A time for reflection S-N solstice :: equinox

Analemma image: Anthony Ayiomamitis

Ever since we first took note of the passing Seasons, and what is left of them today, we have marvelled and come to recognise the extremes of the calendar in the sky.

For humanity in the North and the South. 

The emergence of culture, societies, and civilization has been  dependent upon the calendar - whether recorded in customs and rites, giant blocks of stone, papyrus, or binary code.

As the solstice fast approaches - Sunday, 21 December 2025 15:03-4 - and the Sun touches its lowest, southernmost point, I think of (former) family and friends 'way down' south, and the distance between the hemispheres, represented in the analemma. Of course then there is the solstitial experience of humanity in the south as the sun crests the highest point in their sky.

It must be amazing to see the nightsky from the far south(?). 

How might we explain this culturally, with the benefit of foresight? This apparent celestial 'opposition' of Earth's path around the Sun, is reflected N-S in who bears the impact of climate change and the need attend to planetary health.

But, then look at the equinox, the north and south are seemingly united? 

Is there a baton passed in March and September?

Perhaps, this can be a celebration of global health, for both hemispheres. With a simultaneous 'nod' to planetary health and the search for social and climate justice.
 

What Complex Threads We Weave

In search of socio-political logics

'The logic of appropriateness refers to actions which members of an institution take to conform to its norms. For example, a head of state will perform ceremonial duties because it is an official obligation. By contrast, the logic of consequences denotes behaviour directed at achieving an individual goal such as promotion or re-election.' p.87.

individual

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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic -------------------------------------------  mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

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group-population

'Institutions are far more than the theatre within which the political drama unfolds; they also shape the script (Peters, 1999). This emphasis within the institutional framework on the symbolic or ritual aspect of political behaviour contrasts with the view of politicians and bureaucrats as rational, instrumental actors who define their own goals independently of the organization they represent.' p.87.

'Further, institutions bring forth activity which takes place simply because it is expected, not because it has any deeper political motive. When a legislative committee holds hearings on a topic, it may be more concerned to be seen to be doing its job than to probe the topic itself. Much political action is best understood by reference to this logic of appropriateness rather than a logic of consequences. For instance, when a president visits an area devastated by floods, he is not necessarily seeking to direct relief operations or to achieve any purpose other than to be seen to be performing his duty of showing concern. In itself, the tour achieves the goal of meeting expectations arising from the actor's institutional position. "Don't just do something, stand there", said Ronald Reagan, a president with a fine grasp of the logic of appropriateness.' pp.86-87.

    

See also: 'drama' : 'bridges'

Hague, R., & Harrop, M. (2007). Comparative Government and Politics (7th ed.). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Peters, B. Guy. (1999). Institutional theory in political science: the new institutionalism. London: Pinter.

MYTH, RITUAL AND PRACTICE FOR THE AGE OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE

Fabrice Monteiro, a garbage spirit, from his series
The Prophecy (2017)

The European Forum for the Study of Religion and the Environment

- is pleased to announce its
seventh international conference

Friday May 17 to Sunday May 19, 2024

Universität Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

MYTH, RITUAL AND PRACTICE
FOR THE AGE OF ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHE

 

Click here for the Call for Papers and Conference Description:

https://www.religion-environment.com/conference/open-call-for-papers

Proposals will be accepted until 31 October, 2023

This conference will explore the many questions that arise from the apparent continuing philosophical-scientific indigestibility of mythology, ritual and practice. What does or would gaia-logical mythology, ritual or practice look like? Are they, could they be more pedagogically effective with non-experts than analysis and critique? Is the solution to ecological alienation the same as the age-old solutions to spiritual alienation? Is ecological alienation parallel to the emic/etic divide in ethnography? Is “practice” the way “in”? Is “belief”? Does gaiaism demand rituals and practices? Are contemporary scholarly analyses (Haraway, Latour, Stengers, Mary-Jane Rubenstein’s pantheologies, Sloterdijk, etc.) today’s form of ecological myth? Is myth, with its associations with the archaic (despite the work of Cassirer, Barthes and others), a fitting genre for today? (Many traditional myths are hardly gaian.) Must gaian myth, rituals or practices be atheological (i.e., is theology, as some argue, inherently not deep-ecological)? Does subtractive theology (à la Badiou) better lend itself to legitimate gaian mythology? Do ecotheologies written out of specific continuing pre-modern cultural-religious traditions that are not entirely or comfortably gaian satisfactorily bridge the spaces between emic and etic genres/approaches and satisfy calls for new gaia-ologies? Is there a meaningful difference between the myths of “major religions” and “indigenous” cultures? How do or might “old” and “new” cultural material relate to one another? Must scholars-scientists, environmentalists or artists use only material from “their own” heritages in producing gaia-ologies? Are there bases for and modes of considering or evaluating the skill or usefulness of gaia-ologies, gaian myths, rituals or practices? How have religious or spiritual environmentalists created gaian myths, rituals or practices? How might they? What artists, artistic works or modalities or works of popular culture stand as noteworthy examples?

Conference Chair: Jonathan Schorsch jschorsch AT uni-potsdam.de

We will be most grateful if you could circulate this through your networks.

