I listened to The Sacred Speaks podcast the other day. John was
talking with Wouter Hanegraaf about Hermetic Spirituality. They
were mostly talking about how the basic texts about Hermeticism
had been mistranslated through history. The story that Wouter
relates is very deep and opens up infinite vistas of spiritual
world out there behind the stars, and through space, time and
identity.
This made me think about traditions like buddhism, shamanism,
etc. and what stood out in sharp contrast was the rather impotent
and sterile world of abrahamic religions. The scope of the
universe feels tiny compared to buddhism, the relation to nature
is horrible, there's only one god and he is either psychotic
(old testament) or boring (new testament). The only things that
have some depth are the depiction of hell and the pagan inspired
cults around the virgin.
Maybe the boring nature of the religion is why the christian west
rules the globe. The lack of reverence for the world around makes
way for the conquest of nature, and since there isn't much to
ponder about the religion, you can think about mechanics and
metallurgy instead.
