Mystics of the Dark Mountain

Many nowadays are perceiving the proverbial writing on the wall. With the secular world order and American hegemony crumbling, the emerging tyranny of transhumanist technocracy, the fitful and desperate nostalgia of nationalism, ecological crises mounting and bearing down, and the evacuation of any semblance of meaning from the public sphere, our civilization, it seems, has leapt onto an irreversible trajectory of instability and upheaval. What all of this ultimately portends is anybody's guess, but we must insist on discerning the spiritual & theological dimensions of our present malady and malaise. In this we may do well to take a cue from Paul Kingsnorth in identifying one culprit in the rise of 'machine culture' which has upended soul, spirit, and the sacramental understanding of the cosmos, where deep calls to deep.

By invoking the imagery of 'the Dark Mountain,' we intend a double allusion: to the traditional imagery of ascending the mystic mountain, wrapped in its dark shroud of unknowing, in hopes of catching a glimpse of God - and also to the Dark Mountain Project co-founded by Paul Kingsnorth, a symposium of writers and artists keeping soulful vigil at the threshold of the gathering storm.

In light of all this, you are invited to help form an eclectic forum and fellowship of mystics, (armchair) theologians, spiritual philosophers, storytellers, and contemplatives, orthodox or otherwise, at the margins of Christian faith and beyond: to read, discuss, support, and generally seek the solace of solidarity at the precipice, united by a common concern for the priority of soul, spirit and what is sacred, and to maintain the integrity of the heart's true purpose of union with the Divine. On topics of philosophical & mystical theology, transcendence & classical theism, mysticism & the esoteric, faith & tradition, mythos, folk religion, & shamanism, perennialism & syncretism, literature, culture & history. From Plotinus to Zhuang Zhou, Gregory of Nyssa to Rumi, Ibn Arabi to Erasmus, the Rhineland mystics to the Inklings, Aldous Huxley to Thomas Merton. Traversing the hinterlands between mere traditionalism and 'rationalist' modernism, beyond fundamentalism and secular ideology alike, we seek not merely to diagnose a society but to enliven our own journeys of faith in the face of the serious challenges which beset such an endeavor at this juncture.

So I extend this invitation in an effort to wait and see if anyone else should like to share in such a pilgrim fellowship, such a flight from Babylon, kindred souls in a common rapport for the Beatific Vision. We are people of our time and place, so let us do our best to hallow these days and this ground where we stand, together.