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I love the way the imagination connects the literal material world
with the ideal, spiritual realms and mediates their relationship. Children
have a natural, though undeveloped sense of this, I think, in their organically
playing out of the paths of meaning and value. I especially like the way
this imaginal connection is expressed in dreams and our relationship with
them. Other modalities imaginative connectedness exist; psychotherapy,
dancing, painting, socializing, reading, writing, or just plain thinking
and reflecting. All tend to organically unfold the "What are we really
doing and why are we doing it?". These questions were at one time asked
of the oracles, and the most famous of all was the oracle at Delphi. To
even get into the temple to ask a question required sleeping on the steps
of the temple until one had a dream that indicated you would not be wasting
the oracles time. The priestess, the pythia, would sit on her tripod
seat in a trance and speak as the medium of the oracle.
The Delphic oracle was known and used even before the Greeks arrived.
After they came with their male god Apollo (who is said to have slain the
Dragon/monster at Delphi and taken the oracle for his own use), a group
of male priests surrounded the priestess and would "interpert" the things
she said. By 700-500 BCE the interpretations were used to increase the
political power of Delphi and by about 500 the oracle was falling into
disrepute. The claim was that the oracle was ambiguous and not fitting
with the rational spirit of Greece. There didn't seem to be any questioning
of the patriarchal overseer's abuse and rational manipulation of the original
pre-greek spirit of the oracle, but the concern at the time was how to
beat the Persians, not how to live a meaningful life. We know what happened
to Socarates, who stressed meaningful questioning at this same politically-oriented
time. However, the oracle continued to have some influence for several
hundred more years. Even some Roman emperors sent delegates to consult
the oracle. |
