So making and observing a sacred calendar is – yet another piece of, say, re-enchanting the world. Although the point of sacred time basically is that it’s NOT under one’s control and it is NOT dictated by secular concerns, so – as with so much of this re-enchantment project – it’s sort of self-defeating. Though I may be able to build something around solstice and equinox, as the Wiccans do.
Still, if I’m rolling my own, the benefits won’t even really start to accrue until the second or third round. Hmm. I still haver about whether I shouldn’t just go to a church and let somebody else run all this stuff. Even if I invent something useful for myself, it will just be because I’m so extraordinarily fortunate in actually having time to think and read and plan and do.
But – yeah, higher time. I do have strong associations with the Halloween season – which is considerably after the equinox, actually – being the time when the barrier between worlds thins and becomes less opaque. I don’t know how much of that is the dislocation of the time change. Hmm. I just dunno.
Anyway, I’m going to track for a few days and see if I can actually practice anywhere near solar noon. An obstacle there is that when I get close to that time I (rightly) think that getting my lunch before it gets too late is a higher priority. Eating early is indeed something that I need to do. I’m going to try doing it before practice – see if that works
[ written in early November, obviously ]
6 comments:
Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent and thus the first Sunday of the new liturgical year. I'm attracted to the liturgical calendar and its roots in the natural cycle (and quasi-relationship to other markers like solstices and equinoxes). No need on my part to reinvent the wheel, which already contains two contemplative seasons to encourage self-discipline, one of which ties in nicely to the naturally increased interiority of the winter season.
Yes, I love the idea both of having external spiritual "prompts" (to borrow poetry-writing language) and of having time that is not "homogenous and empty.." (Although I'm also the guy who is exasperated by my breakfast cafe being closed on Thanksgiving.)
Walter Benjamin! I never thought of him in the context of a re-enchantment project, but it's obvious. Now that I think about it, your blog adds up to something like his delightful, unfinished Arcades project.
Hah! I've never read Benjamin. (I knew Taylor was quoting somebody, but I didn't know whom.)
Then I'm in luck! :-)
But I woke up this morning feeling the need to learn more about re-enchantment. I've read some Native American writers on the subject, but I've never read Taylor. Is it Charles Taylor or Philip Taylor? I'm not familiar with either, but Google's AI thinks it could be one or the other. And what book by Taylor would you recommend to get me started? Thanks.
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