Our 17th Century Soul Loss: Metamorphosis 1

Metamorphosis-blog

Here, in the first of two blogs on metamorphosis, I explore the nature of our collective soul loss resulting from the thoughts and actions of the philosophers of the 17th century Age of Reason. It resulted in a spiritual disconnect that delayed our spiritual evolution—a metamorphosis—by four hundred years… and we are today recovering from our soul loss.

First, though, and of great importance to all of us, several years ago, I found out that the ancient Greeks had the same name for “soul” as they did for “butterfly”… Psyche! I had long been familiar with the remarkable transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly called “metamorphosis,” in which I knew that somehow or other the caterpillar turned into a soup, from which the butterfly emerged. Using Google (!) I found that when the caterpillar molted for the last time, it hardened its skin and blew its intestinal tract apart, thus digesting all the caterpillar cells… with a few very important exceptions: its whole nervous system and small clusters of cells that would become the butterfly! Just imagine the result, all of which would not have been possible had that eating machine called the caterpillar ever existed!

Now, did the ancient Greeks know something about us that we might have forgotten for a couple of thousand years? Their ancient writings include references to the soul, Psyche, and they saw that the soul is a bridge between the body-mind and the spirit! How did we ever forget?

Here’s how… and I find it totally awesome: in the beginning of the 17th century, European philosophers were totally enamored of science, and, during the period of time we now call the Age of Reason, they came to the remarkable conclusion that the only things that were real were things that could be scientifically proven to exist. The soul was not one of these; so they denied its very existence, believing that science was the only way to the truth! Suddenly, we had lost that bridge to the spirit… also unprovable but surviving because the Vatican had prior claim to it. This is how we have been were left with our ego as our director… poor old ego… all alone in this big world with nothing but its survival instincts for guidance!

It really was not until the last century that our human soul came back into our consciousness… and now it’s back, big time, with hundreds of books about it on bookstore shelves and in Amazon. In other words, my friends, the bridge to the spirit has come back, just like Teilhard de Chardin told Jean Houston, “We are not simply human beings in search of a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings immersed in the human condition.” Could it be that we are rebuilding our connection to the Source for Its spiritual guidance? Yes indeed, we are recovering from our soul loss of 400 years ago.

Now, my dear friends, you can see how we might be in the midst of one of the greatest metamorphoses ever. Might it just not be that we are coming to see that we are the products of a living, loving, creative, evolving Universe… a Universe that made it possible for us to come into being because it needs us for its continued evolution?

More later… watch for the Monarch.

{ 7 comments… add one }
  • Michael Mannion February 15, 2013, 6:24 pm

    Thank you, Ken, for starting your blog! I loved learning from you about the ancient Greek use of the same word for soul and butterfly. And have always resonated with your story of the caterpillar transforming into the butterfly. I’d like to share a haiku I wrote in August 1997:

    no longer dreaming
    neither butterfly nor man
    energy streaming

    Thanks for your contribution to our “living, loving, creative, evolving Universe.”

    Michael

    • Ken Hamilton February 15, 2013, 8:15 pm

      Thanks for your kind words, Michael.
      Rich, rich haiku… 1997, yet. Valuable today.
      Ken

  • Marion Bowman February 19, 2013, 3:36 pm

    I ran across this poem just this morning (from ‘feeds’ that come into my desktop). I have never read it before but love what it says about ‘wisodm in our bones’, locked away, yet taking root now all the while, and I wanted to share the ‘metamorphosis’ implied within these words.

    “We locked up our wisdom into our bones
    And swallowed the keys
    They sank in our rivers of blood
    And we forgot the maps
    Because we had to forget the mysteries
    To keep them safe.
    We wove our hair into brooms
    And swept over our paths
    And then burned the earth with our rage
    We didn’t teach our children
    It was the only way to protect them,
    we thought
    But in them we planted seeds, seeds and keys
    And told them stories and riddles and songs
    With no roots, just tangled threads
    That would take years to unwind
    Just enough time
    For the rains to fall again
    and put out the fires
    For the dams to break
    For the rivers to flood
    For the paths
    to be walked again
    For the soil to breathe
    And as the old bones crumble
    Deep beneath the rubble
    We find we’ve always had the keys
    Our stories and our maps
    Our paths are revealed to some
    And the seeds grow again
    The threads are unspun
    And woven again”
    ~Amara Bronwyn Hollow Bones

  • Ken Hamilton Ken Hamilton March 21, 2013, 1:48 am

    Here’s a two part posting that speaks my mind. The first is a poem that is illusory one way and creative the other. It is, in and of itself, a metamorphosis. Read it down from beginning to end then turn it around and read it from below up. The second part is a wonderful 60 minute dialogue in June 2008 between David Korten and Joanna Macy at Seattle Unity concerning the nature of us humans and our part in the Universe that speaks to the result of our metamorphosis–The Great Turning–a term Korten got from Macy: http://ia600402.us.archive.org/12/items/VictorBremsonJoannaMacyandDavidKortenDialogueontheGreatTurning/MacyKortenDialogueApril252008SeattleUnity.mp3

    Here’s the poem:
    Lost Generation by Jonathan Reed

    I am part of a lost generation
    and I refuse to believe that
    I can change the world
    I realize this may be a shock but
    “Happiness comes from within.”
    is a lie, and
    “Money will make me happy.”
    So in 30 years I will tell my children
    they are not the most important thing in my life
    My employer will know that
    I have my priorities straight because
    work
    is more important than
    family
    I tell you this
    Once upon a time
    Families stayed together
    but this will not be true in my era
    This is a quick fix society
    Experts tell me
    30 years from now, I will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of my divorce
    I do not concede that
    I will live in a country of my own making
    In the future
    Environmental destruction will be the norm
    No longer can it be said that
    My peers and I care about this earth
    It will be evident that
    My generation is apathetic and lethargic
    It is foolish to presume that
    There is hope.

    And all of this will come true unless we choose to reverse it .

    • jeannie May 11, 2014, 2:59 pm

      I love, LOVE, loved that “reverse”poem by Jonathan Reed. Not only is it creative and transformative, it’s brilliant and hopeful. Thanks for sharing it.

  • linda walthers March 26, 2013, 1:28 am

    Dr.Ken, You always make me see beyond myself….lw

  • James October 17, 2014, 5:33 am

    Thanks Ken. We both know we’ve all been in a transition by what we feel, see the clouds in the woods or in the sky. We all have these abilities if we only believe what we see as a gift from God. A diagnosis telling someone their crazy from these gifts we possess are fears they have of themselves. I believe what I see & feel regardless of what others think. Therefore I’m Gifted & share my Love to Everyone.

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