We can demonstrate no better example than that of the case of Egypt, which we suspect, looking at its visible history, conceals something prodigious in scope. And yet we are hard-pressed to delineate what that was. Many will be glad to fill in here, but little is known. 

Let us cite our reference to the eonic effect and its sequence of 'new ages'. It is as if the window on the past closes during the periods of greater transition as human evolution passes on to something new, leaving the past in limbo. We see this dramatically in the case of Egypt (to take but one example) which is soon outstripped by the new productions of the Axial Age, leaving the traditionalists (of that time!) stranded, and perhaps trying to inject 'hermetic flotsam' into the historical record as they attempt mostly without success to preserve the knowledge of the past. It is important to consider that the greater process of history is what maintains the past even as it proceeds to discard it, to create a new future. This 'hermetica' effect is characteristic of each stage of our eonic sequence, as the system changes gear and leaves its past to the proliferation of 'religious junk' floating down the river.  

This effect is clearly in evidence in modern times, and we see that in the wake of the modern transition a whole series of attempts emerge to restage the issues of the Axial period, with variable or no success. The jury is out. But the religion of the future, if any, has already leapfrogged these remnants of the Axial Age, the new Axial flotsam, with what potential for the future we do not know. The Indic tradition does tend to be a partial exception to this rule. Elements of this religious tradition have recurred ever since the Neolithic, we suspect, and there is a muddling through, despite the immense baggage of outlandish elements inherited in confusing layers from the past. Nonetheless, a great many pitfalls linger in that tradition (like the spurious law of caste) and we see that the Axial Age shows the attempt to rationalize and streamline that tradition with a reform, one that ended up moving in parallel to its source. 

Thus the denunciations of modern materialism, etc, by traditionalists has completely missed the point that a new religious dispensation (it won't be called that) has already planted the seeds for the future, and we can see, at least, that this pertains to the place of freedom in a secular context, this being a sacred as you can get. Modernity has an immense spiritual potential, but it won't dabble in spiritual jargon or repeat the past. 

All these retrograde actions are thus likely to become the next 'flotsam' of the future, as the lost initial conditions of a passing age are lost to memory or practical action. 

Top