Cosmos

A very long time ago, I read a fanzine article by Sandra Miesel about Poul Anderson's many future history series. I remember only two points. 

Miesel described the Technic History in which the Terran Empire rises and falls, a process that takes about a thousand years. (Without the hyperdrive, a single millennium would have been a very short time on an interstellar scale.)

Miesel referred to another future history series in which the characters swore by Cosmos. Is this the Psychotechnic History? The Chronology of the Future dates the beginnings of the Cosmic Religion to 2130 although we are told nothing about this religion. (By contrast, we learn something about Cosmenosis in the Technic History.)

Remembering the time spent wandering through space in the Traveler, in which he was born, Thorkild Erling reflects:

"...before Cosmos, I had loved every minute of it!"

-Poul Anderson, "Gypsy" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 2 (Riverdale, NY, February 2018), pp. 255-270 AT p. 262.

When conversing with his wife, he exclaims:

"'...good Cosmos, Alanna!'"

-ibid., p. 263.

In another isolated community on another planet later in the Psychotechnic History, Masefield Ellen exclaims:

"'Oh - oh Cosmos, no!'"

-Poul Anderson, "Star Ship" IN Volume 2, pp. 273-306 AT p. 300.

(Small details like naming conventions and swear words indicate a common timeline.)

Sandra Miesel's sign-off italicized passage in Volume 2 concludes:

"The Cosmos and the life it sheltered held challenges both unpredictable and inexhaustible." (p. 307)

The capital initial suggests that maybe this "Cosmos" is not just the universe or the cosmos but the subject of the Cosmic religion. We will look out for any further references in Volume 3.

Meanwhile, we are free to imagine anything about the Cosmic religion! I suggest that the empirical universe and the object of numinous or mystical experience are a single reality differently perceived. See here.

By Cosmos

In her cell, the kidnapped Chee Lan recognizes:

"...space gear, by Cosmos!" (David Falkayn: Star Trader, p. 248)

She is being taken to another planet in the Korych system. But, meanwhile, I am more interested in her interjection. "By Cosmos..." is more characteristic of Poul Anderson's first, Psychotechnic, future history. However, words and phrases can be swapped around between timelines.

In the Psychotechnic History:

a Cosmic religion is part of the future historical background (see here);
it begins in 2130 (see here);
the phrase, "Cosmos knows..." is used (see here).

But there is no such religion in the Technic History where Chee lives although, later, there is a "Cosmenosis." The Technic History tells us considerably more about its Cosmenosis than the Psychotechnic History tells us about its Cosmic religion but I do not think that adherents of the former swear by Cosmos. However, only sf geeks can get interested in comparative religion between timelines.

Religions In Two Future Histories

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History, the Cosmic religion remains in the background whereas, in Anderson's Technic History, we learn comparatively more about:

Mahayana Buddhism

Jerusalem Catholicism

Dennitzan Orthochristianity

Ivanhoan religions

Diomedean beliefs

the Ythrian Old and New Faiths

Merseian polytheism

the Wilwidh religion of "the God"

Djana's Christian-Wilwidh blend

Ikranankan demonism and polytheism

Cosmenosis

Didonian mysticism

eclectic Aenean millenarianism

probably more

The Psychotechnic History is like a draft of a future history. The Cosmic religion maybe prefigures Cosmenosis.

Historical Organizations II

Religious Movements
Pilgrims
Cosmic religion
Ramakrishian Eclectics, including Kali-worshipers
Husseinite Moslems
the New Christendom
the White American Church

No mention either of Mahayana Buddhists or of Jerusalem Catholics in this future history.

Previously, I became immersed in Poul Anderson's past histories, then in his Technic Civilization History, but I never expected to become equally immersed in his much simpler and shorter Psychotechnic History.

The Cosmic religion is mentioned in the Chronology but I must reread to find out whether any further information is given in any of the texts. We see a Pilgrim on Mars but Ramakrishians, Husseinites and New Christendom are mentioned only once and then only to make the point that Terrestrial civilization is disintegrating.

