Over at Blog O'Gnosis, Anne Hill quotes a checklist of elements of California Cosmology offered by Alston Chase. As part of my own ongoing project How I Got To Be A Neo-Pagan Witch--California Cosmology beating at the heart of it--let me take a look at Chase's checklist. In particular, I'll add a brief comment vis a vis the element's influence on the youthful me, growing up and getting Neo-Pagan in the San Francisco Bay Area.
For Chase, California Cosmology is a flowerbed of exotic religions and an eclectic cornucopia of offbeat ideas-
Tao--was an influence, mostly thanks to Alan Watts and KPFA radio; San Francisco had an active Taoist community
Hinduism--was an influence, mostly thanks to Alan Watts and KPFA radio
Zen Buddhism--was an influence, mostly thanks to Alan Watts and KPFA radio; San Francisco had a small and active Zen community
Hua-Yen Buddhism--I don't recall this as an influence distinct from Buddhism in general
Mahayana Buddhism--was an influence, mostly thanks to Alan Watts and KPFA radio: San Francisco had an active Buddhist community
Gnosticism--was an influence, mostly as part of popular culture
physics--University of California, Berkeley/Lawrence Laboratory vs. Stanford in the arena of particle physics was an influence
Heideggerian phenomenology--not much of a distinctive influence on me until college days
Jungian archetypal symbolism--not much of a distinctive influence on me until college days
Yoga--not much of a distinctive influence on me until college days, when I began to do it; I was aware of Yoga thanks to Alan Watts
biofeedback--not a distinctive influence on me, although I did have several EEGs
Transcendental Meditation--not a distinctive influence on me
psychedelic drugs--in the San Francisco Bay Area, in the 60s? yes, they were an influence
self-awareness exercises--yes, a distinctive influence
psychotherapy--apart from popular culture, not a distinctive influence
pre-Socratic philosophy--not a distinctive influence
the 'Inhumanism' of Robinson Jeffers--not a distinctive influence on me
Gandhian pacifism--yes, a distinctive influence; in particular, I paid attention to the then Institute for the Study of Non-Violence
animism--not a distinctive influence, apart from popular culture
panpsychism--not a distinctive influence, apart from popular culture
alchemy--not a distinctive influence, apart from popular culture
ritual magic--not a distinctive influence on me, apart from popular culture; I probably starting thinking of ritual magic as something that it was possible to do when Anton LaVey's Church of Satan caught the public's eye
What Chase's checklist reminds me is that there are lots more elements that could be added to a checklist of California Cosmology. And that California Cosmology--for me--was and continues to be lived rather than listed. Growing up, I participated in California Cosmology as a holistic process, not as a tally of elements. That participation in a holistic process--in which different elements took on varying importance at this moment or that one--and in relation to events that provided contexts--is one reason that it's difficult for me (and others like Anne Hill) to untangle all those elements.
Well, I'll Keep On Truckin'!
http://gnosiscafe.com/gcblog/2007/07/16/california-cosmology/
Powered by Zoundry Raven
No comments:
Post a Comment