Bruce Charlton's Notions

It was many years after Thrain had left his people that I found him, and he had then been in the pits of Dol Guldur for five years at least. I do not know how he endured for so long, nor how he kept these things [i.e. the map and key to the secret door in the Lonely Mountain] hidden through all his torments. I think that the Dark Power had desired nothing from him except the Ring only, and when he had taken that he troubled no further, but just flung the broken prisoner into the pits to rave until he died. A small oversight; but it proved fatal. Small oversights often do.

From Unfinished Tales by JRR Tolkien (1980): Gandalf is here describing how he came by the map and key which led to Thorin's expedition to the Lonely Mountain; which led to the death of Smaug and founding a new kingdom of Esgaroth; and the finding of the One Ring by Bilbo; which prevented Sauron from allying with Smaug to destroy Lothlorien and Rivendell; and led to the destruction of the One Ring and the saving of Middle Earth. 

I am currently thinking much about divine providence; and how it ought now to replace politics and planning in the future orientation of Christians. 

This is - of course - how Jesus told us all to live in the Gospels ("consider the lilies" etc) - which is not to ignore the future, nor to live unthinkingly or in denial of reality; but to do the right things (one at a time, as they arise and not because they are part of a strategy) and trust to God to organize matters for the best.

God does this positively, and negatively. 

Positively by weaving-together the work of all Men who do good (and doing includes thinking). 

Such positive divine providence is shown at work in The Lord of the Rings where the free choices of the characters lead to positive unforeseen (and unforeseeable - even by the wisest such as Gandalf, Elrond and Galadriel) outcomes.

For instance the quest of Frodo was not a plan. Other than that he was to seek destruction of the One Ring in the cracks of doom; Frodo had no idea how that could or should be accomplished. 

For instance, there was no plan about how to get into Mordor. Frodo simply took things one step at a time, and tried to make the right choice at each step; sustained at first by hope and later by duty (and relying on Sam's hope). Finally the destruction was accomplished only by the turning of evil against itself - when Gollum did what Frodo could not.    

All through the story, there are many examples of characters who need to discover what is destined, or divinely intended; and then to choose whether (or not) to make that choice. Frodo must choose to bear the ring, choose not to use it (albeit he fails, twice - at Bree and on Weathertop), choose not to use its invisibility to escape the Barrow Wight and abandon his friends (he resisted this temptation) and so forth.

Divine destiny or providence is able to use these right choices to weave-together a sequence of events that eventually leads - by paths completely unforeseen and indeed impossible to foresee - to the triumph of the forces of Good, on the side of God. 

The failures of choice need not be fatal to good outcomes but they do seem to lead to suboptimal outcomes; for instance to greater suffering than would otherwise (probably) have been the case. Frodo's use of the ring in Bree led to the attack on the Prancing Pony, loss of the ponies and the chance of slipping away unseen; at Weathertop the ring seems to have allowed the Witch King to stab Frodo with a Morgul knife, which gave him permanent pain afterwards. 

But there are also many examples of 'negative providence' where the side of evil makes mistakes - sometimes apparently small mistakes (those "small oversights") which are taken-up, wedged-open, and then in many ways used by God to lead to the downfall of evil.

A basic plot point is that Sauron repeatedly makes 'small' oversights of neglecting the (to him) small threats - such as disregarding Hobbits; seeing them as trivial: unimportant to his grand plans and schemes. 

Sauron's eye is focused upon the Great Powers, especially the fake threat that Aragorn - heir of Isildur - had taken the ring; so Sauron neglected to watch his borders. 

Even when a hobbit (Frodo) was taken prisoner in Cirith Ungol, Sauron's attention (and that of his servants) was diverted elsewhere to the ongoing war. The orcs squabbled and killed each other; Frodo was released by Sam; and the two of them (and Gollum, trailing) were able to cross Mordor undetected and unmolested. "A small oversight; but it proved fatal."

"Oft evil will shall evil mar" says Theoden; and more generally this is seen in that the essential nature of evil creates blind-spots that lead inevitably to oversights - sometimes small, sometimes large. 

Thus, even in a world dominated by evil, God can work good by-means-of the oversights of evil. 

Even a 'small' oversight may be expanded by divine providence; much as a wedge may expand a tiny crack to break a rock... The very strength and rigidity of the rock works against itself - so that the whole rock splits apart instead of crumbling at the pressure point.  

Christians in these End Times - who are inhabiting a world of corrupt people led by a totalitarian global 'government' operating in obedience to Satan and in accordance with an inverted value system - may find great encouragement in such possibilities. 

So long as there are some men who make good choices - some Men who have chosen to ally with the side of God, Good and Divine Creation; then providence will be continually be weaving-together their many small and specific good intentions and acts into large (but mostly invisible) sequences. 

Not according to a plan, but according to intention. Continually updating means, while seeking good ends. 

Every error and oversight of The Enemy will provide new 'cracks' into which these good acts may be inserted. And all the time God is working behind the scenes to 'make the best' of whatever Good Men may do, and whatever 'oversights' evil may commit; in ways that not even The Wise can understand or predict. 

This is a situation in which the impossibility of specific plans becomes an advantage; because plans cannot for long be kept secret, and will be defeated by superior power. 

But the acts of Men who have taken the side of God and whose courage is sustained by hope of eternal resurrected life; cannot finally be defeated but will always lead eventually to good outcomes - when they are being insensibly organized by the higher wisdom of divine providence. 

And the 'small oversights' intrinsic to evil will always be providing new possibilities and pathways by which such good may be done.     

Every person who - for a while - succeeds in thinking/ being outside of The System becomes (for that time) an instrument of divine providence.

The above is a sentence I wrote in the comments yesterday, a kind of credo for what I term Creative Providence; which was then highlighted and expanded by Francis Berger. 

Here is a bit more in the way of clarification...  

Creative Providence = the belief that all our personal acts which are in accordance with divine-will are taken-up by God into ongoing and eternal creation. 

Therefore, Creative Providence is a metaphysical perspective* that acknowledges both the validity and potential of our mortal life; and the supremacy for the divine and eternal. 

It is rooted in an understanding of divine creation as ongoing and developmental (rather than once-for-all and fixed); and participatory between God (primarily) and Men (secondarily, within primary creation). 

