to once again provide humankind with a link to grander cosmic operations and principles. Part of the requirement, it seems, is a revitalization of the intuitive connection and a greater flow and communion between the interior and exterior realms. Through the greater usage and familiarity of this connection can other latent capacities within humankind come to the fore.

One such event in our world history where a revolution in the imagination occurred was that of the Troubadours. The troubadours brought about a revolution in the way love was expressed, thought about, and experienced. It was a time where an interior longing could be expressed externally in a way never articulated before. It thus created the conditions for others to experience and share in these feelings and conscious expressions. The experience of falling in love was deliberately introduced into the cultural stream of human consciousness, and the experience of ‘being in love’ was given a structure, a vessel, for its growth and evolution. Although the word troubadour is often credited with deriving from the Provençal verb trobar, meaning ‘to find’ or ‘to invent’, it has been shown that it is more likely to have come from the Arabic root TRB (with the ador suffix added).[1] The TRB root suggests a range of words that include a meeting place of friends, a Master, playing the viol, and the idealization of women. The troubadours appeared to encapsulate these meanings in their mysterious gatherings and dissemination of a new consciousness of longing. Courtly love provided a vessel for bridging interior yearning to an exterior expression. Through this channel other courtly endeavors could arise, notably in court chivalry that grew rapidly around the same time. Notably, chivalric ideals were absorbed into literary works such as Chretien de Troyes romantic Arthurian legends and the Holy Grail. Dante’s Divina Commedia too owes much to this conscious influence. Chivalric orders such as the Knights Templar and others can be seen as having a debt to the troubadour influence. The injection of this deliberate developmental impulse spread rapidly through both mental and physical channels.

By injecting into public consciousness expressions of longing, desire, the unattainable beloved, and chivalric etiquette, later cultural impulses were seeded. From this have arisen codes of conduct, artistic aspirations, architectural monuments, and various other cultural reminders for the human psyche. It can also be said that the modern-day pop song owes a debt to the troubadour influence. Never has the outward expression of a person’s love and yearning been so easily achievable to so wide an audience.

Similar cultural artifacts can also be seen to have been operating during the phenomenon that was the Western 1960s. On the surface it seems as if there was a deliberate operation to bring an ‘Eastern’ body of energy and teachings over to the ‘West’ during the period around the 1960s. The influx of esoteric teachings and oriental formulations arose suddenly in western Europe and North America at exactly the same time that several ‘cultural revolutions’ were underway. Although this also led to the rise in ‘guru-ism’ and Western ‘seekers’ following touristic Ashram trails, Jalal ad-Din Rumi reminds us that: ‘False gold only exists because there is such thing as the Real.’

Many profound socio-cultural signifiers were seeded during this short period of quite radical change. Many peoples’ consciousness and perceptions were altered permanently. Without this preparation it seems less likely there would have been a New Age/Aquarian impulse; the 1987 Harmonic Convergence; and the increasing acceptance of transcendental/psychological experiences. The 1960s ‘cognitive mutation’ laid much of the groundwork for what is coming to the fore at this present time.

Catalytic events have often occurred at times when more rapid social change is required. It may be that such an important period of change is happening today. The upheaval in global changes we are currently witnessing would certainly indicate that circumstances are converging towards some radical shifts. This holds profound implications for our global social systems as well as for humanity.

Throughout history there have been those who have surmised such forces operating behind the façade of cultural change. The playwright George Bernard Shaw once remarked that:

…behind events there are evolutionary forces which transcend our ordinary needs and which use individuals for purposes far transcending that of keeping those individuals alive and prosperous and respectable and safe and happy.

It may be that such ‘evolutionary forces’ that Shaw points to are at an intense stage during the present epoch. If this is the case, then it is crucial that certain cognitive developments are stimulated during this phase. Perhaps it has never been more necessary for a change in the way we think. Or rather, how we perceive our connections with a conscious, living cosmos. Again, how we view determines how we do.

And the world that currently holds our attention is a mighty distracter. It has now become a force that pulls our attention outwards to the detriment of our inner cognition. This has proven to be an unhealthy and unbalanced relationship. It may now be due for an overhaul…

A TALE TO FINISH: Stories

A reputable wise man always taught his students in the form of parables and stories, which they would listen to with real pleasure. However, the students were also sometimes frustrated because they longed for something ‘deeper’. The wise man did not care at all about such objections. His answer would always be the same:

‘You still have to understand that the shortest distance between man and the truth is a story.’

All my posts on Substack are free - and will always remain free - for all & everyone to have equal access. If, however, any kind soul wishes to offer a gift/coffee/paid subscription, I honour your contribution.

Taken from the book ‘Breaking the Spell’ (published 2013/2020)

---

[1] Shah, I. (1982) The Sufis. London: Octagon