"..the pervading, though masked, depression in our civilization is partly a response of the soul to its lost underworld. (this work) nonetheless performs the chief function of religion: connecting the individual by means of practical ritual with the realm of death.”
Religions are plainly not doing their job if this is in any way true. What Hillman is saying by implication, and what I’m saying explicitly, is that, for whatever reason, we’ve lost our relation to the realm of death, the realm of the dead. We've lost those who once lived and are now on the other side, (seemingly) far away. And that this loss is the cause of depression—and insanity, and Koyaanisqatsi—that we now live in.
The name “Hades” was rarely spoken in the olden days; the Lord of Death was one of those whose name must not be uttered. Instead a euphemism was often employed: “Pluto”. Pluto is the god of riches, wealth. Like in “plutocrat.” The Underworld, the land of the dead is a place of riches and wealth, that is information, knowledge, ways to do things; the shamans of old knew this and went there to do their tasks.
Why has this realm been walled-off, No Entrance, No Tresspassing? Theories abound.
Qui bono? Who benefits from it? Are we talking about benefits that redound to the human realm, by which we can only mean people who are incredibly short-sighted, or, are we in William S. Burrough’s “Nova Mob” world, where non-human criminal gangs come to Earth, use it up, and then flee the old “shithouse” just before it collapses onto itself? Or are we just stupid? Too stupid to survive? I do not know the answers to these questions.
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