Peter RuddFiled under: chronotopes, the sweet life | Tags: Alain Daniélou, Gods of Love and Ecstasy
Imagine asking pardon of the spirit of the tree before cutting a branch, of the mountain before extracting stone for aggregate, of the lake before fishing, the stream before removing water, the sky taking a bird, the earth mining minerals. Processes would slow down, awareness of the nature of things and the relationship between them would increase, respect for life and the earth would bloom. Would life be a perpetual ritual again and natural order restored? Would the tree, mountain, lake and sky respect us back?
Animalistic man behaves in the same way and thus acquires a very acute sense. He asks pardon of the spirit of the tree from which he has to cut a branch. He tries to conciliate the divinities whom he believes protect the world. His life is a perpetual ritual. Respect for the spirit which dwells in all things, in all beings, is thus the basis of all morality and religion, and allows man to reach a level of intuitive knowledge which the logical mind can never grasp. Animistic concepts have been perpetuated amongst the ‘primitive’ tribes of India. Animism is opposed to the appropriation of land, to property, and to agriculture which destroys natural order and to anything which subjects nature to man. It is against the development of urban and industrial civilization. Such a concept, however, appears to be one of the most fundamental approaches to the religious problem. The animistic attitude is not sentimental or ‘naturist.’ Hunting is the basis for survival, and the cruelty of the gods and spirits requires sacrifice.
Gods of Love and Ecstasy, Alain Danielou
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coromandal 
Reblogged this on Reason & Existenz.
Comment by Keith Wayne Brown May 31, 2015 @ 3:45 pm