I have yet to read either "The Green Thumb" or "The Acolytes," both set in the Stellar Union period, so I would be interested if anyone out there has any information about either of these stories.

Fictional Religions And Philosophies

Copied from here (and see combox):

In fictional works by Poul Anderson, we read about:

Cosmenosis
Gaeanity
the Cosmic religion
Jerusalem Catholicism
the Ythrian New Faith
Ishtarian religion
Veleda's myth
the Johannine Church

SM Stirling presents the Anglo-Indian religion of the Angrezi Raj, the debased cult of the Peacock Angel (see here and here), a Theosophical "Church Universal and Triumphant" and a Wicca that is more neo- than pagan (see combox here).

Robert Heinlein presents the Angels of the Lord, the Fosterite Church of the New Revelation (for both of these, see here) and a new Martian religion.

In at least two of these cases, Cosmenosis and Wicca, it is possible to get into discussing whether these are viable world-views. Do the Wiccan Gods literally exist in this alternative history of Stirling's? A "Son of God" is a divine agent. "The Sword of the Lady" would be also.

From Anderson To Heinlein And Back

In Wars Of Religion, we began with Poul Anderson's Three Hearts And Three Lions and wound up unexpectedly with Robert Heinlein's Future History, the link being wars of religion. If we had stayed with that line of thought, then we might have immediately returned to Anderson because:

Anderson modelled his first future history series, the Psychotechnic History, on Heinlein's Future History;

Anderson's major future history series, the History of Technic Civilization, became a larger scale Heinleinian series;

the Psychotechnic History presents a Cosmic religion, about which we are told virtually nothing, whereas the Technic History addresses religious issues in several instalments;

in The Technic Civilization Saga, Volume VII, Fr Axor seeks the Universal Incarnation and the Gwydiona develop an elaborate symbolical mythology to conceal from themselves their periodic psychosis and violence.

All human life is there.

The First Four FTL Stories In The Psychotechnic History

"Gypsy"
"Star Ship"
"The Acolytes"
"The Green Thumb"

These four stories present three, not four, discrete narratives because "The Green Thumb" continues the characters and setting of "The Acolytes."

In "The Acolytes," ten-year old Pete remembers the "...psycho-physiological habits..." of his "...training in self-integration..." (p. 18)

This is the only indication in any of these four stories that psychotechnics might be practiced back in the Solar System.

In "Gypsy," the first person narrator swears by Cosmos. In "The Green Thumb," the alien, Joe, refers to the human god as:

"'Your all-pervading primordial Cosmos, whom you do not even pretend to understand.'"
-Poul Anderson, "The Green Thumb" IN Anderson, The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3, pp. 21-41 AT p. 28.

According to the Chronology, the Cosmic Religion began in 2130:

10 years before "Holmgang";
40 before the Humanist Revolt;
50 before"Cold Victory";
654 before the invention of the hyperdrive;
685 before "Gypsy"
etc.

However, do any of the pre-hyperdrive, pre-FTL, stories refer to this religion? I have just looked back but not found any references. One Planetary Engineer says:

"'For God's sake...'"
-"The Snows of Ganymede," II, p. 145.

My point is that these four stories do not connect back in any definite way to the STL period of the Psychotechnic History.

The Sea Way

Compare:

the Cosmic religion in Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History

Cosmenosis in Anderson's Technic History

the Dao Kai/Sea Way in his The Fleet Of Stars, 8, which is -

more a philosophy than a religion (this has become a cliche although not a bad one);

a way of thinking, feeling and living;

behaviours rather than precepts;

organic;

founded on wholeness of life in oneness with the universe -

- and involves meditating under stars and under water.

OK. I could acknowledge the Sea Way while continuing to practice zazen.

