Memories and projections of Isdom

The Isdom of the Wisdom Society: Embodying time as the heartland of humanity (Part #9)

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If indeed Isdom is as "close" in space-time as is implied above, how are traces of its dynamics experienced?

It would seem that there is a tendency to articulate "memories" of the experience through cultural "memories" of an historical golden era. This may be delightfully refreshed for all ages by novels, and their movie representations, such as those of J R R Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, etc) about "Middle Earth" and the timeless realms of the elves (see David Harvey. The Song of Middle Earth: J R R Tolkien's themes, symbols and myths. 1985). It might be useful to explore the ecology of such a mytho-poetic realm in comparison with the potential interactions represented in a phase diagram (see above).

Such novels, and the "memories" they evoke, may hold patterns of interaction reminiscent of Isdom -- especially including its problematic, shadowy dimensions (see The "Dark Riders" of Social Change: a challenge for any Fellowship of the Ring, 2002; also explored in the fiction of Stephen Donaldson: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, 1993; The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, 1994). A page-1 newspaper headline (Worldwide quest for the magic of Middle Earth, Guardian, 20 December 2003) points to a recently launched an international study on why The Lord of the Rings is so popular -- which starts by asking participants: "Where, in your imagination, is Middle-earth?" [more].

These fictional explorations may serve to sustain and echo the archetypal insights of mytho-poetic folk legends in many cultures, notably those relating to elder "ancestral" races who "withdrew into the stones" -- or to those that may have been trapped therein, like Merlin and the proverbial geni in the bottle (see Patterning Archetypal Templates of Emergent Order implications of diamond faceting for enlightening dialogue, 2002).

A similar effect may be achieved by projection of the imagination into the future -- to a future golden era -- notably through science fiction. The pattern dynamics of Isdom may well be projected into special types of games -- as with Hermann Hesse's Glass Bead Game (and attempts at its concretization) or M A Foster's Gameplayers of Zan (1977). Such games have also been developed to guide and sustain life in alternative communities (as with Findhorn's Transformation Game and Damanhur's Game of Life). More generally it might be argued that some interactive games over the web are efforts to explore the dynamics of such psychic attractors. Through exercising the imagination they offer a reflection and resonance with the quality of being in the present offered by Isdom.

A more tragic possibility lies in the increasing recognition that some indigenous peoples have held to beliefs consonant with the existence of an inner realm of greater reality to them than the more secondary solid physical world that conventional thinking holds to be primary -- despite recent advances in physics. Indigenous groups holding to this primary inner reality have included the Muisca people (Colombia) ravaged by the Spanish in search of an Eldorado that may have been essentially mystical [more] (see also the many examples presented in Darrell Posey (Ed.): Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity, 2000)

Another catalyst for recollection of Isdom is the sense some have of there being a lost language which articulated interpersonal dynamics in highly integrative ways which we can now but vaguely intuit (see Umberto Eco. The Search for the Perfect Language, 1995. and The Dream of a Perfect Language, 1996). Tolkien, Hesse and Foster play on this through the languages they describe. There is also a whole movement to construct new languages with desirable attributes [more].

There is also the possibility that certain devices, like rosaries, have an ability to catalyze such integrative recollection (see Designing Cultural Rosaries and Meaning Malas to Sustain Associations within the Pattern that Connects, 2000). One flavour of this is suggested by the title of a book of poems by Antonio de Nicolas (Remembering the God to Come, 1988)

Perhaps the person who did most historically to render Isdom into an accessible reality is Marsilio Ficino (see Composing the Present Moment: celebrating the insights of Marsilio Ficino, 2001) through his concern with "natural magic" and ensuring that decor in all its senses served to reflect and resonate with such inner dynamics (see Thomas Moore. Planets Within: The Astrological Psychology of Marsilio Ficino, 1990). This accords well with the recent work of the Imagination Lab (above). It is echoed in William Blake's classic comment as a poet: "And at length they pronounced that the Gods had orderd such things. Thus men forgot that All deities reside in the human breast." (In The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, 1790)

But the concern here is the manner in which the essential quality of Isdom is quenched (see above) by projection of its experiential reality onto cognitive screens which are effectively a denial of its nature -- even though the pattern of that reality may be traced out on such screens. The argument here -- following the tale of Plato's Cave -- is that they readily run the risk of being but pale analogues. This may be particularly tragic for those who are unable to sustain themselves through "Project Logic" (see Knowledge Gardening through Music: patterns of coherence for future African management as an alternative to Project Logic, 2000)

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