Again
The Tuesday morning sun shines brilliantly framed by blue sky. There are no clouds. I understand why the Maya and many other peoples worshiped the sun. The sun, our sun, gives life. Sol Invictus, the unconquered sun, was a god of the later Roman empire.
Sol was of supreme importance, until Constantine abandoned Sol in favor of Christianity. The last inscription referring to Sol Invictus dates to CE 387, and there were enough devotees in the fifth century that the Christian theologian Augustine found it necessary to preach against them – wikipedia
It is intuitive to reverence the sun, an equal opportunity “god,” available to everyone.
Religion often appears to defy common sense, at least superficially. Who would have predicted that a commoner, a carpenter, unjustly accused and executed by the governor of a backwater province would be acclaimed a resurrected “son of god,” the champion of the poor and the dispossessed? So goes the story. The insignificant cult increased in numbers, organized, and in time, as if by default became the durable institution as the Roman empire succumbed to the excesses of its ruling class.
The life of the individual has often been compared to a journey.
There are features of the journey that recur. One has a sense of déjà vu, a recognition that you’ve experienced something before, or as if by a rumor, have read about something which has happened many times before. I think about my life now, and wonder if I am witnessing the fading flame of Christianity? And what about the dissolution of Pax Americana, an empire of sorts in danger of being overwhelmed by circumstances? What circumstance you say? Two unnecessary wars in a row, depleting the treasury, eroding political stability. And there’s global warming which seems as if a hammer of the gods, impacting everything. Déjà vu.
Religions run their course, and empires don’t last.
This is a great tune. The lyric tells a wistful story, the look back over the shoulder at the road one has taken. The future cannot be foreseen, one cannot escape the need for a stable framework, some bedrock upon which to stand, in order to pursue one’s dreams. I feel with every cell of my body this is true, and maybe the only “truth.” Beyond that you and I are “just another heart in need of rescue.”
Do we not all “wait on love’s sweet charity?”
Here I Go Again by White Snake taken from the1982 album, “Saints and Sinners
