Apoptosis, Necrosis, and Lysis in Cell and Civilisation

I used to puzzle about what culture philosopher Jean Gebser intended us to understand by his term “the Law of the Earth” from his great book The Ever-Present Origin. The phrase is taken from The Epic of Gilgamesh where the spirit of Gilgamesh’s beloved departed friend Enkidu returns from the Underworld (and the Sumerian Afterlife was bleak indeed) and Gilgamesh –the seeker after immortality — implores the spirit of Enkidu to tell him “the Law of the Earth which you have seen”. Enkidu answers him: “My friend, I cannot tell you, for if I proclaimed to you the law of the earth which I have seen, you would sit and weep.” (p 79).

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Chaotic Transition in Two Images

A Tale of Two Cities, as it were, which are two Ages.

The Body, the Geosphere, and the Doctrine of the Affinities

One of the most interesting aspects of “the return of the repressed” is the revival of the Hermetic doctrine of the affinities, or what we might call today “empathetic epistemics”, which basically states “to know a thing you must become the thing you wish to know”. This is connected with the Yogic principle “Tat Tvam Asi” or “Thou Art That”.

This is the topic of today’s post. It is a very significant aspect of the “new consciousness” anticipated by Jean Gebser as “the integral” or “aperspectival” consciousness structure. And we will begin to see this in noting the affinity that exists between the body and the Earth (or Gaia) that is also crucial in understanding the climate crisis.