#The Techngnostic Parable

[thehillbillyheathen]

Animism: the Techgnostic Parable (Part II - The Gaia System)

     Nature adores systems of complexity. This, with even the briefest period of investigation, proves indisputable. All living things are elaborate systems, and in turn are parts of systems within systems within systems.

In short, we are touching a bit on what James Lovelock called The Gaia Hypothesis only whereas science (when doing its task properly) does not meddle overmuch in the theological, as an animist one does by default.

Thus the foundation of the Techgnostic Parable is quite simply this: the Earth, and thus most likely the universe, is a system, a 'Goddess Machine,' tasked with the express purpose of maintaining  life upon itself.

The question of whether this is a strict automated process or,as was the case with the planet of Chiron in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and the entirety of the system is in fact a facilitation for a sapient, sentient "planet mind" is an intriguing one,but ultimately not relevant to this discourse. The self-awareness of the system pales in significance to the fact of its existence.

What then becomes the nature of instinct, inborn knowledge, and in human case such things as the Collective Subconscious? In the framework of the Parable, what is the Life the Gaia System maintains?

We are the programs and the functions. The meaning of life is life itself.

[thehillbillyheathen]

Animism: The Techgnostic Parable (Part I - Introductions)

     Here, gentle reader, is where I begin to get a bit heavy. I identify myself as a shaman if someone asks, and though the term is somewhat loaded and leaning more toward my Cherokee ancestry than the Druidism of my Celtic forefathers and foremothers, but both these "source systems" share a number of striking similarities, particularly at the level of their foundations - Earth, fire, water,sustenance, as I once heard from one of the few pureblooded Cherokee I have had the honor of speaking with. At their heart there is a sense of harmony and unity beyond the individual - and this is also seen in much of Eastern thought and mysticism as well.

     Ultimately a core of Animism tends to sit at the center of many sch belief systems, but to those from a thoroughly Westernized, sterilized background Animism can be a strange duck indeed, something rather far from the typical modern Westerner's context or in many cases even their otherworldly frame of reference. This before one can begin to expound on higher principles and more-advanced theories one must establish a foundation on which to build.

Thus in my first multi-part essay here on The Hillbilly Heathen I will be presenting something I have come to call The Techgnostic Parable.