Future Historical Events

Any installment of a future history series might refer to two kinds of historical event:

those that are mentioned only in this single work;

those that form the common background of the series, binding it into a single fictitious history.

Despite their pioneering work in interplanetary colonization, the Pilgrims and the White American Church are mentioned only in The Snows Of Ganymede (New York, 1958) - please correct me if I am wrong (Wrong: see combox) - whereas other passages in this work refer directly or indirectly to major events in the Polesotechnic History.

With the help of the Chronology in Starship, we can list these events more precisely:

1958 World War III
1965 First Conference of Rio makes UN world government
1975 Psychotecnic Institute founded
         Mars and Venus colonized
2009 Second Industrial Revolution causes mass technological unemployment
2035 Second Conference of Rio begins move towards Solar Union
         White Americans begin Ganymede colonization
         Venus clans break from UN
2045 City of X founded on Ganymede
2055 Planetary Engineering Corps founded
2080 Corps becomes independent Order
2100 Ganymede isolated from inner Solar System
2105 Solar Union founded
2125 Humanist Manifesto published
2170 Humanist Revolution
         Psychotechnic Institute banned
2180 Humanists overthrown
2220 Order now wealthiest, most influential private organization in the System
         White Americans ask Order to terraform Ganymede and Callisto

I have not listed events in this pre-FTL period that do not impact on The Snows Of Ganymede. However, these are:

2126 First STL ship launched
2130 Cosmic religion begins
2200 Limited physical immortality developed in secret
2205 Psychodynamic social engineering in an STL ship

The historian de la Garde is short-sighted enough to think that nothing beyond the Asteroid Belt will ever be economically important because:

too few resources;
too difficult to colonize;
energy needed for mere survival.

Therefore, he thinks that the main line of history will remain in the inner System, despite the colonization of Ganymede and the launch of STL interstellar ships.

De la Garde made no allowance for further technological advances. Despite the Second Dark Ages beginning about 2300:

the hyperdrive is invented in 2784;
Nomad culture begins in 2815;
the Stellar Union and Coordination Service are founded in 2900;
the Third Dark Ages do not begin until 3200;
there are interstellar Empires, then a multi-species galactic civilization with extraordinary personal control of cosmic energies, after that.

Excelsior!

Virgin Planet, Chapter II

Poul Anderson, Virgin Planet (London, 1966), Chapter II, pp. 15-19.

This chapter is rich in future historical background details:

Davis Bertram (surname first, given name second, see here);
the Coordination Service;
a facetious reference to "the Cosmic All" (there is a Cosmic religion);
the planet Nerthus, a thousand light years from Sol, on the edge of the known, recently colonized;
local Cordy headquarters in Stellamont on Nerthus;
city spires and plains beyond;
an "infomaster" (p. 16) instead of an infotrieve;
the (Stellar) Union dominated by Earth;
a dangerous "vortex" near Delta Wolf's Head;
cities, outgrown on Earth, have returned on the frontier;
colonists had disliked Terrestrial civilization (see here);
the local Cordy chief must approve stellagraphic voyages;
there are rules about how to handle primitives.

Thus, Davis Bertram flies towards the "Virgin Planet."

A False Dichotomy

"The Green Thumb."

Apart from human beings swearing by Cosmos, we are told nothing about the Cosmic religion. The only person to refer to it is its Nerthusian critic, Joe, who describes "Cosmos" as:

the human beings' god;

all-pervading;

primordial;

a machine god;

a mathematician's god;

to be known out in the great cold dark space between the flaming suns;

awe;

wonder;

impersonal magnificence;

flame;

vacuum;

meaningless hugeness;

incandescent gas -

- and contrasts this with:

other gods;

the old spirits of the land;

gods of life;

little gods of trees, flowers and dreams.

Joe sets up a classic antithesis that is easily resolved. "Cosmos" means not just vacuous vastness but the universe seen as a well-ordered whole as contrasted with chaos. Thus, it incorporates organic life. Solar energy sustains trees and flowers. Thus, flame and vacuum are the necessary conditions for life. Size is relative so to describe hugeness as meaningless is itself a meaningless value judgement.