In contrast is Fatalism. Fatalism = the conviction that God's plans unroll indifferently to any-thing - positive or negative - that we might personally think or do. 

Fatalism is the common basis of most theorized traditional religions throughout history and still today (although it is now, apparently, seldom believed with conviction). 

Fatalism gives all value and significance to the divine and eternal; rendering our mortal lives irrelevant and futile. 

Planning = the conviction that my best future entails forming and sticking-to explicit strategies. This is the ruling assumption in the modern world. 

Planning does the opposite of Fatalism; by excluding (as false) the divine and eternal; and asserting that our lives are bounded by conception and death. 

Mortal life is all that is - for us. For us... but significant only during our lifespan and without intrinsic significance for others. 

Lacking intrinsic significance; the only significance of our mortal life is in terms of the consequences for other people's mortal lives - yet the lives of others also lack any intrinsic significance.

Therefore Planning shares with Fatalism the conviction that our mortal life is Irrelevant and Futile - but for Planning our life is I&F because it is all there is yet lacks intrinsic significance; rather than mortal life being irrelevant for Fatalism for the opposite reason: i.e. because only the divine and eternal really matter. 

I have come to the conclusion that only something-like the metaphysics of Creative Providence is able to 'do the job' of explaining why our mortal life is genuinely significant - and can therefore explain why there is any such thing as the mortal life of Men. 

Note: Metaphysics is the philosophy (and/or theology) concerned with describing the ultimate nature of reality. Metaphysics is not itself that ultimate reality - but is the description of it, a 'model' of ultimate reality. Therefore all metaphysics is necessarily partial and distorted hence false if taken literally. The truth is known only directly, unmediated, without language. But to communicate the truth about ultimate reality entails metaphysics; so it is the most profound type of description.

I find myself fascinated, these days, by tales and legends of a small group working against apparently insuperable odds, ridiculously overmatched... yet succeeding (overall, mostly) with the help of divine providence.

This may explain my recent engagement with the Journey to the West/ Monkey story; as well as more familiar examples from Lord of the Rings, That Hideous Strength, or the excellent Mistborn fantasy trilogy by Brandon Sanderson.

There were real life examples such as the 'Lake Poets' and the Inklings - or Tolkien's youthful TCBS club of schoolfriends.

It is a familiar trope; and is usually associated with action and adventure. But I feel that the deep fascination of this scenario is at the level of thinking, not doing - and it about a spiritual rather than material quest.

At any rate; the current situation is a quest for something uncertain, in an unknown place, and without any clear idea of how to achieve it.


Consider the blog, Albion Awakening - we three authors were on on a spiritual quest for the awakening of Albion - Albion being the deep spiritual aspect of Britain (or perhaps the British Isles including Ireland).

There is no way that three people writing on an obscure blog could causally make a positive difference to a nations of some sixty million who are addicted to the mass media and overwhelmingly hostile to anything which might interfere with their pleasures, or which might threaten their comfort, convenience and self-esteem.

But the blog is merely the surface; communicating aspect of a motivation that exists in our minds, in our thoughts; and which can work by a direct process of knowing - a mind-to-mind mutual knowledge, rather than being reliant upon the process of sending-out signals and having them received and understood in line with our hoped for meanings...

Furthermore, the 'odds' against us are balanced by divine assistance insofar as we are indeed (really and truly) pursuing a quest that is in-line-with God's hopes and plans...

(And if we are not doing what would please God, then such assistance will be withheld; so the harm is limited.)


Divine assistance generally works by means of 'providence', or synchronicity - that is a 'behind the scenes' arrangement of events to produce the most hopeful juxtapositions of persons and incidents.  But God can only do so-much when it comes to human affairs, since our 'free will' can and does often oppose God's will... nonetheless, providence is known for recurrently leading to as-many-as-possible opportunities for us to 'make the right decision', and to nudge thereby things in the right direction.

So providence can ensure that something is noticed, but not that it is reacted-to; nor that it is reacted-to in a positive and constructive fashion. Providence can use communications to point-at a truth - but cannot ensure that a person grasps that truth intuitively (ie directly).

Anyway; I personally feel vastly encouraged by the idea of a hopeless quest against the odds, of a type that could only succeed by 'luck'/ wildly improbable 'coincidneces'!


The idea is that we should simply get-on-with trying to do what we ought to do, as best we can determine and and best we can pursue that quest; and accept that that is all that we can do - but that is enough; despite that we almost certainly will never know the full outcome of our endeavor even if we did (improbably, overall) succeed.

I also feel encouraged by the conviction that such a quest cannot fail, because it has intrinsic value in the doing; and that any genuine achievement in the realm of real-thinking (thinking by and of our divine selves) is permanent and eternally available: makes a difference forever.


Can a tiny Quest group make a significant difference? Yes, of course it could! It could - if that is what God wills, if divine providence assists, and if that is what the people of Albion choose...

This understanding and perspective - the Quest Fellowship as a tiny band of cheerful but inept adventurers who hardly know what they are looking-for, and only hope to recognise it if they happen to stumble upon it...

Ridiculously out-matched; being pitted-against a vast and powerful system of purposive evil led by immortal demons and sustained by a legion of variously depraved, drugged and dozy minion masses...


Such a perspective makes life both exciting and unpredictable; and also possesses a refreshing clarity, simplicity, and honesty! 


Reprinted with some editing from Albion Awakening - a couple of years ago; more relevant now than ever.

Providence is a good word for 'destiny' - I prefer it because destiny has connotations of a blueprint or at least of a stepwise plan; which I do not believe captures the way God works. 

By my understanding (and apart from His desire that we should follow Jesus Christ to resurrected eternal life in Heaven, which is a qualitative choice); God does not have predetermined end-points in view, so much as directions. 

In essence, I think God acts like ideal parents of an earthly family. Parents ought not to have plans of exactly where they want their children to end-up; but should be assisting them to develop their divine potentials in Good directions in accordance with their unique nature - starting from whatever situation each child is actually in - and this situation changes every day. 

 

Heaven is, I believe, a place of Loving Creation, and this is open-ended and eternal; and our own development likewise. So, this is my model for how God's providence works here in mortal life on earth - mutatis mutandis.  

