The secret and the hidden

Lent 2020 - Day 28

Any discussion of building your own religion must touch upon the hermetic, the occult, the arcane, the esoteric - layers of deeply hidden secrets only to be revealed upon learning by those who seek. Hidden from the masses, the secret teachings of esotericism have sought a common denominator across all religions, a universal truth, though available only to properly-schooled initiates, who have braved ordeals in order to reach the next level.

From the Gnostics and Rosicrucians, the Freemasons, the Theosophical Society, through to various New Age movements, the idea of such ideas guarded down the ages from the uninitiated masses have had appeal. Symbols with hidden meanings, secret teachings, passwords, ritual, trance and transcendence inspire curiosity and a desire to discover; the more deeply hidden, the more one wants to find out. The success of books such as The Holy Blood and The Holy Grail, Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose or Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series of novels demonstrates how powerful the concept of hidden secrets in religions is, and how tightly guarded they are. We all love a good mystery!

Mainstream religions have their mystical traditions - Sufism in Islam, the Kabbalah in Judaism both draw on centuries of revelations reserved for those intent on deep immersion in hidden knowledge. Christianity, however, has tended to frown on esotericism as something difficult to control; something said to be associated with the dark arts - black magic - tainted with Satanism even.

Science too frowns upon esotericism, seeing little difference between mystical traditions and organised religions. In seeking a universal spiritual dimension of reality, esotericism rejects both the rationalist one based on physical laws, and the established religions based on institutions and dogma.

Here I find common ground with esotericism, but I also extend my hand to science for its monist view of the universe, and equally to religion for its belief in a divinity and afterlife (though I differ as to how those two are defined). In rejecting aspects of science and religion and simultaneously embracing aspects of both, I seek to bring the two closer together. By sifting that which divides from that which brings them together. And this unifying factor would be the awe and wonder that one feels when considering the universe.

What would be my religion's mystical secrets? Brought up on Roxy Music, I can see the influence of songwriter Bryan Ferry upon my aesthetic preferences; while the second side of their second album, For Your Pleasure, carries me off to different planes, it is the third track on the first side, Strictly Confidential, that touches on the esoteric: "Before I die I'll write this letter/Here are the secrets you must know/Until the cloak of evening shadow/Changes to mantle of the dawn." And then the dialogue between the narrator and the 'voices': "Haunting me always are the voices [Tell us are you ready now] Sometimes I wonder if they're real [We're ready to receive you now]". Powerful stuff for the 15-year-old's imagination. Give the song a listen, do...



Moments of joy, contemplating a starry night, gratitude for being alive, threads of metaphysical connection between the past and the present.


This time two years ago:
Afterlife - a myriad possibilities, after the Magic has returned
[By coincidence, this theme is continued, in a post from 2018!]

This time three years ago:
Warsaw photo catch-up (Rotunda going down)

This four years ago:
Conscious of being conscious

This time five years ago:
New road and retail

This time seven years ago:
Warsaw's Northern Bridge - its name and local democracy

This time nine years ago:
What's Polish for 'commuter'?

This time ten years ago:
Four weeks into Lent