Evil. Definition: A process by which sentient beings hurt other sentient beings -- and don’t
feel one bit sorry for it.
Sorry
to say, evil does rear its ugly head from time to time. Adolph Hitler & Co. Joseph Stalin & Co. Dick Cheney.
And then there’s my cat Helen of Troy: with pure malice aforethought, Helen chomps
into a mouse and cripples it – but not enough to kill it, since she wants something to harrass and bat around for a while.
Still doubt the existence of evil? Then read this, I dare you:
It’s
the famous Jungian Marie-Louise von Franz writing about how cruel nature
can be: “…a fox will partially eat a
swan frozen on the ice and leave it to struggle for hours and hours with a wing
eaten away – unless a human being comes by and gives it the coup de
grace….”
Arghh!!
For us thealogians, the questions become:
1. Whadderwe
supposed to do about evil?
2. Where’s the
Goddess? Why isn’t she around to smash
evil in its tracks?
6 comments:
Hi Athana,
Like the new look on the blog!
My answers to those 2 questions -after about 30 seconds of thought, admittedly - are:
1.Start by realising it's our own projections, and begin to "own" them.
2.Where She has always been - within us.
Love,
Terri in Joburg
Terri it's so good to hear from you! Hope you will forgive me for neglecting my blogging for so long.
I'm glad you like the new look. I wasn't sure whether I should change things or not -- I'm the one who's always complaining about how everything's always changing, and here I am changing RGT after 9-10 years of her wearing the same outfit.
Your answers to my questions are intriguing. Are you believing that everything we perceive, we create in our own minds, and that we all create our own distinct and separate realities?
More or less, Athana, yes. But I go with the "it's all in your head - you just have no idea how big your head is" kind of thought. Thou Art Go(ess) that sort of thing.
I change the look of my blog fairly regularly because play is good!
Love,
Terri in Joburg
So how (by your way of thinking about this) do we eradicate and/or explain evil -- or do we? The more I've thought about it, though, the more I think "evil" needs to involve awareness that one is hurting another animal or human. Cats and foxes probably/possibly have no awareness that other beings can experience pain. So that leaves only human psychopaths to deal with.
BTW, I have visited you and tried to leave comments, but I can't get Wordpress to cooperate with me.
By owning our evil.
I'm following the Oscar Pistorius trial over here, and there's a great lesson in the projected shadow of a nation playing out on an external screen.
I'm working to recognise the evil which is part of me, too..and that's got to hurt!
(oh and I don't particularly like WordPress either, but I had to leave Blogger when they insisted everyone had a Google account.Grrr)
Love,
T in J
Just read up a bit on the Pistorius trial. I take it he has a few African genes, which might be enough to convict him? Living as I do in a country that is still fighting a 150-year-old Civil War over black slavery, I can very much identify with how you must be feeling.
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