I find is no problem about understanding how God's providence may be active in our own individual lives; and even in family lives (at least, when the family is working as it should be, or some sufficient approximation to that). 

But there is more of a problem thinking about how providence might work for a nation like England, and even more so when it comes to larger units like Mankind - The World. 

However, in principle, it can be imagined that England contains a vast family of The English, who are those who genuinely (in their hearts) regard themselves as such. 

Furthermore, we might extend this to the animals, plants and even the land itself; assuming (as I do) that creation is constituted by Beings, so every entity is actually a Being which is - in some way - alive and conscious. 

 

So, in considering the 'destiny' of England, and how providence might be-working now; it may be that the landscape and its features might be having a more powerful effect than the actual English people - most of whom are corrupted to the extent of being hostile to England! 

Consider. If the Beings which constitute the landscape, trees, animals etc are considered to be conscious, God's children (of a kind) and to have destinies; then I would guess that these operate on different timescales than with Men. Presumably some have a faster timescale (like most animals?), some slower than Men (like oak and yew trees?), others perhaps almost glacially slow (like mountains, rivers, moorland?). 

If so; some of the really-slow entities might have long term, cumulative effects - acting across human generations. Maybe they are only now beginning to notice, decide and respond to the cataclysm of the Industrial Revolution - from when Englishmen began increasingly to treat the land as dead, indifferent 'matter' - ripe for exploitation and destruction.

Maybe generations of bad, hostile, cruel attitudes communicated by Men to the animals, plants and lanscapes of England are finally leading to some kind of 'reply'? 

Or could there be consequences of whatever relationships these elements and Beings have with God; perhaps they may be working on some kind of compensatory, constructive and corrective action for the Good of England? ...If we would but deign to notice. 

 

All very fanicful, and I don't claim to have any knowledge of specifics. On the other hand, I am pretty sure that something of this sort is at work; not just in England, but in all natural 'group' entities. 

And I find this way of thinking to be a cause for hope. The are more things in Heaven and Earth than are taken account of by our usual calculations.

Romantic Christians may not be wholly-reliant upon Men as potential allies; which, in the circumstances of 2020, would be a very cheering thought.  

I have been pondering what it is that I most value in my favourite books of the 'fantasy' genre - or indeed in other media such as movies and TV. And I think it is a particular 'enchanted' feel, which could be described as including both animism and providence. 

Animism is the conviction that the natural world is alive and conscious - such that living beings (animals, trees) are also conscious; but most specifically those things that are usually considered to be not-alive ('dead') such as mountains, rivers, the sea - are also considered to be alive, aware, purposive to some significant degree. 

Thus, when the protagonists of a high fantasy are on a journey, then the landscape through which they move is a 'character' (or series of characters) in the story. 

Whereas in a low fantasy (sword and sorcery etc.) the landscape is just an environment: background scenery, or a series of challenges. 

Providence in high fantasy refers to the fact (or sense) that there is someone in the background influencing the course of events; more generally that there is a purpose or destiny (direction or teleology) influencing events. 

In high fantasy there is a 'macro' level of meaning, above or behind the plot. 

By contrast; low fantasy may be set in the context of a 'micro', close-up reality that is not going anywhere in particular - and success and failure tend to be defined in terms of happiness versus misery, attaining personal goals versus being thwarted or killed.  

From a Christian perspective, both animism and providence could be seen as referencing divine creation - a reality of meaning, purpose and personal relatedness; or even as a foretaste of the condition of Heaven. 

In this sense, high fantasy is an intrinsically Christian genre - since the personal-divine basis of reality is pretty-much specific to Christianity. 

Note added: The original English 'definition' of Romanticism comes from Wordsworth and Coleridge Lyrical Ballads (1798); in relation to which it was said that Wordsworth was writing about (implicitly animistic) nature, and Coleridge was dealing with the supernatural (with reference to some kind of providence).

I find myself fascinated, these days, by tales and legends of a small group working against apparently insuperable odds, ridiculously overmatched... yet succeeding (overall, mostly) with the help of divine providence. 

In the closing section of Acts of the Apostles, from chapter 21, there is a rather absurdly-detailed story; a complex and confusing rigmarole of events that begin with Paul being mobbed by Jews at the Temple in Jerusalem, and ends with him being tried, and released! by the Romans in Rome. 

The author of Acts (who was with Paul, throughout) is apparently trying to explain how it was that Paul - and by extension the early Christians - were Not destroyed, and the faith eradicated; despite that the Empire and the Jews both wanted this, and held all the worldly power. 

Philip K Dick wrote an astonishingly insightful meditation on this theme -  in his Exegesis notes from 1980. Dick considered that this episode of Acts was, in a this-worldly sense, an opposite narrative to the crucifixion. 

Whereas Jesus was mobbed, captured, interrogated, tried and executed - Paul went through the same stages...  yet was released!

The release of so dangerous a man as Paul, seems a remarkable thing; given that it was in the interests of both Romans and Jews that Paul either be killed and eliminated, or at least imprisoned and absolutely prevented from continuing his work of evangelism. 

At one level, we can see the hand of divine providence at work in the many and varied encounters of Paul; yet in another sense the worldly odds were stacked against him - and in fact he suffered beatings, chaining, imprisonment and many other tribulations - that were more than sufficient to silence a lesser man. 

Divine providence was 'not enough' to protect Paul from the many and terrible persecutions that Man's free will could inflict; how, then, could this same providence secure Paul's liberation? 

We could therefore ask more specifically how it was that divine providence was able to navigate a path through such apparently overwhelming and irresistible hazards leading to Paul's release in Rome. How was it that "the prisoner slides through the fingers of the Empire" (as PKD said).   

And this same question is again, Now, urgently relevant for Christian survival in a totalitarian global System which dwarfs the Romans in size and power; and holds and enforces an ideology of value-inversion that is far more existentially hostile to Christianity than the pagan Roman Empire ever was.  

(By contrast; the Roman's hostility to Christianity was mostly merely expedient - they disliked any group that tended to cause trouble for the Empire.)

The answer is that there is not one single answer; but that The System is, in actuality, very limited in what it can do - and is continually, and increasingly, sabotaging itself. 