Kind regards,
Jonathan Schorsch

-- 
Professur, Jüdische Religions- und Geistesgeschichte
Institut für Jüdische Theologie
Universität Potsdam
  jschorsch AT uni-potsdam.de
  +49 (0)331 977 1744

Founder and Director
Jewish Activism Summer School
  www.jassberlin.org

Founder and Director
The Green Sabbath Project
  www.greensabbathproject.net

My source:

Philos-L "The Liverpool List". Department of Philosophy, University of Liverpool https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/
https://www.facebook.com/PhilosL/
@PhilosL @LiverpoolPhilos

Image: c/o https://www.fabricemonteiro.com/

I am planning to submit an abstract, to develop further ideas encountered and contributed at SOPHERE.

History: Hepatoscopy and the Census

INDIVIDUAL

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     INTERPERSONAL    :     SCIENCES               

HUMANISTIC --------------------------------------  MECHANISTIC      

SOCIOLOGY  :   POLITICAL 

|

GROUP

"Perhaps it was merely an oversight of this historian that he failed to mention another religious practice, hepatoscopy. For this, the Romans down to imperial times relied on Etruscans. Divination from the liver of sacrificed animals was a most complicated business.

To get the interpretation right required a sound knowledge not only of astronomy but also of anatomy and pathology. In 1877 at Piacenza a bronze model of a liver was found. It was evidently a model used in a priests' school for teaching the art of haruspicy, and of a fairly late period. On the upper surface are marked sixteen divisions in which are inscribed the names of some thirty gods, some more than once. Each of the sixteen divisions corresponded to a section of the heavens, for the Etruscans regarded the liver as an image of the cosmos, as a microcosm of the universe. The liver, it was believed, exactly reproduced the heavenly firmament with its sacred laws and controlling divinities and its division, first into four, by the intersecting axes and then into sixteen subdivisions." p.87.

The Etruscans

"Censuses for purposes of taxation and military service still exist. But not many know that it was an Etruscan king who first legally established such a registration in Rome, from whence, with the rise of the Roman empire, it spread throughout Europe."  "What this measure was is stated by Livy thus: 'The population was divided into classes and 'centuries' according to a scale based on the census, and suitable for both peace and war." p.146.

Keller, W. (1975) The Etruscans. Norfolk: Book Club Associates. [Cover image: AbeBooks]

PHI MAGAZINE (Φ) - Liminal Issue [ii]

Individual
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INTERPERSONAL : SCIENCES

humanistic ------------------------------------------ mechanistic

SOCIOLOGY : POLITICAL

|

Group

mental disorientation study - philosophy - ideas liminal - liminality ethical practice creativity reflection threshold concepts uncertainty - meaning - ambiguity	physical disorientation time, place, 'person' process theory transition - threshold - doorway media
art - arts practice socialisation (orientation) rites of passage status meanings	-isms political orientation power - boundaries professionalism posture? status

 

Previously on W2tQ:

'threshold concepts' 

Q. Do we, must we, always 'stand' when presented with a 'threshold'? Discuss ...

PHI MAGAZINE (Φ) - Liminal Issue [i]

 Submissions are OFFICIALLY open for our Liminal Issue.

The word ‘Liminal’ encompasses the quality of ambiguity or disorientation that occurs in the transitional stage of a process, boundary, or threshold. It comes from the Latin word līmen, relating to participants of rites of passage who no longer hold their pre-ritual status but have not yet begun the transition to the status they will hold when the rite is complete. During a rite's liminal stage, participants stand at the threshold. In many ways, this is where the world stands today.

We take all kinds of submissions: prose, photography, poetry, painting, opinion pieces, film or music—you make it, we want to publish it!

Submit to us before 14/02/2022 to be considered for our Liminal Issue.

Submit here: https://phimag.org/submit

For enquiries: submissions.phimag AT gmail.com

+++

WHAT IS PHI MAGAZINE (Φ)?

Φ Magazine is a quarterly publication aimed at showcasing the creative talents of Philosophy students across the globe outside the academic realm. Be it photography, painting, poetry, prose, or anything in between then it can find a place in the pages of Φ.

My source: 

Philos-L "The Liverpool List" https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/philosophy/philos-l/

@PhilosL @LiverpoolPhilos 

Thanks to Chiara at PHI Magazine for the cover image by Taudalpoi.

n.b. I will add a further post to relate the above call to threshold concepts and Hodges' model.

Liminality in "How ancient rituals help us adapt to the digital age" c/o G. Tett

How ancient rituals help us adapt to the digital age

Ceremonies and symbols matter more than ever in a disorienting world

Context: "This week I made a pilgrimage to the east coast of Scotland to participate in that classic ritual of modern middle-class life: a university graduation".

"However, heritage marketing is not the only factor, given that such rituals also occur in places that do not have 600 years of history behind them. Another way to frame the issue is to ponder a concept first developed by the ethnographer and folklorist Arnold van Gennep, and later elaborated by the anthropologist Victor Turner and the psychologist Carl Jung – “liminality”.

This word comes from the Latin limen – doorway or threshold – and refers to the idea that whenever societies or people make a transition, they typically use rituals and symbols to mark this. 

These usually contain three parts: a ritual to show the end of the old life; a ritual to mark the entry into the new one; and a “liminal” stage between the two, when the transformation occurs. Moreover, in that liminal state the normal rules of life tend to break down. Liminality is the cultural equivalent of the pupation that insects undergo: patterns become untethered and fluid, to be remoulded".

Tett, Gillian. 2019, How ancient rituals help us adapt to the digital age. FT Weekend, Magazine, June 29-30, p.46.