Can a ghost be so dwindled that it now haunts only the pages of a book? Does this mean anything more than that the book describes the ghost? It can mean a bit more. First, it implies that the ghost was previously active outside the book. Secondly, maybe it is marginally reactivated when the book is read? In the previous
post, I described certain passages by Poul and Karen Anderson as "haunting."
These included:
"'Mithras, sentry at the frontier of the dark -'" (
Gallicenae, p. 93)
That is us. The dark is the unknown and everything that threatens life. Outer space is mostly unknown and we cannot survive in it without elaborate protection. Human consciousness is at the frontier of the dark. We are Mithras.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Apologies for my carping, but I'm uneasy at being compared to any "god," even one I don't believe exists. I would far rather think we are simply sentries at the frontier of the dark, unknown, and threatening. And I certainly hope mankind goes on to extend that frontier, to learn more about other worlds and possible intelligent races. To GO there!
Sean
Sean,
Many people sense or believe in a divine-human oneness/unity/unification but stop short of expressing it as a simple identity. I can write that we are Mithras because I regard deities like Mithras as our imaginings/projections. I can write that we are the One because I regard the One as all that is becoming conscious of itself through us.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Well, I can understand the use of Mithras as a metaphor or analogy for being a sentry. But I can't agree with the pantheism you expressed in your third sentence.
Sean
Post a Comment