And this applies with particular strength to an incoherent, self-hating and self-destroying Empire - such as the Global Establishment in 2022. 

As PKD wrote:

The Empire has lost the ability to state its case; it cannot close the trap. The later history of this archetype will be that the Empire will lose even more power; eventually it will not even be able to arrest its victim, let alone crucify him.

What matters in such circumstances is Not a detailed understanding of how the Empire works, nor any detailed strategy of how to elude its grasp; but strong faith underpinned by the courage that comes from hope of resurrection. Given that, and when an outcome is necessary or desirable to divine providence - God will find a way to accomplish the 'impossible'. 

*

I do have views on what I understand to be 'God's plan' or 'God's hopes' about the nature and role of some churches and nations - but there is no possibility of persuading other people of the correctness of my beliefs, and it would be dangerous to try.

So I will not argue or defend these views - nor will I respond to challenges or requests to do so; I merely state them.

For what they are worth; I believe that the way God works in history is to support the best possibilities as they emerge through human choices; but people often, usually, choose wickedness,  - later if not sooner - often encouraged by demonic influences - and therefore these plans and hopes get sabotaged and new ones must be launched.

*

I presume that the focus of world Christianity was the Roman Empire and its continuation in Constantinople then Moscow - but that God foresaw how this was crumbling towards destruction (which actually happened, from evil choices encouraged by demonic influences, in 1917).

I believe God also supported the best manifestations of the Western breakaway churches, including the (many) good features of the Reformation; and including the early Church of England translations of scriptures (to form a basis for English-speaking Christians).

I also believe that God enabled and has sustained the Mormon church - and its 'timing' to emerge as so many other Christian churches in the West are corrupting, crumbling and dying.

*

The focus of Christianity has roots, but also has moved around the world; the Holy Ghost being most active at one place at one time, and another place at another time - especially in relation to anything which is or may become a Christian empire.

In this sense I think it likely that the USA both has been, and was meant to become, the focus of world Christianity - at least since the apostasy and de facto secularization (and then decline) of the British Empire.

This kind of thing has various indices - but missionary activity is one of them. Britain was the main source of missionaries until this 'role' was taken over by the US - and Britain has been a major recipient of missionary activity since the mid-20th century.

But of course, the nation of the USA has not lived-up-to these hopes (although until recent decades there was hope that it might) and has now become (and is becoming ever more so) via the mass media perhaps the most significant anti-Christian influence in the world.

*

So I am sure that there is divine providence, but not destiny, nor fate - Men may sabotage almost anything Good, if and when they choose evil; they may also repent (since evil cannot be complete, and in Men there is always an incorrupt residue, a fragment of Goodness, that cannot be obliterated).

While I am not sure I understand providence, neither am I convinced that other people understand it better than me - especially when such people clearly display hard-heartedness, lust for destruction and domination, and hatred when discussing these matters (as do so many supposedly orthodox or traditional 'Christian' bloggers and commenters!).

I am also sure that we each need to do our best to understand the broad workings of providence - to feel the movement and direction of the Holy Ghost - by the discernment of the heart; especially so as to avoid inadvertently sabotaging providence by fighting against God's actual energies, plans and hopes.

*

Commenter Ingemar made an excellent and thought-provoking point in the recent post on how the One Ring was destroyed with the aid of divine providence, by a sequence of plans - each of which was worse than the previous one in terms of 'collateral damage'.

My understanding of Western history is that we embraced materialism (aka. positivism, reductionism, scientism)* as our underlying philosophy from the late 1700s particularly - and since then we have seen various Plans (B, C, D etc) offered to solve and destroy this way of thinking.

I call these Romanticism, which has come in waves - each of which failed by eschewing Christianity (and also being rejected by Christians) - instead dissipating into just-more-materialism: radical leftist politics and/or progressively extending the sexual revolution.


So, my assumption is that materialism - like the One Ring, which it so much resembles - needed to be destroyed...

Yet not by by reversion to an earlier phase, not by tradition (since history is linear); but by being superseded by further (and divinely forseen and ordained) development.

Plans were sequentially offered to The West by providence, which wove these into on-going creation - however, each successive Plan depended absolutely on human agency to acknowledge, accept, adopt - and consciously creatively participate-in - that Plan (or else it would not happen).


(This is a vital point: The early Plans could not and should not be 'imposed' on Men. All early Plans required Men to be consciously aware of them, required voluntary and active cooperation. This was desired by God, and also entailed by the nature of Man.) 


What happened was that the first phase of Romanticism (late 1700s, early 1800s) could be termed Plan A, and that was the best plan - which would supersede materialism with the greatest benefits and the least disadvantages.

Plan A was refused and distorted; and further Plans were offered over the next couple of centuries - but each with greater collateral damage than the previous one, because the best possibility had been refused and therefore damage and sin had accumulated - more and more as time went by.

Meanwhile, materialism continued to grow, with less and less opposition - into the modern form of anti-Christian, spirit-excluding, leftist bureaucracy. This consists of many national and specialised social systems (government, law, churches, education, science, health services, police, military etc) which are all linked into a single hierarchical and cross-linked System.

These 'functional' sub-systems (and The System as a whole) are vitally supported by a vast Public Relations and propaganda bureaucracy: the mass and social media.


And so we come to the recent totalitarian+ takeover by The System. 

We have now run-out of Plans, used-up all our good options; and providence is left with Plan X, the Plan of last resort - which is that The West be permitted to express all the contradictions and self-destructive aspects of materialism that have, until now, been moderated and restrained by providence.

The need to destroy the evil of The System is now so urgent and vital that it overwhelms any large scale Romanticism - and will proceed regardless of collateral damage.

With the corruption of all institutions, and their incorporation into The System henceforth, the true Christian spirit will be carried by individuals (and small loving groups of individuals) or not at all.


It turns-out that we had misunderstood the old prophecies as believing that God would impose pestilence, natural disasters, and wars as a punishment - whereas it is in fact our response to these phenomena that will destroy our civilisation by pulling it down on our own heads - and destroy it very completely.

Most of what is Good will perish with the evil; this being the unavoidable price of destroying the evil and generation after generation of rejecting better Plans. Instead, we and our ancestors have progressively embraced materialism more and more thoroughly - more and more rapidly and coercively; and The West are well advanced to imposing materialism upon the whole world.

