I find myself fascinated, these days, by tales and legends of a small group working against apparently insuperable odds, ridiculously overmatched... yet succeeding (overall, mostly) with the help of divine providence.
This may explain my recent engagement with the Journey to the West/ Monkey story; as well as more familiar examples from Lord of the Rings, That Hideous Strength, or the excellent Mistborn fantasy trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. There were real life examples such as the 'Lake Poets' and the Inklings - or Tolkien's youthful TCBS club of schoolfriends. Furthermore, my family has recently embarked on a Dungeons and Dragons game presided over by my son - in which I role-play both a Bard and a Cleric with my wife and daughter as Rogue and and Fighter.
It is a familiar trope; and is usually associated with action and adventure. But I feel that the deep fascination of this scenario is at the level of thinking, not doing - and it about a spiritual rather than material quest.
At any rate; the current situation is a quest for something uncertain, in an unknown place, and without any clear idea of how to achieve it.
Consider this blog, Albion Awakening - we three authors are on a spiritual quest for the awakening of Albion - Albion being the deep spiritual aspect of Britain (or perhaps the British Isles including Ireland). There is no way that three people writing on an obscure blog could causally make a positive difference to a nations of some sixty million who are addicted to the mass media and overwhelmingly hostile to anything which might interfere with their pleasures, or which might threaten their comfort, convenience and self-esteem.
But the blog is merely the surface, communicating aspect of a motivation that exists in our minds, in our thoughts; and which (I think we all believe) can work by a direct process of knowing - a mind-to-mind mutual knowledge, rather than being reliant upon the process of sending out signals and having them received and understood in line with our hoped for meanings...
Furthermore, the 'odds' against us are balanced by divine assistance insofar as we are indeed pursuing a quest that is in-line-with God's hopes and plans... And if we are not doing what would please God, then such assistance will be withheld; so the harm is limited.
Divine assistance generally works by means of 'providence', or synchronicity - that is a 'behind the scenes' arrangement of events to produce the most hopeful juxtapositions of persons and incidents. But God can only do so-much when it comes to human affairs, since our 'free will' can and does often oppose God's will... nonetheless, providence is known for recurrently leading to as-many-as-possible opportunities for us to 'make the right decision', and to nudge thereby things in the right direction.
So providence can ensure that something is noticed, but not that it is reacted-to; nor that it is reacted-to in a positive and constructive fashion. Providence can use communications to point-at a truth - but cannot ensure that a person grasps that truth intuitively (ie directly).
Anyway; I personally feel vastly encouraged by the idea of a hopeless quest against the odds, of a type that could only succeed by 'luck'/ wildly improbable 'coincidneces'!
The idea that we should simply get-on-with trying to do what we ought to do, as best we can determine and and best we can pursue that quest; and accept that that is all that we can do - but that is enough. despite that we almost certainly will never know the full outcome of our endeavor even if we did (improbably, overall) succeed.
I also feel encouraged by the conviction that such a quest cannot fail, because it has intrinsic value in the doing; and that any genuine achievement in the realm of real-thinking (thinking by and of our divine selves) is permanent and eternally available: makes a difference forever.
Can this blog 'awaken' Albion? Obviously not! But could it make a significant difference in that direction, could it be a decisive factor in Albion Awakening? Yes, of course it could! It could; if it is what God wills, if divine providence assists, and if that is what the people of Albion choose...
This understanding and perspective - Albion Awakening as a tiny band of cheerful but inept adventurers who hardly know what they are looking-for, and only hope to recognise it if they happen to stumble upon it; ridiculously pitted-against a vast and powerful system of purposive evil led by immortal demons and sustained by a legion of variously depraved, drugged and dozy minion masses - makes life both exciting and
unpredictable; yet also possesses a refreshing clarity, simplicity and
honesty!
2 comments:
This piece articulates my feelings very well, Bruce. The whole task could be a). hopeless, b). pointless, c). vainglorious and yet, for all that, it does seem to have a purpose. There is also the fact that (I think this is true for all of us) there isn’t any choice about contesting the dragon of modernity. You may as well ask a cow to stop mooing!
To pick up a point from a comment elsewhere on this blog, I don’t think any of us are against modernity per se. We all recognise the divine impulse that lies behind it and we are not wanting to retreat to the past. But we also recognise that that impulse has been derailed from its intended spiritual expression to a purely materialistic level and has been terribly corrupted.
Thus, we write for like-minded individuals who may be open to the ideas we express here (each in our different ways) and who may find some support in a world that scorns such ideas as mad, stupid or even egotistic.
One is always told not to worry about results. They are not your business. Your task is just to get on with doing what you know you should.
There are always unseen allies.
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