The Ever-Present Origin - Michael Goodnight - Editor

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temporal forms which co-constitute man can dissociate him from theexclusive validity of the mental time-form, establish a certain detachment,and enable him to integrate them.The courage to accept along with the mental time concept the efficacy ofpre-rational, magic timelessness and irrational, mythical temporicitymakes possible the leap into arational time freedom. This is not a freedomfrom previous time forms, since they are co-constituents of everyone ofus; it is to begin with a freedom for all time forms. Only this form offreedom which proceeds from the concretion and integration of all timeforms, and which can be achieved only by a consciousness which is free tostand "above" the previous time forms, can bring about a consciousadvance or approximation to origin.It is from origin, which is not bound to time, that all time formsconstituting us have mutated. Origin lies "before" all timelessness;temporicity, and time. Wherever man becomes conscious of the pre-given,pre-conscious, originary pre-timelessness, he is in time-freedom,consciously recovering its presence. Where this is accomplished, originand the present are integrated by the intensified consciousness. Theirruption of time into our consciousness is the first indication, the initialmotif of the consciousness mutation that is today acute. This mutation willbear its fruits of transforming the world if we succeed in superseding theirruption of time; but that is tantamount to what we have called thepresentiation of origin, which can be achieved only by the successfulfulfillment of the main task posed by the new mutation: the coming toconsciousness of time-freedom, of the achronon.2. The Awakening Consciousness of Integrity or the Whole.The coming to awareness of "time" in its full complexity is a preconditionfor the awakening consciousness of time-freedom. The freedom from timein turn is the precondition for the realization of the integral consciousnessstructure that enables us to perceive the aperspectival world. The wholecan be perceived only aperspectivally; when we view things in aperspectival way we see only segments. In conceptual terms, however, wecan only approach the whole by way of "integrals" or "totalities."But what are "integrals"? This frequently used concept must be defined inmore specific terms because of its destructive effects, right down to the"totalitarian" conceptions where it was linked with the vitalist principle andrepresented only the vital aspect of time. An integral is not a fusion ofdiscrete material parts; if it were, it would be only an amassment or sum.Nor is an integral the fusion of material parts with one of the possibletemporal aspects as in totalitarianism. True integrals are constituted onlywhere we assist spatial and temporal components in their own way toform a mutual, enduring efficacy. A true integral in this sense is "man asthe integrality of his mutations" (see above p. 152 f., Part I, chapter 4,section 5). Integrals,therefore, are not summations of parts but occurwhere parts—which are always spatially bound—are consciously perceived70
with the powers which actualize them; "temporal" functionals togetherwith spatial matter form integrals.An integral mode of perception as represented today by several branchesof knowledge has not yet been able to establish itself in the publicconsciousness because the man of today continues to think and act inaccord with the three-dimensional conceptual world. Therefore hecontinues to regard only one aspect of the world as real: the spatial. Timefor him has remained what it was: chronological time, or at best terms ofdelivery or expiration, and perhaps the span of life itself, although that toois mostly forgotten since it is a form of time which, because of itsrestricting effect, elicits feelings of anxiety.What are the implications of such a partial and single-aspect view ofreality? One implication is that we are not able to view the world integrallybut instead segment the world. Yet it should be no surprise that anyonewho realizes or recognizes only one aspect of the world, such as space,when the other (time) is already fully awakened to its efficacy and realityin man's consciousness, will one day find himself partitioned, or will seemto be only a fragment of a mass. That would mean that he is fragmentedalong with his world, or that he fragments and destroys himself, aprospect now imminent because of nuclear fission.By unleashing two world wars our Europe has begun to a suicidal extentthis self-destruction. Some might think this example ill-advised, believingthat we can still blame one neighbor or the other for all our misfortunes.But there are still more indications of the possibly transient self-inflictedimpotence of our continent. Let us not forget that the theories which havecompletely transformed the countenance of our time were born in Europe;and yet it would seem that we have for the time being been deaf to theserious consequences of these theories. We have created them but areunable to control them. To single out just one example of our impotenceand paralysis, we could point to the fate of materialistic theories whichwere, like many others, conceived and worked out in Europe and havetransformed the world. But they have been misused by others because wefailed to muster the intensity of our consciousness so as to govern themresponsibly. Instead of ourselves undertaking reshape the obsolete, threedimensionalfoundations of the new sociological theories, we havepermitted the successor of European culture, Russia, to misuse them.In Russia the Marxism of Hegel, Marx, and Engels has beenpresumptuously driven to extremes and perverted into Leninism and thenStalinism, because Europe adamantly retained a dualistic world conceptionlong after its time. We of the European-Atlantic cultural community haveas yet been unable to make the leap at the crucial moment from thethree-dimensional world of our fathers into the four- dimensional reality ofour day. And as long as we fail to make this leap, crises, uncertainty, andanxiety will continue to prevail; and they can destroy us in the short rununless we realize the new world reality. We must, in other words, attain anew attitude toward the actualities of the new reality which are71
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deficient forms which have become a
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they could not reach their intent w
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identity, or with his being equated
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was especially influential on Greek
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anticipated by Pope Sabinus, who in
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discovery of Augustine's words. "I
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concretion of space, our epoch is c
Page 20 and 21: While plumbing the hidden depths of
Page 22 and 23: With Leonardo the perspectival mean
Page 24 and 25: perspective, had become common prop
Page 26 and 27: not an avenue. Although man's horiz
Page 28 and 29: order to obtain a sequential view o
Page 30 and 31: the truly unrepresentable become ev
Page 32 and 33: apparent in the development of aper
Page 34 and 35: characteristics of the structures,
Page 36 and 37: Structureaugmentation, a loss or a
Page 38 and 39: "silenced music" of which St. John
Page 40 and 41: meantime the integral perception an
Page 42 and 43: homogeneity of the viscera, as well
Page 44 and 45: Archaic — OriginaryMagicempathy a
Page 46 and 47: IntegralCreed)Method(Divinity)(Eteo
Page 48 and 49: that structure itself. Orestes' act
Page 50 and 51: in its silent meaning, for he dedic
Page 52 and 53: directed way, and to a mythical dem
Page 54 and 55: Even though we may be unable to do
Page 56 and 57: of arational possibilities which ar
Page 58 and 59: chapters 5, 6, and 7, we would like
Page 60 and 61: presupposes in any event the mental
Page 62 and 63: capability is being formed in him w
Page 64 and 65: At the moment when consciousness be
Page 66 and 67: temporal aspects enumerated. We are
Page 68 and 69: understanding the phenomenon of tim
Page 72 and 73: crystallizing in a new perception o
Page 74 and 75: dream-like and somnolent aspects an
Page 76 and 77: ealization now manifesting itself a
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