We have therefore forced the hand of the Creator; who has allowed us to adopt Plan X; and will allow it to unfold by it own inexorable internal logic over the coming months.


But, unlike Plans A, B, C etc - Plan X is happening despite most men being unaware of it.

Plan X is, indeed, the direct consequence of our refusal to be aware of, or to cooperate with, divine providence; an outcome of our denial of both the reality and Goodness of God. Our wholesale inversion of true values.

As a civilization, we have chosen, cumulatively, to be passive and blind. Therefore our self-made fate will happen to us without our comprehension or consent.

And because it happens-to-us, we will lack that courage which derives from the active pursuit of Good. 


*+Note on materialism and totalitarianism. It might be asked whether these are necessarily evil? Might they simply be merely 'philosophy' and 'politics' - hence orthogonal (nothing necessarily to do with) Christianity? My answer is that The System is demonic (led by actual demon spirits, those willingly possessed by demons, and by the slaves of demons) therefore it is intrinsically evil in its objectives and motivations. Further, the dominant demonic evil of modernity is of the 'Ahrimanic' type: which works via materialism and totalitarianism - by bureaucracy and the mass media. Therefore, any totalitarian materialist takeover is in practice necessarily evil. 

*

1. Providence

From C.S. Lewis Surprised by Joy:

"What I like about experience is that it is such an honest thing. You may take any number of wrong turnings; but keep your eyes open and you will not be allowed to go very far before the warning signs appear. You may have deceived yourself, but experience is not trying to deceive you. The universe rings true wherever you fairly test it."


*
 
2. Intuition
 
From Blaise Pascal Pensees:
 
"The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing.
 
*
 
3. Discernment
 
From Father Seraphim Rose: his life and works, by Hieromonk Damascene. Quoting a letter by Fr. Seraphim:
 
"Well, we are all flawed. Perhaps that is the great spiritual fact of our times - that all the teachers are flawed, there are no great elders left, but only 'part time' spiritual teachers who spend part of their time undoing their good works. 
 
"We should be thankful for the good teaching we can get, but sober and cautious.
 
"The lesson to you is probably sobriety. Yes, you should trust your heart (...) what better thing do we have?
 
"Certainly not your calculating mind. (...)
 
"Bishop Ignatius Brianchaninov's constant advice to the Christians of the last times is: there are no elders left, check all teaching against the Gospel (...)
 
"I'm sorry I don't have any real advice for you in your grief, unless it's just one word: yes, trust your heart and conscience, and don't do anything to violate them. (...)
 
"The Fathers still speak to us through their writings (have you read Unseen Warfare recently?), and life itself is a teacher if we try to live humbly and soberly (...)"
 
***
 
Putting together Lewis. Pascal and Fr. Seraphim we can see a path through the morass of corruption (which includes ourselves, of course).
 
In the past it was possible to advise the Christian to be guided by those wiser than himself, join a Church (without being too picky about which specific Church), to subordinate his will to that Church, its ministers and its living tradition.
 
Yet now there are no wise; and the mainstream Churches and their traditions (as we perceive them now) have become schools of worldliness - reduced to ethical rules and subordinated to secular morality.
 
Where then can we turn? Where is knowledge that we can trust?
 
*
 
There is an answer.
 
If there is indeed divine providence we can trust experience to provide honest feedback on our choices. We will not be allowed to stray far without warning.
 
(We may choose to ignore these warnings, but there will be warnings.)
 
If we are indeed made in God's image then we have within us trustworthy intuition: a 'heart' which can discern the warmth of right choices and the coldness of wrong choices. We have a conscience which is tormented by wrong paths and peaceful in right paths. 
 
(There will temptations - with pleasure-seeking impersonating love, pride impersonating conscience; with spiritual dryness impersonating coldness of heart - but with love and humility and guidance from scripture and ancient Holy tradition these temptations may be detected.)
 
We have the potential to use our heart and conscience to evaluate and to learn from experience; to discern wisdom when we encounter it.
 
*
 
Where should we look?
 
In a time of corruption we cannot find The Good (undivided, in whole) in the mainstream - neither from among powerful institutions and high status people; nor from professional, technical or bureaucratic sources.
 
We may find goodness and wisdom among the humble, we may find it among the powerless or the persecuted. But not necessarily - and the truly humble, powerless and persecuted are themselves non-obvious; obscured by corruptly-designated proxies.
 
*
 
To experience The Good we must therefore look to the past and to 'fantasy'.
 
We can experience The Good in writings from better times and places, and from imaginative accounts of better times and places. From ancient scripture, biography theology, philosophy, history and literature; and from works like the Lord of the Rings (above all), from Narnia, and (yes!) from the Harry Potter books.
 
*
 
In all of these we can see for ourselves - imaginatively - the benign workings of providence and intuition as exemplified by the moral choices and wrong-turnings-repented of the Good protagonists; and contemplate the consequences of mistaken choices (driven by pride, hedonism and power-seeking) among the wicked.
 
From such vicarious sources we can learn what The Good feels like - we can experience Good (and its opposite), so that we will know them if (or when) we encounter Good (or its opposite) in our modern world.
 
*
 
If we are fortunate, we may encounter The Good among actual people and institutions here-and-now; but if we are not fortunate then we might not encounter The Good except vicariously.
 
*
 
Nonetheless, we should seek what Lewis termed 'Joy', Sehnsucht or enchantment; follow hunches and hints, glimmerings and glimpses; withdraw-from and shun that which chills our hearts and violates our conscience.
 
Interpret what we find in light of the Gospels and the wisdom of the past - and any good teaching we might by fortune receive.
 
And trust to providence and intuition: We will not, ultimately, be disappointed.
 
*
 

I have often reviewed 'esoteric' spiritual teachings from the last decades of the twentieth century - and even among those that I would regard as genuinely Christian, and which there is considerable insight and wisdom; there is an recurrent error. 

And that error is to make spiritual generalizations about the spiritual uplifting of the generality of people in the world. Purported plans and schemes about how the mass of people can and should be raised to a higher spiritual level - perhaps presaging the believed-in 'second coming' of Jesus Christ. 

