Decaying ruins, adorned with ancient relics, reveal a hidden beauty beyond the architectural blandness of modernity. While skyscrapers aim for the supremacy of mammon, symbolically showcasing worldly dominance. These architectural behemoths of mammon, ironically, showcase spiritual decay. In contrast, the sacred spaces of the cathedrals of old serve as explicit manifestations of the invisible world, planting a seed of higher truth within those who are open to it. These Holy spaces connect us to the divine realm, explicitly showcasing Christ’s spiritual supremacy over the world’s principalities and powers.
The external landscape remains dire, and the modern world makes one ego-driven rather than contemplative of the “higher” things. Thus, soaking in the face of the external world, the internal landscape becomes dire. Many walk in a diminished state, losing sight of the “more”. Reductionist mechanical organisms, the atheist reality embodied.
As in past civilisations that lose their grip on stability and become increasingly power-hungry, the reality of our societies is that temporal powers weaponise, manipulate, and manufacture to push agendas that suit their vision. Whether these visions are associated with profit and power. However, beneath this corruption, a deeper, eschatological unfolding is occurring.
At once, we can acknowledge that there is nothing new under the sun. Simultaneously, the tools appear new. Technological machinations, with their techno-magicians, are conjuring a tale worse than Frankenstein. One option is the possible transhumanist escape, as many have described. The pursuit of the elixir of life bioengineering could be another means by which we can reshape the image of God. These images of God, one shall say, with our creative genius, to unravel reality, are linked to the divine source. But this mirroring of the divine spark can lead us to assume we are God, dissociating with our finite reality. We are only participants of the ultimate reality. But humanity is being led down the road of Promethean fire-bearers. The luciferian dream of shining a light into dark edges. Unlocking all the secrets of the universe. Unchaining ourselves, so man can take the throne away from God. But is this the image of God embodied, or a Satanic ploy, simmering deep within the unconscious, ready to become conscious to show its demiurgic fire cards?
Returning to everyday reality, we find ourselves in an age marked by multiplicity, diversity and confusion. Many swoop lower to dance mindlessly within the dialectic. Pointing fingers at others without perceiving the scars within their own hearts. Satan divides, Lucifer illumines, and diabolos reigns. Scapegoating in a Girardian sense is the norm. Some act righteous, but are cold of heart. Others behave as perpetual victims, lacking any sense of the virtue of gratitude. However, we can all remember that we too can be the hypocrites, the scapegoats, and the false judges. As the parable in the Gospel states: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:5). Humility is the key virtue that offers an ascent back to truth. But how can one seek the image of God within the ruins?
One cannot be anachronistic when discussing Europe and former Christendom. Christendom fell a long time ago. We can argue that its decline began approximately 500 years ago. Following the Protestant Reformation, the secular state emerged, initially led by its secular monarchs who removed ties with Rome. Traditionally, monarchs were bearers of the divine law, but they were ultimately subjugated by it. The newly formed secular monarch gave rise to the belief that they were truly above divine law, divorcing the understanding of the meaning behind the “divine right of kings”. This divorce planted the seeds of its end.
Today, the so-called democratic authority derives its legitimacy not from truth, but from calculations, deceptions, and the rule of the “lowest common denominator”. Deceptive, because the democratic claim to offer rights to all, but as the age moves towards a more explicit technocracy, rights become a fiction, as Harari and the like have described. In the final analysis, the erosion of rights, including the ultimate right imparted by God, overshadows the reality that every person in this temporal plane, regardless of wealth, intelligence, or status, remains subject to divine law. But this divine law has long been forgotten. Perceived as archaic, partly due to ignorance, but significantly pushed aside by malevolent forces on the other hand, a top-down fury.
Thus, the flags of many European nations, East and West, bear symbols that evoke the cross and its association with the Christian faith. However, the original meaning of these symbols has largely been lost, and their power diminished. The secular populace, captivated by the curated celebrity icons of the world, has lost sight of the icon of Christ. Meanwhile, the elite, broadly, live in egoic fantasies that deny this divine image.
Lose the spiritual foundation, and fail to understand the glorious fruits it can bear. Expect the “West” to wither away if it does not repent. As Christ and his parable of the sower teach, the “West” will reap what it sows. It can not bend divine law; therefore, divine judgment is the pattern it will face. As various mythologies describe, the age of the Kali Yuga, the age of spiritual decadence, is a reality that the materialistic mind can not run from, whether they care or not.
Let go of your attachment to bad seeds that do not represent and embody the symbols you hold dear. But the question remains, how can one seek the image of God within the ruins?
Love your neighbour? Yes, first love God with all your heart, and therefore you will love your neighbour. Do not be within the remit of egoic selfness. The image of God begins with reminding yourself what you were made for. However, do not be like the hypocrites, who weaponise loving your neighbour and being merciful, without comprehending the depth and gravity of what the image of God uncodes for man. Mercy without repentance leads to spiritual chaos and confusion.
Love requires the stance to judge, the ability to discern, but not from a place of hate, instead from a place of love. To perceive sin for what it is, a spiritually destructive manifestation. Hating the sin, but loving the sinner. The ability to discern is one of the hallmarks of a genuine spirituality. One has to love one’s neighbour, but one must crucially understand what love truly means.
In the spiritual ruins of modernity’s aftermath, many have spoken of a 21st-century Renaissance. However, this resurgence necessitates a death and a rebirth. This universal symbolic truth also means a reconnection with a metaphysical reality that offers a bridge to eternal truths. Reviving our capacity to carry an eternal flame. From a Jungian perspective, the Age of Aquarius signifies that as the world enters into a new epoch, there will be “water” carriers, individual bearers of this connection back to the divine. Water, with its symbolic radiance, is analogous to the waters of baptism, which enable one to carry the spiritual stamp and the title, Christian. In seeking the image of God, ponder on the gravity of what this Holy mark conveys.
Ultimately, from a Christian perspective, it involves allowing Christ to rule with an iron sceptre in all His majesty and benevolence. Viewing reality through the Logos (the Word of God) allows one to dwell in the spirit. This will remain a constant, regardless of the epoch.
“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” – Galatians 2:20