The single impersonal reality manifests both as vacuum and as flowers. In Hindu philosophy, one universal God does not negate but incorporates many local gods. Joe needs to remain focused on individual trees and flowers while also understanding their total cosmic context.

Virgin Planet

"Virgin Planet" by Poul Anderson was:

published in Venture Science Fiction, 1957;
novelized in 1959;
republished in the Anderson collection, Starship (New York, 1982), pp. 83-181.

In my copy of Virgin Planet (London, 1966), the text of the novel is on pp. 9-149. Thus, 41 more pages, with smaller, closer print, than the shorter version in Venture and Starship. Pp. 150-156 are an Author's Note, explaining the premises of the novel:

the light speed limit applies to "...the group velocity of a particle-wave train..." but not to phase velocity so "...a device for handling discontinuous psi functions..." (p. 150) allows a faster than light pseudo-velocity "...limited only by the frequency of the engine's oscillators" (ibid.) and also gravity control;

a spatial condition called a trepidation vortex, as explained in the novel, can occur;

"...a nearly perfect dielectric..." (p. 151) makes small, manageable blaster guns feasible (an earlier story in this, Psychotechnic, future history mentioned "dielectrics" as making destructive weapons feasible for smaller groups and I commented that this idea should reappear as part of the background of later installments);

electronic readjustment of emotional patterns;
robots;
interstellar emigration for psychological, not economic, reasons;
the Stellar Union and its Coordination Service;
a Basic language and a Cosmic religion;
the galaxy mapped with reference to constellations as seen from base planets like Nerthus.

This background information might be more interesting than the story although I will shortly reread the latter, at least in the shorter version. One difference that I remember between the two versions is that one of them shows Lesbianism within the women only colony whereas the other does not.

Trepidation Vortices

In Poul Anderson's "Gypsy," the faster than light spaceship, the Traveler, carrying colonists from Earth to Alpha Centauri, suffers an explosion in its engines and winds up thousands of light-years away, unable to find home. To explain the mishap, crew members speculate about space warps, "...points of infinite discontinuity, unidimensional fields, and Cosmos knows what else." (Starship, New York, 1982, p. 20)

The phrase "...Cosmos knows..." acknowledges that there is a Cosmic religion in this future history although I am not sure that its tenets are elucidated anywhere in the series?

Three other works explain the phenomenon that threw the Traveler off course: a trepidation vortex. The Author's Note to Virgin Planet informs us that such vortices are consistent with the postulated physics of the series. "Virgin Planet" and The Peregrine present, respectively, shorter and longer dictionary definitions of a trepidation vortex and Virgin Planet summarizes the Manual on the subject.

Combining these three accounts, such vortices are:

(i) traveling regions of warped space;
causes of violently shifting gravitational fields;
responsible for planetary perturbations;
able to displace and, usually, destroy a spaceship on hyperdrive.
 
(ii) large traveling force-fields of uncertain origin and nature;
causes of gravitational turbulence with gyromagnetic and electric side-effects;
similar to hydrodynamic vortices;
causes of trepidation in material bodies and of irregularities in hyperdrive fields, either destroying a ship or throwing it off course;
possibly caused by local concentrations of nascent mass.

(iii) little understood traveling sections where the geometry of the continuum is distorted;
able, if big enough, to make a planetary rotation period fluctuate by a few seconds;
able to destroy or displace a spaceship on hyperdrive if the ship's discontinuous psi functions mesh with those of the vortex.

We can see that Anderson has an idea and tries out different ways to express it.

Media

"The Snows of Ganymede."

In addition to the mainstream media, there are alternative media ranging from the lunatic to, in my opinion, the accurate. We know about Earth Real through whichever part of the media we pay attention to and about the Psychotechnic History timeline through the instalments of Poul Anderson's first future history series but what are the media like in that alternative timeline? 