In other words; the spiritual teachings tend to become political - albeit a spiritual kind of politics. And indeed, this usually seems to the the major motivation. A person has some kind of (partly valid) insight or inspiration, and then makes it into some kind of a system by-which (it is claimed) God intends to raise-up many or most Men before the longed-for second coming. 

Now, despite believing that we are in the End Times; I do Not believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ for reasons I have set out before - I regard this as a post-Jesus error. So, naturally I regard it as mistaken to reason in this way.  

But with the events since early 2020 to hammer-home the message; it seems ever clearer to me that we are supposed to set-aside mass considerations with respect to salvation and the spiritual war in general; we are supposed to stop being political.  

This is very difficult, because most people are more deeply convinced of their political convictions than of anything else. Yet, I think it is being made evident to us that to be political is intrinsically and necessarily to ally oneself with the powers of evil. 

As the months go by, and it becomes undeniable that all powerful social institutions are now on the side of Satan; the only path open to Christians gets to be that of working from one-self (and those one loves, directly and personally). 

...In brief: to commit oneself to the side of God, Good and the divine creation and to follow Jesus Christ - and leave the rest to God. 

We need to develop a real faith that this is what God wants us to do; and that insofar as we can achieve it in our-selves - then God will work through us. 

Furthermore; that God can, will and does work through the 'group' of human individuals who are thus aligned: God will do this and we ought not to be interfering. 

Any and all individuals who are (at any particular time) aligned with Good; are-being deployed for the Good of the world by God in invisible and unknown ways. This is happening all the time, and it is why Good remains undefeated, and continues to win victories - despite overwhelming global demonic-serving power versus the apparent worldly-powerlessness of real Christians. 

But these are not 'political' victories, to be read-about in the mass media or official announcements; they are spiritual victories - and often directed at the post-mortal salvation of particular people who are open to them and desire them. 

In a nutshell; I believe that we are intended to work from our own actual individual situation - regarding this mortal life as a time for recognizing and learning from the experiences God offers us; and having a real, practical and courageous faith to leave the large-scale social organizing to God's creative work behind the scenes. 

The old term is divine providence. In these times we are called-upon to have faith in divine providence as never before - including that, as Christian, we recognize our own free agency, and the need for us individually to exercise it - because that is how God does good, and indeed the main (or perhaps only) way that God can do good in such a world as now - when socio-political group-good is dead and gone. 

And this is easy for God to do - it is what God does; but is almost impossible for us to see - and actually impossible for us to predict: hence the absolute need for faith, sustained by solid hope in the resurrected life to come. 

Note: This may seem nebulous at first, because so utterly unfamiliar - yet anyone who really understands Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings has been given the best imaginable lesson in the workings of providence for Good. 

"I promised to help [Thorin] if I could. I was as eager as he was to see the end of Smaug, but Thorin was all for plans of battle and war, as if he were really King Thorin the Second, and I could see no hope in that. So I left him and went off to the Shire, and picked up the threads of news. It was a strange business. I did no more than follow the lead of 'chance,' and made many mistakes on the way."

*

This is excerpted from a letter by penfriend and commenter Kristor, in relation to:

http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2012/01/free-will-versus-left-brain-fusion-of.html

and

http://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2012/01/explaining-zenos-paradoxes.html

*

*

One of the ways in which the Harry Potter novels, although traditional in their deep structure, were representative of the modern world, is that the goodies were not 'cool'.

In the modern world, pretty much everybody who is 'popular', cool, beautiful, smart, witty, successful, admired and fun is a baddie: that is, a servant of evil.

And the people on the right side are by comparison square, dumb, plain, lame, nuts, nerdy and boring.

Harry's school gang is a bunch of 'losers' that includes a swotty 'mudblood', a seedy and impoverished blood traitor, the clumsiest and least-talented kid in the school, and a loony.

(Admittedly, on the periphery there are also a beautiful redhead and some anarchical trickster twins.)

The lesson is a Christian one, as also seen in Narnia and Lord of the Rings - if Good is to prevail over evil (eventually) it will only be by love, courage and self-sacrifice - and the assistance of divine providence.

In the modern world, Good will never win due to its superior power - or because people on-the-side-of-Good (remembering there are no 'good people') are more cool and popular - the servants of Good are a bunch of despised losers who can only win with the intervention of divine providence - covertly apparent in the form of 'luck'.

But as chance favours the prepared mind, good fortune will favour only a loving heart.

*

One of the obvious things about life is our inability to sustain those moods and motivations we most want. 

This may be because our wants are not good for us, spiritually good; and are therefore sabotaged by divine providence.

But other times it may be what CS Lewis termed "the law of undulation", which means that life tends to alternate between experiences, moods, emotions; with respect to attitudes, goals, energy... In sum, there are many alternations of many kinds.

Ultimately, this is because we need to learn from this mortal life, and most of us need to learn from both of the many extremes or 'opposites' of experience.

What we don't get in 'real life' we may be guided to experience in art, in dream, or by other vicarious means.

Thus life seldom 'leaves us alone' but is continually bringing problems and dissatisfaction, from which (it is intended) we will continue to learn. 

Undulation is part of this business. It does not necessarily mean we are failing, it may mean that we have experienced enough of one kind of difficulty, and now it is time for another.

I need to remind myself of this when it comes to my main goal in life - which relates to what I have termed Primary Thinking, which I regard as a means to the end of Final Participation. 

It is an active, conscious, and self-validating kind of thinking - in which there is the possibility (within constraints of our scope of ability) of direct understanding and correct knowing, and of personal creativity in its purest and eternal form (that is, participation in ongoing divine creation).

Yet I have periods of time when I can't do this - or, at least, it just does not happen. When, instead, my thinking is far more passive and absorptive - for example, I read fiction or memoirs, converse widely but without particular aim, watch TV or movies - and do not write notes or experiences that higher for of Primary thinking.   

Sometimes, this is because I am off-track; but other times it is an undulation; a necessary (or, at least, useful) variation on my life that enables me to widen acquaintance with the work of other minds; and to (les critically) absorb information and ideas - which later should prove the subject matter of the discernments and evaluations of Primary Thinking. 

