While finishing up Karen Armstrong's A Short History of Myth I realized just how saturated the book was with discussion on the importance of epiphany. Once I broadened my understanding of epiphany to mean "experiences of the divine" I was illuminated with an interesting perspective on our contemporary placement on the historical scale of experiencing the divine. I will briefly outline the history of man and experiences of the divine. (extremely brief considering it is the history of mankind :) Perhaps Blake would call it an idiotic pursuit! But I think it is useful to know our general place in history in such matters.
In the Paleolithic Period, spanning from c. 20000-8000 BCE, and the Neolithic Period, from c. 8000- c. 4000 BCE, people experienced the divine in everyday life through animals, the earth, and other naturalistic places. Perhaps the time when the divine and the 'commonplace' life of people were mostly intertwined, at least in the sense that people felt their lives depended on the course of the divine.
In the early civilizations, from c. 4000- c. 800 BCE, the divine shifted from the naturalistic places to the structures of cities. "These early city-dwellers saw their cultural attainments as essentially divine" (Armstrong 61). With greater reliance now on human ingenuity "people began to see themselves as independent agents" (Armstrong 72). The gods still existed in the myths of the people but were beginning to become more distanced and ineffective on everyday life.
The Axial Age, from c. 800- c. 200 BCE, was coined because "it proved to be pivotal in the spiritual development of humanity; the insights gained during this time have continued to nourish men and women to the present day" (Armstrong 79). People began to rely on themselves even more thus increasing the distance between mankind and divinity. People "yearned for transcendence, but the sacred now seemed remote, and even alien" (Armstrong 82). One of the major developments during this time was the Greek logos-- a development that definitely impacts our notions of divinity today. Another main tenant of this age was a rise in the importance of rejecting violence and the belief in the Golden Rule.
The Post-Axial Age, from c. 200 BCE- c. 1500 CE, is marked by the flourishing of the three major Western monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These religions all began searching for their place in history, thus relying on logos to explain their history. People of the day were at odds with trying to explain the mythic stories with logos and thus began the shift towards logical reasoning rather than mythic explanation.; the Post-Axial Age marks the beginning of the decline in the cultural prevalence of myth and the end of 'advancement' of our spirituality.
The Great Western Transformation, from c. 1500 CE- c. 2000 CE (present?), marks the rise of the "new hero of Western society", the "scientist or the inventor, who was venturing into uncharted realms for the sake of his society" (Armstrong 121). "The heroes of Western modernity would be technological or scientific geniuses of logos, not the spiritual geniuses inspired by mythos" (Armstrong 121). This became the time when myth, and the divine, became purged from society unless it was scientifically 'provable' to exist. This is the age in which the divine has the smallest place allotted in society... although it does still exist.
Essentially, Armstrong's whole argument is, in regards to experiencing the divine, as we moved forward through history the 'distance' between humans and the divine increases making it increasingly more difficult and rare for us to have divine experiences-- even to the point where Armstrong says "because of out suppression of mythos we may even have regressed" (Armstrong 135). (Consider this in the same context as what Dr. Kollin often refers to as the "Progressive Myth of History") This seems like a pretty bad thing for us-- the people most current in the linear scope of history. However, she seems to support that we are actually not in the 'most distanced' time which, according to her, occurred approximately between 1900-1950 with the First and Second World Wars, attempted genocides, flourish of alienation and nihilism, etc. Humanity's relationship with the divine appears to be on the rise, however slightly. Interestingly, she makes the point that we are experiencing the divine not through religious means but rather through art forms such as visual art and literature (I don't think she mentioned music but you could probably throw that in there too). She mentions some specific authors including Joyce and literary movements such as Magical Realism (I hope to write a blog in the future about the movement of Magical Realism and it's assimilation of the epiphany into everyday life). Whether or not our current age will be a turning point back to frequent manifestations of the divine or just a small spike in the history of humanity is yet to be seen. The future of this relationship is undetermined and up to us to see how far along it comes.
*Hopefully their will be more beer in The Golden Age.
It seems to me that the project of our class, to experience divine manifestations through epiphanies, is the new heroic quest. Perhaps it is the wrong pursuit to actively search for the divine (does it go against the unexpected revelatory nature of epiphany?) but I think that experiencing the divine, so essential to epiphanies, is an important concept to embolden. Coming off the heels of an age determined to exterminate all that wasn't supported by logos, including much of myth, spirituality, and a greater sense of the divine in everyday life, it is the contemporary challenge to once again see the importance of the divine in our lives. In a historical sense, according to the basic 'progression' outlined above, even the epiphanies we have had and have yet to experience are a 'return' to an age where man and gods lived in closer proximity to one another. This return should not be considered a descent or return to barbarism, but as a return to an age with certain qualities superior to our own. As the band TV on the Radio puts it we must look forward to "The age of miracles, The age of sound, Well there's a Golden Age, Comin' round, comin' round, comin' round". This "Golden Age", a mythic time that often occurred in the distant past, can give modernity, with it's tendency to look to the future, a positive spin. As T.S. Eliot opens up the "Four Quartets" in Burnt Norton "Time present and time past/ Are both perhaps present in time future,/ And time future contained in time past." Eliot seems to have founded the same theme that TV On the Radio sings; despite the current negativism toward the divine, as captured in "The Waste Land", we will undergo a great return to "The Golden Age, comin' round, comin' round, comin' round..."
*Apparently this is a CD cover for some psychedelic band. Looking at the track list it is evident that this band supports the Mayan "end of the world" in 2012 concept. However, they obviously think that instead of this being a plunge into darkness it will be a return to more simplistic times based on agriculture (note the forefront image of the tree and the divine colors, psychedelic images, that are sprouting upwards from it).*
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