There are only two political units in the Solar System:

the Solar Union, governing Earth, Luna, Mars and Venus; 

the Jovian Republic, based on Ganymede, not on Jupiter.

In the Solar Union:

the Psychotechnic Institute has been outlawed although the government still employs psychotechnicians;

Humanists had seized power but have been overthrown;

the social problem of technological unemployment that had generated Humanism persists;

the Cosmic religion has begun although we are told nothing about it;

breakthrough discoveries in the Institute of Biology are suppressed but might be exposed by investigative journalism.

So what might the Solar Union newspapers and TV be like? 

1964-2180

In Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History:

"Marius" is set in 1964, the year before the UN world government is established and eleven years before the founding of the Psychotechnic Institute;

"Un-Man," in 2004, "The Sensitive Man," in 2009, and "The Big Rain," in 2051, are set during the period of the UN world government:

"Quixote and the Windmill," in 2120, is set - 

fifteen years after the founding of the Solar Union, 

five years before the publication of the Humanist Manifesto,

six years before the launch of the first slower-than-light interstellar spaceship,

ten years before the beginnings of the Cosmic religion

and fifty years before the Humanist Revolt which outlaws the Psychotechnic Institute.

In "Holmgang," set in 2140, Humanists prepare for revolt.

However, "Cold Victory," set in 2180, describes the overthrow of the Humanist dictatorship.

Thus, seven stories cover historical processes and events from 1964 to 2180. "Quixote and the Windmill" is missing from the Chronology in The Complete Psychotechnic League, Volume 3, but can be found in the Chronology in Starship, the third volume of the earlier Psychotechnic trilogy.

The Peregrine/Star Ways Revisited

"The planet grows as the ships strain closer; it becomes a sapphire shield banded with clouds, blurred with rain and mountain mists."
-Poul Anderson, The Peregrine (New York, 1979), Chapter I, p. 1.

This description of Rendezvous reminds us of a description of Earth quoted here.

"'In the name of Cosmos, rendezvous,' he began formally." (Chapter II, p. 7)

Again, "Cosmos." See here and here. I do not think that we are told any details of the Cosmic religion but this is something to look out for while rereading Poul Anderson's Psychotechnic History.

Cosmos And Joe

"Green Thumb."

It is the alien, Joe, that gives us the clearest - not very clear - statement of the Cosmic religion:

"'I know a little of your god,' said Joe. 'Your all-pervading primordial Cosmos, whom you do not even pretend to understand.'" (p. 28)

I question the application of the personal pronoun. And of course the totality transcends understanding!

Joe criticizes Cosmos as a machine god or a mathematician's god. The primordial Cosmos pre-existed machines but is partly understood through mathematics. But Joe prefers gods of life, of trees, rivers, winds etc. Life is part of Cosmos! Joe decries meaningless hugeness. Why meaningless? He also acknowledges that Cosmos is:

"'Awe and wonder and impersonal magnificence...'" (ibid.)

Yes. And the impersonal is "THAT," not "whom."

Joe asks Pete how many human beings there are. Is he a spy?

He says that he has worked his way along trade-lanes and has not been on any other:

"'...great worlds of the Galaxy.'" (ibid.)

How many such worlds are there? This dialogue hints at a number of interstellar civilizations that we are not shown in the Psychotechnic History.

Cosmos And Contemplation

Just after discussing a Nomad altar, we referred to a Christian altar in another timeline. The Nomad example is a family altar so does that mean an altar used by the family or devoted to the family? Probably the former since the Captain's cabin also has a family portrait and there is no mention of ancestor worship among the Nomads. I suggest that Cosmos cannot be prayed to but can be contemplated. Zazen, just sitting meditation, is contemplation of the Cosmos as it manifests here and now. The Cosmos is not a thing but everything, including all life and consciousness. We are both a part of It and its point of self-consciousness. Burning incense symbolizes the all-pervading. We can practice the Cosmic religion now.