Overall, I don't much like such variations in my life while I am in them - at times I try to fight them with Will Power - which never works, and is the wrong response anyway. But usually, in the end, it turns-out that something of significance was, in fact, accomplished in such phases. 

Providence is, after all, wiser than my personal plans. 

*
Secular modernity has it that each human life is random, contingent and meaningless. Obviously; to a religious person that is wrong.

Against this, many religious people say that their life has what they call a Plan - but it seems that this 'plan' is known only in retrospect, and has (what looks to the secular modernists) a self-justifying quality: whatever happens is argued to be 'part of the plan' - no matter how apparently horrible or absurd 'whatever happens' turns-out to be.

'Plan' is the wrong kind of concept for life - to think of life as having a 'Plot' comes much closer to the proper Christian attitude.

*
Life has a plot, and just like the plot of a play or a novel we only find out the plot at the end - however, any good play or novel is meaningful throughout precisely because we know that (so long as the author is competent) there IS a plot; and we are in IN it all the way.

A plot is not fully-planned-out, and a plot can accommodate all kinds of surprises and even accidents and disruptions without breaking the plot. In other words, a real plot has room for both free-will and contingency.

The plot of the Lord of the Rings requires that Frodo gets to the Cracks of Doom, but cannot fling the One Ring into it. In the actually used plot, Gollum fights Frodo, bites the ring off on its finger, and falls accidentally/ providentially into the lava.

But Gollum nearly repents in the tunnel approaching Shelob's lair, and in his letters Tolkien discusses what might have happened if Gollum had repented. Gollum's repentance would have been 'a good thing' but the plot was under divine providence, so the end result would have been the same - but by other means.

For example, Gollum might have taken the ring from Frodo and deliberately thrown himself into the cracks of doom (because he, like Frodo, would have been unable to throw the ring in). Of, if Gollum had been killed then Sam might have taken Gollum's role; either in some negative way if Sam had killed Gollum from hatred or disgust, or in a noble and self-sacrificing way if Gollum had died by accident or been shot by an orc.

*

My point is that there is room in the plot of life for free will, and accidents and without violating character.

Human life is governed by providence, there are end points which will happen (God will make them happen) but the timing and precise nature of these end points remains open - and is determined by choices, and also by such random or divinely un-intended factors as exist in the universe outwith God's will.

In your life or my life, bad luck is not 'really' Good luck, evil is not the same as Good - everything that happens is not part of a pre-decided plan. Life is a plot not a plan - some ends are pre-destined, God will ensure that they happen - but not exactly how and when they happen.

This, for example, is how we can know that the end of the world will come, and we can know that these are the end times leading-up-to that end; but we cannot know when that end will come, nor exactly how the prophecies will be fulfilled (and neither does Jesus Christ know this - as explicitly stated in scripture); because 'the end', while certain, can be advanced or delayed and re-shaped by human choice (as well as accidental factors).

*

*

I started thinking-out a Watership Down type of fable, about a strain of mutant rabbit which limited its own  reproduction in favour of 'industrial' activities that raised the standard of living; and where this disposition was combined with a compulsive altruism; such that the surplus product was shared with any mutant rabbits who cared to come and ask - and how this led to an horrific collapse of the warren...

And so on...

*

It was (obviously!) meant as an allegory of modernity, and how the particular combination of reproductive suppression and altruism was even-more-rapidly self-destroying than either would be on their own.

And how the psychological factors which led to reproductive self suppression were themselves amplified by the consequence of that psychology; how modernity creates more of itself.

*

Then I got to thinking that this could either be explained in terms of natural selection - of the weeding-out of deleterious genes (i.e that moderns are essentially a lower fitness mutant strain); or in terms of divine providence - like those Old Testament stories of wicked societies which get worse and worse yet still refuse to repent, until they are overwhelmed by catastrophe and slaughtered or enslaved.

*

It is weird in the extreme to see this scenario unfolding relentlessly, step by step, and sustained not so much by ignorance as by self-blinding.

It is things like this which seem to require the operation of purposive evil in the world (if we did not already know this from divine revelation).

*

And the greatest triumph of purposive evil is surely that the self-destroying society finds the concept of purposive evil laughable, infantile, embarrassing or itself evil; and regards this attitude as evidence of their enlightenment and intelligence, their superiority over all previous ages.

*

The fires are lit, the fuel is being loaded on them, the conflagration builds, the defenders are bound and gagged, all exits are sealed.

*

I am becoming ever more convinced that we are called to a creative role in this mortal life; and indeed that anything less than such a calling will be insufficient to motivate Modern Man in 2022 to remain a Christian - so strong, pervasive and accelerating are the pressures to join with the side of purposive evil against God. 

(At any rate, I observe that even among those Christians who did not fall victim to the birdemic-peck agenda up to February 2022 - have been apostatizing by believing/joining/ being-motivated-by the daily ideological propaganda of the Satanic-led Establishment on almost a daily basis, over the past fortnight.)

Salvation (choosing to follow Jesus Christ) is, of course, our first concern - and then theosis, which is the necessity to become more divine by learning from our mortal lives and making the right choices. 

But neither one nor both of these seem to be sufficient to motivate individuals in a world where real Christians have been abandoned by their churches; and where their self-identified Christian churches are continually siding with the evil-Establishment in their demonic policies and strategies - and thereby trying to lead their members towards affiliation with the Enemy.

We need, I think, a lively sense of daily purpose - of what positively we are living for - and this is 'creativity' considered as the activity of adding to God's creative providence through our own personal choices and effort. 

'Adding' is key - because it is not enough merely to recognize and affirm divine truth; since this is not something which gives our own lives any personal significance. 

To be motivated we need to have a 'project' that adds to ongoing divine creation yet that only we can do. That really is something worth living for.  

But this mortal life is not the same as resurrected Heavenly life; and we cannot create now in the same way as we shall then. Understanding this is perhaps helpful in appreciating the scope and limitation of that necessary creativity which seems to be demanded of us now. 

If it could be assumed, as an analogy, that creation requires something-like energy if a creative thought needs to be manifested (made-into) something material that will be effective in this world; then we can ask where creative energies might come from. 

The answer is God. True human creation is by definition in harmony with God's ongoing (and primary) creating; and I think it may be assumed that when God recognizes basic human creativity - i.e. in thought - as contributing to the divine scheme; then the necessary energies will be provided to make that thought into something objective, general and perhaps material. 

