RE-ENCHANTMENT: BLESSINGS AND NIGHTMARES

Talking to two British Roman Catholics, Jonathan Pageau of the Symbolic World (YT) is back with a few surprising and astonishing perspectives on some ontological and social developments. He had earlier commentaries on the post World War 2 global consensus which is gradually coming to an end (link). The abject reactions to Charlie Kirk's murder are but one example of a changing spirit; another is the suicide of global institutions. Yet another field of contention is the need that a lot of people feel for the re-enchantment of the world, which necessarily rolls back the influence of the Enlightenment and Protestantism, born from the same rationalistic root. 

Oct 16, 2025 Catholic Unscripted: It Seems Like the War is Coming. Carnival, Spectacle and Alchemy.

After five, six hundred years of purposeful disenchantment, we need to get acquainted with this reality all over again and it stands to reason that this can only be done with much trial and error.

Much knowledge was retained by the Orthodox Church, some by the Roman Catholics. But many of the new practitioners will be acting on their own, dabbling outside of the boundaries of Christianity. For them it's a dangerous realm to engage with.

This seems to be a great opportunity to dispel some of the faulty frames that have crept into the Western consciousness. One of these is the idea, again stemming from the Enlightenment, that Christianity stamped out paganism, burning witches and heretics along the way. 

The early Christians believed in the pagan gods as much as the pagans themselves, except that the Christian God is universal and therefore superior over the pagan, titular spirits that are largely territorial. More about that some time in the future. 

Moreover, the universal God and the pagan daimons* operate  differently. Whereas prayer to God aims at effecting change in us, the idea of pagan worship is to effect change in the daimons, offering them sacrifice and libations in order to propitiate favors.

Bringing the conversation to science, Jonathan's recent interview with bio scientist Michael Levin comes up. That podcast was so absolutely terrifying that I shelved the whole thing until Jonathan would clarify some of what Levin is up to. Which he now has. Judge for yourself, but come prepared!

Sep 20, 2025 Jonathan Pageau: Brave New Biology: Intelligence Trumps DNA - with Dr. Michael Levin and Dr. John Vervaeke.

I don't know what Levin is doing and I don't think I want to know in the foreseeable future, but it seems to be a harbinger of the brave new world to come, which would be a sort of postmodern reiteration of Renaissance alchemy. 

Jonathan's insight into the dynamic between identity and power is absolutely brilliant: the more power is exerted, the less space there is for identity to exist. The more specialization, the more power for the entity tasked with bringing the parts together. 

Obviously the pendulum is going to swing in the opposite direction, hopefully with lessons learnt and retained, and exiting from the mechanism we call Hegel's rat wheel that makes us veer from one extreme to the next, which is part of parcel of the world we seek to leave behind. 

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*The term "daemon" originates from the Ancient Greek word δαίμων (daimōn), which means "god," "godlike," "power," or "fate". It is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root dai-mon-, meaning "divider, provider" (of fortunes or destinies), from the root da- "to divide". In ancient Greek religion and mythology, a daimon was a lesser deity or guiding spirit, often seen as a supernatural agent or intelligence lower than a god, ministering spirit.

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