The Ever-Present Origin - Michael Goodnight - Editor

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future. It indudes everything that is not yet manifest, as well as everythingwhich has again returned to latency. Since we are dealing here primarilywith phenomena of consciousness and integration, we will also have toinvestigate questions of history, the soul and the psyche, time, space, andthe forms of thought.Since the second part of this work is devoted to manifestations of the newconsciousness, the first part must clarify questions relating to themanifestations of previous and present consciousness structures. We shallattempt to demonstrate the incipient concretion of time and the spiritualdimension which are preconditions of the aperspectival world. We shallalso attempt to furnish evidence of the increasing efficacy of that spiritualreality (which is neither a mere psychic state nor an intellectual-rationalform of representation). This will bring out the validity of our secondguiding principle:2) Transparency (diaphaneity) is the form of manifestation (epiphany) ofthe spiritual.Our concern is to render transparent everything latent "behind" and"before" the world - to render transparent our own origin, our entirehuman past, as well as the present, which already contains the future. Weare shaped and determined not only by today and yesterday, but bytomorrow as well. The author is not interested in outlining discretesegments, steps or levels of man, but in disclosing the transparency ofman as a whole and the interplay of the various consciousness structureswhich constitute him. This transparency or diaphaneity of our existence isparticularly evident during transitional periods, and it is from theexperiences of man in transition, experiences which man has had with theconcealed and latent aspects of his dawning future as he became aware ofthem, that will clarify our own experiencing of the present.It is perhaps unnecessary to reiterate that we cannot employ the methodsderived from and dependent an our present consciousness structure toinvestigate different structures of consciousness, but will have to adaptour method to the specific structure under investigation. Yet if werelinquish a unitary methodology we do not necessarily regress to anunmethodological or irrational attitude, or to a kind of conjuration ormystical contemplation. Contemporary methods employ predominantlydualistic procedures that do not extend beyond simple subject-objectrelationships; they limit our understanding to what is commensurate withthe present Western mentality. Even where the measurements ofcontemporary methodologies are based primarily an quantitative criteria,they are all vitiated by the problem of the antithesis between "measure"and mass (as we will discuss later in detail). Our "method" is not just a"measured" assessment, but above and beyond this an attempt at"diaphany" or rendering transparent. With its aid, whatever lies "behind"(past) and "ahead of" (future) the currently dominant mentality becomesaccessible to the new subject-object relationship. Although this newrelationship is no longer dualistic, it does not threaten man with a loss of8
identity, or with his being equated with an object. Although this newmethod is still in its infancy, we are nevertheless compelled to make useof it.In summary, it should be said that our description does not deal with anew image of the world, nor with a new Weltanschauung, nor with a newconception of the world. A new Image would be no more than the creationof a myth, since all imagery has a predominantly mythical nature. A newWeltanschauung wouldbe nothing else than a new mysticism andirrationality, as mythical characteristics are inherent in all contemplationto the extent that it is merely visionary; and a new conception of the worldwould be nothing else than yet another standard rationalistic constructionof the present, for conceptualization has an essentially rational andabstract nature.Our concern is with a new reality - a reality functioning and effectualintegrally, in which intensity and action, the effective and the effect coexist;one where origin, by virtue of "presentiation," blossoms forth anew;and one in which the present is all-encompassing and entire. Integralreality is the world's transparency, a perceiving of the world as truth: amutual perceiving and imparting of truth of the world and of man and ofall that transluces both.Gebser TexteThe Ever-present Origin. Part OneChapter TwoThe Three European Worlds1. The Unperspectival WorldThe transformation of European sensitivity to, and comprehension of, theworld is nowhere more clearly discernible than in painting andarchitecture. Only our insight into this transformation can lead to a properunderstanding of the nature and meaning of new styles and forms ofexpression.Restricting ourselves here primarily to the art of the Christian era, we candistinguish two major self-contained epochs among the many artisticstyles, followed today by an incipient third. The first encompasses the eraup to the Renaissance, the other, now coming to a close, extends up to thepresent. The decisive and distinguishing characteristic of these epochs isthe respective absence or presence of perspective; consequently we shalldesignate the first era as the "unperspectival," the second as the"perspectival," and the currently emerging epoch as the "aperspectival."'9
Page 5 and 6: deficient forms which have become a
Page 7: they could not reach their intent w
Page 11 and 12: was especially influential on Greek
Page 13 and 14: anticipated by Pope Sabinus, who in
Page 16 and 17: discovery of Augustine's words. "I
Page 18 and 19: 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
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chapters 5, 6, and 7, we would like
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presupposes in any event the mental
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capability is being formed in him w
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At the moment when consciousness be
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temporal aspects enumerated. We are
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understanding the phenomenon of tim
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temporal forms which co-constitute
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crystallizing in a new perception o
Page 74 and 75:
dream-like and somnolent aspects an
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ealization now manifesting itself a
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