Some Phrases And References In "The Pirate"

To continue a theme from the previous post, the original publication dates for the three works mentioned were:

"The Pirate" (1968);
The Peregrine (1956);
"The Chapter Ends" (1953).

Thus, the order of composition and publication was the reverse of the order of fictional events.

There can be a delay between writing and publication: more than three years in the case of Star Ways/The Peregrine, according to Poul Anderson's Introduction. Once, I told a British sf writer, Bob Shaw, "I've read your new novel. I wasn't as sold on it as on the others." He replied, "Neither was I." He then explained that his publisher, Gollancz, expected a new novel from him every year. This year, he did not have a new one so he gave them a manuscript that he had held back for a few years. To at least one reader, this text obviously belonged to an earlier stage of its author's career. This also happens when we read a series that was not written in the chronological order of fictitious events.

In "The Pirate," Trevelyan thinks:

"...Cosmos knew..."
-Poul Anderson, "The Pirate" IN Anderson, Starship (New York, 1982), pp. 211-251 AT p. 240.

The Chronology tells us that the Cosmic religion began in 2130 but how much do we know about it?

The two spaceships in the story are called the Campesino and the Genji. (p. 219)

"The planet filled half the sky with clouds, seas, sunrises and sunsets..." (p. 233)

On a planetary surface, sunrise and sunset are times of day whereas, from space, they are places.

A mother protecting her child:

"...was driven by the instinct of Niobe." (p. 238)

In the Technic History, the planet Merseia is shielded from supernova radiation whereas, in the Psychotechnic History, an entire planetary population has been killed. When Trevelyan finds an ossuary, he realizes that this is a building in which many of the dwellers, already dying from radiation sickness, had preferred to be killed by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Trevelyan thinks:

"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away; I will not bless the name of the Lord." (p. 239) See here.

Murdoch threatens Trevelyan with "'...a cyclic blast..." (p. 239)

At the Time Patrol Academy, Manse Everard learns:

"...the tricks and the weapons of fifty thousand years, all the way from a Bronze Age rapier to a cyclic blast which could eliminate half a continent." (Time Patrol, p. 12)

"'...the planet is such an archaeological and biological Golconda..." (p. 243)

The supernova was of Type II. (p. 224)

When Smokesmith comments that sentient beings are unlikely to be alive on the irradiated planet, Trevelyan says:

"'True.But if dead -'
"Trevelyan stopped." (p. 231)

Then, after looking long at the planet:

"'We're going in...'" (ibid.)

The unfinished sentence and the sudden stop alert the reader to an Andersonian moment of realization. Trevelyan has just realized what might be happening on the planet.

Trevelyan, a Stellar Union Coordinator, reflects:

"We are scattered so thinly, we who guard the great Pact." (p. 230)

How often does Manse Everard say that about the Time Patrol?

And who is the narrator of "The Pirate" who (kind of) preaches at the very end of the story?

Cosmos And Evil

"Virgin Planet."

Davis Bertram swears:

"'Oh, Evil!'" (p. 55)

"'Cosmos curse it...'" (p. 66)

"'I'll be damned to Evil if I will!'" (p. 68)

Careful textual analysis disclose that "evil," like "cosmos," has been capitalized. The texts present very few clues but here we deduce that "Evil," although more abstract, has come to mean something like "Hell." Many people use such terms only unreflectingly in conversation and we encounter only such people when reading the Psychotechnic History. Concrete reality is infinitely more complex than any fictional narrative. There must be people who have formulated and propagated the Cosmic religion. All of that is implied by just a few swear words in the mouths of characters like Davis. Any dramatization would have to add a lot of visual details implied by the texts like: what does the women's Father chapel look like? Let's not have just a familiar looking chapel but something that conveys what the isolated women might have imagined about the semi-mythical Men. Alan Moore would be able to write a detailed script for comic book artists.