The New Age Sense of Creativity
In my last post I described five characteristics of the New Age: a sense of oneness with the Earth, a sense of community with each other, a sense of harmony and peace, a sense of curiosity and continued learning, and a sense of creativity. Over the next few weeks I would like to expand on each, today on the sense of creativity.
I have described the power of ecstatic trance as a way to commune with the spirits of our ancestors and the spirits of the Earth. Among those who I have taught ecstatic trance, those who most quickly resonate with this altered state of consciousness are those who value their dreams and other trance and imaginative experiences, and the artists, that is the people who have developed their sense of imagination. In moving into the new era that Jean Gebser refers to as the era of time-free transparency, it is this sense of imagination that carries us beyond the era of rationality, rationality that has limited us to the world around us only with our five senses of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Now we are moving beyond into the new era where we reclaim our ability to commune with the spirits, spirits that were so much valued by our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors. The spirits of our hunting and gathering ancestors have so much to teach us on how to survive sustainably on our one and only Earth. They are our guides and models as we move into the New Age, an age of creative beauty.
Two writers, Riane Eisler and Marija Gimbutas, have explored the ancient time when humans worshiped the Great Earth Mother, the creator and sustainer of new life. This time, before the worship of the masculine deities of power, was a time of peace and creativity. The veneration of the more recent masculine gods can be blamed for bringing us into the age of an endless series of wars and destruction of the Earth. The artistic creativity seen in the two books by Marija Gimbutas with their many ancient images of the Great Earth Mother Goddess demonstrate the creativity of this earlier hunting-gathering era. She shows the many artistic accomplishments that have been found around the Mediterranean, e.g. of such people as the Minoan culture of Crete. The nurturing creativity of the Mother Goddess stimulated the people to take the time for creative expression in their veneration of the Great Earth Mother who sustained them for 200,000 years. Because of our much greater numbers it would be impossible for us to live as did the hunter-gatherers, but with creative thinking we can find new ways to incorporate within our lives and communities how they lived. Two museum reproductions of figurines from this era, dated from 28,000 to 25,000 BC, are in my personal collection, the Venus of Willendorf and the Venus of Lespugue.
I have described the power of ecstatic trance as a way to commune with the spirits of our ancestors and the spirits of the Earth. Among those who I have taught ecstatic trance, those who most quickly resonate with this altered state of consciousness are those who value their dreams and other trance and imaginative experiences, and the artists, that is the people who have developed their sense of imagination. In moving into the new era that Jean Gebser refers to as the era of time-free transparency, it is this sense of imagination that carries us beyond the era of rationality, rationality that has limited us to the world around us only with our five senses of sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Now we are moving beyond into the new era where we reclaim our ability to commune with the spirits, spirits that were so much valued by our ancient hunter-gatherer ancestors. The spirits of our hunting and gathering ancestors have so much to teach us on how to survive sustainably on our one and only Earth. They are our guides and models as we move into the New Age, an age of creative beauty.
Two writers, Riane Eisler and Marija Gimbutas, have explored the ancient time when humans worshiped the Great Earth Mother, the creator and sustainer of new life. This time, before the worship of the masculine deities of power, was a time of peace and creativity. The veneration of the more recent masculine gods can be blamed for bringing us into the age of an endless series of wars and destruction of the Earth. The artistic creativity seen in the two books by Marija Gimbutas with their many ancient images of the Great Earth Mother Goddess demonstrate the creativity of this earlier hunting-gathering era. She shows the many artistic accomplishments that have been found around the Mediterranean, e.g. of such people as the Minoan culture of Crete. The nurturing creativity of the Mother Goddess stimulated the people to take the time for creative expression in their veneration of the Great Earth Mother who sustained them for 200,000 years. Because of our much greater numbers it would be impossible for us to live as did the hunter-gatherers, but with creative thinking we can find new ways to incorporate within our lives and communities how they lived. Two museum reproductions of figurines from this era, dated from 28,000 to 25,000 BC, are in my personal collection, the Venus of Willendorf and the Venus of Lespugue.
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