Up
until the 16th
century the body was seen as a receptacle of magical powers. Magic is
a means 'to
obtain what is wanted without labouring for
it. Obtaining anything without hard work is severely frowned upon in
a society and culture that believes in original sin. (i.e.
this culture and
most of the West)
It
is important to understand that everything that is pushed, proscribed
or advocated in our society has at it's
basis a belief in Christianity
which is a belief in the innate evil of
human beings. This inborn evil must be constantly fought against. We
are, 'because'
of Adam and most especially Eve driven to perpetrate evil, wickedness
etc. This foundational belief
is the basis for my continued and continuing rejection of God and all
forms of monotheism.
Humanistic
belief systems say
that people have an innate or inborn capacity for goodness. However
one needs to make a concerted and continuous effort to allow this
goodness space to operate. A capitalist monotheistic
society can never be humanistic.
Before
the 16th
century life, nature
the planet was
viewed as a flow
of signs and signals
to be deciphered. Everything,
every element, herb, plant, metal and most
of all every part of the
human body hid virtues and powers. A
variety of practices were designed to bend these
secrets and powers of nature to the human will.
Magic
requires a conception of space and time that is totally incompatible
with the capitalist work/discipline paradigm. Whether magic is real
is immaterial. All pre capitalist/christian societies have magical
beliefs.
Francis
Bacon said 'Magic
kills industry”. So eradicating
these practises and ideas was
essential for the creation of modern day
society.
What
we call the Age of Reason was actually an age of scepticism and
methodical doubt aimed at the destruction and eradication by the
state of all pre-capitalist beliefs and practices. The height of this
age was the peak of a prolonged, viciously ferocious attack on
ordinary people.
“The
human body … was the first machine developed by capitalism.”
First hierarchy was created between the mind and body. 16th
and 17th century philosophers, such as Descartes and
Hobbes, developed the theoretical basis which states; the body is a
machine, an engine that needs to subdued, controlled, constrained
ordered and subjugated. The mind must exert will over the machine to
focus it continuously on serving god and the state. This 'Mechanical
body' philosophy was essential to the creation of a functioning
capitalist society.
The
current revival of 'magical beliefs' is only possible today because
to paraphrase Silvia Frederici; "Even the most devoted believer in
astrology will consult the clock to check they are on time for work."
For
over three hundred years a battle was fought partly in words and
concepts beginning with philosophical texts printed at end of the
15th century. Though many of the works against the
mechanical body philosophy no longer exist. The battle of words can
be seen and read at any moment. The unrelenting violence that was
used to support and ensure the victory of these words is only evident
in our psyches and insistence upon following unspoken rules that do
not benefit our well being.
During
the 16th and 17th century hatred for wage
labour raged across Europe, with the notable exceptions of the NL and
Sweden. This resistance was so intense that most preferred possible
starvation and/or death to submission. This can clearly be seen in
changes in the law; An intensification of penalties, particularly
those punishing crimes against property, the introduction of bloody
laws against vagabonds and a huge number of executions.
But
it took until the second half of the 19th century before
we glimpse the emergence of the (ideal) ...worker – temperate
prudent, responsible, proud of his contribution. This drudge that
personifies the capitalist utopia is the clearest sign that the
battle had been lost.
If
this war had never taken place or not been lost, we would view our
bodies as sacred, magical vessels imbued with wonder, then gifted to
us.
Today
you either drudge or you are frowned upon. Most people strive to have
jobs where they then spend the largest proportion of their lives from
necessity. They do it for clothes, food, shelter. Few people do any
kind of work that fulfils them or enriches other areas of their
lives.
Most
of our addictions are condoned supported and pushed by the state. The
ones seen as a problem, take us out of the mundane reality of our
daily lives, they usually incapacitate us from being an ideal worker
and they move us into another (magical?) space/mind set.
If
we hadn't completely taken on board the de-consecration, alienation
and mechanisation of our body, how
would we view the insistent
call of a magical vessel
towards an altered state?