In other words, when our individual creativity of thinking is in-line-with divine providence; then (in a multitude of ways) God's creation will operate to include such human creativity as an addition to the divine. 

Therefore, our creativity in this mortal life (which is, I assume, a relatively rare and temporary phenomenon; even in the life of a major genius) is dependent on God's creating, and cannot work without it. 

And ultimately this is because we live in a world of entropy, where order succumbs to disorder, where usable-energy is finite and declining, where life sooner or later loses to chaos; where all that has been created will pass away.

In this mortal world; energy must be added from externally to make or sustain any-thing. 

By contrast, when we are resurrected we enter the realm of eternity; which may be interpreted to mean that we are self-renewing and intrinsically (as sons and daughters of God) posses innate and inexhaustible divine energy.  

Therefore, as resurrected Men, as divine children of God, we ourselves can manifest our own creative thinking! 

Thinking itself becomes 'objective' and manifest creation - without the need for God's 'input'. 

If the analogy holds, then our mortal creativity is real and important - but secondary to God's 'energetic' support; while Christians may look-forward to a condition where we have made an eternal commitment to God, and can thereafter become god-like in our own creativity. 

It is a huge fact, yet one that is seldom made explicit, that nowadays nobody on earth lives in a Christian society. 

Of course, it could reasonably be said that - judging by the highest standards, as we should judge - nobody ever has! 

Nonetheless, there have been, throughout history and in several places, whole empires or nations where the rulers and the principles by which they ruled were explicitly Christian -- starting with the Roman Empire from Constantine and its descendants in Orthodox Eastern Europe and Catholic Western Europe; then later Protestant societies in Western Europe and its diaspora... and other relatively recent places such as Deseret (Utah) under Brigham Young. 

But now no such situation exists anywhere in the world, so far as I know. Furthermore, the world-as-a-whole has become actively anti-Christian - and operates a strategy of subversion, destruction and inversion of Christian churches and states that has now reached an advanced stage. 

Nobody now lives in a Christian society - and every Christian is experiencing the consequences of the ongoing corruption and 'convergence' of self-identified churches and (especially) church leaders; as these become assimilated to a Satan-affiliated global bureaucratic-media System.  

How much does this matter - ultimately? That is, in terms of our personal salvation and theosis? 

(In terms, that is, of our ability to choose to follow Jesus Christ to Heaven, and to learn the lessons of life that divine providence places in our path.)

Well, it matters greatly and fatally if we assume that our Christianity comes from without - if we assume that salvation and theosis are meant to be a matter of individual Men following the rules and practices of the society in which they find themselves.  

If salvation and theosis really depend on us obeying the sources of social authority around us - then in a world without Christian societies, nations or empires - there does not seem to be much, or any, chance of being a real Christian. 

Yet, if we assume instead that God (who is the prime creator) is able to create a divine providence for each individual one of His children; and if this personal concern is assumed to extend to providing the necessary means of salvation and the life-lessons for theosis - then it may not matter ultimately what kind of 'society' we dwell in. 

It would then be the case that God would simply take 'whatever this world has to offer', and shape it such that each and every Christian (who has chosen to follow Jesus Christ to Heaven) will get enough of what he needs from The World to be able to achieve his heart-felt goals...

And that this will be the case whatever kind of society that Christian happens to dwell-within. 

This is certainly how I see it. 

While I certainly do yearn-for, and try to attain, a Christian society (instead of - as I regard our current world - By-Far the most evil society that ever has been in human history)... 

Nonetheless, when my faith is strongest; I trust that God is always working via ongoing-creation to provide whatever I personally require for salvation and theosis; using those materials with which Men's evil choices have supplied Him. 

And that what applies for me, applies equally for all of God's other children whose desire is to follow Jesus. 

There is something I like about the X-Men movie series, which makes them stay in my mind with a pleasing flavour despite that most of them are only moderate movies. In other words, they have grown in recollection.

The best of the actual X-men movies is probably Days of Future Past (although Logan from 2017, which is about Wolverine mostly, is probably better). 

The basic 'situation' of these movies is a simple question, but without a simple answer. Should the mutant population of X-Men try to live in peace with the normal humans? Or; should mutants accept that the normal humans will (sooner or later) try to enslave or exterminate them (which would suggests that the mutants should strike pre-emptively to do likewise)?

The movie plots are driven by two frenemies: Professor X - Charles Xavier - believes in peaceful coexistence; and Magneto - Eric Lehnsherr - believes that the X-Men should rule the world, lest they be ruled. 

Despite that Magneto's views or explicitly linked with the death of his Jewish parents in Auschwitz and the Holocaust; which, in Hollywood would usually be a sign of a dumb plotline based on the innate superiority of this type of victim; instead here Eric's moral authority, his sincerity, is repeatedly undermined by his willingness to sacrifice other mutants (even those he loves the most) to 'the cause' - but not sacrificing himself. 

There is always the suspicion that Magneto aspires merely to be a totalitarian dictator, and that his pro-mutant cause hides (even from himself) the demonic nature of his real motivations.  

While Charles's vision of a peaceful future (with his idyllic school/ college of mutants; set in a beautiful country house and grounds) is also undermined by his tendency to control people towards this end; especially by his ability to read minds and implant motivations. 

There is a suspicion that Professor-X is fighting against his own more politically-correct style of totalitarianism - full of vague idealism, but actually creating social instability and hedonic weakness and passivity. 

However, Charles is overall the 'goody' - not least because of his real care for people, his self-sacrifice, and his capacity to learn. 

As for Days of Future Past; I will say nothing specific - except that has Tolkien-like resonances concerning free will and providence: in this case applied to the science fiction problem of changing the past to aim at a better future. It turns-out that to change the past by violent coercion is ineffective - the evil past merely corrects itself. Evil cannot defeat evil. 

The only way that matters can be made better is by the free choice of an individual; and at the specific instant when that personal agency is used in line with 'divine providence'... the whole world is transformed for the better.

Yet without the knowledge of the participants. Disaster has been averted by an inner act of thought - but the participants do not realize it...

This strikes me as one of the most important lessons we need here-and-now.