Tag: cognition

The Bonfire

~ Piece, of the Sky

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The Bonfire captures a pagan practice of the pre-Christian Celts, Britons and Scandinavians. It was a crepuscular practice marking the autumn equinox, when day would be swallowed by winter’s almost endless night, in the upper reaches of the Northern Hemisphere. The equinox was also a liminal time when the barrier between the physical world and the spirit world became more permeable, like at the crossroads or at twilight.

Below, the westward axial precession of the (vernal) equinox through the ages:

Equinox_path

 

Cartesian mind-body dualism

~ Piece, of the Sky

rune

The soul, qi, is dispersed throughout the body, in every living cell. Every living organism, from the tiniest cell, to human beings, has life, life energy. But life or animation doesn’t translate into a soul; a soul must have consciousness, self-awareness. Only humans can really have souls or spirits.

Spirits, gods, etc., can manifest as stand-alone entities – they are “immortal” because they can manifest without a physical body. But human life, consciousness and spirit are still welded to the physical body. We need a body to live, to compose ourselves, to be conscious, so far. Can we isolate a living, conscious and aware human spirit from its body?

Nature does not know extinction; all it knows is transformation. Everything science has taught me, and continues to teach me, strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.

—WERNHER VON BRAUN